English (ENGL)

This course provides an intensive introduction to all of the skills that go into good writing: critical reading, framing arguments for different audiences, mechanics, style, and research. The seminar must be taken during a student's first year at the College. The core curriculum will ask students to continue to refine their writing, but this course lays the foundation for the kinds of writing expected of students throughout college.

This course explores the significance of food in literature and culture. Texts will include poetry, prose fiction, prose non-fiction, and film. As a basic human necessity, food often functions as a metaphor for other things life, sex, love, and healing, among others. The act of eating or refraining from doing so also has social and religious significance across culture. While sampling from a diverse menu of texts in which food takes a prominent role, students will learn the skills of critical reading, writing and analysis.

Ambrose Bierce once defined the ghost as "an outward and visible sign of an invisible fear." He might have said the same of any number of other supernatural creatures: vampires, zombies, werewolves, that thing you thought you saw out of the corner of your eye the other night when you were up late and the house was quiet . . . . But are all of these creatures manifestations of the same fear? What is it we are so afraid of, anyway? These are questions we will attempt to answer in this course, through reading, discussing, and writing about a range of horrifying poems, short stories, and novels. We will also practice our close reading skills and become familiar with literary terminology and critical approaches to reading. C21:HC,HU,WA.

This course examines the diverse (and sometimes conflicting) representations of masculinity in American literary culture. Taking as its material both "classic" and contemporary texts, this course aims to introduce students to the ways in which masculinity has been represented by both male and female authors, exploring not only how authors construct notions of masculinity based on the social and historical circumstances that surrounded them, but also how these notions continue to affect our present-day understanding of what it means to "be a man." In this course, we work to expose the interpretive possibilities contained in even the most seemingly straightforward depictions of "manliness" (such as in texts like Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants") while also searching for more subtle explorations of alternative masculinities. Along the way, we'll ask key questions about what have long been considered to be the developmental "touchstones" of a masculine identity: how is boyhood and masculine adolescence represented in literary culture? How are men depicted against backdrops of violence and war? How are men represented as they navigate relationships (familial, friendly, and romantic)? Students in this course will have the unique opportunity to be introduced to the work of textual interpretation through a cultural and theoretical lens, all the while investigating—and challenging—their own notions of masculinity.

This course takes disability's pervasiveness in literature—Oedipus's blindness, Richard III's humpback, Ahab's peg leg—as an opportunity to examine the meaning of disability itself. While it is easy to assume that "disability" refers only to a scientific category or medical diagnosis, reading literary texts that concentrate on disabled experience reveals how disability inevitably connects to cultural and historical concepts that have equal bearing on our perceptions of it. In fact, the cultural connotations surrounding disability often condition how it is treated within the medical community. In surveying a wide variety of literary texts, this course will ask students to analyze the historical variations in disability's meaning with the ultimate aim of contesting simplistic divisions between able-bodied (or "normal") and disabled ("abnormal") individuals. C21:DI,HC,HU,WA.

Curriculum: DI,HC,HU,WA

Traces the literary imagination in Britain from Anglo-Saxon times to the late Renaissance through an examination of the changes in literary forms, audience, and modes of production. Works and authors studied include Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Marvell, Herrick, and Donne. Group I. C21:AE,HU,WA.

Curriculum: AE,HU,WA

A continuation of ENGL 211. Examines literary movements from the Restoration to the Victorian period. Authors studied include Finch, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Arnold, and the Rossettis. Group I. C21:HC,HU,WA.

Curriculum: HC,HU,WA

John Keats once wrote that poetry "should strike the Reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a Remembrance." This introductory study of British and American poetry will use this idea as a starting point, looking at how poetry captures our collective human experiences. Group I. C21:HC,HU,WA.

Curriculum: HC,HU,WA

An introductory study of various modes of poetry in England and in America. Group I. C21:AE,HU,WA.

Curriculum: AE,HU,WA

From its beginnings in classical Greek and Rome, to the Renaissance magic of Shakespeare, to the realism of the 19thcentury and the experimentalism of the 20thcentury and beyond, this course traces dramatic development in the western world and its revelations about what it means to be human. Three hours. C21:HC,HU,WA

Curriculum: HC,HU,WA

A critical study of the short story as a form, examining works in the modes of fantasy, realism, and naturalism. A central focus will be on the point of view. Group I. C21:AE,HU,WA.

Curriculum: AE,HU,WA

An introduction to narrative that draws on works by Austen, Emily Bront , Dickens, Woolf, Joseph Conrad, and Gustave Flaubert. Group I.

An introduction to the art and technique of storytelling that focuses on the modern short novel. Group I.

The development of English-language American literature from the colonial period to Reconstruction, including Protestant attempts to establish God's kingdom on earth, the rise of democratic ideology and individualism, the turn to nature as a source of renewal, the corrosive effects of slavery, and the literary response to the Civil War. Group I. C21:CL,HU,WA.

Curriculum: CL,HU,WA

Major focuses include the rise of the United States as an international and cultural power, industrialization, realism and naturalism, and the development of modern and postmodern consciousness. Group I. C21:CL,DI,HU,WA.

Curriculum: CL,DI,HU,WA

Major focuses include the emergence of literary modernism, formal innovations in lyric poetry and the novel, the flourishing of Black writers, and the crisis in values precipitated by the World Wars. Students may not receive credit for both ENGL 252 and ENGL 253. Group I. C21:AE,HU,WA.

Curriculum: AE,HU,WA

A survey of writing by African-Americans from the 18th to 21st centuries, covering early texts, poetry and speeches, narratives of slavery and escape, abolition, the Reconstruction era, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts movement, and contemporary black writers. Offered alternate years. Group I. C21:CL,DI,HU,WA.

Curriculum: CL,DI,HU,WA

Writing by and about women across time and geography. The course examines both literature and feminist literary criticism to explore a range of topics, including how expectations of women's and men's roles have affected women's access to and practice of writing, how differences of culture, race, sexuality and nationality register in women's texts, how women writers see themselves in relation to various literary traditions, and how distinguishing women's writing as a separate field poses both advantages and problems for the study of literature. Group I

An introduction to and survey of major trends and authors in African literature mainly written in English in the last century with attention to selected texts and countries. Offered alternate years. Group I.

A course designed to give intermediate and advanced students concentrated instruction and practice in expository writing. Offered alternate years. Group II.

Theory and practice to prepare for tutoring in the college's Writing Center. Students will study principles of effective writing and tutoring and will practice what they've learned. Topics include: the use of writing resources, writing across the disciplines, and the tutoring of students with varied backgrounds (including ESL). Permission of the instructor required.

Students will draft their own memoir, which they will present to the class on days devoted to writing workshops, and read a selection of memoirs and essays on autobiographical writing. The course will examine the history of autobiographical writing, its various purposes, and attendant controversies. Group III.

A study of the art and craft of writing poetry. Emphasis on understanding and practicing the process, developing skills of evaluation, and discovering new voices in the field. Group III.

A workshop experimenting with various approaches to creative writing. Emphasis on understanding and practicing the processes of writing poetry and fiction, among other forms, developing skills of evaluation, and discovering new and original voices. Group III.

Focuses on crafting prose that is literary and factually accurate. Through writing techniques attributed to both fiction writing and journalism such as character development, narrative arc and loyalty to facts, it studies real people and events. To this end this course will focus on reading, writing and analyzing various forms of creative nonfiction including personal essays, memoir, and autobiography written by various authors including James Baldwin, Phillip Lopate, and Honor Moore. Students will produce their own nonfiction pieces during the semester that will focus on these various forms. Group III.

A variety of literature from the 12th through the 15th centuries, including manuals, romances, visionary works, letters, tale collections, and mystical treatises. The course will explore how literary works are transmitted from one culture to another and how they change to accommodate different traditions, values, and audiences. Works studied include Yvain, the Inferno, the Decameron and the Canterbury Tales. Offered alternate years. Pre-1700. Group I.

A study of how this 600-year-old tale collection both introduces the reader to some of the most vivid and enduring characters and stories in English literature and provides a serious meditation on the subjective nature of the creation and interpretation of literature. Pre-1700. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

A study of how Chaucer's short lyric poetry, dream visions, and his tragedy Troilus and Criseyde engage readers with both the stories his narrator recounts and the seemingly insurmountable artistic and ethical problems that confront the poet as he attempts to mediate between his sources and the interests of his audience. Offered alternate years. Pre-1700. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

An introduction to a selection of Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, Romances, and the so-called "Problem" plays. These plays will be interwoven with the major literary, political, and gender-related issues of the period from 1590-1613. Students will come to understand the plays not only as written texts but also as performed events. Pre-1700. Group I. C21:CC.

A study of five of Shakespeare's more difficult plays in the context of current literary criticism and production theory. Special emphasis on gender and social relations and on the way these texts continue to have relevance today will drive the discussion and assignments. Students should be prepared to analyze critical perspectives of the plays, both literary and theatrical. Offered alternate years. Pre-1700. Group I.

A January term course which studies a single text and its importance as a cultural artifact all over the world. We will consider Shakespeare's Hamlet from the perspectives of different theories of literary criticism, old and new, view productions which offer radically different interpretations of age-old questions, and see how Hamlet goes on being written and re-written today. Offered every three years. Group I.

This course, offered January term only, offers students the opportunity to read a select group of Renaissance-era plays and see them performed at the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Theater, a replica of the indoor theater where Shakespeare's playing company staged some of their most famous works. Students will spend a portion of the course on the Randolph-Macon campus, reading, analyzing, and writing about plays (with a particular focus on their performance conditions and opportunities), and a portion on-site at the ASC, where they will attend rehearsals, workshops, lectures, discussions (with actors and directors), and performances. Recommendation: Students should consider taking ENGL 311 before taking this course. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

A study of dramatic developments and social contexts of one of the richest periods of English literary history, the Renaissance. Plays from the mid-16th century through the 1630s, excluding Shakespeare. Topics covered include the development of "mixed" genres, political application, and the growing civil instability that resulted in the English Civil Wars. Offered every three years. Pre-1700. Group I.

This course will study a rich and diverse range of literature that exemplifies the historical, political, intellectual, and artistic interests of the English Renaissance. Students will explore a number of different modes, tracing particularly the development of lyric poetry and its representations of love, courtiership, and the good life; students will also look at the development of prose (utopian fiction, travel narrative, and romance/pastoral). Offered alternate years. Pre-1700. Group I.

An examination of the lyric poetry of John Donne, Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, and other Cavalier and religious writers, including some women writers. These poems will be read in conjunction with one dramatic work from the period. Instruction and frequent practice in explicating poetry. Offered alternate years. Pre-1700. Group I.

A close study of the works of John Milton, with attention to his life and times. Pre-1700. Group I.

An examination of the novel as it gradually developed into a major literary genre. The course considers the formative shorter fiction by Aphra Behn, Delariviere Manley, Jane Barker, Daniel Defoe, Penelope Aubin, Eliza Haywood, Mary Davys, Elizabeth Singer Rowe, and the later more developed novels by Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Frances Sheridan, and Fanny Burney. Offered alternate years. Group I.

The Bible-that is, the Judeo-Christian scriptures–has been, for good and ill, perhaps the most influential compilation of texts in the development of Western culture. Western (and some non-Western) literature is saturated with biblical allusions that deepen meaning and transcend mere plot. For readers, whether we are religious or not, understanding the origins and contexts of these allusions both enriches the experience of reading and enlarges one's cultural vocabulary. This course will unpack some of the more frequent of these allusions as drawn from the biblical text (s), and consider examples of their use in literary–and some non-literary–contexts. Students will explore the problems presented by translation, changing cultural circumstances and the distortion of scripture to advance particular agendas. Group I.

A study of the key period in American literature, focusing on such themes as the need to destroy what exists, the dangers posed and opportunities afforded by democracy to spirit, the cosmic significance of America, despair and ecstasy. Authors studied include Dickinson, Whitman, Poe, and Hawthorne. Offered alternate years. Group I.

A study of novels written by major American novelists of the Roaring 20s and Depression 30s, focusing on such authors as Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck, and Richard Wright. Group I. C21:CC

An analysis of modern poetry from the turn of the 20th century up through the post-WWII period. Drawing on a range of poets from a diverse set of backgrounds, this course focuses on modern poetry as a driving force of literary innovation in terms of both poetic form and self-expression. Poets studied include, but are not limited to: W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, H.D., T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and W.B. Yeats. Group I.

A study of the major thematic and stylistic trends in American fiction since 1945. Offered every three years. Group I.

Genre Fiction is an introduction to popular historic and contemporary genre literature – the types of books frequently found in grocery stores, airports, and best sellers lists, and only very rarely found in the college classroom. Romances, science fiction novels, detective stories, fantasy epics, and horror stories may be snubbed as escapist, "low-brow" literature, but the pleasures these texts yield reveal much about contemporary culture. By scrutinizing genre fiction with the same academic rigor we apply to "great" literature, we will try to define a variety of popular genres and come to an understanding of what makes these genres – and the specific texts we will read – so appealing. Group I.

This course uses the novel to explore "neurodiversity," or the idea that all minds process the world around us differently. The course focuses on the narrative strategies authors use to depict various cognitive disabilities and mental illnesses (autism, down syndrome, and schizophrenia, among others) while also aiming to cultivate an appreciation for the novel as an art form that helps us to empathize with the minds of others. Group I.

A critical and historical study of English literature from 1789 to 1832, with emphasis on the lyric and the novel. Offered alternate years. Group I.

A study of England's literature between 1842 and 1901, with special attention to the crisis in religious belief sparked by theories of evolution, serial fiction, and the "woman question." Offered alternate years. Group I.

A historical study of children's literature from 1749 to today with particular emphasis on the genre's Golden Age (1865-1925). Group I.

London has been represented as a royal seat, a financial hub, a cultural Mecca and (in some instances) a squalid cesspit. It has been home to great literary figures and the setting of great literary works. This course invites the student to travel the streets of London, past and present, and explore the rich literary heritage contained therein. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

Dublin is the backdrop of much Irish literature and a center of cultural life in Europe. In 2010, UNESCO--the educational branch of the United Nations--even named Dublin an official "city of literature." This course gives students the opportunity to closely examine this important literary capital. In addition to analyzing literary works that feature Dublin's literary scene, students will have the chance to engage in first-hand exploration of the city through a study-abroad trip that focuses on Ireland's literary heritage. Site visits will include such places as James Joyce's Tower, the W.B. Yeats exhibit at the National Library of Ireland, and Paleolithic ruins at Newgrange. Visiting these sites will provide students with added insight into the literature we read for class while also enabling them to reflect critically upon how Dublin has built an international reputation and major tourist economy around its literary resources. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

A study of masterpieces by major authors of the British Isles, with emphasis on the modernist novel and lyric. Offered every three years. Group I.

A survey of dramatic developments and social contexts in Britain and America since the 1960s. Topics include AIDS, the Vietnam War, one class/race relations with an emphasis on non-traditional dramatic performance, incorporating music, dance, and graphic design. Offered every three years. Group I.

This course examines some of the astonishing experiments that have transformed the way we think of the novel, which many agree is the central literary form of the 20th century. We will consider the political, artistic, and philosophical questions raised in masterpieces by British, American and European novelists like Woolf, Faulkner, Kafka, and Beckett. Works originally written in languages other than English will be read in English translations. Offered every three years. Group I.

An intensive survey of the modern English literature written outside of the United States and the United Kingdom in the nation of Canada. Among the writers studied are Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Mordecai Richler, and Michael Ondaatje. Group I.

An intensive survey of the modern English literature written outside of the United States and the United Kingdom in the nation of Australia. Among the writers studied are Patrick White, Peter Carey, Tim Winton, Janette Turner Hospital, and Kate Greenville. Group I.

Toni Morrison, the U.S.'s first African American recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature (1993), locates her work in vibrant and turbulent periods of U.S. and world history including the Great War, U.S. slavery, Reconstruction, the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement. Through a focus on Morrison's novels, beginning with her early works The Bluest Eye and Sula, then Jazz, Tar Baby, Beloved, and Song of Solomon, the course will examine her understanding of history and whether fiction and imagination may safely participate in an objective formulation of the past. Since Morrison's view of U.S. society begins with an understanding of community, the course will investigate her historical understanding of various communities, including at the local and national level, and how ideas of geography, nation, migration, and memory affect her artistic vision. The course will also examine how Morrison's work engages race and gender in the U.S., both separately, and together. Group I.

A study of selected modern works written in English by women in the nations of the British Commonwealth. Among the writers studied will be Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, L.M. Montgomery, Alice Munro, Marian Engel, Joy Kogawa, Michelle Cliff, Merle Hodge, Jean Rhys, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Christina Stead, Elizabeth Jolley, and Helen Garner. Offered every three years. Group I.

An introduction to the different types of newspaper writing: news reports, reviews, editorials, etc. Includes a brief introduction to the general operations of a newspaper. Group II.

A continuation of ENGL 374 in which each student concentrates upon one or two types of newspaper writing. Group II.

This hands-on course will teach students how to write feature articles and to submit them for publication to magazines and weeklies. Students will learn ways to develop marketable ideas and to write feature stories, profiles, how-to articles, and more. The class includes field trips to local magazine publishers and visits from guest editors and writers. Group II.

A dual focus on the linguistic processes through which all languages change and the development of English from its origins to the present. This course will explore the political, social, economic, intellectual, and technological influences that have shaped English and the historical conditions that can accelerate or impede change. The course will take up such topics as Ebonics, sexism in language, and the varieties of Modern English and provide practice in the analysis of texts from the recent and remote past. Offered alternate years. Group IV.

This course offers a survey of the principal components of English grammar with an eye to enhancing students' appreciation and comprehension of good writing, their ability to recognize and correct errors, and their capacity to produce sophisticated prose. Offered alternate years. Group IV.

Study of literature or criticism not covered by other courses, with an emphasis on cultural diversity or marginalized identity. Group I. Three hours.

Study of literature or criticism not covered by other courses, with an emphasis on cultural diversity or marginalized identity. Group I. Three hours.

Study of pre-1700 British literature not covered by other courses. Group I. Three hours.

Course on creative writing not covered by other courses. Group III. Three hours.

Study of literature or criticism not covered by other courses, with an emphasis on cultural diversity or marginalized identity. Group I. Three hours.

A comprehensive survey of the methods of critical reading developed throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Student will become trained in interpreting literary texts, and writing about them, from the perspectives of various schools, including New Criticism, Marxist criticism, New Historicism, postcolonial criticism, and gender and queer theory, among others. Counts on the English major and minor and on the Writing major and minor. Group I.

An independent study of a particular writer or group of writers under the guidance of a member of the Department of English. At least a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and approval by the curriculum committee are required. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

A continuation of ENGL 391. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

This course explores crucial questions about how our culture defines gender, and, more specifically, how literary texts represent gender—specifically, how they define what is "feminine." Through our work with theoretical texts from the Middle Ages to the present day, we will interrogate how narrowly or broadly authors define womanhood according to their own notions of race, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, body type, and more. Students will practice the work of literary criticism through the lens of feminist/gender theory. Group I. C21:OC.

An intensive experience in a professional setting that will give students the opportunity to put into practice the skills learned in their English coursework. Possible internships include supervised work in employee communications, public relations, and technical writing. A special fee ($200) is charged for this course. Application required; see Internship Program. Group II. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

An intensive experience in a professional setting that will give students the opportunity to put into practice the skills learned in their English coursework. Possible internships include supervised work in employee communications, public relations, and technical writing. Application required; see Internship Program. Group II. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

An intensive experience which will give students the opportunity to put into practice skills learned in their English coursework.

An independent study of a particular writer or group of writers under the guidance of a member of the Department of English. At least a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and approval by the curriculum committee are required. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

A continuation of ENGL 491. Group I. C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

An intensive study of an author or topic that culminates in a major research paper. As the English major capstone, the seminar provides a culminating experience in which students will widely integrate, extend, critique, and apply knowledge and skills from the student's major program. Group I. C21:CS,EL.

Curriculum: CS,EL

The preparation and oral defense of a lengthy thesis in the field of British or American literature. Open only to seniors. Departmental approval is required. A degree credit for the first term of a two-term senior project will not be recorded until both terms have been successfully completed. Group I. Student earns a total of six hours for the full senior project experience (496, 497, and 498). C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

The preparation and oral defense of a lengthy thesis in the field of British or American literature. Open only to seniors. Departmental approval is required. A degree credit for the first term of a two-term senior project will not be recorded until both terms have been successfully completed. Group I. Student earns a total of six hours for the full senior project experience (496, 497, and 498). C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL

The preparation and oral defense of a lengthy thesis in the field of British or American literature. Open only to seniors. Departmental approval is required. A degree credit for the first term of a two-term senior project will not be recorded until both terms have been successfully completed. Group I. Student earns a total of six hours for the full senior project experience (496, 497, and 498). C21:EL.

Curriculum: EL