Academics

Department of English > Course Descriptions

100 English Composition
Designed for first-year students and other students (upon consultation with the director of writing programs) to achieve effective expository and argumentative prose. Frequent papers will develop basic writing and research skills. (Does not apply toward the major. Not open to upperclass students. Does not meet GEC Humanities Requirement.)

101 Writing Center Tutorial
An expository writing course for students identified by the director of writing programs. (Does not apply toward the major. Not open to upperclass students. Does not meet GEC Humanities Requirement.)

110 Introduction to Literary Studies
Designed to introduce prospective majors to English studies. Primarily for first-year students but also for others who wish to acquire useful skills as readers and writers by developing critical abilities in studying literature. (Does not apply toward the major. Meets GEC First-Year Writing Requirement.)

203 American Literature I: Early American Literary Culture (Offered Less Frequently)
The origins and growth of the American literary imagination from its beginnings in Puritan documents through major works of the early Romantics. (Cross-listed as American Studies 203.)

204 Nineteenth-Century American Literature
Works of representative writers: Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, and Twain. Topics of discussion include Emerson’s influence on American culture, developments in American literary form, and themes of American community and nature. (Cross-listed as American Studies 204.)

205 Twentieth-Century American Literature
Works of representative writers. Topics of discussion include American identity and the “American dream,” developments in literary form, and the social and political values of modern literature. (Cross-listed as American Studies 205.)

206 American Nature Writing
An historically organized survey of the various rhetorics through which nature has been understood by Americans from the Puritans to contemporary writers: the Calvinist fallen landscape, the rational continent of the American Enlightenment, conservation and “wise use,” and preservation and “biodiversity.” (Cross-listed as American Studies 203 and Environmental Studies 206.)

210 Ancient and Medieval Literature
The origins of Western literary tradition traced through such classic figures as Homer, Virgil, and Dante. A survey of major English literary texts, culminating in Chaucer. (Meets GEC First-Year Writing Requirement.)

211 English Literature I: The Renaissance and Eighteenth Century
The continuation of the Classics of Literature Sequence, focusing on such major figures as Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, and Pope seen against the developments and traditions of the two periods. English 210, 211, and 212 are to be taken in sequence, unless under exceptional circumstances.

212 English Literature II: The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
The third in the Classics of Literature Sequence, from the Romantics through Modernism, seen against the developments and traditions of the last two centuries. English 210, 211, and 212 are to be taken in sequence, unless under exceptional circumstances.

215 Myth and Literature
An examination of the ways in which literature derives from, alters, and creates myth. Readings drawn from the Bible, classical mythology, Arthurian legend, and medieval and modern literature.

216 African American Literature I
A study of slave narratives and contemporary revisions. Includes works by Equiano, Douglass, Delaney, Jacobs, Morrison, Johnson, and Williams. (Cross-listed as African American Studies 216. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

217 African American Literature II
An examination of narrative attempts before, during, and after the Harlem Renaissance to move from imposed stereotypes toward more accurate representations of African American experiences. Includes works by Chesnutt, Du Bois, Hurston, Larsen, Hughes, Toomer, Baldwin, and Walker. (Cross-listed as African American Studies 217. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

218 Blues Women in African American Literature
An analysis of the representation of “blues women” and the music in writings by African Americans. Authors include Larsen, Hurston, Morrison, Wilson, Jones, and Walker. (Cross-listed as African American Studies 218, American Studies 218, and Women’s and Gender Studies 218. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

220 Shakespeare
Selected plays to show Shakespeare’s artistic development; intensive analysis of major plays. Students who have taken English 221 or Religion 221 may not take 220. (Cross-listed  as Theater 236.)

221 Shakespeare and Religion
A team-taught, interdisciplinary examination of a number of Shakespeare’s plays that center on religious themes, values, discourses of faith, and representations of belief. The course will also focus on the moral and spiritual issues that religious thought has brought to bear on Shakespeare. Attention will focus on those plays in which Shakespeare most variously dramatizes religious questions. Students who have taken English 220 or Theater 236 may not take 221. (Cross-listed as Religion 221.)

223 Literary Types and Traditions: Multicultural Literature
An examination of literary works by writers from American minority groups and from the postcolonial world. The course explores how these writers negotiate between cosmopolitanism and a sense of rootedness in particular communities. (Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

224 Special Studies: Literature of the Vietnam War
This course examines the Vietnam War as refracted through various literary genres. The readings for the course include Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, and Truong Nhu Tang’s Vietcong Memoir. (Cross-listed as American Studies 224 and Asian Studies 224. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

224 Special Studies: British  Detective Fiction
In this course we will read a few Victorian novels —by Charlotte Bronte, Wilkie Collins, and Charles Dickens—that focus (as much as what Henry James called “loose baggy monster(s)” can focus) on a secret, mystery, or crime. They all have characters who function as detective figures, villains, victims, and suspects. The date and place of the first “real” detective story is often debated, but discovering these “facts” will not be the goal of the course. Instead, we will look at what was happening to the form at this specific time and place. (Cross-listed as Asian Studies 224.)

225 Women and Literature
A study of how gender has affected the production and reception of literature. Emphasis on women writing in English between 1800 and the present. Attention paid to the representation of women in writings by men. Writers covered may include Austen, Brontë, Dickinson, Woolf, Plath, and more recent authors. (Cross-listed as Women’s and Gender Studies 225. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

230 Theater History I: Greeks  to Shakespeare
(Cross-listed as Theater 230.)

231 Introduction to Journalism
A course in news reporting and writing for newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media. With workbook exercises and writing assignments, students handle many kinds of journalistic story, ranging from interviews to sports and speeches and investigative reporting. Intended for English and communications majors.

232 The Teaching of Writing
(Cross-listed as Education 232.)

233 Theater History IV: Performance Art
(Cross-listed as Theater 237 and Art 237.)

234 Theater History II: Moliere to Ibsen
(Cross-listed as Theater 231.)

235 Introduction to Creative Writing
A beginning course in the art of writing fiction, poetry, and nonfiction prose. Literary analysis will be combined with creative assignments. Group discussions and individual conferences.

236 Theater History VI: Musical Theater
(Cross-listed as Theater 235 and Music 235.)

237 Theater History III: Shaw to Kushner
(Cross-listed as Theater 232.)

242 Playwriting
(Cross-listed as Theater 270.)

243 Playwriting Seminar
(Cross-listed as Theater 271.)

250 Contemporary Literature
This course will examine literary texts that address questions of ideology and the marketplace, and it will include diverse multicultural literary perspectives.

251 Postcolonial Literatures
A course exploring themes in the literatures of Africa, India, the Caribbean, and the Islamic world from the end of colonialism to the present day. Topics include postcolonial “writing back” to the literature of empire; nativism; ethnocentrism and the search for an authentic postcolonial voice; cultural hybridity; and the literature of migration and exile. (Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

253 Modern Irish Writers
A course in Irish fiction, poetry, and drama of the twentieth century, including works by Joyce, Beckett, Yeats, and Synge. We will explore questions of nationalism, language, and modernism in Irish literature and will consider the works in historical contexts.

254 Environmental Justice
The environmental justice movement examines how poverty and racism play out ecologically and politically: in the location of toxic waste dumps and polluting factories, in the migration of people across national borders, and in the assertion of land and water rights. This course will explore these issues through literary and environmental- studies texts that challenge the traditional parameters of nature writing. Prerequisite:  one course at the 200-level in either English  or Environmental Studies. (Cross-listed as Environmental Studies 254.)

300 Medieval Studies: The Chaucerian  and Arthurian Traditions
This course will consider two overlapping traditions of medieval narrative, and it will vary in its emphasis year by year: on the one hand, Arthurian myth from chronicle history to courtly romance; on the other, Chaucerian narrative, including Troilus and Criseyde. Readings will explore the continental roots of the English works. This course will also consider the lives and works of medieval women. Prerequisite: English 210.

301 The Renaissance
A study of early modern genres, including works by Parr, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Wroth. Prerequisites: English 210 and 211.

302 John Donne and His Contemporaries
Literature of the earlier seventeenth century with close study of works by Donne, Herbert, Jonson, Burton, Browne, and others in the baroque  tradition. Prerequisites: English 210 and 211.

303 Wilderness and Settlement in Early American Writing
The American Romantics looked to nature as a divine power and a saving force, but the writers and thinkers of the colonial period and early American Republic had a much more ambivalent vision of nature—influenced by a heady mix of religious vision, enlightenment ideals, and the monumental encounter with a continent—and an aboriginal people—wholly new to Europeans. To explore this ambivalent vision, we will critically read works by Jonathan Edwards, Anne Bradstreet, Crevecoeur, William Bryant, Phyllis Wheatley, Mary Rowlandson and Washington Irving. We will also examine Native American perspectives and engage with the relevant secondary literature. Prerequisite: English 203, 204, 205 or 206.

304 The Romantic Period
Key works, both poetry and prose, of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Exploration of themes and ideas of a revolutionary era. Prerequisite: English 212.

305 Victorian Literature
Masterpieces of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by Dickens, Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Arnold, Hardy, Wilde, and others. Prerequisite: English 212.

306 The English Novel
Development of the novel; representative works by major figures from Defoe through Conrad. Prerequisite: English 212.

307 Women Writers: Austen, Wharton, Woolf
Detailed study of several novels and other writings by each author. Attention paid to historical context and to feminist theories of literature. (Cross-listed as Women’s and Gender Studies 307. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

308 Renaissance Drama
Who were the other popular playwrights of Shakespeare’s day?  Have they been overshadowed by the Bard’s fame? In this course we will discuss, watch films of, and stage scenes from the vibrant and stage-worthy plays of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in England, including the witty comedies of Jonson and Dekker, and the horrific tragedies of Kyd, Marlowe, Marston, Middleton, Tourneur, Webster, and Ford. The course will culminate in a discussion of the film Shakespeare in Love, which portrays playwrights, actors, managers, and other historical figures of the English Renaissance. (Cross-listed as Theater 308.)

310 Introduction to the African Novel  in English
A study of the political concerns that motivate a group of African writers and an investigation of the way formal strategies and techniques derived from African cultural traditions shape a hybrid with imported European forms. Readings include Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Devil on the Cross, Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter. (Cross-listed as African American Studies 310. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

316 Voices of Reform: Nineteenth-Century African American Writings
A study of African American literature and theory published immediately before and following the Civil War. Readings will focus on identity (re)formation, social order, morality, Northern neo-slavery, institution building, women’s rights. Authors will include Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Anna Julia Cooper, Harriet Wilson, Frances E.W. Harper, William Wells Brown, Sojourner Truth, Charles Chesnutt, and Frederick Douglass. English 216 is the prerequisite for first-year students and sophomores; no prerequisite for juniors and seniors. (Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

320 1857: The Year in American Literature
This course seeks to represent something of the diversity and vitality of American Literature in 1857, the year of the College’s founding. Readings will include Stowe’s novel of slave rebellion, Dred; samples from Harpers Weekly, founded in 1857;  Thoreau’s 1857 lectures on radical abolitionist John Brown, and more.

321 Modern Fiction
An exploration of modern fiction as it developed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including such writers as Dostoevsky, Joyce, Lawrence, Kafka, and Hemingway. Prerequisite: any 200-level literature course.

322 Modern Poetry
Major figures in English and American poetry of the twentieth century. Prerequisite: any  200-level literature course.

323  Lake Forest College Press I: Book Editing
Lake Forest College Press I: Book Editing will introduce students to the work of Lake Forest College Press in the preparation of the collection, THE &NOW AWARDS: For the best innovative writing. The course will focus on the initial stages of the editorial process, in which questions of editorial policy and content selection come to the fore.  Prerequisites: 200-level creative writing course, and one of the following: a 300-level  writing course, any twentieth-century -focused literature course, or permission of instructor.

324  Lake Forest College Press II: Book Production
Book Production will continue the work of Lake Forest College Press in the preparation of the collection, The &Now Awards: For the best innovative writing.  Accordingly, this course will assume a sharp focus on editorial book production in its later phases.  Students will move from the initial selection of literary works and anthology research in LFC Press I to issues of reprint permissions, copy and content editing, marketing and promotion, and editorial design required in the final phases of manuscript preparation.  Prerequisites: 200-level creative writing course, and one of the following: a 300-level writing course, a any twentieth-century-focused literature course, or permission of instructor.

325 Black Literature of the 1960s
A study of the literature produced by participants in the Black Arts and Civil Rights movements. Authors may include Amiri Baraka, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Assata Shakur, Eldridge Cleaver, Gil Scott-Heron, and Angela Davis, among others. Prerequisite: English 217 or permission of the instructor. (Cross-listed as African American Studies 325 and American Studies 325. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

326 Interdisciplinary Studies: Postmodernism
An interdisciplinary study of postmodernism as a literary and cultural phenomenon that redefines both local and global communities. The course will investigate aesthetic production during the post-WWII period by American and world writers and artists, with an additional focus on the theoretical basis of postmodernism.  This course and English 327 may not both be taken for credit.

327 Interdisciplinary Studies: Postmodernism and the Asian/Asian American Novel
An interdisciplinary study of postmodernism as a literary and cultural phenomenon that redefines both local and global communities.  The course will focus primarily but not exclusively on Asian and Asian American authors, with special emphasis on Japan and China, with an additional emphasis on the theoretical basis of postmodernism.  This course and English 326 may not both be taken for credit.  (Cross-listed as Asian Studies 327.  Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

330 Advanced Nonfiction Writing
Emphasis on writing the personal essay and other kinds of creative nonfiction, i.e., film reviews, travel writing, and descriptive writing. Students will complete at least one lengthy writing project of their own devising. Workshop, group discussion, and conferences. Prerequisite: English 235.

331 The Enlightenment
Readings and discussions of the central ideas of Europe in the eighteenth century, with emphasis on Britain and France. Topics include the social and political context of the Enlightenment, the impact of science, and the development of notions of tolerance, freedom, and rationality. Prerequiste: English 211. (Cross-listed as History 331.)

332 Creative Nonfiction Writing: Environmental Writing
This is a course in creative nonfiction with a particular focus on writing about the environment. Students will explore different approaches to the environmental essay, including adventure narrative, personal reflection, and natural history. We will also use the immediate surroundings of the Chicago area as an environment for our writing. Prerequisite: English 235 or a lower-level Environmental Studies course. (Cross-listed as Environmental Studies 332.)

335 The Third Coast Through Image and Word
This advanced nonfiction workshop will focus on Chicago as a city made up of numerous, distinct neighborhoods. It offers advanced students the chance to combine photography and nonfiction writing about different neighborhoods, as each student will be expected to claim, re-visit and explore a particular locale within the city through images and writing. Students will be able to engage the city’s resources independently as well as in a class setting. The theoretical investigation of what place means in relation to creative activity will be foregrounded: our focus in class, rather than readings by Chicago authors, will be on developing the lenses that will produce our own ways of seeing the city as an amalgamation of neighborhoods. There will be five theoretical segments to the course: urbanism, pastoral/suburban, persona/psychology, trauma studies/ruin/authenticity and newness/postmodern/globalization, which will serve as the starting point for assignments. Our class will visit museums as context for our photography, as well as local street fairs and cultural celebrations that take place within particular neighborhoods. A personal digital camera for your use is strongly recommended. (Cross-listed with Environmental Studies 335.)

337 Women in Theater
(Cross-listed as Theater 337 and Women's and Gender Studies 337. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

340 Theater Criticism
(Cross-listed as Theater 340.)

341 Romanticism: Revolutions in Self  and Society
The Romantic Era (ca. 1780–ca. 1830) is often considered to be a period of revolution in politics, culture, and society. This course examines the evolving relationship of self and society through five decades of European history. Discussions will center on major figures and events of the Romantic period in English, France, and Germany.

342 History and Literature: Crises in England, 1485–1660
An interdisciplinary opportunity to investigate one seminal era. Topics include the “lost” world of early modern family and social life; the English Reformation; the aristocracy and the rise of the gentry; Renaissance heroism and “self-fashioning”; women’s lives and literature; early modern biography and lyric subjectivity; Tudor and Stuart monarchy; the causes of the English Civil War; and the emergence of the scientific worldview. Prerequisite: either one English or one history course at the 200 level or above. (Cross-listed as History 342.)

343 Dramatic Criticism
(Cross-listed as Theater 343.

345 Neglected American Novels of the Nineteenth Century
A seminar on nineteenth-century novels not usually covered in typical surveys of the century. Course material will include novels by neglected writers such as Harold Fredric and Lydia Maria Child, along with some less-known works by major figures such as Melville and Stowe. Prerequisite: English 204.

346  Abraham Lincoln: Words, Images, and Depictions
This course will selectively examine the words (essays, speeches), the images (photos, paintings, sculptures), and depictions (film, television) of Abraham Lincoln.  We will begin by reading biographical and critical accounts along with a number of Lincoln’s most important writings and utterances.  We will then examine and discuss various visual representations, with close attention to the character that is projected by each.  Finally, we will look at a number of media depictions of Lincoln in popular culture in order to arrive at a perspective on how the man has been viewed and represented over time, and how he continues to be viewed and represented today.

351 Junior Colloquium: American Women Writers of the Gilded Age: 1865–1914
This course examines the social practices, the economic/political environment, and the religious beliefs of the late nineteenth century. It shows how culture, history, and gender influenced women authors and their audiences. Authors include Alcott, Chopin, Gilman, Wharton, and others.  (Cross-listed as Women’s and Gender Studies 351. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement. Prerequisite: English 204.)

360 Creative Writing: Fiction
An intermediate course in the craft of the short story. Group discussions and individual conferences. Prerequisite: English 235.

361 Creative Writing: Poetry
An intermediate course in the craft of poetry. Group discussions and individual conferences. Prerequisite: English 235.

362 On-Site Study at Victory Gardens Theater
(Cross-listed as Theater 362.)

380 Violence in Theater: Shakespeare  to Tarantino
(Cross-listed as Theater 380.)

381 Some Versions of Pastoral
The image of nature as a perfect garden and refuge from an oppressive civilization – be it called Eden, Arcadia, or America – as been a constant in Western culture, even as that image has been shadowed by violence, exploitation, and environmental degradation.  This course will investigate the strangely persistent genre of pastoral as it has evolved from ancient times up through the nineteenth century to the present day.  This course is designed for both English and Environmental Studies majors.  Prerequisite: one English course at the 200-level or permission of the instructor.  (Cross-listed as Environmental Studies 381.)

385 Activism in Theater: Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Voices
(Cross-listed as Theater 338 and Women’s and Gender Studies 338. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

391 Advanced Journalism
In this writing-intensive course, students exercise their interviewing, investigative and story-telling skills to produce a variety of magazine articles that will be posted--along with digital photos--on their own journalism blogs.  Prerequisite: English 231.

400 Herman Melville
An advanced seminar examining Melville’s fiction and poetry in the context of nineteenth-century American culture. Readings will include Typee, Moby Dick, Israel Potter, and “Battle Pieces.” Prerequisites: English 204 and significant progress in the Classics of Literature Sequence.

401 John Milton
An intensive study of the poetry of Milton, with extended attention to Paradise Lost. Emphasis on the classical and Judeo-Christian context of Renaissance culture. Prerequisites: English 210 and 211.

402 Geoffrey Chaucer
An advanced course including study of The Canterbury Tales. Emphasis on Chaucer’s earlier masterpiece Troilus and Criseyde as well as his dream-vision poems. Prerequisite: English 210.

403 Emily Dickinson
An advanced seminar on the poetry and letters of Emily Dickinson. Emphases on the cultural context of Dickinson’s work and its critical reception. Prerequisite: English 204. (Cross-listed as Women’s and Gender Studies 403.)

440 Advanced Writing Seminar/Tutorial: Re-Writing Chicago
An advanced course in which each student completes a Senior Writing Project (a portfolio of work in poetry, fiction, drama, or nonfiction prose), while interacting with Chicago in two distinct ways: 1)  students will generate writing from the study of specific Chicago neighborhoods, and, 2) students will participate in the literary life of the city through attending and staging literary events.  Group discussion and individual conferences.  Intended for senior majors in the writing track.  Prerequisites: (a) English 235; and (b) English 242, 330, 360, or 361.  (Cross-listed as American Studies 440. Meets GEC Senior Studies Requirement.)

450 Theory of Literature
Important critical modes and approaches to  literature; an integrating experience for the  senior major. (Meets GEC Senior Studies Requirement.)