English
A major in English at the University of Michigan-Dearborn focuses on the dynamic intersection of language, literature, and society as well as the identities and communities shaped by this intersection. This program can be completed fully online, in person, or a combination of both
English majors have the opportunity to explore the relationships between reading and writing printed text by becoming familiar with the strategies that writers use to shape conceptions of truth. The English faculty’s primary goal is to help students develop a sensitivity to the ways spoken and printed language frame how we conceive and discuss our identities throughout history, in the context of a global community both in — and beyond — Metropolitan Detroit. English majors may expect to develop a close relationship to the social ramifications of the written word and its potential for incorporating both communities and individuals into a larger, more internationally aware reading and listening audience.
The UM-Dearborn English faculty offer courses that contextualize language in terms of the various traditions and genres of British and American literature, and of world literature in English, and that provide the critical skills necessary to craft effective expository and creative prose.
The English faculty are both committed, innovative teachers and active scholars, and include recipients of the campus’s awards for Distinguished Teaching and Distinguished Research. Faculty frequently direct students in independent study projects, and often teach courses that connect literature to other fields, from history and the arts to religion, philosophy, science, and visual culture.
Humanities Internship Program
The Humanities Internship Program offers practical experience to students concentrating in English and other humanistic fields and those interested in communication or journalism. Students gain and demonstrate skills desired by employers, make important contacts, and explore a field of work before graduation. For more information on the Humanities Internship, see the Internship Coordinator, 2040 CB, 313-593-5136, or inquire at the Language, Culture and the Arts Department office in 3016 CB, 313-593-4778.
Independent Study
Independent Study (ENGL 399) provides an opportunity for students to extend the work of existing courses or to explore areas not included in the current course offerings. Consult the Language, Culture and the Arts Department Guidelines for Independent Study, available in the Department Office, 3016 CB, 313-593-4778. To enroll in an independent research project, students must have a prior, written Independent Study Contract with the instructor and prior, written permission of the Department Chair. One to three credit hours available.
Dearborn Discovery Core (General Education)
All students must satisfy the University’s Dearborn Discovery Core requirements, in addition to the requirements for the major. Students must also complete all CASL Degree Requirements.
Prerequisites to the Major
Students are required to complete the following as a prerequisite:
Code | Title | Credit Hours |
---|---|---|
ENGL 200 | Intro to English Studies | 4 |
This course serves as the “gateway” to the major with enrollment limited to 20 students per section. ENGL 200 exposes students to the terms of English Studies, literary criticism and literary theory, knowledge essential to higher-level English courses.
Virtually all upper-level English courses require as prerequisites ENGL 200 and COMP 106 or equivalent. In addition, other prerequisites for a specific upper-level English course may be introduced by the instructor in the term in which the course is offered. Students are advised to consult the current Schedule of Classes for prerequisites each term. If a student has not satisfied the prerequisites of a course, the student may be enrolled by permission of the instructor, provided that there are other relevant qualifications.
Major Requirements
All students majoring in English must complete 32 credit hours of upper- level ENGL.
Code | Title | Credit Hours |
---|---|---|
All of the following survey courses are required: 1 | ||
ENGL 311 | History of Storytelling I: Beowulf to 18th C British Literature | 4 |
ENGL 312 | Hist of Storytelling II: Opium-Poets, Romantic Novelists, & Modern Patriots | 4 |
ENGL 314 | History of Storytelling III: 20th and 21st Century Literature in Context | 4 |
Additional English Electives - 20 credit hours of upper level ENGL courses. The electives must include 1 class in English Diversity (CAED), 1 class in English Historical (CAEH), and 1 class in English Research Intensive or Independent Study. See below for CAED, CAEH, and CAER courses. ENGL 238 and 239 can apply to the CAED requirement but do not count as an upper-level elective/course. | 20 | |
Total Credit Hours | 32 |
- 1
Students are encouraged to take these surveys early in their careers so that they acquire an overview of literary history before taking more specialized upper-level courses. Students are required to take all four, but they can be taken at any time after ENGL 200 and are not prerequisites for other courses.
The English Diversity Requirement (CAED): English majors must elect one course with substantial inclusion of literature in English that expands the traditional Anglo-American literary curriculum. This literature may represent various national groups, ethnic groups, genders, and subcultures. The following courses satisfy the English “Diversity Requirement”:
Code | Title | Credit Hours |
---|---|---|
ENGL/AAST 238 | Storytelling: Arab American Literature (ENGL 238 will not count in the 32 upper level credits required for the major.) | 4 |
ENGL/AAAS 239 | Storytelling: African American Literature (ENGL 239 will not count in the 32 upper level credits required for the major.) | 4 |
ENGL 328 | The Ethnic-American Short-Story Cycle | 4 |
ENGL 351 | Arab Literature in English | 4 |
ENGL/AAAS 389 | Black Men in America | 4 |
ENGL/WGST 445 | 20C/21C Women Authors | 3 |
ENGL/AAAS 469 | Contemporary African Amer Lit | 4 |
ENGL/WGST 471 | LGBTQ Literature | 4 |
ENGL/AAST/WGST 473 | Arab American Women Writers | 4 |
ENGL 4705/AAAS 470/HUM 4705/WGST 470 | Black Women / Lit, Film, Music | 4 |
Or other options that may be avilable on a semester by semester basis. |
Courses that satisfy the English Diversity Requirement will be noted in the Schedule of Classes for any particular semester.
The English Historical Requirement (CAEH): English majors must elect one courses which addresses literature prior to 1800. Choose from:
Code | Title | Credit Hours |
---|---|---|
ENGL/HUM/RELS 349 | The Bible In/As Literature | 3 |
ENGL/HUM 358 | Shakespeare on Film | 4 |
ENGL 372 | Renaissance Heroes, Lovers, Explorers | 4 |
ENGL 408 | Shakespeare I: Earlier Works | 4 |
ENGL 409 | Shakespeare II: Later Works | 4 |
ENGL 410 | Major Renaissance Poets & Playwrights | 4 |
ENGL 413 | Shakespeare's Contemporaries | 4 |
ENGL 424 | Celebrity, Fame, & English Novelists | 4 |
ENGL 427 | Jane Austen | 4 |
ENGL 422 | Satire & The Gothic | 4 |
ENGL 430 | Censored and Canceled Literature | 4 |
The English Research Intensive Requirement (CAER): English majors must elect one course designated “Research Intensive,” from the following list:
Code | Title | Credit Hours |
---|---|---|
ENGL 358 | Shakespeare on Film | 4 |
ENGL 408 | Shakespeare I: Earlier Works | 4 |
ENGL 409 | Shakespeare II: Later Works | 4 |
ENGL 410 | Major Renaissance Poets & Playwrights | 4 |
ENGL 413 | Shakespeare's Contemporaries | 4 |
ENGL 424 | Celebrity, Fame, & English Novelists | 4 |
ENGL 427 | Jane Austen | 4 |
ENGL 430 | Censored and Canceled Literature | 4 |
ENGL 450 | Democracy? in U.S. Romanticism | 4 |
ENGL 451 | Outsiders & U.S. Regionalism | 4 |
ENGL 473 | Arab American Women Writers | 4 |
ENGL 487 | Monsters, Women & the Gothic | 4 |
Or an "Independent Studies in English" (ENGL 399) | 3 |
Notes:
- At least 16 of the 32 upper level credit hours in English (ENGL) must be elected at UM-D.
Minor or Integrative Studies Concentration Requirements
A minor or concentration consists of a minimum of 15 credit hours of upper-level courses in English (ENGL).
- A minimum GPA of 2.0 is required for the minor/concentration. The GPA is based on all coursework required within the minor (excluding prerequisites).
- The use of transfer credit, field placements, internships, seminars, S/E graded courses, and independent study/research courses is limited to 3 credits in a 12 credit hour minor/concentration and 6 credits in a 15 credit hour and above minor/concentration.
- Courses within a minor/concentration cannot be taken as Pass/Fail (P/F).
- Minors requiring 12 credits may share one course with a major. Minors requiring 15 credits or more may share two courses with a major. This does not apply to concentrations for the Integrative Studies major.
Learning Goals
Students completing a concentration in English are exposed to texts and conversations about texts so that they may understand how the literary imagination works. Students should emerge with (1) a set of technical skills and (2) an understanding of a variety of critical frameworks and contexts for communicating insights about texts. Specifically, students successfully completing an English major will be able to demonstrate:
Skills: Reading, Writing, Conducting Research, Informed Criticism
- Facility at "close reading"--the ability to read texts for both denotative and connotative meaning, and to use appropriate literary concepts and terminology.
- The ability to use writing to analyze, interpret, and make arguments about texts
- The ability to conduct and incorporate research into writing about texts, providing appropriate documentation
- The ability to apply critical theories and methodologies to texts
Understandings: Cultural, Historical, and Diverse Contexts
- Understanding of the relationship between works of literature and the cultures in which they are embedded
- Understanding of literary genres and traditions
- Understanding of the presence and role of diverse voices within the traditional Anglo-American literary canon
Goal 1: Acquire rigorous, discipline-specific inquiry skills; apply theories to and construct models for real-world problems; discuss and produce work using disciplinary conventions for writing, research, and communication
Goal 2: Ability to seek information, explore situations systematically, collect and analyze evidence, make informed evaluations; synthesize and integrate knowledge within and across courses and programs, and integrate theory and practice; solve problems through original, imaginative, innovative, or artistic effort; use ethical reasoning in problem solving
Goal 3: The ability to communicate clearly and effectively to an identified audience both in writing and orally
Goal 4: Work actively and effectively as part of a team to answer questions and solve problems; evaluate collaborative products and processes; grapple with differences and diversity, and resolve conflict
Goal 5: Reflect on experiences with diversity to demonstrate knowledge and sensitivity; awareness of diversity within and across cultures; ability to collaborate in a global setting through awareness of language and cultural differences
Goal 6: Engage in case-study, scenario analyses, and problem-solving activities; participate in curricular and co-curricular work integral to UMD's metropolitan mission; exposure to diversity, strength, and challenges of metropolitan community; engaging in activities that cultivate the habit of lifelong learning
ENGL 200 Intro to English Studies 4 Credit Hours
An introduction to English Studies for English concentrators. The course provides students with the interpretive, analytical and basic research skills, the critical vocabulary, the understanding of genre, and the knowledge of major critical approaches necessary for the study of literature. Readings will consist primarily of poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fiction prose written in English by British and American authors, but the course will also include other historical and cultural texts as well as works of criticism. Students will submit at least 20 pages of written work for extensive instructor feedback. (F,W)
ENGL 205 Storytelling: Pride and Prejudice 4 Credit Hours
In this introduction to the tools and purpose of collegiate literary analysis, we read Jane Austen's novel _Pride and Prejudice_ for what its popularity suggests about the function of "Literature" during the twenty-first century. Students will read the original novel followed by its adaptations in film, novelistic sequels/prequels, graphic novels, and children's literature. The course also serves as a introduction to the social value of imaginative fiction. (YR).
ENGL 206 Storytelling: Westerns 4 Credit Hours
This course will study a specific genre, westerns, traditionally made up of stories of cowboys and conquest but more recently an expansive, often radical, mode of expression. We will study a diverse range of texts that can all be described as westerns to help us understand how cultural values are shaped by and can be challenged by imaginative texts, to understand how a diverse range of authors and audiences have used a familiar genre to tell their unique stories, and to understand how literary language works to create thematic meaning and emotional effects. This course will introduce students to the study of literature and the tools of literary analysis through the lens of storytelling, in other words: the way we make meaning about our individual and collective experiences through the act of telling stories. (YR).
ENGL 223 Intro to Creative Writing 3 Credit Hours
An introduction to the writing of poetry, the short story, and/or the play. Considerable writing analysis, criticism, and discussion. (F, W).
Prerequisite(s): COMP 106 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280
ENGL 230 Storytelling: Literature of all Kinds 4 Credit Hours
Introduces students to imaginative literature in many genres, including, for example, short stories, novels, poetry, and drama. Texts include any imaginative fiction in the English language, regardless of the author’s national or ethnic origins. Stress will be both on tracing the social value of reading literature in the twenty-first century and on understanding the skills and process involved in close-reading how imaginative literature affects readers and the truths they live. (YR).
ENGL 232 Storytelling: Short Stories 4 Credit Hours
This course explores a selection of short stories - some funny, some heartbreaking, some morose, and some creepy - that will help us scrutinize the art of great storytelling. We will explore how authors use different imaginative techniques to craft their fictive worlds and their perspectives on human experience. We will consider the socio-cultural contexts of stories, why readers might interpret stories in different ways, and what individual stories reveal about the authors who produced them and the readers who feel compelled to read them. Students will acquire the basic critical vocabulary used to discuss fiction and will have opportunities to apply the varied literary techniques from our texts in their own creative engagements. (F, W).
ENGL 233 Storytelling: Plays & Performance 4 Credit Hours
A selection of plays both historical and contemporary that elucidates the art of great playwriting. We will consider how playwrights use theater to address social issues specific to their times as well as universal human experiences such as love. Students will learn how various aspects of stage performance – script, actors, costumes, set design, etc. – work to communicate social or political meaning or effect an emotional response in audiences. Special emphasis will be placed throughout on the play as a theatrical experience, and on close-reading as a method of tracing and interpreting each play’s themes. We will watch excerpts from stage performances and interviews with actors and directors. Students will acquire the basic critical vocabulary to discuss drama and will have opportunities for creative engagements. (F, W).
ENGL 238 Storytelling: Arab American Literature 4 Credit Hours
This course in an introduction to Arab American literature, its historical and cultural contexts and contemporary relevance. Topics will include the literary and cultural productions of Arab immigrants, their transnational vision, and explorations of such concepts as home, memory and identity; the literary, dramatic and poetic responses of Arab American writers to 9/11 and the ongoing the war on terror; the role Arab American literature in offering different versions of Arab and Arab American lives and experiences from the one circulated in mainstream media, Hollywood cinema and culture.
ENGL 239 Storytelling: African American Literature 4 Credit Hours
A study of African-American literature designed to expose students to important periods, works, and authors within historical context. Topics will include slavery, reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the contemporary renaissance in Black women's literature. Students will be required to read, critically discuss, analyze, and write their responses to several literary genres that will be incorporated (fiction, drama, poetry).
ENGL 248 Storytelling Across Media 4 Credit Hours
This course introduces students to the building blocks that make up great storytelling across multiple types of media and approaches, including online journalism, movies, podcasting, and more. Students will learn the foundations of narrative and apply that understanding to creating both fiction and nonfiction stories of their own for a variety of media, including websites, video, and audio. (YR).
ENGL 301 Literary Criticism 4 Credit Hours
This course introduces literary criticism and theory from Aristotle to the present, focusing on the changing concept of literature's nature and function. Lectures, readings, and discussion cover such critics as Aristotle, Dryden, Pope, Johnson, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Arnold, T. E. Hulme, I. A. Richards, T. S. Eliot, and such movements as New Criticism, Phenomenology, Reader-Response, Archetypal Criticism, psychological approaches to literature, New Historicism, Marxism, Feminism, and Deconstruction. This course is a Project Based Learning centered on a major project and/or on a research question related to the topic of the class and will imply hands-on work for a good portion of the semester. The project can be local or international community-driven and will connect to real-life experiences. (OC).
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107) and (ENGL 200 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239)
ENGL 304 Studies in Detroit History and Culture 4 Credit Hours
This interdisciplinary course explores the political, social, and cultural history of Detroit by examining ways various groups and classes have interacted with and been shaped by structures of power and influence. This course highlights trade and commerce, newcomers, and the influence of organizations and institutions within the contexts of labor, race, ethnic, and religious histories and current affairs, and examines how these fit into the evolution of Detroit from the 19th century to the present. Where pertinent the influence of national and international movements are included. (YR)
ENGL 310 Narrative Writing for Journalism and Media 4 Credit Hours
Students learn to identify, understand, and use the techniques of narrative storytelling to produce nonfiction writing. Assignments can include the writing and revising of articles based on research and interviews, personal essays, adaptations, and documentary scripts that draw from literary techniques. (YR).
ENGL 311 History of Storytelling I: Beowulf to 18th C British Literature 4 Credit Hours
A survey of some of the essential and influential texts that have helped ground our English literary heritage, this course covers literature from 700 to 1800, from its beginnings in Beowulf through the Middle Ages Renaissance, Restoration, and Eighteenth-Century. Authors may include Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, Webster, Milton, Behn, Swift, Pope, and Austen. We will explore a variety of genres including epic poetry, love lyric, drama, satire, early novels, and gothic poetry, and investigate recurring themes, such as the voyage/quest, gender and marriage, spirituality, community, colonialism, and the nature of literary creation. We will pay particular attention to continuities that link writers to their predecessors and successors against changing social and intellectual backgrounds. (YR).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 312 Hist of Storytelling II: Opium-Poets, Romantic Novelists, & Modern Patriots 4 Credit Hours
This course reads U.S. and British Literature from 1800 to 2000 as in conversation with each other rather than as separate national traditions. Literary periods covered include Romanticism, Transcendentalism, The Victorian Age, Modernism, and Post-Modernism. Authors may include Mary Shelley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, WEB Dubois, and Emily Dickinson. Genres include novels, poetry, drama, political pamphlets, and graphic novels. This course will investigate recurring themes such as gender and marriage, colonialism, the nature of literary creation, chattel slavery, and democracy. (YR).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 314 History of Storytelling III: 20th and 21st Century Literature in Context 4 Credit Hours
A study of world literature presented in English designed to introduce students to important authors and works in their wider historical, political, and cultural contexts. Readings may draw from past literary traditions. (YR).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 320 Micro Stories 4 Credit Hours
This course examines the art of the micro creative nonfiction essay and flash fiction story, which are works under 1,000 words. In addition to analyzing micro stories from a diverse range of writers, a writing workshop will be maintained over the course of the semester. Students will be expected to produce micro creative nonfiction essays and fiction stories. (AY).
ENGL 321 Weird Tales 4 Credit Hours
This course examines the notion of weirdness in short stories written by national and international writers. In addition to analyzing these stories, a writing workshop will be maintained over the course of the semester. Students will be expected to produce short stories that incorporate elements of weirdness. (AY).
ENGL 322 SiD--Writing in Detroit 3 Credit Hours
Full Title: Semester in Detroit: Writing on Detroit--Beyond the Other. This course serves as an elective course for the Semester in Detroit (SiD) program. It is devoted to short fiction in search of a creative rendering of the people in Detroit, a city which offers rich opportunities to explore the theme of the "other". Students will develop short narratives that capture their impressions of the city through its people. Each student will find Detroiters to "study" and creatively report on. Class discussions will help direct students. (S)
ENGL 323 Advanced Creative Writing 4 Credit Hours
Practice in writing poetry, the short story, the novel, and/or the play. May be repeated to a maximum of six credit hours. (OC).
ENGL 327 Advanced Writing 4 Credit Hours
A study of rhetorical theory and its application to the writing process. Emphasis on how purpose, audience, genre, culture, and context inform the choices writers make. May be repeated to a maximum of 8 credit hours. (F, W).
Prerequisite(s): COMP 106 or COMP 270 or COMP 220 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or COMP 280
ENGL 328 The Ethnic-American Short-Story Cycle 4 Credit Hours
This course examines interrelated short stories written by Ethnic-American writers. In addition to analyzing these stories, a writing workshop will be maintained over the course of the semester. Students will be expected to produce short stories that are linked by recurring characters, setting, and/or theme(s). (AY).
ENGL 331 Multimedia Journalism 4 Credit Hours
Course introduces the technical, social, legal and ethical practice of online research, focusing specifically on reporting (i.e. research and interview) skills required by journalists and others. Students use new media technology to generate ideas, to research subjects, and to develop general-audience writing projects in their areas of interest. Course covers the use of Web search engines and databases; finding sources and interviewing people online; evaluating the credibility of online sources and information; accessing archives and public records; and using spreadsheet and database programs. (F, W).
Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Freshman or Sophomore or Junior or Senior
Can enroll if Level is Undergraduate
ENGL 334 Semester in Detroit (Detroit Artist as Activist) 3 Credit Hours
This course explores the role the arts have played in resisting systemic inequalities, fighting injustice, and giving voice to those on the margins. We will consider both the strengths and limitations of art, particularly creative writing, as a force for social change as well as art’s effectiveness in engaging communities. Further, we will use the study and practice of creative writing to deepen our understandings of and relationships to the city of Detroit and consider writing as a way of healing and transforming communities as well as ourselves. (W).
ENGL 341 Religion and Literature 3 Credit Hours
An investigation of the ways in which religious ideas and practices have informed works of literature, and vice versa. Surveying a variety of genres and themes, the course will focus mainly on British and/or American literature and its engagement with Judeo-Christian religion, though some attention may be devoted to other literary and religious traditions (e.g., ancient and medieval texts, European and world literature, Islam and Eastern religions).
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107) and (ENGL 230 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239 or ENGL 200)
ENGL 343 Cross-Media Adaptations of Lit 4 Credit Hours
This course explores the adaptation of literary texts in a variety of literary genres (poetry, drama, fiction) to other artistic mediums (film, graphic novels/comics, paintings, etc.). Moving beyond limited comparisons of "good" originals and "bad" adaptations, this course focuses on the dialogue among multiple versions of the same story across a range of historical periods, asking how and why adaptations modify their sources in a particular manner. This course addresses the difference between adaptation and appropriation as well as imitation, quotation, allusion, pastiche, and parody.
Prerequisite(s): (ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239) and (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280)
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is
ENGL 349 The Bible In/As Literature 3 Credit Hours
This course will study selected readings from the Bible, first in regard to their own literary, historical, and cultural contents, and then in regard to their reception, interpretation, and reapplication by later literary tradition. Biblical selections may cover both the Old and New Testaments as well as Apocryphal traditions, while readings from later non-biblical texts will be drawn from various literary periods.
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107) and (ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239 or ENGL 200)
ENGL 351 Arab Literature in English 4 Credit Hours
This course examines the diverse range of the Arab experience in the Middle East as well as the diaspora in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in works of literature, including fiction, memoir, poetry, and playwriting. (OC).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 358 Shakespeare on Film 4 Credit Hours
The course examines the adaption of Shakespeare's play-scripts for the screen. It goes beyond a discussion of the relative merits of plays and their respective film adaptions, examining the complex exchanges between the two artistic mediums (e.g. how stage convention such as soliloquies or off-stage action are adapted to the scree; how early silent films were used to market stage productions, etc.). It will approach the issue of adaption by examining the works of key directors, multiple films of a single play, silent films, foreign lanuage adaptions, mass market and art house films, and films which deal with fictive or actual productions of Shakespeare's plays. Special emphasis will be placed on specific stage productions that are later adapted to films. In this course, students will explore a broad range of responses to and interpretations of Shakespeare's works. This class will stress the idea that each staging is an interpretation of the play, its point of view conditioned by the times, the medium, and the director's vision. (OC)
Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Level is Undergraduate
ENGL 372 Renaissance Heroes, Lovers, Explorers 4 Credit Hours
England in the Renaissance experienced something of a Golden Age of literary achievement, producing such literary giants as Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Milton. This course surveys the culture and the literature of this remarkable period, exploring the issues that occupied Renaissance imaginations: exploration and ‘new worlds’ (both real and fictive), witchcraft, selfhood and identity, gender and ethnicity, love and poetic immortality, class mobility, civil disorder and monarchical rule, and capitalism in the burgeoning metropolis of London. The course will draw on a wide variety of genres and materials, including love lyrics, spiritual quests, prototypes of the novel, cultural documents, stage plays, and court entertainments for royalty. (OC).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 386 Gender Issues in Literature 3 Credit Hours
A study of gender issues in English and American literature. The exact topic will vary from semester to semester, but the course may feature such topics as gay and lesbian literature, feminist criticism, images of masculinity, the representation of sexual ideologies, etc. Course may be repeated for credit when specific topic differs.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 389 Black Men in America 4 Credit Hours
This course will examine the triumphs and challenges of African American men as they seek personal, political, and creative expression. This course incorporates several genres (narrative, fiction, essay, drama, poetry, music, and film) and the voices of both black men and women who range from professional writers to politicians, from athletes to actors. Throughout the course, students will be asked to examine the writings through the lens of intersectionality and to analyze the extent to which perceptions regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, social class and other aspects of identity shape an individual’s American experience. Students will be required to critically read, discuss, analyze, and write their own responses to the genres covered in the texts. (OC).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 390 Topics in English 3 Credit Hours
Examination of problems and issues in selected areas of English. Title as listed in Schedule of Classes will change according to content. Course may be repeated for credit when specific topics differ. (OC).
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107 or COMP 220 or COMP 280 or COMP 270) and (ENGL 200 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239)
ENGL 394 Psychology and Theater 4 Credit Hours
The linkages between psychology and theater are analyzed from the perspective of the actor, the audience, and the analyst (both psychotherapeutic and literary). This includes ties between plays and theories of human behavior, psychodrama, and self-insight through performance. Class involves a significant experiential component. (OC).
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 101
ENGL 399 Independent Studies in English 1 to 3 Credit Hours
Readings or analytical assignments in English, selected in accordance with the needs and interests of those enrolled and agreed upon by the instructor and the student. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours. (F,W).
ENGL 408 Shakespeare I: Earlier Works 4 Credit Hours
Intensive study of selected works from the first half of Shakespeare's career, designed to increase the student's critical appreciation and understanding. Students cannot receive credit for both ENGL 408 and ENGL 508.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 409 Shakespeare II: Later Works 4 Credit Hours
Intensive study of selected works from the second half of Shakespeare's career, designed to increase the student's critical appreciation and understanding. Students cannot receive credit for both ENGL 409 and ENGL 509.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 410 Major Renaissance Poets & Playwrights 4 Credit Hours
An investigation of significant themes and attitudes current in the Renaissance, as seen through an intensive examination of the works of two or three major authors, such as More, Spenser, Bacon, and Donne.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 413 Shakespeare's Contemporaries 4 Credit Hours
An examination of the performance and cultural contexts of plays by English Renaissance playwrights (Marlowe, Middleton, Webster, Jonson, etc.), working around the time of Shakespeare. A limited number of Shakespeare's plays may be included.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Level is Undergraduate
ENGL 422 Satire & The Gothic 4 Credit Hours
An analysis of the origins of satiric and gothic writing in British and some U.S. literature written between 1660 to 1900. Literary periods addressed include the Restoration, the Eighteenth-Century, the Romantic and Victorian Ages. Authors may include Mary Shelly, Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles Dickens. Genres include novels, poetry, drama, political projects, and short stories.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 424 Celebrity, Fame, & English Novelists 4 Credit Hours
A reading of the origins (1680) and height (1850) of English novel writing, from the early eighteenth-century to modern eras. Novelists may include Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Gaskell, and Woolf and include gothic, domestic, experimental, and serial formats. Students, including fiction writers, will be able to identify the origins and historical conditions that enable a new literary genre to appear and how they can mobilize this knowledge to continue and/or change novel-writing today. Students cannot receive credit for both ENGL 424 and ENGL 524.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 427 Jane Austen 4 Credit Hours
A reading of Jane Austen’s “big six” novels as well as her one unfinished novel, her juvenilia, letters, and favorite novelists of her own time. We will particularly analyze Austen’s novels as attempts to resolve historical tensions related to sexuality, obscene wealth, and ideas of national community. The literary periods addressed include the eighteenth century, Romantic Age, and reasons for her legacy and current popularity in postmodern centuries such as our own. (OC).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 430 Censored and Canceled Literature 4 Credit Hours
This course analyzes the reasons and ramifications for literary texts that have, at one time or another, been censored throughout literary history. We will try to understand what some readers found threatening about each text during its historical moment. It is subsequently an examination of the functions that writers in English have assigned to literary decadence, libertinism, and aestheticism (or, the study of beauty and "art for art's sake"). We will read writers who identified themselves as libertines as well as writers who represented libertines as we address the Restoration rake (Rochester & Behn), the Regency buck (the Shelleys & DeQuincey), the Victorian dandy, the modern playboy (Nin, Waugh & Fitzgerald), hippie-swinger (Wolfe & Jagger), and finally, the postmodern player-celebrity (Bret Easton Ellis & rock-lyricists). This course analyzes the reasons and ramifications for literary texts that have, at one time or another, been censored throughout literary history. We will try to understand what some readers found threatening about each text during its historical moment.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 442 Studies in 20-21 Century Lit 3 Credit Hours
Intensive study of a special topic in 20th- or 21st-century literature in English. The course may treat a single author (e.g. E.M. Forster), a movement (e.g. Postmodernism), a genre (e.g. modern short story), or a theme (e.g. Literature of World War).
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107 or COMP 220 or COMP 280 or COMP 270) and (ENGL 230 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239 or ENGL 200)
Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Level is Undergraduate
ENGL 445 20C/21C Women Authors 3 Credit Hours
An analysis of selected works by significant and emerging 20th and 21st century women authors writing in English, with special emphasis on issues of gender and social and cultural identity.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 450 Democracy? in U.S. Romanticism 4 Credit Hours
This course will consider issues of freedom and oppression in United States literature, primarily literature from the antebellum (pre-Civil War) period, with occasional inclusion of 20th and 21st century texts. Students cannot receive credit for both ENGL 450 and ENGL 550.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 451 Outsiders & U.S. Regionalism 4 Credit Hours
Regionalism, one of the defining literary movements of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century U.S., emerged in the wake of the massive social changes that followed the American Civil War, such as industrialization, Jim Crow segregation, new immigration patterns, and changing notions of gender and sexuality. Regionalism's themes of nostalgia and resistance to change exist in contradiction with the movement's association with literary outsiders who challenged society’s norms. This course will study this debate about Regionalism with the “outsider” theme in mind. Students cannot receive credit for both ENGL 451 and ENGL 551.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 461 Modern English Grammar 3 Credit Hours
The morphological and syntactic analysis of the structure of present day English considered in the light of modern linguistic science. Students cannot receive credit for both LING 461 and LING 561.
Prerequisite(s): LING 280 or LING 281 or LING 480
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is
ENGL 467 Script-Writing Workshop 4 Credit Hours
This writing intensive course will train students to compose media scripts, focusing on the substance, structure, and style of both non-fiction documentary scripts and narrative screenplays. The course is conducted as a workshop in which students study classic scripts, then model scenes and sequences on the principles of these texts. Finally, students write their own complete script in accordance with the appropriate narrative structure. (YR).
Prerequisite(s): JASS 310 or COMM 310 or COMP 310 or ENGL 310 or JASS 248 or HUM 248
ENGL 468 Read/Writ Young Adult Fiction 4 Credit Hours
In this course participants will explore the young adult novel from the point-of-view of a reader and a writer. They will read recently published and critically acclaimed popular young adult novels. They will use these texts to explore such issues as gender, race and identity as they relate to young adult lives and their respective cultures generally. They will use these texts as models for the production of their own texts and will consider the constraints and benefits of constructing and writing to a particular audience. They will consider if and why young adult novels are abbreviated or limited in relationship to adult literature. In addition to reading about ten novels, they will complete several creative exercises leading up to a final portfolio. Students will not receive credit for both ENGL 468 ad ENGL 568.
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107 or COMP 220 or COMP 280 or COMP 270) and (ENGL 223 or COMP 223)
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 469 Contemporary African Amer Lit 4 Credit Hours
An intensive study of major 20th-century and 21st-century African-American writers. Fiction, poetry, autobiography, and drama will be examined but one genre will be stressed in any given term, e.g., the novel. Lectures will provide historical and biographical context for analysis and discussion of the works. Students cannot receive credit for both ENGL 469 and ENGL 569. (OC).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 4705 Black Women / Lit, Film, Music 4 Credit Hours
This course will examine works produced by Black women authors, activists, filmmakers and musical performers in order to determine the methods they have incorporated in order to challenge and eradicate the prevailing stereotypes about Black women while advancing their own personal and racial agendas. It will also focus on the extent to which race, gender and class have shaped the creative work of Black women. Students will be required to read, discuss, analyze and write their own responses to the works of such firebrands as author Zora Neale Hurston, activist Ida B. Wells, filmmaker Julie Dash, and singer Billie Holliday.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 471 LGBTQ Literature 4 Credit Hours
This course surveys primarily contemporary literature by writers who identify as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender, or queer. By studying the self-representation and culturally unique perspective of this emerging canon of writers, students in this course understand the emergence of LGBTQ literary traditions and understand the cultural diversity within these traditions. Students learn to identify the aesthetic qualities (such as camp, performativity, coded subtexts, homoeroticism, and the relationship between creativity and sexuality), and historical, political, and social concerns that characterize LGBTQ literary and cultural production. Topics covered include the struggle for civil rights before and after Stonewall, coming out narratives, the negotiation of homophobic cultures, post-colonial writers, and memoirs of the LGBTQ experience, as well as the historical emergence of sexual categories and the literary critique of heteronormativity. This course counts toward the English discipline diversity requirement. Students cannot receive credit for ENGL/WGST 471 and ENGL/WGST 571.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 472 Reading in Multicult Contexts 3 Credit Hours
An examination of the effect of different cultural backgrounds on reading and literature. Topics include contrastive rhetoric, folk narrative, and multicultural juvenile literature. This course does not satisfy requirements for the English concentration. Not open to English concentrators. Students cannot receive credit for both ENGL 472 and ENGL 572. (YR).
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107) and (ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239)
Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Graduate
ENGL 473 Arab American Women Writers 4 Credit Hours
Examines the literary and cultural contributions of Arab and Arab American women novelists, poets and artists to the development and consolidation of the cultures of understanding and coexistence; explores the tensions between citizenship and belonging, race and the politics of fears, gender and geographical mobility, and ethnic minorities and mainstream consciousness; discerns how Arab women writers and artists retool their various artistic endeavors to channel socio-political disenchantment, critique and civil disobedience; stresses how literary and artistic productions of a heterogeneous number of Arab American women writers and artists can indeed foster alternative visions of socio-cultural coexistence, dialogue and hospitality via artistic commitments to technical and stylistic experimentation and renovation. Students cannot receive credit for both ENGL 473 and ENGL 573. For graduate credit take ENGL 573.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 482 History of the English Lang 3 Credit Hours
A thorough grounding in the history and structure of the English language. At issue are the linguistic and ideological origins of the concept of Standard English, and the strengths and limitations of different methods of analyzing the history of the language. The course will emphasize sound change, grammatical change, and their sociolinguistic context. (YR).
Prerequisite(s): LING 280 or LING 480
Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Level is Undergraduate
ENGL 486 Queer Theory & Literature 3 Credit Hours
This course reads theories of sexuality to analyze how writers since 1600 have imagined printed text to reflect and shape desire, particularly same-sex desire. The course questions how same-sex desire appears in literature written before the theorization of "the Homosexual" in the late nineteenth century as well as how writers imagine sexuality before a hetero/homosexual binary appears. Writers may include contemporary theorists (Sedgwick, Foucault, Butler) as well as novelists (Gaskell and Stoker), playwrights (Kushner and Wycherley), and poets.
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107) and (ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239 or AAAS 239)
ENGL 487 Monsters, Women & the Gothic 4 Credit Hours
This course questions our inheritance of "the gothic" as a district literary style that continues to discipline readers' notions of gender, race, and sexual identity. The course argues that by tracing the gothic's literary history, we may simultaneously witness a history of gender formation. Readings may include English novelists who originated a gothic style in English (Walpole, Radcliffe, Lewis) as well as English and American poets and novelists who have debated as well as resisted the effects of the gothic on readers' (particularly women's) psychology (Christina Rossetti, Austen, King, Stoker).
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239
ENGL 488 Env Lit & Reps of Nature 3 Credit Hours
An interdisciplinary study of the ways in which the relationship between "nature" and humankind has been represented in literature and other forms of cultural expression. Emphasis on American and British texts of the 19th centuries, but assigned materials may include readings from other cultures and historical periods.
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107 or COMP 220 or COMP 280 or COMP 270) and (ENGL 230 or ENGL 200 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 238)
ENGL 490 Advanced Topics in English 3 Credit Hours
Examination of advanced problems and issues in selected areas of English studies. Title as listed in the Schedule of Classes will change according to content. May be repeated for credit when specific topics differ.
Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107) and (ENGL 200 or ENGL 205 or ENGL 206 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 238 or ENGL 239)
*An asterisk denotes that a course may be taken concurrently.
Frequency of Offering
The following abbreviations are used to denote the frequency of offering: (F) fall term; (W) winter term; (S) summer term; (F, W) fall and winter terms; (YR) once a year; (AY) alternating years; (OC) offered occasionally