FALL 2018 COURSES

600 Level Courses

  • ENGL 604: Advanced Topics in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (Category C Graduate)
    • Topic: Pilgrimage and Material Culture: This course explores how pilgrimage narratives reflect very material modes of knowing in late medieval culture, through relics, bones, badges, paraphernalia, and the relic trade. We will study pilgrim traffic to the historical Tabard Inn in brothel-populated Southwark (London), and the pilgrimage “contract,” to understand commercial aspects of pilgrimage. How did medieval persons navigate material signs to make meaning of their world? Do objects have agency? Texts include Mandeville’s Travels; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; Guillaume de Deguileville’s Pilgrimage of the Life of Man; Dante’s Divine Comedy; Bill Brown’s Other Things; the Pilgrim’s “Guide to Santiago de Compostela”; and medieval anti-pilgrimage writings.
  • ENGL 607: Language in Society (Core Requirement)
    • Topic: Rhetorical Theory and Analysis: Rhetoric has traditionally been understood as the persuasive use of natural language. In the last 100 years, this conception has been extended in ways that allow us to see how other symbols systems, technological mediums, and even things function rhetorically. In this class, we will we will read from a variety of theorists (e.g., Aristotle, Cixous, Du Bois, Latour), examine how their theories have been applied, and analyze texts using these theories. The class will culminate in students demonstrating their ability to analyze rhetorically a set of texts in multiple ways.
  • ENGL 625: Material Culture and Production (Category A or B Graduate)
    • Topic: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine: While most people recognize the science of medicine, its social, cultural, and persuasive dimensions also play central roles in defining health and treating illness. This course examines symbolic practices related to health and medicine, with a focus on rhetorical strategies employed by physicians, health professionals, patients, and advocates. Class readings will cover scholarship in various disciplines as well as popular writing from newspapers, websites, blogs, and social media. Discussions and assignments will emphasize connecting theories of rhetoric and communication with current health debates, including how discourses of medicine intersect with issues of race, disability, gender identity, sexuality, and socioeconomic status.
  • ENGL 648: Seminar in Literature and Culture (Category B Graduate)
    • Topic: World War I: Poetry and Prose: World War I, known as the Great War, lasted from 1914-1918. Nearly 10 million soldiers and 8 million civilians died across Europe. The war eviscerated a generation of young men. Many of these men, along with some women, wrote striking verse, novels, and memoirs about their experiences. In this course, we will analyze their powerfully articulate reactions to trench warfare, poison gas attacks, food shortages, medical relief, the Conscription Act, and conscientious objection. Students will read such English, German, and French authors as Sassoon, Owen, Graves, Apollinaire, Rosenberg, Kipling, Brittain, Jünger, and Brooke.
  • ENGL 664: Advanced Topics in Women and Literature (Category B Graduate)
    • Topic: American Periodical: Many of the early United States’ most influential women writers first published their work in American newspapers and magazines. These writers-whom Nathaniel Hawthorne notoriously labeled “a damned mob of scribbling women”-were crafting serial novels, advocating abolition and enfranchisement, discussing fashion and child-rearing, agitating for laborers’ rights, and provoking political debate in the space of the periodical. This course will consider how periodical writers harnessed this print medium’s distinctive potential to challenge conceptions of womanhood and experiment with literary form. Authors may include Judith Sargent Murray, Margaret Fuller, Pauline Hopkins, Louisa May Alcott, Ida B. Wells, and Zitkala-Ša.

700 Level Courses

Please also check other graduate offerings in MLLI, GWST, AMST, and LLC
for courses relevant to your interests.