Below is a list of the courses offered in Literature and Writing Concentrations in Spring 2026. Some of the literature courses also have custom descriptions below!

Literature

ENL 290, Introduction to Literary Study, A. Bardsley

ENL 290, Introduction to Literary Study, S. Greeley

ENL 300, British and American Literary Traditions, S. Greeley

ENL 323, Coming of Age Narratives, C. Miller

ENL 338, Epic and Romance, S. Monte

ENL 348, Women Novelists, S. Reader

ENL 352, Major 20th-Century Poets, C. Miller

ENL 361, The Early Shakespeare, S. Monte

ENL 396, Studies in Global Literature, S. Ray

ENL 398, Cultural Variety in the Literature of the United States, L. Papa

ENL 470, English Capstone: Literature and Artificial Life, S. Reader

Writing

EWR 277, Introduction to Journalism, F. Kaufman

EWR 267, Craft of Creative Writing, C. Marvin (section 1)

EWR 267, Craft of Creative Writing, C. Marvin (section 2)

EWR 370, Craft of Creative Non-Fiction, A. Chin

EWR 435, Playwriting Workshop, L. Papa

EWR 371, Craft of Fiction, J. Delgado Lopera

EWR 432, Poetry Workshop, T. Jess

EWR 445, Journalism and Society, F. Kaufman

 

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS: LITERATURE

ENL 290, Introduction to Literary Study, A. Bardsley

An introduction to the study of literature and specifically to the ways that people think, talk, and write about literature. It addresses the basic questions of literary study and its vocabulary: What is literature? What are the main kinds of literature? What are the main approaches to the study of literature? The course includes reading and writing about a selection of major works that represent a variety of periods and movements. It offers the rudiments of the knowledge necessary for further study in the field. This course is required for all English majors.

ENL 290, Introduction to Literary Study, S. Greeley

An introduction to the study of literature and specifically to the ways that people think, talk, and write about literature. It addresses the basic questions of literary study and its vocabulary: What is literature? What are the main kinds of literature? What are the main approaches to the study of literature? The course includes reading and writing about a selection of major works that represent a variety of periods and movements. It offers the rudiments of the knowledge necessary for further study in the field. This course is required for all English majors.

ENL 300, British and American Literary Traditions, S. Greeley

A one-semester survey of British and American literature from the Medieval through the Romantic periods. It will include important works from many genres and modes, placing those works in their aesthetic and cultural contexts.

ENL 323, Coming of Age Narratives, C. Miller

What does it mean to be “of age”? In legal or social terms, it means reaching an age when a person assumes certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities. In religious or cultural terms, it is typically defined by ceremonies or rites of passage that mark an individual’s participation in a community or tradition. The idea of “coming of age,” however, represents a longer evolution rather than particular milestones; and in this course, we will be studying the ways that a diverse range of authors have sought to make sense of that process through narrative fiction. The texts we will be reading have been chosen to represent a variety of genres, cultural traditions, ethnic and racial identities, and time periods (from the Victorian era to the present). While respecting the distinctiveness of each author’s achievement, we will also seek to trace connections between these narratives in the ways that they represent the experience of growing up and coming to a deeper self-understanding and sense of one’s place in the world. We will study works by a variety of authors, including Charlotte Brontë, Elena Ferrante, Jesmyn Ward, Ocean Vuong, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Genre/Theme

ENL 338, Epic and Romance, S. Monte

This course traces the development of the narrative poems that became known as epics and romances, from ancient times to the Renaissance. These genres are the parents of the modern novel. Because epics and romances are long, we will mostly read selections from them. The ancient epics will include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid, and perhaps short epics on the Argonauts and the Roman civil wars. The Renaissance epics and romances will include Italian and French works whose stories are associated with King Arthur or Charlemagne, along with English works that were influenced by them. In between the ancient epics and Renaissance romances, we will read small selections of medieval works. The main theme of the course is how competing values—especially values relating to war and love—are put into play, and how they help determine which stories get told and how they are told. There will also be special emphasis on female characters (ladies, queens, and sorceresses) and on the narrative technique of stories within stories. Lit in Translation; Genre/Theme

ENL 348, Women Novelists, S. Reader

Women have been major writers and readers of fiction since the novel rose to prominence about two hundred years ago. This course will focus on four extraordinary and influential contributors to the British tradition: Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Virginia Woolf, and Iris Murdoch. We will consider their literary achievements by examining their innovative approaches to character, plot, genre, perspective, and narrative, setting their art against the backdrop of major historical, philosophical, and political changes. This course counts as British Literature, Literature by Women, and Genre/Theme. British Literature; Literature by Women

ENL 352, Major 20th-Century Poets, C. Miller

This is a global survey of major poets in the twentieth century, including both English-language works and poetry in translation. We begin with a consideration of literary modernism as an international movement (or movements) in the early decades of the twentieth century, focusing on poets including W.B. Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, T.S. Eliot, W.C. Williams, Wallace Stevens, and Marianne Moore. Later poets will include Anna Akhmatova, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, W.H. Auden, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, Derek Walcott, and Seamus Heaney. We will be especially concerned with the ways that poets have responded to the catastrophes and upheavals of the century, as well as to the ways that poets engage with the work of other poets and artists. There is no textbook required for purchase: all poems and supplementary materials will be posted on Brightspace; in addition, you will be referred to various internet poetry databases. Genre-Theme; Literature in Translation

ENL 361, The Early Shakespeare, S. Monte

This course focuses on Shakespeare’s plays and poems from the 1590s. This will likely include two histories (such as Richard III and Henry V), two comedies (such as Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream), selected sonnets or a narrative poem (such as Venus and Adonis), and a hard-to-classify play (such as The Merchant of Venice). Assignments will include a test on the histories, a test on the comedies, a poetry podcast on the sonnets, and a final assignment (paper or otherwise) involving research and writing. Though the exact selection of plays and poems is not set, the emphasis on histories, comedies, and poems will remain the same. British Literature, Genre-Theme, Pre-1800 

ENL 396, Studies in Global Literature, S. Ray

Borders: The twentieth century was a turbulent time marked with colonial violence in many places across the world, but it also kindled the revolutionary hope of freedom and democracy among the previously disenfranchised. As empires disintegrated and new nation-states emerged, hastily drawn borders led to chaos and mass displacement even as they defined people’s sense of belonging and place in the world. In this course, we will use the foundational concepts of postcolonial theory to read three novels from Asia and Africa that highlight human stories profoundly shaped by borders—those fateful “shadow lines” designed to keep people in or out. We will start with India in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines (1988), continue with Nigeria in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and conclude with Palestine in Isabella Hammad’s Enter Ghost (2017). Readings will be supplemented with short stories, poems, and critical works. Lit by World Authors; Genre-Theme

ENL 398, Cultural Variety in the Literature of the United States, L. Papa

This semester, we’ll read horror short stories and novel and watch horror films from artists and writers who have been traditionally marginalized in the horror genre. From post-apocalyptic gender wars to ghosts haunting the Jim Crow south to supernatural rituals on the US border, horror has provided a medium to foreground how this country has grappled with issues of race, gender, and sexuality. Just a warning: the works we read and watch contain graphic violence and mature themes. This course counts as American Literature, Genre/Theme, and Literature by Women/US Minorities.American Literature/Genre-Theme

ENL 470, English Capstone: Literature and Artificial Life, S. Reader

A “capstone” class gives students to address a topic of broad cultural significance by reading works on a shared theme from different places in the world and moments in history.  This year, the theme will be “Literature and Artificial Life,” and will feature stories, novels, and films about the desire to create and control artificial life from the ancient world to the present. Fictions depicting the creation of intelligent beings confront many themes, including morality, parenthood, automation, invention, vitality, human extinction, good, and evil. This class is a chance to explore these narratives and how they apply to contemporary debates about A.I. The reading list may include Pinocchio, Frankenstein, Dr Faustus, The Ghost in the Shell, Murderbot, I, Robot, and selections from the Terminator, Matrix, and other film franchises. Literature in Translation/Genre-Theme