This course introduces students to critical reading and literary analysis, focusing on the terminology and tools needed to study literature in an informed, imaginative way. The course provides students with knowledge of the conventions and varieties of fiction, poetry, and drama, and seeks to instill in them an awareness of the range and diversity in literary voices and how literature and culture interact.

This gateway course for English majors and prospective English majors introduces students to the essential techniques, approaches, and fundamental questions of literary discourse and the practice of literary criticism, as well as to the central issues raised by literary theory. Although a review of genres and literary elements along with an introduction to the most frequently anthologized authors is a component of the course, its main aim is to teach students how to read with a greater awareness of the process of interpreting literary texts. This course is required of all majors, and must be taken within a year of declaration. English 116 also may be used for distribution credit in the Humanities.

This course is designed to give students an understanding of key characteristics, historical phases, and issues in American literature. In order to experience the range and diversity of American literature, students read both canonical authors such as Bradstreet, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Twain, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Ellison; and non-canonical writers from a variety of regional and ethnic backgrounds, such as Harriet Wilson and Emma Lazarus. The works will be arranged in chronological order and will be discussed as representative of the time period from which they come. The works taught will be chosen so that students will encounter a variety of genres such as poetry, novels, short stories, drama, and essays. This course is a prerequisite for subsequent courses that focus on American literature (e.g. Literature in its Time II and Special Studies in a Major Author after 1700).

In this course, students study English literature written prior to 1800. Beowulf, Chaucer, medieval lyrics, medieval drama, the major sonnet writers, Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, Swift and Pope will be included. In addition to these canonical writers and works, attention will be given to non-canonical works as well, such as The Book of Margery Kempe and The Paston Letters. The works will be arranged in chronological order and discussed as representative of the time period from which they come. This course is a prerequisite for subsequent courses that focus on literature from this period (e.g. Literature in its Time I, Special Studies in a Major Author Prior to 1800, Shakespeare).

In this course, students study English literature written after 1800, reading works by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Blake, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Austen, Dickens, Conrad, Joyce, Lawrence, Yeats, and Woolf. In addition to these canonical writers, attention will be given to non-canonical writers whose works can provide diversity in ethnicity, class and gender. The works will be arranged in chronological order and will be discussed as representative of the time period from which they come. This course is a prerequisite for subsequent courses that focus on literature from this period (e.g. Literature in its Time II, Special Studies in a Major Author after 1800).

The content of the course consists of the great texts of the Western European tradition and also from non-Western traditions. The works included will represent the Heroic and Classical periods in Greece (Homer, Sappho, the Greek dramatists), The Golden Age of Latin Writings (Virgil, Ovid), and the medieval continuation of the tradition. Such non-Western works as Gilgamesh or Chinese poetry may be included. Emphasis will be on how these works both reflect their cultural world and treat problems that will confront us.

This is a course of variable content for lower-level students. Topics do not duplicate material covered in other courses. In Spring 2010, Prof. Duncan will teach The Bible as Literature. The course will approach the study of the Bible as a literary work, focusing on elements such as a concern with the literary genres of the Bible, the use of literary rather than traditional theological terms to discuss the stories and poems of the Bible, and an appreciation for its artistry. The course will begin with the assumption that familiarity with and appreciation of the literature of Scripture will enhance the reading not only of that text but also of much other Western literature containing biblical reference and allusion. 

Literature in Its Time I is a rotating selection of courses engaging important themes, voices, and works of the medieval and Renaissance periods and the 18th century. In the 2009-2010 academic year, the theme of this course will be Shakespeare's Comic Contemporaries. Students will explore some of the vital and energetic comedies of the English stage in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, focusing on the plays of Shakespeare’s greatest comic rivals, Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton. These plays provide a unique window into the developing urban culture of early modern London, its values, tastes and fantasies. We will examine the plays in terms of their social and imaginative concerns, their relation to popular and learned comic traditions, and the ways in which they both describe and prescribe values for London citizens. Part of our project will be to compare these dramas to the comedies of Shakespeare, the most popular playwright of the age.

Literature in Its Time II is a rotating selection of courses engaging important themes, voices, and works of the British romantic period, the Victorian period, the modern period, and 19th-21st century American literature. These courses follow the same interdisciplinary approach as Literature in Its Time I. In the 2009-2010 academic year, the theme of this course will be Midnight's Children, Parents, and Grandchildren. The course will focus on the exuberant English writing that has emerged from independent India. Background material will include readings from the Hindu sacred text Ramayana as well as selected excerpts from Bollywood films. Students will examine the influence of the West, particularly as it pertains to the medium of the novel, but our primary focus will be on the various manifestations of the Indian voice in fiction. Required texts: G.V. Desani, All About H. Hatterr; Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children; Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things; Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance; Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies.

A workshop in writing poetry and fiction. Through reading and responding to published literary pieces as well as their own projects, students will acquire increased appreciation for the craft and aesthetic of literature and their own writing skills.

Advanced Writing is a rotating selection of courses focusing on the production of literary and expository writing, the art of the short story and the poem as well as the essay and creative nonfiction. Through intensive workshops, each course will immerse students in the writing process, stressing the craft and technique of writing. In addition to reviewing students' own work, the course will include some study of exemplary works in the appropriate form of discourse. In Fall 2009, students will study different techniques for writing poetry, guided by close reading and imitation of the techniques of model poems and poets. Each class will include discussion of poems and poets, writing of poems, and sharing and discussion of student work.

This course will focus on the development of a clear and persuasive expository style suited for academic or professional writing. Students will gain a heightened sense of "audience" by reading and responding to each other's writing.

An introduction to film history and theory, with emphasis on filmmakers such as Griffith, Chaplin, Hitchcock, Welles, and Bergman. The films will be probed not only to determine their aesthetic achievement and to identify the cultural values they reflect but also to distinguish the unique ways in which film and literature construct their representative meanings. Thus this course broadens the understanding of genre.

Each offering in this rotating selection of courses explores a single diverse ethnic literature, such as African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, and Native American. While content will vary according to the discretion of the instructor, this group of courses is united by a common desire to read a diverse literature according to its own heritage—double-voiced as it is—further complicated by issues of gender and class. To this end, a course in Native American literature, for example, might begin with a study of the creation myths in the oral tradition, then move to historical, anthropological, autobiographical, and fictional accounts of the Native American experience as the two (often conflicting) voices of Native American and American describe it.

In this course the literature chosen for study will reflect issues relevant to considerations of gender. In some instances, works will be chosen in order to explore the idea of how literature portrays what it means to be male or female. In other instances, literature will be chosen in order to explore how writers of one gender portray characters of the opposite gender. In some instances the choice of literature will be based on extending awareness of writers who, because of their gender, have not historically been included within the canon. The historical and social contexts of these works will be an integral part of the conversation within the course.

Students may choose this course as one of the required upper-division courses prior to 1800. In this course, representative tragedies, comedies, histories, and romances will be studied. Attention will be given to how Shakespeare's plays reflect the fundamental concerns of the Renaissance. The course also will include attention to genre, history of ideas, and literary criticism.

This umbrella covers a series of courses on a single literary genre such as the short story, poetry, drama, the epic, the novel, that will vary in emphasis at the discretion of the instructor. The novel, for example, might be a course focusing on the novel as genre and as literature. The genre section of the course will acquaint the student with the relevant criticism. The literary section will approach the novel as literature according to formalist analysis of language and form, canonical issues, socio-historical contexts, the influence of gender, race, and class, and the role of the reader.

This seminar-style class studies the writing of a major English author prior to 1800. The variable content may draw from one or several genres and gives attention to literary criticism about the writer and the writer's own literary theories. Social, historical, and biographical contexts also constitute elements of the study. Featured authors may include Chaucer, Spenser, Marlowe, Donne, and Milton, Swift or Pope; occasionally the instructor may chose to study two authors rather than one, if the two complement each other.

This seminar-style class studies the writing of a major English author after 1800. The variable content may draw from one or several genres and will give attention to literary criticism about the writer and the writer's own literary theories. Social, historical, and biographical contexts will also constitute elements of the study. Featured authors may include Austen, George Eliot, Twain, Yeats, Hardy, Woolf, T.S. Eliot, and Faulkner; occasionally the instructor may choose to study two authors rather than one, if the two complement each other.

A course that seeks to enlarge students' understanding and appreciation of the English language by examining the history of its development and the systematic ways that it expresses meaning.

This course, for senior English majors and seniors from other fields who may petition to be admitted, is a seminar for students to work independently on a substantial paper of literary criticism, while reporting progress and making a final seminar presentation before a group working in the same field of study. Instruction and discussion, especially in the early weeks of the course, will focus on the development of the English language, the history of literary criticism, and bibliographical tools necessary for further research in English. This course is required of all English majors and serves as an opportunity for them to demonstrate their ability to think critically and to express their ideas effectively in writing. They will, furthermore, be required to deal with questions and issues that derive from literary theory.

A study of English teaching methods and instructional materials. Special attention is given to the selection and organization of subject matter and learning activities. Field work required.

An in-depth study in literature or related subject matter such as literary criticism, folklore, film, or great literary works representing a common theme, genre, perspective or period. Recent offerings have examined twentieth century feminist literature, Faulkner, and Southern women writers. Topics that are under consideration include Midwestern literature, Anglo-Irish literature, and Arthurian literature.