Below are some of the books/materials which professors have settled on for their fall 2017 MA courses. I will update this as frequently as possible, as I hear from the respective profs. You can always see the official book orders which professors have entered by going to the Mercy College online bookstore. At the store you would click to shop for books; then from the pull down menus select Fall Sem 2017, then ENGL, then whatever is the course number. Just to be clear, you do not have to purchase your books through our online bookstore and typically you can find any of your required readings for cheaper through Alibris.

ENGL 500, Theory & Practice of Literary Criticism (Dr. Reissig-Vasile)

• Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice (5th Edition). Pearson, 2011. ISBN 10: 020521214X

Also, students in 500 will read and discuss some of the following texts, for which links will be provided during the semester in the class (so you don’t need to go buy the texts listed below, and you won’t necessarily end up reading all of these–students will choose to focus on some of these in a process the professor will describe at the start of the semester):

Classical Theory and Criticism: Plato, Republic (books II, III, VII, or X); Aristotle, Poetics; Plotinus, Enneads (the Fifth Ennead, Eighth Tractate)

Medieval Theory and Criticism: Dante Alighieri, Letter to Can Grande della Scala

Renaissance Theory and Criticism: Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry

Enlightenment Theory and Criticism: John Dryden, An Essay of Dramatic Poesy; Joseph Addison, Spectator essays; Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism

Romantic Theory and Criticism: William Wordsworth, preface to Lyrical Ballads

Victorian Theory and Criticism: Matthew Arnold, The Function of Criticism at the Present Time; Henry James, The Art of Fiction

Russian Formalism and New Criticism: Cleanth Brooks, The Formalist Critics and Well-Wrought Urn

Reader-Oriented Criticism: Louise Rosenblatt, Writing and Reading: The Transactional Theory

Modernity/Postmodernism, Structuralism/Poststructuralism/Deconstruction: Jonathan Cullen, What is Literature and Does it Matter?; Roland Barthes, Rhetoric of the Image and The Death of the Author; Jacques Derrida, Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences

Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism: Julia Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Language

Feminist Literary Criticism: Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic; Toril Moi, Feminist, Female, Feminine

Marxist Literary Criticism: Terry Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism

Cultural Poetics or New Historicism: Stephen Greenblatt, The Power of Form in the English Renaissance

Postcolonial Literary Criticism: Charles Larson, Heroic Ethnocentrism; Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture

African-American Literary Criticism: Henry Louis Gates, Writing Race

 ENGL 508, History of Drama (Dr. Fritz)

• Jacobus, Lee A., ed. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. (7th edition). NY: Bedford, 2012. ISBN: 9781457606328

ENGL 526, Modernism (Dr. Sax)

• Descartes, René. Discourse on Method and the Meditations. Trans. Sutcliffe, F. E. New York: Penguin, 1968. 0140442065
• Eliot, T. S. The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1998. ISBN: 0486400611.
• Richard Humphreys, ed. Futurist Manifestos. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 2001. ISBN: 9780878466276.
• Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: Bantam, 1990. ISBN: 1553213806.
• Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Trans. Porter, Catherine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993. ISBN: 0674948394.
• Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 1984. ISBN: 0-8166-1173-4.
• In addition to the readings, Students should watch at least segments four through six of the series “This is Modern Art” by Matthew Collins, which is available free on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUxwuNw4oIE

ENGL 544 Frontiers of American Lit. – Cyberpunk/Tech-Noir (Dr. Loots)

• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Broadway Books, 2012. ISBN-13: 9780307887443
• The Circle by Dave Eggers. Vintage, 2014. ISBN-13: 9780345807298
• Neuromancer, by William Gibson. Ace Science Fiction, 2000. ISBN-13: 9780441007462.
• Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott. Orb, 2011. ISBN-13: 9780765328489 (possibly out of print but still widely available used through online places like Alibris)
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Del Rey, 2000. ISBN-13: 9780553380958
• Additional short stories, essays, and media will be linked or provided during the semester as PDFs. Some units will focus on visual media that could include movies or shows which students will be responsible for securing and watching (whether from a Netflix or Amazon video subscription, or by getting copies of the media from local libraries, etc.).

Recommended further reading for those interested in pursuing the course topic beyond the virtual walls of the classroom (again, not required for the semester):

• Akira (Vol. I), by Katsuhiro Otomo. Kodansha Comics, 2009. ISBN-13: 9781935429005
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick. Del Rey, 1996. ISBN: 0345404475.
• Ghost in the Shell (Vol. I),  by Shiro Masamune. Kodansha Comics, 2009.
• Synners, by Pat Cadigan. SF Masterworks Series, Gollancz, 2012.

Readings for the other classes will be listed once the professors finalize their lists.

Just as a reminder, the spring semester begins on Wednesday 1/18. Blackboard sections actually become visible to students on Wednesday 1/4, two weeks ahead of time. Don’t be surprised if you see a Blackboard section in some disarray if you check into it prior to the semester start. Ideally, I suppose, professors will have their online courses either totally built, loaded, and sorted, or will at least have the “behind the scenes” chaos smartly hidden from view (group me in the latter category) some two weeks before the start of the semester. But a number of professors are still be on holiday, and some won’t even be aware that their spring courses are becoming visible to students some two weeks prior to the semester’s start. Rest assured that on 1/18 at the start of the spring semester everything will look as it should. Happy new year, everyone. -CL

Hi all, here are some of the book orders for spring 2017 MA courses. These might not be comprehensive lists for your course as some professors are still considering various readings for the spring semester. You should be able to buy any of these through Mercy’s online bookstore (this list just duplicates what you should be seeing in the Mercy bookstore). Or you can buy them elsewhere, probably for much cheaper.

ENGL 507 Narrative Strategies (Dr. Dugan)

• Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights, 4^th Norton Critical Edition.  London:Wordsworth, 2000. 13-978-039397895
• Ford, Ford Madox. The Good Soldier. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. 878-0-958594-6
• Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. NY: Vintage International Edition, 2005. 13-978-1-4000-7877-6
• James, Henry. The Bostonians. Penguin Classics, NY, 2000. 978-0-140-43766-9
• Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea (edition TBD–check online Mercy bookstore for specific edition)
• Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. NY: Vintage International, 2001. 978-0- 375-70386-1
• Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Mineola,NY: Dover Thrift, 2000. 13-978-0-486-41109-5

ENGL 522 Humanism/Renaissance Texts (Dr. Fritz)

Primary sources for the course will be identified later in the course syllabus and links to those sources provided in Blackboard. Here is the required supporting text for the course:

• The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism (Cambridge Companions to Literature). 1st Edition. Ed. Jill Kraye. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.  2011. Print. ISBN: 9780521436243. Paperback.

ENGL 540 Animals in Literature (Dr. Sax)

• Melson, Gail F. Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001. ISBN—0674017528.
• Sax, Boria. The Mythical Zoo: Animals in Life, Legend and Literature. 2nd ed. New York: Overlook, 2013. ISBN—1468307207.
• Sewell, Anna. Black Beauty. New York: Penguin, 2011. ISBN— 0143106473
• Tatar, Maria, ed. The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Norton, 1999. ISBN—0-393-97277-1.
• White, E. B. Charlotte’s Web. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN—0064410935.

ENGL 545 Lit of the Left Bank Paris (Dr. Loots)

This course involves other readings than the ones listed below but PDFs of these other readings will be provided (they’re mostly out of print and difficult to secure otherwise.) If a student wants to read ahead for the semester, you can’t go wrong reading as much of the Benstock book as you like. I’ll be assigning various chapters from it throughout the semester.

• Benstock, Shari. Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940. ISBN-13: 978-0292790407
• Breton, Andre. Nadja. ISBN-13: 978-0802150264
• Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast Scribner. ISBN-13: 9780684824994
• Loy, Mina. The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy. ISBN-13: 978-0374525071
• Stein, Gertrude. Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein. ISBN-13: 978-0679724643
• Wharton, Edith. Roman Fever and Other Stories. ISBN-13: 978-0684829906

ENGL 546 Working Women in the US (Dr. Gogol)

ENGL 560 Latino Literature (Dr. Reissig-Vasile)

Other readings will be listed in the course syllabus when the class opens. For now, these are books you’ll need early in the semester.

• Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless me Ultima. Grand Central Pub, 1995. ISBN-13: 9780446600255
• Garcia, Cristina. Dreaming in Cuban. Ballantine Books, 1993. ISBN-13: 9780345381439

I know that some of you like to get a jump on the fall course readings over the summer, so below you will find the book orders for some of the fall courses (some profs haven’t finalized their reading lists yet, and so those courses aren’t listed here). The list will be updated over the summer as necessary. Some students prefer to wait and read the selections as assigned during the semester, and that’s fine too. Even those in the latter group, though, can benefit from seeing these readings ahead of time and perhaps doing a little preliminary research into the authors and scholarship related to them. All professors will be submitting their book orders to the Mercy bookstore throughout the summer, so that’s where the official reading list for each course can be found.

ENGL 500, Theory/Criticism:

• Leitch, Vincent B., et al, eds.  The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010.  ISBN: 978-0393932928.

ENGL 510, Theory/Practice of Expository Writing:

• Miller, Susan. The Norton Book of Composition Studies. New York: W.W. Norton& Co., 2009. ISBN: 978-0-393-93135-8.
• Oates, Joyce Carol, ed. The Best American Essays of the Century. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. ISBN: 978-0-618-155587-3.
• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. NY: Simon and Schuster, 2010 (Folger Library Shakespeare). ISBN: 978-0-7434-7712-3.
• Tyson, Lois. Using Critical Theory: How to Read and Write About Literature, 2^nd ed. . London: Routledge, 2011. ISBN: 9-780415-6167171.

ENGL 521, Themes & Genres of Medieval Literature:

• The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middles Ages. Volume A. 9th Edition. ISBN: 978-0393912494.

ENGL 524, Reason/Imagination:

• Blanning, Tim. The Romantic Revolution: A History. New York: Modern Library Chronicles, 2010. ISBN: 9780812980141.
• Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. New York: Mass Market Paperback, 2006. ISBN: 0765356155.
• Sax, Boria. City of Ravens: The True History of the Legendary Birds in the Tower of London. London: Overlook, 2012. ISBN: 9781590207772.
• Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover, 1994. ISBN: 0486282112.
• Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. 2 ed. New York: Penguin, 2012. ISBN: 0140137440.
  

ENGL 541, Search for Identity in American Lit:

• Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Shorter Eighth Edition. Norton, 2012. ISBN: 9780393918854. [Students do not have to read from this specific text and can procure the various semester readings from other anthologies or texts, if preferred; specific readings will be shared shortly before the semester begins in the syllabus, which will appear when the Blackboard section goes live in late August.]

Students taking a distance learning course with us for the first time, please be aware that our Office of Online Learning has injected something into the Blackboard virtual classroom environment where it knows if you’re just beginning with us, in which case it then forces you to take a 20-ish minute tutorial to make sure you’re versed in the tools and procedures of navigating the online class. I’m mostly pointing this out so that you’ll all know that you only have to do this ONCE, not each semester, and to also make it clear that I have nothing to do with forcing you to undergo this tutorial. -CL

Here is Dr. Medoff’s book order for those taking ENGL 515 Graphic Novel this spring:

• Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. New York: First Mariner Books, 2006. ISBN 0618871713
• Eisner, Will. The Contract with God Trilogy. New York: Norton, 2006. ISBN 0393061051
• Gaiman, Neil. The Sandman: Brief Lives. New York: Vertigo/DC, 1993. ISBN 1-56389-138-7
• Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: DC, 1987. ISBN 9780930289232
• Spiegelman, Art. Maus I. New York: Pantheon, 1986. ISBN 0394747232
• —. Maus II. New York: Pantheon, 1991. ISBN 0679729771
• Tomine, Adrian. Killing and Dying. New York: Drawn and Quarterly, 2015. ISBN 9781770462090
• Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. ISBN 0375404538