Course Descriptions

English

The English major is designed to introduce students to works of the British, American and World literary imaginations, to develop skills in analytical perception and to foster clear thinking and accurate communication of ideas. Students are thus prepared for a wide range of careers in private and public sectors as well as for further study in graduate school, law school or in other professional programs.

Upon completion of the literature major, students will be able to:

   1.   demonstrate accurate and effective reading, writing and critical thinking skills;

   2.   recognize and interpret metaphorical thought as well as an aesthetic use of language;

   3.   pursue a life-long passion for reading and the expressive arts

ENG 095 College Writing (3 crs)
Review of basic writing skills, stressing the elements of clear
and effective writing. By placement; does not satisfy core curriculum requirement.

ENG/LIT 096 College Reading (3 crs)
Development of greater efficiency, comprehension, vocabulary and recall in reading college-level material. Lab work required.  Enrollment by assessment exam only; does not satisfy core curriculum requirement.

ENG 104 Composition Tutorial (1 cr)
A three hour per week tutorial for international students co-enrolled in ENG 105: Process of Composition.

ENG 105 Process of Composition (3 crs)
Elements of expository and persuasive essay writing; research techniques; revising prose for accuracy, precision and effective style. Core fulfilling. By placement.

ENG 110 Composition Seminar (3 crs)
Advanced essay writing; exposition and persuasion; research techniques; editing and revising prose for accuracy, precision and effective style for first-level writers. Core fulfilling. By placement.

ENG 220 Advanced Writing Techniques (3 crs)
Expands upon writing skills learned in core course work conducted in computer workshop environment. Frequent and varied writing activities fostering increased mastery of organizational and expressive skills and understanding the role of technology in writing. Emphasis on revision and editing strategies, rhetorical approaches, critical readings and audience adaptation with an aim toward increased eloquence. Prerequisites: ENG 105/110; sophomore standing.

ENG 224 Professional Speaking (3 crs)
Practice in preparing and presenting instructional, informative, persuasive and public relations speeches of a professional nature. Includes use of multi-media tools. Prerequisites: ENG 105/110; sophomore standing.

LIT 120 Literary Foundations: Methods & Genres (3 crs)
Study and development of the techniques of literary study using the genres of fiction, poetry and drama. Includes experience in the application of literary critical methods. Prerequisite: ENG 096; ENG 105/110.

LIT 250 Literary Explorations: Conflicts & Culture (3 crs)
Examination of selected topics within literary studies, using the tools of literary analysis established in LIT 120. Course topics fit within the organizing rubric of: Community and Discord in Literature; Ethics and Values in Literature; Past and Future in Literature. Prerequisite: ENG 105/110; ENG 120.

LIT/WST 310 Women and Early Literature (3 crs)
Study of women’s contribution to literature from the Classical Period through the 18th Century. Addresses major issues and themes that concern women; examines how individual female authors confronted the prevailing literary and social attitudes of their times. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT/WST 312 Women and Modern Literature (3 crs)
Study of women’s contribution to literature from the 19th Century to the present day. Addresses major issues and themes that concern women; examines how individual female authors confronted the prevailing literary and social attitudes of their times. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 321 Studies in Poetry (3 crs)
Study of significant works by a variety of writers; some emphasis on context of writing and works as well as methodology and development of poetry. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 322 Studies in Drama (3 crs)
Study of significant plays from the early Greek to the contemporary stage, together with emphasis on tradition and innovation in dramatic technique. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 323 Studies in Fiction (3 crs)
Study of significant works by a variety of writers, including the development of the novel/novella/short story as genres, their narrative techniques and variety. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 325 Applied Literary Theory (3 crs)
Exploration, through analysis of literary works, of the relative effectiveness of selected literary theories. Includes reader-response, sociological, psychoanalytical and other criticisms. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 354 Shakespeare (3 crs)
Intense study of selected poems and plays, including tragedies, comedies and histories. Exploration of the dramatic, literary and cultural dimensions of Shakespeare’s art. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 386 Junior Literature Seminar (3 crs)
Intensive examination and discussion of a specific literary topic, author, or mode; research and formal writings, oral presentations on assigned topics. Prerequisite: completed literature core; junior standing or approval of department chair.

LIT 410 World Literature from Antiquity through the Renaissance (3 crs)
Study of major works of world literature, with attention to the development of literary genres. Selected excerpts will be chosen from among Gilgamesh, Iliad, Oedipus the King, Medea, Mahabharata, Aeneid, Metamorphoses, Song of Roland, Tale of Genji, Divine Comedy, Decameron, Thousand and One Nights, Sir Gawain and Don Quixote. In translation. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 411 Chaucer and the Medieval Period (3 crs)
Reading and study of The Canterbury Tales as well as selected works of other significant writers of the Medieval period such as Gower, De Pizan, Boethius, the Pearl Poet and Kempe. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 419 Literature of the English Renaissance (3 crs)
Context and works of selected literary figures such as Marvell, More, Marlowe, Sidney, Wroth, Lanier, Donne, Jonson and Milton. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 420 Early American Literature (3 crs)
Study of the historical context and writers of the Colonial and Revo-lutionary era of American literature. Authors may include Bradford, Bradstreet, Taylor, Sewall, Rowlandson, Crevecoeur, Franklin, among others. Literary forms such as poetry, diaries, sermons and political pamphlets included. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 421 Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature in England (3 crs)
Study of novels (including the autobiographical, epistolary, experimental, sentimental, libertine and Gothic), narrative prose and poetry (including satire), plays and essays. Works selected from Dryden, Congreve, Swift, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne and others. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 422 Eighteenth-Century World Literature (3 crs)
Study of major works of world literature in the European tradition, with attention to dominant international literary movements and historically representative sub-genres. Authors selected may include Prevost, Swift, Voltaire, Fielding, Rousseau, Goethe, Laclos, Lessing, Schiller, Diderot and others. In translation. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 423 The Romantic Movement in England (3 crs)
Extensive coverage of the poetry and critical works of representative Romantic figures, chosen from Blake, Baillie, the Wordsworths, Coleridge, Byron, the Shelleys, Hemans, Keats and others. Attention to the historical context, major themes, verse experimentation and critical theory from the era. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 424 Nineteenth-Century World Literature (3 crs)
Study of major works of world literature in the European tradition, with attention to dominant international literary movements and historically representative sub-genres. Authors selected may include Pushkin, Hoffmann, Gogol, Balzac, Flaubert, Galdos, Ibsen, Baudelaire, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov. In translation. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 425 Literature of the Victorian Period
in England (3 crs)
Works of some of the chief literary artists of the era (selected from Tennyson, Carlyle, the Brontes, Arnold, the Brownings, Dickens, Eliot, Newman, Ruskin, Hardy, the Rossettis, Wilde and others) set within their milieu. Lyric poetry, the novel and the essay are stressed genres. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 426 Nineteenth-Century American Literature (3 crs)
Study of the literary figures and movements from the romanticism of Poe, Hawthorne and Melville through the realism and naturalism of Dickinson, Twain, Gilman, James, Wharton, Crane and Drieser. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 428 Twentieth-Century World Literature (3 crs)
Survey of dominant trends in world literature, with attention to the increasing diversity of literary methods and sub-genres. Authors selec-ted may include Kafka, Pirandello, Mann, Rilke, Solzhenitsyn, Robbe-Grillet, Lorca, Brecht, Achebe, Soyinka, Kawabata, Borges, Marquez and Fuentes. In translation. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 429 Literature Between the Wars (3 crs)
Study of the historical context, major themes and critical theory of the Modern era in British and American literature including such authors as Yeats, Eliot, Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Woolf, O’Neill, as well as authors who rejected the Modernist credo. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 430 Contemporary Literature (3 crs)
Study of interpretative literature produced from the 1960’s to the present. In order to address the proliferation of voices and the blurring of genre lines characteristic of the contemporary period, the focus of the course on particular genres or authors will necessarily change from semester to semester. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

LIT 486 Senior Literature Thesis (2 cr)
A major project requiring extended research and writing. The project requires a written proposal, public presentation of the project’s results and an acceptable written document at the conclusion of the course. All phases will be supervised and evaluated by a member of the literature faculty. Prerequisite: LIT 386.

FINE ARTS

FAS 101 Introduction to Fine Arts (1 cr) or
FAS 105 Fine Arts Exploration (3 crs)
The Fine Arts core curriculum program is offered in partnership with Oglebay Institute and is built around three fine arts credits that a student must complete before graduation; Introduction to Fine Arts explores the historical and sociological role of art within the human community as well as analyzing the aesthetic dimension of art. Coursework includes attendance at public performance/exhibitions. See department contact person for current listings of fine arts electives.

Theater Minor
The Theater Minor at WJU is offered in partnership with Towngate Theater of Oglebay Institute. To earn a theater minor a student must complete a minimum of 18 credits including:

FAS/LIT 122 Oral Interpretation (3 crs)
Study of prose, poetry and drama, including analysis and preparation for performance before an audience. Student selections are to be interpreted and produced. Public performance is required. Prerequisite: first level of the literature core.

FAS 211 Theater in Practice (3 crs)
Study of the basic components of theater production. Students will have the opportunity to direct, act and be involved with basic techniques of scenery and property construction, as well as lighting and the different technical aspects of stage management. No prerequisite.

FAS 321 Studies in Theater (3 crs)
Introduces students to theatrical history and practices and a deepening appreciation of theater as art. Required attendance at college, community and professional theater. No prerequisite.

LIT 322 Studies in Drama (3 crs)
Study of significant plays from the early Greek to the contemporary stage, together with emphasis on tradition and innovation in dramatic technique. Prerequisite: completed literature core.

See department contact person for current listing of theater electives.