The English Department offers a variety of courses, programs, student organizations and regular events that help students develop a set of crucial skills and dispositions necessary for professional and personal success: critical thinking, creativity, empathy, clear and persuasive written and oral presentation. We offer a range of courses from traditional surveys of British and American literature and canonical authors to specialized electives in Creative Writing, diverse literatures (Latinx, Caribbean, Post-Colonial African, African-American, Chicano), rhetoric and composition, women's and LGBTQ+ literatures and cultures, film and graphic novel.
Beyond these classroom experiences, however, students will find support and opportunity to bring their skills and creativity to broader communities within and outside the Department: in research for regional and national conferences built around our courses and our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society; presenting their work at Northeastern’s annual student Research and Creative Activities Symposium; attending readings by professional poets and novelists in our 82 Writers Series; or participating in or leading a variety of literary and cultural events run or sponsored by the Department.
Degree and For-Credit Programs
The Department offers an undergraduate (B.A.) degree, two undergraduate minors in English and Creative Writing, and M.A. degree. In addition, we offer the M.A. degree and units of concentration (6 related courses, e.g. Cultural Studies or Literature and Gender Studies) for in-service teachers on a cohort model, on-site at Districts in the Chicago area. We also participate in the College of Arts and Sciences Professional Development Seminar Series of 3-hour seminars for in-service teachers for CPDU credit.
Undergraduate Degrees and Minors
The B.A. in English is a 37-credit major, with six required courses and six electives. In order to ensure student progress, each term our offerings include a full array of our required courses (ENGL 210: Literary Methods and Practice; ENGL 218, 219, 221 and 222—surveys of British and American Literature, three of which must be completed for the degree; a major author—ENGL 314, 329, 330, 331, or 349; and ENGL 345: Practical Criticism and Theory. Given its scope, ENGL 345 is now a four-credit course, allowing students in the major the extra credit they need to round out the university requirement of 40 credit hours at the 300-level.
In addition, we offer a wide variety of upper division electives in diverse literatures and cultures, film, composition studies, and creative writing. Eight of our upper-division courses have been designated Engaged Learning Experiences (ELEs) with more coming on-line each year.
The B.A. in English/Secondary Education listed under English programs is no longer accepting students. As of Fall 2019, students seeking teacher certification in English/Language Arts need to complete the B.A. in English above and apply to the Teacher Certification/M.A.T. cohort program in the College of Education during their last term as undergraduates. For requirements and information, refer to the Secondary Education Graduate Program.
The English Department’s Creative Writing minor (18 credits) provides undergraduate students of any major with opportunities to develop as writers within a variety of creative contexts. The courses in the program enable students to develop both writing craft and technical proficiency. After foundations courses (ENGL 235: Introduction to Creative Writing and ENGL 340A: The Elements of Style, taken in sequential terms) students are encouraged to take a core sequence, which will enable them to move from writing individual pieces to developing longer book-length compositions. Electives are available in a wide variety of sub-genres, including Hybrid Forms, Short Story, Personal Essay, Flash Forms and Creative Non-Fiction. English majors may use up to 9 credit hours of 300-level work in Creative Writing from their major coursework for the Creative Writing minor.
The undergraduate Minor in English (18 credits) provides a broad cultural literacy in British and American literature (students must choose three survey courses (9 credits) from those listed above for the English Major) and a choice of electives at the 300 level (9 credits).
Graduate Programs (M.A. in English - Literature and Composition concentrations)
The graduate program in English (33 credits) develops skills in critical thinking, writing, and research, encourages intellectual curiosity, and provides training for careers and professional advancement in related fields such as teaching, editorial work, journalism, publishing, writing, and research. Students pursuing the MA in English choose between two degree concentrations, Literature or Composition. The two-track curriculum provides two separate fields of study within English, offering multiple career opportunities as well as preparing students for doctoral work. Students may also pursue the M.A. in English at the same time as they complete teacher certification.
Bradley Greenburg, Ph.D., Professor, Chair
Timothy P. Barnett, Ph.D., Professor
Marcia Z. Buell, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Vicki Byard, Ph.D., Professor
Chielozona Eze, Ph.D., Professor
Emily Garcia, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Julie H. Kim, Ph.D., Professor
Timothy R. Libretti, Ph.D., Professor
Kristen L. Over, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Ryan Poll, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Timothy H. Scherman, Ph.D., Professor
Christopher L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Professor
ENGL-101. Writing I. 3 Hours.
ENGL-101 offers specialized instruction and practice in beginning level academic writing. Students will write several short essays, and by doing so, work with usage, grammar, style, and paragraphing.
Requirement: High School cumulative GPA 3.25 or stated prerequisites
Prerequisites: (ELP-120 or ELP-099 or NEIU English Placement Writing 7 - 9 or (Accuplacer WritePlacer 4 - 8 and Accuplacer Sentence Skills 095 - 120) or (Accuplacer WritePlacer 5 - 8 and Accuplacer Sentence Skills 020 - 120) or Accuplacer Writing 200 - 300).
ENGL-102. Writing II. 3 Hours.
Continuation of practice in composition with emphasis on a variety of forms of writing and long essays, culminating in the annotated research paper.
Prerequisite: (ENGL-101 or NEIU English Placement Writing 8 - 9).
ENGL-109A. First Year Experience:Chicago's Literary Diversity: Reading The Neighborhoods. 3 Hours.
This course explores how literary Chicago enters into discourses on race and ethnicity in twentieth century literature. Beginning with Great Migration, students sample literary history produced by people who settled or passed through Chicago. Writers have used Chicago as a setting for major works and sociological studies have attempted to focus on Chicago's neighborhoods and how they were formed as a result of immigration from other countries and migration from the American South. The course examines several works from popular perspectives, fiction, autobiography, journalism, humor, folktales, cultural criticism and regional studies to reach a better understanding of the city.
ENGL-109B. First Year Experience: Reading And Writing The Literary And Political Landscapes Of Chicago. 3 Hours.
From the Haymarket "riot" of 1886 to the Pullman Strike of 1894 to the Black Sox scandal of 1919 to the trial of Abbie Hoffman and the Chicago Seven in the aftermath of the Democratic Convention of 1968, Chicago has, to say the least, a colorful and quite literally, explosive political history. As with any major urban center in the United States, Chicago bears the historical scars and contemporary fruits of vibrant and violent class conflict, labor insurgencies, racial strife, immigrant struggles, and activism for social justice. Part and parcel of this historical legacy is a rich spate of cultural production that attempts to comprehend this past in those historical moments and in our contemporary era.
ENGL-109C. First Year Experience:Drama And Diversity In Chicago. 3 Hours.
In this class, we will analyze and experience Chicago theater. By emphasizing theater that challenges social cultural norms, we will consider how drama works to create and define diverse urban communities and how it offers alternative visions to the status quo. This class will emphasize writing and reading about drama, interviewing theater personnel and taking notes on actual theater performances, and relating art to social and political diversity. We will attend 3-4 performances during the course of the semester.
ENGL-109D. First Year Experience:Windy City Words: Ethnolinguistic Chicago. 3 Hours.
This course integrates the five foundations of the First-Year Experience (Future Planning, Integral Preparation, Research, Self-Discovery, and Transitions) with concepts from the study of literacy and language. Using the city as a field site, students actively explore the linguistic and cultural diversity of Chicago through independent research, readings, online resources, speakers, and other experiences.
ENGL-109E. First Year Experience: Your Chicago: Write On!. 3 Hours.
This course interweaves foundations of the First-Year Experience (Future Planning, Integral Preparation, Research, Self-discovery, Transitions) with specific concepts of creative writing. Explore and experience Chicago’s vibrant cultural scene while cultivating literary culture in class. Students study their local literary heritage reading, analyzing, and discussing works of classic and contemporary Chicago authors and attending and annotating literary readings at local bookstores and cafes; experimenting with a range of writing exercises, prompts, and assignments, students will craft their own stories, recognize their unique writing process, and learn techniques to revise and polish their prose, culminating in a student reading.
ENGL-201. The World Of Poetry. 3 Hours.
A literature course which has three main objectives: 1) to familiarize students with the literary conventions of poetry; 2) to develop in students a critical stance towards literature; and 3) to develop in students an appreciation of both western and non-western cultures as experienced through literature.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-202. The World Of Drama. 3 Hours.
A literature course which has three main objectives: 1) to familiarize students with the literary conventions of drama; 2) to develop in students a critical stance towards literature; and 3) to develop in students an appreciation of both western and non-western cultures as experienced through literature.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-203. The World Of Fiction. 3 Hours.
A literature course which has three main objectives: 1) to familiarize students with the literary conventions of the short story and novel genres; 2) to develop in students a critical stance towards literature; and 3) to develop in students an appreciation of both western and non-western cultures as experienced through literature.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-203A. The World Of Creative Nonfiction. 3 Hours.
The World of Nonfiction is a literature course which has three main objectives: 1) to familiarize students with the literary conventions of creative nonfiction forms, including memoir and personal essay; 2) to develop in students a critical stance toward literature; and 3) to develop in students an appreciation of both western and non-western cultures as experienced through literature.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-205. Literatures And Literacies. 3 Hours.
This course an introduction to language arts for elementary education majors. As such, it provides practical foundation in the methods essential to the study of language arts, including active reading, critical thinking, and purposeful writing, and it includes skills such as note taking, quoting, using MLA style, summarizing arguments, and synthesizing and documenting others' opinions. This course will also explore multiple perspectives on controversial topics relevant to literary and literacy studies.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-206. The Bible As Literature. 3 Hours.
This course introduces students to the major characters, settings, and literary devices of the Bible. It deepens students’ understanding of the history of canon formation, textual scholarship, and interpretation as it relates to the Bible. Further, it expands their appreciation of the impact of the Bible on literature, history, and culture.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-207. Banned Books: Challenges And Censorship. 3 Hours.
This course considers book challenges / bans from different disciplinary perspectives. Students will read representative samples, learn about the history of book bans, and explore debates about reading challenged / banned texts as well as consider these issues within larger social and cultural contexts.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-209A. Red Scare: Literature Of The McCarthy Era. 3 Hours.
The course focuses on the perceived communist threat on 1940s/50s United States and how politics affected writers such as Arthur Miller, Langston Hughes, Lillian Hellman and others as well as screenwriters in Hollywood through such films as On The Waterfront and High Noon. Research papers and projects will draw connections between societal perceptions of the times and their influence on Hollywood films and literature through genres of fiction, poetry, and drama.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-210. Writing Intensive Program: Methods for English Majors. 3 Hours.
Writing Intensive course designed as first course for English majors. Provides practical foundation in the methods essential to English Studies: active reading, critical thinking, and purposeful writing. Skills such as note taking, quoting, using MLA style, summarizing arguments, and synthesizing and documenting others' opinions will be emphasized. Course will also explore multiple perspectives on controversial topics relevant to the discipline. Coursework develops strategies of effective critique, argument, and analysis, and will consist of informal writing, review essays, and thesis-driven analyses of rhetorical and literary texts. Open discussion and critical thinking required.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-218. American Literature:Beginnings To 1865. 3 Hours.
A course covering representative writing of the Colonial, Early National and Romantic periods in American literature, emphasizing both dominant and emergent themes and literary forms in each period where students will build the necessart cultural literacy for higher-level courses in American Literature.
ENGL-219. American Literature:1865 To The Present. 3 Hours.
A course covering representative writings of the Realist, Modern and Postmodern periods in American Literature, emphasizing both dominant and emergent themes and literary forms in each period. Here students will gain a broad background for higher-level courses in postbellum American Literature.
ENGL-221. English Literature:The Beginnings To C. 1750. 3 Hours.
Representative works in English literature from Beowulf to the middle of the eighteenth century.
ENGL-222. English Literature: C. 1750 To The Present. 3 Hours.
Representative works in English literature from the middle of the eighteenth century to the modern era.
ENGL-235. Introduction To Creative Writing I. 3 Hours.
This course, for any student across the University, introduces the terms, notions, and practices of Creative Writing, as a discipline that includes non-fiction, short fiction, poetry, and drama.
ENGL-250. Bilingual Creative Writing: Spanish And English. 3 Hours.
This course offers preliminary study in Creative Writing in Spanish and English. It enables students to study creative writing in the bilingual mode and to 1) develop effective approaches to the craft of writing, 2) explore new techniques of the craft, and 3) consider their own craft and techniques in the context of two languages.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-291. Children's Literature. 3 Hours.
Preparation for effective teaching of literature in the elementary school; wide reading of books for young children; story selection and story telling; authors and illustrators of children's books; classroom methods of stimulating creative expression; individual and group reading guidance.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-300. Russian Literature: From Gogol To Chekhov. 3 Hours.
Works (primarily novels, novellas and stories) of the major figures in nineteenth-century Russian literature (Turgenev, Tolstoi, Dostoyevski, etc.), relating them to the social, political and religious issues they touched on.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-301. Independent Study In English. 1 Hour.
An independent study on the tutorial model, initiated at the student's suggestion to an instructor; course content designed in consultation with the instructor. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-301A. Special Topics In Literature And Culture: Department-Taught Course. 1 Hour.
A 1-credit, 8-week course taught by multiple faculty members of the English department. Every week, the course will be lead by a different professor. Sample special topics include "Popular Culture During the Great Recession"; "the Rhetoric of the Long Civil Rights Movement"; and "Romanticism and Revolution." No formal papers. No tests.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-302. Literatures And Theories Of Love. 3 Hours.
What does it mean to love? As philosopher John Armstrong writes, “This is to raise one of the deepest, and most puzzling, questions we can put to ourselves.” This course explores diverse narratives and theories of love, especially emerging from marginalized thinkers such as bell hooks, James Baldwin, and Emma Pérez. As the course explores, love not only underwrites conceptions of the self, but more broadly, enables and generates new forms of community, ethics, and politics. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-303. Contemporary LGBTQ+ Literature. 3 Hours.
This course uses an intersectional approach to explore fiction, film, and other texts that address the ways LGBTQ+ identities are layered, fluid, evolving, and sometimes conflicting. We will emphasize close reading of fiction, the ability to write clearly and analytically about literature, the history and culture of LGBTQ+ lives, and the role literature plays in our everyday lives. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisite: and.
ENGL-304A. Literary Editing. 3 Hours.
Students will learn and implement skills involved in literary editing, including developmental and copy editing, and proofreading, supporting the production of the annual issue of SEEDS: A Literary & Visual Arts Journal or a collaborative anthology.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-305A. Literary Publishing. 3 Hours.
Students will learn and implement skills involved in the publication of a literary journal, including navigation of process and product, supporting the production of the annual issue of SEEDS: A Literary & Visual Arts Journal or a collaborative anthology.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-307. Medieval Studies- The Development Of The Arthurian Legend. 3 Hours.
The legend of King Arthur from allusions in early chronicles, through Welsh folk tales, through the courtly versions of twelfth-century France to the compilation by Sir Thomas Malory. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-308. English Literature From Beowulf To Malory. 3 Hours.
A survey fo English Medieval literature that, in dealing with majore works (e.g. Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Morte D'Arthur, etc.), situates them in the revelant political and linguistic contexts, as well as the literary context of competing "minor" works and genres. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-309. Reading & Writing In A Changing Digital Economy. 3 Hours.
Through hands on experience and theoretical and rhetorical analyses, students will explore processes and issues with writing and reading in digital environments. Topics include connecting visuality with the written word, exploring online textual identities, collaboration and intellectual property, and web design, with an emphasis on how writing in digital environments impacts English studies. Students will produce a variety of non-traditional and traditional academic texts in this course, using current presentation, web-based or freeware programs. The class is open to students who are new to digital writing but will also benefit those with experience in composing New Media and digital texts.
ENGL-310. Writing Intensive Program:Introduction To Composition Studies. 3 Hours.
Examines some contemporary issues in composition studies, such as process theory, the role of grammar in writing instruction, digital and visual literacies, and scholarly considerations of writers' subjectivities. Introduces the discipline's modes of inquiry: theory, empirical research, and practice. Provides instruction in professional resources and bibliographic databases so that students can become independent learners in the discipline. Written assignments include responses to readings and a literature review. This course fulfills the NEIU Writing Intensive requirement for Secondary Education English majors and for English majors who as transfer students may have already taken a course comparable to ENGL-210.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-311. Introduction To Popular Culture Studies. 3 Hours.
This course introduces students to the theoretical debates and interpretative strategies of popular culture studies. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this course explores how popular culture is produced, distributed, consumed, and responded to in diverse, contradictory ways. Forms analyzed will include movies, comics, television, photography, music, fan fiction, and video games.
ENGL-312. Literature Of Colonial Times. 3 Hours.
Prose and poetry of the Puritan and Revolutionary eras. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-313. American Literary Renaissance-1830-1860. 3 Hours.
Prose and poetry of Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, and others. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-314. Chaucer And His Age. 3 Hours.
Close study of selected early poems of Chaucer (ballads, envoys, and narratives), to present and introduction to the language and themes of Chaucer's poetry and his age. The major portion of the course will be devoted to a close reading of The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-315. Literature Of The English Renaissance. 3 Hours.
Prose and poetry (not drama) of the English Renaissance in the sixteenth century. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-316. Forms Of Poetry. 3 Hours.
This course will examine some of the traditional poetic forms-lyric, narrative, and dramatic- which have been used by poets throughout literary history. Readings and discussion will engage students in an analysis of each form- its technical characteristics, its place in literary history, and its relevance to comtemporary writers and readers of poetry. Students will write imitations of several poetic forms as well as critical essays about them. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-317. Modern American Drama. 3 Hours.
This course considers the development of modern American drama, as well as the contributions of regional and storefront theaters. It also examines the convergences and divergences of drama as literature and performance, as well as other challenges and limits to understanding modern American drama, and concludes with original research presentations by students. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-319. Writing Culture And Identity. 3 Hours.
In this course, students will explore theoretical, political, and cultural understandings of difference and identity through intensive reading and writing. Students will develop a deep understanding of cultural difference and the ability to write argumentative, personal, and theoretical essays about human diversity in a variety of forms.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-320. Globalizing Literacies. 3 Hours.
This course presents textual circulation as trade in cultural practices throughout early modern or protoglobalization (1600-1800) when European traditions were exported to the United States that, after being established through cultural syncretism, were exported to the rest of the world throughout the first (18701914) and second (1980present) globalization periods. From these perspectives, students will examine central themes in textual production and consumption, such as the development of an American literary tradition and Americanization educational initiatives through particular genres, such as newspapers and magazines, as a part of a nationalized cultural identity, including ways this identity has been resisted and reconfigured.
ENGL-321. Literature Of The Romantic Movement. 3 Hours.
Poetry and prose from 1780 to 1830 including Blake, Burns, Wordsworth, Colerisge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Lamb, Hazlitt, and DeQuincey.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-322. The American Short Story. 3 Hours.
The evolution of the American short story as a self-conscious form of literature from Washington irving to Joyce Carol Oates. The theories of Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism are illustrated. Each student selects one writer of short stories to explore in some depth through an individual report. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-323. Modern British Drama. 3 Hours.
This course examines the development of modern British drama since the 1890s, studying writers like Shaw, Wilde, Yeats, O’Casey, Beckett, Pinter, Stoppard, and Churchill. Covering over a century of a dynamic period in the history of British drama, this course explores important influences such as Norwegian Henrik Ibsen’s Realism, French “Symbolisme” Movement, Irish Literary Revival, poetic drama, the Theatre of the Absurd, and Postmodernist aesthetics. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-324. The Romantic Novel. 3 Hours.
The nineteenth century novelists from England and the Continet are studied against the great socio-political movements of the age- the French, Russian and Industrial Revolutions. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-325. Gothics: Image, Music, Text. 3 Hours.
This course examines American literature, film, music and art engaging in gothic aesthetics and/or traditions. Readings will be anchored in one or two major works of cultural theory (such as Barthes’ Image-Music-Text). Coursework will stretch across geographic and historical contexts and be grounded in aesthetic, philosophical, psychological, and sociopolitical frameworks including the following: what is considered/constructed as abhorrent at a given time, and why? how have minoritized subjects played with fear towards self-empowerment and even resistance? what are the sociopolitical roots of figures such as vampires and (sometimes) ghosts? how have under-represented writers shaped, transformed and revised the traditional gothic?.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-326. Readings In World Literature. 3 Hours.
Students will study a variety of genres and themes in literary and cultural traditions across the globe, involving works either written in English or in translation. Exploring the commonalities of human experience as well as the political and historical contexts that inform stark differences in the human condition and its expression, the course will be grounded in theories of race, gender and class even while it sharpens students' appreciation for unique cultural forms and the challenges posed in cross-cultural translation.
Prerequisite: ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-210 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-327. Chicago Drama. 3 Hours.
This course examines the history of Chicago drama from the early performances of Joseph Jefferson to modern and contemporary playwrights, such as Lorraine Hansberry and David Mamet, who have found success in or been shaped by Chicago, as well as its contributions to drama in the U.S. and around the world. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-328. Seventeenth Century Literature. 3 Hours.
Studies in seventeenth century literature exclusive of Milton. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-329. Milton. 3 Hours.
Milton's work and the intellectual millieu of the period. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-330. Shakespeare: Comedies, Romances And Poetry. 3 Hours.
This course explores Shakespeare’s comedies, their late transformation into romances, and select narrative poetry. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-331. Shakespeare: Tragedies And Histories. 3 Hours.
This course explores Shakespeare's works in the genres of tragedy and history, emphasizing close reading and historical context. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-332. Elizabethan And Jacobean Drama. 3 Hours.
Exploration of English dramatic works from circa 1580-1642, including Marlowe, Greene, Middleton, Marston, Dekker, Jonson, Webster, and Beaumont. This course will pay particular attention to genres that dominate outside the Shakespeare canon (revenge tragedy, city comedy, tragicomedy), as well as detailing the social, cultural, and intellectual developments that characterize this golden age of English stagecraft. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-333. Mythological Backgrounds Of English And American Literature. 3 Hours.
Middle-Eastern, Nordic and Graeco-Roman mythological systems; reading in archetypal interpretation of literature with representative illustrations form fiction, drama and poetry. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-334. Biblical Backgrounds Of English And American Literature. 3 Hours.
Influence of the Bible, especially the King James version, on the style and content of famous English and American writers. Seleceted reading from Old and New Testaments and from writers influenced by them. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-335. Written Communications For Business. 3 Hours.
Designed primarily for Business and Management majors covering principles and practices of writing required in professional work. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-336. Technical Writing. 3 Hours.
This course asks students to study the ways writers prepare professional documents, including reports, proposals, and web sites, in a world where our languages are becoming increasingly technical, jargon-filled, and diverse. Students will write in these modes as well to give them experience with the kinds of technical writing they may encounter in fields such as business, science, engineering, and more.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-337. DC And Marvel Superheroes: Aesthetics, Ethics, Politics, And Commerce. 3 Hours.
Over the course of the twentieth century, superheroes have elevated into a popular artform. Moreover, they have become vehicles for thinking about political movements; figures for engaging in ethical debates; and intellectual properties buttressing multi-million-dollar, multimedia franchises. This course will focus on how mainstream US comics (DC and Marvel) imagine heroism and justice across the decades during different historical crises from the Great Depression to Black Lives Matter. As this course foregrounds, superheroes must be studied within the matrices of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, and disability. No prior knowledge of comics is necessary. Capes are optional.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-338A. Literature, Bodyminds, And Disability Studies. 3 Hours.
This course studies literature that challenges what a “normal” bodymind is and literature that recognizes and critiques how ideologically “normal” bodyminds form the basis of dominant narratives, values, and institutions. Breaking away from the paradigm of ableism (disability discrimination), this course historicizes the various constructions of disability (cognitive, fatness, ugliness, illness, injury, motor, sensory, race, sexuality, and citizenship), and explores how creative writers and activists shatter the paradigm of ableism to imagine new narrative forms that foreground a more diverse, capacious, democratic, imaginative, and socially-just world.
ENGL-340. Independent Study In English. 2 Hours.
An independent study on the tutorial model, initiated at the student's suggestion to an instructor; course content designed in consultation with the instructor. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-340A. Elements Of Style For Creative Writers. 3 Hours.
The course will cover style conventions of the English language, including: punctuation, grammar, usage, and sound. There will be a focus on sentence and line analysis. Students will consider how these conventions and their deployment impact a reader’s experience, and the issues of perspective, power, and bias encoded therein. Students will also develop a working definition of their own writerly style while experimenting in using, subverting, and experimenting with conventions. Students will be encouraged to work within their own desired genre(s); the reading selections will be modern and contemporary texts which move across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and hybrid.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 (may be taken concurrently) with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-341. Restoration And Eighteenth Century Literature I. 3 Hours.
Politics in England leading to the restoration of Charles II; his court; Restoration playwrights; the bawdy Restoration stage and reaction to it; the new sentimental drama; the newspaper and the essay. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-342. Restoration And Eighteenth Century Literature II. 3 Hours.
Intensive study of contrasts in the Age of Enlightenment; interrelationship of politics and writers; neoclassic literature; beginning of the novel; eighteenth century critiscm and biography. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-343. Global Ecologies: U.S. Literature In The Age Of Environmentalism. 3 Hours.
This interdisciplinary course explores why studying the environment is one of the most urgent, intellectual responsibilities of all disciplines, including English. Global Ecologies centers on how the environment is represented, imagined, and refigured across a range of literary and cultural texts, and the course studies how the environment is inextricable from understanding a range of social relations from race and class to ethics and politics.
ENGL-344. Literatures Of Incarceration. 3 Hours.
This class will examine the literatures that emerge from or deeply engage experiences of prison and confinement. It may consider literature from around the globe and from various moments in history (from authors such as Dostoyevsky, Mandela, and Soyinka), but the focus will be on contemporary work that considers US incarceration from the 1950s through today. This course will also consider how narrative can give voice to those who are incarcerated as it illuminates the many ways mass incarceration traps us all.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-210 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-345. Practical Criticism. 4 Hours.
This course provides an upper level survey of some of the more important critical approaches to literature, with an emphasis on practical applications as well as theory. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-346A. Critical Writing For Creative Writers. 3 Hours.
This course is a seminar and writing workshop for creative writers. Students will examine assigned models; choose outside reading of their own; produce various creative, creative-critical, and critical-creative pieces; submit at least one book review for possible publication; and through this process “enter the discourse.”.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-347. Rust Belt Literature. 3 Hours.
This course will introduce students to literature (poetry, fiction, non-fiction) of the region of the United States known as the Rust Belt in its historical, political, social, aesthetic, and broader cultural contexts, including the process of its continual redefinition. Students will read representative texts from a diverse range of authors and periods, and discuss such issues as desegregation, clean water, racism, and classism, among others.
Prerequisite: ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-210 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-348. Prose And Poetry Of The Victorian Age. 3 Hours.
Selected Victorian poetry, with consideration of the social background of the period (1837-1910). Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-349A. Toni Morrison: A Deep Dive. 3 Hours.
In contrast to other advanced courses covering diverse writers working within a genre, literary period or cultural situation, this course is a "deep dive" into the particular social, political, and economic factors contributing to the work of a single author over the long arc of her career, along with her particular contributions to literary culture in her time. Extensive reading involving a representative array of Toni Morrison's work and a wide variety of critical essays on that work will provide students excellent bases for their research, writing, and class discussion, culminating in an essay or creative project suitable for public presentation or publication.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-210 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-349B. James Baldwin: A Deep Dive. 3 Hours.
In contrast to other advanced courses covering diverse writers working within a genre, literary period or cultural situation, this course is a "deep dive" into the particular social, political, and economic factors contributing to the work of a single author over the long arc of his career, along with his particular contributions to literary culture in his time. Extensive reading involving a representative array of James Baldwin's work and a wide variety of critical essays on that work will provide students excellent bases for their research, writing, and class discussion, culminating in an essay or creative project suitable for public presentation or publication.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-210 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-349G. Gloria Anzaldúa: A Deep Dive. 3 Hours.
In contrast to other advanced courses covering diverse writers working within a genre, literary period or cultural situation, this course is a "deep dive" into the particular social, political and economic factors contributing to the work of a single author over the long arc of her career, along with her particular contributions to literary culture in her time. Extensive reading involving a representative array of the author's work and a wide variety of critical essays on that work will provide students excellent bases for their research, writing and class discussion, culminating in an essay or creative project suitable for public presentation or publication. This section of the course focuses on the work of Gloria Anzaldúa, as well as her collaborators and literary intellectual/artistic successors.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-349W. August Wilson: A Deep Dive. 3 Hours.
In contrast to other advanced courses covering diverse writers working within a genre, literary period or cultural situation, this course is a "deep dive" into the particular social, political, and economic factors contributing to the work of a single author over the long arc of his career, along with his particular contributions to literary culture in his time. Extensive reading involving a representative array of Wilson's work and a wide variety of critical essays on that work will provide students excellent bases for their research, writing, and class discussion, culminating in an essay or creative project suitable for public presentation or publication.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-210 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-350. The Victorian Novel. 3 Hours.
A study of the development of the novel in England from Dickens to Hardy, seen against the contemporary social and literary background. Theme and technique of the novel, methods of publication, major and minor writers. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-351. The English Novel Of The Eighteenth Century. 3 Hours.
The development of the English novel as a genre in the eighteenth century, including such precursors of the novel as Bunyan, Defoe, Lyly and Behn. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-352. Jewish-American Literature: People Of The Books. 3 Hours.
This course studies how the United States shapes the meaning of Jewish identity and culture, and conversely, how Jewish literature helps shape the meaning of American identity and culture. Working in a range of forms from comic books to genre fiction, Jewish writers throughout the modern era creatively and critically interrogate and re-imagine what it means to be Jewish-American, and more broadly, investigate and challenge what it means to be American. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
ENGL-353. Writing About Music In The U.S.: Contemporary History And Criticism. 3 Hours.
This is a course designed for students who want to read, write, and think about music—and, by extension, literature and culture—more critically. This is not a survey of canonical writing about music, but it will focus on predominantly American writing of the last 20 years that challenges various narratives about popular music, including hip hop, rock, pop, country, and jazz. The course will focus on argumentative and often scholarly writing about music, and each student will write an extended piece of writing about music. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 and.
ENGL-354. Star Wars: Narratives, Politics, And Economics Of A Billion-Dollar, Multi-Media Franchise. 3 Hours.
Star Wars is a billion-dollar franchise that spans multiple generations, nation-states, and media forms. The ever-expanding empire includes movies, novels, toys, comic books, video games, television shows, fan fiction, and cosplay. Taking a multidisciplinary and transmedia approach, this course studies how this fictional galaxy is informed by wider historical, political, economic, and cultural processes from the economic and energy crises of the 1970s to social justice movements in the present. The course explores questions such as: How do historical crises inform global franchises? How do marginalized voices occupy a franchise? No prior knowledge of Star Wars is necessary.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-355. The Production Of "America": Work, Class, & Political Economy In U.S. Literature & Culture. 3 Hours.
This class will explore U.S. literature and culture with an eye toward understanding the material conditions of production in the United States, particularly as represented in literary and cultural works, as well as how national identity is ideologically produced in U.S. culture. The class will foreground issues of class and political economy in reading literature and culture from a working-class perspective.
Requirement: English 101 with a C or better, and two of the following: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-356A. Graphic Novels And Comics. 3 Hours.
This course studies comics as a complex medium that offers new ways to think about and represent a range of social and cultural issues, such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, national belonging, and the environment. Students will learn the critical vocabulary necessary to understand how the medium works, and read diverse comics in various historical and geographical contexts. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
ENGL-357. Land, Labor, & Literature: Studying The Works Of U.S. Working-Class & Colonized Writers. 3 Hours.
We will study the representations of land and labor and the desire to reclaim them in the works of working-class and colonized writers in the U.S. Particular attention will be paid to the historical and cultural contexts in which texts are produced as well as theories of class and race.
ENGL-358. Making Your Liberal Arts Degree Work: Writing For The Professional World & Internships. 3 Hours.
This course provides a personal and professional communications orientation, covering the integrated landscape of digital media. Students will learn to adapt their writing for such practices as social marketing, blogging, headline writing, messaging, networking, community building and resumé development. Whether a students’ ultimate career goals lead them to freelance, startup, non-profit or corporate endeavors, this course helps students learn more about putting their degree to work. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-359. Independent Study In English. 3 Hours.
An independent study on the tutorial model, initiated at the student's suggestion to an instructor; course content designed in consultation with the instructor. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-360. Detective Fiction. 3 Hours.
Literary and historical study of the detective story- from Poe and Sherlock Holmes- to Hammett and the present. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-361. Development Of The American Novel. 3 Hours.
The novel as a developing form from Charles Brockden Brown to William Faulkner and beyond. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-362. United States Fiction: Traditions And Counter-Traditions. 3 Hours.
A study of canonical and non-canonical fiction in the United States and the varieties of traditions composing U.S. literary history. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-364. Reading Film. 3 Hours.
A course in film emphasizing methods of reading films as we would texts. Through close viewing, critical analysis of narrative structure, attention to visual form and representational practice, students will explore the complexity of film beyond the level of "entertainment." To paraphrase a famous question asked about poetry, this course will explore "how a film means." Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-365. Caribbean Literature. 3 Hours.
This course will introduce students to literature (poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama) of the Caribbean in its his historical, political, social, and cultural contexts. Students will discuss such issues as cultural and racial hybridity, immigration/emigration/exile, and post-colonization, among others. Students will read representative texts from a diverse range of authors such as Jean Rhys, V.S. Naipaul, Earl Lovelace, Edwidge Danticat, and Junot Díaz. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-367. Re-Thinking Race And Gender. 3 Hours.
We start with historical narrative, re-thinking how we learn to practice race and gender from within the larger systems of white supremacy and patriarchy. The course explores models for disrupting systemic patterns, and ways to turn rethinking into everyday action. The aim throughout is to interrogate structures and relations of race and gender, and how they get naturalized. Designed and cross-listed for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and teachers. When taught as a Summer Institute, course runs for eight days over three weeks. Required: Junior/Senior or Graduate status, or instructor consent. Prereqs: ENGL-101 with a grade of "C" or above.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-368. American Realism. 3 Hours.
An examination of the literature that reflects the movement from American romanticism to realism and through realism to literary naturalism, approximately 1865-1910. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-369. U.S. Latino/a Literature And Culture. 3 Hours.
This course introduces students to Latino/a literatures in the US from the contact period to the present. It offers an overview of major forms and themes in literature from Latino/a native, immigrant and exiled writers with in-depth analysis of representative texts from various genres including essays, novels, poetry and drama. Writers will include Latino/as of North American, Central American, South American and Caribbean descent. The course is taught in English with readings in original English or translation. Readings, assignments, instruction and discussion will focus on questions of aesthetics, culture, politics and history, with an added emphasis on inclusion of under-represented groups and intercultural connections.
ENGL-370. Folklore And The Fairy Tale. 3 Hours.
Readings from both traditional and contemporary folktales, including modern adaptations of traditional stories. Emphasis on similirarities in different tales, and the differences in similar ones, with the aim of learning how the same elements pervade the archetypical stories and how variations in detail bespeak different ethnic and cultural interests and concerns. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-371. Studies In Women's Literature. 3 Hours.
Literature by or about women; includes writing by women, portrayals of female characters, attitudes toward women and women's roles; other thematic concerns. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-372. American Women Writers Of The Nineteenth Century. 3 Hours.
Comprehensive study of texts and contexts of women's writing in the US during the nineteenth century, including the origins of its feminist tradition. Texts include a variety of genres (novel, short story, lecture, travel narrative) and traditions (sentimental, romantic, realist, political, utopian). Special emphasis on the social, political, economic and legal forces bearing upon women as professional writers along with the ways women's fiction articulates the realities of nineteenth-century women's lives. Assignments include close reading of individual texts and a more comprehensive final project involving primary research. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-373. Yiddish Literature In Translation. 3 Hours.
Yiddish literature from its beginning to the present from Eastern European and West Germany to the East Side and West Roosevelt Road. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-374A. Hybrid-form Writing. 3 Hours.
This course examines models related to and provides tools for the production of Hybrid-form Writing (writing in and across multiple genres/forms). Hybrid-form work takes place at both the discrete level (individual, usually long-form pieces) and the manuscript level (a book-length project that relies on multiple forms). The emphasis is on long-form/extended projects, which must be rooted in a considered line of inquiry. This inquiry happens at multiple stages and levels: students experiment with different forms, students engage in pre-writing to conceive of projects, and students consider how form affects content/why certain forms might be culturally or personally privileged.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C and (ENGL-384 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-386 with a minimum grade of C).
ENGL-374B. Creative Writing: Flash Forms. 3 Hours.
Flash forms are often studied (if at all) as a footnote within a contemporary literature or creative writing course, the literary version of the short story's cute younger cousin. However, while flash forms have become increasingly popular over that past two decades, they have been around for centuries. In this course, students will investigate the form's origins and the cultural contexts and developments that gave rise to its current prevalence. Students will study and practice specific craft elements while also exploring the plasticity of the form. They will read and write stand-alone pieces and investigate the possibilities and varieties of collections and chapbooks of flash.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-374N. Writing The Now: A Cross-Genre Writing Workshop. 3 Hours.
Students will respond to current sociopolitical issues via creative writing work across genres including fiction, creative nonfiction/the personal essay, poetry, drama/screenwriting, graphic narrative, and more, while examining writers’ and artists’ responses to historic moments and movements. The course will also cover hyper-contemporary creative and theoretical texts, while considering how literary art gets politicized and otherwise activated in the moment. Students will work independently on a multi-genre semester-long portfolio and share writing within the classroom community, as well as in a public-facing symposium.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-375. Becoming A Writing Tutor. 3 Hours.
This class considers theories of writing and the teaching of writing and trains students to become writing tutors. Students will apply the knowledge gained in class as they work with undergraduate writers, helping them to create ideas, draft and revise essays, and edit their work. To succeed in this class, students need to be strong writers and collaborators and to have an interest in the practice and politics of writing.
ENGL-376. Advanced Composition. 3 Hours.
Interdependence of rhetoric, grammar, logic, semantics, psychology, and criticism in communication of ideas; practice in various types of writing with focus on students' interest.
ENGL-377. Argumentative Prose. 3 Hours.
An advanced course in which students will learn to write argumentative essays on a wide range of subjects, using as models for discussion the argumentative prose of professional writers. The course will cover many aspects of argumentative writing, including the study of inductive and deductive reasoning and logical fallacies and the analysis of organizational and stylistic techniques. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-378. Twentieth Century Fiction I. 3 Hours.
Development of the modern novel from Conrad to writers of the 1930s and 1940s agaisnt a background of historical and literacy movements; emphasis on Conrad, James, Joyce, Lawrence, Faulkner and Hemingway. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-379. Twentieth Century Fiction II. 3 Hours.
Development fo the novel in English in recent decades against a background of historical and literary movements; includes work or West, Green, Lowry, Durrell, Bellow, Nabokov, Burgess, Barth, Lessing, Murdoch, Mailer, Updike and Pynchon. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-380. Multi-Cultural Literature In America. 3 Hours.
Designed for future teachers of English, the multi-genre course provides students with an awareness of representative literature from the various ethnic cultures that are a part of American Life. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-381. African-American Literature. 3 Hours.
A survey of African-American Literature in its social, cultural, and political context, beginning with Phyllis Wheatly, continuing through the slave narratives of the pre-Civil War era to the masterpieces of the Harlem Renaissance and the works of contemporary writers, such as James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker, August Wilson and Gwendolyn Brooks. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-382. Chicana/o/x Literature. 3 Hours.
This course examines the emergence and development of Chicana/o/x literature in relation to the historical conditions that gave rise to it within the Chicana/o/x Movement and the definition and redefinition of Chicana/o/x identity and politics. The course will also focus on feminist and LGBTQ perspectives within Chicana/o/x Literature and the Chicana/o/ movement. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-383. Postcolonial African Literature. 3 Hours.
A survey of African literature in its cultural, historical, social and political contexts. Africa is a continent of diverse peoples, cultures, languages, customs, food, economies, experiences of colonialism/imperialism and so on. With such diversity of daily life and historical and cultural experiences comes a wealth of literature; oral literature, drama, poetry, short stories and novels. This course will cover diverse authors such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Zakes Mda, Nurrudin Farah, Buchi Emecheta, Tsitsi Dangarembga, etc. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-383S. Special Topics In Latina/o And Latin American Literary And Cultural Studies. 3 Hours.
Varying topics in the field of Latinx and Latin American literary and cultural studies.
ENGL-384. Creative Writing: Poetry I. 3 Hours.
Students write poetry which is discussed and critiqued in class by instructor and students.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-384R. Research Poetry. 3 Hours.
Research Poetry engages students in poetry writing which incorporates the research process as a method for exploring topical questions relating to the humanities, social sciences, poetic identity, and inquiry.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-385. Creative Writing: Poetry II. 3 Hours.
Students write poetry which is discussed and critiqued in class by instructor and students.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-386. Creative Writing: Fiction I. 3 Hours.
Students read published fiction and explore topics in craft while writing, and discussing one another’s work.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-387. Creative Writing: Fiction II. 3 Hours.
Students read published fiction and explore topics in craft while writing, and discussing one another’s work.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-388. Modern British And American Poetry. 3 Hours.
Introduction to modern poetry in English: its origins, dominant themes, and characteristic techniques. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-389. Contemporary Poetry. 3 Hours.
A survey of poetry in English from 1950 to the present. This course will examine the major themes and techniques of poets writing during the period. Required: ENGL-210 and one other English course at the 200 level.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-390. Young Adult Novel. 3 Hours.
Advanced study in literature for yound adults, grades 7-10. Evaluation and selection of recent books in the area as well as the history of the genre. Criteria for selection: Book lists, indexes, professional literature in the field. Individual work on problem of special interest.
Prerequisites: ENGL-102 and ENGL-210 - 236.
ENGL-391. Seminar On One Woman Writer. 3 Hours.
This course will give students the opportunity to study the full range of one woman writer's life and work, along with documents from a variety of disciplines (e.g., history, economics, psychology and its predecessor pseudo-sciences, law--both in secondary and primary forms). Out of this work, students will produce a research paper, presentation, or in some cases a website, video or podcast that allows them to enter the public discourse recovering the voices of women of all backgrounds from medieval times to the present day.
Prerequisite: ENGL-102 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-210 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-392A. Writing/Life: Advanced Creative Writing Practice. 3 Hours.
Students engage in a semester-long independent creative writing project, while participating in collaborative service learning, and acquiring skills regarding the creative process, participating in creative communities, editing, and publication. Meetings are a combination of seminar, discussion, studio, and workshop.
ENGL-393. Literature Live: Studying The Works Of NEIU Visiting Writers. 3 Hours.
Each semester, the Creative Writing Minor hosts “The 82” reading series, named for the Kimball bus line that brings many of us to and from campus. In this course, students will study the works of these local writers and others who have visited or will be coming to campus and with whom they will have a chance to engage. Students will engage with the work of these writers with an eye toward understanding and exploring the subtleties of craft to assist in their own creative writing as well as developing the skills of literary analysis. Students will be expected to attend a certain number of public readings on and off campus.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-394. Writing The Personal Essay. 3 Hours.
In this course students will write in the creative non-fiction genre of the personal essay. This will involve work on techniques and approaches in a workshop setting, as well as critiques of other students' work. This course will also explore the personal essay as a literary form through readings of classic and recent examples.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-3941. Creative Writing Internship. 1 Hour.
This is a supervised field experience in a profession that utilizes creative writing (magazine or book publishing, journalism, advertising, arts non-profit, etc). With the approval of the department chair, students may enroll for academic credit from 1-6 hours. In consultation with a faculty advisor and field supervisor, the student will contract field service hours and create an individualized work plan. Students will also meet regularly with the faculty advisor and be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively for a final grade. By department permission only.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C and (ENGL-384 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-386 with a minimum grade of C) and (ENGL-385 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-387 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-374 with a minimum grade of C).
ENGL-3942. Creative Writing Internship. 2 Hours.
This is a supervised field experience in a profession that utilizes creative writing (magazine or book publishing, journalism, advertising, arts non-profit, etc). With the approval of the department chair, students may enroll for academic credit from 1-6 hours. In consultation with a faculty advisor and field supervisor, the student will contract field service hours and create an individualized work plan. Students will also meet regularly with the faculty advisor and be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively for a final grade. By department permission only.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C and (ENGL-384 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-386 with a minimum grade of C) and (ENGL-385 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-387 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-374 with a minimum grade of C).
ENGL-3943. Creative Writing Internship. 3 Hours.
This is a supervised field experience in a profession that utilizes creative writing (magazine or book publishing, journalism, advertising, arts non-profit, etc). With the approval of the department chair, students may enroll for academic credit from 1-6 hours. In consultation with a faculty advisor and field supervisor, the student will contract field service hours and create an individualized work plan. Students will also meet regularly with the faculty advisor and be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively for a final grade. By department permission only.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C and (ENGL-384 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-386 with a minimum grade of C) and (ENGL-385 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-387 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-374 with a minimum grade of C).
ENGL-3944. Creative Writing Internship. 4 Hours.
This is a supervised field experience in a profession that utilizes creative writing (magazine or book publishing, journalism, advertising, arts non-profit, etc). With the approval of the department chair, students may enroll for academic credit from 1-6 hours. In consultation with a faculty advisor and field supervisor, the student will contract field service hours and create an individualized work plan. Students will also meet regularly with the faculty advisor and be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively for a final grade. By department permission only.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C and (ENGL-384 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-386 with a minimum grade of C) and (ENGL-385 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-387 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-374 with a minimum grade of C).
ENGL-3945. Creative Writing Internship. 5 Hours.
This is a supervised field experience in a profession that utilizes creative writing (magazine or book publishing, journalism, advertising, arts non-profit, etc). With the approval of the department chair, students may enroll for academic credit from 1-6 hours. In consultation with a faculty advisor and field supervisor, the student will contract field service hours and create an individualized work plan. Students will also meet regularly with the faculty advisor and be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively for a final grade. By department permission only.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C and (ENGL-384 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-386 with a minimum grade of C) and (ENGL-385 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-387 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-374 with a minimum grade of C).
ENGL-3946. Creative Writing Internship. 6 Hours.
This is a supervised field experience in a profession that utilizes creative writing (magazine or book publishing, journalism, advertising, arts non-profit, etc). With the approval of the department chair, students may enroll for academic credit from 1-6 hours. In consultation with a faculty advisor and field supervisor, the student will contract field service hours and create an individualized work plan. Students will also meet regularly with the faculty advisor and be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively for a final grade. By department permission only.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C and (ENGL-384 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-386 with a minimum grade of C) and (ENGL-385 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-387 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL-374 with a minimum grade of C).
ENGL-395. The Craft Of The Short Story. 3 Hours.
In this course students will combine the study of the form of the short story with writing short stories. Readings will include classical and contemporary works from across many countries and traditions. Emphasis will be on studying texts and working on craft in workshops.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-396. Screenwriting: The Short Script. 3 Hours.
This is a workshop course in screenwriting, concentrating on producing a short script. Students will study the particular form and conventions, as well as the specific format, of writing a screenplay. Readings will include exemplary screenplays in several genres, as well as essays on the philosophy and technique of screen writing. In workshop students will produce a short script.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-397. Summer Creative Writing Institute. 3 Hours.
Offered only in summer as an intensive course that runs for ten extended class days. Experimenting with both prose and poetry, students participate in workshops as well as sessions with invited speakers covering subjects such as the craft of poetry and prose, the profession of writing and publishing, and the MFA. The emphasis is on an intense workshop experience and an atmosphere of constructive critique leading to the production of a significant portfolio of writing.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-398A. Creative Non-Fiction I. 3 Hours.
Students write non-fiction prose which is discussed and critiqued in class by instructor and students.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-398B. Creative Non-Fiction II. 3 Hours.
Students write non-fiction prose which is discussed and critiqued in class by instructor and students.
Prerequisite: ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-402. Ecological Crises And Narratives. 3 Hours.
How do literature and culture transform during periods of ecological crises? What new aesthetic forms and practices do writers and cultural producers develop in order to represent climate change, mass extinction, plastic pollution, and ecological genocide? How do ecological crises change the form of literature and culture, and moreover, change conceptions of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and belonging? This course considers these questions and more through the study of a wide range of genres, including canonical environmental literature, poetry, and science fiction.
ENGL-403. Writing The Now. 3 Hours.
Students will merge their training in analysis of sociopolitical issues and literary works that emerge from such with creative writing across multiple genres. As critical observers and creative beings, students will examine writers’ and artists’ responses to historic moments and movements. Students will read hyper-contemporary creative and theoretical texts, while considering how literary art gets politicized and otherwise activated. They will work independently on a multi-genre semester-long portfolio and share writing within the classroom community, and in a public-facing symposium. Literature of the moment will serve as models and source-texts, and students will respond through production of creative/critical manuscripts.
Requirement: 300-level undergrad creative writing course, graduate-level creative writing work, or permission of instructor.
ENGL-404. Elements Of Style For Creative Writers. 3 Hours.
The course reviews style conventions of the English language, including punctuation, grammar, usage, and sound, focusing on sentence and line analysis. Students will consider how deployment of conventions and issues of perspective, power, and encoded bias impact a reader's experience. Students will develop a working definition of their own writerly style while experimenting in using, subverting, and experimenting with conventions. Students will be encouraged to work within their own desired genre(s); modern and contemporary texts which move across genres will serve as models. Students seeking to develop editing and teaching skills will do the fine-detail work necessary to do so.
Requirement: 300-level undergraduate creative writing course, graduate-level creative writing work, or permission of instructor.
ENGL-409A. Writing In Public: Community Literacies, Public Intellectuals, And Rhetorics Of Change. 3 Hours.
This course looks at “public” writing and teaching in the work of marginalized communities, social movements, and public intellectuals. The primary goal is to understand writing as a contested, political act that can influence the public sphere but can also serve as a tool for oppression and control. This course is appropriate for students interested in theories and the teaching of writing and for students interested in critical and community education.
Requirement: At least six credits in the English MA program or by consent of instructor.
ENGL-410. Literary Methods And Practice. 3 Hours.
A foundation course that will build on existing skills and prepare for further graduate-level studies, with a goal of contextualizing and conceptualizing critical attitudes and approaches to literary text. Its aim is to provide advanced critical and scholarly tools for understanding literature and will address crtiticism and critical method, close reading and analysis and bibliographical and research technique. Required in the first year of study in the Literature Concentration.
ENGL-411A. Cultural And Literary Studies: History, Theory, Practice. 3 Hours.
This course introduces students to the institutional history, theoretical debates, and interpretative strategies of cultural studies, with a particularly interest in how the study of culture, understood broadly, intersects and changes literary studies. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this course explores how cultural processes and forms are produced, distributed, consumed, and responded to in diverse, contradictory ways. Moreover, the course will emphasize how all culture must be studied on multiple scales, ranging from the local to the global.
ENGL-413A. Crafting The MA List: Composing Literary, Cultural, And Compositional Fields. 3 Hours.
This course examines some of the history and theories of English as a discipline to help students develop deep background knowledge of the field and conduct independent research that will help them construct their MA exam lists/fields of study. The collaborative work of the class helps students connect the various threads of English they are examining individually to the larger context of English Studies, and students are given extensive guidance as they work toward professional research agendas.
ENGL-414. Seminar In Reading Film. 3 Hours.
A seminar in film emphasizing methods of reading films as we would texts. Students will explore the complexity of film through close viewing, critical analysis of narrative structure, and attention to visual form and representational practice. To paraphrase a famous question asked about poetry, this course will explore "how a film means.".
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-416. Ekphrastic Practice: Responding To Art In Inquiry-Based Creative Writing. 3 Hours.
Ekphrasis is, in its simplest sense, writing that examines and describes a piece of art. This Creative Writing course takes that as a starting notion and pursues its potential as a writerly practice. Students will: examine multiple-genre book-length and individual pieces of Ekphrastic writing; consider those works as sites of inquiry about the complex relationship between source and response, content and form; from their experiences and observations in this work as both writer and reader, plan and execute a small manuscript-length project of creative writing that is both in the ekphrastic mode and rooted in inquiry.
ENGL-418. Studies In Shakespeare. 3 Hours.
Advanced study of Shakespeare's work, organized by theme. This course will explore a number plays grouped together by an organizing principle (such as "Shakespeare and History," "Shakespeare and the Other," "The Roman Plays," "Romance"). These works will also be placed in their historical context, paying close attention to genre, structure, and language. Students will aslo study thoretical approaches to Shakespeare's work in reading of contemporary critical works.
ENGL-419. Elizabethan And Jacobean Drama. 3 Hours.
Exploration of English dramatic works from circa 1580-1642, including Marlowe, Greene, Middleton, Marston, Dekker, Jonson, Webster, and Beaumont. This course will pay particular attention to genres that dominate outside the Shakespeare canon (revenge tragedy, city comedy, tragicomedy), as well as detailing the social, cultural, and intellectual developments that characterize this golden age of English stagecraft.
ENGL-420. Teaching Shakespeare. 3 Hours.
This intensive summer course focuses on the teaching of Shakespeare's drama. In order to develop methods for teaching these plays at all levels we will study a few selected plays along with secondary literature. Moving from close textual analysis to a workshop will allow students to work on practical approaches to teaching the plays at the level of plot, characterization, theme, genre, performance, and more. Course material will be expanded with the help of documentaries, films, small group workshops, and guest faculty. Prerequisite: MA or at-large status. Or Permission of Instructor.
ENGL-422. Milton. 3 Hours.
Study of a turbulent and exciting "century of revolutions" by concentrating on the figure most associated with seventeenth-century English literature, John Milton. We will read all of his major peotry as well as some significant prose writings. We will also attempt to contextualize Milton in his period by studying other major figures such as Ben Jonson, Andrew Marvell, and John Bunyan.
ENGL-426. Seminar In Romantic Literature. 3 Hours.
Advanced study of the major poets of the Romantic period, involving oral reports, and culminating in a term paper.
ENGL-427A. Pedagogies Of College Level Writing. 3 Hours.
In this course, students apply theoretical learning to practical considerations of teaching writing at the college level through textbook and assignment analysis, syllabus design, and lesson design for writing aspects, such as developing rhetorical strategies, attending to grammar and responding to student work. The course also addresses everyday aspects of teaching such as incorporating effective discussions, setting up culturally sensitive classes, and understanding the realities of employment at the college level. The course is open to students in MA composition or literature students, and students with graduate standing in related field.
ENGL-428. The English Novel. 3 Hours.
Study of the English novel from its origins in the 18th century "Rise of the Novel" tradition, through Gothic/Romantic and Victorian Fiction, to Modernism and Post-Modernism. Individual readings may vary, but students are likely to read works by Defoe, Bronte, Woolf, Lawrence, Conrad, etc.
ENGL-429. Writing Across The Curriculum. 3 Hours.
Through class discussion and activities, textual analyses and inquiry-based research assignments, this class explores connections between writing and the creation and representation of knowledge within academic disciplines. Topics include defining what counts as appropriate evidence in various fields, and the role of English departments in writing in the disciplines pedagogy. Though not intended to be guided instruction in the mechanics of writing, students will gain deeper insight into what counts as quality writing in their disciplines, so in addition to MA Composition graduate students, this course is open to graduate students in other fields with written permission by the instructor.
ENGL-430. Studies In Literary Criticism. 3 Hours.
A study of some of the central problems and issues of contemporary criticism, as exemplified by the writings of major theorists.
ENGL-431. Bibliography And Research In English. 3 Hours.
Material, methods, and tools of literary research; use of libraries; preparation of scholarly papers.
ENGL-432. Alternative Literacies. 3 Hours.
This course will explore literacy theories within and beyond composition studies by considering competing models of literacy and the cultural dimensions of writings, such as economic class or multilingualism, as well as the implications of these for the practice of writing and writing instruction.
ENGL-433. Seminar In Composition Theory. 3 Hours.
This course includes an extensive examination of current composition methodologies with emphasis upon the eclectic needs of the composition student.
ENGL-434. Seminar In Basic Writing Theory. 3 Hours.
A survey of types of students in basic writing classes, a review of placement tests for identifying levels of writing compentency, and a careful examination of various basic writing methodologies.
ENGL-435. Writing Assessment: Theory And Practice. 3 Hours.
Theoretical background on evaluating student writing, as well as practical training in how to diagnose and remediate problems with grammar and content at the secondary and college level.
ENGL-436. Rhetorics Of Composition. 3 Hours.
This course will provide students with a background in Classical Rhetoric and then examine how the conventions of Classical Rhetoric have been translated or transformed into rhetorics of composition, such as Expressionistic Rhetoric, Cognitive Rhetoric, Epistemic Rhetoric and Social Construct Rhetoric.
ENGL-437. English Studies And Technology. 3 Hours.
Many scholars in English argue that the computer is radically revising the way we read and write texts. Using sources from literary and rhetorical studies, this class will consider how computer technology is contributing to new notions of the author, text, and audience as well as to the ways computers affect students' reading and writing.
ENGL-438. Research In Composition. 3 Hours.
Materials and methods for library research in composition theory; preparation of scholarly work on composition; research designs and measurement techniques for qualitative and quantitative studies in composition.
ENGL-439. Stylistics. 3 Hours.
Examination of the historical relationship of style to rhetoric; techniques for improving prose style; aspects of style as a part or writing evaluation.
ENGL-446. Critical Writing For Creative Writers. 3 Hours.
This course is a seminar and writing workshop in one. Students will: examine models of texts that operate in the critical-creative or creative-critical mode; choose outside reading of their own through an inquiry-based process for the purpose of producing multi-modal work; produce various critical, creative, creative-critical, and critical-creative pieces; submit a book review/essay for possible publication; and through this process “enter the discourse,” as writers working in multiple modes.
Requirement: 300-level undergraduate creative writing course, graduate-level creative writing work, or permission of instructor.
ENGL-456A. Graphic Novels And Social Conflicts. 3 Hours.
This course studies graphic novels as a complex medium that offers new ways to think about and represent a range of social conflicts, including class, race, gender, ecology, history, and national belonging. Students will learn the vocabulary necessary to understand how the medium functions and how to read diverse graphic novels from various contexts. Some questions considered are: How do the visual and verbal dimensions of the graphic novel enable forms of thinking not possible in other media? Why do some theorists identify graphic novels as a medium in which some of the most progressive forms of feminism are unfolding?.
ENGL-466. American Renaissance Revisited. 3 Hours.
A critical study of mid-19th century U.S. literature that explores the writers identified with the "American Renaissance" and their relationship to other important literary developments such as the slave narrative and women's domestic fiction.
ENGL-467. The Age Of Literary Realism In The United States. 3 Hours.
A study of U.S. literary realism, the cultural and socio-historical conditions of its emergence, and its relation to other later 19th century literary genres such as sentimentalism and naturalism. Authors might include Twain, Howells, James, Chesnutt, Wharton, Dreiser, Chopin, and others.
ENGL-468. U.S. Literary Modernism & Its Others. 3 Hours.
A study of literary developments in the United States from the early 20th century to the Cold War, focusing on the rise of modernism, proletarian literature, literature of the Harlem Renaissance, and other important bodies of literature.
ENGL-469. Seminar In Southern Literature. 3 Hours.
Intensive reading of twentieth-century Southern literature exclusive of Faulkner with emphasis on the sociological and psychological aspects of the literature as they mirror in America's South.
ENGL-470. Seminar In Faulkner. 3 Hours.
Intensive reading of the short fiction and novels of William Faulkner with specific attention on his development as a novelist and his place among twentieth century American authors.
ENGL-471. Studies In The American Novel. 3 Hours.
A study of major developments in the U.S. novel, this course might feature a variety of foci, including the rise of the novel in America, particularly literary periods or genres, key moments of transition in U.S. literary history, or other key evolutions in novelistic practice in the United States.
ENGL-472. Graduate Seminar In Early American Women's Writing. 3 Hours.
This seminar involves the study of women's writing in the US from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including political and historical prose as well as gothic, sentimentalist, romantic and realist fiction. Critical readings present students the mid-20th century debates over the status of early women writers and popular fiction, literary-historical work recovering the social, political, economic and legal contexts in which women became professional writers, and contemporary feminist and historical work on women's writing of this period. Assignments may include close reading, critical engagement with new theoretical and historical criticism, and opportunities for research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: ENGL-410 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-474A. Hybrid-form Writing In And Across Genres And Forms. 3 Hours.
This course examines models related to and provides tools for the production of Hybrid-form Writing (writing in and across multiple genres/forms such as poetry, fiction, and nonfiction). Hybrid-form work takes place at both the discrete level (individual, usually long-form pieces) and manuscript level (a book-length project that relies on multiple forms). This course emphasizes long-form/extended projects, which must be rooted in a considered line of inquiry. This inquiry happens at multiple stages and levels: students experiment with different forms, engage in pre-writing to conceive of projects, and consider how form affects content/why certain forms might be culturally or personally privileged.
ENGL-476. Oil Fictions: Reading Along The Transnational Pipeline. 3 Hours.
This course brings together multiple literary genres and cultural forms to study diverse voices along the transnational oil pipelines, from privileged subjects whose desires, values, and lifestyles are enabled by mass oil consumption, to the communities and geographies that suffer the consequences of this oil dependency, social relations typically rendered invisible and inaudible by the dominant forms of globalization.
ENGL-477. Producing "America":Issues Of Work, Class, And Political Economy In U.S. Literature And Culture. 3 Hours.
This course will focus on literary and cultural works that represent the material conditions of production in the United States as well as on the way we ideologically produce American identity and culture in ways that obscure or make visible the work people do to make our material lives possible. The class will foreground issues of class and political economy in reading literature and culture from a working-class perspective.
Requirements: Admission to an English MA program or consent of instructor.
ENGL-478. Screenwriting. 3 Hours.
This is a workshop course in screenwriting, concentrating on producing a short to medium-length script. Students will study the particular form and conventions, as well as the specific format, of writing a screenplay. Readings will include exemplary screenplays in several genres, as well as essays on the philosophy and technique of screen writing.
Prerequisite: ENGL-410 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-479A. Latina/o/x Literature. 3 Hours.
This course offers graduate-level study of US Latina/o/x literatures, including writing from the early period to the present. Readings may offer a broad representation of writers from North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean or may cover various genres including essays, novels, poetry and drama. Assignments, lectures and discussion will center on questions of identity, culture, history, politics and aesthetics. For students who are teaching or plan to teach, the course will also provide analysis of pedagogical methods in Latina/o/x studies.
ENGL-480. Ethnic Literatures. 3 Hours.
A study of "ethnic," "minority," and U.S. Third World literatures, of the conditions of their emergence as literary formations in relation to cultural, social, and literary developments, and of their relationship to racial and ethnic studies.
ENGL-481. Latin American Literature. 3 Hours.
This course explores major works in Latin American literature across various genres (novel, drama, poetry). The rich pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods will be studied through works which represent the struggles of different people from different classes, with differing origins, and who hold disparate religious beliefs in this large and diverse region.
ENGL-482. Contemporary Poetic Forms. 3 Hours.
A study of the diverse poetic forms emerging in American poetry since the 1960's- free verse, new formalism, and many experimental forms- as well as the hands-on experience of writing in these forms.
ENGL-483. Postcolonial Literature. 3 Hours.
This course studies literary works produced by or about peoples who have been colonized by European imperial powers. It situates these literatures within the philosophical frameworks that informed European imperial hegemonies as well as the colonized people's responses to them. While we will draw theoretical examples from every part of the world, our literary readings in this class will concetrate mainly on the literatures of Africa and Asia and their diasporas, especially in the Caribbean.
ENGL-484. Contemporary U.S. Literature Since The Cold War. 3 Hours.
A study of the Cold War critical construction of "American" literature and important literary developments from the 1950s to the present, including the rise of postmodernism, the Beat Generation, and a variety of ethnic literary developments, as well as other important literary phenomena of the period.
ENGL-485. Contemporary European Literature. 3 Hours.
The aim of this course is to examine some important works of European literature from the 20th century till date. The course explores major isssues such as the place of ethics in literature, holocaust, the World War I & II, European identity etc.
ENGL-487. Material Culture. 3 Hours.
In this seminar, students will concentrate on the material contexts (legal, economic, social, technological) that inform cultural production. While the cultural forms and historical periods focused upon may vary by instructor, in every case the course will introduce students to the history of critical work in this area and involve projects in which students trace the marks of material forces in cultural forms.
Requirement: two additional courses at the 400 level
Prerequisite: ENGL-410 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-488. Africana Literature: Slavery And The Literary Imagination. 3 Hours.
Through the lens of former slaves and contemporary novelists and scholars, this course explores the ways in which the slavery narrative and the neo-slave narrative attend to the larger existential question of what it means to be free. The corollary notions of race, gender, citizenship, and labor, among others, will also be considered. In addition, this class will investigate the ways in which the re-inscription of slavery, in contemporary literature, has impacted the development of the Africana literary tradition in terms of content, genre, and form.
ENGL-491. Sonnet: Not Just A Love Song. 3 Hours.
This class will explore the sonnet's many voices and subjects-from plaintive to menacing, from romance to racial injustice. We will read across the centuries, from Shakespeare to Keats to Edna St. Vincent Millay. We will read sonnet-variations, and sonnet-spoofs by contemporary American poets and we will experiment with sonnets of our own. Our time will be spent on close readings, discussions, writing, and informal presentations.
ENGL-491A. One Woman Writer. 3 Hours.
In this course, students will investigate the life and work of a single woman writer, chosen on any given term for her significance to literary history, criticism, philosophy or political economy. Readings will include a full array of the writer's original work as well as bio-critical, theoretical and literary critical responses to that work.
ENGL-495. Re-Thinking Race & Gender. 3 Hours.
The course starts with historical narrative, re-thinking how we learn to practice race and gender from within larger systems of white supremacy and patriarchy. Students will explore models for disrupting systemic patterns and turning rethinking into everyday action. The aim throughout is to interrogate structures and relations of race and gender, and how they get naturalized. Cross-listed for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and teachers. When taught as a Summer Institute, the course runs for eight days over three weeks.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-4991. Independent Study In English. 1 Hour.
This is a 1-credit course focused on a carefully planned subject area and work plan approved by the professor of record.
Prerequisite: (ENGL-400 - 499 or ENGL-400A - 499Z).
ENGL-4993. Independent Study. 3 Hours.
This course is designed for students pursuing independent studies of topics not covered in our catalog of courses at the graduate level in English.
Prerequisite: ENGL-101 with a minimum grade of C and ENGL-235 with a minimum grade of C.
ENGL-5901. Thesis Hours. 1 Hour.
Graduate students complete an extensive, lengthy research or creative project under the guidance of a supervising committee. The thesis is optional for English graduate students and accounts for 6 of the 33 credit hours required for the M.A.
ENGL-5902. Thesis Hours. 2 Hours.
See course description for ENGL-5901.
ENGL-5903. Thesis Hours. 3 Hours.
See course description for ENGL-5901.