ENGLISH FALL 2026 COURSE OFFERINGS
ENGLISH FALL 2026 COURSE OFFERINGS
100 level courses
ENG 126 Introduction to Nonfiction (Sports Writing)
This course surveys the forms of literary and general nonfiction—memoir, personal essay, literary journalism, and hybrids—through the lens of writing about sports and athletics. We will read about a wide range of sports-related experiences from a diversity of authors. Subjects will include the science and psychology of human endurance, meditations on how sports, sports teams, and amateur athletics connect people to place and history, and the role of sports in fashioning personal and cultural identity. Suitable for first years and sophomores especially, this course requires considerable reading, discussion, and a mixture of formal (analytical) and creative writing.
ENG 152 Greek and Roman Mythology
Do you know who the Olympian gods are, who recovered the golden fleece, or who founded Rome? Or maybe you've heard the names Athena, Hercules, and Aeneas but aren't quite sure what they did? In this course we'll learn about the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome, starting with how the world was created out of chaos and ending with the founding of one the most impressive empires in history: Rome. In between, we'll get to know who the gods and heroes from Antiquity are and learn about the stories that record their deeds of fame. Readings will include epics focusing on the exploits of heroes such as The Aeneid and The Works and Days as well as poems like The Theogony and the Homeric Hymns that preserve the actions of gods like Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, and Apollo. Fulfills HU distribution.
ENG 190 Love Poems
How do we write about love, that most intimate and strange of human emotions? In this course, we’ll explore how poets across the centuries—from Sappho to Shakespeare to contemporary poets like Matthew Olzmann and Natalie Diaz—have captured the intensity of desire, heartbreak, delight, joy, and loss. The poems we’ll read will help us understand how culture and history shape our ideas of love, both limiting and liberating our imaginations and longings. Our reading and writing assignments—both critical and creative—will invite you to reflect on your own relationship to the loves of your life, including family and friends as well as romantic partners.
200 Level Creative Writing Courses
ENG 201 CW: Intro to Journalism
A general study of journalistic principles and methods, as well as extensive practice in the gathering and writing of news. In the first half of the semester, students learn to analyze and compose basic types of stories in a style particular to new media, with an emphasis on accuracy, clarity and efficiency. In the second half of the semester, students practice and refine their reporting skills in an atmosphere closely resembling the conditions of a modern newsroom. They cover actual events of local, state, national and international importance as they unfold in real time-all under the pressure of real deadlines. Fulfills ARTS Distribution.
ENG 241 CW: Techniques of Fiction
In this introductory course on the basics of writing prose fiction, we will read and analyze a variety of short stories with an eye toward becoming better fiction writers ourselves. By reading diverse authors, periods, and approaches to storytelling, we will become more adept at important techniques such as narrative form, characterization, and point of view. We will compose a series of short exercises that may be reviewed in workshop for possible inclusion in a portfolio of significantly revised and polished work. Fulfills ARTS Distribution.
ENG 242 CW: Techniques of Poetry
Techniques of Poetry. An introductory study of prosody and poetics. Class attention is divided among student writing, theory and published models. Weekly writing assignments address a variety of technical issues connected with both traditional and experimental verse, while reading assignments providing examples to follow or possibilities for further study. Matters of voice, affect, intuition, chance and imagination are given as much attention as those analytic skills necessary for clear communication. All students are required to share their oral and written work for group discussion and critique. Fulfills ARTS Distribution.
ENG 243 CW: Techniques Creative Nonfiction
Techniques of Creative Non-Fiction. In this introductory course on the basics of writing literary nonfiction, we will read and analyze a variety of examples of creative nonfiction, including memoirs and personal essays, with an eye toward becoming better nonfiction writers and readers ourselves. By encountering diverse authors, periods, and approaches to storytelling and sharing insights and knowledge about our personal encounters with the world around us, we will improve our application of various important techniques such as form, structure, persona, characterization, and voice. We will compose a series of short exercises that with revisions may become longer memoirs and personal essays to share with the class workshop and assemble a final portfolio of revised and polished work. Fulfills ARTS Distribution.
ENG 244 CW: Intro to Screenwriting
Techniques of Screenwriting. An introductory study of basic technical problems and formal concepts of screenwriting. The study of produced screenplays and formal film technique, along with writing scene exercises, builds toward the construction of a short (50-minute) script. Also offered as PCA-244 and DMF-244. Fulfills ARTS Distribution.
200 Level Literature Courses
ENG 225 LS: English Literature I
Survey of English Literature I. In this course, students will learn about the history of British literature from the 8th through the 17th centuries. The course invites students to explore developments in British literature through the lens of history and its relation to the development of the concept of the individual as well as competing philosophies of religious, political, and social life. Within this context, the course traces literary movements and the evolution of literary forms. It features a variety of drama, poetry, and some fiction and nonfiction from writers whose gender, class, and cultural outlook vary widely from historical era to era. Some of the texts we read are by famous authors like Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Milton; others are composed by less well-known and even anonymous authors. Some of the texts we read are in languages other than English, so we'll read those in translation, with the exception of Chaucer, whom we'll discover in his original middle English; others employ syntax that, though the same as our modern English, differs in exciting and beautiful ways. With each new text, students will gain a deeper appreciation of the volume, breadth, and variety of written work created in the British archipelago from the Medieval Period to the Restoration. Students contemplating graduate study in English are strongly recommended to take this course. Also offered through European Studies. Also offered through European Studies. Fulfills HU Distribution.
ENG 226 LS: English Literature II
Survey of English Literature II. In this course, students will learn about the history of British literature starting at about 1700 and extending into the twentieth century and beyond. The course invites students to explore developments in British literature through the lens of history and its relation to competing philosophies of political and social life. Within this context, the course traces literary movements and the evolution of literary forms. It features a variety of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry from writers of different social classes, genders, and cultural traditions. Some of the texts we read are by famous authors like Jane Austen or T. S. Eliot; others are composed by less well-known authors. Students contemplating graduate study in English are strongly recommended to take this course. Also offered through European Studies. Also offered through European Studies. Fulfills HU Distribution.
ENG 237 LS: American Literature Survey I
In this course, we'll study a variety of American literature written between the founding of the Jamestown colony and the U.S. Civil War. Historically, these two events bookend a dramatic period of cultural contact, political conflict, scientific enlightenment, and artistic production in the transatlantic world. To give shape to our survey of American literature, we'll focus on a few primary issues-colonialism, race and slavery, and gender politics-and consider how these issues shaped literary expression in this era. We'll revisit some famous "American" legends, encounter the major thinkers of the "American Enlightenment," and read several works by the canonical writers of the "American Renaissance." We'll also discuss how writers from different backgrounds invoked the idea of "America," how they represented the "American" project, how (or if) a distinctly "American" literature emerged, and why the notion of "America" continues to carry so much cultural baggage. Fulfills HU Distribution and DIV 13 requirement (2013 curriculum). Counts as NAS (Native American) elective.
ENG 238 LS: American Literature II
These courses offer an overview of American literature from the early colonial era to the present, with selections from fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Both courses invite students to view American literature through the lens of different historical and literary contexts and both feature writers who helped define the American literary canon. The courses examine the American literary imagination by focusing on a set of key issues that preoccupied the nation: colonial contact and resistance; slavery and abolition; women's rights; environmental politics; the rise of capitalism; modern cities and travel; movements for social justice and equality; and the shifting relationship between self, community, nation, and world. ENG 237 covers writings from the colonial period to 1865; ENG 238 concentrates on literary texts from the Civil War until the early 21st century. Students can take the courses in any order. Fulfills HU and DIV13 distribution.
General course description for ENG 250: Methods of Critical Analysis
This course introduces students to a range of scholarly methods used to interpret literary works. While each section may focus on a different theme or group of primary texts, all sections encourage students to recognize and to apply a variety of literary critical methods. In addition, students learn the citation and formatting conventions most commonly employed in the field of literary study. Topics vary according to instructor and semester, so please view specific sections to find the different section descriptions.
ENG 250 The Art of Story
In this section of Methods of Critical Analysis, we'll read (most of) John Milton's epic Paradise Lost. While we relish the rich narrative and deeply textured verse, we'll also treat Milton's world-building remix of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as an opportunity to try out some of the conceptual lenses contemporary literary critics employ. We'll consider what the poem can tell us about attitudes towards gender, imperialism, and the environment in 17th century England-as well as whether and how the poem speaks to the present.
ENG 250 Shaking Up Shakespeare
This section of Methods of Critical Analysis will begin with a preliminary unit on close reading, focusing on a few of Shakespeare's sonnets, and then move into the requisite survey of the conceptual lenses, the "methods of critical analysis," through which we will explore one tragedy, Hamlet, and one comedy, Twelfth Night.
200 Level Special Topics (3,000-3,999)
ENG 3000 Medieval Star Wars
200 Level - The Mandalorian. Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor. As the titles of these STAR WARS television and transmedia series suggest, themes of loss, exile, and sole survival are prevalent in the galaxy far, far away. Yet, in drawing on these themes, STAR WARS joins a storytelling tradition that stretches back more than a thousand years. In this class, we will juxtapose modern uses of these themes with their medieval precursors, studying Old English literature alongside the series above (and a couple of STAR WARS novels too) to question how the medieval informs the modern. Does Din Djarin's famous "This is the way" collide with medieval monastic codes of conduct? How close are the attitudes of Jedi Knights to those of medieval celibate warrior monks? Are the various guild systems in STAR WARS structured on the medieval system of apprentice-journeyman-master? These are only some of the questions we will ponder, and, along the way, we will also tackle issues of gender, race, equality, environmentalism, and age, studying how these issues contribute to the themes of loss, exile, and sole survival that the STAR WARS universe creates. Weekly writing assignments, presentations, and a final project will comprise the majority of work for this class.
ENG 3083 CW: Lyric Essay & Hybrid Genre
200 Level - This creative writing course allows students the intellectual freedom and creative space to explore essay writing through the lens of poetry/poetics, memoir, text/image, experimentation, collage, and typographic design. Throughout the semester students will engage a series of writing assignments focusing on found forms, while developing idiosyncratic methods of composing lyric prose. First Years welcome!
ENG 3091 Environmental Film
200 Level - This course introduces students to the artistic genre of environmental film and the critical field of ecocinema studies. For the past century, film has played a vital role in the study and celebration of wildlife, often serving as a catalyst for conservation efforts. Journalists and activists have mobilized the medium to raise public awareness and call for action in response to such environmental issues as industrial agriculture and hydro-fracking. Outdoor enthusiasts have captured their adventures and journeys on film, animated classics have personified the lives of nonhuman animals, and Hollywood blockbusters have dramatized the climate crisis and satirized our dysfunctional response to it. Films reveal cultural attitudes about the natural world; they advance political agendas and ethical positions; and as a material practice and big business, filmmaking and the film industry also have an impact on the physical environment. We will view a variety of films from the following subgenres: silent films and animated classics; wildlife documentaries; environmental issues exposés and jeremiads; outdoor adventure and wilderness survival dramas; eco-horror and eco-disaster thrillers. In this course we will "read" film as a kind of literature. Students will write film reviews and develop their original voices as film critics; they will learn to apply the insights of ecocriticism and cultural theory; they will research historical contexts and environmental issues, deliver at least one oral presentation, and pitch an idea for a new environmental film. Cross-listed with Digital Media and Film and Environmental Studies.
ENG 3095 Graham Greene Film Adaptations
200 Level - Author of dozens of novels, stories, memoirs and screenplays, Graham Greene (1904-1991) was one of England’s most influential 20th Century writers. Drawn to risk and adventure, he served as a fire warden during the London Blitz and later a foreign correspondent/British spy in Africa and Asia. Nobel Prize for Literature committee chair Anders Osterling supported Greene for the prize in 1967, calling him “an accomplished observer whose experience encompasses a global diversity of external environments, and above all the mysterious aspects of the inner world, human conscience, anxiety and nightmares.” But Greene’s staunch anti-American stance likely disqualified him. This course will focus on three better-known novels— Brighton Rock, The End of the Affair, and The Quiet American—and on film adaptions of each. We will explore core concepts of adaptation theory and apply them to Greene’s work.
300 Level Creative Writing Courses
ENG 308 Advanced Creative Nonfiction
Building upon the techniques that we acquired in ENG-243, Techniques of Creative Nonfiction, we will seek to deepen our exploration of writing, reading, and analyzing literary essays by reading a diverse range of authors who challenge basic approaches to writing memoirs and literary essays. We will focus on more nuanced concerns, such as style, voice, narrative stance, and structure, and we may experiment with forms and sub-genres such as the lyric essay, the segmented essay, and other hybrid forms. We will also read theory and criticism on creative nonfiction so as to better understand the possibilities this genre offers writers. In a workshop setting, we will analyze our own work in depth with an eye toward deep, comprehensive revision. Preparing the final portfolio will allow us to learn how to line-edit our prose as well as how to critically situate our own work within the genre. Prerequisite: ENG-243 or ENG-3083.
ENG 311 Advanced Poetry
CW: Advanced Poetry Workshop. An extension and intensification of ENG-242. The class combines workshop critique of student poems with discussions of readings in twentieth century and contemporary poetry (including Modernism, Confessionalism, the Beats, the Black Mountain School, the New York School, and Ellipticism). Poetic theory is also discussed. Students are required to submit a formal manuscript of poems, an arts poetica or manifesto, and to read from their work in public. Prerequisite: ENG-242. Fulfills ARTS Distribution.
300 Level Literature Courses
ENG 328 British Romanticism
The Industrial Revolution. The French Revolution. Abolition. World exploration. The British Romantic period saw huge paradigm shifts in ideas about human rights, the natural world, and what it meant to be "English." This period also saw a set of intellectual and aesthetic revolutions that resulted in a nearly complete overturning of what were considered the aims of 'good' poetry and fiction. This course will explore the works of Romantic writers and thinkers such as poets William Wordsworth and John Keats, novelists Mary Shelley and Jane Austen, and critics Edmund Burke and Samuel Taylor Coleridge as they responded to these many revolutionary changes. Also offered through European Studies.
ENG 329 Gothic Novel
What is a Gothic novel? How and when did this subgenre originate? How have its conventions changed, and why? In this course, we answer these questions while examining how the Gothic novel reflects shifting concepts of science and religion, humanity and monstrosity, the individual and society. Sample novels will include Frankenstein, Dracula, The Monk, and Carrie. Sample films will include The Silence of the Lambs and The Shining.
ENG 356 Contemporary American Literature
"No longer imminent," Frank Kermode famously wrote in 1967, "the end is immanent." Apocalyptic stories have been told for centuries, yet novels and films that imagine the end of the world have become more prominent in recent times. In this course, we will consider the post-apocalyptic narrative tradition in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What, we will ask, does the imagined end of the world look like? Exploring a variety of scenarios-zombies, ecological disaster, pandemics, mass migration-we will examine how these visions of end times illuminate important ideas about race, gender, class, and other forms of identity and difference. Through a diverse selection of post-apocalyptic novels and films, we will explore why we are so drawn to narratives about our annihilation and potential for regeneration, and what role these texts play in responding to the question, Is it too late? Fulfills HU Distribution (2013 curriculum).
ENG 357 Postcolonial Literature and Film
Throughout the mid- to late-twentieth century, formerly colonized people from around the world gained independence and established new nations. It meant the end of a particular form of oppression but also the enormous challenge of producing new cultural norms, governance, social relations, and intellectual habits. Decolonization gave as much rise to civil wars and coup d'états as to a rich body of art that imagines unseen possibilities while registering the realities of intergenerational trauma, survival, and diaspora. We will explore how new media capture these experiences by encountering films and novels by Ousmane Sembène, Michel Khleifi, Atom Egoyan, Sohrab Salles, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Tayeb Salih, and Arundhati Roy, to name a few. We will supplement our reading and viewing with major architects and theorists of anti-colonial revolutions like Franz Fanon and C.L.R. James. Fulfills the DIV13 requirement. Also offered as DMF-357, and GS-357. Prerequisite: ENG-250.
Senior year experiences
ENG 450 SYE: Jane Austen
Country dances, duels, rides in fast gigs: these are among the many incidents in Jane Austen’s novels. At first glance, they seem far removed from our world. When was the last time you issued a dawn challenge with pistols or swords? Yet such incidents continue to resonate with readers because they capture the dilemmas we all face: how to find individual happiness, how to balance that happiness with responsibilities to families and communities, how to achieve self-knowledge as well as empathy with others. In this seminar, we explore five of Jane Austen's novels, their film adaptations, and their ongoing relevance. This course is restricted to senior English majors. Prerequisite: ENG 250.