English Department Undergraduate Course Descriptions Spring 2009 For more information see Dr. Laura Engel, Director of Undergraduate Studies (x1425; [email protected]). English majors must meet with their English department faculty mentors in order to have their registration approved. 400 LEVEL REQUIREMENTS FOR LITERARY STUDIES TRACK British Literature Courses: 412W-01 Renaissance Literature and Politics; 418W-01 British Romantic Poetry; 424W-01 Modernist Women Writers; 450W-01 Pearl Poet; 450W-03 20th Century British Poetry and Beyond American Literature Courses: 426W-01 American Autobiography; 424 W-01 Modernist Women Writers; 450W-02 Transatlantic American Writers Literature and Diversity Courses: 424W-01 Modernist Women Writers; 426-01 American Autobiography; 450W-03 20th Century British Poetry and Beyond Senior Seminars: 450-01 Pearl Poet; 450-02 Transatlantic American Writers; 450W-03 20th Century British Poetry and Beyond 300/400 LEVEL REQUIREMENTS FOR WRITING TRACK Creative writing: 301W-01, 301W-02 Fiction Writing Workshop I; 301W-03 Playwriting Workshop I; 400W-01 Fiction Writing Workshop II; 400W-02 Poetry Writing Workshop II; 404W-01 Fiction Writing Workshop III; 404W-02 Poetry Writing Workshop III Critical and professional writing: 302W-01, 302W-03 Science Writing; 302W-02 Writing and War Senior Seminars: 450-01 Pearl Poet; 450-02 Transatlantic American Writers; 450W-03 20th Century British Poetry and Beyond 300/400 LEVEL REQUIREMENTS FOR FILM STUDIES Filmmaking: 308-91 Pittsburgh Filmmakers Departmental Film: 205-61 Introduction to Film; 309W-61 British Film Senior Seminars: 450-01 Pearl Poet; 450-02 Transatlantic American Writers; 450W-03 20th Century British Poetry and Beyond *Some courses satisfy more than one requirement, but students must choose to meet each requirement with a different course *All English majors are required to complete English 300 and 3 American/British literature surveys EXCEPT Film Studies concentrators who can take Survey of Cinema to fulfill one of their survey requirements. *ENG 450, Senior Seminar is open only to English Majors (including English/Ed majors) in the senior or the second semester of junior year. YOU MUST HAVE SPECIAL PERMISSION TO REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE. See Gabrielle Rebottini in 637 College Hall for the form. * A course in both World Literature and Grammar/Linguistics are required for English Education Majors. ENGL 101-01 Multi-Genre Creative Writing Professor Jolene McIlwain MWF 12:00-12:50 Multiple Genres found in one text? Not just poetry OR drama OR fiction? In a world of compartmentalization and categorizing, students find that some things just don’t fit easily into one box. Such is the case with Multiple Genre writings. This course will introduce students to the art of writing in multiple genres. This is both a study of culture and of art. Both art and culture provide us with a mix: a mix of people, ideas, ideologies, possibilities. By reading single and multiple genre works and attempting to write a collected piece of multiple genres, students will be offered a chance to understand those mixes by applying the skills needed to understand difference and synthesis writing. A study beginning with Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, this course will focus on how authors have used multiple genres within one completed text to accomplish a particular reading adventure and experience that may not have been as compelling through the use of one single genre. This writing course is designed to teach students the techniques and practice of multi-genre writing through a workshop format of peer review and commentary. Students interested in creative non-fiction, prose fiction, poetry and writing for children will have opportunities to blend genres to create their own unique pieces while studying published authors’ successful attempts at this style. Students will research, write, revise their pieces and discuss the process of this unique style through group discussion and dialogic journals. ENGL 113C-01 SPST: Literature and Diversity Dr. Laura Callanan MWF 12:00-12:50 In this course we will read a range of texts that deal with the relationship between storytelling, community, and identity. Designed as a complement to the Litterae Community Service Learning Project, we will look at how students’ experiences with individuals in that project inform readings of the texts. How do cultural forces, cultural frictions, and fractured narratives help to represent a particular kind of cross-cultural identity? How do we as readers look to story to help us to define and develop our own sense of individual self? How do we on a community level create common identity through the telling and retelling of particular tales? These are the kinds of issues we will look at throughout the semester. Students will be responsible for keeping a journal, writing several short papers and one longer paper. For Litterae Learning Community members only. ENGL 201-01 SPST: Introduction to Fiction Professor Beth Buhot TR 9:25-10:40 Students will read and discuss two novels and many pieces of short fiction. The course will emphasize twentieth-century fiction and will examine writers’ contributions to social and political debates as well as their use and transformation of the building-blocks of fiction. This is a discussion-based course and regular class participation is required. ENGL 201-02 SPST: Introduction to Fiction Professor Gina Bessetti MWF 1:00-1:50 This course will provide an introduction to fiction through the exploration of the short story and the novel and will enhance students’ skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing about literature. The class will examine how fiction negotiates issues of class, gender, war, identity, and the environment. Written reflections and class discussion will challenge us to consider how a text represents the human experience through elements of plot, voice, character, setting, style, and point of view, along with the difficulties of attempting to represent reality and experience artistically. ENGL 202-01 SPST: Introduction to Poetry Professor Michelle Gaffey MW 3:00-4:15 This Introduction to Poetry course will introduce students to ways to approach, read, and interpret twentieth century American poetry, with an emphasis on the general theme: ―Poetry, Class, and Culture.‖ We will consider the poems as both works of art and as documents that shape and have been shaped by their moment in time. Further, we will consider how a poem or a book of poems defines ―art,‖ records history, takes stands, and inspires action. To demonstrate their understanding, students will focus on close reading with attention to a number of formal matters in a note-card journal, present critical and theoretical works on the poetry in question, write two short papers, and take an exam or two, though these assignments are tentative at this point. Some poets we will likely discuss are Lola Ridge, Campbell McGrath, Langston Hughes, Chris Llewellyn, Etheridge Knight, Tillie Olsen, Muriel Rukeyser, Jim Daniels, Denise Levertov, Sonia Sanchez, and Sherman Alexie. Anyone with an interest in poetry, poetics, class, history, social justice, or the power of the written or spoken word is encouraged to take this class. ENGL 203-01 SPST: Introduction to Drama Professor Shayne Confer MWF 9:00-9:50 This course, designed for the general student, will survey the history of the drama from the classical age to the present. We will examine the plays as literature, but there will be a large emphasis on plays as performance; thus, we will watch film adaptations, stage scenes in class, and always read with an eye to how the play could be interpreted on stage. We will explore representative drama from several different eras and pay close attention to historical and societal factors that have influenced the development of the drama across centuries. ENGL 204-01 SPST: Images of Race in Film and Literature Dr. Kathy Glass TR 1:40-2:55 This course will consider how literature engages and revises notions of race and gender embedded in American culture. Using the film Crash as our point of departure, we will first examine how images of race and gender structure contemporary culture. Then, we will consider traditional images of race and gender in such films as Gone with the Wind and Imitation of Life. These filmic images will serve as a backdrop against which we will examine how literature from the nineteenth century to the present has reinforced, and/or re-imagined conventional concepts of race and gender for political ends. The reading list will include works by such authors as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Zitkala Sa, Mark Twain, Henry James, and Paul Beatty. ENGL 205-61 Introduction to Film Dr. Dorothy Spangler T 5:00-8:40 Students will learn basic film terminology and be introduced to production techniques through a combination of textbook readings, movie viewings, and classroom discussions. Students will become conversant about the production process and the roles of various key artists and craftspeople on a film. In addition, through work outside class, students will be introduced to many of the most critically acclaimed films in cinema history. Fulfills Film studies concentration requirement. ENGL 214W-01 Survey of Non-Western Literature Dr. Agnes Vardy TR 12:15-1:30 This course examines representative translations and original works (both fiction and non-fiction) by non-western authors from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. The course stresses in-depth reading and concentrates on the interrelationships of literature and the social and cultural values and beliefs as reflected in literature. The course is organized thematically on topics such as Family and Cultural Ties, Coming of Age, Culture and Gender Roles, Work and Identity, Class and Caste, The Individual in Society, Exile, Customs and Rituals and The Spiritual Dimension. This course satisfies the World Literature requirement for English Education students.