English Courses

English | Courses | Faculty

(All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise noted.)

115 The American Experience (ALU)

Primarily for nonmajors. Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of American culture, with a wide historical scope and attention to diverse cultural experiences in the U.S. Readings in fiction, prose, and poetry, supplemented by painting, photography, film, and material culture.

116 Native American Literature (ALU)

An introduction to the literatures of Native peoples of North America. Major and recent writers, and their narrative forms, considered in relation to oral and mnemonic traditions and in the larger context of "world literatures."

117 Ethnic American Literature (ALU)

American literature written by and about ethnic minorities, from the earliest immigrants through the cultural representations in modern American writing.

125 Masterpieces of Western Literature I (AL)

Epic, drama, philosophical dialogue, and sacred history as major sources of Western culture. Aims to enrich the appreciation of literary values and develop the understanding of abiding human issues by focusing on Homer, the Bible, Plato, Dante.

126 Masterpieces of Western Literature II (AL)

Masterworks in the modern languages (as distinguishable from the classical ones) from the Renaissance and beyond. Aims to enrich the appreciation of modern techniques and themes in contact with eternal questions.

131 Society and Literature (ALG)

Literature that deals with our relationship to society. Topics may include: the utopian vision; the notion of the self, politics and literature.

132 Man and Woman in Literature (ALG)

Literature treating the relationship between man and woman. Topics may include: the nature of love, the image of the hero and heroine, and definitions, past and present, of the masculine and feminine.

140 Reading Fiction (AL)

An introduction to themes and techniques of fiction through a reading of selected short stories and novels with emphasis on structure, style, point of view, and theme.

141 Reading Poetry (AL)

An introduction to themes and forms of poetry through a reading of selected poems in English. Emphasis on such poetic techniques as word choice, imagery, and structure, and on such modes as the ballad, lyric, sonnet, ode, and dramatic monologue.

142 Reading Drama (AL)

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 World Literature in English (ALG)

Study of major literary texts in English from different parts of a postcolonial "third world"óAfrican countries, the Caribbean, and India. Commonalities and differences in literary development in postcolonial nations.

162 Science Fiction and Imagination

A course in literature, with some attention to films. Emphasis on themes such as time, relativity, dystopia, and apocalypse as they relate to the historical development of science fiction.

196 Independent Study 1-6 cr

200 Seminar in Literary Studies

Introduction to literary study, concentrating on close reading and analysis of texts, writing and revising critical essays, and discussion of the issues that underlie the study of literature. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

201 Major British Writers

The growth of English literature from the Middle Ages to the end of the 17th century, with emphasis on major writ-ers in historical context, major works as responses to the social and political situations and revisions of earlier literary visions. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

202 Major British Writers

The development of British literature from the Enlightenment of the 18th century through the Romaticism and Realism of the 19th century to the Modernism of the early 20th century; literary response to scientific and industrial changes, political revolution and the technical and social reordering of British society. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

203 The Bible: Myth, Society and Literature

The literary influence of the Bible; the most important genres; creation myths, hero tales, erotic poetry, prophecy, short stories, devotional verse, gospels. Avoids the interpretations of the later religions. Various themes from folklore, archeology, and history; what the literature meant to its originators. How certain biblical topics have interested secular artists. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

204 Introduction to Asian American Studies (IU)

Introduction to Asian American studies as an evolving field and to the history, politics, and cultural production 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. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

221 Shakespeare (AL)

A study of Shakespeare's dramatic art and poetic style through approximately a doz-en plays. Students may earn degree credit for only one of ENGL 221 and 222. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

222 Shakespeare (AL)

A study of Shakespeare's dramatic art and poetic style through approximately a dozen plays. Limited to English majors. Students may earn degree credit for only one of ENGL 221 and 222. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

254 Writing and Reading Imaginative Literature (AL)

Analysis of problems of form, elements of genre, style and development of themes of stories and poems, written by class members and in class texts. Lecture, discussion, 5 poems, 2 stories, 2 essays.

270 American Identities

Explores the ways literature participates in the definition of national identity. Readings focus on ways American issues of creed, class, status, gender, self and community, possession and dispossession, nationhood and ethnicity, and language have contributed to American identities. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112, or equivalent.

271 Early American Literature

The development of American literature from the early 17th century through the writings of Washington Irving, whose Sketch Book appeared in 1819. Chronologically, the evolution of New England Puritanism, 18th-century Rationalism, the beginnings of 19th-century American Romanticism. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

272 American Romanticism

The cultural life of 19th-century America in selected poetry and prose by Hawthorne, Thoreau, Douglass, Cooper, Whitman, Poe, Melville, and Lincoln. Emphasis on the symbolic and ethical idealism of selected ante-bellum poetry and prose, and on the themes of Puritanism, Transcendentalism, Manifest Destiny, Jacksonian democracy, and slavery. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

273 American Realism

"Realism" as the mode and attitude that dominates American literary expression. Major texts from the period 1865-1925; writers defining, refining, revising, and reversing the realist aesthetics of the age as they cope with new facts and ideasóDarwin, freed slaves, big business, immigrants, "the woman problem," crime in the streets, the making of new fortunes, the loss of a usable past. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

279 Introduction to American Studies (ALU)

Interdisciplinary approach to the study of American culture. Focus on issues of race, class, gender, and ethnicity. Readings drawn from literature, history, the social sciences, philosophy and fine arts. Supplemented with audio-visual materialsófilms, slides of paintings, architecture, photography and material culture, and music. Required for students with a concentration in American Studies. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

296 Independent Study 1-6 cr

Special problems.

298 Practicum 1-15 cr

311 Legends of Arthur

Introduction to the Arthurian legends, in both romance and chronicle, in medieval English literature, stressing both their significance to the societies they reflect and Malory's use of the earlier romances and chronicles in his great achievement, the Morte Darthur. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

314 Middle English Literature Exclusive of Chaucer

Readings of selected works written in the later Middle Ages in England, exclusive of Chaucer's. Lyrics, drama, dream-vision allegories, romances. The works as poetry and as expressions of medieval consciousness; how authors grapple with the problems of love, war, faith, social corruption and revolution. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

319 Representing the Holocaust (ALG)

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). Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

320 Religion in Western Literature (AL)

Examination of literature from a variety of religious experiencesóRoman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Native American, and other traditionsóto gain a fuller understanding of religion and the religious experience and the role it plays in the lives of individuals and societies. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

326 Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama

The drama of the English Renaissance. Selected works by several major Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights, including Marlowe, Jonson, Chapman, Middleton, Webster, and Ford. Emphasis on the artistic and intellectual character of the English Renaissance as reflected in drama. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

327 Modern Business Writing

For students going into business. Deals with clarity, organization, tone and persuasion, business document formats, and grammar basics. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

330 Practical Criticism

Seminar-sized course in critical reading and writing. Satisfies Junior Year Writing requirement for English majors. Reading and writing about the main genres of literatureófiction, poetry and drama from critical perspectives that attempt to define how we read. For English majors only. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

339 Film and Literature

Film-works as extensions, continuations, syntheses, and reconstitutions of cultural and artistic traditions. The historical, formal, and aesthetic relationships between literature and the cinema. Emphasis on problems raised in literary aesthetics as a result of film. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

342 Tragic Drama

An examination of plays (mostly Greek, Elizabethan, and modern) and critical theories (modern, but with attention to Aristotle and Hegel) in an attempt to sharpen perception of the genre "tragedy." Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

343 The English Epic Tradition

Introduction to the epic as complex and comprehensive literatureówhich includes romance, drama, history. Gods and goddesses, kings and queens, heroes and heroines, ships and swords. Cultures and nations celebrating their past, present, and future. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

348 Rise of the Novel

Reading and discussion of novels by Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Austen, and reports by individuals on readings by Behn, Congreve, Goldsmith, Smollett, Walpole, Burney, Beckford, Edgeworth. Main stress on themes, social context, moral and social ideas; some discussion of form and technique. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

349 English Novel: Scott to Hardy

Exploration of some great novels of the 19th century, with emphasis on their historical context, themes of individual and community, faith and doubt, orphans and families, coping with social changes. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

350 Expository Writing

Note: Upper-level course. Should not be elected by freshmen or by anyone who has not completed the Writing requirement. Should not be taken Pass/Fail; nor taken to satisfy requirements of some major other than English.

351 Technical Writing

The Junior Year Writing requirement for the College of Engineering. Emphasis on forms for engineering communication appropriate to federal, industrial, environmental, and research areas. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

353 Expository Writing

Provides students with techniques for clear, accurate, and persuasive writing. Topics include: style and clarity, layout and design, practical grammar, formats for persuasion, proofreading and revision. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

354 Creative Writing: Introduction

Writing in the various modes of fiction, poetry, drama, and essay. Analysis of student writing in class and in tutorial; development of critical skills. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

355 Creative Writing: Fiction

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. Prerequisite: ENGL 354.

356 Creative Writing: Poetry

A seminar in writing poetry for students who demonstrate familiarity with the basics of imagery, rhythm, and form. Students write regularly, read and criticize one another's writing, read in contemporary poetry. Prerequisite: ENGL 354.

358 Romantic Poets

Poetry of Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, and Byron read in detail. Political, religious, and psychological frames of critical reference brought to bear in order to define the consciousness of English romanticism and its contribution to modern poetry. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

361 Modern Novel, 1900-1945 (AL)

The novel as reflecting the passing of the old and the start of the new age. Social, political, ideological themes; critical appreciation of the novel form and the trying out of new ways of writing. How new formal techniques emerge for probing the meanings of "self" and "consciousness," hence of individual, interpersonal, and "social" experience. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

362 Modern Novel, 1945-Present (AL)

Close reading and analysis of novels to achieve an awareness of the aesthetic and social characteristics of the modern novel and a critical appreciation of the possibilities and varieties of point of view, time, and psychology in literary modernism. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

363 Modern British Drama (AL)

Intensive study of major British and Irish dramatists from the 1890s to the 1950s, such as Pinero, Jones, Shaw, Wilde, Granville Barker, Synge, Yeats, Gregory, O'Casey, Coward, Eliot, Beckett, and Pinter. Close readings of plays; consideration of the relationship between popular and experimental forms, intellectual issues, and cultural and social contexts. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

365 20th-Century Literature of Ireland (AL)

Nineteenth-century background: the Irish Renaissance; such major figures as Yeats, Synge, Joyce and O'Casey; recent and contemporary writing. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

366 Modern Poetry

Examination of some of the major poems written in America, England and Ireland from the beginning of World War I to the end of World War II. Poets vary; usually include Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Williams, Eliot, Pound, H.D., Hart, Crane, Langston Hughes, Cummings, Jeffers, and Wilfred Owen. Background lectures in the poetry of Dickinson, Whitman, Hopkins, Hardy, and Robinson. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

367 Contemporary Poetry

Reading in a dozen or more major contemporary poetsóBerryman, Lowell, Ginsberg, Clifton, Kinnell, Rich, Merrill, Hacker, Walcott, Levine, Harper, Heaney, Plath, Wright, for exampleóto map the territory and the emotional and formal range of some of the most successful writers. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

368 Modern American Drama (AL)

A survey of modern American drama from the beginning of the century to the 1960s, with attention to dramatists such as O'Neill, Glaspell, Wilder, Hellman, Odets, Williams, Miller, and Albee. Emphasis on the social, cultural, and intellectual contexts out of which American theatrical traditions developed. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

369 Studies in Modern Fiction (AL)

Examination of current directions in fiction written in English, traditional and experimental, demanding close reading of texts, a good deal of writing, and an understanding of the cultural context. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

374 20th-Century American Literature

A survey of movements, modes and representative voices in both fiction and poetry published in the 20th century. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

375 American Poetry

The development of American poetry from the colonial period to the 20th century, especially the changes in language and form, method and content that mark the shift to an American tradition and a contemporary mode in poetry. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

376 American Fiction

Classic texts exploring and creating myths about the American character. The craft of fiction and themes preoccupying major American writers; emphasis on issues of gender and race. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

378 American Women Writers

Fiction "rediscovered" by scholars in the last 10 years exploring the social and sexual arrangements of American culture. The perspective brought by women writers to the American Literature canon of traditional literature. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

379 Technical Writing

Presents skills required in technical editing and technical writing, and the forms required by scientific, industrial, and corporate communication. Emphasizes appropriate style, graphics, and diagrams. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

380 Professional Writing and Technical Communication I

Introduces principles of software technical writing and documentation. Simulates the writing/editing process used in the computer industry. Prerequisite: ENGL 379.

381 Professional Writing and Technical Communication II

Continuation of ENGL 380. Production of documentation of portfolio quality; examples of technical editing and writing of entry-level quality. Prerequisite: ENGL 380 or consent of instructor.

382 Professional Writing and Technical Communication III

Directs students toward particular types of techical editing and writing: report writing, grant proposals, speechwriting, voiceovers, and integration with video and films, etc. Prerequisite: ENGL 381.

396 Independent Study 1-6 cr

Special problems.

412 History of the English Language

The exploration of the current state of the English language and how it got that way; case studies in language change from Anglo-Saxon to Middle English to Modern English and its regional, national, and cultural variants. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

416 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Discussion of the greatest pre-Shakespear-ean English literary work, in the light of late-Medieval art, thought, and aesthetics. Emphasis on Chaucer's sense of making a book, and his notions of the purpose (and limits) of fictions. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

419 Games Thinkers Play

Course in critical thinking requiring the writing of twelve essays examining some primary texts as well as the assumptions of various schools of criticism. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

421 Advanced Shakespeare

Advanced study of Shakespeare within the frame of specific topics which will vary from semester to semester. Restricted to students who have taken ENGL 221 or 222.

437 Milton

The poems of John Milton in the epic, lyric, pastoral, and dramatic modes; emphasis on Paradise Lost. These and selections from the prose read as products of the classical tradition, the climax of Renaissance thought and Baroque art, and the point of transition to the modern world. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

450 Advanced Expository Writing

Writing extensive essays; for those who wish to achieve or improve upon professional writing skills. Prerequisite: ENGL 350 or equivalent.

468 James Joyce

Major works of James Joyce in prose, drama, and lyric poetry, emphasizing Ulysses or Finnegans Wake. Prerequisite: ENGLWP 112 or equivalent.

469 Aspects of British Literature

Topics vary.

470 Individual British Authors

Topics vary.

480 Aspects of American Literature

Topics vary.

481 Individual American Authors

Topics vary.

491-495 Seminars

Topics in English Literary History

Topics vary.

491C Topics in Native American Literature: Four Authors

Close readings of selected works by four major Native American writers toward defining the parameters of tribal-based literary aesthetics, cultural and historical backgrounds, and issues of sovereignty and cosmopolitanism.

496 Independent Study 1-6 cr

Special problems.

591 Seminar: Advanced Imaginative Writing

Seminars in the writing of poetry or fiction for advanced students. Consent of instructor required.

English | Courses | Faculty