200 Level Courses in English

• Course Code: 01:358:275

01   TF3    CAC   12248  CARPENTER    MU-211

What does it mean to live a good life? What sorts of activities and lifestyles are most conducive to personal fulfillment? What is the value of community and friendship and connection to place? Such questions have assumed a new level of urgency in our contemporary moment, which is hardly surprising in the context of widespread ecological destruction, social inequality, and the myriad forms of economic exploitation occurring under late-stage capitalism; as David Graeber writes, the last few decades have seen an unprecedented proliferation of “bullshit jobs” that are perceived as being so meaningless and spiritually draining that they inflict “psychic wounds” upon workers.

This course proceeds from the assumption that the seemingly timeless question of what it means to live a good life is historically contingent and can be investigated as such. In this class, we will explore how authors from a diversity of time periods have wrestled with the question of how to live well in the face of structural forces that threaten to undermine the possibility of human flourishing. Beginning in the 18th century and moving up to the present day, students will gain skills in comparative historical analysis by considering how ideas about what it means to live a good and fulfilling life both persist and change over time. Students will also consider how the various literary representations of happiness and the good life that we will analyze carry political implications and reflect broader ideological trends. Some authors we will consider are: Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William James, W.E.B DuBois, Simon Pokagon, James Baldwin, Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, Wendell Berry, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Robin Wall Kimmerer.

• Course Code: 01:358:246

01  MTH3    CAC  12138    JACKSON     ABE-1180

The Aesthetics and Psychology of Fear

We read gothic literature for pleasure, for the thrill it gives us, for the spine-tingling suspense that builds to a sudden—often deeply—unsettling crescendo.  No sooner do we recover from one fright, but we feel the narrative tension mounting again.  Aside from this pleasure, what is gothic literature about?  Why, for instance, the focus on a protagonist’s fear, anxiety, and helplessness?  What draws us to the idea of dark foreboding landscapes, the urban underworld, haunted houses, demonic realms, and alien forces?  Why are we repulsed by and drawn to urban legends, ominous figures, foreboding fates, and stories of macabre murders? In pursuing these questions, we will look to the critical frameworks offered by psychology, folklore, anthropology, philosophy, and literary theory.  We will examine fear’s psychological payoff and the way the gothic traces social fissures and cultural anxieties: how it retells tragedy, human trauma, violence, and the like. If you’re interested in psychological narratives and in understanding the relationship between fear and its affective pleasure, this is the course for you.

• Course Code: 01:358:213

01  TTH5   CAC   12244   MCGILL    MU-114

 Edgar Allan Poe is widely known as an innovator or inventor of a number of popular genres:  the locked-room mystery, science fiction, the gothic tale, and the newspaper hoax.  But he has also had a huge impact on more elite literary and cultural pursuits:  his writing was central to the development of Symbolist poetry, modernist painting and illustration, film, psychoanalysis, and literary theory.  The figure of Poe—melancholy dreamer, misunderstood genius, and poverty-stricken magazine writer—has shaped our very idea of what it means to be a modern author, one who depends for survival on a fickle literary marketplace.  In this class we will study a broad range of Poe’s writing in order to understand his interventions into the literature and culture of his own era and his ongoing influence on ours.

 Students will take two in-class hour tests and a final exam; in-class writing and periodic quizzes will be regular features of this class.  

• Course Code: 01:358:206

MA  MTH3   CAC  12243  CAPONEGRO   MU-303

Writing Lab: AI and Media Exploration

Looking to grow as a writer and communicator? Whether you are a confident storyteller with a project in mind, a STEM student aiming to sharpen your communication skills, or simply curious about new and effective ways to express ideas, this class is for you. In this mini-course we will experiment with a variety of platforms and media, from manual printing presses and handmade inks to audio storytelling, visual rhetoric, and AI-assisted tools. Through guided practice, guest lectures, and on-location creative experimentation, you will learn to communicate effectively across different formats and audiences.