AML 6455: 20th Century American Literature
CRN 11693
T 6-8:45
Betsy Nies
In the field of twentieth-century American literature, ethnic literary traditions, beyond the scope of African-American literature, continued to be overlooked in the field of education. While progress has been made in recent years to integrate snippets of such literature in college-level and high school anthologies, nothing can replace a more complete study of the established fields of Native American and Asian American literatures. When Kiowa writer N. Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1969 for House Made of Dawn, he opened the door for other native writers who saw a way to express their own background and beliefs through revisions of the Western form of the novel. With the publication of her book Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts in 1975, Chinese American Maxine Hong Kingston made a similar splash in the academic world, bringing to the attention of many scholars the ways that semi-autobiographical works like Kingston’s challenged and rewrote the form of the memoir, collapsing any easy division between autobiography and fiction. In this course, we will study such landmark moments in both traditions, exploring the way that ethnic identity can impact the form of the novel and memoir; we will also examine what may or may not be cohesive about ethnic identity itself. Students will read predominantly contemporary Native American works by authors such as Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Joy Harjo, Sherman Alexie, and Gerald Vizenor. In the field of Asian-American literary studies, students will read texts that have informed larger debates about ethnicity, namely Kingston’s Woman Warrior and Frank Chin’s Donald Duk. Students will give one presentation, write daily responses to novels, and write one research paper.
ENC 6942: Practicum in Composition
CRN 12341
M 6-8:45
James Beasley
This course will introduce students to a variety of empirical methods commonly used in writing research and reading examples of studies employing these methods. In addition, students will have the opportunity to practice empirical research through a group project conducted by the class and through the writing of a research proposal for an empirical study. The goal of this course is for students to become familiar with the methods, discourse and discourse conventions, and issues surrounding empirical research in composition.
ENL 6455: Medieval Genius
CRN 12345
R 6-8:45
Tiffany Beechy
This course will introduce students to major literary works and cultural movements from the early Anglo-Saxon period through Chaucer (roughly 600AD-1400AD). The medieval island of Britain was a nesting-ground for unique and often cross-fertilized forms of art and literature. Anglo-Saxon England was a crossroads of several cultures: Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Roman Christian, Viking Scandinavian, and at the end of the period, Norman French. The main body of surviving Old English texts combines elements of all these traditions, most obviously the Anglo-Saxon and Latin (Roman Christian). After the French invasion of England in 1066, new influences from the Continent poured into England, and the Middle English we see emerge in the thirteenth century is a hybrid of a new sort. We will consider the vast changes that occur across the period often lumped together as “medieval,” examining both important genres (epic verse and allegory, for instance) and key themes that helped give medieval literature its shape—themes such as heroism, community belonging, religious devotion and erotic love, and the dynamics of power between class and gender categories.
ENL 6455 12346 Eroticism & Pitilessness: Restoration & 18th British Literature
W 6:00-8:45
Prof. Chris Gabbard
This course satisfies one of the two pre-1800 and one of the two British requirements.
How should we read, analyze, and interpret literary texts from three hundred years ago? Are we doomed to read these texts only by recourse to our present-day understanding? Or is it possible to engage in a kind of archeology that is genuine, that penetrates to the mentalité of the time by reconstructing the literary and aesthetic conventions and social and political conditions in which these texts were produced?
What is the relationship between British literature and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660? And what is its relationship with 1688, the year of the so-called 'Glorious Revolution'? England suddenly is in flux after the 'Glorious Revolution,' which brings about the fall of the 'ancien régime' of the male Stuart kings. In what ways do the texts both reflect and address this momentous event? How do these texts speak to changes in aesthetic assumptions and literary conventions? to alterations in the relations between the monarch, the subject, and the public sphere? to shifts in the understandings of sex and gender? to innovations in the modes of literary production, especially with the middleclass marketplace gradually supplanting the system of aristocratic patronage for writers and poets?
To begin answering these questions, we will read a section from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan; John Wilmot's (the Earl of Rochester's) poetry; William Wycherley's play, The Country Wife; short stories, poems, and two novellas (one being Oroonoko) by Aphra Behn, including her popular play, The Rover; Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock and other poems; Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal," Gulliver's Travels, and poetry; one novel by Daniel Defoe (I haven’t decided which one yet: Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, or Roxana--any suggestions?); and William Hay's 1754 essay "Deformity," the first disability memoir.
Students will write a research paper focusing on one of the readings and present his or her research findings to the class in a formal presentation.
LIT 5934: Play Production
CRN 11949
MW 4:30-5:45
Pam Monteleone
The Department of English is producing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for the university and Jacksonville communities. Students will participate in the planning and execution of all aspects of play production. Students will have the opportunity to earn credit in areas that address diverse interests and competencies: acting; academic research; technical, including sound and video production; and business/promotion, management. This course may be repeated for up to twelve (12) credits.
LIT 5934: Studies in Drama
CRN 12355
MW 1:30-2:45
Pam Monteleone
Plays are not only works of art but powerful social commentaries. Moreover, because they are also scripts that are only fully realized in performance, they have particular relevance to questions of identity. This course will examine social constructs of race/ethnicity, class, and gender through the reading of plays that reflect diverse cultural perspectives on U.S. history and lifestyles. We will examine the strategies playwrights use to address such common themes as the American Dream, the meaning of home, growing up, and the importance family. In addition to reading, writing, and discussion, we will act out scenes. No previous theatrical training or experience is required. I will simply ask you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Playing roles and witnessing them, like telling family stories, is an act of self-definition. As we bring these plays to life, we shall ask ourselves such questions as:
Readings will include plays by Eve Ensler, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, Douglas Turner Ward, Luis Valdez, Federico Fraguada, Wakoko Yamouchi and others. A commitment to substantial scene rehearsal outside of class time is required.
LIT 5934: English Romantic Literature
CRN 12344
TR 10:50-12:05
Michael Wiley
LIT 5934: International Film
CRN 12350
TR 3:05-4:20
Jillian Smith
LIT 5934: Major Authors - Proust
CRN 12357
M 6-8:45
Mark Workman
We will read in its entirety Marcel Proust’s monumental novel In Search of Lost Time with the goal of understanding and appreciating its status as one of the handful of iconic works of modern literature. Please note that reading this novel in one semester is an ambitious undertaking; it will require intensive but rewarding effort.