Graduate 2017 Course Descriptions (Term: 2171)

ENG 501: Critical Theory Mondays, 7:15 pm to 10:00 pm Dr. Bill Lalicker Description: From the catalog: “Study of various methods of theoretical analysis and critique associated with the discipline of literary, cultural, and rhetorical analysis and the application of these methods to specific literary and cultural texts.” In more detail, this course will focus on those critical theories most current in the practice of literary criticism and rhetorical studies, with an eye toward ways such theories support the consumption and the production of all texts and genres (fictive and nonfictive, textual and visual and digital).

**This course is required for each of the three M.A. tracks: M.A. in English—Creative Writing Track; M.A. in English—Literature Track; and M.A. in English—Writing, Teaching, and Criticism Track.

ENG504: Methods of Publishing

Please Note: Online Course; permission of instructor required Dr. Eleanor Shevlin

This course introduces students to contemporary publishing and its methods in the 21st century. The first portion of the course will familiarize course participants with the various sectors of the publishing industry including the trade, small presses, and educational, academic, and professional markets and the multiple effects of digital transformations from the development of new publishing avenues such as do-it-yourself (DIY) or self-publishing to evolutions in traditional publishing. The remainder will focus heavily on editing and editors. Besides learning about the various types of editing, students will also learn best practices for proofing and copyediting and have the opportunity to gain extended practice with proofing and copyediting for various sectors of the publishing world.

** For MA students (LIT—free; WTC and CRW tracks: general topics), this course will count as a free elective while exposing you to the publishing field and enabling you to test and apply the skills you are acquiring in whatever track in the MA program that you are pursuing. For Publishing Certificate students, this course will fulfill the required English component or a second elective and will advance your knowledge of the industry on several fronts.

ENG506: Critical Pedagogies and Literature

Thursdays 4:25-7:10 Dr. Laura Renzi

This course introduces student to two complementary bodies of literature: critical literacy and critical pedagogy. Students will analyze the educational system's role in maintaining or challenging diverse values, policies, and interests. To do so, students will ask questions about what we teach, how we teach, who we teach, and who we are as teachers: questions designed to frame the educational system socially, politically and institutionally.

**ENG 506 is a required course for the master’s WTC track. For the Literature and CRW tracks in the master’s program, this course will fulfill a free elective (counts as teaching).

ENG 566: The Greek Myths Mondays 4:25-7:10 Dr. Eric Dodson-Robinson

The class introduces students to key Greek myths and their reception in later literature, art, film, scholarship, and / or other media. Written work will demonstrate knowledge of at least one canonical Greek myth and its reception. Students will explicate and analyze texts, synthesize relevant secondary scholarship, and frame original and compelling arguments from perspectives informed by recent comparative and reception theories.

** CRW and WTC elective; LIT pre-1660 period

ENG587: ESL Practicum I Wednesdays 4:25-710

Professor Jelena Colovic-Markovic ESL Practicum I aims to assist students in furthering their ESL teaching skills. Specifically,

through participation in the course, students will be able to (a) develop personal skills in teaching ESL students; (b) plan classroom activities appropriate for various levels of language proficiency; (c) develop materials appropriate to a specific context; (d) incorporate constructive criticism into lesson planning and classroom teaching; (e) gain insight into and develop skill in fitting ESOL teaching actions to particular learners’ characteristics and needs; (f) develop awareness of how personal actions (including preparing for lessons, interacting with students, assessing progress, and reporting results) and attitudes as a teacher influence students' actions and attitudes; and (g) gain insight and experience in matching ESL teaching actions with beliefs about professional trends, personal teaching philosophy, and personal values.

** The course is required for M.A in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), an interdisciplinary graduate program administered by the departments of Languages and Cultures and English, and in collaboration with Literacy, Communicative Disorders, and various programs within the College of Education.

ENG593: Literature for the Secondary School Wednesdays 4:25-7:10 Dr. Gabrielle Halko

ENG 593 is a graduate-level study of Young Adult literature. We will read a wide variety of YA texts, trace the development of the genre, analyze critical approaches to the field, and explore issues of diversity and representation in YA lit & culture.

**ENG 593 is a required course for the post-bac certification. For the Literature, WTC, and CRW tracks in the master’s program, this course will fulfill an elective (counts as literature) and also the non-canonical requirement.

ENG596: Composition & Rhetoric: Making Meaning for the Stage, Page, and Screen Mondays 4:25-7:10

Dr. Amy Anderson From speeches to letters to web pages, the media that we use to communicate have shifted

over time, and so have our composition practices. This course takes an historical overview of the

related English disciplines of rhetoric and composition to trace out changes in the strategies and

technologies that we use to make meaning. Aristotle once defined rhetoric as “seeing the available

means of persuasion,” but the domain of rhetoric has continually been redefined to account for the

different media that we use for persuasion. The discipline of composition, which goes hand-in-hand

with rhetoric, has likewise shifted to account for new composing practices. We’ll follow some of the

major developments in rhetoric and composition, beginning with the ancient Greeks and Romans

(Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian), moving through the Middle Ages (Augustine, Vinsauf, de Pisan, and

even Chaucer), the Enlightenment and the nineteenth century (Ramus, Bacon, Locke, and Grimke), and

eventually arriving at contemporary digital theorists (Wysocki, Rice, Fleckenstein, and more). Through

it all, we’ll ask ourselves questions like: What is rhetoric? Who gets to speak? What does it mean to

compose for the stage, page, and screen?

**For the WTC, Literature, and CRW tracks in the master’s program, this course will fulfill an

elective (counts as a composition and rhetoric).

ENG 601: Creative Writing Seminar

Tuesdays 7:15 - 10 pm Prof. Luanne Smith

A description will be available later; contact the professor with questions.

ENG601 fulfills one of the required workshop for the CRW track of the master's program and a free elective for the Literature and the WTC tracks of the master's program.

ENG 616: Research Methods

Wednesdays 4:25-7:10 Dr. Seth Kahn

ENG 616 (Research Methods in WTC) will offer instruction in a variety of primary research methods used by scholars in Writing Studies. We will study and practice methods ranging from qualitative (both teacher-research and non-classroom-based) to archival to survey-based. The goals of the course are to help you become conversant in the range of methods available to researchers in the field; to help you think through issues of study design/execution; and to consider issues regarding research ethics (including familiarity with Institutional Review Boards). While we'll explore and practice the methods we study, the major project for the course will be a proposal for a study that could conceivably become a thesis proposal (or a grant proposal, or the like).

Given our population of working teachers, we will likely filter our examinations through the lens of action-research, which reflects the general principles that underlie this course: 1) theory and practice are mutually informing projects and should be valued in that light; 2) action-research subverts the traditional academic emphasis on “research” as something only applied to practice rather than emerging from it; 3) systematic inquiry can impart useful knowledge to teachers/writers/workers and researchers alike about what happens “on the ground”; 4) this type of “action research,” as the term implies, can also have consequential effects both socially and institutionally for improving lives. We’ll talk about the limits of that lens as well and not limit ourselves to it exclusively.

**ENG 616 is the WTC Capstone Requirement.

EnglishGraduateCourseDescriptionsforSpring2016

ENG501:CRITICALTHEORY(Dr.PaulMaltby)ThisisacorecourseforallEnglishMAstudents,whoarerequiredtosuccessfullycompleteitwithinthefirst18hoursoftheirresidency.Itisstronglyrecommendedthatstudentscompletetheclasswithintheirfirstorsecondsemester.

ENG502:RHETORICALTRADITIONS(Dr.TimothyR.Dougherty)Thiscoursesurveyshistoriesofrhetoricalpracticeandpedagogyacrossculturalcontexts,beginningwiththeancientsandwendingourwaythroughthe19thcentury,alwayswithaneyetowardsharvestinglessonsfromthesepracticesandpedagogiesforourownworkaswritersandteachersinthe21stcentury.We’llseektounderstandhowdifferentpeopleindifferenttimes,places,andsociopoliticalconditionshaveapproachedthesocialworkofmeaning‐makingandtrainingotherstocommunicatewell.We’llsituateourselvesincurrentrhetoricalhistoriographyconversationsthatwillinformourreadingsofsurveytextssuchasBaca&Villaneuva’sRhetoricsoftheAmericas:3114BCEto2012CE,Bernal’sBlackAthena,Conley’sRhetoricintheEuropeanTradition,andLipsonandBinkley’sAncientNon‐GreekRhetorics.Andwe’llalsodwellinplentifulportionsofprimarytextsdrawnfromthelikesoftheSophists,Plato,Isocrates,Aristotle,Quintillian,Cicero,Augustine,Averroës,Ramus,Blair,Campbell,&Whately,amongothersTBA.Assignmentswillincludeaweeklyreadingresponse,apechakuchapresentation,anannotatedbibliography,amajorresearchproject,andapedagogicalmixtapemanifesto.

ENG503:MANUSCRIPT,PRINT,ANDDIGITALCULTURES:ANINTRODUCTIONTOBOOKHISTORY(Dr.EleanorShevlin)HybridDistanceEducationOffering—REQUIRESPERMISSIONOFINSTRUCTORPleasenote:ENG503operatesprimarilyasanonline,distanceeducationoffering.Mostoftheworkcanbecompletedduringthehoursmostsuitabletoyou.Itisathree‐creditcourse,andassuchthereading,research,andwritingassignmentsareequivalenttotheworkloadexpectationsofathree‐creditgraduatecourse.However,unlikesomesummersessioncourses,theworkforENG503isdistributedoveraten‐weekperiodtoallowthemostflexibilityforstudents.Thecoursedoes,however,requirethefollowingtwoorthreeface‐to‐facemeetingsoverthisfifteen‐weekperiod:Wednesday,January20th,6:30to9:15pm;Wednesday,March30th,6:00to8:50pm;andpossiblyathird(wewilldeterminewhenwemeetonJanuary20th).CourseDescription:ThiscourseisdesignedmainlyforstudentspursuingtheGraduateCertificateinPublishing.ArequiredcourseforthePublishingCertificate,itmustbetakenbeforeastudentcantakeanyothercoursesintheCertificateprogram.MAstudentswhoarenotintheCertificateProgrammaytakethiscourseasanelective,buttheyshouldreviewtheirprogramrequirementsandprogresstoensurethatitwillfittheirplansandtimetabletodegree.Moreover,seatsarebeingreservedforCertificatestudents;MAstudentsshouldseeDr.Shevlintodiscusspossibleadmittancetocourseand/ormoreinformationaboutthe

Certificateprogram.ForPublishingCertificatestudents,understandingthemanyagentsandprocessesinvolvedinthecreation,production,distribution,andreceptionofthewrittenwordovertimeoffersexceptionalpreparationfornavigatingourcurrentdigitalageandforenteringanumberoffieldswell‐equippedtomeetvariouscommunicationandmediachallenges.ForMAstudents,thehistoricalstudyofauthorship,reading,publishing,andthebookasbothaconveyerofideasandamaterialartifactshoulddeepenone’sunderstandingofEnglishasafield.Thiscoursestudiesthehistoryofthecreation,production,distribution,circulation,andreceptionofthewrittenword.Aswetracehowauthorship,reading,publishing,andthephysicalpropertiesoftextshavealteredovertime,wewillexamine,bothhistoricallyandanalytically,theintellectual,social,andculturalimpactofchangingcommunicationstechnologiesagainstthebackdropofourcurrentdigitalage.Intheprocesswewillconsideravarietyofquestions:Howhaveconceptionsofauthorshipalteredfromeratoeraandwhatcausedthesealterations?Howhasreadingchangedovertime?Whowerethepastpatronsandpublishersoftexts?Whatjudgmentscanwemakeaboutaphysicalbookfromitscover,size,paper,ortype?Howhavee‐bookssoughttoreplicatethesefeatures?Howhavetechnologicalandsociohistoricaldevelopmentsintersectedwiththehistoryofreading,authorship,and/orpublishing?Howiselectronicpublishingmodifyingthesethreeareasandhowmightittransformthemeachinthedecadesahead?Inadditiontoregularparticipation,youwilleachleadataweeklydiscussion,respondregularlyandsubstantivelytodiscussionpostings,writeareviewofabook,exhibition,orvideofromanapprovedlist,andproduceafinalprojectfromalistofgeneraltopics.Thisfinalprojectconsistsofthreestages:aproposal,aprogressreportwithannotatedbibliography,anda15‐to17‐pagepaperordigitalproject.RequiredTexts(1sttwoavailableonlineatnocosttoenrolledstudentsviaWCU’sFHGLibrarywebsite)

1.SimonEliotandJonathanRose,eds.,ACompaniontotheHistoryoftheBook(Maldon,MAandOxford:Blackwell,2007).2.MichaelF.SuarezandH.R.Woudhuysen,eds.,OxfordCompaniontotheBook(OxfordandNY:OxfordUniversityPress,2010).3.Bookchapters,articles,andlinkstomaterialpostedinD2Lcoursesite(markedas“CD”onsyllabus)oravailableviathelibrary’sdatabases,e‐books,orelectronicreserves(password:“book”marked“ER”onsyllabus)andprintreserves.

Recommended:DavidFinkelsteinandAlistairMcCleery,AnIntroductiontoBookHistory(Routledge,2012).

ENG506:CRITICALPEDAGOGIES&LITERATURE(Dr.VickiTischio)Thiscourseasksimportantquestionsaboutwhatweteach,howweteach,whoweteach,andwhoweareasteachers:questionsdesignedtoframetheeducationalsystemsocially,politicallyandinstitutionally.Wewillanalyzetheeducationalsystem'sroleinmaintainingorchallengingdiversevalues,policies,andinterests.Towardthisend,wewillreadtextsintwocomplementarybodiesofliterature:criticalliteracyandcriticalpedagogy.Wewillalsolookcarefullyattherolethatpopulartexts(films,tvshows,etc.)playinshapingourunderstandingsofissuesrelatedtoschoolinginthe

U.S.Thiscoursewillbeofinteresttoanyonewhotakeseducationseriously,whetherasacareerorasoneofournation’slargestandmostinfluentialsocialinstitutions.

ENG508:WRITINGSEMINAR—BREAKINGSILENCES:NONFICTIONPROSEASANACTOFREBELLION(Dr.KristineErvin)Writersoftenwritetobreaksilences,torejectthesafetywithinthem.Torebelagainsttheliteraryestablishment.Topushthemselvestovaluetheirownstoriesandtoplacethosestorieswithinalargerculturalframework.Toconsiderthewaystheysilencethemselves,toexplorewhatitistheydon’tsayandwhy,andthentospeaktheunspeakable.Tosaythetaboo.Tobreaktheform.Inthiscourse,wewillexaminecontemporarymemoirsandessaysbyauthorswhohavebrokenculturalandpersonalsilencesandwhohaverebelledagainsttraditionalnarrativeforms.Withthisexplorationofthememoirandtheessay,wewillinevitablyengageindebatesabouttruth,representation,ethics,subjectivity,andgenre.Studentscanexpecttowrite,workshop,andrevisecreativenonfictionpiecesthatattempttobreakaculturaland/orpersonalsilence;toleadclassdiscussionsovercreativeandcriticalworks;towriteacriticalreflectionoftheirowncreativewritinginrelationtothelargerquestionsofthegenreandcoursethemes;andtowriteaseminarpaperthatengagesbothcriticismaboutandcreativetextswithinthenonfictiongenre.

ENG509:WRITINGSEMINARINTHENOVELI(Dr.LuanneSmith)Acourseinthewritingandpreparingofbook‐lengthmanuscripts(novels,novellas,and'nonfictional'novels)withtheintentionofsubmissionforpublication.Alsoincludescoverageoffictionalaspectsandtechniquesusedinwritingmemoirs,biography,andcurrenthistory.RepeatableforCredit.

ENG530:RESTORATION&EIGHTEENTH‐CENTURYDRAMA(Dr.CherylWanko)Inthisclass,wewillreadfromthewidevarietyofdramatictypeswrittenandperformedduringthelate17thand18thcenturiesandlearnaboutthetheatres,performers,dramaticcriticism,andtheatricalcultureofthetime,contextualizingthedramawithintheatrehistory.Wewillalsolearnaboutthepolitics,socialconditions,classstructures,andusesoflanguageofthetime,contextualizingthedramawithinsocialhistory.Andbyreadingessentialandrecentscholarshipinthefield,wewilllearnabouthowthisdramahasbeenreceivedandunderstoodinthedistantandrecentpast,explorecritical/historicalscholarlymethodologiesforuseinthisandotherclasses.Studentswillgiveoralreportandwriteseveralpapers,includingafinalresearchpaper.AndbecauseIbelievethatonemustunderstanddramaasanembodiedart–morethanlinesonapage‐wecannotunderstanddramaticliteraturewithouttryingtounderstandhowitwouldhavebeenembodied,sovariousperformanceexerciseswillbearequired(andamusing)partofthecoursework.PlaysstudiedincludeWilliamWycherley’sTheCountryWife,AphraBehn’sTheRover,ThomasSoutherne’sOroonoko,andJohnGay’sTheBeggar'sOpera.

ENG548:EARLYAMERICANLITERATURE(Dr.RodneyMader)InSpring2016,ENG548willfocusonPhiladelphiaLiteraryCultureintheLateEighteenthCentury.Threeimportantfigureswillguideourwork:WilliamSmith,ProvostandProfessorofRhetoricandBellesLettresattheCollegeofPhiladelphia;ElizabethGraemeFergusson,arenownedpoetandsalonhost;andWilliamBartram,theQuakerBotanistwhoseTravelswouldinspireColeridge,Wordsworth,andtheAmericanecologymovement.WewillsituatethesefiguresintherichhistoricalcontextthatspansfromtheperiodoftheSevenYearsWarinAmerica(akaTheFrenchandIndianWar)tojustaftertheRevolution.Importantthemeswillincludethedevelopmentofaprintpublicsphereandtransatlantic"republicofletters;"women’sliteraryproduction;representationsofculturalOthers,especiallyNativeAmericansandtheFrench;andfeministmaterialistapproachestoscience.Studentswillbeexpectedtodoatleasttwopresentationsonassignedtopicsaswellasone10‐12pagetermpaper.WewillalsoscheduleoneweekendvisittoeitherGraemePark,Fergusson’sGeorgianhomeinHorsham,PA,orBartram’sGardensinSouthwestPhiladelphia.

ENG560:LOCATINGLITERATURE(Dr.CarolynSorisio)Studyofcriticalapproachestoliterarytextsthatfocusonthehistoricalconstructionofliteraryvalue,canonicity,andnormsofreading,includingtheideaof‘national’literatureandcross‐culturalapproachestoliterature(postcolonial,transnational,multiethnic).

Thiscourseallowsustoanalyzethehistoricalandculturallocatednessofliteratureandinterpretationandidentifythevariabilityandmultiplicityofmeaningovertimeandacrossdifferentculturalcontexts.Thecourseexamineshistoricalshiftsininterpretations,anddevelopsourawarenessofthehistoricalconstructionofliteraryandaestheticvalue,canonicity,andnormsofreading.Itasksustoconsiderhowthetransmissionandcirculationoftextsbetweenandacrossculturesreinventsandhybridizesculturalmeaning.Thissectionof560willexploretheseissuesbyfocusingindepthondiverseinterpretationsofHarrietBeecherStowe’sUncleTom’sCabin.Aspartofourexplorationofthechanginginterpretationsandmeaningsproducedbyliterature,wewillalsoconsiderthereinterpretationandrewritingofcanonicaltexts.Specifically,wewillstudyrewritingsandrepresentationsofUncleTom’sCabin,forexampleinminstrelshows,poetryandchildren’sliterature.

OurdiscussionofthelocatednatureofliteraturenecessitatessomeunderstandingoftheimpactofEuropeanandUScolonialismonepistemologicalorhermeneuticalparadigmsandtheideaofanationalliteratureandcross‐culturalapproachestoliterature.WewillexploretheseconsiderationsinrelationtoMelville’sMobyDick,JaneJohnstonSchoolcraft’spoetryandHenryWadsworthLongfellow’sHiawatha.Thissectionof560willfocusonthegenresofthenovel,slavenarrative,drama,andpoetry(specificallytheepic,thecomplaint,andtheballad).Texts(inadditiontoPDFsonD2L,websites,onthoseavailableviaFHG)

PaulJay,GlobalMatters:TheTransnationalTurninLiteraryStudies(CornellUP,2010)

HarrietBeecherStowe,UncleTom’sCabin,Ed.ChristopherG.Diller(Broadview,2009)

HarrietJacobs,IncidentsintheLifeofaSlaveGirl,WrittenbyHerself,Ed.NellIrvinPainter(Penguin,2000)

HermanMelville,MobyDick,Ed.JohnBryantandHaskellSpringer(Longman,2009)

Schoolcraft,SusanJohnston,TheSoundtheStarsMakeRushingThroughtheSky:TheWritingsofJaneJohnstonSchoolcraft,Ed.RobertDaleParker(UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress,2007).

BarbaraHochman,UncleTom’sCabinandtheReadingRevolution:Race,Literacy,ChildhoodandFiction,1851‐1911(UniversityofMassachusettsPress,2011).

Requirements—Participation;GroupPresentation;Proposal(withbibliography);AnnotatedBibliography;Firstversionofsectionoffinalpaper;and,Finalpaper.

Abouttheprofessor—CarolynSorisio,professorofEnglishatWestChesterUniversity,specializesin19th‐CenturyUSliterature.TheauthorofFleshingOutAmerica(GeorgiaUP,2002)andco‐editorofTheNewspaperWarrior:SarahWinnemucca’sCampaignforAmericanIndianRights,1864‐1891(NebraskaUP,2015),herrecentpublicationsincludeessaysonSarahWinnemuccaHopkinsinSAIL,MELUSandJ19(forthcoming).

ENG600:TUTORINGCOMPOSITION(Dr.CortieErvin)Theoryandpracticeofteachingbasicwritinginthetutoringenvironment.

ENG616:RESEARCHMETHODSINWTC(Dr.SethKahn)OfferedthefirsttimeinSpring2016,ENG616(ResearchMethodsinWTC)willofferinstructioninavarietyofprimaryresearchmethodsusedbyscholarsinWritingStudies.Wewillstudyandpracticemethodsrangingfromqualitative(bothteacher‐researchandnon‐classroom‐based)toarchivaltosurvey‐based.Thegoalsofthecoursearetohelpyoubecomeconversantintherangeofmethodsavailabletoresearchersinthefield;tohelpyouthinkthroughissuesofstudydesign/execution;andtoconsiderissuesregardingresearchethics(includingfamiliaritywithInstitutionalReviewBoards).Whilewe'llexploreandpracticethemethodswestudy,themajorprojectforthecoursewillbeaproposalforastudythatcouldconceivablybecomeaThesisProposal(oragrantproposal,orthelike).

English Graduate Seminar Descriptions for Summer 2015

SUMMER I (May 26-Jun 25)

ENG 503: MANUSCRIPT, PRINT, AND DIGITAL CULTURES (Dr. Eleanor Shevlin)

This course studies the history of the creation, production, distribution, circulation, and reception of the written word. As it traces how authorship, reading, publishing, and the physical properties of texts have altered over time, the course examines, both historically and analytically, the intellectual, social, and cultural impact of changing communications technologies against the backdrop of our current digital age. Tracing the book’s evolution from manuscript to its present electronic transformations, we will consider a variety of questions: How and why did the book and other material forms of the written word change physically over time? How were early texts marketed and distributed? How have conceptions of authorship altered from era to era and what caused these alterations? Who were the past patrons and publishers of texts? What is the relationship between oral and print cultures? How have technological and socio- historical developments intersected with the history of reading, authorship, and publishing? How is electronic publishing modifying authorship, reading, and publishing and how might it transform these areas in the decades ahead? What similarities can we discover among earlier periods of manuscript and print cultures and our own times? Face-to-face meetings on May 27, Jun 22, and Jul 21. ENG 525: SHAKESPEARE’S TRAGEDIES AND HISTORIES (Dr. Paul Green)

This course will focus on Shakespeare’s poetic and dramatic development in his histories and tragedies through a careful reading of four of his history plays and five of his tragedies. While recognizing Shakespeare’s superiority to his contemporaries, the course will situate—will historicize—him within the Elizabethan/Jacobean age. Consequently, at appropriate times we will talk about Shakespeare’s theater, the acting companies, the licensing and printing of plays, relevant events in Tudor-Stuart history, major social, political, and artistic concerns of the period, attitudes about women, love, and sex, and the gradual but noticeable shift from medieval/Renaissance optimism to the darker tones of Early Modern cynicism, visible throughout English culture in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, but especially prominent in Shakespeare. Students will have the opportunity to pursue aspects of Shakespeare’s life and work that particularly interest them and, in their written assignments, to use any and all critical/theoretical/historical approaches with which they feel comfortable. ENG 609: SHORT STORY WORKSHOP II (Luanne Smith)

This class focuses on the short story form with opportunities for exploring more experimental forms of short fiction. Additional readings in short fiction and criticism will inform writing and workshop discussions. A critical paper on a contemporary short story writer is required.

SUMMER II (Jun 29-Jul 30)

ENG 596: COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC (Dr. Seth Kahn)

This course is a kaleidoscopic look at two sets of ideas: (1) theories/research about how people write and learn to write; and (2) the history of an academic discipline organized around addressing (1). We’ll take up (not necessarily answer, but at least consider) questions like: What do writers actually do when we’re writing? What kinds of practices do experienced writers use that inexperienced writers don’t, and how might we teach/encourage students to try them? What constitutes “good writing,” and how does that vary by context? What purposes are we serving by teaching students to do “academic writing,” and how do the genres of academic writing differ from others? How does our conception of “good writing” change if we understand writing rhetorically rather than formally? How do we know what works as writing teachers? ENG 615: SPECIAL TOPICS (LITERARY FORM: THE SHORT STORY) (Dr. Christopher Merkner)

This course will ask students to study the literary form of the prose fragment—the elusive, confrontational, incandescent, nuanced, bare, and dense fragment. Students will improve their understanding of the form, as well as their understanding of the more traditional forms of the short story. Students will explore the relationships between longer and shorter narratives, therefore, but the focus of this class is the reading, studying, practicing of the remarkably powerful micro-macro-form of the fragment. Our discussions will be improved by the reading of theory, but we will be primarily preoccupied with the joy of studying some of the most exciting and complex work in contemporary prose fiction.

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English Graduate Seminar Descriptions for Spring 2015

Required Courses1

ENG 501: CRITICAL THEORY (Dr. Ayan Gangopadhyay)

Students in this seminar study various methods of theoretical analysis and critique associated with the discipline of literary, cultural, and rhetorical analysis (including the concept of the subject and its critique; materialist criticism and ideology; a historicist approach; deconstruction; gender; postcolonial studies); and the application of these methods to specific literary and cultural texts. While the course will focus primarily on rigorous reading of established theoretical positions, the course also involves some engagement with contemporary theoretical developments. Students will be expected to read original critical texts by major theorists (albeit as extracts rather than whole works), as well as explanatory secondary reading, and to apply those critical approaches to literary and cultural texts. Assignments could include, but are not limited to, an analysis of a critical/theoretical text; an application of one theoretical approach to a literary or cultural text; and an individual or group presentation of critical ideas and their application ENG 560: LOCATING LITERATURE (Dr. Carolyn Sorisio)

Students in this seminar will engage in the study of critical approaches to literary texts that focus on the historical construction of literary value, canonicity, and norms of reading, including the idea of “national” literature and cross-cultural approaches to literature (postcolonial, transnational, multiethnic). This course allows us to analyze the historical and cultural locatedness of literature and interpretation and to identify the variability and multiplicity of meaning over time and across different cultural contexts. The course examines historical shifts in interpretations, and develops our awareness of the historical construction of literary and aesthetic value, canonicity, and norms of reading. It asks us to consider how the transmission and circulation of texts between and across cultures reinvents and hybridizes cultural meaning. We will explore these issues by focusing in depth on diverse interpretations of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). As part of our exploration of the changing interpretations and meanings produced by literature, we will also consider the reinterpretation and rewriting of canonical texts. Specifically, we will study rewritings and representations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in minstrel shows, poetry, children’s literature, and other genres and venues. Our discussion of the located nature of literature necessitates some understanding of the impact of European and US colonialism on epistemological or hermeneutical paradigms and the idea of a national literature and cross-cultural approaches to literature. We will explore these considerations in relation to Melville’s Moby Dick, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s poetry and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Hiawatha. We will also focus on the genres of the novel, slave narrative, drama, and poetry (specifically the epic, the complaint, and the ballad).

1 Courses in this category may satisfy core, capstone, or various breadth requirements, depending on which track of the M.A. English program the student is pursuing. Students should refer to the advising sheet for their specific track.

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ENG 600: TUTORING COMPOSITION (Dr. Margaret Ervin)

Students in this course learn the theory and practice of teaching Basic Writing in the tutoring environment. The seminar is required for students who wish to apply to work as Graduate Assistant tutors in the University Writing Center. For more information about the course or about applying for a GAship in the Writing Center, please contact the instructor. ENG 616: RESEARCH METHODS FOR WRITING, TEACHING, & CRITICISM (Dr. Vicki Tischio)

This capstone seminar provides a supportive community structure for advanced graduate student-researchers to develop, design, and implement an “action research” project relevant to writing studies. Participants will work through the various stages of the research process, including implementation, of a project of their own design. The project should be related to interests, questions, concerns that students have grappled with throughout their graduate studies. The capstone seminar provides the opportunity to delve more deeply into an idea and further develop it. Participants can develop a previous seminar paper into a journal article, create a curriculum guide, build a thesis project, or investigate other areas, including but not limited to the following: research in/on the classroom or other pedagogical interactions, community-based projects, professional portfolio, website, etc.

Creative Writing Workshops and Seminars

ENG 609: SHORT STORY WORKSHOP II (Dr. Christopher Merkner)

Contemporary writers of literary short fiction study, question, and interpret the world, its people and its problems. They test their observations, claims, and interpretations against the lives and experiences and circumstances of characters and communities and settings they manufacture with words. They do this work with a force, curiosity, fairness, reason, and care appropriate to their intended reading audience. In this section of ENG 609, all students can expect to write and workshop two stories: one story in the spirit of first person narratives and one in the spirit of third person narratives. Students will revise one of these stories significantly and submit it as their third story. Students can expect to read and discuss five or six collections of contemporary writers of short fiction, lead the discussion and craft workshop on one of these collections of stories, and write a brief semi-critical paper that articulates a trajectory for their own stories moving forward in their lives and careers: what kind of writing are they writing, like whom, for whom, and why do they think this is an important creative project for our world? ENG 508: WRITING SEMINAR—NON-FICTION PROSE (Spring Ulmer)

The nonfiction readings and writing projects in this course will engage with what it means to write as if our lives depended on it. Throughout the course, subtitled “Nonfiction and/or Life,” we will question how the production and consumption of nonfiction might do more help than harm. What might it mean to think of health or survival as a literary genre? Might nonfiction save lives and/or is it meant to remember and commemorate them? Required readings include Eula Biss, On Immunity: An Innoculation; Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down; Jacob Levenson, The Secret Epidemic: The Story of AIDS and Black America; Audre Lorde, Cancer Journals; and David Quammen, Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus.

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Special Topics Courses

ENG 615: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (Dr. Cheryl Wanko)

Crime. Every society has it, but the questions of how it is defined, what (if any) punishment accrues to it, who is punished, and who metes out that punishment, differ from culture to culture. People in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England were fascinated with crime and criminals, and greater access to print allowed more crime stories to be told in different ways. Questions arose of how to monitor and control a changing populace in a shifting religious climate, in which divine reward and punishment became less certain. High-profile cases and controversies played out in the streets and in the popular press, and the lines between criminal and victim were interrogated. In literature, because of changing narrative forms, opportunities for exploring the criminal life arose—though one might also argue that those narrative forms themselves appeared to fit new types of lives that needed exploration. In this course, we will examine popular and canonical eighteenth-century texts as well as criticism, theory, and legal writings, to determine the ways in which English society made sense of crime. Readings may include Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders; John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera; Henry Fielding, An Enquiry into the Late Increase in Robbers and Jonathan Wild; George Lillo, The London Merchant; and various pamphlets and online resources. ENG 615: AFRICAN AMERICAN RHETORICS (Dr. Michael Burns)

This seminar will explore rhetorics of black Americans. We will address the history and development of the language, its roles within black cultures, and its relationships to black experiences in mainstream U.S. society. The course will draw rhetorical frameworks from Western European and African Diasporic traditions (e.g., Aristotle, Asante, Jackson and Richardson), sociolinguistic theory (e.g, Smitherman, Wolfram), and sociocultural theory (e.g. Omi and Winant). We will analyze texts as expressions of black Americans’ experiences and forms of resistance to racial oppression in the United States. Students will write three papers: two short (five-page) papers and a longer research paper. The main goals of the course are to have students engage in rhetorical analysis and develop a more critical understanding of the role language has played in the black American Experience. ENG 619: CULTURAL STUDIES—PEDAGOGY AND POLITICS (Dr. Bernard Hall)

Cultural studies seeks to examine the ideological struggles between “texts” and practices, the people who produce them, and the larger socio-cultural contexts where meaning is constructed. This course will introduce students to the theoretical foundations of the discipline as a framework for interrogating the discourses of teaching, learning, literature, language, and literacy circulating in and around educational policy and practice. Readings include key texts by Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser, Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Stuart Hall, James Baldwin, George Orwell, E.D. Hirsch, Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Lisa Delpit, and Gloria Ladson-Billings. Assignments will include, but are not limited to, weekly response papers, a midterm essay exam, a teaching demonstration, and a research paper.