Program Overview

English (ENG) Program

The English program at Wake Forest University offers a Master of Arts degree, providing opportunities for study and research in various areas of British and American literature, creative writing, writing-rhetorical studies, and the English language.

Overview

This degree emphasizes independent study and research, with courses numbered 700 or above. Students may take one or two related courses in other departments with the approval of the graduate committee. They can also take 600-level courses in English, Creative Writing, and Writing.

Admission Requirements

Applicants are expected to hold an undergraduate degree in English from an accredited institution, with a well-rounded selection of courses demonstrating significant exposure to the range of literatures written in English and to ideas of literary history and interpretation.

Course Offerings

The program offers a wide range of courses, including:

• ENG 601: Individual Authors - Study of selected work from an important American or British author.
• ENG 602: Ideas in Literature - Study of a significant literary theme in selected works.
• ENG 604: History of the English Language - Survey of the development of English syntax, morphology, and phonology from Old English to the present.
• ENG 605: Old English Language and Literature - Introduction to the Old English language and a study of the historical and cultural background of Old English literature.
• ENG 608: Beowulf - Intensive study of the poem, with emphasis on language, translation skills, and critical contexts.
• ENG 609: Modern English Grammar - A linguistics approach to grammar study, including a critical exploration of issues such as grammatical change and variation.
• ENG 610: The Medieval World - Examines theological, philosophical, and cultural assumptions of the Middle Ages through the reading of primary texts.
• ENG 611: The Legend of Arthur - The origin and development of the Arthurian legend in France and England, with emphasis on the works of Chretien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory.
• ENG 612: Medieval Poetry - The origin and development of poetic genres and lyric forms of medieval vernacular poetry.
• ENG 613: The Roots of Song - Interdisciplinary investigation of poetry and song in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
• ENG 615: Chaucer - Emphasis on The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, with some attention to minor poems.
• ENG 620: British Drama to 1642 - British drama from its beginnings to 1642, exclusive of Shakespeare.
• ENG 623: Shakespeare - Thirteen representative plays illustrating Shakespeare's development as a poet and dramatist.
• ENG 625: 16th-Century British Literature - Concentration on the poetry of Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, Wyatt, and Drayton, with particular attention to sonnets and The Faerie Queene.
• ENG 626: Studies in English Renaissance Literature - Selected topics in Renaissance literature, with consideration of texts and their cultural background.
• ENG 627: Milton - The poetry and selected prose of John Milton, with emphasis on Paradise Lost.
• ENG 628: 17th-Century British Literature - Poetry of Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Marvel, Crashaw, prose of Bacon, Burton, Browne, Walton.
• ENG 630: Restoration and 18th-Century British Literature - Representative poetry and prose, exclusive of the novel, drawn from Addison, Steele, Defoe, Swift, Pope, Johnson, and Boswell.
• ENG 633: Jane Austen - An intensive study of the works of the British novelist Jane Austen and her cultural contexts.
• ENG 635: Eighteenth-Century British Fiction - Primarily the fiction of Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, and Austen.
• ENG 636: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Drama - British drama from 1660 to 1780, including representative plays by Dryden, Etherege, Wycherley, Congreve, Goldsmith, and Sheridan.
• ENG 637: Studies in 18th-Century British Literature - Selected topics in 18th-century literature, with consideration of texts and their cultural background.
• ENG 638: Studies in Gender and Literature - Thematic and/or theoretical approaches to the study of gender in literature.
• ENG 639: Studies in Sexuality and Literature - Thematic and/or theoretical approaches to sexuality within literary studies.
• ENG 640: Studies in Women and Literature - Women writers in society, with consideration of texts and their cultural background.
• ENG 641: Literature and the Environment - This course studies the relationship between environmental experience and literary representation.
• ENG 644: Studies in Poetry - Selected topics in poetry, with consideration of texts and their cultural background.
• ENG 645: Studies in Fiction - Selected topics in fiction, with consideration of texts and their cultural background.
• ENG 646: Studies in Theatre - Selected topics in drama, with consideration of texts and their cultural background.
• ENG 647: Internship in the Major - Internship that involves both hands-on experience and academic study, with students partnering with a literature faculty member to integrate work in the community and engagement with their academic plan of study.
• ENG 648: English Studies and the Professions - A practicum course focused on career design and career planning, specific to career options in humanities fields.
• ENG 650: British Romantic Poets - A review of the beginnings of Romanticism in British literature, followed by a study of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, and Shelley.
• ENG 651: Studies in Romanticism - Selected topics in European and/or American Romanticism, with a focus on comparative, interdisciplinary, and theoretical approaches to literature.
• ENG 653: Nineteenth-Century British Fiction - Representative major works by Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray, Hardy, the Brontes, and others.
• ENG 654: Victorian Poetry - A study of the Brownings, Tennyson, Hopkins, and Arnold or another Victorian poet.
• ENG 656: Literature of the Caribbean - Readings include significant works by authors from the Caribbean and authors writing about the Caribbean, with critical, historical, and cultural approaches emphasized.
• ENG 657: Studies in Chicano/a Literature - Writings by Americans of Mexican descent in relation to politics and history, with readings in literature, literary criticism, and socio-cultural analysis.
• ENG 658: Postcolonial Literature - A survey of representative examples of postcolonial literature from geographically diverse writers, emphasizing issues of politics, nationalism, gender, and class.
• ENG 659: Studies in Postcolonial Literature - Examination of themes and issues in postcolonial literature, such as globalization, postcolonialism and hybridity, feminism, nationalism, ethnic and religious conflict, the impact of the Cold War, and race and class.
• ENG 660: Studies in Victorian Literature - Selected topics such as development of genres, major authors and texts, and cultural influences of Victorian Literature, with readings in poetry, fiction, autobiography, and other prose.
• ENG 661: Literature and Science - Literature of and about science, with topics varying and including literature and medicine, the two-culture debate, poetry and science, nature in literature, and the body in literature.
• ENG 662: Irish Literature in the 20th-Century - Study of modern Irish literature from the writers of the Irish Literary Renaissance to contemporary writers.
• ENG 663: Studies in Modernism - Selected issues in Modernism, with interdisciplinary, comparative, and theoretical approaches to works and authors.
• ENG 664: Studies in Literary Criticism - Consideration of certain figures and schools of thought significant in the history of literary criticism.
• ENG 665: Twentieth-Century British Fiction - A study of Conrad, Ford, Forster, Joyce, Lawrence, Woolf, and later British writers, with attention to their social and intellectual backgrounds.
• ENG 666: James Joyce - The major works by Joyce, with an emphasis on Ulysses.
• ENG 667: Twentieth-Century English Poetry - A study of 20th-century poets of the English language, exclusive of the U.S., with poets read in relation to the literary and social history of the period.
• ENG 668: Studies in Irish Literature - The development of Irish literature from the eighteenth century through the early twentieth century in historical perspective, with attention to issues of linguistic and national identity.
• ENG 669: Modern Drama - Main currents in modern drama from 19th-century realism and naturalism through symbolism and expressionism.
• ENG 670: American Literature to 1820 - Origins and development of American literature and thought in representative writing of the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Federal periods.
• ENG 671: American Ethnic Literature - Introduction to the field of American Ethnic literature, with special emphasis on post-World War II formations of ethnic culture.
• ENG 672: American Romanticism - Studies of Romanticism in American literature, with focus varying by topic and genre, to include such writers as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, and Dickinson.
• ENG 673: Literature and Film - Selected topics in the relationship between literature and film, such as adaptations of literary works, the study of narrative, and the development of literary and cinematic genres.
• ENG 674: American Fiction before 1865 - Novels and short fiction by such writers as Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Rebecca Harding Davis.
• ENG 675: American Drama - An historical overview of drama in America, covering such playwrights as Boucicault, O'Neill, Hellman, Wilder, Williams, Inge, Miller, Hansberry, Albee, Shepard, Norman, Mamet, and Wilson.
• ENG 676: American Poetry before 1900 - Readings and critical analysis of American poetry from its beginnings, including Bradstreet, Emerson, Longfellow, Melville, and Poe, with particular emphasis on Whitman and Dickinson.
• ENG 677: American Jewish Literature - Survey of writings on Jewish topics or experiences by American Jewish writers, exploring cultural and generational conflicts, responses to social change, the impact of the Shoah (Holocaust) on American Jews, and the challenges of language and form posed by Jewish and non-Jewish artistic traditions.
• ENG 678: Literature of the American South - Study of Southern literature from its beginnings to the present, with emphasis upon such major writers as Tate, Warren, Faulkner, O'Connor, Welty, and Styron.
• ENG 679: Literary Forms of the American Personal Narrative - Reading and critical analysis of autobiographical texts in which the ideas, style, and point of view of the writer are examined to demonstrate how these works contribute to an understanding of pluralism in American culture.
• ENG 680: American Fiction from 1865 to 1915 - Study of such writers as Twain, James, Howells, Crane, Dreiser, Wharton, and Cather.
• ENG 681: Studies in African American Literature - Reading and critical analysis of selected fiction, poetry, drama, and other writings by American authors of African descent.
• ENG 682: Modern American Fiction, 1915 to 1965 - Includes such writers as Cather, Lewis, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Dos Passos, Wolfe, Baldwin, Ellison, Agee, O'Connor, Styron, Percy, and Pynchon.
• ENG 685: Twentieth-Century American Poetry - Readings of modern American poetry in relation to the literary and social history of the period.
• ENG 686: Directed Reading - A tutorial in an area of study not otherwise provided by the department, granted upon departmental approval of petition presented by a qualified student.
• ENG 687: African-American Fiction - Selected topics in the development of fiction by American writers of African descent.
• ENG 689: African-American Poetry - Readings of works by American poets of African descent in theoretical, critical, and historical contexts.
• ENG 690: The Structure of English - Introduction to the principles and techniques of modern linguistics applied to contemporary American English.
• ENG 691: Studies in Postmodernism - Interdisciplinary, comparative, and theoretical approaches to works and authors.
• ENG 693: Multicultural American Drama - Examines the dramatic works of playwrights from various racial and ethnic communities.
• ENG 694: Contemporary Drama - Considers experiments in form and substance in plays from Godot to the present.
• ENG 695: Contemporary American Literature - Study of post-World War II American poetry and fiction by such writers as Bellow, Gass, Barth, Pynchon, Morrison, Ashbery, Ammons, Bishop, and Rich.
• ENG 696: Contemporary British Fiction - Study of the British novel and short story, with particular focus on the multicultural aspects of British life.
• ENG 700: Teaching Internship - An internship for the observation and practice of undergraduate pedagogy, placing an MA student into a core literature, writing, or creative writing course taught by a permanent faculty member.
• ENG 701: Individual Authors - Study of selected works from an important American, English, or Global Anglophone author.
• ENG 702: Ideas in Literature - Study of a significant literary theme in selected works.
• ENG 703: Introduction to Composition Studies - This graduate seminar offers an introduction to the field of Composition Studies.
• ENG 704: Studies in Rhetorical Theory and Criticism - In this graduate seminar, students explore major issues and perspectives in rhetorical theory.
• ENG 705: Special Topics in Writing Studies - In this graduate seminar, students examine significant writing theories and practices focused on one area of study within the international field of Writing Studies.
• ENG 707: Workshop in Prose - This graduate workshop is meant to improve and consolidate prose-writing skills and expand artistic ambitions.
• ENG 708: Workshop in Poetry - This graduate workshop is meant to improve and consolidate poetry-writing skills and expand artistic ambitions.
• ENG 709: Special Topics in Creative Writing - This graduate workshop is meant to develop students' creative writing skills in one or more genres in the context of a particular topic.
• ENG 710: Early Medieval Narrative - A variety of forms of early medieval narrative, with a focus on issues of genre and narrative form.
• ENG 711: Arthurian Legend - Emphasis is on the origin and developments of the Arthurian legend in England and France, with primary focus on Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.
• ENG 712: Studies in Medieval Literature: Romance and Identity - A diverse corpus of medieval poetry, both lyric and narrative, is explored in an effort to trace the origin and evolution of the idea and meaning of "romance."
• ENG 715: Studies in Chaucer - Emphasis on selected Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and the longer minor works, with attention to social, critical, and intellectual background.
• ENG 720: Renaissance Drama - Using an historical approach, this seminar examines the relationship between the theater as an institution and centers of authority during the Tudor and Stuart periods.
• ENG 721: Studies in Spenser - Emphasis on The Faerie Queene; attention to the minor works; intellectual and critical background.
• ENG 722: Studies in 16th-Century British Literature - Introduction to critical and scholarly methodology for the study of the literature; particular emphasis on Spenser's Faerie Queene and Sidney's Arcadia.
• ENG 723: Studies in Shakespeare - Representative text from all genres, examined in light of critical methodologies in the field of Shakespeare studies.
• ENG 725: Studies in 17th-Century British Literature - Non-dramatic literature of the 17th century, exclusive of Milton, with emphasis on selected major writers.
• ENG 727: Studies in Seventeenth-Century British Literature: Primarily Milton - The work of John Milton, primarily Paradise Lost, within its cultural environment.
• ENG 729: Early Modern Literature - Introduction to Early Modern literature, spanning a variety of genres, periods, and regions.
• ENG 733: 18th-Century British Fiction - A study of two major British novelists of the 18th century, with lectures, reports, critical papers.
• ENG 737: Studies in Restoration and Eighteenth Century British Literature - Selected topics in Restoration and 18th-century literature, with consideration of texts and their cultural background.
• ENG 740: Studies in Gender and Literature - An examination of selected writers and/or theoretical questions focusing on issues of gender.
• ENG 741: Studies in Sexuality and Literature - Thematic and/or theoretical approaches to sexuality within literary studies.
• ENG 743: Nineteenth-Century British Fiction - Study of one or more major British novelists of the 19th century, with lectures, reports, discussions, and a critical paper.
• ENG 745: British Poetry of the 19th and 20th Centuries - Study of several British poets chosen from the major Romantics, Tennyson, Browning, Hardy, and Yeats.
• ENG 746: Studies in British Romanticism - Examination of major writers, topics, and/or theoretical issues from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
• ENG 757: American Poetry - Studies of the poetry and poetic theory of three major American writers in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• ENG 758: Studies in Modern Poetry - Theoretical issues and themes in 20th-century poetry.
• ENG 759: Studies in Postcolonial Literature - Examination of themes and issues in postcolonial literature and/or theory.
• ENG 760: Studies in Victorian Literature - Selected topics such as development of genres, major authors and texts, and cultural influences of Victorian Literature.
• ENG 763: Studies in Modernism - Selected issues in Modernism, from interdisciplinary, comparative, and theoretical approaches.
• ENG 765: Literary Criticism - Review of historically significant problems in literary criticism, followed by study of the principal schools of 20th-century critical thought.
• ENG 766: Studies in 20th-Century British Literature - Examination of major writers, topics, and/or theoretical issues in 20th-century British literature.
• ENG 767: 20th-Century British Fiction - Study of one or more of the major British novelists of the 20th century.
• ENG 768: Irish Literature - Study of major themes, theories, individual authors, or periods, which might include discussions of mythology, folklore, landscape, poetics, narrative strategies, gender, and politics.
• ENG 770: Studies in American Literature - Introduction to studies in American literatures, spanning a variety of genres, periods, and regions.
• ENG 771: American Ethnic Literature - Examination of how ethnic writers narrate cultural histories and respond to and represent the ambiguity of cultural location.
• ENG 772: Studies in American Romanticism - Writers of the mid-19th century, including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville.
• ENG 774: American Fiction Before 1865 - A study of novels and short fiction by such writers as Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Rebecca Harding Davis.
• ENG 776: American Poetry Before 1900 - Close reading and critical analysis of selected American poets, such as Bryant, Longfellow, Poe, Emerson, Whitman, and Dickinson.
• ENG 779: Autobiographical Voices: Race, Gender, Self-Portraiture - Using an historical and critical approach, this seminar examines autobiography as an activity which combines history, literary art, and self-revelation.
• ENG 780: Studies in American Fiction from 1865 to 1915 - Study of the principal fiction of one or more major American writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• ENG 781: African-American Literature and the American Tradition - Critical readings of selected works of major American writers of African descent within the contexts of the African-American and American literary and social traditions.
• ENG 782: Studies in American Fiction from 1915 to 1965 - Study of the principal fiction of one or more major American writers of the 20th century.
• ENG 783: Contemporary American Fiction - Seminar devoted to the close study of some of the most important novels produced in the United States since World War II.
• ENG 784: Contemporary American Poetry - Seminar devoted to the close study of some of the most important poems written in America since World War II.
• ENG 786: Directed Reading - A tutorial in an area of study not otherwise provided by the department, granted upon departmental approval of petition presented by a qualified student.
• ENG 789: Linguistics in Literature - Examination of theories of grammar and attitudes toward the English language reflected in the literature of selected periods.
• ENG 791: Thesis Research I - May be repeated for credit, with satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading.
• ENG 792: Thesis Research II - May be repeated for credit, with satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading.

Faculty

• Program Co-Directors: Lucy Alford and Zak Lancaster
• Chair: Monique O'Connell
• Associate Chair: Judith Madera
• Reynolds Professor of English: Herman Rapaport
• Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English: Eric G. Wilson
• Winifred W. Palmer Professor of English: Dean Franco
• Professors: Wanda Balzano, Jennifer Greiman, Susan Harlan, Jefferson M. Holdridge, Scott W. Klein, Barry G. Maine, Gale Sigal
• Associate Professors: Jeffrey Bills-Solomon, Chris Brown, Amy Catanzano, Omaar Hena, Sarah Hogan, Melissa S. Jenkins, Zak Lancaster, Judith Madera, Jessica A. Richard, Joanna Ruocco, Erica Still, Olga Valbuena-Hanson
• Assistant Professors: Lucy Alford, Amy Clark, Derek Lee, J. Moisés García-Rentería, Kevin MacDonnell, Kaitlin Moore, Alisa Russell
• Teaching Professors: Erin Branch, Jennifer Pyke, Randi Saloman, Ryan Shirey
• Associate Teaching Professors: Meredith Farmer