English Department
Course Descriptions
First Summer Session
2008
ENG/LIN 211 010 INTRO TO LINGUISTICS I MTWR 1:00-3:30 Marks
ENG/LIN 211 011 INTRO TO LINGUISTICS I MTWR 10:00-12:30 El-Guindy
ENG/LIN 212 010 INTRO TO LINGUISTICS II MTWR 12:30-3:00 Bosch
This is the second semester of a two-semester sequence
introducing the study of Linguistics. (However, for this summer session
only, LIN 211 is not a prerequisite for this course.) Linguistics is the
scientific study of human language as a system. Everyone knows a
language--but what does it mean to know a language? How are languages
different from one another? How are they similar? This course will
introduce students to the social aspects of the study of linguistics, focusing
on the issues and problems of interest within each of these fields; topics
include semantics, first and second language acquisition, sociolinguistics,
brain and language, psycholinguistics, and animal communication. There
will be brief problem sets, 10 short quizzes, a midterm and a final. English
majors, Linguistics majors, MCL majors, and students in the Colleges of
Communication, Allied Health, and Education are all welcome in this
introductory course.
ENG 230 010 INTRO TO LITERATURE MTWR 10:00-12:30 Prats, J.
ENG 230 011 INTRO TO LITERATURE MTWR 1:00-3:30 Staff
ENG 234 010/GWS 200-010 INTRO TO WOMEN’S
LIT MTWR 1:00-2:40 Fetters
ENG 330 010 TEXT & CONTEXT: WAR POETRY MTWR 10:00-12:30 Prats, A.
In a famous essay entitled “The Moral Equivalent of
War” (1906), the great American philosopher, William James, attempted to
explain the human ambivalence toward war by recourse to the following paradox,
which he illustrated by recourse to the crucial chapter of American history:
Ask all our
millions, north and south, whether they would vote now . . . to have our war
for the Union expunged from history, and the record of a peaceful transition to
the present time substituted for that of its marches and battles, and probably
hardly a handful of eccentrics would say yes. Those ancestors, those efforts,
those memories and legends, are the most ideal part of what we now own
together, a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured
out. Yet ask those same people whether they would be willing, in cold blood, to
start another civil war now to gain another similar possession, and not one man
or woman would vote for the proposition.
As a pacifist, James was unique because, though he detested war, he
understood deeply the allure that war has historically held for the young of
every generation (and for the old men and women who so cheerfully send them off
to war). He knew, then, that any effective effort to avert war in his time
would have to offer the young a purpose, a mission—one to which they could
unambiguously devote their lives, toward which they could direct their best
energies with the same high zeal that they have heretofore reserved for war and
the military (hence “the moral
equivalent of war,” “the moral equivalent
of war”).
This course proposes that the poetry of
war, at its best, reflects with unsurpassed sophistication and complexity—with
a terrible beauty, really—the paradox that James puts forth in his essay. The
awesome emotions of war, the terrifying insights that it can produce, the
anguished yet transcendent testimonies of those who experience it and write
poetically about it—these find their highest and truest expressions not in
history or in prose fiction or even in memoirs but in poetry. The poetry of war
celebrates the glory of war, the honor of fighting in it, the palpable sense of
shared purpose, of selfless sacrifice, of unbounded love of country. Yet the
poetry of war also engages, and with undiminished assiduity and fervor, those
other things about war—the dark and dread “things” that exist and unfold side
by side with “duty, honor, country”—namely, war’s unspeakable horrors, its
merciless degradations of the human spirit, its enforced surrenders to
unimaginable cruelty, the remorseless (even tiresome) enactments of tragedy, of
inconsolable and everlasting grief. Yet the poetry of war confronts these
“things” almost mystically, at times even in a form that rescues and redeems
the tragic from its finality. We will
therefore study poetic testimony—the
insight and the inspiration of those who refuse to betray their experiences to
a norm, who recapture their humanity by confronting (humbly yet courageously)
war’s unremitting inhumanity—rather than the poetry that merely conforms to
cultural myths and breaks faith with the individual’s testimony only for the
sake of perpetuating the self-delusions of nations.
We will use (for lack of a more
comprehensive text) the Oxford Book of
War Poetry and will supplement it with handouts of other poems, of essays,
of fragments of books, and so on. In addition, partly as a sort of experiment,
I would like to require a beautiful yet unassuming book—a participant’s account
of the Second World War battles for Peleliu and Okinawa, With the Old Breed (by E. B. Sledge).
ENG 395 010 INDEPENDENT WORK To be arranged with instructor
ENG 482G 010 STUDIES IN AMERICAN
LITERATURE MTWR 10:00-12:30 Varnes
READING THE MODERN
POEM
Ivor Winters once unkindly suggested that actors should not
perform poetry because they reduce meanings to something they can understand,
imposing a cheaper interpretation than the poem deserves. One doesn’t need to
be a famous crank to realize that poets themselves are quite capable of
butchering their poems in performance – one hopes not for the same reason. And
yet, very few experts will dispute the importance of sound in poetry. Robert
Frost spoke of “sound images” in all writing, where the style directed how to
hear a sentence, how to say it aloud. W.D. Snodgrass wrote of the importance of
nonsense verse, where literal, rational meaning is occluded but the sound still
conveys.
Second Summer Session
2008
ENG/LIN 210 020 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE MTR 11:30-1:10 O’Hara
This is an introductory course in the History of the English
Language in which we will study the ways in which English has developed from
its origins to modern times.
PURPOSE of
the course: To answer the following
questions: Where does Modern English come from? How has English changed over
the last 1500 years? What do those changes show us about the process of
language change in general? What influence have class, race, gender, and
politics had on the development of English? What are some of the more common
myths about language and why are they wrong? What is the future of English as a
world language?
METHOD: The
course will be structured around readings from The Story of English,
supplemented by the SOE videos, by additional readings from the Encyclopedia,
and Language Myths, as well as by handouts. Students will be expected to
do the assigned readings before class and to participate in instructor-led
discussions of the material.
EVALUATION:
Four exams based on the assigned readings and selected videos; daily quizlets
on the homework readings. No cumulative mid-term or final.
TEXTS: The
2d edition,
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Language
Myths. (eds) Laurie Bauer and Peter
Trudgill, Penguin, 1998.
The Story of English. Robert McCrum, 3d
edition. Penguin Books, 2002.
NOTES: 1) Students in the
requirement (under Option B) by taking ENG/LIN
210 and ENG/LIN 211
in any order.
2) Attendance is mandatory from the
first day of class for all students
including those on the waitlist.
ENG 230 020 INTRO TO LITERATURE MTWR 8:50-11:20 Carter
Note: Course start date 06/05/08;
Course end date 07/02/08
Why are school districts and some parents afraid of Harry
Potter, Huckleberry Finn or others? Why are certain works and their characters’
words either avoided or expurgated to gain admittance into the corridors of
high schools? This course will read these works and examine the historical and
cultural reasons for the books’ being challenged in the past or today. Poems
such as Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” and Ginsberg’s “Howl” have rallied
opponents to suppress their inclusion in anthologies. We’ll try to redeem or
reject these texts through close readings and research into the complaints about
the books and into the themes of the texts. Coursework will include readings
and two 5-7 pages essays as well as shorter writing assignments.
ENG 230 021 INTRO TO LITERATURE MTWRF 9:10-11:10 Staff
Note: Course start date 07-03/08;
Course end date 07/31/08
ENG 230 420 INTRO TO LITERATURE TR 6:00-8:30 Staff
ENG 234 420 INTRO TO WOMEN’S LIT MW 6:00-8:30 Staff
Note: Course start date 06/09/08;
Course end date 07/30/08
ENG/AAS 264 020 MAJOR BLACK WRITERS MTWRF 10:20-11:20 Staff
ENG 335 020 SURVEY OF AMERICAN LIT II MTWR 11:30-2:00 Marksbury
Note: Course start date 07/07/08;
Course end date 07/31/08
ENG 395 010 INDEPENDENT WORK To be arranged with instructor
ENG 401 020 SPECIAL TOPICS IN WRITING MTWRF
9:10-11:40 Thoune
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Note: Course start date 07/03/08;
Course end date 07/24/08
In this course we will be reading, writing, and critically
exploring works of creative nonfiction. Although generally truthful, creative
nonfiction uses literary techniques to create, as Lee Gutkind writes,
“factually accurate prose about real people and events—in a compelling, vivid
manner. To put it another way, creative nonfiction writers do not make things
up; they make ideas and information that already exist more interesting and, often,
more accessible.” Our goals throughout the semester will be to investigate
notions of truth, ethics of representation, and examining the stylistic
components of “good” writing.
ENG 401 220 SPECIAL TOPICS IN WRITING
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING
ENG 481G 020 STUDIES IN BRITISH LIT MTWRF 9:10-11:10 Foreman
SHAKESPEARE &
PERFORMANCE
Note: Course start date 06/05/08;
Course end date 07/03/08
Shakespeare's plays were
designed to be spoken aloud and understood aloud, but John Heminges and Henry
Condell, two of his longtime partners in the theater business, also thought
they were valuable texts for private reading so they published a collected
edition several years after their friend's death. This course is founded
on the notion that these forms of encounter with the plays- private reading
(whether silent or aloud) and communal reading aloud--are mutually illuminating
and provide a way into a capacious understanding and appreciation of the
interacting emotions and arguments of the characters, their ideas and doubts,
their desires and needs, their griefs and joys. To read a Shakespearean
role as if you knew what it meant is a great start toward finding out what in
fact it does mean, as is hearing other people read other characters as if they
too knew what they meant by what they said. We will also look at how
different oral performances find different meanings in the same works. We
will use two plays, chosen (by the instructor, who, as he writes this in
early March, is indecisive) from (probably) the following: A Midsummer
Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear.
We will read lots of Shakespeare's words in class, tinkering with rhythm,
stress, and silence, and we will look at video and listen to audio versions of
our plays to get a sense of how other people think they should sound.
There will be short written exercises due for most class meetings, as well as
in-class work, which will include reading aloud every day, but no long papers
or "major" exams. (Grades will measure the diligence and
intelligence and sensitivity of students' work, but not their ability as
"actors.")
ENG 570 020 SELECTED TOPICS ADVANCE STUDY OF
LIT MTWRF 11:30-1:30 Eldred
LITERACY NARRATIVES
Note: Course start date 06/05/08;
Course end date 07/04/08
This
particular section will study the intersection of literature and a field called
“New Literacy Studies.” Expect to read
drama, poetry, and short fiction, as well as scholarly articles. Expect to do some experimental writing of
creative nonfiction, including a “new media” piece (sounds scarier than it
is). Graduate students will also write a
short scholarly paper and lead a workshop.
ENG 601 020 ESSAYS & CREATIVE NONFICTION MTWRF 9:10-11:40 Thoune
Note: Course start date 07/03/08;
Course end date 07/24/08
Taught
concurrently with ENG 401-020.
See description for ENG 401-020 above.
ENG 771 220 SEMINAR IN SPECIAL TOPICS MTWRF 9:00-3:30 Burns
TEACHING OF WRITING
Note: Course start date 06-09-08;
Course end date 07/03/08. Registration available through
ENG 771 221 SEMINAR IN SPECIAL TOPICS MTWRF 9:00-3:30 Burns
TEACHING OF WRITING
Note: Course start date 06-09-08;
Course end date 07/03/08. Registration available through