English Language and Literature
Nina Levine, Chair
The Department of English offers the Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in English. The general major assures a broad knowledge of literature and composition. The intensive major is tailored for those students planning to pursue graduate study in English and/or American literature. The writing concentration is a version of the major placing special emphasis on advanced composition. The department also offers a minor in speech, with courses in public speaking, business and professional communication, speech criticism, performance studies, and small group communication.
Courses
Instruction in strategies for critically reading and analyzing literature and non-literary texts; structured, sustained practice in composing expository and analytical essays.
Carolina Core: CMW
Instruction and intensive practice in researching, analyzing, and composing written arguments about academic and public issues.
Carolina Core: CMW, INF
An introduction to American literary history, emphasizing the analysis of literary texts, the development of literary traditions over time, the emergence of new genres and forms, and the writing of successful essays about literature. Designed for English majors.
Carolina Core: AIU
An introduction to English literary history, emphasizing the analysis of literary texts, the development of literary traditions over time, the emergence of new genres and forms, and the writing of successful essays about literature. Designed for English majors.
Carolina Core: AIU
The study of theories and pedagogy of individualized writing instruction with intensive writing practice including hands-on one-on-one sessions. Recommended for prospective writing teachers.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Overview of concepts, contexts, and genres used in professional communication. Intensive practice in analyzing, emulating, and creating textual and multimedia documents for a variety of professional, non-academic purposes (including commercial, informative, persuasive, and technical).
Linguistic examination of the structure, history, and use of language varieties in the U.S., with a particular focus on regional and sociocultural variation and relevant sociolinguistic issues.
Cross-listed course: LING 345
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Film, poetry and literature created in response to the Holocaust as the means for a decades long cultural discussion, in European and American societies, of the moral and religious implications of the Holocaust on our self-understandings as religious and moral beings.
Cross-listed course: JSTU 373
Theories of human communication useful for understanding and informing the everyday work of writers. Emphasis on intensive analysis and writing.
Cross-listed course: SPCH 387
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
European masterpieces from antiquity to the beginning of the Renaissance.
Cross-listed course: CPLT 301
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Global Learning, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Patterns in language use as a reflection of social group memberships or the negotiation of interpersonal relationships; special attention to social dialects and stylistic differences in American English.
Cross-listed course: LING 440
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Linguistic examination of the structure, history, and use of African-American English, as well as literary presentations, language attitudes, and issues relating to education and the acquisition of Standard English.
Cross-listed course: AFAM 442, ANTH 442, LING 442
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Preparation for and practice in types of writing important to scientists, engineers, and computer scientists, from brief technical letters to formal articles and reports.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Supervised professional experience writing in a workplace or community agency, including analysis and production of documents. Internship contract and department permission required. 6 is the Maximum number of credit hours if course can be taken multiple times.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Internships
Emphasis on writing in digital environments, exploring critically and creatively what it means to compose in emerging genres and media. Students will create multimedia texts that may include digital video, audio podcasts, social networks, and/or blogs and wikis, among other digital modes of expression.
An examination of literature by and about black women, including fiction, poetry, drama, and autobiography. This study will focus on issues that emerge from the creative representations of black women and the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class that interrogate what is both particular and universal experiences.
Cross-listed course: AFAM 487, WGST 487
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Directed research resulting in a project of substantial length. Upper-level English majors; permission of undergraduate director and supervising faculty member.
The major movements, figures, plays, and critical strategies that have marked the development of African American theatre in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Cross-listed course: AFAM 565, THEA 565
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Instruction in the writing of the nonfiction essay taught by a contemporary prose writer. May be repeated once for credit.
Writing for the visual arts, the student will write a treatment (prospectus) and one or more multimedia scripts; or one or more teleplays; or a feature-length screenplay. Limited to 15 students.
Writing for the visual arts, the student will write a treatment (prospectus) and one or more multimedia scripts; or one or more teleplays; or a feature-length screenplay. Limited to 15 students.
Instruction in playwriting taught by a contemporary playwright. May be repeated once for credit.
Instruction in the writing of a book-length nonfiction memoir or literary journalism project taught by a contemporary prose writer. May be repeated once for credit.
Instruction in the writing of a full-length, two-act play for publication or production. May be repeated once for credit.
Critical study and practical crafting of literature for children and/or young adults, exploring the demands of these genres both through the reading of representative works and relevant secondary sources and through the writing of creative works. Undergraduate students must receive permission of instructor.
Introduction to data processing concepts suitable for research interests in non-numerical areas such as the humanities.
Broad but intensive introduction to computer systems and programming for students in the humanities. No mathematical or scientific background is presumed. Laboratory experience with data-processing equipment; introduction to elementary digital computer programming in an appropriate language.
Survey of core areas of linquistics and extensions to closely related disciplines. Introduction to the linguistic component of human cognition. Formal description and analysis of the general properties of speech and language, the organization of language in the mind/brain, and cross-linguistic typology and universals.
Introduction to the methods of teaching literature, with emphasis on current pedagogical practice and theory and applications of electronic media. The course meets during the first seven weeks of the term and provides supervision of graduate students teaching English 101.
Introduction to the methods of teaching composition, with emphasis on current pedagogical practice and theory and applications of electronic media. The course meets during the first seven weeks of the term and provides supervision of graduate students teaching English 102.
Introduction to theory and practice of oral communication in public, social, and institutional contexts. Includes foundational and cumulative training in the invention, performance, and critical analysis of oral communication, with emphasis on argumentation, persuasion, audience analysis, delivery, and ethical forms of engagement.
Carolina Core: CMS
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Introduction to theory and practice of live and recorded online spoken communication in public, social, and institutional contexts. Training in invention, performance, and critical analysis of online spoken communication, including audience analysis, persuasion, delivery, and ethical engagement. Includes significant practice in preparing and presenting live online public communication.
Carolina Core: CMS, INF
Exercises and techniques to reduce and manage public speaking anxiety. Ideally taken concurrently with any course that requires multiple presentations.
Examination of historical and popular communication conflicts, texts, and events. Offers an introduction to critical concepts and analysis of public speech, rhetoric, and cultural discourse.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Moral issues confronting men and women in contemporary society and the challenges of communicating effectively about them. Topics will vary but may include access to health care, euthanasia, abortion, same sex marriage and the moral and environmental consequences of eating animals.
Cross-listed course: PHIL 213
Carolina Core: CMS, VSR
Fundamentals of oral communication within business and professional settings. Includes performance.
Carolina Core: CMS
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Preparing and delivering the debate. Academic debate serves as a model.
Carolina Core: CMS
The development of the skills and methods of effective participation in teams, committees, and other small groups.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Examines communication behavior and networks within organizations through the study of major theories of organizational communication, identifies and defines primary concepts, and applies them to organizational scenarios and case studies.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Introduction to the study of literature through performance; reading, analysis, and performance of prose, poetry, nonfiction, and drama.
Cross-listed course: THEA 340
Analysis of the process and functions of persuasive communication.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Theories of human communication useful for understanding and informing the everyday work of writers. Emphasis on intensive analysis and writing.
Cross-listed course: ENGL 387
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Contract approved by instructor, advisor, and department chair is required for undergraduate students.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research
The study of texts and discourse from contemporary culture drawing from concepts such as politics, television, music, and other popular culture and entertainment.
Interpretation and evaluation of communication texts and events such as speeches, media, and social movements. Employs a variety of critical methods and approaches.
Analysis and evaluation of speeches, political campaigns and controversies over political representation and recognition. Focus on case studies that illustrate the role of speech-making in political campaigns. Offered only in fall semesters in which national elections are held.
A study of debates at the Constitutional Convention, Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858), vice presidential and presidential debates, and other national debates.
An exploration of the process of advanced policy advocacy emphasizing speechwriting strategies, issues management, and systematic advocacy campaigns.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Reading and research on selected topics. Course content varies and will be announced in the schedule of classes by title. May be repeated once as topics vary.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research
Examines the role of communication in legal and judicial contexts. Focus on case studies that illustrate the theoretical and practical significance of rhetoric in the work of the courts, lawyers, and public advocacy groups.