Spring 2010 English Courses Open to Non-Majors - Chicago and Schaumburg Campuses
Department of Literature and Languages

Courses open to Freshmen - Chicago Campus:

205 Introduction to Shakespeare

Regina Buccola

Prereq. Eng 101 with min grade of C-

(TuTh 4:30-5:45 pm)

English 205, Introduction to Shakespeare, will be based in a broad sampling of Shakespeare’s work, covering all of the different kinds of plays that Shakespeare wrote (history, tragedy and comedy) as well as his sonnets. Our discussions of the plays will focus on issues such as their likely literary and historical sources, the cultural and political background informing the plot and characters, the realities (so far as we can conjecture) of their original staging, and issues of class and gender.

205 Introduction to Shakespeare

Stephen Bennett

Prereq. Eng 101 with min grade of C-

(TuTh 12:30 – 1:45 pm)

207 Introduction to African-American Literature

Lisa Schneider

Prereq. Eng 101 with min grade of C-

(M W 9:30 – 10:45 am)

African American literature is a dynamic resource for understanding numerous individual, communal, and societal needs. This survey will highlight canonical and emerging African-American authors from the 18th- 21st century (e.g. Dunbar, Johnson, Jacobs, Wells-Barnett, Hughes, Fauset, Wright, Hurston, Ellison, Brooks, Baraka, Sanchez, Young, Clifton, Reed, Hemphill, Beatty) through a range of genres, noting African, European, and “New World” influences. The writer’s role in a given community, an artist’s aesthetic considerations and unique voice, the function of the arts, and major movements (e.g. “New Negro”/ Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement) will be among the contexts for our study. Satisfies non-Western requirement.

211 British Literature 1789 to Present

Ellen O’Brien

Prereq. Eng 101 with min grade of C-

(Tu 2:00 – 4:29 pm)

This course surveys the aesthetic movements and formal literary innovations of nineteenth and twentieth-century British literature. Charting the history of British literature through its Romantic, Victorian, Modern, Postmodern, and Postcolonial periods, we examine literary texts as responses to and/or reflections of cultural change. Class meetings will include short lectures, large discussions, and group work.

213 American Literature 1865 to Present

Larry Howe

Prereq. Eng 101 with min grade of C-

(M W 12:30 – 1:45 pm)

The culture of the United States since the Civil War has been deeply marked by a number of historical and social developments: the war itself, industrial technology, the advancement of women’s rights, racial strife, and self-conscious reflections on history and the nation’s expanding global role in history. In this course, we’ll read a variety of literary performances—essays, speeches, diaries, fiction, poetry, drama, film--by a diverse array of notable writers that deal with these developments. Our discussions and your writings about these texts will, I hope, deepen and perhaps challenge your understanding of these topics and how the writiers and texts that address them have shaped American cultural identity.

Courses open to students who have completed the University Writing Requirement.

Courses open to students who have completed the University Writing Requirement - Chicago Campus:

220 Introduction to Literary Analysis

Larry Howe

(M W 4:30 – 5:45 pm)

In order to foster your skills of close reading, this course will ask you to examine the conventions of a variety of literary forms: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama, and film. We’ll concentrate on developing a critical vocabulary for explicating texts, paying particular attention to genre codes, figurative language, poetic diction and meter, narrative structure, rhetorical devices, dramatic forms, and—in the case of film—visual language. Students will learn about basic reference sources and critical strategies as we discuss interpretive analyses and write critical arguments. All of this activity will lead to a greater understanding of the complexity of literary texts and their role in cultural formation.

253 Introduction to Creative Writing

STAFF

(W 2:00 - 4:30 pm)

Through work in three genres--fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction--students develop personal voice, familiarity with various narrative and poetic strategies, and effective use of concrete and metaphoric detail. Each genre will be explored through critique of student writing and close reading of work by notable authors, both contemporary and historic.

Courses open to Freshmen - Shcaumburg Campus:

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.

Courses open to students who have completed the University Writing Requirement - Schaumburg Campus:

220 Introduction to Literary Analysis

Frank Alletto

(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

(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.

College of Arts and Sciences