Spring 2013 English Department Graduate Course Descriptions

508—Critical Studies in Film (26511)
Fran Connor
Postpunk Shakespeare
Some of the boldest Shakespearean re-readings of the past 30 years have occurred onscreen, as directors, emboldened by experimental theatrical productions of Shakespeare in the 1960s and 1970s, broke away from established conventions of Shakespearean film to re-affirm the playwright’s resonance in our increasingly complex information age.  The films we will look at (and plays we will read) will look at some recent approaches to cinematic Shakespeare, and will consider what claims these films make about Shakespeare continuing relevance (or, possibly, lack of relevance.)  Topics may include meta-Shakespearean cinema (Peter Greenway’s Prospero’s Books, Al Pacino’s Looking For Richard); modern reinterpretations (Billy Morrissette’s Scotland PA, Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus); postmodern parody and pastiche (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas’ Strange Brew, Gus Van Zant’s My Own Private Idaho); teen cinema (Tim Blake Nelson’s O, Gil Junger’s 10 Things I Hate About You); and Kenneth Branagh’s attempts to preserve a ‘heritage’ Shakespeare (Henry V, Hamlet.)

516—Graduate Studies in a Major Author (26513)
Sam Taylor
Graduate Studies in a Major Author: T.S. Eliot
In this course, we will investigate all the major poetic works of T.S. Eliot, as well as review critical perspectives and significant literary contexts (predecessors, contemporaries, and the following generations).

540—Introduction to Critical Theory (26514)
Chris Brooks
This course will serve as an introductory course in literary theory. Topics explored will range from Reader Response criticism to Psychoanalytical Theory and include Marxism, Poststructuralism, Gender Theory, Queer Theory, Feminism, Cultural Criticism, and Intertextual Theory. The central idea will maintain that theory is a lens through which one gazes to see literary works differently. Papers will employ theory as applied to literary, cinematic, and musical works. Class method mixes lecture and discussion.

581—Composition Practicum (26515)
Susan Spillman
Restricted to GTAs teaching English 101

581—Composition Practicum (26518)
Mary Sherman
Restricted to GTAs teaching English 102

581—Composition Practicum (26520)
Melinda DeFrain
Restricted to GTAs teaching English Basic Skills courses

590—Senior Seminar (26522)
Mary Waters
Transatlantic Romanticism
Like those of the ocean itself or the profitable commerce in goods and bodies that enriched some while making life bleak for others, currents of thought crossed the Atlantic to engender Romantic literature in Britain and America.  Late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century American and British writers read the news, pondered events over the seas, and inspired the accomplishments of their literary counterparts.  This course aims to familiarize you with one of the more recent perspectives in the study of Romantic literature.  We will use an anthology to read some significant texts in transatlantic romantic studies, included poetry, essays, and slave narratives, as well as two novels, William Godwin’s Caleb Williams and Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland.  In addition, because it is a senior writing capstone seminar, it will improve your analytical and writing skills by asking you to engage at an introductory level in the various kinds of assignments frequently demanded in graduate seminars while providing the intellectual support and writing coaching appropriate to a rigorous undergraduate writing class.  Because these assignments will require significant research, you will develop your research skills and increase your familiarity with library resources.  Supplemental readings in criticism will familiarize you with some of the debates about these novels and improve your ability to evaluate and draw upon secondary sources.
Prerequisite: completion of 18 hours toward the major. Not available for graduate credit.

680—Theory and Practice in Comp (26523)
Mary Sherman
Introduces theories of rhetoric, research in composition and writing programs, and practices in schools and colleges. Students investigate the process of writing, analyze varieties and samples of school writing, and develop their own and others’ work. Designed especially for prospective and practicing teachers, and may not be taken for credit by students with credit in ENGL 780.

681—Editing American English (26524)
Chris Brooks
This class will proceed as an intensive and exhaustive study of the rules of good writing as emerging from a mastery of grammar, mechanics, diction, and proper usage. Moving from the word to the sentence to the paragraph, the course will investigate sentence varieties and punctuation strategies that communicate and determine meaning. The final project, on which the course grade is based, will require each student to create a course syllabus, exercises included, for teaching an essential course in proper writing.
Prerequisite: English 101 and 102

705—Seminar in American Literature III (26525)
Jean Griffith
The African American Novel from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts Movement and Beyond
This seminar in American literature from the twenties to the contemporary period will focus on the African American novel. While in the nineteenth century, non-fiction--particularly autobiography and political writing--dominated the African American literary scene, more and more writers turned to the novel in the twentieth century, especially during and after the Harlem Renaissance. Our class will explore the contexts which made the novel increasingly popular with African American writers as well as the conventions and thematic concerns that structure this body of work, one that is both related to and different from other American novels and other genres of African American literature.  Novels will include Hughes’s Not Without Laughter, Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Wright’s Native Son, Ellison’s Invisible Man, Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo, Morrison’s Beloved, Walker’s The Color Purple, and Kenan’s A Visitation of Spirits.

Prerequisite: English 700 or permission of the graduate coordinator

712—Graduate Studies in Fiction (26526)
Darren DeFrain
Experiments in Form: Contemporary Novels and their Antecedents
Every novel, by definition, is something new, but sometimes experiments in form prove to be especially influential.  We’ll begin with a Classical “dialogue” between Aristotle and Longinus, tracing that “discussion” through the ages, the rise of the novel, and some contemporary examples of novels that are both rooted in tradition and attentive to form.  We’ll try to pay special attention to a multitude of approaches to these works, issues of craft, and contemporary arguments about the future of novels in general.

Some of the works we’ll be reading and discussing include:

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out: A Novel by Mo Yan
Reality Hunger: A Manifesto by David Shields

Prerequisite: English 700 or permission of the graduate coordinator

801—Fiction Workshop (26527)
Josh Barkan
This is an intensive workshop in the craft of writing fiction.  The class revolves around group critiques of new student work.  Craft elements to be worked on include point of view, characterization, visual description, forceful dialogue, dramatization of action, character motivation and interior psychology, use of time, transitions within and between scenes, plot, setting, style, voice, the need for empathy for the protagonist, use of metaphors, etc.  Such craft elements cannot be taught and learned solely by workshopping student writing, so we will also read and examine one good short story each week.  This course assumes fiction writing requires more than some kind of mystical inspiration (although that, too, may be necessary) and seeks to provide writers with concrete examples of the techniques of fiction writing.  Students will be expected to revise their work after incorporating criticism from their fellow students and teacher.  Each student writes two new short stories—approximately fifteen to twenty pages each—and revises them during the term.
Prerequisite: consent of creative writing director

805—Poetry Workshop (26528)
Albert Goldbarth
Advanced work in creative writing: literary poetry. Repeatable for credit.
Prerequisite: consent of creative writing director

814—British World Lit Before 1900 (26529)
Mary Waters
In a world of increasing global contact and reaction to some of the most significant trends and ideas of the European enlightenment, the literary movement we describe as Romanticism developed first on the European continent and soon after in Britain.  This course will study major works in Romantic literature from across Europe, considering how these works form an international dialog on questions that define Romanticism.  We will read several British authors, including Byron, Coleridge, and Mary Shelley as well as European authors such as Rousseau, Chateaubriand, Goethe, Schlegel, Sand, and others. 
Prerequisite: English 700 or permission of the graduate coordinator

816—Graduate Studies in a Major Author (26530)
Peter Zoller
Graduate Studies in a Major Author: Virginia Woolf
In this course we will read Virginia Woolf’s major (and some minor) novels, some of her critical work, as well as some of her letters and diaries. Students will write two papers (one short c. 8-10 pp, and one long c. 18-20 pp.), give one power-point presentation, and take part in class discussions. There will be two essay examinations: a midterm and a final.
Prerequisite: English 700 or permission of the graduate coordinator

860—Special Topics (26531)
Peter Zoller
Modern British Dystopian Literature
In this course, we will read Dystopian Novels:

H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
George Orwell, Animal Farm
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
Anthony Burgess, The Wanting Seed
Doris Lessing, Memoirs of a Survivor
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never let Me Go
P. D. James, The Children of Men
Angela Carter, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman

Students will write two papers (one short 8-10 pp., and one long 18-20 pp., give one power-point presentation, and take part in class discussions. There will be two essay examinations: a midterm and a final.
Prerequisite: English 700 or permission of the graduate coordinator

881—Writers Tutorial: Poetry (26533)
Malena Mörling

Ms. Morling will be conducting a month-long tutorial in poetry February 18th – March 15th.
Prerequisite: consent of creative writing coordinator.