Registration for the Spring semester is right around the corner, and deciding which classes to take may be more frustrating than waking up at 6am to sign up for them. This upcoming Spring, the English department is offering four upper level English classes. Keep reading to see if any of these interesting courses would be a perfect fit for your schedule next semester.
English 483- Politics, Film, and Media
This film course taught by Dr. Craven is to take place on Mondays from 6 to 9pm. Politics, Film, and Media explores how power and privilege intersect in the political realms through the lens of film. Some of the films that will be viewed and discussed within this course include On the Waterfront, The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, I am not your Negro, Isla das Flores, and Casablanca. This course also fills the Perspectives requirement.
English 430- Ethnic American Lit Since 1954
This online literature course fulfills the perspectives requirement, as it examines the ways in which prose writers, playwrights, and poets from the so-called “ethnic minority” groups question viewpoints that traditionally define American culture and history. Taught by Dr. Jakubiak, this course will analyze how these writers use literature to acknowledge difficult historical experiences of American minorities and to show that these experiences contrast with traditional and celebratory views of American culture, condensed in the idea of the “American dream.” This approach will help students understand what the “American dream” looks like from the perspective of Native Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans etc. Some readings featured in the course include Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Luis Valdes’s Zoot Suit, and John Okada’s No-no Boy.
English 411- Romanticism
This literary course taught by Dr. Mondello will be offered each Monday and Wednesday from 3 to 4:15pm. The Romantic era of poetry and literature is identifiable with its themes of nature, emotion, and individuality. These themes and more will be explored and discussed through reading works by poetic greats such as Wordworth, Coolridge, Shelley, Blake, and many more.
English 336- New Dimensions to World Literature
This course, taught by Dr. Jakubiak each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11-11:50, will explore the issues of representation and power in selected works of non-Western literature written in the 20th and 21st centuries. The leading theme of the course is the call from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s well-known TED talk lecture “The Danger of a Single Story.” Through novels, short stories, and plays coming from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, students will consider the “dangers” of interpreting cultures, traditions, spiritual beliefs, and political systems using a single lens, and will discuss the value as well as limitations of seeking multiple perspectives. For example, the novel I, Tituba, the Black Witch of Salem by the Guadeloupian writer Maryse Condé will allow students to imagine the unbiased story of Tituba from the Salem witch trials, while Home Fire by the Pakistani-British writer Kamila Shamsie will be an introduction to the dilemmas of young Muslims in contemporary London.