Fall 2025 Undergraduate Courses
Undergrad Course Descriptions-Oxford Campus
PDF VERISON: Fall 2025 Undergraduate Courses
Eng 199 Introduction to Creative Writing
Spencer MWF 9-9:50
ecspence@olemiss.edu
This introductory creative writing course gives students an opportunity to explore the works of contemporary authors and the possibilities of their own voice and craft. During the semester, we will practice the lost art of daydreaming, write poetry, fiction and short pieces of creative nonfiction. Through daily assignments and regular workshop sessions, students will become more comfortable sharing their work with a larger community and offering helpful critique for their peers. By the end of the semester, students will compile a 25–30-page portfolio of their own creative work.
Eng 199 Introduction to Creative Writing
Avant MW 3-4:15
ahavant@olemiss.edu
In this course, students will write in response to exacting, ambitious, and, hopefully, enjoyable prompts each week, and by the end of the semester have several new poems and short stories or flash fiction pieces. In our craft discussions, we will focus on the technical elements of writing that make for strong genres of creative work. But we’ll also be looking at bigger questions—why we write, what we are drawn to, and what we resist in our writing. The semester will move thematically, grouping together poems and stories that deal rigorously with formal concerns, grief/loss and play, just some of the obsessions that make it necessary to write. We will look at texts as models of different ways to engage our obsessions and subjects. Students will be asked to try various modes of engagement, from ecstatic to elegiac to fantastic, to generate original and surprising pieces. By the end of the semester, students will be comfortable with the process of turning fascination and ideas into precise, interesting writing. Students will leave with a wealth of literary tools, techniques and terminology that will make it possible to comfortably navigate future creative writing workshops and build useful and generative practices for a life of writing. This includes close reading, annotation, peer feedback inside the workshop model and creating a portfolio of work worthy of submission and publication.
Eng 199 Introduction to Creative Writing
Wang T TH 2:30-3:45
mxwang@olemiss.edu
Students will be introduced to two different creative writing genres.
Eng 199 Introduction to Creative Writing
TBD MWF 9:00-9:50
engl@olemiss.edu
Students will be introduced to two different creative writing genres.
Eng 199 Introduction to Creative Writing
TBD MWF 1:00-1:50
engl@olemiss.edu
Students will be introduced to two different creative writing genres.
Eng 220 Survey in Literary History: “Dear Leader”: Authoritarianism and Cults in Literature.
Bondurant T TH 9:30-10:45
mrbondur@olemiss.edu
** Reserved for Students in the SMBHC **
“Nobody joins a cult.” This quote from one of the survivors of the Jonestown Massacre in 1978 speaks to the prevalent paradox in human history: the desire for domination is only eclipsed by the desire to be dominated. Why do we seek out powerful figures and submit ourselves to them, in matters personal and public? How do certain individuals inspire others to worship and obey their person, as well as submit to systematic indoctrinations? We will be approaching these texts with the overarching thesis that it is language that makes authoritarianism and cults possible; the way words are used, adjusted, and created; the way charismatic speakers and writers can persuade and convince people to do amazing things. This class will try to synthesize the various ways in which writers have been addressing authoritarianism, cults, cult behavior, and attendant concepts.
Eng 220 Survey in Literary History: Literature and Love
Needham T TH 11-11:50 or T TH 12-12:50
kjneedha@olemiss.edu
What does literature have to say about love? Probably too much, so in this course we’ll read just a sample of literature about love from antiquity to the present. How does literature condition our expectations for love? Where do historical ideas of love align with our own ideas and where do they diverge? Are there different kinds of love? What does “love” even mean? Reading about love means reading about sex, desire, obsession, rejection, misunderstanding, fear, grief, and regret. We’ll read love poems, marriage plot novels, surreal plays, and a few works that swear off love entirely. As we read, we’ll trace how these writers think about beauty, perception, human difference (including race and gender), and consent. Potential authors include Sappho, William Shakespeare, Margaret Cavendish, Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen, and Octavia Butler.
Eng 220 Survey in Literary History: Text as Technology
Wigginton MWF 1-1:50
cwiggint@olemiss.edu
When you hear the word “technology,” you may think of your computer or smart phone. You probably don’t think of the pen, paper, printing press, or the book, yet each of these was a technological innovation that changed dramatically how we communicate, learn, think, and live. Literature has always developed in tandem with—and often in direct response to—the development of new media technologies. Our primary objectives in “Text as Technology” are to trace a history of major technological developments in textual media while also considering how those developments shaped how people understand themselves and their societies and express themselves through the literary arts. Our emphasis will be on textual objects created in and for English-speaking cultures while recognizing that these media and related technologies have global roots and presence.
Eng 220 Survey in Literary History: Literature and Sports
Parsons MW 2-2:50
djparson@olemiss.edu
Starting with “Casey at the Bat,” literature has been an important way that sport has found a deeper connection to American life. In this course we’ll look at some of the pivotal literature from the last 160 years that involves sports in some way, and as a result, we’ll identify major movements, themes, and mythologies of the American experience. We’ll look at major works having to do with “ball” sports like baseball and basketball, “natural” sports like fishing and hunting and boxing, and even how sport might evolve in an imagined postapocalyptic American landscape. From The Natural to A River Runs Through It to Be Hangin’, the course will track the evolution of literature and sport in America.
Eng 220 Survey in Literary History: Storytelling
Earley Online
tdearley@olemiss.edu
This highly interactive, fast-paced course surveys various modes of storytelling (oral, improvisational, collaborative) over many centuries by focusing on a series of cultural/literary touchstones—the Beowulf epic and its origins in the Anglo-Saxon oral tradition; the stock scenarios and improvisations of Commedia Dell’ Arte; the language experiments of the innovative French writing group Oulipo; Appalachian murder ballads and folk tales; the advent of tabletop roleplaying games as a fertile synthesis of fantasy lit tropes and shared, freeform worldbuilding; and, finally, the use of digital tools and Artificial Intelligence to create emergent forms of multimodal and interactive narrative. We will explore the cultural contexts that gave rise to these modes, the rhetorical techniques they employ, and the larger aesthetic, philosophical, and/or political ideals underpinning them. The reading list includes The Language Game: How Improvisation Created Language and Changed the World, by Morton H. Christiansen and Nick Chater; Maria Dahvana Headley’s rollicking translation ofBeowulf; the indie roleplaying games, The Quiet Year and The Deep Forest; excerpts from George Perec’s lipogram/novel The Void, among other Oulipian experiments; Murder Ballads: Illustrated Lyrics and Lore, by Katy Horan; and various Commedia Dell’ Arte scenarios.
Eng 221 Survey of World Literature to 1650
Eng 222 Survey of World Literature since 1650
Eng 223 Survey of American Literature to Civil War
Eng 224 Survey of American Literature since Civil War
Eng 225 Survey of British Literature to 18th Century
Eng 226 Survey of British Literature since 18th Century
Eng 298 Introduction to Form, Craft, and Influence
Parsons MWF 10-10:50
djparson@olemiss.edu
**For BFA in Creative Writing Students Only **
Introduction to Craft, Form, and Influence: Want to get the most out of your stories, essays and poems? Even the smallest decisions a writer makes can have profound effects on the way they influence an audience. In this course we will look at some of the techniques and
choices writers make every day. We’ll read contemporary writers to see how they do what they do and practice those techniques to
produce the best writing possible.
Eng 299 Introduction to Literary Studies
Raden MW 3-4:15
Jraden1@olemiss.edu
This course has two main goals: First and foremost, it is designed to help you begin to develop the most essential skill for literary scholarship and criticism –– close reading. Second, we will try to think a bit more abstractly about the relationship between method (of criticism/scholarship) and (literary) object. We’ll do this by taking up three literary genres: poetry (already mentioned), the novel, and criticism. If all goes according to plan, by the end of the semester you will have learned a lot about how to read literature and how to parse critical methods.
Eng 299 Introduction to Literary Studies
Ellis MWF 9-9:50
ceellis@olemiss.edu
This course is designed for the English major that prepares students for advanced coursework in English. ENG 299 has two aims: 1) to provide an undergraduate introduction to the discipline, and 2) to develop the analytical and writing skills specific to literary study. Readings and assignments should provide opportunities to develop a literary-critical vocabulary and to become familiar with the major genre categories—drama, poetry and prose fiction—as well as nonfiction prose, film, graphic narrative, and other genres, according to the instructor’s expertise and learning goals. In addition to focusing on close reading, ENG 299 should introduce students to examples of literary scholarship and critical debates as well as the conventions of the critical essay and rules for citing sources.
Eng 299 Introduction to Literary Studies
Friedlander T TH 11-12:15
ari@olemiss.edu
This course is designed for the English major that prepares students for advanced coursework in English. ENG 299 has two aims: 1) to provide an undergraduate introduction to the discipline, and 2) to develop the analytical and writing skills specific to literary study. Readings and assignments should provide opportunities to develop a literary-critical vocabulary and to become familiar with the major genre categories—drama, poetry and prose fiction—as well as nonfiction prose, film, graphic narrative, and other genres, according to the instructor’s expertise and learning goals. In addition to focusing on close reading, ENG 299 should introduce students to examples of literary scholarship and critical debates as well as the conventions of the critical essay and rules for citing sources.
Eng 301 Poetry Workshop
Avant MWF 9-10
ahavant@olemiss.edu
How does poetry express what, at first, might seem inexpressible? In this project-based workshop, we will explore this question to say the unsayable. We will interrogate and explore innovative approaches to form and the sonic possibilities the language provides. While the formulaic and sonic nature of the work we’ll discuss offers entry points into the poets we’ll read, we’ll also deal with the ways in which logic and pleasure (sometimes amid grief) are steeped into the forms and sonic landscapes. Students will explore their interior landscapes guided by immersive writing and reading experiments into language’s limits. Students will craft a cohesive, project-centered body of poems while cultivating an engaged daily writing practice.
Eng 301 Poetry Workshop
Fennelly MWF 9:00-9:50
bafennel@olemiss.edu
In this class, we’ll discuss and practice the art of the poem. Through close reading, students will develop an enhanced knowledge of poetic techniques, terms, and forms. In workshop segments of the class, we’ll deepen our understanding of how to write and revise poetry, and we’ll develop critical skills through the close reading of work by others. Students will leave class familiar with the contemporary poetry scene and the profession, especially submitting poems to contests and journals. Pre-req: ENG 199: Intro to CW or instructor permission.
Eng 302 Fiction Workshop
Franklin T TH 9:30-10:45
tfrankli@olemiss.edu
A reading- and writing-intensive course where students will read and discuss work by published authors and write their own original short fiction to be critiqued by the class.
Eng 302 Fiction Workshop: Fantasy Fiction
Spencer MWF 12-12:50
ecspence@olemiss.edu
In this course we will read the work of timeless fantasy fiction writers and, through the study of their craft, bring our own voices to the creative process. We’ll explore the essential principles of character development, conflict, plot, setting, dialogue, worldbuilding and prioritize daily generative writing exercises. Course requirements include keeping a meticulous journal, sharing original work, being an active participant in class peer reviews and compiling a collection of your polished fantasy pieces from the semester
Eng 304 Screenwriting Workshop
Bondurant T TH 11-12:15
mrbondur@olemiss.edu
This workshop will introduce students to the strict form of screenwriting, including learning how to craft a dramatic script that communicates information to production: director, actors, set, props, wardrobe, & locations. We will look at examples of scripts and movies/shows to better understand how the written script can translate to the screen. We will also discuss loglines, pitches, bibles, and other professional aspects of the script writing to production process. Prerequisite of ENG 199 or ENG 300.
Eng 305 Special Topics in Creative Writing: Creative Writing for Social Justice
Sundar MWF 2-2:50
smsundar@olemiss.edu
This generative course will focus on the craft of fiction and memoir, and the role of prose writers in bearing witness to social inequity and advocating for social change. We will read a range of writers, including James Baldwin, Tomasz Jedrowski, Dorothy Allison, and Javier Zamora, considering both the ideological foundation of the work and the defining elements of craft: the architecture of plot, the development of character and setting, the shaping of dialogue, and the controlled establishment of theme. Throughout the semester, students will write and workshop two works of prose—one memoir and one short story—and actively support their classmates as they move through the process of brainstorming, drafting, and revising. In workshops and ongoing craft discussions, we will consider the power of our own voices in shaping the conditions of the world around us.
Eng 306 History of the English Language: The Lives of Words
Hayes MWF 2-2:50
hayes@olemiss.edu
English today is the biggest and most influential language in human history. In this course, we will study “English” as plural, a complex of historical and regional Englishes. Students will learn how to analyze language in terms of its component parts: sounds, grammar, and especially words. English is known for having an especially large wordstock, a commonplace idea that we will take up as a key line of inquiry. Under what circumstances did English acquire new words? What about words that were in the language but have died off? Students will learn how to use digital resources to explore English vocabulary as well as the lives of individual words.
ENG 307 Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory
Raden Time TBD
Jraden1@olemiss.edu
The idea behind this course is a fairly simple one: we will examine a cross-section of approaches to literary theory and critical theory. The idea is simple because the texts are difficult, so the bulk of our energy will be directed at collectively working out the major lines of argument. My hope is that, beyond merely grasping these arguments, you will develop a sense of what “theory” is and how it can contribute to literary and cultural analysis. The semester is broken into a series of Units, each of which will cover a particular approach to theory. We start with some core concepts before moving on to Materialism, Structuralism and Poststructuralism, Black Studies and Postcolonial Studies, and Psychoanalysis. These are not exhaustive of the possible approaches we might cover, but they will give you some sense of the differences in methodological commitment that determine distinctions in approach. We’ll begin the semester by asking what is probably the most important question of all, at least within the purview of this course: what exactly is theory anyway?
Eng 308 Introduction to Editing, Writing, and Publishing for the Digital Age
Parsons MWF 11-11:50
djparson@olemiss.edu
Introduction to Editing, Writing, and Publishing For the Digital Age: This course endeavors to track the history of literary magazines in
America, study techniques for beginning and maintaining a literary magazine, and producing a literary magazine on campus. There will, of
course, also be lessons in proofreading and design, avenues for creativity, and time to work as a group to produce the best possible
product. During the semester, the class will produce a chapbook in print form as well as develop and maintain a website presence for the
Landshark Literary Review and create independent individual work.
Eng 310 Introduction to Cinema Studies
Wang T TH 11-12:15
mxwang@olemiss.edu
Eng 310 aims to introduce students to fundamental concepts in film related to its history, development, genres, and critical theories. The course will be divided into three units, travelling back in time from current to older films as the semester progresses. In unit one, we will discuss contemporary cinema and the origins of “blockbusters.” Unit two will cover how movies developed from short, tableaux-style films to more modern-looking movies such as those from the French New Wave movement. Finally, the third unit focuses on genre theory, exploring how documentaries, film noir, and other genres have helped to shape modern cinema.
We will watch at least 6 films, 5 from the list below and a final film based on student voting at the end of the semester. The course will also instruct students on the basics of filmmaking, including cinematography, editing, and production. After watching each movie, we will have the opportunity to discuss and write about our viewing experiences, thinking critically about the impact the films had both on the audience of its time and on us, and analyzing the cinematic techniques used to achieve those effects. By doing so, we will have a greater understanding of cinema’s influence on society and inhabit a state of mind that allows us to experience future films that we watch with a greater sense of awareness. The films we will watch include Spiderman, Into the Spiderverse (2018), Dir. Peter Ramsey, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Dir. Steven Spielberg, The 400 Blows (1959), Francois Truffaut, To Live (1994), Dir. Yimou Zhang, My Octopus Teacher (2020), Dir. Pippa Ehrlich & James Reed.
Eng 314 Introduction to Cinema Studies: The Cinematic South
McKee T TH 9:30-10:45
kmckee@olemiss.edu
This class will concentrate on the role film plays in shaping historic and contemporary ideas about the U.S. South, with the idea that understanding that region is fundamental to understanding the nation as a whole. In particular, we will pay attention to how events from the 18th and 19th century (frontier expansion, slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction) show up on 20thand 21st century screens, shaping our modern understandings of places and peoples. Along the way, we will watch Disney productions, westerns, novel adaptations, biopics, documentaries, and mockumentaries, as well as recent films that may contest, complicate, or reproduce traditional ideas about region. Students will also develop a basic vocabulary for watching and critiquing film as a medium, regardless of subject matter. Course requirements include a viewing journal, reading quizzes, a group project, a paper, and a final examination. Students will watch additional films outside of class in order to complete these assignments.
Eng 324 Shakespeare
Needham T TH 2:30-3:45
kjneedha@olemiss.edu
In this class we’ll read a selection of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry. We’ll consider these works in their historical context (especially as products of the popular entertainment machine that was the early modern theatre), and we’ll explore what Shakespeare means to us now. What does Shakespeare contribute to our understanding of gender, sexuality, race, violence, power, or desire? Students will learn to analyze Shakespeare’s language and use scholarship to sharpen their own interpretations. Students will write short responses, 2 essays, and produce a creative project. We’ll also watch at least one film or stage adaptation of a Shakespeare play.
Eng 344 US Travel Literature in the Nineteenth Century: Searching for Authenticity
Bishop T TH 9:30-10:45
atbishop@olemiss.edu
This course will take a remark by the sociologist Dean MacCannell “For moderns, reality and authenticity are thought to be elsewhere”—and use it as a springboard for a series of questions about authenticity and travel: “For moderns,” why is authenticity often “thought to be elsewhere”? How in the US did authenticity become a cause for concern in the first place? Since the nineteenth century, how have commercial travel and travel writing served as primary but inherently contradictory means of searching for and conveying authenticity? And what have been some of the consequences of this search on its “elsewheres”—on those peoples and places who have been visited and compelled to stage their authenticity for tourists? While our main approach to these questions will take the form of literary analysis—we will be reading travel literature by authors like Colleen McElroy, James Baldwin, Willa Cather, W.E.B. Du Bois, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Hunter Austin, Herman Melville, Margaret Fuller, and Henry Thoreau—we will also be sampling some theory and scholarship about travel, seeing what the literature can tell us about the theory, and vice versa. Likely assignments will include two papers (one short, one longer), a group presentation, and weekly journal entries.
Eng 351 Literary Conversations: Next Chapters: Careers in English
1 Credit Hour M 12-12:50
Agner jkagner@olemiss.edu
This one-credit hour class will engage in conversations about careers in English. Students will explore these careers through readings and guest alumni speakers. Assignments will help students prepare for internships, graduate and professional school, and employment, while also thinking about the meaning and purpose of their next chapters. Alumni will come from a wide variety of fields, including education, law, business and finance, medicine, marketing, nonprofit, and more.
Eng 351 Literary Conversations: “The History & Science Behind The Three-body Problem”
1 Credit Hour W 12-12:50
Wang mxwang@olemiss.edu
In this class, we will read Liu Cixin’s The Three-body Problem and The Dark Forest, the first two books in his groundbreaking trilogy. Discussing both the history and science behind these popular books, we will explore why it was the first work of science fiction from Asia to capture a global audience. We will also examine the different genres that Liu has used and incorporated in his novels, investigating where science and history ends and where fiction begins.
Eng 352 Contemporary Mississippi Literature
Max Hipp Online
mbhipp@olemiss.edu
This course focuses on novels, short stories, poems, and memoir published by Mississippi authors from the 1980s to the present. We’ll address several key questions about Mississippi literature. What historical contexts shape these books? How does place influence subject matter? What strategies have these writers employed to convey their ideas? How might the idea of regional literature change in the contemporary period? There are weekly writing assignments, an exam, a paper topic assignment, and a research paper. This course will provide a sense of the depth and breadth of Mississippi’s Literature and the excellent writing the state continues to produce.
Eng 353 YA Literature
Spencer MWF 9-9:50
ecspence@olemiss.edu
Over the last two decades, young adult literature has enjoyed a significant rise in popularity and commercial success. In this course we will gain a better understanding of why YA Lit connects deeply with adolescent readers, how it provides guideposts to navigate identity formation, and how it explores coming-of-age experiences, interpersonal relationships, and mental health issues. In this reading and writing-intensive class, we will practice close reading and daily reflective writing to foster discussion, write two shorter analytical essays and compose a final creative project that explores the voice, craft, and style of each author’s work. We will also invite three local guest speakers who are passionate about the genre to join our conversation. Potential course titles include Rex Ogle’s Road Home, Renee Watson’s Black Girl You are Atlas, Jason Reynolds’s Twenty-four Seconds from Now, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, E.S. Hinton’s The Outsiders and Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus.
Eng 355 Studies in Southern Literature: Reading the Immigrant South
Sundar MWF 1-1:50
smsundar@olemiss.edu
This course explores a range of voices in immigrant Southern literature and film. Students will consider the forces of alienation, land, and memory (both in characters’ native and adopted communities), as well as the shifting and complex notions of what it means to be a Southerner. Authors will include Yaa Gyasi, Nella Larson, Eric Nguyen, and Francisco Cantu.
Eng 359 Survey in Native American Literatures
Trefzer T TH 1-2:15
atrefze@olemiss.edu
Today, there are approximately seven million Native American people in the United States and 574 federally recognized Indian nations. In addition to the great diversity of Native American life experiences and writing, much of the literature is hundreds of years old. Some of these ancient oral materials have survived in the writing of contemporary writers and storytellers. Instead of accessing these materials in chronological fashion and through settler-colonial texts that sometimes misrepresent or mistranslate these materials, we will study some of these historical materials though contemporary Native American writing. This course introduces students to writers in a geographical and topical survey that offers insights into different tribal cultures from the Spokane of the American northwest to the Choctaw of the southeast. Students read short stories, essays, novels, autobiographies, and poems by some of the best-known Native American writers and study the literary, historical, biographical, and cultural contexts relevant for understanding both tribal differences and common concerns. In addition to 2 seminar papers, there will be some reading response assignments.
Eng 361 African American Literature Survey to 1920
Alexander T TH 2:30-3:45
pealexan@olemiss.edu
** Cross-Listed with AAS 361 **
This course surveys the African American literary tradition from its beginnings to the Harlem Renaissance. After examining the vernacular tradition as expressed in the spirituals, we will turn our attention to the expansion of African American literary production in narrative forms such as the poem, the slave narrative, the public address, the essay, and the novel. While we will situate our readings of all assigned works in specific historical and political contexts (i.e., the Fugitive Slave Act, the Civil War), we will be particularly attentive to themes that unify these works, such as the search for voice, the pursuit of liberation, and the quest for literacy and identity. Representative authors include Phillis Wheatley Peters, Jupiter Hammon, Venture Smith, Frederick Douglass, William and Ellen Craft, Harriet Jacobs, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, and Harriet Wilson.
Eng 374 Survey of Caribbean Literature
Alabi MWF 1-1:50
aalabi@olemiss.edu
In this course, we will study texts from the Caribbean in relation to form and the representation of Carnival, cultures, and resistance in Caribbean literature. We will start by discussing some essays on Caribbean literature, including those by James Olney, Françoise Lionnett, Sandra Pouchet Paquet, Bill Ashcroft, Helen Tiffin, and Gareth Griffiths. We will then analyze the relationship among aesthetics, Carnival, cultures, and resistance in some poems and in Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain, Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance, Olive Senior’s Summer Lightning and Other Stories, Dudley Thompson’s From Kingston to Kenya: The Making of a Pan-Africanist Lawyer, Robert Antoni’s Carnival, and Marlene Nourbese Philip’s Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey in Silence.
Eng 379 Literary Study and Creative Practice: Sonnet Old, Sonnet New, Sonnet Borrowed
Ginsburg T TH 1-2:15
mginsburg@olemis.edu
This course will employ both creative and critical approaches to an examination of the sonnet form. We will begin with a study of elements of the form with a focus on prosody, the sonnet tradition, and its historical uses. We will engage in close readings of sonnets by Shakespeare, Donne, Hopkins, Keats, and others, and students will write their own traditional sonnets. Then we will turn to 20th and 21st century experiments and interpretations of the form. We will look at sonnets by contemporary poets such as Shane McCrae, D.A. Powell, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Terrance Hayes, Kiki Petrosino, Rebecca Lehmann, Tyehimba Jess, Eleanor Boudreau, and others. In the second half of the semester, students will write a second sonnet that plays with elements of the form. In addition, students will give a class presentation about a contemporary poet’s work and write one essay that incorporates close reading and analysis of traditional and contemporary sonnets.
Eng 389 Studies in American Environmental Literature: American Animals
Tomasula y Garcia T TH 1-2:15
atomasul@olemiss.edu
The perceived divide between humans and other animals has been defined as one of the most important frameworks under which our thoughts and behaviors are constructed. Yet American literature, from its earliest examples to today’s offerings, is filled with a rich menagerie of beasts. From white whales that encapsulate the awesome terror of the nonhuman world to anthropomorphized mice made to represent an oppressed people, animals of all shapes, sizes, and meanings serve a wide variety of roles within fiction’s pages. This course will critically examine but a few of literature’s creatures—in works from canonical poetry to “popular science” to graphic novels—to study not only what sorts of “animals” have been written into existence, but also what effects these literary forms of living creatures have had on material species, our own included. As we read, we will consider multiple aspects to how animals, humans, and the relationships between them are portrayed through narration: what literary and rhetorical devices are used to represent creaturely life; how the social/material constructions of class, race, and gender get embedded into the flesh of fictional beasts; what arguments about the “nature” of living animals, humans included, are made manifest in the written word. With the goal of developing your critical reading, research, and writing skills, we will primarily devote class time to discussing the course reading through a combination of lecture material, question and answer, and group discussion. We will also dedicate time to preparing for graded essays by building writing, editing, and research skills in weekly writing workshops.
Eng 395 How to Read a Poem (and Why)
Ellis MWF 10-10:50
ceellis@olemiss.edu
In this seminar we’ll think about poetry as a practice of attention. In our era of fragmented attentions, reading poetry can help us to slow down, hone in, and become alive and present in ways that are increasingly hard to achieve on our own. The course doesn’t require prior experience with reading poetry. It’s designed to give students the tools, time, and support to become insightful readers of poetry’s uniquely layered use of language. We’ll read a wide range of poems, from classical forms to contemporary hip hop lyrics, examining how poetry reattunes us to our senses through sound, rhythm, imagery, tone, reflection, and silence. Can poems make us feel more acutely or understand our experience more deeply? How might poetry retrain our habits of perception in a distracted age? Why does current research suggest that reading poetry is good for our mental health? Assignments in the course will involve a mix of interpretative writing, creative exercises, and attentional practices.
Eng 395 Studies in Literature: Appalachian Lit
Earley Online
tearley@olemiss.edu
This course examines the history, culture, stereotypes, social struggles, landscape, music, and dialects of Appalachia through close readings of novels, short stories, and poems by Appalachian writers. The reading list includes Breece D’J Pancake, Ron Rash, Lee Smith, Crystal Wilkinson, Dorothy Allison, Wiley Cash, and members of the Affrilachian Poets group. Students will identify the defining elements of Appalachian literature and compose literary analyses from a variety of critical perspectives.
Eng 401 Advanced Fiction Workshop
Franklin T TH 1-2:15
tfrankli@olemiss.edu
A writing-intensive advanced fiction-writing workshop where students present original fiction to the class for critique and revision.
Eng 404 Advanced Special Topics in Creative Writing: Method Writing
Watkins T 4-6:30
engl@olemiss.edu
We often hear about method acting as an approach for actors to get closer to character. In preparation for the 2002 film The Pianist, in which he portrayed the real-life musician Wladyslaw Szpilmanl, Adrian Brody practiced piano three hours a day, got rid of all worldly possessions, and broke up with his girlfriend. Daniel Day-Lewis, Charlize Theron, Forest Whitaker, and various other actors have gone similar routes for the sake of character connection. But what if writers used similar immersive techniques to get close to characters? Essentially, this class builds on the basics of creative writing from prose to scene work. To build a foundation, the course will provide instruction about the elements of the writing craft and how to apply them. The focus of this course is not only improving the basics of the craft but using in-depth character research to advance character and story. The first quarter of the semester will be dedicated to learning craft elements and understanding the role of physical research methods in the work. The rest of the semester will be dedicated to workshopping students’ creative work. Each student will workshop the same piece twice. Through this process, students will learn how to give and receive critique as well as how to implement feedback. Ultimately, students will complete the course with a working knowledge of creative writing techniques, an understanding of how to analyze work and provide useful feedback, and a workshopped short story.
Eng 405 Nature Writing
Nezhukumatathil MW 3-4:15
acnezhuk@olemiss.edu
This is not your grandparents’ nature writing class. This class will help you produce nature writing full of love and gratitude, dark and dangerous thrills, and/or exuberance. You will be introduced to both canonical and contemporary writers who ignite a sense of protection for their planet, very much in the veins of Rachel Carson who said, “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” When this class is over, I want you to have less taste for destruction. We will focus on a variety of forms of nature writing (fable/short story, essay, lyric essay, and poetry) and actual first-hand explorations of nature through various short field experiences. Through close reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing required in this course, we will investigate the extent to which literary and cultural forms shape the ways that people engage their beliefs about the right and wrong uses of, and attitudes toward, the natural world.
Eng 411 Special Topics in Cinema and Media Studies: Native American Film and Media Studies: Seeing Red
Trefzer T TH 11-12:15
Atrefzer@olemiss.edu
** This Course Fulfills the Capstone Course Requirement **
Representations of Native Americans have a long history in a variety of different discursive forms, including in film. In the early twentieth century, images of “Indians” were produced and circulated both as reference points of modernity and as part of the maintenance of narratives of U.S. exceptionalism. Early ethnographic documentaries as well as famous Hollywood Westerns used “Indians” to comment on progress, modernity, and nationhood. Recently native produced films have contested long familiar representations of “savage” or “noble” Indians and the accompanying narratives of native “primitivism” and extinction. This class brings into conversation non-native film productions with films produced and directed by Native Americans. Students will analyze the images and underlying ideologies of non-native films and the response and contestation of such images by Native American filmmakers. Films include, among others, famous westerns and spoofs of the western genre, ethnographic films, early silent black and white films, classic epics, rez crime dramas, and contemporary movies made by Native American directors. This is a capstone course. A researched final paper of 12 – 15 pages is required.
Eng 423 Medieval Sex
Baechle MW 11-12:15
sebaechl@olemiss.edu
** This Course Fulfills the Capstone Course Requirement **
The term “medieval” has come to represent a shorthand for the regressive, the staid, the bland, even—especially!—the prude. But the literature of the period shows a different perspective, one that is alive to the nuances of romantic and sexual cultures that still resonate with and are important to readers today. Medieval authors represent the pains of unrequited love and infidelity, the joys of passionate love, and the physicality of religious ecstasy. They grapple with the complexities of sexual consent, explore the means of expressing desire, and try to define ethical sexual cultures. In this class, we will explore the rich body of medieval literature dedicated to understanding these complex relations between humans, with a focus on finding medieval roots for our own, modern concepts of love and intimacy. How, we will ask, have the Middle Ages shaped the ways we continue to understand these weighty concepts? We will read texts in translation and occasionally Middle English (with a gloss!), surveying a number of genres that medieval authors considered especially well-suited to the subject, from lyric and courtly romance to ale-house songs and the low-brow fabliaux.
Eng 426 Shakespeare
Friedlander T TH 9:30-10:45
ari@olemiss.edu
In this course, we will read several of Shakespeare’s texts and examine their negotiation of sexual, gendered, racial, and socio-political order. Questions we will consider include: What kinds of individual and political bodies are found in Shakespeare? What do they desire and fear? How are these bodies discursively constructed through representations of gender, sexuality, disability, and social status? This course will provide students an opportunity to study Shakespeare’s plays and the culture in which they were produced, as well as to learn critical methodologies pertaining to the study of race, religion, embodiment, class, gender, sexuality, and disability.
Eng 431 Special Topics in 18th Century Literature: Adaptations
Solinger MWF 12-12:50
solinger@go.olemiss.edu
The eighteenth century was an era of adaptations. The epic was repurposed as the mock epic. The European blockbuster of the prior century, Cervantes’s Don Quixote, inspired several English variations. Italian opera inspired the first ever musical, The Beggar’s Opera. The original book-club novel, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela spawned a series of imitations, including Henry Fielding’s parodic rebuttal, Shamela. Near the end of the century, Jane Austen wrote the first draft of a novel, Pride and Prejudice, that would become the most adapted and retold story in novel history. This seminar will investigate the compulsion to adapt and retell. In what ways is adaptation an engine of literary production and innovation? What pleasures do adaptations and retellings afford? Why are there so many trashy retellings? These are some of the questions we’ll tackle in this eclectic survey of eighteenth-century literature and its afterlives. Texts/excerpted texts may include Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” (1712), John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728), Richardson’s Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Fielding’s Shamela (1740), Charlotte Lennox’s The Female Quixote (1752), Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera (1931), and Ibi Zoboi’s Pride (2018).
Eng 452 The Modern City: Paris. LA, Utopia
Cogswell T TH 9:30-10:45
ccogswell@olemiss.edu
This course leapfrogs—like modernity itself—from turn-of-the-century Paris to golden-age L.A. to Utopia. Starting amid the glitz and prosperity of the City of Light at the end of the 1800s, students will take in work from the brilliant Parisian artists who invented Modernism with their fictions and pictures of the first truly modern city. At the same time, George Orwell and the great prose stylist Colette reveal the less-glittering underbelly of Paris, the grinding poverty and the “Great Stink” that prompt us to ask this course’s guiding question: whether the sparkling image of the modern city might be at least half fictional itself. We then pass to Los Angeles and Hollywood of the 1930s and 40s: a paradise for refugees fleeing the horrors of Europe, the location of more than eighty percent of the world’s film industry, and an oasis of abundance, pleasures, and make-believe. Yet the city was also riddled with corruption, as we will see in the great film Chinatown, page-turning fiction by masters of noir like Raymond Chandler, and witty, sardonic commentary by insiders like Joan Didion. Finally, completing our investigation of the modern city’s surprisingly imaginary qualities, we will explore futuristic visions of the utopian (and dystopian) city, from Italo Calvino’s tour de force Invisible Cities to Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner.
Eng 493 Special Topics in Race and Ethnicity: Race and Controversy in the Arts
Purcell T TH 1-2:15
repurcel@olemiss.edu
** This Course is Cross-Listed with AAS 493 **
In the last thirteen years, social media platforms have given artists and consumers of art an unprecedented platform to engage with commercial art worlds as makers, critics and activists. 2017’s trending hashtag #oscarssowhite remarked on the lack of racial and ethnic diversity within commercial filmmaking in the United States. Conversely and simultaneously, the #Gamergate hashtag demonstrated a different form of advocacy, one that critiqued similar attempts to create race and gender diversity within the video game industry. These online efforts had real effects in their respective art worlds in the late-2010s and also expanded beyond them; shaping the way people engaged with their sociopolitical worlds then and now. Platforms, like Twitter (now known as X), also spread news from art worlds that were not always in the limelight and you might not know about; like the controversy over Dana Schultz’s painting “Open Casket” at the Whitney Biennial or surrounding Kenneth Goldsmith found poem “The Body of Michael Brown”, read at an obscure academic conference at Brown University. Our course will put some of these known and less well-known controversies surrounding the politics of identity and representation in the arts and entertainment, into broader historical and political-economic contexts. We will approach the topic through past and recent case studies – from plays, art exhibitions, films, music and video games – that highlight the confluence of social, political and artistic forces that frame these controversial works.
University Writing Center Services
When planning to write your papers for English classes, don’t forget the benefit of consulting with an experienced writer in the University Writing Center. In a typical 20- to 30-minute writing consultation, you may receive suggestions for development of ideas, audience consideration, organization, style, grammar, and document presentation. Undergraduate students can schedule appointments through our online appointment calendar at www.olemiss.edu/depts/writing_center or call 915-7689.