Spring 2002 200-level ENGL courses

(Descriptions last updated: 6 March 2002)

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200 A (Reading Literature)
Dy 8:30
Goh
(W)
This survey course will examine various genres in English and American literature. We will examine poetry, prose and drama from as early as the Elizabethan period to the late twentieth century. The works and genres that we examine will tell us something about the social and cultural forces that helped shape them. Literature is thus taken as both testimony and manifestation of social and cultural changes, or even of shifts in an entire civilization's social motivations and philosophical directions. This approach will allow us to discuss literature as a major resource for understanding Western Civilization, and we will utilize various anthropological theories in doing so. Grades are based on two papers, a mid-quarter examination, and short assignments for class discussions. Class activities will include exercises, discussions and corroborative work. We will also watch a drama on videotape and evaluate it. Texts: Beaty, et al., eds., The Norton Introduction to Literature; Kipling, Kim.

200 B (Reading Literature)
Dy 9:30
Rosenwaike
(W)
Desire and the Imagination. In this course we will look at some literary explorations of desire. From Dorian Gray's yearning for eternal youth, to Pecola Breedlove's wish for blue eyes, to Humbert Humbert's love for the "nymphet" Lolita, the power of longing proves to be a potent subject. We will ask the question: how do fiction writers imagine desire? Is it an obsession unique to an individual's psychology, a reaction to enviornment and social ideology, or a literary game? How does literary form work to convey the desire in texts to readers? Course work consists of three essays, a group presentation, discussion questions, and active participation. Texts: Kundera, Immortality; Nabokov, Lolita; Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray; Morrison, The Bluest Eye; photocopied course packet.

200 C (Reading Literature)
Dy 12:30
Schillinger
(W)
Marvelous Riches in a Little Room. Our topic for the course is the way writers in English and American literature have written about money, riches and the strange and sometimes awful world of “work.” So often money is thought of as one of the most “natural” and “normal” of things that we have (or don’t have) in our lives. At the same time, money is something with a history and a “rich” past in the writing of English and American literature. Indeed, ideas about money frequently and clearly do change and so our primary topic for discussion will be the way different writers from very different times and different places have considered the importance, power, “evil” and even mythology of money. Texts: Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta; Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman; David Mamet, Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross; MLA Style Guide; photocopied course packet.

200 D (Reading Literature)
Dy 1:30
Rivera
(W)
[Techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature. Examines some of the best works in English and American literature and considers such features of literary meaning as imagery, characterization, narration, and patterning in sound and sense. Emphasis on literature as a source of pleasure and knowledge about human experience.]

200 E (Reading Literature)
Dy 2:30
Emmerson
(W)
Modern Sophistication: Lessons in Style and Grace. In 1927 Clara Bow starred in Clarence Badger's "It," the film that made her the infamous "It Girl" of 1920s Manhattan. And what, one might wonder, was It? As the movie made plain, nobody knew what It was; they only knew It when they saw It. Though Clara Bow was content to cultivate mystique, we will seek to identify and explain the strategies of sophistication that comprised It in the early twentieth century. Sophistication, we might surmise, involves the possession of style, grace, class. But what does the exercising of such abstract qualities really entail? Rather than permitting the elements of sophistication to remain intangible, this course will identify specific strategies that contributed to their cultivation and deportment. By reading several texts on the varieties of sophistication available in the United States at and after the turn of the century, the course will explore some of the reasons its evidence has been alternately disparaged and admired in American modernity. If an etymology of the term unearths traces of the Greek "sophists" and their art of elaborate deception, sophistication is also the attribute of those made wise (sophos) by the schooling of knowledge and experience. What forms of wisdom and deceit were available, then, to early modern Americans? What is the relationshiop between sophistication and the enjoyment of literature? And in what ways do the strategies of personal sophistication acquire public urgency in experiments among early feminists and civil rights advocates?

Graded assignments will include essays, exams, an oral presentation, and mandatory participation in daily discussions. Please do not register for the course if you are not inclined to participate regularly. Also, though the subject matter deals with the frivolous and trivial, the reading list resembles neither; be prepared for occasionally difficult and lengthy reading assignments. Texts: Wharton, The House of Mirth; James, Washington Square; Daisy Miller; Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas; Hemingway, A Movable Feast; DuBois, Dark Princess; Baldwin, Giovanni's Room; Barnes, Nightwood; Kennedy, People Who Led to My Plays; selected poems by Marieanne Moore, Dorothy Parker, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Mina Loy.

207 A (Introduction to Cultural Studies)
Dy 8:30
Elkington
Humanity and Machinery. How are our lives affected by technology? How many facets of our existence are dependent upon machines, often machines that are beyond our comprehension? The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the computers we use every day, all rely upon complicated machinery and technological sophistication unthinkable even decades ago. Yet, they become the background to our quotidian lives. This course draws out and questions the roles of technology and machinery in society, highlighting our prevalent attitudes and anxieties. The course is divided into three roughly equal thematic sections: utopia, dystopia, and integration, demonstrating overlapping attitudes that exist across lines of era, class and ideology. In addition to the written texts, students will be asked to watch several films and performance art videos. Texts: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Aldous Huxley, Brave New World; William Gibson, Neuromancer; photocopied course packet.

210 A/B (Literature of the Ancient World)
Dy 11:30
Keep
In this course, we will read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a 2000-year-old epic-style Roman poem. Along the way, we will pause at intervals to read related literary works – sources and analogues, myths and legends from antiquity. Our goal will be to attain a contrastive, comparative view of variations and changes (metamorphoses) within the literary tradition that shapes, and is shaped by, Ovid’s poem. Recommended preparation: readiness and willingness to read and write. Assignments and grading: Weekly reading quizzes, several brief analytical essays. Reading comprehension and literary analysis: final exam 2:30-4:20 pm, Wednesday, June 12. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. (210B represents 5 spaces in this section reserved for new transfer students.) Texts: Apollonius, Voyage of Argo; Hesiod, Theogany; Homer, Odyssey, Iliad; Ovid, Erotic Poems, Metamorphoses; Apuleius, GoldenAss; Virgil, Aeneid; Howatson & Chilvers, eds., Oxford Companion to Classical Literature.

211 A/B (Medieval and Renaissance Literature)
TTh 1:30 – 3:20
Roland
In this introduction to medieval and renaissance literature, we will embark on a reading journey of journeys. In the context of the genre of romance, we will read medieval and renaissance narrative encounters with exotic cultures: of the east, of the imagination, and, in the case of Shakespeare, of the New World. Beginning with some foundational reading to get a sense of classic texts read by medieval writers, we will then read medieval romances (some Arthurian) from the 12th through 15th centuries, Chaucer’s famous pilgrimage, and then finish with a Renaissance text: Shakespeare’s Tempest. Throughout, we will consider the element of “the marvelous” as a quality of romance and as a marker of foreign cultures. We will also consider medieval and renaissance maps and manuscripts to guide our study. Work for the course will include response papers, a presentation, and a final paper. All of the texts for the class are widely available used. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. (211B represents 5 spaces in this section reserved for new transfer students.) Texts: Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy; Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales; Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances; Mandaville, Travels of John Mandeville; Malory, Le Morte Darthur; Shakespeare, The Tempest; optional: Gilbaldi & Achtert, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed.; Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 7th ed.

212 A/B (Literature of Enlightenment & Revolution)
Dy 9:30
Bloom
This instroductory course will examine literature of the Victorian period. Despite the fact that some Victorians were experiencign a time of enlightenment and were expanding their ideas on the rights of women, the lower classes, and non-Christians, other Victorians' views of "outsiders" were actually becoming severely less tolerant. We will investigate four major Victorian texts for their representation sof marginalized peoples. These texts may include, but might not be limited to Frankenstein (1818), Jane Eyre (1846), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and Trilby (1894). Please be prepared for the fact that this class has a very demanding (and rewarding) reading load. In addition to reading and active discussion, student responsibilities will include presentations, short writing assignments, and a major paper. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. (212B represents 5 spaces in 212A reserved for new transfer students.)

212 C (Literature of Enlightenment & Revolution)
Dy 12:30
Mower
Making Nation: Gender, Race and the American Enlightenment Experience. This course will look at English, French, and American novels and essays from the late eighteenth century as well as several novels from the early nineteenth century in order to examine how, in the early years of the US republic, bodies of women, African Americans and Native Americans became marked as outside the privileges of what Lauren Berlant refers to as “normal personhood.” Specifically we will be concerned with the trans-Atlantic migration of European Enlightenment thought and how these discourses became incorporated, critiqued and reinvigorated in the writings of American Enlightenment thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, Judith Sargent Murray and Benjamin Franklin. At the same time we will explore how the abject bodies of women, African Americans and Native Americans proved useful to the early republic in imagining the new nation. While reading the texts for this course we will examine and re-examine such diverse issues as republican fears of “foreign” immigration and contagion, women’s indirect relation to nation and citizenship, the nationalization and medicalization of the bodies of women through the discourses of biology, anatomy and physiognomy, the naturalization of sexual and racial difference, the political and cultural usefulness of reproduction in consolidating the nation. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Charles Brockden Brown, Ormond; Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette; Catherine Maria Sedgwick, A New England Tale; Hope Leslie; Susana Haswell Rowson, Charlotte Temple; Maria Lydia Childe, Hobomok; James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans; optional: Ronald Takaki, Iron Cages; Londa Schieiner, Nature’s Body.

213 A (Modern & Postmodern Literature)
Dy 8:30
Buck
In this course, we will read Anglo-Irish and American literature written in the 20th century, mainly novels, but also short stories, poetry, and criticism. Beginning with Eliot's The Waste Land and ending with Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, we will discuss modern and postmodern negotiations of artistic, racial and sexual identity amidst the alienation and exile that characterizes modernity. While we will explore the social and historical contexts of the works we read, we will also pay close attention to the technical and thematic innovations of modern and postmodern writing. Active class participation is essential. Requirements include several short papers, midterm, final and a group presentation. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Beckett, First Love and Other Shorts; Eliot, The Waste Land; Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Morrison, The Bluest Eye; Rhys, Voyage in the Dark; Nabokov, Lolita; Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; photocopied course packet

213 B (Modern & Postmodern Literature)
Dy 11:30
Goss
To identify anything as modern is to be modern. To ask a group of people to meet regularly to accept a common understanding of the "meaning" or "significance" of a book, while at the same time encouraging each of them to cherish and cdevelop their unique personal response to the book is also to be modern. If you loved the movie Moulin Rouge, you might have a taste for the postmodern, which might be another way of being modern -- whether it is or not will be a question we'll ask in class. We'll read writers like Joyce, Woolf, Eliot, and Kafka, who helped the 20th century to be modern, and writers like Art Spiegelman, Salman Rushdie, and Kathy Acker, who help us wonder whether we can -- or have to -- be something newer than modern. We'll read five full novels (one a graphic novel), and a selection of excerpted fiction, short fiction, adn essays. The novels are linked by questions of the individual's freedom in conflict with demands of place and of history. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea; E. M. Forster, Passage to India; Nicholson Baker, Mezzanine; Art Spiegelman, Maus I; Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses.

213 C/D (Modern & Postmodern Literature)
MW 1:30 – 3:20
Wallace
[Introduction to twentieth-century literature from a broadly cultural point of view, focusing on representative works that illustrate literary and intellectual developments since 1900.] Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. (213 D represents 5 spaces in 213C reserved for new transfer students.)

225 A (Shakespeare) MW 8:30-10:20
C. Fischer
(W)
[Survey of Shakespeare's career as dramatist. Study of representative comedies, tragedies, romances, and history plays.]

228 A/B (English Literary Culture: to 1600)
MW 1:30-3:20
Gonyer-Donohue
The course catalog identifies this class as a survey of medieval and early modern English literature. "English" is being used to describe any and all literature being composed within the physical boundaries of the modern nation; that is, if the text was written on island soil, it's English. But this definition of English literature is problematic considering the fact that the literary tradition was constantly shifting, being heavily influenced, and sometimes supplanted altogether, by the literary traditions of non-English visitors/conquerors/missionaries, starting with the Romans. For example, Beowulf is not about England and does not happen on English soil, and the post-conquest monarchy (i.e. "English" kings and rulers) spoke French until the early 15th century! The "father of English poetry," Geoffrey Chaucer, was not writing until the 1370s - very late considering the period of English literature we are covering. In our quest to trace the development of "English" literature, we will be reading texts that were originally composed in Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Old French, and Middle English. As we examine the cultural and political context of this transnational hodge-podge we call medieval English, we will also discuss how the texts were physically transmitted: the production and dissemination of manuscripts, literacy and readers, and the movement from an oral/aural culture to a literary one. Because we only have ten weeks to deal with a time period of over 900 years, our reading list will be selective rather than comprehensive. Non-Majors only, Registration Period 1.(228 B represents 5 spaces in 228A reserved for new transfer students.) Text: Damrosch, et al., Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 1A (The Middle Ages).

228 C (English Literary Culture: to 1600)
TTh 9:30-11:20
Fogerty
Knights, Warriors, Women, and Great Big Swords: British Literature in the Middle Ages. Beowulf. Gawain. King Arthur. Robin Hood. This course will focus on the evolution of the "hero" in the middle ages. We will trace the change in culture and language from the Germanic warriors of the Anglo-Sxon Beowulf, through the tales of chilvary and courtly love in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, to the irreverant clever clerks and wives of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Along the way we will examine changing attitudes toward class and gender, religion and government, tradition and change, as they emerge in epic, romance, ballad, and song. Assignments will include several papers, a presentation, reading quizzes and responses, a midterm and a final. All students are expected to take an active interest in the theme and period and have a willingness to experience the oral qualities of Old and Middle English literatures. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1A: The Middle Ages; photocopied course packet.

229 A (English Literary Culture: 1600-1800)
MW 8:30-10:20
Stafford
Rebels, Wits, Rogues, Criminals, Outsiders, and Spies – these figures will act as our guides throughout our sampling of literature from this period, a period of British history that is characterized by religious, social, and political upheaval, as well as the continued expansion of Britain’s imperial project. We will read texts from several genres, written by both men and women, and written from a variety of social and political perspectives. In conjunction with our focus on the way that the figures named above work as agents of rebellion, we will also consider the forms and agents of authority that we encounter in our engagement with the literature of this period. Our reading for the quarter will include a selection of the Cavalier poets, portions of Milton’s Paradise Lost (featuring that most famous of rebels, Satan), The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish, Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, William Congreve’s The Way of the World, and Daniel Defoe’s tale of the penitent, reformed criminal Moll Flanders. Coursework will include several short writing assignments, a midterm and final, a longer paper, a group presentation, and consistent class participation. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1.

229 B/C (English Literary Culture: 1600-1800)
TTh 12:30-2:20
E. Olsen
Between 1600 and 1800 England became one of the most powerful nations in the world, but also experienced internal upheaval both alarming and exciting. In this introductory sampling of the literature of this period, we will discover the ways in which British poetry, drama, and fiction reflect and comment upon this exploding nation and also upon individuals’ experiences therein. In the process, we will explore how reading literature of an earlier time provides ground for examining our own positions in language, culture and society. This exploration involves considering questions such as: “What is great literature? What makes these texts appeal to audiences of any century?” In investigating these questions, we’ll read some writers whose work has been overlooked, such as Margaret Cavendish, philosopher, poet, biographer, and Aphra Behn, poet, novelist, playwright, and spy and considered by many as the first “professional” woman writer in English, as well as those whose names re nearly synonymous with “great literature,” such as Donne, Milton, Pope. The course requires a fairly substantial amount of reading, and class participation is paramount. Written work consists of one 5-7 page paper, short weekly response papers, and midterm and final examinations. Texts: David Damrosch, et al., eds., The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 1; Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. (229 C represents 5 spaces in 229B reserved for new transfer students.)

230 A/B (English Literary Culture: after 1800)
MW 8:30-10:20
Tandy
[British literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Study of literature in its cultural context, with attention to changes in form, content, and style.] Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. (230B represents 5 spaces in 230A reserved for new transfer students.) Text: Damrosch, ed., The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2.

230 C (English Literary Culture: after 1800)
TTh 12:30-2:20
Hennessee
English 230 offers a general introduction to English literature in a period of sweeping change. Our main object of inquiry will be changing conceptions of selfhood; we will pose questions concerning how writers envision the self in relation to nature, imagination, art, culture, politics, economics, gender, race, colonialism, sexuality, religion ... and anything else that might come up. We will spend roughly 1/3 of our time with Romantics (William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, John Keats), 1/3 with Victorians (Matthew Arnold, Emily Brontë, Tennyson, Christina Rossetti), then move toward Modernism and Postmodernism with Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, and Jeanette Winterson. Course requirements include active participation, an in-class midterm, a take-home midterm, and a 4-5 page critical essay. Expect some lecture, more discussion, occasional in-class film screenings, and demanding but rewarding texts. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights; Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

242 A (Reading Fiction)
Dy 8:30
Ganter
(W)
Reading Narrative Fiction. In everyday life, telling stories or "narrating" is a way of making sense of one's experiences of the world. Culturally, narration has been regarded a "natural" way of interpreting life, a transparent reflection of individual "experience" of "events". Some thinkers (Plato in The Republic for example), however, have looked at narration as a bypassing of thinking and therefore as an easy way of reaching culturally acceptable, yet not truthful, conclusions about reality. Others have gone even further and argued that story telling is a cultural narcotic deployed to seduce and anesthetize the critical consciousness of the people in order to divert them from thinking about the issues that affect their daily lives (e.g. wages, health care, education...). Most narratives are (as Lukacs argues, in his Studies in European Realism for example) ideological: they substitute for objective reality class illusions.

In recent years, poststructuralist theorists (Lyotard in The Postmodern Condition for instance) have rejected these critiques of narration and argued for the need to restore story telling and narration once again to the center of the cultural commonsense. These thinkers have argued that in an age of crisis--such as ours--in which truth itself is becoming more and more like fiction, only narration can do justice to the increasing complexities of language and reality. Any explanation that claims to tell the truth apart from fiction and apart from narrative, in other words, from this perspective, borders on metaphysics. These postmodernist writers and filmmakers and postmodernist critics of globalization and new forms of colonialism have found wisdom in the popular embracing of narration as a mode of making sense of the world without claiming ultimate truth for it. Some have gone so far as to argue that all forms of knowing and theory--scientific and otherwise--are "narratives." In other words, any appeal to "truth" is itself a "story" and therefore the "best" stories are those that show they "know" that truth is a story by focusing (like Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Nabokov's Pale Fire, John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse or Donald Barthelme's stories..) on the "constructedness" of all claims to truth. In place of arguing over truth, we should, according to these writers and critics, simply cultivate our sensitivity to the complexities of language, the intricacies of narration and immerse ourselves not in the metaphysics of truth or ideology but in what Roland Barthes calls the "pleasures of the text".

This course addresses these philosophical, cultural and political issues and will also discuss the dominant mode of reading narratives in university literature courses, that is, reading narrative for the aesthetics, formal features, language and textualities--the pleasures derived from reading stories and from browsing the newest forms of writing in electronic media.

The interpretive arch of the course therefore extends all the way from Aristotle (sections of his Poetics) to Modernist theories of narrative (Henry James, E.M. Forster, Joseph Frank) to postmodern and poststructuralist theorists (Roland Barthes, Todorov, Genette, Kristeva, Derrida, Zizek, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.). We will also put these theories in question by reading feminist, postcolonialist and Marxist theories of narrative in order to open the broad debate over story, story-telling and its cultural, political role. Is narration best approached in terms of the pleasures of the text? Should story-telling be regarded as a form of "entertainment" that has little to do with social or philosophical questions? Does narrative have a role in naturalizing gender, race, ecological and neo-colonial relations? Or is narrative above all an instrument of class and class struggle? Requirements for the course include regular attendance, two short 4-6 pg. papers, one longer 6-8 pg. paper, and active participation in class discussion and group work.

Texts: Hoffman & Murphy, eds., Essentials of the Theory of Fiction; Chatman, ed., Reading Narrative Fiction; Barthelme, 40 Stories; Gates, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man; Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction; Moulthrop, Victory Garden; Dorfman & Mattelart, How to Read Donald Duck.

242B (Reading Fiction)
Dy 9:30
Fischel
(W)
We will focus on 20th-century American fiction this term, both short stories and novels. We'll begin with the early part of the century by reading texts that explore both the individual psyche and the social workings of class, race and gender. Authors include the "great" American writers, F. Scott Fitzgerald and WIlliam Faulkner and Harlem Renaissance writer, Nella Larsen. Then we will move to texts that break new ground in the genre. Jessica Hagedorn explores the American colonial impact on the contemporary Philippines in a wry and cutting satirical expose. Octavia Butler takes the normally formulaic genre of science fiction and turns it into an alarming and critically provocative vision of literal human transformation. And Rebecca Brown writes a haunting and disturbing love story with harsh, complex examinations of community, love and sexual relationships. These works are passionate and subversive, challenging not only conventional arguments of what constitutes story but also offering sharp and controversial critiques of American values and beliefs. Texts: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Larsen, Quicksand/Passing; Faulkner, As I Lay Dying; Butler, Dawn; Hagedorn, Dogeaters; Brown, The Terrible Girls.

242 C (Reading Fiction)
Dy 11:30
Lindsey
(W)
Humanity’s Other: Fictions of Animality. The focus of this course will be fictions of animality. By “animality,” I am referring to human descriptions of animals and the use of animal analogies and metaphors to describe humans. The term “fictions” is intended to emphasize both the fictional characteristics of the texts we will be reading, as well as to emphasize the constructed-ness of social narratives about animals and humans. Critical scholars of race, class, gender, and sexuality, have often discussed the way in which racist, classist, and sexist discourses are full of comparisons between humans and animals. Such comparisons have served to justify the continued oppression of people deemed socially deviant or unfit by those in power. While these projects point to the particular way in which animal analogies have functioned to perpetuate oppressive regimes, for the most part, they fail to address the inverse consequences of this relationship: the way in which racialization, classing, and gendering by way of animal analogies has functioned to perpetuate violence against and oppression of animals. A major question guiding our investigation of fictions of animality will be: what happens when we approach these novels from an anti-specieist perspective? Therefore, while you certainly are not expected to be an animal rights advocate, you must be open to the idea of dismantling the constructed hierarchy that figures humans as superior to animals. We will start by discussing early uses of animal analogies to describe humans in turn-of-the-19th-century literature and continue our investigation of animality by reading and discussing children’s literature, science fiction, animal rights fiction, horror, and “animal narration.” We will also watch a nature show to investigate the ways in which animals are inevitably anthropomorphized by humans. There will be some reading of theoretical texts to frame our discussions of the fictional works. Texts: Stephen Gilbert, Ratman’s Notebooks; James Herbert, Fluke; Jack London, The Sea Wolf; Frank Norris, McTeague; Michael Tobias, Rage and Reason; Michael Crichton, Congo; Stephen King, Cujo.

242 D (Reading Fiction)
Dy 1:30
(W)
--withdrawn--

242 E (Reading Fiction)
Dy 2:30
Walker
(W)
"I Tink I Twy Somtin Diffrunt": Misdirection in Contemporary Fiction. First a disclaimer, from E. B. White: "Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." This cousre will examine a wide range of comic (or arguably comic) documents, paying special attention to those works that challenge us, that push us into uncomfortable places. We'll discuss comedy as a form of misdirection and as a means of disturbance; we'll find that laughs and gasps sound a lot alike. We'll test the following observation, from W. C. Fields: "I never saw anything funny that wasn't terrible." Texts: Diana Darling, The Painted Alphabet; Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began (boxed set); Michael J. Rosen, ed., Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor; Don DeLillo, White Noise.

243 A (Reading Poetry)
Dy 1:30
Simon
Reading Love Poetry, Reading Culture. This course considers Western love poetry as it begins, some say, in ancient Greece with Sappho, then weaves through the centuries, building poetic traditions from reactions against, responses to, and reversals of the earlier poems. Studying love poetry through time presents fascinating glimpses of cultural changes and upturns interesting artifacts that persist in modern poetry and music. While the primary focus will be on reading the poetry deeply, we'’l have an eye on the ways love poetry speaks to a culture’s ideals of power, nationalism, and gender even as it professes to speak about sentiment, desire, and uniquely individual experiences. This is a challenging survey course with a good deal of reading, but on a subject most students find engaging and accessible—the enduring condition of love. Texts: Mark Musa, tr. & ed., Petrarch: Selections from the Canzoniere and Other Works; Stallworth, ed., A Book of Love Poetry; photocopied course packet.

250 A/B (Introduction to American Literature)
MW 9:30-11:20
Barnett
Survey of the major writers, modes, and themes in American literature, from the beginnings to the present. Specific readings vary, but often included are: Taylor, Edwards, Franklin, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James, Eliot, Stevens, O'Neill, Faulkner, Hemingway, Ellison, and Bellow. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. (250B represents 5 spaces in this section reserved for new transfer students.) Text: Baym, ed., The Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter, 5th ed.

250 C (Introduction to American Literature)
TTh 8:30-10:20
Parris
This course is a survey of American literature organized around the theme of work. We will read texts from the colonial period to the present considering both cultural and literary historical contexts as well as aesthetics. Guiding questions for the course include: What is the “Protestant work ethic,” and how does it influence American constructions of work? How do gender, race, and class affect our understanding of work or the type of work we do? What counts as work? How have work and our conceptions of work changed over the course of American history? What are the potentials and limitations of representing work in a literary text? Assignments (two essay exams, a final paper, and short weekly reading responses) will show students’ ability to critically analyze texts. We will read short fiction, novels, and poetry. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine; Louisa May Alcott, Work: A Story of Experience; Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron-Mills; Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers; photocopied course packet; CD of Mike Watt’s punk rock opera, Contemplating the Engine Room.

250 D (Introduction to American Literature)
TTh 1:30-3:20
L. Fisher
In this introduction to the study of American Literature I have steered away from trying to cover all periods in American history, structuring the course instead around a few thematic issues that run through the national literature. I have chosen texts from various time periods that will help us to examine how these themes play out at specific moments in literary history. While this is not the kind of survey that requires you to cram as many representative texts into your brain as possible for the final exam – it is a course that will require careful and directed reading and a real interest in using literature to examine a rich and diverse culture. I have assigned an amount of reading that will demand considerable time and effort every week, and I will expect you to be engaged and enthusiastic about responding to what you have read in active discussions and thoughtful papers. Requirements: regular written responses to readings, mid-term and final exams; group project. Non-majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson; Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers; Nina Baym, ed., Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter, 5th edition; photocopied course packet.

257A (Introduction to Asian-American Literature)
Dy 1:30
Oishi
Added 1/13/02; sln: 8334
In 1989, Amy Tan published what has arguably become the most popular and readily identifiable work of any Asian American author to date. The Joy Luck Club, a novel chronicling the rapprochement of two generations of Chinese American women, remained on the New York Times Bestseller's List for nine weeks, going through twenty-seven hardback editions and selling over 275,000 hardback copies. Since then, the novel has become something of a touchstone for those unfamiliar with Asian American literature and culture, rehearsing as it does thematized tropes of immigration and intergenerational conflict so prevalent in early Asian American writing. And yet, Asian American literature touches upon subjects, and finds expression in narrative forms, much more variegated than those embodied in and by The Joy Luck Club. In this course, we will survey the breadth, depth, and richness of Asian American literature as expressed through various authors of several ethnic backgrounds across a range of literal and imaginative landscapes. As we shall see, Asian American authors not only grapple with issues of immigrancy and intergenerational conflict, but also with concerns over marginalization and assimilation, war and diaspora, colonization and sovereignty, and self-definition and stereotypes, among others. That said, this course seeks to provide an introduction to and sampling of works of various Asian American authors rather than a comprehensive history of Asian American literature-an endeavor that will continually serve to remind us of the heterogeneity inherent in Asian American experience and articulation. Texts: Evelina Galang, Her Wild American Self; Maxine Hong Kingston, Woman Warrior; Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine; Gary Pak, A Ricepaper Airplane; Haunani-Kay Trask, Light in the Crevice Never Seen; Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Blu's Hanging; photocopied course packet.

281 A (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 8:30
DeNonno
End of the World Scenarios in 20th Century Literature and Film. "The mind of humanity," Andrei Codrescu writes, "is very much at home in catastrophe." In this expository writing class, we'll explore the catastrophic imagination of late 20th century fiction writers and filmmakers. Apocalyptic visions have been part of the Western tradition from the Bible's Book of Revelation and Milton's Paradise Lost to T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and George Orwell's 1984. The latter half of the twentieth century offers new scenarios for the end of the world, scenarios that include toxic spills, gender dystopias, and DNA replicants. End of the world scenarios are always post-apocalyptic, however, because as one world is under threat, another is taking shape. Some issues we'll address: what kind of world do we imagine is ending? What is both attractive and horrific about its ending? How do our notions of humanity, history, and culture change as a result? These questions and others generated by students will guide class discussions and writing projects. In addition, this class will provide an introduction to some of the methodologies used to read and interpret texts in the field of literary studies. Students from disciplines other than English will be invited to identify their disciplinary lenses and to use the methodologies pertinent to their fields. Final projects for this class will ask students across disciplines to theorize about the catastrophic imagination as it appears within their fields of study. Texts: DeLillo, White Noise; Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, Lessing, The Memoirs of a Survivor. Films include Safe (dir. Todd Haynes) and Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott). No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1.

281 B (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 8:30
Price
[Writing papers communicating information and opinion to develop accurate, competent, and effective expression.] No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1.

281 C (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 9:30
Grooters
CNN recently reported on a proclamation issued by a Florida mayor declaring that Satan "is not now, nor eer again will be, a part of this town." What kind of impact does such a declaration have? Does it merely express a desire, or is it actually taking some action on the world? Is language simply a tool for communication or does it effect change? In this course we will explore these questions--and how they might influence your own writing choices--through the lens of speech act theory. In other words, we'll not only be discussiong "how to do language," but also "what language does." We'll be looking at texts both ancient and contemporary, from a range of genres, primarily focusing on the work being done by the different discourses of the academy. There will be a number of short assignments, in addition to three longer (6-7 page) papers (students will be doing some kind of writing for every class). Students will also be expected to complete an out-of-class collaborative research assignment. Grades will be based on class pasrticipation and a portfolio due at the end of the quarter. No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1. Text: photocopied course packet.

281 D (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 9:30
Little
[Writing papers communicating information and opinion to develop accurate, competent, and effective expression.] No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1.

281 E (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 10:30
Karl
[Writing papers communicating information and opinion to develop accurate, competent, and effective expression.] No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1.

281 F (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 11:30
Foote
[Writing papers communicating information and opinion to develop accurate, competent, and effective expression.] No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1.

281 G (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 12:30
VerSteeg
Is it possible to connect such diverse topics as Pigs on Parade, chapter breaks, Montreal balconies, serial murder trials, the Paris Commune, and trains? Well, we'll try to do that over the course of the term as we aim to further develop our own expository writing skills while we grapple with the particular issue of spaces: both the more familiar social and physical urban spaces of the city as well as the space that we construct when we think and when we write. The writing you do will offer the opportunity to devleop a stronger writing voice by writing in varied formats, lengths, and modes. Some topics might include: the meaning of boundaries, inside/outside representation of spaces, feng shui and the design of space, virtual/real space, racially "marked" social spaces, adn gendered spaces. Readings for this class will include a number of shorter theoretical readings about the concept of space and its construction as well as short fiction and essays that focus on how writing itself constructs spaces. We can then turn those bodies of knowledge onto one another to consider what constructed spaces can reveal about the task of writing as well as what writing can reveal about constructed space. Yet our spatial experience need not be limited to standard texts. As a class, we will gradually develop our own space of knowledge and reflection. In fact, this collaborative effort is very important to the success of the course, and you should come prepared to participate in the creation of a contemplative space (perhaps in the form of a collaborative website) where you are an active participant. This course is taught in a Computer Integrated Course (CIC) format that meets for a third of the time in a computer collaboratory. While it is absolutely NOT necessarsy for you to be computer savvy, you will be doing a lot of peer review using computers, and you should at least be comfortable in front of one. No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1. Text: James Baldwin, The Evidence of Things Not Seen.

281 H (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 1:30
Vidali
[Writing papers communicating information and opinion to develop accurate, competent, and effective expression.] No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1.

281 I (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MWF 1:30
Mandaville
In this course for the intermediate writer we focus on the wonderful art of the essay. Paying close attention to form, content and creativity, we read and discuss several kinds of published essays in different academic fields. From coming up with ideas to polishing the final draft, together we learn and practice key ingredients for making your writing matter. Expect both individual and group work.l In-class pasrticipation is essential. Assignmnets include in-class writing, short response papers, peer writing reviews and three longer essays. No auditors. No freshmen, Registration Period 1. Text: Kirszner, Brief Holt Handbook

283 A (Beginning Verse Writing)
MW 9:30-10:50
Matsumoto
Experience a studio-style class and discover new ways to write! L. Hughes, Bukowski, Mirikitani, and W. Coleman read here! Write 8 – 10 poems and receive constructive criticism from your peers. English majors only, Registration Period 1. Text: Photocopied course packet.

283 B (Beginning Verse Writing)
TTh 1:30-2:50
Rebecca Mitchell
This is a class centered on the reading, writing, and discussing of contemporary poetry. Throughout the term you will be required to hvae at least 2-3 poems workshopped by the group, to give a presentation on a poet of yoru choice, and to successfully recognize and use poetic technique as readers and writers of poetry. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook; A. Poulin, Contemporary American Poetry (6th ed.).

284 A (Beginning Short Story Writing)
MW 11:30-12:50
Slean
This class is an introduction to writing fiction through the study and writing of the short story form. Various elements of story writing such as point of view, character, action, narrative, metaphor, structure and theme will be explored through reading, discussion, and focused writing exercises. Students will be responsible for writing a minimum of one short story plus a substantial story revision. The course may also include in-class workshops of students work-in-progress. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Text: Charters, The Story and Its Writer.

284 B (Beginning Short Story Writing)
TTh 10:30-11:50
Min
[Introduction to the theory and practice of writing the short story.] Majors only, Registration Period 1.

SPRING 2002 200-Level Courses

SPRING 2002
200-Level Courses