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Course Descriptions (as of 20 December 2005)
The following course descriptions have been written by individual instructors
to provide more detailed information on specific sections than
that found in the General Catalog. When individual descriptions
are not available, the General Catalog descriptions [in brackets] are
used. (Although
we
try
to have as accurate and complete information as possible, this schedule
remains subject to change.)
Office, (206) 543-2690 or the Undergraduate Advising
Office, (206) 543-2634.)
200 A (Reading Literature)
M-Th 8:30
Centerwall
(W)
bcenter@u.washington.edu
“Oh, the Drama!” English 200A will explore the English drama from
its politically explosive beginnings in the Middle Ages (The Mystery Plays)
to modern plays that question the meaning of drama itself. We will explore
the tensions and satisfactions in this most human of all arts and how it works.
Some performance will be conducted in the class itself (or somewhere convenient).
Opportunities to see live play performances will be seized upon as the occasion
arises. There will be a movie or two of particular productions of famous plays
(where we will discover the differences between the genres of movie and drama).
At points throughout the course the instructor will provide personal examples
of how literary research is done, using his own works-in-progress and even
doing literary research on the texts as we discuss them. This will be unpublished
scholarship, permitting students to see what lies behind the completed essays
students read in textbooks and professional journals. Students are encouraged
to ask questions at all times. There will be short (1-2 pp) papers required
during the course and a 6-8 pp. term paper at the end. Students will be encouraged
to do some research of their own for the term paper.
Texts: Lesker, ed., Three Late Medieval Morality Plays;
Whitworth, ed., Gammer Gurton’s Needle; George Peele, The
Old Wife’s
Tale; Martin White, ed., Arden of Feversham; C. Marlowe, Christopher
Marlowe’s
Doctor Faustus: Texts A & B (1604-1616); Shakespeare, I Henry
IV; Macbeth;
photocopied course packet..
200 B (Reading Literature)
M-Th 11:30
Huntsperger
(W)
dwhunts@u.washington.edu
Visions, Apparitions and Politics in Modern Poetry and Theater. Oddly enough,
to invoke the "visionary" is to summon the unseen. Visitations, dreams,
second sight, divine revelation, spiritual mania, drug-induced hallucination,
mental illness, utopianism, progressive politics--the individual manifestations
of the "visionary" constitute a broad range of experience. Most modern
literature (and the scholarship surrounding it) takes as its subject materiality--the
physically visible, the legible, and the scientifically verifiable. In this
class, we will play fast and loose with this materialist tradition by exploring
the theme of visionary modernism. Beginning with William Blake and his romanticist
depictions of heaven and hell, we will progress through the symbolist poetry
of Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, the mysticism of W.B. Yeats, the
intensely personal revelations of Allen Ginsberg and Sylvia Plath, and the
political fantasia of Tony Kushner's two-part play Angels in America. In reading
these works of poetry and theater, we will investigate the relationship between
mystical, otherworldly imaginings and the real-world political conditions that
give rise to them. Texts: Photocopied course pack; Kushner, Angels in America:
Millennium Approaches.
200 C (Reading Literature)
M-Th 12:30
Levay
(W)
levaymt@u.washington.edu
Modern Minds: Private Life in 19th- and 20th-Century Literature. In this course,
we will examine the role of psychology and representations of mental life in
Victorian and modernist literature. Specifically, we will think about the various
ways in which authors depict interiority in their work, from the dramatic monologues
of Robert Browning to the stream-of-consciousness fictions of Virginia Woolf,
and discuss the ability of any literary text to provide a compelling or convincing
portrait of something that, in many ways, resists representation. Additionally,
we will take up other, equally important questions as the course progresses,
discussing, among other things, the relationship between the individual and
society (and the often uneasy and highly contested boundary between public
and private life), the effects of environmental and spatial conditions upon
the mind, and representations of madness in literature. To supplement and contextualize
our literary selections, we will also look at several cultural and historical
texts from the period, focusing especially on the birth of psychoanalysis,
its place in popular culture, and its reception by Victorian and modernist
authors. Short works of literary criticism, dealing in some way with either
the readings themselves or the themes of the course, will enrich our understanding
of the primary material and provide examples of critical writing on literary
texts. Texts: R. L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde; Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Virginia Woolf, Mrs.
Dalloway; Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier; a selection
of Robert Browning’s poems; photocopied course packet, containing selections
of literary criticism, psychoanalytic essays, and a variety of historical materials.
200 D (Reading Literature)
M-Th 1:30
McKinney
(W)
karamck@u.washington.edu
In this course we will read a variety of texts in order to examine the act
of reading – as textual, visual, and visceral engagement, as cultural
process, as a way of making sense of the world. Thinking about reading as an
intertextual experience, rather than an isolated (and isolating) activity,
will allow us to explore the connections between literary texts and other cultural
forms and ways of knowing. In our investigation of different interpretive strategies,
we will focus on the theme of “Americanness” and the constructions
of race, class, gender, and sexuality as technologies of representation that
both fix identities and fail to account for the multiplicity of lived experiences.
Course work will include a demanding reading schedule, participation in class
discussions and group projects, shorter writing assignments, and a longer final
paper. Texts: Stephen Crane, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets; Nella Larsen, Passing;
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita; Ana Castillo, The Mixquiahuala Letters; photocopied
course packet.
202 A
(Introduction to the Study of English Language and Literature)
MWF 10:30 (lecture)
Patterson
(discussion sections: Wed. 11:30, Thurs. 12:30, Thurs. 2:30)
mpat@u.washington.edu
NOTE: Concurrent enrollment in ENGL 197 required. (See
Time Schedule for specific sections linked to ENGL 202.)
This course is known as a “gateway” course to the English major,
which means that it is designed to introduce students to some of the way s
that they will be expected to think about and write about literary and cultural
texts in their courses. This course will have three principal goals: (1) to
introduce students to the methodology of literary analysis, including close
reading and some understanding of the various disciplinary questions that shape
approaches to reading (for example, what’s cultural studies, or what’s
a psychoanalytic approach, or what’s a literary period); (2) to see literature
as posing questions about itself (what is an “author”?) and the
world (why do our beliefs about identity and society take the shape they do?);
and (3) to come to understand the value of literature. In other words, why
do we like or even obsessively love certain novels, poems, plays, films, etc.,
and why do they matter in our world? In order to tackle these issues, we will
first consider Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. While some of
you have read it before, we will spend a good deal of time understanding it
as a work of fiction, as a commentary on history, as a self-conscious reworking
of older literature, and as the cause for one of the worst films ever made.
Then we will consider its literary precursors, including Shakespeare’s
Merchant of Venice, Wordsworth and other poets. Finally, we will consider some
of the literature of the twentieth century (Virginia Woolf’s To the
Lighthouse)
and even the twenty-first century (Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor
was Divine) . There will be three lectures per week and one discussion section.
Grading for this course will be based primarily on short quizzes, one midterm
examination, and a final examination covering assigned reading and material
presented in class lectures. Class participation is essential. The writing
link, ENGL 197, for which a separate grade is assigned, will concentrate intensively
on writing and revising essays. Texts: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The
Scarlet Letter: A Case Study In Contemporary Criticism; William Shakespeare, The
Merchant of Venice: Texts and Context; Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse; Julie Otsuka,
When the Emperor was Divine.
205 A (Method, Imagination, and Inquiry)
M-F 1:30
Searle
(W)
lsearle@u.washington.edu
This course is offered as both an English and Comparative History of Ideas
course. It offers a rigorous introduction to intellectual history by examining
the rich relations between method and imagination, by treating Western intellectual
history as overwhelmingly motivated by the idea of inquiry. Selections include
literary, philosophical and scientific texts. The reading for the course is
demanding, but coherent: each text provides a basis for better understanding
the next. Selections include works by Plato, Aristotle, Giordano Bruno, Francis
Bacon, Shakespeare, Descartes, Kant, Coleridge, C. S. Peirce, Thomas Kuhn and
William Faulkner. The course meets daily; one meeting each week will be in
smaller sections to go over reading and writing assignments. There is a take-home
mid-term examination, a number of short papers, and a final paper. Offered
jointly with CHID 205A.
207 A (Introduction to Cultural Studies)
M-Th 9:30
Chiu
jeffchiu@u.washington.edu
Reading Sex and Sexualities. U.S. cultural production has often been fraught
with numerous anxieties, regulative forces, and resistances over issues of
sex and sexuality. This course introducing Cultural Studies examines how such
issues are not straightforwardly reflected or captured in culture, but rather
how narrative forms and genres work to constitute the meanings, values, and
social intelligibility of particular sexual practices and sexualities. Our
analysis of cultural “representations” of sex and sexuality will
therefore entail critical readings of the conventions, historical conditions,
and strategies of power involved. We will focus in particular on a few novelistic
genres, coming out stories, political discourse on the family, mass media portrayals
of HIV/AIDS, and popular film. Although sections of this course emphasize issues
of particular importance in what is often called “queer” politics,
we will be equally concerned to comprehend sex and sexuality as inseparable
from, and indeed forged within, broader relations of race, gender and socioeconomic
class. Required texts: Patricia Highsmith, The Price of
Salt; Louis Chu, Eat
a Bowl of Tea; James Baldwin, Go Tell It On the Mountain; Dorothy Allison,
Bastard Out of Carolina. A course pack will include additional primary readings
as well as seminal criticism and exemplary scholarship in Cultural Studies.
Assignments: 3 responses papers, a group presentation, and a final research
project. Students should be prepared to adopt a non-moralizing attitude attentive
to the many intellectual and political implications of our work.
207 B (Introduction to Cultural Studies)
M-Th 11:30
K. Feldman
feldmank@u.washington.edu
Tracing Diaspora and Cultural Studies. This reading-intensive course will consider
Cultural Studies as a mode of critical inquiry shaped by and enabling diasporic
social, cultural, and political formations.
Taking the Birmingham School as a point of departure, this contingent cultural
studies methodology – with its focus on historical conjuncture, global
movements of people and commodities, and complex articulations of difference – will
allow us to learn to read cultural production as a site of struggle within
the normalizing and mutually constitutive logics of race, nation, and global
capitalism. Primary literary texts will include works by Claude McKay, Langston
Hughes, June Jordon, Mary Antin, Israel Zangwill, Edward Said, Suheir Hammad,
Elmaz Abinader, and David Williams. Recent historical and theoretical works,
particularly on cultural studies as a discipline, racial formation, immigration,
and diaspora will help thicken our understanding of the conjunctures from which
these texts emerge. Students will complete a mid-term exam, a final essay,
and a group project, along with other more discrete writing assignments. Texts: Claude
McKay, Banjo:
A Story Wihtout A Plot; Israel Zangwill, The Melting Pot
Drama in Four Acts.
211 A (Medieval & Renaissance Literature)
M-Th 9:30
Browning
vtb76@u.washington.edu
In this class we will read literature from the Middle Ages through the early
Renaissance. Our focus will be the magical and the supernatural as it appears
in a variety of texts from across Europe. We will examine how magical elements
are used in a fictional narrative, as well as how the magical and mystical
function in more biographical works. This class is focused on reading and discussion,
not on long boring lectures. Students must come prepared to discuss the readings.
Each student should bring to this class a curiosity about literature and its
use of the supernatural, as well as the patience to spend a great deal of time
reading. There will be weekly response papers as well as two exams and a final
paper. Text: Dante, The Inferno (tr. Ciardi)
212 A (Literature of Enlightenment & Revolution)
M-Th 12:30
Stuby
tstuby@u.washington.edu
We will begin this course with the historical and intellectual phenomenon that
is referred to as ‘The Enlightenment,’ or ‘The Age of Reason.’ The
French term for this, ‘Les Lumieres’ (literally ‘the lights,’ or ‘light-bringers’),
can be seen as a sort of guiding theme, imagistically and otherwise, for our
course of investigation into the important motifs of the period as well as
for what we will focus on in terms of the sharpest reactions to Enlightenment
thought, specifically in the later movement called ‘Romanticism.’ These
include: the representative myths of bringing ‘light’ to man as
a gesture of liberation, the ways in which man acquires ‘knowledge,’ the
process of self-creation, the role of nature in shaping how man sees himself,
the ways in which the play of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) is put to use
aesthetically, and the notion of the imagination. Throughout, we will attempt
to understand better how a sort of movement from Enlightenment to Romanticism
gets played out in the literature of the period, and what each of these ‘notions’ finally
has to say to one another and to us. This will include a broad range of readings
(with some relevant philosophical background material as well) from Plato,
Locke, Hobbes, Swift, Voltaire, Rousseau, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats,
Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, DeQuincey, Mill, and perhaps a few other
assorted characters, who may or may not make an appearance. Depending on time,
we will probably also take a brief look at some of the art of the period as
well (Piranesi, Goya, Fuseli, Blake, Turner, etc.) in order to think about
Romantic aesthetics in a fuller sense. You should therefore expect a fair amount
of poetry in this course that will require close attention and sustained readings.
Students should also probably expect to write 2 essays, a midterm and final,
short response papers, and memorization of some sort - along with the usual
discussion.
213 A (Modern & Postmodern Literature)
M-Th 11:30
Schleitwiler
vjs@u.washington.edu
“To Jive with Time”: Migration and Modernity in African American
and Asian American Literature. This course is an introduction to the literature
that emerged from the mass migrations of African Americans and Asians across
the domains of the 20th century U.S. In particular, we will consider three
complex, distinct but related figures of the problems of modernity that arose
from the conditions of racialized migration. The first is that of the industrial
metropolis, seemingly the proper location and inevitable destiny of modern
life, as figured most prominently by its signature element, the skyscraper.
Simultaneously, and by contrast, new ways of imagining and representing rural
life emerged, particularly through the figure of the folk, and the distinctive
attitudes, practices, and temporal rhythms ascribed to folk culture. But in
the circuitous and open-ended movements of racialized migrants between rural
and urban areas, fixed notions of origin and destination, city and country,
were disrupted and displaced; this more complex and messy conception of migration
can be approached through the figure of blues/jazz music, arguably the most
distinctive aesthetic form that emerged in the 20th century U.S. In the literary
texts we will examine, these figures of migrant modernity serve to organize
a series of questions about aesthetic form—about how time and history
are graphed onto political geography, inscribed in literary narrative, and
conjured in cultural practices—that have urgent political stakes, shaping
fundamental categories of access to the modern social order—race, class,
nation, gender, and universality. In addition to a significant reading load,
this course requires a willingness both to engage closely with the features
of specific literary texts and to inquire after the social, political, and
historical conditions in which they are produced and circulated. Additionally,
this course requires a commitment to collaborative effort; throughout the quarter,
students will be asked to share their ideas, in oral discussion and in written
work, with the entire class, and to respond thoughtfully and respectfully to
the ideas of others. Texts: Nella Larsen, Quicksand and Passing; Toshio Mori,
Unfinished Message; Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon; Carlos Bulosan, On
Becoming Filipino; Claude
McKay, Banjo; Gayl Jones, Mosquito; supplementary readings as required.
225 A (Shakespeare)
M-Th 8:30
Stansbury
(W)
hls2@u.washington.edu
“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / Are of imagination all compact.” So
says Theseus at the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For Winter quarter,
we will be examining the notions of madness, love, and the poetical figure
in the works of Shakespeare. We will read texts that explore altered states
of consciousness, the power of sexual jealousy on the psyche, feigned and true
insanity, and the implications of these illusions and realities in Shakespeare’s
dramas. For those of you who have already signed up for the course under the
theme of romance, please do not fret! We will still be focusing much of our
discussions on issues that concern the affect of love and the notions of desire
and sexuality as offered in Shakespeare’s plays. We will also be working
with modes of production, including film and art, and the main goals of the
course are to help you learn to decode the language of Shakespeare through
close readings and to make you more confident readers of the great Bard. Though
the theme of the course has changed somewhat, I assure you that the content
will be just as sexy! And of course, as this is a W course, you will be expected
to write. Text: David Bevington, ed.,
The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 5th ed.
229 A (English Literary Culture: 1600-1800)
M-Th 9:30
Stansbury
hls2@u.washington.edu
In this course, we will be looking at defiant writers and literary characters
from 1600-1800. We will address how these figures rebel against established
power structures and deviate from the norm. This will, of course, require defining
the ever elusive and nebulous norm through investigations into social, political,
and cultural ideologies of this very broad time period. We will begin with
a Shakespearean tragedy and end with early Romantic poetry. We will be reading
texts by Donne, Milton, Defoe, Coleridge, and others. Issues of power, gender,
and sexuality will continue to arise in our discussions about these literary
deviants and their sometimes blatant, and other times, dubious rebellions.
230 A (English Literary Culture: after 1800)
M-Th 1:30
Holzer
kholzer@u.washington.edu
Imperial Inteimacies: India and England, 1857-1905. 1857 and the
period immediately following comprise a complicated moment in the history
of the
British Empire,
thanks
to the
Indian
Sepoy Rebellion,
the second Opium War, the
publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859), increased
emigration to the colonies, the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act, and more!
In English
230 we will explore the latter half of the nineteenth century with rigorous
contextualization (including background readings on ‘liberty,’ women’s
rights, evolution, economics, and travel). The literary theme of the course
is the colonial relationship between India and Britain.
Students can expect to be reading 150+ pages per week. Requirements include
participation in class
discussions, at least one class presentation, a midterm exam, periodical
response papers, and a final essay (approximately eight pages long).Texts: Wilkie
Collins, The Moonstone; Charles
Dickens, The
Mystery of Edwin Drood; Rudyard Kipling, Kim; John Stuart Mill, The
Spirit of the Age; On Liberty; The Subjection of Women; Florence Nightingale,
Cassandra; Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (Roushan Jahan, ed.), Sultana’s
Dream: And Selections from the Secluded Ones; photocopied course packet.
242 A (Reading Fiction)
M-Th 9:30
Sands
(W)
sandst@u.washington.edu
In this course we will take a cultural studies approach to reading twentieth
century US fiction in order to examine how literature has been an important
site in the production, deployment, dissemination, and contestation of sexuality,
race, and nation. That is, we will critically read short stories and novels
for two primary reasons: first, to think about how these narrative forms constitute
and regulate forms of sexual and racial subjectivity, and national citizenship;
and second, to think through (or around) the ideological and disciplinary functions
of the literary in order to consider the ways in which literature might be
used as a site of critique and resistance. In short, we will understand the
literary not as a direct “reflection” of social, cultural, and
economic practices, but as a terrain on which these practices are actively
generated and contested. To give us some tools to help us locate the historical
conditions, discursive forms, and literary practices/conventions that our primary
texts are in conversation with, we will supplement our engagements with a few
theoretical and non-literary “cultural” texts. While we will partially
disaggregate the tripartite thematic of this course in order to have three
different primary optics for looking at literary texts, I hope to work against
the tendency of some to read them as discreet categories so as to comprehend
the immanence of each to the other.
Thus, my primary expectation for students is that written work, group projects, and class discussions actively seek to explain what thinking sex, race, and nation together helps us comprehend that thinking them discreetly cannot. More generally, students will be expected to read text closely and carefully (and often more than once), to complete assignments on time and be active participants in class discussions in spite of the many uncertainties (and, at moments, outright discomforts) that might emerge over the course of the readings, and to actively produce a classroom environment that is at once intellectually rigorous and safe for working out ideas and perspectives that may not yet be fully formed. It goes almost without saying that we will take up some contentious issues that have multiple implications for our political/intellectual projects—an attitude of respect is required at all times. We will read: novels by Gayle Jones, Chester Himes, James Baldwin, and Lawrence Chua; short stories by Gertrude Stein, Achee Obejas, and Junot Diaz; and short essays by Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Ben Anderson, and Aihwa Ong
242 B (Reading Fiction)
M-Th 11:30
Wayland
(W)
tsw@u.washington.edu
Reading Distance and Desire in Modern Fiction. This course centers on twentieth-century
fiction and its engagement with the role of the outsider, a position defined
not only in terms of narrative technique but through relationships of gender,
sexuality, class, nationality, and in one notable case, height. This course
might also be titled “The Obscure Object of Modernism’s Desire,” as
each of these texts uses either first-person narration or rigorously structured
point of view to evoke a dynamic but unsatisfied longing for a desired object.
We will explore how representation and memory are made problematic in the modern
novel, resulting in an aesthetic that is preoccupied with failure and loss.
Students can expect a demanding course in analyzing literary language and structures
alongside the relevant social, historical, and philosophical questions in these
texts. Be prepared for difficult literary prose and forms as well as the rewards
that come from challenging reading. Texts: James Joyce, Dubliners; Rebecca
West, The Return of the Soldier; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; William Faulkner,
The Sound and the Fury; Lagerkvist, The Dwarf; Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire.
242 C (Reading Fiction)
M-Th 2:30
Taylor
(W)
mamaz@u.washington.edu
Some themes that surface among the novels and stories we will read this quarter
include adventure, displacement, social and family dynamics, disorientation,
thresholds and change, truth and subterfuge, perspective, adaptation and survival.
As an introductory course in reading literature, we will examine a range of
features of literary texts, including language choice, imagery, dialogue, plot
development, structure, setting, point of view, characterization, etc. Coursework
will include a demanding reading schedule, participation in discussions and
daily class work, a group presentation, several shorter written assignments
and/or quizzes, and a longer final essay. Texts: Mark Haddon, The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Keri Hulme, The Bone
People; Yann Martel, Life
of Pi; Ian McEwan, Atonement; Annie Proulx, The Shipping
News; photocopied
course packet.
242 D (Reading Fiction)
M-Th 12:30
McNair
(W)
amcnair@u.washington.edu
In this class we will be reading a selection of American texts from the nineteenth
century. During the first third of the nineteenth century, there was a growing
movement for a literature that could be classified as uniquely American (rather
than American imitations of British or European forms). The results throughout
the rest of the century, as I hope this class will show, proved to be quite
interesting. I’ve selected the texts we’ll be reading – a
selection of short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain and The Marrow of
Tradition by Charles Chesnutt – because
I feel that aside from being highly original works, they also serve to address
a variety of topics (race, democracy, class, religion, exploration/expansion,
etc.) that were peculiar to America at the time.
242E (Reading Fiction)
T Th 8:30-10:20
Rivera
(W)
lysar@u.washington.edu
Black to the Future. This course introduces students to African-American
science fiction, a genre that has been around, but largely unnoticed, since the
early
1900s. The fusion of science fiction and black artistic expression is particularly
vibrant in black pop culture. Musicians as diverse as Digital Underground, DJ
Spooky, Parliament, and Sun Ra, for instance, demonstrate how the motifs of science
fiction – including its aliens, spaceships, and cyborgs – have been
germane for a black aesthetic that “remixes” the conventions
of the dominant culture for its own transformative, often political purposes.
In this course we will explore this exciting universe, going where few students
have gone before, to trace the presence of black voices in science fiction. Students
will study the genre in its literary, filmic, and musical modes. Required readings
will include the fiction of Samuel Delany, Steven Barnes, Ishmael
Reed; and the theoretical work of Kobena Mercer, Kodwo Eshun, and Paul D. Miller,
a/k/a DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid. Films include John Sayles’s “Brother
from Another Planet,” and John Akomfrah’s “Last Angel of History.” It
is strongly recommended that students begin reading the first novel,
Samuel Delany's
Dhalgren,
before the quarter begins. Essential reading in an introduction to black science
fiction, Dhalgren will provide a foundation for the types of questions,
concerns, and issues that will emerge later in the course. Texts: Samuel
R. Delany, Dhalgren; Steven Barnes, Far
Beyond the Stars; Ishnael Reed,
Flight to Canada; Paul D. Miller, Rhythm Science.
243 A (Reading Poetry)
M-Th 12:30
Crimmins
(W)
crimmins@u.washington.edu
The Dissolute and Dissolution: The Shape of Poetry. The main goal of this
course is a practical goal: to practice the behaviors of a thoughtful reader
in order to better understand the variety of ways poetry signifies. During
the quarter, we will trace a genealogy of form in American poetry, following
its cycle of composition, decomposition, and recomposition throughout the 19th
and 20th centuries. As readers, we will witness the variform guises of the
modern poet; we will address both the cultural and the psychological implications
each of each poetic stance; and we will interrogate the concepts of freedom,
desire, and loss in this menagerie. Course work: several short writing assignments,
a classroom presentation, a longer essay, and a final exam. Texts: Jorie Graham,
Dream of a Unified Field; Helen Vendler, Part of Nature, Part
of Us; Joe Wenderoth,
Letters to Wendy’s; Catherine Wing, Enter Invisible, and a substantial
course packet.
250 A (Introduction to American Literature)
M-Th 8:30
Lillis
lillisj@u.washington.edu
(Re)producing the Nation. In this course we will investigate how significations
of “America(n)” are produced and reproduced through political,
educational, economic, and legal institutions, as well as through the practices
of everyday life. As we will discover in our readings of literary, theoretical
and historical texts, these institutions and practices work to (re)produce “national” subjects
whose positions, relative to the nation, are highly variable, hotly contested
and historically situated. These subjects are (re)produced largely along lines
of race, class, gender and sexuality. We will learn to read the ways race,
class, gender and sexuality mutually constitute each other as categories and
how they are deployed to (re)produce subjects through coercion and the manufacture
of consent. Also, we will learn to read the ways our examples of American Literature
represent, critique, and contribute to these (re)productive projects. Our examples
of American Literature include: Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain; The
Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood;
and My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki. There will be a course packet with additional
historical and theoretical materials. Expect an intense reading schedule with
regular quizzes. Participation in class discussions and group presentations
required. Term paper final.
250 B (Introduction to American Literature)
M-Th 12:30
LaFrance
mlf@u.washington.edu
Literary New Orleans. Late summer of 2005, New Orleans suffered catastrophic
flooding following Hurricane Katrina. The unique place of the “Crescent
City” in U.S. history has since been undeniably underscored by questions
of race and class stratification, poverty, historical preservation, tragedy
and survival. This course examines the literary heritage and special history
of New Orleans, with a focus on fiction, poetry, and sketches inspired by this “least
American of all American cities.” Students will develop their skills
as readers and writers by critically inquiring into competing literary configurations
of the city and depictions of the numerous racial and ethnic groups within
the city, and by analyzing the crucial nature of race, ethnicity and class
in the composition and flavor of New Orleans’ most well-known neighborhoods.
Readings will include: Whitman, Twain, Cable, Chopin, Faulkner, Hurston, Bontemps,
Tennessee Williams, Hellman, Capote, Percy, Toole, and a course reader. Instructor
is a New Orleans evacuee with substantial personal experience in the city and
its neighborhoods. Students will be asked to lead one or more classroom discussions,
to be active on the E-Post bulletin board, to complete two responses papers,
a final paper proposal, and a final paper. Lively and thoughtful in-class participation
will account for a substantial portion of each student’s final grade.
Texts: Kate Chopin, The Awakening; Mark Twain, Life
on the Mississippi; George
Washington Cable, The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life; John Miller, et
al., eds., New Orleans Stories: Great Writers on the City.
250 C (Introduction to American Literature)
M-Th 2:30
Barr
slb8@u.washington.edu
Beyond the Pale: Marginal Lives in American Literature. The late Joe Strummer
once asserted “the truth is only known by guttersnipes.” While
he was thinking in terms of a heavily class-divided 1970s England, we might
apply his insight more broadly and ask the question: Do the voices of individuals
who are, for whatever reason, “beyond the pale” of mainstream American
experience, offer the willing ear a perspective uniquely attuned to differences
of race, class, geography, and gender? Drawing from an eclectic selection of
shorter postwar American novels, we will pursue this and other questions. How
do already marginalized individuals recover and reintegrate after the trauma
of war? How do ostensibly normal Americans lose the plot of the suburban melodrama
they once called home? What are the consequences, both psychic and social,
of pointed exclusion from the community? Is “individuality,” vis-à-vis
the larger society, uniquely problematized and performed in 20th century America?
Why do some viewpoints circulate vigorously while others go unheard? Other
substantial questions will surely arise as we read and discuss the materials
at hand. Requirements: Punctual reading, regular attendance, engagement with
class discussion, weekly quizzes, a mid-term paper, short individual presentations,
a final paper. Important: Be advised that this is not a lecture class; the
emphasis will be on active discussion and the exchange of ideas. Texts: Toni
Morrison, The Bluest Eye; Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49; Cormac McCarthy,
Child of God; Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Leslie Marmon
Silko, Ceremony; photocopied course packet; other materials to be distributed.
258 A (African American Literature: 1745 – Present)
MW 10:30-12:20, F 10:30-11:20
Retman
[A chronological survey of Afro-American literature in all genres from its
beginnings to the present day. Emphasizes Afro-American writing as a literary
art; the cultural and historical context of Afro-American literary expression,
and the aesthetic criteria of Afro-American literature. Offered jointly with
AFRAM 214A.]
281 A (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MW 8:30-10:20
Oenbring
oenbrr@u.washington.edu
ENGL 281, the second class in the UW’s expository writing stream, is
meant to help you sharpen the skills you acquired in your freshman writing
course: academic writing and critical reading. The class will be broken into
two sections, each leading to the production of a major essay (6-7 pages).
Using the readings as springboards for the writing prompts, this course will
investigate several conceptions of the roles that writers and readers perform
in the production and transmission of both literary and non-literary texts.
That is to say, we will ask the questions, “what exactly is a reader?” and, “What
exactly is a writer?” Starting with the traditionalist New Critical conception
of writers and readers, we will, through the reading of later Reader-Response
and postmodernist theories, attempt to problematize “intuitive” understandings
of reading and authorship. (As this course description suggests, the class
will be both theory- and reading-heavy.) Your first major paper will develop
an argument that converses with these theories of reading and authorship. Building
on the theories explored in the first half of the class, we will, in the second
half, investigate contemporary theories of hypertext reading and writing. Your
second major essay will be a genre analysis of a form of hypertext writing.
(This will also allow us to take direct advantage of the computer-integrated
classroom we will be in.) In addition to the major papers, you should expect
weekly homework assignments and/or response papers. ENGL majors only, Registration
Period 1. Texts: Joseph Williams, Style:
Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace; photocopied course packet.
281 B (Intermediate Expository Writing)
MW 12:30-2:20
Lopez
leticial@u.washington.edu
The goal of this class to help students write more effectively, knowingly,
and critically in different writing concepts—what I like to call scenes
of writing. This approach teaches students how to become more astute writers,
writers who understand how and why to make writing choices as they negotiate
among and participate in different scenes. Tips/Words of Warning: (1) I will
stray from the written schedule. There will be times, for instance, when I
think we need an additional day of instruction before your assignment is due
or I may change part of the assignment before passing it out to you. If you
are someone who requires a rigid class structure and HW/paper schedule, this
class isn't for you. (2) You will be asked to analyze film and television extensively.
If you don't have easy access to a tv/vcr and are unwilling to trek to Odegaard,
this class is not for you. Similarly, I often require students to use the internet
for a variety of multimedia assignments. If you don't have a computer and are
unwilling to trek to Odegaard on a regular basis, this class may not be for
you as well. (3) You will have to perform research on your own. This includes
going to the library in person to search for books, journal articles, etc.
on various genres of study. In addition, you will need to make time to meet
with your presentation group for at least 2-3 weeks this quarter to select
clips, go over articles, plan your presentation, etc.. If you're schedule is
completely insane this quarter, such assignments may prove overwhelming. (4)
I will take 1-2 weeks to return papers. Since I tend to write extensive commentary
on each paper, I often take longer to return papers than most. If you need
instant feedback, this delay may prove troublesome to you. (5) I have a strict
late homework, paper and portfolio policy. In addition, I will dock your participation
points for every day that you miss class or arrive late. If you have a habit
of missing class, arriving to class late, and/or not turning in assignments
on time, your grade WILL suffer. (6) On the plus side, I am probably the most
accessible prof you'll ever meet. You can e-mail, call, or meet with me in
person at any time, and you are free to drop by CLUE on the days I'm there
for additional assistance as well (which btw, you can do even if you decide
to drop this course). In short, if you need assistance, I'm available to help
you. (7) I will improve your writing, help you gain a new understanding of
genre, and ideally, realize that any topic (even the female action genre) is
rich for study. Hopefully the above will help those of you who are on the fence.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to e-mail
me (leticial@u.washington.edu). Assignments will include: daily/weekly HW assignments;
two or three 5-7 page papers with required tutor visits; extensive scholarly
research on your own; one 45-minute presentation; hour-long conference final.
Grades are based on a 400 point scale so that you can track your grade all
quarter. If you need further information, please feel free to e-mail me. ENGL
majors only, Registration Period 1. Computer-integrated section.
281 C (Intermediate Expository Writing)
TTh 9:30-11:20
S. Frey
sfrey@u.washington.edu
Spacial Stories: Writing as Wandering. This course is intended to
further develop your skills as an academic reader and writer. In this class
we will
look at
several
modes
of
writing
and art
production
in order to analyze the way they generate specific arguments (or stories)
about the world. In turn, you will generate your own arguments using writing
to explore the terrain. To ground our practices, we will be looking at several
examples of literary and visual art that deal with issues of space, cities,
home, and wandering. Our main texts will be Colson Whitehead’s The
Colossus of New York, Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities,
and Paul Auster’s
City of Glass; these will be supplemented by critical reading and
visual art available in a photocopied course packet or on reserve. Assignments
will include
two major essays (with mandatory drafts and peer review), several short responses,
and group presentations in addition to active daily participation. ENGL majors
only, Registration Period 1.
281 D (Intermediate Expository Writing)
TTh 11:30-1:20
Mondal
sharleen@u.washington.edu
This course is intended for you to further develop your skills as an academic
writers. When constructing an academic argument, one of the key issues involved
in your work is that of representation. For example, when you write about other
people, cultures, or experiences, you claim a certain degree of authority in
order to represent those things to your reader. What responsibilities are entailed
in claiming such authority? When you write, when you produce knowledge, how
is the representation that you create imbricated in larger networks of power.
In this course, we will read and write about a few works of fiction from early
twentieth-century India. India was a British colony until 1947; therefore,
issues of colonialism, imperialism, and questions of race and nation will be
a large part of our conversations. We will pay close attention to how British
and Indian authors claim narrative authority in their representations, and
we will treat with equal critical consciousness our own authorial claims when
we write literary papers which represent the experience of colonialism. We
will read three novels in the class: Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, Rabindranath
Tagore’s The Home and the World, and Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking
India.
Additional readings will be included in a course packet, and film adaptations
of all three novels will be available for viewing at the Odegaard Media Center.
ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1
282 A (Composing for the Web)
MW 8:30-10:20
Welsh
twelsh@u.washington.edu
[Introduces the writing of nonfiction narrative and expository pieces for publication
on the Web. Analysis and criticism of on-line work.] Text: Elizabeth Castro,
HTML for the World Wide Web, 5th ed.
283 A (Beginning Verse Writing)
MW 1:30-2:50
Seshadri
prseshad@u.washington.edu
This course is an introduction to the art of writing poetry, though experienced
poets should also find it useful. The student will be asked to bring his/her
own poems into class for critique by peers and also to give close readings
and critiques of peers’ poems. The focus is on writing, but in order
to become a better poet it is necessary to read widely, and so we will also
be reading and discussing many published poems. To enable effective discussions
and to give the student more poetic tools, our discussions (and poem composition
assignments) will be in the context of basic poetic elements, including but
not limited to imagery, metaphor, metonymy, syntax, diction, tone, rhythm,
and meter. Hopefully, we can also make limited but meaningful progress toward
answering some essential but complicated questions, such as “What is
poetry/” and “What makes a poem? Text: photocopied course packet
(see instructor in class).
283 B (Beginning Verse Writing)
TTh 9:30-10:50
Krieg
bk52@u.washington.edu
Some poems are written to establish once and for all which month is “cruelest.” Others
are about the color of wheelbarrows. Still others look at a city in terms of
its fur trade. And at least one poem states, “Someone has cut off my
head and punted it.” In this class we will examine wildly divergent poems,
from classic to contemporary, banal to bizarre – in order to develop
a way of discussing and understanding poetry and poetic techniques that will
be useful to us as poets. Imagery, metaphor, metonymy, sound, rhythm, meter,
tone, and wordplay will be among the techniques we will deploy in writing and
in discussing the work of others. During the quarter you will be required to
complete a series of poems, recitations, and critiques, and to participate
in class discussions. Texts: photocopied course packet, plus
texts to be available at Open
Books. See instructor in class for details.
284 A (Beginning Short Story Writing)
MW 3:30-4:50
Henson
lacejane@u.washington.edu
In this beginning short story writing class we'll be learning the basic skill
and techniques of fiction through both our own writing and published work. Text: photocopied
course packet.
284 B (Beginning Short Story Writing)
TTh 9:30-10:50
Duff
prduff@u.washington.edu
[Introduction to the theory and practice of writing the short story.] Text: Photocopied
course packet.
