Undergraduate Topics Course Descriptions for Fall Semester: September 9 - December 18, 2009

ENGL 325-31 Special Topics: The Victorian Detective
Monday/Wednesday 2:55 - 4:35pm (CRN# 42985)
Dr. Alexis Easley

The detective fiction genre was founded during the nineteenth century. As Victorians struggled to come to terms with the strains of modern life, they increasingly turned to the figure of the detective as a complex “solution” to a variety of social problems, including crime, blackmail, urban blight, and class inequities. Curiously, the detective was viewed as both a hero and a villain – a person who was skilled at exposing criminal behavior but was also guilty of transgressing the boundaries of privacy and good taste.  In this course, we will examine the contradictory figure of the detective in nineteenth-century literature, including novels and short fiction by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Fergus Hume, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Braddon, Wilkie Collins, and Charles Dickens. In addition we will examine journalistic representations of real-life detectives, including those who investigated the Jack the Ripper case.  Examination of these narratives will lead us to explore broader issues of surveillance, gender, authority, visuality, and sensationalism in nineteenth-century culture. This course fulfills the British Literature distribution requirement for English majors. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 111 and 112 or ENGL 190.

ENGL 341-01 Literature by Women Topic: Women Writing about Exile
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 9:35 -10:40am (CRN# 40762)
Dr. Catherine Craft-Fairchild

The idea for this course, Women Writing about Exile, came from the subtitle of the poetry anthology put together by Minnesota poets Deborah Keenan and Roseann Lloyd. In their preface, Keenan and Lloyd mention that they chose to include poems from women who have experienced “chosen exile, forced exile, immigration, emigration, as well as the idea of exile within the dominant culture…women who see themselves as living in exile within dominant white-male culture.” Such an inclusive definition might almost embrace every woman writer, for from the earliest period of taking up their pens, women have recognized themselves as outcasts and outsiders. The theme of exile, however, seems particularly important to the present, in a country where many women, both native and immigrant, feel that they don’t quite happily dissolve into the melting pot. This course will study contemporary writers who attempt to express feelings of alienation by making the theme of exile a topic of their contemplation and creativity; it will include authors such as Jamaica Kincaid, Anita Diamant, and Pearl Abraham. This course fulfills the Human Diversity requirement of the core curriculum and the Diversity Literature requirement for English majors. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 111 and 112 or ENGL 190.

ENGL 360-01 Chaucer and the Medieval Period: Windows into the Middle Ages
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 1:35 - 2:40pm (CRN# 42986)
Dr. Martin Warren

What do you think of when you imagine the Middle Ages?  Banquets?  Damsels in distress?  Knights jousting?  Sorry!  Not so! Think more of Heath Ledger and his movie, “A Knight’s Tale.” The later 14th century was a roller coaster ride through chaos.  The church was divided against itself—there were in fact two competing popes.  War in the Middle East, against the Muslims, was a constant. Back in England, the murder rate in medieval London was several times higher than even the worst modern American city.  The Black Death arrived in Italy in 1348 and within a few years spread across Europe, reducing the population by one-third.  Then, in 1381 in England, rebels took up arms against the king and, in fact, beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury, the chief clergyman in England.  

English 360 is an introduction to medieval culture and medieval English literature (particularly the work of Chaucer). In other words, the course acts as a set of windows into the Middle Ages. On our journey through the Middle Ages, we will meet valiant heroes, corrupt priests, virtuous lay people, lecherous old men, and naïve and bawdy women.  We will examine the varying perspectives of chivalry, the rights of the poor, the role of medieval women, and the importance of castle, monastery and friary, cathedral and university, field and town.  To help us in our examination of the Middle Ages and medieval literature, beyond reading such texts as The Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we will examine such films as “The Sorceress,” “Becket,” and “The Lion in Winter.”  This course fulfills the Early Literature and the British Literature distribution requirements for English majors. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 111 and 112 or ENGL 190.


ENGL 481-61 Seminar: Writing and Resistance in the Age of Globalization
Tuesday/Thursday 3:25 - 5:00pm (CRN# 40302)
Dr. Kanishka Chowdhury

This course fulfills the Diversity distribution requirement for English majors. Even as corporate “globalization” has been enshrined as the only viable economic system by the mainstream media and by liberal and conservative economists and politicians alike, grassroots activists across international boundaries have gathered together, especially in the last ten years, to point to the inherent inequities engendered by “globalization” and to proclaim the possibility of alternative economic and social systems.  Brussels, Genoa, and Seattle, among other cities, have recently heard these dissenting voices. In this course, we will look at the vast array of these dissenting voices, as captured in essays, poems, novels, songs, and films. Although we will read texts and view films from widely differing national traditions, this course will not aim for coverage; clearly, it is impossible to discuss all of the concerns that arise out of profound social and economic change. Instead, we will focus on particular questions and ideas so that we can come to some understanding of the material and psychological costs of contemporary globalization. We will also acquaint ourselves with many of the conflicting positions regarding globalization through a range of theoretical readings.

The films and literary texts may highlight some of the following topics: the connections between colonialism, imperialism, and what we call globalization; the relationship between the state and the citizen; the displacement and migration of populations; and the environmental costs of globalization. Since we have several organizations in the area that are actively engaged in resisting the predatory policies of globalization, we will have access to a range of speakers and activities that will lend an immediacy to our discussions. Students will write a short paper, weekly responses, and a final research paper. Each student will also be responsible for a substantial presentation. A complete book list will be available by the end of the spring semester. This course fulfills the Diversity distribution requirement for English majors. Prerequisite(s): Completion of five English courses beyond the 100-level, including ENGL 380; or, for non-majors, permission of the instructor and the department chair.

ENGL 490-01 Research: Hemingway Bibliography
Tuesday/Thursday 1:30 - 3:10pm (CRN# 43861)
Dr. Kelli Larson

Interested in research? And the real world of publishing? This course offers a unique opportunity to engage in both while studying one of this country’s most famous modernist authors, Ernest Hemingway. In an age notably short in memory, Hemingway remains a permanent force in American literature and culture. Hundreds of essays, notes, and books appear annually on his life and art. Add the occasional posthumous publication and the critical debate rises to a feverish pitch.  Scholars turn to the “Annotated Bibliography” of The Hemingway Review, the premier journal in Hemingway studies, as their only resource for all scholarship appearing on Hemingway worldwide. In this course, we will begin by reading and studying Hemingway’s most representative novels and short stories in preparation for our research. Students will work together to prepare two bibliographies, including the most recent “Annotated Bibliography” for the upcoming issue of The Hemingway Review. Instructor approval necessary to register for this course. Interviews with prospective students have already been held or are in the final stages of being held; those that are accepted into this class will be notified by Dr. Larson in the near future—no additional students are being accepted at this time. Prerequisite(s): Course limited to four English majors who are of junior or senior standing.