English Department

English 130: Academic Writing

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English 203: Shakespeare On Film

Section(s): 1
Professor: Robert O'Brien

From the silent-movie era to the present, filmmakers have interpreted Shakespearean drama. Some of these interpretations have been lost, others are of dubious quality, but a large number are masterpieces of cinematic art.

In this course, you'll study some of the best Shakespeare films made since the Second World War. By the end of the semester, you will have gained a deeper understanding of both film and Shakespearean drama.

Classes will be a mixture of lectures, discussions, and film showings. Outside of class, you'll read synopses, scenes, and passages from the plays. You'll also write essays responding to the readings and films and take a mid-term and final examination.

Our text will be the two-volume, second edition of The Norton Shakespeare.

 

English 220: Creative Writing

Section(s): 3, 4
Professor: Paul Eggers

This class is designed to introduce you to the writing of serious contemporary poetry and fiction. You¹ll explore craft issues and writing techniques in each genre and use those discussions to guide the writing of your own poetry and fiction. You¹ll also read and comment on each other¹s work, as well as study the work of well-known published writers.

Creative writing, as I¹m using this term, refers to poetry and fiction aimed at being appreciated by a wide audience, one schooled in the assumptions and techniques of serious contemporary writing. It does not refer to the author writing only for him or herself, as in a diary or journal (as such, the work you produce for this course is public, not private); nor does it refer to ³fluff stuff,² i.e., poems and stories written simply to entertain or to pass the time, or work hastily written or without serious intent. Through examining the assumptions and techniques of serious contemporary poetry and fiction, this course aims to help you bridge the gap between your mind and the minds of others, in order to say something meaningful and thoughtful.

You'll be drafting, workshopping, and revising your work in poetry and fiction, as well as responding usefully to classmates' work.

Texts and Costs: a course packet available only at Mr. Kopy. And figure around $20-30 for photocopying your work for classmates.

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English 230: Intro to Technical Writing

Section(s): 1
Professor: Susan Aylworth

As described in the University Catalog, this course offers you, “A study of technical writing and presentation skills in business and scientific environments, including audience analyses, writing processes, genres of technical and business discourse, visual communication, collaboration, professional responsibility, clear and correct expression” (368). Thus English 230 introduces you to the wide range of practices that make up the field called technical writing. My goals for this course are:

Most reading, research and document development will be done outside of class with communication through Vista. Class time will be a mix of large group discussions, small group and individual work on writing, research and revision, formal and informal in-class presentations and, rarely, lecture.

Current Texts (subject to change):
Kenneth W. Houp, Thomas E. Pearsall, Elizabeth Tebeaux, and Sam Dragga

Reporting Technical Information, Eleventh Edition
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-517879-1 , pub date: 2005.

English 240: Introduction to Literature

Section(s): 1
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English 251: African-American Literature

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English 252: American Indian Literature

Section(s): 1
Professor: Lynn Elliott

The primary focus in this course is upon the various genres—fiction, poetry, autobiography and oral texts—of American Indian literature.  Works ranging from pre-contact oral traditions through contemporary American Indian writers are explored.  Related studies include the historical relationship between Indian and non-Indian cultures, American Indian values, and contemporary issues affecting American Indians.  The class covers both the student’s GE and ethnic requirement.

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English 253: Asian American Literature

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English 254: Chicano/Latina/o Literature

Section(s): 1
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English 258: World Literature

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English 260: Great Books

Section(s): 1
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English 264: American Ethnic/Regional Writers

Section(s): 1
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English 315: Intro to Literary Editing/Publishing

Section(s): 1
Professor: Casey Huff

English 315  is a fast-paced 4-unit course intended to introduce you to the world of literary editing and publishing through reading, hands-on editing projects, and discussion. Whether you’re considering a publishing career or plan to teach, the class will give you a chance to study and practice various levels of editing and book production. We will also investigate the publishing practices and the history of literary editing in America, discuss a few of the ethical issues and economic pressures affecting the industry in general, and build our confidence as wordsmiths.

TEXTS
Editors on Editing, Gross
Pushcart Prize XXXIII: The Best of the Small Presses, Henderson et al, eds.
Watershed, Fall 2008 issue

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English 321: Fiction Writing

Section(s): 1
Professor: Paul Eggers

This class is intended to enhance your ability to write and to understand serious literary fiction, at an intermediate level. The prerequisite is Engl 220, beginning creative writing. You'll be drafting, workshopping, and revising two full-length stories of serious literary fiction (as opposed to stories that have "genre" aims, e.g., sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, satire, romance, and so on); and you'll read and discuss published fiction that illuminates certain technical issues as well as provides excellent illustrations of what "good serious fiction" is.

Materials and Costs:
--The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, compact 7th
edition, by Ann Charters.
--Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular, by Rust Hills.
--Photocopying costs: plan to spend somewhere around $40-50 for the cost of photocopying your work for distribution to the class.

English 327: Creative Nonfiction

Section(s): 1, 2
Professor: Rob Davidson

English 327 is an intensive workshop-based course in the writing of the literary non-fiction essay. You will be asked to write “literary” work in this class (i.e., work that is serious, ambitious, well-crafted, contemporary, adult-oriented, emotionally engaging, and so forth). Work that does not aspire to the literary is outside the domain of this class. We shall study writing techniques and craft by reading each other’s work and by studying the work of established authors. Expect to do a lot of writing and revision.

Please note that this course is specifically designed with the short essay in mind. As a general rule, a short essay is a self-contained prose narrative that does not exceed 6,000 words (24 double-spaced pages). Longer essays, including chapters from longer works that cannot be read as “stand alone” essays, are outside the domain of this class.

Required Texts (subject to change):
John McPhee. Pieces of the Frame. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.
Bill Roorbach, ed. Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: The Art of Truth. New York: Oxford UP, 2001.

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English 333: Advanced Composition for Future Teachers

Section(s): 2, 3
Professor: Susan Aylworth

* NOTE: This section is a traditional, face-to-face class, although it will require some Internet access and light use of Vista.

As described in the University Catalog, this course offers you, “Advanced practice in writing and in using writing in the classroom for single- and multiple-subject credential candidates.” Thus English 333 is a skills course, allowing you to practice using the tools you have learned for close reading and rhetorical analysis of both written and visual texts and offering further help in developing these skills. We also prepare you to use these writing skills with students in a future teaching career. My goals for this course are:

This section is designed to meet face-to-face, but the syllabus and schedule are online only and a few activities will be done in our virtual classroom using Vista. Most are asynchronous and have reasonable windows of time for completion. 

Current Texts (subject to change):
1. Wendy Bishop and James Strickland, editors. The Subject is Writing: Essays by Teachers and Students, Fourth Edition. Boynton-Cook Heinemann, 2006. ISBN: 0-86709-586-5, paperback.
2. Lester Faigley, The Brief Penguin Handbook, 3rd edition. Longman/ Pearson Education, Inc., 2009. ISBN: 0-205-50582-1, paperback.

Section(s): 2, 3
Professor: Susan Aylworth

NOTE: These two sections are hybrid classes, highly dependent on Internet access and use of Vista.

As described in the University Catalog, this course offers you, “Advanced practice in writing and in using writing in the classroom for single- and multiple-subject credential candidates.” Thus English 333 is a skills course, allowing you to practice using the tools you have learned for close reading and rhetorical analysis of both written and visual texts and offering further help in developing these skills. We also prepare you to use these writing skills with students in a future teaching career. My goals for this course are:

Although we will generally meet face-to-face, some activities will be done in our virtual classroom using Vista. Most web activities are asynchronous, but you will also have occasional synchronous web “meetings.”

Current Texts (subject to change):
1. Wendy Bishop and James Strickland, editors. The Subject is Writing: Essays by Teachers and Students, Fourth Edition. Boynton-Cook Heinemann, 2006. ISBN: 0-86709-586-5, paperback.
2. Lester Faigley, The Brief Penguin Handbook, 3rd edition. Longman/ Pearson Education, Inc., 2009. ISBN: 0-205-50582-1, paperback.
3. You should also own a good dictionary

English 335: Rhetoric and Writing

Section(s): 1
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English 340: Approaches to Literary Genres

Section(s): 1, 2
Professor: Geoff Baker

The goal of this course is to introduce you to the tools we use to read, analyze and discuss the three primary literary genres of poetry, drama, and fiction. We’ll be reading a diverse and fascinating cross-section of traditional and modern poems, theatrical tragedy and comedy, and fiction short and long. Along the way, we’ll become familiar with the terminology used to dig into literature and to explain what it does, why it does it, and why we value it.

Course texts:
Meyer, ed. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing, MUST BE 8th edition.   ISBN: 0312469594
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Oxford)                             ISBN: 0199535566

 

English 341: Reading Literature for Future Teachers

Section(s): 1, 40
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English 342: Literature of the Child

Section(s): 1
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English 353: Multicultural Literature

Section(s): 1
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English 354: Classical Literature

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English 355: Bible as Literature

Section(s): 1
Professor: John Traver

Why does the narrator of Moby Dick want to be called “Ishmael?” Why does Faulkner title his novel Absalom, Absalom? In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, how much of the “story” is of his own invention? To answer such questions, readers need a shared familiarity with the Bible that many writers have taken for granted.

This course will provide you with a working knowledge of the structure and themes of the Bible to help you recognize allusions and perceive its influence on the shape of English literature; we’ll look at the Bible alongside examples of the literary texts it has influenced. We’ll also examine the genres and literary qualities of the Bible itself, such as its use of symbols, typology, repetition, acrostics, and even puns! Our goals are to have a greater appreciation of the Bible as a work of literature in itself and to understand its profound effect on the shape of subsequent literature.

This class should fill either a genre or period requirement for the English major. (Be sure to check with your advisor first.) All levels of familiarity with the Bible are welcome (from none, to knowledgeable). We will be reading in translation selections from the Hebrew Bible (or “Old Testament”), the New Testament, and the deutero-canonical works (or “Apocrypha”). Texts will probably include:
Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative.
Ed. Robert Carrol and Stephen Prickett, The Bible: Authorized King James Version.
Ed. David Pasper and Stephen Prickett, The Bible and Literature: A Reader.
Ed. Laurance Wieder, The Poets’ Book of Psalms.

 

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English 356: Survey of British Literature

Section(s): 2
Professor: John Traver

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”  -Sir Francis Bacon

This course provides you with a full-course meal of British literature.  We will survey the development of British literature, beginning with the Medieval period (with works such as Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales), continuing through the Renaissance and early Seventeenth Century (with authors such as Shakespeare and Donne), and concluding our repast with the Restoration and Eighteenth Century (with works such as Pope’s The Rape of the Lock and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels).  In order to survey such a wide-spanning period of history, our pace will have to be fast (i.e., a lot of texts will be “tasted” or hastily “swallowed”).  As a result, you will not only discover how British literary traditions develop over time, but also be introduced to a variety of delectable texts for future periods of digestion.

Assignments will include the following:  a mid-term examination and a final; journals and vista postings; a group presentation; poetry memorization; quizzes.

Required Texts: 

Volumes 1-3 of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature.

Samuel Johnson’s The History of Rasselas, ed. Jessica Richard (Broadview).

(Note that all 4 Broadview texts are available at a discount when purchased together.)

 

English 357: Survey of British Literature

Section(s): 1
Professor: Teresa Huffman Traver

This course provides an overview of two centuries of literature, from the Romantic era to the twentieth century. You will learn something about the historical and cultural contexts that shaped the literature of these time periods. Readings will include poetry, non-fiction prose, drama, and samples of short and long fiction. Note: rather than writing two or three “major” papers, in this class you will produce a series of two-page argumentative papers in response to specific prompts. This does not mean that the writing load for this class is necessarily any easier than other classes, however. All it means is that the writing is distributed throughout the semester.

Required Texts: The Broadview Anthology of British Literature volumes 4, 5, and 6; Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; E.M. Forster’s Passage to India. (Subject to change)

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English 358: Survey of American Literature

Section(s): 1
Professor: Lynn Houston

This course surveys American literature from its origins in the travel accounts of European explorers, during their exploration and settlement of the Americas, to the significant changes in modes of literary and cultural representation prompted by the American Civil War. We cover an extraordinarily wide range of material, so reading selections tend to be long and we tend to move at a rapid pace. The purpose of reading excerpts from longer selections and of taking a faster pace is to allow us to cover as many different authors as possible in order to give you the most comprehensive view of the history of American literature. Out of this view, you should develop a sense of the importance of the various contexts (social, cultural, history of ideas, literary movements and periods, etc.) out of which early American literature is produced. More importantly, the chronological approach to the course material should foster in you a desire to reflect on the connection between our lives now and the themes, dilemmas, and ways of living presented in the literary texts. The most important learning objective in this course is for you to develop critical skills by which to closely read and interpret shorter passages from literary selections that you are able to put into dialogue with a larger historical and cultural context of literary production.

This course uses The Heath Anthology of American Literature, vols. A and B. Specific reading assignments will be made clear on the first day of class, but in general, some of the main authors we will cover are as follows: Columbus, Cabeza de Vaca, Smith, Morton, Bradford, Bradstreet, Rowlandson, Mather, Franklin, Paine, Adams, Jefferson, Wheatley, Equiano, Douglass, Emerson, Thoreau, Lincoln, Irving, Hawthorne, Poe, Cooper, Melville, Truth, Fern, Stanton, Whitman, and Dickinson.

English 359: Survey of American Literature

Section(s): 1
Professor: Aiping Zhang

This course is a survey of American literature between the end of the Civil War and the start of the Jazz Age. We will start the course with an overview of the historical and cultural context in which American literature transformed itself through a series of major literary experiments. By reading representative literary works in various genres, we will study a very diverse group of authors who made key contributions to the development of the “Local Color” Writing, American Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, and African American literature during this period. Group presentations/activities will be organized to encourage the students' participation in discussion.

READING LIST
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vols. C and D, 6th Edition

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English 360: Women Writers

Section(s): 1
Professor: Lynn Houston

ENGL/WMST 360 will expose students to a range of literary works in which women writers express a complex relationship to culture and society. We will discuss historical and current practices, examine institutions and belief systems that impact women’s lives, and identify ways women writers confront social, economic, political and personal issues.

Section(s): 2
Professor: Lynn Houston

The material for this course focuses largely on late twentieth-century British and American novels known as “chick lit.” In this class, students will identify the major defining characteristics of the genre (owing much to the bildungsroman form) of contemporary fiction called “chick lit” (a novel in which twenty- or thirty-something career women deal humorously with the ups and downs of their romantic relationships). Students should also gain a sense of the origin/history of this genre as it arises out of the marriage plot of eighteenth and nineteenth century bourgeois novels written by women, as well as a sense of the relationship that chick lit has to the history of feminism and feminist writing. Our debates surrounding the nature and features of "chick lit" will be the organizing elements of this course. We will draw in other materials that will also help students to gain a larger sense of the history of women's writing and of feminist literary criticism and theory. Some possible readings include: Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Good in Bed, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Sex and the City (yes, it was originally a book!), etc., as well as works of “ethnic chick lit” by authors such as Kim Wong Keltner, Terry McMillan, and Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez.

English 365: Food and Literature

Section(s): 1
Professor: Lynn Houston

Food is used in literary texts to interpret culture, history, and politics from an international scale to an interpersonal one. In this sense, food acts as a gateway to important cultural issues. In order to identify the meanings of food for the different cultures of the Americas as reflected in literature, we will explore the strategies by which literary texts represent the nexus of geographical, cultural, political, and economic forces that interact in order to influence our culinary value system, food choices, health, and nutritional status. While we will engage the cultural issues that literary food references reveal, we will also pay close attention to the stylistic devices that authors use to transmit ideas about food. Through these approaches, we will characterize the genre of “food writing” and theorize the nature of cookbooks and recipes as forms of literature. We will also examine the use of the recipe as a narrative device within the genre of the novel. This course is part of the new upper-division general education Theme V, Consuming Interests: Food and Society (more info at http://myweb.csuchico.edu/~lmhouston/).

Possible Readings:
Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate.
Reichl, Ruth. Tender at The Bone: Growing Up at The Table.
Loomis, Susan Herrmann. On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking In a French Town.
Ehrlich, Elizabeth. Miriam's Kitchen: A Memoir.
Abu-Jaber, Diana. Language of Baklava: A Memoir.
Mehran, Marsha. Pomegranate Soup: A Novel.
Sheikh, Nazneen. Tea and Pomegranates.
Li, Leslie. Daughter of Heaven: A Memoir With Earthly Recipes.

English 371: Principles of Language

Section(s): 1, 2
Professor: Frank Li

This course will introduce students to the general nature and structure of human language. It covers the core areas of linguistics (a) phonetics: the production, description, classification and transcription of speech sounds; (b) phonology: the description of the systematic patterning of sounds in human language; (c) morphology: the study of the internal structure of words; (d) syntax: the study of sentence structure; and (e) semantics: the study of linguistic meaning.  In addition, this course addresses other important areas of linguistics, including pragmatics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics.

Pragmatics is concerned with how people use language within a context and why they use language in particular ways. Psycholinguistics is the discipline that tests assumptions about the processing and the learning of language. It attempts to answer questions about how language is represented and processed in the brain and what areas of the brain are used for language functions and processes. Socio-linguistics deals with the relationship between language and society. The knowledge the students gain in this part of the course will help them to fully comprehend variation in language use; that is, students will address issues in inter-speaker and intra-speaker variation. historical linguistics looks at language change through time (diachronic change) and language change at any given point in time (synchronic change/variation).  It also addresses language relationships, both genetic and areal.

This course fulfills the GE breadth requirement for area C2.

 

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English 375: Introduction to English Grammar

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English 419: Chapbook Production

Section(s): 1
Professor: Casey Huff

Chapbook Production teaches students how to run a literary contest, and then edit, produce, promote, and distribute the resulting chapbook. Students will learn strategies and techniques for soliciting manuscripts, judging submissions, selecting, editing, negotiating editor-author relations, designing, laying out, proofing, advertising, promoting, and distributing literary chapbooks. Students will also learn about the resources available to literary publishers, including professional associations, trade publications, Internet sites, and e-mail lists for independent publishers. Manuscripts for the annual Flume Press Chapbook Contest are solicited in December. Entries will be considered and a winner selected, with students in the course functioning as editorial assistants and first readers at Flume Press. By the end of the semester, students will take the manuscript into production.

REQUIRED TEXTS
Spreading the Word (Bench Press)
And Still the Music, Townsend (Flume Press)
Stutter Monk, Graham (Flume Press)
Non-Designers’ Design Book, Williams (Peachpit Press)
Manuscript packets, Meriam Library Electronic Reserve (some printing required)

Suggested Reading
The Design of Books, Wilson
1001 Ways to Market Books, Kremmer

 

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English 420: Advanced Poetry Writing

Section(s): 1, 2
Professor: Jeanne Clark

In this course, you will write new drafts of poems almost weekly, poems of your own wild imaginings.  You will read five brand-new, hot-off-the-press collections by both established and up-&-coming poets, representing a wide constellation of voices, approaches, & subjects.  You will write, revise, & read a lot.

Together we will consider in depth the following craft issues: voice & tone, structure & form, titles, deep revision, & preparing manuscripts for publication.  In collaboration with the advanced literary editing students, you will draft & produce individual poetry chapbooks of your work. 

The reading list will include the following full-length collections: Kevin Prufer, National Anthem; Kevin Young, Dear Darkness; Mary Jo Bang, Elegy; Robin Robertson, Swithering; & Brendan Galvin, Ocean Effects.  These texts are all required. 

Poet Kevin Prufer will be visiting our class.

Prerequisite: English 320 (or the demonstrated equivalent from another institution) or instructor permission.  Graduate students may take this course for credit.

For further information, contact Jeanne E. Clark at jeclark2@csuchico.edu

English 421: Advanced Fiction Writing

Section(s): 1, 2
Professor: Paul Eggers

This class aims to enhance your ability to write and analyze contemporary fiction, at an advanced level. The prerequisite is Engl 321, Intermediate Fiction Writing. This advanced class will focus on helping you refine and expand the skills / assumptions you already have. To paraphrase novelist John Gardner:
the "rules" of fiction writing are easy; applying them, and applying them well (and, sometimes, usefully breaking them), is the hard part.
You'll draft, workshop, and revise two full-length works of serious literary fiction. Each story brings with it a specific and idiosyncratic set of technical and theoretical assumptions; these will be examined as they arise, organically, during workshopping and discussion. And you'll read and discuss some first-rate contemporary stories that illuminate technical aspects of fiction writing as well as provide great inspirational examples of serious literary fiction.

Materials and Costs:
a) We'll probably read The Best American Short Stories, 2006, Edited by Ann Pachett; series editor Katrina Kenison (paperback). But I may have us use a more recent pick from the Best American series.
b) A portfolio to be handed in twice during the semester.
c) Plan to spend around $40-50 for the cost of xeroxing your work for class members.

 

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English 431: Theory/Practice in Tutoring Composition

Section(s): 1
Professor: Kim Jaxon

If you are interested in a teaching career—K-12 or college—English 431 provides a unique opportunity to spend time with students in a classroom setting. Part of the work of the class is a practicum where you gain training and experience in working with student writing.

English 431 includes a weekly seminar in which we discuss theories of learning, composition, literacy, and where we work to understand the history of writing programs; you will also develop a line of inquiry related to research in the teaching of writing. While the course is closely connected to our first year writing program, we will think about our work with the 130/30 Program as a case that helps us to explore concepts in teaching and learning related to writing instruction.

Paid positions in the English 30 Writing Workshop Program require successful completion of this course. 431 provides an introduction to theories and practices of writing instruction and is a recommended prerequisite for English 634: Teaching Academic Writing, the graduate course for teachers of English 130: Academic Writing. 

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English 440: Chaucer and His Age

Section(s): 1
Professor: Harriet Spiegel

Chaucer and his Age explores up close and personal the writings of Chaucer and his time.  You will be dazzled by how quickly you can read Middle English with understanding and pleasure (honest!).  The first half of the semester will read closely Chaucer’s major single work, the romance of Troilus and Criseyde – guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.  Then we will work in groups to study and present some of Chaucer’s most potent tales.  Chaucer’s works will be set in their literary context with a Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, probably the most read work in the Middle Ages after the Bible. This course satisfies the WP requirement; or, after consultation with the Department Advisor, it may be used to satisfy the Period requirement.

English 441: Shakespeare

Section(s): 1, 2
Professor: Robert O'Brien

'Tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings.

In this course, we will read plays from four genres—comedy, history, tragedy, and romance—following Shakespeare's career, with some digressions, from A Midsummer Night's Dream (1594-96) to The Winter's Tale (1609). Reading these plays well means producing them in your mind's theater. This mental production demands considerable imagination and concentration, but the more you know about the plays, and the more plays you read, the easier it becomes.

Classes will be a mixture of lectures, discussions, and scene readings. You will write some short essays and a term paper and take an early-term and a final examination.

Our text will be the two-volume, second edition of The Norton Shakespeare.

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English 448: The Long Eighteenth Century

Section(s): 1
Professor:

English 450: The Victorian Period

Section(s): 1
Professor: Teresa Huffman Traver

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901, a time of great social and technological change. It was also an age in which many forms of literature flourished and developed. This course provides students with exposure to (and understanding) of the literature and culture of the British Victorian era. We’ll read a broad range of literature, including non-fiction prose (essays), poetry, drama, and both short and long fiction. We will also pay attention to the broader cultural context in which these literary works appear.

Required Texts: (Subject to change)
 Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Victorian Era.
Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre. (Bedford Edition.)
Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist. (Norton Critical Edition)
Arthur Conan Doyle. A Study in Scarlet. (Dover Thrift)
Ellen Wood/ Lisa Evans. East Lynne. (Oberon Modern Plays)

 

English 453: Modern Drama

Section(s): 1
Professor: Lynn Elliott

“There is no period so remote as the recent past,” writes playwright Alan Bennett in The History Boys.  The contemporary, the age we experience first-hand, allow us little in the way of perspective.  The elements of the modern (roughly pre-WWII) that determine the current age are still under discussion.  Still, we know that we do experience the act of living in the contemporary first-hand.  And it is the task of all artists to make certain that, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, we do not have “the experience, but [miss] the meaning” (Four Quartets).  The dramatists we will study in this class explore the dramatic relationship between (wo)men and other humans in social relationships, (wo)men and their place in the world at large, and (wo)men and their place in the larger meaningful or meaningless universe.  Playwrights studied: Ibsen, Pirandello, Brecht, O’Neill, Beckett, Churchill, Hwang, Kushner.

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English 454: Comparative Literature

Section(s): 1
Professor: Geoff Baker

“Keeping It Unreal: Natural and Supernatural from Frankenstein to Stephen King”

In her preface to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley says that she wants her “ghost story” to “speak to the mysterious fears of our nature” and “make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.” Why do fantastic fictions go to such great lengths to seem real? Why do such fictions and the fears they evoke in us continue to be so attractive to readers? What cultural truths do they express?

In this course, we will investigate the relationship between real and unreal; natural, unnatural, and supernatural; and fantasy and fiction, in some classic novels, novellas, and short stories. We’ll also get to see how these topics evolve during different literary-historical eras, from Romanticism through Realism and Modernism to the present day.

In addition to a few short pieces by Immanuel Kant, Sigmund Freud, Tzvetan Todorov, and Fredric Jameson, we will read works selected from those by Mary Shelley, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Honoré de Balzac, Edgar Allen Poe, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Bram Stoker, Franz Kafka, Alejo Carpentier, Karen Blixen, and Stephen King.

This course satisfies period (19th century) or genre (novel) requirements toward the English major.

 

English 456: The British Novel

Section(s): 1
Professor:Geoff Baker

“Gender and Social Class in the 19th-Century British Novel”

Two aspects of British life that saw great transformation in the 19th century were traditional gender roles and the perception of social class. As female authors increasingly made their voices heard, and as the powerful Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire, what historians would call “The Woman Question” took on a new importance. Meanwhile, as industrialization and the expansion of male suffrage threatened to change the traditional make-up of Britain’s class structure, writers found ways to graft these concerns into their novels, too.

In this class, we’ll examine these two key issues in literature, focusing on the British novel between Austen and Hardy; the manner in which concerns of social class overlap with those of gender; and the increasing cultural influence that imperialism and modernization have on both as the century progresses.

The reading list contains five classics, ranging from the incisive wit of Austen to the scathing satire of Thackeray, the comic rollercoaster of Dickens to the earnest politics of Schreiner and the darkness and tragedy of Hardy.

Course texts:
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Oxford)                                         ISBN: 0199535566
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (Oxford)                         ISBN: 0192834436
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (Oxford)                                   ISBN: 0192833596
Olive Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm (Oxford)                     ISBN: 0192836641
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Oxford)                              ISBN: 0199537051

This course satisfies period (19th century) or genre (novel) requirements toward the English major.

 

 

English 458: American Literature-Beginning to 1850s

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English 459: American Literature-1850 to 1945

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English 461: Modern Novel

Section(s): 1
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English 462: Study in Major American Authors

Section(s): 1
Professor: Rob Davidson

Henry James & William Dean Howells

Henry James (1843-1916) is generally acknowledged to be one of America’s greatest novelists and critics, although he spent most of his career in England. He is the author of some of the best-known fictions of the late 19th- and early 20th centuries: novels like The Portrait of a Lady (1881), stories like “Daisy Miller” (1876), and tales like The Turn of the Screw (1898). His fiction—innovative, challenging, and often provocative—would prove enormously influential on the modernist writers who followed. William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was one of the most popular and respected novelists of his era; as the editor of The Atlantic and Harper’s, he advanced the careers of many American authors, including Twain, James, Crane, Dunbar, and Gilman. As critics, both James and Howells generated a substantial body of work that unquestionably changed the course of American literature. Many of their primary questions, asked around the turn of the century, are still relevant today: What constitutes “American” literature? What is the job of the literary critic? What, if any, are the moral and ethical obligations of the artist? How do we theorize and discuss the process of creative writing, and why?

In this course, we shall study the major fiction and criticism written by both James and Howells. The reading list (subject to change) includes Howells’s A Modern Instance, The Rise of Silas Lapham, and A Hazard of New Fortunes; James’s The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, and The Ambassadors, as well as various short fiction; and a representative sampling from the unique and powerful literary criticism written by both men.

 

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English 465: American Literary Topics

Section(s): 1
Professor:

 

English 467: Teaching Multicultural Literature

Section(s): 1
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English 470: Second Language Acquisition

Section(s): 5, 6, 13, 14
Professor: Frank Li

This course is an introduction to second language acquisition theories and practices. Areas to be covered are second language acquisition theories, issues in second language acquisition, and cross-cultural awareness. We will examine a variety of theories put forward to account for the complex set of phenomena associated with learning a second language. We will look at the issues surrounding second language acquisition from various perspectives (linguistic, biological, psychological, sociological and anthropological/cultural) to gain a basic understanding of the processes involved in learning a second language and the methods used in teaching it. We will also examine issues in dealing with English language learners in schools, continually attempting to relate the theories with pedagogy in second language learning and teaching. Various general topics will form the initial focus of each class session, with the notions then connected, where possible, to specific classroom materials, techniques, and activities.

 

English 471: Intensive Theory & Practice
Second Language Acquisition

Section(s): 1
Professor:

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English 473: Historical Linguistics

Section(s): 1
Professor:

 

English 474: Syntactic/Morpho Analysis

Section(s): 1
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English 478: Linguistics Approaches to Reading

Section(s): 1
Professor:

 

English 519: Chapbook Production

Section(s): 1
Professor:

 

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English 534: Literature/Language/Composition

Section(s): 1
Professor:

 

 

 

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