Course Descriptions
The following is a complete listing of courses offered at MCC. You can also visit our Programs of Study page for a list of course requirements necessary to complete your degree.
Click on the blue arrow to expand the list of courses for each area.
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ENG 105 - Introduction to Literature 3 Credits An introduction to reading and analyzing these primary genres of literature: fiction, poetry, and drama. The course may also include creative nonfiction. Students will respond critically to readings of different historical and cultural contexts through class discussion and written evidence-based literary arguments. These contexts will include different worldviews, politics, classes, ethnicities, races, genders, or sexual orientations. Non-western perspectives will also be included. Prerequisite(s): ENG 101; or equivalent; or instructor permission (ENG 101 can be taken as a co-requisite). New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Competency, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH), MCC-VE - Values and Ethics (MVE) | ||||
ENG 108 - Literature of the Holocaust 3 Credits Studying the literature of the Holocaust, students will examine the societal factors that led to the systematic and state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jewish men, women, and children, as well as to the targeted persecution and murder of other groups perceived as racially or biologically inferior by the Nazis, such as the Roma, gay men, and people with disabilities. Reading, analyzing, and reflecting on works of literature, including poetry, memoir, fiction, and film, by authors from a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives, students will deepen their understanding of how the intersectionality of race, gender, and class affects the formation of individual and group identities. Students will also consider concepts such as power and subjugation, complicity and resistance, and memory and forgiveness in the context of the Holocaust. Prerequisite(s):ENG 101; or equivalent; or instructor permission (ENG 101 can be taken as a co-requisite) New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH), MCC-GLO - Global Understanding (MGLO) | ||||
3 Credits A study of crime fiction in short stories, plays, novels, movies, and/or television shows. This course will trace the evolution of various subgenres including classic, hard-boiled, police procedural, and courtroom drama by such authors as Christie, Hammett, Conan Doyle, Bunglowala, Hiroki, and Al-Ramli. Students will study how crimes, their investigation, and the concept of law and justice are influenced by geography, politics, and various social factors including, but not limited to, gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion, power, and privilege. Prerequisite(s): ENG 101; or equivalent; or instructor permission (ENG 101 can be taken as a co-requisite) : Learning Attributes: WR New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 114 - The Young Adult Novel 3 Credits The course will use various critical literary approaches to explore novels from the first Golden Age of children’s literature to its contemporary incarnation in the 21st century as a way to consider the transformation from child to adult and the global socio-cultural concept of the young adult. A variety of subgenres such as Realistic/Historical Fiction, Fantastic/Speculative Fiction, Mystery/Detective, Romance and Creative Nonfiction will be covered with attention given to motifs, archetypes, and themes in such literature. While the course will emphasize the traditional novel, the dominant genre in YA literature, additional genres such as the graphic novel, poetry, drama, and non-fiction will also be explored to properly contextualize the novel within Young Adult Literature as a whole. This course will center on written texts but may also include occasional references to films and other media. Prerequisite(s): ENG 101; or equivalent; or instructor permission (ENG 101 can be taken as a co-requisite) Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
3 Credits An exploration of classic, modern and contemporary Fantasy Literature including reading, discussion and written analysis. Various subgenres such as High Fantasy, Magical Realism, Urban Fantasy and Mythic Fantasy will be explored by applying critical, social and historical context and analysis. Attention will be given to motifs, archetypes, themes and key figures/authors. This course will center on written text with occasional references to Fantasy in films and other media. Prerequisite(s): ENG 101; or equivalent; or instructor permission (ENG 101 can be taken as a co-requisite) New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Competency, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 118 - Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders: Literature of Genocide 3 Credits A study of the development of the major groups involved in genocide, including perpetrators, victims, bystanders, upstanders, rescuers, and resistors through a variety of literary genres, including poetry, novels, short stories, plays, memoirs, movies, and children’s literature. Through literature, students will learn about the historical and contemporary societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity as well as the origins, definition, and complexity surrounding the term “genocide.” Students will read literature from representative 20th century genocides such as Rwanda, Armenia, Cambodia, Iraq, The Holocaust, Darfur, and South Sudan and make contemporary connections to current events. Prerequisite(s): ENG 101; or equivalent; or instructor permission (ENG 101 can be taken as a co-requisite). Learning Attributes: WR New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-OWC - Other World Civilizations (SOW2) MCC General Education: MCC-GLO - Global Understanding (MGLO), MCC-SSD - Social Science and Diversity (MSSD) | ||||
ENG 201 - Early British Literature 3 Credits The first of a two-part survey of English-language literature written in and around what is now known as the United Kingdom. This course examines texts from ca 800-1785, paying close, critical attention to inherited literary traditions and the ways writing informs identity and vice versa. Approaching the traditional canon with an eye toward representational equity, inclusion, and social justice, students will consider questions of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity as they read texts written in a region where multiple entities have struggled for control. Possible texts include Headley's 21st century translation of Beowulf, Shakespeare’s Othello and its adaptations, Behn’s abolitionist novel Oroonoko, feminist utopias, early travel and medical literature, Swift’s social satire, and Hogarth’s illustrated class commentaries. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 202 - Modern British Literature 3 Credits The second of a two-part survey of English-language literature written in and around the United Kingdom, this course examines texts from 1785 to the present, paying close, critical attention to inherited literary traditions and the ways writing informs identity and vice versa. Approaching the traditional canon with an eye toward representational equity, inclusion, and social justice, students will consider questions of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity and read historically marginalized, colonized, and BIPOC voices as central to British Literature. Students will study literary movements such as Romanticism, Victorianism, Modernism, and Post-modernism, as well as texts in translation that have influenced the development of literature in English. Topics discussed may include Industrialism, War, the rise of the New Woman, colonialism and post-colonialism, and the immigrant experience. Possible texts include Blake's illustrated Songs of Innocence and Experience, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Mary Prince's The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Jean Rys's Wide Sargasso Sea, Salman Rushdie's "The Prophet's Hair," and Zadie Smith's, "The Waiter's Wife." Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 203 - American Literature to 1865 3 Credits A survey of American literature from the Encounter to the Civil War. Readings and discussion focus on writers such as Columbus, Wheatley, Hawthorne, Apess, Emerson, Douglass, Jacobs, Whitman, and Dickinson. Students will reflect critically on literature, evaluate and acknowledge the possibilities and limitations of the authors’ worldviews, and construct arguments about the texts using evidence from primary and secondary sources. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Competency, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 204 - American Literature Since 1865 3 Credits A survey of American literature from the Civil War to the present, focusing on the changing values of an increasingly technological society. Includes the major literary philosophies of the time through writers such as Hemingway, Faulkner, O’Connor, Yamamoto, Baraka, Morrison, and Bechdel. Students will reflect critically on literature, evaluate and acknowledge the possibilities and limitations of the authors’ worldviews, and construct arguments about the texts using evidence from primary and secondary sources. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Competency, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 208 - Literature of the Bible 3 Credits A study of the rich literary heritage found in both Hebrew and Christian scripture. The course focuses on such types as: saga, short story, poetry, gospel narrative and apocalyptic writings. Themes include the human struggle to understand the Divine and the nature of good and evil. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, placement into English 200, or instructor permission. Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 210 - Literature of the Black Experience 3 Credits Literature of the Black Experience will highlight the cultural, historical, and linguistic traditions of people of African ancestry across the Black Diaspora through study of intersecting historical, racial, social, and political movements. Through critical inquiry and analysis, students will cultivate an awareness of race, class, gender, culture, language, power, erasure, and other tenets of Black identity. Selected works may include oral histories, slave narrative, song, poetry, speeches, music, photography, and essay. The course will also center Black joy to combat racialized trauma and to offer cultural celebration as resistance. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 215 - Children's Literature 3 Credits A survey of classic and contemporary children's works from Aesop to Woodson. Students will analyze a variety of genres, such as fairy tales, picture books, and novels, and explore issues such as censorship, the environment, adolescent challenges, social justice, equity, cultural diversity, and identity. Students will reflect critically on literature, evaluate and acknowledge the possibilities and limitations of the authors’ worldviews, and construct arguments about the texts using evidence from primary and secondary sources. Prerequisite(s): ENG 101 with a C or better, or placement into ENG 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Competency, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH), MCC-VE - Values and Ethics (MVE) | ||||
ENG 216 - American Minorities in Literature 3 Credits A study of authors whose literature provides a minority view of American life. Includes authors of African-American, Native American, Latino and Asian heritage, such as Hughes, Giovanni, Momaday, Storm, Thomas, Pereda, Yutang, Mori. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 217 - Women, Gender and Literature 3 Credits This course explores women in literature across history and cultures. The course may be approached chronologically or thematically, and readings will be drawn from women authors who represent various experiences and identities. Genres studied may include fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry, and other forms of expression. In addition to studying the literary aspects of the texts, students will examine, discuss, and write about the historical, social, and political backdrops within which these texts were written and received. Special attention will be paid to historic and contemporary issues of representation and power, including intersections of gender and race, class, sexual identities, and more. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 218 - Introduction to Shakespeare 3 Credits Reading, discussion, and written analysis of several major plays and some of the sonnets. The course explores Shakespeare’s challenging language and the memorably rendered characters that populate his works, including kings, queens, lovers, shrews and fools. Themes such as power, revenge, love, jealousy, ambition and betrayal will be discussed. Critical approaches including psychological, feminist, and historical theories may be presented and applied to the texts. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Competency, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 220 - Introduction to Dramatic Literature 3 Credits A survey of drama from the ancient Greeks to the end of the 20th century, with emphasis on dramatic structure and style. The readings may include international writers such as Aristophanes, Marlowe, Goldsmith, Ibsen, O'Neill, Fugard and Childress. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
3 Credits Reading, discussion, and written analysis of speculative fiction novels and short stories about human beings experiencing the changes resulting from science and technology. Representative authors from Shelley and Wells, through Clarke and Heinlein, to LeGuin and Delany. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Competency, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
ENG 224 - Literature of Horror 3 Credits Students will read classic, modern, and contemporary short stories and novels, with an emphasis on the historical development of the genre. Attention will be given to supernatural, psychological, and allegorical themes and tropes in such fiction, as well as relevant social and historical background information. The course will center on written fiction, with occasional reference to horror in films and other media. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Competency, SUNY - Humanities Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
3 Credits This course will include examination and analysis of short stories, drama, memoir, film, and graphic fiction by, for, and about LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) people’s lives and experiences. Focus will broaden to include cultural and social history of LGBTQ rights and visibility, and the LGBTQ-specific publishing industry. Coursework will include reading assignments, critical analysis and essays, and class discussions. Prerequisite(s): ENG 101 with a C or better, or placement into ENG 200, or permission of instructor. Learning Attributes: WR Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM) MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
3 Credits Literary, cultural, psychological, and historical study of myths, such as Greek, Roman, Mesoamerican, West African, Chinese, and/or Norse. The course emphasizes creation, nature, and hero myths as they shaped ancient civilizations and discusses how these myths affect global cultures today. Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission. New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Humanities, SUNY - World History and Global Awareness Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-OWC - Other World Civilizations (SOW2) MCC General Education: MCC-GLO - Global Understanding (MGLO), MCC-SSD - Social Science and Diversity (MSSD), MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH) | ||||
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