Course Title, Instructor & Times

Course
Description

Writing
Major
Req.

Writing Roundtable:
Writing for Children

Dr. Randy Brooks

EN 170-01
F 2:00

Writing For Children is a one credit workshop modeled after writer’s groups. This semester each student will propose and create a manuscript intended for children. We will examine several genres and enjoy a variety of guest authors of books for children.

We will have several guest children's writers visit our workshop. Prerequisites: none.

Writing Roundtable:
Hip-Hop Writing

Dr. Terry Shepherd

EN 170-02
R 5:00

During the semester, we will investigate the role of hip-hop lyrics in American culture with the assistance of our very own expert, A.D. Carson. Most of us know that this art form has been slighted, at the least and criminalized, at the most. Many experts have suggested, however, that these very lyrics are the literature of a new generation of young people. How aware are these people that hip-hop lyrics allude to and, thus, provide an opening for the reading of more traditional literature? Each of you will work on a project of choice depending upon your individual interests. For example, some may want to create a portfolio of original lyrics, some may want to write for publication reviews of current releases, some may want to create specific approaches to the use of lyrics in high school classrooms, etc. We will also visit a studio during the production of a sound-track, participate in a radio program about hip hop lyrics and sponsor an open mic night for those on campus who want to join us in celebrating the new poetry of the twenty-first century. Join us for an exciting, music-filled course.

Intro to Creative Writing

Dr. Carmella Braniger

EN 201-01
T R 12:30

EN 201 is an invitation to explore the mysterious and evocative workings of the world and self, both through reading the work of published authors, and through bringing about one’s own creative work. Students will not only explore the materials, forms and purposes of contemporary poetry, fiction and screenplays, but will become the artist, the one who gathers such materials, forms, and purposes, and brings forth something new. During the semester, we will read and view the works of contemporary writers and filmmakers such as Jerry Williams, Jorie Graham, George Saunders, Wes Anderson, and others. Students will fashion their own poems and stories, which will be workshopped in the class. Students will also draft a brief screenplay, perhaps through transforming or re-arranging the materials from one of their poems or stories. As students engage in their own bringing-forth, they will draw on the everyday, ordinary phenomena of their world, and show the way that these phenomena are extraordinary, or can become that way, for themselves and others. Finally, students will be asked to share a creative piece with the university community during an end-of-semester reading/performance. Prerequisite: IN 151

Newswriting I

Dr. Priscilla Meddaugh

EN 215-01
MW 4:15-5:30

Focused on print reporting. Introduction to basic methods of news reporting and writing. The course is designed to develop skills associated with gathering and organizing information from a variety of sources and developing stories based on that information. Additionally, students develop a basic knowledge of writing techniques and story types, and learn to apply this knowledge in exercises and writing assignments. The course also examines the modern news industry and media ethics. Prerequisite: IN 151/consent

Computer-Aided Publishing

Dr. Michael George

EN 270-01
T R 11:00

This course is an introduction to layout and design as well as computer tools that assist designers in their tasks. The course will revolve around Adobe InDesign, but you may become familiar with Quark Express as well. Both packages are available in the MAC lab. In addition, you will work with image software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. By the time you finish this course, you will be able to: use InDesign to design a variety of professional materials, know the key concepts of layout and design, know more than you every wanted about type, know how to manipulate images for your publications, know how to adapt rhetoric for a business-oriented audience, develop skills for researching printers and publication methods, and have fun doing all of the above. Class sessions will be a combination of presentation and discussion, followed by workshop time for you to practice what we covered that day. The major projects will be a number of service learning projects where you will design materials for specific organizations. Prerequisite: IN 150/consent

Journalism Workshop

Dr. Priscilla Meddaugh

EN 280-01 TBA

Staff members of the Decaturian, Millikin’s campus newspaper, receive credit for writing and other staff responsibilities. This course can be repeated each semester for up to eight credits.
Prerequisite: EN 215/consent

Creative Writing and
the Visual Arts

Dr. Stephen Frech

EN 300-01
T R 12:30

Creative Writing and the Visual Arts. What is the relationship between the visual and the literary image? How have writers (Blake, Pound, Williams, Stevens for example) made use of the visual arts as a source of creative energy and idea? Students will write and workshop their original work of any genre, turning periodically to the visual arts for inspiration. Additionally, students will collaborate with visual art students in the Advanced Art Workshop to complete a final project that incorporates both media: chapbook publication (of the art and literature); art show/reading; broadside/poster publication. Open to all genres of creative writing, prerequisite: EN 201 or instructor approval. Prerequisite: EN 201 or consent

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Web Publishing

Dr. Randy Brooks

EN 301-01
MWF 12:00

This is a workshop on writing and publishing web sites. Are you ready to expand your mind into cyberspace? Will computer screens shape your thoughts? Or will you shape computer screens to create and project your cyber-self into the virtual world of the web? This workshop examines web publishing and takes you from reflective interaction to critical creation of new hypertexts. You will learn how to critique web site designs and how to create web pages for campus and off-campus clients. This is an advanced writing course, with extended individual projects ranging from fiction, nonfiction, poetry, literary criticism, bibliographical web resources, technical writing, educational resources and web reference collections. Prerequisite: IN 151

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Writing Resistance

Dr. Nancy DeJoy

EN 301-02
W 5:30-8:00

In this course we will study the theories, contexts, and practices of contemporary texts that take resistance of the status quo as their purpose. Students will study, practice, and add to the major contemporary invention, arrangement, and revision strategies used by writers who are trying to do something other than identify with the terms for existence others wish them to identify with. Gloria Steinem, Michael Moore, Naomi Wolf, June Jordon, and Michel Foucault are a few of the authors we will join throughout the semester. Members of the class will have input into which texts we read as the semester progresses. Prerequisite: IN 151

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Applying Writing Theory

Dr. Nancy DeJoy

EN 310-01
T 5:00-7:30

This course has three main goals: To help students develop an understanding of the history of writing studies that relates to their current interests; to introduce students to contemporary theories of rhetoric and composition in ways that allow them to be contributing members in their chosen focus areas within English Studies; to provide a forum for exploring the terms of grammatical competency in writing studies and further developing skills in this area; to create an environment in which people with varied interest in English studies can form a community to think, read, and write about literacy. Prerequisite: IN 151

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(also EN ED)

Feature Writing

Dr. Pricilla Meddaugh

EN 316-01
T R 11:00

Advanced journalism class focused on feature writing. There will be three general formats of feature writing explored: ethnographic writing, in-depth features, and editorial formats. Class activities will include feature analysis, lecture and discussion, writing exercises, as well as ethnographic data collection. Students can, but are not required to, submit final products to the campus newspaper, the Decaturian. However, the class is designed to benefit writers far beyond a newspaper application. Prerequisite: EN 215/consent

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Bahamas Index

Prof. Judi Crowe

EN 382-02
R 6:30-9:00

The Seminar on the Bahama Islands is a unique opportunity in book publication that few undergraduates are able to experience (and include in their resume). This advanced writing and editing opportunity involves you in the entire process by which a respected research text is created and brought to yearly publication. The course project is The Bahamas Index and Yearbook, a unique and valuable reference work in its 16^th year of publication, purchased and used by some of the best research libraries in the world. While we will begin by studying the history of The Bahamas; we will also learn about the contemporary Bahamas by reading, indexing, and abstracting articles published in Bahamian newspapers during the year as well as write about the year’s events as a whole. Included in the course is an optional trip to The Bahamas over Spring Break during which time we will continue to acquire information that completes the yearbook. Course is limited to 14 students. Prerequisite: Junior standing & consent.

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(also IN350)

Course Title, Instructor & Times

Course
Description

College
Lit.

U.S. Stud
/Global

Eng Mjr core

Approaches to Literature

Prof. Sandra McKenna

EN 120-01 MWF 9:00

This course offers students an opportunity to explore, discuss and write about a variety of literary genres including novels, short fiction, poetry and drama. Students learn to think critically while enhancing their understanding of the music and the power of language. As we uncover the "mysteries" of literature, students gain new insights into the creative process and into the ways stories link the reader and the writer.

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Reading Roundtable: 19^th C. Women Writers

Prof. Sandra McKenna

EN 160-01
M 3:00

The reading roundtable is designed to help students become familiar with close textual reading and interpretation of literature. This semester the roundtable will focus on 19^th Century women writers including the essays of Margaret Fuller, excerpts from Mary Shelley’s Matilda, the poetry of Anna Achmatova, and the writings of Georges Sand, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Bronte.

Literature of Childhood

Prof. Mary Dwiggins

EN 220-01
T R 2:00

The beginning of Innocence? In this course we will explore the idea of innocence as we examine the historical development of children's literature and the cultural representations of "childhood" from the 18th century to the present. Texts we will examine include Charles Kingsley's Water Babies, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and other texts from genre such as folk tales, picture books, and fantasy. We will look closely at the cultural history of the phenomena of childhood and the changes in adult ideas about children and childhood as reflected in this literature. Furthermore, we will try to understand the cultural values built into and/or imposed upon this body of literature since, unlike other genre, this literature is ultimately written for children not by the genre represented. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

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Zora Neale Hurston

Dr. Lynda Hoffment-Jeep

EN 220-02
T R 11:00

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was a prolific creative writer and indefatigable ethnographer. Her collections of African American folktales, folk songs and descriptions of voodoo practices in the US and Caribbean are still respected today. We will explore her innovative ethnographic approach, contextualizing it within her era, as well as her stories, plays, letters and journalistic writings. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

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(20th
C. lit)

American Identity

Dr. Michael O’Conner

EN 220-03
T R 2:00

This course will examine the subject of American identity, seeking an answer to the question that Crevecoeur first posed in 1782, "what is an American?" Using literary texts mostly from 20th century American literature, we will examine this subject from the point of view of many voices and multicultural perspectives. Starting with the dominant voices of the 18th and 19th centuries as a springboard, we will then turn to the waves of immigrants and workers who came to this country seeking a better way of life or who were originally brought here as slaves, from Europeans to African Americans to Asians to Latinos. We will look especially at the resistance these people ran into in their quest to be recognized as Americans. Texts will be wide-ranging, with works examined by Sinclair, Steinbeck, Bulosan, Viramontes, Rivera, Hughes, Ellison, Baldwin, Brooks, Roth, Momaday, Ehdrich and many others. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

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(20th
C. lit)

American Lit in
the 20^th Century

Dr. Brian Mihm

EN 232-01
T R 9:30

This course explores the cultural and literary diversity of American writing in the 20^th century, and includes important novels and short stories, a wide variety of poetry, and several major plays. The course focuses on literary experiments and trends in cultural ideas: literary realism (Chopin, James, Wharton, Cather), 1920s modernism (Eliot, Millay, Faulkner), Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance, Ginsberg and the Beats, postmodernism (Barth, Vonnegut, Shepard), and contemporary multicultural writing since 1970 (Walker, Silko, Morrison, Brooks, Song). Themes and issues raised are those of our own lives: self-fulfillment, gender, family, violence, the idea of America, meaning, and values in a multicultural society. This course fulfills the college literature requirement, the English major requirement of literature in the 20^th century, the English education requirement. Prerequisite: IN 151

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(20th
C. lit)

Course Title, Instructor & Times

Course Description

(All 300 and 400 courses have a prerequisite of IN 151 or the equivalent.)

College
Lit

U.S.Stud/
Global

Eng.
Major Core

Major English Authors II

Dr. Anne Matthews

EN 322-01
T R 3:30

This survey course is designed to expose students to English literature from the Romantic period, the Victorian period, and the twentieth century; genres will include poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fiction prose. By the end of the semester, students should have knowledge of the basic literary and intellectual movements in each historical period, as well as the background knowledge to help them place the literature in its social context. Coursework will include quizzes, short papers, and collaborative presentations. Prerequisites: IN 151 & one literature course.

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Global Haiku Traditions

Dr. Randy Brooks

EN 340-01
MWF 9:00

Global Haiku Tradition examines the origins and spread of Japanese poetics from Japan around the world, with a special focus on the adaptation of haiku into other cultures and languages. We will study the history of haikai arts and related poetics in Japan, and then examine the contemporary haikai poetry traditions in various international cultures. A special feature of the course is that students will interview leading contemporary international poets, editors and scholars of haiku. This course fulfills the literary studies requirement for English majors, the literature course requirement for College of Arts and Science students or the global studies requirement of University Studies. Prerequisites: IN 151 & one literature course.

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Studies in Fiction:
The Other

Dr. Terry Shepherd

EN 360-01
T R 2:00

All of us have grown up hearing stories and telling stories. At a certain point in our lives, though, we either stop listening or stop hearing or stop telling those life-affirming narratives. We can count ourselves among many who, also, have not continued composing their lives - until recently. Those many are the others - the women who have been disenfranchised for reasons we are no longer able to accept. Take this opportunity to read their lives, their hopes, their dreams, their tragedies, their despairs — find out how so very much we all have in common once we look past labels. To hear their stories, we will read their words — fiction, fiction as fact, fact as fiction. All of the writers we will honor are female, the other, the disenfranchised, the artist; all are on the margins because of their ethnicity, their sexual orientation, and/or their socio/economic class. A few of the writers we will read include Rita Mae Brown, Paule Marshall, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde and Jeannette Winterson. To help empower you as a person in your own right, each of you will engage in an independent project which you then will share so we can learn from each other. Take advantage of the opportunity open your minds to those oh-so-important stories. Prerequisites: IN 151 & one literature course.

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(20th
C. lit)

The Arthurian Tradition

Dr. Michael George

EN 366-01
MW 3:00-4:15

One of the most enduring images of the Middle Ages is the knight errant, a wandering warrior of noble blood saving damsels in distress and performing acts of heroism for his lady. When we think of chivalry, knights in shining armor, and the heroic ideal, we often think of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. This course will explore the Arthurian tradition from the beginning until the twentieth century. We will cover works like Chretién de Troyes’s Arthurian romances, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D'Arthur, Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and Bradley’s Mists of Avalon. In addition to readings, we will look at a number of films that have used the Arthurian tradition, including Excalibur and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As the term progresses, we will discuss the possibility of a historical Arthur (about which there is much curiosity), and we will explore medieval European culture as it relates to the Arthurian tradition, including courtly love, chivalry, medieval warfare, and how writers adapted the Arthurian tradition to fit contemporary literary tastes. Through this class you will learn a great deal about the medieval world and modern uses of the medieval, but you will also have a lot of fun with Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, the Holy Grail, and the Knights who say "Ni!" Prerequisites: IN 151 & one literature course.

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Edgar Allan Poe in Life, Literature, and Legend

Dr. Paul Haspel

EN 420-01
MWF 1:00

This seminar has the working title of "Edgar Allan Poe in Life, Literature, and Legend." We will consider Poe from many angles. We will look at the life of a hard-working writer who seemed always to be dogged by bad luck — what Poe might have seen as his own personal Imp of the Perverse. We will consider his achievements and influence as poet, as fiction writer, and as critic. What made Poe such an important pioneer in fields as different as science fantasy, formalist criticism, and detective fiction? We will consider the Poe legend — a creation as elaborate as anything in the weird tales Poe wrote, and at the same time very different from the historical Poe. We will apply different lenses of critical theory to Poe’s work, considering him from the points of view of feminism, deconstructionism, psychoanalytic criticism, and cultural studies, among other approaches. Finally, students will lead class sessions, conduct primary- and secondary-source research, and present original papers setting forth their sense of how and why a man who died broke in a Baltimore hospital in 1849 exerts such influence today. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Prerequisites: IN 151 & one literature course.

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