MA in English Literature Course Offerings

Engl 503: Studies in American Literature I
Rebeccah Bechtold
Online
24056

In Beneath the American Renaissance, David S. Reynolds unsettles the traditional belief that our canonized early fiction writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville were “isolated subversives” producing “act[s] of rebellion…against a dominant culture.” Such a reading, Reynold argues, tends to ignore the impact of sensational and other popular literary forms on the productions of these so-called “great” authors. As Walt Whitman wrote in 1845, “all kinds of light reading, novels, newspapers, gossip etc., serve as manure for the few great productions and are indispensable or perhaps are premises to something better.”

This English 503 course thus takes as its primary study the “manure” and “great productions” of the antebellum period, focusing exclusively on the American fiction writings of the 1800s-1860s. We will be using as our primary touchstones three representative novels: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838), Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables: A Romance (1851) and E.D.E.N. Southworth’s rather lengthy The Hidden Hand; or Capitola the Madcap (1859). We will be pairing these longer works with the periodical literary culture of this period, from the sensational to the staidly sentimental, to better understand the “bizarre, nightmarish, and often politically radical” narratives associated with the formation of early American literature. Fulfills pre-1900 and American requirement(s) or can serve as an elective. 

Engl 504: Studies in American Literature II
Jean Griffith
Online
22986

Fiction, poetry and drama from the late 19th century to after World War II. Readings also may include literary criticism and other types of nonfiction prose. Discussions cover themes, topics and literary forms inspired by the social and cultural movements and events of the first half of the 20th century. Prerequisite(s): junior standing and one college literature course. Fulfills post-1900 and American requirement(s) or can serve as an elective. 

Engl 536: Women Writers
Chinyere Okafor
Online
22988

Explores various themes in critical approaches to literature composed by women writers, especially those whose works have been underrepresented in the literary canon. Genres and time periods covered, critical theories explored, and specific authors studied vary in different semesters. Course includes diversity content. Fulfills elective requirement.

Engl 540: Introduction to Critical Theory
Vanessa Aguilar
Online
22989

This course focuses on the topic of decolonial theory within a set of literary, cultural, and transdisciplinary texts. Throughout the course, students will pay special attention to liberatory praxes of identity formation, love, and solidarity. Students will explore an array of scholarship written by Kristie Dotson, Xhercis Méndez, María Lugones, Walter D. Mignolo, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, etc., as a meditation for challenging coloniality and decolonial approaches. Additionally, the course will include multi-ethnic literary essays, novels, speeches, and memoirs (i.e., Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman” and Llanos-Figueroa’s Daughters of the Stone) to help students reflect on how decolonial frameworks in literature promote philosophical transformation. Fulfills elective requirement.

Engl 565: Multimodal Composition
Carrie Dickison
Online
22990

Engl 665: Advanced History of the English Language
Mythili Menon
Online
22991

Engl 680: Theory and Practice in Composition
Melinda DeFrain
Online
22992

Introduces theories of rhetoric, research in composition and writing programs, and practices in schools and colleges. Students investigate the process of writing, analyze varieties and samples of school writing, and develop their own writing skills by writing, revising and evaluating their own and others' work. Designed especially for prospective and practicing teachers. Fulfills elective requirement.

 

In-Person

Engl 516: Major Authors -- Jane Austen
Mary Waters
Tuesday 4:30
22897

This course will examine one of the most popular and accomplished novelists of all time, focusing on her statements about politics, manners, society, and gender relations through her critiques of other literary works and traditions and her acute and often comic depictions of individuals situated in a social world.  We will pay particular attention to the elements that place her within the context of the Romantic period, when she wrote and published.  We will read all six of Austen’s major novels, some Austen criticism, and some supporting cultural and theoretical texts. Fulfills elective requirement. 

Engl 524: Restoration and 18^th Century British Literature
Katie Lanning
Monday 4:30
22898

Mass media. Information overload. Going viral. You’ve likely heard these phrases describe our current moment, and the variety of new media that seems to have overwhelmed us with ways to communicate. But how might these phrases also work to describe media cultures long before the invention of the Internet? Our course takes this question as its driving theme, studying the surprisingly vast array of texts and media forms that populated – or, indeed, crowded – the long eighteenth century. How did such audiences grapple with an overwhelming amount of reading material? How did different print forms clash or harmonize as they developed across the century? To best understand how eighteenth-century readers encountered what we now consider canonical texts within a busy and complex print culture, we will be working with a range of diverse media each week rather than focusing on one text at a time. We'll especially focus on texts that directly address their status as media, from a poem in praise of a bookworm to a novel about the dangers of reading fiction. Join us as we attempt to replicate the reading habits of eighteenth-century Britons and discover how those habits still inform our own relationship with media today. Fulfills pre-1900 and British requirement(s) or can serve as an elective.