100-Level Classes

200-Level Classes

300-Level Classes

Interpreting Literature (UCLR 100)

Section: 01L #5436
Instructor:  J. Fiorelli
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 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.  This course will also explore important conceptual questions about literature and its study, to help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature in a sophisticated manner.

As a means to do this, this course will explore literature of disaster.  We are all familiar with real-life disasters, both natural and human-made (and sometimes both).  Whether real or fictional, disasters carry important historical and cultural meaning and provoke vital questions about humankind and the societies in which we live.  Furthermore, literary representations of disaster provide specific kinds of aesthetic responses to historical conditions, often critiquing aspects of those conditions.  Such representations push us to ask various questions: How do humans respond to disaster, and what comes to light about humankind and societal conditions in the wake of a disaster?  What ethical implications or responsibilities do literary representations of disaster carry?  How do representations of a disaster affect our historical memory of that event?  How do we imagine humanity in a post-apocalyptic world, and what does that say about our society?  Can disaster be beautiful?  We will address such questions as we examine a range of disaster literature in poetry, drama, and fiction.  Texts will be drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from twentieth century American literature, including authors such as Muriel Rukeyser, Christopher Durang, Gwendolyn Brooks, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Colson Whitehead.  Course requirements will include active reading, written homework and quizzes, and class participation; two close reading analysis essays; and a midterm exam and final exam.

Section: 02L #5438
Instructor:  P. Randolph
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 AM LSC

This is a core course that will teach the fundamentals about critical thinking, reading, and writing. This year in UCLR we will be reading poetry, prose, and plays from the Norton Anthology. In addition, we will read some short stories from contemporary authors along with classics, such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. We will discuss the six essential elements of fiction: Plot, Narration and Point of View, Character, Setting, Symbolism, and Themes. Some of the authors we will read include: Sherman Alexie, William Shakespeare, William Faulkner, Salmon Rushdie, and many others. When you leave this class you will have mastered key literary terms and be equipped with multiple critical lenses.

Section: 03L #5439
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 AM LSC

Section: 04L #5440
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 AM LSC

Section: 05L #5441
Instructor: P. Randolph
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 9:20 – 10:10 AM LSC

Section: 06L #5442
Instructor:  C. Jergenson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 9:20 – 10:10 AM LSC

This foundational course introduces students to the study of literature. The texts we will read for this course vary greatly in terms of genre, form, and historical context, but they are united by certain common concerns. Foremost among these concerns is the relationship between humans and the natural world. Through our readings of works by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Marianne Moore, Joseph Conrad, Margaret Atwood, and others, we will consider the ways in which literary texts critique modern society’s impact on the environment, complicate conventional distinctions between human and animal, and seek to represent nature through literary forms.

To engage productively with these texts, we will discuss and apply some of the core terms and practices employed in literary analysis. Developing a critical awareness of our reading practices will lead us to a better understanding of the processes by which we derive meaning from literary texts, but these investigations will also help us to grapple with the fundamental questions behind this course: What is literature? Why do we read it? How do we determine what a text means? Assignments will include quizzes, essays, and exams.

Section: 07L #5443
Instructor:  A. Christie
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 – 11:15 AM LSC

Stranger Than Fiction: 20th/21st Century (Meta)Fiction:

What happens when characters in a novel recognize their own fictional status and begin exceeding the grasp of narration? What can poetry about poetry tell us about, well, poetry? Or drama about drama, for that matter? What happens when literature becomes aware of itself as literature, and what can these metafictional texts tell us not only about literature but also how we read? This foundational course in literary studies explores metafictional literature in a variety of modes and genres, including prose, poetry, drama, and film. Surveying literature from the late 19th century to the present, we will investigate texts that exceed their own fictional world or call attention to their own textual status. This course will emphasize close reading as a foundation for literary and cultural analysis, presenting strategies and key literary and critical terms to analyze and discuss literature. Potential texts include Salvador Plascencia’s The People of Paper, short stories by Jorge Luis Borges and Amy Hempel, and poetry by Emily Dickinson and Mark Z Danielewski. Assignments will include blog posts, two analysis papers, a midterm and final.

Section: 08L #5444
Instructor:  K. Quirk
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 – 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 and thematic analysis, examining the way literary techniques create meaning and shape the reading experience. Readings may include works by authors such as Sophocles, Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, and Toni Morrison. Assignments will include quizzes, exams, and two short papers.

Section: 09L #5445
Instructor:  K. Quirk
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 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 and thematic analysis, examining the way literary techniques create meaning and shape the reading experience. Readings may include works by authors such as Sophocles, Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, and Toni Morrison. Assignments will include quizzes, exams, and two short papers.

Section: 10L #5446
Instructor: M. Harmon
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This section of UCLR 100 will focus on the theme of religious identity in conflict. Reading poetry, drama, and fiction, this course seeks to give students a variety of scholarly tools while exploring religious conflict, including external conflicts such as war and sectarian violence as well as internal conflicts of doubt and self-exploration, especially doubts sparked by increasing scientific advances. We will read works such as Eboo Patel’s Acts of Faith, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, In Memoriam by Lord Tennyson, selections from Charles Darwin, poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins, works by Seamus Heaney, the play Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, and James Baldwin’s “Down at the Cross” from The Fire Next Time.

Section: 11L #5447
Instructor: L. Goldstein
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 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 in the three major genres and a few in between. Materials include: Oedipus Rex, Othello and Venus (Plays),“Murders in the Rue Morgue” (Short Stories), Kindred (Novel), and a host of poetry. Writing assignments will include one short response, a midterm essay, and a final exam.

Section: 12L #5448
Instructor: E. Bayley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

This is a foundational course that introduces key literary and critical terms and explores a variety of critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. In particular, we will be looking at the concepts of dying, death and grieving and discuss how these concepts are depicted in a number of different poems, plays and short stories. These topics are often difficult topics to discuss and yet, they are inevitable realities in each of our lives. Thus, we will use texts, by a number of different American authors, such as Willa Cather, Raymond Carver, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich and more, to explore what dying, death and grieving might consist of, not only personally but also politically, and further, within the medical field itself. The method of assessment will include quizzes, three, four-page papers, and classroom participation. 

Section: 13L #5449
Instructor: N. Kenney Johnstone
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC
Narratives of Want

This foundational course in literary studies will familiarize students with a range of literary texts including novel and memoir excerpts, short stories, essays, poetry, plays, and screenplays. Some of the questions we will consider are: What is literature? Why does it matter? Where does meaning come from in literature? How are literary works related to culture and society?

To explore these questions, this course will focus on literature about motivation: what do characters want and how do they try to get it? You’ll read various published pieces from the late 1940s through the 60s (from authors such as James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and late 1990s to the present (from authors such as Jhumpa Lahiri and Justin Torres). There will be short writing assignments (2 pages each), a presentation, and a reflective essay for this course.

Section: 14L #5450
Instructor: T. Kaminski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 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. This course will also explore important conceptual questions about literature and its study. What is literature? Why does it matter? How has it been conceived in different times and places? How do we envision the relationships among author, text, and reader or audience? What is the difference between reading a literary work in its historical context and in the light of our own contemporary time? Where does meaning come from in literature? What is literary interpretation and what role does it have in the production of literary meaning? How are literary works related to culture and society and how do they reflect – and reflect on – questions of value and the diversity of human experience?  Exploring these questions will help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature in a sophisticated manner.

Section: 15L #5451
Instructor: E. Bayley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 LSC

This is a foundational course that introduces key literary and critical terms and explores a variety of critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. In particular, we will be looking at the concepts of dying, death and grieving and discuss how these concepts are depicted in a number of different poems, plays and short stories. These topics are often difficult topics to discuss and yet, they are inevitable realities in each of our lives. Thus, we will use texts, by a number of different American authors, such as Willa Cather, Raymond Carver, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich and more, to explore what dying, death and grieving might consist of, not only personally but also politically, and further, within the medical field itself. The method of assessment will include quizzes, three, four-page papers, and classroom participation. 

Section: 16L #5452
Instructor: J. Cragwall
3.0 credit hours Lecture
WF 2:45 – 3:35 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, and be flogged—the entire range of academic abjection, in one convenient course.  

Section: 17L #5453
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 LSC

Section: 18L #5454
Instructor: K. Quirk
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 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 and thematic analysis, examining the way literary techniques create meaning and shape the reading experience. Readings may include works by authors such as Sophocles, Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, and Toni Morrison. Assignments will include quizzes, exams, and two short papers.

Section: 19L #5455
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 – 9:45 AM LSC

Section: 20L #5456
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 AM LSC

Section: 21L #5457
Instructor: P. Sorenson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 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’s theme is “Horror in the Family.” We will explore a variety of families and family-like relationships and the ways in which these structures can foster or repel the horrible, with particular emphasis on the monstrous, the uncanny, and Romanticism.

Section: 22L #5458
Instructor: S. Kucsera
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 - 12:45 PM LSC

As global citizens of the 21^st century, we are confronted with the reality of violence that comes from uncompromising religious intolerance. At home, not only domestic politics but even our personal relationships are affected by religious identity. An ability to think productively about religious difference is necessary if we are to be responsible members of society. Could historical literature help us grapple with the contemporary challenges of religious pluralism? How are literary works related to culture, and how do they reflect—and reflect on—questions of value and the diversity of human experience? What is the difference between reading a literary work in its historical context and in our own time?  

Drawing primarily on English texts from the 16^th through the 18^th centuries, this foundational class in literature will not only give you the tools necessary to read closely, analyze carefully, and master key literary and critical terms, it will explore how writers of an earlier era attempted to navigate the complex paths of religious tolerance and intolerance, the tempting ideal of cultural unity, and the inevitability of diversity and contradiction. The course will adopt the lens of early modern Christian approaches to interfaith relationships, but it will include the voices of Islamic and Jewish writers of the period in order to account for a diversity of perspectives. Finally, while the course will take drama as its centerpiece, it will also examine poems, ballads, and end with the study of a novel.

Section: 23L #5459
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 LSC

Section: 24L #5460
Instructor: V. Strain
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 LSC

This course will introduce students to multiple periods and genres of literature through texts that represent war. We will begin by examining canonical works, including a classical epic and a Shakespeare history play. After examining the historical conventions of war literature, we will look at examples of twentieth century experimental texts that grapple with the friction between literary tradition and the realities of modern warfare, and between survivors and successive generations. While this course incorporates poetry, drama, short stories, a novel, and a graphic novel, we will be concentrating on the critical questions related to narrative. How are stories constructed and for what kinds of effects? How do stories interrelate, influence, and allude to one another in order to create traditions and shared perceptions? How do narratives preserve or challenge personal and national identities and histories? How does literature interact with value systems and political realities?

Section: 25L #5461
Instructor: D. Chinitz
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This course will develop students’ ability to analyze literature at the college level. The texts we discuss will vary across genres (fiction, poetry, and drama) and historical time periods. Authors likely to appear on the syllabus include Jane Austen, LeRoi Jones, James Joyce, Flannery O'Connor, Bernard Shaw, and Tennessee Williams, among others. The close-reading skills we practice will cultivate students’ critical thinking, understanding of literary texts, and appreciation of the craft of writing.

Section: 26L #5462
Instructor: P. Jay
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This course fulfills the University’s core curriculum foundational level requirement in literary knowledge and experience. Such courses are designed to combine the teaching of key disciplinary skills with an exploration of some of the values central to a Loyola education (understanding diversity in the U.S. and abroad, understanding and promoting social justice, and nurturing a rich inner life that can be translated into social action in the world). All academic disciplines teach skills and engage in one way or another with some of these values. Our focus in this course will be on sharpening the skills a careful engagement with literature can facilitate – reading, analytical, interpretive, argumentative, and writing skills – broadly put: the ability to read, think, and write critically. We will read a variety of 20^th and 21^st-century fiction, drama, and poetry that deals specifically with issues related to diversity in the U.S. and in the world, works that explore a complexity of issues related to social justice, and which consider the relationship between interior lives and the social and political worlds they must navigate. This course will improve your ability to read closely, carefully, and imaginatively, to analyze literary works and the arguments they make, and to appreciate how our experience of literature – and of art in general – can enrich us both as individuals, and as citizens with social and political responsibilities.  

Section: 27L #5463
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

Section: 28L #5464
Instructor: A. Cooperrider
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will focus on the reading and analysis of a variety of prose, poetry, and drama through an investigation of some of the works of William Shakespeare in contemporary society and adaptation. Students will master key literary and critical terms and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature, including why we study literature in the first place. Why is the study of literature so important in the modern world? Why is Shakespeare considered such a vital component of this area of study? How do literary works take on new shapes and meanings depending on format, audience, and time period? Through a variety of perspectives on a quintessentially canonical author, students will interrogate and discover the field of literary study with the goal of realizing the continued importance of literature in modern life.

Section: 29L #5465
Instructor: S. Venturino
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM WTC

The American writer E. L. Doctorow once said that he asked two questions as he read, “not only what was going to happen next, but how is this done? How is it that these words on the page make me feel the way I’m feeling?” Addressing poetry, W. H. Auden put it even more simply: “Here is a verbal contraption. How does it work?” In this course, we will investigate what makes literature literature. We’ll explore helpful, practical ways of reading poetry, fiction, and drama. And we will discover why studying literature in college reveals important, thoughtful, and enjoyable new dimensions to reading. Assignments include quizzes, a research paper, and a final.

Children’s Literature (ENGL 206)

Section: 001 #1663
Instructor:  A. Ellis
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 LSC

Advanced Writing: Business (ENGL 210)

Section: 20W #1812
Instructor:  J. Janangelo
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 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. Our course is writing intensive. We will use a process approach to writing, emphasizing problem-solving, prewriting strategies, and editing and revision skills.

Section: 60W #1813
Instructor:  J. Janangelo
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 7:00 – 9:30 PM WTC

(See above.)

Section: 61W #2689
Instructor:  J. Janangelo
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 7:00 – 9:30 PM WTC

(See above.)

Section: 62W #3054
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 – 9:30 PM WTC

Writing for Pre-Law Students (ENGL 211)

Section: 63W #1814
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM WTC

Section: 64W #4768
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM WTC

Theory Practicum Tutoring Writing (ENGL 220)

Section: 1WE #3055
Instructor:  A. Kessel
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM WTC

English 220 is a seminar designed to prepare students to serve as tutors in the Loyola University Chicago Writing Center. 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 writers who think together about clear expression. In this course you will learn how to help others improve their writing; you will also improve your own writing and critical thinking skills. You will become part of a vibrant community of peer tutors while gaining experience that will serve you in a variety of careers. This course is open to students from all majors who have a passion for clear written communication. 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: 01W #5498
Instructor: J. Jacobs
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

This course is not intended to turn people into poetry scholars.  I hope it will help them find the freedom to be poetry readers.  It is designed to help people discover how to engage a poem directly.  How to have fun with poetry, how to get at the kinds of pleasures it offers, how to use poetry as a tool to look at your own life and experience.

I require you to have your own copy of one of a major collection with poems from many periods, the NORTON ANTHOLOGY (5^th full edition, not the Shorter Edition).  But we will stress modern writers.  We will supplement the anthology with a short collection, also required, by a single author.  Three main papers will be required, plus a final exam.  I may make extended comments, but won’t lecture.  I also require class participation—and you can’t participate without being in class.  You should be willing to “risk” entering discussion actively.

Section: 02W #5499
Instructor:  J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 AM 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: 03W #5500
Instructor:  J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 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: 042 #5501
Instructor:  A. Welch
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 9:20 – 10:10 LSC

The Poetry and Politics of Mourning in Britain, 1770-1832

Sadness was in style in the late eighteenth century. Sensational novels like Rousseau’s The New Heloise and Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther featured romantic suicides, and pious clergymen were busy penning death-obsessed poems staged in graveyards. Contemplating one’s mortality and remembering the dead were of a piece with respectable and sophisticated living.

Then in 1789, revolution in erupted in France. Europe’s most powerful monarchy was overthrown, King Louis XVI was beheaded, and the National Convention reset the calendar, declaring Year One. All senseless custom and inherited tradition was to be thrown off; society was henceforth to be reinvented and ruled by reason alone. Everything was thrown into doubt, including the relationship between the living and the dead. The revolution’s shockwaves crossed the channel to Britain. As the radical Thomas Paine argued in support of France’s new government, “it is the living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated.” Meanwhile, conservatives like Edmund Burke concluded that society is in essence “a partnership not only between those are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.” Mourning was now a central political problem, a matter of state. This problem was addressed most insightfully by the poets of the period, who took it upon themselves to give form to the experiences of loss and remembrance that shaped life then—and now.

We’ll endeavor to come to terms with these transformations in British culture—transformations that continue to resonate in the present. Our reading will range from the late eighteenth- to the mid-nineteenth century, to include historical and political discourse as well as, of course, poetry. Along the way, we’ll learn about the basic materials that organize the reading of poetry: rhyme, rhythm, and meter, syntax, lineation, and spatial layout. We’ll learn about imagery, narrators, readers, and point of view. And we’ll survey the forms and genres that poets inherit and manipulate in order to make meaning, including ballads, sonnets, elegies, and odes. Most importantly, we’ll come to understand how these formal features shape and participate in political and cultural change.

Section: 043 #5502
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 LSC

Exploring Drama (ENGL 272)

Section: 044 #5505
Instructor:  T. Boyle
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 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: 04W #5503
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: 05W #5504
Instructor:  E. Wheatley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 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: 045 #5507
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 PM LSC

Section: 046 #5508
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

Section: 047 #5509
Instructor:  D. Macey
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 – 9:45 AM LSC

This course examines the modern short story. To help students form a more defined conception of what the short story is, the course will also include some longer prose fiction as well as precursors to the modern short story. The course will emphasize close reading, including careful attention to form and theme. Assignments will include essays, short response papers, a midterm, and regular quizzes.

Section: 048 #5510
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

Section: 06W #5506
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 Shakespeare (ENGL 274)

Section: 07W #4025
Instructor: V. Strain
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 AM LSC

In numerous works that mastered and innovated the literary forms trending in the late sixteenth century, Shakespeare probed the major cultural and political topics of his day, from the nature of love and friendship to the nature of political leadership. Significantly, he returns again and again to the relationship between language and thought, and thought and action. 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. Shakespeare’s plays and poems represent a so-called common heritage yet they are utterly “foreign to us all,” distant from us in “time, language, and thought.” My assignments are designed to help students (1) overcome historical and linguistic barriers to comprehension, and (2) come to terms with material that resists simplification and assimilation. I present historical difference as an intellectual challenge and ultimately as an opportunity to reimagine the norms of current culture that can otherwise appear natural or inevitable.

African-American Literature (ENGL 282)

Section: 09W #5512
Instructor:  P. Caughie
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 LSC

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s has long been considered the major defining movement of African-American literature. Using the Norton Anthology of African American Literature as our primary text, we will focus primarily (though not exclusively) on the Harlem Renaissance and its legacy, studying such writers as W.E.B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke, and viewing films and listening to music from the era.  We will discuss social and political events of the time (such as the Mann Act and the birth control movement); recurring themes in literature, films, and journals of the day (such as "passing"); and debates among artists and intellectuals about the significance of race to the production of literature. Requirements include weekly quizzes, at least two papers, a report, and a final exam. 

Section: 08W #5527
Instructor:  B. Ahad
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 PM LSC

From (William Wells) Brown to #BlackLivesMatter

While the activist movement, BlackLivesMatter, has garnered national attention since its inception in 2013, African-American literature has been concerned with asserting the value of black lives since the late 18^th century. We will focus, in particular, on the ways that black writers (in the past and in the “now”) have attempted to assert their humanity, citizenship, and freedom in the U.S. for over two centuries. Some of the texts we will read are William Wells Brown’s Clotel, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen. To complement our readings we will incorporate films, music, and visual art to demonstrate the multiple and diverse ways that black artistic culture has served as a means of political resistance, reflection and inspiration. Requirements for the course include one formal essay (7-10 pages), participation in an online discussion forum, a mid-term and a final exam. This course fulfills the Core requirement (Tier II), the multicultural and post-1900 requirements.

Women in Literature (ENGL 283)

Section: 049 #4027
Instructor:  M. Bradshaw
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

Revered and reviled, imitated and appropriated, divas are the most visible women in our culture. They are also the most misunderstood. The diva represents empowerment--she is loud, courageous, and often outrageous--but her power comes at a great cost. She risks becoming the object of obsessive fandom, as she is consumed and absorbed into people’s lives. She also risk losing her identity, even as she 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: 050 #4028
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 PM LSC

Section: 051 #4029
Instructor:  S. Bost
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

I have chosen the topic of illness since it is a frequent motif in literature and since it highlights several important themes for Women’s Studies and Gender Studies.  Illness is often stigmatized as a sign of weakness or invoked as contagion to justify fears of outsiders. Our experiences of illness are shaped by cultural expectations, gender norms, eroticism, and spiritual beliefs. Women have a particular relationship to illness through their stereotypical roles as sufferers and caregivers.  We will explore these themes, among others, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome,Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals, Cherríe Moraga’s Heroes and Saints and Waiting in the Wings, Nancy Mairs’s Carnal Acts, Susan Bordo’s Unbearable Weight, and Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  Assignments will include three brief writing assignments, regular in-class exercises, an in-class presentation, and a final exam.

This course is cross-listed with Women’s Studies and Gender Studies. 

Section: 10W #4030
Instructor:  M. Bradshaw
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

Revered and reviled, imitated and appropriated, divas are the most visible women in our culture. They are also the most misunderstood. The diva represents empowerment--she is loud, courageous, and often outrageous--but her power comes at a great cost. She risks becoming the object of obsessive fandom, as she is consumed and absorbed into people’s lives. She also risk losing her identity, even as she 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: 11W #5513
Instructor:  J. B. Bouson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 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,  female friendships, and female aging in their works.  The authors covered will include Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, and May Sarton.  There will be quizzes, papers, a midterm and a final exam.

Religion and Literature (ENGL 287)

Section: 12W #5514
Instructor:  M. Clarke
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 - 12:20 PM LSC

This course will be based on a wide selection of essays, short stories, poems, a play or two, a novel or two, and a few selections from the Bible. These readings will introduce students to important works from a wide range of historical periods and cultures, works that speak to us through time of essential questions and that offer insights into the human spirit and into the idea of the holy. Texts: Shadow and Light: Literature and the Life of Faith, ed. Tippens, et al., 3^rd edition and two or three longer works to be announced. Assignments will consist of a mid-term, term paper, and final examination, as well as an occasional quiz or reflection paper.      

Section: 13W #5515
Instructor:  M. Clarke
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 - 1:25 PM LSC

(See above.)

Nature in Literature (ENGL 288)

Section: 052 #5516
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 - 1:25 PM LSC

Human Values in Literature (ENGL 290)

Section: 053 #3057
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 - 9:45 AM LSC

Section: 15W #5525
Instructor: H. Mann
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 - 11:15 AM LSC

Adopting an international and cross-disciplinary perspective, this section of English 290 will examine the portrayal of human values in modern and contemporary works by selected non-western writers from Africa, the West Indies, South Asia, and USA. Our main aim will be to examine the extent to which the societies under study (and the individuals who constitute them) share universal values and the extent to which these societies and their values are predicated upon culture specific norms and expectations. To this end, we will consider the role of nationalism, tradition, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, and class/caste in the conception and practice of such values. In addition, we will analyze the cultural bases of contributing literary techniques, including structure, language, narrative focus, and characterization among others, to arrive at comparative assessments of the portrayal of human values in modern world literature.

Further, this course is Writing Intensive; satisfies 3 credits of the Core Curriculum requirements in Literary Knowledge and in Promoting Justice Values; counts as a 200-level elective for both the English major and minor; and meets the 3-credit multicultural requirement of the English major.

Section: 603 #3058
Instructor: M. Norris
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 – 9:30 PM LSC

This course will develop students’ ability to analyze literature at the college level through an intensive, semester-long study of the short story. Students will learn about the short story as it has developed in the Western world over the past two centuries, artistically and generically. Writers have been selected, in part, because of their contributions to the ever-evolving understanding of the genre. Primary readings will include such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, Anton Chekhov, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, and Flannery O’Connor. Secondary readings will include Frank O’Connor’s The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story and The New Short Story Theories, edited by Charles E. May. The class is focused on developing a fuller understanding of the short story as a genre but students will also learn to think critically about human values, as they’re depicted by these authors, while honing their skills as critical readers and writers. Assignments will include short essays and presentations, as well as a longer 6-7 page seminar paper, due at the end of the semester.

English Grammar (ENGL 303)

Section: 055 #2291
Instructor: E. Stogner
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 - 3:35 PM 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.

World Literature in English (ENGL 312)

Section: 056 #5526
Instructor: H. Mann
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 - 12:20 PM LSC

Adopting an international and cross-disciplinary perspective, this course will introduce students to a range of critical and theoretical approaches to the study of world literatures in English, with particular attention to the issues of modern-day colonization, decolonization, and globalization as experienced in Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, and North America. Drawing on the work of leading postcolonial theorists like Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha, and Arjun Appadurai, we will study the literary writings of Chinua Achebe, Nadine Gordimer, and Arundhati Roy among others. Discussion and research will center on such topics as colonial and postcolonial discourse, race, religion, nationalism, third world feminism, hybridity, diaspora, and globalization. 

This course meets the multicultural requirement of the English major.

The Writing of Poetry (ENGL 317)

Section: 057 #1442
Instructor: L. Goldstein
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 2:45 – 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 read a unique work of contemporary poetry each week as a framework for discussion, but the core of the course is student writing. The workshop element of the course includes prompts for writing in class and between classes, in-class collective experiments, and presentations of student poetry to the group. Students produce a final collection of poetry presented as a self-published chapbook in a final reading.

Section: 058 #1443
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 2:45 – 5:15 PM LSC

Section: 604 #3059
Instructor: M. Meinhardt
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 7:00 – 9:30 PM LSC

This workshop explores elemental and stylistic factors in first reading and explicating, and ultimately the writing of poetry. Students will learn genre nuances with history, form and constraint; students will then use this evolving awareness to create a portfolio of invested and revised original and significant work, as well as to communicate and collaborate with colleagues toward the same end. This course fosters a community of writers committed to the potential of the craft, including the vocabulary, criticism, analysis, creation, revision, publication, and extended opportunities for supporters of poetry.

The Writing of Fiction (ENGL 318)

Section: 059 #1444
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 2:45 PM – 5:15 PM LSC

Section: 060 #3060
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM LSC

Section: 605 #3061
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM LSC

Writing Creative Nonfiction (ENGL 319)

Section: 061 #2292
Instructor: S. Weller
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 2:30 – 5:00 PM LSC

Over the course of the semester, we will explore a style and genre of writing known as creative nonfiction. While the words “creative” and “nonfiction” might seem at odds, the combination is rooted in a long tradition of telling stories, making personal observations, and employing a variety of literary techniques to communicate facts.  Creative nonfiction writers don’t make things up.  They just use facts creatively and interestingly. As author Lee Gutkind, seen as the grandfather of creative nonfiction states, the genre is “true stories, well told.” In this class, we will be reading and writing a wide range of creative nonfiction essays. We’ll discuss craft and narrative approaches, the use of setting, scenes, dialogue, description, and observation, as well as point of view, tone, and style. You’ll read, analyze, and discuss the works of contemporary creative nonfiction writers as models for your own writing. We will do in-class writing exercises to get you going on drafts of your own work.  This is a workshop class, so we will also be responding to each other’s work, providing the writer with an attentive audience, and cultivating analytical skills and sensitivity as readers. Your final project will be a 15-20 page portfolio of your own creative nonfiction essays.

The goal of this class is to learn the building blocks of creative nonfiction, and how to put that knowledge into practice by crafting your own pieces of writing. You’ll also learn to offer thoughtful commentary on the work of your classmates.  You’ll learn about research, structure, craft, and revision.  Overall, the goal of this course will be to discover your own stories and interests, and to develop a lens, a style, and a voice with which to create art out of facts.

Chaucer (ENGL 322)

Section: 062 #2853
Instructor: E. Wheatley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This course will focus on some of the most important poems of Geoffrey Chaucer, including dream visions, and a selection of The Canterbury Tales. We will also read works important to Chaucer, such as Macrobius’ writings on dreams, and some of his likely source texts. Critical readings will engage with these works in their historical and literary-historical contexts. The grade will be based on class participation, weekly responses, two essays, a Middle English pronunciation exam, a mid-term translation exam, and a final exam.

Plays of Shakespeare (ENGL 326)

Section: 063 #1449
Instructor: J. Knapp
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 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 may 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.  There will be papers, a midterm and a final.

Studies in Renaissance (ENGL 328)

Section: 064 #1953
Instructor: J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 - 12:45 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.

Studies in the Romantic Period (ENGL 338)

Section: 065 #4033
Instructor: S. Jones
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 - 2:15 PM LSC

In the past decade, the digital humanities has emerged as an important set of interdisciplinary practices. As the Wikipedia article on the field  says, “digital humanities embraces a variety of topics, from curating online collections to data mining large cultural data sets,” and makes use of “tools provided by computing (such as data visualization, information retrieval, data mining, statistics, text mining, digital mapping), and digital publishing.” In this class we’ll look at digital-humanities approaches to the study of Romantic-period literature, a fruitful field of study since the 1990s, even before “digital humanities” was a common term. From the multimedia art of William Blake to the science fiction of Mary Shelley, and including manuscripts, illustrated gift books, and newspaper verse, Romantic-period literature has long been the focus of experiments in digital texts and publishing platforms, as well as the use of digital tools for text analysis, visualization, and data mining. We’ll look at some established online resources—such as the William Blake Archive, Romantic Circles, and NINES—as well as efforts in “distant reading” or the “macroanalysis” of large corpora of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts. And we’ll address questions about the future of digital humanities and literary studies in general. Most of the readings will be found online. Requirements will include hands-on experiments with digital tools and resources and a collaborative project. Watch Jones’s website for the complete syllabus when it’s ready: http://stevenejones.org.

Victorian Period Studies (ENGL 343)

Section: 066 #1710
Instructor: M. Clarke
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 - 3:35 PM LSC

The novel is at once work of art, interpreter of culture, and influential voice in the public sphere. Although novels explore “matters quite as important as history,” they do so in an "easy and comfortable" manner (Thackeray, “On Some French Fashionable Novels,” 1839) that makes them both enjoyable and important. In this course we will read six novels. Class discussions will be devoted to close readings and discussion of students’ varying interpretations, examination of the biographical and historical contexts that inform the novels, and a brief introduction to the theory of the novel. Assignments will consist of a mid-term, term paper, and final examination, as well as an occasional quiz or reflection paper.  Texts:  C. Brontë, Villette; Collins, Woman in White; Dickens, Hard Times; George Eliot, Adam Bede; Gaskell, Mary Barton; Le Fanu, Uncle Silas.

Contemporary Critical Theory (ENGL 354)

Section: 067 #2293
Instructor: P. Caughie
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

“The main effect of theory,” writes Jonathan Culler, “is the disputing of ‘common sense’” (Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, 4). Whether the topic is language or reality, sex or race, literature or authors, theory refuses to take such concepts at face value, as “givens.” Theory teaches us how to question what we often take for granted. If this course succeeds, then, it should produce a kind of crisis—a crisis of meaning, a crisis of confidence, a crisis of language—as we unlearn certain habitual ways of thinking. We will read theories from a range of disciplines (e.g., linguistics, literature, history, sociology, psychoanalysis, philosophy) and “schools” (e.g., formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, feminism, Marxism) from the 1960s through the present to understand how the theory revolution has changed the study of literature and culture. We will also read literature, but not simply to “apply” the theory to a work. Instead we will read literature as theory, just as we will “close read” theory as a type of literature.  Requirements include two essays (3-5 and 6-8 pages), responses to the readings, a report on an outside reading, and a final exam. Our primary texts will be Literary Theory: An Anthology, 2^nd edition, edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, and Steve Venturino’s Complete Idiot’s Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism.

Literature: Writer’s Perspective (ENGL 357)

Section: 068 #1453
Instructor: D. Kaplan
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 2:45 – 5:15 PM LSC

Flannery O’Connor said that stories have a beginning, middle, and end—though not necessarily in that order. This course will explore some of the “disordered”, unusual, disjunctive, eccentric ways that fiction writers have told their stories. And not just chronological discontinuity (although that’s one way we’ll examine), but through other narrative means as well; e.g., a variety of voices for a single character, alternate versions of a single story, different literary genres within a single story, etc. We will read fiction by writers such as Marguerite Duras, Paul Auster, Susan Sontag, D.M. Thomas, Michael Ondaatje, and Donald Barthelme, and will also see some relevant films. Written work will partially consist of student-written fiction in representative eccentric modes; therefore, the prior taking of English 318, Introduction to Fiction Writing, is highly desirable and highly recommended.

Studies in Fiction Post-1900 (ENGL 372)

Section: 069 #5517
Instructor: J. B. Bouson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 - 11:15 AM LSC

English 372C—Studies in Fiction-Shame in Literature 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 Kafka, Bellow, Morrison, Moore, Mairs, and Sarton. There will be oral presentations, quizzes, papers, and exams.

This course fulfills the post-1900 period requirement of the English major. 

American Literature: 1914 - 1945 (ENGL 377)

Section: 069 #5518
Instructor: J. Kerkering
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

This course examines works by selected American writers produced between the two World Wars, paying particular attention the contribution of literary works to emerging notions of the "modern" and the “native.”  Students will take in-class quizzes, submit weekly reading responses (1 page), take a mid-term exam, and write three papers—two short papers (5-6 pages) and a longer final paper (8-10 pages). 

Advanced African-American Literature Post-1900 (ENGL 384C)

Section: 071 #5528
Instructor: B. Ahad
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

Blackness, Whiteness and the Fiction of Race

Rachel Dolezal made national news this past summer and re-ignited a series of age-old questions around the concept of race: What constitutes blackness or whiteness? Who gets to decide one’s racial identity? Is racial identity a matter of what one “is” or what one “does?” We know that race is a biological fiction—some scholars describe it as an “invention”—yet it continues to shape and figure prominently in our everyday lives. This course will discuss the historical, social and scientific means by which the concept of race has been invented, evolved, manipulated and made “real.” We will examine a wealth of diverse materials ranging from social history, scientific and legal studies, film, visual art and, of course, literary texts to show how the idea of race came to be, and how it operates in artistic, scholarly and public spaces. Requirements for this course include a mid-term, final, a group research project and participation in an online discussion forum. This course fulfills the multicultural and post-1900 requirements.​

Advanced Seminar: Writing about Violence in a Secular Age (ENGL 390)

Section: 16W #2697
Instructor: J. Wexler
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 - 11:15 AM LSC

Writing about Violence in a Secular Age         

As twentieth-century writers confronted the political violence of their time, they were overcome by rhetorical despair. Unspeakable acts left writers speechless. In the past, communal beliefs had justified or condemned the most horrific acts, but the late nineteenth-century crisis of belief made any consensus about the meaning of violence unattainable. This situation produced an aesthetic dilemma because representation always expresses beliefs. To write about violence is to give it a meaning. A dead body does not explain itself, and the narrative of the suicide bomber is not the story of the child killed in the blast. In this course we will ask how the new forms of the twentieth century represent the political violence of the period. Our primary texts will be Heart of Darkness, Women in Love, The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Midnight's Children, and Austerlitz.

Teaching English to Adults (ENGL 393)

Section: 01E #1484
Instructor: J. Heckman
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TBA LSC

English 393:  engaging with Jesuit values.  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 Loyola Hall, 1110 W. Loyola Avenue, 2^nd floor conference room, across the street from Mertz.

While the Literacy Center offers community adults an opportunity to improve their skills, it also gives student-tutors the chance to serve their community and to engage with their Jesuit education.  As one student-tutor wrote, "The Literacy Center is a program that enables students to truly embrace the Jesuit tradition.  It is a place that allows students to encounter something outside of themselves, . . . . . connecting the heart with the head."

No previous tutoring experience is necessary.  When taken for 3 credit hours, this course satisfies the Core Engaged Learning-Service Learning Internship requirement.  The course is open to second-semester freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, although incoming freshmen are always welcome to tutor as volunteers and take the course at a later date.

Students tutor adult learners, some of whom are native English speakers preparing for the GED or improving their literacy skills.  Other learners are international visitors, or immigrants or refugees whose skills in their native language range from their being highly educated professionals to being perhaps illiterate, even in their own language, and who may know some English or no English. 

If students have never tutored at the Center, they must attend one evening of orientation as well as bi-weekly class meetings (5 meetings per semester for 1-2 credit hour students, 6 class meetings per semester for 3 credit hour/Core students).  Students keep a weekly journal of their experiences; examine a textbook and journal articles concerned with literacy, language, and adult education; submit ten of their journals and four short papers throughout the semester; prepare a final paper or project; and, for 3 credit hour students, read and report on one additional text of their choice related to the work of the Center, to adult literacy, to the culture of their learners, or to any topic suggested by their tutoring experience. 

The Center is open for tutoring M-Th evenings during the fall and spring semesters from 7-9:30 pm when the university is in session.  1 credit hour students tutor one evening per week; 2 and 3 credit hour students tutor two evenings a week. 

One student who was enrolled in one of our Literacy Center courses said, “I can’t say I’ve been in a nicer environment on Loyola’s campus.  Everyone is welcoming and treats everyone else with respect. And the time flies by because I love what I’m doing.”  Students who have taken this course have found it to be a challenging and exciting experience, even life changing as they help neighborhood adults improve their skills. 

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 English 393/Honors 290.

Internship (ENGL 394)

Section: 72E #1487
Instructor: J. Cragwall

Honors Tutorial: The Country and the City (ENGL 395)

Section: 18W #2465
Instructor: T. Kaminski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 - 11:15 AM LSC

Honors Tutorial:  The Country and the City

This course will examine one of the oldest and most persis­tent paradigms in Western literature:  the contrast between the country and the city. From the Roman poet Horace through the English Romantic poets, the country has been celebrated as an idyllic escape from the horrors of the urban world, with its slums, its physical dangers, its emphasis on business, and its social climbing. But the city too finds its defenders, starting with some poets of the 17th- and 18th-centuries who find it the place of sophistication, and later with poets of the 20th century who revel in its vitality. We will begin by reading translations of several works by the Roman poets Horace and Juvenal, and then explore how their ideas are picked up and modified in such authors as Ben Jonson, Andrew Marvell, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, Robert Bridges, T.S. Eliot, and Langston Hughes. The course will require two papers—one short paper and a longer project on which each student will also be expected to give an oral report.

Section: 19W #5520
Instructor: S. Bost
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 - 12:45 PM LSC

This Honors seminar will guide students through a culturally-grounded examination of recent U.S. Latina/o Literature, with an eye towards questions of social justice.  What particular justice issues face U.S. Latina/os, and what would social justice look like for this diverse group?  How have U.S. Latina/o writers represented political struggle or visions of justice?  What role does literature play in creating a more just world?  We will analyze texts from a variety of genres (novels, plays, poetry, essays, graphic novels, and children’s stories) by Luis Valdez, Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, Luis Alberto Urrea, Inverna Lockpez, Julia Alvarez, Aurora Levins Morales, and Maya Christina González.  Assignments will include three brief papers, one revision, one presentation, and a research project. 

You must be a member of the English Honors Program to enroll.  This section of ENGL 395 fulfills the post-1900 period requirement and the multicultural requirement for the English major.  It can also count for credit towards the Latin American and Latina/o Studies Minor. 

Advanced Writing Workshop: Poetry (ENGL 397)

Section: 20W #1711
Instructor: A. Baker
3.0 credit hours Lecture
F 2:45 – 5:15 PM LSC

Advanced Writing: Fiction (ENGL 398)

Section: 21W #1489
Instructor: D. Kaplan
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM LSC

This is a fiction writing workshop for those who have already taken English 318 (a prerequisite) and builds upon concepts of fictional art and craft studied there. Students will write original stories which will be discussed and critiqued by the instructor and by one's fellow writers in a supportive workshop environment; they will be encouraged to go “deeper” into their fiction writing.  Students will also read and discuss the craft of a wide variety of master fiction writers, such as Steven Milhauser, Haruki Murakami, Joy Williams, Junot Diaz, Aimee Bender, Reginald McKnight, and others. Class participation is emphasized.

Special Studies in Literature (ENGL 399)