Spring 2019 — Department of English

Spring 2019

ENGL 202-01 Intro to Creative Writing: TBA

ENGL 202-02 Intro to Creative Writing: S. Strickley

In this class, we’ll experiment in three forms—poems, short stories, and ten-minute plays—while searching for the most potent mode of expression for our talents and ideas. The aim is not necessarily to decide (once and for all) what kind of writers we are, but rather to discover the range of literary tools at our disposal as writers. The course will be comprised of three major components: the craftshop (wherein we’ll read published work and discuss the elements of craft); the workshop (wherein we’ll write poems, stories, and plays and respond to the work of our peers); and the portfolio (wherein we’ll use what we’ve learned in the course to draft and revise a highly polished work of literary art). Students who invest fully in all three portions of the course will emerge from the class with an enhanced understanding of the art forms at hand; a fluency in the language of constructive (and artful) criticism; and a body of creative work about which they can (and should!) be proud.

ENGL 202-03 Intro to Creative Writing: P. Griner

In this class,you'll read and write poetry, fiction, and drama, while also reading and critiquing published work. You'll write read and write a lot, but most of it should be fun, and you'll also get a chance to comment on your peers' work.

ENGL 202-50 Intro to Creative Writing: B. Weinberg

Welcome to the English Department’s online version of ENGL 202: Intro to Creative Writing. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama, learning the nuts and bolts of craft. The first part of the semester will be a primer in four areas of craft: detail/image, voice/point-of-view, character, and setting. You’ll experiment with these foundational elements in writing exercises, and discuss how published writers apply them in their stories, poems, and plays. For the remainder of the semester, you’ll take a closer look at each genre in mini-units, and you’ll be introduced to the creative writing workshop, in which you’ll read the writing of your classmates and exchange constructive criticism on a discussion board, with your instructor closely guiding the discussion. For your final project, you’ll choose between a full-length short story, a series of poems, or a ten-minute play. This course is a special offering from the English Department for the spring 2019 semester.

ENGL 250-01 Exploring Literature-AH: D. Billingsley

"Exploring Literature" is an Arts/Humanities (AH) course in the Cardinal Core, designed for non-majors to introduce strategies for reading and interpreting poetry, fiction, and drama. The only course prerequisite is completion of the first-year writing requirement (ENGL 102 or 105).

The Cardinal Core requires the following AH course outcomes:

Critically evaluate and synthesize texts and other forms of expression in the arts and humanities using primary and/or secondary materials.
Demonstrate an understanding of the reciprocal relationship between (1) social and cultural factors in their historical context and (2) intellectual inquiry and creative expression within the arts and/or the humanities.
Represent and critically respond to multiple points of view on cultural issues in different historical, social, and/or cultural contexts.
Communicate effectively in speech and writing, paying particular attention to the use of evidence in interpretive arguments, through citation appropriate to the discipline.

Course work to validate these objectives includes an online forum contribution for each class period (20% total); active participation in discussion and in-class projects (10%); completion of three exploration projects (one collaborative), published on Blackboard (10% each); and two peer-edited papers (1250-1500 words, 20% each). No examinations.

Required texts are available online via Blackboard, from which hard copies can be printed.

If you have questions, please send me a note or give me a call at your convenience.

ENGL 250-50 Exploring Literature-AH: J. Turner

ENGL 270-01 Exploring Lit & Myth-AH: A. Rabin

Dwarves and Dragons! Sorcerers and Shape-shifters! And one ring to rule them all…. In this class, we will be reading the medieval texts that gave rise to the mythical world Tolkien created in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. We will examine both the early medieval world which these works were written and the ways in which they came to be reused, adapted, and transformed by Tolkien and his fellow Inklings in the twentieth century.

ENGL 300-01 Intro to English Studies-WR: J. Adams

This course is an introduction to the academic study of literature. We will read texts from various genres (poetry, drama, fiction) and various historical periods with a loose thematic focus on how individual life shapes, and is shaped by, various sorts of contexts (familial, social, political, etc.). However, equal emphasis will be paid to the formal features of literary texts, and the ways that writers have made productive use of these formal features in achieving their art. Work will include three short papers and occasional responses to the readings.

ENGL 300-02 Intro to English Studies-WR: J. Adams

ENGL 300-03 Intro to English Studies-WR: R. Mozer

ENGL 300-04 Intro to English Studies-WR: M. Mattes

This course will cover a range of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama while introducing students to central terms and methods of literary criticism and history. In addition to giving close attention to the “internal,” aesthetic elements of texts, we will consider the social contexts in which such texts are written and read. These contexts include broader social, economic, and cultural currents in which our readings are embedded and to which they speak; changing attitudes regarding issues of art, genre, canon, and more generally, the politics of literary study; and the contributions literary studies make to conversations across disciplines.

ENGL 302-01 British Lit II: D. Lutz

This is a chronological survey of British literature from the late eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. We will read canonical works from three literary periods: Romantic (1785-1830), Victorian (1830-1901), and Modern (1901- ?). Our primary concern will be on close readings of the assigned texts. Through this detailed and intricate understanding, we will explore what these texts say about the aesthetic and social concerns of the time. A central focus in our reading will be on tracing the movement of varying ideas of subjectivity from the Romantic sublime self and the importance of the individual imagination, through the Victorian definition of subjectivity as bounded by social relations and work, to the fragmentary, isolated selfhood, caught up in language, of the Modernist period. We will also concern ourselves with changing ideas about sexuality, gender, and class during these historical moments.

ENGL 303-01 Sci & Tech Writing-WR: TBA

ENGL 303-02 Sci & Tech Writing-WR: T. Johnson

ENGL 305-01 Intro Creative Writing-Fiction: I. Stansel

This course offers students an opportunity to expand on knowledge gained in introductory creative writing courses and to focus their concentration more intensively on fiction writing. Week by week the class will examine different elements of storytelling: point-of-view, dialogue, character development, plot, setting, etc. Students will read and view stories by established and emerging writers, all the while working on their own work. The class will approach writing as a process of discovery, wherein students experiment with styles and forms in order to understand their own aesthetic interests. This is a discussion-based class and students should be ready to voice their thoughts and ideas. As with most courses, students will get the most from the class when they come to texts and discussions with energy and open-minded curiosity.

ENGL 305-02 Intro Creative Writing-Poetry: K. Petrosino

This intermediate course is for poets who are interested in sharpening their skills as writers, readers, and critics. Successful students in this course will actively engage in a regular writing practice, and will take seriously the processes of composition, critique, and revision. We will spend most class sessions “workshopping” student poems, but we will also devote time to discussing assigned reading and to performing various writing experiments. Assignments will include: responses to peer manuscripts [250 words each], written reflections on assigned poetry collections [500-750 words each], and a final portfolio [12-15 finished poems]. Students will also be required to compose a portfolio letter [1000-1250 words] introducing the work in their portfolios. Prerequisites: ENGL 202

ENGL 309-01 Inquiries in Writing-WR: TBA

ENGL 309-02 Inquiries in Writing-WR: L. Rogers

This section requires permission from the instructor

ENGL 310-01 Writ Abt Lit Nonmajor-WR: K. Kopelson

This section of English 310, Writing about Literature for Non-Majors, highlights the issue of perspective-taking by having you read, discuss, and write about texts (several short stories and three novels) which feature characters whose worlds, and/or ways of seeing, and/or lived, embodied experiences are likely very different from our own, and yet whose worlds and perspectives and embodied experiences we must enter and inhabit as part of the act of reading. Texts will also often feature characters who themselves struggle with adopting the perspectives of others. In addition to our literary texts, we will read, discuss, and write about pieces of published literary analysis in order to further the primary goal of this course: helping you to understand and execute the conventions of literary analysis as one type of disciplinary discourse and one type of academic argumentative writing.

Course requirements will include daily in-class discussion, weekly written responses either to literary texts or to writing about literary texts, including that of your classmates during writing workshops, and two longer papers of original literary analysis.

ENGL 310-02 Writ Abt Lit Nonmajor-WR: M. Mattes

This course will cover a range of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. In addition to giving close attention to the “internal,” aesthetic elements of texts, we will consider the social contexts in which such texts are written and read. These contexts include broader social, economic, and cultural currents in which our readings are embedded and to which they speak; changing attitudes regarding issues of art, genre, canon, and more generally, the politics of literary study; and the contributions literary studies make to conversations across disciplines.

ENGL 310-03 Writ Abt Lit Nonmajor-WR: D. Billingsley

Prerequisite: ENGL 102 or ENGL 105. Extensive practice in literary analysis and in the forms and conventions of writing about various literary genres. Note: Approved for the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR).

This section meets in BAB 227, a high-tech, active-learning classroom. Blackboard will be used intensively so ready, regular access to online resources is necessary, but on-campus facilities alone will suffice for success.

Course assumptions
This section is a writing course, not a literature survey, so it is built upon a few poems, one longer prose work and one play as subjects for analytical, critical and reflective writing. It is also intended to illustrate and confirm general principles that apply in other academic fields and in the world of work at large where persuasion is necessary when certainty is not possible.

Course objectives
At the end of this course, students should be able to demonstrate their familiarity with or control of these objects of study:

Conventions of various literary genres, their common assumptions and their distinctive differences
The identification and use of evidence in literary arguments, including objective historical, social and cultural information, subjective data and other personal insights
The basic technical vocabularies of rhetoric and prosody
The academic documentation and presentation of such arguments

Graded work

Regular contributions to a Blackboard forum (class discussion group, 15% total)
In-class exercises, including some collaborative work, and individual homework (10% total). In-class exercises may not be made up except by prior arrangement.
Three exploratory projects (example: a brief writing on a painting in the Speed Museum, 10% each)
Preliminary assignments and three final drafts in conventional academic form (various lengths up to 10 pages, 15% each)

Required text
Katherine O. Acheson, Writing Essays about Literature (ISBN 978-1551-119922. Broadview, 2008). Publisher’s hardcopy price is $19.95, but digital versions are available from the publisher at $13.95. The subject texts will be online but can be printed at will.

ENGL 310-50 Writ Abt Lit Nonmajor-WR: F. Kelderman

Are you looking to become a better and more careful reader of literature? And would you like to find new ways to improve your writing in the meantime? This course is an introduction to reading literature and writing about it, with attention to all the major genres: novels, short stories, drama, and poetry. As you read some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking works of literature in English, you will develop the vocabulary, interpretive methods, and writing skills necessary for literary analysis—and find new ways to appreciate the literary works of major writers since 1900. This course will be fully online, which means that you will receive guidance and feedback on your work that will be tailored to your own situation and skill set. Prerequisites for this course are English 102 or 105. This course fulfills the Arts & Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR)

ENGL 311-01 American Lit I: D. Anderson

This literature survey will introduce you to American literature from the age of European exploration and settlement, through the founding of the United States, and ultimately up to the Civil War (1861-1865).

The course will discuss the complex relationships between American literature and its historical contexts, such as patterns of settlement, Native American culture, Puritan theology, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, Jacksonian democracy, the abolitionist movement, and the Civil War. Outcomes will be assessed through examinations, quizzes, homework, in-class writing, and class discussion.

ENGL 312-01 American Lit II: K. Chandler

This survey course will explore American literature produced since 1865, as well as the social contexts in which it was produced and read. This period was very important, with the development of literary realism, naturalism, regionalism and the writing of ethnic and racial minority authors, as well as the emergence of modernism and postmodernism. Required work for the course will include careful reading, quizzes, short response papers, and exams.

ENGL 325-01 Intro to Linguistics: Cruz

Linguistics is the study of the forms and functions of human language. The study of language forms includes the description and analysis of phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic units. The study of language functions includes the analysis of the role of dialects and registers in society. Other topics to be covered include language variation, language change, and language acquisition and development.

ENGL 330-01 Language and Culture-AHD1: S. Swinehart

This is a cross-listed course

ENGL 334-01 Shakespeare II: J. Dietrich

We will read eight of Shakespeare’s plays, in a variety of genres, and also some modern interpretive essays. We will focus on reading and interpreting the plays, but we will also engage questions about genre and contemporary productions in a range of cultures. Students will be asked to write three short papers summarizing critical articles and a ten-page research paper on contemporary productions.

ENGL 342-01 Black Women Novelists-WRAHD2: Logan

Black women writers as vital contributors to the world of letters have not always been recognized by world literary establishments. This course is designed to provide that space within which to acknowledge, discuss, and critique their contribution to black (and world) literature. We will explore, comparatively, selected texts (from slave narratives to contemporary novels) by African, African American, and Caribbean women, and focus on issues/concepts such as: identity (gender, cultural, racial, sexual, class), resistance, voice, patriarchy, subaltern status, slavery, and colonialism, and diaspora. Equal attention will be paid to the theoretical assumptions, as well as the historical, social, political, and cultural forces that undergird the creative works of these continental African and Diasporic women novelists.

ENGL 368-01 Anglophone Ecological Lit & Culture-AHD2: A. Clukey

This class will take a planetary approach to the study of anglophone literature with an emphasis on the intersection of postcolonialism and ecocriticism. We will cast a wide net, geographically and theoretically, to consider central concepts in twenty-first-century environmental thought and culture, including: the relation between imperialism and ecological destruction, the Anthropocene, environmental justice, climate change, the culture and politics of oil production, water access and food scarcity, animality, extinction, ecofeminism, climate migration and refugees, among other topics, with a focus on literature and film from outside the USA. Readings might include: Indra Sinha Animal’s People, Helon Habila Oil on Water, Nnedi Okorafor Lagoon, Amitav Ghosh The Great Derangement or The Hungry Tide, JM Coetzee The Lives of Animals, Tommy Pico Nature Poem, Iep Jaltok Poems from a Marshallese Daughter, Chantal Bilodeau Silo, Jamaica Kincaid A Small Place, Svetlana Alexievich Voices from Chernobyl, among others.

ENGL 371-02 Graphic Novel: J. Turner

Special Topics in English and American Language and Literature—the Graphic Novel

In this course, we will read representative works in graphic narrative (an umbrella term for comics and graphic novels) to investigate how graphic narrative plays an important role in depictions of race, gender, and politics. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in comics, as the film industry has embraced superhero stories (not to mention Netflix hits such as Luke Cage). One can even find superhero T-shirts at Target. What accounts for the relatively sudden rise in popularity of graphic storytelling? Course texts may include Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona’s Ms. Marvel, and screen adaptations such as Jessica Jones and Daredevil (among others, and the final course text will be selected by the class). The course assignments will include a series of interpretative essays, which will be workshopped in class (and no exams).

ENGL 372-02 Fairy Tales: J. Adams

Fairy tales describe places and people that appear to be very different than the ones we find in our demystified modern world. Yet many of us keep coming back to these stories again and again. Why? This course will introduce students to the analysis of fairy tales in an attempt to understand their continued relevance to the present. We will both read familiar stories drawn from (sometimes unfamiliar) European sources like the Brothers Grimm, but also older tales from around the world, and newer ones from 20th and 21st-century popular culture. Students will be introduced to various methods for studying these texts, including approaches drawn from hermeneutics, structuralism, psychoanalysis, feminism, and gender studies. We’ll consider, too, the political and cultural significance of fairy tales and their modern adaptations, and the aesthetic strategies used by artists who have adapted these narratives to different media. Work will include several short responses and two exams.

ENGL 373-01 Women & Global Lit-AHD2: M. Sheridan

This section of English 373 focuses on contemporary fiction and non-fiction by and about women. Although we’ll privilege contemporary work, we’ll often compare theseto canonical writings, which allows us to see how gender is constructed across time and place. Readings will cross genres, likely including: contemporary fiction (Emily St. John Mandel’s Stations Eleven; Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire compared to Sophocles’ Antigone); graphic novel (either Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis or Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home), poetry (the “poetress of instagram,” Rupi Kaur,” Sarah Kay’s TED talk “If I Should Have a Daughter,” Adrienne Rich’s “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”); fractured fairytales (Angela Carter’s Bloody Chamber, narratives by and about women in video games), and short stories (Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers,” Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”). At the end of the semester, generally we read one novel chosen by the class.

ENGL 373-02 Women & Global Lit-AHD2: M. Mattes

This is a cross-listed course

“Racial Genealogies of Feminism in the Anglophone Atlantic”

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral are powerful investigations of gendered constructions of authority, artistry, and intellectualism in light of social contexts such as literary and critical canon-making; the literary marketplace; political advocacy and reform movements; and the power of the state. As such, Brontë’s and Wheatley’s works have become key references for later writers’ meditations on gender, sexuality, and feminism. In this course, we will read a range of women writers from the late eighteenth century to the present day whose works constitute reception histories of Brontë’s and Wheatley’s texts. By reading these works alongside one another, students will inculcate a deeper understanding of the importance of race, ethnicity, and class to literary representations of women and to constructions of feminism. In developing these intersectional frameworks for reading women in literature, students will not only grapple with how our semester’s texts treat concerns of patriarchy, paternalism, and misogyny, but with questions of asymmetric power and privilege that are internal to the feminisms theorized by our semester’s authors—questions such as, How has racial slavery informed liberal notions of equality? How have normative constructions of sexuality created unequal power relations among women? Readings may include works by Brontë, Woolf, Wheatley, Rhys, Walker, Petrosino, Lorde, and others.

ENGL 374-50 Gender & Children’s Lit-AHD1: Heinecken

ENGL 402-01 HON: Ecological Sci Fiction-WR: A. Clukey

Science fiction has long been concerned with climatological, geographic, biological, and ecological extremes, so it’s not surprise that it has taken up the environmental and social crises posed by climate change. In this course, we will read science fiction texts that explore the ethics of terraforming barren planets; traverse the frigid terrains of Earth’s polar regions; wade through expanding equatorial jungles; portray new contagions that decimate cities; imagine alien invasions of Earthly habitats and Earthling bodies; depict intelligent apes that can talk and make war; and envision human men into alligators or mutants or other “swamp things.” The course will also draw on theoretical readings on related contemporary topics, such as the Anthropocene, climate change, petrochemical culture, extinction, human-alien-animal hybridity, non-human alterity, environmental racism, and ecofeminism. Potential readings include texts by Donna Haraway, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, Samuel Delany, J.G. Ballard, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jeff VanderMeer, H.G. Wells, among others.

ENGL 402-02 HON: Alchemy & Occult Mdl Age-WR: A. Rabin

During the Middle Ages, the search for the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’—a magical substance that could transform base substances into gold—captured the imagination of scientists and poets, theologians and heretics, scholars and laypeople alike. Tempted by the lure of a magical substance that would bring power, fame, love, and wealth, would-be alchemists from all walks of life set up laboratories, pored over ancient texts, and practiced arcane rituals, all the while concealing their pursuit from Church authorities who viewed such practices as the work of the devil. Although the Philosopher’s Stone remained elusive, the search had a profound impact on Western culture: it inspired such authors as Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson; it produced some of the earliest translations of Islamic scientific and medical texts for Christian readers; and it led to the development of methods of experimentation that shaped the modern fields of Chemistry, Physics, and Biology.

In this course, we will trace the history of medieval magical and alchemical practices from their late Classical beginnings through their proliferation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Our readings will range from alchemical manuals passed in secret from hand to hand by practitioners of the “Mysterious Science” to literary texts concerning figures such as Simon Magus and Dr. Faustus. And as we follow their search for the Philosopher’s Stone, who knows? Perhaps we might even succeed where others have failed…

ENGL 403-01 Advanced CW: K. Maxwell

In addition to reading and workshopping class members’ writing, we will consider, experiment with, and push against genre(s). Because this is an advanced workshop, it is expected that all class members have a working knowledge of basic literary terms appropriate to discussions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Class members will generate, distribute, and revise original work in the genre(s) of their choosing; provide thoughtful feedback on one another’s writing; produce two imitations; generate craft-based discussion questions for a class meeting; and read and discuss Amy Lawless’ Broadax, Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine, Aisha Sabatini Sloan’s Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit, Chelsea Hodson’s Tonight I’m Someone Else, and Jos Charles’ feeld.

ENGL 413-01 Brit Lit Beg to Shks-WR: E. Wise

Engl 413 WR is a survey of British literature from its beginnings (ninth century-ish) to April 23, 1616 (Shakespeare’s funeral). Ours will be a plunge into the study of major (and minor) literary works and authors in early British literary history, focusing on a variety of genres and a myriad of voices in their historical and cultural contexts—but tracing their echoes into our own. We will read, write, and perform a lot. Prerequisites include completion of English 102 or 105 and 300 or 310.

ENGL 414-01 Brit Lit Shks Neocl-WR: M. Biberman

In this course we will survey a range of exciting and engaging literature beginning with Shakespeare and ending with Jane Austen. We will study the evolution of drama, the rise of the novel, and development of lyric poetry in England from roughly 1600 to 1800. Other authors to be assigned include Margaret Cavendish, Eliza Heywood and John Gay. Requirements include occasional in-class and at home journal exercises, as well as a take home midterm and a final.

ENGL 419-01 Amer Lit 1830-1865-WR: F. Kelderman

This course is a study of American authors from the period 1830-1865. We will study selected works in a variety of genres, to examine what the literature of this period tells us about nineteenth-century ideas about such perennial subjects as media, food, parenthood, bodies, gender relations, race, and historical change. The course readings will be a stimulating mix of texts by well-known writers (including Fanny Fern, Walt Whitman, and Frederick Douglass) and several less-familiar works by women, African American, and Native American authors of the nineteenth century. In the course of the semester, we will make the literature and art of this period come alive with visits to the Archives and Special Collections, the Speed Museum, and the printmaking workshop.

Assigned readings will include Nathaniel Hawthorne’s gothic romance House of the Seven Gables, Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age novel Little Women, and John Rollin Ridge’s adventure novel Joaquin Murrieta.Assignments will include several short papers and one longer paper. Although you will be evaluated on your individual written work only, the context for the final assignment is the production of a student-made anthology of American literature from 1830 to 1865. This means that in addition to learning about American literature from this period, you will also gain valuable experience with text-editing, the publication process, copyright, digital publishing, and other aspects of the career path of an English major.

The prerequisites for this course are English 102 or 105 and English 300 or 310. Historical period: 1700-1900. This course is approved for the Arts and Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR). (Please note: formerly English 319, so students with credit for English 319 cannot receive credit for this course.)

ENGL 422-01 Amer Lit 1960-Pres-WR: A. Golding

In this class, we’ll look at the evolution of the mixed-genre or hybrid text in late 20C and early 21C literature. This focus will acquaint you with some of the major and most influential work of the period, and introduce you to important changes in the field of literary studies and to some basic theoretical texts and concepts. We will consider in particular how a range of writers have used hybrid forms to address questions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class / economics. While I have not yet finalized the reading list, possible candidates include Robert Creeley, Pieces; Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands / La Frontera; Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior; Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee; Claudia Rankine, Citizen; Kristin Prevallet, I, Afterlife; Mark Nowak, Shut Up Shut Down or Coal Mountain Elementary; recent work in documentary poetics; and Douglas Kearney (keynote speaker at the Feb. 2019 Louisville Literature Conference), Mess and Mess and. Requirements will include some (not all) of regular discussion board posts, in-class essay midterm, final presentation, annotated bibliography, final research-based paper.

ENGL 450-01 Coop Intern in English: K. Chandler

This coop course is designed to accompany an internship that has been approved for three hours of credit. The course requires descriptive and reflective writing about the internship, in the form of weekly reports, as well as a final research project, a portfolio and evaluation by the intern’s site supervisor.

ENGL 470-01 Digital Storytelling: M. Sheridan

In this class, we’ll examine digital storytelling in public contexts by engaging in three overlapping activities: 1. Explore: we’ll read a variety of digital stories and specific theories examining how such stories work. 2. Theorize: we’ll draft a Digital Storytelling Proposal for a community organization with whom we’ll partner during the semester. 3. Do: we’ll enact one aspect of that Proposal and reflect on its effectiveness.

Primary readings include a range contemporary digital storytellers, such as the “poetress of instagram,” Rupi Kuar; a cluster of #hastag activists addressing a particular issue; a local community organization that “brands” itself through a variety of digital storytelling formats (e.g., its website; online testimonials/stories; social media). We will also read narrative and digital media theories that investigate what makes effective digital storytelling.

By semester’s end, we’ll be able to articulate how digital extends and/or alters traditional storytelling conventions, and we’ll be able to strategize and enact (to some degree) our own digital stories based on that analysis.

No digital knowledge is a pre-requisite.

ENGL 491-75 Int Therory New Crit-Pres: F. McDonald

This class is an introduction to theories of literature, criticism, and interpretation. Over the course of the semester, you will: 1) learn the basic terms, concepts, and approaches of major schools of 20C interpretative theory; 2) gain an understanding of how these theories have developed over time; 3) practice different critical methods through in-class work. As we read, historicize, evaluate, and practice critical theory, we will participate in debates that lie at the very heart of the humanities. What is literature and how do we read it? Who authors a text’s meaning? And why does it matter? Students will be responsible for two short papers, a midterm exam, and a final exam.

ENGL 501-01 Independent Study: TBA

This section requires permission from the instructor

ENGL 504-01 Adv CW II: Poetry: I. Stansel

This upper-division fiction course offers students who have already completed introductory and intermediate workshops the opportunity to further refine their craft. The discussion-based class will focus on the craft of short story writing, with a secondary and simultaneous examination of linked, or connected, stories. Through this we will begin to examine strategies for longer narratives, while still practicing the short form. We will read from several collections of linked stories. Week-by-week, the class will examine different aspects of the storytelling craft, including scene-building, plot and sub-plot development, writing voice, among others. In addition to creating and workshopping short stories, students will work on developing story ideas and structuring approaches for a longer piece of writing.

ENGL 506-01 Teaching of Writing-WR; CUE: T. Johnson

ENGL 507-01 Teach CW –WR; CUE: K. Maxwell

This course offers students an opportunity to study methods of teaching creative writing and explore conversations regarding our ability (or inability) to teach creativity. Students will read, discuss, and respond to a variety of texts on critical, theoretical, and practical approaches to the teaching of creative writing and will learn about the emergence of creative writing as a field of study in the university. We’ll consider best practices for teaching in different environments, including, but not limited to: universities and colleges, K-12 classrooms, community centers, and centers of rehabilitation. Students will have the opportunity to create and test out writing activities and lesson plans and will learn how to facilitate a creative writing workshop.

ENGL 510-01 Grad Coop Internship MA Level: S. Schneider

This section requires permission from the instructor

ENGL 522-01 Structure of Mod English: Stewart, Jr.

This course is designed as a linguistic exploration of the various forms and combinations of words, phrases, and sentences that contemporary speakers of English typically recognize as belonging to that language.

To help in this exploration, students will:

examine both popular and technical conceptions of “grammar”
examine that variety of English referred to as Standard American English (SAE)
consider some of the ways in which one can vary from SAE and still be speaking English
consider the role of situation, audience, etc., in determining “appropriate use”
acquire terminology and methods that permit clear description of English grammar
collect real-life examples of actual English usage for detailed description
identify and monitor trends in English usage to evaluate “changes in progress”

Note: This course can count in the Theoretical Track concentration or as an Elective for the Undergraduate Minor in Linguistics.

Student learning outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

distinguish between language issues that are fundamental to the construction of English sentences and those that constitute “pet peeves” and “complaint triggers”;
identify English examples in terms of grammatical categories, inflectional forms, clausal functions, and syntactic constructions;
produce original examples of each of the types listed in (2) above; and
describe, compare, and contrast example English structures in detail through the rigorous application of the concepts, categories, and methods of descriptive linguistics.

ENGL 523-01 Hist-English Lang: TBA

This is a cross-listed course

ENGL 541-01 Stud in Old & Mid Engl Lit-CUE: J. Dietrich

We will read Sir Thomas Malory’s The Death of Arthur and pay particular attention to the transition from the Medieval to the Modern era. We will consider various hypotheses about the origin of self-regulating individualism as a cultural ideal. Students will be asked to write two short papers and a ten-page research paper.

ENGL 550-01 Studies in Afr-Amer Lit-CUE: D. Anderson

This course will focus on African American literature, art, and music in Chicago the 1930's, 40's, and 50's. As the Harlem Renaissance was winding down in the early 1930's, an even larger and more vibrant arts movement was starting up in Chicago, which was an important destination for African Americans leaving the South during the Great Migration. Chicago became a center of blues, jazz, and gospel music, as well as a center for visual artists (such as Archibald Motley) and such varied writers as Richard Wright, Margaret Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Frank Marshall Davis, and Dorothy West. The course might end with Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun in the 1950's, but might even take a peek at the Black Arts Movement in the 1960's. But the class is a good opportunity to study mid-century music, visual art, and literature, as well as race relations and housing practices that have profoundly influenced American life in the 21st century.

ENGL 552-01 From Realism to the Absurd: H. Stanev

This course will investigate a diverse selection of plays that have exerted considerable influence on the development of theatre and dramaturgy in the United Kingdom and the United States during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will begin with some of the high accomplishments of Realist and Naturalist drama, and proceed to discuss the modernist avant-garde stage and the drama of the absurd which came to prominence during and after the World Wars. Topics will include the intellectual, aesthetic, cultural, and gendered milieu of mainstream and experimental performances, as well as an evolving register of social attitudes and commentaries that came to define a dynamic, though often fragmented and non-linear, body of dramatic production. The student learning outcomes of this class will establish familiarity with, and appreciation of, the development and evolution of theatre during a time of significant cultural and political turbulence and change on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as to cultivate in-depth awareness of the values, ideas, and methods that gradually influenced and shaped the meaning and expressive power of contemporary British and American dramatic productions. Note: This class will fulfill the post-1900 literature requirement.

ENGL 555-01 Coop Internship-CUE: K. Chandler

This coop course is designed to accompany an internship that has approved for three hours of credit. The course requires descriptive and reflective writing about the internship, in the form of weekly reports, as well as a substantial final research project, a portfolio and evaluation by the intern’s site supervisor.

ENGL 563-75 Milton-CUE: D. Billingsley

This course focuses on intensive reading of Paradise Lost, with collateral readings in Milton's prose and other poetry. Graded course work includes regular contributions to a Blackboard discussion group, occasional brief in-class exercises, and a long paper. Graduate students will also publish on Blackboard one assigned review of current secondary criticism.

Learning outcomes: If this course is successful, at its end you should be able to do the following:

Read and begin to understand the poem in the cultural context of its original creation, within the fabric of Milton’s work overall, and as received in critical study.
Demonstrate your understanding of the poem in your own brief close readings and critical commentary.
Participate in and synthesize other readers' perceptions in oral and written discussion.
Comprehend and express an informed historical-critical understanding of thematic and cultural issues prompted by the poem in clearly organized, competently argued and well-supported academic prose.

Text: John Milton. The Major Works. Ed. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg (Oxford, ISBN-13: 978-0199539185). Other editions may be used as long as they are complete and equipped with footnotes for the hard bits. Lots of footnotes.

Graded work and grade scale. Details of the following graded course work are provided in the notes below:

Course forum on Blackboard (30 term-points);
In-class exercises, impromptu writing assignments in class and overnight (15 term-points)
Analysis of a critical essay, required for graduate credit (10 term-points for graduate students only)
A term essay on a topic settled with the instructor in advance and supported by preparatory exercises and drafts (55 term-points for the whole project).

ENGL 567-01 Post Colonial Voices-WR; CUE: Logan

This seminar will address some major trends in the development of postcolonial African literature, delineate, and explore the historical, socio-political, aesthetic, and cultural conditions/forces that occasioned its advent, production, and dissemination. Participants will read, discuss, and critique selected primary texts (prose fiction) produced by writers from across the continent, as well as diverse theoretical and critical reflections that contextualize related key issues/topics the course seeks to address: imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism, decolonization, post-colonialism, apartheid, orature, hybridity, gender and identity politics, tradition and modernity.