Course Descriptions
Writing
Fulfillment of the Core Requirement is a prerequisite for advanced writing courses. The Core Writing Sequence is expected to be completed by the end of the fourth semester at the College.
ENGL 100 ACADEMIC ENGLISH I (C)*
This course develops the four language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking for English language learners. Particular competencies that will be covered include: grammar, vocabulary development, skimming, scanning, reading comprehension, thesis statement development, writing an outline, sequencing, and the 5-paragraph essay. This course if for international students only and it will be used by international students to satisfy part of the college’s Core Modern Language and Literature requirement (3 credits).
ENGL 102 ACADEMIC ENGLISH II (C)*
This course is a continuation of ENGL 100, Academic English I. Students continue to practice and develop their English language writing, grammar, reading, listening and speaking, and vocabulary skills. Students will also begin to develop the skills necessary to write analytical essays, shifting from the sentence-level focus of ENGL 100 to more advanced writing concerns. This course will be used by international students to satisfy part of the College’s Core Modern Language and Literature requirement (3 credits).
ENGL 110 WRITING IN CONTEXT I (C)*
This is the first of the required two-course sequence in the Core Writing instruction. It provides students with the expository writing skills necessary to succeed in college. In addition, it provides them with a background in poetry, short fiction, and drama, and with the tools necessary to respond to such literature in writing. Students must pass WIC I with a C or better to become eligible to register for ENGL 120. (3 credits).
ENGL 120 WRITING IN CONTEXT II (C)*
This is the second of the required two-course sequence in writing, Writing in Context II, builds on the skills learned in ENGL 110 by providing students with the writing, critical-thinking, information literacy, and research skills necessary for success in college and in the professional world. The emphasis is on analysis, argument, and research. Students must pass this course with a grade of C or better. (3 credits).
Prerequisite: ENGL 110
ENGL 203 WRITING WORKSHOP
This course is a sequence of writing projects combining classroom, cooperative, and independent out-of-class activities, with emphasis on effective invention, arrangement and style, and practice in data-based writing (3 credits).
ENGL 217/ THTR 230 ADVANCED WRITING: NARRATIVE
This is a workshop process course in which students explore and develop their creativity in the writing of fiction, biography, autobiography or other narrative forms (3 credits).
ENGL 219 ADVANCED WRITING: NONFICTION
This is a workshop process course in which students create short pieces in contemporary non-fiction forms such as interviews, personal profiles, travel writing, science writing, reviews and commentary, and research and write a major expository article in the area of their choice. This course is offered on alternate Fall semesters (3 credits).
ENGL 243 “A DREAM DEFERRED:” THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE AND THE BLACK MIGRATION (C)*
From Langston Hughes’ poetry to the paintings of Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series and Stevie Wonder’s 1973 hit “Living for the City,” tales of migration from the rural South to the urban North abound in African-American art forms. This course focuses on migration narratives and the literary production (fiction, poetry, and essays) of the Harlem Renaissance, and examines ideas and images of home, freedom, and mobility. (3 credits).
Prerequisite: ENGL 110 Writing in Context I
ENGL 246 THE EPIC TRADITION IN LITERATURE AND FILM (C)*
This course is designed to foster an understanding and appreciation of the epic, especially those of Homer, Virgil, and Dante, and of modern texts that are indebted to the epic tradition. Students read selected literary texts and view scenes from them as they have been interpreted in modern films.
Prerequisite: ENGL 110 Writing in Context I
ENGL 270 LYRICS AND LYRIC: THE INTERSECTION OF POETRY AND SONG (C)*
What happens when song lyrics from a wide variety of musical eras and genres (including song writers ranging from 60s folk to contemporary hip hop artists) are placed in the context of the history of lyric poems? This course will introduce students to the study of poetry and poetics. In particular, we will address the questions: What is poetry? Are songs poems? Who gets to decide? (3 credits)
Prerequisite: ENGL 110 Writing in Context I
ENGL 271 THE POWER OF ENCHANTMENT: POETRY, SEDUCTION, AND WITCHCRAFT (C)*
Language is powerful and dangerous. Love letters do something, if they are well written: they charm and seduce. Witches chant to make something occult happen—their magic spells employ secret language and bewitching rhythms. This class will examine the power of language to enchant, bewitch, and seduce. We will read lyric poems, short stories, and selections from plays; we will also consider song lyrics and speeches in films. Authors may include: Petrarch, Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Edna Millay, Lewis Carroll, Anne Sexton, Stephen King, and Louise Glück. Lyricists may include Sade, Drake, and Beyoncé. Films may include Roxanne and The Postman. (3 credits )
Prerequisite: ENGL 110
ENGL 296 LANGUAGE AND THE INDIVIDUAL IN SOCIETY
In this course, Students explore theories of language to discover how human beings acquire and use discourse, and learn to negotiate within various discourse communities. The course also provides an introduction to semantics, stylistic techniques, and the social, mental, intellectual, political and literary functions of language (3 credits).
ENGL 300 CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP: FICTION
This is a workshop class in writing fiction for publication. Topic varies, and is published at time of registration. Instructors are professional writers in the genre, either on the English faculty or teaching in collaboration with them (3 credits).
ENGL 301/THTR 210 CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP: DRAMA
This is a workshop class in writing drama for production. Topic varies, and is published at time of registration. Instructors are professional writers in the genre, either on the English faculty or teaching in collaboration with them (3 credits).
ENGL 302 CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP: POETRY
This is a workshop class in writing poetry for publication. Topic varies, and is published at time of registration. Instructors are professional writers in the genre, either on the English faculty or teaching in collaboration with them (3 credits).
ENGL 304 ADVANCED WRITING: ARGUMENT
In this course, students explore and define their positions on topics of their choosing, and research and argue their point of view orally and in writing. The ability to articulate knowledge and opinions credibly in academic writing is a primary goal; attention will be given to the public discourse of the student’s chosen field (3 credits).
ENGL 325 PROFESSIONAL WRITING
This is a course in transactional writing, to help students develop practical writing skills while analyzing discourses and documents from a variety of disciplines. Forms include analyses, reports, proposals, case studies, business letters and memos, resumes and letters of application (3 credits).
ENGL 345 DIALOGUE WITH WORLD WRITERS
This a course designed to foster understanding and appreciation of world writers, especially current ones, and to introduce students to different perspectives from which to write about literature (3 credits).
ENGL 400: ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING, FICTION
This is a follow-up to ENGL 300: Creative Writing – Fiction This class hones the skills and practices necessary to prepare students to write and publish short stories and longer works of fiction (3 credits).
Prerequisite: ENGL300 Creative Writing – Fiction
ENGL 449 SENIOR WRITING STUDIO
This is a workshop to polish and hone writing skills, as the capstone of the student’s undergraduate writing portfolio. Each student will complete two papers and a proposal for future work, to demonstrate writing proficiency in the discourse of the chosen major or discipline. The course is required for senior writing minors (3 credits).
Prerequisites: ENGL 296, two advanced writing courses and must be seniors in the English Secondary Education Track with a minimum 2.8 index in writing minor courses
ENGL 375, 475 INTERNSHIP (3 credits each)
Literature
ENGL 297 TOPICS IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE I
This is an introduction to basic issues of language and/or literary theory, with rotating topics, to be announced at registration time (3 credits).
Prerequisite: ENGL 120 Writing in Context II
ENGL 303 SHAKESPEARE
During this course, students explore selected comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances, as theatrical scripts and literary texts, in the context of Renaissance English life (3 credits).
ENGL 307 THE NOVEL
This course involves reading and discussion of major novels from American, English, and world literature, with emphasis on developing trends. Context course, alternating with Topics courses in the genre (3 credits).
ENGL 311 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE
This course involves the close reading of Jonson, Donne, Milton, and other writers, against the backdrop of a culture at war with itself. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 313 WOMEN AND LITERATURE
This course centers around the study of gender issues in selected poems, short fiction, and novels, primarily by nineteenth and twentieth-century women writers (3 credits).
ENGL 314 / THTR 110 DRAMA
This course centers around the study of the development of Western drama from its beginnings in ancient Greece to the present. Emphasis on the literary and theatrical aspects of representative plays, and their relation to the cultural milieu in which they were produced (3 credits).
ENGL 315-316 THE ENGLISH TRADITION IN LITERATURE
This course is a study of the development and continuity of English literature emphasizing selected works of major writers, literary movements, and the evolution of literary forms. Required for sophomore English majors; open to non-majors with permission of instructor (3 credits each).
ENGL 317 INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY INTERPRETATION
This course is a study of the basic skill set of an English major: close analysis, literary theory, and research methods. Required for all English majors entering in Fall 2007 and after. Open to non-majors with permission of instructor. The course is offered every Spring (3 credits).
ENGL 318 CHAUCER
This course is a study of The Canterbury Tales with secondary emphasis on other works in the Chaucerian canon. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 319 THE AGE OF SATIRE
This course is a response to the social, political, and cultural milieu of the eighteenth century. Close reading of Dryden, Swift, Pope, Johnson, and other writers; attention paid to the birth of the English novel in works by Defoe, Fielding, and Austen. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 320 WORLD LITERATURE (C)*
This is a Core Curriculum enrichment course, inviting close reading of selected texts of world-renown and discussion of them in global context. This course is not for English credit (3 credits).
ENGL 328/ THTR 120 PLAYS IN PERFORMANCE
This course is an interactive introduction to Drama and theatre. We will use New York City theatre as our primary “textbook” — with five of the course’s 14 evenings meeting in the city to see a range of theatre. The course is designed to explore the relationship between drama as literature and as a blueprint for performance. We will combine in-depth script analysis with an introduction to the basic theatrical arts: acting, directing, and design (3 credits).
ENGL 334 AMERICAN LITERATURE I: FROM THE ORIGINS THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR
This is a study and discussion of the development of American Literature and literary history from the early Colonial Period to the eve of the Civil War. Major topics include the complex legacy of Puritanism, the anxious state of American authorship, the modes of American individualism, and the relationship between history and cultural mythology. The course is required for English majors; open to non-majors with permission of instructor (3 credits).
ENGL 335 AMERICAN LITERATURE II: FROM THE CIVIL WAR UNTIL 1945
This course involves the study and discussion of the development of American Literature and literary history from the post-Civil War period through 1945. The course evaluates the origins, characteristics and interrelationships between American realism and American modernism. The course is required for English majors; open to non-majors with permission of instructor (3 credits).
ENGL 336 MAJOR AMERICAN WRITERS
This course is a seminar-style class in which students will perform an in-depth analysis of several works by a single, significant American writer or works by a cluster of interrelated, significant American writers, with at least one of the writers having written after 1945. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 345 DIALOGUE WITH WORLD WRITERS
This a course designed to foster understanding and appreciation of world writers, especially current ones, and to introduce students to different perspectives from which to write about literature (3 credits).
ENGL 401 THE ROMANTIC AGE
This course focuses on major trends of nineteenth-century romanticism, with reading and discussion of writers who shaped English literature from 1798 to 1837. There will be special emphasis on the revolutionary impulses that fueled the work of Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley; the role of women novelists like Radcliffe, Austen and Mary Shelley, and lesser known female poets. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 403 THE VICTORIAN AGE
This course focuses on reading and discussion of major authors in light of the mid and late nineteenth-century cultural, historical and political atmosphere. Introduction to theoretical perspectives on works by Dickens, the Brontes and the Brownings, as well as less celebrated texts. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 417 MODERN LITERATURE I
This course is a study and discussion of modern British, Irish, and American authors from 1890 to 1950, with emphasis on international literary movements. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 418 MODERN LITERATURE II
During this course, students will be introduced to major poetical movements, major playwrights, and the diverse types of novels that are part of the literary world in the West so heavily impacted by the experience of World War II, existentialism, the Beat Generation, Civil Rights movements, feminist concerns, and the early presence of multiculturalism. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 419 CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
This course is a study discussion of recent English language works by American, British and international authors, with emphasis on contemporary issues of multiculturalism, gender identity, the impact of mass media on literature, and the question of popular vs.” academic” writing. This is a context course (3 credits).
ENGL 421 TOPICS IN LITERATURE II
This course involves the close study of one or more selected authors, or of a genre or theme in literature, such as the dream vision, the millennium, or science fiction. Context course, with specific subject published at time of registration. Context course (3 credits).
ENGL 450 COORDINATING SEMINAR
This is an advanced seminar exploring in depth a literary topic, a single author, genre, or problem, involving several oral presentations and the submission of several papers demonstrating students’ analytical and critical abilities. The seminar is required for senior English majors (3 credits).
ENGL 460, 461 INDEPENDENT STUDY (3 credits)
ENG/THTR INDEPENDENT STUDY WRITING FOR PERFORMANCE
Students in the Playwriting and Storytelling concentration are required to work with a professor to setup an independent writing project that will focus on the development of a large scale performance piece (e.g., full length play, solo performance monologue, storytelling performance script), or a series of smaller pieces (e.g., short plays, one act plays). (3 credits)
ENGL 375, 475 INTERNSHIP (3 credits each)
(C)* May be taken to meet Core Requirements