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

207  Introduction to African-American Literature

Kimberly Ruffin            

(Tu  2:00 – 4:30 pm)

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.

 

210  British Literature to 1789 to Present

Regina Buccola                           

(M W 11:00 – 12:15 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

Larry Howe                                                   

(M W 12:30 – 1:45 pm)

This course will examine texts from the colonial period through the Civil War, placing emphasis on a variety of genres: Native American myths, journals and autobiographies, sermons, slave and captivity narratives, public debates, essays, poems, and prose fiction. We will explore how the social and historical contexts for these writings defined the emerging cultures of the US.

 

220  Introduction to Literary Analysis

Frank Alletto

(M W 4:30 – 5:45 pm)   

Prereq: University Writing Requirement

                                                                                  

Students will closely analyze poetry, fiction, and drama.  The course will emphasize the interpretation of literary form and language, as well as the writing critical analyses and developing interpretive arguments.  Throughout the semester, students will develop a 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. 

 

253  Introduction to Creative Writing

Scott Blackwood

(W 2:00 - 4:30 pm)

Prereq: University Writing Requirement                                                                                                                                                        

The essential attributes of the creative writer? A sharp eye for detail, a strong grasp of language, and an unwavering patience for rewriting. These attributes are honed, not only through practice, but through close reading of exceptional writing. To this end, the class will function partly as a seminar in which we discuss how certain stories, plays, poems, and nonfiction pieces work, how each (through the writer’s craft) achieves its particular effects. The other half of the class will function as a workshop: you will write in at least two genres chosen among fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction or playwriting; and you will thoughtfully and constructively critique your classmates’ work, keeping in mind the fundamentals of craft for specific genres. 

 

341/441  Gender and Artist in American Fiction

Priscilla Perkins

(Th 2:00 – 4:30 pm)

Prereq: Eng 220 or consent

Course participants explore gender construction and sexual identities in canonical and popular narratives about visual artists, musicians, and writers in the U.S.  Central questions include: how do gender ideologies about cultural production (or art) and biological reproduction inform each other? How do the life trajectories of fictional artists shape their creators' choices about narrative form?  How do stories about artists illuminate specific historical moments in U.S. life? Texts may Louisa Mae Alcott’s Little Women, Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark, Jack London’s Martin Eden, Jessie Fauset’s There is Confusion, Joyce Carol Oates’s Expensive People, and Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues.

 

345 Literature of Chicago (Honors)

Larry Howe

(M  2:00 – 4:30 pm)

Prereq: ENG 220 or consent

Hailed by Sandburg as the “City of Big Shoulders,” Chicago has flexed its literary muscles over the years to produce some of the most notable works in American literature.  In this course we’ll read a sample of that literature in prose—fiction and non-fiction—poetry, and drama.  We’ll consider these works in relation to the city’s history and role in contributing to American culture.   Through this study, we’ll try to figure out what it means for Chicago to be America’s “Second City.”  Titles we’ll study may include the following:  Dreiser, Sister Carrie; Sinclair, The Jungle; Farrell, Chicago Stories; Algren, City on the Make; Wright, Native Son; Bellow: Adventures of Augie March; Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun;  Brooks, Maud Martha; and Cisneros, The House on Mango Street.  

 

346/446 Literature of the Color Line

Larry Howe

(W 6:30 – 9:00 pm)

Prereq: ENG 220 or consent

This course will concentrate on the literature of United States race relations in the period between the two Supreme Court rulings in Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, two cases that define the endpoints of the era of Jim Crow.  We will examine texts produced from both sides of the color line, especially texts that project either the possibility of transgressing that line by the act of "passing" or the anxious necessity about reinforcing that line.  Texts include: Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson; Hopkins, Contending Forces; Chesnutt, Marrow of Tradition; O’Neill, Emperor Jones; Larsen, Passing; Schuyler, Black No More; Wright, Uncle Tom’s Children; Ellison, Invisible Man.