Return to English | Courses Index
[1] Graduate Courses in English (ENGL)
5301 THE RENAISSANCE Major non-dramatic writers of Tudor and early Stuart England.
5304 STUDIES IN BRITISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE Concentrated study of varied topics on groups of writers, literary movements, or particular sub-genres. May be taken only once without approval of the department chair.
5305 MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE An overview of medieval English literature (exclusive of Chaucer). Anglo-Saxon and some Middle English texts will be taught in translation, but Middle English will be retained whenever possible.
5311 THE NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD Major writers from the Restoration to the end of the eighteenth century.
5312 AMERICAN PROVINCIAL LITERATURE American literature from its beginnings to 1830.
5313 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM AND REALISM The major works in American Romanticism and Realism, 1830-1900.
5314 AMERICAN FICTION SINCE 1900 Explores developments in the aesthetics of American fiction since 1900, and the relation of that fiction to contemporary American life and history. Readings may include both novels and short films. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 2313.
5315 TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY Major poetry by American authors of the twentieth century.
5320 THE ROMANTIC PERIOD English Romanticism from its eighteenth-century precursors through major Romantic writers of prose and poetry.
5321 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD Poetry and prose of major English writers of the latter part of the nineteenth century.
5325 SPECIAL TOPICS IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE Topics of current, historical, or theoretical interest in postcolonial literature.
5330 SHAKESPEARE I A critical survey of representative Shakespearean comedies, tragedies, history plays, and the sonnets.
5331 SHAKESPEARE II Similar to Shakespeare I, using other plays in each of the several genres, and the narrative poems.
5340 CHAUCER Chaucer’s major works viewed against the background of medieval life and thought.
5341 MILTON Milton’s major poems and selected prose viewed against the background of seventeenth-century life and thought.
5342 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Non-dramatic writings from 1603 to 1660, exclusive of Milton.
5343 TUDOR-STUART DRAMA Representative plays of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, exclusive of Shakespeare.
5345 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ENGLISH DRAMA English drama of the twentieth century generally focusing on modern plays by Shaw, Synge, O’Casey, and postmodern plays by Beckett, Pinter, Stoppard, and Churchill, Lecture, discussion, writing. Prerequisites: ENGL 2318.
5346 RESTORATION AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DRAMA English drama of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century, with attention to the political, cultural, and religious contexts in which these plays were produced. This course will also explore the period’s developing conditions of performance, and their impact upon the selected dramatic texts. Lecture, discussion, writing.
5347 TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN DRAMA The course will focus on the American theater to include such playwrights as Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson, and David Mamet, among others; and, as time allows, three to five plays from more recent work by a sampling of a younger generation to include Wendy Wasserstein, Suzan Lori Parks, Tony Kushner, Sam Shepard, and Horton Foote. Course Lecture, discussion, writing.
5354 MODERNISM This course will introduce students to major writers of all genres of the first half of the twentieth century from the United States and the British Isles. Writers such as Hemingway, Faulkner, Pound, T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Joyce, Woolf, and O’Neill will be covered.
5355 POSTMODERNISM A survey of English-language literature since 1945 generally covering the relations between high postmodernism, postcolonial/diverse literature, social realism, and magical realism.
5358 METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH AND COMPOSITION May not be taken as part of the MA in English. Required of students seeking licensure to teach English. The course includes a study of methods used to teach literature, grammar, and composition, and evaluated teaching presentations before other candidates. Lecture, discussions, writing. Prerequisites: Admissions to the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program.
5360 HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE A survey of English from the Anglo-Saxon to the modern period. Attention will be paid to the social, political and literary matrix within which the language developed.
5361 LITERATURE FOR ADOLESCENTS Literature for adolescent readers and exploration of motivational approaches to teaching literature in secondary schools.
5362 SOUTHERN LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE An elective for MA. Explores twentieth-century Southern folklore and literature as social, cultural, and historical manifestations and reactions to contemporary trends in American life and history. Poetry, prose, and drama of representative twentieth-century southern writers as well as regional folklore.
5364 SPECIAL TOPICS IN CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE This course offers unique instructor-driven topics of current, historical and theoretical interest in Children’s/Young Adult Literature. Students will critically read, discuss, and write about the particular subject matter of the course, paying special attention to the larger socio-cultural impact and context of the works under scrutiny. Lecture, discussion, writing.
5366 LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM This course may be taught using historical models or modern theoretical schools of thought. Literature (poetry, drama, and prose) will also be included as a means of applying various theoretical models.
5370 WOMEN’S LITERATURE An elective for MA students. This course may be taught as a survey of women’s literature across the centuries, or as a special-topics course dealing with women authors. Poetry, prose, and drama of representative women writers will be included.
5371 AMERICAN NOVEL TO 1900 The course examines the development of the novel in America generally focusing on writers such as Brockden, Brown and Hawthorne to Wharton and James. It explores the American novel as a distinct entity from European and continental models and as a result of social, historical, and economic forces in American life. Discussion, lecture, writing.
5372 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH NOVEL Major English novels of the eighteenth century.
5373 NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH NOVEL Major English novels of the nineteenth century.
5374 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ENGLISH NOVEL Major English novels of the twentieth century.
5375 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ENGLISH POETRY Major poetry by English authors of the twentieth century.
5380 AFRICAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE Survey of African and African-American literature from the eighteenth century to the present.
5381 MAJOR AFRICAN/AFRICAN-AMERICAN WRITERS An elective for MA students. The course will enable students to explore in some depth the works of one or more important African and/or African-American writers who have established distinctive artistic voices within a particular country, culture, or region.
5382 RACE IN AMERICAN LITERATURE An elective for MA. The course will explore the depictions of racial definitions, identities, and conflicts offered by American writers of various races although primarily African-American and white. Focus will be on writers such as Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and Flannery O’Connor.
5383 ASIAN AND ASIAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE This course is designed to introduce students to some important texts from the various literatures of Asia, along with the aesthetic, religious, and cultural contexts of those works. In addition, students will be introduced to a variety of modern texts by Asian-American writers so they may consider any connections that might exist between the traditional texts and their ethnic American successors.
5385 TRAVEL SEMINAR IN LITERATURE This course combines literary study with travel to the culture that produced the works. When American, British, or English-language literature is covered, the course may satisfy three elective hours of MA graduate credit.
6V93 THESIS RESEARCH CONTINUOUS ENROLLMENT (Variable credit: 1-3 credit hours)
6V94 INDEPENDENT STUDY (Variable credit: 1 or 3 credit hours.) Aspects of language and literature which an individual graduate student desires to study but which are not intensely covered in any existing course. The student taking this course must arrange for a graduate professor to direct the study and must procure the permission of the department chairperson. May be taken for up to 3 credit hours.
6190 GRADUATE TEACHING PRACTICUM IN ENGLISH This one-hour practicum will familiarize students with a range of methods for teaching literature in the college classroom. The course will provide some theoretical grounding in pedagogy but will place more emphasis on practical strategies for the classroom, assignment-design, and grading. Students will design a syllabus and construct lesson plans and assignments for the course they have been assigned to teach as well as participate in classroom observations. Readings will consist of a combination of theoretical and practical approaches to pedagogy (articles and books) primarily within the discipline of English. Prerequisite: At least 18 hours of graduate coursework in English.
6301 SEMINAR IN MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE Concentrated study of a special topic in English medieval literature.
6302 SEMINAR IN THE RENAISSANCE Concentrated study of a special topic in English Renaissance literature.
6303 SEMINAR IN NEOCLASSICISM Concentrated study of a special topic in English Neoclassical literature.
6304 SEMINAR IN ROMANTICISM Concentrated study of a special topic in English Romantic literature.
6305 SEMINAR IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD Concentrated study of a special topic in English literature of the Victorian period.
6306 SEMINAR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1900 TO PRESENT Concentrated study of a special topic in English literature from 1900 to the present.
6307 SEMINAR IN AMERICAN LITERATURE 1900 TO PRESENT A special-topics seminar in American literature from 1900 to Present.
6320 AMERICAN ROMANTIC PERIOD Critical and textual studies of selected works of one or more of the following authors: Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman.
6321 READINGS IN AMERICAN LITERATURE Works and literary reputation of selected American authors. A student will be allowed to take a maximum of two different seminar topics.
6323 LITERATURES OF THE AMERICAS FOR TEACHERS Serves as an elective for students in the MA program in English. A study of Native, Hispanic, and Latin American literatures within their cultural contexts, with an emphasis on teaching those traditions.
6336 TEXTS AND MANUSCRIPTS Approaches to the study of manuscripts and early printed texts (paleography, codicology, diplomatics, and stemmata) of the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
6337 ARKANSAS SHAKESPEARE THEATRE INTENSIVE INTERNSHIP This course provides an internship with the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre as a production dramaturg. The stated mission of AST is “to entertain, engage, and enrich the community by creating professional and accessible productions of Shakespeare and other works that promote educational opportunities, community involvement, and the highest artistic standards.” Dramaturgy interns will support this mission primarily through their work as scholars, writers, and research resources to the director and cast. Interns may also wish to participate in the collaborative theatrical effort in additional administrative ways.
6365 DIVERSE LITERATURES SEMINAR Capstone course for Language Arts Option in English M.A. program. Provides teachers opportunities for further exploration of diverse literatures of interest to them, with particular emphasis on incorporating these works along with approaches to teaching composition, creative writing, and linguistics into meaningful learning experiences for secondary students. Prerequisites: 24 hours completed toward MA with Language Arts emphasis, or consent of instructor.
6391 THESIS RESEARCH
6392 THESIS RESEARCH
6393 RESEARCH METHODS IN ENGLISH Familiarization with the tools and methods of literary research and criticism at the graduate level and with common types of scholarly writing.