English Major
12328
People respond to movies in different ways, and there are many reasons for this. We have all stood in the lobby of a theater and heard conflicting opinions from people who have just seen the same film. Some loved it, some hated it, some found it just OK. Perhaps we've thought, "What do they know... (read more)
12329
Public Speaking as a Liberal Art gives students a foundation in the classical principles of rhetoric and teaches application of these arts to contemporary contexts. Students will have multiple opportunities to practice engaged public speaking and learn to craft effective arguments on self-... (read more)
12332
This course will survey the history of stories about the creation of artificial humans, while thinking about conventions of the genre, its particular uses and adaptations, and how it intersects with other genres. We’ll look at the desires expressed by this genre: most of all, the desire to... (read more)
12335
What role can literature play in exposing environmentally harmful modes of thinking, being, and acting, while dramatizing appealing alternatives? How are environmental issues connected to social hierarchies such as race, class, sexuality and disability and to histories of settler colonialism?... (read more)
12336
In this course we will study fiction, essays, and poetry by African American authors. We attend to the historical, political, and literary contexts of each of our readings. We will investigate whether there are specific formal and thematic elements that define an African American literary... (read more)
12339
What happens when digital tools and literature meet? What can the “digital turn” in literary studies help us to understand about language, aesthetics, truth, fiction, media, and digital literacy? English 250 is an introductory course to Digital Humanities, or DH—a field that investigates the... (read more)
12340
This course explores the fundamentals of film and media aesthetics, including narrative, mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound. By learning how to analyze film and utilize proper cinematic language, students will begin to critically understand film as an art form and a product of... (read more)
12341
This course explores the fundamentals of film and media aesthetics, including narrative, mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound. By learning how to analyze film and utilize proper cinematic language, students will begin to critically understand film as an art form and a product of... (read more)
12342
This class provides an introduction to the history and art of comics and to the methodologies of the academic discipline of Comics Studies. Students will be exposed to a range of different comic-art forms (including newspaper strips, collections of serialized comic books, and free-standing... (read more)
12343
This course provides an introduction to the analysis of comics and graphic narratives in terms of their poetics, genres, forms, history, and the academic discipline of Comics Studies. Our multifaceted examination will balance close reading with in-depth research and analysis of the development... (read more)
12344
Laskaya, C. Anne; Pyle, Forest
The Foundations of the English Major is a two-course series (ENG 303 and either ENG 304 or ENG 305) that introduces students to the discipline of English as it is practiced at the University of Oregon. The series provides English majors with a common intellectual experience and a foundation for... (read more)
12349
In this course, we will study a selection of novels by Black American women from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Using close reading and historical context, we will consider how these novels construct race, class, and gender; the possibilities of the novel form; ways these texts engage... (read more)
12355
ENG 399 Writing Associates Development is a variable-credit, hybrid, companion course designed to support tutors in ENG 404 Internship for Writing Associates. The course focuses on the professional development of the Writing Associates and their continuing study of the practice and... (read more)
12365
ENG 428/528 is a course in learning to read and understand Old English, the earliest written form of the English language, and one of the languages spoken in England between the 5th and 11th centuries. We will concentrate on language basics, creating a firm foundation for reading Old English... (read more)
16505
Explores the relationship between folklore and popular culture; examines a diversity of approaches to the analysis of "common culture" including urban legends, comics, cultural performances, youth culture, Internet folklore, street art, and other forms of expression as these relate to various... (read more)
16642
This course will examine the Judeo-Christian Bible as a cultural document that continues to exert a strong and often unexamined influence on all aspects of our behavior, beliefs, literature, and art. We will read key sections of the Bible—both from the Hebrew and the Christian portions—examining... (read more)
16686
How do we speak effectively in situations of controversy? How do we maintain civil but powerful ways of speaking? How do we use oral reasoning for inquiry and mutual understanding as well as for debate and for building and defending arguments? How can we learn to listen as carefully as we speak... (read more)
16687
Topic: Black Supernatural
Working from the 19th century to the present, this course will consider African American and Caribbean literature that troubles our notions of the “natural” and the “real.” Exploring narratives of hallucination, prophecy, and divination, we will study the ways... (read more)
16688
Native American Writers (Contemporary Indigenous Women Writers): La Malinche. Pocahontas. Sacagawea. These are likely the only Indigenous women with whom many are familiar. Though real historical figures, these Indigenous women are often depicted in popular literature along a rigid spectrum as... (read more)
16690
This course begins with the question of what is the American novel? It is a question asked and answered by some of the most ingenious and challenging thinkers of the 20th century, who, as it turns out, were novelists. But for these thinkers who thought in the form of novels, the 20th century was... (read more)
16692
What is Romanticism?
This course will be a sustained examination of the question: “What is Romanticism? This is a question which has no single or ultimate answer given that there seem to be as many answers as there are “askers.” There is, however, a rich and complex body of literature and... (read more)
16694
English 461 is an introduction to the literature of colonial North America and the Early United States, from the 1530s to the 1820s. This course is designed around four feature films: Cabeza de Vaca, Black Robe, Pocahontas, and Jefferson in Paris. These movies were based on the... (read more)
16961
ENG 427 invites students to engage selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Texts will include the more familiar, like the Knight's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Tale, but also some less familiar elegiac, philosophic, and comic tales. Chaucer will be read in the... (read more)
17034
Testimonio is a form of lifewriting whose narrator is a “real” protagonist, or witness, of the events he/she recounts. Although lifewriting can be located in several different literary categories, one of the defining features of a testimonio, as (re)defined in the 1960’s and 1970’s, is its overt... (read more)
17035
In this introduction to medieval literature we will consider the ways various authors explore questions about love, obedience, and the unknowable. We will read a variety of medieval genres, including instructions on how to behave during a love affair, Arthurian romances about Lancelot, an... (read more)
17036
This course is an introductory survey where we will begin to identify and define the distinct fields of Chicanx and Latinx literature. In addition to considering how history and politics shape these robust fields, we will also critically examine the ways in which texts and media continue to... (read more)
17039
In this seminar, we will examine the form of sequential art we call comic books. The course is composed of two parts: close reading of landmark graphic novels and comics, and writing of original comic scripts. Throughout the term, we will examine a wide variety of groundbreaking graphic novels,... (read more)
17059
In this course we will read Macbeth, King Lear, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra to think about how they represent cultural crisis at every scale: the large scale of a society, country, city-state, or empire in turmoil, the small scale of individual errors,... (read more)
17176
English 107: Reinterpreting Ancient World Literature for Modern Times
In this survey course we will be exploring the oral literary traditions from three ancient and early medieval cultures: Greece, India, and the Middle East. We will examine each of our assigned texts through three... (read more)
17177
This course studies works of film and media as aesthetic objects that engage with communities identified by class, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. It considers both the effects of prejudice, intolerance and discrimination on media and filmmaking practices and modes of reception that... (read more)
17390
This course explores the fundamentals of film and media aesthetics, including narrative, mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound. By learning how to analyze film and utilize proper cinematic language, students will begin to critically understand film as an art form and a product of... (read more)
17948
According to Cherokee scholar, musician, and storyteller Thomas King, “The truth about stories is, that’s all we are” (2). Of course, then, at times people are dependent on who is telling their stories. Since time immemorial, Native American peoples have been telling their own stories, of... (read more)
17962
Poetry is a word today often deployed in praise of what is not poetry; meanwhile, poetry itself is largely ignored or disparaged. It is curious, too, that a surprising number of people in the English-speaking world continue to write and appreciate poetry, even as its public role has... (read more)
18032
ENG 240 introduces students to essential texts and concepts in disability studies and applies them to American history, popular culture, and literature, with a focus on racial diversity and learning directly from people who experience a wide spectrum of bodymind variabilities. Disability is not... (read more)