400
Is a work-experience opportunity with the purpose of expanding education by applying accumulated knowledge in the areas of literature, writing, or drama. The faculty member serving as the director of the internship may require a capstone paper or project about the internship that serves to integrate the student's work experience with scholarship. Students should have at least a 3.0 quality point average in the major and at least a 2.5 average overall. Students seeking internships are approved individually by the academic department. A contract can be obtained from the Career Services Office in Starvaggi Hall, and a contract and registration must be made prior to doing the internship. Internships count as general electives.
English junior or senior standing and permission of the department chair. Internships must be preapproved.
Traces the development of the drama in England from its beginnings in medieval liturgy through the Elizabethan Period (excluding Shakespeare) and the Restoration. Because the Elizabethan theater was rich in both number and quality of plays, that period (1556-1603) will constitute a major focus of the course.
Allows students to explore Shakespeare's plays and poetry across genres. A generous selection of works will be offered, either organized by theme (e.g., moral virtue, female characters, family relationships) or by chronological development, cross-genre influence (e.g., the fool in tragedy vs. comedy), or performance history.
Offers intense practice in the writing of short stories. Students will read good contemporary work and workshop their own writing as they attempt to make art from the margins, to tackle tough Christian issues. And in the process of doing so, they will learn to manipulate the elements of fiction, including, among others, point of view, characterization, setting, symbol, and psychic distance.
Offers intense practice in the writing of poetry. Modeling and a workshop focus will help students to appreciate and value surprise, density of image, and questions regarding line and rhythm as they attempt to, in Frost's words, move from "delight to wisdom."
Is an introduction to the development of narrative line, character, and dialogue in an original dramatic text. By the end of the semester, the student will have completed a short play, which will receive a staged reading and open critique.
DRA 408
Studies the novel as a genre from its beginnings to about 1850. Major writers such as Bunyan, Defoe, Swift, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Austen, and the Brontë sisters will be considered as examples of major concerns and ideas.
Analyzes works of selected major writers from the mid-19th century to the present. Primary attention is given to the ideas that emerge from the conflict of a religiously ordered society with a modern vision based on determinism in Dickens, the Brontës, Hardy, Ford, Joyce, Waugh, and Greene, among others.
Concerns the genesis of the novel in American literature. Attention is given to the evolution of the American novel from various myths and images of American history. Representative masterpieces by writers such as Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, Cather, Faulkner, O'Connor, Ellison, Percy, and others will be studied.
Presents a thoughtful selection of Western and non-Western literature designed to illustrate the variety of cultural representations as well as the tensions between Western and non-Western nations and ideals from approximately 1914 to the present. Works may include prose, poetry, and non-fiction by Achebe, Solzhenitsyn, Endo, Mishima, Borges, Mafouz, Marquez, Soyinka and others.
Is designed to help students experience the genre of creative nonfiction and to study its characteristics. This literature, known as the literature of fact, is that branch of writing which employs literary techniques and artistic vision associated with fiction or poetry in order to report actual events and persons. Students discuss and analyze creative nonfiction readings, using them as models for their own writing.
Is a specialized in-depth study of the works of a single American author or a few related authors. This course may be repeated for credit if different authors are studied. Author(s) will be listed as part of the course title.
Is a specialized in-depth study of the works of a single British author or a few related authors. This course may be repeated for credit if different authors are studied. Author(s) will be listed as part of the course title.
Is a specialized in-depth study of the works of a single world author or a few related authors. This course may be repeated for credit if different authors are studied. Author(s) will be listed as part of the course title.
Undertakes a detailed analysis of statements from the Classical Period to the present using established theoretical and aesthetic standards. Students will explore not only the nature of literature, but also the very nature of the true and the beautiful, as well as of taste. They will test their criteria for evaluating works of literature against those of the most celebrated literary theorists and practitioners.
Requires all English majors to write a thesis on an approved literary problem; all students enrolled in ENG 434 must also submit with their completed thesis a portfolio composed of samples of their English course work. Please see the "Portfolio Letter" found under the heading "Thesis Info" on the English department website for full instructions.
Treats British and American poetry since the late 19th century. It focuses on the elements that define American poetry and modernity, as well as the fundamental shifts that cause us to call poetry modern. Major figures include Pound, Eliot, Yeats, and Frost and many other British and American poets.
Explores the nature of "modernism." By examining selected novellas and short stories by writers such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, James, Kafka, O'Connor, Bellow, Baldwin, Ellison, Gaines, Joyce, Faulkner, and Hemingway, attention is given to both thematic and stylistic features in order to better understand what is "modern" about modern fiction.
Is designed to survey the development and variety of John Milton (1608-1674) through a close study of his major poetry and prose works. A thorough reading of his epic Paradise Lost will crown the course, though a study of his earlier poetic development will illuminate that masterpiece for the student, and his prose pamphlets in support of the Puritan revolution will offer some historical and intellectual background to the period.
Concerns itself with the major literary theorists of the 20th century.