UNDERGRADUATE
Upper-division Courses for Majors and Minors
Department of English
FALL 2008
These descriptions of undergraduate upper-division courses for majors and minors to be offered have been supplied by the faculty. The information printed is intended to supplement the basic descriptions printed in the UNR catalog. Last minute changes in course content are always possible.
305.001
Fundamentals of Creative Writing: Fiction I
1:00-2:15 MW
Palwick
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at palwick@unr.edu
306.001
Fundamentals of Creative Writing: Fiction II
1:00-2:15 MW
Palwick
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at palwick@unr.edu
307.001
Fundamentals of Creative Writing: Poetry I
5:30-8:15 T
Pahmeier
This course is for those who actively read and write poetry and who wish to continue the serious study and practice of their craft. Much of our time will be spent critiquing student work, but we’ll also discuss poetics, of which students should have a basic working knowledge before applying. Students will be required to write weekly, often in response to a specific exercise; to write reviews/short essays; to give a public reading at the end of the semester; and to submit a final portfolio. Constant attendance is a must, and students accepted must commit to the full term (please see semester schedule for final exam period, etc.). Interested students should submit to my mailbox, office, or email a recent writing sample (3-5 poems) and a short narrative (1-2 pages) which addresses why they wish to enroll and what experiences they have with the genre of poetry (writers studied, previous workshops and with whom, readings attended, familiarity with poetic traditions of form, what poets are being currently read, etc.). They should also include a phone number and current email address for notification of acceptance and indicate which course number they are applying for. Please note that potential students will hear from me only if accepted into the workshop, and please also note that enrollment is limited.
308.001
Fundamentals of Creative Writing: Poetry II
5:30-8:15 T
Pahmeier
This course is for those who actively read and write poetry and who wish to continue the serious study and practice of their craft. Much of our time will be spent critiquing student work, but we’ll also discuss poetics, of which students should have a basic working knowledge before applying. Students will be required to write weekly, often in response to a specific exercise; to write reviews/short essays; to give a public reading at the end of the semester; and to submit a final portfolio. Constant attendance is a must, and students accepted must commit to the full term (please see semester schedule for final exam period, etc.). Interested students should submit to my mailbox, office, or email a recent writing sample (3-5 poems) and a short narrative (1-2 pages) which addresses why they wish to enroll and what experiences they have with the genre of poetry (writers studied, previous workshops and with whom, readings attended, familiarity with poetic traditions of form, what poets are being currently read, etc.). They should also include a phone number and current email address for notification of acceptance and indicate which course number they are applying for. Please note that potential students will hear from me only if accepted into the workshop, and please also note that enrollment is limited.
311.001
Transatlantic Survey I
9:30-10:45 TR
Rudolf
This class will provide a broad overview of American and British literatures through 1800. Building a representative selection of drama, poetry, and nonfictional and fictional prose, the course will explore the thematic, literary, historical connections and differences of these texts, and how they develop and articulate notions of personal, national, and religious identity. Related themes the class will consider are: travel narratives and the picaresque; the colonial encounter and figures of otherness; relations of law and social justice; the slave trade and the formation of transatlantic identities; gender and the rights of "man." We will read texts by, among others, Aphra Behn, Edmund Burke, Maria Edgeworth, Oaluduh Equiano, Henry Fielding, Cotton Mather, Thomas Paine, and Mary Rowlandson.
400A.001
Topics of Writing
2:30-3:45 MW
WalshThe Persuasive Writing Workshop provides students with the skills to write effective proposals and other persuasive documents for selected audiences. The course is broken roughly into two phases.
During the first phase, students study several models of persuasion and learn the fundamentals of seeking funding and preparing grants; this phase is interwoven with the collaborative writing of a grant for a community organization. During the second phase of the workshop, students focus on writing individual proposals that meet their personal goals, such as community grants, graduate school applications, book proposals, and/or articles for mass media.
400A.002
Topics of Writing
2:30-3:45 TR
Webb
Professional and Technical Communication.
Students in this topics course will professionalize their writing skills by
learning about technical communication and professional writing. The course
offers practice in the following genres: essays, resumes, letters, memos,
and proposals. Students will research, analyze, and write critically about a
variety of technical communication issues and practices, including
collaboration and visual rhetoric. Students will write responses and
workshop assignments to produce a professional writing portfolio; they will
also present several collaboratively designed projects.
401B.001
Advanced Non-Fiction
4:00-5:15 MW
Waldo
401B.002
Advanced Non-Fiction
9:30-10:45 TR
403A.001
Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction I
4:00-5:15 MW
Coake
This course will focus primarily on the workshopping of student- produced works of fiction. Students will be responsible for writing and submitting to the class at least two original works of fiction (including excerpts from longer works in progress), each at least seven double-spaced pages in length. In addition, students will critique—both in writing and through class discussion—all other works presented to the class. A fiction workshop depends on the active participation of all its members; students will therefore be expected not only to attend class, but also to provide regular, thoughtful, constructive comments. Students will also be expected to read and discuss a selection of exemplary published fiction.
As this is an advanced course, roster spots are available by application only. Application forms will be posted on the bulletin board outside the English department office in Frandsen Hall; these forms, plus 7-10 double-spaced pages of original fiction, are due in my mailbox (in the English department mailroom) no later than Monday, May 5. I will notify students of their status as soon as possible thereafter. I will not accept electronic applications for the course.
403B.001
Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction II
4:00-5:15 MW
Coake
This course will focus primarily on the workshopping of student- produced works of fiction. Students will be responsible for writing and submitting to the class at least two original works of fiction (including excerpts from longer works in progress), each at least seven double-spaced pages in length. In addition, students will critique—both in writing and through class discussion—all other works presented to the class. A fiction workshop depends on the active participation of all its members; students will therefore be expected not only to attend class, but also to provide regular, thoughtful, constructive comments. Students will also be expected to read and discuss a selection of exemplary published fiction.
As this is an advanced course, roster spots are available by application only. Application forms will be posted on the bulletin board outside the English department office in Frandsen Hall; these forms, plus 7-10 double-spaced pages of original fiction, are due in my mailbox (in the English department mailroom) no later than Monday, May 5. I will notify students of their status as soon as possible thereafter. I will not accept electronic applications for the course.
404A.001
Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry I
5:30-8:15 T
Pahmeier
This course is for those who actively read and write poetry and who wish to continue the serious study and practice of their craft. Much of our time will be spent critiquing student work, but we’ll also discuss poetics, of which students should have a basic working knowledge before applying. Students will be required to write weekly, often in response to a specific exercise; to write reviews/short essays; to give a public reading at the end of the semester; and to submit a final portfolio. Constant attendance is a must, and students accepted must commit to the full term (please see semester schedule for final exam period, etc.). Interested students should submit to my mailbox, office, or email a recent writing sample (3-5 poems) and a short narrative (1-2 pages) which addresses why they wish to enroll and what experiences they have with the genre of poetry (writers studied, previous workshops and with whom, readings attended, familiarity with poetic traditions of form, what poets are being currently read, etc.). They should also include a phone number and current email address for notification of acceptance and indicate which course number they are applying for. Please note that potential students will hear from me only if accepted into the workshop, and please also note that enrollment is limited.
404B.001
Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry II
5:30-8:15 T
Pahmeier
This course is for those who actively read and write poetry and who wish to continue the serious study and practice of their craft. Much of our time will be spent critiquing student work, but we’ll also discuss poetics, of which students should have a basic working knowledge before applying. Students will be required to write weekly, often in response to a specific exercise; to write reviews/short essays; to give a public reading at the end of the semester; and to submit a final portfolio. Constant attendance is a must, and students accepted must commit to the full term (please see semester schedule for final exam period, etc.). Interested students should submit to my mailbox, office, or email a recent writing sample (3-5 poems) and a short narrative (1-2 pages) which addresses why they wish to enroll and what experiences they have with the genre of poetry (writers studied, previous workshops and with whom, readings attended, familiarity with poetic traditions of form, what poets are being currently read, etc.). They should also include a phone number and current email address for notification of acceptance and indicate which course number they are applying for. Please note that potential students will hear from me only if accepted into the workshop, and please also note that enrollment is limited.
411B.001 - CANCELLED
Principles of Modern Grammar
2:30-3:45 TR
412A.001
Linguistics
5:30-8:15 M
Fridland
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at fridland@unr.edu
412A.002
Linguistics
11:00-12:15 TR
Hardy
Through lecture, class discussion, and problem solving, we will explore the some of the core areas of modern linguistics. Specific topics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.
412D.001 - CANCELLED
Introduction to Phonology
4:00-5:15 TR
413A.001
Sociolinguistics
1:00-2:15 MW
Fridland
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at fridland@unr.edu
415D.001
Introduction to Old Norse
11:00-12:15 TR
Cronan
Although this course is an introductory course, it is designed for students who are already comfortable with language study and are capable of immediately diving into texts in a language they are encountering for the first time. We will translate passages from Old Norse for every class, and will discuss grammar topics as they become necessary.
Contact instructor for more information and the call number at djcronan@unr.nevada.edu .
425A.001
Study of Literary Themes
5:30-6:45 MW
Somerville
Travelers are some of the most environmentally aware writers, whether they are interested in nature for plunder or conservation. The course allows students to analyze ecocritical and postcolonial themes in key nineteenth- and early twentieth-century texts and modern travel writing, such as nature for profit, hunting, the ‘darkness’ of non-English nature, travel as exploration of self and the relationship between indigenous populations and animals (including discussions of evolution). Readings will be organized into a series of pairings: an older text will be read to identify a theme or trope of travel writing and a contemporary text will be examined to understand how such themes and tropes are inherited. Additional issues considered include the differences between ‘travelers’ and ‘tourists’ and their respective approaches to the environment, the Western responsibility towards colonial and postcolonial environments, ecocritical vs postmodern depictions of nature and the idea of travel writing as an endangered genre.
425B.001
Topics in Literature
4:00-5:15 MW
Pahmeier
It’s been said that all great literature is about misery (so if you’re an English major, you’re majoring in Misery!), and it’s been said that all great literature is about three things--love, death, and religion. In this course, we’ll read contemporary authors who, through work that’s varied and rich, address how we respond to grief and loss, both individually and communally. The texts we’ll explore should lead us to consider some things we might prefer to ignore, lead us to examine the foundations of what we already believe, and invite us into worlds both safe and unsettling. Keep this in mind--in art, the beautiful is not always the pretty.
PREREQUISITE: Junior standing and successful completion of at least one 300 level literature class; students are expected to read, write about, interpret, and discuss literature at an advanced level.
425B.002
Topics in Literature
5:30-8:15 M
Francis
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at eafrancis@sbcglobal.net
428A.001
Children’s Literature
1:00-2:15 MW
Francis
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at eafrancis@sbcglobal.net
432A.001
Chaucer
9:30-10:45 TR
Cronan
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at djcronan@unr.nevada.edu
433A.001
Shakespeare: Tragedies and Histories
2:30-3:45 MW
Rasmussen
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at erasmussen@unr.edu
466B.001
Modern Drama
11:12:15 TR
Grecu
This course is designed to reveal the educational, social and political/philosophical importance of theater within cultures along time. It shows the connection between theater and history, the evolution of drama, and the constant cultural component, interactions based on artistic inter-influences, in a larger social discourse. The course also presents the connections between author’s biography and the choice of subject/theme. It teaches students to analyze not only the structure of the play but its aesthetic, cultural concepts and concerns, and gives them confidence in interpreting and discussing drama and its role in society. The course enriches students’ knowledge of English, world literature, history, philosophy and geography.
One needs to be a) a good, in-depth reader in order to study and discuss meaningfully a few critical articles and 15 dramas (some under a specific theme), and b) creative, imaginative to end the term with one’s own written dramatic creation.
471C.001
Twentieth Century British Fiction
11:00-12:15 TR
Rudolf
This course provides an overview of 20th century British Fiction. Reading texts from James Joyce to Arundhati Roy and Virginia Woolf to Salman Rushdie, the class will explore how these writers develop and assert positions about the relationship between violence and creativity. Some writers argue that creativity is stifled by violence; some argue that creativity resists violence; some argue that violence spurs creativity, that creativity requires violence, or that violence is one of the forms that creativity can take. Related themes the class will consider are: the centrality of travel and transience in the twentieth-century novel; the critique of euphemism and conventional morality; memory, trauma, and psychoanalysis; nationalism and language; imperialism and immigration; the effects of film, television, and pop music on contemporary writing; postmodernism and the globalization of popular culture.
472A.001
The American Novel I
1:00-2:15 TR
Dupree
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at dupree@unr.nevada.edu
475B.001
Literary Non-Fiction
5:30-6:45 MW
Webb
English 475B is a course in contemporary literary nonfiction about desert environments. There are two primary aims for the course: to introduce students to nonfiction as a literary form and to explore nonfiction books about the arid American west. The course texts highlight cultural attitudes toward arid environments and ways in which population pressures and the “culture of use” in the 20th century have impacted the physical landscape. We’ll also examine ways in which our perceptions of the landscape is represented in literary nonfiction.
We’ll read nonfiction by Edward Abbey, Ellen Meloy, Mary Austin, John McPhee, Mary Clearman Blew, and Joan Didion (this list will be revised). Students can expect to read and write critically about nonfiction and the course themes in weekly responses, essays, and exams. Students will also present their research about an issue in nonfiction.
480A.001
Studies in Comparative Literature
2:30-3:45 TR
Ryan
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at tryan@unr.edu.
494A.001
Native American Literature
9:30-10:45 TR
Slovic
Authenticity, Sense of Place, and Identity in Native American Literature
In this course, we will seek not only to establish a basic foundation in modern/contemporary Native American literature, but to appreciate how this literature can support our own efforts ‹whether we¹re of Native American descent or not ‹to understand who we are (identity) and where we are (sense of place). Because many of us in this class are likely to come from non-Native American backgrounds, one of the issues we¹ll consider this semester will be the question of ³authenticity²‹literally, who has the right to describe or interpret Native American literature and what routes of access into this literature are appropriate for those of us who come from very different cultural traditions? Authors we will study in this class include N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, Simon J. Ortiz, Luci Tapahonso, Louis Owens, and other leading contemporary Native American novelists, poets, and essayists.