Undergraduate Courses (Fall 2004)
(Last updated: 8/31/04)
Please note that when a course is marked (Brit 1700-1900), it means the course fulfills the British literature (1700-1900) English major requirement.
Please note that when a course is marked (2nd Am Lit), it means the course fulfills the second American Literature English major requirement.
Please note that when a course is marked (Jr-Yr Writing), it means the course fulfills the Writing & Criticism/Junior-Year Writing requirement for English majors.
(Click here to return to Spring 2006 undergraduate courses)
115-L1 American Experience (ALU) 73887
Instructor: S. Payne MWF 10:10 am
This is an introductory American Studies course for non-majors, introducing
students to the interdisciplinary study of American culture. Historical
in scope, ranging from the 17th- to the 20th- centuries, this course draws
on a core body of American Studies materials supplemented by recent works-including
fiction, prose, poetry, painting, photography, film, the natural and built
environment. Approaches to diverse cultural experiences in the United
States include the experience of work, travel, landscape and the environment,
individualism and community.
115-L2 American Experience (ALU) 73888
Instructor: S. Yoon T/Th 2:30 pm
Patterson RAP freshman only.
115-L3 American Experience (ALU) 78990
Instructor: K. Makker T/Th 2:30 pm
116-L1 Native American Literature (ALU) 73889
Instructor: R. Welburn T/Th 9:30 am
117-L1 Ethnic American Literature (ALU) 73890
Instructor: C. Schlund-Vials MWF 11:15 am
American literature written by and about ethnic minorities, from the earliest
immigrants through the cultural representations in modern American writing.
120-L1 English Composition 73891
Instructor: L. Bradley MWF 10:10 am
Stockbridge students only. English 120 is the writing requirement for
undergraduates in the Stockbridge School. It gives practice in the persuasive
techniques of expository writing and shows their usefulness in both academic
and business contexts.
120-L2 English Composition 73892
Instructor: L. Bradley MWF 11:15 am
Stockbridge students only.
120-L3 English Composition 73893
Instructor: L. Bradley MWF 1:25 pm
Stockbridge students only.
131-L1 Society and Literature (ALG) 73894
Instructor: M. Deal MWF 11:15 am
This course will consider the ways in which 19th- and 20th-century authors
have perceived the relationship between individuals and their societies,
including the meanings and effects of being part of-or excluded from-groups,
families, cultures, or nations. It will also pay attention to the ways
writers address social and political issues, such as the relations between
people of different races, ethnicity, genders, classes, and sexual orientations.
And it will investigate the connections between art and politics, literature
and society: how society and its history shape language and literary culture,
how literature responds to society, how art may reimagine society in utopian
or dystopian ways, and how art may affect society and influence politics.
Texts may include novels, autobiographies, poems, short stories, and plays.
131-L2 Society and Literature (ALG) 73895
Instructor: M. Wilson MWF 10:10 am
131-L3 Society and Literature (ALG) 73896
Instructor: G. Sullivan T/Th 1:00 pm
Moore and Pierpont RAP freshman only.
131-L4 Society and Literature (ALG) 79424
Instructor: S. Lewis T/Th 2:30 pm
131-L5 Society and Literature (ALG) 79945
Instructor: J. Hennessy T/Th 1:00 pm
131-L6 Society and Literature (ALG) 80017
Instructor: J. Hennessy T/Th 2:30 pm
131-L7 Society and Literature (ALG) 80018
Instructor: S. Harbison T/Th 11:15 am
131H-L1 Honors Society and Literature (ALG) 79386
Instructor: N. Khattak T/Th 1:00 pm
Honors Learning Community HD freshman only.
132-L1 Man and Woman in Literature (ALG) 73897
Instructor: K. Elliott MWF 9:05 am
This course investigates images of men and women in poetry, drama, and
fiction. It aims at appreciat- ing the literature itself, with increasing
awareness of the ways in which men and women grow up, seek identity, mature,
love, marry, and, during different historical times, relate in families,
classes, races, ethnic groups, societies, cultures. What are the conventional
perspectives and relationships of "Man" and "Woman"?
How does literature accept or question these conventions? What alternative
perspectives and relationships are imagined in literature?
132-L2 Man and Woman in Literature (ALG) 73898
Instructor: M. Naous T/Th 2:30 pm
Butterfield RAP freshman only.
132-L3 Man and Woman in Literature (ALG) 73899
Instructor: C. Vials T/Th 2:30 pm
Coolidge RAP freshman only.
132-L4 Society and Literature (ALG) 79425
Instructor: C. Monahan MWF 10:10 am
132-L5 Society and Literature (ALG) 79946
Instructor: B. Marshall MW 4:00 - 5:15 pm
140-L1 Reading Fiction (AL) 79385
Instructor: J. Berry MWF 11:15 am
142-L1 Reading Drama (AL) 79000
Instructor: C. Spivack MW 2:30 -3:45 pm
An introduction to themes and techniques of drama through a reading of
selected plays. Emphasis on such matters as structure, style, staging,
and tragic and comic modes.
144-L1 World Literature in English (ALG) 73953
Instructor: M. Faith MWF 10:10 am
Gods and heroes; ancient text from Sumer to England.
196 Independent Study 73900
Instructor: TBA TBA
Contact department to add course.
200-L1 Seminar in Literary Studies 73901
Instructor: B. Marshall MW 2:30 - 3:45 pm
Pre-English majors only (CAS/L). Prerequisite: Gen. Ed. CW. This course
will be an introduction to the ways in which we read literature, think
about it, and write about it. Much of the world as we know it is mediated
through words, images and sounds, often in combination. Our focus will
be on the relatively formal but also remarkably disparate institution
known as literature-how we approach the world through it, but also how
it constitutes the world for us, and (perhaps surprisingly) us in relation
to the world. We'll be reading poetry selections from a range of periods,
cultures and settings, a play (in the past I have used Athol Fugard's
play, The Island, from South Africa), as well as fiction. My aim,
in setting up the course, is for all of us to experience the dynamic pleasures
and challenges that literature poses for us, as well as gain a sense of
how we can be active partners in our responses to it, whether in aesthetic
and formal or social and cultural terms. Students must receive a grade
of 'BC' or higher in ENGL 200 to be officially admitted to the English
major. Come to 252 Bartlett at Pre-registration to add the pre-major.
200-L2 Seminar in Literary Studies 73902
Instructor: J. Freeman T/Th 8:00 am
Pre-English majors only (CAS/L). Prerequisite: Gen. Ed. CW. This gateway
course for the major will move students to a more sophisticated level
of reading and writing in three ways: by teaching close reading through
discussion of a limited number of texts; by giving extensive practice
in writing critical papers, including feedback on drafts and revisions;
and by encouraging ongoing discussion of the issues that underlie literary
study, such as the relation between language and "reality" or
the stakes, consequences, and pleasures of reading analytically. The course
is conducted as an intensive discussion seminar and each section is limited
to 20 students. The selection of texts will vary from section to section;
however, all sections will cover at least two of the three major literary
genres-poetry, fiction, and drama. Students must receive a grade of 'BC'
or higher in ENGL 200 to be officially admitted to the English major.
Come to 252 Bartlett at Pre-registration to add the pre-major.
200-L3 Seminar in Literary Studies 73903
Instructor: E. Gallo T/Th 9:30 am
Pre-English majors only (CAS/L). Prerequisite: Gen. Ed. CW. Students must
receive a grade of 'BC' or higher in ENGL 200 to be officially admitted
to the English major. Come to 252 Bartlett at Pre-Registration to add
the pre-major.
200-L4 Seminar in Literary Studies 73904
Instructor: E. Gallo T/Th 11:15 am
Pre-English majors only (CAS/L). Prerequisite: Gen. Ed. CW. Students must
receive a grade of 'BC' or higher in ENGL 200 to be officially admitted
to the English major. Come to 252 Bartlett at Pre-Registration to add
the pre-major.
200-L5 Seminar in Literary Studies 73955
Instructor: M. O'Brien T/Th 1:00 pm
English TAP students only. Pre-English majors only (CAS/L). Prerequisite:
Gen. Ed. CW. Students must receive a grade of 'BC' or higher in ENGL 200
to be officially admitted to the English major. Come to 252 Bartlett at
Pre-Registration to add the pre-major.
200-L6 Seminar in Literary Studies 79302
Instructor: R. Jennison MW 4:00 -5:15 pm
Pre-English majors only (CAS/L). Prerequisite: Gen. Ed. CW. In this writing
and discussion intensive course, students will develop skills and strategies
for understanding and making arguments about literary texts. The course
will focus on three genres: poetry, the short story, and the novella.
Materials for this course have been chosen for their ability to spark
experiment in various reading practices. We will explore the uses of figurative
language, syntax, diction, allusion, dialect, and narrative voice.
In addition to charting a constellation of short but often difficult poetry
by Emily Dickinson, H.D., W.C. Williams and Frank O'Hara, students will
learn strategies for reading, and making arguments about, longer works
by Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, and Louise Erdrich. Our attention to the
details and multiplicity of poetic language will be rewarded as we encounter
the differently rendered language of narrative genres, including short
stories and micro-fiction by Ernest Hemingway, Richard Wright and Tennessee
Williams. Nathaniel West's work Miss Lonelyhearts, which he described
as a "novel in the form of a comic strip," will offer a transition
into the final section of the course, where we will test the portability
of our critical skills to media not usually considered literary. We will
also "read" the cinema of John Cassavetes, a director whose
experimental work deals with the way in which social relations are constructed
by cultural narratives of race and gender. Additionally, we will use Raymond
Williams' s seminal text, Keywords, which offers strategies for
close reading cultural history itself. Students will prepare short writing
assignments- mostly close reading exercises- for each class meeting. Many
of our discussions will emerge from small group discussions of these short
evidence-driven meditations. Longer papers will turn observation into
argument, giving students a chance to practice the use of literary terms
and reading strategies. Students must receive a grade of 'BC' or higher
in ENGL 200 to be officially admitted to the English major. Come to 252
Bartlett at Pre-Registration to add the pre-major.
200-L7 Seminar in Literary Studies 79943
Instructor: J. Rege T/Th 2:30 pm
Pre-English majors only (CAS/L). Prerequisite: Gen. Ed. CW. Students must
receive a grade of 'BC' or higher in ENGL 200 to be officially admitted
to the English major. Come to 252 Bartlett at Pre-Registration to add
the pre-major.
200H-L1 Honors Seminar in Literary Studies 78400
Instructor: L. Doyle MW 2:30 -3:45 pm
Pre-English majors only (CAS/L). Prerequisite: Gen. Ed. CW. An intensive
seminar for Honors students planning to major in English. While honing
skills in close reading and critical writing, we will explore broad questions
about the nature of language, the activity of reading, and the dialectical
nature of the artist/audience relationship. We will especially analyze
theme and meaning as shaped by literary and cultural forms. To that end,
we will study two or three different literary genre-poetry, fiction, and
possibly memoir. We'll read a range of poets as well as novels.
To handle this course, students' basic skills in writing and argumentation
should be solid. Beyond that, a love of reading and an eagerness to analyze
the power of literature in discussion and in writing will be most valuable.
The course is writing-intensive with drafts and revisions. Students will
write several short informal reflective and creative pieces, one 5-page
formal paper, and one 10-page formal paper with research. Students must
receive a grade of 'BC' or higher in ENGL 200H to be officially admitted
to the English major. Come to 252 Bartlett at Pre-Registration to add
the pre-major.
201-L1 Major British Writers I 79300
Instructor: J. Black T/Th 9:30 am
English majors, International/National Exchange majors, or Masters students
with TECS subplan only. A survey of poetry, prose, and drama from the
Anglo-Saxon period through to the
Renaissance. Our focus will be on careful readings of some of the foundational
-- and often challenging -- texts of the English literary canon (Beowulf,
and works by Chaucer, More, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Marvell, and
Milton); we will also look at a wide range of materials that illuminate
the cultural and social worlds in which these texts were created and originally
read. Three
medium-length papers, two tests, and occasional response papers.
201-L2 Major British Writers I 79301
Instructor: J. Adams T/Th 11:15 am
English majors, International/National Exchange majors, or Masters students
with TECS subplan only. The English language has changed considerably
over the past thousand years, and with the changes in language have come
redefinitions of culture, literature, and society. In this course, we
will explore the early stages of English language and literature with
an eye to how texts, both poetry and prose, contributed to a sense of "Englishness." In other words, we will consider the ways that
early English authors helped to "write" a nation. Readings will
include Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, More's
Utopia, Spenser's Faeire Queene, and Milton's Paradise
Lost. Three medium-length papers, one midterm, and one final exam.
201H-L1 Honors Major British Writers I 78402
Instructor: J. Freeman T/Th 11:15 am
English majors, International/National Exchange majors, or Masters students
with TECS subplan only.
202-L1 Major British Writers (Brit 1700-1900)
73907
Instructor: N. Khattak T/Th 9:30 am
English majors, International/National Exchange majors, or Masters students
with TECS subplan only.
202-L1 Major British Writers (Brit 1700-1900) 80010
Instructor: N. Khattak T/Th 2:30 pm
English majors, International/National Exchange majors, or Masters students with TECS subplan only.
202H-L1 Honors Major British Writers (Brit 1700-1900)
78405
Instructor: S. Daly T/Th 2:30 pm
English majors, International/National Exchange majors, or Masters students
with TECS subplan only. A survey of poetry and prose works of eighteenth-
and nineteenth-century England in their literary, social, and historical
contexts. We will read works by Swift, Pope, Johnson, Austen, Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Dickens, Tennyson, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Rossetti, and Stevenson as well as periodical literature and
works by less well-known authors. Requirements: regular attendance and
participation, response papers, three researched essays.
204-L1 Introduction to Asian American Studies (IU) (2nd Am Lit) 78406
Instructor: C. N. Le MWF 2:30 pm
Introduction to Asian American studies as an evolving field and to the
history, politics, and cultural introduction of Asian American communities.
Themes may include citizenship, borders, space, youth culture, labor,
and the body, using texts by and about Asian Americans, including theoretical
works, fiction, ethnographic studies, and documentary film.
221-L1 Shakespeare (AL) 73908
Instructor: A. Kinney T/Th 2:30 pm
The power of poetry of Shakespeare's plays derives in large part from
the cultural concerns of his day that are similar to our own. This class
will explore the ways in which Shakespeare's plays represented and interacted
with the cultural environment in which they were created. We'll ask how
Shakespeare's plays approach issues of social class, gender, politics,
religion, and war, and how we may apply what we learn to modern notions
of identity. The goal of the course will be to familiarize students with
Shakespeare's language, techniques, and context to understand better the
range of his imagination and influence. The course requirements include
three short papers, careful reading of the texts, attendance of both lecture
and discussion section, and lively participation. Discussion section
required.
221-D1 Shakespeare (AL) 73909
Instructor: Y. Chung T 1:00 - 1:50 pm
221-D2 Shakespeare (AL) 73910
Instructor: Y. Chung Th 1:00 - 1:50 pm
221-D3 Shakespeare (AL) 73911
Instructor: G. Christian T 1:00 - 1:50 pm
221-D4 Shakespeare (AL) 73912
Instructor: G. Christian Th 1:00 - 1:50 pm
222-L1 Shakespeare (AL) 78407
Instructor: C. Spivack MW 8:40 -9:55 am
Senior, Junior, and Sophomore English majors only.
254-L1 Writing and Reading Imaginative Literature (AL) 73913
Instructor: L. Newman T/Th 11:15 am
Senior, Junior, and Sophomore students only. Analysis of issues of form,
elements of genre, style, and development of themes of stories and poems,
written by class members and in class texts.
254-L2 Writing and Reading Imaginative Literature (AL) 73914
Instructor: J. Schwartz MWF 11:15 am
Senior, Junior, and Sophomore students only.
254-L3 Writing and Reading Imaginative Literature (AL) 73915
Instructor: T. Krupa MWF 10:10 am
Senior, Junior, and Sophomore students only.
270-L1 American Identities (AL) 73916
Instructor: D. Carlin T/Th 9:30 am
"The old America, the America of our hopes and our dreams, has come
to an end, and a new America is entering on the false course which has
been tried so often and which has often led to calamity," wrote Harvard
Professor Charles Eliot Norton in 1898, at that precise historical moment
when the United States recast itself as an imperial global power with
the invasion and occupation of the Philippines during the Spanish-American
War. During this presidential election year, over one century later, we
are again faced with the questions of what kind of America we have become
and what version of America do we wish to embrace. Such questions have
long animated much of American literature, and this course will spend
its time examining how writers such as Jefferson, Wheatley, Crèvecouer,
Franklin, Apess, Thoreau, Douglass, Whitman, Melville, Davis, DuBois,
Chesnutt, James, Lazarus, McKay, Hughes, Bulosan, Hayden, Levertov, Harper,
and Anna Deveare-Smith have given shape to multiple and diverse configurations
of American selves through fiction, autobiography, poetry, political rhetoric
and performance art. Students will meet three times a week, twice in large
lectures and once in discussion sections. Lectures will be enhanced with
computer technology, both visual and interactive; attendance in both lectures
and sections is mandatory and will be monitored. Our primary texts will
be The Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter sixth edition,
Henry James' The American, and Anna Deveare-Smith's Twilight:
Los Angeles, 1992, available at Food For Thought Books in Amherst.
Students will also be required to purchase a PRS device in order to enhance
interactive feedback in lectures. Requirements: One 4-6 pp. essay, a midterm
and a final examination. Discussion section is required.
270-D1 American Identities 73917
Instructor: C. Harris Th 11:15 - 12:05 pm
270-D2 American Identities 73918
Instructor: C. Harris Th 2:30 - 3:20 pm
270-D3 American Identities 74002
Instructor: D. Colbert Th 11:15 - 12:05 pm
270-D4 American Identities 78409
Instructor: D. Colbert Th 2:30 - 3:20 pm
270-D5 American Identities 78410
Instructor: D. Griffis Th 11:15 - 12:05 pm
270-D6 American Identities 78411
Instructor: D. Griffis Th 2:30 - 3:20 pm
279-L1 Introduction to American Studies (ALU) (2nd
Am Lit) 78412
Instructor: R. Knoper T/Th 9:30 am
Senior, Junior, and Sophomore English majors only. This course will look
at three groupings of images, myths, and stories that Americans have used
to represent themselves and their nation. First, we'll consider the legend
of Pocahontas (and the dynamic in America of cross-cultural contact, exchange,
and conquest); second, we'll look at figures of tricksters and confidence
men and women (and the issues they raise of self-making and deception
in a fluid society); and third, we'll consider questions of science and
technology and American culture (and the ways science has been used as
an emblem of American progress, know-how, and technofuturistic threat).
We'll attend to a wide range of materials, from paintings, folktales,
and literature to movies, manifestoes, and websites. And while the course
will admittedly approach American Studies from its cultural and literary
side, we will think about the difficulties and possibilities of interdisciplinary
study, and we will keep in view the prospect and pitfalls of using such
study to make generalizations about America, its peoples, and its cultures.
Requirements: informal weekly writings, two short papers.
296 Independent Study 73920
Instructor: TBA TBA
Contact department to add course.
297H-L1 Honors Learning through Teaching 79013
Instructor: P. Zukowski W 9:05 - 10:45 am
Prerequisite: Grade of 'B' or above in College Writing (English 112 or
113), a letter of recommendation from the student's College Writing instructor,
and permission of the Writing Center Director, Patricia Zukowski. Students
who did not take 112/113 may submit a recommendation letter from one of
their instructors in a writing-intensive course. This seminar focuses
upon writing, the teaching of writing, and tutorial theory for direct
application in Writing Centers. It is driven by the belief that in the
process of learning how to help educate others, students work toward a
fuller understanding of their own educational experiences. The course
begins by examining theories of composition and the roles of writing centers
and tutors in relation to the teaching of writing. Then in the fifth week
of class, theory and practice will become more fully integrated as students
begin tutoring two hours per week in the UMass Writing Center. Topics
of special emphasis in the course include theories and strategies for
responding to writers and writing, the diverse genre expectations of different
academic discourse communities, and the rhetorical and linguistic conventions
of a variety of cultures, including the conventions of standard English.
This seminar is an ideal course for students interested in writing, English
studies, education, psychology, sociology, or communications. Throughout
the course, the instructor will offer students extensive feedback on their
writing and on their tutoring. This course is a prerequisite for students
who wish to work as paid tutors in the Writing Center. Recommended for
sophomores and juniors. To add this course students must contact the Writing
Program, 305 Bartlett Hall, 545-0610.
298 Practicum 73921
Instructor: TBA TBA
319-L1 Representing the Holocaust (ALG) 78413
Instructor: J. Young T 2:30 pm
Same as Judaic 391A and Comp-Lit 391A. Major writers, works, themes, and
critical issues comprising the literature of the Holocaust. Exploration
of the narrative responses to the destruction of European Jewry and other
peoples during World War II (including diaries, memoirs, fiction, poetry,
drama, video testimonies, and memorials). Discussion section is required.
319-D1 Representing the Holocaust (ALG) 78415
Instructor: J. Young Th 1:00 pm
319-D2 Representing the Holocaust (ALG) 78416
Instructor: I. Ozkilic Th 1:00 pm
319-D3 Representing the Holocaust (ALG) 78417
Instructor: I. Ozkilic Th 2:30 pm
319-D4 Representing the Holocaust (ALG) 78418
Instructor: R. Reginio Th 1:00 pm
319-D5 Representing the Holocaust (ALG) 78419
Instructor: R. Reginio Th 2:30 pm
326-L1 Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama 78420
Instructor: J. Donohue T/Th 2:30 pm
An intensive survey of the remarkable development of English drama during
the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline period, encompassing a great range
of plays--tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies, masques, and other forms--selected
from the works of such dramatists as Kyd, Marlowe, Lyly, Jonson, Dekker,
Marston, Middleton, Chapman, Tourneur, Fletcher, Webster, Ford, Shirley,
and perhaps even Shakespeare himself. Substantial attention to the plays
as performed on the stages of professional playhouses, to their audiences,
and to their broader social, cultural, and intellectual contexts. Commentaries,
question papers, essays, perhaps a final examination. Text: an anthology
of plays, plus supplements. A college-level course in Shakespeare is recommended
but not required as a prerequisite.
330-L1 Practical Criticism (Jr-Yr Writing)
73922
Instructor: J. Skerrett MW 4:00 - 5:15 pm
Senior and Junior English majors, International/National Exchange majors,
or Masters students with TECS subplan only. This course presupposes some
familiarity with a range of readings, but the core text is F. Scott Fitzgerald's
The Great Gatsby, which we will examine through various critical
perspectives: psychological, sociological, and historical. We will examine
some theories of literature and their critical methods, with frequent
imitative exercises and a final paper in which you will be able to demonstrate
sophisticated use of one of more of these critical approaches in the discussion
of another novel.
349-L1 English Novel: Scott to Hardy (Brit 1700-1900)
73960
Instructor: R. Keefe MW 2:30 - 3:45 pm
English majors, International/National Exchange majors, or Masters students
with TECS subplan only. The aims of this course are twofold: 1) to enjoy
a group of deservedly popular novels, and 2) to come to a general understanding
of the social position of the novel in a public sphere made up largely
of middle-class readers (and listeners--families in Victorian England
read novels aloud). We will discuss publishing conditions, audience expectations
and reactions, and the ways in which the content of novels both imparted
and-usually unconsciously-undercut moral and social values to that audience.
But in order to do that, we will concentrate above all on the text of
the novels.
We will read the following novels: Frankenstein, Wuthering
Heights, Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Great Expectations,
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Dracula. You will be required
to take several short (and primitive) quizzes, and write two papers. You
will also be required to attend the classes.
354-L1 Creative Writing: Introduction 73923
Instructor: P. Sharma MWF 9:05 am
English majors, BDIC, UWW, International/National exchange majors, or
Masters students with a TECS subplan only. Writing in the various modes
of fiction, poetry, drama, and essay. Analysis of student writing in class
and in tutorial; development of critical skills.
354-L2 Creative Writing: Introduction 73924
Instructor: J. Choffel MWF 10:10 am
English majors, BDIC, UWW, International/National exchange majors, or
Masters students with a TECS subplan only.
354-L3 Creative Writing: Introduction 73925
Instructor: J. Ruiz T/Th 9:30 am
English majors, BDIC, UWW, International/National exchange majors, or
Masters students with a TECS subplan only.
355-L1 Creative Writing: Fiction 78422
Instructor: S. Michel MW 2:30 pm
English majors, BDIC, UWW, International/National exchange majors, or
Masters students with a TECS subplan only. Prerequisite: ENGL 354 or 354H
with a grade of 'B' or better. A seminar in writing short stories and
other fiction for students who demonstrate familiarity with the basis
of scene and story. Students write regularly, read and criticize one another's
writing, read in contemporary fiction.
356H-L1 Honors Creative Writing: Poetry 78423
Instructor: M. Espada MW 2:30 pm
English majors, BDIC, UWW, International/National exchange majors, or
Masters students with a TECS subplan only. Prerequisite: ENGL 354 or 354H
with a grade of 'B' or better. Consent of instructor required to add course;
students should submit a portfolio of 3 poems, with name and student ID
number, to Professor Espada's mailbox before the start of the semester
(Sept 8, 2004). This is an advanced undergraduate poetry writing workshop.
The student is expected to actively participate: that is, to produce poems
independently for review in class, and to review work submitted by others.
The course is geared to the seriously committed writing student. One objective,
at this level, will be to help the student define a distinct identity
in the work, in terms of language, subject, etc. Another objective will
be to reinforce the fundamental skills of writing poetry, with a special
emphasis on the image, the expression of the senses on paper. Each objective
will be achieved through intensive critique of student poems, both in
class and in conference. The various strengths of student writing will
receive as much attention as those areas in need of improvement. Readings
will be selected from Poetry Like Bread, an anthology which will
provide models for class discussion and writing. This is a four credit
honors course.
358-L1 Romantic Poets (Brit 1700-1900)
73961
COURSE CANCELLED MW 4:00 pm
365-L1 20th Century Literature of Ireland (AL) 78425
Instructor: M. O'Brien T/Th 11:15 am
Nineteenth-century background: the Irish Renaissance; such major figures
as Yeats, Synge, Joyce and O'Casey; recent and contemporary writing.
366-L1 Modern U.S. Poetry (2nd Am Lit) 79303
Instructor: R. Jennison MW 2:30 - 3:45 pm
This course surveys the multiple traditions of modern U.S. poetry. Our
guiding question: What is the relationship between modern poetry and modernity?
Focusing on the period between 1900 and 1950 and working from a comparativist
perspective, we will explore how various poets interpreted their shared
historical context through different poetic forms. In addition to a broad
overview of modernism's canonical authors (e.g. Wallace Stevens, T.S.
Eliot, W.C. Williams, Ezra Pound), we will spend significant time on the
parallel, and often overlapping, trajectories of African-American poetry
(e.g. Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes), and feminist poetics
(e.g. H.D., Gertrude Stein). Between each of these reading units, we will
look closely at poets who negotiate the intersection of these various
poetic trajectories, such as African American high modernist Melvin Tolson
and the self-described "mongrel," Mina Loy. The second-generation
modernists, such as "Objectivist" poets Louis Zukofsky and Lorine
Niedecker, as well as anti-war poets such as Muriel Rukeyser and Randall
Jarrell, will further expand our understanding of modern poetry as a series
of revolutions in both politics and poetic form.Throughout our readings,
we will continue to look at the ways in which our poets are a part of
the new, rapidly transforming cultures and histories of modernity, including
world wars, rapid industrialization, mass culture advertising, Jim Crow
race relations, and masculinity. Finally, by beginning and ending our
survey with works by poets who anticipate the modern (Emily Dickinson,
Walt Whitman) and attempt to move beyond it (Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg),
we will map "modernism" as part of a longer history of poetic
development.
369-L1 Studies in Modern (20th Century) Fiction (AL) 73926
Instructor: J. Clayton MW 1:25 pm
This course will survey major trends in twentieth century fiction by taking
as its theme the idea of "writing at the frontiers." This will
be understood in various ways, ranging from the frontiers of form in the
work of some of the century's foremost writers, to the literal frontiers
that many of them have faced: of geography, culture, race, gender, politics.
Writers will range from one end of the century to the other, including
a selection from the following: Conrad, Forster, Joyce, Faulkner, Rhys,
Morrison, Gordimer, Rushdie, and possibly others such as Ishiguro and
Ondaatje. Classes will include both lectures and discussion. Requirements:
participation; three essays; presentations. Discussion section is required.
369-D1 Studies in Modern (20th Century) Fiction (AL) 78426
Instructor: P. Williams F 10:10 am
369-D2 Studies in Modern (20th Century) Fiction (AL) 78427
Instructor: P. Williams F 11:15 am
369-D3 Studies in Modern (20th Century) Fiction (AL) 78428
Instructor: M. Imbody F 10:10 am
369-D4 Studies in Modern (20th Century) Fiction (AL) 78429
Instructor: M. Imbody F 11:15 am
379-L1 Technical Writing 73927
Instructor: D. Toomey MW 2:30 - 3:45 pm
Senior and Junior students with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. This
course is an introduction to the field of technical communication, and
emphasizes traditional technical writing forms, especially letters and
memorandums, feasibility studies and formal proposals. Course website:
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~pwtc/tw/.
379-L2 Technical Writing 73928
Instructor: D. Toomey MW 4:00 - 5:15 pm
Senior and Junior students with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
380-L1 Professional Writing and Technical Communication I 73929
Instructor: J. Nelson T/Th 1:00 pm
Senior and Junior students with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. This
course introduces the basic principles of software technical writing,
using a format which combines both lectures and labs. The main work of
the semester focuses on learning the fundamentals of designing, writing,
illustrating, editing and producing a clear, tightly organized, well-illustrated
short manual or "guide" for beginners. Each student creates
a 30-page guide that documents a particular software product, usually
a writing program (e.g. Microsoft Word) which is widely used in
the professional world. The class simulates the writing process used in
the computer industry, starting with a documentation plan and ending with
a usability test. PWTC Lab 5-5462 B210B.
380-L2 Professional Writing and Technical Communication I 73930
Instructor: J. Nelson T/Th 2:30 pm
Senior and Junior students with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
391B-L1 Jewish-American Literature and Culture (2nd
Am Lit) 79297
Instructor: J. Felman T 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Same as Judaic 391B. The multiple voices and themes of Jewish-American
literature and culture, from the turn of the century to the present. Issues
include early immigrant and "Americanization" experiences; Yiddish
in America; women and the chains of tradition; the political novel; the
Holocaust in the American mind; urbanity and suburbanity; humor; and fracture
identities.
391G-L1 Tell it Again: Rewriting 78968
Instructor: M. Tymoczko MW 1:00 - 2:15 pm
Same as CompLit 391C. Rewritings and film version of such classics as:
The Dragon Slayer, The King Arthur Tales, The Odyssey,
Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland.
391J-L1 Creative Non-Fiction 79848
Instructor: N. Holland T/Th 2:30 pm
396 Independent Study 73931
Instructor: TBA TBA
412-L1 History of English Language 78430
Instructor: S. Harris MWF 11:15 am
What accounts for dialect difference? Why do people in MA sound different
than people in NY? Have people always talked like this? HEL is a compelling
and thrilling ride through the major changes in English phonology, morphology,
syntax, spelling, and vocabulary from Caedmon in 735 to the vast English-speaking
world of the 21st century. We will consider historical change and dialectic
difference, literacy and orality, the emergence of vernaculars and the
decline of Latin, the economic rise of America and her influence on English,
class and gender, and the current state of English. No previous knowledge
of linguistics, Anglo Saxon, or Middle English is required.
421-L1 Advanced Shakespeare (Jr-Yr Writing)
78431
Instructor: J. Donohue T/Th 1:00 pm
English majors, BDIC, UWW, International/National exchange majors, or
Masters students with a TECS subplan only. Intensive study of five or
six major Shakespeare plays (for example, Julius Caesar, 1 Henry
IV, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Othello,
Tempest) and the history of their interpretation on the English
and American stage, with additional attention to film treatments (for
example, Peter Hall's Midsummer Night's Dream, Kenneth Branagh's
Hamlet, Orson Welles's and Laurence Olivier's Othello).
Readings in criticism and history from such works as Gurr's The Shakespearean
Stage; Williams, Our Moonlight Revels; Bloom, Hamlet: Poem
Unlimited; Coleridge on Shakespeare; States, Great Reckonings
in Little Room; Rosenberg, The Masks of Hamlet. Commentaries
and question papers, and drafting, revision, and completion of a substantial
critical essay on a problem of Shakespearean interpretation.
437-L1 Milton 78432
Instructor: J. Freeman T/Th 1:00 pm
John Milton chronicles a world at war. Religious, political, artistic
and psychological battles move him to create poems that examine conflict
and resolve it. He summarizes nearly two millennia of debates about faith,
government, literary models and personal identity. We will see how he
deals with traditions as we read such fine works as Comus, Lycidas
and Paradise Lost. Few lectures, much discussion, student teaching
and appropriate writing will familiarize us with Milton's work. Text:
M. Hughes, ed., John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose.
469-L1 Victorian Monstrosity (Jr-Yr Writing)
(Brit 1700-1900) 73962
Instructor: K. Farrell MW 2:30 - 3:45 pm
Senior and Junior English majors, International/National Exchange majors,
or Masters students with TECS subplan only. We'll be reading novels of
the 1890s that project visions of monstrosity and crystallized many of
the themes of modernism haunting us today. Radical historical change raised
liberating and terrifying questions about identity: What sort of creatures
are we? This is not a conventional literature course: we'll be using history,
anthropology, psychology, and other disciplines to explore the impact
of modernism. We'll work with overt monsters in Frankenstein and
Dracula, but also with a range of sublimated grotesques, from Sherlock
Holmes to Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray. The seminar includes
a required lab section that meets once a week to screen related films
(Oscar Wilde plays, etc). Reading: parts of seven novels, plus Richard
D. Altick's Victorian People and Ideas (Norton paperback) and Ernest
Becker's Escape from Evil (pap). Recommended: Max Nordau, Degeneration;
and Karen Horney, Neurosis and Human Growth (pap).
In fulfilling the second part of the Junior-Year Writing Requirement,
the seminar will focus on criticism. Plan to write a page or two about
each book and a longer semester essay. Lab section is required.
469-Lab 1 Victorian Monstrosity 73963
Instructor: K. Farrell W 4:00 - 6:30 pm
Senior and Junior English majors, International/National Exchange majors,
or Masters students with TECS subplan only.
491H-L1 Honors Cultures of Sensibility (Jr-Yr Writing)
79280
COURSE CANCELLED MW 2:30 pm
491Q-L1 Dickens & Victorian London (Jr-Yr Writing)
78434
Instructor: S. Daly T/Th 11:15 am
Senior and Junior English majors, International/National Exchange majors,
or Masters students with TECS subplan only. Charles Dickens is considered
to be the unparalleled Victorian novelist of London, yet his novels may
hardly be said to celebrate the city in any uncomplicated way. In this
course we will consider the relationship between London and its literary
representations as well as London's place in Dickens's iconography. What
did London mean to Dickens, and how did Dickens shape the ways that London
came to be understood by his readers? What political, economic, and social
forces shaped the city in the mid-Victorian period? What is the relation
between the novel form and the city? Novels may include Oliver Twist,
Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, Bleak House, and
Our Mutual Friend, which we will read alongside major works of
Dickens criticism.
491R-L1 Writing & Teaching Writing (Jr-Yr Writing)
78437
Instructor: A. Herrington T/Th 2:30 pm
Senior and Junior English majors, International/National Exchange majors,
or Masters students with TECS subplan only. This seminar is grounded on
three assumptions: 1) We learn by doing and reflecting on what we do and
have done; 2) Our writing and literacy practices and values are shaped
by our social/cultural contexts; 3) We should practice what we hope to
teach. To that end, the seminar will involve writing and reflecting on
our writing practices, as well as the study of theory and practical approaches.
While the course will not provide a comprehensive road map for teaching
a writing or language arts course as a methods course might do, it should
help you know what general approaches you value and understand more about
your own and others' literacy backgrounds and values as a basis for thinking
about learning and teaching. We will consider questions of audience, voice,
and relations among language, culture and identity as well as more applied
questions of specific approaches to teaching, for example, writing as
a process and writing in various genres. Class meetings will include both
discussion time and workshop time. Plan to do a good bit of writing, to
include a literacy self-study, short writings to experiment with specific
genres and writing strategies, periodic responses to assigned readings,
and a research essay. You will also need access to the Internet for some
projects. The course is designed primarily for English majors who are
interested in becoming middle or high school teachers of English.
491S-L1 Women & Theater: Performing Identity 78438
Instructor: J. Spencer T/Th 1:00 pm
A number of questions posed by feminist critics since the 1970s has helped
re-write the way in which we approach, understand, and value work by contemporary
women playwrights and their foremothers. This course uses the insights
of a number of feminist critics (e.g., Cixous, Irigaray,
Diamond, Butler, Case, Moraga, and others) to explore the feminist dynamics
around questions of identity in the work of selected British and American
women playwrights from Susan Glaspell to Split Britches. The readings
will be structured around themes and issues of importance to feminist
thinkers. Some general rubrics include mothers and daughters, women and
the law, gender stereotypes, representation of race, the female body,
lesbian desire, and so on. Playwrights include (but are not limited to)
Susan Glaspell, Sophia Treadwell, Lillian Hellman, Marsha Norman, Maria
Irene Fornes, Caryl Churchill, Timberlake Wertenbacker, Adrienne Kennedy,
Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Karen Finley. Requirements include
weekly response papers, participation in collaborative performance projects,
and one researched 10-12 page paper.
491T-L1 Americas' Fictions (Jr-Yr Writing)
(2nd Am Lit) 78441
Instructor: R. Welburn T/Th 1:00 pm
Senior and Junior English majors, International/National Exchange majors,
or Masters students with TECS subplan only. English majors assume American
literature to be exclusively defined by writers in the United States.
What of writers from other countries throughout the hemisphere, who view
themselves as part of the larger American experience? [Langston Hughes
said his poem "I Am the Darker Brother," was widely appreciated
throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.] This course will help students
respond to that and other questions about whether American identity is
parochial or has an international dimension. Close readings of works (in
translation) by seven fictionists will provide a lens through which a
cross-section of cultural values can be acknowledged, how history created
fundamental similarities in nation-building and its effects on diverse
populations, and how the life in "el Norte" and the "Lower
48" comes under scrutiny from the outside.
Readings: Jorge Amado (Brazil), Tent of Miracles; Jeanette Armstrong
(Okanagon/Canada), Whispering in Shadow; Margaret Atwood (Canada),
The Handmaid's Tale; Alejo Carpentier (Cuba), The Kingdom of
This World; Wilson Harris (Guyana), The Palace of the Peacock;
Shanii Mootoo (Trinidad/Canada), Out On Main Street; Luisa Valenzuela
(Argentina), The Censors.
Assignments: Proposed as a Junior-Year Writing requirement with drafting
of essays around theoretical strategies in colonialism, postcolonialism,
ethnic studies, the negrism movement, and postmodernism based upon intense
reading of texts, classroom discussion, individual presentations, several
critically-informed essays, and a final essay project.
491U-L1 Pulitzer Prize Fictions (2nd Am Lit)
79048
Instructor: D. Carlin T/Th 11:15 am
Senior, Junior, and Sophomore English majors only. Joseph Pulitzer was
an Hungarian Jewish immigrant who arrived penniless at Castle garden in
1864. He immediately volunteered as a member of the New York Lincoln Calvary
in the Civil War and, after the cessation of hostilities, went West to
seek his fortune. Pulitzer quickly became a reporter, beginning a life-long
love of journalism that defined his life. In 1883, Pulitzer purchased
the New York World and created, along with William Randolph Hearst,
a new and controversial type of journalism. Pulitzer saw himself as a
crusader on the side of people and a spokesman for democracy. He supported
labor, attacked trusts and monopolies, and revealed political corruption.
At the age of forty, he was struck blind, but he still continued to run
his press empire for twenty-two more years. Pulitzer died of heart disease
aboard his yacht, the Liberty, on October 29, 1911. Through his will,
he established the Columbia University School of Journalism, which was
one of his chief desires, and annual Pulitzer Prizes for literature, drama,
music, and journalism. The novel prize, begun in 1917, was to be given
only to a work "which shall best present the whole atmosphere of
American life, and the highest standard of American manners and manhood."
The wording has been since changed from "whole atmosphere" to
"wholesome atmosphere," an alteration that has resulted in several
controversies throughout the years.
In this course we will read seven contemporary Pulitzer Prize winning
novels in an effort to understand how they, in some fashion, represent
the popular zeitgeist of our age. Texts will include: William Kennedy,
Ironweed (1984); Toni Morrison, Beloved (1988); Jane Smiley,
A Thousand Acres (1992); Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
(1995); Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies (2000); Michael
Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2001); and
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2003). These books will be ordered
from and available at Food For Thought Books in Amherst. The course will
be run as a discussion so student preparation, attendance and participation
are both required and expected. Other requirements will include reading
comprehension tests on each novel, one 4-5 pp. essay and one 8-10 pp.
essay.
491U-L2 Pulitzer Prize Fictions (2nd Am Lit)
79049
Instructor: D. Carlin T/Th 2:30 pm
Senior, Junior, and Sophomore English majors only.
492H-L1 Honors Hawthorne and Melville (2nd Am Lit)
79058
Instructor: M. Lowance MW 2:30 - 3:45 pm
The Hawthorne-Melville seminar will examine major works by these two,
nineteenth-century American writers from a variety of critical perspectives,
including biographical, cultural and historical, literary and stylistic.
Participants will read some of the major works, and some shorter novels
and stories. These writers were contemporaries and friends, but their
works are dissimilar. We will consider Hawthorne's "Maypole of Merrymount,"
"My Kinsman, Major Molineaux," "Young Goodman Brown,"
"The Birthmark," "Rappaccini's Daughter," The Scarlet
Letter, The House of Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale
Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860). Herman Melville's
works will include White-Jacket (1850), Moby-Dick (1851),
Benito Cereno (1856), "Bartleby" (1856), The Confidence
Man (1857), and Billy Budd (1891). Norton Critical Editions
of these texts are recommended but not required. Participants will make
in-class presentations on the common reading and will prepare a term paper
of twelve to fifteen pages. Participation expected. This is a four credit
honors course.
496 Independent Study 73932
Instructor: TBA TBA
Contact department to add course.
499C-L1 Capstone Course: Lifelong Writing 79059
Instructor: A. Phillips Tu/Th 2:30 pm
This Capstone course is the first part of a two semester sequence (499D
will be offered in the Spring 2005 semester). It fulfills the Culminating
Experience requirement of Commonwealth College. This course is designed
to give creative writers and readers from all disciplines an environment
in which to work and learn from each other and from established writers
in the University and community. Poets, fiction, and creative non-fiction
writers participate in weekly workshops that focus on close reading and
developing proficiency in discussing literature by engaging with our own
work and outstanding contemporary works. We will attempt to identify useful
methods to inspire us to write, or, when inspiration is lacking, to help
us write anyway. We are also trying to gain confidence as readers. Class
work is augmented by discussions with award-winning faculty and community
writers, attendance of the Juniper Initiative-sponsored Writers Work series,
and attendance of the Visiting Writers reading series. During the first
semester we will focus on becoming good readers, generating material for
a manuscript, and discovering how an interest in creative writing can
be pursued in the larger context of one's life. Preference in registration
for senior honors students.
499C-L2 Capstone Course: Imagining a Sustainable World 79954
Instructor: J. Davidov W 1:25 - 4:00 pm
502-L1 Introduction to Old English 73967
Instructor: S. Harris MWF 10:10 am
Hwæt! We gardena in geardagum …. Old English is the
language spoken in England between the years 600 and 1200. In this course,
you will learn it. As we delight in the mysteries of class VII verbs and
weak inflections, we will also translate poems (including Dream of
the Rood and The Battle of Maldon). Most of the texts we will
read are anonymous, in unique and sometimes crumbling manuscripts. They
therefore offer productive sites of critique-without an author, suffering
literal gaps in the text, ungendered, and culturally ambiguous. Our chief
interest will be poetry in its immediate material and social context:
manuscripts, monasteries, courts, landscapes, and reading communities.
These poems will be read against the culture that produced them. To aid
us in learning about the culture of Anglo-Saxon England, we will consider
saints' lives, sermons, chronicles, textbooks, laws, and charters, among
other things. We will also consider oral-formulaic composition, burial
practices, trade patterns, political life, and a variety of archaeological
findings. To aid us in learning about the reception of Anglo-Saxon culture,
we will consider the social and political contexts of more recent critical
responses to Old English poems. Some critics wrote in advance of an exaggerated
nationalism; others, to advocate a Romantic primitivism and to counterbalance
industrial modernity. Old English as a discipline has been shaped by these
readings. And, as a site of origins, in Said's sense, Old English offers
a kernel of tradition over which critics have disputed fiercely since
the sixteenth century. This class introduces you to that dispute.
There will be a midterm and a final paper. As a 500-level course, advanced
undergraduates are welcome to enroll.
