Fall 2023 Detailed Course Descriptions

English 3000: Introduction to Literary Studies – Dr. Corley

This course is designed to equip majors for upper-level research and writing in Literary Studies. As such, it focuses on the habits of mind and writing that distinguish scholarly work in literature from work in other disciplines. We will learn these habits through abstract discussion and practical exercises and by applying them to N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, first book in her Hugo and Nebula Award-winning series, The Broken Earth. Jemisin is one of the most celebrated science fiction writers alive. We’ll also read excerpts other work by her, including How Long ‘til Black Future Month?

• Terry Eagleton, How to Read Literature (ISBN 9780300205305)
• Eric Hayot, Elements Of Academic Style (ISBN 9780231168014)
• N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season, Orbit, 2015, (ISBN 9780316229296)
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 9th Edition (ISBN 9781603293518)

Prerequisite: a 2000-level literature course

Fulfills: English Major Core Requirement

ENG 3151: Writing for the Professions – Dr. Prins

This required major course will help you answer all kinds of practical English major questions: What does workplace writing typically look like? How is it different from school essays? How can I use what I’ve learned in my other writing, literature, and linguistics classes in professional contexts? And why is email? We’ll untangle the complexities of professional writing’s purposes, audiences and contexts—and you’ll finish the class with some practical skills and documents you can put to use.

Prerequisite: GE Area A2

Fulfills: English Major Core Requirement, Writing Studies Minor Elective

English 4310: Nineteenth-Century American Literature – Dr. Corley

Though American literature written between 1860 and 1912 is arguably no more realistic than any other period of literature in American history, the time period has become known as the age of literary realism. Novels employed new narrative techniques, described previously ignored social milieus, and exhibited new understandings of human society and identity. These changes were mirrored by developments in the publishing industry which allowed aspiring authors to both think of themselves as artists and workers, self-conscious craftsmen and hardheaded businesspersons determined to make a living through writing. Writers explored many types of “realism” in this period, social, ethno-racial, psychological, and historical realisms among them.

This class will also be a workshop on literary criticism inasmuch as we will work together to establish a critical bibliography for texts in the class. Assignments include an annotated bibliography, class presentation, and research paper.

• Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition. Penguin Classics edited by Eric Sundquist
• Davis, Gilman, Jewett & Wharton. Four Stories by American Women. Penguin Classics edition
• William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham. Penguin Classics edited by Kermit Vanderbilt
• Henry James, The American. Penguin Classics edited by William Spengemann
• Mark Twain, “To the One Sitting in Darkness” and “The United States of Lyncherdom,” available on Canvas

Prerequisites: ENG 3000 and either ENG 3010, ENG 3011, ENG 3012, or ENG 3110

Fulfills: English Education & Literary Studies Option Requirement in Focused Inquiry

ENG 4333: Native American Literature – Dr. DeRosa

“Art for Life’s Sake”: The title of this course comes from the poet Marilou Awiakta (Cherokee-Appalachian), who revises the 19th C. European belief that the value of art lies in its aesthetic perfection (“art for art’s sake”) rather than its practical (political, moral) use. Today we tend to hold a similar belief that art is divorced from our lives: that reading is entertainment and that fiction tells us little about the real. Awiakta, however, speaks to a belief held across many Native American communities that stories aren’t entertainment, but a primary mode of knowing our relationship to earth, kin, and culture. This course engages with these modes of knowing through literature from multiple Native American communities with the goal of hearing their voices and respecting their resilience toward the conditions of settler colonialism.

Prerequisites: ENG 3000 and either ENG 3010, ENG 3011, ENG 3012, or ENG 3110

Fulfills: English Education & Literary Studies Option Requirement in Decentered Canons

ENG 4400A: Writing for the Web – Dr. Prins

Learn about web and social media content development and management by helping to run the EML Department's website and social media accounts! Hands-on experience will provide you with writing and design examples for your professional portfolio.

Prerequisite: ENG 3000 and either ENG 3010, ENG 3011, ENG 3012, or ENG 3110

Fulfills: English Major Core Requirement in Polytechnic Experience, Writing Studies Minor Elective

English 4610: Senior Symposium – Dr. Corley

This course is designed as a culminating experience for the Literary Studies major. In this capstone, you’ll be asked to reflect upon your work at CPP—your courses, papers, readings, instructors, and all the other details that have added up to your degree in English. This symposium is also a seminar, and will be run like one, with lots of discussion and student presentations. You’ll write a reflective essay on your learning and experiences at CPP, assemble previous work into a portfolio and reflect on it, write a proposal, abstract, and research-based critical paper on a subject related to one of our primary texts, and read about and discuss issues relevant to the program and the careers for which we have endeavored to prepare you. You will craft a 45-minute presentation that showcases your ability to provide relevant literary, historical, aesthetic, and theoretical perspectives on the reading assigned for the day while also constructing an engaging and effective venue for class discussion.

To give you a variety of material from one author who you can get to know over the course of a semester, I’ve assigned the literary and critical works of a contemporary prize-winning author, Ana Castillo. We’ll read a short story collection, a novel, two poetry collections, a play, and a collection of scholarly essays. These works cover the range of genres and intellectual endeavors that Castillo has pursued in her career. I’ve chosen Castillo for this course because her work, though world-class, profound, and widely heralded, is rarely taught in our program. This will give you freedom in bringing your literary analysis and research skills to bear in new and challenging territory. I’ve also chosen Castillo because she is a stimulating writer who emphasizes the unique and indispensable role of writing for understanding and navigating life. 

• Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma, 20th anniversary updated edition, University of New Mexico Press, 2014
• My Father Was a Toltec, WW Norton, 1995
• My Book of the Dead, High Road Books, 2021
• So Far From God, WW Norton, 1993
• Loverboys, WW Norton, 1996
• Psst, I have Something to Tell You, Mi Amor, PDF provided on Canvas

Prerequisites: Senior standing and at least two 4000-level literature courses (try to take this in one of your last two semesters)

Fulfills: English Literary Studies Option Requirement

ENG 4880: Modernism/Postmodernism – Dr. DeRosa

In this course we will think about Western history and culture on a grand scale, from the Enlightenment to the Pandemic, DesCartes to Kanye. Our objects of study will be all forms of contemporary culture—television, film, art, literature, and whatever else you bring in to share—and what influenced their production. We will learn how to be the person that says “oh, that’s so postmodern,” but actually knows what that means. You will become an ironic hipster without knowing it—I’m sorry. We’ll pass out infinity scarves in week 1…

Prerequisites: Completed lower-division GE Areas A1, A2, A3, C1, C2, one additional C1 or C2, and B4

Fulfills: English Education & Literary Studies Option Requirement in Focused Inquiry and GE C3

ENG 5562: British Literature: 1660-1800 – Dr. Ozment

In 1660 when Charles II was re-established on the English throne, another marked change occurred: women were allowed on the commercial stage. In the years that followed, actresses like Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Berry, and Anne Bracegirdle became celebrities whose popularity on and off the stage was intermingled with discourses about women’s place in public discourse, sexuality, labor, and consumption. This course traces the rise of the female celebrity actress by exploring their appearance in popular media and actions as public figures, examining the relationship between dramatists and roles tailored for celebrity actresses, and analyzing the labor conditions which actresses navigated as the theatre evolved over the long eighteenth century. Alongside this, we will detail the expanding role of the female dramatist from Katherine Philips to Aphra Behn, Mary Pix, Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Charke, and Mary Robinson to explore how celebrity signifies for authors, actresses, and author/actresses in increasingly complex ways.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing

Fulfills: ENG MA Literary Studies Option Category 2, ENG MA Rhetoric & Composition Option Literary Studies Elective