AML 4300.0W61 focuses on the works of acclaimed contemporary Chickasaw writer and ecofeminist Linda Hogan. We will read Hogan’s poetry, essays, memoir, and three of her novels. Heavy reading and content load consistent with upper-level literature courses. We will study the literature (Hogan’s works) and the literary scholarship about it using research in UCF databases.  

Three 1000-word essays; weekly quizzes; one conference length (10-12 page; 2500-word) essay with research; heavy reading load.  

   In this required course for the MA in Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies, graduate students will implement professional practices in the discipline of Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies.  These practices include developing and revising scholarly writing; preparing academic work for publication and presentation; applying productive strategies for research, writing, and collaborative work; evaluating academic writing (including your own) with honesty and rigor; and strengthening and refining your professional voice. The primary work in this course will culminate in a sustained article with original research suitable for publication in a scholarly journal and the organization of the Spring 2023 Graduate English Symposium.  

Students will prepare abstracts, literature reviews, arguments, proposals, bibliographies, curriculum vitae, and manuscript, article, and journal evaluations as they hone their own original work for academic publication and presentation. The skills learned in this course are vital to any profession that requires writing, editing, speaking, planning, deliberation, time management, and focus. This course is an "M" or mediated course, which means that it uses reduced seat time and an online component in place of in-person meetings.                                                                                                                       

AML 3031: American Literature 1 is a literary history course. It focuses on broader literary historical movements, on literature that was produced in what is now the U.S.  AML 3031 studies literature written “from the beginnings,” i.e. the arrival of European settler-colonists through the first half of the 19th century.  

 Literature from this time period uses genres (and sometimes language) less familiar to modern readers. People didn’t think highly of fiction and wanted “truth and beauty” (moral lessons and poetic forms). Poetry was an esteemed genre and quite formal. The literary genres that proliferated in early America were sermon, history, poetry, polemic, travel narrative, personal narrative, and origin story. The novel emerged in the 1780s and 1790s. 

This course covers three literary historical periods: 1) early settlement and colonial literature; 2) the Enlightenment or “Age of Reason”; and 3) the 19th-century American “Renaissance” and “Age of Reform.” The  course is divided into three major sections, one for each literary historical period. Each of these historical periods will center several texts around a key “touchstone” or “classic” text. Our methods will be to understand how specific texts produced during a particular historical period are in conversation about questions which constitute and underpin American culture and literature. 

Assignments: Weekly readings and quizzes, bi-weekly writing, final exam. 

Early American Women’s Words explores the following questions: What did early American women write about?  What traditions of writing did women—who were denied legal, political, and economic rights, and whose identities and destinies rested in their bodies’ reproductive capacities—put in place?  What pretexts did they use to enter literary discourse, and how and why were they successful?  How did they negotiate the boundaries between authorship and public spectacle?  How did women from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds negotiate authorship and voice similarly or differently?   

            To answer these questions, we will explore North American women’s writing produced during the colonial and early national periods, from 1630 (the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) to the first decades of the nineteenth century.  We will pay attention to the historical and cultural contexts in which women wrote, examine a variety of literary genres, and study the relationship between women’s “place” and works in early America. Students will also learn about material culture, including early American cookery, penmanship, manuscript culture, needlework, etc.  

Assignments: heavy reading; weekly quizzes and discussion postings;  three 5-page analysis papers, final project, in-class contribution. 

"Post-1865" and "diversity"

Catalog description: Native American prose fiction and poetry since Momaday’s House Made of Dawn (1968). 

Extended course description: This upper-level literary history course covers contemporary Native American literature since 1970. Our historical focus starts with the so-called “second wave” of Native American nonfiction, novels, poetry, and short fiction. We will read about six books by Native authors and consider how these works express a range of attitudes about Native presence, history, land, language, and identity. Assignments: Two short papers; midterm; final; weekly discussion postings. (Fulfills: English Department Diversity course; Post-1865 Literary History course) 

AML 4300.0W61 focuses on the works of acclaimed contemporary Chickasaw writer and ecofeminist Linda Hogan. We will read Hogan’s poetry, essays, memoir, and three of her novels. Heavy reading and content load consistent with upper-level literature courses. We will study the literature (Hogan’s works) and the literary scholarship about it using research in UCF databases.  

Three 1000-word essays; weekly quizzes; one conference length (10-12 page; 2500-word) essay with research; heavy reading load.  

"Post-1865" and "diversity"

Catalog description: Fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction by selected women writers

Extended course description: This upper-level literature elective covers six novels by six contemporary women in six weeks. Focus is on women and girls facing environmental and social justice challenges as they navigate the process of coming of age.Writers studied: Hegland, Alvarez, Ozeki, Hogan, Morrison, and one graphic novelist. Weekly essay postings, discussions, and quizzes. Final exam.  (English Department diversity course)