2020-2021 Academic Catalog

Apr 24, 2024

2020-2021 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

Courses at Furman are typically identified by codes separated into three distinct parts. The first segment designates the academic subject of the course, the second component relates to the level of instruction, and the final element (when displayed) assists with the identification of the meeting times and location for individual course sections.

Credit bearing undergraduate courses typically are numbered between 100 and 599, graduate instruction is typically numbered between 600 and 999, while zero credit experiences frequently have numbers between 001 and 099. Undergraduates can further expect courses numbers to reflect:

100-299	introductory courses, geared to freshmen and sophomores
300-499	advanced courses, designed for majors and other students with appropriate background and/or prerequisites
500-599	individualized instruction, including internships, research, independent study, and music performance studies

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English
	ENG-241 Medieval Arthurian Literature GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of the earliest tales of King Arthur and his knights. Course focuses on medieval European literature but may include one contemporary version. Authors include Chrien de Troyes, the Gawain poet, Malory, and others. 4 credits.
	ENG-252 Shakespeare GER: TA - Textual Analysis Prerequisite: Any FYW course. The plays of William Shakespeare studied primarily in their historical and theatrical contexts. Attention also paid to Shakespeare’s role in producing modern cultural awareness in the English speaking world and beyond. Appropriate for majors and non-majors. 4 credits.
	ENG-261 Revolution and Reaction TA (Textual Analysis) Any FYW. Focuses on appreciating the diversity of thought collected under the term conservatism. The courses will celebrate the diversity, inconsistencies, and variable unity of the divergent ideas sometimes considered synonymous with conservatism. 4
	ENG-273 Altered States in Victorian Literature TA (Textual Analysis) Any FYW. Taking a broad interpretation of the phrase “altered states,” this course examines Victorian literary works depicting states of mind that defy, transcend, or exceed notions of “normal” psychic functioning as defined by nineteenth-century culture and particularly science. 4
	ENG-291 Studies in Short Fiction GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) and WR (Writing-Research Intensive) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Stories to be discussed are selected from a variety of historical periods and cultural perspectives. Writers might include Hawthorne, Scott, James, Lawrence, Joyce, Trevor, and Munro. 4 credits.
	ENG-292 African-American Drama GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Three-part history and development of African American drama in the United States from its origins to the present moment. Part one explores the roots of African American drama and examines early stage images of black subjects, 19th century stage stereotypes of minstrelsy, and the initial achievements of the African Grove Theatre and early black playwrights. Part Two focuses on the Harlem Renaissance and the Harlem Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. Part Three examines major plays and playwrights from Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1959) to the 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning production of Suzan Lori-Park’s Topdog-Underdog. 4 credits.
	ENG-293 Literature of the South GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar The dialogue about race, class, and gender that takes place between writers such as Faulkner, Warren, Gaines, Welty, O’Connor, Walker, and Allison. 4 credits.
	ENG-294 Modern and Contemporary Poetry GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Works by at least a half-dozen prominent poets will be read, analyzed, and evaluated. Although prosody, poetic theory, and the development of modernism will be covered, major emphasis will be on the aesthetic qualities of individual poems and the distinctive sensibilities of individual poets. 4 credits.
	ENG-297 Autobiography GER: UQ (Ultimate Questions) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Topics include formal/theoretical discussions that stress spiritual and moral concerns, exploring contrast with other forms such as biography and memoir, and the study of specific sub-genres. Film adaptation or autobiographical film may also be considered. Alternating versions will include either an American emphasis or a global emphasis. 4 credits.
	ENG-298 Literature and the Environment NE ((Humans and the Natural Environment) and TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Any FYW. Focus on works commonly considered major examples of environmental writing and examine the theoretical/critical considerations involved in reading these works. Writers include: James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Mary Austin, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and Barry Lopez will be read and discussed. Theoretical problems such as the relation of writing to lived experience and the justice of emphasizing all life over human life will help focus discussions. Class participation demonstrating considered familiarity with assigned reading will be required, as will written work demonstrating thoughtful command of issues raised by the course. 4
	ENG-300 Literature Before Print GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Medieval English literature. Exploring the differences between the way medieval people read–their experience of reading and their training as interpreters of texts–and the way we read today. The complexity and variance of texts created in a pre-print world. Introducrion to canonical and non-canonical texts of the medieval English period, with a focus on the question of what it meant to read in the Middle Ages. 4 credits.
	ENG-304 English Literature of Restoration and 18th Century GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Survey of English literature and culture from the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Covers a range of literary genres, such as drama, satiric poetry, travel narratives, periodical essays, and novels. Students will examine the historical, social, political, and intellectual backgrounds for these texts, including the declining influence of court culture, the construction of a colonial market economy, discourses of slavery and abolition, and considerations of gender and marriage. Authors studied include: Rochester, Behn, Pope, Equiano, and others. 4 credits.
	ENG-314 Studies in Chaucer GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar The poetry of Chaucer, in Middle English, including some early poems, Troilus and Criseyde, and substantial selections from The Canterbury Tales. Special attention to the development of Chaucer146s narrative art, his invention of the Chaucerian persona, and his relevance to postmodern thought, conceived as his self-consciousness about the use of language and his ambivalence about the value of literary art. 4 credits.
	ENG-315 Animals in Medieval Literature and Culture GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Explores medieval literature about animals, humans’ historical relationships with other animals, philosophical discussions of the idea of “the animal,” and connections between medieval views of animals and modern ecological issues. 4 credits.
	ENG-316 Late 14th Century English Literature GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of literature by poets and mystics of Ricardian England, with an emphasis on interpreting these texts in light of their medieval social and philosophical context. A substantial part of this course is devoted to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 4 credits.
	ENG-317 Literature of Early Modern Britain GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: Any first year writing seminar A study of literature written during the reigns of the Tudors and the early Stuart monarchs when England began to develop a distinct cultural identity. Emphasis is on poetry and prose. 4 credits.
	ENG-318 Early Modern Drama GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Major works from the golden age of English drama. Work by Marlowe, Jonson, Webster, Middleton, Ford, and others of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. 4 credits.
	ENG-319 Major Figures in Early Modern British Literature GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of works written by major authors in the reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts. Authors include: Sidney, Spenser, Wroth, Marlowe, Jonson, Milton, or the major lyric poets. Focus on major works in their entirety written by single authors except in the case of the lyric poets. 4 credits.
	ENG-328 Interpretive Issues in Early Modern Literature GER: WR (Writing-Research Intensive) and TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of key issues for understanding early modern British literature and its place in a history of ideas in the West. Topics include early modern literature in relation to the histories of science, individualism, gender and sexuality, privacy, literary criticism, authorship and/or the place of period texts in emerging theories of literature and history. 4 credits.
	ENG-329 Harry Potter and the Secrets of Popular Culture GER: WR (Writing-Research Intensive) and TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar This course will examine the relationship between the Harry Potter film and book franchise and the 18th century novel. Like the blockbuster series, many 18th century novels relied on an earlier literary tradition, which they both sensationalized and updated. Not only does the Harry Potter series borrow tropes and plots from a variety of literary works, but it also relies on a rich literary tradition of borrowing and adaptation. This course will explore how literary traditions have always grown through copying, imitation, and outright theft. 4 credits.
	ENG-336 British Romantic Literature GER: WR (Writing-Research Intensive) and TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar The major writers and some less well-known figures from the period 1790-1830: the poets Blake Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, P. B. Shelley, and Keats; the novelists Austen and Scott; the essayists Hazlitt, Lamb, and De Quincey; and others like Mary Shelley, Godwin, and Clare. Introduction to both literary and critical writing of the period as well as to the current critical and theoretical issues, mainly rhetorical and historical, that engagement with these writers entails. 4 credits.
	ENG-337 Victorian Literature and Culture GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of Victorian fiction, poetry, and prose with an emphasis on major social, cultural, and political concerns and debates in nineteenth-century Britain: industrialization and modernization, ideologies of class and gender, evolutionary theory and religious ambivalence, new developments in aesthetic theory and literary form. Authors studied include: Carlyle, Ruskin, Dickens, Eliot, Browning, Tennyson, Pater, Morris, and Wilde. 4 credits.
	ENG-338 Victorian Novel GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar The Victorian novel viewed through the lens of both nineteenth-century and modern theories of the novel. Works by Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hardy and others will be examined from the perspective of Victorian literary culture and the work of critics such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Georg Lukas, Walter Benjamin, Ian Watt, Fredric Jameson, and Franco Moretti. 4 credits.
	ENG-339 Emerson to Dickinson GER: UQ (Ultimate Questions) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, Stowe, Whitman, Fuller, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville and Dickinson. Through exploring poems, essays, novels, and personal narratives, this course examines living well, considering relationships to nature, to God, and to one’s self. In addition, the course examines concepts of good and evil and the political realities of slavery and the disenfranchisement of women. 4 credits.
	ENG-344 Gothic Literature GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of literature that evokes terror and horror, explores the possibility of supernatural forces, depicts psychological disorders, critiques patriarchal constructs, and exposes cultural anxieties and oppression. Strong focus will be upon the scholarly division of Gothic Literature into Male and Female Gothic traditions, and upon examining how the literature explores gender and sexual norms and transgressions during various cultural periods. Topics and texts may vary. 4 credits.
	ENG-346 Slave Narrative to Slave Novel GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Consideration of the traditional Black Atlantic 18th, 19th, and 20th century slave narratives and novels, including authors such as Douglass, Equiano, and Butler, among others. Texts critique historiographies, ideologies, and models of interpretation that subjected African American cultural production and black identity to second-class citizenship. Examine the relationship between memory, writing, and historical representation and the production of hierarchical categories in the construction of racial, sexual, and gender differences. Texts engage the challenges of formal genre presented by the slave novel’s reinvention of the traditional slave narrative. 4 credits.
	ENG-350A American Novel to World War I TA (Analysis of Texts) Any First Year Writing seminar Examination of literary romanticism, realism, and naturalism as reflected in a selection of American novels and study of their cultural contexts, including war, gender roles, slavery, expatriation, and immigration. Authors might include Cooper, Hawthorne, Stowe, James, Twain, Norris, Chopin, and Cather. 4 credits
	ENG-350B American Novel Since World War I TA (Analysis of Texts) Any First Year Writing seminar Examination of modern and post-modern novels, emphasizing how these works reflect cultural assumptions about social class, race, ethnicity, gender roles, politics, technology, religion, art and entertainment. Authors might include Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, Hurston, Kesey, Walker, and Tan. 4 credits
	ENG-352 Experimental Poetries Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Introduction to different kinds of British and American poetries and poetics of the 20th century: some that reaffirm the well-known persona-centered lyric in various guises, and others that question the notions of expressivity and authenticity to redefine the lyric through a relatively more pronounced linguistic experimentation. 4 credits.
	ENG-354 Global Issues in Literature GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) and WC (World Cultures) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of postcolonial responses to and re-authoring of different Western literary canons, including examples from drama, fiction and poetry. Study of literary practices from diverse postcolonial locations (Africa and the Caribbean) to enable understanding of how through literary adaptations and oppositional writings third world writers respond to writings from Europe and America. 4 credits.
	ENG-356 Faulkner GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Chronological study of the development of Faulkner’s art from FLAGS IN THE DUST to GO DOWN, MOSES. Attention paid to the concept of Yoknapatawpa County and to the various innovative narrative techniques Faulkner employed. 4 credits.
	ENG-357 Irish Renaissance Literature GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar The remarkable literary flowering contemporary with the late nineteenth-century movements in Ireland that led to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1921, and with the difficult historical circumstances faced by the new nation in the first years of its existence. The major figures studied include Yeats, Joyce, Synge, and O’Casey. Normally taught in conjunction with study away experience conducted in the British Isles. 4 credits.
	ENG-358 Film and Visual Culture in South Asia GER: VP (Visual and Performing Arts) and WC (World Cultures) South Asian cinemas and visual culture through analyzing films, film studios, film archives, library and other visual and performative art forms such as architecture, painting, cinema billboards, advertising, public spaces, design, fashion, photography, dance and theatre. 4 credits
	ENG-359 Studies in the Essay GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar The essay as a genre, beginning with work from early practitioners such as Montaigne, Hazlitt, Lamb, and Shonagon, and tracing its development to the dynamic form we see in contemporary work. Students will read both American and international writers and discuss works on the basis of both thematic and formal qualities. 4 credits.
	ENG-360 Studies in Contemporary American Literature GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Readings in American literature from 1950 to the present, with emphasis on what might make this recent writing different from what came before, or 147postmodern148 in terms of aesthetics and cultural context. May address fiction, drama and poetry or concentrate on a single genre. 4 credits.
	ENG-363 Mystery and Detective Fiction GER: WR (Writing-Research Intensive) and TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of mystery fiction and its offshoots (detective, suspense, spy) in English and translation. Possible writers: Shakespeare, Walpole, Poe, Hammett, Mankell. Critical perspectives may include narrative studies, gender criticism, Marxist criticism. 4 credits.
	ENG-364 Drama in London GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Study of drama from the West and elsewhere in performance primarily on stage in London but also in other locations around the British Isles. Attention paid to the conditions of theatre in the present and at the time the drama was first produced. Offered only in conjunction with study away experience conducted in the British Isles. 4 credits.
	ENG-365 Revolution and Reaction GER: WR (Writing-Research Intensive) and TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Focuses on appreciating the diversity of thought collected under the term conservatism. The courses will celebrate the diversity, inconsistencies, and variable unity of the divergent ideas sometimes considered synonymous with conservatism. 4 credits.
	ENG-366 Drama at Stratford-upon-Avon GER: VP (Visual and Performing Arts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Offered only as part of the fall term in the British Isles program. Study of the drama being performed in London and Stratford-upon-Avon by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and others. 4 credits.
	ENG-378 Travel Study in the British Isles Texts and culture in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Specific topics will change from year to year. 4 credits.
	ENG-379 Studies in Fictional Histories GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar How does literature shape the ways in which one imagines historical figures, national events, or remote geographies? How do partially fictionalized reconstructions of experience influence historical understanding? This course theorizes the often porous borders between history and fiction. Students will examine archival material, historical documents, and theoretical studies alongside fictional works that do not simply reimagine the past but profoundly recast national histories. 4 credits.
	ENG-390 Gender in South Asian Literature and Film GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) and WC (World Cultures) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Introduction to the various debates over the representations of masculinity and femininity as these categories intersect with other forms of identity and belonging such as caste/class, nation, race, and sexuality through the reading of literary and filmic texts. 4 credits.
	ENG-391 Global Postcolonial Issues GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) and WC (World Cultures) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Introduction to the field of Global Postcolonial Studies through the study of literary, filmic, and theoretical texts focusing on the historical and ongoing interactions of European and non-European cultures from the perspective of domination, resistance, and the search for alternatives. 4 credits.
	ENG-392 Film Analysis GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Exploration of the fundamentals of film form151narrative construction in the Hollywood system as well as non-narrative formal systems (documentary, abstract and avant-garde film). Includes examination of the fundamentals of film style (mise-en-sc232ne, cinematography, editing, sound) and attention to the relationships between the literary and filmic texts. 4 credits.
	ENG-393 Literary Feminisms GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) and WR (Writing-Research Intensive) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Women’s literature in English as a distinct tradition, from the perspective of feminist literary theory and criticism. Structured as a historical and thematic survey of issues in the field; the writers and theorists studied will vary. 4 credits.
	ENG-399 Upper Level Pathways Any FYW. A required set of experiences to help majors understand how the study of the English language and literature align with vocational exploration and preparation. Three zero credit and one one-credit course. Variable
	ENG-461 Critical and Cultural Theory GER: TA (Critical, Analytical Interpretation of Texts) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Introduction to theoretical approaches to literature such as psychoanalysis, deconstruction, feminism, and postcolonial studies. Consideration of the ethics and politics of interpretation, the assumptions and practices informing theoretical work, and the relation between literature and theory. Readings include works of fiction, film, and texts by theorists such as Freud, Lacan, Kristeva, Zizek, Derrida, de Man, Butler, Cixous, Spivak, Bhabha. 4 credits.
	ENG-475 Senior Seminar in English Writing/Research Intensive (WR) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Course topic changes with each offering. 4 credits.
	ENG-476 Senior Seminar in Writing WR (Writing/Research Intensive ) Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar Capstone experience for students pursuing the writing track within the English major. Students engage in reading, writing, commenting, and revising to create a portfolio of polished writing. 4 credits.
	ENG-501 Independent Study Variable credit.
	ENG-503 Individualized Internship Prerequisite: instructor permission Student will develop an internship to work at a business, agency or media site for up to 210 hours over the term and will meet the objectives of a learning agreement completed with the employer and approved by a faculty sponsor. Requirements include a work journal, portfolios, and assigned academic papers relating to their internship. Open primarily to seniors and juniors. A student must have the permission of the instructor and an internship position secured to be enrolled. May be taken only once. May not be taken for major credit. No pass/fail. May not contribute to the major. Cannot be completed through the pass-no pass grading option. Not repeatable. Variable credit.
	ENG-505 Structured Internship Prerequisite: instructor permission Students will develop internships at businesses, agencies, or media sites for up to 210 hours over the term and will meet the objectives of a learning agreement completed with the employer and approved by a faculty sponsor. The internship site must permit the student a significant degree of professional writing. A weekly seminar class focuses on the objectives and issues of students? experiences as they develop their verbal and written communication skills. Course requirements include a work journal, portfolios, and academic papers relating to their internship. The course is open primarily to seniors and juniors. The course may contribute to the major. No pass/fail. Not repeatable. The course is open primarily to seniors and juniors. The course may contribute to the major. Cannot be completed through the pass-no pass grading option. Not repeatable. Variable credit.
Environmental Studies
	EST-001 Biodiesel Production Provides students with a working knowledge of biodiesel production, including basic organic chemistry, safety considerations, logistics, and economics, through the weekly processing of high grade biodiesel from waste vegetable oil. Course will include weekly discussions concerning alternative fuels and environmental issues. 0 credits.
	EST-1 Biodiesel Production Provides students with a working knowledge of biodiesel production, including basic organic chemistry, safety considerations, logistics, and economics, through the weekly processing of high grade biodiesel from waste vegetable oil. Course will include weekly discussions concerning alternative fuels and environmental issues. 0 credits.
	EST-301 Environment and Society GER: NE (Humans and the Natural Environment) Interdisciplinary examination of the causes, potential solutions and ethical dilemmas associated with environmental problems on various spatial, temporal, political and social scales (individual to global). 4 credits.
Film Studies
	FST-202 Introduction to Reading Film GER: Dependent on version; consult term-specific course listings Distinctive ways that film conveys and generates meaning. Tools to critically analyze films by examining the basics of film form, style (mise-en-scene, camera angle and movement, editing, and sound), and genre. The course also will explore the characteristic features of – as well as alternatives to – the “classical Hollywood style,” a series of formal and narrative conventions present in films as distinct as Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005) and John Ford’s 1939 western, Stagecoach. 4 credits.
	FST-365 Great Film Directors GER: VP (Visual and Performing Arts) An examination of the concept of auteur (author) film production that focus on the unique stylistic elements of films based on the film director’s aesthetics and worldview. The course looks at the films of many of the main individuals, both inside and outside of Hollywood, who are considered auteur directors such as John Ford, Billy Wilder, Igmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Pedro Almadovor, Spike Lee, Zhang Yimou, and Wong Kar Wai. 4 credits.
First Year Writing
	FYW-1101 Abortion: Issues and Controversies Abortion touches core beliefs about the nature of the human person, human freedom and rights, human relationships, and the right ordering of society. This seminar will consider abortion through various disciplines in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of the issues and the controversies around this phenomenon. 4 credits.
	FYW-1106 Doing History in the 1950s The purpose of this seminar is, first, to explore changing tastes in the field of history by comparing what was written in the previous generation to what is being written today, and second, to examine the Landmark Series, published in 185 volumes by Random House in New York City in the 1950s and early ‘60s. Students will read on topics, mostly of their choice, comparing books written in the U.S. in mid-century to the best of current scholarship on those same topics. 4 credits.
	FYW-1108 Evaluating Scientific Claims in the Media Students will learn the skills necessary to read scientific claims carefully, find relevant information in a variety of sources, and develop an informed opinion in writing about the veracity of the original claim. 4 credits.
	FYW-1109 Global Climate Change This course provides an insight into the scientific theory and data of global climate change. Students will analyze real data and compare their results to those cited in the novel “A State of Fear” by Michael Crichton. Ultimately, we will assess the roles of humans and natural variation in current climate change. We will also consider how knowledge and uncertainty influence climate policy. 4 credits.
	FYW-1110 Global Water Issues The course is intended to introduce students to and foster discussion on the many scientific and political facets of the world’s leading global water issues. The course covers a wide range of water resource and water policy topics. 4 credits.
	FYW-1111 Haunted Mansions This course explores how the interior and exterior settings of a selection of Gothic novels, short stories, and films reflect the lives and complex psyches of the characters. Students will learn about such psychological disorders as dissociative identity disorder, post-partum depression, and schizophrenia and will discuss how family relationships and cultural pressures adversely affect the characters studied. 4 credits.
	FYW-1112 History of Liberal Arts Why are you at Furman? The course will explore the history and practice of the liberal arts from the classical period to the present. Specific focus will be on the development of “Humanism” and the “Humanities” in higher education from early modern European universities to liberal arts education on American campuses. Students will explore arguments and create their own through a series of guided writing assignments that will introduce them to college-level writing. 4 credits.
	FYW-1116 Language, Argument and Culture A study of classical and modern principles of rhetoric and argument applied to contemporary linguistic issues such as information technology, multilingualism, language and gender, language and national identities, and the globalization of English. 4 credits.
	FYW-1117 Magic and Religion FYW (First Year Writing) This course focuses on how people from cultures around the world conceptualize the spiritual realm and how such conceptualizations are shaped by the values and social relations of the cultures in which they occur. Of particular concern is the relationship between magic and religion. We will examine the diverse ways in which humans attempt to communicate and intervene with the divine as well as ritually mark crucial moments such as birth death illness and change. 4
	FYW-1118 Man vs. Machine Popular culture has depicted the prospect of intelligent machines as a threat to the humans that serve as their models. This course examines the enterprise of creating an intelligent machine and what it might imply about our own species. 4 credits.
	FYW-1120 Medicine, Morality and Culture This course will examine the ways in which our moral and cultural conceptions shape medicine and medical research as well as the ways that medicine and medical research shape our cultural understandings of health, wellness, and normal human functioning. Special attention will be given to historically controversial cases, for example: the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Nazi human experimentation, the Terri Schiavo case. 4 credits.
	FYW-1122 Popular Culture, Crime and Justice Examine images of crime and justice in popular culture and compares them to scientific data; consider the source of these popular culture accounts of crime and justice; and evaluates the influence popular culture has on understands of crime and criminal justice policy. Discuss the ways that mass media reflects and reinforces underlying issues and concerns about crime and justice, and how these images changes over time. Use a socio-historical perspective to examine crime and justice in American popular culture and connect those images to broader social issues. 4 credits.
	FYW-1125 Sex and the New Testament Sex and the NT is a writing seminar that will investigate through research and writing what the New Testament has to say about sex, why it says what it does, and what that might mean for contemporary society. 4 credits.
	FYW-1126 The Ethics of Sex Introduction to understanding human sexuality and thinking about sexual ethics through consideration of pressing issues, such as the moral status of pornography, prostitution, masturbation, polygamy, and abortion; the rationale and value of marriage; intersexed and transgendered individuals; and debates over whether there is a rational basis for privileging heterosexuality over homosexuality. Three broad approaches, an evolutionary, a social constructionist, and a Christian theological, will be used to examine ethical questions in dialogue with a number of philosophical and theological scholars. 4 credits.
	FYW-1127 To Walk the Land Through weekly hikes, the goal of this seminar is that you would come to know and enjoy the land, your local upstate environment, in a deeper way; to appreciate its natural and cultural history; to better understand our connection to and dependence on the land; and to communicate this new understanding effectively. Students will explore arguments and create their own through a series of guided writing assignments that will introduce them to college-level writing. This seminar is physically demanding and time consuming because of one six-hour afternoon hike and one two-hour discussion meeting per week. 4 credits.
	FYW-1128 Turing: Thinking Machines, Codes and Other Enigmas Explores the enigmatic life and prodigious work of Alan Turing (1912-1954), including his pioneering work in the fields of artificial intelligence, the limitations of computing power, and code-breaking during World War II. Consideration of works offering biographical or fictionalized treatments of Turing. Uses a biographical study of his life and writings to examine the fundamental nature of human thought, the existence of a soul, and the ethical role of a citizen in wartime, as well as society’s response to otherness. 4 credits.
	FYW-1129 Pristine Nature: Myth Or Reality? An examination of the concepts of wilderness and “pristine” nature from scientific, historical, and cultural perspectives. Both the present influence of humanity on nature and evidence for human influences on landscapes in the past will be considered. 4 credits.
	FYW-1133 Can We Make Sense of the 60s? An introduction to college writing that focuses on American history in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Through writing and revision, students will critically analyze conflicting forces that shaped American life. With careful staging of assignments, they will complete a research project on a topic of choice, such as on a key individual or international crisis of the era, the civil rights movement, the emergence of the environmental crusade, or on the protest tradition. 4 credits.
	FYW-1136 Exploring Politics through Literature This course seeks to stimulate intellectual curiosity about the philosophic underpinnings of politics through thoughtful readings of literature. Drawing upon the vivid power of literature taken from a variety of different historical and cultural contexts, students will have an opportunity to begin an exploration of the influence of politics on human development. More specifically, how the competing views of nature, religion or the human good embedded in politics influence the possibility of self-knowledge. Literary works will be supplemented with short readings from the tradition of political philosophy. 4 credits.
	FYW-1137 Freedom or Oppression: Human Rights in Asia There are thousands of political prisoners in Asia. Leaders who order their detention contend that “Asian Values” and unique historical circumstances obviate the need to protect rights that many in the West take for granted. This course examines the “Asian Values” debate, the foundations of human rights theory in Western liberal democracies and in Confucianism, and how human rights can best be safeguarded in Asia. It examines the relationship between human rights and democracy. 4 credits.
	FYW-1138 Know Thyself Consider, in a wisdom-seeking spirit, what some of the Western tradition’s greatest philosophers have written about the fundamental human questions: love and friendship, politics and justice, happiness and misery, death and God. 4 credits.
	FYW-1140 History of Detective Fiction Whodunnit? This course traces detective fiction from its roots, with possible readings from 18th century gothic novels to Sherlock Holmes, British cozies, and American crime noir. Narrative style, trends in the genre, and social, ethical, and legal questions are also explored. Writing assignments will introduce students to college-level writing, including creating a logical argument, using textual evidence, and writing mechanics. 4 credits.
	FYW-1141 Homer and History Follow the history of Homer’s great war-poem, the Iliad, from the Bronze Age and the invention of writing, through the tyranny and democracy of Athens, the library of Alexandria, to its rescue from the ruins of Constantinople in the 1400s. 4 credits.
	FYW-1142 Economics of Walmart Examines the economic forces, business decisions, and controversies related to big box retail stores, including their effects on local businesses, traffic congestion, and urban development. Discuss the emergence of Wal-Mart’s global supply chain and its implications for efficiency and well-being in the United States and developing countries. Assess whether Wal-Mart is the economic miracle of modern times or a behemoth that should be contained by government policy and regulation. 4 credits.
	FYW-1143 Shakespeare in His Contexts This course will be fashioned around a particular group of ideas or topics relevant to Shakespeare’s plays or poems. Students will study and write about these ideas in ways structured to develop interpretive, analytical, and argumentative writing skills appropriate for college-level work. 4 credits.
	FYW-1148 Southern Women: Black & White This seminar will explore the experiences of Southern Women from 1800 to the present through the literature written by and about them. The method of study will include: describing the culturally defined image of Southern women, tracing the effect of this definition on female behavior, defining how the realities of Southern women’s lives were often at odds with the ideal, and examining the struggle of black and white women to confront racism and cultural expectations and to find a way to achieve self-determination. 4 credits.
	FYW-1149 Art, Literature and the Civil Rights Struggle Exploration of the cultural, historical, and literary significance of the American civil rights movement. Course texts feature works of literature and history as well as the popular music, artistic productions, and public speeches that galvanized a national movement. We will extend our study to examine contemporary representations of this era as well. 4 credits.
	FYW-1150 Sugar and Spice Imagine your day without sugar and spice. Unsweetened cappuccino? Cinnamon-free apple pie? This seminar traces the history of the globalization/localization of food. By considering the networks that connect Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, students will study and write about the movement of goods and people that shape our social and culinary worlds. What are we eating and why? Through a series of guided writing assignments, peer critiques, and individual writing consultations, students will develop writing skills appropriate for college-level work. Tastings included! 4 credits.
	FYW-1151 American Dream Ideal and Reality An exploration of the concept of America as a place of political and religious freedom, social and economic mobility, and opportunities to achieve personal fulfillment. Students will analyze both literary texts and contemporary culture. 4 credits.
	FYW-1152 The Tumultuous Twenties This seminar will examine the political, social, and cultural history of the United States in the 1920s. During this crucial decade the values of urban America clashed with the traditions of rural America as the culture of the Jazz Age redefined American morals. Nativism, Anglo-Saxon racism, militant Protestantism and Prohibition characterized the reaction to a rapidly changing society. 4 credits.
	FYW-1153 The United State Civil War through the Lens of Biography This seminar will examine the Civil War era using the perspective of biography. In addition to considering biographical interpretations of leaders such as Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass we will consider memoirs of ordinary participants and approaches such as collective biography. Students will, with guidance from the instructor, have an opportunity to research and write their own biographical interpretations of individuals from the period. 4 credits.
	FYW-1154 The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) is arguably the most important book on economics ever published. Indeed, the central tenets of this work provide the intellectual rationale for the free enterprise system of markets and government embraced by much of the modern world. This first-year writing seminar will examine the economic, social, and moral theories put forth by the Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) and their applicability to the modern world. As a writing seminar, much of our time will be focused on developing the skills necessary for successful college-level writing. 4 credits.
	FYW-1155 University and Social Justice Course will examine whether the university has a roll in educating students about what would constitute a more just society and, if so, what might be unique about a university’s contribution. 4 credits.
	FYW-1156 Who Speaks Bad English? Should English be our official language? What is Black English? Who makes the grammar rules we learn in school –and should those rules be changed? Students will be introduced to basic linguistics and use their knowledge to discuss issues from national language policy to attitudes about “ain’t.” Students will study and write about these ideas in ways structured to develop interpretive, analytical, and argumentative writing skills appropriate for college-level work. 4 credits.
	FYW-1158 Beer and Society An examination of the ways in which beer production and use intersects with human culture. Topics will be addressed from the viewpoints of disciplines in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Course includes lab exercises and field trips. 4 credits.
	FYW-1159 Veils and Turbans: Genders and Modernities Veils and turbans are objects of clothing that signal cultural difference and compel us to reflect on norms of gender and sexuality across cultures. Through writing assignments of various kinds in response to stories, poems, films, and plays, students will develop interpretive, analytical, and argumentative writing skills appropriate for college-level work. 4 credits.
	FYW-1160 Alien Visions In this writing seminar we will explore literary, visual, and critical texts that offer varying representations of “the alien.” For a number of writers and artists, the notion of the “alien” – the foreign or the strange – solicits a fascinating, almost troublingly idealized response. Think, for instance, of films and texts that longingly look to close encounters or contact with the unimaginably different. At other times – perhaps more often – the idea of the alien provokes a frightened, even violent, response. We will examine these varying responses to the alien from a number of perspectives (psychological, social, cultural) and in a wide range of works. 4 credits.
	FYW-1161 Contemporary Issues on Film This seminar will focus on films that address global, political, and social issues. The issues will change with each offering of the seminar: in one term the seminar might study films that explore the status of women in a variety of social and cultural contexts. Possible topics might include black/white relationships or the representation of war. Students will study and write about these ideas in ways structured to develop interpretive, analytical, and argumentative writing skills appropriate for college-level work. 4 credits.
	FYW-1167 American Disaster Literature An introduction to college writing that focuses on disaster literature as a means to improve students’ interpretive, analytical, and argumentative writing skills. Through writing and revision, students will analyze key components of published works and complete a research project on a topic related to disaster and issues such as place, immigration, history, and material culture. 4 credits.
	FYW-1168 The First World War An exploration of World War I – the war itself as well as its impact on society and culture in Europe, the United States and the rest of the world. 4 credits.
	FYW-1169 Dragons and Demons: Debunking Myths of China Though Americans from all walks of life are increasingly aware of China’s economic, military, and political rise, myths and misperceptions of the People’s Republic of China abound. Policy makers, the business community, academics, reporters, and the general public all contribute to American images of China. While some herald the dynamic liberalizing reforms occurring within the country, others denounce the Chinese leadership as “fascists” interested only in power and oppression. How are American images of China shaped, and how accurate are these various portrayals of the world’s most populous nation? How can false images of China exacerbate bilateral tensions and restrict reforms within the PRC? 4 credits.
	FYW-1172 Dueling Perspectives: the United States in Latin American An examination of how United States military interventions in Latin America have been remembered in the popular culture, public commemorations, and historical literature of the two regions. Emphasis on differences between traditional academic history and popular historical memory, which stresses political, social, philosophical or religious meaning in the present. Students will analyze how historical events are interpreted in monuments, museums, battlefield sites, films, fiction, holiday celebrations, and in modern-day political movements and speeches. 4 credits.
	FYW-1176 Curses, Cures and Clinics This course examines the sociological dimensions of health, illness, and healing in different parts of the world. It focuses on social epidemiology (e.g. HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria), cultural dimensions, and the role of national health care systems and NGO’s in promoting health. 4 credits.

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Course Descriptions

ENG-241 Medieval Arthurian Literature

ENG-252 Shakespeare

ENG-261 Revolution and Reaction

ENG-273 Altered States in Victorian Literature

ENG-291 Studies in Short Fiction

ENG-292 African-American Drama

ENG-293 Literature of the South

ENG-294 Modern and Contemporary Poetry

ENG-297 Autobiography

ENG-298 Literature and the Environment

ENG-300 Literature Before Print

ENG-304 English Literature of Restoration and 18th Century

ENG-314 Studies in Chaucer

ENG-315 Animals in Medieval Literature and Culture

ENG-316 Late 14th Century English Literature

ENG-317 Literature of Early Modern Britain

ENG-318 Early Modern Drama

ENG-319 Major Figures in Early Modern British Literature

ENG-328 Interpretive Issues in Early Modern Literature

ENG-329 Harry Potter and the Secrets of Popular Culture

ENG-336 British Romantic Literature

ENG-337 Victorian Literature and Culture

ENG-338 Victorian Novel

ENG-339 Emerson to Dickinson

ENG-344 Gothic Literature

ENG-346 Slave Narrative to Slave Novel

ENG-350A American Novel to World War I

ENG-350B American Novel Since World War I

ENG-352 Experimental Poetries

ENG-354 Global Issues in Literature

ENG-356 Faulkner

ENG-357 Irish Renaissance Literature

ENG-358 Film and Visual Culture in South Asia

ENG-359 Studies in the Essay

ENG-360 Studies in Contemporary American Literature

ENG-363 Mystery and Detective Fiction

ENG-364 Drama in London

ENG-365 Revolution and Reaction

ENG-366 Drama at Stratford-upon-Avon

ENG-378 Travel Study in the British Isles

ENG-379 Studies in Fictional Histories

ENG-390 Gender in South Asian Literature and Film

ENG-391 Global Postcolonial Issues

ENG-392 Film Analysis

ENG-393 Literary Feminisms

ENG-399 Upper Level Pathways

ENG-461 Critical and Cultural Theory

ENG-475 Senior Seminar in English

ENG-476 Senior Seminar in Writing

ENG-501 Independent Study

ENG-503 Individualized Internship

ENG-505 Structured Internship

EST-001 Biodiesel Production

EST-1 Biodiesel Production

EST-301 Environment and Society

FST-202 Introduction to Reading Film

FST-365 Great Film Directors

FYW-1101 Abortion: Issues and Controversies

FYW-1106 Doing History in the 1950s

FYW-1108 Evaluating Scientific Claims in the Media

FYW-1109 Global Climate Change

FYW-1110 Global Water Issues

FYW-1111 Haunted Mansions

FYW-1112 History of Liberal Arts

FYW-1116 Language, Argument and Culture

FYW-1117 Magic and Religion

FYW-1118 Man vs. Machine

FYW-1120 Medicine, Morality and Culture

FYW-1122 Popular Culture, Crime and Justice

FYW-1125 Sex and the New Testament

FYW-1126 The Ethics of Sex

FYW-1127 To Walk the Land

FYW-1128 Turing: Thinking Machines, Codes and Other Enigmas

FYW-1129 Pristine Nature: Myth Or Reality?

FYW-1133 Can We Make Sense of the 60s?

FYW-1136 Exploring Politics through Literature

FYW-1137 Freedom or Oppression: Human Rights in Asia

FYW-1138 Know Thyself

FYW-1140 History of Detective Fiction