English 5 — 99

Please Note: Class times are subject to change. Before you register, consult course lists posted in the English Department.

Pre-requisites: English 1 and 2. English majors will note that courses are designated for degree requirement purposes either pre-1830/1860 or post-1830/1860 in the following table:

(Pre-requisite: English 1 and 2)

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ENG 0005A     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Alonso, J
Block: J+        Time: TR 4:00-5:15 PM  

A course open to all interested students who want practice and instruction in a workshop situation.    

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ENG 0005B     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Downing, M
Block: K+ MW  Time: MW 4:00-5:15 PM

ENG 0005C     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Downing, M
Block: L+        Time: MW 5:25-6:40 PM  

In this workshop, you will work as a writer and reader of new fiction. All participants write original short stories, which they read aloud in class, discuss with their colleagues, and revise during the semester. In addition, they address specific challenges of tone, style, structure, and point of view by writing brief experimental fictions (50 to 250 words), which illustrate how writers invent dramatically different solutions to a single problem. There are two fundamental requirements: Be present. Be productive. At the semester’s end, writers select their best work and compile a portfolio to represent their progress and accomplishments.    

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ENG 0005D     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Hershman, M
Block: 8          Time: R 1:30-4:30 PM

ENG 0005E     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Hershman, M
Block: J+        Time: TR 4:00-5:15 PM  

This is a fiction workshop focusing on the power to be found in concision, where the writer’s skill in selecting and shaping key details serves to strengthen a work. During the first four weeks we will have frequent in-class writing exercises, read published works, and write interlinked short scenes to highlight issues of craft, with an emphasis on creation of voice, plot, and character development. The balance of the term is devoted to the workshop-discussion format. Students will present to the class two complete short stories, a rewrite of the more challenging of these two works, and one short “turn-around.”    

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ENG 0005F     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Hurka, J
Block: M+       Time: TR 5:25-6:40 PM

ENG 0005G     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Hurka, J
Block: P+        Time: TR 6:50-8:05 PM  

This course is designed to help you develop the essential elements of creative prose: voice, description, and empathy. Particular emphasis will be placed on precision of language, and how the voice of a story must work in tandem with conscience.  

You’ll also have a look at fiction, poetry, and essays written by masters. We will investigate the current publishing world, so that if you want to send out your work at the end of the semester, you can do so. Finally, I would like you to read your work in progress on class days that we will schedule together, and to comment carefully and thoughtfully on the work of your classmates when they do the same.    

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ENG 0005H     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Johnston, S
Block: 2          Time: W 8:40-11:40 AM

ENG 0005I      Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Johnston, S
Block: 7          Time: W 1:30-4:30 PM  

This is an intensive course for those who really want to learn to write. No previous experience is necessary, though students who have studied creative writing before are welcome and often enjoy the course—we even get some former students who return for a second semester. In the course, you’ll work closely on every phase of writing fiction: generating ideas, drafting, and revision. As you do so, you’ll have a chance to explore and discover your voice as a writer, as well as learning how to develop strong fictional characters, working with the elements of plot and point of view, learning to write and punctuate dialogue, and employing setting, subtext, and theme. Be prepared to work hard, but if you love to write, you’ll get a lot of feedback on your work. Student response from the past indicates that this course is challenging but fun.    

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ENG 0005J     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Levinson, N
Block: K+ MW  Time: MW 4:00-5:15 PM  

This course is for students who want to write good stories. One way to develop that ability is to write a lot, so work includes several short pieces, a longer, fully-realized story, some revisions and lots of talk. The class operates primarily as a workshop, in which we discuss each other’s work and the elements and sum of accomplished fiction. Students also work on developing their ideas about good writing by reading published stories and what writers have to say about their work.    

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ENG 0005K     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Simons, M
Block: K+ MW  Time: MW 4:00-5:15 PM

ENG 0005L     Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Simons, M
Block: L+        Time: MW 5:25-6:40 PM  

This class is an introduction to writing fiction. We will write stories and exercises; read stories, some poems, and some non-fiction by established writers; and talk about the basic elements of the short story, especially character, voice, dialogue, action, and conflict. In Mystery and Manners, Flannery O’Connor writes, “In most good stories it is the character’s personality that creates the action of the story.” That is what interests me most, both as a writer and as a reader. Students will be encouraged to use the stuff of their lives – the world and the people they know – to make stories.    

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ENG 0005M    Creative Writing: Fiction                                                       Strong, J
Block: G+        Time: MW 1:30-2:45 PM  

My section of English 5 will provide deadlines, a forum for reading aloud and constructively criticizing student work, and the expectation that you will learn to create life on the page in a language natural to you. You will tell stories as only you can tell them. There will be no exercises or outside reading; the work must come from you. Regular attendance and spirited participation are valued highly – as is the ability to keep attacking the problems and challenges that present themselves.    

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ENG 0005O     Creative Writing: Journalism                                                Miller, N
Block: H+ TR   Time: TR 1:30-2:45 PM  

This course is an introduction to the nuts-and-bolts of print journalism. We'll focus on researching and writing news stories, features, profiles, opinion pieces, and reviews. The aim of the course will be to develop reporting and interviewing skills, master journalistic principles and forms, and encourage clear thinking and clear writing. Students will cover stories both on- and off-campus. They will read their work in class, with class members taking on the roles of editors. We’ll also take a close look at the local and national press and examine how they cover various stories.    

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ENG 0005P     Creative Writing: Poetry                                                         Gibson, R
Block: 11         Time: T 6:45-9:45 PM
TBA  

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ENG 0005R     Creative Writing: Poetry                                                        Rivard, D
Block: F+ TR   Time: TR 11:50-1:05 PM

ENG 0005S     Creative Writing: Poetry                                                        Rivard, D
Block: 12         Time: W 6:45-9:45 PM  

Like any creative activity, the process of writing poems can often be mysterious. Most of the time, you sit down not knowing what you're going to say and then you say it. In that sense, there are no "rules." On the other hand, there are many elements of craft and technique that poets rely upon. So we'll be talking about such things as metaphor and simile, tone, image, metrics, free verse, rhyme, diction, the voice, narrative, revision, strategy and structure, point of view, etc. The class is run in a workshop format, with assigned exercises. We'll look at the work of a wide-range of poets, and I'll help you develop a vocabulary of appreciation for that work (as well as some tools for criticizing your own work). This is a class where we'll all learn to make and remake ourselves as writers.    

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ENG 0009A     Writing Fiction: Intermediate                                               Strong, J
Block: K+ MW  Time: MW 4:00-5:15 PM  

This section of English 9 is designed for students who have had some experience in writing fiction. It will provide deadlines, a forum for reading aloud and constructively criticizing each other’s work, and the expectation that you will learn to create life on the page in a language natural to you. Regular attendance and spirited participation will be valued.    

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ENG 0009B     Writing Fiction: Intermediate                                                Wilson, J
Block: 5          Time: M 1:30-4:30 PM  

A middle level workshop in the writing of short fiction. We'll generate our own stories for discussion, and look at the work of some masters of the genre. This course is open to students who have taken English 5 or 6 without permission of the instructor, or to students who haven’t taken the preliminary course, with permission.    

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ENG 0011A     Intermediate Journalism                                                        Levinson, N
Block: G+        Time: MW 1:30-2:45 PM  

This course offers an unusual opportunity for students to sharpen their reporting and writing skills while learning the craft and business of good journalism. They will work independently, covering topics of their choosing, as they practice the nuts and bolts of journalism: getting the story, finding and using sources, investigating and analyzing events, reporting accurately and engagingly, working with editors, and getting published. Students will work on writing for newspapers and magazines, which includes feature writing. The class will also meet with professional journalists to discuss ethical, legal and practical issues in the news media. Qualified students should be familiar with the basics of news writing.    

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ENG 0011B     Nonfiction Writing                                                                  Miller, N
Block: F+ TR   Time: TR 11:50-1:05 PM  

This course will explore various forms of non-fiction writing, including memoir, profile, descriptive and personal essay, travel-writing, and reviews. Throughout the semester students will work on series of short weekly papers. Towards the end of the course, they will complete a longer piece of work in a particular area

of interest. Students will read their work in class as often as possible, with classes functioning as workshops. During the semester, the instructor will assign readings that correspond to the area of non-fiction we are focusing on at a particular point, and these readings will be discussed in class. Limited to 12.    

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ENG 0013       Writing Fiction: Advanced                                                     Lebowitz, A
Block: 8          Time: R 1:30-4:30 PM  

More advanced than English 9, English 13 is open without permission to students who have already taken at least two fiction-writing courses at any level. Students who have not taken two courses but who have done a fair amount of writing on their own may be admitted with permission of the instructor. English 13 may be repeated for credit.    

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ENG 0022       Forms of Poetry                                                                       Digges, D
Block: 5          Time: M 1:30-4:30 PM  

This course offers a more advanced approach to writing than English 5, as students put a greater pressure on experience and therefore the language of poetry. A number of contemporary texts will serve us as we investigate the tensions created between form and content, content and context. Our primary text will be the student work as we discuss the issues raised in your poems and experiment with various approaches to the language. At least eight poems will be turned in at the end of the term. A few short papers will be assigned as well.    

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ENG 0045       Non-Western Women Writers                                                Roy, M
Block: F+ TR   Time: TR 11:50-1:05 PM  

This course is designed to introduce you to the diversity of women's writing from countries often referred to as "third world." Through an eclectic selection of texts, the course will explore some of the key concerns of women in places such as South Asia, the West Indies, Africa and Latin America. We shall be concerned also with issues of literary technique, genre and representation. We shall focus on the connection between literary texts and the social and political contexts within which the writing was produced. Authors will include Ama Ata Aidoo, Marta Traba, Joan Riley, Anita Desai, Merle Hodge among others.  

NOTE: This course counts towards World Civilization, Women's Studies, Africa and the New World and Peace and Justice.    

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ENG 0051       General View of English Literature                                        Haber, J
Block: D MTR   Time: M 9:25-10:15, TR 10:25-11:15 AM  

A survey of English literature from the beginning through the middle of the seventeenth century. Readings will include Beowulf, selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Spenser's Faerie Queene, and Milton's Paradise Lost, lyrics by Wyatt, Sidney, Shakespeare, Donne, Lanyer, Jonson, and Marvell, and plays by Marlowe (Dr. Faustus) and Webster (The Duchess of Malfi). Designed as an introduction to the English major, this course will be of interest to anyone who wishes to gain both a broad overview of earlier English literature and a good understanding of the basic techniques of literary analysis.  

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ENG 0059       Continuity of American Literature                                         Johnson, R
Block: H+ TR   Time: TR 1:30-2:45 PM  

This course surveys literature of the United States and the Americas through to the middle of the nineteenth century, exploring ways in which contemporary issues of race and gender, ambition and class, exclusion and enfranchisement, individuality and the common weal have been prominent in and since the earliest indigenous and European narratives. We will question the traditional view that American literary history is a sequential progression of key texts-a canonized narrative of literary and cultural development, a continuity- by studying an array of voices that have constituted that history. We will consider how, rather than a continuous single narrative of development, our literary heritage is shaped by multiple narratives that are by turns conflicting, complementary, esoteric, eccentric. Observing the way binary figures of light/dark, civilized/savage, godly/heathen (among others) pervade our literature and much traditional thought about it, we will analyze the naturalization, modification, evolution and dispute of such binaries in texts from the early period to the middle of the nineteenth century. We will contextualize the literature in its historical and cultural moment, and topics will include questions of conformity and difference, notions of individualism, and paradigms for dissent and its suppression.  

Readings begin with Shakespeare’s The Tempest, European contact narratives, and Native American expressions, followed by selections from Puritan writings and other texts through to Benjamin Franklin and Phillis Wheatley. We will then concentrate on early to middle nineteenth century literature, including short fiction by Poe and Melville; works of Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs; and Walden, The Scarlet Letter, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Our Nig. Requirements include two papers and a final exam. It would be helpful to have read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an especially long novel, before the semester begins.  

Please come to the first class having read Shakespeare’s The Tempest; it will be part of the lecture and discussion of the first meeting.    

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ENG 0067       Shakespeare                                                                            Bamber, L
Block: K+ MW  Time: MW 4:00-5:15 PM  

A study of eight Shakespeare plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard II, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, I Henry IV, King Lear, Hamlet, and The Tempest. Although we will engage in a variety of historical and critical contexts, our primary focus will be on the close reading of the plays.    

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ENG 0083       Un-American Activities: Popular Culture & the Left                                                           Litvak, J
Block: L+        Time: MW 5:25-6:40 PM  

Critics of mainstream American movies, television, and journalism often accuse them of conducting a liberal or even subversive conspiracy against the rest of the country. Yet the left–a remarkably elastic category, in which “liberalism”isn’t always distinguishable from, say, “communism”–hasn’t exactly triumphed in American mass entertainment. In fact, the story of popular culture in this country is in some sense the story of how left-liberal politics keep getting stigmatized as “un-American”–which is why leftist content often has to disguise itself, and why its enemies must work to unmask it. This course will focus on the most traumatic episode in the history of the left in U.S. popular culture: the period of the blacklist, McCarthyism, and the red scare, from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, when, as a result of investigations of the entertainment industry by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, left-liberal ideas and people were subjected to an explicit and systematic purge. But while we will take into account the ravages of this process, we will also want to look at the ways in which the “un-American” left resisted it, to transform itself in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, as the Civil Rights movement, the antiwar movement, feminism, the sexual revolution, and gay and lesbian liberation came to reshape popular culture and the culture as a whole. We will be examining films, plays, novels, television shows, and memoirs, as well as some historical and critical texts. Objects of study may include films such as Redford’s Quiz Show, Rossen’s Body and Soul, Dmytryk’s Crossfire, Fuller’s Pickup on South Street, Kazan’s On the Waterfront, Zinneman’s High Noon, Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate, Ritt’s The Front, and Moore’s Bowling for Columbine; plays such as Miller’s The Crucible and Kushner’s Angels in America; novels such as Ellison’s Invisible Man, Doctorow’s The Book of Daniel, and Roth’s I Married a Communist; memoirs such as Hellman’s Scoundrel Time and Bernstein’s Inside Out; and various examples, both current and canonical, of television programming at the busy intersection of entertainment and political journalism. We will also look at the careers of such exemplary artists and performers as Paul Robeson, Judy Holliday, Jerome Robbins, Zero Mostel, and Ronald Reagan. Students will be expected to see films outside of regular class sessions.    

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ENG 0091A     Girls' Books                                                                              Flynn, C
Block: K+ MW  Time: MW 4:00-5:15 PM  

Girls’ Books construct our ideas about femininity, sometimes deliberately, sometimes quite incidentally. This course will examine the various cultural values that girls’ books produce. Without being too subjective, we will probably unpack some of the values that have become part of your own cultural baggage. We will read some of the classical nineteenth century texts- Little Women, The Secret Garden, Girls of Limberlost - then some of your own classics – Blubber, Flowers in the Attic, A Wrinkle in Time, Harriet the Spy. Finally, we will look at contemporary girls’ books that explore issues of multi-cultural and sexual diversity - texts like Weetzie Bat, Deliver Us from Evie, Toning the Sweep and Finding my Voice. We will also read cultural critics Gilligan and Pipher. We will read quite a lot of books. If you sign up for this course, I would like you to email me a short list of the girls’ books that you find most important to you. I can’t promise to include them all, but I am interested in adding texts that strongly interest you. We will also be doing a great deal of writing, both analytical and creative.

My email address is carol.flynn@tufts.edu    

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ENG 0091B     Contemporary Multi Ethnic Literature                                  Sharpe, C
Block: K+ MW  Time: MW 4:00-5:15 PM  

In this class we will consider, among other things, the ways that various gendered, national, linguistic, and racial identifications impel these writers and filmmakers toward experimentation. Among other things, we will examine their use of fictional narrative to produce alternative kinds of histories.  

Texts/films may include work by: Michelle Cliff, Chang-Rae Lee, Ana Castillo, Camille Billops, Meena Alexander, Junot Diaz, Su Friedrich, James Baldwin, Dionne Brand, and Nourbese Philip.    

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ENG 0091C     Underworlds                                                                            Genster, J
Block: H+ TR   Time: TR 1:30-2:45 PM  

In classical mythology, the underworld is the kingdom of the dead; for living mortals access is, except under extraordinary circumstances, strictly forbidden. The journey from upper to lower world involves danger, difficulty, and grief, and such voyages provide poignant myths, and describe turning points in a number of epics. In some works, the capacity to undertake the journey-- and to understand the revelations it offers--grounds and defines heroism. We will look at a number of underworlds, in classical representations like Homer's and Virgil's, in Judeo-Christian iconography like Dante's and Milton's, in eighteenth-century drama and nineteenth-century novel, and in the works of twentieth-century writers like Ellison, Pynchon, and Robinson, to trace out an evolving view of what business the living have in the world of the dead, and what place the underworld occupies in the imagination of the living. Writers to be studied may include Virgil, Dante, Milton, (in selections), John Gay, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Ralph Ellison, Thomas Pynchon, and Marilynne Robinson.    

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ENG 0091D     Dickinson, Bishop & Plath                                                      Digges, D
Block: 7          Time: W 1:30-4:30 PM  

This course is an intensive study of three of the most influential poets in the American canon, each a daughter of a disquieting muse. Along with the poetry we will read from letters and dip into biographies and documents as we knit together a picture of each poet's life and work. We'll trace the development of their aesthetics and examine the influences of culture, personal relationships and mentors as we follow their poetry to the edge of its singing. Requirements for the course include several short papers and a final project.  

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ENG 0091F     Death and Literature: The 20th-Century and the British Tradition                                                        Rosenthal, L
Block: F+ TR   Time: TR 11:50-1:05 PM  

As the last century documented death on an ever-increasing and perhaps unprecedented scale, literature confronted questions about the relevance, boundaries and responsibilities of the work of art. How does literature respond to and represent death? How does it write individual death, collective catastrophe, irredeemable loss? As both a limit and spur to representation, death challenges models of literality, first-person witnessing, and standards of empirical verification. Reading selected texts from 20th-century British fiction, poetry, and drama, this course will address the relationships between aesthetics and death, memory and mourning, narrative and testimony.  

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