E105 Writing Skills 3 credits
This course is designed to prepare students for college-level writing. Included is practice in sentence, paragraph, and essay structure as well as significant review of grammar, punctuation, and usage fundamentals. Emphasis will be placed on the development of writing as a process of thinking and communicating that involves the stages of generating, drafting, and revising. The course serves as a preparation for E120, English Composition. Students who are required to take E105 must complete the course with a passing grade before enrolling in E120.
E120 English Composition 3 credits
This course emphasizes the process of writing, from the generation of ideas to the editing of the final text. Students practice strategies to improve the organization, development, and style of their essay writing. The course also stresses helping students achieve competence in grammar, punctuation, usage, and mechanics and includes a review of MLA citation and documentation format in concert with writing a shorter research paper. Prerequisite: E105 or placement.
E175 Introduction to Literature 3 credits
In this course, students gain exposure to works of fiction, poetry, and drama and acquire experience in critical reading and interpretation of literature. Students not only read but also actively engage with literary texts, in the process becoming familiar with literary conventions and discourse. Readings may explore a particular theme (e.g., The Heroic, The Quest, The Individual and Community, Coming of Age); themes and reading selections will vary by instructor.
E195-204 Special Topics in English 1–3 credits
Selected topics in English may be offered depending on student and faculty interest.
E220 Argumentative and Research Writing 3 credits
In this intermediate writing course, students learn how to read and produce informative and persuasive essays. Students write essays and a research paper incorporating outside source material. Review of MLA citation and documentation style is included, along with practice in doing library and web-based research. Prerequisite: E120 or placement.
E250 Literary Imagination 3 credits
This course for potential English majors introduces students to various critical reading strategies, provides practice in close reading and the development and defense of a thesis appropriate for literary analysis, and offers multiple writing opportunities. The course aims to convey a sense of literary history by exposing students to intensive study of the representation of a particular theme or strain (e.g., ambition, desire) in different genres over a significant period of time.
E295 Practical Grammar 2 credits
The purpose of this course is to teach students to identify basic and advanced grammatical structures. Students will be asked to apply this grammatical knowledge to exercises that will require them to edit for grammar and punctuation. Prerequisite: E120 or equivalent.
E298 Field Exploration 1–5 credits
E300 Dimensions of Literature 3 credits
This general education course is designed to give students an understanding of some major writers and themes of literature (American, English, or World) in its larger context– cultural, historical, philosophical, theological, etc. Themes or concepts that serve as points of departure in the investigation of literary history or cultural and individual expression will vary from semester to semester (see specific titles on course schedule).
E302 American Conflicts I: The Individual vs. Society 3 credits
Especially because of its emphasis on the individual and individualism, there has always existed in American culture a dynamic tension between the individual and society. This course will explore how major American authors have chosen to present and interpret this tension by tracing it from its roots in early Puritan culture to its most sophisticated expression in the latter half of the 19th and first part of the 20th century.
E303 Coded Discourse in Early American Literature 3 credits
This course studies the major American authors who were writing before 1900 and the veiled speech in which they (or their characters) were engaged. We will examine a variety of poetry and fiction to identify the “slant” (to use Emily Dickinson’s term) in the stories told by people constrained by a religious culture and by assumptions about race and gender. This course examines the ways in which authors use their art both to illuminate social problems, including slavery, sexism, and religious hypocrisy, and to conceal their aims from disapproving critics. Their texts will also invite us to consider the effects of secrecy and shame on individuals and the moral freedom of speaking the truth.
E306 American Conflicts II: The Debate over God 3 credits
When Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species appeared in 1856, his argument about the origin of man had a sweeping effect on literary artists worldwide. In fine, Darwin’s book, along with books by Freud, Nietzsche, and Marx, would lay the groundwork for an increasingly skeptical attitude about God and religion, both on the continent and in America. This course will examine those American literary texts that take up the topic God and/or religious belief. More specifically, it aims to trace the debate over God within literary naturalism, modernism, and, to a certain extent, postmodernism.
E 307 American Modernism 3 credits
American Modernism studies the major American authors who were writing between the two world wars and the Modernist literary movement of which they were a part. We will examine a variety of poetry and fiction to identify the changes in form that emerged around the time of World War I; we will make connections between the content and form of literature and what was happening in world history and in the world of art; and we will consider the individual innovations of writers within the broad aesthetic movement known as Modernism.
E315 Early British Literature I: Christianity and its Others 3 credits
In this course, students will explore the advent and establishment of Christianity as the dominant mode of discourse in the Medieval and Early Modern periods of British Literature. This investigation will hinge upon exposure to countercurrents which Christianity operated against as it established its primacy (such as paganism, Judaism, Islam), as well as to tensions within Christianity itself (heresies, humanism, patriarchy v. feminism, and the division between Catholicism and Protestantism). While the course will thus be historical and cultural in its overall theme, the emphasis will be upon close reading and discussion of literary texts.
E316 Early British Literature II: From Romance to Epic 3 credits
In this course students will explore the development of medieval British Romance especially from its Celtic and French origins, then proceed to examine Spenser’s fusion of romance with epic in the context of the rising vogue of the epic in the Early Modern period, and conclude in a sustained engagement with Milton’s Paradise Lost. The course will focus on the development of these two genres, but with attention to the cultural context in which the texts to be explored were produced.
E325 Advanced Essay Writing 3 credits
In this course, students produce a variety of essays that cover a range of rhetorical situations. Emphasis is placed on strategies for developing and organizing essays as well as on rhetorical concerns, such as audience, purpose, voice, and style. Attention will also be paid to integrating research, both formal and informal, into students’ work. Prerequisite: E120 or equivalent.
E326 Short Fiction Writing 3 credits
Through the reading of short stories, guided instruction and writing workshops, students in Short Fiction Writing study the genre of the short story and produce several examples of their own short fiction. In addition to composing original works that reveal their own artistic vision, students are expected to become informed of the literary tradition of the short story and provide critical and theoretical reflections on their work as well as the writing of other students and of published authors.
E328 Professional Communication 3 credits
An introduction to professional communication, this course teaches students how to write documents commonly generated in the work world, such as memos, resumes, letters, manuals, reports, and proposals. Students are invited to write documents for different audiences, especially those in a student’s major field of study. Attention may be given to incorporating visuals as well. Finally, general principles of the composing process, of grammar and mechanics, and of style are reviewed as needed. Prerequisite: E120 or equivalent.
E329 Poetry Writing 3 credits
This course aims to help students produce inspired and technically informed literary poetry intended for an audience. In addition to writing and discussing their own poetry, students will become informed of both the techniques and the traditions of poetry writing. Course work will include the study of published poets and poems, essays and research papers on theoretical issues related to poetry, and the production of original poems by the students.
E330 Restoration through the Romantics 3 credits
This survey examines the major works and authors of the Restoration, Eighteenth Century, and Romantic period, including the historical, political, and social contexts of these works.
E331 The Romantics and Their World 3 credits
The years between 1785 and 1830 constitute a crucial period in British history. Witnessing two major revolutions, writers from this era participated in watersheds in many areas of cultural, political, and intellectual life, from the rise of Romanticism and Republicanism to nation building, to the beginnings of modern feminism. They dealt with these cultural experiences in new as well as traditional literary forms, from the historical novel to lyric and narrative poetry to essays and journals. This course will examine the lives and works of a selection of major literary figures from this period and assess their contributions to the literary tradition in English.
E333 Shakespeare 3 credits
This course focuses on a representative group of Shakespeare’s sonnets, comedies, histories, and tragedies. Emphasis will be placed on close reading of the plays, with the intention of exploring some of Shakespeare’s most pressing issues, including love, nature, death, dreams, relationships between parents and children, gender roles, freedom of the will, and reality itself. The course will also address the cultural milieu out of which the texts were generated; the meaning of the terms “comedy”, “history”, and “tragedy”; and the relationship of the written plays to modern film adaptations.
E351 British Modernism: Its Origin and Its Ends 3 credits
This course will explore the primary characteristics of British Modernism by studying authors writing before, during and after the high point of the movement in the early twentieth century. By studying Victorian, Modern and Postmodern British writers, the course will consider the creation of modernism and its aesthetic aftermath and simultaneously question the legitimacy of modernism as a distinct aesthetic category. Special attention will be given to aesthetic, theological and philosophical questions and how these are reflected or addressed in literary works. Authors studied might include Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys and Peter Carey.
E352 The Edge of Empire 3 credits
This course studies British Literature from the Victorian Age into the postmodern period by looking at it from the “outside.” By studying works of literature from those writing on or about the periphery of the central literary tradition of the British empire, students will gain a sense of post-1830 British literature and its relationship to the cultural conditions in which it was produced. Topics could include such areas as Colonial Literature, the Irish Literary Renaissance, and Women’s Literature and consider writers such as Bram Stoker, Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce, Graham Greene, Jean Rhys, Salman Rushdie, and Seamus Heaney.
E370 Literature in Evolution 3 credits
This course examines contemporary literature in English by writers from around the world. The course aims to convey a sense of the stylistic and thematic tendencies that continue to evolve in the literatures of our world by exposing students to intensive study of the representation of a particular theme or strain (e.g., imperialism, desire) in works by authors from a variety of backgrounds and social/political situations. Topics include identity, postmodernity, hybridity, power relations, race, religion, decolonization, and politics. Writers studied may include Rushdie, Fowles, Kincaid, Pynchon, Morrison, Swift, Winterson, or Smith. Prerequisite: E175 or consent of instructor.
E373 Postcolonial Fictions 3 credits
This course will focus on literature in English that addresses the processes and complications of colonization and decolonization. At issue throughout the course will be a number of questions: How does postcolonial literature demonstrate the legacy of imperialism and the conflicts and possibilities of decolonization? How do contemporary postcolonial writers inscribe their perspectives, politics, and lived experiences in literature? What common themes, problems, or values does postcolonial literature explore? What strategies do postcolonial writers employ to cope with the destabilization of previously accepted epistemological and ontological systems? How do various fictional accounts (of origin, of colonization, of identity, of nationality) contribute to a contemporary understanding of community, history, and narrative? Authors studied may include Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie, Anita and/or Kiran Desai, Jamaica Kincaid, J. M. Coetzee, or V. S. Naipaul. Prerequisite: E175 or consent of instructor.
E381 The Adventures of the Writer in World Literature 3 credits
A study of selected works in translation from non-Anglo-American cultural traditions. Students in this course examine how geographical and cultural differences contribute to varying literary representations of “universal” themes. Taking as our point of departure the notion of the artist figure, we will examine ancient and modern ideas of creativity, authorship, and the role of the writer in society in cultures around the world.
E383 Geographies of Identity 3 credits.
A study of selected works in translation from non-Anglo-American cultural traditions. Students in this course will explore literature from around the world with a focus on how identities, perspectives, and values are shaped by geographical and cultural circumstances. We will look particularly at literary dialogues and confrontations between the Western European tradition and writers from other cultures from the 19th century to today. Writers may include Goethe, Balzac, Rilke, Kafka, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Anna Akhmatova, Milan Kundera, Nabokov, Borges, Walcott, Neruda, Nadine Gordimer, Ngi?)?wa Thiong
E390 Women’s Narrative 3 credits
This course will focus on narrative strategies that are distinctive in literature by and/or about women and examine themes and issues that are common to women from a variety of social, historical, and/or political situations. At issue throughout the course will be a number of questions: How does literature by women differ from literature by men? Is there a definite difference at all? How do women writers inscribe their perspectives, politics, and lived experiences in literature? What common themes, problems, or values does literature by or about women explore? What strategies do women writers employ to cope with changing epistemological and ontological systems? How do such strategies contribute to a contemporary understanding of identity, experience, community, history, and narrative? Authors studied may include Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, Anita and/or Kiran Desai, Barbara Kingsolver, Ntozake Shange, Jamaica Kincaid, Jeanette Winterson, or Zadie Smith.
E391 African American Perspectives 3 credits
African American Perspectives studies the literary works of major authors of African American heritage. We will examine poetry, fiction, and autobiographical narrative, in the spirit of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s call to “talk about race in a manner which is not diminishing, demeaning, reductive, or ad hominem.” As Morrison states, “Race is a very difficult thing to talk about, because the conversation frequently ends up being patronizing, guilt ridden, hostile, or resentful. But for those interested in the study of literature and the writing of literature, it is something you have to confront and think about.” This course studies African American literature as a tradition in its own right, as well as a means of better understanding African American culture and American culture as a whole. Our reading will allow us to see the ways in which African American writers have contributed to, have been influenced by, and have transformed America.
E410-419 Special Topics 1–3 credits
Selected topics in English may be offered depending on student and faculty interest.
E452 Critical Approaches to Literature 3 credits
This course explores relationships and dialogues among literary works, literary criticism, and theory. In a seminar setting, students wrestle with key theoretical concepts, such as identity and representation, and investigate the contributions, methodologies, and assumptions associated with various critical approaches, such as Formalism, Deconstruction, Feminism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, Postcolonialism, New Historicism, and Cultural Studies. Prerequisite: junior or senior majors only.
E470-79 Seminars in English 3 credits
These courses, reserved for upper division English majors, explore special topics in depth through careful reading and research in a seminar setting. Topics vary by semester (see specific descriptions on the course schedule). Prerequisite: junior or senior majors only.
E490 Senior Thesis 2 credits
Designed to be a capstone experience for senior English majors, this course provides advanced instruction in the research methods, drafting and revision, and bibliography work involved in writing a major research paper. Students will complete a major research paper in an area of their interest in literary studies and make an oral presentation of their research findings at the end of the course. Prerequisite: junior or senior majors only.
E496/497 Internship |
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