ENGL 5351: STUDIES IN FILM & LITERATURE: American Cinema and American Culture of the
1960s and 1970s
Dr. Wyatt Phillips
Mondays 6:00 – 8:50 PM
Distance CRN: 73091
This course will look at the transformation in American culture of the 1960s and 1970s
through the lens of its cinema. The glow of post-war prosperity and an idealistic
hope for broader social equalities that existed in America at the beginning of the
1960s collided with political assassinations, the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the
1970s economic downturn; this cultural volatility produced a vibrant but also complex
range of cultural responses. At the same time, the economic realities of Hollywood
changed substantially during this period, providing openings for new perspectives
and new voices on American movie screens. This potent mix of cultural and industrial
transformation produced a dynamic range of films, from challenging works for new audiences
to distracting spectacles for the masses. Class viewings will address such a range
of films from across this period; readings will include cultural theory as well as
cultural, political, and media histories of the era. Assignments will include a scholarly
book review, a midterm essay, and a final research paper.
Requirements Fulfilled: American Literature; Period: Later; Genre: Film
ENGL 5340: Research Methods
Dr. Alison Rukavina
Thursdays 6:00-8:50 PM
Distance CRN: 72717
This course is an introduction to the methods, processes, and procedures for graduate-level
(MA and PhD) research in English and is for students pursuing MA and PhD degrees in
English with concentrations primarily in Literature, Linguistics, and Creative Writing.
Students will learn about the uses of archival, bibliographic, textual, and web-based
sources in graduate-level scholarship, as well as consider the professional realities
of modern scholarship that asks academics to not only be excellent researchers but
also be good at promoting themselves and their work with appropriate venues and audiences.
In the first part of the course students will study the theories and practices related
to literary criticism and textual scholarship. In the second half of the course, students
will learn about how to publish and promote their research, including how to determine
appropriate venues, how to apply to and then present at conferences, and how to use
social media like Twitter to promote themselves and their research. Throughout the
course, students will develop a research project that relates to his or her own particular
area of interest.
Requirement fulfilled: Foundation course
ENGL 5355: Studies in Comparative Literature: Small Acts/Big Scenes: Postcoloniality,
Performance, and Globalization
Dr. Kanika Batra
Tuesdays 6:00-8:50 PM
Distance CRN: 72149
The Kenyan playwright and novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o has suggested that drama arising
from formerly colonized nations is engaged in a struggle for control over the performance
space with the postcolonial state. Starting from this idea, our focus in this course
will be on drama emerging from formerly colonized nations in Africa, the Caribbean,
and Asia. During the struggle for independence from colonial rule and after it --
in the postcolonial era, so to speak – African, Caribbean, and Asian dramatists developed
innovative forms of performance that included indigenous as well as Western modes
of performance. In many of these nations there exist strong performance traditions
related to rituals, festivals, and other religious ceremonies. While some playwrights
and performance artists prefer to use these forms to express contemporary political
conditions in their nations, others rely on a more syncretic approach that combines
indigenous with Western forms.
Taking a broad conception of postcoloniality, performance, and globalization as involving
cultural and political acts, this course will focus on a selection of drama that consciously
engages with national and international concerns. To this end we will begin the course
by reading an introductory account of post-colonial literatures and theory. We will
then move on to an examination of plays such as The Hungry Earth,Pantomime, QPH, and others. These readings will be supplemented with writings by Western and non-Western
theatre practitioners. The broad set of concerns addressed in the course are: the
continuing legacies of colonialism and neocolonialism; according recognition to local
cultures; analyzing capital-driven global inequities that impact on nation-states
and performance artists. This course will thus enable you to perceive the intersection
of drama criticism with postcolonialism and globalization as theoretical and political
modes of analysis.
Requirements Fulfilled: CLGT; Period: Later; Genre: Non-fiction; Methods Course for
Comparative Literature Specialization
ENGL 5370: Studies in Creative Writing: Nonfiction Workshop - Experiments at the Edge
of the Essay
Dr. Noam Dorr
Asynchronous
Distance CRN:72065
If we think of the essay as “seeing the writer's mind at work unfolding on the page”
this class will allow us the opportunity to explore the far reaches of our minds.
This course is about the process of asking questions, of experimenting with our writing
in order to see what we can learn when we push our creative boundaries. Even if you're
interested in more conventional nonfiction writing, the tools you learn through these
experiments will serve you in honing your writing skills and allow you to see what's
possible before choosing your form. The class exercises and readings will help us
rethink the possibility of the essay, and though we will primarily investigate nonfiction
essays, we will also steal various techniques from poetry and fiction to deepen our
work. Through these attempts we will work towards writing and revising publishable
work, work that you can be proud of, work that you can send out into the world.
Course requirement: Creative Writing Workshop
