Fall 2008 English Major Course Guide - Chicago Campus
Department of Literature and Languages

210  British Literature to 1789

Regina Buccola                                                                                

(Tu Th 4:30 – 5:45 pm)

Covering 1000 years of literature produced in Great Britain, this is a whirlwind tour of British literary history. The chief goals of the course are: to familiarize you with the writings of several major English authors of the Middle Ages and Renaissance; to acquaint you with the development of dominant literary forms such as lyric and narrative poetry, drama, prose fiction, and satire; to trace some recurring themes and issues in works written over the course of several centuries; to improve your ability to read literary texts closely and with understanding; to develop your skill at writing about literature clearly and perceptively; and to increase your awareness of the intimate connection between literature and the culture in which it is produced. 

 

212  American Literature to 1865

Theodore Gross                      

(M W 11:00 – 12:15 pm)

This course will deal with the culture of America from the early 1600’s until the Civil War—primarily through the required readings of literary texts but also with reference to recommended readings in history, art, and architecture.  We will be discussing the importance of Puritanism and the Revolutionary period as well as  multi-cultural documents that make America distinctive. Major authors will include Edwards, Franklin, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson.  The text for the course will be The Heath Anthology of American Literature, The Heath Anthology of American Literature Paul Lauter, General Editor, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, Volumes A,B,C.

 

220  Introduction to Literary Analysis

Bonnie Gunzenhauser

(Tu Th 2:00 – 3:15 pm)

Prereq: University Writing Requirement                                                                                                          

In this course, we'll explore literature and literary language by asking such questions as: what is literature? how is literature different from other kinds of writing? what is literature good for? and how do our ideas of ‘literature’ change over time? We'll begin by reflecting on the power of literacy and literature in individual lives (including our own), using Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as our central text. We'll then read poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction, paying special attention to the critical vocabulary and analytical tools proper to each genre. Throughout the course, we’ll combine textual analysis with big-picture considerations so that you'll leave this course a skilled reader of literary genres and an astute analyst of the ways we as human beings make meaning through literature.

 

221  Texts and Contexts

Ann Brigham

(Tu Th 12:30 – 01:45 pm)

Prereq: University Writing Requirement                   

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.

 

222  Writing about Ideas

Julie Sanford

(M  2:00 – 4:30 pm)

Prereq: University Writing Requirement                           

The themes of this writing intensive course are food, culture, and identity. We will explore food in its cultural contexts, asking such questions as: How does food construct identity? What role does food play in the community? How does it help define a culture? Are we really what we eat? We will also examine food taboos, dietary habits, the kitchen as a symbol of domesticity and power, Americanization of ethnic foods, and the politics of food production. We will read texts from a variety of disciplines, write several short essays, conduct ethnographic research, and produce a final research project. 

 

303  Intermediate Creative Writing

Emily Tedrowe

(W 2:00 – 4:30 pm)

Prereq: ENG 253                                                                

Through work in two genres—chosen by the instructor from fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction—students will develop their craft and build their portfolios.  The course will focus on the critique of student work; analysis of work by notable authors, both contemporary and historic; and the exploration of voice, style, and techniques for effective revision.

 

310/410  Early Modern Women Writers

Regina Buccola

(Tu Th 12:30 – 1:45 pm)

Prereq: ENG 220 or consent               

In this course, we will read the drama, poetry, and political polemics of seventeenth-century British women writers.  Exhorted to be “chaste, silent and obedient” from both the pulpit and bench, each of the women that we will read was, in some measure, a rebel.  Our authors also form an impressive constellation of firsts: the first professional woman writer (Aphra Behn), the author of the first “estate poem” in English (Aemilia Lanyer), and the author of the first sonnet sequence, prose romance, and tragi-comic play in the English language (Mary Wroth).  We will study these and other women writers of the 1600s as pioneers in the literary tradition as well as proto-feminists.

 

331/431A  Advanced Fiction Writing/Fiction Writing I (Graduate)

Scott Blackwood

(M  6:00 - 8:30 pm)

Prereq: ENG 253 and Consent/submit portfolio to instructor  

                                                                     

Part seminar and part workshop, this class focuses on the craft of the short story and the aesthetics of artful fiction in general.  You will read and discuss published stories by writers such as Stuart Dybek, Louise Erdich, and Denis Johnson; you will also write short stories and participate actively in the workshops, receiving and offering thoughtful, constructive criticism.  The class will function as a writing community in which we help one another achieve what John Gardner called “the vivid and continuous dream of fiction.” 

 

332/432A  Advanced Poetry Writing/Poetry Writing I (Graduate)

(M  6:00 - 8:30 pm)

Janet Wondra

Prereq: ENG 253 and Consent/submit portfolio to instructor

Reading and writing travel hand in hand, so in addition to intensive workshopping of participants’ poetry, we’ll read and analyze contemporary and classic published works. We’ll also explore how to submit your work successfully, how to analyze literary journals so you can target ones likely to embrace your poems, how to give successful readings, and how to research resources for poets. Finally, writing exercises will limber up the imagination and challenge your perceptions of style and form. You’ll exit the class with a portfolio of revised work and a stronger sense of yourself as an artist.

 

340/440  Literature and Enslavement

Kimberly Ruffin

( M W 12:30 – 1:45)

Prereq:  ENG 220 or consent

 

The period of enslavement in African-American literary history included an energetic mix of oral and written forms including song, speeches, folktales, poetry, and narratives.  This broad span of verbal art encompasses artistic, socio-political, and cultural concerns.  We will examine works by authors writing during the period (Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley, George Moses Horton) and works by contemporary authors (Toni Morrison, Frank X Walker).  In addition to close readings of the primary materials, students will learn historical contexts and apply theoretical approaches to literary analysis. 

 

342/442  Imagining Terror

Ellen O’Brien

(M 6:00 – 8:30 pm)

Prereq: ENG 220 or consent                                             

This course examines twentieth and twenty-first-century literary representations of terrorism and state terror in the works of Anglophone writers from around the world.  Including a range of authors from Africa, South Asia, North America, Ireland and the UK and incorporating texts from the early 1950s through the present, we will study how the conventions of literary genres—from lyric poems to political thrillers to postmodernist plays—are used to imagine the historical conditions and cultural discourses surrounding political terror.  We will also closely examine how authors use representations of gender and sexuality to generate strategies of analysis and critique, to interrogate the sexualized and gendered constructs of colonization and resistance, and to consider the links between individual subjectivities and violent histories.  A tentative list of authors includes: Seamus Heaney, Medbh McGuckian, Paul Muldoon, Ciaran Carson, Anne Devlin, Michael Ondaatje, Nuruddin Farah, Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Mohsin Hamid, and Doris Lessing.

 

345-99 Literature of Chicago (Honors)

Theodore Gross

(M W 9:30 - 10:45 am)

Prereq: ENG 220                            

This course will deal with the culture of Chicago in the past 130 years—primarily through the required readings of literary texts but also with reference to recommended readings in history, art, politics, and architecture. The major authors will be Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), Richard Wright (Native Son), Nelson Algren (Chicago on the Make), Saul Bellow (short stories), Mike Royko (Boss), David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross), Sandra Cisneros (House on Mango Street), and Stuart Dybek (The Coast of Chicago), with excerpts from the works of Jane Addams, Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, James T. Farrell, Carl Sandburg, Studs Terkel, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

 

402 Topics in Critical and Literary Theory

Carrie Brecke                                          

(Tu 6:00 – 8:30 pm)

What does it mean to “read” a text? How does the perspective (individual, historical, cultural) we bring to reading shape and limit our understanding? What can we learn from other disciplines and their ways of thinking about the reader and the text? These are simultaneously some of the most fundamental and the most abstract of questions facing students of literature today, and in this course we will read a broad range of materials to come up with some answers. We’ll begin our work together by reading a novel (Frankenstein), but the vast majority of our time will be spent reading theoretical materials. We’ll practice applying these many and varied theoretical frameworks to our common literary text, and eventually you’ll choose a theoretical framework to apply to a literary text of your own choosing. Ultimately, the goal is for you to leave this course with a better sense of how critical and methodological frameworks can enrich your own readings (and writings) of texts.  This course is required of all English M.A. students.