Loyola University Chicago

Department of English

Fall 2019 Courses

Interpreting Literature (UCLR 100E)

Section: 001 #4756
Instructor:  M. Forajter
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 - 9:05 AM LSC

The foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama, and explore a variety of core critical approaches. Using the theme of outsiders (in all shapes & forms), this course will explore important conceptual questions about literature and its study. What is literature? Why does it matter? How do we envision the relationships among author, text, reader, culture? What is the difference between reading a literary work in its historical context and in the light of our own time? How are literary works related to culture and society and how do they reflect – and reflect on – questions of value and the diversity of human experience? Exploring these questions will help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature as a necessary and accessible art form.

Section: 002 #4757
Instructor:  P. Warren
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 AM LSC

Whether you were told them as you fell asleep at night or you watched and re-watched every Disney film version until you knew them by heart, you have probably been reading and interpreting fairy tales most of your life. In this foundational course, we will closely read a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama; master key literary and critical terms and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the interpretation of literature through constructing and de-constructing various iterations of numerous fairy tales. Together, we will explore, analyze and reflect upon a variety of important conceptual questions about the intentions and impacts of literature through critical and creative modalities, and (perhaps) live happily ever after as well. 

Labor, Art, and Struggle
Section: 003 #4758
Instructor:  J. Fiorelli
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 8:15 – 9:05 AM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama; master key literary and critical terms; and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature.  This course will also explore important conceptual questions about literature and its study, to help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature in a sophisticated manner.

Our course focus will be literature about work and the struggles of the working class.  Whether a source of satisfaction or a means of exploitation, work is a central aspect of human experience.  Literature about work thus examines intersections among a variety of social factors, including race, class, gender, sexuality, and immigration and migration; it presents the material and ideological forces contributing to workers’ oppression and their various forms of resistance.  This literature also raises questions about its own function as an art form: How, for instance, can literature engage the audience in the interests of economic and social justice through its particular aesthetic methods?  How does it work to reshape the present and imagine the future?  We will address such questions as we examine a variety of works of poetry, drama, and fiction.  Texts will be drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from twentieth-century American literature, including authors such as Ann Petry, Milton Murayama, and Cherrie Moraga.  Course requirements will include active reading, written homework and quizzes, class participation, two literary analysis essays, and a final exam.  There will likely be a required field trip to see a theater performance outside of class.

Labor, Art, and Struggle
Section: 004 #4759
Instructor:  J. Fiorelli
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 9:20 - 10:10 AM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama; master key literary and critical terms; and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature.  This course will also explore important conceptual questions about literature and its study, to help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature in a sophisticated manner.

Our course focus will be literature about work and the struggles of the working class.  Whether a source of satisfaction or a means of exploitation, work is a central aspect of human experience.  Literature about work thus examines intersections among a variety of social factors, including race, class, gender, sexuality, and immigration and migration; it presents the material and ideological forces contributing to workers’ oppression and their various forms of resistance.  This literature also raises questions about its own function as an art form: How, for instance, can literature engage the audience in the interests of economic and social justice through its particular aesthetic methods?  How does it incorporate and relate to other forms of artistic expression?  How does it work to reshape the present and imagine the future?  We will address such questions as we examine a variety of works of poetry, drama, and fiction.  Texts will be drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from twentieth-century American literature, including authors such as Ann Petry, Milton Murayama, and Cherrie Moraga.  Course requirements will include active reading, written homework and quizzes, class participation, two literary analysis essays, and a final exam.  As a Learning Communities-linked course, this course will include a required field trip and related activities.

Section: 005 #4760
Instructor:  A. Jochaniewicz
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 9:20 - 10:10 AM LSC

This is a first tier, foundational course of literary studies designed to offer students a greater understanding and appreciation of various forms of canonical literature, including fiction, poetry, and drama.  This course will survey works of literature by diverse authors, and most of the literature will be from the 20th century—though some literature will be from earlier centuries and some from the 21st century, too. This literature will vary in theme and subject matter, and personal responses and evidence-based interpretations—arrived at through a slow and close reading of the literature—will be emphasized. Students will also be introduced to key literary terms and core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature, and students will be evaluated on quizzes and various essays. This class will be a prerequisite for all second tier literature courses, as designated by each department.

Crossing Boundaries
Section: 006 #4761
Instructor:  K. Quirk
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 10:25 - 11:15 AM LSC

This is a foundational course in literary studies in which we will read works that are about crossing boundaries. We will read works of poetry, drama, and fiction that address boundary crossings and trouble different sorts of boundaries: boundaries between nations, between genders, between the human and the non-human, between the magical and the real, between fiction and non-fiction, and between stories and poems. Readings may include a Greek Tragedy or two, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen.  Our goals will be to develop a better critical vocabulary and analytical approach to the three genres of poetry, drama, and fiction. The course writing assignments (both formal and informal) will emphasize literary analysis but will also seek to improve general writing skills. More broadly, however, I hope we will all learn to approach literature in a more attentive, engaged, and ultimately pleasurable manner. Ideally, we will not only learn about literature and hone our interpretive skills but will also try to relish the pleasure of reading literature.

Section: 007 #4762
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 - 12:20 PM LSC

Section: 008 #4763
Instructor:  N. Kenney-Johnstone
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 - 12:20 PM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will familiarize students with a range of genres including novel and memoir excerpts, short stories, essays, poetry, drama, and screenplays. Some of the questions we will consider are: What is literature? Why does it matter? Where does meaning come from in literature? How are literary works related to culture and society and how do they reflect–and reflect on–questions of value and the diversity of human experience?

To explore these questions, this course will focus on literature about motivation: what do characters want and how do they try to get it? You’ll read authors from the late 1940s through the 60s (like James Baldwin and Ann Petry) and late 1990s to the present (authors like Jhumpa Lahiri and Justin Torres). We will study works by diverse authors (in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, socio economic status, etc.) There will be short writing assignments, presentations, and a reflective essay for this course.

Section: 009 #4764
Instructor: E. Bayley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This is a Service and Faith Community course, which means that there are out of class activities outside of the classroom that you are required to attend and that this class will focus on the ideas of service and faith in literature. This is a foundational course that explores a variety of critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. In particular, we will be looking at the concepts of dying, death and grieving, how faith and service coincide with these ides, and discuss how these concepts are depicted in a number of different poems, plays and short stories. These topics are often difficult topics to discuss and yet, they are inevitable realities in each of our lives. Thus, we will use texts, by a number of different American authors, such as Jane Kenyon, Mary Oliver, Annie Proulx, Moises Kaufman, and more, to explore what dying, death and grieving might consist of, not only personally but also politically, and further, within the medical field itself. The method of assessment will include quizzes, papers, and classroom participation. 

Ecological Utopias and Dystopias
Section: 010 #4765
Instructor:  L. Goldstein
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

In this course, we will read, discuss and write about texts that explore how humans imagine utopias and dytopias, with a special focus on both environmental and social ecologies. We will be exploring science fiction novels, short stories and a film of Afro-futurism, ancient plays, and weird poetry. You will be introduced to multiple strategies to approach and interpret challenging texts, and writing original essays with your unique point of view using the material to prove your points. Materials include: short stories by Octavia Butler, the African film Pumzi, a novel by Richard Brautigan, and the poetry of CA Conrad, Khadijah Queen and other contemporary poets. There is a strong focus on race and gender in this course.

Easy Riders, Migrant Laborers: American Mobility in Literature and Culture
Section: 011 #4766
Instructor:  L. Le-Khac
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will introduce genres of literature and methods of literary analysis as we explore representations of mobility in American literature and culture. We will examine the stories of open road, open space, social mobility, and renewed possibilities that pervade American culture from the beginnings of the nation to the contemporary period. What accounts for the pull of the open road? What roles have these stories played in American identity? We’ll pursue and complicate ideas of mobility, examining how differences of class, race, gender, and national origin shape them, and how such differences call for other shapes for our stories, poems, and plays. Within national narratives of movement, how might we reconcile the coexistence of easy riders and migrant laborers, overseas adventurers and displaced refugees? As we follow these questions, we’ll learn how to read closely, to attend to the aesthetic possibilities of specific genres, and to understand how literature engages in a complex dialogue with the social and political questions of its time.  

Section: 012 #4767
Instructor:  E. Bayley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

This is a Service and Faith Community course, which means that there are out of class activities outside of the classroom that you are required to attend and that this class will focus on the ideas of service and faith in literature. This is a foundational course that explores a variety of critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. In particular, we will be looking at the concepts of dying, death and grieving, how faith and service coincide with these ides, and discuss how these concepts are depicted in a number of different poems, plays and short stories. These topics are often difficult topics to discuss and yet, they are inevitable realities in each of our lives. Thus, we will use texts, by a number of different American authors, such as Jane Kenyon, Mary Oliver, Annie Proulx, Moises Kaufman, and more, to explore what dying, death and grieving might consist of, not only personally but also politically, and further, within the medical field itself. The method of assessment will include quizzes, papers, and classroom participation. 

Section: 013 #4768
Instructor:  T. Boyle
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

Reading can be fun.  Close reading can make the experience even more enjoyable.  In this introductory course we will explore how writers tease the reader with multilayered texts, rich in imagery, clever word choices, and interesting insights into human behavior.  During this course we will cover works of poetry, prose and drama from at least two different time periods; pre-modern and modern. Texts will include works from Ireland, England and the U.S.A.

Crossing Boundaries
Section: 014 #4769
Instructor: K. Quirk
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

This is a foundational course in literary studies in which we will read works that are about crossing boundaries. We will read works of poetry, drama, and fiction that address boundary crossings and trouble different sorts of boundaries: boundaries between nations, between genders, between the human and the non-human, between the magical and the real, between fiction and non-fiction, and between stories and poems. Readings may include a Greek Tragedy or two, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen.  Our goals will be to develop a better critical vocabulary and analytical approach to the three genres of poetry, drama, and fiction. The course writing assignments (both formal and informal) will emphasize literary analysis but will also seek to improve general writing skills. More broadly, however, I hope we will all learn to approach literature in a more attentive, engaged, and ultimately pleasurable manner. Ideally, we will not only learn about literature and hone our interpretive skills but will also try to relish the pleasure of reading literature.

Women and the Home
Section: 015 #4770
Instructor: E. Weeks-Stogner
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will require students to closely read and carefully analyze a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama; master key literary and critical terms; and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. This course will also explore important conceptual questions about literature and its study in order to help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature in a sophisticated manner.

The theme of this course is women and the domestic sphere, or the home space. Through an examination of literary texts from a wide range of genres and periods, we will explore the varied and rich ways in which authors have represented women’s relationships with the home and its corollary, femininity. Texts covered will include Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask, Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, and a selection of shorter pieces. Course requirements are (1) engaged reading of all assigned texts, demonstrated through annotation assignments and reading quizzes; (2) active class participation; (3) several short writing assignments; and (4) midterm and final exams.

Section: 016 #4771
Instructor: P. Jacob
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

In this foundational course in literary studies, we will ask how literature reflects, refracts, and remakes the world. This course will feature texts from a variety of genres, including poetry, drama, short fiction, and the novel. Students will be introduced to the key terms and concepts of literary study and will have a chance to explore major critical approaches in the field. We will examine the cultural context from which each text emerges, as well as the new world each text creates. We will pay special attention to how these works address questions of class, gender, sexuality, race, and geography. Students will gain experience with the practice of close reading, attending to the form of the text as well as to its content, and will develop their own interpretations in short responses, formal essays, and presentations. Texts may include: short fiction by Alice Sola Kim and Louise Erdrich; poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Bishop, and Morgan Parker; two novels, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale; and August Wilson’s play Fences.

Easy Riders, Migrant Laborers: American Mobility in Literature and Culture
Section: 017 #4772
Instructor: L. Le-Khac
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will introduce genres of literature and methods of literary analysis as we explore representations of mobility in American literature and culture. We will examine the stories of open road, open space, social mobility, and renewed possibilities that pervade American culture from the beginnings of the nation to the contemporary period. What accounts for the pull of the open road? What roles have these stories played in American identity? We’ll pursue and complicate ideas of mobility, examining how differences of class, race, gender, and national origin shape them, and how such differences call for other shapes for our stories, poems, and plays. Within national narratives of movement, how might we reconcile the coexistence of easy riders and migrant laborers, overseas adventurers and displaced refugees? As we follow these questions, we’ll learn how to read closely, to attend to the aesthetic possibilities of specific genres, and to understand how literature engages in a complex dialogue with the social and political questions of its time.  

Women and the Home

Section: 018 #4773
Instructor: E. Weeks-Stogner
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will require students to closely read and carefully analyze a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama; master key literary and critical terms; and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. This course will also explore important conceptual questions about literature and its study in order to help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature in a sophisticated manner.

The theme of this course is women and the domestic sphere, or the home space. Through an examination of literary texts from a wide range of genres and periods, we will explore the varied and rich ways in which authors have represented women’s relationships with the home and its corollary, femininity. Texts covered will include Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask, Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, and a selection of shorter pieces. Course requirements are (1) engaged reading of all assigned texts, demonstrated through annotation assignments and reading quizzes; (2) active class participation; (3) several short writing assignments; and (4) midterm and final exams.

Section: 019 #4775
Instructor: J. Hinkson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 – 9:45 AM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama, master key literary and critical terms, and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature. This course will also explore important conceptual questions about literature and its study. What is literature? Why does it matter? How has it been conceived in different times and places? How do we envision the relationships among author, text, and reader or audience? What is the difference between reading a literary work in its historical context and in the light of our own contemporary time? Where does meaning come from in literature? What is literary interpretation and what role does it have in the production of literary meaning? How are literary works related to culture and society and how do they reflect – and reflect on – questions of value and the diversity of human experience?  Exploring these questions will help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature in a sophisticated manner.

Section: 020 #4776
Instructor: X. Hohman
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 – 9:45 AM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will introduce students to the conventions and practices of literary studies. Throughout the semester, we will examine the ways in which 19th, 20th, and 21st writers, poets, and dramatists conceive of, participate in, and transgress borders, both real and imagined. In addition to learning how to critically read and analyze these texts, we will discuss key literary terms and concepts that will help us to situate the works we read within the larger academic discourse. Students will be evaluated through quizzes, tests, and short papers.   

Section: 021 #4777
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 8:30 – 9:45 AM LSC

Section: 022 #4778
Instructor: M. Clarke
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 - 11:15 AM LSC

Literature not only reflects the social and historical conditions from which it springs, it also shapes them.  Literature is, as Thackeray said, an “easy and delightful” way to study history, and, I would add, philosophy, psychology, religion and other subjects. This Core course is designed to introduce students to college-level literary studies in a way that will highlight both the delight that literature can give and its importance for a rich and full life. Students will closely and carefully analyze a representative selection of works of prose, poetry, and drama, will master key literary and critical terms, and will explore a variety of critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature.  This class is a prerequisite for all second tier Core literature courses.

Section: 023 #4779
Instructor: P. Randolph
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 - 11:15 AM LSC

This is a core course that will teach the fundamentals about critical thinking, reading, and writing with multi-cultural texts. This year in UCLR we will be reading poetry, prose, and plays from a Norton Anthology. In addition, we will read some short stories from contemporary authors along with classics, such as William Faulkner’s Barn Burning. We will discuss the six essential elements of fiction: Plot, Narration and Point of View, Character, Setting, Symbolism, and Themes. Some of the authors we will read include: Sherman Alexie, William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Jhumpa Lahiri, and many others. When you leave this class you will have mastered key literary terms and be equipped with multiple critical lenses.

Section: 024 #4780
Instructor: C. Kendrick
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 - 12:45 PM LSC

This foundational course is intended to improve students’ ability to understand and appreciate poetry, drama, and prose. Readings will mostly be of works in these three basic kinds of literature, and will, with a few exceptions, mostly be by post-1900 authors from English-speaking countries. Readings will include Philip K. Dick’s Martian Time-Slip, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, some stories by James Tiptree, Jr. (aka Alice Sheldon); John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman; and poems by William Blake, Robert Frost, Elisabeth Bishop, and several others. There will be some in-class writing; a journal; a midterm and final exam; and two short papers. ​

Section: 025 #4781
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 - 12:45 PM LSC

Section: 026 #4782
Instructor: J. Stayer
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 - 12:45 PM LSC

This is a foundational course of literary studies: an introduction to college-level thinking about various literary genres, including fiction, poetry, and drama. This section of the course covers some of the most important American authors from 1850 to the present. Since literary interpretation is an art rather than an exact science, the bulk of the course is devoted to close readings of the text that lead to reasonable interpretations. 

Literature is an art form that addresses all aspects of the human experience—the emotions, the body, the spirit, love, ambition and despair, suffering and joy, bravery and self-deception, cultural roles and inner longings. So no matter what your major or your interests, the material in this course will be relevant to all who seek meaning and purpose in their lives. 

Section: 027 #4783
Instructor: D. Richards
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 - 2:15 PM LSC

For some of us, “home” looks like an old farmhouse in a rolling cornfield. To others, a 3-story walkup over a 7-Eleven. Some see home as just a place to live, and others feel inextricably bound up to the people and place they come from. In this section of UCLR, we will investigate literature written by people from both rural and urban environments, questioning how their ideas about “city” and “country” affect their views of place, environment, and identity. Alongside Yeats, Cather, Baldwin, Cisneros and many other writers, we will contemplate how our homes have shaped us, and what assumptions we make about others. Through our journey in poetry, fiction, and drama, we will develop a critical lens for literature, but it will also help us think critically about our own identities and homes as well.

Section: 028 #6145
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 - 2:15 PM LSC

Section: 029 #6146
Instructor: J. Stayer
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 - 11:15 PM LSC

This is a foundational course of literary studies: an introduction to college-level thinking about various literary genres, including fiction, poetry, and drama. This section of the course covers some of the most important American authors from 1850 to the present. Since literary interpretation is an art rather than an exact science, the bulk of the course is devoted to close readings of the text that lead to reasonable interpretations. 

Literature is an art form that addresses all aspects of the human experience—the emotions, the body, the spirit, love, ambition and despair, suffering and joy, bravery and self-deception, cultural roles and inner longings. So no matter what your major or your interests, the material in this course will be relevant to all who seek meaning and purpose in their lives. 

Section: 030 #6147
Instructor: S. Weller
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 - 3:45 PM LSC

This foundational course in literary studies will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama, master key literary and critical terms, and explore a variety of core critical approaches to conceptual questions about literature and its study. What is literature? Why does it matter? How has it been conceived in different times and places? How do we envision the relationships among author, text, and reader or audience? What is the difference between reading a literary work in its historical context and in the light of our own contemporary time? Where does meaning come from in literature? What is literary interpretation and what role does it have in the production of literary meaning? How are literary works related to culture and society and how do they reflect—and reflect on—questions of value and the diversity of human experience? Exploring these questions will help students develop the skills of analysis and interpretation needed to approach literature in a sophisticated manner.

This course satisfies the first tier of Loyola University’s core Knowledge Area requirement in “Literary Knowledge.”

Business Writing (ENGL 210)

Section: 20W #1962
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM WTC

This course is writing-intensive.

Section: 60W #2673
Instructor:  TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM WTC

This course is writing-intensive.

Section: 61W #3198
Instructor:  J. Janangelo
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM WTC

Our course covers the rhetorical principles of effective writing, focusing on particular types of discourse practiced in business and professional settings. You will gain experience reading and writing texts pertinent to business communication including memos, proposals, letters, and resumes. There will be individual and collaborative projects; you will also give a group presentation.

Our course is writing intensive. We will use a process approach to writing, emphasizing problem-solving, prewriting strategies, and editing and revision skills. Our class is a workshop. As such, much of our time will be devoted to small group discussions and exercises. You will plan and share some of your writing with your peers and with me in draft conferences. That gives you a chance to exchange ideas, get assistance, participate in peer editing, and receive feedback on your work.

Section: 62W #3752
Instructor:  M. Meinhardt
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM WTC

Business Writing is a seminar designed to build and improve effective communication practices for use in the business community. The ideas of “personal professionalism” and “priority of purposes” guide an exploration of business writing genres ranging from correspondence to memos, and from employment documents to executive summaries. Collaboration, peer interaction, and individual economy direct the creation of a series of writing projects that use revision and research as a necessary step in the writing process.

Writing for Pre-Law Students (ENGL 211)

Section: 63W #3455
Instructor:  D. Gorski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 7:00 – 9:30 PM WTC

In this course, students will learn to develop the writing skills used by law school students and attorneys to prepare case briefs, office memoranda, and pre-trial motions. Students will also learn how to answer essay examination questions of the type given in law school and on a state bar examination. In class, students will develop the verbal abilities necessary to take a legal position and defend it with statements of fact and conclusions of law. Realistic hypothetical fact patterns will be analyzed using the IRAC method: issue, rule, application, and conclusion. Learning how to cite to legal authorities is a central part of the course. Readings include judicial opinions, state and federal statutes, and law review articles. The course is taught by a practicing attorney, and assumes no prior legal studies by the students.

Theory/Practice Tutoring (ENGL 220)

Section: 1WE #2357
Instructor: A. Kessel
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 - 3:45 PM LSC

English 220 is a seminar designed to prepare students to serve as tutors in the Loyola University Chicago Writing Center. This course is open to students from all majors who have a passion for clear written communication. We will explore the theory and practice of peer tutoring through reading and discussion of research as well as through practical experience. In this course you will learn how to help others become better writers while improving your own writing and critical thinking skills. You will become part of a community of fellow peer tutors and gain experience that will benefit you in a variety of careers. The service-learning component consists of approximately 20-25 hours of observation and tutoring in the Writing Center. The writing intensive component includes several short essays and a group research paper. Students who wish to be enrolled in this course must obtain a short recommendation from a faculty member who can speak to the student’s writing ability and interpersonal skills. Recommendations should be emailed to Amy Kessel (akessel@luc.edu). Those who excel in the course will be eligible to work as paid writing tutors.

ENGL 220-1WE is a writing intensive class.

Exploring Poetry (ENGL 271)

Section: 001 #6114
Instructor:  J. Cragwall
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

Why should we care about poetry—and how should we care about it?  We’ll start historically—who before us cared about poetry, and why?  We’ll study the pressure poems put on their historical moment, and how they’re shaped by it in surprising ways: for example, our discussion of Shakespeare will start with the formation of “Shakespeare” as a figure, often at odds with the “evidence” of the poems, of canonical standards throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a program that affected even the spelling of his poems. Many of the authors we’ll read were white, male, and rich—how has literature been used to promote a series of questions and assumptions that they may have shared (sometimes called “the canon”), and how has it, even in these same authors, blown apart all the stereotypes and orthodoxies we’d expect to find?  We’ll watch the invention not only of English (and then British) culture, but of the English language itself, its twists and triumphs, detours and degenerations—and most importantly, we’ll watch as language, especially literary language, is fashioned into a vehicle of social (as well as aesthetic) contest. Readings in all genres epic, lyric, dramatic, and pornographic, from around 1600 to 1900. We (well, you) will also write papers, take exams, and mix metaphors—the entire range of academic abjection, in one convenient course. 

Section: 01W #6111
Instructor: J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 - 3:35 PM LSC

This class will provide an introduction to the understanding and analysis of poetry through the study of a wide range of poems in English.  We will consider various motives for writing and reading poetry, and various methods of reading it. Because this course is writing intensive, there will be frequent brief writing assignments, both in and out of class. The required textbook is Introduction to Poetry, (13th Edition), edited by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Requirements will include participation in class discussions, several papers, a midterm, and a final.

Section: 02W #6112
Instructor: J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This class will provide an introduction to the understanding and analysis of poetry through the study of a wide range of poems in English.  We will consider various motives for writing and reading poetry, and various methods of reading it. Because this course is writing intensive, there will be frequent brief writing assignments, both in and out of class. The required textbook is Introduction to Poetry, (13th Edition), edited by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.  Requirements will include participation in class discussions, several papers, a midterm, and a final.

Section: 03W #6113
Instructor: J. Jacobs
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

Section: 21W #6115
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

Exploring Drama (ENGL 272)

Section: 002 #6148
Instructor:  E. Wheatley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This course surveys drama in English from the Middle Ages to the present, with special attention to literary, social, and historical influences and conventions that have defined the genre, its performance, and its reception in various periods. Assignments will include two essays, biweekly responses, and a final exam.

Section: 04W #3473
Instructor:  T. Boyle
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This course of studies will include texts that actively critique the importance of religion on the creative imagination, in particular Catholicism. The quest for meaning, whether religious or secular, can lead to some interesting works of drama. Modernist theater, for instance, with its quest for newness, has sought to dramatize the problems associated with religious faith (Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot). While the depictions can sometimes be sympathetic, sometimes skeptical, there is an underlying affirmation, and legitimization of the immense influence religion has had on forming our understanding of life. In this class we will also explore the movement away from the classical form of drama towards what Brecht calls ‘epic theatre’.

Intro. to Drama covers literature from 20th Century and 21st Century

Exploring Fiction (ENGL 273)

Section: 003 #4799
Instructor: J. Glover
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MW 4:15 - 5:30 PM LSC

Why do people enjoy reading stories about made-up characters? This course is an introduction to prose fiction as a mode of literary representation. It will aim to acquaint students with the historical development of fictional characters, as well as the many techniques authors use to make fictional worlds, including the creation of perspectives, the description of setting, and the rules of genre. Most of our energy will be devoted to reading and discussing short stories and novels, but we will range across genres from realism to science fiction.

Section: 004 #4801
Instructor:  J. Wapinski
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 PM LSC

This course will instruct students in the tools necessary to read, analyze, and interpret a diverse range of short stories and novels. Students will receive instruction in recognizing literary devices, evaluating relevant historical contexts, and utilizing appropriate literary evidence in constructing an argument. Assignments include response papers, reading quizzes, and a final examination.

Why read Fiction?
Section: 005 #5887
Instructor:  J. Wexler
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

Long-form serials on TV offer some of the pleasures of fiction: complex characters embedded in social networks, vivid settings, and extended plots. We will ask what, if anything, is distinctive about fiction. To answer this question, we will analyze the formal elements of a variety of short stories and novels. Assignments include class presentations, short written responses, and essays.

Section: 05W #4802
Instructor: J. Kerkering
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

This course examines works by important U.S. novelists from the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Class discussions will address formal and thematic features of these writings. Based on these discussions, students will write papers that draw upon the readings to support original and consequential interpretations. Since this is a writing-intensive course, students’ weekly response papers will engage in the practice of “close reading,” which will provide a foundation for the mode of analytical writing practiced in students’ longer papers for the course.

Section: 06W #6149
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 2:45 – 3:35 PM LSC

Section: 22W #6150
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

Exploring Shakespeare (ENGL 274)

Section: 006 #6151
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

Section: 07W #3036
Instructor: E. Sharrett
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 PM LSC

This section of 274 will delve into a study of the major genres of Shakespearean drama: comedy, history, tragedy, and romance. Specifically, we will study the historical contexts informing Shakespeare’s use of these dramatic genres by exploring the figurative language employed in key passages of the plays. This class is denoted as writing intensive; thus, students will complete a variety of writing exercises (i.e., reading response papers, analytical essays employing close reading of poetic language, and timed exams) which will allow students to enhance their written communication skills while articulating cogent, well-supported arguments regarding Shakespeare’s plays and their uses of historical narratives. The primary text for this course will be the seventh edition of David Bevington’s Complete Works of Shakespeare. Any pertinent criticism or theoretical texts will be provided to students during the course. We will likely study the following plays: Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, and Richard III.

Students should expect to gain competencies in (a) creating and revising rhetorical arguments; (b) voicing the relationships between Shakespeare’s plays and shifts in early modern religious, scientific, economic, and political realities, and (c) considering Shakespeare’s writing as texts for the stage and the page.

ENGL 274-07W is a writing intensive class.

African-American Literature 1700-1900 (ENGL 282B)

Section: 08W #6152
Instructor: F. Staidum
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

While the activist movement, Black Lives Matter, has garnered national attention since its inception in 2013, African American literature has long been concerned with asserting the value of Black lives since the late 18th century.  African and African descendant peoples in the United States have used the written word to express their desires for freedom and its various iterations (i.e., equality, citizenship, self-determination, justice) and to represent the full humanity and beauty of Black peoples and their cultures.  This course surveys this diverse literary tradition of autobiographies, pamphlets, essays, short stories, novels, poetry, and plays.  We will especially study the artistic and socio-political context of this literature for what they reveal about the ever-changing status of the Black condition and Blackness within the US.

This particular version of the course focuses on material within the time period 1700-1900.  Authors will include Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Harriet Wilson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Pauline Hopkins.

Women in Literature (ENGL 283)

Section: 007 #6153
Instructor: J. B. Bouson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

“If women have learned many of the ways they interpret their lives from the narrative schemata of novels and stories,” writes Joanne Fry, “they can also gain from fiction new insights into the narrative processes of constructing meaning.”  Crosslisted with Women’s Studies, English 283 is designed to meet the “literary knowledge and experience” requirements of the Loyola Core.  Focusing on literature written by 20th-  and  21st-century women authors, this course is designed to help students gain knowledge of women’s lives and writings; to show them the difference gender makes to the writing, reading, and interpretation of literature; to train them in the analysis of literature; and to teach them how to describe, analyze, and formulate arguments about literary texts. Analyzing representative works of fiction written by women authors, this course will investigate the important cultural and gender scripts and psychological dramas encoded in the works read, paying special attention to the various ways the authors represent coming of age, the female body, romantic love, mother-child relationships,  female friendships, and female aging in their works.  The authors covered will include Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, and May Sarton.  There will be quizzes, oral reports, a midterm and a final exam.

Transgender in Literature
Section: 08E #6154
Instructor:  P. Caughie
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This is an Engaged Learning course, approved for the Undergraduate Research category, and thus satisfies the Loyola University Chicago Engaged Learning requirement."

In this engaged learning course, students will study transgender literature and history of the early 20th century and will assist in completing a digital scholarly edition and archive of one such narrative: Man into Woman, the life narrative of Lili Elbe, one of the first persons to undergo a surgical change in sex in 1930. (If you have seen the 2015 film, “The Danish Girl,” you have a sense of her life.) The primary work will be supplemented by essays on transgender history and on digital humanities; case studies by sexologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and early 20th century novels, such as Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928) and Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928). Students will immerse themselves in this history to better understand and work with the primary text. In addition, all students will be trained in how to encode materials according to TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) standards, and how to collate editions.

REQUIREMENTS: In addition to the readings, quizzes, and class discussions, students will:

1. Participate in the production of the digital edition and archive, working approximately 10 hours per week on assigned tasks that they select in conjunction with the professor and the project manager. Tasks may include encoding materials in TEI mark-up; proofing materials; collating editions; transcribing materials for the archive; and researching specific events and names mentioned in the narrative and supplemental materials;

2. Learn TEI mark-up language and practice encoding materials;

2. Track their hours and their progress on assignments weekly in a google spreadsheet monitored by the project manager; and,

4. Write blog posts reflecting on the work they did on the edition and what they learned from that process. Students will share these reflections as well as their final product (e.g., an encoded text, a sample collation, a glossary or index) in a project team meeting and at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in April.

NOTE: This work requires close attention to detail, meeting firm deadlines, and working cooperatively with others.

Deconstructing the Diva
Section: 09W #2112
Instructor:  M. Bradshaw
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 9:20 – 10:10 AM LSC

This writing intensive section of ENGL 283: Women in Literature focuses on divas and diva culture. Revered and reviled, imitated and appropriated, divas are the most visible women in our culture. They are also the most misunderstood. On the one hand, the diva represents empowerment—she is loud, courageous, and often outrageous. But her power comes at a great cost: when she is consumed and absorbed into fans’ lives, she risks becoming the object of obsession. She also risks losing her identity, even as she serves as a vehicle for shaping others’.  This class uses fiction, drama, biography, autobiography, film, and performance theory to explore the paradoxes and problems of the “woman with a voice” and her place in contemporary conceptions of femininity.

Section: 10W #4935
Instructor:  J. B. Bouson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 AM LSC

“If women have learned many of the ways they interpret their lives from the narrative schemata of novels and stories,” writes Joanne Fry, “they can also gain from fiction new insights into the narrative processes of constructing meaning.”  Crosslisted with Women’s Studies, English 283 is designed to meet the “literary knowledge and experience” requirements of the Loyola Core.  Focusing on literature written by 20th-  and  21st-century women authors, this course is designed to help students gain knowledge of women’s lives and writings; to show them the difference gender makes to the writing, reading, and interpretation of literature; to train them in the analysis of literature; and to teach them how to describe, analyze, and formulate arguments about literary texts. Analyzing representative works of fiction written by women authors, this course will investigate the important cultural and gender scripts and psychological dramas encoded in the works read, paying special attention to the various ways the authors represent coming of age, the female body, romantic love, mother-child relationships,  female friendships, and female aging in their works.  The authors covered will include Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, and May Sarton.  There will be quizzes, oral reports, a midterm and a final exam.

Nature in Literature (ENGL 288)

Section: 11W #4166
Instructor:  S. Sleevi
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

This course will focus on how human beings relate to and function within the natural environments surrounding them, as explored through a variety of literary texts. We will read novels, short stories, and a handful of poems that range from the nineteenth century to the present, looking closely at both their thematic content and formal features. Using theoretical approaches including ecocriticism and posthumanism, we will also develop a critical vocabulary for discussing and writing about the texts and contexts we encounter. Assignments for the course will include reading quizzes, regular short writing assignments, a midterm paper, and a final paper.

Human Values in Literature (ENGL 290)

Non-Western Voices
Section: 009 #4937
Instructor: H. Mann
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

Adopting an international and cross-disciplinary perspective, this section of English 290 will examine the portrayal of human values in modern and contemporary works by selected non-western writers from Africa, the West Indies, South Asia, and USA. Our main aim will be to examine the extent to which the societies under study (and the individuals who constitute them) share universal values and the extent to which these societies and their values are predicated upon culture specific norms and expectations. To this end, we will consider the role of nationalism, tradition, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, and class/caste in the conception and practice of such values. In addition, we will analyze the cultural bases of contributing literary techniques, including structure, language, narrative focus, and characterization among others, to arrive at comparative assessments of the portrayal of human values in modern world literature. 

This course satisfies 3 credits of the Core Curriculum Tier-II requirement in Literary Knowledge & Experience; counts as a 200-level elective for both the English major and minor; and meets the 3-credit multicultural requirement of the English major.

Section: 203 #6155
Instructor: J. Janangelo
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 7:00 – 9:30 PM WTC

Our course focuses ideas about "style and substance" as they apply to human personality. Through our reading and analysis, we will pay particular attention to concepts and intersections of gender, race, social class, and sexuality.

Throughout the semester, we will draw on the scholarship of Audre Lorde, Susan Sontag, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Andy Warhol, among others. We will also discuss theories of "celebrity." We will study ways that that term, including its perceived strengths and limitations, has evolved across time and maturing media.

Our course texts include "A Tale of Two Mothers," "The Necklace," Six Degrees of Separation, Woman at Point Zero, and The Postman Always Rings Twice. We will have two papers, a reading journal, a presentation, and a take-home final exam.

Advanced Writing (ENGL 293)

Issues of Identity and Authenticity: Who Are You?
Section: 12W #4168
Instructor: P. Randolph
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 4:15 – 6:45 PM LSC

In this advanced writing course, we will pursue current theories of critical thinking, writing, and reading. Here, you will develop your skills of creative non-fiction, editing, and professional writing for publication. We will hone peer review and editing skills as you build a robust portfolio during the semester. Along with these important elements of writing, you will explore the specific content of identity and authenticity in an age of social media. Some topics and texts we will look at include: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (about the shifting and changing nature of the body during puberty in Victorian Literature); Catfishing and Trolling the misrepresentation of identity through language on the internet; the horror film Us, which centers on issues of race, identity, and authenticity in the 21st century. The driving question behind this course is how to answer one question: Who are you? This is a transformative learning experience through developmental writing, which will provide the skills necessary not only to present one’s self but also how to unpack the language deployed by others for representation in a digital age.

The Writing of Poetry (ENGL 317)

Basic (Experimental) Poetry Workshop
Section: 010 #1785
Instructor: L. Goldstein
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 2:45 - 5:15 PM LSC

This course approaches the writing of poetry as both a study and craft that requires reading, exploration, practice, and sharing. We read a unique work of contemporary poetry each week as a framework for discussion, but the core of the course is student writing. The workshop element of the course is focused on experimentation with language to foster each student’s own creativity and delight in creating work both as a group and on their own. Our work includes in-class collective and collaborative writing experiments, prompts for writing in between sessions, and presentations of student poetry for review by the group. Students produce a final collection of poetry in a self-published chapbook and give a reading of their work for the final.

Section: 011 #2932
Instructor: A. Baker
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 4:15 – 6:45 PM LSC

This course offers practice and instruction in the techniques and analysis of poetry through reading, writing, discussing, and revising poems. We will give particular attention to the unique challenges and opportunities  facing  beginning poets as we first seek to channel our ideas and life experiences into poetry, to find and then develop our own voices in relation to not only our own impulses but to "the tradition" and the aesthetically diverse and fascinating world of contemporary poetry. The poems you write will be carefully read and critiqued by both your classmates and the instructor. The culmination of the course will be to compile a portfolio of the work you have written over the term.

Section: 012 #6156
Instructor: P. Sorenson
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 2:45 – 5:15 PM LSC

This course aligns poetry writing with the reading of poetry and the exploration of poetic practices both old and new. Through outside reading, students will question their relationships to contemporary modes and cultures. Thus, students will further develop their own voices, styles, and methods of production, and they will begin to situate their craft in the larger poetic world. Weekly class meetings will center on discussions and presentations of outside materials, in-class writing and writing experiments, discussions of student-generated poetry, and collaborative writing.  In addition to regular writing assignments and in-class presentations, students will develop a portfolio by semester’s end.   

The Writing of Fiction (ENGL 318)

Section: 013 #2539
Instructor: TBA
3.0 credit hours Lecture
M 2:45 – 5:15 PM LSC

Section: 014 #6157
Instructor: D. Kaplan
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM LSC

Students will be introduced to the art and craft of writing fiction through (a) reading master writers such as Sherman Alexie, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Proulx, Haruki Murakami, Donald Barthelme, and others, to analyze their craft; (b) writing three original short stories; and (c ) having these stories discussed and critiqued by the instructor and by fellow students in a supportive workshop environment. Class participation is emphasized. Fulfills a Core Expressive Arts Requirement.

Section: 015 #6158
Instructor: H. Axelrod
3.0 credit hours Lecture
F 2:45 – 5:15 PM LSC

Section: 601 #6159
Instructor: H. Axelrod
3.0 credit hours Lecture
W 7:00 – 9:30 PM LSC

This is a workshop class in fiction.  Students will learn to become better readers and writers of fiction by learning how to attend to structure, character, imagery, dialogue and other craft elements as we analyze how writers such as Jamaica Kincaid, Denis Johnson, Jhumpa Lahiri, and others create stories that resonate with the stories of our own lives.  What makes a character stay with us?  What makes a metaphor work?  What makes dialogue sound believable?  What is the difference between suspense and surprise?

Students will write three original short stories, and will learn how to critique each other’s stories in class as part of a supportive workshop environment.  Class participation is emphasized. Fulfills a Core Expressive Arts Requirement.

Writing Creative Nonfiction (ENGL 319)

Section: 016 #3290
Instructor: H. Axelrod
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 2:30 – 5:00 PM LSC

This is a workshop course in creative nonfiction, the fastest growing genre in publishing.  It’s thriving in personal essay columns in magazines and newspapers, in memoirs, and in new hybrid forms.  Indeed, perhaps the only way to define creative nonfiction is to identify its constitutive elements: facts and subjectivity.  Nonfiction means the given facts of the work are true—not courtroom testimony-level true, but fairly reliably-accurate true—and subjectivity means that the writer is using those facts to get at more than the facts, to take a personally distinctive look at a topic, or issue, or period of her life, and often, whether explicitly or not, at some larger underlying question. 

In class, we’ll read, analyze, and discuss the works of creative nonfiction writers as models for your own writing. This is a workshop, so you’ll hear from each other what’s working on the page in your own writing and what isn’t—which will help develop your ear as you read and your instincts as you write.  You’ll learn about narrative distance, scene and exposition, and various elements of craft, with a focus on voice and diction.  You’ll also learn to offer thoughtful commentary on the work of your classmates.  The goal is for you to become a better reader and writer of creative nonfiction.   

Engl Lit: Medieval Period (ENGL 320)

Section: 017 #6250
Instructor: E. Wheatley
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 1:00 – 2:15 PM LSC

This course will explore the symbiotic relationship between religious literature of the Middle Ages and the popular literary genre known as romance. We will examine how the Christian culture of medieval Europe deployed religious ideas in relatively secular romance settings, and how religious texts adopted and adapted some literary conventions of romance. Readings will include a variety of texts, including Arthurian literature from both France and England. Assignments will include two essays, weekly responses, and a final exam.

Brit Lit: The Renaissance (ENGL 325)

Section: 018 #1787
Instructor: J. Biester
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 1:40 – 2:30 PM LSC

In this course we will study the works of selected English authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, examining the intellectual and social contexts in which their poetry was produced as well as the literary traditions they employed and transformed.  The required textbook is The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Tenth Edition, 2018) (Vol. B), ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al.  Requirements will include participation in class discussion, papers, a midterm, and a final.  This course counts toward the “pre-1700” requirement for English Majors.

Plays of Shakespeare (ENGL 326)

Section: 019 #1788
Instructor: J. Knapp
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 2:30 – 3:45 PM LSC

This course will focus on a selection of Shakespeare’s plays in all the major genres (comedy, history, tragedy, and romance). We will read the plays through a variety of critical approaches, taking into account the historical context in which they were produced. To emphasize the importance of drama as intended for theatrical performance, we will view recorded performances, and, if possible, attend a local theatrical performance. Over the course of the semester we will explore the development of drama in England, the material history of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, and the political and cultural place of the theater in Shakespeare’s England.  Plays may include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, Richard II, 1 Henry IV, Othello, King Lear, and Cymbeline. The primary text will be David Bevington’s edition of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. There will be papers, a midterm and a final.

Brit Lit: Victorian Period (ENGL 340)

Section: 020 #1789
Instructor: P. Jacob
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 12:35 – 1:25 PM LSC

This course provides a survey of major texts from the period of Queen Victoria’s reign, from the 1830s to the turn of the century. Through readings of novels, poetry, prose, and plays, we will examine the key sites of Victorian society: the home, the factory, the schoolroom, the city, and the empire. The nineteenth century was subject to major transformations, including industrialization and urbanization, radical breakthroughs in scientific knowledge, innovations in transportation and communication technology, the expansion of Britain’s imperial presence around the globe, and a rethinking of social relationships, across gender, class, and age. In this course we will trace how these changes play out in cultural productions of the era. We will also identify the literary trends of the nineteenth century, from the crystallization of the realist mode to the development of new genres like detective and science fiction. Finally, we will learn about how nineteenth-century texts were published and circulated, paying special attention to scenes of reading within our readings. Texts may include: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, George Meredith’s Modern Love, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and writings by Alfred Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Stuart Mill, Charles Dickens, and others.

Contemporary Critical Theory (ENGL 354)

Section: 021 #2933
Instructor: J. Kerkering
3.0 credit hours Lecture
MWF 11:30 – 12:20 PM LSC

In this course students will become familiar with the wide range of questions that critics bring to bear on literary works when writing literary criticism.  Students will learn to read and understand the philosophical and historical bases of certain theoretical questions, to recognize these questions underlying the literary criticism they read, and to compose literary analysis with these theories serving as a foundation for their work.

Modernist Poetry (ENGL 361)

Section: 022 #6161
Instructor: D. Chinitz
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 10:00 – 11:15 AM LSC

In this course we will read and discuss the work of such major modernist poets as William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), and Ezra Pound. These poets illustrate several different ways of being “modern,” and we will consider both what distinguishes them individually and the ways in which their artistic projects overlap. We will focus on their writing techniques as well as on the historical-cultural contexts that shaped their ideas and aesthetics. Assignments will include two essays, a midterm and a final exam.

Studies in Fiction (ENGL 372)

Trans* Narratives
Section: 023 #6162
Instructor: P. Caughie
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 11:30 – 12:45 PM LSC

This course is a study in narrative focused on fiction and memoirs by and about trans* subjects. Such writings disrupt narrative conventions by defying pronominal stability, temporal continuity, and natural progression, all elements of more conventional novels and memoirs that trace the course of a subject’s life. As such, trans* narratives can be read as a distinct genre, what I have called a “transgenre.” But they also require us to rethink the conventions of any life writing, raising the question, What are the consequences for living of telling a different kind of story? That is, these life writings do not just give us an account of a life lived, but also deliberately shape a narrative of a life that might be lived, and livable.

Readings include various forms of life writing, fiction and nonfiction, as well as essays in transgender theory and sexological writings from the early 20th century. Primary works include Man into Woman (1933), the life narrative of Lili Elbe, and David Ebershoff’s novel based on that work, The Danish Girl (2000) along with Tom Hooper’s film version; Jan Morris’s Conundrum (1974); Jennifer Boylan’s She’s Not There (2003); Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts (2015); Juliet Jacques’s Trans: A Memoir (2015), and Susan Faludi’s In the Darkroom (2016). We may also read Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography (1928) and Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928), if we’re especially ambitious. We will also discuss recommended films. Along with participation, requirements for undergraduates include two short essays (app. 2500 words) and an exam; for graduate students, one class presentation and a seminar-length paper.

This course is cross-listed with WSGS.

American Lit to 1865 (ENGL 375)

Section: 024 #6163
Instructor: F. Staidum
3.0 credit hours Lecture
TR 4:15 – 5:30 PM LSC

This course is a study of selected works of early American literature against the backdrop of changing ideas about race and geography from the early 1600s to 1865.  As modern-day political conflicts and natural disasters raise crucial questions about immigration, gentrification, displacement, environmental racism, and defacto segregation (i.e., who belongs where?), it is of the utmost importance to understand the way race has historically influenced our understandings of space, place, and geography.  In North America, these contestations over who belongs where have raged since the seventeenth century.

We will use the literary methods of geocriticism and critical race theory to study (1) how places, locations, and territories were represented as black, white, Indian, and Other within early American literature and (2) the political, social, moral, and cultural values attributed to those racialized spaces.  We will explore several literary spaces, including the frontier, the river, the plantation, the factory, and the home.  Beyond simply identifying settings, we will be attentive to the representation and manipulation of scale, movement, proximity, borders and boundaries, and property.

Authors may include Black Hawk, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, and Catharine Maria Sedgwick.

Advanced Seminar: (ENGL 390)

Terrorism and Literature
Section: 13W #3947
Instructor: J. Wexler
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 2:30 – 5:00 PM LSC

Novels about terrorism have been written since the late nineteenth century, yet most literary critics argue that there is no useful information in these texts. Although most novels about terrorism focus on victims rather than perpetrators, some writers do portray terrorists. These characters often corroborate the findings of social scientists in Terrorism Studies, suggesting that fiction may have something to contribute to this interdisciplinary field. Texts include readings in Postcritique and Terrorism Studies as well as a variety of novels. Assignments include class presentations, short written responses, and formal essays.

Teaching English to Adults (ENGL 393)

Section: 01E #1790
Instructor: J. Heckman
1, 2, or 3 credit hours Lecture
MTWR 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM LSC

Engage with Jesuit values and meet our neighbors.  This course offers an excellent opportunity for service learning and practical experience in tutoring adults in written and spoken English at the Loyola Community Literacy Center, located in Loyola Hall, 1110 W. Loyola Avenue, 2nd floor conference room, across the street from Mertz.

While the Literacy Center offers community adults an opportunity to improve their skills, it also gives student-tutors the chance to serve their community and to engage with their Jesuit education.  One student tutor said, “The Literacy Center has taught me the true value of giving, and this is perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve learned at Loyola.” 

No previous tutoring experience is necessary.  When taken for 3 credit hours, this course satisfies the Core Engaged Learning-Service Learning Internship requirement.  The course is open to second-semester freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, although incoming freshmen are always welcome to tutor as volunteers and take the course at a later date.

Students tutor adult learners, most of whom are immigrants, refugees, or international visitors whose skills in their native language range from their being highly educated professionals to being perhaps illiterate, even in their own language, and who may know some English or no English.  Students also tutor some native English speakers preparing for the GED or improving their literacy skills. 

The Center is open for tutoring M-Th evenings during the fall and spring semesters from 7-9:30 pm when the university is in session.  1 credit hour students tutor one evening per week; 2 and 3 credit hour students tutor two evenings a week.  In addition, there are 5 class meetings scheduled at 5:45 pm, just before tutoring hours; 3 credit Core students meet for a 6th session.

If students have never tutored at the Center, they must attend one evening of orientation.  Students keep a weekly journal to reflect on their experiences and respond to assigned readings; examine a textbook and journal articles concerned with literacy, language, and adult education; submit ten of their journals and five short papers throughout the semester; prepare a final paper or project; and, for 3 credit hour students, read and report on one additional text of their choice related to the work of the Center, to adult literacy, to the culture of their learners, or to any topic suggested by their tutoring experience. 

Students who have taken this course have found it to be a challenging and exciting experience, even life changing as they help neighborhood adults improve their skills.  Another student-tutor wrote,

"Tutoring at the Loyola University Community Literacy Center was easily one of the best experiences I have ever been granted at Loyola University. That is coming from a student who has studied abroad three times, has volunteered elsewhere, and has had a number of internships. Never have I felt so connected to my own values. Tutoring at the center reminded me of my passions and allowed me to help others and make friends in the process… I am truly privileged to have learned about my learners’ cultures and personal experiences. They’ve taught me to not judge cultures from an American standpoint and to instead take every culture at face value."

More information can be found at www.luc.edu/literacy.  Follow the links to "tutoring" and then "course credit tutoring" for a complete description of English 393/Honors 290. 

Internship (ENGL 394)

Section: 03E #1791
Instructor: J. Cragwall

Honors Tutorial: (ENGL 395)

Section: 15W #1792
Instructor: M. Clarke
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 2:30 – 5:00 PM LSC

In this course we will examine the works of the Brontës, a family of gifted writers whose works continue to rise in the estimation of both popular and professional audiences. We will read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Villette, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Anne Brontë’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and an extensive selection of Emily Brontë’s poetry. To provide context, we will also read certain key biographical and critical studies. Because this course is a seminar, student discussion will be the driving force behind the course, and each student will be asked to lead the class three times. Lectures will include information on the history of the novel and essentials of novel criticism. Because this course is Writing Intensive, we will devote some of our class time to discussing various elements of good writing. This course fulfills the pre-1900, post-1700 English major requirement.

Advanced Writing Workshop: Poetry (ENGL 397)

Section: 16W #1896
Instructor: A. Baker
3.0 credit hours Lecture
T 2:30 – 5:00 PM LSC

In this advanced poetry workshop, we will seek to deepen our engagement with poetry as an art form—both as readers and writers. Through reading, writing, and workshopping, we will grow more familiar with the anatomy and texture of poetry: image, word, voice, syntactical configurations, rhetorical devices— stanza, line, punctuation, and page. Your work will be given a great deal of individual attention in our workshops, and you will be offered the opportunity to work very closely with the instructor as you write and revise your final project for the course—a portfolio of your best work.

Advanced Writing: Fiction (ENGL 398)

Section: 19W #6635
Instructor: D. Kaplan
3.0 credit hours Lecture
R 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM LSC

This is a fiction writing workshop for those who have already taken English 318 (a prerequisite) which builds upon concepts of fictional art and craft studied there. Students will write original short stories which will be discussed and critiqued by the instructor and by one's fellow writers in a supportive workshop environment. Students will also read and discuss the craft of master fiction writers, such as Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz, Sandra Cisneros, Ishmael Reed, Aimee Bender, and others. Class participation is emphasized.  This course may be taken twice for credit.

Special Studies in Literature (ENGL 399)

Section: 025 #1794
Instructor: J. Cragwall