ITY
Temple University switchboard: 215-204-7000
TDD: 215-204-5919
Temple University Home Page --
Undergraduate Bulletin Main
Page
College of Arts and Sciences Main Page
Prerequisites: The satisfaction of the ELECT requirements for students placed into ELECT is a prerequisite for any English course beyond the Preparatory Level. However, students enrolled in ELECT classes are encouraged to take English courses at the Preparatory Level. The satisfaction of the College Composition C050 requirement or its equivalent is a prerequisite for English courses numbered 50 or above. Students are expected to work out with their adviser that sequence of introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses which meets their educational goals. For the CAS composition requirement see College Composition C050.
PREPARATORY LEVEL
0001. Fundamentals-Prose Composition (2 s.h.) FS
Open during the latter part of the semester to students who have passed ELECT
Writing, English 0001 is an intensive expository writing course, taught on
an instructor-to-individual student basis. Only ELECT students may take this
course; to register, they should go to AB 822, the ELECT office, after mid-term,
and obtain permission from the ELECT Director. Hours arranged. Graded Credit/No
Credit.
0002. Essentials of English Grammar (3 s.h.) S
An introduction to and review of parts of speech, major sentence parts, basic
sentence patterns, sentence connections and voice for students who want to
acquire a systematic knowledge of basic English grammar. Not primarily a
linguistics course but reflects the current state of the scientific study
of English. Written assignments include exercises, quizzes, and compositions.
LOWER LEVEL
These courses are intended for students with little or no background in literature.
C056. American Literature (3 s.h.) (AC/D1) FS Study of the complex variety of experience in America and how American literature is structured by issues: Native, black, and white; frontier and town; female and male; the individual self and the democratic life; private and public; traditional and radical. How literary works reflect historical, social, political, psychological, and cultural settings as well as specific periods and regional concerns.
0081. Introduction to Poetry (3 s.h.) (D1) FS
How to read and enjoy poetry. Students read various kinds of poems written
in English such as the sonnet, elegy, dramatic monologue, and narrative,
rather than survey the history of English and American poetry chronologically.
W082. Introduction to Fiction (3 s.h.) (D1) FS
An introduction to various forms of fiction: tales, fables, stories, and
novels. Focuses on close reading and analysis to develop an appreciation
of creative works of fiction and skills in critical reading.
C083. Introduction to Drama (3 s.h.) (AR/D1) FS
How to read plays and enjoy them in the theater, how to recognize their cultural
and human values; and how to use principles of dramatic criticism. Readings
from Sophocles through the moderns.
X084. Introduction to Literature (3 s.h.) FS
Intended for non-majors. A general introduction to the main types of literature
(fiction, poetry, drama) with the goal of teaching the critical enjoyment
of a variety of reading. Discussion of some major ways of addressing
works of literature.
H090. Introduction to Literature and Composition-Honors (3 s.h.) FS
An introduction to various forms of literature and to the rhetorical principles
in composition. A combination of reading and writing assignments (5000 words
minimum). Taken together with Intellectual Heritage X090 and X091 in sequence,
this course fulfills the College Composition requirement.
Honors Sections: For description of Honors sections of Core Courses (C056, C083, X084), see Honors Program Guide.
UPPER LEVEL
Courses numbered 0100-0199 are primarily for students with some (though not necessarily extensive) experience in the techniques of literary analysis. Courses numbered 0200-0399 are designed primarily for students who have demonstrated a firm grasp of the fundamental techniques of literary analysis and composition and who have taken at least one literature course at the 100 level.
W101. Developing Prose Style (3 s.h.) FS
Prerequisite: College Composition C050 or equivalent. For students who feel
secure in the fundamentals but want additional instruction beyond the
introductory composition courses to improve their writing. Develops powers
of analysis and expression as well as awareness of what constitutes effective
writing. Readings assigned in accordance with these goals. Students write
a total of about 5000 words.
W102. Technical Writing (3 s.h.) FS
Prerequisite: College Composition C050 or equivalent. For students in engineering
and related fields. Covers style, organization, and mechanics of technical
papers, with emphasis on special problems that face the technical writer:
analyses and descriptions of objects and processes, reports, proposals, business
correspondence, and research papers. Students write a number of short reports
and one long research paper. By the end of the course, professional standards
of accuracy in mechanics and presentation are expected. Some impromptu writing
exercises.
W103. Writing the Research Essay (3 s.h.) FS
Prerequisite: College Composition C050 or equivalent. Designed to improve
writing skills in general and teach students to use library resources, conduct
research, and organize and present the acquired information effectively.
Readings may be assigned, but class and conference time are devoted principally
to analysis and discussion of research and writing problems. Students write
a total of approximately 5000 words in essays and exercises related to a
research project.
W104. Writing for Business and Industry (3 s.h.) FS
Prerequisite: College Composition C050 or equivalent. Meets the writing needs
of people in business and industry and students who plan professional careers.
Extensive practice in various forms of writing appropriate to all levels
of management, including reports, proposals, memoranda, and letters. Instruction
in research techniques and the writing of a formal researched report on a
business topic. Job applications, letters of inquiry, and resumes. Some impromptu
writing exercises.
0107. Creative Writing: Poetry (3 s.h.) FS
An introduction to the craft of writing poetry. Form, metrics, imagery, and
other aspects of poetry expression discussed in a workshop atmosphere. In
addition to producing original work, students may be asked to examine
contemporary poetry critically.
0108. Creative Writing: Fiction (3 s.h.) FS
Workshop in which students read and discuss one another's material and develop
skills as both writers and readers. Beginning writers welcome, but thorough
grounding in the conventions of grammar, spelling, and punctuation essential.
R110. Language and Race (3 s.h.) S
The course will investigate language and race in order to evaluate accurately
and objectively many common beliefs about the connections between the two.
We will demonstrate how all languages systematically organize sounds, grammar,
and meanings with a special emphasis on the structure of African American
English. We will investigate how particular ways of speaking may or may not
affect one's thought patterns or social identity, and study public policy
issues involving language and race.
0111. Introduction to Linguistics (3 s.h.)
(D4) FS
The nature and structure of human language: the universal properties of language,
how languages resemble each other, how children learn languages, how sound
and meaning are related to each other, how the mind processes language, and
how geographic and social factors affect language. Attention to the scientific
methods linguists use to test hypotheses. Not recommended for students who
have had Speech-Language-Hearing 0108, Anthropology 0127, or the equivalent.
Only one of the courses, Speech-Language-Hearing 0108 or English 0111, may
be credited toward the B.A. degree.
0114. Survey of English Literature: Beginnings to 1660 (3 s.h.) FS
Required for all English majors. Should be taken before most 0200-level courses.
A study of major works of English literature from the middle ages and the
renaissance in their historical and social settings. Analysis of individual
characteristics and lasting literary value. Readings include Beowulf, Chaucer,
and Sir Gawain; Sidney, Jonson, and the Metaphysical Poets (Donne, Marvel,
and others), as well as Shakespeare and Milton.
0115. Survey of English Literature: 1660-1900 (3 s.h.) FS
Required for all English majors. Should be taken before most 0200-level courses.
A continuation of English 0114. Covers themes, genres, and major literary
works in their historical and social settings from the restoration through
the 18th century, the romantic, and the Victorian periods. Readings: Dryden,
Pope, Johnson, Blake, Wordsworth, Keats, Browning, Dickens, and Wilde.
W116. Survey of American Literature I (3 s.h.) (D1) FS
Required for all English majors. Readings in the colonial and federalist
periods and in the New England renaissance of the mid-19th century. The literary
forms include diaries, letters, sermons, poetry, fiction, travel narratives,
and historical chronicles. Authors include Bradstreet, Taylor, Edwards, Franklin,
Paine, Jefferson, Freneau, Irving, Bryant, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Emerson,
Thoreau, and Emily Dickinson.
0124. American Playwrights (3 s.h.) F
American Playwrights from Eugene O'Neill to the present. Principles of dramatic
analysis, the distinctively American qualities of the plays and their debt
to the best of Modern European drama. Authors may include Williams, Miller,
Mamet, Rabe, Shepard, Hellman, Maria Irene Fornes. Includes film-viewing
and play going.
R125. Afro-American Literature I (3 s.h.) F
A chronological survey of African-American literature from its beginnings-poetry,
prose, slave narratives, and fiction-including the works of authors such
as Phyllis Wheatley, Frederick Douglas, W. W. Brown, Harriet Wilson, Frances
E. W. Harper, Charles Chesnutt, B.T. Washington, J.W. Johnson, and W.E.B.
DuBois. An examination of racial consciousness as a theme rooted in social
and historical developments, with special emphasis on national, cultural,
and racial identity, color, caste, oppression, resistance, and other concepts,
related to race and racism emerging in key texts of the period.
R126. Afro-American Literature II (3 s.h.) S
A survey of African-American literature from 1915 to the present, including
poetry, prose, fiction, and drama. Analysis of developments in racial
consciousness, from "race pride" to the Black Aesthetic and the influences
on literature brought about by interracial conflicts, social and historical
concepts such as assimilation and integration, and changing notions of culture.
Authors such as Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston,
Sterling Brown, Nella Larsen, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry,
Ralph Ellison, including contemporary writers Baraka, Morrison, and others.
W133. Shakespeare (3 s.h.) (D1) FS
Major plays of Shakespeare chosen from among the comedies, tragedies, and
histories. Focuses primarily on the plays as literature: their poetic forms,
themes, and values. Teaches appropriate principles of literary analysis.
Some attention to social and intellectual background and Elizabethan stage
techniques.
0150. Special Topics (3 s.h.) S
Each section of this course explores a carefully-
defined theme, topic, or type of literature.
0154. Modern Fiction (3 s.h.) S
Themes and techniques in the work of several major modern writers, such as
James, Conrad, Lawrence, Joyce, Faulkner, Proust, Mann, and Kafka. Literary
devices and psychological and philosophical implications that make modern
fiction representative of modern consciousness. Themes include the role
of the artist in society, the alienation of the individual, and the importance
of the unconscious mind.
0155. Modern Drama (3 s.h.) S
Representative themes and techniques of modern drama in the works of such
playwrights as Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Pirandello, O'Neill, Shaw.
0156. Satire (3 s.h.) F
Satiric literature from the Romans to the present with some attention to
satire in such nonliterary forms as the visual arts in an attempt both to
master individual works and to understand the motives, strategies, and efforts
of satires.
0157. The Short Story (3 s.h.) S
A reading of the best of the major short story writers, European and American,
classic, modernist, and experimental, considering the form, the technique,
the art of the stories, and the way in which they refract experience rather
differently from other literary kinds.
0158. Children's Literature and Folklore (3 s.h.) S
An introduction to the world of childhood and its relation to literature
and culture: how the idea of childhood has changed through history; how
children's literature is shaped by, and shapes, notions of gender, race,
and class. Readings in classics and not-so-classics from the Brothers Grimm
to Judy Blume.
W160. Women in Literature (3 s.h.) F
A study of selected literature by and about women. The course is cross-listed
with the Women's Studies Program.
0170. The Art of the Film (3 s.h.) S
Conducted on the premise that a film can be discussed in terms of its structure
and components (such as sound and image, shot, and scene) and also placed
in wider contexts (such as cultural movements, historical events, conventions,
and critical concepts). Basic elements of film language with constant reference
to larger issues and concepts relevant to the understanding of each individual
film. No previous knowledge of the technical aspects of filmmaking required.
R170. Art of the Film (3 s.h.) F
This course will explore the portrayal of black characters in American films
from the racist portrayals in The Birth of a Nation, the "Stepin Fetchit"
films, and Gone with the Wind through the black exploitation films like Shaft
and Superfly. The course will culminate in a discussion of the new black
cinema, beginning with Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadass Song,
and progressing to the work of African-American directors, Spike Lee, and
John Singleton. We will view Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X,
and Boyz 'n the Hood. Films will be shown once a week and will range from
short films like the 1903 Uncle Tom's Cabin to longer works. Students will
also write, produce, and direct a non-racist film as a course project. This
section satisfies the Studies in Race Core Curriculum requirement.
0180. Literary Forms and Practices (3 s.h.) FS
First half of the required introductory sequence for majors. Designed to
prepare students for the formal demands of advanced work in English. Course
will concentrate on major literary practices: the nature of literary genres,
basic history of literary forms, principles of close reading, terminology,
and practice in the conventions of critical writing. Limited to and required
for English majors. Prerequisite for 200-300 level English literature courses.
0181. Literature and Criticism (3 s.h.) FS
(Formerly English 171) The poetry, prose fiction, drama, and essays studied
here present more complex problems of interpretation than in English X084
or English 180. While not neglecting approaches, the course explores new
kinds of criticism: political, aesthetic, feminist, and new historical, for
example, and requires the application of critical principles. A research
paper on a literary or critical topic is required.
ADVANCED LEVEL
0200. Career Internship (3 s.h.) FS
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. On-the-job training in positions
in business, industrial, or cultural institutions for juniors and seniors
with a grade point average of at least 3.0. Includes a seminar which meets
regularly. One semester may be counted toward the English major. For additional
information consult English Department Advising Coordinator, 1030 Anderson
Hall.
0201. Advanced Composition (3 s.h.) S
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Designed to help students improve
at composing understandings of academic culture by reading and writing about
texts important to contemporary study in the humanities and social sciences.
0202. Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction
(3 s.h.) S
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and successful completion of one
lower level writing course and one upper level literature course. Intended
to help writers develop their techniques and familiarize themselves with
theories of fiction as well as producing fiction in a workshop setting.
0203. Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry
(3 s.h.) F
Prerequisites: Successful completion of one lower-level writing course and
one upper-level literature course. Workshop intended to help advanced writers
develop their techniques and familiarize themselves with contemporary
writing.
W211. English Syntax (3 s.h.) S
Why wouldn't English speakers say "The boots that he died with on were made
of cowhide," even though it makes sense? Course investigates English syntax
to see how the structure of English actually works and includes some
philosophical and psychological questions in linguistic theory, such as,
"What do people know about language that allows them to make judgments about
sentences like that one above?" No previous courses in linguistics required.
0212. Linguistics and Grammar (3 s.h.) F
A review of traditional grammar-parts of speech, subordination, pronoun case,
parallelism, modifier placement, punctuation, etc. using the theories and
techniques of modern theoretical linguistics. Students perfect their own
grammatical knowledge by writing and by exploring linguistic analyses of
common writing errors and how to correct them. The linguistic properties
of effective prose also discussed.
0213. History of English Language (3 s.h.) F
How and why did the language of Beowulf become, successively, the language
of Chaucer, of Shakespeare, of Swift, James, and Hemingway? In surveying
the historical development of English language and style, this course will
focus where possible on literary texts, and seek to demonstrate how useful
a historical grasp of language can be to the appreciation of literature.
"You can't cook eggplant too long." Nobody who speaks English has any trouble
understanding that sentence. However, it can mean both one thing (perhaps
that eggplant is best eaten rare) and its opposite (eggplant can be cooked
indefinitely long with no bad effects). This course on meaning in language
will investigate meaning that arises from the structure of sentences and
their use, as well as the meanings of words and phrases.
0216. Masterpieces of European Drama
(3 s.h.) FS
A reading and analysis of the best of continental European drama. Students
will become familiar with a wide range of playwrights and plays as the works
selected will be representative of such great ages of drama as classical
Greek and Roman, French neoclassic, and modern. These may include plays by
Aeschylus, Euripides, Terence, Calderon, Racine, Moliere, Goethe, Ibsen,
Chekhov, Brecht, and Beckett.
0221. American Romanticism (3 s.h.) F
The development of a distinctively American character in American literature
from 1830-1865. Traces the literary expression of America's growing consciousness
of its own identity; the literary romanticism of Poe and Emerson, the darker
pessimism of Hawthorne and Melville, the affirmative optimism of Thoreau
and Whitman. Technical innovations in the essay, novel, and poetry, including
that of Emily Dickinson.
0222. American Realism and Naturalism
(3 s.h.) S
A study of the diverse styles, subject matters, and theories of prose fiction
in the late 19th century in terms of their challenge to and/or incorporation
of earlier prose styles. Included will be the early realists (Chestnutt,
Davis, Cahan, Sedgwick), later realists (James, Jewett, Howells, Garland,
Chopin, Cable), and the naturalists (Crane, Norris, Wharton, Frederic, Dreiser).
0223. 19th Century American Fiction (3 s.h.) F
The development of the American novel and short story from their genesis
after the Revolutionary War through the age of the romance in Mid-Century
to the growth of realism and naturalism (1870-1900).
0224. American Literature and Society
(3 s.h.) F
Centers on the social issues expressed in U.S. literature and the social
context in which literature is produced. Variable topic; description will
be available in the English Department before priority registration.
0225. Modern American Fiction (3 s.h.) FS
Technique and subject-the "how" and the "what"-of a group of American novels
from the first half of this century, by such writers as Stein, Anderson,
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hurston, West, and H. Roth.
0226. Contemporary American Fiction (3 s.h.) S
A reading and analysis of the brightest and most provocative fiction since
the fifties, some of it realistic, some experimental, some mid-way between,
leading to a sense of the options available to a writer now. Texts will
include Bellow, Updike, Barth, Elkin and several such writers as Maureen
Howard, Paul Auster, Renate Adler, Thomas Berger.
0230. Old English (3 s.h.) S
An introduction to the language, literature
and culture of Anglo-Saxon England. Short poems, excerpts from sermons, Bede,
the Bible and Beowulf. All works read in the original Old English.
0231. Literature of the Medieval Period
(3 s.h.) S
Literature of the Middle English period, as well as the relation
of the literature to the traditions of medieval literature throughout Western
Europe. Works may include The Owl and the Nightingale, Pearl, Piers Plowman,
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and selections from the mystery and morality
plays, all usually read in the original in well-annotated texts. No previous
knowledge of Middle English necessary.
0232. Chaucer (3 s.h.) F
This study of the first major poet of the
English tradition will focus on the theoretical as well as practical problems
he poses for the modern reader. Readings include early dream visions and
the Canterbury Tales and selections from Chaucer's sources and contemporaries
to help students understand literary and social contexts. No previous experience
with Middle English required.
0233. Advanced Shakespeare I (3 s.h.) F
Shakespeare's early career, including histories, comedies, and tragedies,
among them Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar.
Close textual analysis, social trends, and philosophical background. (Assumes
completion of at least one 100 level literature course.)
0234. Advanced Shakespeare II (3 s.h.) F
Will concentrate on developing students' critical reading of a small number
of late plays by Shakespeare, all of which have presented special critical
problems to scholars, general readers, and performers alike. Course examines
how such problems define critical perspectives on the plays. Students will
be encouraged to work toward their own readings of Shakespeare's plays that
will take into account the cultural characteristics of their own culture,
and some current critical modes of reading Shakespeare. Plays for this semester
will be all or some of the following: Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure,
King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, and Cymbeline. A midterm,
a final, two short papers, and announced quizzes.
0235. Seventeenth-Century Comedy (3 s.h.) F
The golden age of English comedy was the seventeenth century. Although the
two halves of the period are conventionally taught in separate courses, we
will see through the reading of a baker's dozen of the plays the continuity
and development (for better or worse) of dramatic comedic traditions. Among
the plays: Much Ado About Nothing, The Wild-Goose Chase, The Man of Mode
and The Provoked Wife.
0236. Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
(3 s.h.) S
Best known plays of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, excluding those
of Shakespeare. Such dramatists as Kyd, Marlowe, Jonson, Middleton, Webster,
and Ford.
0237. Renaissance Writers (3 s.h.) F
Studies in Tudor and Stuart literature. May focus on a single author or group
of authors or be organized generically or thematically. Possible topics include:
Spenser, Elizabethan courtly literature, lyric, pastoral, and prose fiction.
0238. Milton (3 s.h.) F
A study of Milton's poetry and prose in its cultural and historical context.
0240. Restoration and 18th Century Literature (3 s.h.) S
The major literary developments of the period 1660-1800 in drama, poetry,
and journalism; the productions of such writers as Dryden, Congreve, Pope,
Swift, and Johnson.
0241. English Novel to 1832 (3 s.h.) F
A study of the major novelists of the 18th century, beginning with Defoe,
extending through Richardson, Fielding, and Stern, and ending with Mary Shelley
and Jane Austen, considering the cultural background of each work, its technique,
its thematic significance, and its art.
0242. English Romanticism (3 s.h.) S
First and second generation romantics, especially Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Byron, Shelley, and Keats; their literary, historical, social, and cultural
milieu; and the ideas and issues that contributed to shaping their imaginations
and their work.
0243. Victorian Literature (3 s.h.) S
Introduction to masterpieces of Victorian poetry and prose (excluding the
novel) from the works of Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Arnold, Pater, Dante,
Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Oscar Wilde, and Ruskin.
0244. Victorian Novel (3 s.h.) F
Study includes Bronte, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Eliot, Meredith, and
Hardy, among others. These writers wrote novels intended to entertain and
instruct, and were not above appealing to laughter and tears or causing their
readers to share their moral fervor or indignation. The goal is an understanding
of the
social and artistic significance of these works in light of the world in
which they emerged.
0245. Modern British Fiction (3 s.h.) F
A reading of great novels from the first quarter of the 20th century, the
high point of English modernism. May include Conrad's Lord Jim, Woolf's To
the Lighthouse, and Joyce's Ulysses. A reevaluation of the achievement of
modernism from the perspective of the post-modern age with the focus on kinds
of modernism, kinds of irony, the importance of form, and the works' social
and moral implications.
0246. Contemporary British Fiction (3 s.h.) S
Studies in the British novel since World War II. Figures include Evelyn
Waugh, Elizabeth Bowen, Joyce Cary, Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, Henry
Green, Barbara Pym, Iris Murdoch, and John Fowles.
0250. Modern British and American Poetry I
(3 s.h.) F
The major works and writers of the first phase of modernism, from the beginning
of the century through the 1920s. Such poets as Yeats, Eliot, Stein, Williams,
Pound, examined in their social and political contexts, and with reference
to their contributions to the development of modernism.
0251. Modern British and American Poetry II (3 s.h.) S
Study of the second wave of modernism and the beginnings of postmodern
poetry-from the beginnings of World War II through its aftermath in the fifties.
Includes major later works by the first generation of modernists (Eliot,
Stein, Williams, etc.), as well as work by later poets (Olson, Creeley, Ashbery,
etc.).
0253. Contemporary Drama (3 s.h.) S
European and American drama since 1940, with equal attention to dramatic
and theatrical values. May include Wilder, Miller, Williams, Ionesco, Genet,
Pinter, Brecht, Duerrenmatt, Shepard, and Mamet.
0254. Irish Literature (3 s.h.) F
Four modern Irish writers, emphasizing close reading, psychological concepts,
and cultural history. Major figures are Yeats and Joyce. Also includes works
by Flan O'Brien and Seamus Heaney.
0257. Modern World Fiction (3 s.h.) F
A study of significant literary works and developments in fiction in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. Representative authors range from Flaubert,
Balzac, and Dostoevski, to Mann, Proust, Camus, and Brock.
0259. Advanced Contemporary Literature
(3 s.h.) F
Post-modernist literature; such figures as Barth, Pynchon, Beckett,
Robbe-Grillett, Butor, Suarraute, Gombrowicz, Kundera, Garcia Marquez. May
also include authors from other areas.
W260. Themes and Genres in Women's Literature (3 s.h.) S
A variable content course which studies in depth the ideas, languages,
and
cultural stances in literature written by women. A specific theme or genre
will be taken up each semester; detailed description will be available in
English Department office before priority registration.
0270. Advanced Film (3 s.h.) F
This course will focus the study of film on particular issues and questions
related to cinema history, culture, and theory. Topics might be a specific
period in movie history (such as "German Expressionist Cinema"), an
interdisciplinary topic (such "Women and Film"), or a textual problem (such
as "The Development Film Narrative"). Students should therefore refer each
semester to the particular description of the course offered by a instructor
during the period.
W275. Feminist Theory (3 s.h.) S
Many contemporary theorists describe how the values of a culture are encoded
in its language, and they analyze the difficulty of escaping the "prison
house of language." In this course, we will examine how gender-roles are
created in and enforced by our symbol systems. Along with theoretical readings,
we will consider feminist applications of these strategies in politics,
literature, music, and film. Throughout the course, we will work to develop
insights into how specific discourses change, how those changes can be
facilitated, and how a new discourse is then read.
0276. Contemporary Criticism (3 s.h.) S
Comparative study of literary theories from the 1960s to the present.
Introduction to several contemporary critical schools, which include
deconstructionist, neo-psychological, neo-Marxist, new historical, feminist,
sociological, and aesthetic criticism.
0281. Special Topics I (3 s.h.) FS
Variable content. Advanced study in a specific area, concentrating on pre-1900
works. Course description available in English Department.
0282. Special Topics II (3 s.h.) FS
Variable content. Advanced study in a specific area, concentrating on post-1900
works. Course description available in English Department.
R283. Images of Blacks in Afro & Euro-Amer. Lit., Drama, & Mass
Media (3 s.h.) F
Prerequisite: An American literature course and preferably at least one semester
of African-American literature. This course will explore representations
of racial difference in the fiction and drama of Afro-American and Euro-American
authors. Primary texts will be read in conjunction with screenings of films,
to examine the role of visual media in shaping perceptions. How image-making
in theatre, film, and television has influenced the way racial difference
is characterized in literature will be a crucial question, with an emphasis
on the relationship between criticism and creative process.
0288. Independent Study (2-3 s.h.) FS
Allows students in their junior and senior year to pursue serious independent
research in a subject too specialized or too advanced to appear as a regular
course offering. Proposals must be worked out with a supervisor and submitted
to the Undergraduate Committee by November 20 for spring semester registration
and April 15 for summer or fall.
W300. Senior Seminar (3 s.h.) FS
All 300-level courses are senior capstone courses designed for advanced English
majors or for other students who have had previous coursework in the particular
area. These variable content courses make a close study of a defined body
of literary work, using current critical methods. Students should be engaged
in independent reading and critical thought. All English majors are required
to take one senior seminar before graduating. Detailed course description
will be available from the English Department before priority registration.
Registration is by Special Authorization only.
Return to the list of courses.
This web version written by Mary England 7/96