English (Archive 2018-2019)

English Major Archive 2018-2019

English majors and minors benefit from a wide range of course offerings ranging from in-depth studies of specific literary periods and movements, to creative writing workshops, to traditional British and American surveys and genre-based courses. With plenty of chances to improve their reading and writing skills and sharpen their critical thinking, English majors and minors are prepared to enter almost any profession and excel due to their ability to interpret, compose, connect, and make meaning with written texts and an advanced ability to understand and craft language.

Major Requirements with Concentration Requirements: 11 courses, 41 credits

Students complete all requirements for the major and ONE of the following concentrations:

  1. Literature
  2. Creative Writing

Students in this major must earn the BA.

​Major Requirements: 6 courses, 21 credits

Professional Development Requirement (1 course, 1 credit)

Prerequisites:

CAS 101. CAS students only. SBS students by special permission. Restricted to the following majors: Art History, Asian Studies, Biology, Economics, English, French, History, Humanities, International Economics, Music History, Philosophy, Physics, Radiation Science, Spanish, and Undeclared. Instructor consent required for all other majors.

Credits:

1.00

Description:

This course engages students in the early stages of career planning. Students will explore their interests, skills, values, and strengths, which will allow them to begin setting appropriate goals for professional development. Once students understand themselves in relation to the world of work, they will learn how to research careers and employment paths that fit with their goals.

Literary History Surveys Requirement (4 courses, 16 credits)

Prerequisites:

English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

Credits:

4.00

Description:

Study of major writers of England from the beginning to the mid-18th century. Regularly assigned essays on the reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

Prerequisites:

English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

Credits:

4.00

Description:

Study of major English writers from the mid-18th century to the present. Regularly assigned essays on the reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

Prerequisites:

English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

Credits:

4.00

Description:

Study of major American writing from its origins through 1865. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

Prerequisites:

English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

Credits:

4.00

Description:

Study of major American writing from 1865 through the present. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

Diverse Literature Requirement (1 course, 4 credits)

The Diverse Literature requirement broadens a major's exposure to the growing historical and contemporary importance of voices outside the traditional Anglophone literary canon as constructed in English studies.

Choose one of the following:

Prerequisites:

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

Credits:

4.00

Description:

This course focuses on Gothic literature by women writers, from its origins in the 18th century to the present, focusing primarily on 20th century writers. The novels, short stories, and films we will discuss involve haunted houses, secret chambers, madness, and other Gothic tropes. Writers to be studied will include Charlotte Bronte, Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Jean Rhys, Angela Carter, and others.

Prerequisites:

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

Credits:

4.00

Description:

Explores American and African American literature in the context of cosmopolitan thought and revolutionary action. This course considers how writers balance their interest in building a national culture with their desire for global adventure and their concern for matters of race, gender, politics, and civil rights that transcend their time and place. Includes readings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as a contemporary American journalist's memoir about life in the Middle East.

Prerequisites:

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

Credits:

4.00

Description:

African-American writing from the beginning through the present. Normally offered alternate years.

Prerequisites:

Take WRI-102 or WRI-H103

Credits:

4.00

Description:

Study of 19th and 20th century writing on the American West by American women in the form of novels, memoirs, and short stories. Regularly assigned reading responses and essays on the readings as well as discussion questions and quizzes provide the basis for the study of the gendering of the "frontier" and literature of the West by American women authors.

Prerequisites:

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

Credits:

4.00

Description:

An introduction to selected Asian-American writers with an emphasis on socio-cultural issues, such as race, gender and ethnicity. Authors include Bulosan, Hwang, Jen, Kingston, Lee, Mukherjee, Odada, and Tan.

Prerequisites:

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

Credits:

4.00

Description:

This course studies 19th and 20th century women writers and questions the type of women who write, what they write about, and why they write. Themes we examine include domesticity, assimilation, and madness. Authors studied in the past have included Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Anzia Yezierska, Nella Larsen, and Sylvia Plath. Normally offered alternate years.

Prerequisites:

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

Credits:

4.00

Description:

Writers of the Irish Literary Revival, from the 1890s to the 1930s. Readings from Yeats, Joyce, Synge, O'Casey, and O'Flaherty. The influence of Anglo-Irish history on Irish writers.

Prerequisites:

WRI-102 or WRI-H103

Credits:

4.00

Description:

This class will engage with the major novels and selected literary writings of two of the twentieth century's most important modernist voices, Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster. We will approach their writings within the intellectual framework of British modernism and the cultural context of the Bloomsbury Group out of which they emerged. Special attention will be paid to their theoretical writings on fiction as well as their respective contributions to feminism and queer theory. The class will also view cinematic adaptations of certain novels and discuss how these films have contributed to the enduring appeal and status of these texts as classics of twentieth-century fiction.

Requirement Policy: In the College of Arts and Sciences, a two-course (8 credit) residency requirement must be satisfied for completion of a minor and a four-course (16 credit) residency requirement must be satisfied for the completion of a major.

Learning Goals and Objectives

Learning goals and objectives reflect the educational outcomes achieved by students through the completion of this program. These transferable skills prepare Suffolk students for success in the workplace, in graduate school, and in their local and global communities.

Learning Goals Learning Objectives
Students will...
Students will be able to...
Demonstrate effective writing.
  • Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence
  • Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
  • Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach
  • Develop and display critical thinking.
  • Understand, effectively analyze, and evaluate literary, critical, and theoretical source materials
  • Use proper citation and research methods, including following MLA formatting
  • Cultivate cultural literacy.
  • Demonstrate broad familiarity with British and American literary traditions through study of major English and American writers and the literary history of England and America
  • Gain exposure to diverse perspectives through study of literature with focuses on gender, race, ethnicity, immigrant experiences, or literary influences
  • Literature Concentration Archive 2018-2019

    Concentration Requirements: 5 courses, 20 credits

    Seminar Requirement (1 course, 4 credits)

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course seeks to answer the following questions. What is literature? Why do we study literature? What methods aid the study of literature? What are English Studies all about? This course extends reading and writing skills, and provides more specialized terms, knowledge, and approaches to prepare students for study at the junior and senior level. Topics vary from term to term.

    Literature Before 1900 Requirement (1 course, 4 credits)

    A required upper level Literature Before 1900 course ensures that majors read, analyze, and interpret older texts in order to enhance their knowledge of the foundations of literary history.

    Choose one of the following:

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An introduction to medieval literature, this course will focus on short readings from various genres, such as the lyric, chronicle, fable, with emphasis on the romance.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Close reading and discussion of the Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde against the background of the late Middle Ages. Normally offered alternate years.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Shakespeare's background and development as a dramatist through an examination of selected comedies. Collateral reading of the minor plays and Shakespeare criticism. Normally offered every third semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Shakespeare's English and Roman history plays. Emphasis on Shakespeare's use of his sources and the plays in performance. Normally offered every third semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Shakespeare's major tragedies reflecting the range, resourcefulness, and power of his dramaturgy. Collateral reading in Shakespeare criticism. Normally offered every third semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Representative selections of seventeenth-century poetry and prose, including Behn, Burton, Donne Drayton, Dryden, Jonson, Milton, Pepys, Wroth, and others.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    The mind and spirit, poetics and poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats, along with selected prose.

    Prerequisites:

    Take WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Introduces Jane Austen's major novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, along with relevant current scholarship and contextualizing historical material. Contemporary parodies, updates, and film adaptations of Austen's work will also be considered. Topics to include the history of the novel, gender and authorship, and narrative theory.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An investigation of the lives and works of two of nineteenth-century America's greatest and most original poets. Topics will include types of poetic language and formal structure, the work of the poetic imagination in transforming observations of the world into art, and the ways in which poets process the idea of death and the reality of war. Finally, this course examines Whitman and Dickinson's impact on American popular culture as well as on the writings of modern poets and literary critics.

    Electives (3 courses, 12 credits)

    Choose two ENG electives at the 300-level or above. 

    Choose one elective from any ENG course numbered above 104. 

    Note: The Seminar for Freshmen may satisfy one of the electives at the discretion of the department.

    Creative Writing Concentration Archive 2018-2019

    Concentration Requirements: 5 courses, 20 credits

    Seminar Requirement (1 course, 4 credits)

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A study of the major genres in creative writing (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) in which students will read as writers. Students will write a combination of analytical and original works, and learn the format and processes of writing workshops of writing workshops. Offered every semester.

    Creative Writing Workshops Requirement (3 courses, 12 credits)

    Students will take at least three creative writing workshops in two different genres.

    Choose at least two (students may take one workshop twice):

    Prerequisites:

    ENG-212

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An intensive workshop in which the student will be required to write original fiction. The focus of the course will be on the student's own work, submitted on a weekly basis. The course will also provide the student writer with practical experience in matters of plot, character, dialogue, structure, etc. Normally offered annually.

    Prerequisites:

    ENG-212

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    For students interested in writing autobiography and/or other forms of the personal essay. Topics can include childhood, place, sexuality, religion, work, the nature of memory. The focus will be on the writing process, with students presenting work-in-progress to the class for discussion and revision. The student should plan to read models of creative non-fiction. Normally offered annually.

    Prerequisites:

    ENG-212

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An intensive workshop course in which the student will be required to write original poetry for each class meeting. The focus of the course will be on the student's own work. We will examine the highly individual processes of composition and revision, and the methods writers use to keep their own practice of poetry alive and well. We will also examine as many of the constituent elements of poetry as possible, from image and rhythm to line and structure. Normally offered annually.

    Elective (1 course, 4 credits)

    Choose one (1) ENG elective at the 300-level or above.

    English Minor Archive 2018-2019

    Minor Requirements: 5 courses, 20 credits

    Literary History Surveys Requirement (2 courses, 8 credits)

    Choose one of the following:

    Prerequisites:

    English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of major writers of England from the beginning to the mid-18th century. Regularly assigned essays on the reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of major English writers from the mid-18th century to the present. Regularly assigned essays on the reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Choose one of the following:

    Prerequisites:

    English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of major American writing from its origins through 1865. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of major American writing from 1865 through the present. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Electives (3 courses, 12 credits)

    Choose three English courses numbered above 104. At least two of these three electives must be at the upper-level (numbered 300 or above).

    Note: The Seminar for Freshmen may satisfy one of the electives at the discretion of the department.

    Residency Requirement Policy: In the College of Arts and Sciences, a two-course (8 credit) residency requirement must be satisfied for completion of a minor and a four-course (16 credit) residency requirement must be satisfied for the completion of a major.

    Minor Programs Policy: A student declaring a minor may use no more than two courses from a major to fulfill the requirements for the minor. No more than one course from one minor may count toward the fulfillment of a second minor. Students may not minor in a subject in which they are also completing a major. For more information, see the Minor Programs section of the CAS Degree Requirements page.

    Honors Archive 2018-2019

    Honors

    To be eligible for honors in the English Department, majors must:

    1. Consult with the English department honors coordinator in the sophomore or junior year
    2. Have a GPA of 3.5 or higher in English

    To complete requirements for honors in the major, a candidate must:

    1. Graduate with a major GPA of 3.5 or higher
    2. Complete ENG-212 or ENG-301
    3. Complete an English honors seminar course
    4. Complete ENG-H555 (1 credit in the Fall, 3 credits in the Spring)
      1. Note: These 4 credits are in addition to the English major requirements.
    5. Complete a thesis/project that is approved by the major department
    6. Publicly present work at an English Department event in April
    7. CAS Honors Program students only: Present work from your senior honors experience at the Honors Symposium or Pecha Kucha event

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103; Honors students only

    Credits:

    1.00- 4.00

    Description:

    By special arrangement, a junior or senior may pursue an independent research project under the supervision of a faculty member. Consent of instructor and chairperson required. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    Restricted to CAS Honors students or other English majors with a GPA of 3.5 or above in English courses admitted by application to the department by the end of their junior year.

    Credits:

    1.00- 3.00

    Description:

    Independent reading, research, and writing under the supervision of a full-time English faculty member. Restricted to CAS Honors students or other English majors with a GPA of 3.5 or above in English courses admitted by application to the department by the end of their junior year. Normally taken for 1 credit in the Fall and 3 credits in the Spring of senior year.

    Societies Archive 2018-2019

    Societies

    Sigma Tau Delta International Honor Society

    Sigma Tau Delta, a member of the Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS), established its Eta Upsilon Chapter at Suffolk University in January 1986. Active membership is open to both English majors and English minors who have completed a minimum of three ENG courses at Suffolk with an average of 3.5, plus a general cumulative average of 3.0. Associate membership is open to students who have the requisite academic background (as stipulated above for active membership) but who are not majoring or minoring in English. In addition to conferring distinction for high achievement in English language and literature and exhibiting high standards of academic excellence through its chapters, Sigma Tau Delta promotes and emphasizes the discipline of English in all its aspects, including creative and critical writing, by inviting both active and associate members to contribute to its national publication, The Rectangle. All inducted members remain permanently on the roster of the Eta Upsilon Chapter.

    English Courses Archive 2018-2019

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course is appropriate for native English speakers as well as non-native English speakers with a high level of oral fluency, but a need to improve English reading and writing skills for an academic setting. The course provides students with opportunities for and guidance in the development of Academic English writing. Class activities focus on aiding students in improving their academic English reading and writing skills to the proficiency levels required by the University. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of planning, organizing and revising essays, as well as learning how to analyze, summarize, and cite an author's ideas and words. Offered in the Fall, Spring, and Summer Session I semesters. Course is enrolled by placement or instructor consent only.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Utilizing a freshman-level English textbook and materials from the content courses, this course furnishes students with active reading strategies and the conventions of academic writing that will be applicable to their collegiate course work. Students will develop the analytical skills necessary for academic success by producing in-class and take-home essays, participating in debates, and giving oral presentations. Students will be required to work with a course management program and to utilize technology effectively in their writing. The skills obtained in these courses will allow students to participate comfortably in their mainstream college classes.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A continuation of ENG 098, this course further furnishes students with active reading strategies and the conventions of academic writing that will be applicable to their collegiate course work. Students will develop the analytical skills necessary for academic success by producing in-class and take-home essays, participating in debates, and giving oral presentations. Students will be required to work with a course management program and to utilize technology effectively in their writing. The skills obtained in these courses will allow students to participate comfortably in their mainstream college classes.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Survey of drama and theatre as part of world culture from classical Greece through 18th-century China. Normally offered yearly.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Survey of drama and theatre as part of world culture from the 19th century to the present.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Literary masterpieces from ancient times to the Renaissance, including: Homer's Odyssey, Sophocles' Oedipus, Virgil's Aeneid, selections from the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels, and Dante's Divine Comedy. List may vary at the discretion of the instructor.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course will introduce students to a selection of Great Books from around the world from the 17th century to the 21st, such as Don Quixote (Spain), Madame Bovary (France), The Communist Manifesto (Germany), The Origin of Species (England), War and Peace (Russia), On Dreams (Austria), Night (Hungary), Things Fall Apart (Nigeria), "Satyagraha" (India), "I Am Prepared to Die" (South Africa), Saeed the Pessoptomist (Israel), The Rouge of the North (China), and The House of Spirits (Chile). Readings may vary at the discretion of the instructor.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of poetry, prose, and drama, with emphasis on close reading and literary analysis. Students will compose formal essays discussing the meanings and relationship between texts as well as the author's craft and relationship to the reader. Offered every semester.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A study of literature written in English from cultures around the world, with emphasis on major modern and contemporary writers from countries such as Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa and the Caribbean. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-103. 3.3 GPA or Honors student

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A study of literature written in English from cultures around the world, with emphasis on major modern and contemporary writers from countries such as Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa and the Caribbean. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct and persuasive writing. Offered every semester. Cultural Diversity B

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of poetry, prose, and drama from the British literary tradition, with emphasis on close reading and literary analysis. Students will compose formal essays discussing the meanings and relationship between texts as well as the author's craft and relationship to the reader. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    CAS Honors students only.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of poetry, prose, and drama from the British literary tradition, with emphasis on close reading and literary analysis. Students will compose formal essays discussing the meanings and relationship between texts as well as the author's craft and relationship to the reader. Offered every semester.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of poetry, prose, and drama from the American literary tradition, with emphasis on close reading and literary analysis. Students will compose formal essays discussing the meanings and relationship between texts as well as the author's craft and relationship to the reader. Offered every semester.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Literature has the capacity to record and interrogate history in an imaginative and artistic context. African-American literature is a rich, varied, and complex body of literature that faces our tainted history directly. The authors we will read in this class examine slavery's long-term psychological and social effects while forging a literary history that is at once a part of and apart from American literary history more generally.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course focuses on the reading and analysis of horror literature and the ways in which horror reflects and represents personal and cultural anxieties. Readings will include both classic and contemporary authors, for example, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and others. Assignments will include analytical essays as well as creative writing.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course will examine a wide range of writers and film makers who have sought to bridge the gap that exists between those who have experienced war and those who have not. Some stories we will examine are told from an American perspective; some are told from the perspective of soldiers who fought against Americans; and some are told from those who experienced life under U.S. military occupation.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A study of literary works by the so-called "Beat Generation," the American literary underworld of the late 1950s and 1960s, including major works by the three central figures (Ginsburg, Kerouac, Burroughs) and less central figures (Corso, Snyder, DiPrima, Jones/Baraka) as well as the influence of the Beats on the work of Bob Dylan, the only musician to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Young Adult Literature's recent explosion in popularity raises important questions about the stories it tells, the values it promotes, and the audiences it seeks. This course approaches the YA phenomenon as one with deep historical roots as well as contemporary cultural relevance. From nineteenth century classics to current series favorites, literary works focused on young people reframe perennially fresh narratives about coming of age, negotiating personal identity, and navigating a complex moral universe. This course also considers YA literature as part of an evolving network of writers, readers, publishers, critics and filmmakers.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Young Adult Literature's recent explosion in popularity raises important questions about the stories it tells, the values it promotes, and the audiences it seeks. This course approaches the YA phenomenon as one with deep historical roots as well as contemporary cultural relevance. From nineteenth century classics to current series favorites, literary works focused on young people reframe perennially fresh narratives about coming of age, negotiating personal identity, and navigating a complex moral universe. This course also considers YA literature as part of an evolving network of writers, readers, publishers, critics and filmmakers.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course will use close readings to examine poetry as a heightened form of language seeking to make contact with divine sources of faith. We will consider poems that provide examples of the struggle to attain belief, as well as poems that deny belief. Language as both the grammar of ascent and the locus of descent. The position of human beings in relation to God, or the gods, or the absence of the divine.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course takes students on a tour of witches, "nasty women," and other "unruly tongues" or "bitter spirits" throughout American literary history. Regularly assigned essays on the reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Fulfills the Literature Requirement of the CAS Core Curriculum.

    Credits:

    3.00

    Description:

    For more than a thousand years, the city of London has been a cultural center, the home of playwrights and poets, novelists and critics, theaters and libraries. In this class we will read a wide range of literary works in different genres that take the city of London, and the experience of living or writing there, as central themes. The class will emphasize close reading and literary analysis of London texts, and will also explore contextualizing materials from newspaper articles to music and art. Designed to be taken in tandem with an optional one-credit study abroad trip to London, UK.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of 20th century writing on the American West by American women and men in the form of novels, memoirs, and short stories. Regularly assigned reading responses and essays on the readings as well as discussion questions and quizzes provide the basis for the study of "frontier" or western literature by American authors. Fulfills the Literature Requirement of the CAS Core Curriculum.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A study of the major genres in creative writing (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) in which students will read as writers. Students will write a combination of analytical and original works, and learn the format and processes of writing workshops of writing workshops. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of major writers of England from the beginning to the mid-18th century. Regularly assigned essays on the reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of major English writers from the mid-18th century to the present. Regularly assigned essays on the reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A study of literature written in English from cultures around the world, with emphasis on major modern and contemporary writers from countries such as Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa and the Caribbean. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct and persuasive writing. Offered every semester. Cultural Diversity B

    Prerequisites:

    English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of major American writing from its origins through 1865. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    English Majors and Minors or Instructor Permission

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of major American writing from 1865 through the present. Regularly assigned essays on reading provide the basis for individualized instruction in clear, correct, and persuasive writing. Offered every semester.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    The class will consider various theoretical approaches to the TV Series Mad Men beginning with ideas gleaned from the discourse of visual literacy and proceed by applying textual analysis adapted from more traditional modes of literary studies and film analysis. A combination of critical and evaluative critiques will be examined, including book-length studies of the series and essays based on the series' appeal to style, American popular culture, advertising, gender roles, race, and 60s nostalgia. The recent phenomenon of the series recap will serve as a touchstone to the class's collective viewing of the first two seasons of the series.

    Prerequisites:

    Restricted to CAS Honor Students

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course will focus on the cultural phenomenon of the TV Series Mad Men, considered by many to be the foremost example of Quality TV produced during the so-called "golden age of television" and engage with it on visual, cultural, literary and filmic levels. The basic premise of the course is that the current practice of "binge watching" one's favorite shows should be a heightened experience rather than a guilty pleasure, one akin to reading a novel. Watching a complex and sophisticated TV narrative involves taking into account the viewer's positionality as a filmic consumer, textual critic and social commentator. The class will consider various theoretical approaches to television narrative, beginning with ideas gleaned from the discourse of visual literacy, and proceed by applying textual analysis adapted from the more traditional modes of literary studies and film analysis. A combination of critical and evaluative sources will be examined, including book-length studies of the series, individual essays based on the series' appeal to style, American popular culture, advertising, gender roles, race, and 60s nostalgia. Additionally, the recent phenomenon of the "series recap" will serve as the touchstone to the class's collective viewing of the series and students will be challenged to synthesize and assess these popular on-line critiques as they draft their own recaps and creative readings of the episodes. The entire first two seasons of Mad Men will be studied and the invaluable resource of director/producer commentaries will be incorporated into the study of the series with a view to acquiring critical insights and analytical skills that may be applied to other quality TV series that students currently enjoy watching.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI 102 or WRI H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    John Theibault, Director of the South Jersey Center for Digital Humanities, defines this burgeoning field as "an umbrella concept bringing together all of the different ways in which the computer, and especially the internet, have transformed humanities work. It includes using computer methods to mark and analyze analog humanities products, adapting the distinctive features of the World Wide Web for the production and presentation of humanities research, and bringing humanities methods to the evaluation of the entirely new genres of expression made possible by computers." Writing for Digital Media will focus on the latter two of these priorities: using digital tools for creative and communicative purposes, and understanding the rhetorical implications of writing in digital formats and spaces. Certainly, we can observe how traditional, analog forms of writing have been adapted for digital spaces in the proliferation of online magazines, newspapers, and literary journals, but digital technologies have also invented new genres of writing that English majors and other CAS students will find worthwhile to study alongside traditional fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry; genres such as blogs, wikis, GIFS, text visualizations, social media narratives, crowdsourced documents, Twitter essays, interactive maps and calendars, and many more. These new genres can satisfy creative urges to use intermedia, organize information into user-friendly presentations, such as infographics, websites, and public-access archives, and communicate information about a company, nonprofit organization, product, initiative, or event.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course seeks to answer the following questions. What is literature? Why do we study literature? What methods aid the study of literature? What are English Studies all about? This course extends reading and writing skills, and provides more specialized terms, knowledge, and approaches to prepare students for study at the junior and senior level. Topics vary from term to term.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An introduction to medieval literature, this course will focus on short readings from various genres, such as the lyric, chronicle, fable, with emphasis on the romance.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course provides a thorough review and analysis of the rules of standard English grammar and usage, including the debate between prescriptive and descriptive grammar, the origin and authority of the rules taught in school and in handbooks of English, and the insights of modern linguistics. Normally offered alternate years

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Ancient Greek and Roman myths, their motifs, themes and interpretations. Normally offered every third year.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    1.00

    Description:

    This course serves as the vehicle for training students who have been hired as writing tutors at CLAS. Students will be trained a one-on-one basis and will discuss a tutoring experience they have had in CLAS the previous week each class.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    1.00

    Description:

    This course is a continuation of ENG 320. This course serves as the vehicle for training students who have been hired as writing tutors at CLAS. Students will be trained a one-on-one basis and will discuss a tutoring experience they have had in CLAS the previous week each class.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Close reading and discussion of the Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde against the background of the late Middle Ages. Normally offered alternate years.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Shakespeare's background and development as a dramatist through an examination of selected comedies. Collateral reading of the minor plays and Shakespeare criticism. Normally offered every third semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Shakespeare's English and Roman history plays. Emphasis on Shakespeare's use of his sources and the plays in performance. Normally offered every third semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Shakespeare's major tragedies reflecting the range, resourcefulness, and power of his dramaturgy. Collateral reading in Shakespeare criticism. Normally offered every third semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Representative selections of seventeenth-century poetry and prose, including Behn, Burton, Donne Drayton, Dryden, Jonson, Milton, Pepys, Wroth, and others.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    The mind and spirit, poetics and poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats, along with selected prose.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course focuses on Gothic literature by women writers, from its origins in the 18th century to the present, focusing primarily on 20th century writers. The novels, short stories, and films we will discuss involve haunted houses, secret chambers, madness, and other Gothic tropes. Writers to be studied will include Charlotte Bronte, Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Jean Rhys, Angela Carter, and others.

    Prerequisites:

    Take WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Introduces Jane Austen's major novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, along with relevant current scholarship and contextualizing historical material. Contemporary parodies, updates, and film adaptations of Austen's work will also be considered. Topics to include the history of the novel, gender and authorship, and narrative theory.

    Prerequisites:

    Take WRI-102 or WRI-H103. Restricted to CAS Honors Students Only.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Introduces Jane Austen's major novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, along with relevant current scholarship and contextualizing historical material. Contemporary parodies, updates, and film adaptations of Austen's work will also be considered. Topics to include the history of the novel, gender and authorship, and narrative theory.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Explores American and African American literature in the context of cosmopolitan thought and revolutionary action. This course considers how writers balance their interest in building a national culture with their desire for global adventure and their concern for matters of race, gender, politics, and civil rights that transcend their time and place. Includes readings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as a contemporary American journalist's memoir about life in the Middle East.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    In-depth exploration of American Realism from the post-Civil War era to the pre-WWI era (roughly 1875 to 1915). Particular emphasis is given to the role of houses and material and consumer culture in the forging of American identity. Authors may include Howells, Twain, James and Wharton among others. Normally offered alternate years. Students will also visit authors' houses in the Boston area. This course requires prior approval in order to count towards the Women's and Gender Studies Minor. Students should consult with the instructor and the director of the WGS Minor no later than the first week of classes.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An investigation of the lives and works of two of nineteenth-century America's greatest and most original poets. Topics will include types of poetic language and formal structure, the work of the poetic imagination in transforming observations of the world into art, and the ways in which poets process the idea of death and the reality of war. Finally, this course examines Whitman and Dickinson's impact on American popular culture as well as on the writings of modern poets and literary critics.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    African-American writing from the beginning through the present. Normally offered alternate years.

    Prerequisites:

    Take WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study of 19th and 20th century writing on the American West by American women in the form of novels, memoirs, and short stories. Regularly assigned reading responses and essays on the readings as well as discussion questions and quizzes provide the basis for the study of the gendering of the "frontier" and literature of the West by American women authors.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    The course will cover major works of American fiction from the period between the end of the American war in Vietnam and the present. The course will emphasize fiction reflecting America's cultural diversity and current trends in fiction.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An introduction to selected Asian-American writers with an emphasis on socio-cultural issues, such as race, gender and ethnicity. Authors include Bulosan, Hwang, Jen, Kingston, Lee, Mukherjee, Odada, and Tan.

    Prerequisites:

    ENG-212

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An intensive workshop in which the student will be required to write original fiction. The focus of the course will be on the student's own work, submitted on a weekly basis. The course will also provide the student writer with practical experience in matters of plot, character, dialogue, structure, etc. Normally offered annually.

    Prerequisites:

    ENG-212

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    For students interested in writing autobiography and/or other forms of the personal essay. Topics can include childhood, place, sexuality, religion, work, the nature of memory. The focus will be on the writing process, with students presenting work-in-progress to the class for discussion and revision. The student should plan to read models of creative non-fiction. Normally offered annually.

    Prerequisites:

    ENG-212

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An intensive workshop course in which the student will be required to write original poetry for each class meeting. The focus of the course will be on the student's own work. We will examine the highly individual processes of composition and revision, and the methods writers use to keep their own practice of poetry alive and well. We will also examine as many of the constituent elements of poetry as possible, from image and rhythm to line and structure. Normally offered annually.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Students interested in the world of literary publishing will explore both traditional print and online publishing models, the importance of literary journals, and the best practices of literary citizenship, including how to write reviews, conduct author interviews, and promote the work of journals and presses through blogging and other social media. Students will learn from a variety of industry professionals, and work to produce original content that furthers the mission of Suffolk's two literary journals: Salamander, which is nationally distributed twice a year and edited professionally, and Venture, which is produced annually and edited by Suffolk students.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course studies 19th and 20th century women writers and questions the type of women who write, what they write about, and why they write. Themes we examine include domesticity, assimilation, and madness. Authors studied in the past have included Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Anzia Yezierska, Nella Larsen, and Sylvia Plath. Normally offered alternate years.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course follows the spirit of utopian experimentation as it travels through the linguistic patterns and imaginative conditions of brave new worlds in literature. We will consider how utopian thinking allows writers to take creative license with political systems, social relations, gender roles, and racial identities, and to blur dividing lines between nature, technology, and culture as well as between Earth and the cosmos. Our readings will balance such foundational texts as Plato's Republic and More's Utopia with revolutionary works from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries, and conjure utopian dreams as well as dystopian worlds gone wrong. Selected works of literary criticism and films will also be included.

    Prerequisites:

    Any ENG course except for WRI-101

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course studies the expressive and cognitive approaches to the writing process through personal journal writing, metaphor use and a review of grammar and stylistics. Written assignments emphasize discovery and invention as well as the revising of academic prose. Normally offered every other year.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    An Exploration of Post-colonial literature and how the "empire writes back" following the collapse of European colonialism. Special emphasis will be placed on the legacy of British Colonial rule and the contemporary use of literature and the English Language to both resist and problematize Eurocentric cultural assumptions. Authors studied will include E.M. Foster, Salman Rushdie, J.M. Coetzee, Anita Desai, Hanif Kureishi, and Zadie Smith, among others. Students will be introduced to Post-colonial critical theory and view film adaptations of literary texts.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course examines the rhetoric of memoirs written primarily by international figures who seek to use personal stories to shape readers' perspectives on political issues. After a brief introduction to rhetorical theory and to the genre of memoir, this course will examine contemporary memoirs that address such issues as racism, sexism, religious extremism, war, and genocide.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course studies a variety of workplace writing including summaries,memos, letters, directions, descriptions, reports and other technical and professional documents. Students may be required to complete certain assignments in collaborative teams. Document design and layout will also be emphasized. Normally offered alternate years

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Writers of the Irish Literary Revival, from the 1890s to the 1930s. Readings from Yeats, Joyce, Synge, O'Casey, and O'Flaherty. The influence of Anglo-Irish history on Irish writers.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A seminar on current approaches to the interpretation of literature, including psychoanalysis, deconstruction and feminist criticism. Students will experiment with making use of theory in analyzing selected literary texts.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103 with a minimum grade of B+

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A survey of writings in Modern Greek from 1821 to the present exploring Hellenism and the Greek cultural identity. Authors studied will include Kostis Palamas, Georgios Vizyinos, Alexandros Papadiamantis, Stratis Myrivilis, Photis Kontoglou, Dido Sotiriou, George Seferis, Constantine Cavafy, and Odysseas Elytis. A section of the syllabus will be reserved for the Greek-American/diaspora writers Helen Papanikolas, Elia Kazan, Jeffrey Eugenides, Olga Broumas, and Tryfon Tolides. Films and music traditions will be sampled as well.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This class will engage with the major novels and selected literary writings of two of the twentieth century's most important modernist voices, Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster. We will approach their writings within the intellectual framework of British modernism and the cultural context of the Bloomsbury Group out of which they emerged. Special attention will be paid to their theoretical writings on fiction as well as their respective contributions to feminism and queer theory. The class will also view cinematic adaptations of certain novels and discuss how these films have contributed to the enduring appeal and status of these texts as classics of twentieth-century fiction.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A survey of major works of literature and thought crucial to the transformation of pagan models of reason to Christian systems of belief, including works by Plato and Plotinus, St. Augustine and Dante. Of central concern is the changing conception of love, from Eros to Agape. Note: This course is cross-listed with HST 339.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    A course that fits Group 4 of the English major requirements with varying subject matter. A interdisciplinary offering that features the writing of three of the late 19th century's greatest minds: Henry, the novelist who wrote The Portrait of a Lady, Daisy Miller, and The Turn of the Screw; William, the philosopher and psychologist who wrote Principles of Psychology (1890) and Varieties of Religious Experience (1902); and Alice, their sister, who became a feminist icon through her remarkable diary. A selection of these works will be explored alongside a James family biography.

    Prerequisites:

    Any 200-level English course

    Credits:

    1.00

    Description:

    A study of these poems by the Roman poet with a focus on the issues of translation.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    1.00

    Description:

    This course will conduct close reading and discussion of selections from classical Greek and Roman texts, as well as from ancient Mesopotamian texts, highlighting passages that trace the descent to the underworld. Some of these readings include: the realm of the shades in Gilgamesh, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in Virgil, Homer's Odysseus and Achilles in Hades, the source of the River Styx in Pausanias.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course will examine some of the fiction, non-fiction, and poetry produced in response to the Vietnam War and the most recent war in Iraq. In addition to comparing the literature that has emerged from these two very different wars, these texts will also be examined in relation to peace studies, a field in which there is an emerging consensus that literature and the arts must play a central role in examining questions of war and peace.

    Prerequisites:

    Any 200 level ENG course.

    Credits:

    1.00

    Description:

    A close reading of verse passages from various texts of narrative and lyric poetry. In particular the Roman absorption of, and resistance to, their Greek literary inheritance will be stressed.

    Prerequisites:

    Any 200-level English course

    Credits:

    1.00

    Description:

    This course represents a journey through the poetry of Horace, contemporary of Virgil and celebrated poet of the Pax Romana. Discussions will be led by David Ferry, whose beautiful translation of Horace's poetry the class will use as text.

    Prerequisites:

    Take ENG-212

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Salamander is a nationally known professional literary journal published from the Suffolk University English Department. In the Salamander Practicum course, students serve as first evaluators of submissions to the magazine, including poetry, fiction, and memoir. They will compare and discuss their evaluations and make recommendations to the editorial board and assist with magazine production, marketing, and event planning. Students will study and write literary analyses of works included in Salamander and in other professional literary journals, such as Ploughshares, Agni, One Story, and the Harvard Review.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course offers an introduction to the Golden Age of Roman culture and power. Close readings of selections from major historians, poets, political thinkers, and philosophers will be examined in the context of Augustan Rome. Topics such as pietas, virtus, and gravitas, as well as the competing claims of public duty and private devotion, stoic maxim and erotic love lyric, will be discussed from the perspectives of writers such as Virgil, Livy, Tacitus, Horace, Catullus, and Lucretius. Note: This course is cross-listed with HST 304. Normally offered in alternate years.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    1.00- 4.00

    Description:

    By special arrangement, a junior or senior may pursue an independent research project under the supervision of a faculty member. Consent of instructor and chairperson required. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103; Honors students only

    Credits:

    1.00- 4.00

    Description:

    By special arrangement, a junior or senior may pursue an independent research project under the supervision of a faculty member. Consent of instructor and chairperson required. Offered every semester.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    1.00- 4.00

    Description:

    Individualized guidance in a career-related activity. Upper-class English majors may gain academic credit for work preparing them for an English-related career, provided that the work is monitored by a member of the English faculty. Department approval is required.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-102 or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    1.00

    Description:

    A semester-long internship working with the Editor and Managing Editor of Salamander Literary Magazine. Students will gain experience in editing, layout, and production of one of two annual editions of Salamander.

    Prerequisites:

    ENG 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, or ENG 218; Invitation only

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Honors seminar that fulfills Group I of the English major.

    Prerequisites:

    Restricted to CAS Honors students or other English majors with a GPA of 3.5 or above in English courses admitted by application to the department by the end of their junior year.

    Credits:

    1.00- 3.00

    Description:

    Independent reading, research, and writing under the supervision of a full-time English faculty member. Restricted to CAS Honors students or other English majors with a GPA of 3.5 or above in English courses admitted by application to the department by the end of their junior year. Normally taken for 1 credit in the Fall and 3 credits in the Spring of senior year.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course affords students extended practice with persuasive and expository writing in the essay form through frequent writing assignments based on critical readings of class texts and discussions. Students will also compose a research paper and study the process of writing and revising for an academic audience. No standard pre-requisites; offered every semester. Students who are placed into WRI-100 must complete the course with a C in order to continue on to WRI-101.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course affords students extended practice with persuasive and expository writing in the essay form through frequent writing assignments based on critical readings of class texts and discussions. Students will also compose a research paper and study the process of writing and revising for an academic audience. No standard pre-requisites; offered every semester. WRI-100+ sections require students to meet with their instructors once per week for a thirty-minute, one-to-one tutorial session, to be scheduled by the instructor with each individual student.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study and practice of the writing process and revision in terms of expository writing modes for an academic audience.

    Credits:

    0.00

    Description:

    A non credit course for students enrolled in Freshman Composition who need to improve their control of the writing process, English mechanics, and fluency of expression. WRI L101 is a hybrid course that combines online grammar and writing practice with face-to-face support from English instructors.

    Prerequisites:

    WRI-101 or ENG-099 with at least a B and ENG-P099 with a P or WRI-H103

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    Study and practice of argumentative and research writing through further work with writing process and revision and the critical reading of a variety of texts.

    Prerequisites:

    By Invitation Only.

    Credits:

    4.00

    Description:

    This course is by invitation only and reserved for incoming Suffolk students with high admission scores. Advanced study and practice of writing process, revision, and research, based on close readings of a variety of texts. Fall semester only.