Courses

ENG 501, 502: Graduate Creative Writing Tutorial I, II (4,4) Cockrell, Hankla, Huddle, Larsen, Poliner, Staff
Graduate tutorial seminars in the form and theory of contemporary writing practice, with attention to the writing of the students in the class. The exact contents of any given seminar will be determined by the needs and interests of its members. Limited to graduate students in the creative writing program.

ENG 506: How Writing is Written (4) Hankla
An exploration of the creative process of poetry and fiction writing. The course will include readings of literature and works by writers on their art and craft, writing assignments, and discussion of student work. Not offered in 2011–12.

ENG 507, 508: Advanced Creative Writing (4,4) Hankla, Huddle, Moeckel, Poliner, Trethewey, Staff
A workshop course in the writing of prose and poetry. Selected works by students will be read and discussed. Frequent conferences.

ENG 511, 512: Graduate Creative Writing Tutorial III, IV (4,4) Cockrell, Hankla, Huddle, Larsen, Poliner, Staff
Graduate tutorial seminars in the form and theory of contemporary writing practice, with attention to the writing of the students in the class. The exact contents of any given seminar will be determined by the needs and interests of its members. Limited to second-year graduate students in the creative writing program.

ENG 519: The Jazz Aesthetic in Literature (4) Anderson
This course explores the development of literature (poetry, fiction, autobiography, etc.) that employs a “jazz aesthetic.” The philosophical/aesthetic role that jazz improvisation has played in the development of Modernist and Post- Modernist critique will also be examined. Artists discussed include Charles Mingus, Jack Kerouac, Bob Kaufman, Amiri Baraka, Nathaniel Mackey, Miles Davis, Anthony Braxton, Jayne Cortez, and several others. The course entails the development of a creative and critical portfolio of jazz-inspired writing.

ENG 521: Screenwriting (4) Dillard
An intensive hands-on course in the art of writing for the screen, for beginners and for writers experienced in other genres (fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction). Screenings, writing exercises, and workshop-style critiques comprise the course. Not offered in 2011–12.

ENG 523: Cinematic Adaptation (4) Dillard
Students go through the entire process (from analysis of the story to outline to treatment to screenplay) of adapting a work of fiction for the screen. The course also includes close study of works of fiction that have previously been adapted for the cinema, as well as the resulting screenplays and films. Not offered 2011–12.

ENG 524: Poetry in Performance (4) Anderson
This course examines the aesthetics of textual performance as it has been applied to the performative aspect of poetry. Students will develop methods of critiquing and perform a broad range of aesthetic expression that incorporates poetry with other media. Poets to be discussed include Jayne Cortez, Ed Sanders, and several others. This course is a composite seminar/practicum. Not offered 2011–12.

ENG 550: Special Topic - Editing Poetry (2) Hankla
Selected students will serve as assistant poetry editors of The Hollins Critic, reading online submissions and making editorial recommendations to the Poetry Editor in a workshop setting. Students will also practice editing their own poems and learn useful strategies for journal submissions. Limited to graduate students in the MFA-CW program by permission. Offered Term 1.

ENG 550: Special Topic - Pedagogy and Practice of Creative Writing (4, 2) Moeckel
The pedagogical background and practical application of creative writing for the college classroom. Students will research pedagogical materials and texts; build syllabi and lesson plans, including the construction of writing exercises across genres and discussion of response theories; work one-on-one with peer mentors; engage in practice teaching and learn institutional practices. Limited to MFA-CW program Teaching Fellows and Graduate Assistants by permission. Offered Term 2.

ENG 550: Special Topic - Poetry and the Muse of History (4) N. Trethewey
This workshop will focus on the writing of poems that seek to engage and document various histories—both public and private—that allow us to place the explorations of our own experiences within a larger historical context. In so doing, we will explore the rifts between larger histories (the stuff of cultural or public memory) and smaller, often subjugated or lost histories, and personal histories. We will discuss the ways in which some poets have used history in their work, define some strategies for using information gathered from our research, and begin writing some new poems that engage those histories to which we have some connection or by which we feel compelled to explore. Selected essays on poetry and history—as well as a few collections of poems— will serve as texts for the course. Offered Term 2.

ENG 553: Film as a Narrative Art (4) Dillard
Films of Sir Alfred Hitchcock as moral, aesthetic, and psychological narratives, with particular attention to the development of cinematic style in relation to his concerns throughout his career. Such films as Blackmail, The 39 Steps, Sabotage, Young and Innocent, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, and Family Plot. Also listed as Film 353. Offered Term 1.

ENG 554: Film as a Narrative Art (4) Dillard
Films of Federico Fellini as moral, aesthetic, and psychological narratives, with particular attention to the development of cinematic style in relationship to his concerns throughout his career. Such films as The White Sheik, I Vitelloni, La Strada, Il Bidone, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Juliet of the Spirits, Fellini Satyricon, The Clowns, Amarcord, Ginger and Fred, and Intervista. Not offered in 2011–12.

ENG 567: Cross-Genre and Experimental Writing (4) Hankla
An examination of and practice in forms of writing that straddle the worlds of fiction/poetry, image/word, fiction/nonfiction, including graphic memoir and fictional (auto)biography. Students will write prose poems, flash fiction, and other experimental forms, while considering selected works by Gertrude Stein, Lydia Davis, Jamaica Kincaid, James Tate, Michael Ondaatje, Alison Bechdel, and many others. Not offered 2011-12.

ENG 584: Advanced Studies in Poetry (4) Larsen
An intensive exploration of poetry, focusing on contemporary writers from the United States. Can poetry, really, matter? How does it mean now? Is craft dead, murderous, of the essence? How do past poets speak through/ against/around writers of our time? Is aesthetic progress possible? What are the orthodoxies, transgressions, blunders of the age? Offered Term 2.

ENG 585: Advanced Studies in the Novel (4) Dillard
Studies in the form of the novel, ranging throughout the history of the novel. Close readings of a variety of novels with an effort to determine the demands of the form and ways in which it has been and can be developed.
For Fall 2011: Noir and Post-Noir. A look at how the mid-20th century American existential “hard-boiled” detective novel developed rapidly and internationally into literary noir fiction and then on into the metafictional post-noir novels of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Novels by such writers as Paul Auster, James M. Cain, Albert Camus, Raymond Chandler, Robert Coover, Friedrich Durrenmatt, William Lindsay Gresham, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Chester Himes, Horace McCoy, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Mickey Spillane, and Jim Thompson. Offered Term 1.

ENG 586: Advanced Studies in Creative Nonfiction (4) Trethewey
This is a course on the literary form that has come to be known as "Creative Nonfiction." We’ll read and discuss various modes of writing about personal experience and the aesthetic and ethical issues raised by such writing. Written assignments include discursive prose as well as students’ original creative nonfiction. Not offered 2011-12.

ENG 587: Advanced Studies in Short Fiction (4) Staff
Close readings of representative stories past and present that define or defy our expectations for the form. Attention to building a vocabulary for discussion and to the analysis of technique and structure. Not offered 2011-12.

ENG 599: Thesis (8) Department
A collection of original work: poetry, fiction (short fiction or a novel), screenplay, play, or an appropriate grouping of more than one genre.

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