Courses in Writing [100s] [200s] [300s] [400s]

Courses in Literature [100s] [200s] [300s] [400s]

English Department Homepage

COURSES IN WRITING

ENG 001. Journalism (0 credit)

A. Writers; B. Editors; C. Midwestern Review; D. Mirage and E. Eye on the World. Practical experience in writing for The DePauw (A&B), Midwestern Review (C), Mirage (D) and Eye on the World (E). The DePauw writers (A) receive 1/4 activity credit per semester and editors (B) receive 1/2 activity credit per semester. Midwestern Review, Mirage and Eye on the World staff members (C, D and E) receive 1/4 activity credit per semester. Prerequisite: signature of The DePauw advisor required.

ENG 100. College Writing for the Bilingual Student (1 course)

English as a Second Language is designed for incoming students whose native language is not English. The course stresses writing techniques, study and research skills, vocabulary building, reading and listening comprehension necessary for success in American universities. Includes work in grammar and discussion of reading assignments. May not be counted toward a major in English.

ENG 120. College Writing I (1 course)

College Writing I stresses the development of fundamental writing skills. By means of short expository assignments, students are encouraged to develop fluency in written expression, clarity in style and proficiency in language use. May not be counted toward a major in English. Not open to students with credit for ENG 130. See Writing Program for further details. Offered Pass-Fail only.

ENG 130. College Writing II (1 course)

Practice in a number of essay forms, ranging from the personal narrative to the analytical argument. Emphasis is on developing those writing skills employed most widely in college: analysis, interpretation, paraphrase, critical reading, research and documentation. Through a study of the writing process, students learn to invent ideas and arguments, and support them with reasoning and evidence. May not be counted toward a major in English. Offered each semester. See Writing Program for further details.

ENG 209. Advanced Expository Writing (1 course)

Writing and critiquing expository writing in various forms - informational and interpretive reports, journalistic articles and critical or interpretative essays. Extensive use of peer review and critique. Illustrative readings for analysis and discussion.

ENG 201. Creative Writing I (formerly ENG 211) (1 course)

An introduction to writing fiction and poetry in a workshop setting using readings from contemporary poets and writers as models.

ENG 226. The Development of Modern English (1 course) (discontinued April 2001)

Studies in the growth and change of English grammar, phonology, vocabulary and spelling from the beginnings to the present. Examines the social, cultural and political backgrounds of language and the features of American dialects and vocabulary.

ENG 232. News Writing and Editing (1 course)

Principles of good writing with practice in news reporting, handling news copy and the story form used by newspapers.

ENG 301. Creative Writing II: Fiction Workshop (1 course)

Analysis, discussion, and practice of fiction writing, with some attention to the history of the form and its possibilities for the contemporary writer.

ENG 302. Creative Writing II: Fiction Topics (1 course)

Analysis, discussion and practice of fiction writing, with particular concentration on specific elements of form or other aspects of the genre. Offerings might include the Novella, Short Story Forms and the Novel.

ENG 309. Creative Writing II (1 course) (discontinued April 2001)

 A. Fiction B. Playwriting C. Poetry Writing D. Nonfiction Prose E. Advanced Reporting Analysis.  Analysis, discussion and practice of one of the preceding forms, with some attention to the history of the form as well as its possibilities for the contemporary writer. The student may take one or more of the four courses and in any order. Prerequisite: ENG 209 or 211 or permission of instructor. For ENG 309E, ENG 232 is a prerequisite. Enrollment limited to 20.

ENG 311. Creative Writing II: Poetry Workshop (1 course)

Analysis, discussion and practice of poetry writing, with some attention to the history of the form and its possibilities for the contemporary writer.

ENG 312. Creative Writing II: Poetry Topics (1 course)

Analysis, discussion and practice of poetry writing, with particular concentration on specific elements of form or other aspects of the genre. Offerings might include Poetic forms, Poetry and Memoir and the Poetic Sequence.

ENG 321. Creative Writing II: Nonfiction Workshop (1 course)

Analysis, discussion and practice of nonfiction writing, with some attention to the history of the form and its possibilities for the contemporary writer.

ENG 322. Creative Writing II: Nonfiction Topics (1 course)

Analysis, discussion and practice of nonfiction writing, with particular concentration on specific elements of form or other aspects of the genre. Offerings might include travel writing, memoir and nature writing.

ENG 331. Creative Writing II: Advanced Reporting Workshop (1 course)

Analysis, discussion and practice of reporting with some attention to the history of the form and its possibilities for the contemporary writer.

ENG 332. Creative Writing II: Advanced Reporting Topics (1 course)

.Analysis, discussion and practice of advanced reporting writing, with particular concentration on specific elements of form or other aspects of the genre. Offerings might include Features, Profiles, magazine feature writing, reviews and criticism.

ENG 341. Creative Writing II: Playwriting Workshop (1 course)

Analysis, discussion and practice of playwriting with some attention to the history of the form and its possibilities for the contemporary writer.

ENG 342. Creative Writing II: Playwriting Topics (1 course)

Analysis, discussion and practice of playwriting, with particular concentration on specific elements of form or other aspects of the genre. Offerings might include The One Act Play and the dramatic monologue.

ENG 400A. Teaching Methods In English (1/2 course)

An introduction to the problems of teaching composition, language and literature for those planning to teach English in the secondary schools. Prerequisite: a major in English or Communication Arts and Sciences or permission of instructor. Generally offered second semester in even numbered years.

ENG 400B. English Grammar (1/2 course)

An introduction to modern English linguistics, centering on the description of the structure of modern English, its sounds, words, phrases and sentences, but also considering topics such as the nature of language, dialectics, semantics, language change and language standardization. Designed for those who wish to learn more about the workings of English and for those who plan to teach. Open to sophomores and juniors by permission of the instructor. Generally offered second semester in even numbered years.

ENG 401. Independent Writing (1 course)

Independent writing under tutorial supervision designed for seniors wishing to develop or complete one of the longer forms. Prerequisites: senior classification, the successful completion of three courses in writing above the freshman level and permission of instructor and chair of the department. Previous to registration the student must present to the chairman of the department a written statement of the project countersigned by the instructor who will serve as tutor.

ENG 412. Seminar in Writing (1 course)

Creative writing in an advanced workshop, with thorough peer critique. Opportunity is given to explore longer forms, such as the novel and the stage play. Prerequisite: senior classification and the successful completion of three courses in composition above the 100 level. One course required of majors with emphasis on writing.

COURSES IN LITERATURE

ENG 151.  Literature and Interpretation (1 course)

As a first course in literary interpretation, English 151 explores a number of texts from different genres. Students will develop foundational skills for the close reading of poetry and prose, and engage in interpretive work representative of contemporary literary methods and topics.

ENG 155. Topics in Literary Studies (1 course)

This course explores in depth a single topic while refining students' ability to analyze and interpret texts. Representative examples include Memoir and Sexuality, Quest for the Grail, Contemporary African American Fiction, The Political Novel and Science Fiction. May be repeated for credit under a different topic.

ENG 157. Introduction to Poetry (1 course)                (discontinued April 2001)

This course is designed to develop students' ability to understand and appreciate poetry and to acquaint them with a representative group of significant poems and the characteristics of poetry as a type of literature. Open to all students. Required of all English majors.

ENG 158. Introduction to Fiction (1 course)              (discontinued April 2001)

Designed to develop students' ability to understand and appreciate prose fiction and to acquaint them with a representative group of significant works and with the characteristics of fiction as a genre of literature. Open to all students. Either ENG 158 or 259 is required of majors in English with emphasis on composition.

ENG 167. Introduction to Film (1 course)

Designed to develop students' ability to understand and appreciate film as art and to acquaint them with a representative group of significant works and the characteristics of film as a type of literature. Does not satisfy the Group 3 distribution requirement.

ENG 197. First-Year Seminar (1 course)

An exploration of a literary theme with an emphasis on class discussion and participation, independent projects, historical and cultural awareness and writing. Recent courses have included The American Outsider, American Diversity in the 1920s, Michelangelo, and The Quest for the Grail. Enrollment limited to first-year students.

ENG 250. World Literature (1 course)

A study of literature from both Western and non-Western traditions. Readings may focus on a theme that runs across cultures, a specific historical period or an event that affects a number of cultures.

ENG 252. Children's Literature (formerly ENG 292)              (1 course)

An examination of children's literature attending to its history, its canon and its audience - both children and adults - and to selected topics such as storytelling and censorship. Establishing criteria for several genres, students read widely to judge poetry, realistic fiction, picture books, fantasy, etc., and to compile bibliographies. May not be counted toward a major in English. Offered second semester.

ENG 259. The Drama (1 course) (discontinued April 2001)

This course is designed to develop students' ability to understand and appreciate drama and to acquaint them with a representative group of significant plays, both traditional and contemporary, and with the characteristics of drama as a genre of literature. Open to first-year students with permission of instructor. Either ENG 158 or 259 is required of majors in English with emphasis on composition.

ENG 260. Poetry and the Visual Arts (1 course)    (discontinued April 2001)

A comparative study of poetry and the visual arts, examining parallels in history, subject matter and theme. The course aims to heighten the student's understanding and appreciation of these two modes of artistic expression, especially as they attempt to interpret each other and as they go through shifts of style and content in response to the world they portray.

ENG 261. Modern Continental Literature (1 course)

European writing from about 1885, stressing new directions in fiction and poetry from Zola to contemporary writers.

ENG 263. African-American Literature (1 course)

A study of African-American writing, including biographies, essays and polemics as well as drama, fiction and poetry. No prerequisite, although introductory literature courses are recommended.

ENG 264. Women and Literature: Topics (formerly ENG 190) (1 course)

Introduces students to the work of women writers and the importance of gender as a category of literary analysis. Issues covered may include: images of women in literature by women and men; impediments women writers have faced; women's writing in historical/social context; feminist literature; intersections of race, class and gender. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

ENG 265. The Novel (1 course) (discontinued April 2001)

A critical and historical study of the novel and its development centering on classic examples of the genre from its rise in the 18th century to the present. The novels are presented as artistic representations of various aspects of the human situation in various times and are studied against the background of contemporary historical and philosophical movements.

ENG 281. British Writers I (formerly ENG 181) (1 course)

This course surveys works of representative British authors from Anglo-Saxon times through the Augustan period. It is designed for students wishing to acquaint themselves with this broad area of British letters.

ENG 282. British Writers II (formerly ENG 282) (1 course)

A continuation of the survey begun in ENG 181, this course begins with representative writers of the Romantic movement and ends with 20th century authors. ENG 181 is not a prerequisite for this course.

ENG 283. American Writers (formerly ENG 183) (1 course)

A study of representative American authors from the exploration of the New World to the present, with attention to the literature of ethnic cultures.

ENG 351. Principles of Literary Studies (1 course)

An upper-level introduction to principles and methods of literary interpretation This course examines questions of genre, poetics and literary history; students will become acquainted with current approaches to critical theory. Recommended for students interested in graduate study in English.

ENG 355. Advanced Topics (1 course) (discontinued April 2001)

Directed study of a particular field of English letters or comparative literature as announced. Previous topics have included Joyce and Yeats, The Romantic Novel, Blake, Satire and Irony, Twain and James, Science Fiction, The Body, Contemporary Black Fiction.

ENG 357. Modern Poetry (1 course) (discontinued April 2001)

British and American poetry with emphasis on the major writers and the significant movements from William Butler Yeats to the recent experiments in form and subject.

ENG 360. Chaucer and His World (1 course)

Realism and romance in selected major poems of Chaucer and his contemporaries, studied in their medieval context.

ENG 361. Shakespeare (1 course)

A study of representative plays drawn from the histories, comedies, tragedies and late romances. Wide-ranging themes will include questions about identity both personal and national, gender relations, and the conventions of Elizabethan performance.

ENG 363. Renaissance or Early Modern British Literature  (1 course)

A study of major developments in prose and poetry in English literature between 1500 and 1660, an age of exploration both literal and figurative. In both canonical works (by Sidnay, Spenser, Donne, Jonson, Herbert, and Milton) and recently rediscovered poems by Lady Mary Wroth, Aemilia Lanyer and Katherine Philips, we will analyze the intersection of influences--Classical and Biblical, native and Continental, medieval and modern.

ENG 364. Milton (1 course)

A revolutionary who wrote against censorship and in defense of divorce, whose poetry made a mark on future generations of writers, Milton redefined heroism in his epic Paradise Lost. We will study his major poems and selected prose, analyzing his transformation of every genre he touched: sonnet, pastoral elegy, masque, epic and tragedy.

ENG 365. Restoration and Eighteenth Century (1 course)

Centers on Dryden, Pope, Swift, Fielding, Johnson, Sterne and Austen. Stresses the satiric, the ironic and the sentimental literature and its critique of society.

ENG 366. The Romantic Movement (1 course)

Focuses on English poetry from approximately 1790-1830, along with related works of fiction, criticism and philosophy. Writers often studied include Blake, Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley and Keats.

ENG 367. The Victorian Period (1 course)

Focuses on writers who worked in the last seventy years of the nineteenth century. Writers often studied include Dickens, Carlyle, George Eliot, Tennyson, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

ENG 368. Modern British Literature through WWII (1 course)

British novelists, poets and dramatists of the first half of the twentieth century, including Conrad, Joyce, Yeats, Lawrence and Woolf.

ENG 369. Modern British Literature since 1945 (1 course)

British and postcolonial writers from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Writers may include Rushdie, Gordimer, Larkin, Amis and Heaney.

ENG 371. American Literature: Romanticism (1 course)

A study of literature from the American Revolution through "the American Renaissance", when the writing of American authors first achieved an international reputation. Writers might include Cooper, Poe, Emerson, Hawthorne, Douglass, Stowe, Melville, Jacobs, Whitman and Dickinson.

ENG 372. American Literature: Realism and Naturalism (1 course)

A study of the literary culture between the Civil War and World War I, including considerations of realism, regionalism and naturalism as well as works of nonfiction. Writers might include Twain, James, Jewett, Crane, DuBois,  Chesnutt,  Dreiser, Wharton and Cather.

ENG 373. American Literature: Modern (1 course)

A study of literature between World Wars I and II and the main philosophical, social and aesthetic issues that shaped it. Writers might include Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Elio, Moore, Hurston, Hughes, West, Steinbeck and Wright.

ENG 374. American Literature: Contemporary (1 course)

A study of literature since the end of World War II, including that of minority writers, and the main philosophical, social and aesthetic issues that shaped it. Writers might include Warren, Nabokov, Bishop, Roth, Morrison, Rich, Pynchon, Erdrich, Kiingston and Cisneros.

ENG 382. Critical Theory (1 course) (discontinued April 2001)

A study of the nature of literary meaning and the methods used by readers to interpret texts. The course examines influential movements in recent critical theory, such as structuralism, reader-response theory, deconstruction, Marxism and feminism as well as the place of literature in the context of other contemporary cultural texts, such as film, television, mass media and political discourse. Open to sophomores and juniors by permission of instructor.

ENG 390. Women and Literature: Advanced Topics (1 course)

Designed for English majors and/or students with some background in Women's Studies. Topics will provide opportunities for in-depth analysis of women writers and the impact of gender as a category of literary analysis. Issues covered may include the following: images of women in literature by women and men; impediments women writers have faced; women's writing in historical/social context; feminist literature; feminist theory and literary criticism; intersections of race, class and gender; formation of the literary canon. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

ENG 391.  Authors: Advanced Topics  (1 course)

In-depth study of one or more writers.

ENG 392.  Genre:  Advanced Topics (1 course)

Study of works drawn from a specific literary genre or subgenre. Examples include Confessional Poetry, The Postmodern Novel and Revenge Tragedy.

ENG 393. Literature and Culture: Advanced Topics (1 course)

A study of the relations between literature and culture, with a specific thematic focus. Examples include Literature and Law, Darwinism in Modern Fiction and Literature and Social Protest.

ENG 394. Literature and History: Advanced Topics (1 course)

A study of literary representations of historical topics. Examples include The French Revolution and English Romanticism, and Vietnam in Recent American Literature.

ENG 395. Literature and Theory: Advanced Topics (1 course)

Study of a specific topic within contemporary literary theory. Examples include The Rise and Fall of Deconstruction, Cultural Poetics and Studies in Formalism.

ENG 460. Readings in Literature (1/2-1 course)

Directed studies, with individual conferences or seminars, centered on a specific project arranged with the instructor and including the writing of papers. Prerequisite: senior classification and permission of instructor and chairman of department. Students seeking permission to take the course must present previous to registration to the department chairman a written statement of the project countersigned by the instructor who will direct it.

ENG 461. Seminar in Literature (1 course)

Concentrated study of one or more major British and/or American authors, as announced. Prerequisite: two 300- or 400-level courses in literature. Required of majors in English with emphasis on literature. May be repeated once for credit.

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