School of Undergraduate Studies

Important Links:

• School of Undergraduate Studies Home Page

• Undergraduate Degree Programs

• Undergraduate Certificates

• Index to Course Descriptions Home Page

Course Descriptions — English (ENGL)

ENGL 201 Western Literature from the Beginnings to the Renaissance (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A survey of classic writings from Greek, biblical, Roman, and medieval civilizations. Literary forms and the ways the works reflect the values of their cultures are discussed. Readings may include selections from the Bible and the writings of Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Dante, and Chaucer. Selections may vary each semester.

ENGL 205 Introduction to Shakespeare (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An examination of representative Shakespearean plays from each genre (comedy, history, tragedy, and romance).

ENGL 212 English Literature: 1800 to the Present (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A survey of the major literary movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, from Romantic to Victorian to Modern. Authors studied may include Wordsworth, Keats, the Brontes, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats, Joyce, and Woolf.

ENGL 240 Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, film, and the literary essay, with an emphasis on developing critical reading and writing skills. Study may be organized either by genre or by theme. Writers covered vary from term to term. Films may be included. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: ENGL 240 or ENGL 340.

ENGL 294 Introduction to Creative Writing (3)

(Fulfills the general education requirements in communications.) Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An introductory survey and practical study of key areas of creative writing: formal poetry, free verse, creative nonfiction, short story, and drama or screenplay. Emphasis is on reading and thinking critically and analytically from a writer’s perspective as a means to better understand the craft. Discussion may cover publishing. Peer review of manuscripts may be included.

ENGL 303 Critical Approaches to Literature (3)

(Designed as a foundation for other upper-level literature courses. Fulfills the general education requirement in communications.) Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A study of the techniques of literary analysis, emphasizing close reading of texts. The goal is to better understand and appreciate literature and to be able to formulate concepts and express them in well-written, coherent prose.

ENGL 310 Medieval and Renaissance British Literature (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An exploration of the cultural attitudes and values that separate the Middle Ages from the Renaissance, highlighting the changing role and purpose of the writer. Major works and authors may include Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare.

ENGL 311 17th and 18th Century British Literature (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A study of the culture of 17th- and 18th-century Britain seen through detailed study of selected major texts. Readings cover drama, poetry, political writings, and early novels by men and women. Authors may include Donne, Milton, Jonson, Swift, Pope, Montagu, and Wollstonecraft.

ENGL 312 Romantic to Modern British Literature (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A study of representative authors and works in British literature from the early 19th century to the present, with emphasis on the novel. Some poetry and drama are also covered. The works of representative writers (such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, P. D. James, and others) are explored.

ENGL 345 Modern Poetry (3)

(Not open to students who have already completed ENGL 446.) Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A survey of British and American poetry from Yeats and Robinson to the present. Special emphasis is on Yeats, Pound, Eliot, Williams, Roethke, and Lowell.

ENGL 354 American Women Writers Since 1900 (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An examination of the contributions of major American women writers since 1900 in the novel, short story, drama, and poetry.

ENGL 358 British Women Writers Since 1900 (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An examination of the contributions of major British women writers since 1900 in the novel, short story, drama, and poetry.

ENGL 363 African American Authors to 1900 (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An examination of the development, diversity, and quantity of African American literature, focusing on works composed before 1900. A broad range of African American writers is studied through some of their important but lesser-known works. Readings may include the writings of Phillis Wheatley, Frances Harper, Maria W. Stewart, David Walker, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Charles Chesnutt, and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

ENGL 364 African American Authors Since 1900 (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/WRTG 101X or ENGL 101/101X. An examination of the development and diversity of African American literature since 1900. Readings may include works by James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ann Petry, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and other African American authors. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: ENGL 364 or HUMN 364.

ENGL 389P Introduction of Film as Literature (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A study of film as a form of literature. The goal is to acquire an understanding of the particular language and grammar of film and develop a critical perspective. Genres of narrative film (including crime drama, film noir, the musical, reflexive film, science fiction, screwball comedy, war film, and the western) are examined. Discussion also covers a number of critical approaches to film auteurism, myth criticism, and genre criticism.

ENGL 406 Shakespeare: Power and Justice (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An intensive study of Shakespeare’s dramatic masterpieces as illustrations of the concepts of power and justice both in a historically specific social and cultural context and as timeless concerns reflecting the human condition. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: ENGL 406 or HUMN 440.

ENGL 418 Major British Writers Before 1800 (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. Intensive study of one or two British writers from the period before l800. Authors studied may include Chaucer, Spenser, Marlowe, Jonson, Milton, Defoe, Richardson, Pope, Swift, or Johnson.

ENGL 419 Major British Writers After 1800 (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. In-depth study of the lives and works of one or two major British writers from the period after 1800.

ENGL 425 Modern British Literature (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An examination of representative authors and works in the development of British literature from the late 19th century to post-World War II, with special emphasis on writers from the 1920s through the 1940s.

ENGL 433 American Literature: 1914 to the Present (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A study of representative works—selected from drama, fiction, and poetry— that reflect significant trends in literary techniques and themes as well as shifts in cultural values.

ENGL 439 Major American Writers (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. In-depth study of one or two major American writers, emphasizing subject matter, themes, and techniques. Representative writers may include Melville, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Whitman, Twain, Wharton, James, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, or Frost. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 credits when topics differ.

ENGL 441 The Novel in America Since 1914 (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A survey of the American novel since World War I. Cultural and philosophical contexts and technical developments in the genre are discussed. Authors studied may include Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, Anne Tyler, and Toni Morrison.

ENGL 454 Modern World Drama (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An examination of 20th century theatre, with an emphasis on the social, cultural, and historical context of drama. Special attention is given to drama from around the globe. The works of major playwrights, such as Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Shaw, O’Neill, Miller, Williams, Brecht, Pirandello, Hansberry, Orton, Ionesco, Beckett, Pinter, Fugard, Albee, Stoppard, or Shepard, are studied.

ENGL 466 The Arthurian Legend (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A thematic exposition of the development of the Arthurian legend, traced from the fountainhead of the Arthurian romances, Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, to the greatest 20th-century Arthurian work, T. H. White’s The Once and Future King. Works frequently included are Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, romances by Wolfram von Eschenbach, three medieval tales immortalizing the Lancelot/Guinevere love affair, and romances of Malory and Tennyson. The differences in the interpretations of a legend are explored. Works selected may vary.

ENGL 481 The Art of Narration (3)

Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An overview of the scope, power, and techniques of narration, the oldest and most versatile form of writing. Topics include the applicability of narration to historic, dramatic, and business purposes. Focus is on identifying, analyzing, and practicing the following skills: freewriting, developing structure, delineating episodes, subdividing steps, improving pacing, writing purposeful sentences, controlling time, creating substance, heightening authenticity with voice, and providing interpretation. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: ENGL 479E or ENGL 481.

ENGL 485 Creative Writing: Poetry (3)

(Fulfills the general education requirement in communications.) Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. A presentation of various ideas and techniques for writing poetry. Although professional poetry is discussed, the emphasis is on critiquing students’ work. Weekly assignments are given. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: ENGL 485 or ENGL 498P.

ENGL 486A Internship in English Through Co-op (3)

Prerequisite: Formal admission to the Co-op program (program requirements are listed on p. 246). An opportunity to combine academic theory with new, career-related experience in English. At least 12 hours per week must be devoted to new tasks for a minimum of 180 hours during the Co-op session; four new tasks must be delineated in the Learning Proposal; and the course requirements must be completed. May be repeated upon approval of a new Learning Proposal that demonstrates new tasks and objectives related to English and that continues to advance application of academic theory in the workplace. Students may earn up to 15 credits in all internship coursework through Co-op toward a first bachelor’s degree and up to 9 credits toward a second bachelor’s degree. Co-op credits may not be used for general education requirements and, unless otherwise specified, no more than 6 Co-op credits may be used in the academic major and minor (combined).

ENGL 486B Internship in English Through Co-op (6)

Prerequisite: Formal admission to the Co-op program (program requirements are listed on p. 246). An opportunity to combine academic theory with new, career-related experience in English. At least 20 hours per week must be devoted to new tasks for a total of 300 hours during the Co-op session; five to eight new tasks must be delineated in the Learning Proposal; and the course requirements must be completed. May be repeated upon approval of a new Learning Proposal that demonstrates new tasks and objectives related to English and that continues to advance application of academic theory in the workplace. Students may earn up to 15 credits in all internship coursework through Co-op toward a first bachelor’s degree and up to 9 credits toward a second bachelor’s degree. Co-op credits may not be used for general education requirements and, unless otherwise specified, no more than 6 Co-op credits may be used in the academic major and minor (combined).

ENGL 499 Independent Study in English (3)

Prerequisite: 6 credits in upper-level ENGL. Directed independent study of topics of special interest not covered by regularly scheduled courses in English. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 credits when topics differ.