2018 Spring EH Courses

American literature. At the same time, we try to locate ourselves between the two poles in current debate within American literary studies: Is there such a thing as an American literature (one literary heritage to be maintained and passed down) or is the idea of America (and therefore the texts representing the American experience) fluid and ever-changing? Basic requirements: Two papers, a midterm and final exam, reading quizzes, and weekly Moodle discussion posts. THE ENGLISH GATEWAY EH 300: Theories and Methods of Literary Analysis Ashe, TTH 9:30-10:50 EH 300 was conceived as a "gateway" course for the English major. Its purpose is to focus on what literary study means and how we go about doing it. We will practice close-reading literary texts and writing literary research papers. We will also gain exposure to a number of issues within the English academic profession and to a number of theoretical approaches to textual analysis. The course is meant to prepare you for other upper-level English courses, but especially for Senior Seminar. Most of the work in the course will be connected to a research paper due toward the end of the semester. UPPER-LEVEL WRITING EH 303: Advanced Prose Workshop Johnson, MW 2:00-3:20 Most of us understand the essay as a rigid, thesis-driven, 5-paragraph thing that includes an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In actuality, this is a bastardization of what is historically an experimental, free-flowing, expressive, and temperamental form. Aldous Huxley has described the essay as a piece of writing “for saying almost everything about almost anything.” The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer , “to try” or “to attempt.” The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne ( 1533–1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays, and as Timothy Corrigan explains, Montaigne’s essays are “views of, comments on, and judgments of his faltering memory, kidney stones, love, friendship, sex in marriage, lying, a ‘monstrous childe,’ and a plethora of other common or uncommon questions picked almost haphazardly from a mind observing the world passing before and through it.” Montaigne saw the essay form as a way of recording passing thoughts on everyday experiences, yet he would return to his essays (unlike one would a journal) to revise and rewrite his thoughts on those experiences. There is a sense in which to write an essay is to learn through the experience of writing, to write in order to learn, to discover one’s thoughts on a subject, concept, experience, or theme. And this is very different from what is often thought about writing an essay–namely, that one should have a deep understanding (or an argument) already figured out and merely re-presents that argument in the form of a five-paragraph essay. What is often most important about an essay, furthermore, is not the ultimate conclusion, verdict, argument, or realization, but rather the process of moving