Fall 2004

Queens Campus

ENG 2200: Introduction to English Studies (74052)
M.W.F. 10:10 - 11:05 a.m.
Dr. Derek Owens
“So You Want to Be an English Major”
Writing summaries, analyses, arguments, abstracts, & proposals; conducting online, library, and ethnographic research; exploring modes of reading literature, nonfiction, theory, cultural studies, visual studies; investigating the profession, pedagogical approaches, conferences, journals, the job market: all of this and more.

ENG 2200: Introduction to English Studies (74067)
M.W.F. 2:30 - 3:25 p.m.
Dr. Margaret Kim
The text and what to do with it are central to English studies.  In this course we will work on close reading of the text, and thinking about approaching literature in different ways, in political, cultural, and historical contexts, and in different genres.  We will read poems, novels, short stories, as well as non-fiction.
 
ENG 2200: Introduction to English Studies (73121)
T.R. 10:45 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.
Dr. Joanne Neff
The purpose of this required methods course is to prepare students for their future in the English concentration.  We will emphasize close reading and effective critical writing.  Our major texts are Emily Dickinson’s poetry, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.  Occasionally, we will watch the video tape versions to “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”  As a result of our studies, students will expand their awareness of culture and its literary representations.

ENG 2300: Introduction to Literary Criticism & Theory (74071)
T.R. 10:45 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.
T/B/A
An introduction to the history of critical theory, with emphasis on contemporary literary theory, and its practical application.

ENG 2300: Introduction to Literary Criticism & Theory (74066)
M.W.F. 3:35 - 4:30 p.m.
Dr. Willard Gingerich
The course is an introduction to literary theory and the practice of criticism, designed for English majors, secondary education students specializing in English, and anyone wishing to become a more serious reader of literature and other texts.  The course will survey some primary texts of the critical tradition and will touch on many different theories of reading and the construction of meaning and art through language, from prehistoric practices of oral tradition to the debates of structuralism and post-structuralism, Marxism, feminism, cultural studies and other movements.  Concentration will be on the 20th century.

ENG 3130: Shakespeare: The Elizabethan Plays (74065)
M.W.F. 10:10 - 11:05 a.m.
Dr. Lily Alexander
A close study of approximately seven plays representative of the genres of history, comedy and tragedy and expressive of Shakespeare’s early idealism.

ENG 3150: Elizabethan and Jacobean Plays (74060)
T.R. 7:35 - 9:00 a.m.
Dr. Steven Mentz
Popular Drama in Early Modern England
What makes plays popular?  Why did the plays performed in the newly-built public theaters of Elizabethan London become so popular with theatergoers in early modern England?  These two questions – one about theater itself, the other about the history of the public stage in early modern London – frame this course’s investigation of Elizabethan and Jacobean plays as the most durable literary products of the English Renaissance.  While many plays were performed at court or in private theaters, the public stage dominated the theatrical marketplace: playwrights earned their keep by writing plays that were popular with paying crowds, rather than simply by catering to elite tastes.  These plays mix high and low cultures; they were written by University graduates and penniless hacks, acted by aspiring gentlemen and boys, and produced in a boisterous, dangerous, and untidy culture.  The playwrights themselves were a combustible mix: one (Ben Jonson) was tried for murder (he killed an actor), and another (Christopher Marlowe) may have been assassinated because of his work as a spy.  We will read a representative sample of six plays by popular early modern playwrights: the outrageous Christopher Marlowe, the self-educated and pugnacious Ben Jonson, the proto-Bohemian Robert Greene, the urban con man Thomas Dekker, and the company man Francis Beaumont.  We will explore theatricality as a literary and extraliterary discourse, a space for “play” outside of official cultural norms, and a new career opportunity for the educated and unemployed.  The course will conclude with a very famous play – Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I – which will we consider less as an intellectual investigation of politics and succession and more as a play that participates in popular dramatic culture: a play about being king of the stage as much as king of England.

ENG 3250: Victorian Literature (72281)
T.R. 3:05 - 4:30 p.m.
Dr. Joanne Neff
The Victorian era (1838-1901) is filled with contradictions.  Its literature, remembered frequently for its prudishness, is extensively coded with double meanings.  It is the era of religion and Darwinism, of laissez-faire economics and the Communist Manifesto, of patriarchal power and rising feminism.  In this course, we shall examine gender, class, and economics within their nineteenth century literary and historical contexts.  We will read essays that provide the framework for understanding three of the key texts of Victorian Britain: Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.

ENG 3340: American Realism and Naturalism (74058)
T.R. 10:45 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.
Dr. Jennifer Travis
This course will examine how American writers in the years from the Civil War to the First World War set about representing and analyzing American social and political life. Topics include: the changing status of individuals in the face of economic expansion, representations of immigrants and issues of cultural dislocation, westward expansion, the changing status of women, and the problems faced by newly freed slaves.

ENG 3410: Modern Fiction (74061)
T.R. 9:10 - 10:35 a.m.
Dr. Stephen Sicari
This course will trace the developments in technique and theme in the Modern British Novel, from the turn of the twentieth century with Conrad until the beginning of the Second World War with Woolf. The Novel as a genre was inaugurated in the eighteenth century largely as a response to new economic and political conditions that demanded a new understanding of the individual, and the novel always delights in portraying the experience of ordinary people doing ordinary things.  But as the genre develops through the nineteenth century, the space for the individual to act and to will seem to narrow considerably with the development of Realism and Naturalism, the latter especially.  At the turn of the twentieth century, the plight of the individual seemed desperate, to the point where Joyce begins Dubliners with these words, “There was no hope for him this time.”  The Modern British Novel seeks to break apart narrative in order to make more room for individual agency, and to bring historical and political concerns from their former usually background role into open conflict with the individual, playing out the tension between inner and outer, private and public, individual and society.  The novelists to be read: Conrad, Forster, Ford, Joyce, Woolf, and Lewis.

ENG 3500: Classical Literature (74405)
M.W.F. 12:20 - 1:15 p.m.
Dr. Bernard Cassidy
A study of Western writers from Homer and the Greek tragedians through the Roman period, ending with St. Augustine.

ENG 3580: Postcolonial Literature (74062)
T.R. 1:30 - 2:55 p.m.
Dohra K. Ahmad
This class provides a general introduction to the formidably large category of twentieth-century literature from the parts of the world that spent some time as colonial holdings.  We will read a wide range of fiction, poetry and drama, considering each text as a product of its historical circumstances while also paying close attention to literary style and compositional choices.  The category of writing called “Postcolonial Literature” came into being, of course, through the process of European colonialism (and in some cases American neo-imperialism); therefore, the syllabus falls into the general areas of historical experience that we can call colonialism (or imperialism), decolonization (or nationalism), and post-colonialism (or neo-imperialism, or migration).  However, a central goal of the course will be to challenge the evolutionary paradigm that such a schema may seem to imply.

ENG 3610 (=CLS 1290): Classical Drama in Translation (74541)
M.W.F. 9:05 - 10:00 a.m.
Dr. Robert Forman
We will read as many of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides as possible, and make comparisons with modern works wherever appropriate.  The comedies of Aristophanes and closet plays of Seneca, so important in themselves, will serve primarily as tools to the historical underpinnings of the three tragedians.

ENG 3690: Special Topics in Literary & Cultural Studies (74054)
T.R. 4:40 - 6:05 p.m.
Dohra Ahmad
"Global Vernaculars"
In this class we will read a broad range of twentieth-century vernacular fiction and poetry from England, Scotland, Ireland, the Caribbean, Nigeria, New Zealand, Australia and the United States.  As Nigerian poet and novelist Gabriel Okara wrote in 1963, the only accurate way to convey “African ideas, African philosophy and African folklore . . . is to translate them almost literally from the African language native to the writer.”  Therefore, Okara “endeavored in my words to keep as close as possible to the vernacular expressions.”  The result is a highly stylized form of prose known variously as non-standard, creole, pidgin, or in KenSaro-Wiwa’s words “rotten English”; students of American literature will also recognize this approach from the works of Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston and others.  Careful readings of these texts will bring a greater understanding of language politics, authenticity, and the relationship between author and narrator. Thinking as readers and as writers, we will unravel the choices that every author makes in presenting characters, settings and stories.  While maintaining close attention to aesthetic matters, we will also consider these works in their particular historical contexts, examining the import of vernacular writing in an era of globalization.  Can we understand vernaculars as stubbornly local phenomena, expressions of transnational hybridity, or both?

ENG 3720: Introduction to Creative Writing (74057)
M.W.F. 12:20 - 1:15 p.m.
Dr. Adeena Karasick
Focusing on a wide range of poetic writing strategies, this course will aim to both workshop poems and explore a variety of contemporary experimental procedures and poetic praxes.  With particular attention to the construction of genre, form, analysis and revision, we will track through some of the most significant postmodern texts of poetic thinking, and ground them within a historical-cultural framework.  In addition, this course will also provide students with continual information on upcoming readings, performances, open mics, slams and other poetry-related events in the city.

ENG 3730: Poetry Workshop (74056)
T.R. 1:30 - 2:55 p.m.
Prof. Lee Ann Brown
This workshop will alternate between reading poetry and essays on poetics as models for our own works, and round-table group critique of the new work we write.  Both traditional poetic forms and experimental forms will be presented and enacted.  An articulation of poetics, public distribution of creative work and attendance of public literary events is required.  No prior experience writing poetry is required but you will be expected to pursue and develop a daily writing practice during the run of the semester.

ENG 3740: Creative Writing: Fiction (74073)
W. 4:40 - 7:25 p.m.
Prof. Thomas Philipose
This fiction writing workshop will focus on your writing and your thoughts.  We will not rely on the thoughts/styles/critiques of others to help us become careful readers and diligent writers.  An experimental and non-traditional approach will be encouraged to help elicit fresh, unique work that reflects the individual writers in our workshop.  The majority of our classwork will entail reading and discussing your stories.  We will use texts from various genres/media as guides for discovery of what your voice/style can be.

ENG 4992: Seminar in American Literature (74053)
M.W.F. 9:05 - 10:00 a.m.
Dr. Granville Ganter
U.S. Native American Literary Traditions
This course will primarily be a study of modern Native American prose fiction, but it will include important non-fictional works that have shaped contemporary U.S. Native American literary identity. Major fiction writers will include Mourning Dove, McNickle, Momaday, Silko, Erdrich, and Alexie.  We will also read from an anthology of U.S.-based Native American myths, selections early Native American political oratory, and non-fictional accounts of U.S. removal and extermination policies, such as The Life of Black Hawk, the account of Chief Joseph’s battles with U.S. troops, and Black Elk Speaks (which gives the Sioux account of the death of “Long Hair” ---General Custer---at Little Big Horn).

ENG 4994: Seminar in Themes/Genres (74070)
M.W.F. 11:15 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.
Dr. Derek Owens
Utopia/Dystopia
This course will consider utopian and dystopian novels, focusing in particular on 20th century speculative fiction and science fiction.  Our conversations will touch on feminist utopias, intentional communities, internet utopias, and apocalyptic future forecasts.  Readings will likely include selections from The Utopian Reader; William Gibson’s Neuromancer; Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker; Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower; Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake; Lois Lowry’s The Giver; Joanna Russ’s Female Man; and David Harvey’s Spaces of Hope.  Depending upon your interests, writing projects can include analytical essays, theoretical musings, pedagogical explorations, or fiction.

Staten Island Campus

ENG 2100C: Literature and Culture
This course maybe taken by non-majors for St. John’s College Core credit and for majors as an elective.  The course addresses specific topics that place literature in the historical context of its culture.

ENG 2100: Literature and Culture: “The Early Modern Life of Crime”
M.W.F. 10:10 - 11:05 a.m.
M.W.F. 1:25 - 2:20 p.m.
Dr. Melissa Mowry
Moll Flanders, Jonathan Wilde, Moll Cutpurse, and Mary Carleton were all notorious criminals during their lifetimes.  In this class we’ll read several fictionalized accounts of their lives to understand what fascinated, enthralled, repelled, and otherwise captivated the English imagination.

ENG 2100: Literature and Culture
T.R.  1:30 - 2:55 p.m.
Dr. Isabella Winkler
In this course we will examine poems, short stories, novels and philosophical texts with a critical eye toward the difference between productions of fiction and description of fact.  By studying a variety of phenomena as sources for cultural critique, including advertising, addiction, and depictions of individuality and community, we will uncover the cultural fables and allegories that make our world appear coherent.

ENG 2200: Introduction to English Studies
M.W.F. 11:15 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.
Dr. Robert Fanuzzi
This class teaches the fundamentals of literary scholarship and critical thinking through engaging examples and assignments. A selective survey of world literature and independent research projects help students gain confidence and skills for thinking on their own.  Required for English majors.

ENG 2300: Literary Theory
T.R. 10:45 a.m. - 12 :10 p.m.
Dr. Isabella Winkler
In this course we will examine how contemporary critical perspectives inform and limit the meaning of literature.  We will test these approaches on short stories, poems and the occasional novel, asking such questions as, Why does theory seem to be concerned with “minority” perspectives?  Is theory an afterthought to literature or an integral part of it?  How does theory affect our understanding of what a text is, and what it means to read?

ENG 3300: Colonial American Literature
M.W.F. 10:10 - 11:05 a.m.
Dr. Robert Fanuzzi
The attraction of Indian life to supposedly civilized Americans; an epidemic of promiscuity and a rejection of perental control; and, of yes, the founding of a nation.  There are just some of the challenges that had to face.  The various political, social, and cultural problems that accompanied the transition of the  United States from colony to nation make this one of the most fascinating literary periods in American history.  Writers include Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, William Brockden Brown, Mary Rowlandson, and Hector St. Jean Crevecoeur.

ENG 3110: Chaucer
T.R. 1:30 - 2:55 p.m.
Dr. Diane Cady
Students will learn to read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in their original Middle English and in their historical and social contexts.  Although a medieval text, we will see that this rich and important work explores a number of seemingly modern concerns, such as economics, gender, race, ethnicity and class.

ENG 3170: Milton
M.W.F. 11:15 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.
Dr. Melissa Mowry
As the author of the English epic poem, Paradise Lost, John Milton is often celebrated as one of the greatest English writers to ever live.  But Milton was also a man of his time and a man very much embroiled in conflicts of his time.  This class will examine Milton’s major prose an poetry as well as the writings of some of his contemporaries to see how people in the seventeenth century used religious language to imaginatively discuss politics, gender, and social policy.

ENG 3250: Victorian Literature
M.W.F. 12:20 - 1:15 p.m.
Dr. Amy King
A study of the genres and functions of literature of Victorian Britain, with emphasis on the emergence of the professional writer as revolutionary, sage, and social critic.

ENG 3320: Nineteenth Century American Fiction

ENG 3460: Contemporary Drama
T.R. 10:45 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.
Dr. Stephen Paul Miller
We will oscillate between science plays (i.e., Arcadia and Copenhagen) and aburdist (i.e., Angels in America) plays.

ENG 3490: Special Topics in Modern Literature: “Literature and Disease”
T.R. 9:10 - 10:35
Dr. Isabella Winkler
This course looks at literary representations of illness, especially those with recent histories like hysteria, depression, AIDS, allergy, ADD, addiction.  We will read short stories, plays and novels that discuss disease not only as metaphors for social ills or human failings, but as models for ways of relating to the world.  Although depictions of disease often perpetuate social hierarchies of gender, race and class, they also provide us with such figures as the parasite, the virus, or the allergen, which as we will see, are not always contaminants to be avoided.

ENG 3720: Intro to Creative Writing
T.R.  9:10 - 10:35
Dr. Stephen Paul Miller
In this class we will write discursive, lyric narrative, and descriptive poems; plays that directly engage an audience and dialogic plays; and short short stories, creative non-fiction, and fiction.

ENG 3730: Creative Writing: Poetry
M. 7:00 p.m.
Prof. Laura Maffei
Learn to love language like you never have before.  Express yourself like you never have before. This course will introduce you to the joys of reading and writing poetry. You will learn about the elements of different kinds of poetry, old and new, and more importantly, you will hear, feel, and taste poetry in the vibrant way it should be experienced.  The workshop-style format of this course will be friendly and encouraging.  By the end of the semester, who knows what may come out of your pen?

ENG 3740: Creative Writing: Playwriting
T.R. 1:30 - 2:55 p.m.
Dr. Stephen Paul Miller
We will break drama down to basic elements.  We will write one-character, two-character, three-character, four character and multi-character plays.

ENG 4991: Senior Seminar in Victorian Literature: “The English Novel and the Everyday”
M.W.F. 1:25 - 2:20 p.m.
Dr. Amy King
A study of representative nineteenth-century fiction (with one key foray into the early twentieth century) that emphasizes the novel’s peculiar capacity to capture the “everyday” or the “ordinary ”. We will consider the depiction of everyday and repetitive experiences of life-work, marriage, manners, and usual or recurrent conditions such as shopping, eating, conversing-and the difficulty of building a narrative around such topics.  We will read short selections from a range of theories of everyday life, but will concentrate our efforts on reading a group of representative classical novels by Austen, Gaskell, Eliot, Gissing, Trollope, Hardy, Woolf.