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Course Descriptions
(Last updated: December 13, 2005)
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.)
302 A (Critical Practice)
MW 2:30-4:20
Abrams
rabrams@u.washington.edu
The broad aim of this course is to enhance the way you can study and
write about language, literature, and culture: to introduce you to the
exploration of these subjects in a disciplined, informed way, with a
firm understanding of what is at stake when specific critical practices
are selected as your interpretative lens. Toward that larger end, this
particular course will focus, in the interest of intellectual
intensity, on one particular way in which this can all play out. In
other words, rather than sampling a multitude of critical practices in
a necessarily hasty way, we will explore, much more intensely, related
theories of literary ambiguity and how they result in specific critical
procedures for illuminating literary works. To further enable us to
work selectively and intensely, the works chosen are all American. But
the larger aim is to develop your appetite for and skill in the
deliberative, theoretically informed deployment of recognizable
critical practices in your study of literary, cultural, and linguistic
subject matter. The assumption is that the specific skills and habits
cultivated in this course – close reading of complex theory,
and elaborate study, critique, and employment of specific critical
practices endorsed by such theory – will be transferable to
other courses, and to other theoretical and critical contexts. Let me
add that theories and practices of literary ambiguity selected for this
course are in fact quite fascinating, and enable us to explore, in our
practical criticism and scholarship, such issues as how poems operate
on multiple levels of understanding, or how novels can exist at the
intersection of different cultures and antagonistic points of view.
During the course, you will be asked to keep elaborate journals recording your reading of a wide range of theoretical, critical, and literary readings, and to write essays that specifically explore literary texts according to deliberately adopted critical practices. Secondary readings will include such texts as Susan Stewart’s Nonsense, Geoffrey Harpham’s On the Grotesque, and Mikhail Bakhtin’s Rabelais and His World. Primary literary readings will include writings by Whitman, Melville, Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, Henry James, Ralph Ellison and a host of other American authors. The great majority of these readings will be available in the course pack which you will purchase at the UGL Copy Center. A few larger texts for the course will be available at the University Bookstore. ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Margaret Fuller, Summer on the Lakes; Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Portable Hawthorne; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selections; Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man; photocopied course packet.
304 A (History of Literary Theory &
Criticism II)
TTh 9:30-11:20
Cherniavsky
ec22@u.washington.edu
This course has two aims: first, to reflect on the project of
“literary criticism” as such. What function(s)
– cultural, political, social, economic – does
(has) literary criticism perform(ed)? What is
“literature” and to what extent has it (or can it)
exist independently of criticism? In the first section of the course,
we will consider the emergence of “literature” in
the 19th century from the much broader and varied domain of
“letters,” focusing on the relation between
literature, nationalism, the increasing division of public from private
life, and the ethics of capitalist accumulation. At the same time, we
will trace the emergence of literary studies as a specialized arena of
criticism. In this regard, we will pay particular attention to the
emergence of the New Criticism. Our reading in this section will also
limn some of the challenges to the Anglo-American New Criticism posed
by continental European (structuralist and post-structuralist) theory.
The first section of the course thus aims to fill in with broad strokes some of the central transformations and turning points in the historical development of “literary criticism.” Our work in the first section should help to situate the three critical practices we will consider in the remainder of the class: marxism, feminism, and post-colonial studies. We will explore some of the assumptions about culture and its reproduction that inform these practices, as well as the particular conceptualization of literary study that follows from these assumptions.
Readings will include Catherine Belsey’s Critical Practice, as well as essays and other critical writing by T.S. Eliot, Cleanth Brooks, Michel Foucault, Michael Warner, Raymond Williams, Herbert Marcuse, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Inderpal Grewal, Anne McClintock, Judith Butler, and Edward Said. We will be pursuing our critical inquiries in relation to a small sample of literary texts, including Jane Eyre and short fiction by Sarah Orne Jewett, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Herman Melville. Written assignments for the course will include two short essays (4-5 pages) and a final exam.
305 A (Theories of Imagination)
TTh 9:30-11:20
Robertson
vernr@u.washington.edu
Theories of Time. This quarter we will study the
changing ways thinkers have imagined the nature of time. Because ideas
of temporality infuse everything, we will take an interdisciplinary
approach to our inquiry and examine several attempts to speak the
nature of time from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Texts:
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition
(ed. Star); Michel Serres with Bruno Latour, Conversations
on Science, Culture, and Time; photocopied course packet.
311 A (Modern Jewish Literature in Translation)
TTh 12:30-2:20
Butwin
joeyb@u.washington.edu
This course requires the words “in translation” in
order to accommodate the many languages adopted by Jewish writers after
1880 – Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, German…. But as I
look to the content and not simply the language of these stories, I am
inclined to replace the word “translation” with
“transition,” for new writing in each of these
languages would emerge from the alteration, the migration, and the
Revolution that would transform traditional Jewish life in the shtetl
and the ghetto of Eastern Europe before its obliteration in the early
1940s. This course will reveal the vitality of this multi-lingual
Jewish culture before the Second World War. Our readings are entirely
comprised of short fiction from the Yiddish of Sholom Aleichem and I.L.
Peretz, the Hebrew of Dvora Baron, the Russian of Isaac Babel and the
German of Franz Kafka and Joseph Roth. Texts:
Dvora Baron, The First Day and Other Stories;
Isaac Babel, The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel;
Franz Kafka, The Sons; Joseph Roth, Wandering
Jews; stories by Sholom Aleichem and I. L. Peretz on
Electronic Reserve.
321 A (Chaucer)
MW 8:30-10:20
Remley
remley@u.washington.edu
This course will stress critical reading and group discussion of
Chaucer’s most highly regarded works (Troilus and Criseyde
and the Canterbury Tales) as well as a wide selection of his
“minor” compositions in both poetry and prose. We
will explore the biography of Geoffrey Chaucer, the historical and
cultural background of his career, recent critical work on his poetry,
and the Middle English language. Mid-term, final, one paper. ENGL
majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Benson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer; Stone, tr., Love
Visions; Coghill, tr., Troilus and Criseyde;
Hieatt, tr., Canterbury Tales.
323 A (Shakespeare to 1603)
TTh 9:30-11:20
Coldewey
jcjc@u.washington.edu
In this course we will be considering some of the plays Shakespeare
wrote during the first half of his career. Already they are
masterpieces, mainly comedies and histories. The plays we will be
reading include The Comedy of Errors, Richard III, Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Henry IV, Part 1, The Merchant of Venice,
Twelfth Night, and Hamlet. Maybe Measure
for Measure, too, depending on our pace. Work will include 3
short tests, 3 short papers, pasrticipation in a Great Debate, and
postings to our discussion site. ENGL majors only, Registration Period
1. Texts: Greenblatt, ed., The
Norton Shakespeare; McDonald, The Bedford
Companion to Shakespeare, 2nd ed.; optional: Tillyard,
The Elizabethan World Picture.
324 A (Shakespeare after 1603)
TTh 1:30-3:20
Coldewey
jcjc@u.washington.edu
Shakespeare wrote during the second half of his career. These are his
true masterpieces, and they include the four
“great” tragedies: Hamlet, Othello,
Macbeth¸ and King Lear. We
will be reading these, plus two of his Late Romances, The
Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.
Maybe another one, too, depending on our pace. Work will include 3
short tests, 3 short papers, participation in a Great Debate, and
postings to our discussion site. ENGL majors only, Registration Period
1. Texts: Stephen Greenblatt, ed., The
Norton Shakespeare; Russ McDonald, The Bedford
Companion to Shakespeare, 2nd ed., A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean
Tragedy.
324 B (Shakespeare to 1603) Added 11/23; sln: 9188
MW 12:30-2:20
Streitberger
streitwr@u.washington.edu
In his early career (to 1603) Shakespeare was principally a writer of
comedies and histories, in his later career (after 1603) mainly of
tragedies and romances. We’ll explore his work of the later
period with attention to the artistry in his texts-his use of language
and poetry, his ideas of dramatic construction, his understanding of
genre, his conception of gender, his idea of theater, the impact of
education on his choice and treatment of subjects, and on the history
of criticism of his work. We’ll read three of the four
so-called ‘great tragedies’—Othello,
King Lear, and Macbeth--one
of the near-great historical tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra,
one of the so-called ‘problem comedies,’ Measure
for Measure, the most imaginative and well-known of the
romances, The Tempest, and a selection of his
Sonnets. I have ordered David Bevington, ed. The Complete
Works of Shakespeare, 5th edition (Pearson-Longman: New
York., 2003). Earlier editions of this work are acceptable substitutes.
325 A (English Literature: the Late Renaissance)
MW 1:30-3:20
Olsen
elenao@u.washington.edu
Authors of the mid to late 17th century. We will focus on poetry by
writers such as Shakespeare, Sidney, Donne, and Herbert, and the course
will culminate in reading Milton's great poem, Paradise Lost.
Sub-themes will include: personal identity; women writers and women as
subjects; the church; London. Substantial reading load, short essays,
one longer essay, final exam, group presentation. ENGL majors only,
Registration Period 1. Texts: Abrams, et
al., eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature,
Vol. 1; John Milton, Paradise Lost.
327 A (English Literature: Restoration &
Early 18th C.)
MW 12:30-2:20
Lockwood
tlock@u.washington.edu
The writers and literature of England from 1660 to 1750. We will be
reading plays, prose, and poetry, chosen to illustrate the variety as
well as the creative force of the written word in this period, bringing
to life (for instance) the urban horrors of Defoe’s Journal
of the Plague Year, the aristocratic dreamworld of Pope’s Rape
of the Lock, the cheerful crooks of The
Beggar’s Opera, or the big people and little
people of Gulliver’s Travels. Major authors covered include
Dryden, Congreve, Defoe, Swift, Pope, Gay, Fielding, and Thomson, with
emphasis on careful reading for understanding and enjoyment of this
literature in its social and cultural context. Two papers with
revision, weekly one-page reading responses, mid-term, final. ENGL
majors only, Registration Period 1. Text: Norton
Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1C (Restoration & 18th
Century)
328 A (English Literature: Later 18th C.)
MW 8:30-10:20
Olsen
elenao@u.washington.edu
In this course, we will read literature of the period formerly known as
the “Age of Johnson.” It has also been known as the
“Age of Sensibility” and the
“Pre-Romantic” era. All of these titles are limited
and limiting, and we’ll examine the why and how of all of
them by reading poetry and some prose of the period. This was a time
when the idea of authorship was in flux, and undergoing changes that
led to modern conceptions of creativity and literature. Authors
include: Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Oliver Goldsmith, Ann Yearsley,
Hannah More, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Mary
Wollstonecraft. Reading load is fairly heavy. Other requirements
include short response papers, one longer essay, and a midterm and/or
final exam. ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Abrams, et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of English
Literature, Vol 1C; Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar
of Wakefield.
330 A (English Literature: The Romantic Age)
TTh 8:30-10:20
T. Feldman
tfeldman@u.washington.edu
This course focuses on British verbal and visual arts from
approximately 1780 – 1830. We will study the prints,
paintings, drawings, sculpture, and some monumental or architectural
designs of artists such as William Hogarth, William Blake, John
Flaxman, J. M. W. Turner, and others. We will also read authors such as
Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Helen Maria Williams, Charlotte Smith,
William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron,
Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John Keats. We will spend some time
considering how each of the works assigned fit (or don’t fit)
into their social and historical contexts. What characterizes different
Romantic heroes and heroines? How is a “nation”
envisioned and historicized by Romantic artists and writers? In both
Romantic aesthetic theories and poetic works, how (and why) is gender
associated with perception? What does it mean to think of a work of art
as “original?” No previous study of art required.
ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Duncan Wu, Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-ROM
(2nd ed.); David Blayney Brown, Romanticism (Art and Ideas);
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (ed.
Butler); William Blake, The Early Illuminated Books
(Vol. 3 of The Illuminated Books).
332 A (Romantic Poetry II)
MW 8:30-10:20
LaPorte
laporte@u.washington.edu
This course takes for its subject the revolutionary nature of early
nineteenth-century British poetry, and the influential critical dogmas
that arose from it. Romantic poetry and its criticism have been highly
influential in shaping modern views of the self, of nature, of
inspiration (whether religious, literary, or drug-induced), or art, of
morality, and even of the poor. But this is not to say that every
Romantic poet or critic viewed these subjects in quite the same way. On
the contrary, scholarship is continually making more vivid the rich
diversity of viewpoints that contributed to this key transformation in
the cultural history of the Anglophone world. We will study important
differences between the most enduringly celebrated figures of the
period, as well as the perspectives afforded by traditionally
marginalized figures, including a number of women poets. We will focus
upon the second-generation of British Romantic poets, and on the
following figures in particular: Byron, Shelley, Keats, L.E.L., and
Felicia Hemans. Expect to read several long poems and some contemporary
poetic theory. ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Byron: A Critical Edition of the Major Works;
Shelley, Poetry and Prose; Letitia Elizabeth
Landon, Selected Writings; John Keats, The
Complete Poems; photocopied course packet.
335 A (English Literature: the Age of Victoria)
TTh 9:30-11:20
Dalley
ldalley@u.washington.edu
Victorian Faiths and Doubts. During the Victorian
Age, there were a number of significant scientific developments that
challenged and threatened to undermine Christian understanding. The
most famous of these is, of course, Charles Darwin’s theory
of evolution. In this class, we will explore the nature of Victorian
faith and doubt, as expressed in the period’s novels and
poetry, and in Darwin’s On the Origins of Species.
We will consider how Victorian literature was influenced by (and helped
influence) scientific developments and Christian theology. Course
requirements include a midterm, a final paper, and an in-class
presentation. ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Tennyson, In Memoriam, Byatt, Angels
and Insects; Hardy, Tess of the
D’urbervilles; George Eliot, Daniel
Deronda; Darwin, On the Origin of Species.
337 A (The Modern Novel)
TTh 9:30-11:20
Burstein
jb2@u.washington.edu
While the definition of the novel seems clear, at least as a noun, what
precisely does it mean to be modern? “The Modern
Novel” seeks to acquaint students with some of the
ground-breaking literary texts of the early twentieth century. Our
primary geographic focus will be England, but we’ll take a
few passes across the Atlantic, beginning in the mid-1920s when we move
from Virginia Woolf to Anita Loos’s Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes. Hopefully this will prove startling. Failing
that, amusing. Failing that, informative. In tandem with learning that
the previous two things are sentence fragments, we will read closely,
at once focusing on the ambiguities of the texts at hand –
the sentient student will emerge from the course with a clear sense of
what it means to dissect literary language – and intertextual
comparisons. Thematic topics will include: the status of adultery and
fidelity; the relation of the artist to the artwork (and the teller to
the tale); the role of the modern woman / “The New
Woman”; as well as the pros and cons – or
limitations and liberations – of individual consciousness and
its modes of expression. (Can a consciousness be expressed? Or can it
be anything other than expressed?) ENGL majors only, Registration
Period 1. Texts: Ford Madox Ford, The
Good Soldier; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway;
D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love; Anita Loos, Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes; Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust;
James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man;
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.
338 A (Modern Poetry)
TTh 11:30-1:20
Popov
popov@u.washington.edu
This class will study, through the work of two poets, the forms and
values of modern poetry. First, we’ll focus on the emergence
of a distinctly modern poetic sensibility in Charles
Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil; in the second half,
we’ll explore the evolution of W. B. Yeats’s vision
and style, in response to the personal, national, and philosophical
crises of his time. The goal is (i) to develop a good sense of how
these two modern masters perceived themselves, their art, and the
changing world around them, and (ii) to gain insights into the origins,
aspirations, and conflicted progress of modern poetry, 1857-1939.
Requirements: commit to memory several poems (a minimum to total 100
lines), write three short response / review papers (500-700 words
each), and take a final examination/paper. There is no special
prerequisite but some background in English romanticism would be very
helpful. Please note that in addition to the two books of poems on the
reading list there will be a substantial file of materials on reserve.
ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Charles Baudelaire, Baudelaire in English; W. B.
Yeats, The Collected Works, Vol. 1: The Poems
(ed. Finneran).
339 A (English Literature: Contemporary England)
TTh 10:30-12:20
Kaplan
sydneyk@u.washington.edu
British and Irish fiction from 1970 to 2000. Novelists include Iris
Murdoch, Julian Barnes, Jeanette Winterson, Zadie Smith, and others.
ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Iris Murdoch, The Unicorn; Caryl Phillips, Crossing
the River; Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s
Parrot; Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body;
William Trevor, Felicia’s Journey;
Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha; Kazuo
Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day; Zadie Smith, White
Teeth.
339 B (English Literature:
Contemporary England)
TTh 7-8:50 pm (Evening Degree)
Taranath
(W)
anu@u.washington.edu
Modern British Literature: The Empire at Home. The
period after WWII saw a wave of immigrants who came to Britain from
formerly colonized countries, particularly from the Caribbean, India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Ghana. Since the
early 1950s, many of these immigrants have been forced to deal with
issues of race and racism, poverty, sexuality, gender, right-wing
policies, anti-immigrant sentiments, homeland cultures and customs,
etc. These negotiations are articulated through a strong genre in
British fiction as Black British authors seek to explore their cultural
dualities and ultimately create their own niche in Britain. Such
writings have created a new British experience, as well as innovative
theories of understanding culture itself. This reading-intensive course
will focus on the above issues through an examination of literature,
cultural studies theoretical texts, and films. Students who enroll in
this course must be willing to engage with the above listed and other
related issues. Texts: George
Lamming, The Emigrants; Abdulrazak Gurnah,
By the Sea; Meera Syal, Life Isn’t All
Ha Ha Hee Hee; Rukshana Ahmad, The Hope Chest; James
Procter, ed., Writing Black Britain, 1948-1998. Evening Degree students only.
342 A (Contemporary Novel)
TTh 12:30-2:20
Robertson
vernr@u.washington.edu
This quarter we will focus on very recently published contemporary
novels. Our study will include the first two offerings from the The
Myths project, a world-wide effort involving several publishing houses
in which dozens of contemporary authors, including Margaret Atwood,
Jeanette Winterson, Chinua Achebe, and A. S. Byatt, were asked to
re-write any myth from any time in the history of the world. ENGL
majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Jeanette
Winterson, Weight; Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad;
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies; Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, Memories of My Melancholy Whores; Ian
McEwan, Saturday; Salman Rushdie, Shalimar
the Clown.
350 A (Traditions in American Fiction)
MW 11:30-1:20
Dean
gnodean@u.washington.edu
American Literary Utopias. The focus of this
course is the nineteenth-century American novel, which we will examine
at the intersection of its two related utopian premises. First, we will
consider the emerging function of the novel as an articulation of
national character with respect to the utopian ideals of the United
States. Secondly, we will look at the novel as a utopian vehicle for
experimentation and critique – its variations, limitations,
and possibilities as a form. The collaboration and conflict between
these two roles for the novel continue to inform our national literary
“traditions” and political
“fictions”; thus, questions of canonicity will
fundamentally organize our investigation, particularly in terms of
gender, race, and popular culture. NOTE:
Students will be expected to read most of Cooper, The Last
of the Mohicans, before the first class meeting. ENGL majors
only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Lydia
Maria Child, Hobomok (1824); James Fenimore
Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (1826); Susan
Warner, The Wide, Wide World (1850); Nathaniel
Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (1852); Frances
Harper, Iola Leroy (1892); Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead
Wilson (1894); and supplemental readings..
352 A (American Literature: The Early Nation)
TTh 1:30-3:20
Cherniavsky
ec22@u.washington.edu
In this course, we will address a set of literary texts and the
category of “American literature” itself. In what
ways is literature written or published on U.S. soil
“American”? What has counted as “American
literature” at different historical moments and across
different cultural and institutional contexts? We will begin by
considering how issues of nationality are stake in the literary texts
themselves. Our reading will focus on selected works of early national
and antebellum literature with emphasis on the way this writing
intervenes in wider public debates on individual and corporate
identities, property, citizenship, and the limits of enfranchisement.
But we will also be asking what comprises the specifically literary
quality of this writing and how ideologies of nationhood are linked to
norms of literary value. Reading will include Susanna Rowson, Charlotte
Temple; Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland;
Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok; Fredrick Douglass, The
Heroic Slave; Harriet Wilson, Our Nig;
Frances Green, “The Slave Wife,” Herman Melville,
“Bartleby the Scrivener,” some additional short
fiction by Fanny Fern and Nathaniel Hawthorne, as well as selected
critical essays. Written work for the class will most likely consist of
two, take-home essay exams and a collaborative research project. ENGL
majors only, Registration Period 1.
353 A (American Literature: Later 19th C.)
M-Th 8:30
Griffith
jgriff@u.washington.edu
We’ll read and discuss an assortment of novels, short stories
and sketches produced by American authors in the decades following the
Civil War. Students will be expected to attend class regularly, keep up
with reading gassignments, and take part in open discussion. Written
work will consist entirely of from five to ten brief in-class essays
done in response to study questions handed out in advance. ENGL majors
only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Judith Fetterly, ed., American Women Regionalists 1850-1910;
William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham;
Kate Chopin, The Awakening and Selected Short Stories;
Frank Norris, McTeague; Stephen Crane, The
Great Short Works of Stephen Crane; Henry James, The
American; Charles Chesnutt, The Conjure Woman;
Mark Twain, The Great Short Works of Mark Twain.
355 A (American Literature:
Contemporary America)
MW 4:30-6:20 pm (Evening Degree)
Walker
{W)
codyw@u.washington.edu
This class will study some of the stronger jabs and roundhouses thrown
by American writers of the past fifty years. We’ll ask what
makes American literature distinctly American (while reserving the
right to call that a silly question, or worse). Asked by The
Paris Review in 1955 if “the search for identity
is primarily an American th Jeme,” Ralph
Ellison dropped his right hand, paused, and followed with a mock
uppercut to the interviewer’s chin before replying:
“It is the American theme.” We’ll talk
about such things. Texts: Ralph
Ellison, Invisible Man; John Berryman,
77 Dream Songs; Joan Didion, Slouching Towards
Bethlehem; Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49; Don
DeLillo, White Noise; Tony Kushner,
Angels in America. Evening Degree
students only.
358 A (Literature of Black Americans)
TTh 4:30-6:20 pm (Evening Degree)
Reddy
(W)
ccreddy@u.washington.edu
[Selected writings, novels, short stories, plays, poems by
Afro-American writers. Study of the historical and cultural context
within which they evolved. Differences between Afro-American writers
and writers of the European-American tradition. Emphasis varies.] Evening Degree students only;
offered jointly with. AFRAM 358.
359 A (Contemporary American Indian Literature)
TTh 10:30-12:20
Million
Winter is the time for telling stories and being reflective. American
Indian and Canadian First Nations writers bring to the fore a
millennial-long tradition of expressive celebration integrally
interwoven to life as we know it in this region. Memory, land, and
contemporary indigenous lives inform a literature with old and new
relations that defy the boundaries that appear to separate our Pacific
Northwest from coastal Canada and Alaska. In this class participants
explore in several Northern Native writers’ short fiction,
poetry and essay the “inextricable relationship”
that illuminates both their lives and works.For additional information,
see http://faculty.washington.edu/dianm/
Offered jointly with AIS 377A. ENGL majors only, Registration Period 1.
363 A (Literature and the Other Arts &
Disciplines)
M-F 11:30
Richard Gray
woyzeck@u.washington.edu
Freud and Modern Literature. This course examines
a set of central themes that emerge from Sigmund Freud’s
theories of the dream, the nature of literary creativity, the operation
of the human psyche, and the substance of human culture. We will take
as our starting point the hypothesis that Freud conceives the psyche as
a kind of writing machine, an “author” that
produces fictional narratives that share many properties with the prose
fiction generated by creative writers. For this reason, our focus
throughout the quarter will be restricted to prose narratives. The
course will concentrate on literature produced in the wake of
Freud’s theories, that is, on texts that consciously or
unconsciously develop Freudian ideas. The class is structured around a
set of themes that will be developed on the basis of paired readings:
in each case we will examine a text or excerpt from Freud’s
psychological works in conjunction with the reading of a literary text
that exemplifies the issue or issues highlighted in Freud’s
theory. Literary works treated include writings by Franz Kafka, Thomas
Mann, Arthur Schnitzler, Robert Musil, Ingeborg Bachmann, and others.
For further information, see course website.
Meets with GERMAN 390A, CHID 496G, C LIT 396A.
368 A (Women Writers)
TTh 2:30-4:20
Allen
callen@u.washington.edu
The Mind, the Heart, the Space Between: Women Writers and
Emotional Life. In this course we’ll read
contemporary women writers from a variety of backgrounds and with
differing emotional investments, and look at how these authors use
subtle style and careful craft to write about such emotions as fear,
anger, joy, risk, trust. We’ll also explore the intense
emotional reactions we have to some things we read, and try to
understand exactly what they are, and why we have them. We’ll
take up some provocative questions: What does it mean to
“identify” with a character, really? How much of
our own lives do we read into a character’s life? What does
it mean to “escape” into a book? Why would someone
want to do that, anyway? What does “being moved” by
something we read involve? How do we enter worlds and beliefs very
different from our own? Students will choose between writing two
shorter or one longer paper, and will give a class presentation with
others. Lively discussion, differences of opinion, and openness to
other people’s points of view will be crucial in our class
meetings. The reading list is not yet final, but probably will include
Jeanette Winterson, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Tsitsi
Dangeremba, and one or two others.
370 A (English Language Study)
TTh 10:30-12:20
Moore
cvmoore@u.washington.edu
This course introduces the systematic study of present-day English
sounds, words, sentences, and the contexts of language production.
Speakers of a language command many complex levels of structure, many
of which they are not even aware. We will look at these structural
building blocks of language and become acquainted with the fundamentals
of linguistic communication. How do people make meaningful noises? How
are words put together? How do words combine to create meaning? How
does language function in its social context? This course addresses
these questions with particular reference to English. Course work will
consist of daily homework, one short paper, a midterm and a final. Text:
Tserdanelis & Wong, eds., Language
Files: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics,
9th edition.
371 A (English Syntax)
TTh 12:30-2:20
Dillon
dillon@u.washington.edu
This 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 to analyze the cohesion of sentences in connected text. Several
on-line resources will be used. Class will include lectures, discussion
of readings, some computer lab work. 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.
Prerequisite: ENGL 370.or LING 200. Course website: http://courses.washington.edu/englhtml/engl371/.
Texts: James R. Hurford, Grammar:
A Student’s Guide; Robert D. Van Valin, An
Introduction to Syntax.
381 A (Advanced Expository Writing)
MW 1:30-3:20
Walker
codyw@u.washington.edu
Francis Bacon writes, “Reading maketh a full man, conference
a ready man, and writing an exact man.” We’ll
endeavor in this class to be full, ready, and exact, as we study and
discuss exemplary prose stylists, past and present. Much of what we
read will provide direction for our own writing (expect memoirs, arts
reviews, cultural commentary, and more). Required texts include The
Art of the Personal Essay (Phillip Lopate, ed.), The
Art of Fact (Keven Kerrane and Ben Yagoda, eds.. The
New Yorker magazine (which you can buy off the stand for
$3.95 an issue, or obtain through a student-discounted subscription for
$.48 an issue), and a course packet (featuring among others, H. L.
Mencken, A. J. Liebling, George Orwell, Joan Didion, Lorrie Moore,
David Foster Wallace, and Anthony Lane). ENGL majors only, Registration
Period 1.
383 A (The Craft of Verse)
MW 3:30-4:50
Shoemaker
shoefits@u.washington.edu
Further exploration of the craft of verse by writing poems generated
through in-class and at-home writing exercises, imitation and
emulation, class discussion, and other poetry-inducing activities.
We’ll also read and discuss plenty of contemporary poetry and
some essays about writing, too. Prerequisites: ENGL 283 and 284.
(Students who have not taken both prerequisites should see an English
adviser in A-2B Padelford.) Text: photocopied
course packet.
383 B (The Craft of Verse)
TTh 11:30-12:50
Saloy
saloy1@u.washington.edu
In this advanced poetry writing course, students will build on basics
studied by learning and producing more difficult forms for practice,
investigate the life and work of a writer, and aim at developing a
strong sense of voice. Prerequisites: ENGL 283 and 284. (Students who
have not taken both prerequisites should see an English adviser in A-2B
Padelford.) Texts: Harmon, Holman,
& Thrall, eds., eds., Handbook to Literature,
10th ed.; Finch & Varnes, eds., An Exaltation of
Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art.
(Students who have not taken both prerequisites should see an English
adviser in A-2B Padelford.)
384 A (The Craft of Fiction)
MW 3:30-4:50
Johnson
chasjohn@u.washington.edu
[Intensive study of various aspects of the craft of fiction or creative
nonfiction. Readings in contemporary prose and writing using emulation
and imitation. Prerequisites: ENGL 283 and 284.] (Students who have not
taken both prerequisites should see an English adviser in A-2B
Padelford.) Texts: John Gardner, The
Art of Fiction; Northrup Frye, The Educated
Imagination; Julie Checkoway, Creating Fiction;
D. G. Myers, The Elephants Teach: Creative Writing Since 1880;
Nicholas Delbanco, The Sincerest Form: Writing Fiction by
Imitation; Paul Mendelbaum, ed., Twelve Short
Stories and Their Making.
384 B (The Craft of Prose)
TTh 10:30-11:50
J. Cooper
jrcooper@u.washington.edu
[Intensive study of various aspects of the craft of fiction or creative
nonfiction. Readings in contemporary prose and writing using emulation
and imitation. Prerequisites: ENGL 283 and 284.] (Students who have not
taken both prerequisites should see an English adviser in A-2B
Padelford.)
