Upcoming Course Offerings

We will read a handful of stories by O’Connor; in addition to analyzing these stories amongst ourselves, we will engage published criticism of them as springboards to other course assignments culminating in a ten- to twelve-page conference paper. Through small-group and class discussions and through group and individual writing assignments, students will learn fundamental principles of research and argumentative writing: how to develop a focused, appropriately sophisticated and unique argument; how (and where) to do meaningful research; how to effectively enter a relevant scholarly conversation; how to develop and support a cohesive claim; how to ensure that a scholarly argument ends in a significant “so what?” justification; and how to employ MLA style in documenting and citing sources.

English 303 is a course that intends to help you become a better, more effective writer. As Stephen King wisely noted, good writing is born of careful reading and deep thinking, so this course will require a fair amount of reading, a lot of thinking (alone and with others), and a significant amount of writing. The course will focus on individual and collaborative writing practices designed to help students develop and hone their written and oral communication skills. Assignments may include—but are not limited to—reading journals, textual annotations, crafting abstracts and/or proposals, writing short essays, and preparing formal and informal oral presentations of their work. To take part in the scholarly conversations that surround the assigned texts, students will practice identifying and integrating credible sources into their own analyses, properly document those sources, and regularly share and reflect on their writing process. Substantive revision and workshops will be a core element of the course, and the culminating project will be an 8-10 page work of original literary criticism.

William Blake’s “prophetic” poems, more than any of his other works including the Songs of Innocence and Experience, have defied systematic interpretation for over two hundred years. How can we write meaningfully about such an eccentric body of work? Blake himself offered a note of reassurance: “I am happy to find a Great Majority of Fellow Mortals who can Elucidate My Visions,” he wrote. This suggests that the prophecies both demand and generously reward the intellectual labor of ‘elucidation.’ History seems to have born this suggestion out: generations of writers, including not only literary critics but Beat poets (Ginsberg), folk/rock artists (Dylan), metalheads (Bruce Dickinson), graphic artists (Moore), and fantasy novelists (Pullman), have found Blake’s prophecies, if not ‘lucid,’ then profoundly luminous for their writing. In this class, we’ll encounter some of the poet-artisan’s most challenging multimodal poems, including Milton: A Prophecy and the “continental prophecies,” alongside historical, critical, and methodological scholarship, plus more contemporary experiments in mixed media artistry. In all these encounters we will forfeit the struggle for interpretive mastery to cultivate a techne of critical elucidation in writing. In the process, we will consider how the methodical and down-to-earth pursuit of craft—be it Blake’s multimodal techne or our critical one—can generate imaginative energy and conviction and even moods of devotion.

In this course, we will read and write about Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, and its surrounding literary conversation. Published in 1999, Interpreter of Maladies richly and empathetically tells stories of Indian-American immigrant characters and their diverse experiences. As we study and practice the genre of literary criticism, we will learn how to engage with complex texts, grapple with difficult questions, develop nuanced perspectives, and deliver persuasive arguments. Because many of Lahiri’s stories include characters whose lives have been shaped by trauma, we will use the ideas of trauma theory as the theoretical lens to interpret them.

Winner of the Best Novel Hugo award three years running for the Broken Earth trilogy (2016-2018), N. K. Jemisin says she tried short stories just hoping to pay the utility bills. She learned to appreciate the form for itself and for testing the novel’s world building and character development capacities. Jemisin’s stories exemplify speculative genres and address recurring conceptual issues such as agency, dreams, identity, equity, gender, race, utopia/dystopia, Afrofuturism, AI, and being human. We will read and analyze a small selection of Jemisin’s short fiction because her stories afford close-reading and inquiry. Students write a shorter and a longer literary criticism paper by completing a variety of in- and out-of-class writing activities, including peer review. To fulfill university Advanced Writing and Oral Communication requirements, students also make oral presentations. This course hones skills practiced in other core English courses: reading stories for formal patterns, figurative language, and conceptual implications; attending to diction, paragraphing, and other stylistic and rhetorical choices; conducting research to expand and deepen observations and to join critical conversations; and exercising effective writing strategies to make and develop persuasive claims that matter.

This course is for students who are planning on, interested in, or otherwise curious about attending law school. Writing is essential to all areas of the law, from drafting case briefs as a 1L to issuing opinions as a Supreme Court justice. In this course, we will: 1) examine the different genres of legal writing; 2) practice the underlying principles of these genres through a variety of rule- and context-oriented writing activities; 3) learn from actual legal practitioners; and 4) put everything into practice through participation in a mock trial. This is NOT an undergraduate version of the legal writing classes you will take in law school. This is, rather, a course designed to help you better understand the distinctive principles, contexts, and expectations of legal writing. Doing so will, ideally, enable you to apply to law school with more confidence and, once accepted, proceed with a stronger foundation for success as a student and, ultimately, practitioner of the law.

This course will focus on the most popular texts published or read in America before 1800. These texts--about topics ranging from religion to crime, revolution, and seduction--provide insight into the needs, interests, anxieties, and aspirations of readers. Our consideration of these texts and readers will also help us understand ourselves as readers and our relationship to early American audiences. (Note: this class will count for either 331R or 388R, not both.)

Here’s a confession: Prof. Horrocks loves reading Victorian murder ballads, even as she is wracked with ethical conflict about consuming violence (often against women) for entertainment. Here’s another: Prof. Cutchins can’t resist a literary criminal with a dark mustache and/or a cape, especially if he first appeared in a cheap print with a bad illustration on the cover. In 332R/370R, Horrocks and Cutchins are teaming up to teach a class full of guilty pleasure on crime and detection in American and British popular literature and media from 1820-1914. Register for either course number (whichever fulfills the credit you need), and join us as we consider the early days of transatlantic crime literatures, music, melodrama, radio programs, popular illustration, and more. (Note: this class will count for either 332R or 370R, not both.)

This course will examine some of the best British novels written by women since 1800 and the modern textual re-writings they’ve inspired. Many of these, like Jean Rhys’s reimagining of Jane Eyre (Wide Sargasso Sea) and Sarah Waters’s rewriting of Oliver Twist (Fingersmith) are historiographic metafictions designed to explore the nature of fiction and problem of remembering the past. Others, like The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein and Longbourn, demonstrate the ability of adaptations to re-write our experience of previous narratives. In this class, we’ll use novels like these to explore female authorship and the evolution of the novel in past and present British literature. (Note: this class will count for either 337R or 396R, not both.)

English 344R engages in the study of multimodal texts and genres with ties to literature, based in theoretical grounding from the fields of adaptation studies, design, folklore, and digital rhetoric. Students will engage with stories that have appeared in multiple modes of storytelling and consider how the type of storytelling affects both the story itself and the audience’s reception. We will consider books, e-books, audiobooks, podcasts, online videos, films, television shows, video games, and other types of storytelling in order to explore narrative, adaptation, theme, author, and audience. Among the stories we will analyze are Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice, as well as multimedia icons like Sherlock Holmes and Superman.

Christian poetry in America is thriving, creating a growing field of accomplished poets, ambitious publishers, and rigorous criticism. Many of these poets seek God as the source of their artistic inspiration, potentially making the interpretation of their work an exercise in spiritual discernment. What if learning to understand this poetry could also attune us more deeply to the nuances of spiritual experience? What if critical mastery doubled as a way for us to develop our character and deepen our discipleship? Might learning to read in this way bring us closer to the Spirit and to Christ? We will explore these questions in reading collections by several outstanding Christian poets.

Here’s a confession: Prof. Horrocks loves reading Victorian murder ballads, even as she is wracked with ethical conflict about consuming violence (often against women) for entertainment. Here’s another: Prof. Cutchins can’t resist a literary criminal with a dark mustache and/or a cape, especially if he first appeared in a cheap print with a bad illustration on the cover. In 332R/370R, Horrocks and Cutchins are teaming up to teach a class full of guilty pleasure on crime and detection in American and British popular literature and media from 1820-1914. Register for either course number (whichever fulfills the credit you need), and join us as we consider the early days of transatlantic crime literatures, music, melodrama, radio programs, popular illustration, and more. (Note: this class will count for either 332R or 370R, not both.)

382: English Teaching Majors ONLY
384: Shakespeare’s Song Sampler (English Teaching majors should register for ENGL 382 section 001)

Every Shakespeare play has or refers to songs, but the scores of only two original songs survive today. What is revealed studying Shakespeare’s plays while thinking of the songs? It teaches us about dramatic collaboration and textual transmission; about questions of faithfulness, originality, and adaptation; about performance constraints and creative license; about the players and their talents; about historical events and cultural values; about staging and set design; about embodiment and ephemerality. And this list is itself just a sampling. We’ll study a handful of familiar and less known plays—Much Ado about Nothing, Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth—and consider their songs in Shakespeare’s time as well as modern reappropriations. No musical background is necessary.

This course will focus on the life, works, and legacies of Jane Austen, perhaps the most enduringly popular and influential novelist of the 18th or 19th century. Austen is a perfect match for such a course, as in a single semester one can cover all six of her finished novels while also delving into her biography and important critical and cinematic interpretations of her works.

English 384R gives students the opportunity to delve into the life and literary work of one author. This semester, we will focus on the fiction and selected essays of Marilynne Robinson, whose novel Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, and whose fiction the critic James Wood describes as “demanding, grave, and lucid.” Robinson was awarded a National Humanities Medal by former President Barack Obama and is an internationally sought-after speaker. Born and raised in Sandpoint, Idaho, Robinson received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington in 1977. Three years later she published her first novel, Housekeeping, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. An influential instructor at the Iowa Writers Workshop, where she began teaching in 1991, Robinson is an internationally respected figure and sought-after speaker. She has given numerous interviews, speeches, and presentations, was listed as Time’s Most 100 Influential People in 2016, received a Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, in 2020 was appointed a visiting professor of religion and literature at Yale University’s Institute of Sacred music, and in 2021 four of her novels were featured through Oprah’s Book Club. Her most recent work is a literary reading of the Book of Genesis, published in March 2024.

English 384R fulfills a course requirement for the literary studies track in the English major and may also fulfill an elective course for English majors in other tracks, as well as for students in Global Women’s Studies and American Studies. Students may also take this course as 396R (studies in women’s literature). As an advanced course, 384R is both reading and writing intensive, and students should have completed English 303 before taking this course. (Note: this class will count for either 384R or 396R, not both.)

This course will examine how medieval writers constructed and pondered their own world and other worlds, real and imagined, including hell, paradise, and geographies less easily categorized. How does one's conception of the world influence their sense of self, community, faith, and relationship in/to the natural world? We will read across a range of genres, including mystery plays, alliterative poetry, prose romance, and dream visions; consider medieval cartography and world maps; and become familiar with medieval writers including many “Anon.” folks, as well as Marie de France, the Pearl Poet, and Chaucer.

This course will examine some of the finest short stories of the early twentieth century. If the nineteenth century saw the flowering of the genre, the short story becomes the site of some of the most ambitious and adventurous experiments within early twentieth-century literary modernism. During the first half of the semester, we will investigate a range of more ‘experimental’ stories by writers such as Mansfield, Joyce, Lawrence, and Woolf; we will use the second half of the semester to examine the shocks of the short story form as it plays in the fiction surrounding World War I. Throughout both units, we will investigate the formal characteristics of the short story—plot (or its frequent absence), narrative technique, arrangement of scenes, tone—in relation to literary modernism, and how structure determines the treatment of a range of contemporary ideas: time and consciousness, subjectivity, alienation, sexology, body and gender, fantasy, imperialism, and immigration.

This course will focus on the most popular texts published or read in America before 1800. These texts--about topics ranging from religion to crime, revolution, and seduction--provide insight into the needs, interests, anxieties, and aspirations of readers. Our consideration of these texts and readers will also help us understand ourselves as readers and our relationship to early American audiences. (Note: this class will count for either 331R or 388R, not both.)

This class will consider the works of established Asian American writers against the dynamic and often troubling backdrop of twentieth-century American cultural and literary history. The class is designed to heighten student understanding of stereotype formation and perpetuation—including by ethnic Americans and within ethnic American literature—and how such ideation directly and indirectly affects the identity formation of all Americans. Simultaneously, we will consider how, in portraying or performing identity formation, Asian American novels engage (or privilege) economic, political, religious, or "moral" constructs in relation to aesthetics or story itself. The class will enable participants to build on their knowledge of theory and aesthetics to develop a sound appreciation of the qualities and concerns of Asian American literature and an understanding of its connections to the broader American literary canon.

Our course will study a sampling of literature from the late 1960s to the present, including Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Louise Glück’s The Wild Iris, Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. These texts challenge the traditional forms and shapes of literary texts, the relationships between author and reader, history and story, and belief and doubt in an increasingly diverse America. How do language, perception, and memory affect our ability to perceive what is real?

Students publish the digital version of Inscape: a Journal of Literature and Art in fall semester and in winter semester (see the website at inscape.byu.edu). The journal is managed by graduate student editors currently in the MFA program, but interested undergraduate students may also serve as assistant editors and team leads once they have experience. Staff members learn the business and craft of editing and publishing through soliciting and evaluating submissions, content editing, and formatting pieces of writing as well as evaluating visual art. They also gain experience in marketing; social media; writing for the web, web design, and web content management; event planning; and interviewing. Experts in publishing, writing, editing, visual art, and marketing guest lecture during class as well. The staff learns and uses publishing tools like Wordpress, Photoshop, and Submittable. Students enrolled in ENGL 394R will also create a professional portfolio that includes a resume and cover letter/letter of application, a mock interview, a fleshed-out LinkedIn profile, a book review, and a job networking experience. The Inscape internship is designed for creative writers, editors, and students who want to work in the publishing industry; it can be especially helpful to editing or creative writing minors. Inscape is the most professional student journal experience on campus—and it looks great on a resume!

In this fall semester's Provo City Lab (ENGL 394R, sec 002), students will work with Provo City staff and BYU faculty to develop themed walking tours of Provo that introduce individuals to the city's history, culture, topography, and residents. These walking tours will help students, full-time residents, and visitors get to know Provo better and will be hosted on BYU's and Provo City's walking tour apps. The course is designed to help students recognize that they can draw upon the competencies they have developed in their English, General Education, and other courses in their efforts to contribute in important ways to the communities to which they belong.

For IP&T 495R (taught together w/394) Design Thinking Minor.
Students in the Provo City Lab (IP&T 498R, Sec. 1) will work with local government and other civic-minded organizations to improve urban design, public transportation, and community development. Students might, for instance, assist city planners in developing and writing one of the city’s neighborhood plans or help develop a culture of active transportation on campus. The course is designed to help students recognize that the competencies of design thinking and other disciplines can help them to contribute in important ways to the communities to which they belong.

Students will work on the staff of the new national children’s literary magazine, Wild Honey. Staff members will be a part of each stage of magazine production: concept creation, acquisitions, writing, editing, art direction, designing, marketing, networking, and distribution. This is a great place to learn about the children’s book industry and gain valuable practical experience. Students will collaborate with writers and other publishing professionals both on and off campus.

This iteration of English 396R gives students the opportunity to delve into the life and literary work of Marilynne Robinson, whose novel Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, and whose fiction the critic James Wood describes as “demanding, grave, and lucid.” Robinson was awarded a National Humanities Medal by former President Barack Obama and is an internationally sought-after speaker. Born and raised in Sandpoint, Idaho, Robinson received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington in 1977. Three years later she published her first novel, Housekeeping, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. An influential instructor at the Iowa Writers Workshop, where she began teaching in 1991, Robinson is an internationally respected figure and sought-after speaker. She has given numerous interviews, speeches, and presentations, was listed as Time’s Most 100 Influential People in 2016, received a Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, in 2020 was appointed a visiting professor of religion and literature at Yale University’s Institute of Sacred music, and in 2021 four of her novels were featured through Oprah’s Book Club. Her most recent work is a literary reading of the Book of Genesis, published in March 2024.

English 396R fulfills an elective course for English majors as well as for students in Global Women’s Studies and American Studies. Students may also take this course as 384R (Author Studies). As an advanced course, 396R is both reading and writing intensive, and students should have completed English 303 before taking this course.
(Note: this class will count for either 384R or 396R, not both.)

This course will examine some of the best British novels written by women since 1800 and the modern textual re-writings they’ve inspired. Many of these, like Jean Rhys’s reimagining of Jane Eyre (Wide Sargasso Sea) and Sarah Waters’s rewriting of Oliver Twist (Fingersmith) are historiographic metafictions designed to explore the nature of fiction and problem of remembering the past. Others, like The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein and Longbourn, demonstrate the ability of adaptations to re-write our experience of previous narratives. In this class, we’ll use novels like these to explore female authorship and the evolution of the novel in past and present British literature. (Note: this class will count for either 337R or 396R, not both.)

How can we use the humanities to understand the impact of humankind on the earth? How can we use ecology and climate sciences to better understand the humanities? This course on the Environmental Humanities offers students a set of readings, discussions, and assignments designed to permit us to enter into conversation with some of the field’s most important theoretical and conceptual currents, developments, and conversations. As readings, discussions, and assignments unfold and build on each other over the course of the semester, we will approach various topics: the Anthropocene, environmental justice, postcolonial ecologies, multispecies studies, ecologies associated with new materialist thought, and archipelagic and oceanic environments.

Publishing is far more than just writing a good novel. Once you've done that, what's the next step? In our class, we will talk to editors, agents, publishers, indie publishers, and authors to see what to expect in the world of writing and publishing for children and teens.

Speculative fiction, including folk narrative genres, highlights non-mimetic worlds and possible impossibilities–past, present, and future. The concept of justice appears often in speculative fiction and relates with contemporary social transformations that seek fairness for all and reparations for damaged relationships. This capstone starts with “Cinderella” as published by tale collectors since the 17th century to introduce the extraordinary settings, characters, events, and concepts involved with speculative fiction. Students will write a 15-page literary analysis of an approved speculative fiction work(s). Media adaptations may become part of the analysis. Literary texts we will study include Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves, and Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi. By studying the concept of fairy-tale justice with speculative fiction we consider how attachments to literary characters and compelling stories affect how we understand our place in creating and maintaining just worlds.

Words are magic, and words designed for specific audiences are spells that shape ideas, attitudes, behaviors, even the destinies of nations. Some ancient Greeks believed this power came from the gods; some thought it was witchcraft; and some recognized it as a tool to build stronger communities. During the first half of this course, students will be introduced to this history. Specifically, they will look at ancient texts related to rhetoric and magic, and they will begin to demystify the nature of persuasive communication. In the second half of this course, they will start learning how to cast their own spells. Specifically, they will embark on a capstone project for which they will choose one of two options: an extended persuasive essay or a multi-modal recorded speech for which they can use the library’s video production studio. Both assignments will be expected to draw on careful research and five key areas of professional persuasion.

This capstone course will engage students in critical reading of young adult literature as well as academic and professional writing about young adult literature. Students will read, discuss, and analyze a wide range of texts representing current trends in the field, important issues, and genres of significance. As a result of these dialogues, students will complete research on multiple topics that will lead to the authoring of two potential products for publication: a book review for a recently published young adult book and a textual analysis of young adult literature for potential submission to a journal.

Speculative fiction, including folk narrative genres, highlights non-mimetic worlds and possible impossibilities–past, present, and future. The concept of justice appears often in speculative fiction and relates with contemporary social transformations that seek fairness for all and reparations for damaged relationships. This capstone starts with “Cinderella” as published by tale collectors since the 17th century to introduce the extraordinary settings, characters, events, and concepts involved with speculative fiction. Students will write a 15-page literary analysis of an approved speculative fiction work(s). Media adaptations may become part of the analysis. Literary texts we will study include Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves, and Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi. By studying the concept of fairy-tale justice with speculative fiction we consider how attachments to literary characters and compelling stories affect how we understand our place in creating and maintaining just worlds.