Anthology

A 

Anthology 

T h e R e a d e r f o r W r i t e r s 

E n g l i s h 

D e p a r t m e n t 

C o u r s e 

D e s c r i p t i o n s 

C a t a l o g 

· 

Fa l l 

2 015

A 

Curriculum Policies 

Department of English 

Fall 2015 

The faculty in the Department of English has drawn up 

a list of policies to make choices about registration 

easier and concerns about fulfilling departmental 

requirements clearer. Contact your adviser or the 

department chair if you have questions. 

For All Students 

Students can apply only one (1) directed study 

toward the completion of the degree. 

Exceptions can be made in the instance of fall 

Senior Seminars and the Internship in Writing 

class. 

All students must fulfill the department’s minority 

issues requirement. Eligible classes for the 

fulfillment of this requirement could include 

designated 300 & 400 level literature and 

writing classes as well as the following: 

Engl 203: African American Literary Survey I 

Engl 204: African American Literary Survey II 

Engl 205: Native American Literature and Film 

Engl 208: Survey of Women’s Literature I 

Engl 209: Survey of Women’s Literature II 

Engl 211: Asian American Literary Survey 

Engl 212: Introduction to Chicano/a Literary 

Survey 

Engl 230: Literature, Gender, and Sexualities 

We recommend that students who choose to 

fulfill this requirement via these 200 level classes do so 

after taking 192 and before taking the 300-level 

literature classes. 

All students must take 310, 320, and 330 (LEVEL 

TWO). The time periods of the classes break 

down as follows: 

310 (literature before 1700) 

320 (literature between 1700-1900) 

330 (literature after 1900) 

ENGL 340: Shakespeare can fulfill the 310 

requirement 

For Literature Emphasis Students 

Any 300 or 400-level literature class can count 

toward the LEVEL THREE Special Topics in 

Literature requirements, though we 

recommend students take as many Special 

Topics classes as they can. 

Literature students may apply one (1) 300-level 

“Introduction to” class toward the LEVEL 

THREE (ENGL 410) Special Topics courses. 

Critical Analysis has changed from 299 to 399, so 

we suggest students take that class during their 

junior year. 

Internship in Writing and Literature can count 

toward the LEVEL THREE Special Topics in 

Literature requirement IF the internship is 

literary-based. 

For Writing Emphasis Students 

All writing emphasis students must take two 

“Introduction to” classes and two advanced 

workshops. You should take your first 

Introduction To class as soon as possible after 

completing 192; however, if the class you want 

is filled, don’t be discouraged. It is a good idea 

to start taking your 300-level literature classes 

or even a Special Topics in Writing class. 

Students who take a prose-based Introduction to 

class (Introduction to Fiction or Introduction to 

Nonfiction) are eligible to take either/both 

prose-based advanced workshops. Only 

students who have taken Introduction to Poetry 

are eligible for the Advanced Workshop in 

Poetry (unless you get the consent of the 

instructor). 

Internship in Writing can count toward the LEVEL 

THREE Special Topics in Writing 

requirements. 

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether 

twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps 

learning stays young. The greatest thing you 

can do is keep your mind young. 

—Mark Twain

ILS: Everyone’s A Critic 

ENGL-192-01 CRN: 41146 

TR 4:35-6:20pm HR 127 

Brant Torres 

Everyone’s a critic. In fact, to some extent, we’re all literary critics. We are always 

trying to find meaning in language, understand unspoken connotations, “read 

between the lines,” and find the best way to express our thoughts and emotions. In 

any culture, language matters. It inundates our lives, and often it is all we have. It is 

through language that we create connections, express our deepest feelings, form 

communities, and hear voices from the past. 

If language is so ubiquitous, then what do we make of literary uses of language? What 

do we do with it? How do we understand it? What makes it beautiful or dull? And 

how does it work? 

This course will introduce you to the tools literary critics use to understand and find 

meaning in a text. We will look at different literary forms: short fiction, the novel, 

poetry, and drama. Over the course of the semester, we will read what many 

consider the greatest works in Western literature, but we will also talk about perfume 

advertisements and song lyrics. In each of our explorations of literary expression, we 

will work together to give you a set of tools that will allow you to gain deeper insight 

into the texts you read. You will learn different ways to closely attend to linguistic 

nuance while also learning something about the historical and cultural environments 

that shape language. If you love literature, and I hope you do, this course will give 

you the tools to persuasively and intelligently articulate why. 

Applies to Core, C1 

ILS: All About Lit 

ENGL-192-01 CRN: 41148 

TR 2:40-4:25pm CO 413 

Tracy Seeley 

What is a poem? What's literary about literature? And what do literary scholars and 

critics do? With these questions in mind, we will read poems, stories and plays, 

talk about them, write about them, and grapple with your questions about them. 

We will spend most of the semester engaged in close reading and analysis, honing 

our skills in attention to literary language and form, and writing persuasively about 

texts. So that you have the tools you need to do this, we’ll study the conventions 

of literary genres (including the genre of a critical essay) and acquire the vocabulary 

and strategies that scholars and critics share when doing their work. 


4

A 

A n t h o l o g y 

FYS: Science Fiction Literature 

ENGL-195-01 CRN: 41149 

MWF 10:30am-11:35am UN 111 

Patrick Schwieterman 

Science fiction has long been seen as an ‘escapist’ literature that actively avoids 

engagement with the most pressing concerns of contemporary life. However, the 

futuristic or extraplanetary settings of the genre actually offer writers 

opportunities to explore abiding concerns through ‘thought experiments’ that 

heighten the tensions implicit in a given topic. For example, Philip K. Dick’s 

novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? explores the nature of humanness 

through the dilemma of a police detective charged with hunting down and 

“retiring” androids who are identical to humans in nearly every respect. And 

Octavia Butler examines immigrants’ negotiations of questions of identity in a 

boy’s coming-of-age story on a world where displaced human families are 

integrated with the families of the alien inhabitants. In this course we’ll look at 

these narratives and others, supplemented by a selection of non-fiction texts. 

This class will not be a formal introduction to the history of science fiction, but 

we will read a mix of novels and short stories and view two films in class in 

more or less chronological order, starting with works from the beginning of the 

twentieth century. Besides the works named above, the syllabus will probably 

feature texts by Ray Bradbury, Pat Murphy, Naomi Kritzer, Mercurio D. Rivera, 

James Patrick Kelly, Ian McDonald, and others. We’ll also make trips offcampus 

for movies and readings by science fiction authors. 

Must be a Freshman to enroll in course. 


The Ignatian Literary Magazine 

ENGL-198-01 CRN: 41150 

MWF 3:30-4:35pm LM 141B 

Bruce Snider 

In this course, students will learn the operational procedures for literary journal 

publishing and gain practical experience as they design, edit and produce the 

next annual issue of USF’s 150-year-old literary arts journal, The Ignatian. 

Students will involve themselves in every aspect of the magazine’s production, 

including editorial vision, production scheduling, content solicitation, page and 

cover design, copyediting, line-editing, publicity, fund-raising, and more. This 

course counts as an elective and is open to students from throughout the 

university, with instructor approval. Interested students must apply with a cover 

letter and résumé detailing relevant experience (computer skills, design 

experience, knowledge of art, literature, marketing, editing, professional writing 

or public relations; all applicants should demonstrate superior written skills as 

well). 

Instructors Permission required to take course.

GWWL: Expressions in Love in Western Lit 

ENGL-202-01 CRN: 41331 

MWF 1:00-2:05pm KA 167 

Elizabeth Wing 

This course is an exploration of literature from the Western tradition with a focus 

on the theme of love. As students peruse the authors of timeless and influential 

literary texts concerning love, they will develop critical and analytical thinking and 

writing skills. The texts we consider will come from a variety of time periods and 

genres. Our attention will focus on cultural notions of love, marriage, family, 

romance, devotion, gender, and sexuality, as well as the experiences of lost or 

unrequited love, and persistent male and female icons and stereotypes that 

represent love dynamics. Texts include ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman love 

poetry, the Greek tragedy Medea, sonnets by Petrarch and Shakespeare, 

Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, Romantic poetry, Tolstoy's novella The 

Kreutzer Sonata, short stories by Kate Chopin, as well as other contemporary 

fiction and films! 


GWWL: Civilization/Barbarism 

ENGL-202-02 CRN: 41332 

TR 8:00-9:45am KA 367 

Juan Garcia 

When peoples come into contact, peacefully or otherwise, the encounter 

generates thought and talk. So it is not surprising how many classic 

literary works deal with clashing ways of life. What is remarkable is how 

often these accounts are couched in terms of civilization vs. barbarism, 

domestic vs. wild, us vs. them. This term, we'll look at this bundle of 

themes in classical, medieval, modern, and contemporary literature. Our 

readings will range from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Greek history and 

tragedy; from 'crusading' texts of medieval Europe to the triumphalist 

boasts of Spanish conquistadors; from Romantic fantasies of the Orient 

to dreams of the South Pacific. We'll complete our survey with a major 

novel of Native America, Fools Crow by James Welch. Weekly reading 

quizzes; Midterm and Final (each with attached essay). NO E-TEXTS 

PLEASE. 


6

A 


GWWL: The Luminaries 

ENGL-202-03 CRN: 41334 

MWF 10:30-11:35am KA 363 

Winifred Ernst 

The Luminaries: it’s an interesting phrase. Who were they, really, as the British 

Empire stretched itself across the globe, and why does Eleanor Catton use it as 

the title for her book that won the Man Booker Prize in 2013—a murder mystery 

set during the gold-digging days of New Zealand? We will take a close look at 

power, politics, personal relationships, and the dangers inherent in any sort of self 

congratulation--even in 2015-- through the eyes of Robinson Crusoe (Daniel 

Defoe), Gulliver (Jonathan Swift), and “Ernest” (Oscar Wilde), before diving into 

the refreshing thumper of a novel, The Luminaries, written by a 28 year-old woman 

who possesses both verve and prescience when it comes to illustrating the 

idiosyncrasies of the human spirit. 


GWWL: 

ENGL-202-04 CRN: 20946 

MW 4:45-6:25pm CO 107 

TBA 

No Course Description Yet. 

Applies to Core, C1

African American Lit Survey II 

ENGL-204-01 CRN: 42073 

MWF 1:00-2:05pm LM 351 

Jeff H. Solomon 

Purpose: The purpose of this survey course is to read and appreciate a broad selection of important works of 20 th -21 st century 

African American literature. We will examine the assigned texts for their aesthetic qualities as works of art, but also as 

cultural products that respond to the social and historical conditions of their time, and which help to give shape to specific 

historical and social movements – and all with an eye towards understanding the lasting cultural significance that these works 

of art have for contemporary readers. No work of art emerges in a vacuum, and so - to ensure that we understand the cultural 

contexts from which these works emerged – we will supplement our readings by watching films, listening to the work 

of musicians and spoken word artists, and viewing works of visual art. In the course of our study, we will not only become 

familiar with popular works and writers, but we will also study their influence upon the major historical events and cultural 

movements of this period – from the Great Depression and World War II, to 

the Civil Rights era and the Black Arts Movement. 

Students will need no prior knowledge of the writers or historical movements 

we discuss, but they will be expected to complete all of the assigned readings 

and come to class prepared to discuss their personal responses to those works. 

The course will also require frequent short written responses to the reading, 

one in-class presentation, and one research paper. 

Office Hours: Wednesdays 12pm-1pm, and by appointment 


Meets Core CD Requirement. 

Meets the Minority Issues Requirement for the English Department. 

Native American Literature and Film 

ENGL-205-01 CRN:41337 

MWF 2:15-3:20pm KA 263 

Elizabeth Wing 

This course offers students an introduction to American Indian experiences and cultures from the perspective of oral, written, 

and visual texts produced by Native North American Indians. We will focus on various texts representative of emerging Native 

American literary and cinematic traditions beginning with early oral and ethnographic texts, culminating with a concentration on 

contemporary American Indian prose, poetry, and film. By exploring texts by McNickle, Momaday, Vizenor, Owens, Silko, Erdrich, 

and Alexie, among others, we will come closer to understanding the movements and issues that are important in presentday 

Native America. This course will make you think deeply about American culture and will impact you in challenging ways! 




8

A 


Major American Novelists 

ENGL-207-01 CRN: 42074 

TR 4:35-6:20pm KA 163 

TBA 

An introductory survey of some landmark fiction written in the United States in the 19 th and 20 th centuries. Likely authors 

could include Hawthorne, Twain, Chopin, Wharton, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald. The course will explore and analyze the 

development and the discontinuities of the American novel. 


Survey of Women’s Literature I 

ENGL-208-01 CRN: 41340 

TR 2:40-4:25pm KA 263 

Brant Torres 

This course studies early American women’s writing from the colonial period through the end of the nineteenth 

century. In this course we will read poems, novels, journals, and narratives by early American women alongside 

some twentieth-century feminist literary criticism. We will attempt to understand how women, who were often 

blocked out of legal, political, and economic spheres, were able to find a voice through the written word. We will 

also question why women’s literature was so long left out of the study of American literature. Through close 

reading, the study of history, class discussion, and writing assignments, we will learn how women’s writing 

uniquely shaped American literature, culture, and history. 



Meets the Minority Issues Requirement for the English Department.

Asian American Literature Survey 

ENGL-211-01 CRN: 41341 

TR 9:15-10:20am KA 263 

Valerie Lo 

This course will examine long term and emergent issues in different genres of 

Asian American literature. We will read fiction, memoirs, graphic novels, 

poetry, essays, literary criticism, court cases, and also watch narrative, 

documentary, and short films. Themes such as dislocation, displacement, 

migration, nation, home, race, mixed race, assimilation, cultural conflicts, 

violence, trauma, family, class, gender, and sexuality will be considered. We 

will read the following texts: Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, 

Milton Murayama’s All I asking for is my body, and Don Lee’s Yellow, and 

Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. We will also read excerpts from Carlos 

Bulosan’s America is in the Heart, G.B. Tran’s Vietnamerica, Wei Ming Dariotis 

and Laura Kina’s War Baby/Love Child, and Min Zhou and J.V. Gatewood’s 

Contemporary Asian America. Films shown in class may include, Picture Bride, The 

Namesake, The Split Horn, Daughter from Danang, The Slanted Screen, How to Make 

Kimchi According to my Kun-Uma, and Lilo and Me. Writing assignments will 

include in class free-write exercises, journal reflections and responses, a 

research paper, and an autobiographical project. 




Intro. to Chicano/a Literature Survey 

ENGL-212-01 CRN: 41342 

TR 12:45-2:30pm KA 267 

Christina Garcia Lopez 

Across a spectrum of genres, including fiction, drama, poetry, and essay, U.S. 

writers of Mexican descent have directly countered the absences, silences, and 

‘invisibility’ of Mexican American experience in dominant U.S. narratives. This 

survey course will provide an overview of the literary works of a cross-section of 

these writers, as well as cultural texts (i.e. letters, political documents, films, visual 

arts) through which we can contextualize their works. Students will learn to utilize 

formal, historical, and cultural approaches to analyzing literary texts, while exploring 

the development of a politicized sense of self amongst Mexican American writers. 

We will trace a historical context starting from the colonial period, moving through 

Anglo colonization of the Southwest, and most centrally focusing on the 

development of the Chicano movement and Chicana feminism, in addition to more 

contemporary contexts. Further, the lenses of gender, race, and class will be central 

throughout each of the following units: Conquest & Colonization; 

Literary Chicanismo; Chicana Feminist Voices; and Borderlands & Boundaries. Most 

fundamentally, by the end of this course, students will have knowledge of literary 

terms and devices, as well as experience in literary analysis. 

Applies to 10 Core, C1 



A 


Creative Writing for Non-English Majors 

ENGL-220-01 CRN: 41344 

MW 4:45-6:25pm LM 244A 


ENGL-220-02 CRN: 41345 

MW 4:35-6:20pm HR 232 


ENGL-220-03 CRN: 42059 

TR 6:30-8:15pm LM 346B 

TBA 

This course will introduce students to the elements of craft involved in the writing of 

creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Students will read and discuss a wide range of 

contemporary texts and will write, revise, and share their own essays, stories, and poems. 

The course emphasizes workshop, participation, and discussion. By the end of the 

semester, students will have gained a greater understanding of creative writing craft. 


Literature, Gender and Sexualities 

ENGL-230-01 CRN: 41347 

MWF 9:15-10:20am KA 211 

Ana Rojas 

How has literature shaped and informed the way we view gender and sexuality? This 

wide-ranging course will examine a number of literary and philosophical texts as a means 

of exploring this question. Through an exploration of ways that authors have written 

about gender and sexualities and have gendered and sexualized their writing, students will 

learn that gender and sexuality operate as analytic categories which inform not only the 

representation of characters and behaviors, but also textuality itself: the construction of 

plots, the mobility of syntax, tropes, and schemas, and the designs of language on the 

reader. Readings in this discussion-based course will include writers such as Plato, Oscar 

Wilde, Virginia Woolf, and Judith Butler, among others. This class fulfills the Core C1 

Literature general education requirement, as well the Minority Issues requirement for the 

English major, and the Humanities area requirement for the Gender and Sexualities 

Studies minor (MGN1). 




A 

SIT: Shakespeare 

ENGL-295-01 CRN: 41348 

TR 4:35-6:20pm LM 152 

Carolyn Brown 

The class concentrates on an appreciation of the literary and cultural greatness of Shakespeare and focuses primarily on reading his 

works—a collection of his sonnets and eight of his plays. The class also studies the Early Modern period and his relationship to this 

period and the preceding ones—Medieval and Renaissance. The secondary emphasis is on his literary reputation and impact on 

later writers and cultures. Besides attending a performance of one of the plays, we will read short stories, essays, critical studies, 

poetry, and excerpts from novels—all of which have been influenced by him and his works. Students will write a short journal 

response to each play and two papers, explicate a sonnet, and take a final exam in which they will explicate lines from both the plays 

and sonnets and answer questions about the secondary reading. The class will also visit both the Rare Book Room 

in Gleeson Library and the Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park. 

Prerequisite: Must be a Transfer Student to enroll 

Lit 1: The Supernatural Other in Medieval British Lit 

ENGL-310-01 CRN: 41349 

MWF 11:45-12:50pm CO 314 


This course will focus on the image of the supernatural Other – such as demons, werewolves, and especially fairies – in the literature 

of the British Middle Ages. We’ll examine how these beings were employed to explore issues such as spirituality, gendered identity, 

sexuality and its attendant taboos, and ethnic and national identities. At the beginning of the semester, we’ll look at early sources for 

a Christian understanding of demons, with special attention paid to the Bible, the writings of St. Augustine, and Athanasius’s Life of 

Antony. Later in the semester, we’ll examine how the concept of the fairy both grows out of and challenges orthodox perspectives 

on Medieval demonology; among texts relevant to this portion of the course will be the following: various short Latin texts by 

Gerald of Wales, Walter Map and Gervase of Tilbury; selected Breton lays in Old French by Marie de France and others; Middle 

English lays and romances such as Sir Orfeo, Sir Degare, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, 

Merchant’s Tale, and Tale of Sir Thopas; and the Scots ballad Tam Lin. At the end of the semester, we’ll take a brief look at a number of 

short werewolf narratives. 

We'll start the semester reading Modern English translations of texts originally composed in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Old French. 

However, one important objective of this course will be the acquisition of a basic reading knowledge of Middle English, and most 

of the texts presented in the latter half of the term will be read in that language. No previous knowledge of Middle English (or any 

foreign language) will be necessary. 

Prerequisite: Completion of Core, Area C1 requirement. 

Completion of ENGL-192 requirement.

Lit 2: Victorian Literature 

ENGL-320-01 CRN: 41350 

TR 12:45-2:30pm CO 413 

Tracy Seeley 

Like you, people in Victorian England (~1830-1900) lived in a 

world shaped by new media—newspapers in their case—and 

rapid technological and social change. In very public ways, 

thanks to the steam printing press, they hotly debated such 

familiar topics as evolution vs. religion, 

global capitalism, women’s place in 

society, race and the ethics of slavery. 

Our world, in fact, owes many of its 

current ideas and realities to ideas 

developed during the Victorian age: 

Utilitarianism, social activism, 

Darwinism, Trade Unionism, global 

capitalism, Marxism, and feminism. 

And as we do now, the Victorians both 

marveled and worried over a dizzying 

rate of technological innovation. 

Among other things, they gave us 

photography, postage stamps, rubber 

tires, flush toilets, subways, electric 

street lights and movies. Under their 

watch, England also solidified its hold 

on colonial possessions around the 

globe, exporting English language, literature and culture as 

part of its strategies of governance and control. 

In this course, we’ll explore how the voices of writers engaged 

and added to this energetic, public world. We’ll read works 

by such writers as Elizabeth Gaskell; Charles Dickens; 

Thomas Carlyle; D. G. Rosetti; Christina Rosetti; Alfred, 

Lord Tennyson; Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Robert 

Browning; and Thomas Hardy. 

Lit 3: Literature of Migration 

ENGL-330-01 CRN: 41356 

TR 9:55-11:40am LM 354 

Christina Garcia Lopez 

Of all the stories that circulate about ‘America,’ the story of 

migration is central to understanding the national narrative, 

which in itself is always in contestation. In this class, we will 

examine the significance of migration narratives, and the 

movements of people and ideas which those narratives describe, 

within and across American borders. In 

particular, this class will focus on 

contemporary literature, written in the 

C20th-21st, and will include fiction, 

poetry, and non-fiction representing a 

variety of cultural and ethnic groups. 

Across these texts, we will consider the 

ways in which literary aesthetics are used 

to communicate the experience of 

migration and its lived consequences, such 

as: generational conflict, linguistic and 

cultural change, economic negotiation, and 

shifts in gender roles. Through our 

engagement with a diverse set of texts, and 

thoughtful interrogation of their aesthetic 

strategies, we will think through the ways 

in which an American identity has been 

continuously constructed, deconstructed, 

and reconstructed through literature in the contemporary era. 


Completion of ENGL-192 requirement. 

Meets the Minority Issues Requirement for the English 

Department. 



14

A 


Introduction to Writing Non-Fiction 

ENGL-360-01 CRN: 41358 

TR 2:40-4:25pm LM 358 

Ryan Van Meter 

The genre of “non-fiction” is named for what it isn’t – it’s not fiction. Which tells 

us only that it isn’t made up. Which doesn’t tell us very much at all. In this 

seminar then, we will draw from the rich tradition of literary non-fiction in order 

to appreciate the power and versatility of the genre. By studying contemporary 

examples of essays alongside classic voices of the genre, our primary course goal 

will be to understand and define “non-fiction” more specifically and generously, 

for readers and writers alike. Active discussion, a lot of creative writing exercises, 

informal Canvas responses, and a revised portfolio of literary non-fiction will be 

the essential parts of our endeavor. To be successful, students will have to read 

and write actively, attend class regularly and share their well-informed opinions 

with enthusiasm. 



Intro to Writing Poetry 

ENGL-362-01 CRN: 41360 

M 11:45-3:25pm LM 354 

Dean Rader 

What is poetry? What makes a poem a poem? Langston Hughes defined poetry as “the 

human soul entire, squeezed like a lemon or lime, drop by drop, into atomic words.” Emily 

Dickinson made even stronger claims: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so 

cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head 

were taken off, I know that is poetry.” While it is unlikely your head will literally be taken off 

in this class, you will encounter poetry—both as a reader and a writer, with an emphasis on 

the latter. We will look at poems from all sides. We will pay close attention to the aesthetic, 

cultural, ethical, musical, intellectual, and emotional work poems do. You will read many 

different kinds of poems, both old and new with an emphasis on poetic craft (like language and form—two of the things that give 

poetry its magic). Assignments include reading and writing poems, responding to poems both critically and creatively, and writing 

reviews. The class will culminate in a portfolio of your own poetry. 


Completion of ENGL-192 requirement.

Special Topics in Writing: 

Fictional Time and Place 

ENGL-400-01 CRN: 41361 

M 6:30-10:10pm CO 413 

Porter Shreve 

“Once upon a time,” wrote Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, “old Scrooge sat 

busy in his counting house.” Why do so many stories begin this way? Because in order 

to offer an escape, a fully immersive experience, writers have to be world-builders. 

The world must be specific and believable even if it never existed or never could exist 

in real life. In this class we will focus on place — setting, image, landscape — and time 

— the past, the future. We will read three novels, one novella, and several short stories 

by mostly contemporary writers including James McBride, Anthony Doerr, Emily St. 

John Mandel, Julie Otsuka, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Alice Walker, George Saunders, Karen 

Russell, and Stephen Millhauser. 



Special Topics: 

Native American Women Writers 

ENGL-410-01 CRN: 41362 

MW 6:30-8:15pm CO 317 

Carol J. Batker 

In this seminar, we will read Native American women’s writing in diverse 

historical and cultural contexts. Initially, we will read a series of articles that 

theorize and politicize approaches to American Indian literatures, 

foregrounding the critical writing of Native women authors and scholars. 

Engaging with this body of work, we will examine Native American 

women’s writing, primarily fiction, from the early twentieth century to the 

present. Our coursework will be interdisciplinary and will include a campus 

exhibit on Native California Arts as well as the annual American Indian Film 

Festival in downtown San Francisco. 



16

A 


AW: Fiction Workshop 

ENGL-450-01 CRN: 41363 

T 12:45-4:25pm KA 172 

Kate Brady 

This course is a workshop devoted to creating, critiquing, and revising fiction. 

Each week we will begin class by discussing an element of fiction—plot, 

characterization, point of view, setting, style, and imagery—in a published literary 

work. These craft conversations will inform our discussion of student manuscripts, 

which will form the bulk of course work. Students will be expected to turn in at 

least two original fiction manuscripts and three creative exercises; at the end of the 

semester, students will turn in a portfolio of original and revised writings. 



Summer 2015 

English Dept. Courses 

GWWL: Children’s Literature 

ENGL-202-01 CRN: 30132 

MWF 9:50-4:45pm CO 418 


Children’s literature has a vast audience, regularly produces best-sellers, and must 

inevitably help shape the outlook of countless adults. Nevertheless, the study of 

children’s literature as a discipline has only come into its own in the last few decades. 

In this class, we’ll make a case for the close critical scrutiny of picture books, “chapter 

books” (in the broadest definition of that term), and young adult novels. The course 

will begin with two classic picture books: Beatrix Potter’s tales of Peter Rabbit and 

Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. We’ll then move on to E. B. White’s 

Charlotte’s Web and – if time allows – a recent young adult novel. We’ll also look at the 

film adaptations of classic fairy tales. 

The recurrent themes we’ll address in the course will likely include adult authority and 

its subversion, the entertainment value of disobedience, the wide range of 

constructions of “family” across the field, the central place of the concept of “home,” 

and, finally, the interpretive problems posed by a literature that’s written for one group 

(children) by another (adults). 

Applies to Core, C1

GWWL: Italian Journeys 

ENGL-202-02 CRN: 30134 

MWF 8:20-3:15pm CO 314 

Juan Garcia 

Italy is one of the great transit stations of the world, a point of departure for great journeys, and a longed-for destination 

too. Travel is the governing theme in this brief tour. We'll spend our first week with two famous traveling companions, the 

ancient Roman poet Virgil and the medieval Italian poet Dante. Shakespeare's voyage was purely psychological: we'll see Italy 

through his eyes in Othello: The Moor of Venice -- and take the opportunity to hear Verdi's operatic account of the same 

story. Finally, we'll travel to Italy in the company of authors of the European Romantic period: Goethe, Byron, the Shelleys, 

John Keats, Balzac, and the Brownings. In class: daily quizzes and extemporaneous writing. Midterm and Final (each with 

attached essay). NO E-TEXTS PLEASE. 


Tales and Transformations 

ENGL-206-01 CRN: 30133 

MTWRF 9:20-1:20pm CO 418 

Ana Rojas 

“A book ought to be an icepick to break up the frozen sea within us,” wrote Franz Kafka. Literary texts all have some kind of 

tale to tell, and they often involve some kind of change or transformation. But what do we do when we read literature? How 

does a text reveal itself to us? How does a text work? What do we see and notice about a text once we become aware of how it’s 

doing what it does? What changes about our perception and understanding of texts once we gain that awareness? These are the 

questions that our class will explore by reading a variety of short stories. As we read the texts in this class we will seek to develop 

both an aesthetic appreciation for this art of storytelling, as well as a better understanding of how fiction illuminates the human 

condition. Not only will we be looking at the transformations described within texts, but also at our own transformations as 

readers. In this class students will gain new insights into how to read literature, and a new awareness of the richness and 

complexity of literary texts 


Survey of Women’s Literature I 

ENGL-208-01 CRN: 30131 

TR 1:30-6:10pm KA 367 

Brant Torres 

This course studies early American women’s writing from the colonial period through the end of the nineteenth 

century. In this course we will read poems, novels, journals, and narratives by early American women alongside some 

twentieth-century feminist literary criticism. We will attempt to understand how women, who were often blocked out 

of legal, political, and economic spheres, were able to find a voice through the written word. We will also question 

why women’s literature was so long left out of the study of American literature. Through close reading, the study of 

history, class discussion, and writing assignments, we will learn how women’s writing uniquely shaped American 

literature, culture, and history. 




18

A 


C o u r s e D e s c r i p t i o n C a t a l o g 

University of San Francisco 

Department of English 

2130 Fulton Street 

Kalmanovitz Hall 487 

San Francisco, CA 94117 

Phone: 415-422-6426 

Fax: 415-422-5426 

E-mail: englishdept@usfca.edu 

C o m e T o K A 4 8 7 a n d 

l e a r n m o r e a b o u t t h e 

E n g l i s h d e p a r t m e n t 

20

Anthology

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?