300-Level Course, Winter 2004

Course Descriptions (as of 2 January 2004)
The following course descriptions have been written by individual instructors to provide more detailed information on specific section sthan 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.)

First Week Attendance
Because of heavy demand for many English classes, students who do not attend all reguarly-scheduled meetings during the first week of the quarter may be dropped from their classes by the department. If students are unable to attend at any point during the first week, they should contact their instructors ahead of time. The Department requests that instructors make reasonable accommodations for students with legitimate reasons for being absent; HOWEVER, THE FINAL DECISION RESTS WITH THE INSTRUCTOR AND SPACE IS NOT GUARANTEED FOR ABSENT STUDENTS EVEN IF THEY CONTACT THE INSTRUCTOR IN ADVANCE. (Instructors' phone numbers and e-mail addresses can be obtained by calling the Main English Office, (206) 543-2690 or the Undergraduate Advising Office, (206) 543-2634.)

303 A History of Literary Criticism & Theory I)

MW 9:30-11:20

Handwerk/Webster
handwerk@u.washington.edu

cicero@u.washington.edu

This course is about why we read literature at all, for the texts we’ll consider tell the story of a centuries-long struggle for literature’s cultural position and authority. After all, the art of story-telling and poem making is only one cultural enterprise among many, and its defenders have tended to do what the defenders of other cultural enterprises also do: look for ways to justify both the products of their energies, and, through those products, their own lives. But both because any culture’s resources are limited, and because one set of claims may conflict with others, literature’s advocates have also often defined themselves against other arts, arguing that they, and not philosophy, or history, or oratory (for example) can best offer the culture truth, or nature, or wisdom, or pleasure. Thus while the texts we’ll read (Plato, Aristotle, Horace – for example) are indeed old, our argument throughout the course will be that these texts set out and explore an array of concepts which are still central to today’s versions of these cultural conflicts – conflicts which, removed from their historical context, now more often lead to confusion than to productive exchange. With these issues of literature’s cultural authority as our context, then, we will be asking of each of the works we read:

*What position does this work take on the question of literature’s struggle for cultural power and authority?

*Exactly how does a given work define the powers and functions of literature?

*What does each think literature can DO, positively or negatively? How extensive do they think its reach?

You may not complete the course knowing exactly why you love literature, or why it’s ok to be an English major, but you’ll sure be talking about those matters in the company of some of our culture’s most influential voices. Offered jointly with C LIT 400. Texts: Adams, Critical Theory Since Plato; Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays; Beckett, Waiting for Godot; photocopied course packet.

304 A (History of Literary Criticism & Theory II)

TTh 10:30-12:20

Staten

hstaten@u.washington.edu
This course is an introduction to the revolution in ways of thinking about literature and literary criticism that has taken place in the last few decades. Beginning with Structuralism, and followed by Post-structuralism, Deconstruction, Feminism, Queer Theory, New Historicism, and Post-Colonialism, a whole array of new “theories” has emerged. While there is a great deal of disagreement among proponents of these various approaches, all of them together constitute something of a new synthesis that is in fundamental ways opposed to the older “humanistic” criticism.

By the end of this course you should be able to understand what the preceding paragraph means.

We will not be able in the course of ten weeks to cover all of the developments described above, but we’ll do as much as possible. We will read texts by Aristotle, T.S. Eliot, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Derrida, Marx, Butler, and others. You will write an opening two page paper on Aristotle at the end of the first week, 3-4 page midterm paper, and a final paper of 4-5 pages in which you will be asked to put together some of these ideas in a coherent way. Class attendance is essential. Anyone not attending class with strict regularity is by definition not serious about this class, and will be treated accordingly. Text: Richter, The Critical Tradition; photocopied course packet.
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310 A (The Bible as Literature)

Dy 10:30

Griffith
jgriff@u.washington.edu

A rapid study of readings from both the Old and New Testaments, focusing primarily on those parts of the Bible with the most “literary” interest – narratives, poems and philosophy. Students will be expected to attend class regularly, keep up with reading assignments, and take part in open discussion. Written work will consist entirely of a series of in-class essays, done in response to study questions handed out in advance. Text: New Oxford Annotated Bible, 3rd ed.

310 TS (and 310U) (The Bible as Literature)

TTh 7-8:50 pm

Streitberger
streitwr@u.washington.edu

Introduction to the development of the religious ideas and institutions of ancient Israel, with selected readings from the Old Testament and New Testament. Emphasis on reading The Bible with literary and historical understanding. Evening Degree students only, Registration Periods 1 & 2. (NOTE: ENGL 310TS is available only to Evening Degree and non-matriculated students; for information contact UW Educational Outreach, (206) 543-2320. ENGL 310U represents spaces in this class that may be available for regularly-enrolled UW day students during Registration Period 3, the first week of classes; add codes will be required for 310U, available from the instructor.) Texts: The New Oxford Annotated Bible; Harris, Understanding the Bible.
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312 A (Jewish Literature: Biblical to Modern)

TTh 9:30-11:20

Butwin
joeyb@u.washington.edu

For simplicity’s sake let’s call this 3000 years in ten weeks. In order to reduce that already vast reduction to a few words I will list the headings of sections of the course: Jewish Literature as Jewish History; Biblical Narrative; Martyrdom and Suffering; Destruction and Exile; Exile and Yearning; Messiah and the End of Days; Hasidism and Enlightenment; Zion rejects Exile; Exile in the New World; and a section on modern apocalyptic visions of the 1930s and 1940s. In this mammoth and, I hope, exhilarating task, we will see how a common culture coheres over time and how writers are obliged by the conditions of the world to depart from that coherence. Lecture, discussion and short essays. (Meets w. SISJE 312.) Texts: Roth, Ghost Writer; photocopied course packet.

321 A (Chaucer)

MW 12:30-2:20

Vaughan
miceal@u.washington.edu

Our reading and discussion of Chaucer will begin with a few of his short lyrics and (some of) his translation of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy; most of the class will be devoted to Troilus and Criseyde and selections from The Canterbury Tales. The aims of the course will include, among other things, developing our competence in the reading and understanding of Chaucer’s Middle English. In order to go beyond the linguistic to the literary and cultural, we will compare some of the sources he drew from (and altered) for his narratives; we’ll consider a variety of critical approaches to his poetry; and we’ll examine aspects of medieval culture which contribute to a full appreciation of his complex art. Requirements for the course will include – in addition to attendance and participation in class discussions – weekly response papers, a few longer (3-5 pp.) critical papers, some translation exercises and quizzes, and a final exam. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: Nine Tales and a General Prologue (ed. Kolve & Olson); Troilus and Criseyde (ed. Shoaf); Lillian Bisson, Chaucer and the Late Medieval World.

323 A (Shakespeare to 1603)

Dy 8:30

Frey
cfrey@u.washington.edu

Study of Shakespeare’s poems and play to 1603 with emphasis upon meter, rhythm, imagery, tone, explication, interpretation, reader-response, critical issues, and student performance. All students are required to perform memorized parts in a small performance group that meets for most of the quarter (one or two days/week during class time); final performance is in last week before whole class. Also required: participation / attendance / discussion, written exercises in and out of class, in-class midterm, and two-hour, cumulative, in-class final (short-answer and essay questions). Meets five days a week (total of about 50 class meetings; participation / attendance carefully graded for both full-class and small-group meetings. A demanding course. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: Shakespeare, The Poems; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Romeo and Juliet; Twelfth Night; Hamlet; Henry V.

323 TS/U (Shakespeare to 1603)

TTh 4:30-6:20 pm

Streitberger
streitwr@u.washington.edu

Shakespeare's career as dramatist before 1603 (including Hamlet). Study of history plays, comedies, and tragedies. (NOTE: ENGL 323TS is available only to Evening Degree and non-matriculated students; for information contact UW Educational Outreach, (206) 543-2320. ENGL 323U represents spaces in this class that may be available for regularly-enrolled UW day students during Registration Period 3, the first week of classes; add codes will be required for 323U, available from the instructor.) Text: Bevington, ed., Complete Works of Shakespeare.

325 A (English Literature: The Late Renaissance)

MW 1:30-3:20

Ettari

poetboy@u.washington.edu
[A period of skepticism for some, faith for others, but intellectual upheaval generally. Poems by John Donne and the "metaphysical" school; poems and plays by Ben Jonson and other late rivals to Shakespeare; prose by Sir Francis Bacon and other writers.] Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1; Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy; William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night.

326 A (Milton)

MW 10:30-12:20

LaGuardia
ehl@u.washington.edu

Milton’s Paradise Lost preceded by major short poems, and prose. Majors only, Reg. Period 1.

328 A (English Literature: Later 18th C.)

MW 11:30-1:20

Halmi

nh2@u.washington.edu

The eighteenth century was known to Europeans as the "Enlightenment" and "Age of Reason," but before the century was over the self-conception implied by these terms had already become subject to question, even derision. This course will focus on some of the literary manifestations of the underside of the Age of Reason, such as the fascination with terror, the celebration of the primitive, the cultivation of extreme sensibility, and the expression of morbid self-reflection. Readings will include a short Gothic fiction, the exemplary Sturm-und-Drang novel, and selections from the "Graveyard Poets," the Ossianic or Rowley poems, Edmund Burke, Christopher Smart, William Cowper, Charlotte Smith, et al. Course web page. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: J. W. Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther; Horace Walpole, Castle of Otranto; photocopied course packet.

333 A (English Novel: Early & Middle 19th C.)

TTh 10:30-12:20

Lane

cgiacomi@u.washington.edu
The Country and the City. This course examines representations of country and city life in British novels from the early to mid nineteenth century. It will also cover historical trends towards urbanization and industrialization. Grading is based on a midterm, a final, papers, presentations, and participation. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South; Charles Dickens, Hard Times; Charlotte Brontë, Shirley; Jane Austen, Emma.

334 A (English Novel: Later 19th C.)

MW 11:30-1:20

E. Alexander
eaengl@u.washington.edu

This course offers a modest sampling of the rich abundance of the Victorian novel. Attention will be given to the historical and philosophical backgrounds against which the novels appeared, as well as to the lives of their authors. But the major emphasis will be on the aesthetic relation between content and form. This course offers a modest sampling of the rich abundance of the Victorian novel. Attention will be given to the historical and philosophical backgrounds against which the novels appeared, as well as to the lives of their authors. But the major emphasis will be on the aesthetic relation between content and form. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: A. Trollope, The Warden; C. Dickens, Great Expectations; G. Eliot, Middlemarch; T. Hardy, Jude the Obscure; O. Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray; J. Conrad, The Secret Agent.

336 A (English Literature: The Early Modern Period)

TTh 10:30-12:20

Kaplan
sydneyk@u.washington.edu

This class will focus on the relationship between literary modernism and social change in England during the first third of the 20th century. We will read novels by D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, Jean Rhys, and Virginia Woolf; short stories by Katherine Mansfield; and poetry by T. S.Eliot, and a number of other poets of World War I. Majors only, Reg. Period 1.
Texts: D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow; E.M. Forster, Howard’s End; Katherine Mansfield, Stories; T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; Cancace, Ward, ed., World War I British Poets; Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark.

337 A (The Modern Novel)

TTh 9:30-11:20

Popov
nikolai_popov@hotmail.com

Close readings of six modern classics, with special emphasis on artistic method and the transformation of the novel as a genre. Six short papers and a final examination. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent; Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier; James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; Franz Kafka, The Trial.

342 A (Contemporary Novel)

MW 12:30-2:20

Merola
nmerola@u.washington.edu

The Novelist as Bad Citizen: Excavating 20th-Century United States Histories with Toni Morrison and Don DeLillo. In a 1988 article on Don DeLillo’s novel Libra, conservative commentator George Will called DeLillo a literary vandal, a bad citizen, and a “bad influence.” What was Will responding to in DeLillo’s work to occasion this vehement criticism? Literary critic Frank Lentricchia provides one answer when he suggests Will’s discomfort with DeLillo reflects a distaste for writers who are “critically engaged with particular American cultural and political matters,” who “refuse to limit themselves to celebratory platitudes about the truths of the heart,” and who disregard “the sharp and deadly distinction between fiction and nonfiction.” In this course we will examine the works of two late-twentieth-century authors, Toni Morrison and Don DeLillo, under the rubric of “bad citizenship.” Over the course of the quarter we will try to determine whether or not Morrison and DeLillo are, in fact, bad citizens. We will also ask what consequences accrue when they are labeled this way. We will explore the ways both authors employ and fashion history. We will discuss postmodern literary form and historiographic metafiction. We will also, given the historical sweep of the novels under investigation, reckon with slavery, the jazz age, the Cold War, and American consumer culture, to name only a few topics. Active participation in discussion is required, as are weekly response papers, an oral presentation, and a final paper. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye; Beloved; Jazz; Paradise; Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis; Libra; Underworld.

343 A (Contemporary Poetry)

TTh 11:30-1:20

Reed
bmreed@u.washington.edu

U.S. Poetry 1945-2000. This course will offer a survey of the principle figures, trends, groups, and movements in United States poetry during the second half of the twentieth century. Relevant authors will include John Ashbery, Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Adrienne Rich. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Text: Hoover, ed., Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology.

350 A (Traditions in American Fiction)

TTh 10:30-12:20

Liu
msmliu@u.washington.edu

This course will examine how the American dream of opportunity and democracy demands individual change, sometimes at great personal cost, as a precondition to acceptance within the national culture. Taking a thematic approach, we will explore how the idea of transformation has given fire to literature ranging from Frederick Douglass’ account of his rise from slavery, to Anzia Yezierska’s account of a Jewish immigrant’s struggle for survival in the Lower East Side of the 1920s, to Philip Roth’s indictment of a late-20th-century American society turned Puritan in tone yet prurient in interest. What is it about American culture that requires radical transformation of the self? What does transformation indicate about “Americanness” and who is admitted as full and equal members within this national circle? Other texts for the quarter will include Chang-rae Lee, Toni Morrison, Forrest Carter, and the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: Chang-Rae Lee, Native Speaker; Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; Anzia Yezierska, Salome of the Tenements; Toni Morison, The Bluest Eye; Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree.

352 A (American Literature: The Early Nation)

MW 9:30-11:20

Abrams
rabrams@u.washington.edu

Conflicting visions of the national destiny and the individual identity in the early years of America's nationhood. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Margaret Fuller, Summer on the Lakes; Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; Henry Thoreau, The Portable Thoreau; Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Portable Hawthorne; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selections; Herman Melville, Moby-Dick.

353 A (American Literature: Later 19th C.)

MW 2:30-4:20

George
elgeorge@u.washington.edu

The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the glass. --Oscar Wilde

Isms and Schisms: Late-Nineteenth Century American Literature. Serious American writers of the late nineteenth century increasingly mirrored in at first realistic and then naturalistic literatures the ravaged faces, psyches and souls of disenfranchised Americans. Through these literary lens, smiles shifted to scowls, once noble behavior turned brutal, and all escapades ended in graves. Like Caliban, these writers suggested, our struggle for dignity is determined by overpowering, ruthless forces; but unlike literary tempests, they showed, our social storms never subside. Needless to stay, such harsh literary perspectives shocked a still divided republic whose readers sought solace in sentimentalized aesthetics. We’ll analyze the responses of these readers to this literature, placing ourselves as much as imaginatively possible in the personal and social circumstances of that American era. We’ll also examine our own aesthetic, our current response, to 19th-century Realism and Naturalism, in an effort to discover how and why our responses unite us with or divide us from our American heritage. Requirements include weekly reading of primary and secondary texts; thoughtful, engaged discussion; researched presentations; and critical writing, in and out of class. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume C (1865- 1914) and a variety of online texts.

354 A (American Literature: The Early Modern Period)

MW 1:30-3:20

Searle
lsearle@u.washington.edu

[Literary responses to the disillusionment after World War I, experiments in form and in new ideas of a new period. Works by such writers as Anderson, Toomer, Cather, O'Neill, Frost, Pound, Eliot, Cummings, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Stein, Hart Crane, Stevens, and Porter.] Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: William Carlos Williams, In the American Grain; T. S. Eliot, Collected Poems; Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg,Ohio; William Faulkner, Light in August; William Carlos Williams, Paterson

354 TS/U (American Literature: The Early Modern Period)

MW 7-8:50 pm

Merola
nmerola@u.washington.edu

Realism and Its Discontents. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the United States was in the midst of social, cultural, and economic upheaval. Immigration from abroad, and the movement of significant numbers of people within the country from rural tourban spaces, contributed to a changing national demographic. Explosive growth in technologies of communication and transportation linked together different regions of the country. Industrial advancements brought about the transformation of land into capital, raw materials into products, and the development of consumer culture. In this course we will explore literary realism, broadly defined, as a response, in written form, to the changing nature of America. Using this broad definition of realism means we will read novels in this class that might elsewhere be designated with the labels regionalist or naturalist. One of our tasks over the course of the quarter, then, will be to determine the benefits and drawbacks of making distinctions between realist, regionalist, and naturalist texts. Another task will be the contextualization of each novel we read. In other words, we will be concerned with understanding how the historical, cultural, and social milieux of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are reflected and refracted in the novels we read. Active participation in discussion is required, as are weekly response papers, an oral presentation, and a final paper. (NOTE: ENGL 354TS is available only to Evening Degree and non-matriculated students; for information contact UW Educational Outreach, (206) 543-2320. ENGL 354U represents spaces in this class that may be available for regularly-enrolled UW day students during Registration Period 3, the first week of classes; add codes will be required for 354U, available from the instructor.) Texts: Willa Cather, O Pioneers!; Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition; Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs; Frank Norris, McTeague; Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson and those Extraordinary Twins; Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth.

355 A (American Literature: Contemporary America)

TTh 9:30-11:20

C. Fischer
cfischer@u.washington.edu

Culture and U.S. Empire: The Novel after 1945

“ The American experience...was from the beginning founded upon the idea of ‘an imperium – a dominion state or sovereignty that would expand in population and territory and strength and power. ’ There were claims for North American territory to be fought over (with surprising success); there were native peoples to be dominated, variously exterminated, variously dislodged; and then, as the republic increased in age and hemispheric power, there were distant lands to be designated vital to American interests, to be intervened in and fought over... Curiously, though, so influential has been the discourse insisting on American specialness, altruism, and opportunity that “imperialism” as a word or ideology has turned up only rarely and recently in accounts of United States culture, politics, history. But the connection between imperial politics and culture is astonishingly direct.” -- Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism

Taking up Edward Said’s challenge to investigate how we can understand the connections between imperial politics and culture in the U.S. to be “astonishingly direct,” this course examines the relationship of the contemporary novel to the politics and culture of late twentieth century U.S. Empire. It begins by examining U.S. Empire to be in part a cultural formation that depends on the production and circulation of narratives to describe, authorize and create a will for the exercise of U.S. interventions across the globe. We will center the question of how we might read the contemporary novel in American as a powerful cultural form that may represent, support or challenge narratives of U.S. Empire. Throughout, our framework for reading literature will be historical, transnational and geopolitical. We will focus on the events of the Cold War and decolonization; U.S. wars in Asia; and the economic restructuring of the planet called globalization. We will use our reading to ask broad questions including: How can we connect the political and formal developments of the novel in the United States after 1945 to U.S. global politics? What kind of empire is the U.S.? How do international struggles abroad shape representations of American identity at home? How do the internal and global dynamics of empire-building shape culture in the U.S. as well as our understanding of class, race, gender, and sexuality? The reading list will likely include Graham Greene, The Quiet American, Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle, Theresa Cha, Dictee, Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters, Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place, and Barbara Kingsolver, Poisonwood Bible. Majors only, Reg. Period 1.

358 A (Literature of Black Americans)

MW 1:30-3:20

Moody

jmoody@u.washington.edu

This course explores the literary representation of the experiences of blacks and (or in) the UW academy from the eighteenth century through the present. Selected course readings cover a wide range of black modes of “book learning,” cultural wisdom, and practical knowledge. By focusing on learning experiences of African American trickster figures, the course attends to texts that subvert or supplant Euro-American education theories with distinctive black epistemologies. Offered: jointly with AFRAM 358. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Text: H. L. Gates, et al., eds., Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 2nd ed.

359 A (Contemporary American Indian Literature)

MW 1:30-3:20

Million

dianm@u.washington.edu
"Speaking for the sake of the land and the people means speaking for the inextricable relationship and interconnection between them." Simon Ortiz from Speaking for the Generations // Native peoples in the Pacific Northwest bring to the table a millennia-long tradition of expressive celebration integrally interwoven to life as it is known in this place. Memory and land, and the life practiced here have now informed a literature written by at least two generations of American Indian writers in this region. In this class participants will explore contemporary American Indian literature and in particular those Northwest Native American writers where this "inextricable relationship" is most apparent. The goal of this class is to bring into sharp focus the ways in which Native peoples of our region take the English language and reinvent it to infuse their own specific traditions into the meaning of "place" as we live it here; reinventing and enriching all possible meanings of the co-inheritance of our many histories in this often contested "crossroads" of the world. American Indian literature at the cusp of the twenty-first century is a literature that demands responsible action towards relations and life, human and non-human. Although many classes draw attention to diversity or the importance of a multicultural focus, this class will examine the position that a 'language which radically scrutinizes the social reality from which it rises is bound to alter the consciousness of its readership (Trujillo). How does language create rather than merely reflect our realities? What links are possible between the everyday and the "political" and how do our leaps of faith make it possible for us to grow? Guest authors, reading, lectures, discussion groups, audio and visual presentations. Personal and research writing assignments with some spontaneous writing assignments in the classroom with small group discussion. Offered: jointly with AIS 377. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Texts: Niatum, Crooked Beak of Love; Dauenhauer, Life Woven with Song; Alexie, Old Shirts and New Skins; Ortiz, Speaking for the Generations; Campbell, Women on the Run.

361 TS/U (American Political Culture: After 1865)

MW 4:30-6:20 pm

Cummings
ckate@u.washington.edu

The African-American who crosses the color line, the woman who works and lives as a man, the homosexual who looks to be heterosexual, the “born criminal” whose character cannot be read, the baseborn mimic of the well-bred, and the alien who plays at being a “true American” make up a family of passing figures. Each of them was familiar to late 19th- and early 20th-century American audiences, and their descendants are with us yet. This class is then about passing—primarily, as a different race, class, sexuality, or gender; it is also about individual and national anxieties. The anxiety particular to passing is triggered by the awareness that appearances may deceive and that underneath a “normal” or unremarkable appearance may lurk a so-called “abnormal” appetite, a “degenerate” character or “deadly” threat which the “untutored” eye cannot perceive. Hence, this class is also about concerted efforts to teach "normal” Americans what to look for or how to read. The goal of these lessons is to render cultural differences visible, to manage (i.e., discipline, subjugate or otherwise control) cultural “others” in “our” midst and thus to assure America’s cultural majority that they are safe. Our study of passing will examine a range of cultural practices: e.g., literature, science, law, politics, film, and other popular media; some of these texts feature lessons on spotting and managing cultural others, and some are pointedly critical of the selfsame practice. We’ll begin our investigation with Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, which introduces a new surveillance technology in the context of racial passing. We’ll end with a critical review of responses to 9/11/01 events and their aftermath; of particular interest in this final inquiry will be the figure of the “sleeper”—that unreadable terrorist in our midst. (NOTE: ENGL 361TS is available only to Evening Degree and non-matriculated students; for information contact UW Educational Outreach, (206) 543-2320. ENGL 361U represents spaces in this class that may be available for regularly-enrolled UW day students during Registration Period 3, the first week of classes; add codes will be required for 355U, available from the instructor.) Texts: Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson; Nella Larsen, Passing; photocopied course packet..

370A (English Language Study)

MW 1:30-3:20 S.

Browning
sbrownin@u.washington.edu

English 370 is an introduction to the study of the English language. Our focus will be on language as both systematic and social. We will examine the structures of English - from sounds to syntax, from words to texts - in order to accurately describe and analyze the language we all use. We will also question these structures and their social implications. This course will require you to think about language in new ways, and to explore the social, political, and personal power that language encodes. Majors only, Reg. Period 1.

371 A (English Syntax)

TTh 1:30-3:20

Dillon
dillon@u.washington.edu

The course provides the understanding necessary to teach English, and writing, in the schools. It focuses on the basic grammatical forms and structures of English and several approaches to describing and representing them. We will cover lexical categories (Parts of Speech), syntactic categories (such as phrases, clauses, tense, and aspect), semantic roles, grammatical relations, dependency relations and constituent structure of the sentence. By the end of the course, students will be able to describe the structure of simple, coordinate, and complex sentences in several ways. In addition, students will be able analyze the cohesion of sentences in connected text. Several on-line resources will be used. Written work will consist of two 3-4 page papers, a midterm, and final. Selected exercises from the textbooks will be part of the class preparation and participation grade. Each of these will make up about one-fifth of the final grade. Course URL: courses.washington.edu/englhtml/engl371 Prerequisite: either ENGL 370 or LING 200. Texts: James R. Hurford, Grammar: A Student's Guide; Robert D. Van Valin, An Introduction to Syntax.

381 A (Advanced Expository Writing)

MW 11:30-12:50

S. Browning
sbrownin@u.washington.edu

[Concentration on the development of prose style for experienced writers.] Majors only, Reg. Period 1.

381 B (Advanced Expository Writing)

TTh 1:30-2:50

Lane
cgiacomi@u.washington.edu

Media and Narrative. This course examines the narrative techniques used in films, television shows and websites. This is a computer-integrated course. In addition to writing papers, students will create web sites. Basic web design techniques will be covered in class. There will be evening film screenings throughout the quarter. Films will also be on reserve in Odegaard Media Center. Grading is based on papers, presentations, participation, and web design. Majors only, Reg. Period 1. Text: photocopied course packet.

383 A (Intermediate Verse Writing)

TTh 10:30-11:50

Arthur
[Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem. Further development of fundamental skills. Emphasis on revision.] Don’t buy any textbooks now, but do be prepared to spend about fifty dollars for course materials; we’ll discuss all this on the first day of class. Prerequisite: ENGL 283. ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1.

383 B (Intermediate Verse Writing)

TTh 2:30-3:50

Kenney
rk@u.washington.edu

[Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem. Further development of fundamental skills. Emphasis on revision.] Prerequisite: ENGL 283. ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1.

384 A (Intermediate Short Story Writing)

MW 9:30-10:50

Shields
dshields@u.washington.edu

An intermediate course in which students will be encouraged to deepen their command of different aspects of story craft by writing several short-short stories. Prerequisite: ENGL 284. Majors only, Registration Period 1. No texts.

384 B (Intermediate Short Story Writing)

TTh 2:30-3:50

Fitting
mfitting@u.washington.edu

This course builds on the skills and concepts you learned in ENGL 284 and explores a variety of approaches to writing fiction. We will look at both short stories and essays on writing by established writers as a way to gain insight into the fundamental questions that fiction writers face as well as the writing process itself. In addition to writing exercises, you will be responsible for two short stories, one of which you will revise as your final work of the quarter. We will devote the majority of class time to workshopping your writing, and you will be expected to provide written and oral critiques of the works of your classmates. Prerequisite: ENGL 284, ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1. Text: Charters, The Story and Its Writer, compact ed.

WINTER 2004 300-Level Courses

WINTER 2004
300-Level Courses