Course Descriptions

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (ENGL)
I. FOUNDATIONAL COURSES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE


120 Why Read
This course offers the opportunity to explore the nature and value of literature and to think about how literature can matter in our lives and the world at large. It gives students a chance to use literature to contemplate some of the great questions of life, "Who am I?", "What is my place in the world?", "What is the good life?", and "What does it mean to be human?" Prerequisite: INTD 100. One semester, 3 credits.

155* Language and Critical Thought
Introductory exercises in recognizing and controlling ambiguity with the tools of classification, definition, and exposition of critical thought. Prerequisite: INTD 100. One semester, 3 credits.

220 Major British Writers to 1785
A team-taught introduction to major writers in British literature to 1785, with particular emphasis on their historical and thematic contexts. Prerequisite: 120 or instructor's permission. One semester, 3 credits.

221 Major British and American Writers from 1660
A team-taught introduction to major writers in British and American literature from 1660, with particular emphasis on their historical and thematic contexts. Prerequisites: 120 and 220. One semester, 3 credits.

222* Literature of the Bible
A study of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, with an emphasis on biblical texts both as literature in their own right and as sources for other literature, art, and music. Prerequisites: 120 or instructor's permission. One semester, 3 credits. (Same as REL 216.)

223* Greek and Roman Literature
A survey of the epic, drama, lyric, and literary theory of Classical Greece and Rome - from its beginnings in the ninth century B.C.E. through the early common era - including works of Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Horace, Virgil, Ausonius, and Paulinus of Nola. Prerequisites: 120 or instructor's permission. One semester, 3 credits.

II. COURSES IN WRITING AND LANGUAGE

Majors are required to take at least one course from either the Writing or the Language and Linguistics category below. Both introductory and upper-division writing courses from this list may be counted toward the major.

A. COURSES IN WRITING

201* Introduction to Journalism
The fundamentals of writing for a newspaper; introduction to the profession of journalism; problems of reporting, editing, and publishing. One semester, 3 credits.

202 Writing Short Fiction
By writing short stories and critiquing those of peers and published writers, students learn in workshops and conferences to analyze the problems of writing short fiction. Prerequisite: 120 and instructor permission. One semester, 3 credits.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE GUIDELINES FOR A MINOR IN ENGLISH

A minor in English requires 18 credits, including 120 and at least 9 upper-division credits. (ENGL 220 - 221 is recommended, but not required, for the minor.) Minors should be planned in consultation with a departmental advisor and must include one course from each of the following: (1) a genre (324, 326, 328, 329, 331, 332, 334, 335, 336, 350, 352, 355, 358, 362, 363, 364, 370, 371); (2) a historical period; and (3) a major fi gure (323, 324, 328, 329). Note: For additional information on both the major and the minor, consult the English Department Handbook.

203 Writing Poetry
An introduction to poetry writing, focusing on form and technique. Workshops, outside readings, visits by established poets. Prerequisite: 120 and instructor permission. One semester, 3 credits.

301* Advanced College Writing
Intensive workshop in the writing. Prerequisite: 120 and instructor permission. May be repeated for credit. One semester, 3
credits.

302* Advanced Fiction Writing
Intensive workshop in the writing of short stories. Prerequisite: 120. May be repeated for credit. One semester, 3 credits.

303* Advanced Poetry Writing
Intensive workshop in the writing of poetry. Prerequisite: 120. May be repeated for credit. One semester, 3 credits.

304* The Other Creative Writing
A class in forms of creative writing other than poetry or fi ction, such as op-ed, memoir, translation, craft essays, travel writing, interviews, profiles, and meditative essays, as well as experimental forms involving collage, reduction, mail art, performance and/or found art. The final project will be a substantial undertaking. Students will learn how to write query and cover letters, and how to identify the correct market for their creations. Prerequisite: 120 and instructor permission. One semester, 3 credits.

305* Screenwriting
An introduction to writing scripts for films, considering both artistic and professional aspects of the trade. Workshops, readings, and writing exercises will lead toward a detailed treatment and complete fi rst act of a featurelength film. One semester, 3 credits.

B. COURSES IN LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS


310 Linguistics
A study of the sounds, forms, structure, and meanings of human language, alongside the biological and social forces that shape its use and control its evolution over time. Prerequisite: INTD 100. One semester, 3 credits.

311* History of the English Language
A study of the origins of English and its dialects, and of the historical, social, and linguistic forces that shaped its evolution from Prehistoric Germanic through Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. Prerequisite: INTD 100. One semester, 3 credits.

315* The System of Basic English
An introduction to C.K. Ogden's system of Basic English in light of traditional and modern philosophy. This course is designed for students who want to develop systematic control of written and spoken English. Prerequisite: INTD 100. January, 4 credits.

316* Semiotics
Introduction to the major schools of semiotics. Particular attention will be paid to the distinction between signs and symbols, abstracting, multiple uses of language, and the role that symbols and other conceptual tools play in human behavior. Prerequisite: INTD 100. One semester, 3 credits.

III. ADVANCED COURSES IN LITERATURE

Majors are required to take at least one course from areas A - D listed below.

A. BRITISH AND EUROPEAN LITERATURE, 500-1700

320* Literature of Medieval Europe
A survey of the main trends and genres of literature in Europe from the Fall of Rome (c. 500) to the Protestant Reformation (c. 1500). Most texts (coming from Italy, France, and Germany as well as from England) will be read in translation. Prerequisite: 120; 220 or 222
recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

321* British Literature, 700 - 1500
A survey of major genres and works of the British Isles to the close of the Middle Ages. Readings include Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Second Shepherd's Play, and the Morte d'Arthur. Except for Middle English texts, works will be read in translation. Prerequisite: 120; 220 R recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

323* Dante
A close reading (in translation) of Dante's Divine Comedy in the context both of his Vita Nuova and of various historical and literary movements of his time. Prerequisite: 120; 220 or 223 recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

324* Chaucer
A close reading of The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, in Middle English and with their medieval background. Prerequisite: 120; 220 or 321 recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

325* Literature of the English Renaissance
Representative literary works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries read in the context of historic events which helped shape these works. Prerequisite: 120 (or THEA 150); 220 recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

326* Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
An examination of several of Shakespeare's plays in connection with plays by such dramatists as Kyd, Marlowe, Jonson, Webster, and Beaumont and Fletcher. Prerequisite: 120 (or THEA 150); 220 recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

328 Shakespeare
Introduction to the major plays. Prerequisite: 120 or THEA 150. One semester, 3 credits. (Same as THEA 328.)

329* Milton
An examination of John Milton's poetry and major prose in its biographical and historical context, culminating in a close reading of Paradise Lost. Prerequisite: 120; 220, 222 or 223 strongly recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

B. BRITISH AND EUROPEAN LITERATURE, 1700-1900

330* British Literature, 1640 - 1789
A survey of British literature of the English Civil Wars, Restoration, and eighteenth century, with particular attention to its social context. Special emphasis is given to Dryden, Defoe, Pope, Fielding, and Johnson, as well as to the numerous women writing during the period. Prerequisite: 120; 220, 222, or 223 strongly recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

331* Rise of the Novel
The pioneers of the novel in English: Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, and Sterne. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

332* Nineteenth-Century English Novel
Major nineteenth-century novels, selected from the works of Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, the Brontes, Eliot, and Hardy. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

334* Romantic Poetry
Poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

335* Victorian Poetry
Major works by such poets as Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, and Hopkins, and some prose. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

336* The European Novel
Selected European novels of the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on Russian fiction. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

C. BRITISH AND GLOBAL LITERATURE FROM 1900

350* Modern Drama
A survey of modern dramatic works from the 1870s to the 1960s, from naturalism to the Theater of the Absurd. Prerequisite: 120 or THEA 150. One semester, 3 credits.

352* The Modern British Novel
An examination of British novels from 1900 through the 1940s, with an emphasis on modernism and such novelists as Conrad, Woolf, Joyce, Ford, Forster, Lawrence, and Orwell. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

354* Contemporary British Literature
A study of British literature and culture since 1950, and of the relationship between literature and national identity in the period. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

355* Contemporary Drama
A study of key figures and movements in drama and performance art since the 1950s. Prerequisite: 120 or THEA 150. One semester, 3 credits.

358* Postcolonial Novel
Twentieth and Twenty-first century novels in English by writers with origins in the former British Empire. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

D. AMERICAN LITERATURE

275* Chicano Literature
A survey of the works of Mexican-American authors of poetry, prose, and drama, which delves into questions of gender, textual interpretation, and socio-historic contexts. One semester, 3 credits. (Same as SPAN 225.)

360* The Origins of American Literature
The colonial period through the early republic. Consideration is given to the ways in which American literary expression began to concern itself with unique forms and ideas, in such writers as Bradford, Bradstreet, Wheatley, Edwards, Franklin, Brown, Irving, and Cooper. Prerequisite: 120; 221 recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

361* American Romanticism
The major writers of the literary movement known as "transcendentalism" and the response to them. Such writers as Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Douglass, Whitman, Dickinson, Whittier, Longfellow, and Bryant will be considered. Prerequisite: 120; 221 recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

362* American Realism and Naturalism
The major writers of the last half of the nineteenth century to World War I, with emphasis on the two movements of the course title. Such writers as Stowe, Twain, Howells, Crane, James, Norris, London, Chopin, Gilman, Wharton, and Adams will be considered. Prerequisite: 120; 221 recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

363* Modern American Novel
The modernist movement in the American novel from World War I to 1950. Such writers as Cather, Faulkner, Hemingway, Dos Passos, Hurston, Dreiser, Welty, Stein, Steinbeck, Lewis, Fitzgerald, Hammett, and Chandler will be considered. Prerequisite: 120; 221 recommended. One semester, 3 credits.

364* Modern American Poetry
Poets of the modernist era in America, such as Williams, Stevens, Eliot, and Moore. May include some contemporaneous British poets (i.e. Yeats) and American precursors (i.e. Dickinson and Whitman). Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

365* Hemingway and Eliot
Close reading of major works by Ernest Hemingway and T.S. Eliot, with attention to literary form, ethical situations, and world views. Prerequisite: 120. January, 4 credits.

370* Postmodern American Novel
An examination of American novels since 1950 in relation to postmodern aesthetics, theory, and culture. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

371* Contemporary American Poetry
Readings in American poetry from post-World War II to the present. May include some contemporaneous world poetry. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

373* The African-American Literary Tradition
An examination of the development of the African-American literary tradition. Among the writers and topics which may be considered are slave narratives, the oral tradition,Wheatley, Douglass, the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes, Hurston, Baldwin, Wright, Ellison, Walker, Angelou, and Morrison. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

374* Asian-American Literature
A course in contemporary Asian-American fiction, poetry, and drama, with an emphasis on immigrant history and on media images of Asian-Americans. Prerequisite: 120. One semester or January, 3 or 4 credits.

377* Autobiography and American Culture
Examination of autobiography as a particularly American genre. Consideration of the theory and history of the genre. Emphasis on autobiography as a literary expression of a variety of literary, historical, and cultural concerns. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

IV. LITERARY, FORMAL, AND THEMATIC ALTERNATIVES

280* Literature on Film
An examination of the complex relationships between literary works and their cinematic realization. Prerequisite: INTD 100. January, 4 credits.

381* Discourses of Desire: Representing
Love and Gender from Plato to Kundera Representations of romantic love by both men and women from the Song of Songs and Plato's Symposium, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to the end of the twentieth century. Prerequisite: 120; 220 recommended.
One semester, 3 credits.

382* History of Literary Criticism
Major approaches and critical assumptions in the history of literary criticism; special attention to critical movements since 1930. Prerequisite: 120; 220-21 recommended. One
semester, 3 credits.

383* Asian Literature
Masterpieces, ancient and modern, of Asian literature - including philosophical writings, poetry, drama, short stories, and novels - from classics such as the Analects of Confucius to
contempories such as Kobo Abe and Bharati Mukherjee. This class will focus on two or three of the following areas: India, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

385* Celtic Literature
This course offers an overview of Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish, Manx, and Breton literary traditions. Beginning with the ancient texts of the Tain and the Mabinogion, this survey will finish with an exploration of present-day Celtic literature. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

386* Satire
The main currents, techniques, and purposes of satire from ancient Greece to the present. Prerequisite: 120. One semester, 3 credits.

387* Science Fiction
A reading and viewing of science fiction from H.G. Wells to Octavia Butler in historical, thematic, stylistic, and socio-political terms. Prerequisite: 120. One semester or January,
3-4 credits.

190, 290, 390, 490* Selected Topics in English and American Literature
Advanced study in a major figure or movement. Permission required. One semester or January, 3-4 credits. May be repeated for credit.

295, 395, 495 Independent Studies
Credit and time arranged. Permission required. May be repeated for credit.

420 Preceptorship: Teaching Literature
Collaboration with professors in teaching introductory literature courses. For advanced majors interested in the theory and practice of teaching literature. Requires attendance at the relevant course (120, 220 or 221) and intensive work with the instructor. Prerequisites: 120 and instructor permission. One semester, 1 credit. May be repeated for credit.

V. CAPSTONE COURSES AND PAPER IN THE MAJOR

Majors are required to take these two courses during their senior year. Senior Seminars may require prerequisites to ensure preparation for advanced work in the area. Students should consult their advisors at least two years in advance to select, then prepare for, an appropriate seminar.

400 Critical Procedures in Language and Literature
Consideration of the major theoretical positions in contemporary criticism with their application to selected literary texts. Designed for senior English majors. The portfolio produced in this course satisfi es the Paperin- the-Major college writing requirement for English majors. Permission required. One semester, 3 credits.

410 Senior Seminar
Intensive study of a particular figure or topic, for seniors. Prerequisites as appropriate to the subject. Permission required. May be repeated for credit. One semester or January, 3 credits.

*Not offered every year.