Department of Language and Literature
Fall 2008 courses in literature

To see detailed descriptions of the department’s fall 2008 literature classes, click on a course title or scroll down to see the full list.

LITR 255 | American Literature I
LITR 257 | British Literature I
LITR 259 | World Literature
LITR 279 | Voices of the American Experience
LITR 281 | Gender and Literature
LITR 307 | Modern English
LITR 369 | Creative Writing: Fiction
LITR 399 | Senior Seminar

Note: Department course offerings are subject to change at any time. For the most up-to-date information, please check BenULive.

 

›› LITR 255 | American Literature I (Chen)

This is a survey of American literature from Native American and exploration accounts to the mid-nineteenth century. Among the many topics covered are Puritanism, Deism, the Enlightenment, American Romanticism, and Transcendentalism. In the course of our study, we will focus on the theme/concept of “becoming American.” That is, we will look at how literature contributes to the articulation of American national identity and at literary representations of the practices, actions, rituals, and thought processes that enable one to claim an American identity. In these narratives, American identity functions not as a fixed cultural referent, but rather, as something that is very much in process and development, something that is often conflicted and contested. How have various figures (literary and political) attempted to narrate what it means to be an American? Who gets to tell the story of America , which stories are most powerful, and why are some voices heard and others unheard? In addition to looking at conflicts between texts, we will pay close attention to the tensions, fissures, ambivalences, and hybridities within these texts.
Fulfills core literature requirement.

 

›› LITR 257 | British Literature I (Amir)

This course provides an introductory survey of British literature written between the medieval period and the late-eighteenth century. Over the course of the semester, we’ll discuss the literary movements out of which these texts emerged, as well as the broader historical circumstances of their production. Other topics to be discussed may include how authors like Chaucer, Shakespeare and Pope participated in complex literary, social, and cultural conversations in their work. How did British writers during these centuries respond to and adapt existing forms and conventions? How did their work outline—either implicitly or explicitly—standards of masculinity and femininity? In what ways did medieval, Renaissance, and eighteenth-century texts complicate those definitions? How did views of religion, class, and the state become subject to similar challenges? As we explore these questions, we’ll discuss strategies for approaching poetry, fiction, and drama productively, giving special attention to refining critical reading and writing skills.
Fulfills core literature requirement.

 

›› LITR 259 | World Literature (Kauth)

This class offers selected chronological, comparative study of literary masterpieces from the Ancient World to the contemporary period. Over the course of the semester, students will improve their critical vocabularies and skills in the interpretation of literary texts and learn to formulate their own answers to important questions raised by the course texts.
Fulfills core literature requirement.

 

›› LITR 279 | Voices of the American Experience (Chen)

This course is a comparative study of literature reflecting the diversity of American culture. In our exploration of just a sampling of the multiple voices of contemporary U.S. literature, we will consider these narratives within specific historical, cultural, rhetorical, and literary contexts. We will focus in particular on narrative engagements with the margins and borderlands of American culture—including literary representations of migration and displacement as well as artistic portrayals of diasporic communities changing and being changed by a heterogeneous American cultural landscape. What vision of America do these different narratives produce and to what extent do they challenge received notions of national community and cultural identity? How have the forces of global migration and displacement transformed our understanding of U.S. literary and artistic traditions? To what extent can we talk about America as a borderlands culture or even as a site of intersecting diasporas, and how might such a dialogue conflict with other, more nationalist approaches to the study of U.S. culture? Texts may include Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker, Danny Hoch’s Jails, Hospitals and Hip Hop, Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day, and Junot Díaz’s Drown.
Fulfills core literature requirement.

 

›› LITR 281 | Gender and Literature (Kubek)

This course offers critical analysis of works of fiction in the context of modern gender studies.  Since the course is cross-listed as GENS 100, it will also provide an introduction to gender studies as a general discipline.  Readings will include interdisciplinary critical essays from the disciplines of men’s studies and women’s studies, as well as selected fictional texts by both men and women.  We will discuss the nature of gender as a social construction and its central role in the formation of modern subjectivity (selfhood), as well as apply the insights of gender studies to analysis of fictions.

Note: Students should be aware that this course necessarily involves the study of sexuality and its representations, as well as of the intersections between gender, race, and class, and thus involves materials and discussion dealing with potentially controversial matters.  If you believe that such matters are inappropriate for serious discussion in a classroom environment, or if you are unable to maintain a mature and professional attitude concerning sexuality, you should choose another class.
Fulfills core literature requirement.
Crosslisted as GENS 100.

 

›› LITR 307 | Modern English (Kubek)

LITR 307, Modern English, is a synchronic study of the English language: its structure, rules, and variations, as they exist today.  The course involves intensive study of English grammar and some examination of contemporary linguistic theories concerning the use and the nature of language. This course is highly recommended for students seeking certification as teachers of English and Language Arts at the secondary school level; those students will be required to create lesson plans, as well as to research language acquisition and modes of teaching English grammar.
Prerequisite: LITR 100 or permission of department and instructor.

 

LITR 369 is a writing workshop in which students study, create, and critique short fiction. Students who take this course will learn to use a variety of brainstorming and rewriting techniques to draft and revise stories, identify ways in which successful writers present character, plot, setting, etc., and evaluate and effectively critique the writing of their peers.

 

›› LITR 399 | Senior Seminar (Amir)

Intended as a capstone to the literature major at Benedictine, this course provides an advanced introduction to the theory and practice of literary study, as well as to the kinds of professional work undertaken by those pursuing careers in education, research, and writing. We’ll spend time discussing research methodology and consider how various contemporary theoretical approaches to literary analysis open up—and, at times, foreclose upon—crucial questions about the texts we study. These conversations will form the basis of a semester-long research project, one that will culminate in a finished publication-length essay.
Prerequisites: LITR 100 and senior standing.