English Courses by STEP requirements Spring 2021 - UMass ...

English Courses by STEP requirements
                                               Spring 2021

                            American Literature
    ________________________________________________________________

English 115 American Experience (ALDU)
Lecture 1       TuTh 11:30-12:45      Instructor: Maria Ishikawa
Primarily for nonmajors. Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of American culture, with a wide historical
scope and attention to diverse cultural experiences in the U.S. Readings in fiction, prose, and poetry,
supplemented by painting, photography, film, and material culture. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)
English 115 American Experience (ALDU)
Lecture 2       MWF 10:10-11:00       Instructor: Benjamin Latini
Primarily for nonmajors. Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of American culture, with a wide historical
scope and attention to diverse cultural experiences in the U.S. Readings in fiction, prose, and poetry,
supplemented by painting, photography, film, and material culture. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)
English 117 Ethnic American Literature (ALDU)
Lecture 1       MWF 10:10-11:00           Instructor: Leslie Leonard
Primarily for nonmajors. This introductory study of American culture encourages students to think critically
about ethnic American experiences. Reading texts authored by ethnically diverse American authors, this class
asks students to engage critically with American culture and identity, particularly as it is experienced by
individuals of various backgrounds. Some of the questions this course explores include: What do we make of
American experiences that contradict popular ideas of what it means to exist in America? How do ethnic
experiences allow us to more critically consider American culture? How do various authors engage with their
ethnicity while still identifying as distinctly American? How have shifting formations of race impacted ethnic
authors? Using texts that span from June Jordan and Langston Hughes to Fatimah Asghar and Maxine Hong
Kingston, this class uses fiction, poetry, and prose to consider how America and the American experience has
been navigated, understood, reimagined, and experienced by various ethnic communities across time with a
particular emphasis on the perspectives of these communities. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)

English 268 American Literature and Culture before
Lecture 1        TuTh 10:00-11:15      Instructor: Melba Jensen
This course studies the “imagined community” of the United States and the assembly an “American” literature.
Readings include fiction, poetry, autobiography, oratory, journalism, and rhetoric written in North America
between 1670 and 1865. The readings reflect tensions arising from the status of religious belief, urban vs. rural
experience, the rise of industrial labor, and the enslavement of human beings who had “unalienable rights” to
life and liberty. The course examines the economic challenges faced by writers like Edgar Poe, Walt Whitman,
Herman Melville, and Harriet B. Stowe, and the political challenges facing writers like Frederick Douglass and
Harriet Jacobs. The course also examines the historical forces that conferred canonical status on Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Ralph W. Emerson, Henry D. Thoreau and delayed Emily Dickinson’s and Herman Melville’s
recognition until the mid-twentieth century. The textbook for this course is a free e-book distributed in pdf,
Kindle, and .mobi format. Students will need to bring a laptop, tablet, or smartphone to class to access their
course readings.

English 269 American Literature and Culture after 1865
Lecture 1        MW 2:30-3:45           Instructor: Gina Ocasion
The Art of Protest. This course looks at relationships between protest, history, and popular culture in America
through the narrative spaces of literature. In our contemporary moment, the visibility of protest and counter-
protest, free speech and hate speech, and the mediums of Twitter and literature, are contentious spaces that
invite us to interrogate how we as individuals create, align, and/or break with national narratives. This class will
respond to the invitation this divisive political climate has constructed by turning to stories – tracing
representations of resistance, protest, and resilience from the antebellum period to Trump’s presidency. Our
questions will consider the relationships between art and protest, diverse embodiments of protest and
resistance, and the cultural and historical contexts that inform these movements. This project will lead us
through a diverse and complex archive of American literature where we will reckon with the stories we have
told about ourselves, each other, and the nation at stake.
As a survey course, our aim will be to read widely, think critically, and write ethically. We will develop an
understanding and a language for how texts work on the level of form as we consider theme and content. We
will also use writing, both informal and formal, to develop and deliver our responses to these texts as we think
critically about race, gender, class and sexuality, not as fixed or stable entities, but instead as historically,
socially, culturally, and individually imbued constructs.
English 272 American Romanticism
MW 4:00-5:15           Instructor: Hoang Phan
This course will focus on the relationships between the literature of American Romanticism and the broader
cultural debates and social transformations of this period, identified historically as the Age of Revolution. With
the politics of romance and revolution as guiding themes, the course will study a range of texts, by Emily
Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry David
Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Throughout these readings we will examine the ways in which the literature of
this period contributed to the imagined community of the United States, as well as contested and revised the
dominant narratives of the nation.
English 368 Modern American Drama (AL)
Lecture 1       TuTh 4:00-5:15        Instructor: Heidi Holder
This class will provide a survey of American drama, focusing on the early twentieth to twenty-first centuries.
Some examples of the prior drama from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will also be read and
discussed as groundwork for our examination of the more recent plays. We shall consider key concepts such
as the distinctly “American” play (and whether such a thing exists); the use of and reaction against foreign—
especially British—models; the popularity of genres such as melodrama and tragicomedy, and of theatrical
modes such as realism and spectacle; and the importance of class and race to the development of specifically
“American” plays, character types, issues, and themes. Readings will be drawn from the following: Eugene
O’Neill, Susan Glaspell, Langston Hughes, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard, Suzan-Lori
Parks, Young Jean Lee, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Stephen
Karam.
Requirements: a short essay (4-5 pages), regular short writing assignments, and a longer final essay (10-12
pages) (Gen.Ed. AL)

                             British Literature
    ________________________________________________________________
English 201 Early British literature and culture
MW 2:30-3:45 Instructor: Marjorie Rubright
Topic: The Word, the World & the Wanderer. Exploring imaginative works by both male and female authors,
this survey of literature from 900 C.E. to 1700 C.E. explores literary art as a world-making enterprise.

Significant changes in the English language occurred throughout this period, expanding the horizon of what we
mean by 'English' literature. The course will situate the word, the world, and the wander as touchstones along
our path as we travel from the epic poetry of Beowulf to Milton's Paradise Lost, from the medieval lyrical
romance of Marie de France to literature written in and about the Americas. A host of different wanderers will
serve as guides: from pilgrims, exiles, seafarers, and translators, to unruly women, queer shape-shifters,
werewolves, fallen angels and devils. By the end of the course, you will: have a historicized appreciation of
broad changes to the English language, be familiar with a range of genres produced in the medieval and
earlier modern periods, have strategies for close reading to carry with you into future coursework, and
experience an increased confidence in your ability to explore literature of the distant past.
English 300 Junior Year Writing
Lecture 8     MWF 11:15-12:05        Instructor: Jenny Adams
Topic: Arthurian Legends. In Tennyson’s poem, “The Passing of Arthur,” the faithful knight Bedivere carries
the wounded King Arthur to a barge with three queens. When the women carry Arthur off to Avalon, Bedivere
bemoans the fact that his leader has gone. But eventually, he consoles himself with a single hope: “He passes
to be King among the dead, and after healing of his grievous wound, he comes again.”
Arthur did come again. And again. And again. Twain brought Arthur back in his novel, A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur’s Court. Marion Zimmer Bradley offered a feminist version of the legend in her early 80s novel
Mists of Avalon. Hollywood puts out about one Arthurian movie a year, with some of the most recent being A
Knight's Tale (2001), Kingsmen (2014) and The Kid Who Would Be King (2019).
In this junior year writing course, we will think and write about Arthurian legend with a historical (and at times
historiographic) eye toward the ways its creators have changed the legend and toward their own self-interests
its ever-unfolding history. The goals of this approach are threefold: to sharpen your already good reading and
analytical skills; to consider the historical currents that swirl through this legend; and to strengthen your abilities
as a writer of literary criticism.
English 343 English Epic Tradition
Lecture 1         MWF 10:10-11:00                  Instructor: Stephen Harris
Topic: Beowulf. This course introduces you to the magnificent epic poem Beowulf in its original language.
Written between c. 750 and c.1000 AD, Beowulf is the chief poetic achievement of Anglo-Saxon England. It is
a poem of stunning artistry, complex structure, and profound wisdom. Beowulf inspired J. R. R. Tolkien and
Seamus Heaney as it continues to inspire today. We will read the poem extremely closely. As we do, we will
put it into its historical and literary contexts, imagining Anglo-Saxon readers as well as modern ones. We will
discuss Norse myths, Irish myths, charms, omens, and portents. And there be dragons. Recommended for
students who have completed ENGL 313, Old English. If you have not taken Old English, you can read the
poem in translation. Get in touch with your inner Viking! English majors only. Course prerequisite: English 200
with a grade of "C" or better and 201, 202 or 221 with a qualifying grade of a C or better.
English 469 Victorian Monstrosity
Lecture 1      MW 4:00-5:15            Instructor: Suzanne Daly
Although the term “monstrosity” connotes fear and repulsion, many nineteenth-century writers were compelled
by the idea of attraction between humans and not-quite human creatures such as demons, vampires, goblins,
and ghosts. In exploring the aesthetic, political, economic, historical, and racial(ized) dimensions of these
enchanted literary liaisons, we will consider their relationship to literary/cultural movements including
medievalism, realism, and the gothic revival as well as to contemporary political debates over science, empire,
immigration, masculinity, and the status of women. Primary texts may include poetry by Gottfried Bürger,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Mary Robinson, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, and William
Wordsworth, and prose by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Sheridan Le Fanu, Margaret Oliphant, and Richard Marsh.

History of English Language
    ________________________________________________________________
English 412 History of the English Language
Lecture 1         MW 2:30-3:45          Instructor: Stephen Harris
Why do people in MA sound different than people in NY? Have people always spoken like this? HEL is a
thrilling ride through the major changes in English phonology, morphology, syntax, spelling, and vocabulary
from the 5th century to the 21st century. Among the topics we will consider are historical change and dialectic
difference, literacy and morality, the emergence of vernaculars and the decline of Latin, and the current state of
English. No previous knowledge of linguistics, Anglo Saxon, or Middle English is required.
English 343 English Epic Tradition
Lecture 1         MWF 10:10-11:00                  Instructor: Stephen Harris
Topic: Beowulf. This course introduces you to the magnificent epic poem Beowulf in its original language.
Written between c. 750 and c.1000 AD, Beowulf is the chief poetic achievement of Anglo-Saxon England. It is
a poem of stunning artistry, complex structure, and profound wisdom. Beowulf inspired J. R. R. Tolkien and
Seamus Heaney as it continues to inspire today. We will read the poem extremely closely. As we do, we will
put it into its historical and literary contexts, imagining Anglo-Saxon readers as well as modern ones. We will
discuss Norse myths, Irish myths, charms, omens, and portents. And there be dragons. Recommended for
students who have completed ENGL 313, Old English. If you have not taken Old English, you can read the
poem in translation. Get in touch with your inner Viking! English majors only. Course prerequisite: English 200
with a grade of "C" or better and 201, 202 or 221 with a qualifying grade of a C or better.

                             Literary Criticism
    ________________________________________________________________

Many sections of English 300 Junior Year Writing will satisfy this requirement but check with the professor first
and notify the English undergraduate office if applicable.

                       Literature by authors of color
    ________________________________________________________________
English 300 Junior Year Writing
Lecture 4     TuTh 10:00-11:15  Instructor: Rebecca Dingo
Topic: Writing Human Rights. Course description forthcoming.
English 300 Junior Year Writing
Lecture 7    TuTh 1:00-2:15      Instructor: Haivan Hoang
Topic: Race and Rhetoric. Course description forthcoming.
English 341 Autobiography Studies
Lecture 1       TuTh 1:00-2:15          Instructor: Laura Furlan
In this course, our primary work will be to trace the development of Native American autobiography, including
spiritual autobiographies, collaborative or “as told to” autobiographies, memoirs, and other contemporary
personal narratives. Topics of study will include: the concept of authorship, modes of production, questions of
authenticity, and the role of the editor and/or translator, in addition to those specific to Native literatures—
relationship to place and community, identity issues, and preservation of language and culture. Authors will
include Samson Occum, William Apess, Black Hawk, Zitkala-Sa, John G. Neihardt and Black Elk, N. Scott
Momaday, Louise Erdrich, and Deborah Miranda, among others.

English 372H Caribbean Literature honors
Lecture 1      TuTh 10:00-11:15        Instructor: Rachel Mordecai:
In this course we will read contemporary works from the English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking literatures of
the Caribbean (all texts will be read in English), comprising a mixture of "canonical" and emerging authors.
Lectures (rare) and discussions (regular) will address central themes in Caribbean writing, as well as issues of
form and style (including the interplay between creole and European languages).
Some of the themes that will preoccupy us are history and its marks upon the Caribbean present; racial identity
and ambiguity; colonial and neo-colonial relationships among countries; gender and sexuality. Assignments will
include an informal reading journal and three major papers of varying lengths; there may also be student
presentations, small-group work, and in-class writing activities. Authors may include Maryse Conde, Tiphanie
Yanique, Kei Miller, Rene Depestre, Dionne Brand and Mayra Santos-Febres.
English 491LM Literature, Music, and the Rules of Engagement: Multi-Ethnic Musical Experiences in
the US
Lecture 1        TuTh 2:30-3:45               Instructor: Mazen Naous
In this course, we will analyze 20th century novels, poems, and a play by African American, Native American,
Mexican American, and Arab American writers, who draw on music, especially jazz and blues, to perform race,
gender, class, and migration. In particular, we will consider the relationship between musical styles and
historical events, and their impact on the characters’ identities and lived experiences. Some class time will be
spent on listening to and critiquing musical pieces in terms of their influence on the forms, aesthetics, and
politics of our texts: the rules of engagement. We will read works by Diana Abu-Jaber, James Baldwin, David
Henderson, Américo Paredes, Sherman Alexie, August Wilson, and a selection of jazz and blues poems.
English 491SA Amandla! S. African Literature & Politics, Apartheid and Post-
Lecture 1        MWF 10:10-11:00               Instructor: Stephen Clingman
“Amandla!” means “Power”, and it was a prominent political slogan in the anti-apartheid struggle. Over the last
hundred years, South Africa has seen transitions of a momentous nature: from a colonial past to a postcolonial
present; from the oppressions of apartheid to Nelson Mandela’s first democratically elected government in
1994 and the postapartheid period beyond. In this setting South African literature has kept the pulse of its
society, registering its lived experience and telling its inner history. In this context we’ll read works by key
writers both black and white, male and female. We’ll draw on fiction, drama and poetry, and dip into music,
documentaries and video to widen our sense of cultural and political engagement in and through a tumultuous
history. We’ll work to understand the relationship between politics and art, and we’ll also gain a sense of the
extraordinary cultural and social range of South African literature—of its voices, views and perspectives, the
possibilities, complexities and problems of a new society in the making. Authors will range from the most noted
and famous, such as Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee (both Nobel Prizewinners), to lesser-known but
nonetheless extraordinary writers, among them Njabulo Ndebele, Zoë Wicomb, K. Sello Duiker, and Phaswane
Mpe. By the end of the course you’ll have some insight into a remarkable country and some remarkably
powerful literature, relevant and resonant not only for its own world but also our own.
English 491Z Poetry of the Political Imagination
Lecture 1        Tues 1:00-3:30               Instructor: Martín Espada
Juniors and Seniors, International Exchange or National Exchange plans, or Graduate students with TECS
subplans only. Poetry of the political imagination is a matter of both vision and language. Any progressive
social change must be imagined first; any oppressive social condition, before it can change, must be named in
words that persuade. Poets of the political imagination go beyond protest to define an artistry of resistance.
This course explores how best to combine poetry and politics, craft and commitment. Students read classic
works ranging from the epigrams of Ernesto Cardenal, written against the dictator of Nicaragua, to Allen
Ginsberg's Howl, the book that sparked an obscenity trial. They also read the farmworker poems of Diana
García, born in a migrant labor camp; the emergency room sonnets of Dr. Rafael Campo; the prison poetry of
political dissident Nazim Hikmet; and the feminist satire of Marge Piercy, among others. Students respond with
papers, presentations or some combination. Class visits by authors complement the reading and discussion.

English 494EI Writing, Identity and English Studies
Lecture 1     TuTh 10:00-11:15            Instructor: Haivan Hoang
Course description forthcoming.

                                Narrative
    ________________________________________________________________

Note: Most English courses will count toward this distribution. Exclusions are courses in poetry and
drama as well as courses in creative, expository, nonfiction and technical (PWTC) writing and those
focusing primarily on literary criticism.

                                 Poetry
    ________________________________________________________________
English 141 Reading Poetry (AL)
Lecture 1      MWF 11:15-12:05       Instructor: Laura Marshall
Poetry, Activism, and Change Poetry can change the world. I'm not exaggerating. Poems bring us inside
different perspectives and experiences. Poets examine, interrogate, and even subvert the traditions and
"norms" of our world, and help us imagine new worlds.
In this course, we will explore the power of poetry by focusing on reading and sharing poetry as a form of
social justice activism. We will share work by poets from intersecting marginalized communities, and discover
how these poets weave activism into their work through word choice, imagery, and structure. We will also
discuss the themes and topics they employ, as well as how their contexts inform their writing choices. Students
in this class will read a lot of poetry, write brief guided reflections, learn about the lives and activism of several
poets, and share poetry with each other and the wider world.
Readings for this class will include works by Kaveh Akbar, Maya Angelou, Billy-Ray Belcourt, jody chan,
Staceyann Chin, Natalie Diaz, jayy dodd, Terrance Hayes, Ava Hoffman, Ilya Kaminsky, Zefyr Lisowski, Layli
Long Soldier, Audre Lorde, Tommy Pico, Claudia Rankine, Raquel Salas Rivera, Danez Smith, Ocean Vuong,
Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, and many other American and international poets. (This course fulfills the AL Gen Ed
requirement.)
English 366 Modern Poetry
Lecture 1               MW 2:30-3:45              Instructor: Ruth Jennison
This course is a survey of modern American poetry. Our guiding question will be: What is the relationship
between modern poetry and capitalist modernity? Focusing on the period between 1890 and 1950 and working
from a comparativist perspective, we will explore how various poets interpreted their shared historical context
through different poetic forms and experiments. In addition to a broad overview of modernism's canonical
authors (e.g. Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, W.C. Williams, Ezra Pound), we will spend significant time on the
trajectories of African-American poetics (e.g. Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes), feminist poetics
(e.g. H.D., Gertrude Stein) and Depression-era anti-capitalist poetics (e.g. Muriel Rukeyser, Kenneth Fearing).
Throughout our readings and discussions, we will look at the ways in which our poets are a part of the shifting
cultures, politics, and histories of the first half of the 20th century; their works address American imperialism,
world wars, rapid industrialization, racism and anti-racism, working class resistance, and the transformation of
gender regimes.

English 491Z Poetry of the Political Imagination
Lecture 1        Tues 1:00-3:30               Instructor: Martín Espada
Juniors and Seniors, International Exchange or National Exchange plans, or Graduate students with TECS
subplans only. Poetry of the political imagination is a matter of both vision and language. Any progressive
social change must be imagined first; any oppressive social condition, before it can change, must be named in
words that persuade. Poets of the political imagination go beyond protest to define an artistry of resistance.
This course explores how best to combine poetry and politics, craft and commitment. Students read classic
works ranging from the epigrams of Ernesto Cardenal, written against the dictator of Nicaragua, to Allen
Ginsberg's Howl, the book that sparked an obscenity trial. They also read the farmworker poems of Diana
García, born in a migrant labor camp; the emergency room sonnets of Dr. Rafael Campo; the prison poetry of
political dissident Nazim Hikmet; and the feminist satire of Marge Piercy, among others. Students respond with
papers, presentations or some combination. Class visits by authors complement the reading and discussion.

                         Print and Nonprint Media
    ________________________________________________________________
English 397GS Introduction to Video Games Studies
Lecture 1     Mon 4:00-6:30          Instructor: TreaAndrea Russworm
Video games have become the most popular and lucrative entertainment medium of our time. We know that
more than 65 percent of adults report playing video games across a wide range of devices—from computers
and consoles to smartphones and tablets. We also know that video game developers and video game design
programs have seen an unprecedented increase in applicants throughout the past decade. Yet, how do we
understand and study video games not only as a popular medium but also as a meaning-laden cultural art
form? What are some of the ways in which we can formally think about how games have come to matter in our
society—both to avid fans and to people who would not call themselves gamers?
This course introduces the now-established methods and theoretical debates that comprise the
interdisciplinary academic discipline of “video game studies.” It prioritizes analyses of the formal, historical,
cultural, and sociopolitical dimensions of games as these aspects have been discussed by game scholars
including Ian Bogost, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Mary Flanagan, Jane McGonigal, Lisa Nakamura, and Katie Salen.
The course will better prepare students to think and write critically about topics ranging from the fan-fiction of
the Halo franchise and the geo-politics of Resident Evil 5 to the widespread appeal of The Sims as a form of
individual and group therapy. We will also study game genres like First-Person Shooters, Role-playing Games,
and Simulation Games as we investigate key concepts in video game studies, such as theories of play, rules,
cheating, modding and hacking culture, live-streaming, choice, ethics, and machinima. Students will complete
weekly written reflections, a video game genre presentation, and a final animated video project that offers a
savvy analysis of video games as culture. This course counts toward the Digital Humanities +/- Games
specialization, a certification that is administered by the English department but is open to all university
students.
Yanique, Kei Miller, Rene Depestre, Dionne Brand and Mayra Santos-Febres.
English 391C Advanced Software for Professional Writers
Lecture 1      TuTh 2:30-3:45                 Instructor: Janine Solberg
This course offers a beginner-level introduction to web design. It is aimed at English and humanities majors,
though students from any major are welcome in the course. This is a hands-on course that meets in a
computer classroom. Students will learn to create a website using HTML (hypertext markup language) and
CSS (cascading style sheets). You will come away from the course having created a professional web portfolio
that you can use when applying for jobs or internships.

No prior experience with web design or coding is required. Students should be comfortable managing files
(naming, uploading, downloading, creating folders) and using a web browser. (Note: This course appears in
Spire as "Advanced Software," but that really just means that we're advancing beyond Microsoft Word.)
Prereq: Minimum 3.0 GPA and junior or senior standing. Non-majors or students who have not yet taken Engl
379 should contact the instructor to be added into the course.
This course counts toward the following specializations: PWTC, SPOW, NMDH, as well as the IT Minor.
Prerequisite: English 379. Junior or senior status and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. The Engl 380 pre-req
may be waived with instructor permission, space permitting.
English 391C Advanced Software for Professional Writers
Lecture 2     MW 4:00-5:15        Instructor: Elena Kalodner-Martin
See above for course description.
English 491LM Literature, Music, and the Rules of Engagement: Multi-Ethnic Musical Experiences in
the US
Lecture 1        TuTh 2:30-3:45               Instructor: Mazen Naous
In this course, we will analyze 20th century novels, poems, and a play by African American, Native American,
Mexican American, and Arab American writers, who draw on music, especially jazz and blues, to perform race,
gender, class, and migration. In particular, we will consider the relationship between musical styles and
historical events, and their impact on the characters’ identities and lived experiences. Some class time will be
spent on listening to and critiquing musical pieces in terms of their influence on the forms, aesthetics, and
politics of our texts: the rules of engagement. We will read works by Diana Abu-Jaber, James Baldwin, David
Henderson, Américo Paredes, Sherman Alexie, August Wilson, and a selection of jazz and blues poems.

                              Shakespeare
    ________________________________________________________________
English 221 Shakespeare (AL)
Lecture 1        MW 12:20-1:10 + discussion             Instructor: Marjorie Rubright
Do we still live in Shakespeare's world? In the language, poetry, and drama of Shakespeare, what continues to
inform, inspire, haunt or hurt us? Throughout this introductory course, we will consider how Shakespeare's
works shaped ideas about the early modern world and how, in turn, that legacy continues to shape notions of
our world today. We will also use Shakespeare to look beyond ourselves: to ask how early modern ideas of
gender, race, sexuality, nation, even distinctions between human and inhuman differ in surprising ways from
our own. Along the way, we will read tragedies, comedies, a history play and some sonnets. You will become
well practiced in close reading as we consider how individual words and phrases open onto urgent questions
about the changing social, political, and theatrical worlds of Shakespeare's time. Major requirements will
include one creative project, short critical reflections, and a final exam. Books are available through Amherst
Books and online retailers.

                             World Literature
    ________________________________________________________________
English 365 The Literature of Ireland (AL)
Lecture 1     TuTh 1:00-2:15        Instructor: Katherine O’Callaghan
Nineteenth-century background: the Irish Renaissance; such major figures as Yeats, Synge, Joyce and
O'Casey; recent and contemporary writing. (Gen.Ed. AL)

English 372H Caribbean Literature honors
Lecture 1      TuTh 10:00-11:15        Instructor: Rachel Mordecai:
In this course we will read contemporary works from the English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking literatures of
the Caribbean (all texts will be read in English), comprising a mixture of "canonical" and emerging authors.
Lectures (rare) and discussions (regular) will address central themes in Caribbean writing, as well as issues of
form and style (including the interplay between creole and European languages).
Some of the themes that will preoccupy us are history and its marks upon the Caribbean present; racial identity
and ambiguity; colonial and neo-colonial relationships among countries; gender and sexuality. Assignments will
include an informal reading journal and three major papers of varying lengths; there may also be student
presentations, small-group work, and in-class writing activities. Authors may include Maryse Conde, Tiphanie
Yanique, Kei Miller, Rene Depestre, Dionne Brand and Mayra Santos-Febres.
English 468 James Joyce
Lecture 1      TuTh 10:00-11:15       Instructor: Katherine O’Callaghan
From one hundred-letter thunderwords to falling giants and pirate queens, this course allows you to delve into
the magical prose world of one of the world's most innovative writers. In "The Writings of James Joyce" we will
discuss Joyce's short story collection Dubliners, his semi-autobiographical A Portrait of the Artist As A Young
Man, his modernist epic Ulysses, as well as sections from his extraordinary masterpiece Finnegans Wake. The
emphasis will be on a close textual examination of Joyce's prose, as well as historical, cultural, and political
contextualizations. Joyce's musical content and inspirations will be a dominant theme of the course. His
character, Stephen Dedalus, worries that his "souls frets in the shadow" of the English language, but we will
discover how Joyce reinvents English for his own purposes. For English majors only.
English 491SA Amandla! S. African Literature & Politics, Apartheid and Post-Apartheid
Lecture 1        MWF 10:10-11:00               Instructor: Stephen Clingman
“Amandla!” means “Power”, and it was a prominent political slogan in the anti-apartheid struggle. Over the last
hundred years, South Africa has seen transitions of a momentous nature: from a colonial past to a postcolonial
present; from the oppressions of apartheid to Nelson Mandela’s first democratically elected government in
1994 and the postapartheid period beyond. In this setting South African literature has kept the pulse of its
society, registering its lived experience and telling its inner history. In this context we’ll read works by key
writers both black and white, male and female. We’ll draw on fiction, drama and poetry, and dip into music,
documentaries and video to widen our sense of cultural and political engagement in and through a tumultuous
history. We’ll work to understand the relationship between politics and art, and we’ll also gain a sense of the
extraordinary cultural and social range of South African literature—of its voices, views and perspectives, the
possibilities, complexities and problems of a new society in the making. Authors will range from the most noted
and famous, such as Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee (both Nobel Prizewinners), to lesser-known but
nonetheless extraordinary writers, among them Njabulo Ndebele, Zoë Wicomb, K. Sello Duiker, and Phaswane
Mpe. By the end of the course you’ll have some insight into a remarkable country and some remarkably
powerful literature, relevant and resonant not only for its own world but also our own.

                       Writing and Evaluating Writing
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English 254 Writing and Reading Imaginative Literature (AL)
Lecture 1     MWF 11:15-12:05        Instructor: Dashau Washington
EMBODYING VOICES. What is language? What is a body? What is a voice? This course will explore the
answers to these questions and illustrate how they are all facets of the same jewel. Together, we'll break down
the anatomy of a line, a sentence, a stanza, a paragraph, a page, and explore techniques to expand and
complicate their depth. Writers you can expect to read in this course include Hanif Abdurraqib, Claudia
Rankine, Ken Liu, Ocean Vuong, Safia Elhillo, Danez Smith, and Layli Long Soldier. Studying these writers, we

will examine how they further the message of their writing through experimentation with form and how they use
the synergy of structure and language to challenge the tangibility of the subjects addressed. We will determine
what techniques empower the voices of these writers to haunt the minds of their readers and we'll cultivate our
own practices to teach us to do the same. Through literary exploration, creative writing, and workshopping, we
will purposefully shape a body from which the voices of our writing will speak, cry, sing, dance, and shout.
(Gen. Ed. AL)
English 254 Writing and Reading Imaginative Literature (AL)
Lecture 2       TuTh 4:00-5:15          Instructor: Sarena Brown
Playing with Words. You might not know it, but you’re already a good writer. You play with words everyday
by writing across genre and in many different forms (think about how you use tiktok, group chats, to-do lists,
your notes app, etc...). This class will start by considering the many ways you already write before moving into
a survey of work by poets and essayists, YA fiction writers, visual artists, and genre-bending artists in between.
You’ll write alongside these works to notice how your form impacts your content. Most importantly, you’ll
experiment with new ways of writing to help break out of your comfort zones. Together, we will create norms
about how we read and give feedback to one another’s work through a lens of compassion and graciousness.
Lastly, you will be expected to engage with the larger writing community by attending virtual readings or literary
events throughout the Pioneer Valley and beyond. (Gen. Ed. AL)
English 254 Writing and Reading Imaginative Literature (AL)
Lecture 3     MWF 10:10-11:00      Instructor: Rabia Saeed
Course description forthcoming. (Gen. Ed. AL)
English 254 Writing and Reading Imaginative Literature (AL)
Lecture 4     MWF 12:20-1:10        Instructor: Marcella Haddad
Course description forthcoming. (Gen. Ed. AL)
English 298H Practicum: Teaching in the Writing Center
Lecture 1       Thurs 4:00-5:15      Instructor: Shannon Mooney
Practicum consists of four hours per week tutoring in the Writing Center and one-hour weekly meetings to
discuss tutorials and supplementary readings, to write, and to work on committee projects. Students who have
successfully completed English 329H Tutoring Writing: Theory & Practice are eligible to enroll in this course.
This is a two-course series. Open only to students who registered in 329H Fall 2018.
English 354 Creative Writing: Intro to Fiction
Lecture 1     MWF 11:15-12:05        Instructor: Joseph Moore
The Guise of Fiction: Conveying Truth in Falsehood We write to communicate the incommunicable. And,
by doing so, we enact the ultimate form of empathy. The exchange between writer and reader is intimate,
messy. How do we navigate this process without alienating the other? How do we craft stories while staying
vulnerable, humble? Through workshop and lecture, we’ll learn to walk the line between characterization and
personal experience. We’ll discover how to write from a place of vulnerability, how to open ourselves up to
each other. And, we’ll embark on a journey to find our unique voices, strange as they may be.
There will be readings from living writers alongside writers from the established canon. Readings from writers
of color, and writers from around the world. Some of the authors we'll read include Franz Kafka, Carmen Maria
Machado, Toni Morrison, Raymond Carver, Zadie Smith and Julio Cortazar. Note that, as classmates, it's our
role to foster a safe environment, not only for creative expression, but for creative reception. Offensive and
hateful rhetoric in older texts will always be prefaced, if not challenged. It will not be tolerated within the text of
your peers. In-class writing exercises will help hone your abilities on the line-level. Expect to offer valuable
critique for the work of your fellow peers.
English 354 Creative Writing: Intro to Poetry
Lecture 2     MWF 1:25-2:15        Instructor: Mary Scraggs
Course description forthcoming.

English 354 Creative Writing: Mixed Genre
Lecture 3       MW 2:30-3:45 Instructor: Shana Bulhan
‘Precarious Lives’: Writing with Vulnerability. In Precarious Life (2004), Judith Butler entreats us: “Let’s
face it. We’re undone by each other. And if we’re not, we’re missing something” (23). This is a sentiment we
will begin from and return to throughout this course. Butler is interested in precarity: a condition of material
uncertainty and structural abandonment. While some lives and bodies are more precarious than others, this is
a political condition that many of us encounter in some form or other during our lives. What are the ways that
you experience precarity? How are you marginalized, silenced, threatened, and misunderstood? How can we
connect across our shared and differential experiences of precarity, allowing for undoing as well as
transformation?
In this course, we will generate hybrid creative work while looking at representations of precarity in
contemporary texts across various genres and forms. We will study, honour, and challenge how other writers
navigate complicated and complex places of (inter)personal vulnerability. Besides Butler, authors may include
Bhanu Kapil, francine j. harris, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Ocean Vuong, Porpentine Heartscape,
Richard Siken, and Sarah Kane. Drawing from assigned texts as testimony and inspiration, we will provide
candid, thoughtful feedback on each other’s writing. How can we give power to precarity: that which is
simultaneously a source of great pain and possibility?
English 355 Creative Writing Fiction
Lecture 1              TuTh 2:30-3:45        Instructor: John Hennessy
In this course students will write and workshop short stories. They will also read widely in modern and
contemporary fiction and complete a series of assignments intended to address specific aspects of fiction
writing. Admission by permission of professor.
Students should submit one complete story and a brief personal statement (list and briefly discuss your favorite
writers and books) to Professor Hennessy's email address: jjhennes@english.umass.edu. Please include Spire
ID #. DUE NOV 20. OPEN TO STUDENTS FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS.
English 356 Creative Writing Poetry
Lecture 1             TuTh 1:00-2:15         Instructor: John Hennessy
English 356 is a poetry workshop. In addition to writing their own poems, students will read widely in
contemporary poetry.
Interested students should send a portfolio of up to 3 poems to John Hennessy at
jjhennes@english.umass.edu by November 20th. Students should (briefly) discuss their favorite poets, writers,
books, poems, in a separate statement. Please include contact information. Submission deadline is November
20th. Registration after this date is possible, but priority will be given to students who meet the November 20th
deadline. Students will be notified of their status by December 15th. Registration by instructor permission
only. OPEN TO STUDENTS FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS.
English 356 Creative Writing Poetry
Lecture 2       Mon 11:15-1:45          Instructor: Martín Espada
This is an advanced poetry workshop. Students should participate actively, producing poems independently for
review in class, engaging in writing exercises, and commenting on work submitted by others. This is a course
designed to help the student define a distinct voice in the work and to reinforce the fundamental skills of writing
poems. We address these objectives through a close reading of student poems, as well as writing exercises.
The strengths of student writing receive as much attention as those areas in need of improvement. Registration
by instructor permission only. Students should submit a portfolio of three poems in a Word document to
Professor Espada at mespada.umass@gmail.com. Students will be notified by the end of the semester of their
status. Registration after this date is possible, but priority will be given to students who apply this semester for
the fall. Prerequisite: English majors only. English 354 or equivalent with a B or better.

English 381 Professional Writing and Technical Communication II
Lecture 1      TuTh 2:30-3:45         Instructor: Janine Solberg
Extends the work of ENGL 380. Students will learn and apply principles of technical writing, information design,
and page design. The objectives of this course are to increase students' organizational and graphical
sophistication as writers and information designers. Students can expect to produce portfolio-quality content
using industry-standard software (typically Adobe InDesign, MadCap Flare). Prerequisite: English 380. Junior
or senior status and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
English 382 Professional Writing and Technical Communication III
Lecture 1       TuTh 11:30-12:45      Instructor: David Toomey
ENGL 382 serves as the capstone course for the Professional Writing and Technical Communication
Certificate. As such, the course has two aims: professionalization and specialization. Students will participate
in mock interviews, workshop their professional portfolios, and learn about careers in technical writing and
information technology from working professionals. The course will also provide students with directed
opportunities to explore the theory and practice of particular kinds of writing and technology (e.g., report
writing, grant proposals, speechwriting, voiceovers, integration with video and film, web site development).
Each student will present a significant report on a topic related to technology, communication, and culture.
Prereq.: ENGL 381 (which may be taken concurrently), junior or senior status and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or
better. (3 credits).
English 391NM Narrative Medicine: How Writing Can Heal
Lecture 1        Thurs 4:00-6:30         Instructor: Marian MacCurdy
This interdisciplinary writing course investigates the cognitive and emotional benefits of writing for diverse
populations including trauma survivors, patients, caregivers, teachers or those who hope to teach—anyone
who is interested in the power of personal writing to effect change. Training in reflective writing supports clinical
and/or pedagogical effectiveness among medical and educational professionals by enabling them to both listen
to and respond to stories of conflict, illness, trauma, and transformation and to express their own histories in
writing as well. Students will read, write, and discuss personal essays as well as texts that address the
relationship between writing and resilience. We will focus on process—how to produce narratives that are both
artistically and therapeutically effective. No prior experience with the medical humanities required.
English 497T Teaching Writing in the 21st Century
Lecture 1       TuTh 1:00-2:30          Instructor: Donna LeCourt
Why do we privilege some kinds of writing over others? What uses and functions does writing serve in society?
How is writing changing as a result of social media and other technologies? An introduction to writing studies
designed for people who may want to teach K-16, this course will inquire into the changing nature of writing in
the 21st century. Specifically, we will investigate why and how writing matters within social hierarchies; what
conceptual frames we have for understanding writing production; how cultural contexts affect a writer's
choices; how textual features reflect different writers and ways of knowing; and most importantly, how people
learn to write. To do so, we will look into research and scholarship on diverse literacies, writing processes, the
nature of academic writing, and how writers from diverse populations may approach writing tasks differently.
We will focus not only on how we might teach writing but also on how writing is changing in response to
multiple Englishes, digital platforms, and the information economy. By the end of the course, students will be
able to articulate their own position on what the goals of writing education ought to be and start to define a
teaching practice that might emerge from it.
English 499D Foundations and Departures in Creative Writing: Fiction, Poetry, and Literary Non-fiction
– 2nd semester
Lecture 1      Wed 4:00-6:30         Instructor: John Hennessy
499D is the second semester of Foundations and Departures in Creative Writing: Fiction, Poetry, and Literary
Non-Fiction, a multi-genre, two-semester course in creative writing designed to help students complete a
Capstone project within the genre of their choice. Both a class in contemporary literature and a writing
workshop, Foundations and Departures will offer students a wide variety of reading assignments and writing

exercises from across all three genres. At the end of the first semester students will submit a portfolio of
original work; in the second semester students will finish drafting and revising their Capstone projects.
Textbooks will include _The Art of the Story_, a fiction anthology, novels by a variety of writers, including
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Virginia Woolf, and Teju Cole, memoir by Helene Cooper, non-fiction by Joan Didion,
poetry collections by Major Jackson, Denise Duhamel, and other contemporary poets.
Interested students should submit a personal statement: 1-2 pages, list and briefly discuss your reading
preferences: favorite books, writers, poems, poets, etc.; also, tell me if you are a student in Commonwealth
College—some priority will be given to ComColl students, but some of the most successful students in 499 in
past years have come from outside Commonwealth College. Also include a writing sample—one complete
story or essay, or 5-10 poems. Some combination of poetry and prose is also permitted.
SEND TO: jjhennes@english.umass.edu by NOV 20.