Fall 2022 Courses - Graduate

English 201: Methods and Materials 

R 4:00-6:45 PM (Professor Gorman-DaRif)

This course provides a foundation for MA students through an intensive introduction to methods of graduate level scholarship. We will practice formal analysis of a variety of texts, including poetry, review research techniques, including the use of databases, annotation of sources, and compilation of bibliographies, and develop writing strategies for various genres standard in the field, including abstracts, conference papers, and articles. We will also collaboratively develop a study guide of literary terms, theoretical lenses common to the field, and literary periods to serve as reference for other courses as well as prepare students for the MA exam. This will be a fast-paced and challenging course, but one that will prepare students for the work of graduate level English studies.

English 208: Seminar in Comparative Literature 

M 4:00-6:45 PM (Professor Krishnaswamy)

What exactly do we mean when we say Western Civilization, Classical Literature, British Literature, American Literature or English Literature? How were these areas of study constituted, their canons established, their literary history constructed, and their disciplinary practices institutionalized? What role did literary criticism and critical theory play in these processes? Taking a broad comparative approach to these questions, we will (i) examine the structures of power that shape literary production and consumption, (ii) consider the long legacy of eurocentrism (and androcentrism), (iii) deconstruct established definitions, conventional narratives, dominant ideologies, and (iv) learn about world-wide efforts to “decolonize” literature and literary studies.

This course aims to be not only informational but also transformational. The questions we ask, the ideas we consider, and the materials we read are intended to defamiliarize and disturb established conceptions of literature, literary history and literary theory. I therefore expect you to bring along the knowledge you have accumulated from prior literature classes so you can test it against this course. Intellectual curiosity, academic rigor, openness of mind, commitment to work hard, tolerance for difficulty, ambiguity, and uncertainty are essential to succeed in the class. The course will be taught mostly synchronously, using Canvas and Zoom. The course satisfies the 4-unit GWAR requirement for both MFA and MA students.

English 215: Myth and Symbolism 

T 4:00-6:45 PM (Professor Stork)

This seminar will explore various types of mythic texts and the growth of Symbolist Poetry in the late 19th and 20th century. We will look at fairy tales, medieval romance, fantasy, poetry and myths from other cultures. The origins of mythology as a way of expressing cultural concerns will be approached from a theoretical perspective, starting with Sir James Frazer’s “Golden Bough” in the 19th century and moving through 20th and 21st critics such as Propp, Malinowski, Geertz, Campbell. Myth’s origins in folk tale, oral tradition, the borders of science, ritual, religion and human psychology will all be considered.

English 240: Poetry Workshop

W 7:00-9:45 PM (Professor Martinez)

Each week, English 240-01 workshop will explore a different poetic theme —the body, rites and rituals, place and home, food and family, dreaming, reflection. For inspiration, students will read and discuss a variety of poems from writers offering differing approaches to the week’s theme. In addition to primary readings drawn from literature, particularly modernist poetry, “experimental” poetry, digital poetics, and the fragment, we will also devote time to 20th century art: modern performance, avant-garde cinema (Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, Andrew Busti), and music (John Cage, Steve Reich, My Bloody Valentine).

English 241: Fiction Workshop

W 4:00-6:45 PM (Professor Hollander)

This course is devoted to establishing a strong creative community, where we develop a safe space to submit our own writing, give helpful feedback to each other, and enter into conversations about craft and the writing process. Each student will submit three self-contained stories or chapters of 10-20 double-spaced pages over the course of the semester, and every week students will provide detailed feedback to their classmates’ writing, including close analysis of particular assigned literary strategies. Students will also stretch themselves with course readings and exercises that engage them with diverse fiction techniques, experimenting with time and structure, image and motif, viewpoint, and style and language. We will read works by authors such as Huruki Murakami, Katherine Vaz, Kelly Link, Donald Barthelme, George Saunders, Claire Vaye Watkins, Sherman Alexie, and Ramond Queneau. As we carefully track and dissect writers’ artistic choices, we will learn to articulate how the use of techniques shape theme and meaning and apply what we learn to our own writing.

English 242: Nonfiction Workshop

T 7:00-9:45 PM (Professor Arnold)

Creative nonfiction has often been described as “true stories, well told.” But what separates such texts from fiction? In this class, students will read, study and practice writing various types of creative nonfiction, including but not limited to, memoir, essays, narrative reporting, and criticism. In addition to thinking about well-known models of the genre, students will explore various ways to approach writing using factual material in order to make their prose style more stylish, memorable, and compelling. Class will be split between discussion and workshop.

English 254: The American Novel

T 7:00-9:45 PM (Professor Johnson)

Beginnings to 1900, charts the development of the form in the early republic, its growth as a vehicle of social change and forum for marginalized voices and groups, and its portrayal of racial and gender identities. 

English 259: Seminar in Composition Studies 

M 7:00-9:45 PM (Professor Moriarty)

How do people write? How do people learn how to write? And, most importantly for our purposes here, how can we — and should we — teach writing? Composition theorists have been looking into and arguing about these questions — and many others — for years, and this course will immerse you in their debates. Through extensive readings and discussions, as well as papers and presentations, you will learn how to analyze and evaluate competing descriptions of the writing process; how to recognize and evaluate the range of approaches to teaching composition; how to examine assumptions underlying current theory and practice in writing instruction; how to explore assumptions and implications of composition and rhetorical research; and how to identify key problems and issues surrounding current research in composition and rhetoric. English 259 is a prerequisite or co-requisite for Teaching Associates and is highly recom- mended for any student, MA or MFA, who contemplates teaching writing as part of a career.

English 291: Literary Practicum

R 7:00-9:45 PM (Professor Soldofsky)

This course prepares Creative Writing graduate students to begin
their 8 units of “Cumulative Experience” (to fulfil final MFA graduation requirements). ENGL 291 is a course you are required to take, usually one or two semesters before your scheduled graduation date. The course is done partially as an Independent Study. In 291 we will guide you through the first half (first 4 units) of your culminating experience requirements. During your 291 semester, you will: 

• Submit your Advancement to Candidacy forms the Graduate College (if you haven’t done so).
• Sign up for your graduation date (if you haven’t already done so).
• Recruit your thesis director and the other two readers on your thesis committee;
• Complete your MFA thesis proposal (if you have not yet done so);
• Prepare for the MFA comprehensive exam; begin writing an MFA thesis (if you’re ready to do so). 

In 291 you can expect to customize your MFA exam reading list, with the assistance of your MFA thesis committee, whose members grade your MFA exam. If you haven’t finished writing your thesis proposal, you’ll be guided through the process. If you need help, you’ll also be guided through the process of forming your full Thesis Committee. Students taking 298 will divide into thesis-writing groups by genre. We’ll use Canvas for you to post and receive comments on your thesis proposal in-progress. You’ll also be guided through drafting your thesis abstract and thesis preface as well as portions of your thesis project. Class members will have the opportunity to workshop each other’s drafts-in-progress on Canvas. 

Class members will also have the opportunity to read a few recommended examples of first books in your primary genre. There will also be special sessions when we bring in guest speakers such as a panel of literary agents and editors on announced Thursday dates during the Fall semester. The 291 Practicum meets mostly online via Canvas and includes a few small group meetings on Zoom. There will also be a few in-person full class meetings. The first in-person meeting will be on August 25. We will also meet on select evenings to attend in-person presentations by writers hosted by the Center for Literary Arts. 

English 297: Comprehensive Exam Prep & Part 1 Exam 

R 7:00-9:45 PM (Professor Stork)

This is the required, 2-unit Exam Preparation Course for the MA Exams, Part One and Two. We will begin with an historical and theoretical perspective covering all of your choices for Part Two of the Exam. We will conclude with intensive work on literary terminology and the close reading and explication of early modern English poetry. Part One of the Exam, consisting of 25 multiple choice questions on literary terminology and a poetry explication, will be given on the last day of class, in November. Students may also opt to take both Parts of the Exam in the following Spring semester, 2023.