Current Courses
Current English courses are described below and future course descriptions are available as schedules are finalized. For descriptions of all English courses, refer to the Undergraduate Catalog.
Spring 2013 Course List:
ENG 230: Reading and Writing about Literature
ENG 260: British Literature 1
ENG 303: History of Rhetoric
ENG 306: Creative Nonfiction Writing
ENG 307: Fiction Writing (Section 1)
ENG 307: Fiction Writing (Section 2)
ENG 308: Poetry Writing (Section 1)
ENG 310: Screenwriting (Sections 1, 3, & 4)
ENG 310: Screenwriting (Section 2)
ENG 320: Introduction to Linguistic Science
ENG 321: English Linguistics (Sections 1 & 2)
ENG 328: Language and Gender
ENG 335: Writing and Reading Public Discourse
ENG 347: Twentieth-Century American Literature
ENG 350: Teaching Writing in Secondary Schools
ENG 364: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature
ENG 367: Contemporary British Literature
ENG 395: Teaching Literature and Language in Secondary Schools
ENG 402: Cultural Studies
ENG 405: Special Topics in Creative Writing (Section 1)
ENG 405: Special Topics in Creative Writing (Section 2)
ENG 406: Advanced Creative Nonfiction
ENG 407: Advanced Fiction Writing (Section 1)
ENG 407: Advanced Fiction Writing (Section 2)
ENG 408: Advanced Poetry Writing
ENG 409: Creative Writing in the Community
ENG 410: Advanced Screenwriting (Section 1 & 2)
ENG 412: Reading Printed Materials in the English Classroom
ENG 414: Young Adult Literature
ENG 424: Genre Studies
ENG 425: Film Studies
ENG 444: Senior Seminar (Section1)
ENG 444: Senior Seminar (Section 2)
ENG 444: Senior Seminar (Section 3)
ENG 457: Practicum in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
ENG 489: Practicum in Literary Editing and Publishing
ENG 490: Literature and Gender
ENG 493: American Ethnic Literature
Spring 2013 Course Descriptions:
ENG 230: Reading and Writing about Literature
Section 5
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Prof. Maria Windell
Throughout the course of this semester, we will be reading poetry, novels, drama, and film from an array of historical periods. We will frame our discussions of these texts through a variety of critical approaches, such as New Criticism, historicist, gender studies, etc. You will also have the opportunity to refine your critical writing skills through a progression of assignments, all focusing on literary analysis.
Readings include The Making of a Poem; Frankenstein; “The Bear;” A Streetcar Named Desire; and All the Pretty Horses
ENG 260: British Literature 1: The Beginnings to 1780 –
Courtship & Rivalry in Early British Literature
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 2:00-2:50 p.m.
Prof. Miranda Nesler
This course will introduce you to major British writers and texts before 1700. As we read canonical works by authors such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wroth, and Cary, you will be urged to trace themes of courtship, erotic desire, and violent rivalry across the periods. To what degree did English writers share anxieties or concerns about sexuality and violence, and how did their representations change over time?
ENG 303: History of Rhetoric
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Prof. Paul Ranieri
Beginning with ancient rhetoric and focusing on major historical periods, ENG 303 surveys the historical development of rhetoric, emphasizing the cultural context of ideas and the construction of rhetorical “traditions.” ENG 303 is a required course for the Rhetoric and Writing Major, and can serve as an elective for the English Studies, Literature, and Creative Writing Majors.
Text: The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction, 5th ed, James A Herrick
ENG 306: Creative Nonfiction Writing –
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction
Section 1
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:00-10:50 a.m.
Section 2
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Prof. Todd McKinney
What is Creative Nonfiction (CNF)? Are there different types of CNF? How is CNF different than journalism? What is a fact? Any different than truth? What is truth? A matter of perspective? And what is Perspective anyway? Is that the same as a narrator? How is a CNF narrator different than a fiction narrator? Or a poet? Who tells the truth? How does one put the truth into words that are both artful and honest?
These are just a few of the questions we will take up this semester in this introduction to the literary genre of CNF, which will provide the student with the opportunity to practice writing CNF and to further explore its possibilities by reading and discussing a selection of essays. In short, this class asks the student to write and read a lot. As we do, the class will explore some of the different subgenres of CNF and discuss the key concepts and terms needed to be a part of the conversation that is CNF. The assignments and exercises will challenge students to think critically and creatively to better understand how we make meaning out of language and experience so we can present it to a reader to continue the discussion of what it means to be alive on earth.
Course assignments will include drafts, workshop responses, reading responses, and a portfolio.
ENG 307: Fiction Writing
Section 1
Wednesday and Fridays, 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Prof. Cathy Day
In this course, you will deepen your understanding of fiction and craft through a sustained focus; complete numerous skill-building assignments; apply “the workshop method,” reading and responding critically to works in progress; learn how to revise your own work based on workshop critiques with the goal of becoming your own “best reader”; revise at least one story that demonstrates your increasing facility with the fictional form; write one craft analysis that demonstrates your understanding of how stories work. Possible Texts: Tom Bailey’s On Writing Short Stories, Eugene Cross’s Fires of our Choosing, Tom Perrotta’s Election.
ENG 307: Fiction Writing
Section 2
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Prof. Craig O’Hara
This course centers on the fundamentals of writing the literary short story—vivid concrete language, three-dimensional characters, complex plot—with an emphasis on the student’s ability to write clearly and dramatically. The focus of this course will be the writing workshop and the extensive revision that all writers employ to develop their work into polished pieces. The course also includes discussion of and hands-on practice with elements of the craft and in-depth class discussions of the techniques employed by authors recognized in the field.
In addition to the writing workshop, assignments include short developmental pieces and critical reading responses to contemporary works of fiction. At the end of the semester students will turn in a portfolio of revised stories and a submission of work to a literary magazine.
Texts will include:
Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction, including contemporary works of short fiction by writers such as Junot Diaz, Maura Stanton, and Sherman Alexie.
ENG 308: Poetry Writing
Section 1
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 2:00-2:50 p.m.
Prof. Liz Whiteacre
In English 308, you will explore contemporary poetry, focusing on the art of reading, writing, and responding to poems. Throughout the class, we will discuss the craft of writing poems and look at four poets’ first books, which will present different styles of poetry. We’ll experience ways to avoid writer’s block, mature our voices, explore new subjects and forms, and more. Through workshop and other revision techniques, you’ll continue to develop your “editor’s eye.”
Assignments will include writing exercises, original poems, peer critique in workshops, revision exercises, readings, and critical reading responses. At the end of the semester, you will produce a portfolio and learn how to submit a poem for publication.
Texts include:
Ted Kooser, The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Danielle Cadena Deulen, Lovely Asunder, Marcus Wicker, Maybe the Saddest Thing, Carlo Matos, A School for Fishermen, and Melanie Dusseau, The Body Tries Again.
ENG 310: Screenwriting
Section 1
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 3:00-3:50 p.m.
Section 3
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 11:00-11:50 a.m.
Section 4
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:00-10:50 a.m.
Prof. John King
PREREQUISITE: ENG 285: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING. Students who have not taken this prerequisite are ineligible to take English 310 and will be asked to drop the course.
English 310 is an introductory course in the theory and practice of screenwriting. For this course, students will write two short, complete screenplays of roughly 5 to 7 pages each. In addition, they will complete prewriting exercises, view films, and read material related to the craft of screenwriting. Much of this course will focus on workshops and critiques of student screenplays, as well as the reading and analysis of screenplays and screenplay excerpts. This includes matters of format, content, structure, style, drafting, and revision, among other things. English 310 is designed to give students an understanding of what good screenwriting technique and cinematic storytelling are all about while also giving students the opportunity to apply their understanding to writing original, short screenplays. Student work will involve the following:
• Understanding and manipulating essential techniques of cinematic storytelling.
• Understanding and utilizing major structural elements of screenwriting form.
• Developing original story ideas into coherent scenes and complete screenplays.
• Receiving and incorporating feedback about structure, content, format, and style from their professor and peers.
• Reading, evaluating, and offering constructive criticism on classmates’ writing.
• Reading material related to the craft of screenplay writing and screenplays written by established screenwriters.
• Analyzing (i.e., “reading”) films to better understand the craft of screenplay writing.
ENG 310: Screenwriting
Section 2
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Prof. Matt Mullins
PREREQUISITE: ENG 285: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING. Students who have not taken this prerequisite are ineligible to take English 310 and will be asked to drop the course.
English 310 is an introductory course in the theory and practice of screenwriting. For this course students will write one short, complete screenplay of roughly 10 to 20 pages. In addition, they will complete a number of screenplay writing exercises, view films, and read material related to the craft of screenplay writing. Much of this course will focus on the workshopping and collective critique of student screenplays and the reading and analysis of screenplays and screenplay excerpts considered from the perspective of craft. Our focus will be on the discussion, analysis, and practice of the techniques and processes of screenwriting. This includes matters of format, content, structure, style, drafting, and revision, among other things. In sum, this course is intended to introduce students to the concepts of good screenwriting technique and cinematic storytelling while also giving them the opportunity to apply that understanding to their own short screenplays. To this end, student work will involve the following:
• Understanding and applying the essential techniques of screenplay format.
• Understanding and manipulating the essential techniques of cinematic storytelling.
• Understanding and utilizing the major structural elements of the screenwriting form.
• Developing original story ideas into coherent scenes and/or complete screenplays.
• Receiving and incorporating into their work feedback about structure, content, format and style from their professor and peers.
• Reading, evaluating, and offering constructive criticism on the work of their classmates.
• Reading material related to the craft of screenplay writing and screenplays written by established screenwriters.
• Analyzing (i.e., “reading”) films to better understand the craft of screenplay writing.
REQUIRED TEXTS/MATERIALS
• Writing Movies: The Practical Guide to Creating Stellar Screenplays, Gotham Writer’s Workshop
• The Screenwriter’s Bible (5th Edition), David Trottier
• Screenwriting software: All workshop scripts and screenwriting exercises involving scripted scenes must be typed in standard screenplay format. The best and easiest way to do this is to use screenwriting software. If you don’t own screenwriting software, there are a number of FREE web-based screenwriting programs available online. I recommend using Celtx (www.celtx.com.)
ENG 320: Introduction to Linguistic Science
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Prof. Lynne Stallings
The aim of this linguistics course is to raise your awareness of the complex organization and systematic nature of language, the primary means of human communication. In a sense, you will be studying yourself since you are a prime example of a language user. Most of your knowledge of language, however, is unconscious, and the part of language that you can describe is largely the result of your earlier education, which may have provided you with confusing or misleading notions about language. This course is intended to clarify your ideas about language and bring you to a better understanding of its nature by introducing you to the basic principles of linguistic science and the major areas of the field, including, but not limited to, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. This is not a course about just one particular language, but about human language in all its aspects. Some of the data to be analyzed will come from languages with which students are familiar, but students will also work with data from languages with which they have no prior familiarity.
ENG 321: English Linguistics
Section 1
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:00 - 10:50 a.m.
Section 2
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
Prof. Mai Kuha
The goal of this course is to give students an informed perspective on sentence structure in English, leading to an understanding of basic sentence structure and terminology.
We will start with lexical categories and then move on to phrase types, clause types, and ways of rearranging and embedding these structures. In each topic, basic practice will be followed by discussion of questions that connect the analysis of sentence structure to larger issues, which might include language acquisition, language variation, and misunderstanding in various kinds of communication. Pedagogical implications are addressed primarily through alternate versions of assignments designed for teaching majors.
Although some learning objectives will be specific to particular students’ interests and future career paths, the general goals are to enable all students to…
• read a writer’s handbook or other reference materials with ease, having become familiar with grammatical terminology and concepts
• evaluate the quality of advice that these authorities provide about sentence structure
• confidently figure out unfamiliar structures by looking for patterns and forming hypotheses
• decide which analysis fits a sentence best, and articulate why
• use a variety of structures in their writing even more effectively and deliberately
• take ownership of their language!
ENG 328: Language and Gender
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Prof. Mai Kuha
In this course, we investigate in detail how language and gender are related. In Sally Mc-Connell-Ginet's words, how are linguistic resources used in constructing ourselves and others as 'women' or as 'men'?
• Language about men and women
We can see how language reflects gender, and also constructs it, in labels and descriptions applied to people (for example, address terms and the linguistic representation of gender roles in pop culture).
• Language by men and women
After loking at how gendered identities are constructed, we will focus mostly on conversational style, and examine how people use language for purposes such as claiming authority or solidarity in various contexts, such as the workplace and the family.
We will also look at cultural variation in the interaction of language and gender.
Readings will consist of articles and chapters on electronic reserve. Course requirements will include observing how language and gender interact in various arenas.
ENG 335: Writing and Reading Public Discourse
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Prof. Michael Donnelly
We’ll explore various aspects of public discourse, primarily in contemporary U.S. culture but with reference to historical and international contexts. What constitutes “public” discourse? What is its purpose(s) and how does it function in different contexts? We’ll examine both broad theoretical perspectives and specific issues (immigration, the economy, race and gender, political campaigning, etc.) and specific arenas (television shows, the news, talk radio, podcasts, blogs and wikis, etc.). Students will design and create their own website(s) and blogs, and choose one specific issue to focus on in depth.
ENG 347: Twentieth-Century American Literature -
“Liars, Tricksters, and Truth-Tellers”
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Prof. Deborah Mix
This course is designed to give you a working knowledge of twentieth-century American literature. Of course, this field is tremendously vast and complex, so we’ll only be able to take a small sampling of its diversity. To that end, I’ve organized our course around the theme of “Liars, Tricksters, and Truth-Tellers.” Each of the texts we’ll read—novels, short stories, plays, and poems—consider the relationship between truth and lying in some way. As we’ll see, people misrepresent the truth for a wide variety of reasons, from self-aggrandizement to self-preservation, for reasons benign, subversive, and cruel.
The natures of truth-telling and lying are not the only ones we’ll consider this semester, of course. We’ll also be interested in the work of the texts more broadly as well as in the relationship between individual texts and their literary and cultural contexts. The reasons that a Chinese immigrant might have for telling a “talk-story” to her American-born children are different than the reasons an eccentric white billionaire might have for playing an elaborate joke on his ex-girlfriend. We’ll consider what individual characters and plotlines might reveal about authors, about certain moments in American history, and about literary movements. We’ll take our discussion in directions that interest all of us throughout the semester.
This is a discussion and writing-intensive course. Neither you nor the course can succeed without your regular and substantive preparation and participation. Regular reading quizzes, writing assignments, and creative projects will be major features of this course as will your own contributions to small-group and class-wide discussions. If you are uncomfortable working collaboratively with your peers and your instructor, this is not the class for you.
ENG 350: Teaching Writing in Secondary Schools
Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Prof. Susanna Benko
This course explores various strategies and issues concerned in teaching of writing in secondary schools. We focus on important aspects of writing instruction including (but not limited to) task/assessment design, lesson planning, grammar instruction, and formative/summative feedback on student work. We also address how technology and 21st century literacies can be leveraged both in instruction and in student writing more broadly.
Prereq: Open only to English/Language Arts Teaching Majors. Must have passed DP2.
ENG 364: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 12:00-12:50 p.m.
Prof. Adam Beach
This course will examine British texts that engage the powerful Ottoman and Moroccan empires during the course of the long eighteenth century. For most of the century, these empires had a profound cultural influence on Britons, who engaged in a thriving trade with the Ottoman Empire and who became enamored of Eastern commodities like coffee and also of “Eastern tales” from both The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment and its British imitators. Along with this history of material and cultural interchange, the eighteenth century also saw antagonism between Britons and the Islamic Middle East, especially with the Moroccan empire and the pirates of the “Barbary” Coast who both regularly captured British men and women and forced them into slavery. At the same time, the British attempted (and ultimately failed) to colonize the Moroccan town of Tangier, also took thousands of Muslims into slavery, and periodically bombarded Algiers and Tripoli.
We will read a wide variety of texts that respond to this complex history and demonstrate how the Islamic Middle East was a continual source of both fascination and fear for British writers and their audiences. We will read Restoration and early eighteenth-century dramas about the Middle East and the Islamic world more generally, and we will study a series of plays that will likely include John Dryden’s Don Sebastian, Delariviere Manely’s Almyna, and Elkanah Settle’s Ibrahim the Illustrious Bassa. Then we will move to non-fiction accounts of the region, especially Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters as well as a number of slave narratives written by Englishmen held captive in North Africa. The last unit of the course will examine the profound influence of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment on British literature, and we will read both from the Nights’ as well as British Oriental Tales that were written in imitation of them, including work by Penelope Aubin, Frances Sheridan, and William Beckford.
ENG 367: Contemporary British Literature
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Joyce Huff
From World War II and decolonization to angry young men, liberated women, mods and rockers to Thatcherism and punk to Cool Britannia, New Labour and post-colonialism, the U.K. has seen a great deal of change over the past eighty years. Caught up in their changing culture, many writers have seized the opportunity to question prior assumptions, including beliefs about language, history and identity. In this course, we will examine some of the ways in which British writers since World War II have challenged us to rethink our world and our relationship to it.
Possible works for study include fiction, such as Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Irving Welsh’s “A Fault on the Line,” A. S. Byatt’s Possession, Doris Lessing’s “To Room 19,” Pat Barker’s Regeneration, and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions; plays, such as Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, and Brian Friel’s Translations; nonfiction by Orwell, Rushdie, and Thiong’o; a selection of poems and possibly a film! Course requirements will include papers, exams, presentations and participation in discussion, both in class and on-line.
ENG 395: Teaching Literature and Language in Secondary Schools
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Prof. Pamela Hartman
English 395 explores various strategies and issues concerned in teaching language, literature, and visual literacy in the secondary English-language arts classroom. To take this course, you must be a Teaching Major and must have passed Decision Point 2. (Prerequisite: ENG 350)
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ENG 402: Cultural Studies –
Holocaust in American Culture
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Prof. Brent Blackwell
The Holocaust in American Culture will examine the ways in which the Holocaust as a historical event has shaped and influenced American culture for the last 70 years. Students will interact with a variety of cultural texts (literature, newspapers, film, comics, and music) and cultural theories (New Historicism, Post colonialism) as a way to understand and interpret how the Holocaust functions as sharp ideological tool in America. We will spend considerable time discussing how the holocaust continues to shape our American understanding of privilege, race, gender, and religion, as well as address other areas of student interest developed over the course of the semester.
ENG 405: Special Topics in Creative Writing –
The Everyday Made Lyric
Section 1
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Prof. Todd McKinney
This special topics course will explore the powers (and infirmities?) of the lyric prose mode. What is it? Why would a writer want to use this mode in conjunction with, or instead of, a conventional approach? What makes prose lyrical? How does the mode change, if at all, when an author changes genre? (Why do genres exist anyway?) Of course, behind each of those questions are a hundred others, and we will use this class to explore those and, I hope, find many more as we navigate the (dissonant?) borders between nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, our lyres tuned (or not), readied to accompany our voices as we essay our songs and sing our stories, all the while walking down Main St. in our Dionysian clothes while making our gypsy noise and ignoring the onlookers’ glares. Or something like that.
To aid our study, we will examine lyric prose in different genres. Some readings will be provided as handouts, and some will be full-length books. Some titles might include: Emigrants by W.G. Sebald; The Fighting Spirit of the Walnut by Takashi Hiraide; Bluets by Maggie Nelson; and Twilight, Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Devere Smith.
Course assignments will include drafts and a final portfolio, quizzes/reading responses, workshop critiques, and a presentation.
ENG 405: Special Topics in Creative Writing –
Literary Citizenship
Section 2
Thursdays, 6:30-9:10 p.m.
Prof. Cathy Day
A literary citizen is an aspiring writer who understands that you have to contribute to, not just expect things from, the publishing world. This course will teach you how to take advantage of the opportunities offered by your campus, local, regional and national literary communities and how you can best contribute to those communities given your talents and interests. It will also help you begin to professionalize yourself as a writer. You will learn how to 1.) create your own professional blog or website, 2.) use social media to build your writing community, 3.) interview writers and publish those interviews, 4.) review books and publish those reviews, 5.) submit poems, stories, and essays to literary magazines, 6.) query agents and editors regarding book manuscripts, 7.) apply to graduate programs and write an effective statement of purpose, 8.) deliver an effective public reading of your work, 9.) pitch to an agent, 10.) craft a professional résumé. Students who complete the course in an exemplary fashion will be eligible to apply for internship positions as Social Media Tutors at the Midwest Writers Workshop in Muncie July 25-27, 2013. If you’d like to learn more about what literary citizenship is, go to: www.literarycitizenship.wordpress.com. Possible Texts: Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See, Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon, Fires of our Choosing by Eugene Cross, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, and Create Your Writer Platform: The Key to Building an Audience, Selling More Books, and Finding Success as an Author by Chuck Sambuchino.
ENG 406: Advanced Creative Nonfiction
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Prof. Todd McKinney
This is a creative nonfiction workshop that will focus on the creation of nonfiction that tells stories of the self, of others, of places, of things, all the while incorporating research and documentation in very compelling ways. In order to write well, we must read, and so we will split our time between workshops of student work and in-depth discussion of published texts.
We will likely study a variety of texts, mostly essays that approach CNF from an interesting angle, whether it is in terms of its use research, point of view, documentation, etc. Readings will offer a wide range of approaches with which to write about lived experience as well as people, places, things.
As for writing, we will each draft essays that mix storytelling and research. Other requirements will include: research assignments, reading responses/quizzes, and workshop critiques. Class time will be divided between discussions of published works, writing and exercises, and workshops of your own writing.
ENG 407: Advanced Fiction Writing
Section 1
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Sean Lovelace
In this class we will continue many of the concepts of English 307, with an expectation of advanced complexity. The class will focus on student and professional manuscripts in the genre of FLASH FICTION (complete stories—with interest in structure, language, and theme—with a word count under 750 words). We will read a wide variety of flash fiction texts and critical essays on the genre by professional authors. These readings will include individual flash fiction, collections, and magazines. We will create many of our own flash fiction drafts, in a wide variety of schools, from realism to surrealism. And we will workshop those drafts, focusing on constructive feedback and considered revision.
Texts:
• Oh Baby by Kim Chinquee
• Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
• High Water Mark by David Shumate
• Excitability by Diane Williams
• Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories by Thomas, Thomas, Hazuka.
• We will also have handouts and online texts.
Contact Professor Lovelace (salovelace@bsu.edu) with any questions.
ENG 407: Advanced Fiction Writing
Section 2
Wednesdays, 6:30-9:10 p.m.
Prof. Cathy Day
The focus of this course is novel writing, specifically: 1.) intense focus on the writing process and on developing a writing regimen; 2.) writing assignments which will help you gather material, develop your plot, and get to know your characters; 3.) twelve weekly word count check ins; 4.) practice creating an outline or storyboard of your book; 5.) small peer groups for feedback (there will be no all-group workshop), and 6.) analysis of a few novels that will serve as models. Understand though: you will not “write a novel” this semester, you will start one—from scratch or by expanding a short story or an idea you are less than 50 pages into. If you have already written an entire draft of a novel and merely want to tweak it, this class is not for you. By the end of the semester, all students will be required to produce at least 27,000 original words (approx. 108 pgs) of new work, which means you’ll produce 2,250 words (about 9 pages) a week. At this stage in the writing process we will not be overly concerned with the quality of your writing, but rather with the quantity. Of the 27,000 words you produce, 25-50 will be revised and turned in as your final. Texts may include: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and Pure by Julianna Baggott.
ENG 408: Advanced Poetry Writing
Mondays, 6:30-9:10 p.m.
Prof. Michael Meyerhofer
This course is designed for those with a substantial interest in poetry and, hopefully, a strong background as creative writers. Since we are all contemporary writers, I tend to focus primarily on contemporary (aka “living”) poets. Over the course of various intensive workshops, I’ll push you to develop your own personal aesthetic—meaning, decide for yourself what makes a poem a poem. We will also discuss various techniques employed by contemporary poets.
Assignments include ten poems, regular and constructive discussion of peers’ work, and critical journals on assigned texts. At the end of the semester, students will turn in a revised portfolio and give a brief, informative presentation to the class on a poetry magazine, internship, or graduate program of their choice.
Readings will include sample poems, as well as six collections of contemporary poetry.
Possible texts include:
Lovely Asunder by Danielle Cadena Deulen, Maybe the Saddest Thing by Marcus Wicker, Velocities by Stephen Dobyns, Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds, Lucifer at the Starlite by Kim Addonizio, and The Good Thief by Marie Howe.
ENG 409: Creative Writing in the Community
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Prof. Sean Lovelace
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” Martin Luther King
“Two groups of warm, living, breathing human beings…KIDS and TEACHERS. These are the real ROOTS of writing.” Marjorie Frank.
Creative Writing in the Community is an immersive, service-learning project. Students will work with participating social services agencies (Storer Elementary and Motivate Our Minds, for example) to create original imaginative texts. Our objectives include the enrichment of the creative writing experience, through study of the art form and through engagement in the local community; through the scholarly study of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction; through relevant essays about creative writing pedagogy and community engagement; and through the use of critical and creative examinations of the student’s own and collaborative work created for the class. The end product will be a public community reading and published anthology. This immersive experience offers the opportunity for the students to learn about themselves through others and to become more productive citizens of the local and academic communities.
Texts:
• Wishes, Lies, and Dreams by Kenneth Koch
• Rip the Page: Adventures in Creative Writing by Karen Benke (This book will be provided for the class.)
• Various handouts, essays, electronic texts.
Contact Professor Lovelace (salovelace@bsu.edu) with any questions.
ENG 410: Advanced Screenwriting
Section 1
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Section 2
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Prof. Matt Mullins
PREREQUISITE: ENG 285: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING and ENG 310: SCREENWRITING
English 410 is an advanced workshop in the theory and practice of screenwriting. As such, students in this course will write and workshop (i.e., have collectively critiqued) two complete, short screenplays of approximately 10-15 pages each. In addition, they will be asked to complete various screenwriting and script development exercises, view films, and read material related to the craft of screenplay writing. The bulk of this course will focus on the workshopping and collective critique of student screenplays and the reading and analysis of screenplays and screenplay excerpts considered from the perspective of craft. Our focus will be on a higher level of discussion related to the practice and analysis of the techniques and processes of screenwriting. This includes matters of genre, content, structure, style, drafting, and revision, among other things. One of the major goals of this course (especially Fall Semester sections) is to provide short scripts for production in Ball State’s Cinema Entertainment Immersion program (the CEI). Therefore, much emphasis will be given to the development of short screenplays suitable for production here at BSU. This course is intended to build upon the understanding of concepts developed in English 310 while also giving students the opportunity to further apply that understanding to their own screenplays. To this end, student work will involve the following:
• Utilizing the essential techniques of cinematic/visual storytelling
• Utilizing the major structural elements of screenwriting form
• Developing original story ideas into scenes and/or complete screenplays
• Incorporating into their work feedback about format, structure, content, and style from their professor and peers, and revising accordingly
• Reading, evaluating, and offering constructive criticism (both verbal and written) on the work of their classmates
• Reading material related to the craft of screenplay writing and/or screenplays written by established screenwriters
• “Reading” (i.e., analyzing) films to better understand the craft of screenplay writing
• Developing scripts for potential production via Ball State’s CEI program
REQUIRED TEXTS/MATERIALS:
Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting (1st Edition) by Robert McKee
The Screenwriter’s Bible (5th Edition) David Trottier
Screenwriting software: All workshop scripts and screenwriting exercises involving scripted scenes must be typed in standard screenplay format. The best and easiest way to do this is to use screenwriting software. If you don’t own screenwriting software, there are a number of FREE web-based screenwriting programs available online. I recommend using Celtx (www.celtx.com.)
ENG 412: Reading Printed Materials in the English Classroom
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 2:00-2:50 p.m.
Prof. Darolyn (Lyn) Jones
Readers today face the difficult challenge of choosing between and making sense of numerous competing texts, in many different forms. In this course we will investigate theories concerning both what we should read as well as how these texts should be read. We will also look at our histories and beliefs about literacy. For instance, we will consider questions such as: What is literacy? How is it acquired? What are the different literacies? How do broader contexts, such as family and community, affect our literacy or literacies? While this is not a course in teaching methods, we will develop practical suggestions for decoding, analyzing, and interpreting texts, including literary and popular materials frequently used in the English/ Language Arts classroom.
ENG 414: Young Adult Literature
Mondays, 6:30-9:10 p.m.
Prof. Susanna Benko
This course will focus on recent young adult literature, representing multiple genres, suitable for young adults. We will study young adult literature via reading and discussing multiple novels within the genre, as well as reading and discussing multiple supplemental texts (articles and chapters) highlighting historical aspects of the genre and topics within young adult literature related to the novels we read.
The emphasis is primarily on the reading and analysis of literature, with some attention given to methodology. Questions that guide our work include:
• What is the historical development of the genre of young adult literature, and why is it valuable today?
• In what ways do various parties (e.g., scholars, authors, publishers) define “young adult”? What is included in this genre?
• What are current debates about the genre and its inclusion in secondary language arts classrooms?
• How can young adult literature be leveraged towards engaging students (and adults) in critical discussions of issues that matter?
ENG 424: Genre Studies -
Popular Subgenres in Nineteenth-Century American Literature
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Prof. Robert D. Habich
This class will focus on four so-called subgenres that developed in the American nineteenth century—Southwestern humor tales, slave narratives, local color stories, and the Western—to see why they came about, how they were important culturally, and whether they can provide us a new perspective for understanding more traditional works. We will read a generous selection of literature in each subgenre, then try to locate its influence in a more canonized novel written later in the century: for the humorists, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (1885); for local color, Sarah Orne Jewett’s Country of the Pointed Firs (1896); for the slave narratives, Charles Chesnutt’s Marrow of Tradition (1901); for the Westerns, Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902).
ENG 425: Film Studies
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
and
ENG 425 L: Film Studies Lab
Wednesdays, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Prof. Amit Baishya
This course is an introduction to film analysis. We will cover key concepts pertaining to film form (image, sound, montage, mise-en-scene etc.) and filmic genres (the musical, film noir, horror, melodrama, documentary, the “western” etc.). The goal of this course is to equip you with the basic analytical tools that are required for a sustained critical engagement with cinema. We will also investigate the history of certain concepts in cinema, such as those of montage and mise-en-scene, by delving into the major contributions of movements and trends such as realism, expressionism, surrealism, formalism, “classical” Hollywood, Italian neorealism, the French new wave, “new” Hollywood, select traditions of “national” cinemas, third cinema and the Dogme group (among others). You are required to attend a film screening every week.
ENG 444: Senior Seminar -
Readings in American Multicultural Literature
Section 1
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Pamela Hartman
Students will read and respond to literary works representing multiple cultural perspectives. The intent is to experience these literatures aesthetically as readers with the class functioning as a text discussion group. Each student will not only share responses, questions, and problematic issues from their own readings, but also collaborate with the group to explore multiple possible readings for any given texts. Another central goal for the class is to provide opportunities for each reader to examine his/her own responses and come to some understanding of how the differences in our readings come, in part, from differences in ourselves and differences in cultures, which is construed broadly to refer not only to ethnicity, race, and country of origin, but also (potentially) to religion, neighborhood, family, gender, socioeconomic group, sexual orientation, and all manners of subcultures. Related to this goal is our ongoing inquiry into how authors construct texts out of their own set of experiences in cultural contexts. Final research projects will provide opportunities for examining course goals from a chosen topic or perspective.
PossibleTexts -
Braided Lives: An Anthology of Multicultural American Writing,
Minnesota Humanities Commission (1991)
Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry,
M. M. Gillian & J. Gillian (1994)
Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich (1993)
The Color of Water, James McBride (1996)
Jasmine, Bharati Mukherjee (1989)
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang (2008 graphic novel)
Other critical texts (provided by instructor)
ENG 444: Senior Seminar -
Women Writers of the American Avant-Garde
Section 2
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9:00-9:50 a.m.
Prof. Deborah Mix
The term “avant-garde” is military in origin—it refers to the first line of troops sent out to confront the enemy. In many conceptions of the avant-garde, the idea of confrontation remains. The avant-garde is supposed to shock, to stun, to blow things up. Not coincidentally, the writers associated with this vision of the avant-garde are largely white and male: Ezra Pound, William Burroughs, William Gass, Charles Bernstein. What happens if we reconsider what it means to be “avant-garde” by reading women writers? How might Gertrude Stein’s playful repetitions, Sonia Sanchez’s political poetry, Susan Howe’s fragmented page, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s epic meditation, Kathy Acker’s “arachnoplagiarism” complicate our vision of what it means to be “avant-garde” in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? We will read a range of work by American women writers as well as consider avant-garde experimentation in other genres (film, photography, performance art) over the course of the semester. We will read widely in theory and criticism about the avant-garde. Students will be encouraged to experiment with avant-garde forms in their own critical and creative writing. Students in this class will produce a major research-driven project as well as several shorter pieces of writing over the course of the semester. This is a discussion and writing-intensive course. Neither you nor the course can succeed without your regular and substantive preparation and participation. Regular reading quizzes, writing assignments, and creative projects will be major features of this course as will your own contributions to small-group and class-wide discussions. If you are uncomfortable working collaboratively with your peers and your instructor, this is not the class for you.
ENG 444: Senior Seminar –
Understanding Graphic Novels and Comic Books
Section 3
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Prof. Amit Baishya
This course is intended to be both an introduction to a formal analysis of comic books/graphic novels and a detailed exploration of certain themes, issues and problems explored by this representational format. A “hybrid” form that combines the word and the image, the study of graphic novels/comic books occupies a liminal position between the disciplinary orientations and methods of a well-established field like literary studies and the relatively “new” field of film studies. We will begin the course by probing the reasons for this “in-between” status of graphic novels/comic books and work towards establishing a functional toolkit that will help us analyze the forms and functions of such representational formats. We will also probe the similarities and differences between terms like “graphic novels” and “comic books.” Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art and Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics will assist us in our preliminary endeavors to forge a functional vocabulary for analyzing the formal specificities of graphic novels and comic books. We will use Robert Kirkman’s Days Gone Bye (The Walking Dead: Vol. 1) and Osamu Tezuka’s Message to Adolf (Vol.1) as our “specimens” for formal analysis. During our preliminary investigations, we will also focus on questions of production, distribution, dissemination and readership of comic books/graphic novels. We will then move ahead with an exploration of a specific genre—that of the “superhero” comic book. We will read selections from Stan Lee’s X-Men series before turning to two of the milestones of the genre: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. We will possibly end this section by considering examples from Joss Wheedon (et al) Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novel series (possibly Tales of the Slayer: Righteous). We will end the course by considering explorations of public and private memory in graphic novels—texts we will analyze will possibly include Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Tezuka’s Message to Adolf. We will also use essays from the Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester edited volume of The Comic Studies Reader as our critical guides along with a few other essays you will be able to access on Blackboard. Students will be encouraged to model their research papers—the primary writing requirement for this course—on examples and formats from professional journals such as International Journal of Comic Art and Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.
ENG 457: Practicum in Teaching English to
Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Wednesdays, 3:00-5:40 p.m.
Prof. Lynne Stallings
The aim of this course is two-fold: 1) to provide students with at least 45 hours of direct teaching experience with English language learners and 2) to provide students an opportunity to reflect on and demonstrate the ways that they are meeting and/or exceeding each of the 11 TESOL standards for PK-12 teacher candidates. To achieve these goals, students build on their experiences in ENG 436 and ENG 437 and work directly with English language learners in both pull-out and push-in classroom situations at the elementary and/or secondary levels.
ENG 489: Practicum in Literary Editing and Publishing
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Prof. Mark Neely
The Practicum in Literary Editing and Publishing is restricted to students who are currently enrolled in the Fall 2012 section of 489.
Students who are interested in taking this year-long, immersive learning course in 2013-2014 should contact Mark Neely (maneely@bsu.edu).
ENG 490: Literature and Gender –
Men and Women Behaving Badly
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 4:00-4:50 p.m.
Prof. Miranda Nesler
Gender is a cultural force that undeniably shapes our experience as individuals as well as the texts that we confront on a daily basis. This seminar on gender will familiarize students with the fundamental vocabularies of gender criticism and theory by asking them to consider how various historical periods sought to train men and women to perform gender, and by requiring them to analyze how this activity ss represented in literature and film. Throughout the semester, students will explore such questions as:
• Is it ever possible for a man or woman to appropriately perform gender?
• What is invested in the actions of “putting on” or “taking off”?
• To what degree does gender instruction oppress and/or/simultaneously empower individuals to use their bodies erotically, economically, politically, or expressively?
• What props and attitudes communicate (or confuse communication about) gender?
• Is it possible to “dress straight” or are we all engaged in cross-dressing and costuming? Where do the distinctions lie?
• What is the role of intention in performance?
• What counts as cosmetic or costume?
ENG 493: American Ethnic Literature -
Intersections in Ethnic American Literatures
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 11:00-11:50 a.m.
Prof. Maria Windell
Even at the time of the American Revolution writers referred to the nation as a “melting pot.” In this course we will examine that metaphor as we read through various intersections—some explicit and some implicit—in ethnic American literatures. We will consider how American Indian, Latino/a, and African American writers deal with issues such as race, class, gender, sexuality, language, and culture. Each ethnicity is represented by nineteenth-century and contemporary fictional works. The course is structured chronologically, so as to trace trends in American inclusion, exclusion, assimilation, and ethnic pride, and we will discuss both the shared experiences of ethnic American authors as well as those particular to authors of the same ethnicity.
Readings include: “The Heroic Slave;” Joaquín Murieta; The Squatter and the Don; The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; The Lost City (film); and A Mercy
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