124. College Writing: Writing and Literature.
ECB writing assessment. (4). (Introductory Composition).
This course studies the intersection between critical thinking and persuasive writing, and, using literary texts as the point of reference, takes as its goals the development of the student's skills at writing cogent expository and argumentative prose.
125. College Writing.
ECB writing assessment. (4). (Introductory Composition).
A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.
140(126). First-Year Literary Seminar.
Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (HU).
A study of selected topics in literature through classroom discussion and the writing of essays.
217. Literature Seminar.
Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (HU).
A seminar course which focuses on a sharply defined topic or body of literature. Emphasis on discussion and writing.
223. Creative Writing.
Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.
Introductory creative writing course in which students compose pieces in fiction, poetry or drama.
224. The Uses of Language.
Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).
Aimed at helping students improve their critical thinking and writing abilities, this course explores the language underlying a particular activity or culture, with the goal of uncovering its rhetorical strategies.
225. Argumentative Writing.
Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).
Instruction in composition with weekly papers and overall review of style and arrangement.
226. Directed Writing.
Permission of instructor. (1-3). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for a total of three credits.
A program of supervised writing agreed upon by a student and a member of the faculty. The student should have taken a prior course in writing.
227/Theatre 227. Introductory Playwriting.
(3). (CE).
A creative writing course in the rudiments of playwriting, with special attention to the one-act play. Students are accepted on the basis of a portfolio.
229/LHSP 229. Technical Writing.
Completion of the introductory composition requirement. (4). (HU).
A straightforward approach to the practicalities of writing clear descriptive and explanatory prose whose subject matter is centered on process and sequence.
230. Introduction to Short Story and Novel.
(3). (HU).
An intensive study of prose fiction, American, English, and Continental, usually including representative short stories and novels of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
239. What is Literature?
Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).
This course, prerequisite to the concentration, is to introduce students to the chief terms and practices of English Studies.
240. Introduction to Poetry.
Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).
A disciplined introduction to the reading of poetry, English and American.
245/RC Hums. 280/Theatre 211. Introduction to Drama and Theatre.
No credit granted to those who have completed or are enrolled in RC Hums. 281. (4). (HU).
This course aims to introduce students to as many basic aspects of the theatre, practical and theoretical, as time allows. It also presents them with a number of key plays from various periods, and examines them from the point of view of their dramatic qualities, their theatrical strengths, their social and political contexts, their performance history, and their relevance today. The course functions by lecture and sections, the second of which allow more detailed discussion and some elementary scene-work.
267(326). Introduction to Shakespeare.
Completion of Introductory Composition. (4). (HU).
A basic course in Shakespeare.
270. Introduction to American Literature.
(3). (HU).
An intensive study of the works of four or five major American writers, which may include Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson, Whitman, Twain, James, and Hemingway.
274/CAAS 274. Introduction to Afro-American Literature.
(3). (HU).
By surveying poetry, narratives - fictive and autobiographical - prose essays, and drama produced by Black writers over the course of their presence in America, we attempt to investigate the nature of these authors' imaginative responses to Afro-American peoples' situation in a society simultaneously both hostile to and keenly dependent upon their presence.
280. Thematic Approaches to Literature.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
A course designed to introduce students to literature through a theme. It gives training in close reading of texts, largely contemporary, representing a variety of literary forms and styles. The themes may concern social, philosophical, or psychological issues. Actual content varies from term to term. Consult the Time Schedule for information about specific topics.
285. Introduction to Twentieth-Century Literature.
(3). (HU).
Readings are to be drawn from the fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction of the twentieth century, including contemporary and experimental works as well as modern classics.
299. Directed Study.
Permission of instructor. (1-3). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for a total of three credits.
A program of supervised study agreed upon by a student and a member of the faculty. Normally, the student should have prior credit for a course in literature.
305. Introduction to Modern English.
Recommended for students preparing to teach English. (3). (HU).
A study of the regional and social dimensions of diversity in American English and of various modern attempts to describe the language system.
308. History of the English Language.
(3). (HU).
A historical survey of the sounds and structure of the English language from 900 A.D. to the present time, with particular emphasis upon the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare.
309. American English.
(3). (HU).
Social and regional variations in American English considered in terms of contemporary views of cultural history and processes of language change.
310. Discourse and Society.
English 124 or 125. (3). (Excl).
This course deals in any given term with some particular set of problems and possibilities associated with the teaching of uses of literacy outside the University.
313. Topics in Literary Studies.
(4). (HU). May be repeated for a total of eight credits.
This course is designed to give students the opportunity to combine lecture with discussion sections as they focus on a broad range of topics.
315/WS 315. Women and Literature.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for a total of six credits.
This course number is designed to accommodate a wide variety of courses on women and literature. Consult the Time Schedule for information about each term's offering.
316. Intellectual Problems in Literature.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
A study of literary examples of intellectual problems (e.g., mysticism, existentialism, good and evil, problems of perception). Actual content and emphasis varies from term to term. Consult the Time Schedule for information about each term's offering.
317. Literature and Culture.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
Literary readings aimed at recreating the sense of a specific culture (e.g., English Renaissance, Beat Literature, Revolutionary Ireland, Post-Colonial Africa (English-speaking)). Actual content and emphasis varies from term to term. Consult the Time Schedule for information about each term's offerings.
318. Literary Types.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
Readings are bound together by their similarity on the structural, generic, or modal levels (e.g., Science Fiction, Fantasy, Epic and Romance, Psychological Novel, Lyric Poetry, Tragedy). Actual content and emphasis varies from term to term. Consult the Time Schedule for information about each term's offerings.
319. Literature and Social Change.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
This course studies the effect of scientific, economic, political, or cultural change upon literature, with particular reference to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some of the topics which may be offered include science and poetry, or politics and the modern novel; or the focus may be on a particular theme (e.g., urbanization and the theme of alienation in modern literature).
320/CAAS 338. Literature in Afro-American Culture.
(3). (HU).
This course is designed to examine the various ways in which literature and culture have interacted in the Afro-American experience of the New World. Shifting emphases shed light on a variety of issues: slave autobiography, frontier and colonial cultures, women's issues, and contemporary or popular narratives.
323. Creative Writing.
English 223, junior standing, and written permission of instructor. (3). (CE). May be repeated for a total of six credits.
Practice in writing poetry or fiction.
325. Essay Writing: The Art of Exposition.
(4). (Excl).
A review of the fundamentals of composition with further practice in writing expository prose. Materials are drawn in part from the student's fields of interest.
327/Theatre 327. Playwriting.
Engl. 227. (3). (Excl).
Practice in writing short plays. Conceptualizing a full-length play.
340. Reading and Writing Poetry.
(3). (Excl).
This course focuses on twentieth century American poetry. Part of the course is devoted to reading and studying poems; the rest to writing poems in various styles and forms.
English 350 & 351
This two-term sequence is designed to give students a principled sense of the range of literary works written in English; the first term will characteristically deal with works produced before the later seventeenth century - to the time of Milton, that is; the second term will begin at that point and proceed to the present. These courses will be open to English concentrators and to non-concentrators alike.
350. Literature in English to 1660.
(4). (Excl).
Part one of a two-term sequence designed to give students a principled sense of the range of literary works written in English to 1660.
351. Literature in English after 1660.
(4). (Excl).
Part two of a two-term sequence designed to give students a principled sense of the range of literary works written in English (mid-17th C. to Present).
367. Shakespeare's Principal Plays.
(4). (HU).
An intensive study of from twelve to fifteen plays designed to increase the student's critical appreciation and understanding of Shakespeare's art and thought.
368. Shakespeare's Principal Plays, II.
(4). (HU).
A continuation of one of the fall term's 367 sections. Students read additional plays. Both continuing and new students are accepted into the course.
English 370, 371, & 372
Each of these courses will range over the materials of the periods indicated below in one or more of a variety of ways. Some may be multi-generic surveys; some may focus on the development during the period of specific genres; some may be topical, others formal in their principle of organization. All sections will emphasize the development of student skill in writing essays analyzing the materials and evaluating the approaches in question.
370. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature.
(4). (Excl). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
A course which ranges widely (by genre or theme) over literature in English to 1660.
371. Studies in Literature, 1600-1830.
(4). (Excl). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
A course which ranges widely (by genre or theme) over literature in English 1660-1830.
372. Studies in Literature, 1830-Present.
(4). (Excl). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
A course which ranges widely (by genre or theme) over literature in English 1830-Present.
381/Amer. Cult. 324. Asian American Literature.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for a total of six credits with department permission.
This course considers a range of topics in the study of Asian American literature. It raises questions concerning the canon of texts to be studied, the cultural construction of Asian American literature, race and ethnicity in America, and the ways in which these texts challenge and expand our understanding of American literature.
382/Amer. Cult. 328. Native American Literature.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for a total of six credits with department permission.
This course considers a range of topics in the study of Native American literature. It raises questions concerning the canon of texts studied, the cultural construction of ethnicity in America, and the ways in which these texts challenge and expand our understanding of American literature.
383. Topics in Jewish Literature.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for a total of six credits with department permission.
The course considers a range of topics in the study of Jewish literature. It raises questions concerning the canon of texts studied, the cultural construction of Jewish literature, race and ethnicity.
384/CAAS 384/Amer. Cult. 406. Topics in Caribbean Literature.
(3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of six credits with department permission.
The course considers a range of topics in the study of Caribbean literature. It raises questions concerning the canon of texts to be studied, the cultural construction of Caribbean literature, race, and ethnicity.
385/CAAS 385. Topics in African Literature.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for a total of six credits with department permission.
This course considers a range of topics in the study of African literature. It raises questions concerning the canon of texts studied, the cultural construction of African literature, race and ethnicity.
386. Irish Literature.
(3). (HU). May be repeated for a total of six credits with department permission.
This course considers a range of topics in the study of Irish literature. It raises questions concerning the canon of texts to be studied, Irish literary traditions, and the cultural construction of Irish literature, in social, political, and aesthetic interaction with British culture.
387/Amer. Cult. 327. Latino/Latina Literature of the U.S.
(3). (HU).
This course considers the relationship between Latino/a literary productions and the social conditions and possibilities of its production. A variety of topics is addressed in the study of such Latino/a literatures of the US as Chicano/a, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American.
401/Rel. 481. The English Bible: Its Literary Aspects and Influences, I.
(4). (HU).
This course studies meaning and the literary genres and histories of the Old and New Testaments.
406/Ling. 406. Modern English Grammar.
(3). (Excl).
A descriptive analysis of the structure of present-day American English.
407. Topics in Language and Literature.
(3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
Various issues in the interrelation of language and literature are considered. See Course Guide each term for further information.
408/Ling. 408. Varieties of English.
(3). (Excl).
Under this rubric, the department has courses in such topics as American English, English as a world language, Black English, and dialects of English.
411. Art of the Film.
(3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for credit with department permission.
A study of the art of film, drawing upon a wide range of works and upon various critical approaches. Nature and content of the course depend upon the instructor. Consult the Course Guide for more information.
412/Film-Video 412. Major Directors.
(3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for a total of nine credits with department permission.
A survey of the works of a select number of major directors. The course examines the individual accomplishments of these artists while placing their films in the context of world cinema.
413/Film-Video 413. Film Genres and Types.
(3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for credit with department permission.
An examination of such film genres as comedy, the horror film, or Western; and such film types as avant-garde cinema or the documentary. The class examines a representative number of examples from both historical and critical perspectives.
415. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literature.
(3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of six credits.
Ideas contributed by behavioral science, philosophy, linguistics, etc., are considered in relation to the problems of the creative writer and the literary critic. Actual content and emphasis varies from term to term. Consult the Time Schedule for information about specific topics.
417. Senior Seminar.
Senior concentrator in English. May not be repeated for credit. (4). (Excl).
Senior seminars exemplify the various critical approaches to literature, either by direct study or by application to a particular writer, period, or genre.
423. The Writing of Fiction.
Open to seniors and graduate students; written permission of the instructor is required. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit.
Sessions are in the writing of the short story and the novel.
425. Advanced Essay Writing.
Open only to seniors and graduate students. (3). (Excl).
Practice and guidance in the writing of expository prose, primarily for students at work on long papers, with special attention in conference to individual writing problems.
426. Directed Writing.
Junior standing and permission of instructor. (1-4). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for a total of six credits.
A program of supervised writing agreed upon by a student and a member of the faculty. Students should have prior credit for a course in writing.
427/Theatre and Drama 427. Advanced Playwriting.
English 327. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of six credits.
Practice in writing short and long plays, with one full-length play as final project.
428. Senior Writing Tutorial.
English 223, 323, and 423/429. (3). (Excl).
A combination writing workshop/thesis tutorial for undergraduate students who are in their last year at Michigan, have taken the 200-, 300-, and 400-level writing workshops, and have been accepted into the Creative Writing Program. In this course, students complete a major manuscript of fiction or poetry. Supervised reading and writing assignments also form a part of the curriculum. Regular tutorial meetings between students and faculty take place; workshops in fiction and/or poetry might be arranged. The course is designed to afford students and faculty the greatest flexibility and latitude in devising the most beneficial working arrangements, given the particular needs of students taking the course that term.
429. The Writing of Poetry.
Written permission of instructor is required. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit.
Practice in the analysis of poetic forms and the writing of poetry.
430. The Rise of the Novel.
(4). (Excl).
The development of the novel into a major literary form is related to cultural and intellectual backgrounds. Authors often studied include Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Smollett, Austen, Scott.
431. The Victorian Novel.
(4). (Excl).
The development of the novel is traced with attention to traditional and innovative forms, and cultural and intellectual backgrounds. Authors often studied include the Brontės, Trollope, Gaskell, Thackeray, Eliot, Hardy.
432. The American Novel.
(4). (Excl).
This course concerns the American Novel as a traditional and unique literary form, as well as its relationship to its own native culture and to that of Europe. Critical analyses of works by authors such as Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, James, Dreiser, Dos Passos, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Mailer.
433. The Modern Novel.
(4). (Excl).
This course focuses on the major developments in the modern novel with special attention to the form's relationship to intellectual and cultural trends in the modern world. Special emphasis is on works by authors such as Joyce, Woolf, Lawrence, Ford, Forster, Stein, West, Richardson, H.D.
434. The Contemporary Novel.
(4). (Excl).
This course investigates the novel since World War II. Readings are in such writers as Camus, Sartre, Waugh, Nabokov, Lessing, Bellow, Mailer, Robbe-Grillet, Grass, and Solzhenitsyn.
440. Modern Poetry.
(3). (Excl).
A study of representative twentieth-century American and British poets, such as Frost, Eliot, Pound, Williams, Stevens, Yeats, Thomas, and Auden.
441. Contemporary Poetry.
(3). (Excl).
Readings in American poets whose work has become known to readers since 1940: John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, James Dickey, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Howard Nemerov, Theodore Roethke, Richard Wilbur, and others. At the instructor's option the course may also include such British poets as Thomas Gunn, A. D. Hope, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, and Charles Tomlinson.
443/Theatre 321. History of Theatre I.
(3). (HU).
The history of theatre, internationally regarded, from its beginnings to about 1660.
444/Theatre 322. History of Theatre II.
(3). (HU).
The history of theatre, internationally regarded, from about 1660 to the present.
445. Shakespeare's Rivals.
(3). (Excl).
Readings are in some of the major medieval mystery cycles, with emphasis upon the development of Elizabethan comedy and tragedy in Marlowe, Jonson, and Webster, all in relation to the audiences and theatres of the period.
446. World Drama: Congreve to Ibsen.
(3). (Excl).
This course observes play, audience, and theatre, including special studies from Restoration and Georgian comedy (Wycherley to Sheridan), the Victorian popular theatre, the satirical comedy of Shaw, and the Irish Dramatic Movement (Yeats to O'Casey).
447. Modern Drama.
(3). (Excl).
Considered are the great dramatic movements of the last hundred years, selected from the naturalistic theatre of Ibsen and Chekhov, symbolism after Strindberg, expression in Pirandello and O'Neill, the epic theatre of Brecht, and the theatre of the absurd after Beckett.
448. Contemporary Drama.
(3). (Excl).
This course is a study of drama from the forties to the present in England, America, and Europe. Playwrights often considered include Miller, Beckett, Pinter, Albee, Sartre, and Ionesco.
449/Theatre 423. American Theatre and Drama.
(3). (HU).
The study of principal American dramatists, and principal events and issues in the American theatre, mainly in the 20th century.
455/MARC 455. Medieval English Literature.
(3). (HU).
Studies in the literature of the medieval period in England. Readings are drawn from such works as Beowulf, Gawain and the Green Knight, Middle English romances and lyrics, Piers the Ploughman, the miracle plays, and Malory's Morte d'Arthur.
459. English Neoclassical Literature.
(3). (Excl).
Studies in the literature of the Restoration and the eighteenth century in England. Readings are drawn from the works of such authors as Defoe, Dryden, Fielding, Pope, Swift, and Johnson.
461. English Romantic Literature.
(3). (Excl).
Studies in the literature of the Romantic period in England. Readings are drawn from the works of such authors as Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Bronte, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.
462. Victorian Literature.
(3). (Excl).
Studies in the literature of the Victorian period in England. Readings are drawn from the works of such authors as Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Arnold, George Eliot, Pater, Hopkins, and Hardy.
465/MARC 465. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales.
(3). (Excl).
An intensive study of Chaucer's major work with reading in Middle English and background lectures covering as many tales as possible at the discretion of the instructor.
467. Topics in Shakespeare.
Prior course work in Shakespeare is recommended. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
This course is designed to consider specific issues and approaches to Shakespeare's work for students who have already gained some basic familiarity with his texts.
469. Milton.
(3). (Excl).
Intensive study of Milton's poetry, with emphasis upon Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and important early poems such as Comus and Lycidas. Selected prose by Milton is read to illuminate his role in the Puritan revolution and the development of his thought.
471. Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Key Texts.
(3). (Excl).
A study of representative literary texts and significant cultural movements of the nineteenth century.
472. Twentieth-Century American Literature: Key Texts.
(3). (Excl).
A study of the evolution of American literary modernism.
473. Topics in American Literature.
(3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
Intensive study of particular periods and essential issues in American literature.
477/CAAS 475. Early Afro-American Literature.
(3). (Excl).
A study of the literature of Afro-Americans from 1773 to the 1930s with particular emphasis on the post-Reconstruction writings of Dunbar, Chesnutt, DuBois, and Johnson and on such writers of the Harlem Renaissance as McKay, Turner, Cullen, Hughes, and Thurman.
478/CAAS 476. Contemporary Afro-American Literature.
(3). (Excl).
A study of literature written by Afro-Americans from World War II to the present. Wright, Yerby, Baldwin, Ellison, Brooks, Hayden, Jones, Lee, and Cleaver are among the writers discussed.
479/CAAS 489. Topics in Afro-American Literature.
English 274 and/or 320 strongly recommended. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of six credits.
Following a sequence of introductory and mid-level classes, students may elect this advanced-level seminar in Afro-American Literature. From year to year topics may include the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts movement or the Slave Narrative as well as thematic, or generic approaches.
482. Studies in Individual Authors.
(3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
Courses in the works of a major author. Consult the Course Guide for information about specific offerings each term.
483. Great Works of Literature.
(1). (HU). May be repeated for credit with department permission.
Concentrated study of a single major literary work.
484. Issues in Criticism.
(3). (Excl).
Courses in specific literary topics. Content and emphasis varies from term to term. Consult the Course Guide for information about specific terms.
486. History of Criticism.
(3). (Excl).
A study of representative critics from classical times to the present.
492. Honors Colloquium: Drafting the Thesis.
Admission to the English Honors Program and permission of instructor. (3). (Excl).
Students develop the prospectus and first draft of their Honors thesis during this course taken during the Fall Term of the Senior year wit the final thesis submitted in march.
496. Honors Colloquium: Completing the Thesis.
English 492, admission to the English Honors Program, and permission of instructor. (1). (Excl).
Students develop the final draft of their Honors thesis during this course taken during the winter term of their senior year.
497. Honors Seminar.
Junior or senior standing, and permission of instructor. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.
Extensive study of a particular historical period or theme. Generally requires the writing of an extended research paper.
498. Directed Teaching.
Permission of the instructor. (3). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT).
Participation in the teaching of a regularly offered course. Involves readings in educational theory, written work relating to teaching activities, and regular contact with the instructor. (This is an English Department independent study number and is not to be confused with School of Education teaching courses).
499. Directed Study.
Junior standing; and permission of instructor. Not open to graduate students. (1-4). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for a total of six credits.
A program of supervised study agreed upon by a student and a member of the faculty. Normally, students should have had a prior course in literature.
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