ENG 222-01 Writing and Education Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:00AM -10:50AM Instructor: Gerald Van AkenOnce they complete their freshman year, most college students are aware of the fact that writing is and will be a part of their education. Most are not aware of why this bond exists or how this bond can be used, and many resent or fear the connection. The purpose of “ENG 222 Writing and Education” is to provide students with readings, discussions, writing exercises, and peer-editing experiences that will allow them to explore the connection between the process of writing and the process of education and, subsequently, to apply their insights to further their own education and the education of others. “ENG 222″ is designed primarily for students interested in teaching at the High School and Middle School levels.
ENG 240-01 Colonies of Conquest: Africa to Japan
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11AM-11:50AM Instructor: Laura Snyder
In Colonies of Conquest: Africa to Japan, you will participate in a fair where you sample the foods and learn the customs of Nigeria. You also may choose to teach your peers what it means to be a samurai or a geisha, or to do a creative project on the sitar music of Ravi Shankar. Colonies of Conquest explores the effects of colonization on a variety of cultures through literature. Along the way, the creative projects and research projects allow you to pursue your own interests, from Ibo warrior culture to anime, and share those interests with your peers.
ENG 281-01, 02 From Greece to Glee: LGBTQ Literature
Section 01: MW 12:00 PM-1:15 PM
Section 02: MW 1:30PM-2:45PM Instructor: Laura T. Smith
Why are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) literary representations important? What cultural work does LGBTQ literature do? How do historical representations of non-heteronormativity compare to those produced today? When is it appropriate to talk about LGBTQ practices as “identities”? As we read major works in gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) literature and theory, we’ll pay particular attention to historicizing the concept of sexual identity, reading gender and sexual identities intersectionally (in dialogue with racial, ethnic, class, national, and spiritual identities), and examining the post-identity claims of “queer.” Course readings will include a mixture of fiction, memoir, film, television, poetry, and theory and may include texts by Plato, Catallus, Shakespeare, Willa Cather, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Radclyffe Hall, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Les Feinberg, Gloria Anzaldua, Michael Warner, David Halperin, and others.
ENG 281-03-04 Sherlock: Then and Now
03 Monday, Wednesday 3PM-4:15PM Instructor: Gerald Van Aken
04 Tuesday, Thursday 9:25AM -10:40AM
Sherlock: Then and Now–Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes in the 1880s, and the reading public of Victorian England fell in love with the tales of the iconic detective and his sidekick Watson, turning Doyle int a celebrity overnight. The passion for these stories remains and is being refueled by contemporary re-imaginings such a Guy Ritchie’s steampunk movies, Masterpiece Theatre’s “Sherlock,” and CBS’s “Elementary.” This course will investigate the tales of Sherlock Holmes as a literary and cultural phenomenon then and now.
ENG 281-05, 07
Fashion in Literature and Film
Tuesday, Thursday 12:15PM – 3:05 PM & 1:30PM -4:20PM Instructor: Joseph Marshall
Need inspiration for what to wear or what to design and market? Then turn, as many artists have done, to the pages of a good book or a scene from a good film. For example, Banana Republic recently designed and marketed an entire line of clothing based on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Sartorial advice, inspiration, and faux pas have been gleaned from great works of art for over a century. Moreover, fashion plays an important role in literature and film by not only fixing the setting in a specific time period but also adding another layer of depth to the story because what a character wears is just as important as what that character says and does. This course will examine some of the most “fashionable” characters in literature and film in order to explore the reflexive connection between a person’s exterior and interior because although clothes may not define us, they certainly define how other people judge us. Possible works include: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Anna Karenina, The Great Gatsby, American Psycho, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Crazy Stupid Love, Memoirs of a Geisha, and The Devil Wears Prada.
ENG 281-06 Adaptation
Tuesday, Thursday 1:40PM-2:45PM Instructor: Kathy Brown
This is your chance to see wonderful adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. These plays include Othello, Macbeth, Henry V, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew. If time permits, we might be able to slip another one into the projector. All texts are paperbacks, published by the Folger Library, can be bought used, and won’t strain your wallet. It’s important that you buy the Folger editions because each one includes, at the back of the book, an excellent essay which will be assigned.
ENG 282-01 Youth Literature
Tuesday, Thursday 10:50AM -12:05PM Instructor: Kathy Brown
In Youth Literature we will read books for children and young adults from the points of view of the young reader (As Pooh and Piglet say to each other, “It’s friendlier with two.”) as well as from our own points of view (Chinese philosophy: The Tao of Pooh.)
This course is a really fun way to explore literature.
ENG 288-01/ THEA 288-01
Literary Genres: Drama
Theatre as Sacred Obligation and Civic Engagement
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10AM -10:50AM Instructor: Laura Snyder
Theatre as Sacred Obligation and Civic Engagement: Time and again, human beings have turned to drama, enacting their fears and desires as a means of expressing their most deeply felt impulses. For some, drama was ritual, a way for human beings to connect with the gods and to control a hostile world. For others, drama was civic, an obligation to the polis to create a more unified and civil state. Our investigation of drama will focus on theatre’s sacred and civic functions, on performance as an active attempt to change the world we inhabit.
ENG 340-01 Mad Men, Masculinity,
and Midcentury American Literature
Tueday, Thursday 10:50AM-12:05PM Instructor: Aaron Chandler
What does it mean to be a “real man”? A “real woman”? Is it a function of sex, looks, behavior, or character? While such questions may seem eternal and philosophical, they can be approached at least as fruitfully as historical questions. This course examines how both masculinity and femininity have been understood in the United States since 1945, and it uses both literature and the television series Mad Men to further its inquiry. Students study work by Sylvia Plath, John Cheever, Betty Friedan, John Updike, and James Baldwin, reading them closely and analyze them as representative samples of the cultural values across literary periods.
English 381-01 Fashioning Decadence from Baudelaire to Gaga
Tuesday, Thursday 3:05 PM -4:20PM Instructor: Gerald Majer
Decadence—let’s hypothesize that it’s about lingering by design, with progress and purpose on hold; let’s hypothesize, with Regina Gagnier, that it’s about the part flourishing at the expense of the whole, the tyranny of the one given over to a blossoming of the many; let’s hypothesize that, excessive, sexy, and resisting normativity, decadence is about the perversity of freedom and maybe about a kind of utopia. Granted such guiding generalizations, in this course a main interest will be in how Decadence emerges as literary and cultural expression and what elements enter into its fashioning, the latter word meant to register, contra mainstream-realist trends in modern aesthetics, its often-remarked highlighting of artifice and design and ornament, and its foregrounding of media, of the material textures of sound, language, and image. Texts and images will range from Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil and Oscar Wilde’s (and Aubrey Beardsley’s) Salome to J.K. Huysmans’ A Rebours and Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, and all the way to postmodern decadences variously explored in Andy Warhol’s films, Alexander McQueen’s fashion design, and (of course) Lady Gaga’s videos, with space allotted for students to pursue related texts and media in light of their own interests. Class work includes two analytical papers, short reading responses, and student presentations.
Tags: baudelaire, cool classes, design, fashion, glee, greece, jude law, lady gaga, mad men, masculinity, postcolonial, queer, shakespeare, sherlock holmes, theatre, youth literature
She is a full time student, has an internship with Dr. Snyder, and has a pastime job in retail. With all of this on her plate, one would think that she would have little to no time for many other responsibilities, but that’s not the case. On top of these things, she has taken up the role of President of the English Club; a club that a year ago didn’t even exist officially. Through her efforts and others, the English Club has started to flourish and grow from the small entity that it was last year.


Did you start putting up decorations? Even before thanksgiving, people were putting up their decorations. I never really understood that myself. I like the idea of not putting up decorations until December 1st. But, bring on that Christmas music. Do you even like Christmas music? If not, you’re either Scrooge or The Grinch.

What do you like about being a English Major?