English
Courses
ENGL124L: Business Communications
ENGL223L: Survey of American Literature
ENGL224L: The American Short Story
ENGL225L: Film as Literature
ENGL235L: Creating Writing: Nonfiction
ENGL236L: Creative Writing: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama
ENGL246L: Tolkien and the Ring of Power
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien are studied and analyzed. Tolkien's biography, his writing life, the origins of the stories, and their publication history, as well as his construction of a mythological world and its peoples and languages, his characters and their development, and his thematic concerns are researched. Finally, Tolkien's influence on 20th century fantasy literature is considered. (ENGL100L may be taken concurrently)
ENGL251L: Introduction to Literature
ENGL256L: Introduction to Drama
ENGL257L: The Myth of the Hero
ENGL258L: Concepts of Evil
The recognition and appropriation of the term evil is one that is being constantly negotiated in society. It is a term that represents one of the core dichotomies that defines humanity: does a man or woman act in terms of good or evil? Historically, this term has followed an evolution of sorts that begins within Platonic idealism, becomes central within the birth of the Judeo-Christian world, is grasped at through theodicy, and then fractured through the 1775 Lisbon earthquake and the horrors of Auschwitz during World War II. This course will question the concept of evil in its various forms and explanations in an attempt to better understand its historical context, but also how it has come to be used and understood in today's society. Students will read and analyze various literary, philosophical, and cultural primary and secondary texts that consider manifestations of evil in violence, suffering, scapegoating, and apathy as they appear in characters such as Satan and witches and historical circumstances such as the Grand Inquisition, a modern plague, and Nazi Germany.