English Major Courses
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Introductory Course
Choose one from the following:
ENG 10223 | Contemporary Literature (3 Credits)
Consists of analytical and reflective reading of contemporary (since 1945) American fiction, poetry and drama. Attention to developing techniques for critical reading and writing. Basic course for literature majors and study in the humanities and liberal arts.
ENG 10323 | Introduction to Literature and Film (3 Credits)
Observes interactions between literature and film. Through writings, projects, and discussions, students analyze film versions of classical literature, prose and poetry through borrow filmic techniques and experimental films with literary features.
ENG 10423 | Sports Literature (3 Credits)
AS one of the elective courses for the college-wide distribution requirements, this class aspires to provide students with an introduction to a variety of literary works from several genres of sports literature. These works represent an array of sports traditions and literary genres, from basketball poetry to baseball novels to non-fictional works about football, raising questions about the cultural values expressed and critiqued by sports. In the course of the semester, we will gain an understanding of selected literary texts, as well as an appreciation for the social and cultural forces that produced them.
English Survey Courses
Choose two from the following:
ENG 26023 | Ancient to Medieval (3 Credits)
Engages in primary analysis and response to significant literature from antiquity through the Renaissance.
ENG 27023 | Renaissance to Romantics (3 Credits)
The second of the three English Department survey courses, this class aspires to provide students with an introduction to some of the major literary works and ideological movements of the Western world during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the course of the semester, we will gain an understanding of a variety of texts as well as an appreciation for the social, historical, political, religious, and ideological currents of each era.
ENG 28023 | Victorians to Moderns (3 Credits)
Engages the student in primary analysis and response to significant literature from late nineteenth century Modernism through post-colonial and post-modern configurations.
ENG 29023 | The Postmoderns (3 Credits)
Engages the student in primary analysis and response to significant literature from late nineteenth century Modernism through postcolonial and post-modern configurations.
Dedicated Writing Courses
Choose one of the following:
ENG 31023 | Advanced Expository Writing (3 Credits)
Refinement of expository writing skills through analysis of models and writing practice.
ENG 32723 | Creative Writing (3 Credits)
Course development skills in writing drama, poetry and fiction. Develops critical skills and encourages students to develop tools to refine expression.
Theme-Based Courses
Choose three from the following:
ENG 30004 | IDS: Video Game Narratives (3 Credits)
The course explores narrative elements extant within popular video game titles—such as League of Legends, God of War, and Fallout—considering their valence in popular culture from the mythologies of antiquity to the modern counterparts presented in interactive media. In this class, students will be asked to interrogate the various texts and game sessions by writing papers and analyzing common patterns and themes that transcend genre and medium. Prerequisites: ENG 15525. Cross-listed with LAS 30004.
ENG 30223 | IDS: Reading Relationships (3 Credits)
This course unpacks the theme of human relationships - romantic, filial, obsessive, and otherwise - through the reading of such works as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine, and Andre Aciman's Call Me by Your Name, viewed through the lens of history and shifting cultural values. Cross-listed with LAS 30223.
ENG 31100 | IDS: Baseball Literature (3 Credits)
An examination of a variety of literary works written about baseball from its inception to the present, focusing on the ways they represent or call into question the social, historical, and political currents that produced them. Readings may include Malamud's The Natural, Greenberg's The Celebrant, and the poetry of former Kansas City Royals pitcher Dan Quisenberry. Cross-listed with LAS 31100.
ENG 33023 | IDS: Image and Text (3 Credits)
Explores how image and text work together to make menaing in contexts such as illustrated literature, film, advertising, visual poetry, performance art, and graphic novels. Readings from fields such as visual cultural studies, semiotics, art history, film criticism, postmodernism, and psychoanalytic theory will illuminate the relationships between image and text, language and representation.
ENG 34023 | IDS: Protest Literature (3 Credits)
A study of the literature of social protest, emphasizing the relationship between aesthetics and politics, or the political purposes of literature. This course will examine how various authors assault the status quo of an often inhumane, brutal, and repressive society. Readings might include works by Richard Wright, Upton Sinclair and Nelson Algren. Cross-listed with LAS 34023.
ENG 33523 | IDS: Environmental Literature (3 Credits)
An examination of a variety of literary works from several genres, focusing on the portrayal of physical environments and the connections between these environments and human spheres of influence. This course will explore how human beings relate to the natural world, and how that relation influences the way we read texts and the world around us, Authors to be studied might include Leopold, Thoreau, Defoe, the Brontes, Wordsworth, Merwin, Snyder and Kingsolver. Cross-listed with BIO 33523 and LAS 33523.
ENG 49901 | IDS: Madness: Multifaceted Approach (3 Credits)
Interdisciplinary seminar which interrogates the literary, artistic, and cultural representations of madness across culture and time. Cross-listed with LAS 49901.
ENG 49950 | IDS: Literature of Personal Discovery (3 Credits)
Questions of identity and self-definition, from agonizing to liberating, in the work of such writers as Dante, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Kate Chopin, Simone de Beauvoir, Ralph Ellison and Anne Sexton.
Seminar Courses
ENG 40123 | Literary Criticism (3 Credits)
Identifies major trends in the history of critical thought from Plato to Derrida. Seeks to discover the position of literary criticism and to apply various critical theories. Library research and writing. Prerequisite: 30000-level English course.
ENG 45023 | Seminar: American Literature (3 Credits)
Analyzes major American literature with emphasis on genre, period or author, to gain understanding of the critical approaches necessary for a thorough investigation of literature.
ENG 45123 | Seminar in British Literature (3 Credits)
Analyzes major British literature with emphasis on genre, period or author, to gain understanding of the critical approaches necessary for a thorough investigation of literature.
Senior Comprehensive Course
Choice of ENG 49023 or ENG 49201
ENG 49023 | Senior Comprehensive (3 Credits)
Examination or project designed to assess the student's acheivement of the goals of his/her major program.
ENG 49201 | Integrative Seminar in Criticism (4 Credits)
Capstone course that guides student in development of an integrative project that demonstrates achievement of the learning outcomes in the English major. Course is organized around the major trends in critical thought and application of literary criticism theories within and across periods and genres.
Full Degree Catalog