Undergraduate English Courses
Spring 2023 Courses
To see these options on SPIRE, see our Class Listings page.
To view our online course offerings, see our Online Courses page.
English 115 American Experience (ALDU)
Lecture 1 TuTh 11:30-12:45 Instructor: Kevin Morris
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. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)
English 115 American Experience (ALDU)
Lecture 2 MWF 10:10-11:00 Instructor: Manasvini Ragan
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. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)
English 116 Native American Literature (ALDU)
Lecture 1 TuTh 10:00-11:15 Instructor: Laura Furlan
This introductory course in Native American literature asks students to read and study a variety of work by American Indian and First Nations authors. We will discuss what makes a text "Indian," how and why a major boom in American Indian writing occurred in the late 1960s, how oral tradition is incorporated into contemporary writing, and how geographic place and tribal affiliation influence this work.
English 117 Ethnic American Literature (ALDU)
Lecture 1 MWF 10:10-11:00 Instructor: Tim Ong
American literature written by and about ethnic minorities, from the earliest immigrants through the cultural representations in modern American writing. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)
English 131 Society & Literature (ALDG)
Lecture 1 MWF 11:15-12:05 Instructor: Thakshala Tissera
Society and Literature in the Anthropocene. This class focuses on literature and the non-human environment in the age of the Anthropocene. We will examine representations of the natural environment, animals, and animality and explore broad questions such as:
- How can the literary imagination help us better understand and navigate environmental concerns including anthropogenic climate change?
- How have literary representations influenced our understanding of nature and non-human others and contributed to calls for environmental justice and changes in environmental practices?
While reading a range of fictional and nonfiction texts, this class will introduce students to the Environmental Humanities, Ecocriticism, and Human-Animal Studies. (Gen.Ed. AL, DG)
English 131 Society & Literature (ALDG)
Lecture 2 MWF 10:10-11:00 Instructor: Rowshan Chowdhury
In this section of English 131 examines the relationship between society and literature, looking specifically at the transnational co-formations that shape societies. Through readings of novels, short stories, essays, poems, and films from the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Asia, we will address literature’s capacity to endorse, naturalize, dramatize, critique, subvert, or reimagine our relationship to the material world. We will ask questions such as: Where did the master narratives, the standard stories we tell ourselves or our culture tells us, come from and how do they operate in erasing our history? What function does literature serve in mediating our relationship to other cultures and histories? How have the ideals of liberty, equality, and human rights taken multiple and contradictory shapes within the social, political, cultural, and economic contexts of various eras? How does literature represent the Other through the conflation of identities? In our reading and writing assignments, we will study the ways writers engaged with societal issues including but not limited to: race, ethnicity, gender, slavery, assimilation, capitalism, trade, imperialism, fetishization, colonization, and anti-colonial and anti-slavery rebellions. By the end of this course, you should be able to think more critically about race, identity, and culture in your own life, the representation of identity in literature, larger forces of power at work in societies, and the ways that literature negotiates the politics of identity. (Gen.Ed. AL, DG)
English 132 Gender, Sexuality, Literature & Culture (ALDG)
Lecture 1 TuTh 10:00-11:15 Instructor: Sarah Ahmad
Thinking architexturally: gender and space in literature. In this course, we will study a broad range of texts and media to explore connections between feminist-queer engagements with architecture and text. How can both architecture and text be thought of as systems of representation, and how then, do each of them craft a relationship to any embodied subject (a reader/inhabitant)? This question arises from thinking of imagining a book as a lived space in the tradition of feminist and queer utopias, asking us to think about how racial, gendered, and colonial projects are enacted and countered in literary representations of space. How do differently-minoritized subjects write – and read – places that are ‘useless’ (such as a text) as places of subsistence and meaning-making? We will work together to floor-plan the textual fields we encounter, thinking critically about the tools these texts use and how and who can live in them. (Gen.Ed. AL, DG) (Gen.Ed. AL, DG)
English 132 Gender, Sexuality, Literature & Culture (ALDG)
Lecture 2 MWF 10:10-11:00 Instructor: Nataliya Kostenko
This course will center on the roles of gender and sexuality in horror. We will examine classic and modern horror books and films in order to pursue answers to some important questions surrounding our cultural fears and anxieties, and how they are tied to gender, bodies, and sexuality. What is the role of sexuality in depictions of the monstrous? What kinds of anxieties about masculine, feminine, and queer bodies does the horror genre portray? How do psychological and gothic horror stories reveal truths about imposed gender roles in society? How can horror be a tool for feminism and gender studies? Students will work on developing the critical thinking and writing skills necessary to analyze literary horror, gender, and film. (Gen.Ed. AL, DG)
English 132 Gender, Sexuality, Literature & Culture (ALDG)
Lecture 3 MWF 11:15-12:05 Instructor: Mitia Nath
This course looks at constructions of filth in literary and cultural texts, and aims to examine how these constructions interact with our social orders. We delve into essays, stories, and films to explore how our imaginations of filth are often steeped as much in our political and economic processes, as in our bodily sensations. Focusing on the entanglements between imaginations of filth on the one hand, and its material dimensions on the other, we inquire into the ways literary and cultural texts draw attention to the formations and circulations of filth in society. (Gen.Ed. AL, DG)
English 132 Gender, Sexuality, Literature & Culture (ALDG)
Lecture 4 TuTh 11:30-12:45 Instructor: Shwetha Chandrashekhar
Reading Feelings. This course will primarily focus on the relationship between individual feelings and desires such as shame, envy, repression, and love, and sociopolitical and historical occurrences to study the potential of literature to capture sexual and gender experiences. We will read the works of Toni Morrison, J.M. Coetzee, Arundhati Roy, and others to decolonize sexualities, femininities, and masculinities. This course draws on perspectives from affect studies, critical race studies, gender and sexuality studies, and literary theory. (Gen.Ed. AL, DG)
English 141 Reading Poetry (AL)
Lecture 1 MWF 11:15-12:05 pm Instructor: Cameron Cocking
The Idea of Poetry. What is poetry? What accounts for poets’ different doings and definitions of the activity? Does the nature of poetry change over time and across cultures, or merely the way its nature is manifest? These will be the questions of the course and they will be explored through the reading of samples of poetry (5-10 pages) from Ancient, Medieval, Romantic, Modern, and Contemporary poets. Students will be expected to write weekly responses in addition to two midterm papers and a final project, which may be a short collection of a student’s own poems. Poets that will likely be discussed: Homer, Sappho, Sophocles, Lucretius; Dante, Shakespeare, Milton; Wordsworth; Dickinson, Rilke, Rimbaud, Pound, Eliot, Brooks, Stevens, Cesaire, Williams, Moore, Lowell, Ginsberg, Olson, Spicer, Duncan, Oppen, Creeley, Baraka, Lorde, Ashbery, Schuyler, Guest, O’Hara, Berrigan; Palmer, Morley, Mayer, Bersenbrugge, Komunyakaa, Moten.
English 150 Writing and Society (SB, DU)
Lecture 1 MWF 12:20 – 1:10 Instructor: Jeremy Levine
This course aims to heighten your awareness of writing as both practice and concept. “Writing Studies” is an interdisciplinary area of study at the intersection of literacy studies, communication, digital studies, education, and linguistics that is interested in how written texts’ public documents, technical and professional communication, social media, etc. reflect and impact social organization and change. The course invites students to explore writing in society through a problem-posing approach, focusing attention on how writing is understood, used, and learned. (Gen. Ed. SB, DU)
English 200 Intensive Literary Studies (Introduction to major)
Lecture 1 TuTh 11:30-12:45 pm Instructor: Hayley Cotter
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: ENGLWRIT 112 or equivalent. This course is open to English majors only.
English 200 Intensive Literary Studies (Introduction to major)
Lecture 2 TuTh 10:00-11:15 Instructor: Katherine O’Callaghan
Topic: The Ghosts of Literature 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. In this course we will explore short stories, novels, poetry and drama from various theoretical perspectives. Each text will be examined on its own terms, but some general themes will emerge as the course progresses. In particular, students of "The Ghosts of Literature" are asked to construct the myriad ways in which the idea of haunting might be applied to a literary text. Literary heritage, intertextual influence, remnants of lost languages, ghost stories, and themes of absence, loss, and returns will all recur throughout the semester. Reading will include works by James Joyce, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Bharati Mukherjee, Conor McPherson and Henry James. Prerequisite: ENGLWRIT 112 or equivalent. This course is open to English majors only.
English 200 Intensive Literary Studies (Introduction to major)
Lecture 3 Tues 4:00-6:30 pm Instructor: Daniel Sack
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: ENGLWRIT 112 or equivalent. This course is open to English majors only.
English 200 Intensive Literary Studies (Introduction to major)
Lecture 4 TuTh 1:00-2:15 Instructor: Katherine O’Callaghan
Topic: The Ghosts of Literature 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. In this course we will explore short stories, novels, poetry and drama from various theoretical perspectives. Each text will be examined on its own terms, but some general themes will emerge as the course progresses. In particular, students of "The Ghosts of Literature" are asked to construct the myriad ways in which the idea of haunting might be applied to a literary text. Literary heritage, intertextual influence, remnants of lost languages, ghost stories, and themes of absence, loss, and returns will all recur throughout the semester. Reading will include works by James Joyce, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Bharati Mukherjee, Conor McPherson and Henry James. Prerequisite: ENGLWRIT 112 or equivalent. This course is open to English majors only.
English 203 Bible, Myth, Literature and Society (200 elective)
Lecture 1 TuTh 10:00-11:15 Instructor: David Toomey
The course will explore several of the most studied and influential books of the Old and New Testaments -- from the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament) the books Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Ruth and Isaiah and (from the New Testament) the gospels Luke and John. Most class meetings, following Luther’s doctrine of sola scriptura (scripture alone) will involve collective efforts to derive coherent close readings of particularly provocative or problematic passages. Where necessary, following the historical-critical type of exegesis called Higher Criticism, we will appeal to secondary sources. Required text: Coogan, Michael D. (Editor) and Marc Zvi Brettler (Editor). The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha, Fifth Edition. Oxford University Press, 2018.
English 221 Shakespeare (British lit before 1700 or 200 elective)(social justice)
Lecture 1 MW 12:20-1:10 + discussion Instructor: Jane Degenhardt
This course offers a broad survey of Shakespeare’s plays, including a sampling of comedies, tragedies, histories, and romances. Through careful reading and discussion, we will explore what makes Shakespeare’s plays so powerful, both for Renaissance audiences and for modern-day ones. Special attention will be given to Shakespeare’s exploration of cultural outcasts, his unsettling moral messages, and the relevance of his themes to present-day social justice. We will approach the plays as performance pieces linked to a specific time and place in English history, as well as considering their modern adaptation in recent films. Attendance at lecture and consistent participation in discussion sections required.
|
English 221, Discussion D01AA |
English 221, Discussion D01AD |
|
English 221, Discussion D01AB |
English 221, Discussion D01AE Fri: 10:10-11:00 |
|
English 221, Discussion D01AC |
English 221, Discussion D01AF |
English 254 Introduction to Creative Writing (200 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 1 MWF 11:15-12:05 Instructor: Tom Carlson
Writing Nature’s Art-Impulses. If the Universe (or Nature, or the “Outside”) had art-impulses, how would it sing, speak, or paint them? Are we able to involve ourselves in these impulses? “I can hardly believe that I have limits, that I am cut out and defined. I feel scattered in the air, thinking inside other beings, living in things beyond myself,” writes Clarice Lispector. What is it to think in other beings, to live in things beyond the self? What are we capable of from this vantage point?
Reading a variety of short texts (poetry, fiction, and essay), we will encounter artists as conduits or instruments of an Outside energy. This might be uncomfortable territory; we will try to deactivate our identity and freewill so that something else can speak. We will practice this by writing in particular forms that suspend our control. Weekly workshops will focus on developing this suspension. We want to be a vessel of the universe’s speech, instruments strummed on by an afternoon, tree, or November. This will require generative writing that transgresses traditional modes of thinking as we bring this mode to polished poems and give Nature a means of expression. All curious and excited students invited.
English 254 Introduction to Creative Writing (200 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 2 TuTh 4:00-5:15 Instructor: London Beck
Title: Reading is writing. The statement, reading is writing, is the core theme for this class. While reading and exploring several varying authors that show form and craft, we will then emulate it on the page. Discovery is part of the magic of writing. We will explore craft by exploring process in hopes to find personalized style in writing. This course will close read and discuss the following authors: Anne Sexton, Terrance Hayes, Gertrude Stein, Alice Notely, Carmen Maria Machado, Rachel Glaser, Lydia Davis, Shirley Jackson, and many others! This course will expect students to keep a reading and writing journal for reflection, craft exercises, and topic contemplation. Along with the journal, students will produce three poems, two fiction pieces, and one creative non-fiction piece. All will be workshopped and considered for revision. (Gen. Ed. AL)
English 254 Introduction to Creative Writing (200 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 2 MWF 10:10-11:00 Instructor: Michael Zendejas
This course aims to re-imagine how we practice and approach the art of writing. Together, we will discover how your voice can go beyond the page and change the world. Our explorations will be guided with works of fiction and poetry that are interested in questions of revolution and social justice. Examples include Nanni Balestrini, Julia de Burgos and more! The goal is to see how these authors weave activism into their work through various techniques like structure, word choice and more. We will also discuss the themes that run through their work, as well as the times they wrote in. Alongside these texts, we will study essays by Edwidge Danticat and Matthew Salesses, as well as various other writings on craft. Students will complete weekly reflections in which they effectively critique, compliment and contemplate readings or workshop materials. All participants will end the semester by writing their own story or poem, which will be workshopped by classmates! Writers and readers of all levels are encouraged to enroll; this course is designed so that both experienced and emerging voices are all able to gain new insights into the craft of writing. Here’s a link to the full reading list for this course.
English 254 Introduction to Creative Writing (200 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 4 MWF 12:20-1:10 Instructor: Charleen Rutendo Chidzodzo
Immigrant Narratives: “Where Are You Really From?” “& what is a country but the drawing of a line” Safia Elhillo
What is an immigrant? What is a citizen? Where are you from? In this course, we will read various texts that follow different immigrant voices; we will investigate what it means to be an immigrant. Our readings will range from poetry, prose, and essays. We will read poetry by Safia Elhillo, Warsan Shire, Keorapetse Kgositsile; prose by Imbolo Mbue, NoViolet Bulawayo, Mohsin Hamid; essays by Noor Naga, Binyavanga Wainaina. By the end of our course, you will have a completed work of prose or poetry or essay that touches on immigration. This course satisfies the Gen.Ed. AL requirement.
English 269 American Literature and Culture after 1865 (American lit after 1865 or 200 elective)(social justice)
Lecture 1 TuTh 10:00-11:15 Instructor: Sarah Patterson
Figures of Contestation in American Literature and Film. In this class, we will address literary and theoretical works that tackle America’s changing cultural landscape from 1865 to 1930. In mainstream entertainment culture, fiction constituted the one of the nation’s most popular forms of artistic and political expression, creating spaces for dissent and hagiography alike. From images of workers in industrial squalor, poverty and prostitution in urban city streets to utopian depictions of feminist communities, this course will introduce turn-of-the-century figures of contestation taken from the Civil War, Gilded Age, Women’s Rights and the Harlem Renaissance eras. Canonical and lesser-known readings will be covered and the 1915 propaganda film Birth of a Nation. Alongside core readings and film viewings, students will have an opportunity to experience the textual formats and iconography that undergirded past reading cultures using digitized historical newspapers and image archives. Assignments include discussion, a class presentation and short critical responses.
English 279 Intro to American Studies (American lit after 1865 or 200 elective) (American Studies) (Anglophone/ethnic American)(ALDU)
Lecture 1 TuTh 1:00-2:15 pm Instructor: Janell Tryon
Welcome to Introduction to American Studies. In this version of English 279, we will investigate the broad histories of displacement and confinement, as well as the formation of home and homelessness in the United States. We will explore how the American single-family household acts as a norming apparatus for gender, race, and sexuality, and how those outside of this paradigm are surveilled and policed. The arc of this class will begin with American Reconstruction and take us through the mass encampment clearings and evictions of the early twenty-first century. As an American Studies course, we will employ a wide range of methodologies including, textual analysis, discourse analysis, and archival research. Similarly, we will engage legislative and juridical documents, as well as literary and cultural texts including theory, fiction, film, and ephemera. By studying displacement and confinement within the United States, we will also study alternative modes of living and dwelling that queer the public-private binary, challenge housing normativity, and imagine new ways of inhabiting shared space. This course is required for the Letter of Specialization in American Studies and satisfies the AL and DU General Education requirements. (Gen. Ed. AL, DU)
English 298-2 Practicum: Leadership in English Studies
Lecture 1 Wednesday 4:00-5:00 Instructor: David Fleming
This practicum, taken P/F usually for 2 credits, is for English majors at any level interested in joining and working on the department's Student Advisory Board (SAB). You must be able to meet Mondays from 4-5 pm. The SAB serves as a voice for undergraduate students in English and helps the department recruit, advise, and communicate with prospective and current English majors. Duties include some public speaking (talking to current majors, to new majors, to prospective majors, etc.), some peer advising, and some work helping organize departmental events. Each SAB member will also work, alone or collaboratively, on a special project of service to the department. This is a great way to become more involved in English, to develop leadership and teamwork skills, and to engage with others on projects that can make a difference! By application only: email David Fleming at dfleming@english.umass.edu if you're interested.
English 298H Practicum: Teaching in the Writing Center (200 elective) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 Thurs 4:00-5:15 Instructor: Jaclyn Ordway
Practicum consists of four hours per week tutoring in the Writing Center and one-hour weekly meetings to discuss tutorials and supplementary readings, to write, and to work on committee projects. Students who have successfully completed English 329H Tutoring Writing: Theory & Practice are eligible to enroll in this course. This is a two-course series. Open only to students who registered in 329H Fall 2021.
English 300 Junior Year Writing (Junior Year Writing) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 TuTh 1:00-2:15 Instructor: Janis Greve
Topic: Picture this: Lives in Graphic Form Asking “What does it mean to capture a life by both drawing and writing?,” this course will examine the lively exchange between “written pictures and drawn words” in graphic memoirs from the 21st century. We will explore the diverse methods employed by comic creators when fashioning their personal memories, while engaging concepts of remembering, knowing, and identity, pushed in new directions through the graphic medium. We will also examine a wide breadth of social issues within the genre, including disability, gender, and ethnicity. Students in the course should be ready to try their hand at their own autobiographical comic; drawing ability is not required. Texts likely to include: One! Hundred! Demons! by Linda Barry, Dark Room: A Memoir in Black and White, by Lila Quintero Weaver, Quitter by Harvey Pekar, Cancer Vixen by Marisa Accocella, and more. Assignments will include a visual literacy journal, a close reading essay, a book trailer video, and an extensive 10-page book review essay, and various writing exercises.
English 300 Junior Year Writing (Junior Year Writing) (literature as history)
Lecture 2 TuTh 10:00-11:15 Instructor: Stephen Clingman
Topic: Spy vs Spy: Spying in Fiction, Television and Film. This course will be a survey of spy fiction in novels, television and film across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We’ll explore some of the staples (James Bond) as well as the greats, including le Carré. Other writers will include Kate Atkinson, David Henry Hwang, Kamila Shamsie, and Hisham Matar. Filmwill play a part (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Lives of Others) as will television series (The Americans). Overall, there will be important issues for us to consider. How does spy fiction work? How does it relate to nationalism, race, gender and sexuality? How does the “popular” relate to the “literary”? What are some of the differences between the classic Cold War texts and the ways spy fiction is written now? Why is spy fiction so obsessed with duplicity and betrayal, and what does that tell us about how we decode our world? How does spying, and the question of duplicity, overlap with the literary itself, not least in terms of decoding and interpretation? Class work will involve some lecturing, lots of discussion, and student projects, culminating, in this junior-year writing class, in a longer piece of work at the end of the semester.
English 300 Junior Year Writing (junior year writing or early British) (literature as history)
Lecture 3 TuTh 11:30-12:45 Instructor: Jenny Adams
Topic Legends of Arthur. In this course, we will think and write about Arthurian legend with a historical (and at times historiographic) eye toward the ways its creators have changed the legend and toward our collective self-interest in its ever-unfolding history. The goals of this approach are threefold: to sharpen your already good reading and analytical skills; to consider the historical currents that swirl through this legend; and to strengthen your abilities as a writer of literary criticism. Medieval texts will include: The History of the Kings of Britain, Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Perceval, and Malory's Le Morte Darthur. Modern works will include the movies: The Black Knight (1954), Excalibur (1981), The Fisher King (1991), and The Kid Who Would Be King (2019).
English 348 The Rise of the Novel (later British or 300 elective)
Lecture 1 MW 4:00-5:15 Instructor: Gretchen Gerzina
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.
English 354 Creative Writing: Intro to Fiction (300 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 1 MWF 11:15-12:05 Instructor: Ellen O’Leary
This course is designed to encourage thoughtful generation and revision of fiction writing. Each week, students read published texts, as well as the original drafts of their peers. Readings are designed to promote discussion around key components of fiction writing. Such topics include:
TIME “Day Old Baby Rats” by Julie Hayden, “The Shorn Lamb” by Jean Stafford
VOICE selections by Clarice Lispector, Alain Mabanckou
PERSPECTIVE “Adams” by George Saunders, “POV” by Lucia Berlin
(RE)TELLING selections from Jenny Zhang, “The Werewolf” by Angela Carter
PLACE selections from Rohinton Mistry, Annie Proulx
CONCISION selections by Julio Cortazar, Lydia Davis
*These will also be supplemented by texts on craft by Eileen Myles and Anne Lamott.
Over the semester, students will develop critical skills and hone their creative practices. Students can expect to produce new work during in-class writing exercises, in addition to receiving feedback on one drafted work of short fiction. Students will also gain experience in providing productive critique to their peers through a supportive workshopping experience. There are no prerequisites for this course; all with an interest in writing and reading fiction are invited to enroll.
English 354 Creative Writing: Intro to Poetry (300 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 2 MWF 1:25-2:15 Instructor: Rachelle Toarmino
"The Long Poem" The task of the artist, according to Samuel Beckett, is “to find a form that accommodates the mess.” From the earliest epics through the cornerstone works of Modernism and documentary poetry, many artists have turned to expansive forms to fit the sprawling messes of their particular circumstances, making meaning from the experience of duration, elaboration, and accumulation. In this workshop, we’ll discuss key moments in the long poem’s lineage but will focus on treatments and adaptations by contemporary poets such as Anne Carson, Aeon Ginsberg, Andrew Grace, Bernadette Mayer, Sawako Nakayasu, Maggie Nelson, Alice Notley, Tommy Pico, Claudia Rankine, Ted Rees, Solmaz Sharif, Nick Sturm, C. D. Wright, and others. We’ll study the affordances and accommodations of the form, including the room it makes for multivocality, research, journalism, myth, narrative, dialogue, argument, manifesto, and other genres and materials. And, of course, we’ll write never-enders of our own—poems that dwell, stretch, extend, obsess, collect, catch several winds, take their time, linger a little longer, can’t stop, can’t let go, can’t get enough, push past the point they originally thought they’d go and then some.
English 354 Creative Writing (300 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 3 MW 2:30-3:45 Instructor: Madden Aleia
Strange and Unusual Pages: the Weird, Supernatural, and Gothic. Why does weirdness resonate? Why do people like ghost stories? Horror movies? Strange and unusual tales? Through strangeness we seek to explain the inexplicable — from the literal things that go bump in the night to complex emotions — to show the familiar in a new light, and to defamiliarize what we think we understand. For many who are historically marginalized, too, the Strange is both a refuge of understanding and a crucial site for expressing alienation and dislocation. We will learn to read strange fiction and poetry for its aesthetics as well as its engagement with important cultural dialogues and fundamental human experiences.
In this course we will read traditional folk/fairy tales, along with poetry and short fiction by the Brontës, Amparo Davila, Daphne DuMaurier, Cristina Rivera Garza, Tove Jansson, Anna Kavan, Edgar Allen Poe, Tarjei Vessas, and others. We will experiment with writing our own Strange fiction and poetry with generative writing exercises and opportunities to workshop and revise pieces. Students will participate in class discussions of peer and published writing, and can expect to gain a foundational understanding of gothic and supernatural writing as well as experience workshopping fiction and poetry.
English 355 Creative Writing Fiction (300 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 1 TuTh 2:30-3:45 Instructor: John Hennessy
In this course students will write and workshop short stories. They will also read widely in modern and contemporary fiction and complete a series of assignments intended to address specific aspects of fiction writing. Admission by permission of professor.
Students should submit one complete story and a brief personal statement (list and briefly discuss your favorite writers and books) to Professor Hennessy's email address: jjhennes@english.umass.edu. Please include Spire ID #. DUE NOV 25. OPEN TO STUDENTS FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS.Students should submit one complete story and a brief personal statement (list and briefly discuss your favorite writers and books) to Professor Hennessy's email address: jjhennes@english.umass.edu. Please include Spire ID #. DUE NOV 25. OPEN TO STUDENTS FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS.
English 355 Creative Writing Fiction (300 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 2 Th 1:00-3:30 Instructor: Edie Meidav
Micronarratives. Students should email one complete story and a brief personal statement (list and briefly discuss your reading preferences, your favorite writers and books), along with your contact information, to Professor Rosenberg: emeidav@umass.edu. Application deadline is November 25th. Students will be notified by May15th of their status. Registration after this date is possible, but priority will be given to students who meet the November 25th deadline. Please let us know 1) if you are seeking the specialization in Creative Writing and 2) when you plan to graduate. Registration by department permission only.
English 356 Creative Writing Poetry (300 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 1 TuTh 1:00-2:15 Instructor: John Hennessy
English 356 is a poetry workshop. In addition to writing their own poems, students will read widely in contemporary poetry.
Interested students should send a portfolio of up to 3 poems to John Hennessy at jjhennes@english.umass.edu by November 25th. Students should (briefly) discuss their favorite poets, writers, books, poems, in a separate statement. Please include contact information. Submission deadline is November 25th. Registration after this date is possible, but priority will be given to students who meet the November 25th deadline. Students will be notified of their status by December 15th. Registration by instructor permission only. OPEN TO STUDENTS FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS.
English 356 Creative Writing Poetry (300 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 2 Mon 1-3:30 Instructor: Martín Espada
This is an advanced poetry workshop. Students should participate actively, producing poems independently for review in class, engaging in writing exercises, and commenting on work submitted by others. This is a course designed to help the student define a distinct voice in the work and to reinforce the fundamental skills of writing poems. We address these objectives through a close reading of student poems, as well as writing exercises. The strengths of student writing receive as much attention as those areas in need of improvement. Registration by instructor permission only. Students should submit a portfolio of three poems in a Word document to Professor Espada at mespada.umass@gmail.com. Students will be notified by the end of the semester of their status. Registration after this date is possible, but priority will be given to students who apply this semester for the fall. Prerequisite: English majors only. English 354 or equivalent with a B or better.
English 362 Modern Novel 1945-Present (Anglophone or 300 elective)(social justice)
Lecture 1 MW 2:30-3:45 PM Instructor: Mazen Naous
Of Immigrants and Migration. People from countries previously colonized by Great Britain find their way to British shores; people from countries affected by U.S. interventions find their way to the U.S. Some arrive as immigrants and some as migrants (we will consider the implications of these two terms). Both groups, however, endure forms of jingoism, racism, xenophobia, and violence at the social, cultural, economic and political levels. Among other things, immigrants and migrants find that they are perceived as traitors, terrorists, criminals, and job snatchers. In relating the experiences of immigrants and migrants, our selected works employ a range of literary techniques. We will engage the relationship between aesthetics and politics in these textual interventions, and consider the effect of this relationship on the representations and receptions of immigrants and migrants. This course examines works dealing with movement from South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Northern Ireland to Britain, and from East Asia, the Arab countries, and Mexico to the U.S. The course will probably include works by Ana Castillo, Mohja Kahf, John Okada, Caryl Phillips and Zadie Smith. We will also watch and discuss two films. Critical essays and some theory will guide our readings and film viewings.
English 371 African American literature (Anglophone/ethnic Amer or Amer lit after 1865 or 300 elective) (literature as history)
Lecture 1 TuTh 1:00-2:15 Instructor: Sarah Patterson
This course will ask how African American writers sustain and manipulate a culturally specific literary tradition at various historical moments, ranging from the Colonial period to the post-Civil Rights era.
English 381 Professional Writing and Technical Communication II (300 elective) (PWTC) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 TuTh 2:30-3:45 Instructor: Janine Solberg
Extends the work of ENGL 380. Students will learn and apply principles of technical writing, information/page design, and web accessibility. The objectives of this course are to increase students' organizational and graphical sophistication as writers and information designers. Students can expect to produce portfolio-quality content using industry-standard software (typically MadCap Flare and either Adobe Illustrator or InDesign). Prerequisite: English 380. Junior or senior status and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
English 382 Professional Writing and Technical Communication III (300 elective) (PWTC)
Lecture 1 TuTh 11:30-12:45 Instructor: David Toomey
The course serves as the capstone to the Professional Writing and Technical Communication specialization. It also fulfills the Integrative Experience (IE) requirement for English majors. With a view towards specialization, the course will provide directed opportunities to study in depth an issue related to technology and culture or to explore the theory and practice of particular kinds of writing and technology. With a view towards professionalization, the course will offer an opportunity to workshop professional portfolios, to learn about careers from working professionals. With a view to lifelong learning, the course will ask students to reflect and record the manner in which they (personally) study a subject and/or develop a skill, and so come to a better understanding of their own learning strategies. These three aims will be framed by our collective exploration of connections between technology, communication and culture through assigned reading.
English 388 Rhetoric, Writing and Society (300 elective) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 TuTh 11:30-12:45 Instructor: David Fleming
This course is an introduction to the history, theory, and practice of rhetoric, defined here as the art of persuasion. For nearly 2,500 years, rhetoric has been the central academic discipline for thinking about the adaptation of discourse to purpose, audience, occasion, and subject matter. The earliest rhetorical arts were focused on public speaking in direct democracies; later rhetorics treated eloquence more broadly, including written discourse and its role in religion, science, commerce, art, and education. Contemporary rhetorical theories have expanded the purview of rhetoric to include visual media, digital culture, and nonverbal performance and to see rhetorical motivations lurking even in artifacts produced without conscious persuasive design. Rhetoric is useful as a critical tool for analyzing others’ discourse; as a practical art for inventing one’s own discourse; and as a theoretical discipline for interrogating the languages of social and political life. In this course, we’ll learn about and practice these various rhetorics. The course is also meant to help students meet relevant objectives of the English section of the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure (MTEL).
English 391C Advanced Software for Professional Writers (300 elective) (PWTC certificate) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 MW 2:30-3:45 Instructor: Janine Solberg
This course offers a beginner-level introduction to web design. It is aimed at English and humanities majors, though students from any major are welcome in the course. This is a hands-on course that meets in a computer classroom. Students will learn to create a website using HTML (hypertext markup language) and CSS (cascading style sheets). You will come away from the course having created a professional web portfolio that you can use when applying for jobs or internships.
No prior experience with web design or coding is required. Students should be comfortable managing files (naming, uploading, downloading, creating folders) and using a web browser. (Note: This course appears in Spire as "Advanced Software," but that really just means that we're advancing beyond Microsoft Word.)
Prereq: Minimum 3.0 GPA and junior or senior standing. Non-majors or students who have not yet taken Engl 379 should contact the instructor to be added into the course.
This course counts toward the following specializations: PWTC, SPOW, DH+Games, as well as the IT Minor.
Prerequisite: English 379. Junior or senior status and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. The Engl 380 pre-req may be waived with instructor permission, space permitting.
English 391C Advanced Software for Professional Writers (300 elective) (PWTC certificate) (SPOW)
Lecture 2 MW 4:00-5:15 Instructor: Christina Sun
See above for course description.
English 391NM Narrative Medicine: How Writing Can Heal (300 elective) (creative writing) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 Thurs 4:00-6:30 Instructor: Marian MacCurdy
This interdisciplinary writing course investigates the cognitive and emotional benefits of writing for diverse populations including trauma survivors, patients, caregivers, teachers or those who hope to teach—anyone who is interested in the power of personal writing to effect change. Training in reflective writing supports clinical and/or pedagogical effectiveness among medical and educational professionals by enabling them to both listen to and respond to stories of conflict, illness, trauma, and transformation and to express their own histories in writing as well. Students will read, write, and discuss personal essays as well as texts that address the relationship between writing and resilience. We will focus on process—how to produce narratives that are both artistically and therapeutically effective. No prior experience with the medical humanities required.
English 421 Advanced Shakespeare (400 elective or early British)
Lecture 1 TuTh 2:30-3:45 Instructor: Adam Zucker
SENSING LANGUAGE. This course offers students a chance to further pursue their interests in Shakespeare’s plays, moving more quickly through ten texts over the course of the semester. We will focus in particular on the sensory atmospheres evoked by Shakespeare’s work, both in their original moment of performance, and in adaptations over time. We will read the work of scholars who have shed light on the operations of visuality and sound in language and in performance, and we will watch film adaptations (and, if possible, a local theatrical staging) to explore how Shakespeare’s language both shapes and is shaped by the senses. Special attention paid to connections between the always shifting politics of Shakespeare’s plays – their depiction of the relationships between those in power and those who find ways to take power for themselves – and the line-by-line, and even word-by-word reverberations of his poetic dialog. Students will be required to write one shorter (5 page) language-based essay, one annotated bibliography, and one longer (10-15 page) researched paper on the sense-scape of a particular play. English 221 suggested, but not required.
English 468 James Joyce (400 elective or Anglophone)
Lecture 1 TuTh 2:30-3:45 Instructor: Katherine O’Callaghan
From one hundred-letter thunderwords to falling giants and pirate queens, this course allows you to delve into the magical prose world of one of the world's most innovative writers. In "The Writings of James Joyce" we will discuss Joyce's short story collection Dubliners, his semi-autobiographical A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man, his modernist epic Ulysses, as well as sections from his extraordinary masterpiece Finnegans Wake. The emphasis will be on a close textual examination of Joyce's prose, as well as historical, cultural, and political contextualizations. Joyce's musical content and inspirations will be a dominant theme of the course. His character, Stephen Dedalus, worries that his "souls frets in the shadow" of the English language, but we will discover how Joyce reinvents English for his own purposes. For English majors only.
English 469 Victorian Monstrosity (400 elective or later British lit) (literature as history)
Lecture 1 TuTh 10:00-11:15 Instructor: Suzanne Daly
Although the term “monstrosity” connotes fear and repulsion, many nineteenth-century writers were compelled by the idea of attraction between humans and not-quite human creatures such as demons, vampires, goblins, and ghosts. In exploring the aesthetic, political, economic, historical, and racial(ized) dimensions of these enchanted literary liaisons, we will consider their relationship to literary/cultural movements including medievalism, realism, and the gothic revival as well as to contemporary political debates over science, empire, immigration, masculinity, and the status of women. Primary texts may include poetry by Gottfried Bürger, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Mary Robinson, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, and William Wordsworth, and prose by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Sheridan Le Fanu, Richard Marsh, Mary Shelley, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
English 491AC The Major and Beyond: Career Exploration for English Majors (SPOW) (Digital Humanities)
Lecture 1 Wed 11:30-12:45 Instructor: Janis Greve
Why wait any longer?! This course helps you pave the way to a valuable post-graduate experience--be it a program, internship, or job. You will practice important job search skills, learn to articulate the worth of your major, and leave the class with a better sense of your vocational direction. In addition to receiving individualized guidance in creating a cover letter and résumé of immediate use, other assignments are likely to include attendance at career events, interviews with professionals from fields of interest, a professional presentation, a short paper researching professions, and participation in a mock interview. Note: for an additional credit and some extra work, students can opt to have the course count toward an English elective. Please contact Prof. Greve if you are interested. Sophomores and Juniors. Seniors by permission of the instructor only.
English 491LM Literature, Music and the Rules of Engagement: Multi-ethnic experiences in the US (400 elective or Anglophone)(social justice)
Lecture 1 MW 4-5:15 pm Instructor: Mazen Naous
Literature, Music, and the Rules of Engagement: Multi-Ethnic Musical Experiences in the US. In this course, we will analyze 20th century novels, poems, and a play by African American, Native American, Mexican American, and Arab American writers, who draw on music, especially jazz and blues, to perform race, gender, class, and migration. In particular, we will consider the relationship between musical styles and historical events, and their impact on the characters’ identities and lived experiences. Some class time will be spent on listening to and critiquing musical pieces in terms of their influence on the forms, aesthetics, and politics of our texts: the rules of engagement. We will read works by Diana Abu-Jaber, James Baldwin, David Henderson, Américo Paredes, Sherman Alexie, August Wilson, and a selection of jazz and blues poems.
English 491TT The Old English Epic: Beowulf (400 elective or early British)(Literature as History)
Lecture 1 TuTh 1:00-2:15 Instructor: Stephen Harris
This course introduces you to the magnificent epic poem Beowulf in its original language. A poem of stunning artistry, complex structure, and profound wisdom, Beowulf inspired J. R. R. Tolkien and Seamus Heaney and continues to inspire today. We will read the poem extremely closely. As we do, we will put it into its historical and literary contexts. We will discuss Norse and Irish myths, charms, omens, and portents. And there be dragons. Recommended for students who have completed ENGL 313, Old English. If you have not taken Old English, you can read the poem in translation. Get in touch with your inner Viking! English majors only. Course prerequisite: English 200 with a grade of "C" or better and 201, 202 or 221 with a qualifying grade of a C or better.
English 491Z Poetry of the Political Imagination (400+ elective or Anglophone/ethnic American)(social justice)
Lecture 1 Tues 1:00-3:30 Instructor: Martín Espada
Juniors and Seniors, International Exchange or National Exchange plans, or Graduate students with TECS subplans only. Poetry of the political imagination is a matter of both vision and language. Any progressive social change must be imagined first; any oppressive social condition, before it can change, must be named in words that persuade. Poets of the political imagination go beyond protest to define an artistry of resistance. This course explores how best to combine poetry and politics, craft and commitment. Students read classic works ranging from the epigrams of Ernesto Cardenal, written against the dictator of Nicaragua, to Allen Ginsberg's Howl, the book that sparked an obscenity trial. They also read the farmworker poems of Diana García, born in a migrant labor camp; the emergency room sonnets of Dr. Rafael Campo; the prison poetry of political dissident Nazim Hikmet; and the feminist satire of Marge Piercy, among others. Students respond with papers, presentations or some combination. Class visits by authors complement the reading and discussion.
English 492D Children’s Literature(400 elective) (literature as history)
Lecture 1 MW 2:30-3:45 Instructor: Gretchen Gerzina
Topic: Pirates, Orphans, and Empire: The Victorians in Children's Literature. British children's novels offer several ways of understanding the Victorians and Edwardians through ideas about childhood and orphanhood, masculinity and femininity, literature, nature and scientific discovery and invention, social history, the imagination, poverty and consumerism. For example, The Water Babies explores what was then the new concept of Darwinism and its place in a religious world. The Wind in the Willows looks at the role of the pastoral in a changing world of industrialism and consumerism. Both Peter Pan and Treasure Island look at pirates and the role of adventure stories, and ideas of masculinity. The two Alice novels make a strong pitch for fantasy and the imagination in a rigidly class-bound society. The Secret Garden discusses the regenerative power of nature, and both this novel and The Little Lame Prince talk about disability. Many of these books changed the way that adults and the world they made or inherited thought about childhood itself and are still relevant today. In addition to these and other novels, we will read critical materials on Victorian childhood and literature, the formation of class identity, why orphans are central to this literature, and how Victorianism and literature before the Great War set the stage for a rapidly changing world. To meet these two seemingly disparate goals, we will blend our study of the Middle Ages with material that you have studied in your other classes and with lessons you have learned during your time in college. We will also think about ways how you might apply the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired in college to problems, communities, and/or organizations beyond campus. Workload is not onerous and will include several shorter essays as well as the creation of an on-line portfolio.
English 494CI Codes, Ciphers, Hackers and Crackers (Integrative Experience) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 TuTh 10:00-11:15 Instructor: Stephen Harris
English 494CI is an Integrative Experience course. It has two major aims. The first is a practical introduction to codes and ciphers. This will lead us to examine the structures of the English language, as well as the distributive characteristics of words and phonemes. We will consider English as a closed system with a fixed rule set. Our second aim is to examine the relationship between a system and its component elements. Starting with letters and cipher types, we will explore relationships between users and networks, hackers (and crackers) and The System, and books and readers. How do systems and networks invite us to think differently about literature and language? No knowledge of codes or computers is necessary. Prerequisite: completion of English 200 and one course from following period distribution: British literature and culture before 1700, British literature and culture after 1700, American literature and culture before 1865, American literature and culture after 1865.
English 494DI Dystopian Games, Comics and New Media (Integrative Experience)(Digital Humanities) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 Mon 4:00-6:30 PM Instructor: Jennifer Gutterman
In this class, we will study video games, postmodern cultural theory, and comic books as we ask questions about the persistence of dystopian narratives in print and digital visual culture. For example, what do dystopian narratives in comics, video games, and new media productions have in common? What makes "dark," "moody," and outright apocalyptic narratives like The Walking Dead, Half-Life 2, Fallout 4, and Mass Effect popular in this current historical moment? Can postmodern cultural theory help us better understand some of the social and political ramifications of dystopian culture? Further, can the theory help explain how such stories envision the perils of the future in ways that inadvertently comment on our current times? Is it possible that the cautionary tales of dystopian narratives might, if heeded, make the world a better place? We will compare different game genres (including RPGs, first-person shooters, war games, third person action games) in order to make arguments about the types of anxieties, fears, and dreams that get articulated in each genre. Please note: This class will follow a team-based learning format, meaning all students will be asked to play a leading role in class discussions and will be required to work closely on digital projects and other assignments with members of a team. Gaming experience or access to a gaming system is not required. This is also a "General Education Integrative Experience" class and all students will receive credit as such. In the context of our major the General Education Integrative Experience means certain learning objectives will be emphasized: critical thinking and writing, persuasive communication, creative and analytical thinking, pluralistic perspective and team-building, and developing technological literacies. Open to senior English majors. Non-majors, Five College area students, and other students may contact the professor for permission to enroll.
English 494JI Going to Jail: Incarceration in US literature and culture (Integrative Experience)(Anglophone/ethnic American) (social justice)
Lecture 1 TuTh 1:00-2:15 Instructor: Suzanne Daly
Why do we put people in cages? In what ways does the caging of humans impact those outside as well as inside? Writers have long used the prison as a space from which to ask questions about the nature and meaning of criminality and the rule of law, about human minds, bodies, and behavior, about economics, politics, race, and social class, and about how language makes and unmakes us as human beings. In this class, we will study US fiction, poetry, film, and nonfiction prose (print and digital) by prisoners, journalists, scholars, lawyers, and activists in order to consider these issues for ourselves. We will draw on the knowledge and critical skills you have gained from your gen ed coursework throughout. Assignments will include five short papers and two drafts of a longer final paper. Authors may include: Michelle Alexander, Malcolm Braly, Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Martin Luther King, CeCe McDonald, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, David Oshinsky, Bryan Stevenson, Jerome Washington, and Malcolm X. Open only to senior English majors.
English 497G Game Design Fundamentals (400 elective) (Digital Humanities: Games track) (SPOW)
Lecture 1 Wed. 4:00-6:30 PM Instructor: Jennifer Gutterman
Games have been recorded as part of human culture for thousands of years. The first documented use of Mancala, a game still played today, was circa 6000 BCE. Games have been part of human interaction for learning, for community building, in lieu of war, for therapeutic value, for entertainment and a variety of other reasons throughout history. In modern culture, analog and digital games are pervasive in the entertainment industry, averaging billions of players worldwide as well as in many other industries and environments. From classroom learning in early education to training simulations for heavy machinery or flight to therapeutic environments, games and interactive systems can be found in almost every aspect of our lives. This course teaches how to effectively develop games, from concept through documentation, prototyping and play testing. We will look at the games we grew up with, the games we play today, the games that do not, on the surface, seem like games, and we will consider how to develop a variety of games through at least the paper prototyping stage. This course will involve considerable hands-on work and both independent and collaborative work to develop viable game documentation and prototypes. Experience in writing for or designing games is not required. All students from all disciplines are welcome.
English 499D Foundations and Departures in Creative Writing: Fiction, Poetry, and Literary Non-fiction – 2nd semester (400 elective) (creative writing)
Lecture 1 Wed 4:00-6:30 Instructor: John Hennessy
499D is the second semester of Foundations and Departures in Creative Writing: Fiction, Poetry, and Literary Non-Fiction, a multi-genre, two-semester course in creative writing designed to help students complete a Capstone project within the genre of their choice. Both a class in contemporary literature and a writing workshop, Foundations and Departures will offer students a wide variety of reading assignments and writing exercises from across all three genres. At the end of the first semester students will submit a portfolio of original work; in the second semester students will finish drafting and revising their Capstone projects. Textbooks will include The Art of the Story, a fiction anthology, novels by a variety of writers, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Virginia Woolf, and Teju Cole, memoir by Helene Cooper, non-fiction by Joan Didion, poetry collections by Major Jackson, Denise Duhamel, and other contemporary poets.
591N---Topics in Indigenous Literature* (400+ or Anglophone/ethlnic American)(social justice)
Mondays, 6:30-9:00 Instructor: Abigail Chabitnoy
What is it to be a writer of indigenous literature? What does such categorization suggest about a work—and what does it fail to mention? Is “indigenous literature” an indicator of genre? Or simply an ascribed attribute of the writer? If the former, what devices, tropes, or themes does it share? If the latter, what prejudices do we bring to the work?
This course examines contemporary Native American poetry, fiction, essays, and theories as both expressions and interrogations of indigenous identity and culture and as strategies for survivance within the larger American context. While we will focus on a broad diversity of contemporary writers and the literature they produce, we will also look at the historic, cultural, social, religious, aesthetic, and political contexts out of which contemporary Native Americans write. Additionally, we will discuss the significant issues facing indigenous people across the nation from colonization, stereotypes, and discrimination, to intergenerational trauma, to climate change and relocation and more as we learn to identify key differences as well as constellations of connections. Most importantly, we will think about how indigenous literature is defined and understood within broader topics and trends in contemporary literature, including how indigenous writers imagine themselves and how they imagine identity, self, place, nature, and nation. Through our readings, discussions, and assignments, you will develop your own decolonial lens as we examine the impacts of United States policy, land borders, and geographical inheritances on Indigenous cultures and even on the notion of text and categorization itself.
*This is an undergrad/graduate dual enrollment level course.
