English Department Winter 2016 Course Booklet http://www.union.edu/academic/majorsminors/english
Winter ’16 Course Schedule
EGL 098
Tragedy
Heinegg MWF 9:15-10:20
EGL 100-01
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
MWF 9:15-10:20
Smith
EGL 100-02
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
MWF 10:30-11:35
Lynes
EGL 100-03
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
MWF 11:45-12:50
Lynes
EGL 101-01
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
MWF 8:00-9:05
Goodman
EGL 101-02
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
MWF 1:50-2:55
Goodman
EGL 101-03
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
TTH 9:00-10:45
Burkett
EGL 101-04
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
TTH 10:55-12:40
Murphy EGL 101-05
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
TTH 10:55-12:40
Troxell
EGL 102-01
Intro to Study of Lit: Drama
TTH 1:55-3:40
Wareh
EGL 200
Shakespeare to 1600
MWF 11:45-12:50
Doyle
EGL 213
Am Lit in Hist Cont. Beg-1800
TTH 9:00-10:45
Murphy
EGL 225
The Brontё Sisters
MWF 10:30-11:35
Goodman
EGL 233
African American Literature: Beginnings
MWF 1:50-2:55
Lynes
EGL 242
American Fiction 1960-present
MW 3:05-4:45
Selley
EGL 244
Contemporary British Imagination
MWF 11:45-12:50
Mitchell EGL 276
Literature of the Manor House
TTH 10:55-12:40
Burkett
EGL 288
Film as Fictive Art
TTH 1:55-3:10
Troxell
EGL 294
Workshop in Fiction
MW 7:00-8:45
Selley
EGL 300
Jr Seminar: Poetry Workshop
MWF 10:30-11:35
Smith
EGL 302
Jr Seminar: Literary Theory
MW 3:05-4:45
Mitchell
EGL 403
Honors Thesis Seminar II
TTH 9:00-10:45
Wareh
Winter ’16 Course Schedule
(By Time)
MWF 8:00-9:05
EGL 101-01
MWF 9:15-10:20
EGL 100-01
EGL 098
MWF 10:30-11:35
EGL 100-02
EGL 225
EGL 300
MWF 11:45-12:50
EGL 100-03
EGL 200
EGL 244
MWF 1:50-2:55
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
Goodman
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
Smith
Tragedy
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
The Brontё Sisters
Jr Seminar: Poetry Workshop
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
Shakespeare to 1600
Contemporary British Imagination
Heinegg
Lynes
Goodman
Smith
Lynes
Doyle
Mitchell
EGL 101-02
EGL 233
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
MW 3:05-4:45
EGL 242
EGL 302
MW 7:00-8:45
EGL 294
TTH 9:00-10:45
EGL 101-03
EGL 213
EGL 403
TTH 10:55-12:40
EGL 101-04
EGL 101-05
EGL 276
TTH 1:55-3:40
EGL 102-01
EGL 288
African American Lit: Beginnings
American Fiction 1960-present
Jr Seminar: Literary Theory
Workshop in Fiction
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
Am Lit in Hist Context: Beginnings-1800
Honors Thesis Seminar II
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
Literature of the Manor House
Intro to Study of Lit: Drama
Film as Fictive Art: World Cinema
Goodman
Lynes
Selley
Mitchell
Selley
Burkett
Murphy
Wareh
Murphy
Troxell
Burkett
Wareh
Troxell
**Please Note** All English courses fulfill the CC: HUL requirement.
EGL 098
MWF 9:15-10:20
Heinegg
Tragedy
Tragedy is an ancient Greek dramatic art that in its first forms and their later permutation has profoundly
shaped the thinking of the western world. Tragedy meditates on the power of the gods, justice and injustice,
order and chaos, fate and freedom, and the whole spectrum of human existence. The first great tragic
playwright, Aeschylus, affirms the painful, yet hopeful notion that wisdom comes through suffering; but less
than two generations later the plays of Euripides offer much more pain than hope, and the wisdom gained from
the tragedies of Elizabethan and Jacobean England (e.g. Shakespeare) tends to be extremely bitter. Tragedy in
the 19th and 20th century gets bleaker still, as writers lose faith in both the existence of traditional heroes and any
sort of cosmic justice-the very possibility of reconciling oneself with the world as it is. But, despite this dark
vision, modern as well as ancient tragedy can also generate a powerful kind of pleasure in audiences and
readers- just one of the many paradoxes built into the genre. This course will attempt to make sense of it all.
HUL, WAC
EGL 100-01
MWF 9:15-10:20
Smith
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
This class is an introduction to reading, discussing, writing, and writing about poetry. We will read
books by a range of contemporary poets, as well as complementary readings from their peers and models.
Students will be asked to participate regularly, prepare a class presentation, and complete five writing
assignments. Writers we will consider will include Peg Boyers, who will visit the class. HUL, WAC
EGL 100-02
MWF 10:30-11:35
Lynes
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
In this course, we will read poetry closely on the page and experience poetry as we read it aloud to one
another. We have two goals up front: first, we will learn a working vocabulary of poetic terms, such as rhyme
and meter, so that we can write clearly about the connections between form and content. We will find these
terms/elements used in specific forms of poetry, such as the sonnet, the ballad, free verse, and the blues. As we
work with poetic forms, we will think about the place of poetry in our time while we follow the lineage poets
follow and refute in order to see how traditions are continued, and how they are reborn in today’s poetry.
Please note: While we will be creative when we write, this is not a creative writing course, per se.
We will read poetry from several traditions, including British, Euro-American, African American,
Latina/o American, and Asian American. Along the way, we will explore the question of what poetry is for:
Why do we read it? Why do we write it? Why do we fear it, if we do? What happens when we read it aloud?
We will collaborate as we follow our own curiosities about the poetry we read. Readings for this section will
likely include poetry by Shakespeare, John Donne, Camille Dungy, Langston Hughes, Helene Johnson, Robert
Hayden, Jack Gilbert, TS Eliot, H.D., Li-Young Lee, Jimmy Santiago Baca, among others. Attendance for
community conversation is required, as are the completion of short papers, reading-aloud performances, exams.
Engaged interaction with the poetry and with others in the class will be expected and appreciated. HUL, WAC
EGL 100-03
MWF 11:45-12:50
Lynes
Intro to Study of Lit: Poetry
In this course, we will read poetry closely on the page and experience poetry as we read it aloud to one
another. We have two goals up front: first, we will learn a working vocabulary of poetic terms, such as rhyme
and meter, so that we can write clearly about the connections between form and content. We will find these
terms/elements used in specific forms of poetry, such as the sonnet, the ballad, free verse, and the blues. As we
work with poetic forms, we will think about the place of poetry in our time while we follow the lineage poets
follow and refute in order to see how traditions are continued, and how they are reborn in today’s poetry.
Please note: While we will be creative when we write, this is not a creative writing course, per se.
We will read poetry from several traditions, including British, EuroAmerican, African American,
Latina/o American, and Asian American. Along the way, we will explore the question of what poetry is for:
Why do we read it? Why do we write it? Why do we fear it, if we do? What happens when we read it aloud?
We will collaborate as we follow our own curiosities about the poetry we read. Readings for this section will
likely include poetry by Shakespeare, John Donne, Camille Dungy, Langston Hughes, Helene Johnson, Robert
Hayden, Jack Gilbert, TS Eliot, H.D., Li-Young Lee, Jimmy Santiago Baca, among others. Attendance for
community conversation is required, as are the completion of short papers, reading-aloud performances, exams.
Engaged interaction with the poetry and with others in the class will be expected and appreciated. HUL, WAC
EGL 101-01
MWF 8:00-9:05
Goodman
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
Every story that is told is told through a particular voice or set of voices. There is no story without the
telling. Narrators (as we will see) may mislead us, persuade us, lie to us, lie to themselves, or tell us the “truth”
as they experience it, but the narrative perspective always mediates the work. The centrality of this perspective
Is part of what distinguishes fictional literature from other forms of fictional storytelling, like film or television.
This course will serve as an introduction to the study of fictional literature through a focus on the
possibilities of narration, paying careful attention to voice and perspective as well as other elements of fictional
storytelling. We will explore some of the fascinating yet limited, impaired, or unreliable narrators in British,
American, and World literature, including works by Jane Austen, Jamaica Kincaid, Herman Melville, Kazuo
Ishiguro, Junot Diaz, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Uwem Akpan, and Emma Donaghue. By the end of the course,
students will understand the foundational elements and techniques of fiction in the English language,
particularly the forms of narrative perspective, and will develop skills of argumentation and literary analysis.
HUL, WAC
EGL 101-02
MWF 1:50-2:55
Goodman
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
Every story that is told is told through a particular voice or set of voices. There is no story without the
telling. Narrators (as we will see) may mislead us, persuade us, lie to us, lie to themselves, or tell us the “truth”
as they experience it, but the narrative perspective always mediates the work. The centrality of this perspective
is part of what distinguishes fictional literature from other forms of fictional storytelling, like film or television.
This course will serve as an introduction to the study of fictional literature through a focus on the possibilities of
narration, paying careful attention to voice and perspective as well as other elements of fictional storytelling.
We will explore some of the fascinating yet limited, impaired, or unreliable narrators in British, American, and
World literature, including works by Jane Austen, Jamaica Kincaid, Herman Melville, Kazuo Ishiguro, Junot
Diaz, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Uwem Akpan, and Emma Donaghue. By the end of the course, students will
understand the foundational elements and techniques of fiction in the English language, particularly the forms
of narrative perspective, and will develop skills of argumentation and literary analysis. HUL, WAC
EGL 101-03
TTH 9:00-10:45
Burkett
`
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
In this course we will examine a variety of fictional narrative forms from a number of national
contexts. Investigating writings ranging from the Russian novella and Victorian fiction to the contemporary
American short story and modern British novel, we will explore various literary forms from a host of celebrated
authors. While these texts have now established quite firm roots in the literary canon, all of the works that we
will examine carefully question and, at times, even undermine the concepts of “canonicity” and “tradition” as
well. It is in this sense and for these reasons that these texts continue to prove themselves as truly revolutionary
works of art. Readings will likely include: Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Paul Auster’s “City of
Glass” from The New York Trilogy, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Gambler, Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. HUL, WAC
EGL 101-04
TTH 10:55-12:40
Murphy
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
Students will read fictional works from several different cultures and time periods with an emphasis on
classical texts. We will explore the art of narrative—on considering the ways stories get told and the reasons for
telling them. The fictional works we read will also promote our discussions of narrative point of view,
storytelling strategies, and character development, as well as the relationship between oral and written narrative
traditions and narrative theory. Particular attention will be given to developing critical reading skills and
strengthening writing proficiency. HUL, WAC
EGL 101-05
Intro to Study of Lit: Fiction
TTH 10:55-12:40
Troxell
This class will explore short stories, novels, and films and the media they inspire. Over the course of the
term, we will focus on themes of haunting, trauma, and memory in works by Virginia Woolf, Joseph
Conrad, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Ousmane Sembène, andMarjane Satrapi among others.
Moving beyond questions of fidelity, we will perform close readings across media, examining theories of
authorship, identity, intertextuality, and genre. We will also consider the ways in which adaptations serve as
important works of cultural translation, facilitating communication across temporal and geographic
expanses. HUL, WAC
EGL 102-01
Intro to Study of Lit: Drama
TTH 1:55-3:40
Wareh
In this course we will explore how plays engage audiences and readers in fundamental questions about
human identity. Not only do plays acted on the stage abound in examples of characters who switch places or are
mistaken for one another, they also provide a forum for individual characters to question their relationships with
the people and culture that surround them. Even as plays stage the most private of feelings in a public setting,
they also suggest that human interactions frequently involve playing a role. Examining mix-ups, imposters, and
identity crises in plays that range from ancient times to the present day, we will explore the literary and
theatrical devices on which plays rely. We will also explore the ways in which modern plays draw on literary
tradition—often very explicitly—as they speak to contemporary concerns. HUL, WAC
EGL 200
Shakespeare to 1600*
MWF 11:45-12:50
Doyle
International Intrigue! Insults and Injuries! Miracles! True Love! In this course we will read
Shakespeare’s sonnets and some of his early plays, including I Henry IV, Henry V, Richard III, Much Ado
About Nothing, and Merchant of Venice, plays that foreground the battle between England and France, the
battle between York and Lancaster, and, of course, the battle between the sexes. We will be particularly
interested in examining the influence of the historical context in which Shakespeare wrote them. HUL, WAC
* This course fulfills the Shakespeare requirement for majors and minors
EGL 213
TTH 9:00-10:45
Murphy
American Lit. in Historical Context: Beginnings to 1800**
We’ll begin this course by reading about cannibalism, Jesuit martyrs, and anti-papist Puritan captives.
Then, we’ll move on to the first best-seller of New England—Michael Wigglesworth's morbid doggerel, The
Day of Doom. We will then read the subliminally spicy and subversive poetry of the first published poet of the
New World, Anne Bradstreet. And finally we will examine the elaborately metaphorical poetry of Edward
Taylor. We’ll also read the criminal narrative of a member of the first organized crime group in America and its
accompanying execution sermon, alongside the journal of a kindly Quaker. From there, we will turn our
attention to George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, the sanctimonious preachers of the Great Awakening (a
true misnomer, if ever there was one) and then on to America’s first published African poet, Phillis Wheatley.
After that we will examine the dissenting (and decidedly secular) voices of the American Revolution—
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and John Adams. And, finally, towards the end of the 18th century, America
begins to produce its very first fiction; hence, we will read a novel by Charles Brockden Brown, a shockingly
prolific American gothic writer, as well as one of America's very first seduction novels. HUL, WAC
** This course fulfills the pre-1700s requirement for majors/minors/IDs
EGL 225
MWF 10:30-11:35
Goodman
The Brontё Sisters***
For the Victorians, the Brontë sisters were mysterious and fascinating figures. Their novels were
considered shocking, even monstrous, and anything but ladylike in their depiction of the heights and depths of
human passion, but the sisters themselves were demure, had lived lonely, isolated lives, and seemed to shy
away from attention or scrutiny. Their works never quite seemed to fit the standards and conventions of
nineteenth-century readers, but they’ve become some of the mostly wide read and adapted novels of that period,
especially Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. In this class, we will read works by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne
Brontë, including Jane Eyre, Villette, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and relevant film
adaptations, exploring their similarities and differences, their representation of the limited power and freedom
available in Victorian society, and the consequences of these limitations on the minds and hearts of women. We
will also examine the creation of the Brontë myth—the fantasies and anxieties that have followed these women
over the centuries, from gothic anecdotes about Emily Brontë violently beating her pet dog to the Brontë Sisters
Power Dolls. HUL, WAC
EGL 233
MWF 1:50-2:55
Lynes
African American Literature: Beginnings to 1900: Vision and Revision***
In this course we will read early African American literature, beginning with the first poetry and slave
narratives, moving to the novels and essays of the Civil War period and Reconstruction, and ending with Du
Bois’s series of essays, Souls of Black Folk. Threads we will follow include: issues of identity (being
American; being Black; racial and social passing); miscegenation; claims to culture through literature; social
change through literature (is it possible?); gender roles in literary and social contexts; issues of audience and
rhetorical persuasiveness. Questions we will raise and explore in the course of the semester include: What is the
relationship between the aesthetic and the political? How do masking and what Zora Neale Hurston later calls
“feather-bedding” function as survival tools? What are the gendered aspects of the expressions of the writers
and artists? How are “folk” forms incorporated into “literary” forms? Students should bring their own
curiosities and interests to the mix.
Readings will likely include Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects (1773); poetry from Joan
Sherman (editor), African-American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century; David Walker, Appeal (1829/1848);
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845); Sojourner Truth, Narrative of
Sojourner Truth (1875/1884); an account by a kidnapped free man from Saratoga Springs, Solomon Northup’s
Twelve Years a Slave (1853); Harriet Wilson, Our Nig (1859); Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent), Incidents in the
Life of A Slave Girl (1861); letters, poems, and essays (1853-1911) by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, in A
Brighter Coming Day; Charles Chesnutt, The Conjure Woman (1899); WEB Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk
(1903). If holdings are available, archival work in the library will be included; if possible, trips to local
Underground RailRoad sites will be included. LCC, HUL, WAC
*** This course fulfills the pre-1900s requirement for majors only
EGL 242
Time Travelers, Dark Knights, and Grrrls with Attitude: American Fiction 1960-present
MW 3:05-4:45
Selley
This course will examine short stories and novels (and possibly one film) written since 1960 by U.S. and
perhaps one or two Canadian writers, with an emphasis on the various manifestations of postmodernism and the
complex relationships between authors and their narrators and protagonists. A few older works that influenced
these works might also be studied for comparison. Authors might include Sherman Alexie, Margaret Atwood,
John Barth, T.C. Boyle, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Louise Erdrich, Gish Jen, Jamaica Kincaid, Jhumpa
Lahiri, Ursula LeGuin, Clarice Lispector, Arthur Miller, Toni Morrison, Bjharati Mukherjee, Alice Munro, J.C.
Oates, Tim O’Brien, ZZ Packer, Amy Tan, Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker, David Foster Wallace, Tobias Woolf,
and others. At least one recent film adaptation of a work from the period will be discussed. HUL, WAC
EGL 244
MWF 11:45-12:50
Mitchell
Contemporary British Imagination
This course in contemporary British literature will examine literary works from roughly the last three
decades. We will be reading closely, carefully, and critically for issues related gender, sexuality, class,
relationships, love, trauma, narrative, style, fantasy, etc. This course will familiarize you with a sampling of the
literature that the United Kingdom has produced fairly recently; our selections will range from short stories, to
books-turned-films, to award-winning novels, in order to address the following major question: How does the
United Kingdom, a nation that has been obsessed with its past, develop its own contemporary cultural
imagination? HUL, WAC
EGL 276
TTH 10:55-12:40
Burkett
Literature of the Manor House
In this course we will investigate the rich and complex history of the genre of
English manor house fiction. Focusing on texts ranging from Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and E. M.
Forster’s Howards End to Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and Ian McEwan’s Atonement, we will
explore issues of gender, sexuality, race, and especially class in both course readings and class
discussions. Furthermore, we’ll examine a number of filmic representations of British manor house life-including Robert Altman’s Gosford Park and Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey. In addition to crafting course
papers, students will have the option to research, design, build, and showcase (through 3D-printing methods)
their own virtual English manor homes by working with SketchUp, a (freely downloadable) three-dimensional
architectural modeling program. HUL, WAC
EGL 288
TTH 1:55-3:10
Troxell
Film as Fictive Art: World Cinema- History and Analysis
The designation “world cinema” has customarily denoted cultures of filmmaking existing outside the
Hollywood monolith and has generally focused on traditions of national cinema. Today more than ever,
however, the film industry is enmeshed in systems of TV and cable networks, digital technologies, and capital
flows, which exceed national boundaries. Over the course of the term, we will investigate the heuristic,
political, and affective force of the concept of “national cinema,” while at the same time, analyzing the complex
formations of identity, citizenship, and ethics, portrayed on screen and constructed through transnational
networks of production, exhibition, and distribution. We will play close attention to methods, terminology, and
tools needed for the critical analysis of film and will link the analysis of such formal features as editing, miseen-scene, and sound design to specific historical and cultural distinctions and changes, ranging from the coming
of synchronized speech to the digital convergences that shape screen studies today. HUL, WAC
EGL 294
MW 7:00-8:45
Selley
Workshop in Fiction
A first course in the writing of fiction, intended for students with good writing skills. Some class time
will be devoted to the discussion of published fiction and to lectures/instruction about constructing the “wellmade” short story. However, most of the course will be devoted to workshop critiques of students’ stories.
Students will be asked to write at least five short stories outside of class, as well as several in-class exercises; to
write one or more essays on published works of fiction and on their own writing experiences; and to provide
both written and oral critiques of classmates’ work. HUL, WAC
EGL 300
MWF 10:30-11:35
Smith
Jr Seminar: Poetry Workshop
This is a workshop class for students with some experience and a serious interest in writing poetry. Class
sessions will be divided between consideration of poetic models, discussion of literary technique, and workshop
critiques of student writing. Writers we'll consider will include Peg Boyers, who will visit the class.. Students
will be asked to submit poems regularly for discussion and to prepare a final portfolio of carefully revised work.
WAC, WS
EGL 302
MW 3:05-4:45
Mitchell
Jr Seminar: Literary Theory
Reading involves so much more than a text and its reader; when we read, our personal experiences as
well as our membership in various groups based on culture, gender, class, sexuality, etc., inform our reading.
This course considers different theoretical approaches to literature to help contextualize reading practices and
enable students to experiment with various critical methodologies. We will read literary texts in different
ways—from text-based criticism to various politically, aesthetically, culturally, and experientially driven
analytical lenses. We will read primary critical texts, primary literary texts, and examples of literary theory in
relevant scholarship. By the end of the term, students will be able to use appropriate terminology, produce
critically informed readings, and speak authoritatively about different critical approaches to literature. WAC,
WS
EGL 403
TTH 9:00-10:45
Wareh
Honors Thesis Seminar II
A two-term course required for all English majors who are writing an honors senior thesis. The course is
conducted mainly as a writing workshop to guide students through the process of writing a thesis. Workshops
focus on developing the research and writing skills needed to complete a successful thesis. There will be weekly
individual meetings with the instructor as well as weekly group meetings. The course instructor will direct your
thesis. HUL, WS, WAC