Spring 2023 Course Descriptions
English Program and Writing Program
Penn State Abington
ENGLISH MAJOR REQUIREMENTS:
Traditions of Innovation
- ENGL 200 or 201:
- Medieval through Sixteenth Century:
- Sixteenth Century through Eighteenth Century: ENGL 455
- The Nineteenth Century:
- Twentieth Century to the Present: ENGL 401
- Literature, Writing, or Rhetoric: 050, 182a, 211, 215, 401, 415, 420, 455, 474, 497
- Diversity: ENGL 474
- Senior Seminar: ENGL 487W
Writing and Literature in Context
- ENGL 200 or 201:
- Pre-1800: ENGL 455
- Post-1800: ENGL 401
- Literature, Writing, or Rhetoric: 050, 182a, 211, 215, 401, 415, 420, 455, 474, 497
- Diversity: ENGL 474
- Senior Seminar: ENGL 487W
WRITING MINOR COURSES: ENGL 050. Note that ENGL 004 and GWS courses do not count toward the Minor.
ENGLISH MINOR COURSES: All ENGL courses listed here count toward the English Minor. Note that ENGL 004 and GWS courses do not count toward the Minor.
ENGL 050: Introduction to Creative Writing (GA)
Professor Heise
Want to write, but aren’t quite sure how to get started or what to write about? This course is meant to ignite your interests, hone your skills, and introduce you to the foundational elements of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction so as to set free your imagination. You will learn to craft images, music, lines, and narrative in the poetry we practice. In fiction, you will learn how to create characters, develop themes, modulate tone and atmosphere, plot a conflict, and manipulate setting. And you will learn to translate and reconstruct personal experience, memory, and research into arguments, scenes, and narratives for creative nonfiction. Along the way, our conversations will turn to the writing and revision process, to why one writes in the first place, and to age-old inexhaustible questions, such as, what are the functions and purposes of poetry, short story, and the essay, what is the difference between truth and fact, and what are the ethics of writing about our own lives and the lives of others. In this course, you’re a writer. 这意味着你将一直在写作中锻炼想象力和毅力. engl050欢迎所有对创意写作感兴趣的学生:不需要以前的创意写作经验.
ENGL 182A: Literature in Empire – Embedded Study Course in Ghana
Professor Walters
这个去加纳的春假留学项目将允许学生申请,并通过研讨会将他们在课堂上学到的知识与他们对加纳文化的亲身体验进行比较, lectures, excursions. 作为第一个从英国殖民统治中恢复独立的撒哈拉以南非洲国家, 在探索后殖民文学传统时,加纳是一个重要的研究和访问国家.
With Ghana's rich social and cultural traditions, we will immerse ourselves in the complicated questions of gender, ethnicity, 以及在帝国背景下出现的民族性,看看这些前英国殖民地的作家是如何在帝国之后开始定义个人和国家的自我意识的.
On this faculty-led program, 你可以参观联合国教科文组织认可的海岸角城堡等历史遗迹,参观当地市场,了解加纳文化, the capital Accra, the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, and the W.E.B. Dubois Center for PanAfrican Culture. Unique to this program, 我们将有机会通过与一所学校的社区服务学习伙伴关系,与农村成员发展关系.
ENGL 211: Introduction to Writing Studies
Professor Cohen
Have you ever thought about how people learn to write? What makes the process of writing anything--from a grocery list to a novel--more effective? 了解写作是如何产生的将帮助你建立一个写作过程,无论你是在写一首诗还是一篇实验报告,你都可以依靠这个过程. In English 211, 作为一个班级,我们将一起回答两个关键问题:人们是如何写作的,以及写作在这个世界上有什么作用. In other words, 我们将询问写作研究领域的研究,以更好地理解文本的生产以及它们的生产始终是一种社会行为的方式. By the end of the course, 你将了解写作研究作为一门学科的基础,你将在此过程中检查和改进自己的写作过程.
ENGL 215: Introduction to Article Writing
Professor Cohen
Share your perspectives on campus and community issues! In this course, you will research, compose, edit, and publish articles for our digital news outlet The Abington Sun.
英语215课程要求学生进行初步研究——进行访谈和分析数据, in order to generate ideas for stories of interest to our campus community. Students will pitch their story ideas weekly to an audience of their peers, and decide collectively with editors which stories will move forward.
Over the course of the semester, each student should plan to produce and publish several news articles and feature pieces, improving writing skills in a hands-on process as they work to publish well-researched, impactful articles. Subjects for articles range from politics to current events, sports and arts and culture. Feel free to browse past topics at The Abington Sun.
If you like to write, are interested in learning and writing about current events, and want to see your work published, ENGL 215/415 is the place for you! If you haven’t worked with us before, you should enroll in ENGL 215. If you’re a veteran of our writing staff who wants to further hone your skills, you should register for ENGL 415.
ENGL 401: Studies in Genre / American Crime Fiction
Professor Heise
本课程旨在向你介绍二十世纪和二十一世纪初的美国犯罪小说. Far from merely an escapist literature, crime fiction offers a complex response to the difficult, contradictory experience of modernity. It is a literature of profound moral ambiguity. And it is a genre that is as deeply political as it is entertaining and disturbing. 本课程将从20世纪20年代到本世纪末,并通过关注其多样性来描绘这一流行流派, by situating the literature within historical context, and by anatomizing how it represents ideological conflicts over crime, justice, inequality, and city life. As we make our way through the semester, we will discuss issues that this literature dramatizes, such as, the representation of alienation, anonymity, and the metropolis; the violence of American individualism; the policing of working-class and ethnic culture; and crime fiction’s cultural politics and its challenge to ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultural demarcations. In addition to the primary literature, the course will engage theoretical and historical texts, which will aid in framing the genre within ongoing debates over its origins, its politics, its literary status, and its audience.
ENGL 415: Introduction to Article Writing
Professor Cohen
Share your perspectives on campus and community issues! In this course, you will research, compose, edit, and publish articles for our digital news outlet The Abington Sun.
英语415课程的学生将以他们在英语215课程中学到的技能为基础进行初步研究——进行访谈和分析数据, in order to generate ideas for stories of interest to our campus community. Students will pitch their story ideas weekly to an audience of their peers, and decide collectively with editors which stories will move forward.
Over the course of the semester, each student should plan to produce and publish several news articles and feature pieces, improving writing skills in a hands-on process as they work to publish well-researched, impactful articles. Subjects for articles range from politics to current events, sports and arts and culture. Feel free to browse past topics at The Abington Sun.
If you like to write, are interested in learning and writing about current events, and want to see your work published, ENGL 215/415 is the place for you! If you haven’t worked with us before, you should enroll in ENGL 215. If you’re a veteran of our writing staff who wants to further hone your skills, you should register for ENGL 415.
ENGL 420: Writing for the Web
Professor Cohen
Social media has become central to our collective lives. 数字技术使世界上任何人在任何地方编写的信息比以往任何时候都传播得更远、更快. Writing has always been social, 但是,技术继续为意义创造新的途径和建立可信度的新方法, shape relationships, and make arguments. How do social media items get produced? How do you know which messages to trust? 本课程将帮助你在讨论时思考网络辅助交流的社会和伦理影响, research, plan, and carry out digital projects that address issues in your community. Over the course of the semester, 我们将研究如何在网上写作提供了以视觉方式传达思想和论点的机会, aural, spatial, and gestural modes, and in turn, how communication in those modes shapes credibility and relationships.
ENGL 455: Topics in British Literature
Professor Rigilano
This course will explore the concept and genre of Utopia in British literature, from the early modern period to the end of 18th century. We tend to think of Utopia as a frictionless paradise, but from its inception the idea of a perfect place was riven by paradox. 乌托邦文学关注集体生活的矛盾,并强调通过这些矛盾进行工作的政治和社会过程. 此外,乌托邦的概念不是静态的或永恒的:每一个历史时刻都在重新想象乌托邦. The core primary texts in this course will include Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas (1759), and Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred (1772). 我们还将考虑各种其他的历史文本和流派的当代理论考虑.
ENGL 474: Special Topics in Rhetoric and Composition (Rhetorics of Health and Ability)
Professor Cohen
《澳门威尼斯人官网》将介绍学者们谈论健康表征的方式, illness, and dis/ability, as well as discussion of the work that those representations do in our culture. 我开设这门课程的目的是让我们都能更好地认识和解读以健康和能力为中心的故事是如何流传的,如何塑造我们对自己和周围人的意识和期望的. To that end, 我们将阅读一些修辞学和残疾研究领域的学术著作,以及阅读和观看大众媒体对疾病和残疾的描述.
课堂讨论必须包括困难的话题,包括耻辱、疾病和死亡率. Though some of these discussions are potentially unpleasant, 本课程的部分工作将是了解我们遇到的故事如何塑造我们对这些主题的想法和感受.
ENGL 487W: Senior Seminar / American Crime Fiction
Professor Heise
本课程旨在向你介绍二十世纪和二十一世纪初的美国犯罪小说. Far from merely an escapist literature, crime fiction offers a complex response to the difficult, contradictory experience of modernity. It is a literature of profound moral ambiguity. And it is a genre that is as deeply political as it is entertaining and disturbing. 本课程将从20世纪20年代到本世纪末,并通过关注其多样性来描绘这一流行流派, by situating the literature within historical context, and by anatomizing how it represents ideological conflicts over crime, justice, inequality, and city life. As we make our way through the semester, we will discuss issues that this literature dramatizes, such as, the representation of alienation, anonymity, and the metropolis; the violence of American individualism; the policing of working-class and ethnic culture; and crime fiction’s cultural politics and its challenge to ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultural demarcations. In addition to the primary literature, the course will engage theoretical and historical texts, which will aid in framing the genre within ongoing debates over its origins, its politics, its literary status, and its audience. 请注意,为了满足高级研讨会的要求,ENGL 487将与ENGL 401有不同的写作要求.
ENGL. 497: Special Topics—Travel Writing
Jimmy J. Pack Jr.
The best travel writing doesn't tell a reader how “great” a place is. 它通过你自己的经历和观察来讲述一个地方及其人民的真相. 旅行写作是一种非虚构的叙述,强调文化、环境和个人经历. As in fiction, a solid narrative arc, details that evoke the senses, and character development are crucial for a successful travel piece. Our class will explore all forms of travel writing: blogging, creating social media posts, and essay form. We’ll discuss the place of a “conflict” in travel writing as well, and students will produce publishable work that we will send out for publication. 我们将以阅读不同的旅行作家的样本开始上课,他们探索了世界和我们自己的国家, which will act as a guide to your own creative writing.