Loyola University Chicago

Department of English

Spring 2014 Courses

Interpreting Literature (UCLR 100)

Section: 001 #3812
Instructor:  A. Adams
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 AM LSC

Section: 02L #5011
Instructor:  J. Bninski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 AM LSC

We've all heard the cliché that books can transport us to other times and places.

This course takes that cliché seriously. We will read literature set in other times that range from the ancient past to the post-apocalyptic future. We'll see how Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Oscar Wilde's Salomé define the distant past as a time of horrifying violence and brutal desire. In contrast, Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" ponders the nature of art against a backdrop of medieval chivalry. Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein use the relatively recent past as the setting for cautionary tales about obsessive characters who single-mindedly pursue romantic passion or scientific knowledge. In order to explore enduring questions about humanity’s capacity for goodness and for evil, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas weaves together narratives set in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with stories set in a future where unbridled consumerism has begun to destroy the planet.

As we read, we'll consider why other times are so appealing to authors and readers. By reading a variety of genres (drama, fiction, and poetry), we will master key literary and critical terms while strengthening close reading and analysis skills.

In addition to the works mentioned above, we will read a selection of poems. Active student participation, including short oral presentations, will play a major role in this course. Quizzes will ensure reading comprehension and mastery of literary terminology. There will be two or three formal writing assignments totaling approximately 2500 words.

Section: 03L #5012
Instructor:  P. Sorenson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 AM LSC

Over the course of the semester, we will be exploring the three principal literary genres: fiction, poetry, and drama. We will emphasize the historical contexts in which these stories, poems, and plays were written, and we will examine a variety of critical postures with which to interpret these texts. Students will also be asked to establish their own claims by way of shorter responses and longer formal essays. As we read, we will always ask why literature matters: Why do we choose to read? What can stories or lyrics teach us? How does literature participate in the building of our cultural and individual points of view? Finally, the course will explore two recurring themes: Dissent and Descent. We will consistently read narratives that describe subterranean journeys, physical quests that send characters skittering down into invisible worlds. The descents are sometimes metaphorical or differently defined: characters disintegrate, devolve, or simply vanish.  Many of these narratives also pair their descents with dissent: Antigone,The Descent of Alette, Promising Young Women. The characters in these narratives resist as they ascend from or ultimately descend into the below.

Section: 04L #5013
Instructor:  T. Kaminski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 9:20 – 10:10 AM LSC

The foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama, master key literary and critical terms, and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. In this section we will read such works as Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and various poems from the last several centuries. Students will take six quizzes and write three papers.

Section: 05L #5014
Instructor:  K. Quirk
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 AM – 11:15 AM LSC

The foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama, master key literary and critical terms, and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. This course will combine formal with thematic analysis, examining the way literary techniques create meaning and shape the reading experience. We will begin with poetry, move on to short stories, a novel, a few works of drama, and perhaps a film. Assignments will include quizzes, exams, and two short papers.

Section: 06L #5015
Instructor:  K. Quirk
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 PM LSC

The foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama, master key literary and critical terms, and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. This course will combine formal with thematic analysis, examining the way literary techniques create meaning and shape the reading experience. We will begin with poetry, move on to short stories, a novel, a few works of drama, and perhaps a film. Assignments will include quizzes, exams, and two short papers.

Section: 07L #5016
Instructor:  J. Bninski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

We've all heard the cliché that books can transport us to other times and places.

This course takes that cliché seriously. We will read literature set in other times that range from the ancient past to the post-apocalyptic future. We'll see how Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Oscar Wilde's Salomé define the distant past as a time of horrifying violence and brutal desire. In contrast, Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" ponders the nature of art against a backdrop of medieval chivalry. Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein use the relatively recent past as the setting for cautionary tales about obsessive characters who single-mindedly pursue romantic passion or scientific knowledge. In order to explore enduring questions about humanity’s capacity for goodness and for evil, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas weaves together narratives set in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with stories set in a future where unbridled consumerism has begun to destroy the planet.

As we read, we'll consider why other times are so appealing to authors and readers. By reading a variety of genres (drama, fiction, and poetry), we will master key literary and critical terms while strengthening close reading and analysis skills.

In addition to the works mentioned above, we will read a selection of poems. Active student participation, including short oral presentations, will play a major role in this course. Quizzes will ensure reading comprehension and mastery of literary terminology. There will be two or three formal writing assignments totaling approximately 2500 words.

Section: 08L #5017
Instructor:  L. Goldstein
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

In this course, we will read, discuss and write about a variety of literary genres. You will be introduced to multiple ways of approaching and interpreting texts ranging from ancient authors to contemporary ones, including traditional and experimental forms. Materials will include: (Plays) Oedipus Rex, Othello and Venus, (Short Stories) “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, (Novel) Aquamarine, (Poetry) T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Gertrude Stein, Harryette Mullen and Maureen Thorson. We will also be reading Greek Myths and Fairy Tales. Writing assignments will include short responses, a midterm essay, and a final exam.

Section: 09L #5018
Instructor:  P. Sorenson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

Over the course of the semester, we will be exploring the three principal literary genres: fiction, poetry, and drama. We will emphasize the historical contexts in which these stories, poems, and plays were written, and we will examine a variety of critical postures with which to interpret these texts. Students will also be asked to establish their own claims by way of shorter responses and longer formal essays. As we read, we will always ask why literature matters: Why do we choose to read? What can stories or lyrics teach us? How does literature participate in the building of our cultural and individual points of view? Finally, the course will explore two recurring themes: Dissent and Descent. We will consistently read narratives that describe subterranean journeys, physical quests that send characters skittering down into invisible worlds. The descents are sometimes metaphorical or differently defined: characters disintegrate, devolve, or simply vanish.  Many of these narratives also pair their descents with dissent: Antigone,The Descent of Alette, Promising Young Women. The characters in these narratives resist as they ascend from or ultimately descend into the below.

Section: 10L #5019
Instructor:  M. Shapiro
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

As the foundational course in literary studies, this course will introduce students to representative texts of poetry, drama and fiction. These texts will be British and American works reprinted in The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mars.  The course will introduce students to commonly used literary and critical terms, and it will teach them to use various modes of literary interpretation to discern how, in specific texts, writers use literary form to illuminate human experience.  In other words, a major objective of the course is to teach students to analyze works of literature, and thereby to deepen both the understanding and the pleasure to be derived from such critical analysis. In short, the course will follow the time-honored mission of literary studies by demonstrating the power of works of imaginative literature to instruct and delight.

Section: 11L #5020
Instructor:  S. Masello
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 – 9:45 AM LSC

In this introductory course, we will read a wide and varied selection of fiction, including poetry, short stories, and drama.  Our readings will extend over a span of roughly two centuries of primarily English and American literature, with additional selections from other major European writers, as well.  We will read acknowledged classics from the past, as well as contemporary works.  We will discuss, analyze, and write about these works, focusing on how each work engages and excites the reader intellectually.

Section: 12L #5021
Instructor:  H. Mann
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 AM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama; master key literary and critical terms; and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. Since this section is offered as a multicultural one, there will a a specific emphasis on non-western literatures in English.

Section: 13L #5022
Instructor:  L. Wyse
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 PM LSC

This course aims to develop tools for reading literature and for thinking, talking, and writing about it. Students will encounter a wide variety of literature in English—including poetry, drama, short fiction, long fiction, and creative nonfiction—representing a broad historical range and a diverse array of voices. We will also explore a range of critical approaches (e.g., formal, psychological, historical, political, etc.) commonly employed in the analysis and interpretation of literature, moving beyond our first reactions to texts and considering additional possibilities for meaning. Graded assignments will include several short papers, a longer paper, and a final exam.    

Section: 14L #5023
Instructor:  M. Clarke
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

This Core course is designed to introduce students to college-level literary studies.  Students will closely and carefully analyze a representative selection of works of prose, poetry, and drama, will master key literary and critical terms, and will explore a variety of critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature.  This class is a prerequisite for all second tier Core literature courses.

Section: 15L #5024
Instructor:  J. Cragwall
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

Why should we care about literature?

We’ll start historically: who before us has cared about literature, and why? We’ll study the pressure texts put on their historical moment, and how they’re shaped by it in surprising ways: for example, our discussion of Shakespeare will start with the formation of “Shakespeare” as a figure, often at odds with the “evidence” of the poems, of canonical standards throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a program that affected even the spelling of his poems. We’ll read some authors who were white, male, and rich (and some who weren’t): how has literature been used to promote a series of questions and assumptions that they may have shared (sometimes called “the canon”), and how has it, even in these same authors, blown apart all the stereotypes and orthodoxies we’d expect to find?  We’ll watch the invention not only of English (and then British) culture, but of the English language itself, its twists and triumphs, detours and degenerations—and most importantly, we’ll watch as language, especially literary language, is fashioned into the greatest vehicle of social and aesthetic contest. 

We’ll read novels and poems, plays and pornography, ranging from 1600 to around 1900. We (well, you) will also write papers, take exams, be flogged—the entire range of academic abjection, in one convenient course. 

Section: 16L #
Instructor:
J. Cragwall
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 4:15 - 5:30PM LSC

Why should we care about literature?

We’ll start historically: who before us has cared about literature, and why? We’ll study the pressure texts put on their historical moment, and how they’re shaped by it in surprising ways: for example, our discussion of Shakespeare will start with the formation of “Shakespeare” as a figure, often at odds with the “evidence” of the poems, of canonical standards throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a program that affected even the spelling of his poems. We’ll read some authors who were white, male, and rich (and some who weren’t): how has literature been used to promote a series of questions and assumptions that they may have shared (sometimes called “the canon”), and how has it, even in these same authors, blown apart all the stereotypes and orthodoxies we’d expect to find?  We’ll watch the invention not only of English (and then British) culture, but of the English language itself, its twists and triumphs, detours and degenerations—and most importantly, we’ll watch as language, especially literary language, is fashioned into the greatest vehicle of social and aesthetic contest. 

We’ll read novels and poems, plays and pornography, ranging from 1600 to around 1900. We (well, you) will also write papers, take exams, be flogged—the entire range of academic abjection, in one convenient course. 

Section: 17L #
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 - 9:45PM LSC

Section: 18L #
Instructor:  P. Warren
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 - 9:45PM LSC

Why should we care about literature?

We’ll start historically: who before us has cared about literature, and why? We’ll study the pressure texts put on their historical moment, and how they’re shaped by it in surprising ways: for example, our discussion of Shakespeare will start with the formation of “Shakespeare” as a figure, often at odds with the “evidence” of the poems, of canonical standards throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a program that affected even the spelling of his poems. We’ll read some authors who were white, male, and rich (and some who weren’t): how has literature been used to promote a series of questions and assumptions that they may have shared (sometimes called “the canon”), and how has it, even in these same authors, blown apart all the stereotypes and orthodoxies we’d expect to find?  We’ll watch the invention not only of English (and then British) culture, but of the English language itself, its twists and triumphs, detours and degenerations—and most importantly, we’ll watch as language, especially literary language, is fashioned into the greatest vehicle of social and aesthetic contest. 

We’ll read novels and poems, plays and pornography, ranging from 1600 to around 1900. We (well, you) will also write papers, take exams, be flogged—the entire range of academic abjection, in one convenient course. 

Section: 20L #5025
Instructor:  J. Dudley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM WTC

This foundational course in literary studies examines a broad range of prose, poetry, and drama, from works by Shakespeare to contemporary Saint Lucian poetry, all centered around the theme of “evil.” A knotty and complex problem in philosophy and theology, “evil” seemingly resists description. It is thought to be “unspeakable” and “unimaginable.” Yet, from the scenes of Cain and Abel in the book of Genesis to Grendel in Beowulf and to the damned of Dante’s Inferno, literature has long wrestled with many forms of malevolence. By focusing on the singular contribution of literature to the problem of evil, this course introduces central concerns for the practice of literary interpretation: What defines literature? What determines how we interpret literature? What is literature’s importance for culture, history, and broader questions of meaning and value?   

Readings: William Shakespeare, Macbeth; Peter Shaffer, Equus; Graham Greene, Brighton Rock; Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men; Frank Miller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Selected short stories from writers including Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, and Flannery O’Connor. Selected poems from writers including Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, W. H. Auden, and Langston Hughes. Films including No Country for Old Men and The Dark Knight.


Business Writing (ENGL 210)

Section: 20W #1998
Instructor:  J. Tomas
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM WTC

English 210 teaches students about the basics of communication in the professions – how sophisticated readers actually read – with an emphasis on the business environment. The class contains 10 assignments – five tests and five writing assignments of varying length and complexity in the classic business genres: memos, business letters, reports, progress reports and proposals.

Section: 60W #1999
Instructor:  G. Cycholl
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 7:00 – 9:30 PM WTC

This course seeks to strengthen your skills in written professional communication as well as your capacities in group planning, editing, and critique.  From this standpoint, we’ll build not only on your capacities to write with a clear, concise style, but we’ll also reconsider the goals of business writing, particularly as posed by corporate cultures and the unique settings offered by electronic communication and business journalism.  This course is designated as “writing intensive.”  Therefore, your abilities to communicate effectively within individual written assignments (regular reports, letters, and e-mails) and ongoing individual/group projects and analyses will be the basis of assessment.  As much as possible, these course assignments will engage your areas of interest, experience, and expertise.  Another focus of the course will be to develop strong cover letters and resumes.

Section: 61W #3237
Instructor:  J. Janangelo
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 PM – 9:30PM WTC

Our course covers the rhetorical principles of effective writing, focusing on particular types of discourse practiced in business and professional settings. You will gain experience reading and writing texts pertinent to business communication including: memos, proposals, letters, and resumes. There will be individual and collaborative projects; you will also give a group presentation. This course is writing-intensive.

Section: 62W #3813
Instructor:  M. Meinhardt
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 7:00 PM – 9:30PM WTC

This business writing course offers various techniques, priorities, and strategies for effective and efficient business writing and communication. Through the establishment and refinement of purpose, we will explore group project dynamics, professional personal documentation, organizational agency, and a wide range of genre documents such as memos, executive summaries, and reports, amongst others.


Advanced Writing: Legal (ENGL 211)

Section: 63W #2000
Instructor:  D. Gorski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 7:30 – 9:00 PM WTC

In this course, students will learn to develop the writing skills used by law school students and attorneys to prepare case briefs, office memoranda, and pre-trial motions. Students will also learn how to answer essay examination questions of the type given in law school and on a state bar examination. In class, students will develop the verbal abilities necessary to take a legal position and defend it with statements of facts and conclusions of law. Realistic hypothetical fact patterns will be analyzed using the IRAC method: issue, rule, application, and conclusion. Learning how to cite to legal authorities is a central part of the course. Readings include judicial opinions, state and federal statutes, and law review articles. The course is taught by a practicing attorney, and assumes no prior legal studies by the students. This is a writing intensive course. 


Writing Center Tutor Practicum (ENGL 220)

Section: 1WE #3814
Instructor:  A. Kessel
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

English 220 is a seminar designed to prepare students to serve as tutors in the Loyola University Chicago Writing Center. This course is open to students from all majors who have a passion for clear written communication. We will explore the theory and practice of peer tutoring through reading, discussion, and practical experience. A writing center is an organic intellectual community, in that tutoring involves an impromptu meeting between two students who think together about clear expression. In this course you will not only learn how to help others improve their writing, but you will also improve your own writing and critical thinking skills. You will become part of a vibrant community of fellow peer tutors while gaining experience that will serve you in a variety of careers. The service-learning component consists of approximately 20-25 hours of observation and tutoring in the Writing Center and a small group project aimed at enhancing the Center’s services.


Exploring Poetry (ENGL 271)

Section: 051 #5026
Instructor:  J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 PM LSC

This class will provide an introduction to the understanding and analysis of poetry through the study of a wide range of poems in English.  We will consider various motives for writing and reading poetry, and various methods of reading it.  Requirements will include participation in class discussions, papers, and a final.

Section: 02W #5027
Instructor: C. Kendrick
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

The course will be a highly selective survey of British and American poetry, especially from the Romantic movement on, especially of lyric kinds. Class discussion will generally focus on the form and sense of individual poems, and will in general be about poetic ways of meaning, and individual poets' understandings of what poetry is and what it is to do. Three papers, some journal writing, some in-class writing, a midterm, and a final. The textbook for the course will be Helen Vendler's Poems, Poets, Poetry.

Section: 03W #5028
Instructor:  J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 PM – 3:35 PM LSC

This class will provide an introduction to the understanding and analysis of poetry through the study of a wide range of poems in English.  We will consider various motives for writing and reading poetry, and various methods of reading it.    Because this course is writing intensive, there will be frequent brief writing assignments, both in and out of class.  Requirements will include participation in class discussions, several papers, and a final.

Section: 21W #5029
Instructor:  J. Jacobs
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 PM – 3:35 PM LSC

This course is not organized to turn people into poetry scholars, but to help them gain the freedom to be poetry readers.  It is designed to lead students to discover: how to have fun with poetry, how to get at the kinds of pleasures it offers (not the same as an ice cream cone!), how to use poetry as a resource in exploring one’s own life and experience.

We will use one of the major collections with poems from many periods, probably the NORTON ANTHOLOGY (5th full edition, not the Shorter Edition).  But our stress will fall on modern writers.  We may supplement the anthology with a short original collection by a single author.  Three main papers will be required, plus a final exam.  I may make extended comments, but I won’t lecture.  Students should be willing to enter discussion as active participants, engaging one another in understanding shared readings.

Section: 04W #5030
Instructor:  D. Chinitz
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

Through close attention to the basic elements of poetry--voice, rhythm, form, tone, etc.--students will develop their ability to read, enjoy, and write about this art. Readings for the course include poems written by over 60 authors. Most of our class time will be spent in discussion and analysis of these works. Assignments will include writing exercises and short essays, reading quizzes, and midterm and final exams.

Section: 05W #5031
Instructor:  F. Fennell
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 AM LSC

Poetry is the oldest of all the arts.  Why has it been a part of all cultures in all places for so long?  In this course, we will form our own answers to that question and to the questions that follow:  why should we read—or rather hear—poetry, and how should we read, and what should we read in order for poetry to have its best effect on us?  The new title of this course is “exploring poetry,” which is exactly what we will do:  explore, and bring back the treasures we find.  In the process we will strengthen critical thinking skills, cultivate the intellectual virtues, and above all—since this course is writing-intensive—sharpen our ability to write clearly, persuasively, and gracefully.  Because of its writing-intensive nature the course will include a variety of shorter written assignments plus three not-too-long papers.


Exploring Drama (ENGL 272)

Section: 053 #2884
Instructor:  T. Boyle
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This course of studies will include texts that actively critique the importance of religion on the creative imagination, in particular Catholicism. The quest for meaning, whether religious or secular, can lead to some interesting works of drama. Modernist theater, for instance, with its quest for newness, has sought to dramatize the problems associated with religious faith (Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot). While the depictions can sometimes be sympathetic, sometimes skeptical, there is an underlying affirmation, and legitimization of the immense influence religion has had on forming our understanding of life. In this class we will also explore the movement away from the classical form of drama towards what Brecht calls ‘epic theatre’.

Exploring Drama covers literature from 19th C, 20th C and 21st Century

Section: 06W #1429
Instructor:  T. Boyle
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

(See Above)

Section: 07W #5032
Instructor:  E. Wheatley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 4:15 – 6:45 PM LSC

This course surveys English, American, and Anglophone drama from the Middle Ages to the present, along with some plays and drama theory from beyond the Anglophone world that influenced writers in English. Special attention will be paid to literary, social, and historical innovations and conventions that have defined the genre, its performance, and its reception in various periods. The final grade will be based on class participation, essays, and mid-term and final exams.


Exploring Fiction (ENGL 273)

Section: 08W #2608
Instructor:  S. Lahey
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 9:20 – 10:10 AM LSC

Southern Belles. Colonial mansions. Slavery and segregation. Stereotypical notions of the Deep South often define the region, which has enjoyed an unusual role in American history. A once-revolutionary territory that attempted to secede from the Union, the South still exists in contemporary U.S. culture as a sort of wayward sibling. In this course, we will examine popular literary representations of the South in order to identify and challenge its dominant stereotypes, many of which portray the region as “backwards” or provincial. We will pay specific attention to the literary techniques used by each author, gaining a general appreciation for the art of fiction while enjoying some classics in regional literature.

This course will feature work by Kate Chopin, Margaret Mitchell, William Faulkner, and Carson McCullers. Requirements include attendance and participation, two formal essays, a midterm and final exam.

(Coverage: Post-1850)

Section: 09W #2609
Instructor:  J. Kerkering
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 – 11:15 AM LSC

This course examines works by important novelists from the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Class discussions will address formal and thematic features of these writings. Based on these discussions, students will write papers that draw upon the readings to support original and consequential interpretations. 

Exploring Class in America
Section: 054 #2607
Instructor:  G. Bauer
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

Class is a difficult topic for Americans to discuss. Does America have classes? How is class position determined by other factors, like race and gender? Is upward mobility possible, and if so, why do so few achieve it? What does it mean to be middle class? In this course, we will explore these questions through works that will challenge our understanding of the complexities and contradictions of class in a “classless” society. Works studied will span genres, from realism and naturalism, to thrillers and horror, illustrating that class is a pervasive theme in American fiction. Along the way, we will pay attention to the figurative language and rhetorical strategies employed by these authors, as well as character development, plot, and narrative strategies that will enrich your understanding of fiction beyond this course.

Readings will include short stories by Henry James, Rebecca Harding Davis, and Edith Wharton, as well as novels by Frank Norris (McTeague), Fannie Hurst (An Imitation of Life), Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley), and Stephen King (‘Salem’s Lot). This course places a heavy emphasis on student participation in class discussions. Other assignments will include short response papers, close reading responses, group discussion leads, unannounced quizzes, tests, and may include group or individual presentations to the class.

Section: 055 #3239
Instructor: J. Hastings
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM LSC

Seductive, mysterious, dangerous, the femme fatale is an ancient archetype that has been endlessly adapted throughout literature. From the sirens in Homer and Ovid to Lolita in Nabokov’s eponymous novella, we will explore depictions of the femme fatale in literature to question just why this archetypal figure continues to hold sway over our imaginations.

Books:

Atwood, Margaret. The Year of the Flood. New York: Anchor Reprints, 2010. Print.

Austen, Jane. Lady Susan. New York: Penguin, 1975. Print.

Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business. New York: Penguin, 2001. Print.

Homer. The Odyssey. Robert Fitzgerald, trans. New York: MacMillan/Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998. Print.

Malory, Sir Thomas. King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales. Eugène Vinaver, ed.

Oxford: Oxford UP, 1975. Print

Loos, Ania. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. New York: Liveright/Norton. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.

Section: 10W #2606
Instructor:  A. Frantzen
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

We are going to read a wide variety of fiction about fathers and sons. Men’s lives as fathers and sons stand in the shadow of two archetypes: Oedipus, the legendary Theban king who killed his father and married his mother; and Abraham, who intended to sacrifice his son, Isaac. These paradigms have had devastating consequences for men and masculinity. Fathers do not ordinarily sacrifice their sons; sons do not often kill their fathers or seek to replace them in the marriage bed. We will examine the influence these of archetypes on fiction, especially through the association of men with patriarchy and violence, links that have been essentialized in the popular imagination and in feminist criticism. Fiction will include Chaim Potok’s The Chosen, Andrew Kirvak’s The Sojourn, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Edith Wharton’s A Son at the Front, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Requirements include class participation; quizzes and short writing exercises, graded and ungraded; two papers (one 7-8 pages, one 10-12 pages); a mid-term and a final examination. 

Section: 11W #5033
Instructor: S. Masello
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

In this course we will read a wide and varied selection of short fiction extending over a span of nearly two centuries.  Included will be the works of the acknowledged masters within the short fiction genre, such as Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Clemens (Mark Twain), Bierce, Chekov, Joyce, Cather,  among others, as well as contemporary new (or newer) voices such as Oates, Ford, Erdrich, Updike,Tan, Munro, O’Brien,  and many writers in between.  Most readings will be brief in length; others, such as Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych and Joyce’s The Dead, extend to novella length.


Exploring Shakespeare (ENGL 274)

Section: 056 #3815
Instructor:  M. Shapiro
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 – 11:15 PM LSC

The course will cover a representative sampling of 7-8 plays, chosen to illustrate early, middle, and late phases of Shakespeare’s work in comedy, history, tragedy, and romance. We will look at such matters as language, poetry, historical contexts, and sources, but there will be a consistent emphasis on the plays as texts for theatrical performance. That is to say, we will discuss stage history and adaptations and look at video clips of recorded productions. Students will be required act in one in-class workshop production of a short scene. The primary text is The Necessary Shakespeare(Pearson/Longman). There will be quizzes, papers, a midterm, and a final. Inasmuch as this course is designated as Writing Intensive, there will be occasional writing exercises, some discussion of writing issue during class, and required revisions.

Section: 12W #1430
Instructor:  M. Shapiro
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 PM LSC

The course will cover a representative sampling of 7-8 plays, chosen to illustrate early, middle, and late phases of Shakespeare’s work in comedy, history, tragedy, and romance. We will look at such matters as language, poetry, historical contexts, and sources, but there will be a consistent emphasis on the plays as texts for theatrical performance. That is to say, we will discuss stage history and adaptations and look at video clips of recorded productions. Students will be required act in one in-class workshop production of a short scene. The primary text is The Necessary Shakespeare(Pearson/Longman). There will be quizzes, papers, a midterm, and a final. Inasmuch as this course is designated as Writing Intensive, there will be occasional writing exercises, some discussion of writing issue during class, and required revisions.

Section: 057 #5034
Instructor:  J. Frey
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 – 9:45 AM LSC

This course will expose students to a selection of Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays (tragedy, comedy, and history) so as to develop an understanding of the rubrics of genre, form, and intertextuality under which Shakespeare wrote. Thematically, our reading approach will focus on questions about the relationship between identity and embodiment. In so doing, students will develop historical, cultural, and medical knowledge about Early Modern England, and will learn to ask in what ways a text can recapitulate cultural ideas and in what ways it can resist them. While the course will address the reasons that Shakespeare is firmly establish within the literary canon, it will also disabuse students of assumptions about Shakespeare’s status as a “solitary genius” by accounting for collaboration and staging practices in Early Modern England. The plays we will read include: Richard IIIThe Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Coriolanus, Macbeth, and The Tempest. Course requirements include: a sonnet recitation, a midterm exam, a final exam, three 3-5 page papers (one will be a film adaptation analysis), participation, as well as weekly responses to study questions. 


African-American Literature (ENGL 282)

Section: 058 #3816
Instructor:  N. Jung
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 AM LSC

This course explores the hyphen in “African-American” literature, drawing together a number of texts that explore the tensions, uses, opportunities and limitations of viewing African-American writing in the context of a broader African diaspora. To this end, we will examine how representations of diaspora have changed over time, how African-American culture intersects with other global diasporic discourses, and how genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama - in addition to other cultural expressions such as film, sports, visual arts, and music - influence an evolving, hyphenated “African-American” relationship. The course will require ungraded reading responses, in-class participation in various workshops, a short report on your experience working in a relevant archive, two formal essays (5-6 pages each) and a final exam. Course texts may include works by the following authors: Olaudah Equiano, Martin Delaney, W.E.B. DuBois, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Edwidge Danticat, Junot Díaz, and Michelle Cliff. This course fulfills Loyola’s multicultural requirement.

Section: 059 #3817
Instructor:  E. Stogner
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This course will offer a historical survey of the African American literary tradition, beginning with the colonization of the New World and extending through Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Era to the present. We will examine a range of spoken and print texts, including slave narratives, speeches, songs, fiction, and folk tales. Through these texts, we will encounter and discuss important topics in African-American literature; these will include (but are not limited to) black identities and passing; African-American participation in political rhetoric; intersections of blackness, class, and gender; bodily bondage, violence, and trauma; and, black definitions of whiteness. You will be required to read all assigned texts and participate in class discussions; occasional quizzes, intermittent response papers, and online postings will be assigned. Major assignments include two formal essays (4-5 pages each), a class presentation, and a final exam.

Section: 060 #5036
Instructor:  B. Ahad
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 PM LSC

Rather than provide a broad survey of African American literary texts, this course will introduce students to three distinct discourses within black literary studies: the past (historical and contemporary representations of slavery); the present (“post-black” literature); and the future (afro-futurist/sci-fi fiction). Though you will read works by major authors in the field, the focus of the course will examine how particular writers address the themes of race, power, gender, citizenship, freedom and love to construct a discourse, or a “conversation,” around slavery, subjectivity, and the future of “race.” The requirements for this course will include a series of short (1-2 page) informal papers, a midterm and a final. This course satisfies the multicultural requirement and the post-1900 requirement for the English major.

Section: 13W #5035
Instructor:  J. Glover
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This course is an introduction to African American literature.  It will begin with African American writers from the colonial period, and conclude with contemporary African American novelists.  The course will include sermons, poetry, slave narratives, science fiction, and other genres.  While the course will cover a long period of time, we will not be bound by linear chronology.  Instead, we will explore the ways that African American writers explore and revise American and Atlantic history.

This course is writing intensive and fulfills the multicultural requirement.


Women in Literature (ENGL 283)

Section: 061 #2887
Instructor:  M. Bradshaw
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 AM – 11:15 AM LSC

Revered and reviled, imitated and appropriated, divas are perhaps the most visible women in our culture. The diva represents empowerment: she is loud, courageous, and often outrageous. But her power can come at a great cost. Consumed and absorbed into people’s lives, the diva risks becoming the object of obsessive fandom. In shaping her own identity, she often serves as a vehicle for shaping others’.  This class uses fiction, drama, biography, autobiography, film, and performance theory to explore the paradoxes and problems of the “woman with a voice” and her place in contemporary conceptions of femininity.

Section: 14W #2611
Instructor:  M. Bradshaw
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

Revered and reviled, imitated and appropriated, divas are perhaps the most visible women in our culture. The diva represents empowerment: she is loud, courageous, and often outrageous. But her power can come at a great cost. Consumed and absorbed into people’s lives, the diva risks becoming the object of obsessive fandom. In shaping her own identity, she often serves as a vehicle for shaping others’.  This class uses fiction, drama, biography, autobiography, film, and performance theory to explore the paradoxes and problems of the “woman with a voice” and her place in contemporary conceptions of femininity.

Section: 062 #3818
Instructor:  S. Weller
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

Memoir, as a literary genre, has garnered much critical attention in the last decade (both positive and negative). But what exactly is memoir? What characteristics does it have that are different than fiction, or straight non-fiction and autobiography? If an author is writing from memory, and oftentimes memory is hazy, or at the least subjective, what is the 'truth' in memoir? Is there any material or issue that is still considered taboo when women write about their lives? These are some of the questions we will address during the semester while reading a selection of creative non-fiction memoirs by a wide range of contemporary female writers. One of the themes we will investigate is the concept of secrets and silence that pervade many of the texts we will focus on. Some writers may include: Patricia Hampl, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary Karr, bell hooks, Jeanette Winterson, Alison Bechdel, Kathryn Harrison, Marjane Satrapi, Alice Sebold, Jill Christman, and Ann Fessler.

Crosslisted with Women's Studies, English 283 is designed to meet the "literary knowledge and experience" requirements of the Loyola Core. Focusing on literature written by 20th century women authors, this course is designed to help students gain knowledge of women's lives and writings; to show them the difference gender makes to the writing, reading, and interpretation of literature; to train them in the analysis of literature; and to teach them how to describe, analyze, and formulate arguments about literary texts.

Section: 063 #3919
Instructor:  S. Polen
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM LSC

This course is an introduction to contemporary (post-1970) women's writing. The course will be driven by the following questions: What makes a text a "woman's text"? Is a "woman's text" different from a "feminist text"? What does it mean that these types of literary labels still exists, and what do such a labels accomplish? How might these texts be both "personal" and "political"? In what ways do the issues in these texts manifest in today's culture? In what ways do these texts offer alternative perspectives on or alternative solutions to contemporary issues? Texts may include Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior, Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's A Dialogue on Love. Assignments will include a short paper, a long paper, a class presentation, and a final exam. 

Section: 23W #2610
Instructor:  B. Bouson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM LSC

“If women have learned many of the ways they interpret their lives from the narrative schemata of novels and stories,” writes Joanne Fry, “they can also gain from fiction new insights into the narrative processes of constructing meaning.”  Crosslisted with Women’s Studies, English 283 is designed to meet the “literary knowledge and experience” requirements of the Loyola Core.  Focusing on literature written by 20th− and  21st−century women authors, this course is designed to help students gain knowledge of women’s lives and writings; to show them the difference gender makes to the writing, reading, and interpretation of literature; to train them in the analysis of literature; and to teach them how to describe, analyze, and formulate arguments about literary texts. Analyzing representative works of fiction written by women authors, this course will investigate the important cultural and gender scripts and psychological dramas encoded in the works read, paying special attention to the various ways the authors represent coming of age, the female body, romantic love, mother-child relationships, and female friendship in their works.  The authors covered will include Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Jamaica Kincaid, and Toni Morrison.  There will be quizzes, papers, a midterm and a final exam.


Religion and Literature (ENGL 287)

Section: 065 #5037
Instructor: M. Bosco
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM LSC

For most of human culture, the literary arts were often wedded to moments of religious inspiration.  Even the last few centuries of literature often turns to religious faith as the matrix of artistic creation.  This core class approaches the various genres of literature by examining ancient, classic, and contemporary texts shaped by religious impulse and vision.  Though weighted toward texts inspired by Catholic Christianity (as this is the professor’s scholarly competence), the course will offer comparison pieces in the Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu traditions.  There will be two papers, a mid-term exam, plus quizzes and take home short writing assignments.

Texts/Media:  Many of the texts will be placed on Blackboard as files and should be printed up for class discussion and homework assignments.  The following will need to be acquired from the bookstore or from online sources.

  • Hebrew Bible:  The Book of Genesis; The Song of Songs (on the web or one’s own copy)
  • Flannery O’Connor:  The Complete Stories
  • Graham Greene:  The End of the Affair
  • Islamic Mystical Poetry:  Sufi Verse from the Early Mystics to Rumi (Penguin 2009)
  • Shusaku Endo:  Deep River
  • Elie Wiesel:  Night
  • Uwem Akpan:  Say You’re One of Them

Nature in Literature (ENGL 288)

Section: 066 #3821
Instructor: M. Delancey
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM LSC

"Nature” as we typically use the term is a relatively recent invention. Something like our current notion of Nature first came into being as the counterpart of the “self” or “I” of Modernity (the historical period, beginning very roughly around 1600, which brings the Middle Ages to a close and which continues to define our lives even in our own “Postmodern” reaction against it). This course will look beyond Modernity to consider first a series of texts representing some of the most important ways in which cultures and historical periods different from our own have construed “Nature.” We will also consider a series of texts that can be seen as inaugurating, falling within, or responding to “Modernity.”  Our first aim will be to understand these various constructions of “Nature” in their specificity—what they are in themselves and how they differ from one another. We will also try to understand how they are related to one another. Finally, we will ask whether and in what sense our own notion of nature may be understood as developing out of the earlier notions of nature. The general aim of the course is to put ourselves in a position to reflect intelligently on what we and other cultures and historical periods mean by “Nature.”  Readings include the Bhagavad Gita, Plato’s Phaedrus, the Book of Job, St. Paul’s Letters, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a selection of Wordsworth’s poetry, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. This is a writing intensive course, so special emphasis will be placed on problems and issues related to the task of writing about works of literature.

Section: 15W #2180
Instructor: M. Delancey
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 PM LSC

"Nature” as we typically use the term is a relatively recent invention. Something like our current notion of Nature first came into being as the counterpart of the “self” or “I” of Modernity (the historical period, beginning very roughly around 1600, which brings the Middle Ages to a close and which continues to define our lives even in our own “Postmodern” reaction against it). This course will look beyond Modernity to consider first a series of texts representing some of the most important ways in which cultures and historical periods different from our own have construed “Nature.” We will also consider a series of texts that can be seen as inaugurating, falling within, or responding to “Modernity.”  Our first aim will be to understand these various constructions of “Nature” in their specificity—what they are in themselves and how they differ from one another. We will also try to understand how they are related to one another. Finally, we will ask whether and in what sense our own notion of nature may be understood as developing out of the earlier notions of nature. The general aim of the course is to put ourselves in a position to reflect intelligently on what we and other cultures and historical periods mean by “Nature.”  Readings include the Bhagavad Gita, Plato’s Phaedrus, the Book of Job, St. Paul’s Letters, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a selection of Wordsworth’s poetry, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.


Human Values in Literature (ENGL 290)

Section: 067 #3825
Instructor: S. Lahey
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 2:15 PM LSC

As human beings and members of society, we often find ourselves at a crossroads – unsure of how to act. Some follow personal desires, while others obey moral codes. Some fight for what is right and just, even against great odds, while others preserve the status quo. Using a range of novels in the tradition of American literature from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, we will explore these issues while reading several classic works of fiction. Texts may include: The Scarlett Letter, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Life in the Iron Mills, The Red Badge of Courage, and The Great Gatsby. In reading these texts, we will further ask ourselves: Do these authors represent human values or American ones? In matters of ethics and life, is there a universal path? Requirements: Two papers, two exams.

(Coverage: Post-1850)

Section: 068 #3826
Instructor: S. Eilefson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 – 9:45 AM LSC

Strength and Honor: Martial Spirit and Masculinity in Contemporary Literature and Film

War is an experience that separates the men from the boys, or so popular culture suggests. This course will examine the relationship between martial spirit and masculinity in war literature and films from World War I, World War II and Vietnam as well as more recent conflicts.

Fiction will include Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room, William March’s Company K, James Jones’s The Thin Red Line, and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Films will include David O. Russell’s Three Kings, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and Deborah Scranton’s documentary The War Tapes. We will analyze texts with more emphasis on the “how” and “why” of narrative rather than on the “what” of the plot, and we will learn to contextualize representations of masculinity in their particular political, ethical, social and technological era.

Requirements include two short (4 pp) papers, one long (8 pp) final paper, which will have a small research component, and a midterm.

Childhood in England: 1780-1880
Section: 091 #3823
Instructor: A. Welch
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM LSC

Many of our most basic assumptions about childhood emerge in the late eighteenth-century. Over the next one hundred years, these notions will consolidate, naturalize, and entrench themselves into the foundations of British culture, and they continue to shape our thinking about children, parenting, and education today. In this period, childhood itself undergoes a transition from a phase of unruly depravity, tainted by original sin, to be overcome as quickly as possible, toward a more romantic, more contemporary sense of the concept—as a time of profound imaginative exploration and wisdom, as the foundation of emergent identity, and as a source of future nostalgia, idealization, and regret. Further, several contemporary educational imperatives appear along this trajectory, including the drive toward universal literacy, the advent of state-sponsored education, continuing education, and classrooms divided by age. If some of these impulses seem recognizably modern, we’ll also examine how “coming of age” comes to mean something very different for girls and for boys, how these categories get culturally encoded, and how nurture and reproduction are conceived as gender-specific obligations. This course will follow childhood as the site of an explosion of interest, ideological investment, and controversy, taken up in novels, poems, and drama, contested in political, historical, and theological tracts, interrogated in reviews and letters. Our reading will range from the high-canonical to the historically-bounded (and even painfully dated), featuring works by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, William Wordsworth, William Blake, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, and Christina Rossetti.

Section: 604 #3827
Instructor: J. Dudley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM LSC

Can literature help us imagine “goodness” or “right action” in a way that philosophy or theology cannot? This course examines the relationship of literature to the idea of virtue to discover if and how we can define virtue and how representative texts, both classic and popular, have sought to instruct us in how to live and have cautioned at the difficult and often unclear path of seeking the good. We will look at classic cases of moral indecision, the tension between individual and social morality, and questions of how far one should compromise one’s values. We will ask whether literature makes us more virtuous, what that might mean, and what unique contribution fiction, poems, and plays can make to our moral discourse.  

Readings: William Shakespeare, Hamlet; Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling; Aldous Huxley, Brave New World; Robert Frost, Frost: Poems;W. H. Auden, Auden: Poems; Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory;Toni Morrison, Beloved; Alan Moore, Watchmen; Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games; David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas. Short stories from James Joyce and Flannery O’Connor. Films including The Mission and The Departed. Short readings in philosophy will include selections from Plato and Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Alasdair MacIntyre.


Grammar: Principles & Pedagogy (ENGL 303)

Section: 069 #2615
Instructor: A. Kessel
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 LSC

Humans are language-producing animals, so in a sense our language is something we already “know.” But do we understand how it really works? The goal of this course is to analyze the structure of that language, to unlock the secrets behind the meaning we produce innately. We will explore English grammar not only as a list of rules and regulations that govern linguistic behavior, but also as a means of clearly conveying ideas in speech and writing.  This course will examine all elements of English grammar from parts of speech and how they function in a sentence to punctuation and how it enhances clear and precise prose.  We will also gain an appreciation for the English language and investigate techniques for using language effectively in speech and writing. This course is required for students planning to teach high school English, but it is also open to others. 


Caribbean Literature in English (ENGL 316)

Section: 070 #5038
Instructor: H. Mann
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

This course will introduce students to the study of literature written in English from the Caribbean. Authors studied will include V. S. Naipaul, Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid, and Derek Walcott, among others.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the different genres of Caribbean literature, as well as the personal, political, and cultural contexts of the writings.


The Writing of Poetry (ENGL 317)

Section: 071 #1511
Instructor: L. Goldstein
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 2:45 PM – 5:15 PM LSC

This course approaches the writing of poetry as both a study and craft that requires reading, exploration, practice, and sharing. We will read a wide range of mostly contemporary poetry in order to discuss its roots as a cultural form of expression and its contemporary manifestation as an art form. Readings include traditional and experimental verse, prose poetry, hybrid writing, and poetics, all meant to encourage the young writer to consider different avenues of creativity and expression that could benefit their own writing. The workshop element of the course will include prompts for writing in class and between classes, and the subsequent presentation of student poetry to the group with the expectation of respectful and productive responses that will encourage writers to build upon their ideas for subject, form, and style. Students will produce a final collection of poetry that will be presented as a self-published chapbook in a final reading.

Section: 072 #1512
Instructor: V. Anderson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM LSC

English 317 is an introductory course in poetry writing. It is designed to provide practice and instruction in the art and craft of poetry. Specifically, the course will familiarize you with the elements of language, the complexities of form, the feel of the line, the image, and the play of sound in poetry. Through a close study of selected poems, the course will also familiarize you with the pluralism and eclecticism that marks contemporary American poetry.

Section: 605 #3829
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM LSC


The Writing of Fiction (ENGL 318)

Section: 073 #1513
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 2:45 – 5:15 PM LSC

Section: 074 #3830
Instructor: D. Kaplan
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 2:30 – 5:00 PM LSC

Students will learn the art and craft of writing fiction through (a) reading master writers; (b) writing three original short stories; and (c ) having these stories discussed and critiqued by the instructor and by fellow students in a supportive, workshop environment.  Class participation is emphasized.

Section: 606 #3831
Instructor: D. Kaplan
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM LSC

Students will learn the art and craft of writing fiction through (a) reading master writers; (b) writing three original short stories; and (c ) having these stories discussed and critiqued by the instructor and by fellow students in a supportive, workshop environment.  Class participation is emphasized.


Writing Creative Nonfiction (ENGL 319)

Section: 075 #2618
Instructor: K. Davis
3.0 credit hours Lecture
F 2:45 PM – 5:15 PM LSC

For the next 15 weeks, we’re going to explore a style of writing known as creative nonfiction. While the words “creative” and “nonfiction” might seem an odd pairing, the combination is rooted in a long tradition of telling stories, making personal observations and employing a variety of literary techniques to communicate facts. Lee Gutkind, often called the “Godfather of Creative Nonfiction,” says the creative part refers to using literary techniques in presenting nonfiction, “that is, factually accurate prose about real people and events—in a compelling, vivid manner.” Creative nonfiction writers don’t make things up. They just use facts creatively and interestingly. You’ll read, analyze and discuss the works of contemporary creative nonfiction writers. You’ll study research and reporting techniques, and learn about the use of scenes, dialogue and observation to create your own stories, which will be workshopped by fellow students. We’ll discuss craft and narrative approaches, as well as point of view, tone and style.

The class is designed to be interactive and discussion based. Each week we’ll talk about the assigned readings, breaking down stories, analyzing them and figuring out how and why they work or don’t. This is a demanding class, and it’s important that you keep up with the writing assignments and develop the discipline and time commitment required. Because the class has a workshop component, your fellow students will be depending on you to bring in your work as scheduled for discussion. 


Chaucer (ENGL 322)

Section: 076 #3483
Instructor: A. Frantzen
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM LSC

We will read The Canterbury Tales with a focus on masculinity in the Middle Ages. Chaucer's poetry should be one of the high points of the English major, but many students avoid the course or dread it because Chaucer's works are read in Middle English rather than in translation. Most students quickly see that Chaucer was a remarkable writer and that translations cannot capture the power of his language and culture. Learning enough Middle English to handle Chaucer's poetry takes work, but in a few weeks your translation skills will be up to the task. We will study the formation of masculinity in three contexts: the court (tales told by the Knight, the Wife of Bath, the Manciple); the working world (tales told by the Miller, Reeve, the Pardoner), and the learned world (tales told by the Man of Law, Clerk, and the Prioress). We will discuss other contexts and other tales as well. Requirements include class participation; a series of quizzes, two papers (one 6-7 pages, one 8-10 pages), and a mid-term and final examination. Text: The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry Benson.


Studies in Medieval Literature (ENGL 323)

Section: 077 #3844
Instructor: E. Wheatley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This course will examine the conjunction of historical writing, romances in prose and verse, and the creation of English identity from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. The syllabus will include such works as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain,Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, Malory’s Le Morte d'Arthur, and some “popular” romances. Although some texts will be in modern English translation, others will be in the original Middle English.


Plays of Shakespeare (ENGL 326)

Section: 078 #1519
Instructor: V. Strain
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 LSC

This course refines students’ close reading and critical thinking skills through an intense engagement with a range of Shakespeare’s drama—his comedies, histories, tragedies, and later “romances.” We will examine Shakespeare’s language use and plots in the context of the early modern commercial theater (its material conditions and literary trends) and the poetic and rhetorical traditions disseminated through Elizabethan grammar schools. The selected plays illuminate the writer’s style within masterful animations of the topics that defined his era. Speaking directly to his own time in its own terms, Shakespeare raised perennial questions related to the nature of friendship and love, the use and abuse of power, and the nature of otherness. Assignments have been designed to help students overcome historical and linguistic barriers to comprehension. We will confront together the central paradox that Shakespeare’s works present to later ages: his plays represent a so-called common heritage and they are utterly “foreign to us all,” distant from us in “time, language, and thought” (Dennis Kennedy). As with all texts, the unfamiliar is an exhilarating starting point. Not only does historical, geographical, and cultural difference present an intellectual challenge, but it is also an opportunity to reimagine the norms of current culture that can otherwise appear natural or inevitable. Engagements with historical texts and contexts are ultimately future-oriented: they expand students’ awareness of the world as it is and as it could be.

Section: 607 #1521
Instructor: J. Knapp
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM LSC

This course will focus on a selection of Shakespeare’s plays in all the major genres (comedy, history, tragedy, and romance).  We will read the plays through a variety of critical approaches, taking into account the historical context in which they were produced.  Throughout the course of the semester we will focus on the development of drama in England, the material history of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, and the political and cultural place of the theater in Shakespeare’s England.  Plays will include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, All’s Well that End’s Well, Richard II, Henry V, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale. The primary text will be David Bevington’s edition of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, 6th edition.  There will be papers, a midterm and a final.


Studies in the Renaissance (ENGL 328)

Section: 079 #2181
Instructor: J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This course will focus on the earlier seventeenth century (1600-1660) and examine texts in various genres, with an emphasis on texts and authors not covered in English 325. Among the topics we will consider are: the functions of literature in the culture of late Renaissance England; the relationship between the authors' aspirations as poets and as participants in political events; the relationship between the authors' gender and their literary products; and the literary, intellectual, and political contexts in which their work was produced. Requirements will include two papers, a midterm, and a final. 

This course counts toward the pre-1700 requirement for the English major.


Milton (ENGL 329)

Section: 080 #5039
Instructor: C. Kendrick
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

The course will cover Milton’s early poetry as presented in his 1645 Poems; his great Restoration works (Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes); and at least two of his pamphlets (probably Areopagitica and A Treatise of Civil Power). We will also read some critical essays on Milton, representing recent work as well as the best that's been thought and said. Topics of discussion will include: ideas of marriage and appropriate gender relations in Milton; the relation between republican and godly aspirations; the relation of works to faith, and the idea of Christian culture as premised on and developing through arguments about the meaning of scripture; Milton's use of genre, and search for answerable styles. Two papers, in-class writing, a midterm and a final.


British Literature: Romantic Period (ENGL 335)

Section: 081 #1523
Instructor: S. Jones
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 PM LSC

In this course we’ll study literature of the British Romantic period (1789-1832), a time of rapid, often violent, political and cultural upheaval: revolution, empire, war, restoration, the parliamentary reform movement, the campaign to abolish slavery, the beginnings of modern feminism. Not surprisingly, many of the literary works that would later come to be seen as part of the Romantic movement were characterized by representations of extreme experience and cultural instability: gothic terror, erotic self-expression, intense sensibility; but also celebrations of the natural, the simple, and the primitive, sometimes as sources of what was “wild” in humanity, and sometimes as alternatives to or refuges from cultural instability. Not everything written during the period was “Romantic” in this sense, and one purpose of the course is to explore the construction of Romanticism as the dominant artistic movement of the age. Requirements: (1) in-class presentation: 15%; (2) general participation: 10%; (3) midterm and final exams: 25%; (4) a final critical essay: 50%. Books: The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vol. 2A (5th edn.), and Frankenstein (Broadview).

Fulfills the 1700-1900 historical requirement for the English major.


Studies in Victorian Literature (ENGL 343)

Section: 082 #1854
Instructor: F. Fennell
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM LSC

In this course we will study the literature of another age, but with a view toward seeing how it offers a fascinating commentary on our own times.  So many of the issues we are concerned about today—sexual equality, poverty, ecology, race relations, war as an instrument of  power—are issues that the Victorians, especially the Victorian novelists and poets, also cared about and wrote about, and we will uncover some hopeful and some disturbing relationships between their times and ours.  Authors we will read include the Brownings, Christina Rossetti, Matthew Arnold, “George Eliot” (Marian Evans), Gerard Manley Hopkins, and others.  Two papers, a midterm, and a final.


Contemporary Critical Theory (ENGL 354)

Section: 083 #2619
Instructor: S. Bost
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

In this course students will become familiar with the wide range of questions that critics bring to bear on literary works when those critics write literary criticism. Students will learn to read and understand the philosophical and historical bases of certain theoretical questions, to recognize these questions lying behind the literary criticism they read, and to compose literary analyses with these theories serving as a foundation for their work.  Students will write weekly responses, two short papers (5-6 pages), a mid-term exam, and a final exam.

Section: 084 #3846
Instructor: P. Jay
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

This course introduces students to a range of contemporary theories about literature, literary criticism, and cultural studies. We will explore recent innovations in how we think about texts, authorship, narration, writing, and reading, review a variety of approaches to critical analysis and interpretation, and consider the social, cultural, and political dimensions of critical theory and literary analysis. The course is a mix of lecture and discussion. Required texts will include a range of introductory and advanced readings in critical and literary theory, and a selection of poetry and fiction. Requirements include 2 shorter critical essays and a final longer paper.


Literature from a Writer’s Perspective (ENGL 357)

Section: 085 #1524
Instructor: A. Baker
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 2:30 – 5:00 PM LSC

We will read from Chicago’s heritage of poetry and prose and compare what we discover there to our own experiences of the city—intellectually and emotionally, as well as at the most basic and essential sensory levels of sight, sound, taste, smell, etc.  As citizens of this city and as artists, we will observe, react, and create. A portion of the course will involve consideration of the idea of an “urban sensibility” in literature and the arts and an examination of how such a sensibility may compliment, conflict with, or complicate other ways of seeing the world.  In addition to reading work by Chicago writers such as Carl Sandburg, Nelson Algren, Gwendolyn Brooks,  Aleksandar Hemon, and Stuart Dybek, we will take a longer historical view of urban literature and read selections by such figures as William Blake, Walt Whitman, Jane Jacobs, and Helene Johnson. Most importantly, we will use the city of Chicago itself as our muse and literary laboratory. There will be a midterm and final, as well as several creative assignments.


Modern Poetry (ENGL 361)

Section: 086 #5040
Instructor: D. Chinitz
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

In this course we will read and discuss the work of such major modern poets as William Butler Yeats, Marianne Moore, T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Ezra Pound, and Robert Frost. These poets illustrate several different ways of being “modern,” and we will discuss both what distinguishes them individually and the ways in which their artistic projects overlap. We will focus on their writing techniques as well as on the historical-cultural contexts that shaped their ideas and aesthetics. Assignments will include two essays, a midterm and a final exam.


Studies in Fiction (ENGL 372C)

Section: 090 #5126
Instructor: B. Bouson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 AM LSC

Studies in Fiction will focus on the depiction of shame in selected works by 20th− and  21st−century authors.  Often referred to by affect theorists as the “master emotion,” shame is “a multidimensional, multilayered experience,” observes Gershen Kaufman.  “While first of all an individual phenomenon experienced in some form and to some degree by every person, shame is equally a family phenomenon and a cultural phenomenon.  It is reproduced within families, and each culture has its own distinct sources as well as targets of shame.”  This course will provide students with a brief introduction to and overview of shame theory, including psychological accounts of shame and its related feeling states (such as embarrassment, humiliation, and lowered self-esteem) and the classic defenses against shame (such as contempt or arrogance or shamelessness).  The authors we will read include Franz Kafka, Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat, and  Nancy Mairs.  There will be oral presentations, papers, and exams.

Note: this course fulfills the English major requirement for one post-1900 course.


Studies in American Culture (ENGL 382B)

Section: 087 #6056
Instructor: J. Glover
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 PM LSC

Americans’ current obsession with crime and criminals is not new.  Since the colonial era, generations of Americans have avidly consumed stories about bandits, rogues, murderers, and other lawbreakers.  This course will ask what the literature of crime can tell us about changing American ideas of law and order.  We’ll read non-fictional genres such as diaries, memoirs, and journalism.  We’ll also consider fictional narratives by Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Richard Wright, and Sherman Alexie.  Topics will include the link between narrative and forensics, the relationship between race and law, and the role of punishment, policing and surveillance in the creation of a democratic citizenry.


Advanced Seminar: (ENGL 390)

Section: 17W #3246
Instructor: T. Kaminski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 PM LSC

In this course we will explore the history and development of the English sonnet, from the Petrarchan sonneteers of the English Renais­sance through such twentieth-century poets as Robert Frost and Edna St. Vincent Millay. We will read poems written by a great variety of poets, including Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Shakespeare, Milton, Words­worth, Keats, Christina Rossetti, E. B. Browning, and G. M. Hopkins. The writing assignments will include several short response papers, as well as a final seminar paper (which will be done in two drafts). Each student will also be expected to give an oral report on his/her seminar paper.

Section: 18W #3247
Instructor: J. Kerkering
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

This course examines how racial identity serves as a marker of elevated class status by enabling "conspicuous consumption," or the social display of wealth and leisure.  Commencing with recent accounts of this phenomenon, the course then turns to the American 1890s, the period when the drive for conspicuous consumption first began to make identity a luxury item.  The first identities to be consumed as luxuries were the regional identities marketed to the leisure class through regionalist fiction.  In the work of later African-American writers, this course will suggest, the conventions of literary regionalism were adapted to display the identity not just of place but also of race, thereby making racial identity available as an object of conspicuous consumption.  

Section: 19W #3847
Instructor: M. Clarke
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM LSC

This course will examine the works of a family of gifted writers, whose works continue to rise in the estimation of both the popular and the professional reading audience:  the Brontës.  All students will read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Villette, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Anne Brontë’s Agnes Gray and Tenant of Wildfell Hall, as well as some of the poetry written by each sister, focusing especially on Emily Brontë’s poetry.   In order to understand the works better, the class will also read and discuss certain key biographical and critical studies.  Individual students will each present a report and lead a class discussion as well as presenting a draft of his or her seminar paper.  Lectures will include materials on the history of the novel and essentials of novel criticism.  This course will fulfill the pre-1900, post-1700 English major requirement.

Radical Nostalgia
Section: 20W #5042
Instructor: B. Ahad
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

Contemporary African-American literature and culture is largely defined by the relationship it bears to the historical past. Pivotal moments in American history, particularly the Civil War era and the Civil Rights/Black Power movements, provide the basis for creative “remembrances” of a past never experienced. Using Marianne Hirsch’s concept of “postmemory” as a framework, this course will examine novels, films, and visual works by recent African-American artists whose “connection to the past is mediated not by recall but by imaginative investment, projection, and creation.” Texts for the course will include, for example, Edward P. Jones’s The Known World, Percival Everett’s God’s Country, images from Kara Walker’s exhibition Pictures from Another Time, Dave Chappelle’s “Block Party,” as well as a series of critical essays. In this course, you will be required to write a formal essay (6-8 pages), participate in a class-structured “book club,” produce several short informal (1-2) page papers, and give a final group presentation. Given that this course is an advanced seminar and the capstone course for the English major, there will be a strong emphasis on individual participation and group interaction. This course fulfills the multicultural requirement.


Teaching English to Adults (ENGL 393)

Section: 01E #1565
Instructor: J. Heckman
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MTWR 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM LSC

This course offers an excellent opportunity for service learning and practical experience in tutoring adults in written and spoken English at the Loyola Community Literacy Center, located in Dumbach Hall on the Lake Shore Campus in Rooms 05 and 06 but moving to Loyola Hall, 1110 W. Loyola Avenue, across the street from Mertz.  No previous tutoring experience is necessary.  Students tutor adult learners, some of whom are native English speakers preparing for the GED or improving their literacy skills.  Other learners are immigrants or refugees whose skills in their native language range from their being highly educated professionals to being perhaps functionally illiterate, and who may know some English or no English.  The Center is open M-Th evenings during the fall and spring semesters from 7-9:30 pm.  Students may take the English 393 course for 1, 2, or 3 credit hours; when taken for 3 credit hours, the course fulfills the Core Engaged Learning-Service Learning Internship requirement.  Students must attend an orientation as well as bi-weekly class meetings (5 class meetings total; a 6th meeting for those students taking the course for 3 credit hours and Core credit).  Students tutor one or two evenings a week, depending on the number of credit hours for which they are registered.  Students are required to keep a weekly journal of their experiences, examine a textbook and journal articles concerned with literacy, language, and adult education, submit ten journals and four papers throughout the semester, and prepare a final paper or project.  Core students have an additional reading and written report.  More information can be found at www.luc.edu/literacy; follow the links to "tutoring" and then "course credit tutoring" for a complete description of the requirements for each of the credit hour electives. 

Section: 02E #1566
Instructor: J. Heckman
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MTWR 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM LSC

(See above)


Internship (ENGL 394)

Section: 088 #1568
Instructor: B. Ahad

Although the Department of English does not directly administer business internships, we do routinely share information and announcements about opportunities for internships with students majoring in English, and we offer academic credit, via English 394, for advanced students who have secured internships. These internships are usually in such fields as publishing, editing, and public relations. Students who are searching for internship opportunities are encouraged to use the resources of the Career Center and of the Center for Experiential Learning, both of which are located in Sullivan Center. Students wishing to enroll in English 394 in conjunction with an internship must have completed six courses in English and have achieved senior or second-semester junior status. An intern will normally work 12 hours a week under professional supervision and will be expected to present a portfolio of work to the director of the internship program at the end of the semester. All interested students should contact the English undergraduate programs director.

The department does offer internships in literacy in conjunction with English 393 (Literacy Internship). The literacy internship, open to all students of sophomore standing or above, is an opportunity to earn course credit by joining the Loyola Community Literacy Center (LCLC), located at 6576 N. Sheridan Rd., 773.508.2330. Interns are required to attend orientation sessions, to tutor two nights each week and to meet with the instructor to discuss their tutoring experiences and integrate them with combining research into literacy with reflections on their experience. For information, contact Jacqueline Heckman at 773.508.2330.


Honors Tutorial: (ENGL 395)

Section: 1HW #2889
Instructor: P. Caughie
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

Virginia Woolf was one of the foremost writers of the early 20th century. Her image adorns book bags, coffee mugs, t-shirts and beer ads. Her title “a room of one’s own” has become a catch-phrase of feminism. Her novels have been made into films (Orlando starring Tilda Swinton, Mrs. Dalloway starring Vanessa Redgrave) and into other novels (The Hours, by Michael Cunningham) and plays (Orlando, by Sarah Ruhl). And this season Woolf will be a character on the TV series, Downton Abbey. What makes Virginia Woolf such an abiding cultural icon, and the “poster girl” for feminism? This seminar, an intense examination of Woolf’s major works (and some minor ones as well), will consider Woolf’s contributions to feminist criticism and theory and to gender and queer theory as well. We will read at least five of her novels, her two book-length feminist essays, and some feminist essays and book chapters on Woolf’s writing. Students will engage in original research on Woolf using primary sources. Requirements include a seminar paper and a class presentation, as well as shorter papers in response to the assigned readings. 


Advanced Writing Workshop: Poetry (ENGL 397)

Section: 21W #1856
Instructor: A. Baker
3.0 credit hours Lecture
F 2:45 – 5:15 PM LSC

In this advanced poetry workshop, we will seek to deepen our engagement with poetry as an art form—both as readers and writers. Through reading, writing, and workshopping, we will grow more familiar with the anatomy and texture of poetry: image, word, voice, syntactical configurations, rhetorical devices— stanza, line, punctuation, and page. Your work will be given a great deal of individual attention in our workshops, and you will be offered the opportunity to work very closely with the instructor as you write and revise your final project for the course—a portfolio of your best work.


Advanced Writing Workshop: Fiction (ENGL 398)

Section: 22W #1570
Instructor: D. Kaplan
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM LSC

A fiction writing workshop for those who have already taken English 318, which builds upon concepts of fictional art and craft studied there.  Students will write three original stories, which will be discussed and critiqued by the instructor and by one's fellow writers in a supportive workshop environment.  Students will also read the work of master fiction writers, such as Steven Milhauser, Haruki Murakami, Joy Williams, Richard Ford, and others.  Class participation is emphasized.


Special Studies in Literature (ENGL 399)

Section: 089 #1571
Instructor: B. Ahad

Students arrange for this course on an individual basis by consulting a faculty member who agrees to supervise the independent study.  When the student and the faculty member have agreed on the work to be done, the student submits the plan to the director of undergraduate programs for approval and registration.  Usually students will work independently and produce a research paper, under the direction of the faculty member.