Graduate Seminars in Literature, Composition and Rhetoric, and Linguistics/TESL
Fall 2017
Please note that 535, 540, 555, 570, 577, 582, and 587 are all repeatable for credit so long as the
topic has changed. Literature students may use courses in rhetoric and composition and/or (after
consulting with the instructor) linguistics as their electives so long as at least three of the five
electives are literature courses. Please consult the class listings on mycsudh to confirm class
times.
LITERATURE COURSES
English 501: Advanced Studies in Literature
Reading Literature--How, Why, Now
TTh 7-8:15 p.m. Dr. Lee
Note: This course should be taken as early in the program as possible.
As responsible academics and critics we need to ask ourselves--how and why do we study
literature? What does its study mean in our moment, its context, and in the larger world? Taking
these broad critical questions as our framework, we will examine our discipline--its history, its
practice, its applications, its relevance. Reading seminal works of criticism as well as
contemporary pieces of and about literature, literary study and the place of both in our historical
and cultural moment, this course seeks to interrogate and analyze the work we do as literary
scholars, especially considering your own positionalities as graduate students in the discipline.
ENG 535: Seminar in Renaissance Literature
Violence and Pain in Renaissance Tragedy
TTh 5:30-6:45 Dr. Huth
The tragedies of the English Renaissance are characterized by spectacular violence, extreme
suffering, and quite inventive methods of execution. These displays of cruelty and bloodshed
helped to pack the theaters, but what might seem like “gratuitous” violence also contributes to
the conception and creation of “the tragic” during this period. This course will not take the
relationship between violence and tragedy for granted but rather investigate the ways early
modern playwrights used extreme scenes of suffering to define the genre and its primary
elements (including catharsis, hamartia, and tragic heroism) and to explore moral questions about
the nature of justice, fortune, and individual identity.
The scenes of violence we will be studying are loaded with meaning, and we will analyze these
texts from a variety of literary and critical perspectives. Our consideration of the relationship of
violence to the genre of tragedy will necessarily inquire into the meaning of violent acts to both
the aggressor and the victim. We will contemplate the effects of violence on notions of selfhood,
embodiment, and community in the plays. And we will pay particular attention to the
theatricality of this violence, reflecting on the balance between play and reality struck in the
theater and the potential roles for audiences who watch (or witness) these plays. Critical readings
will introduce a range of theoretical perspectives on violence and its effects to complement our
engagement with these Renaissance plays both familiar and strange.
ENG 540: Seminar in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature
"Fallen Figures 1674-1798"
MW 5:30-6:45 p.m. Dr. Oesterheld
This course, focused on the trope of the "fallen figure," will begin in epic fashion, with a reading
of (most of) Paradise Lost and a broader consideration of all that was lost and
(perhaps) regained during the English Restoration. From Milton's most influential re-telling of
the Fall of mankind, we will leap into the domestic heart of mid-eighteenth century England
by taking up Samuel Richardson's (in)famous novel Pamela, a narrative where virtue is rewarded
and, as with Paradise Lost, fallen figures seek redemption. We will end our study of "fallen
figures" by turning to the life and writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, a champion and voice of the
fallen; with this last leap, we will mark both the end of the eighteenth-century as well
as the significant cultural shifts that attended the 1780s and 1790s. In addition to making three
major "stops" between 1660 and 1800 to focus on Milton, Richardson, and Wollstonecraft, we
will learn about a wider cast of fallen figures, real and imagined, from gender outlaws,
slaveowners, and disgraced public figures to prostitutes, con-men, and other transgressive types.
ENG 555: Seminar in American Literature After 1900
American Tragedies
MW 7-8:15 p.m. Dr. Hernandez
In this seminar we’ll study modern American drama that adapts Greek tragedies (Electra, Medea,
Oedipus Rex) to explore events and issues such as the U.S. Civil War, slavery, nationalism,
patriarchy, immigration, and gang violence. Classics scholar Helene P. Foley writes:
“contemporary theater deconstructs, remakes, and performs a much larger range of the original
texts to respond in new ways to current issues and has perhaps come closest of any period in U.S.
theater history to reproducing the public questions that Greek tragedy asked of its original
audience” (2012; 10). Texts include: Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra, Rita Dove’s
The Darker Face of the Earth, Cherríe Moraga’s The Hungry Woman, Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad,
Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq.
English 490: Seminar in Literature
Chants Democratic
TTh 7-8:15 pm. Dr. Haus
Note: This is a senior seminar, but it may be used with permission. If interested, see Dr. Best to
determine if this class will be appropriate to your needs.
One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.
—Walt Whitman
F.O. Matthiessen argued in 1941 for American literature as a legitimate field of study—and
indeed for American writing as “literature”—in a book titled American Renaissance on precisely
the period we'll read from. His book presents, exclusively, five white male authors of the 1850s
(you might guess them, if you think about it); no writers of color; no women. No Dickinson,
Douglass, Jacobs, Stowe, or Fuller. Even Poe is omitted as presumably sub-literary. Our course
provides a richer, fuller survey of this classic era of our nation's myth-making—and mythbusting—an era whose writers all explored such early national keywords as “independence,”
“freedom,” “equality,” and of course “democracy” itself. I worried a bit about a proper name for
the course before realizing Walt Whitman had already given it, as title to one of his most
powerful poems.
COURSES IN RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
English 570: Seminar in Writing
MW 8:30-9:45 p.m. Dr. Cauthen
This is a class in writing creative nonfiction such as memoir, literary journalism, and the
personal essay – essentially all kinds of nonfiction prose except academic “term paper” writing.
Ideal for aspiring writers as well as aspiring teachers who want to create writing assignments that
won’t make both the student and the teacher wish they were dead. The class is in workshop
format; after spending the first month of the semester reading sample creative nonfiction texts,
we’ll spend the last three months of the class writing, reading, and discussing our own creative
work. For more info, see Dr. Cauthen in B336 or at [email protected]
English 576: History and Theory of Rhetoric
MW 7-8:15 p.m. Dr. Cauthen
English 577: Current Issue in Rhetoric and Composition
MW 5:30-6:45 p.m. Dr. Sherman
COURSES IN LINGUSTICS/TESL
ENG 317/584: Seminar: Sociolinguistics
This seminar examines the structure, the history, and the use of Black English, an
Africanized variety of English widely used in the United States of America. Historically,
this variety of English is related to other Africanized forms of English (such as
Gullah/Sea Island Creole, Jamaican Creole, Sranan, West African Pidgin English), as
well as Africanized varieties of French (such as Louisiana French Creole), Spanish (such
as Palenquero), and Portuguese (such as Papiamento). Although widely used in literature
and pop culture, its use in the classroom remains controversial (regardless of the findings
of educators and linguists). Text: Mufwene, S. et al, eds. African-American English:
Structure, History and Use. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Prof. Burckhard
Mohr ([email protected]). Tuesdays and Thursdays 5:30-6:45 pm.
ENG 413/513: History of the English Language
This course presents an overview of the history of the English language: its origin within
the Indo-European family of languages, its arrival in Britain, its subsequent development
form Old English to Modern English, and its spread around the world. Students will
prepare and present a term project tracing the development of any one feature of the
English language over the last 1500 years. Text: Brinton, L. & Arnovick, L. The English
Language: A Linguistic History. (2nd Edition) 2011. Instructor: Prof. Vanessa Wenzell
([email protected]). Mondays & Wednesdays 4:00-5:15 pm.
ENG 420/582: Seminar: Linguistic Analysis
This semester’s topic for the seminar in linguistic analysis is “English Vocabulary:
History and Structure.” We will investigate the phonology, morphology, and semantics
of complex English words, with a special focus on words that have historical origins in
the Classical languages. Students will prepare and present as a term project an analysis
of selected English data. Text: English Words: History and Structure by Minkova and
Stockwell (2nd edition); additional readings will appear on Blackboard. Instructor: Prof.
C.E. Zoerner ([email protected]). Mondays and Wednesdays at 2:30-3:45 pm.
ENG 585: Seminar: Second Language Acquisition
This course is designed for those planning to teach English as a second/foreign language
as well as teachers of other modern languages. Focusing on the complex processes
involved in second language acquisition (SLA), the course examines current research and
theory on second language acquisition with the goal of providing students with a critical
understanding of the different perspectives as well as means for examining and
evaluating student learning. Text: Ortega, L. Understanding Second Language
Acquisition. Hodder Education.2009. Instructor: Prof. C. E. Zoerner
([email protected]) Mondays & Wednesdays 5:30-6:45 pm.
ENG 587: Seminar: Second Language Pronunciation
This course provides an overview of the phonetic features of North American English
(NAE) that relate to the teaching of English as a Second /Foreign Language. This course
helps you develop your own philosophy of teaching pronunciation in an ESL/EFL or
foreign language context and provides you with the competence to deal with the
pedagogy of L2 pronunciation classes. Text: Celce-Murcia, Brinton, Goodwin.
Teaching Pronunciation. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Instructor:
Professor Vanessa Wenzell ([email protected]) Mondays & Wednesdays 7:00-8:15
pm.