ENG English Course Descriptions and hours
ENG 100 ORIENTATION TO THE ENGLISH MAJOR (1)
It is strongly Recommended that all incoming freshmen with a declared English major should take this course, which serves as an introduction and orientation to the benefits and requirements of majoring in English. You will learn about literary fields including American, British, and African-American literature, and Creative Writing. You will meet professors, hear about the Creative Writing Option, learn how to earn honors and do internships in English, and also hear about study abroad options. You will meet your classmates and have opportunities to get involved with extra-curricular activities in English. Most important, you will develop your own personalized four year plan. This class will put you on a track to excel and get the most out of your major.
Prereq: Declared English major.
ENG 107 INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING (UK Core: Arts & Creativity) (3)
This class is designed to introduce students to the literary elements of expression in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry as we explore the vast possibilities of creative writing. We think in stories, dream in images, and connect with symbols for which we desire clarity. Through drafting, workshopping, and editing, students will learn the skills and techniques needed to develop a portfolio of creative work and become a part of the vibrant writing community for which the University of Kentucky is famous. Offers credit for the UK Core requirement in Intellectual Inquiry in Arts & Creativity.
Crosslisted with CRW 107
ENG 130 LITERARY ENCOUNTERS: (Subtitle required) (UK Core: Arts & Creativity) (3)
This course introduces students to literary works of various styles that deal with current subjects and creative applications. Topics vary by semester and are chosen to give a broad-based understanding of literary works, genres, creative techniques, or cultural trends (e.g., Literature and Other Art Forms; Film, Art, & Social Protest; Creative Writing, Mixed Media, & Social Media). See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. Provides ENG Major or Minor Elective credit.
ENG 142 GLOBAL SHAKESPEARE (UK Core: Global Dynamics or Inquiry in the Humanities) (3)
Global Shakespeare will expose students to selected productions and adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays by authors and acting companies from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and from European nations other than Great Britain. In our globally connected age, Shakespeare has crossed borders, occupying an honored place in the school curricula and cultural aspirations of many formerly colonized nations. In a post-colonial age, he has become the medium through which multiple cultures articulate their own values and enter into equal intellectual and aesthetic exchange with the English-speaking west. Students in the course will be asked to ponder what there is about Shakespeare that makes his plays such rich raw material for these encounters and exchanges.
Prereq: None. Does not fulfill ENG premajor requirement or provide ENG Major Elective credit. Provides ENG minor credit.
ENG 168 ALL THAT SPEAK OF JAZZ: AN INTELLECTUAL INQUIRY INTO JAZZ AND DEMOCRACY (UK Core: Arts and Creativity or Citizenship) (3).
This course is a hybrid cultural studies seminar and creative composition course that explores jazz theory as a philosophical artistic practice rooted in American democracy. It investigates jazz aesthetics as a literary, visual, and musical art form, and it examines theories of jazz composition as philosophical statements in direct conversation with the principles of U.S. democracy. The course also explores the philosophical and aesthetic connections of jazz literature to surrealist and existentialist artistic movements in modern and postmodern cultural contexts. Artists to be discussed include James Baldwin, Harryette Mullen, and others. The theoretical aspects of this course will demonstrate how jazz has been a source of inspiration for a variety of twentieth-century literatures and theoretical practices. The readings include selections of fiction, poetry, drama, and essays with emphasis on jazz literary modes, creative trends, and political connotations specific to African American literature and culture.
Crosslisted with AAS 168
ENG 171 GLOBAL LITERATURE IN ENGLISH (UK Core: Global Dynamics) (3)
A course exploring the diversity and significance of English literature from across the world. To what extent is English now a global language, no longer the property of any national group? How has fiction contributed to the process of internationalizing English? To answer these questions and others, this course examines the idea of global citizenship and cosmopolitan English through the work of some of the language’s most compelling international novelists. Lecture. Offers credit for the UK Core requirement in Global Citizenship. Does not fulfill ENG premajor requirement or provide ENG Major Elective credit. Provides ENG minor credit. Credit will not be given to students who already have credit for ENG 181.
ENG 180 GREAT MOVIES: (Subtitle required)(UK Core: Arts and Creativity) (3)
A course introducing students to films of various genres and styles, from both historical and contemporary filmmakers, investigating a particular issue or theme. Topics vary by semester and are chosen by faculty to give a broad-based understanding of important cinematic works, trends, and the creative processes behind this important, collaborative artform. As with all Arts and Creativity classes, this class will require students to produce an artistic artifact. Intended as a general humanities course for non-majors. Lecture and section. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. Does not fulfill ENG premajor requirement or provide ENG Major Elective credit. Fulfills the UK Core requirement in Arts and Creativity.
ENG 191 LITERATURE AND THE ARTS OF CITIZENSHIP (UK Core: Citizenship or Inquiry in the Humanities) (3)
A survey and investigation of contemporary literature of modern American citizenship, with an emphasis on questions of race, religion, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic class. Lecture. Offers credit for the UK Core requirements in either U. S. Citizenship or Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities. Does not fulfill ENG premajor requirement or ENG Major Elective credit. Provides ENG minor credit.
ENG 207 BEGINNING WORKSHOP IN CREATIVE WRITING: (Subtitle required) (3)
This intimate writing workshop teaches students the skills necessary to hone their creative voices. Working closely with the instructor and classroom peers, students will draft, workshop, and polish new creative works in poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction, and develop foundational sustainable writing practices, including exercises in elements of craft, experimentation with different forms, subjects, and approaches and readings for models and inspiration. By the end of the semester, students will have completed a portfolio of work. May be repeated under different subtitles to a maximum of 6 credits.
Crosslisted with CRW 207
ENG 230 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE (UK Core: Inquiry in the Humanities) (3)
An introduction to literary analysis through close reading and argumentative writing. The course involves studying selected texts from several genres and investigating a unified theme or set of topics indicated in the subtitle. Students will learn how to read closely, how to relate texts to contexts, and how to use basic literary terms and concepts. Attention will be paid to student writing, particularly to devising a thesis, crafting an argument, and learning how to use supporting evidence. See departmental listings for different offerings with different subtitles each semester. Offers UK Core credit for Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities. Fulfills ENG pre-major requirement. Provides ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Graduation Writing Requirement Course - Credit is awarded to students meeting the GWR prerequisites.
ENG 241 SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE I (3)
A survey of British literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to the later seventeenth century, with emphasis on different genres, periods, and cultural characteristics of the early English literary tradition. Texts and authors covered may include Beowulf and Old English elegiac poetry; Middle English poetry and selections from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; Renaissance lyrics, sonnets, and narrative poetry; the drama of Shakespeare; selections from John Milton’s Paradise Lost; and more. Lecture. Fulfills ENG major Historical Survey Requirement and Early Period requirement. Provides ENG minor credit. Credit will not be given to students who already have credit for ENG 331.
ENG 242 SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE II (3)
A survey of British literature from the seventeenth century to the present, with emphasis on different genres, periods, and cultural characteristics of the later English literary tradition. Authors covered may include the Augustan poetry of John Dryden and Alexander Pope; the early and later Romantic movements; novelists and poets of the Victorian period such as Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, and Elizabeth B. Browning; the early twentieth-century Modernism of Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot; and more. Lecture or lecture with discussion. Fulfills ENG major Historical Survey Requirement. Provides ENG minor credit. Credit will not be given to students who already have credit for ENG 332.
ENG 251 SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE I (3)
A survey of American literature from its colonial origins to the Civil War, with emphasis on different genres, periods, and cultural characteristics of the American Colonies and antebellum United States. The course explores both the social conditions in which authors lived and wrote, Such as conflicts over land with Native Americans, slavery, and the emergence of women’s rights, As well as the key developments in literary form during this period, such as the rise of the novel, the slave narrative, and the changing shape of poetry. Texts and authors covered may include Susanna Rowson, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Frederick Douglass' Narrative, short stories by Edgar Allen Poe, the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and more. Lecture or Lecture with discussion. Fulfills ENG major Historical Survey Requirement and Early Period requirement. Provides ENG minor credit. Credit will not be given to students who already have credit for ENG 334.
ENG 252 SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE II (3)
A survey of American literature from the Civil War to the present, with an emphasis on different genres, periods, and cultural characteristics of later periods in U.S. history. The course explores the changing social conditions in which American literature was produced. Such as the Roaring 20's, the Cold War, and the upheaval of the 1960's and several key literary movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance, Modernism, and Postmodernism. Texts and authors covered may include Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, the poetry of Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop, and more. Lecture or Lecture and Discussion. Fulfills ENG major Historical Survey Requirement. Provides ENG minor credit. Credit will not be given to students who already have credit for ENG 335.
ENG 260 INTRODUCTION TO BLACK WRITERS (UK Core: Inquiry in the Humanities) (3)
An introduction to written and oral works by Black authors of Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. The course includes writers such as Chinua Achebe (Africa), Wilson Harris (Caribbean), and Toni Morrison (USA), as well as others from the diverse field of literature written by African-American authors and authors of color worldwide. Attention will be paid to student writing, particularly to devising a thesis, crafting an argument, and learning how to use supporting evidence. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. Offers UK Core credit for Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities. Fulfills ENG premajor requirement. Can be taken for ENG Major Elective credit. Provides ENG minor credit. Credit will not be given to students who already have credit for ENG 264.
Prereq: Graduation Writing Requirement Course - Credit is awarded to students meeting the GWR prerequisites.
Crosslisted with AAS 264
ENG 265 SURVEY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE I (3)
A survey of African-American literature from the mid-eighteenth century to Reconstruction and after, with emphasis on selected genres, periods, and thematic characteristics of the early African-American cultural and literary experience. Topics include colonialism and abolitionism; early black aesthetics, narratives of enslavement, and drama, novels, and poetry. Authors may include Jupiter Hammon, Phillis Wheatley, William Wells Brown, George Moses Horton, Martin Delaney, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Wilson, Ellen Craft, and more. Lecture. Fulfills ENG major Historical Survey Requirement. Provides ENG minor credit.
ENG 266 SURVEY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE II (3)
A survey of African-American literature from post-Reconstruction to the Black Arts Movement and beyond, with emphasis on selected genres, periods, and thematic characteristics of the later African-American cultural and literary experience to the present day. Topics include literature of the Reconstruction; poetry and dialect poetry, the ‘plantation tradition’ and black musical traditions; Black Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance; the Black Power movement and Civil Rights. Authors may include Pauline Hopkins, Frances Harper, Sutton Griggs, Oscar Micheaux, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, and more. Lecture. Fulfills ENG major Historical Survey Requirement. Provides ENG minor credit.
ENG 271 THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE (3)
A course investigating selections from the Christian Bible (Old and New Testaments) in English, and from related sacred texts, as literary and cultural documents of great significance and literary achievement. Emphasis is on the careful analysis of literary forms and themes within a broadly historical and non-denominational context. Lecture. Does not fulfill ENG premajor requirement or provide ENG Major Elective credit. Provides ENG minor credit.
ENG 274 CLASSICS OF WESTERN LITERATURE (3)
A study of selected works by major Western authors from the Bible and ancient Greek literature through the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, and later. Emphasis is on the study of genres, themes, characters, and literary forms that have had an enduring presence in Western culture. Texts may include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey; selections from the Old Testament; classical Greek drama; Virgil’s Aeneid; Dante’s Divine Comedy; Cervantes’ Don Quixote; and others. Lecture. Does not fulfill ENG premajor requirement or provide ENG Major Elective credit. Provides ENG minor credit.
ENG 280 INTRODUCTION TO FILM (UK Core: Inquiry in the Humanities) (3)
An introduction to the study of films as narrative art and cultural documents. The course involves viewing and analyzing films from different genres and investigating a unified theme or set of topics. Students will learn how to view films closely, how to relate films to their contexts, and how to employ the basic terms and concepts of film analysis. Attention will be paid to student writing, particularly to devising a thesis, crafting an argument, and learning how to use supporting evidence. Viewing films outside of class is required. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. Offers UK Core credit for Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities. Does not fulfill ENG premajor requirement. Can be taken for ENG Major Elective credit. Provides ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Graduation Writing Requirement Course - Credit is awarded to students meeting the GWR prerequisites.
ENG 290 INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S LITERATURE (UK Core: Inquiry in the Humanities) (3)
An introduction to the rich traditions of women’s writing, focusing on some important issues and representative examples. Students will read canonical and non-canonical works, discuss continuities and differences among women writers, and master some of the concepts of gender studies. Attention will be paid to student writing, particularly to devising a thesis, crafting an argument, and learning how to use supporting evidence. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. Offers UK Core credit for Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities. Fulfills ENG premajor requirement. Provides ENG Major or Minor Elective credit.
ENG 303 CREATIVE WRITING IN THE DIGITAL AGE (Subtitle required). (3)
This is a creative writing course that explores creative composition in the digital age. Students will be required to write poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction in digital forms. How do authors express themselves in multimedia and digital formats? What are the constraints imposed by digital composition? How has digital writing inspired authors in the 21st century? Themes may include digital storytelling, literature and technology, and forms of literary and personal expression in online journals, blogs, vlogs and various social media platforms.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition & Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
Crosslisted with CRW 303
ENG 307 SPECIAL TOPICS IN CREATIVE WRITING (Subtitle required). (3)
An exploratory creative writing class (craft-based, cross-genre, or theme-based), this course is suitable for prospective English teachers, for those practicing creative writing who wish to explore cross-genre work, or for students with other majors who are interested in the given topic. May be repeated under different subtitles to a maximum of 6 credits.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition & Communication I-II requirement or equivalent; or with consent of instructor.
Crosslisted with CRW 307
ENG 308 APPALACHIAN VOICES: Subtitle Required (3)
This course explores the literature, folklore, and oral traditions of Appalachia in all their variety. It examines how writers and storytellers represent regional life through themes such as community, education, family, land, health, work, social class, technology, and local economies. Readings may include fiction, poetry, drama, and essays, along with spoken-word performances, songs, and public oratory. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit. Open to non-majors.
Prereq: UK Core Composition & Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 330 TEXT AND CONTEXT: (Subtitle required) (Graduation Composition and Communication Requirement- GCCR) (3)
The core course in the English Major focusing on the close reading and analysis of a single major literary text, or a focused set of texts, in historical and critical context. Students will develop analytical and interpretive skills that deepen their historical and conceptual understanding of literature, as well as their skills of critical reading, writing, and presentation. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. ENG major and minor requirement. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours under different subtitles. Credit from this course applies to the following programs: Undergraduate.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent, and either ENG 230, or ENG 260, or ENG 290.
ENG 333 LITERATURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE (Subtitle required). (3)
Literature has found new platforms in the digital age. E-books, digital archives, electronic literature, audio books, podcasts, born-digital fiction, interactive fiction, and other digital literary forms have diversified the media for stories and altered traditional understandings of literature. This course will explore one or more forms of digital literature, introducing students to the principal theories and questions of this growing field. The course may examine subjects such as storytelling, active reading, hypertext, collaborative authorship, editing, publishing, digital aesthetics, poetry, and more.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition & Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 335 LITERATURE AND THE LAW (Subtitle required) (UK Core: Community, Culture, and Citizenship in the US) (3)
A course that focuses on the interplay of literature and the law, covering a myriad of subjects impacted by the law (e.g., trials, judges, juries, crimes, policing, incarceration, labor, race, gender/sexuality, borders). Texts might include novels, plays, short stories, poems, essays, or film. Choices might range from classics to award-garnering contemporary literature. Meets the UK-Core Community, Culture, and Citizenship in the USA Requirement.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition & Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 336 DEMOCRACY'S STORIES (3)
This course explores the meanings of democracy in American society through literature. Since this is an English class, we will place special emphasis on the role of language, stories, and myths in the creation of national identities and democratic ideals. The stories we tell matter. They shape the way we view ourselves and others and concern all members interacting together in a community. Students will have the opportunity to probe some of the most influential cultural narratives of the national past and present, arrive at well-founded responses, and circulate their own ideas about these issues.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition & Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 337 LITERATURE AND GENRE: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced course exploring one or two literary genres or formal categories. It focuses on analyzing the parameters and practices of a broad generic category (e.g. the short story; lyric poetry; epic and mock-epic; autobiography; the bildungsroman; protest literature) or a genre specific to a particular period (e.g. mid-century American crime novels; Elizabethan songs and sonnets; Victorian drama). May be repeated up to 9 hours under different subtitles. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit. May fulfill ENG Early Period requirement depending on the course: see departmental listings for different offerings per semester.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 338 TOPICS IN LITERATURE: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced course exploring a focused literary topic across various periods, genres, styles, and media. It focuses on the creative connections in literature unifying a shared set of themes or topical concerns (e.g., narratives of travel; the family through history; stories about work and play; ethnic identities; nature and the natural world). Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. May fulfill ENG Early Period requirement depending on the course: see departmental listings for different offerings per semester.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 339 AUTHOR STUDIES: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced course exploring the works of a single important author of English literature, or literature in translation, from any period or nationality. It focuses on developing a strong familiarity with the oeuvre of a specific important writer. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. May fulfill ENG Early Period requirement depending on the course: see departmental listings for different offerings per semester.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 341 CHAUCER AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES (3)
A course covering medieval English literature from around the years 1350-1450 and centering on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400), particularly his early dream-visions and The Canterbury Tales. Other authors and texts may include William Langland’s Piers Plowman; the poetry of John Gower; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the works of the Pearl-Poet; Thomas Hoccleve; Margery Kempe; anonymous romances and Arthurian narratives; and more. Topics include courtly love and chivalry; Christian spirituality; women and gender roles; feudal politics and rebellion. Open to students from any major. Fulfills the ENG Early Period requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 342 SHAKESPEARE (3)
A course offering advanced study of a representative selection of Shakespeare’s plays across the length of his career. It situates Shakespeare within Renaissance theatre culture: the playhouses and audiences he wrote for, the structure of his acting company, and the patronage system that supported their business. Students will learn how his plays departed from received ideas about dramatic genres and in some instances set new standards for how certain types of plays should look and feel. Students will also gain a sense of how interpretations of individual plays have changed over time and how later periods and audiences continue to make Shakespeare their own. Open to students from any major. Fulfills the ENG Early Period requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prerequisite: completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 343 RENAISSANCE DRAMA AND SOCIETY (3)
This course studies Elizabethan and Jacobean drama by Shakespeare’s predecessors and contemporaries. Although most people identify Shakespeare as the representative Renaissance playwright, he was only one member of a distinguished generation. Students will encounter a variety of popular dramatic genres in which Shakespeare either did not work or that he heavily adapted to his own ends: Turk plays, city comedy, unperformed ‘Closet drama,’ revenge tragedy, pastoral. Readings may include playwrights such as Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Elizabeth Cary, Lady Mary Wroth, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, and others; and topics such as tragedy and comedy, sex and romance, urban life and the value of money, and racial and religious difference. Open to students from any major. Fulfills the ENG Early Period requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 345 BRITISH POETRY (3)
This course provides a selective encounter with the poetry of the British tradition. Texts and topics may be drawn from the later Renaissance (16th c.) up through the present day, exploring the depth, history, and continued vitality of British poetry. Particular attention is paid to the formal aspects and skills of reading poetry in different periods and styles. Reading may include authors and texts such as the sonnets and songs of Philip Sidney and Shakespeare; the verse of John Milton and other seventeenth-century poets; Alexander Pope and his contemporaries; Victorians and pre-Raphaelites such as E. B. Browning and Christina Rossetti; Modernists such as Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, and H.D.; and contemporary British, Irish, and Scottish poets. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 347 THE RISE OF THE BRITISH NOVEL (3)
What is the novel and how did it begin? Why did it develop at a specific moment in history and what counted as fiction before that time? What makes one novel literature and another trash? In this course we explore the early decades of the novel to better understand prose fiction and how it came to be a dominant genre in English literature. Readings can include works by Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Frances Burney, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen (including selected cinematic adaptations), and more. Topics can include the novel in history and the history of the novel; the evolving cultural practices of novel-reading; eighteenth-century fiction and contemporary popular culture. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 348 VICTORIAN NOVELS AND THEIR WORLDS (3)
This course examines the development of the novel as a literary and cultural form at the moment of its greatest impact during the Victorian era (1837-1901). It focuses on the emergence of the realist novel and other modes that intersected and competed with it (e.g. the gothic, the supernatural, sensation fiction, the New Woman novel), to explore the complex ways that represented different realities. The course also addresses contemporary issues such as new ideas about human psychology; gender, domesticity, and The Woman Question; social status and class conflict; science and religion; race and empire. Authors may include Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Oscar Wilde, Olive Schreiner, and more. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 349 MODERNISM (3)
A course on Modernist Literature: British, Irish and American writing from the first half of the twentieth century. Virginia Woolf once tried to explain modernism by claiming, ‘on or about December 1910, human character changed.’ Much of the writing of the period might be read as an attempt to record and understand that change. Texts include the fiction, poetry, drama, and essays from writers such as Woolf, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis and Gertrude Stein. The literature of the period will be examined in relation to various contexts and backgrounds, including the experience of war, the breakup of empire, and other major events and upheavals. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 352 AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURES TO 1900 (3)
This course focuses on selected literary movements and their relationships to American culture up through 1900. Authors studied may include Susanna Rowson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Harriet Jacobs, and Henry James. Topics may include American imperialism, slavery and abolition, the rise of the historical novel, Sentimentalism, Romanticism, and the emergence of psychological realism. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 353 AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURES POST-1900 (3)
This course focuses on selected literary movements and their relationships to American culture since 1900. Authors studied may include Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Allen Ginsberg, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, and others. Topics may include the literatures of World War I, the Cold War, the Beat Generation, the New Social Movements of the 1960’s, Postmodernism, and more. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 355 AMERICAN POETIC TRADITIONS (3)
A course investigating contrasting traditions of American poetry from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Several poets are examined within historical and literary contexts, and their poems examined in detail through close reading, with attention paid in particular to stylistic/formal characteristics. Poets studied may include Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and others. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 357 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE (3)
A course examining contemporary American fiction primarily since the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the diverse categories by which its critics and readers have sought to identify it: minimalism, hyperrealism, postmodernism, cyberpunk, the magical real. The class investigates contemporary authors in order to generate the key terms and problems for approaching work in diverse current genres, from science fiction and graphic novels to historical novels and self-consciously literary fiction. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 359 THE KENTUCKY LITERARY HERITAGE (3)
A course exploring the rich literary heritage of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the greater Appalachian region, surveying its local history and diversity as well as its wider significance for American art. Authors covered may include early figures such as William Wells Brown, the first African-American novelist, and John Fox Jr., the first million-selling novelist; Robert Penn Warren, first Poet Laureate of the United States and author of All the King’s Men; Elizabeth Madox Roberts; Harriette Arnow, winner of the National Book Award in 1954 for The Dollmaker; counter-cultural writers of the 60’s and 70’s such as Hunter S. Thompson, Gurney Norman, and Ed McClanahan; contemporary Kentucky writers such as Wendell Berry, Erik Reece, Bobbie Ann Mason, Sara Jeter Naslund, C. E. Morgan, Kim Edwards, and Gayle Jones; and contemporary award-winning poets such as Frank X Walker, Nikky Finney, and Maurice Manning. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 361 EARLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE (3)
This course investigates selected writers of the early African-American tradition, primarily from the mid-eighteenth century to post-Reconstruction. Inquiry focuses on the literary modes and genres that were central to the creation of a distinct African-American literary voice and canon, including slave narratives, folklore, poetry, drama, and more. Authors can include Phyllis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, William Wells Brown, Frances Harper, Charles Chesnutt, Martin Delaney, Sojourner Truth, and others. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 362 FLIGHTS TO FREEDOM: LITERATURE OF THE GREAT BLACK MIGRATIONS (3)
Between 1910 and 1930 more than one million African Americans migrated from the rural South to the urban North. This course focuses on the development of African-American migration narratives from the slave era to the contemporary moment. It examines literary, musical, artistic, and journalistic representations of the Great Migrations that capture the experiences of African-Americana as they moved not only from the South to the North, but also from the South to the Midwest and the West in pursuit of better economic opportunities and political freedom. Readings are drawn from writers such as William and Ellen Craft, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, Nella Larsen, Ann Petry, Dorothy West, Pearl Cleage, August Wilson, Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, Colson Whitehead, and others. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit. ENG 260, 265, or 266 are recommended but not required.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 368 CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN-AMERICAN VOICES (3)
Encompassing an array of genres and forms, this course examines black culture, literature, and performance from mid-20th century to present. It engages aesthetic, critical, and political issues related to seminal periods such as the Black Arts Movement of 1960’s, the Third Renaissance of 1980’s-90’s, and the ascent of the first U.S. president of African descent. This course examines how forms of performance such as folklore and work songs, the blues, jazz, and rap, all shape cultural and literary production. Authors may include Lorraine Hansberry, Ernest Gaines, Gloria Naylor, Ice Cube, Cornell West, Marlon Riggs, Tupac, India Arie, Percival Everett, Nikky Finney, Natasha Tretheway, Barack Obama, and others. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 369 AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN’S WRITING (3)
This course analyzes the literary and visual representation of black women from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. It explores how selected writers, working across different genres, render black female characters in ways that perpetuate, contest, or subvert stereotypical images of black women. Texts and authors may include Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Frances Harper’s Trial and Triumph, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks’ Maud Martha (1953), Toni Cade Bambara’s Gorilla, My Love (1972), Toni Morrison’s Sula (1973), and contemporary authors such as Ann Allen Shockley, Gayl Jones, Nikky Finney, and others. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 370 LITERATURE ACROSS BORDERS (3)
A course examining literature as a product of multiple regional, national, and international contexts. How do texts, ideas, goods, and people move across borders? How are identities and concepts produced through transnational dialogue and exchange? Possible areas of study include transatlantic political or literary movements, border studies, multinational literatures, or literatures of migration and diaspora. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 380 FILM AND GENRE: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced course exploring one or two film genres, styles, or formal categories. It focuses on analyzing the parameters and practices of a broad generic category (e.g. gangster films; documentaries; biographies; war films) or a genre specific to a particular period (e.g. early silent films; twentieth-century horror films). Viewing films outside of class is required. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 381 HISTORY OF FILM I (3)
An introduction to the history of film as art and industry from the invention of the moving picture to World War II. Emphasis is on the artistic development of the silent film in America and Europe, the rise of the American studio system, and the emergence of sound in film in the 1930’s. Filmmakers may include the Lumiere brothers, Georges Meliès, Buster Keaton, D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, King Vidor, Alan Crosland, Leni Riefenstahl, and others. Viewing films outside of class is required. Does not fulfill Historical Survey requirement. Can be taken for ENG Major Elective and FSS Major Elective requirement. Provides ENG minor credit. ENG 280 recommended but not required.
ENG 382 HISTORY OF FILM II (3)
A chronological survey of narrative film (primarily American) from World War II to the present, concentrating on both canonical films (such as Hitchcock’s Vertigo) and often overlooked examples of cult, low budget, and independent film. Many paradigms of the major genres are included: musical, film noir, gangster, screwball comedy, horror and science fiction, western, and more. This survey also examines more idiosyncratic work of auteur directors (Nicholas Ray, Jane Campion), films capturing a specific sociopolitical moment (e.g. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing), and larger cinematic movements such as Italian neo-realism, French New Wave cinema, and the New Hollywood of the 70’s. Lecture. Viewing films outside of class is required. Does not fulfill ENG Historical Survey requirement. Can be taken for ENG Major Elective requirement. Provides ENG minor credit. ENG 280 recommended but not required.
ENG 383 FILM IN THE DIGITAL AGE (Subtitle required). (3)
Once upon a time-like, 2005-movie was a film: a series of photographic images, printed on celluloid, and projected at 24 frames per second to create what was thought to be magical: the world captured and brought to life. However, over the past 15 years, film production, distribution, and exhibition have undergone a digital revolution. Gone, for the most part, are the reels and projectors of old; we’re now in the world of Digital Cinema Packages and 4K resolution. Netflix and Amazon are more than digital streaming services: they’re studios vying with Disney, Fox and Warner. A phone can record with professional quality, and anyone can create an image that changes the world. What does this mean for the way we make movies now? What’s at stake when Sean Baker and Steven Soderbergh shoot on an iPhone, or when Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino insist on 35mm, 65mm, and IMAX formats? What kind of stories do we tell when we’re limited only by the capacity of our servers? Does it matter whether we watch in a reclining chair at the Regal or in the old seats at the Kentucky or on our iPads, and if so, why? For better or worse, this is our cinema.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition & Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 384 LITERATURE AND FILM (3)
This course explores the relationship between two creative traditions, literature and film, focusing on film adaptations of literary works for the screen. Subjects can include the adaptation of works by a particular writer such as Shakespeare or Jane Austen, or it may range more widely among the thousands of innovative cinematic reinventions of literary texts, e.g. Richardson’s Tom Jones, Altman’s Short Cuts. In some semesters the course may focus on a particular topic or genre and its treatment in both literary and cinematic texts, or on a particular moment when cinema and literary writers exerted a strong mutual influence (such as Hollywood in the 1920’s). Viewing films outside of class is required. Open to students from any major. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 389 LAW AND FILM (Subtitle required) (3)
This course will focus on the representations of law in film. Images of the law in film play and have played a significant role in cultural understandings of justice. Many films deal with social, political and moral questions, and what happens in a cinematic courtroom can, in turn, have influence in the court of public opinion. Special topics will vary by semester.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition & Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 391 LITERARY THEORY (3)
Since the 1940’s ‘literary theory’ has emerged as a vibrant and vital aspect of literary studies. The term covers a wide range of formal, historical, and critical approaches to literature and culture that have changed the ways we read. This course investigates selected trends and schools of modern literary theory in diverse texts and contexts. These can include formalism, Practical Criticism, and the New Criticism; French Structuralism and the various modes of post-structuralism (Semiotics, Deconstruction, Reader-response, Speech-act theory); historicism and the New Historicism; as well as broader modes of cultural critique such as Feminism, Marxism, Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School, Post-colonialism, Critical Race Theory, and more. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: Completion of UK Core Composition and Communication I-II requirement or equivalent.
ENG 395 INDEPENDENT WORK (1-3 variable credit)
For undergraduate majors in English with high standing. Students pursue an independent course of study, tutorial, or directed project under the guidance of a faculty member, with appropriate assessment and grading (e.g., term paper(s), examinations, final project). Projects are generally proposed and arranged by students themselves, reflecting individual interests and goals. Limited enrollment. Prerequisites: ENG major with a major GPA of 3.0 or above; prior permission of faculty advisor and ENG chairperson; approved Learning Contract. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 credits. Contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for information. Provides ENG Major Elective credit.
Prereq: ENG major with a major GPA of 3.0 or above; prior permission of faculty advisor and ENG chairperson; approved Learning Contract.
ENG 398 CAREERS IN ENGLISH (3)
This course will help you answer the question: What can I do with my English Major? As an English major, you possess a valuable skill set that will allow you to thrive in this age of information and technology. The challenge is figuring out how to market it. This course meets such a challenge by considering all the options an English degree makes possible and helping you strategize about how to position yourself in a diverse workforce. This can include but is not limited to identifying and defining your own skillset, networking with alumni and other former English majors, and preparing professional materials to use in the job market. By the end of the semester, you’ll be prepared to sell yourself to future employers and to chart a path to a meaningful career.
Prereq: Junior or Senior status.
ENG 399 INTERNSHIP IN ENGLISH-RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE. (1-3)
The Department of English internship is available for qualified students to receive academic credit toward the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in English through applied and practical experience with a variety of private and public entities, including but not limited to the University Press of Kentucky. The student will identify a field-, community-based, practical or applied educational experience and locate a sponsor to host their internship, which will be supervised by both a responsible person on site and by an English Dept. faculty member. The internship will provide supervised professional experience in public and private sector positions and is intended to introduce students to the skills and working environments of careers for graduates of the English Dept. Students should consult with an English faculty member in advance of registering for this class. A learning contract must be completed by the student, the faculty supervisor, and the on-site internship supervisor, then filed with the English Dept.’s Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) in order to receive credit for this course. Credits: 1-3 credit hours, depending on the time required and nature of the internship. Approximately 10 hours a week of internship work equals three credit hours. At midterm, the faculty and on-site supervisors will communicate about the student’s progress so that the faculty member can submit a midterm grade. English 399 will be graded only on a pass-fail basis. Repeatable for a total of up to 6 credit hours.
Prereq: To be eligible for the internship, students must (1) be sophomores, juniors or seniors, and (2) have completed both parts of the CCR/composition and communication requirement.
ENG 407 INTERMEDIATE WORKSHOP IN CREATIVE WRITING: (Subtitle required) (3)
The intermediate creative writing workshop offers expanded studies on craft and reading, and challenges writers to test the boundaries of their creative work in poetry, fiction, and creative writing nonfiction. Students study published authors and work alongside classroom peers to draft and revise a portfolio of work. Students’ creative pursuits are further supported through interdisciplinary collaborations opportunities to present work in such forms as public readings. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 credits.
Prereq: ENG 207 or ENG 307 in the same genre or consent of instructor. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 credits. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit. Can count only once for ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Required for ENG Imaginative Writing Option.
Crosslisted with CRW 407
ENG 425 ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING. (3)
Students will consider the way writers address environmental issues by exploring various forms of environmental writing, from personal narrative to literary nonfiction to advocacy. Students will be required to take a mandatory day long field trip to UK’s Robinson Forest. All students must participate in this field trip.
Prereq: Completion of Composition and Communication requirement or consent of instructor.
ENG 440G STUDIES IN BRITISH LITERATURE: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced British Literature course on a period, a theme, a genre, or one or more authors. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. Prerequisite ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
ENG 450G STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced American Literature course on a period, a theme, a genre, or one or more authors. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. Prerequisite ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit.
Prereq: ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit.
ENG 460G STUDIES IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced African-American literature course on a period, a theme, a genre, or one or more authors. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. Prerequisite ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
ENG 470G COMPARATIVE AND TRANSNATIONAL STUDIES IN LITERATURE: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced literature course focusing on comparative or transnational periods, themes, genres, national or ethnic traditions, or one or more authors. Possible areas of study include transatlantic connections, diasporic communities, or comparisons between English language authors and foreign authors in translation. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. Prerequisite ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
ENG 480G STUDIES IN FILM: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced course in the history, analysis, criticism, and theory of film. Viewing of films outside of class is required. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. Prerequisite ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. ENG 280 strongly recommended. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. ENG 280 strongly recommended. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
ENG 490G STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND GENDER: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced course focusing on any aspect of gender in literary studies, such as gender and genre, gender issues in a particular literary period, masculinity, minority women writers, or feminist literary theory. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. Prerequisite ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit.
ENG 491G STUDIES IN THEORY: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced course on any aspect of literary or critical theory, in relation to selected texts. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. Prerequisite ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
ENG 492G CULTURAL STUDIES: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced course on any aspect of cultural studies, in relation to selected texts. See departmental listings for different offerings per semester. May be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles. Prerequisite ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Prereq: ENG 330 Text and Context or consent of the instructor. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
ENG 495 MAJOR HONORS SEMINAR: (Subtitle required) (3)
An advanced undergraduate seminar in literature, film, or cultural study. Honors seminar topics will be announced the preceding year. Required for graduation with Departmental Honors in English. May be repeated up to 9 hours under different subtitles. Fulfills ENG Major 400-level course requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit. Prereq: ENG major; completion of premajor requirements and ENG 330; ENG major GPA of 3.5 or above. Enrollment limited to junior and senior ENG majors.
Prereq: ENG major; completion of premajor requirements and ENG 330; ENG major GPA of 3.5 or above. Enrollment limited to junior and senior ENG majors.
ENG 507 ADVANCED WORKSHOP IN CREATIVE WRITING: (Subtitle required) (3)
The advanced creative writing course offers a rigorous workshop and includes options in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Designed to challenge writers to produce their best work, this course has a strong focus on approaches to revision and emphasizes reading literature for advanced craft study. Students will work alongside published authors and their peers to complete a significant body of work. This course also engages interdisciplinary collaborations and professional opportunities to preset work in the form of public readings and publications.
Prereq: ENG 407 or the equivalent, or consent of the instructor. May be repeated with a different subtitle (different or same genre) to a maximum of 12 credits. Required for the ENG Creative Option under two different subtitles. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
Crosslisted with CRW 507
ENG 519 INTRODUCTION TO OLD ENGLISH (3)
An introduction to the study of the Old English language and its literature from the 8th to the 11th centuries. Emphasis on learning the basic vocabulary and grammar of Old English in the West Saxon standard written dialect. Readings include excerpts from prose and poetry, the basics of Old English verse forms and alliterative poetry, and some historical and cultural background. The course is particularly recommended for students of European languages (especially German) and Linguistics; some basic background in Linguistics is recommended but not required. Same as LIN 519. Fulfills ENG major Early Period Requirement. Provides ENG Major Elective credit and ENG minor credit.
ENG 570 SELECTED TOPICS FOR ADVANCED STUDIES IN LITERATURE (Subtitle required). (3)
Study of special topics that cut across the normal divisions of genre or periods, such as the relations of literature to other disciplines; metaphor and symbolism; interpretative theory. May be repeated to a maximum of six credits.
Prereq: Junior standing or consent of instructor.
ENG 581 AESTHETICS OF FILM (3)
An examination of theories of film. Emphasis on the establishment of criteria for the aesthetic response to film and the visual image. Viewing of films outside of class is required.
Prereq: Another ENG film course or consent of instructor.