Eastern Illinois University :: Fall 2008 English Course Descriptions

Other Semesters

Courses

Notes
Graduate Courses
2003: Creative Writing Poetry
2007: Creative Writing Fiction
2009G: Literature and Human Values
2011G: Literature, the Self, and the World
2091G: Literature, the Self, & the World, Poetry, Honors
2205: Introduction to Literary Studies
2601: Backgrounds of Western Literature
2705: African-American Literature

English Course Descriptions

Fall 2009

In progress

English 2003 Section 001 CRN 90653
Radavich
Creative Writing: Poetry 0930-1045 TR

In this course, we will explore the many dimensions of writing poetry, examining imaginative components like imagery, metaphor, and symbolism as well as basic techniques of poetic lines, stanzas, rhyme, rhythm, and standard forms. We will read and analyze a wide range of poems by both established and student authors. You will be expected to write roughly a dozen original poems during the semester and to present them in class. The subject and form of some poems will be left to your discretion, while other assignments will ask you to create a sonnet, persona, or other specific kind of poem. The midterm exam will focus on basic poetic terms and analysis. In lieu of a final exam, each student will turn in a portfolio of 6-8 revised, polished poems, along with an essay on the work of a living poet of your choice from the textbook. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 2003 Section 002 CRN 90654
Nonaka
Creative Writing: Poetry 1400-1450 MWF

The goal of this workshop is to become a more conscious reader and writer of poetry. We will begin by reading the works of established poets and investigating their methods and motivations from the practitioner’s point of view. We will then move onto discussing the poems by class members. Requirements include weekly writing assignments, individual conference, a mid-term, active class participation and a final portfolio. Since this is a workshop, attendance is extremely important. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 2007 Section 001 CRN 90655
Carpenter
Creative Writing: Fiction 1100-1215 TR

An introduction to the reading and writing of fiction with class time devoted to various principles of the genre through writing exercises and workshop discussion. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 2007 Section 002 CRN 90656
Kilgore
Creative Writing: Fiction 1400-1515 TR

An introductory, workshop-style class primarily devoted to discussion of the students' own work. Early on the approach will be fairly prescriptive, with discussion of model stories and blunt how-to advice on plot, character, style, and narrative form. Later on, in very careful discussion of stories by class members, we'll be much less prescriptive, appreciating and applauding what seems to work, then trying to fix what doesn't. Students will complete a number of exercises in a workbook, participate in a group project that involves evaluating and presenting published stories, and write three stories of their own, submitting two of these for workshop discussion. Attendance and participation will be very important. An enjoyable class, but lots and lots of work. Prerequisite: English 1002G. Group 6. After June 1 or so, I will have a detailed syllabus posted online and linked to my website at http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfjdk/ (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 2009G Section 001 CRN 90657
Sylvia
Literature and Human Values: Labor, Class, Power 0800-0915 TR

Many important – and entertaining – 19th and 20th century storytellers – both British and American – chronicle problems related to labor, class and power. Readings in this course will be from Dickens, Hardy, Fitzgerald, Yezierska, Hurston, and others. Requirements: frequent in-class writing; two brief papers; two exams. (General Education)

English 2009G Section 002 CRN 90658
Suksang
Literature and Human Values: Faith, Survival, Progress 0900-0950 MWF

In this class we will examine human experiences by addressing the issues of faith, survival and progress as represented in a variety of literary texts. We will read, discuss and write about fiction and nonfictional prose. Course requirements include reading responses, two formal papers, quizzes, a midterm exam and a final exam. Each student will lead class discussion, and there will also be group presentations. (General Education)

English 2009G Section 003 CRN 90659
Ludlow
Literature and Human Values: Race, Age, Gender 0930-1045 TR

This course will focus on literary and filmic works that examine how race, age, and gender intersect to shape human experience. We will read works that address difficult issues, including war, oppression, and family violence; students are asked to come to the course willing to grapple with challenging ideas. Requirements will include: in-class discussion and quizzes; two formal essays; and three short exams. (General Education)

English 2009G Section 004 CRN 90660
Staff
Literature and Human Values: Love, Hate, Obsession 1100-1150 MWF

A study of some of the universal, recurring issues facing the individual, as they are dealt with in a selection of literary texts from diverse cultures. (General Education)

English 2011G Section 001 CRN 90662
Leddy
Literature, the Self and the World: Fiction 1000-1050 MWF

The novelist Vladimir Nabokov once asked his students why they had enrolled in a course on the novel that he was teaching. He was delighted with one student’s response: “Because I like stories.” This course too is for people who like stories. We will read a handful of great novels—by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Zora Neale Hurston, and Steven Millhauser—and one not great (but enormously popular) novel by Horatio Alger. These novels will let us see fictional selves (characters) figuring out, challenging, and remaking the worlds in which they find themselves.

Requirements: dedicated participation in the daily work of the course, several short pieces of writing, a final examination. (General Education)

English 2011G Section 002 CRN 90663
Martone
Literature, the Self and the World: Poetry 1300-1350 MWF

Study of significant works of literature from diverse cultures and of the ways in which they depict meaning, identity, and action in the world. (General Education)

English 2011G Section 003 CRN 90664
Moffitt
Literature, the Self and the World: Drama 1500-1615 MW

Quick, name someone who wrote plays! Don't feel unoriginal if you said "Shakespeare" -- it seems nearly impossible to learn about drama without considering his work. As such, this course will focus on five of William Shakespeare's plays, particularly examining plays whose core story has been adapted to film in unusual forms (for example, a sci-fi version of The Tempest, and a King Lear set in feudal Japan). These plays are several hundred years old, yet they still manage to connect to both "self" and "the world" in widely varying ways. Why? Given that drama is inherently about interpretation and adaptation, what happens when we take a play out of its original time and place and reinterpret it for ourselves, for our own time and place?

Requirements will likely include several short papers, a final exam, and active participation. (General Education)

English 2091G Section 099 CRN 94378
Nonaka
Literature, the Self, & the World: Poetry (honors) 1000-1050-MWF

Study of significant works of literature from diverse cultures and of the ways in which they depict meaning, identity, and action in the world. (General Education)

English 2205 Section 001 CRN 90732
Beebe
Introduction to Literary Studies 0800-0915 TR

This course could easily be subtitled "Making Texts and Making Meanings" since our primary focus will be discussing what, how, and why we read. We will not only be reading some wonderfully challenging and controversial texts (poetry, drama, and fiction), but we will also be reading many critical responses to these texts as well as the critical manifestos behind these responses. So in addition to trying to better understand the primary text, we will also look carefully at how and why readers have responded the way they have. We will also pay attention to the bigger question underlying all of this: Why read and interpret texts in the first place? We may not arrive at conclusive positions, but we will do a lot of reading, writing, and discussing in getting there (requirements 3-4 short papers, 1 or 2 oral presentations; midterm and final). (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2205 Section 002 CRN 90734
Hanlon
Introduction to Literary Studies 1230-1345 TR

In an age of instant messaging and Skype, OMG, why study literature? This course will help students to answer that question on their own by preparing them for life as an English major—that is, it will help them to consider, to use Harold Bloom’s phrase, why we read and how. It will prompt students down this road by offering an overview of several major schools of critical theory, including the New Criticism, historicism, psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, and Marxism. We will also spend quite a bit of time talking about our own values and presuppositions as readers of literature, and putting our emerging understanding to work vis à vis a series of literary texts. Expect a heady mixture of Lacan, Foucault, Kristeva, Butler, West, Rorty, Saussure, Austen, Brooks, Sedgwick, and other thinkers whose work has shaped the ways in which professional readers read. Two major essays, three exams, and very active class participation required. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2205 Section 003 CRN 90736
Vietto
Introduction to Literary Studies 1500-1615 MW

This course is designed for students beginning the English major. We will consider together what it is that serious students of literature do, how we do what we do, and why we do literary studies at all.

If you’re just beginning the English major (which is exactly when you should take this course), you should expect the unexpected. You’ve taken “English” classes all your life, but those classes weren’t designed for English majors. In courses in the major, professors will expect you to be prepared to use advanced interpretive strategies and research tools and techniques that go far beyond what we ask of general education (or high school) students. They will also hope that you will have your own understanding of why you approach literature the way that you do, and that you will be prepared to introduce different perspectives on literary studies in class discussion and in your essays.

Introduction to Literary Studies is designed to help you prepare yourself to meet those expectations and to succeed in your advanced courses. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2601 Section 001 CRN 90750
Campbell
Backgrounds of Western Literature 0930-1045 TR

This course is designed to provide an introduction to literary works considered central to the development of western literature. Writers throughout the centuries have responded to and incorporated aspects of works by their predecessors and their contemporaries into their own “new” creations. In this course we will especially explore various lines of artistic and topical influence that stretch from classical origins through literary works of the Renaissance. We will observe how ideas are adopted and adapted to suit the social, political, and personal situations of the writers. Furthermore, we will discuss our own twenty-first-century impressions of these works, addressing such questions as the following:

What seems familiar or contemporary to us about these writers regarding their social milieux, their historical moments, and their texts? Why have these texts been so influential for so long? Why do they still fascinate?

How should we, reading several of these texts in translation, think about the transitions they have gone through regarding the practices of translating and editing? Above all, by the end of the course you should have a greater understanding of the literary periods and genres of the western literary canon, as well as a sense of the historical shaping of some of your own ideas and values. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2601 Section 002 CRN 90751
Searle
Backgrounds of Western Literature 1000-1050 MWF

English 2601 will survey the thoughts and ideals illustrated in Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance literature. The names of the authors we will examine read like a list of Who's Who in western European literature before 1650: Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Virgil, Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Erasmus, Castiglione, Machiavelli, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Cervantes. The explicit and implicit concerns of these writers--heroism, sacrifice, kingship, gender, religion, courtliness, humanism, skepticism, love, etc.--reveal our cultural legacy and influence English and American literature. What they have written has endured. We will see why.

Basic class procedure will be informal lecture (to establish context) and discussion (to explore the content of the selections). The final grade will be based on quizzes, two one-hour exams, a final, and a 6 to 8 page typewritten paper due during the last week of class. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2601 Section 003 CRN 90754
Radavich
Backgrounds of Western Literature 1230-1345 TR

This course will study a variety of classical texts that have had an especially profound impact on American, British, and world literature for as much as twenty-eight hundred years. We will be reading such works as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, Vergil's Aeneid, Dante's Inferno, Boccaccio's Decameron, Rabelais' Gargantua, and Cervantes' Don Quixote, among other works. A short paper and a longer, documented paper will be required. There will be a midterm and a final exam, along with short responses to the readings. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2705 Section 001 CRN 90756
Loudon
African American Literature 1700-1815 TR

This course provides an overview of African-American literature, using selected representative works of fiction, poetry and drama. We shall begin with a brief consideration of the oral tradition and slave narratives, then we shall move rapidly to the reading of several modern and contemporary authors. While I shall introduce primary literary concerns and suggest issues of thematic consequences, class discussions will determine the direction of our analytical focus from text to text. Finally, one central course objective will be to discover and to define the patterns which constitute the development of a cohesive literary tradition that is rich in cultural heritage and diverse in literary innovation. The course format will be lecture and discussion.

Requirements: two 6-8 page critical essays (40%), midterm essay examination (15%), final essay examination (25%) and participation (20%). (old curriculum Group 2; new curriculum Group 2)

English 2760 Section 001 CRN 90757
Taylor
Introduction to Professional Writing 1100-1150 MWF

This course introduces concepts and practices of communication (written, visual, and oral) in professional settings. In this class, students produce various workplace documents, such as memos, reports, profiles, cover letters, and public relations flyers.

Overall, students will…

Develop and refine writing and editing skills learned in previous writing courses.
Recognize the responsibility of technical and professional writers to communicate clearly and concisely to satisfy an audience’s need for information.
Understand the value of professional and technical writing for readers in the world of work.
Demonstrate college- and professional-level writing produced through the process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.
Write purposeful adequately developed paragraphs and sentences that are direct, economical, free of ambiguity, and structurally appropriate for the ideas expressed and for the audience to whom it is directed.
Develop research skills, including effective use of source materials and the principles of documentation.

(old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 1)
: English 2760 Section 002 CRN 93084
Beebe
Introduction to Professional Writing 1100-1215 TR

(old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 1)

Introduction to the theory and practice of writing and writers in professional settings. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2901 Section 001 CRN 93600
Buck
Structure of English 0900-0950 MWF

This course offers a description and analysis of the Standard American English grammatical system. We will describe the difference between the grammar of speech and the grammar of writing from a cognitive perspective, so the class will focus on how the study of grammar reveals much about the workings of the human mind. In our discussion, we will integrate the effect of language attitudes on our understanding of grammatical systems. The main purpose of the course is to provide you with analytical tools that will allow you to think critically and independently about language and linguistic structures, and to help dispel myths about language and the study of grammar.

Course format will be informal lecture and discussion. The final grade for the course will be based on in-class exams (around 5). Daily homework assignments will be required. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2901 Sections 002 & 003 CRN 90760 & 90761
Suksang
Structure of English 1100-1150 & 1400-1450 MWF

This section of 2901 is designed to help students learn to analyze the basic components of the English language (i.e., words, phrases and sentences) and to understand the rules that govern their internal structure. We will also discuss the issue of language variation and learn to diagram phrases and sentences. Students are expected to participate in class discussion and take several tests. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 2901 Section 004 CRN 90762
Shonk
Structure of English 1500-1615 MW

This course is a study of grammar quite different from what most students undertook in high school. Rather than merely memorizing some rules and circling the correct words on exams, students will be required to understand the system behind our grammar, the forms and patterns of our language. Students will not stop at merely identifying the appropriate forms on exams. Rather, they will explain the choices in rather exact and concrete language, define the key aspects of the forms in question, and apply the principles at hand in their own writing. This course is a rigorous and demanding study of grammar, but it is one that future teachers, writers, and editors will find invaluable. By the end of the semester, students will become quite familiar with those terms they have often heard but little understood, such as dangling participles, subjective mood, elliptical constructions, direct objects, and so on. And they will be able to employ appropriate forms and avoid the inappropriate in their own writing while being able to explain those forms to others. In short, students will come to understand English grammar. For the course grade, students will complete a number of brief quizzes (some in-class, some take-home) and take five exams. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3001 Section 001 CRN 90764
Moore
Advanced Composition 0800-0915 TR

This course aims to build on and refine existing writing skills. Students will pursue a number of sequenced writing projects and exercises (project proposals, peer reviews, literature review, planning notes, etc.). The semester's work will culminate in a research assignment in each student's major area. The course design assumes students will be self motivated, and work independently as well as with others by assisting classmates in their work and accepting their commentary in the process of prewriting, writing and revision. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3001 Section 002 CRN 90765
Worthington
Advanced Composition 1100-1215 TR

This course will examine different forms of writing for and about work. We will focus on employment history, do research about current states of professional opportunity and on the kinds of writing that would be expected in many workplaces. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3001 Section 003 CRN 90766
Engles
Advanced Composition 1230-1345 TR

A writing course is more useful and interesting if it has a central focus. Ours will be the world of work, or more specifically, the effects of gender, race and social class in the “professional” workplace (that is, the kind of work environment in which most EIU students will find themselves after graduation). Students in this course will improve both their writing skills and their understanding of key elements of their own future professional lives. Because we will have a smaller group than those in most EIU courses, individual writing problems will receive close attention, both from the instructor and from classmates. Requirements: graded peer reviews, two short essays, and an extensive research project. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3001 Section 004 CRN 90767
Coleman
Advanced Composition 1300-1350 MWF

This course will focus on academic and professional writing and is intended to refine and extend existing writing skills and interests. The semester’s work will consist of a sequence of several writing projects, culminating in a research assignment in each student’s major area. In addition to readings and class discussions, students will take part in peer editing groups, where extensive support and criticism should help writers in their prewriting, drafting and revision activities. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3001 Section 005 CRN 93601
J. Smith
Advanced Composition 1400-1515 TR

This advanced course covers a range of academic and professional writing, and requires the development of skills in the following areas: analysis and critical thinking; review of scholarly literature in a discipline; collaboration and peer review; oral and visual communication; résumé and letter writing; and portfolio construction. Students will be expected to complete a variety of writing tasks; to give oral presentations; to read and discuss challenging academic texts, as well as take mid-term and final exams. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3001 Sections 006 & 007 CRN 90769 & 90770
Wharram
Advanced Composition 1530-1645 TR & 1700-1815 TR

This course emphasizes practice in two things: the clear exposition of ideas and the grammatical and stylistic command of writing. You will exercise your skills in effectively communicating through writing. You will apply problem-solving skills, provide peer-review criticism, and determine the division of labor within groups to construct projects related to your academic and professional interests.

As in all writing classes, the written word rules here. We will examine how good writing looks (grammar), how it sounds (style), and where it goes (audience-oriented rhetoric). Over the course of the semester, you will produce essays through stages of brainstorming, drafting, and fleshing out theses. You will not do this alone, of course. This is a workshop course, which means that, much as in the world outside the university, you will be writing for an audience larger than your professor. You will receive and offer feedback on fellow studentsâ€™ work. In these feedback loops, you will be encouraged to keep an eye on your own growth as a writer of clear, effective, persuasive, and citation-savvy arguments.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a writing-centered, writing-intensive course. You will do a lot of writing and responding. If you foresee difficulty in attending class or meeting within groups regularly this semester, you should reconsider taking this course. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3002 Section 001 CRN 92833
McGregor
Research Writing for Literary Studies: Writing About Literature 1000-1050 MWF

In-depth study of genres of writing central to Literary Studies, in particular proposals, reviews, and criticism. Students will read models of scholarly writing in literary studies, as well as research, draft, and revise their own proposals, reviews, and articles, and master MLA style. (new curriculum Group 1)

English 3005 Section 001 CRN 90774
Campbell
Technical Communication 1100-1215 TR

Course Objectives
This course is designed to help you develop professional communication skills. No matter whether you are writing a memorandum, creating a manual, or designing a web site, the same critical thinking and communication skills are needed to help you do the job effectively. The main goals of our course will be as follows:

--To help you learn to analyze audiences and to design communications for both specialists and non-specialists.
--To give you practice creating a variety of documents that that are commonly used in professional writing.
--To give you opportunities to design and give oral presentations.

To succeed in this course, you must be willing to work independently on individual and group projects. Some important skills that you will develop include working individually and in groups to meet deadlines; critiquing and editing your own writing and that of others; and using research methods and materials effectively. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3005 Section 002 CRN 90775
Beebe
Technical Communication 1400-1515 TR

Practice and instruction in technical writing and creating documents used in professional settings. Focus on increasing proficiency in effective writing and developing strategies for document design, accommodating specialized and non-specialized audiences, visual rhetoric, and web publishing. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3009G Section 001 CRN 93603
Leddy
Myth and Culture 1200-1250 MWF

We’ll study narratives that focus on journeys in and out of culture: Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey, The Life of Elizabeth Ashbridge, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Our reading will focus on culture or “sivilization” (as Huck Finn spells it): as a home, as a structure to escape, as a field of action in which to claim a place of one’s own.

Requirements: dedicated participation in the daily work of the course, several short pieces of writing, a final examination. (General Education Program; old curriculum Group 2; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3009G Section 002 CRN 90777
Panjwani
Myth and Culture 1230-1345 TR

Topic: Asian Mythology

This course will involve an in-depth look at the myths and cultures of three Asian countries, namely, India, China, and Japan. In the Indian segment, we will read the Hindu and the Buddhist (the Hinayana or the Theravada) myths. The study of Hinduism will include (i) Vedic (Early and Later) Mythology, (ii) the Puranic (The Ramayana and The Mahabharata) Mythology, (iii) Krishna Mythology, and (iv) Shiva Mythology. The Chinese segment will include the study of Confucianism, Taoism and Mahayana (Pureland) Buddhism. Finally the Japanese segment will focus on Zen Buddhism, Shinto and Ainu Mythologies.

The primary orientation of this study will be to develop a clear understanding of (i) philosophical and religious interpretations of Indian, Chinese and Japanese myths and (ii) social systems and moral/ethical values of these cultures. Whenever possible, we will also compare the commonalities and differences among these three Asian cultures and mythologies. Course requirements include: active preparation and class-participation, one mid-term exam, one final exam, and one research paper. (General Education Program; old curriculum Group 2; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3009G Sections 003 & 004 CRN 90778 & 90779
Searle
Myth and Culture 1300-1350 MWF & 1400-1450 MWF

English 3009G Section 005 CRN 94379
Nonaka
Myth and Culture 1630-1745

This course will provide an in-depth look at selected motifs and themes in the cultural mythology of East Asia. Our readings will likely include but not limited to such authors as Saigyo, Shusaku Endo, Hermann Hesse, and Yukio Mishima. We will discuss the function of myth in both ancient and modern societies, the relation between state and religion, cultural identity, ritual and aesthetic practices. There will be frequent reading quizzes, group discussions, response papers, one long essay, a presentation, and mid-term and final examinations. (General Education Program; old curriculum Group 2; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3010G Section 001 CRN 90783
Campbell
Literary Masterworks 1530-1645 TR

This course is designed to provide an introduction to literary masterworks considered central to the development of western literature. Writers throughout the centuries have responded to and incorporated aspects of works by their predecessors and their contemporaries into their own “new” creations. In this course we will especially explore various lines of artistic and topical influence that stretch from classical origins through literary works of the Renaissance. In general, we will also explore such questions as what makes a text a literary masterwork? What gives such a piece its enduring qualities? Does our concept of what constitutes a masterwork change over time as facets of our culture shift and change? (General Education)

English 3099G Section 099 CRN 90784
Martone
Myth and Culture (Honors):Versions of the Dao 1100-1150 MWF

The Dao De Jing is one of the world’s most translated books, embodying teachings about nature and human life that have been of perennial interest and which remain compelling today. This course looks at Laozi’s classic in its original setting and explores its influence upon other cultures—Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and American. (General Education Program; old curriculum Group 2; new curriculum Group 5)

English/Philosophy 3100G Sections 001 & 002 CRN 90785 & CRN 90786
Loudon/Otto
Cultural Foundations I 1100-1215 TR & 1400-1515 TR

This team-taught, General Education Program course centers on three five-week segments, introducing distinctive cultural foundations by studying primary texts. The first segment examines the foundations of Western culture in classical Greece and Rome. Among the themes to be discussed are the differences in mythic and rationalist world views, relations between mind and body, concepts of reality versus appearances, and the development of tragic dimensions in humanity. Readings from the Greeks will be taken from Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Aristotle, Sappho and Sophocles; those from the Romans will be from Cicero, Horace, Ovid and Virgil.

The second segment will examine Jewish and Christian foundations for Western culture, drawing on readings from the Hebrew Bible and continuing to trace the development of Judaism. As the segment continues, the foundations of Christianity and its development in the Medieval Church, in the Protestant Reformation and in the modern period will be discussed, with readings drawn from the New Testament.

The third segment introduces Sub-Saharan African cultural foundations in contrast to the earlier emphasis on Western culture. The segment introduces traditional African concepts of origin, birth and death by reading brief myths from a variety of African cultures and examining the heroic epic Sundiata from Mali. To focus on the oral tradition, students will examine ritual performance texts from Tanzania and the Ndembu people. To conclude the segment, two short novels by Nigerian Chinua Achebe and Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o and a long poem by Ugandan Okot p'Bitek will enable students to explore the relationships between colonizing and colonized culture and to reflect on the impact of Western culture upon non-Western, African cultures.

The course format will be informal lecture and exploratory discussion; course requirements will consist of three essay examinations, including the final, and two five-page papers. (General Education; old curriculum Group 2; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3401 Section 001 CRN 90790
Ames
Methods of Teaching Composition in the Secondary School 1300-1350 MWF

This course explores various best practices and approaches to teaching and evaluating written composition in secondary schools. Course work will consist primarily of reading and responding to pedagogical texts, applying the findings in such to contemporary educational concerns, and crafting/modeling instructional tools both independently and cooperatively in ways that mirror professional learning communities. The required work for this course includes crafting lesson plans, thematic units, a course design, and various reflective essays. This course requires on-site observation hours and the live-text submission of one required assignment. (old curriculum Group1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3402 Section 001 CRN 90791
Binns
Methods of Teaching Literature in the Secondary School 1500-1615 MW

In this course, we will examine theories of literature pedagogy as well as strategies for putting those theories into practice in middle and high school instruction. We will discuss unit design, including ways to incorporate various types of literature in thematic units. Texts will focus on language arts pedagogy and young adult literature. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 3405 Section 001 CRN 90792
Kory
Children's Literature 0900-0950 MWF

As grown-ups, we bring adult concerns and adult literacy to our reading of children’s literature. But we also bring our memories of listening to nursery rhymes and fairy tales, chanting playground rhymes, gazing at picture books, devouring series fiction, and escaping into novels. Both of these perspectives—that of the former child and that of the adult critic—will enrich our discussion of the cultural significance, literary quality, rhetorical situatedness, and ideological content of texts that include children in their intended audience. This course covers a lot of ground—historically, culturally, generically, critically—and is intended to provide you with a context for understanding and critically evaluating historical and contemporary children’s literature. To that end, we will read and discuss exemplary works in each genre and then work in groups or individually to evaluate self-selected works in that genre. You will receive scores for participation (which includes informal writing assignments and contributions to group work and class discussion as well as attendance), more formal written commentaries and reviews, individual and group presentations, and a final exam. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3405 Section 002 CRN 94386
Kilgore
Children's Literature 1100-1215 TR

The course offers a chance to discover and rediscover some of the best-loved works for children while asking you to read with a certain sophistication, attending to surprising depths and subtleties. Works studied will range from the simplest nursery rhymes to full-length novels like Little House on the Prairie and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Authors will likely include Grimms, Andersen, Carroll, Alcott, Kipling, Wilder, Twain, and Anonymous: lots of reading, most of it from the Golden Age of Children’s Literature in the late nineteenth century. We will take a lively interest in the way these authors alternately assist and resist society’s eternal project of “teaching values” and acculturating children.

A writing-intensive course, 3405 will incorporate 2 papers, two essay exams, a final, and an oral presentation on the children’s book that influenced you most.

For a more detailed look at this course, visit my home page at http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfjdk/. An online syllabus should be linked there starting in mid-August. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3405 Section 003 CRN 90794
Moore
Children's Literature 1400-1515 TR

The editors of Classics of Children's Literature, John Griffith and Charles Frey, note that "The great children's stories and poems. . . . Perhaps more than any other writers . . . constitute our real mythology." In this course we will be looking closely at this "mythology," a mythology that embodies many of our culture's ambiguous attitudes about children and childhood. The course will consider the love and hatred of childhood, the manipulation, the idealization, the mystification of childhood, as reflected in a literature which is, finally, created mainly by adults. Students will examine this literature in terms of its history and the history of childhood itself. We will explore the rich complexity and archetypal significance that makes children's literature an important cultural inheritance and links it to the literature that we customarily reserve for adults.

Finally, this survey course stresses the development of more astute evaluation of the literature. Students will be encouraged to think more cogently and purposefully about what goes into a serious judgment of literature for children and to think carefully about the validity of various critical methods of analysis and evaluation.

Two major papers, an oral presentation, brief written responses, midterm and final exam. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3504 Section 001 CRN 90795
Murray
Film and Literature: Graphic Novels, Children’s Literature, and Adaptation: Animation and Beyond 1830-2100 R

In Animation and America, Paul Wells draws on Gene Youngblood's concept of "expanded cinema" and suggests that "art-works transcend ... paradigm[s] by using their aesthetic specificity to create symbolic interpretations of more complex and contradictory aspects of human experience." This section of 3504 will explore the boundaries of a children's literature, graphic novels, animation, and adaptation as interpretive "artworks" in multiple genres of film and literature. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3601 Section 001 CRN 90796
Raybin
Studies in Major Writers: J. K. Rowling 1800-2030 W

We will study the seven-book Harry Potter story. This effort begins with reading the books closely, examining Rowling’s achievement in areas like structures, themes, sources and analogues, and world view. Perspectives we are likely to bring to bear on the books involve theories of adolescent development; issues of race, class, and gender; the appeal of classicism and myth, medievalism, and Victorianism; events in Rowling’s life; and the impact of a mass audience. We will also consider reading strategies: the values and problems associated with reading aloud, repeat reading, watching films, etc. You will be assigned projects according to your individual interests, and you will report to the class on your discoveries. I expect that our approaches—and even the syllabus—will evolve as the semester progresses. This is a new course for all of us. I am audacious enough to hope that we will work together to make it successful.

Unofficial prerequisite: I’ve read the books many times, listened to Jim Dale’s recordings, watched the movies, and read Rowling’s associated texts. I expect that many people taking the class have done much or all of this too, and that some of you know the books in greater detail than I do. I therefore ask those who haven’t read the books to read them during the summer. While the class focus will always be on the reading assigned for a particular session, participants shouldn’t have to pretend they don’t know what happens later.

Assignment #1, for the first class: read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone—even if you’ve read it before; it needs to be fresh in your head—, find out what a “philosopher’s stone” is, and think about why Rowling chose this title and why the title was changed to Sorcerer’s Stone for an American audience.

Requirements include quizzes and exams, papers, projects, avid reading, and an eagerness to discuss. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 3D)

English 3604 Section 001 CRN 94388
Martone
Special Topics in Literature: Buddhism in Literature 1300-1350 MWF

CANCELLED

As time allows, our reading, thinking, conversation, and writing will look into selected suttas of early Buddhism, as well as the Lotus and Pure Land sutras from the Mahayana. We will spend some time with Asvaghosa’s Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana. Our forays into imaginative writing will include Wang Wei, Saigyo, Basho, Wallace Stevens, Kerouac, Phil Whalen, Hosai Osaki, and the Korean poet Ko Un’s Little Pilgrim. I will invite guest speakers from An Lac Temple in Indianapolis and anticipate our making a field trip to Japan House to participate in chanoyu (the tea ceremony). (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5 or, this semester, Group 3A)

English 3700 Section 001 CRN 90799
Vietto
American Literature: 1450 to 1800 1200-1250 MWF

In this course, we will compress our study of the "greatest hits" of colonial and Revolutionary American literature into an intensive mini-course at the beginning of the semester (about five weeks). We will spend the majority of the semester reading and discussing American novels written from 1789 to roughly 1800. Expectations for the quality of student reading and writing will be high, so regular attendance and careful preparation will be essential. Assignments will include close analyses of texts, some writing in response to visual materials, a bibliographic essay, use of primary materials in electronic databases, and at least one assignment that will draw on the collective talents of the class in visual art, drama, music, and creative writing. (old curriculum Group 5; new curriculum Group 3A)

English 3702 Section 001 CRN 90800
Allison
American Literature: Mid-19th Century to 1900 0930-1045 TR

The literature of American Realism (1860-1900) bears witness to America's coming of age. The country was reeling from the trauma of war, transitioning from a farm-based economy to a new economy of urban industry, and seeking to manage tensions between people's conflicting needs for social stability and social change. Anticipating the conditions of our lives, the literature of American Realism is well worth reading. During the course we will discuss a range of works by such writers as Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Charles Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, Stephen Crane, Henry James, Theodore Dreiser, and Edith Wharton. The works will include a rich variety of approaches to Realism--common-place Realism, naturalistic Realism, impressionistic Realism, and psychological Realism. Formal requirements include six-written responses (300-400 words each), a critical essay of 8-10 pages, and a final examination. (old curriculum Group 5; new curriculum Group 3B)

English 3704 Section 001 CRN 90802
Worthington
American Literature: 1950 to present 0800-0915 TR

This course will focus on texts of various genres from the latter half of the twentieth century to the present and the issues those texts raise. Authors may include: Tennessee Williams, Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Pynchon, Leslie Marmon Silko, Toni Morrison, Don Delillo, Elizabeth Bishop, Lorraine Hansberry, Sylvia Plath, Frank O'Hara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amy Tan, Jonathan Safran Foer. Assignments will include long and short essays, midterm and final exams. (old curriculum Group 5; new curriculum Group 3C)

English 3704 Section 002 CRN 90803
Carpenter
American Literature: 1950 to present 1400-1515 TR

Emphasis on such topics as the Fabulous 50’s, the Beats, emerging minority cultures, the rise of feminism, postmodernism, and minimalism. Writers may include Bishop, Ginsberg, Plath, Bellow, Vonnegut, Shepard, Kesey, Olson, Baraka, Mason, Erdrich, Morrison. (old curriculum Group 5; new curriculum Group 3C)

English 3705 Section 001 CRN 93617
Engles
American Multicultural Literatures 1530-1645 TR

A fundamental supposition in this course will be that no single perspective can fully represent or explain the American literary experience. Instead, there are many stories and many histories told from many different points of view. Most of us have been educated in only one or two of those histories and literatures, but students in this course will explore more widely the recorded, interpreted experiences that make up our multiethnic, polyvocal society. Many of the theoretical concepts we encounter will be difficult and even uncomfortable, but their utility in this course, and in life in general, will become evident as the semester progresses. Students will need to approach this course and its material with open minds and a willingness to seriously consider viewpoints expressed from different perspectives. Requirements: Two exams, two papers, and regular reading quizzes. (old curriculum Group 2; new curriculum Group 2)

English 3706 Section 001 CRN 90804
Swords
American Regional Literature: Western American Literature 1230-1345 TR

In this course, we will explore the place that the American West holds in the cultural imagination of the United States. What has the West meant, what sort of stories have people told about it, what does it mean to go there, why has it had such a potent effect on both America and the way the rest of the world views America – these and other questions we’ll ask through the reading of works by Steinbeck, Cather, Cabeza de Vaca, No. Scott Momaday, Leslie Silko, Kerouac, among others. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 3800 Section 001 CRN 90805
McGregor
Medieval British Literature 1400-1450 MWF

The richness and diversity of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English literature is one of the best-kept secrets of literary studies. Often deeply moving, frequently funny, and always fascinating, this eclectic body of work invites sensitive readers to listen for the human voices it embodies. In this class, we will explore a broad sampling of texts from Anglo-Saxon elegies such as The Wife’s Lament, to the spiritual writings of Julian of Norwich, to medieval romances such as Sir Orfeo. As we consider the social contexts these works are responding to, we’ll be discovering what new insights we can gain about, for example, their social, psychological, political, and spiritual visions. While our exploration of this literature will always include historical context, it will be enriched by the critical practices you bring to the texts, whether this be the indispensable skill of close, attentive reading, or this skill in conjunction with more formalized critical approaches such as psychoanalysis, structuralism, or deconstruction. (old curriculum Group 3; new curriculum Group 3A)

English 3804 Section 001 CRN 90806
Abella
Milton 0900-0950 MWF

We will be reading Milton’s poetry and prose, from his early works to his masterpiece, Paradise Lost. We will struggle together to understand Milton’s perspective on life and the significance his writing had during his own existence. And we will try to grasp the power of his vision in its place in the Renaissance as well as in our own lives. To do this, we need to place Milton in the context of some of his contemporaries, such as Amelia Lanyer. You will be graded on in-class essays, two short papers, and a final exam. (old curriculum Group 3; new curriculum Group 3D)

English 3805 Section 001 CRN 90808
Coleman
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature 1000-1050 MWF

In 1660, emerging from a "world turned upside down" by the English Civil War, writers embarked on a century and a half voyage we now call the "Long Eighteenth Century." Along the way, Aphra Behn and Olaudah Equiano added the voices of women and Africans to the literary and cultural conversation; Alexander Pope perfected the heroic couplet; Eliza Haywood, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson fought it out over the proper agenda of an emerging genre, the novel; and, just as the period closed, Jane Austen got in a last word about the relationship between sense and sensibility. Jumping off from modern points of contact and contrast (Cheers? Friends? the New York Times?), we will read selected poetry, drama, and prose of the period in order to explore both the dominant and marginal voices and themes of this complex and innovative period.

Engaged reading and active participation are essential to our common success in this course. Requirements may include short library projects, essay exams, two sequenced essays, as well as in-class short writes. (old curriculum Group 4; new curriculum Group 3A)

English 3806 Section 001 CRN 90810
Wharram
British Romantic Literature: Surveying British Romanticism 1230-1345 TR

This course examines the literature and history of British Romanticism through the concept of the “survey.” The term survey has several meanings that help us understand the era of concentrated political and aesthetic change called Romanticism. These include surveys of inner psychology and surveys of subjects acting within a large nexus of revolutionary ideas that helped mold what has been called the modern outlook: the conception of the literary survey, walking surveys of the natural landscape, sightlines between sympathetic spectator and sufferer, the surveillance of political subjects, and eyewitness accounts of revolutionary and colonial activities. While Romanticism proper may span the French Revolution (1789) through the Reform Bill (1832), it is important to recognize the reactionary nature of Romanticism. Thus we will begin with the Enlightenment philosophers, David Hume and Adam Smith, in order to understand the growing interest in both rationalizing and transcending human understanding, individuality, and social responsibility. Requirements: midterm, final exam, several response papers, quizzes, presentation, and two longer essays. (old curriculum Group 4; new curriculum Group 3B)

English 3808 Section 001 CRN 90812
Hoberman
Modern British Literature 1300-1350 MWF

Modern British literature tries to make sense of a world very much like our own – a world of political, social, and religious upheaval. World Wars I and II, Irish nationalism, class conflict, feminism, Freudianism, and widespread revolt against European imperialism were some of the historical factors to which British writers responded. In doing so, writers like Conrad, Yeats, Lawrence, Joyce, Rhys, and Woolf produced an extraordinary outburst of brilliant writing – writing that managed to be both technically innovative and profoundly relevant to the questions people still ask about what constitutes selfhood, how men and women can best relate to each other, what makes life worthwhile. We’ll read works by these writers and others in an attempt to understand how their experiments with characterization, style, and narrative technique helped them answer old questions in new ways. Requirements: careful reading, two papers, frequent brief writing assignments, midterm, and final. (old curriculum Group 4; new curriculum Group 3C)

English 3903 Section 001 CRN 94389
Markelis
Women, Literature, and Language 1830-2100 T

The emphasis in this course will be memoirs written by women in English in the past 50 years. We will discuss the difference between memoir and autobiography (one is a subset of the other), the various themes that women writers of the memoir utilize, and, especially, how women shape their lives to fit this interesting literary form. Among the memoirs we will read are Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club. Three papers will be required, one of which can be a personal essay dealing with a specific theme or time period of your life—i.e., a short memoir. (old curriculum Group 2; new curriculum Group 5 or, this semester, Group 3C)

English 4060 Section 001 CRN 94390
Fredrick
Professional Writing Career Development 1500-1615 M

This course is designed to prepare Professional Writing minors for the job market. In this course, you will research job openings and professional organizations, participate in discussions with professional guest speakers, analyze your own professional skills and abilities, and read course materials related to career development. As part of the class, you will create your final resume, a cover letter template, a print portfolio, and a professional website or online portfolio. (Group 6)

English 4275 Section 001 CRN 90815
Fredrick
Internship in Professional Writing ARR**

**Students must have permission of Director before registering for the Internship.

A community-based experience featuring practical application of skills developed in the English curriculum, the Internship is open only to upper-division students. To the extent possible, placement is matched to career goals with the expectation that students might approach graduation and the job search with writing/editing portfolios to show potential employers. Recent English interns have written for newspapers, edited magazines, designed documents, and prepared publicity materials for Eastern, Lake Land, the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, the Tarble Arts Center, the Coles County Association for the Retarded, and Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center.

English 4275 is a four-hour course offered on a credit/no credit basis. In addition to work created as part of the internship, students will engage in reflective writing about the internship and organizational culture. The Director and site-supervisors cooperate in evaluation.

PERMISSION OF THE DIRECTOR MUST BE SECURED PRIOR TO ENROLLMENT so that placement arrangements can be made. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 4300 Section 001 CRN 90828
Kilgore
Senior Seminar: War Stories 0800-0915 TR

War is the most inescapable of human realities, to the point that history often seems to be the story of little else. No age or society has escaped it, and probably no force has left a more decisive stamp upon our institutions and values. Yet through the ages the detestation of war is a constant counterpoint to the theme of martial glory, and literature is haunted by the idea that war is an aberration or accident, something that merely happens to happen, over and over. This course will grapple with that oldest of questions—why we make war—and the intimately related one of what kinds of stories we choose to tell ourselves about war. Do war stories tell the truth about war, or obstinately conceal it, or both? Do they glorify combat by way of encouraging young men (and these days, women) to be available as cannon fodder, and if so is this really a bad thing? Or do they attack myths and lay bare the realities underlying what Wilfrid Owen called “the old lie” of martial glory—and if so, is this a good thing? The class will keep returning to such questions all semester long, but finally your answers will be your own.

Readings for the course will include parts of The Iliad, the heroic—or is it really anti-heroic?—war poem that for at least two millennia was the central classic in the literature of the West; two of Shakespeare’s Henry plays, one of which includes the most famous rallying speech of all time but (not accidentally) never mentions the decisive weapon used in the Battle of Agincourt; H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, a book that in its day was not the escape fantasy Hollywood has made it, but a deadly earnest attempt to warn Europe of the nature of mechanized warfare; bits of Remarque’s classic expose, All Quiet on the Western Front; one or two stories by Hemingway; ditto by Tim O’Brien; and Michael Shaara’s surprising retro celebration, The Killer Angels. Some readings in military history and theory will also be included, by way of contrasting the fictions to the (often shockingly different) realities they ostensibly portray. Expect to do some reading of a kind not typical in English classes – and possibly some writing as well, as the main requirement of the course, a research paper, will allow you to range (if you like) well beyond the bounds of literary interpretation. Other requirements will include a midterm, a final, and a brief class presentation.

English 4300 Section 002 CRN 90832
Hoberman
Senior Seminar: The Monstrous in Literature 1000-1050 MWF

Literary heroes have long had to battle monsters to show their prowess--monsters who are often more interesting than the "heroes" who defeat them. Characters may appear "monstrous" because their behavior seems evil, because their bodies and/or mind deviate from a societally defined norm, or because they are linked in some way to whatever a given culture most fears, whether outside or (more often) inside itself. We’ll look at a variety of texts—among them (perhaps) Shakespeare’s Othello, Le Fanu's Carmilla, Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles, Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, Toni Morrison's Sula, Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber—all of which include either a literal monster or a human in some way monstrous. In the process we’ll discuss what cultural needs these monsters fulfill and how our notions of what’s “normal” and what’s “monstrous” have changed over time. Assignments will include weekly responses, various brief writing assignments, a research paper, one or two class presentations, a midterm, and a final. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 4)

English 4300 Section 003 CRN 90831
Buck
Senior Seminar: Language and Gender 1300-1350 MWF

In this course, we will investigate how the language system reflects cultural assumptions about the changing roles and identities of men and women in contemporary society. The following questions will be central to the course:

1. How does the language system reveal and perpetuate social attitudes?

2. What kinds of power and dominance can we identify, and what subtle role does language play in empowering or marginalizing groups of people?

Students will be introduced to different types of linguistic analyses of language (used by and about women and men) and to different approaches to gender and language research. Furthermore, students will be guided through the research process of data collection and textual analysis. The course will be in seminar format: aside from some introductory background lectures, the semester will be arranged around student-directed discussions of assigned readings. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 4)

English 4390 Section 097 CRN 90833
Buck
Senior Seminar: Language and Gender 1300-1350 MWF

1. How does the language system reveal and perpetuate social attitudes?

2. What kinds of power and dominance can we identify, and what subtle role does language play in empowering or marginalizing groups of people?

English 4390 Section 098 CRN 31638
Hoberman
Senior Seminar: The Monstrous in Literature 1000-1050 MWF

English 4390 Section 099 CRN 90828
Kilgore
Senior Seminar: War Stories 0800-0915 TR

EIU 4192G Section 099 CRN 90860
Boswell
Film and Contemporary Society [Honors Senior Seminar] 1530-1850 R

Film represents the most popular—and probably the most powerful—art form of our own time. We will watch, study, and discuss a variety of movies throughout the semester as we explore the history, aesthetics, and critical theory which inform the movies. Prerequisites: Admission to the University Honors Program and permission of the Director of Honors Program.

Requirements: class participation, several short papers, one substantial research paper.

Note: This University Senior Seminar does not fulfill the English Honors Senior Seminar requirement, English 4300/4390. (General Education)

CLASSES NUMBERED 4750 THROUGH 4999. THESE CLASSES ARE OPEN TO JUNIORS, SENIORS, AND GRADUATE STUDENTS. GRADUATE STUDENTS ARE LIMITED TO NINE HOURS OF COURSE-WORK IN THIS CATEGORY.

English 4761 Section 001 CRN 90836
Markelis
Creative Nonfiction Writing 1230-1345 TR

Advanced practice in the writing and revising of creative nonfiction, with an emphasis on the development of the student's individual style. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 1 or Group 5)

English 4764 Section 001 CRN 90837
Radavich
Play Writing 1700-1815 TR

This course is a continuation of English 2005 (Playwriting I) and will follow through on aspects of writing for the stage and media introduced in that course. In order to enroll in this course, students must have taken English 2005 or have written a substantial script in one of the media. In addition to writing, time will be spent reading, discussing, improvising, and attending plays, discussing goals and progress in conference, and developing more professional approaches to the conception and execution of writing for performance. Graduate students enrolling in the course will be expected to complete an independent project in addition to the regular work. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 1 or Group 5)

English 4765 Section 001 CRN 93624
Fredrick
Professional Editing 1300-1350 MWF

Editing is an important part of the work professional communicators do. In this course, we will practice all levels of editing: copyediting for grammatical correctness and consistency, fact-checking, editing for style, editing for design, and developmental editing for content and organization. We will edit texts from disciplines such as health, technology, business/ marketing, and the sciences. Because editing, like all communication, is local, we will address the rhetorical choices editors have to make, and we will look at the different style guides that might influence what and how you edit. Because editing usually takes place within a larger organizational setting, we will also discuss project management, editor-author relationships, and electronic editing. (Group 6)

English 4775 Section 001 CRN 90838
Ringuette
Studies in Literary and Cultural Criticism and Theory: 1100-1215 TR

Basic principles of evaluating the standard literary genres, or tenets of a specific school of criticism, or the examination of major aesthetic questions. Topics to be announced. May be taken twice with permission of the Department Chairperson. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 4)

English 4801 Section 001 CRN 93625
Binns
Integrating the English Language Arts 1830-2100 T

English 4801 centers on connecting pedagogical theory and its practical applications for integrating the English language arts, including literature, composition, speech, drama, and media. Future teachers will have the opportunity to learn how to integrate a variety of methods grounded in theories in the teaching of English language arts. Adapting written and oral communication to audience and situation; recognizing components of effective oral and written communication; and integrating technology and media into the language arts classroom will be key elements of this course. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 4850 Section 001 CRN 90839
Panjwani
Studies in Third World Literatures 0930-1045 TR

Topic: The Postcolonial Psyche in 20th Century Third World Literatures: India, Africa and the Middle-East

This course will be a study of 20th century narratives by authors from India, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt who have defined themselves with and against European cultures, in particular the British culture, in order to understand the psychological and emotional make-up of postcolonial characters within a framework, which may be labeled as the 'memory of the past.' Through an in-depth analysis of issues pertaining to nationalist struggles for political and gender freedoms, notions of 'home' and 'homelands,' indigenous traditions and westernization, transnational and inter-cultural circulation of themes and responses, and normative gender roles and identities, we will theorize the multifarious configurations of the postcolonial psyche contextualized by the cultural and socio-political past of colonial and pre-colonial times as remembered by postcolonial literati. The writers included in this course are R.K. Narayan, Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad, Mulk Raj Anand, Chinua Achebe, Thiong'o wa Ngugi, Okot p'Bitek, Nawaal El Saadawi, Tayeb Salih, and Naguib Mahfouz. Course requirements will include mid-term exam and response paper, final research paper, one class-presentation, and active preparation and class participation. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 2)

English 4901 Section 001 CRN 90840
Buck
History of the English Language 1100-1150 MWF

CANCELLED

This course is the third in a series of courses the English Department offers in grammar and language theory. There are no prerequisites for the course (except English 1001G and 1002G). Each of the three language theory courses offers something a little different.

In this course, the emphasis is on language change, specifically exploring how and why languages change over time. We will be focusing on the historical roots of English, looking at the sounds and word formations and grammar of English and examining how historical and cultural events that happened in England and America actually altered the way English was spoken and written over time. We will listen to tapes and read sample texts in Old English. Then we will examine Middle English, the language of Chaucer, and proceed to Renaissance English, the language of Shakespeare. We will also study different dialects of American English to show how our language is evolving even today. Our aim will be to describe, using theoretical linguistic tools, these different language forms that mark specific periods of the history of our language.

This course is highly recommended for English and English Education majors, foreign language majors, and history majors. But everyone who has an interest in understanding how to read and appreciate historical texts is welcome. Evaluation will be based on several exams and a research paper project and presentation. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 1)

English 4903 Section 001 CRN 94431
Kory
Young Adult Literature 1100-1150 MWF

In this class we will explore the range of works in English written for and about “young adults” (teens and pre-teens), focusing primarily on those produced after the 1960s, when this category emerged as a distinct literary market. Class discussions, individualized writing assignments and group presentations will focus on critical analysis of narrative technique and literary quality as part of a more wide-ranging evaluation that takes into account the needs and desires of the target audience(s) for these works. We will also explore the ways these novels and short fictions reveal changing social attitudes and diverse authorial slants on adolescents and the world around them. Readings will include ground-breaking works such as Monster (winner of the first Printz award), Rules of the Road, A Step from Heaven, Am I Blue? and Feed in addition to self-selected works in a variety of genre (realism and fantasy) from a range of time-periods and cultural perspectives. Writing assignments will include informal analytic responses, a more formal research-based review essay, and a final exam. Students taking the course for graduate credit will complete a more extensive research project on an issue in young adult literature. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5, Group 1 for teacher certification)

English 4906 Section 001 CRN 94392
Moffitt
Problems in the Teaching of English: Teaching Creative Writing 1200-1250 MWF

Teachers and students alike often breathe a sigh of relief at the prospect of lessons devoted to creative writing--students perhaps anticipating no rules and easy grades, teachers perhaps envisioning an enthusiastic outpouring of imagination. However, teaching creative writing brings its own set of problems and concerns to the classroom: What are the objectives for a creative writing assignment? How can creative writing be integrated into (and justified as part of) a traditional language arts or English classroom? Should creative writing exercises be based on technique and craft, or should they focus more on exploration of artistic vision? How should creative writing be graded? This course will explore these issues and others as we focus our studies on the teaching of creative writing in writing-centered courses, other English courses (such as those that are literature-centered) and other disciplines, for middle school, high school, and college classrooms. (old curriculum Group 6; new curriculum Group 5)

English 4950 Section 001 CRN 90842
Swords
Literary History and Bibliography 0930-1045 TR

As a capstone course for English majors, this class is intended to get you thinking about the overall meaning and value of literary study – how texts relate to other texts, how writers respond to the world around them and to other writers, how in one’s own reading certain patterns begin to emerge, why one might read and write, and so forth. The reading for the course will cluster around Barbara Kingslover’s The Poisonwood Bible, a novel set in the Congo in Africa. Along with this we will read some history, several African novels, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, as well as watch several movies in order to explore literary history in the making. You will also work on a semester long project exploring your own history as a reader and student of literature. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 4)

English 4950 Section 002 CRN 94393
Sylvia
Literary History and Bibliography 1530-1645 TR

This course is a study of the development of English and American literature, from their beginnings to the twentieth century. We will read representative works from each literary period, discuss the development of literary genres in English, review the origin and tenets of major literary movements, explore the social and political background of each literary period. Requirements: research paper; at least one class presentation; two exams. (old curriculum Group 1; new curriculum Group 4)

Graduate Seminars

English 5000 Section 001 CRN 90844
Hanlon
Introduction to Methods and Issues in English Studies 1900-2130 T

This course is intended to provide graduate students with an opportunity to situate themselves as new members of a changing profession by supplying them a strong sense of where English Studies has been, where it is, and where it might go. We will spend a lot of time studying current trends in literary studies, both in order to plot our current location as a discipline and in order to find (or possibly invent) ourselves as individual practitioners within a discipline constituted by competing ideas and practices. We will also examine the history of English Studies as an enterprise that has historically concerned itself with “taste” and “sensibility,” but that has increasingly regarded itself as necessarily implicated in identity politics, nationhood, and ideology. We will of course read (many, many) texts, but we will also converse with colleagues who can tell us what it means to do work in Literary Criticism, Composition and Rhetoric, Professional Writing, and Creative Writing, and who can talk to us about what it means to choose to do such work within the setting of the academy. Lastly, we’ll also study various methodologies of the field, learning not only what it means to formulate the sorts of problems that gain one an audience, but also how to deal with those problems in ways that distinguish professional scholarship.

English 5001 Section 001 CRN 93626
Shonk
Studies in Old and Middle English: Language and Literature 1900-2130 M

In this course we will venture where few Eastern students have ventured before--into the Anglo-Saxon language and literature. The focus of the course will be on the literature itself, but we will be learning, as much as is possible in one semester, to translate the original Anglo-Saxon. It is understood, of course, that no students will have had any formal training in the language. Consequently, most of our readings will be short: selections from the Chronicle, the battle poems, The Dream of the Rood, Wanderer, Seafarer, etc. Because its text is difficult, we will read Beowulf in translation. This course will serve as an excellent introduction to both Old English and the Anglo-Saxon literature. Its pace will be relaxed, the class meetings fun. For those thinking of going on for the Ph.D., this course may also fulfill in part or in whole the language requirement for the terminal degree. Requirements: one short paper (4-5 pages), one longer paper (about 8 pages), two hourly exams, and a brief oral report.

English 5003 Section 001 CRN 94612
Wixson
Studies in 17th-Century British Literature: The "Corporeal Turn" in Revenge Tragedy 1900-2130 W

A significant trend in Early Modern studies over the past ten years has been characterized as a “corporeal turn”, a shifting focus from (in critic Keir Elam’s words) “the word to the flesh, the semantic to the somatic." The maimed corpses, severed limbs, and outright atrocity that constitute 17th Century English revenge tragedy as a genre make it a perfect site to explore not only the scholarly intellectual currents referred to as “body criticism” but also the ways in which the staged body illuminates anxieties about race, gender, class, nation, sexuality, and the limits of representation itself. We will begin by reading some contemporary trauma theory and discussing the much-derided Shakespearean masterpiece Titus Andronicus. The rest of the course will focus on the delicious perversities and shocking spectacles of the Jacobean stage in works by (among others) Thomas Middleton and John Webster, as well as some 1630s plays in the same tradition by John Ford and William Heminge. In addition to very close readings and re-readings of the plays, there will be a fair amount of secondary readings in theory, history, and criticism.

Some grounding in the usual suspects among the plays of William Shakespeare will be useful for a couple of reasons. One, the plays we read in this course tend towards much more obscure and dense language than those that generally appear in classrooms. So having had some solid practice with the more accessible stuff is helpful. Two, among other concerns, we will be discussing how these plays are in dialogue with the work of the most famous playwright of the time. In other words, we will address how plays written by the most proficient and brilliant among Shakespeare’s contemporaries challenge our assumptions about what has been reified as “Shakespearean." In particular, Hamlet will haunt our plays and our conversations about them so (at the very least) a good working knowledge of that most misunderstood of revenge tragedies is essential. Coursework will include a variety of short researched papers, vigorous participation in discussion, an annotated bibliography, and a significant, longer essay.

English 5004 Section 001 CRN 90845
Smith
Restoration and 18th-Century Drama 1530-1800 R

In Producible Interpretation, Judith Milhous and Robert Hume argue that the interpretation of drama involves more than close reading; it also requires production analysis, or the "interpretation of the text specifically aimed at understanding it as a performance vehicle-'reading with a directorial eye,' if you like." In this course, we will examine drama in England from the reopening of the London theaters after the Restoration to the 1770s, giving particular attention to theatrical practices and historical contexts relevant to the production of specific dramas. Dramatists whose works are likely to appear in the reading schedule include Behn, Buckingham, Howard, Dryden, Shadwell, Centlivre, Steele, Gay, Lillo, Fielding, and Goldsmith.

English 5007 Section 001
Fredrick
Composition Theory and Pedagogy 1530-1800 W

This seminar introduces new graduate assistants to the theories and pedagogies that shape our understanding of how to teach writing at the college level. Students will explore the foundational pedagogies, history, and theory of the discipline of Composition. The course will explore how knowledge gets made in Composition/Rhetoric. As part of the course, students will write analytical responses to readings and observations. Students will also complete two research projects based on secondary sources and primary data.

English 5008 Section 001 CRN 94395
Boswell
Colonial American Literature: The Women 1530-1800 T

Our primary texts will include works generated by European, African, and Native American women who lived in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries. We will supplement those readings with historical and literary scholarship about gender, race, and the colonial experience. And just to mix it up, we will also read some relevant works from the Colonial period written by a variety of pesky men, who will have complicated everything for us by coining clichés like “the virgin land,” and by giving their ships and their weapons women’s names.

Requirements: willingness to engage in lively discussion every week; 1 or 2 short papers; one class presentation; final seminar paper.

English 5010 Section 001 CRN 94396
Ames
Studies in 20th-Century American Literature: Female Sexual “Awakenings” Across Time and Media 1530-1800 M

People have long cast women into the sexual realm. Although buying into this line of thought screams essentialism, there may be a hidden silver lining when we stop to consider the strategic ways that female authors, producers, and scholars have re-directed this problematic association of women with all things sexual. Instead of allowing this stereotypical association to be negative and unproductive, analyzing cultural artifacts for how they choose to explore, critique, and depict this sexualization can prove fruitful. Many works now enthusiastically explore female sexuality, doing so, indeed, to stress the specificities influenced by gender.

From Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Edith Wharton’s Summer to serialized romance novels in the print realm, and from Hollywood’s Juno and Unfaithful to ABC’s Desperate Housewives, HBO’s Sex in the City, and daytime television’s soap operas in the visual culture realm, the theme of female sexual awakening has recurred through time and across media. Utilizing the scholarly work of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, Helene Cixous, and Elizabeth Gross, this course studies a sampling of these occurrences within the 20th century in order to trace the historization and gendering of sexuality. Key issues attended to will be: the way the format/medium of the narrative affects the delivery, reception, and utility of this theme; how this notion of sexual awakening is “packaged” differently for different audiences (the stereotypical romance reader, like those studied by Janice Radway, versus the viewer of a coming of age film, like the American Pie Trilogy, and so forth); and the problematic resolutions present in the majority of these narratives – the results of female sexual awakening – “punishments” like pregnancy, divorce, and even death.

Course work will include student presentations, short explications, an annotated bibliography, a midterm essay, and final seminar paper. As a graduate level course, class discussion will weigh heavily in determining the student’s final grade.

English 5960 Section 003 CRN 92853
Fredrick
Professional Writing Internship ARR**

**Students must have permission of Director before registering for the Internship.

English 5960 is a three-hour course offered on a credit/no credit basis. In addition to work created as part of the internship, students will engage in reflective writing about the internship and research issues connected to professional writing and organizational culture. The Director and site-supervisors cooperate in evaluation.

Notes

1. English 1002 is a prerequisite for 2000-level courses and above.

2. All courses designated with a G (e.g., 2009G) fulfill requirements in the old Integrated Core Curriculum.

3. Except for English 3009G and 3099G, English courses in the General Education Program (“G” courses) do not fulfill requirements in the English major or minors.

4. A new curriculum has been approved for the English major and for the English Language Arts option for Teacher Certification, effective with the 2007-2008 catalog. Students who began prior to fall 2007 may elect to follow their original catalog or the 2007 catalog. Courses are grouped for course selection in the old and new catalogs as follows:

2006 and Earlier Catalogs

Group 1—Required Courses: 2205§, 2601, 2901* or 3901 or 4901, 3001, 3401*, 3402*, 4300, 4390‡, 4644‡, 4801*, 4950
Group 2—Literary/Cultural Studies: 2602, 2692, 2705, 2850, 3009G, 3099G, 3705, 3903
Group 3—Periods: English Literature before 1660: 3800, 3801, 3802, 3803, 3804, 3892
Group 4—Periods: English Literature after 1660: 3805, 3806, 3807, 3808
Group 5—Periods: American Literature: 3700, 3701, 3702, 3703, 3704
Group 6—Special Areas, Topics and Studies: 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2603, 2760, 3005, 3405, 3504, 3600, 3601, 3604, 3606, 3706, 3970, 4275, 4750, 4752, 4760, 4761, 4762, 4763, 4764, 4775, 4850, 4903, 4905, 4906

2007 Catalog

Group 1—Foundation Courses: 2205§, 2601, 2901* or 3901 or 4901, 2760 or 3001 or 3002 or 3005 or 4761** or 4762** or 4763** or 4764**, 3401*, 3402*, 4801*, 4903*
Group 2—Focused Study in Multicultural Literatures: 2705, 2850, 3705*, 4750, 4850
Group 3—Breadth in Historical Literary Studies
3A. Literature before 1800: 3800, 3803, 3805, 3700 and courses in Group 5 when so designated in this course description booklet
3B. Nineteenth Century: 3806, 3807, 3701, 3702 and courses in Group 5 when so designated in this course description booklet
3C. Twentieth Century and After: 3808, 3809, 3703, 3704 and courses in Group 5 when so designated in this course description booklet
3D. Major Author Study: 3801, 3802/3892, 3804, 3601 and courses in Group 5 when so designated in this course description booklet
Group 4—Capstone Courses: 4300 or 4390, 4775 or 4950
Group 5—English Electives: 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2602, 2603, 2692, 2760, 3005, 3009G, 3099G, 3405, 3504, 3600, 3604, 3606, 3706, 3903, 3970, 4275, 4752, 4760, 4761, 4762, 4763, 4764, 4903, 4905, 4906

*Required for Teacher Certification only
‡Required of Honors students only
§Concurrent or prior registration in English 2205 is strongly recommended for majors in all courses at the 2000-level and above
**Prerequisites

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