Introductory English Courses

ENGL 105: Honors Introduction to English

Instructor: Doug Crawford-Parker
19344 | MWF 11:00-11:50 AM | Wescoe 4020
26107 | MWF 12:00-12:50 PM | Wescoe 4037

What might move a writer to answer, retell, or even rewrite a previous work? How do new literary works relate to older ones? This class will examine such questions by examining a select group of instances where authors rewrite, extend, or answer the work of an earlier writer. How do writers relate to writers who have come before them? Why might a writer “rewrite” the work of an earlier writer? In this class we will explore multiple instances of writers responding to the works of earlier writers, beginning by reading two essay pairs written decades apart but which share the exact same title. We will then focus on four novels that tell and retell their stories. As we work our way through these texts, reading them closely and discussing them analytically, we will also engage how to write the kind of argumentative, analytical assignments that are often central in college classes. Coursework includes three papers, a final project where students will have their own opportunity to do a rewrite, weekly posts in Microsoft Teams, and other regular short writing exercises in and out of class.

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ENGL 105: Honors Introduction to English - Murder, They Wrote

Instructor: Megan Dennis
27606 | TuTh 9:30-10:45 AM | Strong 334A
27607 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 PM | Wescoe 4076

How do we understand representations of crime and victimhood in literature and culture? Representations of crime, victims, and suspects have broader implications for the ways we understand embodiment, social mores, and justice. Crime and detective stories have retained a foothold in the Western imagination since the days of Edgar Allen Poe’s Dupin and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. These texts hold us in suspense, while also revealing anxieties among society’s members, particularly regarding containment of behavior and identities society deems improper or dangerous. Through critical engagement with literature across a variety of genres and time periods, this course will delve into the realm of crime literature as a means to interrogate the dominant frameworks in which we live. Students can expect to engage with such works as Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Louise Erdrich’s The Round House, as well as true crime cases presented in popular podcasts such as My Favorite Murder (and others.) Our writing assignments will include some shorter reading responses/ in-class writing activities, as well as three major writing projects and a final reflection.

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ENGL 105: Honors Introduction to English - Cooking and Writing: Connecting Food Studies and English Studies

Instructor: Mary Jo Reiff
19071 | TuTh 11:00-12:15 PM | Wescoe 4076

The application of cooking to rhetoric and writing has its roots in classical rhetoric, dating back to Plato’s Gorgias, in which Socrates aligns rhetoric with cookery, noting that cooking is a routinized practice that is experiential and embodied—much like writing. In Writing Studies, scholars have drawn on the metaphor of “cooking” to discuss writing processes, drawing comparisons between cooking and writing as generative action and interaction and as activities that are both active and reflective. In this course we will read together perspectives on cooking as inquiry, along with studies of the rhetoric of cookbooks, the rhetoric of food writing, and the genre of recipes—as reflective, in particular, of women’s literacies, memory, and identities. We will also extend our focus on cooking into food literacies, with a focus on reading food literature (exploring character and culture through food), writing food memoirs and autobiographies, and researching and writing about food—and how this focus can enable exploration of affect and emotions through cross-cultural culinary encounters. Students will complete their own food memoir, will research food and its cultural associations/ misappropriations (along with completing a photo essay review), and will create their own stories around a meaningful family recipe or kind of food—and will contribute to a collaborative class project: a digital cookbook. Texts for the class will be available online.

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ENGL 105: Honors Introduction to English - Exploring the Culture of Spaces and Places

Instructor: Sonya Lancaster
27439 | MW 2:00-3:15 PM | Wescoe 4076

This course will explore culture by examining three different spaces. The first unit will focus on the artistic space of the stage and use The Tempest to explore how staging a play can inform identity. The second unit will explore middle-class Victorian/Edwardian homes, using a novel and play and humor theory to explore the intersections of humor and class. The third unit will focus on the place of Lawrence, reading Braiding Sweet Grass to help us explore the culture of a place through personal experience, observation/interviews, and history.

The written work of this course will be comprised of three papers and a reflective final project. Students will also complete reflection journals and group activities for class and participate in discussions of the texts. Required Texts: Kimmerer, Robin, Braiding Sweetgrass; Shakespeare, William, The Tempest, and Wilde, Oscar The Importance of Being Earnest.

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ENGL 209: Introduction to Fiction

Instructor: Rachel Andreini
27619 | MWF 12:00-12:50 PM | Wescoe 4020
27620 | MWF 1:00-1:50 PM | Wescoe 4020

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ENGL 210: Introduction to Poetry

Instructor: Brian Daldorph
16410 | MWF 10:00-10:50 AM | Wescoe 4037
19734 | MWF 11:00-11:50 AM | Wescoe 4037

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ENGL 220: Introduction to Creative Writing

Instructor: Kevin Mulligan
22049 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 PM | Fraser 223
16841 | TuTh 2:00-3:15 PM | Fraser 223

In this course, students will study the practices of creative writing in three genres: short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Through rigorous inquiry, discussion, and creative experimentation, students will gain a strong understanding of each genre’s conventions, strategies, and contexts--and then will put that knowledge into practice to produce original writing. Writing assignments in the course will be split between critical work, which analyzes the technique and function of various creative pieces and allows students to read creative works as potential models or sites of learning opportunities, and creative work, which allows students to develop their own creative philosophy as it applies to each genre they work within. In lieu of a final exam, students will submit a portfolio of their revised work, along with a short reflection paper.

Instructor: Mackenzie McGee
27443| MW 2:00-3:15 PM | Wescoe 1005
27442 | MW 3:30-4:45 PM | Wescoe 4023

ENGL 300: Introduction to English Studies

Instructors: Jonathan Lamb & Andrew Korah
19169 | MWF 1:00-1:50 PM | Wescoe 4047

Where do texts come from? What kinds of relationships do they have with each other? How do writers relate across texts and across time? English 300 will introduce students to the main areas and methods of English studies—literary studies, creative writing, and rhetoric—by examining how texts relate, how they rewrite, retell, steal from each other. Pondering these relationships will allow us to contemplate the conditions of reading and writing across contexts, genres, and rhetorical situations. They help us think about what it means for a text to be fictional, poetic, persuasive, convincing, creative, engaging, boring, or even true. Students will write three main assignments and as well as several shorter assignments and a final project, comment on readings in Teams, and create a short presentation. Students will finish the course with a fuller sense of what it means to be an English major or minor. Texts include: Jeffrey Nealon & Susan Searls Giroux, The Theory Toolbox: Critical Concepts for the Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, 2nd Ed. (9780742570504); William Shakespeare, The Tempest: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. 2nd Ed. (9780312457529); Margaret Atwood, Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold: A Novel (9780804141312); Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself, Third Ed. (9781319048897); Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (Norton Critical Edition) Second Ed. (9780393614565)

ENGL 338: Introduction to African American Literature

Instructor: Zay Dale
26524 | MW 3:30-4:45 PM | Wescoe 4037

An introduction to prominent works of African American literature from the 18th century to the present as well as to the basic approaches to study and principles of this body of work, including its connection with African sources. Literature will include a wide variety of genres, and course materials may be supplemented by folklore, music, film, and visual arts. Prerequisite: Prior completion of the Core 34: English (SGE) requirement. Recommended: Prior completion of one 200-level English course.

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ENGL 380: Introduction to Rhetoric and Composition

Instructors: Pritha Prasad & Laura Northup
21096 | MW 2:00-3:15 PM | Wescoe 4051

This course will introduce you to the interdisciplinary field of rhetoric and composition, a sub-discipline of English that emphasizes the study and teaching of writing, rhetorical criticism, and cultural studies. How has the study of rhetoric, communication, and literacy evolved throughout history and across cultural and political contexts? How did rhetoric, the study of the art of persuasion, come to be integrated with composition, the study and teaching of writing? Where does rhetoric and composition fit within the broader landscape of English studies and the unique history of English departments? While we will consider these broader questions surrounding rhetoric and composition’s origins and disciplinary identity, this course will also more specifically consider the histories and archives of theory that have been foundational to the discipline, yet also deeply underrepresented. In particular, we will center and explore Black studies, decolonial studies, and critical race/ethnic studies perspectives on writing, literacy, and rhetoric. By the end of the course, students will have gained sufficient experience in understanding the historical, cultural, political, and institutional exigencies that have informed the development and evolution of rhetoric and composition as a discipline; discussing major conversations in the field surrounding rhetoric, literacy, and writing/the teaching of writing; and identifying underrepresented and/or emergent perspectives, histories, and theoretical approaches in the field and their implications for past and future scholarship and teaching in rhetoric and composition.