Spring 2010 English Major Course Guide - Schaumburg Campus
Department of Literature and Languages

 

211  British Literature 1789 to Present

STAFF

Prereq. Eng 101 with min grade of C-                                                       

(M 2:00 – 4:29 pm)

 

Survey of the Romantic, Victorian, Modernist, Postmodernist, and Postcolonial periods of British literature.  Working with texts from all genres, students explore shifts in literature and aesthetics with respect to social and cultural developments.

 

213  American Literature 1865 to Present

Theodore Gross                                          

Prereq. Eng 101 with min grade of C- 

(Tu 2:00 – 4:29 pm)

                                                                     

This course will deal with the culture of America from after the Civil War until the present. Using the Heath Anthology of American Literature (Volumes C, D, and E), we will discuss authors who range from Mark Twain and Henry James to Kate Chopin; ethnic writers (African-American figures like Wright, Baldwin, and Ellison, Jewish writers like Bellow and Malamud, and Hispanic authors like Cisneros); poets, ranging from Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot to Lowell and Plath); prose writers, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Updike; and the dramatist, Arthur Miller.  Students will be expected to keep a reading journal, take a midterm and final examination, and make oral presentations.

 

215  Caribbean Literature: Beyond Destination

Kimberly Ruffin                         

Prereq. Eng 101 with min grade of C- 

(Th 2:00 – 4:29 pm)

                                                                     

Learn about the cultures of a popular, dynamic region through its greatest writers and thinkers.  Literature, complemented by film and music, will be the core of this course on Caribbean creative and critical works by and about authors of African descent.   A study of the Caribbean’s history and various cultures is combined with analysis of the aesthetic stamp of individual artists.  Topics will include: identity, language, oral tradition, music, enslavement, carnival, and tourism.   Works from most, if not all, of the following artists will be required reading: Jamaica Kincaid, Bob Marley, Edwidge Dandicat, Earl Lovelace, Maryse Condé, Derek Walcott, George Lamming, Kamau Brathwaite, and Erna Brodber.

 

220  Introduction to Literary Analysis

Frank Alletto

Prereq. University Writing Requirement

(TuTh 4:30 - 5:45 pm)

Close analysis of poetry, fiction, and drama with emphasis on interpretation of literary form and language.  Development of critical vocabulary for explicating texts with attention to genre codes, figurative language, narrative structure, poetic diction and meter, and dramatic forms.  Introduction to basic reference sources and literary criticism.  Emphasis on writing critical analyses and developing interpretive arguments.

 

221  Texts and Contexts

Ann Brigham                                                               

Prereq. University Writing Requirement

(Tu 6:00- 8:30 pm)

                                                                     

In ENG 221, students practice working with literary criticism, critical theory, and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of literature. During the semester, we will focus on a small set of primary texts—in this case, British and American gothic literature—and consider those primary sources through a range of critical lenses. We will examine several studies that propose different theories for understanding the meaning of the gothic genre. In addition, we will study how specific critical approaches, including psychoanalysis, gender studies, postcolonialism, and new historicism, emphasize diverse interpretations of the literature.  We will also pay close attention to the processes of research and methodology, so that students will become more familiar with the types of research available to them and the strategies necessary for conducting such research.

 

308  Shakespeare and Film

Regina Buccola 

Prereq. ENG 220 with min grade of C-                                                         

(W 2:00 – 04:30 pm)

                                                                                   

English 3/408, Shakespeare and Film, analyzes the filmed versions of Shakespeare’s plays as texts in their own right. We will be viewing films based on specific plays in pairs, moving from a film “faithful” in various ways to the text as written, to one that exhibits a greater degree of adaptation.  We will consider Franco Zeffirelli's and Baz Luhrmann's versions of Romeo and Juliet; Roman Polanski's Macbeth and Billy Morrissette’s Scotland, PA; Laurence Olivier and Richard Loncraine’s takes on Richard III; Zeffirelli's Taming of the Shrew and Gil Junger’s Ten Things I Hate About You; Branagh's Hamlet and Michael Aylmereda's Hamlet 2000; Oliver Parker’s Othello and Tim Blake Nelson’s O.

 

340  Reading and Writing Ecoliterature

Kimberly Ruffin                                        

Prereq.  ENG 220 with min grade of C-                             

(Th 6:00 - 8:30 pm)

                                                                                   

What is America’s history and present of ecological writing?  This multicultural study of U.S. eco-literary traditions and trends includes both canonical and emerging authors.  The range of topics includes various perspectives on:  “going green,” global climate change, nature-writing, and environmental justice.  Students read and apply ecocritical theory and author their own ecoliterature.  Works from most, if not all, of the following authors will be required reading: Henry David Thoreau, Alice Walker, Enrique Salmon, Rachel Carson, Joseph Bruchac, Patti Ann Rogers, Leslie Marmon Silko, David Mas Masamoto, Mary Oliver, Aldo Leopold, César Chávez, and Janisse Ray.  NOTE:  this course involves experiential learning that requires off-campus activities, including participation in Roosevelt University’s New Deal Service Day.

College of Arts and Sciences