English 7010: Children’s & Adolescents’ Literature [1634]
Prof. McKay, Thu 4:30-6:10 pm (M.A. English Teacher only)
This class will survey Children’s and Adolescents’ Literature in its broadest sense, from pre-school picture books through to writing appropriate for high school students. The class will begin by proposing some criteria for judging the success of a work of literature for young people. Following a developmental model, we will look at a variety of picture books, including works by Seuss, Sendak, Steptoe, and others. A short survey of traditional and modern folk and fairy tales, including works by Anderson and Wilde, and recent “translations” from the genre, will follow. An examination of the theories and controversies that have risen around their appropriateness in the modern world will follow. From here, we will look at works that begin to transition from picture book to young adult. This class will pair critical readings – both literary and pedagogical – with our primary readings. While we will always and primarily be looking at these texts from a literary-critical perspective, we will not overlook the more pragmatic and practical aspects of using these works as tools in real classrooms, especially as these relate to the idea of multiculturalism in a pluralist society. In addition to the picture books named above (on reserve in the library), readings may include works by Bette Bao Lord, E. B. White, Roald Dahl, David Levithan, Louis Sachar, J. K. Rowling, Lois Lowry, Francesca Lia Block, Sherman Alexie, and Walter Dean Myers. As this indicates, I prefer a reading list of contemporary authors, as opposed to traditional or classic ones, for this class. The reading list will be finalized by early January and made available on Blackboard. Requirements: Regular attendance and active engagement with the material under discussion; regular participation in a class blogging assignment; presentation of preliminary material on their research projects; and an 8- to 10-page research paper.
English 7011: Literary Texts and Critical Methods [2330]
Prof. Davis, Wed 6:30-8:10 pm (M.A. English Teacher only)
One account of literary studies in the 20th century has it that the advocates of a “hermeneutics of suspicion” hijacked the field from adherents to a “hermeneutics of belief,” leading to a lack of consensus about the literary canon, standards of value, and critical practice, and balkanizing those of us who teach and write about literature into a bunch of fractured -isms. An alternative account, one we will pursue in this course, begins from the premise that this 20th century transformation of literary studies reflected a crisis in the discipline’s most cherished principles. Grounded in the liberal humanism of Matthew Arnold and T. S. Eliot, systematized by the practical criticism of I. A. Richards and the formalism of Cleanth Brooks’ Well Wrought Urn, defining itself by turns in opposition to scientific inquiry and aspiring to scientific status, literary studies was transformed by intellectual and historical pressures into a more variegated field, one that was at once more complex yet more sustainable during an era of shaken faith in literature as “the best which has been thought and said,” as Arnold put it. In this course we examine the recent developments in literary studies not as mere –isms but as the result of this crisis, as expressions of an ongoing dialogue and negotiation over the meaning of literature and the critical procedures appropriate to its study. Students will read works of literary theory along with critical essays that illustrate key theoretical principles and procedures. Requirements: two formal essays and an exam, weekly informal writing, and regular participation in class discussion and on the course website.
English 7101: The Canterbury Tales [3569]
Prof. Masciandaro, Wed 6:30-8:10 pm (Area 1)
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales begins with "Whan" [when], a word that places what follows in time. And the work ends with the author's prayer to be among the saved "at the day of doom," the time when time will end. This course takes these small facts as inspiration for a broader and deeper investigation of Chaucer's text as a work situated in the problem of time, more specifically, within the ineradicable tension between the experience of temporality, of being in time, and the idea of universal time, or time itself. Reading the Tales in the context of medieval and modern theories of time, we will focus on their representation of numerous time-related themes (memory, historicity, mutability, youth/aging, contingency, newness, fate, etc.) and on the text's own dramatization of poetic writing as a privileged relation to time. Requirements: Final Exam, Research Paper, Class Presentation.
English 7202: Milton [3202]
Prof. Acosta, Mon 4:30-6:10 (Area 2)
John Milton is arguably one of the two greatest poets in the English language. Moreover, Milton’s influence on other writers cannot be underestimated. His most accomplished work, Paradise Lost, was the poem against which all poets measured their work for the next two hundred years after its publication in 1674. This course will examine Milton’s three major long poems, several of his shorter poems and selected prose. We will also read A Masque known as Comus. Class work will focus on close reading and discussion; we will also address religion, historical context and contemporary critical approaches to Milton. Required texts are John Milton: Paradise Lost, ed. Hughes (Hackett, 2003), Milton’s Selected Poetry and Prose, ed. Rosenblatt (Norton, 2010), and A Companion to Milton, ed. Corns (Blackwell, 2003). Writing will include discussion questions, an annotated bibliography, a final paper and a final exam.
English 7304: American Literature of the 19th C. II [3203]
Prof. Minter, Mon 6:30-8:10 pm (Area 3)
By convention, the era of American Realism and Naturalism begins in 1865 at the end of the American Civil War, and ends in 1914 at the beginning of World War I. After a troubled postwar reconstruction, the wounded nation soon rebounded with a period of robust “Gilded Age” prosperity. By the 1890’s, a decade which began with the symbolic closing of the American frontier and ended with the imperial designs of the Spanish-American War, the United States was on the verge of becoming a significant international powerhouse. American prosperity and prestige, however, did not resolve significant social tensions which remained after the old war had ended, and introduced more problems of their own. The course will consider how authors of the period responded to crises of the present moment in one of two ways: by looking backward to a medieval past organized around the unity of shared faith (and devoid of modern fragmentation), or by looking forward to a utopian future in which the problems of the present moment were eventually solved. We will also read works which question the optimism of these time-traveling fantasies, by presenting versions of past and future which are more dystopian than ideal. Our primary texts: Mont Saint Michel and Chartres and The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain; The Damnation of Theron Ware, by Harold Frederic; Twenty Years at Hull-House, by Jane Addams; Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy; Caesar's Column, by Ignatius Donnelly; Of One Blood, by Pauline Hopkins; and Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Our discussion of these works will be supplemented by criticism and literary history relevant to the topic and to the period, including a complete reading of Alan Tracthenberg's The Incorporation of America. Assignments will include: leading of class discussion; participation in the course's online discussion forum; a weekly reading journal; a field project; and a final research-based paper.
English 7320: Seminar: Nineteenth Century Literature [2342]
Prof. Brownstein, Wed 4:30-6:10 pm (Area 3)
We will begin to consider literature in the nineteenth century by reading selections from William Hazlitt’s The Spirit of the Age, which raises the topics of genius, celebrity, and individual character that concerned those writers and will concern us all term. We will read some writers Hazlitt knew and wrote about (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron) and some writers he did not know (Austen, Dickens, Henry James), moving from essays to poems and novels. Readings from nineteenth-century English authors will be supplemented, for the sake of comparison, by selections from later writers (e.g., Anne Sexton, Norman Mailer). Students will write three short papers.
English 7401: Twentieth Century American Poetry, Poetics, Perspectives [3205]
Prof. Welish, Tue 6:30-8:10 pm (Area 4)
We read 20th century American poetry from within the literary assumptions it engenders and yet by now has rendered complexly discursive. Poetry and poetics from selected literary movements such as Imagism, Objectivism, Harlem Renaissance, San Francisco Renaissance, Projectivism, New York School, Black Arts Movement, and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, will locate certain poetics for modern and postmodern discursive issues: speech / writing, composition / construction; individuality / collectivity, history / theory. Some knowledge of 20th–century poetry is presupposed. Readings: Donald Allen & Warren Tallman (eds.), The Poetics of the New American Poetry, Michael Davidson, The San-Francisco Renaissance, George Hartley, Textual Politics and the Language Poets, Paul Hoover (ed.), Postmodern American Poetry, Hugh Kenner, The Pound Era, and Aldon Lynn Nielson, Black Chant. Requirements: Commentaries, Paper Proposal, Paper, Final Exam.
English 7404: Twentieth Century Fiction [0947]
Prof. Harrison, Tue 6:30-8:10 pm (Area 4)
Participants will consider the titans of 20th century fiction. A survey of students' reading to date will help to plan our course, both to light our way along major but as yet insufficiently trodden paths and to inspire an exploration of the less frequented side-chapels of the genre. Expect an emphasis on relatively less read American masters like Gass and Gaddis, heirs to Faulkner, Joyce, and Beckett, whose work should be read first. South American, British, French and Japanese authors are also on our route. If we cannot explore the entire map, we can at least illuminate its contours, visit representative peaks, and write reports on these.
English 7405: Modern Irish Literature [3210]
Prof. Laurence, Wed 4:30-6:10 pm (Area 4)
This course will view modern Irish writers in the colonial and post-colonial setting, shaking Irish authors out of their Procrustean beds of Anglo-Irish, Catholic, Protestant, Gaelic, folkloric, mythic—and now, the tiger--categories.
Irish literature is intertwined with the history of the island: authors often lament the collapse of tradition, or represent the Irish as a dispossessed or lost people or present a narrative of endings. The 1916 Rising, the wartime story of Ireland and its neutrality, and the Troubles will be viewed through literature. As Claire Wills has noted the British "record in Ireland is hardly a model of democratic governance." But we will not neglect style, and will also observe the wonderful buoyancy of language and variety of traditions that inform the style of Irish writers.
Ann Enright notes how Ireland suspects its writers: if they are loved, they've done something wrong. We will read some of the greats who have been suspected—Joyce, Yeats and Beckett—as well as explore some of the beautiful, unsettling and innovative short stories and novels to be selected from the following: Molly Keane (Bad Behavior), Kate O'Brien, Elizabeth Bowen (The Last September or Heat of the Day), William Trevor, Sean O'Faolin, John McGahern (Amongst Women), Flann O'Brien (At-Swim-Two Birds or The Third Policeman), Roddy Doyle, John Banville, Colm Toibin, Colum McCann. Requirements: One shorter paper (5-7 pp); longer paper built upon the shorter (15-20 pp.); mid-term exam.
English 7420: Fiction Workshop [1328]
Prof. Rutkoski, Tue 4:30-6:10 pm (Area 4)
(M.A. English only)
This course will be focused on the craft of writing short stories, and will be run as a workshop, which means that in addition to being evaluated on your fiction, you will also be responsible for providing critiques of your classmates’ writing. You will produce two short stories this semester, and revise one for your final project. There will be in-class exercises on getting started, dialogue, character, setting, etc. In the beginning of the semester, we will read essays on writing by Stephen King and Annie Lamott, and interviews with writers like Toni Morrison and Marilynne Robinson. We will also read short fiction by contemporary authors such as Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Ethan Canin. Note: This course may not be taken more than once for credit.
English 7501: Introduction to Critical Theory [1764]
Prof. Bayoumi, Wed. 6:30-8:10 pm (Area 5)
What is critical theory? Is it only a specialized language that few understand, or is it a way of making sense of a text and of ourselves as readers of texts? In this course, we will approach the idea of critical theory from the latter perspective. Theory can help us place ourselves inside many conversations: between critics, between the text and ourselves as readers, and between the world, the text, and ourselves. Over the last generations, critical theory has grown in scope and influence, and includes many different approaches (based on Marxism, feminism, formalism, structuralism, historicism, and others). In this course, we will read selections from various theories, paying close attention to Marxist literary and cultural theory and its offshoots, and test our theories through readings of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and other texts. Requirements include regular class attendance and participation, a class presentation, bi-weekly response papers, a mid-term exam, and a final exam.
English 7503: Literature and Society [3656]
Prof. Viscusi, Mon 6:30-8:10 pm (Area 5)
Course description forthcoming.
English 7506: Practicum in Teaching College-Level Composition [0948]
Prof. Brooks, Tue 4:30-6:10 pm (Area 5)
(M.A. English and M.F.A. Creative Writing only)
English 7506 is a consideration of how to be an effective college composition teacher. We will read essays that offer both a theoretical and practical foundation to immerse you in the professional writing pedagogy conversation and to guide you in establishing classroom practices to clarify and support students' writing processes. We will explore options for the following: what to do on the first day of class; establishing routines; teaching writing as a process and understanding how deeply writing is revision; understanding basic rhetorical principles; responding to and evaluating student work; understanding language and dialect issues; and choosing texts for students. As a teacher I try to help students reflect on their reading, writing, thinking so they can listen to their own thoughts, compose without being dominated by fear, and take seriously their roles as thinkers and writers. Please come prepared to pay attention to your thoughts and words, listen empathically to your peers, write honestly, revise patiently, read student work respectfully, and respond to each other's work with an open mind. In addition to our weekly class meeting, you will be mentored by an experienced composition teacher by attending that instructor's course one session per week in order to gain practice tutoring, learn how to choose material, create assignments, and pace lessons; you will have the opportunity to teach and respond to/evaluate student writing. For our course, you will be expected to participate in discussion as well as take a turn leading one, to design an assignment and a syllabus, evaluate samples of student writing, and write a critical analysis of an article of your choice related to teaching writing. The combination of theory and hands-on classroom experience prepares you to teach your own composition section.
English 7507: Theory and Practice of Composition [0949]
Prof. Siegel, Thu 6:30-8:10 (Area 5)
(M.A. English Teacher only)
One of the biggest responsibilities of English teachers is the teaching of writing. How can a teacher help his/her students develop their own writing process, enable them to see their own weaknesses and work on them? How can a teacher both prepare students for the high stakes tests they have to take and at the same time, aim higher, to the level of expertise required in college? How can students learn to use writing to think and learn? How is work on grammar and conventions integrated into work on content and thinking? These are some of the questions that will be dealt with in this class. Requirements for the class include: a journal, a literacy autobiography, several other writing assignments and a Writing Teacher/Tutor Portfolio, where students will examine their own (or others’) teaching, follow several of their own students throughout the term, and critique their own teaching of writing.
English 7605: Applied Linguistics [3223]
Prof. Patkowski, Mon 4:30-6:10 pm (Area 6)
Introduction to the linguistic, psychological, sociolinguistic, and pedagogical parameters of language learning and acquisition. Topics include: popular ideas about language vs. research findings; theoretical approaches to first and second language acquisition - cognitive, social, and maturational factors; practical approaches to first and second language development in and out of the classroom. Texts: Lightbown, Patsy & Nina Spada. How Languages are Learned. Oxford University Press, 2006, and a supplementary reading packet. Course requirements: several short assignments (response papers, transcript analyses, development of short instructional units); article review on topic in applied linguistics; final examination.
English 7720: Seminar: Continuity, Repression, and Trauma in Early Modern Cultural Memory [2049]
Prof. Elsky, Tue 6:30-8:10 pm (Area 7)
The course will begin with an introduction to cultural memory studies, and explore the role of memory in the early modern period. We will explore how cultural memory functions in this period of uncertainty, ambivalence, persecution and catastrophe, a time of ambiguous national and religious identity borders. Some of the questions we will ask in relation to early modern literary texts: How do we construct a coherent cultural life by remembering the past? How much do we have to repress or forget to integrate memory into a coherent narrative? How do we deal with traumatic memory that cannot be integrated into a coherent narrative? How do we appropriate other people’s history into our memory to restructure our cultural past? How do we use memory to appropriate and neutralize the history of our adversaries to construct our own cultural identity? How do religions appropriate each other’s memories to suppress each other? How do religions reconstruct their historical memory as a way of resisting persecution? Readings will be drawn from major writers of the period, including Petrarch, Montaigne, and Shakespeare. Assignments will include a short midterm paper and a longer term assignment.
English 7800: Introduction to Literary Research [0946]
Prof. Scott, Thu 6:30-8:10 pm (M.A. English only)
This course is to be taken the semester prior to writing the M.A. thesis. At the conclusion of this course, students will complete a formal thesis proposal that will serve as a blueprint for the thesis. Assignments designed to guide students toward this goal will also serve as introductions to the principal forms of literary analysis and practical methods of literary research. While focusing on the works or writers of their choice, students will become familiar with the uses of primary and secondary sources, the rudiments of textual scholarship, the purposes of bibliographic research, and the recent critical works most relevant to their own projects. By preparing, presenting, and serving as audience members for reports detailing the progress of individual research projects, students will gain broad exposure to an array of potential methodologies, critical streams, and research strategies.
English 7810: Thesis Project [1339]
(M.A. English only)
Prerequisite: English 7800. Student must arrange with faculty advisor and receive permission to register from Graduate Deputy.
English 7811: Independent Study [1380]
A one-credit tutorial. Student must arrange with faculty advisor and receive permission to register from Graduate Deputy.
|
