General Literature Courses Spring 2025
ENGL 203: Literature of Sports
Instructor: Philip Wedge
15680 | By Appointment | Online
In the Literature of Sports course students will study and write essays on a significant body of sport literature, examining such topics as sports as character-building, sports hero types, hero-worship in fans, violence in sports, corruption in sports, the translation of sport literature to film, and so on. Required coursework consists of 3 major Essays and a revision assignment (50%), and a comprehensive Final (20%). Homework (30%) includes group work and short writing assignments. Class participation is also of considerable importance. TEXTS: Eric Greenberg, The Celebrant; Clifford Odets, Golden Boy; Angie Abdou, The Bone Cage; Anne Lamott, Crooked Little Heart; August Wilson, Fences; F.X. Toole, Million Dollar Baby; H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights.
ENGL 300: Introduction to English Studies
Instructor: Colleen Morrissey
50914 | MW 3:00-4:15 PM | Wescoe 4076 - Lawrence
51923 | By Appointment | Online
What do we mean when we say we “study English” in the 21st century? How is it possible that the same academic field includes the study of Shakespeare’s plays, Toni Morrison’s novels, Kendrick Lamar’s song lyrics, politicians’ social media posts, business memos, and the crafting of an original poem? What do you actually get out of an English major or minor? In this course, students will learn the histories, approaches, and intersections of the three major areas of English: Literary Studies, Rhetoric and Composition, and Creative Writing. Together, we will examine and enact the core techniques that make up the study of English, including literary analysis, rhetorical analysis, cultural criticism, craft analysis and creative composition. Students will hone the critical thinking, research, and writing skills that are the backbone of English studies by analyzing texts of all kinds—literary, professional, political, just to name a few—and practicing those techniques in their own original and research-based projects. Course work will consist of 3 essays and a capstone final project along with shorter, informal writings, readings, and in-class discussion. Expert speakers will provide inside knowledge on the work of an English researcher, writer, critic, etc. Ultimately, students will leave this course with a firm grasp of the different branches of English studies, the place of English studies in academia and the broader world, and a sense of their own future potential pathways as students and thinkers.
ENGL 308: Intro to Litery Criticism & Theory
Instructor: Paul Outka
55663 | MW 11:00-12:15 PM | Wescoe 4047 – Lawrence
Study of significant problems in literary interpretation and methodology, in which basic critical principles and approaches are systematically examined and applied. These approaches might include, but are not limited to, feminism, Marxism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies.
ENGL 314: Major British Writers after 1800
Instructor: Philip Wedge
53522 | MWF 10:00-10:50 AM | Wescoe 4037 – Lawrence
English 314 will introduce students to a number of the major British authors, works and issues (literary, social, economic, historical) of the 19th-21st centuries, with primary focus on the literary texts. Required coursework consists of 3 major Essays (45%), a Mid-term (15%), and comprehensive Final (25%). Homework (15%) includes pop quizzes and short writing assignments on Canvas. Class participation is also of considerable importance. TEXTS: Greenblatt, ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature 2, Volumes D, E F (11th Ed.); Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles; Austen, Persuasion.
ENGL 318: American Modernist Poetry
Instructor: Paul Outka
55664 | MW 12:30-1:45 PM | Wescoe 4076 – Lawrence
This seminar will focus on one of the richest periods in American poetry. Emerging from the collapse of Victorian ideals in and around the First World War, Modernism expressed both cynicism, despair, and a shattering loss of cultural and religious authority for many, as well as a new freedom, acceptance, and quest for new forms of literary and personal expression for others. We will examine the different responses of a variety of poets to this charged moment in America’s cultural self-definition, especially with respect to race, gender, sexual orientation, and aesthetic philosophy. We will discuss roughly a poet a week, including the high Anglo-American Modernism of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound; the canonical local American versions of Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, William Williams, and Hart Crane; Langston Hughes’ voice from the Harlem Renaissance; and women modernists Mina Loy, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Marianne Moore.
ENGL 479: Contemporary Drama
Instructor: Mark Luce
55666 | Th 07:10 - 10:00 PM REGN 150 - EDWARDS
In Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking play Angels in America, the character Mr. Lies says, “Respect the delicate ecology of your delusions.” The imaginary character’s admonition could have well been speaking of the larger issues of contemporary drama. From the horrific dreamscapes of McDonagh to the pharmaceuticals of Letts, the self-indulgent elites of Ayad to the working class grit of Nottage, contemporary drama often rests on an uneasy balance between the dreams we have and the actual dramas we must enact in the real world, especially as they relate to family and self. We will trace such themes through several plays and critical readings, while playing attention to the rhythms of language (we will read the plays in class), thematic concerns, and performance. Students will read from a variety of dramatic voices, with special focus on gender, class, and race dynamics.
ENGL 569: Modernism
Instructor: Kathryn Conrad
55667 | APPT ONLNE CRSE - ONLINC
Often defined as a movement in art and literature in the US and Europe that flourished between the two world wars and embraced radical formal experimentation, modernism can encompass a broader timeline and geography as well as a more complex collection of ideas and forms of expression. In this course, we will explore some of the standard definitions, texts, and aesthetics associated with modernism as well as some of the writers and artists in dialogue with, and sometimes resistant to, modernist approaches. While the course itself argues for a more global definition of modernism, the primary focus will be transatlantic due to the constraints of the semester. This is an online asynchronous capstone course and will require short papers, an annotated bibliography and research paper in addition to regular reading and online participation. There will be opportunities for one or two campus-based activities with alternatives provided for those for whom campus activity is not possible or preferred. Office hours will be available both virtually and in person.
