Spring 2013 Course Descriptions

COURSES DESCRIPTIONS - SPRING 2013

ENGLISH, CREATIVE WRITING, CINEMA & SCREEN STUDIES

ENGLISH COURSES

ENG 101 - COMPOSITION I

All Sections
Review of fundamentals of writing for students with problems in writing skills so that they may continue successfully in ENG 102.

ENG 102 - COMPOSITION II

All Sections
Practice in college level writing, includes preparation of a research paper.

ENG 150 - PRINCIPLES OF LITERARY REPRESENTATION [Text]

Deater   MWF 1:50-2:45
This course is an introduction to the discussion of environmental representation through literature, film, art, and music. You will begin to explore the complex relationship between humans and the environment, and consider the way in which you identify and interact with your own environment. As you explore the ideas presented in this course along with your own writing, I hope you will establish relationships that will help you understand your personal role and place on the planet.

ENG 204 - WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

All Sections
Exploration of our own language use through the lens of literature, and exploration of literary language from the perspective we create with our own uses of language. We will study narrative, verse, and drama and one or two additional novels and plays. Approximately six essays.

ENG 210 - WESTERN HERITAGE I: LITERATURE [Context]

Hildahl      MWF 11:30-12:25
The first course in the Western Heritage sequence, ENG 210 introduces students to the works of acknowledged literary masters from the Age of Homer to the very beginnings of the Renaissance. Our readings will include works by such writers as Homer, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, and a selection from Virgil's "Aeneid." We will read selections from the early Hebrew Bible and the "Epic of Gilgamesh." Medieval readings will include "The Song of Roland," several lyric poems and ballads from the
popular and oral tradition, and a selected tale from Marie de France and from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." Course requirements: A Study-Notes Journal, with every-class entries; three-to-four essays written from one's journal. Mid-Term Exam; Final Exam.

ENG 220 - MODERN CULTURE AND MEDIA [Text]

Geller-Helmer    TR 6-7:20
What are the stories you tell yourself in order to live? Joan Didion writes in the White Album that "We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five...we live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images." This section of English 220 will help you build the skills required in literary study by investigating how modern culture and media influence your expectations and desires in life-in short, how modern media and culture shape your identify and your life narrative. This will be a discussion-based course in which we focus primarily on analyzing the assigned topics and readings and drawing comparisons between them. You will be expected to keep pace with the readings, complete one research-based analytical paper, compose a collection of shorter papers, keep a journal, participate in class and hand in a culminating assignment.

ENG 220 - MODERN CULTURE AND MEDIA [Text]

Halferty     TR 11:10-12:30
Do television shows like The Sopranos or Rescue Me challenge or merely reinforce ethnic stereotypes? Why is there so few television shows that feature blue-collar workers? Will network television ever depict gay characters who are fully-developed and multi-dimensional? What can we learn about American ideals/values from the Billboard Hot 100, top-grossing movie lists, and The New York Times bestseller lists? To what degree does advertising influence the way you spend your money? This section of English 220 is designed to help you develop the skills of literary study by presenting an opportunity to consider questions like these, and by giving you the chance to draw on what you know: your expertise in pop culture. Our work in class will focus mainly on discussing the assigned topics/readings in detail. Your work outside of class will consist of keeping up with the reading schedule; writing one fully-developed analysis paper incorporating research; completing a variety of shorter writing assignments (both in and out of class); keeping a pop culture log; participating in group assignments; and completing a creative project at the end of the semester. This is a discussion course rather than a lecture course, so good attendance and participation will be crucial.

ENG 265 - SOPHOMORE SEMINAR IN GENRE

DeBarros     MWF 10:20-11:15
Epic Poetry/Epic Masculinities:
The title of this course may seem somewhat awkwardly overstated or just plain redundant in that the epic genre is by definition traditionally concerned with the heroic, nation- or empire-forging qualities and actions of exemplary men during times of war. But what this title seeks to highlight and what this course will examine is just how complexly diverse and even conflicted epic poems (from Homer's Iliad to Milton's Paradise Regained) are about what it means to be and act like a "real" man. In particular, we will be concerned with the way in which several related but historically distinct strains of thought- such as, ancient stoicism and anti-materialistic Christian pacifism- raise serious ethical questions about imperialism and the violent masculinity that it promotes. As we situate each poem within its ethical-historical context, we will also examine how each poet employs the conventions of the genre- such as, the role of the gods/God in human emotions and actions as well as the epic simile- to create and potentially answer those questions. Finally, this course is responsibly "presentist" in its critical and political orientation. In other words, we will not act as if our analyses of classical, medieval, and early modern epic poetry can in some magical way be divorced from the values that shape us as twenty-first century readers. Instead, with sensitivity to the ethics of literary and historical interpretation, we will consistently reflect on what these poems and related texts have to do with us and whether they can help us understand and positively act on the personal, social, and political challenges of our time.

ENG 265 - SOPHOMORE SEMINAR IN GENRE

Cooper     TR 9:35-10:55

The English Novel and the Construction of Middle-Class Masculinity.  We'll read three works of fiction from the 1700s with a goal of understanding how the early English novel used satire to fashion and critique a particular image of middle-class masculinity.   Critical readings will discuss the predominant themes of social rank, wealth, warfare, virtue, truth, the sexual double standard and the ongoing threat of rape.  Texts:  The Injur'd Husband by Eliza Haywood, Pamela, Or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson and A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne.  Coursework:  two or three short papers, three or four homework assignments about the critical readings and a final research paper.

ENG 271 - PRACTICAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Murphy, M.     TR 12:45-2:05
Designed for students intending to teach, this course focuses on teaching grammar in the context of writing. A broad review of parts of speech, the syntax of complex sentences, and the conventions of standard usage will be supplemented by attention to the relation between standard and non-standard dialects, as well as to dealing with dialect difference in the classroom and in written work. Graded work includes exams, tutoring, teaching a mini-lesson, and the maintenance of a journal of observed usages.

ENG 286 - INTRODUCTION TO CINEMA STUDIES [Context]

Shore     MWF 10:20-11:15
Lab M 6:00-9:00
The purpose of this course is to provide a critical introduction to the study of cinema and screen studies. Students will be introduced to several strategies to engage with cinema, including formal analysis of films, film theory, and histories of cinema from the Hollywood studio system to contemporary transnational film markets. This course satisfies the Knowledge Foundations in the Humanities requirement of General Education, the Contexts category in the English Major and is the introductory course for the major in Cinema and Screen Studies.

ENG 304 - LITERARY CRITICISM

Curtin     TR 9:35-10:55
The course is designed to enable you to inquire into the conditions under which "literature" is produced and read and, moreover, to explore language and literature in relation to philosophical truth, political economy, nation building, imperialism, gender, sexuality, and the unconscious.
We begin by reading and discussing poetry and short fiction, about which you will write an essay based on whatever questions you find most compelling: questions about genre, form, authorship, history, politics, sexuality, etc. This project will teach you something about the kind of literary critic you already are. Then we will turn to criticism of the classical period to consider debates about of the role of the poet-debates which contemporary literary theorists continue to explore in our own time. Throughout the semester, teams of students will work together to facilitate class discussion of these challenging texts.
Along the way, we will read and discuss more literature, exploring how our approach to literary texts changes with the particular theoretical questions we pose while at the same time examining what literary texts reveals about broader social political, cultural, economic, sexual, and religious institutions. The prevailing argument I want us to consider in the course is this: history, like language and literature, is of our making, which means that it is ours to un-make and re-make.
ENG 204 is a pre-requisite for the course.

ENG 304 - LITERARY CRITICISM

Murphy, P.       TR 2:20-3:40
How do literary critics do what they do? What is the secret behind writing a critical interpretation of a literary work of art that others will find insightful and compelling? What is all the fuss about when literary critics begin to argue over how works of literary art should be read or taught? This course will answer some of these kinds of questions while it attempts to answer the toughest question of them all: What can one do with an English major? We will pursue these and similar questions by focusing upon some interpretive strategies in structuralism, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and cultural materialism. We will examine some developments within feminism, gay and lesbian studies, and perhaps some cultural anthropology and ethnography, while situating these developments within the larger traditions of literary criticism and theory that begin with Plato and Aristotle. By reading both theory and criticism along with several specific literary texts, including Shakespeare's Tempest, we will examine how literary criticism is fashioned, what is at stake in its arguments, and how literary criticism provides its own unique kinds of political, philosophical, historical, and poetic knowledge.

ENG 304 - LITERARY CRITICISM

Cooper         TR 12:45-2:05

ENG 304 - LITERARY CRITICISM

Ieta         TR 12:45-2:05
This course aims to provide students with an historical introduction to some of the key issues and debates surrounding thinking about the arts, and literature in particular, from Plato up to the mid-twentieth century. The readings are organized chronologically, while tracing some of the most crucial and contentious issues throughout and across the critical/philosophical tradition: inspiration; poetics; the charge that literature is a lie; the question of beauty; the role of the author; gender; language; readership.

ENG 315 - BRITISH ROMANTIC WRITERS [Context]

Cooper        TR 2:20-3:40
Romance in the Material World. Writers in the late 1700s and early 1800s rebuilt the literary form of the romance to make it more relevant to the pressing social concerns of the time. The revolutions in France and America, the practice of slavery both in England and its empire and the new demands men and women placed on one another for freedom from the oppression of gender norms are major concerns in the poetry, drama and fiction of the period. We'll pay close attention to language and genre parody (over-the-top use of Gothic elements, for example) to acknowledge the writers' self-conscious, self-critical references to the centuries-old form of the romance, even while in the midst of trying to sell readers yet another work of romantic literature. Throughout, we'll see how the texts make distinctions between the notion of love as a transcendent, transformative force, and the romance as a rather narrowly materialistic genre of representation. Students will develop an individual research focus by using library databases to locate recent scholarship about British culture of the Romantic period. The research will form the basis for one in-class presentation and a longer final research paper. We will read works by Olaudah Equiano, Mary Wollstonecraft, Joanna Baillie, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron and Jane Austen.

ENG 319 - SHAKESPEARE-AN INTRODUCTION [Text]

Murphy, P.         TR 3:55-5:15
This course studies Shakespeare's development as a writer who explores new possibilities for his poetry and his plays while altering, amplifying, or discarding old strategies. We examine the full range of Shakespeare's writing: (1) from his somewhat early work in the sonnets and narrative poems along with his early experimentations in comedy to his more mature developments in the history play and festive comedy, (2) from his first attempts at tragedy to the breakdown of comic form in the problem plays, and (3) from his exclusive attention upon tragedy to his almost exclusive work in the later romances. Our readings will be selected from each of these phases and genres. There will be two or three examinations and two essays.

ENG 325 - CHAUCER [Text]

Hildahl           TR 3:55-5:15
This course is organized around the two major poles of Chaucer's canon, The Canterbury Tales and his novelistic romance tragedy, Troilus and Criseyde. The selections from The Canterbury Tales will include the tales told by the Miller, the Reeve, and the Knight, the "Wyf of Bathe" sequence, and the Clerk's, the Pardoner's, and the Prioress's tales. We will examine Chaucer's assumptions about the hierarchical structure of his society, and in that light, we will scrutinize his portraits of the members of the various classes--aristocrats and commoners, clerks and seculars--those for whom he wrote, and those about whom he wrote, to mock, to satirize, or to praise. We will read the texts in Chaucer's English, i.e., Middle English, but with assistance from modern translations. We will spend two evening sessions viewing films that reveal or satirize the societal customs and political attitudes of the late medieval era: ‘The Return of Martin Guerre,' and ‘A Knight's Tale' Two papers: one shorter, interpretive paper early on; one paper with research and documentation. A journal for one's observations, responses, and questions and one's own translations of brief passages. Short in-class readings. Exams: Mid-term, Final. [This course is available to graduate students, for graduate credit. Please see the instructor.]

ENG 328 - Milton [Text]

DeBarros           MWF 9:10-10:05
Milton the Educator and the Lessons of Political Defeat:
In a survey of several of Milton's pro-Republican prose tracts and all of his major poems completed after the restoration of the monarchy, we will be most concerned with how his radical politics get played out in his poetry and his attempts to teach his readers the proper ethical orientation to revolutionary possibility and failure. In that spirit, we will explore education as the central trope in both his poetry and prose.

ENG 331 - AMERICAN ROMANTICISM [Context]

Blissert         MWF 9:10-10:05
This course will study the major writers of the American Romantic Movement, in order to define the character of the national literature that was created between 1800 and 1860. The attempt by the key writers of this period to understand or establish a distinctly American culture will provide the connecting theme among a diverse selection of readings (drawn from the works of Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Poe and Whitman). Requirements include critical essays, tests and a final exam.

ENG 342 - 19th CENTURY AMERICAN NOVEL [Text]

Blissert          MWF 1:50-2:45
This course will focus on the widespread use of gothic conventions in nineteenth-century American fiction, with the purpose of understanding the relevance of these materials in a society whose historical vision and political organization seem decidedly contrary to the nightmarish world of gothic narratives. Works by Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, James, Norris and others will be read and analyzed in light of their gothic elements. Requirements include tests and critical essays.

ENG 347 - CONTEMPORARY NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE [Context]

LaLonde          T 6-8:40
We will spend our time reading, listening to, and thinking about texts produced by the White Earth Anishinaabe and, for a point of reference, a text or two from another Native American writer. Doing so, we will be in a position to examine the importance of place in and for the texts and to imagine the possibilities of a tribal-centered criticism. We will read poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and history. Students should expect to write essays and take exams. The course counts as an elective in the Native American Studies minor and as a World Awareness--Humanities offering in the general education program slated to begin in Fall 2013.

ENG 349 - WRITERS OF THE BEAT GENERATION [Context]

Phaneuf            W 6-8:40
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the literary and cultural phenomenon of the Beat Generation in America and abroad, including readings from the works of its principal architects (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Corso), contemporaneous members of the San Francisco Renaissance (Snyder, Whalen, McClure, Kaufman, etc.) and those figures influenced by the Beats (Acker, Bernstein, Self, Vollmann, Welsh, and Wojnarowicz). The course will also explore the complex roles of race, gender, popular media, cyberculture and critical theory within the ever-expanding Beat orbit. Additional contemporary manifestations of the Beat aesthetic (experimental/underground film, the spoken word poetry movement, punk/no-wave music, hip-hop culture, etc.) are discussed as needed. Assignments: thinking papers, blog posts (tentative), a final exam and a creative project.

ENG 350 - MODERN DRAMA [Text]

Bertonneau           MWF 10:20-11:15
This course will explore the origins of modern drama in the theoretical writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner, and in Wagner's operas and the plays of two Scandinavian writers, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. Students will examine the relations between Nietzsche and Wagner, on the one hand, and Ibsen and Strindberg (taking them as a pair) on the other. The plays of George Bernard Shaw belong to the formation of a peculiarly modern Anglophone drama and it is not a coincidence that Shaw was an early Anglophone commentator on Wagner, Ibsen, and Strindberg (he wrote studies of Wagner and Ibsen and was thoroughly conversant with Nietzsche). French Nineteenth Century writers also contributed to a peculiarly modern drama. Gustave Flaubert is a case in point; his Temptation of Saint Anthony is Wagnerian in scale and in psychological depth, and Flaubert's appropriation of Late-Antique lore undoubtedly exerted an influence on Ibsen's most ambitious play, Emperor and Galilean. French existential drama in the Twentieth century (Sartre, Anouilh, Camus) is inconceivable without the prior French reception of Wagner and Nietzsche. When Eugène Ionesco (Rumanian born but Parisian by residence) writes Rhinoceros, he appropriates Euripides' Bacchae, as interpreted by Nietzsche in The Origin of Tragedy. It is not only T. S. Eliot's Waste Land that alludes to Wagner; so does his Euripidean tragic drama Murder in the Cathedral. Students in Modern Drama will read will read two critical books and five plays, in addition to which the instructor will screen Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and a number of plays by Ibsen, Shaw, and Ionesco.

ENG 351 - AMERICAN POETRY SINCE 1945 [Text]

Pangborn        MWF 10:20-11:15
This course surveys the most remarkable poets and poetry in the U.S.A. (and a bit from the rest of North America) between about 1945 and the present day. We will devote most of our class time to close reading and discussion, often with documentary footage of poets reading. Students are expected to read beyond the assigned textbook to produce two well-researched essays and, depending on class size, one in-class presentation.

ENG 357 - BLACK WOMEN WRITERS [Context]

Clark            TR 11:10-12:30
This course will focus on Black women writers in the United States, including works from the 19th century to the 21st century. We will take up the several issues and positions Black women write within and against as activists, feminists, womanists, artists, cooks, daughters, sisters, wives, and lovers. The list of authors and works might include Harriet Wilson, Nella Larsen, Ntozake Shange, Toni Cade Bambara, Michelle Wallace, and Toni Morrison. Course requirements include term papers, class presentations, midterm and final examinations.

ENG 360 - LITERATURE IN GLOBAL CONTEXT [Context]

Holt-Fortin            TR 12:45-2:05
Futurism. Feminism. Colonialism. In the past 100 years the world has changed radically. In this course we will look at a few writers who  influenced, recorded, and responded to the 'isms' of the modern world and their effects on the course of the past century. Of necessity, we can only touch the surface of that writing. We read around the world, mostly exempting European writers who might be covered in other courses. Class includes written responses, quizzes, two exams. Excellent writing expected and demanded. This is not the class in which to learn to write.

ENG 360 - LITERATURE IN GLOBAL CONTEXT [Context]

Jaywardane           TR 8:00-9:20
*This course has an optional Study Abroad in Cape Town, South Africa in May 2013 (3 English credits). More on this later.
Typically when we speak of literature, we speak of ‘national' literatures like British,
American, or French literature, or of broader regional entities like ‘Western' literature or ‘Latin American' literature. But at least since Goethe articulated the notion of a "world literature" in the 1820s, there have also been attempts to think of literature in a global setting. Thinking globally has become only more urgent with the increasing mobility of people and cultures in the last century. And being critical readers, thinkers, and writers in this competitive new world of fast-moving "Netizens" is essential to being a successful and dynamic graduate, no matter where your degree will take you. The purpose of this course is to help students become more globally-aware by exploring a selection of contemporary literature-novels and memoirs different from the ‘classics' to which you may have been previously exposed-helping us understand the individual's role in rapidly evolving societies and landscapes. We will read also learn how to respond to though our own informed, well-designed, and well-researched writing. The novels and memoirs we read in this class will help us become critical thinkers and help us understand the individual's role in society. Assignments will include the use of literary discussion to structure well-reasoned arguments, using standard English grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure in order to write excellent analytical papers. It's not a course designed to teach you basic grammar and mechanics. I'm so aware of the competition you will be up against from students in other parts of the world that I can't permit the usual whining and the regular rounds of excuses. Arrive with a strong work ethic and respect for the education for which you are paying-think of the class as a job, and preparation for the working world.

ENG 363 - SHORT STORY MASTERPIECES [Text]

Bertonneau         MW 3-4:20
Short Story masterpieces, examines the esthetics, generics, history, and anthropology of the short story from antiquity through the medieval period to the twentieth century, with an emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the course will examine both the high-literary short story and the popular or commercial short of the type associated with the mass-circulation "pulp" magazines of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.

ENG 365 - JUNIOR SEMINAR: James Baldwin and the Price of the Ticket

Clark           MW 3-4:20
ENG 365 James Baldwin and the Price of the Ticket
This course will focus on selected works by James Baldwin. Baldwin was one of the most profound and prolific writers of the twentieth century. He was noted for his activism during the 1950s and 1960s, having worked closely with many foot-soldiers and leaders of the Civil Rights movement including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His essays and novels address a range of topics-including (but not limited to) masculinity, gender, religion, sexuality as these intersect with notions of race and national identity in the United States. Some of the works we might read include The Fire Next Time, Giovanni's Room, Another Country, Evidence of Things Not Seen, Go Tell It on the Mountain, If Beale Street Could Talk, and selected essays in The Price of the Ticket. The principle course requirement will be the completion of an extensive research project.

ENG 365 - JUNIOR SEMINAR

Jaywardane           TR 11:10- 12:30
English 365, the seminar for juniors in English, is meant to be a course in which we learn how to conduct in-depth analysis of an author. Here, we learn the skills necessary for the next step in your career as a reader capable of injecting theory to your critiques of a writer and her/his body of work, highlighting your skills as a fine researcher ready for your senior year of university. We will work on establishing just who the author is, where she/he is situated in the literary landscape, and how she/he has been "received" by the literary/critical community of readers over time. I decided on Jonathan Safran Foer's work as the vehicle through which we will explore how to do in-depth research. Foer is a contemporary author who writes about pressing, modern concerns with which we feel an immediate affinity: in the first book, Foer searches for the ‘disappeared' lives, landscapes and homes of his Russian-Jewish ancestors in order to better understand his Americanness and his historical roots; in the second, he addresses the long lasting and terrifying human cost of 9/11/2001, and the resulting ‘War on Terror' though the eyes of a young boy who lost his father in the attacks; in the third book, he reveals the environmental and ethical costs of creating 7 billion eating, wasting, and demanding consumers in the 21st century. (Apparently, this is the book that made Natalie Portman go hardcore vegan. Yup, not just vegetarian, but vegan.)Assignments will include the use of literary discussion to structure well-reasoned arguments, using standard English grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure in order to write excellent analytical papers. It's not a course designed to teach you basic grammar and mechanics. I'm so aware of the competition you will be up against from students in other parts of the world that I can't permit the usual whining and the regular rounds of excuses. Arrive with a strong work ethic and respect for the education for which you are paying-think of the class as a job, and preparation for the working world.

Texts:
1. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
2. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
3. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
4. Class Course packet: articles, links and all other materials will be available online

ENG 376 - SCIENCE FICTION [Context]

Bertonneau
MWF 1:50-2:45
This course explores the development of scientific, philosophical, technical, and religious themes in the speculative genres, concentrating on science fiction; the course includes science fiction films in its purview.

ENG 380 - NARRATIVES OF IDENTITY [Context]

Hildahl
TR 9:35-10:55
The readings will focus on the intersection of the self and the society in which the narrator, author or protagonist lives. We will examine accounts of characters who attempt to live in a society while intending to survive as individuals, either in conformity with the society or in spite of its pressures. We will focus especially on the lives of persons who live in one society but between cultures, caught between the dominant culture and a sub-culture or alternate society, or between the person's present society and the culture of one's origins, or one's family's origins. We will also examine the situation of individuals who attempt to separate themselves from the pressures and definitions of the society to which they were born, or from the family or figures of authority who gave them their personhood.

We will consider too the sources of personal identity as presented in different texts, and the questions of whether one's identity is an absolute, a given, created before or conferred at one's birth, whether one's character is constructed by the culture in which one grows and lives, or whether character and identity can be substantially chosen and fashioned by oneself. Some of the texts we will read are self-evidently fictitious. Others are biographical, autobiographical, historical, or quasi-historical.

Among the readings:
Stories by William Faulkner
Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of an American Slave
Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson
Witi Ihimaera's The Whale Rider
Selected Iroquois tales by Joseph Bruchac, from Turtle Meat & Other Stories
Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Antigone
Jean de Coras's The Return of Martin Guerre

Requirements: A reading journal, with every-class entries; four or five essays written from one's journal. Mid-Term Exam; Final Exam.

ENG 381 - NARRATIVE THEORIES [Theory]

Ieta
TR 11:10-12:30
The course will introduce students to analyses of literary texts based on an array of narrative theories from early to late twentieth century. We will learn the specific vocabulary of the discipline and will apply each theoretical text to interpret fiction.

ENG 385 - CHILDREN'S LITERATURE [Text]

Troy-Smith
MWF 9:10-10:05, 11:30-12:25
A survey course of literature for children. Not a course in methodology, the basic purpose of this course will be to survey the various genres of literature that have been written especially for children (approximately 2-14 years of age), or literature that was originally written for adults, but now has generally been relegated to children. The genres include: picture books, nursery rhymes, folk literature, modern fantasy, realistic fiction, poetry, and information books. Criteria will be established for literary evaluation. Certain social issues such as sex, sexism, and violence will be discussed in terms of children's books.

ENG 387 - VISION AND TEXTUALITY [Theory]

Kligerman
T 6-9:00

ENG 395 - TOLKIEN [Text]

Holt-Fortin
TR 9:35- 10:55
Say friend and enter the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. In this critical approach to the works of Tolkien we will use his essay on Faerie Stories, along with other essays, to explore the genre of the fantasy story and its uses in our contemporary world. We read most of the shorter works and The Silmarillion, and all of The Lord of the Rings. The work for the course includes critical writings, a researched term project, quizzes and exams. At the end of the term, we indulge in a Hobbit Feast at which we also present the term projects to friends and to the department.

ENG 395 - BUSINESS AND LITERATURE

Blissert
MW 3-4:20

ENG 395 - BUSINESS AND LITERATURE

Pangborn
MWF 8-8:55
We will examine some novels, poems, plays, and films, each of which concerns business in some important way. Discussing and writing about these, we will look for insights into the works and their authors, their cultural and historical contexts, their psychological depths, and, by extension, some of the problems and complications still faced in business practice today. Discussion participation is required, along with frequent reading quizzes, some short writing assignments, one longer researched paper, and final exam.

ENG 395 - CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN LITERATURE [Context]

Jayawardane
TR 12:45-14:05
*This course has an optional Study Abroad in Cape Town, South Africa in May 2013 (3 English credits). More on this later.
In On the Postcolony, the sociologist Achille Mbembe argues that life in many ‘postcolonial' African states has been rendered "disposable" by global capitalism, neo-colonial exploitation, despotic national governments, environmental degradation and borderless, perpetually mutating civil wars. The legacy of colonial violence indelibly stains the history of postcolonial Africa; and since the anti-colonial nationalist movements of the 1950s and 60s, Africa has been the site of countless revolutions, civil wars, coups, military dictatorships, and genocides.
Our course in contemporary African literature considers the manner in which youthful, hip, contemporary African literature emerges in the wake of postcolonial violence, and the way in which Africa's rich and historically nuanced tradition of storytelling and writing engages, troubles, and contests what it means to ‘be' in the transition from the postcolonial years to this moment in modernity. The following questions are ever-present as we read: How do postcolonial African writers confront the atrocities of the past and those of their present? How do we measure character development when the life of the individual is determined by the whims of national and transnational power? How do writers construct meaningful plots when day-to-day life has been rendered arbitrary and uncertain? How do contemporary writers attempt to represent conditions designed to make life seemingly disposable, while reflecting the sublime beauty of the everyday? And how do the old themes of despair, dejection, and redemption (in the theological, economic, or ethical senses) work with imagination, and playing with form, language, and style?
Assignments will include the use of literary discussion to structure well-reasoned arguments, using standard English grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure in order to write excellent analytical papers. It's not a course designed to teach you basic grammar and mechanics. I'm so aware of the competition you will be up against from students in other parts of the world that I can't permit the usual whining and the regular rounds of excuses. Arrive with a strong work ethic and respect for the education for which you are paying-think of the class as a job, and preparation for the working world.

ENG 426 - SHAKESPEARE CONTEXTS [Contexts]

Murphy, P.
W 6-8:40
Shakespeare has been called "the poet of the family." His plays often explore the dynamics among at least two or three generations of fathers, mothers, siblings, legitimate and illegitimate children, servants, and persons who, although they may initially not belong to a particular family, position themselves (with either caring or subversive intent) in relation to that family's emotional or economic situations. This course will read several of Shakespeare's works (from the poetry, the comedies, the histories, and the tragedies); a standard biography of the playwright; and some of the classic historical discussions of "the family, sex, and marriage" in the early modern period in order to discover if Shakespeare's art subverts ordinary notions of the family or reasserts the dominance of the traditional family as it was understood in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in England. Particular emphasis will probably be given to the Elizabethan use of the Court of Wards as a starting place in our deliberations and research. The course work will most likely include three brief essays, a course research paper, one or two presentations, and a final examination. All books that have been ordered for this class will also be available at Penfield Library at the Reserve Desk. Other readings and course materials will also be made available through traditional as well as the electronic reserve system at Penfield Library.

ENG 465 - SEMINAR IN ADVANCED LITERARY STUDIES

Coultrap-McQuin
TR 12:45-2:05
This course will give you the opportunity to examine the writings of American women authors in the nineteenth century and to explore questions of meaning, of style, of popularity, and of literary merit. We will examine the ways in which women writers in fiction and poetry addressed the social, political, literary, and intellectual ideas of their time. These women considered themselves to be serious authors, not a "d---d mob of scribbling women" as derided by Hawthorne and others; yet, they are often still ignored today. We will take them seriously.
The course will be conducted as a seminar; in other words, you will be expected to develop and to share your expertise related to the authors with classmates each week and in a final research paper and short presentation. For comparisons and analysis, you will build on your knowledge from other courses and studies. This is a reading and writing intensive course in culmination of your undergraduate work and in preparation for graduate studies.

ENG 465 - SEMINAR IN ADVANCED LITERARY STUDIES

DeBarros
MWF 12:40-13:55
We Real Cool: Autobiographies of Black Masculinity

We Real Cool
By Gwendolyn Brooks

The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433

In We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity, bell hooks asserts, "Today it should be obvious to any thinker and writer speaking about black males that the primary genocidal threat, the force that endangers black male life, is patriarchal masculinity. . . . [However,] the more mainstream writing about black men continues to push the notion that all black men need to do to survive is to become better patriarchs." Like hooks's study, which takes its primary title from Gwendolyn Brooks's oft-anthologized poem, this course will push back against that notion in search of liberatory, life-affirming alternatives. That is, we will attempt to rethink (black) masculinity/manhood in ways that don't take as essential, natural, or given violent or homicidal aggression and especially male domination and/or hatred of women. To that end, we will read a range of texts, but will focus our attention on how black men- from Olaudah Equiano in 1789 to Barack Obama in 1995 or perhaps even Jay-Z in 2010- work through the dangers and complexities of defining themselves as men in a racist, sexist, and materialistic world.

ENG 470 - FEMINIST THEORY [Theory]

Curtin
TR 3:55-5:15
Our purpose in this course is to engage with several foundational and vibrantly contested conversations within feminist theory. We will examine basic issues such as gender difference and its relationship to women's subordination; the intersections of gender with other dimensions of social identity and power (e.g., class, race/ethnicity, sexuality, nation); the way gendered discourse shapes social reality. These issues will be discussed from a variety of feminist theoretical perspectives (e.g., those influenced by liberalism, Marxism/socialism, psychoanalysis, radical feminism, post-modernism, and post-colonialism). The course is organized around central "keywords" (or conversations) within feminist theory. The readings for each keyword challenge, support, augment, and contradict one another, illustrating that feminist theory is a polyphonic, complex, and self-reflexive dialogue.

ENG 485 - WORDS OF THE WORLD

Murphy, M.
TR 3:55-5:15, Lab R 6-7:00
The Words in the World capstone partners students with local and regional non-profits, businesses, government agencies, and grassroots organizations to work on writing projects. At the same time, the course asks students to write a "narrative of aspirations": to bring into clear focus what their intellectual development has been as English majors, to think clearly about what they value and what sorts of tasks their intellectual skills and temperament equip them to do, and then to imagine a set of possibilities which they can pursue as a career. The narrative, along with a résumé and cover letter, are due during the first week of classes (instructions will be sent in advance of the first meeting); after receiving peer critique, writers will review project descriptions proposed by partners and revise their job documents accordingly. Interviews will follow, after which writers and partners will be matched. By the end of the semester, writers ought to be able to: 1) identify the writing-based needs of a community organization or business; 2) carry out research and conduct ongoing dialogue with key constituents to refine a sense of audience and purpose; 3) imagine and design specific documents through which to address that audience and purpose; 4) demonstrate effective cooperative work strategies; 5) complete agreed-upon, writing-based projects on a deadline; and, 6) analyze and interpret the effectiveness of the writing in line with the client's goals.
For one example of the sort of project Words in World students have found themselves in a position to write in previous semesters, see the white paper on hydrofracking composed by Alex Bissell for the Onondaga Nation available at: http://www.oswego.edu/academics/colleges_and_departments/departments/english/Alex_Bissell.html

ENG 486 - WORLD CINEMA [Context]

Ieta
TR 2:20-3:40, Lab R 6-8:30
A history and examination of cinema as a global phenomenon. The course will explore many different cinemas from various parts of the world (with focus on Europe) and will problematize the notions of national cinema, globalization, and artistic independence/resistance.

ENG 489 - WOMEN AND SCREEN STUDIES [Theory]

Shore
MWF 9:10-10:05, Lab W 6-8:00
Intensive study of the relationships between women and visual media, including film, television and new media. The course will introduce students to the major feminist approaches to screen studies, including theories of spectatorship, cultural histories of reception, and feminist analysis of representation.

CREATIVE WRITING COURSES

CRW 201 - SCREENWRITING: INTRODUCTORY

Adams, Jamie
MWF 12:40-13:35, 1:50-2:45
This introductory writing course (first course of a two-part screenwriting track with CRW 301 Screenwriting: Intermediate) explores the screenwriting genre through practical application of various writing techniques, exercises, and organizational concepts, and through critical analysis of professional screenplays, film clips, and student work.

CRW 201 - SCREENWRITING: INTRODUCTORY

Adams, Joshua
R 2:20-3:40
This introductory writing course (first course of a two-part screenwriting track with CRW 301 Screenwriting: Intermediate) explores the screenwriting genre through practical application of various writing techniques, exercises, and organizational concepts, and through critical analysis of professional screenplays, film clips, and student work.

CRW 205 - POETRY WRITING: INTRODUCTORY

MCoy
TR 9:35-10:55, 11:10-12:30
CRW 205 will teach you how to work with what Kenneth Koch calls "the poetry language," a language within the normal one we use every day but one that aims not just at communication but at beauty. You will begin learning this language by accessing its sources in the imagination through various exercises using art, music, simple objects, and the work of other poets. You will continue by learning this language's grammar, a process which will help you become a more conscious creator and thus enable you to start revising what you have accessed via imagination. Finally, you will read and critique each other's work in a series of workshops, which will show you how your poems are working on a real audience. By the end of the semester, when you turn in your final portfolio of work and give your oral presentation on two poets' collections, you'll come to see poetry not just as something to be studied in the classroom but as a live part of you you'll want to access again and again.

CRW 205 - POETRY WRITING: INTRODUCTORY

Itzin
TR 8-9:20, 9:35-10:55
CRW 205 is an introductory course in the fine art of reading and writing poetry, with an emphasis on the latter. Since reading and writing poetry are reciprocal activities, students will read a variety of poetry voices and styles with a critical eye on "how" and "how well" they are written and how this can be used in their own writing. The course will discuss ideas for generating poems, the vocabulary to discuss them in a workshop setting, and revision techniques.

CRW 205 - POETRY WRITING: INTRODUCTORY

Pritchard
MWF 8-8:55, 9:10-10:05
Mark Strand wrote, "There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry." In creative writing, reading a lot and writing a lot are essential in order to produce good work. In this introductory writing course, we will do just that. We will analyze mostly contemporary poets who use a variety of different writing styles in their poems as well as writing our own poems, practicing techniques on paper and in a workshop setting.

CRW 206 - FICTION WRITING: INTRODUCTORY

O'Connor
MWF 10:20-11:15
Kenneth Burke wrote: "Stories are equipment for living." Students will engage in writing exercises to learn the elements of fiction, read established authors' work to closely examine writing techniques and finally read and critique their own original stories. Students will use the online teaching resource Angel to post and critique their work. Exercises, reading responses, and one short story are required.
No prerequisite.

CRW 206 - FICTION WRITING: INTRODUCTORY

Wilson
TR 9:35-10:55
Toni Morrison wrote: "If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." You can get started in this beginning fiction writing workshop. You'll be reading contemporary short stories and writing exercises using a variety of fiction techniques. In the latter half of the semester everyone will produce a full-length story, which will be discussed by the entire class. You'll be giving written critiques of everyone's stories and this will help you form a critical aesthetic in the genre.

CRW 206 - FICTION WRITING: INTRODUCTORY

Motto
TR 12:45-2:05, 2:20-3:40
In this fiction writing course, students will read and critique each other's work, as well as the work of established authors. Students should expect daily exercises, quizzes, class discussion, one story and one re-write. This introductory course is designed for students who are non-writing majors. This course is linked to Angel.

CRW 207 - PLAYWRITING: INTRODUCTORY

Nichols
MWF 10:20-11:15, 11:30-12:25
This introductory course in playwriting uses a wide-variety of techniques, exercises and organizational concepts to explore the particular challenges and rewards of this genre. Existing theatrical literature as well as our own work will be evaluated and discussed, culminating in a ten-page play.

CRW 208 - CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING: INTRODUCTION

Loomis
TR 8:00-9:20
CRW 208 is an introductory workshop in nonfiction. Students will read and discuss the work of established writers and will become familiar with creative writing skills such as crafting scenes, using dialogue effectively, and building strong characters and themes. They will complete short exercises and write a full-length essay. Students will improve their writing skills, share constructive criticism in a workshop setting, begin to build a critical vocabulary and become familiar with the genre of nonfiction.

CRW 208 - CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING: INTRODUCTION

Steiner
TR 2:20-3:40
CRW 208 is an introductory workshop in nonfiction. Students read and discuss the work of established writers and become familiar with creative writing skills such as crafting scenes, using dialogue effectively, and building strong characters and themes. They complete weekly exercises and write two essays. Students improve writing skills, share constructive criticism in a workshop setting, begin to build a critical vocabulary and become familiar with the genre of nonfiction.

CRW 208 - CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING: INTRODUCTION

Wolfe
M 6:15-9:00, W 6:15-9:00
CRW 208 is an introductory workshop in nonfiction. Students will read and discuss the work of established writers and will become familiar with creative writing skills such as crafting scenes, using dialogue effectively, and building strong characters and themes. They will complete short exercises and write a full-length essay. Students will improve their writing skills, share constructive criticism in a workshop setting, begin to build a critical vocabulary and become familiar with the genre of nonfiction.

CRW 301 - SCREENWRITING: INTERMEDIATE

Giglio
MWF 1:50-3:45, 3-3:55
Students will continue to develop and write their original script that was started in CRW 201. This process will be facilitated by lectures, in class assignments and small and large group workshops. Original screenplays will be written to the midpoint. Students will also learn how to analyze scripts and write coverage for recent professional screenplays. Prerequisite: CRW 201 Screenwriting: Introductory

CRW 306 - FICTION WRITING: INTERMEDIATE

O'Connor
MWF 11:30-12:25, 1:50-2:45
This course is an intensive workshop in fiction writing in which you will examine student stories as well as stories from The Best American Short Stories. Students will develop and discuss their aesthetic principles. Requirements: 3 stories or sections of a novel, story responses, self-assessment paper, and use of Angel.

CRW 308 - CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING: INTERMEDIATE

Loomis
TR 9:35-10:55
CRW 308 is an intermediate nonfiction workshop. Students will read and discuss creative nonfiction by established writers, write their own essays, and critique the work of their peers. Students will conduct various forms of research to establish mastery over chosen subject matter. They will investigate technical and aesthetic aspects of the genre, and ponder ethical questions, such as "what is truth?" and "do I have a right to use other people's stories as my own?" One full-length essay as well as several short pieces will be required. CRW 208 is a prerequisite.

CRW 401 - SCREENWRITING: ADVANCED

Giglio
W 6-8:45
Students will complete and revise the screenplay started in earlier classes in an effort to prepare their full-length scripts for future submission and production. To facilitate this, the course relies heavily on staged readings in a workshop setting, so screenwriters can imagine their script moving from page to film. Creating a writing community where peers aid in a screenplay's development is also a key objective of the course. (Prerequisite: CRW 301)

CRW 405 - POETRY WRITING: ADVANCED

Steiner
R 4:35-7:15
This is an advanced workshop in poetry. Students will read books by established poets, write their own poems for workshop, and further refine the practice of critique. We'll discuss issues of importance to writers, such as the growth of writing contests as an avenue to book publication and the popularity of spoken word poetry. We'll study contemporary literary journals and other resources for writers and students will submit work to online and print journals. Students will write and construct their own chapbooks, and will participate in a public poetry reading. CRW 305 is a prerequisite.

CRW 406 - FICTION: ADVANCED - Flash Fiction

Wilson
TR 11:10-12:30
It takes skill to compress the universe of a story or tale into less than a thousand words. Flash fiction must deliver an impact and ramify in subtext while paying attention to economies of scale. In this class we'll be writing almost a dozen different flash fictions, and we'll be reading widely in contemporary flash fiction. The course will require you to write a flash every week. You will be expected to make group presentations and organize a final portfolio of your best work.

CRW 407 - PLAYWRITING: ADVANCED

Korbesmeyer
MWF 12:40-1:35
This advanced playwriting course focuses on revision and development as playwrights prepare their one-act plays for future submission to professional theatrical organizations. To facilitate this, the course relies heavily on staged readings in a workshop setting, modeling the traditional procedure for play development in America. Creating a writing community where peers aid in a play's development is also a key objective of the course. (Prerequisite: CRW 307)

CRW 408 - CREATIVE NONFICTION: ADVANCED

Steiner
T 4:35-7:15
This is an advanced workshop in creative nonfiction. Students will read and discuss samples of the essay form by established writers, write their own essays for workshop, and refine the practice of critique. We'll discuss issues of importance to nonfiction writers, such as the rise of the e-book, iTunes' experiment to offer individual essays for sale, and the always-relevant subject of factual truth versus emotional truth. We'll further pursue ways to integrate research and investigate ways to expand subject matter beyond the realm of simple memoir. We'll study contemporary literary journals and other resources for writers and students will submit work to online and print journals. CRW 308 is a prerequisite.  

CINEMA & SCREEN STUDIES COURSES

CSS 235 - INTRODUCTION TO CINEMA PRODUCTION

Dodd
TR 11:10-12:30
An introduction into cinema production that focus on visual storytelling. The course includes instruction in the following: shooting digital video, basic concepts of composition, lighting, exposure, focal length, white balance, moving camera, importing/exporting digital files, codecs and compression, nonlinear editing, audio recording/mixing, color correction, and digital finishing. The goal is for the student to create a short digital video project in any genre and have an in-depth understanding of media management and film/digital formats. In addition, the student will learn how to successfully take a short screenplay and transform it into moving images using the Classical Narrative Paradigm (a beginning, middle and an end, or, Act I, Act II, Act III). One will learn how to attract an audience, and affect them emotionally, using tension and release. The class will utilize the three-tier studio model of pre-production, production and post-production, along with a "green-light" process for their final project. You will learn the importance of story-boarding, scripting, casting, scheduling and budgeting. Students will acquire an understanding of and practical experience with basic video production techniques through hands-on practice, class discussions, lectures, assignments and readings.

CSS 335 - INTERMEDIATE FILM PRODUCTION

Dodd
W 3:00-6:00
Advanced techniques for the production of short projects shot in black and white and color 16mm or HD Video formats with emphasis on cinematography as the primary expressive tool. Special attention will be given to the following: natural light, studio practice, day for night technique, lighting diagrams, in-camera effects, sync audio recording, ADR, collaborative production, and Film + HD post-production work-flow. The goal is for the student to create a short 16mm or HD video project of the highest quality image/audio in any genre and have an in-depth understanding of professional cinema production.

CSS 395 - SPECIAL TOPIC: LOCATION FILMMAKING

Adams, J.
R 3:00-6:00
Location Filmmaking is an intensive, long-form venture into the fundamentals of independent filmmaking, without the comforts of a campus/ studio/ sound stage. Students will be required to submit one screenplay of 25-45 pages in length on the first day of class. These scripts must be written, or acquired legally by the student prior to the first class meeting. A faculty committee will select TWO (2) scripts from those submitted, based upon a live pitch by the writer/ director/ producer. The chosen scripts will go into immediate production, and will be allowed to utilize the entire semester, in and outside class, for full completion.

CSS 395 - SPECIAL TOPIC: EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKING

Dodd
M 3:00-6:00
This course introduces the student filmmaker to the processes and practice of making avant-garde or "underground" cinematic works. It focuses on the filmmaker as a personal artist rather than storyteller/entertainer. From thinking conceptually about ideas to merging other art forms, students engage with the moving image material in unique and original ways. In the course, students aim to find their true voice and create projects that they are passionate about. The student learns to animate directly on 16mm film by scratching, painting, or drawing on the celluloid surface. This technique promotes stream of conscious creation. Painting on film enhances the student's awareness of light, texture, and shape. The student also learns to create a "Super 8mm Experimental Narrative," which teaches the individual to think more visually and abstractly when telling a story. In addition to the other tactile modes of creating, hand developing Super 8mm film is introduced with a focus on generating ethereal movement of color shades.