Spring 2003 Undergraduate Courses
Return to the archived courses or to the current course search page.
Note that the courses listed here represent many but not all the courses taught during this particular quarter. Those courses taught by graduate students and part-time instructors are not listed.
Eng 151 - Writing & Rhetoric
Professor: Jennie Nelson
Description:
This course is designed to help you to write effectively for the university academic community: such work involves demonstrating critical reading, thinking, and writing skills. Because academic writing often builds upon ideas from other writing, this class will focus particularly on writing which integrates and responds to sources we read. In addition to helping you to learn some of the common conventions necessary for effective academic writing across the disciplines, this course will help you to explore and enter the current academic conversation in your chosen field.
Readings:
The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing - Concise edition, 2003; Exploring Language by Gary Goshgarian, latest edition; A Writer's Resource by Elaine P. Maimon, 2003
Eng 153 - Writing/Reading: Special Topics
Professors: Zakes Mda
Description:
NARRATIVE RHETORIC AT WORK: - This course will guide the students through the fundamental aspects of the architecture of narrative. It aims to foster critical thinking and cultural appreciation through the study and practice of discourses (art and technique) of narrative prose across a number of genres. Special attention shall be given to narrative/imaginative essays and short fiction. However the course must emphasize that narrative is found not just in the arts but everywhere in the course of people’s lives. In its application of scholarship to creative practice the course extends the critical and communication skills across a wide range of texts and media. The students shall learn common formats for different kinds of texts, and shall develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics.
Readings:
A Writers’ Reference by Diana Hacker (Boston: Bedford Books 1999); The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H. Porter Abbott (Cambridge UK: The Cambridge University Press 2002); 50 American Great Stories edited by Milton Crane (Bantam Books, Mass Market Paperback Reissue ISBN 0553272942)
Exams/Papers:
Writing from Narrative/Imaginative Prompts 1 -- 10%; Writing from Narrative/Imaginative Prompts 2 -- 10%; Short Fiction -- 20%; Narrative Essay -- 20%; Peer critiques and notebook -- 20%; Class Participation -- 20%
Eng 153B--Writing/Reading: African American Experience
Professor: Crystal Anderson
10:10-12:30Description:
Racial Discourse in African American Creative ExpressionOne of the most enduring themes in African American literature is the focus on race. Throughout the history of black writing, artists have taken different approaches to addressing this central issue in American culture. In addition to the parameters of black ess, African American artists also explore how other factors, such as nationality, class, gender and geography impact racial identity. By examining various genres of literature and modes of creative expression, students in this course will become familiar with the various ways in which African Americans create as well as challenge racial discourse. They will also gain valuable skills in interpreting racial discourse in a variety of media.
Readings:
Smith, Rochelle and Sharon Jones (eds.). The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American LiteratureRosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically
Exams/Papers:
Several in Class writing assignments.6-8 page critical paper
Eng 200: Introduction to Literature
Professor: James Davis
Description:
Approaches to reading and writing about fiction, poetry, and drama emphasizing techniques and language of interpretation.
Readings:
Reading of assigned material in text: Bain, Carl E., Jerome Beaty, Allison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1995.
Exams/Papers:
Journal/Notebook to be handed in several times during the quarter and at the end of the course. Entry for each class day of one half page minimum. Mid-Term and Final examination.
Eng 201 - Critical Approach To Fiction
Professor: John Matthews
Description:
This course deals with fictional works as sub-sets of the game of language. Thus, it involves a study of language itself, with a focus upon such general semantic principles as "indexing" and "dating."
Readings:
Remainder copies of novels and/or short story collections by predominantly modern authors. ("Remainder copies" are copies discounted by the publisher; this generally enables students to buy them for less than half their new, retail price.) Approximately one book per week will be assigned.
Exams/Papers:
Generally, short outside papers will be assigned weekly, along with frequent INCA assignments (INCA="In Class Answers") to be gathered in a portfolio and handed in at the end of the quarter. A mid-term, final exam and other tests may be assigned.
Eng 201 - Critical Approach To Fiction: Writing Enriched
Professor: Carey Snyder
Description:
With a focus on modern British and American short stories and novels, this course is designed to equip students to better analyze, discuss, and write about fiction. Students will be introduced to a variety of approaches to fiction, including formalist, cultural-historical, biographical, feminist, and psychological criticism.
Readings:
Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg Ohio; James Joyce, The Dead (Bedford Cultural Edition); Jean Toomer, Cane; Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer; E. M. Forster, Howard’s End ; Aldous Huxley, Brave New World; Steve Lynn, Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory
Exams/Papers:
There will be several short writing assignments, three major papers, and no exams. Constructive participation will contribute to students’ success in the course.
Eng 203A - Interpretation of Drama (Film)
Professor: Robert Miklitsch
Description:
This course will examine the intimate but not exact relation between film and literature or, more properly, between filmic and literary texts. The aim of the class will be to not only deconstruct the "classic" -- and, yes, clichéd -- opposition between film and literature (i.e., the "book" is always better than the "movie") but to explore the way cinematic texts express or rearticulate particular literary texts in their own idiomatic, medium-specific "language" (framing, editing, sound, etc.) and, in the process, re-frame or re-constellate the "original," so much so, in fact, that sometimes the "movie" displaces the "book." To wit: A helluva lot of people have seen Forrest Gump but very few, relatively speaking, have read the Groom novel on which it is based.
Readings:
Provisional film/texts: Eyes Wide Shut, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Godfather, etc.
Exams/Papers:
In addition to regular quizzes on the reading, there will be three papers: two short ones (3-5 pp.), which will be due during the course of the quarter, and a final longer one, which will be due at the end of the quarter (7-10 pp.). Attendance and participation are, as per usual, mandatory.
Eng 299T/377T--English Tutorial
Professor: LInda Zionkowski
Description:
Through a combination of tutorials, group meetings, and seminars, students will examine and analyze the poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction of the long eighteenth century (1660-1800). Our approach to this literature will entail a great deal of cultural history, and we will incorporate readings in current scholarship to illuminate significant aspects of the primary texts. Our main topic for the class will be "An Emerging World: Novelty and the Sense of Tradition in Eighteenth-Century Life."
Readings:
British Literature 1640-1789 (second edition), ed. Robert DeMaria (Blackwell); selected novels and plays to be announced
Exams/Papers:
Weekly tutorial essays are required, along with a 20- minute oral report; two 6-7 page analytical essays; and a longer (10 page) research essay.
Eng 302 - Shakespeare’s Comedies
Professor: Sam Crowl
Description:
A study of six representative Shakespearean comedies with an eye to understanding their form, structure, and social origins and impact. We will pay particular attention to these plays as scripts for performance and will view several recent film and television productions to see what they can teach us about reading these plays in performance.
Readings:
A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Measure or Measure, and The Winter's Tale.
Exams/Papers:
Frequent quizzes, midterm and final.
Eng 302 - Sex and Bondage in Shakespeare’s Comedies
Professor: Loreen Giese
Description:
This course is a study of four Shakespearean comedies: The Taming of the Shrew (1592), Much Ado about Nothing (1598), As You Like It, (1599) and Twelfth Night (1601). We will analyze these plays in terms of their structure, characterization, action, language, and the like, and will pay special attention to the issue of sex and bondage: namely, the social containments that control and bind sexuality, such as, the political and social structures that inform gender roles for females and males. With this perspective in mind, we will examine these plays with relation to the social contexts of their production in the sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and twenty-first -- centuries. We will also give attention to the issue oftextuality in terms of the cultural reproduction of Shakespeare -- Shakespeare on the page, on the stage, and on the screen.
Readings:
Taming of the Shrew (1592), Much Ado (1598), As You Like It (1599), and Twelfth Night (1601).
Exams/Papers:
Two short papers and one long paper.
Eng 303 - Shakespeare’s Tragedies
Professor: Sam Crowl
Description:
We will read and discuss five representative Shakespearean tragedies, spanning his career from early to late, with an eye to what they tell us about his age and our own. We will also view five film or television productions of these plays to gain some understanding of how his plays work in performance.
Readings:
Titus Andronicus, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Antony and Cleopatra.
Exams/Papers:
Two short papers (3-4 pages), midterm and final.
Eng 305J - Technical Writing (For Physical Science Students Only)
Professor: Christine Freeman
Description:
The primary purpose of this course is to provide students in the sciences with an opportunity to practice writing within their majors. Students are expected to have a knowledge base within the physical sciences, since most examples used in class require more than a layperson’s understanding of the field. The course focuses on how to review prior research, how to propose research projects, how to incorporate research results into final reports -- and how to write clearly and concisely.
Readings:
Martha Davis, Scientific Papers and Presentations, the Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing, the National Academy of Sciences, On Being a Scientist, a course pack, and several research articles within the student’s field.
Exams/Papers:
Tests: Two exams, reading quizzes. Writing projects: profile of the student’s academic community, abstracts, research proposal, literature review, poster presentation.
Eng 305J - Technical Writing
Professor: Lowell Verheul
Description:
This course in technical/professional writing emphasizes presentation to an educated general audience. Special attention is given to the components of accessibility and reader-centeredness. Assignments will include such forms as letters, memos, proposals, and reports. Content will include ethics and the job search. Students are encouraged to draw on their own majors for the longer final report assignment. No formal text required.
Eng 305J - Technical Writing
Professor: David Sharpe
Description:
This section is conducted entirely in a PC computer lab, using techniques to create and polish forms of writing that students will encounter in the computerized workplace. Students prepare memos, a proposal, a resume with cover letter, a research paper, and a formal report, collaborate on rewriting, and present each paper in an individually-maintained website. Grading is based on improvements to writing skills and participation, while advanced computer skills (which are ungraded) are acquired as a bonus. Students will learn most if they don’t currently have a website, and if they are not already trained in professional writing.
Readings:
Frequent assignments from Technical Communication by John Lannon, with quizzes to encourage careful reading.
Exams/Papers:
Eighteen pages of strong, clear, polished writing, rewritten during the quarter and presented as a portfolio in the form of a website (in place of a final exam).
Eng 307J: Writing Research in English Studies
Professor: Betty Pytlik
Description:
To introduce you to several critical methods of interpreting literature. We will discuss and apply several theories to texts read by the entire class. We will depend on the Lynn book for those readings and discussions.
To involve you in a range of research processes useful in reading and writing about literature. You will sharpen our writing skills through frequent brief writing assignments and three major writing projects.
To provide practice in working with library sources and electronic databases. We will become more sophisticated in using sources, working with electronic resources and other library sources to discover paper topics and help with developing theses. As a class, we will meet twice in Alden with a reference librarian to practice finding sources on databases.
Readings:
Lynn, Steven. Texts and Contexts: Writing about Literature with Critical Theory. 3nd ed. NY: Longman, 2001.MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 4th ed. Ed. Joseph Gibaldi. NY: MLA, 1995.Texts by Appalachian authors: James Still's River of Earth, Robert Morgan's Gap Creek, Lee Smith’s Oral History, and short stories from Gurney Norman's Kinfolks, Elaine Fowler Palencia's Brier Country, and Kiki Delancey’s Coalminer’s Holiday.Coursepack
Exams/Papers:
Class Participation and Engagement in Classwork. (10 Points) Short Papers: Two summaries of critical readings. (10 points each)Four Longer Papers.
Eng 307J - Writing Research In English Studies
Professor: Andrew Escobedo
Description:
This course aims to improve your ability to write critical analysis of literary texts using outside scholarly resources. In a sense, then, you will practice making a contribution to a specific area of knowledge based on and in response to the previous contributions of other researchers. This process will involve, among other things, reading and discussing one of the best poems ever written (Virgil’s Aeneid), writing several short essays analyzing topics drawn from the book, reading (and in some cases summarizing) articles and chapters about the book, all in preparation for a final research paper, the topic selected by you, on the Aeneid or on an English text influenced by the Aeneid. You will revise this final paper at least once.
Readings:
Vergil’s Aeneid; MLA Handbook, 5th edition
Exams/Papers:
Many papers and quizzes
Eng 308J - Writing & Rhetoric II
Professor: David Bergdahl
Description:
308J used to be called "Advanced Composition" -- and it’s more than just "more composition." The focus in this section is on "academic writing." The editors of the textbook "view it [academic writing] as a social construction of knowledge that requires rhetorical choices as well as empirical research. This book," they continue, "represents academic writing as a sequence of continuing conversations within discourse communities and provides a variety of opportunities to engage with and participate in these conversations"
Readings:
Fitzgerald. Bruce, Stasney, Vogt, Conversations in Context: Identity, Knowledge and College Writing, Harcourt-Brace (1998)
Exams/Papers:
4 papers w/ multiple drafts plus participation in our class’s online journal
Eng 311 - English Literature to 1500
Professor: Beth Quitslund
Description:
A focused survey of literature in Middle English, drawing on material from the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. We’ll explore a range of genres and concerns during this period of explosive growth in vernacular literature. Issues likely to arise include class, faith, the Church, the nature of late medieval political power, and the interplay between Continental literary influences and native traditions.
Readings:
Will include Chaucer, the Pearl Poet, and others to be announced.
Exams/Papers:
Weekly quizzes, two very short papers, midterm exam, a longish (7-8 pp.) formal paper, a final exam, and other miscellaneous assignments.
Eng 313 - English Literature: 1660-1800
Professor: Jeremy Webster
Description:
This course samples British drama, poetry, and prose during the "long Eighteenth Century," a period stretching from 1660 to 1789. Our particular emphasis will be on transformations in literary and historical representations of gender and sexuality during this era. Beginning with a period of great sexual experimentation among England’s elite and ending with far more rigid views of marriage, gender roles, and sex, the long Eighteenth Century saw the emergence of our own culture’s ideas of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality. The prerequisites for this course are two courses from English 201, 202, and 203 and a willingness to read, discuss, and write about literary texts that feature frank depictions of adult issues and situations.
Readings:
Restoration Literature: An Anthology, A Bold Stroke for a Wife by Susanna Centlivre, Pamela by Samuel Richardson, Shamela by Henry Fielding, The History of Rasselas by Samuel Johnson, Evelina by Frances Burney, and supplemental poetry.
Exams/Papers:
Midterm and final exams, a short analysis paper, and attendance/participation.
Eng 313 - English Literature: 1800-1900
Professor: Nicole Reynolds
Description:
In this course we will study British poetry and prose of the Romantic and Victorian periods. Through close analysis, we will approach literary texts both as discrete works of art and as reflections of, or challenges to, the historical and cultural contexts that influenced their production. We’ll study literary engagements with such topics as revolution, industrialization, abolition, imperialism, "the woman question," the conflicting influences of faith and science, and the role of art in society.
Readings:
The Longman Anthology of British Literature, volume 2/e, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and a course packet.
Exams/Papers:
In addition to regular attendance, requirements of the course include a midterm and a final exam, an oral presentation, weekly reading questions, and two five-page essays.
Eng 315 - Eng Literature: 1900-Present
Professor: Carey Snyder
Description:
This course will survey two major literary movements (modernism and postmodernism), three genres (poetry, drama, and fiction), and a wide range of authors of the twentieth century. We will place this literature in a variety of important social and historical contexts. We will begin by, figuratively speaking, "Burying Victoria"--for much of the creative energy of modernism originated in a flouting of the previous generation's tastes and values. Next we will consider the tremendous impact of World War I on modern writers, many of whom rejected the "old lies" of pre-war society and sought new aesthetic means of capturing the fragmentation of the inter-war period. Our discussion of modernism will also address experiments in character that were informed by the new psychology and new anthropology of the first half of the century. The second portion of the course will attend to some of the recent voices that comprise the increasingly elastic category of English literature, in the post-World War II era. These voices include post-colonial writers such as Derek Walcott and Chinua Achebe who write "out of" a British tradition, both in the sense of building on that tradition, and in the sense of defining themselves against it. Finally we will discuss the postmodern innovations of writers such as Samuel Beckett, John Fowles and Jeanette Winterson.
Readings:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth Century, Vol. 2C (7th edition)Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969) Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body (1992)
Exams/Papers:
40% Two papers (4-5 pages each) 20% Oral presentation and class participation 25% Final exam15% Weekly quizzes
Eng 321--American Literature to 1865
Professor: Paul Jones
Description:
In this course, we will study the beginnings and development of American literature from early exploration narratives in the 16th century to the astonishing literary innovations in fiction and poetry in the mid-19th century. We will focus on the cultural work that literature in America has done, especially as American writers have tried to reconcile the conflicting cultures and value systems at odds in this new world (natives/Europeans, religious/secular, aristocracy/democracy, and black/white). We will pay close attention to attempts that American writers have made to define or redefine what it means to be an American. Writers to be considered will likely include Cabeza de Vaca, Bradford, Bradstreet, Rowlandson, Franklin, Crevecoeur, Tyler, Irving, Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, Hawthorne, Melville, Fern, Stowe, and Whitman.
Readings:
Nina Baym (ed.), Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th ed., Vol. A (Literature to 1820) and Vol. B (1820-1865)Nathaniel Hawthorne, House of Seven Gables
Exams/Papers:
Midterm and Final Exams, Short Analysis Paper (4-5 pages), and possible quizzes.
Eng 322 - American Literature 1865-1918
Professor: Shannon Lakanen
Description:
In this class students will not only study American literature between the Civil War and World War I, but they will also familiarize themselves with the cultural context of the period. We will read the work of writers who were producing novels, plays, poetry & nonfiction, and learn about the political, cultural, and intellectual activity in the States during the era. Our discussions will work toward an understanding of how the canon of this period was formed: what was (and was not) considered "literature? how do our shifting senses of what's valuable about these texts now affect the ways we read them? what definitions and connotations did/does the term "American" carry?
More details will be available from the class website (http://shannon.lakanen.com/322) as we move closer to the beginning of the quarter.
Readings:
Major texts include: Mark Twain , The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Henry James, Daisy Miller; Kate Chopin, The Awakening; W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk; Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage; and Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
Exams/Papers:
Students will write responses to several study questions and quizzes, complete a mid-term essay, collaborate with one other student to present some aspect of the cultural context of the literature we read to the class, and complete a final project.
Eng 323: American Literature 1918 to present
Professor: Paul Jones
Description:
In this course, we will examine the major literary trends in American Writing since World War I. We will begin with the innovations in modern poetry and prose by such writers as William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Evelyn Scott. We will then move past the modern period to three examples of postmodernist fiction by Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, and Don DeLillo. Each student will also be required to attend at least one session of the Spring Literary Festival in May to hear a contemporary American writer read from her/his work.
Readings:
Nina Baym (ed.), Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th Ed., Vol. D (Between the Wars, 1914-1945); Evelyn Scott, Escapade; Thomas Pynchon, Crying of Lot 49; Toni Morrison, Sula; Don DeLillo, White Noise
Exams/Papers:
Midterm and Final Exams, Short Analysis Paper (4-5 pages), Brief response to attendance of Spring Literary Festival, and possible quizzes
Eng 327--African American Literature: Fiction
Professor: Crystal Anderson
Description:
"Dark Laughter: African American Satire"African American literature features a long tradition of satire aimed not just at the society at large, but at sectors of African American society as well. In this course, students will explore satire from the 19th and 20th centuries. The course will consider satire in the novel as well as in other mediums, including art and film. We will also explore the potential limits of satire as social commentary and call to action as well as the ways in which satire may be misunderstood.
Readings:
Beatty, Paul. White Boy Shuffle. Reed, Ishmael. Flight to Canada. Thurman, Wallace. Infants of the Spring. Schulyer, George. Black No More. Fisher, Rudolph. Walls of Jericho. Dance, Darryl. Honey, Hush! An Anthology of African American Women’s Humor.
Exams/Papers:
2 critical article reviews: Thesis paragraph: Annotated bibliography: 6-8 page paper: Final exam
Eng 351--History of the English Language
Professor: Marsha Dutton
Description:
This course surveys the development of English using students own language experiences and observations as a point of entry and working backwards from some familiar varieties of twenty-first-century American English through Early Modern English, Middle English, and Old English to the Indo-European beginnings of our language. The course also explores aspects of the development of formal language study, explores the way language changes over time and varies over space, studying linguistic concepts and terminology that allow the recognition and description of that change and variation. The course also includes a research component, directed by Ms. Laura Windsor of Alden Library, who will provide instruction and assistance in locating primary and secondary sources in language study.
Readings:
Barbara A. Fennell, A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach. The Princeton Review Staff, Grammar Smart
Exams/Papers:
2 papers totaling 18--20 pages, an observation journal, occasional short quizzes, a midterm, and a final exam.
Eng 352--Development American English
Professor: David Bergdahl, David
Description:
An introduction to the varieties of American English, especially the regional and social varieties and the linguistics needed to understand them. Phonetics (IPA) will be taught.
Readings:
Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes, American English (1998).
Exams/Papers:
There will be 2 hour exams and a final exam, and participation in the class’s forum (an "electronic journal"). For more info: check out my web page http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl/352/
Eng 356--Young Adult Literature
Professor: Rice, Linda
Description:
This course is designed to acquaint students with young adult literature, literature focusing on issues that are of particular importance to teens. The course will include extensive reading of YA novels as it offers a brief history of the genre, unveils characteristics of the best young adult literature, establishes connection among YA literature, pop culture and mass media, and examines ongoing efforts to censor YA books. While open to all English majors, this course should be of particular interest and usefulness to future middle school and high school teachers whose job it will be to engage and challenge adolescents in the English/Language Arts classroom -- the themes of YA literature are ideally suited to facilitate that endeavor. Under the umbrella of young adult literature (itself a genre), the course readings will include novels, plays, short stories, poems, and nonfiction representing various cultures and time periods.
Readings:
Required Text: Nilsen, Aleen Pace & Kenneth L. Donelson (2000). Literature for Today’s Young Adults (6th Edition). Longman. Additional Readings to be Assigned/Chosen from the Following: Cooney, Caroline. The Face on the Milk Carton; Whatever Happened to Janie; The Voice on the Radio; What Janie Found (quartet) Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War. Crutcher, Chris. Athletic Shorts. Cushman, Karen. Catherine Called Birdy or Matilda Bone. Edelman, Bernard (Ed.). Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. Hesse, Karen. Witness. Kerr, M. E. Deliver Us from Evie. Levine, Ellen. Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Story. Lowry, Lois. Number of the Stars. Sachar, Louis. Holes. Salisbury, Graham. Under the Blood-Red Sun. or Island Boyz: Short Stories. Shusterman, Neal. What Daddy Did. Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Make Lemonade or True Believers.
Exams/Papers:
Reader-response portfolio. Analytical paper, I-Search, or Multigenre (including presentation of). Routine reading quizzes. Final exam.
Eng 361--Creative Writing: Fiction
Professor: John Matthews, John
Description:
This course is designed to study the art of narrative by means of short stories - not as a professional course preparing you to get published, but to help you understand fiction "from the inside," along with how all of us organize our experiences by means of language and narrative principles. There will be great emphasis upon precessions of language.
Readings:
A Worker’s Writebook, by Jack Matthews. Probably a short-story collection (not yet decided-upon).
Eng 362--Creative Writing: Poetry
Professor: Robert DeMott, Robert
Description:
Please note that you should not sign up for this class if you have not completed Eng 200 or preferably 202. Prerequisites are enforced. This class is a workshop approach to the beginning poetry writing course. Art, Henry James has said, feeds upon discussion, and so in this course there will be a combination of background reading on practice and theory of poetry, readings in contemporary poetry, and hands-on, nuts-and-bolts workshop critique sessions involving the whole class. Poetry as expression and discourse, urge and discipline, emotion and cerebration.
Readings:
A poetry writing text/manual such as Steve Kowits, In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poets Portable Handbook, a poetry anthology selections by poets who will be appearing at OU’s Literary Festival in May and David Citino’s edition of essays on poetry by six contemporary poets.
Exams/Papers:
Final project will be a portfolio of six poems with an introductory craft essay. Before that there will be one poem a week required, a short paper on a literary magazine, some presentations on contemporary poets, a response to the literary festival, etc. Also, there will be several conferences with the instructor.
Eng 362--Creative Writing: Poetry
Professor: Erin Belieu
Description:
This course will be taught in the traditional workshop format: students will bring in original creative work to be discussed and critiqued by the professor and by the student's peers.
The first hour of the class will be devoted to examining contemporary poetry from which the professor may choose to generate student exercises. The second hour will be devoted to peer critique.
The final project will be to gather together revised versions of the poems written during the course of the quarter. This portfolio will include a short essay discussing how the students' idea of their own poetry has grown and changed based on the readings and feedback they receive from the class.
Professor will provide all materials necessary for the course.
Eng 393--Creative Writing Workshop: Short Story
Professor: Michael Brown
Description:
The format of the advanced fiction workshop will be the same, essentially, as the prerequisite, 361: much sharing of student work; much discussion and verbal critique by students. I expect, or assume, a working familiarity with the basic practices of fiction technique : point of view, characterization, dialogue, exposition, form and structure to some extent, etc. We also will study a variety of fiction models by accomplished short story writers (probably a course pack).
Exams/Papers:
Two complete and revised short stories. Weekly fiction sketches, or critical responses to the reading. Active and enthusiastic discussion of the work. Your two stories will need to be copied for all (appx. 15), at your expense.
Eng 394--Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry
Professor: Jill Rosser
Description:
This is an advanced poetry workshop designed to improve writing and reading behaviors and to eliminate habits -- to drive you into experimentation. Students are expected to produce a minimum of ten original poems, along with exercises assigned during the quarter. The reading will include two contemporary volumes of poetry, in addition to a course pack. Half of each class session will be devoted to discussion of assigned reading. During the latter half of the quarter, our focus will be on revision strategies.
Readings:
TBA
Exams/Papers:
Final Portfolio, occasional quizzes, one brief essay (review)
Eng 395--Creative Writing Workshop: Nonfiction
Professor: David Lazar
Description:
We will continue our exploration of the personal essay and related forms.
Readings:
The Gastronomical Me, by M.F.K. Fisher, Maus, by Art Siegelman, and Autobiography of a Face, by Lucy Grealy.
English 399--Literary Theory
Professor: George Hartley
Description:
Recent issues in literary theory and study of literary texts with a focus on poetry and poetics. Authors will likely include Plato, Heidegger, Derrida, Kristeva, Dylan Thomas, and some Language Poets.
Readings:
The Portable Kristeva by Julia Kristeva, Kelly Oliver (Editor). Dissemination by Jacques Derrida, Barbara Johnson (Translator). Once Below a Time : Dylan Thomas, Julia Kristeva, and Other Speaking Subjects by Eynel Wardi.Poetry, Language, Thought. by Martin, Heidegger, Albert Hofstadter. Phaedrus and the Seventh and Eighth Letters by Plato. The Republic of Plato by Plato, Allan Bloom (Editor).
Exams/Papers:
Two short papers and one long one.
Eng 399--Literary Theory
Professor: Kasia Marciniak
Description:
This course is an introduction to the work of writers, philosophers, and theorists whose voices have been influential in contemporary literary and cultural theory. The course is framed primarily in terms of the question of language and a human subject. Some of the questions that will guide our discussions are: What is the process of meaning-making? How is meaning produced? What does meaning have to do with the way the human self exists in the world? What is the connection between language and specific gendered identity? What is the correlation between discourse and a subject? What is the link between meaning-making and politics? Is meaning political at all? How is the production of meaning influenced by such factors as gender, race, class, and ethnicity? Can meaning be further influenced by a specific cultural location, that is the place one is speaking from? Is the process of meaning-making specific or universal?
We will explore the ways in which the study of critical theory helps us not only read specific literary texts, but also interpret the world and culture around us. Our goal is to become familiar with major critical concepts, specific arguments, and cultural-historical contexts within which these theoretical arguments are made. Also, rather than seeing "literature" and "theory" as two separate realms, we will examine how texts and theory are reciprocal and interconnected.
Readings:
A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader ( Anthony Easthope and Kate McGowan). A Concise Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory (Jeremy Hawthorn)
Exams/Papers:
Several Explication Papers, Final Exam
Eng 399T & 478T English Tutorial
Professor: Marilyn Atlas
Description:
This class will examine twentieth century American and British writings, their stylistic innovations and disruption of traditional syntax and form, their complexity and their playfulness. We will examine their relationship to the international artistic scene and explore their methods of challenging their readers’ preconceived notions of value and order. This class will particularly look at writers’/texts’ attitudes toward gender, class, and race as we attempt to understand Modernism, Postmodernism, Colonialism and Postcolonialism. This course will be organized historically and demonstrate how many twentieth century literary artists attempted and attempt to realign the center and margins of literature through textual experimentation.
Readings:
The Longman Anthology of British Literature II; The Norton Anthology of American Literature II; Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Gertrude Stein, Three Lives and Tender Buttons; Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio; Jean Toomer, Cane; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot; Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language; and Toni Morrison, Tar Baby.
Exams/Papers:
Five pages of typed commentary or an exploratory essay of about equal length due each week examining weekly reading assignments. Besides the major texts I assign, each week you will pick two smaller texts, one by a British writer and one by an American writer from each of our anthologies to help contextualize your assignment. There will be three required formal essays. These may be single text analyses. They should be about 4-5 pages long. One should be on an American Writer, and one on a British Writer. Your third essay, 8-10 pages long, needs to be a research essay; it should be a comparative essay looking at pre-/post World War II literature; British/ American Literature during the same era; or Modern/ Postmodernism.
Eng 441--Colloquim: Theater in England
Professor: Loreen Giese
Description:
This course, "History and Drama: The English Stage Past and Present," primarily focuses on the plays which will see in London and Stratford-upon-Avon in June and July. We will also study the practical considerations of the theatres--the physical shapes of the theatres and stages, costuming, lighting, and the like--in which the plays were originally staged and in which they will be staged this summer.
Eng 451 - Teaching Language & Composition
Professor: Linda Rice
Description:
This course is designed to acquaint students with various materials, teaching methods, and theories appropriate for teaching composition in middle schools and high schools based on the NCTE/IRA Standards and those newly-adopted by the Ohio Department of Education. In addition to class meetings, students must enroll in 451L and spend 20 hours in a middle school or high school English/Language Arts classroom to gain Field Experience.
Readings:
- Glasgow, Jacqueline (2002). Standards-Based Activities With Scoring Rubrics: Middle and High School English. Volume 1: Portfolios. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
- Noden, Harry R. (1999). Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing. Boynton/Cook Heinemann.
- Ramono, Tom (2000). Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers. Boynton/Cook.
- Classic and or young adult novel(s) (to be chosen/assigned)
Exams/Papers:
Literacy Autobiography or Archaeological Literacy Dig
Multigenre Paper and/or I-Search Paper
Portfolio of Writing and Grammar Lessons (particular focus on Image Grammar)
Final Reflective Paper
Eng 451L--Field Experience in Secondary English/Language & Composition
Professor: Linda Rice
Description:
This course provides a pre-student teaching field experience with the methods course, English 451, Teaching Language and Composition. While studying theoretical and pedagogical issues related to teaching English/Language Arts (7-12), in English 451, students will spend 20 hours observing and/or participating in a classroom with an experienced middle or high school English/Language Arts teacher.
Readings:
Participation, Punctuality, and Presence in 20 hours of Field Experience
Exams/Papers:
Availability, Compensation, Time Sheet, and Teacher Evaluation Reflective Paper
Eng. 452--Teaching Literature
Professor: Jacqueline Glasgow
Description:
Students will learn student-centered, developmental strategies for teaching literature in the middle school and high school English/Language Arts classrooms.
Readings:
Glasgow’s Using Young Adult Literature: Thematic Activities Based on Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.
Exams/Papers:
Multigenre research paper and Portfolio of teaching ideas
Eng 452L--Field Experience in Secondary English/Literature
Professor: Jacqueline Glasgow
Eng 456--Readings/Children's Literature
Professor: James Davis
Description:
Reading children's literature, both old and new, and talking and writing about it. Some attention to the history and literary qualities of literature for children.
Readings:
Sharing Literature with Children, Francilia Butler; A Critical andbook of Children’s Literature, 7th Edition Rebecca J. Luckens; Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White.
Exams/Papers:
Journal/Notebook, Mid-Term Exam, and Final Exam
Eng 460--Literary Topics
Professor: Kenneth Daley
Description:
To be announced.
Eng 460--Literary Topics
Professor: Mara Holt
Description:
Women’s Rhetorics examines persuasive writing by women in every historical epoch from B.C.E. to the present. Notables include Aspasia, Margery Kempe, Cherokee Women, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Dorothy Day, Helene Cixous, Andrea Dworkin, Gloria Anzaldua, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We will address how and why women’s rhetorics have been excluded from the rhetorical canon until recently, when revisionist histories have redefined rhetoric to include them. The course will be conducted according to principles of feminist pedagogy, which themselves will be interrogated by the class.
Readings:
Available Means: An Anthology of Women’s Rhetoric(s), Ed. Joy Ritchie & Kate Ronald. Electronic coursepack with readings from Robert Connors, Susan Jarratt, Andrea Lunsford, Lisa Ede, Carolyn Shrewsbury, and Nancy Schneidewind.
Exams/Papers:
Weekly response papers, group presentations, researched essay, essay exams.
Eng 464--Major English Authors
Professor: Jeremy Webster
Description:
Rochester and the Libertines
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, is considered one of the most important and controversial writers of the English Restoration period (1660-1689). His poems and plays have been praised and denigrated for their frank examinations of male and female sexuality, and he is in many respects the father of English libertinism, a way of life predicated on the mantra "wine, women, and wit." We will begin the course by briefly looking at the historical context of Rochester’s poetry. We will then read the body of Rochester’s work, emphasizing his thoughts on libertinism and sexuality. The course will then turn its attention to responses to libertinism and Rochester’s life and work with a particular emphasis on Restoration drama.
Readings:
The Complete Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester ed. by David M. Vieth
The Country Wife by William Wycherley
The Man of Mode by Sir George Etherege
The Rover by Aphra Behn
The Relapse by John Vanbrugh
Exams/Papers:
Reading quizzes, annotated bibliography, an oral presentation, 2 papers
Eng 465--Authors: American
Professor: Mark Halliday
Description:
We will read and discuss examples of Southern Fiction, that is, fiction by writers of the American South in the twentieth century. The giant is William Faulkner; we will read only four or five stories by him, so as to allow time for other writers. We will read Flannery O'Connor's short novel WISE BLOOD and one or two of her stories. And we will read three (or even four!) recent novels by Southern writers -- candidates include Kaye Gibbons, Barry Hannah, Donna Tartt, James Wilcox. We will watch for connections and shared themes. Southern Fiction is usually thought of as foregrounding passion and folly in stark or excessive ways, through images of people being obsessed, driven, romantically insatiable, and even fanatical -- whether tragically or comically so. But we won't insist on developing a unifying view. Our emphasis will be on thorough critical appreciation of each work.
Exams/Papers:
There will be one or two "homework quizzes" requiring detailed knowledge of the texts. Also there will be two 5-page papers. Also, probably, an in-class quiz on the last readings of the quarter.
Eng 481--Form and Theory: Fiction
Professor: Bill Black
Description:
This course will focus on experiments in narrative form in fiction about (to whatever degree) and written after the Holocaust. The course begins with the premise that there is an archetypal Holocaust narrative, or that at the very least the widely known facts (and myths) of the Holocaust can be assembled into an archetypal narrative. This presents writers born during or after the events of the Holocaust with a peculiar challenge: to simultaneously be true to a widely known narrative and to allow it the impact of the newly revealed. As the course proceeds, we’ll study increasingly radical formal innovations designed to address this challenge.
Readings:
The Emigrants (Sebald), Austerlitz (Sebald) The Painted Bird (Kozinski), The Book of Franza (Bachman), The Museum of Unconditional Surrender (Ugresic), Garden,Ashes (Kis), The Book of Joseph (Hoffman), plus a course pack of supplemental readings.
Exams/Papers:
Two substantial papers, final exam. Vigorous participation required.
Eng 487--Advanced Workshop: Poetry
Professor: Mark Halliday
Description:
Students will have done well in two previous poetry workshops and will come with many ideas about what they'd like to attempt in new poems. We will devote approximately half our time to discussion of new poems written by members of the workshop -- expecting a new poem each week from each student. Suggestions for new poems will arise very frequently in our discussions of students' work and also of various contemporary poems presented in photocopies. We may focus especially on one contemporary poet, such as Claire Bateman. Meanwhile, alongside students' poems and contemporary poems, we will read and discuss the poetry of John Keats -- trying to find our emotional and psychological (not only intellectual) connections with the work of his short brilliant career.
Exams/Papers:
In addition to the weekly piece of creative writing, there will be one or two "quiz homeworks" calling for detailed understanding of poems we've read.
Hum 108 - Great Books: Modern
Professor: David Bruce
Description:
We will read three major novels by Mark Twain. The course will include lectures about Twain’s biography and about his other works, but the main focus will be on the three novels.
Readings:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Exams/Papers:
Three 4- to 6-page papers. Several short reaction papers. Peer reviews of major papers.
HUM 109--Great Books: Modern
Professor: Charles Naccarato
Description:
A literary and philosophical journey from the Enlightenment to the present. We will explore the issue of why many writers and thinkers during this period expressed ambivalence or skepticism about ideas of human progress, despite the many social and technological advances of the modern age.
Readings:
Voltaire, Hoffmann, Dostoyevsky, Zola, Dinesen, Yourcenar, Buzzati, Kundera.
Exams/Papers:
A response journal. Take-home midterm and final of considerable lengths.
T308 407B--Autobiographical Quest
Professor: Susan Crowl
Description:
Readings in the course will include different kinds of autobiography from different periods and cultures and from different disciplinary and personal perspectives. The aims of the course will be to explore the ways that differing subject matter and perspectives are integrated in the writing and reading of history, fiction, poetry, philosophy, and science; to differentiate among these perspectives and subjects as they interweave; and finally, to invite and explore the interplay and synthesis represented in the variety of individual and disciplinary perspectives in the class.
Readings:
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Robert Browning, Poems
John Krakauer, Into the Wild
Exams/Papers:
In-class presentations and written response papers. An autobiographical essay
T308 407C--Existential Vision
Professor: David McWilliams
Description:
To be announced.
T308 407E--American Indian Culture
Professor: Peter Kousaleos
Description:
The phenomenon of discovery and conquest of the North American continent is replete with a literature, history, and culture hardly known or acknowledged by the average American either in its historical circumstance or in its cultural diversity. True, myths and legends abound, but most of these have arisen as strategies of avoidance of the indigenous reality; the course, therefore, will offer the student an opportunity to explore this five hundred year history from the perspective of Native American Indian scholars as well as from traditional historians, anthropologists, and literary scholars.
As each segment of the reading is completed, the class will discuss the major themes, historical facts, or cultural differences presented. The discussions will allow the class to either emphasize a tradition, modify a misconception, or reach a new conclusion while synthesizing the information. A goal of the course is to present the Native Americans in as much of their diversity as is possible in ten weeks.
To attain more depth on a particular tribe, clan, nation, or major event, each student will be asked to establish a topic of interest to research based on the student’s major area of concentration. An in-depth research project of this kind will allow students to apply skills from their major field of study to Native American.
Readings:
Love Medicine, Daughters of the Earth, Ceremony, Native Americans in the Twentieth Century, Fools Crow.
Exams/Papers:
One to two page evaluation of each reading and a ten to twelve page research paper based on the student’s major area of study. Mid-term and final essay exams.
T308 407G--Feminist Film: Aesthetics & Politics
Professor: Kasia Marciniak
Description:
As a Tier III synthesis class, this course has an interdisciplinary intent: 1) to train students in critical film analysis ("close reading" of visual texts); 2) to study "film language," focusing on cinematic terms and formal terminology, which are indispensable tools for performing critical film analysis; 3) to survey the contributions of women directors to the history of the motion picture with a specific focus on contemporary feminist cinema and theory; 4) to expose students to the discourse of contemporary feminist theory (specifically postmodern and postcolonial theory) in a larger context of current feminist politics and aesthetics; 5) to practice strategies for successful critical, argumentative writing about films as visual texts.
"Feminist Film" is positioned at the intersection of three disciplines: English, Film, and Women's Studies. The overall goal is to offer students an opportunity to contextualize and pull together various areas of study in order to engage them in the process of critical inquiry about the following issues: What is a visual politics of representation? What is the difference between being represented and representing oneself? What are the differences between women's portrayal by Hollywood narrative and representation of women in, for example, independent cinema? What is feminist film language and how does it operate? What are the strategies of resistance that women artists have historically practiced to examine and question patriarchal ideology and homophobic discourse? How have female artists defied the stereotypical position historically assigned to women as simply "bearers of meaning" rather than "makers of meaning?" How have women of color been re-negotiating the impact of Eurocentric traditions in mainstream media on various racial and ethnic groups and their representation?
The course is organized as an inquiry into the notion of a "feminist film": what makes a film a feminist text? What are the formal elements of feminist cinema? What are the thematic concerns of such cinema? Can male directors enter the realm of feminist aesthetics? The course offers screening and analysis of cinematic texts from Central and Eastern Europe, New Zealand, from the "Third World," and from the realm of independent American cinema and counter-cinema. As we discuss heterogeneity of issues that bind the films' thematic concerns, we will simultaneously examine stylistic ways by means of which feminist cinema has expressed its political agendas. It means that we will be equally concerned with form and content in our cinematic analyses.
Readings:
Teresa de Lauretis, Rethinking Women's Cinema: Aesthetics and Feminist Theory
bell hooks, The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators
Ella Shohat, Gender and Culture of Empire: Toward a Feminist
Ethnography of the Cinema
Films:
Jane Campion, Sweetie (New Zealand, 1989)
Marleen Gorris, Antonia's Line (Netherlands, 1995)
Krzysztof Kieslowski, Three Colors: Blue (Poland, 1993)
Spike Lee, She's Gotta Have It (US, 1986)
Mira Nair, Mississippi, Masala (India, 1991)
John Sayles, Lone Star (US, 1996)
Susan Streitfeld, Female Perversions (US, 1996)
Exams/Papers:
Weekly explication papers, midterm exam, independent project/formal essay.