ALL SPRING 2021 COURSES WILL BE TAUGHT ONLINE
Gateway Course Required for the Beginning Major
Engl 25000
Introduction to Literary Study
32844 sec. D Robert Higney M, W 12:30 – 1:45pm
32486 sec. R Paul Oppenheimer T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
47165 sec. T Gordon Thompson T, TH 6:30 – 7:45pm
This course offers an introduction for beginning English majors to the practices and concepts in the study of literature. We will think carefully about literature as a form of representation – about what literary texts mean as well as how they mean. The course will help students to develop a critical vocabulary and method for reading and writing about literature, as well as introduce them to the cultural contexts and backgrounds of various literary traditions. Our readings will explore a variety of genres and styles – short fiction, the novel, narrative poetry, lyric poetry, and forms of drama. Above all, this is a class in reading and (frequent) writing which will emphasize close reading techniques, interpretive approaches, the making of arguments, and the development of individual critical voices in order to prepare students to succeed in advanced English elective courses.
32843 sec. E Harold Veeser M, W 2:00 – 3:15pm
32845 sec. F Harold Vesser M, W 3:30 – 4:45pm
This course offers an introduction for beginning English majors to the practices and concepts in the study of literature. The ways in which we think, talk, and write about literature can be very interesting. This semester, we will consider three major areas: drama, memoir, and poetry. Plays by Shakespeare and Mahmoud Diyab (“Strangers Don’t Drink Coffee”); memoirs by Chris Kraus and Mohamed Choukri; and poetry by Marianne Moore, Nada Gordon, Kishwar Naheed, and 2Pac Shakur. The writing requirement will be short responses to writing prompts that you will receive each week and a Blackboard discussion thread for you to do on your own time. Two short papers will also be required.
Literature Courses
200- Level courses
Please note: These 200-level courses are designed to introduce beginning students to literary history, critical approaches, and formal terminology. They typically have a minimum of 3-5 shorter assignments, a variety of in-class writing tasks, and assume no prior background in the discipline. For this reason, majors are not permitted to take more than four (4) 200-level classes.
Engl 27006
A Historical Survey of African-American Literature from 1912-1965: Pre-Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement
49179 sec. D Gordon Thompson M, W 12:30 – 1:45pm
This semester we will encounter essays, poems, short stories, and novels written by African American writers during the first half of the 20th century. W. E. B. Du Bois, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Bruce Nugent, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry among others. Through thoughtful experimentation with form and content, these writers left behind powerful portrayals of African American life and culture. At the same time, ideas and concepts rarely handled by mainstream American writers have become part of the larger American discourse about the relativity of race and culture. Literature, as a mirror of how society sees itself and how it wishes to see itself, will be at the core of our investigation.
Engl 27007
The New Human “Nature”: The Rise of Meritocracy, Psychology and Materialist Medicine
33422 sec. R Keith Gandal T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
47179 sec. T Keith Gandal T, TH 6:30 – 7:45pm
The 1880-1919 period in the US saw technological, scientific, demographic, and epistemological changes unprecedented in history: the conquest of age-old diseases, the mobilization of a multi-million-man army along largely meritocratic lines, and the Great Immigration from southern and eastern Europe that made the country significantly multicultural and urban. These developments fundamentally transformed the terms of human experience and identity. Modern American literature registers and dramatizes these shocking changes.
Tentative texts:
Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Sigmund Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (excerpt)
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Rebecca Harding Davis, “Life in the Iron Mills”
Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Willa Cather, One of Ours (excerpt)
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Victor Daly, Not Only War
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (excerpt)
Requirements:
Class participation, two papers, and a final exam.
300- Level Courses
Please note: 300-level classes assume some background and prior experience at the 200-level. Students should complete two 200 level courses before embarking on 300 level work; however, they may register for a single 300 level course if they are still completing 200 level requirements. Generally, these classes require two shorter essays and one longer assignment or final paper involving research or reference to secondary materials.
Engl 31173
Cross-listed with JWST 31713
Culture of Resistance in New York
33843 sec. M Elazar Elhanan T, TH 11:00 – 12:15pm
From 1880 to the 1920 over two million Jewish immigrants arrived in New York from Eastern Europe. Faced with terrible conditions of exploitation and nativist racism, these immigrants created a rich and unique culture of resistance. Through this culture, expressed in their own language, Yiddish, they coped with the shock of immigration, with the reality of poverty, sweatshops, crime and discrimination they found in the “Golden Land”, and called to task the American Dream itself.
Engl 31712
Cross-listed with JWST 31712
Protest & Dissent in Israel
33842 sec. P Elazar Elhanan T, TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
This course explores the surprisingly diverse and varied history and practices of protest and dissent in in Israeli culture, concentrating on film, theater and literature, this class will examine the different forms the Zionist project was criticized from within.
Engl 31721
Cross-listed with JWST 31911
Primo Levi: Prisoner, Survivor, Scientist
48743 sec. P Alberto Gelmi T, TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
Primo Levi is a towering figure of Italian literature, whose career spans over four decades and crosses multiple genres and forms. Heir of a long-established Jewish household from Turin, Levi was deported to Auschwitz where he managed to survive thanks to his professional training as a chemist. Years later, he was able to tell his story in two of the most consequential memoirs about the Holocaust, life in the concentration camp and the long, painful journey back home. In the final installment of this trilogy, he investigated the sense of guilt and shame of a society that has not been able to process the events of a not-so-distant past.
Although the name of Levi is primarily associated with this part of his production, the legacy of the Italian writer is much wider. Repeatedly, Levi reflects on the dignity and the beauty of a passionate commitment to our job as an alternative to postmodern alienation; he explores the several challenges that advancements in technology create for mankind on a daily basis.
In this class, we set to survey Levi’s multifaceted work with readings from Survival in Auschwitz, The Drowned and the Saved, The Periodic Table, The Six Days and Other Tales, and The Monkey’s Wrench. Secondary sources include selections from Angier, Gordon, Pugliese, and Farrell.
Engl 31722
Cross-listed with JWST 23200
Jews in Film/Fiction
48742 sec. D Amy Kratka M, W 12:30 – 1:45pm
In this class we will examine the portrayal of Jewish characters in (mostly) post-WWII fiction and film. We will discuss the way directors and writers treat stereotypes and stock characters; we will investigate the nuanced depiction of complex characters and ask what role religion plays in these depictions. We will look at the representation of women compared to men, the portrayal of parents and their expectations, talk about the significance of children, examine the importance of bearing witness to tragedy, investigate the way in which stories change when subjected to different modes of storytelling, and discuss, in general, the larger questions that are posed by being Jewish in America.
Engl 31865
Irish Literature: A Sampling
48288 sec. B Estha Weiner M, W 9:30 – 10:45am
Yes, a sampling of genres: poetry, drama, short fiction, and non-fiction (essay). A sampling from the “favorites” to the modern to the contemporary. From Yeats to Ni Dhomhnaill, Joyce to Trevor, Beckett to Brogan, Swift to Strong. We’ll also discuss historical context for the literature, and share information about the variety of Irish organizations in NYC, on-line or in-person, which welcome you to all they have to offer.
Focused participation, two essays, and a final project are requirements.
Engl 31920
Representing Trauma: Text, Theory, and Visual Culture
33238 sec. R Mikhal Dekel T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
In Representing Trauma, students will study how writers, artists, filmmakers, psychologists and journalists engage with traumatic events: from works by writers and visual artists who have borne witness to such events to theoretical explorations of trauma’s aftermath. We will focus on experiences such as genocide, slavery and Apartheid as they are represented in literary texts, film, graphic narrative, and journalism. These experiences are terrible, but the works we will read will be mesmerizing. We will also discuss the debates surrounding memorialization and commemoration, competing versions of history, reparations, and reconciliation. Writers will include Toni Morrison, Susan Faludi, Anje Krog, Art Spiegelman, Mikhal Dekel and others.
Engl 31974
Introduction to Archives, Archivists, and the Preservation of Cultural Heritage
63208 sec. H William Gibbons M W 6:30 – 7:45pm
This course introduces students to the power and importance of archives in scholarship and in society beyond through reading and discussion as well as hands-on exercises in archival arrangement, description and access. Students will study issues in archival theory and practice. Class discussions will focus on the expanding role of the archivist in seeking out and recording cultural memory, and the responsibilities that attach to the preservation of heritage materials. Among the critical questions addressed are: what is an archive? What do archivists do? and what is the relationship between archivists, researchers, and the broader community of people concerned with the preservation of cultural memory and heritage materials?
Engl 34200
Advanced Grammar
32855 sec. G Nicole Treska M, W 5:00 – 6:15pm
32861 sec. S Nicole Treska T, TH 5:00 – 6:15pm
Advanced Grammar reviews principles of traditional English grammar and usage (parts of speech, sentence structures, punctuation, pronoun/verb form/agreement, etc.) for English majors and minors, especially for those who plan to teach or work as tutors or editors. It is not a remedial course for non-majors who struggle with writing problems, though many non-majors take it. There is a custom-published workbook for the course, and used copies of it are not allowed.
Engl 35306
Hashtag #ShakespeareMeToo
48162 sec. F Doris Barkin M, W 3:30 – 4:45pm
This class explores how Shakespeare’s work converges with the conditions of sexual harassment and violence raised by the “Me Too” movement, founded by activist Tarana Burke in 2006, morphing into [Hashtag] #MeToo. Given that sexism and patriarchy are not inventions of our contemporary age, we will examine Shakespeare’s global, centuries-old influence, and interrogate how Shakespeare’s plays and early modern notions of the relations between men and women are challenged by the #MeToo social and cultural perspective. Some of the central questions we will ask are: how does Shakespeare engage with notions of sexual exploitation, coercion, violence, and rape culture? How do his plays suggest opportunities for female agency and power? How does his work challenge or comply with a patriarchal, masculinist society? How can Shakespeare’s works offer commentary on the sexual politics of our own time? Some of the texts we will read are Titus Andronicus, Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Much Ado About Nothing. In addition, we will be reading poetry and prose written in the period, and scholarly and theoretical essays which situate the primary texts in their literary and historical context.
Engl 35405
Renaissance Encounters: Travel, Colonization and Utopia in the 16th and 17th Centuries
50208 sec. S Andras Kisery T, TH 5:00 – 6:15pm
This is a class about travels and discoveries, about adventures and utopias: about the places and genres of early modern travel, in fiction as well as in non-fiction. We will be discussing prose, dramatic and poetic works written in the 16th and 17th centuries, and talk about the cultural encounters and the sexual escapades, the scientific visions and the religious challenges that were associated with going to faraway places.
Our readings about journeys from Europe to the Mediterranean, to the Bermudas, to the Moon, and to places that don’t even exist, will add up to a survey of Renaissance literature, featuring writings by John Mandeville, Christopher Columbus, Thomas More, Hans Staden, Michel de Montaigne, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, John Donne, Margaret Cavendish, and others.
Engl 36505
Selected Topics in 20th Century and Contemporary Literature: Experimental Fiction
48168 sec. S Mark Mirsky T, TH 5:00 – 6:15pm
This course is meant to introduce students interested to important fiction by authors who innovated in the 20th century. These clarify the tradition of “modernism” and post-modernism, not as a critical concept but as it found expression in the novels and short stories written both in the United States, and abroad. The class will look back on the tradition of the experiment in several of the literary classics of the last century. The instructor, Professor Mirsky, editor of the journal Fiction, has chosen texts that question what fiction can accomplish in contrast to memoir or history and which on may imagine as real but what belongs as well to the realm of the imagination. The lectures will also ask what draws the authors of these books to riddle reality, dreams in relation to their own lives.
The instructor may subtract from the syllabus or add to it as the class proceeds, to focus on a single story in a class or several classes in the case of a novel. He requires two questions about each full-length book or the stories assigned in the course. He will respond to these written questions from students. These questions and replies, in addition his notes on the texts, will be the method of instruction in the course. The instructor hopes to initiate a discussion during classes among students as if it were a creative writing seminar. He requires a short final paper of between eight and ten pages. It can be a critical or a creative response to a book or story on the list of required reading.
Several of these novels and stories are long and challenging but most of them are now regarded as classics.
“The Turn of the Screw” and “The Jolly Corner” by Henry James
In a Bamboo Grove Akutagawa
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Completion of Love, by Robert Musil
Homo Faber by Max Frisch
Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
“The Pagan Rabbi” by Cynthia Ozick
“The Immigrant Story” Grace Paley
Pedro Paramo by Juan Ruolfo
Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme
The Collected Stories of Jorge Luis Borges
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
Puddingstone by Mark J Mirsky
Engl 36508
Selected Topics in 20th Century and Contemporary Literature: Virginia Woolf
48167 sec. E Vaclav Paris M, W 2:00 – 3:15pm
All writers create their own world, but few are as rich, as strange, and as influential as that of Virginia Woolf. Woolf’s world is not easy to enter. Her novels, ranging from her early Voyage Out to her late Between the Acts are complex psychological structures that make few concessions to lazy readers. Her networks were often private. Orlando, a fantasy about (among other things) transsexuality and living through centuries, is also a love letter to her friend, Vita Sackville-West. But once you get into Woolf, you’ll find that it’s even harder to get out. Woolf changes the way you see things. She gives you a vocabulary for what is going on under the surface, for understanding pervasive features of everyday life that you didn’t even suspect before. Reading all of Woolf’s major novels, a range of her essays and short fiction, and some of the works of those in her circle, this course offers a way into her world, which is also—as we will come to see—increasingly our world. Evaluation will be on the basis of participation in class sessions, in the online discussion board, and through a midterm essay and final paper.
Engl 36703
Selected Topics in Literature of the Americas: Mexican Voice and Letters
(the course will be added to the system by the Registrar’s next week)
59811 sec. M Destry Sibley T, TH 11:00 – 12:15pm
This course introduces students to the vast national tradition of Mexican Literature as seen through fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and film. We will study the historical eras and political climates that have shaped Mexican cultural production — from Mesoamerica and colonialism, revolution and postcolonialism, to the present day. We will consider how each of these historical stages has influenced Mexican literature, and will analyze the methods with which contemporary Mexican authors continue to grapple with questions of national identity in an era marked by immigration, globalization, and political crisis. Readings and film viewings may include works such as those by Luis Buñuel, Rosario Castellanos, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Laura Esquivel, Valeria Luiselli, and Yuri Herrera.
Engl 38105
Modern Drama II
47421 sec. C Daniel Gustafson M, W 11:00 – 12:15pm
This course will provide a survey of the developments in contemporary drama from the mid twentieth century to the present. We’ll begin with three major influences on contemporary drama: the political theater of Bertolt Brecht, the absurdist theater of Samuel Beckett, and the existential theater of Jean Genet. We will then explore how more recent playwrights have responded to this canon, experimented with traditional dramatic form, and addressed such issues as globalization, new media, post-structuralist philosophy, and the debate between theater as part of the mass culture entertainment industry and theater as a locus of high aesthetics and social responsibility. Our other readings will possibly include works by Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Wole Soyinka, August Wilson, Ayad Akhtar, Annie Baker, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Stephen Karam, Young Jean Lee, and Jackie Sibblies Drury, as well as some reading in philosophy and critical theory.
Engl 39102
Vampire
47423 sec. P Paul Oppenheimer T, TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
A serious and thorough study of the Western obsession, as reflected in much of its literature and art over the past 5,000 years, with vampirism—or the philosophy of physical immortality, often referred to as life-in-death. The winged and cannibalistic figure of the vampire, in its various forms—these ranging from Dante’s Satan to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and more modern poems, plays and films— will be explored, with a view to exposing Western ideas of evil and some of the chief premises of Western culture.
Readings and studies of Dracula (novel and film version), The Inferno, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Beowulf, Dr. Faustus, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, The Chinese Torture Garden (by Mirbeau), Keats, Coleridge, Baudelaire, James Merill, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and more; examinations of pertinent works of art by Bosch, Goya, and certain decadent artists, as well as films. Students should consult my book, Evil and the Demonic: A New Theory of Monstrous Behavior (Spring, 1996) for background. Two essays, one rather short, are required.
400-Level Courses
Please note: 400-level courses are designed for students who have completed at least two classes at the 300-level. Longer essays which involve research and work with secondary materials are typically required at the conclusion of the semester; and students are also expected to demonstrate their familiarity with a range of methodological approaches and critical perspectives.
Engl 46801
Advanced Topics in Life Writing: Global Autobiography
48161 sec. H Harold Veeser M, W 6:30 – 7:45pm
This course offers an introduction to the life writing in a global frame. We will read a sampling of popular memoirs, recovery narratives, ethnic-identity stories, substance-abuse sagas, trauma memoirs, conversion narratives, and coming-of-age stories. Most of these required readings will be drawn from non-U.S. traditions and will include writings by memoirists from the Caribbean, the Middle East, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. You will complete the writing requirement by writing in response to prompts about the weekly required readings. The prompts will allow for experiments in criticism and memoir.
Engl 46901
Advanced Topics in Language, Writing and Rhetoric: Sociolinguistics
48159 sec. R Barbara Gleason T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
This course offers an introduction to sociolinguistics, a field that focuses on how language works in our everyday lives and on the forms of language that we use. Sociolinguists study how we manage language in conversations—how we open and close conversations, take turns, interrupt other speakers, introduce new topics, and repair perceived errors in utterances. Sociolinguists also focus on language varieties: standard languages, regional dialects, social dialects, and ethnic dialects—such as African American Vernacular English and Latinx Englishes—and on creoles and pidgins. And sociolinguists study levels of formality (style), influences of our occupations and professions on language (registers), and discourse forms–such as advertisements, stories, personal essays (genre). In addition, gender and sexuality can influence our language, as can educational experience and media (print texts, email, Twitter, etc.). We will survey this entire range of topics and consider some research approaches, with a special focus on ethnographic methods. Attending & contributing to weekly online class discussions is required.
Textbook: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 7th edition, by Ronald Wardhaugh and Janet M. Fuller (Wiley/Blackwell, 2015).
Capstone Seminars – recommended after 24 credits in the major
These courses are strongly recommended upon completing 24 credits in the major and can only be registered with an English Advisor.
Engl 49010
The New World Seminar
33554 sec. 2NP Grazyna Drabik T 12:30 – 2:30pm
The immigrant narrative constitutes a fundamental part of American history and broadens the literary canon in challenging ways. We’ll read the “classics” alongside the most recent voices to note continuities as well as significant differences in addressing the major themes of immigration literature: processes of forging new individual and communal identities; conflicting loyalties that shape lives led between the adopted homeland and traditions of the country of origins; redefinition of gender roles and of inter-generational relations under the impact of immigration; the transformative role of education; and dialectics between place, language, and identity.
Our readings will be organized not in a linear, chronological way, but around the experiences of “departures,” “arrivals,” and “transformations.” They address the cost of displacement and conflicts resulting from culture clashes, but also highlight new options and possibilities, including the rich complexity of bi-cultural, in-between, and trans-national identities.
Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me Ultima (1972)
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names (novel, 2013)
Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy (novella, 1990)
Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends (essays, 2017)
Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes (memoir, 1996)
Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic (novel, 2011)
and selection from writings by Olaudah Equiano, Andzia Yezierska, Claude McKay, Junot Diaz, Alberto Ríos, Edwidge Danticat, Marjane Satrapi, Caryl Phyllips, Ocean Vuong et al.
Two films supplement the readings:
Eat a Bowl of Tea dir. Wayne Wang (1989)
Brooklyn dir. John Crowley (2015)
Engl 49024
The Price of Culture, or Mythology and Ideology Behind America’s Racial Divide
57988 sec. 4BC Gordon Thompson TH 10:00 – 12:00pm
This seminar will examine how African American texts offer a view of the many ways that Blacks have attempted to assimilate into the culture of the United States, and the variety of tactics that have been used to prevent their assimilation. These texts offer history lessons, African American inspired literary techniques, and philosophical concepts as roadmaps for the purpose of better understanding the racial divide in America. We will discuss a range of Black writers, such as the poets Phillis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Robert Hayden; the fiction writers, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin; and the playwrights, Lorraine Hansberry and Amiri Baraka. Secondary critical works will be included to inform our discussion of these writers and to assist with composing a final research paper.
Creative Writing Courses
Engl 22000
Introduction to Creative Writing
32836 sec. C Doris Barkin M, W 11:00 – 12:15pm
32835 sec. D Doris Barkin M, W 12:30 – 1:45pm
This course presents approaches to discovering, exercising, applying, and learning the processes involved in the practice of creative writing. Critical reading and written expression are interconnected processes: we will examine our own written work and the work of exemplary writers in fiction, poetry, essay, and nonfiction. Upon completion of the course, students will demonstrate the ability to write in various genres, forms, styles, and techniques; additionally, students will demonstrate facility in reading literature critically and analytically, and engaging in constructive criticism with the community of writers in the class. As a supplement to work done in class meetings, poetry readings, audio and video recordings, film viewing, and hypertext Web documents and other writing platforms will be used whenever possible. Finally, the goal of the course is to see language in a revitalized, meaningful way, and to find that creative writing offers great emotional, imaginative, and intellectual pleasure.
32837 sec. G Keith Gandal M, W 5:00 – 6:15pm
32838 sec. M Felice Neals T, TH 11:00 – 12:15pm
32839 sec. R G.D. Peters T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
32840 sec. T Noelle Nagales T, TH 6:30 – 7:45pm
While studying various forms of creative writing, emphasis will be placed on the creative process of writing while encouraging students to find their writing voice.
Engl 22100
Prerequisite: English 22000
Intermediate Creative Writing: Reading as Writers
32842 sec. M Emily Wright -Rosenblatt T, TH 11:00 – 12:15pm
32854 sec. R Brendan Costello T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
This intermediate creative writing workshop focuses on the continued improvement of student writing through reading and discussing models in literature. These may include poems, short stories, essays and plays. The emphasis of the course is on reading texts as writers, and discussion of craft, based on the work of a few published authors considered in-depth. It operates with the belief that writers must read deeply and extensively in order to hone their work.
32841 sec. D Estha Weiner M, W 12:30 – 1:45pm
Reading and Writing go together. This Intermediate Creative Writing Class links reading and discussing poems, short stories (fiction), and drama with improving your own writing in those three genres. You will read the texts as writers, becoming more aware of the tools of each genre, as you do so. Then comes presentation of your own writing in a workshop format, culminating in a Final Manuscript and Reading Day, and readings from Reading as a Writer by Francine Prose. Attendance at readings within City College and at New York’s venues, on-line or in person, and submission of your work to college journals and The CCNY Poetry Festival offer other wonderful possibilities.
Engl 23000
Prose Writing Workshop
32820 sec. B Chester Kozlowski M, W 9:30 – 10:45am
32867 sec. E Stewart Sinclair M, W 2:00 – 3:15pm
32821 sec. F Stewart Sinclair M, W 3:30 – 4:45pm
This workshop will focus on the art of writing the analytic and non-fiction essay. The craft of the essay will be explored through the study of various styles including the critical, memoir and travel essay. The course will include the writing of a Proposal toward a non-fiction piece, which can serve as one of two major papers assigned. Students will read and consider the strategies of established writers in this genre. Students will be expected to write and revise several short essays. The class is designed as a workshop in which students will receive critique and respond to the work of their peers.
32822 sec. P Mikhal Dekel T, TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
Whether you are writing a short story, an essay, or a research paper for class, the aim of this course is to make you a better writer. Through writing exercises and readings in critical texts, memoirs and essays, you will work towards writing more beautiful and clearer prose. We will discuss audience, point of view, tone, scene, dialogue and research. You will be assigned weekly written assignments, critique your peers’ work, and analyze writing strategies used by established writers. Gradually, you will build towards writing longer pieces by expanding, revising, and creating multiple drafts.
Engl 32000
Prerequisite: English 22100
Workshop in Fiction
32847 sec. F Dalia Sofer M, W 3:30 – 4:45pm
33239 sec. P Lyn Di Iorio T, TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
This workshop is designed for students seeking a launch pad and a community for writing fiction. It is only to be taken by those who have already completed English 220 and 221 — Intro. and Intermediate Creative Writing. Students will read a range of texts over the course of the semester using the critical vocabulary of the craft. This includes: characterization, point of view, point of entry, dialogue, pace, setting, tone, structure, and ending.
Engl 32100
Prerequisite: English 22100
Workshop in Poetry
32848 sec. P Michelle Valladares T, TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
“When we experience the world as alive, we share an intimate connection with all that exists. We can see the world as being made of a life-giving language, and our awareness of this language goes deep into our psyches and deep into the cosmos.” Thomas Merton
Poetry is the experience of language coming alive. In this course you will read contemporary poets, study the craft of elevating a line or a thought and write poems. Students will memorize and workshop poems. One paper will be required at the end of the term on a poet of your choice. You will, both in and out of class, immerse yourself in the poet’s experience, and observe the world through the eyes of a writer. Texts include, A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver and The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry edited by Rita Dove.
Engl 32204
Prerequisite: English 22100
Screenwriting Workshop
55638 sec. L Annie Howell T, TH 9:30 – 10:45am
In this course, students engage in the fundamentals of fiction screenwriting. Students develop a disciplined writing practice, and will workshop scenes as well as short scripts. Students tackle the basics of premise, theme, conflict, character and plot, with an active engagement with form and style. We study how a variety of excellent examples are constructed, including student short films from CCNY and beyond. Readings supplement image-based research and writing.
Engl 32400
Prerequisite: English 22100
Children’s Writing Workshop
32873 sec. R Pamela Laskin T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
This course explores all the essential aspects of writing for children, including language/appropriate vocabulary, voice, audience, style and technique. The class will be taught sequentially in terms of age level, starting with pre-k and progressing to young adult. This class will be conducted as both a lecture/discussion and a workshop. The class will be posted on Blackboard and conducted on Zoom. Workshops will occur in class on the discussion board. The skills of editing, revision and presentation will be explored.
List of Interdisciplinary Electives that will be counted toward major requirements
Only one literature course offered outside of the English Department will count toward the English major requirement
ASIA 33200: Modern Chinese Literature
BLST 31100: Black Women Novelists
BLST 34400: Blackness and the Arts
FREN 28300: Literature of Contemporary France
LAT 35300: Vergil’s Aeneid
Publishing Courses
NOTE: Publishing courses do not count toward English major or minor requirements, but only toward fulfillment of the publishing certificate program, or as general electives. For more information, contact the Director of the program, David Unger at (212) 650-7925.
Engl 31131
Digital & E-Book Publishing
32856 sec. 4ST Philip Rappaport TH 4:50 – 7:20pm
This course will provide a history of digital books and context for understanding how digital advances and ebooks have affected the publishing industry, consumer habits, and reading. The course exposes students to practical wisdom from experts across the publishing and book industry. Students will learn about ebook production and design; SEO and metadata; digital and online marketing; social media; audiobooks, and sales. Students will write a reader’s report, a response-paper to an audiobook, and create a design memo. For their final group project students will edit, distribute and market an original ebook across platforms, and present their collaborative work at “sales conference” at the end of the semester.
Engl 32501
Introduction to Publishing
32824 sec. 2LM Saraciea Fennel T 9:30 – 12:15pm
Introduction to Publishing introduces students to trade books (books for the general consumer) and their publishers. The course is designed to give an overview of the book business–from how manuscripts are made (role of the author, agent and acquiring editor); to how books are made (design, production and distribution of the finished book); to how books are sold (publicity and marketing).
An important aspect of the course is helping students find their potential niche in the publishing business, should they continue on for the Publishing Certificate. The course concludes with how to get a job, stressing resume preparation, writing query letters to publishers, and preparing for interviews. The course aims at inculcating professionalism in students as it prepares them for satisfying careers in book publishing.
Engl 32502
Publishing Practicum
33354 sec. 2ST Yona Deshommes T 5:00 – 7:30pm
Students simulate the complete book-publishing process from contract negotiations to bound book.
Engl 32600
Books for Young Readers
32825 sec. 1GH Tanya McKinnon M 5:00 – 7:30pm
A look at the world of publishing for children and young adults. Licensing, merchandising, sales and marketing to all age groups and reader categories will be discussed. Includes substantial reading of children’s titles.
Engl 32700
The Editorial Process
32826 sec. 3HJ Melody Guy W 6:30 – 9:00pm
An in-depth look at the editorial process from a corporate and employment-seeking perspective. Includes visits from authors and industry professionals.
Engl 31003
Independent Study (3 credits)
Students may register for a three-credit independent study that represents an internship in the Publishing field. Permission of the Director of the Publishing Program, David Unger, is required.