Courses Spring 2012
Course Descriptions
Following are descriptions for courses being offered in the Spring 2012 semester. Please contact the professor with any questions.
English 107: Introduction to Literary Studies I
Dr. Mary Libertin
TR 5:00 - 6:15
English 107: Introduction to Literary Studies I
Dr. Deb Montuori
TR 11:00 - 12:15
English 111: Introduction to Literary Studies II
Dr. M. Bibby
MW 3:30 -4:45
English 111: Introduction to Literary Studies II
Dr. Erica Galioto
TR 9:30-10:45
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of the writing and research process as well as critical approaches to writing in the English major. Our dual focus, as we shall see, is actually one in the same, for standard writing and research practices in our discipline rely on our ability to understand, apply, and challenge critical perspectives, such as New Historicism, psychoanalysis, feminist criticism, queer theory, deconstruction, Marxism, cultural studies, postcolonial theory, and reader-response criticism. This introduction to the major schools of literary criticism emphasizes perspective-taking as a tool for understanding how literary theory informs the analysis of literature. Reading Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, and Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw through these various lenses and examining their accompanying critical discussions exposes students to the multiple interpretations and conversations that surround any literary work. After this comprehensive exposure, students should feel comfortable adopting their own “lenses” as they move to the 300- and 400-level English courses that expect theoretical analyses of literature. Course work includes rigorous reading, formal and informal writing assignments, presentations, and active participation.
English 233: American Literature I
Dr. William Harris
MW 5:00-6:15
In this course—the first of a two-part chronologically based survey of American literature—we will study works of fiction and poetry by major writers of this period, including Bradstreet, Franklin, Foster, Hawthorne, Poe, Emerson, Melville, Stowe, Dickinson, and Whitman. Attention is given to the history of ideas associated with writers of this period, so, in addition to the expected fiction and poetry, readings will investigate other genres and materials (sermons, speeches, histories, journals, popular culture) that constituted the textual and discursive world of American writers during this period. We will examine the cultural and historical contexts of the readings in search of the American myths and values—and the main currents of thought (such as Puritanism, Transcendentalism, and abolitionism)—that inform the readings. Classwork will include lecture, discussion, periodic quizzes on the reading and lecture material, and midterm & final exams.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 7th edition, Part I: Volumes A & B.
Wilson, Harriet E. Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (Vintage 2nd edition, 2002)
English 234: American Literature II
Dr. Mary Stewart
TR 12:30-1:45
English 236: British Literature I
Dr. S. Harrow
MW 2:00-3:15
English 237: British Literature II
Dr. D. Vernooy
T 6:30-9:15
English 243: Art of the Film
Dr. Mike Pressler
M 12:00-12:50; WF 12:00-1:50
Education 290: Introduction to English Language Arts Education
Dr. Dan Shiffman
MWF 9:00-9:50
A gateway course for secondary English certification students, EDU 290 introduces students to key teaching concepts and principles such as defining learning goals and creating activities that move students toward those goals. Romeo and Juliet is the central literary text in this section of the course. We will study this play intensively in order to explore the multiple ways literary works can be taught to diverse students with various learning styles, levels of experience, and confidence. This course will also help students understand writing as a recursive, process-oriented endeavor and develop teaching strategies for all stages of the process. In addition to writing literary essays and reflective papers, students will develop their teaching and literacy skills through facilitations and practice teaching sessions. They will also begin their Level I observation hours in order to recognize, analyze, and adapt effective classroom practices.
English 307: Poetry Writing
Prof. Zach Savich
MW 5:00-6:15
English 308: Fiction Writing
Prof. Neil Connelly
TR 12:30-1:45
English 323: Reviewing the Arts for Publication
Dr. Laurie Cella
MWF 1:00-1:50
The course provides practical experience in writing critically about the arts--music, dance, theater, painting, sculpture, literature, photography, and film. During the semester, in response to arts events on campus or in the local area, students will write several reviews, plus an extended feature article on a particular artist, group of artworks, or theme of contemporary artistic interest. For the most part, students will choose the events that they write about and thus determine the deadlines for submitting their work. I will serve as an "editor," offering suggestions for improvement as students create a professional portfolio, to be turned in at the end of the semester.
In addition to our textbook, we will read a range of styles and types of reviews from different media. We will also work steadily on writing through simple but important exercises. In keeping with the professional emphasis of the course, we will hold several workshops and hands-on editorial sessions.
This course will be excellent for students who are able to work independently and who have an interest in building up a portfolio of quality work for newspapers or magazines.
English 330: Shakespeare
Dr. D. Montuori
TR 2:00-3:15
English 335: Creative Nonfiction Writing
Dr. Kim van Alkemade
MW 2:00-3:15
English 336: Theories and Approaches
Dr. Shannon Mortimore
W 6:30-9:15
English 366: History and Structure of English Language
Dr. Shannon Mortimore
R 6:30-9:15
English 370: Queer Studies
Dr. W. Harris
T 6:30-9:15
ENG 370 is a concentrated study of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender (GLBT) literature in the context of the history of GLBT social and political movements and the branch of cultural theory known as queer theory. Works from a variety of genres by GLBT authors and/or containing queer thematic content will be examined in a non-homophobic environment. Students will examine continuing debates, sparked by the rise of queer theory, about topics such as the constructed or essential nature of sexuality and gender. This course will provide students with a better understanding of the artistic contributions and political struggles of GLBT figures as well as an invigorating analytical tool (queer theory) with interdisciplinary applications. Short quizzes will be given periodically, as well as a midterm and a final exam. One short paper and one research paper are required. Substantial, routine verbal participation is expected from all members of the class.
Readings may include:
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
Mart Crowley, The Boys in the Band
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, vol. 1
Donald E. Hall, Queer Theories
W. C. Harris, Queer Externalities
Andrew Holleran, Dancer from the Dance
Craig Lucas, The Dying Gaul
Terrence McNally, The Ritz
Eve Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet
Michael Warner (editor), Fear of a Queer Planet
Tennessee Williams, Suddenly, Last Summer
English 375: African-American Literature
Dr R. Janifer
MWF 12:00-12:50
English 376: Studies in Medieval Literature
Dr. S. Horner
TR 11:00-12:15
Fulfills the English Department's pre-1800 requirement.
In this course we will study several key Old English and Middle English texts, with a particular emphasis on the genre of romance, arguably the most important--and most popular--genre in medieval secular literature. Unlike the modern genre of the romance novel, medieval romances are characterized by several conventional motifs, including challenging quests, chivalric identities, fantastic adventures, the supernatural, and, always, fin amour, or courtly love. And unlike most modern romances, medieval romances do not always have happy endings. They typically reveal medieval cultural anxieties about class, gender, power, religion, and other key socio-cultural issues. Such issues demonstrate ways in which medieval romance provides commentary on the cultural politics of the late Middle Ages.
And there are plenty of medieval texts, ranging from Beowulf to "The Miller's Tale," that are most definitely not romances. How do epics, elegies, saints' lives, fabliaux, and other genres inform our understanding of medieval romance? We will read texts in both Middle English and in Modern English translation. The readings will be entertaining, but also rigorous.
Assignments may include quizzes, leading discussion(s), short close-reading papers, and a researched essay.
Readings may include Beowulf, Old English shorter poems, saints' lives, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer, and Malory (along with many other works).
English 382: Studies in 20th Century British Literature
Dr. Rich Zumkhawala-Cook
TR 9:30-10:45
English 382
Imagining Scotland
Devolution and National Identity 1890-Present
Course Description
Just over a decade ago the citizens of Scotland approved overwhelmingly to form a Scottish parliament with its own governing powers. The long-held sentiment that Scots were something more than British, in fact not British, and certainly not English, led the way for more official expression of Scottish national identities. Some have said it was a long time coming. Focusing on the literature from (and about) Scotland, this course will explore a variety of literary challenges to English cultural dominance and the attempts to reshape Scottish identities. We will investigate how aesthetic innovations against particular conventions in the twentieth century intersect with concerns of nationality and regional cultures. In addition, we will consider how Scotland and Scottish culture have become an important part of the cultural imagination of non-Scottish citizens throughout the world who call Scotland their cultural home. Paying particular attention to the discourses of nationalism, ethnicity, modernity and empire, we will consider the multiple ways literary texts represent and imagine themselves contributing to the emergence and reshaping of Scottish cultural sensibilities amidst two World Wars, the loss of British colonial might, civil rebellion, economic depression and contemporary global politics.
Selected texts may include:
Kay, Jackie. Trumpet
Gibbon, Lewis Grassic. A Scots Quair
MacDiarmid, Hugh. Selected Poems
West, Rebecca. Return of the Soldier
Welsh, Irvine. Trainspotting
Saadi, Suhayl. Psychoraag
Leonard, Tom. 10 Glasgow Poems
Gray, Alasdair. Lanark
Galloway, Janice. The Trick is to Keep Breathing
Spark, Murial. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Buchan, James. Thirty-Nine Steps
Selected critical readings and handouts
English 383: Studies in 20th Century American Literature
:
Dr. Misun Dokko
MW 6:30-7:45
Immigration
History and Literature in Transnational Conversation
Does literature represent
history accurately or does literature represent history inaccurately with a
purpose? In this course, students will receive tools to approach answering such
questions. Students will not only read novels, historical material, and theory,
but students will also write about novels, history, and theory in conversation
with each other. Historical reading assignments and research projects will
contextualize our literary readings transnationally.
This course focuses on placing
history and literature in conversation with each other through a reading of several
novels that imagine immigration to the U.S. and the struggles of living in the
U.S. The literature shows that these struggles often consist of adapting to
“new” culture, retaining “old” culture, feeling confused about living
in-between cultures, and a mixture of these responses. We will consider how
themes of gender and sexuality play a part in imagining the confusing journey
of inhabiting multiple cultures.
Literary reading list:
Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Riverhead.
Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex. Picador.
Jarrar, Randa. A Map of Home. Penguin.
Kim, Ronyoung. Clay Walls. Permanent.
English 385: Studies in Literature of the Post-Colonial World
Dr. Rich Zumkhawala-Cook
R 6:30-9:15
The South Asian Novel
In 1997 The New Yorker devoted a special double issue to the explosion of authors from India in the public literary scene. Novels by Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy and others were heralded for introducing their themes of cosmopolitan transnationalism, cultural heterogeneity, and linguistic variety to the Anglophone world. Almost ten years later, English departments and popular media outlets have likewise recognized the vibrant novels from other areas of the Asian sub-continent—Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh—that take up similar issues. The latest movement in “English” literature is apparently coming from a region where English is only one of dozens of officially recognized languages.
In this course we will explore a number of novels by authors from South Asia, paying particular attention to their place within a canon of English literature whose topics, forms and figures have been largely dominated by British, Irish and American texts. We will think about how these novels address Western literary conventions as they also attempt to reshape and re-imagine them. And of course, we will look closely at the cultural concerns that profoundly inform these novels and the major historical events that haunt the subcontinent, including the moment of Independence for India and Pakistan and the violence of Partition; the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 and the formation of Bangladesh; the 1975 Emergency under Indira Gandhi; the civil war in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 80s; and the rise of Hindu and Islamic fundamentalism throughout the region. Finally, we will investigate how these narratives often include and highlight issues of migration, community identity, and assimilation within in the vast South Asian diaspora of Great Britain, Canada and the United States.
Students in the course should expect to read 200-300 pages of fiction/critical writing per week, write two essays of 8-9 pages, lead at least one class discussion, and complete a take-home final essay exam.
Probable texts include:
Chetan Bhagat, 5 Point Someone
Bapsi Sidhwa, Cracking India
Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace
Meera Syal, Anita and Me
Mohsin Hamid, Mothsmoke
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Githa Hariharan, In Times of Siege
English 420: Studies in Writing
Dr. Karen Johnson
TR 11:00-12:15
English 426: Teaching Adolescent Literature
Dr. Tom Crochunis
MW 6:30-7:45
This course combines several linked purposes: It introduces you to a range of young adult literature so that we can explore the theory and practice of teaching works written for young people in the secondary English classroom. At the same time, we will look more broadly at why and how to teach reading and literature to adolescents. You will further be introduced to several different approaches to lesson and unit planning. Appropriately then, for the course’s central project, you will work—independently or with a partner—to create a “conceptual unit” that incorporates both young adult and canonical literature appropriate for engaging either middle or high school students.
Major Assignments/Assessments
- 20% Literacy Sponsorship Field Case Study
- 20% Mid-Term and Final Portfolio of Writing on YAL and Pedagogical Literature
- 20% Demonstration Class (w/Partner)
- 20% Conceptual Unit
- 20% Participation and Preparation of Regular Assignments
Required Pedagogy Texts—Tentative
- Beach, Richard, et al. Teaching Literature to Adolescents. Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do. Heinemann.
- Olson, Carol Booth. The Reading/Writing Connection. Pearson.
Literary Texts—Tentative
- Alexie, Sherman. Flight. Perseus
- Draper, Sharon. Romiette + Julio. Simon And Schuster
- Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. Random House
- Levithan, David. Love Is the Higher Law. Knopf
- Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn. Random House
- Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Random House
- Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. Pantheon Books
- Ravenhill, Mark. Scenes from Family Life
- Connelly, Neil. The Miracle Stealer
English 427: Advanced Poetry Workshop
Prof. Zach Savich
MW 3:30-4:45
English 438: Technical/Professional Writing II
Dr. C. Kungl
TR 9:30-10:45
This seminar will explore some of the theoretical issues raised in all types of professional communication: ethical and legal considerations, writing for various audiences, persuasive strategies, and research methodology. We’ll work on improving clarity and coherence in our writing, understanding more thoroughly how purpose and audience affect our work, and develop greater skill in document design. We will also re-address many of the skills and assignments learned in Technical/Professional Writing I: memos, business letters, status reports, and oral presentations. Since this is a smaller seminar-style course, students get a lot of individual attention and have a lot of freedom to work on projects meaningful to them.
Reflecting actual workplace strategies, much of the work we do this semester will be collaborative, with each group member actively creating and contributing to the larger project (indeed, half of your grade in the class will be based on collaborative work that you do with your team). Your major project for the course will be to write a proposal for a website, which your team will then build. The proposal will include all aspects of a long report, including complete front and back matter, appropriate graphics, proper document design, and bibliographic documentation. Among the possible computer programs we will be using this semester are Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, and Powerpoint.
Students who have gotten jobs in the fields of technical writing, editing, or website building tell me that this was one of the most valuable courses they took here at Ship. If this sounds like something you are interested in, sign up now! This class is part of the Technical/Professional Communications Minor and thus can fill up fast. It also offers an interdisciplinary angle that you don't often find in upper-level English classes.
Text: Markel, Mike. Technical Communication. 9th ed. Bedford/St Martins, 2009.
English 466: Seminar in Literary Theory
Dr. Sharon Harrow
MW 3:30-4:45
English 466: Seminar in Literary Theory
Dr. Sharon Harrow
In this seminar, students will be introduced to recent trends in literary theory, with a particular focus on cultural studies, new historicism, post-colonialism, and feminism. Such theories help to provide an understanding of the contexts in which humans produce literary texts. How and why do we write about ourselves and others? How and why does literature circulate and become commodified? We will consider how such theories bear upon literary works such as Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and others. The seminar will be student-centered; your participation will be required and valued! Students can expect to write several short papers, an annotated bibliography, and a longer seminar paper.
English 468: Seminar in Fiction: West Meets East--Culture Clash
Dr. Cathy Dibello
MWF 1:00-1:50
This section of Seminar in Fiction will focus on novels in which Western characters find themselves in Asian countries that they do not fully understand. In these five novels, even the best intentioned characters, often blinded by Orientalist views of Asia, become dis-oriented. Their misunderstanding of cultural, political, and sexual situations often have tragic consequences but sometimes lead them to reevaluate their Western assumptions.
This student-centered course will emphasize discussion and oral presentations. Written assignments include an annotated bibliography, an open-book final essay exam, and an analytical paper.
Required Texts
Graham Greene, The Quiet American (Viking critical ed., with historical and literary background); E. M. Forster, A Passage to India; Peter Childs, ed., E. M. Forster's A Passage to India: A Sourcebook; Christopher Koch, The Year of Living Dangerously; John Dalton, Heaven Lake; and Daniel Mason, The Piano Teacher