ENG 101, 001
Instructors: Staff
Anticipated Size: 20 students per section, approximately 36 sections per semester.
Prerequisites: Entering students place themselves into either ENG 001 or ENG 101. Guidelines to be used as the basis for this decision are mailed to incoming students several months before the start of the semester. Students with extremely strong backgrounds in writing may attempt credit by examination through Jerry Ellis in the Onward Office.
Course Description:
ENG 101: An introductory course in college writing in which students practice the ways in which writing and reading serve to expand, clarify, and order experience and knowledge. Particular attention is given to analytic and persuasive writing. To complete the course successfully, students must write all assignments and must have portfolios of their best work approved by a committee of readers other than their classroom teachers. Especially well-prepared students will be encouraged to submit portfolios before the end of the semester; if their work is of exceptionally high quality, they will be granted early completion.
ENG 001 is a course for students who need to develop and practice the basic writing habits necessary for successful university-level writing. Successful completion of this course should enable students to do well in ENG 101. The course grants three semester credit hours, hours that do not count toward graduation but do count toward semester load.
ENG 129 (01): Topics in English
Theories of Human Nature
Instructor: Callaway
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: First-year students only
Course Description: This course will serve as a basic introduction to some of the major theories of universal human identity and to the ways in which literature can be used to enhance and to question our understanding of such theories. The course will use accessible texts and films selected for their entertainment value, as well as for what they can add to our understanding of the ideas of Plato, Christianity, Sigmund Freud, Conrad Lorenz, Jean Paul Sartre, B.F. Skinner, and Karl Marx.
Required Texts: This is a sample list only, but probable texts might include the following:
Leslie Stevenson. Ten Theories of Human Nature
Flannery O'Connor. Everything that Rises Must Converge
Jack London. The Sea Wolf
Aldous Huxley. Brave New World
Albert Camus. The Stranger
John Steinbeck. In Dubious Battle
Various short stories, poems, and films provided by the instructor.
Evaluation: Students will keep summary notebooks of their readings, take regular reading quizzes, and write 3-4 interpretive essays.
ENG 129 (02): Topics in English
Writers of the Beat Generation
Instructor: Crouch
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: First-year students only.
Course Description: The Writers of the Beat Generation (1940s-1960s) were one of the most influential literary movements of the 20th Century. Rebellious, non-conformist, street wise, and passionate, these authors helped to change the course of American fiction and poetry, and their influence can still be felt strongly today. This class will examine selected texts from the major Beat authors—Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Burroughs, Snyder, and others—to see where these writers came from and how their legacy is still alive in such artists as Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and others.
Possible Texts: selected texts by Kerouac, Ginsberg, Snyder, Ferlinghetti, and others. I'm sure we'll use The Beat Reader by Charters (Penguin).
Evaluation: To be determined.
ENG 131 (01): The Nature of Story
Instructor: Wilson
Anticipated Size: 350
Prerequisite: None
Course Description: Explores the fundamental activity of why and how we create, tell and read/listen to stories. An exploration of the various ways storytelling enters our lives: through music, art, literature, photography, history, film and song. We’ll use a technology appropriate to navigate through the many ways these arts weave their stories, from swing to blues, from country to classical, from film to novels, from painting to architecture. Using an anthology of world literature as a platform, we shall attempt to illuminate the centrality of storytelling to our culture. In addition to the reading, then, we’ll view films and other visual material and listen to stories in a variety of spoken and musical forms--discussing it all as we enjoy the art of storytelling.
Required Texts: An anthology of world literature; other material will be provided by the instructor.
Evaluation: Three short quizzes spaced throughout the semester and one final quiz, all taken electronically through WebCT.
ENG 131 (02): The Nature of Story
Instructor: Whelan
Anticipated Size: 105
Prerequisite: None
Course Description: Explores the fundamental activity of why and how we create, tell and read/listen to stories. Readings may include selections from short stories, novel, film, song, and poetry. Readings will come primarily from the modern world, from the western cultural tradition and from a variety of other cultures. (Satisfies the General Education Human Values and Social Context Western Cultural Tradition and Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives Requirements.)
Required Texts: To be announced
Evaluation: Nine quizzes (lowest three grades dropped), two short response papers (two pages), one prelim and a final.
ENG 170(3 Sections): Foundations of Literary Analysis
(See University Course Schedule for CED offerings)
Instructors: Staff
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: ENG 101
Course Description: This course is designed as a close reading of literary texts for students preparing to become English majors. We will explore how conventions of genre, form and style work in literature and develop a vocabulary for understanding and communicating ideas about literature. We will write regularly throughout the semester to practice the critical discourse expected of English majors.
Required Texts: To be selected.
Evaluation: Frequent papers; there will be some quizzes as well.
ENG 205 (4 Sections): Introduction to Creative Writing
Instructors: Staff
Prerequisite: ENG 101 and by permission only
Course Description: An introduction to the writing of poetry and fiction. Students will be expected to complete a body of work during the semester. Student writing will be workshopped in class.
Required Texts: To be announced
Evaluation: An end of term portfolio of work will receive a letter grade.
ENG 206 (01): Descriptive/Narrative Writing
Instructor: Bishop
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: ENG 101
Course Description: The course focuses on autobiographical narrative. How do we translate the materials of our own experience, tell our stories, in ways that are true to ourselves and compelling to others? To that end, students are encouraged to experiment with forms and modes of expression. Students will be asked to select areas of focus from their experience and, increasingly, to generate their own writing assignments. Students will share their work with others in a constructive collaborative workshop format. A serious commitment to engaging the materials of one's own experience and to the workshop format is required.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: Participation and extensive writing.
ENG 212(5 Sections): Persuasive & Analytical Writing
(See University Course Schedule for CED Offerings)
Instructors: Staff
Anticipated Size: 20 per section
Prerequisite: ENG 101 and at least sophomore standing
Course Description: Designed for students wanting to practice in those forms of expository, analytical, and persuasive prose required in writing answers to essay test questions, term papers, research projects, and extended arguments.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: An end of term portfolio of work will receive a letter grade.
ENG 222 (01): Reading Poems
Instructor: Friedlander
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 3 Hours of English, English Major or permission.
Course Description: This course, required of all English majors, focuses on helping students develop critical skills particularly suited to the interpretation and analysis of poetry. It is intended to prepare students to read and write about poems with intelligence and finesse. Readings will include poems from different eras in both traditional and innovative forms, and may cover a range of poetic practices and a variety of media: including, for example, poetry readings, little magazines and presses, digital texts, and poetic movements. By the end of this course students will be able to negotiate a variety of poetic devices, tropes, forms, and genres. They will also have read and/or listened to some of the most admired poems in the English language.
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition, Artistic and Creative Expression and Writing Intensive Requirements.
Required Texts: To be decided
Evaluation: To be decided.
ENG 222 (02): Reading Poems
Instructor: Moxley
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 3 Hours of English (above 101), English major, or instructor permission.
Course Description: This course, required of all English majors, focuses on helping students develop critical skills particularly suited to the interpretation and analysis of poetry. It is intended to prepare students to read and write about poems with intelligence and finesse. Readings will include poems from different eras in both traditional and innovative forms, and may cover a range of poetic practices and a variety of media: including, for example, poetry readings, little magazines and presses, digital texts, and poetic movements. By the end of this course students will be able to identify a variety of poetic devices, forms, tropes, and movements. They will also have read and/or listened to some of the most admired poems in the English language, know their authors, eras, and importance in the history of poetry.
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition, Artistic and Creative Expression and Writing Intensive Requirements.
Required Texts: The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Shorter Fifth Edition
Evaluation: Letter grade based on quizzes, papers, and participation.
ENG 229: Topics in Literature
Literature & Medicine
Instructor: Irvine, Margery
Anticipated Size: 35
Prerequisite: 3 Hours of English
Course Description: Perhaps nothing is of more interest to us than ourselves--specifically, our bodies. What happens to us when we get sick? When we age? Who will care for us--and for whom will we have to care? Through the ages, writers have struggled to answer these questions, and in this course we will read and discuss the poetry and prose that has resulted. The reading list (which I'm still working on) will reflect many different perspectives, from those struggling with illness or disability, to their families, to their health care providers.
Possible Readings: On Doctoring , an anthology
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
Complications, Atul Gawande
Regeneration, Pat Barker
Evaluations: Letter grade based on six "reading responses," two prelims, a final, and attendance/class participation.
ENG 229 (860): Literature from the Viet Nam War
Instructor: Whelan
Anticipated Size: 50
Prerequisite(s): 3 hours of English
Course Description: This course is designed to allow the student to gain an understanding of the literature that has grown from the war in Viet Nam. In this regard, it will focus on the responses of the human imagination to war, specifically the American and Vietnamese experiences in Viet Nam. The course will explore the tension between despair and hope that is created as the imagination attempts to reconcile facts of war and earlier lessons regarding humanity, goodness and truth. It will also explore reactions of both participants and non-participants in the aftermath of the war. To the extent possible in a course focusing on literature, students should gain an appreciation of the social, cultural and historical context of the war.
Additionally, the course will provide students with tools to use when critically reading works of fiction.
Since there will be two out-of -class writing assignments, as well as a prelim and a final which will provide an opportunity to write in a classroom setting, it seems fitting that a final objective should be to improve written expression, using essays of moderate length to do so.
ENG 231: Western Traditional Literature: Homer-Renaissance
Instructor: Wilson
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 3 hours of English
Course Description: An introduction to the foundations of the western literary and cultural tradition from Stone Age Europe and its matriarchal culture witnessed in the profusion of goddess figures; through the heritage of ancient Babylon and Gilgamesh; to the drama of ancient Greek art, literature, and culture; to the religious forces of the Hebrew and the Christian; and then to the power and vitality of the Roman Empire; ending with the push into the modern with Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Ancient Babylon, Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome will become the icons for this trip, one using WebCt and the other various technological resources so that we may both read the literature and view the art and drama of this period.
Enhancing the classroom work will be video lectures by UMaine specialists Tina Passman, Classics; Michael Grillo, Art; Jay Bregman, History, and Michael Howard, Philosophy. Additionally, we’ll view Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Aristophanes’ Lysistrada on film.
We’ll explore these foundations within the context of their history and geography in an effort to come to some understanding as to the significance of these cultures and literature to the modern western world.
Required Texts: see http://www.umaine.edu/victorianlinks/231/231descriptions.htm
Evaluations: Students will take three online exams
ENG 236 (01): Canadian Literature
Instructor: Norris
Anticipated Size: 35
Prerequisite: ENG 101
Course Description: A survey of Canadian literature from 1850 to the present. Interpretations and analysis of the poetry and prose of major literary figures.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: To be announced.
ENG 241 (990 & 995) - AMERICAN LITERATURE SURVEY I: From the Beginnings to the Romantics
(On-line, Asynchronous)
Instructor: Lukens
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 3 Hours of literature or permission.
Description: An overview of American literature from before the first English settlements to just before the Civil War, this course has two objectives. First, it traces the historical development of the first 250 (or more) years of American prose and poetry in English by focusing on representative works from the successive eras of that chronological period. Second, it emphasizes some recurring themes, persistent attitudes, and chronic concerns that characterize this diverse literature and define it as peculiarly American.
Required texts: The Heath Anthology of American Literature, volumes A & B (5th edition), Ed. Paul Lauter, et al. Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Work with these texts will be supplemented by other textual resources and visual images available on The Heath Anthology of American Literature website and other sites.
Evaluation criteria:
Complete the week’s reading assignment and listen to my recorded lecture.
There is a weekly quiz or alternate informal writing assignment in response to the reading—quizzes are graded on a 10-point scale, and informal writing gets a check mark and probably a comment from me.
Quizzes/informal writings may NOT be made up later, and they are your ticket to participation in online discussion each week. (25%)
After you have taken the quiz or written the informal assignment, you will be expected to participate in online discussion of the week’s reading, by posting one comment and one response to someone else’s comment each week. (25%).
There will be one prelim exam (20%), and a final exam (30%).
ENG 244 (01): Writers of Maine
Instructor: Irvine, M.
Prerequisite: ENG 101 or equivalent
Course Description: I've heard living in Maine compared to living in a corner, or living on the edge, or living on an island. If any of these descriptions is valid, our geography must have affected our writers and our literature. Accordingly, in this course we'll read essays, novels, short stories and poetry in which the setting figures predominantly; we'll try to determine in what ways that setting has left its mark. Students will also, I hope, gain a greater appreciation of our state's rich literary heritage. Finally, we'll take a look at the recent controversy in Maine fiction: what is the REAL Maine, and who's writing about it?
Required Text: To be announced.
Evaluation: Two prelims, two short essays, one research project.
Title: ENG 245 (990) American Short Fiction
Instructor: Callaway
Anticipated Size: 50 (on-line course)
Prerequisites: 3 hours of literature or permission.
Course Description: A study of American short fiction from Irving to the present. The class will proceed chronologically; concentrating on those formal developments that have made the short story a particularly American genre.
Texts: To be selected.
Evaluation: Short papers and exercises, quizzes, midterm, and final.
ENG 251 (981 & 985) English Literary Survey:
Beginning Through Neoclassicism (Interactive television course)
Instructor: Brinkley
Anticipated Size: 38
Prerequisite: 3 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: The major patterns of development within the English literary tradition, with emphasis on the cultural and historical forces which have shaped this tradition.
Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: To be announced.
ENG 253 (01): Shakespeare: Selected Plays
Instructor: Brucher
Anticipated Size: 30
Prerequisite: 3 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: This course introduces Shakespeare's drama through close analysis of ten or so plays. We'll distinguish the conventions of comedies, tragedies, histories, and romances; determine the nature of major literary themes (including revenge, honor, justice, and love); and see the texts as both performance and cultural documents. We'll use videos of plays to demonstrate staging and interpretation possibilities, but we'll spend considerable time reading Shakespeare's language.
Probable Text: The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt (Norton, 1997).
Evaluation: Grades will be based on weekly commentaries, several short papers and/or exams, and a final exam. Performance may be substituted for some written work.
ENG 271 (01 & 02) : Act of Interpretation
Instructor: S. Evans (01) Brinkley (02)
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: ENG 170
Course Description: An introduction to critical theory. Study of individual critics or schools of literary theory. Application of these interpretative strategies to literary texts.
Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: To be announced.
ENG 280 (01): Introduction to Film
Instructor: J. Evans
Anticipated Size: 30
Prerequisite: 3 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: The course will examine the medium of film from its inception at the end of the l9th century to the present. Emphasis is placed on a beginning understanding of film techniques and analysis. The course will concentrate on how films make their meanings.
Likely Texts: Louis Giannetti, Understanding Film, Latest edition. (Prentice Hall). The narrative films themselves are the primary texts.
Evaluation: Exams, exercises, out-of-class final, participation.
ENG 301 (01): Advanced Composition
Instructor: Wilson
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: ENG 101, and ENG 212 or permission.
A workshop focusing on: 1., the development of analysis and argumentation typical of academic writing, 2., the type of writing common to the student’s major, 3., the students’ individual style. Using the resources of WebCt and up-to-date classroom technology, students will generate a series of drafts on a topic of their choosing culminating in a final essay that will be published online in the instructor’s website.
Text: Writing the Academic Essay.
ENG 307 (01): Intermediate Fiction Writing
Instructor: Kress
Anticipated Size: 16
Prerequisite: ENG 205 or 206 and permission of instructor required.
Course Description: This course will be part workshop, part exploration of the form and theory of fiction writing, with particular emphasis on language, style, and perspective.
Texts/Writing Projects: Readings will include both published fiction and essays on the practice and structure of fiction.
Weekly writing will include experiments in voice, character, situation, point-of-view, etc. Students will also produce a final portfolio of 25 pages of polished fiction.
Evaluation: Evaluation will be based on the quality of written work, passion and depth of thought, and class participation.
ENG 309 (01): Writing Creative Non-Fiction
Instructor: Irvine, M.
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: ENG 205, 206, 212 or permission
Course Description: Sometimes called “The Fourth Genre,” creative non-fiction uses the strategies of fiction (plot, dialog, characters, etc.) in writing about factual subjects: autobiography, biography, travel, science/nature, cultural issues, current events. We’ll read creative non-fiction and also write it.
Required Texts: To be selected.
Evaluation: 5 essays and class participation.
ENG 3l7: Business and Technical Writing
Instructors: Staff
Anticipated Size: 20 per section (13 sections)
Prerequisite(s): ENG 101 or equivalent; juniors and seniors in declared majors only.
Course Description: This course helps prepare students to communicate effectively in the workplace. Students become familiar with the processes, forms, and styles of writing in professional environments as they work on memoranda, business correspondence, instructions, proposals, reports and similar materials. Special attention is paid to the fundamental skills of problem-solving and analyzing and responding to purpose and audience. Some sections may be taught in a computer-equipped classroom and some may incorporate electronic communication, such as FirstClass.
Required Texts: To be selected by each instructor.
Evaluation: Several short written assignments and one major report.
ENG 3l7 (01): Business and Technical Writing Online
Instructor: Callaway
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing
Course Description: This is the same Business & Technical Writing curriculum as described above, but all assignments and most of the course instruction will be accessed via the University's WebCT instructional Internet server. We will meet as at the beginning of the semester and six to eight times during the semester to discuss progress and to provide orientation for group writing projects. Assignments will be submitted, marked, and returned to students via FirstClass.
Required Texts:
Anderson, Paul, Technical Communication: A Reader Centered Approach, 4th edition, Harcourt Brace
Hacker, Diana, A Pocket Style Manual, 4th edition, St. Martins/Bedford
Additional Readings: All Webct instructional pages and links to outside Internet sources.
* The course requires extensive access to a personal computer and the Internet.
ENG 395 (01): English Internship (Peer Tutoring)
Instructor: Harvey Kail
Anticipated Size: 15
Prerequisite: Recommendation from faculty
Course Description: Students in English internship will learn how to become effective peer writing tutors. The course will be divided into two phases, though the first will continue throughout the second. In the first phase, we will learn among ourselves a process of writing, revision and peer criticism. In the second phase, we will add an internship experience, tutoring student in the English Department's Writing Center for two hours per week. Throughout the second phase, we will continue to work as a group, writing about tutoring and writing about each other's writing, though we will meet less often
Required Texts: Ken Bruffee, A Short Course in Writing
Additional Readings: Selected essays on composition theory and practice.
Evaluation: In addition to the papers and critiques students will write as part of their training, tutors will also be expected to keep a journal of their tutoring experiences and will write a paper based on this journal at the end of the semester.
ENG 405: Workshop in Critical Prose
Instructor: Friedlander
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: Permission only (please contact the instructor by FirstClass)
Course Description: This workshop, a 400-level writing course for English majors in the literary-critical writing track, will focus on the compositional skills particular to scholarly prose. Students will share both works in progress and already completed essays that they wish to expand and revise, with the aim of completing a substantial, polished piece of work by semester's end. The course is ideally suited for students working on their capstones or honors theses, but any student with an interest in graduate school or in writing criticism would benefit. All prospective students should begin the course with a project already in mind.
Required Texts: A small number of readings of recent academic essays with attention fixed specifically on style.
Evaluation: Letter grade based on class participation and commitment to revision.
ENG 406 (01): Advanced Poetry Writing
Staff: Moxley
Anticipated Size: 16
Prerequisite: ENG 205 and 308 or permission
Course Description: A poetry workshop at the advanced level. We will explore poetic form and technique, and work on refining poetic gestures and skills. Students may want to use this course to complete their capstones.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: Letter grade based on quality of work and commitment.
ENG 418 (01): Topics in Professional Writing
Proposals and Reports
Instructor: Diaz
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: ENG 317 and permission
Course Description: This course prepares students to write workplace proposals and reports. Students will spend approximately four weeks analyzing proposals--including grant proposals--and reports. Students will spend the next eight weeks researching and writing a grant proposal, a project proposal, or an analytical report. When possible, students will work on projects for campus clients. The last three weeks of the semester will focus on exploring visual and audio reports, including designing electronic materials that support oral presentations and preparing audio reports using podcast technology. This course will be taught as a workshop with student writers sharing drafts, providing peer feedback, and working as collaborators. This course is appropriate for senior students in the Technical/Professional Writing track; for graduate students; and for professionals interested in examining the genre of report writing.
Evaluation: Homework (25%), report project with multiple parts (65%), visual or audio report (10%).
English 429(001): The State(s) of the Novel in World English
Instructor: Kress
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisites: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: Even though English is an international language spoken and written in every part of the globe, many students may not be familiar with fiction written in English that is not American, Canadian, or Irish/British. In a related way, many students may not be familiar with the history of English or with its development and spread around the world.
The course will explore the current state(s) of English as a world language in two ways. Part of the course will study the history of English from its Anglo-Saxon roots to its present status as a world language. Concurrent with this historical approach, the course will explore contemporary novels from countries where English is the native language, non-native national language, and/or semi-native language. In Nigeria, Hong Kong, Trinidad, the Philippines, India, and many other nations/states, older
regional and “native” languages have given way to English—or as the course will try to show, to Englishes—and novelists have emerged in these cultures writing literature in these newer Englishes.
The intent of the course is thus two-fold: to enable students to understand the roots and progression of English and to explore and experience the variety of English in fiction today.
Proposed Texts/Major Writing Projects
Robert Crum: The Story of English
Chris Abani: GraceLand
Murray Bail: Holden's Performance
Michelle Cliff: No Telephone to Heaven
Edwidge Danticat: The Farming of Bones
Tsitsi Dangarembga: Nervous Conditions
Timothy Mo: The Redundancy of Courage
Wilfrido D. Nolledo: But for the Lovers
Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses
Ken Saro-Wiwa: Sozaboy
Evaluation: Each student will write two research papers (8-10pp.) and create a webpage for the class “State(s) of World English” website. Evaluation will be based on the quality of written work, passion and depth of thought, and class participation.
ENG 429 (02): Topics in Literature: Native American Drama
Instructor: Staff
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: This course examines the expression of First Nations and Native Americans’ voice through the Euro-American art medium of theater. Students are required to read selected plays dealing with contemporary issues expressed in the literary form of drama and then write analytical responses to the printed material. In-class work with additional historical, cultural, and political sources, and theatrical criticism relevant to the dramas will provide a clearer understanding of the world of indigenous dramatic literature.
Required Texts:
Staging Coyote’s Dream: First Nations’ Drama in English
Seventh Generation: New Native Drama
Evaluation: To be determined.
ENG 429 (990): Topics in Literature (On-Line)
Apes/Angels/Victorian
Instructor: Wilson
Anticipated Size: 60
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: Please visit course website.
Texts Required: Information on line.
Evaluation: Information on line.
ENG 436 (01): Topics in Canadian Literature
Instructor: Norris
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: An intensive study of a major Canadian writer or a small group of Canadian writers, or an examination of a major theme in Canadian literature.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: To be announced.
ENGLISH 443 (01): The American Romantics
Instructor: Lukens
Anticipated Size: 25
Description: The course will proceed chronologically, with some attention to the American social and philosophical context in which Romanticism took root. We will read some of the major authors of the American Renaissance whose works variously exemplify Romantic notions of freedom, optimism, transcendent experience, democratic equality, utopian experimentation, and the discovery of spirit in nature—and some works that could be classified as “backlash.” Besides examining American Romantic values, we will study some of the expressive forms created to convey them. This course provides an opportunity for exploration of the American Romantic period in depth and in a writing intensive format.
Required texts:
The Sketch-Book, Washington Irving (1819-20)
Selected Writings of the American Transcendentalists (1819-1859), ed. George Hochfield
A Son of the Forest and other writings, William Apess (1829-35)
Selected Essays, Lectures, and Poems, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1836-62)
The Portable Margaret Fuller (1840-49), ed. Mary Kelley
Walden and Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau (1854 & 1849)
The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1852)
Leaves of Grass (first edition), Walt Whitman (1855)
Possible additional readings: selected poetry of Emily Dickinson (1858)
Evaluation will be based upon:
Attendance and participation in class; you will be expected to have finished reading material on the date we begin discussion, unless otherwise noted (10%).
Frequent informal worksheets—on date due, not later (20%).
An oral presentation in response to a critical essay, or on research on a specific aspect of historical or biographical context (10%).
Two critical papers 5-7 pp., either of which may be revised during the semester if submitted on time (20% each=total 40%).
A final project—position papers based on perspectives from this literary period (20%).
Eng 445: The American Novel
Instructor: A. Irvine
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission.
Course Description: In this class, we will pick up the American novel in the 1830s and try to hit the highlights until the turn of the millennium. Along the way, we’ll trace developments in the techniques and concerns of American novelists, and we’ll try to tease out what it is—other than an accident of birth—that makes them “American.” We’ll also look at some theories of the novel and of American literature. The reading load will consist of ten or so novels and quite a bit of secondary material.
Probable Texts:
Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
Fern, Ruth Hall
Melville, Moby-Dick
Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Dos Passos, USA
Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Dick, The Man in the High Castle
Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Evaluations: Assignments will include reaction/commentary papers and a seminar paper.
ENG 455 (01): 18th Century Fiction, Satire, & Poetry
Instructor: Rogers
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: Reading includes such great Restoration and Eighteenth-Century writers as Behn, Pope, Dryden, Swift, Congreve, Goldsmith, Defoe, Gray, Johnson, Boswell, Radcliffe, and Austen. An introduction to the period that includes the rise of the novel.
Required Texts: To be selected.
Evaluation: To be determined.
ENG 458: British Modernism
Instructor: Billitteri
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: Modernist Narratives
This seminar covers the time period from around 1895 to 1945 -- fifty years of extraordinary innovative literary production and ground-breaking approaches to the literary genre of narrative writing. We will read some of the most interesting authors of this time period: Ivy-Compton-Burnett, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Katherine Mansfield, Dorothy Richardson, and Virginia Woolf. Corollary readings will address the cultural context and artistic movements of the period, so as to better locate the range of aesthetic concerns informing the modernist narratives of the eight authors covered in this seminar.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: To be announced.
ENG 467: British Drama
Instructor: Brucher
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisites: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: ENG 467 offers reading and discussion of plays by British dramatists, from the th 17th century to the present. This version of the course offers a comparative study of comedies of manners and social life. This means that the course is mostly about courtship, predation, and dynasty building or, put another way, sex, money, and power. Noting how the playwrights manipulate dramatic conventions will reveal relationships among types of comedy, ideas, and social contexts as well as among writers. The course stresses literary analysis, but we'll read with performance in mind.
Probable Texts:
Caryl Churchill, Plays, One
Patrick Farber, Closer
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
Scott McMillin, ed., Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy
Thomas Middleton, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
George Bernard Shaw, Plays
Tom Stoppard, Arcadia (Faber & Faber).
John Millington Synge, The Playboy of the Western World
Evaluation: Grades will be based on an oral presentation, two short papers, a longer project, and a final examination. Performance may be substituted for some written work.
ENG 499: Capstone Experience in English
Anticipated Size: 50
Prerequisite: None
Course Description: Student teaching has been designated as Capstone. Three courses, ENG 405, 406, and 395, have been designated as Capstone courses if certain conditions are met. For ENG 405 and 406, students must submit and have approved "a finished manuscript (e.g., a novella or a collection of poems or stories)." For ENG 395, students must also tutor in The Writing Center for one semester. Because these three courses can be taken as either a Capstone experience or a regular course, a bookkeeping issue has arisen. To resolve this issue, a zero credit, pass/fail course, ENG 499, has been created to make the distinction between those using one of these three courses as a Capstone and those simply taking it a regular course.
Accordingly, students should enroll in ENG 499 for the semester in which they plan to tutor in The Writing Center or complete the required manuscript.
Required Texts: None
Evaluation: None
ENG 505 (01): Graduate Writing Workshop
Instructor: Norris
Anticipated Size: 10
Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or permission
Course Description: This is an intensive writing course at the advanced level. Most of the work will take place in weekly workshop settings. The instructor will also be available for individual tutorial conferences. By the end of the semester each student is expected to have completed a solid collection of short stories or poems or to have made substantial progress on a novel.
Required Texts: None
Evaluation: Letter grade based on quality of work and participation.
ENG 529: Utopia and Postmodernism
Instructor: Jacobs
Anticipated Size: 10
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing in English or permission
Description: By its conservative critics, Utopia has been characterized as a mode of thought at best naïve, at worst totalitarian. Its goals are said to be achievable only through the forceful imposition of a static model of perfection upon a necessarily conflicted, diverse and evolving humankind. While it is true that visions of utopia are everywhere employed by individuals and groups hoping to impose their versions of the good upon others, postmodern thought has informed a new generation of utopian thinkers and writers who address in more ambiguous and complicated ways the ancient utopian question: to what extent, and to what ends, do we humans create the realities we inhabit? And how then should we live?
Probable Texts:
Hakim Bey, The Temporary Autonomous Zone (1985)
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (1972)
Samuel R. Delany, Trouble on Triton (1976)
Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home (1985)
Bernadette Mayer, Utopia (1984)
Thomas More, Utopia (1518)
Joanna Russ, The Female Man (1975)
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We (1923)
Probably some short stories and essays on xerox
Another novel, work of theory, or film, to be arranged with student input
Critical texts by Ernst Bloch, Fredric Jameson, Tom Moylan, and others
There will be a $5 fee to cover the costs of xeroxing, including the entire text of Mayer’s Utopia (“utopian copyright – all rights unreserved”).
Evaluation:
Attendance and participation
Two short (5-6 page) papers on a staggered schedule, presented in class
Prospectus and preliminary bibliography for the research paper
Annotated bibliography, preparatory to the final paper
Formal research paper, 15-20 pages
ENG 545: American Realism & Naturalism
Instructor: Evans, J.
Anticipated Size: 15
Prerequisite: Graduate standing in English or permission
Course Description: The course will both examine and interrogate the philosophical and aesthetic tenets of (American literary) realism and naturalism and their practices. A portion of the course will include non-canonical works and approaches. Emphasis throughout will be on close textual analysis and narrative techniques.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: Classes will consist primarily of discussion.
ENG 549 -- Topics in Gender and Literature
“Inter-living”: Gender Constitution and Narrativization of Gender
Instructor: Billitteri
Anticipated Size: 10
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing or Permission
Course Description: This course will engage recent theoretical reflections on pragmatism and feminism and entertain the concept that the experience of gender is not inherently interior or subjective, nor exterior and objective, but the reflection of a constant “inter-living” of the individual in the community (and of the community in the individual). “Inter-living,” Shannon Sullivan argues in her book Living Across and Through Skins: Transactional Bodies, Pragmatism, and Feminism, indicates the passing through of a series of transactions, both discursive (verbal and or verbalized) and performed (learned and reproduced by habit) between self and world. Implied in this understanding of the “experience of gender” is the notion that the constitution of the self as gendered subjectivity is a transactional event embedded in the social fabric and articulated in narrative acts. In other words, the “experience of gender” is the experience of the “narrativization” of gender.
This theoretical framework will guide our reading of eight modern and contemporary women authors: five fiction writers (Virginia Woolf, Djuna Barnes, Ann Quin, Carla Harryman, and Karen Mac Cormack) and three playwrights (Adrienne Kennedy, Caryl Churchill, and Susan-Lori Parks). The works of these authors present a powerful combination of transgressive reimagining and transgressive narrativization (through the use of innovative dramatic and fictional forms) of traditional gender roles and gender boundaries. These thematic and formal transgressions are not fanciful stylistic experiments but the vehicle of the authors’ critical explorations of the social and historical conditions regulating the dynamics of our “inter-living.”
Required Texts: To be determined.
Evaluations: To be determined.
ENG 551: Medieval English Literature
Instructor: NeCastro
Anticipated Size: 10
Prerequisite(s): Graduate Standing or Permission
Course Description: This course is an in-depth literary exploration of representative works of Medieval English literature, emphasizing the cultural and historical background of the period and covering a range of styles and genres, including allegory, dream vision, and romance; drama, lyric, and narrative; alliterative verse, rhymed verse, and prose. We will employ a number of different approaches to the material, and while we will often emphasize issues of class and gender, we will not limit ourselves to these. That is, as all members of the course play a part in its construction, we will all have the opportunity to contribute applicable approaches.
The course will be available via the web, but will include some face-to-face components.
Probable Texts:
Chaucer. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Benson.
Anchoritic Spirituality. Trans. and Ed. Savage and Watson.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleaness, and Patience. Ed. Cawley.
Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays. Ed. Cawley.
Evaluation: Regular participation in class and on the electronic forum.
Lead and Moderate two on-line forums, including a presentation of sorts.
Three bibliographic preparations (two with presentations; one independent report).
Conference-length paper, including several steps leading to the paper.
Final Exam (maybe).
ENG 570: Critical Theory: A Science of the Singular? Roland Barthes and the Desire for Literary Theory
Instructor: Evans, S.
Anticipated Size: 10
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing or Permission
Course Description: At the start of a seminar offered just a few years before his death, Roland Barthes (1915-1980) defined literature as a "codex of nuances" and proposed as the primary task of literary semiology the act of "listening to or watching for nuances." In his final book, Camera Lucida, he spoke of his paradoxical desire for a "science of the singular" (paradoxical because science typically deals only in generalized, repeatable phenomena). In retracing the major phases of Barthes's divers and prolific intellectual career, we'll have ample occasion to generalize—about literature and the other arts; about literary theory, literary practice, and cultural studies; about structures of subjectivity and ideology—but we'll also attend to the singularity and nuance of Barthes's writing and thinking, striving to hear the distinctive "grain" of his voice and discern the particular contour of the desire that animates his many projects. We'll also discuss works by many of Barthes's literal and figurative interlocutors, including Nietzsche, Brecht, Sartre, Jakobson, Benveniste, Robbe-Grillet, Derrida, Kristeva, Lacan, and others.
Required texts (consult with instructor before acquiring): Texts will include Mythologies, Writing Degree Zero, Elements of Semiology, The Semiotic Challenge, The Rustle of Language, Image-Music-Text, The Pleasure of the Text, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, A Lover's Discourse, Camera Lucida, and The Neutral.
Evaluation: Students will be evaluated on the basis of their preparation, contribution to the seminar, written responses, and final project.
ENG 693 (01): Teaching College Composition
Instructor: Burnes
Anticipated Size: 15
Prerequisite: Graduate standing and appointment as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of English.
Course Description: A seminar in the theory and practice of teaching ENG 101, College Composition. Seminar participants actively review their understanding of the conventions and contexts of academic writing, practice and critique ways of responding to student writing and of planning sequences of writing assignments, and begin to read in the discipline of composition studies. They pay particular attention to current scholarship on processes of writing, on reading and writing as functions of academic discourse communities, and on the institutional setting of writing instruction. Throughout the semester, they keep teaching journals, plan assignments sequences with theoretical justifications and present these to their peers, compile annotated bibliographies on topics of interest, and write position papers on selected aspects of their teaching.
Required Texts: To be decided
Evaluation: Teaching journal, assignment sequence with accompanying rationale, annotated bibliography with critical introduction, two position papers, and seminar presentation: both oral and written.
