Department of English

Literature Courses

English 30:  Introduction to Literature (3 crs. 3 hrs.) This course introduces students to the major genres of literature (poetry, drama, fiction), to a selection of poetry, drama, and fiction from around the world, and to the most important literary tools, concepts, techniques, and structures necessary for the understanding and analysis of these different texts. Students will critically examine the form and content of each text; they will also explore the interplay between each text and the historical, socio-cultural context within which it was produced as well as the author’s personal history. This course encourages students to perceive literature as a tool for self-discovery AND as a means to travel around the world and relate, empathetically and sympathetically, to different authors and characters. The overall theme for our course, therefore, is the exploration of the self and other.

English 32:  World Literature (3 crs. 3 hrs.) The diverse body of literature written by authors around the globe is the focus of this course, including works written in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from the Far East and Africa as well as from Europe and the Americas.

English 40:  Short Fiction (3 crs. 3 hrs.) In this course, we will read and analyze a variety of short stories written between 1842 and 2020. Through studying these texts, we will learn about literary themes, styles, and techniques; consider how meaning and interpretation are affected by cultural and social contexts; and further develop our critical reading and writing skills.

English 42:  Poetry (3 crs. 3 hrs.) Marianne Moore wrote that poetry contains “imaginary gardens with real toads in them.” From the Greek poiesis or “making,” poetry is a literary form that uses the aesthetic qualities of language to evoke meanings beyond ostensible meaning. This course concerns the use of musical devices such as assonance, alliteration, and rhythm; stylistic elements such as ambiguity, symbolism, and irony; as well as verse, rhyme, and meter. We will explore forms from the sonnet to haiku to ghazals to slam poetry. Possible readings may include ancient texts from Sumer, India, Greece, and Rome; medieval and Renaissance authors such as Rumi, Dante, Villon, and Shakespeare; and modern authors from Basho, Holderlin, and Pushkin to Nazik Al Malaika, Pablo Neruda, Anne Carson, and Tyehimba Jess.

English 43:  Drama (3 crs. 3 hrs.) English 43 provides an analysis of dramatic structure and a study of plays representing major dramatic styles. Throughout the semester, assignments will include writing about, reading, viewing, discussing, and, if you choose, performing, drama. This class is designed to give you a deepened awareness of this distinctive form of imaginative literature.

English 48:  American Environmental Literature (3 crs. 3 hrs.) A survey of American nature writing and environmental literature from the mid-nineteenth-century through the present day. Topics include ecology, climate change, indigenous practices, and environmental racism. Authors include Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Jane Jacobs, Robin Wall Kimmerer, among many others. Selections include natural histories, travelogues, journals, diaries, essays, poetry, a novel, and films. Fulfills Pathways Flexible Core: U.S. Experience in Its Diversity.

English 63:  Shakespeare (3 crs. 3 hrs.) This course provides students with an introduction to Shakespeare, including plays and sonnets. Students pay close attention to language and meaning in Shakespeare’s texts, analyze the readings in historical context, and consider what makes these works extraordinary.

English 65:  Literature and Film (3 crs. 3 hrs.) This course explores how literature is interrelated with film by analyzing several short stories and novels and their respective film treatments. Students will learn to appreciate and analyze relationships between film and literature.

English 66:  Literature and Human Behaviour (3 crs. 3 hrs.) In this course we will examine the intertextual connection between literature and film. We will first read a literary text and analyze it closely, then view either key shot selections or films in their entirety. Important concepts, techniques, and vocabulary used in literary scholarship, media studies, and cultural studies will be emphasized in class discussions, writing assignments, and the final examination.

English 67:  Women Writers (3 crs. 3 hrs.) This course explores selected themes by women authors drawn from worldwide literature in a range of genres, such as fiction, drama, poetry, and memoir, and includes consideration of how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, sexuality, and/or class to shape women’s writing.

English 68:  Gothic and Horror Literature (3 crs. 3 hrs.) This course explores the rich and varied traditions of gothic and horror literature, tracing their evolution from the 18th century to contemporary works. Students will engage with key themes such as the supernatural, the uncanny, the monstrous, and the psychological depths of fear and desire. Major topics include the exploration of identity and the self, the fragility of human reason, the horrors of isolation, and the intersection of gothic aesthetics with societal anxieties about race, gender, and power. We will analyze how gothic and horror narratives interrogate moral boundaries, question the nature of monstrosity, and reflect cultural fears of transgression, decay, and the unknown. By the end of the course, students will have developed a nuanced understanding of how these genres challenge and reflect the complexities of human experience and societal anxieties

English 6900: Caribbean Literature (3 crs. 3 hrs.) This course examines the Caribbean experience as presented by the literary works of its people, from colonialism through the present day. A plethora of Caribbean writers, such as Aimé Césaire, Derek Walcott, Edwidge Danticat, Frantz Fanon, George Lamming, Jamaica Kincaid, Jean Rhys, Junot Diaz, Mahadai Das, Merle Hodge, V.S Naipaul, and others will be examined. Attention will be paid to history and culture, from colonization to present, and how Caribbean peoples negotiate socio-economic and political identities.

English 7000: Queer Literature (3 crs. 3 hrs) An introduction to the study of literature with a focus on sexuality and gender. Students will explore the relationships between these works and the larger historical, philosophical, political, and cultural contexts. The analysis of Queer literature will include discussion of local and global intersections among identity categories like race, class, ethnicity, nationality, and ability

English 77: African-American Literature: Beginnings to the Harlem Renaissance(3 crs. 3 hrs.) English 77 is an overview of early African-American literature from the slavery era to the Harlem Renaissance. We will read genres such as oral and slave narratives, poetry, fiction and nonfiction. As the African-American novelist Toni Morrison describes it, we will explore “the four-hundred-year old presence of first Africans and then African-Americans in the United States.” How do we see this evolving identity in the literature? Along the way, you will have the opportunity to think about the role of African American literature and history in your life and the life of the nation. Through a variety of readings and informal and formal writing assignments, students will apply interdisciplinary approaches (literary analysis, history, sociology) to explore themes such as racial oppression, resilience, community, and artistic innovation, demonstrating how African-American literature reflects and shapes the diversity of the U.S. experience.

English 78:African-American Literature: Great Depression to Present  (3 crs. 3 hrs.) This course explores the rich and evolving tradition of African American literature from the Great Depression to the contemporary era. Focusing on the works of key writers and poets, we will examine themes, such as racial identity, social justice, migration, gender, sexuality, and the complexities of African American life across various historical moments.