English

Chair: Theresa M. DiPasquale
Sharon Alker (on Sabbatical, Spring 2014)
Roberta Davidson
Scott Elliott
Adam Gordon
Christopher Leise (on Sabbatical, 2013-14)
Gaurav Majumdar
Lydia McDermott
Katrina Roberts

Adjunct Faculty:
Johanna Stoberock
Jenna Terry

The courses in English provide opportunity for the extensive and intensive study of literature for its aesthetic interest and value and for its historical and general cultural significance.

The English major: A minimum of 36 credits selected to include the following:

1. English 290.
2. Four period courses in English and American literature from English 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 348, 349. At least two courses must be in English literature with one of them chosen from 336, 337, 338; at least one course must be in American literature selected from 348 or 349.
3. One course in a major English-language writer or writers from English 350, 351, 352, 357. English 367-369 may also count toward the major author requirement when it is so noted in the course description.
4. English 491.
5. Two additional courses in English above 300, except 401, 402, and 498. (One of the electives may, with the written approval of the English department, be a literature course in world literature numbered 300 or higher or a course in literature offered by the department of foreign languages and literatures numbered above 306.)

No more than 12 credits earned in off-campus programs, transfer credits, credits from courses offered by other Whitman departments, or cross-listed courses may be used to satisfy major requirements. Courses used to satisfy requirements in other majors or minors cannot also be used to satisfy requirements in the English major or minor.

Courses taken P-D-F may not be used to satisfy course and credit requirements for the major.

The English department strongly recommends at least two years of a foreign language, especially for students planning to attend graduate school.

The English minor: A minimum of 20 credits selected so as to include the following:

1. Two period courses in English literature from English 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341.
2. One period course in American literature from English 348, 349.
3. One course in a major English-language writer or writers from English 350, 351, 352, 357. English 367-369 may also count toward the major author requirement when it is so noted in the course description.
4. One additional literature or writing course in English or world literature numbered above 300.

Courses taken P-D-F may not be used to satisfy course and credit requirements for the minor.

Distribution: Courses in English (except 150, 250, 251, 310, 320, 321, 322, and 389 which apply to fine arts) apply to the humanities distribution area and cultural pluralism as indicated.

110 Language and Writing
4, 4 Fall: McDermott, Staff; Spring: Staff

A course designed to examine the nature and function of language and rhetoric and to provide extensive writing experience for students. This course does not apply toward English major requirements or major grade average. Open only to first-year students.

150 Introductory Creative Writing
4, 4 Elliott, Roberts

The writing of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Experience not necessary, but students should expect to complete weekly exercises, share work aloud, and write responses for peers. In addition, extensive reading and analysis of pieces by established writers in a variety of literary forms.

177 Introduction to Poetry
4, x Roberts

The forms, strategies, voices, and visions of British and American poetry from the Middle Ages to the present day.

178 Introduction to Fiction
4, 4 Fall: Stoberock, Terry; Spring: Terry

The principal aims and techniques of fiction through the study of traditional and experimental novels, short stories, and novellas. Work by such authors as Dickens, the Brontës, Conrad, Chekhov, Faulkner, Hemingway, Kafka, Crane, Malamud, Bellow, Gallagher, Paley, and Barth may be included.

179 Introduction to Drama
x, 4 Stoberock

The study of the forms and techniques of drama; the study of plays as literary texts and as scripts for production, including plays from antiquity to the present.

181, 182 Introduction to Literature and the Humanities
4

The study of selected works in major forms of thought and expression in literature and the humanities. Subjects for the sections change from semester to semester and year by year depending on the particular interests of the instructors. Any current offerings follow.

182 ST: New-World Shakespeare
x, 4 DiPasquale

Many writers since Shakespeare’s time have rethought, rewritten, re-envisioned, and adapted his plays. This course is designed to familiarize students with several works by Shakespeare and with responses to them by important African-American and Afro-Caribbean writers of the 20th century. We will explore both how Shakespeare has influenced writers of African descent and how those writers — including Amiri Baraka, Carlyle Brown, Gloria Naylor, Kamau Brathwaite, and Derek Walcott — have changed the way the world reads Shakespeare. Students need no previous coursework in either Shakespeare or African diaspora literature to take this course. Distribution area: humanities or cultural pluralism.

210 Expository Writing
4, x McDermott

A writing course for students who have mastered the skills and insights basic to competent writing but wish to develop their skills in expository prose and increase their awareness of the possibilities of language. Prerequisite: sophomore or above. First-year students by consent.

250 Intermediate Creative Writing – Fiction
4, x Elliott

An intermediate workshop in fiction writing offering students the opportunity to expand their knowledge of fundamental techniques and important works in the genre. Students will write original short stories and experiment with strategies and structures through exercises meant to increase their awareness of, and proficiency in, the elements of fiction. Extensive analysis of peer work and important established models in the genre. Weekly assignments in reading and writing to develop critical and creative faculties. Final portfolio of creative and critical work. Prerequisite: English 150 or consent of instructor.

251 Intermediate Creative Writing – Poetry
4, x Roberts

An intermediate workshop in poetry writing, intended to expand knowledge of fundamental techniques, and to familiarize students with many important writers in the genre. Students will have the opportunity to write and revise poems based on prompts as well as on their own. There will be weekly reading and journal exercises, and extensive analysis of peer work and established models to develop critical and creative faculties. Final portfolio of creative and critical work. Prerequisite: English 150 or consent of instructor.

290 Approaches to the Study of Literature
4, 4 Fall: Majumdar; Spring: DiPasquale, A. Gordon

A course in practical criticism designed to introduce students to some of the approaches that can be used in literary analysis. Not open to first-semester first-year students.

310 Advanced Composition
4; not offered 2013-14

An advanced expository writing course for students serious about developing an effective, personal style and the insights necessary to analyze and evaluate it. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

320 Advanced Creative Writing – Fiction
x, 4 Elliott

An intensive advanced workshop in fiction. Students will continue to develop their proficiency in fiction writing by reading deeply and analyzing established models, completing exercises, producing drafts of original stories and revisions, participating in discussions of peer work, and giving presentations based on close readings. Final portfolio of creative and critical work which may include some consideration of where the student’s work fits into a fiction-writing tradition. Prerequisite: English 250 or equivalent and consent of instructor.

321 Advanced Creative Writing – Poetry
x, 4 Roberts

An intensive advanced workshop in poetry. Students will have the opportunity to develop proficiency in poetry writing by completing exercises, producing drafts and revisions of poems for peer discussions, reading deeply and analyzing established models, and actively participating in rigorous and constructively critical discussions. Weekly poem assignments, as well as reading and journal exercises. Final portfolio of creative and critical work. Prerequisite: English 251 or equivalent and consent of instructor.

322 Advanced Creative Writing – Nonfiction
4; not offered 2013-14

An intensive advanced workshop in “the fourth genre,” creative nonfiction. Students will have the opportunity to experiment with form, to address a range of subjects in weekly creative nonfiction pieces, and to read deeply and analyze established models as well as peer work to develop important critical faculties. Students will be expected to participate actively in rigorous, constructively critical discussions. Weekly exercises, as well as reading and journal assignments. Final portfolio of creative and critical work. Prerequisite: English 250, 251, or equivalent, and consent of instructor.

336-341 Studies in British Literature
4

Courses designed to introduce students to the literature and culture of England in each of six literary periods: the Middle Ages (English 336), the Renaissance (English 337), the Restoration and 18th Century (English 338), the Romantic Period (English 339), the Victorian Period (English 340), and 1900-Present (English 341). The specific focus of each course will vary from year to year. Topics in a particular literary period may be taken a total of two times, but only one may count toward the fulfillment of the period course requirement. A second topic taken in a particular literary period may count toward the elective requirement. Any current offerings follow.

336 ST: Medieval Literature: The Quest for Perfection
x, 4 Davidson

This course will explore the medieval fascination with the idea of perfection. We will look at ways in which the ideal of excellence in early English and Celtic texts makes superhuman demands upon mythic heroes, and how chivalry in late medieval romance sets up conflicting moral systems within which a knight is expected to excel. We will also explore ideas of gendered and spiritual perfection in medieval lyric and morality plays, and varied iterations of political utopia through the figure of King Arthur. In addition, we will read one or two voices speaking out against perfection, and in defense of the commonplace. Texts will include Beowulf, The Ulster Cycle, Gawain and the Green Knight, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Prologue and Tale of the Wife of Bath,” Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, and more. Distribution area: humanities.

337 ST: Renaissance Literature: Saints and Sinners
x, 4 DiPasquale

English Renaissance poems, prose works, and dramas are filled with explorations of virtue and vice, holiness and wickedness, decency and depravity.  They also explore the ambiguous middle ground between extremes, the contested territory most human beings inhabit.  We will read a range of works in various genres, pursuing several questions:  How does sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature contribute to our sense of what it means to be human, and in particular what it means to be happy or to be miserable? How do texts in various Renaissance literary genres illuminate the moral, ethical, and spiritual struggles that mark human experience?  What methods do these texts use to confront and cope with human mortality?  And how do they define humans’ potential for both good and evil? Distribution area: humanities.

338 ST: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature: British Drama
4, x Alker

The theatre was at the center of public taste in 18th-century London, but it could also be dangerously subversive. This course will examine 18th-century drama as it reflects, and responds to, its contentious historical context. We will explore such topics as the drama’s response to the English Revolution, the sharp edginess of social comedy, the use of political drama to critique governmental authority, the surprising adaptations of Shakespearean drama, and the emergence of an English operatic form. Writers may include Behn, Congreve, Rowe, Wycherley, Dryden, Cavendish, Addison, Gay, Lillo, and Goldsmith. May be elected as Theatre 381. Distribution area: humanities.

340 ST: Victorian Literature: Order and Decadence
4, x Majumdar

A study of literature exploring the tensions between conservatism and subversion that shaped British society during the rule of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). While we consider Victorian debates about representation, aesthetics, and issues of genre, we will also study how arguments about industrialization, the working class, urban pressures, gender, and sexuality shape literature. Writers may include Carlyle, Mill, Dickens, Barrett Browning, the Brontës, Pater, and Wilde. Distribution area: humanities.

341 ST: British Literature, 1900-Present: Contemporary British Literature
x, 4 Majumdar

Examining literature produced in Britain from the end of the Second World War to the present, this course will discuss the following main questions: How does a society read its transition from global dominance and manifestly-controlled homogeneity, to one of reduced international power, but vibrant cultural and racial difference? How do changes in attitudes to gender, “minority-issues”, and popular culture shape this reading? How does contemporary literature confirm or contradict Britain’s claims to modernity? Writers may include Waugh, Burgess, Lessing, Larkin, the Amises, Stoppard, Ishiguro, Rushdie, Binta Breeze, A. L. Kennedy, and David Mitchell. Distribution area: humanities.

347-349 Studies in American Literature
4

This includes two period courses designed to introduce students to American literature and culture in two broad periods: early and middle American literature as well as modern and contemporary literature. One special topics course, 347, with a topic that will vary every year, will examine one area of American literature in depth. English 348 and 349 will count toward period requirements, and 347 will fulfill an elective requirement. English 347 can be taken twice if a different topic is offered and both times can be counted toward the elective requirement. Any current offerings follow.

348 The American Literary Emergence, 1620 - 1920
x, 4 A. Gordon

Beginning with the pre-Revolutionary texts by those newly arrived to the Atlantic Coast colonies, and including the writings of those already present on the continent, we will study how an “American” literature came into being. As the population boomed and expansion moved westward, the newly formed United States became a national entity and global presence. We will study the development of American individualism, the rise of genres such as the captivity narrative and the slave narrative, and major literary movements such as the shift to realism and naturalism. Authors may include Bradstreet, Emerson, Douglass, Hawthorne, Whitman, Twain, Wharton, James, Dunbar, and many more.

349 American Literature, 1920 to the Present
4, x Staff

A study of the major authors in the American literary tradition from “the roaring twenties” to the present. Topics may include modernism; postmodernism; tensions of race, class, and gender; reconsiderations of American “individualism”; and the role of capital, technology, and the corporation in contemporary American culture. Authors may include T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, E.E. Cummings, Frank O’Hara, Sylvia Plath, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Louise Erdrich, Paul Auster, Suzan-Lori Parks, Colson Whitehead, and other contemporary writers.

350 Chaucer
4, x Davidson

Reading, discussion, and lectures on The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and some of the minor poems. They will be read in the original Middle English. Offered in alternate years.

351 Shakespeare
4, x DiPasquale

A study of the major plays written before about 1601. Plays to be read and discussed may include The Comedy of Errors; Romeo and Juliet; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Richard II; Henry IV, 1 and 2; The Merchant of Venice; Julius Caesar; Much Ado About Nothing; and Twelfth Night.

352 Shakespeare
x, 4 Davidson

A study of the sonnets and the major plays written after about 1601. Plays to be read and discussed may include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Coriolanus, A Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest.

357 Milton
4; not offered 2013-14

A study of the major poetry and selected prose of John Milton. Paradise Lost will receive primary emphasis. Offered in alternate years.

367-369 Special Authors
4

An intensive study of one significant author such as T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Hardy, W. B. Yeats, Ben Jonson, Henry James, Emily Dickinson. Any current offerings follow.

371 Dramatic Literature: Medieval through Eighteenth Century
4, x Kosmas

A course in the history and development of Western drama from the Middle Ages through the 18th century. Dramatists to be studied may include the Wakefield Master, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Lope de Vega, Molière, Racine, Congreve, Beaumarchais, and Sheridan. May be elected as Theatre 371. Offered in alternate years.

372 Dramatic Literature: Nineteenth Century to Now
x, 4 Kosmas

A study of the directions modern dramatic literature has taken from the 19th century to the present. Dramatists to be studied may include Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Shaw, Brecht, O’Neill, Williams, Miller, Beckett, Pinter, Fornés, Mamet, Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, Caryl Churchill. May be elected as Theatre 372. Offered in alternate years.

375 Literary Theory
x, 4 Majumdar

This course introduces students to arguments about the shaping, the effects, and the interpretation of literature. Themes for the course will vary, but among the questions we will consistently examine are the following: Through what kinds of assumptions is literature read? How do characters in literary texts themselves read? How do these texts interpret what they represent? We will devote approximately equal time to the study of theoretical texts and to reading literary works through theoretical lenses. Writers may include Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Pater, Foucault, Derrida, Said, and Deleuze. Offered in alternate years.

376 Studies in Colonial and Anti-Colonial Literature
4

This course will examine texts from former colonies in South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Australia. We will study how these works negotiate the past and present, and how they explore multiple forms and conditions of colonialism and postcolonialism. Discussions of primary works will be supplemented with readings from theoretical and critical texts. Writers may include Kipling, Tagore, Conrad, Manto, Emecheta, Carey, Gordimer, and Rushdie. Offered in alternate years. Any current offerings follow.

387 Special Studies
4

Studies of English or American literature and language generally not considered in other courses offered by the department. The specific material will vary from semester to semester. Any current offerings follow.

387A ST: Playwriting
x, 4 Kosmas

In order to generate a shared vocabulary, we will begin with critical readings of contemporary plays, paying special attention to structure.  Reading will be balanced by a great deal of student writing. Students will write during every class period and draft several short plays over the course of the semester. Collectively, we will examine and question our ideas about what a play is and ought to be. Student playwrights will ask essential questions such as: What is my process as a writer? What are my materials as a playwright? What is my aesthetic point of view? Students will gain techniques for writing practice and broaden and refine vocabularies for the discussion of creative writing. They will sharpen critical and evaluative skills of thought, speech, and writing applicable to a variety of disciplines including but not limited to theatre. May be elected as Theatre 330. Prerequisite: participation in Instant Play Festival writing workshops or consent of instructor. Distribution area: fine arts or humanities.

387B ST: Gender, Sex, and Desire in Histories of Writing Rhetoric
x, 4 McDermott

The central questions of this course are: How have gender, sex and desire influenced histories of writing-rhetoric, and, conversely, how have histories of rhetoric influenced conceptions of gender, sex, and desire at different points in Western history? We will examine classical rhetorical theorists alongside examples of writing from several time periods. This class is not the History of Rhetoric and Writing, and therefore does not offer a progressive narrative of gender and rhetoric from the Classical era to today. Rather, this class seeks to disrupt such narratives and create smaller narratives that examine the juxtaposition of these forces. May be elected as Rhetoric 378. Distribution area: humanities or cultural pluralism.

389 Special Studies in Craft
4

Studies of literary craft not considered in other courses offered by the department, intended for upper-level creative writing students. Active participation in rigorous discussions and intensive workshops expected. Final portfolios of creative and critical works. Specific material will vary from semester to semester. The distribution area is fine arts. Prerequisites: English 250, 251, or equivalent, and consent of instructor. Any current offerings follow.

389 ST: Writers of Place
4, x Elliott

What does it mean to be a writer of place? What is the relationship between a place and good writing informed by that place? To what extent can a writer adopt a place? In this course we’ll read texts by writers from a variety of regions whose work is infused with a strong sense of place and write our own original pieces that make strong connections with places. Writers may include Henry David Thoreau, William Faulkner, Jorge Luis Borges, Aldo Leopold, Joseph Mitchell, Wallace Stegner, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, Michael Ondaatje, Reg Saner, Annie Dillard, Rick Bass, Rebecca Solnit, Annie Proulx, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Scott Russell Sanders, Gretel Erlich, Terry Tempest Williams, Laurie Riccou, Mary Clearman Blue, John T. Price, and others. Distribution area: humanities.

401, 402 Independent Study
1-4, 1-4 Staff

Directed reading and the preparation of a critical paper or papers on topics suggested by the student. The project must be approved by the staff of the department. Thus, the student is expected to submit a written proposal to the intended director of the project prior to registration for the study. The number of students accepted for the work will depend on the availability of the staff. Independent Study may not count as one of the electives fulfilling minimum requirements for the major or minor without prior written approval of the English department. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

491 Seminars in English and American Literature
4

Seminars require a substantial amount of writing, a major written project of at least 15 pages involving research in secondary sources, and oral presentations. Topics will vary from semester to semester. Open to junior and senior English majors only. Prerequisite: English 290. Any current offerings follow.

491A ST: Scottish Romanticism
4, x Alker

The Romantic Era is now best known for the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Shelley, Keats, and Byron. Yet there were many different literary movements in the period. Recent scholarship has identified Scottish Romanticism as a crucial and influential force in the period, one that included a variety of genres.  We will examine the key writers who contributed to Scottish Romanticism. In particular, we will examine the strategies and tactics used by the authors from a marginalized nation to culturally represent and empower itself, from the use of dialect, mythology and folklore to the creation of new literary genres and the reformation of old ones. Writers may include: Hume, Macpherson, Burns, Scott, Hogg, Galt, Baillie, and Carlyle.

491B ST: The Faerie Queene
4, x DiPasquale

We will read and study Edmund Spenser’s monumental epic romance The Faerie Queene along with related works by Spenser and his contemporaries.  Savoring Spenser’s language and exploring the many levels of meaning generated by his allegory, we will consider The Faerie Queene’s place in Elizabethan culture and its enduring impact on generations of writers and readers.

491C ST: Slavery Reviewed
4, x Gordon

Slavery Reviewed examines early American literature’s confrontation with the institution of slavery.  Accounts of slavery were frequently literary bestsellers, embracing styles that ran the gamut from saccharine sentimentalism, attention-grabbing sensationalism, to proto-realist verisimilitude.  Slavery was also one of the primary topics through which African-American authors found access into the American literary canon.  The course accordingly asks us to think about the ways literature and history intersect, the politics of authorship, and the place of slavery within antebellum print culture.  Readings will include slave narratives, poetry, and fiction by the likes of Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, as well as the bestselling novel of the American nineteenth century, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

497 Thesis
4, 4 Staff

Designed to further independent research projects leading to the preparation of an undergraduate thesis. The creative thesis, an option for a student of exceptional ability in creative writing, will be a substantial, accomplished collection of work in a particular genre. Limited to, but not required of, senior English majors. Prerequisite: approval of a proposal submitted to the English department prior to registration by a date designated by the department. For full details, see the English Department Handbook.

498 Honors Thesis
4, 4 Staff

Designed to further independent critical and creative research projects leading to the preparation of an undergraduate thesis. The creative thesis, an option for a student of exceptional ability in creative writing, will be a substantial, accomplished collection of work in a particular genre. Required of and limited to senior honors candidates in English. The candidate will be assigned to an appropriate thesis adviser, depending upon his or her field of interest. Prerequisite: admission to honors candidacy and approval of a proposal submitted to the English department prior to registration by a date designated by the department. For full details, see the English Department Handbook.