Professor: Dr. Michele Tarter
May 26-June 10, 2020
This class meets in the online learning format and is cross listed with LIT 374-01
There was so much happening in early America, and yet so very few people know about it. In the last few decades, scholars have unearthed tomes of manuscripts dating back to colonial times, and what they’ve found is both fascinating and disturbing. Join us as we look at life and culture in the colonies. We’ll begin with cross-cultural encounters, particularly when the Native American Indians welcomed European explorers and Puritan settlers to what is controversially called “The New World.” We’ll then turn to all forms of dissent literature evolving from this multicultural time period: Indian captivity narratives; witchcraft trial records; slave narratives; Quakers, travel logs; women’s manuscript diaries and commonplace books; and female seduction novels at the heart of Revolutionary America. This body of material forms the foundation of any study on American culture, thought, and identity formation.
As a blended learning course, we will utilize many of the newly digitized manuscripts and primary resources from research libraries around the world.
Maymester: In person class meeting dates are on Tuesday May 26, Tuesday June 2, and Thursday June 11.
ENGL 670-01 Studies in Literature: Seminar in Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Professor: Dr. Emily Meixner
This class meets in the online learning format.
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 5:00pm-7:30pm
June 15-July 16, 2020
This course will examine trends in the growing body of scholarship about children’s and young adult literature. From close readings to popular “radical histories” to theoretical explorations of “the dark fantastic,” students will have a chance to survey the current scholarly landscape — and contribute to it. Although we will be reading a few middle grade and young adult exemplars, our primary focus will be the scholarship itself: its subjects, its methods, its politics, and its impact.
ENGL 552 Thornton Wilder vs. Realism
Professor: Dr. Lincoln Konkle
This class meets in the online learning format.
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 4:30 to 7:00 pm
June 15-July 16, 2020
In this seminar we will study Wilder’s full-length and short plays as part of the revolt against 19th- and early 20th-century realism on the stage. The goal is to write a research essay that could be submitted to the new Thornton Wilder Journal published by Penn State University Press. (The instructor is one of the journal editors and is willing to mentor interested students beyond the course through revision to publication.)
ENGL 670-02 Studies in Literature: Ecofeminism and the Contemporary Novel
Professor: Dr. Jo Carney
This class meets in the online learning format.
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 5:00pm-7:30pm
July 20-August 21, 2020
The theoretical grounding for this seminar is ecofeminism, an approach that asks us to explore the intersection between environmentalism and gender criticism. Through this lens, we will read several recent novels that highlight these connections, including Kristen Arnett’s Mostly Dead Things; Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer; Han Kang’s The Vegetarian; Sophie Mackinstosh’s The Water Cure; and Sarah Moss’s Ghost Wall, along with recent works of short fiction, poetry, and essays.