Spring 2025 ENGL 205 Courses

 

Apocalypses & Revelations

ENGL 205-17	11020	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Apocalypses and Revelations	TR	8:30-9:45	Nieto	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115  Diversity Flag
ENGL 205-23	13365	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Apocalypses and Revelations	TR	10:00-11:15	Nieto	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115  Diversity Flag

In Literature and the Moral Imagination: Apocalypses and Revelations, we will read apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction to examine what these texts reveal about society, history and the present, the human condition, and human nature. Specifically, we will focus on how the thematic concerns of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction offer insight into current events, such as the COVID-19 outbreak and human reactions to the pandemic, and comment on issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and class in our contemporary society.

 

Environment Issues

ENGL 205-08

11011

Literature & the Moral Imagination: Environmental Issues

MWF

9:00-9:50

Ottum

Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115

 We’re all familiar with climate change and the difficult choices we face in confronting this threat. What are some other environmental concerns that demand moral imagining? In this section of 205, we’ll read books that deal with “environmental issues,” broadly defined. These may include anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming, but also dilemmas such as species extinction, sea level rise, and the proliferation of microplastics. Course texts will include recently published fiction and pop nonfiction. Expect to read a lot, learn a lot, and interact extensively with others in the class.

 

Food & Justice

ENGL 205-26

11004

Literature & the Moral Imagination: Food and Justice

TR

10:00-11:15

Steckl

Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115  Service Learning; Peace and Justice Studies

This course uses literature to examine social and political power structures and critically analyze inequality and injustice in the US. This course has an immersive learning component, so we will be exploring the way food, in particular, has been a means of both oppression and liberation for marginalized populations. We will examine the cultural aspects of food in life and literature and work with various community partners to help improve social, health, and economic outcomes.

 

 

 

Guilt, Forgiveness & Atonement

ENGL 205-24H	14082	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Guilt, Forgiveness, Atonement	MWF	10:00-10:50	Renzi	Honors Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115
ENGL 205-05	11008	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Guilt, Forgiveness, Atonement	MWF	11:00-11:50	Renzi	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115

Most of us learn as small children to apologize for the wrongs we’ve done. When we steal a toy from a classmate, we’re told to say “I’m sorry”; when we’re stolen from and hear this “I’m sorry,” we’re taught to respond by “accepting” the apology. But are guilt and forgiveness really this simple? This course will investigate, through a series of literary, historical, and visual texts, questions of guilt, apology, forgiveness, and atonement (or making amends) in a variety of complicated situations that range from the interpersonal to the intercultural, regarding traumas that are both immediate and historical. Throughout, we will consider the following questions: How do we know when we’re guilty? Are there limits to forgiveness, to atonement? Are we still guilty if we hurt someone while thinking we’re doing the right thing? To what extent do social norms govern right and wrong, and how do we deal with the changing notions of right/wrong—in relation to guilt/forgiveness—within society over time? Do we have the right to forgive someone on behalf of another (be it another person, an ancestor, a group of people who we are taken to represent)? What role do institutions/governments play in forgiveness and atonement? When might forgiveness and/or atonement NOT be just?

 

Health, Activism & Community

ENGL 205-03	11006	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Health, Activism, Community (?)	MWF	12:00-12:50	Nix	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115  Service learning
ENGL 205-09	11012	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Health, Activism, Community (?)	MWF	1:00-1:50	Nix	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115  Service Learning

 

 

 

Hip Hop at 50 & Beyond

ENGL 205-10	11013	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Hip Hop 50 &Beyond	TR	1:00-2:15	Kamara	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115
ENGL 205-15	11018	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Hip Hop 50 & Beyond	TR	2:30-3:45	Kamara	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115

 

 

Monsters!

ENGL 205-06	11009	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Monsters!	MWF	12:00-12:50	Myers	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115
ENGL 205-07	11010	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Monsters!	MWF	1:00-1:50	Myers	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115

 This class investigates how monsters are, in the words of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “embodiment[s] of a certain cultural moment—of a time, a feeling, and a place.” We’ll examine books, movies, and television shows that engage with the monstrous to determine where humanity ends and where monstrosity begins. Likely texts include Dracula, What We Do in the Shadows, Terry Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment, Alien, and Shrek.

Return on Investment

ENGL 205-18	11021	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Return on Investment	TR	11:30-12:45	Windon	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115
ENGL 205-19	11022	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Return on Investment	TR	1:00-2:15	Windon	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115

The logic of ROI—that the worthiness of a thing depends on how much money one stands to gain from it—is ubiquitous. We use it to decide what school to attend, what shirt to buy, and many other things besides. This course explores the emergence of this logic in United States culture. It also considers the limitations of ROI for measuring the intangibles that, according to some, make life worth living.

 

 

Secret Identities

ENGL 205-01

14458

Literature & the Moral Imagination: Secret Identities

MWF

9:00-9:50

Lam

Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115  Diversity Flag

 

What is identity? Can a person have more than one identity, and, if so, is one of those identities more authentic than the others? How do people construct identities? When and how and why do we hide certain identities and adopt others instead? What are the potential consequences of such masking? What are the potential consequences of unmasking?

 

In this section of ENGL 205, we will explore these and similar questions, using popular U.S. literature from the past 100 years. Our texts are a mixture of fiction and memoir—imagined narratives, juxtaposed with real-life accounts. We will begin with racial passing, followed by assimilation and biculturalism, and ending with gender- and sexuality-based covering.

 

By analyzing identity in these works, this course aims to provide greater insight into the construction and presentation of identities in society. It does so in the hope that, by recognizing and appreciating the diversity of identities surrounding us, we can better understand the people we encounter, better hear their stories, and better share our own

Soulmate

ENGL 205-02	11005	Literature & the Moral Imagination: the Soulmate	MWF	10:00-10:50	Maffetone	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115
ENGL 205-16	11019	Literature & the Moral Imagination: The Soulmate	MWF	11:00-11:50	Maffetone	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115

This course will offer an investigation into the concept of the soulmate as represented in literature: what exactly is a soulmate? In what ways (besides romance) might two souls or two lives become intertwined? How is this concept represented in popular culture or popular literatures and what are the implications of those representations? We will consider these questions primarily through a range of literary, popular, and rhetorical texts such as Never Let Me Go and Kindred, as well as a range of other narratives that feature or interact with the idea of the soulmate. This course will investigate the cultural hold of the soulmate narrative and how it supports or subverts anxieties and desires pertaining to love and identity.

   

Transformations

ENGL 205-12	14460	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Transformations	TR	11:30-12:45	Todd	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115
ENGL 205-25	13054	Literature & the Moral Imagination: Transformations	TR	2:30-3:45	Todd	Prerequisites: ENGL 101 or ENGL 115

Engl 205 in general considers the ways literary texts inherently reflect or interrogate ethical or moral action, and how various stakeholders in literary works “read” the world around them. In this particular section, we’ll be looking at ‘transformations’—reshapings and retellings—in realistic and fantastical fiction and poetry. How do authors/characters/ readers deal with challenges to their beliefs or social norms? When their world changes, for good or ill, do they find a new path, and if so, how?