Fall 2020 Undergraduate Courses

Fall 2020: Freshman Writing Seminar

ENGL 1001: Freshman Writing Seminar

Provides training and practice in writing and critical thinking. Focuses on the writing process, the fundamentals of composition, and the structure of argument. Provides numerous and varied assignments with opportunity for revision. Requisites: Restricted to students with 0-56 credits (Freshmen or Sophomore) College of Arts and Sciences majors only. Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Written Communication Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Arts Sci Gen Ed: Written Communication-Lower ...

Fall 2020: General Literature and Language

ENGL 1220: From Gothic to Horror

Ghosts and monsters fill the pages of popular books and appear on our TV and movie screens. This course surveys the history of such creations and asks what we can learn from them. We will begin by exploring the origins of the Gothic genre. We’ll also familiarize ourselves with theories about the appeal or function of writing that confronts the horrific, the terrifying, or the overwhelming. Readings include key works by authors like Walpole, Hoffmann, and Shelley. We’ll look at modern America with Stephen Ki...

ENGL 1230: Environmental Literature

An introduction to the U.S. environmental imagination from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854) through Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) up to Warner Brothers’ film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). This course focuses on American representations of human impacts on the environment. We consider literary engagements with such issues as: the (im)possibility of representing nature; the integration of the human and the natural; the end of the world and the future of nature; cultural difference and environmental jus...

ENGL 1250: Intro to Global Women's Literature

Introduces global literature by women. Covers both poetry and fiction and varying historical periods. Acquaints students with the contribution of women writers to the literary tradition and investigates the nature of this contribution. Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: WGST 1250 Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Human Diversity Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-Global Perspective Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

ENGL 1270: Intro to American Women's Literature

Introduces literature by women in America. Covers both poetry and fiction and varying historical periods. Acquaints students with the contribution of women writers to the literary tradition and investigates the nature of this contribution. Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: WGST 1270 Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Human Diversity Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-U.S. Perspective Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

ENGL 1420: Poetry

Introduces students to how to read a poem by examining the great variety of poems written and composed in English from the very beginning of the English language until recently. Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

ENGL 1500: Intro to British Literature

Introduces students to the British literary tradition through intensive study of centrally significant texts and genres. Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

ENGL 1600: Intro to American Literature

Introduces students to the American literary tradition through intensive study of centrally significant texts and genres. Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

ENGL 1800: American Ethnic Literatures

Introduces significant fiction by ethnic Americans. Explores both the literary and the cultural elements that distinguish work by these writers. Emphasizes materials from Native American, African American, and Chicano traditions. Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Human Diversity Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-U.S. Perspective Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

ENGL 3000: Shakespeare for Nonmajors

Introduction to Shakespeare. Introduces students to 6-10 of Shakespeare's major plays. Comedies, histories, and tragedies will be studied. Some non-dramatic poetry may be included. Viewing of Shakespeare in performance is often required. Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only. English (ENGL) and Humanities (HUMN) majors are excluded from taking this class. Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-...

ENGL 3060: Modern and Contemporary Literature for Nonmajors

Close study of significant 20th-century poetry, drama, and prose works. Readings range from 1920s to the present. Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only. Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

ENGL 4820: Honors Seminar

This seminar is designed to help you write an honors thesis that is well researched, historically and culturally grounded, and responsive to critical trends that have informed your particular topic. It will focus on sharpening the skills needed to write a successful thesis, including research, the formulation of an argument, revision, and the ability to summarize and evaluate secondary materials. This class is necessarily a cooperative one and will provide you with a weekly forum in which to exchange ideas ...

Fall 2020: Introductory English Requirements

ENGL 2102: Literary Analysis

Provides a basic skills course designed to equip students to handle the English major. Emphasizes critical writing and the acquisition of basic techniques and vocabulary of literary criticism through close attention to poetry and prose. Requisites: Restricted to English (ENGL) majors and minors only. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: General Literature and Language Section 001 with Ed Rivers This course trea...

ENGL 2112: Intro to Literary Theory

Introduces students to a wide range of critical theories that English majors need to know. Covers major movements in modern literary/critical theory, from Matthew Arnold through new criticism to contemporary postmodern frameworks. Required for all English majors. Requisites: Restricted to English (ENGL) majors and minors only. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: General Literature and Language Section 001 with Paul Neimann ...

Fall 2020: British Literature to 1660

ENGL 3553: Chaucer

Chaucer: Literature at (What Feels Like) the End of the World The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was no stranger to crisis: he was born in the wake of the Black Death, the plague that killed about half of the population of Europe; and he lived through war with France, the Peasants’ Revolt, the deposing of a king, and religious conflict. In this course, we will explore Chaucer’s writings, not only for what he had to say about his own crises, but also for what he might help us understand about our own. We wil...

ENGL 4003: Intro to Old English

Hwæt! English looked a lot different 1000 years ago. Although it sounds “old,” the history of our language has everything to do with how we use English today. Old English and medieval culture are the bases for Tolkien’s Middle Earth, of course, but they are also often used in modern nationalist movements. Learn how to think about “origins” in accurate ways that honor the past without living in it. This course provides an introduction to Old English, the ancient ancestor of Modern English (as Latin is the an...

Fall 2020: British Literature, 1660 - 1900

ENGL 2504: British History After 1660

Surveys key trends and works in British literature from 1660 to 1900 by focusing on issues such as modernity; national identity; political, economic, social, and scientific revolutions; reading and media technologies; and the relationship between literary and visual culture. May include works by Aphra Behn, William Hogarth, the Wordsworths, Jane Austen, the Brontës, Charles Dickens, Christina Rossetti, and Joseph Conrad. Formerly ENGL 2512. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanitie...

ENGL 3164: History & Literature of Georgian England

The Georgian era, named after the reigns of Georges I–IV (1714–1830), was a period of major economic, social, and cultural upheavals, during which Britain became a modern, global superpower, thereby setting the stage for the world we live in. Together we shall study a wide range of texts and images to discuss issues at the core of the political, economic, and cultural revolutions of the 18th century: What does it mean to be human? Is it the capacity to reason? To feel? To be free? To trade and own things? T...

ENGL 4624: The Ruin in 18th/19th Century Art and Literature

This course will explore from multiple points of view why ruins are so popular:  whether those be architectural, literary, or political, or all of these simultaneously. We will read poetry, novels, and look at paintings of ruins.  Although the class mostly focuses on the Romantic era in Britain (1776-1832), I have widened that scope. We will discuss ISIL’s 2015 destruction of the ancient ruins of Palmyra in what is now Syria; we will explore Native American ruins; and we will delve into the aftermaths of CO...

Fall 2020: American Literature

ENGL 3005: Literature of New World Encounters

Explores American literature as a site of cultural intersection between European settlers and indigenous peoples. Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors). Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: American Literature Taught by Ramesh Mallipeddi.

ENGL 3235: American Novel

This course examines how what we have come to think of as “the canon” is entwined with the US’s ethnic literary tradition. We will explore how the two are not only inseparable but in fact mutually constitutive, marking the major shifts in US literary history. Authors may include Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, John Rollin Ridge, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Cormac McCarthy, and Leslie Marmon Silko. Surveys the American novel. Covers the early development of the American novel, its rise in the ...

ENGL 3675: Major Authors in American History - Toni Morrison

This course takes a deep dive into the writings of Toni Morrison, the foremost African-American novelist of our time. Winner of the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes for Literature, Toni Morrison’s works probe vital questions about race, gender, and power in our contemporary culture. Starting with The Bluest Eye  and going through the Beloved trilogy, we will read Morrison’s novels, as well as her critical writings on race and American literature and culture. Students can expect discussion-based classes, a fairly h...

ENGL 4685: Special Topics in American Literature

Reading, Response & Self-Reflection in American Literature A word is dead, when it is said, Some say— I say, it just begins to live That day                    —Emily Dickinson We are absurdly accustomed to the miracle of a few written signs being able to contain immortal imagery, involutions of thought, new worlds with live people, speaking, weeping, laughing. . . . What if we awake one day, all of us, and find ourselves utterly unable to read? I wish you to gasp not only at what you read but at...

Fall 2020: Genre, Media, and Advanced Writing

ENGL 3106: Intro to Literary Studies with Data Science

We all know that computers do not have feelings. Yet how might we leverage technology to think about what it is to be human; to identify the emotional state of a speaker; to anticipate the affective response a text aims to produce in a reader or audience member? Or what kinds of questions can you ask about 100 novels that you can’t ask when reading a single book? What insights about human creativity arise from taking advantage of computer programs capable of working with very large data sets? These are just...

ENGL 3246: Topics in Popular Culture

Studies special topics in popular culture; specially designed for English majors. Topics vary each semester. May be repeated for a total of 6 credit hours for different topics. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Advanced Theory, Genre Studies and Popular Culture Section 001 with Ben R...

ENGL 3856: Comics and Graphic Novels

Comics are everywhere! Spanning all media platforms, comics are a global force in twenty-first century culture. This course is an introduction to comics history and a headlong dive into today’s comics scene. We will cover superheroes, underground comix, graphic novels, and movies. Comics help us understand ourselves in the world today, and so we will discuss the value of the humanities and the power of the imagination as a force for change. We’ll work on writing and we’ll make fantastic original comics. Joi...

ENGL 4116: Advanced Topics in Media Studies

Mediating the Human Body: A History This advanced class investigates the history of collection and mediation by studying the fascinating history of visual representations of anatomical specimens. Students will study the visual transmission of human anatomy in the West from the 1540s to the 1940s. In this hands-on class, we will be working with the CU Art Museum and partnering with medical humanities students at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh to learn the history of dissection and surgery along with the t...

Fall 2020: Studies of Ethnicity, Race, Disability, Gender, and Sexuality

ENGL 2017: World Genres

Explores literary form and language in a wide range of cultures, introducing students to the global English literary tradition, comprising multiple lineages. Introduces students to poetry, narrative, drama, orality, media, digitality, and/or other genres drawn from diverse traditions, each locally historicized and contextualized. Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Section 001 with Karim Mattar “[A] genealogy of world literature leads to Ori...

ENGL 2707: Intro to LGBT Literature

This course is what the title promises: an introduction to LGBT literature. Our focus will be on the American tradition, beginning with the historical question of when identifiably LGBT literature emerges. Moving into contemporary culture, we will ask questions concerning the relationship of gay identity to gay writing: must one be gay to write gay? What counts as “GLBT” literature? Is it gay content, gay authorship, gay sensibility, or something else? How does “queer” fit into or disrupt defined categories...

ENGL 3377: Multicultural Literature

Studies special topics in multicultural literature; specially designed for English majors. Topics vary each semester. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Multicultural and Gender Studies

ENGL 4697: Special Topics in Multicultural and Ethnic American Literature

This course explores contemporary Native American film by directors from an extensive range of tribal nations, geographies, and genders across time and space.  We’ll look at early films of the silent era by the first Native director like James Young Deer (Delaware), including White Fawn’s Devotion (1910), consider American Indian filmmaking and presence in TV and film of the 1950s and 1960s, and then move to the mainstream splash Smoke Signals (1998) by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapahoe), which first put Native...

Fall 2020: Literatures in English, 1900 to Present

ENGL 2058: 20th/21st Century Literature

Surveys the major literary trends in prose and poetry from 1900 to the present in the Anglo-American tradition of modern, postmodern, and contemporary literature. Provides students with a grounding in the major authors and motifs of 20th- and 21st-century in literature in conjunction with political and cultural changes across the periods. Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Critical Studies in English Taught by Cheryl Higashida. Secti...

ENGL 3078: Literature in English 1945 - Present

The last decade has, it seems, been dominated by one kind of crisis and another—economic, social, cultural, and ecological. In these years we have seen neoliberalism fall into a crisis of legitimacy, the rise of social media, endless wars in the middle east, the destruction of democratic norms and rising disbelief in the political process, and, insistently, the evidence of climate catastrophe. How has American fiction spoken of these crises? How have contemporary writers enlisted different subgenres? How ha...

ENGL 4468: Modern Poetry

What makes modern poetry modern? In this course we will examine the remarkable development of American poetry in the course of the twentieth century (with perhaps a glimpse at the twenty-first), looking in particular at the technical, social, and political variety of writing. We will look at a number of schools and movements, including imagism, modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, Black Mountain, the Beats, the Confessionals and the New York School. Poets in closer focus: Pound, H.D., Loy, Stevens, Crane, Hug...

Fall 2020: Critical Studies in English

ENGL 4039: Critical Studies in English

Concerned with developments in the study of literature that have significantly influenced our conception of the theoretical bases for study and expanded our understanding of appropriate subject matter. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of ENGL 2102 and ENGL 2112 (all minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) English (ENGL) or Humnanities (HUMN) majors and minors only. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen ...

Fall 2020: Undergraduate Creative Writing

ENGL 1191: Intro to Creative Writing

Introduces techniques of fiction and poetry. Student work is scrutinized by the instructor and may be discussed in a workshop atmosphere with other students. May not be taken concurrently with ENGL 2021 or ENGL 2051. May not be repeated. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Undergraduate Writing

ENGL 2021: Introductory Poetry Workshop

Introductory course in poetry writing. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of ENGL 1191 (minimum grade B). Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Undergraduate Writing

ENGL 2051: Introductory Fiction Workshop

Introductory course in fiction writing. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of ENGL 1191 (mimimum grade B). Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Undergraduate Writing

ENGL 3021: Intermediate Poetry Workshop

Intermediate course in poetry writing. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of ENGL 2021 (minimum grade B). Restricted to Creative Writing minor students or students with a sub plan of Creative Writing. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Undergraduate Writing

ENGL 3041: Studies in Fiction and Poetry

Examines literary forms and themes with special emphasis on issues related to the craft of poetry and fiction. This course is taught in conjunction with visiting lectures by practicing writers. Does not count as Creative Writing workshop credit. Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of ENGL 1191 (minimum grade B). Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Undergraduate Writing Section 001: Taught by Marcia Douglas. Section 002: This is an intermediate...

ENGL 3051: Intermediate Fiction Workshop

Intermediate course in fiction writing. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Requires prerequisite course ENGL 2051 (minimum grade B). Restricted to Creative Writing minor students or students with a sub plan of Creative Writing. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Undergraduate Writing

ENGL 4021: Advanced Poetry Workshop

Advanced course in poetry writing. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Requires prerequisite course ENGL 3021 (minimum grade B). Restricted to Creative Writing minor students or students with a sub plan of Creative Writing. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Undergraduate Writing

ENGL 4051: Advanced Fiction Workshop

Advanced course in fiction writing. Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of ENGL 3051 (minimum grade B). Restricted to Creative Writing minor students or students with a sub plan of Creative Writing. Additional Information:Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities Departmental Category: Undergraduate Writing Section 001: Taught by Marcia Douglas. Section 002: A workshop. We'll read through one anthology over the course of the semester, yo...