Spring 2021 English Department Courses
90 The American West in Literature (and Film) (4) (14559) First year seminar “The West” signifies both a geographic region and a collection of images in the American popular imagination. With its wide-open spaces, wilderness landscapes, and ideals of movement and individual freedom, “the West” functions as a symbol of American aspirations and values. In this course, we will examine a series of literary works and Hollywood films set in two regions of the Intermountain West—northern (Wyoming/Montana) and southern (New Mexico). By focusing on these regions, we will be able to explore connections and contrasts in the themes, landscapes, characters, conflicts, and values that populate the American literary West. Core texts will include Shane (Jack Schaefer), Fools Crow (James Welch), Ceremony (Leslie Marmon Silko), and Bless Me Ultima (Rudolfo Anaya), supplemented by stories, essays, and Hollywood films. In addition to reading assignments and class discussions, course work will include short essays, blog posts, quizzes, and exams. On campus. Two 75-minute class meetings per week will be scheduled on campus. Students are expected to attend. Dean Approval Required.
TR 9:20-10:35/Dr 210 Kroll
91 The Slasher Film (1) (15470)
This is a one-credit extension of The Slasher Film, run during the winter term, and is open only to students who took that course. Remote Asynchronous. The class will be remote asynchronous with a weekly office hour scheduled for meetings and weekly peer-group meetings.
ONLINE Keetley
100 Working with Texts (4) 10(10226) 11(14947 remote synchronous section) A course to help students to become, through intense practice, independent readers of literary and other kinds of texts; to discern and describe the devices and process by which texts establish meaning; to gain an awareness of the various methods and strategies for reading and interpreting texts; to construct and argue original interpretations; to examine and judge the interpretations of other readers; to write the interpretive essay that supports a distinct position on some literary topic of importance; and to learn to find and assimilate into their own writing appropriate information from university library resources. To be rostered as early as possible in the English major's program. Flexible. (Section 10) Students in this section of the course will attend class meetings in person on campus) (Section 11) Students in this section of the course will attend class meetings synchronously via Zoom.
MW 10:45-12:00/Dr 210 Gordon
128 History of Theatre II (4) (12512) A multi-cultural survey of dramatic literature theatre and theatrical practice from the 18th century to the present day. Remote synchronous. All course meetings will be synchronous remote via zoom. Cross-listed with Theatre 128 (10225)
9:20-10:35 Hoelscher
142 Introduction to Writing Poetry (4) (11360) This poetry workshop is a craft course in which the first priority is the intensive study of versification and prosody. Through readings and discussions of canonical and contemporary poetry, as well as texts on the craft of poetry; through structured writing experiments and exercises; and through discussions and critiques of original work produced by class participants, the students in this class will seek familiarity and facility with the tools of writing poetry (in particular, rhythm and meter, sound, form, imagery, figurative language, and tone. Remote synchronous. Classes will meet twice a week live on zoom for lectures, discussions, and workshops. Students will be expected to attend synchronously. In addition, all students will have individual conferences with the instructor via zoom.
MW 12:10-1:25 Watts, B.
English 147 Made to Kill: Female Violence in Popular Film (4)
(14529)
Heroes. Monsters. Outlaws. Catsuits U.S. films and television in the horror, thriller, and action/adventure genres began to represent women as perpetrators of violence more frequently and in new ways in the wake of the second wave feminist movement. Most of the films in this course were blockbusters which both reflected and shaped the ongoing national conversation about gender identity, gender roles, sexuality and power over the last four decades. Some questions we’ll explore: How is female violence gendered in these films? How is it racialized? When is it sexualized? Why aren’t there more female or non-binary superheroes today? Some of the films we’ll look at include The Hunger Games, Alien, Carrie, Foxy Brown and The Silence of the Lambs. Readings include critical essays, contemporary reviews, and film theory. NOTE: this is a synchronous course. The class meets on Zoom twice weekly at the scheduled times. Attendance at Zoom class meetings is a requirement of the course. Remote synchronous. Cross-listed with Film 147 (14532) and WGSS 147 (14535)
TR 3:00-4:15 Handler
ENGL 170 Amaranth (1) (10548) Amaranth editorial staff. Students can earn one credit by serving as editors (literary, production, or art) of Lehigh’s literary magazine. Work includes soliciting and reviewing manuscripts, planning a winter supplement and spring issue, and guiding the magazine through all phases of production. Editors attend weekly meetings with the faculty advisor. Remote Synchronous. Class will meet once a week for one hour via zoom.
T 12:10-13:25 Watts, B.
189 My So-Called Life: Reading and Writing Teen Narratives (4) (15537) From Angela Chase to Kylie Jenner, what does it mean to come of age? This course will survey texts, TV, and films from the 1990s - present, to discern the complex, queer, and veiled voice of the teen in American media. We will ask how the teen narrative was formed, what the Internet age has changed, and how we respond to these questions culturally. Students will engage with both literary studies and creative writing assignments, and will participate in course discussions on mass media and postmodern theory related to the construction of teen narratives - our own and those we watch. Remote synchronous. Students are required to attend one 75 minute Zoom lecture each week, and complete all other assignments and discussions asynchronously.
TR 9:20-10:35 Marciano
English 196-12 Global Cinema (2) (14324) This course introduces an array of contemporary filmmakers from around the world. These filmmakers explore issues related to patterns of mass migration, various forms of ethnic conflict and civil war, transnational finance and technology, and the impact of diseases such as AIDS and Ebola. The course will be divided into several geographical units on films from countries like South Korea, Kenya, Nigeria, Iran, India, and China. We will look at a range of art films, popular genres (i.e., Bollywood and Nollywood), as well as global science fiction and horror. Filmmakers may include Kiran Rao, Mira Nair, Zhang Yimou, Bong Joon-ho, Wanuri Kahiu, and Neill Blomkamp. Remote asynchronous. This class will meet entirely asynchronously, with weekly Forum posts and other interactive learning activities linked to films and readings on Course Site. Professor will be available for Zoom office hours two hours a week and by appointment. Cross-listed with Film 196-12 (14325)
ONLINE Singh
312 Feminist and Queer Theory (4-3)
10(14543) 11(14544)
This course will focus on the different ways that theorists have examined race, gender and sexuality in feminist and queer theory. Beginning with the groundbreaking collection titled This Bridge Called My Back: Writing By Radical Women of Color, we will explore how this text first published in 1981 calls for a shift in feminist theory by addressing the multiple and intersecting forms of oppression that women of color experience. Reading work by essayists and poets from this anthology including Barbara Smith, Audre Lorde, Cherríe Moraga, Norma Alarcón, and Gloria Anzaldúa, we will analyze how these prominent authors importantly link gender, race, class, and sexuality in ways that continue to influence critical race theory, feminist theory, queer theory, and literary studies. With this text as a starting point, we will turn to other major work by Anzaldúa and Moraga to explore how insights offered in This Bridge are developed with greater force in longer works. Moving to a discussion of Black feminist theory, we will read Patricia Hill Collins’ thorough overview of major features of such theory and discuss Kimberlé W. Crenshaw’s and Dorothy Roberts’s contributions to critical race theory with a focus upon violence against women of color and reproductive rights. Concluding the first half of the semester with Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, we will trace how writing by radical women of color in the 1980s and 1990s continues to influence recent feminist theory. Turning to queer theory in the second half of the semester, we begin by exploring how contemporary critics have returned to Foucauldian works with an eye toward how this influential theorist’s focus on the deployment of sexuality might be expanded and revised to address constructions of race. Building from theoretical engagement with Foucault’s understanding of biopower with particular attention to Ann Laura Stoler’s Race and the Education of Desire, we will read multiple recent queer theoretical texts that work with and against Foucault to forward a “queer of color critique.” Addressing José Esteban Muñoz’s Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics and Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, Roderick A. Ferguson’s Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, and Juana María Rodríguez’s Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings and Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces, we will discuss their analyses of a variety of forms of queer cultural production that document multiple forms of oppression, but also offer visions of resistance to white supremacy and heteronormativity. To close the course, we will address David L. Eng’s critique of queer liberalism because of its focus on normative family structures and consumerism in contrast to his conceptualization of queer disaporas that mark radical forms of kinship beyond those promoted by neoliberalism. Remote synchronous. The course will meet synchronously over Zoom.
MW 1:35-2:50 Foltz
318 The Roots of Black Lives Matter: Imagining Freedom in 19th-century African American Literature & Politics (4-3) 10(14551) 11(14552) The Black Lives Matter movement is the most recent expression of a long and inspiring tradition of African resisted slavery and the violence of its aftermath, they turned their minds to freedom. How could they free themselves? What would a free society look like? What forms of freedom did human beings most need in order to flourish? These imaginings of freedom are among the richest cultural legacies of the American people and they are a necessary part of any effort to understand the contradictory history of the United States. This seminar will provide an introduction to 19th-century African American literature and politics, an extraordinary tradition in which an enslaved people dreamed of justice. We will read autobiographical slave-narratives, novels and poems, protests against slavery and lynching, demands for political equality, calls for slave rebellion and appeals for inter-racial cooperation. In addition to less well-known works, we will read some of the most famous writings in the African American tradition. (Readings will include: David Walker, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Maria Stewart, Henry Highland Garnet, Harriet Wilson, T. Thomas Fortune, Ida B. Wells, Charles Chesnutt, Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois.) By listening to spirituals and work-songs, we will also attempt to hear the aspirations of those who endured the experience of slavery and Reconstruction, as they have been handed down through vernacular musical traditions. Throughout the semester, students will be encouraged to consider how these 19th-century freedom dreams are relevant to the challenges we face in 21st-century America. No prior study of African American history or culture will be required, but a willingness to engage in interdisciplinary inquiry will be expected. Remote synchronous. This course will be taught as a synchronous, discussion-based seminar. We will meet twice a week on zoom for 75 minutes and attendance will be required. In-person one-on-one office hours with the professor will be available throughout the semester, via phone or zoom. Cross-listed with AAS 318 10(14554) 11(14556). Fulfills American to 1900 requirement.
TR 1:35-2:50 Moglen
342 Advanced Poetry Writing (4-3) 10(11991) 11(11992) This course is designed to be an intensive practice in the craft of poetry and study of the creative process through close readings of poems, essays on craft, and the workshopping of students’ poems. The word “poet” comes from the Greek meaning “maker,” and we will always precede understanding that a poem is not just an expression of an idea or an emotion, but a consciously and carefully made artifact. In addition, one of our goals this semester will be to extend your knowledge of the various formal and stylistic possibilities of the art of poetry and the choices available to each writer. Thus, we will read widely and intensively from a diverse selection of contemporary and canonical poetry, both individual poems and whole collections. Students will write in and out of class, poetry exercises as well as critical analyses, and will workshop each other’s work in a supportive, respectful manner. Fulfills elective requirement. Remote synchronous. Classes will meet twice a week live on zoom for lectures, discussions, and workshops. Students will be expected to attend synchronously. In addition, all students will have individual conferences with the instructor via zoom.
MW 3:00-4:15 Watts, B.
344 Advanced Fiction Workshop (4-3) 10(11993) 11(11994) Advanced Fiction Writing is a workshop course for writers with experience in the creation and evaluation of contemporary fiction. Students should be familiar with the fundamental concepts of the craft. Either 144 Introduction to Fiction Writing or 201
Topics in Fiction Writing are acceptable prerequisites for this course. Students will read stories by leading contemporary writers and by their peers, and gain experience in “reading as a writer,” i.e., learning to dissect a piece of fiction—with heart, care, and lucidity—not simply to tear it apart, but in order to understand how elements of craft work in these texts, and to use these lessons in their own work. The majority of class time will be devoted to workshops to evaluate the original writing produced by students. Fulfills elective requirement. Remote synchronous. One three-hour class/workshop per week will be via live Zoom with students expected to attend. In addition, office hours will be scheduled for individual and group meetings.
R 1:35-4:15 Setton
360 Sinners, Saints, and Heretics (4-3) 10(14564) 11(14565) This course will investigate the fascinating complexities of religious belief and practice in medieval England. While the Middle Ages is often viewed as a time when people lived in unity as faithful members of the church, we will explore the period's religious writing and culture in terms of its diversity, tensions, and conflicts. Throughout the semester we’ll ask a range of questions including: How can the church promote virginity as a form of perfection when God tells his people to be fruitful and multiply? How does the church’s focus on the sacraments affect the possibility of salvation for non-Christians? How can a culture committed to Christian ethics justify the burning of heretics? How can miracles work as catalysts of faith when Christ blesses those who “believe without seeing?”
Spanning a variety of genres, our readings will focus on dimensions of medieval Christianity that may seem strange to a contemporary reader. We will investigate guides for female recluses, treatises on virginity, fantastic dramatic performances, accounts of divine revelations and much more. Fulfills British to 1660 requirement. On campus. Two 75 minute class meetings per week will be scheduled on campus. Students are expected to attend.
TR 10:45-12:00/Dr 210 Crassons
366 Race, Gender, Slavery and Freedom in 18th-Century British Literature (4-3) 10(14566) 11(14567) The Rights of Man, Thomas Paine’s classic argument in defense of the individual’s right to assert freedom in the face of tyranny, was a popular late-eighteenth century refrain originating from the 1789 French Revolution. But generalized arguments about individual human rights also gave rise to specific debates concerning the rights of women and Negro slaves. What rights were these individuals denied in eighteenth-century Britain and how did the period’s literature reflect and resolve the problems of social, racial and gender inequality? This course will consider these questions as a way of introducing you to the study of race and gender in a British colonial context. But it is particularly concerned with occasions in literature where British writers combined simultaneous discourses about race and gender in ways that sometimes helped and at other times hindered the fights against tyranny that Negro slaves and female advocates fought. We will read plays, poetry, novels, short stories, travel literature, and non-fiction prose as well as recent theories about gender and racial construction in the eighteenth century to discuss representations of British men and women, and colonial Others like Negro slaves, Creoles and Jews. We will consider an assortment of issues ranging from slavery, anti-slavery, abolition, miscegenation, mimicry, ambivalence, hybridity, anti-Semitism, blackness and whiteness, to marriage, libertinism, and sexual double standards in a variety of canonical and obscure texts including Thomas Southerne, Oroonoko (1696), Edward Kimber, The History of the Life and Adventure of Mr. Anderson (1754), Unca Eliza Winkfield, The Female American (1767), Mary Hays, The Victim of Prejudice (1799), John Fawcett, Obi, or the History of Three Fingered Jack (1800), Maria Edgeworth, “The Grateful Negro” (1801), Amelia Opie, “The Negro Boy’s Tale” (1802), Anonymous, The Woman of Colour (1808), Heinrich von Kleist, “The Betrothal in Santa Domingo” (1811), Maria Edgeworth, Harrington (1817). Remote synchronous. Attendance is required at two weekly synchronous class meetings conducted remotely through Zoom. During the semester, there will also be a few scattered asynchronous classes where students will be expected to work independently or in-groups and report their work/findings during a subsequent Zoom class session. Students should email the professor to schedule individual meetings either during the two weekly dedicated office hours or at a time convenient to all parties. Writing Intensive. Department Approval Required. Fulfills British 1660 to 1900 requirement. Approved AAS elective Spring 21. Approved WGSS elective Spring 21.
TR 9:20-10:35 Dominique
380 Toni Morrison: The Art of Storytelling (4-3) 10(14064) & 11(14065) remote synchronous 12(15454) & 13(15455) classroom Toni Morrison (1931-2019) is the Nobel-prize winning author of eleven novels and several important works of literary criticism. This course will be a deep dive into her life and career, starting with her earliest novel ("The Bluest Eye") and continuing through her later career. We'll study the evolution of Morrison's style and thematic interests, and consider whether Morrison's explorations of American history constitute a unified method. We'll also consider the impacts of Morrison beyond the world of English departments, considering theatrical and filmic adaptations of some of her key works. What is Morrison's status in African-American literature, in American literature, and World literature? How did Morrison expand the market for fiction by African-American women? Likely texts include: The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise, A Mercy, and God Bless the Child. Flexible. This class meets twice a week. Students enrolled in the "Classroom" section will meet once a week on campus, with the session also open on Zoom for Remote students. The second class meeting each week will occur over Zoom. Fulfills 20th and 21st requirement. Flexible. This class meets twice a week. Students enrolled in the "Classroom" section 10&11 will meet once a week on campus, with the session also open on Zoom for Remote students. The second class meeting each week will occur over Zoom. Approved AAS elective Spring 21.
MW 10:45-12:00 Singh
439 Early Modern Poetics: Form, Gender, Sexuality (3) 10(14562) 11(14952 remote synchronous) Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England was marked by intellectual, political, and religious upheaval. During this transformative period, poetry was a culturally significant literary form in which authors explored a range of pressing issues—everything from England’s nascent imperialism to the heartbreaking loss of a child. We’ll read poems that represent a broad cross-section of English poetry in the period, while maintaining a central focus on how poetic form intersects with explorations of gender and sexuality. Our readings will be drawn from both canonical and non-canonical authors, and you will gain a greater understanding of the cultural contexts that influenced the production of poetry by individuals of different genders, religions, and social classes. At the same time, this course will require you to pay attention to the historical particularities of literary forms: why, for example, might an epyllion be a particularly fruitful literary space for thinking questions of gender, sexuality, and nation building in the 1590s? In other words, our study of gender and sexuality in the poetry of one historical period will enable us to think more broadly about literature in aesthetic, political, and cultural terms—and will give us valuable practice with close reading as a foundational methodology for our work as engaged scholars and teachers. Flexible. (10) Our primary meeting mode will be twice-weekly synchronous zoom conversations. Students in this section may opt for occasional on-campus individual meetings or small group meetings (at most 4 over the course of the semester). (11) Our primary meeting mode will be twice-weekly synchronous zoom conversations. No student will be required to participate in any on-campus activities. Department Approval Required.
TR 4:25-5:40/Dr 210 Lay
447 Making Public the Victorian Legacy of Race, Racism and Racialization (3) (13937) Like many who studied Nineteenth-Century British Literature in their undergraduate or graduate programs throughout the 1990s, I learned about the Victorian legacy of race, racism, and racialization through Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. I learned the story of Bertha Mason in the attic; I was taught of her violent, insane, even “demonic” actions that haunted the narrative and ultimately impeded the domestic happiness of Jane and Rochester. And I learned of the enduring legacy of this story in the discipline of Victorian Literature—in the courses we teach, in the scholarship we write, in the students we train. This was and is a racist legacy; it is also a severely limited legacy that impedes how we imagine the work, impact, and reach of what could be Victorian Literature. In their June 2020 manifesto, “Undisciplining Victorian Studies,” Ronjaunee Chatterjee, Alice Mireles Christoff, and Amy R. Wong “challenge[d] the racism that undergirds Victorian Studies and maintains it;” they instructed us to develop “more agile methodologies that understand ‘the Victorian’ outside the bounded years of a queen’s reign.” In this seminar, we will attempt to respond to these directives by making public a different legacy: Victorian culture’s understanding race, its persistent racism, and its strategic processes of racialization whose impacts have endured. And instead of writing a traditional research paper, seminar participants will construct a portfolio of public writings that seek to make relevant—to make immediate—Victorian literary ideas to our contemporary struggles for and with racial justice. Due to the many challenges of the pandemic, we will focus on five primary texts: Dinah Mulock Craik’s The Half-Caste (1851), Mary Seacole’s Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857), H. Rider Haggard’s She: A History of Adventure (1887), Olive Schreiner’s Dreams (1890), and Sara Jeannette Duncan’s The Pool in the Desert (1903). Scholars have written extensively about the history and culture of the Victorian imperialism, nineteenth-century conceptions of race, and deployment of racist practices, and we will supplement our primary texts with selections from such work. We will also draw on important work in the field of Critical Race Theory, Victorian writings on such issues as degeneration, eugenics, and criminology, and look specifically at examples of public writing that successfully connect literary issues and concerns of the past to our present—and vice versa. Finally, we will devote at least five days of the semester to workshopping our writing. As many of us will be learning the craft of public writing, we will practice—and support each other as we navigate the difficulties of the pandemic together. Remote synchronous. We will meet remotely via zoom to support the seminar goals and student needs. We will supplement with individual meetings to meet the needs and goals of seminar participants. . Department Approval Required.
TR 10:45-12:00 Kramp
471 Natives & Whites in Early America, 1680s-1820s (3) 10(14563) 11(14950 remote synchronous) In this course, we will explore writing by and about Native Americans in colonial America and the early republic. We will read captivity narratives, early novels, memoirs, and other literary forms; and we will study the 1763 Paxton massacres (and the subsequent pamphlet war) in Pennsylvania, which historians treat as a turning point in the process by which differences between White Americans and Native Americans were racialized. The course will be loosely organized around four topics: Captivity; Violence; Religion; The “Last of …” Trope. Flexible. (10) Students in this section of the course will attend class meetings in person on campus) (11) Students in this section of the course will attend class meetings synchronously via Zoom. Department Approval Required.
MW 12:10-1:25/Dr 210 Gordon
481 Critical Race Theory (3) (14549) This course will engage with major theorists in Critical Race Theory for how it has impacted literary studies and the larger humanities. We will also consider CRT in conversation with other movements for racial justice in higher education including multicultural education and Ethnic Studies. Assignments tentatively include a literature review particular to students at field and a conference length paper. Remote synchronous. This course consists of synchronous and asynchronous work, including at least one live session per week. Department Approval Required.
MW 4:25-5:40 Jimenez Garcia
482 Theories of Literature and Social Justice (3) (12405) This course introduces students to theories of literature and social justice. The course will begin with a look at foundational concepts, exploring questions such as: What is social justice? How does literary criticism offer distinctive ways of grappling with questions of social justice? How do literary works reinforce or challenge dominant ideologies? In what ways do literary works provide tools to map exploitative or oppressive social and political formations? In pursuing this inquiry, we will be working with a mix of primary texts across a range of historical periods as well as theoretical texts. Together, we will develop a broad set of tools for thinking about social justice that will be applicable to a number of historical periods and geographic regions. Remote synchronous. The course will meet synchronously over Zoom. Department Approval Required.
TR 1:35-2:50 Foltz & Weissbourd
484 Teaching Composition II: Practicum (1) (14550) The purpose of this course is two-fold: 1.) To support you in your teaching of English 2, a rhetorically grounded writing course on argument and research, and 2.) To foster your continued development as a scholar/teacher with a solid grounding in research from composition studies. Together we will explore how we can create courses that engage students in issues that matter and that give them the tools to respond effectively to the myriad rhetorical situations they will encounter as writers in college and beyond. To that end, we will focus on many of the practical matters of teaching English 2 at Lehigh: designing assignments, establishing the proper pace for units, responding to student writing, successful conferencing, teaching Toulmin and different types of arguments, teaching research skills, and teaching multimodal composing, among a number of other issues. I will frequently touch base with you about what practical teaching matters you’d like to address as a class. Finally, because the best teaching is driven by a grounding in and a careful consideration of theories of writing pedagogy, so in addition to supporting your day to day teaching of English 2, we will read selections of books and articles that address important issues and central debates in writing pedagogy. Remote Synchronous. Class will meet on Zoom during the scheduled time (attendance required), and students will have access one online office hour per week. Department Approval Required.
M 1:35-2:50 Rollins