English
Division of Humanities
- Kathryn Moncrief, Chair
- Amy Campion
- Peter Campion
- Thomas Cousineau
- Richard De Prospo
- Barbara Gillin
- Richard Gillin
- Sandra Hiortdahl
- Alisha Knight
- Meredith Davies Hadaway
- John Lang
- Robert Mooney
- Corey Olsen
- James Peterson
- Joshua Wolf Shenk
- Katherine Wagner
The major in English is the study of the arts of literature. Although the emphasis is on the critical analysis of great works, a general knowledge of the historical development of English and American literature will be expected of the English major by the end of the senior year.
A student wishing to major in English must complete ten courses in the English Department within the following requirements:
- A two-course, year-long sequence of ENG 101, ENG 102 Forms of Literature, a sequence of ENG 207 and ENG 208, a sequence of ENG 294 and ENG 295, or any sequence or combination of courses from ENG 209 to 214
- Upper level courses at the 300 and 400 levels, and including ENG 205 and ENG 206 Shakespeare, from the following:
- Two courses in English before 1800
- One course in English literature between 1800 and 1900
- One course in English literature between 1900 and present
- Two courses in American literature
- Two electives
Senior Capstone Experience
The Senior Capstone Experiencein English is an opportunity for English majors to bring their interpretive abilities, their writing skills, and their understanding of the literary tradition to bear on a long-term, independent project in the form of a thesis or a Comprehensive Examination that will serve as the culmination of their literary studies at Washington College. The Senior Capstone Experiencefor English majors exemplifies each student's accumulated knowledge and mastery of literary analysis.
All seniors majoring in English may choose between two options as a means of fulfilling the Senior Obligation: writing a thesis or taking a comprehensive examination. Students should formulate their plans beginning in the junior year for writing a thesis if they choose this route over the Comprehensive Examination.
Critical Thesis
A student who chooses to write a thesis can use an essay written in a particular course as the foundation for further development into a thesis. The thesis should demonstrate the students' ability to interpret literary texts and support this interpretation with secondary critical sources.
During the period of formulation a student should work in close contact with a member of the English Department. The English Department advises each student to begin consulting with this department faculty member during their junior year.
The student should contact a member of the English Department and ask that person if they would be willing to serve as their thesis advisor. The thesis advisor must approve the proposal before it is submitted it to the Department for final approval. The department member selected should represent the field or literary period in which the student will be working. Each member of the English faculty has a limit of six Senior Capstone Experiencestudents to advise, thus students who elect to pursue a thesis may not have their choice of advisors.
After the student and advisor have agreed on a basic plan, a written proposal needs to be sent to the English Department. The proposal should indicate the nature of inquiry and clearly articulate a thesis statement and a description of the scope and range of the projected thesis. Explanation of what problem or problems will be investigated, and what strategies will be used should be clearly stated. A Bibliography of sources likely to be used in the student's research must be included. It is vital that a good working knowledge of the topic proposed be evident. Careful editing of your proposal for factual errors as well as grammatical ones is essential. Send your proposal electronically to the department chair, who will bring it to the entire department for its approval.Research should begin as soon as you receive confirmation of the proposal.
Guidelines for Thesis Proposals
The proposal needs to be about two pages long (and may be longer). It should be a narrative and should be very readable. No spelling or grammatical mistakes. The more specific you can be about your project (and your argument), the more likely it is to be approved without problems.
It should detail the project carefully. Specifically included are the following elements:
- What do you plan to do? (What your argument will be)
- What have you already done? (Have you taken a course in the area you plan to research? Are you expanding upon a paper from a class?)
- What critical or theoretical problems do you plan to treat, and what questions you will ask?
- Include a chapter outline with some brief details about what you will cover in each chapter. For example, include: introduction to the problem, chapters (this number will vary), and conclusion.
- Bibliography. Include the books and articles you are likely to use. You Bibliography should show some familiarity with the field you will be working in.
- A writing sample, a sample chapter if you have one, or an essay you submitted for a course and on which you intend to develop your thesis.
In the junior year, the deadline for a thesis proposal is April 7, 2008.
Thesis Completion
The thesis itself should be at least 50 pages. Theses are to be turned in electronically. The digitized theses will be made available to the college community via the library catalog.
Each thesis will be read by two members of the English Department. If it appears that the thesis deserves honors or a failure all members of the department will read the work. Works will be evaluated as receiving honors, pass or fail.
In the senior year, the deadline for completed theses is April 17, 2008.
As a reminder, the thesis option for fulfilling the Senior Capstone Experience is seen by the English department as a privilege. Students must begin their writing projects in their junior year. Following departmental approval students should begin researching their topic by surveying the critical literature related to their chosen subject. Work through the summer is expected. In early fall chapters should be ready for deadlines established by each advisor. In the last semester of a student's undergraduate career he or she should register for ENG SCE for academic credit.
Senior Comprehensive Examination
For the Senior Comprehensive Examination a student will be responsible to take a three part examination: part one treats five authors from three centuries, part two asks for an analysis of a poem, and part three requires knowledge of a particular literary period. In the last semester of a student's undergraduate career he or she should register for ENG SCE for academic credit and plan to take the Comprehensive Exams at the end of the semester.
The preparatory work for the Senior Comprehensive Examination is guided by a faculty member selected by the student. The faculty member's qualifications with regard to a particular literary period should be the basis of the student's selection. The student should contact a member of the English Department and ask that person if they would be willing to serve as the comprehensive exam advisor. During the last semester of a student's undergraduate career the student will meet regularly with the comprehensive advisor. Active inquiry and integration of acquired knowledge and skills will be at the heart of the preparatory tutorial sessions.
Students are required to develop an annotated bibliography related to the period they have selected, and to show familiarity with the critical literature related to that period. A selected reading list of works taught by members of the department and deemed to be essential reading, as well as a selected list of suggested critical works, will be given to each student in preparation for the General Portion of the Comprehensive Examination. Students are encouraged to use the reading list as a way of bringing focus to their preparation. Successful completion of the Senior Comprehensive Examination serves notice to the College community that a particular student has been recognized by the members of the English Department as having acquired depth and range in English and American literary studies.
Each member of the English faculty may limit his or her Senior Capstone Experienceadvisees to six per year; therefore, a student should have alternative periods in mind since it is possible that a first choice might not be possible.
Each Senior Comprehensive Examination will be read by two members of the English Department. If it appears that the exam deserves honors or a failure, all members of the department will read it. Each part of the Senior Comprehensive Examination will be evaluated as receiving either honors, pass, or fail.
The Minor
Five courses at the 300-400 level are required for a minor in English.
Creative Writing Minor
The minor in Creative Writing can be achieved through the successful completion of five courses—one of the two designated 100 or 200 level courses (Freshman Creative Writing (ENG 103) or Intermediate Creative Writing (ENG 204) and then any combination of the following courses: English 411, 412, 413, 451, 451, or 415 Living Writers.
Students wishing to complete an extended project in creative writing may participate in the individual writing project seminar. Participants must be in their senior year, and they must have completed at least two advanced workshops.
For credit in English towards distribution, the Department stipulates a year sequence in one of the following: Forms of Literature (101, 102) or History of English Literature (207, 208) or Introduction to American Literature (209, 210) or Introduction to American Culture (211, 212) or Introduction to African American Literature (213, 214) or Shakespeare (205, 206). Cross combinations among 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, and 214 are permissible. In other words, courses from 209 to 214 can be combined for distribution credit.
Course Descriptions
101, 102. Forms of Literature and Composition
A study of prose fiction, poetry, and drama, this course is intended to develop the student's capacity for intelligent reading and critical judgment. It also covers the fundamentals of composition. There are frequent writing assignments that are associated with the study of literature, as well as individual conferences on the student's writing.
103. Freshman Creative Writing
A workshop on the forms of creative writing—poetry, fiction, and drama as practiced by the students themselves. Readings in contemporary literature. Freshmen only.
204. Intermediate Creative Writing
This course is designed for students interested in pursuing a minor in creative writing, or who want to investigate an interest in doing so. This workshop will offer guidance in honing craft in poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, and may be considered a helpful continuation of the Freshman Creative Writing course for those who feel they would benefit from more work on fundamentals and additional workshop experience before going on to the Advanced Workshops. Registration for this course would be monitored to implement a pecking order: first eligible would be those students who have declared a CW minor but have not taken—nor, because they are sophomores and juniors, cannot take—Freshman Creative Writing.
205, 206. Shakespeare
Reading and analysis of Shakespeare's best known plays (comedy, tragedy, history, and romance) both in the context of early modern English culture and as play scripts/performances.
207, 208. History of English Literature
A survey of the development of English literature from Anglo-Saxon times to the present with attention to the historical background, the continuity of essential traditions, and the characteristic temper of successive periods. The second semester begins approximately with the Restoration in 1660.
209, 210. Introduction to American Literature
A survey of principal American writers from colonial times through World War II.
211 (AMS 201) Introduction to American Culture I
Taught in the fall semester, the course is concerned with the establishment of American Literature as a school subject. Texts that have achieved the status of "classics" of American Literature, such as Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Thoreau's Walden, and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, will be read in the context of the history and politics of their achieving this status. Texts traditionally excluded from the canon of American literature, in particular early Hispano- and Franco-American texts, will be considered in the context of their relative marginality to the project of establishing American Literature as worthy of being taught and studied in the American academy. Other-than-written materials, such as modern cinematic representations of the period of exploration and colonization of North America, as well as British colonial portraits and history paintings, will be studied for how they reflect on claims for the cultural independence of early America. Other-than-American materials, such as late medieval and early Renaissance Flemish and Hispanic still lifes, as well as the works of nineteenth-century European romantic poets and prose writers, will be sampled for how they reflect on claims for the exceptional character of American culture.
212 (AMS 202). Introduction to American Culture II
Taught in the spring semester and having as its prerequisite ENG 211 (AMS 201), the course is concerned with the establishment of American Studies as a curriculum in post-World War II American colleges and universities. Readings will include a variety of written texts, including those not traditionally considered "literary," as well as a variety of other-than-written materials, including popular cultural ones, in accordance with the original commitment of American Studies to curricular innovation. Introductions to the modern phenomena of race, gender, sexual orientation, and generation in U.S. culture will be included. A comparatist perspective on the influence of American culture internationally and a review of the international American Studies movement in foreign universities will also be introduced.
213. Introduction to African American Literature I
This course is a survey of African American literature produced from the late 1700s to the Harlem Renaissance. It is designed to introduce students to the writers, texts, themes, conventions and tropes that have shaped the African American literary tradition. Authors studied in this course include Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, William Wells Brown, Frances E. W. Harper, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nella Larsen and Langston Hughes. There are no prerequisites for this course; however, students are encouraged to take HIS 319 "African American History to 1865" as a co-requisite.
214. Introduction to African American Literature II
This course surveys African American authors from the Harlem Renaissance to the present. It is designed to expose students to the writers, texts, themes, and literary conventions that have shaped the African American literary canon since the Harlem Renaissance. Authors studied in this course include Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. There are no prerequisites for this course; however, students are encouraged to take HIS 320 "African American History from 1865" as a co-requisite.
215. Foundations of Western Literature I
No work has had a more profound impact on Western thought than the Bible. Familiarity with the Biblical texts is necessary for an informed understanding of almost any aspect of Western art and culture, from medieval love poetry to modern political debates. This course is designed to introduce students to the stories, doctrines, and themes of the Bible upon which most of English and American literature presumes.
216. Foundations of Western Literature II
This course will begin with an investigation of Greco-Roman mythology, and will then proceed to a study of some of the major works of Greek and Roman literature that paved the way for all subsequent Western literature. Readings will include Ovid's Metamorphoses, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus.
301. Medieval Literature
In this course, we will explore some of the texts and ideas that dominated the cultural landscape of Europe for centuries. We will consider many of the themes and topics that occupied the imagination of medieval writers, such as courtly love, the ways of Fortune, allegory, and authorship itself. We will sample many of the great authors of the Middle Ages, including Augustine, Boethius, Dante, and Chaucer. Most importantly, we will seek to come to a clearer understanding of how medieval readers looked at the world and how medieval writers expected their texts to be read.
302. The Renaissance
The literature and culture of the Tudor period focusing on the age of Elizabeth. Poetry, prose and drama including Kyd, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Sidney, Spencer, More, and Whitney.
303. The Seventeenth Century
A study of the literature and culture of the Jacobean period through the Restoration. Poetry, prose and drama including Shakespeare, Jonson, Webster, Middleton, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Lanyer, Cavendish, Philips, and Milton.
304. The Eighteenth Century
The triumph and decline of the neoclassic ideal in the eighteenth century. The course concentrates on the great figures of Swift, Pope, Johnson, and Boswell.
305. Romanticism
The movement from the late eighteenth century to 1832 considered as a revolution in the aims and methods of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.
306. The Victorian Age
Major poets, novelists, and essayists including Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Rossetti, Carlyle, Newman, Mill, Pater, Bronte, and Gaskill will be studied in conjunction with the culture of the age of Victoria.
ENG 307: Modernist Fiction I
A study of the major novels of such early modernist writers as Henry James, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, and Virginia Woolf.
ENG 308: Modernist Fiction II
A study of the major novels of such late modernist writers as Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, Samuel Beckett, Jorge Borges, Italo Calvino, Marguerite Duras, and Thomas Bernhard.
309. Modernist Poetry
A study of the major poetic innovators of the modernist period, including W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, and Mina Loy.
310. Poe and the Literature of the British Colonies of North America and of the Early United States
The course will concentrate on the writings of Poe as exemplifying the literature of the British Colonies of North America and of the early United States. Other readings will be chosen from among the writings of Bradford, Bradstreet, Taylor, Edwards, Franklin, Crevecoeur, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Brockden Brown, and Irving.
311. Literary Romanticism in the United States
Readings will be chosen from among the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman.
312. James and Post-Romantic Literature in the United States
The course will concentrate on the writings of Henry James as exemplifying the post-romantic reaction against romanticism. Other readings will be chosen from among the writings of Dickinson, Mark Twain, DeForest, Howells, Douglass, Dreiser, Crane, and Chopin.
313. Faulkner and Modernism in the United States
The course will concentrate on the novels of Faulkner as exemplifying modernism. Other readings will be chosen from among the writings of Eliot, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Anderson, Barnes, Porter, Cummings, and Cather.
314. American Poetry Since 1945
A survey of the major American poets who have written and published their work in the post-World War II era. Lowell, Wilbur, Stafford, Brooks, and Hecht are examples.
315. American Fiction Since 1945
A survey of major American fiction writers who have written and published their work in the post-World War II era. Salinger, Mailer, Updike, Cheever, and O'Connor are examples.
316. American Short Story
Irving, Hawthorne, Poe, Twain, Crane, James, Hemingway, Porter, and Salinger are among the writers this course will consider. The study will be chronological and historical, placing emphasis upon the development of the genre.
317. Women's Literature
A study of women writers with an emphasis on nineteenth- and twentieth-century works. Essays, fiction, poetry, and drama.
318. Native American Literature
This course will be a consideration of contemporary Native American prose and poetry. Most of the readings will focus on twentieth-century works and their sources in Native American and European American cultural and literary traditions. Students will consider how complicated the process of defining Native American literature can be; how works by native people relate to or depart from other ethnic American literatures; how indigenous speakers/writers respond to and resist colonialism; and how Native American perspectives and narratives continue today. Emphasis will be placed on the use of Native American myths and images of the natural world in the texts.
319. African American Novel
This course examines the novel as written by African Americans. We will begin with the earliest novels and conclude with an analysis of contemporary novels by African American writers. We will look at historical novels, mystery novels, epistolary novels, and we will address the relationship between politics and the novel. Particular attention will be given to the recent phenomenon of the popular African American novel. Writers include William Wells Brown, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, James Weldon Johnson, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison.
324. Experimental Fiction
A study of the major innovations in prose fiction since James Joyce's Ulysses.
326. Living Writers
This course focuses on the study of American poetry and American fiction from 1945 to the present. (The course focuses on poetry one year, novels and short fiction the next, and proceeds in tandem.) Emphasis includes an examination of the work of major American poets or fiction writers of the past half-century. The course is structured in a way similar to a traditional offering in literature with this difference: some of the writers whose work is studied in class will at some time during the semester come to Washington College to visit the class, discuss their work with course participants, and give a public reading.
327. The Harlem Renaissance
This course examines the literature and intellectual thought of the Harlem Renaissance (roughly 1922-1933). It is designed to move beyond a cursory treatment of the movement and offer students the opportunity to study key figures and texts at length. Authors studied in this course include Alain Locke, W. E. B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, Jessie Fauset, Claude McKay, Nella Larsen and Langston Hughes. Prerequisite: Any combination of two 100 or 200-level English courses, or the permission of the instructor.
328. Children's and Adolescent Literature
Various genres will be treated with regard to historical, social, cultural, and contemporary perspectives. Readings for the course will be drawn from the folk tale, fairy tale, poetry, myth, fiction, and picture books. The art and practice of storytelling will be treated, and students are expected to work up a performance. Prerequisite: Any two English courses on the 200 level.
329. The American Novel
This course is a survey of 19th and 20th century novels written by Americans. Writers include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger, Toni Morrison, and Tom Wolfe.
330. The Irish Short Story
The modern short story is part of an international tradition. The form is a relative newcomer to literature, and for various reasons that we will investigate, the Irish have taken to it with particular verve. Through lecture-discussions and response paper and essay assignments, the course teaches techniques for interpreting stories from the abundantly rich Irish imagination evident in its mythology and folklore to the modern agora of the written page. Writers include Maria Edgeworth, Elizabeth Bowen, Liam O'Flaherty, Frank O'Connor, Sean O'Faolain, Edna O'Brien, and William Trevor.
331. 19th Century English Novel
Major writers such as Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy will be studied. Attention will be given to the cultural and literary context of the novels.
332. Literary Romanticism II
351. (DRA 351) Playwriting I
Analysis and practical application of techniques and styles employed in writing for the stage.
400. Chaucer
A reading of The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, The Book of the Duchess, and lyric poems.
402. Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
The study of the development of the English drama before the closing of the theaters. A cultural approach with emphasis on Kyd, Marlowe, Dekker, Heywood, Jonson, Middleton, Webster, Beaumont, Fletcher, and Ford.
403. Milton
This course focuses on Milton's poetry, especially his epic poem Paradise Lost, with some attention to his minor poems and prose. Emphasis includes study of the following: the formal elements of his poetry; the importance of his poetry in literary history; Milton's biography, especially his experience of blindness and revolutionary defeat; Milton's writing in relationship to his culture (regicide and revolution, the turmoil of the seventeenth-century Puritan experiment, the commonwealth government, and restoration of the monarchy.)
404. Joyce, Eliot, and Beckett
An intensive study of James Joyce's Dubliners, T.S. Eliot's major poems, and Samuel Beckett's major plays.
411. Advanced Creative Writing Workshop: Fiction
Prerequisite: Freshman Creative Writing, Intermediate Creative Writing. Primarily intended for juniors and seniors.
412. Advanced Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry
Prerequisite: Freshman Creative Writing, Intermediate Creative Writing. Primarily intended for juniors and seniors.
413. Creative Nonfiction (Writing Workshop)
This course will use a workshop approach for students who are interested in developing their skills in a kind of writing which combines elements of journalism, such as the feature article, with elements of the literary, such as the personal essay. In addition, students will also develop their essay skills in the form of the personal narrative and travel writing. In essence this course treats the various forms of the essay with a special emphasis on the creative ways the genre can be interpreted and rewritten. Readings of representative essays will be included. Prerequisite: Freshman Creative Writing, Intermediate Creative Writing. Primarily intended for juniors and seniors.
450. (DRA 351) Playwriting I
Analysis and practical application of techniques and styles employed in writing for the stage. Prerequisite: Freshman Creative Writing, Intermediate Creative Writing
451 (DRA 451). Playwriting II
Advanced workshop in writing for the stage. Prerequisite: English 450.
190, 290, 390, 490. Internship
Internships in the English Department serve to give focus to a student's prospective employment in the world beyond Washington College, and they aim to integrate and develop the writing, thinking, and communicative skills acquired in the course of completing an English Major. The specific conditions related to each internship will be developed among the faculty advisor, the representative of the institution offering the internship, and the student. This course may be taken only once for academic credit.
194, 294, 394, 494. Special Topics
The intensive study of a selected figure, movement, form, or theme.
195, 295, 395, 495. On-campus Research
196, 296, 396, 496. Off-campus Research
197, 297, 397, 497. Independent Study
SCE. Senior Capstone Experience
Courses Offered in the Washington College Abroad Programs
320. Literature of London
London through the literature of Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, George Orwell, and contemporary writers; developments in literary movements (Romanticism, Realism, Modernism). Offered in the London program only, both fall and spring semesters. Three credits.
321. Studies in the Drama
Special topics in author or authors, a type or types of drama, a period, or theme. Emphasis is on the development, function, and continuing development of the theater in London. Variable content: may be repeated for credit. Offered in the London program only, both fall and spring semesters. Three credits.
322. English in Africa: West African Literature
This course offers, through the study of selected texts, an introduction to the modern literatures in English of sub-Saharan Africa, the theorization of colonial and postcolonial discourse, the politics of language, the question of African identity, and the relationship between art and social praxis. Offered at Rhodes University, South Africa.
323. English in Africa: East and Southern African Literature
(See course description above.) Offered at Rhodes University, South Africa.
355. Literature and Landscape
This course is attached to the Kiplin Hall Summer Program. Literature connected to specific landscapes in Yorkshire and the Lakes will be studied in conjunction with first hand experience of those landscapes by foot.