This class will introduce students to critical reading strategies across a variety of genres, including novels, drama, short stories, poems, film, and experimental writing.
Each of texts in this class shares a common focus on the human body. By reading, discussing, and writing about our texts, we will inquire into the representation of the body
and its connection to writing. In what ways are bodies “written”? How do we understand the body in writing? What happens when we write on a body or with a body?

Texts will include: Franz Kafka’s “The Penal Colony”, Neil La Bute’s The Shape of Things, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Sarah Hall’s The Tattoo Artist, Shelley
Jackson’s “Skin”, Doug Wright’s Quills, and the Peter Greenaway film The Pillow Book, among others.

This course satisfies the “W” requirement, which means that students will be required to produce 10-15 pages of graded writing throughout the quarter. This will take the form
of several short response papers and one final essay of roughly 10 pages in length. Other assignments may include short presentations and reading quizzes.