Winter 2020 Courses

Undergraduate English Courses
Graduate English Courses
Undergraduate Writing Courses
Graduate Writing Courses

Winter 2020 Undergraduate English Courses

ENG 204-001 SURVEY OF BRITISH LIT I
Christine Rose

An introduction to British literature from its beginnings to the seventeenth century.

ENG 253-001 SURVEY OF AMERICAN LIT I
Elisabeth Ceppi

An introduction to American literature from its beginnings to the mid-nineteenth century.

ENG 260-001 INTRO TO WOMEN'S LIT
Hildy Miller

In this course we will read, discuss, and write about a sampling of short stories, novellas, a novel, and poetry, along with speeches and tracts written by women in English in the 19th century. We’ll consider how women from different backgrounds write their life concerns and, in some cases, challenge established literary and cultural traditions. Such concerns include questions of gender identities, difference, and finding a voice; creativity, spirituality, and madness; motherhood, marriage, and partnerships of all sorts; sexualities, women’s bodies and bodily existence, and social justice and reform.

Our goal will be to consider what theoretical and historical perspectives help us to appreciate literature by women—and to read and interpret literature in general at the college level. We’ll look at the sociocultural conditions in England and America that affected women’s ability to make their voices heard: education, practices around personal relationships and employment, and such social issues as movements for suffrage, abolition, and temperance. We’ll see too how many women writers and speakers pushed back against the dominant paradigms of the day, envisaging theoretical possibilities for rethinking gender that didn’t become commonly accepted in the academy for over a century. Many of these women have been reconsidered and retheorized in recent years. Most of all—and this is no small thing—I hope we’ll form a community of readers enjoying the stories and thoughts of so many talented writers—from Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Sojourner Truth.

Texts: The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. Sandra U. Gilbert and Susan Gubar. Volume 1. Third edition. New York: New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
Online readings as assigned
Questions? Contact Hildy Miller at milleh@pdx.edu

ENG 300-003 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS
Alastair Hunt

Emphasizes skills in close reading, formal analysis, the specialized study of literary genres, argumentation, and the process of drafting, revising, and editing academic essays. Required for, but not restricted to, English majors.

ENG 300-001 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS
Michael Clark

ENG 300-002 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS
Alastair Hunt

ENG 301U-001 TOP: SHAKESPEAREAN GENRE
John Smyth

“He was not dependent on the fortuities of inspiration. It is not the least part of his glory that one can say of him, the greater the thinker the greater the poet. It would come nearer the mark to say the greater the mind the greater the poet, because the evil of thinking as poetry is not the same thing as the good of thinking in poetry.” (Wallace Stevens)

This class will focus on the intimate relation between Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies. Plays will include A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Troilus and Cressida, and The Tempest. Films will include Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. Commentaries will include René Girard's Shakespeare: A Theater of Envy.

ENG 304-001 CRITICAL THEORY OF CINEMA
Wendy Collins

An introduction to critical and historical approaches to the study of cinema, including feminism, structuralism, sociological criticism, and psychoanalysis, with discussion of cinema as art form and cultural commodity.

ENG 305U-002 TOPICS IN FILM
Daniel DeWeese

Study of film as text, including auteur, formalist, historical, and cultural perspectives. Course may be repeated for credit with different topics.

ENG 305U-003 TOP: FILM NOIR
Michael Clark

Film Noir is a course designed for anyone interested in this classic American film style that flourished from 1940 through 1960 and again in the neo-noir films of the 1970s and beyond. Famous for its brooding and celebratory depiction of criminality in American life, film noir is one of two quintessential American film styles (along with the Western).

We will have weekly screenings of the films under review, weekly readings, and weekly blog posts. A midterm and final exam will constitute 60% of the grade. Course is intended for all students, from beginner to advanced.

Readings will come from two classic texts, Film Noir, by Andrew Spicer, and Film Noir: A Reader, by Alain Silver and James Ursini.

ENG 306U-001 TOP: GRAPHIC NOVEL

Katya Amato

"The graphic novel is not literary fiction's half-wit cousin, but,
more accurately, the mutant sister who can often do everything
fiction can, and, just as often, more." --Dave Eggers

"Drawing is a way of thinking." --Chris Ware

This term we explore contemporary graphic novels and interpret them with the respect and delight they deserve. The course is not a historical or genre survey: no superheroes, Will Eisner, or Fritz the Cat. Instead, we focus on recent graphic novels that make truth claims we will examine, sometimes with historical perspectives as context.

Much class time will be spent in groups to obtain other people's perspectives, so be sure that you like group work (you are graded, however, only on your own writing). Attendance and participation are required. Assignments include short response papers, panel analysis, a five-page paper tying together three of our texts and interpreting a theme or imagery, and a final project (an analytical paper or a sixteen-panel story arc). Guest speakers are likely though not yet spoken for.

Required Texts (available at the PSU Bookstore and elsewhere):
Lynda Barry, One!Hundred!Demons! (ISBN 13-978-1-570-61459-0)
Chabouté, Alone (ISBN 978-1-50115-332-7)
Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (ISBN 13-978-0-375-71454-2)
Marjane Satrapi, Embroideries (ISBN 13-978-0-375-71467-2)
Rutu Modan, Exit Wounds (ISBN 978-0-224-08166-5)
Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie, Aya: Life in Yop City (ISBN 978-17-70460829)
Moebius, Inside Moebius Part 1 (ISBN 978-1-50670-320-6)

ENG 307U-001 SCIENCE FICTION
Elizabeth Brown

Dystopian Fiction, Race, and the Politics of the Future

In a recent special issue for the Boston Review on “Global Dystopias, Critical Dystopias,” author Junot Díaz observed that US culture has reached “peak dystopia.” Over the last several years, dystopian science fiction has surged in popularity among US audiences. Along with new dystopias imagined in works such as Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and Netflix’s anthology series Black Mirror, canonical dystopian fiction such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale have (re)emerged as sites to explore collective anxieties about the future. Yet, as Díaz has noted, our ability to imagine future possibilities through dystopian fiction has been constrained by a publishing industry that has tended to marginalize science fiction by women and writers of color. In this course, we will explore the politics of various futures imagined within dystopian science fiction by reading canonical, popular, and lesser known works of the 20th and 21st centuries and by attending to fictional treatments of race. Questions we will pursue include: In what ways have authors used dystopian science fiction to critique their present realities? How has race figured into dystopian world-building, including representations of past, present, and future? For whom and in what terms have fictional dystopias appeared as recognizably nightmare societies? To consider these questions, we will practice strategies to analyze dystopian science fiction that will likewise help us think critically about dystopian fiction’s vocation to, in the words of Tom Moylan, “map, warn, and hope.”

Offered as part of the Examining Popular Culture cluster, this course will teach you strategies to critically read, research, and write about popular dystopian fiction. In addition to reading dystopian novels and short stories by authors such as Aldous Huxley, E.M. Forster, W.E.B. Du Bois, Octavia Butler, Cherie Dimaline, and Celu Amberstone, you will have the opportunity to work collaboratively to research and present on a short dystopian work of your choosing.

Required Texts:
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (ISBN 0060850523)
Octavia Butler, Dawn (ISBN 0446603775)
Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves (ISBN 1770864865)

ENG 318U-001 THE BIBLE AS LIT
William Knight

Study of the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament as literary anthologies of the ancient Near East, emphasizing cultural and historical contexts, political and theological histories, and close readings of the texts.

ENG 319U-001 NORTHERN EUROPEAN MYTHOLOGY
Katya Amato

Come to Valhalla, the Spring of Mimir, the Lands of the Giants and of the Dark and Light Elves, and then travel south to the Celtic Otherworlds of Wales and Ireland before embarking on a mythic journey across America. We will immerse ourselves in Norse and Celtic mythologies collected and redacted in medieval times and then see the myths at play in a contemporary text by Neil Gaiman.

Texts:

Anthony Faulkes, translator, Edda by Snorri Sturluson (1987, Everyman)
Carolyne Larrington, translator, The Poetic Edda (2014, Oxford World's Classics, rev. ed.)
Jesse L. Byock, translator, The Saga of the Volsungs (2000, Penguin)
Patrick K. Ford, translator, The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales (1977, UC Press)
Jeffrey Gantz, translator, Early Irish Myths and Sagas (1981, Penguin)
Thomas Kinsella, translator, The Tain (1970, Oxford)
Neil Gaiman, American Gods (2001, HarperCollins, or author's preferred edition)

The texts will be available at the PSU Bookstore (ISBN numbers are listed on its website). If you use translations other than those listed above, you will add unnecessarily to the difficulty of the course. Instead, find the listed translations in the many secondhand and library copies available around town. Translations matter ("traduttore, traditore").

Course Requirements:

Regular attendance, a Norse exam and a Celtic exam, and a short paper on American Gods. The Gaiman novel is long and exciting, and if you have time over the holiday break, you might enjoy reading it in advance of the class.

ENG 327-001 CULTURE, IMPER, GLOBAL
Bishupal Limbu

Examines cultural encounter and its effects. Topics may address various historical periods and geographical regions, but they will share a focus on connecting aesthetics to the political and institutional contexts of imperialism and globalization.

ENG 333U-001 HST CINEMA/NARRATIVE MEDIA II
Wendy Collins

Surveys the history of cinema and narrative media from the end of the Second World War to the 1970s. Issues will include the impact of postwar artistic and literary movements, postwar consumer cultures, the cold war, new wave movements, television, youth culture, and third cinemas.

ENG 341U-001 RENAISSANCE LITERATURE
Jonathan Walker

Love is, of course, a many splendored thing. But it is also a very complicated, irrational, and often painful affair. As the cultural critic Laura Kipnis has put it (and not a little acerbically): “Saying no to love isn’t simply heresy; it is tragedy—the failure to achieve what is most essentially human. So deeply internalized is our obedience to this most capricious despot [of love] that artists create passionate odes to its cruelty, and audiences seem never to tire of the most deeply unoriginal mass spectacles devoted to rehearsing the litany of its torments, fixating their very beings on the narrowest glimmer of its fleeting satisfactions” (“A Treatise on the Tyranny of Two,” 1). It was no less so in Renaissance England.

In this course, we will read primarily English Renaissance poetry along with one dramatic text, all of which centers on the subject of love. Yet because love encompasses so many other dimensions—attraction, rejection, desire, loss, beauty, sex, gender, eroticism, social roles, marriage—our readings will touch upon a wide range of themes, many of which overlap. The course will not be comprehensive in its coverage, but we will address questions of desire, the body, eroticism, clothing, seduction, and leavetaking within four broad units. In addition, we will occasionally read non-literary texts, such as a religious homily, essays, and even parliamentary legislation, which will help us to orient ourselves within Renaissance culture and to understand both the similarities and the differences between early modern English and contemporary American notions of that crazy little thing called love.

Finally, this class will be discussion-based. There will be very few lectures. Participation is key, so I will expect you to have read the poetry several times for each day, to have ideas and questions about the readings, and to be prepared to discuss the material during our class time.

ENG 344U-001 VICTORIAN LITERATURE
Tracy Dillon

Study of Victorian literature, including literary genres and themes, historical and cultural contexts, and major authors and movements.

ENG 352U-001 AFRICAN-AMER LIT
Elizabeth Brown

In this course, we will read African American literature produced in the century from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. Across essays, novels, short stories, poetry, and plays, we will think critically about both individual texts and what it has meant to study and define African American literature over time. What, for instance, have been various, and often competing, investments in defining African American literature? In what ways have authors used literature and literary forms to take up issues of race, nationalism, and belonging in an era marked not only by de jure and de facto racial segregation and violence but also by widely influential artistic and social movements? How have authors imagined the relationship between art and possibilities for social change? As we consider these and related questions, we will attend to literary treatments of race as intersected by class, gender, sexuality, and ability.

This course is the second in a sequence of three courses on African American literature, and you will leave it familiar with movements such as the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement. As part of the American Identities cluster, it will likewise introduce strategies to think and write critically about the politics of race, culture, and US identities over time. In addition to the works listed below, we might also read short selections by authors such as Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, Charles Chesnutt, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Amiri Baraka.

Required Texts:
Frances E.W. Harper, Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (ISBN10-0195063244)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (ISBN 9780553213362)
Nella Larsen, Quicksand and Passing (ISBN 10-0813511704)
George Schuyler, Black No More (ISBN 10-0143131885)

ENG 369U-001 ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Marie Lo

An introduction to Asian American literature, including literary genres and themes, historical and cultural contexts, and major authors and movements.

ENG 372U-001 TOP: LIT, GENDER & SEXUALITY
John Smyth

Primary Texts and Films will include:

Sappho, “Ode to Aphrodite.”
Aristophanes, The Assembly of Women
Plato, Symposium
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado about Nothing
Honoré de Balzac, “Sarrasine” and Roland Barthes, S/Z
Neil Jordan, The Crying Game (film)
Isak Dinesen, “The Blank Page,” “Oration at a Bonfire,” and Ehrengard
Sylvia Plath, “Daddy”
Peter Greenaway, The Draughtsman’s Contract (film)

Secondary Texts will include:

Angela Carter, The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography
Michel Foucault, The Use of Pleasure (on Plato)
René Girard, Shakespeare: A Theater of Envy (on A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Camille Paglia, Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism
Leo Strauss, Socrates and Aristophanes (on The Assembly of Women and Plato’s Symposium)

ENG 373U-001 TOP: IRISH LITERATURE
Susan Reese

In the upheaval that is our current world, there is perhaps no better place to visit for perspective and the impact writing can have on that upheaval than Irish Literature, and that will be one way in which we will engage in discussion of texts written by a few of my favorite Irish writers:

Translations by Brian Friel (I didn’t order this text as it’s available online for much cheaper)
The Dubliners by James Joyce (also available online)
A Pagan Place by Edna O'Brien
The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume One
The Poor Mouth by Flann O'Brien
Marina Carr Plays 1 by Marina Carr
a girl is a half-formed thing by Eimear McBride

(These texts will be available in the PSU Bookstore, with the exception of the Friel, but feel free to find them elsewhere. I approved used copies as I hope for the most affordable format, and the bookstore does rent texts, just so you know.)

We'll share a journey through 20th century Irish literature to the present via film, poetry, plays, a novel and short prose, the above supplemented by the Professor’s insertions of Yeats, Swift, Beckett, and others. Please join me as it's going to be a lot of fun!

Please join me!

ENG 387U-001 WOMEN'S LITERATURE
Christine Rose

Study of works by women writers from the medieval period to the present, focusing on topics such as feminism, marginalization, and women’s roles in the public and private spheres.

ENG 414-001 CONTEMP COMPOSITION THEORIES
Kathryn Comer

Examines theories of composition as they conflict and converge to form our prevailing theories of writing. Focuses on contemporary theories of composing written discourse. Expected preparation: 8 additional upper division Literature credits.

ENG 428-001 CANONS AND CANONICITY
Bishupal Limbu

Examines the historical, institutional, and ideological contexts in which traditions of "great works" have been established, contested, and creatively appropriated. Investigates how categories of social difference such as gender, race, and class have shaped the criteria by which works and authors have been included and excluded from dominant traditions.

ENG 458-001 ADV TOP: ROMANTICISM
Alastair Hunt

Study of selected aspects of Romantic literature and culture in Britain, with some attention to European Romanticism. Topics may include theories of Romanticism, poetry and poetics, the novel, the essay, autobiography, aesthetics, ecology, animals, politics, queerness, and race. Course may be repeated for credit with different topics. Up to 8 credits of this course number can be applied to the English major.

ENG 460-001 ADV TOP: AMERICAN LIT TO 1800
Elisabeth Ceppi

Study of early American literature in the context of the history, ideas, and culture of the period. Topics focus on writing’s relationship to historical events and movements such as European imperialism; captivity; Atlantic slavery; evangelicalism; the Enlightenment; the Revolution and national formation. Course may be repeated for credit with different topics. Up to 8 credits of this course number can be applied to the English major.

ENG 496-001 COMICS THEORY

Focus on various critical approaches to comics, exploring interdisciplinary theories and methods and applying these theories to primary texts.

Winter 2020 Graduate English Courses

ENG 507-002 SEMINAR
Marie Lo

Variable topics. Graduate only or consent of instructor. At least one Eng 507 seminar is required of M.A. candidates in English. (Credit to be arranged.)

ENG 507-003 SEMINAR
Jonathan Walker

In this course, we will read primarily English Renaissance poetry along with one dramatic text, all of which centers on the subject of love. Yet because love encompasses so many other dimensions—attraction, rejection, desire, loss, beauty, sex, gender, eroticism, social roles, marriage, and so forth—our primary and secondary readings will touch upon a wide range of themes, many of which overlap. The course will not be comprehensive in its coverage, but we will address questions of desire, the body, eroticism, clothing, seduction, and leavetaking within four broad units. In addition, we will occasionally read non-literary texts, such as a religious homily, period essays, and even parliamentary legislation, which will help us to orient ourselves within Renaissance culture and to understand both the similarities and the differences between early modern English and contemporary American notions of that crazy little thing called love.

In addition to regular participation in class discussions, course requirements will include a short midterm essay, a presentation, and a final research project.

ENG 507-001 SEM: LISTENING TO MODERNISM
Joshua Epstein

"The rapids were near, and an uninterrupted, uniform, headlong, rushing noise filled the mournful stillness of the grove, where not a breath stirred, not a leaf moved, with a mysterious sound—as though the tearing pace of the launched earth had suddenly become audible." –Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

"Ou-boum." –E. M. Forster, A Passage to India

If modernism represents the “art that responds to the scenario of our chaos,” as Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane write, modernist texts constantly simulate the noise of that chaos: the clatter of urban spaces, the rhythms of machinery, the static of broadcast media. And as you know, many of the modernist anxieties about sound—new technologies that make music and sound seem more portable yet less human, more convenient yet less sacred, more commercial yet more atomized—continue to saturate our own world. This seminar will study the resonances of sound in British and European novels, poems, films, radio plays, and musical works from the first half of the 20th century. Our reading/listening will be informed by the field of sound studies: an array of philosophy, theory, and media history attentive to listening as a cultural practice. These methods will inform our central questions: How are acoustic spaces raced, gendered, classed? How is the nebulous thing we call “voice” mediated by modernist forms and modern technologies? How do hearing and listening shape the formation of subjectivity? How do British subjects, living at the center of an unstable Empire, “listen out” to the colonial periphery? How might modernist texts, in giving form to such experiences, critique the “ocularcentric” orientations of Western thought?

I'm sure we'll come up with other good ones. We'll be..."booming" with questions. The course will be...a "blast." I hope it..."sounds" good to you.

Required Texts:
Joseph Conrad, ed. Paul Armstrong, Heart of Darkness (Norton; 978-0-393264869).
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land. Please acquire either the Norton Critical edition, or the edition edited by Lawrence Rainey (The Annotated Waste Land, Yale Univ. Press).
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (Annotated) (Mariner; 978-0-156030359).
E. M. Forster, A Passage to India (Harvest; 978-0-156711425).
Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood (New Directions; 978-0-811202091).**
Samuel Beckett, Collected Shorter Plays (Grove; 978-0-802144386).

Recommended Texts: These will be made available on library reserve. You may either buy these books or scan/photocopy the required excerpts for class.
Jonathan Sterne (ed.), The Sound Studies Reader (Routledge; 978-0-415771313).
Paul Poplawski, Encyclopedia of Literary Modernism (Greenwood; 978-0-313310171).
James Mansell and Scott Anthony, The Projection of Britain: A History of the GPO Film Unit (Palgrave; 978-1-844573745).

ENG 514-001 CONTEMP COMP THEORY
Kathryn Comer

ENG 518-001 COLLEGE COMP TEACHING
Susan Kirtley

Introduces and develops the theoretical and practical expertise of the graduate teaching assistant in the area of college composition teaching. May be taken up to three times for credit.

ENG 519-001 ADV COLLEGE COMP TEACHING
Susan Kirtley

Continues the development of the theoretical and practical expertise of the graduate teaching assistant in advanced areas of college composition teaching. May be repeated up to three times for credit. Required prerequisite: appointment to 2nd year teaching assistantship in English Department.

ENG 531-002 TOP: COLLOQUIUM
Joshua Epstein

ENG 531 is a one-credit class designed to support M.A. in English students in their progress toward the M.A. General Exam. We shall be discussing two texts from the M.A. Reading List—Gulliver’s Travels and King Lear—in the context of the exam and of the field of English more generally. We'll be using the Norton Critical Editions of both texts.

If you are able, please start (and, ideally, finish) reading Gulliver’s Travels over the December break.

Winter 2020 Undergraduate Writing Courses

WR 115-001 INTRO TO COLLEGE WRITING
Dustin Rozier

A writing course for first-year students to help prepare them for Freshman Inquiry or Wr 121. Introduces college-level writing and reading, along with general study skills. Provides practice at formal and informal writing, responding to a variety of readings, learning textual conventions, and building confidence.

WR 115-002 INTRO TO COLLEGE WRITING
Dustin Prisley

WR 121-006 COLLEGE WRITING
Devan Pride

A writing course for lower-division students, in which they develop critical thinking abilities by reading and writing, increase their rhetorical strategies, practice writing processes, and learn textual conventions. Includes formal and informal writing, responding to a variety of readings, sharing writing with other students, and revising individual pieces for a final portfolio of work.

WR 121-001 COLLEGE WRITING
Melissa Meskell

WR 121-003 COLLEGE WRITING
Travis Willmore

WR 121-004 COLLEGE WRITING
Anton Jones

WR 121-005 COLLEGE WRITING
Xian Wang

WR 199-001 SPST: WRITING FOR COLLEGE
Daniel DeWeese

May be repeated for a maximum of 12 credits. See department for course description. (Credit to be arranged.)

WR 200-001 WRITING ABOUT LIT
Kassidy Imerman

Introduction to various approaches for writing about literature. Focuses on ways of responding to literature, ways of explicating literature, ways of analyzing literature through writing, and ways of integrating formal research into a written analysis of literature. Special attention will be paid to the writing process, including multiple drafting and revision.

WR 212-001 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Gabriel Urza

Introduces the beginning fiction writer to basic techniques of developing character, point of view, plot, and story idea in fiction. Includes discussion of student work. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry.

WR 212-002 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Janice Lee

In this class we will explore the practice of writing fiction as an experience that not only includes putting words to page and telling stories, but also listening, observing, giving attention, feeling, moving, walking, meditating, and sensing. The course will work as a creative laboratory, giving the students the opportunity to experiment and investigate within the realm of fiction. Our work will be guided by writing exercises, readings by diverse contemporary authors, and discussions of core craft elements. There will also be some discussion of student work. Throughout, we will explore what it means to articulate via language, to be challenged by language, to recreate intimacy with language, and to see differently because of language.

WR 212-003 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Kathleen Levitt

WR 213-001 INTRO POETRY WRITING
Michele Glazer

Introduces the beginning writer of poetry to basic techniques for developing a sense of language, meter, sound, imagery, and structure. Includes discussion of professional examples and student work. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry.

WR 213-002 INTRO POETRY WRITING
Joshua Pollock

WR 214-001 INTRO NONFICTION WRITING
Paul Collins

An introduction to writing creative nonfiction, using essays by David Sedaris, graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, oral history by Audrey Petty, and field reporting by other writers to delve into the skills that fostered their art. Through exercises in description, setting, and dialogue, students will write and discuss short works of creative nonfiction.

WR 222-001 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
Jarrod Dunham

An elective course. The techniques for compiling and writing research papers. Attention to available reference materials, use of library, taking notes, critical evaluation of evidence, and conventions for documenting academic papers. Practice in organizing and writing a long expository essay based on use of library resources. Recommended: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry. May not be used to fulfill English major requirements.

WR 222-002 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
Karyn-Lynn Fisette

WR 222-003 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
Alexander Dannemiller

WR 227-003 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG
Lauren Hobson

Practical experience in forms of technical communication, emphasizing basic organization and presentation of technical information. Focuses on strategies for analyzing the audience and its information needs. Recommended: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry.

WR 227-001 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG
Garret Romaine

WR 227-002 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG
Mary Sylwester

WR 227-004 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG
Jordana Bowen

WR 228-001 MEDIA WRITING
Eben Pindyck

An introductory course in journalism with an emphasis on original reporting. Students construct stories by identifying newsworthiness, composing leads, and finding, and interviewing, sources. Expected preparation: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry. May be repeated once for a total of 8 credits.

WR 301-001 WIC: CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH
Kathryn Comer

This writing-intensive course extends the skills developed in Eng 300 by studying some selected theoretical and disciplinary approaches to literary and other texts (including literary and rhetorical theory), and by introducing students to research methods as a way of entering scholarly conversations.

WR 301-002 WIC: CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH
Hildy Miller

As English majors, you're probably already familiar with much of what we do in our courses. This class is designed to stretch that knowledge further and prepare you to succeed in upper division work. We'll highlight strategies for writing and conducting secondary research and for reading and interpreting texts through the lenses of varied critical theories. And we’ll discuss and prepare some preliminary materials that you can use for the wide variety of writing and teaching careers of English majors, including writing and teaching internships and teaching abroad. The class will include formal and informal writing, responding to a variety of readings, sharing writing with other students, and reflecting on writing. Our class will run as a workshop in which you’ll be collaborating with other students throughout phases of the writing processes. If all goes as promised, you should emerge from the course with a renewed sense of how to read, write, and think critically about English Studies—and how to parlay your major into a career.

Questions? Contact Hildy Miller at milleh@pdx.edu.

Texts—can find in PSU bookstore or online. Just be sure to get the identical text:
Texts and Contexts: Writing about Literature with Critical Theory (7th ed paperback). Steven J. Lynn. Pearson, 2016.
The Turn of the Screw (Henry James): Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Peter Beidler, Ed. Macmillan, 2010.
Online materials as assigned

WR 312-001 INTERMED FICTION WRITING
Gabriel Urza

WR 312-002 INTERMED FICTION WRITING
Matthew Robinson

WR 313-001 INTERMEDIATE POETRY WRITING

Continues the study of poetry writing techniques introduced in Wr 213. Includes additional instruction in poetic forms, variations on traditional forms, and experimental forms. Emphasizes discussion of student work. May be repeated once for credit.

WR 323-007 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Kirsten Rian

A writing course for upper-division students, which offers sophisticated approaches to writing and reading. Students enhance critical thinking abilities by reading and writing challenging material, refine their rhetorical strategies, practice writing processes with special attention to revision and style, and write and read in a variety of genres. Includes formal and informal writing, sharing writing with other students, and preparing a final portfolio of work. Recommended: satisfactory completion of Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry.

WR 323-006 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Karyn-Lynn Fisette

WR 323-008 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Elizabeth Miossec-Backer

WR 323-009 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Amy Harper

WR 323-010 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Alexander Dannemiller

WR 323-001 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Keri Behre

WR 323-002 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Jessie Herrada Nance

WR 323-003 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Nada Sewidan

WR 323-004 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Sean Warren

WR 323-005 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Jessie Herrada Nance

WR 327-001 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Aaron Bannister

Strategies for presenting technical information from the technician, management, and lay person's perspectives; rhetorical theory and techniques for adapting technical prose to nontechnical audiences; and techniques for emphasizing and de-emphasizing information. Recommended: Wr 323.

WR 327-002 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Julie Kares

WR 327-003 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Jacob Tootalian

WR 328-001 MEDIA EDITING
Kjerstin Johnson

What does an editor do? What makes good feedback good? What's an en dash? In this course, writing students will be introduced to the three levels of editing: proofreading and copyediting, line and sentence-level editing, and longer developmental/content edits. Through reading, workshopping, reporting, and hands-on editing, students will learn to see their work and others' through new eyes while also learning more about how publications work and the various roles editors assume in the industry. Prerequisite: WR 228 or a comparable intro journalism course.

WR 331-001 BOOK PUBLISHING FOR WRITERS
Kathi Inman Berens

Overview of the book publishing process from acquisitions through book publication, marketing and distribution. Units on developing writers’ social media presence, authoring query letters, developmentally editing manuscripts, and designing a book marketing plan. Examines the culture of “Big-5” publishing houses and the rise of self-publishing.

WR 333-001 ADVANCED COMPOSITION
Keri Behre

Essay writing with particular attention to student's area of specialization. Advanced practice in essay writing. Recommended: Freshman Inquiry or two writing courses.

WR 398-001 WRITING COMICS
David Walker

The graphic novel features the unique marriage of words and pictures that has seeped into every facet of popular culture. This course will focus on composing graphic narratives, exploring all the storytelling elements that create this unique visual medium.

WR 407-003 SEM: ADVANCED POETRY
John Beer

Consent of instructor. See department for course description. (Credit to be arranged.)

WR 411-001, 002, 003, 004 INTERNSHIP
Susan Reese

Students apply their academic training and skills in the workforce, further developing those skills and learning new skills in the process. Students develop a better understanding of the value to employers of their education in literature, writing, and/or publishing. Integrating an internship with reflection and professional development enhances the experience. Can be taken for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits.

WR 412-003 ADVANCED FICTION WRITING
Mark Cunningham

In this workshop we will explore new approaches in our writing as we enrich and expand our vocabulary of appreciation and critique, acquire self-editing skills, and produce two self-contained works of fiction. Through reading and discussion, writing exercises and experiments, and analysis of published works and student works-in-progress, we’ll deepen our understanding of perspective, plot, characterization, narrative time, voice, setting, and more. Students will provide written responses to their classmates’ work and receive written commentary and suggestions from the instructor.

WR 416-001 SCREENWRITING
Thomas Bray

Students can expect to write longer and more ambitious works of fiction, while exploring a variety of technical problems and other questions emerging from class discussion. Course may be repeated once for credit.

WR 424-001 GRANT WRITING FOR PROF WRITERS
Tracy Dillon

This course introduces students training for careers as professional writers and for careers that require grant writing to the best practices in writing grants and managing the grant writing process across multiple sectors of the non-profit world and in academia. Students will apply their knowledge and skill by working with community-partner nonprofits that are seeking funds to solve social problems. Students will work collaboratively and individually to develop business plans, identify potential funding sources, and begin preparing grants.

WR 431-001 ADV TOP TECH WRITING TECHNLOGY

This course will teach students how to use the core features of MadCap Flare in order to create and manage professional-grade projects. Topic-based writing will be emphasized as a valuable documentation method in which content is managed in smaller standalone topics, each focusing on a very specific issue, process, or concept. MTPW students will produce multiple professional-grade deliverables, which include print and web-based projects, suitable for the program portfolio.

WR 432-001 FRAMEWORKS FOR TECH WRITING
Sarah Read

This course introduces students to the many frameworks for understanding the fundamental questions that shape technical communication as a practice in industry and as a field of academic study. Frameworks introduced may include rhetoric, design, ethics, social justice, network and ethics. Students will choose a framework to analyze and respond to a technical communication problem or situation of their choice and produce a portfolio piece to report and disseminate findings. This is a required core course in the MA/MS in Technical and Professional Writing.

WR 457-001 PERSONAL ESSAY WRITING
Justin Hocking

The word "essay" derives from the French "essai," meaning "to attempt, try, or experiment." In this workshop we will subvert formulaic approaches to writing, and instead embrace the personal essay as a dynamic art form that allows us to meditate on various subjects without necessarily arriving at any pat conclusions. We will discuss various purposes for "essaying," from exploring one's identity, to healing past traumas, enacting political/cultural/environmental change, or evoking delight in the reader. In-class writing exercises will include experiments with lyrical language, poetic moves, fictional technique, and co-opting of various formal conventions—all of which are all admissible within the bounds of a single essay. Students will also learn to choreograph various levels of narrative intimacy and distance by engaging with works that dive deep into personal and emotionally charged material, while also expanding outward, well beyond the self, to weave in news from the wider world.

Tentative Reading List:
Tell It Slant: Crafting, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction (3rd Edition) by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Abandon Me: Memoirs by Melissa Febos

WR 458-001 MAGAZINE WRITING
Eben Pindyck

Students report and write both long- and short-form magazine pieces, as well as peer-critique each other's work. Includes discussion of a myriad of titles, and addresses the business of magazine publishing today. Prerequisites: Wr 214 or Wr 228. Instructor approval required.

WR 460-001 INTRO TO BOOK PUBLISHING

Provides a detailed overview of the publishing process, organized around the division of labor, including introductions to contemporary American publishing, issues of intellectual commerce, copyright law, publishing contracts, book editing, book design and production, book marketing and distribution, and bookselling. Based on work in mock publishing companies, students prepare portfolios of written documents, i.e., book proposals, editorial guidelines, design and production standards, and marketing plans. Guest speakers from the publishing industry and field trips provide exposure to the industry.

WR 461-001 BOOK EDITING

Provides a comprehensive course in professional book editing, including editorial management, acquisitions editing, substantive/developmental editing, and copyediting. Issues specific to both fiction and nonfiction books will be covered.

WR 462-001 BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE
Kelley Dodd

Comprehensive course in professional book design and production. Issues specific to the design of fiction and nonfiction books in a variety of genres and markets will be covered, including the applications of both old and new technologies in design and production.

WR 463-001 BOOK MARKETING
Robyn Crummer-Olson

Comprehensive course in professional book marketing. Issues specific to the marketing of fiction/ nonfiction books in variety of genres and markets will be covered. Students will do market research, produce marketing plans, write press releases, write advertising copy, and develop related marketing materials.

WR 465-001 INTELLECTUAL PROP & COPYRIGHT
Michael Clark

Outlines opportunities and pitfalls faced by writer (editor, graphic designer, artist) in legal and ethical spheres. Copyright law, U.S. First Amendment law, defamation, right of privacy, trademark, trade secret law. Discusses the importance of the Internet in rethinking copyright and intellectual property rules.

WR 466-001 DIGITAL SKILLS
Kathleen Berens

A hands-on lab and discussion seminar about writing in computational environments. Students code webpages in HTML and CSS, then use domain management software to upload these pages to the web. Students modify website templates such as Wordpress and Squarespace and build digital portfolios, optimizing for imagined target audiences. SEO, information architecture, UX and very rudimentary JavaScript fundamentals are explored. Digital literacy is taught as a cultural literacy.

WR 471-001 TYPOGRAPHY, LAYOUT, PRODUCTION
Abbey Gaterud

Comprehensive course in professional book design and production. Issues specific to the design of fiction and nonfiction books in a variety of genres and markets will be covered.

WR 473-001 DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING
Anna Noak

Explores the relationship between an editor, a writer, and the work in the process of developmental editing—also known as global, substantive, or comprehensive editing. Examines historically significant editor/author relations, how the editorial process and relationships have changed over time, and how editorial expectations shift based on the expectations of the publisher, the constantly changing global marketplace, and the introduction of new technologies.

WR 474-001 PUBLISHING STUDIO
Abbey Gaterud

Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. Departments include Acquisitions, Editing, Design and Sustainable Production, Marketing, External Promotions, Sales, Digital Content, Social Media, and Project Management and Operations. Course may be repeated multiple times.

WR 475-001 PUBLISHING LAB
Abbey Gaterud

Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. Departments include Acquisitions, Editorial, Design, Marketing and Sales, Digital, and Social Media. Course may be taken multiple times for credit.

WR 476-001 PUBLISHING FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Study the techniques commonly deployed by writers and publishers of young adult and middle grade literature.

Winter 2020 Graduate Writing Courses

WR 507-001 SEM: MFA POETRY
Michele Glazer

In this seminar we will explore the fragment in poetry and prose. Fragment as rubble, remnant, evidence, constellation, decay, invitation, as suggestion of mortality, as evocation of time. As possibility. We will devote much of the term to reading, discussing and inhabiting works that engage the fragment variously, and we will write exercises under the influence of some of these works. The course is intended to be generative, to raise questions and to expand and complicate the expressive possibilities of fragment in your own work.

Here are a few of the questions we’ll likely take up: How is a constructed fragment different from one created through abandonment, accident or loss? Is the experience of fragment necessarily an experience of loss? How does an experience of profound loss affect form? What is the role of memory in the experience of the fragment? How does fragmentation engage a reader’s participation?

Texts:

Readings may include texts or brief selections by Roland Barthes, Edwidge Danticat, Lydia Davis, Emily Dickinson, Camelias Elias, Felix Fénéon, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Amy Hempel, Heraclitus, Sarah Manguso, Daniel Mendelsohn, Mimnermus, Maggie Nelson, Diana Khoi Nguyen, George Oppen, Francis Ponge, Auguste Rodin, Sappho, Marguerite Yourcenar, & other poets, prose writers, and artists.

Book-length:
One or two, to be finalized

We will have two class visitors: Barry Pelzner is a visual artist who teaches at PNCA and shows at the Froelick Gallery. Consuelo Wise is a poet who is writing a book-length elegy that leans on fragmentation.

MFA fiction and nonfiction students are welcome. MA in English, MS/MA in Publishing/Tech Writing students, post-bacs and others interested may register with instructor’s permission; submit a 2- to 3-page sample of your creative work (any genre) and a brief description of your interest to glazer@pdx.edu.

Consent of instructor.

WR 507-002 SEM: MFA FICTION
Gabriel Urza

Consent of instructor. See department for course description. (Credit to be arranged.)

WR 507-003 SEM: MFA NONFICTION (ESSAY)
Justin Hocking

The act of writing an essay is often considered a purely intellectual pursuit, but what possibilities exist for writing our own bodily experiences and sensory/kinesthetic ways of knowing into an essay? How do our bodies inform our various racial, cultural, sexual, and gender identities, and how do we continually author/re-author ourselves on the page? And in an era of increasing awareness of the subtle and non-subtle ways that those in positions of power can exploit and harm vulnerable bodies, how might the act of essaying enhance collective resistance movements and individual healing processes? By engaging in gentle movement practices (appropriate for all abilities), writing exercises, and reading-based discourse, students in this seminar course will explore these and other exigent questions.

Reading List:
The Laugh of the Medusa by Hélène Cixous
The Body by Jenny Boully
The Reckonings: Essays by Lacy M. Johnson
Madre De Dios by Barry Lopez
Abandon Me: Memoirs by Melissa Febos
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

WR 509-001 PRAC: TCHING TECH & PRO WRITNG
Sarah Read

This is the second quarter of the 1-credit practicum for GAs teaching WR 227 and other MTPW students interested in engaging with the teaching of technical writing—something you will be qualified to do as a MA/MS in Technical Writing.

WR 510-003 TOP: PORTLAND REVIEW PBLSHNG
Benjamin Kessler

See department for course description. (Credit to be arranged.)

WR 510-008 TOP: RSRCHNG BOOK PUBLISHING
Rachel Noorda

See department for course description. (Credit to be arranged.)

WR 510-001 TOP: MFA TEACHING COLLOQUIUM
Janice Lee

In this colloquium, students interested in teaching undergraduate (introductory) creative writing classes, will learn to design a syllabus and course schedule, and devise effective exercises. In thinking about the syllabus, we will discuss pedagogy, student outcomes, and student assessment, as well as the challenges of managing a classroom, dealing with difficult content or controversial subject matter, and considerations of diversity and accessibility. We will also talk about the basics of applying for teaching jobs (and the components of a teaching application). There will also be several guest speakers throughout the term to lend their expertise and experience.

WR 510-002 TOP: MFA COLLOQUIUM GRANTS
Janice Lee

Students in this colloquium will research, identify, and apply (or plan to apply when the submission period reopens) for two fellowships, residencies or grants. The colloquium will aim to provide information, as well as support and editorial assistance for the submission process. We will discuss the components of an artist’s statement, tips for writing a strong application, how to identity funding opportunities, what do look for in a residency/fellowship/grant, and other questions related to submission materials and the submission process. There will also be several guest speakers throughout the term to lend their expertise and experience.

WR 511-001, 002, 003, 004 INTERNSHIP
Susan Reese

WR 521-001 MFA CORE WORKSHOP FICTION
Janice Lee

In this workshop we will examine the entire spectrum of the writing process, and use revision as a way to rewrite, rebuild, and “re-see” a work of fiction. We will read various essays on craft, writing, language, and ways of engaging with the world, and also work on our own definitions & reconceptions of major craft terms. Students will apply a variety of revision procedures to their work and work on re-envisioning the structural frameworks that shape not only their individual stories and chapters, but also their collections or novels as a whole, think more critically about writing as a unique process of becoming, and engage in critical analyses and discussions of their peers’ work. (Restricted to students admitted to the MFA program’s fiction strand.)

WR 522-001 MFA CORE WORKSHOP POETRY
John Beer

The MFA Core Workshop in Poetry focuses on the writing, revision, and critical discussion of student poems. Students' verbal and written critical analyses of their peers' work are informed by their reading of published poems representing a range of formal strategies and historical and cultural contexts, and by their reading in prosody and poetics. May be taken up to six times for credit. This course is restricted to graduate students admitted to the Writing Program (Poetry).

WR 524-001 GRANT WRITING FOR PROF WRITERS
Tracy Dillon

WR 531-001 ADV TOP TECH WRITING TECHNLOGY

WR 532-001 FRAMEWORK FOR TECH WRITING
Sarah Read

WR 560-001 INTRO TO BOOK PUBLISHING
Tawny Johnson

WR 561-001 BOOK EDITING
Laura Stanfill

WR 562-001 BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE
Kelley Dodd

Provides a strong foundation in design software used in the book publishing industry, focusing on Adobe InDesign. Also explores Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat, as well as XHTML and e-book design. The class considers audience expectations through a range of hands-on design projects.

WR 563-001 BOOK MARKETING
Robyn Crummer-Olson

The objective of this course is to understand the role of marketing and publicity in publishing and to obtain the necessary skills to create a sales presentation, tip sheet, marketing plan, press release, and pitch letter. Your goal is to end the course able to create marketing and publicity campaigns and press kits that are directly applicable to a career in book publishing.

WR 565-001 INTELLECTUAL PROP & COPYRIGHT
Michael Clark

WR 566-001 DIGITAL SKILLS
Kathi Inman Berens

This course is a hands-on lab and a discussion seminar about writing in computational environments. Students code webpages in HTML and CSS, then use domain management software to upload these pages to the web. Students modify website templates such as Wordpress and Squarespace, and can craft final projects of their choice in consultation with the instructor. Programming fundamentals are explored by modifying a JavaScript program that outputs a poem, which prompts discussion about the culture of copying and remix. Computational literacy is a systems approach to creative thinking. We critically analyze writing productivity software, multimodal “database” essays, and best practices of website design for desktop and mobile. We read texts about the history of writing software and coding as a cultural literacy.

This course is not focused on ebook publishing. It is a prerequisite for the spring’s ebook production course. Students with programming background should not take this course unless they wish to work on a specific project of their choice, and engage in humanities discourse about writing in computational environments.

WR 571-001 TYPOGRAPHY, LAYOUT, PRODUCTION
Abbey Gaterud

Comprehensive course in professional book design and production. Issues specific to the design of fiction and nonfiction books in a variety of genres and markets will be covered.

Prerequisite: WR 562: Book Design Software

WR 573-001 DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING
Anna Noak

Prerequisite: WR 561: Book Editing

WR 574-001 PUBLISHING STUDIO
Abbey Gaterud

Prerequisite: WR 575: Publishing Lab

WR 575-001 PUBLISHING LAB
Abbey Gaterud

Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. Departments include Acquisitions, Editorial, Design, Marketing and Sales, Digital, and Social Media. May be taken multiple times for credit.

WR 576-001 PUBLISHING FOR YOUNG ADULTS
Abby Ranger

An exploration of the current publishing landscape of young adult fiction, with attention to the dynamic challenges, responsibilities, and opportunities inherent in publishing books for young readers (age 12+). Coursework will include reading and discussion of 10 recently published young adult novels, along with assignments in developmental editing, cover design, and positioning original content for young audiences.

WR 579-001 RESEARCHING BOOK PUBLISHING
Rachel Noorda

This course introduces research methods specific to book publishing and is particularly geared toward Book Publishing Master’s students to equip them to write their final research paper for the program. Students will learn about book publishing research methods (both qualitative and quantitative) and work through various stages of their final research paper for the culmination of the Book Publishing Master’s Program. Students will emerge from the course with a measurable and right-sized research question that is valuable to the industry and addresses gaps in the literature, a methodology plan, and sample paper outlines that refine their critical thinking skills. There will also be an industry-based research project that students develop and carry out.