COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
LIT – Literature
LIT 103 – Introduction to Literature: 3 credits
This course studies selected works of poetry, fiction, and drama, providing an overview of literature with emphasis on analyzing and using literary tools to examine literary structures and explore the meaning of individual works, as well as their influence on cultural awareness.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 203 – Understanding and Appreciating Poetry: 3 credits
This course will focus on the study of poetry as an art form, literary genre, and medium for personal expression. Students will develop skills necessary for reading, analyzing, and understanding poetry while examining the works of renowned poets.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 213 – Science Fiction Literature: 3 credits
A scholarly evaluation of science fiction and fantasy fiction written by classic and contemporary writers with the goal of illustrating how theology, feminism, multicultural and ethnic issues, and other serious topics can be woven into this genre which is sometimes dismissed as mere entertainment.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 223 – Creative Writing: 3 credits
This course combines technical lectures and writing workshops to enable students to develop a personal writing style and voice through experimentation with writing in a variety of forms (nonfiction, fiction, poetry, etc.). The course focuses on elements (theme, style, diction, point of view, etc.) relevant to all forms of literary practice and introduces students to representative texts from a range of time periods. Students approach literature as critics and as practitioners. Skills in revising and marketing are taught.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 243 – English Literature: 3 credits
A critical and historical study of selected English literature from the fifth century to the present. Representative authors from each period are selected so that students may gain an appreciation for outstanding authors and an understanding of the society in which each lived.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 244 – Chaucer & Medieval Literature: 3 credits
An examination of the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, specifically The Canterbury Tales, in the context of history, language, and culture of Chaucer’s 14th century England. This course will reference other authors of the period.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 253 – American Literature I: 3 credits
A study of the major writers, works, and movements from the discovery of the New World to the Civil War, with an emphasis on literature that reflects diverse cultures such as Native, African-, Asian-, and Hispanic-American.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 254 – American Literature II: 3 credits
A study of the major writers, works, and movements from the Civil War to the Postmodern period, with an emphasis on literature that reflects diverse cultures such as Native, African-, Asian-, and Hispanic-American.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 255 – Multicultural Literature in America: 3 credits
A study of multicultural literature that explores the cultural diversity of America. Readings will be selected, at the discretion of the instructor, from a variety of ethnic literatures. Literary texts are situated in their historical contexts and the values and varieties of life in America are examined through analysis. Representative authors are studied from the colonial period to the present.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 265 – Genres of Deaf Literature: 3 credits
Three forms of Deaf literature are read and studied: fiction, drama, and poetry. Readings from each are highlighted, offering a wide range of stories of Deaf culture by classic modern writers/signers. For Deaf Students only and DCS majors who have successfully completed LNG 313 ASL IV or equivalent.
LIT 273 – Children’s Literature: 3 credits
A survey of children’s literary classics. Students will learn to analyze and evaluate a wide range of children’s literature. In addition, the role of literature in children’s growth and development will be explored.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 291 – Introduction to Literary Criticism: 3 credits
A study of literary theory and contemporary interpretive practices, including formalist, biographical, psychoanalytic, historical, structuralist, poststructuralist, sociological, Marxist, feminist, reader response, and deconstructionist.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 303 – The Theology of C. S. Lewis: 3 credits
This course explores the writing of C. S. Lewis, who insisted his works be judged by their literary merit and not only their theology. Themes of pain and suffering, the cultural relevance of Christianity, and biblical reflection in Lewis’s fiction and apologetics will be analyzed.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 325 – Literature for Adolescents & Young Adults: 3 credits
The course explores quality adolescent and young adult literature, censorship of adolescent and young adult literature, various approaches to reading adolescent and young adult literature, including reader response criticism, close reading strategies, and contemporary critical theories; the imagined reader(s) of young adult texts, and, by extension, the recent history of the cultural construction of the “teenager”; the application of cultural theories to analyses of adolescent and young adult literature as not only literary texts but also parallel cultural artifacts and mass-produced products; issues of multiculturalism, globalism, and diverse audiences and subject matter; and the relation of adolescent literature to “classic” adult literature.
Prerequisites: ENG 123
LIT 347 – A Novel Conversion: 3 credits
The course grapples with the fundamental questions of human experiences from a religious or spiritual perspective. Some Biblical works will be included; however, the focus will be on how religious ideas and concerns have informed an enormous diversity of literary productions drawn on a variety of traditions (including non-Western and non-monotheistic ones.)
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 353 – Biblical Literature & its Contemporary Counterparts: 3 credits
This course will offer students the opportunity to read widely among the various literatures of the Bible and its literary counterparts found in poetry, prose, and fiction. The course will attempt to explore and analyze the relationship between the sacred and the secular by using works from John Milton, C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, George Herbert, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and several others. Several traditional as well as modern models of literary criticism will be considered.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 363 – World Literature I: 3 credits
A critical and historical study of masterpieces of world literature from the Ancient World, Middle Ages, and Renaissance.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 364 – World Literature II: 3 credits
A critical and historical study of masterpieces of world literature from the Enlightenment through the Postmodern period. The course includes Western and non-Western literature and deals with a variety of literary forms including poetry, drama, short stories, novellas, and non-fiction.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 371 – Modern/Postmodern Novel: 3 credits
A study of modern and postmodern novels on both sides of the Atlantic, emphasizing the distinctive way in which writers use style, structure, and technical experiment to express their views of the world. The significance of innovative literature techniques such as point of view, impressionism, stream of consciousness, and authorial impersonality will also be explored.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 381 – Major Author Studies: 3 credits
Covers the life and selected works of one or more major writers such as Dickens, Hardy, Milton, Twain or Faulkner. Since the author(s) studied varies, this course may be taken more than once.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 383 – Detective Literature: 3 credits
A scholarly evaluation of multicultural detective fiction written by classic and contemporary writers with the goal of illustrating how theology, feminism, multicultural and ethnic issues, and other serious topics can be woven into this genre which is sometimes dismissed as mere entertainment.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 391 – The Victorian Novel: 3 credits
This is a study of the Victorian novel as a reflection of the period in which it is situated. The politics, mores, and worldview of the Victorians serve as the backdrop to the consideration of such major Victorian voices as Dickens, Hardy, Bronte, and Eliot.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 393 – The Literature of Women: 3 credits
A reading of women writers placed in their historical and literary contexts to explore issues such as the phases of a female literary tradition; the impact of sex and/or gender on literary themes and writing styles; and canon formation.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 433 – Shakespeare & His Contemporaries: 3 credits
A study of Shakespeare’s tragedies, history plays, comedies, and romances, their distinctive features and cultural and historical context, with an emphasis on a critical analysis of the text and an appreciation of Shakespeare’s great artistry as a dramatist.
Prerequisite: ENG 123
LIT 491, 492 and 493 – Topics in Literature: 1-3 credits
Special topics of varied interest are offered as needed and as resources permit.
LIT 495 – Senior Seminar: 3 credits
An intensive study of a literary topic, this course provides English majors the opportunity to demonstrate advanced research and writing skills. The seminar project includes an oral presentation to other majors and to the faculty of the English department. Students should choose a topic and faculty advisor a semester before enrolling in LIT 495.