Course Directory

Eng Drama 1660-1850

Presents some of the major forms of drama in this extremely varied 200-year period, with possible focuses on heroic tragedy, Restoration comedy, sentimental comedy, Victorian melodrama, and the precursors of modern English drama. No prerequisite. Fall, even-numbered years.

Modern Drama To 1950

Surveys influential dramatic literature of the Continental, British, and American theater from 1850 to 1950 through lectures, discussion, and experiences related to the modern stage. No prerequisite. Spring, even-numbered years.

Contemporary Drama

Explores the diversity and vitality of British, American, and World theater since 1950 through selected texts and theatrical experiences. No prerequisite. Spring, odd-numbered years.

Movie Genres

Explores genre as sets of narrative conventions that have vitalized American movies. Demonstrates genre to be a socializing force as well as a mirror of social change. Considers representations of race, gender, and class in various genres. Spring, odd-numbered years.

Topics In Folklore

Provides intense study of one or more aspects of folklore study. Focuses on one or more folk groups, a particular folk genre, folklore and popular culture, or folklore and literature. Offers students a fieldwork experience-collection, transcription,classification-and methods of analysis of oral traditions. No prerequisite. Spring, annually.

American Voices

Provides an introduction to American dialectology and sociolinguistics. Emphasizes the great diversity and vitality of American English. Covers the causes and mechanisms of linguistic changes, the role of language differences in society, and the relevance of dialectology to language teaching. Pays special attention to the regional speech patterns of Pennsylvania. No prerequisite. Spring, odd-numbered years.

Topics In World Lit

Provides an in-depth study of world literature through the examination of the development of a particular literary genre, movement, or theme that crosses national or cultural boundaries; or a significant national or cross-cultural English language tradition that falls outside the conventional canons of British and American literature. Fall, odd-numbered years.

Topics Lit Theory

Provides a historical study of literary criticism and aesthetic theory with emphasis upon modern trends. Spring, even-numbered years.

Rhetor Thy For Writers

Explores such questions as why do we communicate in writing, how does writing help us learn, how does writing facilitate, change, or affect the nature of communication? Students examine in detail the works of figures such as Plato, Cicero, Nietzsche, Bakhtin, Derrida, and Kristeva, and study how rhetorical theory is used in everyday communication. Prerequisite: Exemption from or successful completion of the general education writing requirement.

English Study Off-Campus

Provides students with an opportunity to travel to significant literary and historical sites while reading and discussing related texts. Students would travel during university breaks and would meet with the instructor for orientation prior to trave,"l. After travel is completed, students will turn in assignments according to a schedule developed by instructor. No prerequisite. Spring, even-numbered years on demand.

Literature and Medicine

Explores the broad range of literature (short fiction, novel, poetry, memoir, drama/film) that expresses the human experiences of illness, disability, healing, and dying from the perspectives of patients, caregivers, and health care practitioners (physicians, nurses, allied health professionals). The course will emphasize social and historical contexts and represent the diversity of these experiences, especially in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, and class, with further consideration of the influences of scientific and technological advances over time. Prerequisite: Exemption from or successful completion of the general education writing requirement.

Literature Of Aging

Explores the broad range of literature (short fiction, novel, poetry, memoir,drama/film) that expresses the human experiences of aging and depicts images of aging and the aged, with a focus on aging in relationship to identity, love, family, and community and on the concerns of independence/dependence, loneliness/alienation, friendship, faith, creativity and renewal, ageism, death, and bereavement from literary and social scientific perspectives. Prerequisite: Exemption from or successful completion of the general education writing requirement.

Images Women Lit

Examines images of women in myth, literature, and the culture at large and applies contemporary feminist critical approaches to the study of these images. Spring, annually.

Gender, Lit, Popular Culture

Examines representations, issues, constructions of gender in literature, myth, and popular culture. The focus and theme will vary. Applies feminist, queer, and cultural theory to the texts. Prerequisite: Successful completion of ENG 111, and sophomore standing.

Language And Culture

An introduction to linguistic anthropology. Focuses on the main areas of intersection between language and culture. Topics may include: animal communication systems; primate language studies; the evolution of language; linguistic diversity; linguis,tic relativity (a.k.a. the Sapir/Whorf Hypothesis); language endangerment and revival; nonverbal communication; linguistic field methods; ethnopoetics; sociolinguistics; language and identity; language and gender; and the ethnography of speaking. Fr,"om an examination of such topics, students will learn to see how people use language to create and maintain their cultures, and to recognize the ways in which language itself influences human thought and behavior.|

Documentary Writing

Examines the historical, social, literary, and rhetorical significance of the genre of documentary writing combined with practice of the genre itself. Emphaszizes documentary writing as a means of witness, inquiry, and persuasion. Students select a field site and use ethnographic and ssecondary research to produce a portfolio of documentary essays. Historical and current examples of documentary writing will provide models for students throughout the course.

Chaucer

Studies in Middle English of Chaucer's early poems, Troilus and Criseyde, and the Canterbury Tales. Spring, even-numbered years.

Adv Creative Writing

Advanced course for experienced creative writing students. Provides independent and extensive explorations into a creative writing project. Helps prepare students for future writing careers and/or graduate school in creative and professional writin,g. Prerequisite: ENG 202 and ENG 301 or 303 or 304 or permission from instructor. Offered: Every other Spring.

Studies In Medieval Lit

Examines medieval British literature (ca 800 - 1550) in its historical and cultural contexts. Content will vary. May focus on a genre (epic, remance, saga, drama, poetry, saints'lives, and allegorical pilgrimage), major writer (Gawain-poet, Malory),or theme (such love and violence, the nature of evil, the monstrous). May be repeated twice for credit provided that content (topic and texts) change. Prerequisite: Successful completion of or exemption from the general education writing requirement; upper-level standing or permission of instructor. Fall, even years|

Studies In Arthurian Lit/Film

Examines texts and issues in Arthurian tradition, from early medieval to modern. Texts will vary, but may include Chretien de Troyes' Arthurian Romances, Sir Thomas Malory's Morte D'arthur, Tennyson's Idyllis of the King, T.H. White's Once and Future King, Zimmer-Bradley's Mists of Avalon and the films Excalibur, Lancelot and King Arthur. Texts may be approached through the lens of genre, historical development, cultural/political context, depiction and development of characters.

Shakespeare: Com & Hist

Provides study and discussion of problems of style, characterization, and motivation in Shakespeare's maturing and experimental comedies and his history plays. Also examines how the plays reflect and challenge the cultural attitudes of Shakespeare's time. Fall, annually.

Shakespeare: Trage & Rom

Provides study and discussion of problems of style, characterization, and motivation in Shakespeare's tragedies and romances. Also examines the production practices of Shakespeare's time and contemporary production approaches. Spring, annually.

The Novel Across Culture

Examines the genre of the novel from an international perspective, with readings from several national or cultural traditions. Includes an overview of theoretical approaches to the novel that focus on its adaptability across national and cultural borders. Spring, even-numbered years.

Stud In Drama & Theory

Provides an intensive exploration of drama, concentrating especially on contemporary developments in both drama itself and in the theoretical study of drama, including recent critical developments in ethnic, feminist, and performance approaches to dramatic texts. Focus of course varies. No prerequisite.

Intro To Linguistics

Presents key concepts and basic analytical procedures common to many contemporary linguistics theories. Covers phonetics and phonology, morphology, and syntax in detail. Analyzes the integration of these sub-systems in the overall design of a generative grammar. Prerequisite: ANTH/ENG 262. Fall, annually.

Hist-Eng Lang

Studies the history of the language, including its origins and changes in structure, usage, pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, and meaning. Intensive readings in Old and Middle English. Spring, even-numbered years.

Lang Across Cult: Mat & Assess

Introduces current research in first and second language acquisition with emphasis on the preparation of classroom teachers and other professionals to work with children/adults coming from a background where languages other than English are spoken.,"Prerequisite: ENG 262 recommended but not required. Spring, odd-numbered years.

Independent Study

Permits students to explore an area of special interest in the English language or its literature. Students must develop a plan of study, secure the approval of a member of the English faculty willing to supervise the project, and submit the plan tothe department chair. Maximum credits--six. Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing.

Meth Teach Eng Non-Nat Speak

This course provides an overview of the current trends in Teaching English as a Second Language Methodology. It will explore techniques that may be used to teach students who are part of the regular classroom but who need to develop skills in langua,"ge to be able to succeed. Techniques involving speaking, reading, writing and listening activities will be discussed along with interactive exercises utilizing the culturally diverse language styles found in a regular classroom. Students will be trained to utilize the comprehensible input of native-speaking members of the class as well as to improve upon their own interaction style. Major approaches and methods in language teaching such as grammar translation, audiolingualism, communicative l|

Second Language Acquisition

This course provides an overview of the current state of the art in Second Language Acquisition studies and explores the linguistic, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic factors in learning a second language. Pre-requisite: ENG 262.