Autumn Quarter 2009: Course Descriptions

ENG 402 - History of English Prose Style
Mulderig, W 6:00-9:15

What kinds of meaningful distinctions can we make among various prose styles? This course will attempt to answer that question in two ways. First, we will consider some alternative theoretical approaches to the study of style, ranging from the purely impressionistic to the rigorously quantitative. We will then explore the rhetorical dimension of stylistic choice by examining the intersection of style and rhetoric in some important samples of English prose from the Renaissance to the present, including writings by John Lyly, Thomas Browne, Elizabeth I, Addison and Steele, John Ruskin, Thomas Huxley, Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Students enrolled in the course should refamiliarize themselves with the parts of speech, the elements of English syntax, and the types of sentences before the course begins.

Language and Style core requirement in the MAW and MAWP programs and a Language core requirement in the MAE program. It can also be used as an elective for either program.

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ENG 416 - Structure of Modern English
Meyer, T 6:00-9:15

A systematic outline of modern English from both traditional and contemporary linguistic perspectives. Examines descriptive grammars, word and phrase structure, syntax and semantics, and formal issues of style and rhetoric.

Language and Style core requirement in the MAW and MAWP programs and a Language core requirement in the MAE program. It can also be used as an elective for either program.

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ENG 419 - Topics in Medieval Literature: Angels and Demons in Medieval Literature
Breen, M 6:00-9:15

This course is an examination of the appearance and roles of angels and devils in medieval English narrative prose, poetry, and drama. Since the Christian tradition, specifically the Bible, is relatively brief in its treatment of these characters, the primary questions that this course seeks to examine are why medieval literature attempts to develop stories around them, and how the resultant tales complement or conflict with more orthodox treatments (such as the Bible) of angels and devils. From a critical perspective, we will look at the characters in terms of when they appear; how they are described by the narrator, and what is contained in their speeches (narratology); as well as how their roles are contextualized by historical and contemporary ideologies of good and evil (cultural poetics). The texts for this course represent both the earlier (Anglo-Saxon) and later (Middle English) traditions, with some background materials from the classical period.

Medieval period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 428 - Studies in Shakespeare
McQuade, T 6:00-9:15

Study of selected plays through various critical and scholarly perspectives.

Renaissance period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 431 - Studies in the 18th-century Novel
Shanahan , W 6:00-9:15

How did readers from the seventeenth- to the early-nineteenth centuries come to identify some types of prose narrative as “novelistic”? We will read some candidates for the “first English novel” alongside some precursor and rival forms (romance, allegory, scandal narrative, autobiography, etc.) in order to begin to answer the question. Topics will include the changing strategies for representing psychology in prose; changing opinions of ‘realistic’ narration and truth; epistolary form; rival critical models for the “rise” (or not) of the novel as the dominant modern genre. Readings include Behn, Congreve, Bunyan, Manley, Defoe, Haywood, Richardson, Fielding, Cleland, Sterne, Walpole, and Austen.

Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British period requirement in the MAE program and can serve as an elective in the MAE or MAW.

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ENG 452 - Modern British Poetry
Fairhall , M 6:00-9:15

In ENG 452, Modern British Poetry, we will focus on a handful of major poems by 20th-century English poets (and a few Irish poets) ranging from Yeats and Eliot to Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney.

Modern British and/or American period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 459 - Topics in Modern British Literature: Writing about the World Wars
Cameron, TH 6:00-9:15

This course will explore modern British writing on the First and Second World Wars. We will consider the wars' impact on aesthetics and tone as well as their effect on national identity, class, and gender. Our readings will range across several genres (poetry, fiction, journalism, memoirs, diaries, and drama) and will include, for example, WWI trench poetry by Wilfred Owen, Sigfried Sassoon, and Isaac Rosenberg; Rebecca West’s early treatment of “shell-shock” in Return of the Soldier and her journalistic writing on the Nuremberg trials; Virginia Woolf’s novel Jacob’s Room and her response to Fascism in Three Guineas; Richard Aldington’s vicious social satire, Death of a Hero; Edith Sitwell’s atomic bomb poems; and Samuel Beckett’s absurdist drama (which has been read by critical theorist Theodor Adorno as a response to the Holocaust). Retrospective treatments of the wars by Pat Barker and Martin Amis will also be included.

Modern British and/or American period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 469 - Topics in American Authors: Henry James, Edith Wharton and the American Girl
Chung, W 6:00-9:15

Modern British and/or American period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 471 - Bibliography & Literary Research
Johnson-Gonzalez, T 6:00-9:15

This course provides an intensive introduction to the graduate-level study of English. Throughout the quarter we'll develop and polish the skills necessary for advanced research, and we'll discuss important professional issues.

Core requirement in the MAE. May NOT be used for credit in the MAW or MAWP.

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ENG 472 - Literary Criticism
Kordecki, T 6:00-9:15

Study of the theoretical foundations of literary criticism, exemplified by major texts from ancient Greece to the present.

Core requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE, MAW, and MAWP.

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ENG 477 - Topics in Publishing: The Role of Narratives in the Digital Age
Allspaugh, TH 6:00-9:15

In today’s world, gone are the days when marketers can carefully craft and control the messages they want consumers to absorb. With blogs and other forms of social media like Twitter and Facebook, the challenge for marketers has become how to facilitate consumer conversations. No doubt, by the time this course is taught, new technologies and applications will have been developed. Given that reality, this course will explore the role of narratives as the critical connective element of modern communication strategies.

Lang/Lit/Teaching/Publishing requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 477 - Topics in Language and Form: The 'New' Journalism: History and Tradition
Sirles
M NAP
T 6:00-9:15 LPC

This course introduces students to the forms, styles, and traditions of the “new” journalism, a quintessentially American genre that emerged in the post-World War II era, experienced a meteoric heyday in 1960s during its “gonzo” period, and then matured into more socially responsible approach to true storytelling. Authors include Jimmy Breslin, Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Ken Kesey, John McPhee, Willie Morris, Hunter Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and others.

Lang/Lit/Teaching/Publishing requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 484 - Writing Workshop Topics: The Short Topical Essay
Sullivan, Sat. NAP

This is a workshop in writing short-form journalism, the 650 to 850-word, one-page piece for magazines and newspapers. Students will write five pieces, including a personal essay, profile, contraria/enthusiasm, and humor, plus three short-shorts, the ubiquitous 50-150-word pieces in the front of magazines. Emphasis is on writing with wit, style, and edge.

Literary Writing concentration requirement in the MAW. Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 484 - Writing Workshop Topics: Memoir Writing
Morano, TH 6:00-9:15

“If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic.” This lovely sentence by Toni Morrison catalogues the concerns of this course. Students will read several contemporary memoirs, noting the choices authors make in understanding, organizing, and crafting personal narratives. Students will also write and workshop their own memoir-essays with an eye toward capturing the “mystery and magic” of lived experience.

Literary Writing concentration requirement in the MAW. Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 484 - Writing Workshop Topics: Writing the Wondrous World of the Everyday
Sneed, M 6:00-9:15

In this graduate-level multi-genre writing workshop, students will be expected to write and submit a short fiction piece, poems, and a one-act play, which should all in some way examine and/or celebrate the extraordinary world of the quotidian. We will read and discuss work by fiction writers such as John Updike, Alice Munro, Charles Baxter, poets such as Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison, and read short plays by modern and contemporary playwrights. We will do close readings of all assigned prose and poetry, conduct workshops for each genre, and discuss some of the practical aspects of the writing life, which include maintaining a writing schedule, submitting to literary journals, entering contests, finding residencies and eventually, literary agents.

Literary Writing concentration requirement in the MAW. Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 484 - Writing Workshop Topics: Experiments in Fiction: Time and Place
Harvey, W 6:00-9:15

Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable as art, if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else,” Eudora Welty once wrote. In this workshop, we will focus on the role of place and time in fiction, examining the ways in which they give rise to character and interact with other story elements. The course will place a heavy emphasis on reading as well as writing. We will study the work of such diverse authors as Welty, Tobias Wolff, Alice Munro, Italo Calvino, Steven Millhauser, John Cheever, George Saunders and Jorge Luis Borges.

Literary Writing concentration requirement in the MAW. Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 490 - Writing for Magazines
Anton, T LOOP
Isackson, M 6:00-9:15 LPC

Covers the range of skills necessary for magazine writing. Discussion of the elements of style, humor, research, concept and imagery that characterize the literature of fact. Students investigate, compose, and edit finished magazine articles to be submitted for publication.

Literary Writing concentration requirement in the MAW. Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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ENG 493 - Writing Poetry
Jones, TH 6:00-9:15

"Writing Poetry" is a seminar in writing and reading poetry. Class will be conducted in a "workshop" format with emphasis on class discussion of student writing. At the end of the semester each student will turn in a final portfolio of finished poems.

Literary Writing concentration requirement in the MAW. Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. May be used as an elective in the MAE, MAW and MAWP.

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