English: Course Offerings
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180 - Exposition and Argument - Exposition and Argument provides an intensive introduction to all of the skills that go into good writing: critical reading, framing arguments for different audiences, mechanics, style, and research. The core curriculum will ask students to continue to refine their writing, but this course lays the foundation for the kinds of writing expected of students throughout college. This course is for students not eligible for the Seminar on Exposition and Argument. Four hours. Staff. Back to top
185 - Seminar on Exposition and Argument - The Seminar on Exposition and Argument provides an intensive introduction to all of the skills that go into good writing: critical reading, framing arguments for different audiences, mechanics, style, and research. The seminar is taken in conjunction with the First-Year Colloquia, providing the opportunity for shared readings, assignments, or related activities. The core curriculum will ask students to continue to refine their writing, but this course lays the foundation for the kinds of writing expected of students throughout college. Four hours. Staff. Back to top
210 - Major Tutorial in English - A one-hour limited enrollment class offered each semester in which majors, while enrolled in English 211 or 212, learn skills in close reading and write one essay. The readings vary with instructor. Prerequisite: Permission of Department Chair. One hour. Staff. Back to top
211 - British Literary Traditions - Traces the literary imagination in Britain from Anglo-Saxon times to the late Renaissance through an examination of the changes in literary forms, audience, and modes of production. Works and authors studied include Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Marvell, Herrick, and Donne. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
212 - British Literary Traditions - A continuation of ENGL 211. Examines literary movements from the Restoration to the Victorian period. Authors studied include Finch, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Arnold, and the Rossettis. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
231 - Introduction to Poetry - An introductory study of various modes of poetry in England and in America. Instruction in techniques of teaching poetry will be offered to the members of the class who are minoring in education. Three hours. Mr. Peyser. Back to top
232 - Introduction to Drama - A survey of dramatic literature, including classical, neo-classical, and experimental forms, with an emphasis on social context and performance. Includes comedies of manners by Moliere and Wilde, absurdist texts by Beckett and Pinter, "social consciousness" plays by Ibsen and Strindberg. Also includes plays from non-western and other minority traditions. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Ms. Scott. Back to top
233 - Introduction to the Short Story - A critical study of the short story as a form, examining works in the modes of fantasy, realism, and naturalism. A central focus will be on point of view. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
234 - Introduction to the Novel - An introduction to narrative that draws on works by Austen, Emily Brontë, Dickens, Woolf, and Manuel Puig. Three hours. Mr. Parker. Back to top
235 - Introduction to the Short Novel - An introduction to the art and technique of storytelling that focuses on the modern short novel. Three hours. Mr. Parker. Back to top
251 - Introduction to American Literature - The development of U.S. literature from its origins through the 19th century. Topics covered may include: discovery and exploration, the Puritan era, the Age of Reason, slavery and abolition, the American Renaissance and realism. Three hours. Mr. Watson, Mr. Peyser, Ms. Holliday. Back to top
252 - Introduction to American Literature - A continuation of ENGL 251. Major focuses include the rise of the United States as an international and cultural power, industrialization, realism and naturalism, and the development of modern and postmodern consciousness. Three hours. Mr. Watson, Mr. Peyser, Ms. Holliday. Back to top
253 - From Roaring Twenties to Depression Thirties: American Culture between the Wars - A study of the vibrant cultural life of America during the l920s and l930s using novels, short stories, plays, poems, music, and movies of the period. Three hours. Mr. Watson. Back to top
271 - Writing Women's Lives - Writing by and about women across time and geography. The course examines both literature and feminist literary criticism to explore a range of topics, including how expectations of women's and men's roles have affected women's access to and practice of writing, how differences of culture, race, sexuality and nationality register in women's texts, how women writers see themselves in relation to various literary traditions, and how distinguishing women's writing as a separate field poses both advantages and problems for the study of literature. Three hours. Ms. Holliday. Back to top
300 - Advanced Expository Writing - A course designed to give intermediate and advanced students concentrated instruction and practice in expository writing. Three hours. Offered alternate years. Ms. Mills. Back to top
301 - Peer Tutoring of Writing - Study and training relevant to tutoring in the college's Writing Center. Students will study principles of effective writing, writing styles and formats expected of various academic disciplines and peer tutoring ethics and techniques. They will complete writing exercises and write regularly about composing processes and about tutoring. Under the guidance of the center’s director, they will apply their knowledge and skills to the tutoring of fellow students. When students repeat the course for additional credit, they will complete research projects regarding the tutoring/teaching of writing and will create handouts or other materials useful to center clients. Prerequisite: Junior or senior status and permission of the instructor. May be taken four times. One hour. Ms. Mills.Back to top
303 - The Craft of Editing - Editors have to know everything about everything. Introduces students to the essential skills of editing that help assure clarity, coherence, consistency, correctness, and elegance in written communication. Considers how the rapid and dramatic changes in print culture are blurring the lines between writer and editor. Prerequisite: ENGL 185. Same as JOUR 203. Three hours. StaffBack to top
304 -Writing as Social Witness - This advanced writing class fuses cultural analysis and critical reflection with the study and production of sophisticated expository and multi-media prose. Students will examine and reflect on their experience in relation to the beliefs that these experiences emerge from in order to foster more critical and thorough understandings of self in society. Staff. Back to top
305 - Feature Writing - This hands-on course will teach you how to write feature articles and submit them for publication to magazines and weeklies. You will learn ways to develop marketable ideas and to write feature stories, profiles, how-to articles, and more. The class includes field trips to local magazine publisher and visit from guest editors and writers. Prerequisite: ENGL 185 or 180. Three hours. Ms. Mills. Back to top
306 - Creative Writing - A workshop experimenting with various approaches to creative writing. Emphasis on understanding and practicing the processes of writing poetry and fiction, among other forms, developing skills of evaluation, and discovering new and original voices. Prerequisite: ENGL 180 or 185. Three hours. Ms. Heroy. Students who have passsed ENGL 446 cannot take ENGL 306. Back to top
308 - The Late Middle Ages - A variety of literature from the 12th through the 15th centuries, including manuals, romances, visionary works, letters, tale collections, and mystical treatises. The course will explore how literary works are transmitted from one culture to another and how they change to accommodate different traditions, values, and audiences. Works studied include Yvain, the Inferno, the Decameron and the Canterbury Tales. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Ms. Goodwin. Students who have passed ENGL 385 cannot take ENGL 308.Back to top
311 - Shakespeare and his England - An introduction to a selection of Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, Romances, and the so-called "Problem" plays. These plays will be interwoven with the major literary, political and gender-related issues of the period from 1590-1613. Students will come to understand the plays not only as written texts but also as performed events. Prerequsite: ENGL211 or permission of instructor. Three hours. Ms. Scott. Back to top
315 - Tudor/Stuart Drama - A study of dramatic developments and social contexts of one of the richest periods of English literary history, the Renaissance. Plays from the mid-16th century through the 1630s, excluding Shakespeare. Topics covered include the development of "mixed" genres, political application, and the growing civil instability that resulted in the English Civil Wars. Prerequsite: ENGL211 or permission of instructor. Three hours. Offered every third year. Ms. Scott. Back to top
316 - Restoration and Refinement: English Drama, 1660-1780 - The development of the English drama from the Restoration through the 18th century. In addition to discussing literary developments, the course examines political, social, and sexual relations in the plays, and the way these reflect England's progress from a troubled monarchy to a constitutional state, and from land-based to material-based wealth. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Ms. Scott. Back to top
317 - Renaissance Poetry and Prose - This course will study a rich and diverse range of literature that exemplifies the intellectual and artistic interests of the English Renaissance. We will explore a number of different modes, tracing particularly the development of lyric poetry and its representations of love, courtiership, and the good life; we will also look at the development of prose (utopian fiction, travel narrative, and romance). Offered alternate years. Three hours. Staff. Students who have passed ENGL 420 cannot take ENGL 317.Back to top
318 - The 17th Century - An examination of the lyric poetry of John Donne, Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, and other Cavalier and religious writers, including some women writers. These poems will be read in conjunction with one dramatic work from the period. Instruction and frequent practice in explicating poetry. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Staff. Students who have passed ENGL 424 cannot take ENGL 318. Back to top
321 - The 18th Century - A survey of British literature, 1660-1798, focusing on Restoration comedy, the public poetry of Dryden and Pope, the satire of several Restoration and Augustan figures, the emergence of the sentimental, the advent of new literary genres such as biography and the journal, and the transition from a Neo-Classical to a Romantic aesthetic. Three hours. Offered alternate years. Mr. Sheckels. Back to top
322 - The 18th Century Novel - An examination of the novel as it gradually developed into a major literary genre. The course considers the formative shorter fiction by Aphra Behn, Delariviere Manley, Jane Barker, Daniel Defoe, Penelope Aubin, Eliza Haywood, Mary Davys, Elizabeth Singer Rowe and the later more developed novels by Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Frances Sheridan, and Fanny Burney. Three hours. Offered alternate years. Mr. Sheckels. Back to top
331 - Apocalypse Now: The Romantic Movement in American Writing - A study of the key period in American literature, focusing on such themes as the need to destroy what exists, the dangers posed and opportunities afforded by democracy to spirit, the cosmic significance of America, despair and ecstasy. Authors studied include Dickinson, Whitman, Poe and Hawthorne. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Peyser. Back to top
333 - The Realistic Movement in American Writing - A survey of American literature of the Golden Age, 1865-1900, focusing on the works of Mark Twain, Henry James, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Theodore Dreiser, and the local color and naturalistic schools of American writing. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Watson. Back to top
334 - American Poetry Between the Wars - An analysis of the poetry of the great early modernist American poets, who dominated the period between 1920 and 1940. The course focuses on the poems of Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Marianne Moore. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Watson. Back to top
335 - The American Novel between the Wars - A study of novels written by major American novelists of the Roaring 20s and Depression 30s, focusing on Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, and Richard Wright. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Watson. Back to top
336 - Post-World War II American Fiction - A study of the major thematic and stylistic trends in American fiction since 1945. Three hours. Offered every third year. Mr. Peyser, Ms. Holliday. Back to top
337 - Introduction to African-American Literature - A survey of writing by African-Americans from the 18th to 20th centuries, covering early texts, poetry and speeches, narratives of slavery and escape, abolition, the Reconstruction era, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts movement and contemporary black writers. Prerequisite: ENGL 251 or 252. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Ms. Holliday. Back to top
351 - Romantic Literature in England - A critical and historical study of English literature from 1789 to 1834, with emphasis on the lyric and the personal essay. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Parker. Back to top
352 - Victorian Literature - A study of England's literature between 1842 and 1901, with special attention to the crisis in religious belief sparked by theories of evolution, serial fiction, and the "woman question." Offered every second year. Three hours. Mr. Parker. Students who have passed ENGL 362 cannot take ENGL 352.Back to top
354 - 19th-Century British Novel - A study of the nineteenth century novel from Austen to Gissing, paying special attention to forms of emergence, the "woman question," and social history. Three hours. Offered every third year. Mr. Parker. Students who have passed ENGL 441 cannot take ENGL 354. Back to top
361 - 20th-Century British Literature - A study of masterpieces by major authors of the British Isles, with emphasis on the modernist novel and lyric. Three hours. Mr. Peyser. Students who have passed ENGL 449 cannot take ENGL 361. Back to top
363 - Contemporary British and American Drama - A survey of dramatic developments and social contexts in Britain and America since the 1960s. Topics include AIDS, the Vietnam War, one class/race relations with an emphasis on non-traditional dramatic performance, incorporating music, dance, graphic design. Three hours. Offered every third year. Ms. Scott. Students who have passed ENGL 371 cannot take ENGL 363. Back to top
364 - The Novel in the 20th Century - This course examines some of the astonishing experiments that have transformed the way we think of the novel, which many agree is the central literary form of the twentieth century. We will consider the political, artistic, and philosophical questions raised in masterpieces by British, American and European novelists like Woolf, Faulkner, Kafka, and Beckett. Works originally written in languages other than English will be read in English translations. Three hours. Offered every third year. Mr. Peyser. Students who have passed ENGL 340 cannot take ENGL 364. Back to top
367 - Post-1950 Canadian & Australian Literature - An intensive survey of the modern English literature written outside of the United Kingdom and the United States. The first semester of this course focuses on Canada and Australia. Among the writers studied are Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Miles Franklin, Thomas Keneally, and Patrick White. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Sheckels. Students who have passed ENGL 365 cannot take ENGL 367. Back to top
368 - Post-1950 African & Caribbean Literature - An intensive survey of the modern English literature written outside of the United Kingdom and the United States. The second semester of this course focuses on Caribbean nations such as Jamaica and Trinidad and African nations such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya. Among the writers studied are V.S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott, Jean Rhys, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Sheckels. Students who have taken ENGL 366 cannot take ENGL 368. Back to top
375 - Grammar for Writers, Readers and Teachers - This course offers a survey of the principal components of English grammar with an eye to enhancing students' appreciation and comprehension of good writing, their ability to recognize and correct errors, and their capacity to produce sophisticated prose. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Peyser. Students who have passed ENGL 353 cannot take ENGL 375. Back to top
377 - The History of the English Language - A dual focus on the linguistic processes through which all languages change and the development of English from its origins to the present. This course will explore the political, social, economic, intellectual, and technological influences that have shaped English and the historical conditions that can both accelerate and impede change. The course will take up such topics as Ebonics, sexism in language, and the varieties of Modern English and provide practice in the analysis of texts from the recent and remote past. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Ms. Goodwin. Students who have passed ENGL 355 cannot take ENGL 377. Back to top
378 - Introduction to Linguistics - A study of the linguistic structures through which meaning is communicated, such as syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics; the social conventions that govern conversation; language acquisition and language variation. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Ms. Goodwin. Students who have passed ENGL 356 cannot take ENGL 378. Back to top
381-382 - Special Topics - Intensive study of literature or criticism not covered by other courses, tailored to the needs of advanced students. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
391 - Junior Independent Study - An independent study of a particular writer or group of writers under the guidance of a member of the Department of English. At least a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and approval by the curriculum committee are required. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
392 - Junior Independent Study - A continuation of ENGL 391. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
400-401 - Internship in Writing - Intensive experience as an apprentice writing professional in a business setting. Possible internships include supervised work in employee communications, public relations, and technical writing. All internships require the study, application, and evaluation of general principles of effective written communication as well as the rhetorical and editorial principles particular to the internship. Prerequisite: ENGL 300 or 302. Application required; see Internship Program. Three hours. Mr. Sheckels. Back to top
407 - Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - A study of how this 600-year-old tale collection both introduces the reader to some of the most vivid and enduring characters and stories in English literature and provides a serious meditation on the subjective nature of the creation and interpretation of literature. Three hours. Ms. Goodwin. Students who have passed ENGL 481 cannot take ENGL 407. Back to top
408 - Chaucer, the Court Poet - A study of how Chaucer's short lyric poetry, dream visions and his tragedy Troilus and Criseyde engage readers with both the stories his narrator recounts and the seemingly insurmountable artistic and ethical problems that confront the poet as he attempts to mediate between his sources and the interests of his powerful patrons. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Ms. Goodwin. Students who have passed ENGL 482 cannot take ENGL 408. Back to top
412 - "Full Fathom Five...": Shakespeare in Depth - A study of five of Shakespeare's more difficult plays in the context of current literary criticism and production theory. Special emphasis on gender and social relations and on the way these texts continue to have relevance today will drive the discussion and assignments. Students should be prepared to analyze critical perspectives of the plays, both literary and theatrical. Prerequisite: ENGL 311. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Ms. Scott. Back to top
413 - Hamlet: Perspectives and Productions - A January term course which studies a single text and its importance as a cultural artifact all over the world. We will consider Shakespeare's Hamlet from the perspectives of different theories of literary criticism, old and new, view productions which offer radically different interpretations of age-old questions, and see how Hamlet goes on being written and re-written today. Prerequisite: ENGL 311 or permission of instructor. Offered every third year. Three hours. Ms. Scott. Students who have passed ENGL 313 cannot take ENGL 413. Back to top
422 - Milton - A close study of the works of John Milton, with attention to his life and times. Three hours. Ms. Scott. Back to top
440 - The Cavalier Figure in American Fiction - This course examines the stubborn survival of the aristocratic southern gentleman as a character in American fiction. The survey begins in colonial America and ends with modern writers, Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Penn Warren, Margaret Mitchell, and Harper Lee. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Mr. Watson. Students who have passed ENGL 332 cannot take ENGL 440. Back to top
450 - Commonwealth Women Writers - A study of selected modern works written in English by women in the nations of the British Commonwealth. Among the writers studied will be Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, L.M. Montgomery, Alice Munro, Marian Engel, Joy Kogawa, Michelle Cliff, Merle Hodge, Jean Rhys, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Christina Stead, Elizabeth Jolley, and Helen Garner. Offered every fourth year. Three hours. Mr. Sheckels. Students who have passed ENGL 418 cannot take ENGL 450. Back to top
455 - Literary Criticism - An historically organized introduction to theoretical and practical criticism, emphasizing the New Criticism and later twentieth-century approaches to literature such as psychoanalytic, feminist, New Historical, and post-colonial criticism and those rooted in the thoughts or Bakhtin and Foucault. Prerequisite: six hours of courses in English at the 200 level. Offered alternate years. Three hours. Staff. Students who have passed ENGL 390 cannot take ENGL 455. Back to top
487 - Departmental Honors I. Back to top
488 - Departmental Honors II. Back to top
491 - Senior Independent Study - An independent study of a particular writer or group of writers under the guidance of a member of the Department of English. At least a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and approval by the curriculum committee are required. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
492 - Senior Independent Study - A continuation of ENGL 491. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
495 - Senior Seminar - An intensive study of an author or topic that culminates in a major research paper. As the English major capstone, the senior seminar provides a culminating experience in which students will widely integrate, extend, critique, and apply knowledge and skills from the student's major program. This course should be passed as late as possible in an English major's program. Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. Three hours. Staff. Back to top
496-498 - Senior Project - The preparation and oral defense of a lengthy thesis in the field of British or American literature. Open only to seniors. Departmental approval is required. A degree credit for the first term of a two-term senior project will not be recorded until both terms have been successfully completed. Three hours each. Staff. Back to top
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