By Arden Berry | Staff Writer
From reading historical documents to writing their own book, students have a variety of English and literature classes to choose from for the spring semester.
One of these courses is English Literature 3330, “250+ Years of Declarations.” Dr. Dan Walden, associate professor, said the class was created on the basis that the Declaration of Independence will be 250 years old.
“As progressive and forward-thinking as the Declaration of Independence was, and we like to cite the ‘all men are created equal’ and all this sort of stuff, the reality for millions of people in America since then is that there was not an equal access to what it meant to be American,” Walden said. “And so groups have had to declare that for themselves because they weren’t included in that original declaration, even though the language was there.”
Walden said they will look at declarations across American history, such as the “Declaration of Sentiments” for women’s rights and “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” by Frederick Douglass.
“For the purposes of this class I’m taking … the idea of the original declaration of the statement of being a statement of identity,” Walden said. “All kinds of things can be declarations, I think. I’m kind of using that idea to look at ways that folks have written their identity into what it means to be an American.”
For a mix of history and fiction, Dr. Jesus Montaño, assistant professor, teaches English Literature 4309, a class on magical realism. Montaño said this will be his second semester teaching the course at Baylor.
“This is a re-enchantment process, even though the Americas, parts of the Americas, had never de-enchanted,” Montaño said. “Europe at one point had fairies and spirits and magical elements running throughout its culture, and then it de-enchanted. And then magical realism was around and says, ‘Well, wait a minute, actually, let’s go back to that … Let’s think about a world where the real and the magical coexist.’”
Montaño said the course includes a variety of authors writing about a variety of subjects, including family cycles, the massacre of Haitians in the 1930s and the multiverse.
“This isn’t a class; this is a little bit of me,” Montaño said. “I take my fun very, very seriously, and I take my play very seriously. I learn when I’m happy, I learn when I’m being playful, I learn when I’m in a joyful mood and I try to create that in my classes.”
For students wanting to create some magic of their own, Dr. Maura Jortner, senior lecturer, teaches English 3341, “Writing the Young Adult Novel.” Jortner said she proposed the class after publishing her own young adult novel, “The Life Group,” in 2017.
“It’s been quite a journey, but teaching this class is really fun — to be able to share what I’ve learned along the way and to help other people with their novels,” Jortner said.
For the class, she said her students start by reading a few chapters from existing young adult novels. Including “The Hate U Give,” “The Selection,” “The Hunger Games,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “One of Us is Lying.”
“So I tried to get like a big selection of genres,” Jortner said. “So we start off by just reading YA and talking about the genre constraints, like what’s allowed, what’s not [and] what they are shooting for.”
She then has students pitch two novel ideas to the class, write the first 500 words, a plot summary and then submit about 5,000–8,000 words of their novel.
“The industry goes by words and not pages, so that’s what I do as well, but it ends up to be about 20-30 pages,” Jortner said. “And then we have a little tiny break, a couple days and then they do it again. So they end the class with 10,000–16,000 words of their novels written.”
Jortner said it is exciting to watch her students write their novels and often reminds her of her own passion.
“Writing a novel is really hard, but it’s like a huge puzzle that you have to put together, and there’s a whole skillset that you’re learning,” Jortner said. “So I think it’s a really worthwhile class.”
The English department has several course listings on their Instagram story and further information about course descriptions and prerequisites is available through the Office of the Registrar.
