Undergraduate Courses
Note: *Indicates course approved for General Education literature requirement
ENGL 3001 British Literature through the Eighteenth Century*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A survey of the development of British literature through the eighteenth century, based on major authors and trends.
ENGL 3002 British Literature from Romanticism to the Present*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A survey of the development of British literature from the Romantic Movement to the present, based on major authors and trends.
ENGL 3013 Fundamentals of English Grammar for Level 3 Students
Credit hours: 3
Description: This is the first part of a two‐semester English grammar course for students who have placed level 3 on the Humanities English Placement Test. Within a communicative setting, students analyze grammatical forms in natural language and put these into action in their own speech and writing. Explicit knowledge of grammatical form and function will help level 3 students to incorporate these structures into their developing grammatical system when psycholinguistically ready.
ENGL 3014 Fundamentals of English Grammar for Level 3 Students
Credit hours: 3
Description: This is the second part of a two‐semester English grammar course for students who have placed level 3 on the Humanities English Placement Test. Within a communicative setting, students analyze grammatical forms in natural language and put these into action in their own speech and writing. Explicit knowledge of grammatical form and function will help level 3 students to incorporate these structures into their developing grammatical system when psycholinguistically ready.
ENGL 3016 Health Communication
Credit hours: 3
Description: Survey of theory and research in human communication in a healthcare context including interaction between parties and providers; communication in healthcare organizations; healthcare campaigns; information technologies in health communication; communication in support systems for the elderly, disabled, sick, and terminally ill; communication training for health care professionals; health ethics; mass media health images; how gender, race, age, ethnicity and language influence health communication; and cultural meanings of health and illness. Emphasis is on the nature of the communication processes that influence and/or are influenced by health and healthcare contexts.
ENGL 3017 Language in Science Fiction & Fantasy*
Credit hours: 3
Description: This interdisciplinary course is dedicated to the exploration of language and linguistics in science fiction / fantasy (SFF) literature, including language as a determiner of worldview (Whorfian theory), invented languages, and language as a literary device in the genre of SFF. The course will utilize novels, short stories, television programs, and movies to explore some of the basic foundations of speculative literature and linguistics.
ENGL 3031 Developing Functions of Oral English First Level I
Credit hours: 3
Description: Development of basic vocabulary, social formulas; pronunciation and grammar needed to carry out simple conversations. Practice in listening comprehension via attendance in language laboratory.
ENGL 3032 Developing Functions of Oral English First Level II
Credit hours: 3
Description: Continuing development of basic vocabulary, social formulas; pronunciation and grammar needed to carry out simple conversations. Practice in listening comprehension via attendance in language laboratory.
ENGL 3036 Literature & the Healing Arts: A Crosscultural Perspective*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An interdisciplinary course that examines essays, short stories, poetry, plays, novels, films, and medical writings that address, from several cultural perspectives, the relationship between literature, the human body in pain, social meanings of illness, and the healing arts.
ENGL 3037 Role of the Literary Magazine in Contemporary Literary Production*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An interdisciplinary course that examines the role that the literary magazine plays in the production of contemporary literature. The course surveys the history of the literary magazine during the 20th and 21st centuries. The literature of the most influential professional literary journals and university student literary magazines in North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, and other global regions will be studied. In addition to examining contemporary literary trends, the course analyzes literary standards, editing techniques, and the aesthetics of magazine layout and graphic design. The final course project is the production of a volume of the multilingual student literary magazine Tonguas.
ENGL 3041 Developing Functions of Oral English Second Level I
Credit hours: 3
Description: Development of vocabulary, idioms, pronunciation and grammar needed for daily conversation and written communication. Practice in listening comprehension and written production via attendance in language laboratory.
ENGL 3042 Developing Functions of Oral English Second Level II
Credit hours: 3
Description: Continuing development of vocabulary, idioms, pronunciation and grammar needed for daily conversation and written communication. Practice in listening comprehension and written production via attendance in language laboratory.
ENGL 3045 Literature & Ecology*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An interdisciplinary course that examines essays, short stories, novels, and films that address, from a variety of perspective, the human relationship to the natural, non‐human world during the contemporary era of planetary change, globalization, and increasing commercial and technological dependency.
ENGL 3051 Developing Functions of Oral English Third Level I
Credit hours: 3
Description: Development of more advanced vocabulary, idioms, pronunciation, spelling, and grammar needed to achieve fluency in both oral and written English. Practice in listening comprehension and written production via attendance in language laboratory.
ENGL 3052 Developing Functions of Oral English Third Level II
Credit hours: 3
Description: Continuing development of more advanced vocabulary, idioms, pronunciation, spelling, and grammar needed to achieve fluency in both oral and written English. Practice in listening comprehension and written production via attendance in language laboratory.
ENGL 3065 Intercultural Communication
Credit hours: 3
Description: Theory and Practice as a means of having students become more effective intercultural communicators. Intercultural perception, language, nonverbal elements, values, social organizations and worldview. Comparison will be made to show how cultural differences in these areas affect the intercultural communication process.
ENGL 3071 Developing Functions of Oral English Fourth Level I
Credit hours: 3
Description: Development of advanced vocabulary, social formulas, pronunciation, and grammatical structures needed to carry out complex conversations in English. Practice in listening comprehension via attendance in language laboratory twice a week.
NOTE: Students who took English 3103‐3104 will not be admitted.
ENGL 3072 Developing Functions of Oral English Fourth Level II
Credit hours: 3
Description: Continuation of development of advanced vocabulary, social formulas, pronunciation, and grammatical structures needed to carry out complex conversations in English. Practice in listening comprehension via attendance in language laboratory twice a week.
ENGL 3081 Acquiring English through Literature
Credit hours: 3
Description: The course focuses on the study, discussion, critical analysis, and oral representation of stories, poems, plays, essays, and novels as a means of accelerating acquisition, understanding, and production of written and oral English. Emphasis is placed on building vocabulary, the grammar and syntax of the readings, the aesthetic uses of language in literary expression, and the structural components of literary genres.
ENGL 3082 Acquiring English through Literature II
Credit hours: 3
Description: An introductory‐level course that focuses on English language acquisition through the study and critical analysis of literary works. Emphasis is placed on the comprehension of the grammatical, syntactic, and aesthetic use of the language as well as on the process of creative writing, role‐playing, and “performance.”
ENGL 3083 Advocacy Journalism in the United States
Credit hours: 3
Description: The study and practice of writing for advocacy, from letters to corporations, politicians, and editors to articles and columns, culminating in a final research project and column about a current local issue. Students will publish their best work on the Internet. The course will examine journalistic coverage of current events and social causes from a broad spectrum of opinions.
ENGL 3107 Language and Gender
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the study of gender‐based differences in language use; of interest to students of linguistics, communication, translation, and education.
ENGL 3108 Literature from the American Frontiers
Credit hours: 3
Description: The American frontiers in literature from the earliest times to the present, emphasizing the relationship between frontier ideology, native cultures, and national development in the new world.
ENGL 3109 Personal Identity: The Literature of Growing Up*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Takes as its subject the theme of growing up and initiation into life. Readings will be in fiction which deals with the varying ways in which young men and women acquire identity and maturity.
ENGL 3125 Communication and Popular Culture
Credit hours: 3
Description: Examination of the relationship between communication and the popular culture. Scientific, field research, and critical methods are employed to study the ways in which communication creates, mediates, and controls cultural change and stability.
ENGL 3126 Science Fiction
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of science fiction from H. G. Wells to the present, emphasizing its characteristics, literary techniques, and its treatment of social and philosophical problems and the effects of technology.
ENGL 3128 Literature and Fantasy*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of the representation of the fantastic in literature.
ENGL 3156 Literature & Contemporary Themes in Caribbean Development*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An interdisciplinary course that examines essays, short stories, novels, plays, poems, and films that address—from a variety of perspectives— contemporary issues in Caribbean economic and cultural development
ENGL 3165 Shakespeare in Performance*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of Shakespeare and the Shakespearean text from a performance perspective, with readings and scene work by students. Designed for non‐literature majors; of special interest to drama, education and communications students.
ENGL 3175 Poetry Writing
Credit hours: 3
Description: Intense individual work and group workshop in poetry writing.
ENGL 3190 Organizational Communication
Credit hours: 3
Description: The study and practice of communication in various organizational settings.
ENGL 3205 Grammar and Usage of English
Credit hours: 3
Description: This course is designed to strengthen the knowledge and skills of non‐native speakers of English in English grammar and usage. Students will be given intensive practice in question and negative formation, placement of frequency adverbs, verb tenses, modals, gerund and infinitive phrases, prepositions, and punctuation as it relates to grammatical structure.
ENGL 3207 Grammar and Usage of English II
Credit hours: 3
Description: This course is designed to strengthen the knowledge and skills of non‐native speakers of English in English grammar and usage. Students will be given intensive practice on those troublesome points of English grammar such as adjective clauses, noun clauses, parallel structures, adverb clauses, and conditional sentences.
ENGL 3215 Mystery Fiction as Literature*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of the literary aspects of mystery fiction and its relationship with masterpieces of such authors as Dostoevsky, Dickens, Twain, Borges, Conrad, James. Emphasis on structure of plot, characterization, and psychology, atmosphere, reader involvement. Includes a historical survey of the mystery form.
ENGL 3216 Biography
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the study of biography and autobiography through the analysis of works by representative authors.
ENGL 3217 Drama*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the study of drama through the analysis of plays.
ENGL 3218 Fiction
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the study of the novel and short story.
ENGL 3219 Poetry
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the study of poetry through the works of representative poets.
ENGL 3220 Reading and Writing the Screenplay
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of the screenplay as text, writing of critical essays and screenplays from original materials or adaptations from other authors.
ENGL 3221 Introduction to Literature: The Essay, the Short Story and the Novel
Credit hours: 3
Description: Readings in the essay, short story and novel.
ENGL 3222 Introduction to Literature: Poetry and Drama
Credit hours: 3
Description: Readings in poetry and drama.
ENGL 3224 Introductory Readings in Language (formerly ENGL 3225)
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of selected readings by different authors on the nature of language and the psychological and sociological aspects of communication.
ENGL 3226 The African-American Experience*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An introduction to African‐American writers from 1760 to the present.
ENGL 3227 Phonetics and Phonemics of American English
Credit hours: 3
Description: Linguistic theory of the sounds and sound system of American English.
ENGL 3228 Literature by Women*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of selected writings by women from the middle ages to the present day. Exploration of how women view their condition in society and how they have depicted their roles through poetry, fiction, and the literary essay.
ENGL 3229 Caribbean Experience in Literature*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An introduction to Caribbean literature in English with emphasis on the twentieth century. Readings are in all literary genres and include such writers as V.S. Naipaul, Jean Rhys, George Lamming, Michael Anthony, Errol John, Derek Walcott, and Edward K. Braithwaite. Attention is given to the development of distinctively Caribbean techniques and themes.
ENGL 3231 Expository Writing I
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to basic rhetorical patterns of expository prose such as narrative, definition, comparison and contrast, argument and persuasion, with an emphasis on the organization, clarity, coherence, and logic of the written product. Frequent writing exercises.
ENGL 3232 Expository Writing II
Credit hours: 3
Description: The writing of the research paper is the main focus of the work, taken step by step. Précis writing, the résumé, the job application letter, book reports and book reviews, the bibliography. Individual conferences with instructor required.
ENGL 3235 Translation: Basic Techniques
Credit hours: 3
Description: Grammatical and syntactic aspects of written English. Approach through prose translations. Examination of idiomatic expressions, verbal structure, and vocabulary.
ENGL 3236 Scientific Writing
Credit hours: 3
Description: A wide range of scientific readings is used as the basis for descriptive and analytic reports and theoretical essays. Recommended as part of the second year of English for students in Natural Sciences and in other science‐oriented programs.
ENGL 3237 Introduction to Journalistic Writing
Credit hours: 3
Description: News gathering and reporting. Practice in writing features, editorials, book reviews, sports stories. Emphasis on straight news reporting.
ENGL 3238 Introduction to Creative Writing
Credit hours: 3
Description: Intensive individual work in the writing of literary forms.
ENGL 3245 Advanced Techniques in Translation
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of methods and practices of literary translation. Emphasis on textual analysis, rhetorical analysis, and recreation of difficulties and “impossibilities” of source‐language texts. A course mainly of praxis aimed at understanding complexities of “literary” translation and overcoming its difficulties.
ENGL 3249 Introduction to Creole Languages of the Americas
Credit hours: 3
Description: To provide a historical and linguistic perspective on the generis of creole languages in the Americas as “legitimate” and fully‐formed language vehicles.
ENGL 3251 American Literature to 1865*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of the development of American literature from its beginnings through Whitman and Dickinson, based on major authors and major trends.
ENGL 3252 American Literature from 1865 through the Present*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of the development of American literature from Mark Twain through the present, based on major authors and major trends.
ENGL 3256 Theory and Practice of Interpersonal Communication
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of the perception, description, analysis, and improvement of human communication. Emphasis on the verbal and nonverbal dimensions of communication and the primary message systems.
ENGL 3257 Introduction to Public Speaking
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introductory course in the theory and practice of public speaking. Critical analysis of speeches.
ENGL 3258 Parliamentary Practices in English
Credit hours: 3
Description: Practice in oral English through participation in parliamentary procedure. Emphasis on formulating a constitution, conducting meetings, making motions, voting, adjourning meetings and preparing minutes.
ENGL 3259 Immigrant Experience*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of literature reflecting the experiences of different immigrant groups in the United States.
ENGL 3266 Non-verbal Communication
Credit hours: 3
Description: An examination of human nonverbal communication behaviors and their contribution to the process of human communication from both intra- and intercultural perspectives.
ENGL 3275 Theories of Human Communication
Credit hours: 3
Description: An introduction to the nature and functions of human communications as a field of study. An examination of theoretical model building in communication, a review of human signal and symbol systems, including theories of the humanistic, scientific, and technological aspects of the areas of interpersonal, intercultural, organizational, and nonverbal communication.
ENGL 3285 Puerto Rican Literature Written in English*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of the literature by Puerto Rican authors writing in English in the United States with special emphasis on the development of themes, techniques and language.
ENGL 3286 Creative Writing: Fiction
Credit hours: 3
Description: Intensive individual work and group discussion of techniques of fiction writing.
ENGL 3287 Communication Ethics
Credit hours: 3
Description: An examination of the nature and function of ethics in human communication. Emphasis will be given to the recognition and critical assessment of ethical issues in communication and the need to develop tolerance toward disagreement and ambiguity.
ENGL 3291 Writing about Literature I
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to literary analysis, critical theory, and critical writing. Students will write a series of critical essays.
ENGL 3292 Writing about Literature II
Credit hours: 3
Description: Techniques of literary research, application of literary theory, and the production of a major research paper.
ENGL 3315 Pronunciation of American English
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study and intensive practice of currently spoken Standard American English. The emphasis of the course is on the English pronunciation used by the American media (Network English).
ENGL 3347 Rhetoric of Identities
Credit hours: 3
Description: A critical study of rhetorical artifacts, from a variety of contexts, on a range of issues pertaining to the social construction of identity.
ENGL 3375 Gay and Lesbian Narratives*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Survey and definition of gay and lesbian literature with focus on analysis of short stories, films, autobiographical writings and novels dealing with gay/lesbian topics.
ENGL 3401 Afro-Caribbean Creole 1
Credit hours: 3
Prerequisite: Recommended for graduate students. Undergraduates will be admitted with the consent of the professor.
Description: First semester of elementary language learning class in a particular dialect of Afro‐Caribbean English Lexifier Creole designed to foster basic competence in pronunciation, speaking, comprehension, reading, writing, aspects of cultural practice, and the use of vocabulary. The dialect chosen as the ‘target dialect’ for language learning may vary from year to year. (5 hours per week). Course is continued in ENGL 3402. Cross‐listed as CREO 3405.
ENGL 3402 Afro-Caribbean Creole 2
Credit hours: 3
Prerequisite: Recommended for graduate students. Undergraduates will be admitted with the consent of the professor.
Description: Second semester of elementary language learning class in a particular dialect of Afro‐Caribbean English Lexifier Creole designed to foster basic competence in pronunciation, speaking, comprehension, reading, writing, aspects of cultural practice and the use of vocabulary. The dialect chosen as the ‘target dialect’ for language learning may vary from year to year. (5 hours per week). Continuation of ENGL 3401.
ENGL 3415 AIDS: A Rhetorical Perspective
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of selected works on AIDS from a rhetorical focus or perspective. Includes: strategies, rhetorical perspectives (genre studies, dramatic perspective, rhetorical need) and the metaphors of AIDS. Emphasis on AIDS as a physical and social epidemic and the ethics of the community.
ENGL 4000 English Literature of the 17th Century*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of the poetry of John Donne and the Metaphysical poets, Ben Jonson and the Cavalier poets, John Milton, and selected prose of the period.
ENGL 4001 Shakespeare: The Early Plays
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of representative comedies, tragedies, and histories from Shakespeare’s early period, and study of his development as a dramatist in the first half of his career.
ENGL 4002 Shakespeare: The Later Plays
Credit hours: 3
Prerequisites:
Description: Study of representative tragedies, comedies, and romances from the later period and study of his development as dramatist in the second half of his career.
ENGL 4005 Literature, Orality, and Performance*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Theory, techniques, and intensive practice in the oral interpretation and performance of literary texts. Selection, analysis, and delivery of texts in individual and group readings. Theoretical materials on oral culture and performance are also discussed.
ENGL 4006 Group Discussion
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study and training in group dynamics and leadership.
ENGL 4007 Argumentation and Debate
Credit hours: 3
Description: Theory and procedures of argumentation and debate. Practice in argumentative and persuasive discourse. Emphasis on the development of critical thinking.
ENGL 4009 The Renaissance in England*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Sixteenth‐century poetry, prose, drama (excluding Shakespeare), selected to illustrate the cultural and intellectual impact of the Renaissance in England.
ENGL 4015 The Eighteenth-Century British Novel”
Credit hours: 3
Description: The development of the British novel from its beginnings to Jane Austen. Readings from the major writers including Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, and Austen.
ENGL 4016 The Nineteenth-Century British Novel
Credit hours: 3
Description: The development of the British novel in the nineteenth century, with readings from the major writers including the Brontës, Dickens, Elliot, and Hardy.
ENGL 4017 The Romantic Movement
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of the major trends and aspects of the Romantic movement in Britain and of individual writers. Emphasis on the major poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, and Shelley.
ENGL 4019 Satire*
Credit hours: 3
Description: The study of satire, its history, conventions, strategies and the genres in which it appears from the middle ages to the present
ENGL 4029 Themes in Literature and Film
Credit hours: 3
Description: A specialized topics course reflecting formal trends and critical issues in the study of literature and film. Topics vary per semester. The course may be taken up to three times with different themes.
ENGL 4035 British Drama from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of the development of British drama from the Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century, excluding Shakespear
ENGL 4037 Introduction to Literary Theory
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to literary theory. Discussion of theoretical terms, schools of thought, and approaches, along with their socio‐historical contexts. It provides the tools to write critically employing strategies learned from critical texts.
ENGL 4038 Queer Sexualities in Film
Credit hours: 3
Description: An examination of film representations of queer sexual practices and identities.
ENGL 4039 Shakespeare on Film*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of films based on Shakespeare’s plays, and the ways in which film has been used to popularize, reinterpret and transform the Shakespearean text. The course will consider the history of Shakespeare on film from the earliest silent movies, to the attempts in the early talkies to bring the bard to film audiences, to the renewal of Shakespeare through the efforts of such directors as Olivier, Zeffirelli, Branagh in more recent times and the transformation of Shakespearean texts through extensive reworking by directors like Kurosawa . The symbiotic relationship between Shakespeare and the film medium will be explored.
ENGL 4046 Globalization and World Literature*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An interdisciplinary course that examines different literary genres and films that address, from a variety of perspectives, contemporary issues in globalization, power, and development and their literary and theoretical considerations and presentations.
ENGL 4048 The Arthurian Legend in Literature and Popular Culture*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of the origins of the legend of King Arthur in medieval Wales, England, Ireland, and France, tracing the legend’s development, transmission, and transformation up to the 20th century in literary texts, films, animation and comics. Discussions explore the power of myth and legend, as well as analyze the processes of historical change, cultural exchange, adaptation, and appropriation. To best analyze the uses of the legend in different historical and cultural contexts, the approach is interdisciplinary, intercultural, and multi‐media.
ENGL 4049 Special Topics in Caribbean Literature and Culture*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A specialized topics course on Caribbean society and literary expression, featuring analysis of literature and other areas such as film, history, music, politics, performance, religion, or popular culture. Topics vary per semester. Course can be taken up to three times when different themes are covered.
ENGL 4050 Aging, the End-of-Life, and Death in Literature and Film
Credit hours: 3
Description: A specialized interdisciplinary study of literature and films related to themes of aging, the “end-of-life experience” and death. Study of how the literary and cinematic imagination engages with issues of aging through autobiography, ethnography, essays, short stories, poetry, dramatic plays, novels, and films.
ENGL 4055 Film and/as Literature*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of the close relationship between film and literature. Examination of literary texts followed by viewing of screen versions and discussion of technique, differences between mediums, changes in the film interpretation and effectiveness. Writers who are influenced by film or write screenplays will be included
ENGL 4056 Special Topics in American Literature*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A specialized topic course reflecting current trends and issues in the study of American literature and culture. Topics vary per semester.
ENGL 4057 Communication and Sexualities
Credit hours: 3
Description: This course is an introduction of lectures and discussion related to the study of communication and sexualities. The course is designed to develop students’ abilities to think critically and analyze issues of sexualities and/in communication processes. More specifically, it examines how sexual identities are created, shaped, produced, reproduced, maintained, changed, contested, and challenged through social interaction and discursive practice.
ENGL 4058 Bilingual Performance Seminar
Credit hours: 3
Description: The course is designed to introduce students to the process of creating an original production from a script. The script chosen will be in either English or Spanish and will be translated into the other language. Students will participate as actors, stage designers, set builders, costume designers, dramaturgs, and publicity representatives. The course will culminate in an original production of the play in its original language and in its new translation.
ENGL 4065 Literature, Masculinities & Caribbean Cultural Development*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An interdisciplinary course that explores key concepts in the development of masculinities as socially constructed through literature, film, and popular culture in the Caribbean and internationally. Provides students with an introduction to the study of men and male behavior as a social-cultural product and recent debate on the theme.
ENGL 4069 US/Latino/a Drama*
Credit hours: 3
Description: This course explores Latino Drama with an emphasis on plays and theatre traditions in the United States since 1950, particularly related to Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Chicano communities, among others.
ENGL 4076 Special Topics in Communication
Credit hours: 3
Description: A specialized topic course reflecting trend and issues in the study of human communication. Topics vary per semester.
ENGL 4095 The Victorian Period
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of various aspects of the Victorian period as reflected in its literature.
ENGL 4096 Twentieth-Century Poetry
Credit hours: 3
Description: The chief poets writing in English from 1914 to the present.
ENGL 4097 Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of the literature (excluding the novel) of the long eighteenth‐century (1660‐1800) with emphasis on major trends and the major writers including Dryden, Swift, Pope, and Johnson.
ENGL 4105 Language Change
Credit hours: 3
Description: The study of language change in time and space and the social motivation for change
ENGL 4106 Introduction to Discourse Analysis
Credit hours: 3
Prerequisite: One of the following: ENGL 3011-3012, or level 5 on the English Department Placement Test, or advanced placement in English.
Description: Linguistic theory of the organization of discourse. Application of theory to areas such as language, education, literary analysis, and language acquisition research.
ENGL 4115 Introduction to Rhetorical Criticism
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the methods, theories, and practice of rhetorical criticism.
ENGL 4125 Introduction to Semantics: The Study of Meaning
Credit hours: 3
Description: A linguistic approach to the study of meaning including a survey of current semantic theory and its practical applications in communication.
INGL 4127 Politics of Representation in American Film and Literature*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A historical survey of the images made in American film of ethnicity, gender, and/or race, from the opening of the 20th century to the present. The development of skills for “reading” a variety of cultural representations made of ethnicity, gender and “otherness” by focusing on a variety of American film and literary texts, by analyzing key moments in the nation’s history and ideological development, and by examining the basic precepts cultural critics bring to our understanding of the meaning of images and how these may affect identity.
ENGL 4145 Family Communication
Credit Hours: 3
Description: Provides an overview of the family as a communication system, focusing on issues related to family interaction, functioning, and communication. Readings and discussions address marital, parent-child, sibling, and intergenerational interactions in the family. Explores the processes involved in family communication (managing, openness, conflict, social support, intimacy, decision-making, environmental and cultural factors, etc.) and issues facing families of the new millennium. A wide range of family types and research methods are considered.
ENGL 4205 Study of Language: Introduction to Linguistics
Credit hours: 3
Description: Contemporary linguistic theory. Includes phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse analysis, as well as language variation and change.
ENGL 4206 Grammar of Modern English: Sentence and Clause Structure
Credit hours: 3
Description: Syntactic analysis of constituent structure of English, proceeding from the simple sentence to the complex, including the noun phrase, adjective clause, noun clause, gerund and infinitive phrases, and compound structures.
ENGL 4207 Introduction to Syntactic Theory
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of English syntax from various theoretical perspectives.
ENGL 4208 Development of Modern English
Credit hours: 3
Description: English within the Indo‐European family of languages. The Old English, Middle English and Modern English periods. The historical background of Modern American English.
ENGL 4215 Twentieth-Century Fiction from 1940*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of representative novelists and short story writers from 1940 to the present. Includes British, American and other English‐language literatures.
ENGL 4216 Twentieth-Century Drama to 1940*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of representative plays to 1940. Includes British, American and other English‐language literatures.
ENGL 4217 Twentieth-Century Drama from 1940*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of representative plays from 1940 to the present. Includes British, American and other English‐language literatures.
ENGL 4218 American Literature and “The American Dream”*
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of the growth and decline of faith in the American Dream. The traditional values of American society as reflected in its literature.
ENGL 4219 American Fiction of the Nineteenth Century
Credit hours: 3
Description: The works of major novelists and short story writers of the period.
ENGL 4225 American Myths and Values in Literary Genres and Films*
Credit hours: 3
Description: The study of literary and film genres such as the Western, comedy, horror, gangsterism, film noir, etc. Emphasis on such topics as narrative style, themes, values, and the reality reflected in typically American films and literary genres.
ENGL 4230 Introduction to Human Communication Research
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the theoretical and practical concerns underlying procedures most commonly used in human communication research.
ENGL 4235 Contrastive Analysis of the Sound Systems of English and Spanish
Credit hours: 3
Description: Phonetics, phonemics, stress, and intonation of American English and Puerto Rican Spanish contrasted in detail. Problems of phonological interference.
ENGL 4236 Contrastive Analysis of the Syntactic Structures of English and Spanish
Credit hours: 3
Description: Inflection, word order, word formation, phrase structure, and clause structure of English and Spanish.
ENGL 4237 Introduction to Linguistic Research
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of the methods and practice in doing field research and library research in linguistics.
ENGL 4238 Twentieth-Century Fiction to 1940
Credit hours: 3
Description: Study of representative English‐language novelists and short story writers to 1940.
ENGL 4256 U.S. Latino/a Literature*
Credit hours: 3
Description: A study of the literature produced by Latino/a writers in the United States and its contribution to a multifaceted American literary tradition. From a transnational perspective, the course explores themes and issues found in the texts, and critically analyzes the historical, cultural, social, and political contexts in which they are produced.
ENGL 4265 Magical Realism in North American Narrative*
Credit hours: 3
Description: The study of magical realism in North American texts in authors or film makers such as Hawthorne, Melville, Faulkner, Capra, Redford,, and Spielberg.
ENGL 4336 The Dark Side of Human Relationships
Credit hours: 3
Description: Exploratory and critical study of interpersonal communication research that focuses on the role that darker behaviors play in human relationships. The intent is to shed light on the darker side of human behavior (e.g. deception, obsession, addiction, jealousy, infidelity, gossip, conflict, grief, taboos, betrayal, guilt) while redressing the ideology of optimism characteristic of the study of interpersonal relationships from a human communication perspective.
ENGL 4346 Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the history and development of rhetorical theory in the Western world with special attention given to the contemporary period.
ENGL 4347 Classical Rhetorical Theory
Credit hours: 3
Description: Introduction to the history and development of rhetorical theory in the western world with special attention given to the classical periods.
ENGL 4505 Disability Studies and the Humanities*
Credit hours: 3
Description: An interdisciplinary course that examines disability through the Humanities from several cultural perspectives. Study of how the artistic, literary, cinematic, and performative imagination engages with disability issues and lived experiences through autobiography, auto-ethnography, essays, short stories, poetry, dramatic plays, novels, films, dance, photography, and other visual arts.
ENGL 4506 Narratives of Health and Healing
Credit hours: 3
Description: Exploration of health and healing, including cultural meanings of wellness and illness, through an understanding of narrative, narrative research, and narrative analysis. This exploration will include frequent writing practice in how to tell a story and result in a research-based application of new knowledge about narrative.
ENGL 4611 Introduction to the African Novel
Credit hours: 3
Description: An interdisciplinary course that examines the African Novel along with other foundational literary texts across genres that let to the African Novel’s development: oral narratives, poetry, short stories, novels, plays, and visual texts across geographic and cultural boundaries. Face-to-face, hybrid, and online modalities.
ENGL 4995 Special Topics in Contemporary Narratives of Trauma, Madness, and Healing
Credits: 3 credit hours
Description: An interdisciplinary course that studies essays, short stories, poetry, plays, novels, films, popular culture, rhetorical texts, and medical writings that address, from several cultural perspectives, the relationship between trauma, madness, and healing in literature. Students may take the course two times if the subtopics are different.
ENGL 4996 Topics in Medical Humanities and Health, Literature and Cinema
Credit hours: 3
Description: A specialized interdisciplinary topics course reflecting formal trends and critical issues in the study of literature and film, as related to fields of Medical Humanities and Health. Topics vary per semester. The course may be taken up to two times with different themes. The course will be taught in three-hour sessions to permit the viewing of entire films when necessary.
ENGL 5035 Travel for Study in Literature, Communication, and Linguistics*
Credit hours: 3
Prerequisites: All students need the approval of the professor and the ability to engage in the travel portion of the course. Cost of travel must be met in a timely manner.
Description: A combination of study and travel in which students will be able to encounter the places, cultural artifacts, and history of subjects in the study of literature, communication, or linguistics. Different variants of study trips will be offered to give students the experience of travel to the countries of the literature, communication, or linguistics studied and give them the opportunity to engage directly with the culture, language, discourse, history, art, architecture of the periods, authors or types of literature, or to acquire first-hand experience of the communication or linguistic topic being studied.