To register, please contact Mary Ann Sweeney (masween@bgsu.edu, 419-372-6864) in 211 East Hall.

In-person courses:

ENG 6010       Research Methods
ENG 6820       Shakespeare and Adaptation
ENG 7790       African American Gothic

Online only:

ENG 6800       The Femme Fatale 1800-2000

Course descriptions are below.

ENG 6010      Research Methods
Prof. Jolie Sheffer
Thursdays 2:30PM - 5:20PM

ENG 6010 is designed to familiarize new MA students with expectations for research methods, graduate school, and academia, preparing them for their futures in the profession. The course will address questions such as: What is expected of students at the graduate level? What is involved in pursuing a Ph.D.? How does an academic manage time effectively? What kinds of jobs are available to holders of advanced degrees in English? What is the value of the humanities? Why do some scholars believe that the university-and in particular, the humanities-is experiencing a "crisis"? How should we respond to this "crisis"? The course will also introduce students to essential library resources, modes of literary scholarship and academic writing, and the conference experience. Students enrolled in English 6010 will write short self-reflective essays, as well as create a CV, annotated bibliography, paper abstracts, and a final essay that they will present at an end-of-term mock-conference.

ENG 6820      Shakespeare and Adaptation
Prof. Stephannie Gearhart
Tuesdays 2:30PM - 5:20PM

Since the early seventeenth century, countless artists have adapted William Shakespeare’s work in order to suit the aesthetic tastes and social sensibilities of their cultures. During Shakespeare’s lifetime, playwright John Fletcher composed The Woman’s Prize; or, The Tamer Tamed in response to The Taming of the Shrew. Long after the Bard’s death and following the Restoration of Charles II, Nahum Tate devised a version of King Lear that included a happy ending and proved wildly popular well into the nineteenth century. In the early 1800s, Charles and Mary Lamb adapted Shakespeare’s plays for young readers, though by 1900 these tales were in need of an update, as Edith Nesbit’s The Children’s Shakespeare suggests. By the mid-twentieth century, America was introduced to Broadway musicals Kiss Me, Kate and West Side Story while half a world away, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa was directing Throne of Blood and The Bad Sleep Well. Elsewhere around the globe, Spanish poet, Federico García Lorca adapted Romeo and Juliet as El público, German playwright Heiner Müller staged his Hamletmachine, and Africa’s Welcome Msomi composed a Zulu version of Macbeth. Before the millennium came to an end, novelist Jane Smiley published A Thousand Acres, her best selling adaptation of King Lear, Disney introduced children to Hamlet with its film The Lion King, and Jil Gunger’s 10 Things I Hate About You enticed teens to movie theatres with the promise of seeing Julia Styles and Heath Ledger in this updated version of The Taming of the Shrew.

Why, we might wonder, have so many authors chosen to rework Shakespeare’s plays, many of which are themselves adaptations? What are the most fruitful theoretical models to turn to when discussing the relationship between the so-called “original” Shakespearean text and adaptations of it? Treating adaptations both as intimately linked to the “original” Shakespearean plays and as works in their own right, in English 6820 we will examine how adaptations from the seventeenth century to the present have critiqued the Bard’s work and addressed contemporary issues. The course readings will include plays by Shakespeare and adaptations of those plays that span a wide range of time, genres, and cultures. To aid us in our study of adaptation, we will read the works of theorists Linda Hutcheon, Mark Fortier, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Gérard Genette among others. Ultimately, we will seek to develop a working definition of the term ‘adaptation’ and ask questions such as: Are prequels and sequels adaptations? How is the notion of the “original” or “source” text complicated by Shakespearean adaptations? Is the belief that the Bard’s work is “universal” confirmed or challenged by adaptations?  And, how does Shakespeare’s high culture status affect responses to adaptations of his work?

ENG 7790      African American Gothic
Prof. Maisha Wester
Wednesdays 6:00PM - 9:00PM

This course investigates the multiple ways African American artists (both literary and film) appropriate and dismantle the American Gothic's portrayal and use of the Other. We will look at a variety of texts among different periods, such as short-stories by Victor Sejour ("The Mulatto") and Alice Walker ("The Child Who Favored Daughter"), novels by Richard Wright (Native Son) and Randall Kenan (A Visitation of Spirits), plays such as Amiri Baraka's The Ducthman, and films such as Eve's Bayou, Tales From the Hood, and Beloved.

This course thus engages the multiple ways Black artists write through and back to the Gothic genre. Consequently, students will discuss and complicate theories of genre, appropriation, signifyin(g), and parody. Students will also engage contemporary criticism on the intersectionality of race/ sexuality/ gender/ class within the gothic and horror genres. Theorists such as Theresa Goddu, Justin Edwards, Eve Sedgwick, and Hortense Spillers will particularly serve us in this endeavor.

Online only:

ENG 6800      The Femme Fatale 1800-2000
Prof. Piya Lapinski
Web-Based

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