UNDERGRADUATE FLYER
MAY 31, 2022 – JULY 5, 2022
SUMMER SESSION I
ENG. 1100C: Literature in a Global Context (30283)
ONLINE
Dr. Raj Chetty
Email: chettyr@stjohns.edu
This “Literature in a Global Context” course focus on Caribbean literature (fiction, drama, poetry) from the early twentieth century through today. Our approach to the “global context” of the general course title derives from the intersections between global diasporas, or the forced and unforced dispersal of people across the globe, and the places where these diasporic peoples create new homes and identities while maintaining connections to their places of origin, however tenuous those connections may be. After an introduction to the concept of “diaspora” and “Black or African Diaspora,” we will read and analyze works by writers of the African diaspora in the Caribbean, or Black Caribbean writers, and the way their writings extend out into a global context. In focusing on Caribbean writers of the African Diaspora across the globe, this course will explore how these writers use plays, novels, and poetry to imaginatively approach themes such as migration and movement, race and ethnicity, history and memory, and nation and state. The first unit of study will focus on Haiti and the second on language in Black Caribbean literatures.
ENG. 2060: Study of American Literature (30304)
American Literature and the Monstrous
ONLINE
Dr. Jennifer Travis
Email: travisj@stjohns.edu
This online course will examine how representations of witches, vampires, cannibals, and monsters have shaped American cultural discourse and literary history. Reading texts Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edith Wharton, Henry James, H.P. Lovecraft, and the contemporary novelist Seth Grahame-Smith, we will ask why monsters play such an important role in our cultural imaginations. What is a monster? How do individuals and societies define themselves in relation to the monstrous? What can monsters tell us about humanity, community, and our deepest fears and values? For questions please email Dr. Travis: travisj@stjohns.edu.
ENG. 3710: Creative Writing Across Genres (30659)
ONLINE
Dr. Stephen P. Miller
Email: millers@stjohns.edu
This course asks you to use your imagination, memory, perceptions, and sensitivities to write creatively in all creative forms. We will use models in several genres, in addition to techniques such as focused and unfocused free-writing and many different prompts to unlock your creativity and ability to convey the breadth and depth of you inner and outer experiences. The course will enable students to experience literature from the “inside out.” Within the context of being working poets we will also consider canonical, modern, and contemporary poetry, in addition to other writing as models.
JULY 7, 2022 – AUGUST 10, 2022
SUMMER SESSION II
ENG. 1100C: Literature in a Global Context (31120)
ONLINE
Dr, Granville Ganter
Email: ganterg@stjohns.edu
This is a completely online, asynchronous course where we will discuss the literature that emerges from intercultural contact—questions of travel writing; the stories of conflict and contact between the peoples of different continents; immigration and assimilation. It is a project-based class where students pick a major text from the syllabus to study in the first week of class, and then do several research and writing exercises over the course of the next four weeks. Each piece of weekly work will be added together to generate a final project. The course format is designed for a flexible summer work schedule. Readings will likely be Mary Prince’s short slave narrative; Jamaica Kincaid’s novella, Lucy; a few of Chimamanda Adichie’s short stories; and Junot Diaz’s Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, generally regarded by most students as one of the most fun books they’ve ever read. So I can provide consistent feedback, the work is scheduled so that work gets posted between Sunday night and Thursday night. However, students can post in advance of any date, so the schedule is really up to you.
ENG. 1040: Writing for Business (30838)
ONLINE
Dr. Stephen Sicari
Email: sicaris@stjohns.edu
This course will emphasize the particular skills necessary for clear and efficient communication in business environments. Surveying the diverse forms of professional writing, from emails and cover letters to executive summaries and proposals, students will focus on the role clarity, organization, revision, and research in producing strong and purposeful writing. By the conclusion of the course, students will have collected a portfolio of various forms of business communication. This course will be taught fully online, and will require extensive work with texts and with other students’ writing through peer review exercises.
ENG. 2210: Introduction to British Literature (30837)
ONLINE
Dr. Gregory Maertz
Email: maertzg@stjohns.edu
A course on three classic British novels and their representation in film and television, starting with James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and moving into the present. The novels we will examine, along with their transmutability and continuing cultural relevance, are Jane Austen’s Emma (1815), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897).
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