The Mercy University literary/arts journal Red Hyacinth is now accepting submissions of creative writing, photography, and images of other original studio arts for it’s 2024 edition. For submission guidelines and instructions, please click here. This is a great opportunity for MA students and alumni to get your creative work considered for publication, and potentially to see it in print in a perfect-bound hard-copy journal.
General registration for spring 2024 is scheduled to open on Wednesday November 1. Priority registration, which in the graduate program tends to apply only to veterans, is scheduled to open a week earlier on Wednesday 10/25. These dates could change if the Registrar needs more time, but as of now, those are the dates. Registration usually opens at 9am eastern. The following five courses will be on the spring schedule. Each will begin with 14 seats, and once a course is full, students will need to pick from whatever other courses still have seats. So, if you see particular courses you hope or need to take, set an alarm!
This course will study select dramatic works with an eye to the cultural and historical contexts from which those works emerged. It will use a chronological approach, exploring for example the development of drama in medieval English mystery cycles and morality plays; moving on to the emergence of secular drama in the 16th and early 17th century; proceeding to precursors and contemporaries of Shakespeare; moving onward into Restoration drama, and the development of sentimentalism; then exploring the adaptation of drama to an increasingly middle class audience in the 18th Century; and finally tracing the further development of drama through the 19th and 20th centuries. Fulfills the Writing & Literary Forms requirement or an elective.
The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” refer to people living in the United States who have roots in Spain, Mexico, Latin America, South America, and/or Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries. In this course we will experience the literature of various Hispanic and Latino/a authors, and through such study will explore some of the many themes, styles, and social concerns of such authors. Among other things, we will consider what these works have to say about gender, race, class, diaspora, bilingualism, violence, and community. Our readings will focus on short stories and poetry, but could also include novels. All such works will emerge from various Hispanic and Latino/a groups, including Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Dominican Americans. Fulfills an elective by default but can work as a Literature Group 1 requirement if needed, upon request.
Note that students who are taking ENGL 515 Latin American Literature this fall can take this ENGL 515 course in the spring because although the titles look similar, they are in fact two different courses; read the notes at the bottom of this blog post for more on this.
This course studies a range of literature emerging first during the Enlightenment, and then during the subsequent Romantic era, with attention to Neoclassicism, among other things. Students will explore and consider some of the tensions between and informing these different eras and literary movements, will consider ways that these eras and movements relate to one another, including how the Romantic era and its emphasis on imagination emerged to some degree as a response to the Enlightenment and its emphasis on reason. As such, particular attention will be paid to the historical contexts from which the literature of these eras emerged, and to the role of reason and imagination in literature, history, and life. Fulfills a Literature Group 1 requirement or works as an elective.
This course will study the search for identity, individually and collectively, as it manifests in American (United States) literature from Colonial times through the turn of the twentieth century. Attention will be paid to the rapidly changing historical/cultural contexts from which such literature emerged, as well as to different literary movements emerging in America over the eras studied (e.g. Colonial, Revolutionary, Romantic, Realist, Modern). Part of the goal of the course is to provide students with a foundation of American literature, and with an understanding of the foundations of literature in America. Another goal is to recognize just how vast and diverse the literature of America is, as well as how vast and diverse are the definitions of what it has meant, and means, to be “American.” Readings will likely include works by Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Olaudah Equiano, Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Phillis Wheatley, Philip Freneau, Poe, Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Henry James, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charles Chestnutt, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and Zora Neale Hurston. Fulfills a Literature Group 2 requirement or works as an elective.
This course will examine writings about and by working women from the post-Civil War era to the present. We will review key changes in the American work force, as well as some of the relevant social, economic, and racial factors since 1865, with attention to movements leading up to and informing the cultural and social changes happening between 1865 and today. We will use literature to help us deconstruct the definitions of “women,” “working,” and even “The United States.” We will inquire into the shifting definitions of the term “gender” and explore the differentials of power and opportunity within the word and concept. One of the course’s goals is to explore some of the contradictions and tensions involved in such an inquiry, as well as to explore the history and benchmarks of major events in the lives of women in the USA since 1865. Fulfills a Literature Group 2 requirement or works as an elective.
ENGL 515 is what we call a shell number, meaning we run a variety of coursework under that same number. Students can take multiple instances of ENGL 515 as long as they’re not taking the same course with the same title twice. So for example a student could take ENGL 515 Hispanic & Latino Lit, and ENGL 515 Latin American Lit, and ENGL 515 Animals in Lit, because those are three different courses, indicated by their three different titles.
ENGL 599 Master’s Thesis is not listed on the semester schedule and students do not enroll in it in the normal way. All students need to take 599 during their final semester in the program. If spring will be your final semester, click here to read up on how you enroll in a 599 section.
The spring 2024 schedule is mostly set. Unless things change the schedule will become visible in Connect on 10/18, priority registration for veterans will begin on 10/25, and general registration will begin on 11/1. The four courses which will be scheduled for sure are:
Then the fifth course will be one of the following: The American Renaissance, or Search for Identity in American Lit, or Hemingway / Modern Cryptography. Click here to read descriptions for those courses.
We invite students in the program who will be taking courses in the spring to vote below to indicate your preference (please only vote if you will be taking courses in the spring, and please only vote once, so that we have an accurate measure of genuine interest):
About Red Hyacinth:
Red Hyacinth Journal is an annually published, perfect-bound literary magazine that showcases the writing and art of Mercy University students and alum. The journal’s first issue was produced in 2018 through the generosity of the family of the late Professor Valerie Lewis, a former instructor in the English program, and named for her favorite flower. Over the past several years, Red Hyacinth has featured the diverse creative work of hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students from across many majors at MercyU. Student editors from the Departments of Literature & Language, and of Communication and the Arts, collaborate on the editorial decisions, design, and concept. The journal’s student editors receive hands-on experience in the editorial and production processes as they select the creative work (poetry, drama, nonfiction, fiction, and art) in a blind-review process, prepare the magazine for press, and communicate with the college community regarding its release. The journal’s website can be found at: https://redhyacinthjournal.wordpress.com/
As we plan for a 7th annual issue (2024), we are looking to assemble an all-volunteer staff of Editors. Many literary magazines are produced by not-for-profit entities such as colleges and art collectives and rely on a volunteer staff. While the positions are not paid, the Editors’ names appear in the Masthead of the journal and editorial service can be listed on one’s resume and referenced in job interviews. Serving as an editor provides graduate and undergraduate students with invaluable hands-on experience in editing, publishing, and arts administration, and allows students to make an important contribution to the Mercy community, one that will endure for years to come.
We are looking for reliable, dedicated volunteers to fill the following positions for the 2023-24 academic year. The positions will start in November 2023 and run until May 2024. All positions will operate remotely, and applicants must have access to a computer and reliable Internet and have the ability to meet at least once a week, on a weekday, Eastern Standard Time, to collaborate with the team. Some daytime availability (morning or afternoon) is required. Editors will need to submit their availability for meetings with their application. Editors cannot publish their own creative writing in the issue they are serving on.
If interested, please send your resume and a brief letter starting your interest and qualifications, the position you desire, as well as the your availability (days/times) Eastern Standard Time to the Faculty Advisor, Dr. Kristen Keckler, kkeckler1@mercy.edu no later than Oct 16, 2023.
Because the work is spread out over several months, the time commitment is manageable. Editors will be provided back issues of the journal so that they can review various versions of the finished product.
Managing Editor (Priority position)
The Managing Editor position functions as the top editorial position on the staff and manages the day-to-day operations of the journal for one cycle/issue, with the opportunity for renewal for another issue cycle, if the candidate so desires. The Managing Editor will collaborate with the Content and Design Editors to ensure that the team stays on task and that deadlines are met at key junctures in the production schedule. The position requires strong organizational skills and ability to create and maintain spreadsheets using Google.
Responsibilities include:
Content Editors
Content Editors will review submissions in various genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, etc.) and determine the artistic merit/potential of each piece and its suitability for the issue of the journal. There are a limited number of Content Editor positions.
Content Editors’ responsibilities include:
Program Director's Blog for the Mercy University MA in English Literature Program 