English (ENGL)
Br. Patrick J. Horner, F.S.C., Professor
Chair of the Department
The goals of the English major at Manhattan College are to develop in students an understanding of literary texts and issues that is coherent, informed, and broadly responsive; to develop in students the ability to articulate that understanding; and to develop that understanding through a range of courses in English, American, and world literature.
Requirements for a Major in English: Thirty credits on the 300 level, including ENGL 306, 309, 310, and 372. Students in the School of Education with a concentration in English must take, in addition, one course among ENGL 326, 331, and 333, and also, if they are in Childhood Education, ENGL 365. Additional details about elective options for Education majors will be found in the Education section of this catalog. A minimum grade of C is required for all major courses. ENGL 110 or its equivalent is a prerequisite for all 300 level courses.
Requirements for a Minor in English: Fifteen credits on the 300 level including either ENGL 309 or ENGL 372. A minimum grade of C is required for courses to satisfy these requirements. ENGL 110 or its equivalent is a prerequisite for all 300 level courses.
095. English as a Second Language. A course designed to improve the comprehension of both oral and written English for a non-native speaker. Punctuation, vocabulary development, fundamentals of English grammar, and basic writing skills are stressed. Seven hours per week, including one in language lab. Special fee. Pass/Fail. (Cr.0)
106. Fundamentals of English. The course is a methodical review of grammar and the composition of paragraphs and essays. The course prepares students to negotiate the demands of ENGL 110. Does not substitute for ENGL 110 or 211. Required for students designated by the Department Chair only. Pass/Fail. Fall, Spring. (Cr.3)
110. College Writing. This course is designed to assist students in developing habits of writing, reading, and critical thinking needed for composing effectively within the academic community. The goal is to increase student understanding of the writing process and provide a set of rhetorical strategies to fulfill assigned tasks. A review of grammar and a study of research methods are included. Fall, Spring. (Cr.3)
210. Exposition and Argumentation. The course explores strategies for expository and argumentative writing, research techniques, and documentation styles. Emphasis is placed on analyzing data and incorporating research findings into informative and argumentative essays and research projects. This course will fulfill ENGL 110 requirement for advanced freshman students. (Does not satisfy literature requirement in Business, Education, or Engineering.) (Cr.3)
211. Written Communication. An intermediate course focusing on the specialized communications skills required by professionals. Emphasis on research techniques and on the rhetoric and diction necessary to persuade different audiences, as demanded by a variety of case studies. (Does not satisfy literature requirement in Business, Education, or Engineering). Fall, Spring. (Cr.3)
240. Introduction to Creative Writing. A study of the crafts of poetry and fiction writing. Exercises in form and technique and the creation of original stories and poems. Introduction to the creative writing workshop. (Cr.3)
245. Introduction to Shakespeare. Survey of the major histories, comedies, and tragedies. (Cr.3)
248. Masterworks of British Literature. Readings selected from the prose, poetry, and drama of the British Isles from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present. (Cr.3)
253. Masterworks of American Literature. Readings selected from the prose, poetry, and drama of America from the Colonial period to the present. (Cr.3)
255. Elements of the Film. An introduction to the formal/aesthetic analysis of film. Through screening and discussion of representative films, students develop their ability to describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate the film experience. Not open to students who have taken COMM 212. (Does not satisfy literature requirement in Business, Education, or Engineering.) (Cr.3)
256. Types of Film Experience. An introduction to the cultural/ideological analysis of film. Through screening and discussion of representative films, students explore the ways in which cinema reflects and shapes contemporary society. Specific topics covered include, but are not limited to, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and class and power as they relate to film experience. (Does not satisfy literature requirement in Business, Education, or Engineering.) (Cr.3)
260. Comedy and Tragedy. An attempt to define comedy and tragedy by examining texts in each genre. (Cr.3)
265. Contemporary Literature. A comparative study of selected literary texts by African, Asian, Caribbean, Australian, and Latin and North American writers responding to the impact of Western colonization and imperialism. (Cr.3)
270. Crime and Detection. The origin, development, and achievement of the detective story and the crime novel. Most readings will be drawn from such 19th and 20th century authors as Poe, Collins, Doyle, Sayers, Hammett, Chandler, and Simenon, but some attention will be given to possible precursors such as Sophocles and Shakespeare. (Cr.3)
274. Reading Poetry. An introduction to the experience of reading, interpreting, and evaluating poetry. (Cr.3)
275. The Short Story. The origin, development, and theories of the genre as exemplified in short stories chosen from the major writers in this form. (Cr.3)
276. Drama. A survey of world drama through selected play texts and representative dramatic styles, ranging from classical to contemporary. (Cr.3)
277. Story Sequence. A study of the story, the story sequence, and the novel that attends to the achievements of narrative in each form. (Cr.3)
279. Literature and the Environment. The study of the important role the environment plays in literary texts. Themes may include the relationship between the urban and the wild, the role of animals in human affairs, and the question of human stewardship of this planet. (Cr.3)
280. The Irish Literary Revival. A study of the major Irish writers of the late 19th and 20th centuries whose works constitute the modern Irish literary renascence: Yeats, Joyce, Synge, and O’Casey. (Cr.3)
284. Myth and Fairy Tale. An introduction to selected traditional myths and western European fairy tales, focusing on the literary rather than on the oral folk tradition and analyzing the pervasive influence of myth and fairy tale on modern western literature. (Cr.3)
285. Literary New York. A study of selected literary works in which New York City figures prominently as a subject, a metaphor, or a muse. (Cr.3)
287. Fantasy and Science Fiction. An introduction to speculative literature: fantasy, gothic, and science fiction; their relation to each other; the relation of the fantastic to fiction. (Cr.3)
305. African-American Literature. Examination of important texts by African-American authors, with special emphasis on recent writings. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
306. Introduction to Literary Study. Learning to think and write like an English major. Emphasis on close reading of texts, developing a heightened sense of language, making cogent literary arguments with well-integrated evidence, and developing familiarity with literary terms and different critical approaches. Must be taken during either the first or second semester of major course-work. For English majors and minors only. Fall, Spring. (Cr.3)
309. British Literature: Beowulf to 1674. The development and continuity of British literature studied in significant writers, works, literary movements, social and historical backgrounds. For English majors and minors only. Fall. (Cr.3)
310. British Literature: Restoration to 1939. Continuation of the study of key British writers, works, and literary movements and their social and historical backgrounds. For English majors and minors only. Prerequisite ENGL 309. Spring. (Cr.3)
312. Studies in Medieval British Literature. An in-depth study of medieval writers, themes, genres, and literary movements through critical reading of prose, drama, and poetry of Great Britain. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
317. Studies in Lyric Poetry. The how and why of reading short poems: the attitudes and questions readers bring to the study of the lyric and the intellectual and aesthetic pleasures the lyric offers in return. Readings include both British and American poems written over the last five centuries. Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
323. Studies in 18th Century British Literature. An in-depth study of eighteenth century writers, themes, genres, and literary movements through critical reading of prose, drama, and poetry from Great Britain. (Cr.3)
326. Advanced Composition. Non-fictional prose; analysis of models of the brief essay for practicing a variety of its forms. (Does not satisfy literature requirement in Business, Education, or Engineering.) Spring. (Cr.3)
327. Studies in 19th Century British Literature. An in-depth study of nineteenth-century writers, themes, genres, and literary movements through critical reading of prose, drama, and poetry from Great Britain. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
330. Shakespeare II. The problem plays, mature tragedies, and romances. (Not open to freshmen.) ENGL 329 is not a prerequisite. Spring. (Cr.3)
331. History of the English Language. The development, structure, and function of the English language. (Does not satisfy literature requirement in Business, Education, and Engineering.) Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
333. Grammar and Writing. An intensive study of modern English grammar in the context of writing. The course moves recursively between theory and practice, exploring the rules and conventions of usage in standard English and the complex functioning of these rules and conventions in writing. The course is designed to help students become more knowledgeable and effective language users and writers. (Does not satisfy Literature requirement in Business, Education, and Engineering) Fall. (Cr.3)
337. Literature by Women. An examination of selected works by women writing in English. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
340. Studies in Creative Writing. Advanced workshop in a genre of creative writing, usually poetry or fiction, with some generative exercises. Focus on developing voice and technical skills. Extensive study of form, genre expectations, and contemporary texts. Prerequisite: ENGL 240 or permission of instructor. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
342. Medieval Literature (World Literature). Selected works of the early and late Middle Ages studied as expressions of medieval thought. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
343. Literature of the Renaissance and Enlightenment (World Literature). Selected literary works in their relations to the thought and culture of Europe, 1300-1700. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
344. Romantics to Moderns (World Literature). Selected works of fiction, drama, and poetry representative of literary movements of the period. Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
347. Literature and War (World Literature). A study of the representation in fiction, poetry, drama, and film of such catastrophic human conflicts as the World Wars and the Vietnam War. Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
348. Contemporary Fiction (World Literature). A sampling of world fiction (in English) written in the last fifteen years. Authors employ widely divergent techniques to address the issues of colonialism, history, politics, social change, and art. Emphasis on the novel as an arena for heterogeneity of sensibilities and the clash of ideologies. Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
361. Masterpieces of British Drama. The tradition of British theatre in a wide range of theatrical styles and conventions, from medieval cycle plays to post modern performance. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
364. The Modern Novel in English. Major English, Irish, and British Commonwealth novels of the Modern era and their cultural contexts. This may include novels written in English, not in translation, from India, Africa, and the Caribbean. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
365. Children’s Literature. A study of widely read, influential and sometimes controversial books for children, surveying major achievements and genres in children’s literature, examining various approaches to the field, and commenting on social and pedagogical issues that surround it. Spring. (Cr.3)
367. Literary Criticism. A study of major texts in criticism from Plato to the present, with special emphasis on the relation of critical theory to the experience of literature and on the relevance of the great critics of the past to current critical concerns. (Does not satisfy literature requirement in Business, Education, and Engineering.) Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
369. Chaucer. A study of The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and the minor poems. Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
370. Milton. A study of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and selected shorter works. Spring. Alternate years. Cr.3)
372. American Literature to 1914. A study of major figures and significant trends in American Literature from the colonial era to 1914. For English majors and minors only. Fall. (Cr.3)
374. The American Novel to 1914. A study of the American novel in the nineteenth century, an era in which it attained new popularity and came to occupy a special place in American culture. Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
375. Studies in Early and Nineteenth-Century American Literature. An in-depth study of writers, themes, genres, and literary movements in American literature before 1914. The subject to be studied may vary from semester to semester. (Does not satisfy ENGL 372 requirement.) Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
378. American Literature: The Modern Age. A study of major writers and significant trends in American literature from 1914 to 1945: fiction, drama, poetry. Fall. (Cr.3)
379. American Literature: The Contemporary Period. A study of major writers and significant trends in American literature since 1945: fiction, drama, poetry. Spring. (Cr.3)
380. Ethnic American Literature. The study of the literature of one or more ethnic groups in the U.S., with a focus on important themes and genres. Fall. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
381. Masterpieces of American Drama. The study of landmark plays and theatrical styles reflecting America’s unique contribution to world drama. Spring. Alternate years. (Cr.3)
392. Topics in Literature. An intensive study of a single author, genre, period, or literary form. The subject to be studied will vary from semester to semester. A student may elect this course as often as twice for college credit, presuming a different subject each time, but only once for credit toward the English major. Ordinarily offered once per year in either term. (Cr.3)
399. Independent Study. Individual study of a major writer or movement in English or American literature with a member of the department. Open only to seniors majoring in English who secure the approval of the Chair of the Department and the consent of the individual instructor. A student may elect this course once only. (Cr.3)
400. The Theater and the City: Drama in Performance. Taking full advantage of the spectrum of Broadway and Off-Broadway performance, this course invites students to experience theater as a multi-dimensional and collaborative art. Class discussions, on-site performances, and behind-the-scene accounts of selected theatrical events will enlighten the students’ knowledge and appreciation of drama. (Special fee; permission of the chair.) (Cr.3)
405. Peer Tutor Training. This course is designed to train students to be competent tutors in the Manhattan College Writing Center. By permission of instructor. Fall, Spring. (Cr.1)
413. Introduction to News Writing. Basic elements of the news story, with emphasis on writing accurate, vivid campus news. Introduction to journalism ethics, news-gathering techniques, and copy-editing. Fall. (Cr.1)
414. Advanced News Writing. Survey of methods for writing features, investigative reports, editorials, and sports, with emphasis on documenting campus events and issues. By permission of instructor. Prerequisite: ENGL 413. Spring. (Cr.1)
415. Quadrangle Internship. An internship with the campus newspaper, students work in editorial positions. Development of editing and newswriting skills, work with advisor to Quadrangle. Required attendance at staff and editorial board meetings. Prerequisites: ENGL 413, 414. Fall. (Cr.1)
204. Fundamentals of Speech. The technique and preparation of informative and persuasive short speeches, and small group dynamics. Assessment of personal speech skills for effectiveness and self-improvement. Not open to students who have taken COMM 205. Fall, Spring. (Cr.3)