Courses

This composition course emphasizes the critical and expository writing students will need throughout their college career. They will learn rhetorical skills, become fluent in academic discourse, and develop proficiency in the conventions of language through a series of writing assignments emphasizing the process of drafting and revision. They will learn how to synthesize primary and secondary sources and give proper attribution. Their engagement with a wide variety of texts will broaden their global and cultural awareness and allow them to gain insight into themselves and their society.

This composition course continues the various types of critical and expository writing students will need throughout their college career. It emphasizes the process of conducting research, culminating in an MLA-formatted research essay. Using primary and secondary sources, students will analyze and gain understanding of multimodal texts in a range of disciplines. This course also introduces students to the interpretation and comparative analysis of literature of various genres and from diverse periods and cultures.

ENGL 208 is an introductory course to linguistics. Its primary focus is the application of linguistic theories illustrated by the broad use and application of linguistic knowledge in a variety of fields: education, politics and diplomacy, law, business, gender issues, and culture. The course focuses primarily on readings in the following linguistic categories: the relationship between language and thought, culture and gender, oral history and literacy, form and meaning, discourse analysis, and the nature of the various linguistic semiotic systems. Students are introduced to technical vocabulary and linguistic inquiry methodology.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150

This course will introduce students to various genres of childrens literature, including folklore, myths, picture books, poetry, and novels. Students will read, discuss, analyze, and critically respond to children’s literature. Emphasis will be placed on reading literature representing diverse voices and on considering ways to integrate those voices into the traditional children’s literary canon.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150

This is a writing course emphasizing selected essays by writers across cultures and times. Focus is on every aspect of the essay, including style, diction, theme, organization, and analysis of the role and function of the essay in different time periods and cultures. Students use these essays as models to construct their own essays and to improve their own skills as writers of essays, and consequently as writers in general.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

In this course, students will engage in critical readings of fiction, drama and poetry by authors of diverse cultures, nationalities and historical periods. Students will gain knowledge of literary terms and diverse theoretical perspectives, participate in discussions about selected works and write original essays involving close reading and research about literary topics. The course enables students to recognize a variety of approaches to analyzing literary texts, to reflect upon their own interpretations and to develop their skills in writing critically about literature.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150

This course is a survey of the evolving canon of world literature and will include selections of literature from around the world and from diverse time periods, ancient to contemporary. Students will locate these texts in a historical and cultural context and gain a sense of the development of, and connection between, literary texts across time and across cultures. Genres studied may include the epic, drama, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and folktales.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150

Through a dual focus on their own and published writing, students are introduced to the skills needed in professional writing and publishing: writing, revision, editing, layout, and production. At the end of the semester, each student will submit one extensively revised piece for publication.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 112

The critical examination of a current topic relative to values, mores, cultures, ideas, arts, etc. Topics will be announced in advance.

Pre-Requisites: Permission of Chairperson

This course is the first part of the Fiction Writing sequence. Students will learn the craft of writing fiction with specific emphasis on character description and development, perspective, distance and point of view, dialogue, plot and setting. Students will analyze these elements of fiction in the work of published authors. They will write exercises that emphasize these elements, culminating in a short story or excerpt of a novel that will effectively give expression to their values and visions. They will revise their work based on peer critique and the editorial guidance of the instructor.

Prerequisites ENGL150 or permission of instructor

This course is the second part of the Fiction Writing sequence. It is designed to help students develop and strengthen their sense of literary aesthetics. Students will continue to learn the craft of writing fiction by examining the work of published authors and by revising their work with the guidance of peer critique and the editorial advice of the instructor. Students will be expected to discuss each assigned reading, including readings of work written by their peers, paying particular attention to the elements of fiction and style, the writer’s use of language, and the vision and values evident in a work.

Prerequisites ENGL150 and English 301 or permission of instructor

This is the first course in the Poetry Writing sequence. It will introduce students to major historical currents in poetry in English and in translation and the basic elements of poetry writing and critique. Readings for this course will expose students to a broad range of poetic styles: fixed structures (including sonnet, villanelle, sestina, and haiku), dramatic, narrative, and lyric verse. Students will gain an understanding of the aesthetic intentions grounding these traditions while developing a vocabulary for critical reading. Group discussion, peer critique, and student presentations are required.

Additional Description

This beginning workshop is designed to introduce students to the fundamental principles of writing poetry as a way for them to discover and develop their poetic voice. Students will read traditional as well as modern poetry and write poetry in a variety of forms and styles. Students will write poetry, mostly in forms of lyric verse, in response to formal and informal assignments, as well as in class writing exercises. Students will be required to maintain a full portfolio, including drafts and revisions, of all their work for the semester.

Prerequisite: Engl 150

Course Credits: 3

This writing workshop is designed for students to study the techniques of twentieth-century playwrights and to develop guided practice in writing for the stage. Students will also be required to evaluate their own work and the work of others in the workshop and to read and discuss five plays. Lectures and discussion on craft issues will include voice, structure, format, submission techniques, and the play development process.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150

This is the second course in the Poetry Writing sequence. It will familiarize students with critical thought and aesthetic discourse in contemporary poetry. Students will explore their own writing processes through the exchange of creative work and guided research. Assigned readings will prepare students to analyze a variety of writing styles with the object of refining their own creative impulses. Students will assemble a portfolio of rigorously revised, representative poems and a brief critical essay. Group discussion, peer critique, and student presentations are required.

Additional Description

Following Poetry I (Engl 303 or equivalent) this workshop continues to familiarize students to the fundamental principles of writing poetry as a way for them to discover and develop their poetic voice. Students will continue to read traditional as well as modern poetry and write poetry in a variety of forms and styles, mostly in forms of lyric verse, in response to formal and informal assignments and exercises. Writing assignments and exercises will be geared toward expanding the student’s aesthetic vision, encouraging risk and experimentation. Students will gain proficiency in theoretical approaches to the craft of poetry and apply these studies to their own creative processes.

Pre-requisites: ENGL 150 and ENGL 303

Course Credits : 3

Discourse analysis is a linguistic tool that pays close attention to language in use, oral or written, and offers insight into inquiries across the disciplines. The course will examine discourse as a form of social action that has its impact on interpersonal, cultural, and political communications. The aim is to introduce students to major frameworks and current issues in discourse analysis. With knowledge of theoretical and applied discourse analysis, students will be guided through the field of applied linguistics. The course will explore oral and written discourse strategies, power relationships between interlocutors, and cohesion/coherence indicators in textual and contextual analysis. This course is open to all students and is designed primarily for English BA, Education, Public Policy, a broad range of majors whose work involves writing and analysis. This is an ADA-compliant course with complete online and voice accommodation. This course fulfills General Education Requirements described in the LOs section.

Pre-requisites: ENGL 150

Course Credits : 3

In this course we will approach literature specifically written for thirteen to eighteen-year‐old audiences for recreational and educational reading purposes. This class is recommended for Education and English majors, so the course will be structured to analyze literary themes and criticism of the genre as well as educational theory for teaching literature in relation to the Common Core Standards for grades 9‐12. Taking into account a variety of historical, global, cultural and generational perspectives, students will evaluate forms of literature and literary non‐fiction personally, collectively and in the field. Readings will specifically focus on texts that represent a multicultural, social justice and educational equality foundation. Students will utilize multiple genres and viewpoints (including visual media and performance art) to explore contexts of YA literature development, multi‐modal literacy curriculum design, educational standards, current research, theory, and writing practices. Critical issues will include Bildungsroman (the classic coming‐of‐age novel), popular teen culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, censorship, inclusive classrooms and appropriate use of technology.

Prerequisites: ENGL 112, ENGL 150 and ENGL 211 or ENGL 212

The course is designed as a practical approach to planning, creating, and placing magazine articles. Students will strengthen their writing skills and gain experience writing articles, essays, interviews, and reviews for publication in both print magazines and online publications. Students will read and study different types of magazine writing, such as feature writing, reviewing, personal essays, and editorials with the aim of producing such works themselves.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150

This course consists of selected readings from major British writers and literary movements from the earliest forms through the 18th century.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211 ENGL 316 British Literature II: 19th – 21st Centuries 3
Co-Requisites: 3 This course consists of selected readings from major British writers and literary movements from the 19th century to the present.
Pre/Co-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course consists of selected readings from major British writers and literary movements from the 19th century to the present.

Pre-requisites: ENGL 211 or ENGL 212

This course presents selected readings from African American literature, oral and written, from the 17th century through the Negro Renaissance of the 1920s to 1932.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course presents selected readings from African American literature, oral and written, from the 17th century through the Negro Renaissance of the 1920s to 1932.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

Beginning with Native American oral forms and continuing through the Civil War, this course explores principal authors, folklore, and literary movements as they reflect the heritage, legacy, and diversity of American culture.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course explores the development of American Literature from the Post Civil War period to the present. Principal authors, folklore, and literary movements as they reflect the heritage, legacy, and diversity of American culture are studied.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course explores what it means to be “cosmopolitan” in Caribbean literature. If cosmopolitanism is, on the one hand “to see oneself through the eyes of the other,” and on the other “to uphold a universal concern for all humans above family and nation,” how does Caribbean literature answer such a challenge? Students will sharpen critical reading, thinking, and writing skills by analyzing Caribbean literature that emerges against the persistence of national and cultural myths of civilized/savage, literate/illiterate, human/animal. Students will become acquainted with a specific vocabulary produced by texts written in and about the Caribbean. Some other themes may include but are not limited to the issues of “discovery,” enslavement, exile, (im)migration, ethnic cleansing, transnationalism, literary and social revolutions.

This course provides students with selected readings from the vast diversity of African voices from its early orator to its major modern figures. Students will examine some of the historical, political, social, and ideological forces that have helped shape African literature.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course consists of selected readings by major Caribbean authors in fiction, poetry, and drama from 1970 through the present. Emphasis is on the stylistic and thematic concerns of the literature as well as its relation to the physical, social, political, and intellectual landscape.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course examines 19th-and 20th-century Latin American literature, focusing on major works that represent important literary trends in Latin American literature and locating those texts within their historical, social, and cultural contexts.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course investigates some of the overarching themes that connect the literature produced in the postcolonial era in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Questions of economic dependency and marginalization, linguistic autonomy, and cultural hybridity are among the issues that will be explored through a study of literature and critical theory.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course will introduce students to the critical questions that shape and challenge what we know as Asian American literature, a largely emerging, contested field of study. We will examine the political, theoretical implications of the now familiar conjunction of “Asian” and “American.” Further, we will trace the ways in which Asian American writers themselves try to negotiate the complexity of being Asian and American. Through close readings of the representative literature and criticism, we will locate the sites of Asian America in U.S. political and historical imaginary. Special attention will be given to autobiographical narratives that directly or indirectly question the status of Asian America as a viable racial, cultural, political identity.

Prerequisite: ENGL 150

This course will examine the literature of the modernist movement in English and in translation. It will cover the period between 1890 and 1940 on both sides of the Atlantic. Students will be given a broad overview of the major tenets of this movement as well as an in-depth study of some of its major works on the margins. Some focus will be given to works of the Harlem Renaissance.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 212

This course examines the cross-cultural representations of the body in literature and the arts across different times and places. It analyzes the social construction of the “ideal” body in terms of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, able-bodiedness and other areas of “difference” and focuses on the ways that certain types of bodies are constricted or move freely through space along the private/public continuum. The course highlights such issues as enslavement, trafficking, migration, barriers and borders, discourses about “acceptable” bodies, racial profiling, sexuality, violence and safe spaces and the ways these topics have been represented through literature and other cultural representations. This course is part of the College Option.

Prerequisites: ENGL 150

The course explores, in depth, a specific genre of contemporary popular fiction and its relation to the canon. These genres may include but are not limited to, horror, detective, science fiction, romance and the graphic novel. From the genre’s roots to today’s novels, we examine their history, classic titles and authors. We also locate these works in the academic and publishing fields, and explore the gap between them and literary fiction. Through close reading we explore what tropes and themes shape these often controversial literary genres.

Pre-Requisite: ENGL 211

This course examines the literature of Black American women from 1746 through the Black Arts Movement of 1955-1970 and shows how these writings address some of the central issues that have faced Western society. Some of the writers include: Phillis Wheatly, Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, Harriet E. Wilson, Linda Brent Jacobs, Ida B. Wells, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ann Petry, Margaret Walker, Lorraine Hansberry, Paule Marshall, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lorde, Jayne Cortez, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou.

Pre-Requisite: ENGL 150

This course examines selected Shakespearean plays within the social, cultural, and political context of the Renaissance. A brief history of the development of the drama and a study of Shakespeares sources are included in the course.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

Using the skills learned in ENGL 260 or in previous publication experiences, students will work intensively on a group publication project to be published and distributed by the end of the semester. This practicum will include writing, production, layout, publicity, and distribution and requires the ability to work cooperatively and independently.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 260

This course will examine the thematic and stylistic characteristics of literary representations of a global city. Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives, the course will consider the ways that the literature reflects the shift from modern metropolis to global city. The course will also examine the development of a new literature of migration to the global city. This course will focus on an analysis of the literary representations of the contested spaces of the global city.

Pre-Requisite: ENGL 150

This course will examine the thematic and stylistic characteristics of literary representations of a global city. Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives, the course will consider the ways that the literature reflects the shift from modern metropolis to global city. The course will also examine the development of a new literature of migration to the global city. Focusing on the intersections of ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexuality, class and religion, the course will analyze the literary representations of the contested spaces of the global city.

Pre-Requisite: ENGL 211

This course provides students with an understanding of the great traditions of literary criticism. Students will explore their own literary interests and apply both historical and current methods of criticism to literary texts.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 212

Through selected readings, students will explore special topics in literature through the perspective of a unifying theoretical or thematic concept.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

Through selected readings, students will explore special topics in literature through the perspective of a unifying theoretical or thematic concept.

Pre-Requisites: ENGL 211

This course of study centers on a project in the major concentration area, which incorporates content and depth not covered in regular course offerings. With the prior approval of a faculty supervisor, the student will undertake a project, which will constitute the semester’s work. One weekly conference is required. (Option in art, English, Foreign-Languages, media, music, philosophy, speech.)

Pre-Requisites: Completion of 6, or the equivalent, in the major area of study with a grade of B or better and acceptance by a faculty supervisor.
Co-Requisites: Permission of Chairperson required Department of English

This course will allow students in the English BA degree program to undertake an in-depth study of a particular author or period, including close readings of major works, bibliographical and cultural information on the author or period.

Pre-Requisites: Permission of Chairperson

This first semester internship course provides an opportunity for upper-level students to apply their skills and knowledge in the workplace or in an organization related to their English concentration. Students are supported by weekly meetings with the coordinator and supervised by an internship site coordinator.

Pre-Requisites: Permission of Chairperson

English 422: Senior Thesis is the English BA capstone course. Students write a senior thesis in their area of concentration under the guidance of a faculty mentor. To support that writing process, students also participate in three double-period seminars (9 hours) on research techniques and writing styles. These seminars are conducted by the coordinator for this course. Faculty mentors, however, have the primary responsibility of guiding students through the process of developing their senior theses and for approving their final drafts. Students must register the title of the senior thesis and the name of the faculty mentor with the English Concentration coordinator by the following dates: January graduation: Wednesday before Thanksgiving, June graduation: February 1, August graduation: April 1.

Pre-requisite(s) ENGL 420 – Students should take this course during the final two semesters of their program of study

This course of study centers on a project in the major area. With the prior approval of a faculty supervisor, the student will undertake a project, which will constitute the semester’s work. One weekly conference is required.

Pre-Requisites: Permission of Chairperson