Undergraduate Courses

This course centers on an exploration of major figures in American Gothic literature, focusing on the key authors who have shaped and defined the American Gothic tradition. By situating the texts within their socio-political context, students will gain insight into how American Gothic literature reflects and responds to broader cultural anxieties, tensions, and shifts.

The course will survey a range of authors spanning different historical periods, highlighting their unique contributions to the development and evolution of American Gothic literature. From early American narratives to contemporary horror fiction, students will analyze how authors employ Gothic tropes and motifs to interrogate the complexities of the American experience. Featured authors may include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Shirley Jackson, Flannery O'Connor, and Toni Morrison, among others.

This course focuses on Toni Morrison (1931-2019). A recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, and the first African American writer, indeed the first black woman, to win the Nobel Prize for literature, among other honors, Morrison is a luminary and genius that needs little or no introduction to readers worldwide. In this course, we will study her first five novels, chronologically: The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), and Beloved (1987). We will also examine her short story “Recitatif.” To help deepen our appreciation of Morrison’s world, politics, and art, we will place her canon in a nexus of contexts and traditions: African, African American, African American women, American, and Caribbean histories and literatures. Students are encouraged to visit the Toni Morrison Society webpage for biographical, programmatic, and archival information.

Requirements: This course meets the LMC distribution requirements for Alterity and electives

This course introduces a variety of cross-cultural literary traditions in American literature. We will look at selections in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction and place them in socio-cultural and historical context. 

This course is designed for upper-level undergraduate students interested in understanding, assembling, and creating fiction. We will read craft essays and short stories to study many of the core elements of fiction, including characterization, narration, point of view, setting, dialogue, and conflict, in order to see how and why the “rules” of fiction work. (As a writer, you likely have an inherent instinct to break the rules –great– but first you need to be knowledgeable of what they are). Through active discussions, assignments, and readings, you will learn to identify and analyze the elements of fiction, thereby gaining the necessary tools to tell an effective story, and applying this knowledge as you write and revise your own works over the course of the semester.

Joy joy joy! Poetry can teach us to be more fully present for every moment and to notice everything that is awesome about the universe.

Fiction Workshop (CRW 4120) is a course on the craft and art of fiction writing, only available for students who have satisfactorily completed Fiction Technique (CRW 3110). This course assumes you have a serious interest in writing, reading, and discussing fiction. Our concerns are both practical and craft-based: where you as author wish to go with a particular draft, and how we, as readers and writers engaged in a common cause, might help you get there.

In class we will examine how various craft points are at work in a number of published stories, and very often these texts will serve as templates for imitation and inspiration. However, this course will primarily follow the workshop model, and therefore student writing, and the discussion of same, will be our main focus. To that end, over the course of the session students will be required to produce and share a flash fiction piece of between 500-750 words, as well as one short story draft (8-15 pages).

In this course, we will move beyond parsing the important, intricate details of prosody you’ve ideally encountered in CRW 3311 (and possibly other sections of CRW 4320) and write into and against modes and schools of thought that dominate contemporary poetics, particularly our intense moment of hypervisibility and hyperviolence. We will focus not only on refining the single “perfect poem” but also curating a series of poems whose speakers’ voices we can modulate to interrogate personal and cultural history and memory with greater veracity. We will attend to the ways that the performance of race, gender, and nationality contemporize and transform the ancient elegy and other modes of writing. To achieve this ambitious feat, rather than reading several books, we will spend the better part of the semester studying these modes and schools vis-à-vis representative writers over successive fortnights before reading two new collections as exemplary models of our aim of producing a small poetry collection.

In this course we will mostly read and study contemporary flash fiction and short stories (from Flash Fiction America and Best American Short Stories 2024). We will develop a language to talk about fiction. Students will learn to be constructive critics of fiction in a workshop environment and will be prepared for Fiction Workshop, CRW4120. Occasion writing exercises will allow students to practice what they have learned and create their own set of tools and techniques to use in their writing.

We have read them, recited them, and have them on our shelves: Frost, Dickinson, Shakespeare, Milton, Donne, Clifton, Angelou. But what are living poets writing and publishing today, and how can you contribute to this wonderful genre? After all, you are living in this crazy modern world, and in this course you'll be reading and writing poetry alongside other living poets. There's much to learn from being alive today. This course explores a diversity of living poets from all different background and abilities; all are welcome! This fulfills a poetry genre requirement and diversity requirement.

We'll begin with the foundations of Western rhetorical theory and study challenges and critiques to it throughout history. More importantly, we'll discuss what these theories of rhetoric have to do with a range of communication practices in current day and how identity also influences how we speak, listen, and know the world around us.

ENC 3310 Article and Essay Technique is an introductory course in the craft of creative nonfiction, a genre that includes creative use of prose craft techniques to present truth, fact, experience, and memory. Creative nonfiction includes a wide range of works including: memoir, personal essay, lyrical essay, literary journalism, profiles, science writing, nature writing, travel writing, biography, cultural criticism, and more. Expect to engage with several modes of nonfiction, personal essays, and memoir excerpts written by writers like you and unlike you. Please be aware that some material may be triggering. We’ll also study works on the craft of nonfiction, and you’ll produce your own pieces of creative nonfiction to be workshopped in class.

ENC 3416 (WEPO) is one of three core courses for Editing, Writing, Media (EWM), and as such, it helps provide a foundation for the major. This course acknowledges the complexity of composition today as it extends beyond writing for print by introducing students to the principles of composing and editing across different media environments, paying special attention to how your process will be affected when working in different contexts, with different materials and genres, for different audiences. Through the lens of literacy studies, this section of WEPO aims to help students:

1) understand principles of composition across the many forms in which it occurs;

2) compose for three different spaces—print (physical), digital (screen), and network (online) using different technologies and design strategies;

3) appropriately revise and edit the texts created in each space, learning how to transform them where necessary; and

4) understand the relationships that exist across and between texts, technologies, and materials.

To accomplish these goals, we'll engage with multiple kinds of texts: we’ll read some, write some, talk about some, and create remediated forms of some, all while interrogating and unpacking our perspectives on and experiences with literacy/ies .

Throughout the course, we will spend time reflecting on the differences and similarities we experience when composing across various genres, and we will interrogate what happens to ourselves as writers/thinkers/creators as we engage in this work. Note: There is no official textbook for this course; instead, texts/readings will be provided via Canvas.

ENC 3416 (WEPO) is one of three core courses for Editing, Writing, Media (EWM), and as such, it helps provide a foundation for the major. This course acknowledges the complexity of composition today as it extends beyond writing for print by introducing students to the principles of composing and editing across different media environments, paying special attention to how your process will be affected when working in different contexts, with different materials and genres, for different audiences. Through the lens of literacy studies, this section of WEPO aims to help students:

1) understand principles of composition across the many forms in which it occurs;

2) compose for three different spaces—print (physical), digital (screen), and network (online) using different technologies and design strategies;

3) appropriately revise and edit the texts created in each space, learning how to transform them where necessary; and

4) understand the relationships that exist across and between texts, technologies, and materials.

To accomplish these goals, we'll engage with multiple kinds of texts: we’ll read some, write some, talk about some, and create remediated forms of some, all while interrogating and unpacking our perspectives on and experiences with literacy/ies .

Throughout the course, we will spend time reflecting on the differences and similarities we experience when composing across various genres, and we will interrogate what happens to ourselves as writers/thinkers/creators as we engage in this work. Note: There is no official textbook for this course; instead, texts/readings will be provided via Canvas.

Although we will start in Egypt and with African rhetoric, we will trace many different rhetorics across the world throughout distinct eras to emphasize the differences in rhetorical knowledge and meaning-making processes. During this process, we will consider knowledges, histories, and identities as subjective and ever-changing. We will also consider how visual methods of delivery factor into and evolve meaning-making processes. Although you may not have had experience with visual rhetoric in previous courses, this class will encourage you to expand your understanding and appreciation of rhetoric to include visual modes of delivery, interpretation, and understanding. Further, we will frequently (re)define rhetoric and its intersection with concepts like epistemology, truth, belief, identity, social interaction, and social justice.

This is an introductory course in the craft of creative nonfiction, a slippery genre that includes a miscellany of forms concerned with the presentation—and interrogation—of truth, fact, experience, and memory itself. Situated within this genre are essays of all kinds; works of reportage; works that tell life stories; works of cultural, literary, and political criticism; and more. We will read and discuss published works, placing contemporary writers in dialogue with those past, and will read craft essays and hold active class discussions to develop a robust vocabulary with which to describe and analyze the works we read. Students will also write their own pieces of creative nonfiction, at least one of which will be workshopped (read, critiqued, and discussed) by the class, then significantly revised by the end of the term.

ENC 3416 (WEPO) is one of four core courses required for Editing, Writing, Media (EWM), and as such, it helps provide a foundation for the major. This course situates writing “as a social and rhetorical activity,” meaning we write with/through/for specific purposes, distinct audiences, and unique identities (Roozen Naming What We Know 2015). We will situate composition as an embodied act, exploring how we write and compose with and through our bodies. Then, we will explore the principles of composing and editing across different media environments, paying special attention to how your process is affected when you compose in different contexts, with different materials and genres, and for different audiences.

This course seeks to answer 4 guiding questions:

How is writing both social and rhetorical?

What key terms or concepts are necessary for understanding the principles of composing?

How do we compose for a variety of spaces, like print, digital, and network?

How do we engage with editing and revision in print, digital, and networked spaces?

As a student in this course, you will gain introductory experience in multimodal or multimedia composition in print and digital spaces; a critical understanding of your own composing processes; and a transferable vocabulary for analyzing, inventing, and revising texts.

Students, are you interested in learning more about the English Major? As an introductory course, this class will act as a guide that will introduce you to English studies and the opportunities the field can provide. The course reviews the history of the discipline in ways that are meaningful and accessible, and we will talk about current practices and areas of inquiry for various fields within English studies, including broadening the concept of writing to include other forms of writing and media that you may not have previously considered. The course will also help you to acquire skills that will be useful for you in other courses such as: annotation, analysis, drafting, workshop and peer review, and revision. You will also develop vocabulary for specialization in the major throughout our discussions and readings in this course. Ultimately, the class intends to prepare you to be an English major, showing how English studies can be used both in college and a variety of career fields and to explore the rewarding depth to be found in writing and analysis.

We will use the primary text, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, as a vehicle to explore various theories and approaches to reading and analyzing literature. We will write both on the text and beyond the text. With the completion of this course, you will be better prepared for the variety of assignments found in future higher level English courses.

This course explores how graphic novels are a medium for engaging with urgent sociopolitical, cultural, historical, and environmental issues. In addition to the aesthetics, we will examine the themes and the development of the genre of the Graphic Novel from popular culture to high-literary genre. Students are invited to analyze the visual narratives combined with the texts, imagery, and design to deepen their understanding of human resilience, the complexities of history, and ecological crisis. We will study Tintin in Tibet, Dark Rain, Parable of the Shower, Maus, The Sandman, and Fun Home. Drawing insights from historical inquiry, environmental studies, and through literary analysis, this course critically examines how graphic novels interrogate traditional narratives, amplify marginalized voices, make the public aware, and inspire action. This course prompts students to explore and write about how literature reflects the human condition.

From witches and vampires to ghosts and demons, the occult has long fascinated audiences and shaped cinematic history. This course examines how film from the silent era to today has engaged with metaphysical themes and liminal ways of being, exploring narratives of magic, witchcraft, hauntings, possession, and other supernatural phenomena. In this course, we will examine a discursive set of films, as well as their antecedents in gothic literature and corollaries in new media and popular culture more broadly. Through critical frameworks in film theory, psychoanalysis, the natural sciences, and studies of race, class, gender, and sexuality, we will analyze how occult media reflect cultural anxieties, challenge dominant ideologies, and offer alternative modes of embodiment and subjectivity. Students will engage with key films and media texts that interrogate the boundaries between reality and the supernatural, desire and fear, belief and skepticism.

Fulfills LMC requirement: Understanding Genres.

In this class, we will think about books not just as things we read, but as objects we store, circulate, and design to convey specific meanings. As a survey course, we will begin with examples of the earliest tools with which humans began to record messages and move forward into the present day, lingering over particularly important moments in book history such as the development of the printing press and creation of a mass market of books in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ultimately, we will see how all of these text technologies formulated the modern book. Throughout the semester, we will continue to return to the question: how does material form shape how we communicate?

Our readings will consist of critical interventions in the history of text technologies as well as historical case studies, all of which we will supplement by visiting the special collections at Strozier Library. These resources will invite us to consider how editing, circulation, and physical presentation shape the texts we engage with every day.

This course offers an elaborated discussion of rhetorical theory and rhetorical criticism. We will begin with western rhetorical traditions of rhetoric and then complicate this cultural perspective by engaging the ways rhetoric gets enacted in diverse rhetorical spaces and situations. We will also consider how positionality and positions of power influence rhetoric and how/when/where/why it is employed. Reoccurring themes of the course will be the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos and how our notions and standards of “good moral character,” “logical reasoning,” and “empathy” are complicated ideas and beliefs that are not always applied equally to all situations and all people. Although this subject matter may be a review for some students, this course aims to offer an extended and nuanced discussion of these terms by drawing on scholarship from feminist historical rhetorics and cultural rhetorics perspectives. Ultimately, at the completion of this course, students should have a broad understanding of the many histories, meanings, and functions of rhetorics generally, and rhetorical appeals specifically.

Visual rhetoric surrounds us in everything from museum exhibitions to social media feeds, from corporate branding to street art, from Instagram to the architecture and design of campus buildings. This course begins with the premise that visual rhetoric represents a distinct yet interconnected mode of discourse that deserves thoughtful attention. Rather than treating the visual as supplemental to written or oral rhetoric, we will investigate how visual rhetoric operates according to its own principles while simultaneously engaging with other modalities. Students will analyze visual texts across various disciplines and contexts, undertaking projects such as investigative photo essays, a study on visual representations of identities, and the examination of visuals related to public memory.

This course for the EWM track investigates concepts of “textuality,” which refers to how "texts" make meaning by being understood in context. We will test out key scholarly ideas by discussing some vibrant films as case studies. Our reading includes scholarship on textuality as well as on film. As we explore ideas about what counts as a "text" and where the meaning of a text resides, we will assess debates about the relationship between the text and vital contexts. These contexts include audience reception and the "paratext," which refers to associated material surrounding the text but that is separate from the text itself. In addition to scholarly debates about how to define "text" and "textuality," we will study concepts of paratextuality, intertextuality, adaptation, interactive textuality, and remixes. We will consider, for example, films that have been adapted from literature and how to unpack the meanings of various kinds of texts. We will ponder what contexts can influence our reading of these texts, ranging from associated material like a film trailer to fan reactions or genre expectations. Assignments include frequent Canvas discussion posts, a shorter essay, and the longer final essay. In a final project, students will get the chance to produce their own multimedia text and to analyze how their own work engages issues of textuality.

This course explores the complex dynamics between literary form and material form. We will consider how authors and artists seek to make meaning not only through words but also through the physical forms and formats that their words take. From evaluating paperbacks like Steven Hall’s experimental novel The Raw Shark Texts to unbound works like Anne Carson’s poem Nox to artists’ books that often don’t look like traditional books at all, this course asks students to consider how texts make meaning beyond just language itself. Throughout the semester we will draw on FSU Special Collection’s strong holdings of artists’ books and also experiment with bookmaking techniques ourselves. For their final project students will have the option to create an artist’s book alongside a research-based, critical reflection of their own creative process. In addition to the required texts, students should be prepared to spend roughly $35 on materials. This course meets the Literature Capstone Requirement.

This course will introduce you to various schools of theory that inform current literary and cultural studies, and enable you to use the work of theorists in your own readings of a wide range of cultural productions. Meeting these objectives involves the following:

• Building a critical/theoretical vocabulary;

• Attaining a basic understanding of and conversance with theoretical concepts contained in course readings;

• Demonstrating that understanding when reading, discussing, and writing about assigned texts.

In addition to using Robert Dale Parker’s How To Interpret Literature as an introductory primer for understanding critical theory, you will also read works by the theorists themselves to give you a sense of the richness and range of different theoretical schools. To facilitate the practical application of theoretical concepts, and to help organize and articulate your critical responses, we will engage in various exercises designed to hone your writing skills. Refining these skills—developing strong thesis statements, analyzing textual evidence, incorporating theoretical vocabulary—will benefit you not only in this class, but in other courses as well.

In other words, over the six-week semester, we will engage in praxis (the first vocabulary word for the course): “practice informed by theory and also … theory informed by practice” (Williams, Keywords, “Theory”).

This course will survey various works of William Shakespeare, including plays and poems. You will be introduced to an array of ideas that all engage in what has been variously dubbed “the esoteric,” or “the occult,” which are umbrella terms for ideas dealing in heterodox conceptualizations of the sacred, including but not limited to magic, kabbalah, alchemy, spiritualism, “shamanism,” intermediary beings, entheogens, tarot, divination, and more. We will analyze the philosophical, political, and aesthetic aspects of these works, asking how Shakespeare utilized heterodox spiritualities as literary devices, how such forms of “occulture” intersect with more mainstream religions and cultures, and how one can define “literary” occultism and/or “occult” literature. Assigned works include: The Tempest, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, The Oxford Shakespeare: Complete Sonnets and Poems.

In terms of historical methodology, we would also like to ask particular questions: How do social contexts shape literary products? These questions will require us to consider issues of intertextuality, influence, national and world literatures, trans-culturalism, hegemony, and historiography.

LMC core requirements: Pre-1800

Monsters are far from a modern invention! From Dragons, Werewolves, to Wildmen; they have captivated humans for centuries. This course will provide an introduction to the broad range of literature genres and time periods through engaging with monster literature within the Western Canon. Students will learn to read critically and conduct their own analysis on themes of monstrosity and humanity as they read about monsters across literary history, from Beowulf’s Grendel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’s Monster

In this course, students will be assigned readings representative of a broad range of literary genres and cultures. These readings will cover a variety of literary movements and historical eras. The readings will include selections from the western canon. Written analysis of literary works may be required. Students will be provided with opportunities to practice critical interpretation.

This course introduces students to such narrative elements as point of view, characterization, setting, and symbolism in prose fiction and provides an introduction to the basic approaches of literary analysis. Most of our texts will be American short stories and novels from the early 20th century to the present.

“Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” So goes a line from Mary Oliver’s poem “Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches.” In this course, students will have the chance to study poetry and its elements—things like musicality, imagery, meter, metaphor, and form. Through our close and critical inspection of celebrated poets from a variety of eras, from Shakespeare all the way up to Yusef Komunyakaa and those writing in 2025, this course will create a solid foundation for students interested in thoroughly analyzing, understanding, and enjoying the art of poetry. There will also be opportunities to write poetry in this course.

This course will look at the history of the short story, starting with Chekhov, the father of the form. We will cover a brief historical view of the short story in the first half of the class and then we will shift our focus to the contemporary American short story for the second half. This class will look at the short story through the lens of craft, as well as historical and social contexts of the text. You will be asked to engage in discussions in each class, offering your own questions or insights into the what the story does well, what its shortcomings are, as well as considerations toward the society and time in which it was written. You will develop skills to read for craft analysis, and there will be opportunities to write fiction as a part of some class assignments, as well as your final project. There is also ample opportunity to engage in research or critical theory if that is a skill you are interested in honing. Practically speaking, we will work at the intersection of craft and literary criticism, seeking to discover how these two approaches to text inform each other and create friction in the literary landscape.

LIT 3024: This course covers the distribution requirements in Diversity and Understanding the Genre. This class will look at the short story through the lens of craft, students will prioritize how to view writing as a disciplined craft. To do this, the student will be reading established authors from the late 19th century to 2024. Each week a student will present on one of the short stories in: “The Best American Short Stories of 2024”. As well as writing exercises, that will benefit the students writing skills, critical or creative. This course introduces students to the critical reading of short stories dating from the nineteenth through the twenty-first century. This course teaches students to identify tone, narration, form, theme, characterization, and other formal aspects of short fiction. There will be opportunities for creative assignments in regarding writing their own short stories. Students are encouraged to formulate their own interpretation of the works read, based on their developing ability to recognize the decisions each author has made in constructing the text.

In this class we'll explore a variety of absurd, speculative, subversive, and even silly short stories from across time and geography, delving into content and form. What makes a story silly, absurd, speculative, or subversive? And how can one tell the difference between science fiction and the speculative in literary fiction? These genres can function as entry points into critical thinking, lending readers new perspectives and frameworks for understanding their respective cultures and themselves.

While we'll discuss adjacent theory and criticism, our primary focus is craft– narrative voice, point of view, pacing, symbolism, form, and structure. Through story deconstruction students will become mechanics of the form, with ample opportunities to practice writing in their own unique voices. Expect to read authors like Nikolai Gogol, Carmen Maria Machado, Charles Yu, George Saunders, Nghi Vo, Karen Russell, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Joy Williams, Taruho Inagaki, Nell Zink, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Class time includes lively discussion, reading and writing exercises, and interactive modes of interpreting our stories. Students will leave this class capable of discussing and interpreting any short stories they may encounter.

In this course, we will delve into the realms of science fiction to explore one of the most enduring and profound questions: What does it mean to be human? Through the lens of speculative fiction, we will examine how authors and creators challenge, redefine, and expand our understanding of humanity. Throughout the semester, we will ask questions such as: what is the definition of human and what does it mean to be defined as human? We will discuss how these narratives reflect cultural anxieties, ethical dilemmas, and philosophical questions about identity, consciousness, and morality. Through critical discussions, students will engage with classic and contemporary works to interrogate the boundaries of humanity in an era of rapid technological and biological change. Key authors to include Mary Shelley, Kazuo Ishiguro, N.K. Jemisin, and others.

This course meets distribution requirements for Genre.

This course requires the reading and analysis of a broad range of literary genres of American women writers. Specifically, this course covers novels, short stories, and poetry written during the socio-political shifts that occurred after the Second World War and prior to the end of that century. Included authors are Shirley Jackson, Carson McCullers, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rebecca West, Flannery O’Connor, Cynthia Ozick, Anne Sexton, Ursula K. Le Guin, Adrienne Rich, Helen Fielding, Sandra Cisneros, Jhumpa Lahiri, and E. Annie Proulx. Written analysis of literary works will be required, and students will be provided opportunities to practice critical interpretation in daily discussions.

This course fulfills Diversity, and +2000 Level Elective requirements.

This course allows students to analyze themes and techniques associated with poetry in English from the end of World War II to the present with a particular focus on BIPOC and queer identities. This includes creative work, scholarly prose, and criticism from a diverse range of backgrounds and ideas. We will observe how reading an intersectional dialogue of texts adds to the depth and possibility of our literary landscape today.