Registration is now open for fall (and summer) 2025. I mention fall first only because the majority of our students don’t take summer courses. If anyone has questions about the courses below or your overall progress toward the degree, please contact cloots@mercy.edu

SUMMER 2025

• ENGL 506 – History of Poetic Forms (Dr. Kilpatrick)

The course will study the major forms and conventions of poetry that have developed from classical models to the present. Wherever possible, particular poems from different historical contexts will be compared and analyzed to demonstrate how these forms and conventions have developed and been adapted to specific personal, ideological, or cultural pressures and contexts. Fulfills the Writing & Literary Forms requirement or an elective, but can work as a Lit Group 1 or 2 requirement upon request.

• ENGL 517 Advanced Creative Writing (Dr. Sax)

Advanced Creative Writing, despite the name, is open to anyone in the MA English program no matter how much or little previous experience you’ve had with creative writing. If you are interested in expressing yourself creatively through words, you are welcome and encouraged to enroll. The form of writing emphasized in the course changes depending on the preferences of the instructor running it. Fulfills the Writing & Literary Forms requirement or an elective, but can work as a Lit Group 1 or 2 requirement upon request.

FALL 2025

• ENGL 500 – Theory & Practice of Literary Criticism (Dr. Kilpatrick)

An introduction to some of the major movements and figures of the theory of criticism. The question “what is literature?” is a primary concern of this course. Such an inquiry necessarily engages other, closely affiliated signifiers such as work/text, writing, reading, interpretation, and signification itself. After brief encounters with ancient antecedents and seminal moderns, influential contemporary approaches to the question concerning literature and its cultural significance are engaged. An assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of current trends in the practice of literary criticism, and their theoretical groundwork, is the ultimate objective of this course.

NOTE: All students must complete ENGL 500. The course runs once each fall semester, so if you’re aiming to graduate at the end of fall 2025, spring 2026, or summer 2026 and have not yet completed 500, you must enroll in this course for fall 2025. The next instance of the course will be fall 2026. For this reason this course is registration-locked and requires a permit (contact Lydia Yearwood in our PACT advising office at lyearwood@mercy.edu for help with a permit). Anyone not on pace to graduate in the semesters noted above can request a permit but will only be given one if seats remain after everyone who must have the course during this fall 2025 instance gets a seat.

• ENGL 515: Magic in Literature (Dr. Sax)

This course examines alchemy, together with related activities that now impress us as “magical,” as a virtually all-inclusive discipline which laid much of the foundation for later literature, art, and science. It looks at the beginnings of alchemy in the ancient world, and how these developed, along with the revival of Classical learning, in the Renaissance. Finally, it looks at the continuing influence of magic in Romantic, Modern, and Post-Modern literature and culture. Past readings have included works by Hesiod, Ben Johnson, Shakespeare, E. T. A. Hoffmann, J. K. Rowling; and the Frances Yates work The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. Some or all of these writers/works might be included in this next instance of it, as might other authors and works. Fulfills an elective by default but can work for the Writing & Literary Forms requirement, upon request.

NOTE: The MA program cycles numerous different courses under the catalog codes of 514, 515, 540, and 560. Students can take multiple instances of 514, 515, 540, and 560 courses as long as the title of the course is not the same as before. So if you’ve taken other 515 courses, you can take this one too as long as you haven’t already taken a course specifically titled Magic in Literature.

• ENGL 522 Humanism in Renaissance Texts (Dr. Fritz)

This course will focus on humanism and the concepts arising from it in relation to the production and appreciation of literature during the Renaissance. The revival of interest in the arts and ideas of Greco-Roman antiquity and the dependence of Renaissance thought on classical themes will be among the issues discussed. Readings could include (but aren’t limited to) works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Machiavelli, More, Spenser, among others. 3 credits. Fulfills a Literature Group 1 requirement or an elective.

• ENGL 545 – Literature of the Left Bank, Paris (Dr. Loots)

This course examines some of the people, culture, and writings of the expatriate community of the Parisian Left Bank during the modernist movements of the early- and mid-twentieth century. Authors/figures covered could include Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, James Baldwin, Hilda Doolittle, Andre Breton, Richard Wright, Mina Loy, Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, among others. In the course of our studies we will consider the significance of Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare & Company bookstore and lending library, of clubs such as Ada (Bricktop) Smith’s Chez Bricktop, and of intellectual and artistic salons such as those of Natalie Barney and Gertrude Stein. An emphasis will be placed on studying the historical context of modernism in Paris, as well as on the cultural geography of Paris which attracted so many of the world’s great writers and artists, and gave rise to some of the most profound writings ever created. Fulfills a Literature Group 2 requirement or an elective.

Currently we have one summer offering on the schedule, ENGL 517 Advanced Creative Writing. Despite that word “Advanced” this course is open to anyone, no matter if you’re just beginning your journey this summer as a creative writer, or if you’re well experienced in creative writing. In recent years we haven’t had too much demand for summer offerings. Last year we ran two summer courses and while one filled up, the second one only had a couple of students in it. So, the MA program is looking to hear from our students about whether or not a second summer course is wanted. Those who want or perhaps need two summer courses, please send feedback to cloots@mercy.edu to say so.

General registration for spring 2025 opens on October 30. It normally opens at or around 9am eastern. Priority registration, which includes veterans and active military, opens earlier. Students who know that they qualify for priority registration, or who would like to know if they do, should contact the graduate English PACT advisor Lydia Yearwood at lyearwood@mercy.edu for help arranging your priority registration. Any student in need of help with registration should contact Lydia. If anyone has any questions about any of the courses below, please contact the Program Director at cloots@mercy.edu. Note that the descriptions below might change a bit as professors work more on their courses during the fall, but these descriptions basically express the spirit of each course. Book orders will be shared later in a future blog post.

ENGL 510 Theory and Practice of Writing (Dr. Proszak)

• In this course, students learn about how writing has been studied and theorized across writing studies and related disciplines. The course specifically focuses on cultural issues endemic to writing and how race, ethnicity, gender, and class enter into conversations on writing instruction and assessment. Students who take this course will understand how writing functions across contexts and communities, including within higher education. All course texts will be scanned or available online. Readings will likely include chapters from A Short History of Writing Instruction; Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies and chapters from texts on the open-access WAC Clearinghouse, including Situating Writing Processes; Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and the Advancement of Opportunity; Genre in a Changing World. Fulfills the Writing & Literary Forms field requirement or an elective.

ENGL 515 Murder, Mystery, and Suspense (Dr. Dugan)

• The genre of the murder-mystery novel is often viewed as “escapist “or “diversionary,” but in addition to it being entertaining for many, the genre rather offers insights into the social, cultural, and historical context from which the stories emerged. This course will trace the development of the murder-mystery genre from the 19th century to present-day, with a focus on, among many other things, the question of why stories of this genre have been and continue to be so interesting to so many people. 3 credits. Fulfills an elective by default but can instead fulfill a Literature Group 2 requirement upon request. Note that this last ran as ENGL 560; if a student took that instance or any earlier instance of this courses titled “Murder, Mystery, & Suspense,” they cannot take this course again.

ENGL 521 Themes & Genres of Medieval Lit (Dr. Fritz)

• This course is designed to cultivate students’ awareness of the themes, genres, and issues related to medieval literature and to the study of medieval literature. Students will explore the major genres of medieval literature, including epics, lays and romances. Fulfills a Literature Group 1 requirement or an elective.

ENGL 540 Shakespeare (Dr. Kilpatrick)

• Students in this course will critically study and discuss select Shakespeare works. During the course of this study students will gain familiarity with the syntax and lexicon of Shakespeare’s language, and develop a basic understanding of the cultural and intellectual background in which Shakespeare lived, and out of which his drama emerged. Fulfills a Literature Group 1 requirement or an elective.

ENGL 560 Hemingway / Modern Cryptography (Dr. Loots)

• This course follows Ernest Hemingway, through his writings, from his early days in Paris to his final moments in Ketchum, Idaho. Readings will include many of his major novels and short stories, and some non-fiction. By exploring Hemingway’s travels and writings we will experience through his eyes the rise of modernity; the unprecedented way that the world changed forever in the early twentieth century; and the relationship of modern literature and art to modernity. We will as well consider the interrelated effects of Hemingway’s self-engineered celebrity status—as the rugged bearded “macho man” world traveler—which coincided precisely with the rise of modern media technology, exceeded his literary fame even within his lifetime, and belied the complexity, gentleness, and queerness of the man. We will as well consider how Hemingway’s groundbreaking style exemplifies a type of modernist code, a type of literary cryptography, requiring of us delicate work to interpret/intuit/decode what secrets and subtle meanings weave through the writings of this giant of 20th-century American literature, arguably the most influential American writer of all time. Fulfills a Literature Group 2 requirement or an elective. Note that this last ran as 514; if a student took that instance or any earlier instance of this course titled “Hemingway / Modern Cryptography” they cannot take this course again.

ENGL 599 Master’s Thesis

• 599 doesn’t actually appears on the schedule in Connect. The way to enroll in a 599 Master’s Thesis tutorial is to follow the instructions here. Students need to take 599 as one of their courses during whatever is their final semester in the program (so if spring 2025 is not your final semester in the program, then you won’t be able to enroll in a 599 tutorial in the spring). Contact cloots@mercy.edu if you have any questions about this, and/or if you need assistance establishing a thesis mentor for your 599 in spring 2025.