Saint Mary's College



ENLT 106W Becoming American Billy, Ted3.5 Credits 10:00-10:50 MWF & 3:30-4:20 R Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: (upon recommendation of the Instructor) Writing Proficiency This course is in Tandem with History 201W This course deals with the shaping of the American identity from the Colonial Era to the Civil War. We will be focusing on literature that reflects the Puritan cast of thought, the radical perspective of the Transcendentalists, and the Romantic world-view that was shattered by the cultural upheaval of the conflict of North and South. Among the authors we shall read and discuss are Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, and Harriet Jacobs. Course Requirements: two in-class essays, three out-of-classroom analytical papers, a final exam, occasional quizzes, and regular class attendance and participation.ENLT 109W DialogueBonnell, Tom4 Credits 11:00-12:15 MW & 11:00-11:50 F Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: (upon recommendation of the Instructor) Writing Proficiency “Where are you now?” This question begins countless cell-phone conversations for a reason: speech craves a context. To process what someone is saying, we need to assess where they are coming from—both literally and figuratively. The same need factors into our understanding of literature. Wherever dialogue occurs in poems, plays, short stories, and novels, it requires careful scrutiny. Situating speakers within dialogue (determining what they know, what they don’t, what they’re hiding, what they’re feeling, what they want to say, what they might be unable to say, or why they’re talking) is one of the vital aspects of reading, among others, that we will practice on a variety of works.ENLT 109W Philosophy and Fiction Cardinale, Joseph4 Credits 11:00-12:15 MWF & 11:00-11:50 F Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: (upon recommendation of the Instructor) Writing ProficiencyThis course will investigate the intersection between fiction and philosophical inquiry. Through writing and discussion, we will examine a selection of novels and stories that dramatize a range of philosophical problems, paradoxes, and questions: What is the self? What is happiness? What is reality? What is a perfect society? What is the relationship between mind and body? Are we free to choose, or are our actions determined by forces beyond our control? The assigned texts will invite us to consider and discuss how different characters and authors confront similar spiritual, ethical, and existential crises of meaning and purpose, knowledge and identity. We will read in order to understand, examine, and critique the perspectives of these authors, and we will write in order to discover, debate, and refine our own personal answers to the questions they raise. At the end of the course, students will be better equipped to read critically, think dialectically, and draw connections between a diverse range of books and ideas. Writing assignments will include four out-of-class essays and two in-class essays. Authors may include: Leo Tolstoy, Albert Camus, Flannery O’Connor, Ursula LeGuinn, Franz Kafka, and others, as well as at least one film.ENLT 109W Imagining the End Noonan, Sarah4 Credits 9:30-10:45 TR & 4:00-4:50 W Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: (upon recommendation of the Instructor) Writing ProficiencyThis course introduces students to reading and writing about literature at the college level. Students will develop facility with analysis and the art of crafting persuasive, argumentative prose through an examination of literary works that take up death as a central theme – be it the death of the individual, the destruction of a specific community, or the apocalyptic annihilation of life on earth. To help us navigate the moral and philosophical ambiguity of these narratives; we will turn to the late medieval truism that “to know how to live well, one must know how to die well.” With this suggestion that planning for death should inflect how we live, we willConsider how these imagined endings might function to spur readers to reevaluate their ethical, social and ecological beliefs and actions,Contemplate how “living well” might be defined by these narratives,And ask how the death and destruction described within these works might create a potential space for new beginnings to take shape.Readings will range broadly and may include Gilgamesh, Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, Daniel Defoe’s Journal of a Plague Year, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, amongst others.ENLT 109W Saint Mary’s Women Haigwood, Laura4 Credits 11:00-12:15 TR & 1:00-1: Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: (upon recommendation of the Instructor) Writing Proficiency Sophia LO2: Women’s VoicesThis course introduces students to reading and writing about literature at the college level. While reading novels, biographies, memoirs and poetry by and about Saint Mary’s women, students gain skill in accurate and insightful interpretation of texts and develop their ability to write clearly phrased, logically organized prose. Successful completion of this course satisfies the Sophia Program’s literature and women’s voices requirements. Students also work toward fulfilling the basic writing proficiency (“W”) requirement by creating a writing portfolio for assessment.ENLT 109W Words of Love Hooker, Sr. Eva Mary 4 Credits 2:00-3:15 TR & 2:00-2:50 W Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: (upon recommendation of Instructor) Writing ProficiencyThe study of literature as the shaping of language into forms (fiction, non-fiction, drama and poetry) that“contain” encounter (erotic, cerebral, diving): unions and breakings, mappings & explorations, loss &discord, terror & hate, anger & pity, the uses & disuses of memory and imagination. We will study theways in which we use words to represent ourselves with skill, beauty and graciousness. We will study theways in which writers, including ourselves, shape or have shaped the narrative of ourselves and a sense ofplace. We will pay attention to the ways in which writers and artists think about making and unmaking. We will practice various kinds of making and unmaking in our writing.ENLT 109W Literature of Faith and Doubt Higgins, John4 Credits11:00-12:15 TR & 2:00-2:50 F Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: (upon recommendation of Instructor) Writing ProficiencyGood literature asks hard questions about ourselves and about our place in the universe. It gives voice to songs of joy and praise and also peers into the dark corners of doubt and fear. In this class we will read poetry and fiction illustrating various writers’ searches for religious truth. Although we will focus largely on the Western tradition of Christianity, agnosticism, and atheism, we will also read literature from other faiths, including Sufi Islam, Native American spirituality, Taoism, and Buddhism. Our readings explore various literary approaches to spiritual belief, as well as challenges to the very notion of faith.This class will not espouse any individual claim to religious truth. Instead, students will learn to position their own beliefs within a broad range of literary voices. The course challenges students to understand religious viewpoints different than their own, experiencing the power of literary expression in relating spiritual experience. Students will write essays on themes of faith and doubt from our readings as well as personal essays positioning their own beliefs within this larger tradition. Again, the course takes no sides in any of these debates and requires students to consider to all voices with respect and understanding, including those of their classmates.ENLT 109W The Work of Literature Aaron Moe4 credits 9:00-9:50 MWF & 8:30-9:20 R Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: (upon recommendation of Instructor) Writing ProficiencyThis course introduces students to reading and writing about literature at the college level. The following question drives our exploration: this thing called literature-what work does it do? The course is concerned with what literature means, but is much more concerned with what literature does. As the course unfolds, students will explore and articulate many responses to this question including the following.Literature can prompt existential/spiritual growth for the individual (Kafka);Literature can expose the intersections between social and environmental justice (Alexie; Kincaid);Literature can revel in the ways nature, culture, power, and politics interrelate (Alexie; Kincaid; Hillman; Dickinson);Literature can cultivate a sense of dwelling in language and on the earth (Dickinson; Hillman);Literature can explore the complexity of identity (Shakespeare; Alexie; Kincaid);Literature can enhance an awareness of multispecies communities (Dickinson; Hillman);Literature can create and sustain community (applies generally to all literature);Literature can fight against a failure of imagination (applies generally to all literature);Literature can explore transformative moments in individuals and in society (applies generally to all literature).The above list is just a start for the class to grapple with what happens when we read and circulate stories and poems through the community of a classroom. Students write four in-class essays and five take-home essays.ENLT 202 Jane Austen Dance Cobb, Chris1 Credit 2:00-2:50 F Free elective onlyThis course is an introduction to English Country Dancing, the dancing popular in Jane Austen’s day. These were the dances danced by Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Marianne and Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility. English Country Dancing is a “living tradition” – learn how, and if you live in a large city or big university town, you may be able to join a group that meets regularly!We will learn about twelve dances from this tradition, starting with very simple ones, and gradually adding more complex ones as you become more expert with the figures. As in square-dancing, most dances are done with a walking step, but we will do a few Scottish ones that require some step practice. In most classes, we will learn at least one new dance and review several old ones. The course will finish with a Grand Ball!ENLT 203 Women of GeniusBonnell, Tom3 Credits 10:00-10:50 MWF Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature SophiaLO2: Women’s Voices ENLT: English Elective ENLW: Literature Elective Minor in literature: Literature ElectiveAt the turn of the 20th century, talented women of every description were fighting to have a voice: in politics, in society, in marriage; over their education, their bodies, and their economic destiny. How that struggle worked its way into the fiction and drama of the era (roughly 1880 to 1920) is the focus of this course. A recurring motif is the woman of great natural abilities – someone with a “genius” for this or that calling – who attempts, against steep odds, to win a public audience for her talents, whether from the lectern, the stage, the pulpit, or print. Requirements: two papers, two exams.ENLT 231 Animals in Literature and Society Moe, Aaron3 Credits11:00-12:15 MW Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO3: Social Responsibility A and/or B, Experiential Learning ENLT: English Elective ENLW: Literature Elective Minor in literature: Literature Elective Saint Mary’s Statement of Philosophy and Purpose emphasizes the importance of students exploring and discovering the “responsibilities of women in the worlds of …community.” The authors we read in this course-many of whom are women-are concerned, though, with well-being of other-than-human animals within any given community. We live in the midst of a colossal sea-change regarding how humans understand and interact with nonhuman animals. Interdisciplinary work on animal agency, animal rhetoric, animal culture, human-animal interactions, and the role of animals in childhood development is replacing the older paradigm that animals are nothing more than instinct driven machines. This course draws on critical animal studies and other theories to establish concepts that give us intellectual traction to take nonhuman animals much more seriously in the literature we read and in the society in which we live.Therefore, this course has two, complimentary foci: 1) we use a theoretical context (animal agency, limitrophy, terministic screens) in order to explore how literature shapes and reflects human responses to nonhuman animals; and 2) we use the same theoretical context to reflect upon and direct our human-animal interactions during the experiential education portion of this course.To bring our second foci to fruition, students will volunteer for at least eight hours at the humane society with the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of roles from walking dogs to taking puppies and kittens on visitations in the community. Students must also intentionally interact with or observe other species for an additional seven hours. Much can be learned from trying to follow a butterfly for longer than five minutes, or intently observing the interactions between members of a flock of geese for an hour, or actively playing with a cat or a dog watching for ways they undergo an “ontological and semiotic innovation,” to echo Haraway.The process of reading, volunteering, journaling, and writing research-based essays contributes; it is hoped, to better ways of co-existing with other animals on this shared planet.ENLT 266 Film Criticism Cardinale, Joseph3 Credits 300-4:15 MW Sophia LO1: Historical Perspectives (upon approval) ENLT: English Elective ENLW: Literature Elective Minor in literature: Literature ElectiveWhen it comes to movies, everyone is a critic, or at least it sometimes seems this way. But how does one develop the expertise to comment intelligently about a film, without being an experienced director or producer? Using masterpieces by three of the greatest film directors (Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and Stanley Kubrick), we will analyze the evolution of the motion picture as an art from the early days of the Sound Era to the contemporary period, focusing on the changing dramatizations of women and the role of social classes, in addition to emphasizing important film terms and techniques. The films will include The 39 Steps, Spellbound, Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Shadow of a Doubt, Vertigo, Rear Window, Touch of Evil, Paths of Glory, North by Northwest, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the The ShiningCourse Requirements: Occasional quizzes, two five-page papers, a midterm exam, and a final exam.ENLT 334 Postcolonial Women’s Writing Alfonso, Ann Marie3 Credits 1:00-1:50 MWF Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: Women’s Voices ENLT, ENWR, and ENLW: 20th/21st Century Literature requirement ENLT and ENLW: Literature of Diversity Requirement Minor in literature: 20th/21st Century Literature requirementIn this course we will examine examples of women’s literature from Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean written after the end of British colonialism. These texts engage with the complicated histories of colonization and independence from which they emerge, reflecting the cultural, geo-political, religious, social, and economic contexts that inform the term “postcolonial.” Because we are focusing on women’s writing, we will pay special attention to how these texts contribute to an understanding of feminism that challenges Western perceptions of what that term suggests. Therefore, throughout our readings we will consider the various ways in which empire and postcolonial nationalism gave rise to a non-Western understanding of feminism and sexuality studies. ENLT 370 Studies in American Literature: 19th Century Moe, Aaron3 Credits 9:30-10:45 TR ENLT and ENLW: American Literature requirementEcotone is the boundary where two ecosystems meet. It comes from the Greek oikos meaning home and tonus meaning tension. As such, the etymological roots suggest that these two homes, these two communities coming together, generate a creative tension. (Higher concentrations of biological diversity often occur in ecotones). Though this course does, at times, explore ecotones of the earth, it also recognizes the possibilities that open up when ecotone becomes a trope. Many American writers from the 19th century gravitated to the ecotones between gender, race, and class as well as the tension between humans and other animals, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization, built and natural environments. Some writers actively blurred these boundaries. At times, though, these same writers reinforced such boundaries. And the boundaries are messy. Often, a writer will racialize, spiritualize, genderize, personify, or animalize the built or natural environment thereby exposing some of the underlying assumptions of the time period. The ways in which we think about gender, race, animals, the environment, and so forth have roots that pass through the 19th century, and therefore the stories and poems are as relevant as ever as we seek to address injustices on both the social and environmental level.As we explore the social and environmental conditions in the “ecotones” of 19th century American literature, we gain traction to grapple with, understand, and respond to today’s social and environmental challenges.ENLT 372 Tolkien and Modern Fantasy Cobb, Chris3 Credits 9:00-9:50 MWF Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature ENLT, ENWR and ENLW: 20th/21st Century Literature requirement Minor in literature: 20th/21st Century Literature requirementThis course addresses the development of modern fantasy as a genre. The heart of the course is The Lord of the Rings, which made fantasy into a recognizable literary type. The course will begin with works from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that began to turn the materials of Celtic and Germanic legend into contemporary literature and which provided early models for Tolkien’s own writings. Authors in this part of the course may include W. B. Yeats, William Morris, Lord Dunsany, Hope Mirleees, and E. R. Eddison. After reading The Lord of the Rings in its entirety, the course will turn to recent fantasy works that respond to the form and the vision given to fantasy by Tolkien. Authors in this part may include five or six of the following: Peter S. Beagle, Ursula K. Le Guin, Fritz Leiber, Guy Gavriel Kay, Patricia McKillip, Jeffrey Ford, Jo Walton, Barbara Hambley, Charles de Lint, Stephen Donaldson, Neil Gaiman, Andy Duncan, Christopher Barzak, and Kristin Cashore. Students will write three essays and a final exam.ENLT 378Medieval Literature Noonan, Sarah3 Credits 2:00-3:15 TR(ENLT, ENWR and ENLW: Pre-1700 British Literature requirement, Minor in literature: Pre-1700 British Literature requirement)Selections from Chaucer, medieval drama, and lyrics (all the above read in Middle English); Breton lais, ballads, excerpts from Malory, and works of the Pearl poet.[This course will:Provide an introduction to medieval English literature: its language(s), diverse genres, material forms, and historical contexts.Develop student familiarity with Old and Middle English and facilitate student comfort in reading late medieval literature, including the works of Chaucer, in their original language.Investigate the pertinence of medieval literature to our modern situation, asking why certain literature endures and attains canonical status while other works are forgotten. Improve student facility with textual analysis and close reading through in-class discussions and the composition of three essays.ENLT 381Romantic MovementHaigwood, Laura3 Credits3:30-4:45 TR Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature ENLT, ENWR and ENLW: 18th/19th Century British Literature Minor in literature: 18th/19th Century British LiteratureThe night she met him, she wrote in her diary that he was “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”: Was Lady Caroline Lamb’s assessment of Lord Byron correct? And how did Mary Shelley, “then a young girl, come to think of and to dilate upon so very hideous an idea” as Victor Frankenstein’s monster? Was William Blake a madman or visionary prophet? Why were vampires, nightmares, ghosts and the “natural supernatural” so fascinating to writers and readers after the Age of Reason? And why did Jane Austen consider Gothic novels essential to a young woman’s education? We will answer these and other persistent questions in this survey of English Romantic Literature in historical context. Special emphasis will be placed on important Romantic images, ideas, and genres that have continued to influence culture and literature, such as the Byronic hero, the cult of nature (both sublime and picturesque), the autobiographical epic and the Romantic ode.Requirement: Weekly journal, close reading exercise, 6-8 page paper literary analysis essay written in stages with required revisions, final exam.ENLT 413 Shakespeare Noonan, Sarah3 Credits 11:00-11:50 MWF ENLT, ENWR and ENLW: Shakespeare requirement Minor in literature: Shakespeare requirementIn this course, we will read a representative selection of Shakespeare’s comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances with particular attention to historical analysis of the plays. Shakespeare’s plays possess a timeless artistry, but a major purpose of that artistry was directed toward enabling Shakespeare’s original audiences to see their world in a new way. This class will focus on Shakespeare’s engagement with the social, political, and religious issues of his contemporary world, with some attention also to how these issues of Renaissance England resonate in twenty-first century performances. Requirements for the course include regular short assignments, two formal essays, three short exams, and attendance at two live performances. ENLT 417 Major Lit Figures - Jane Austen Haigwood, Laura3 Credits 3:00-4:15 MW Sophia LO1: Humanities/Literature Sophia LO2: Women’s Voices ENLT, ENWR and ENLW: 18th/19th Century British Literature requirement Minor in literature: 18th/19th Century British Literature Gender and Women’s Studies Category I requirement An intensive study of Jane Austen’s fiction, with emphasis on her contribution to the development of the novel, her career as a woman author, and the social and historical context of Regency England. Requirements: weekly study question responses, close reading exercise, 4- to 6-page research report, 6- to 8-page essay written in stages with required revisions oral presentation on Jane Austen in popular culture, final exam.ENGLISH WRITINGENWR 311Intro to Creative Writing Bremyer, Dionne3 Credits 3:30-4:45 TR ENWR and ENLW Majors: Introduction to Creative Writing requirement ENLT: English Elective Minor in Writing: Introduction to Writing requirementA comprehensive course in the writing of short stories, poems, and plays. We will consider various technical gambits and strategies we will adapt and discard conflicting aesthetic points of view. Although much of the class work will be devoted to reading and evaluating student work, we will also be studying in detail and imitating those authors, past and present, most responsible for the literature we read today. ENWR 313Journalism Baxter, Susan3 Credits 2:00-3:15 TR ENWR and ENLW: Advanced Writing Elective ENLT: English Elective Minor in Writing: ElectiveThis course is a study of basic journalism principles. The student will be called upon to apply these principles by producing clear, objective, balanced new copy, utilizing techniques for gathering information, editing, copy editing and feature writing. Work for converged newsrooms will be stressed. Also covered will be public relations, marketing, radio, and television, as well as newspaper layout and publication. Students will become stronger writers, but will also become more discriminating consumers of Journalism.ENWR 315 Literary Nonfiction Cardinale, Joseph3 Credits 11:00-12:15 TR ENWR and ENLW: Advanced Writing elective ENLT: English Elective Minor in Writing: Elective This course provides practice and advanced craft work in literary nonfiction. Within this large and unwieldy genre, we will focus on personal essays, mixed medium essays, and online writing. You will be expected to produce three longer essays as well as several short essays. You will do a portfolio of selected and revised work at semester’s end. Throughout the course, we will discuss language and craft in detail as well as issues of structure and strategies for revision. Students will write in response to exercises that focus on various craft techniques and to assigned readings. You will also write critiques of each other’s work.All students will workshop their writing in class and will meet with the professor to discuss their writing one-on-one. Your grade will be based on your participation in class discussions and workshops, on how well you fulfill the requirements of each assignment, and on the overall quality of your work, including both revisions. Over the course of the semester, we will read many different writers, including Truman Capote, George Packer, David Sedaris, and Sarah Vowell.ENWR 319Classical Rhetoric Bonnell, Thomas3 Credits 12:30-1:45 TR ENWR and ENLW: Adv. Expository Writing requirement ENLT: English Elective Minor in Writing: Adv. Expository Writing requirementThis course is intended for those who, having mastered the fundamentals of composition, are ready to hone their skills of persuasion. Rhetoricians from ancient Greece and Rome formulated advice to help writers shape forceful arguments; in particular, they developed ways:To discover what can be said on any given topic;To arrange those materials in the most effective manner; andTo adjust one’s prose style to suit the subject and the audience.Concentrating on these techniques- the arts of invention, arrangement, and style- we will analyze essays by modern writers (mostly women) who use them with versatility, and put our analysis to work by writing essays on controversial subjects that interest you. To cover forensic rhetoric, we will read several Supreme Court opinions to note the back-and-forth argumentation that decides such cases. Understanding coupled with practice is the goal of the course. By semester’s end you will be a more skillful reader and a more persuasive writer.ENWR 333 Magazine Writing O’Shaughnessy, Brendan3.0 Credits 6:00-8:30 T ENWR and ENLW: Advanced Writing Elective requirement ENLT: English Elective Minor in Writing: ElectiveStudents in the course will learn to write research and edit magazine articles, with specific focus on developing ideas, planning research and interviews, writing a variety of stories, and working with editors. The class will follow a workshop format with students performing in-class writing exercises, completing a selection of written assignments and engaging in a substantial amount of in-class analysis and critiquing of peer-written and professionally written articles and essays. On occasion there will be guest writers invited for discussion.ENWR 497Independent Study1-3 Credit(s)To do independent study, you must arrange it with the appropriate professor and submit your proposal to the department Chair.ENGL 499InternshipPractical experience in writing and/or editing at an approved site. Supervised by faculty member and a representative from the sponsoring agency. At least junior standing required. Consent of department chair required. ................
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