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Undergraduate Course DescriptionsCurrent upper-level English courses are described below. For descriptions of all English courses, refer to the Undergraduate Catalog. Spring 2007Special Topics
Creative Writing
Linguistics and TESOL
Literature
Rhetoric and Composition Senior Seminars
SPECIAL TOPICSEnglish 299X: Introduction to the Holocaust, section 2TR 11-12:15 Introduction to the Holocaust is a multi-disciplinary course designed for students with backgrounds in either Literature, Political Science, History, Psychology, Religious Studies, Anthropology, and Sociology. Our readings will span this gamut from non-fiction essays to poetry. Students will spend roughly half of the semester studying the historiography of the holocaust from the rise of Anti-Semitism in the nineteenth century and the birth of the Nazis in the 1920's, to the final trial of the arch-Nazis at Nuremberg in 1946 and the birth of the State of Israel two years later. The second half of the course will delve deeper into moral and ethical issues raised by the Holocaust since 1945, which will include readings and discussions on issues such as Holocaust Denial, Modern Memorialization in Europe and America, and The State of Israel. Students will be expected to complete a midterm examination, and either a final exam or a final project of their choice, to be worked out with the instructor. Roughly every other week, students will also be viewing various video material from archival propaganda and concentration camp footage to modern treatments of the Jewish experience in Auschwitz. Some of the films we will be viewing are: Triumph of the Will, Night and Fog, Shoah, Downfall, Very Bad Things, and V is for Vendetta. Contact: bmblackwell@bsu.edu English 400 (Special Topics): The Uses of History in Creative WritingM 6:30-9 p.m. In this special topics course, we will read creative works (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry) that are rooted in or inspired by actual events—and then we will produce such texts ourselves. We’ll consider how writers—like us—use and explore facts (historical, scientific, autobiographical, etcetera) to find something true. What inspires and/or directs a writer to take material in one genre direction or another? Does core material lend itself more readily to a particular genre? If so, why? As part of our excavation of this question, and in order to find inspiration for our own attempts, we’ll look also at work written in different genres but produced by the same author. For example, how does the same event—say, the death of a son or the Civil War—form the core of both fiction and nonfiction? Or fiction and poetry? Where does history end and fiction begin? What are the ethics attached to this often blurry boundary? What’s the difference between poetic license and big fat lie? Class time will be divided between discussion, writing exercises and workshops of student work. Written requirements will include both regular critical responses and short writing assignments, as well as one long final creative project. The booklist is still in development, but is likely to include work by Virginia Woolf, David Foster Wallace, Michael Ondaatje, W.G. Sebald, and Beverly Lowry. Contact: jcchristman@bsu.edu English 402, Crossroads, Crossovers, Crossfades: Cultural Mixing in Rock & Rap Music, section 1MWF 1-1:50 This course will trace the history of rock and rap music, focusing on moments when African-American music attracted white admirers, imitators, collaborators, and thieves: the emergence of rock and roll in the mid 1950s; the British “invasion” and blues revival of the 1960s; punk and reggae collaborations in the 1970s; and hip hop’s dominance of American popular culture since the 1980s. We will also explore the roots of African-American popular music in gospel and the ports of the African diaspora, especially the Caribbean. The course will provide an introduction to cultural studies as a methodological approach to analyzing popular culture. Featured artists: Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Van Morrison, Bob Marley & The Wailers, The Clash, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, Eminem, The Roots. Texts: Craig Werner, A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race & The Soul of America; Jeff Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation; numerous essays Contact: lonkey@bsu.edu CREATIVE WRITINGEnglish 299X, section 1MW 5-6:15 This introductory course focuses on the basics of scriptwriting and puts those basics into practice. Though not a pre-requisite, this course serves as an introductory course for ENG 410. Coursework will include assigned readings, viewings, and short writing exercises. Discussions and lectures will focus on the above. Students will emerge from this course having read a variety of materials including film and television screenplays and scriptwriting texts. The class also will incorporate in-class viewings of short films (and clips from full-length productions) to help illustrate concepts and techniques. Writing will consist of short, regular assignments that will give students a chance to practice fundamentals such as developing characters, crafting a scene, writing and thinking visually, writing dialogue, and developing story structure. Students will look at their own work and the work of others to develop critical skills, and submit constructive feedback to their peers. These assignments will help develop a foundation for students, with at least one short screenplay serving as a larger, final project. Contact: jcking@bsu.edu English 307: Fiction Writing II, section 1W 6:30-9:10 The course centers on the fundamentals of the short story—original language, three dimensional characters, complex plot—and with an emphasis on the student’s ability to write clearly and dramatically. Writing is revision and close reading—of one’s own work, peers’, and published writers’. The course includes workshops on students’ original works and in-depth class discussions of the techniques of craft employed by authors recognized in the field. Writing exercises and in-class readings of the same encourages and nurtures the imagination and the confidence to recreate the fictional dream on the page. The class provides an audience and the opportunity to create a community of writers who respect each other and the art form. The course is designed for those who wish to develop their story writing skills, as well as for those who plan to continue the study of writing fiction in English 407. Contact: bbogue@bsu.edu English 406: Creative Nonfiction III, section 1TR 12:30- 1:45 This is a creative nonfiction workshop that will focus on the shaping of a range of personal narratives and the navigation of those slippery spaces between remembering and forgetting, truth and invention, experience and research. In order to write well, we must read, and so we will split our time between workshops of student and the discussion of published texts. Our reading list will include an anthology of creative nonfiction (probably In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, ed. Lee Gutkind), as well as a selection of memoirs, diverse in both subject and form, such as: Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, Bill Buford’s Heat: An Amateur’s Adventure as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, Lauren Slater’s Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, and Doug Crandell’s Pig Boy’s Wicked Bird. We’ll read greedily with a writer’s attention to style and technique as we get in the practice of asking the questions that are essential in the crafting of real-life material: How much do we trust the narrator and why do we care? How do we decide what to put in and what to leave out? What do we consider risky either personally or technically? How is memory constructed on the page and how does forgetting it fit in? What’s the difference between invention and lying? What responsibility do we have to history? How does solid research and interviewing contribute to our construction of nonfiction narratives? How do our expectations as readers change when we’re told something is nonfiction? How do our obligations as writers change? And so on. My hops is that when we apprentice ourselves to the books on our reading list, we will practice the habit of art, honing our technical skills while we locate the patterns in our lives and the world that have something to say about human condition. Over the course of the semester you will write two essays (6-8pp) and a final long revision (12-16pp). Other requirements will include: quizzes and short writing exercises, creative reading responses, and workshop critiques. Contact: jcchristman@bsu.edu English 407: Fiction Writing III, section 1TR 3:30-4:45 In this class we will continue many of the concepts of English 307, with an expectation of advanced complexity. The class will focus on student manuscripts in the genre of short fiction. We will give critical feedback on these student texts. We will underscore the necessity of careful and considered revision. Writing is an art and craft, creative inspiration blended with very hard work. In this class, we will focus on the work—reading, writing, discussing fiction, both professional examples and our own personal writing. We will continue our examination of craft and technique. The majority of the class will be dedicated to workshop, or peer review, of your own original fiction (knowing this, you shouldn’t submit any work that you aren’t comfortable sharing with the class). Every student is expected to thoroughly read their peers’ work, and to give thoughtful and respectful feedback (including emails prior to class, written comments on the actual text, and verbal comments during the class meeting). Readings will include Telling Stories edited by Joyce Carol Oates, along with handouts and stories on reserve and/or Blackboard. Contact: salovelace@bsu.edu English 408: Poetry Writing III, section 1MW 3-4:15 In Poetry Writing 3 we will read and discuss at least five collections of poems by contemporary poets. We will talk about how the authors attempt to unify these collections, and look closely at the dazzling number of formal choices poets make in their work. Groups of students will present each book to the class, and help focus discussion on relevant questions. The readings will help inspire the poems written for the class, inform the way we discuss student work, and offer strategies for writing and revision. Students will write ten poems, and complete a variety of other assignments, including presentations, readings, quizzes, and written reading responses. At the end of the semester students will turn in a portfolio of poems and an essay on prosody. We will read essays about poetry and six books of poems. Possible texts include: John Berryman's The Dream Songs; Susan Somers-Willett’s Roam; Kevin Young’s Jelly Roll; Brian Turner’s Here, Bullet; Inger Christensen’s alphabet; and Legitimate Dangers: Poets of the New Century. Contact: maneely@bsu.edu English 409: Creative Writing in the Community, section 1TR 5-6:15 This course is designed for writers to practice the techniques of characterization, point-of-view, setting, & conflict so that in any genre or form, language takes on new meaning, intensity, and originality. Students will work with participating social services agencies (Big Brothers Big Sisters, Heritage Retirement Village, Hillcroft Services, Inc., and VSA arts of Indiana), meeting at least five times with a partner from one of these agencies in order to develope a broader perspective of the complex ways through which individuals cope with their situations and environments. Through the student’s assistance, an often-unheard voice will shape a story that will be read and heard. Storytelling involves all of the techniques of fiction writing mentioned above and also applies to poetry and creative nonfiction. This immersive experience offers the opportunity for the students to learn about themselves through others and to become more productive citizens of the local and academic communities. Contact: bbogue@bsu.edu LINGUISTICS AND TESOLEnglish 328: Language and Gender, section 1TR 12:30-1:45 Do men and women talk differently? How and why? What are the implications of differences in language use on social relations? How can we research these questions? This course is designed to provide a detailed examination of the relationship between language and gender. Because language use is one of the most important factors influencing our judgments about others, it is important to understand how biological sex and gender roles are involved in those judgments. We will describe and analyze differences in the way that men and women use language (including differences in pronunciation, word choice, grammar, conversational norms, and narrative styles). In addition we will look at cross-cultural studies of language and gender and the patterns of language socialization of girls and boys. Western European assumptions about language use will be assessed in light of this cross-cultural evidence. This course will use the methods and analyses taken from linguistics, anthropology and psychology in an effort to describe and explain the nature of gender differentiation in speech. We will focus not only on what researchers have hypothesized about these differences, but also on what original research by the students can add to the discussion. Contact: cjmackay@bsu.edu English 436: Theory and Research in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, section 1M 6-8:40 p.m. This course introduces theories and research in TESOL. The overall objectives of this course is to understand the mechanisms and the phenomena of language learning, in particular, English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL), and to apply that understanding to ESL/EFL teaching and research. To this end, the course approaches TESOL theories and research based on second language acquisition (SLA) theories and research with various perspectives, such as nativist, interactionist, cognitivist, and social-constructivist. The course also examines non-linguistic factors, such as age, attitudes, and motivation, and educational issues surrounding ESL/EFL learners and teachers. Contact: mhamada@bsu.edu English 438: TESOL Assessment and Curriculum Development , section 1W 6-8:40 The purpose of this course is for students to learn how to 1) effectively develop courses and create materials for English Language Learners and 2) assess learner progress in the classroom. Specifically, students will learn about developing courses and materials to meet the specific needs of English Language Learners at various levels of proficiency, implementing what they have learned with English Language Learners. In addition, students will learn about informal classroom assessments, as well as formal assessments, such as NCLB and Indiana state standards. Contact: lstallings@bsu.edu LITERATUREEnglish 346: Studies in Nineteenth Century American LiteratureTR 2-3:15 p.m. Romantic writers of the mid-nineteenth century are too easily seen as aloof artists disengaged from the great social issues of their day. But not in this class. Together we will read a selection of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction that illustrates the connections between Romanticism and social criticism, focusing on some key issues in the American reformist agenda: the “woman question,” industrialization and technology, war, slavery, the environment, and westward expansion. Part biography, part literary history, part archival detective work, and part interpretation, this course will include some works you have likely heard of (Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables, Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and selections from Walden, Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century, and others) and some that may be unfamiliar to you, such as Susan Warner’s Wide, Wide World, Francis Parkman’s Oregon Trail, Frank Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends, and stretching the period just a bit, Sarah Orne Jewett’s Country of the Pointed Firs. Requirements, besides the reading and participation in discussion: two exams, a final exam, short oral reports, and a short (8-10 page) paper. Contact: rhabich@bsu.edu English 364: Restoration and Eighteenth Century Studies: Consuming Empire in Eighteenth Century Literature, section 1MW 3-4:15 The eighteenth century witnessed the development of the “first” British empire, a period marked by the expansion of the English presence in North America, the Caribbean, and the East-Indies (India and the Spice Islands) and the loss of the American colonies in the later decades of the century. In the process of expanding both their colonial territories abroad and their extensive trading networks around the globe, the British empire, in many respects, was an empire of consumption. For the most part, overseas activity was driven by the desire of English people for exotic goods. Chocolate, tea, coffee, tobacco, furs, Indian textiles and, above all, sugar produced by African slaves in the English West-Indies (Barbados, Jamaica and Bermuda) were the main products of the English trade networks and imperial ventures. Yet, another important by-product of imperial activity was the literature of empire, a domestically produced commodity that helped to shape the ways in which the English nation imagined itself. This class will investigate the role that fiction played in promoting what Laura Brown calls “the ends of empire,” while, at the same time, paying close attention to the ways that literary texts and other writings betrayed contemporary suspicions of imperial activities or outrightly condemned them. Through this investigation, we will come to a closer understanding of the conflicting ways that writers and readers consumed the English empire. Readings will include: Aphra Behn’s The Widdow Ranter; or the History of Bacon in Virginia (1689), early novels by Behn and Daniel Defoe, slave narratives by Englishmen, satires on English colonialism by Henry Neville and Jonathan Swift, and various renditions of the most popular colonial narrative of the day, that of “Inkle and Yarico,” an English trader and the Native American woman that he seduces and then sells into slavery. Contact: arbeach@bsu.edu English 425: Film Studies, section 1TR 9:30-10:45 This course is designed to introduce students to the complex connections between narrative and the visual media, particularly film. We will explore the fundamentals of how film as an art form communicates meaning, specifically how the narrative system of a film interacts with the stylistic system to create the thematic/affective system. Also of concern is the method of production for films: how they are created and positioned in the market, how they shape and are shaped by culture, and the importance of audience and reception to the process of creation. While our primary focus will be film narratives, we will also discuss the particular challenges involved in literary adaptation, drawing from novels, plays, and “fact” as primary sources. A central goal of the course is to train students to watch films more closely, enhancing both their understanding and enjoyment of filmic narratives, and to investigate film as a tool for organizing meaning. Contact: abjohnson@bsu.edu ENG 464 Shakespeare, section 1MW 3:00-4:15 A survey of representative plays by English literature’s most significant author. We will read and study a selection of comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. Audio-visual selections and dramatic readings are included. Course requirements include three exams, a term paper, and a final exam. Please contact Webster Newbold if you have questions about the course. Contact: wnewbold@bsu.edu or 285-8377 English 493: U.S. Ethnic Literatures: Ghost Stories and Cultural Haunting, section 1TR 5-6:15 This course will consider ghost stories from a variety of ethnic traditions, with an emphasis on the idea of cultural haunting and preservation. We will pay particular attention to conflicts between memory and forgetting, physical and spiritual realms, faith and materiality. What causes cultural haunting? What do ghosts signify? Are ghosts positive or negative manifestations? Or both? How can ghosts be placated (and should they be)? Likely texts for the course include Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer, Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban, Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman, Maxine Hong Kingston’s Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Contact: dmmix@bsu.edu RHETORIC AND COMPOSITIONEnglish 335: Writing and Reading Public DiscourseTR 12:30-1:45 p.m. Description forthcoming. SENIOR SEMINARSENG 444: Senior Seminar: The Story That Changed My Life: Narrative Theory, Representation, and “Truth” in Literature and Film, section 4TR 12:30-1:45 In this seminar, students will explore ideas they have picked up from other courses, putting them together in such a way that they realize they already know a good bit about narrative and the theories that inform it. We will look again at story/discourse, motivation, audience, voice, perspective, form, and history, and build on these concepts to discuss how readers and writers craft representations, assess “truths,” and construct meaning. We will read a variety of richly textured novels, plays, and nonfiction pieces from the 19th and 20th century (choosing several of the following authors: Samuel Beckett, Emily Bronte, William Faulkner, E.M. Forster, Kazuo Ishiguro, Henry James, Adrienne Kennedy, Anne Lamott, Gloria Naylor, Marilynne Robinson, Arundhati Roy, Evelyn Scott, Zadie Smith, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Wolf). The course will also discuss the ways in which cinema and literature share, refine, contest, and display narrative conventions, and several films will be included on the syllabus. Contact: kdmcbride@bsu.edu English 444: Senior Seminar: Anglophone Caribbean Literature, section 2MWF 11:00 This course will provide students with an introduction to 20thc. Anglophone Caribbean literature. We often study literature according to national boundaries. This course will instead explore a region united by language and the experience of European colonialism. We will begin the course by examining representations of the colonial encounter in European texts. We then move to 20th c. texts written by Caribbean writers from Jamaica, Trinidad, Antigua, Guyana and other islands. We will focus on topics such as the effects of colonization and the slave trade; literature and nation building; calypso, dub and the oral tradition; women writers and gendered definitions of “nation”; the effects of tourism; and the historical and imaginative connections between the Caribbean, Africa, the United States and Europe (aka “the Black Atlantic”). Texts will include: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven; Fred D'Aguiar, Feeding the Ghosts; Jamiaca Kincaid, A Small Place; V.S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas; Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory; Dick Hebdige, Cut N Mix: Culture, Identity, and Caribbean Music Contact: lonkey@bsu.edu
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