ENG. 1100C: LITERATURE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT (30641)
ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS
Dr. Jennifer Travis
Email: travisj@stjohns.edu
In this course we will read horror, ghost, and fantasy short fiction from around the globe and ask
how these genres have shaped literary and cultural history. Please be in touch with any
questions: travisj@stjohns.edu
ENG. 2210: STUDY OF BRITISH LITERATURE (30769)
ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS
Dr. Melissa Mowry
Email: mowrym@stjohns.edu
Start your summer with a rollicking introduction to English Literature! We’ll be reading great
works of wit and comedy from Chaucer, through Shakespeare, Pope, Austen, Dickens, and
Pinter. Weekly Discussion questions, 1 short paper, and a final exam.
ENG. 3730: POETRY WORKSHOP (30869)
ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS
Dr. Steven Alvarez
Email: alvares1@stjohns.edu
English 3730 is a workshop in contemporary literary poetics, which we’ll explore by study and
practice. The course is designed for both beginning and experienced poets, for students who
think seriously and critically about verse, language, storytelling, and experimentation. The class
will be run as both a seminar and a workshop. We’ll spend a third of the class studying theories
of poetry, focusing on stylistics and its vocabulary for versification. The second third we will
study various works of poetry by (more or less) contemporary writers. While we’re reading
through these collections, you’ll be thinking about your verses. At the end of the semester, we
will transition to workshopping your final poetry projects. You’ll experiment, in these weeks, in
your literary imagination: points of view, time sequence, narrative space, musicality, typography,
words, stanzas, images, influences, and criticism. Two primary questions will weigh on your
mind: 1) How can I transform all my languages into verses?, and 2) How can I make verses
from experiences, inspirations, and life? We will explore answers to these questions as you work
toward your own aesthetic.
JULY 8th , 2024 – AUGUST 8th , 2024
SUMMER SESSION II
ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS
Dr. Stephen Sicari
Email: sicaris@stjohns.edu
As the only required literature course in the St. John’s core curriculum, Literature in a
Global Context is meant to introduce students to literature in a way that is globally aware and
responsible. Great literature is not only enjoyable and moving on a personal level, but also can
bear social relevance and intellectual weight. We will be reading both to enjoy and to be
responsible social critics.
I have chosen texts that are all written in English but not from either the U. S. or the
U.K., the traditional places for gathering texts for English lit courses. I have broken the course
into two units:
1) A section on Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Adiche’s Purple Hibiscus. Both authors
are born and raised in Nigeria and write about the colonizing experience. Adiche is
responding explicitly to Achebe’s novel, and they form a neat pair.
2) Selections from Dohra Ahmad’s The Penguin Book of Migration Literature. These are
either short stories or memoirs about the experience of immigration.
You will respond to daily discussion posts and write two essays.
ENG. 2100: RACE AND LITERARY CULTURE (30770)
ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS
Dr. Robert Fanuzzi
Email: fanuzzir@stjohns.edu
Can we ever stop talking about race? Not if you study American culture. In every phase, period,
and form, American culture creates racial concepts, identities, and conversations. Our class uses
the methods and vocabulary of cultural studies and a wide variety of literature, film, and social
media to study our culture’s pivotal, enduring conversations. Topics include the birth of white
liberalism and white ethnicity through the 20th century US civil rights struggle; the story of Black
people’s representation in American mass culture from the 19th century and 21st century Black
media self-representation; and the changing symbols of American immigration and the cultural
identities of East Asian and Latina/o immigrants.
ENG. 3710: Creative Writing Across Genres (30580)
ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS
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 your 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.