English (M.A.) Course Descritions

ENGL 501 RESEARCH METHODS AND HUMANITIES COMPUTING I

Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course prepares students for graduate study in English with training in Humanities Computing. Students will examine research sources, methodologies, and related topics; current scholarship in modern languages and literature; and the history of academic literary studies. Students will also study searching techniques for Public Access Catalogs, electronic databases, and the Internet. Students will work with electronic media: CD-ROMs and text analysis software. Students will be introduced to a wide variety of electronic resources, including newsgroups, LISTSERVs, and web sites.

ENGL 502 METHODS AND HUMANITIES COMPUTING II

Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course prepares students for graduate study in English with training in Humanities Computing. Students will apply their knowledge of resources (traditional and electronic) and methodologies. Students will obtain an overview of contemporary literature theory to explore resulting issues and conflicts. Students will advance their knowledge of Humanities Computing by learning about available Humanities Computing resources; by studying TEI (Text Encoding Initiative), HTML (HyperText Markup Language), and SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language); by writing web pages and hypertext applications with HTML, and by analyzing and preparing electronic texts (including SGM-L Standard General Markup Language.

ENGL 545 ADVANCED GRAMMAR

Former course number 445 Prerequisite: None Credits: 3

This course is a practical focus on language form and use. It is an intensive study of American English grammar, drawing upon contributions from traditional language scholarship and from more recent communicative approaches to grammar study.

ENGL 600 PRACTICUM IN TEACHING COLLEGE COMPOSITION

Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This practicum provides supervised teaching experience in the freshman composition program (English 100, 101, or 102) as preparation for teaching at the community college, college, or university levels. Students will teach one course under the direction of the Director of Freshman Composition; develop specific instructional units that meet the goals of the relevant syllabus; grade student essays; keep a journal of their classroom teaching experiences, focusing on the application of the theory and research learned in 503 and 504; and write a final evaluative paper.

ENGL 601 RHETORICAL THEORIES AND PRACTICES I

Former course number 503 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course will trace the historical influence of the rhetorical tradition on today's discourse as it is used in various contexts and communities. Students will study the language of rhetorical analysis and apply its principles to various texts, including essays, letters, and speeches. Students will experience the principles of rhetorical theory first-hand through a series of assignments (described on the syllabus). With its emphasis on argument and the relationship between writer, text, and audience, the course could be useful for practicing classroom teachers as well as those intending to enter the classroom.

ENGL 602 RHETORICAL THEORIES AND PRACTICES II

Former course number 504 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course focuses on modern/contemporary rhetorical theories and how to use these theories to analyze examples of modern/contemporary discourse. The goal is to determine how an argument is built or meaning created for the reader or writer of a piece of discourse.

ENGL 710 SPECIAL TOPICS IN FICTION

Former course number 510 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

An intensive study of fiction, including the literary traditions of America and/or Great Britain.   The course will investigate the formal techniques of fiction as they reflect both aesthetic and cultural ideologies. Additionally, an understanding of the literary and historical traditions of the fiction will provide context for the work.

ENGL 711 SPECIAL TOPICS IN POETRY

Former course number 511 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

An intensive study of poetry, including the literary traditions of America and/or Great Britain and prosody. The course will investigate the formal techniques of poetry as they reflect both aesthetic and cultural ideologies. Additionally, an understanding of the literary and historical traditions of the poetry will provide context for the work.

ENGL 712 SPECIAL TOPICS IN DRAMA

Former course number 512 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course provides an intensive study of drama. The course investigates the formal techniques of drama as they reflect both aesthetic and cultural ideologies. Additionally, an understanding of the literary and historical traditions of drama provides contexts for the work.

ENGL 713 SPECIAL TOPICS IN WOMEN LITERATURE

Former course number 513 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

An in-depth, cross-cultural study of selected women's literary expression and representation encompassing the genres of fiction, non-fiction prose, poetry, orature, and film. These works will be grouped under the topics: early Western feminist thought; women's autobiographical writing; the literature of women in migration; post-colonial and post-slavery women's writing; women's orature and women's representation in film. Current feminist critical theory will be studied and applied where appropriate with the respective social, political, cultural and historical contexts of the works being taken into accounts.

ENGL 714 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ETHNIC/MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE

Former course number 514 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course is an in-depth study of literary works written in English by contemporary ethnic minority writers in North America. Students will explore representative works-- in fiction, non-fiction prose, poetry, drama, and criticism 231 in the context of minority discourse. Past offerings of this course focused on Asian American literature-encompassing Chinese American literature, Filipino American literature, Japanese American literature, South Asian American literature, and Vietnamese American literature.

ENGL 715 SPECIAL TOPICS IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL LITERATURE

Former course number 515 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

An intensive study of American autobiography primarily from a historical perspective. This course will explore various forms of the genre, including the diary and journals, letters, slave narratives, essay, and memoir. Topics to be addressed include the ways autobiographies reveal or reflect the social history of the United States, the relationship of literacy to freedom in the African American community, and the reasons for the autobiography being the preferred form of first-generation immigrants. Larger theoretical issues include the nature of "truth" in autobiographical texts and the boundaries between fiction and autobiography.

ENGL 733 SEMINAR IN LITERATURE OF THE CARIBBEAN

Former course number 533 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

An intensive study of the literary traditions of the Caribbean.  Representative works- in non-fiction prose, fiction, poetry, and drama--will be studied in the cultural, historical, social contexts in which they were written. And, where appropriate, the theories of literature of the traditions will be explored.

ENGL 734 SEMINAR IN LITERATURE OF THE EAST

Former course number 534 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

An intensive study of the literary tradition of China or India or Japan. Representative works- in non-fiction prose, fiction, poetry, and drama--will be studied in the cultural, historical, social contexts in which they were written. And, where appropriate, the theories of literature of each tradition will be explored.

ENGL 737 CRITICISM AND THEORY

Former course number 537 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course examines literary practice and theory from Plato to the present. Particular attention will be paid to trends in contemporary criticism and theory from Historical-Biographical Criticism to Formalism (New Criticism) to Structuralism, Deconstruction, Reader-Response, New Historicism and Cultural Materialism, Feminist Criticism, Marxist Criticism, Psychological Criticism, Postcolonial Criticism and Multiculturalism, Narratology, and Cultural Criticism.

ENGL 755 SEMINAR IN AMERICAN LITERATURE

Former course number 555 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

An intensive study of American literature, this seminar will focus on one of the following areas of exploration: (1) a literary movement or period, (2) a major writer, (3) a theme that runs through literary works by a number of American writers, (4) the influence of one major writer on another major writer.

ENGL 756 SEMINAR IN BRITISH LITERATURE

Former course number 556 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course is a seminar in a topic or topics in English literature. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the history of the English novel; Gothic and horror literature; Romanticism and revolution; pastoral poetry; the epic and romance tradition; Victorian decadent writers; the stream of consciousness novel; utopian/dystopian literature, and etc. This course is designed to enhance the ability of students to apply various trends in critical theory (such as feminism, deconstruction, psychoanalytic criticism, new historicism, reader-response criticism, cultural criticism, multiculturalism, etc.) to a particular aspect of or approach to English literature, which falls under the rubric of a particular genre, mode, period, movement, or theme.

ENGL 757 SEMINAR IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

Former course number 557 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

An in-depth exploration of the major genres, themes, styles and traditions that link literary voices of contemporary African American writers with their historical literary ancestors. Using representative works in fiction, non-fiction prose, poetry, oratory, criticism, and film, the course will examine the African American experience from the cultural, historical, and socio-political perspective of the African American writer.

ENGL 758 SEMINAR IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

Former course number 558 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This seminar will explore in depth a theme common to the literature of one or more countries of the African continent.

ENGL 759 SEMINAR IN WORLD LITERATURE

Former course number 559 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This seminar will explore in depth a theme common to the literature of one or more countries or geographical regions of the world.

ENGL 763 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LINGUISTICS

Former course number 563 Prerequisites: None Credits: 3

This course will examine a range of contemporary issues in linguistics that relate to how people acquire or learn language and how they use language to accomplish various purposes. The focus of the course may vary from one semester to another. The students will appreciate the central role of language in people's lives. The readings will highlight how people's attitudes affect language and language use, and how language affects people and their attitudes. Other issues such as the role of age in language learning and acquisition will be covered on occasion.

ENGL 799 ENGLISH COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION

Former course number 699 Prerequisites: Advancement to Candidacy,

Completion of all prerequisites, resolution of all Incomplete grades Credits: 0

The comprehensive examination is a comprehensive test on the core concepts and issues within the discipline. The examination is a three hour test administered by the Graduate School.