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The B.A. degree is offered in this faculty.

The aim of the undergraduate major in English is to educate students in literature and language and in the practice of writing, and to enhance their understanding of the tradition of liberal arts. The major develops the ability to understand and appreciate literature in its historical and cultural contexts, to read closely and analytically in a broad range of texts, and to write about language and literature with clarity and precision.

The English core emphasizes basic experiences of the literary tradition in England and America and introduces students to critical methods and theoretical approaches to literary study. On this foundation, English electives focus on literary periods, major literary figures, the several genres of literature, and the nature and history of the English language. Work in related areas such as foreign languages, philosophy, history, and comparative literature is encouraged. The overall aim of the program is flexible, yet directive and cumulative, and provides broad opportunities for professional as well as personal post-graduate application.

1083 (3 hours)
Conversion Narratives
Studies in literary treatment of conversion from ancient times to the present day.  Readings from several religions representing the common events, images, and emotions of conversion narratives; the role of conversion in autobiography; adoption of religious stories and personal transformation in secular writing.

1093 (3 hours)
Reading Narrative:  The World in the Book
The writer's creation of an imaginative reality in narrative fiction, poetry and drama and the devices by which the world in the book is made to reflect, refract and represent realities of the world at large.  Representative texts from all genres and periods in English and English translation.

1123 (3 hours)
Russian Poetry
Readings in representative works by major Russian poets; focus as to period and particular forms may shift from term to term.

1133 (3 hours)
Russian and European Cinema
Representative films from a range of Russian and European directors.

1983 (3 hours)
Independent Study

2013 (3 hours)
Shakespeare: Elizabethan Plays
An introduction to Shakespeare's works and career, with attention to historical and theatrical contexts.  Readings drawn from the range of Shakespearean plays and poetry.

2043 (3 hours)
Literary Creations of the Self
Examines representations of the "self" in literature: readings are drawn from various historical periods and genres to reflect modern constructions of "identity," the "subject," and "subjectivity" in specific cultural contexts.

2083 (3 hours)
African American Autobiography
African American "life writing" from early slave narratives to the present. Figures may include Douglass, Jacobs, DuBois, Hurston, Wright, Baldwin, Malcolm X, Angelou, and Walker. Attention to relation of personal to collective "voice" and the importance of autobiography to African American literary tradition in general.

2133 (3 hours)
Images of the American West
The American West as envisioned and understood across a range of interpretations and iconographies, primarily in literature and historical narrative, but also in film, painting, and other forms of cultural representation. Various mythologizings of "the West" as defined over time, and the persistence of such mythologies in the present. Same as Hist 2133.

2163 (3 hours)
American Culture(s): Voice(s) and Vision(s)
Texts in various genres -- fiction, poetry, drama, autobiography -- dealing with personal identity and cultural consciousness in relation to American ethnicities (Native American, African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, and others). Emphasis on contemporary materials, against a background of the historical experience from which each "voice" and "vision" seems to emerge.

2173 (3 hours)
Reading American Culture
An interdisciplinary approach to the study of culture, treating literary texts as both producers and products of the network of ideas, images, and conflicts of American "culture." Definitions of terms that shape reading (ideology, gender, race, ethnicity) and make evident political questions at issue in both writing and reading.

2193 (3 hours)
Literary Genders
This course examines the effects of 20th-century women's movements on modern images of women in English literature and film, and explores the question of how both sexes are being defined, redefined, and transformed in 20th-century culture. Same as WS 2193.

2273 (3 hours)
Film History
The development of cinema from its origins in the late 1890s to the present.  Emphasis is on technological innovation; film styles and genres; national and international influences; the star and studio systems; the roles of writers, producers, directors; and the conjunction of aesthetic and commercial interests in the evolution of film.  Same as Flm 2273.

2283 (3 hours)
Film Theory and Criticism
Surveys theories about cinematic languages and practices with attention to such elements as film languages, film and reality, the film medium (image and sound), film narrative and the other arts, the film artist, film genres, and film in connection with psychology, society, and ideology.  Same as Flm 2283.

2293 (3 hours)
Foundation of Linguistics
Basic linguistic concepts and analysis are introduced, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and historical linguistics.  Emphasis on use of linguistic theories and methods of analysis in describing human cognition, culture, and the social order.  Same as Anth 2023, Lang 2023.

2313 (3 hours)
Reading Major American Writers
Reading and discussing important American poetry, prose, and drama from the beginning to the present, exploring critical approaches to literary study, and learning to write literary criticism.

2323 (3 hours)
Environment and Literature
Explores the development of environmental writing over the course of the past two centuries in texts by British and American authors.  Covers a wide range of geographical settings and literary genres, examines each text as an argument for a particular "reading" of the environment.

2513 (3 hours)
Reading Major British Writers I
Reading and discussing important British poetry, prose, and drama from the Anglo-Saxon period to 1800, exploring critical approaches to literary study, and learning to write literary criticism.

2523 (3 hours)
Reading Major British Writers II
Reading and discussing important British poetry, prose, and drama from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, exploring critical approaches to literary study, and learning to write literary criticism.

2981 (1 hour)
Independent Study

2992-3 (2-3 hours)
Independent Study

3003 (3 hours)
Writing for the Professions
Adapts principles of good writing to writing situations encountered in the professions. Letters, resumes, and a full investigative report in the student's discipline are required.
Prerequisites: Junior standing and English 1033. May not be used to satisfy electives in major.

3013 (3 hours)
The English Language: History and Structure
An introduction to the history of the English language, including its development as a world language, and to the structure of the language -- its morphology, phonology, syntax, and semantics. Emphasis on varieties of English and on the history of thought about the language.

3053 (3 hours)
Literature and Film
Explores the relationship between literature and film, considering such topics  as literature as a source to film, and the differences between sources and film, cinematic and literary languages, adaptation from literature to film, and the screenplay as a literary form.

3113 (3 hours)
Linguistics
The nature of language -- its acquisition, structure, and cultural impact -- and of basic phonology, morphology, and syntax. Includes the basic uses of linguistics in psychology, sociology, anthropology, speech pathology, and literary criticism.

3213 (3 hours)
Writing Fiction
A creative writing workshop focused on fiction.  No prerequisite.

3223 (3 hours)
Writing Poetry
A creative writing workshop focused on poetry.  No prerequisite.

3243 (3 hours)
African American Literature
Selected African American fiction, drama, and poetry studied in cultural and historic contexts. Writers may include Wheately, Douglass, Harper, Dunbar, Chesnutt, Larsen, Hughes, Hansberry, Ellison, Morrison, Dove, Wilson.

3313 (3 hours)
19th-Century American Literature
The development of America's emerging national literature in prose, poetry, and fiction, before and after the Civil War. Writers may include Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Douglass, Whitman, Dickinson), Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Twain, James, and Wharton.

3323 (3 hours)
Early 20th-Century American Literature
The forms and directions of modern American writing from the turn of the century to c. 1960 tracing and critically considering the canon with attention to shifting cultural contexts. Figures may include Dreiser, Eliot, Wharton, Frost, Fitzgerald, O'Neill, Cather, Faulkner, Hurston, Stevens, Hellman, Ellison, O'Connor.

3333 (3 hours)
Contemporary American Literature
American writing since c. 1960, exploring "postmodern" in relation to "modern" consciousness and craft in contemporary cultural contexts. Works drawn from a range of authors and genres, with attention to the multicultural diversities of the late 20th-century literary scene, as well as continuities with and divergences from the "classic" American tradition.

3343 (3 hours)
African American Novel
The origin and development of the African American novel with attention to literary, cultural, and historic contexts. Works will be drawn from the literature of Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, urban realism, Modernism, and the Black Arts movements, as well as contemporary writers.

3353 (3 hours)
Contemporary British Literature
Representative works of contemporary British literature from 1939-present. Figures may include Orwell, Greene, Graves, Lowry, Murdoch, Amis, Lessing, Fowles, Naipaul, Rushdie, Hughes, Larkin, Gunn, Walcott, Heaney, Osborne, Pinter, Stoppard, Drabble, Byatt, and others.

3423 (3 hours)
Medieval British Literature
Representative works, some in Middle English, from 13th through 15th centuries, with attention toChaucer, the Gawain poet, and other writers. Texts may include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Piers Plowman, The Book of Margery Kempe, selected Canterbury Tales, and Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur.

3433 (3 hours)
16th-Century British Literature
Texts from 16th-century England, with emphasis on non-dramatic poetry and particular attention to Spenser's Faerie Queen. Figures may include More, Wyatt, Philip and Mary Sidney, Foxe, Hooker, Puttenham, Marlowe, Raleigh, Spenser, and others.

3443 (3 hours)
17th-Century British Literature
Texts from 17th-century England up to the Restoration, with emphasis on poetry and drama. Figures may include Donne, Jonson, Wroth, Cary, Webster, Middleton, Beaumont, Fletcher, Herrick, Herbert, Marvell, Bacon, Burton, Philips, and others.

3453 (3 hours)
Restoration and 18th-Century Literature
Representative literary works of the Restoration and 18th century. Figures may include Dryden, Behn, Congreve, Addison, Steele, Swift, Defoe, Gay, Thomson, Collins, Gray, Fielding, Pope, Montagu, Johnson, Boswell, Thrale, and others.

3463 (3 hours)
The Romantic Period in British Literature
Representative literary works of the Romantic movement in England in the late 18th century and early 19th century. Figures may include Burney, Wollstonecraft, Baillie, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Inchbald, Opie, Smith, Austen, Byron, Barbauld, Edgeworth, Percy and Mary Shelley, Keats, Clare, Bowles, and others.

3473 (3 hours)
The Victorian Period in British Literature
British literature from 1830-1900. Figures may include Tennyson, the Bront's, Carlyle, Mill, Ruskin, Browning, George Eliot, Dickens, Hardy, Hopkins, Gissing, Arnold, Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti, and Kipling.  Same as WS 3473.

3483 (3 hours)
Early 20th-Century British and Irish Literature
Developments and experimentation in fiction, poetry, and drama in England and Ireland from 1900-1945. Figures may include Conrad, Joyce, Richardson, Woolf, Lawrence, Mansfield, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Shaw, Sitwell, Eliot, Owens, West, Graves, Rhys, and Forster, with attention to relations between aesthetic and social contexts.

3513 (3 hours)
Modern Women Writers
This course focuses on modern women writers in relation to both the canons and avant gardes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; selected nineteenth-century antecedent writers may also be included.  The course looks analytically and historically at fiction, poetry, and drama by women writers of varying ethnic, class, racial, and sexual backgrounds and includes contemporary critical discussion of women and gender.  Figures may include Bronte, Jacobs, Woolf, H.D., Fauset, Robins, Petry, Rhys, Erdich, Wittig, Cisneros, Feinberg, Shange, and Tan.  Same as WS 3513.

3523 (3 hours)
Gender in Modernism and Postmodernism
Developments and experimentation with the gendering of fiction and poetry by men and women writers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  This course explores the unstable borders between definitions of modernism and postmodernism (as names of historical periods, philosophies, and aesthetic methods) and between genders, including the problematic of "differences" (e.g. race, class, sexuality).  In addition, some attention may be given to non-avant-garde developments in literature and gender during this period.  Figures may include Stein, Joyce, Larsen, Lawrence, Woolf, Borges, Jones, Coetzee, Acker, Coover, and Morrison.  Same as WS 3523

3703-3893 (3 hours)
Special Topics in Literature and Language I
The study of special bodies of literature in English (ethnic, cultural); the relation of literature to other disciplines (philosophy, music); and English language areas (rhetoric, semantics) and of the relation of language to other disciplines (politics, anthropology).

3753 (3 hours)
Black American Women Writers
Representative works of poetry, fiction, and drama by African American women studied in cultural and historical context.  Writers may include Wheatley, Jacobs, Hopkins, Larsen, Hurston, Marshall, Shange, Morrison, Lorde, and Dandicat.  Same as WS 3753.

3983 (3 hours)
Independent Study

4003 (3 hours)
Scholarly Writing and Research
Advanced expository writing for students considering graduate school and writing for professional scholarly publications. Emphasis on using theory in scholarly discussion; doing, analyzing, and incorporating scholarly research; organizing long papers; and writing at a professional level.  Prerequisite: English core courses or permission of instructor.

4113 (3 hours)
History of Literary Criticism and Theory
A selective survey of major trends and issues in the criticism of literature from Plato to the present. Emphasis on particular schools of criticism and on particular theoretical issues and problems.
Prerequisite: Six hours of English core or permission of the instructor.

4123 (3 hours)
Modern Literary Theory
Topics in modern and contemporary criticism and theory.
Prerequisite: Six hours of English core or permission of the instructor.

4163 (3 hours)
Film Genres
Intensive study of a particular genre of film, including, for example, the musical, the Western, the film noir, the comedy, the gangster film, or the social-problem film.  Students study major examples of the genre and read the appropriate theoretical and critical books and essays.  Same as Flm 4163.

4173 (3 hours)
The Jewish Experience in Film
Explores the varieties of representation of the Jewish people in feature-length, major-release narrative films, both American and international.  A range of social issues will be addressed, including: immigration, assimilation, internal and external conflict, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and contemporary experiences.  Presents the Jewish experience as both particular and universal.  Same as Flm 4173.

4393 (3 hours)
The American Novel
A study of major figures and innovations in American fiction, principally in 19th and 20th centuries, with attention to novel theory and to the Americanness of the American novel. Writers may include Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Twain, James, Wharton, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Morrison. Prerequisite: Engl 2313 or permission of instructor.

4483 (3 hours)
The British Novel I: Defoe to the Bront's
Development of the British novel during the 18th century and the first half of the 19th, with attention to experiments in form and varieties of content, especially in works by Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Austen, Scott, and Charlotte and Emily Bronte.  Prerequisite: Engl 2513 or permission of instructor.

4493 (3 hours)
The British Novel II: Dickens to Woolf
Major texts in the development of the English novel during the latter half of the 19th century and the 20th century. Figures may include George Eliot, Dickens, Hardy, Conrad, Lawrence, Joyce, Forster, and Woolf.  Prerequisite: Engl 2523 or permission of instructor.

4513 (3 hours)
Chaucer
The poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, with attention to historical context.
Prerequisite: Engl 2513 or permission of instructor.

4543 (3 hours)
Shakespeare
The plays and poems of William Shakespeare, with attention to his professional career and historical context.  Prerequisite: English 2513 or permission of instructor.

4563 (3 hours)
Milton
Major poems and selected prose of John Milton, with attention to historical context.  Prerequisite: Engl 2513 or permission of instructor.

4593 (3 hours)
Internship
Knowledge and skills in language and literature applied and developed in approved organization on or off campus (journal, humanities council, etc); arranged through prior written agreement among student, faculty, supervisor, and sponsoring organization. Provides credit toward the degree, not the major. Interested students should consult the Director of Undergraduate Studies.  Prerequisites: English major, junior standing, and at least a 2.75 GPA in major.

4703-4793 (3 hours)
Major Figures
Major literary figures drawn from all periods, medieval to modern, and from all literature written in English.  Prerequisite: Relevant English core course(s) or permission of instructor.

4803-4893 (3 hours each)
Special Topics in Literature and Language II
Advanced study of special subjects -- literary, social, or linguistic -- including group literatures (e.g., gay and lesbian, postcolonial), schools of criticism (e.g., semiotics, poststructuralism), movements (e.g., modernism, postmodernism), literary modes (e.g., pastoral), and periods and genres not covered in listed courses. Emphasis on research.  Prerequisite: Relevant English core course(s) or permission of instructor.

4843 (3 hours)
Law, Literature, and Detection
The relationship of law and literature in a variety of forms: law as literature, law in literature, trials as dramas, detection and surveillance, espionage and terrorism, and the legal, ethical, and political ramifications of the law. Readings from from Conan Doyle, Melville, Galsworthy, Thoreau, Plato, Poe, and others.

4973 (3 hours)
Senior Project
Seminar designed to enable students to complete the English major in stimulating colloquy with each other, under the direction of a faculty member, in the fall of the senior year.  Topics include issues of broad, current, sometimes interdisciplinary interest in the profession of literary studies.

4983 (3 hours)
Independent Study

4993 (3 hours)
Independent Study
Development by an advanced student of a special project founded on earlier course work and considered by the instructor and the English advisor to bear a useful relation to the student's overall program. May be taken once for credit.  Prerequisite: Relevant English course and permission of instructor.

TURC Tutorial (Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge)
A four-course sequence of student-designed independent study for English majors enrolled in the Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge (TURC). English TURC students normally will enroll for six hours of the first-year course (Engl 1983), and three hours each of the second- (Engl 2983), third- (Engl 3983), and fourth- (Engl 4983) year courses.