With major and minor concentrations in both Literature and Writing, English offers students the means both to connect with their world and to transcend it. Trained to think inventively and write expressively, English majors of both concentrations are prepared for work in various professional spheres, including graduate study in the field, education, communications, publishing, law and business. Some have established reputations as important scholars, journalists and authors. Literature classes enable students to study literature as an art form. Through courses covering a spectrum of historical, cultural, and ethnic perspectives, literature also invites students to explore their own lives and times as well as think beyond their own experience. Classes typically combine lecture and discussion, introducing students to representative works of English, American, and Anglophone writing and encouraging them to develop methods of critical interpretation. The study of writing directly engages students' imaginations and knowledge and helps them develop their potential as writers through courses in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting and journalism. Small workshop classes provide intensive experience in the crafting and revising of students own work and in the productive critique of others. Students wishing to count courses taken off-campus toward a major in English must have prior approval from their academic advisors and the department chair.

Course Catalog

Requirements for a major

Literature

Writing

Requirements for a minor

English Writing

Literature

Courses in English

Off-Campus Extended Studies Course

Winter or May Term off-campus course.

Language, Power & Writing:Global Englishes (formerly ENG 315)

Does your writing need clarity, polish and style? This course offers intensive practice in writing across a variety of genres on the subject of Global Englishes. Develop the power of your own writing as you examine the historical, literary, and ideological aspects of the English language. Emphasis is placed on themes such as colonization, globalization, education, and identity. Priority will be given to sophomore multilingual students, including international students and students for whom English was not the primary language spoken at home. International students must have completed or tested out of ENG 115. All students encouraged to apply. Course counts for W credit.

Courses in Writing

Co-Curricular Activities

A. The 色狐入口--Writers; B. The 色狐入口--Editors; C. Midwestern Review; D. Mirage , E. Eye on the World and F. the cauldron. Practical experience in writing for The 色狐入口 (A&B), Midwestern Review (C), Mirage (D) , Eye on the World (E), and the cauldron (F). The 色狐入口 writers (A) receive one-quarter activity credit per semester, and editors (B) receive one-half activity credit per semester. Midwestern Review, Mirage , Eye on the World and the cauldron staff members (C, D, E and F) receive one-quarter activity credit (Group 6) per semester. No academic credit is awarded toward the 31 courses required for graduation. Prerequisite: signature of The 色狐入口 advisor required.

Academic English Seminar I

This course strengthens the English language fluency of multilingual students (including international students, resident immigrants, and students whose language in the home was not English), developing their ability to write, speak, and read proficiently in a college-level academic environment. May not be counted toward a major in English. See Writing Program for details.

Academic English Seminar II

This course provides intermediate-level instruction in academic English for multilingual students (including international students, resident immigrants, and students whose language in the home was not English). It focuses on academic writing proficiency and critical thinking in preparation for the more advanced skills required in other college-level writing courses. English 115 may not be counted toward a major in English. See Writing Program for details.

College Writing I

This course reviews good writing strategies to prepare students for the level of reading, writing and critical thinking done in College Writing II. By means of short essay assignments, students build fluency and confidence in writing. May not be counted toward a major in English. See Writing Program for details.

College Writing II

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of reading and writing at the college level. Assignments focus on a variety of essay forms, including personal narrative and analytical argument, helping students to develop skills in critical thinking, interpretation, argumentation, and research documentation. Through the study of the writing process, students learn to generate essays for a variety of writing tasks across the curriculum. May not be counted toward a major in English. See Writing Program for details.

Courses in Literature

Reading World Literature (formerly ENG 250)

This course explores literature in translation across national and geographic boundaries. It focuses on fiction, drama, and poetry as a way of gaining a critical understanding of perspectives, voices, and aesthetics of people and places outside of the U.S. In engaging the reader's literary sensibilities, the course aims to develop students' self-reflection on cultural difference and their own globally-situated identities and responsibilities. Cross-listed with WLIT 105.

Courses in Writing

Introduction to Creative Writing

An introduction to writing and reading fiction and poetry in a workshop setting using the work of contemporary poets and writers as models. May include some creative non-fiction and/or dramatic writing.

Courses in Literature

Reading and Literature: Poetry, Fiction and Drama

This course explores literature as means of transforming language into art, looking closely at ways that writers explore the relationship between form, content and meaning. It focuses particularly on three primary literary genres, though it may also include a secondary emphasis on others, such as essay and film. The course might also consider adaptation and the way genres evolve over time. Students who have credit for ENG 151, Literature and Interpretation, may not take ENG 151, Reading Literature: Poetry, Fiction and Drama, for credit.

Introduction to Film

Designed to develop students' ability to understand and appreciate film as art and to acquaint them with a representative group of significant works and the characteristics of film as a type of literature.

Reading Literature: Intercultural Perspectives

This course explores literature as a means of understanding difference across boundaries of race, nation, class, gender, or religion. It will feature literary works that foreground a variety of intercultural perspectives, including literature in translation and literature that thematizes difference.

Reading Literature: Ethics and Society

This course explores literature as a form of social engagement, with the potential to influence our thinking about aesthetic, ethical, or political questions. It considers imaginative writing as a motive force in history through studies of specific works intervening in specific contexts or, more generally, through an analysis of the strategies that writers use to articulate, clarify, and sometimes resolve social or ethical problems.

Reading Literature: Science, Nature, and Technology

This course explores literature as a response to scientific and technological change. It considers the ways that new scientific discoveries inspire new visions in literature and the ways, in turn, that imaginative writing inspires new approaches in science. It features literary works that contextualize past scientific and technological advances, interpret and critique changes happening in the present, and imagine the changes that might occur in the future.

First-Year Seminar

An exploration of a literary theme with an emphasis on class discussion and participation, independent projects, historical and cultural awareness and writing. Recent courses have included Poetry of Song, Reading Las Vegas, War and Sex in Arthurian Legend, and Milestones: Four African-American Artists. Enrollment limited to first-year students. May be counted toward a major or minor.

Courses in Writing

News Writing and Editing

An introduction to the art and craft of writing for newspapers, including story structure, research techniques, interviewing, note taking, ethics, libel and AP Style. Students will hone their writing and reporting skills by covering campus events, writing stories on deadline and following national and local media coverage.

Topics in Literature/Creative Writing

A hybrid literature/creative writing topics course that both refines students' general analytical, interpretive, and academic writing skills and gives them experience in crafting their own short creative works in the genre. Sections may include Narrative Nation (digital forms of creative nonfiction and journalism), Songwriting, or Writing for Performance.

Courses in Literature

Writing in Literary Studies

This course explores the purpose and craft of writing about literature, refining the ability to recognize and communicate pattern and meaning in texts and culture. The course fosters the writing and research skills necessary for advanced literary study, including the Senior Seminar in Literature, and for participation in larger conversations in the field. Through major writing projects and peer workshops, students will practice a variety of approaches to writing and research, while also expanding methods of writing for a variety of audiences. Required for Literature majors. Not open for credit to students who have completed ENG 350.

Children's Literature

An examination of children's literature, attending to its history, canon and audience - both children and adults - and to selected topics, such as storytelling and censorship. Establishing criteria for several genres, students read widely to judge poetry, realistic fiction, picture books, fantasy, etc. and to compile bibliographies. May be counted toward a major in English. Offered second semester.

Topics in Literary Studies

While refining students' general analytical and interpretive skills, this course offers intensive examination of specific issues in literature and culture, often those at the center of current critical interest. Recent sections have focused on The Gangster Film, Memoir and Sexuality, Quest for the Grail, and Native American Literature. Students may only count one ENG 255 that is a cross-listed Modern Language course toward the major or minor.

Modern Continental Literature

European writing from about 1885, stressing new directions in fiction and poetry from Zola to contemporary writers.

African-American Literature

A study of African-American writing, including biographies, essays and polemics as well as drama, fiction and poetry.

Women and Literature: Topics

Introduces students to the work of women writers and the importance of gender as a category of literary analysis. Issues covered may include: images of women in literature by women and men; impediments women writers have faced; women's writing in historical/social context; feminist literature; intersections of race, class and gender. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

Asian Pacific American Voices

Since Asian American and Pacific Islander writing is typically presented from the perspective of race, our topics will focus on cultural identity, immigration experience, displacement, gender identities, and language. The goal of this class is not to suggest a cohesive tradition of Asian American communities, but rather to explore the different histories and origins of Asian American writers and how their backgrounds inform their work.

Native American Literature

This course surveys a range of American Indian oral and written literatures within the context of Euro-American colonization, conflict, and assimilation. We will assess the problems facing early native writers working within an alien culture and examine the ways the more recent writers of the Native American Renaissance have redefined Indian identity as a compromise between traditional Native culture and contemporary American society. Reading may include creation myths and trickster stories, Native autobiographical writing, fiction, and poetry.

Visual and Digital Narratives (Formerly ENG 161)

This course explores the way changes in media have influenced literature, focusing on narrative forms that combine verbal, visual, and digital representation, including film, television, interactive fiction, and social media. It will consider the possibilities that new technologies of representation have brought to the art of storytelling and could also explore critical questions of new media literacy, such as production, dissemination, and reception.

Latinx Literature

This course surveys fiction, poetry, drama, essays, autobiography, and film by Latinx people in the United States with attention to the distinctions and similarities that have shaped the experiences and the cultural imagination among different communities, including Mexican Americans or Chicanos/as, Puerto Ricans or Nuyoricans, Cuban Americans, Dominicans, and other groups. Themes might include colonization and decolonization, exile and diaspora, bilingual aesthetics and orality, border narratives, immigration and citizenship, social justice, mestiza and Afro-Latinidad identity, and Latina feminisms and queer identities. Major writers might include Elizabeth Acevedo, Julia Alvarez, Gloria Anzaldua, Ana Castillo, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Denise Chavez, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Martin Espada, Maria Irene Fornes, Aracelia Girmay, Juan Felipe Herrera, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Jose Marti, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alberto Rios, and Jose Rivera.

LGBTQ+ Literature

This course introduces the work of LGBTQ+ writers (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non-normative sexual identities) with attention to the major concepts and political issues that shape LGBTQ+ identities and cultural productions. Issues covered may include: LGBTQ+ writing in historical and social contexts; obstacles faced by LGBTQ+ writers; intersections of race, class, and nation; the relationship between aesthetic forms and queer subjectivity. Writers may include James Baldwin, Elizabeth Bishop, Jericho Brown, Emily Dickinson, Alexander Chee, Tony Kushner, Audre Lorde, Carmen Maria Machado, Adrienne Rich, William Shakespeare, Gertrude Stein, Ocean Vuong, Oscar Wilde, Jeannette Winterson, and Virginia Woolf.

British Writers I

This course surveys works of representative British authors from Anglo-Saxon times through the Augustan period. It is designed for students wishing to acquaint themselves with this broad area of British letters.

British Writers II

A continuation of the survey begun in ENG 281, this course begins with representative writers of the Romantic period and ends with contemporary British literature. ENG 281 is not a prerequisite for this course.

American Writers

A study of representative American authors from the exploration of the New World to the present with attention to the literature of ethnic cultures.

Courses in Writing

Creative Writing II: Fiction Workshop

A workshop focused on the writing of short fiction using modern and contemporary short stories as models and inspiration. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Creative Writing II: Fiction Topics

Topics in fiction writing with particular concentration on specific forms or other aspects of the genre using readings as models and inspiration. This might include the novella or the short-short story or techniques such as magical realism, meta-fiction, minimalism, etc., depending on the instructor. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Creative Writing II: Poetry Workshop

A workshop that gives students the opportunity to sharpen their skills as poets and exposes them to a wide range of contemporary poetry. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Creative Writing II: Poetry Topics

The course provides a particular focus on poetic forms or sub-genres of poetry. These might include dramatic monologue and extended poetic projects such as sequences in a particular form or voice. Effort is made to broaden students reading knowledge of poetry. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Creative Writing II: Nonfiction Workshop

This course will focus on the art and craft of nonfiction with special attention to giving nonfiction the immediacy and liveliness of fiction. Forms explored may include profiles, travel writing, personal essays, reviews, memoir, nature writing or literary nonfiction. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Creative Writing II: Nonfiction Topics

This course will explore a specific genre of nonfiction in depth. Class will operate as an advanced writing workshop that uses master works as models and inspiration. Offerings might include profiles, travel writing, personal essays, reviews, memoir, nature writing or literary nonfiction. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Creative Writing II: Advanced Reporting Workshop

An upper-level reporting class for students who have taken News Writing and Editing or have written for a student publication. Students will analyze and discuss long-form, investigative journalism and write a series of in-depth news features. The course will address how to incorporate literary techniques in news writing.

Creative Writing II: Advanced Reporting Topics

An upper-level reporting class for students who have taken News Writing and Editing or have written for a student publication. Students will study specifics forms of journalistic writing. Offerings might include feature writing, profiles, investigative journalism, magazine feature writing, or reviews and criticism. Prerequisite: ENG 232 or permission of instructor.

Creative Writing II: Playwriting Workshop

An introduction to the process of playwriting. The course will explore dramatic action for the stage--working with character, setting, dialogue, tone and style--through writing workshop, discussion and selected readings. Students will write monologues, scenes, a ten-minute play and a one-act play. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Creative Writing II: Screenwriting Workshop

An introduction to the fundamentals of screenwriting, in theory and in practice. Students will explore story, character, dialogue and structure as relates to writing for film; learn the screenplay format; and participate in writing workshop and discussion. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Creative Writing II: Dramatic Writing Topics

An upper level writing course that focuses on specific elements or forms within a genre of dramatic writing. Offerings might include The One Act Play, The Dramatic Monologue, The Short Film Script, Advanced Screenwriting or Advanced Playwriting. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Form and Genre

This forms course, required for the Writing major, asks students to read extensively in two genres in order to deepen their understanding of the craft of creative writing. Class discussion will focus on analysis of classic and contemporary texts and an examination of the decisions writers make in their particular genres (and forms within those genres) to create certain results. For the Writing major, ENG 349 should be taken prior to ENG 412, Senior Seminar; it may be taken concurrently with Creative Writing Workshops (ENG 301-343). (Please note: this course does not count for the upper-level literature course requirement for the Writing or Literature major.)

Courses in Literature

Principles of Literary Studies

This course is designed to give majors in English and related fields a grasp of the most important theories, terms and traditions that shape contemporary literary studies. Recommended for both literature and writing majors, and especially for anyone considering graduate study in English.

Old English Language and Literature

This course introduces students to the literature composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 700 CE - 1066 CE. We will learn the basics of Old English pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary so that we can begin translating texts right away, and we will also consider the act of translation as both a creative and intellectual process. We will cover the literary devices and themes that characterize Anglo-Saxon literature, and survey a range of representative genres, including poetry, letters, and historical accounts. Readings will be in both Old English and in translation, and may include the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Wife's Lament, and The Dream of the Rood.

Chaucer and His World

Realism and romance in selected major poems of Chaucer and his contemporaries studied in their medieval context.

Shakespeare

A study of representative plays drawn from the histories, comedies, tragedies and late romances. Wide-ranging themes will include questions about gender relations and identity, both personal and national, and the conventions of Elizabethan performance.

Renaissance or Early Modern British Literature

A study of major developments in prose and poetry in English literature between 1500 and 1660, an age of exploration both literal and figurative. In both canonical works (by Sidney, Spenser, Donne, Jonson, Herbert and Milton) and recently rediscovered poems by Lady Mary Wroth, Aemilia Lanyer and Katherine Philips, we will analyze the intersection of influences--Classical and Biblical, native and Continental, medieval and modern.

Milton

A revolutionary who wrote against censorship and in defense of divorce, whose poetry made a mark on future generations of writers, Milton redefined heroism in his epic, Paradise Lost. We will study his major poems and selected prose, analyzing his transformation of every genre he touched: sonnet, pastoral elegy, masque, epic and tragedy.

Restoration and Eighteenth Century

An in-depth survey of literary genres (including poetry, satire, the periodical essay, the gothic, and the novel) from 1660-1800 and their relationship to nationalism, gender, empire, and the cultural and political practices of the English Enlightenment.

The Romantic Period

Focuses on English poetry from approximately 1790-1830, along with related works of fiction, criticism and philosophy. Writers often studied include Blake, Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley and Keats.

The Victorian Period

Focuses on writers who worked in the last 70 years of the 19th century. Writers often studied include Dickens, Carlyle, George Eliot, Tennyson, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Modern British Literature

British novelists, poets and dramatists of the first half of the 20th century, including Conrad, Joyce, Yeats, Lawrence and Woolf.

Contemporary British Literature

British and postcolonial writers from the mid-20th century to the present. Writers may include Rushdie, Gordimer, Larkin, Amis and Heaney.

American Literature: Revolution and Renaissance

A study of literature from the American Revolution through "the American Renaissance," when the writing of American authors first achieved an international reputation. Writers might include Jefferson, Franklin, Cooper, Poe, Emerson, Hawthorne, Douglass, Stowe, Melville, Jacobs, Whitman and Dickinson.

American Literature: The Age of Realism

A study of the literary culture between the Civil War and World War I, including considerations of realism, regionalism and naturalism as well as works of nonfiction. Writers might include Twain, James, Jewett, Crane, DuBois, Chesnutt, Dreiser, Wharton and Cather.

American Literature: Modern

A study of literature written in the first half of the 20th century and the main philosophical, social and aesthetic issues that shaped it. Writers might include Faulkner, Hemingway, Eliot, Williams, Dos Passos, Moore, Hurston, Hughes, and Wright.

American Literature: Post-War to Post-Modern

A study of literature since the end of World War II, including that of minority writers, and the main philosophical, social and aesthetic issues that shaped it. Writers might include Warren, Nabokov, Bishop, Roth, Morrison, Rich, Pynchon, Erdrich, Kingston and Cisneros.

Women and Literature: Advanced Topics

Designed for English majors and/or students with some background in Women's Studies. Topics will provide opportunities for in-depth analysis of women writers and gender literary analysis. Issues covered may include: images of women in literature; women's writing in historical/social context; feminist literature theory and literary criticism; intersections of race, class and gender; formation of the literary canon. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

Authors: Advanced Topics

In-depth study of one or more writers. Examples include Joyce, Morrison, Samuel Johnson, and Henry James.

Genre: Advanced Topics

Study of works drawn from a specific literary genre or subgenre. Examples include Confessional Poetry, The Early Novel and Revenge Tragedy.

Literature and Culture: Advanced Topics

A study of the relations between literature and culture, with a specific thematic focus. Examples include Literature and Law, American Gothic, and Drugs, Literature and Culturet.

Literature and Theory: Advanced Topics

Study of a specific topic within contemporary literary theory. Examples include The Rise and Fall of Deconstruction, Theories of the Avant Garde, and Film Theory.

World Literature: Advanced Topics

Study of works in world literature emphasizing a global context. Examples include The Bildungsroman, Representations of the Artist, The Global Avant-Garde, The Great Novel, and Global Science Fiction.

Irish Literature: Advanced Topics

An intensive exploration of Irish culture and authors from a literary perspective. Topics might include medieval Irish literature, James Joyce, modern Irish drama, Irish mythology, the Gaelic revival, Irish poets, the "troubles" and postcolonialism, and Irish film.

Advanced Topics: Black Writers

This course offers the intensive exploration of a particular period, author, or genre in African American and/or global Black literature. Examples might include The Harlem Renaissance, Toni Morrison, South African Literature, Black Autobiography.

Courses in Writing

Independent Writing

Independent writing under tutorial supervision designed for seniors wishing to develop or complete one of the longer forms. Prerequisites: senior classification, the successful completion of three courses in writing above the freshman level, and permission of instructor and chair of the department. Prior to registration, the student must present to the chairman of the department a written statement of the project countersigned by the instructor who will serve as tutor.

Seminar in Writing

This is an advanced creative writing workshop in which students design their own independent projects under the guidance of the instructor. Seminars generally explore a specific genre in depth. Prerequisite: senior classification and the successful completion of three courses in writing above the 100 level, two at the 300 level.

Courses in Literature

Seminar in Literature

Concentrated study of a topic in literary studies. Prerequisite: two 300- or 400-level courses in literature. Required of majors in English with emphasis on literature. May be repeated once for credit.

Readings in Literature

Directed studies, with individual conferences or seminars, centered on a specific project arranged with the instructor and including the writing of papers. Prerequisite: senior classification and permission of instructor and chairman of department. Students seeking permission to take the course must present previous to registration to the department chair a written statement of the project countersigned by the instructor who will direct it.