In this course we will be reading poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and plays. We will look at how literature explores death, grief, life, and joy. We will be reading authors like Mary Oliver, Ross Gay, Annie Proulx, Jonathan Larson, and several other authors. Assessment will include in-class writings, class participation, an art project, and a group project. Attendance of a play at Loyola will also be part of the class, and the ticket will cost $10.00.

Section: 002 #2909
Instructor: Coomes, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 10:25 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

Section: 003 #2910
Instructor: Hovey, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 10:25 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

The Literature of Horror

In this section of Loyola’s foundational course in literary studies we will focus on some of the literature of horror. Texts include Shakespeare’s Macbeth--a play so cursed that actors are not allowed to speak its title—as well as stories by Edgar Allen Poe, specializing in madness. We will consider some famously creepy short stories by Flannery O’Connor, Shirley Jackson, and Joyce Carol Oates, as well as Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, short stories from Jordan Peele’s collection Out There Screaming, tales from Carmen Maria Machado and Stephen King, stories from the indigenous writers collection Never Whistle at Night, and other recent writing.

These texts will allow us to read closely and analyze 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? What is horror? How has it been conceived in different times and places? 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?

Section: 004 #2911
Instructor: Staidum, F.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 10:25 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

Banned Black Literature

Since the publication of The 1619 Project in August 2019, many right-wing politicians and activists have increasingly dismissed, attacked, or outright banned the unadulterated study of Black literature, history, and culture or, that is to say, a more accurate and thorough account of America. For example, bowing to political pressure, the College Board omitted important literary figures from its AP African American Studies curriculum, most of whom women or queer, such as Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and Gloria Naylor. Furthermore, 40 percent of all books banned from public libraries and schools in 2021-2022 were works written by authors of color, including the celebrated Black novelist and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, who has been the 3rd most banned writer. Justifications for these bans have ranged from alleging “a lack of educational value” to accusations of “reverse racism,” un-American lies, “CRT” and “DEI” indoctrination, and even pornography. However, these attacks on Black literature are not new. The suppression of unrestrained Black writing, reading, study, and thought date back to the 1740s with British colonies and later US states outlawing Black people’s literacy and distribution of anti-slavery publications, such as the abolitionist poetry of Frances E. W. Harper, and then during the first half of the twentieth century (circa 1910s-1950s), Red Scare proscriptions and obscenity laws regularly censored and blacklisted Black authors due to their associations with the labor movement, socialism, and communism and unapologetic depictions of sexuality.

This section of UCLR 100E (004) will focus on reading, discussing, analyzing, interpreting, and writing about various poetry, prose, and drama that have been deemed too transgressive or too offensive for public consumption. Our course assumes an interdependent relationship between literature and society, so we will also examine the politics of banned Black literature across four centuries and what each banned work reveals about the broader world in which they were written. We will especially attend to themes of systemic racism, feminism, class consciousness, and queerness as grappled within these works and interrogate what it is about Black literature and culture that has provoked and continues to provoke fear, objection, and suppression. As a foundational course in literary studies, we will survey compositional differences among poetry, prose, and drama; apply basic literary and critical vocabulary; practice introductory analytical methods, especially close reading, pattern recognition, exegesis, and genre analysis; and use historical context to better comprehend the aesthetic and thematic complexity of each literary work.

Section: 005 #2912
Instructor: Coomes, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 11:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m., LSC

Section: 007 #2914
Instructor: Slager, M.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 12:35 p.m. – 01:25 p.m., LSC

Dangerous & Exotic Others: Western Depictions of Eastern Places in Literature, Paintings, and Film

Through short prose works, poetry, paintings, and film, this course examines the development of common Western ideas and imagery about what has historically been construed as the “Orient”: Eurasia, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East. Notions of danger and exoticism have marked the European and American imaginations regarding those who lived in culturally heterogeneous regions that seemed to be the opposite of Western culture. In turn, these often recycled and stereotypical ideas have greatly influenced how we now think of people who live on a continent that stretches from Russia to China and beyond. We will discuss some reasons for how and why the Orient was constructed as a romanticized or threatening “other,” where Eastern places were imagined as despotic, threatening, and alluring.

Section: 008 #2915
Instructor: Weeks Stogner, E.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 12:35 p.m. – 01:25 p.m., LSC

Section: 010 #2916
Instructor: Quirk, K.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 01:40 p.m. – 02:30 p.m., LSC

The foundational course of 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. The readings will cover various historical periods, ranging from the Ancient Greece to the 21^st century and will include some modern retellings of classic works of literature and folklore. Course requirements will include in-class quizzes, short in-class essays, and exams.

Section: 011 #3534
Instructor: Weeks Stogner, E.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 02:45 p.m. – 03:35 p.m., LSC

Section: 014 #2919
Instructor: Hopwood, E.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 p.m., LSC

In this course, we will explore connections between literature and games, examining how both forms construct narrative, mediate and remediate ideas of success and survival, and reflect the significance of leisure as a cultural force. Through a study of fiction, poetry, drama and, of course, games themselves (both analog and video), we will consider the meaning and meaningfulness of play. Questions we will take up: How does play shape (and how is it shaped by) social structures and power relations, including class, gender, and identity? How can attending to the language and logic of games help us analyze text and subtext? And how do games, like literature, offer spaces for imagining otherwise: different worlds, knowledges, and modes of cultural production? We will undertake a survey of games, from the first commercially produced game in the U.S.,“The Mansion of Happiness” (1843) to Dungeons and Dragons, as we read (and often play) with the works of authors such as Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Henry David Thoreau, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and Qui Nguyen.

Section: 015 #2920
Instructor: Jacob, P.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

In this foundational course in literary studies, we will read novels, short stories, poetry, and plays, and students will be introduced to the key terms and concepts of literary study. 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, quizzes, and exams. Texts may include: short fiction by Alice Sola Kim and Louise Erdrich; poetry by Lucille Clifton, Elizabeth Bishop, and Danez Smith; two novels, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Caleb Azumah Smith’s Open Water; and plays such as August Wilson’s Fences and Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me.

Section: 016 #2921
Instructor: Karatas, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., LSC

What does it mean to grieve and what does it mean to endure, connect, and find words for the hardest parts of being alive? This course looks at how literature and other cultural forms take on experiences of loss, mourning, and emotional life, with a focus on storytelling as a tool for healing. Drawing on the medical humanities, we explore how narrative and language shape the way we understand the mind, mental health, and care for one another.

We read and discuss a wide range of texts, fiction, essays, music, visual art, television, and digital media, paying close attention to how creators make sense of painful experiences and give voice to inner lives. The course emphasizes close reading and critical writing, treating storytelling as a way of reflecting, making meaning, and finding restoration. At its heart, the course asks a simple but open question: Can literature help us heal?

Section: 017 #2922
Instructor: Lepak, S.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., 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 conceptual questions about literature and its study. What is literature? Why does it matter? How has it been conceived in different times and places? 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?

This section will be focusing on a variety of texts from many time periods, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary Americans. Our focus will be on the story of Homer’s Iliad and mythological literary traditions. We will anchor our study around the story of the Trojan War to better understand the literature and how adaptation functions in literature.

Section: 018 #2923
Instructor: Kessel, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 01:00 p.m. – 02:15 p.m., LSC

Section: 019 #3535
Instructor: Reddon, M.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 01:00 p.m. – 02:15 p.m., LSC

Section: 020 #2924
Instructor: Hovey, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 11:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m., LSC

The Literature of Horror

Section: 024 #3158
Instructor: Judy, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 08:30 a.m. – 09:45 a.m., LSC

This literature course is designed to offer students training in reading literature across time periods in the forms of poetry, prose, and drama. In doing so we will use Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus as our primary text in understanding the beginnings and evolution of the Faustian bargain, and the themes of ambition and forbidden knowledge. Other texts may include poetry by John Donne, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and selections from John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Section: 025 #4811
Instructor: Rodriguez, B.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 08:30 a.m. – 09:45 a.m., LSC

Interpreting literature is often inseparable from the way we experience and perceive everyday life. In this course, we will read American fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and film from different periods and cultural contexts. We will practice close reading, focusing on memory, senses, identity, and belonging. We will also turn to these works to show how literary devices produce meaning and shape how we understand and inhabit the world and the spaces around us. Along the way, we will build a shared critical vocabulary, methods, and analysis.

Business Writing (ENGL 210)

Section: 01W #1268
Instructor: Buckman, D.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MW 04:15 p.m. – 05:30 p.m., LSC

COURSE RATIONALE: This course introduces students to the principles and practices of professional business writing, with particular emphasis on developing effective marketing reports. Students will learn how to research a market, analyze audiences and competitors, interpret relevant data, and present findings in clear, persuasive, and professional prose. Throughout the course, students will practice organizing complex information, developing evidence-based recommendations, and designing reports for specific business audiences. The goal is not simply to write correctly, but to communicate strategically—to understand what a reader needs to know, why it matters, and how a well-constructed report can support sound marketing and business decisions.

COURSE OVERVIEW: You will write three 6–7-page business reports, completing two drafts of each. Your grade will be based on regular attendance, prepared paragraphs on workshop days, and the three final reports. I will edit the first two reports rigorously; for the final report, I will supervise your peer editing. I will focus on your ability to edit classmates’ work effectively and write competent reports of your own. As this suggests, the course centers entirely on writing. I will let you rewrite any report as many times as you need for an “A.” I chose the marketing report because many of you will begin your business careers by helping an organization generate revenue. Businesses make money by selling products or services, and strong writing helps them communicate that value clear.

ENGL 210-01W #1268 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 02W #1712
Instructor: Janangelo, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
T 07:00 p.m. – 09:30 p.m., WTC

Our course covers the rhetorical principles of effective writing, focusing on specific types of discourse practiced in business and professional settings. You will gain experience reading and writing texts pertinent to business communication including press releases, customer reviews, and resumes.

Our course is writing intensive. We will use a process approach to writing, emphasizing problem-solving, prewriting strategies, and editing and revision skills. You will plan and share some of your writing with me in draft conferences. That gives you a chance to raise ideas, ask questions, get assistance, and receive feedback on your work.

ENGL 210-02W #1712 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 03W #2513
Instructor: Ackman, H.
3.0 credit hours lecture
Th 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m., WTC

In this Writing Intensive section of ENGL 210, you’ll learn to write, design, test, and improve communication for real audiences. You’ll work with professional genres such as emails, chats, letters, memos, pitches, proposals, white papers, and social media. You’ll practice adapting messages to readers, and you’ll run small tests to see how well your writing works and how it can be improved. The course also explores persuasion, research, accessible design, collaboration, and ethical use of generative AI.

Outcomes: Students will demonstrate familiarity with genres and styles of writing commonly used in business, with the stages of the writing process, and with individual and collaborative methods of composing.

ENGL 210-03W #2513 is a writing-intensive class.

Writing for Pre-Law Students (ENGL 211)

Section: 01W #4794
Instructor: Gorski, D.
3.0 credit hours lecture
M 07:00 p.m. – 09:30 p.m., 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 motion memoranda. 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.

ENGL 211-01W #4794 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 02W #4795
Instructor: Gorski, D.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MW 04:15p.m. – 05:30 p.m., WTC

ENGL 211-02W #4795 is a writing-intensive class.

Technical Writing (ENGL 212)

Section: 01W #4824
Instructor: Scharfenberg, K.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 02:30 p.m. – 03:45 p.m., LSC

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your work is if no one can understand it. This writing-intensive course gives you the tools to share complicated ideas clearly, whether you're writing for specialists, executives, investors, policymakers, or the public. Through hands-on assignments and team projects, you'll design, draft, and revise documents common across engineering, scientific, finance, business, and healthcare fields (proposals, grants, op-eds, instructions, literature reviews, data visualizations, reports, and more) as you build practical research, writing, and presentation skills. The term ends with a collaborative feasibility study and live poster session.

ENGL 212-01W #4824 is a writing-intensive class

Theroy/Practice Tutoring (ENGL 220)

Section: 1WE #4844
Instructor: Kessel, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 010:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., 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 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 220-2WE #4844 is a writing-intensive service-learning class. Please see instructor akessel@luc.edu or (773) 508-2682 for permission to take this class.

Exploring Poetry (ENGL 271)

Section: 001 #4227
Instructor: Goldstein, L.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 1:40 p.m. – 02:40 p.m., LSC

We'll explore wide-ranging, diverse, experimental and intriguing forms of poetry starting with Dante’s Inferno, which will form our foundation for understanding verse as searing social and political critique. We’ll look at how innovative and unique forms of poetry emerge through the influence of visual art through the work of Victoria Chang, Joe Brainard, Glenn Ligon and Fatimah Asghar. We’ll also consider collaborations between poets and artists such as Douglas Kearney and Lauren Halsey. Finally, we’ll look at some hybrid work that uses poetics to tell stories through long forms in the work of Richard Brautigan and Khadijah Queen. Our sessions will involve lecture, collective close reading, expansive discussion, in-class writing and periodic small group discussions.

Section: 002 #4228
Instructor: Cragwall. J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., 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 some of these same authors, blown apart (some of) the stereotypes and orthodoxies we’d expect to find? We’ll watch the invention not only of English-speaking cultures, 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 genres epic, lyric, dramatic, and pornographic, from many hundreds of years. We (well, you) will also write papers, take exams, and mix metaphors—the entire range of academic abjection, in one convenient course.

Section: 003 #4797
Instructor: Baker, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., LSC

Why does anybody read, write, study, or even (imagine this!) love poetry? In an era when film, television, music, and social media dominate the cultural landscape, what relevance does poetry still have? In this class, as we familiarize ourselves with the history of poetry and some of its most significant works, we will also attempt to ask and answer a very fundamental question: why does this artform even exist? What are its roots in human psychology? Why has it persisted for thousands of years? Why do we turn to it in times of crisis? When we're in love? When we grieve? How might poetry help us to understand the world and ourselves in deeper and more essential ways? In this class you'll read, discuss, analyze, and even write poems.

Section: 01W #4230
Instructor: Sorensen, P.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 1:40 p.m. – 02:30 p.m., LSC

This course will act as an introduction to poetry in English, from the Romantic to the contemporary period. We will discuss the conventions and patterns poets often follow, and I will provide you with the standard terminology used to describe these conventions, such as line, stanza, measure, rhythm, lyric, etc. Perhaps more importantly, you will learn how to critically approach these texts. We will discuss how these poems work, what they might be arguing, what they suggest about the historical moment in which they were written, and how they relate to or comment on other texts. We will also examine the critical literature that surrounds these poems. Following Raymond Williams’ The Country and the City (1973), our course’s theme is “From Nature to City.” At first, we will root our thinking in Williams’ critical examination of the ways in which “nature” is culturally and economically constructed. In doing so, we will consider how poets represent the natural world. For example, we will discuss the sublime, apostrophes to nature, and nature as a source of metaphor. Our thinking will then extend into examinations of the “unnatural” spaces of cities: mechanization, alienation, cosmopolitanism, and power. Finally, and as a feature of this section’s “writing intensive” designation, we will discuss the expectations for strong academic writing, and you will be required regularly to compose low-stakes in-class journal responses and some higher-stakes single-page responses. You will also write two high-stakes three-page responses and one final five-page essay near the semester’s end.

ENGL 271-01W #4230 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 02W #4229
Instructor: Stayer, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m., LSC

This is a Writing Intensive (WI) section of a second-tier literature course. The writing portions of the course will focus on planning, thesis-writing, sentence-level cohesion, setting up quotations, revision, editing, and research. The literature portion of the course builds on the interpretive moves learned in UCLR 100 and is devoted to the glorious genre of poetry, focusing on British authors: Shakespeare, Charlotte Smith, Anna Barbauld, William Blake, T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, Dylan Thomas, Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, and others. The contemporary poetry we read will consider the experience of Black British authors: Raymond Antrobus, Warsan Shire, and others.

Instead of granting poems a special status beyond language or normal human communication, we will look at poems as instances of a rhetorical occasion: who is speaking, to whom, and to what purpose? Once we see how poems act like ordinary speech genres (curse, blessing, invitation, warning, cry, lament), we no longer need to fear poetry as an arcane game of hide-and-seek with meaning. You won’t “get the news from poems,” but poems will give you news about your heart and soul, about God, the meaning of life, the limits of patience and the requirements of love, about sacrifice, suffering, and passion. The course will change your life.

ENGL 271-02W #4229 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 03W #5094
Instructor: Goldstein, L.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 12:35 p.m. – 01:25 p.m., LSC

ENGL 271-03W #5094 is a writing-intensive class.

Exploring Drama (ENGL 272)

Section: 01W #2617
Instructor: Peters, R.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 12:35 p.m. – 01:25 p.m., LSC

ENGL 272-01W #2617 is a writing-intensive class.

Exploring Fiction (ENGL 273)

Section: 001 #4810
Instructor: Janangelo, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
Th 07:00 p.m. – 09:30 p.m., WTC

We will explore major critical approaches and apply them to a range of literary texts. Our theme: what comprises and compromises social class and wealth? Our course will help refine our critical thinking and analytic abilities. To that end, we will work on close reading, focused discussion, and effective writing.

We will also explore and apply a range of theories (including Post Colonialism, Gender Theory, Psychology, and Marxism) to our course texts. Each class, we will discuss our readings together. That gives you opportunities to share ideas and raise questions. We will have two exams, two papers, a group presentation, and an in-class reading journal. Our readings include Dorothy West’s “Rachel,” Guy du Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” Charles Perrault’s “Bluebeard,” and Scarlett Bermingham’s Big Boy Pants.

Section: 01W #4231
Instructor: Weller, S.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 01:00 a.m. – 02:15 p.m., LSC

ENGL 273-01W #4231 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 02W #4232
Instructor: Aftab, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m., LSC

Contemporary Writers of Color

What is the relationship between literary narratives and dominant ideologies about race, class, gender and sexuality? How do different forms of fiction – such as the bildungsroman or the speculative short story – represent structures of power and strategies of resistance? These questions will guide our class as we delve into contemporary fiction by writers of color. We will read novels and short stories by writers such as Tsitsi Dangarembga, Octavia Butler, W. E. B DuBois and Shyam Selvadurai. In addition to sharpening their literary analysis, students will learn about current debates in the study of race and gender, and examine the relationship between literary aesthetics and politics.

ENGL 273-02W #4232 is a writing-intensive and multi-cultural class.

Exploring Shakespeare (ENGL 274)

Section: 001 #4509
Instructor: Glover, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 010:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

Section: 01W #4798
Instructor: Strain, V.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 01:40 p.m. – 02:30 p.m., LSC

ENGL 243-01W #4798 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 02W #2731
Instructor: Glover, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., LSC

ENGL 243-01W #2731 is a writing-intensive class.

African-American Literature (ENGL 282)

Section: 001 #4799
Instructor: Graves, W.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

In this course, students will gain holistic knowledge of the long arc of African American Literature, from the 19th century slave narrative to the fiction and poetry of the Contemporary Period. Beginning with American Chattel slavery (1619-1865) where Black authors contended with dismantling the institution of enslavement to contemporary literary expressions (1980s- present), this course will introduce students to critical snapshots of expressive writings by and about African Americans. We will read the work of 19th century writers like Frederick Douglass to early 21st century writers such as Natasha Trethewey. In short, the aim of this course will be to explore how Black people in the U.S. reflected and grappled with their experience through a range of topics during major literary historical periods.

ENGL 282-001 #4799 is a multicultural class.

African-American Literature Post-1900 (ENGL 282C)

Section: 001 #4065
Instructor: Graves, H.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 04:15 p.m. – 05:30 p.m., LSC

In this course, students will gain holistic knowledge of the long arc of 20th and 21st century African American Literature, from 1900 to the Contemporary Period. Beginning with the Nadir of Race Relations where writers contended with the color line to contemporary literary expressions, this course will introduce students to critical snapshots of expressive writings by and about African Americans. We will read the work of early 20th century writers like W.E.B. DuBois to Harlem Renaissance writers; mid-century protest writer Richard Wright and Lorraine Hansberry; late twentieth century writers and contemporary 21st century writers like Natasha Trethewey. In short, the aim of this course will be to explore how black people in the U.S. meditated on a range of topics during different historical periods such as the importance and dynamism of black art, black lived experience, and sociality. Each writer contends with unique questions as it pertains to the peculiar circumstances that emerge from living in the afterlife of Transatlantic Slavery

ENGL 282C-01W #4566 is a writing-intensive and multicultural class. A grade of C- or better in UCWR 110 is required to enroll.

Women in Literature (ENGL 283)

Section: 001 #2926
Instructor: Sleevi, S.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 10:25 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

This course will focus on the representation of women in literature as explored through a variety of literary texts. We will read texts that range from the nineteenth century to the present, looking closely at how their thematic content and formal features work to construct, perpetuate, and challenge certain representations of women across various historical periods and cultures. Authors likely to appear on the syllabus are Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, Nella Larsen, and Helen Oyeyemi, and work for the course will include reading quizzes, written response assignments, a midterm exam, and a final exam.

Section: 002 #4236
Instructor: Caronia, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

Breaking Omertá and Developing a Writer’s Voice

Omertá is a code of behavior known colloquially and familiarly as silence to a criminal enterprise. But omertá is more than a criminal code of honor. It is a tradition that keeps women silent in the face of trauma and abuse. This course examines how Italian American women writers have broken this code to write outside expected cultural norms, revealing family secrets and traumas. We will read together, write about, and discuss Italian American women writers’ fiction and non-fiction from among the following: Tina De Rosa’s Paper Fish; Louise DeSalvo’s Vertigo; Annie Lanzillotto’s L is for Lion: a bronx butch freedom tale, Kym Ragusa’s The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Beauty, Race, and Belonging; and Domencia Ruta’s With or Without You.

Section: 01W #4927
Instructor: Lepak, S.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 08:30 a.m. – 09:45 a.m., LSC

What does it mean to feel trapped in your own home, family, body, or mind? This course traces a literary history of women who write from within their cages, and those who learn to break them. This semester, we will move from locked rooms and restless homes to psychiatric wards, borderlands, war-torn identities, and the fierce interior landscapes of art and memory. Through the minds of women writers, we will investigate how the mind becomes a battleground, how the body becomes a border, and how language becomes a key. Through close reading, and feminist theory, students will explore how women use writing to transform confinement into a catalyst for imagination, resistance, and healing..

ENGL 283-01W #4927 is a writing-intensive class.

Asian-American Literature (ENGL 284)

Section: 01W #3541
Instructor: Fiorelli, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 12:35 p.m. – 01:25 p.m., LSC

This course introduces the range of Asian American literature from its earliest works around the turn of the twentieth century to its proliferation in contemporary literature.

The resurgence of anti-Asian racism in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic revived a long-standing question in Asian American experience: where do Asian Americans belong? Their myriad experiences are in many ways spatial, as they have moved across oceans and continents; been subjected to laws and regulations restricting their movement; and, in the case of many Pacific Islanders, endured changes to their homes driven by colonialism. Asian American literary productions, therefore, often grapple with notions of space and place. Our study of Asian American literature will explore various spatial scales – for instance, local community, island, nation, and globe – that have been sites of belonging, constraint, political investment, and conflict. Across these diverse settings, Asian American literary works question where and why we draw the boundaries of community, identity, and political responsibility. We will examine texts in a range of literary forms and styles – including poetry, drama, and prose fiction – from various historical moments and cultural contexts. In doing so, we will analyze how Asian American/AAPI/APIDA authors have used aesthetic means to illuminate and critique conditions in the U.S. and the world.

This class will require you to consider the relationship between sociohistorical contexts and literary works; read actively and attentively; formulate and support your own interpretive claims, including in writing; and discuss your ideas with others. This course is Writing Intensive, so we will give significant attention to the writing process.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of UCWR 110 (C- or higher) or its equivalent (except for students in the Honors Program); successful completion of UCLR 100 if admitted Fall 2012 or later, unless a declared major or minor in the Department of English, Classical Studies, or Modern Languages and Literatures.

ENGL 282-001 #3541 is a writing-intensive and multicultural class.

Religion & Literature (ENGL 287)

Section: 001 #4801
Instructor: Stayer, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

Catholic Authors

The course will introduce students to the rich tradition of Catholic literature. Rather than approaching the doctrines, teachings, rituals of Catholicism from a position of abstraction or generality, we will read literary texts in which the culture and faith of Catholicism is embodied in fictional lives and poetic meditations. Setting aside many distinguished Catholic essayists, critics, historians, and theologians, we will instead focus on authors of imaginative works: short stories, novels, and poems. Although limited to works written in English, a diverse array of authors and identities will be represented. Within this frame, we will explore various topics and problems: personal belief vs. orthodoxy, suffering, sacramentality, incarnational theology, liturgy, community, prayer, discernment, and any particular Catholic tenet which a text brings up, grapples with, or denies. We will also consider how some lapsed Catholic authors retain, reject, or struggle against Catholic faith and culture. This course counts for the Catholic Studies minor.

Nature in Literature (ENGL 288)

Section: 01W #2066
Instructor: Bayley, E.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 11:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m., LSC

In this course we will use several different Ecocritical approaches, with a particular focus on Ecofeminism to explore and interpret pieces of fiction. This course is cross listed with WSGS and Environmental Science and is writing intensive. Literature provides a vast account of how the natural world is represented, treated, understood, and further, misused or abused. In response to this, we will explore the question: is there is a direct correlation between the treatment of nature and the treatment of humans? Therefore, this course will focus heavily on the connections between the treatment and abuse of humans and nature. Assignments in the semester will include writing papers, reading reflections, and classroom participation.

ENGL 288-01W #2066 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 02W #2732
Instructor: Bayley, E.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 08:15 a.m. – 09:05 a.m., LSC

ENGL 288-01W #2732 is a writing-intensive class.

Human Values in Literature (ENGL 290)

Section: 001 #2618
Instructor: Parlato, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 12:35 a.m. – 01:25 p.m., LSC

In this course, we will explore how horror and the Gothic engage with questions of power, identity, and human experience. Through novels, short fiction, poetry, drama, and film, we will examine how horror and the Gothic respond to systems of power and the social structures that shape individual experiences. Particular attention will be given to how these works use conventions of haunting, confinement, monstrosity, and fear to represent, challenge, and critique systems of oppression and authority. Students will be introduced to key methods of literary and film analysis, with an emphasis on close reading and interpretation. Through discussion, writing, quizzes, and examinations, students will develop critical skills while considering how horror and the Gothic engage with questions of race, gender, sexuality, identity, and power.

Content Warning: Course materials may include themes of racism, sexism, violence, body image, and supernatural or horror elements.

Section: 002 #3742
Instructor: Mann, H.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 01:00 p.m. – 02:15 p.m., 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. 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.

Section: 01W #2619
Instructor: Sikich, W.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MW 04:15 p.m. – 05:30 p.m., LSC

ENGL 290-01W #2619 is a writing-intensive class.

Section: 02W #3408
Instructor: Caronia, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Grief and Loss in Life Writing

Everyone experiences grief and loss in their lifetimes, but not everyone writes about these emotions and the experiences that give bring these emotions to the forefront. This writing intensive course will allow you to read and write about these powerful emotions. We will take our cues from Italian American women writers who have written their way through and with domestic violence, ableism, homophobia, and mental and physical illness. As Louise DeSalvo suggests, ““Language … gives birth to feeling, not the other way around” (Vertigo, p. 105). Together, we will read and write about grief and loss with the following writers and their works: Louise DeSalvo (Chasing Ghosts), Annie Lanzillotto (Whaddycallthewind), Nadina LaSpina (Such a Pretty Girl: A Story of Struggle, Empowerment, and Disability Pride), Kym Ragusa (The Skin Between Us), Karen Tintori (Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family), and Denise Tolan (Italian Blood).

ENGL 290-02W #3408 is a writing-intensive class.

Writing in New Media (ENGL 294)

Section: 01W #3743
Instructor: Peters, R.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MW 04:15 p.m. – 05:30 p.m.

ENGL 293-01W #3743 is a writing-intensive course.

Writing Toward Social Justice (ENGL 295)

Section: 01WE #4825
Instructor: Kessel, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 02:30 p.m. – 03:45 p.m.

This is a seminar course that will address problems of community concern through Jesuit rhetorical practice, with basis in thinking, acting and reflecting. Students will learn how to write and speak in a variety of outward-facing modalities. They will work in partnership with a local community organization, applying techniques and practices learned in the classroom.

This course satisfies the Engaged Learning requirement and a Writing Intensive requirement. Pre-requisites: UCWR 110 or equivalent, grade of C- or better

ENGL 293-01W #4825 is a writing-intensive course.

Research Writing (ENGL 296)

Section: 01W #4822
Instructor: Cornelius, I.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 04:15 p.m. – 05:30 p.m.

Open Source Tools & Techniques

This course trains students in free, open-source, and text-based software to support clear, well-organized, accurate, and verifiable writing in academic contexts. The software tool-chain includes Zotero, Markdown, LaTeX, Pandoc, and Git. Key writing skills are note-taking, information management, and revision.

Course equivalencies: X - COMP 250 / ENGL 296

The course will explore capacities and risks of modern agentic artificial intelligence. We read some recent discussions of this topic (for instance, a report on the July 2026 OpenAI agent swarm that hacked Hugging Face) and literary and philosophical works that help to frame recent developments.

Outcomes: Students will acquire working knowledge of text-based and open-source software tools to support academic research and writing. Students will create researched arguments that are clear, well-organized, accurate and verifiable

ENGL 293-01W #4822 is a writing-intensive course.

Topics in Advanced Writing (ENGL 299)

Section: 01WE #4802
Instructor: Bradshaw, M.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 02:30 p.m. – 03:45 p.m., LSC

Introduction to Scholarly Editing

This Undergraduate Research Course (Engaged Learning) will introduce students to the theories and practices of scholarly editing as students assist in producing the Amy Lowell Letters Project (ALLP), a digital scholarly edition of the letters of American poet, critic, and editor (1874-1925). Our focus this semester will be on her correspondences with magazine editors and book publishers. In order to contextualize Lowell’s career, and the editorial work and collaborative project building at the heart of this class, we will study the New Poetry movement and early 20th century magazine culture, as well as historic debates in scholarly editing, editing correspondences, and literary digital humanities. Students will learn to transcribe handwritten documents and be trained to encode Lowell’s letters in XML (Extensible Markup Language) following the guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative. This course fulfills both the Engaged Learning Requirement and a Writing Intensive Requirement.

ENGL 294-01W #4802 is a writing-intensive course.

Grammar: Principals & Pedagogy (ENGL 303)

Section: 001 #1460
Instructor: Quirk, K.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 02:45 p.m. – 03:35 p.m., LSC

What is a passive verb? Why is this a fragment? Does a comma go here? We use the English language, but do we really understand how it works? The goal of this course is to analyze the structure of the English language, to learn and appreciate its intricacies, quirks, and demands. We will explore English grammar not only as a list of rules and regulations that govern language use but also as a means of clearly conveying meaning. This course will examine the most important elements of English grammar from parts of speech and how they function in a sentence to punctuation and how it enhances clear and precise prose. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to

Appreciate the complexity and power of the English language.
Discuss effective and ineffective uses of English in speech and writing.
Analyze a wide variety of English sentences, identifying parts of speech and the functions of sentence parts.
Recall and apply the rules of edited English grammar.

Border Literature Post-1900 (ENGL 313C)

Section: 001 #4803
Instructor: Aftab, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., LSC

The Queerness of Borders/The Borders of Queerness

How do national borders shape our everyday lives? What is the relationship between queerness and geopolitics? How are sexual and gendered subjectivities informed by the racial demarcations of borders? These are some of the questions we will explore in this class as we analyze literary representations of physical and conceptual borders. This class will focus on theory, fiction and poetry that examine different forms of ethnic, national, gendered and spiritual borders. We will pay specific attention to the intersections of geopolitics and queerness as we study border literatures, examining our primary texts through theories of postcolonialism, decoloniality and migration. Our class will be framed by an exploration of the violence of border imperialism and the need for border abolition. We will also explore how writers manipulate genre and form to reify or challenge aesthetic and literary borders. Some writers we will read include Akwaeke Emezi, Gloria Anzaldúa and Nuruddin Farah.

ENGL 313c-001 #4803 is a multi-cultural course.

The Writing of Poetry (ENGL 317)

Section: 001 #1154
Instructor: Baker, A.
3.0 credit hours lecture
T 02:45 p.m. – 05:15p.m., LSC

In this class, we will focus on 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: 002 #1155
Instructor: Sorenson, P.
3.0 credit hours lecture
F 02:45 p.m. – 05:15 p.m., LSC

This course centers poetry as an individual and collective project. Through outside reading, students will question their relationships to contemporary modes and cultures while also working to develop their own voices, styles, and methods of production. Thus, students will begin to situate their craft in a larger poetic conversation. 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 twenty-page chapbook by semester’s end.

Section: 003 #2620
Instructor: Goldstein, L.
3.0 credit hours lecture
Th 04:15 p.m. – 06:45 p.m., LSC

An Experimental Workshop

Poetry creates an experience for readers on a page as well as in a room. It is a practice and craft that requires reading, discussion, exploration and sharing. Each week we read a unique work of contemporary poetry, mostly by POC and queer writers, to form a framework for discussion about vulnerable points of view and innovative forms. From there, students are encouraged to find their own process, form and voice. In our sessions, we experiment with language together to discover and foster creativity and delight by creating work both as a group and on our own. The course also includes prompts for writing in between sessions, and presentations of student poetry for review by the full group or small groups. Finally, students spend several weeks compiling and reviewing their own final collections of poetry for a self-published chapbook and give a reading of their work at the end of the semester.

The Writing of Fiction (ENGL 318)

Section: 001 #1156
Instructor: Meinhardt, M.
3.0 credit hours lecture
M 07:00 p.m. – 09:30 p.m., LSC

The course presents an advanced exploration of the principles of fiction writing through a combination of brief lectures, craft and response exercises, targeted assigned reading, in-class reading, critical workshops and multiple opportunities for discussion. The course is both aggregate and recursive, meaning we continue to use and understand earlier concepts and techniques even as we progress, most notably through student critical awareness and creative writing. The course establishes an advanced sense of genre, structure and style using both established and student writing using the Short Story form. Work-shopping of student writing is the primary means of attention and communication. We learn and prepare for publication potential, including viable outlets, contact protocols, and invaluable research tools. Topics include: recognition of fiction elements; recognition and prioritization of craft elements; appreciation for creative expectations and obstacles; stimulation of identity within drama and conflict; and attention to concrete sensory detail, plot or setting structural considerations, internal and standard dialogue, characterization, opening and ending considerations, revision considerations, and fiction stylistics expected of publication-worthy work.

Section: 002 #1713
Instructor: Hawkins, M.
3.0 credit hours lecture
T 04:15 p.m. – 06:45 p.m., LSC

In this fiction writing workshop students will read, write, revise, and critique short fiction with the aim of becoming better writers and readers. Each student will write and workshop three short stories for the class. Workshops will be rigorous and respectful, based on the understanding that analysis of other writers’ craft teaches us to hone our own.

Every week we will read and discuss short stories by master writers; most weeks students will read, discuss, and write responses to each other’s work, too. As time allows, students will also free-write in class in response to prompts designed to spark creative momentum, generate ideas, and explore technique. Class discussions will focus on craft and concept, with attention to the following topics: structure, character, dialog, voice, tone, imagery, and ethics. Again and again, we will ask each other and ourselves: What works, what doesn’t, why, and how can it be made better?

Section: 003 #3179
Instructor: Mun, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
W 02:45 p.m. – 05:15 p.m., LSC

Five Beginnings, One Ending

Starting a story is not unlike standing at the edge of a cliff. Both can be terrifying. There are many reasons to not dive into that project. My ideas are terrible, one might think. Or I don’t know where to begin. Or is this really a good time to start something new? In this course, we’ll hold hands at the cliff for moral support but also to push each other off (gently). Some might tiptoe. Others might cannonball. And still others might swan dive into that abyss. But no matter our varying degrees of fear, we will, without a doubt, leave that ledge and land on our feet as better writers and better risk-takers. For the first few weeks, we’ll analyze notable stories and ask questions, such as: What propels the story forward? What stings us? What questions are being raised that can’t be easily answered? Then we’ll write five propulsive and perhaps unrelenting beginnings of our own. The goal isn’t only to practice the “art of diving” but to have five projects in free-fall, so we’ll have things to work on, long after the course’s end. Following weeks will be focused on developing one of those beginnings into a fully developed story. Final weeks will be focused on revising toward a final draft of publishable quality. So the question is: Is this a good time to start something new? The answer is: always.

Section: 004 #3180
Instructor: Macon Fleischer, C.
3.0 credit hours lecture
Th 04:15 p.m. – 06:45 p.m., LSC

This fiction writing course gives students an opportunity to develop new and original flash fiction stories and receive personal feedback from their classmates and the instructor. We will read and analyze fiction works from a range of authors and genres to help students explore varying writing styles, perspectives, themes, and tones. Weekly writing prompts will encourage students to maintain a sustainable writing practice both in and out of the classroom. This is a collaborative course in which students can practice their own writing while learning how to effectively articulate responses to other writing.

Writing Creative Nonfiction (ENGL 319)

Section: 001 #1461
Instructor: Coomes, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
M 02:45 p.m. – 05:15 p.m., LSC

Section: 002 #2733
Instructor: Weller, S.
3.0 credit hours lecture
W 02:45 p.m. – 05:15 p.m., LSC

British Literature: The Renaissance (ENGL 325)

Section: 01W #4804
Instructor: Knapp, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 01:00 p.m. – 02:15 p.m., LSC

The Ideal and the Real

Beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, British authors sought to invent a national identity that could be traced to antiquity and early Christianity by adapting and appropriating ideal forms associated with a time before what they perceived as the corruption of both church and state. The ideal state, courtier, and religion found expression in the works of authors ranging from Sir Thomas More to Amelia Lanyer. In this course we will explore the tension between the historical realities of early modern British life and the ideal forms out of which British national identity was constructed in the literature of the period. In addition to More and Lanyer, authors will include Thomas Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Mary Sidney, and Christopher Marlowe among others. There will be reading responses, student led discussions, short papers, and exams.

ENGL 325-01W #4804 is a writing-intensive class.

Studies in Shakespere (ENGL 327)

Section: 001 #4033
Instructor: Strain, V.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 12:35 p.m. – 01:25 p.m., LSC

Studies in the Romantic Period (ENGL 338)

Section: 001 #4813
Instructor: Cragwall, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

Jane Austen’s Ivory

After Edward Austen-Leigh lost a few chapters of his unfinished novel, his aunt consoled him—and disowned the theft. “What should I do with your strong, manly, spirited sketches, full of variety and glow,” wrote the finest prose stylist in English, when her own works were just a “little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour?” In this course, we’ll read the novels of Jane Austen, and think through the terms of this self-depreciation: her mastery is often miniature, luminous in a stolen glance, an arched brow, the turn of a subordinate clause. But we’ll also think through the ways she carves the volcanic fissures of early nineteenth-century Britain onto her ivory—war, revolution, economic collapse and chattel slavery shade the wit of her parlors. We’ll read Austen’s works in and against their historical moment; along with the major novels, we’ll read Catherine Morland’s beloved Gothic stories, so full of murder, blasphemy, and ghostly terror. Most of all, we’ll read some of the most pleasurable fiction the world has ever known. Exams, papers, and copious portions of Mr. Darcy. Satisfies the department’s pre-1900 and/or 1700-1900 requirement.

Studies in Literary Criticism (ENGL 355)

Section: 001 #2930
Instructor: Staidum, F.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MWF 02:45 p.m. – 03:35 p.m., LSC

The Black Radical Tradition and Queer of Color Critique

This course provides an examination of the Black radical tradition and queer of color critique as critical theoretical frameworks for literary and cultural studies. We will trace their genealogies within Black studies and Black feminism, respectively, while also mapping their necessary dialogues with and challenges to other schools of theory, including Marxism, poststructuralism, materialist feminism, queer theory, and trans studies. Originating in Black studies critique of Western liberalism and Black feminism's critique of single-axis analyses of power, these frameworks allow us to theorize how the social categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality are not merely additive but mutually constitutive and, as queer of color critique insists, how racialization establishes normative gender and sexuality as an organizing principle of capitalism itself. Together, we will investigate how these interlocking systems (e.g., capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism, etc.) produce distinct, context-specific forms of vulnerability, exploitation, privilege, and asymmetrical power and how literature represents, shapes, and is shaped by these complex social formations.

The course is guided by the following questions: What distinct reading practices do the frameworks of the Black radical tradition and queer of color critique demand? Put differently, how does a queer of color critique, with its focus on political economy, the nation-state, and the materiality of race, gender, and sexuality, transform our reading practices? In what specific ways do these reading practices require us to attend to aesthetics, literary form and technique, genre, narrative voice, and character? What interpretive challenges do these readings pose regarding authority, representation, and the act of critique itself? In order to illuminate how these frameworks emerge from and respond to specific historical material conditions and to test their explanatory power for literary analysis, we will read, alongside our theoretical study, the following primary literary works: Harriet Jacob’s slave narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), Ann Petry’s novel The Street (1946), and Darnell Moore’s memoir No Ashes in the Fire (2018). Overall, we will learn how to comprehend and interpret theory; apply theory to the analysis of literature; compare and synthesize a theory with other theories; and assess how literature itself can implicitly theorize and the ways in which this can, in turn, revise a theory.

ENGL 355-001 #2930 is a multicultural class.

Studies in Poetry Pre-1700(ENGL 362A)

Section: 01W #4805
Instructor: Lecky, K.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 02:30 p.m. – 03:45 p.m., LSC

“Wartime Poetry in Early Modern England”

How did people who suffered under an era of intense and interminable military conflicts metabolize their experiences into poems that we still study today? What do these poems reveal about the outer limits of the human condition when humanity is exposed to unspeakable atrocities? This course explores some of the major poems written during a century riven by endless wars, by soldiers and dissidents now known as the most well-known authors of the English Renaissance canon. We will read both short and long poems of the period to gain disciplinary expertise in the texts and contexts of this canon, while exploring these poems’ shared dialogue about the sublimity and beauty of humanity as it’s spotlighted against the backdrop of the horrors of war.

Studies in Fiction Post-1900(ENGL 372C)

Section: 001 #4807
Instructor: Reddon, M.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., LSC

ENGL 372c-001 #4807 is a multicultural class

American Literature 1865-1914(ENGL 376)

Section: 001 #4845
Instructor: Kerkering, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture
MW 04:15 p.m. – 05:30 p.m., LSC

This course examines fiction by selected US writers from the Civil War to the First World War, paying particular attention to theories of Realism, associated Regional forms, literary Naturalism, and the contribution of literary works to emerging notions of “the modern.” Readings may include works by William Dean Howells, Henry James, Stephen Crane, Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Charles W. Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, and Willa Cather.

Advanced Seminar (ENGL 390)

Section: 01W #2931
Instructor: Jacob, P.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 01:00 p.m. – 02:25 p.m., LSC

You’ve Got Mail: Epistolary Narrative and Its Afterlives
Dear reader,

Let’s talk about letters. In addition to being the primary mode of written communication for centuries, the letter was also a building block of the novel. Many of the earliest novels in English were made up entirely of letters, in what we call the epistolary tradition. Though both narrative forms and communication technologies evolved, the letter and its successors remain powerful mechanisms for storytelling. As private utterances, written in solitude, letters offer special opportunities for representing inner life. As mediums of communication, letters negotiate distance, circulating through semi-public spaces while simultaneously creating zones of intimacy. Even as epistolary narratives were replaced by new literary methods—and as the letter was replaced by the telegram, the phone call, and the dm—the connection between literature and communication technology has remained strong. This course will consider the long history and evolution of epistolary narrative, its formal possibilities and restrictions, its social and affective dynamics, and its reflection of specific historical conditions. As a writing-intensive advanced seminar, this course will ask you to produce a great deal of your own writing, including weekly letters to your classmates about the reading. Texts will range from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first, include genres as diverse as romance, memoir, and science fiction. Readings may include: the anonymous Woman of Color, Burney’s Evelina, Stoker’s Dracula, Koh’s The Magical Language of Others, Coates’s The Message, El-Mohtar and Gladstone’s This is How You Lose the Time War, and multi-media objects like the webseries The Lizzie Bennett Diaries or the classic film The Shop Around the Corner.

Yours, sincerely,

Professor Jacob

ENGL 390-01W #2931 is a writing-intensive and multi-cultural class. This class requires department consent. Please contact your English advisor for permission.

Section: 02W #3543
Instructor: Bost, S.
3.0 credit hours lecture
TTh 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., LSC

Doing things with books

We hear stories about AI companies buying millions of books in bulk only to destroy them. We know that AI has an ecological impact on our world as well as an ethical one. What is the current status of books? Of what use are they? What are books meant to do? In this seminar we will focus on the future of books in paper and dream up alternative ways of reading, creating, and consuming words.

Assignments will include collaborative writing, regular journaling, collaged essays, zines, and shared editing, as we build toward a larger, multi-modal project.

Required texts will likely include:

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading”, Elaine Castillo, How to Read Now, M. NourbeSe Philip, Zong!, Chris Ware, Building Stories, Felicia Luna Lemus, Particulate Matter, and Jamaica Kincaid, Putting Myself Together

ENGL 390-02W #3543 is a writing-intensive class. This class requires department consent. Please contact your English advisor for permission.

Advanced Advanced Creative Non-Fiction Seminar (ENGL 392)

Section: 01W #2932
Instructor: Coomes, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
W 02:45 p.m. – 05:15 p.m., LSC

ENGL 392-01W #2932 is a writing-intensive class. This class requires department consent. Please contact your English advisor for permission.

Teaching English to Adults: Internship (ENGL 393)

Section: 01E #1171
Instructor: Heckman, J.
1, 2 or 3 credit hours
MTWR 05:00 p.m. – 07:00 p.m., LSC

Here at Lake Shore Campus, we are in the most diverse neighborhood in the city, where over 70 languages are spoken. Join us and meet some of our Rogers Park neighbors and tutor them so they can improve their English skills. They are truly grateful for your assistance. You will also learn about their cultures because they love to tell others about their homelands. And they will also ask you about life in the United States because this is, for many of them, their new home.

We tutor online as the Loyola Community Literacy Center. No previous tutoring experience is necessary. English 393 can be taken for 1, 2, or 3 credit hours. When taken for 3 credit hours, this course satisfies the Core Engaged Learning-Service Learning Internship requirement. It is open to second-semester freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Incoming freshmen are always welcome to tutor as volunteers and take the course at a later date.

Requirements: Only UCWR 110 or its equivalent.

The Center is open for tutoring M-Th evenings 7-9:30 pm during the fall and spring semesters 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 times convenient for all students; 3 credit/Core students meet for a 6^th session.

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

This class requires department consent. Please contact Ms. Jacqueline Heckman at jheckma@luc.edu or (773) 508-2330 for permission. This class satisfies the Engaged Learning requirement in the Internship category.

Internship (ENGL 394)

Section: 01E #1173
Instructor: Cragwall, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture

English 394 provides practical, on-the-job experience for English majors in adapting their writing and analytical skills to the needs of such fields as publishing, editing, and public relations. Students must have completed six courses in English and must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher before applying for an internship. Qualified second-semester juniors and seniors may apply to the program. Interested students must arrange to meet with the Internship Director during the pre-registration period and must bring with them a copy of their Loyola transcripts, a detailed resume (which includes the names and phone numbers of at least two references), and at least three writing samples. Students may be required to conduct part of their job search online and to go out on job interviews before the semester begins. Course requirements include completion of a minimum of 120 hours of work; periodic meetings with the Internship Director; a written evaluation of job performance by the site supervisor; a term paper, including samples of writing produced on the job.

This class requires department consent. Please contact Dr. Cragwall at jcragwall@luc.edu or (773) 508-2259 for permission.

Advanced Writing Workshop: Fiction (ENGL 398)

Section: 01W #1175
Instructor: Mun, N.
3.0 credit hours lecture
Th 02:15 p.m. – 05:15 p.m., LSC

The Art of Obsession

Much of writing is made up of obsessions. We might use our obsession as catalyst and fuel, something that gets us writing and, if lucky, keeps us writing. And sometimes we write about our obsession directly, hoping (perhaps futilely) to be purged free of it, once and for all. Susan Sontag, while talking about writing and the writer’s life, said it simply: “You have to be obsessed. It’s not something you’d want to be—it’s rather something you couldn’t help but be.” In this course we’ll explore “obsession” from two main angles: personally and textually. On the personal level, and as a way to get us started, we’ll discuss and identify subjects we keep returning to—from harmless infatuations to downright obsessions. What song is playing nonstop on your headphones, for example? Is there a painting you keep seeing in your mind’s eye? What exactly is your relationship with a well-made cheeseburger? What is the chronic conflict of your life? On a textual level, we’ll read stories, essays, and books that deal with obsession in one form or another or reveal the linguistic obsessions the author held while writing them. This class is for serious writers who are unafraid of taking real risks, unafraid of true rewrites, unafraid of working hard toward turning a good story into a great one.

ENGL 398-01W #1175 is a writing-intensive class.

Special Studies in Literature (ENGL 398)

Section: 001 #2515
Instructor: Cragwall, J.
3.0 credit hours lecture

Students arrange for this course on an individual basis by consulting a faculty member who agrees to supervise the independent study. When the student and the faculty member have agreed on the work to be done, the student submits the plan to the director of undergraduate programs for approval and registration. Usually, students will work independently and produce a research paper, under the direction of the faculty member.

This class requires department consent. Please contact Dr. Cragwall at jcragwall@luc.edu or (773) 508-2259 for permission.