Semester I, 2008

General Education 111 (First Year Writing) or its equivalent is a prerequisite for all courses in the English department except some Level I Interim courses. While a few courses have additional prerequisities, most Level I and Level II courses are open to all -- majors and non-majors alike -- after General Education 111. Level III courses (numbered 300 or higher) are primarily for English majors and ordinarily build upon prior work. All Level III courses require as a prerequisite English 185 and at least one Level II course in an area of relevant background as confirmed by the instructor or the department.

GLE Courses:
English 247: Post-Colonial Literatures (Richard Buckstead)
English 283: Studies in Prose: Modern and Postmodern Narrative (Mary Trull)

All English Courses:
English 185: Literary Studies
English 203: Folklore
English 221: Literatures in English to 1650
English 222: Literatures in English 1650 to 1850
English 230: Literary Eras: Renaissance
English 245: American Racial Multicultural Literature
English 247: Post-Colonial Literatures
English 251: Creative Writing Nonfiction
English 255: Journalistic Writing
English 257A: Creative Writing Fiction/Poetry
English 257B: Creative Writing Fiction/Poetry
English 283: Studies in Prose: Alienation and Engagement in Modern and Postmodern Literature
English 286: Women's Literature: Love, Marriage, Motherhood, and Virginity in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
English 340: Literary Culture in Early America
English 345: Literature of the American Southwest
English 372: Advanced Fiction Writing
English 374: Screenwriting
English 391: Dickens
English 393: Milton and Ethics


English 185: Literary Studies
xxxxx English 185 is the foundation of the St. Olaf English major, introducing students to the strategies of critical interpretation they will use in later courses and to enduring questions about literature and its role in a culture. Students are encouraged to ask, "Why do we read?" "What constitutes literature?" "How is meaning made, and what is possible to say about a literary work?" In addition, the course introduces students to the variety of literatures in English produced around the world. In formulating their responses to literary works and literary questions, students practice and develop skills in both writing and oral communication. Top of Page (ALS-L, ORC, WRI)
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

           185-A: Literary Studies (Carol Holly)
           185-B: Literary Studies (Karen Cherewatuk)
           185-C: Literary Studies (Jonathan Hill)

English 203: Folklore (Joseph Mbele)
xxxxx Focuses on verbal folklore: narratives, songs and shorter forms such as proverbs. Explores the intrinsic qualities of each as literary creations and also the ways in which they operate together when combined or in dialogic relationship. The folktale or the epic, for example, incorporate a variety of these forms, such as the proverb, the song, or the riddle, to form a complex whole. Top of Page (ALS-L, MCS-G, ORC)
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

English 221: Literatures in English to 1650 (Karen Marsalek)
xxxxx Students explore poetry and prose from the earliest periods in the development of the English language and literature -- by Caedmon, the Beowulf poet, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich, Malory, Spenser, Shakespeare, Lady Mary Wroth, Donne, Milton -- and investigate how literary conventions and social history interact. From sermons to sonnets, students examine 1000 years of literary history and ultimately follow the voyage of English from Britain to the Americas. Top of Page (WRI)
Prerequisite: Prior or simultaneous study in English 185

English 222: Literatures in English 1650 to 1850 (Colin Wells)
xxxxx Students study literary developments from the mid-17th to the mid-19th centuries. Topics examined include the influence of the Puritan Revolution on literature; satiric modes practiced by Dryden, Pope, and Swift; the rise of the novel; the Romantic movement; Transcendentalism; and the development of American identity in writers such as Franklin, Fuller, and Douglass. Top of Page (WRI)
Prerequisite: English 185 and English 221

English 230: Literary Eras: Renaissance (Richard DuRocher)
xxxxxThis course examines radical literary changes in English literature, as they occur in Spenser, Shakespeare, Lanyer, Donne, and Milton, in such contexts as the Protestant Reformation and strife over Puritanism, court politics under Elizabeth and James, and the English Civil War. Specifically, we read several of the following: Castiglione's Book of the Courtier (in translation); Spenser's Faerie Queene and Amoretti & Epithalamion; sonnets by various writers from Wyatt to Milton; plays by Marlowe, Shakespeare, and others; prose works including Sidney's Defense of Poetry, romances, essays, and travel writing; Milton's Paradise Lost. While some lectures will provide essential background, the main business of class meetings is informed discussion. Students write three brief interpretive essays and take part in two dramatic performances and readings. Top of Page (ALS-L)
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

English 245: American Racial Multicultural Literature (Joan Hepburn)
xxxxx Through the reading of literature by an array of multicultural authors in the United States, students explore the histories, cultural patterns, religious practices, key institutions, gender issues, narrative styles, and significant contributions to our nation of marginal groups. Such diverse writers as Toni Morrison, Chaim Potok, Leslie Silko, and Amy Tan, raise questions about voice and identity, both individual and collective. (ALS-L, MCS-D) Top of page
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

English 247: Post-Colonial Literatures (Richard Buckstead) xxxxx
 xxxxx This course will begin with an introduction to ancient Indian writings that are the cultural antecedents of modern fiction: Vedic Hymns, Upanishads, Bhagavadgita, Ramayana, followed by reading and discussion of novels by Indian authors writing in English. Top of Page (ALS-L)
English majors please note: GLE course
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

English 251: Creative Writing: Nonfiction (Mary Steen)
xxxxx Creative nonfiction--a genre in which a writer uses literary techniques to convey true events, reflections, and information--covers considerable terrain, from E.B. White's "Bedfellows" to Annie Dillard's "The Leg in the Christmas Stocking," from Adam Gopnik's "Power and the Parrot" to Anne Fadiman's "Marrying Libraries." We will read such essays for strategies and inspiration; students' own work will experiment with form, contain the fruits of research, attend closely to language. Students should expect to analyze and discuss professional essays, read and review student essays, and, of course, write and revise.xxxxxx
Top of page Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent (WRI)

English 255: Journalistic Writing (Jan Hill)
xxxxx This is a class in news writing. Students will practice writing hard news, feature stories, profiles, opinion pieces, and a long magazine piece; learn how to cover speeches, meetings, and arts and culture; and study news writing conventions and copy editing. In class, we'll critique the news, paying attention not only to content,language and style but to issues such as fairness, accuracy, and balance. Story assignments will come from real-world events on campus and in town. Course work will include weekly story assignments and two presentations--one on ethics, one on language. Top of Page Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent (WRI)

English 257A: Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry (Jenny Dunning)
xxxxx This course will focus on contemporary fiction and poetry--reading from the perspective of a writer, understanding craft, and writing. As the class itself will become our writing community, careful and timely preparation, regular attendance, and respectful participation are a must. Students should be prepared to share their work in mini and whole-class workshops. Students should expect to do a lot of writing and reading. Top of Page (WRI)
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

English 257B: Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry (Jennifer Kwon Dobbs)
xxxxx This course will focus on contemporary fiction and poetry--reading from the perspective of a writer, understanding craft, and writing. As the class itself will become our writing community, careful and timely preparation, regular attendance, and respectful participation are a must. Students should be prepared to share their work in mini and whole-class workshops. Students should expect to do a lot of writing and reading. Top of Page (WRI)
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

English 283: Studies in Prose: Alienation and Engagement in Modern and Postmodern Literature (Mary Trull)
xxxxxTwentieth-century literature often rejects both Enlightenment and religious ideals -- both faith in a rational universe and in a divinely ordered one. Modernist writers like James Joyce, William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf depicted a world in which comforting certainties proved illusory and human beings experienced profound dislocation from one another and from God. An even more radical sense of chaos appears in postmodern literature, where the self is not only alienated but fragmentary and incoherent. In postmodern literature, pastiche, parody and irony convey the experience of chaos by defying stable meanings. How can one integrate the disillusioned mood of contemporary culture with a sense of vocation -- one's higher ideals, hopes for humanity, or religious belief? By asking how modern and postmodern literature expresses engagement and vocation, this course will address that most confusing question. Authors will include Dave Eggers, Jonathan Lethem, Edwige Danticat, Salman Rushdie, Thomas Pynchon, Eudora Welty, Andre Dubus, David Foster Wallace, Susan Sontag, and Zadie Smith. Top of Page (ALS-L)
English majors please note: GLE course
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

English 286: Women's Literature: Love, Marriage, Motherhood, and Virginity in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (Karen Cherewatuk)
xxxxx A mother writes a letter to a son from whom she is separated by war. A young woman chooses to remain single because she craves independence. A widow hesitates before entering a relationship with a younger man fearing for her reputation. A young woman is dumped by her boyfriend and takes up with his best friend. The situations sound contemporary, but in fact derive from early texts: the autobiographical writing of a sixth-century Carolingian woman, Dhuoda; the biography of a twelfth-century English woman, Christina of Markayte; the romance of Chaucer's greatest heroine, Creisyde; and a saga depicting medieval Iceland's version of the feuding Capulets and Montagues and a stunning heroine, Laxdaela Saga's Gudrun. We will read letters of medieval and Renaissance women on courtship, marriage, and child-rearing; theological works of Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, and Anne Askew; a romance by Chaucer, play by Shakespeare, and poetry by Aemilia Lanyer. Through this wealth of genres we will explore the intersection of gender identity and Christianity and constructions of femininity that live on with us to the present. Top of page (ALS-L) Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent

English 340: Literary Culture in Early America (Colin Wells)
xxxxxWhen English settlers colonized North America, or when the founding fathers fought the British and began the work of creating a new nation, surely they had better things to worry about than literature, right? Not exactly. From the first colonies to the Revolution and beyond, literature played a central role in the lives of early Americans. Not only did American men and women write poems, plays and novels to entertain and reflect on their experiences. But literature was even more varied and diverse in early America, including travel narratives, sermons, ballads, political satires, slave narratives, even textbooks for learning the languages of Native Americans. This course examines the wide range of early American literature, but it also examines the various cultural uses literature served for people who were attempting to create a new nation, often under difficult circumstances. We will read works by better-known authors such as Anne Bradstreet, Ben Franklin, and Washington Irving; we'll also see how anonymous songs and poems were used to ridicule British soldiers during the Revolution; we'll even look at the first magazines published in America. Ultimately, what we will discover is a fascinating relationship between early American literature and the kind of country America would eventually become. Top of page
Prerequisite: English 185 plus one additional course of relevant background.

English 345: Literature of the American Southwest (Mark Allister)
xxxxxRace and place merge wonderfully in the American southwest, where in a stunning landscape three cultures -- Native-American, Latino, and Anglo -- flow together into a great literary river. The metaphor reminds us that the waters in upstream tributaries are not separable from the river that results when they merge, and in the southwest, these cultures intermingle freely to provide events, ideas, and cultural values that are unique to the region and challenge our notions of "America" and the American Experience. But rivers are not people, of course, and the intermingling of the Native-American, Latino, and Anglo cultures is just as likely to create cultural conflicts among individuals, families, and social groups. The merging and clashing -- which often takes place in the same texts -- makes for a dynamic literature and a useful site for cultural studies. In this seminar, we will read and write about the literature of the American Southwest. Authors may include Dagoberto Gilb, Edward Abbey, Luci Tapahanso, Simon Ortiz, Barbara Kingsolver, Leslie Silko, Gloria Anzaldua, Cormac McCarthy, and Albert Alvaro Rios. Top of page

English 372: Advanced Fiction Writing (Jenny Dunning)
xxxxx In this course students will explore different approaches to the craft of writing fiction, including a focus on character, a focus on scene, and a focus on lyric narrative. Emphasis will be on generating new work as well as developing and revising stories. Students will workshop stories in small groups and whole-class sessions. Readings in contemporary fiction and theoretical perspectives will be a key part of the course. Top of Page (WRI)
Recommended Preparation: English 251, 255, 257, or relevant writing course
Registration by portfolio only. Submit portfolio according to the guidelines to the English office by Monday, March 31, 4:00 pm.

English 374: Screenwriting (Ali Selim)
xxxxx Students learn the techniques of screenwriting, including how to write a treatment, to create backstories, and to break down scenes. Each student will produce and revise a 30 to 35 page narrative screenplay. Top of Page
Prerequisite: English 251, 255, 257, or relevant writing course

English 391: Dickens (Jonathan Hill)
xxxxx Before there were movies, videos, DVD's, TV, radio, and soap operas, there was Charles Dickens (1812-70). His impact on literature in English of the 19th century, and on Victorian culture in general, is hard to exaggerate. Building on the example of his 18th century predecessors in the writing of humorously satirical novels, he combined creative genius, popular appeal, and inexhaustible output in a manner scarcely matched in British literary history. His comedy is explosive, his sentimentality as thick as syrup, his social criticism searing. In this course we shall read The Pickwick Papers (1836-37), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39) A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), and Great Expectations (1860-61). Drawn from Dickens' early, middle and late periods, these novels reflect the gradual darkening of his vision, his unflagging verbal energy, and his attempts to make morally comprehensible the bewildering human effects of industrialization, urbanization, consumer capitalism and the quest for social status. There will be a quiz on each novel and a final research paper. This course is recommended for those who like their novels long, who like to laugh and cry as they read, and who are looking for deep knowledge of a major writer.
Prerequisiies: English 185 plus one additional course of relevant background. Top of Page

English 393: Milton and Ethics (Richard DuRocher)
xxxxx Visionary, revolutionary, and poet, John Milton (1608-1674) stands at the center of the intellectual and political struggles of his day. His literary works not only reflect 17th-century debates but also continuing ethical debates on issues such as the powers and limits of civil governments, the rights and responsibilities of individuals, the nature of marriage, censorship and the role of writers in society. This course examines Milton's plays, poems, and prose works through the lens of ethics, using readings in ethical theory to better understand both the ethical issues and the literary works themselves.
xxxxxMost class time will feature discussion of Milton's works in a seminar format. We discuss Milton's works both as literature and as a testing ground for the following ethical perspectives: Aristotelian or character ethics, Utilitarianism, Feminisms, Christian (both Augustinian and Reformation) ethics, and Nietzschean views. Each student also takes part in a character's trial: e.g., Samson is put on trial as a terrorist. Each student gives a brief presentation drawing on their own expertise-from Classical rhetoric and Biblical narrative to modern educational and music theory. Students write one research paper and three brief interpretive essays. As this is the 400th anniversary of Milton's birth, the seminar will organize a marathon public reading of Paradise Lost. (EIN)
Prerequisites: English 185 plus one additional course of relevant background. Top of page