Winter 1998 200-level ENGL courses

Course Descriptions (as of November 19, 1997)
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.)

200A (W) Reading Literature Daily 8:30 Hennessee	An introduction to reading and writing about literature at the college level. The course is not designed as an introduction to the English major, though prospective majors might find it rewarding. Its aim, first by a careful reading of poems, short stories, and a novel, and then by careful consideration of what students write about these works, is to make everyone aware not just of the complexity of the works, but also of how much fun and sense of growth can accompany that awareness. Not as much reading, but considerably more writing, than is usual in courses like this one. Those taking the course need not worry much about whether they have "the background" or the "writing skills" for it; what's most needed is a willingness to work hard and without fear. Texts: David Madden, ed., Pocketful of Poems; Bharati Mukherjee, The Middleman and Other Stories; Charles Johnson, The Sorcerer's Apprentice; Toni Morrison, Beloved.
200B (W) Reading Literature Daily 9:30 Cole	An introduction to reading and writing about literature at the college level. The course is not designed as an introduction to the English major, though prospective majors might find it rewarding. Its aim, first by a careful reading of poems, short stories, and a novel, and then by careful consideration of what students write about these works, is to make everyone aware not just of the complexity of the works, but also of how much fun and sense of growth can accompany that awareness. Not as much reading, but considerably more writing, than is usual in courses like this one. Those taking the course need not worry much about whether they have "the background" or the "writing skills" for it; what's most needed is a willingness to work hard and without fear. Texts: David Madden, ed., Pocketful of Poems; Bharati Mukherjee, The Middleman and Other Stories; Charles Johnson, The Sorcerer's Apprentice; Toni Morrison, Beloved.
200C (W) Reading Literature Daily 10:30 Laughlin	We will read a wide variety of texts-a lot of poetry, some "classics," as well as less familiar works-and do quite a bit of writing along the way. We'll pay special attention to the way written texts overlap and conflict with other media, especially illustration and film. Authors include Poe, Shakespeare, Blake, Nick Bantock, and many others. Texts: David Madden, A Pocketful of Poems; Edgar Allan Poe, The Gold-Bug and Other Tales; Tales of Terror and Detection; William Shakespeare, The Tempest; Nick Bantock Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence; William Blake, Favorite Works; Three Full-Color Books.
200D (W) Reading Literature Daily 1:30 Chester	An introduction to reading and writing about literature at the college level. The course is not designed as an introduction to the English major, though prospective majors might find it rewarding. Its aim, first by a careful reading of poems, short stories, and a novel, and then by careful consideration of what students write about these works, is to make everyone aware not just of the complexity of the works, but also of how much fun and sense of growth can accompany that awareness. Not as much reading, but considerably more writing, than is usual in courses like this one. Those taking te course need not worry much about whether they have "the background" or the "writing skills" for it; what's most needed is a willingness to work hard and without fear. Texts: David Madden, ed., Pocketful of Poems; Bharati Mukherjee, The Middleman and Other Stories; Charles Johnson, The Sorcerer's Apprentice; Toni Morrison, Beloved.
210A Literature of the Ancient World Daily 9:30 Lowe	This course aims to offer a representative sample of the key texts of the ancients, ranging from the Epic of Gilgamesh to some lost books of the Bible. One of the central themes of the class is Journeys, both worldly (The Odyssey, or the picaresque Latin novel The Golden Ass) and spiritual (Inanna's descent into the Underworld). The class will also stress the physicality of the ancients: that they told stories about "real people," and preferred eternal human concerns. There will be a great deal of reading in the class, and a heavy emphasis on class participation. Texts: Jackson, ed., The Epic of Gilgamesh; Aristophanes, Four Comedies (ed. Arrowsmith); Euripides, Three Tragedies (ed. Grene); Graves, The Greek Myths; Apuleius, The Golden Ass (ed. Walsh); Homer, Odyssey (tr. Lattimore); The Bible (Douay-Rheims version); Lost Books of the Bible.
211A Medieval & Renaissance Literature Daily 10:30 Alfar	*Gender and Power in English Medieval and Renaissance Literature. In this survey, we will examine a number of Medieval and Renaissance texts to study the construction of male and female gender in English drama, poetry, and romance traditions. We will examine in particular the construction of gender as it relates to power--domestic, sexual, religious, and monarchical. We will ask how Renaissance texts go about constructing men and women (in relation to one another) in various power structures in ways that may be different from Medieval texts. What are the forms of power depicted in a text such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight* and what relationship does power have to masculinity and femininity? How are this text's constructions of gender and power different from Spenser's in The Faerie Queene? Part of our task, therefore, will be to trace a development of gender and power in medieval texts and determine how writers from the Renaissance--such as Sidney, Wroth, Spenser, Marlowe, Cary, and Milton--recoup or revise (and maybe sometimes both) constructions of masculinity and femininity as they relate to the home, marriage, the church, and the monarch. Texts: Tolkein, ed., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales; Sidney, Selected Poems; Spenser, The Faerie Queene; Marlowe, Doctor Faustus; Fitzmaurice, et al., Major Women Writers of Seventeenth-Century England; Milton, Paradise Lost.
212A Literature of Enlightenment & Revolution Daily 11:30 Osell	This introductory survey course will cover a wide variety of texts (philosophy, poetry, memoirs, fiction) in order to get a broad view of 18th-century English literature and the society in which it was written. Specific attention will be paid to changing aesthetic values, the "roles" of women, and the relationship between politics--peace, war, colonialism--and national culture. The reading load will be both heavy and demanding. Instead of a long final paper, students will write short weekly papers, so as to think carefully about all the texts rather than focusing on only one. Texts: Richardson, Pamela; Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women; Equiano, Interesting Narrative; Walpole, Castle of Otranto; Pope, Poems and Prose; Gay, The Beggar's Opera; Burns, Selected Poems; Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience.
212B Literature of Enlightenment & Revolution Daily 12:30 Drake	Enlightenment and Romantic ideas about liberty, nature, and education continue to shape our thinking in profound ways. And yet the meaning of these words was vigorously contested throughout Europe and changed radically between the early 18th and early 19th centuries. The works we will be reading this term were shaped by-and in some ways shaped-deep cultural transformations and the French and American revolutions. It was a time when writers became celebrities, and books engaged in battles. We will focus on certain key concepts forming the intellectual battleground that mirrored real battlegrounds. The very words nature, reason, education, and liberty had entirely different meanings for different thinkers, and we will be exploring that range of possible meanings. Texts: Pope, Essay on Man; Voltaire, Candide; Swift, Gulliver's Travels; Johnson, Rasselas; Blake, Poetry and Designs; Wordsworth & Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads; Shelley, Frankenstein; photocopied course packet.
213A Modern & Postmodern Literature Daily 8:30 Chait	English-speaking writers of the 20th century responded to the enormous shifts in scientific, philosophical and political thought by experimenting with both literary form and content. Their experimental texts, now categorized as modern and postmodern literature, exhibited linguistic and narrative features which still dominate 20th-century fiction today. In this introductory course to some of the period's major writers, we shall follow the trajectories of intellectual and literary developments, paying particular attention to the various ways in which their intersection found expression in literary works that became the standards for the time. Texts: T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land; Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse; James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist; Nella Larsen, Passing; William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying; Charles Johnson, Middle Passage; J. M. Coetzee, Foe.
225A (W) Shakespeare Daily 12:30 Alfar	*Shakesperean Tyrannies. In this course, we will examine a number of Shakespeare's plays through the issue of tyranny: romantic, sexual, cultural, and political. In our inquiry regarding Shakespeare's treatment of tyranny we will ask questions about the subtleties required of playwrights writing under governmental censorship. What are the limits to which Shakespeare could interrogate absolute monarchies, gender and class hierarchies, and race relations? What are the ideological limits of such interrogation? We will view several contemporary films of his plays on video. There will be pop quizzes, written responses, two papers, a midterm, and a final. Texts: Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale; Romeo and Juliet; The Tempest; Merchant of Venice; Much Ado About Nothing; Antony and Cleopatra; King Lear; Macbeth; Othello; McDonald, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare*
228A English Literary Culture: To 1600 Daily 1:30 Atchley	This class will focus on English literature from its beginnings to the sixteenth century. We will read some of the major works of literature from this period and discuss them in relation to their cultural contexts in an effort to understand how political, philosophical, and religious modes of thought might have shaped these works and their creators. Texts: Hamer, A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse; Chickering, ed., Beowulf; Tolkein, ed., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo; Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (tr. Coghill); Shakespeare, Four Tragedies (ed. Bevington); Luria, ed., Middle English Lyrics.
229A English Literary Culture: 1600-1800 MW 12:30-2:20 Altieri	ENGL 229 is called "English Literary Culture, 1600-1800" which means to me Hamlet through Paradise Lost, Swift, etc., to Sam Johnson-through a revolution to a revolution, political and literary. We won't read Hamlet, though. We'll read the politically more telling Julius Caesar, some Milton, Gulliver's Travels, and an array of other things to take us to the Romantics and the French Revolution. Texts: Abrams, et al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume1; Shakespeare, Julius Caesar; Sterne, Tristram Shandy.
230A English Literary Culture: After 1800 Daily 9:30 Sparks	A broad introductory survey of English literature of the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern periods. Special emphasis will be directed to the relationships between literature and politics, and the individual and society. Requirements include a midterm, a final, and a short critical essay. Texts: Abrams, et al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2; Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre; Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust. New transfer students only, Registration Periods 1 & 2; add codes available in English Advising office, A-2-B PDL.
230B English Literary Culture: After 1800 MW 1:30-3:20 Dunn	Beginning with the Romantic revolution, itself a literary parallel to widespread cultural revolution, and continuing through times of industrial, technological, and political upheaval, this course will focus on readings which document the contemporary sense o these cultural crises and also readings which look back upon them. Text: Abrams, et al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2.
242A (W) Reading Fiction Daily 8:30 Ralston	*Fiction that Explores Identity and Community.* We will be reading a variety of 20th-century American novels and narratives that examine individuals' relationships to community, family, and history. Two longer essays required (7-10 pages). Texts: Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina; Toni Morrison, Sula; Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God; Alice Walker, The Color Purple; Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River
242B (W) Reading Fiction Daily 9:30 Frank	This course is focused around the theme "Constructing the Individual." We will read and write about texts that explore the ways in which the formation of individuality (identity, self) is shaped by some of the major cultural issues that influence both private and public life. We will examine nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts in an effort to consider some of the similarities and differences in the ways that these issues are addressed and represented in the popular fiction of these historical periods. At the same time that we explore the ways that fictional characters confront these issues, we will think about the ways in which fiction writers address these issues through our careful examination of both text and genre construction. In other words, we will consider what the text does, what fiction does, and even what we do as readers. Texts: Warhol, The Phiolosophy of Andy Warhol; Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina; Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place; Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues"; Brontë, Villette.
242C (W) Reading Fiction Daily 12:30 Klimasmith	How do individuals interact with their environments: natural, built, social, familial, cultural? How do we shape these environments-and can we ever escape our backgrounds? This course will examine how these questions operate in a broad range of fictional texts. We'll focus on novels, but read short stories and films as well. Two papers, in-class writing, frequent short assignments, much class discussion. Please do not purchase books before our first class meeting. Texts: Abraham Cahan, Yekl; Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence; Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs; Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy; Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety; photocopied course packet.
242D (W) Reading Fiction Daily 1:30 Barnett	We will focus on crafting critical interpretations of novels and short stories by piecing together textual clues. While our texts are not technically "mysteries," we will act as detectives by reading carefully and closely to gather evidence to support our interpretations. We will be looking primarily but not exclusively at 20th-century American fiction including Cane by Jean Toomer, So Far From God by Ana Castillo, Mama Day by Gloria Naylor and Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie, as well as several short stories. Expect 2 to 3 major papers and many smaller papers.
250AA-AI Introduction to American Literature Lecture: MW 10:30 Quizzes: MW 8:30, or MW 2:30, or TTh 10:30, or TTh 11:30 Wald	A survey of major themes and concerns in American literature. Texts: Henry James, Daisy Miller and Other Stories; Abraham Cahan, Yekl; Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Harriet Wilson, Our Nig. (Section AF: New transfer students only, Registration Periods 1 & 2; add codes available in English Advising office, A-2-B PDL.
257A Introduction to Asian-American Lit MW 1:30-3:20 Kuo	Introduction to Asian American literature. Texts: Wong, ed., Asian-American Literature; American Knees; Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters; Joy Kogawa, Obasan; Lely Hayslip w. Jay Wurtz, When Heaven and Earth Change Places; photocopies course packet.
258A . African American Literature: 1745-Present TTh 10:30-12:20 Moody	An introduction to the major authors and trends of African American literature with emphasis on first-person narrative and self-representation in a variety of literary forms. (Meets with AFRAM 214.) Texts: Gates & McKay, eds., Norton Anthology of African American Literature; Genevra Smitherman, Black Talk; Diana Hacher, ed., Bedford Handbook, 5th ed.
281A Intermediate Expository Writing MWF 8:30 Kupka	*Style as Substance.* Style is notoriously difficult to define. In the field of academic writing, style is too often dismissed as purely ornamental, or a sort of surface growth that can be scraped off to reveal the "real" scholarly work beneath. In an attempt to combat this attitude, we will examine the interdependence of style and meaning in a variety of texts. You will be expected to display your increasing sensitivity to the importance of style in all three of the papers you write for this course. Required materials include: course packet, required books, and a piece of academic writing completed for another course. Texts: James, The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories; DeLaclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
281B Intermediate Expository Writing MWF 9:30 Parker	There is no assigned textbook for this class since most of the written work we consider will be yours, the students'. Thus, you can expect to do a lot of writing, perhaps one or two papers per week. We will devote much of our class time to discussing your essays, so your attendance and contribution to the conversation will be important. Our goal will be to illuminate a central topic (yet to be decided) progressively over the quarter. We will use sequenced writing assignments, class discussion, and some short readings to build both our understanding of the topic and our fluency with written discourse
281C Intermediate Expository Writing MWF 10:30 Heyman	This course aims to offer students ways of defining, discussing, and writing about the complex relationship between our personal experiences and the institutions we inhabit. We will use as our test case the university, and we will take the question, "What goes on at UW?" as the jumping-off point for a series of writing projects that vary from the personal to a more analytical paper about the role of the university in contemporary society, from collaborative research to a final position paper. Readings will come from a course packet, which will be made available, and from the students' own research projects.
281D Intermediate Expository Writing MWF 11:30 Kluepfel	The aim of this course is learning to write interesting and informative compositions for readers who are "critical." Weekly writing assignments (and two longer papers) ask you to analyze social situations of your own choosing and to make use of what others (both published writers and your peers) have to say on related topics. Because your writing is the central focus of the course, you'll be sharing your compositions with your classmates to determine how readers respond to your work. You will also be learning how knowledge of grammar and rhetorical styles can help you to strengthen and polish your own writing. Texts: Joseph M. Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace; photocopied course packet.
281E Intermediate Expository Writing MW 12:30-2:20 McLaughlin (computer-integrated)	A course in writing clear, effective, and critically interesting prose. Thematically, this course will focus on connections between "work" and American identities throughout the 20th century. We will read and write about literary, social scientific, and other cultural texts to explore how ideas of work relate to gender, class, race, and nationhood. Because this course is computer-integrated, many of our discussions will take place online, in writing. However, no previous experience with computers is necessary. Weekly response papers and two longer essays will be required. Texts: Richardson, The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl; Lunsford & Connors, The Everyday Writer; photocopied course packet.
281F Intermediate Expository Writing TTh 12:30-2:20 George (computer-integrated)	*Hire Education: Writing and Corporate Culture.* Entry-level writing courses teach you to compose for academic audiences about academic subjects. This intermediate-level course shifts gears and goals-we will spend 11 weeks analyzing various views of corporate culture while learning about the kinds of writing endemic to that world of work. Becoming familiar with various verbal and visual arguments about non-academic workplaces will help us to define corporate culture, critique it, and understand its rhetoric. Smartly suited to the professional content of this course is its meeting place: the English department's computer-integrated classrooms provide state-of-the-art technology for our research, plus a workplace ambiance within which to sharpen analytical and technical skills while broadening rhetorical expertise. Course requirements include a genuine intellectual interest in the subject matter (i.e., this is not a course on composing a resumé and cover letter), readiness to read about and research the subject matter, regular class attendance, oral class participation, plus weekly writing on and off line.
281U Intermediate Expository Writing MW 7-8:50 pm Plevin	This course will offer opportunities to write from personal experience to more analytical papers, as we explore the complex and shifting relationship we have with nature, and indeed, even how we define it. As such, students will find there will be opportunities to connect their writing with other disciplines as they discuss and write about questions of "nature" and "wilderness" and how humans interact with the world beyond them.
283A Beginning Verse Writing MW 11:30-12:50 Mandaville	Everyone can write poetry. Whether or not you've written poetry before, this class introduces a variety of timeless tools and strategies to help get poems started, drafted and revised. The course also includes a heavy does of "poetry appreciation." This class is intensive, but it will not be lonely work: this quarter I hope we will enjoy reading and writing as energetic and communal-as well as solitary endeavors. Sophomores and above only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Ellman & O'Clair, Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, 2nd ed.; Korvit, In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop.
283B Beginning Verse Writing TTh 9:30-10:50 Fuhrman	[Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem.] Sophomores and above only, Registration Period 1.
284A Beginning Short Story Writing MW 10:30-11:50 Michelson	[Introduction to the theory and practice of writing the short story.] English majors only, Registration Period 1Text: Photocopied course packet.
284B Beginning Short Story Writing TTh 12:30-1:50 Dye	Introduction to the theory and practice of writing the short story. Class time will be divided equally between workshops of student work and exercises designed to sharpen writing technique in five areas crucial to short fiction: character, voice, plot, idea, and image. English majors only, Registration Period 1.Text: photocopied course packet. English majors only, Registration Period 1.

WINTER 1998 200-Level Classes

281F Intermediate Expository Writing TTh 12:30-2:20 George (computer-integrated)

WINTER 1998
200-Level Classes

281F
Intermediate Expository Writing
TTh 12:30-2:20
George (computer-integrated)