2000-Level Course Descriptions
ENGL 2000-001/003: MWF 10-10:50 AM / MWF 12-12:50 PM with Professor Ben Robertson
ENGL 2000-002: MWF 11-11:50 AM with Professor Padma Rangarajan
ENGL 2000-004/005: TR 12:30-1:45 PM / TR 2-3:15 PM with Professor Cathy Preston
ENGL 2000-007/010: TR 11-12:15 PM / TR 2-3:15 PM with Professor Penelope Kelsey
ENGL 2000-008/009: TR 2-3:15 PM / TR 3:30-4:45 PM with Professor Paul Levitt
ENGL 2010-001: MWF 2-2:50 PM with Professor Catherine Labio
ENGL 2010-010: TR 3:30-4:20 PM with Professor Kelly Hurley
ENGL 2707-001: MWF 1-1:50 PM with Professor Scarlet Bowen
ENGL 2767-001/002: TR 11-12:15 PM / TR 12:30-1:45 PM with Professor Laura Winkiel
ENGL 2000-001/003: Literary Analysis
Instructor: Professor Ben Robertson
Sec. 1: MWF 10-10:50 am — LIBR N424B
Call No. 15360
Sec. 3: MWF 12-12:50 am — LIBR N424B
Call No. 15362
Prereq: ENGL MAJORS ONLY
This section of ENGL 2000: Literary Analysis will cover the basic vocabulary and skills of literary criticism. Specifically, we will consider: the question of
literary form and its relationship with content or meaning (especially in the context of poetic meter and novelistic structure): concepts such as figurative language,
symbol, and allegory; the relationship between literary history and interpretation; and the evolution of literary genres including poetry, the short story, and the
novel. These concerns will lossely relate to the theme of "literature as a means to truth." A list of writers we might study includes:
Poetry: Thomas Gray, William Blake, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, TS Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Susan Howe, Charles Bernstein
Short Stories: Edgar Allan Poe, Rebecca Harding Davis, Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver
Novels: Mark Twain, Jean Toomer, Ralph Ellison
Please contact the instructor for further information: Benjamin.J.Robertson@Colorado.edu
ENGL 2000-002: Literary Analysis
Instructor: Professor Padma Rangarajan
MWF 11-11:50 am — LIBR N424B
Call No. 15361
Prereq: ENGL MAJORS ONLY
This course introduces students to the English major through an study of form and genre. Students will learn to utilize the tools and vocabulary needed for literary analysis, and apply those tools to a wide variety of literature spanning period and genre. In other words we'll be exploring how and why a text creates meaning.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Padma.Ranagarajan@Colorado.edu
ENGL 2000-004/005: Literary Analysis
Instructor: Professor Cathy Preston
Sec. 4: TR 12:30-1:45 pm — CHEM 131
Call No. 15363
Sec. 5: TR 2:00-3:15 pm — CHEM 131
Call No. 15364
Prereq: ENGL MAJORS JR/SR Standing
This is a basic skills course which will emphasize close readings of literature, critical writing, and the techniques and vocabulary of literary criticism. The course will focus on poetry and prose fiction.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Prestonc@Colorado.edu
ENGL 2000-007/010: Literary Analysis
Instructor: Professor Penelope Kelsey
Sec. 7: TR 11-11:15 pm — LIBR N424B
Call No. 24873
Sec. 10: TR 2-3:15 pm — HUMN 245
Call No. 25479
Prereq: ENGL MAJORS ONLY
This course is a core part of your initial training in how to be an English major. It marks the beginning of viewing and critiquing the world and its texts in an entirely different light, assuming you have not already converted to this mode of thinking in previous literature courses. Because English majors and literary critics possess a varied toolbox, you will learn a range of reading strategies for an array of genres (i.e., poetry, drama, fiction). We will vigorously discuss all the assigned texts and practice strategies for taking on more conscious roles as readers and interpreters of literature.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Penelope.Kelsey@Colorado.edu
ENGL 2000-008/009: Literary Analysis
Instructor: Professor Paul Levitt
Sec. 8: TR 2-3:15 pm — CLRE 209
Call No. 24874
Sec. 9: TR 3:30-4:45 pm — EDUC 134
Call No. 24881
Prereq: ENGL MAJORS ONLY
I shall treat my course as if its formal title were "Writing about Literature." Students will write short argumentative/analytical papers about poems, modern plays, and recent novels. To succeed in the course, students will have to exhibit skills in close reading, explication (thinking), and writing. For those students who are wanting in those skills, I will in every course period be modeling them.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Paul.Levitt@Colorado.edu
ENGL 2010-001: Introduction to Literary Theory
Instructor: Professor Catherine Labio
MWF 2-2:50 pm — MUEN E431
Call No. 24883
Prereq: ENGL MAJORS ONLY
An introduction to critical theory centered on the theme of aesthetic vs. ideological approaches to the study of literature. In particular, we shall be relying on
critical, literary, and visual works to explore three separate yet related topics:
- The roles assigned to literature, art, aesthetics, and literary study since the eighteenth century;
- The possibility of art and literature in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially with respect to images, in a world that has experienced total war and genocide; and
- The relationship of literature to economics in the eras of industrialization and globalization.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Catherine.Labio@Colorado.edu
ENGL 2010-010: Introduction to Literary Theory
Instructor: Professor Kelly Hurley
Note: Section 010 Requires a Recitation Section
TR 3:30-4:20 pm — Hale 230
Call No. 15373
Prereq: ENGL MAJORS ONLY
English 2010 will introduce you to a number of theoretical movements that have influenced literary studies in the twentieth century, particularly in recent decades. Since these influences have been many and various, the syllabus will emphasize breadth of coverage rather than in-depth analysis of any particular theoretical approach in order to help you develop a basic literacy in and understanding of a range of theoretical practices. Please note that most of our time will be given over to the study of theory itself, not of literary (or film) texts. This course, a lower-division requirement within the major, is designed to provide English majors with the tools they’ll need for literary analysis in upper-division English courses.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Kelly.Hurley@Colorado.edu
ENGL 2707-001/LBGT 2707: Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Literature
Instructor: Professor Scarlet Bowen
MWF 1:00-1:50 pm — HLMS 137
Call No. 25419
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
This course will introduce you to contemporary LGBTQ literature. Emphasizing U.S. drama and prose, we will examine the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and/or queer writers to the gay and lesbian civil rights movement and the “sex wars,” as well as trace how they intervene in debates about the nuclear family, heteronormativity, identity formation, feminism, the AIDS crisis, gender roles, and racial, class and global politics. We will also address the literary innovations and aesthetic choices of these writers, such as the construction or deconstruction of the "coming out" narrative, the intermixing of genres, intertextuality, and other experiments with postmodern literary techniques.
Possible Course Texts:
Cuadros’ City of God, Bechdel’s Fun Home, Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance, Hwang’ M. Butterfly, Feinberg’s Stone Butch
Blues; Harris’s Just as I Am, Muhanji’s Her; Winterson’s Oranges Aren’t the Only Fruit, Wright’s I am My Own Wife, Pérez’s
Forgetting the Alamo, Lopez’ Flaming Iguanas: An All-Girl Road Novel Thing.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Scarlet.Bowen@Colorado.edu
ENGL 2767-001/002: Survey of Postcolonial Literature
Instructor: Professor Laura Winkiel
Sec. 1: TR 11-12:15 pm — HLMS 141
Call No. 24898
Sec. 2: TR 12:30-1:45 pm — MUEN E417
Call No. 24899
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
Whether it’s the war on terrorism, global markets, tourism, or population diversity, we can’t escape the effects of globalization; they are indeed everywhere. For
writers in the so-called third world, globalization often means a very different experience from that represented in the U.S. media. This course will explore how
contemporary writers from South and West Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia negotiate between the lived effects of globalization and the failed dreams of
postcolonial liberation. How are they reimagining history so as to create new possibilities and communities for an alternative future? What is our role in the
first-world university as readers of these texts? What critical opportunities do they afford us?
This course will introduce you to the growing interdisciplinary field of postcolonial studies. We will also consider such issues as: English as an international
language, cultural homogeneity and diversity, commodification and tourism of postcolonial cultures, reading as resistance, the transformation of literary form,
hybridity and much more. Finally, students will develop their analytical writing through a series of short papers and exams.
Readings will include: Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe; The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born Ayi Kwei Armah; Graceland Chris Abani; A
Small Place Jamaica Kincaid; The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy; Nervous Conditions Tsitsi Dangarembga; Ways of Dying Zakes Mda.
Films will also be shown.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Laura.Winkiel@Colorado.edu