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Fall 2009 Graduate Course Descriptions
English 601-1: Research in English StudiesDr. Jackie Grutsch McKinneyThis section of English 601 is an introduction to the various research methods used in the field of Rhetoric and Composition. We will explore ways of researching by reading published research, learning ethical and institutionally-appropriate ways of conducting research, studying the writing of research, and taking on mini-research projects. Particular attention will be given to the art of articulating research questions and selecting appropriate methods for answering such questions--a skill that must be mastered by students before entering the final stage (thesis or dissertation) of their degree.
By the end of the course, students should have a better understanding of how knowledge is made in the field of Rhetoric and Composition historically and presently. Such an understanding is pertinent to those who currently (or intend to) study, teach, or publish in the field.
ENG 601-2: Research in English Studies - LinguisticsThis course is a graduate-level introduction to research methods in linguistics. The course will focus on research methodology: project design, data collection, and data analysis. This course will also introduce students to the writing of grant proposals, abstracts for professional conferences, and review articles. Students will get hands-on experience in working with issues related to original research. As a final paper they will be expected to design a research project (choosing a topic, describing its significance, researching the literature available, and determining the method of data collection and analysis). Students will write an abstract and a literature review for the project and will write a book review of one of the key sources for their topic. The final paper is a complete research proposal.
ENG 603: Reading & Writing Across The Genres (Inspirations)Professor Jill ChristmanThis graduate creative writing class course is designed specifically for MA students in English who are beginning the Creative Writing program at Ball State, but enthusiastically open to all graduate students interested in reading and writing broadly across the genres. This fall we’ll be thinking about inspiration—drawn from visual art, literature, locations, people, and whatever inspires you—as we consider the possibilities inherent in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Class time will consist of discussion of assigned reading, writing assignments and experiments, writer visits (including members of the graduate faculty in Creative Writing talking about their own sources of inspiration), and workshops. Hovering in the back of our minds during the semester will be these questions: 1) what similarities and differences exist among the three genres in terms of inspiration, content, form, and production? 2) what are the sources, benefits, purposes and limitations of each genre? Course requirements will include a class presentation, regular critical responses, exercises and creative assignments in all three genres, workshop critiques, and a final creative, inspired project (in the genre—or genres—of your choice). We will explore sources of inspiration for writers of poetry and prose—and of course, we will scour the museums, the world, and the library shelves for inspirations to spark our own big creative projects that will be the capstone of this course. What is it that you can’t stop thinking about? How do you locate your obsessions and inspirations for your writing? Here are some of things we will study together. Readings will include: Richard Powers’s novel Three Farmers on the Way to a Dance (inspired by a photograph by the same name), Julie Powell’s memoir Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (inspired by Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Joe Wenderoth’s book of poems Letters to Wendy (inspired by Wendy’s—the fast food joint), Susan Orleans’s work of literary journalism The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (inspired by John Laroche, a rare orchids dealer), and Geraldine Brooks’s March: A Novel (inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women—and you know you want a reason to reread Little Women!).
English 605: Foundations for Teaching CompositionDr. Jackie Grutsch McKinneyThose granted the privilege of teaching writing should be prepared; they should be acquainted with of the theories, research, and history of composition, argument, new media, research, style, and rhetoric. We will touch on all of that in this course in order to help teachers of college-level composition, old and new, ground their practices in theory and theorize from their practices. The main goals of the class are simple. I want students who go on (or continue) to teach writing to know more than their textbooks know about composition, so they can teach with confidence. Secondly, I want students to understand enough about the field of Composition Studies in order to navigate in it, draw on its knowledge base, and see themselves as emerging members in it. Students can expect to engage in discussions, readings, collaborative projects, presentations, short papers, and a new media project. ENG 612: Fiction Writing WorkshopBarbara Zimmermann BogueEnrollment in Fiction Writing Workshop, English 612, will draw from students pursuing the Master's Degree in English Studies: Creative Writing, as well as students pursuing the PhD, students pursuing a Master's Degree in English Studies (general, literature, rhetoric and composition), and master's degree candidates from other departments such as journalism. This workshop in graduate level fiction writing builds upon the students' previous experiences in the undergraduate fiction writing workshops; class members will consist of those who have had considerable experience in literature, not all, perhaps, and those who have had considerable experience in writing fiction at the undergraduate level. Those without experience in writing literary fiction should contact me before the semester begins so that I can assign one of the below texts for the student to read and study techniques of the craft of writing literary fiction before the first class. This class will emphasize more than reading or listening to and critiquing each other’s stories; it is the hope of this professor that a community of writers will be forged through support, encouragement, and respect for one another and work produced. The course, which is to be structured upon the submissions of original works of fiction and the critiques by class members of those stories, will also include reading of published stories (Best American Short Stories 2008; only this edition will be used), handouts, and other stories of your individual selection); discussion of and responses as writers (annotations) of those stories; a visiting guest writer or two (funding pending); reading and discussion of essay handouts concerning creative writing in the academy; and assigned out-of-class or in-class writing exercises. I will also ask you to read and respond to one book about writing (or an option to this assignment). Attendance at readings by visiting writers to the Ball State University campus will also be expected. The focus of the class, however, is the fiction writing of each student. These stories are the heart of the class and the most significant element. Stories will be photocopied and distributed ahead of workshop. The English Department requires that the student bear the expense of the photocopies. Texts: Best American Short Stories 2008 (required) Becoming a Writer, Brande (required or approved option) Writing Fiction, Burroway (when appropriate for student)
ENG 617: Methods for Teaching English Language LearnersThis course is designed to help teachers of K-12, post-secondary and adult students understand, recognize and address the language acquisition challenges of non-native English speakers, both in the U.S. and abroad. Students will consider the various methods that have been/are used to teach ESL/EFL. In addition, students will be encouraged to apply what they know about second language acquisition theories to help them develop a principle-based approach to teaching ESL and EFL. ENG 621: Meaning and Structure in English: Approaches to Modern English GrammarA critical and in-depth study, from a semantico-pragmatic/discourse-functional and cognitive linguistic perspective, of aspects of Modern English grammar especially significant for the teaching of EFL/ESL and for further linguistics study. Key theoretical linguistic concepts will be introduced throughout the course in conjunction with the study of particular grammatical phenomena. Since it is not possible to cover in one semester all important aspects of the grammatical structure of English, an essential feature of the course will be to develop students’ critical thinking skills about the structure of English and to provide students with the knowledge and resources to continue to learn on their own. Specifically, students will develop their analytical skills about the structure of English in order to adequately handle needs such as the following in their future teaching: EFL/ESL error diagnosis and correction, evaluation of treatments of grammar in teaching materials, and answering EFL/ESL students’ questions grammatical phenomena inadequately treated in the professional literature. A basic understanding of traditional English grammar concepts is assumed. ENG 627: SociolinguisticsCarolyn J. MacKayThis course is a graduate-level introduction to sociolinguistics that investigates how social structure influences the way people talk. We will focus on the correlation between language use and regional differences and the correlation of language use and social factors such as age, sex, social class/network, ethnicity, and identity. The course will be conducted as a seminar; therefore, active participation in class discussions is expected and encouraged. The main requirements for the course are 2 papers. The first paper will discuss in detail an aspect of linguistic variation of interest to the student (e.g. Chicano English, the use of 'like', uptalk, the origin on Africam American Vernacular English, the Northern Cities Shift, Gullah, features of women's language, etc.) and the second paper will involve the students in data collection and the analysis of features of language use.
ENG 643: American Realism & NaturalismDr. Kecia Driver McBrideThe purpose of this class is to explore the literary, historical, and cultural representation of American literary realism, focusing primarily on the late 19th and early 20th century. We will discuss as well the simultaneous and overlapping movements of naturalism, determinism, and regionalism (or local color fiction); the framing movements of mid-century transcendentalism/romanticism and early 20th century modernism; as well as the continuing influence of these movements on contemporary American literature and culture.
(Potential) Texts: W.D. Howell, Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) Henry James, The Portrait of A Lady (1908; first edition 1881) Frank Norris, McTeague (1899) Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900) Stephen Crane, Great Short Works of Stephen Crane (1893- 1900) Kate Chopin, The Awakening (1899) Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (1905) Willa Cather, My Antonia (1918) Evelyn Scott, The Narrow House (1921) Ann Petry, The Street (1946) William Faulkner, (so many choices. . . TBA) James Nagel and Tom Quirk, eds. The Portable American Realism Reader Short fiction by local color and regionalist writers
ENG 647: African American LiteratureThis course will focus on the Harlem Renaissance, a pivotal movement in African American arts and letters that flourished between World Wars I and II. We will read poetry, prose, drama, and fiction by some of the leading figures of the literary movement: Langston Hughes, Nelia Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Richard Wright. We’ll also read work by lesser known authors like Sterling Brown, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Angelina Weld Grimké, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Wallace Thurman. We’ll look at some of the major anthologies and organs of the day: James Weldon Johnson’s path-breaking Book of American Negro Poetry, Alain Locke’s The New Negro anthology, the collaboratively-edited Fire!!, and selected issues of Crisis, among others. We’ll contextualize the movement through its aesthetic, historical, and political milieus, considering work by such figures as Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, W.E.B. DuBois, and Marcus Garvey. We’ll also read some of the precursors to the movement – Paul Dunbar, Charles Chesnutt – and some more contemporary texts that speak to its legacies – Black Arts writers and Toni Morrison’s Jazz, for instance. In addition to a major seminar paper, students will also complete at least one short paper or book review and an in-class cultural presentation; regular and substantive participation in class discussion will also be required.
ENG 650: Remembering The HolocaustProfessor Frank Felsenstein‘Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence’ (Sholem Asch, The Nazarene, 1939) ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning’ (Psalms, 137.5) Exactly seventy years after the start of World War 2, this graduate seminar will focus on the impulse to promulgate the Holocaust as the single most defining experience of the twentieth century. We shall question why the Holocaust should still have relevance to those growing up at the advent of the new Millennium. When those that witnessed it are no more, will there be an obligation to preserve and make iconic the memory of such an unspeakable crime against humanity? Is it not best to forget -- and forgive? If so, why has Indiana (along with a growing number of other states) now mandated the teaching of the Holocaust in its schools? In the seminar, we shall investigate the disparity between the comparative silence in the years immediately after World War 2 and the cultural spotlight upon the atrocities and sufferings of the Nazi era in recent times (dubbed, perhaps cynically, by some as the “Americanization of the Holocaust”). We shall also explore the question of “authenticating” the trauma of the Holocaust, and why there are many who describe themselves as second or third generation survivors. We shall consider the continuing influence of the Holocaust and of genocide on religious belief (where was God?), on education (have we learned any lessons? how do we explain to the next generation?), on Jewish and Christian relations, and more broadly, on the cultural imagination. Particular aspects that will be given prominence are the documentation of the Holocaust by witnesses through diaries, and memoirs, and its literary and cinematic representations. Although this does not purport to be a sequential study of the history of the Nazi era, students will be encouraged to keep a course journal in which they should chart the progression of their thinking about the Holocaust and its significance.
ENG 660: British Authors - James Joyce"Whose Joyce Is It?" Even in this post-canonical age, scholarly interest in James Joyce shows no signs of slowing: a cursory MLA search shows 78 articles, monographs, and book chapters listing Joyce as a subject in 2008 alone. In this seminar we will read in all of Joyce’s major works (yes, that means Finnegans Wake!) as we collaboratively construct a critical history of Joyce, re-examining what his work has meant to multiple generations of scholars. Among the many “Joyces” we will encounter: Joyce the international cause-celebre, the Irish Joyce, the cosmopolitan Joyce, the modernist Joyce, the post-modernist Joyce, Joyce the deconstructionist, the colonial, “semi-colonial,” and/or postcolonial Joyce, the feminist or misogynist Joyce, the “Quare Joyce.” Critical texts will include works by Joseph Kelly, Margot Norris, Sean Latham, Derek Attridge, Kevin Dettmar, Colin MacCabe, Colleen Lamos, Declan Kiberd, Bonnie Kime Scott, Andrew Gibson, and others. Written work will include a seminar paper; an annotated bibliography focusing on one trend in Joyce criticism; and multiple short “close reading” papers.
ENG 669: Contemporary British Literature: Postmodernism and HistoryDr. Joyce Huff George Santayana’s aphorism, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” has become a commonplace today. But postmodern and poststructuralist theories have led us to question whether the act of remembering is ever simple or innocent. Each act of remembering constructs a new version of the past. For example, the way we narrate past events is driven by whether we assume that history follows a path that is linear, cyclical or fragmented. Are we progressing toward a goal, falling from a state of grace, renewing an ancient pattern or trying to make sense of random events? The writer’s beliefs in this regard affect how he or she will represent the past. And this is not the only concern a reader brings to current representations of the past. For instance, how does our awareness of historical master narratives affect our reading of such texts? Are writers supporting dominant narratives of gender, race, etc…, replacing them with alternative narratives or exploding the very idea of history as coherent narrative? How do writers represent characters from the past? Do they seem to buy into ahistorical ideas of enduring human nature or into historicized notions of identity as a cultural construct? Do they have faith that they can reconstruct a past worldview or do they abandon any notion of historical accuracy and instead purposefully juxtapose ideas and beliefs across historical and cultural boundaries? How does the age of Thatcherism and New Labour, postcolonialism and devolution, Mods and Rockers and Cool Britannia, the Sexual Revolution and queer activism represent the age of steam? How does this (re)construction serve contemporary needs and interests? These are the questions that will drive our class discussions in 669 this Fall. In addition to theory texts, possible primary texts for study may include (but are not limited to): A.S. Byatt’s Possession, Pat Barker’s Regeneration, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs, John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, poems by Stevie Smith, Carol Ann Duffy and Eavan Boland and others. Course requirements will include a short paper, a seminar paper, presentations and participation in discussion, both in class and on-line. ENG 690: Seminar in Composition - Cognition, Composing, and Emerging MediaProfessor Paul W. Ranieri This course probes the nature of "composing," its relationship to "cognition" and "development," the emergence of new media, and the implications for designing pedagogy for the first-year writing classroom. We will study relevant theories of composing, cognition, and emerging media, and then collaborate on a project to design a non-print, “textbook” for first-year writing that successfully scaffolds student learning. Individual projects can be built around the group project or seek to design pedagogy in an area of specific interest. ENG 696: Nineteenth-Century RhetoricDr. Linda Hanson
This course will survey
nineteenth-century theories of rhetoric and composition that established
the roots of contemporary teaching practices. We will examine identified
trends, key primary and secondary texts, and the factors that
contributed to shaping those trends. The primary focus of the course
will be intellectual inquiry into the 20th century
perceptions of nineteenth-century rhetoric and the shifts in those
perceptions over the last 20-25 years. Class activities will include
reports on readings, group discussions, reaction papers, and a position
paper on independent research. A primary goal is for each of us to
articulate our views of nineteenth-century rhetoric in papers of
publishable quality. REQUIRED TEXTS: Herzberg, Bruce, and Patricia Bizzell. The Rhetorical Tradition, 2nd ed. Bedford, 2001. Golden, J., and E.P.J. Corbett. The Rhetoric of Blair, Campbell, and Whately, Southern Illinois, 1990. Johnson, Nan. Nineteenth-Century Rhetoric in North America. Southern Illinois, 1991. Selected readings on electronic or BL reserve.
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