English

Degrees and Certificates

Courses

ENGL 101: Academic Writing

This course is the study and application of the principles and techniques necessary for successful thesis-based academic research writing. We pay particular attention to process: researching and prewriting, drafting, integrating sources and citing them accurately, and revising. Major Formal Assignments focus on the effective use of research and writing techniques commonly employed in academic writing. During class, you will learn about composition and academic research, discuss reading and writing assignments, and reflect on and improve your own writing. Outside of class, you will complete readings and informal writing assignments while also composing and revising your Major Formal Assignments.

ENGL 102: College Essay Genres

This course is the study and application of the principles and techniques necessary for successful thesis-based academic research writing. We pay particular attention to process: researching and prewriting, drafting, integrating sources and citing them accurately, and revising essays in the genres of the literature review, the formal report, and the researched argument. Major Formal Assignments focus on the effective use of research and writing techniques commonly employed in academic writing. During class, you will learn about composition and academic research, discuss reading and writing assignments, and reflect on and improve your own writing. Outside of class, you will complete readings and informal writing assignments while also composing and revising your Major Formal Assignments and Final Portfolio.

ENGL 115: Introduction to Creative Writing

This course is designed to familiarize students with the concept of the creative writing workshop, a forum that provides collective and constructive criticism of students’ creative works. This course introduces the concept of the creative writing workshop to students and provides a space to develop an understanding of the basic techniques and terminology of writing poetry and prose.

ENGL 150: Honors Freshman English

This is a course for freshmen of superior ability and accomplishment. It focuses on the close reading of novels and emphasizes critical and creative writing in relation to them. This course is an alternative to ENGL 102. Usually offered Fall semester. Enrollment is by invitation only.

ENGL 156: Introduction to Literary Studies

This course is dedicated to studying poetry, fiction, and drama by international authors from diverse cultures. Primary emphasis is on the process of applying students’ knowledge of genre and relevant terminology to the close reading of literary texts. Students are introduced to various critical approaches to reading, researching, and writing about literature including Feminist Theory, Marxist Theory, Reader Response Criticism, and New Historicism.

ENGL 160: Introduction to Film

This course is an introduction to the study of film as a cultural and technical artifact and as a form of art. Students learn basic principles of film aesthetics and production to provide the skills necessary to “read” the film as art. The course also places a strong emphasis on the social context of film and the place movies hold in our culture, and introduces the general areas of study within film scholarship. (This course may be taken for credit as COMM 160.)

ENGL 200: Literature and Literary Diversity

This course is an introduction to the study of poetry, drama, and fiction and an exploration of the diversity of literary expression. Students study the elements of each of the primary genres and examine their interrelationships and functioning in particular works. In the course a wide range of writings are studied, including those by women and men, those representative of diverse literary traditions (including British, American, European, and non-Western), and those reflecting a variety of American ethnic and racial backgrounds. Preference is given to students preparing to teach in elementary, middle, or secondary school.

ENGL 202: Boom! Splat! Comics as Literature

This course centers around the impact that comics and graphic novels and memoirs have had upon American culture and the literary canon, from Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast’s work and its role in the election of President Ulysses S. Grant, to the golden age of newspaper comic strips, and into the 21st century with the emerging importance of the graphic memoir by writers like Alison Bechdel and Art Spiegelman. Students in this course examine the academic value of comic books and graphic novels through the study of their history, similarity to other forms of literature, their own specialized literary and artistic techniques, and development as compelling narratives.

ENGL 207: Performing and Literary Arts for Education Majors (and Beyond)

This course introduces students to techniques from stand-up comedy and improvisation to help future teachers become more comfortable speaking in front of groups and thinking on their feet. Students study creative writing and multimedia methods for communicating with audiences through images, symbols, and visual/filmic language. English majors in the education track learn to create engaging course material and increase their knowledge of creative writing, performance, and multimedia art. Students in other majors improve their public speaking skills while also learning to read and create literary, multimedia, and performing artworks. Preference is given to students preparing to teach the English Language Arts.

ENGL 212: Writing for College and Community

This course focuses on primary research and writing skills as tools to explore the value of “service” within various subcultures. Students participate in service projects that meet actual community needs and reflect on the projects by thinking, talking, and writing about their experiences. Students increase knowledge of real life situations in the community and consider the effectiveness of state and nationally sponsored service organizations while examining various approaches to civic responsibility.

ENGL 220: Writing for Business and Industry

This course is an introduction to writing for the business world. Subjects covered include employment documents (applications, cover letters, resumes, job descriptions); business letters; summaries; informal reports (trip reports, occurrence reports, investigative reports); procedural instructions; process descriptions; and various types of memoranda, including electronic.

ENGL 223: Technical Writing

This is a workshop for training and practice in the written communication of specialized information to audiences with varying levels of knowledge. Emphasis is on the analysis of audience and purpose, the selection and organization of information, the creation of informative graphics, and the uses of conventional formats. Students learn to develop summaries and abstracts, instruction sets, proposals, progress and completion reports, and other types of written documents often required of professionals. Students make use of the College’s computer facilities for word processing and for generating graphs, tables, charts, illustrations, and other visuals. Offered Fall semester in odd-numbered years.

ENGL 230: Writing and the Environment

This is an intermediate-level essay-writing course focusing on the development of such skills as observing, reflecting, making connections, classifying, and integrating. Essay assignments emphasize seeing the natural world from the broader perspective of understanding the interaction of nature with civilization, the symbiotic relationships inherent in nature, and the life cycles of nature. Preparation for writing assignments includes field trips and other activities both on and off the Bethany campus.

ENGL 240: Creative Writing

This is an intensive course in imaginative writing. Students write sketches, short fiction, poems, and dramatic scenes. Students use the College’s computer facilities for independent writing, specific course assignments, in-class writing, electronic intraclass communication, small-group conferences, and submission of some assignments. (This course is required for students preparing to teach secondary school English. Enrollment is limited to 15 students with preference given to juniors and seniors.)

ENGL 245: British Literature I

These courses examine the development of British literature from the beginning through the 20th century. First Semester: from Beowulf through Milton. Second Semester: from the Restoration to the present.

ENGL 246: British Literature II

These courses examine the development of British literature from the beginning through the 20th century. First Semester: from Beowulf through Milton. Second Semester: from the Restoration to the present.

ENGL 264: Masterpieces of Drama

This course is a study of the development of Western drama. Emphasis is on the evolution of dramatic types and forms, on techniques for reading and understanding plays, and on the analysis and evaluation of dramatic works.

ENGL 266: Masterpieces of European Literature

This course is an examination of major literary works by European writers in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Writings are studied by such authors as Voltaire, Moliere, Rousseau, Stendhal, the brothers Grimm, Goethe, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg.

ENGL 267: Masterpieces of World Literature

This course is a study of literary works representing a cross-section of the world’s cultural traditions. Readings range from the ancient (such as the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh) to the contemporary (such as the novels of the Nigerian Chinua Achebe), from the East (such as the Japanese Noh and Kabuki plays) to the West (such as the magical realism of the Columbian Gabriel Garcia Marquez), and from the traditional (such as the Japanese haikus of Matsuo Basho) to the westernized (such as the modem Chinese poetry of Wen I-to); however, emphasis is on writing from more recent eras. The relationship of particular literary works to other aspects of the cultures in which they were produced (especially music and the visual arts) is examined. Preference is given to students preparing to teach in elementary, middle, or secondary school.

ENGL 268: Modern World Literature

This is a study of the work of 20th century writers representing the diverse cultural traditions of the modem world. In addition to writings representing the western tradition, works are studied representing such traditions as the Eastern European, the Middle Eastern, the African, the Latin American, and the Asian.

ENGL 270: Shakespeare

Major plays of William Shakespeare are studied in this course. Both the texts of the plays and the cultural context that produced them are examined.

ENGL 275: American Short Stories

This course is a survey of the development of the short story in America from its beginnings in the early 19th century to the present. The course considers the short story as a literary form and examines major writers of short stories, such as Poe, Hawthorne, Twain, James, Chopin, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, O’Connor, Updike, Baldwin, Oates, Morrison, and Erdrich.

ENGL 311: Poetry Writing Workshop

This is an intensive workshop for training and practice in the writing of poetry. (Enrollment is limited.) Usually offered Spring semester in even-numbered years.

ENGL 312: Fiction Writing Workshop

This is an intensive workshop for training and practice in the writing of fiction. (Enrollment is limited.) Usually offered Spring semester in odd-numbered years.

ENGL 314 : Playwriting Workshop

Playwriting is a workshop course in which students will explore writing for theatre through practical writing, discussion, and analysis of live theatre. Students will study the major components of playwriting including action, dialogue, and character development. Understanding of these components will be deepened through workshopping of written assignments, providing and receiving feedback, reading dramatic works, and attending productions. By the end of this course, students will have written and revised two ten-minute plays.

ENGL 320: Women and Literature: The Middle Ages and Renaissance

This course explores women writers from the period whose work was largely ignored until the 20th century. Authors include Domna H. Garsenda, the Countesse of Dia, Marie de France, Julian of Norwich, Heloise, Christine de Pisan, Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Franco, Chiara Matraini, Gaspara Stampa, Laura Cereta, Marguerite de Navarre, Lousie Labe, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Mary Sidney, Mary Wroth, Elizabeth Cary, and Margaret Cavendish.

ENGL 321: Women and Literature: Modern Western World

This is a study of poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fiction prose about women by British and European women writers. Emphasis is on literary responses to such subjects as childhood, adolescence, marriage, and old age; to the roles of daughter, sister, friend, lover, wife, and mother; to life-style and vocation; and to social issues. Consideration is also given to theoretical formulations about women and their social and literary functions.

ENGL 340: Harry Potter: Background and Criticism

This course introduces students to the literary traditions upon which J. K. Rowling built the Harry Potter books, and on the discourse of theoretical and literary scholarship of her novels. Readings in the tradition include authors such as Hughes, Kipling, Nesbit, White, and Dahl, and scholarly approaches from Jungian, Freudian, Feminist, Marxist, Human Rights, and Ecological perspectives.

ENGL 351: Literary Criticism and Theory

This is a study of literary theory, the history of literary criticism, and applied approaches to literary criticism. Special emphasis is placed on the preparation of essays applying particular theories and demonstrating a variety of critical points of view.

ENGL 360: Classic British Novels

This is a study of novels by major British writers from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. Emphasis is on the analysis of specific novels and their relationships to the development of British literature. Usually offered Fall semester in even-numbered years.

ENGL 365: Classic American Novels

This is a study of novels by major American writers from the early 19th century to World War II. Emphasis is on the analysis of specific novels and their relationships to the development of American literature. Usually offered Fall semester in odd-numbered years.

ENGL 366: Regional American Literature

This course allows students to focus on a distinct region of the United States by investigating how factors such as culture, history, and geography influence the region’s literature. Students are encouraged to contact the instructor before registering in order to learn which region will serve as the focus of the semester’s study.

ENGL 370: Introduction to Linguistics

This course introduces the basic concepts and terminology of linguistics. It incorporates the study of the acquisition and development of language from the earliest babbling to mature language patterns, including the examination of typical language abilities of children at various ages. (This course may be taken for credit as WLAC 370.)

ENGL 383: African American Novel

This course traces the evolution of the novel from the slave narrative through Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Black Arts Movement, to the neo-slave narrative and contemporary African American literature. While the novel is the focus of the course, special attention is paid to African American history and culture, as well as relevant scholarship and critical theory.

ENGL 385: Women and Literature: The American Experience

This course centers around writings by American women about their experiences as they have imagined, theorized, and otherwise rendered them. Because the course focuses heavily on the act of reading and analyzing literary texts, historical background, literary theory, and students’ critical thinking and writing figure prominently into the course.

ENGL 390 : Junior Seminar

 

This course is a seminar designed to aid students in the proposal of, research for, and work toward completion of a senior project

ENGL 414: Advanced Playwriting Workshop

Advanced playwriting is a workshop course in which students will continue their exploration of writing for theatre through practical writing, discussion, and analysis of love theatre. Students will continue to study the major components of playwriting including action, dialogue, and character development. Understanding of these components will be deepened through workshopping of written assignments, providing and receiving feedback, reading dramatic works, and attending productions. By the end of this course, students will have written and revised two one-act plays

ENGL 420-429: Seminar in Comparative Literature

These seminars provide students with the opportunity to study and compare literary works produced in a variety of cultural contexts. Works not written in English are studied in English translations.

ENGL 421: History of the Western Erotic Lyric

This course is an advanced study of Western erotic lyric poetry from the classical world to the seventeenth century. Among the writers considered are Sappho, Catullus, Propertius, Dante, the trobar and trobairitz poets, Petrarch, Gaspara Stampa, Ronsard, Sidney, Shakespeare, Carew, and Lovelace. This course is research based: students do research weekly and prepare seminar research essays.

ENGL 430: Chaucer

This course is a study of major works by Geoffrey Chaucer, with special attention given to his language, life, and times.

ENGL 430-449: Seminar in British Literature

These seminars provide students with the opportunity to study an author, period, movement, or tradition in British literature. (Enrollment in each course limited to 12 students. Topics change regularly.)

ENGL 433: The Restoration

This course examines the literature of the Restoration period of English History. With the restoration of the Stuarts, England authorized women on the stage and in the literary marketplace, and nourished the development of the early novel and experimental science. The literature strains to balance political liberty and personal libertinism with censorship and restraint, grapples with gender roles and sexual morality, and gives rise to one of the greatest periods of English comedy. Writers examined include Milton, Congreve, Wycherly, Ethridge, Behn, Centlivre, Bunyan, Pepys, Dryden, Waller, and Rochester.

ENGL 434: Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf

This course is a study of the works of Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf. Texts may include Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mrs. D allow ay, To the Lighthouse, Roger Fry, A Room of One s Own, and Orlando, as well as letters, diaries, short fiction, and essays.

ENGL 435: Brides, Bribes, and Bibles: The Early English Renaissance

The course investigates the late birth of the Renaissance in England. In the 1480’s the War of the Roses concluded and attention turned to the continent, as commercial publishing and Renaissance art and scholarship moved into the culture for the first time. Emphasis is on writers such as Malory, Tyndale, More, Skelton, Elyot, Heywood, Udall, Askew, Wyatt, and Surrey, and the adoption of Renaissance fashions in philosophy, literature, music, and art into a distinctly English form.

ENGL 440: Topics in Shakespeare

This is an advanced study of Shakespeare’s works and times, focusing on a particular genre (history, romance, comedy, tragedy) or theme (the family, kingship, courtship, Shakespeare and his sources, etc.).

ENGL 443: Seventeenth Century British Literature

This is a study of plays, poetry, and criticism of Ben Jonson; the Cavalier poets (Herrick, Lovelace, Suckling, and Waller); the Metaphysical poets (Donne, Herbert, Vaughn); the work of Samuel Pepys; and plays and criticism by Dryden.

ENGL 444: Elizabethan Drama

This course is a close reading of plays written by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. Emphasized is the work of Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe.

ENGL 445: Victorian Writers

This is an investigation of major poems by Tennyson and Browning, poems and criticism by Arnold, and novels by Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot.

ENGL 446: Milton

This is a study of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, with some attention to the sonnets, other minor poems, and the Areopagitica. Emphasis is on Milton’s theological ideas, architectonics, and relationships with the literature and political developments of his age.

ENGL 447: Eighteenth Century British Literature

This is a study of eighteenth century British writing. The first half emphasizes the neo-classical satirists, including Dryden, Pope, Swift, and Addison and Steele. The second half emphasizes the Johnson circle, including Samuel Johnson, Boswell, and Goldsmith. Pre-Romantic writers such as Gray, Thomson, and Bums are also considered.

ENGL 449: British Romanticism

This is a study of major British authors of the Romantic Period and the influences upon them. The course investigates works in various imaginative genres and the biographical and philosophical works of the period. Emphasis is on writers such as Blake, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Keats.

ENGL 450-459: Seminar in American Literature

These seminars provide students with the opportunity to study an author, period, movement, or tradition in American literature. (Enrollment in each course limited to 12 students. Topics change regularly.)

ENGL 453: Contemporary American Poetry

This course analyzes trends in recent American poetry since 1980. Students examine postmodern aesthetics that include post-confessional, documentary poetics, the New Sincerists, and the post-avant garde movements, among others.

ENGL 454: Hemingway

This is a study of Hemingway’s fiction from In Our Time through The Garden of Eden. Emphasis is on the evolution of Hemingway’s themes and style, on his revision process, and on the relation of his life to his work.

ENGL 455: American Women’s Poetry 1800-Present

This course is an examination of American poetry by women writing in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Writers whose poems may be studied include-but are not limited to-Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, Audre Lorde, Lucille Clifton, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Brenda Hillman, Marilyn Kallet, and Lyn Hejinian.

ENGL 456: Race, Gender, and Power in Early American Literature

This course is an examination of Early American Literature from the 16th century through the early 19th century. Students will read primary texts and secondary criticism paying particular attention to how race, gender, and power govern the writing and reception of Early American works. Writing requirements include brief response papers and formal seminar papers.

ENGL 462: Films of Alfred Hitchcock

This is a critical examination of cinematic technique and thematic concerns in major films by Alfred Hitchcock, such as The Lodger, Blackmail, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest, and Psycho.

ENGL 477: Senior Seminar

This course is a reading and research seminar designed to assist students to review, organize, and synthesize their knowledge of literature. (The course is open to qualified juniors intending to take comprehensive examinations in January.)

ENGL 480: Methods of Teaching English

This course is a study of materials and methods used in teaching middle and secondary school English. The course focuses on theories and contemporary practices. Particular emphasis is on examining important works of literature about or of special interest to adolescents, developing an understanding of and appreciation for adolescent literature, and learning and applying strategies and techniques for presenting the works to students. Also emphasized are learning and applying strategies for assessing and improving the reading skills of students. (This course may be taken for credit as EDUC 480. A 3 0 hour field placement is required.)

ENGL 481: The Practice of Tutorial Writing

This is an activity course providing instruction and practice in peer tutoring. Students enrolled in the course gain practical experience by serving as tutors in First-Year Seminars and/or the Writing Center. (CR/NCR only.) Open only to students selected by the Course Instructor.

ENGL 483: Teaching Composition and Language

This course examines historical and current theories of composition as a conceptual background for both teaching and writing, with emphasis on the writing process. Students practice both writing and teaching writing and learn and apply strategies for teaching grammar and integrating instruction in grammar with instruction in composition.

ENGL 487-488: Independent Study

The Department provides an opportunity for study in any area of English for which the student is qualified. Independent study is intended to supplement regular course offerings.

ENGL 489: Internship

The Department provides an opportunity for students to receive credit for an internship in any area of English for which the student is qualified.

ENGL 490: Senior Project

The senior project generally consists of a major critical paper on a topic developed from at least one of the student’s elective courses in the department. Sometimes projects may take other forms. Reading, research, and writing are completed during the student’s senior year, although the student is expected to consult with the chair of the Department and to begin preliminary work in the junior year.