Taught by: Dr. Melissa McCoul

Course Description: Do you think of yourself as a writer? What have your experiences with writing been like? When you hear the terms “writer” or “writing,” “argument” or “research,” what kinds of images come to mind? As an Honors student, you may already think of yourself as a writer, but by the end of this course I hope you come to understand more deeply what it means to be an academic writer. I hope you will expand your definition of what writing is, and how the media in which we write shape the messages we produce. In this class, we’ll be analyzing—and writing in—a variety of genres including video essays, podcasts, narratives, and researched position papers. You’ll also be presenting on your research in progress, and leading the class on discussions of topics that matter to you. As Honors students, I’ll expect you to participate fully in each class session, and to make the course your own. I’m looking forward to working with each one of you!

Prospective Readings:

Taught by: Dr. Melissa McCoul

Course Description: Do you think of yourself as a writer? What have your experiences with writing been like? When you hear the terms “writer” or “writing,” “argument” or “research,” what kinds of images come to mind? By the end of this course, I hope you will think of yourself as a writer if you don’t today, and specifically as an academic writer. But more than that, I hope you will expand your definition of what writing is, and how the media in which we write shape the messages we produce. In this class, we’ll be analyzing—and writing in—a variety of genres including video essays, podcasts, narratives, and researched position papers. And we’ll consider how writing in and about digital media shapes our sense of ourselves and our world.

Prospective Readings: 

Taught by: Dr. Stephanie Barron

Course Description: Introduction to African-American Literature covers literature written by Americans of African descent in the United States from the Eighteenth Century to the present. Starting with the oral tradition and moving through slave narratives, Reconstruction and the aftermath, the Harlem Renaissance, Realism, Modernism, the Black Arts Era, and the present, we will analyze and explore why particular pieces might have been valuable or compelling to their contemporary audiences and what values these pieces have for us now. My goal is for students to come to many of these conclusions on their own with support from the pieces themselves, other primary sources, and critical secondary sources. Writers and poets will include Phillis Wheatley, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, MLK, Jr., Malcolm X, and Toni Morrison in addition to others.

Proposed Readings: 

Phillis Wheatley, poetry

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Booker T. Washington, selections from Up from Slavery

W. E. B. Du Bois, selections from The Souls of Black Folk

Paul Laurence Dunbar, poetry

Claude McKay, poetry

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God and other selections

Langston Hughes, poetry

Richard Wright, selected fiction and nonfiction

James Baldwin, selected fiction and nonfiction

MLK, Jr., selections

Malcolm X, selections

Toni Morrison, Sula

Taught by: Dr. Apostolos Vasilakis

Course Description: This course will examine some of the major texts of world literature from the 17th through the 21st centuries. We will direct our attention around a core group of central ideas as they are developed in the texts, and we will investigate the evolution and transitions in the literary tradition. Some of the issues and questions we will examine in particular detail include: the relationship between reality and fiction; the question of the human condition and its relationship to history or a catastrophic event; the question of good and evil; and what constitutes human experience in an advanced technological world. Furthermore, we will take up these topics and themes in their own right, and as a basis for living in the contemporary world.

Proposed Readings:

Voltaire: Candide

Shelley: Frankenstein

Zamyatin: We

Camus: The Plague

Ondaatje: Coming Through Slaughter

Marquez: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Achebe: Things Fall Apart

Okorafor: Binti

Taught by: Dr. Elizabeth Robinson

Course Description: Introduction to the speculative and marvelous genres of literature; survey of different genres, such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, utopian, or fairy tale; examination of different methodological approaches and historical contexts. This course will focus on a wide variety of speculative and marvelous texts. Widely construed, speculative texts begin from empirical reality but extrapolate out from there to create fantastic fictions, such as is the case with science fiction. Marvelous texts break sharply with empirical reality to generate a sense of wonder and awe through the rendering of the impossible as possible and real. Taken together, the speculative and marvelous are often labeled for marketing as “science fiction and fantasy,” but the label “science fiction and fantasy” is insufficient to capture the diversity of the speculative and marvelous. This course will focus on four units: science fiction, fantasy, horror, and fairy tales. For each unit, students will read representative, foundational texts for each genre, along with critical and historical readings that will provide them with the necessary context to understand the nature and evolution of those genres. In this way, this course will prepare students for more advanced studies in specific genres.

Proposed Readings:

This list is subject to change.

*J. R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

*Ursula Le Guin, Wizard of Earthsea

*H. G. Wells, War of the Worlds

*Lois Lowry, The Giver

*Bram Stoker, Dracula

*Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book or Coraline

*Selected fairy tales

Taught by: Dr. Michael Collins

Course Description: This course will explore the ways in which ideas about race, racial identity, and racial difference have affected medical practice, race relations, and writings about both by creative writers, doctors and researchers. Readings will cover topics such as medical training, drug use, the AIDS epidemic, and the meaning of health. As a writing-intensive course, the class will include discussion of the mechanics of essay writing, as well as opportunities to write short essays and a longer research paper.

Proposed Readings: Specific readings are yet to be determined, but they are likely to include works by authors such as Rafael Campo, Atul Gawande, Suzan Lori-Parks and Susan Sontag.

Taught by: Dr. Ira Dworkin

Course Description: By examining text and context, the class will consider the ways that diverse literary works enter into conversations with each other and, more widely, with broader cultural archives. Beginning with Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, students will become acquainted with the many different methodologies scholars use to read, discuss, and write about literature and other cultural texts. What kinds of questions do we ask in the discipline of English Studies, and what approaches and tools do we use to answer those questions? Moreover, we will consider the relevance of English Studies to the wider world within which readers read and writers write. What do the questions and critical methodologies we bring to texts have to offer to the culture at large? Throughout the semester, we will practice the basic skills essential to more advanced study in English: close reading, clear writing, and the formulation of fertile, well-informed research questions.

Proposed Readings: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X; Nnedi Okorafor, Binti; Claudia Rankine, Citizen; Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage

Taught by: Dr. Andrew Pilsch

Course Description: In this section of ENGL 303, we will consider the history of the "unreliable narrator," that is texts which are narrated by people who are not, we eventually learn, telling us strictly the truth. Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between this figure and fiction about crime. We will also use these questions to explore underlying assumptions about fiction itself, especially as these questions matter for the English major.

Prospective Readings:

• Henry James, Turn of the Screw

• Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

• Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

• Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly

• Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

• Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train

Taught by: Dr. Regina Mills

Description: This course explores games as a literary category and examines how we make games out of literature. We will look at how games make narratives through story and design. From fan fiction, in which readers of literature play with the literature they adore, to tabletop and online role-playing games, in which a gamemaster or game developer builds worlds and players characterize their created personas (avatars) through actions and dialogue, games of all kinds use and play with the conventions of literature. “Gaming Literature” is about seeing games as literature and viewing literary studies as a field of exploration and experimentation. This course provides a robust introduction to the major, showing students the many avenues of research available to English majors. From “literary studies” methods like close reading and socioformal analysis, area studies approaches such as Black studies and Latinx studies, queer studies, feminist studies, cultural studies (with a focus on pop culture and even folklore approaches), digital humanities, creative writing, rhetoric, film studies and the study of visual culture. There may be guest lectures from scholars across the country (via Zoom) who will introduce you to a variety of ways to approach games and other literary productions. This is a portfolio-based course, meaning that students' final grades depend heavily on their ability to reflect on feedback, learn from failure (just like you do in Mario when you fall into that put or hit a Goomba over and over), and revise their work. Students will also create their own game (digital or analog) - a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure that will test their ability to use worldbuilding, characterization, and storytelling tools.

Proposed Readings: Students will be required to do more traditional, academic reading (short stories, novels, etc.) but also play games with strong narrative or character-focus, including table-top games, video games, and card games. Students in this class should be curious, open to trying new things, and willing to learn from and with each other. There will be no assumption that students are "gamers" or have ever played a game before. Dr. Mills will provide resources and guidance, so whether you're a newbie to games or a life-long lover of games, class is for you!

Taught by: Dr. Susan Egenolf

Course Description: This course pairs 18th- and 19th-century writings with contemporary writings (20th and 21st centuries) and modern scholarship that focus on the relationship of human beings to the rest of the natural world. We will study a range of genres—the novel, drama, essay, travel writing, memoir, a video game and poetry—that examine the ecological attitudes that influenced global networks and helped to shape our sense of the “natural world.” We’ll take Ireland, North America, South America and Australia as case studies for examining Britain’s expanding empire. The course will also attend to visual representations of the natural world (such as painting) and material culture (particularly collecting). The course will introduce Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as an alternative to European systems for knowing the world. Students will study natural history writings and early collections that became the bases for modern museums and then create their own collections from flora and fauna of our world.

Proposed Readings: We’ll read the work by early European travelers such as William Bartram, Olaudah Equiano, Maria Graham and Charles Darwin. We’ll also read novels about travel, including Aphra Behan’s Oroonoko and Jonthan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Our more contemporary texts will include Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s Thin Places: a Natural History of Healing and Home (2021) about Ireland during the Troubles, David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon (1993) about the European settlement of Australia, and Never Alone (2014), a videogame produced by the Iñupiaq people.

Taught by: Dr. Amy Earhart

Course Description: Archives: Print to Digital traces the collection and use of archives, print and digital, in literary scholarship. Focusing on theory and practice the course will trace the ways that print collections have developed with particular attention to ways that categorization systems have impacted the archives we collect and use. We will be particularly attentive to ways that gender and race have impacted the development of archives. We then will turn to the ways the digital archives represent possibilities while also reinscribing some of the biases found in print archives. Central to the class are activities that deepen student understanding of key ideas in the class readings. For example, we will be investigating the way that Cushing library has built print collections, using the critical lens of information studies theory. Further, the class will feature a hands-on project in digital archival development with work in the Millican Massacre, 1868 digital archive. This class will appeal to students interested in pursuing work in libraries, publishing and those who are interested in advanced literary study.

Proposed Readings: 

Berry, Dorothy. 2021. “The House Archives Built.” Up/Root (blog). June 22, 2021. https://www.uproot.space/features/the-house-archives-built.

Christen, Kimberly. 2015. “Tribal Archives, Traditional Knowledge, and Local Contexts: Why the ‘s’ Matter.” Journal of Western Archives 6 (1): 1–19.

Drabinski, Emily. 2013. “Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction.” The Library Quarterly 83 (2): 94–111.

Drake, Jarrett M. 2016. “#ArchivesForBlackLives: Building a Community Archives of Police Violence in Cleveland.” On Archivy (blog). April 22, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/archivesforblacklives-building-a-community-archives-of-police-vi olence-in-cleveland-93615d777289.

Farmer, Ashley. 2018. “Archiving While Black.” Chronicle of Higher Education, July. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Archiving-While-Black/243981/#.W1iclD9pD6Q.email.

Gallon, Kim. 2014. “The Price Is NOT Right: Selling Black Press Archives.” Bprc: Black Press Research Collective (blog). November 30, 2014. http://blackpressresearchcollective.org/2014/11/30/new-york-amsterdam-news-photo-archive-is- at-cornell-university-library/.

Klein, Lauren F. 2013. “The Image of Absence: Archival Silence, Data Visualization, and James Hemings.” American Literature 85 (4): 661–88.

Marcum, Deanna. 2001. “The Library and the Scholar: A New Imperative for Partnership.” American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper 48.

Porter, Dorothy B. 1945. “Early American Negro Writings: A Bibliographical Study.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 39 (3): 192–268.

Schomburg, Arthur A. 1925. “The Negro Digs Up His Past.” Survey Graphic, 670–72.

Senier, Siobhan. 2018. “What Indigenous Literature Can Bring to Electronic Archives.” B20: The Online Community of the Boundary 2 Editorial Collective, August. http://www.boundary2.org/2018/08/senier/.

Taught by: Dr. Kevin O'Sullivan

Course Description: This course will provide a survey of the intellectual and artistic movement known as the English Renaissance, focusing in particular on literature written at the end of the sixteenth century. Discussions will begin with a broad investigation of the term ‘Renaissance,’ positioning the innovations that took place in England in proximity to analogous advances on the European continent. Throughout the semester, students will read broadly from authors working in three major literary forms—poetry, drama, and prose—and interrogate how these reflect the period of immense social, religious, and political upheaval during which they were composed. Together, we will seek to understand the relationship between these works and the wider culture of textual transmission in which they participated as well as the place of literature in an increasingly varied landscape of intellectual production.

Proposed Readings: Authors will likely include: Sir Philip Sidney; Mary Sidney Herbert; Edmund Spenser; Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; Sir Thomas Wyatt; George Gascoigne; Lady Mary Wroth; Anne Locke; Anne Askew; Thomas Kyd; Christopher Marlowe; William Shakespeare; and Thomas Nashe.

Taught by: Dr. Ira Dworkin

Course Description: When F.O. Matthiessen defined the “American Renaissance,” he sought to characterize American literature of the period from 1830 to 1860, specifically writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville. This era of cultural production was, in fact, even more vibrant than Matthiessen’s characterization indicates. Beyond these five men, a much wider multiracial array of literary figures was both explicitly and implicitly part of the same conversations that dominated that era, and sought to engage questions of reform, resistance, colonialism, slavery, gender, and revolution. This course will consider the full breadth of U.S. literary production in the decades leading up to the U.S. Civil War.

Proposed Readings: In addition to writings by Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, and Melville, we will also read works by Edgar Allan Poe, William Apess (Pequot), Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Margaret Fuller, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (Ojibwe), David Walker, John Rollin Ridge (Cherokee), Theodore Winthrop, Harriet Jacobs, and others.

Taught by: Dr. James Francis

Course Description: Science fiction cinema quite often reacts to human progress throughout time to project iterations of humanity based on “What if?” scenarios to imagine past, present, and future configurations of civilization, and the narratives explore the ways in which we live within those spaces. The genre is vast and affords us—as emerging scholars—a chance to examine it through various lenses of critical perspectives. Our course will approach the study of science fiction cinema from a genre studies vantage point; however, the concentration of texts will be selected—in part—by you, the enrolled and/or interested student.

If you plan to enroll in the course and/or are interested in registering for it, please take the survey below that will assist in shaping the selection of films for study. The concentration-area options for the course include: science fiction films by the decade (1960s-present); science fiction films by genre concepts (time, technology, transhumanism, alien life); or science fiction films by design (aesthetics and visual storytelling).

LINK: https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5ijqnh1BX6H54OO

A study of sci-fi by the decade will allow us to explore how the genre develops over time through the interpretation of various writers and directors as they respond to our real-life human growth and development. A study of sci-fi by genre concepts will allow us to tap into foundational elements to enhance comprehension of what established the genre and how those concepts maintain stability or radically differ per film. A study of sci-fi by design will allow us to interrogate style over substance in how the films visually communicate with the audience more so than their narrative content as more art-based cinema.

Proposed Readings: HER, After Yang, Timecrimes, Run Lola Run, Demon Seed, Strange Days, Upgrade, Life, Fire in the Sky, Under the Skin, District 9, A.I., M3GAN, Edge of Tomorrow, Titane, eXistenZ, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Contact, The War of the Worlds, Beyond the Black Rainbow, The Endless

Taught by: Dr. Noah Peterson

Course Description: This course centers on the development of the Arthur story in poetry, fiction, and drama, from its inception in early medieval Britain through the twentieth and twenty-first century. Reading these texts in relation to specific historical, political, and cultural contexts, we discussed topics such as the following: Arthur as a model for rulers, the role of Arthurian narrative in shaping the ideals of "chivalry," contemporary international human rights law, and professional rule of conduct in the modern world. This course reveals how wider social forces shape the philosophical outlooks and aesthetic sensibilities of writers who use the Arthur story, and helps students develop an appreciation for what the study of literature can teach us about ourselves and our shared humanity.

Proposed Readings: Readings will include selections from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain; selections from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur; Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the Kings; Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant; and several 20th and 21st century films.

Taught by: Dr. James Francis

Course Description: LGBTQ+ literatures offers various thematic approaches in its instruction each semester; for our course, we will take a look at concepts of LGBTQ+ representation through written and visual narratives (film) based on a pre-class survey in which enrolled students and those interested in registering for the course assist in the selection of texts for study. Through our written and visual readings, we will critically examine relationships, historical perspectives, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and controversy in LGBTQ+ narrative spaces.

If you plan to enroll in the course and/or are interested in registering for it, please take the survey below that will assist in shaping the selection of films for study. The concentration-area options for the course include: LGBTQ+ literatures as a study in camp (visual and narrative conceptual sensibilities); LGBTQ+ literatures as genre study (focused on sci-fi/horror); LGBTQ+ literatures as a study in the life cycle (childhood to adulthood).

LINK: https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_08p7DvB5c1rvPTM

A study of LGBTQ+ literatures as camp will allow us to examine authors, audiences, and structures/frameworks of the texts through a camp lens. A study of LGBTQ+ literatures in the sci-fi/horror space will allow us to explore how queer narratives function within a genre study that concentrates on our shared fears and anxieties in speculative environments extrapolated from reality. A study of LGBTQ+ literatures based on the life cycle of humans will allow us to interrogate human development (child to adult) within various forms of literature that complement the narrative content (picture book to film).

Proposed Readings: Carmilla, Heather Has Two Mommies, Beautiful Thing, Call Me By Your Name, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Closet Monster, Heartstopper, Blue is the Warmest Color, Thelma, Tangerine, A Single Man, The Price of Salt, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Giovanni’s Room, A Fantastic Woman, Angels in America, Paris is Burning

Taught by: Dr. Stephanie Batterson

Course Description: Multi-ethnic study of American Literature, the writings of Black Americans, American Indians, Latinos/Latinas, Jewish Americans, Asian Americans, as well as other ethnic groups. Lectures and discussions will focus on the works’ historical context, and students will be encouraged to assess the works’ stylistic and thematic qualities. Students will write literary analysis but will also have the option to produce creative writing about their own cultural traditions and values. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification.

Proposed Readings: 

Taught by: Dr. Amy Earhart

Course Description: Major works of the African-American literary tradition from the 1930s to the present studied in their cultural and historical context.

Proposed Readings: All readings will be drawn from The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, volume 2.

Taught by: Dr. Elizabeth Robinson

Course Description: This course will explore fairy tales, largely from Europe and the United States, from their oral (traditional) roots to modern re-tellings of traditional tales. Our study will include significant European publications of traditional tales such as those by Straparola & Basile (Italy), Perrault and d’Aulnoy (France), the Brothers Grimm (Germany), Andrew Lang and Joseph Jacob (England). We will also read selected tales from other countries and cultures.

We will explore the way that these tales have been told in various cultures, how they are shaped by their cultures, and how they shape their cultures. We will also discuss the history of their reception through the centuries. We will explore significant historical events surrounding fairy tales, such as the “Frauds on Fairies” argument between Charles Dickens and George Cruikshank.

We will read re-tellings of traditional fairy tales through the past 200 years by authors such as Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Angela Carter, Tanith Lee, Roald Dahl, James Thurber, Anne Sexton, Sarah Henderson Hay, and others. We will also read a novel adaptation of a fairy tale. We will explore how fairy tales have been used in film by film makers such as Disney and Pixar, and in musicals by composers such as Stephen Sondheim (Into the Woods), and how the tales appear in pop culture (music, advertising, etc.). In our exploration of re-tellings and adaptations, we will be especially interested in how they often appropriate fairy tales for specific purposes.

Proposed Readings: 

• Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek, Folk and Fairy Tales, 5th ed, Broadview, 2018
• Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek, Fairy Tales in Popular Culture, Broadview, 2014
• Novel TBA

Taught by: Dr. Curry Kennedy

Course Description: Throughout the world and across time, people have conjured visions of the sage speaker. They have argued about the ethics and eloquence the ideal communicator would bring to bear on pressing cultural crises, as well as the educational practices that would properly train such a speaker. In short, they have asked, how can we form a wise and well-spoken person to address the challenges of our time and place? In ENGL 353, we’re going to ask the same question. We’re going to contemplate portraits of the sage speaker from past ages, discuss and critique them, and begin, with our own context in mind, to envision the rhetoric that we need now. We'll be learning about the ancient Hebrew sage, the Confucian gentleman, the Greek rhetor, the Roman orator, the Christian bishop, and the Renaissance humanist. We'll also learn many techniques and play many games designed to enhance your abilities as a communicator.

Proposed Readings: 

Gorgias, "Encomium of Helen"

Plato, "Gorgias"

Plato, "Phaedrus"

Demosthenes, "Third Philippic"

Isocrates, "Against the Sophists"

Cicero, "Pro Archias"

Cicero, "On the Ideal Orator"

Confucius, "Analects"

Xunzi, "On Ritual"

Xunzi, "On Correct Naming"

Erasmus "Praise of Folly"

Augustine "Confessions"

Augustine "On Instructing Beginners in Faith"

Taught by: Dr. Matt McKinney

Course Description: Everything you read, every show you watch, every conversation you have has a feeling, a tone, a shape about it that influences how you respond, how you feel about it, and what you do afterwards. This elusive character is what we’re trying to get at by bringing together these two words “Rhetoric” and “Style.” Can we systematically and rigorously examine this underlying sense of language, this shaping of responses, this variety of rhetorical power underlying our communication? Our approach will combine an intuitive development of style (getting a feel for it) with a more analytic and conceptual comprehension of stylistic form (dissecting through terms, grammar, etc.),with the understanding that some will favor one over the other, but all will benefit from both approaches. Both Rhetoric (as the study of persuasion) and Style (as the study of the shape of communication) do not deal with any one topic. To help focus our examination of style, we will use a common theme: American culture and American identity.

Proposed Readings: We will be looking at a range of textual forms, from speeches to music to essays to poetry to political platforms. Authors include Patrick Henry, Malcolm X, Mary Oliver, Ice Cube, Gloria Anzaldua, Pablo Neruda, Michelle Zauner, Harvey Milk, Russell Means, and many others.

Taught by: Dr. Elizabeth Robinson

Course Description: In this course, we will survey children’s literature from early fairy tale texts through very recently published texts.

In our reading of these texts, we will explore

• a variety of genres: picture books, novels, poetry, and fairy tales;

• the nature, characteristics, and purposes of children’s literature, and

• how the works we read are connected to the cultures and time periods in which they were produced and consider how these works both express notions of the nature of child and childhood and how they shape those notions within a culture.

This semester will feature an in-depth look at the work of Pam Muñoz Ryan. In our explorations, we will apply principles of literary analysis to the texts that we read, but we will not discuss teaching practices or criteria for book selection.

Proposed Readings:

This list is subject to change.

• Hallett and Karasek. Folk and Fairy Tales, Second Concise Edition,

• George MacDonald. The Princess and the Goblin.

• Kathi Appelt. The Underneath

• Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat & How the Grinch Stole Christmas

• Maurice Sendack. Where the Wild Things Are

• Christopher Paul Curtis. Bud, Not Buddy

• Pam Muñoz Ryan. Esperanza Rising, Echo, Mananaland, When Marian Sang, Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride

• Tomie de Paola. Legend of the Bluebonnet

• Patricia McKissack. Flossie and the Fox

Taught by: Dr. Melissa McCoul

Course Description: Maybe you grew up reading Harry Potter or Holes, Nancy Drew or the Narnia stories. Maybe you were a comic-book kid. What happened to your reading tastes as you grew older? Did you read what we now call “young adult literature” as a young adult? What exactly is a young adult? Does the term refer to an age category or a reading level, a personality type or a genre? What differentiates adult from young adult from teenager? What about young adult or teenager from child? How do we understand the genre of literature for and about this blurry, shifting group? In this course, we will explore a range of young adult or YA literature in English, including poetry, contemporary fiction, graphic memoirs, and fantasy. Our task is to think critically about what these books can tell us about how we (and others) understand adolescence, how those definitions have changed over time, and how these books participate in larger movements of history, culture, and literature.

Prospective Readings: 

Taught by: Kalani Pattison

Course Description: In this course, we will survey adolescent and young adult literature (YA lit) from the twenty-first and latter half of the twentieth century, though we will briefly discuss well-known older works for context. We will explore: -A variety of forms (novels, short stories, and poems) in the various genres of historical fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy, and science-fiction. -Works by authors from a variety of cultures and ethnicities. -How these works both express notions of the nature of adolescence and shape those notions within a culture, paying particular attention to characters’ growth into virtuous, compassionate, wise(r) adults -Conceptions of justice, power, gender, language, and communication. In our explorations, we will apply principles of literary analysis to the texts that we read, and discuss how these texts might appeal to or be read by younger readers, but we will not discuss teaching practices (this is not a course focused on pedagogy). Students will read assigned texts, write brief daily responses and longer arguments, complete a creative argument project, and have chances to lead discussion and make presentations.

Proposed Readings: 

Taught by: Dr. Katayoun Torabi

Course Description: In this class, students will examine the Bible as both a collection of disparate texts and as a unified whole, with a particular focus on how the rhetorical strategies of its many authors, narrative structures, and character development in the Bible have all influenced various readings of the text through time. Through guided in-class exercises, small and large group discussions, and written assignments, students will examine ethical issues surrounding politics, gender, religion, nationhood, and ethnicity in the Bible and understand them in their own historical and cultural moments. Students will also think about how their own responses to Biblical narratives are rooted in their personal understanding of gender, ethnicity, and culture, and to reflect on the wider implications of how they and others approach this foundational text. Materials for this course include written texts and such visual and audio representations as paintings, video clips, films, poetry readings, and music.

Proposed Readings:

Taught by: Dr. Mary Ann O'Farrell

Course Description: Tiny Tim is only the most famous of the nineteenth century’s disabled characters, who include among them men and women who are blind, deaf, or lame; who are psychologically or cognitively atypical; who are amputees or stutterers; or who are mysteriously “disfigured.” Our job in this class will be to think about these characters in the context of the nineteenth century’s understanding of the disabilities its literature examines. In doing this, we will explore the evident fascination of disabled bodies for British writers in the nineteenth century and consider the cultural desires and anxieties reflected in these depictions of disability. Course readings and discussions will also lead us to consider the way these representations of disability interact with the lived experiences of disabled men and women in the nineteenth century and in our own time.

Proposed Readings: Our primary focus in reading will be on prose fiction (novels by such authors as Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens); stories (including works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle); and children’s literature. We will also read some autobiographical, medical, legal, performance, and journalistic writing from the era and peek into contemporary culture’s neo-Victorian interest in disability. Our readings will also include some significant and foundational works in contemporary scholarship in disability studies. Course requirements will include two papers, as well as some online posts and in-class writing.

Taught by: Dr. Katayoun Torabi

Course Description: Are you interested in how computers affect our understanding and study of cultural heritage: literature, history, art, religion, philosophy, etc.? Do you want to learn how to use open-source software to analyze source material, make arguments, and present your ideas to the public? If so, this cross-listed course is for you. Whether you want to make more engaging class presentations, pursue a career that engages the public online, or develop technical skills that will set you apart, this course will help you do that. You will learn about how computers are used to conduct humanities research and the impact of technology on different fields of study. You will also use digital tools to visualize literary analysis, create digital maps, and analyze social networks. If this interests you, sign up for DHUM (Digital Humanities)/ENGL/HIST 433. Fall semester 2024.

Proposed Readings:

Taught by: Dr. Matt McKinney

Course Description: Interested in discussions of hegemony and class in The Last of Us or Euphoria? Applying psychoanalysis to Final Fantasy VII, Chainsaw Man, or the newest Pixar movie? Analyzing the subversion of gender and racial tropes in Megan Thee Stallion’s latest single? Bringing in your favorite show or meme or movie to lead discussion? If so, this course might be for you!

Instead of focusing on more traditional, literary, or “high-brow” texts, this course uses popular culture as an access point for better understanding rhetorical frameworks and concepts. Movies, fashion, television shows, video games, podcasts, comics, musical genres, and even memes often serve as ideological and cultural mirrors for our society. By analyzing these mirrors, we can not only learn more about ourselves and the values instilled in us, but actively work to change those values for the better.

The assigned textbook and readings provide critical frameworks for you to apply rhetorical theory and analysis in a pop culture context. While we will also examine some preselected pop culture artifacts as a class (such as The Last of Us), you will have plenty of opportunities to apply course concepts to texts of your choice. This is partially to account for the minute-to-minute changes in the landscape of pop culture, and also to ensure that we focus on texts that are of interest to you specifically.

Proposed Readings:

Taught by: Dr. Sally Robinson

Course Description: In this course, we will read women's contemporary fiction that focuses on how history gets made and written, and on the importance of gender to our understanding of history. For many years, History (with a capital H) has come under challenge, with scholars questioning what counts as history and the impossibility of objective history writing. This historiographic point of view has been shared by fiction writers, who have written novels that reconstruct, often from a critical point of view, historical events and periods. The novels we'll read in this class reimagine history from women's point of view, centering attention on both the grand narratives of public history (wars, political upheavals, scientific discoveries, plagues) and the private histories that are often hidden below those grand narratives. As we read and discuss these works, we will raise and consider larger questions about: what counts as history? Who gets to write history? Who benefits, and who suffers, from particular constructions of history? What is left out of official history? What are the relationships between individual and collective memories and between personal and public histories?

Proposed Readings:

Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonder

Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace

Pat Barker, Regeneration

Nora Okja Keller, Comfort Woman

Octavia Butler, Kindred

Cristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban

Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate

Selected critical and historical readings, available on Canvas

Taught by: Dr. Jessica Howell

Course Description: Literary depictions of the body highlight anxiety and desire regarding travel in the nineteenth century. Some nineteenth-century subjects worried that travelling would endanger their health, while others hoped it would cure their ills. Some craved the stimulation of new experiences, while others worried that their bodies would change from their exposures to extreme climate, or that they would lose connection to their culture within the ‘contact zones’ of empire. Other subjects were forced to travel against their will, or travelled abroad to nurse the bodies of the ailing. In this class, we will read a variety of life writing genres, such as ‘invalid’ diaries, travel memoirs, and letters, as well as short and long works of fiction. We explore the political, geographic, economic, and aesthetic contexts of travel, especially in narratives written about America, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. We end the semester by considering post / neo-colonial travel and its literary genres.

Proposed Readings: Works include those by Isabella Bird, Henry Matthews, Mary Seacole, Toru Dutt, Sara Forbes Bonetta, and Jean Rhys, as well as key works of literary and cultural criticism.

Taught by: Dr. Kevin O'Sullivan

Course Description: This course will provide a sustained interrogation of the relationship between texts and the media which convey them. Beginning with early book forms, such as cuneiform tablets and palm-leaf books, and extending to twenty-first century technologies like e-readers and generative AI, students will analyze how modes of physical production have influenced textual production across millennia. In addition to critical writings on relevant aspects of book history, our thinking here will be further supported by readings in reception theory that foreground the role of the reader as essential to textual production. These theoretical considerations (re)defining “the book” will be nuanced and critiqued through weekly visits to special collections, where students will interact with actual examples of the materials about which they are reading and thereby strengthen their skills in primary-source research. After establishing an applied understanding of analytical bibliography through early assignments, the semester will culminate in a longer research project focused on the original analysis of an item (or small group of items) from Texas A&M's own rare books and special collections repository, the Cushing Library.

Proposed Readings: Possible readings for this course include Amaranth Borsuk, The Book; Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing; D. F. McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts; Matthew Kirschenbaum, Track Changes; Johanna Drucker, The Century of Artists Books; Leila Avrin, Scribes, Script and Books; Adrian Johns, The Nature of the Book; Jonathan Senchyne and Bridgitte Fielder, eds., Against a Sharp White Background: Infrastructures of African American Print; Sarah Werner, Studying Early Printed Books; and Kathryn James, English Paleography and Manuscript Culture.

Taught by: Dr. Sarah Potvin

Course Description: Who are you? How do others know that you are you? These are questions of mutual, if differentiated, interest to philosophers of the human experience and companies that claim to protect your devices and accounts from unauthorized access. This course will center texts, films, and visual art to explore questions of identity, authenticity, and self. Texts will be paired with hands-on investigations of technologies and methods that authenticate (or, conversely, fabricate) the self, including stylometry, multimodal AI and other predictive technologies. This pairing will invite critical discussions of the historical and theoretical assumptions that inform and shape these technologies.

Proposed Readings: 

Taught by: Dr. Vanita Reddy

Description: This 400-level course will examine concepts in feminist theory from an intersectional and transnational perspective. We will read across a range of humanities and social science fields: literary studies, disability studies, cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, and cultural anthropology. The course is designed as a discussion- and participation- based senior seminar, and the fewer number of students enrolled helps to facilitate that. Most classes will consist of short lectures, student presentations, discussion of critical thinking assignments, and in-class discussions. Beginning in Week 3, we will begin each class meeting with the student-led presentations (to be conducted in pairs). Discussions for each class session will center upon the assigned reading(s) that are due for that day. They will build upon the student presentations and the critical thinking assignments. Therefore, participation—in all of its forms—is absolutely imperative to a successful learning experience.

Proposed Readings: 

• L. Ayu Saraswati and Barbara Shaw, eds. Feminist and Queer Theory: An Intersectional and Transnational Reader: (Oxford UP, 2020)

• Additional course readings will be uploaded as PDFs to CANVAS