English (ENGL)
Chair: Professor Constance H. Walker
Professors: Chiara Briganti, Susan Jaret McKinstry, Michael J. Kowalewski, James McDonnell, Elizabeth McKinsey, Frank R. Morral, John F. Schott, Gregory Blake Smith, Robert G. Tisdale, Constance H. Walker, Ruth Weiner
Visiting Professor: Carol Oliver
Associate Professors: Nancy J. Cho, Kofi Owusu, Timothy J. Raylor
Assistant Professor: Gregory G. Hewett
Visiting Assistant Professors: Eleanor C. Courtemanche, Sarah A. Wadsworth
Lecturer: Carol A. Rutz
Instructor: George G. Shuffelton
Visiting Instructor: Timothy M. Mennel
General Information:
Courses numbered from 100 to 290 (introductory courses) are designed for non-majors and prospective majors alike. With the exception of English 200, Methods of Interpretation, and 260, Introduction to Creative Writing, 270, Crafts of Writing: The Short Story, and 271, Crafts of Writing: Poetry, they have no prerequisites. Literature courses numbered 300 and above (upper-level courses) normally require as a prerequisite ONE course numbered 110-175 or the written permission of the instructor. Prerequisites for upper-level courses in writing (English 370, 371 and 375) are as noted below. Courses that fulfill the "advanced seminar requirement" have as a prerequisite English 200. First year students normally do not enroll in courses numbered 300 or above.
Students wishing to prepare for public school teaching should consult with the chair of the department and the Department of Educational Studies as soon as possible.
Students considering graduate study in English should be aware that most graduate schools require one or two ancient or modern languages.
Requirements for a Major:
A. Sixty-six credits in English (not including English 100, 109, 290) distributed as follows:
1. English 110 and 111 preferably taken in this sequence before entering upper-level courses. English 112.
2. English 200, for which any two of the following -- English 110, 111, 112 --are prerequisites, preferably taken in the Sophomore year. Not open to first-year students.
3. At least 36 credits in courses numbered 300-395 taken at Carleton, including six credits in each of the following four groups. One course (6 credits) may be the 200 level (excluding English 200).
Group I: Medieval and Renaissance Literature
210, Medieval Autobiography; 300, Chaucer I: The Canterbury Tales; 310, Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies; 311, Shakespeare: Problem Plays, Tragedies and Romances
Group II: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature
313, The Faerie Queene; 314, Paradise Lost; 315, Restoration Literature; 319, Eighteenth-Century Fiction; 322, Jane Austen.
Group III: Nineteenth-Century British and American Literature
323, English Romantic Poets; 325, Dickens and the Victorian City; 327, Nineteenth-Century Fiction; 328, Victorian Poetry; 333, Writing in the 1850s; 335, American Writers Abroad; 336 Major American Authors: 1850-1920
Group IV: Modernist and Contemporary Literature
117, African American Literature; 230, African American Autobiography; 234, Southern Literature, 235, Asian American Literature; 237, American Indian Literature; 242, Twentieth-Century American Drama; 249, Irish Literature; 330, Literature of the American West; 332, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald; 334, Postmodern American Novel; 337, African American Novelists in Context; 339, Contemporary American Playwrights of Color; 340, Major Modernist Poets; 341, Contemporary Poetry; 343, Contemporary European and American Drama; 344, Twentieth-Century Literature
4. An advanced seminar (English 362 or 395) to be taken during the senior year or the second or third term of the junior year, after at least two 300-level coures.
5. An integrative exercise. A senior may choose:
a. Essay Option: An extended essay on an approved topic. Open only to students who enroll in English 400 Winter Term.
b. Examination Option: A written examination given early in Spring Term.
B. Six credits in literature other than English, read either in translation or, preferably, in the original language.
Double-majors considering completing the integrative exercise during the junior year will need written approval from the departmental chair.
The Two-Credit Essay:
The department encourages students to write a long essay (about 20 to 25 pages) on a subject growing out of an upper-level course. Such essays will normally require additional reading and will be written either while taking the upper-level course or within two terms of completing it. Students wishing to write a two-credit essay must obtain the consent of the instructor before enrolling.
Workshops in Writing:
The Department of English offers workshop courses in the writing of fiction, poetry, memoir, and the essay for those students who wish to gain experience in writing. The writing requirement is a prerequisite for all such courses. Students are encouraged to submit their work to college publications such as The Observer, manuscript, and Breaking Ground.
Writers on the Carleton faculty include poet Gregory Hewett 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 in recent years have included playwrights Lee Blessing and Tony Kushner, memoirists Carol Bly and Patricia Hampl, poets Robert Creeley, Michael Harper, Donald Justice, and Czeslaw Milosz, and fiction-writers Paule Marshall, Jane Hamilton, Ann Beattie, Bobbie Ann Mason, and John Updike.
The Writing Requirement:
Part I of the College's Writing Requirement may be fulfilled in English 100 (Literature Seminar) or in English 109 (Writing Seminar).
English Courses
ENGL 099. Summer Writing Program Emphasizing a writing process approach, the Summer Writing Program helps high school juniors and 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 cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Summer—D. Appleman
ENGL 100. American Autobiography: The Narrative Creation of Self What is an American? This class explores American autobiography, considering such matters as the narrative creation of self, the role of culture in self-definition, and the importance of audience in shaping narrative. Through close reading discussion of such writers as Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Monica Itoi Sone, and Mary McCarthy, students will develop skills in literary analysis. Short papers will focus on thematic and historical relationships. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—C. Oliver
ENGL 100. Reading, Interpreting, and Writing We will read, interpret, and write about a selection of short stories, poems, and plays from The Norton Introduction to Literature. We will, for example, read short stories by Atwood, Baldwin, Bambara, Cortazar, Chekhov, Hawthorne, Joyce, Gabriel Marquez, and Poe; poems by Brooks, Barrett Browning, Coleridge, Dickinson, Lorde, Pound, and Rich; and plays by Sophocles, Wilde, Tennessee Williams and August Wilson. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—K. Owusu
ENGL 100. Literature Seminar A writing seminar designed to teach college students to be successful readers and writers, each section includes a variety of readings in poetry, fiction, prose and drama in order to teach the skills of essay writing, editing and revision, collaborative work and oral presentations. Because of the focus on critical reading and writing, the course also serves as an excellent foundation to the English major. The following sections will be offered in 2002-2003: Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 100. The Writer in the City The restless commercial, political and cultural activity of cities draws writers to consider what it means to be one among many in a metropolis. This course examines the encounter between the writer and the city across a variety of genres, including novels, short stories, plays, essays and poetry. Particular attention will be given to the techniques of narrative, irony, and style. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—G. Shuffelton
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar I Instruction and practice in writing clear and persuasive prose. 6 credits cr., ND, Fall,Winter,Spring—E. Courtemanche, Jm. McDonnell, T. Raylor, S. Wadsworth, C. Walker
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar I This particular offering of the Writing Seminar focuses on the relationship between academic reading across the disciplines and academic writing. Through varied writing assignments you will develop an awareness of how and when to use various writing modes, such as narrative, process-analysis, exposition, and argumentation. Invention, composing and revision will be taught in a workshop setting. 6 credits cr., ND, Fall—G. Hewett
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar I This course focuses on both the process and form of academic writing. Students will read, analyze, and produce a variety of rhetorical forms; they will analyze audience and content in order to make effective choices in organization, content, tone, and style. Students will use feedback from writers' workshops to revise their work for a final writing portfolio. 6 credits cr., ND, Winter,Spring—C. Oliver
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar I A course in expository and persuasive writing. May be repeated once for additional credit. The following sections will be offered in 2002-2003: Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar I Writing is the medium for academic inquiry. In this class, you will choose a topic related to the Japanese internment of American citizens, perform your own research, and write about that topic in several genres: personal reflection, exploration, and persuasion. With the aid of additional selected readings, you will study and practice rhetorical forms designed to serve you as you encounter writing tasks in other courses. 6 credits cr., ND, Fall,Winter—C. Rutz
ENGL 110. English Literature, I Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and lyric poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Required of English majors. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring— Jm. McDonnell, F. Morral, T. Raylor, G. Shuffelton
ENGL 111. English Literature, II Neoclassic, Romantic, and Victorian literature. Required of English majors. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring— C. Briganti, E. Courtemanche, S. Jaret McKinstry, C. Walker
ENGL 112. Introduction to American Literature American literature to 1914 with an emphasis on the periods of Romanticism and Realism. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring—N. Cho, G. Hewett, M. Kowalewski, S. Wadsworth
ENGL 117. African American Literature Cross-listed with AFAM 117. This course provides an overview of African American literature. We will pay particular attention to the tradition of African American literary expression and the individual talent that brings depth and diversity to that tradition. Authors to be read include Baldwin, Baraka, Brooks, Ed Bullins, Douglass, Du Bois, Dunbar, Nikki Giovanni, Hayden, Hughes, Weldon Johnson, Locke, McKay, Morrison, Toomer, Wheatley, and Wilson. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—K. 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 Chaucer to the present; vigorous participation in discussion is mandatory; paper assignments will challenge you to formalize your understanding of particular works. And you'll be asked to write a poem or two, to give you a practitioner's understanding of this ancient and living art. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—G. Hewett
ENGL 120. Modern Literature: British and American Selected poems and prose narratives written since 1910. Senior English majors may take this course only with the consent of the instructor. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—R. Tisdale
ENGL 130. Shakespeare I About ten plays. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—Jm. McDonnell
ENGL 175. Drama/Theatre/Text Cross-listed with THEA 175. We will study a selection of 10-15 plays as literary texts and as the foundations of performance. These plays are selected both for their literary stature and for their association with specific art and/or critical movements. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—R. Weiner
ENGL 200. Methods of Interpretation This course is required of students majoring in English. It will deal with practical and theoretical issues in literary analysis and contemporary criticism. Prerequisites: English 110 and 111. Not open to first year students. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—S. Jaret McKinstry, T. Raylor
ENGL 210. Medieval Autobiography Many of the greatest philosophers, mystics, and poets of the Middle Ages attempted to tell the stories of their lives, often in an attempt to justify or to apologize for past actions. By reading memoirs, letters, and poetry, we will look to identify some of the established conventions of medieval autobiography, and ask whether there was a genre that could properly be called autobiography at all. Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—G. Shuffelton
ENGL 220. Arts of Oral Presentation Instruction and practice in being a speaker and an audience in formal and informal settings. 3 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Spring—F. Morral
ENGL 230. African American Autobiography Cross-listed with AFAM 230. The African American slave narrative chronicles remarkable transformations: how a (wo)man was made a slave and how a slave was made a (wo)man. The ex-slave's affirmation of selfhood found expression in first-person narratives that launched a literary tradition. We will place this emerging tradition in its historical context, discuss its defining characteristics, and trace its development in twentieth-century African American autobiography. Our definition of "the literary" will not be divorced from relevant cultural codes and historical context. We will read classic slave narratives by Equiano, Douglass, and Jacobs; and twentieth-century autobiography by Washington, Hurston, Wright, Malcolm X, Angelou, Brooks, and Njeri. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Spring—K. Owusu
ENGL 231. From Memory to Memoir Cross-listed with WGST 340. This is a writing class, designed to help students transform personal experience into finished narrative. Classes will feature visits from published writers, practical writing exercises, informal workshops and discussions about this new and important genre. We will deal largely (but not exclusively) with women's writing and experience, as well as with the intersection of personal, family and cross-cultural experience. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—Jn. McDonnell
ENGL 234. Southern Literature Cross-listed with ENTS 233. A study of the southern literary imagination from the Civil War to the present, with particular emphasis on the Southern Literary Renaissance in the early 20th century. We will examine the cultural iconography of the South, reading poetry, fiction, and drama that explores southern writers' engagement with race, history, gender and "place." Authors read will include Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Robert Penn Warren, Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, and Cormac McCarthy. We will also watch a few films in connection with the course, including Gone with the Wind. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—M. Kowalewski
ENGL 235. Asian American Literature This course is an introduction to major works and authors of fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry from about 1900 to the present. Though contemporary writers such as Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston have brought Asian American literature to popular attention, these accomplishments are part of a rich tradition of Asian American writing that dates back to the turn of the century. In this course we will pay particular attention to the historical, social, and political contexts of the works we read, in order to explore how diverse Asian American literary traditions have developed. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 236. American Nature Writing Cross-listed with ENTS 236. 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 Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, Mary Austin, Jeffers, Abbey, Merwin, Silko, Snyder, and Terry Tempest Williams. Students will write a creative Natural History essay as part of the course requirements. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 237. American Indian Literature Cross-listed with ENTS 237. Study and discussion of Native American literature from its graphic and oral roots to contemporary memoir, fiction, and poetry. Twentieth century authors read will include Charles Eastman, James Welch, N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Susan Power, LeAnne Howe, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Sherman Alexie. Topics to be discussed will include the importance of place, spiritual life, nature and the "supernatural," and diverse representations of historical events, community, and individual and tribal identity. The course will also critique the depiction of Native Americans by Euro-Americans in popular media. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—R. Tisdale
ENGL 240. Directing Cross-listed with THEA 240. An introduction to the process of directing plays. 6 credits cr., ND, Winter—Staff
ENGL 241. American Drama of the Last Decade Cross-listed with THEA 241. . This exploration of contemporary dramatic literature will focus on theatrical experimentation, political expression, and the depiction of social realities in works by American playwrights of the past decade. Plays by Naomi Iizuka, Mac Wellman, Jane Martin, Naomi Wallace and others will be examined in terms of production dramaturgy -- the research, analysis and interpretation required to produce these plays on stage. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—M. Dixon
ENGL 242. Twentieth-Century American Drama Cross-listed with THEA 242. A study of a selection of important American plays from Eugene O'Neill's Hairy Ape (1920) to Tony Kushner's Angels in America (1992) in the context of larger American themes and cultural preoccupations. The premise of this course is that these plays define the American theatre for most of this century. By studying them we will gain understanding of our own culture and the links that connect this culture to the transformative events of the century. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—R. Weiner
ENGL 243. Classic Theater: Aeschylus to Shakespeare Cross-listed with THEA 243. The study of dramatic literature in historical context, focusing not only on the plays but on the spaces, conditions, and conventions of theatrical performance from the ancient Greeks to Shakespeare. The class will also examine contemporary attempts to restage these works. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 244. Classic Theater: Shakespeare to Modernism Cross-listed with THEA 244. The study of dramatic literature in historical context, focusing not only on the plays but on the spaces, conditions, and conventions of theatrical performance from Shakespeare through the beginnings of modernism. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 246. Playwriting Cross-listed with THEA 246. A laboratory to explore the craft of playwriting, concentrating on structure, action and character. The class uses games, exercises, scenes, with the goal of producing a short play by the end of the term. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 249. Irish Literature After a brief introduction to earlier literary texts, the course will concentrate on twentieth century fiction, poetry and drama by W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, J. M. Synge, Brian Friel, Frank O'Connor, Sean O'Faolain, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor, Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill and many others. We will pay particular attention to the recurrent themes of national and cultural identity, the plight of women in a repressive society, the perspectives of children, the power of religion and the prevalence of violence. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—Jm. McDonnell
ENGL 250. Linguistics and the Literary Art Cross-listed with LING 250. This course examines approaches to the question: "How do artists who use language as a medium manipulate that medium, and to what effect?". Prerequisite: Linguistics 110 or permission of instructor. 6 credits cr., SS, Fall—M. Flynn
ENGL 260. Introduction to Creative Writing This course offers blocks of intensive training in poetry, prose fiction, and what has recently been termed "creative non-fiction." The primary objective is to come to an understanding of the varying and at times overlapping capabilities of these three genres and to produce works in each. Discussion of each participant's writing is the central mode of instruction. This will be supplemented by examples from published writers and some theoretical essays on the creative process. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 270. The Crafts of Writing: The Short Story An introduction to the writing of the short story. Each student will write and have discussed in class three stories (from 1,500 to 4,000 words in length) and give constructive suggestions about the stories written by other members of the class. Students are expected to write brief critiques of each story written by their classmates. Prerequisite: writing requirement. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Spring—G. Smith
ENGL 271. The Crafts of Writing: Poetry This course concerns itself with the development of poetic vision as much as craft. Through intensive writing and revision of poetry, supplemented by reading and discussion of contemporary poetry and poetics, each member of the group will form a body of work and a statement that stakes a poetic claim. The objective is to begin to discover how each of us fits or does not fit into the modern poetical tradition and the diverse contemporary poetry scene, so as to free us from solipsism and vague notions of the powers of poetry. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Fall—G. Hewett
ENGL 280. Trade Publishing And The Control Of Cultural Information We will explore trade publishing as a business--editing, design, production, printing, and marketing --and also as a means of controlling information. The primary focus will be the production and content of Nicholson Baker's Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, drawing on access to the author's and editor's files. We will carefully trace the book's development from manuscript to publication, and also consider topics raised in it, including the roles of libraries; the transmission of information through different technologies; and the inescapable power of money in cultural decisions. 3 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Fall—T. Mennel
ENGL 290. London Program: Directed Reading in London During the winter break students participating in the seminar will read selected works from a reading list on British historical background, drama, and theater. An examination on this reading will be given during the first or second week in London. 3 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Winter—R. Weiner
Upper-level Courses:
The following courses are not open to first-year students except with the written permission of the instructor, and most have as a prerequisite one related introductory course in English or American Literature. See "General Information" above.
ENGL 300. Chaucer I: The Canterbury Tales A study of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English (no previous knowledge assumed), concentrating on the pilgrims as narrating subjects, and Chaucer's legendary status as the "Father" of English literature. Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—G. Shuffelton
ENGL 310. Shakespeare: The Histories and Comedies A study of Shakespeare's Lancastrien Tetralogy and of his comedies of the 1590's. Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—F. Morral
ENGL 311. Shakespeare: Problem Plays, Tragedies and Romances Cross-listed with THEA 311. A study of plays chosen from the second half of Shakespeare's career as a playwright. Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—Jm. McDonnell
ENGL 313. Major Works of the English Renaissance: The Faerie Queene A study of Spenser's romance epic. Group II. 3 credits cr., AL, Winter—T. Raylor
ENGL 314. Major Works of the English Renaissance: Paradise Lost An examination of Milton's masterwork. Group II. 3 credits cr., AL, Winter—T. Raylor
ENGL 315. Restoration Literature Frequently disparaged on account of its immorality and profanity, or compressed into a prologue for the eighteenth century, the literature of the later seventeenth century has only recently emerged as a subject worthy of study in its own right. We will examine the preferred forms of the age—drama (comedy) and poetry (lyric and satire)—in their social, political, and ideological contexts (e.g. city, court, and country; manuscript vs. print culture; the institutionalization of science; skepticism and libertinism; moral objections to literature). Authors will include Dryden, Rochester, and Aphra Behn. Group II. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—T. Raylor
ENGL 319. Eighteenth-Century Fiction The first great English novelists—Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, Burney, and Austen. Group II. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—S. Jaret McKinstry
ENGL 322. 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. Group II. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—C. Walker
ENGL 323. English Romantic Poets "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. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—C. Walker
ENGL 325. Dickens and the Victorian City In the nineteenth century, the city of London was transformed by industrial wealth into a hugely sprawling metropolis, in which the rich and powerful rubbed shoulders with criminals, prostitutes, and homeless children. Charles Dickens responded to the shock of this unprecedented kind of human experience with novels that, like the city, were hugely sprawling, but that also asserted the power of love, imagination, and political justice over urban alienation. In this class, we will read selected Dickens novels, including Oliver Twist, Hard Times, and Bleak House, as well as descriptions of the Victorian city by Baudelaire, Benjamin, Briggs, and Williams. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—E. Courtemanche
ENGL 327. Nineteenth-Century Fiction This course will study some of the major novels of the nineteenth century, examining their concern with social debates over the public and the private, crime and the law, the collective and the individual, and the masculine and the feminine. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—Jm. McDonnell
ENGL 328. Victorian Poetry A study of Victorian poetry with particular emphasis on Pre-Raphaelite poetry and paintings. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—S. Jaret McKinstry
ENGL 329. Aestheticism and Decadence Britain in the 1890s ruled the world's most powerful empire, but this political supremacy co-existed with great cultural ferment. While intellectuals explored new definitions of sexuality, irrationality, violence, and national identity, artists pursued symbolic and lushly ornamental forms of beauty, or "art for art's sake." This course will include works by Yeats, Morris, Wilde, Rachilde, Freud, Stoker, and Haggard, as well as some discussion of the New Woman and Art Nouveau. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—E. Courtemanche
ENGL 330. Literature of the American West Cross-listed with ENTS 330. 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, Castillo, and Cormac McCarthy have dealt with the geographical diversity and multiethnic history of the West. Films will include The Searchers, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Unforgiven, and Lone Star. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—M. Kowalewski
ENGL 332. Studies in American Literature: 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 experimentation ethos and "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. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 333. Studies in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Writing in the 1850s This course introduces students to the History of the Book as a field of study by focusing on American literary culture during the 1850s: a decade of perhaps unmatched literary achievement in U.S. history. Tracing the emergence of modern authorship and publishing, we will examine the parallel courses of popular and belletristic writing at the height of the American Renaissance. Readings include texts by canonical authors such as Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau, and Whitman, along with the first national "bestsellers" and selections from popular genres traditionally regarded as ephemeral. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 334. Studies in American Literature: The Postmodern American Novel Is there such a thing as Postmodernism? And if there is, how do we define it? What sets Postmodern literature apart from the literature of the first half of the twentieth century? Or is Postmodernism merely a deviant branch of Modernism? We will try to answer these questions, first by using a classic Modernist text (let's say, Hemingway), to define Modernism, and then by reading a number of authors frequently referred to as Postmodern (Nabokov, Barth, Pynchon, Morrison, and others). Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 335. Studies in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: American Writers Abroad During the nineteenth century, American writers rediscovered the world. Whether on the European "Grand Tour," a government appointment, self-imposed exile, a commercial voyage, or an expedition to regions seldom visited by Westerners, American writers frequently drew upon their journeys abroad in crafting literary material. We will examine a wide range of novels, short fiction, and nonfiction travel sketches in which these writers imaginatively revisit a variety of destinations, ranging from Northern Europe to the South Seas. Authors studied will include James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Mark Twain, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and Edith Wharton. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—S. Wadsworth
ENGL 336. Studies in American Literature: Major American Authors: 1850-1920 Reading and discussion of works by major American authors of the nineteenth century: Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, Melville's Moby Dick, Twain's Huckleberry Finn, James's Portrait of a Lady, Wharton's House of Mirth, and the poetry of Dickinson and Frost. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 337. African American Novelists in Context Cross-listed with AFAM 337. This course will discuss Baldwin, Hurston, Ellison, Charles Johnson, Paule Marshall, Morrison, Naylor, Wideman, and Wright as formal technicians and wordsmiths, and assess these writers' contribution—individually and collectively—to the novelistic tradition in the twentieth century. We will read and discuss novels from the 1930s (Their Eyes were Watching God), 1940s (Native Son), 1950s (Invisible Man and Go Tell It On the Mountain), 1960s (The Chosen Place, The Timeless People), 1970s (Song of Solomon), 1980s (Mama Day), and the 1990s (Middle Passage and Philadelphia Fire). Prerequisite: One of the following courses: English/African American Studies 117; English 112, or with instructor's permission. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 339. Contemporary American Playwrights of Color Cross-listed with THEA 339. This course will examine a diverse selection of plays from the 1970s to the present with an attempt to understand how different theatrical venues frame our understanding of ethnic identity. Playwrights and performers to be studied include Ntozake Shange, George C. Wolfe, Luis Valdez, David Henry Hwang, August Wilson, Philip Gotanda, Wakako Yamauchi, Maria Irene Fornes, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Ann Deavere Smith. There will be occasional video screenings and we will attend live theatrical performances when possible. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Winter—N. Cho
ENGL 340. Major Modernist Poets Study of the work of modernist poets writing in English, including W.B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), William Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore. Their poems will be studied in context of both World Wars, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, as well as in relation to Romantic and Georgian poetry, the confessional poets, Beat poetry, the Black Mountain School. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 341. Contemporary Poetry Studies in poetry written in English since 1945. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—G. Hewett
ENGL 343. Contemporary European and American Drama Cross-listed with THEA 343. We will begin with a study of the key developments in post-WWII drama: Theater of the Absurd, and the development of hard-hitting political drama in Britain. We will also see how elements of the absurd and political intermingle in the more distinctly American social commentary of Shepard and Mamet. Finally, we will focus on recent works that interrogate, parody, or de-familiarize differences of race, gender, or sexual orientation. Our analysis of these works will be historical and performative as well as literary, and may be aided by occasional video screenings and "field trips" to professional productions. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 344. Twentieth-Century Literature This course offers intensive study of modernist novels written before World War II. Authors include: Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Djuna Barnes, William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, and James Joyce. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 346. The Anglo-American Tradition in Children's Literature This course surveys the development of children's literature in Britain and the United States from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—S. Wadsworth
ENGL 347. Women, Men, Modernism and Modernity Cross-listed with WGST 347. This course seeks to intervene in the current lively debate over the definitions and meanings of Modernity and Modernism. We will examine a selection of literature, social investigation, and criticism concerning Modernist and Modern experimentation, against the background of historical events such as the General Strike of 1926, World War I, World War II and the role of magazines and of housing policies in the revalidation of domesticity and the construction of gender. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—C. Briganti
ENGL 351. Women Playwrights/Women's Roles Cross-listed with THEA 351,WGST 351. A study of images of women in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Strindberg, Tennessee Williams, and a number of women playwrights from Hellman and Clare Booth Luce to Caryl Churchill to Ntozaue Shange. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 362. Narrative Theory Cross-listed with MEDA 362. "Does the world really present itself to perception in the form of well-made stories?" asks Hayden White (historiographer). To try to answer that question, we will read contemporary narrative theory and analyze various literary texts and films. This course fulfills the advanced seminar requirement. Prerequisite: English 200. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—S. Jaret McKinstry
ENGL 370. Advanced Crafts of Writing: The Short Story An advanced course in the writing of fiction. Students are expected to write brief critiques of each story written by their classmates. Prerequisite: writing requirement. Students must submit a story to the English Department Office prior to registration. Final enrollment is based on the quality of the submitted work. May be repeated for credit. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 371. Advanced Crafts of Writing: Poetry For students with some experience in writing poetry. We will take a workshop approach that develops the individual poet's craft and vision. Readings and exercises will be used to explore the poet's individual range and expand ideas about what poetic language can do. The goal of this course is for each poet to create a sequence of eight poems unified by technique, subject matter, form, or sensibility as well as eight experimental poems. A group public reading will be scheduled. Prerequisite: writing requirement. Students must submit three poems to the English Department Office prior to registration. Final enrollment is based on the quality of the submitted work. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Spring—G. Hewett
ENGL 375. Advanced Rhetoric Theory and practice, oral and written. Open to juniors and seniors only. Prerequisite: writing requirement. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Winter—T. Raylor
ENGL 379. Methods of Literacy Instruction Cross-listed with EDUC 379. This course introduces students to a variety of approaches and perspective in teaching English language arts in grades 5-12. We will explore methodologies and issues surrounding the teaching of reading, literature, language and composition in middle and high schools. In addition to the usual course components of reading, writing, and discussion approximately one day per week outside of class time will be devoted to observation and mini-teaching in 5-12 grade English classes in the Twin Cities. Prerequisites: Senior English major, permission of the instructor and Educational Studies 234. 6 credits cr., ND, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 380. London Program: The London Theatre Students will attend over 25 productions and will discuss and write on the best of these. Questions to be discussed: What makes a good play? Why a play and the theater rather than a movie or a novel? How does the production determine our experience of a given script? In Stratford-on-Avon the group will see the Royal Shakespeare Company. Guess actors, directors, designers and/or playwrights, and critics will join students for selected classes. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—R. Weiner
ENGL 381. London Program: Contemporary British Drama This course focuses on the genealogy of a number of avant-garde and fringe plays, which students will read and maybe even see. The course will attempt to connect these plays with their roots in the political and social mainstream of British and other European theater and society. Seminar participants will study the plays of Caryl Churchill, Tom Stoppard, David Hare, Patrick Marber, and others. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—R. Weiner
ENGL 386. California Program: The Literature of California Cross-listed with AMST 386,ENTS 386. 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 Jack London, John Muir, Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, Robinson Jeffers, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, Joan Didion, Gary Snyder, and Maxine Hong Kingston. Films will include Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, The Grapes of Wrath, Zoot Suit, L.A. Confidential, and Blade Runner. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2002-2003.
ENGL 395. First Person Singular? Autobiographies, memoirs, and personal essays, primarily by twentieth-century American authors. Among texts which may be studied in whole or part are Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, Henry Adams's Autobiography, Gertrude Stein's Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Ernest Hemingway's Moveable Feast, Patricia Hampl's Sentimental Education, Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation, and Nabokov's Speak Memory. We will ask how are voice and persona established and exploited, through what narrative and figural strategies may the various topics of one's personal life be treated, what are the differences between autobiography and memoir, and other questions relating to both the content and form of these genres. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—R. Tisdale
ENGL 395. Vladimir Nabokov We will put on our explorer's gear, make sure our dues are paid up to the Society for the Propagation of the Irreal, and venture into the magical worlds of Vladimir Nabokov, the greatest novelist of the second half of the twentieth-century (the chair will entertain objections only from Señor Garcia Marquez). We will lovingly pet the fauna of the Russian novels, inhale the exotic flora of the American novels, and fly from Terra to Antiterra where accommodations for fifteen intrepid souls have been booked at The Enchanted Hunters. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—G. Smith
ENGL 395. James Joyce's Ulysses: Myths, Style, Genre This is a seminar focused on Ulysses but seeing that novel in its development from Dubliners through Portrait of the Artist and in the context of Homer's Odyssey, Joyce's uses of myth, and his experiments with style and the novel as a form. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—F. Morral
ENGL 395. Toni Morrison: Nobel Laureate Cross-listed with AFAM 395. We will read Morrison's nonfictional collection, Playing in the Dark, and her fiction (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise) and discuss the impact of this writer, critic, and professor on African American and American literature and letters. This course is not open to first- and second-year students. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—K. Owusu
ENGL 400. Integrative Exercise Senior English majors may fulfill the integrative exercise either by taking a comprehensive examination based on a departmental reading list, or by writing a senior thesis on a topic approved by the department. The topic must be convincingly defined before the end of fall term, a substantial portion must be written by the middle of winter term, and the final draft must be submitted by the due date early in spring term. Those who choose the exam option should form groups to discuss the texts on the reading list. The six-hour exam will be given early in the spring term. No student may change from the paper to the exam option later than the deadline established by the department (one week after the winter term portion is due). Students may register for the integrative exercise according to their individual requirements, the grade will be registered at the end of spring term. 6 credits cr., S/NC, ND, Winter,Spring—N. Cho, R. Tisdale