Erin Finneran

The Art of Poetry, a course which aims to develop an appreciation of poetry through a directed series of close readings, principally by studying the formal and conventional aspects of verse as a primer in the art of the genre, taking the major elements of poetic craft—the line, the stanza, rhythm and meter, metaphor and simile, symbolism, etc.—as the main categories of analysis.

Introduction to Literary Study introduces how to analyze literary forms, genres, and conventions by applying a wide array of approaches to fiction, drama, and poetry ranging across two centuries. Organized around five themes—literary revolutions; questions of genre; gender, sexuality, and identity; subjectivity and authorship; and, modernism—readings ranging across two centuries include Wordsworth’s The Prelude and other poetry; Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; Wilde’s The Important of Being Earnest; Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and Beckett’s Endgame. After first placing each text in its cultural and generic context, the class explores how critical approaches to the same text have varied over time. By emphasizing how to question and analyze the historical context, stylistics, and genres of different texts, this class strives to prepare students to thrive in 300-level English courses.

A year-long seminar for first year students introduces how the Irish literature variously responds or contributes to the convoluted political and cultural situations in Ireland. As this intensive course seeks to inspire a balance between intellectual excellence and life-long camaraderie, it holds students to the highest standards for academic inquiry in a small class setting, while also appreciating their development as well-rounded, young people outside the classroom. To that end, the students share a trip to Ireland, during which the texts, their writings, and their relationships come to life.

This course has several goals, including to introduce rhetorical principles that may aid each writer in clarifying ideas to a particular audience; to foster an appreciation of readable, compelling, and elegant prose; to develop an awareness of voice and style. Though we will practice specific techniques in short writing assignments, your grade for the course will be determined by your work on six major assignments, each with a particular rhetorical purpose: to describe, invent, analyze, evaluate, and argue.

This second-level writing course has several goals: to introduce rhetorical principles that may aid each writer in clarifying ideas to a particular audience; to foster an appreciation of readable, compelling, and elegant prose; to develop an awareness of voice and style. Though we will practice specific techniques in short writing assignments, your grade for the course will be determined by your work on six major assignments, each with a particular rhetorical purpose: to describe, invent, analyze, evaluate, and argue.

Argumentation, through regular practice in both written and oral argument, considers the enthymeme, the three appeals, various claim types, and fallacies, with the goals of emphasizing audience awareness, reflective thinking, and strategic presentation.

This course examines the logical and rhetorical principles in the development and presentation of ideas, uses the principles of classical rhetoric—invention, arrangement, and design—to help focus discussion on specific styles of language. Wide-ranging essay assignments, inspired by the readings and discussions of a diverse array of major modern essays, cultivate this awareness of style.

This course explores the transformational effects of estrangement by pairing modern English literary and popular musical figures famous for their roles in reflecting and effecting radical social shifts. Questions of aestheticism, performance, audience response, fame, and influence will thread through five units: Godot and Glam: Beckett/Bowie; Portrait and Punk: Joyce/The Clash; Aestheticism and Alternative: Wilde/Morrissey; Gender and GenX: Woolf/Lady Gaga; Romance and Rap: Keats/Kendrick. Theories supporting the analysis include Adorno’s culture industry, Brecht’s alienation effect, Victor Turner’s study of culturally shared ritual, Bloom’s anxiety of influence, and Fish’s interpretive communities. Students will construct their own pairing, on which they will develop a class presentation and a final essay.