- 2023–2024 Courses:
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Fall 2023
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ENGL 100: Drama, Film, and Society
With an emphasis on critical reading, writing, and the fundamentals of college-level research, this course will develop students’ knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the relationship between drama and film and the social and cultural contexts of which they are (or were) a part and product. The course explores the various ways in which these plays and movies (which might include anything and everything from Spike Lee to Tony Kushner to Christopher Marlowe) generate meaning, with particular attention to the social, historical, and political realities that contribute to that meaning. An important component of this course will be attending live performances in the Twin Cities. These required events may be during the week and/or the weekend.
6 credits; Argument and Inquiry Seminar, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 100: How We Read: The History and Science of Reading
Humans have been reading for 5,000 years, a period too short to be explained in evolutionary terms but long enough for the purposes and social values of reading to have changed considerably. This class begins with an examination of the cognitive process of reading and then considers what reading has meant to readers at different times. We’ll examine the motivations and reading practices of medieval monks, Renaissance diplomats, enslaved Americans, and midwestern housewives. We’ll reflect on what happens when we read a difficult poem, and we’ll read Napoleon’s favorite novel as example of how reading can be enchanting, inspiring, and dangerously self-destructive. We’ll consider our own histories as readers and examine reading at the present moment, including the way reading on screens may (or may not) be changing our habits.
6 credits; Argument and Inquiry Seminar, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · George Shuffelton -
ENGL 100: Imagining a Self
This course examines how first-person narrators present, define, defend, and construct the self. We will read an assortment of autobiographical and fictional works, focusing on the critical issues that the first-person speaker “I” raises. In particular, we will consider the risks and rewards of narrative self-exposure, the relationship between autobiography and the novel, and the apparent intimacy between first-person narrators and their readers. Authors will include James Boswell, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Jacobs, Sylvia Plath, and Dave Eggers. 6 credits; Argument and Inquiry Seminar, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 100: Inventing the Past
How and why does literature imagine and create versions of the past? In this seminar, we will explore intersections of fiction and history in a variety of texts, in a novel that envisions a vivid physical and emotional world for Shakespeare’s family (Hamnet), in a “biography” that sends its protagonist time-travelling through several centuries and genders (Orlando), and in a work of alternative history that imagines a computerized Victorian era run by Babbage’s Analytical Engine (The Difference Engine), among others.
6 credits; Argument and Inquiry Seminar, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 100: Literary Revision: Authority, Art, and Rebellion
The poet Adrienne Rich describes revision as “the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction.” This course examines how literature confronts and reinvents the traditions it inherits. Through a diverse selection of fiction, poetry, and drama, we will examine how writers rework literary conventions, “rewrite” previous literary works, and critique societal myths. From Charles Chesnutt to Charles Johnson, from Henrik Ibsen to Rebecca Gilman, from Charlotte Bronte to Jean Rhys, from Maupassant and Chekhov to contemporary reinventions, we will explore literary revision from different perspectives and periods.
6 credits; Argument and Inquiry Seminar, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Nancy Cho -
ENGL 100: Novel, Nation, Self
With an emphasis on critical reading and writing in an academic context, this course will examine how contemporary writers from a range of global locations approach the question of the writing of the self and of the nation. Reading novels from both familiar and unfamiliar cultural contexts we will examine closely our practices of reading, and the cultural expectations and assumptions that underlie them.
6 credits; Argument and Inquiry Seminar, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 100: Reading, Interpreting, Writing
The texts we will read and the themes to be discussed include: the quest for home and belonging in Angelou’s All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes; transitions in Obama’s Dreams from My Father; difficult and essential conversations in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me; trauma and healing in Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom. Our related focus on expository writing will be complemented by a final writing assignment that offers you the option to craft either a Letter to Your Younger Self on transitions, or an Autobiographical Fragment in which you trace your search for belonging.
6 credits; Argument and Inquiry Seminar, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 118: Introduction to Poetry
“Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought”—Audre Lorde. In this course we will explore how poets use form, tone, sound, imagery, rhythm, and subject matter to create works of astonishing imagination, beauty, and power. In discussions, Moodle posts, and essay assignments we’ll analyze individual works by poets from Sappho to Amanda Gorman (and beyond); there will also be daily recitations of poems, since the musicality is so intrinsic to the meaning.
6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023, Winter 2024 · Timothy Raylor, Constance Walker -
ENGL 160: Creative Writing
You will work in several genres and forms, among them: traditional and experimental poetry, prose fiction, and creative nonfiction. In your writing you will explore the relationship between the self, the imagination, the word, and the world. In this practitioner’s guide to the creative writing process, we will examine writings from past and current authors, and your writings will be critiqued in a workshop setting and revised throughout the term.
6 credits; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023, Winter 2024 · Gregory Hewett, Susan Jaret McKinstry -
ENGL 207: Princes. Poets. Power
Can you serve power without sacrificing your principles or risking your life? We examine the classic explorations of the problem–Machiavelli’s Prince, Castiglione’s Courtier, and More’s Utopia–and investigate the place of poets and poetry at court of Henry VIII, tracing the birth of the English sonnet, and the role of poetry in the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn.
3 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Fall 2023 · Timothy Raylor -
ENGL 208: The Faerie Queene
Spenser’s romance epic: an Arthurian quest-cycle, celebrating the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I, and England’s imperial destiny. Readers encounter knights, ladies, and lady-knights; enchanted groves and magic castles; dragons and sorcerers; and are put through a series of moral tests and hermeneutic challenges.
3 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Fall 2023 · Timothy Raylor -
ENGL 217: A Novel Education
Samuel Johnson declared novels to be “written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into life.” This course explores what sort of education the novel offered its readers during a time when fiction was considered a source of valuable lessons and also an agent of corruption. We will read a selection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century children’s literature, seduction fiction, and novels of manners, considering how these works engage with early educational theories, notions of male and female conduct, and concerns about the didactic and sensational possibilities of fiction. Authors include Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, and Charles Dickens.
6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 220: Arts of Oral Presentation
Instruction and practice in being a speaker and an audience in formal and informal settings. 3 credits; S/CR/NC; Does not fulfill a curricular exploration requirement; offered Fall 2023, Spring 2024 · George Shuffelton -
ENGL 228: Banned. Censored. Reviled.
What makes a work of art dangerous? While present-day attacks on books, libraries, and schools feel unprecedented, writers and artists have always had to fight efforts to suppress their work, often at great personal and societal cost. We will study literature, films, graphic novels, images, music, and other materials that have been challenged and attacked as offensive, taboo, or transgressive, and also explore strategies of resistance to censorship.
6 credits; Intercultural Domestic Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 236: American Nature Writing
A study of the environmental imagination in American literature. We will explore the relationship between literature and the natural sciences and examine questions of style, narrative, and representation in the light of larger social, ethical, and political concerns about the environment. Authors read will include Thoreau, Muir, Jeffers, Abbey, and Leopold. Students will write a creative Natural History essay as part of the course requirements. 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Michael Kowalewski -
ENGL 251: Contemporary Indian Fiction
Contemporary Indian writers, based either in India or abroad, have become significant figures in the global literary landscape. This can be traced to the publication of Salman Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children in 1981. We will begin with that novel and read some of the other notable works of fiction of the following decades. The class will provide both a thorough grounding in the contemporary Indian literary scene as well as an introduction to some concepts in post-colonial studies. 6 credits; International Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 270: Short Story Workshop
An introduction to the writing of the short story (prior familiarity with the genre of the short story is expected of class members). Each student will write and have discussed in class three stories (from 1,500 to 6,000 words in length) and give constructive suggestions, including written critiques, for revising the stories written by other members of the class. Attention will be paid to all the elements of fiction: characterization, point of view, conflict, setting, dialogue, etc. Prerequisites: One prior 6-credit English course 6 credits; S/CR/NC; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023, Winter 2024 · Gregory Smith -
ENGL 295: Critical Methods
Required of students majoring in English, this course explores practical and theoretical issues in literary analysis and contemporary criticism. Not open to first year students. Prerequisites: One English Foundations course and one prior 6 credit English course 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023, Winter 2024 · Peter Balaam, Nancy Cho -
ENGL 323: Romanticism and Reform
Mass protests, police brutality, reactionary politicians, imprisoned journalists, widespread unemployment, and disease were all features of the Romantic era in Britain as well as our own time. We will explore how its writers brilliantly advocate for empathy, liberty, and social justice in the midst of violence and upheaval. Readings will include works by Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Percy and Mary Shelley, and their contemporaries.
Prerequisites: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 352: Toni Morrison: Novelist
Morrison exposes the limitations of the language of fiction, but refuses to be constrained by them. Her quirky, inimitable, and invariably memorable characters are fully committed to the protocols of the narratives that define them. She is fearless in her choice of subject matter and boundless in her thematic range. And the novelistic site becomes a stage for Morrison’s virtuoso performances. It is to her well-crafted novels that we turn our attention in this course. Prerequisites: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course or instructor permission 6 credits; Intercultural Domestic Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 395: Narrative
Roland Barthes claims that “narrative is international, transhistorical, transcultural: it is simply there, like life itself.” Yet metahistorian Hayden White wonders, “Does the world really present itself to perception in the form of well-made stories?” To study narrative is to confront art’s distinctive interplay of fiction and nonfiction, invention and truth. We will read contemporary narrative theory by critics from several disciplines and apply their theories to textual and visual narratives such as literary texts, graphic novels, films, images, television shows, advertisements, and music videos. Students will collaborate on a digital storytelling project.
Prerequisites: English 295 and one 300 level English course 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023 · Susan Jaret McKinstry
Winter 2024
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ENGL 109: The Craft of Academic Writing
This course is designed to demystify the practice of academic writing and to introduce students to the skills they’ll need to write effectively in a variety of academic disciplines and contexts. Students will learn how to respond to other authors’ claims, frame clear arguments of their own, structure essays to develop a clear logical flow, integrate outside sources into their writing, and improve their writing through revision. All sections will include a variety of readings, multiple writing assignments, and substantial feedback from the course instructor.
6 credits; Does not fulfill a curricular exploration requirement, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024, Spring 2024 · George Shuffelton, George Cusack -
ENGL 112: Introduction to the Novel
This course explores the history and form of the British novel, tracing its development from a strange, sensational experiment in the eighteenth century to a dominant literary genre today. Among the questions that we will consider: What is a novel? What makes it such a popular form of entertainment? How does the novel participate in ongoing conversations about family, sex, class, race, and nation? How did a genre once considered a source of moral corruption become a legitimate literary form? Authors include: Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Bram Stoker, Virginia Woolf, and Jackie Kay.
6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 118: Introduction to Poetry
“Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought”—Audre Lorde. In this course we will explore how poets use form, tone, sound, imagery, rhythm, and subject matter to create works of astonishing imagination, beauty, and power. In discussions, Moodle posts, and essay assignments we’ll analyze individual works by poets from Sappho to Amanda Gorman (and beyond); there will also be daily recitations of poems, since the musicality is so intrinsic to the meaning.
6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023, Winter 2024 · Timothy Raylor, Constance Walker -
ENGL 144: Shakespeare I
A chronological survey of the whole of Shakespeare’s career, covering all genres and periods, this course explores the nature of Shakespeare’s genius and the scope of his art. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between literature and stagecraft (“page to stage”). By tackling the complexities of prosody, of textual transmission, and of Shakespeare’s highly figurative and metaphorical language, the course will help you further develop your ability to think critically about literature. Note: Declared or prospective English majors should register for English 244. 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Winter 2024 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 160: Creative Writing
You will work in several genres and forms, among them: traditional and experimental poetry, prose fiction, and creative nonfiction. In your writing you will explore the relationship between the self, the imagination, the word, and the world. In this practitioner’s guide to the creative writing process, we will examine writings from past and current authors, and your writings will be critiqued in a workshop setting and revised throughout the term.
6 credits; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023, Winter 2024 · Gregory Hewett, Susan Jaret McKinstry -
ENGL 222: The Art of Jane Austen
All of Jane Austen’s fiction will be read; the works she did not complete or choose to publish during her lifetime will be studied in an attempt to understand the art of her mature comic masterpieces, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Susan Jaret McKinstry -
ENGL 229: The Rise of the Novel
This course traces the development of a sensational, morally dubious genre that emerged in the eighteenth-century: the novel. We will read some of the most entertaining, best-selling novels written during the first hundred years of the form, paying particular attention to the novel’s concern with courtship and marriage, writing and reading, the real and the fantastic. Among the questions we will ask: What is a novel? What distinguished the early novel from autobiography, history, travel narrative, and pornography? How did this genre come to be associated with women? How did early novelists respond to eighteenth-century debates about the dangers of reading fiction? Authors include Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, and Jane Austen. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 230: Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
We will explore developments in African American literature since the 1950s with a focus on literary expression in the Civil Rights Era; on the Black Arts Movement; on the new wave of feminist/womanist writing; and on the experimental and futuristic fictions of the twenty-first century. Authors to be read include Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Malcolm X, Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker, August Wilson, Charles Johnson, Ntozake Shange, Gloria Naylor, Suzan-Lori Parks, Kevin Young, and Tracy Smith.
6 credits; Intercultural Domestic Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Winter 2024 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 235: Asian American Literature
This course is an introduction to major works and authors of fiction, drama, and poetry from about 1900 to the present. We will trace the development of Asian American literary traditions while exploring the rich diversity of recent voices in the field. Authors to be read include Carlos Bulosan, Sui Sin Far, Philip Kan Gotanda, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jhumpa Lahiri, Milton Murayama, Chang-rae Lee, Li-young Lee, and John Okada. 6 credits; Intercultural Domestic Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Nancy Cho -
ENGL 244: Shakespeare I
A chronological survey of the whole of Shakespeare’s career, covering all genres and periods, this course explores the nature of Shakespeare’s genius and the scope of his art. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between literature and stagecraft (“page to stage”). By tackling the complexities of prosody, of textual transmission, and of Shakespeare’s highly figurative and metaphorical language, the course will help you further develop your ability to think critically about literature. Note: non-majors should register for English 144. 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 246: Film, Literature, and Culture in Mumbai and Seoul Program: Beyond Bollywood
While the output of the popular Hindi film industry of Mumbai, also known as Bollywood, has global reach and renown, other genres of films produced in Mumbai are not as well-known or studied. In this course, students will encounter independent feature films, documentaries and short films that will expand their understanding of the larger world of Hindi cinema in particular, and Indian cinema more broadly.
Prerequisites: Participation in the Film Literature and Culture in Mumbai and Seoul program 3 credits; International Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Winter 2024 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 249: Modern Irish Literature: Poetry, Prose, and Politics
What can and should be the role of literature in times of bitter political conflict? Caught in partisan strife, Irish writers have grappled personally and painfully with the question. We will read works by Joyce, Yeats, and Heaney, among others, and watch films (Bloody Sunday, Hunger) that confront the deep and ongoing divisions in Irish political life.
6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Constance Walker -
ENGL 270: Short Story Workshop
An introduction to the writing of the short story (prior familiarity with the genre of the short story is expected of class members). Each student will write and have discussed in class three stories (from 1,500 to 6,000 words in length) and give constructive suggestions, including written critiques, for revising the stories written by other members of the class. Attention will be paid to all the elements of fiction: characterization, point of view, conflict, setting, dialogue, etc. Prerequisites: One prior 6-credit English course 6 credits; S/CR/NC; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023, Winter 2024 · Gregory Smith -
ENGL 271: Poetry Workshop
This workshop offers you ways of developing poetic craft, voice, and vision in a small-group setting. Your poetry and individual expression is the heart and soul of the course. Through intensive writing and revision of poems written in a variety of styles and forms, you will create a significant portfolio.
Prerequisites: One prior 6 credit English course 6 credits; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 272: Film, Literature, and Culture in Mumbai and Seoul Program: Representing Mumbai
In Mumbai we will read a range of poems, short stories, novels and non-fiction that take Mumbai/Bombay as their setting and discuss the ways in which the heterogeneous cosmopolitanisms of the city are both represented and re-articulated in writing on the city. While our focus will be on Mumbai/Bombay, the course will also function as an introduction to twentieth century and contemporary Indian writing.
Prerequisites: Participation in OCS Mumbai/Seoul Program 3 credits; International Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Winter 2024 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 275: Film, Literature, and Culture in Mumbai and Seoul Program: Writing Mumbai and Seoul
Under supervision of the program director, students will work together in small groups to conceive and produce text and image based projects that will knit their experience of Mumbai and Seoul together. Students will draw on the breadth of guided program outings in both cities as well as on their own explorations to produce work that expresses their understanding of the cultural contexts of and connections between these two vibrant metropolises as well as their own experience of them.
Prerequisites: Participation in OCS Mumbai/Seoul Program 6 credits; Arts Practice; offered Winter 2024 · Arnab Chakladar -
ENGL 290: Living London Program: Directed Reading
Students will read selected material in English history, literature and culture, and do short presentations, in either pairs or small groups, based on the readings.
1-6 credit; S/CR/NC; Does not fulfill a curricular exploration requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Michael Kowalewski -
ENGL 292: Independent Research
1-6 credit; Does not fulfill a curricular exploration requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 295: Critical Methods
Required of students majoring in English, this course explores practical and theoretical issues in literary analysis and contemporary criticism. Not open to first year students. Prerequisites: One English Foundations course and one prior 6 credit English course 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Fall 2023, Winter 2024 · Peter Balaam, Nancy Cho -
ENGL 319: The Rise of the Novel
This course traces the development of a sensational, morally dubious genre that emerged in the eighteenth-century: the novel. We will read some of the most entertaining, best-selling novels written during the first hundred years of the form, paying particular attention to the novel’s concern with courtship and marriage, writing and reading, the real and the fantastic. Among the questions we will ask: What is a novel? What distinguished the early novel from autobiography, history, travel narrative, and pornography? How did this genre come to be associated with women? How did early novelists respond to eighteenth-century debates about the dangers of reading fiction? Authors include Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, and Jane Austen. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
Prerequisites: One English foundations course and one other six credit English course 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 353: The Writings of Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf is regarded as one of the chief modernist writers, as well as one of the twentieth-century’s most important feminist thinkers. She revolutionized the novel and the concept of time in fiction, as well as ideas of gender and sexuality. She, along with other members of the Bloomsbury Group, was also a critic of World War I and the build-up to World War II. In this course we will read the majority of her novels, as well as selected essays, diary entries, and letters. Articles by literary critics will offer various contexts for our discussions. Some works included: Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and “A Room of One’s Own.”
Prerequisites: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course or instructor consent 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 395: Murder
From the ancient Greeks to the King James Bible to the modern serial killer novel, murder has always been a preeminent topic of intellectual and artistic investigation. Slaying our way across different genres and periods, we will explore why homicide has been the subject of such fierce attention from so many great minds. Prepare to drench yourselves in the blood of fiction and non-fiction works that may include: the Bible, Shakespeare, Poe, Thompson, Capote, Tey, McGinniss, Malcolm, Wilder, and Morris, as well as legal and other materials. Warning: not for the faint-hearted. Not open to students who took English 187, Murder.
Prerequisites: English 295 and one 300-level English course 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 400: Integrative Exercise
Senior English majors may fulfill the integrative exercise by completing one of the four options: the Colloquium Option (a group option in which participants discuss, analyze and write about a thematically coherent list of literary works); the Research Essay Option (an extended essay on a topic of the student’s own devising); the Creative Option (creation of a work of literary art); or the Project Option (creation of an individual or group multidisciplinary project). The Research Essay Option is open to students who have completed a senior seminar in the major by the end of fall term senior year. The Creative Option is open only to students who have completed at least two creative writing courses (one of which must be at the 300 level) by the end of fall term senior year. 6 credits; S/NC; offered Winter 2024, Spring 2024 · George Shuffelton
Spring 2024
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ENGL 109: The Craft of Academic Writing
This course is designed to demystify the practice of academic writing and to introduce students to the skills they’ll need to write effectively in a variety of academic disciplines and contexts. Students will learn how to respond to other authors’ claims, frame clear arguments of their own, structure essays to develop a clear logical flow, integrate outside sources into their writing, and improve their writing through revision. All sections will include a variety of readings, multiple writing assignments, and substantial feedback from the course instructor.
6 credits; Does not fulfill a curricular exploration requirement, Writing Requirement; offered Winter 2024, Spring 2024 · George Shuffelton, George Cusack -
ENGL 115: The Art of Storytelling
Jorge Luis Borges is quoted as saying that “unlike the novel, a short story may be, for all purposes, essential.” This course focuses attention primarily on the short story as an enduring form. We will read short stories drawn from different literary traditions and from various parts of the world. Stories to be read include those by Aksenov, Atwood, Beckett, Borges, Camus, Cheever, Cisneros, Farah, Fuentes, Gordimer, Ishiguro, Kundera, Mahfouz, Marquez, Moravia, Nabokov, Narayan, Pritchett, Rushdie, Trevor, Welty, and Xue.
6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 205: “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives
One of the most intimate and devastating plays in all dramatic literature has also continuously been at the center of societal debates around race, representation, and civil rights. Moving from Shakespeare’s Renaissance to important historical and civil rights figures like Ira Aldridge and Paul Robeson to reimaginings by contemporary artists, we will explore how Othello has served as a vehicle for social change. The class will be taught in conjunction with the campus visit of writer, actor, and anti-apartheid activist Bonisile John Kani, OIS, OBE, the first Black actor to play Othello in South Africa.
3 credits; International Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Spring 2024 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 206: William Shakespeare: The Henriad
Shakespeare’s account of the Wars of the Roses combines history, tragedy, comedy, romance, and bildungsroman as it explores themes of power, identity, duty, family, love, and friendship on an epic scale. We will read and discuss Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V, and attend the Guthrie Theater’s three-play repertory event.
3 credits; International Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Spring 2024 · Pierre Hecker -
ENGL 218: The Gothic Spirit
The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw the rise of the Gothic, a genre populated by brooding hero-villains, vulnerable virgins, mad monks, ghosts, and monsters. In this course, we will examine the conventions and concerns of the Gothic, addressing its preoccupation with terror, transgression, sex, otherness, and the supernatural. As we situate this genre within its literary and historical context, we will consider its relationship to realism and Romanticism, and we will explore how it reflects the political and cultural anxieties of its age. Authors include Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Emily Bronte.
6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Jessica Leiman -
ENGL 220: Arts of Oral Presentation
Instruction and practice in being a speaker and an audience in formal and informal settings. 3 credits; S/CR/NC; Does not fulfill a curricular exploration requirement; offered Fall 2023, Spring 2024 · George Shuffelton -
ENGL 238: African Literature in English
This is a course on texts drawn from English-speaking Africa since the 1950’s. Authors to be read include Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ayi Kwei Armah, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Benjamin Kwakye, and Wole Soyinka. 6 credits; International Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Spring 2024 · Kofi Owusu -
ENGL 255: The Poetics of Disability
Scholar Michael Davidson has suggested that “perhaps the closest link between poetry and disability lies in a conundrum within the genre itself: poetry makes language visible by making language strange.” In this class we will read a wide range of poets who tackle ideas of normalcy and “ability” by centering disability consciousness and culture. We will engage with poetry’s capacity as a genre to destabilize our assumptions and generate new imaginaries. Alongside contemporary U.S. poetry, we will study contemporary theory in the field of disability studies in order to better understand the critical conversations around the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability.
6 credits; Intercultural Domestic Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Adriana Estill -
ENGL 265: News Stories
This journalism course explores the process of moving from event to news story. Students will study and write different forms of journalism (including news, reviews, features, interviews, investigative pieces, and images), critique one another’s writing, work in teams with community partners, and revise their pieces to produce a final portfolio of professional work.
6 credits; S/CR/NC; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Susan Jaret McKinstry -
ENGL 267: Studies in Description
Why do we describe things? Why do writers put so much care into their descriptions of objects and inner states? What authority do they draw from precise descriptive language? What is an “exactly perceived” detail? How do phrases carry sensory information? This class explores the power of description in capturing perceptions and making pictures of the world more felt. To understand the range of technical strategies involved in description, we will read and imitate the acute sensory visions of Basho, Issa, Hopkins, Rilke, and a range of American poets. Each week the reading will be a springboard for written exercises.
6 credits; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Joanna Klink -
ENGL 279: Living London Program: Urban Field Studies
A combination of short, focused background readings, guided site visits, and individual exploration will give students tools for understanding the history of multicultural London. Starting with the city’s early history and moving to the present, students will gain an understanding of how the city has been defined and transformed over time, and of the complex cultural narratives that shape its standing as a global metropolis. There will be a few short written assignments and group presentations.
6 credits; S/CR/NC; Literary/Artistic Analysis; offered Spring 2024 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 281: Living London Program: Reading London, Writing London
This is a creative writing course about writing and place, specifically London. Students will have the opportunity to write short stories, poetry, and non-academic essays (also referred to as creative nonfiction). We will be reading select examples in these genres by contemporary writers and poets based in the United Kingdom, some of whom will visit our class. The primary mode of instruction will be the workshop, which involves large and small-group critique and discussion.
Prerequisites: Participation in OCS London Program 6 credits; Arts Practice, International Studies, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 282: Living London Program: London Theater
Students will attend productions (at least two per week) of classic and contemporary plays in a range of London venues both on and off the West End, and will do related reading. We will also travel to Stratford-upon-Avon for a three-day theater trip. Class discussions will focus on dramatic genres and themes, dramaturgy, acting styles, and design. Guest speakers may include actors, critics, and directors. Students will keep a theater journal and write several full reviews of plays.
Prerequisites: Participation in OCS London program 6 credits; International Studies, Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 327: Victorian Novel
Puzzled about nineteenth century novels, Henry James asks, ‘But what do such large loose baggy monsters with their queer elements of the accidental and the arbitrary, artistically mean?” (“Preface,” Tragic Muse). What, indeed? These novels have defined the form of “the novel” for nearly 200 years. Through close reading, historic context, and visual studies, we will examine the prose, design, publication, and illustrations of Victorian editions, and consider how we (re)define and interpret the nineteenth century novel now. Students will create a photographic portrait project. Authors include George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Mary Seacole, and Lewis Carroll.
Prerequisites: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course or instructor consent 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Susan Jaret McKinstry -
ENGL 332: Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald
An intensive study of the novels and short fiction of William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The course will focus on the ethos of experimentation and the “homemade” quality of these innovative stylists who shaped the course of American modernism. Works read will be primarily from the twenties and thirties and will include The Sound and the Fury, In Our Time, Light in August, The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and Go Down, Moses.
Prerequisites: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course 6 credits; Literary/Artistic Analysis, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Michael Kowalewski -
ENGL 370: Advanced Fiction Workshop
An advanced course in the writing of fiction. Students will write three to four short stories or novel chapters which will be read and critiqued by the class.
Prerequisites: English 160, 161, 263, 265, 270, 271, 273, Cinema and Media Studies 271, 278, 279, Cross Cultural Studies 270 or Theater 246 6 credits; S/CR/NC; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Gregory Smith -
ENGL 371: Advanced Poetry Workshop
In this workshop, students choose to write poems from a broad range of forms, from sonnets to spoken word, from ghazals to slam, from free-verse to blues. Over the ten weeks, each poet will write and revise their own collection of poems. Student work is the centerpiece of the course, but readings from a diverse selection of contemporary poets will be used to expand each student’s individual poetic range, and to explore the power of poetic language. For students with some experience in writing poetry, this workshop further develops your craft and poetic voice and vision.
Prerequisites: English 160, 161, 263, 265, 270, 271, 273, Cinema and Media Studies 271, 278, 279, Cross Cultural Studies 270 or Theater 246 6 credits; Arts Practice, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Joanna Klink -
ENGL 381: Living London Program: Reading London, Writing London
This is a creative writing course about writing and place, specifically London. Students will have the opportunity to write short stories, poetry, and non-academic essays (also referred to as creative nonfiction). We will be reading select examples in these genres by contemporary writers and poets based in the United Kingdom, some of whom will visit our class. The primary mode of instruction will be the workshop, which involves large and small-group critique and discussion.
Prerequisites: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course or permission of instructor 6 credits; Arts Practice, International Studies, Writing Requirement; offered Spring 2024 · Gregory Hewett -
ENGL 400: Integrative Exercise
Senior English majors may fulfill the integrative exercise by completing one of the four options: the Colloquium Option (a group option in which participants discuss, analyze and write about a thematically coherent list of literary works); the Research Essay Option (an extended essay on a topic of the student’s own devising); the Creative Option (creation of a work of literary art); or the Project Option (creation of an individual or group multidisciplinary project). The Research Essay Option is open to students who have completed a senior seminar in the major by the end of fall term senior year. The Creative Option is open only to students who have completed at least two creative writing courses (one of which must be at the 300 level) by the end of fall term senior year. 6 credits; S/NC; offered Winter 2024, Spring 2024 · George Shuffelton