English Course Offerings

101 – Writing Workshop (3)
Instruction and practice in the fundamental techniques of expository and argumentative writing: organization, development, coherence, research methods, mechanics. Frequent workshop approach, with group and tutorial work.

200 – Newsgathering (3)
An introduction to the techniques of newsgathering, including practice in interviewing, reporting, and writing various kinds of news stories.

202– Writing Seminar (3)
Allows students to hone their writing skills while focusing on writing in a particular context. Topics vary by section; consult schedule of courses for specific topics.

205 – The Art of Literature (3)
An introductory course emphasizing the development of the genres of poetry, prose fiction, non-fiction, and drama. Using a historical perspective, students study the role of the reader, the surrounding culture, and the language of the text. The course offers students the tools of critical analysis and encourages the pleasures of close reading and the exchange of ideas.

206 – Global Issues in Literature (3)
An introductory course exploring multiple perspectives on a selected global theme or issue as expressed in literature. Attending to the pleasures of literature, the role of the reader, the language of the text, and the social context of literature, the course includes both historical and contemporary texts in traditional and non-traditional forms. It explores the contact zone between Anglo-European perspectives and disparate world cultures outside Western Europe and north America.

243 – Women in Literature (3)
Study of literature by or about women.

245 – Introduction to Film Studies (3)
Equips students to analyze and understand the art of film. Emphasizes narrative film within the Anglophone tradition.

251 – Issues in Literature (3)
Significant literary figures, movements, and topics. Specific topics vary.

295 – Introduction to Literary Studies (3)
An introduction to the rewarding complexities of reading literature. The course introduces students to literary theory and its applications, offers a framework for understanding the historical evolution of literary studies, and introduces students to a range of approaches to the study of texts. The course includes practice in writing commentary on literature. Required for the English major.

300 – Principles of Newspaper Writing (3)
Prerequisite: English 200 or permission of the instructor. Practice in writing, reporting, editing, and laying out various kinds of news stories.

301 – Principles of Magazine Writing (3)
Prerequisite: English 200 or permission of the instructor. Practice in writing, reporting, editing, and laying out various kinds of magazine articles, with emphasis on feature writing.

302 – Introduction to Creative Writing (3)
Prerequisite: English 295 or permission of the instructor. Introduction to writing fiction and poetry. Primary emphasis on developing students’ abilities to write creatively, with periodic attention to examples from established writers.

304 – Creative Writing: Poetry (3)
Prerequisite English 302 or permission of the instructor. An intermediate workshop focused on poetic techniques and writing poetry.

305 – Creative Writing: Fiction (3)
Prerequisite: English 302 or permission of the instructor. An intermediate workshop focused on narrative techniques and writing short fiction.

306 – Topics in Writing (3)
Practice in writing in certain styles and forms. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics and prerequisites.

307 – The Writing Process (3)
Study and practice of writing as a several-stage process, development of an understanding of what is good writing, development of the ability to criticize constructively one’s own writing and the writing of others.

309 – Chaucer and His Age (3)
The study of popular literature in England during the middle ages, with emphasis on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Anglo-saxon heroic narrative, Piers Plowman, and the origins of medieval drama.

310 – The Courtly Tradition in Medieval Literature (3)
Development of courtly literature in medieval England, including Chaucer’s Troilus and Creseyde, works of the Gawain poet, love lyrics, and native Arthurian material.

312 – Creative Writing: Non-Fiction (3)
Prerequisite English 295 or permission of the instructor. Primary emphasis on developing students’ abilities to write nonfiction creatively, with periodic attention to examples from established writers.

314–The Literary Journal: Professional Practice in Publishing and Editing (3)
A study of the contemporary national literary journal. Students also design and produce an on-line journal.

317 – Sixteenth-Century British Literature (3)
Studies in non-dramatic literature of the English renaissance circa 1485-1600. Substantial discussion of cultural contexts. Authors covered will range from skelton through spenser, with particular attention to The faerie Queene.

319 – Shakespeare: The Early Plays (3)
Shakespeare’s early development, focusing on the comedies and history plays.

320 – Shakespeare: The Later Plays (3)
Shakespeare’s later development, focusing on the tragedies, problem plays, and final romances.

322 – Seventeenth-Century British Literature (3)
Studies in the non-dramatic literature of the English renaissance circa 1600-1667. Substantial discussion of cultural contexts. Authors covered will range from Donne through Marvell.

325 – Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Literature (3)
British literature from 1660-1740. Poetry, plays, and novels by Dryden, behn, swift, Pope, Defoe, fielding, or others. Emphasis on satire and the birth of the novel.

326 – Late Eighteenth-Century British Literature (3)
Novels, poetry, plays, and nonfiction by such writers as Johnson, burney, Equiano, sheridan, Austen, and blake. Emphasis on cultural controversies.

327–Jane Austen (3)
A study of the six great novels. May also include attention to the shorter works, Austen's predecessors, successors, and/or film adaptations.

328 - New World Writing in the Colonial Period (3)
Surveys writings from the period of contact, conquest, and colonization in north America, south America, and the Caribbean. Guided by a series of inter-American juxtapositions that highlight parallel histories of early colonial relations, we trace authorial strategies used to negotiate distinct new World identities. Selections range from the fifteenth and sixteenth century travel accounts of European explorers to eighteenth and nineteenth-century narratives of independence throughout the Americas. Topics include pre-Columbian oral traditions, the literature of the encounter, the psychology of the Conquest, race and transculturation, the circum-Atlantic slave trade, and the impact of the Enlightenment on American revolutions.

329 - Literature and Nation-Building in the American Republics (3)
Examines literature from north America, south America, and the Caribbean in relation to the establishment of independent republics and the process of nation-building during the nineteenth century with focus on comparative literary traditions that help to shape national and transnational constructions of identity in multilingual contexts. Selections are based upon parallel development across two or more parts of the western hemisphere or direct cultural exchange across national borders. Topics covered include the sublime in American nature, the emergence of national literary traditions, native Americans and the conquest of the west, race and miscegenation, democracy and dictatorship, southern-Caribbean plantation economies, the experience of modern industrial development, and the transcultural foundations of Hispanic border literature.

335 – British Romantic Literature (3)
Late 18th- and early 19th-century british literature. Emphasis on topical focus points such as the French revolution and abolition. Writers include Keats, More, Robinson, P. B. Shelley, Wollstonecraft, and W. Wordsworth.

336 – British Victorian Literature (3)
British literature from 1830-1914. Emphasis on topical focus points such as The Woman Question and imperialism. Writers include E.B. Browning, R. Browning, Dickens, C. Rossetti, Tennyson, and Wilde.

338 – British Victorian Novel (3)
This reading-intensive course will cover writers such as the Brontës, Dickens, Eliot, and Hardy. It also may include significant precursors (such as Austen) and/or successors (such as ford).

340 – Modern British Fiction (3)
Studies in the forms, themes and politics of british fiction, with special emphasis on the genre of the novel, between approximately 1900 and 1945.

342 – Contemporary British Fiction (3)
Studies in the forms, themes and politics of british fiction, with special emphasis on the genre of the novel, from approximately 1945 to the present.

345 – Film, Text, and Culture (3)
Advanced study in narrative and non-narrative films, focusing on the analysis of films as texts and in relation to other texts (literary, visual, musical, etc.). Consideration of film texts as they originate in, and express, human society.

351 – African American Literature (3)
A chronological exploration of poetry, slave narratives, autobiographies, non-fiction, short stories, novels, and plays written by people of African descent in the united states. In addition to its primary focus on literature, the course also explores the interconnections betweenAfrican American literature and history, politics, psychology, popular culture, and economics.

353 – Asian American Literature (3)
The study of texts produced by Asian American authors of diverse national or ethnic backgrounds. Introduces Asian American literary criticism and theory.

355 – American Romanticism (3)
Expressions of and challenges to 19th-century American romantic ideology in prose and poetry. May include such writers as Emerson, fuller, Hawthorne, Alcott, Melville, Whitman, and Dickinson.

356 – American Realism (3)
Exploration of literary realism in American fiction of the 19th- and early 20th-centuries. Includes writers across a spectrum of race, gender, class, and geographical focus, such as rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, Charles Chesnutt, sarah Orne Jewett, and stephen Crane.

357 – Southern Literature (3)
The literature of the American south, from the nineteenth century through the Modern southern renaissance.

358 – Modern American Fiction (3)
Studies in the forms, themes and politics of American fiction, with special emphasis on the genre of the novel, between approximately 1900 and 1945.

360 – The Literature of Resistance (3)
Studies in modern literature dealing with current international socio-political conflicts in such regions as Ireland, the Middle East, and south Africa.

361 – Caribbean Literature (3)
Studies in themes, movements, significant literary figures and problems in twentieth century Caribbean literature.

362 – Women of Color (3)
Studies in themes, movements, significant literary figures and problems in literature concerning twentieth century women of color.

363 – Nobel Laureates of the Non-West (3)
Studies in themes, movements, significant literary figures and problems in the works of the nobel Laureates from the non-West.

364 – Contemporary Asian Novel (3)
Studies in themes, movements, significant literary figures and problems in twentieth century fiction of Asia.

365 – Modern Drama (3)
Studies in the development of modern dramatic literature and its aesthetic, political, and performative contexts. The course examines the work of individual dramatists, directors, theorists, and theater scholars.

366 – Modern Poetry (3)
Transatlantic study of the themes, techniques, and forms of modern poets from approximately 1880-1945.

368 – African Literature (3)
Major themes, movements, significant literary figures and problems in twentieth-century African literature.

371 – Contemporary Poetry (3)
Studies in poetic themes, techniques, forms, and theories or movements since 1945, including discussion of social and historical contexts.

372 – Contemporary Drama and Performance Studies (3)
Studies in the forms, themes and politics of contemporary dramatic literature from roughly 1960 to the present, with special emphasis on its relation to competing notions of performance and theatre.

375, 376 – Special Studies (3,3)
Studies in significant literary figures, movements, and topics. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

378 — Science Fiction (3)
A study of the development of science fiction as literature in a social and historical context, with an emphasis on contemporary works. Students will explore the genre through the major themes and motifs, and as a phenomenon of popular culture.

380 – Practicum in Journalism (1)
Students will review, study, and practice principles of sound journalism in reporting, editing, opinion-writing, and layout and design for the Mary Washington College student newspaper, The bullet. May be repeated for a total of eight credits; four may be counted in the English major.

381 – British Literature to 1800 (3)
Prerequisite: sophomore standing or permission of the department chair. Survey of british literature from the Anglo-saxon period to roughly 1800, not including romanticism.

382 – British Literature from 1800 to the Present (3)
Prerequisite: sophomore standing or permission of the department chair. Survey of british literature from romanticism to the present.

385 – Contemporary American Fiction (3)
Studies in the forms, themes and politics of American fiction, with special emphasis on the genre of the novel, from approximately 1945 to the present.

400 – Grellet and Dorothy Simpson Summer Institute in Medieval Studies (6)
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. An intensive summer institute in a seminar format, this course provides the opportunity for independent undergraduate research on a variety of topics appropriate to medieval studies. Intensive discussion sessions directed by a variety of scholars from inside and outside the College faculty will guide students, ensuring the timeliness and currency of their research.

406– Advanced Studies in Composition: History and Theory (3)
Prerequisites: English 295 and English 307. A survey of the historical roots of the field of composition from its classical roots to the present day, and an examination of contemporary theories and how they are put into practice.

411 – Studies in Drama (3)
Major problems, themes, movements, or figures in drama. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

413 – Studies in Poetry (3)
Major problems, themes, movements, or figures in poetry. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

415 – Studies in the Novel (3)
Major problems, themes, movements, or figures in the novel. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

445 – Studies in English Literature to 1600 (3)
Significant figures, movements, themes, or problems in English literature to 1600. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

447 – Studies in English Literature,1600–1800 (3)
Significant figures, movements, themes, or problems in English literature, 1600–1800. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

449 – Studies in English Literature, 1800–Present (3)
Significant figures, movements, themes, or problems in English literature, 1800 to the present. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

450 – Seminar in Chinua Achebe (3)
Movements, problems, and themes in the works of the nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.

452 – Seminar in South African Literature (3)
Studies in significant figures, movements, problems, and themes in twentieth century literature of south Africa.

455 – Studies in American Literature to 1900 (3)
Significant figures, movements, themes, or problems in American literature through the 19th century. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

457 – Studies in American Literature, 1900–Present (3)
Significant figures, movements, themes, or problems in American literature of the 20th century. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

458 – Seminar in American Long Poems (3)
Study of long poems by primarily modern and contemporary American writers and of their complex relationship to epic, lyric, novel, and drama. Includes among its theoretical approaches an overview of genre theory.

460 – Seminar in Critical Theory (3)
Prerequisites: English 295 or permission of the instructor. Significant figures, movements, themes, and methodologies in critical theory. Consult schedule of Courses for specific topics.

468 – Seminar in Feminist Literary Theories and Criticism (3)
Exploration of the history and evolution of feminist literary theory, the range of feminist approaches to studying literature, and selections of significant applications in published criticism. Reading assignments include selections from theory, criticism, and fiction.

470 – Seminar in Creative Writing (3)
Prerequisites: English 302; 304 or 305; and permission of the instructor. Advanced workshop in creative writing.

472 – Seminar in Praxis: Poetics by Practice (3)
In this seminar, students analyze English meters and forms by the practice of writing in assigned forms. Students also write research papers exploring in depth a modern or contemporary poet’s formal choices.

474 – Seminar in John Milton (3)
A study of the writing of John Milton, from his earliest works to Paradise Lost.

478 – Seminar in Oscar Wilde (3)
Study of the majority of Wilde’s works across the many genres in which he wrote, including his famous plays.

480 – The Peer Tutoring of Writing (1)
Prerequisites: One writing course or writing intensive course beyond English 101, and permission of the instructor. The review and study of principles of effective writing, study of writing formats and expectations for various disciplines, and training in tutoring fellow students. May be repeated for a total of four credits.

491, 492 – Individual Study (3, 3)
Individual study under the direction of a member of the staff. By permission of the department. Only three credits of individual study may be counted toward the English major.

499 – Internship (1–6)
Supervised off-campus experience, developed in consultation with the department. Up to three credits may be counted toward the English major.