English
Division of Humanities and Fine Arts
In the Washington College English department, you can do everything and anything with words: critical and creative writing; journalism, editing & publishing; analysis of literature and media, both old and new; how to read a book and how to make one. You will learn from celebrated visiting writers and scholars who join your classes or read at the Rose O’Neill Literary House. You will engage in a variety of experiential learning opportunities, from class trips to study abroad to internships in communications, editing, journalism, publishing, and other fields. You will be guided by a faculty mentor and develop independent research for your Senior Capstone Experience. As a critic, editor, essayist, journalist, poet, and storyteller you will become knowledgeable and skilled in analysis, creativity, inquiry, and persuasion.
From classes in literature and creative writing to the welcoming environment of the Rose O’Neill Literary House, writers and students of literature alike will find Washington College home to a vibrant literary community. Each year, thanks to the Sophie Kerr Endowment and its programs, the College brings to campus a succession of distinguished writers, editors, and literary scholars. Billy Collins, Junot Díaz, Nick Flynn, Jonathan Franzen, Neil Gaiman, Lauren Groff, Ted Kooser, Li-Young Lee, Colum McCann, Azar Nafisi, Maggie Nelson, Joyce Carol Oates, Claudia Rankine, Jane Smiley, Natasha Trethewey, Colson Whitehead, and Jacqueline Woodson are just some of the writers and literary scholars who have come to campus in the last decade to teach, lecture, and conduct writing workshops.
To read, to think, to write, to communicate: these habits of interpretation and expression are fundamental to a liberal arts education, to the mission of Washington College, and to the study of English. The mission of the English Department is to develop students who can read the variety of literature in English broadly, think through ideas critically, analyze texts closely, gather and communicate information effectively, and write clearly, creatively, and articulately.
Distribution Credit in English
Students who wish to fulfill the Humanities Distribution Requirement with one Humanities course may do so by taking any 100 or 200 level courses in English except ENG 103 Introduction to Creative Writing, which does not fulfill the Humanities Distribution Requirement.
Students who choose to take two courses in English to fulfill the Humanities distribution requirement are not required to take a sequence. They may take any two ENG courses from the same grouping (ENG 101 Literature and Composition and all 200-level ENG courses).
Courtney Rydel, Chair
Elizabeth O’Connor, Associate Chair
Sufiya Abdur-Rahman
Katherine Charles
Richard DeProspo
James Allen Hall
Roy Kesey
Sean Meehan
ENG SCE Senior Capstone Experience 2 Credits
The Senior Capstone Experience (SCE) in English isan opportunity for English majors to bring theirresearch and interpretive abilities, their writingskills, and their understanding of the literarytradition to bear on a long-term, independentproject in the form of an essay and annotatedbibliography that serves as the culmination oftheir literary studies at Washington College. TheSCE for English majors exemplifies each student'saccumulated knowledge and mastery of literaryanalysis, developed under the mentorship of adepartmental professor who challenges and guidesyou through the process. SCE preparation begins inJunior Seminar, where you develop the necessaryskills for choosing a topic, articulating yourideas in an abstract, exploring the field in aproposal, summarizing researching through anannotated bibliography, and writing a 25-30 pageessay. Upon completion of your SCE, you presentyour research and ideas in the English ThesisLightning Talks.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 101 Literature and Composition 4 Credits
This course is intended to develop the student'scapacity for intelligent reading, criticalanalysis, and writing through the study ofliterature. There are frequent writingassignments, as well as individual conferences onthe student's writing.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 103 Introduction to Creative Writing 4 Credits
A workshop introducing new writers to severalforms of creative writing, including poetry,fiction, and nonfiction. Students use classic andcontemporary literature as models for their ownefforts. Counts for Creative Writing minor,Journalism, Editing & Publishing minor, W2requirement.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 190 English Internship 4 Credits
A learning contract is developed prior toenrollment in an internship. Evaluation of studentperformance is completed by the faculty mentorbased on the fulfillment of the contract terms andwritten evaluation by the internship sitesupervisor. Students must work at least 45 hoursfor each internship credit and be enrolled in thecourse prior to beginning work. Graded A-F orPass/Fail.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 194 Special Topics 4 Credits
Topics not regularly offered in a department'snormal course offerings, chosen based on currentstudent interest and faculty expertise. Specialtopic courses can only be offered 3 times; afterthis, the course must be approved as a regularcourse. Graded A-F or Pass/Fail.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 201 The Art of Rhetoric 4 Credits
Students study and develop the rhetoricalknowledge readers and writers use to generatepersuasive critical analysis and compellingexpository prose in any discipline or field ofinquiry. Topics chosen by the instructor (forexample: the rhetoric of documentary, the rhetoricof science, the rhetoric of identity) explore theways writers, artists, and thinkers use rhetoricto communicate in a range of circumstances andtexts, both print and multimedia, literary andmultidisciplinary. Guided by readings in classicalelements of rhetorical study (the 5 canons ofrhetoric, rhetorical tropes and figures) studentsdevelop knowledge of writing process andeffective style; attention is also given tothe oratorical delivery of composition in the formof speech and/or multimedia presentation. Theguiding principle of the course is emulative:while students read and critique various models ofrhetorical knowledge evident in the course texts,they also apply that knowledge to the textsthey generate as writers.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 205 Shakespeare I 4 Credits
This course examines some of Shakespeare's bestknown earlier plays (those written before thedeath of Queen Elizabeth in 1603) both in thecontext of early modern English culture and asplay scripts/performances. Using films and liveproductions it considers the plays as they havebeen and could be interpreted for performance.This class examines a number of these excitingworks through a variety of lenses from gender toperformance history.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ENG 206 Shakespeare II 4 Credits
This course examines some of Shakespeare's bestknown later plays (those written after the deathof Queen Elizabeth in 1603) both in the context ofearly modern English culture and as playscripts/performances. Shakespeare's later playsare complicated portraits of people and societiesgoing through incredible change. This classexamines a number of these exciting works througha variety of lenses from gender to performancehistory.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 207 British Literature & Culture I 4 Credits
This course offers a survey of literature writtenin English between 700 and 1688, a timeframe thatspans the evolution of Old, Middle, and EarlyModern Englishes. Our reading focuses on majortexts and authors, ranging from Caedmon andChaucer to Margery Kempe and Shakespeare, andanalyzes them in the context of their historicalmoment and aesthetic movements. Counts forHumanities distribution and the Medieval and EarlyModern Studies Minor.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ENG 208 British Literature & Culture II 4 Credits
This course offers a survey of literature writtenin English between 1688 and 1892, a timeframe thatspans what scholars have retrospectivelyidentified as four periods of literary activity:the Restoration, the Eighteenth Century,Romanticism, and the Victorian age. Our readingfocuses on major texts and authors, and analyzesthem in the context of their historical moment andaesthetic movements. In particular, we focuson the role that literature played in bothrepresenting and influencing the periods' barrageof social changes. For it is during this time thattechnology first made print cheaply reproducible,and the subsequent increase in literacy ratesproduced a new mass audience eager to consumenewspapers, magazines, and the new prose genre ofthe novel.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 209 Introduction to American Culture I 4 Credits
Taught in the fall semester, the course isconcerned with the establishment of AmericanLiterature as a school subject. Texts that haveachieved the status of classics of AmericanLiterature, such as Hawthorne's The ScarletLetter, Thoreau's Walden, and Mark Twain's TheAdventures of Huckleberry Finn, are read inthe context of the history and politics of theirachieving this status. Texts traditionallyexcluded from the canon of American literature, inparticular early Hispano- and Franco-Americantexts, are considered in the context of theirrelative marginality to the project ofestablishing American Literature as worthy ofbeing taught and studied in the American academy.Other-than-written materials, such as moderncinematic representations of the period ofexploration and colonization of North America, aswell as British colonial portraits and historypaintings, are studied for how they reflect onclaims for the cultural independence of earlyAmerica. Other-than-American materials, such aslate medieval and early Renaissance Flemish andHispanic still lifes, as well as the works ofnineteenth-century European romantic poets andprose writers, are sampled for how theyreflect on claims for the exceptional character ofAmerican culture. Counts for the American Studiesmajor and Humanities distribution.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ENG 210 Introduction to American Culture II 4 Credits
Taught in the spring semester, the course isconcerned with the establishment of AmericanStudies as a curriculum in post-World War IIAmerican colleges and universities. Readingsinclude a variety of written texts, includingthose not traditionally considered literary, aswell as a variety of other-than-writtenmaterials, including popular cultural ones, inaccordance with the original commitment ofAmerican Studies to curricular innovation. Introductions to the modern phenomena of race,gender, sexual orientation, generation, and classin the U.S. culture are included. Acomparatist perspective on the influence ofAmerican culture internationally and a review ofthe international American Studies movement inforeign universities is also introduced.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 213 African Am Literature & Culture I 4 Credits
This course is a survey of African Americanliterature produced from the late 1700s to thepresent. It is designed to introduce students tothe key writers, texts, themes, conventions, andtropes that have shaped the African Americanliterary tradition. Authors studied may includeFrederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, RalphEllison, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison andWalter Mosley. Counts for American Studies major,Black Studies minor, Communication and MediaStudies major, and Humanities distribution.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ENG 214 African Am Lit & Culture II 4 Credits
This course surveys African American authors fromthe Harlem Renaissance to the present. It isdesigned to expose students to the writers, texts,themes, and literary conventions that have shapedthe African American literary canon since theHarlem Renaissance. Authors studied in this courseinclude Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, RalphEllison, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, and ToniMorrison. Counts for American Studies major,Black Studies minor, Communication and MediaStudies major, and Humanities distribution.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 215 Bible as Literature 4 Credits
In this course, we read and analyze the Bibleas literature, with some attention to later artinfluenced by the Bible. We consider theHebrew and Christian Scriptures (also known as theOld and New Testaments) within their historicalcontext and survey the range of genres found inthe Biblical canon: the Pentateuch, historicalbooks, wisdom and poetic literature, propheticbooks, gospels, Pauline letters and apocalypse. Through this course, students become familiar withthe most influential images, stories, andcharacters from the Bible. No prior knowledge ofthe Bible is required.
Term(s) Offered: Other, All Years
ENG 216 Greek & Roman Mythology 4 Credits
This course explores the rich literary andcultural heritage of Greek and Roman mythology,exploring the stories that have inspiredeverything from the Percy Jackson series to DC'sWonder Woman, Disney's Hercules to Netflix's Bloodof Zeus, and more. We explore classical mythologyin several major literary genres, including drama,epic, and poetry, spending much of our time onOvid's Metamorphoses and Homer's Odyssey. Wediscuss the history, geography, art andarchitecture of the ancient Mediterranean world tocontextualize how Greek and Roman mythology spreadthrough conquest and trade. Examining moderntranslations and adaptations helps us connect theworld of antiquity to the present day. Counts forHumanities distribution and Gender Studies minor.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 217 Global Wisdom and Literature 4 Credits
An interdisciplinary, team-taught course with theDepartment of English and the Department ofPhilosophy and Religion that delves into theworld's wisdom traditions through the lenses ofliterature, philosophy, and religion. Studentsexamine renowned works such as the Epic ofGilgamesh, Socratic dialogues, Stoic spiritualdiaries, Christian and Islamic mystical texts,Hindu epics, Japanese Buddhist poetry, and more.Participants transcend the boundaries of history,geography, ideology, genre, and academicdisciplines. The course aims to fosterintercultural competence in students seen ascrucial for a liberal arts education andmeaningful contribution to real world settings.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
ENG 220 Introduction to Fiction 4 Credits
This course introduces you to the study ofliterary fiction. This is not a creative writingworkshop nor an introduction to fiction writingmethods. This course surveys the richtradition of prose fiction largely, but notexclusively, in English. Emphasis is placedon the enduring features of this genre as itevolved throughout the centuries as well as to theinnovations introduced by individual writers. Theliterary works selected for this course drawupon a variety of fictional forms and styles.Class discussions include, along with closereadings of the works themselves, an appreciationof the historical and cultural contexts out ofwhich they arose and to which they gave afictional rewriting. Counts for Creative Writingminor, Humanities distribution, and W2requirement.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 221 Introduction to Nonfiction 4 Credits
This course introduces students to the genreof nonfiction writing. By exploring various waysto tell stories about a single true life-such asthrough essay, memoir, autobiography, journalism,and biography-students consider the power ofdocumentation and the methods nonfiction writersuse to shape the same facts for differentpurposes. Discussions will probe the impact thatrelating personal experience has on nationaldiscourse. Counts for Creative Writing minor,Humanities distribution, Journalism, Editing &Publishing minor, and W2 requirement.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 222 Introduction to Poetry 4 Credits
This course will provide an introduction to thestudy of various styles and forms of poetry. Byreading a wide range of poetic styles from anumber of aesthetic schools, students consider theways in which poetry has become a conversationacross centuries, how the genre may actsimultaneously as a personal and a politicalvoice, and how it may be interpreted not only asintimate confession but also as supreme fiction.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
ENG 223 Introduction to Drama 4 Credits
This course examines plays as literary texts.Students investigate drama in the English languagetheatre tradition from ancient Greece to thepresent day. The course considers how writersrespond to each other as they develop genres suchas comedy, tragedy, satire, morality plays, familydrama, history, romance, and others. Attending atleast one on-campus performance is required. Thegoal of this class is to enable you to understandthe English language theater tradition so that youcan better enjoy reading drama and attending livetheater performances.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 224 Introduction to Journalism 4 Credits
This course covers the foundations of reporting,writing, fact checking, and editing. Studentswrite a range of news and feature stories,including an obituary, an event, and a profile. Wealso discuss journalistic ethics and the way thefield has been transformed by the Internet.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 290 English Internship 4 Credits
A learning contract is developed prior toenrollment in an internship. Evaluation of studentperformance is completed by the faculty mentorbased on the fulfillment of the contract terms andwritten evaluation by the internship sitesupervisor. Students must work at least 45 hoursfor each internship credit and be enrolled in thecourse prior to beginning work. Graded A-F orPass/Fail.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 294 Special Topics 4 Credits
Topics not regularly offered in a department'snormal course offerings, chosen based on currentstudent interest and faculty expertise. Specialtopic courses can only be offered 3 times; afterthis, the course must be approved as a regularcourse. Graded A-F or Pass/Fail.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 300 Global Middle Ages 4 Credits
Global Middle Ages explores literature frommany languages and cultures that has beentranslated into English. Our goal is to gaindepth in a few specific genres-- such as the lyricpoem, short story collections, or travelnarratives -- as well as acquire the breadth ofseeing these texts in a larger multinational,multilingual context. Students survey the localesand literatures across the interconnected cultureson the Eurasian and African land masses, withoccasional forays into the western hemisphere.Instead of culminating in a traditional researchpaper assignment, this course builds towardsthe students collaboratively creatingpublic-facing scholarship and presentations.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
ENG 301 Chaucer 4 Credits
Chaucer's fellow poets hailed him as the fatherof English poetry for his ability to transformdiverse genres and sources into a living traditionof English poetry that continues to this day. This course focuses on The Canterbury Tales,Geoffrey Chaucer's most popular and beloved work,and its creation of fictional and realcommunities. We become comfortable withChaucer's poetry in the original Middle Englishand acquaint ourselves with current scholarlydebates and the historical and literary context ofthe Canterbury Tales. Counts for European Studiesminor, Gender Studies minor, and Medieval andEarly Modern Studies minor.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
ENG 302 Arthurian Literature 4 Credits
This class examines the development of storiesabout King Arthur and his court in the medievalliterary tradition, and it considers thetradition of Arthuriana that continues in presentday popular adaptations. We ask why thesestories resonate so strongly with audiences fromthe Middle Ages up to today and consider the ideasand social problems they explore. Literarycriticism and scholarly research will informstudent presentations and essays. Counts forEuropean Studies minor, Gender Studies minor, andMedieval and Early Modern Studies minor.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Non Conforming
ENG 303 Women Writers to 1800 4 Credits
Early women's writing, much of it highly popularwhen it was written, has a history of beingforgotten. In this class, we explore textsauthored by women from before 1800, from Europe,North Africa and the Middle East, Asia, and theAmericas. Our readings provide ample material forexploring the role of gender in authorialidentity, a wide variety of literary genres, thechanging circumstances of literary production, andthe contributions of women writers. Thetheoretical readings introduce you to generationsof scholars who have preserved, studied, andchampioned this tradition.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Non Conforming
ENG 320 The Eighteenth Century 4 Credits
Aladdin. Ali Baba. Djinns and genies. Scheherazadeand the sultan. These characters and theirspellbinding narratives all originate in theArabian Nights, a transcultural text whoseembedded stories remain arguably unparalleled intheir world-making and whose popular circulationhas been world changing. This course focuseson readings from the long eighteenth century,known as an Age of Enlightenment whenphilosophers and scientists emphasized reason, butalso the period when Arabian Nights was translatedinto English and became a cultural phenomenon.Oriental tales often provide alternative ways ofknowing that value magic, orality, and folkpractices, and they will provide us with a lensfor interrogating the hegemonic relation betweenthe British Empire and its others. Harry Potterand its modern-day magic serves as a coda.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 321 Romanticism 4 Credits
The movement from the late eighteenth century to1832 considered as a revolution in the aims andmethods of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge,Byron, Shelley, and Keats.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, Non Conforming
ENG 322 The Victorian Age 4 Credits
Major poets, novelists, and essayists includingTennyson, Browning, Arnold, Rossetti, Carlyle,Newman, Mill, Pater, Bronte, and Gaskill will bestudied in conjunction with the culture of the ageof Victoria.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 323 The 19th Century English Novel 4 Credits
Major writers such as Jane Austen, Emily Bronte,Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot,and Thomas Hardy will be studied. Attention isgiven to the cultural and literary context ofthe novels.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 330 The Rise of Modernism 4 Credits
This course traces the rise of what we nowcall modernism beginning with the decadentmovement at the end of the 19th century, itsemergence during World War I, and itsflourishing during the 1920s by reading a rangeof fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama byHenry James, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, H.D.,James Joyce, Katharine Mansfield, EzraPound, Gertrude Stein, J.S. Synge, and VirginiaWoolf among others.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 331 Modernism and Its Discontents 4 Credits
A study of the fiction, nonfiction, poetry anddrama from the 1920s to the late 1930s payingclose attention to the after effects of theexperimentation of high modernism and how it,coupled with the rise of fascism and World WarII, led to the fracturing of the movement anda return to more traditional prose and poeticstructures. Writers include Djuna Barnes,Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Marianne Moore,Flann O'Brien, Jean Rhys, VirginiaWoolf, and William Butler Yeats.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 332 Modern & Contemporary British Literature 4 Credits
This course covers a range of British andAmerican writing from World War II andthe retreat to realism in the 1950s through thepostmodern turn and the current literarylandscape. Writers include W.H. Auden,Samuel Beckett, Elizabeth Bowen, AngelaCarter, Caryl Churchill, Graham Greene, EdnaO'Brien, Graham Swift and Zadie Smith.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 333 James Joyce 4 Credits
This course focuses on the work of James Joyce,examining the forces-historical, sociopolitical,religious, artistic, and other-that helped shapehis oeuvre. We take stock of Joyce's enduringlegacy-his status as an author whose writingpractices have reshaped ways of understanding thescope and nature of fiction itself-- will explore,from multiple perspectives, the situation ofJoyce's work within the landscapes of modernistwriting. The bulk of the class focuses on a closereading of the 18 episodes of his 1922masterpiece, Ulysses.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 334 The Irish Short Story 4 Credits
The modern short story is part of an internationaltradition. The form is a relative newcomer toliterature, and for various reasons that we willinvestigate, the Irish have taken to it withparticular verve. Through lecture-discussions andresponse paper and essay assignments, the courseteaches techniques for interpreting stories fromthe abundantly rich Irish imagination evident inits mythology and folklore to the modern agora ofthe written page. Writers include MariaEdgeworth, Elizabeth Bowen, Liam O'Flaherty, FrankO'Connor, Sean O'Faolain, Edna O'Brien, andWilliam Trevor.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
ENG 336 Postcolonial Literature 4 Credits
This course investigates the impact of Britishcolonialism, national independence movements,postcolonial cultural trends, and women'smovements on the global production of literarytexts in English. Students read a diversegrouping of writers including Mulk Raj Anand,Kiran Desai and Salman Rushdie from India,JamaicaKinkaid, Una Marson, and Sam Selvon from theCaribbean, as well as the Kenyan Nugugi Thiong'oand the Zimbabwean Tsitsi Dangarembga among manyothers. Careful attention is paid to ethnographic,geographic, and historical modes of understandingthe multi-layered effects of colonialism and its'after effects.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Non Conforming
ENG 338 Narrative Journalism 4 Credits
A study of narrative journalism, what is requiredto tell a story thoroughly, and how to determinethe best form for the story. Narrative journalismblends in-depth reporting and research,investigative journalism, first-personperspective, and narrative writing. Includesreading the genre, researching, reporting,writing, recording, giving constructive criticism,and revising.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: ENG 221
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Even Years
ENG 339 History of Journalism Ethics 4 Credits
Traces the history of journalism ethics throughchallenges to and practices of ethical journalism,as students research, report, present, analyze,write, and revise to demonstrate the knowledgethey gain. Topics include yellow journalism,muckraking, new journalism, gonzo journalism, theuse of anonymous sources, new new journalism, andfake news.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: ENG 221
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
ENG 340 Women's Literature 4 Credits
Beginning with Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, andGeorge Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) in the nineteenthcentury and ending with Virginia Woolf, AdrienneRich, and Zadie Smith in the 20th, this coursecovers a range of fiction, non-fiction, poetry,and drama by women up to the present. The coursealso introduces students to a range of feministtheory. Counts for Gender Studies minor.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
ENG 341 Native American Literature 4 Credits
This course is a consideration of contemporaryNative American prose and poetry. Most of thereadings focus on twentieth-century works andtheir sources in Native American and EuropeanAmerican cultural and literary traditions. Students consider how complicated the process ofdefining Native American literature can be; howworks by native people relate to or depart fromother ethnic American literatures; how indigenousspeakers/writers respond to and resistcolonialism; and how Native American perspectivesand narratives continue today. Emphasis is placedon the use of Native American myths and images ofthe natural world in the texts.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 342 Children's & Young Adult Literature 4 Credits
This course involves the reading and study ofliterary texts by notable authors, with childrenand young adults as the major audience. We willexplore literary elements, evaluation criteria,fiction, non-fiction, poetry, literature responsein print media and the arts, classics, andcontemporary works. This course providesopportunities to examine various forms ofcommunication and interpretation, implementationof technology, and divergent thinking in order toassist those interested in children's and youngadult literature to become more reflective andeffective communicators. This is an MSDE-approvedreading course.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 343 American Short Story 4 Credits
Irving, Hawthorne, Poe, Twain, Crane, James,Hemingway, Porter, and Sallinger are among thewriters this course considers. The study ischronological and historical, placing emphasisupon the development of this genre.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
ENG 345 The African American Novel 4 Credits
This course examines the origin and developmentof the African American novel. We beginwith the earliest novels and conclude with ananalysis of contemporary novels by AfricanAmerican writers. We examine novels from multiplegenres and give careful attention to theintersection of race, gender, class andenvironment in representative novels of the 19th,20th, and 21st centuries.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, Non Conforming
ENG 347 American Environmental Writing 4 Credits
The study of writing from an environmentalperspective is both an emerging field in literarycriticism and a rich tradition in Americanliterary history. What does it mean to be greenfrom a literary point of view? This courseexplores that question in looking at classic andcontemporary authors of American environmentalwriting, from Henry David Thoreau to Annie Dillardto recent examples of eco-criticism. Though theprimary focus is on nonfiction prose, thetraditional home of nature writing, the coursealso explores environmental perspectives inpoetry, fiction, and film as well ascross-disciplinary connections with the naturalsciences and social sciences.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ENG 351 Introduction to Playwriting 4 Credits
Analysis and practical application of techniquesand styles employed in writing for the stage.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Non Conforming
ENG 353 Contemp Am Literature : Living Writers 4 Credits
This course focuses on the study of Americanpoetry, fiction, and nonfiction from 1945 to thepresent. (The course focuses on poetry one year,novels and short fiction the next, and nonfictionthe next rotating among them.) Emphasis includesan examination of the work of major American poetsor fiction writers of the past half-century. Thecourse is structured in a way similar to atraditional offering in literature with thisdifference: some of the writers whose work isstudied in class will at some time during thesemester come to Washington College to visit theclass, discuss their work with courseparticipants, and give a public reading.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 354 Literary Editing & Publishing 4 Credits
The Rose O'Neill Literary House is home to CherryTree, a professional literary journal featuringpoets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers ofnational reputation and staffed by WashingtonCollege students. In this course, studentsreceive hands-on training in the process ofediting and publishing a top-tier literaryjournal. They analyze literary markets even asthey steward into print work from the nation'smost prestigious emerging and establishedwriters. This class includes extensive researchand discussion of nationally recognized literarymagazines and covers topics such as apublication's mission statement, its aestheticvision, and its editorial practices. This is arequired course for all students who wish to jointhe editorial staff and be included on themasthead of Cherry Tree.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 360 Lit. of Eur Colonies of N Am & Early US 4 Credits
Although the course counts as pre-1800 for theEnglish major, it focuses on the differencebetween other-than-modern culture in the NorthAmerican Colonies and the early US, which willunconventionally be dated to extend fromChristendom's (the continent didn't becomeEurope universally until roughly the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries) fifteenth- througheighteenth-century colonization of North Americaall the way through the US 1840s, and its modernand post-modern successor. In this course thereflexivity of modern and post-modern retrospectis continually emphasized. No matter howhard or for how long or by how many eminent modernand post-modern literary historians the past hasbeen worked over to make the past seemfamiliar-the past as prelude to the present, to(mis)quote Shakespeare-in this course the pastwill always be (re)considered the proverbialforeign land. Counts for American Studies major.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, Non Conforming
ENG 361 Literary Romanticism in U.S. I 4 Credits
Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Stowe.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Non Conforming
ENG 362 Literary Romanticism in the U.S. II 4 Credits
Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
ENG 363 Gilded Age & American Realism 4 Credits
This course examines key prose fiction of theGilded Age of American literary history, andculture (roughly 1878 - 1901). Careful attentionis given to various treatments of Big Business,'industrialization, urbanization, regionalism andsocial inequality in the work of Mark Twain,Stephen Crane, Kate Chopin, Frances E.W. Harper,Charles Chestnutt, and others.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
ENG 370 The Harlem Renaissance 4 Credits
This interdisciplinary seminar examines AfricanAmerican literature and intellectual thought ofthe 1920s and 1930s. Take this course and learnabout different conceptualizations of the blackaesthetic, and about the impact race, class, andgender had on key figures like Langston Hughes,Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, and WallaceThurman.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 371 Faulkner & Modernism in U.S. 4 Credits
The course concentrates on the novels ofFaulkner as exemplifying modernism.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 377 2PACalypse Now! 4 Credits
There's something about Heart Of Darkness --neither the most readable nor the most teachableof books, even of Conrad's books. And there'ssomething about Conrad, too, a native Pole forwhom English was a third language, a thirdlanguage that he evidently spoke so poorly thatwhen conversing with his American literary friendHenry James they both reverted to what was forboth of them a second language: French. Thecourse tries to explore what it is that hasattracted so many white male Anglophoneintellectuals -- and prompted the condemnation ofone African writer, the mockery of one blackrapper, and perhaps, the rivalry of a prominent,brown, novelist -- over the more than hundredyears now since the original publication of Heartof Darkness in 1899 in England in Blackwood'sMagazine. Class texts include Conrad'snovella, Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Tupac'sTUPAcalypse Now, Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!(which contains a prominent allusion to Heart ofDarkness), Chinua Achebe's essays, V.S. Naipul's ABend in the River, a sampling of the blizzard ofjournalistic quotations of the novel's title andof its most famous, four-word, speech, plus sometheorizings of race and gender that might shedlight on why the book has managed to appeal sostrongly to a relatively homogenous cohort ofreaders and adaptors.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Non Conforming
ENG 390 English Internship 4 Credits
Internships in the English Department serve togive focus to a student's prospective employmentin the world beyond Washington College, and theyaim to integrate and develop the writing,thinking, and communicative skills acquired whilecompleting an English Major, Creative Writingminor, or Journalism, Editing & Publishing minor.The specific conditions related to each internshipwill be developed among the faculty advisor, therepresentative of the institution offering theinternship, and the student.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 393 Journalism Practicum 2 Credits
This practicum for The Elm teaches basic newsreporting and writing - the who, what, when,where, why & how of story organization; gettingquickly to the point; conciseness; straightforwardexposition; accuracy, fairness and balance, andethical issues.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 394 Special Topics 4 Credits
Topics not regularly offered in a department'snormal course offerings, chosen based on currentstudent interest and faculty expertise. Specialtopic courses can only be offered 3 times; afterthis, the course must be approved as a regularcourse. Graded A-F or Pass/Fail.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 396 Off-Campus Research 4 Credits
An individual research project chosen by thestudent in consultation with a faculty mentor. Thestudent, with the help of the mentor, design aproject to be implemented during a one- ortwo-semester period or during the summer. Studentsconduct an appropriate literature search, carryout the research, and submit a written report bythe end of each semester. Students may earn up to4 credits for summer research for a maximum ofeight credits. Graded A-F.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 397 Independent Study 4 Credits
An agreement between a sponsoring faculty and astudent letting the student study a topic ofinterest not offered at WC. 45 hours are requiredper credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 400 Junior Seminar 4 Credits
Junior Seminar fulfills the English department'sW3 (Writing in the Discipline) writing program requirement. In this course you focus yourattention on the methods and modes of writing and critical thinking specific to literarystudies. While our main question is, in effect,what does literary study look like today?, webreak that question down into its potentiallyinfinite subsets, including questions surroundingwhat literary study should look like, whatliterary critics can do with texts, what texts doto literary critics, and how we can conceive ofcriticism as both a vocation and as a transferableskill. This course builds on the knowledge andskills you learned in your W1 and W2 courses, andhelps you transition to the work you will need tocomplete for the W4 requirement (i.e., the SeniorCapstone Experience). You practice developingresearch questions and assessing the applicabilityand relevance of different research methods, thusproviding a foundation for developing compellingSCE projects, which you will be undertaking in thefinal year of your studies as an English major. Inaddition, we have aligned the Junior Seminar withSophie Kerr programming in the fall, invitingscholars and writers to visit campus and join theclass.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ENG 452 Creative Writing Workshop: Fiction 4 Credits
This workshop offers guided practice in thewriting short fiction. Using established writersas models, considerable effort is put toward theobjective of learning to read as writers and, inthe process, becoming better critics of thestudent's own work and the work of others in thegroup. By offering a more intimate familiaritywith the elements of fiction, students write andrevise prodigiously and, in the process, learn andpractice a repertoire of literary strategies inpreparation and in support of short stories oftheir own composition.
Requisites: Pre-req: ENG 103
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 453 Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry 4 Credits
This course builds upon student's previoustraining in the workshop, asking them to honetheir skills not only as writers but also asreaders and critics of poetry. Using recentlyreleased, debut collections as role models,students will address concepts of diction, theline and line break, figurative language, imagery,rhyme, meter, and narrative. Assignments willinclude drafting new poems, performing closereadings of published texts, and facilitatingclass discussions.
Requisites: Pre-req: ENG 103
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 454 Creative Writing Workshop : Nonfiction 4 Credits
In this upper-level nonfiction writing workshop,students explore the diversity of nonfictionforms in a kind of writing which combines elementsof journalism, such as the feature article, withelements of the literary, such as the personalessay. In essence this course treats the variousforms of the essay with a special emphasis on thecreative ways the genre can be interpreted andrewritten. Readings of representative essays areincluded. Counts for Creative Writing minor andJournalism, Editing, & Publishing minor.
Requisites: Pre-req: ENG 103
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ENG 460 Book History & American Print Culture 4 Credits
This course surveys the interdisciplinary field ofbook history, with an emphasis on American printculture from the nineteenth century to thepresent. Students explore topics related tothe creation, publication, dissemination andreception of American print communication (e.g.,books, periodicals, and newspapers). Students alsolearn and practice advanced research methodsused by literary historians and print culturescholars.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Odd Years
ENG 470 Toni Morrison 4 Credits
This course focuses on the works of Toni Morrison,the first African American and the eighth woman toreceive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Studentsstudy the important motifs, tropes and themesof Morrison's writings, including her notablecritical essays and short fiction. Students becomewell versed in Morrison's writings and develop anunderstanding of various contemporary criticalapproaches used to interpret her work. Counts forBlack Studies minor and American Studies major.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Non Conforming
ENG 471 Black Men & Women: Images 4 Credits
This course examines black masculinity andfemininity in American literature, print culture,and the media. The course is structured aroundstereotypes like the Mammy, the Black Minstrel,the Jezebel, and the Black Menace. At thebeginning of each unit, students practicereading stereotypical images of black men andwomen shown in print and non-print materials.Students read and analyze the treatment of thestereotype in a literary text. We also read andrespond to critical secondary sources by literaryscholars and cultural intellectuals. By the end ofthis course, students should be able to understandand critically analyze: the origins of differentstereotypical images of black men and women; theway in which these images have influenced theliterary imagination of 20th and 21st centuryAfrican American authors; the notions ofsex/sexuality, humor, violence, Black Power andBlack Cool in African American literature. Countsfor the American Studies major, Black Studiesminor, and Communication and Media Studies major.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
ENG 490 English Internship 4 Credits
Internships in the English Department serve togive focus to a student's prospective employmentin the world beyond Washington College, and theyaim to integrate and develop the writing,thinking, and communicative skills acquired whilecompleting an English Major, Creative Writingminor, or Journalism, Editing & Publishing minor.The specific conditions related to each internshipwill be developed among the faculty advisor, therepresentative of the institution offering theinternship, and the student.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 493 Journalism Practicum 2 Credits
The practicum has traditionally been attached toThe Elm, but now welcomes any student working orinterning on any campus publication! Over thecourse of a year, you'll learn the basics ofpublication reporting and writing-the who, what,when, where, why & how of story organization;getting quickly to the point; conciseness;straight forward exposition; accuracy; fairnessand balance, and ethical issues. Students alsoreceive one-on-one feedback about their articlesfrom the instructor. The practicum is 2 credits,pass/fail only. Students may nor earn more than 4credits for ENG 393, ENG 394 and may not countmore than four journalism practicum creditstowards the major in English. Counts for theJournalism, Editing & Publishing minor.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ENG 494 Special Topics 4 Credits
Topics not regularly offered in a department'snormal course offerings, chosen based on currentstudent interest and faculty expertise. Specialtopic courses can only be offered 3 times; afterthis, the course must be approved as a regularcourse. Graded A-F or Pass/Fail.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ENG 497 Independent Study 4 Credits
An agreement between a sponsoring faculty and astudent letting the student study a topic ofinterest not offered at WC. 45 hours are requiredper credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years