English Course Descriptions
Fall 2013 Course Descriptions
Spring 2013 Course Descriptions
Literature
170 Special Topics in Literature (LT)
Critical reading and interpretation of literary texts. Encourages close reading as well as oral and written work in articulating understanding. May be repeated for credit if subject matter is not duplicated. Offered each semester.
Foundation Courses for the English Major
220 Literature and Its Signs
Examines how issues of representation, genre, and historical context cooperate in a “reading” of British, American, or other English language texts.May be repeated for credit if the subject matter is not duplicated. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium.Not all 220 sections receive general education credit in Literature. See current Program of Classes to determine if general education requirements are fulfilled. Offered annually.
231 Early English Drama (LT)
A study of the emergence of drama as a literary and a cultural forming Shakespeare’s era. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered in alternate years.
232 British Drama 1950 - Present (LT )
A study of important theatrical innovations and the staging of social and political issues in Great Britain from 1950 to the present. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered in alternate years.
233 American Drama: 1940- Present (LT, W)
A study of American drama of the past sixty to seventy years, with special focus on theatrical innovation and the staging of social issues. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered in alternate years.
241 Such a Knyght: Medieval Chivalry (LT)
Examines the rise and development of the feudal system and attendant cultural tensions in medieval texts— chronicles, biographies, epics, lyrics, romances, and their modern analogues. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered in alternate years.
243 A Survey of English Poems, 1500-1700 (LT)
Examines English poetry in early modern England. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered occasionally.
245 Comedy of Manners (LT)
Focus on comedy of manners and novel of manners, which often challenge a highly sophisticated society, and on the genre’s evolution from its beginnings in the 17th century to the present. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered in alternate years.
249 Writing in the Third World (LT, G)
Introduces basic questions and issues facing post-colonial writers: audience, relationship between culture and politics, adaptation of western literary forms, intervention in the historical record, and place of “orality” in “literature.” Readings in English. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered in alternate years.
258 On the Bus: The Beat Writers (LT)
Studies Beat Generation writings of the 40s and 50s and their literary and philosophical antecedents as social protest and as influences on succeeding generations. Includes film, documentaries, jazz, and music of protest. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered in alternate years.
259 Sex, Text, and Tradition in Black Women’s Writing (LT, U)
Examines fiction, poetry, drama, essays on culture and literature, and autobiography by women of African descent. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered annually.
272 Travel Course
Emphasis on texts in overseas or domestic contexts in which they were created or upon which they focus. All or most of May term will be spent off campus. May be repeated for credit if the topic is not duplicated. See current Program of Classes to determine if general education requirements are fulfilled. Offered in May Term.
280 Practical Criticism (W)
Practice in interpretation of texts through discussion and written work; attention to strategies of writing about literature, to critical vocabulary, and to critical approaches in current use. Restricted to English majors and minors only. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered each semester.
285x Introduction to Research in English
Design and completion of library or archive research project in language, literature, or culture under faculty tutelage. Research may serve as first step toward larger, independent research project, investigate an issue raised in student’s previous study, or complete a limited project using library or archive holdings or acquisitions. Prerequisite: consent of instructor and English department chair before enrollment. Credit/No Credit. Offered each semester and occasionally in May Term.
290 Grammar and Composition for Middle and High School English Teachers
Overview of grammar and writing strategies for teaching middle and secondary-level English. Enrollment limited to declared English majors and minors who have been accepted into the Teacher Education Program. Required for admission into Student Teaching grades 6-12 in English. Does not count toward the English major or minor. May not be taken credit/no credit. Prerequisites: Gateway Colloquium; completion of or concurrent enrollment in English 280 and one course taken at Illinois Wesleyan from among 220-259; sophomore standing and declared English major. Offered annually.
385x Advanced Research in English (0 units – Credit/No Credit)
Design and completion of advanced-level library or archive research project in language, literature, or culture under faculty tutelage. Research can build on previous coursework or study in 285x. Ideally, this research serves as a foundation for a project in English 485 or English research honors. Prerequisite: consent of instructor and English department chair before enrollment and a GPA in the major of at least 3.25.May be repeated with prior approval of instructor and chair. Offered each semester and occasionally in May Term.
341-357 Historical Periods and Movements
341 Medieval Literature (LT)
Readings of English and Continental texts from the 9th-15th century with selected readings in Middle English and in modern translation from Latin, Old French, Provencal, Welsh, and other traditions.May include Arthurian romance, the literature of courtly love, drama, lyric poetry, or writings of medieval mystics. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
342 Renaissance Literature (LT)
Investigates issues of representation of gender and sexuality, representations of the court, the place of the stage, versions of early modern selfhood, and moral theory in the Renaissance period, 1520-1660. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220-259, plus 280. Offered as needed.
343 Restoration and 18th Century (LT)
Focus on British authors between 1660–1789 who consider issues of aristocratic decadence, wit as a moral touchstone, emergence of the middle class, and gender through the use of satire, romance, the novel (epistolary, picaresque, comic), comedy of manners, sentimental and laughing comedy, neoclassical tragedy, and mock forms. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220-259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
344 Romantic Literature (LT)
Examines the great literature—much of it poetry— of the period 1789-1830. Addresses themes and issues characteristic of this time of unrest and redefinition. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220-259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
346 Victorian Literature (LT)
Focus on British novelists, poets, playwrights, and essayists between 1830-1900 who are drawn to themes of the divided self, middle class decorum, the fight for women’s suffrage and education, organization of the working class, responses to poverty, expansion of the British empire, and religious conversion and doubt. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220-259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
348 Recent and Contemporary British Literature (LT)
Examines literature of England, Ireland, and Scotland since 1930 with emphasis on aspects of experimentation in form resulting from the modernist movement and the backlash against it. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered occasionally.
351 American Literature to 1865 (LT)
Focus on aspect (s) of American literature up to the Civil War to form a coherent view of one part of the American experience.May examine poetry, drama, fiction, essays, journals, diaries, news articles, or collateral arts like painting and music. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220– 259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
352 American Literature after 1865 (LT)
Focus on aspect (s) of American literature since the Civil War to form a coherent view of American experience. Draws upon several literary and non-literary genres. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
354 American Literature Since 1945 (LT)
Focus on literary, historical, and cultural contexts and movements through faculty selected topics, e.g.., War and Literature, Black American Literature, The Modern Experiment and the Arts, or Postmodernism. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered occasionally.
356 Modernism (LT)
Emphasis and scope varies on American, British, or world modernism. Topics may include development of modernism, modernist views of language and art, the social contexts of literary modernism, for example. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered occasionally.
358-360 World Literatures
359 World Literature (LT, G)
Focus on 1) Anglophone literature of Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean, or 2) national literature in translation, or 3) comparative treatments of issues, authors or literary genres. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170, 220-259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
361-366 Genre Courses
361 Gender and the Novel (LT, U)
Examines the relationship between gender and contemporary novel forms in light of issues, ideas, and theories raised in feminist criticism. Topics: images of women, gender inscription in texts, treatment of traditional male novel form, male/female development, psycho-sexual difference, writing difference. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered as needed.
362 Electronic Fiction (LT)
Focus on the literary hypertext—a text to be read on the computer, with branches, loops and other non-linear or multilinear structures. Topics include precursors, formal elements and structures, relationships between hypertext and literary theories, and implications for the future of reading and writing. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered occasionally.
365 Autobiography (LT)
Examines this genre as a testing ground for the nature of literary form, art, and human agency, and especially as a site for investigating the role of memory, truth vs. fiction, and the self as a narrating subject. Topics include journey stories, culture and self, subversion of form, women’s auto-gynography, and popular/ journalistic contours of the form. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered occasionally.
366 Romance: The Genre (LT)
Focus on “the romance” form to develop a provisional definition based upon: formal conventions, generic evolution, transfigurations, deconstruction and instances of self-parody. Consideration of romance authors as revisionists or voices of social change. Readings from biblical romances to contemporary novels. Includes films. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered occasionally.
Special Topics
370 Special Topics in Literature
Courses with related objectives but varying content. May treat a genre (fiction, poetry, drama) or broad theme with extensive rather than specialized focus. May be repeated if subject matter is not duplicated. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. See current Program of Classes to determine if general education requirements are fulfilled. Offered occasionally.
380 Literary Theories
Focus on modern theoretical approaches to literature. While materials and emphases may vary, the course addresses multiple perspectives, twentieth century criticism, and concepts over practical applications. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
391-398 Author Studies
391 Chaucer (LT)
A study of Chaucer’s works in their cultural and biographical contexts. Emphasis on The Canterbury Tales, although other Chaucerian texts may be included. Readings in Middle English. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Offered in alternate years.
393 Shakespeare’s Comedies and Histories (LT) (WEFL)
394 Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Romances (LT) (WEFL)
Both courses investigate the ways our culture is informed by Shakespeare’s works and the ways in which we construct meaning from them. While both focus on the dramatic form, they may occasionally include the sonnets and verse romances. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220–259, plus 280. Each course offered annually.
398 Joyce (LT)
Examines James Joyce’s major works in cultural and historical contexts; emphasis on Ulysses. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium; 1 course from 170 or 220– 259, plus 280. Offered occasionally.
Courses for Seniors
480 Senior Seminar (W)
Intensive study of a particular topic, author, or genre. Enrollment limited. Prerequisite: Majors and minors with junior or senior standing and prior completion of at least two 300- or 400-level courses in literature. Offered each semester.
485 Directed Study in English
Independent study in English.May not duplicate the content of regularly offered courses. Enrollment limited to English majors. Prerequisite: consent of the instructor and the chair of the department. Student must submit a plan of study prior to enrollment. Offered each semester and occasionally in May Term.
Creative Writing
101 Introduction to Creative Writing (AR)
Examines theory and practice of writing creatively. Reading combined with practice in the basic processes of and strategies for writing fiction, poetry, or drama. Offered annually.
201 Writing Fiction
Workshop in reading and writing fiction while focusing on principles and techniques used by writers and on key elements of the story form. Students will complete stories and develop a portfolio. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered annually.
202 Writing Poetry
Workshop in reading and writing poetry while focusing on primary techniques and fundamental elements used in writing poetry, both formal and free verse. Students will complete a series of poems and develop a portfolio. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered annually.
206 Creative Nonfiction (W)
Workshop in reading and writing creative nonfiction while focusing on fundamentals, including situating experience, finding the right form, and developing a personal voice. Students will complete essays and develop a portfolio. Prerequisite: Gateway Colloquium. Offered in alternate years.
301 Seminar in Creative Writing (AR)
Seminar and workshop in a single genre or topic focusing on specific issues related to specific schools, styles or subjects in writing (e.g., postmodern fiction, series of poems, lyric forms, dramatic realism, the essay in history, hyper fiction, minimalism, editing and publishing, etc.).May be repeated for credit if subject matter not duplicated. Prerequisite: 201 (if fiction), 202 (if poetry), 206 (if nonfiction), or consent of instructor. These courses may be waived by the instructor based on evaluation of student’s portfolio. Priority enrollment given to writing concentration majors when necessary. Offered annually.
401 Senior Writing Project
Capstone experience for English-Writing majors requires thoughtful study of portfolio work and completion of an extensive, ambitious individual project that’s both a logical extension of the student’s work and a new challenge. The course will be multi-genre, with an emphasis on feedback and support. Prerequisite: at least one 300-level writing course and senior standing. Offered annually.
Journalism
211 Newswriting and Reporting (W)
Fundamentals of newswriting, with emphasis on style and structure; methods of news reporting. Offered annually.
212 Editorial Writing and Reviewing (W)
Background, theory, and practice in editorial writing, as well as the composition of book, theater, and film reviews. Prerequisite: English 211 or consent of instructor. Offered in alternate years.
315 Seminar in Journalism
Concentrated study in a specialized area of journalism. Topics will vary, but may include seminars in public relations, public affairs reporting, science and environmental writing, and travel writing. Prerequisite: 211 or 212 or consent of instructor. Offered occasionally.
325 Feature Writing and Investigative Reporting (W)
Feature writing and investigative reporting for print journalism. Field trip(s) and real-world assignments, with an emphasis on publication. Prerequisite: 211 or 212 or consent of instructor. Offered in alternate years.
Internships
335 Internship in Professional Writing
Offered in cooperation with an off-campus firm, business, institution, agency, department, station, etc. Attention is given to the student’s special interests. Consent of the instructor and the off-campus supervisor is required. Enrollment limited to English majors. Only one internship may be counted toward the major. Offered each semester and May Term.