English Course Offerings

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Spring 2027 Undergrad Courses

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EH 300: INTRO TO LITERARY STUDY || RACZKOWSKI
TR 12:00 - 1:45

city, n. 1. A place to live, usually with corrupt mayors and lots of pollution. The real world is only in the city, not on Ole McD's Farm. – Urban Dictionary

This simultaneous repulsion and attraction to the City (it's corrupt / it's the real world) animates a lot of twentieth-century literature and film. Think of this class as a semester long study of literature's strange, conflicted fascination with the modern city that aims to instruct students in the fundamental practices of literary study: close reading, literary analysis, research, and ironic eye-rolling.

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EH 310: CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY || McLAUGHLIN
MWF 1:25 - 2:15

In this course, we will examine canonical texts (such as The Iliad and The Odyssey) that recount the myths, legends, and folktales of ancient Greece and Rome. As we explore how Greek mythology metamorphosed in the hands of Virgil and Ovid, we will combine an analysis of the role specific myths played in Greek and Roman culture with an assessment of the philosophical, political, psychological, and/or social significance these myths continue to hold in our own.

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EH 315: CHAUCER || HALBROOKS
TR 11:00 - 12:15

Chaucer is at the same time the most welcoming and the most unknowable of poets. His personable narrative voice and his self-deprecating poetic personality seem so simple, and yet they mask dazzling complexity, poetic subtlety, and political ambivalence. This course will survey the major works of this essential poet, especially The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. No prior knowledge of Middle English is required. 

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EH 363: AMERICAN NOVEL SINCE 1945 || ST. CLAIR
TR 2:00 - 3:15

Does Chaucer make you anxious? Have you had enough Shakespeare? Are you tired of reading dull books by dead people? Then we've got the course for you. A survey of the contemporary American novel, EH 363 features fiction by real, live humans. It will be glorious.

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EH 371: APPROACHES TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR (W) || BEASON
MWF 11:15 - 12:05

So what is a dangling participle anyway? EH 371 offers students a valuable intellectual and practical skill: the ability to analyze and describe in technical terms how a given sentence is structured (beyond just saying it does or doesn't "flow"). While the course was originally developed for students planning to teach English courses at the secondary level, EH 371 is useful for just about anyone wanting to edit, write, analyze literary texts, teach non-native speakers of English, practice law, or learn more about the English language. EH 371 is also a W-course and can help fulfill the W-course requirement for English majors and many other students.

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EH 372: TECHNICAL WRITING (W) || BEASON
MWF 1:25 - 2:15

How can you effectively convey specialized or technical information in the workplace—to readers whose expertise with this information can vary greatly? Whether your field of study deals with health care, the sciences, the computer industry, the liberal arts, or almost any field of study, this course can assist you with varied types of workplace writing and editing. EH 372 can also help satisfy the W-requirement and count as an English elective for most English majors and minors.

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EH 372: TECHNICAL WRITING (W) || GUZY
MWF 9:05 - 9:55 or 11:15 - 12:05 

The purpose of this course is to train students in the kinds of written reports required of practicing professionals, aiming to improve mastery of the whole process of report writing from conceptual stage through editing stage. This course will introduce you to types of written and oral communication used in workplace settings, with a focus on technical reporting and editing. Through several document cycles, you will develop skills in managing the organization, development, style, and visual format of various documents.

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EH 390: THE TWILIGHT ZONE || GUZY
MWF 1:25 - 2:15

This course will examine the original The Twilight Zone series (1959-1964) through the lens of irony, including sociopolitical irony, technological irony, invasive irony, domestic irony, and martial irony. Through close viewing and written analysis of milestone episodes, students will learn to identify key narrative concepts and production techniques and to trace the show's legacy throughout popular culture over the past six decades.

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EH 402: RHETORIC - ANCIENT AND MODERN (W) || SHAW
TR 9:30 - 10:45

Beginning with the early sophists of Periclean Athens and ending in the twenty-first century, with emphases on ancient and modern rhetoric, this course examines and compares various movements in the history of rhetoric, focusing on the relationship between rhetorical strategy and theories of ethics and politics. The course aims to increase the scope of students' understanding of rhetoric and help them apply this knowledge to their own communication and to their evaluation of the communications of others.

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EH 475: NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE || HARRINGTON 
TR 12:30 - 1:45

Focusing on novels and stories from the nineteenth century, this class will look at the way these engaging texts comment on significant political and social issues of the day, including the Woman Question and manhood, varieties of sexuality, religion and morality, atavism and degeneracy, human psychology, class, and empire and the nation, as well as their relationship to the marketplace. We will cover works by Austen, Dickens, Emily Brontë, Collins, Thackeray, and Conrad.

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EH 478: STUDIES IN FILM: ADAPTATION || McLAUGHLIN
MWF 12:20 - 1:10

The topic of this course is adaptation, and thus we will be watching films and reading the novels, novellas, or short stories upon which they have been based. The two central and interrelated questions we will explore are how and why screenplay writers and film directors choose to deviate from or align themselves with the original texts in the ways that they do. In order to tackle these questions, we will look at pairings such as Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, and Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Story; Jack Clayton's The Innocents (screenplay written by Truman Capote) and Henry James's gothic novella, The Turn of the Screw; and Joyce Chopra's Sundance-winning Smooth Talk and Joyce Carol Oates's "creepy classic" "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" 

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EH 480: GENDER AND LITERATURE || HILLYER
MWF 1:25 - 2:15

We will examine conceptions of gender as presented in a range of texts dating from the seventeenth century through the twenty-first. We will begin by studying excerpts from an anonymous courtroom-drama—Swetnam the Woman-Hater, Arraigned by Women—that houses the first recorded instance of the word "misogynist" (1620). Additional readings will include plays by Shakespeare, short stories by John Updike, poems by Dorothy Parker, and two recent novels: Sierra Greer's Annie Bot and Sarah Gailey's Upright Women Wanted.  

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EH 481: COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC (W) || BEASON
MWF 10:10 - 11:00

Been feeling programmed, controlled, and indoctrinated? Our world is full of messages designed to persuade you — even when the author thinks s/he is providing objective information. Should we not realize what these messages are — and whether they are manipulative, benign, or "good"? To answer such questions, this course will draw on varied rhetorical approaches that analyze texts and put theory into practice.

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EH 485: ADVANCED POETRY WRITING || JORGENSEN
T 6:00 - 8:30

In this course, we will read some of the foundational theories of poetry informing contemporary poetics to apply these concepts to our own writing. We will look at essays by Viktor Shklovsky, Gertrude Stein, James Longenbach, and Ellen Bryant Voight, in conversation with collections by writers publishing today such as Sasha Debevec-McKenney and Jericho Brown. Workshop will be a significant component of the class.

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EH 487: SCREENWRITING FOR FILM || CULLITY
W 6:00 - 8:30

In this screenwriting workshop, we will concentrate on craft elements such as character and story, and learn how to properly identify the structure of a three-act film. Through our readings (including film scripts), film screenings, and craft-oriented assignments (including a film pitch), we will work towards the completion and polished revision of the first act of a three-act screenplay or, for those who want the challenge, a rough full draft.

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EH 497: ADVANCED CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING || CULLITY
MWF 2:30 - 3:20

Our readings, springboards for initial writing exercises, will enhance our comprehension of how creative nonfiction can be constructed. In writing workshops, we'll focus on defining and producing all that is creative nonfiction, including memoir, personal essays, lyric essays, and literary journalism. We'll also talk about revision as part of the writing process, and where you can send your work when it's ready to submit for possible publication. 

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Spring 2027 Graduate Courses

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EH 501: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THEORY || VRANA
T 3:00 - 5:30

EH 501 provides an introduction to some of the most essential debates within and approaches to critical theory and literary criticism. We will read excerpts by important theorists grouped topically and focus on effective methods of bringing these wide-ranging lenses to two primary texts of contemporary African American literature. Discussion, written responses, presentations and two papers will develop students' facility and comfort with engaging theory going forward, regardless of the particular object of analysis.

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EH 507: TOPICS IN RHETORIC / COMPOSITION || O'CONNELL
M 6:00 - 8:30

In this class, we will explore digital writing and rhetoric! We will gain skills for analyzing, creating, researching, and teaching digital writing. Topics include histories of writing technologies, GenAI, social media, careers in digital writing, access to technology, circulation of online texts, accessibility, usability/UX, online surveillance, and web design. Our final project will involve researching a digital writing topic of your choice and representing this research through HTML/CSS webpages.

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EH 513: STUDIES IN CHAUCERS || HALBROOKS
R 2:30 - 5:00

This course will survey the major works of the most important writer of the English Middle Ages, as well as the vast history of Chaucerian scholarship and criticism. Major texts will include the Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and a selection of the Dream Visions.

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EH 548: NATIVE AMERICAN FICTION || CESARINI
W 6:00 - 8:30

Students will read novels and short stories by Native American writers active from about 1940 until the present, such as Darcy McNickle, N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, and LeAnne Howe. Our study will be to understand as much of each writer's Native/national culture and history as needed to understand and appreciate their works of fiction. Graded work will consist of short weekly assignments and two longer essays.

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EH 577: SOUND IN LITERATURE || ST. CLAIR
R 6:00 - 8:30

Want to learn how to hear literature? In EH 577, we'll listen to a handful of contemporary novels and discuss the ways in which music, sound technology, and audible culture increasingly shape literary fiction of the contemporary era. In addition to the readings, coursework in this graduate seminar will include presentations and final project.

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EH 581: SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP || CULLITY
W 6:00 - 8:30

In this screenwriting workshop, we will concentrate on craft elements such as character and story, and learn how to properly identify the structure of a three-act film. Through our readings (including film scripts), film screenings, and craft-oriented assignments (including a film pitch), we will work towards the completion and polished revision of the first act of a three-act screenplay or, for those who want the challenge, a rough full draft.

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EH 585/6: GRAD POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP I/II || JORGENSEN
T 6:00 - 8:30

In this course, we will read some of the foundational theories of poetry informing contemporary poetics to apply these concepts to our own writing. We will look at essays by Viktor Shklovsky, Gertrude Stein, James Longenbach, and Ellen Bryant Voight, in conversation with collections by writers publishing today such as Sasha Debevec-McKenney and Jericho Brown. Workshop will be a significant component of the class.

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EH 589: CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING || CULLITY
MWF 2:30 - 3:20

Our readings, springboards for initial writing exercises, will enhance our comprehension of how creative nonfiction can be constructed. In writing workshops, we'll focus on defining and producing all that is creative nonfiction, including memoir, personal essays, lyric essays, and literary journalism. We'll also talk about revision as part of the writing process, and where you can send your work when it's ready to submit for possible publication.

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