Summer 2008 Course Descriptions

Maymester Courses
Summer I Courses
Summer II Courses

ENGL 431M-001        CHILDREN’S LITERATURE                                M-F 11:00-1:45             JOHNSON

This course is a broad introduction to the world of contemporary American children’s literature.  Students will examine texts which are in some way related to central ideas of and about America and Americans of various ethnicities and backgrounds.  Discussion topics will include the meaning of “excellence” in children’s book-writing and illustration, the cultural politics of the children’s book publishing world, and current issues and controversies in the field.

ENGL 439M-001        BOB MARLEY: THE LYRICAL GENIUS            M-F 8:00-10:45               DAWES

Using the lyrics of Bob Marley, video footage, and several texts that engage with Marley the artist and figure, along with close analysis of his music paying attention to issues of politics, religion, race, sexuality and identity, this course will introduce students to one of the most important musical icons of the twentieth century.  The course will combine lecture, discussion and an innovative journaling system to connect students with the music of Bob Marley. 

ENGL 439M-002     COMICS AND AMERICAN CULTURE                    M-F 11:00-1:45                     WHITTED

This course is a scholarly study of how comics engage pivotal cultural, social, and political issues in American life. We will explore how comic book writers and artists have revised the popular superhero motif in recent years to raise critical questions about power and authority, to interrogate silences regarding race, gender, and class inequality, and to demonstrate the ways in which the dynamic fusion of sequential art and writing can be used to tell any American story (not just those featuring caped crusaders). Grades will be determined by active class participation, daily response papers, a research project, and a final exam. We will be using the following texts: Understanding Comics (McCloud); X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (Claremont/Anderson); Ghost World (Daniel Clowes); Stagger Lee (McCulloch/Hendrix); and American-Born Chinese (Yang). Please note: some familiarity with comics is useful, but not required.

ENGL 566M-001        MATING GAME IN HOLLYWOOD FILM              M-F 2:00-4:45                    RHU

This course studies comedies and melodramas from the first three decades of the sound era.  Films will be analyzed in terms of features that define them as these kinds of films and in terms of their preoccupation with relations between the sexes.  In light of these American "talkies," what constitutes a genuine marriage or makes such an alliance impossible?  Do such questions require public and/or private responses?  Films will include It Happened One Night, The Lady Eve, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, Adam’s Rib, Stella Dallas, Gaslight, Now, Voyager, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Vertigo, and North by Northwest. Some films will be analyzed in tandem with literary texts and film criticism. Grades will be based on regular journal entries and a final exam.  Graduate students will be expected to read additional theoretical essays and to write a longer and more substantive final research paper.
 

ENGL 282-001                       FICTION                     M-TH 1:00-3:15                                   BOLT
 
(Designed for Non-majors)
Fiction from several countries and historical periods, illustrating the nature of the genre.  For more information, contact the instructor.

ENGL 283-001                    THEMES IN BRITISH WRIT.  M-TH  8:00-10:15                     GWARA

(Designed for Non-majors)
For this course we will be reading five British best-sellers and writing short reaction papers in response to class conversation.  For more information, contact the instructor.

ENGL 285-001           THEMES IN AMERICAN WRITING      M-TH 1:00-3:15               HAGSTETTE

(Designed for Non-majors)            
America:  A History of Violence

Though America's national myth is one of a land of opportunity and a new garden of Eden, home to the innocent adventurer and the self-made man, there is a dark underbelly to the American experience, one that is characterized by the overwhelming prevalence of violence in our history.  This course seeks to evaluate the influence of violence on America's development and national character by examining its intersection with literature.  Specifically, we will explore four subsets of America's violent legacy:  dueling, lynching, war, and gothicism.  In our efforts, we will consider the reasons for our national fascination with violence, the origins of our bloody heritage, and the consequences of our attachment to carnage.  Some of the writers whose work will be instructive in this pursuit may include Ambrose Bierce, Charles Brockden Brown, Charles Chesnutt, Stephen Crane, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, Flannery O'Connor, Edgar Allan Poe, Jean Toomer, and Mark Twain.

ENGL 287-001           AMERICAN LITERATURE                M-TH 10:30-12:45                      WATSON

This course provides an introduction to a range of American writers and works from the 17th to the 20th century, tracing the development of major literary forms and themes, as well as key historical and cultural trends.  Given this broad scope, our readings and discussions will focus on the role of social, religious, and political dissent in the formation of an American democratic culture and the multiple communities within it.  Requirements:  3 critical papers (5pp), weekly reading responses, class presentation.

ENGL 380-001            EPIC TO ROMANCE                            M-TH 10:30-12:45                               GWARA

Discussion of major works of literature: the Iliad, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Beowulf, romances by
Chrétien de Troyes, and Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.  Two papers and a mid-term.  Daily quizzes
on the readings.

ENGL 385-001                       MODERNISM                                    M-TH 10:30-12:45                   GLAVEY

This course will serve as an introduction to the literature of Anglo-American modernism. Our first goal will be to understand the specific features of particular early-twentieth-century texts: how they are put together as works of art, what they attempt to achieve, how they may or may not challenge contemporary readers. From there we will consider how they respond to, reflect, and resist the processes of modernization. One of our primary questions will be: What does it feel like to be modern? In thinking through what literature tells us about this question, we will consider the epistemological, psychological, and sociological facets of modernity as reflected and rewritten by the particular formal and thematic choices of our authors. Most of our readings will be drawn from *Modernism: An  Anthology,* ed. Lawrence Rainey, and will focus primarily on poetry and short fiction. Authors covered will include Djuna Barnes, Mary Butts, Hart Crane, H. D., T. S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Ernest  Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Joyce, Mina Loy, Richard Bruce Nugent, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Virginia Woolf. Requirements for the course include an essay, a creative project, a final exam, and participation in a collaborative wiki.

ENGL 406-001           SHAKESPEARE COMEDY/HIST.    M-TH 1:00-3:15                      SHIFFLETT

A survey of representative plays including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV Part 1, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale, and The Temptest. Emphasis will be placed on Shakespeare's artful use of language in revealing human character, his innovations in historical and comedic form, and the cultural contexts of his plays. Requirements will include reviews of criticism and essay exams on each play.

ENGL 432-001         ADOLESCENT LITERATURE                        M-TH 8:00-10:15                    JOHNSON

The subject matter of this course is contemporary American young adult literature. Students will examine texts which are in some way related to central ideas about America and Americans of various backgrounds and experiences. Discussion topics will include the meaning of literary excellence in the YA literature world, the politics of the children’s book publishing industry, and current issues and controversies in the field, including awards, censorship, gender, authorship, and race.

ENGL 450/LING 421     ENGLISH GRAMMAR              M-TH 10:30-12:45                   DISTERHEFT

An intensive survey of English grammar: sentence structure, the verbal system, discourse, and transformations. Also discussed are semantics, social restrictions on grammar and usage, histories of various constructions, etc. Please read Chapter 1 of the textbook before the first class meeting.  REQUIREMENTS: one midterm, one final. TEXT: Dorothy Disterheft, Advanced Grammar: a manual for students. Prentice-Hall.

ENGL 463-001              BUSINESS WRITING        M-TH 1:00-3:15                              CRAWFORD

Extensive practice in different types of business writing, from brief  letters to formal articles and reports. For more information, please contact the instructor.    

ENGL E463-300         BUSINESS WRITING            M-TH 6:00-8:15                             MCMANUS

ENGL 282-001             FICTION                                                 M-TH 1:00-3:15                   MARTINSEN 

(Designed for Non-majors)
Fiction from several countries and historical periods, illustrating the nature of the genre.  For more information, contact the instructor.
                      
ENGL  283-001          THEMES IN BRITISH WRITING            M-TH 8:00-10:15                  RICE

(Designed for Non-majors)
Topic: The Subaltern Matrix--Class, Gender, Coloniality

This course will survey the reflections of patriarchal power and subordination in English fiction, from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth.  Among the works read will be H.G. Wells' The Time Machine; Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness; James Joyce's  Dubliners; stories by Katherine Mansfield; George Orwell’s 1984; Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone; Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions; andKazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day.  Requirements: Brief objective quizzes for each assignment; Midterm; Final examination; Final critical paper (5pp; comparison of two works; titles TBA)

ENGL  285-001          THEMES IN AMERICAN WRITING       M-TH 10:30-12:45                   STEELE

(Designed for Non-majors)
This course will examine the ways that American Literature comes to terms with questions of history and memory.  There will be a midterm, a final, and a short critical paper.

ENGL 383-001             ROMANTICISM                                  M-TH 10:30-12:45                      JARRELLS

This course will attend to “Romanticism” in two senses of the term: first, as a literary period in Britain -- one that stretched from the 1780s to the 1830s and which was denominated many years after the fact; second, as a movement or ideology -- one that stretches across national and period markers and which groups together texts and authors that share a set of ideas about nature and imagination, nation and self.  Requirements include regular written responses, a paper, and an exam.  

ENGL 435-001           THE SHORT STORY                            M-TH 1:00-3:15                           RICE

An introduction to the short-story genre and to theories of interpretation, through in-dept reading of works by five international masters of the form: Anton Chekov, Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and Jorge Luis Borges.  This class will concentrate on close reading, analysis, and interpretation of individual stories, on the cultural contexts of the works, and on theories of narrative.  Texts:  A. Chekov, Short Stories; K. Mansfield, Selected Stories; J. Joyce, Dubliners; E. Hemingway, In our time; J.L. Borges, Ficciones.  Papers (2): a brief diagnostic essay (c. 2 pp.) and a comparative critical essay (c. 5 pp. ea.)  Examinations (2): short answers (possible), identifications, and analytical essay(s).  Quizzes: There will be daily quizzes (3-5 brief objective questions) on the assigned readings.
Format: mix of informal lecture and class discussion, with emphasis on the latter.

Survey of major themes, genres, and influences in twentieth-century writing by women in English.  Requirements: frequent brief writing assignments, three essay exams, faithful class participation. Text: Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, Vol. II, Third Edition, 2007.

ENGL 463-001                 BUSINESS WRITING      M-TH 10:30-12:45                               CONLEY

Extensive practice in different types of business writing, from brief letters to formal articles and reports. For more information, please contact the instructor.