English

General Information

In Carleton’s English department, we are passionate about the study of literature and the teaching of writing. We offer a major in English as well as a minor in creative writing. The diverse backgrounds and specialties of English department faculty are reflected in the variety of our literature courses and creative writing workshops. Our courses examine a range of genres, historical eras, literary and cultural traditions, and critical approaches.

The skills in reading, interpretation, writing, creativity, and communication taught in the English department are essential to all fields of study, whether artistic, humanistic, or scientific. These skills also transfer readily to a broad range of careers.

Requirements for the English Major

Seventy-two credits in English, including the following:

1. Foundations: One designated 100-level course that develops skills of literary analysis and introduces the concept of genre

ENGL 100 Drama, Film, and Society
ENGL 100 Literature and Science
ENGL 100 Literary Revision: Authority, Art, and Rebellion
ENGL 100 Imagining a Self
ENGL 100 Visions of the Waste Land
ENGL 100 How We Read: The History and Science of Reading
ENGL 100 Rhetoric: Art of Persuasion
ENGL 112 Introduction to the Novel
ENGL 114 Introduction to Medieval Narrative (not offered in 2019-20)
ENGL 115 The Art of Storytelling
ENGL 117 African American Literature
ENGL 118 Introduction to Poetry
ENGL 119 Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Literature
ENGL 125 Norse and Celtic Mythology (not offered in 2019-20)
ENGL 129 Introduction to British Comedy (not offered in 2019-20)
ENGL 131 Reading Fiction (not offered in 2019-20)
ENGL 136 Black Speculative Fiction
ENGL 144 Shakespeare I
ENGL 187 Murder

2. Historical Eras: 36 credits in literature courses numbered 200-394 (excluding 220 and 295) which must include:

Group I: 12 credits in literature before 1660
- ENGL 126 Arthurian Tradition: From Medieval to Modern (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 202 The Bible as Literature
- ENGL 204 History of the English Language (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 205 The Medieval Outlaw (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 206 Arthurian Tradition: From Medieval to Modern (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 207 Princes. Poets. Power (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 208 The Faerie Queene (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 209 Much Ado About Nothing: A Project Course (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 210 From Chaucer to Milton: Early English Literature
- ENGL 213 Christopher Marlowe
- ENGL 214 Revenge Tragedy
- ENGL 216 Milton
- ENGL 219 Global Shakespeare
- ENGL 228 Encountering the Other: The Crusades (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 244 Shakespeare I
- ENGL 302 The Medieval Outlaw (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 310 Shakespeare II (not offered in 2019-20)

Group II: 12 credits in literature between 1660 and 1900
- AMST 230 The American Sublime: Landscape, Character & National Destiny in Nineteenth Century America
- ENGL 212 Nineteenth-Century American Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 217 A Novel Education (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 218 The Gothic Spirit
- ENGL 221 "Moby-Dick" & Race: Whiteness and the Whale (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 222 The Art of Jane Austen
- ENGL 223 American Transcendentalism (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 225 'Public Offenders': Pre-Raphaelites and Bloomsbury Group
- ENGL 233 Writing and Social Justice (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 239 Democracy: Politics, Race, & Sex in Nineteenth Century American Novels
- ENGL 281 London Program: Romantic London
- ENGL 319 The Rise of the Novel
- ENGL 323 English Romantic Poetry
- ENGL 327 Victorian Novel

Group III: 12 credits in literature after 1900
- ENGL 215 Modern American Literature
- ENGL 227 Imagining the Borderlands (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 234 Literature of the American South
- ENGL 235 Asian American Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 236 American Nature Writing
- ENGL 237 Black British Literature
- ENGL 238 African Literature in English
- ENGL 247 The American West (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 248 Visions of California
- ENGL 249 Modern Irish Literature: Poetry, Prose, and Politics
- ENGL 250 Indian Fiction 1880-1980
- ENGL 251 Contemporary Indian Fiction (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 252 Caribbean Fiction (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 256 Ireland Program: Irish History and Culture
- ENGL 258 Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 264 American Lyric: Poetry, Pop and Rap (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 274 Ireland Program: Modern Irish Literature in Ireland
- ENGL 288 California Program: The Literature of California (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 329 The City in American Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 332 Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 333 Margaret Atwood (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 334 Postmodern American Fiction (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 345 Queer Literature
- ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts
- ENGL 351 Zadie Smith (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist
- ENGL 359 World Literature in the Twenty-First Century
- ENGL 362 Narrative Theory (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 366 The Carleton Miscellany
- THEA 242 Modern American Drama (not offered in 2019-20)

3. English 295: Critical Methods

4. English 395: Advanced Seminar

5. English 400: Senior Integrative Exercise (A senior may choose one of the following):

Colloquium Option: A group option in which participants discuss, analyze and write about a thematically coherent list of literary works.

Research Essay Option: An extended essay on a topic of the student's own devising. Open only to students who have completed their Advanced Seminar by the end of fall term senior year.

Creative Writing Option: Creation of a work of literary art. Open only to students who have completed at least two creative writing courses (one of which must be at the 300 level) by the end of fall term senior year.

Project Option: Creation of an individual or group multidisciplinary project.

Of the 72 credits required to complete the major:

1. at least 6 credits must be taken in each of the following traditions:

T1: Literature of Ireland and Britain
- ENGL 112 Introduction to the Novel
- ENGL 114 Introduction to Medieval Narrative (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 126 Arthurian Tradition: From Medieval to Modern (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 129 Introduction to British Comedy (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 135 Imperial Adventures
- ENGL 144 Shakespeare I
- ENGL 202 The Bible as Literature
- ENGL 204 History of the English Language (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 205 The Medieval Outlaw (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 206 Arthurian Tradition: From Medieval to Modern (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 207 Princes. Poets. Power (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 208 The Faerie Queene (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 209 Much Ado About Nothing: A Project Course (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 210 From Chaucer to Milton: Early English Literature
- ENGL 213 Christopher Marlowe
- ENGL 214 Revenge Tragedy
- ENGL 216 Milton
- ENGL 217 A Novel Education (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 218 The Gothic Spirit
- ENGL 219 Global Shakespeare
- ENGL 222 The Art of Jane Austen
- ENGL 225 'Public Offenders': Pre-Raphaelites and Bloomsbury Group
- ENGL 228 Encountering the Other: The Crusades (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 244 Shakespeare I
- ENGL 249 Modern Irish Literature: Poetry, Prose, and Politics
- ENGL 256 Ireland Program: Irish History and Culture
- ENGL 274 Ireland Program: Modern Irish Literature in Ireland
- ENGL 281 London Program: Romantic London
- ENGL 282 London Program: London Theater
- ENGL 302 The Medieval Outlaw (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 310 Shakespeare II (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 319 The Rise of the Novel
- ENGL 323 English Romantic Poetry
- ENGL 327 Victorian Novel
- ENGL 351 Zadie Smith (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 395 Seductive Fictions
- EUST 232 Economics and European Studies in Cambridge: The Great War in Poetry, History and Memory

T2: Literature of North America
- AMST 230 The American Sublime: Landscape, Character & National Destiny in Nineteenth Century America
- ENGL 117 African American Literature
- ENGL 136 Black Speculative Fiction
- ENGL 212 Nineteenth-Century American Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 215 Modern American Literature
- ENGL 221 "Moby-Dick" & Race: Whiteness and the Whale (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 223 American Transcendentalism (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 226 Modernism (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 227 Imagining the Borderlands (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 233 Writing and Social Justice (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 234 Literature of the American South
- ENGL 235 Asian American Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 236 American Nature Writing
- ENGL 239 Democracy: Politics, Race, & Sex in Nineteenth Century American Novels
- ENGL 247 The American West (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 248 Visions of California
- ENGL 258 Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 264 American Lyric: Poetry, Pop and Rap (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 288 California Program: The Literature of California (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 329 The City in American Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 332 Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 333 Margaret Atwood (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist
- ENGL 366 The Carleton Miscellany
- ENGL 395 Dickinson, Moore, Bishop

T3: Global Anglophone Literatures
- ENGL 237 Black British Literature
- ENGL 238 African Literature in English
- ENGL 250 Indian Fiction 1880-1980
- ENGL 251 Contemporary Indian Fiction (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 252 Caribbean Fiction (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts
- ENGL 359 World Literature in the Twenty-First Century

2. at least 24 credits must be in courses numbered 300-395

3. up to 6 credits may be in literature other than English in the original or translation

ARBC 144 Arabic Literature at War (not offered in 2019-20)
ARBC 185 The Creation of Classical Arabic Literature
CHIN 245 Chinese Vision of the Past in Translation (not offered in 2019-20)
CHIN 251 Heroes, Heroines, Exceptional Lives in Chinese Biographical Histories (not offered in 2019-20)
CHIN 355 Contemporary Chinese Short Stories
CLAS 112 The Epic in Classical Antiquity: Texts, Contexts, and Intertexts
CLAS 116 Greek Drama in Performance (not offered in 2019-20)
ENGL 202 The Bible as Literature
FREN 233 French Cinema and Culture (not offered in 2019-20)
FREN 237 Page and Stage: The Performance of Culture (not offered in 2019-20)
FREN 238 Back to the Future: French Classics Reimagined
FREN 239 Banned Books
FREN 241 The Lyric and Other Seductions (not offered in 2019-20)
FREN 242 Journeys of Self-Discovery (not offered in 2019-20)
FREN 245 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered in 2019-20)
FREN 247 The Seven Deadly Sins (not offered in 2019-20)
FREN 248 Murder and Mayhem: Narratives of Suspense
FREN 259 Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
FREN 340 Arts of Brevity: Short Fiction
FREN 341 Madame Bovary and Her Avatars
FREN 347 Gender and Sexuality in the Francophone World
FREN 351 Love, War and Monsters in Renaissance France (not offered in 2019-20)
FREN 354 The World Beyond (not offered in 2019-20)
FREN 360 The Algerian War of Liberation and Its Representations
GERM 247 Mirror, Mirror: Reflecting on Fairy Tales and Folklore
GERM 360 Song That Sleeps in Everything (not offered in 2019-20)
GRK 204 Intermediate Greek Prose and Poetry
GRK 304 Greek Tragedy for Advanced Students (not offered in 2019-20)
LATN 204 Intermediate Latin Prose and Poetry
MELA 125 Love in Persian Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
RELG 161 The Jewish Bible
RELG 162 Jesus, the Bible, and Christian Beginnings (not offered in 2019-20)
RUSS 244 The Rise of the Russian Novel (not offered in 2019-20)
RUSS 266 The Brothers Karamazov (not offered in 2019-20)
RUSS 267 War and Peace (not offered in 2019-20)
RUSS 341 From Folktale to Fanfiction: Russian Short Prose
RUSS 351 Chekhov (not offered in 2019-20)
SPAN 242 Introduction to Latin American Literature
SPAN 262 Myth and History in Central American Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
SPAN 330 The Invention of the Modern Novel: Cervantes' Don Quijote
SPAN 366 Jorge Luis Borges: Less a Man Than a Vast and Complex Literature (not offered in 2019-20)
SPAN 371 Yours Truly: The Body of the Letter (not offered in 2019-20)

4. up to 12 credits may be in creative writing

Double-majors considering completing the integrative exercise during the junior year will need written approval from the departmental chair.

Workshops in Writing

The Department of English offers workshop courses in the writing of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction for those students who wish to gain experience in writing. Students are encouraged to submit their work to college publications such as The Lens, manuscript, the Clap, and Carleton Progressive.

Writers on the Carleton faculty include poets Gregory Hewett and Susan Jaret McKinstry and novelist Gregory Blake Smith. In addition to those courses offered by regular faculty members, the department brings visiting writers to campus to read and to conduct workshops in their specialties. Visitors have included playwright Tony Kushner, memoirists Richard Rodriquez and Patricia Hampl, poets Robert Creeley, Carolyn Forche, Sharon Olds, and Andrew Hudgins, nature writers Dan O'Brien and David Rains Wallace, and fiction-writers Jane Hamilton, Ann Beattie, Maxine Hong Kingston, Marilynne Robinson, Jonis Agee, Paul Auster, and Siri Hustvedt.

English Creative Writing Minor

The English Creative Writing Minor is intended for students who wish to gain experience in creative writing by taking a series of writing workshops accompanied by the study of literature relevant to their writing interests. Students must complete 36 total credits as described below.

18 credits of creative writing workshops, chosen from college-wide offerings in prose fiction, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, television writing, and/or creative nonfiction; including at least one course in the English Department and one course at the 300 level:
- CAMS 271 Fiction
- CAMS 278 Writing for Television
- CAMS 279 Screenwriting (not offered in 2019-20)
- CCST 270 Creative Travel Writing Workshop
- ENGL 160 Introduction to Creative Writing
- ENGL 161 Writing Across Genres (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 261 Telling Your American Story (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 262 Narrative Lab (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 263 Crafts of Writing: Creative Nonfiction (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 264 American Lyric: Poetry, Pop and Rap (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 265 News Stories
- ENGL 270 Short Story Workshop
- ENGL 271 Poetry Workshop
- ENGL 273 Writing Memoir (not offered in 2019-20)
- ENGL 370 Advanced Fiction Workshop
- ENGL 371 Advanced Poetry Workshop
- THEA 246 Playwriting

18 credits of literature courses drawn from offerings in the Department of English, in courses numbered over 100. Must include at least one course at the 300 level. Students who wish to complete the Creative Writing Minor are encouraged to choose literature courses that are pertinent to their creative writing interests.

English majors who wish to also minor in Creative Writing may do so, but they may not count more than 18 credits of their major toward the 36 total credits for the minor.

English Courses

ENGL 099 Summer Writing Program Emphasizing a writing process approach, the Summer Writing Program helps high school seniors learn to compose academic papers that are similar to those they will write in college. Students read both contemporary and traditional literature from classic texts by writers such as Plato and Shakespeare to a variety of modern short stories, essays, and poems by authors such as August Wilson, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, and Adrienne Rich. This literature then becomes the focus of their papers. Students write every day, and although occasional creative writing exercises are included, the main emphasis of the course will be on expository prose. Cannot be used for the Writing Requirement. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; Summer; Deborah Appleman

ENGL 100 Drama, Film, and Society With an emphasis on critical reading, writing, and the fundamentals of college-level research, this course will develop students' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the relationship between drama and film and the social and cultural contexts of which they are (or were) a part and product. The course explores the various ways in which these plays and movies (which might include anything and everything from Spike Lee to Tony Kushner to Christopher Marlowe) generate meaning, with particular attention to the social, historical, and political realities that contribute to that meaning. An important component of this course will be attending live performances in the Twin Cities. These required events may be during the week and/or the weekend. 6 credits; AI, WR1; Fall; Pierre Hecker

ENGL 100 How We Read: The History and Science of Reading In recent years, a 500-year-old technology for reading (the printed book) has been challenged by a very new one (the LCD displays in our phones and tablets). At the same time, advances in cognitive neuroscience have deepened our understanding of reading as a mental process. This makes it a good moment to consider how we read now and how we read in the past. We will examine a variety of reading practices, including reading aloud and silent reading, as well as the emotional impact of reading. The course will emphasize the foundational skill of academic reading--“close” reading--but also consider “distant” and “surface” reading. In addition to relevant scholarship, we will read poetry and novels as we reflect on our own habits as readers. 6 credits; AI, WR1; Fall; George G Shuffelton

ENGL 100 Imagining a Self This course examines how first-person narrators present, define, defend, and construct the self. We will read an assortment of autobiographical and fictional works, focusing on the critical issues that the first-person speaker "I" raises. In particular, we will consider the risks and rewards of narrative self-exposure, the relationship between autobiography and the novel, and the apparent intimacy between first-person narrators and their readers. Authors will include James Boswell, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Jacobs, Sylvia Plath, and Dave Eggers. 6 credits; AI, WR1; Fall; Jessica L Leiman

ENGL 100 Literary Revision: Authority, Art, and Rebellion The poet Adrienne Rich describes revision as "the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction." This course examines how literature confronts and reinvents the traditions it inherits. Through a diverse selection of fiction, poetry, and drama, we will examine how writers rework literary conventions, "rewrite" previous literary works, and critique societal myths. From Charles Chesnutt to Charles Johnson, from Henrik Ibsen to Rebecca Gilman, from Charlotte Bronte to Jean Rhys, from Maupassant and Chekhov to contemporary reinventions, we will explore literary revision from different perspectives and periods. 6 credits; AI, WR1; Fall; Nancy J Cho

ENGL 100 Literature and Science Literature and science will seem to most of us disparate enterprises arising from fundamentally different kinds of knowing. This course investigates how nineteenth-century literature responded to the burgeoning authority of newly professionalized natural sciences and what the new sciences borrowed from literature. Reading both literary and scientific texts and paying attention to how writers of either kind understand themselves and their tasks, we will seek to observe how science and literature both threatened and served each other. In the second half of the term we will sample some twentieth-century examples of this fraught and fruitful relation. 6 credits; AI, WR1; Fall; Peter J Balaam

ENGL 100 Rhetoric: Art of Persuasion Rhetoric's all around us: in political manifestos and legal pleadings; in professions of love and advertisements for dog food. We use it whenever we urge someone to believe what we say or do what we want. But how well do we understand the foundations and protocols of this art that teaches us "to see the available means of persuasion?" In this class we'll study the origins and theory of rhetoric (via Aristotle), examine exemplary instances (from Pericles to Trump), and consider the charges (via Plato) that it's all lies and trickery, while learning how to compose persuasive academic papers and presentations. 6 credits; AI, WR1; Fall; Timothy Raylor

ENGL 100 Visions of the Waste Land In his great post-World War I poem, T. S. Eliot described the waste land of western civilization as "a heap of broken images." We will explore how the writers of the first half of the twentieth-century invented ways of reshaping those broken images into a new literary art that has come to be called Modernism. Writers studied will likely include Yeats, Joyce, Woolf, and Faulkner. Attention will be given to the writing of literary critical papers, and to supplying students with the foundational tools for more advanced literary study. 6 credits; AI, WR1; Fall; Gregory B Smith

ENGL 109 Introduction to Rhetoric English 109 is the single Carleton course devoted exclusively to the study and practice of expository prose. It is designed to provide students with the organizational and argumentative skills they will need in order to write effectively at the college level and beyond. All sections of the course feature diverse readings, weekly writing exercises and essays, and individual tutorials. 6 credits; NE, WR2; Winter, Spring; George Cusack, Peter J Balaam

ENGL 112 Introduction to the Novel This course will explore the history and form of the British novel, tracing its development from the eighteenth century to the present. Among the questions that we will consider: What are our expectations for novels, and what makes them such a popular form of entertainment? How did a genre once considered a source of moral corruption become a legitimate, even dominant, literary form? Authors will likely include: Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, and Jean Rhys. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter; Jessica L Leiman

ENGL 114 Introduction to Medieval Narrative This class will focus on three of the most popular and closely connected modes of narrative enjoyed by medieval audiences: the epic, the romance, and the saint's life. Readings, drawn primarily from the English and French traditions, will include Beowulf, The Song of Roland, the Arthurian romances of Chretien de Troyes, and legends of St. Alexis and St. Margaret. We will consider how each narrative mode influenced the other, as we encounter warriors and lovers who suffer like saints, and saints who triumph like warriors and lovers. Readings will be in translation or highly accessible modernizations. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 115 The Art of Storytelling Jorge Luis Borges is quoted as saying that "unlike the novel, a short story may be, for all purposes, essential." This course focuses attention primarily on the short story as an enduring form. We will read short stories drawn from different literary traditions and from various parts of the world. Stories to be read include those by Aksenov, Atwood, Beckett, Borges, Camus, Cheever, Cisneros, Farah, Fuentes, Gordimer, Ishiguro, Kundera, Mahfouz, Marquez, Moravia, Nabokov, Narayan, Pritchett, Rushdie, Trevor, Welty, and Xue. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2; Spring; Kofi Owusu

ENGL 117 African American Literature This course pays particular attention to the tradition of African American literary expression and the individual talent that brings depth and diversity to that tradition. The course's broader aims will be complemented by an introduction to the concept of genre and by the cultivation of the relevant skills of literary analysis. Authors to be read include Baraka, Ed Bullins, Countee Cullen, Douglass, Ellison, Nikki Giovanni, Hughes, Weldon Johnson, Larsen, and Wheatley. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Fall; Kofi Owusu

ENGL 118 Introduction to Poetry We will look at the whole kingdom of poetry, exploring how poets use form, tone, sound, imagery, rhythm, and subject matter to create what Wallace Stevens called the "supreme fiction." Examples will be drawn from around the world, from Sappho to spoken word. Participation in discussion is mandatory; essay assignments will ask you to provide close readings of particular works; a couple of assignments will focus on the writing of poems so as to give you a full understanding of this ancient and living art. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter; Timothy Raylor

ENGL 119 Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Literature We will begin by examining the forefathers and mothers of Latino/a literature: the nineteenth century texts of exile, struggles for Latin American independence, and southwestern resistance and accommodation. The early twentieth century offers new genres: immigrant novels and popular poetry that reveal the nascent Latino identities rooted in (or formed in opposition to) U.S. ethics and ideals. Finally we will read a sampling of the many excellent contemporary authors who are transforming the face of American literature. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Spring; Adriana Estill

ENGL 125 Norse and Celtic Mythology What remains of the beliefs of the pre-Christian Norse and Celts represent some of the stranger and more obscure elements of Western tradition. Preserved thanks to the literacy which was brought by the new religion that extinguished it, the mythology of the Irish, Welsh, and Icelanders left a legacy that reveals itself in surprising places in our modern world. This course studies works such as the Prose and Poetic Eddas, The Mabinogi, and The Táin to explore myths as the products of environment and culture and examine the problems of transmission inherent to Christian descriptions of pagan belief. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 126 Arthurian Tradition: From Medieval to Modern King Arthur is a figure from Western tradition whose name conjures a clear series of associations: the Sword in the Stone, the Round Table, the Holy Grail. This course traces the development of this tradition, from its origins in an obscure corner of the British Isles to its dominance within both European literature and the popular imagination. Similarly, Arthur himself takes on multiple, sometimes contradictory guises—an enemy of the English and yet a symbol of England, the archetype of the perfect king but a champion of democracy, the epitome of Christian devotion yet suffused with pagan imagery. Our texts range from medieval Welsh legend to modern film; everything is in modern English translation. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 129 Introduction to British Comedy "And those things do best please me / That befall prepost'rously." A survey of comic plays, novels, short stories, films and television from Shakespeare, Austen, Lewis Carroll, Gilbert and Sullivan, Oscar Wilde, through P.G. Wodehouse and beyond. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 131 Reading Fiction Selected texts to be read in this course include those by Daniel Defoe, Thomas Hardy, Charles Johnson, J.M. Coetzee, Zadie Smith, and Sherman Alexie. We will pay close attention to the language of fiction, to the nature of narrative, and to narrative traditions in our ten-week journey from the world of Defoe's Moll Flanders to that of Alexie's Part-Time Indian. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 135 Imperial Adventures Indiana Jones has a pedigree. In this class we will encounter some of his ancestors in stories, novels and comic books from the early decades of the twentieth century. The wilds of Afghanistan, the African forest, a prehistoric world in Patagonia, the opium dens of mysterious exotic London--these will be but some of our stops as we examine the structure and ideology and lasting legacy of the imperial adventure tale. Authors we will read include Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling and H. Rider Haggard. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2, IS; Spring; Arnab Chakladar

ENGL 136 Black Speculative Fiction This course introduces the black speculative tradition from the nineteenth century to Black Panther (2018). We will situate our readings within the science fiction/fantasy genre to investigate the ways black authors construct narratives about technology and the future to advocate for racial, sexual, and gender equality. We will discuss dichotomies of human/alien life, blackness and technology, and purity and hybridity, in addition to cosmic narratives of gender and sexuality and interspecies tolerance. Course materials include works by Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delaney, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Janelle Monae. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Winter; Corrine E Collins

ENGL 144 Shakespeare I A chronological survey of the whole of Shakespeare's career, covering all genres and periods, this course explores the nature of Shakespeare's genius and the scope of his art. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between literature and stagecraft ("page to stage"). By tackling the complexities of prosody, of textual transmission, and of Shakespeare's highly figurative and metaphorical language, the course will help you further develop your ability to think critically about literature. Note: Declared or prospective English majors should register for English 244. 6 credits; LA; Fall; Pierre Hecker

ENGL 160 Introduction to Creative Writing This course offers training in the writing and revision of poetry and prose fiction, supplemented by examples from published writers and some essays on the creative process. Discussion of each participant's writing is the central mode of instruction. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Fall, Winter, Spring; Gregory G Hewett, Susan Jaret McKinstry, Gregory B Smith

ENGL 161 Writing Across Genres This course is a practitioner’s guide to the creative writing process. We will work across genres, from poetry and prose fiction to creative nonfiction. Much of the reading in the class will be generated by class participants. Be ready to engage in critical and compassionate editorial conversation/discussion of each other’s writing. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 187 Murder From the ancient Greeks to the Bible to the modern serial killer novel, murder has always been a preeminent topic of intellectual and artistic investigation. Covering a range of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, drama, and film, this transhistorical survey will explore why homicide has been the subject of such fierce attention from so many great minds. Works may include: the Bible, Shakespeare, De Quincey, Poe, Thompson, Capote, Tey, McGinniss, Auster, French, Malcolm, Wilder, and Morris, as well as critical, legal, and other materials. Warning: not for the faint-hearted. (May not be retaken as ENGL 395.) 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2; Spring; Pierre Hecker

ENGL 194 The "Great War" and the Literary Imagination The First World War shaped the world that we recognize as ours, creating new ways of remembering and forgetting as well as new forms of artistic expression. Writers shattered poetic forms and visual artists traditional modes of representation in order to register the previously unimaginable horrors of mechanized trench warfare and industrial-scale slaughter. Focusing primarily on poetry we will follow the arc of this aesthetic engagement from both British and German perspectives, starting with the late-Romantic musings of Rupert Brooke, through the haunting poems of Wilfred Owen, on to the various short-lived movements that marked the birth of modernism. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 202 The Bible as Literature We will approach the Bible not as an archaeological relic, nor as the Word of God, but "as a work of great literary force and authority [that has] shaped the minds and lives of intelligent men and women for two millennia and more." As one place to investigate such shaping, we will sample how the Bible (especially in the "Authorized" or King James version) has drawn British and American poets and prose writers to borrow and deploy its language and respond creatively to its narratives, images, and visions. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter; Peter J Balaam

ENGL 203 The Age of Beowulf Although the Age of Beowulf ended almost one thousand years ago, its influence endures. Just as the CGI adaptation of Beowulf uses Old English--the language in England during this period--to mark the monstrous, the History Channel's Vikings uses this era as a historical backdrop, and Tolkien's LOTR finds much of its inspiration in Old English literature. In this class, then, we'll return to the source--to tales of demons, dragons, heroes, and saints found in various chronicles, poems, riddles, and more from the Age of Beowulf--and, hopefully, start to understand why this particular epoch looms so large. Texts will be read in modern translation. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 204 History of the English Language This class teaches the history of the English language through the prism of sociolinguistics. Along with teaching phonology, the basics of Old and Middle English, and changes in morphology, pronunciation and vocabulary over time, the course will explore how language both shapes and is shaped by society. We will use the history of English as a vehicle for exploring issues of imperialism, class, and politics that arose throughout the language’s development. Along the way, students see how language plays an active role in both perpetuating and resolving communities’ thorniest social problems, in the past and in the present day. 6 credits; HI, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 205 The Medieval Outlaw Some of the most enduring figures of the Middle Ages are Robin Hood and his Merry Men. However, the Robin Hood we know only appeared in English literature in the Late Middle Ages and his story was not established until the Renaissance. This course traces the development of the outlaw figure from Anglo-Saxon poetry through Irish and Icelandic traditions to the rebels that arose in the Middle English period. We examine the outlaw from several theoretical standpoints, including the postcolonial, anthropological, ecocritical, and gender studies perspectives. All readings are either in Middle English or in Modern English translation. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 206 Arthurian Tradition: From Medieval to Modern King Arthur is a figure from Western tradition whose name conjures a clear series of associations: the Sword in the Stone, the Round Table, the Holy Grail. This course traces the development of this tradition, from its origins in an obscure corner of the British Isles to its dominance within both European literature and the popular imagination. Similarly, Arthur himself takes on multiple, sometimes contradictory guises—an enemy of the English and yet a symbol of England, the archetype of the perfect king but a champion of democracy, the epitome of Christian devotion yet suffused with pagan imagery. Our texts range from medieval Welsh legend to modern film; everything is in modern English translation. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 207 Princes. Poets. Power Can you serve power without sacrificing your principles or risking your life? We examine the classic explorations of the problem--Machiavelli's Prince, Castiglione's Courtier, and More's Utopia--and investigate the place of poets and poetry at court of Henry VIII, tracing the birth of the English sonnet, and the role of poetry in the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn. 3 credits; LA; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 208 The Faerie Queene Spenser's romance epic: an Arthurian quest-cycle, celebrating the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I, and England's imperial destiny. Readers encounter knights, ladies, and lady-knights; enchanted groves and magic castles; dragons and sorcerers; and are put through a series of moral tests and hermeneutic challenges. 3 credits; LA; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 209 Much Ado About Nothing: A Project Course This interdisciplinary course, taught in conjunction with a full-scale Carleton Players production, will explore one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated and performed works, Much Ado About Nothing. We will investigate the play’s historical, social, and theatrical contexts as we try to understand not only the world that produced the play, but the world that came out of it. How should what we learn of the past inform a modern production? How can performance offer interpretive arguments about the play’s meanings? Mixing embodied and experiential learning, individual and group projects may include a combination of research, assistant directing, choreography, music direction, dramaturgy, design, exhibition curation, and work in Special Collections. 6 credits; IS, ARP; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 210 From Chaucer to Milton: Early English Literature An introduction to some of the major genres, texts, and authors of medieval and Renaissance England. Readings may include works of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and the lyric poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Fall; Timothy Raylor

ENGL 212 Nineteenth-Century American Literature A survey of the major forms and voices of nineteenth-century American literature during the Romantic and Realist periods, with attention to historical and intellectual contexts including ideas about race, class, gender, and the nature of democracy. Topics covered will include the literary writings of Transcendentalism, abolition, and the rise of literary "realism" after the Civil War as an artistic response to urbanization and industrialism. Writers to be read include Irving, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Fuller, Jacobs, Douglass, Dickinson, Whitman, Twain, James, and Chopin. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 213 Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe lived fast, died young, and left behind a beautiful body of work. The course will explore the major plays and poems, as well as the life, of this transgressive Elizabethan writer. 3 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Spring; Pierre Hecker

ENGL 214 Revenge Tragedy Madness, murder, conspiracy, poison, incest, rape, ghosts, and lots of blood: the fashion for revenge tragedy in Elizabethan and Jacobean England led to the creation of some of the most brilliant, violent, funny, and deeply strange plays in the history of the language. Authors may include Cary, Chapman, Ford, Marston, Middleton, Kyd, Tourneur, and Webster. 3 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Spring; Pierre Hecker

ENGL 215 Modern American Literature A survey of some of the central movements and texts in American literature, from World War I to the present. Topics covered will include modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat generation and postmodernism. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter; Michael J Kowalewski

ENGL 216 Milton Radical, heretic, and revolutionary, John Milton wrote the most influential, and perhaps the greatest, poem in the English language. We will read the major poems (Lycidas, the sonnets, Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes), a selection of the prose, and will attend to Milton's historical context, to the critical arguments over his work, and to his impact on literature and the other arts. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Fall; Timothy Raylor

ENGL 217 A Novel Education Samuel Johnson declared novels to be “written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into life.” This course explores what sort of education the novel offered its readers during a time when fiction was considered a source of valuable lessons and also an agent of corruption. We will read a selection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century children’s literature, seduction fiction, and novels of manners, considering how these works engage with early educational theories, notions of male and female conduct, and concerns about the didactic and sensational possibilities of fiction. Authors include Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, and Charles Dickens. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 218 The Gothic Spirit The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw the rise of the Gothic, a genre populated by brooding hero-villains, vulnerable virgins, mad monks, ghosts, and monsters. In this course, we will examine the conventions and concerns of the Gothic, addressing its preoccupation with terror, sex, and the supernatural. As we situate this genre within its literary and historical context, we will consider its relationship to realism and Romanticism, and we will explore how it reflects the political and cultural anxieties of the age. Authors include Walpole, Radcliffe, Lewis, Austen, M. Shelley, and E. Bronte. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Fall; Jessica L Leiman

ENGL 219 Global Shakespeare Shakespeare’s plays have been reimagined and repurposed all over the world, performed on seven continents, and translated into over 100 languages. The course explores how issues of globalization, nationalism, translation (both cultural and linguistic), and (de)colonization inform our understanding of these wonderfully varied adaptations and appropriations. We will examine the social, political, and aesthetic implications of a range of international stage, film, and literary versions as we consider how other cultures respond to the hegemonic original. No prior experience with Shakespeare is necessary. 3 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2, IS; Spring; Pierre Hecker

ENGL 220 Arts of Oral Presentation Instruction and practice in being a speaker and an audience in formal and informal settings. 3 credits; S/CR/NC; NE; Winter, Spring; Elizabeth McKinsey, Timothy Raylor

ENGL 221 "Moby-Dick" & Race: Whiteness and the Whale From its famous opening line to its apocalyptic close, Melville’s lofty and profane romance of the whaling-industry is gripped by the myths and marked by the traumas of race. Exploring its black-and-white thematics and racialized characters in nineteenth- as well as twenty-first-century social and political contexts, this course takes Melville’s stupendous book as an anatomy of "whiteness" as a racial construct in U.S. cultural history. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 222 The Art of Jane Austen All of Jane Austen's fiction will be read; the works she did not complete or choose to publish during her lifetime will be studied in an attempt to understand the art of her mature comic masterpieces, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter; Susan Jaret McKinstry

ENGL 223 American Transcendentalism Attempts to discern the nineteenth-century Zeitgeist come down, Emerson says, to a "practical question of the conduct of life. How shall I live?" This interdisciplinary course will investigate the works of the American Transcendentalist movement in its restless discontent with the conventional, its eclectic search for better ways of thinking and living. We will engage major works of Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and Whitman alongside documents of the scientific, religious, and political changes that shaped their era and provoked their responses. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 225 'Public Offenders': Pre-Raphaelites and Bloomsbury Group Two exceptional groups of artists changed aesthetic and cultural history through their writings, art, politics, and lives. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood began in 1847 when art students united to create “direct and serious and heartfelt” work; the Bloomsbury group began with Cambridge friends sharing their insistence on aesthetic lives. Critics said the PRB “extolled fleshliness as the supreme end of poetic and pictorial art,” and the Bloomsbury Group “painted in circles, lived in squares and loved in triangles.” We will study Dante Rossetti, Holman Hunt, John Millais, William Morris, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Roger Fry, Vanessa and Clive Bell. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2, IS; Spring; Susan Jaret McKinstry

ENGL 226 Modernism In the first decades of the twentieth century, modernist writers, artists, and thinkers confronted a modern world of rapidly accelerating industrialization, urbanization, and militarization with radically new ideas and forms that, by the estimation of many, upended twenty centuries of culture. This course, while centered on literature, will explore the modernist movement on both sides of the Atlantic and across genres and disciplines. We will study William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, Albert Einstein, and Sigmund Freud, among others. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 227 Imagining the Borderlands This course engages the borderlands as space (the geographic area that straddles nations) and idea (liminal spaces, identities, communities). We examine texts from writers like Anzaldúa, Butler, Cervantes, Dick, Eugenides, Haraway, and Muñoz first to understand how borders act to constrain our imagi(nation) and then to explore how and to what degree the borderlands offer hybrid identities, queer affects, and speculative world-building. We will engage the excess of the borderlands through a broad chronological and generic range of U.S. literary and visual texts. Come prepared to question what is "American," what is race, what is human. 6 credits; WR2, IDS, LA; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 228 Encountering the Other: The Crusades The Crusades, beginning in 1099, brought the kingdoms of Western Europe into contact with many new cultures. This course studies the literature of the period to understand the attitudes and motivations that initiated it, and takes a postcolonialist approach to characterize texts from the Crusades as an attempt to define the Self against the Other—not just on the part of the Crusaders, but from the perspective of Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Greeks, and others. By examining this material, we can gain insight into the motivations behind prejudice and violence, issues which are of crucial importance today. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 233 Writing and Social Justice Social justice is fairness as it manifests in society, but who gets to determine what fairness looks, sounds, feels like? The self-described Black Canadian poet Dionne Brand says that she doesn’t write toward justice because that doesn’t exist, but that she writes against tyranny. If we use that framework, how does that change our own writing and our own notions of justice in our or any time? What is the role of literary writing, especially fiction, the essay, and poetry in the collective and individual quest to understand and build conditions that could yield increased potential for social justice? In this course, students will read, analyze, discuss, and write about various texts that might be considered to be against myriad tyrannies, if not necessarily toward social justice. Authors may include Octavia Butler, Phillip Metres, Toni Morrison, Myung Mi Kim, and M. NourbeSe Philipe. 6 credits; ARP, WR2, IDS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 234 Literature of the American South Masterpieces of the "Southern Renaissance" of the early and mid-twentieth century, in the context of American regionalism and particularly the culture of the South, the legacy of slavery and race relations, social and gender roles, and the modernist movement in literature. Authors will include Allen Tate, Jean Toomer, William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, William Percy, and others. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Fall; Elizabeth McKinsey

ENGL 235 Asian American Literature This course is an introduction to major works and authors of fiction, drama, and poetry from about 1900 to the present. We will trace the development of Asian American literary traditions while exploring the rich diversity of recent voices in the field. Authors to be read include Carlos Bulosan, Sui Sin Far, Philip Kan Gotanda, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jhumpa Lahiri, Milton Murayama, Chang-rae Lee, Li-young Lee, and John Okada. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 236 American Nature Writing A study of the environmental imagination in American literature. We will explore the relationship between literature and the natural sciences and examine questions of style, narrative, and representation in the light of larger social, ethical, and political concerns about the environment. Authors read will include Thoreau, Muir, Jeffers, Abbey, and Leopold. Students will write a creative Natural History essay as part of the course requirements. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Fall; Michael J Kowalewski

ENGL 237 Black British Literature A survey of black British literature across Great Britain, focusing on regional identity and tensions between rural and urban spaces. This course examines the history of black British communities and their overlapping diasporas, and the ways the British nation state has defined black British identity. Readings include poetry, novels, and short stories by John Agard, Jackie Kay, George Lamming, Grace Nichols, Helen Oyeyemi, Samuel Selvon, and Zadie Smith, and foreground issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Fall; Corrine E Collins

ENGL 238 African Literature in English This is a course on texts drawn from English-speaking Africa since the 1950's. Authors to be read include Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ayi Kwei Armah, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Benjamin Kwakye, and Wole Soyinka. 6 credits; LA, IS; Winter; Kofi Owusu

ENGL 239 Democracy: Politics, Race, & Sex in Nineteenth Century American Novels An important preoccupation of nineteenth century America was the nature of democracy and the proper balance of individualism and the social good. An experiment in government, democracy also raised new questions about gender, class, and race. Citizenship was contested; roles in the new, expanding nation were fluid; abolition and emancipation, the movement for women's rights, industrialization all caused ferment and anxiety. The course will explore the way these issues were imagined in fiction by such writers as Cooper, Hawthorne, Maria Sedgwick, Stowe, Tourgee, Henry Adams, Twain, Gilman, and Chesnutt. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2, IDS; Spring; Elizabeth McKinsey

ENGL 244 Shakespeare I A chronological survey of the whole of Shakespeare's career, covering all genres and periods, this course explores the nature of Shakespeare's genius and the scope of his art. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between literature and stagecraft ("page to stage"). By tackling the complexities of prosody, of textual transmission, and of Shakespeare's highly figurative and metaphorical language, the course will help you further develop your ability to think critically about literature. Note: non-majors should register for English 144. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Fall; Pierre Hecker

ENGL 245 Bollywood Nation This course will serve as an introduction to Bollywood or popular Hindi cinema from India. We will trace the history of this cinema and analyze its formal components. We will watch and discuss some of the most celebrated and popular films of the last 60 years with particular emphasis on urban thrillers and social dramas. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Spring; Arnab Chakladar

ENGL 247 The American West Wallace Stegner once described the West as "the geography of hope" in the American imagination. Despite various dystopian urban pressures, the region still conjures up images of wide vistas and sunburned optimism. We will explore this paradox by examining both popular mythic conceptions of the West (primarily in film) and more searching literary treatments of the same area. We will explore how writers such as Twain, Cather, Stegner and Cormac McCarthy have dealt with the geographical diversity and multi-ethnic history of the West. Weekly film showings will include The Searchers, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Unforgiven, and Lone Star. Extra Time Required, evening screenings. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 248 Visions of California An interdisciplinary exploration of the ways in which California has been imagined in literature, art, film and popular culture from pre-contact to the present. We will explore the state both as a place (or rather, a mosaic of places) and as a continuing metaphor--whether of promise or disintegration--for the rest of the country. Authors read will include Muir, Steinbeck, Chandler, West, and Didion. Weekly film showings will include Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown and Blade Runner. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Winter; Michael J Kowalewski

ENGL 249 Modern Irish Literature: Poetry, Prose, and Politics What can and should be the role of literature in times of bitter political conflict? Caught in partisan strife, Irish writers have grappled personally and painfully with the question. We will read works by Joyce, Yeats, and Heaney, among others, and watch films (Bloody Sunday, Hunger) that confront the deep and ongoing divisions in Irish political life. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2; Spring; Constance Walker

ENGL 250 Indian Fiction 1880-1980 In this course we will follow the various paths that the novel in India has taken since the late nineteenth century. Reading both works composed in English and some in translation we will probe in particular the ways in which questions of language and national/cultural identity are constructed and critiqued in the Indian novel. We will read some of the most celebrated Indian writers of the last 100 odd years as well as some who are not as well-known as they should be. The course will also introduce you to some fundamental concepts in postcolonial studies. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2, IS; Spring; Arnab Chakladar

ENGL 251 Contemporary Indian Fiction Contemporary Indian writers, based either in India or abroad, have become significant figures in the global literary landscape. This can be traced to the publication of Salman Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children in 1981. We will begin with that novel and read some of the other notable works of fiction of the following decades. The class will provide both a thorough grounding in the contemporary Indian literary scene as well as an introduction to some concepts in post-colonial studies. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 252 Caribbean Fiction This course will examine Anglophone fiction in the Caribbean from the late colonial period through our contemporary moment. We will examine major developments in form and language as well as the writing of identity, personal and (trans)national. We will read works by canonical writers such as V.S. Naipaul, George Lamming and Jamaica Kincaid, as well as by lesser known contemporary writers. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 256 Ireland Program: Irish History and Culture In this course we will examine the beliefs, practices, and relationships that shaped the Irish historical experience, providing students with an historical grounding for their explorations and studies in Ireland. In addition to history and politics, topics will include language, folklore, music, and visual culture. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Summer; Constance Walker

ENGL 258 Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage This course examines work by U.S. playwrights of color from the 1950s to the present, focusing on questions of race, performance, and self-representation. We will consider opportunities and limitations of the commercial theater, Off-Off Broadway, ethnic theaters, and non-traditional performance spaces. Playwrights may include Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, Ntozake Shange, Luis Valdez, Cherrie Moraga, August Wilson, David Henry Hwang, Philip Gotanda, Maria Irene Fornes, Anna Deavere Smith, and Chay Yew. We will watch selected film adaptations and attend a live performance when possible. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 261 Telling Your American Story This is a creative nonfiction course focused around students writing their American stories. The goal of the course is the generation of new narratives to enrich and add complexity to the popular stories of what constitutes America(n). Each assignment will build on the next, culminating in a final portfolio of student writing about their lives and its place in American history and context. Prerequisite: Any one English course. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 262 Narrative Lab We’ll explore narrative in any number of styles and guises, reading and writing various forms including the fairy tale, prose poem, ten minute play, and short fiction. We may veer toward the pilot and we will touch on the narrative potential in video games. A few of the questions we'll consider: What do we require of narrative in 2017? What form is best suited to specific material? What basic material must be included in this form but is not essential to that form? Some projects will be collaborative and others will be done solo. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 263 Crafts of Writing: Creative Nonfiction Do you like it when true things happen? Would you like to take those true things and make them sound truer than true? Would you like to use words while doing that? In this course, students will write an evocation, a piece of long-form narrative journalism, and a personal essay. Class time will be spent on live writing assignments, giving and receiving feedback, learning writing and research techniques, and having discussions about things that seem trivial right up until the moment that their ultimate significance is revealed. Prerequisite: One previous English course. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 264 American Lyric: Poetry, Pop and Rap In this course we will look at the shifting boundary between genres that share a common root in lyrical expression. From the sonnet to chart topping pop to underground rap, what it means to be American has been built and is continually refurbished from the lyric up. We will be asking many questions. How does Kendrick Lamar’s song “i” echo and update Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”? What happens in the overlap between T. S. Eliot and Missy Elliott? How is the new generation of American poets integrating song and rap into their work? Our answers will come in both critical and creative forms. Prerequisite: Not open to students who have taken ENGL 100.00 Fall 2016. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 265 News Stories This journalism course explores the process of moving from event to news story. Students will study and write different forms of journalism (including news, reviews, features, interviews, investigative pieces, and images), critique one another’s writing, and revise their pieces for a final portfolio of professional work. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Winter; Susan Jaret McKinstry

ENGL 270 Short Story Workshop An introduction to the writing of the short story (prior familiarity with the genre of the short story is expected of class members). Each student will write and have discussed in class three stories (from 1,500 to 6,000 words in length) and give constructive suggestions, including written critiques, for revising the stories written by other members of the class. Attention will be paid to all the elements of fiction: characterization, point of view, conflict, setting, dialogue, etc. Prerequisite: One prior 6-credit English course. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; ARP, WR2; Fall, Winter; Gregory B Smith

ENGL 271 Poetry Workshop This course offers newer poets ways of developing poetic craft and vision. Through intensive writing and revision of poetry, supplemented by reading and discussion of poetry, each member of the group will create a portfolio of poems. Prerequisite: One prior 6 credit English course. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Winter; Gregory G Hewett

ENGL 273 Writing Memoir This writing workshop allows students to explore the craft of memoir through intensive writing, critique, and revision in order to create their own memoir. To develop their skills, students will read and discuss memoirs in varied forms (including visual arts), and consider the competing demands of truth, narrative, fiction, and non-fiction in this rich and complex genre. Prerequisite: One prior 6 credit English course or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 274 Ireland Program: Modern Irish Literature in Ireland In Dublin we will read and discuss works by Joyce, Frank O’Connor, and Eavan Boland; in Galway, poems by Yeats; and in Northern Ireland, works by Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, and Brian Friel, among others. We will also meet with writers and attend readings, lectures, films, and plays. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS Ireland program. 6 credits; LA, IS, WR2; Summer; Constance Walker

ENGL 278 London Program: Shakespeare's England This course concentrates on the relationship between the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the world in which they lived, and the vitality of performance. Particular attention will be paid to Tudor and Stuart historical sites as students explore England through the lens of Renaissance literature and the literature through the lens of Renaissance England. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 279 London Program: Urban Field Studies A combination of background readings, guided site visits, and personal exploration will give students tools for understanding the history of multicultural London. Starting with the city's early history and moving to the present, students will gain an understanding of how the city has been defined and transformed over time and of the complex cultural narratives that shape its standing as a global metropolis. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; NE; Winter; Constance Walker

ENGL 281 London Program: Romantic London The Romantic era (1785-1830) was a time of extraordinary political, intellectual, and social volatility and vitality. With London as our classroom, we will explore the life of the great city at the hub of Romanticism by means of its magnificent public and domestic architecture, fashion and décor, dances, fine arts, journalism and political satire, and literature, including the poetry of Byron, Shelley, and Keats, the essays of Hazlitt and Lamb, and the novels of Austen. Field trips will include visits to the Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Library, Sir John Soane's Museum, the Pump Room and Costume Museum at Bath, and the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS London program. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Winter; Constance Walker

ENGL 282 London Program: London Theater Students will attend productions (at least two per week) of classic and contemporary plays in a range of London venues both on and off the West End, and will do related reading. We will also travel to Stratford-upon-Avon for a 3-day theater trip. Class discussions will focus on dramatic genres and themes, dramaturgy, acting styles, and design. Guest speakers may include actors, critics, and directors. Students will keep a theater journal and write several full reviews of plays. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS London program. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter; Constance Walker

ENGL 285 Textual Technologies from Parchment to Pixel As readers, we rarely consider the technologies, practices, and transactions that deliver us our texts. This course introduces students to the material study of writing, manuscripts, books, printing, and digital media. It attends to the processes of copying, revision, editing, and circulation; familiarizes students with the disciplines of descriptive bibliography, paleography, and textual criticism; and introduces the principles of editing, in both print and electronic media. It offers hands-on practice in most of these areas. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; HI, WR2; Spring; Timothy Raylor, Austin P Mason, George G Shuffelton

ENGL 288 California Program: The Literature of California An intensive study of writing and film that explores California both as a place (or rather, a mosaic of places) and as a continuing metaphor--whether of promise or disintegration--for the rest of the country. Authors read will include John Muir, Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, Robinson Jeffers, John Steinbeck, Joan Didion and Octavia Butler. Films will include: Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, Zoot Suit, Boys in the Hood and Lala Land.
6 credits; LA, IDS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 292 Ireland Program: Irish Field Studies In consultation with the director, students will work in pairs or groups of three to design an independent research project that demonstrates their knowledge of Ireland. The projects will focus on Irish sites of cultural significance chosen by students: an archaeological site such as Newgrange, a historic building such as Kilmainham Gaol, a Belfast mural or other public artwork—the possibilities are vast. Student groups will design a presentation (e.g., digital slideshow, poster board, artistic collage, etc.) and present their projects at the end of the term. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS Ireland program. 3 credits; S/CR/NC; NE; Summer; Constance Walker

ENGL 292 London Program: London Studies Project In consultation with the director, students will work in pairs or groups of three to design an independent research project that demonstrates their knowledge of London. The projects will focus on particular London sites chosen by students—a street, a tube station, a city square, a store, a public artwork: the possibilities are vast. Student groups will design a presentation format (e.g., digital slideshow, poster board, artistic collage, etc.) and present their projects at the end of term. 3 credits; S/CR/NC; NE; Winter; Constance Walker

ENGL 295 Critical Methods Required of students majoring in English, this course explores practical and theoretical issues in literary analysis and contemporary criticism. Not open to first year students. Prerequisite: One English Foundations course and one prior 6 credit English course. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Fall, Spring; Adriana Estill, Peter J Balaam

ENGL 302 The Medieval Outlaw Some of the most enduring figures of the Middle Ages are Robin Hood and his Merry Men. However, the Robin Hood we know only appeared in English literature in the Late Middle Ages and his story was not established until the Renaissance. This course traces the development of the outlaw figure from Anglo-Saxon poetry through Irish and Icelandic traditions to the rebels that arose in the Middle English period. We examine the outlaw from several theoretical standpoints, including the postcolonial, anthropological, ecocritical, and gender studies perspectives. All readings are either in Middle English or in Modern English translation. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 310 Shakespeare II Continuing the work begun in Shakespeare I, this course delves deeper into the Shakespeare canon. More difficult and obscure plays are studied alongside some of the more famous ones. While focusing principally on the plays themselves as works of art, the course also explores their social, intellectual, and theatrical contexts, as well as the variety of critical response they have engendered. Prerequisite: One English Foundations course and English 144 or 244. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 319 The Rise of the Novel A study of the origin and development of the English novel throughout the long eighteenth century. We will situate the early novel within its historical and cultural context, paying particular attention to its concern with courtship and marriage, writing and reading, the real and the fantastic. We will also consider eighteenth-century debates about the social function of novels and the dangers of reading fiction. Authors include Behn, Defoe, Haywood, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Walpole, and Austen. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other six credit English course. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter; Jessica L Leiman

ENGL 323 English Romantic Poetry "It is impossible to read the compositions of the most celebrated writers of the present day without being startled with the electric life which burns within their words"--P. B. Shelley. Readings in Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, and their contemporaries. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2; Spring; Constance Walker

ENGL 327 Victorian Novel Puzzled about nineteenth century novels, Henry James asks, 'But what do such large loose baggy monsters with their queer elements of the accidental and the arbitrary, artistically mean?'' (“Preface,” The Tragic Muse). What, indeed? Practicing close reading, surface reading, and distant reading, we will examine the prose, design, and illustrations of Victorian editions, and ask how big data might help us define and interpret the nineteenth century novel. Authors might include George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, E.M. Forster, Lewis Carroll. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course or instructor consent. 6 credits; LA, WR2, QRE; Fall; Susan Jaret McKinstry

ENGL 328 Victorian Poetry Living in an era of rapid progress and profound doubt, Victorian poets are prolific, challenging, inventive, and insistent that poetry address contemporary questions of social inequity, science, gender, nation, self, race, and knowledge itself. Readings will include works by Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Oscar Wilde, Matthew Arnold, Dante Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Gerard Manley Hopkins, and others, as well as cultural images and documents. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 329 The City in American Literature How do American authors "write the city"? The city as both material reality and metaphor has fueled the imagination of diverse novelists, poets, and playwrights, through tales of fallen women and con men, immigrant dreams, and visions of apocalypse. After studying the realistic tradition of urban fiction at the turn of the twentieth century, we will turn to modern and contemporary re-imaginings of the city, with a focus on Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Selected films, photographs, and historical sources will supplement our investigations of how writers face the challenge of representing urban worlds. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course, or instructor permission. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 332 Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald An intensive study of the novels and short fiction of William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The course will focus on the ethos of experimentation and the "homemade" quality of these innovative stylists who shaped the course of American modernism. Works read will be primarily from the twenties and thirties and will include The Sound and the Fury, In Our Time, Light in August, The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and Go Down, Moses. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 333 Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood is among the most influential and important writers of our time. In this class we will study a wide range of her major work from the beginning of her career to the present, asking questions about genre, feminism, form, etc. While her novels will be our focus, we will also read some of her poetry, short stories, and essays. There will be occasional out-of-class screenings of television and film adaptations of Atwood's work. Prerequisite: One Foundations course in ENGL and one additional 6 credit course in English courses. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 334 Postmodern American Fiction We will get lost in the funhouse of postmodern fiction, in whose mirrored rooms we will encounter Maxwell's Demon, a depressed Krazy Kat, and the icy imagination of the King of Zembla. (Time will be budgeted for side-excursions into pastiche, dreck, and indeterminacy.) Authors read will include Nabokov, Pynchon, Barthelme, and DeLillo. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 345 Queer Literature This course focuses on the relationship between literature and queer theory: how concepts of queerness have shaped, and been shaped by, literary art. Through the study of fiction, poetry, and essays, the class explores changing definitions of LGBTQ+ culture at the intersections of race, ability, size, class, and ethnicity. We will examine how queer political movements create radical spaces to rethink identity politics, and investigate queer literature’s portrayal of queer themes and culture. Authors and theorists include: Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Audre Lorde, Jose Munoz, Leslie Feinberg, Michael Cunningham, James Baldwin, Carmen Maria Machado, and Roxane Gay. Prerequisite: One English foundations courses and one other six credit English course. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2, IDS; Spring; Corrine E Collins

ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts Authors from the colonies and ex-colonies of England have complicated understandings of the locations, forms and indeed the language of the contemporary English novel. This course will examine these questions and the theoretical and interpretive frames in which these writers have often been placed, and probe their place in the global marketplace (and awards stage). We will read writers such as Chinua Achebe, V.S Naipaul, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Salman Rushdie, Nuruddin Farah, Arundhati Roy and Zadie Smith as well as some of the central works of postcolonial literary criticism. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Fall; Arnab Chakladar

ENGL 351 Zadie Smith In this course we will study the majority of the oeuvre of Zadie Smith, a writer who stands at the intersections of a number of traditions of literary study as traditionally construed. All the novels will be read along with some short stories and much of her critical essays and other non-fiction work. We will read the growing body of criticism on her work as well and analyze the ongoing development of one of the major writers of our time. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist Morrison exposes the limitations of the language of fiction, but refuses to be constrained by them. Her quirky, inimitable, and invariably memorable characters are fully committed to the protocols of the narratives that define them. She is fearless in her choice of subject matter and boundless in her thematic range. And the novelistic site becomes a stage for Morrison's virtuoso performances. It is to her well-crafted novels that we turn our attention in this course. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course or instructor permission. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IDS; Winter; Kofi Owusu

ENGL 359 World Literature in the Twenty-First Century Our focus will be on contemporary writers who tend to localize the global and/or globalize the local in their decidedly textured fiction and nonfiction published since 2001. Selected writers include Zinzi Clemmons, Ta-Nehisi Coates, J.M. Coetzee, Junot Diaz, Esi Edugyan, Nuruddin Farah, Yaa Gyasi, Dinaw Mengestu, Chigozie Obioma, and Zadie Smith. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course or instructor permission. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2, IS; Spring; Kofi Owusu

ENGL 362 Narrative Theory "Does the world really present itself to perception in the form of well-made stories?" asks Hayden White, metahistoriographer. To try to answer that question, we will read contemporary narrative theory by critics from several disciplines and apply their theories to literary texts, films, and cultural objects such as graphic novels, television shows, advertisements, and music videos. Prerequisite: One 6-credit English foundations course and one additional 6-credit English course or permission of the instructor. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2019-20

ENGL 366 The Carleton Miscellany An in-depth study of the Carleton Miscellany, a nationally renowned literary quarterly once described as “the nation’s most delightful magazine.” Published at the college for two decades, from 1960-1980, the Miscellany featured the work of a dozen Pulitzer Prize winning authors and that of numerous Carleton faculty. The magazine had a cosmopolitan, international perspective but also reflected its origins in a small, leafy Midwestern college town. We will explore the significance of the Miscellany in the context of the history of “little magazines.” The class will include a variety of student research assignments, some of them from the Carleton archives. Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one additional 6 credit English course. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Fall; Michael J Kowalewski

ENGL 370 Advanced Fiction Workshop An advanced course in the writing of fiction. Students will write three to four short stories or novel chapters which will be read and critiqued by the class. Prerequisite: English 160, 161, 263, 265, 270, 271, 273, Cinema and Media Studies 271, 278, 279, Cross Cultural Studies 270 or Theater 246. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; ARP, WR2; Spring; Gregory B Smith

ENGL 371 Advanced Poetry Workshop For students with some experience in writing poetry, this workshop further develops craft and vision. Readings and exercises will be used to expand the poet's individual range, and to explore the power of poetic language. Over the ten weeks, each poet will write and revise a significant portfolio. Prerequisite: English 160, 161, 263, 265, 270, 271, 273, Cinema and Media Studies 271, 278, 279, Cross Cultural Studies 270 or Theater 246. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; ARP, WR2; Spring; Gregory G Hewett

ENGL 395 Dickinson, Moore, Bishop An intensive study of lyric invention and innovation in Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, and Elizabeth Bishop, 1859 to 1969. Starting with formalist approaches to the poems and exploration of subjects these poets held in common (self, society, knowledge, loss, nature, gender, the senses, empiricism, arts of poetry), we will historicize and situate their poetic practice, reception, influence, and typical poetic effects in relation to specifics of place: Amherst, Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, Key West, and Brazil. Prerequisite: English 295 and one 300-level English course. 6 credits; LA; Fall; Peter J Balaam

ENGL 395 Seductive Fictions Stories of virtue in distress and innocence ruined preoccupied English novelists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This course will focus on the English seduction novel, considering the following questions: What was the allure of the seduction plot? What does it reveal about sexual relations, gender, power, and class during this period? How does the seduction plot address and provoke concerns about novel-reading itself during a time when the novel was considered both an instrument of education and an agent of moral corruption? Authors include: Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Choderlos de Laclos, Thomas Hardy, and Bram Stoker. Prerequisite: English 295 and one 300 level English course. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; LA, WR2; Spring; Jessica L Leiman

ENGL 400 Integrative Exercise Senior English majors may fulfill the integrative exercise by completing one of the four options: the Colloquium Option (a group option in which participants discuss, analyze and write about a thematically coherent list of literary works); the Research Essay Option (an extended essay on a topic of the student's own devising); the Creative Option (creation of a work of literary art); or the Project Option (creation of an individual or group multidisciplinary project). The Research Essay Option is open to students who have completed a senior seminar in the major by the end of fall term senior year. The Creative Option is open only to students who have completed at least two creative writing courses (one of which must be at the 300 level) by the end of fall term senior year. 6 credits; S/NC; Winter, Spring