News and Events:
Congratulations!
Nicole Peacock: Nicole’s recent presentation at the University of North Alabama was recognized as one of the top three papers of the conference.
Barry Cole: Barry’s presentation on the intersection of physical and devotional culture was nominated for the top graduate student paper award.
Recent and Upcoming Student Presentations:
Summer, 2012
Great Writing Conference, Imperial College, London
Jonathan Rutan, “About Death” (creative short story)
Winter, 2012
Southern Studies Conference, Auburn University, Montgomery
Barry Cole, “Fragmented Identity in a Cursed Land: Ellison’s Depiction of Agrarian Rejection in Invisible Man”
Nicole Peacock, “The Fate of the Anti-belle”
Fall, 2011
The American Dream: 3rd Annual Regional Graduate Conference at the University of North Alabama
Barry Cole, “Deconstruction and Resurrection of the American Dream in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’”
Sarah Nichole Peacock, “Swept Away to Who Knows Where: The Poetic Fate of Blanche Dubois and Willy Loman”
Summer, 2011
Literary London – Representations of London in Literature: An Interdisciplinary Conference (University of London)
Barry Cole, “Chaucer’s astrolabe as the physical embodiment of the sacred and the scientific in the late medieval period”
Spring, 2011
American Culture Association national conference (San
Antonio, TX)
Rachel Daniel, “Whitman’s Carte de Visite: the Photographic Prose of
Leaves of Grass”
Amy Cates, “Come Hell or High Water: Sustaining New Orleans through Literature”
Sigma Tau Delta (English Honors Society) National Convention, (Pittsburgh,
PA)
Jamie King, “Refusing Consumption: Reading Douglas Mao onto Henry James’ The
Spoils of Poynton”
Jayce Cosper, “Selling a Facade: Waugh’s A Handful of Dust and Advertising in
the Modern Period”
Precarious Subjects: Borders, Interstices, and Instabilities in Literature
and Culture (Grad Conference, UAH)
Jayce Cosper, “"A Man's World?: Homosocial Development in Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War”
Southeastern Writing Center Association Conference (Tuscaloosa)
Lillian Wilstach-Plott, workshop entitled “How to Stop Worrying and Start Loving Academic Writing”
Upcoming Course Offerings:
ENG 504, Literature for Adolescents/Conway/MWF 1-1:50/Comer 308
This course focuses on close reading and discussion of literature likely to be assigned to or chosen by middle and high school students. Book-length works include Night by Elie Wiesel, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. In addition, we will read representative short stories and poetry typically included in high school literature textbooks. Course writing requirements include informal journal assignments, two essays, and two exams.
ENG 505, Studies in One or Two Authors/Spring 2012/Forrester/Section 1, Comer 309, TR 11:00-12:15
This course will be an intensive study of the poetry and prose of two 20th-century American poets, John Berryman (1914-1972) and Charles Olson (1910-1970). These two authors are pivotal figures in the history of American poetry and poetics. They were both major architects of the transformation of American poetry in the mid-20th-century from the traditional form-inflected work of modernist poets (Auden, Eliot, Pound) to the more linguistically-liberated, confessional poetry of the latter half of the century. We will closely examine each poet’s magnum opus, Berryman’s Dream Songs and Olson’s Maximus Poems, as well as some of their lesser-known work. Also, the study of the authors’ poems will be supplemented by a look at some of their own critical writings.
Book List (subject to revision)
John Berryman, “Homage to Mistress Bradstreet”
“Berryman’s Sonnets”
“The Dream Songs”
“Stephen Crane: A Critical Biography”
Charles Olson, “The Maximus Poems”
“The Collected Poems of Charles Olson Excluding the Maximus Poems”
“Collected Prose”
“Call Me Ishmael”
ENG 513, Studies in the Novel: Sabotage Novel/Spring 2012/Rozelle/Section 1, Comer 308, MW 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Luddites, Saboteurs, Monkeywrenchers, Weathermen, Provocateurs, and Double Agents are blurred targets for the literary critic. This course will track the literary saboteur, identifying textual evidence to apprehend the logic of material and semiotic direct action. Readings will include The Secret Agent (Joseph Conrad), Kalki (Gore Vidal), The Crying of Lot 49 (Thomas Pynchon), The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Sam Greenlee), The Monkey Wrench Gang (Edward Abbey), and Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk). Films, documentary footage, and analysis of graphic novel V for Vendetta. Requirements: one short paper (5-8 pages), one seminar paper (15-25 pages), midterm, final, and presentations.
ENG 523, Medieval Literature: The Poetics of Identity in Medieval Literature/Spring 2012/Batkie/Section 1, Comer 309, MW 2:00-3:15
Some have claimed that the modern era is the age of the individual, but what does this mean for those living, reading, and writing in the pre-modern world? Are we to assume that people living in the 13th and 14th centuries had no concept of the individual self? And if they did, how do historical constructions of identity differ (or how are they shockingly similar) to our own? In this class we will investigate how readers and authors in the medieval period vigorously experimented with ideas of the self and identity in religion, politics, emotion, and in relation to other people/beings. Our readings will draw from Latin texts (read in translation) and Middle English texts (read in the original language. Note: no prior experience with Middle English is required.), and the will span everything from the self-reflexive musings of Augustine to the vast oddities of medieval romance. This breadth will encourage us to see identity through many different and sometimes contradictory lenses while giving students a clear understanding of the complexities of identity formulation in this, or indeed in any, period.
Special note about this class and English 489/589:
This course is part of an
experimental pedagogies project involving two courses paired around a common
theme. This section will be paired with English 489/589: The Poetics of Identity
in Romantic Literature, taught by Dr. Webb. Students will register for either
the Medieval or the Romantic class. Classes will be held during the same time
slot, and will have distinct reading lists that instructors have developed
together. Roughly every three weeks, or 5-6 times during semester, both sections
will meet together to discuss some common theoretical readings on the theme of
identity, drawn from the works of Sigmund Freud and Michel Foucault. During
those meetings, we may also assign selected short primary texts for
consideration by the whole group. These common class meetings will provide
opportunities for all of us to engage the theme of identity on a broader
historical level than would be possible in a traditional single course
arrangement. To that end, as well, there will be a common Blackboard course to
facilitate ongoing collaboration between the groups. We also plan to have a
first-week reception, snacks during our common class meetings, and a party at
the end of the semester. For more information on the organization of these
classes, and on what you can expect, please see Dr. Batkie or Dr. Webb.
Both classes meet relevant distribution and category requirements for the
English major.
ENG 555 Advanced English Grammar/Conway/T 5-7:30/Comer 208
The fundamental belief informing this course is that grammar is—in various and intriguing ways—a matter of choice, and thus is worthy of both rhetorical and aesthetic consideration. We will explore grammar not as a prescriptive set of "rules" for communicating "correctly" but as a system for logically conveying meaning, as a language for describing the ways real individuals speak and write, and as a set of choices writers manipulate for specific rhetorical effect. Course requirements will include journal entries, tests, participation in discussions, and analytical essays.
ENG 561, Advanced Creative Writing (Fiction)/Spring 2012/Chancellor/Section 1, Comer 208, W 5-7:30 p.m.
In Advanced Creative Writing (Fiction), student writers will refine their aesthetics and deepen their understanding of fiction's possibilities. They will explore the craft of literary fiction, from its initial shadowy impulses to its shapelier, more polished outcomes, paying close attention to elements such as characterization, perspective, setting, voice, language, and narrative structure.
At the heart of this course is the workshop: students will be required to develop and present three pieces of original fiction, either short stories or chapters with synopses; they also will read their classmates’ fiction-in-progress and respond to those works both in class discussion and in thorough written critiques. At the end of the semester, writers will turn in a portfolio of revised fiction. In addition, students will compile an anthology of influential works and act as “record-keepers” during workshop sessions. Graduate students will be held to more rigorous standards than undergraduates in every phase of the course, including required research and presentations on craft and stories.
The workshop cap of 15 is firm; no overrides will be allowed. If the class is full, students must use Banner to gain admittance. The instructor does not keep a waitlist.
PREREQUISITE: English 361 or prior collegiate-level workshop experience or instructor’s permission. This course may be repeated for credit.
ENG 575, Literature by Women: Heteronomativity and the 18th Century Novel by Women/Spring 2012/King/Section 1, Comer 309, MWF 10:00-10:50
Queer scholarship demonstrates that the “rise” of the novel in the 18th century helped consolidate “heteronormativity,” a system of “institutions, structures of understanding, and practical orientation” that privilege heterosexuality even in “contexts that have little visible relation to sexual practice” (Michael Warner and Lauren Berlant, “Sex in Public”). To put it more simply, there emerged over the course of the 18th century a straight culture so pervasive that it cannot recognize itself as straight, even today. This course will consider prose fictions by women in the “long eighteenth century” as they both reinforce and resist the heteronormative. Readings will focus on texts by Eliza Haywood, Sarah Scott, Anne Lister, and Jane Austen as framed by readings from queer theory. For a preview, have a look at the Michael Warner’s introduction to Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory (1991). Graded activities include several short essays, a couple of class presentations, a longish (12 pages undergrads, 16 pages grad) research paper that incorporates historical and theoretical materials.
Note: This course satisfies the “Diverse Voices” requirement and counts toward the pre-1800 requirement.
English 589: The Poetics of Identity in Romantic Literature (a paired class/see note below) MW 2:00-3:15/Dr. Samantha Webb/Comer 104
This course, which is part of a paired set of classes, will explore the literature of personal identity of the English Romantic period. In this post-Enlightenment, pre-Freudian moment, writers were beginning to formulate theories of identity that included intuition and the unconscious. These theories are given brilliant utterance by Romantic writers of both poetry and prose. We’ll divide the semester into several thematic units: authors and audience, emotion and memory, encountering the Other, and the political and social self. Our readings will likely include the following as well as other shorter works: Rousseau’s Confessions (excerpts); William Godwin’s proto-detective novel, Caleb Williams; Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience; Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights; selections from Wordsworth’s The Prelude; Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
Special note about this class and English 423/523:
This course is part of an experimental pedagogies project involving paired courses around a common theme. This section will be paired with English 423/523: The Poetics of Identity in Medieval Literature, taught by Dr. Stephanie Batkie. Students will register for either the Medieval or the Romantic class. Classes will be held during the same time slot, and will have distinct reading lists that instructors have developed together. Roughly every three weeks, or 5-6 times during semester, both sections will meet together to discuss some common theoretical readings on the theme of identity, drawn from the works of Sigmund Freud and Michel Foucault. During those meetings, we may also assign selected short primary texts for consideration by the whole group. These common class meetings will provide opportunities for all of us to engage the theme of identity on a broader historical level than would be possible in a traditional single course arrangement. To that end, as well, there will be a common Blackboard course to facilitate ongoing collaboration between the groups. We also anticipate having a first-week reception, some snacks during our common class meetings, and a party at the end of the semester. For more information on the organization of these classes, and on what you can expect, please see Dr. Batkie or Dr. Webb.
Both classes meet relevant distribution and category requirements for the English major.
ENG 590, Graduate Seminar: What Is African American Literature?/Mahaffey/Spring 2012/Section 1, Comer 308, M 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
In a February 2011 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Kenneth W. Warren, a professor of English at the University of Chicago, states: “Like it or not, African-American literature was a Jim Crow phenomenon, which is to say, speaking from the standpoint of a post-Jim Crow world, African-American literature is history. While one can (and students of American literature certainly should) write about African-American literature as an object of study, one can no longer write African-American literature, any more than one can currently write Elizabethan literature.” Warren’s comments come on the heels of his newly published book, What Was African American Literature?, in which he uses prominent African American political and literary figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and George Schuyler to introduce the claim articulated in the Chronicle article. Warren’s argument, coupled with earlier arguments in the same spirit from Post Soul Aesthetic writers Trey Ellis and Paul Beatty, create a contemporary literary context in which “race” and its attendant cultural marker of “blackness” are seemingly inconsequential factors for the black author thus rendering the text “race-less.” Given that the history of African American literature is one based on social and political empowerment gained through signature works that extend well into the “post-Jim Crow world” and consistently address “race” and “blackness”, Warren has provoked responses to his work in which phrases such as “cultural assimilation” and “class consciousness” have been articulated in an effort to negate his viewpoint. This class will examine Warren’s assertion and a selection of the literary examples it offers up as support against a carefully selected backdrop of critical writings from black authors and critics who were writing well beyond the Jim Crow era and who, for the most part, saw, and still see, African American literature as a distinct and constantly evolving place on the American literary landscape. Although the testing of Warren’s thesis is a primary focus, the members of the class will also be charged with the task of formulating their own stance on the question of what is, or is not, African American literature. This position will be based on class discussions and the presentation, in oral and written form, of independent research.
Required texts: What Was African American Literature (Kenneth W. Warren); Black No More (George Schuyler); The Intuitionist (Colson Whitehead); Erasure (Percival Everett); Man Gone Down (Michael Thomas); Interesting Women (Andrea Lee); Juice (Ishmael Reed)