English (ENGL) - For a syllabus or more detailed course information, please contact the department at 610-758-3310.

 

Course Listings

Course#                    Course Title (Credit Hours)                      CRN       Day/Time      Location    Session  Instructor

183-010 Independent Study (1-4) *Individual Sections & Instructors Listed in Banner 20093 Hours arranged   Full Staff
183-013 Independent Study (1-4) *Individual Sections & Instructors Listed in Banner 20096 Hours arranged   Second Staff
187-010* Science Fiction Films: Post Apocalypse (4) 20237 Online   First Kroll
189-010* Combat Films: War in the Pacific (4) 20239 Online   First Kroll
189-011* Literature of War (4) 20241 Online   Second Skutches
191-010 Fiction vs Non-Fiction: What's Truth Got To Do With It (4) 20887 Online   First Skutches
281-010 Writing Internship (1-4) 20100 Hours arranged   First Kroll
281-011 Writing Internship (1-4) 20101 Hours arranged   Second Kroll
282-010 Professional Internship (2-4) 20103 Hours arranged   First Kroll
282-011 Professional Internship (2-4) 20104 Hours arranged   Second Kroll
388-010 Independent Study (1-4) 20105 Hours arranged   First Staff
388-011 Independent Study (1-4) 20106 Hours arranged   Second Staff
391-010* Literature and the World-Wide Web (4) 20244 Online   First Whitley
391-011* Literature and the World-Wide Web (3) 20246 Online   First Whitley
395-010/AMST 395-010 Zombies, Vampires and the End of the Human (4) 20855 T/Th 4-7:00pm DR 209 First Keetley
395-011/AMST 395-011 Zombies, Vampires and the End of the Human (3) 20856 T/Th 4-7:00pm DR 209 First Keetley
400-010 Supervised Teaching (1) 20111 Hours arranged   First Staff
400-011 Supervised Teaching (1) 20112 Hours arranged   Second Staff
495-010 Independent Study (3) *Individual Sections & Instructors Listed in Banner 20120 Hours arranged   First Staff
495-013 Independent Study (3) *Individual Sections & Instructors Listed in Banner 20123 Hours arranged   Second Staff

Course Descriptions

183. Independent Study: Individually supervised study of a topic in literature, film, or writing not covered in regularly listed courses. Prerequisite: consent of the department chairperson. HU

 

187-10. Science Fiction Films: Post Apocalypse : We are terrified by the thought of apocalyptic events ... and fascinated by visions of the end of life as we know it.  In this course, we will study a series of Hollywood films about the end of the world, paying particular attention to the ways in which the last humans on earth conduct themselves in those final days.  Will people revert to savagery?  Will they do whatever is necessary to survive?  Or will goodness and compassion endure even when they seem to have no purpose? In this course, which will be taught entirely on-line (no meetings on campus), we will examine six post-apocalyptic films from the 1950s to the present.  Work will include response papers, discussion board posts, reading assignments, and focused essays on each of the films.  There will be daily assignments with strictly enforced deadlines, and the pace will be intense.  Students must purchase all of the films before the start of the session.  The list of films may change (check with the instructor before the session), but the provisional list includes War of the Worlds (1953), On the Beach (1959), Blade Runner (1982), I am Legend (2007), The Road (2008), and The Book of Eli (2010). *Online section requires use of course management system either Course Site or Blackboard and a High Speed Connection.

 

189-010. Combat Films: War in the Pacific:  In this on-line course, we will study a series of Hollywood films that depict American soldiers at war in the Pacific, films produced across more than half a century, from 1943 to 2002.  Our core questions will be comparative, asking how film conventions, politics, and ethical sensibilities changed (and/or stayed the same) across this period.  We'll work with the following films:  Bataan (WWII, 1943), The Sands of Iwo Jima (WWII, 1950), Pork Chop Hill (Korea, 1959), Platoon (Vietnam, 1986), The Thin Red Line (WWII, 1999), and We Were Soldiers (Vietnam, 2002). We will be examining these films as narratives, as stories about the experience of soldiers involved in ground combat.  We will also pay attention to a number of themes.  Who are our soldiers and why are they fighting?  What happens to men who kill and watch their comrades die?  Since war films are about men who are asked to embrace the virtues of “manhood,” we will consider how expectations about “what it means to be a real man” change (or remain constant) across the period.  We will also explore how some American beliefs (such as the U.S. as a melting pot and land of equal opportunity) are embraced and/or challenged in these films.  Because the films depict Asian enemies, we’ll need to consider issues of racial stereotyping and hatred.  And many other issues will arise during our discussions. Students will be responsible for purchasing copies of the assigned films before the course begins.  Course work will include posting responses to the films in an electronic journal, participating in discussion board conversations, reading and responding to some thought-provoking articles, and writing a series of short essays. Please note that this course will be taught entirely on-line, with no class meetings on campus.  Although an on-line course offers flexibility, there will be daily assignments and strictly enforced deadlines: students must be able to keep up the assignments and meet the deadlines in order to complete the course successfully.  The pace will be intense. *Online section requires use of course management system either Course Site or Blackboard and a High Speed Connection.

 

 189-011. Literature of War : The conventions of war and the conventions of literature, from The Illiad to Jarhead:  the hero, good and evil, romance, revenge, victory and conquest. Some texts have shaped these conventions; others have challenged them. Both are rich and problematic. Reading will be drawn from a list of texts that may include: The Illiad, Henry V, The Red Badge of Courage, All Quiet on the Western Front, Catch-22, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Things They Carried, Jarhead.  Film will be part of the course, as will some non-traditional approaches to learning. *Online section requires use of course management system either Course Site or Blackboard and a High Speed Connection.

 

191. Fiction vs Non-Fiction: What's Truth Got To Do With It: Conventional thinking holds that nonfictional stories are about the “real world” and true, while fictional literature is “made up” and therefore not true. As a nontraditional study of literature, the course will explore this thinking to see how it holds up to thoughtful consideration of both fictional and nonfictional texts. Along the way, the idea of truth itself will be up for grabs. Texts may include Capote’s In Cold Blood, Kerouac’s On the Road, O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, and Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, along with short stories and several films. There will also be some scholarly work on narrative such as Jerome Bruner’s Making Stories: Law, Literature, and Life

 

281. Writing Internship: Projects on- or off-campus in professional, governmental, or service organizations. Experience must include extensive writing that can be submitted for review. Enrollment limited to juniors or seniors with a major or minor in English. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: approval of department internship adviser or department chair.

 

282. Professional Internship: Supervised projects, on- or off-campus, in professional, government, or service organizations. An interested student must submit a proposal, demonstrating the project's relevance to the study of language, texts, or communication, to the department's internship adviser. May be repeated for a maximum of 4 credits. Internship credits do not count toward major in English. Prerequisite: junior or senior standing and approval by department internship adviser.

 

388. Independent Study: Individually supervised study of a topic in literature, film, or writing not covered in regularly listed courses. Prerequisite: consent of department chairperson.

 

391.  Literature and the World-wide Web:  How has literature changed since the Internet became a part of our everyday lives? This class considers literary texts written for the Internet as well as online archives of nineteenth-century literature as we think about how literature differs in the “old” media of print and the new digital medium. *Online section requires use of course management system either Course Site or Blackboard and a High Speed Connection.

 

395. Zombies, Vampires and the End of the Human: Stories about zombies and vampires repeatedly represent the end of the human.  First, they typically feature in novels and films that imagine the end of the human race; second, they are often represented as marking the absence of all those things that make us “human”—transgressing the borders between the human and the non-human.  On the other hand, however, one could also argue that vampires and zombies embody the very essence of what it means to be human.  This course will explore the current cultural fascination with zombies and vampires as a means of working through precisely this question:  what does it mean to be human?  The course will include the following texts: Richard Matheson, I Am Legend (and the 2007 film); Cormac McCarthy, The Road; Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War; Stephenie Meyer, Twilight; Let the Right One In; Let Me In; George Romero’s zombie cycle; AMC’s The Walking Dead; and Greene and Mohammad, ed. Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy.

 

400. Supervised Teaching: Practical experience in teaching through assisting a faculty teacher in conduct of a regularly scheduled undergraduate course. Open only to graduate students with at least one semester of graduate course work at Lehigh University and a GPA of at least 3.5. Usually rostered in conjunction with 485. Prerequisite: consent of the department chairperson.

 

495. Independent Study: Individually supervised course in an area of literature, film or writing not covered in regularly listed courses. Prerequisite: consent of the graduate program coordinator.

 

*Please see technical requirements under web-based course listings for additional information.