Enrollment and waitlist data for current and upcoming courses refresh every 10 minutes; all other information as of 6:00 AM.
| 02/03 - 05/23 | ||||||
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6:00 pm |
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Subject: English (Grad) (GENG)
CRN: 21386
In Person | Lecture
St Paul: John Roach Center 301
In this course we will look at how rhetoric has historically shaped and continues to shape political discourse. We will consider such aspects of rhetoric broadly: speech, textual documents, performance, and technology. Questions of discussion will include - what constitutes an argument and how does our current political context impact what counts as argumentation; how does language shape the way that citizens are constructed; how are civic processes enacted in real-world settings; and how do citizens engage in tactical citizenship? Of particular importance, we will consider how current tools and technologies such as generative AI, deepfakes, and social media are changing our relationship to democracy. This course must be taken as one of the first five courses in the MA in English program. Prerequisite: GENG 513
3 Credits
| 02/03 - 05/23 | ||||||
| M | T | W | Th | F | Sa | Su |
6:00 pm |
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Subject: English (Grad) (GENG)
CRN: 22256
In Person | Lecture
St Paul: John Roach Center 481
Requirements Met:
Identity & Power
Dominique Morisseau, who, like Lynn Nottage, has helped radically to change the profile of “The Great White Way” of Broadway, stated in an interview that many current black playwrights find themselves standing in the shadow of August Wilson. Morisseau notes, however, that this is not always a bad thing, commenting, “I can’t ever deny August’s influence on my work.....I was just so inspired by the canon of work....I just thought, Wow, what his work is doing for the people of Pittsburgh, how they must feel so loved, so immortalized in his writing, I want to do that for Detroit.” Morisseau’s observations offer a starting point for this course: what is the influence of pioneering Black dramatists (Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson) on the younger generation of African-American writers? For example, in Hansberry’s A RAISON IN THE SUN and Wilson’s FENCES, being Black (race) and being forced into dead-end jobs and substandard housing (class) intersect catastrophically. Morisseau and Nottage translate themes of these earlier works into urgent studies of recent discrimination against working-class African-Americans in SKELETON CREW, SWEAT, and CLYDE'S. In RADIO GOLF, Wilson examines how barriers are set up to limit even the options of middle-class, university-educated black men; Claudia Rankine takes the topic a step farther in THE WHITE CARD by exploring how sexism combines with racism to thwart women. Race, class, gender, and the intersectionality of these areas form the bedrock of the literature we will study this semester, exploring the “conversations” occurring between the first generation of African-American playwrights in the twentieth century and current Black writers dominating the field today. This course satisfies the Identity and Power requirement.
3 Credits
| 02/03 - 05/23 | ||||||
| M | T | W | Th | F | Sa | Su |
6:00 pm |
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Subject: English (Grad) (GENG)
CRN: 22312
In Person | Lecture
St Paul: John Roach Center 301
This is a workshop in revising fiction. The course will guide students through the step-by-step revision process by working with existing writings. Instead of generating new work, students will focus on making prior work the best version of itself. Course readings include theoretical texts on revision, including Peter Ho Davies' ON REVISION, Matthew Salesses' CRAFT IN THE REAL WORLD, Jane Allison's MEANDER, SPIRAL, EXPLODE, and George Saunders's A SWIM IN THE POND IN THE RAIN. Course texts will also include comparing original and revised versions of short stories, allowing for deeper analysis of revision as a process. Along with reading and analyzing these texts, students will workshop revised pieces in groups, over multiple rounds of revision. The course will also examine the other side of revision: submission for publication. Students will learn how to submit their revised work to literary journals, presses, and agents. The course ultimately strives to envision revision as a collaborative, sequential, ongoing, and rewarding part of the writing process.
3 Credits
| 02/03 - 05/23 | ||||||
| M | T | W | Th | F | Sa | Su |
02/13: 03/06: 04/10: 04/24: |
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| + asynchronous coursework | ||||||
Subject: English (Grad) (GENG)
CRN: 22188
Blended Online & In-Person | Lecture
St Paul: John Roach Center 301
Online
Requirements Met:
Global Literature
English Early Literature Req.
This course investigates a concept that is very intimately tied to commonplace narratives about the United States: freedom. We will begin with an overview of transnational philosophical conceptions of freedom and self-determination such as those of Mills, Marx, and Schopenhauer. Our overall focus will then turn to how 19th-century Abolitionist and Black Nationalist, Transcendentalist, and Gothic texts explore and represent what it means to be free during the first century or so of North American democracy. Our primary literary texts include writing by Frances Harper, Leonora Sansay, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Rebecca Harding Davis, and Edgar Allen Poe.The course is organized into 4 modules beginning with a brief introductory module followed by three main modules, each of which include an in-person class meeting (dates below), guided asynchronous reading and responding to course material, and an opportunity for individual and small-group zoom discussions. The course culminates in an extended period of supported research toward a final project tailored to students’ individual professional and intellectual goals. For questions regarding the course format, please contact Dr. Zebuhr at zebu7469@stthomas.edu. This course satisfies the Early Literature requirement as well as the Global, Transatlantic, or Transnational Perspective requirement. Prerequisite: GENG 513 (ME) or another 500-level lit course (CWP).
3 Credits
| 02/03 - 05/23 | ||||||
| M | T | W | Th | F | Sa | Su |
6:00 pm |
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Subject: English (Grad) (GENG)
CRN: 22190
In Person | Lecture
St Paul: John Roach Center 301
Requirements Met:
Global Literature
Identity & Power
This course explores two primary areas of inquiry within postcolonial studies. First, we will study the contested origins and current state of the field, particularly its intersections with related theoretical areas, such as Border Studies, Ecocriticism, Feminist Theory, and Marxist theory. The second focus will be on postcolonial narratives, which we will define broadly as forms of representation that mediate social and political experiences across spatial and temporal landscapes. Through this lens, we will analyze a variety of narratives, including novels, poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and film. This interdisciplinary approach, involving the study of a range of texts, will provide a critical foundation for understanding the complex legacies of colonialism and the ongoing processes of resistance to imperial systems. Our texts will include theoretical works by Aimé Césaire, Edwidge Danticat, Frantz Fanon, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; novels by Deepa Anappara, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Amitav Ghosh; poetry by Natalie Diaz, Solmaz Sharif, and Mahmoud Darwish; photography by Zarina Bhimji and Seydou Keïta; art pieces by El Anatsui, Sonia Boyce, and Yinka Shonibare; and films by Mati Diop and Saul Williams. Students will write weekly canvas posts and two short analytical essays, prepare a presentation on one of the assigned readings, and put together a research paper that will be a “work in progress” during the semester. This course satisfies the Identity and Power requirement as well as the Global, Transatlantic, and Transnational Perspective requirement. Prerequisite: GENG 513 (ME) or another 500-level lit course (CWP).
3 Credits