All English Courses

Undergraduate Courses

ENG 101 English for Foreign Students (A)

For speakers of other languages whose command of English is limited. Involves intensive experience in spoken and written English and prepares students for either ENG 102 or ENG 112, depending on the recommendation of the instructor. 3 Cr. Fall.

ENG 102 Fundamentals of College Composition (A)

For students who need practice in expository writing skills. Provides intensive work in writing standard, edited English as preparation for entering ENG 112. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 112 College Composition (A,Q)

Develops skills in composition, critical inquiry and information literacy. Students generate, revise and edit several essays with special attention to the writing process. Includes an argumentative research paper that incorporates critical analysis of various sources and the use of proper documentation. 3cr. every semester. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 163 Literature, the Arts and Western Culture I (A)

Explores how major literary works reflect significant ideas and issues from gender to power politics, from religious beliefs to racist prejudices, from heroism to hedonism, of the times when they were created. 3 Cr.

ENG 210 Creative Writing (A,F)

Examines techniques for writing poetry, prose, and/or creative nonfiction and requires students to critique each other's and to revise their own work. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 220 Early World Literature (A,H)

Explores literatures of the world from antiquity to the early modern world, with considerable attention to texts outside the Western tradition. Fulfills the World Literature requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 221 Who Wrote the Bible (A,H)

Introduces students to the Bible through consideration and application of various theories of biblical authorship. Situates the Bible in its ancient near eastern cultural context. Fulfills the World Literature requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 223 Modern World Literature (A,H)

Explores literatures of the world since 1700, with a focus on texts outside the British and American literary traditions. Fulfills the World Literature requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 224 Filming Rome (A,H)

Studies the history, institutions and society of the Roman Empire, including Rome's emergence as a global power and the roles women and slaves played in its cosmopolitan imperial society. Each unit of inquiry culminates in consideration of how Roman history and society have been represented in contemporary film and TV productions focusing on Rome. 3 Cr.

ENG 226 Dante: Inferno and Beyond (A)

Explores Dante’s Divine Comedy, read in translation; may also include discussion of medieval Italian art and architecture and of sources and influences. 3 Cr.

ENG 229 Shakespeare and Film (A,H)

Engages with questions of close reading, performance, adaptation, and translation by exploring several of Shakespeare's greatest comedies and tragedies as well as various film productions of them. Fulfills the British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 230 British Literature I (A,H)

Explores works from British literature written between 800 and 1800, including those of such writers as Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton. Examines various styles, forms, and genres. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 231 British Literature II (A,H)

Explores British literature written from 1800 to the present, including works by writers such as Wordsworth, Browning, Yeats and Woolf. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 232 Women and British Short Fiction: Shelley to Woolf (A,H,W)

Surveys the short story from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, paying particular attention to the spread of new genres (the detective story, for example). Emphasize women’s contributions to the genre, especially as innovators in the fields of Gothic and sensation tales. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 233 Sex and Money in British Literature (A,H,W)

Examines the relationships among sex, gender, class and the money economy in British Literature since 1800. Surveys genres including poetry, short fiction, the novel, drama and film to investigate how sex and gender have evolved as economic concepts. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 234 Jane Austen and Pop Culture (A,H)

Introduces students to the early nineteenth-century contexts that Jane Austen wrote her works in, and the modern and post-modern offshoots, adaptations, transformations of, and obsessions with her works. Studies four Austen novels in both their Regency contexts and in relation to the twentieth and twenty-first century continuing popularity of Austen’s work. Special attention to questions of gender and genre will help to shape the course. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 235 Introduction to African-American Literature (A,H)

Provides an introductory survey of the literature of people of African ancestry in the Americas. Acquaints students with major literary figures and significant historical periods. Discusses issues regarding the relationship between the writers and socio-political and cultural movements and questions concerning the socio-cultural function that the black writer serves for his/her community. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 240 American Literature I (A,V)

Surveys texts written in or about America prior to the Civil War. May include exploration and captivity narratives, Puritan writing, writing of the American Revolution, and major romantic authors such as Emerson, Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Douglass, and Stowe. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 241 American Literature II (A,H,W)

Surveys texts written in or about America from the post-Civil War era to the present. Introduces students to literary movements of the period such as realism, modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat generation, postmodernism, and the rise of ethnic American writing. May include writers such as James, Stein, Hughes, Ginsberg, Pynchon, and Kingston. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 242 Legacies of Slavery in American Literature (A,H,W)

Requires reading of and responding orally and in writing to literary texts documenting the effects of slavery in America, from the 1780s to the present. Examines major themes and tropes of slavery, both during and after its practice in the U.S. including restlessness and rootlessness, passing invisibility, faith, guilt, and redemption. Investigates differing effects of slavery on men and women, including popular conceptions of virtue and sexuality, economic and family stability, and implications for parenthood. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 243 Immigration in Modern World Fiction and Film (A,D,W)

Explores transcultural experiences and encounters represented in contemporary fiction, literary non-fiction, film and fine art. Retraces trajectories taken by twenty and twenty-first century immigrants. Confronts what it takes and feels like and means to make complex geo-cultural crossings. Considers the ways writers, directors, and artists interrogate various kinds of borders and boundaries and redefine national, racial, ethnic, religious, gender and other geo-cultural constructs, while pushing also beyond conventional confines of genre. Investigates how they represent the different degrees and kinds of agency, autonomy, and authority experiences in the migration, immigration, emigration, and trafficking. 3 Cr.

ENG 245 Imagining Women's Lives in American Literature (A,H,W)

Explores ways in which writing by and about women has exposed structural gender inequality in the United States while also fostering resistance and social change through the revelation of the imagination. Examines how women writers from a variety of identity positions—those of race, class, and sexual orientation—have imagined women’s lives and new possibilities in the US since the early twentieth century. Crosslisted with WMS245. 3 Cr.

ENG 300 Advanced Composition (A,Q)

Covers analytical, persuasive, and research writing and introduces advanced writing techniques. Revision is expected. Encourages participants to think critically and solve writing problems creatively. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 303 Introduction to Literature Analysis (A)

For English majors and prospective majors. Provides skills needed to understand literature in English. Includes close reading of selected texts and study of literary genres, critical terms, and the relationship between text and context. Provides practice in writing literary analyses. Emphasizes skills of generating, rewriting, and editing the documented critical essay and other nonfiction prose suitable to the needs and future careers of English majors. Majors and minors must earn a "C" or better. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 304 Fiction Workshop (A)

Develops mastery of the materials and techniques of writing fiction. Requires students to objectively criticize their own work and the work of others. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 305 Poetry Workshop (A,Q)

Examines the substances and processes of writing poetry through contemporary study and objective workshop criticism of student writing. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 306 Literary Nonfiction Workshop (A)

This course will introduce students to diverse subgenres of creative non-fiction such as domestic memoir, travel writing, graphic novels, and critical reviews among others. Students will develop a greater array of formal possibilities and areas of content in their own non-fiction writing. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 307 Playwriting (A)

Introduces students to full-length plays and the wide array of subgenres related to theatre: the extended dramatic monologue, choreopoems, verse plays, the 10-minute play, among others. Through intensive reading practices, students will learn how to employ various formal strategies in their own work. 3 Cr.

ENG 308 Close Reading Topics in Early British Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in early (pre-1800) British literature. Develops students' close reading skills. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 309 Close Reading Topics in World Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in World (ie, non-British or American) literature. Develops students' close reading skills. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. 3 Cr.

ENG 311 Bible as Literature (A)

Provides an extensive examination of the design, moral, ethical and historical significance of the Bible, as well as its major literary forms, including short story, myth, proverbs, psalms, historical narrative and apocrypha. 3 Cr. Fall.

ENG 312 Classical Mythology (A)

Studies Greek and Roman myths as background for Western culture, literature and fine arts. 3 Cr. Spring.

ENG 313 Close Reading Topics in Late British Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in late (post-1800) British literature. Develops students' close reading skills. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 314 Modern European Literature (A)

Examines particular themes, genres, historical moments or movements in European literature in translation, charts the development of a discrete European national literary tradition, or critically engages the works of a seminal European author such as Balzac, Kafka, Pessoa, Mann, Proust, Sarraute, etc. Emphasizes textual analysis while attending to European cultural and socio- historical contexts. 3 Cr.

ENG 318 Approaching Religion (A,I,W)

Introduces students to disciplinary methods used by scholars in the humanities and the social sciences to study religion and its cultural artifacts, including literary, philosophical, and historical analysis. The course is structured as a series of case studies, in which different religious texts, traditions, and phenomena are analyzed from discrete and carefully defined methodological perspectives. 3 Cr. Spring.

ENG 319 Comparative Literature (A)

Studies major literary trends, movements, genres, or problems from a comparative perspective. Specific topics will vary but always includes a comparative study of non-Western literature analysis of social conflict arising from the particular topic. 3 Cr.

ENG 320 Myths and Sagas of the Viking Age (A)

Considers the literature of medieval Iceland, and Norway. Readings will include the collections of mythological texts known as the Eddas (which narrate the deeds of the major Norse gods) as well as historical and pseudo-historical narratives such as the Saga of the Volsungs, Njal's Saga and the Laxdoela Saga. Attention will also be given to representations of the Viking Age in nineteenth-century prose and verse. 3 Cr. Odd Spring.

ENG 321 Rewriting the Pilgrim's Progress: From Bunyan to Vonnegut (A)

John Bunyan’s allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That Which is to Come (1678) was, along with the Bible, omnipresent in Protestant households until the early twentieth century. This course charts how Bunyan’s work informed later novels about pilgrimage. In the process of reading novels from England, South Africa, and the United States, students will explore how authors transformed the significance of the quest, by secularizing its outcome, granting new meanings to its many dangers, and undermining its central claims. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 322 Victorian Childhoods (A)

Analyzes the multiple, often conflicted representations of Victorian childhood experience, from the nonsensical adventures of Lewis Carroll’s Alice to the blighted urban existence of Hesba Stretton’s working-class protagonists. Through close readings of works for and about children, students will ask how the Victorians understood childhood voice and agency—the possibility that children could actively shape their worlds, from the home to the empire. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 323 Shakespeare's Histories and Tragedies (A)

Explores several histories and tragedies to gain a detailed and in-depth understanding of the issues and themes central to Shakespeare's works. Although knowledge of historical background is essential, the primary focus will be on the poetic, thematic and dramatic elements that cause these plays to resonate so profoundly today. 3 Cr.

ENG 324 Shakespeare¿s Comedies and Romances (A)

Explores several comedies and romances to gain a detailed and in-depth understanding of the issues and themes central to Shakespeare's works. Although knowledge of historical background is essential, the primary focus will be on the poetic, thematic and dramatic elements that cause these plays to resonate so profoundly today. 3 Cr.

ENG 325 Shakespeare (A)

Shakespeare plays, relating them to their cultural, historical, and political contexts. Play titles vary depending on the instructor. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 326 Genres in British Literature (A)

Undertakes the study of British drama, poetry, or short story and novelistic fiction with an emphasis on genre study, close reading, formal analysis and critical writing. Content, genre focus and time period vary with each course centering upon the conventions of selected genres within their historical frames such as Modern and Contemporary British Drama or Poetry. 3 Cr.

ENG 327 Comedy and Tragedy in British Literature (A)

Provides a study of comic and tragedy genres in British literature across historical periods and literary genres. Emphasizes close attention to be the conventions of comic and tragic genres and forms, and skills of close reading, literary and critical writing. Content and historical generic foci (drama, fiction, poetry, film) vary. 3 Cr.

ENG 328 Close Reading Topics in Early American Literature (A)

Topics - Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in early (pre-1900) American literature. Develops students' close reading skills. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 329 Captivity and Slavery in Black, White and Red (A)

Focus is on the clashes of cultures in the context of captivity and slavery. Readings (in translation) from texts originally written in English, Spanish and French ranging from 1542 to 1861, from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone. Study of these narratives provides a broad historical and literary overview of New World literature before the Civil War. Fulfills the American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 331 American Novel I (A)

A historical survey of the American novel to 1900, with readings from a number of significant novelists. Fulfills the American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 332 American Novel II (A)

Examines selected American novels after 1900 according to thematic, stylistic, and chronological patterns. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 333 Close Reading Topics in Late American Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in late (post-1900) American literature. Develops students' close reading skills. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. 3 Cr.

ENG 334 Black Women's Narratives, Resistance, & Joy (A)

Analyzes the ways in which Black female writers and readers across political locations have endured trauma and, ultimately, engaged in moments of recovery, laughter, and hope as registered in literary artifacts. Approaches the subject through interdisciplinarity, in the fields of history, criticism, literary studies, as well as cultural and visual studies. Covers theoretical works, novels, short stories, poems, drama to gain a greater understanding of Black women’s cultural and literary expressions of joy, happiness, and humor. 3 Cr.

ENG 337 Modern American Poetry (A)

Provides an investigation into the formative period 1910 - 1945 of 20th-century American verse, emphasizing significant figures from Robinson, Lowell, and Frost, to Cummings, Stein, and Eliot. 3 Cr.

ENG 338 Contemporary American Poetry (A)

Examines the unique character of poetry after World War II: aesthetic theory, significant themes, prominent contributors. Improves students' critical analytical skills via written assignments of varying character. 3 Cr.

ENG 339 American Drama (A)

Examines a representative set of twentieth- and twenty-first century American plays and develops students' close reading skills. Covers representations of social issues, such as Family, Gender and Sexuality, African-American Experiences, Labor and the American Dream, and the Nation, and how playwrights used and modified the genre to tell their stories. Emphasizes a critical approach to the content and historical context of American plays (rather than performance). Requires that students write regularly in both formal and informal contexts, research reviews and critical interpretations of plays (and understand the difference), and consider the implications of film adaption. Crosslisted with THE339. NYSED requires a minimum course grade of “C” (undergraduate sections) for certification. 3 Cr.

ENG 340 Native American Literature (A)

Native American Writing from Oral Tradition through contemporary writings. Attention to geography and history. Emphasis on post-1970s writing in historical and cultural contexts. Authors likely to include Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, M. Scott Momaday, Joy Harjo, Louise Erdrich, Hanay Geiogamah, Gerald Vizenor, Margaret Verble, among others. 3 Cr.

ENG 344 Black Poets (A)

Explores Black American poetry and poetics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with emphasis on the cyclical dynamic of political discomfort for African Americans & the subsequent poetic movements created in response. Pursuant to this aim, major authors such as Hughes, Walker, Brown, Brooks, Baraka, Neale, Sanchez, Dove, Komunyakaa, Alexander, Schockley, Hayes and the Roots are studied. 3 Cr.

ENG 345 Issues in Science Fiction (A,I)

Covers significant developments in the history of speculative and science fiction. Explores major themes such as sex, science and prejudice. Includes representative authors such as Wells, Asimov, Heinlein and Le Guin. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 346 Techniques in the Novel (A)

Course is designed to acquaint students with varieties of novels, emphasis on conventions and techniques of English and American novels. Takes both a generic and a historical approach. Students practice close reading skills and study critical terms related to the novel and related genres (e.g. medieval romance and travel narrative). Critical writing and basic literary-critical and /or historical research are required. 3 Cr.

ENG 347 Major African American Novels (A)

Examines the genealogy of African American novels, beginning with the19th Century fictional slave narrative and resulting in contemporary novels written by African American authors that reveal a cultural mulattoism, or the merging of Eurocentric and black literary aesthetics. Explores canon politics as well as readings that restrict the material to matters of race alone. 3 Cr.

ENG 348 Sex and Gender in Literary Theory (A,W)

Provides an advanced introduction to the traditions of literary theory and criticism related to sex and gender studies. Closely analyzes primary theoretical material as well as literary texts in relation to theory. Requires students to write papers of analysis from multiple critical perspectives, classify and describe perspectives of various critics, and define critical terms. 3 Cr.

ENG 349 Introduction to Literary Theory (A)

Analyzes literary texts in terms of form and content. Requires students to write papers of analysis from at least three literary perspectives, classify and describe perspectives of various critics, and define critical terms. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 350 Tragedy & Trauma (A)

Explores tragic drama with special attention to how tragedians represent physical and emotional violence. May focus on a single period of literary history (e.g. classical antiquity or early modern Europe) or approach tragedy diachronically. May also consider non-dramatic literary works written in the tragic mode (e.g. the novels of Toni Morrison) 3 Cr.

ENG 352 Early British Magazine Culture (A)

Charts the development of magazine culture in eighteenth-century Britain. Looks at periodicals in their historical and cultural contexts, such as: coffeehouse culture of the early eighteenth century, the periodical press, women authors and printers, gender identity, fashion and dress, cosmopolitanisms, commerce and trade, colonial expansion, the transatlantic slave trade, and artistic and literary taste. The newspapers, essay periodicals, and magazines of this era offer a fascinating window into the everyday lives of eighteenth-century British subjects, and we will spend the semester peering through that window. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 353 Bible and Modernity (A,I)

Provides an interdisciplinary investigation of controversies surrounding the Bible in the modern world. 3 Cr.

ENG 354 Texts and Contexts Topics in Early British Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in early (pre-1800) British literature. Develops students' ability to relate literary texts to theoretical, historical, biographical, or other context. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 355 Disability Studies and American Literature (A,I)

Synthesizes an introduction to disability studies with narrative and linguistic analysis. Includes a number of 20th and 21th century American literary texts in multiple genres (including drama, novels, short stories, memoir, and poetry) through the lens of disability studies. Integrates knowledge from multiple knowledge areas (Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Arts) and disciplinary perspectives (including medicine, sociology, political science, history, cultural studies, and literary studies). Students will be expected to learn the basic tenets of disability studies and apply them to upper level literary analysis. 3 Cr.

ENG 356 Medieval Law and Literature (A)

Considers the development of law in England from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Reformation. Begins with early influences on English law (such as the "barbarian laws" of the Continent and Norse law) as preparation fror examining the Magna Carta and other legislation. Examines texts as responses to legal change. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 357 Texts and Contexts Topics in Late British Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in late (post-1800) British literature. Develops students' ability to relate literary texts to theoretical, historical, biographical, or other context. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 358 Work and Welfare in British Literature (A,I)

Examines the changing attitudes about work and the welfare state in British literature since the mid-19th century, and reads the history rise and dismantling of the British welfare state through the lens of literary works. Investigates such topics in light of our own contemporary debates about empathy and institutions of collective care. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 359 Romantic Nationalism and the Origin of Human Rights (A,I)

Examines the simultaneous origins of human rights and the modern idea of the nation. Studies literary texts that represent this intersection in antebellum America. Texts include James Fenimore Cooper, Last of the Mohicans, Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders; and important theoretical works on the rise of the modern idea of nationhood and on the origins of human rights. Draws on material from the Humanities and Social Sciences. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 363 Writing in Exile (A)

Examines the exile as a familiar figure in literary history and a quintessential figure of modernity. Considers how exile, positioned between cultures, recasts each. Focuses on how modern exiles—Joyce, Conrad, Beckett, Brodsky, Ionesco, Nabokov, Kundera, Makine, Hoffman, Soyinka, Aciman, Mukherjee, Satrapi—draw on and redraw abandoned and adopted literary landscapes as well as the transnational and transhistorical terrain constituted by literature of exile. 3 Cr.

ENG 365 Confronting Death (A,I)

Students are encouraged to consider the implications of human mortality through a varied program of reading that addresses the following issues: the plausibility of life after death, public and private mourning and consolation, the ethical permissibility of suicide, and the effects of modern biomedical advances on our understanding of death. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 367 Women in World Literature (A,W,Y)

May be focused on particular themes, genres, historical moments, movements or international women authors. May address questions concerning literary canons, social and cultural contexts for literary representations of women, women writers working within particular genres, politics of women’s writing and publication, etc. 3 Cr.

ENG 369 Texts and Contexts Topics in World Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in world literature (i.e., other than British/American). Develops students' ability to relate literary texts to theoretical, historical, biographical, or other context. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. 3 Cr.

ENG 370 Beowulf and Its World (A)

Focuses on the Old English poem Beowulf, its place in the world of Viking-Age Europe, and aspects of its critical reception. Includes instruction in Old English grammar with the aim of reading the poem in its original language. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 372 Sex and Gender in the Renaissance (A)

Focuses on matters of sex, sexuality and gender in the literature of the British Renaissance. Examines a variety of works from the 16th and 17th centuries, with attention to those by and about women; depictions of masculinity and femininity and the sex act; and treatments of same-sex friendships and sexual relationships. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 374 Tudor and Stuart Drama (A)

Involves close study of plays by men and women in England from 1585-1685 in a cultural, historical and political context. Specific playwrights may include Marlow, Kyd, Beaumont, Fletcher, Jonson, Webster, Marston, Cary, Ford, Milton, Cavendish and Behn. Fulfills the British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 375 British Novel I (Before 1800) (A)

Provides a study of the rise and development of the novel as an art form in 18th-century England from the works of Daniel Defoe to the emergence of the Gothic novel. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 376 British Novel II (A)

Surveys major British novelists from the Victorian period to the present day. Authors covered may include Dickens, Eliot, Forster, Ishiguro, and McEwan. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 378 Twentieth and Twenty-first Century British Literature (A)

Examines literatures from the Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth in terms of the historical and geopolitical changes within these entities since 1900. Considers modernist, postmodern, post colonial and contemporary writers and texts through lenses of national cultural and political history and literary and intellectual developments. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 380 Early American Gothic (A)

Traces the evolution of early American Gothic literature, up to around 1900. Studies the particularly American expression of this movement, rooted in the mystical and Calvinist traditions of Spanish, French, English and African immigrants that resulted in a “native” literature. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 381 Popular Culture in Early America (A)

Analyzes emergence of genres of popular culture such as scandalous novels, detective story, and popular domestic romance. Also explores changing cultural technology related to mass production in the period between 1760-1900. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 382 American Gothic (A)

Starting with Poe, Brown and Hawthorne, the course traces the evolution of the Gothic to the present day. Includes other writers who have struggled to portray the power of darkness: Gilman, Faulkner, O'Connor, Oates, Koga, and Morrison. 3 Cr. Fall.

ENG 383 After the Slave Narrative (A)

History of African-American experimental writing from the slave narrative to autobiographical writing “after” the slave narrative—“after” meaning both later in time and “in the manner of” the slave narrative. Study of the influence of slave narratives on later African-American writing and culture throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Requirements include several short, analytical essays; some basic literary-critical and/or historical research. 3 Cr.

ENG 384 Texts and Contexts Topics in Early American Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in early (pre-1900) American literature. Develops students' ability to relate literary texts to theoretical, historical, biographical, or other context. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. 3 Cr.

ENG 385 Sex, Love, and Marriage in the Jazz Age (A,W)

Examines 1920s literature and culture to track and investigate postwar changes in thinking about sex, gender, and marriage, including roots in 19th c radical culture. Addresses the influence of race, class, and age on intimate relationships and identities. May include texts by F. S. Fitzgerald, Z. Fitzgerald, Wharton, Hemingway, Larsen, Faulkner, Loos, and more. NYSED requires a minimum course grade of “C” (undergraduate sections) 3 Cr.

ENG 386 Writings By African-American Women (A,I,W)

Surveys literary representations in Afro-American fiction from the Harlem Renaissance to the present. Examines the degree to which sexism, cultural stereotypes and racism influence the portrayals and function of women in black American literature. Explores concerns with women's issues and the emergence of the feminist movement in America. 3 Cr.

ENG 388 Texts and Contexts Topics in Late American Literature (A)

Examines authors, issues, and/or topics in late (post-1900) American literature. Develops students' ability to relate literary texts to theoretical, historical, biographical, or other context. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. 3 Cr.

ENG 389 Guilty Pleasures, Potboilers, Popular Fiction: What We Talk (A)

Focuses on several genres of “light” fiction, such as romance, horror, crime, fan fiction, and sci fi, exploring how such categories evolved and how and why they received derogatory labels. Considers American literary history, the evolution of literary criticism, and theoretical understandings of language and text. Explores why we read and in what context and for whom, and why college literature courses include and exclude particular kinds of texts. Fulfills Late American literature requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 392 Labor and Equality in Nineteenth Century America (A)

Analyzes representations of work and labor in nineteeth-century United States, including factory, slave, unionized, farm and domestic labor. Studies these forms of work in relation to the language of equality. Authors may include Melville, Douglass, Whitman, and lesser known popular authors who wrote about bankruptcy, crime and “get rich quick” schemes. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 394 Soldiers, Trauma, and Identity in American Literature (A,I)

Examines literature of American wars, mostly recent, to understand how the soldier’s identity is tied to American values and how literature registers trauma. Uses readings in Trauma studies to contextualize and engage with literary readings. Requires students to argue for interpretations of texts as representations of trauma. 3 Cr.

ENG 395 Topics in Creative Writing (A)

This workshop course will offer close study of flash fiction, a subgenre defined less by length than by its effects and techniques, as well as practice in conceiving, drafting, critiquing, and revising students' own flash fiction. Text will include considerations of the form by David Jauss as well as exemplars by such established contemporary writers as Alice Walker, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, grace Paley, Ron Wallace, and others. 3 Cr.

ENG 396 Children's Literature (A)

Explores literature written for children and evolving representations of the child, childhood, and/or child-rearing in texts written from the eighteenth- to the present. Course will study historical and social contexts and may include a focus on the “Golden Age” of children’s literature (1865-WWI), representative genres, themes in children’s literature, and an introduction to bibliographic and critical resources in the field. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 397 Young Adult Literature (A,W)

Explores the representation of the young adult in literature with an emphasis on the portrayal of the diverse experiences of coming of age across differences in race, gender, nation, and historical era. Covers a wide range of genres and social issues, such as identity formation, discrimination, parent/child conflicts, suicide, and bullying. Introduces students to bibliographic and critical resources. Course requires a minimum grade of C (for General Education/Major/Minor/Certification) Crosslisted with WMS397 3 Cr. Spring.

ENG 401 Ancient Christian Literature (A)

300-level lit credits. Explores important texts from the diverse world of ancient Christianity, either surveying the wide body of late antique Christian literature that survives, or focusing on particular topic, such as Gnostic religion and literature or ancient Christian poetry. This course emphasizes cultural and historical context, as well as theoretical approaches to the study of ancient Christian literature. 3 Cr.

ENG 402 Faith and World Literature (A)

300-level lit credits. Considers literature from various eras, national traditions, and religious worldviews; represents and investigates religious faith. In the process of considering how discrete texts engage with particular religious traditions and institutions, the course also considers how literature explores questions about God, revelation, sin, retribution, the afterlife, and related “religious” topics. 3 Cr.

ENG 403 New Testament Literature (A)

300-level lit credits. Explores the diverse literature of the New Testament, either surveying this part of the Christian Bible or focusing on a particular topic, such as Jesus and the gospels or Paul and his epistles. Emphasizes cultural and historical context, as well as theoretical approaches appropriate to the study of the New Testament. 3 Cr.

ENG 405 Sex/Gender and World Literature (A)

300-level lit credits. Explores how sexuality and gender is represented in world literature, with special attention to how diverse cultures and literary traditions construct these concepts differently. May examine sex and gender in various genres and literary traditions during a single period of literary history (e.g. classical antiquity, the European Renaissance, postmodernism) or explore concepts diachronically, to discover how representations of sexuality change over time. 3 Cr.

ENG 406 Internship (A)

This course is for English majors who wish to build work experience related to the skills they have obtained in their coursework in the major. The course meets once in person and the rest of the contact with the instructor is online (except for when the instructor visits the internship site). Course can be taken twice. Swing course is ENG 506. 3 Cr. Spring.

ENG 407 Dialogues with Dostoevsky in World Lit (A)

300-level lit credits. Examines how modern literature and art explore pathologies in urban life, moral philosophy, individual psychology, and aesthetics. Taking as its fulcrum Dostoevsky’s fictions and their Gothic, Romantic, and Realist contexts, our inquiry pursues dialogues with Dostoevsky in works ranging from Gogol’s stories to novels by Machado de Assis, Kafka, Bulgakov, Sokolov, Lins, Saramago, Coetze, and Pelevin, to Pessoa’s poetry, to films by Buneuel, Bresson, Bergman, and Tarkovsky. 3 Cr.

ENG 409 Postmodernism in World Lit & Theory (A)

300-level lit credits. Examines postmodern world literature and theory, contending with such issues as literary reflexivity (writing in the margins of the text or the rewriting of literary tradition), rewriting of history (writing on cultural margins), problematics of memory, cultural identity, dissent and dissembling, the death of the author, cosmopolitanism, globalization, etc. 3 Cr.

ENG 416 Slavic and European Theory (A)

300-level lit credits. With particular attention to historical and cultural contexts, critically examines intersections, insights, and limits of literary study through such critical lenses as Russian formalism, Bakhtinian scholarship, French Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, the Tartu School of Cultural Semiotics, and transnational cultural theory. 3 Cr.

ENG 420 Topics in World Literature (A)

Provides a study of significant authors or topics in world literature (i.e., other than British/American). Content varies, with appropriate subtitles for each individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in topic and content. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 422 New Worlds in Renaissance Literature (A)

Examines the significance of these “new worlds”—both real and fantastic—for early modern literature throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Readings will include texts by Christopher Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh, St. Thomas More, Edmund Spenser, Francis Bacon, William Shakespeare, John Donne, Johannes Kepler, and Margaret Cavendish. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 423 Medieval British Literature (A)

Studies medieval British literature in its principal forms: lyric, drama, allegory, and romance; its antecedents in Old English literature; its influence on 15th-century writers; and its connections to European and Middle Eastern literatures. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 424 Chaucer and His Contemporaries (A)

Examines a variety of works by Chaucer. Emphasizes The Canterbury Tales. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 426 Advanced Shakespeare (A)

300-level lit credits. Course builds upon the required Shakespeare or other British Renaissance course, focusing in depth on a theme or topic in Shakespeare’s works. Students may also be required to read works by Shakespeare’s contemporaries, plus a substantial amount of secondary material, including criticism, theory, and historiography. Culminates in an independent research project. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 427 Milton and Paradise(s) Lost (A)

300-level lit credits. Focuses on the life and works of John Milton, one of England’s greatest writers and most radical thinkers. Opens with Milton’s early poems and selections from his daring defenses of divorce, freedom of speech, and political revolution. Focus will be on products of the writer’s later years: Paradise Lost, paradise Regined, and Samson Agonistes. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 429 British Gothic Literature (A)

300-level lit credits. A study of the social, psychological, and aesthetic significance of British Gothic literature. It begins with an examination of the Gothic revolution at the opening of the nineteenth century and its relationship to the catastrophic historical events of the time. It explores the extent to which this literature developed as an avant garde art form, its connection with British romantic writings, and the impact it had on nineteenth-century American literature. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 430 The Long Eighteenth Century (A)

Covers selected works from British literature written between 1660 and 1800, including samples from Dryden, Congreve, Pope, Swift, Defoe and Johnson. Examines some ways these writers resolve the tensions created by the competing demands of reason, tradition, and the imagination during this period. Fulfills British Literature before 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 431 English Romantic Writers (A)

In this course, we will study the major themes and contexts of English Romantic writers from approximately 1789-1833. The Romantic era is a pivotal moment in the history of British literature; it is an era of great philosophical, cultural, material, and political change. The literary texts we will study respond directly to the upheaval, change, and debate that characterizes the period from the beginning of the French Revolution (1789) to the Abolition of Slavery in Great Britain (1833). This is a required course. Swing course ENG 531. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 432 Victorians and Others (A)

Examines contributions of the era, such as the writings of Tennyson, Browning, Dickens and others from 1832 to World War I, to the development of British literary thought and artistry. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 433 Victorian Poetry (A)

Introduces major poets and poetic forms from c. 1832 – 1901 with attention to emerging genres such as the dramatic monologue and the verse novel. Requires substantive research essay. Authors may include Arnold, the Brownings, the Rossettis, Swinburne and Tennyson. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 434 Victorian Fiction & The Bible (A)

Analyzes the centrality of the Bible to nineteenth-century culture through its appropriation in Victorian fiction. Drawing on authors with a wide range of religious commitments, the course may touch on such topics as reworkings of specific Biblical narratives; engagements with modes of Biblical interpretation; and experiments with the Bible as a material object. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. Swing course with ENG534. 3 Cr.

ENG 436 Modern British Literature (A)

300-level lit credits. Studies major British dramatists, poets, and novelists of the 20th century. Usually includes Shaw, Woolf, Lawrence, and Auden. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 437 Contemporary British Literature (A)

Provides a study of major British writers in the later 20th and 21st centuries. Usually includes Amis, Osborne, Pinter, Golding, Lessing, and Ishiguro. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 440 Seminar in Later British Writers (A)

Provides a study of significant authors treated singly or in coherent combinations. Content varies, with appropriate subtitles provided for the individual course. May be repeated for credit with significant change in focus. Fulfills British Literature after 1800 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 442 Topics in Women's Literature (A,W,Y)

Provides advanced study of women in literature and women's literature, focusing, for example, on some aspect of female lives, such as adolescence; on one or more female authors writing in a shared tradition, genre, or period; or on women writing on a common topic or from perspectives held in common. 3 Cr.

ENG 443 Beauty and Performance: Black Women's Writing (A,W)

Examines how Eurocentric philosophical theories of aesthetics and beauty became popularized and have affected Black women and women in general. Pursues an understanding of the ways Black women writers have engaged in discourse with these theories and resisted the harm they perpetuate. Covers works of literature by and about Black women, films and documentaries, and other artifacts of popular culture. 3 Cr.

ENG 445 Issues in Early American Literature and Culture (A)

Focuses on new World writing before 1800, with particular emphasis on cultural contexts of a limited scope. Contexts will differ from seminar to seminar: e.g. the immigrant experience, politics, the natural world, religion, etc. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr.

ENG 449 20th Century Asian American Writing (A)

Examines the formation of the Asian American Literary canon from the late 19th Century to the present. Examines issues of racialized gender and sexuality, cultural memory, the immigrant experience and American identity. Considers similarities and differences between Asian American writers of different backgrounds. 3 Cr. Odd Spring.

ENG 450 Transcendental Movement (A)

Provides an intensive study of the influential Transcendentalist cultural and intellectual movement and its theories of aesthetics, spirituality, politics, and culture. May include readings from Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Parker, Very, as well as important peripheral figures who were influenced by the movement such as Noyes, Garrison, Dickinson, and Whitman. Fulfills American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 451 American Literature: the Romantic Era (A)

An intensive study of the blossoming of American literature in the decades prior to the Civil War, the growth of individualism, and its impact on various groups through Transcendentalism, slave narratives and women's novels. Features major authors such as Cooper, Dickinson, Melville and Stowe. Fulfills the American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 452 American Literature: 19th Century Women's Novel (A)

Provides an intensive study of the novel as a form of women's self-representation and cultural criticism. May include novels about family life, anti-slavery and temperance, slave narratives; historical novels; and representations of urban and industrial experience. Fulfills the American Literature before 1900 requirement. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 454 American Modernism (A)

Focuses upon writers of the first half of the 20th century who defined American modernism by consciously breaking away from artistic conventions of the 19th century through experimentation in language, form, style and a heightened awareness of writing itself. Writers may include Pound, Stein, Hemingway, Hurston, Hughes, and Faulkner. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 455 WW I Re-Makes America: Gender, Class, Race (A)

Examines literary texts about U.S. participation in the Great War with particular attention to how such works register changes in attitudes toward gender, race, and class. Attends to historical contexts that illuminate these ideas and the discourses surrounding them. Students will be expected to direct their own learning, including preparing and delivering a group presentation on historical issues and developing, researching, and writing a substantial argumentative essay. 3 Cr.

ENG 471 Topics in Late American Literature (A)

Provides advanced study in literature, theory, and culture in twentieth-century and later U.S. literature. Topics vary by semester. 3 Cr.

ENG 472 Capstone Seminar in Literature and Theory (A)

Designed for students in their senior year, capstone seminars give students the opportunity to pursue specialized work based on focused reading of texts, criticism, literary history, and/or theory. Students engage in independent research and writing, culminating in the completion of an extended, theoretically-informed seminar paper or project. This class requires students to bring together skills and knowledge developed through throughout their pursuit of the major. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 473 Linguistics for Second Language Acquisition (A)

Crosslisted with FCE473. Contrastive analysis of the language components of English, French and Spanish; phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and semantics. Examines sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives related to the role of language in culture, identity and learning. Explores languages acquisition theories, and their application to bilingualism and the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. 3 Cr.

ENG 476 American Dialects (A)

Considers regional and social dialects of American and British English, African-American English and its history, pidgins and creoles, and observed differences in the speech of men and women. Attention given also to matters language policy, such as the use of non-standard dialects in reading instruction or “English Only” laws. Includes instruction in use of the International Phonetic Alphabet and in the methods of descriptive grammar. 3 Cr.

ENG 478 History and Structure of English (A)

Examines the development of Standard English and other varieties from a sociolinguistic, historical perspective. Provides a study of language acquisition, regional and social dialects, and the distinction between grammar and usage. Includes practice in and testing of contemporary usage. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 479 Linguistics (A)

Provides a study of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and sociolinguistics. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 480 Old English (A)

300-level lit credits. Focuses on forms of written English employed between 600-1100 A.D., with the aim of reading substantial examples of Old English prose and verse in the original language. Readings may include selections from “Beowulf,” “The Dream of the Rood” and “The Battle of Maldon,” as well as saints’ lives. 3 Cr.

ENG 481 Grammar of Standard Written English (A)

Surveys Perscriptive, Descriptive, Generative, and Contextual theories of grammar. Reviews the conventions of Standard Written English. Students analyze samples of their own writing to discover grammatical structures their personal styles favor, and they become aware of the variety of structural choices available to them as writers. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 483 Career Preparation for English Majors (A)

Prepares English majors for internships and career transition with emphasis on writing cover letters, résumés, and polishing interview skills. Focuses on how students can market the skills honed in the literature and creative writing classroom. The swing course is appropriate for sophomores seeking internships and scholarships through grad students interested in non-academic careers. 3 Cr.

ENG 484 Young Adult Literature (A)

Examines the needs of the young adult reader. Surveys genre literature as well as literature in content areas. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 485 Professional Writing (A)

Builds on the close reading and critical thinking skills of Humanities students to strengthen detail-oriented, audience-driven written documents, both print and electronic, appropriate to expectations in a variety of workplaces. For Humanities majors and graduate students. Crosslisted with CMC485. Swing course ENG585. 3 Cr.

ENG 488 Literature and Public Humanities (A)

Introduces students to the public humanities and career paths that engage communities and publics with literature. Explores how public organizations and activities such as museums, institutes, community-reads programs, and performances relate to the goal of academic humanities to study “what it means to be human.” Focuses on a set of literary texts that have popular resonance. Required attendance at two events outside of scheduled class time. Counts toward the Museum Studies and Public History minor. Swing course ENG 588. 3 Cr.

ENG 491 Advanced Fiction Workshop (A)

Focuses on the writing of fiction and the applied criticism of fiction. Requires students to bring manuscript to a polished state of form, style and content. May be repeated for credit. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 492 Advanced Poetry Workshop (A)

Focuses on original poetry writing and applied criticism. Requires intensive critical discussion, revision, and some consideration of work by selected contemporaries. May be repeated for credit. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 493 Advanced Literary Nonfiction Workshop (A)

Primarily a writing course in which students "workshop" essays. Explores the historical evolution of the essay and its new forms. Requires students to read a variety of essays and create their own. May be repeated for credit. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 495 The Writer's Craft (A)

Allows students to meet with the directors of the Writers Forum and guest artists and critics to discuss contemporary literature and the creative writing process. Contact the department for names of guests set to appear in the semester and other details. May be repeated for credit. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 499 Independent Study in English (A)

To be defined in consultation with the instructor-sponsor in accordance with the procedures of the Office of Academic Advisement prior to registration. 1-6 Cr. Every Semester.

Graduate Courses

ENG 502 Faith and World Literature (A)

300-level lit credits. Considers literature from various eras, national traditions, and religious worldviews; represents and investigates religious faith. In the process of considering how discrete texts engage with particular religious traditions and institutions, the course also considers how literature explores questions about God, revelation, sin, retribution, the afterlife, and related “religious” topics. Additional requirements required for the graduate level: > additional critical readings and monthly meetings to discuss them > final project will be a substantive research paper (15 pages) > possibility of presenting a topic or leading a discussion in class Crosslisted with ENG402. 3 Cr.

ENG 505 Sex/Gender in World Literature (A)

Explores how sexuality and gender is represented in world literature, with special attention to how diverse cultures and literary traditions construct these concepts differently. May examine sex and gender in various genres and literary traditions during a single period of literary history (e.g. classical antiquity or the European Renaissance) or explore the concepts diachronically, to discover how they change over time. 3 Cr.

ENG 506 Internship (A)

This course is for English majors who wish to build work experience related to the skills they have obtained in their coursework in the major. The course meets once in person and the rest of the contact with the instructor is online (except for when the instructor visits the internship site). Course can be taken twice. Swing course is ENG 406. 3 Cr. Spring.

ENG 516 The British Renaissance (A)

Studies selected poetry, fiction, criticism, drama, and philosophy by British writers from More to Milton. 3 Cr.

ENG 531 English Romantic Writers (A)

In this course, we will study the major themes and contexts of English Romantic writers from approximately 1789-1833. The Romantic era is a pivotal moment in the history of British literature; it is an era of great philosophical, cultural, material, and political change. The literary texts we will study respond directly to the upheaval, change, and debate that characterizes the period from the beginning of the French Revolution (1789) to the Abolition of Slavery in Great Britain (1833). For the graduate level:Presentation: 30-minute presentation with discussion-leading (20%) Response Papers: 5 response papers (10%) Research Proposal: 15% Annotated Bibliography: 20% Final Research Paper (12-15 pages): 35% This is a required course. Swing course ENG 431. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 534 Victorian Fiction & The Bible (A)

Analyzes the centrality of the Bible to nineteenth-century culture through its appropriation in Victorian fiction. Drawing on authors with a wide range of religious commitments, the course may touch on such topics as reworkings of specific Biblical narratives; engagements with modes of Biblical interpretation; and experiments with the Bible as a material object. Fulfills the British Literature after 1800 requirement. Graduate section requires additional primary and theoretical readings, an assignment leading discussion for the entire class, and a longer and more demanding final research project. Swing course ENG434. 3 Cr.

ENG 542 Topics in Women's Literature (A)

Prerequisite: ENG 303 or equivalent; Provides advanced study of women in literature and women's literature, focusing, for example, on some aspect of female lives, such as adolescence; on one or more female authors writing in a shared tradition, genre, or period; or on women writing on a common topic or from perspectives held in common. 3 Cr.

ENG 549 20th Century Asian American Writing (A)

Examines the formation of the Asian American Literary canon from the late 19th Century to the present. Examines issues of racialized gender and sexuality, cultural memory, the immigrant experience and American identity. Considers similarities and differences between Asian American writers of different backgrounds. 3 Cr. Odd Spring.

ENG 550 20th Century Asian American Literature (A)

Examines the formation of the Asian American Literary canon from the late 19th Century to the present. Examines issues of racialized gender and sexuality, cultural memory, the immigrant experience and American identity. Considers similarities and differences between Asian American writers of different backgrounds. 3 Cr.

ENG 562 African Film and Fiction (A)

Examines the emerging field of African cinema and its relation to literature from that continent. Films and readings reflect major cultural issues in contemporary Africa, and offer insight into artists' responses to those issues. Draws on interdisciplinary methods and approaches from the arts (cinema and literary works), the humanities (textual criticism) and the social sciences (postcolonial cultural theory). 3 Cr.

ENG 573 Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (A)

Crosslisted with FEC573. Contrastive analysis of the language components of English, French and Spanish; phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and semantics. Examines sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives related to the role of language in culture, identity and learning. Explores languages acquisition theories, and their application to bilingualism and the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. 3 Cr.

ENG 576 American Dialects (A)

Considers regional and social dialects of American and British English, African-American English and its history, pidgins and creoles, and observed differences in the speech of men and women. Attention given also to matters language policy, such as the use of non-standard dialects in reading instruction or “English Only” laws. Includes instruction in use of the International Phonetic Alphabet and in the methods of descriptive grammar. 3 Cr.

ENG 577 Language Awareness for Writers (A)

Introduces students to aspects of language and culture currently of importance to writers, educators and the general public. Students explore new perspectives in the study of language about topics including but not limited to the effects of technology on language and communication, language and politics, propaganda, and the language of advertising. Students are encouraged to develop critical thinking to discuss and write about current language issues in the U.S. Helps students to connect language study to reading and writing. 3 Cr.

ENG 578 History and Structure of English (A)

Examines the development of Standard English and other varieties from a sociolinguistic, historical perspective. Provides a study of language acquisition, regional and social dialects, and the distinction between grammar and usage. Includes practice in and testing of contemporary usage. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 579 Linguistics (A)

Provides a study of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and sociolinguistics. 3 Cr.

ENG 581 Grammar of Standard Written English (A)

Surveys Prescriptive, Descriptive, Generative, and Contextual theories of grammar. Reviews the conventions of Standard Written English. Students analyze samples of their own writing to discover grammatical structures their personal styles favor, and they become aware of the variety of structural choices available to them as writers. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 583 Career Preparation for English Majors (A)

Prepares English majors for internships and career transition with emphasis on writing cover letters, résumés, and polishing interview skills. Focuses on how students can market the skills honed in the literature and creative writing classroom. The swing course is appropriate for sophomores seeking internships and scholarships through grad students interested in non-academic careers. 3 Cr.

ENG 584 Young Adult Literature (A)

Examines the needs of the young adult reader. Surveys genre literature as well as literature in content areas. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 585 Professional Writing (A)

Builds on the close reading and critical thinking skills of Humanities students to strengthen detail-oriented, audience-driven written documents, both print and electronic, appropriate to expectations in a variety of workplaces. For Humanities majors and graduate students. Swing course CMC585. 3 Cr.

ENG 588 Literature and Public Humanities (A)

Introduces students to the public humanities and career paths that engage communities and publics with literature. Explores how public organizations and activities such as museums, institutes, community-reads programs, and performances relate to the goal of academic humanities to study “what it means to be human.” Focuses on a set of literary texts that have popular resonance. Required attendance at two events outside of scheduled class time. Counts toward the Museum Studies and Public History minor. Swing course ENG 488. 3 Cr.

ENG 590 Creative Writing for Teachers (A)

Explores how to stimulate writing and creative response to literature. Examines contemporary literature for models and requires students to develop writing exercises and to produce and discuss individual work. Reviews and analyzes current material on the teaching of creative writing. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 595 The Writer's Craft (A)

Allows students to meet with the directors of the Writers Forum and guest artists and critics to discuss contemporary literature and the creative writing process. Contact the department for names of guests set to appear in the semester and other details. May be repeated for credit. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 599 Independent Study in English (A)

To be defined in consultation with the instructor-sponsor in accordance with the procedures of the Office of Academic Advisement prior to registration. 1-6 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 600 Introduction to Graduate Studies (A)

Introduces MA-Lit Track students to research methods in English at the graduate level and to literary theory as applicable to course work in the discipline. Requires independent research, work with peers, interaction with guest scholars, and a conference-length research paper and presentation. 3 Cr. Fall.

ENG 603 Seminar in Creative Writing (A)

Brings the theory and method of creative writing to the study of selected readings in poetry and/or prose. Topics will vary, but may include the lyric poem; the novel; memoir, publishing and the literary journal; prosody; and the teaching of writing. Instructor’s permission required; may be repeated once for credit. 3 Cr.

ENG 604 World Modernisms (A)

Through close, culturally contextualized, comparative critical readings ranging across conventional geo-cultural and generic divides, this seminar reconsiders Modernist domains, dimensions, and dynamics. While revisiting texts and contexts that have defined Modernism- from Proust’s Paris to Woolf’s London- our study is reoriented towards anticipatory and alternative modernisms in Petersburg texts by Dostoevsky and Bely, in Machado de Assis’s and Mario de Andrade’s hallucinated cities. 3 Cr.

ENG 605 Studies in World Literature (A)

Examines selected authors, issues, or topics in world (non-British or American) literature. Provides intensive study that may vary by course and may be repeated for credit if topic changes. 3 Cr.

ENG 606 Studies in Early English Literature - Topics (A)

Variable topic. Focuses on a major example of literature written in English in either the Old English (ca. 600-1100) or Middle English (1150-1450) periods, along with advanced readings in the relevant scholarship. Repeatable with different topic. 3 Cr.

ENG 610 Studies in 18th Century Literature (A)

Introduces the student to a specific topic in the study of eighteenth-century British literature. Considers a number of texts ( from various genres) alongside important historical and social contexts. The specific topic of the course will vary each time it is offered. 3 Cr. Even Spring.

ENG 611 Literary Approaches to the Bible (A)

Studies the Bible, or portions thereof, from critical perspectives informed by contemporary literary theory. May focus on the Bible’s influence on later literature (e.g., the Bible and the novels of William Faulkner or John Milton and the Bible) or on discrete portions of the Bible itself (e.g. the writings of Paul, Jesus and the Gospels, narrative from the Hebrew Bible, etc.). Alternatively, the topic may be driven by theory (e.g. Biblical Intertextualities or Feminist Approaches to the Bible). 3 Cr.

ENG 615 Evil in World Literature (A)

Explores the theme of evil in world literature through careful examination of a handful of texts from a variety of national literatures and literary traditions, ancient and modern. Focuses on analysis and interpretation of works of literary art with an aim toward exploring and understanding the pressing psychological, ethical, philosophical, and even theological problems these texts raise. 3 Cr.

ENG 616 Studies in the English Renaissance (Topics) (A)

Focuses on an important topic in literature and culture in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Topics and authors will vary each year, though authors may include Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, Marlowe, Donne, Jonson. 3 Cr.

ENG 617 Trans Racial and Dblity Justice: Intsvtns in Contemp US Lit (A)

Offers a comparative reading of Transgender Rights Movements, Racial Justice Movements and Disability Rights/Justice Movements in the contemporary United States. Applies theory from trans studies, critical race theory, and disability studies to 20th and 21st century novels, journalism, popular texts in social and racial justice, and popular culture texts including television and comedy. Students will complete a midterm paper and longer final critical research paper. 3 Cr.

ENG 620 Writing in Exile: Transposition, Translation, Translingualism, Transcultural Consciousness, (A)

In this graduate seminar in modern world literature, we engage poetry, fiction and non-fictional prose, documentary film and art that reflect disparate experiences of exile, even as they reflexively reckon with attendant alienation and absence that similarly condition consciousness and conscience, aesthetics and ethics. We comparatively consider correspondences between literal and literary trangression, transposition, translation, translingualism, critical and creative transformation in works composed across borders. Works are read in English translation (with the option of reading in the original languages). Texts may include works by Mandelstam, Brodsky, Nabokov, Hoffman, Lispector, Levy, Sarraute, Said, Kundera, Aciman, Bouraoui, Agualusa, Akerman, Tarkovsky, among others. 3 Cr.

ENG 629 Seminar in Modern British Literature (A)

Advanced readings in the major authors, genres and themes of the period of British Modernism (approx. 1900 - 1950). Meets requirement for late British Literature for graduate students in English. 3 Cr.

ENG 630 Seminar in Nineteenth Century British Literature (A)

Advanced readings in the major authors, genres, and themes of the British Romantic and Victorian periods, c. 1798-1901. May be repeated for credit when the topic changes. 3 Cr.

ENG 631 Studies in Contemporary British Writers (A)

Studies two or three major contemporary English authors. Typically includes Pinter, Lessing, Fowles, Golding, Stoppard and Lodge. Specific focus indicated by subtitle. 3 Cr.

ENG 632 American Literature to 1870 (Topics) (A)

Covers selected major authors before 1870. Includes authors such as Puritan writers, Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville and other important writers. Specific focus indicated by subtitle. 3 Cr.

ENG 633 Studies in American Literature Since 1870 (A)

Covers selected advanced topics in American Literature since 1870. Provides intensive study of specific topics that will vary by course. May be organized around particular literary figures, movements, or issues. 3 Cr.

ENG 634 American Romanticism and Human Rights (Topics) (B)

In American Romanticism and Human Rights we will read novels, poems, and documents to study the complex relationship between our identities as human beings and as citizens of nations. Focusing on the rise of romantic individualism—a model of selfhood in which the “spirit,” “soul,” or “will” of the individual gained new meanings—we will discuss nationalist poetry of the American revolution and pre-Civil War era, Anti-slavery autobiographies, short stories, novels and essays by major authors such as Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass as well as more obscure writers such as Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Frank Webb. All of our texts ask questions about the idea of universal equality and actual experiences of inequality. 3 Cr.

ENG 682 Seminar in Children's Literature (A)

Explores literature written for children and evolving representations of the child, childhood, and/or child-rearing in texts written from the eighteenth- to the present. Course may include a focus on the “Golden Age” of children’s literature (1865-WWI), representative genres, themes in children’s literature, and extensive discussion of critical and theoretical resources in the field applied to picture books, poems, or novels. 3 Cr. Spring.

ENG 684 Seminar in Young Adult Literature (A)

Explores the representation of the young adult in literature with an emphasis on the portrayal of the diverse experiences of coming of age across differences in race, gender, nation, and historical era. Covers a range of genres and social issues, such as identity formation, discrimination, parent/child conflicts, and bullying. Offers an extensive introduction to the literary-critical dialogue within the field. 3 Cr. Fall.

ENG 690 Advanced Writing in the Discipline (A)

Capstone course for the English MA, Literature track. The purpose is twofold: 1) to prepare students for the final project (ENG 697), a 30-35 page scholarly essay that contributes substantially to current discussions within the student’s chosen field; 2) to acquaint students with the practices and conventions of advanced academic writing (such as peer review and revision). 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 691 Prose Workshop (A)

A seminar in the practice of prose writing (fiction and/or nonfiction), with particular attention given to discussion and critique of student’s own work. The workshop is supplemented by readings in modern and contemporary prose, essays on craft etc. May be taken 3 times for credit. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 692 Poetry Workshop (A)

A seminar in the practice of poetry writing, with particular attention given to discussion and critique of students’ work. The workshop is supplemented by readings in modern and contemporary poetry, essays on craft, etc. May be taken 3 times for credit. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 697 Advanced Project in Literature (A)

Allows students to complete their final project for the MA in Literature, supervised by the Director of Graduate students and an additional reader. The project will consist of revising and enhancing a paper previously submitted in ENG 690 Advanced Writing. Successful completion of the project will include an oral defense. 3 Cr. Every Semester.

ENG 698 Creative Thesis (A)

Each student will produce a creative thesis of 50-60 pages, typically a collection of poems or short prose pieces carefully revised and brought to a finished state, and accompanied by a critical introduction. Students will read and critique each other's introductory essays in a workshop format. A required course in the Creative Writing track of the English MA. 3 Cr. Spring.

ENG 699 Independent Study in English (A)

Designed individually through consultation between student and instructor to suit the student's needs and interests and the special competence of the instructor. Additional requirements may be imposed by the department. 1-6 Cr. By Arrangement.