Summer Semester 2007

Elective Offerings

Summer course registration begins November 28, 2006. All registration is now done by phone (617-373-8000) or through the myNEU Web Portal. Juniors and seniors who need to complete their major requirements are strongly advised to register at the first opportunity or they may find themselves unable to meet graduation requirements. Please note: ENG 111 (or the equivalent) is a prerequisite for all English electives (with the exception of Linguistics courses). Check the registrar's listings on-line for the most up to date information about course scheduling. You can find these at: www.registrar.neu.edu/course_schedules.htm. Please see the English Department Head Advisor, Professor Marina Leslie, in 443 Holmes (x 4555) m.leslie@neu.edu if you have any questions.

Summer 1

Surveys

(three courses required)

ENG U223: Survey of American Literature I

DeRoche
Key # 17132, Sequence 5

Surveys the major American writers and major literary forms and works from the colonial period to the Civil War. Includes works by such writers as Bradstreet, Taylor, Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Douglass, Stowe, Melville, and Emerson.

Period Courses

(three courses, each in a different century)

ENG U626: Nineteenth Century British Fiction

Keeling
Key # 01653, Sequence 1

Theory Requirement

(one course in Literary Criticism, Linguistics, or Rhetoric)

ENG U150/LIN U150 Introduction to Language and Linguistics

Key # 01466, Sequence D, Littlefield
Core Category II

This course introduces students to a new way of thinking about language. Normally, using language is an unconscious activity: when we speak and understand sentences, we are unaware of the complex mental activities going on at each moment. In this course, we will begin by examining our unconscious knowledge of language at several levels: word forms (morphology), sounds and sound patterns (phonetics and phonology), sentence structure (syntax), and meaning (semantics). We will then turn to looking at how we acquire this knowledge as infants, and how language is stored in the brain. Finally, we consider language in its social context: how speakers alter their language use depending on context, what dialects are, and how gender may affect language use. Other topics, such as the evolution of English will be discussed, time permitting.

Electives

(number required depends on year of graduation)

ENG U377: Poetry Workshop

DeRoche
Key # 07914, Sequence 4

Offers an advanced workshop in the writing, discussion of and rewriting of original student poetry from first drafts to finished poems. Although poems of established poets will be studied, and the conventions of poetic composition discussed and presented, the major focus of this workshop will be the poems of each participant. At the semester's conclusion, a collective anthology of the workshop's members will have been assembled, and each student writer will have finished a personal manuscript of at least 10 original poems. Attention will be paid to the process of submitting poems for publication in journals, on the internet, and in public performance.

ENG U395/CIN U395: American Film Survey

Fleche
Key # 07850, Sequence C

This course will explore the diversity of American films, styles and genres via the work of visionary directors who have wrestled with American film/identity. Documentary, feature and experimental film will be represented, and students will report from the current film scene. Two short papers and a midterm examination, as well as a very vocal class presence are required. Directors include: John Ford, Orson Welles, Barbara Kopple, Julie Dash, Maya Deren, Jennie Livingston, Todd Haynes.

Summer 2

Shakespeare

(one course required)

ENG U611: Introduction to Shakespeare

Walsh
Key # 01648, Sequence D

Covers a selection of the major plays of Shakespeare, including both tragedies and comedies.

Major Figure

(one course required)

ENG U600: Major Figure: Joseph Conrad

Tutein
Key # 01674, Sequence 1

Joseph Conrad’s short stories and novels have been honored internationally since Henry James, Stephen Crane and other less notable individuals commented on his remarkable artistry decades ago; his insight into the darker side of human nature and his humor; his observations on imperialism, racism, sexism and other modern issues. We will trace his development as an artist, highlighting his masterpieces Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. His letters and two or three films freely adapted from his novels will assist us in understanding the young man who left Poland, traveled the seas, and settled in Great Britain as a writer. Class discussions, mid-term paper, final.

Period Courses

(three courses, each in a different century)

ENG U409: Modern Novel

Leubner
Key # 06506, Sequence 2

Studies the major British, Irish, and American novelists of the early-mid twentieth century. Considers theme and form in such authors as Conrad, Joyce, Woolf, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Stein.

Experiential Education

(once course required)

ENG U694: Topics in Experiential Education: Memory, Architecture, and Place: Funereal Architecture and Landscape Design in Boston

Zuch
Key # 05626, Sequence 3

This course will explore the rich offerings in the Boston area of funereal architecture and landscape design in 19th and 20th century Boston. Monuments, cemeteries, and other built forms will be our window into studying how people express their attitudes on death. We will also read select 19th and 20th century literature, to find connections between the written and built forms on issues of death, dying, and the afterlife. We’ll begin by studying the Mount Auburn and Forest Hills Cemeteries, two innovative and influential burial sites that reflected changes in Victorian notions of “final resting place.” We will visit and discuss various Civil War monuments, most notably Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s relief commemorating Col. Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment. As we consider local monumental forms in the 20th century, we will look for how assumptions about knowledge, hierarchy, and permanence are changing. Some recent works to consider will be the Holocaust Memorial downtown and the just completed Veterans Memorial Project on the campus of Northeastern University. Readings will include selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson; poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, James Merrill and Seamus Heaney; excerpts from Boundaries by Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and a documentary film on her work. Requirements will be field work for site visits, short written responses to readings and built forms, and one paper.

Electives

(number required depends on year of graduation)

ENG U488: Film and Text

Conroy
Key # 03728, Sequence B

This course will examine the intersections of, and departures from, style, content and meaning betweens texts and their film adaptations. Narrative strategies, genres, techniques of production and imagery in specific films will be explored, as well as the cultural contexts of the films studied and the cultural, political and historical influence of cinema more broadly. In addition to readings of both primary and secondary texts and film viewings, daily written responses, two longer papers and a final exam will be required. Units will be selected from the following: Shakespeare¹s Macbeth; Bram Stoker¹s Dracula; the Vietnam War; Freud, Kafka and psychology in cinema; and Film Noir.