Skip to Main Content

Academic Bulletin English Courses - Course Descriptions - 2013-14

Currently viewing 2013-14 bulletin

Course Descriptions

 

ENG 101 Composition

Multiple sections will be offered in the fall semester, each limited to 15 students. While instructors may use different approaches, all are concerned with developing every student’s use of clear and appropriate English prose in course papers and on examinations. All instructors have the common goal of encouraging the student to write with accuracy of expression, as well as with logical and coherent organization. Students will be responsible for writing at least one in-class essay and a series of longer, out-of-class essays. Students are expected to develop an awareness of the strengths and weaknesses in their writing and to acquire the necessary skill to revise and rewrite what they thought were final drafts of essays. Past experience has shown the Department and the College that writing well in high school does not necessarily assure the same in college. Enrollment in this course is limited to those students required  to take it, based on SAT English Writing Exam scores. This course is offered in the fall semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

Course Descriptions—Language Studies

 

ENG 110 Introduction to Creative Writing

This is an introductory course in Creative Writing. ENG 110 will offer students an opportunity to read and write in several genres: fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The course will focus on writing through the practice of various methods of generation used by established writers, designed to introduce students to issues of language, form, image, character, and structure. Students will also learn critical tools for assessing good writing and be introduced to the workshop model for discussing creative work. Students will acquire these tools through peer review, through close reading of contemporary texts, and through revision. The course is especially suited to students who would like to learn a variety of creative genres before committing themselves to genre-specific creative writing courses. This course is offered in the fall semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 122 Studies in Language: Modern Linguistics (HUM 122)

This course is an introduction to the basic principles of linguistics, the theory and analysis of human language. The first half of the course will focus on structural aspects of language: speech sounds and sound systems, and the formation of words and sentences.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1/2

 

ENG 121 Studies in Language: Language Variation and Change (HUM 121)

This continuation of ENG 122 (HUM 122) will deal with the social phenomena of language, including language acquisition, social and regional variation, and language change over time.

Prerequisite: ENG 122 or HUM 122.

Credits: 1/2

 

ENG 202 Writing with Power and Grace

This class addresses one of the most important questions of higher education, and, indeed, of life: how to express yourself clearly and gracefully. The premise of this class is that writing well is a potent form of power and beauty. To achieve that goal, we’ll study the major principles of grammar, style, and clarity. Although all are welcome, this class will be of particular interest to freshmen and sophomores who either did not take the Composition or would like further practice in writing. This course does not count toward the creative writing track of the English major. This course is offered in the fall and spring semesters.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 210 Special Topics in Creative Writing

This course will build upon the creative principles in ENG 110. Because the course may be different every time it is taught, students may re-take the course for credit. Special Topics may cover a variety of genres such as screenwriting, novel writing, travel writing, writing the memoir, the long poem, etc. The course will have a strong work-shopping component. Course readings will help students gain an understanding of the contemporary aesthetic of the genre as well as provide direction about craft. Besides generating assignments, producing original work, and reading a variety of genre-specific texts, students will also be responsible for peer evaluation and critique.

Prerequisite: ENG 110.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 211 Creative Non-Fiction

This course in creative nonfiction will build upon the principles in ENG 110. The course will have a strong workshopping component and focus heavily on generating creative nonfiction and learning to read as writers. Usually a combination of an anthology and a book on the craft of creative nonfiction will comprise the required texts. Besides generating assignments, producing original essays, and reading a variety of texts, students will also be responsible for peer evaluation and critique.

Prerequisite: ENG 110.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 212 Creative Writing: Poetry

This course includes composition, presentation, and considered discussion of original poems in a workshop atmosphere. Experimentation with various poetic forms will be encouraged and craftsmanship emphasized. A strong commitment to poetry will be expected, not only in writing and rewriting throughout the semester, but also in careful criticism of fellow students’ work. Supplementary readings in contemporary poetry will be used as models for writing and as impetus for discussion. This course is offered in the fall semester.

Prerequisite: ENG 110.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 213 Creative Writing: Short Fiction

Students will write about 12,000 words of short fiction, which will be read and discussed in workshop sessions. The course pre-supposes a serious interest in creative writing. It requires strict self-discipline, devotion to craftsmanship, and active critical analysis. Supplementary readings in short fiction, past and contemporary, are assigned. This course is offered in the fall semester.

Prerequisite: ENG 110.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 311 Advanced Workshop in Creative Nonfiction

This course will build on the principles of ENG 211. It is primarily a work-shopping course, which will focus on generation and revision of original creative nonfiction, with an emphasis on producing polished, publishable work. Texts will include craft/theory books, anthologies and literary journals. The course will have a critical essay component, a close study of the craft of a particular writer or some formal question. Students will also be responsible for detailed peer critique at the advanced level.

Prerequisite: ENG 211.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 312 Advanced Workshop in Poetry

This course will build on the principles of ENG 212. It is primarily a work-shopping course, with a critical essay component—close study of the craft of a particular writer or some formal question. Students will continue to read and study published work, such as the annual The Best American Poetry anthologies. Each version of the course will vary some in focus. For instance, one course might focus on postmodern poetics, while another might focus on narrative poetry and prose poetry. But students will not be bound by these emphases: they will be free to follow their own creative impulses as they write new poems and revise old ones.

Prerequisite: ENG 212.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 313 Advanced Workshop in Fiction

This course will build on the principles of ENG 213. It is primarily a work-shopping course, which will focus on generation and revision of original fiction, with an emphasis on producing polished, publishable work. Texts will include craft/theory books, anthologies and literary journals. The course will have a critical essay component, a close study of the craft of a particular writer or some formal question. Students will also be responsible for detailed peer critique at the advanced level. The professor may choose to focus the course further on one of the subgenres of fiction writing.

Prerequisite: ENG 213.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 387 Independent Study in Language

Any student in good standing academically and interested in pursuing a topic in language studies in English not normally available through departmental course offerings is encouraged to apply to the Department for permission to do independent work in English language studies. Such study usually involves not more than one course credit a semester, and entails a significant academic project submitted to a department member for a letter grade. Students must receive written approval of their project proposal from a department member before registering for the course.

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the department chair.

Credits: 1 or 1/2

 

ENG 410 Advanced Composition: Academic and Professional Writing

The goal of this course is for the student to gain greater awareness and control over his writing for a variety of academic and professional purposes. Students who wish to improve their college writing and those who plan to attend law or graduate school, teach, or write professionally would be well served by the course. We will focus in particular on clarity in writing, argumentative techniques, the demands of different genres, and developing a personal voice. Limited enrollment. This course is offered in the spring semester. STUDENTS MAY TAKE EITHER ENG 410 or 411, BUT NOT BOTH.

Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 411 Advanced Composition: Business & Technical Writing

The emphasis in this course will be on technical, business, and other forms of career-oriented writing. Topics include audience analysis, style analysis, grammar, punctuation, and research. Assignments adapted to fit the background and interests of each student include business correspondence, mechanism description, process description, formal proposal, magazine article, and formal report. Limited enrollment. Offered spring semesters. STUDENTS MAY TAKE EITHER ENG 410 or 411, BUT NOT BOTH.

Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 498/499 Creative Writing Capstone Portfolio Course

In these two half-credit courses, the student writes and revises a portfolio of his work in a single genre. The portfolio should include the writer’s best work, accompanied by an introductory aesthetic statement. During the first semester in 498, the student will meet in workshop with other senior writers in their chosen genre. In the second semester in 499, the writing concentrator will further develop and revise his portfolio, and give a reading of his work. The portfolio courses will provide workshops to help students in publication and in application to graduate programs. Readings in the courses will be varied; some will be guides for practical instruction, others will be theoretical or craft texts to help the student find formal coherence in his portfolio.

Prerequisites: 300-level workshop, majors only.

Credits: 1/2

 

Course Descriptions—Literature

 

Introductory Courses

These courses, numbered 105–160, introduce students to English, American, and World literature in translation. Two half-semester courses, ENG 105 and 106, introduce students to the ways of reading poetry and short stories. ENG 107 and 108 emphasize history as a subject matter in literature. ENG 109 and 160, as well as ENG 107 and 108, focus on world and multicultural literature.

 

ENG 214–220, offered yearly, are designated “Core” courses because they are central to our conception of an English major. They introduce the student to basic literary and cultural history, to significant writers, works, and themes, and to useful critical modes. Students will be expected to participate in classroom discussion and write several short papers. These courses also serve as the foundation for more advanced literary study.

 

ENG 105 Introduction to Poetry

This class will introduce you to the study of poetry through intensive reading and intensive written analysis. We will focus on close reading of a wide range of poems from a variety of historical periods, genres, and cultures. Through a study of image, symbol, diction, syntax, meter, rhythm, and sound, we will analyze the ways in which a poem creates meaning. Written analyses will emphasize the marriage of formal and thematic elements in particular poems.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1/2

 

ENG 106 Introduction to Short Fiction

This class has two goals: to introduce the study of short fiction through intensive reading, and to familiarize students with strategies and methodologies for writing about literature. In our readings, we will explore formal issues such as tone, structure, and symbolism as well as social issues such as sexuality, race and gender. This class focuses on ways of grappling with these big questions in writing, as literary scholars do.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: ½

 

ENG 107 History and Drama: Science and Scientists

First, a brief review of how the general reader can become a critical reader of dramatic literature—and still find the experience delightful and enriching. Then, using Pirandello’s Henry IV as a reminder of the challenges of plays about contemporary issues and personalities, we will discuss some works from the last sixty years that have addressed concerns of science and scientists. It may be just as interesting to discover that some dramatists have intriguing insights into this kind of subject as it is to realize that sometimes both humanists and scientists can speak the same language. Texts will include Brecht’s Galileo, Kipphardt’s In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, as well as more recent efforts to present Heisenberg, Bohr, and Feynman. This course is offered in the second half of fall semesters.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1/2

 

ENG 108: History and Literature

This introductory literature course focuses on the connections between history and literature. The instructor develops a specific topic that invites the exploration of these connections.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 109 World Literature in Translation

This course will focus on 20th-century literature in translation from South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Japan, China, Senegal, India, Egypt, and Israel. Thematically, the course will address nationalism, language, political violence, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, exile, gender inequality, and globalization. We will examine a variety of texts translated into English to determine how people in non-Anglophone nations have defined their national identities, often after decades or centuries of foreign oppression. This course is offered in the spring semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 160 Multicultural Literature in America

The richness of American culture is a result of the contributions made by individuals from a variety of groups, each expanding our definition of what it means to be American. In this course we will study the writing and cultures of a number of groups, among them Native American, Hispanic, Gay, African American, European American, and Asian American. We will try to hear individual voices through a variety of literary forms (including film), while exploring commonalities. This course is offered in the spring semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 214 Introduction to British Literature after 1900

This course will introduce students to the major writers and literary trends of the British Isles after 1900. We will begin with the dawn of Modernism, after which we will trace important political, cultural, and aesthetic changes reflected in 20th and 21st century texts. How did the disintegration of the British Empire and two world wars affect British cultural identity? How was the clash between the rural and the urban reflected in the past century? We will focus on a variety of genres-fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama—and examine the experimentations with language and form in Modernism and Postmodernism, as well as representations of gender roles and race in selected texts by Joseph Conrad, Wilfred Owen, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, George Orwell, Samuel Beckett, Doris Lessing, Eavan Boland, Muriel Spark, Angela Carter, and others. This course is offered in the spring semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 215 Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature

The study of English literature from its beginnings to the end of the Renaissance. Readings will include Beowulf; selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; Elizabethan Poetry (including Book I of Spenser’s The Faerie Queen); drama and prose; and Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 216 Introduction to Shakespeare

A study of the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare. Analyzing Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetic techniques, we will examine some of the comedies, histories, and tragedies of the greatest dramatist in English. We will also look at the plays’ major themes, styles, and sources. This course also includes as a final assignment, work as a member of a team on the presentation of a scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 217 English Literature, 1660–1800

This course examines works by some of the best-known poets, essayists, and novelists from the Restoration and 18th Century in Great Britain, including Dryden, Swift, Pope, Fielding, and Johnson. The responses of different authors to ongoing cultural conflicts will help structure our survey. Rhetorical techniques and the development of genres will be ongoing concerns. There will be special emphasis on the comedies of the time by Wycherly, Etherege, Behn, Congreve, Gay, Steele, and Sheridan, not only as texts for performance and reading, but also as objects the authors’ contemporaries reviewed with vigor and used to construct theories about comedy and satire. This course is offered in the spring semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 218 Introduction to English Literature, 1800–1900

A study of the life and literature of the early and middle 19th century as reflected in the poetry, fiction, and essays of this period. Texts will vary from year to year but will be drawn from the works of major poets (Wordsworth, Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, and Hardy), novelists (Austen, Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, and Hardy) and essayists (Wordsworth, Carlyle, Macaulay, Ruskin, Arnold, Huxley, and Pater). This course is offered in the spring semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 219 Introduction to American Literature before 1900

A survey of major writers and literary trends from the period of exploration to the Naturalists. We will study the forging of the American literary and social consciousness in the writings of the early explorers, through the Native American oral tradition, and in works by Bradstreet, Edwards, Franklin, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Jacobs, Melville, Douglass, Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James, Crane, and Chopin. Guiding our study will be questions like “What is ‘American’ about American literature?” and “In what ways do myths generated by our formative literature continue to shape our personal and national identities?” This course is offered in the fall semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 220 Introduction to American Literature after 1900

This survey introduces the writers and trends of our century, from realism and naturalism through modernism to the rich, fragmented energy of postmodernism and multiculturalism. Writers covered vary from year to year but may include Henry James, James Weldon Johnson, Edith Wharton, Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, William Carlos Williams, E. E. Cummings, Ernest Hemingway, Margery Latimer, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, J. D. Salinger, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Amiri Baraka, John Barth, Raymond Carver, Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros, Toni Morrison, and Don DeLillo. This course is offered in the spring semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 260 Multicultural Literatures

 

Introduction to Black Studies

The course will introduce students to the history, methodology and major problems in black studies. This survey will explore the interdisciplinary nature of black studies scholarship and the challenges it presents to traditional academic models. The issue of the politicization of the academy and the relationship between black scholarship production and service to the black community will also be covered. The course will draw from a number of literary sources (Toni Morrison, Houston Barker, Henry Louis Gates), cultural theorist (bell hooks, Mark Anthony Neal, Cornel West) and historical works (Nell Painter, John H. Franklin, Alberto Raboteau.) This course will serve students interested in the study of the black experience. All majors are welcomed. Students interested in the black studies Area of Concentration are encouraged to enroll.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 297 Introduction to the Study of Literature

This course offers an introduction to English literature as a field of study, an overview of genres (poetry, fiction, drama), and literary terms, the practice of close reading, and the basic premises of literary criticism. The course also focuses on developing research skills within the field. It is designed to help majors or potential majors utilize vocabulary essential to a successful literary and/or cultural analysis, study examples of published essays in the discipline, and consider the aims of literary criticism. This is a writing-intensive class. We welcome all students who are thinking about majoring in English to take this course. All English majors taking the literature track are required to take this course, preferably during their freshman or sophomore years. Students taking the creative writing track are encouraged but not required to take this course. This course is offered in the fall semester.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

Intermediate Courses

PLEASE NOTE: COURSES NUMBERED 300–370 HAVE THE PREREQUISITE OF ANY ONE ENGLISH LITERATURE COURSE AT WABASH. They are designed to complement and develop historical and cultural awareness, and the knowledge of authors, themes, topics, genres, modes, and critical approaches encountered in Introductory and Core courses. Students in Intermediate courses take initiative in class discussion, write several analytical papers, and become familiar with the use of secondary critical sources. Typical courses include the following topics, which are generally repeated every two or three years (please note these are examples). Students should consult course listings for current offerings.

 

ENG 300 Studies in Historical Contexts

 

The Literature of the American 1920’s

“Here was a generation,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald in the aftermath of the Great War, “grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in mankind shaken.” This course examines the literature and culture of the 1920’s in America and the American civilization that produced an extraordinary number of talented writers. We will focus upon major writers and significant texts of this decade—the Roaring Twenties, the jazz age, the great age of sport, the age of leisure, the plastic age. We will choose from among the best writers of the period. Writers may include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O’Neill, T.S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Robert Frost, William Faulkner (and perhaps others of lesser renown).

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

The Beat Writers

The writers of the Beat Generation have a perennial appeal. Perhaps it is the Dionysian energy of their writing, perhaps the myths that arose around their self-destructive lives, but they have come to represent for us “the other side” of the Fifties. Since much of this course is focused on poetry, and Kerouac’s novels may be considered extended prose poems, we will begin with some selections from Whitman’s Song of Myself. We will also do some reading on the Fifties, and view The Beat Generation. Then we will turn to the early work of Ginsberg, especially his tremendous poem, “Howl.” Next up is that late Ur-Text of the Beat Movement, Kerouac’s novel, On the Road. We will focus on four poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen. Because Gary Snyder emerged as a major American poet, we will read one of his early books, Riprap, in its entirety and learn some principles of ecocriticism, then two later novels, Williams Burroughs’ famous, infernal satire, Naked Lunch, and Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums. We will conclude by reading the work of some less well-known Beats and fellow travelers, and the later work of Ginsberg and Snyder. Our focus will be the texts themselves and their relationship to American culture of the 1950s and after.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits:  1

 

ENG 310 Studies in Literary Genres

 

Studies in Literary Genres: The 19th Century American Short Story (2nd Half)

One could argue that the short story form as we know it today was born in the 19th century America. In this course we will read some of the great writers and stories that defined and shaped that form. Authors will include Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, James, Chessnutt, Crane, Wharton, and Chopin.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1/2

 

American Nature Writing

Even in the 21st century, Americans remain haunted by the power and beauty of their landscapes and by the idea of wilderness. Thoreau’s gnomic statement, “In wilderness is the preservation of the world,” still has some currency in our culture. While Americans are far from forging a common environmental ethic, the attempt continues, especially in the face of our growing awareness of the fragility of earth’s ecosystems, and the power of our technologies to subdue and destroy them. In this course, we will read a few essential classic texts—Thoreau’s Walking and Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac to get our bearings, but the focus will be on texts of the late 20th century to the present. We will read such nonfiction works as Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire and Terry Tempest Williams’ Refuge; fictions such as Seth Kantner’s 2004 novel, Ordinary Wolves, and various stories by Rick Bass; and Gary Snyder’s poetry collection, Turtle Island. The course will also introduce students to the practice of ecocriticism. We will read the texts as literary works of art, but also as explorations of the connections between humans and the natural world, of nature and spirit, of environmental ethics and justice, and of arguments for the preservation of the natural world.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

Postmodern Fiction

This course will trace the development of postmodern fiction, from formally postmodern texts to later texts that define postmodernism more as an engagement with issues of gender, ethnicity, media, cultural hierarchy and politics. To understand these texts, we will read some theory and add heaps of astounding works of postmodern fiction by such writers as Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Douglas Copeland, and Toni Morrison, as well as watch some movies by postmodern filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, and Charlie Kaufmann.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

American Theater and Drama (THE 217)

This course will examine the rich dramatic heritage of the United States from the American Revolution to the present, with emphasis on the history of the U.S. stage and the work of major dramatists including Eugene O’Neill, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee, among others. Plays to be studied include The Contrast, Secret Service, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Awake and Sing!, The Little Foxes, Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, Mister Roberts, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Night of the Iquana, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, The Zoo Story, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Glengarry Glen Ross, True West, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Colored Museum, A Perfect Ganesh, Fences, Angels in America, How I Learned to Drive, and The America Play. The plays will be discussed as instruments for theatrical production; as examples of dramatic style, structure, and genre; and, most importantly, as they reflect moral, social, and political issues throughout the history of the United States. Students taking this course for credit toward the English major or minor must have taken at least one previous course in English or American literature. No more than one course taken outside the English Department will be counted toward the major or minor in English.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 320 Study in Literary Modes

 

American Modernism

This course explores the literature and culture of the United States in the early part of the 20th century, with its overlapping milieu of high modernists, Harlem Renaissance writers, young bohemians, and political radicals. We will examine the profound redefinitions of the self-catalyzed by the rise of psychology, rapid urbanization and mechanization, and the Great War, and we’ll discuss the public’s response to the varied artistic movements of the period, from Primitivism’s allure to the impersonal promise of Futurism. From painting to film, from Gertrude Stein’s Three Lives to Langston Hughes’s poetry and Meridel Le Sueur’s reportage, this course will examine a variety of texts that contributed to the literary experimentation and extraordinary achievement of the period. Other readings may include but are not limited to Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, Zona Gale’s Miss Lulu Bett, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Other Poems, Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Nella Larsen’s Passing, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and poetry by Williams, Taggard, Stevens, Frost, Cummings, Moore, and Millay.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 330 Studies in Special Topics: Literature of War

 

Modern Literature of War

A character in Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam Novel, Going After Cacciato, comments that “things may be viewed from many angles. From down below, or from inside out, you often discover entirely new understandings.” This course will examine the age-old theme of conflict in general and war in particular (WWI and Vietnam) as viewed from various angles and presented in different literary and media forms (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and film). We will also study the biographical, literary, historical and cultural contexts in which the various works are written. Through research, panels, readings, critical papers, films, slides, and discussion, our principal goal will be an in-depth assessment of the literary treatment of this major theme across time and genres. Writers and texts studied in this class will be Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front; Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms; Graham Greene, The Quiet American; World War One British Poets; Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War; Tim O’Brien, Going After Cacciato; Pat Barker, Regeneration; and Larry Heinemann, Paco’s Story.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 340 Studies in Individual Authors

 

George Bernard Shaw

In this half-course, we will study six plays or more by Shaw (1857–1950), each of which provides a different answer to his recurring question: what is wrong with civilization? Shaw’s wit and satire make his frequently disagreeable answers both provocative and entertaining. Texts will include three major works, Man and Superman (1903), Heartbreak House (1917), and St. Joan (1923).

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1/2

 

Herman Melville

Although a major writer in the American literary canon, Melville seems almost non-canonical in his constant experimentation with literary form and questioning of societal conventions of race, gender, and class. In this course we will study a number of Melville’s major works—Typee, Redburn, Moby Dick, Billy Budd—and several lesser known texts, particularly the poetry. In addition to enjoying the variety of stories Melville tells, meeting his distinctive characters, and exploring his unconventional ideas, we will consider Melville’s life and times as well as the history of his literary reputation.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

(Post) Colonial Joyce

James Joyce was born and raised in colonized Ireland. In ENG 340, we will read Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Exiles, Ulysses, and some of Joyce’s political writing. Our discussion of these texts will focus mainly on the writer’s commentary on imperialism, racial bias, anti-Semitism, and other forms of oppression present in late-colonial Ireland. We will try to determine why Joyce famously declared: “I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church.” In some texts, Joyce anticipates the postcolonial challenges the Irish people may face after their liberation from the British Empire. All of the books included in this course are deeply embedded in and inspired by Dublin–a city with which Joyce had a love-hate relationship, and which provided him with a wealth of characters and stories for his fiction. Ulysses is a challenging book, but its plot and structure become much clearer when one immerses oneself in the life of the city and mimics the path of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus.

Prerequisites: Junior or Senior standing, and one English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 350 Studies in Media: Literature and Film

Is the novel always better than its film adaptation? After an introduction to the art of film and a theoretical consideration of the similarities and differences between fiction and film, we will compare four or five novels with their film adaptations. In recent years this course has focused on literature and film representing New York City, including an immersion trip to the City. 

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 360 Studies in Multicultural/National Literatures

 

Toni Morrison and the African American Novel

This course is about one thing, reading Toni Morrison’s novels and her literary essays. In the process, we will explore the features of what Morrison calls the African American novel. We will also come to see and understand Morrison’s mastery of craft and subject in the production of amazing stories that speak the “truth in timbre.” The goals are to read, learn and grow in your understanding of the possibilities and limitations of rendering a people’s lived experience in language.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

African American Literature: The Novel

African Americans have employed the novel form in a variety of ways. In this course we will sample this rich tradition in works by F.E.W. Harper, Charles Chessnutt, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, Nella Larsen, Zora Neal Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Charles Johnson. We will consider how each work reflects its particular historical/ cultural moment as well as how it participates in the American literary tradition.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

Jewish American Literature

The contributions of Jewish American writers and filmmakers have been pervasive and significant. We will read selected fiction, poetry and plays, and see films that focus on the Jewish American experience. Authors and filmmakers may include Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, Cynthia Ozick, David Mamet, Allen Ginsberg, and Woody Allen.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

African American Literature: Introduction

This course explores various genres of African American Literature. Emphasis is placed on works that reflect the socio-historical development of African American life. Poetry, Slave narratives, autobiographies, novels, plays, musical lyrics, and spoken word form the subject of study in the course. Special attention is given to works of fiction that become motion pictures and the emerging area of audio books. The aim of the course is to provide students with a sense of the historical and contemporary developments within African American literature. Students are introduced to African American critical theory as well as African American history.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

Pen and Protest: Literature and Civil Rights

This course takes a literary approach to the study of the civil rights movement. Students will examine the autobiographies, plays, novels, and other various artistic expressions of the mid-1950s through 1980. The aim of the course is to explore the use of literature and art as means of political, cultural, and religious expression. Students are introduced to critical theory as well as black studies.

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 370 Studies in Special Topics

 

African American Immigration

This course will examine the themes of migration and immigration in African American literature from the captivity narrative of early America to the twenty-first century. We will examine the African American relationship with Africa from the early stages of separation to the movements of reclamation. We will also look at contemporary works that detail immigration from the continent of Africa, the Global South, and Canada. The writers we will read are preoccupied with defining their identities as people, and not as captive. We will move from slavery to freedom, through Reconstruction, post-WWII, through the Civil Rights era and into contemporary society by reading the works of authors like: Olaudah Equiano, Nella Larsen, Jean Toomer, Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, Dorothy West, Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Dione Brand, Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticatt, Shay Youngblood ad Chris Abani. The texts reflect African American migration from the rural South to the urban North, immigration from the Global South to the United States, expatriations to France and even “back” to Africa. The readings are compiled to allow us to explore the question: What is an “African American”?

Prerequisite: One English Literature course taken at Wabash.

Credits: 1

 

ENG 388 Independent Study in Literature

Any student who has completed at least one literature course, is in good standing academically, and is interested in pursuing a topic in English not normally available through departmental course offerings, is encouraged to apply to the department for permission to do independent study in literature. Such study usually involves not more than one course credit a semester, and entails a significant academic project submitted to a department member for a letter grade. Students must receive written approval of their project proposal from a department member before registering for the course.

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the department chair.

Credits: 1 or 1/2

 

ENG 397 Studies in Critical Reading

This course introduces English majors and minors to a number of literary genres, makes available to them systematic critical approaches, and gives them practice in scholarly and critical disciplines. Frequent written exercises. All members of the English Department will occasionally assist in classroom work. Offered spring semesters.

Prerequisites: None.

Credits: 1

 

Advanced (Seminar) Courses

Two sections of ENG 497 are the two Advanced Courses offered every fall. These are seminars designed primarily for English majors (although occasionally English minors enroll in them). The topics vary depending upon the research and teaching interests of the faculty. They demand a high level of student involvement in research and discussion. Several short papers and a long critical essay are required. Note: the two seminars are offered only in the fall semester.

 

ENG 497 Seminar in English Literature

 

Reading the Black Book

“Read any good Black books lately?” This is a provocative question on so many different levels. For one, it takes for granted that there is such a thing as a “Black book” and, two, should this be the case, that some of them might actually be “good.” What is at stake here is how we think of race and literary production as well as race as a critical approach to reading literature. In short, can we think of race as both a category of literary production and a tool of literary interpretation? Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison admits to writing Black books. As such, Morrison’s readers are expected to understand the various and varying ways that race matters in her work. However, scholar Kenneth Warren argues that African American literature is over. This course will take a deep dive into the murky waters that is the meaning and significance of race in African American letters. Students will be introduced to Black literary theory and cultural production. In addition to Morrison and Warren, students will read scholars like Houston Baker, Henry L. Gates, John Cullen Gruesser, Arna Bontemps, Robert Hemenway, and others. Students will come to understand African American literary theories such as: Ethiopianism, Double-Consciousness, New Negro, Blues People, Signifying, and call-and-response.  This course is meant to help students grapple with the different ways of reading the Black book.

Credits: 1

 

The Body of the Other in British and Postcolonial Literature

How do British and Postcolonial authors write about colonial power, political violence, and their effects on the body? We will study authors from the Caribbean, South Africa, India, Ireland, and England, and we will focus on gender roles and race, with a special emphasis on the theory of the postcolonial body. Corporality has been a central issue in the dialogue between the center of the empire (e.g., London) and the “margins” (e.g., British colonies). How do colonial and postcolonial authors describe colonizing and colonized bodies? To understand and enjoy the texts, we will also study the political context of British imperialism and the anti-imperial resistance, as well as the major premises of Neocolonialism. We will discuss the themes of the exoticized body, the dislocated body, the traumatized body, and the emasculated body, and we will focus on the intersections between gender and postcolonial theory.

Credits: 1

Back to Top