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(Descriptions last updated 12 June 2003)
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.
English classes, 300-level and above, require instructor permission for registration during Registration Period 3 (beginning the first day of classes). If students have not registered for a class prior to the first day, they should attend the first class meeting and/or contact the instructor to obtain the necessary add codes. Some creative writing classes require add codes for registration: see below, or contact the Creative Writing office, B-25 Padelford, (206) 543-9865.
Admission to 400-level creative writing classes is by instructor permission only. To obtain add codes, students will be asked to fill out a brief questionnaire, provide an unofficial copy of their UW transcripts, and submit a writing sample. The questionnaire contains more specific information, and can be obtained at either the Creative Writing office (B-25 Padelford, open 11-3 daily, (206) 543-9865) or the English Advising office (A-2-B Padelford).
ENGL 497 (Honors Senior Seminar) and ENGL 498 (Senior Seminar) are joint-listed courses; students choose which number to sign up for depending on their individual status. ENGL 497 is restricted to senior honors English majors taking the additional senior seminar required for the departmental honors program. Add codes for ENGL 497 are available in the English Advising office, A-2B Padelford. All other senior English majors should sign up for ENGL 498. Neither ENGL 497 nor ENGL 498 can be taken more than once for credit.
Because of heavy demand for many English classes, students who do not attend all regularly-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. Mailto e-mail links are also included in the descriptions on this page.)
Students not previously admitted to the University of Washington (nonmatriculated status) may enroll in ENGL 111, 121, 131, 281, 381, 471, or 481 only if they have met the following ESL requirements: a score of at least 580 on the TOEFL (237 on the computer-based TOEFL), or one of these equivalent scores: 90 on the MTELP, 410 on the SAT-Verbal, 490 on the SAT-Verbal (recentered), or 20 on the ACT English. For more information, consult an English adviser in A-2-B Padelford, (206) 543-2634, engladv@u.washington.edu.
104 (Introductory Composition)
M-Th 12:00
[Development of writing skills: sentence
strategies and paragraph structures. Expository, critical,
and persuasive essay techniques based on analysis of selected
readings. For Educational Opportunity Program students
only, upon recommendation by the Office of Minority Affairs.]
111 (Composition: Literature)
2 sections: TTh 9:40-11:40; M-Th
12:00
[Study and practice of good writing:
topics derived from reading and discussing stories, poems,
essays, and plays.] Students not previously enrolled at the
University of Washington (non-matriculated status) may sign
up for this course if they meet the posted ESL requirements.
131 (Composition: Exposition)
6 sections: M-Th 8:30; M-Th
9:40; M-Th 10:50; M-Th 12:00; MW 1:10-3:10
[Study and practice of good writing;
topics derived from a variety of personal, academic, and
public subjects.] Students not previously enrolled at the University
of Washington (non-matriculated status) may sign up for this
course if they meet the posted ESL requirements.
200aA (Reading Literature)
M-Th 8:30-10:40
Gillis-Bridges
(W)
(A-term)
kgb@u.washington.edu
Literature of the Harlem
Renaissance. Focusing on the writers of the
Harlem Renaissance, students will learn how to develop complex
interpretations of literary texts, interpretations that address
the work’s language and form as well as the context surround
its production. ENGL 200 is computer-integrated; students will
use the computer as a communication and textual study tool.
However, technical savvy is not a course prerequisite. Students
will receive instruction in all technical tools used in the classroom.
Course web site: http://faculty.washington.edu/kgb/harlem/
Texts: Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes
Were Watching God; Nella Larsen, Quicksand; David
Levering Lewis, ed., The Portable Harlem Renaissance
Reader; CIC Student Guide; photocopied course
packet.
200aB (Reading Literature)
M-Th 9:40-11:50
O'Neill
(W)
(A-term)
joneill@u.washington.edu
We will read works from a variety of genres to
develop interpretive skills based on a close attention to textual
detail and an appreciation of context. Critical thinking
and analytical writing are the means and end of the course.
Participation, presentations, and writing are required. Texts:
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Muller, Ways
In; Zadie Smith, White Teeth; Shakespeare, Othello;
Melville, Melville’s Short Novels.
200 C (Reading Literature)
MW 9:40-11:50
Oldham
(W)
daviso2@u.washington.edu
Exile and Wandering. In
this class we’ll read three wildly different novels that
have in common an interest in the experience of exile – political,
social and/or moral exile from one’s community and the wandering,
physical or spiritual, that results. As we do so we’ll
ask some basic questions about how literature works and adopt some
tools that have been developed over the centuries for answering those
questions. The purpose of the class is to introduce the study
of literature as an academic discipline. We’ll consider formal
elements, social and historical context and the way that literature
speaks to us as individuals and as members of society. Participation
is key to the success of this class: be prepared to discuss
every day, or don’t take the class. Three papers are also
required, with optional revisions. Texts: Hoban,
Riddley Walker; Silko, Ceremony; Galeano,
The Book of Embraces.
200 D (Reading Literature)
TTh 9:40-11:50
Byron
(W)
msb27@u.washington.edu
Writing and Reading Alternate Worlds. On a general
level, all literature involves an alternative to lived reality
– this is a powerful motive for writing and reading literature.
This course seeks to ask: what might drive a writer to construct
an especially radical fictionality, an entirely alternate world?
This course will explore several texts, from the Renaissance
to the contemporary, to try to find possible ways of reading these
different (and yet still familiar) worlds. By analyzing different
genres – drama, novel, memoir, film – we will attempt to formulate
motivations (political, social, psychological, gender) for creating,
and reading, such challenging texts. (Additional to the
list below, we will look at a selection of surrealist films by Luis
Bunuel and Jean Cocteau.) For course syllabus, see http://faculty.washington.edu/msb27/200D_Admin.html Texts:
Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World and Other Writings;
Shakespeare, The Tempest; Samuel Johnson, The
History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia; Virginia Woolf,
Orlando: A Biography; Peter Carey, The Unusual
Life of Tristan Smith.
207 A (Introduction to Cultural Studies)
MW 12:00-2:10
Elkington
telkingt@u.washington.edu
Added 15 April; sln: 4405
Technology and Culture.
How are our lives affected by technology? How many facets
of our existence are dependent upon machines, often machines that
are beyond our comprehension? How does technology affect culture,
and how does culture determine technology? The food we eat,
the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the computers we use every
day, all rely upon complicated machinery and technological sophistication
unthinkable even decades ago. Yet they become the background
to our quotidian lives, and their impact from and upon culture becomes
almost invisible. This course foregrounds the roles of technology
and machinery in society, highlighting our prevalent attitudes and
anxieties by looking at a variety of cultural artifacts across various
media. In doing so, we will simultaneously explore the concept
of “cultural studies”: what it means, what it shares with other
critical paradigms or disciplines, and how it differs. The course
is divided into three roughly equal thematic sections that look successively
at texts that take a positive, negative, or integrative stance toward
technology, demonstrating overlapping attitudes that exist across
lines of era, class and ideology. In addition to texts such as
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and White Noise,
students will be asked to watch several films including Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times,
Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera,
Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker, and performance art works by
Survival Research Laboratories and Orlan, among others. Assignments will
include response papers, two exams, and a final essay.
212 A (Literature of Enlightenment & Revolution)
TTh 9:40-11:50
Lawshe
lawshe@u.washington.edu
This course will present five English novels in the context of
important themes in 18th- and 19th-century cultural, intellectual,
and political history: Defoe, Moll Flanders (realism and the
novel, middle class, Puritanism, didacticism); Sterne, Tristram Shandy
(Enlightenment, rationalism, empiricism, sentimentalism); Mary Shelley,
Frankenstein (Romanticism, science, gender – the “women question”);
Dickens, Tale of Two Cities (historical fiction, revolution,
class); Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (aestheticism, “the
modern,” sexuality, morality). Grading will be based on participation,
reading quizzes, four short essays, in-class midterm and final exams,
and a final 6- to 10-page essay.
213 A (Modern & Postmodern
Literature)
MW 10:50-1:00
Mandaville
amandavi@u.washington.edu
The 20th Century From the Margins.
We will think about the questions “What is Modernism?”, “What is
Postmodernism?”, “What comes after Postmodernism?”, and “Why do these
categories matter?” from the position of authors writing from a
marginal relation to the mainstream of literature. This means that,
in addition to a couple of the more commonly read 20th-century texts,
we will primarily read poetry and fiction written by women, writers
of color, sexual minorities, postcolonial writers, and some who are
all of these. Class time will be focused on gaining historical
context, critical reading strategies, a basic introduction to literary
theory, and entertaining themes of common interest to class members.
Authors we read may include Hughes, Brooks, Eliot, Stein, Woolf, H.D.,
Isherwood, Ellison, Cha, Horrocks, Russ, Morrison. Assignments will
include weekly response papers/discussion questions, a creative piece and
presentation, a mid-term and a (multi-draft) essay. Daily participation
in class is essential. Texts: Ralph Ellison, Invisible
Man; Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha; Dylan Horrocks, Hicksville;
Langston Hughes, Collected Poems; Virginia Woolf, To the
Lighthouse; Teresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee; Toni Morrison, The
Bluest Eye; Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons; Christopher
Isherwood, The Berlin Stories; Joanna Russ, The Female
Man.
213 B (Modern & Postmodern
Literature)
TTh 8:30-10:40
Whitmire
whitmire@u.washington.edu
[Introduction to twentieth-century
literature from a broadly cultural point of view, focusing
on representative works that illustrate literary and intellectual
developments since 1900.] Texts: Virginia Woolf,
Mrs. Dalloway; Aldous Huxley, Brave New World; N. Scott Momaday,
House Made of Dawn; Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried;
Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy: City of Glass; Ghosts; The Locked
Room; Ruth Ozeki, My Year of Meats.
225 A (Shakespeare)
Dy 10:50
Fogerty
(W)
hfogerty@u.washington.edu
In this course we will examine Shakespeare’s
career as a dramatist; importantly this means that in addition
to learning how to be astute readers of Shakespeare, we will
be focusing on his works as performance texts intended for actors
and a stage. We will address the plays not as classics
to be revered, but as scripts to be performed. Students
will be required to perform in class – in order to do well in this
class you must be willing to participate fully and enthusiastically
(participation is required, acting talent is not). Students
will write papers weekly, there will be both a mid-term and a
final, and there will be both individual and group presentations/performances.
Though this will be quite a demanding course, I also believe it
will be a highly enjoyable one. Texts: Shakespeare,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Tempest; Titus Andronicus;
Hamlet; photocopied course packet.
229 A (English Literary Culture:
1600-1800)
Dy 9:40
Keeling
bkeeling@u.washington.edu
Critics and historians of British literature
from 1600 through 1800 have broken this 200-year period
into at least six different “ages”: the Jacobean Age, the Caroline
Age, the Commonwealth, the Restoration Age, the Augustan Age,
and the Age of [Samuel] Johnson. In our coverage of this
literature written over the span of these years, we will read two
playwrights, three poets, and four novelists, and, dispersed
among them weekly, brief excerpts from several essayists.
In doing so, we will, at least in some way, “cover the ground”
in each of these “ages.” My goal is that we will conclude
the quarter with a greater appreciation for and understanding
of the diverse and rich literature written during these years
of political and cultural change and upheaval – change and upheaval
that continue to resonate with us today. Texts: Christopher
Marlowe, Edward II; Aphra Behn, The Rover; John
Donne, John Donne [Poetry]; John Milton, John Milton
[Poetry]; Alexander Pope, Alexander Pope [Poetry]; Mary
Wollstonecraft, Vindications: The Rights of Men and the
Rights of Women; Eliza Haywood, Love in Excess: Or, the Fatal
Enquiry; Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto; William
Beckford, Vathek: With the Episode of Vather; Jane Austen,
Northanger Abbey.
242aA (Reading Fiction)
M-Th 9:40-11:50
Grooters
(W)
(A-term)
grooters@u.washington.edu
Reading Jane Eyre. Ever
since Charlotte Brontë first published Jane Eyre in 1857, artists
and authors have been “reading” her novel through their own poetry, fiction,
films, plays, illustrations, and literary criticism. In this course
students will engage with a number of these readings – as well as their
own reading of Jane Eyre – as we investigate what it means to “read fiction.”
As this is a “W” course, students will also consider the role writing plays
in their reading practices. Coursework will include daily reading
and writing assignments, class presentations, short paper, midterm, and final.
Texts: Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair; Charlotte Bronte,
Jane Eyre; Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea; photocopied course
packet.
242 B (Reading Fiction)
MW 12:00-2:10
Itano
(W)
ditano@u.washington.edu
American Fictions. In this class
we will both read American fiction and examine the fictions (and/or
realities) of the term American. Specifically, we will
read mostly 20th-century American fiction (with a short foray into
the 19th century) and deal with questions of American identity
– what is the “American,” and is the “American” different from the
“American citizen?” How do issues relating to land/place,
class, race, and gender affect our definitions and understandings
of “Americanness?” On another level, we will not only read
and respond to texts, but will also try to learn something about how
we do so. To this end we will read about different approaches
to literature, and students will be asked to both define and expand their
reading practices. Texts: Baym, ed., Norton Anthology
of American Literature, Vol. E; Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead
Wilson; Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird; Gish Jen,
Typical American; Bresslee, ed., Literary Criticism.
250 A (Introduction to American
Literature)
Dy 9:40
Wallace
emwal@u.washington.edu
American Natures. American has been described as “nature’s
nation,” a country in which national character, and, importantly,
for our purposes, national literature, are shaped by natural
landscape. From William Bradford’s “hideous and desolate
wilderness,” to Henry David Thoreau’s pastoral Walden Pond,
from Katherine Lee Bates’ “purple mountain majesties,” to Don
DeLillo’s toxic sunsets, American literature teems with nature imagery,
providing ample opportunity for a study of literature and environment
in the U.S. context. This course will be a variation on this
theme. Though we will read a few of the standard texts of
American nature writing, our primary concern will be to trace the
uses to which “nature” is put, both in figuring the natural world,
and in understanding the “nature” of Americans. Considering
“nature” as a concept that not only refers to the nonhman landscape,
but also opposes culture, nurture, and artifice, we will ask: What
is considered “natural” and what “unnatural” for Americans?
Does this change based on categories of race, gender, class, or sexuality?
How is nature used as a political category? Who is described
as “closer to nature,” who “against nature,” and who simply “of a different
nature”? And how does the way in which external, nonhuman “nature”
is represented reflect and influence the ways in which “human nature”
is described in America? Texts: Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead
Wilson; Jack London, The Call of the Wild; Nella Larsen,
Quicksand & Passing; Ruth Ozeki, My Year of
Meats.
250 B (Introduction to American
Literature)
TTh 12:00-2:10
Chin
jchin@u.washington.edu
This course examines the trope of American belonging in select
works of literature. Most works will address themes of race and
gender. We will begin with works from authors of the early
antebellum period, including pieces by Jefferson and Crevecoeur, and
David Walker's Appeal. Then we jump ahead to the turn of the 20th
century and engage with questions of race and nation. Works will
include Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson; short pieces by Jack London;
and Sui Sin Far, Mrs. Spring Fragrance. Next we will examine
racial themes in two modernist novels: Nella Larsen, Passing;
and Younghill Kang, East Goes West. Then we will explore
literary engagements with alienation in Asian America in the post-World
War II years with Hisaye Yamamoto, Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories;
Peter Bacho, Dark Blue Suit; and Fae Myenne Ng, Bone.
The course concludes with three recent works of various genres: Stephen
Sondheim's musical drama Assassins; Chuck Palahniuk's satirical novel
Survivor; and Leonard Chang's mystery novel Over the Shoulder.
The course will be conducted with discussions and class presentations.
Students will have the opportunity to lead class discussion. Please
note: Students are responsible for reading all assigned works. Some
texts have explicit language, mature subjects, and potentially “unpatriotic”
themes. Students who are not prepared to engage with all materials
will have difficulty with the course itself and may prefer not to enroll
in this section. In addition to the heavy reading load, course requirements
include but are not limited to outside research for class presentations
of critical commentary, a summary of this research, several short response
papers (2 pages), one longer term paper (8 pages), and a final essay exam.
Grades will be based on class participation and quality of written assignments.
Texts: Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson; Kang, East
Goes West; Yamamoto, Seventeen Syllables & Other Stories;
Ng, Bone; Sondheim, Assassins; Palahniuk, Survivor;
Far, Mrs. Spring Fragrance & Other Writings; Larsen, Quicksand
and Passing; Walker, Walker’s Appeal and Garnet’s Address.
281aA (Intermediate Expository
Writing)
M-Th 10:50-12:30
Butwin
(A-term)
joeyb@u.washington.edu
Liars, Scoundrels, Wicked People and Good
Prose. A Presidential script writer tells us that George
W. Bush added “Evil” to the famous “axis” speech in the place of
a more neutral albeit negative term. The word simply will not stay
put in Medieval allegories or Puritanical harangues. We might
as well polish up our understanding of bad behavior while we sharpen
our writing skills. I’m thinking about pens and swords, and we will
focus our pen-play around several black-and-white movies (with few
shades of gray) and essays on related topics. Writing will take
the form of weekly essays and revisions done at home and workshop writing
and critical reading in the classroom. Bring pen, pencil and paper.
And be good. Text: photocopied course packet. No
auditors. Students not previously enrolled at the University
of Washington (non-matriculated status) may sign up for this course
if they meet the posted ESL requirements.
281bB (Intermediate Expository Writing)
M-Th 8:30-10:00
Tollefson
(B-term)
tollefso@u.washington.edu
[Writing papers communicating information
and opinion to develop accurate, competent, and effective
expression.] Text: James Crawford, ed., Language
Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English Controversy.
No auditors. Students not previously enrolled
at the University of Washington (non-matriculated status) may sign
up for this course if they meet the posted ESL requirements.
281 C (Intermediate Expository
Writing)
MW 12:00-1:30
Dillon
dillon@u.washington.edu
Writing for the Web. How to
write informative and persuasive web pages. Lecture-presentation
format plus lab applications. Always meets in lab.
Familiarity with Windows environment and Uniform Access (“Dante”)
accounts (Unix environment) is recommended preparation for course.
Assignments will include creation of group and individual web sites.
Additional information and mini-tour on http://courses.washington.edu/hypertxt/engl281.
No auditors. Texts: Musciano & Kennedy, HTML
and XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 5th ed.; Lynch and Horton,
Web Style Guide, 2nd ed. No auditors. Students
not previously enrolled at the University of Washington (non-matriculated
status) may sign up for this course if they meet the posted
ESL requirements.
281 D (Intermediate Expository Writing)
TTh 10:50-12:30
McDonald
moonrose@u.washington.edu
A sports writer from the 1950s once
said: “I hate writing. I love having written.” This sentiment
is often shared by student writers who are navigating different
kinds of writing in academia. Why do we write in the first place—what
effects do written texts have in the world of the academy, the
professions, and our personal/cultural lives? This course will
investigate forms of writing and the implications behind them. We
will look at the disciplinary expectations that your particular career
path demands and how to make your writing matter. We’ll explore practices
of rhetoric itself and how to make meaning with words. You will write
in multiple genres (electronic discussion, summaries, parodies, argumentative
essays, etc.) and often reflect on the consequences of these particular
conventions. There will be a number of short assignments in addition
to two longer papers and a collaborative assignment. No
auditors. Text: photocopied course packet. Students
not previously enrolled at the University of Washington (non-matriculated
status) may sign up for this course if they meet the posted ESL requirements.
283 A (Beginning Verse Writing)
MW 8:30-10:00
Larios
jalarios@u.washington.edu
This course will take as its guiding
principle what poet Richard Kenney calls “rigorous insouciance”
– that is, the demand that we work hard at playing. Primary
to our success will be a common delight in the English language
at its most essential level, that of sound and rhythm, a quality
Ezra Pound called “melopoeia.” To open out the focus, we’ll
look at the other –poeias: phanopoeia (the effect of images upon
the imagination) and logopoeia (the effect of intellect).
Still, we’ll always come back to the base-line pleasures of sound.
Students will contribute one poem a week – some as free-writes,
some as responses to assignments. Since this is a workshop
course, we’ll devise good methods and manners for “workshopping” student
poems. Some memorization will be required, and students will keep daily
logs having nothing at all to do with Deep Thoughts and everything
to do with Surface Observations. Short presentations will
be scheduled based on readings from a course packet prepared by the
instructor. Please come to the first class with two poems: one
of your own, and one not your own but well-loved. Extra points
if the latter employs formal tools like rhyme, meter, and form, and
even more points if you have that poem memorized and ready to share with
the rest of us. No auditors. Texts: Seamus Heaney
& Ted Hughes, Rattle Bag; photocopied course packet.
284 A (Beginning Short Story Writing)
TTh 8:30-10:00
Shields
dshields@davidshields.com
Reading and writing short stories,
with emphasis on short exercises. No auditors.
Text: photocopied course packet.
284aB (Beginning Short Story
Writing)
M-Th 10:50-12:20
Wong
(A-term)
homebase@u.washington.edu
Introduction to the theory and practice
of writing the short story. No auditors. Text:
Tom Bailey, A Short Story Writer's Companion.
284 C (Beginning Short Story Writing)
MW 10:50-12:20
Sherman
iansage@u.washington.edu
This course introduces and provides
practice in the elements of short literary fiction, including
(but not limited to) imagery, characterization, setting,
plot, etc. In-class assignments will consist of the
discussion of contemporary short stories in terms of craft,
short writing exercises, and workshopping of student pieces.
No auditors. Text: photocopied course packet.
310 A (The Bible as Literature)
Dy 8:30
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: Coogan, ed., New Oxford
Annotated Bible, 3rd ed.
315aTS/U (Literary Modernism)
M-Th 6:00-8:10 pm
Staten
(A-term)
hstaten@u.washington.edu
[Various modern authors, from Wordsworth
to the present, in relation to such major thinkers as Kant,
Hegel, Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Bergson, and Wittgenstein, who
have helped create the context and the content of modern literature.
Recommended: ENGL 230 or one 300-level course in 19th or 20th century
literature.] Meets w. C LIT 396TS/U. Texts: Eliot,
Selected Poems; Kafka, Metamorphosis; Mann, Death
in Venice; Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; Gide, The Counterfeiters.
(NOTE: ENGL 315 TS is available only
to Evening Degree and non-matriculated students; for information
contact UW Educational Outreach, (206) 543-2320. ENGL
315 U 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 315U, available from the instructor.)
321aA (Chaucer)
M-Th 9:40-11:50
Coldewey
(A-term)
jcjc@u.washington.edu
[Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and
other poetry, with attention to Chaucer's social, historical,
and intellectual milieu.] Texts: Chaucer, The Riverside
Chaucer (ed. Benson); Boitani & Maum, eds., The Cambridge
Chaucer Companion; Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love;
Meisel & Del Mastro, tr., The Rule of St. Benedict.
323bA (Shakespeare to 1600)
M-Th 9:40-11:50
Streitberger
(B-term)
streitwr@u.washingtone.edu
Shakespeare's career as dramatist before
1603 (including Hamlet). Study of history plays,
comedies, and tragedies.
Text: Bevington, ed., The
Complete Works of Shakespeare.
324 U (Shakespeare after 1600)
MW 6:00-8:10 pm
C. Fischer
cfischer@u.washington.edu
While not all of the plays we'll be considering in this
class fall after the death of Elizabeth, they are close enough in
time and theme to qualify as "mature" Shakespeare. This summer
we will be examining the nature of this maturity, questioning the
dramatist's obsession with human frailty, and its capacity to deceive
itself in matters of love, sex, marriage, war, old age and death. Course
requirements include a willingness to participate in class discussion,
one longish paper and an exam. Texts: Shakespeare,
Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure, King Lear, The
Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra.
335aA (English Literature: The
Age of Victoria)
M-Th 8:30-10:40
Butwin
(A-term)
joeyb@u.washington.edu
What, apart from size, distinguishes England
in the 19th century from the United States in the 20th and 21st?
(Britain, though a tiny island, commanded a much grander imperial
span.) A military and industrial superpower is vulnerable,
precisely because of its prominence, to certain penalties at home
and abroad. Afghanistan presented a particular problem in both
cases. Military power includes its own risks; so does industrial
power. Pollution and poverty seemed to be the natural companions
of production and prosperity. I could go on and will, indeed,
do so this summer when we subject major texts written (drawn and
constructed – insofar as we will include painting and architecture)
in Victorian England to critical study. Comparisons of the
kind implied by this paragraph will emerge from short lectures and
longer discussions, frequent short essays and one term paper.
Apart from the two novels listed below, all readings – mostly essays
and poetry - - will be included in a course packet. Texts:
Charles Dickens, Hard Times; Thomas Hardy, Tess of the
D’Urbervilles; photocopied course packet.
337aA (The Modern Novel)
M-Th 8:30-10:40
George
(A-term)
elgeorge@u.washington.edu
Black, White, and Colored – Pleasantville
and the Modernist Experience. This multi-media,
intensive course (5 weeks) will focus on defining literary and
cultural Modernism, first through the critical study of the film
Pleasantville, and then through three novels alluded to in
that film: D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928),
J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951), and Harper
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). We will analyze
what is “modern” about the themes and formats of each text, but just
as well we will consider why each was not – and is not – always openly
embraced by a variety of viewing and reading audiences. Specifically,
we will pose these questions: (1) Why did the novels so shock their contemporary
readers and continue to upset others as time went by? (2) What
did their receptions have to do with the cultural anxieties portrayed
in the film Pleasantville? (3) Do these same anxieties
continue in “Postmodern” society? Course requirements include
a sincere interest in exploring these questions via primary reading and
secondary research, daily and engaged course attendance (this is an 8:30
a.m. class), discussion, individual and group reports, and a final examination.
Texts: R. B. Kershner, The Twentieth-Century Novel:
An Introduction; Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Salinger,
The Catcher in the Rye; Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird.
345aA (Studies in Film)
M-Th 12:00-2:10
Gillis-Bridges
(A-term)
kgb@u.washington.edu
This course examines the work of female
directors from the silent to the contemporary era, concentrating
on the work of filmmakers from the U.S., Germany, and France.
Throughout the quarter, we will address the following questions:
What, if anything, unites the work of women directors? Are
there particular stylistic or narrative strategies that characterize
films directed by women? How does an investigation of women
directors change our conception of film history? How does
feminist film criticism help us to interpret films made by women?
What challenges do particular directors pose to critics? How
do historical, cultural, and industrial factors shape the work of
women directors? As we explore these questions, we will discuss
films made both within and outside the mainstream film industry.
We will also hone our critical skills by analyzing how directors
structure their films’ narrative and visual styles. Course
web site: http://faculty.washington.edu/kgb/345/
Texts: Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies,
9th ed.; photocopied course packet.
352 A (American Literature: The
Early Nation)
Dy 10:50
Griffith
jgriff@u.washington.edu
We’ll read and discuss an assortment
of novels, stories, poems and memoirs by American authors
in the period preceding the Civil War. 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 brief in-class essays written in response
to study questions handed out in advance. Texts:
Baym, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature,
Vol. B, 6th ed.; Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Melville,
Moby-Dick.
353aA (American Literature: Later
19th Century)
M-Th 10:50-1:00
Patterson
(A-term)
mpat@u.washington.edu
Moving Up, Moving Away: Late 19th-Century
American Literature. After the Civil War, America was
transformed from a rural agrarian society to an urban industrial
society. Immigration from Europe and Asia paralleled the migration
of American from East to West and South to North. Geographical
transformation produced profound social changes, as people attempted
to find success, construct new identities, and build new homes.
American literature too changed profoundly from one that sought to
question ultimate truths to one that attempted to represent these
new realities. The literature of this period chronicles these
changes, but it also attempts to help shape the identity of the emergent
nation. We will look at a number of different writers who saw
in this transformation the successes and failures of American culture.
What unites them is their belief that literature itself might be a means
to success. Class requirements will include several short essays
and participation. Texts: Abraham Cahan, Yekl;
Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson; Horatio Alger, Jr., Ragged
Dick & Struggling Upward; Pauline E. Hopkins, The Magazine
Novels of Pauline Hopkins: Including Hagar’s Daughter, Winona, and Of
One Blood; Charles Chesnutt, Tales of Confure and the Color
Line: 10 Stories.
354aA (American Literature: The
Early Modern Period)
M-Th 12:00-2:10
Simpson
(A-term)
csimpson@u.washington.edu
Reconstruction, Immigration and World War I will organize our considerations
in this course. Issues that will, no doubt, emerge from these themes
might include: the implications of the failed integration of African Americans
into modern mainstream US society; the role of art and the artist in realizing
social change; the effects of urbanization and technological innovations
on concepts of culture and language; the impact of waves of unprecedented
immigration on the definition of modern American identity; the emergence
of an era of US imperialism, and the onset and aftermath of US entry into
World War I. We will begin each of the three sections of the course
by reading and discussing a number of shorter works, which will allow us
to establish a cultural context for our discussions of the three main texts:
Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, My Antonia, and 1919.
These texts will be supplemented by a course packet as well. Students
are expected to attend every class, to participate in daily discussion and
occasional writing exercises, and to complete three short papers. Texts:
Cather, My Antonia; Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured
Man; Dos Passos, 1919; photocopied course packet.
355aA (American Literature: Contemporary America)
M-Th 12:00-2:10
Cummings
(A-term)
ckate@u.washington.edu
Living on the Edge.
This course will examine representations of international, domestic,
and personal crisis in recent U.S. novels, short stories, nonfictional
documents, film and popular media. We’ll begin with the
cold ar emergence of the “national security state” and widespread
policing of political and sexual dissidents. We’ll turn to
the hot war in VietNam and draw connections between it and contemporary
events. We’ll end with portraits of Americans whose life experiences,
behavior or identity is at odds with the mainstream. Residing
in locales where conformity to church dogma, middle-class standards,
traditional family values, established gender roles, and/or sexual
norms is strictly enforced, all defy convention. And all live
on the edge.
Texts: Don Delillo, Mao II;
Senna, Danzi, Caucasia; Ehrenreich, Barbara, Nickle
and Dimed; photocopied course packet.
368aA (Women Writers)
M-Th 12:00-2:10
George
(A-term)
elgeorge@u.washington.edu
Out West, Down Under, Into the Wild:
Feminist Narratives from Print to Screen.
The textual focus of this course is on dislocated girls and women who venture
into some kind of wilderness, physical and psychological; as well, it’s a
course that explores the connections between those wild locales and the female
adventurers who, in conventional society’s terms, transgress them; finally,
it’s a course that questions why these so-called “wild” girls and women get
under- or overexposed in the translation of printed text to screen and how
readers like you might critically read fiction and film as a clarifying lens
of conventional cultural and gender norms – even if other people sitting next
to you in bookstores and theaters won’t. All of the texts feature girls and
women, some Australian and others American. Some of the texts are penned
or directed by men. Some are adaptations of stories and novels, some
screenplays only. Each was more or less popular in print than on screen.
A couple were blockbusters turned cult classics, while others might be destined
for the used-rental bargain bin. Over the course of five weeks, we’ll
explore why. Other requirements include keeping up with the reading
of written and filmed texts, daily class attendance and engaged discussion,
short oral reports and response papers, and a final examination. Texts:
Sidonie Smith, Moving Lives: 20th-Century Women’s Travel Writing;
Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock; Peter Weir dir, Picnic at
Hanging Rock; Doris Pilkington, Rabbit-Proof Fence; Phillip Noyce,
dir., Christine Olson, screenplay, Rabbit-Proof Fence; Robyn Davidson,
Tracks; Maggie Greenwald, The Ballad of Little Jo (written
& directed by Greenwald); Callie Khouri, Thelma and Louise,
dir. Ridley Scott; Patrick Stettner (writer & dir.), The Business
of Strangers.
370bA (English Language Study)
M-Th 10:50-1:00
Tollefson
(B-term)
tollefso@u.washington.edu
[Wide-range introduction to the study
of written and spoken English. The nature of language; ways
of describing language; the use of language study as an approach
to English literature and the teaching of English.] Text:
Virginia P. Clark, Paul A. Eschholtz, & Alfred F. Rosa,
eds., Language: Readings in Language and Culture (6th
edition).
381 A (Advanced Expository Writing)
MW 9:40-11:10
Dillon
dillon@u.washington.edu
What makes Advanced Expository Writing
advanced? Not, in this course, the length of the papers assigned,
but the variety of types, audiences, and purposes of the papers.
We will begin with a little theory about kinds of rhetorical
purposes, understanding "rhetorical" as "attempting to increase
the reader's adherence to your point of view on a matter." The
assignments are designed to give practice writing papers with four
different rhetorical purposes. That is, you can choose any topic
for the papers, but the paper should be of the type assigned.
They should be of moderate length (roughly five pages typewritten).
In addition we will devote some class time to advanced points of
mechanics and punctuation and the analysis of style as it functions
rhetorically. There will be a final paper analyzing the style of a
passage of prose which you select. Text: Bryn Garner,
Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style.
No auditors. Students not previously enrolled at the
University of Washington (non-matriculated status) may sign up for
this course if they meet the posted ESL requirements.
381bB (Advanced Expository Writing)
M-Th 12:00-1:30
Swayze
(B-term)
swayze@u.washington.edu
This is an advanced writing course that will provide experienced
writers with an opportunity to engage questions of language, style, audience,
context, purpose, and rhetorical strategies. We’ll look at examples
in which discussions of language and its implications are foregrounded
as a means to discussing linguistic and rhetorical choices we make in our
own writing. Course work will involve stylistic and formal analysis
of readings, a lot of writing, workshop-style editing and revision, and
some analysis and practice at the level of the sentence and paragraph.
Texts: Joseph M. Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and
Grace; Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder
of the New World; Sandra Silberstein, War of Words: Language,
Politics, and 9/11; photocopied course packet. No auditors.
Students not previously enrolled at the University of
Washington (non-matriculated status) may sign up for this course
if they meet the posted ESL requirements.
383 A (Intermediate Verse Writing)
MW 10:50-12:20
Arthur
jparthur@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.] No auditors.
384 A (Intermediate Short Story
Writing)
TTh 10:50-12:20
Shields
dshields@davidshields.com
Reading and writing short stories, with
emphasis on short exercises. No auditors. Prerequisite:
ENGL 284. Text: photocopied course packet.
471bA (The Composition Process)
M-Th 8:30-10:40
Browning
(B-term)
sbrownin@u.washington.edu
[Consideration of psychological and formal
elements basic to writing and related forms of nonverbal
expression and the critical principles that apply to evaluation.]
Text: photocopied course packet, to be purchased at
Professional Copy. Students not previously enrolled at the
University of Washington (non-matriculated status) may sign up for
this course if they meet the posted ESL requirements.
491 A (Internship)
*arrange*
Supervised experience in local businesses
and other agencies. Open only to upper-division English majors.
Credit/no credit only. Prerequisite: 25 credits in English.
Add codes, further information in Undergraduate Advising office,
A-2-B Padelford (206-543-2634).
492 A (Advanced Expository Writing
Conference)
*arrange*
Tutorial arranged by prior mutual agreement
between individual student and instructor. Revision of manuscripts
is emphasized, but new work may also be undertaken. Instructor
codes, further information available in Undergraduate Advising
Office, A-2-B Padelford (206-543-2634).
493 A (Advanced Creative Writing
Conference)
*arrange*
Tutorial arranged by prior mutual agreement
between individual student and instructor. Revision
of manuscripts is emphasized, but new work may also be undertaken.
Instructor codes, further information available in Creative
Writing office, B-25 Padelford (206-543-9865; open 1-5 daily).
496 A (Major Conference for Honors)
*arrange*
Individual study (reading, papers) by
arrangement with the instructor. Required of, and limited
to, honors seniors in English. Instructor codes, further information
available in Undergraduate Advising Office (A-2B Padelford; [206]
543-2634).
497/8aA
(Honors Senior Seminar/Senior Seminar)
M-Th 9:40-11:50
Simpson
(A-term)
(W)
csimpson@u.washingaton.edu
U.S. Global Politics in the Late Twentieth-Century
Novel. In this course, which is a study of both
the aesthetic and political transformations evidenced in the novel,
we will read a range of novels by US-based authors interested in
exploring the sometimes catastrophic, sometimes revolutionary effects
of US global politics and culture in the last half of the twentieth
century. In the cold war era that followed the end of World War II,
these influential novelists, writing with a pronounced sense of anxiety
about the future of US culture and global politics, tried to account
for the cultural and political developments of that era. Their
focus was principally: the sudden and horrific destruction precipitated
by the dropping of the atomic bomb; the legacy of the Jewish holocaust
in Europe; the strategic importance of the Pacific Rim and Asia; the
entrenchment of anti-communist narratives and rhetoric; a wave of postcolonial
revolutions and nationalism; the growth of new global media and cultures;
and debates about scientific and reproductive technologies. Through
an engagement with these complex issues and the sometimes violent debates
they provoked, our materials offer a sampling of how artists and intellectuals
attempted to record and bear witness to wartime traumas and postwar revolutions,
as well as how they sometimes reflected and reinforced the effects o new
forms of globalization and cold war nationalism. As graduating
seniors, students in the course will be expected to participate vigorously
and daily in class discussions; they should also expect weekly writing
assignments and a final long paper (10 – 12 pages). For more information,
contact the professor.
Texts: Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle; Jessica Hagedorn,
Dogeaters; Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illumintted;
photocopied course packet.
497/8bB
(Honors Senior Seminar/Senior Seminar)
M-Th 12:00-2:10
Streitberger
(B-term)
(W)
streitwr@u.washington.edu
Hamlet and Contemporary
Criticism. Study of the play and critical
responses to it focusing principally on the 20th century.
Research paper of moderate length (10 – 15 pp.).
Texts: Shakespeare (Susan Wofford, ed.) Hamlet
(Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism); Thomas Kyd,
The Spanish Tragedy (ed. Mulryne).
497/8 C
(Honors Senior Seminar/Senior Seminar)
MW 12:00-2:10
Oldham
(W)
daviso2@u.washington.edu
Reading for Technique.
This seminar is designed with creative writers in mind, particular
fiction writers. It is modeled on ENGL 581, “The Creative Writer
as Critical Reader,” for MFA students. We will read a
few novels and several short stories and analyze them from the
point of view of practicing writers, rather than as literary critics.
This means we will be directed by a different set of questions
from those typically mobilized in a senior seminar or other literature
class, and we will deploy some fairly hoary but still useful concepts
to begin posing those questions. The questions will examine
how aesthetic effects are produced, and the concepts will include
such fundamental ones as plot, character, voice, and theme.
The challenge, in other words, is not in the concepts themselves,
as in some more theoretical courses, but in the application of the
concepts to concrete instances and in the depth of insight to be
gleaned thereby. While the class is designed for writers, and my
preference is that it will be composed entirely or at least mostly of
writers, non-writers can still learn a lot about how a piece of fiction
is put together by concentrated attention to these questions.
In addition to the primary texts, we will
read some commentaries on writing by writers, which hopefully
will help illuminate our questions of craft. If there is
time, we will spend a week or two talking about the writer’s social
role, political commitments if any, and related vexed questions.
Please note that this is not a creative writing workshop.
You will not be producing original creative work for this class.
Assigned work will include response essays every two weeks, offering
a general technical assessment of the novel or stories under consideration,
and examining a particular aspect of the work (i.e., questions
of plot, character, voice, etc.). Also, a long essay at the
end, modeled on the MFA Critical Essay, in which you examine one
or more authors in light of your own aesthetic goals and practice
and in light of some relevant, independently researched criticism.
The idea is that the response papers will build toward the long essay.
The readings reflect my preference for unconventional fiction, but
that should not detract from their usefulness as models. I’m
requiring more books than I usually do, on the supposition that
as practicing writers you will benefit by owning these books long
after the course is over, even if we only read selections now.
(If you have concerns about the expense, get in touch and I’ll give
you some ideas about how to save some money.) 497: Limited to honors
seniors majoring in English (add codes in English Advising, A-2B PDL);
498: limited to seniors majoring in English.) Texts:
Primary: Hoban, Riddley Walker; Calvino, Invisible
Cities; Woolf, The Waves; Pancake, Given Ground;
Gass, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country; O’Brien,
The Things They Carried; Braverman, Squandering the
Blue; Bambara, Gorilla My Love; Barthelme, Sixty
Stories; Baldwin, Another Country; Secondary:
Gardner, The Art of Fiction: Calvino, Six Memos for
the Next Millenium: Gass, Fiction and the Figures of Life;
photocopied course packet.
499 A (Independent Study)
*arrange*
Individual study by arrangement with
instructor. Prerequisite: permission of director of undergraduate
education. Add codes, further information, available in Undergraduate
Advising office, A-2-B Padelford (206-543-2634)
Add codes are required for all graduate courses, and may be obtained in the English Graduate office, A-105 Padelford, (206) 543-2634.
586A (Graduate Writing Conference)
*Arrange*
590A (MA Essay)
*Arrange*
Research and writing project under
the close supervision of a faculty member expert in the
field of study, and with the consultation of a second faculty
reader. The field of study is chosen by the student. Work is independent
and varies. The model is an article in a scholarly journal.
Prerequisite: graduate standing in English. Add
codes available in English Graduate office, A-105 Padelford (543-6077).
591A (MAT Essay)
*Arrange*
Research and writing project under
the close supervision of a faculty member expert in the
field of study chosen by the student within the MAT degree
orientation towards the teaching of English, and with the consultation
of a second faculty reader. The model is an article in a scholarly
journal. Add codes available in English Graduate office, A-105 Padelford
(543-6077).
597A (Directed Readings)
*Arrange*
Intensive reading in literature or
criticism, directed by members of doctoral supervisory committee.
Credit/no credit only. Add codes available in English Graduate
office, A-105 Padelford (543-6077).
600A (Independent Study/Research)
*Arrange*
Add codes available in English Graduate
office, A-105 Padelford (543-6077).
601A (Internship)
*Arrange*
Credit/no credit only. Add codes available
in English Graduate office, A-105 Padelford (543-6077).
700A (Masters Thesis)
*Arrange*
Add codes available in English Graduate
office, A-105 Padelford (543-6077).
800A (Doctoral Dissertation)
*Arrange*
Add codes available in English Graduate
office, A-105 Padelford (543-6077).
