Introductory Undergraduate Courses in Language and Literature
Academic Year 2024-2025, Semester II
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All courses carry 4 credits, unless otherwise indicated.
One course numbered CAS EN 121-201, 203-215, or 221 may count toward the English major.
If you are considering a major or minor in English, you should take EN 220 rather than WR 150, 151, or 152.
Please note that a class may not be used to fulfill more than one distribution requirement.
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Encounters: Reading across Time and Space
*Note that this course is the introduction to the English Major. Non-majors looking for Hub units should consider other courses, including 100-level English courses.
This team-taught course provides an introduction to English literature across the ages. We will stage encounters across time and space between authors working in the English language – from the middle ages to the present, and from England to the Americas and around the globe.
Highlighting canonical and non-canonical texts, we will discuss representative moments in the history of genre, including poetry, drama, travel narrative, autobiography, the novel, film, and performance. Alongside our early works, we will read and view the work of artists from various backgrounds who have responded creatively to texts from literary history, in gestures of homage, repudiation, or ambivalence. These conversations might be direct and explicit or more indirect and allusive. We will also pay special attention to how a later work might influence our understanding of an earlier work. Along with more formal thesis-driven assignments, students will have their own opportunity to speak back to our readings; like the artists and activists on our syllabus, students will be invited to draw on their specific histories and experiences to craft creative encounters with the early works we read. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Teamwork/Collaboration.
EN 101 A1 and B1 Appleford and Lee
TR 9:30 – 10:45a
Reading World Literature
Study of literature in English or English translation — poetry, drama, and prose narrative — outside of British and American traditions. Attention to such topics as cultural self-construction, relationships of historical context to artistic expression, and development of literary forms. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
EN121 A1 Gutierrez
MWF 10:10 – 11:00a
Reading American Literature
How does American literature inspire readers to reflect upon cultural developments in the United States, from the 1830s up through the Civil Rights movement? What genres, themes, and stylistic tendencies are central to American fiction, poetry, and nonfiction prose during this period? How and why do these works still speak to us today, representing the hopeful possibilities and benefits of community, as well as the challenges posed by communities-in-crisis to cherished individuality? This survey begins with texts by Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, Whitman, and others who were deeply troubled by the effects of industrialization in America, protested against slavery, and confronted the crisis of Civil War. We will then turn to authors such as James, Du Bois, Hughes, Larsen, Cather, and Hemingway, exploring cultural changes brought about by expatriation and migration, including the New Negro Renaissance and the flourishing of modernism. Our concluding sessions will examine how wartime experience fostered the discovery of new forms in poetry by Eliot, H.D., and Gwendolyn Brooks, and consider how this American legacy lives on in the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration and The Individual in Community.
EN 127 A1 Patterson
MWF 12:20 – 1:10p
Introduction to African American Literature
What is the African American literary tradition? How does it change over time? This course is to introduce you to the cultural, political, and historical contexts of the African American experience through readings of literature. We will read poetry, slave narratives, essays and speeches, tales, short stories, and novels, and as we examine these texts, we will consider how culture, politics, and history shape African American literature. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking. Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (WR100/120 or equivalent)
EN 129/AA 103 A1 Boelcskevy
TR 11:00a-12:15p
Science/Fiction
Through readings in British and/or American literature, an exploration of some of the following topics: science and technology as literary themes; historical construction of science and art; similarities and differences between literary and scientific methods; the development of science fiction. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Ethical Reasoning.
EN130 A1 Ruliffson
MWF 9:05 – 9:55a
Introduction to Fiction
Introduces critical concepts for analyzing works of fiction. Readings in different periods, genres, and traditions, ranging from canonical masterpieces to unheralded literary gems, aimed to cultivate an appetite for the pleasures, and rigors, of narrative art. Topics vary by instructor. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same number that was previously titled “Literary Types: Fiction.” This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Ethical Reasoning.
EN 141 A1 Cavender
MWF 9:05 – 9:55a
Children’s Literature
In the Anglo-American tradition, what do animated toys in children’s literature tell children? What do they reveal about our culture? And how do they shape it? And how have those stories changed from the beginning of the 20th century to the early 21st century? This course centers on works within children’s literature that depict toy fantasy, toy animism, or, in other words, toys that “come alive.” Beginning with the very end of the 19th century (1883) and following through to the early 21st century (2006), this course explores a range of genres within children’s literature including picture books, middle grade novels, and graphic texts. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation.
EN 150 A1 Panscyzyk
TR 11:00a-12:15p
Reading Shakespeare 1
A critical introduction to Shakespeare through intensive analyses of six or seven plays. Possible attention to such topics as literary sources, early modern stagecraft, performance history, and contemporary film adaptation. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
EN163 A1 Vahamikos
TR 2:00-3:15p
The Graphic Novel
Examination of the rise, nature, and status of the contemporary book-length graphic novel. Topics may include graphic vs. traditional novel, word and image, style and space, representations of subjectivity, trauma, and history. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation.
EN170 A1 Ruliffson
MWF 11:15a – 12:05p
Literature and Ideas
How does literature relate to philosophy? How do poems and stories explore philosophical beliefs? This course specifically examines the relationship between the written word and the environment. Readings may include nature writing, poetry, fiction, philosophical essays, maps, sermons, and letters, all engaging with broad questions about the connections between nature and conceptions of self, divinity, politics, community, and value. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Critical Thinking.
EN 195 A1 Prince
MWF 1:25 – 2:15p
Introduction to Literary Studies
Introduction to literary analysis and interpretation. Variable topics. Through frequent writing assignments and discussion, students develop skills in the analysis of literary texts and learn to express their interpretive ideas in correct and persuasive prose. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course.
EN201 A1 Hunziker
MWF 1:25 – 2:15p