Undergraduate Courses

Fall 2017


ENG 192 | First Year Seminar: Aspects of Hell: The Downward Ascent

Brian Marks
Section 4 | MW, 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Course Description
Where is hell? Can I get directions on GoogleMaps? Who goes to hell? Why does Satan have horns and a tail, and what kind of product does he put in his hair? What role does hell play in serving heaven? Is hell just a Christian idea?

In this course, we will attempt to answer those questions and other questions about hell by examining literary and cinematic representations of hell. We are going to start off by examining pre-Christian accounts of journeys to the underground but will go back and forth between the distant past and the present in order to understand how this supernatural place came to be and what it is becoming.

Work Involved
The class material will mainly be literary based, but we’ll also check out representations of hell in art, graphic novels, film, and music. You will write two response papers (2 pages each), a university event paper (2 pages), and research paper (5-7 pages).

Sample Readings and Viewings
Excerpts from Dante’s Inferno and Victoria Nelson’s book Gothicka, as well as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” and Aguirre-Sacasa’s graphic novel The Trials of Loki. We will also check out several movie clips and watch the Sci-fi masterpiece Bladerunner.

About the Instructor
My scholarship tends to focus on comparative mythology. I am currently writing a novel that broaches some of the themes discussed in this class. This fall will be my tenth semester teaching this class, and I am astounded that the topic continues to be a fun and enlightening investigation into the depths of humanity.

For more information, contact Brian Marks at bmarks@uwm.edu.


ENG 192 | First Year Seminar: Women and Geek Culture

Jennifer Dworschack-Kinter
Section 2 | T/Th, 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The number of women participating in Geek Culture has never been higher; women are reading graphic novels, attending conventions, gaming, and cosplaying. Responses from the traditionally male-dominated geek community have been varied, and in some cases have been unwelcoming, threatening, or even violent. In this course we will look at the history and formation of “Geek” culture, the role women have played in it as producers, consumers, and subjects of all things geeky. How do we define “culture,” and once we have done so, how do we define “Geek Culture?” We will read contemporary scholarly work about culture and how it affects identity in a general sense, and apply those ideas to Geek Culture, as well as reading other scholars who are investigating Geek Culture and the position of women within that culture. We will dive into and experience different areas of Geek Culture and learn about the women who shape it and participate in it, and we will gauge the reactions of the community to these women.

Our ultimate goals for the course will be to develop a deeper understanding of how different cultures form and persist; how members of different cultures identify themselves as such and how that identification affects them and their sense of self, how understanding these concepts can help us to examine a specific community and its members, in this case, Geek Culture and the women who are fascinated with it. The ultimate questions for us are: why have some male Geeks had such a strong and negative reaction to the changing demographics Geek Culture? How are women and their many male allies shaping Geek Culture to be more welcoming to women? What does it mean to a self-proclaimed female Geek to try to be a member of a community that often seems to not welcome her?

For more information, contact Jennifer Dworschack-Kinter at jendk@uwm.edu.


ENG 205 | Business Writing

Sally Stanton
Section 224 & 225 | Online

This fully online course is an excellent introduction for students from all majors to the much-in-demand writing skills essential for success in the workplace today, as well as a great refresher for professionals returning to update their skills or complete degrees. Individually, students will complete weekly online readings and quizzes on communication theory, writing strategies, and the practical application of both, receiving immediate feedback for greater comprehension.  Topics covered include organizing and writing routine informational communication (memos, email, letters, reports), writing positive, negative, persuasive, and digital/social media messages, collaborative writing, intercultural communication, proposals, presentations, resumes and cover messages, and business-message formatting. Expect to strengthen grammar, mechanics, proofreading, and revision skills in this course. Students will also learn to use software and other digital media for effective message creation and communication, as well as for collaboration. A weekly online discussion forum involves students in small groups applying their knowledge as well as learning from one another. A required collaborative writing project also within these small groups allows students to practice the research, editing, and teamwork skills needed in the business field. Periodic writing assessments provide detailed feedback and further hands-on practice in relevant business writing tasks.  An online business communication textbook bundled with MindTap, a digital learning platform that includes problem sets and quizzes, are required for this course. The most recent edition of the Business Writer’s Handbook (Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu), available in multiple formats, is also required.

For more information, contact Sally Stanton at stanton@uwm.edu.


ENG 207 | Health Science Writing

Sonia Khatchadourian
Section 1 | MW, 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Section 2 | MW, 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM
Section 3 | MW, 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course is particularly appropriate for students in the College of Health Sciences, the College of Nursing, Pre-Medicine, Dental, other medical fields, and the Professional Writing Program.

As this course is intended for students from a variety of disciplines, it focuses on writing professionally and effectively within medical fields, rather than on writing tasks or formats particular to any one medical specialty.

Course Goals/Learning Objectives
The primary learning objectives of this course are to:

  • Address various purposes
  • Adapt to various audiences
  • Organize documents based on types of messages
  • Format professional documents
  • Construct sentences that are precise and concise
  • Use medical databases effectively to conduct research
  • Analyze and evaluate sources
  • Incorporate research into documents
  • Document sources
  • Convey written data orally

Types of Assignments
The types of assignments that students may be asked to write to achieve the learning objectives include: writing short professional documents (such as memos, letters, email) that provide instructions, policies and procedures, patient information brochures and a literature review; researching and writing a report based on a current health issue; and, giving an oral presentation based on the report.

Prerequisites
Satisfaction of GER English Composition competency requirement. May not be taken credit/no credit.

For more information, contact Sonia Khatchadourian at soniak@uwm.edu.


ENG 210 | International English

Laura Ambrose
Section 1 | MW, 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

In this course, we will discover that as the English language has made–and continues to make–its way around the globe, radical changes to local languages and cultures have occurred. At the same time, however, English itself has been modified, adapted, and expanded, sometimes in unfamiliar and unrecognizable ways.

We will start with the origins of English in the British Isles and move onto its introduction and development in North America, Australia, Africa, Asia, and Europe. We will study several principal examples in detail. In doing so, we will also investigate many issues that accompany language globalization; such as, language change, loss of language and identity, language policy and standardization, and teaching and learning English.

Most of the reading assignments will be provided electronically. (It is possible that a textbook will be added at a later date.)

This course is three credits in English and satisfies the GER requirements for Humanities.

For more information, contact Laura Ambrose at lambrose@uwm.edu.


ENG 212 | Grammar and Usage

Laura Ambrose
Section 1 | MW, 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Improve your understanding of grammar: Become a better writer.

Good writing does not happen at random. The best writers understand the structure of the language and know how to work it to their advantage. Like professional auto racers, not only do they know how to clutch and brake, they also know what is going on under the hood.

In English-212, you can learn to master the fundamental building blocks of English. In this course, we study the grammatical terms and concepts that are key to sentence structure. We also explore how this knowledge can be used to create and edit texts more effectively.

Many examples and practice exercises are provided to help you succeed in this course. The material is presented at a steady but accessible pace.

Optional Textbooks:

  • English Grammar: Understanding the Basics. (E.P. Altenberg & R.M. Vago. ISBN: 0-521-73216-6)
  • Grammar for Language Arts Teachers. (A. Calderonello, et al. ISBN: 0-205-32527-0)

For more information, contact Laura Ambrose at lambrose@uwm.edu.


ENG 215 | Introduction to English Studies

Stuart Moulthrop
Section 4 | T/Th, 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Course Description:

English 215 introduces the remarkably various discipline called English Studies, which includes among other things the following:

  • understanding literary texts in various forms and genres;
  • developing the capacity to respond critically to literary texts;
  • placing literary practices within history, culture, and social movements;
  • following the evolution of ”the literary” across various media.

We will take on a range of literary productions, from John Milton’s Paradise Lost to digital fictions written in recent years. We’ll deal with poems, novels, essays, graphic novels, films, and digital compositions, as well as critical writings that place these works in context.

The class will provide you with tools to begin critically engaging texts produced by writers in response to cultural forces: from Milton in the Protestant revolution of the 17th century to Mary Shelley at the birth of modern democracy and feminism, to Ta Nehisi Coates in the struggle for racial justice in the present century. Along the way we’ll touch on imagination, invention, identity, embodiment, gender, race, empire, and the ongoing revolution of modern times. A common thread throughout will be the need to articulate narratives of self and other, and to adapt these expressions to changing social and technical contexts. Overall, the course serves as introduction to the broad range of inquiry that makes up English studies at UWM.

Required texts and materials:

Only texts marked with an asterisk * require purchase:

  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (PDF)
  • Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (ISBN1516929772) *
  • Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl (through demonstrations and online documents)
  • Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness (ISBN 0441478123) *
  • Carla Speed McNeil, Finder: Voice (ISBN 1595826513) *
  • Toni Morrison, Sula (ISBN 1400033438) *
  • Ta Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (ISBN 1925240703)*
  • Ta Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze, Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet (ISBN1302900536) *
  • Alejandro Iñnaritu, Birdman (available online)
  • Jordan Peele, Get Out (available online)
  • Various video and digital selections (online)

For more information, contact Stuart Moulthrop at moulthro@uwm.edu.


ENG 294 | Game Culture

Stuart Moulthrop
Section 1 | Online

Course Description:

This is a first course in the critical study of games, especially computer games, and the culture of participatory media to which they belong. It will introduce the concept of games and play as meaning-making activities; survey forms, conventions, and practices that inform the design and reception of games; outline major theoretical trends within the field of Game Studies; examine the place of games in contemporary culture, and consider some of the problems and challenges they pose for our society.

The course is intended for students in any major who want to think critically, creatively, and (yes) seriously about playful media. The work will involve a certain amount of reading and writing: critical evaluation of games, applications and evaluations of theory. It may also entail a good deal of game play, both in and out of class; or observation of play by others. Fun should be unavoidable — and so, hopefully, will be a sense that computer games represent a significant medium for expression.

Required Texts

1. Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction, Third Edition, Routledge, 2015. ISBN 91138849820. $43 for new print, $32 for e-book. I tried to order an earlier edition for which cheaper used copies are available, but this was not feasible.

2. Ian Bogost, How to Talk About Videogames. U. Minnesota Press, 2015. ISBN 0816699124. $17.

3. Anna Anthropy, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. Seven Stories Press, 2012. ISBN 1609803728. $12.

4. Monument Valley (videogame for mobile device). $3.99.

5. You may possibly need to make one more game purchase for your critical paper, but that won’t be necessary if you already own the game on which you intend to write.

We will also read excerpts from various books and articles available online in PDF.

For more information, contact Stuart Moulthrop at moulthro@uwm.edu.


ENG 306 | Survey of Irish Literature

José Lanters
Section 1 | T/Th, 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Course Description:

Irish literature is as rich and varied as the country=s history. “Irishness” is not an innate quality, but a cultural and political construct that is constantly re-“invented.” Beginning with the earliest poems and legends, and moving via the Anglo-Irish perspective of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and the Irish Literary Renaissance of the early twentieth century, to a more urban and cosmopolitan contemporary perspective, this course offers an introduction to Irish writing and an exploration of several varieties of “Irishness” as they are expressed through the literature.

Assessment:
Two papers (25% each)
Midterm exam (20%)
Final exam (30%)

Reading List:
Marie Heaney, Over Nine Waves, Faber & Faber, ISBN 057117518X.
Harrington, ed., Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama, Norton, ISBN 0393932435.
Roddy Doyle, The Deportees, Penguin, ISBN 9780143114888.
Bernard McLaverty, Cal, Norton, ISBN 0393313328.
William Trevor, ed. Irish Short Stories, Oxford, ISBN 0199583145.
Course packet (Clark Graphics).

For more information, contact José Lanters at lanters@uwm.edu.


ENG 378 | Survey of Current Literary and Cultural Theory

Gregory Jay
Section 1 | MW, 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

The study of literary and cultural theory should be an exciting adventure in intellectual discovery. It should not be an alienating march through forests of impenetrable prose and incomprehensible ideas. But no doubt our readings will at times be challenging, asking us to rethink our assumptions about selfhood and society, art and the unconscious, and the social construction of gender, sexuality, and race. The schools and movements we will cover include New Criticism, structuralism and poststructuralism, postmodernism, psychoanalysis, feminism, Marxism, queer theory, postcolonial critique, visual culture, and critical race discourse. Through class discussion, small group work, and short writing assignments we will test these theories in analyses of literature, film and, indeed, the way we make meaning out of our everyday lives. The variety of approaches sampled should give all students an opportunity to evaluate which theories they find most interesting and valuable, and to explore chosen ones in greater depth. Along the way we will discuss the application of critical theories to many specific works of literature, film, and media. Our textbook, Critical Theory Today, 3rd edition, by Lois Tyson, features the application of theory to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, so students need to also have a copy of that novel.

Seminar Discussion Format
Frequent Short Reading Responses
Short Papers
Final Essay

Textbooks:
Title: Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide
Author(s): Tyson; Lois
Isbn: 978-0415506755
Edition: 3rd (****You MUST have this edition)
Book Importance: Required

Title: The Great Gatsby
Isbn: 978-0743273565
Author(s): Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Edition: Revised
Book Importance: Required

For more information, contact Gregory Jay at gjay@uwm.edu.


ENG 380 | Special Topics in Media and Society: Media and the Environment

Gloria Kim
Section 1 | TTh, 10:00 AM – 11:50 AM

What might films about mutant fish tell us about the aesthetics of the 21st century environmental imagination? How might we characterize the experience of time in films that forecast extreme weather? How do media representations of postindustrial landscapes, eco-comedies about a waterless planet, apocalyptic pandemic narratives reveal how we fear and hope for the future of the planet, and envision possibilities of life on it? This course engages such questions as it examines how the environment has been and is being shaped, both conceptually and materially, by media representations and technologies.

Course materials are drawn from a diverse range of objects (film, video games, material media, news, advertisements), but we retain a focus on film and digital media. Students will develop skills to help them situate film and media representations in relationship to historical and cultural contexts of environmental discourse, and learn how to identify and analyze emergent aesthetic conventions and visualizing practices that surface around the environment. Beginning with the emergence of environmental discourse in the 1970s’s, the course moves towards filmic and medial representations and practices of the contemporary. Topics include: visualizing ecological catastrophes in news and documentary media; representations of species-extinction; media obsolescence, electronic waste, and conflict minerals; posthuman and anthropocenic envisionings of life. Readings shall link the aesthetic foci of course materials to theoretical areas such as posthumanism, visualization, neo-colonialism, ecofeminism, media ecology.

Screenings may include: Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1993), An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim, 2006), Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), The Cove (Louis Psihoyos, 2009), Manufactured Landscapes (Jennifer Baichwal, 2006), Soylent Green (Rich Fleischer, 1973), and The Lorax (Chris Reynaud, Kyle Burn, 2012).

For more information, contact Gloria Kim at gloriakim.cs@gmail.com.


ENG 415 | Fiction Workshop

Valerie Laken
Section 2 | W, 4:30 PM – 7:10 PM

Telling stories seems such a natural human activity that it’s easy to presume no one needs to take a class to learn how to do it. Yet when we read and listen to the stories of others, it’s clear that some stories move us more than others. Some stories stick in our memories for years. They change us. And then there are all the powerful stories embedded in the culture around us, which influence our actions, choices, and the ways we perceive the world. That kind of story-telling is not just the result of talent or luck; it requires the careful use of a range of skills that writers call craft. In this class we will study fundamental craft skills such as characterization, plot, detail, and setting, and move toward the more advanced strategies of pacing, structure, voice and counterpoint. We will also do many exercises that will train you to perceive and absorb the world as a storyteller so you can develop the muscles needed to recognize, develop, finish, and revise compelling stories.

For more information, contact Valerie Laken at laken@uwm.edu.


ENG 415 | Fiction Workshop

Mauricio Kilwein Guevara
Section 3 | T/Th, 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

I welcome all students who are open to growing as writers and readers.

Course Description

This class will exercise your critical reading and creative writing abilities in fiction on a regular basis. I will introduce, define, and apply a vocabulary specific to fiction writing: many of the terms you will already know; some will be new. I encourage you to practice these concepts, words, and phrases in our classroom discussions. Please remember that ours is a supportive classroom, where constructive questions and comments are always welcome. I anticipate that you have undergraduate mid-level competence as a fiction writer. More importantly, I assume you want to continue to improve, experiment, and grow as a writer, so that I hope you welcome well-intentioned and sophisticated feedback from me and from your peers.

We will read and write three types of fiction over the course of the semester: the novel chapter (generally between 1000 and 5000 words), flash fiction (generally less than 1000 words), and hint fiction (25 words or fewer). This comparative reading and writing will allow us naturally to discuss a number of elements involved in fiction writing, including character, pace, plot, modulating tension, atmosphere, voice, tone, diction, imagery, style, etc.

As to required texts, probably the following:

SKIPPY DIES by Paul Murray. $16.00

Optional:

HINT FICTION edited by Robert Swartwood. $13.95
FLASH FICTION FORWARD edited by James Thomas and Robert Shapard. $15.95

Another cost will be photocopying workshop drafts.

Any questions? Feel free to send me an email.

Hope to see you in the fall!

For more information, contact Mauricio Kilwein Guevara at maurice@uwm.edu.


ENG 416 | Poetry Workshop

Brenda Cárdenas
Section 1 | T, 3:30 PM – 6:10 PM

Course Description

When we write poems, we often explore various means of working within, stretching, and transcending boundaries vis-a-vis our attention to particular aspects of craft, form, and approaches to writing. With this in mind, students will draft and revise poems outside of class, as well as occasionally participate in writing exercises during class. Assignments will involve experimenting with line and syntax, patterns of sound and repetition, extended metaphor, persona, formal verse, ekphrasis, and collage, among other modes and approaches. Students will critique their peers’ poems-in-progress, offering suggestions for how their peers might alter various aspects of the poem to achieve the desired effect. Students will also read, analyze, and discuss published contemporary poems paying attention to what the poem aims to achieve or evoke and how the poet has constructed the poem toward this end. Our culminating project will be a portfolio of revised poems with a reflective introductory essay.

Prerequisites
Junior standing; satisfaction of GER English Composition competency requirement (C or above in English 102 or equivalent transfer course, or EPT score of 525 or above); and English 233 or 235.

Required Texts

There is no required textbook for this course; however, required readings will be made available as PDFs or via hotlinks on the course D2L site. They will consist of published poems, instructive articles regarding poetic craft; and articles about poets and their work. Together, they will equal a textbook’s worth of material. You will be required to print these articles out and bring them to class.

For more information, contact Brenda Cárdenas at cardenab@uwm.edu.


ENG 427 | Writing for Nonprofits

Sally Stanton
Section 201 (U/G) | Online

Want to use your writing and research skills for the greater good? This course explores the theory, practices, lore, and written communication used by professional writers in nonprofit or social sector workplaces, such as theatres, museums, libraries, social service agencies, art centers, humane societies, and other community organizations.

Students will:

  • Learn the purpose and defining characteristics of the nonprofit sector.
  • Understand the role of written messages in communicating social sector values and results.
  • Explore persuasive writing strategies for nonprofits (including case statements, donor and constituent messages, and proposal-related communications).
  • Adapt business communication theories and strategies to the nonprofit sector.
  • Apply sector-specific theory and approaches to producing annual reports, websites, social media, grant reports, etc.

In this course, you will gain practical experience in researching, designing, and writing several documents commonly prepared by nonprofit professionals. Assignments will also require students to learn effective strategies for managing writing projects, audience analysis, and collaboration.

The most recent edition of the Handbook of Technical Writing (Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu), available in multiple formats, is required, all other readings are on D2L.

Note: Course includes a group service-learning experience. Teams manage collaborative writing projects that benefit a selected nonprofit organization.

For more information, contact Sally Stanton at stanton@uwm.edu.


ENG 431 | Topics in Advanced Communications: Technical Documentation in the Zombie Apocalypse

Scott Graham
Section 1 | Th, 4:30 PM – 7:10 PM

Did you know that technical communicators and professional writers are our first line of defense against the zombie apocalypse? It’s true! Center for Disease Control virus outbreak warnings; police manuals for undead encounters; and survival how-to videos in the last days before the internet goes down are all essential technical communication genres for the zombie apocalypse. Subsequently, the Fall 2017 edition of 431 is devoted to preparing aspiring technical communicators and professional writers for their important role in the zombie apocalypse. Students will learn key aspects of professional writing theory and have an opportunity to deploy those theories through guided apocalypse-oriented practical activities. Specific course units will focus on: 1) an introduction to the field, 2) genre analysis, 3) information design, 4) organizational issues in technical and professional communication, and 5) usability studies.

For more information, contact Scott Graham at grahams@uwm.edu.


ENG 435 | Professional and Technical Communications

Sonia Khatchadourian
Section 1 | MW, 3:30 PM – 4:45 AM

Prerequisites
The course prerequisites are: Junior Standing and English 205, English 206, or English 207; or, consent of instructor.

This course is intended to provide a foundation for students to become effective communicators, particularly effective writers, in their future professions. We will focus on such concerns as: using language that is appropriate for both professional and technical communication, adapting to an audience, providing instructive, informative, and convincing content, gathering and citing reliable research data, correctly formatting various documents, illustrating data, and working effectively with others.

Course Goals/Learning Objectives
Primary learning objectives of this courses are to:

  • Write for various purposes and audiences
  • Develop an effective and professional tone and style
  • Gain proficiency in document design (content, organization, format, style, visuals)
  • Understand principles of usability
  • Analyze and evaluate writing (one’s own and others’ work)
  • Collaborate effectively on projects
  • Prepare for a professional career
  • Conduct primary and secondary research for writing
  • Use appropriate elements for documentation
  • Use language that is mechanically and grammatically correct

Types of Assignments
The types of assignments that students will be asked to write to achieve the learning objectives include writing short documents that pertain to their field of study and provide practice in both professional and technical writing; writing employment documents; researching and preparing a professional report; and, giving an oral presentation based on the report.

For more information, contact Sonia Khatchadourian at soniak@uwm.edu.


ENG 437 | Project Management for Professional Writers

Rachel Spilka
Section 1 | T, 4:30 PM – 7:10 PM

Are you aiming for a career in technical communication or other fields related to the development or improvement of documentation in work contexts? If so, this course might be a great fit for you. English 437 is designed to provide you with an array of skills – all supported by widely-accepted theories in writing and rhetoric – that will position you well to compete well for postgraduate jobs that call for well-rounded applicants with proven expertise in team work, leadership, problem solving, and the management of all stages of documentation.

This course will require some reading and class discussion, but will focus mostly on hands-on training during class workshops. Below are just some of the skills you’ll develop during this course:

  • Negotiating all stages of the writing process – from start to finish – including research, analysis, planning, drafting, evaluation, and revision
  • Functioning well as a client liaison but also as an “audience advocate” throughout a writing project
  • Communicating and collaborating with others effectively throughout a writing project. This involves taking the initiative to contribute ideas and leadership, as useful or necessary, but also demonstrating awareness that workplace writers do not function in a vacuum – instead, they are hired to work with and for other people on socially-created and socially-owned documentation.
  • Identifying and solving problems during a project with the goal of satisfying as many project stakeholders as possible.
  • Demonstrating strong professionalism throughout a project, including an ability to be flexible, adapt, and modify original plans at any point of a project.

TEXTBOOK: Horine, Gregory M. Project Management: Absolute Beginner’s Guide (Third Edition).  Indianapolis: Que, 2013.

Other required readings will be available at no cost to you on our course D2L site.

For more information, contact Rachel Spilka at spilka@uwm.edu.


ENG 456 | Writers in English Literature, 1500-1660: Early Modern Poetry

Mark Netzloff
Section 1 | MW, 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Course Description:

Appropriate to its title, this course focuses on writers of poetry in the early modern period. We will examine the social, political, and material contexts in which poetry was written, circulated, and read. The uses of poetry were remarkably varied in this period: poetry often served as a form of social currency, forging relations of patronage, promotion, and social affiliation. In such contexts, poetry was often occasional and inextricably tied to the relations between poets and their addressees. Increasingly, this audience was a public one, and the period witnessed the increasing professionalization of literary writing through the advent of a marketplace of print. Our discussions will explore the emergence of categories of authorship and intellectual property as well as the shifting social place of the writer.

Early modern poetry was also innovative in its use of literary frameworks for studying the private and subjective experience of writers, and we will analyze the forging of modern forms of subjectivity through poetic forms and their varied contexts: of devotion and religious practice, friendship, patronage and politics, as well as love poetry and erotic verse.

Our readings will include poems by Wyatt, Surrey, Gascoigne, Whitney, Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ralegh, Elizabeth I, Donne, Jonson, Lanyer, Wroth, Herbert, Herrick, Crashaw, Marvell, Milton, and Philips.

Several texts will receive extensive attention, with several sessions devoted to Spenser’s Faerie Queene, the entire cycle of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and the poetry of John Donne.

Course work will consist of a presentation (reading and leading discussion of a single poem); a mid-term essay exam; a final 5-page paper; and active participation

Texts:

Clare Carroll and Andrew Hadfield, eds., The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume 1b: The Early Modern Period, Fourth edition (Longman, 2010)
ISBN: 978-0205655328
Cost: $52.49 (new)

Donne, John, The Complete English Poems, ed. AJ Smith (Penguin)
ISBN: 978-0140422092
Cost: $15.99 (new)

Shakespeare, William, Complete Sonnets and Poems (Oxford)
ISBN: 978-0199535798
Cost: $12.79 (new)

Spenser, Edmund, The Faerie Queene (Penguin)
ISBN: 978-0140422078
Cost: $13 (new)

Required course packet available at Clark Graphics, 2915 N Oakland.
Cost: $20 (estimated)

For more information, contact Mark Netzloff at netzloff@uwm.edu.


ENG 530 | Studies in Shakespeare: Mediterranean Histories

Mark Netzloff
Section 1 | MW, 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Course Description:

Roughly half of Shakespeare’s plays are set in the Mediterranean, not only the more familiar contexts of Renaissance Italy and classical Rome and Greece but also the wider Mediterranean world linking Europe with the cultures of North Africa and West Asia. Placing Shakespeare’s plays in this broader Mediterranean context reveals the extent to which cultural and historical traditions typically identified as “western” or “European” emerge through cultural exchanges spanning millennia that forge connections among the constituent cultures of this region.

Although the settings of these plays glance backward to the Mediterranean past – the Trojan War, the Roman Empire, the cultural relations of early modern Europe and the Ottoman Empire – these Mediterranean histories evoke questions that are remarkably contemporary: what are the roles and rights of immigrant communities and religious minorities? How do travel, trade, and migration transform cultural identities? And how are cultural relations maintained despite war and other forms of conflict?

We will discuss eight plays: The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Pericles, and The Tempest.

Course work will include reading quizzes, active participation, and a final 10-page paper.

Texts:
(Students may use any other editions of the plays.)

Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (Oxford)
$10.93; ISBN: 978-0199535781
—. The Comedy of Errors (Oxford)
$9.95; ISBN: 978-0199536146
—. Coriolanus (Oxford)
$10.95; ISBN: 978-0199535804
—. The Merchant of Venice (Bantam)
$4.25; ISBN: 978-0553212990
—. Othello (Bantam)
$5.95; ISBN: 978-0553213027
—. Pericles (Oxford)
$10.93; ISBN: 978-0199536832
—. The Tempest (Oxford)
$7.13; ISBN: 978-0199535903
—. Troilus and Cressida (Oxford)
$10.30; ISBN: 978-0199536535

For more information, contact Mark Netzloff at netzloff@uwm.edu.


ENG 612 | Poetry and the Creative Process

Brenda Cárdenas
Section 1 (U/G) | T/Th, 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Course Description
How do contemporary poets conceive of and craft their poems? In what kinds of creative processes do they engage, and how might particular writing conditions aid those processes? What poetics/aesthetics guide their work? With questions like these in mind, we will engage in two different kinds of activities: 1) discussion of published poems paired with essays written by contemporary poets about their own creative processes and poetics, and 2) a generative writing workshop. By “generative,” I mean that we will spend time in class each week writing in response to inventive prompts which will give you the opportunity to experiment with many different creative processes and approaches to writing. From the collection of spontaneous, preliminary drafts that each of you will amass, you will select a certain number of pieces to develop into more carefully crafted poems that you will share with small groups of your peers. The critiques you will receive from and write for your peers will offer suggestions for revising the poems-in-progress so they might achieve the desired effects. Our culminating project will be a portfolio of revised poems with an introductory essay that describes the processes in which you engaged to produce the poems therein. The authors of the three poetry books I’ve asked you to purchase will also visit our class to talk about their own creative processes in writing their books.

Prerequisites
Senior sanding, satisfaction of GER English Composition competency requirement (C or above in English 102 or equivalent transfer course, or EPT score of 525 or above), and 3 credits in English 415, 416, 615, or 616; or graduate standing.

Required Texts
Dunham, Rebecca. Cold Pastoral: Poems, Milkweed Editions, 2017
Kilwein Guevara, Maurice. Autobiography of So-And-So: Poems in Prose, New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2001.
Patel, Soham. New Weather Drafts. Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2016.

Additional required readings will be made available as PDFs or via hotlinks on the course D2L site. They will consist of groups of published poems and articles written by poets regarding their own creative process and poetics. Together, they will comprise the equivalent of a fourth textbook. You will be expected to print these poems and articles out and bring them to class.

For more information, contact Brenda Cárdenas at cardenab@uwm.edu.


ENG 615 | Advanced Fiction Workshop

Valerie Laken
Section 1 | T, 4:30 PM – 7:10 PM

In this course you will discover what it is like to live as a writer. You will do this by writing and reading every day, sharing your work and feedback with your peers, and doing the difficult work of revision. We will review the craft skills essential to fiction writing, such as characterization, plot, conflict, and setting, and will begin to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the ways in which successful stories can defy convention, manipulate expectations, and expand the art of fiction. We’ll study published stories that model strategies such as point and counterpoint, nonlinearity, adapted and experimental forms, rhyming action, and more. We’ll do experiments to help generate and develop stories and to refine our sense of what a story can do and be. Each student will write and workshop two new stories and carefully revise one of them. Other assignments include written peer critiques, reading assignments, and writing exercises.

For more information, contact Valerie Laken at laken@uwm.edu.


ENG 622 | Seminar in Irish Literature: Irish Women Writers

José Lanters
Section 1 |

Course Description:

For a small nation that only achieved independence in 1922, Ireland has produced more than its share of world-class writers: we may immediately think of James Joyce, as well as the four Nobel laureates, G.B. Shaw, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney. Irish women writers have gained less visibility: until recently, for example, a poster featuring ‘Irish Writers’ popular with visitors to Ireland included the images of twelve men and not a single woman. For much of the twentieth century, women writers faced an uphill battle to have their work published, their plays produced, and their artistic efforts publicly recognized. The position of women in Ireland in general was circumscribed by the 1937 Constitution, which notoriously defined the role of women as mothers and their place as ‘in the home’, and by the dominance in everyday life of the Catholic church, which was granted a privileged position in the same Constitution. In this class, we will read prose fiction, poetry, and drama by female Irish writers, written between the early 20th century and the present day, in which themes and subjects that are of particular concern to women are addressed.

Assessment:
Midterm paper, final paper, class participation and attendance.

Reading List:
Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September, Anchor Books, ISBN 0385720149
Patricia Burke Brogan, Eclipsed, Wordsonthestreet (2008), ISBN 0955260442
Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats, Dramatists Play Service, ISBN 9780822218562
Teresa Deevy Reclaimed, ed. Jonathan Bank et al, Mint Theater Company (2011), ISBN 9780971826243
Sinead Gleeson, The Long Gaze Back, New Island Books (2015), ISBN 1848405480
Edna O’Brien, A Pagan Place, Mariner, ISBN 0618126902
The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry, Wake Forest Press, 2nd Ed., ISBN 1930630581

For more information, contact José Lanters at lanters@uwm.edu.