Spring 2008 Course Offerings
This listing is tentative. It is subject to change at any time, without notice.
Click here to download this listing in PDF format.
ENG 001, 101 (many sections): Writing Workshop; College Composition
Instructors: Staff
Anticipated Size: 20 students per session, 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 (001): Topics in English, First Year Seminar: Introduction to Fiction
28156, TR 2-3:15, 114 Merrill
Instructor: Terry Crouch
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisites: First-year students only; may be taken before or after ENG 101 or concurrently with permission.
Course Description: This course will survey a sampling of short stories from diverse cultures written from the 1800s to the present. We will usually read one or two stories each week. The goals of the course are to analyse, write about, and better understand the meanings, techniques, and significance of short fiction, as well as to enjoy ourselves as we enter these diverse creative worlds.
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive Requirement.
Required Text:
The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, by Ann Charters. Compact Seventh Edition. Bedford/St. Martins. (Available at the University of Maine Bookstore.)
Evaluation: Student evaluation will be based on several short analytical and response papers, class presentations, as well as discussion in response to study questions provided. There may be occasional reading quizzes.
ENG 129 (500): Topics in English
17581, MWF 10-10:50, 204 Neville
Instructor: Adam Crowley
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: First-year students only. May be taken before or after ENG 101 or concurrently with permission.
Course Description: This course will survey a sampling of short stories from diverse cultures written from the 1800s to the present. We will usually read one or two stories each week. The goals of the course are to analyse, write about, and better understand the meanings, techniques, and significance of short fiction, as well as to enjoy ourselves as we enter these diverse creative worlds.
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive Requirement.
Possible Texts:
The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, by Ann Charters. Compact Seventh Edition. Bedford/St. Martins. (Available at the University of Maine Bookstore.)
Evaluation: Student evaluation will be based on several short analytical and response papers, class presentations, as well as discussion in response to study questions provided. There may be occasional reading quizzes.
ENG 131 (001): The Nature of Story
05206, TR 2-3:15, 100 DP Corbett Business Building
Instructor: Jack 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.
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition, Cultural Diversity & International Perspectives and Artistic 7 Creative Expression Requirements.
Required Texts: An anthology of world literature; other material will be provided by the instructor. Please see website: http://www.umaine.edu/victorianlinks/
Evaluation: Ten short papers and a midterm and a final, all taken electronically through WebCT.
ENG 131 (002): The Nature of Story
14165, MWF 11-11:50, 101 Neville
Instructor: William Yellow Robe
Anticipated Size: 40
Prerequisite: None
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition, Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives Requirements, and Artistic & Creative Expression Requirements.
Required Texts: To be announced
Evaluation:
ENG 170 (3 Sections): Foundations of Literary Analysis
(001) 32828, MWF 11-11:50, 204 Neville
(002) 36546, TR 11-12:15, 218 Little Hall
(500) 32832, TR 2-3:15, 113 DP Corbett Business Building
(See University Course Schedule for CED offerings)
Instructors: Jeff Evans, Alex Irvine, Staff
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: Section 001 is for English major only. ENG 101 is strongly recommended for all sections. ENG 170 is a required course for all English majors.
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 (5 Sections): Introduction to Creative Writing
(001) 01889, TR 9:30-10:45, 206 Neville (Staff)
(002) 01891, TR 2-3:15, 133 Barrows (David Kress)
(003) 02092, TR 12:30-1:45, 210 Neville (Deb Rogers)
(500) 16625, TR 2-3:15, 119 Stevens North (Staff)
(665) 36558, TBA, Hutchinson Center in Belfast (TBA) (please call 1-800-753-9044 to register)
Instructors: David Kress, Deb Rogers, Staff
Prerequisite: ENG 101 (strongly recommended) and by permission only. Permission forms available at 304 Neville.
Course Description: This course will function as a writing workshop. We will work primarily with prose fiction and personal narrative. The workshop format will call on students to function both as writers and as thoughtful responders to the work of fellow workshop members. Attendance and active participation at all scheduled class sessions is absolutely essential.
Satisfies the General Education Artistic & Creative Expression and Writing Intensive Requirements.
Required Texts: To be announced
Evaluation: An end of term portfolio of work will receive a letter grade.
ENG 212 (6 Sections): Persuasive & Analytical Writing
(001) 01906, TR 11-12:15, 208 Neville
(002) 01919, TR 12:30-1:45, 208 Neville
(003) 04606, MWF 11-11:50, 406 Neville
(004) 01922, TR 2-3:15, 101 Bennett
(005) 40723, MWF 1:10-2:00, TBA
(500) 17608, TR 11-12:15, 217 Shibles
(700) 16633, W 6-8:30, 123 Barrows
(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.
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive Requirement.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: An end of term portfolio of work will receive a letter grade.
ENG 222 (001): Reading Poems
17095, TR 12:30-1:45, 219 Little Hall
Instructor: Staff
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 3 Hours of English, English Major or permission.
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive Requirement.
Required Texts: To be decided
Evaluation: To be decided.
ENG 222 (002): Reading Poems
20903, TR 3:30-4:45, 209 Boardman
Instructor: Ken Norris
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 3 Hours of English (above 101), English major, or instructor permission.
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive Requirement.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 229 (665): Topics in Literature: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
37703, T 5:30-8:10, Hutchinson Center in Belfast (please call 1-800-753-9044 to register)
Instructor: Sandy Phippen
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisites: 3 hours of English
Course Description:
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 229 (990, 995): Topics in Literature: Paganism/Christianity
(990) 14944, Web-based
(995) 14957, Web-based
Instructor: Jack Wilson
Anticipated Size: 75, 10
Prerequisite: 3 Hours of English
Course Description: An exploration of the dynamic re-emergence of the classical pagan religious point of view in the nineteenth-century conflict between faith and reason, between the authority of the Renaissance and that of Medieval thought, between the Enlightenment and Fundamentalism in the context of Edward Gibbon and the following Victorians: Karl Marx, Thomas Carlyle, John Stewart Mill, Charles Darwin, Algernon Swinburne, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, and Thomas Hardy.
Possible Readings: Please visit http://www.umaine.edu/victorianlinks/
Evaluations: Five papers and a short quiz.
ENG 231 (990, 995): Western Traditional Literature: Homer-Renaissance
(990) 28129, Web-based
(995) 28130, Web-based, Hutchinson Center (please call 1-800-753-9044 to register)
Instructor: Jack Wilson
Anticipated Size: 50, 10
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’ Lysistrata 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.
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition and Artistic & Creative Expression requirements.
Required Texts: see http://www.umaine.edu/victorianlinks/
Evaluations: Four short papers and a final ten page paper.
ENG 237 (860): Coming of Age in America
28167, T 4-6:30, 204 Neville
Instructor: Jim Bishop
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisites: 3 hours of English or permission
Course Description: The course explores stories of coming of age in American fiction, nonfiction, and film from WWII to the present. As we engage the struggles of several protagonists to discover themselves and come to terms with their given circumstances, we will examine also the increasing tensions between America’s prevailing myths and the ground-level realities of its children.
Satisfies the General Education Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives Requirement.
Required Texts: TBA
Evaluation: Response papers and class participation, exams, term paper.
ENG 242 (001): American Literature Survey: Realism to the Present
36560, TR 12:30-1:45, 126 Dunn
Instructor: Ben Friedlander
Anticipated Size: 30
Prerequisites: 3 hours of literature or permission. ENG 170 is recommended
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition and Artistic & Creative Expression requirements.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 243 (001): Topics in Multicultural Literature
36571, TR 9:30-10:45, 101C Deering
Instructor: Patricia Sithole
Anticipated Size: 30
Prerequisites: 3 hours of English
Course Description: This course is an exploration of African culture through literature from the African continent written in English. The renowned post-literary writer and critic, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, advocated for "moving the center" in a bid to challenge the age-old idea of a fixed western literary canon. This course will heed that call by examining a selection of literary works from four regions of Africa. We shall attempt to analyze (through these works) how various countries and cultures have dealt with their post-colonial/post-independence experiences as historically defining cultural moments. Some issues around which this course will be organized are nationalism, race, cultural identity, and feminism as well as concepts like hegemony, empire, center, margin, ideology and post-colonialism/neocolonialism.
Satisfies the General Education Ethics, Western Cultural Tradition and Cultural Diversity & International Perspectives requirements.
Required Texts:
No Sweetness Here by Ama Ata Aido
Nervous Conditions by Tsistsi Dangarembga
Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa
Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wa Thiongo
Fantasia/An Algerian Cavalcade by Gjebar Assia
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
July's People by Nadine Gordimer
Maru by Bessie Head
Evaluation: Letter grade based on quizzes, in-class written responses, one short paper, one longer group project and final take-home paper. Attendance and participation will also affect final grade.
ENG 244 (001): Writers of Maine
12275, TR 2-3:15, 406 Neville
Instructor:
Anticipated Size: 30
Prerequisite: 3 hours of English.
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition, Artistic & Creative Expression and Ethics requirements.
Required Text:
Evaluation:
ENG 244 (990, 995) Writers of Maine
(990) 38492, Web-based
(995) 38508, Web-based, Hutchinson Center (please call 1-800-753-9044 to register)
Instructor: Judith Hakola
Anticipated Size: 15, 5
Prerequisites: ENG 101 or permission of instructor.
Course Description: One of the functions of good literature is to "complexify" readers' understanding of a subject. Certainly "Maine" generates enough simplistic, stereotyped images that it is a subject in need of "complexifying." Through readings in a variety of genres and class discussion of relevant topics, we will use the "complexifying" approach to achieve these objectives:
To broaden our understanding of the state and its peoples by reading about and discussing its past and present in a variety of contexts;
To deepen our understanding of the state and its peoples by examining the conflicts and contradictions which are characteristic of life in Maine;
To identify in Maine literature the interplay of the specific—situations and issues peculiar to life in Maine—and the universal— situations and issues that affect us all as human beings;
To recognize and appreciate the skill with which Maine’s writers use their talent to help us achieve these objectives.
NOTE: This course is taught entirely on line using Blackboard, an easy-to-navigate educational site. Students must have high-speed internet access (e.g., cable, DSL, etc.) at least twice a week for an hour or more at a time. Weekly participation in the online discussion is required.
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition, Artistic & Creative Expression and Ethics requirements.
Required Texts:
Maine Speaks, Jeff Fischer, ed. (Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance)
The Funeral Makers, Cathie Pelletier, Scribner Paperbacks
Wednesday’s Child, Rhea Côté Robbins (Rheta Press)
The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett (Dover Thrift Editions)
Icebound, Own Davis (electronic reserve; no need to purchase a copy)
Evaluation: The course grade is based primarily on your grades on two essay prelims, a book review, a “connections” report or project, and an optional final exam. The quality of your weekly participation in the online discussion is also factored in. Individual postings will not receive a letter grade, but the instructor will make note of their quality.
ENG 245 (001): American Short Fiction
22516, TR 11-12:15, 406 Neville
Instructor: Deborah Rogers
Anticipated Size: 30
Prerequisites: 3 hours of English
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.
Satisfies the General Education Ethics, Western Cultural Tradition and Artistic & Creative Expression requirements.
Texts: To be selected.
Evaluation: Short papers and exercises, an extensive reading journal, quizzes, midterm, and final.
ENG 246 (001): American Women’s Literature
36585, MWF 1:10-2, 115 Boardman
Instructor: Kathleen Ellis
Anticipated Size: 30
Prerequisites: 3 hours of English
Course Description: A survey of the main traditions and writers in American women's literature from the origins to the present.
Satisfies the General Education Ethics, Western Cultural Tradition, Cultural Diversity & International Perspectives, and Artistic & Creative Expression requirements.
Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 249: American Sports, Literature and Film
36592, TR 12:30-1:45, 101C Deering
Instructor: Scott Peterson
Anticipated Size: 30
Prerequisites: 3 hours of English
Course Description: Uses readings in fiction, poetry, drama, essays and films to explore social, humanistic, ethical and aesthetic issues in sports and its literature. Examines ways writers capture physical action and the role of sports in various genres and media.
Satisfies the General Education Ethics and Artistic & Creative Expression requirements.
Texts: Two anthologies (Aethlon and Full Court) and three novels (The Natural, End Zone and A River Runs Through It).
Evaluation: Classroom discussion, two brief papers, two midterm essay exams, final exam.
ENG 252 (981, 985): English Literature Survey: Romanticism to the Present
(981) 12888, Interactive Television based, R 1-3:45, 207 Shibles
(985) 13458, Interactive Television based, R 1-3:45, Hutchinson Center, Belfast (please call 1-800-753-
9044 to register)
Instructor: Tony Brinkley
Anticipated Size: 38, 10
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.
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition and Artistic & Creative Expression requirements.
Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: To be announced.
ENG 271 (001): The Act of Interpretation
16644, MWF 12:10-1, 121 Stevens North
Instructor: Carla Billitteri
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisite: ENG 170
Focus of this course: Acts of interpretations are historical-specific acts of cultural intervention, shaped by the cultural horizon of the reader. This is granted, and even axiomatic, but equally granted is the fact that the reader’s horizon is always informed and deeply transformed by the encounter with literary texts. In other words, acts of interpretations are historical-specific acts of cultural intervention that bring the interaction between text and reader to a temporary, if significant, resolution. The dual constitution of this interaction and the dialectics of its processual unfolding will be the focus of our course.
Course Description: ENG 271 looks closely at significant works of literary theory, combining classic works of individual critics to clusters of works by individual schools, in our case, he5rmeneutics, poststructuralism and semiotics. The close and systematic study of literary theory is meant to enhance the students’ awareness of the shaping function of theoretical perspectives in interpreting literary texts, and to facilitate the encounter with the rich complexity of the philosophical foundations of literary interpretation.
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition and Writing Intensive requirements.
Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: Attendance, participation in workshops, three short papers, final exam.
ENG 271 (002): The Act of Interpretation
22501, T 6-8:30, 406 Neville
Instructor: Tony Brinkley
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisites: 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.
Satisfies the General Education Western Cultural Tradition and Writing Intensive requirements.
Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: To be announced.
ENG 301 (001): Advanced Composition
39161, TR 11-12:15, 206 Neville
Instructor: Virginia Nees-Hatlen
Anticipated Size: TBD
Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 212 or permission
Course Description: This course focuses on stylistic choices for writers who work in creative non-fiction,
academic argument, professional writing, journalism, or creative fiction. To make the best choices, writers
need to stock their tool-kits with as many good options as possible, so part of this course will consist of
surveying and practicing some resources the English language provides, chiefly choices in diction and in
sentence- and paragraph- structure, in order to build that tool-kit. In class, we will discuss numerous short
exercises in semantic, syntactic, and rhetorical choice, as well as explore the potential of these tools to meet
the goals of writers in the class. Regular attendance, timely on-line submission of work, and a willingness to
engage in collaborative exploration will be necessary.
To choose which tools to use, each writer in the class will need a commitment to revise an existing prose
work in a genre of his or her choice, and a passion for making meaning for readers and keeping their
attention. Writers who want "A" grades will, in addition, need to be thinking about the style of a published
writer they admire, someone working in their genre. Periodically, writers will be revising and/or analyzing
their own work or that of the published writers they choose to get to know closely.
Grades will be based on contracts, with a baseline of regular exercises, attendance, and revision required for
a C and additional work to meet the B or A contracts. In final revisions with reflective comments, writers will
sum up for the class what they have learned; these final papers will need to meet reasonable editorial
standards, and I'll be available to help students learn how to do that. Otherwise, I will not be judging the
quality of written work against my standards for style. This course is "advanced" because it asks each writer
to take responsibility for saying when his or her work is good enough, and because it assumes that writing is
hard but deeply enjoyable work.
Texts:
Francine Prose. Reading Like a Writer. Harper Perennial. 2007. [This paperback edition is around $15.]
Evaluation: TBD
ENG 308 (001): Writing Poetry
02945, TR 12:30-1:45, 206 Neville
Instructor: Ken Norris
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisites: ENG 205 or 206 or 307 or permission
Course Description: Writing poetry, reading poetry, learning structure by doing.
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive requirement.
Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation: Letter grade based on six reader's responses, attendance, and a portfolio of work.
ENG 317 (17 sections): Business and Technical Writing
(001) 03943, MWF 12:10-1, 330 Merrill (Staff)
(002) 03951, TR 2-3:15, 124 Barrows (Staff)
(003) 04688, TR 3:30-4:45, 318 Boardman (Staff)
(004) 17613, TR 11-12:15, 115 Bennett (T), 318 Boardman (R), (Bartosenski)
(005) 03965, TR 9:30-10:45, 115 Bennett (T), 318 Boardman (R), (Bartosenski)
(006) 04697, TR 11-12:15, 318 Boardman (T), 115 Bennett (R), (Diaz)
(007) 03978, TR 9:30-10:45, 104 Jenness (Callaway)
(008) 03980, TR 9:30-10:45, 318 Boardman (T), 115 Bennett (R), (Diaz)
(009) 03999, TR 12:30-1:45, 406 Neville (Hakola)
(010) 04005, TR 9:30-10:45, 218 Little Hall (Staff)
(011) 04619, W 4-6:30, 210 Neville (Staff)
(012) 05219, MWF 1:10-2, 114 Merrill (Staff)
(013) 05222, MWF 2:10-3, 124 Barrows (Staff)
(500) 05957, TR 8-9:15, 318 Boardman (Staff)
(501) 17624, TR 3:30-4:45, 124 Boardman (Staff)
(700) 16657, R 6-8:30, 318 Boardman (Staff)
(869) 13035, Web-based (Callaway)
Instructors: Bartosenski, Callaway, Diaz, Hakola, Staff
Anticipated Size: 20 per section
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.
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive requirement.
Required Texts: To be selected by each instructor.
Evaluation: Several short written assignments and one major report.
ENG 406 (001): Advanced Creative Writing
05235, TR 2-3:15, 204 Neville
Instructor: Alex Irvine
Anticipated Size: 16
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive requirement.
Required Texts: To be announced.
Evaluation:
ENG 429: Topics in Literature: The Grail in Medieval Literature and 20th Century Film
37712, TR 11-12:15, 123 Barrows
Instructor: Jennifer Moxley
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisites: 6 hours of literature or permission of instructor.
Course Description: As a central chapter in the Arthurian Cycle, the quest for the Holy Grail has captured the Western imagination for nearly nine centuries. In this course we’ll discuss the various possible origins of the symbol, read the Medieval Romances in which the grail first made its appearance, and watch 20th century films that attempt to capture its mythos. In addition, we’ll explore the connections between the medieval imagination and the 20th century cinema. Students who enroll in this course can expect to do a lot of reading of very old texts and to engage both the texts and films historically and structurally.
Required Texts (subject to change):
Romances, Chrétien de Troyes
The Holy Grail, Imagination and Belief, Richard Barber
The Quest of the Holy Grail (translation of Le Queste del Saint Graal)
Parzival, Wofram van Eschenbach
Le Morte D’Arthur, Malory:
Evaluation: Weekly written responses alternating with oral presentations, one seminar paper, one creative project.
ENG 442 (001): Native American Literature
18858, MW 3:10-4:25, 123 Barrows
Instructor: William Yellow Robe
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: Surveys literature by Native American authors from a wide range of tribal backgrounds. Considers the development of a written tradition over time in relation to oral genres.
Satisfies the General Education Ethics and Writing Intensive requirements.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 447 (001): American Drama
36606, TR 2-3:15, 109 DP Corbett Business Building
Instructor: Richard Brucher
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission of instructor.
Course Description: A study of 20th- and 21st-Century American dramatists, including O'Neill, Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard, Mamet, Henley, Wilson, and Baitz, among others. We’ll read the drama as an art that tests assumptions about American history, culture, and character, and about material and spiritual dreams. Satisfies the General Education Ethics and Writing Intensive Requirements.
Required Texts: Specific plays are yet to be determined.
Evaluation: Grades are based on an oral presentation, two short papers, a longer project, and a final examination. Performance may be substituted for some written work.
ENG 449 (001): Contemporary American Poetry
36619, TR 2-3:15, 316 Dunn
Instructor: Ken Norris
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisites: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive requirement.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 453 (001): The Works of Shakespeare
14178, TR 12:30-1:45, 131 Barrows
Instructor: Burt Hatlen
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission of instructor.
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive requirement.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 456 (001): The English Romantics
36622, M 6-8:30, 107 Boardman
Instructor: Tony Brinkley
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: The works of the major Romantic poets including Blake, Coleridge, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, and Keats, with a particular focus on the Wordsworths and on analogues for their work in Beethoven (his last piano sonata, op. 111) and Turner (Lake District paintings in particular).
Satisfies the General Education Ethics and Writing Intensive Requirements.
Required Texts: TBA
Evaluation: Several papers; class participation.
ENG 465 (001): The English Novel
16666, TR 9:30-10:45, 406 Neville
NOTE: Students who have taken 465 with Professor Jacobs, who emphasizes the nineteenth century, may take this course under an alternate number. Contact Professor Rogers to arrange. Satisfies the English major pre-1800 British requirement.
Instructor: Deborah Rogers
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission
Course Description: Focusing on the eighteenth century, this class will explore the development of the novel by reading a sequence of works in their historical and cultural contexts. We will consider such topics as individualism, realism, gender, genre, canonicity, and colonialism.
Satisfies the General Education Ethics and Writing Intensive requirements.
Required Texts (Subject to change):
Behn, Oroonoko
Defoe, Moll Flanders
Richardson, Clarissa (abridged)
Fielding, Tom Jones
Burney, Evelina
Radcliffe, Mysteries of Udolpho
Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Northanger Abbey
Evaluation: Reading blog, short papers, research paper, presentations, midterm, and final.
ENG 470 (001): Topics in Literature: Theory and Criticism
36635, MW 3:10-4:25, 131 Barrows
Instructor: Carla Billitteri
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature or permission of instructor.
Course Description: Studies in the history of literary criticism, in selected theoretic perspectives, or in the application of specific critical approaches. Specific topic varies from year to year.
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive requirement.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 481 (001): Topics in Women’s Literature
36641, MWF 12:10-1, 107 Boardman
Instructor: Steve Evans
Anticipated Size: 25
Prerequisite: 6 hours of literature. Note: Students who have not yet taken English 271 and English 222 are free to enroll, but should contact Professor Evans during the pre-registration period to discuss their readiness for the seminar.
Course Description: In this seminar we will explore a wide variety of women's poetry of the 1970s with a focus on the dynamic tensions that existed in this tumultuous decade between feminism and avant-gardism. Our overall objective will be to understand the historical horizons within which something that has come to be called a "feminist avant-garde" (re-)emerged in this decade. We'll pursue our objective by looking at how aesthetic, political, and cultural contradictions play out in the works of particular poets both well and lesser known. We will also study the specific means of cultural production and circulation that characterized the moment, paying special attention to the small presses and magazines, the poetry readings, and the reading groups that brought poetry before new audiences. Because "gender" is a relative term, our investigations into the shifting meanings of "femininity" will involve us equally in an exploration of how "masculinity" was constructed, critiqued, and transformed in this period.
Satisfies the General Education Ethics and Writing Intensive requirements.
Required Texts: Specific texts to be determined, but authors likely to be covered include Bernadette Mayer, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Susan Howe, Nicole Brossard, Jayne Cortez, Rosmarie Waldrop, and others.
Evaluation: Frequent brief writing assignments, presentations, and class participation, plus a final paper or project to be shaped in consultation with instructor.
Note: The seminar may be of especial interest to students who plan to be in Orono in the summer of 2008, when the National Poetry Foundation will host a five-day conference on the Poetry of the 1970s. For more information, contact Professor Evans.
ENG 490 Senior Seminar – Novels and Film Noir
38620, MF 1:10 - 2:00, W 1:10 - 3:00 327 Neville
Instructor: Jeff Evans
Anticipated Size: 16
Prerequisites: Senior English majors only.
Course Description:
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive Capstone Experience requirements.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 496 (001): Field Experience in Professional Writing
21536, W 11-11:50, 327 Neville
Instructor: Scott Peterson
Anticipated Size: 16
Prerequisite: ENG 317, 9 hours of writing and permission of instructor.
Course Description: ENG 496 is an experiential learning course in which students receive academic credits for doing workplace communication tasks. A student chooses his/her placement in consultation with the instructor and with the approval of the sponsor. Most students enroll for 3 credits. However, students should note that ENG 496 can be repeated for up to 6 credits, and variable amounts of credit can be arranged.
To earn 3 credits, students are required to spend 12 hours per week at their sponsored placements. In addition, they write a weekly journal, assemble materials for a portfolio/writing sample, attend technology workshops and seminars, meet with the coordinator when required, and write a final report.
Satisfies the General Education Capstone Experience requirement.
Required Texts: None
Evaluation: Proposal, Three Progress Reports, Final Report (plus portfolio of workplace writing), and Letter of Evaluation by Internship Sponsor).
ENG 499 (001): Capstone Experience in English
13332, TBA
Instructor: Naomi Jacobs
Anticipated Size: 50
Prerequisite: ENG 395, ENG 405 or ENG 406, ENG 490 or 400-level literature, or permission.
Course Description: All English majors preparing to graduate must demonstrate completion of the capstone experience. Student teaching has been designated as Capstone. Four courses, ENG 405, 406, 395, and 490 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. Senior English majors intending to satisfy their capstones by writing a capstone essay in one of their 400-level literature courses, including ENG 490, must also sign up for ENG 499.
Required Texts: None
Evaluation: None
ENG 505 (001): Graduate Creative Writing Workshop
01935, W 6-8:30, 327 Neville
Instructor: Alex Irvine
Anticipated Size: 10
Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or permission of instructor
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 (001): Studies in Literature: A Postscript to Transgression
28194, T 6-8:30, 206 Neville
Instructor: David Kress
Anticipated Size: 10
Prerequisite: Graduate standing in English or permission of instructor
Course Description: Beginning with Michel Foucault’s demolition of transgression as “disobedience” in his 1963 essay “A Preface to Transgression,” this course will explore both literature and literary theory as a way of building towards an understanding of transgression, particularly as it is often deployed in the world of an English department. After Foucault, we will look at several classics of transgressive theory and literature then move into an in-depth exploration of contemporary literature that seeks to get through the romantic/traditional conceptions of what transgression may have meant: although the term transgressive was most often attached to texts that are “simply” disturbing and rely on graphic description of the old stand-bys of drugs, sex, and violence, this course hopes to open towards a “going across” that is not merely naughty.
Possible Texts: The course will involve considerable reading in both literature and theory. While the theory readings are more or less set, I will cut several titles from the literary side to make things more manageable, but here is the list I'll be cutting from:
Walter Abish, How German Is It
Kathy Acker: Empire of the Senseless
JG Ballard: The Atrocity Exhibition
Christine Brooke-Rose: Amalgamenon
William S. Burroughs: Naked Lunch
Samuel Delaney: Dhalgren
Russell Edson: The Tunnel
Mary Gaitskill: Veronica
Allen Ginsberg: Howl and Other Poems
Jack Kerouac: On the Road
Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita
Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight
Hubert Selby, Jr.: The Room
Jack Spicer: Selections
Jean Baudrilard, “Impossible Exchange”
Maurice Blanchot, “The Absence of the Book”
Judith Butler, “Excitable Speech”
Helene Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa”
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, “Rhizome” and “One or Several Wolves?”
Jacques Derrida, “Difference”
Michel Foucault, “A Preface to Transgression”
Martin Heidegger, “The Question of Technology”
Clarice Lispector, “This Sex Which is Not One”
Friedrich Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense” and other selections
Michel Serres, “The Parasite”
Each student will write one research paper (approximately 20 pp.), give one in-class presentation, and create a website for the class “Transgression” website.
Evaluation: Evaluation will be based on the quality of written work, passion and depth of thought, and class participation.
ENG 546 (001): Modern American Literature
36653, M 6-8:30, 204 Neville
Instructor: Jennifer Moxley
Anticipated Size: 15
Prerequisite: Graduate standing in English or permission of instructor.
Course Description: The rhetoric of Modernist aesthetics was highly gendered—toward a powerful and clarifying masculinity, away from an ineffectual and mystificatory femininity. But is it that simple? In this seminar we will examine ideas of generation and birth in the modernist response to late Victorian anxieties over degeneration and death. Because generation is intimately tied to reproduction and race, we will also study modernist-period (1900-1939) ideas about femininity, masculinity, sexuality, birth control, abortion, and eugenics. We will read major literary works of the time, examining how such works reflect, engage, contribute to, complicate, and/or resist these ideas. Authors will most likely include: Freud, Goldman, Sanger, Eliot, Barnes, James, Hemingway, Cather, Moore, Pound, Stein, and others.
Can be taken for the concentration in Gender and Literature.
Required Texts: TBA
Evaluation: TBA
ENG 554 (001): Renaissance and 17th Century Literature
36664, W 3:10-5:40, 327 Neville
Instructor: Burt Hatlen
Anticipated Size: 12
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in English or permission of instructor.
Course Description: Readings in the lyric and narrative poetry and in the prose of the period from 1520 to 1660. Special emphasis on Sidney, Spenser, Donne, and Milton.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 557 (990, 995): Victorian Literature
(990) 36670, Web-based
(995) 36688, Web-based, Hutchinson Center (please call 1-800-753-9044 to register)
Instructor: Jack Wilson
Anticipated Size: 12, 12
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in English or permission
Course Description: Script:
* The Eighteenth-Century "Grand Tour": Roman ruins and the British sensibility.
* The English garden: From Versailles to the Picturesque to Burke and the Sublime.
* Rousseau and Blake.
* Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough.
* Horace Walpole and the gothic and the pagan.
* Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey," Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1800.
* Paintings of Joshua Reynolds, John Constable and William Girtin.
* The 1840s: the emergence of photography, especially in the work of Henry Fox Talbert.
* Ruskin's Modern Painters.
* Paintings of J. M. W. Turner
* Dickens’ Pickwick Papers.
* The Pre-Raphaelites, in poetry and art, with an emphasis on D. G. Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Algernon Swinburne, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and J. W. Waterhouse.
* The journey to inner nature, the landscape of the mind: The "aesthetic" end of the century: Walter Pater,
Oscar Wilde, and Aubrey Beardsley: decadent and perverse? Does Freud belong here?
Using the resources of the Web and the technology of WebCT and PowerPoint, we'll explore, first, the creation of the Eighteenth-century platform from which the British romantics launched their verbal and visual pyrotechnics, and then explore the Victorian reaction in image and word to the romanticism of Wordsworth and his view of the natural world.
Students will learn technical skills useful in their academic futures by preparing a PowerPoint presentation (I'll teach you how to do this), and by publishing this work, along with a traditional academic essay, on my web site (http://www.umaine.edu/victorianlinks/).
ENG 579 (001): Theories of Composition
36697, R 6-8:30, 327 Neville
Instructor: Harvey Kail
Anticipated Size: 12
Prerequisite: Graduate standing in English or permission
Course Description: This course will survey major theoretical positions in composition studies, particularly on issues that arise out of process theories of writing and attendant pedagogies. How do we “compose,” and how do we teach “composing”? Cross-Talk in Composition Theory, 2nd edited by Victor Villanueva, and Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Teachers, edited by Peter Vandenberg, et. al. will provide key documents to get us started and guide us. We will be reading the most influential theorists in this new and developing field, including David Bartholmae, James Berlin, Patricia Bizzell, Kenneth Bruffee, Peter Elbow, Janet Emig, Donald Murray, Sondra Perl, Mike Rose, Nancy Sommers, Paul Gee, Brian Street and others.
The focus of the course will be on acquiring a working knowledge of composition theory. Should you attend a national conference in composition studies, such as CCCC or NCTE or IWCA (knowing what those acronyms stand for and mean is part of what we will learn), you should by course's end feel theoretically well oriented and in a position to participate in an increasingly international conversation about academic writing. Should you apply for further graduate study in composition, you should be familiar enough with current theory and pedagogy to write a persuasive letter of application and to hold your own at the doctoral level. Should you currently be teaching writing, you should arrive at a more theoretically informed understanding of what and how you teach writing.
Expect to work in a seminar environment in the survey phase of the course, writing brief reviews of theoretical articles, and expect to write an extended solo paper on one theorist or theory. The texts that we will be using are available in the Writing Center (near the TV monitor) for your perusal.
ENG 580: Topics in Poetry and Poetics – Poetry and Experience
16679, T 3-5:30, 208 Neville
Instructor: Ben Friedlander
Anticipated Size: 15
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in English or permission of instructor.
Course Description:
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 697 (001): Independent Reading/Writing
16682, TBA
Instructor: Steve Evans
Anticipated Size: 10
Prerequisites: 6 hours of graduate study in English and permission of Graduate Coordinator Steve Evans.
Course Description:
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
ENG 699: Graduate Thesis
01941, TBA
Instructor: Steve Evans
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisites: 6 hours of graduate study in English or permission
Course Description:
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
INT 282: Expressing Innovation
31359, TR 2-3:15, Student Innovation Center (SIC)
Instructors: Margo Lukens, Sara Speidel, William Kuykendall
Anticipated Size: 20
Prerequisites: INT 280 recommended
Course Description: Combines elements of several disciplines: the clarity of journalism, the precision of professional writing, and the expressiveness of creative writing. Attention to narrative power of visual imagery as well as text; emphasis on writing as a tool for innovation, from idea creation and prototyping through persuading a target audience. Students will gain ability and personal confidence in writing persuasive
e-mails, memos, promotional and informational brochures and presentations. Coursework will be grounded in real world case studies. Challenges will include guests from businesses from the local and state community seeking ideas for new marketing messages, products and services.
Satisfies the General Education Writing Intensive requirement.
Required Texts:
Evaluation:
