ENG - English

Consists of analytical and reflective reading of contemporary (since 1945) American fiction, poetry and drama. Attention to developing techniques for critical reading and writing. Basic course for literature majors and study in the humanities and liberal arts.

Observes interactions between literature and film. Through writings, projects, and discussions, students analyze film versions of classical literature, prose and poetry through borrow filmic techniques and experimental films with literary features.

This course includes critical readings of, and analytical writing in response to, representative texts from across the disciplines (e.g., humanities, social sciences, natural sciences).  Required of all students either fall or spring of their freshman year. Fulfills OU writing competency requirement.

Survey of the major genres of literature (short story, poetry, drama) with emphasis on the organizational principles that give artistic structure or integrity. Intensive studies of such elements as characterization, plot, setting, tone, symbolism, etc., conducted.

Development of basic writing skills. Practice of written language in argument, persuasion and critical analysis. Course objectives designed to meet individual students' needs.

Study of writing with technical and scientific purposes.  Focuses on understanding scientific and technical discourse communities.  Topics include writing effectively in appropriate genres and styles, developing a personal writing-to-learn practice (e.g. STEM notebooks), presenting information in oral and online formats, corresponding with professionals, appealing to varying audiences, integrating graphics and data, reviewing and assessing scientific literature, editing, and collaborating. Prerequisite: LAS 13525 Research Techniques and Technology or consent of instructor.

Examines steps of the writing process from sight to insight: perceive, identify, analyze, discover, write, re-write and edit. Critical thinking, library research, peer conferencing, and the art of argument integral to the course.

Engages in primary analysis and response to significant literature from antiquity through the Renaissance.

The second of the three English Department survey courses, this class aspires to provide students with an introduction to some of the major literary works and ideological movements of the Western world during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the course of the semester, we will gain an understanding of a variety of texts as well as an appreciation for the social, historical, political, religious, and ideological currents of each era.

Engages the student in primary analysis and response to significant literature from late nineteenth century Modernism through post-colonial and post-modern configurations.

Refinement of expository writing skills through analysis of models and writing practice.

Study of works by African-American, Hispanic, Native American, female and other historically marginalized authors specifically to address issues of culture, value and self-development. Literature poses critical issues that arise in the increasingly diverse societies of our shrinking world. Prerequisite: 20000-level English course or consent of instructor.

Treats history and development of the English language with special attention to grammar, syntax and phonetics. Applies various linguistic approaches to the task of understanding evolution and system of the language. Not designed to treat special problems in speaking or writing English.

Course development skills in writing drama, poetry and fiction. Develops critical skills and encourages students to develop tools to refine expression.

Explores how image and text work together to make meaning in contexts such as illustrated literature, film, advertising, visual poetry, performance art, and graphic novels. Readings from fields such as visual cultural studies, semiotics, art history, film criticism, postmodernism, and psychoanalytic theory will illuminate the relationships between image and text, language and representation.

An examination of a variety of literary works from several genres, focusing on the portrayal of physical environments and the connections between these environments and human spheres of influence. This course will explore how human beings relate to the natural world, and how that relation influences the way we read texts and the world around us, Authors to be studied might include Leopold, Thoreau, Defoe, the Brontes, Wordsworth, Merwin, Snyder and Kingsolver. Cross-listed with LAS 33523 Environmental Literature.

Course reviews the written and material record of continuous settlement in the Orkney Islands, dating back 5000 years. Topics include a select review of archaeological evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age sites as well as the contemporary socio-cultural structure of the Islands from a literary and anthropological perspective. Cross-listed with LAS 34000 and SOC 34000.

A study of the literature of social protest, emphasizing the relationship between aesthetics and politics, or the political purposes of literature. This course will examine how various authors assault the status quo of an often inhumane, brutal, and repressive society. Readings might include works by Richard Wright, Upton Sinclair and Nelson Algren.  Cross-listed with LAS 34023.

Explores some of the ways spiritual experiences and understandings are expressed in a variety of literary forms. Students will discover how authors embrace or struggle with essential religious questions and issues, how they challenge and communicate themes from the major world religions and how religious identities can be shaped through these texts.

Literature, from ancient to modern times, has taken up themes of peace and sought to examine the fragile dynamics of the human community. This course will explore the literature that offers reflections, sorrowful and hopeful, pragmatic and prophetic, on peace.

A philosophical examination of the arts and aesthetic experience. This course explores theories of beauty and drama from ancient and contemporary theorists. Students apply aesthetic theories to analyze works of art in multiple domains from different perspectives. Cross-listed with LAS 37223.

Interdisciplinary seminar which interrogates the literary, artistic, and cultural representations of madness across culture and time. Cross-listed with LAS 37623.

An examination of key existentialist thinkers. Readings include Kierkegaard, Nietzsch, Sartre, and others. After a survey of existentialist philosophers, students explore works of art from an existentialist perspective.  Cross-listed with ENG 38223, LAS 38223.

Identifies major trends in the history of critical thought from Plato to Derrida. Seeks to discover the position of literary criticism and to apply various critical theories. Library research and writing. Prerequisite: 30000-level English course.

Teaches essential writing skills at both elementary and secondary levels. Evaluation techniques also emphasized.

Examines major dramas to discover questions and themes central to individual plays and to the work as a whole. Attention is given to the historical and cultural context of the plays, but the course is primarily concerned with assisting students in reading and exploring the texts.

Analyzes major American literature with emphasis on genre, period or author, to gain understanding of the critical approaches necessary for a thorough investigation of literature.

Analyzes major British literature with emphasis on genre, period or author, to gain understanding of the critical approaches necessary for a thorough investigation of literature.

Examination or project designed to assess the student's achievement of the goals of his/her major program.

Capstone course that guides student in development of an integrative project that demonstrates achievement of the learning outcomes in the English major. Course is organized around the major trends in critical thought and application of literary criticism theories within and across periods and genres.

Questions of identity and self-definition, from agonizing to liberating, in the work of such writers as Dante, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Kate Chopin, Simone de Beauvoir, Ralph Ellison and Anne Sexton.