ENG 110 College Writing
Writing as an intellectual act and a recursive process; ways of reading complex texts. The English Department will distribute descriptions of individual topics for each section of College Writing before the registration period each semester. The course is normally taken in the second or third semester; it complements and extends the writing experience of the First-Year Seminar. Required of all students except those exempted by the English Department for reasons such as success in an advanced placement program.
Prerequisite: First-Year Seminar
ENG 115 Science Fiction
Science Fiction examines short stories, novels, and films by some of the leading practitioners of the genre. The course considers the genre from literary, cultural, historical, and scientific perspectives.
ENG 116 Film and Literature
Through a comparative study of films based on highly regarded plays and novels, as well as a number of autonomous films, the course seeks to define both the affinities and the distinctive capacities of the two art forms.
ENG 119 Literary Women
This course examines writings and films by women. Topics vary and have included courses on women poets, women science fiction writers, coming of age narratives, novels by contemporary Middle Eastern and Asian women, and texts that explore the connections between race, class, and gender.
ENG 120 Satire and the Comic Absurd
An exploration of comic and satiric traditions from the earliest times to the present, with some emphasis on modern and contemporary texts and on authors influenced by the Theater of the Absurd.
ENG 123 Plays in Performance: Stage and Film
This course compares stage and screen productions of selected plays. Students read scripts and, through in- and out-of-class screenings and live performances, examine different realizations of each script. This performance approach addresses questions of interpretation and adaptation in the context of historical circumstances and the artistic demands of literature, stage, and screen.
ENG 128 American-Jewish Literature
A course exploring American-Jewish literature’s roots in Eastern European and Sephardic traditions, its place in the American literary canon, and its relation to international Jewish writings.
ENG 135 Literature and Human Experience
An examination of a significant social or cultural problem as reflected in literary texts. Topics vary from semester to semester and will be announced during the registration period. May be taken more than once with different content.
ENG 140 Introduction to Film
An introductory course designed to help students develop useful analytical skills for the study of film. Our goals are to gain familiarity with cinematic techniques and to acquire an understanding of the historical evolution of film. We will learn to employ the technical vocabulary of film studies and will view films representing a variety of styles, genres, periods, and filmmakers.
ENG 205 Literary Questions
This course provides students with an introduction to the theory and methodology of literary study by focusing on three questions: What is a literary text? How do we read a literary text? How do we write about a literary text? By considering the rhetorical, aesthetic, and ideological issues that determine literary value, students examine their assumptions about literature. Required of all English majors and minors.
ENG 206 Literary History
How is literary history constructed? What is the canon of “great works,” and how is it formed? This course inquires into the specific cultural practices that construct “literature,” engaging students in an exploration of canon formation, marginalization, intertextuality, and influence. Readings are chosen from British, American, and Anglophone literatures and from various genres; texts from at least three literary periods are studied in depth.
ENG 207 Theater History
The course will focus on how theatrical forms have changed from time to time and culture to culture, considering historical context, periodicity, genre, conventions, style, theatrical spaces, acting styles, and technical effects.
ENG 210 English Literature I
A survey of literature from Beowulf to Milton; major writers, movements, and forms are viewed in their historical contexts. Normally closed to seniors.
ENG 211 English Literature II
A survey of literature, chiefly poetry, from the Restoration through the nineteenth century; major writers, movements, and forms are viewed in their historical contexts. Normally closed to seniors.
ENG 212 American Literature I: Origins to Civil War
A study of American prose and poetry from the colonial period to 1870. Normally closed to seniors.
ENG 213 American Literature II: The Gilded Age to the Present
This course introduces students to poetry and prose by representative writers of the late 19th and early 20th century. Normally closed to seniors.
ENG 214 New Media
New Media considers a range of texts that have emerged recently in various media: television, digital platforms, and the internet. It may also include mixed media or interdisciplinary forms. Topics might include the graphic novel, virtual environments, electronic writing, or video games. The specific topic for this course will be announced at registration.
Prerequisite: ENG 110
ENG 217 Psychoanalysis and Literature
This course focuses on the relationship between literature and psychoanalysis and on different ways of understanding that relationship. Readings include psychoanalytic texts and works of fiction.
Prerequisite: ENG 110
ENG 218 Literature for Children
This course looks at how children’s texts socialize their readers by confirming or, in some cases, resisting and undermining cultural norms and values. Course texts include a range of classic and popular printed books for children as well as selected films and TV shows. As part of the course, students write and illustrate their own children’s books.
Prerequisite: ENG 110
ENG 225 Contemporary Literature
An encounter with fiction of the last decade and with social, philosophical, and literary questions raised both by the texts themselves and by the activity of reading.
Prerequisite: ENG 110
ENG 227 Introduction to Theater
Using analytical and hands-on approaches, this course introduces students to significant dramatic texts and to the principal craft areas in theater. Readings include plays from different eras of theater history; projects involve acting, directing, and design. There are lectures, discussions, visits from outside theater professionals, and writing assignments.
ENG 231 Journalistic Writing
An introduction to the practice of writing news and feature stories for magazines and the daily press. Attention is paid to writing, revising, evaluating, and publishing work. The course also examines audience, style, and the role of the journalist in society. [W]
Prerequisite: ENG 110 or equivalent
ENG 232 The Short Story
This course explores the short story across a broad variety of writers, cultures, and modes from the nineteenth century to the present, examining genres such as detective and science fiction as well as artistic movements from realism to postmodernism.
Prerequisite: ENG 110
ENG 240 Film Theory and Practice
This is an intermediate course in film studies, designed to give students understanding of the complex art of international cinema. We will screen, analyze, discuss, and write about film, as well as read primary source documents in the theory of film. We will extend our knowledge of various concepts such as cinematography, sound, editing, and mise-en-scène by combining critical study with creative practice. Students will learn the basics of digital film editing and produce short films.
Prerequisite: ENG 140
ENG 245 International Literature
This course looks beyond the traditional British and American texts that have populated English studies to challenge the once elite dominance of English as the authorized language of “first-world” mastery. The concept of “literatures in English” speaks, therefore, to an evolving international dialogue that is sensitive to the formation of personal and political identities in a new global economy. Texts represent diverse national regions such as the Caribbean, Africa, India, Canada and Australia.
Prerequisite: ENG 110
ENG 246 Black Writers
An introduction to black American writers, the course exposes students to a variety of genres, to diverse reading strategies, to the social and historical roots of African-American experience, and to the interplay between classic texts and popular media.
ENG 250 Writing Genres
Writing Genres introduces students to the expectations and purposes of a particular written genre and offers them intensive practice composing texts that function within the conventions and boundaries of this genre. Students will compose multiple texts in drafts, participate in workshops and discussions, and produce critical analyses and reviews. Sample genres include the essay, autobiography, hypertext and electronic media, travel writing, and science writing. The English Department will distribute a description of the specific genre(s) under consideration before the registration period each semester. [W]
Prerequisite: Eng 110
ENG 251 Screenwriting
This course introduces students to the basic elements of screenwriting: developing characters, writing dialogue, plotting scenes, and structuring narrative. Writing assignments build from initial treatments to individual scenes and story outlines with emphasis on drafting and revision. By viewing films, reading screenplays, and critiquing the work of peers, students learn about the role of the screenwriter in the collaborative process of filmmaking, and work towards a final portfolio that will include a polished script of their own. [W] Permission of instructor required.
Prerequisite: ENG 110
ENG 255 Creative Writing
Intensive workshops in the writing of poetry and fiction. Writing exercises and allied readings. Permission of instructor required. [W]
Prerequisite: ENG 110
ENG 260 The New York Theater
This course combines reading and analysis of texts with experience of live theater. On-campus seminars include discussion of plays and dramatic theories to explore styles, themes, and intentions of playwrights and directors. Students see productions, tour theaters, and talk with theater professionals in New York to discover how text, theory, and practice combine to create theatrical experience. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 272, 273 Internship
Practical experience in fields such as journalism, broadcasting, publishing, public relations, and advertising, in which writing is a central activity. Written reports are required of the student, as is an evaluation of the student by the supervising agency. Advance approval of the departmental internships coordinator required.
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 280 London Theater
England’s rich theatrical tradition is continually affirmed by the excellence of its London theater productions. During this course, students attend a dozen plays at West End and fringe theaters, the National Theatre, and the Barbican Center, which hosts the Royal Shakespeare Company. Thought the specific works studied depends on theater offerings, the course focuses on literary and performance aspects of Shakespearean and modern plays. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 300 Chaucer
A study of The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde and an introduction to the language and culture of medieval England. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and 210, or permission of the instructor.
ENG 301 Shakespeare
This course will provide an introduction to Shakespeare’s plays and non-dramatic works in the context of early modern history and culture, including consideration of staging conventions. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 303 British Writers
A study of one, two, or three British or Irish writers in some depth (for instance, Yeats/Joyce, Keats/Shelley, Dickens/Woolf). [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 304 American Writers
A study of one, two, or three American writers in some depth (for instance, Hemingway/Faulkner, Twain/James). [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 313 The Irish Literary Renaissance
This course examines poems, essays, plays, fiction, and folklore produced by Irish writers in the years 1880-1925. Particular attention is given to the ways in which the writings of Joyce, Yeats, O’Casey, Synge, and Lady Gregory are informed by such events as the Gaelic revival, the founding of the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s struggle for political independence from England, and the Irish Civil War.[W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 314 Postmodernism
This course explores the cultural and literary phenomenon known as Postmodernism, which appeared in the United States after World War II.
Prerequisite: Eng 205
Staff
ENG 320 The English Language
An introduction to linguistics, with a focus on English and its development from the beginning to the present. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and 210, or permission of the instructor.
ENG 323 The Age of Satire
Wit, irony, satire, burlesque, and farce from Dryden to Byron, seen against their contexts in eighteenth-century social, political, and literary controversy. Readings such as Gullivers Travels and A Modest Proposal by Swift, Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, Gay’s Beggars Opera, various burlesques and farces, Hogarths satiric engravings, and portions of Byrons Don Juan. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 324 Eighteenth-Century Fiction
Comic, sentimental, and gothic novels from an age whose pursuit of happiness is marked by growing psychological awareness and by changing views on sex, passion, and marriage. Within such social contexts, the course assesses the tensions between the early novel’s richly comic realism, its serious indulgence in the cult of feeling, and its romantic flirtation with the supernatural thriller. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 325 London High and Low Life
Eighteenth-century London was the undisputed center of England’s literature, drama, art, architecture, music, politics, and wealth. Yet alongside London’s opulence flourished astonishing crime and corruption. This rich urban diversity–occasionally contrasted with life in other places is reflected in the course readings: major works by major authors from the Restoration to the Regency, with some emphasis on drama. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 326 The Romantics
A study of British writers, especially poets, of the period 1780-1830. The course examines how writings of the era reflect and helped to shape discourse on poverty, slavery, women’s rights, urbanization, and the cultural role of art and artists.
Prerequisite: English 205 and a course in literary history (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213) or permission of the instructor
ENG 327 The Victorians
A study of British writers, especially poets, of the period 1830-1900. The course examines how writers of the era responded to the industrial revolution, British imperialism, theories of human evolution, debates about gender and sexuality, and aesthetic movements like those of the Pre-Raphaelites, the Symbolists, and the Decadents. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 328 The American Renaissance
An intensive study of American literature, 1840-1860. The course examines a range of forms of American writing dealing with issues such as nationalism, romanticism, slavery, expansion, gender relations, and the place of literature in the young nation. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 329, 330 American Decades
An intensive investigation of a single decade in American life, exploring the relationships between and within the several areas of the American experience as expressed in its literature and history. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 331 American Fiction from 1945 to the Present
This course examines American fiction from the end of World War II to the present. Possible authors include Nabokov, Pynchon, Morrison, DeLillo, Jin.
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 332 Inventing America
A study of selected works in American literature before 1820. Specific texts depend on the thematic focus, which varies from year to year. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 334 Studies in Medieval Literature
A study of selected works written between 700 and 1500, with an emphasis on those written in England (exclusive of Chaucer). Specific texts depend on the thematic focus, which varies from year to year. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 335 Studies in Renaissance Literature
The Renaissance is commonly regarded as the height of Western aesthetic achievement. This course looks at and problematizes the “rebirth” of knowledge by examining early modern English literature and culture, with attention to the effects of humanism, discovery, class, race, the Reformation, a female monarch, and civil war. Topics vary and are announced during registration. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 336 Studies in Seventeenth-Century Literature
The seventeenth century saw unprecedented growth and change in England: the decline of absolute government and the rise of liberalism and capitalism, the scientific revolution, colonial expansion, and the rise of modern consciousness and subjectivity. This course explores the ways in which the literature of the period reflects English culture in transition and the ways in which formal literary genres change as the century unfolds. Topics vary. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 337 Milton
This course covers Paradise Lost and selections from Milton’s prose and other poetry, focusing on literary themes, style, and genre, and the place of his writings in the history of religious and political thought. Considerable attention is given to Milton’s radicalism, including both his theological “heresies” and left-leaning political sympathies. The course considers Milton’s unique conception of the creation narrative and the “characters” of Adam, Eve, Christ, God, and his arguably most magnificent creation, Satan. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and 210, or permission of the instructor.
ENG 338 Metaphysical Poetry
Metaphysical poems are witty, cerebral poems that use elaborate metaphors or “conceits” to comment on a range of elusive “big topics” including the nature of love, death, evil, and God. Form, style, and imagery are considered as well as the historical contexts in which this poetry emerged in England. Students are introduced to a range of seventeenth-century poets including John Donne, George Herbert, and Richard Crashaw, as well as the work of later poets influenced by seventeenth-century poetry. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and 210, or permission of the instructor.
ENG 339 Revenge and Restoration Drama
Seventeenth-century drama reflects one of the more tumultuous eras in British history–a king beheaded, public theaters closed, a bloody civil war, and the restoration of the monarchy. During this period, symmetrical forms replaced mixed genres, women supplanted boys on stage, and comedy trumped tragedy. Students read Jacobean revenge tragedies and some Restoration comedies to explore how issues of class, gender, and politics played themselves out during this era.[W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 340 Topics in Film
A focused investigation of film topics. This course allows students to shape and articulate critical interpretations of the form, history, style, ideology, rhetorical power, and artistry of cinema. Topics may include: documentary film, independent film, film theory, national cinemas, Hollywood genres, and race, class, and gender on film. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 341 The Nineteenth-Century English Novel
A study of the main tendencies of major examples in English fiction from Shelley to Hardy. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 342 Modern British Literature
This course investigates various literary and cultural crises during the British modernist period. Among our considerations will be how science and technology, evolutionary theory, the New Woman, and colonialism challenge traditional notions of what it means to be human at the turn of the twentieth century. We will investigate these changes in texts by writers such as Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf.[W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 343 American Fiction to the Gilded Age
This course examines American prose–novels, short stories and essays–from the moment of contact to the decades after the Civil War. Possible authors include Rowson, Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain.
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 344 American Fiction from the Gilded Age to 1945
This course examines American fiction from the 1890’s to 1945. Possible authors include Chopin, Crane, Dreiser, Hemingway, and Faulkner.
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 345 Foundations of Modern Drama
An introduction to the critical analysis of drama, using chiefly European plays 1880-1920, by Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Shaw, O’Neill, and others. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 346 Modern and Contemporary Drama
A study of British, American, European, and other plays from approximately 1920 to the present, with attention to both text and performance. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 347 Modern and Contemporary Poetry
A study of the aesthetics and ideologies of some of the most significant modern and contemporary poets writing in English, with special focus on theories and practices related to experimental poetries. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 349 Postcolonial Literature
An introduction to selected writers from Africa, India, the Caribbean, and Australia and to the political and cultural issues that affect writing and reading across cultures and political inequalities. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 350 Studies in Writing and Rhetoric
Exploration of topics in writing, literacy, language use, and argument from a range of theoretical and practical perspectives. The course examines how humans use written language to communicate ideas, to argue points, to create identities, to educate each other, and to maintain social structures. Students learn to think about such uses in sophisticated ways and gain a better understanding of their own experiences with written language. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 351 Environmental Writing
This course is designed to engage students in advanced writing about nature and the environment. A central focus of the course will be an examination of the language and rhetoric used to describe these crucial issues in various popular, government, and scholarly contexts. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205, 250, 251, or 255 and permission of the instructor.
ENG 352 Special Topics in Black Literature
A study of a special area of literature by black writers. Among the topics considered are autobiography, theater, contemporary writing, modern African novels, and such major writers as Baldwin and Wright. The choice of topics varies from year to year. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 355 Race Theory
This course provides an introduction to theories and representations of race and racism as applied to the analysis of literature and culture. The aim of the course is to trace the protean uses of race in history and to place contemporary debates on race into historical context. Readings focus on a broad range of literary and cultural texts in order to trace the emergence and/or transformation of race in intellectual and social contestation.[W]
Prerequisite: English 205, and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 360 Advanced Creative Writing
The course extends upon the writing skills that students developed in introductory courses in imaginative writing. Students engage in regular intensive workshops in which their creative writing is critiqued. The course requires completion of advanced exercises in structure and style and the composition of a final portfolio of imaginative writing. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205, 250, 251, or 255; Permission of instructor required.
ENG 365 Seminar in Literary Criticism
An advanced introduction to the history of literary criticism and its dominant theoretical practices. Students read representative texts from various schools of criticism-formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, Marxism, psychoanalysis, gender studies, cultural studies—and apply them to several literary works. Recommended for students seeking honors in English or considering graduate study in literature. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205, and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 369 Writers in Focus
The study of one, two, or three writers in depth. Topics vary from semester to semester and will be announced during registration period. May be taken more than once with different content. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205, and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 370, 371, 374-379 Special Topics
A seminar on a topic selected by an instructor. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 387 Nineteenth-Century American Poetry
Intensive study of poems, poets, and poetic forms in the United States from the War of 1812 to the turn of the twentieth century. Particular focus on Whitman, Dickinson, Longfellow, and Melville. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 390, 391 Independent Study
A program of tutorial study, initiated by the student and pursued independently under the guidance of an instructor from whom the student has gained approval and acceptance. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 395 Problems and Possibilities: Literary Research Seminar
Literary research, like all research, entails both discovering answers and, more interestingly perhaps, discovering questions: finding uses for already-available evidence. We will do research in both these senses of the word. This course is an opportunity to find out what resources exist, what they are good for, and how to incorporate research into readable and lively papers. Seminar members will provide an interested and inquisitive audience for each others’ projects. These projects, culminating in a substantial research-based essay, will be on topics chosen from a wide range of possible inquiries into literature and language. The course is designed for anyone interested in research and should be of particular value to present or prospective independent study and honors students and to those contemplating graduate or professional study. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205, and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213), or permission of the instructor.
ENG 495, 496 Thesis
Tutorial sessions related to the student’s investigation of the area chosen for his or her honors essay. Open only to candidates for honors in English. [W]
Prerequisite: English 205 and a literary history course (English 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, or 213). Permission of the Associate Department Head required.