Scheduling ENGL 15 and ENGL 202 FAQ
Scheduling a Full Literature Course FAQ
Select Fall 2024 Courses
Instructor: Christopher Castiglia
Instructor: Sean Goudie
Designed to help students answer the age-old question, “What are you going to do with an English major?,” this two-credit class introduces students to the special career-building opportunities that Penn State English has to offer—internships, organizations, fellowships and prizes, and study abroad activities—and shows them the value of the skills that the English major emphasizes. As part of this endeavor, we will hear from some of our most successful alumni who have turned their Penn State English degrees into engaging careers and who will help students envision the possibilities of their own futures. Students will prepare questions to pose to guest speakers about their career journeys as they develop their own “Personal Strategic Plan” for pursuing professional opportunities, both as a student and beyond (no exams).
For a student-focused “news” story that conveys the many benefits of taking ENGL 111 authored by a former student in the class, please see here.
Instructor: Michael Anesko
General Education: Humanities (GH)
United States Cultures (UL)
Instructor: Claire Bourne
What can the writing of William Shakespeare still offer us more than four hundred years after his plays débuted in London’s commercial playhouses? This course takes up exactly that question through close, collaborative study of Shakespeare’s plays and poems. You will practice how to read Shakespeare’s well-crafted verse, explore how his plays used the multi-sensory environment of the playhouse to communicate with socially diverse audiences, and feel empowered to explain how his works resonated on stage and page in his time and continue to resonate in our own moment. We will visit the Eberly Family Special Collections Library to work with Shakespeare editions published four centuries ago, and you will have the chance to set type and print passages from Shakespeare’s corpus using a moveable-type letter press, that is, the same technology used to print the first editions of Shakespeare’s plays and poems. You should expect to complete small weekly writing assignments (designed to keep you on track with your reading and thinking), which will culminate in a final project. Previous experience with Shakespeare is welcome but not required.
General Education: Humanities (GH)
International Cultures (IL)
Instructor: Christian Haines
Instructor: Steele Nowlin
Instructor: Marcy North
General Education: Humanities (GH)
International Cultures (IL)
United States Cultures (US)
Instructor: Julia Spicher Kasdorf
Develop some of the disciplines and skills you will need to practice this splendid art. Consider the basic elements of poetry in the American/English language tradition, examine some approaches to the craft, and most of all, foster the habits of writing, mind, and conversation that poets share. Be prepared to read, write, and share your poems as an artist-apprentice in a workshop.
General Education: Arts (GA)
Creative Writing Concentration
Instructor: Chris Reed
General Education: Arts (GA)
General Education: Humanities (GH)
General Education – Integrative: Interdomain
Instructor: Brian Lennon
Suitable for students in any area, from the liberal arts and communications to IT, computer science, engineering, and business, who are interested in cultural approaches to digital technologies. Covers fundamentals of the digital representation of linguistic, visual, and other cultural data; considers the difference between language and code; surveys the history of creative and expressive computing; explores examples of algorithmic culture; and concludes by reflecting on the limits of the digital, in the question of what computers can’t do. Many materials are web-based; others are in book form. Assignments include blog posts and a final project including creative options. No exams. For ENGL majors, this course counts toward the Professional and Media Writing concentration.
General Education: Humanities (GH)
Professional and Media Writing Concentration
Instructor: John Marsh
In the wake of the Great Recession that began in 2008, a protest movement calling itself Occupy Wall Street took over Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan. Like many protest movements, it broke up and quickly faded from memory, but it generated a slogan that lives on: “We are the 99 percent.” The slogan pitted the wealthiest one percent of the population against everyone else, brought the issue of income inequality to the attention of a public that had, perhaps, sensed a problem but, until then, lacked the terms to talk about it. In this class, we will start by exploring income inequality, tracking the economic divide between the one percent and the 99 percent in the United States over the last one hundred years; we will follow arguments about why that divide has widened over the last forty years; and we will join debates about what, if anything, to do about it. We will also approach the topic of equality and inequality, and other forms of inequality besides economic inequality, from other disciplinary perspectives, including some of the other social sciences, and, in perhaps more of a departure, from the perspectives of philosophy and literature. By way of assignments, students will write a couple of short papers (or one short paper and a longer paper) and take a midterm and a final.
General Education: Humanities (GH)
General Education: Social and Behavioral Sciences (GS)
General Education – Integrative: Interdomain
Instructor: Carla Mulford
How does fiction work? How does it differ from other genres in how it works? These are some of the questions we will consider by reading novels that offer stories about the coming of age of the central characters. Formally, these coming of age novels are sometimes called by the German term, Bildungsroman. We will read four novels from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. All four of the novels will enable us to consider the theme of coming of age in the American West. Notably, three of the four novelists are of Native descent, so we will be able to compare settler versus indigenous concerns, as well. By the end of the semester, we will aim to assess whether coming of age narratives changed across time or whether these narratives seem to have had a fairly stable set of generic qualities. The novels we will read include: Larry McMurtry, Horseman, Pass By (1961); James Welch, Fools Crow (1986); Linda Hogan, Solar Storms (1995); and Louise Erdrich, The Round House (2012). Written work includes three relatively short papers (about 4 pages each). Active engagement, including class participation, matters (and counts) in this class.
General Education: Humanities (GH)
Instructor: Jeffrey Nealon
General Education: Humanities (GH)
Instructor: Hester Blum
Herman Melville’s novels have a monumental reputation. Less well known are his works’ unexpectedly weird, funny, queer, tantalizing, messy, and wondrous moments. We’ll read much of Melville’s body of work, which brings outlandish curiosity to bear on the multitudinous, oceanic scale of our diverse world.
The Nineteenth Century Time Periods
Literary and Cultural Studies Concentration
Instructor: Brian Lennon
Suitable for students in any area, from the liberal arts and communications to IT, computer science, engineering, and business, who are interested in literary approaches to digital media. Covers early examples of computer-generated literature, time-based or streaming electronic or digital literature, and new media poetry as an extension of print literature; includes a focus on the literary and cultural history of password authentication and the importance of randomness in expressive and creative computing; and examines depictions of new media as literary experience and cultures of new media in contemporary speculative fiction. Many materials are web-based; others are in book form. Assignments include blog posts plus a final project including creative options. No exams.
Twentieth Century to the Present Time Period
Literary and Cultural Studies Concentration
Instructor: Robert Edwards
We will spend the semester reading Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, his most innovative, experimental, and influential work—full of memorable characters, great stories, and occasional scandal. Chaucer writes at a moment of intense cultural change. We will look at the various contexts (historical, social, literary) that bear on the Tales and draw on the criticism and scholarship. At the start, we will review the fundamentals of Chaucer’s language so that we can read and perhaps hear him in his own idiom. But our focus will be on a close critical reading of the texts—the same skill required for reading a modern novel, short story, or poem. There will be several short quizzes to check in on your progress, a midterm to pull ideas together, and in the second half of the semester a project on one of the Tales. You will have a chance to develop the project in a short abstract, do preliminary research on your topic, and write a final paper (10-12 pages). There is no final exam. Your participation in class discussion and discussion posts remains important throughout the course. This course fulfills the requirement that English majors take one 400-level course from the medieval period through the sixteenth century. No previous work in early period courses is expected; non-majors welcome.
Medieval through Sixteenth Century Time Period
Literary and Cultural Studies Concentration
Instructor: Carla Mulford
Prose fiction in Britain became popular around the same time that Britain experienced dominance in the transatlantic trade in human beings. Given that prose fiction experienced a rise in readerly interest during an era of empire-building and enslavement, it is worthwhile for us to consider the potential intersections between enslavement (a form of perpetual imprisonment) and the emplotment of novels (usually, the imprisonment of women) appearing before and during the time of Jane Austen. We will examine a chronological selection of novels against this backdrop of the erasure of liberty and the consequent rise (for the dominant group), in Britain, of both capital and leisure. Readings will include: Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740); Ann Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest (1791); (anonymous), A Woman of Colour (1808); and Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814). Written work includes three papers (about 5 pages each) and quizzes on each of the novels. Active engagement, including class participation, matters (and counts) in this class. This course meets the sixteenth through eighteenth century requirement for English majors.
Sixteenth Century through Eighteenth Century Time Period
Literary and Media Studies Concentration
Instructor: John Marsh
Instructor: Marcy North
Medieval through Sixteenth Century; Sixteenth Century through Eighteenth Century Time Periods
Literary and Cultural Studies Concentration
Older Course Descriptions
- Spring 2024 Undergraduate Course Descriptions
- Fall 2023 Undergraduate Course Descriptions
- Spring 2023 Undergraduate Course Descriptions
- Fall 2022 Undergraduate Course Descriptions
- Spring 2022 Undergraduate Course Descriptions
- Fall 2021 Undergraduate Course Descriptions
- Spring 2021 Undergraduate Course Descriptions