Texas Tech University

Graduate Course Offerings, Summer 2021

If you have any questions about the Literature, Creative Writing, or Linguistics courses, please contact the graduate advisor. For all Technical Communication courses, please contact the Director of Graduate Studies.

Courses from previous semesters are archived here.

Campus Map - the English/Philosophy building is #46, located in D1

 

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ENGL 5067 Methods of Teaching College Composition

Dr. Michael Faris
CRN: 72247
Class Type: Online (Asynchronous)

This course is designed as a practicum for GPTI teaching first-year writing at Texas Tech University. This course will introduce teachers to methods and practices of teaching writing and provide scaffolding for their first three semesters teaching first-year writing. We will use class time to discuss teaching activities, to introduce you to theories of learning, writing, and rhetoric, to solve problems related to teaching and learning, and to help you build your teaching philosophy.

ENGL 5313 Studies in Twentieth-Century British Literature

Dr. Bill Wenthe
Wednesdays, 6:00 - 8:50 PM
CRN: 72996
Class Type: Online

Examining a range of poets, while emphasizing major modernists W. B. Yeats, H. D, and T. S. Eliot, this class will trace developments in 20th Century British poetry from Romantic roots to postmodern derivations. Much of our readings will cover the rapid changes in English poetry from about 1910 to World War II, when poets were working to revise the English poetic tradition into deliberately "modern" forms. We will read a broad variety of poems, but we will also read deeply: this is a class on how to read and read into poems, as much as anything else. Given this range and depth, this class serves as a detailed study of modernism, a study of poetry as a genre, and a practical lesson in the teaching of poetry. Written requirements are a close reading of a single poem, and a final 15 page essay that employs research and interpretation. Each student will present a 10-15 minute oral report on a given poet or topic, and lead a discussion on a poem. Our text will be a substantial anthology, supplemented with all sorts of goodies made available on Blackboard.

Requirements Fulfilled: British Literature; Period: Later; Genre: Poetry

ENGL 5323 Studies in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Making and Un-Making the Poetic Canon

Dr. Elissa Zellinger
Mondays, 6:00 - 8:50 PM
CRN: 72994
Class Type: Online

When students think about nineteenth-century poetry (if they think about it at all), they might remember Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, maybe Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In this class, we will examine canonical figures, the literary history that has made them canonical figures, and, just as important, the figures who were left out of the so-called “American Renaissance.” Nineteenth-century American poetry has experienced a resurgence of critical interest over the last twenty years, and we will attend to the varied, recent approaches to this body of work. In our exploration, we will find that canon formation's inclusionary and exclusionary practices reveal longstanding social, political, and even economic forces that got their start in the nineteenth-century and continue to exert their influence today. But we will also study the ways that poetry functioned as a dynamic force that responded to institutional powers, historical crises, and social injustice. This course will provide a solid overview of nineteenth-century poems and authors, combined with current critical discussions/debates. Each week will focus on a single poet. Requirements for the class include in-class presentations, weekly Blackboard posts, a research proposal, and a final written assignment. The syllabus is designed to introduce students to a broad range of authors, texts, and critical methodologies.

Requirements Fulfilled: American Literature, Period: Early; Genre: Poetry

ENGL 5340 Research Methods (Literature, Creative Writing, and Linguistics)

Dr. Cordelia Barrera
Tuesdays, 6:00 - 8:50 PM
CRN: 72995
Class Type: Online

Research Methods introduces English students pursuing an MA or PhD to the methods, processes, and procedures for graduate-level research in English and is geared towards concentrations in Literature, Creative Writing, and Linguistics. Students will investigate the uses of archival, bibliographic, and web-based sources necessary to graduate-level scholarship. In this seminar, we look to a variety of methods used by literary scholars, critics, and creative writers in their research with the goal of understanding how these methods impact, shape, and guide our own writing, scholarship, and creative output. In today's 21st century job market, it is imperative for students to not only be consummate researchers, but to understand the workings of the profession alongside venues, audiences, and why exemplary scholarship and writing matters. This class focuses on the profession of scholarly output, best practices for academic writing, and the professionalization of graduate students. Topics include how to write a critical, theoretically-sound scholarly article, how and why to present at conferences, how to network, and how to navigate grad school with an eye toward job markets. Each student will keep a weekly journal of best writing practices, produce a Conference paper, and a short research project with accompanying annotated Bibliography that relates to his or her own area of interest.

Requirements Fulfilled: Foundation Course

ENGL 5340 Research Methods (Literature, Creative Writing, and Linguistics)

Dr. Wyatt Phillips
Thursdays, 6:00 - 8:50 PM
CRN: 72997
Class Type: Online

This seminar introduces incoming MA students to a range of research methods and methodologies utilized in humanities-based studies, including the vast array of digital, material, and archival resources available to researchers. The course focuses on the process of research in order to better prepare students for the kind of work expected at the graduate level. Students will develop a significant research project in their selected area of specialization that will include a book review, annotated bibliography, conference-length presentation, and research paper. This section is reserved primarily for new distance/online MA students.

Requirements Fulfilled: Foundation Course

ENGL 5370 Studies in Creative Writing—Prose: “Thousands of Decisions Made at Speed”: The Art and Craft of Revision

Dr. Katie Cortese
CRN: 72065
Class Type: Online (Asynchronous)

“Stories, as much as we like to talk about them, retrospectively, as emanations of theme or worldview or intention, occur primarily as technical objects when they're being written. Or at least they do for me. They're the result of thousands of decisions made at speed during revision.” – George Saunders

Most graduate workshops with a focus on prose emphasize idea generation, the production of multiple first drafts, and discussions that provide constructive criticism toward second drafts. Writers then typically produce revisions for some variation on a creative portfolio assignment, but there's usually no time in classes like those to test the success of new drafts. This workshop will provide students opportunities to practice the art of revision by rapidly generating a total of three drafts for each of three short stories, essays, or chapters during the ten-week summer semester. Since many literary journals close down or slow their reading process through the summer and then reopen in fall, the goal of this class is for students to arrive at final versions of three short prose works in August that can be submitted for publication consideration to a variety of journals in the fall.

Texts:
Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Allison
Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses
The Best American Short Stories 2020 edited by Curtis Sittenfeld, Series Editor Heidi Pitlor
The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun

Requirements Fulfilled: Prose Workshop

ENGL 5380 Special Topics: Religion's Encounter with Colonialism, Nationalism, and Social Movements in the 20th Century

Dr. Roger McNamara
Tuesdays, 6:00 - 8:50 PM
CRN: 73611
Class Type: Online

Culture is the fundamental means through which humans make sense of the world, and within culture, religion has often played an oversized role in helping humans understand their sense of self, their relations to other people, the various communities they belong to, and their place within the cosmos. Furthermore, religion has also played an extremely important role in conjunction with various political and social movements such as colonialism, nationalism, and civil rights. At times, these movements have used religion to empower or oppress people. At other times, people have used religion to challenge or question them. This course uses literature to examine religion's constrictive or liberatory stance in three broad contexts: a) the role of Christianity in the colonization of Nigeria, b) “weak” (postmodern) religious practices as a response to late 20th century nationalism in South Asia and c) the tense relationship between “strong” Christianity and race in 1950s-1960s United States.

Tentative Texts:
Nigeria: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe; Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka or Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

South Asia: The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (India); Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje (Sri Lanka)

United States: selected short stories by Flannery O'Connor; Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Selected theoretical readings will supplement each literary text

Requirements Fulfilled: Comparative Literature (CLGT), Period: Later; Genre: Fiction