Spring 2025
ENGL 11300, Introduction to Poetry
4 Credits
ICC THEMES: Identities; Inquiry, Imagination, and Innovation ICC PERSPECTIVES: Humanities and Creative Arts
INSTRUCTOR: Alexis Becker, Dan Breen
ENROLLMENT: 20 students per section
PREREQUISITES: None
MEETING TIMES:
Becker: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:35-3:50 PM, and Fridas, 3:00-3:50 PM
Breen: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:25-10:40 AM, and Wednesday, 10:00-10:50 AM
COURSE DESCRIPTION: How does a poem produce meaning? What does poetry do with language? This course is an introduction to a) the constituent elements of poems and the vocabulary with which we can analyze them and b) the extraordinary variety and capaciousness of texts we call “poems.” The aim of this course is to arrive at a sense, both ample and precise, of what a poem is, what it does, how it does what it does, and, perhaps, why we should care.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Short writing assignments, recitations, poetic compositions, annotated poetry anthology, lively participation.
ENGL 11600-01 The Literature of Not Knowing Yourself
4 CREDITS--
INSTRUCTOR: Kasia Bartoszynska, 327 Muller
ENROLLMENT: 20 students per section (?)
PREREQUISITE: None?
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course investigates how literary fiction represents, and manages, problems of self-knowledge (and self-deception). We will read a variety of works that feature people trying to figure themselves out, or coming to realize that they don't know themselves as well as they think they do, and we will pay careful attention to how those difficulties shape the form of the text. Readings will include Jane Austen's Emma, Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, and Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be?
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: Regular short assignments, a final exam, and class participation. Grading will be A-F. Because of the discussion-oriented format, class participation will be an important part of students’ final grades.
ENGL 18200-01, 02 The Power of Injustice & the Injustice of Power HU LA 3A h
TOPIC: Life at the Margins in American Literature
4 Credits
ICC ATTRIBUTE: Diversity, Humanities Perspective, Power & Justice and Identities Themes
INSTRUCTOR: Derek Adams, Muller 304
ENROLLMENT: 20 per section
PREREQUISITES: None
MEETING TIMES: MWF 11:00-11:50 AM plus Monday 4:00-4:50 PM
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Many individuals continue to feel as though they live at the margins of society, despite the “melting pot” rhetoric of inclusivity and acceptance that dominates narratives of American identity. While we commonly consider purposeful exclusion an act of injustice on the part of the powerful, we are often unaware of the way that subtle, hidden forms of power render particular groups and individuals powerless. American literature is one of the most widely utilized platforms for articulating the specific issues that arise in response to these forms of power. This course will use an array of American literary texts to explore the complexities of the life experiences of those who are forced by the powerful to live at the margins. We will read the work of Rebecca Harding Davis, Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Junot Diaz, Adam Mansbach, ZZ Packer, and Tommy Orange.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion with the occasional lecture
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Students will closely examine course materials, actively engage in class discussions, write short textual analysis essays and a
ENGL 21900, SHAKESPEARE
4 CREDITS
ICC DESIGNATION: Identities; Inquiry, Imagination, and Innovation
INSTRUCTOR: Christopher Matusiak, Muller 326
ENROLLMENT: 20 per section
PREREQUISITES: One course in the humanities or social sciences, or sophomore standing.
MEETING TIMES:
Section 01: Monday and Friday 9:00-10:15 AM; Wednesday 9:00-9:50 AM
Section 02: Monday and Friday 11:00 AM-12:15 PM; Wednesday 11:00-11:50 AM
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Why study Shakespeare now? The question has never been more pressing for those who would situate the playwright and his works at the heart of English studies and other Humanities disciplines. Shakespeare was an immensely talented poet, but he died over 400 years ago. Of what use can he be in grappling with the problems currently confronting us?—rising tides of political authoritarianism and war; economic inequality, systemic racism, xenophobia, misogynistic violence; and, critically, ideological polarization that prevents us from arriving at a consensus on ‘reality’ itself? If Shakespeare is to be viewed as relevant in 2023, his work arguably must help bring the challenges we now face into better focus and inspire us to respond in meaningful ways. Whether indeed they have this capacity will be the question that guides us throughout the semester. No prior knowledge of Shakespeare is necessary to succeed in this course—only enthusiasm, curiosity, and a readiness to study three rich texts—The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Winter’s Tale—both in the contexts of Shakespeare’s time and our own.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion/lecture.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: active participation; close-reading exercises; a reader-response journal; a take-home final exam.
ENGL 23400 HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Alexis Becker, Muller 330
ENROLLMENT: 10 students (seminar)
PREREQUISITE: One English class
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The main purpose of this course is to give you a broad and deep knowledge of the linguistic concepts, histories, and social forms that inform our speech and writing. As English speakers, writers, and/or teachers, understanding how the English language works and why helps us make sense of why we read, write, speak, and think the way we do. Among other things, we will explore what distinguishes “correct” from “incorrect” usage, why we spell and pronounce words the way we do, how social and political histories inhere in our language, and why the English language is so very strange. Topics include: phonology (sounds), morphology (word-formation), and lexicon (vocabulary); grammar, syntax, and punctuation; history and development of English; variation in and varieties of English. Textbooks areThis Language, A River, by K. Aaron Smith and Susan M. Kim andFrom Old English to Standard English: ACourseBook in Language Variation Across Time by Dennis Freeborn, with other texts and media drawn from literature, popular culture, linguistics, and other sources.
COURSE FORMAT AND STYLE: Discussion, in-class exercises and presentations by students, topical lectures by the instructor.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Short response pieces and other kinds of homework; presentations; quizzes and exams; research and creative projects; lively and rigorous class participation.
ENGL 27400 Golden Age of Children’s Literature CRN: 40879
INSTRUCTOR: Katharine Kittredge, Muller 317, Ext. 4- 1575
ENROLLMENT: 10
PREREQUISITES: none
NOTE: This course counts for the English Department’s pre-20th century requirement; Its approval for the ICC theme “Identities” is pending
OBJECTIVES: This course supplies an overview of pre-20th century children's literature with particular focus on the ’Golden Age of Children's Literature’ in the Victorian era. The class will look at the precursors to the golden age texts: chap books, didactic literature, fables and fairytales, and will then go on to look at some of the major texts of the era in both fiction and verse. Novels will include: Alice in Wonderland; Little Women; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Treasure Island; Tom Sawyer; The Wind in the Willows, and The Secret Garden.
FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, small group, collaborative activities
GRADING: Weekly response pieces; individual presentation; mid-term; final project.
ENGL 28500 Queer Lit
4 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Jennifer Spitzer, Muller 305
ENROLLMENT: 21 per section
PREREQUISITES: Sophomore Standing
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will survey key works of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer literature, and it will introduce you to some key debates in queer literary studies. We will familiarize ourselves with the social, political, and legal, contexts of our readings as we explore their representations of sexuality, gender, intimacy, sociability, and desire. We will also explore the affective and political potential of these works, how they develop a historical awareness of violence, oppression, and homo/ bi/ and transphobia; how they envision alternative forms of attachment, belonging, and intimacy; and how they imagine survival, resilience and transcendence. Authors include Carson McCullers, James Baldwin, Justin Torres, Maggie Nelson, and Carmen Maria Machado, as well as poetry by Danez Smith and J. Jennifer Espinoza. We will read these authors in conjunction with short critical readings on queer theory by Sara Ahmed, Judith Butler, and José Esteban Muñoz.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Some short lectures, but the class is primarily discussion based.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: Short informal reading responses and enthusiastic class participation, group presentation, one conventional essay and one non-conventional final writing assignment.
ENGL 29401-02 SLOW READ: MOBY-DICK
1 CREDIT
INSTRUCTOR: Hugh Egan, 306 Muller, ext. 4-3563
ENROLLMENT: 20 students per section
PREREQUISITE: None
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this class we will join Ahab, Ishmael and the crew of thePequod in their search for the elusive white whale. We will open the novel to a wide variety of interpretive possibilities—classic quest, American epic, capitalist critique, queer text, traumatic memory, and more.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: Weekly Canvas responses to the reading. Grading will be A-F. Because of the discussion-oriented format, class participation will be an important part of students’ final grade
MEETING TIMES: Friday 2:00-3:15 PM
ENGL 29400 (02) Slow Read: The Films of Terrance Mallick
1 credit
Robert Sullivan
PREREQUISITE: No prerequisites. All are welcome.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: Active class participation, short writing assignments, one in-class presentation.
MEETING TIMES: Wednesday 4:00-5:15 PM
ENGL 29400-01
CRN: 40264
“The Films of Terrence Malick”
Robert Sullivan
1 Credit
Wednesdays 4:00-5:00
This semester we will immerse in the films of one of the most enigmatic and challenging directors of our era, Terrence Malick. Malick’s films range from scripted narratives to more experimental approaches and engage viewers in profound aesthetic and philosophical questions. Each of his ten films to date, from Badlands to A Hidden Life, will be made available for viewing and each Wednesday we will convene to work through.
ENGL 29700 (02) Professional Development Practicum (Graphic Novels)
INSTRUCTOR: Katharine Kittredge, Muller 317, Ext. 4- 1575
ENROLLMENT: 10
PREREQUISITES: none
MEETING TIMES: Thursday 10:50 AM-12:15 PM
OBJECTIVES: The "Graphic Novel Advisory Board" is a group of IC students who get together to review children's and teen's graphic novels. They share their findings with rural librarians and discuss ways for them to enhance their collections of graphic novels. The group puts out a monthly newsletter reviewing a wide range of graphic novels. This 1.5 credit experimental course is a great opportunity for anyone interested in education, promoting reading, or marketing/publishing graphic novels. If the pandemic allows, we also host community events promoting reading and collaborate with ITHACON to provide a whimsical reading room.
FORMAT/STYLE: Small group collaborative activities, regular writing assignments, weekend site visits.
GRADING: Performance of assigned tasks, participation in site visits, regular writing assignments, end-of-semester assessment based on personal goals (may involve event planning, reviewing, editing, or doing website enhancement), reflection on event and personal achievement.
ENGL 31900-01 GREAT AMERICAN WRITERS BEFORE 1890
Topic: Declarations of independence; revelations of confinement
3 CREDITS
ICC ATTRIBUTE: Writing intensive
INSTRUCTOR: Hugh Egan, 306 Muller
ENROLLMENT: 20 students
PREREQUISITES: 9 credits in the humanities.
MEETING TIMES: MWF 1:00-2:10 PM
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Throughout its relatively short recorded history, America has trumpeted itself as an exceptional experiment in nationhood—a democratic, self-reliant citizenry that serves as a model to the world. In this class we will interrogate some of the assumptions behind the idea of "American exceptionalism" and the myth of the "American dream." Beginning with accounts of European contact, we will follow the “new world” theme through the Puritan, Colonial, and Transcendental eras, through the Civil War to the brink of the 20th century. In one sense, the cultural trajectory of this course traces a familiar path—from a sense of early expectation and unlimited potential to the sobering realities of human pain and historical contingency. Throughout the term, we will examine how America's declarations of independence often reveal or conceal painful episodes of confinement— literal enslavement and also psychological imprisonment. To trace this theme, we will read a variety of American documents, including religious sermons, political treatises, philosophical essays, autobiographies, poems, short stories and, at the end of the term, a novel by Kate Chopin.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Largely discussion.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Three 5 page essays, and a substantial end-of-term research project. Grading will be A-F.
ENGL 31200-01 DRAMATIC LITERATURE II
4 CREDITS--ASI
INSTRUCTOR: Dan Breen, 302 Muller, ext. 4-1014
ENROLLMENT: 20 students per section
PREREQUISITE: Any three courses in English, history of the theater, or introduction to the theater.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: What is the nature of the relationship of contemporary theater to the past? This question has acquired a particular urgency in the present for both formal and substantive reasons. Formally, theater is in some ways a generic anachronism: an aesthetic relic from before the time of broadcast media. Substantively, theater can both reflect and challenge aesthetic, social, and political traditions while at the same time highlighting its capacity to serve as a historical and ethical laboratory. We will read a selection of plays from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that confront, reframe, or otherwise engage with certain aspects of the past, including theater’s own past. Authors to be studied include Baraka, Beckett, Brecht, Cobb, Churchill, Friel, Nottage, O’Casey, Schreck, and Soyinka.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion, with some context-setting lectures.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: Two 5-7-page essays, a short (2-3 pages) response paper, a take-home final exam, and class participation. Grading will be A-F. Because of the discussion-oriented format, class participation will be an important part of students’ final grades.
ENGL 36800-01 Dangerous Women in Dramatic Literature HU, LA
TOPIC: Dangerous Women in Dramatic Literature: Over Her Dead Body
2 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Claire Gleitman, 303 Muller, ext. 4-3893
ENROLLMENT: 20 students per section
PREREQUISITE: Sophomore standing and 3 credits in English or Writing.
MEETING TIMES: Monday and Wednesday, 1:00-1:50 PM
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course we will read a range of plays, beginning in the ancient Greek period and extending to the present day, which feature female characters who might be described as “dangerous”—often because they challenge status quo assumptions about femininity and a woman’s role in her society. In each case, we will consider what constitutes female danger in the play and the culture that we are addressing. What norms are being challenged so that the female elicits male fear and violence (and often, also and simultaneously, desire)? What is it about her that is so threatening that she needs to be controlled, contained, and sometimes killed? Is the playwright using her to question the norms that she challenges or to reinscribe them? As we read these plays, we will situate them within their cultural contexts and we will read secondary material (historical and theoretical) to better understand how notions regarding female danger change over time. Our plays will include some or all of the following: Medea, The Oresteia, Othello, The Duchess of Malfi, Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Hedda Gabler, All My Sons, Top Girls, Oleanna, Harlem Duet, By the Bog of Cats.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion, with some context-setting lectures.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: Two 6-8 page analytical essays, frequent short response pieces, a take-home final exam, and active class participation. Grading will be A-F. Because of the discussion-oriented format, class participation will be an important part of students’ final grades.
ENGL 46000-01 Seminar in 20th Century Fiction: The Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro
3 credit
INSTRUCTOR: Chris Holmes
ENROLLMENT: 12
PREREQUISITE: 9 credits in English. Junior or Senior Status
Course Description: This junior/senior seminar will focus entirely on the novels and writings of the Japanese-British writer, Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the most important contemporary novelists writing in English. By the time Ishiguro had won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017, he was already one of the most popular novelists in Britain, and one of the most translated writers in the world. His two most acclaimed novels,The Remains of the Day, the story of a butler living in a Nazi-sympathizer's manor house in England, andNever Let Me Go,a science fiction hybrid novel about school children who are raised for their organs, were both adapted into successful films. We will read most of his published work, including a collection of short stories, while becoming familiar with the tradition of academic writing that has sprung up around his career. Enrolled students will become experts on the work of one of world literature's biggest stars. Assignments will be modeled on a graduate school seminar.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Seminar Discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: One five-page literature review and precis paper, and one 10-12 page research essay. Regular presentations and short writing exercises. A great deal of emphasis placed on regular discussion and preparation of the class materials.
ENGL 46000-02 Studies in African-American Literature HU LA 3A h
TOPIC: Blackness and Racial Satire
4 Credits
ICC ATTRIBUTE: Diversity, WGST-cross-listing
INSTRUCTOR: Derek Adams, Muller 304
ENROLLMENT: 20 per section
PREREQUISITES: one course in Literatures in English
COURSE DESCRIPTION: What is satire? Is satire always humorous? Why do authors choose to satirize? How do you satirize something as abstract and fluid as race? Our course will explore these questions through a series of texts that shake apart traditional expectations surrounding race and blackness. We will situate ourselves in a more contemporary moment, beginning at the early part of the 21st century, a moment where, because of post-racial sentiment, race is treated as non-existent or insignificant. What is the currency of satirizing race in this specific moment? Texts will include Angry Black, White Boy (2005), I Am Not Sidney Poitier (2009), The Sellout (2015), New People (2018), Yellowface (2023).
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion with the occasional lecture
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Students will closely examine course materials, actively engage in class discussions, maintain a reading journal, put together an in-class presentation, and participate in a group podcast.
ENGL 48300-01 ADVANCED STUDIES IN FEMINIST SCIENCE FICTION
3 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Katharine Kittredge, Muller 317, Ext. 4- 1575
ENROLLMENT: 10
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing and either ENGL 214 (Survey of Science Fiction) or ENGL 21500 (DIY SciFi).
OBJECTIVES: Students in this class will be instrumental in running the academic conference to be held at IC in April: Pippi to Ripley 5: Sex and Gender in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Comics. Students will either present an academic paper at the conference or design a community-based project that they will discuss at the conference. Additional time will be spent looking at the abstracts submitted, creating the panels, mentoring newer presenters and designing promotional materials for the event. Some reading and viewing of texts chosen by the students will be mandatory for the class, but the exact nature of these texts will be determined by the class members.
FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, small group, collaborative activities
GRADING: Performance of conference-supporting activities, abstract creation, presentation of project or paper, reflection on event and personal achievement.