Upcoming Courses
Spring 2013 course descriptions are available under current courses. For descriptions of all English courses, refer to the Undergraduate Catalog.
Summer Semester 2013:
ENG 204: Literature for Children
ENG 206: Reading Literature
ENG 311: Language Arts Methods
1st Summer Session 2013:
ENG 213: Introduction to Digital Literacies
ENG 231: Professional Writing
ENG 240: American Literature 1: The Beginnings to 1860
ENG 250: American Literature 2: 1860 to the Present
ENG 260: British Literature 1: The Beginnings to 1780
ENG 285: Introduction to Creative Writing
ENG 306: Creative Nonfiction Writing
ENG 414: Young Adult Literature
2nd Summer Session 2013:
ENG 213: Introduction to Digital Literacies
ENG 285: Introduction to Creative Writing
ENG 310: Screenwriting
ENG 425: Film Studies
Fall 2013:
ENG 206: Reading Literature
ENG 220: Language and Society
ENG 230: Reading and Writing about Literature
ENG 231: Professional Writing
ENG 285: Introduction to Creative Writing
ENG 303: History of Rhetoric
ENG 306: Creative Nonfiction Writing
ENG 307: Fiction Writing (Section 2)
ENG 307: Fiction Writing (Section 3)
ENG 310: Screenwriting
ENG 321: English Linguistics
ENG 328: Language and Gender
ENG 329: Editing and Style
ENG 350: Teaching Writing in Secondary Schools
ENG 351: Contemporary American Literature
ENG 366: British Literature 1890-1930
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 Writing
ENG 407: Advanced Fiction Writing (Section 1)
ENG 407: Advanced Fiction Writing (Section 2)
ENG 408: Advanced Poetry Writing
ENG 412: Reading Printed Materials in the English Classroom
ENG 414: Young Adult Literature
ENG 424: Genre Studies
ENG 425: Film Studies
ENG 437: Methods and Materials in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
ENG 444: Senior Seminar – Manifesto Book Binding
ENG 444: Senior Seminar – Literacy, Narrative, and Gaming
ENG 444: Senior Seminar – Hybridity and the Human Animal
ENG 464: Shakespeare
ENG 489: Practicum in Literary Editing and Publishing
ENG 494: Queer Literature/Queer Theory
ENG 498: Post-Colonial Literature
Summer Semester 2013 Course Descriptions:
ENG 204: Literature for Children
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 2:00-3:20 p.m.
Prof. Peggy Rice
An overview of children’s literature and an intensive study of the various genres for grades K to 6. Designed for elementary education programs. Cannot be counted as an elective in English.
Prerequisite: EDEL 100 or SPCE 201
ENG 206: Reading Literature
Online
Prof. Rai Peterson
This course will be offered online. It is self-paced; students will have ten weeks to complete its four units: short fiction, drama, poetry, and the novel.
Course Description: An introduction to the nature and interpretation of literary works and to reading and writing critically about literature. Credit does not apply to English majors or minors.
ENG 311: Language Arts Methods –
Teaching of English Language Arts in the Elementary Grades
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 4:00-5:20 p.m.
Prof. Peggy Rice
Modern methods and materials for teaching written and oral expression, language use, spelling, handwriting, and literature in the elementary grades. Cannot be counted as an elective in major or minor programs in English. Prerequisite: C or better in ENG 204.
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1st Summer Session 2013 Course Descriptions:
ENG 213: Introduction to Digital Literacies
Monday – Friday, 2:30-4:05 p.m.
Prof. Eva Snider
This course is focused on digital literacies, or the practices of people acting with technology via their discursive activities. The course is balanced between theories and practices of digital communication. In it, you will read and discuss how technology affects people’s actions in the discursive sphere. You will also work to build some fundamental digital literacies necessary to succeed in the professional world.
ENG 231: Professional Writing
Monday – Friday, 11:00 a.m.-12:35 p.m.
Prof. Eva Snider
In this course, we will explore and practice professional writing: what it means to write for and with others, to design and create content for complex work environments, and to research and collaborate to create original knowledge in a professional context. In particular, we will be focusing on people acting with technology via their discursive activities. How do people use technology to communicate, to bond, to persuade, to inform?
In particular, ENG 231 will immerse you in the concepts and practices of qualitative and quantitative research in a professional environment. You will be expected to produce high quality deliverables grounded in real-world situations. Major deliverables include a pre-proposal, proposal, IRB protocol, white paper, and fact sheet.
ENG 240: American Literature 1 –
The Beginnings to 1860
Monday – Friday, 9:15-10:50 a.m.
Prof. Robert Habich
Survey of American literature from its beginning through the middle nineteenth century, including selections from a broad range of major and minority traditions. Prerequisite or parallel: ENG 230 or 206, permission of the department chairperson.
ENG 250: American Literature 2 –
1860 to the Present
Monday – Friday, 2:30-4:05 p.m.
Prof. Rai Peterson
This course will be taught entirely online as a cohort. That means that there is not a specific meeting place for the class but assignments will be due daily, and students will interact with one another electronically. The course is not self-paced.
Course Description: Survey of selected American writers and the various literary movements since 1860, including selections from a broad range of major and minority traditions. Summer ENG 250 is a fast-paced version of the semester course. It meets on campus a maximum of four days weekly and online at least once per week. The reading is fun, and the writing assignments are not overwhelming.
ENG 260: British Literature 1 –
The Beginnings to 1780
Monday – Friday, 12:45-2:20 p.m.
Prof. Adam Beach
British literature from about 450 to 1780, with attention to social, historical, and philosophical backgrounds. Prerequisite or parallel: ENG 230 or 206, or permission of the department chairperson.
ENG 285: Introduction to Creative Writing
Monday – Friday, 9:15-10:50 a.m.
Prof. Sean Lovelace
English 285 is an introduction to writing poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The course will focus on development of writing craft, obtainment of a critical/literary vocabulary, and a reading, examination, and discussion of established authors and poets. This class will always be active in our learning! We will read a great amount of excellent material; we will write a great amount, and strive to make it excellent. We will attempt to spark and develop our creativity. We will complete a plethora of writing exercises and group activities. We will create our own original poems, stories, flash fictions, and essays. Overall, we will combine serious work and fun—as in intellectual stimulation, but always with a purpose. Our purpose in 285 is to improve as readers and writers of multiple genres. This we will do.
Texts:
• Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories by Denise Thomas, James Thomas, Tom Hazuka.
• A heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Poetry 180.
• We will also have handouts and online texts.
Contact Professor Lovelace (salovelace@bsu.edu) with any questions.
ENG 306: Creative Nonfiction Writing
Monday – Friday, 11:00 a.m.-12:35 p.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 number of essays. In short, this class asks the student to write and read a lot. Furthermore, the class will introduce the student to the subgenres of CNF and to 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, quizzes and/or reading responses, and a portfolio.
ENG 414: Young Adult Literature
Monday – Friday, 11:00 a.m.-12:35 p.m.
Prof. Pamela Hartman
English 414 focuses on recent literature, representing multiple genres, suitable for young adults (middle/junior high school and high school age). The emphasis is primarily on the reading and analysis of literature with some attention given to methodology. The goals of the course including creating a community of learners who will respond both aesthetically and analytically to literature and who will develop an appreciation of Young Adult Literature (YAL) as a genre of study. In addition, we will explore the value of YAL as a means to stimulate young adults’ interest in reading, to bridge children’s and adult literature, and to encourage the habit of lifelong reading.
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2nd Summer Session Course Descriptions:
ENG 213: Introduction to Digital Literacies
Monday – Friday, 9:15-10:50 a.m.
TBD
Teaches ways of reading, analyzing, researching, and composing in emerging media. Prerequisite: ENG 104 or 114.
ENG 285: Introduction to Creative Writing
Monday – Friday, 2:30-4:05 p.m.
Prof. Angela Jackson Brown
Introduction to the nature of the creative process and to the nature, forms, and techniques of writing fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction.
ENG 310: Screenwriting
Monday – Friday, 11:00 a.m.-12:35 p.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 425: Film Studies
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 12:45-2:20 p.m.
ENG 425L: Film Studies Lab
Tuesday and Thursday, 12:45-3:00 p.m.
Prof. Matthew Hartman
This course teaches students to view and analyze films critically. We will develop an understanding of the elements of film art, the styles, techniques, and devices filmmakers use to tell stories with moving images, and we will explore the social contexts of film narratives, considering films as cultural artifacts and political expressions. While not a survey of film classics, the course will feature a number of great films from a variety of genres and time periods.
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Fall 2013 Course Descriptions:
ENG 206: Reading Literature
Section 2
Tuesday and Thursday, 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Section 700
Online (cohort)
Prof. Rai Peterson
Both on-campus and online versions of this course will be offered. The online section will be taught as a cohort. That means that there is not a specific meeting place for the class, but assignments will be due daily, and students will interact with one another electronically. The course is not self-paced.
Both versions will cover the same literature. Students who are self-motivated and confident in their ability to read and write may prefer the online version, and those who are more comfortable meeting their professor and fellow students face-to-face for class discussions should register for the on-campus section.
Course Description:
An introduction to the nature and interpretation of literary works and to reading and writing critically about literature. The course is divided into four units: short fiction, drama, poetry, and the novel. Credit does not apply to English majors or minors.
ENG 220: Language and Society
Section 1
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Section 2
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Prof. Mai Kuha
You speak the way you do because of who you are and where you are from. You also adjust the way you speak according to the situation. In this course, we will discuss the nature of language variation and its consequences, including how people are judged because of the way they speak, how this affects linguistic minorities in the educational system, and how language attitudes find their way into legislation.
The goal of the course is to increase students’ awareness of these issues, enabling them to make informed decisions.
Here are the most important goals I would like you to meet by the end of this course.
Be aware of these aspects of language in a social context, and be able to discuss them:
• how and why language varies
• the complexity and usefulness of nonstandard language varieties
• the importance of language in establishing and communicating social identity and group membership
• cultural diversity relevant to communicating with people from other cultures
• the origin, nature, and implications of the subtle language-based discrimination that surrounds us
• speakers’ rights regarding language issues
Be able to make informed decisions about language issues such as
• workplace policies on language use
• which language to use as the language of instruction at the elementary and secondary level
• laws about official language
ENG 230: Reading and Writing about Literature
Section 1
Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Section 2
Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Prof. Maria Windell
Throughout the course of this semester, we will be studying fiction, poetry, drama, and film from an array of historical and national traditions. 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. Texts may include Daisy Miller; Frankenstein; Blade Runner; poetry; A Streetcar Named Desire; and All the Pretty Horses
ENG 231: Professional Writing
Section 1
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11:00-11:50 a.m.
Section 2
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Section 3
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Prof. Eva Snider
In this course, we will explore and practice professional writing: what it means to write for and with others, to design and create content for complex work environments, and to research and collaborate to create original knowledge in a professional context. In particular, we will be focusing on people acting with technology via their discursive activities. How do people use technology to communicate, to bond, to persuade, to inform?
In particular, ENG 231 will immerse you in the concepts and practices of qualitative and quantitative research in a professional environment. You will be expected to produce high quality deliverables grounded in real-world situations. Major deliverables include a pre-proposal, proposal, IRB protocol, white paper, and fact sheet.
ENG 285: Introduction to Creative Writing
Section 2
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:00-9:50 a.m.
Section 4
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Prof. Liz Whiteacre
In English 285, you will explore the art of reading, writing, and responding to contemporary poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Throughout the class, we will discuss the craft of writing in these different genres. We’ll experience ways to avoid writer’s block, learn terminology unique to each genre, explore new subjects and forms, engage in editing and revision techniques, and develop our unique voices.
Assignments will include writing exercises, original works, peer critique, revision exercises, readings, and response essays. At the end of the semester, you will produce a portfolio and practice performing your work.
Textbook: Janet Burroway’s Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft (Longman, 2010)
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ENG 303: History of Rhetoric
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Paul W. Ranieri
Course Description: 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
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Section 2
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.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 number of essays. In short, this class asks the student to write and read a lot. Furthermore, the class will introduce the student to the subgenres of CNF and to 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, quizzes and/or reading responses, and a portfolio.
ENG 307: Fiction Writing
Section 2
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11:00-11:50 a.m.
Prof. Sean Lovelace
Writing is an art and craft, creative inspiration blended with very hard work. In this class, we will focus on the work—reading, writing, discussing fiction, both professional examples, and our own personal writing. The goal is to develop technical ability and understanding of craft and technique; and to define and cultivate a personal aesthetic—or, at least, do some serious thinking about it. A portion of the class will concentrate on the development of a critical vocabulary, in-class writing exercises, and the discussion of pieces of short fiction. Obviously, fiction is a massive “world,” and we will analyze the usual and expected aspects: plot, setting, character, and so on. I would like to focus on objects in fiction (as in what is there and why?), figurative language (metaphors, similes, personification, etc.), conflict (locating it and why it’s important), and mood, or atmosphere. Be sure to think about these specific aspects with every fiction piece we read.
We will also focus on a particular structure in this class: THE QUEST. You will be expected to write a complete quest narrative.
Another portion of the class will be dedicated to workshop, or peer review, of your own original fiction. Every student is expected to thoroughly read their peers’ work, and to give thoughtful and respectful feedback. Although focusing on workshopping student stories at this time, we will continue with exercises and our discussions of published fiction as well.
Texts:
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Flaming Iguanas by Erika Lopez
• Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
• Deliverance by James Dickey
• We will also have handouts and stories and online texts.
Contact Professor Lovelace (salovelace@bsu.edu) with any questions.
ENG 307: Fiction Writing
Section 3
Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Prof. Cathy Day
In this course, we focus on four skills/abilities/aptitudes: 1.) Scene & Summary: How to create a vivid and continuous fictional dream for the reader by knowing how (and when) to dramatize scenes and how (and when) to summarize scenes; 2.) Point of view: How to create compelling characters by externalizing their internal desires, how to select who tells the story, and how close or how distant the point of view should be; 3.) Plot Structure: How to create a plot with a beginning, middle, and end, or how (and when) to avoid traditional narrative arc entirely; and 4.) Readability: How to write prose that achieves sentence-level proficiency, how to develop an ear for grace and clarity, whether its simple and unadorned or more complex and lyrical. To that end, I’ve chosen readings and created exercises that will help you develop these skills and improve your fiction. Two special features of the course are that 1.) all creative work will be distributed and graded anonymously (we won’t know whose work we’re discussing) and 2.) much of what you write will be read aloud to the class so that we can hear how it sounds.
Possible Texts:
Tom Bailey, On Writing Short Stories
Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad
ENG 310: Screenwriting
Section 1
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11:00-11:50 a.m.
Section 2
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:00-9:50 a.m.
Section 3
Monday and Wednesday, 3:00-4:15 p.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 321: English Linguistics
Section 1
Monday and Wednesday, 3:00-4:15 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
Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Dr. Mai Kuha
In this course, we investigate in detail how language and gender are related. 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 329: Editing and Style
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Prof. Paul W. Ranieri
Catalogue Description: Introduction to approaches to editing, style, and writing conventions; intensive practice to editing, collaborative writing, and critique appropriate for students in professional writing or other writing intensive majors or careers.
Course Description: Introduces students to (1) professional copyediting techniques, conventions, and terms; (2) rhetorical and historical approaches to style, and (3) conventions of grammar, usage, mechanics in academic and professional style guides and in various media. Gives students intensive practice in collaborative writing, editing, and critique.
Required Textbooks: Williams & Colomb, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (11th ed., Pearson
Longman, ISBN: 978-0-321-898685)
David Crystal, The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left
(Oxford UP, 2007, ISBN: 978-0-199-207640)
ENG 350: Teaching Writing in Secondary Schools
Monday and Wednesday, 3:00-4:15 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 351: Contemporary American Literature –
Constructing the Contemporary
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Prof. Debbie Mix
The challenge of a course on contemporary literature is that this literature is still being produced. So how do we decide which of an author’s books is the “best” when that author is still publishing? Furthermore, we’re much more aware of the conditions of production and distribution. What does it mean for a book to be a “best seller” or for a poem to appear online or for a memoir to be in the form of a comic book or for a story to be composed in “new media”? Do awards mean anything? These questions are ones we’ll dig into this semester as we explore contemporary American literature through these and other lenses. Students will read and write about a variety of texts composed since the end of World War II as well as work in small groups to research and write about a variety of lenses through which we construct the contemporary.
ENG 366: British Literature 1890-1930 –
Studies in Early Twentieth-Century British Literature
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 2:00-2:50 p.m.
Prof. Patrick Collier
In this class, we will work collaboratively to interpret and situate a range of texts produced in England and Ireland in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Together, we will develop strategies for reading some of this period’s notoriously difficult texts, and we will build a sense of why serious literature took the particular (and peculiar) directions it took in these years. You will become familiar with the major literary-historical accounts of the period, and we will work together to clarify, challenge, and qualify these accounts. While most of our class time will be dedicated to acknowledged major (i.e. “canonical”) works, much of your independent work will lead you to more obscure materials, which will feed into a collaborative class project aimed at giving a fuller picture of the universe of print culture as it existed in these years.
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 –
Environmental Literature
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:00-9:50 a.m.
Prof. Jason Gladstone
This course concerns the relationship between literature and the environment—and this semester focuses, in particular, on literature’s capacities to represent both the short-term and the long-term effects of humans’ intentional and unintentional modifications of their natural, built, and virtual environments. Accordingly, we will consider everything from Thoreau’s account of how he once accidentally set fire to 300 acres of the Concord Forest to Yamashita’s representation of a fictional 1990s in which the planet has been transformed by the discovery of a “naturally” occurring plastic in the Brazilian rain forest. Students will interact with both fictional and non-fictional texts (poems, short-stories, novels, documentary writing, photographs, films, and digital media) as well as cultural and literary theories (ecocriticism, posthumanism, globalization, dark ecology, and environmental justice).
Authors may include: JG Ballard, Octavia Butler, Rachel Carson, Hart Crane, Sesshu Foster, William Gibson, Lydia Millet, Leslie Marmon Silko, Robert Smithson, Henry David Thoreau, Colson Whitehead, and Karen Tei Yamashita.
ENG 405: Special Topics in Creative Writing -
Poetry –The New York School forward
Section 1
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Prof. Peter Davis
In this class we’ll read about the New York School poets and read a lot of their own work. From the original founders, Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and James Schylur, all the way to contemporary poets today who are still exploring the wide variety of writing they opened up. Students in the class will be expected to read at least twice as much as they write and must be open to experimenting with their own writing and open to reading experimental writing. The New York School poets will be the spring board from which we launch into developing our own ideas about form, humor, and a whole sea of ideas which, in the end, should help us re-evaluate everything we think we know about poetry and our own work. That’s the goal at least. We’ll see.
ENG 405: Special Topics in Creative Writing –
The Everyday Made Lyric
Section 2
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10:00-10:50 a.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 the following: Bluets by Maggie Nelson; by Takashi Hiraide; and Twilight, Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Devere Smith.
Course assignments will include drafts and a final portfolio, reading responses, workshop critiques, and a presentation.
ENG 406: Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 12:00-12:50 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.
While I am still putting together the reading list for this class, we will likely study the following texts: Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas by Rebecca Solnit, It Chooses You by Miranda July, Rough Likenesses by Lia Purpura, Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldúa, and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace. These readings 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, critical reading responses, quizzes, and workshop critiques. Class time will be divided between discussions of published works, student writing experiments and exercises, and workshops of your own writing.
ENG 407: Advanced Fiction Writing
Section 1
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00-3:15 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.) ten 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 20,000 original words (approx. 80 pgs) of new work, which means you’ll produce 2,000 words (about 7-8 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 20,000 words you produce, 20-50 pages will be revised and discussed by your small group. At the end of the semester, we’ll learn how one submits a novel to editors and agents, and you’ll submit a query letter and 10-page partial of your novel.
Possible Texts:
Salvatore Pane, Last Call in the City of Bridges
Dean Bakopoulos, Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon
Ben H. Winters, The Last Policeman
Julianna Baggott, Pure
ENG 407: Advanced Fiction Writing
Section 2
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 2:00-2:50 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 discuss the spectrum of lyricism versus narrative, and all points in-between. We will read a wide variety of flash fiction texts and critical essays on the genre by professional authors. 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
• 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 408: Advanced Poetry Writing
Tuesday and Thursday, 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Prof. Mark Neely
English 408 is an advanced course in poetry writing. About half the class will be devoted to discussion of contemporary poets, including six collections of poems. We will talk about different styles and forms of poetry and look closely at the dazzling number of formal choices poets make in their work. The readings will help inspire the poems written for the class, inform the way we discuss student work, and offer strategies for revision. Student poems will be critiqued in several ways, including small and large group workshops.
Assignments include ten poems, presentations, readings and critical reading responses. At the end of the semester students will turn in a chapbook or chapbook manuscript.
Readings will include essays about poetry, an anthology, and several poetry collections.
Possible texts include:
Six American Poets, Joel Conarroe ed.; Engine Empire by Cathy Park Hong; Bender by Dean Young; Space, In Chains by Laura Kasischke.
ENG 410: Advanced Screenwriting
Section 1
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Section 2
Monday and Wednesday, 5:00-6:15 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
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Pamela Hartman
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 beliefs concerning the very nature of literature and literacy. For instance, we will consider such questions as the following: What is literacy? How is it acquired? Is their a difference between print literacy and multimedia literacy? 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 analyzing and interpreting texts, including literary and popular materials frequently used in the English Language Arts classroom. (Prereq. ENG 230 or 150 for teaching majors).
ENG 414: Young Adult Literature
Monday, 5:00-7:30 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 -
“Murder Will Out” - Or Will It?
Mystery and Crime Writing
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Prof. Joyce Huff
The popularity of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, both today and in Doyle’s own time, attests to the appeal of the mystery genre. But, for a long time now, critics have debated whether this popular genre was worthy of serious literary study. This course answers that question with a resounding, “yes!”
In fact, literary critic Laura Marcus feels that the detective story is so important that it can serve as a model for the construction of narrative in general. In detective literature, “an absent story, that of the crime, is gradually reconstructed in the second story (the investigation).” In this way, mysteries echo the process of story-telling itself. Furthermore, methods of crime-solving employed within these stories reveal underlying cultural assumptions about the ways in which knowledge about the world is produced as well as about what counts as persuasive evidence. In many classic works of detective fiction, such as Doyle’s Holmes stories, logic and scientific reasoning lead to the discovery of the truth. Later, modernist and postmodernist mystery writers would turn this basic assumption on its head, questioning the notion that the truth is out there just waiting to be discovered. Instead, they introduce multiple truths from differing points of view, alternate means of producing truths or truths that are ultimately undiscoverable.
Possible works for study include classic mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins and Agatha Christie as well as works that play with and challenge the established conventions of the genre by writers like Tom Stoppard, Leslie Marmon Silko, Jorge Luis Borges and Jamyang Norbu. There will be Sherlock Holmes rewrites and possibly a film. And you can impress your friends by learning the meaning of the word “epistemology.” Course requirements will include papers, exams, presentations and participation in discussion, both in class and on-line.
ENG 425: Film Studies
Section 1
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11:00-11:50 a.m.
Section 2
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:00-1:50 p.m.
ENG 425L: Film Studies Lab
(for course sections 1 & 2)
Wednesday, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Prof. Amit Baishya
Course Description: This course is an introduction to film analysis. We will cover issues such as film form, film history, techniques, styles and genre. The goal of this course is to equip you with the basic analytical tools that are required for a sustained critical engagement with cinema.
ENG 437: Methods and Materials in Teaching English
to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Lynne Stallings
The aim of this course is to prepare pre-service teachers of K-12 students to understand, recognize and address the language acquisition challenges of non-native English speakers, either in the U.S. or abroad. Students will receive hands-on experience in local schools, familiarizing themselves with the standards for English learners, while they develop and use practical techniques and materials to teach English learners based on second-language acquisition principles. Students will also consider and develop strategies that help English learners acquire the language, academic, and social skills they need in order to become fully participating members of their schools and communities.
ENG 444: Senior Seminar –
Manifesto Book Binding
Section 2
Tuesday and Thursday, 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Prof. Rai Peterson
Yes! Back by popular demand is Rai Peterson's Manifesto Book Binding version of ENG 444. Students will be required to write a personal manifesto about something they believe in strongly. This will probably be related to your professional education, but it may also be relevant to your career and life's goals.
This class is the true antonym of "online publishing," although skills in using Adobe In Design are greatly valued in this course.
Students will be taught to bind a simple casebook as well as to emulate several ancient book-binding practices and styles. The cost for materials is around $100, but there are no books required for this course.
If the class elects to do it, we will bind blank journals and sell them on campus near the end of the term to help off-set individuals' costs.
ENG 444: Senior Seminar –
Literacy, Narrative, and Gaming
Section 3
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Prof. Jennifer Grouling
This course will consider the social, rhetorical, and narrative construction of games from a variety of genres (including both board games and video games). We will read books and articles on topics such as the narrative structure of games, identity formation in games, and the social interactions in gaming. We will address issues such as the effect of games on literacy as well as how to write for games. Readings will come from diverse areas of English studies including cultural studies, rhetorical criticism, education, and narratology.
As a senior seminar, you will develop your own semester long project based on the theme of the course and your particular focus within English studies. You might conduct a rhetorical, literary, or linguistic analysis of a particular game or genre, develop your own game, write a script for a game, or develop a unit plan around gaming.
ENG 444: Senior Seminar –
Hybridity and the Human Animal
Section 4
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Miranda Nesler
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the lines dividing human from animal were uncomfortably blurred. The resurgence of classical texts filled with mythical hybrid creatures intersected with new travel accounts detailing the strange and wonderful beings that lived in the “New World.” Scientific exploration began revealing similarities in the internal systems of mammals. Shifts in religious affiliation and national law altered how humans viewed their relationships to animals — as dominators or as stewards. This course examines these key historical debates from a multi-disciplinary perspective in order to explore how vocabularies of humanity have shifted and persisted across time to shape our own 21st century concepts of humanness, ethical value, and identity.
ENG 464: Shakespeare –
Shakespeare in Conversation
Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Prof. Miranda Nesler
Shakespeare is a major literary figure whose name and works shape most students’ perceptions of the early modern period. Yet Shakespeare's texts did not exist in isolation; their importance grew out of the complex cultural conversations that they engaged. By encouraging the reading of Shakespeare’s plays within their historical context, this course will familiarize students with a number of those key debates.
ENG 489: Practicum in Literary Editing and Publishing
Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Prof. Mark Neely
Prerequisites: 306 OR 307 OR 308 OR 310 and Permission of Instructor
(email maneely@bsu.edu to request permission)
The students in this class will be responsible for producing the Spring 2012 issue of The Broken Plate, a national literary magazine produced by Ball State undergraduates. Student editors will be responsible for all aspects of magazine production, including soliciting submissions, selecting quality work, designing the magazine, and promoting and selling the issue.
Other requirements include magazine and book reviews, readings and quizzes, software tutorials, and an individual literary editing project. Texts may include literary magazines, Merriam-Webster’s Manual for Writers and Editors, and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.
English 489 is a year-long, 6-credit, immersive learning course. Students will also enroll in English 489 in Spring 2013.
Permission of Instructor is required: please email Mark Neely at maneely@bsu.edu if you are interested in this class.
ENG 494: Queer Literature/Queer Theory
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Rai Peterson
This is a survey of queer literature, not queer theory, although it will draw upon readings from important queer theorists such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, Judith Halberstam, Michael Foucault, etc. Straight allies as well as students who identify as LGBTQ are encouraged to register. The literature covered in the class will broadly represent various queer identifications (e.g. lesbian, gay, transgendered, intersexed, etc.) and may include work by such authors as Radclyffe Hall, Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh, E. M. Forester, Djuna Barnes, Ernest Hemingway, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Christopher Isherwood, Sarah Waters, Michal Thomas Ford, Augusten Burroughs, Alison Bechdel, etc.
ENG 498:Post-Colonial Literature
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 3:00-3:50 p.m.
Prof. Amit Baishya
Course Description: Postcolonial studies brought matters of empire and colony to the center stage of literary studies, and it has initiated provocative discussions about literatures from formerly colonized areas of the world. This course is designed to introduce you to the various facets of the fascinating, yet highly contested field of postcolonial studies. We will begin our class by reading two canonical texts: Rudyard Kipling’s Kim and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Both texts are fascinating, ambivalent and problematic representations of the colonial “other.” We will then go on to examine a diverse selection of postcolonial literatures emanating from some of the major former geographical centers of colonialism: South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. We will address a wide range of topics including: the lingering impact of colonialism, ideologies of racism, the connections between colonial terror and the Holocaust, forms of anti-colonial resistance, the power and limits of anti-colonial nationalisms, the hybridity of cultures, the exclusions of nationalist discourse, the gendering of nations, the patriarchal construction of women as emblems of the nation, violence and representation, neocolonialism, postcolonial rewriting, contemporary forms of colonialism and the question of alternative futurities in postcolonial science fiction.
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