Intro to Lit Studies: Reading Energy
ENG 3822.005｜Balkan, S.｜Req.｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 11am–12:20pm
What would happen if we were to examine literary texts through the lens of energy? That is, what if we approached William Wordsworth’s Romantic ruminations on the “sublime” crafts of “men’s arts” as a praxis for thinking about the material forces of the sublime—“motion and means…on land and sea” made possible first by the winds that would move commerce across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1790s and soon thereafter by coal? Or what of the so-called road novel? What happens when Jack Kerouac meets Cormac McCarthy? In this class, we will begin by asking a series of questions about the relationship between energy and popular culture before exploring a rich archive of literary texts including (but not limited to) Romantic lyric, postcolonial satire, and speculative climate fiction. In addition to Kerouac and McCarthy, writers shall include Helena María Viramontes, Karen Russell, Nnedi Okorafor, and Aravind Adiga.
Intro to Literary Studies
ENG 3822.004｜Ma, C.｜Req.｜Distance Learning｜Online Live Lecture｜T 4pm–6:50pm
This course serves as an essential gateway for English majors, preparing you for the field of literary studies. You will explore three key genres: nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, while also engaging with important literary concepts. Throughout the course, we will emphasize close textual analysis and foundational research skills. You’ll dive into several critical theories, including Ecocriticism, New Materialism, Disability Studies, and Postcolonial Theory. By the end of the course, you will have mastered essential critical terminology, explored various theoretical approaches, and become proficient in research techniques. You will apply these skills to closely read and analyze primary literary works across all three genres.
Literary Theory
LIT 3213.002｜Hagood, T.｜Req.｜Distance Learning｜Fully Online Class
Literary theory is a fundamental aspect of literary studies and criticism. Theory provides the abstract modeling that guides interpretation of primary literary texts and thus is crucial to successful work as an English major. This course explores the development of literary theory from the New Criticism to the major movements of the present moment.
Literary Theory
LIT 3213.003｜Berlatsky, E.｜Req.｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 12:30pm–1:50pm
Students in LIT 3213: Literary Theory will learn and examine various ways in which critics and theorists have approached literary texts over the years, as well as some crucial questions: What is literature? Why do we study it? What value does it hold for society? A little time will be spent on classic theorists like Aristotle, Plato, Sir Phlip Sidney, Percy Shelley, and Samuel Johnson, particularly in defining the concept of mimesis and determining its value. Most of the semester will explore varying theoretical/critical approaches that answer the above questions in varying ways: New Criticism/Formalism, Reader-Response Theory, Psychoanalytic Theory, Marxist Theory, New Historicism, Feminist Theory, Postcolonial Theory, and more. Students will read crucial statements by important theorists (immortalized in grainy pdf’s) and will consider the application of their ideas to various texts, including and especially Frank Miller’s graphic novel, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
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World Literature: Critical Approaches
LIT 4225.001｜Adams, R.｜Cat 1｜Distance Learning｜Online Live Lecture｜T 7:10pm–10pm
In this course, we will be reading works of world literature in translation that will be considered in 3 modules: Existence and Transcendence, Perspective and Change, and Love and Obsession. We will be reading works translated from Sanskrit, Russian, German, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Polish and Japanese. The focus in the course will be on alternative world views and the ethical challenges and existential opportunities offered by them. Coursework will consist of 2 medium-length assigned essays, one in-class essay exam, and weekly simple-answer quizzes at the beginning and end of each week’s class. The course will be taught via zoom online and live attendance is required.
Women and Literature
LIT 4383.002｜Dagbovie-Mullins, S.｜Cat 1｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 12:30pm–1:50pm
The course examines both contemporary canonical and less canonical women writers and the ways women are portrayed in twentieth and twenty-first century literature. How does women’s literature represent the experiences of those who identify as women and/or challenge conventional notions of gender and sexuality? We will explore how women writers think about gender roles, address various forms of oppression, and confront social and political issues. The course readings (short stories, novels, graphic narratives) are authored by women writers with different social, racial, and geographic roots and thus we will pay close attention to how women’s writing is conditioned by race, class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and sexuality.
US Latino/a Literatures
AML 4630.001｜TBA｜Cat 1｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 12:30pm–1:50pm
Catalog Course Description: An introduction to U.S. Latino/a literatures, with emphasis on Cuban-American, Puerto Rican and Mexican-American traditions.
PRE-1800 WORLD LITERATURE
LIT 4930｜Adams, R.｜Cat 1 (pre-1800)｜Distance Learning｜Online Live Lecture｜W 7:10pm–10pm
In this course, we will be reading three major works of pre-1800 world literature that are characterized by a preoccupation with metamorphosis and shifting alternative realities. The three works are Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and Wu Cheng’en’s Monkey King: Journey to the West.
Caribbean Literature in English
LIT 4192.001｜Lettman, S.｜Cat 1｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 11am–12:20pm
This class will focus on Caribbean folklore, examining the significance of the female vampire known throughout the region by various names, including loogaroo, soucouyant, and ole higue. We will also explore the zombie, ghost, and trickster figure Anansy/Anansi, a remnant of West African culture, as well as figures from religious lore such as Ogun, Shango, and Damballa. Additionally, we will analyze Caribbean folklore through a variety of literary techniques and genres, including magical realism, speculative fiction, superhero tales, and fairy tales.
We will examine the works of notable writers such as Nalo Hopkinson, Alejo Carpentier, Aimé Césaire, Edwidge Danticat, and others.
African-American Literature to 1895
AML 4604.001｜Fox, R.｜Cat 1｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 11am–12:20pm
In a 2010 edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Angela Y. Davis considers the significance of reading nineteenth-century African American literature in our twenty-first century present. While we should not, she warns, strictly impose the experience of our “now” on the past, she models how to pose questions about intersections between race, gender, and democracy. Davis queries, “How then do we read Douglass’s narrative today? How do we think about slavery’s inheritances that continue to shape contemporary institutions and practices?”
Using Davis’ reflections as a springboard for conversation, this course examines philosophical perspectives and worldviews embodied in early African American literature. Surveying African American oral traditions, short fiction, and prose produced before the turn of the twentieth century, participants in the class will analyze the literary attributes and theoretical implications of some of the most important writing in the field.
Honors Seminar
ENG 4932.001｜Ulin, J.｜Cat 1｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜F 2pm–4:50pm
Honors Seminar is required for honors students but open to those interested in more advanced literary study. This course allows students to synthesize the literary knowledge and critical skills gained in the English major. The seminar is more intensive and interactive than the Department’s other courses and will be organized in ways that anticipate graduate-level courses. The topics of the seminar change from year to year. This course will be offered once a year in the fall.
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Reading the Environment
LIT 4001.002｜Balkan, S.｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 2pm–3:20pm
This course will explore the intersecting histories of literary expression and landscape ideology, questioning popular understandings of “environment” that reject the irrefutable kinship between human and more-than-human actors. We shall populate the “vacant edens” of eighteenth-century “wilderness” writing with a chorus of Earthly voices—whether in the majestic mountains of California, or the otherworldly swamps of Florida. We shall also expand our notion of “environment” beyond the narrow musings of conservationists like Sierra Club founder John Muir in order to engage the relationship between environment, nature, and industrial development. We shall cast a wide geographical net, moving across the southwestern United States, through the petrochemical belt of Louisiana and Texas, and beyond the sea toward the oil fields of Nigeria and the cotton fields of India. Readings shall include works by bell hooks, Helena María Viramontes, Arundhati Roy, Patrick Chamoiseau, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indra Sinha, Tommy Pico, and Imbolo Mbue.
American Novel: 19th Century
AML 3111.001｜Fox, R.｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 2pm–3:20pm
In Read Until You Understand, Farah Jasmine Griffin asserts, “As a form, the novel can raise questions about the possibilities and goals of justice. It allows us to imagine what a society governed by an ethic of care, a society devoted to restoring and repairing those who have been harmed, giving them the space for transformation, might look like.” In “American Novel: 19th Century,” we will grapple with Griffin’s sense of the novel’s purpose in two ways. On the one hand, we bring it into conversation with perspectives offered by other social and literary critics, including Benedict Anderson and Lauren Berlant. On the other, we will examine nineteenth-century novels and novellas (in part or in full) to give a fuller accounting of what they make possible today. Assigned readings will include fiction by Herman Melville, Rebecca Harding Davis, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Charles Chesnutt, and Pauline Hopkins.
American LIT: 20th-Century Movement
AML 4242.002｜Hagood, T.｜Cat 2｜Distance Learning｜Fully Online Class
This course delves deeply into major movements of 20th-Century American literature, including Modernism, Postmodernism, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Southern Renaissance. Attention will be given to aesthetics, historical context, and many other aspects of these movements and the ways they shaped the literary art of the twentieth century.
Science Fiction
LIT 3313.001｜MacDonald, I.｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 12:30pm–1:50pm
This survey course will introduce students to the academic discourse surrounding science fiction in the academy. Focusing on the figure of the alien, students will read novels and short stories by authors including H.G. Wells, Stansilaw Lem, Nnedi Okorafor, J. Tiptree, and Nalo Hopkinson working to develop interpretations of what the extra-terrestrial represents, both metaphorically and symbolically, as it recurs in science fiction contexts.
American Literature to 1865
AML 2010.001｜Medina, D.｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 12:30pm–1:50pm
Catalog Course Description: An overview of American literature, including representative writers of the Colonial, Enlightenment and Romantic periods.
max of 2 courses (6 credits) can be in lower division for the entire major
Colonial & Early American Literature
AML 4213.001｜Medina, D.｜Cat 2｜Distance Learning｜Online Live Lecture｜T/R 9:30am–10:50am
This course surveys American literature from the 1600 to 1800. Readings begin with Native American narratives and Indigenous accounts of European arrival in the New World and end with American fiction and poetry written near the of end of the 18th century. In between, we’ll sample the rich and extensive multinational, multilingual, and multicultural American literature, considering how that literature imagines America—whether as home or as foreign territory, as indigenous, colonial, national, or imperial space. We will aim to read selected literary texts closely and carefully, and work toward understanding those texts within their historical and cultural contexts.
Horror Fiction
LIT 4001.001｜Miller, T.｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 11am–12:20pm
Horror, perhaps uniquely among literary genres, is generally defined by the effect it is intended to produce in the reader, rather than any formal characteristics. In this course, we will explore the desire to scare ourselves that seems to lie at the heart of horror, and what it might mean to approach critically the genre of things that go bump in the night. We will read some early stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley’s foundational novel Frankenstein, and a few “weird” fictions of H. P. Lovecraft, as well as more recent examples of the form, emphasizing new directions charted by women and authors of color. We will reckon with ghosts, zombies, vampires, werewolves, tentacled monstrosities beyond human comprehension, and much more. The word “monster” shares a Latin root --“to show” -- with words like “demonstrate,” and a guiding assumption of this course will be that monsters exist to tell us something.
Mythology
ENL 3425.001｜Taylor, T.｜Cat 2 (pre-1800)｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 2pm–3:20pm
Mythology is frequently referenced, adapted, and reimagined in British and American literature. This course will provide a background in mythology that will enable a deeper understanding of British and American literature. We will delve into a range of mythological traditions, including Greek, Norse, and Mesoamerican mythology. Readings will include classic mythological works such as The Odyssey, The Prose and Poetic Eddas, and The Popul Vuh. We will also look at some contemporary mythic adaptations from British and American literature, though our focus will be reading and studying classic mythology.
Literature of Adolescence
LIT 3333.001｜Taylor, T.｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 11am–12:20pm
Science fiction and fantasy are dominating young adult and children’s literature sales. Books like The Hobbit, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games continue to dominate sales of books marketed for those 12-18 years old. In this class, we are going to ask: what is it about science fiction and fantasy that makes it sell so well in the young adult and children’s market? Interestingly, studies have suggested that 80% of YA literature is purchased and read by adults, so it isn’t simply that the genres are well-suited to the 12-18 demographic. What is it about YA and middle-grade science fiction and fantasy that captures the imagination? Together, we’ll look at some of the most recent hits in children’s and young adult sf/f to consider not only what makes them so popular, but also their relevance to literary studies and use in the classroom.
British Romanticism
ENL 4243.001｜TBA｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 9:30am–10:50am
Catalog Course Description: A study of major poets of the Romantic period, including prose writing, theory and fiction.
British Literature to 1798
ENL 2012.001｜Thomas, C.｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 12:30pm–1:50pm
We will read the literatures of the British Isles from the early medieval period to the end of the eighteenth century. “British” is not synonymous with “English,” and we will read early texts from the peoples who wrote in a variety of languages. The point of this course is to teach you not only the canonical texts and authors, like Beowulf and Shakespeare, but also to have you walk away with a greater understanding of and, hopefully, appreciation for what “British” meant in the pre-1800 past by reading the noncanonical as well. You will gain knowledge of premodern English languages; learn to analyze the act of translation; be able to identify premodern writing genres; understand the historical, socio-political, and religious events that influenced literary history; and improve close reading and research composition on a premodern topic.
max of 2 courses (6 credits) can be in lower division for the entire major
Honors Seminar
ENG 4932.001｜Ulin, J.｜Cat 2｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜F 2pm–4:50pm
Honors Seminar is required for honors students but open to those interested in more advanced literary study. This course allows students to synthesize the literary knowledge and critical skills gained in the English major. The seminar is more intensive and interactive than the Department’s other courses and will be organized in ways that anticipate graduate-level courses. The topics of the seminar change from year to year. This course will be offered once a year in the fall.
Shakespeare
ENL 4333.001｜Chenovick, C.｜Cat 2 (pre-1800)｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 11am–12:20pm
This class focuses on the works and cultural contexts of William Shakespeare. We will focus on a selection of his sonnets and four of his plays with strong points of connection to key moral and social issues that continue to matter in our own day. As we consider how Shakespeare engages with issues of gender and sexuality, power and consent, race, and colonialism, we will trace out how Shakespeare and his contemporaries helped shape present-day beliefs and discourses around these issues. Along the way, we will delve into the historical contexts and documents that shape Shakespeare’s works and will engage with critics and contemporary sources that help us question the role of these plays in our own day. We will also study Toni Morrison’s Desdemona as an example of a present-day author talking back to Shakespeare through a creative engagement with his characters and themes.
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Creative Writing: Nonfiction
CRW 4211.001｜Anderson, S.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 11am–12:20pm
This course is designed to introduce students to the art of telling true stories in a creative voice and style. As a class, we will hone our writing and reading skills to become more invested in the act of writing creative nonfiction, with the purpose of developing our own voices. The goal is to grow both as a reader and writer of literary creative nonfiction. Readings will focus on a number of styles, voices, and forms within the sphere of nonfiction writing, such as personal essays, topic essays, literary journalism, and memoir. We will focus on the writing process: How do creative nonfiction writers go about producing finished texts? What tools do they use? How is the process both similar to and different from writing fiction? How do research, point of view, and memory fit into the process? To this end, we will write essays and “workshop” one another’s work.
Literary Editing & Publishing
CRW 4723.003｜Anderson, S.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜M 4pm–6:50pm
Catalog Course Description: This course offers a combination of theoretical background and practical, hands-on experience in the field of literary magazine editing and publishing. Students produce Coastlines, FAU's undergraduate literary journal. Duties include evaluating submissions, editing, publicity, research, budget proposals and more.
Advanced Exposition
ENC 3310.001｜Barrios, B.｜Cat 3｜Distance Learning｜Fully Online Class
AI and Writing. In this course we will examine and explore the use of generative AI for writing. Assignments will explore effective prompt engineering, generating and editing AI writing, and the ethics of using AI. Some assignments will be wholly AI based but some assignments you cannot use AI at all. Our goal is to make you capable, agile, ethical, and adaptable when it comes to using artificial intelligence tools for writing.
Fiction Workshop 1
CRW 4120.001｜Bucak, A.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 11am–12:20pm
This fiction workshop will combine reading of published fiction and essays on the craft of fiction writing, with the writing of new fiction projects. Students will complete either a portfolio of short stories or a significant portion of a novel or novella.
Fictional Worldbuilding
CRW 4930.001｜Bucak, A.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 2pm–3:20pm
This class will focus on the use of setting as a foundation for the writing of fiction. We will read published fiction that model using setting to generate plot, characterization, theme, etc and students will propose a fictional project (can be short stories/novel/video game/etc) for which they will create a detailed world. While students might be writing fantasy, that is not required. All fiction operates in a world that impacts its residents. There will be some sharing of student fiction workshop-style, but much of the class will be centered on generating your unique world, which you can use as a basis for future fiction (or those students also taking the Fiction Workshop could make the two classes work in tandem). While CRW 3010 is a prerequisite, students with appropriate levels of writing experience who have not taken CRW 3010 can contact Professor Bucak (pbucak at fau dot edu) to discuss possible waiving of the requirement.
Structure of Modern English
LIN 4680.006｜Kelly, W.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 12:30pm–1:50pm
Using elaborate tree diagramming and Chomskyan linguistic theory, the course will teach students to describe the structure of Modern English sentences. The textbook is Max Morenberg’s Doing Grammar.
Principles of Research Writing
ENC 4138.001｜Klein, S.｜Cat 3｜Distance Learning｜Fully Online Class
Catalog Course Description: Provides an introduction to communicating research through writing.
Professional Writing
ENC 3213.008｜TBA｜Cat 3｜Distance Learning｜Fully Online Class
ENC 3213.009｜TBA｜Cat 3｜Distance Learning｜Fully Online Class
ENC 3213.010｜TBA｜Cat 3｜Distance Learning｜Fully Online Class
Catalog Course Description: Prepares the student to write professionally for audiences within and outside a corporation or nonprofit enterprise. Proofreading skills stressed.
professional writing
ENC 3213.007｜Mason, J.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 12:30pm–1:50pm
Writing as a professional entails learning the forms of writing—or genres—that professionals in the field commonly write. In this class, you will be introduced to the various types of and techniques for producing professional writing, including correspondence, proposals, reports, presentations, and other texts often found in business and professional communities. But more than this, being a professional means being able to read and write effectively in any professional situation. For that reason, this class will focus on reading and writing rhetorically—taking a rhetorical approach.
In addition to practicing professional communication in situations similar to those found in the professions, students may also analyze and write about business issues, which will demand thoughtful analysis of content areas, organizational patterns, point of view, and of document layout and design
Creative Writing
CRW 3010.002｜McKay, B.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 9:30am–10:50am
The writer Toni Morrison once said, “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” And, similarly, the poet Ezra Pound said, “Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth.” The best kind of creative writing—poem, story, essay—comes when we can find fresh and unexpected ways to present language. Stories and poems are only as strong and fresh as the language they contain, and only through strength and originality of language we can achieve depth in our writing. In this course we will approach creative writing in several ways:
Creative Writing
CRW 3310.001｜Romeo, O.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 2pm–3:20pm
“But that's what art is for—for both reader and writer to overcome their respective limitations and encounter something true. It seems miraculous, doesn't it? That somebody can articulate something clearly and beautifully that exists inside you, something shrouded in impenetrable fog.” – Khaled Hosseini
Some people can articulate their reasons for writing and pinpoint what guides their impulse to commit thoughts to the page; others cannot but are driven to write with no less verve. For all of us, however, the act of writing is often an act of failure. We are always trying to match our work to the desire that makes us produce it, and often we discover a gulf between intent and production. Yet we return to writing, attempting to bridge that gulf, and often the only thing that keeps us going is that we have once felt and continue to feel what Orwell describes as “the joy of mere words.”
In this course, we will do our best to revel in the joy of mere words by considering works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. We will study these as we attempt to find techniques and models for our own writing, ways to bridge that gap between that impulse to write and the act itself. We will read works by writers such as Harryette Mullen, Rachel Ghansah Kaadzi, John Jeremiah Sullivan, and Lesley Nneka Arimah, among others.
Creative Writing
CRW 3010.003｜Schwartz, J.｜Cat 3｜Distance Learning｜Online Live Lecture｜M 7:10pm–10pm
Catalog Course Description: Guidance and criticism for beginners in writing prose fiction and poetry.
Studies in Writing & Rhetoric
ENG 4020.003｜Slotkin, A.｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 12:30pm–1:50pm
Rhetoric—you’ve heard the word before, but what does it really mean? And what’s its connection to culture?
Rhetoric was invented some 2,300 years ago (or thereabouts) by the Ancient Greeks. But here’s the twist: communities all over the world have been practicing rhetoric in some form for as long as people have been making meaning, creating a deep well of different rhetorics. This course will introduce you to contemporary developments in rhetoric and writing studies with a particular emphasis on cultural rhetorics.</div><div>By the end of this course, you’ll not only grasp why rhetoric is deeply cultural but also see how culture itself is rhetorical. This course is both conceptual and practical in nature, with students engaging in scholarly discussions about how to study rhetoric before connecting these theories to their writing.
Professional Writing
ENC 3213.001｜TBA｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜W/F 9:30am–10:50am
ENC 3213.005｜TBA｜Cat 3｜Boca Raton｜In-Person｜T/R 11am–12:20pm
Catalog Course Description: Prepares the student to write professionally for audiences within and outside a corporation or nonprofit enterprise. Proofreading skills stressed.