47 courses with the subject ENG, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ENG 201Intro to British Literature: Beowulf to Virginia Woolf
This course surveys some of the writers and texts that have come to make up the canon of English literature. We cover representative works of poetry, drama, and prose from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century. We will work to develop skills in close reading and analytical writing necessary to investigate the vexed cultural issues that such works engage—status, gender, race, nationhood, the other, family, education, and a host of other concerns. Prerequisite: Writing 101. Breadth and Proficiency category: Literature and Creative Arts; Fulfills the GROUP 1 requirement for the English Major
This course traces the changes and developments of American literary forms and genres, exploring how essential works of literature helped to shape, and were shaped by, events in American history. Prerequisite: Writing 101. Breadth and Proficiency category: Literature and Creative Arts; Fulfills the GROUP 1 requirement for the English Major.
This course explores how important works of literature helped to shape, and were shaped by, events around the world. We consider how writers reflect on writing itself, asking what literature is good for, what it can do, and how it influences and reflects the world. Global Cultures and Languages. Fulfills the GROUP 1 requirement for the English Major.
This course introduces the craft of writing fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Students learn through lectures on craft, peer workshopping, and the study of contemporary writing.
This course explores the forms and techniques of the major genres of literature. Course sections often concentrate on guiding themes—Literature of the Fantastic, Literature of Disability, etc.—to lend focus to students’ encounters with a wide range of literary types. Fulfills the GROUP 1 requirement for the English Major.
Writing 101. Breadth and Proficiency category: Literature and Creative Arts;
ENG 232Literature for Children
(Also offered as EDEL 232) Children’s literature and authors; literary criticism & awards, illustrations & artists; focus on the multicultural contributions to the genre.
Offered occasionally. Topics vary with each offering, and different courses may fulfill different requirements within the English Major. Past offerings have included Literature and the Environment, American Autobiography, American Pragmatism, among others. Prerequisite: ENG 211.
This course is a drama survey designed to provide an overview of some significant dramatists and plays in the Western theatrical tradition. We will be examining selected and representative samples from several centuries as we endeavor to chart literary and artistic developments and draw out some underlying thematic connections. As we move chronologically from ancient Greek to twentieth-century dramatists, we will consider some of the following thematic underpinnings and tensions: gender identity and power dynamics, the active life and the contemplative life, learnedness and civic responsibility, and social status. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211; This course counts as an upper-level elective for the English major (Group IV). 112
This course surveys representative comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances by William Shakespeare. Throughout the semester, we will aim to situate these plays within their historical contexts by reading them alongside both literary texts by lesser-known authors and long-forgotten cultural artifacts, including woodcuts depicting fantastical creatures and happenings, legal proclamations concerning appropriate attire, and bawdy broadside ballads. This interdisciplinary approach will enrich our understanding of how plays such as 1 Henry IV, As You Like It, and The Tempest engage powerful issues of gender, race, status, selfhood, and more. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Foundational course required for completion of the English Major (GROUP II).
While English 305 furnishes an introduction to Shakespearean drama, this course offers students the chance to explore particular aspects of, or approaches to, those dramas in greater depth. This class will not only situate a number of Shakespeare’s histories, comedies, and tragedies within their historical contexts, it will also give particular attention to a particular special topic such as Shakespeare and Film, Shakespeare and his Fellow Dramatists, Shakespearean Adaptations/ Adaptations of Shakespeare, etc. This course can fulfill either the Shakespeare component of Group II or the “Literature of Early Modern England (1485–1660) component of Group III in the English Major. Prerequisite: ENG 211.
In this course we will explore the historical development of English from its Indo-European origins to contemporary American dialects and slang. Along the way, we’ll tackle some of the big questions about English: What did English look and sound like at different points in the past? How and why did the language change as it did? What major social, political, and cultural developments affected—or were affected by—the development of English? What is the relationship between language and personal—and national—identity? Class readings will consist of textbook chapters, supplementary essays, and historical examples that will allow us to open up some of these issues of language study into nuanced and provocative discussions about the nature of language and identity. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the language or literature of the English Middle Ages (675–1485) component of the English Major (Group III).
This creative writing class focuses on the writing and close reading of creative nonfiction. This genre uses the literary techniques often found in fiction and poetry to tell true stories about real people and events. Texts may include memoir, nonfiction shorts, the personal essay, the lyric essay, and other forms. Prerequisite: WRT 102.
In this course we will examine both the fiction-stereotypes, myths, and legends - surrounding the Italian mafia and the reality and scope of Italian Mafia control – nationally and transnationally – through an analysis of some of the most important American and Italian films and literature portraying Mafia culture. By analyzing historical, anthropological, literary, 113
This is an advanced seminar-workshop in which the primary focus is on detailed critical evaluation of individual student creative work in poetry. Assigned readings, individual conferences with the instructor. Prerequisite: ENG 102. This course counts as an upper-level elective in the English Major.
This is a seminar-workshop in which the primary focus is on detailed critical evaluation of individual student creative work in writing fiction. Assigned readings, individual conferences with instructor Prerequisite: ENG 102. This course counts as an upper-level elective in the English Major.
ENG 313Literature of the Middle Ages: Monsters, Heroes and Pilgrims
This course will introduce students to the literature of the English Middle Ages. We will begin with Anglo Saxon poetry—including Caedmon’s Hymn, Beowulf, and The Wanderer—in both modern English translation and the original Old English. Students will proceed to consider the rise of Middle English literature in the wake of the Norman Conquest, focusing in particular on the anonymous Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The course will conclude with an extended look at Geoffrey Chaucer’s experimental narrative The Canterbury Tales. Throughout, we will seek together to make connections between the older worlds of Old and Middle English literature and the world we live in today. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the language or literature of the English Middle Ages (675–1485) component of the English Major (Group III).
ENG 315Status, Sexuality and Selfhood in Renaissance Literature
In this course, we will examine poetry, plays, and prose of the English Renaissance or “early modern period”—a span of literary history encompassing roughly the Tudor dynasty in the late fifteenth century, the rise and fall of the Stuart dynasty in the first half of the seventeenth century, the short-lived English Commonwealth, and the very early years of the Restoration. Our goals throughout the semester will be to gain an appreciation for the variety and quality of the writing produced during this important era in English literary history, to develop an understanding of the development of various genres in England, to acquire a sense of how the literature relates to the cultural conditions in England at this time, and to gain practice in reading critically and writing analytically about literature. In particular, we will work to enrich our understanding of how the texts we encounter engage powerful issues such as self- fashioning, obedience, dissent, gender, sexuality, faith and doubt. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the literature of early modern England (1485–1660) component of the English Major (Group III). 114
ENG 318Restoration Literature and the Rise of the Novel
The period stretching from the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 witnessed three major literary shifts: the witty and often bawdy court literature of the Restoration gave way to the piercing satire of the early eighteenth century and then to the inward sentimentalism of the late eighteenth century. In the process, the modern literary world as we now know it was born, a world full of literary criticism and biographies, novels and newspapers, literary celebrities and hack authors. Throughout the semester, we will be exploring this contradictory period, examining such themes as the creation of modern authorship, the development of new literary genres, the relationship between literature and science, and the literary construction of the modern self. As we do so, we will allow the literature of the eighteenth century to challenge, perplex, amuse, and vex us. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the 18th–19th-century English literature (1660–1900) component of the English Major (Group III).
ENG 320Angels and Devils: Donne, Milton and a Century of Crises
The project of this course is to consider the major works of the great seventeenth-century poets John Donne and John Milton in their literary, intellectual, and cultural contexts. We will begin by tracing Donne’s development from biting satirist, to master of love lyrics, to Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The course continues with Milton’s earlier and shorter works, including selected poems and a sampling of prose. Our semester will conclude with a careful reading of Milton’s Paradise Lost in its entirety. As we survey the creations of these two masters of poetic form, we will explore in particular the tensions between birth rank and education, human agency and God’s omnipotence, the material and the spiritual world, orthodoxy and heresy, monarchy and republicanism. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the literature of early modern England (1485–1660) component of the English Major (Group III).
Writers have long been inspired by the environment and humans’ interactions with it. Through this intensive study of literature and its relationship to the environment, we will work on improving your skills in reading, writing, creative and critical thinking, and analysis of complex situations within an ethical frame. Because this course fulfills the Gateway requirement, there will be an emphasis on global learning and social responsibility.
This course will discuss some forty years of revolutionary poetry and fiction in the British Isles. The Romantic poets defined the imagination as the power to perceive or create new kinds of relationships between human beings and between human beings and nature. Inspired in part by the French Revolution, writers of the period challenged social conventions, revised accepted cultural mythologies, forged new uses for language in which they discovered liberating powers, and set a new course for the understanding and appreciation of the natural world. This period also saw the rise of the Gothic novel, culminating in Mary Shelley’s epochal Frankenstein. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the 18th–19th-century English literature (1660–1900) component of the English Major (Group III) 115
This course will explore the broader cultural contexts of Romantic and Victorian British literature, working in particular to resituate the popular genre of the Gothic alongside canonical poetic and prose productions. In so doing, students will analyze the Romanic and Victorian aspects of works traditionally categorized as gothic, and the gothic aspects of canonical works as well, thus illuminating historical canonization’s vexed relationship with racism, sexism, and classism. Moreover, the course will read well-established works of Romantic and Victorian literature alongside both literary texts by lesser-known authors and long-forgotten cultural artifacts, thus enriching our understandings of how texts like William Wordsworth’s The Prelude, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol engage powerful issues of gender, race, class, sexuality, and more. Pre- or corequisite:
This course provides an overview of the emergence of post-colonial literature that addresses the experiences of Empire or are produced by writers from countries with a history of colonialism or writers who have migrated from formerly colonized countries. We will closely examine the major areas of concern from a number of different perspectives, including the perspective of the colonizer, the colonized, and the formerly colonized. We will also explore the issues of nationalism, feminism and migration. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the gender and multicultural component of the English Major (Group III).
Advanced Playwriting and Screenwriting is a writing course in which students will analyze scripts and film scenes while teaching students the terms, concepts, and direction necessary to write their own scripts and create a storyboard. This course requires students to read closely, explain/explicate, and analyze. Using the workshop model, students will critique their work and the work of others. Students will explore, develop, and express their own ideas through class discussions, close reading of the texts, and scriptwriting. Students will develop an awareness and appreciation of the artistic expression that can take place through theater and film. Students will become familiar with the conventions of playwriting and screenwriting.
European literary critics largely dismissed early American writers, despite the fact that many of them were writing from the social, political, and economic margins and were engaged in creating original and compelling literature that articulated uniquely American experiences, philosophies, and temperaments. In this class, we explore the complexities that marked and sometimes marred the character of this young country vis-à-vis its fledgling literary canon, with particular attention to the rise of the novel and simultaneously the rise of literacy, considering the important role reading and writing played in the effort to create a moral and democratic nation. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the American Literature (beginnings to 1900) component of the English Major (Group III). 116
Building on the theories introduced in Critical Methods, this course examines literature with attention to what it reveals about gender, constructs, sexuality, norms, politics, and other complex and often emotionally charged topics
F. O. Matthiessen’s 1941 publication of American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman defined an important period of American Literature and established a way of looking at an American version of romanticism that dominated critical discussion for decades, and eventually led to larger discussions about topics such as canon formation, gender, race, and sexuality. This class will read works from the 1830s to the 1860s by a variety of well-known and virtually unknown American writers and discuss Matthiessen’s ideas as well as contemporary responses to them. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the American Literature (beginnings to 1900) component of the English Major (Group III).
A critical survey of classic and enduring literary works by African American writers. This course traces the development of the African American literary tradition from its 18th Century roots, to the slave narratives and early novels of the 19th century, to the Harlem Renaissance and the great works produced in the 20th century, to its flourishing in modern and contemporary times. Representative works of literature are discussed and evaluated with emphasis on narrative development and literary technique, as well as historical, sociological, and political contexts. Readings are used to familiarize the student with some of the major ideas and issues that have helped to shape the development of African American Literature. Pre- or corequisite:
In this course we will read short and long selections from foundational texts by authors from all over the world and from every time period, from the East and the West. We will examine common themes and stories that transcend the boundaries of language, country, and time. We will look in depth at one or two social issues as reflected in literature—which will vary by semester. These issues include sex, politics, religion, gender, class, race, ethnicity, identity, family, (in)justice, oppression, and community – the very same issues that are so important in our world today and have been relevant across many centuries and many cultures. One such exploration, for example, will consider women’s issues and female enslavement/empowerment across cultures and time. This course is designed to further the goals of STAC’s General Education Gateway curriculum by helping you to generally expand your own worldview and specifically understand issues of social justice via global literature and cross-cultural artistic movements. The particular works we will study will give you the opportunity to explore dramatically different cultural assumptions and modes of expression. You will learn to do close reading, to recognize meaning in context, and to understand and 117
Honors Course. In this course we study the enduring legacy of Italian literature, art, and culture from 2000 years ago in ancient Rome to 2022 in modern Venice. We read foundational Italian cultural representations that profoundly influenced world culture, literature, art, and music for centuries. We will look in depth at particular social issues that are represented in Italy, but also transcend Italy. These issues will vary by semester but will include, for example, two transformational texts -- Dante's Inferno and Machiavelli's The Prince -- two texts that have shaped culture and politics around the world for centuries. In another semester, we will look at the presence and impact of the Italian mafia on Italian and American economies, politics, literature, and especially film and TV. This course serves as a Gateway course in the Gen Ed curriculum. This course counts as an upper-level elective in the English Major. Prerequisite: ENG 211.
The twentieth century witnessed a significant expansion of literature in English as Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Canadian, Indian, and Australian voices all began to be heard and to redefine what English literature could be. We will expand our horizons as we consider poetry, fiction and drama, not only from the English Isles, but also from the Commonwealth areas as well. Identity politics, emergent nationalism, and gender formation are among the topics to be considered. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the 20th–21st-century British or American literature (1900–Present) component of the English Major (Group III).
In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson directed American writers to stop listening to “the courtly muses of Europe” for inspiration. The evolution of the American novel allows us to see the before-and-after context of Emerson’s famous remark, from the British influence of the 18th and early 19th centuries, to the experimentation with original voices in the mid 19th Century, to the achievements of Modernism and the contemporary period. Pre- or corequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the 20th–21st-century British or American literature (1900–Present) component of the English Major (Group III).
A consideration of some of the important poets who have helped to shape contemporary poetry. A diverse, multi-cultural perspective will allow us to read, discuss and evaluate representative poets and poems. Prerequisite: ENG 211. Fulfills the 20th–21st-century British or American literature (1900–Present) component of the English Major (Group III).
This is an upper-level writing internship for students who have completed at least 75 credit hours of undergraduate coursework with a concentration in English and/or Writing. This internship offers the student an opportunity to fully-develop and enhance written communication skills in a professional setting. Internships involve at least 120 contact hours, scheduled conferences with the professor, and a project journal.
This is the capstone experience for English majors; the point of the course is to demonstrate everything accumulated as an English major here – all the highly polished analytical, writing, and interpretive skills accrued across the prescribed coursework of the program. The readings are different every semester, but the goal is the same: to give students the chance to put into practice the critical faculties that define someone about to receive a BA in English. permission of instructor. Foundational course required for completion of the English Major (GROUP 2).
ENG 208, ENG 211, and at least three upper-level English courses, or
ENG 411Directed Thesis Workshop
The capstone course for the Creative Writing major, this seminar offers a combination of individualized instruction and group work to help students create a creative portfolio of their work. Prerequisites: At least two upper-level Creative Writing classes (ENG 309, 311, 312, or 328) and have completed at least 60 credits.
