SPRING 2019 COURSES

600 Level Courses

  • ENGL 601 – Methods of Interpretation (Required Core Course)
    • An advanced study of contemporary literary theory, its methods and practices, and an investigation of its value for research in the discipline and for the practice of literary criticism.
  • ENGL 604: Advanced Topics in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (Category C Graduate)
    • Topic: John Milton: Poetry, Revolution, and Radical Religion
      This seminar analyzes the poetry, prose, and political career of John Milton. Like Shakespeare, Milton has had an incalculable influence on English-language literature. A radical Protestant and a revolutionary member of Oliver Cromwell’s government, Milton was also a linguistic genius whose poetry earned him a prominent place in a tradition stretching back to Homer. We will read such important works as “Lycidas,” Comus (a masque), his sonnets, and Areopagitica, Milton’s famous call for freedom of the press. The semester concludes with Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes, both written after the interregnum when Milton was under house arrest. (Combined with ENGL 451)
  • ENGL 610 – Seminar in Genre Studies (Elective)
    • Topic: The Bible as Literature
      The Bible is the single most influential text in English literature and writers have retold its stories for centuries. The Bible owes it origins to such intertextuality; it is a collection of writings by many people, in different languages, over a vast period of time. We’ll explore this fascinating book’s literary qualities though several genres including narrative, poetry, prophecy, and wisdom literature in texts drawn primarily from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). These works may appear simplistic but reveal themselves to be endlessly and deliciously complex. Discussions will be informed by literary and biblical scholarship. No prior biblical study required. (Combined with ENGL 410)
  • ENGL 625 Material Culture and Production (Category A or B Graduate)
    • Topic: Black Cultures in the Digital Age: Race, Communication & Technology
      This course explores the intersections of race, ethnicity, discourse, media, and communication systems. In addition to introducing students to social theories, cybercultures, and other aspects of digital communication, students will explore issues of representation, identity, education, justice, inequality, and power. Students will also grapple with the impact of digital media on social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, as well as its impact on more traditional African-American rhetorical themes (racial uplift, the African-American Jeremiad, etc.) and rhetorical practices (call and response, signifying, African-American Vernacular English, etc.) in conjunction with online networking activity (Black Twitter) and the creation and maintenance of Black public spheres. Students will engage and compose a variety of multimodal texts with attention to the evaluation and application of rhetorical theory to digital media and communication technologies. (Combined with ENGL 493.03)
  • ENGL 631 – Contemporary Issues: Texts and Contexts (Category A or B Graduate)
    • Topic: Baltimore: Race, Rhetoric, and Technology
      What does The Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide published during the Jim Crow era, have to do with the 2015 Baltimore Uprising? Why do residents in certain Baltimore neighborhoods have a life expectancy that is 14 years shorter than those in other neighborhoods? How does the ability to move in and beyond the city affect the lives of Baltimoreans? In this course, we will work to answer questions like these. Using a historical perspective that unravels the complex intersections among race, rhetoric, technology, we will explore how these intersections have materialized in various ways from the abolition of slavery to the digital era. In addition, we will work through community partnership to archive how Baltimoreans work to challenge and remake these intersections in productive ways. In doing so, we will seek to better understand the challenges that Baltimore faces today and the possibility for hope in Baltimore’s future. (Combined with ENGL 493.01)
  • ENGL 692 – Topics in Rhetoric and Composition (Category A Graduate)
    • Topic: The Discourses of Happiness
      In this course we will examine the concept of happiness from three perspectives: philosophic, psychologic, and literary. We will ask how happiness has been defined in these traditions and how practitioners in each believe it can be achieved. Throughout the semester students will work to develop their own theories of happiness. Among the philosophers we may read are Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, and Dewey. Psychologists may include Argyle, Nettle, Haidt, and Frankl. Works of literature may include pieces by Alice Walker, Albert Camus, W.E.B. Du Bois, Leo Tolstoy, and Willa Cather. (Combined with ENGL 493.02)

700 Level Courses

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