2013 Spring Quarter Class Schedule & Descriptions
This Spring 2013 Schedule is tentative and subject to change. Please check back frequently for changes, course descriptions, and other updates.
ENG 408 – Stylistics
Sirles, Mon 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
Theory and practice in examining features of style, including linguistic, rhetorical and literary perspectives on style.
Language and style core requirement in the MAE and MAWP. Lang/Lit/Teaching/Publishing requirement in the MAWP (if not used to fulfill language and style core requirement). Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 419 – Topics in Medieval Literature: Arthurian Romances
Kordecki, Tues 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
Our broad categories of study for Arthurian Romance include Arthur himself, his rise, reign, and demise, the legends surrounding the infamous and star-crossed lovers: Lancelot and Guinevere, and Tristan and Isolde, the tales of the magician Merlin, the English Gawain and the Grail knights, and the 13-century French romance, Silence, a text that opens up larger considerations of gender, humor, and language in the genre.
Medieval period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 428 – Studies in Shakespeare: Race and Gender
Royster, Thu 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
Renaissance period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 449 – Studies in 19th Century British Literature: Victorian Family
Conary, Mon 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
Sarah Stickney Ellis was by no means alone when, in 1845, she expressed the following sentiment about the importance of family to English national identity: “There is an honest pride which every true heart has a right to feel, and England’s pride should be in the inviolable sanctity of her household hearths.” Indeed, Ellis’s proclamation in The Young Ladies’ Reader was only one part of an unprecedented campaign to celebrate the virtues of domesticity that helped define the Victorian middle class. The Victorian obsession with happy homes and family values had a considerable impact on the literary production of the time, limiting many authors to content that would not bring a blush to a young person’s cheek. Yet the kinds of domestic tales that the most celebrated Victorian novelists decided to tell are hardly catalogues of household virtue. This course will explore contrasting representations of the family in novels by Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights), Charles Dickens (Little Dorrit), Elizabeth Gaskell (North and South), Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Lady Audley’s Secret), and Thomas Hardy (Jude the Obscure), as well as in essays by writers such as Sarah Stickney Ellis, Caroline Norton, John Stuart Mill, and John Ruskin. We will investigate the lingering influence of the Gothic, changing notions of femininity and masculinity, and the importance of marriage and inheritance laws to domestic plots. Our reading load will not be light, but our sampling of a diverse array of novels written between 1847 and 1895 will provide a necessary foundation for our exploration of debates over the role of the family in Victorian society.
19th Century period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 459 – Topics in Modern British Literature: Gender and Modernism
Cameron, Thu 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
The late-19th and early-20th centuries saw enormous changes in men’s and women’s social and sexual roles in Britain. As this course will show, many British novels and plays from this period actively engage in contemporary debates and discussions concerning gender and sexuality, at times reinforcing traditional social norms and at times re-imagining gender and sexuality in innovative or provocative ways. The course will address such topics as the New Woman and the women’s suffrage movement; war, empire, and masculinity; “sexual inversion” and evolving conceptions of homosexuality; androgynous and transgender figures; prostitution and other professions for women; and changing attitudes toward marriage and divorce. Readings include plays by Bernard Shaw and suffrage playwrights; novels by Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, and Jean Rhys; and stories by D. H. Lawrence and Radclyffe Hall (among others). Supplementary readings will help situate these literary works in relation to contemporary debates about gender and sexuality as well as more recent theory and criticism.
20th/21st Century period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 464 – Studies in American Authors: Whitman and Dickinson
Dinius, Wed 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
This seminar will focus on the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Organized thematically, we will practice close readings of the poetry of these contemporaries, considered comparatively and in relation to historical context and a range of scholarship on Whitman and Dickinson. Students will be responsible for leading class discussion once during the term and the course culminates with a final paper and presentation.
19th Century period requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 472 – Studies in Literary Criticism
Shanahan, Mon 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
Core requirement in the MAE. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 477 – Topics in Publishing: Outreach Press
Harvey, Tue 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
This course offers MAWP students a unique opportunity: hands-on experience in promoting and distributing an actual book. This spring, DePaul’s new Outreach Press will publish How Long Will I Cry?: Voices of Youth Violence, a collection of oral histories about people whose lives have been altered by killings on the streets of Chicago. Students will help plan the promotion and distribution of this book–a first-of-its-kind collaboration between DePaul’s creative-writing program and Steppenwolf Theatre.
Students are welcome to take any or all three of these courses. No prerequisite.
Lang/Lit/Teaching/Publishing requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 477 – Topics in Publishing: Magazine Editing
Diliberto, Mon 6:00-9:15 pm LPC
One of the most alluring aspects of an editor’s job is the range of activities involved: searching out story ideas, making assignments, working with writers, editing final copy, conferring with designers about the presentation of the material, writing headlines and captions — and making deadlines! Whether working for a magazine that is print or web-based, national or regional, general interest or specialty, or just a neighborhood newsletter, an editor also has to spend time thinking about the publication’s audience and keeping it engaged.
This all starts with learning to recognize a good story when you see one and knowing the best way to present it. To sharpen these skills, this course will focus on:
- Reading a wide selection of magazine articles to illustrate the issues being discussed.
- Doing exercises in class and out designed to tune one or more of the editing skills being taught.
- Each student producing one reported,1,500-word magazine story and dividing into groups to edit each other’s work.
Lang/Lit/Teaching/Publishing requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 477 – Topics in Publishing: The Independent Press
Green, Mon 5:45-9:00 p.m. LOOP
In part by comparing trade publishing with independent publishing, we will examine the current, important phenomenon of the developing small-press movement in the America. Furthermore, we will hear from progressive independent publishers in the Chicago literary scene to understand their take on key publishing issues. We will be comprehensive in our approach, covering such issues as the polarization of the publishing field, the digital revolution, and the struggle for visibility in the marketplace. Ultimately, you will contribute to an anthology about what the best independent presses and magazines think are important at this time of change in the publishing world.
Lang/Lit/Teaching/Publishing requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 478 – Topics in Teaching: Teaching Popular Literature and Culture
Selinger, Wed 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
Both at the college level and in K-12 contexts, popular literature and culture get brought into the classroom in order to frame issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and social justice. Such teaching is vitally important, not least in terms of honing younger students’ skills in media literacy, but it can also reinforce the sense that there is some fundamental, inarguable difference between highbrow and mass culture, “art” and “entertainment.” In this class, we will learn to combine subtle, skeptical, socio-political approaches to pop culture with attention to issues in craft, composition, aesthetics, and artistic tradition that bridge the great divide between what F. R. Leavis called “mass civilization and minority culture” (a reference I only know thanks to Bridget Jones’ Diary). Drawing on the research and teaching expertise of my colleagues, including professors Conary, Ingrasci, and Royster, we will look at several genres of popular literature and culture, probably including some range of Gothic, fantasy / SF, Black popular music, noir / detective fiction, popular romance / chick lit, and popular poetry, with case studies appropriate to a variety of age levels and student bodies.
Lang/Lit/Teaching/Publishing requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 484 – Writing Workshop: Novels II- Revision
Johns-Trissler, Wed 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
This course will focus on editing and revising the novel form, using published novels to demonstrate how fictional elements work together to create an organic whole. Students will discover how accomplished writers shape their stories using point of view, form, tone, characterization, plot, narrative time, significant detail, theme, metaphor, and precise language. These craft elements we will use as guidelines, not limitations, in the revising of our own novels.
We will discuss student manuscripts in a space that encourages honest criticism, always balanced by respect for the writer. In class and during individual conferences, we will explore strategies for revision of each student’s work
Any student who has a completed manuscript of at least 200 pages can apply to take Novels II without having first taken Novels I.
Writing workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 484 – Writing Workshop: Geography of Memory – Creative Nonfiction and Place
Borich, Tue 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
The most compelling memories are located somewhere, beholden to a landscape it takes all our senses to describe. How do literary memoirists and essayists use location to: ponder the relationship of memory, landscape, politics and identity; explore issues of captivity, immigration, and exile; delve into personal and public history; explore issues of homecoming, hatred, conflict and allegiance; and embrace or reject some ground they can’t forget? In this graduate creative nonfiction workshop we write, critique and revise our own autogeographies as we consider the work of a few creative nonfiction writers whose stories and inquiries are bound to particular geographies and whose works attempt to describe, explore, question, and honor the hard-to-pin-down aspects of place. Students read example texts, write and revise essay-length nonfiction prose drafts, and participate in creative writing peer workshops.
Writing workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 484 – Writing Workshop: Reading & Writing Young Adult Literature
Grossman, Thurs 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
Young adults are recognized as beings in evolution, in search of self and identity, transitioning to adulthood while facing physical, intellectual, emotional, and societal needs. Young adult literature addresses the circumstances of this unique audience, providing a literary experience that the reader would find relevant. Students will study models of young adult fiction in a variety of genres and explore – through workshops, discussion, and written assignments – how to tailor the elements of good fiction to a young adult audience.
Writing workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 489 – Screenwriting
Bonansinga, Thu 5:45-9:00 p.m. LOOP
An introduction to the craft of screenwriting. Covers principles of plot, dramatic conflict, characterization, dialogue, and screenplay form. Students develop short dramatic and documentary screenplays.
Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 491 – Science Writing
Anton, Mon 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
We take science writing to be every bit as creative and fun to read and write as fiction and poetry. It is high-paying and in high demand. Students read some of the classics, among which might be James Watson’s Double Helix or Sylvia Nasar’s A Beautiful Mind, as well as movies or documentaries. We write press releases, literary articles and essays, and learn from a guest professional. No advanced science preparation or background is necessary, though it is always welcome. Students need only some courage, discipline and willingness to work.
Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.
ENG 492 – Fiction Writing
Stolar, Tue 6:00-9:15 p.m. LPC
The fiction workshop is a classic workshop style class in which students will turn in short stories that the class will then read and discuss with an eye toward helping the writer revise. We will also read and discuss some contemporary and classic examples of the form, but the main content of the course will be students’ work.
Writing Workshop requirement in the MAWP. Elective in the MAE and MAWP.