Spring 2019 English Course Descriptions
English 1105 Section 001 CRN 34744
Bredesen
English Forum 1500-1550 W
What can you do with an English major? This course is designed to answer that question from a wide variety of perspectives. Topics include academic choices within the major, minor(s), undergraduate research opportunities, English-related student organizations, study abroad, internships, scholarships, career options and career planning, graduate and professional programs, study abroad and internships. You will begin to plan the direction you want to go with your English major and with your subsequent career through writing projects and attendance at Department and University events.
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English 2000 Section 001 CRN 32969
Skinner
Introduction to Creative Writing 1400-1450 MWF
This course will provide an overview of the styles and techniques of contemporary creative work in four genres--fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and drama--while also offering you the opportunity to share and discuss your own creative work. We will begin the semester by analyzing a range of published pieces, focusing on different elements of creative craft each week. During the second half of the semester, the class will become a full-time workshop. In other words, your work will become our primary focus and will, therefore, serve as a vehicle for deepening your awareness of craft concepts.
English 2205 Section 001 CRN 30540
Campbell
Introduction to Literary Studies 0930-1045 TR
There are as many ways to view a text as there are readers, and each reader brings to a text her or his own perceptions, prejudices, and experiences. When reading and writing about literature are approached from a variety of perspectives, exciting things happen. Texts come alive artistically, historically, and politically in fascinating ways, and we realize that readers co-create meaning with writers. A text is a two-way street. English majors are encouraged to learn to view literature from a variety of critical stances that have evolved into the field called literary theory. In this writing intensive course we will read a selection of works from several theoretical standpoints and discuss the historical development of literary criticism.
Prerequisites and Notes: ENG 1105 or concurrent enrollment in ENG 1105.
English 2760 Section 600 CRN 33052
Binns
Introduction to Professional Writing Online
This course provides an introduction to the principles and practices of writing in professional settings. Students will complete case-based and/or client-based projects in multiple genres and media. This course will also address ethical communication, document design, intercultural/global communication, collaboration, basic copyediting, and presentation.
English 2901 Section 001 CRN 30541
Caldwell
Structure of English 1000-1050 MWF
Language is one key to empowerment. In this introduction to the English language, we will explore the analytic approaches to language that can help prepare us to use language to achieve goals of many kinds. Our study of the grammar of the English language is meant to help you think critically about language-related social issues and to apply an understanding of English grammar to a variety of practical uses, including your own writing in a variety of settings, teaching at a variety of levels, editing, and other language-related work. There will be several tests throughout the semester, a final exam, and a short research project.
English 2901 Section 002 CRN 30542
Fredrick
Structure of English 1300-1350 MWF
In this class students will analyze the rules that govern the English grammatical system. They will develop a deeper understanding of the systematic nature of language. By the end of the course they will be able to comprehend the major differences between traditional, structural, and transformational approaches to grammar, identify sentence patterns and their expansions, and understand verb tense, aspect, voice, and modality. There will be several tests throughout the semester, a final exam, and a short research project.
English 2960 Section 001 CRN 32971
Beebe
Transatlantic Literary History II 1100-1150 MWF
An introduction to the key cultural movements and genres in Transatlantic literary history aimed at familiarizing students with the history of literacy, and print and non-print technology in textual production from the eighteenth century to the present. Requirements will include: several short essays, 2 longer essays, a presentation and a final exam.
English 3001 Section 001 CRN 34091
Engles
Advanced Composition 1400-1515 TR
This course will improve your writing skills as you gather your forces toward a career in a professional work environment. Nearly all professional fields include more writing tasks than those entering them usually realize, and the quality of a worker's writing greatly affects interactions with colleagues and supervisors. In addition to getting your skills up to speed for specific forms of professional writing, this course will help you anticipate key features of your future workplace, including those related to race, class, gender, and sexuality.
English 3001 Section 002 CRN 30544
Skinner
Advanced Composition 1100-1150 MWF
This course will prepare students to creatively approach writing in a variety of public, professional, and discipline-specific genres. Students will deepen their readerly sensitivities by studying the techniques of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and they will draw from creative strategies to enliven their writing for a range of academic and professional environments.
English 3009G Section 001 CRN 32661
Bredesen
Myth and Culture 1230-1345 TR
Modern society sometimes uses “myth” as another word for “lie” (“the Five Myths of Weight-Loss Exploded!”). But cultures and literary masterpieces have developed myths as a way to deeper truths. Myths help structure our thought or, to adapt a famous phrase by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, myths “are good to think with.” Rather than a chronological look at the myths of different civilizations, this course juxtaposes classic mythic stories of different cultures with modern ones. Appropriately, we will begin with the theme of “Origins,” and end by considering when myths collide. Assignments will include thoughtful reading of assigned texts, productive engagement in class discussions, occasional presentations, writing of various kinds--in-class reflections and essays--, a mid-term and final exam.
Themes: Identity and Culture; Genre, Form, and Poetics
English 3061 Section 001 CRN 33568
Markelis
Intermediate Nonfiction Writing 1100-1215 TR
This course is designed to introduce students to nonfiction as a genre of creating writing, to give them ample practice in writing various short nonfiction pieces, and to teach them to revise these pieces effectively. At the end of the term, students will submit a creative writing portfolio consisting of all four assignments and revisions of each.
English 3064 Section 001 CRN 34651
Wixson
Intermediate Dramatic Writing 1400-1515 TR
This course provides further opportunity to develop, diversify, and deepen the craft of the playwright. Exercises, applied techniques, and reading/discussion of contemporary American scripts will work collaboratively to unveil the possibilities of stage storytelling. Like theatre itself, the course is as invested in process as it is in product.
English 3099G Section 099 CRN 34650
Bredesen
Myth and Culture, Honors 1530-1645 TR
Modern society sometimes uses “myth” as another word for “lie” (“the Five Myths of Weight-Loss Exploded!”). But cultures and literary masterpieces have developed myths as a way to deeper truths. Myths help structure our thought or, to adapt a famous phrase by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, myths “are good to think with.” Rather than a chronological look at the myths of different civilizations, this course juxtaposes classic mythic stories of different cultures with modern ones. Appropriately, we will begin with the theme of “Origins,” and end by considering when myths collide. Assignments will include thoughtful reading of assigned texts, productive engagement in class discussions, occasional presentations, writing of various kinds—in-class reflections and essays--, a mid-term and final exam.
Note: Admission to University Honors College or Departmental Honors Program required.
English 3300 Section 001 CRN 32974
Martinez
English Studies Seminar--Punk Britain: Understanding Intersections of Literature, Film, Music, History and Politics 0930-1045 TR
In this course, we will explore the exciting genesis of new fictions and art forms that emerged in Britain in the decades after World War II. Specifically, we will look at how the punk explosion of 1976 serves as a galvanizing force that transforms not only contemporary British life but also Western society at large. Students will learn about the variety of economic, political, and social crises of our contemporary times (e.g., the political violence in Northern Ireland, the rise of Thatcherism, economic stagnation and unemployment strife, the debate over race relations and public policing, the fears of nuclear warfare and the advent of global terrorism) as well as new developments in literary and artistic styles, and intellectual thought (e.g., radical experiments in postmodern and feminist writing, avant-garde film, and theoretical thought; new developments in popular music and technology; new schools of thought concerning race and “Britishness”). Not only will we study British writers, but we will also consider how other British artists use mediums such as drama, film, and popular music to explore and evaluate the vast socio-political and economic changes to their environment.
Themes: Genre, Form, and Poetics; Education and Society; Law and Social Justice; Media, Technology, and Popular Culture; Science and the Environment
Prerequisite: ENG 2205
English 3402 Section 001 CRN 30547
Ames
Methods of Teaching Literature in the Secondary School 1100-1215 TR
This course explores various approaches to the study of literature, as well as best practices in teaching literature at the secondary level. Course work will consist primarily of reading and responding to pedagogical texts, applying the findings in such to classic and contemporary literature, 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 and requires five on-site clinical experience/observation hours.
Themes: Identity and Culture; Law and Social Justice; Genre, Form, and Poetics; Education and Society; Media, Technology, and Popular Culture
Prerequisites: ENG 1002 and SED 2000. Prerequisites or co-requisites: ENG 2901.
Notes: University Approval to Teacher Education is required prior to taking this course.
English 3405 Section 001 CRN 34652
Staff
Children's Literature 1400-1515 TR
Study of the rich variety of texts written for or primarily read by children, including picture books, poetry, fairy tales, chapter books, and novels. Emphases include historical, cultural, pedagogical, critical, and theoretical perspectives.
English 3704 Section 001 CRN 34818
Worthington
American Literature: 1950 to Present--Fiction in a Post-Truth World 1000-1050 MWF
Oxford Dictionaries’ 2016 word of the year, “Post-truth,” is defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” If we live in a post-truth world, it is not that truth doesn’t exist, but that people no longer care what it is; instead, they act according to what they want the truth to be, rather than what it is. As Stephen Colbert claimed on The Colbert Report, “Anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you." And, of course, this has culminated in the election of a President that we are exhorted to take seriously, but not literally. What does that even mean?
Literature, as always, can help us figure that out. American fiction has been grappling with the slipperiness of truth for decades, from novels that doubt we can ever know the truth, to ones that posit that “the truth” is simply made out of the language we use to describe it, to ones that suggest that there is no such thing as truth at all. Some say that literature is meant to hold a mirror up to the world to help us understand it. But what kind of world is it if we hold up that mirror and only language is reflected back
This course will grapple with these questions of how truth is constructed in our current political climate by looking at works from the late 20thcentury to the present. Texts will include some of the following: Phillip Roth’s The Plot Against America, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower, Jess Walter’s The Zero, Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods, Toni Morrison’s Jazz or Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. We’ll also watch some films, such as The Matrix, The Manchurian Candidate, No Way Out and/or the documentary Hypernormalisation.
Themes: Identity and Culture; Science and the Environment; Media, Technology, and Popular Culture
English 3705 Section 001 CRN 34092
Engles
American Multicultural Literatures--Multicultural Literature's Greatest Hits (and Misses) 1530-1645 TR
Since the beginnings of institutionalized "multicultural literature" in the 1990s, many minority-authored texts have attained canonical status among scholars and educators. We will juxtapose several such works (that is, “hits”) with other worthwhile, but less familiar ones (that is, “misses”). Guiding questions will include: Who are the gate-keeping readers in our culture? What have they been seeking in terms of “multicultural literature,” and what have they missed? Why have some literary works attained canonical multicultural status, while others that also deserve recognition have been largely overlooked? How can scholars of multicultural literature, canon formation, and related social issues help us sort through these matters?
Themes: Identity and Culture; Education and Society
English 3802 Section 001 CRN 30552
Campbell
Shakespeare 1100-1215 TR
In the twenty-first century, interest in the works of William Shakespeare shows no sign of abating. Shakespeare studies are still one of the most vibrant and exciting areas of English Renaissance literature, in part because Shakespeare had the good fortune to be a great synthesizer of the most popular trends in Renaissance literature, philosophy, and drama. This semester we will consider the Shakespeare of the English Renaissance, as well as the Shakespeare(s) of the present. Our primary goals will be to familiarize you with the categories of Shakespeare’s plays and to introduce you to the techniques that Shakespeare uses, the historical, political, and cultural backdrops to the plays, and ways of analyzing character, theme, and structure in them. Ultimately, this class is meant to prepare you to read Shakespeare on your own and to enjoy the plays in performance in an informed manner. To facilitate these goals, we will examine a few representative plays in great depth.
Themes: Identity and Culture; Genre, Form, and Poetics
English 3892 Section 099 CRN 32976
Campbell
Shakespeare, Honors 1100-1215 TR
In the twenty-first century, interest in the works of William Shakespeare shows no sign of abating. Shakespeare studies are still one of the most vibrant and exciting areas of English Renaissance literature, in part because Shakespeare had the good fortune to be a great synthesizer of the most popular trends in Renaissance literature, philosophy, and drama. This semester we will consider the Shakespeare of the English Renaissance, as well as the Shakespeare(s) of the present. Our primary goals will be to familiarize you with the categories of Shakespeare’s plays and to introduce you to the techniques that Shakespeare uses, the historical, political, and cultural backdrops to the plays, and ways of analyzing character, theme, and structure in them. Ultimately, this class is meant to prepare you to read Shakespeare on your own and to enjoy the plays in performance in an informed manner. To facilitate these goals, we will examine a few representative plays in great depth.
Themes: Identity and Culture; Genre, Form, and Poetics
Note: Admission to the University Honors College or Departmental Honors Program required.
English 3903B Section 001 CRN 34882
Markelis
Women, Literature, and Language, Post-1800--Memoir and Trauma 1400-1515 TR
The focus of this course will be on memoirs written by women in English during the past twenty years. There will be a special emphasis on how women write about their experiences with trauma and the resulting depression and addiction that are so often its fallouts. We will examine current literary trauma theory, focusing on one of its central questions: can there be trauma theory without feminism? Among the memoirs we will read are Smashed by Koren Zailckas, Hunger by Roxane Gay, A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown, and This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin. Students will write two short papers and will have the option of writing a short memoir.
English 4275 Section 600 CRN 33608
Fredrick
Internship in Professional Writing Online
**Students must meet with the Internship Coordinator (Dr. Fredrick) to arrange an internship placement before registering for ENG 4275.
A community-based experience featuring practical application of skills developed in the English curriculum, the Internship is open to students who have completed ENG 2760 or 3005. To the extent possible, placement is matched to career goals with the expectation that students will be able to approach graduation and the job search with writing/editing portfolios to show potential employers. Past internship sites have included nonprofit organizations, small businesses, college and university departments, libraries, journals and micro presses, and city and county government offices.
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 coordinator and site-supervisors cooperate in evaluation.
CLASSES NUMBERED 4750 THROUGH 4999 - THESE CLASSES ARE OPEN TO JUNIORS, SENIORS, AND GRADUATE STUDENTS. GRADUATE STUDENTS ARE LIMITED TO NINE HOURS OF COURSEWORK IN THIS CATEGORY.
English 4760 Section 001 CRN 30558
Vietto
Special Topics in Professional Writing--Publishing in Practice and Theory 1530-1645 TR
This course is designed for students who wish to work in publishing as well as creative writers who want to learn more about how publishing works--and perhaps put some of their own work into print.
We will learn about the publishing industry in all its various forms, with primary but not exclusive focus on literary publishing. Publishing has diversified rapidly during our lifetimes, so it doesn't mean just one thing. Major publishing houses, small presses, literary magazines, online magazines, audiobooks and digital books--all these will form the subject of our study, along with the individual artisan hand-making books and chapbooks. We will learn about the many different jobs and roles writing and editing professionals play in the publishing industry and consider the routes to get to those jobs.
Cultural theory has some valuable contributions to make to our consideration of what gets published, who reads it, and why--so we will read some relevant cultural theory, too.
Perhaps most importantly, we will put our professional writing and editing skills to work on a variety of hands-on projects. (Of course, that means we will be adding to those skills, too). Each student who successfully completes the class will end the semester with several completed publishing projects to add to their portfolios for larger organizations, whether for-profit or nonprofit.
English 4762 Section 001 CRN 30559
Abella
Advanced Poetry Writing 1230-1345 TR
As an advanced writing class, this class assumes your interest in and seriousness about being a writer. As writers, then, you will workshop your poems to develop your editing skills and poetic voices by listening to the feedback you receive. You will further learn to do this by reading contemporary poets and studying their use of language, imagery and form. You will keep a journal of your study of these poets’ works so you can develop a stronger sense of what kinds of poems appeal to you and why, and in the process learn how your work fits into the kinds of poetry being written today. At the end you will be graded on a portfolio of revised poems, the journal and class participation.
Themes: Genre, Form, and Poetics
Prerequisites and Notes: ENG 3062 or, with permission of Department Chairperson, ENG 3061, 3063, or 3064. May be repeated once with permission of the Department Chairperson.
English 4763 Section 001 CRN 33571
Kosinec (Winter)
Advanced Fiction Writing 1500-1615 MW
Flannery O’Connor was fascinated with peacocks. William Faulkner built a world in Yoknapatawpha County. In the work of Rion Amilcar Scott, our Lions in Winter reader, Muppets are a recurrent motif.
This course builds on the concepts of writer’s craft introduced in Intermediate Fiction. It challenges writers to both workshop their own fiction intensively and approach the published work of contemporary authors with an eye to how those authors construct their writerly fascinations--voice, subject matter, the interplay of the personal and the fictional, and the little tics that make fiction vital, human, and necessary--and sustain them over the course of a book or body of work. Participants will read and discuss several short story collections in their entirety, and workshop multiple short stories of their own. By the end of the course, they will have developed a greater awareness of their own writerly fascinations, more familiarity with advanced workshop and revision strategies, and an increased ability to approach contemporary published work critically, like a writer.
English 4765 Section 600 CRN 33609
Fredrick
Technical Editing Online
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. Because editing, like all communication, is contextual, we will address the rhetorical choices editors have to make across cultures and disciplines,, and we will look at the different style guides that might influence what and how you edit. Middle and high school teachers enrolled in this course will have an opportunity to explore how different types of editing might translate to classroom instruction.
English 4776 Section 001 CRN 34088
Fredrick
Research and Rhetoric in Professional Writing--Qualitative Research Methodologies and Methods in Writing Studies 1100-1150 MWF
How is knowledge about writing developed? What questions do researchers ask about how writing works in classrooms, in professional organizations, and in society in general? How do we choose the right methods to answer our questions? What makes an interview effective? What ethical concerns should writing researchers have? How do theory and practice come together through research? In this special topics course, we will explore some of the core issues in qualitative research about writing. Students will have the opportunity to complete hands-on research-based activities and to design their own research project.
English 4801 Section 001 CRN 30560
Murray
Integrating the English Language Arts 1630-1745 MW
This course centers on integrating the English language arts (speaking, listening, reading, writing, and viewing) in relation to pedagogical theories and their practical applications. 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. Course work will include response papers, pedagogical research, lesson plans, unit design, authentic assessments, and presentations.
Prerequisites: ENG 1002G and SED 2000.
Notes: University Approval to Teacher Education is required prior to taking this course. The above listed prerequisites do not apply to graduate students enrolling in this course.
English 4903 Sections 600 & 601 CRNs 34763 & 34982
Binns
Young Adult Literature Online
Study of literature written for and about adolescents with emphasis on various genres, movements, themes, and major writers.
English 4904 Section 001 CRN 31158
Martinez
Studies in Film--Cinema and Social Justice 1530-1850 R
In this course, students will consider how cinema has evolved as a powerful art form that directly impacts public opinion and helps to shape public consciousness (perhaps unlike any other form of technology). From the earliest days of films like D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) to Spike Lee’s latest film, BlacKkKlansman (2018), cinema has come to filter and represent our sense of reality and history, especially in matters of socio-political importance. We will study a wide range of national and international films that provoke debate about issues of social justice and the condition of what it means to be human.
Themes: Identity and Culture; Law and Social Justice; Education and Society; Genre, Form, and Poetics; Science and the Environment; Media, Technology, and Popular Culture
Note: May be repeated once with permission of Department Chairperson.
GRADUATE SEMINARS
English 5011 Section 600 CRN 34764
Murray
Studies in Composition and Rhetoric--Visual Rhetoric and Multimodal Composition Online
This section of ENG 5011 addresses the power of images, offering opportunities to both analyze and create visual rhetoric and multimodal texts. Class participants examine photography, film, image-driven arguments, comics, and various forms of multimodal composition as dynamic transactions between writers/rhetors and their audiences. Using various examples from each category, we place visual artifacts in historical context, assessing their meanings according to the cultural predispositions that reigned when the images first appeared. We also consider how those meanings change with time, looking especially at how they resonate within our local, contemporary moment. Our analysis of visual rhetoric also engages with teachers of multimodal literacy who frame composition as a practice that need not be limited to paper and ink, and who challenge their students to use any combination of image, sound, print-text, movement and other means of expression to make arguments about topics that matter to them. Assignments include leading virtual discussion of one or more course texts, producing a visual and/or multimodal project of your choice, and making an argument in visual and/or multimodal form.
English 5020 Section 001 CRN 34656
Kosinec (Winter)
Workshop in Creative Writing 1900-2130 T
This workshop-intensive course focuses on further development of your work, voice, and writerly fascinations, with an emphasis on the contemporary literary landscape. You will read several contemporary published works, and engage deeply with your own work and the work of your peers in the form of high-level workshop and advanced revision techniques. The ultimate goal is to produce fiction that is publishable or near-publishable.
You will be graded on a mid-semester project and a final portfolio, as well as workshop participation.
English 5061B Section 600 CRN 34765
Engles
Special Topics in Literature and Literary Theory-- Race and Masculinity in Contemporary American Literature Online
Recent cultural, political and demographic changes in the United States have presented new challenges to the ways that men have traditionally thought of themselves and their relations to others. Such challenges confront men of all races and ethnicities, including those who have long occupied the dominant norms of straight, able-bodied, middle-class and white. We will study literary and other works that depict how social and cultural shifts have been pushing men to acknowledge their gendered status in new ways. We will also seek further understanding of men who are confronted by conditions that raise insistent questions in terms of race and masculinity about who and what they are, and about what their genuine connections to others are. Our primary objects of study will be creative works by such authors as Richard Wright, Adelle Waldman, Adrian Tomine, David Henry Hwang, Percival Everrett, Chen Chen and James Baldwin.
English 5061D Section 600 CRN 34766
Caldwell
Special Topics in Literature and Literary Theory--Twice Told Tales and Theories of Adaptation: Recycle, Produce, Reuse Online
This environment of constant stimulation has put incredible pressure on artists working in all forms of media to produce at a breakneck pace—to get the all-powerful “Like” on Facebook, or the impulse buy on Amazon, On Demand, or Netflix. The paradox of this cultural moment is that even while we crave the new, our attention span is retracting, and repetition and looping becomes comforting, perhaps even necessary. One need only to watch the endless repetition of footage in any reality television show to see the odd juxtaposition of novelty and recycling that has become the standard formula, or notice how often successful novels are quickly turned into films that are then turned into Broadway plays, or the endless streams of sequels (Fast and Furious 8, anyone?). Even as the internet has made the possibilities for artistic expression boundless, to some degree we live and consume art in a giant feedback loop.
In this online graduate course, we will consider the theories, conditions and results of adaptation. Examining a variety of texts and their multifaceted afterlives—whether they be canonical literary works, graphic novels, music, film, etc.—we will explore why and how adaptation is such an enduring creative mode.
Our exploration of adaptation this semester should be valuable to students from a wide-range of graduate concentrations including, but not limited to, literary study, creative writing, multimedia and cultural studies, pedagogy, and rhetoric. Participants will be encouraged to develop a final project that engages with adaptation and that is suited to their individual interests and professional and/or academic goals. In additional to theoretical papers of literary criticism, applied projects such as creative work and the development of teaching units and lesson plans are just some examples of the kind of work that will be appropriate for this course.
Questions we explore will include the following:
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What is the difference between allusion, appropriation, and adaptation? When does an analogue take on a life of its own and gain an independence from its antecedent?
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How are we to understand and theorize the relationship between the “original” story and its successors? Does the former have a purity that is lacking in the latter? What is the line between literary hack-work (not to say plagiarism) and imitation?
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What gets sacrificed in translation between media? Between genres? Between high culture and pop culture? Do these distinctions matter anymore?
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Does adaptation speak to literature’s universal qualities or its limitations? Its situatedness in time and place? Do retellings suggest that something is “broken” about a story or text that needs to somehow be repaired so as to make it relevant again, to let us see it “anew”?
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What possibilities do adaptations open up for cross-cultural exchange and dialogue?
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What effects do capitalism, contemporary taste, marketing, and/or a need for financial gain have on creative endeavors and literary production? Is the vogue for adaptation ultimately driven by consumerism and if so, is this a spur or a threat to creativity?
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What happens when works deviate from the comfort of generic conventions? Where/how does that deviation take place and to what end? And why does this deviation sometimes make us uncomfortable and sometimes delight us (and sometimes both at once)?
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What are the ethics of appropriation and adaptation? To what social and political ends have writers and artists appropriated texts to repurpose seemingly antiquated ones or to restore marginalized narratives?
English 5502 Section 001 CRN 30562
Taylor
Mentored Composition Teaching 1530-1800 M
This course provides a foundation for the effective teaching of first-year composition and other writing classes. Building from theory and pedagogy covered in English 5007 and English 5500, we will immerse ourselves in the praxis of teaching writing at the college level. Students should be prepared to engage vigorously in discussion, analysis, reflection, and performance.
The seminar will address these topics and activities:
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Exploring various research strands related to the teaching of writing
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Designing writing assignments
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Crafting lesson plans
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Facilitating peer review and workshops
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Implementing strategies for effective conferences
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Responding to and evaluating writing
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Teaching observations
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Facilitating productive discussions and small group work
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Using in-class assessment practices
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Reflecting on teaching experiences
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Establishing ethos as an instructor
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Building a course policy and syllabus
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Constructing a persuasive and visually appealing curriculum vitae
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Assembling a teaching portfolio—curriculum vitae, teaching philosophy, sample course policy, ENG 1001 course syllabus, sample assignments, and sample handouts
English 5960 Section 600 CRN 34096
Fredrick
Professional Writing Internship Online
**Students must meet with the Internship Coordinator (Dr. Fredrick) to arrange an internship placement before registering for ENG 5960.
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 will be able to approach graduation and the job search with writing/editing portfolios to show potential employers. Past internship sites have included nonprofit organizations, small businesses, college and university departments, libraries, journals and micro presses, and city and county government offices.
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 coordinator and site-supervisors cooperate in evaluation.
EIU SENIOR SEMINARS AND INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSES
EIU 4174G Section 600 CRN 34767
Murray
Documentary and Film Society [Honors EIU Senior Seminar] Online
This senior seminar course will examine some of the aesthetic, social, and cultural issues unique to documentary film and video.
Notes: This University Senior Seminar does not fulfill the English Senior Seminar requirement, English 4300/4390. Completion of 75 semester hours required.
EIU 4192G Section 099 CRN 32219
Martinez
Film and Contemporary Society [Honors EIU Senior Seminar] 1500-1820 W
This EIU Honors senior seminar will explore how various filmmakers use cinema to study and assess a variety of social and philosophical problems that affect human life. Students will encounter exciting films, both foreign and American, across a range of genres (e.g., war/combat films, romantic comedy, thrillers) and important cinematic schools of thought (e.g., French New Wave). Requirements include short response papers, a term paper, group presentation, and participation in discussion.
Notes: This University Senior Seminar does not fulfill the English Senior Seminar requirement, English 4300/4390. Completion of 75 semester hours required.
Notes
- ENG 1002G is a prerequisite for 2000-level courses and above.
- All courses designated with a G (for example, ENG 1009G) fulfill requirements in the EIU General Education Program.
- Concurrent or prior registration in ENG 2205 is strongly recommended for majors in all courses at the 2000-level and above.
English Major Themes
In order to allow students to choose courses that meet their intellectual interests, English courses numbered between 3005 and 4904 are tagged with the following themes:
Education and Society: These courses address changing practices, values, and/or theories of education over time; changes in literacy and readership, and how these changes may have affected writers and their readers; education as a theme in literature.
Media, Technology, and Popular Culture: These courses address changes in communications media and technologies over time; changes in readership and viewership; the growth and development of popular audiences; the relationship of popular culture to ideology; the effects of media, technology and popular culture on writers and their readers.
Genre, Form, and Poetics: These courses focus closely on the relationship of form to meaning; historical considerations of generic traditions and conventions; uses, appropriations of, and changes to genre over time; hybridity and experimentation; genre, poetic, and narrative theories.
Science and the Environment: These courses examine issues and controversies in science or the environment through the lens of literature, film, or other media; environmental advocacy; writing for or about the sciences and/or the natural world.
Identity and Culture: These courses explore the relationship among the individual’s sense of self, membership in identity groups, life experiences, and perceptions. In other words, these courses answer the question: how does who I am shape my understanding of the society and the world?
Law and Social Justice: These courses explore the ways individuals and groups influence social norms regarding ethics and morals. In other words, these courses answer the question: what needs to be changed in the world, and how can I work to change it?
