English

The Industrial Revolution. The French Revolution. Abolition. World exploration. The British Romantic period saw huge paradigm shifts in ideas about human rights, the natural world, and what it meant to be “English.” This period also saw a set of intellectual and aesthetic revolutions that resulted in a nearly complete overturning of what were considered the aims of “good” poetry and fiction.

This course introduces students to a range of theoretical methodologies used by creative writers and literary scholars. While each section of the course may focus on a different theme or on a different group of primary texts, all sections encourage students to learn and to apply a variety of methods with the goal of crafting critical analyses of literature.

Survey of English Literature II. In this course, students will learn about the history of British literature starting at about 1700 and extending into the twentieth century and beyond. The course invites students to explore developments in British literature through the lens of history and its relation to competing philosophies of political and social life. Within this context, the course traces literary movements and the evolution of literary forms.

In this introductory course on the basics of writing literary nonfiction, we will read and analyze a variety of examples of creative nonfiction, including memoirs and personal essays, with an eye toward becoming better nonfiction writers and readers ourselves. By encountering diverse authors, periods, and approaches to storytelling and sharing insights and knowledge about our personal encounters with the world around us, we will improve our application of various important techniques such as form, structure, persona, characterization, and voice.

In this course, students will refine skills related to academic English and will have an intensive study of academic vocabulary. Students will study the authentic use of the English language in reading and writing and will examine advanced concepts related to academic English. This course works as a support for other courses and will help prepare students to be successful in their academic career. Non-native English speakers only.

This course explores the endlessly alluring world of Middle-earth, which J. R. R. Tolkien was developing throughout the sixty years of his adulthood. Our real-world contexts for this exploration might include his work as a 20th-century scholar of medieval languages and literatures, his service as a lieutenant his during World War I, and his love of the natural world, while our literary contexts might include his translations or rewritings of Anglo-Saxon epic, medieval romance, Norse myth, and Arthurian legend.

This course introduces students to a range of theoretical methodologies used by creative writers and literary scholars. While each section of the course may focus on a different theme or on a different group of primary texts, all sections encourage students to learn and to apply a variety of methods with the goal of crafting critical analyses of literature.

These courses (I and II) provide an overview of British literature, beginning with the Anglo-Saxon period and extending into the 20th century. Selections may be drawn from fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Both courses invite students to explore developments in British literature through the lens of different historical contexts, and both feature a variety of writings from different social classes, genders, and cultural traditions.  ENG 226 includes selections from Neoclassical, Romantic, Victorian, and modern literature.