ENGL 114 - Literary Editing & Publishing/The Rice Review
Instructor: Ian Schimmel
Th 6:30pm-9:20pm
Satisfies:
Creative writing minor (CREW)
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
*ENGL 200 - Gateways to Literary Study
Instructor: Tim Morton
MWF 10am-10:50am
What is a poem, a play, a story? Why is reading them important? Are there techniques of reading that anyone can learn and apply? In this class we shall study a wide range of literary texts with a view to understanding how to read them closely. This class will set you up for life, and certainly for the scope of your undergraduate career. Say goodbye to close reading anxiety. This class will sort you out.
Outcomes:
You will improve your ability to read any text. "Read" means that you will be highly sensitized to language, its bottomless ocean of meaningfulness and physicality. It might be the first time you really feel the stuff we handle with keyboards and mouths without much awareness.
Your perception and insight will develop, along with your ability to put those perceptions into really good sentences.
You will understand so much more about literary forms (novel, sonnet, play...) and genres (realism, elegy, comedy...).
Instructor: Betty Joseph
MWF 4pm-4:50pm
This course is designed for and required of all prospective English majors, and should be taken in the first or sophomore year. Emphasis is on close reading, literary interpretation, and critical writing. Attention is paid to the major genres (poetry, drama, and fiction) across a range of historical periods. Open to all students with priority to declared majors and minors.
Instructor: Benjamin Parris
1pm-2:15pm
Satisfies:
*D1
English major core requirement
English minor core requirement
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
ENGL 203 (001/002) - Topics in Creative Writing: Art Writing
Instructor: Rosa Boshier
F 12pm-2:30pm
How do we translate the visual experience of art into compelling prose? ART WRITING is an introductory creative writing course that invites students to work in creative nonfiction and cultural criticisms to produce writing inspired by and in response to art. Students will delve into the rich tradition of writing inspired by paintings, sculptures, and photographs, as well as contemporary mediums such as performance art, installation, film, and music videos. This semester, we leave the classroom to engage with art in the wild. Through a series of visits to local museums, galleries, and alternative art spaces, we will practice engaging culture as a zone of intellectual play.
Satisfies:
Creative writing minor (CREW)
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
ENGL 203 (003/004) - Topics in Creative Writing: Animal Voices
Instructor: Tomás Q. Morín
Th 1pm-3:30pm
Satisfies:
Creative writing minor (CREW)
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
*ENGL 205 - Writers on Writing
Instructor: Kiese Laymon
4pm-6:30pm
Satisfies:
*D1
Creative writing minor (CREW)
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
*ENGL 210 - Beginnings: English Literature from Beowulf to the 18th Century
Instructor: Sarah Ellenzweig
MW 4pm-5:15pm
Satisfies:
*D1
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1800
*ENGL 211 - British Literature: Romanticism to the 20th Century
Instructor: Logan Browning
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm
We will read from a variety of genres (lyric poetry, satire, novels, short fiction, drama, essays, etc.), and range chronologically from the English Romantics to Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland. Our goal will be to understand more clearly what others have thought valuable in each text and why, so that we can understand more fully what evaluative criteria each of us applies to his or her own reading. We will also explore the various ways in which the relations among artist, audience, medium, and historical context manifest themselves in the texts under consideration, and the various strategies that authors have used to direct or control responses to their texts. Registration is open to all students!
Satisfies:
*D1
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1900
*ENGL 243 - Not Just Stuff: Objects and the Making of Gender (Cross-listed as MDIA 243)
Instructor: Carly Thomsen
W 3pm-5:30pm
Satisfies:
*D1
Culture and Social Change
Critical Race, Postcolonial, and Gender Studies
Visual Culture and Comparative Media
*ENGL 250 - The Novel and Its Cultural Power: Ways of Storytelling and Worldmaking
Instructor: Brenda Tan
MWF 11am-11:50am
The novel was born amidst the consolidation of capitalist bourgeois relations in Europe, and has since then appeared wherever capitalism takes hold. In this class, we will follow the novel's lifecycle alongside global capital and its encounters with difference, when local particularity collides with the imperatives of abstract form.
Satisfies:
*D1
Culture and Social Change
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1900
*ENGL 254 - The History of Love (Cross-listed as CLAS 254)
Instructors: Sarah Ellenzweig & Scott McGill
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm
Satisfies:
*D1
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1800
*ENGL 260 - What is American Literature?
Instructor: Clinton Williamson
TTh 10:50am-12:05pm
Satisfies:
*D1
Culture and Social Change
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1900
ENGL 267 - Introduction to African American Literature
Instructor: Jae'la Solomon
MWF 10am-10:50am
From the influential works or late 18th and 19th century African-American writers to speculative and neo-slave narratives from the contemporary period, this class will explore a wide array of literary and creative works central in shaping the capacious field of Black literature and cultural expression.
While centered on U.S.-based works, we will also consider the broader influence of the African diaspora on Black literary and cultural studies. We will explore the wealth of creativity and insights the Black literary tradition has offered throughout the years, including narratives of freedom, Black women's writing, the importance of ancestral knowledge, and much more, critically examining how each of these themes and categories have shaped Black literature, art, culture, and studies across time.
Satisfies:
Culture and Social Change
Literature and Literary History
Critical Race, Postcolonial, and Gender Studies
*ENGL 269 - Science Fiction and the Environment: Multiethnic Futurisms and Environmentalisms
Instructor: Isaac Salazar
MWF 9am-9:50am
What makes science fiction what it is, and what makes a text speculative? This course discusses and uses the characteristics of science fiction as a point of departure to understand how late-20th century to contemporary multiethnic U.S. writers and artists respond to the genre. Centering Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, and diasporic communities, the course investigates how environmental thought emerges from intersecting histories of colonialism, racial capitalism, heteropatriarchy, and forced migration, among others. Through the speculative mode, we will consider how these cultural productions challenge dominant ideas of "Nature," critique the inevitability of resource extraction, and imagine alternative futures rooted in cross-species kinship, care, and interdependence.
Satisfies:
*D1
Science, Medicine, and the Environment
Culture and Social Change
*ENGL 272 - Literature & Medicine (Cross-listed as MDHM 272)
Instructor: Cameron Hammon
(001) MWF 11am-11:50am
(002) MWF 10am-10:50am
Satisfies:
*D1
Science, Medicine, and the Environment
Visual Culture and Comparative Media
*ENGL 286 - Classical and Contemporary Film (Cross-listed as HART 286)
Instructor: Ed Snow
TTh 10:50am-12:05pm
In this course we'll study ten of the very best films that have been made around the world since 1930 (we won't attempt silent cinema). Our goal will be to develop a nuanced appreciation for what it is about film that allows us to engage with it so deeply when it's at its best. Our focus will be on details and our writing (which will be another key focus) will emphasize description. Assignments and class discussions will typically concentrate on short, key sequences, single frames, and highly visual motifs.
We'll also be concerned with how "contemporary film" differs/departs from "classic film," and with how sharp the divide is--if it exists at all. This distinction will be complicated by the ambiguity of "classic." Does it mean "old" or "great?" Can a "contemporary" film be a "classic?" Can a "classic" film be "contemporary?" Anchoring these questions will be one certainty: what all the films we'll watch in this class have in common is their brilliance.
P.S.: No prior expertise in film is necessary for immersion in this course. We'll learn the nuts and bolts of film language as we proceed.
Satisfies:
*D1
Visual Culture and Comparative Media
ENGL 300 - Practices of Literary Study: Reading Methods
Instructor: Scott Derrick
TTh 10:50am-12:05pm
Satisfies:
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
English major core requirement
*ENGL 301 - Introduction to Fiction Writing
Instructor: Andrea Bajani
(001/002) TTh 9:25am-10:40am
(003/004) TTh 1pm-2:15pm
Satisfies:
*D1
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
*ENGL 304 - Introduction to Poetry Writing
Instructor: Tomás Q. Morín
W 2pm-4:30pm
Satisfies:
*D1
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
*ENGL 305 - Introduction to Creative Nonfiction Writing
Instructor: Dr. Rosa Boshier González
(001/002) W 4pm-6:30pm
(003/004) Th 4pm-6:30pm
In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of creative nonfiction writing through the study of various elements of craft, negotiating the concepts of disclosure and "truth," and their entanglement with fact. Students will read and study the distinctions between subcategories of creative nonfiction, including personal essay, memoir, narrative journalism, and culture criticism, then decide which container may be the right fit for their own stories. By the end of the course, each writer will apply this study of craft and form to build a portfolio of weekly writing prompts and workshop two original, long-form pieces.
Satisfies:
*D1
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW
ENGL 309 - Topics in Nonfiction Writing: Food Writing
Instructor: Kiese Laymon
W 6pm-8:30pm
Satisfies:
Creative writing minor (CREW)
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
ENGL 313 - Advanced Literary Editing & Publishing Practicum
Instructor: Ian Schimmel
Th 6:30pm-9:20pm
Satisfies:
Creative writing minor (CREW)
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
*ENGL 321 - Shakespeare
Instructor: Benjamin Parris
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm
Satisfies:
*D1
Culture and Social Change
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1800
ENGL 324 - The End of the World as We Know It: Writing and Reading Apocalypse
Instructor: Justin Cronin
M 1pm-3:30pm
A course in creative prose writing, in which students will be considering the social, psychological, and metaphysical underpinnings of apocalyptic literature, while embarking on their own end-of-the-world writing projects. We will read several touchstone novels of the genre, watch a number of films, discuss the ways that fictional form can (and often, must) respond to crisis, and generally contemplate what it means to be a writer, a reader, and a human being in an age of anxiety. Students will produce two manuscripts for workshop discussion; by and large, these will be fiction, although there will be some latitude based on individual student interest (creative non-fiction, for example).
Satisfies:
Creative writing minor (CREW)
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
*ENGL 332 - Literature and the British Englightenment
Instructor: Betty Joseph
MWF 2pm-2:50pm
Satisfies:
*D1
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1800
*ENGL 342 - Victorian Novel
Instructor: Helena Michie
TTh 10:50am-12:05pm
Victorians come to us, as it were, in costume, exotic and eccentric forerunners of the comforting familiar. The women wear crinolines and sometimes set them on fire. At home they make seaweed paintings, play on the piano, and think of marriage. The men become captains of industry and assert the dominance of Empire. No one has sex, although there are lots of children.
This course debunks some of these myths while attempting to treat seriously the Victorians' sameness and difference from us, as well as differences within the category of the "Victorian." We will be looking specifically at how the many genres of the 19th century novel think through ideas that are given new shape in the Victorian period: poverty, domesticity, equality, gender, landscape, and sexuality. We will be reading four novels for this course, by Charlotte Bronte, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Elizabeth Gaskell. We will be reading the Dickens novel in serial parts (as it was published) throughout the semester.
Satisfies:
*D1
Culture and Social Change
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1900
Critical Race, Postcolonial, and Gender Studies
*ENGL 344 - Accounting for Dickens
Instructor: Logan Browning
TTh 4pm-5:15pm
How do we account for the extraordinary popularity and influence of Charles Dickens from his own time until now? How did he and how have his audiences assigned and extracted value from his writing and his life more generally? The course will focus on Dickens's journalism, novels, shorter fiction, and letters, as well as on visual and verbal adaptations of his work including Barbara Kingsolver's recent novel Demon Copperhead. Readings will include selections of texts from throughout Dickens's career such as Sketches by Boz, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and A Tale of Two Cities.
Satisfies:
*D1
Culture and Social Change
Literature and Literary History
Pre-1900
ENGL 349 - Zora Neale Hurston: Witness and Writer of the Black Diaspora (Cross-listed as ANTH 349)
Instructors: Margarita Castromán & Amarilys Estrella
TTh 9:25am-10:40am
This course introduces students to Zora Neale Hurston's groundbreaking work as a storyteller of the Black diaspora. Inspired by Hurston's innovative interdisciplinary approach to cultural knowledge production, students will research methods like close reading, archiving, and ethnography to interrogate the stakes of witnessing, storytelling, and evidence.
Satisfies:
Culture and Social Change
ENGL 366 - Stephen King Book Club: The Tower Series
Instructor: José Aranda
M 3pm-5:30pm
Satisfies:
Culture and Social Change
Literature and Literary History
*ENGL 373 - Survey of American Film and Culture: The Laboring of the Spectacle (Cross-listed as FILM 373 and HART 380)
Instructor: Clinton Williamson
TTh 9:25am-10:40am
Satisfies:
*D1
Culture and Social Change
Visual Culture and Comparative Media
ENGL 377 - Art and Literature: Literature and Film of the American South
Instructor: Clinton Williamson
W 12pm-2:50pm
Satisfies:
Visual Culture and Comparative Media
ENGL 381 - Women Talking Back to Empire
Instructor: Amy Huseby
TTh 4pm-5:15pm
This course explores how nineteenth-century women around the world used biographies, essays, letters, and poetry to negotiate, contest, and sometimes sustain the British Empire. We will read letters from the Caribbean, India, Indigenous North America, Britain, and beyond, asking who gets to tell the stories of colonized and enslaved peoples, what such writing made possible, and how women's lives and bodies became sites of imperial power and resistance.
Satisfies:
Culture and Social Change
Literature and Literary History
Critical Race, Postcolonial, and Gender Studies
ENGL 401 - Advanced Fiction Writing
Instructor: Justin Cronin
T 1pm-3:50pm
An advanced course in creative prose writing, with an emphasis on the short story. The centerpiece of the class will be roundtable discussion of students' original work. Each week we will be discussing a published short story, focusing on a particular aspect of craft (you will be required to do some advanced prep for these discussions). There will be a few craft essays as well. Once in a while, I'll give you a writing prompt as an in-class exercise.
Prerequisite: ENGL 301 or equivalent/permission of instructor
Satisfies:
Creative writing minor (CREW)
English major with creative writing concentration (ECRW)
ENGL 411 - Research Workshop
Instructor: Helena Michie
F 1pm-3:50 pm
Instructor: Andrew Kraebel
F 1pm-3:50pm
Instructor: Phillip Williams
F 1pm-3:50pm
Instructor: Ian Schimmel
F 1pm-3:50pm
(Required for ENCW majors)
ENGL 493 (001) - Independent Study/Directed Reading: The Book Club Hour, Latinx Fiction Since 2016
Instructor: José Aranda
Th 4pm-4:50pm
By permission only