ENG 101. The Discipline of English Studies. (1 h)
An opportunity to experience and reflect analytically in writing on the diverse cultural and intellectual life at Wake Forest, with an emphasis on literary studies, rhetorical studies, and creative writing events and topics. Pass/fail only. May not be repeated.
ENG 150. Literature Interprets the World. (3 h)
Introduction to ways literary artists shape experience, focusing on one topic or selected topics; primarily discussion; writing intensive. P or C-WRI 110, WRI 111, or exemption therefrom. (D)
ENG 165. Studies in British Literature. (3 h)
Emphasis on important writers representing different periods and genres; primarily discussion; writing intensive. P or C-WRI 110, WRI 111, or exemption therefrom. (D)
ENG 175. Studies in American Literature. (3 h)
Emphasis on important writers representing different periods and genres; primarily discussion; writing intensive. P or C-WRI 110, WRI 111, or exemption therefrom. (D)
ENG 185. Studies in Global Literature. (3 h)
Emphasis on important writers representing different periods and genres; primarily discussion; writing intensive. P or C-WRI 110, WRI 111, or exemption therefrom. (D)
ENG 190. Literary Genres. (3 h)
Emphasis on poetry, fiction, or drama; primarily discussion; writing intensive. P or C-WRI 110, WRI 111, or exemption therefrom. (D)
ENG 265. British Literature before 1800. (3 h)
Gateway course for the major. Significant works from the British literary tradition before 1800 and introduction to key ideas in literary interpretation. Required for all majors. (D)
ENG 266. British Literature 1800 to the Present. (3 h)
Gateway course for the major. Significant works from the British and postcolonial literary traditions since 1800. Either ENG 266 or ENG 275 required for all majors. (D)
ENG 275. American Literature. (3 h)
Gateway course for the major. Significant works from the American literary tradition. Either ENG 275 or ENG 266 required for all majors. (D)
ENG 290. Foundations in Literary Criticism. (3 h)
Considers figures and schools of thought significant in the history of literary criticism. Required for all majors. (D)
ENG 298. WFU Press Internship. (1.5-3 h)
Semester-length practical experience in literary publishing while working at WFU Press, the premier publisher of Irish poetry in North America. Interns learn aspects of editorial review, production, proofreading, marketing, and promotion. Students must submit a formal application through WFU Press before registering (wfupress.wfu.edu). Pass/Fail. Does not count toward the English Major or Minor. May be repeated once for credit.
ENG 299. Individual Study. (1.5-3 h)
Independent study with faculty guidance. Granted upon departmental approval of petition presented by a qualified student. May be repeated once for credit.
ENG 301. Individual Authors. (3 h)
Study of selected work from an important American or British author. May be repeated once for credit. (D)
ENG 302. Ideas in Literature. (3 h)
Study of a significant literary theme in selected works. May be repeated when the course is taught by a different professor on a different topic. (D)
ENG 304. History of the English Language. (3 h)
A survey of the development of English syntax, morphology, and phonology from Old English to the present, with attention to vocabulary growth.
ENG 305. Old English Language and Literature. (3 h)
An introduction to the Old English language and a study of the historical and cultural background of Old English literature, including Anglo-Saxon and Viking art, runes, and Scandinavian mythology. Readings from Beowulf and selected poems and prose. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 308. Beowulf. (3 h)
Intensive study of the poem; emphasis on language, translation skills and critical context. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. P-ENG 305 or POI. (D)
ENG 309. Modern English Grammar. (3 h)
A linguistics approach to grammar study. Includes a critical exploration of issues such as grammatical change and variation, the origins and effects of grammar prescriptions/proscriptions, the place of grammar instruction in education, and the politics of language authority. Also listed as LIN 309.
ENG 310. The Medieval World. (3 h)
Examines theological, philosophical, and cultural assumptions of the Middle Ages through the reading of primary texts. Topics may include Christian providential history, drama, devotional literature, the Franciscan controversy, domestic life, and Arthurian romance. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (CD - Depending on topic covered.) (D)
ENG 311. The Legend of Arthur. (3 h)
The origin and development of the Arthurian legend in France and England, with emphasis on the works of Chretien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 312. Medieval Poetry. (3 h)
The origin and development of poetic genres and lyric forms of medieval vernacular poetry. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 313. Roots of Song. (3 h)
Interdisciplinary investigation of poetry and song in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Study of the evolution of poetic and musical genres and styles, both sacred and secular. Students must complete a project or projects on the technical or theoretical aspects of early song. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 315. Chaucer. (3 h)
Emphasis on The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, with some attention to minor poems. Consideration of literary, social, religious, and philosophical background. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 320. British Drama to 1642. (3 h)
British drama from its beginning to 1642, exclusive of Shakespeare. Representative cycle plays, moralities, Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies, comedies, and tragicomedies. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. Also listed as THE 320.
ENG 323. Shakespeare. (3 h)
Thirteen representative plays illustrating Shakespeare's development as a poet and dramatist. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. Also listed as THE 323.
ENG 325. 16th-Century British Literature. (3 h)
Concentration on the poetry of Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, Wyatt, and Drayton, with particular attention to sonnets and The Faerie Queene. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 326. Studies in English Renaissance Literature. (3 h)
Selected topics in Renaissance literature. Consideration of texts and their cultural background. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. May be repeated once for credit pending approval of instructor. (D)
ENG 327. Milton. (3 h)
The poetry and selected prose of John Milton, with emphasis on Paradise Lost. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 328. 17th-Century British Literature. (3 h)
Poetry of Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Marvel, Crashaw; prose of Bacon, Burton, Browne, Walton. Consideration of religious, political, and scientific backgrounds.
ENG 330. Restoration and 18th-Century British Literature. (3 h)
Representative poetry and prose, exclusive of the novel, 1660-1800, drawn from Dryden, Behn, Swift, Pope, Johnson, and Wollstonecraft. Consideration of cultural backgrounds and significant literary trends. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 333. Jane Austen. (3 h)
An intensive study of the works of British novelist Jane Austen, and her cultural contexts.
ENG 335. 18th-Century British Fiction. (3 h)
Primarily the fiction of Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, and Austen. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 336. Restoration and 18th-Century British Drama. (3 h)
British drama from 1660 to 1780, including representative plays by Dryden, Etherege, Wycherley, Congreve, Goldsmith, and Sheridan. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. Also listed as THE 336.
ENG 337. Studies in 18th-Century British Literature. (3 h)
Selected topics in 18th-century literature. Consideration of texts and their cultural background. Fulfills pre-1800 British literature requirement. (D)
ENG 338. Studies in Gender and Literature. (3 h)
Thematic and/or theoretical approaches to the study of gender in literature. (D)
ENG 339. Studies in Sexuality and Literature. (3 h)
Thematic and/or theoretical approaches to the study of sexuality in literature. (D)
ENG 340. Studies in Women and Literature. (3 h)
Women writers in society. May be repeated when the course is taught by a different professor on a different topic. (D)
ENG 341. Literature and the Environment. (3 h)
Studies of the relationship between environmental experience and literary representation. (D)
ENG 344. Studies in Poetry. (3 h)
Selected topics in poetry. May be repeated when the course is taught by a different professor on a different topic. (D)
ENG 345. Studies in Fiction. (3 h)
Selected topics in fiction. May be repeated when the course is taught by a different professor on a different topic. (D)
ENG 346. Studies in Theatre. (3 h)
Selected topics in drama. May be repeated when the course is taught by a different professor on a different topic. (D)
ENG 347. Modern English and Continental Drama and the London Stage. (3 h)
Explores the works of major playwrights of England and Europe from 1875 to the present. May also include contemporary production of classic plays. Emphasizes plays currently being presented in London theatres. Offered in London. (D)
ENG 350. British Romantic Poets. (3 h)
A review of the beginnings of Romanticism in British literature, followed by study of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, and Shelley; collateral reading in the prose of the period. (D)
ENG 351. Studies in Romanticism. (3 h)
Selected topics in European and/or American Romanticism with a focus on comparative, interdisciplinary, and theoretical approaches to literature. (D)
ENG 353. 19th-Century British Fiction. (3 h)
Representative major works by Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray, Hardy, the Brontes, and others. (D)
ENG 354. Victorian Poetry. (3 h)
A study of Tennyson, Browning, Hopkins, and Arnold or another Victorian poet. (D)
ENG 356. Literature of the Caribbean. (3 h)
Readings include significant works by authors from the Caribbean and authors writing about the Caribbean. Critical, historical, and cultural approaches are emphasized. All texts are in English. (CD, D)
ENG 357. Studies in Chicano/a Literature. (3 h)
Writings by Americans of Mexican descent in relation to politics and history. Readings in literature, literary criticism, and socio-cultural analysis. Fulfills the American literature requirement. Also listed as AES 357. (CD, D)
ENG 358. Postcolonial Literature. (3 h)
A survey of representative examples of postcolonial literature from geographically diverse writers, emphasizing issues of politics, nationalism, gender and class. (CD, D)
ENG 359. Studies in Postcolonial Literature. (3 h)
Examination of themes and issues in post-colonial literature, such as: globalization, postcolonialism and hybridity, feminism, nationalism, ethnic and religious conflict, the impact of the Cold War, and race and class. (CD, D)
ENG 360. Studies in Victorian Literature. (3 h)
Selected topics, such as development of genres, major authors and texts, and cultural influences. Readings in poetry, fiction, autobiography, and other prose. (D)
ENG 361. Literature and Science. (3 h)
Literature of and about science. Topics will vary and may include literature and medicine, the two culture debate, poetry and science, nature in literature, the body in literature. (D)
ENG 362. Irish Literature in the Twentieth Century. (3 h)
A study of modern Irish literature from the writers of the Irish Literary Renaissance to contemporary writers. Course consists of overviews of the period as well as specific considerations of genre and of individual writers. (D)
ENG 363. Studies in Modernism. (3 h)
Selected issues in Modernism. Interdisciplinary, comparative, and theoretical approaches to works and authors. (D)
ENG 364. Advanced Studies in Literary Criticism. (3 h)
Consideration of certain figures and schools of thought significant in the history of literary criticism. Builds on ENG 290 Foundations in Literary Criticism. (D)
ENG 365. 20th-Century British Fiction. (3 h)
A study of Conrad, Lawrence, Joyce, Forster, Woolf, and later British writers, with attention to their social and intellectual backgrounds. (D)
ENG 366. James Joyce. (3 h)
The major works by James Joyce, with an emphasis on Ulysses. (D)
ENG 367. 20th-Century English Poetry. (3 h)
A study of 20th-century poets of the English language, exclusive of the United States poets, are read in relation to the literary and social history of the period. (D)
ENG 368. Studies in Irish Literature. (3 h)
The development of Irish literature from the 18th century through the early 20th century in historical perspective, with attention to issues of linguistic and national identity. (D)
ENG 369. Modern Drama. (3 h)
Main currents in modern drama from 19th-century realism and naturalism through symbolism and expressionism. After an introduction to European precursors, focus is on representative plays by Wilde, Shaw, Synge, Yeats, O'Neill, Eliot, Hellman, Wilder, Williams, Hansberry, and Miller. (D)
ENG 370. American Literature to 1820. (3 h)
Origins and development of American literature and thought in representative writings of the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Federal periods. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 371. American Ethnic Literature. (3 h)
Introduction to the diverse field of literature about race and racial formation as experienced by African Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, Chicana/o, Latinx, and Native American writers. The course introduces key genealogies of thought in critical race theory, intersectionality, diaspora, identity, alienation, assimilation, multiculturalism, stereotyping, systemic racism, and social justice. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (CD, D)
ENG 372. American Romanticism. (3 h)
Writers of the mid-19th century, including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 373. Literature and Film. (3 h)
Selected topics in the relationship between literature and film, such as film adaptations of literary works, the study of narrative, and the development of literary and cinematic genres. (D)
ENG 374. American Fiction before 1865. (3 h)
Novels and short fiction by such writers as Brown, Cooper, Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, and Davis. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 376. American Poetry before 1900. (3 h)
Readings and critical analysis of American poetry from its beginnings to the end of the 19th century, including Bradstreet, Emerson, Longfellow, Melville, and Poe, with particular emphasis on Whitman and Dickinson. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 377. American Jewish Literature. (3 h)
Survey of writings on Jewish topics or experiences by American Jewish writers. Explores cultural and generational conflicts, responses to social change, the impact of the Shoah (Holocaust) on American Jews, and the challenges of language and form posed by Jewish and non-Jewish artistic traditions. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (CD, D)
ENG 378. Literature of the American South. (3 h)
Study of Southern literature from its beginnings to the present, with emphasis upon such major writers as Tate, Warren, Faulkner, O'Connor, Welty, and Styron. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 379. Literary Forms of the American Personal Narrative. (3 h)
Reading and critical analysis of autobiographical texts in which the ideas, style, and point of view of the writer are examined to demonstrate how these works contribute to an understanding of pluralism in American culture. Representative authors may include Hurston, Wright, Kingston, Angelou, Wideman, Sarton, Chuang Hua, Crews, and Dillard. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 380. American Fiction 1865 to 1915. (3 h)
Study of such writers as Twain, James, Howells, Crane, Dreiser, Wharton, and Cather. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 381. Studies in African-American Literature. (3 h)
Reading and critical analysis of selected fiction, poetry, drama, and other writings by American authors of African descent. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (CD, D)
ENG 382. Modern American Fiction, 1915 to 1965. (3 h)
Includes such writers as Stein, Lewis, Anderson, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Dos Passos, Wolfe, Wright, Ellison, Agee, Flannery O'Connor, and Pynchon. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 385. 20th-Century American Poetry. (3 h)
Readings of modern American poetry in relation to the literary and social history of the period. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 386. Directed Reading. (1.5-3 h)
A tutorial in an area of study not otherwise provided by the department; granted upon departmental approval of petition presented by a qualified student. May be repeated once for credit.
ENG 387. African-American Fiction. (3 h)
Selected topics in the development of fiction by American writers of African descent. Fulfills the American literature requirement. Also listed as AES 387. (CD, D)
ENG 388. Honors in English. (3 h)
A conference course centering upon a special reading requirement and a thesis requirement. For senior students wishing to graduate with "Honors in English."
ENG 389. African-American Poetry. (3 h)
Readings of works by American poets of African descent in theoretical, critical, and historical contexts. Fulfills the American literature requirement. Also listed as AES 389. (CD, D)
ENG 390. The Structure of English. (3 h)
An introduction to the principles and techniques of modern linguistics applied to contemporary American English. Also listed as LIN 390.
ENG 391. Studies in Postmodernism. (3 h)
Interdisciplinary, comparative, and theoretical approaches to works and authors.
ENG 395. Contemporary American Literature. (3 h)
A study of post-World War II American poetry and fiction by such writers as Bellow, Gass, Barth, Pynchon, Lowell, Ashbery, Ammons, Bishop, and Rich. Fulfills the American literature requirement. (D)
ENG 396. Contemporary British Fiction. (3 h)
Study of the British novel and short story, including works by Rushdie, Amis, Winterson and Ishiguro. (D)
ENG 397. Internship in the Major. (1.5 h)
Internship that involves both hands-on experience and academic study. Students will partner with a literature faculty member to integrate work in the community and engagement with his or her academic plan of study. P-POI.
ENG 398. English Studies and the Professions. (1.5 h)
A practicum course focused on career design and career planning, specific to career options in humanities fields. The course will broaden awareness of career opportunities available to English majors and minors. Pass-Fail Only. Cannot be repeated.