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The following courses are offered during the Spring 2019 semester. Please view the Moravian University Course Catalog for a complete listing of English Department course offerings.

100-Level Courses

English 101 A: American Literature: Roots and Routes 

This course is an introduction to the development of the American literary heritage, with emphasis on analytical, written, and oral skills. We will focus on works that either remain deeply rooted in one place or chart routes to new destinations. In addition to considering why some writers and characters prefer the comforts (or challenges) of home while others are lured (or forced) to go on the road, we will also explore tensions between region and nation throughout American literature. LinC M2 course. Crooke

English 104 A and B: The Experience of Literature: Examination of the Literary Witch

What do you imagine when you hear the word “witch”? In this course, students will closely examine the archetype and evolution of the witch through a variety of literary mediums such as fiction, poetry, film, drama, and excerpts from graphic novels. Additionally, major concepts such as Spiritualism, Revisionism, Occultism, and Gender Theory will be introduced in order to contextualize the witch within each assigned text. The course objective is to answer larger questions such as why the witch is ever-present in literature across time and space, and how the witch constantly evolves to reflect societal shifts and tensions. LinC M2 course. Tedesco

English 104 C: The Experience of Literature: Autobiographical Impulse

Have you ever wondered why human beings love to tell stories? What makes us so curious about the lives of individuals we have never met? Telling a story, beginning with “Once upon a time,” takes us back to an oral tradition when stories were passed down and evolved over time. This course will examine the autobiographical impulse in literature, including memoir, fiction, poetry, and film. We will examine how this autobiographical impulse leads the writer to objectify the self differently in different genres. Students will develop critical thinking and analytical skills through close readings and class discussions. Students will develop writing and organizational skills by writing essays about the texts examined. LinC M2 course. Allen

English 105: African American Literature: Race, Gender, and Resistance

This course introduces students to African American Studies through various depictions of the lived experiences of African Americans. These depictions emerge in historical discourses, art, language, literature, cultural studies, film, music, poetry, and drama. This course outlines the various subjects of African American Studies through the historical, literary, aural, and oral texts that reflect the culture of Black folk in the United States. (Also an Africana Studies minor course.) LinC M2 course. LaRue

200-Level Courses

English 211: Creative Nonfiction

Guided practice in public and personal essay writing. Workshop setting. Prerequisites: LINC 101, WRIT 100, or equivalent F1 course. Fodrey

English 213.2: Working with Student Writers: Theory and Praxis

This course offers a broad overview of composition and writing tutoring pedagogy and covers best practices for working with student writers. Students will gain practical teaching, presentation, and leadership skills through extensive practice with student writing samples and a range of reflective and research-based assignments. We will also address considerations broadly related to student success and academic readiness. This course is designed to support students who wish to become Writing Fellows or Writing Center Tutors. Prerequisites: LinC F1 and permission of instructor. Mikovits

English 216: Professional Writing

Introduction to business and technical composing practices and genres with an emphasis on audience awareness, document design, and project development and management. Includes critical rhetorical study and creation of job and grant application materials, manuals, proposals, print and digital marketing materials, and other deliverables requested as part of this class' service learning collaboration with local organizations. Mikovits

English 221: English Language

Introduction to phonology, grammar, lexicon, and other aspects of English from its beginning to the present, with an emphasis on current language issues. Black

English 225: Introduction to English Studies

Introduction to various aspects of the discipline, including analysis of literature, bibliographic and research techniques, critical thinking and writing, various literary approaches, literary theory, and history of the field. Closed to non-English majors except by written permission of department chair or instructor. Writing intensive. Strongly encouraged as a pre-requisite for upper-level English courses. Tabor

English 230: Public Speaking

Basic theory of public speaking with emphasis on developing skills essential to effective interpersonal communication in industrial, business, and academic settings. Ward

English 232: Art of the Theatre

Aesthetic, historical, and production aspects of theater. Practical experience in production. (M6) This is an InFocus Town Hall course. This means that every student will undertake a research project related to one of the InFocus challenge areas, and must set aside April 10 from 6 – 9:30 pm for participation in the InFocus Town Hall. Shorr

English 242: Environmental Writing

This writing course will survey a broad spectrum of environmental literature, from Thoreau’s Walden to Cheryl Strayed’s recent bestseller, Wild, as well as images, music, and cinema that address environmental themes. Through writing, class discussion and other assignments, students will reflect on our changing relationship with the natural world and consider what that engagement has meant for both the planet and its human inhabitants. The course follows a workshop format, so reading and critiquing other students’ writing is required. Harris

English 262: Literature and the Way We Live

This course considers such moral issues as identity; duties to kin; love, marriage, and sex; euthanasia and suicide; racism and sexism, as posed within a variety of world literature that includes short stories, novels, poetry, and drama, ranging from the era of Sophocles' Antigone to the present.. Prerequisite: Junior or senior class standing. LinC U2 course. Dougal

English 288: Internship

Practical field experience in writing for mass media, business, industry, or nonprofits. Designed in consultation with director of internship program and field supervisor. By arrangement. Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing; 200-level writing course approved by the English major advisor or English Department Chair. Harris

English 299: Neo-Slave Narratives  

Slave narratives occupy a significant space in the African American literary canon and American literature as they: depict the disparate treatment of blacks in America; speak out against dehumanization and tyranny; and demand freedom and equality. This course explores twentieth and twenty-first century writers who turn to the slave narrative genre with the creation of what Valerie Smith called the neo-slave narrative. More specifically, this course explores literary representations of “historicity”—historical authenticity—and “re-memory”—defined in Toni Morrison’s Beloved as remembering memories. Students will read two classic slave narratives: Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself (1845) and Harriett Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life a Slave Girl (1861) before turning to neo-slave narratives that include: Toni Morrison’s Beloved; Octavia Butler’s Kindred; Sherley Ann Williams’ Dessa Rose; Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada; and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. Waller-Peterson

300-Level Courses

English 330: Shakespeare  

The major plays. Prerequisite: ENGL 225 or permission of instructor. Black

English 341: American Realism 

Development of realism in American literature from its late 19th-century beginnings to its height in the early to mid-20th century. Crooke

English 343: American Fiction Post-WWII

Works since 1950, with emphasis on living authors. Prerequisites: English 225 or permission of instructor. LaRue

English 352: British Literature 1780-1830

A study of literature by men and women of varying ethnicities and social classes, and of primary documents that reveal major historical conditions and social and cultural movements to which these writers responded. Some emphasis upon major Romantic poets. Prerequisite: ENGL 225 or permission of instructor. Dougal

English 371: Senior Seminar

This course will synthesize and expand upon what students have learned throughout their major. Weekly meetings will consist of readings, discussion, and writing on topics within English Studies. Course requirements will include an extended written work in a student's chosen genre, as well as a portfolio. Prerequisites: English 225 or permission of instructor. Dougal

English 386: Internship

Practical field experience in writing for mass media, business, industry, or nonprofits. Designed in consultation with director of internship program and field supervisor. By arrangement. Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing; 200-level writing course approved by the English major advisor or English Department Chair; plus one additional English course. Harris

English 393: Young Adult Fiction Writing

Prerequisites: LinC F1, ENGL 211 or ENGL 212, or permission of instructor.

English 397: Contemporary Illness Narratives

Lucille Clifton states, “I don’t write because I have a mission to heal the world. My mission is to heal Lucille if I can, as much as I can.” Writing offers Clifton a medium through which she can enact a form of healing and self-preservation. Similarly, illness narratives communicate the embodied and disembodied experiences of people living with sickness, disease, and illness in an effort to make sense of their changing bodies, lives, and identities. Through our readings, writings, and discussions, we will explore some of the conventions writers use to express their experiences with illness, and the ways in which these illness narratives impact the readers’ understanding of their own stories of illness. Students will engage the illness narrative theories of Arthur Frank, Arthur Kleinman and Kathyln Conway alongside texts including: Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals. Prerequisites: ENGL 225 or permission of instructor. LinC U2 course. Waller-Peterson