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(Descriptions last updated: 7 March 2000)
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.
Students not previously admitted to the University of Washington (nonmatriculated status) may enroll in ENGL 111, 121, 131, 281, 381, or 481 only if they have met the following ESL requirements: a score of at least 580 on the 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: M-Th 9:40; 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.
121 (Composition: Social Issues)
M-Th 10:50
[Study and practice of good writing; topics derived from reading and discussing
essays and fiction about current social and moral issues.] 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)
5 sections: M-Th 8:30; M-Th 9:40; M-Th 10:50; M-Th 12:00
[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.
200 A (W)
(Reading Literature)
Dy 8:30
Chaney
This course is designed to further your abilities as a reader and writer
through a close and (hopefully) rewarding examination of a range of literary
texts.
We will discuss the very idea of what constitutes “literature” and
why it matters both to you and the world. Requirements include quizzes,
short papers, and a group project. Texts: Beaty, et al., Norton
Introduction to Literature, shorter, 7th ed.; Spiegelman, Maus I.
200 B (W)
(Reading Literature)
TTh 9:40-11:50
Goodlad
[Techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature. Examines
some of the best works in English and American literature and considers such
features of literary meaning as imagery, characterization, narration, and
patterning in sound and sense. Emphasis on literature as a source of
pleasure and knowledge about human experience.] Texts: Dickens, Oliver
Twist; Oscar Wilde, The Complete Shorter Fiction; Rosengarten,
Goldrick-Jones, eds., Broadview Anthology of Poetry.
200aC (W)
(Reading Literature)
M-Th 10:50-1:00
Coldewey
(A-term)
In this course we will be reading and writing about mainly English and American
literary works—fiction, poetry, and drama—although an occasional European
will creep in. We will be focusing on techniques for better understanding
literature, on the interpretation and analysis of literary texts, and on
the pleasure such texts bring. During the quarter students will concentrate
on developing close-reading and analytical skills, and will become familiar
with some useful literary conventions and devices. Requirements: class
discussion; three short exams, an occasional quiz, and a short (5 pp.) paper.
Text: Bain, et al., eds., The Norton Introduction to Literature
(shorter, 7th ed.).
200 D (W)
(Reading Literature)
Dy 12:00
Laughlin
This course provides an introduction to reading, writing, and talking about
literature. We will study a wide variety of genres—poetry, drama, short
fiction, the novel—from a wide variety of periods ranging from Renaissance
England to contemporary America. Expect to do a good deal of talking
and writing about these texts. This class also involves extensive peer
editing work. Texts: Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables;
Shakespeare, Macbeth; Masters, Spoon River Anthology; Hunter,
ed., Norton Introduction to Poetry; Jewett, The Country of the
Pointed Firs and Other Stories.
211 A
(Medieval & Renaissance Literature)
TTh 12:00-2:10
Streitberger
Introduction to literature from a broadly cultural point of view, focusing
on major works that have shaped the development of literary and intellectual
traditions from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. Texts: Abrams,
et al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1 (6th ed.);
Machiavelli, The Prince.
212 A
(Literature of Enlightenment & Revolution)
Dy 9:40
Prather
This course focuses on the literature of the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries and more specifically on what are commonly referred to as the Enlightenment
and the Romantic period. We will investigate on what grounds these
two epochs can be differentiated and inquire as to the nature of their relationship,
especially as it pertains to the question of individual and collective (psychological
and political) identity. Our inquiry will be grounded in our reading
of a variety of texts: novels, poetry, philosophical treatises and autobiography. The
course emphasizes close reading and in-class discussion. Expect a number of
short writing assignments, exercises, periodic reading quizzes, a take-home
essay-exam, and a final essay. Texts: Berlin, The Age of Enlightenment;
Voltaire, Candide; Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion;
Blake, Blake’s Poetry and Designs; Wordsworth/Coleridge, Lyrical
Ballads; Pope, Essay on Man and Other Poems; Rousseau, Reveries
of the Solitary Walker; Shelley, Frankenstein; Swift, Gulliver’s
Travels.
213 A
(Modern & Postmodern Literature)
Dy 8:30
Wacker
This course will explore several very recent issues emerging in the discussion
of literature, culture and society in the aftermath of modernism. We will
read Don DeLillo's White Noise as both a portrait of a media-saturated
U.S. popular culture and as an example of literary postmodernism. In Robert
Reich's The Work of Nations we will examine some of the social and
cultural consequences following on the transformation of the national economy
of the U.S. into a so-called postindustrial economy. We will in some ways
sum up the course by exploring in Richard Rodriguez's Days of Obligation
a growing contemporary awareness of the historicity and the cultural hybridity
of the ethnic and cultural backgrounds against which individuals and groups
assert their identities, backgrounds shaped simultaneously by global integration
and growing cultural differentiation. Texts: DeLillo, White Noise;
Reich, The Work of Nations; Rodriguez, Days of Obligation; Woolf,
To the Lighthouse.
225 A (W)
(Shakespeare)
MW 9:40-11:50
Hoblit
Introduction to Shakespeare. Texts: Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s
Lost; 1 Henry IV; 2 Henry IV; Othello; The Winter’s Tale; Much Ado About Nothing.
228aA
(English Literary Culture: to 1600)
M-Th 8:30-10:40
Simmons O’Neill
(A-term only)
An introduction to English literary culture from Anglo-Saxon poetry through
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Short essays, final
exam (in-class and take-home portions). Texts: Hamer, ed., A Choice of Anglo-Saxon
Verse; Winny, ed., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Vantuono,
tr., The Pearl; Katharina M. Wilson, ed., Medieval Women Writers;
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Hieatt & Hieatt eds.); Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
229aA
(English Literary Culture: 1600-1800)
M-Th 9:40-11:50
van den Berg
(A-term only)
An intensive reading of English culture during two crucial centuries.
Writers in the 17th century claimed the self as their topic, their identity
painfully tested by religious conflict, scientific revolution, civil war,
and the complexities of interior life. The 18th century featured a new model
of social literature, of cultural thinking marked by satire, sentimentality
and speculation, by ethics and exploitation. It was an Age of Reason
obsessed with madness, an Age of Exuberance shadowed by right thoughts and
reverie, and an Age or Urbanity built on memories of deserted villages and
moral decay. Texts: Abrams, et al., The Norton Anthology of English
Literature, Vol. 1 (6th ed.); Graham, ed., Her Own Life: Autobiographical
Writings of 18th-Century Englishwomen.
230 A
(English Literary Culture: after 1800)
Dy 9:40
Friend
This class will offer a broad survey of British literature from the beginning
of the 1800's until the 1930's. We'll start with the Romantic poets, reading
both canonical writers and others whose work has traditionally been overlooked,
then move to the Victorians. When we reach the twentieth century, we'll discuss
whether the term "British literature" still has any real meaning, since many
of the most prominent writers in England were from other countries, and since
advances in transportation and printing facilitated a much higher degree
of circulation of ideas from Asia, the Continent, and the US. Assignments
will consist of a midterm, final, three short papers of at least a page,
and a longer paper of at least five pages. Texts: Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Aurora Leigh; Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights.
242 A (W)
(Reading Fiction)
Dy 9:40
Andrews
This is an introductory course in reading and writing about fiction in a
variety of styles and genres. We’ll look at form and content from different
theoretical perspectives as we interweave discussion of short stories and
three novels: John Barth’s Chimera, Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities,
and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Two
papers, in-class response papers, class discussion. Texts: Barth, Chimera;
Calvino, Invisible Cities; Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God;
photocopied course packet.
242 B (W)
(Reading Fiction)
Dy 10:50
McLaughlin
Out in the Country. Students will read contemporary American
short stories and novels thematically linked by their settings in late 20th-century
rural United States. We will critically discuss these texts especially
in terms of their representations of nostalgia, memory, the supernatural,
and American identity (including constructions of race, class and sexuality). Requirements
will include response papers. longer essays, and active participation in class
discussion. Texts: Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina;
Randall Kenan, A Visitation of Spirits; Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony;
Gloria Naylor, Mama Day.
242 C (W)
(Reading Fiction)
MW 12:00-2:10
Cummings
Critical interpretation and meaning in fiction. Different examples
of fiction, representing a variety of types. Texts: Toni Morrison, The
Bluest Eye; John Okada, No No Boy; Randall Kenan, Let the Dead
Bury Their Dead.
250aA
(Introduction to American Literature)
M-Th 12:00-2:10
George
(A-term only)
Telling Stories of 20th-Century America. This subtitle defines the
main objective of this course: to introduce you to many fictional perspectives
of 20th-century American life that stem from biographical, historical, and/or
cultural fact. In 4-1/2 weeks we will read and analyze a variety of fictions
written during the 20th century. We will acquaint ourselves with facts
of biography, history, and culture that form the contextual core of various
authors’ imaginative expressions of what matters in American experience. Course
requirements include thoughtful and regular attendance, oral and written discussion
and analysis, short (paragraph and page) weekly writing, and some
online research. Texts: Lauter, The Heath Anthology of American
Literature, 3rd ed.; highly recommended: Harmon & Holman, A Handbook to Literature;
Lunsford & Connors, The Everyday
Writer.
258aA
(African-American Literature, 1745-Present)
Dy 10:50-1:00
Butler
(A-term only)
[A chronological survey of African-American literature in all genres from
its beginnings to the present day. Emphasizes Afro-American writing
as a literary art; the cultural and historical context of Afro-American literary
expression and the aesthetic criteria of Afro-American literature.] Offered
jointly with AFRAM 214.
281aA
(Intermediate Expository Writing)
M-Th 8:30-10:00
Simpson
(A-term only)
Focussing on the topic “home,” this course will examine various elements of
non-fiction writing through daily exercises and the writing of weekly essays.
All students will be expected to attend class regularly, participate in daily
class discussions and exercises, and complete all written assignments.
Because this is an intensive course, students should expect to write every
day of class. Detailed requirements available from instructor. 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. Texts: Zinsser, On Writing
Well; photocopied course packet.
281aB
(Intermediate Expository Writing)
M-Th 10:50-12:20
Simmons-O’Neill
(A-term only)
This intermediate expository writing course will investigate the theme of
family from the perspectives of personal narrative and social history.
Students will be introduced to methods and databases necessary for their final
research-based family history essay. The goal of the course is to develop
a writing workshop community in which students increase their ability and
confidence as readers and writers, and develop an understanding of the writing
demands of a specific academic discipline. 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. Texts: Fulwiler & Hayakawa, The College Writer’s Reference (2nd ed.); photocopied course packet.
281bC
(Intermediate Expository Writing)
M-Th 9:40-11:10
Stygall
(B-term only)
Divorce, Marriage, and the Family. This course will focus on two disciplinary
perspectives on divorce, marriage, and the family with each student producing
two 5-7 page researched papers, one from the perspective of sociology and
based on the collection by each student of survey research, the other from
the perspective of public policy and law. Students will receive instruction
in writing and presentation of primary data and the collection of legal and
legislative materials and presentation of written public policy recommendations. We
will work primarily from photocopied materials. Students who
have vacation plans that coincide with the B term should not enroll for the
course. 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.
281bD
(Intermediate Expository Writing)
M-Th 12:00-1:30
Stygall
(B-term only)
Free Speech Issues. This course will focus on two disciplinary perspectives
on U.S. free speech issues related to political, protected speech in relation
to U.S. Supreme Court decisions on pornography, political protest, and the
attempt to regulate hate speech. We will examine the issue from the
perspective of sociology and collect primary research about attitudes on
free speech issues, with a focus on contemporary music lyrics. The
second perspective will be that of public policy and law and in that framework
we will consider hate speech and campus speech codes. In this section,
students can expect to read a variety of legal materials including judicial
opinions, law review articles, and statues, to collecte evidence for promoting
and arguing for a particular public policy. We will work primarily
from photocopied materials. Students who have vacation plans that
coincide with the B term should not enroll for the course. 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)
TTh 8:30-10:00
Wagoner
Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem. No texts.
284 A
(Beginning Short Story Writing)
MW 12:00-1:30
Shields
Reading and writing short-short stories. Text: Photocopied course
packet.
284 B
(Beginning Short Story Writing)
TTh 8:30-10:00
Nestor
In this course we will explore some of the ways that elements such as character,
narrator, scene, plot, dialogue, and imagery may be employed within a piece
of fiction. The focus of the class will be on shorter length assignments,
but the overall product from the quarter will be a fair chunk of writing.
This class will also be an opportunity for you to learn how to read others’ writing
with a critical eye and to give feedback that is hopeful, helpful, and honest. Text: Kercheval, Building Fiction.
284 C
(Beginning Short Story Writing)
TTh 10:50-12:20
Nelson
[Introduction to the theory and practice of writing the short story.] Text:
Shapiro and Thomas, eds., Sudden Fiction Continued.
310 A
(The Bible as Literature)
Dy 10:50
J. Griffith
A rapid study of readings taken from both the Old and New Testaments, focusing
mainly on those parts of the Bible with the most “literary” interest—narratives,
poems and philosophy. Students will be expected to attend class regularly
and take part in open discussion of those assignments. Written work
will consist entirely of a series of between five and ten in-class essays,
done in response to study questions handed out in advance. Text: Metzger & Murphy,
eds., The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha
(Revised Standard Version).
321aA
(Chaucer)
M-Th 9:40-11:50
Rose
(A-term only)
Chaucer, the Love Poet: The Early Poems. This course will have as
its matter the major early poems of Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde, The
House of Fame, The Parlement of Foules, and The Book of the Dutchess.
The primary focus will be on the Troilus. A knowledge of Middle English
or of Canterbury Tales is not a prerequisite, but Middle English should
be learned soon after starting the course, and usually presents as many charms
as challenges, so students willing to conquer ME should not be daunted by
the language issue. The Chaucer of the early poems is steeped in the
French poetic tradition, uses the dream-vision genre extensively, explores
Boethian problems, and experiments (as usual) with the limits of his genres
and themes. In the Troilus he has fashioned a powerful, paradoxical,
erotic, doomed love story, whose “consolation” at the end you may find hardly
consoling. Required readings include contexts as well as criticism.
Quizzes, midterm, final, class report. Emphasis on close reading and
class discussion, reading aloud. Texts: Benson, ed., The Riverside
Chaucer; Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy; Virgil, The
Aeneid (to be read before mid-term); optional texts (some required
reading in each): Mann & Boitani, eds., The Cambridge Chaucer Companion;
Jean de Meun and Guillaume de Lorris, The Romance of the Rose; Benson,
ed., Critical Essays on Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde; Gordon, ed.,
The Story of Troilus; Davis, ed, A Chaucer Glossary; Miller,
ed, Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds.
323 YA
(Shakespeare to 1603)
TTh 6:00-8:10 pm
Streitberger
Shakespeare’s career as dramatist before 1603 (including Hamlet). Study
of history plays, comedies and tragedies.Text: Bevington, ed.,The
Complete Works of Shakespeare, 4th ed.
324 A
(Shakespeare after 1603)
MW 9:40-11:50
Dunlop
Enormously gifted young playwright, getting better by leaps and bounds.
Texts: Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost; Julius Caesar; 1
Henry IV; 2 Henry IV; Twelfth Night.
325 YA
(English Literature: The Late Renaissance)
MW 6:00-8:10 pm
Fisher
Poetry, drama, and prose of the early 17th century: John Donne, Ben Jonson,
and their contemporaries. Be not deceived, however; the genres differ,
but all, including the prose, require and respond to the techniques of reading
poetry. Theses were people who thought in terms of analogy—save one,
Sir Francis Bacon, whose refusal to do so (and his own uses of analogy) stand
out like a bandaged thumb. A bracing, tense, and scary time to be alive,
theirs was, and their literary works record it. Two midterms, a final
exam, weekly response papers, group divisions. Texts: Ben Jonson,
The Alchemist; John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi; Browne (ed.
Huntley), Hydriotaphia; Bacon, New Organon (ed. Anderson);
photocopied course packet.
326aA
(Milton)
M-Th 12:00-2:10
van den Berg
(A-term only)
English literature, wrote T.S. Eliot, could only afford one Milton. We'll
consider why that might be so. We'll read and discuss his impassioned poetry
and prose, seeing how he shaped the politics and literature of his time.
He thought in terms of oppositions: good and evil, destruction and
creation, time and eternity, soul and body, freedom and service. He valued
introspection, intimate friendship, and sweeping vision. A profoundly religious
man, his beliefs were uniquely his own. He believed in free will and
a free society, writing in defense of regicide, divorce and writing itself.
We'll read his prose and his poetry, especially Paradise Lost, and
discuss the paradoxes in the work, the man, his era and the criticism
he has evoked. Course requirements: two midterms, final exam or term paper.
Texts: Milton, Selected Prose (ed. Patrides); Complete English
Poems (ed. Campbell).
329 A
(Rise of the English Novel)
Dy 8:30
Laughlin
At the beginning of the 18th century, the novel was looked upon as a relatively
insignificant popular form; by the end of the century, it had emerged as
one of the major genres of English literature. In this course we will
trace this remarkable transformation by reading a sampling of the best and
the most influential novels of the period (they are not always one and the
same!). Texts: Aphra Behn, Oroonoko; Daniel Defoe, Robinson
Crusoe; Samuel Richardson, Pamela; Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews
with Shamela and Related Writings; Frances Burney, Evelina, or The
History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World; Jane Austen, Pride
and Prejudice.
333 A
(English Novel: Early & Middle 19th Century)
Dy 10:50
Alexander
Six novels, three from the Romantic period, three from the Victorian, will
be studied. Attention will be given to the way that novelists convey
ideas, and to the relation between form and content in these books.
Texts: Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Shelley,
Frankenstein; C. Brontë, Jane Eyre; E. Brontë, Wuthering
Heights; Dickens, Oliver Twist.
334 A
(English Novel: Later 19th Century)
Dy 9:40
Chaney
This course will examine the ways in which the novel—by this time the dominant
literary genre—began to shift and change in the later 19th century in response
to the cultural and societal movements of the second half of Victoria’s long
reign. Each of the novels we’ll read reflects both the novel’s centrality
as the genre most attuned to the discourse of the times and what that novelistic
discourse tells us about those times—what Trollope called “the way we live
now.” Texts: Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities; Eliot, Adam
Bede; Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?; Doyle, The Sign of the
Four.
337aA
(The Modern Novel)
M-Th 8:30-10:40
George
(A-term only)
Black, White, and Colored: "Pleasantville," the Modernist Experience. This
multi-media, intensive course (4-1/2 weeks) will focus on defining literary
and cultural Modernism through the critical study of the film Pleasantville,
particularly three novels alluded to in that film: D. H. Lawrence, Lady
Chatterley’s Lover, J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye,
and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. We will analyze the ways
that these controversial texts (each banned at one time or another since
its publication) upset the status quo, creating social anxiety and cultural
crises. Course requirements include regular attendance; active and
thoughtful discussion (active face-to-face and online discussion); online
and offline research; short essays and presentations. Texts: Lawrence,
Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Salinger, Catcher in the Rye; Lee,
To Kill a Mockingbird; highly recommended: Harmon & Holman, A Handbook to Literature;
Lunsford & Connors, The
Everyday Writer..
338 YA
(Modern Poetry)
TTh 6:00-8:10 p.m.
Staten
This course has two main objectives: to give students a thorough knowledge
of the poems of two of the most important modern poets, William Butler Yeats
and T. S. Eliot, and, through the close reading of these poems, to teach
the fundamental techniques by which poetry is read and analyzed. I
will assume no knowledge on the part of students; my aim will be to teach
you how to read the poetry from the ground up. Texts: Yeats,
Selected Poems and Four Plays of W. B. Yeats; Eliot, Collected
Poems.
345 A
(Studies in Film)
Prather/Friend
We’ll be watching a variety of films and discussing the themes and constructions
within them. Film titles will be announced later.
352 A
(American Literature: The Early Nation)
Dy 8:30
J. Griffith
We’ll read and discuss an assortment of novels, stories, poems and essays
by American writers 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 between five and ten brief in-class essays written in response
to study questions handed out in advance. Texts: Baym, et al, The
Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 1 (4th ed.); Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Herman Melville, Moby-Dick.
353 A
(American Literature: Later 19th Century)
Dy 10:50
Andrews
This course will explore the ways in which American writers (re)construct
aesthetic form out of the tense socio-political contexts of the period from
the Civil War to the early years of the twentieth century. We’ll focus
on the relations and experiences of characters and speakers who interweave
their personal desires and perspectives within and around the loose national
theme of home and homelessness. Imagine late nineteenth-century America
as…dinner at the Widow Douglas’s. You get to be, for now, that quintessential
homeless foster child, Huck Finn. Following the Widow’s lead, we’re
all gonna “tuck” our heads down to say grace, and, as Huck would say, “grumble
a little at the victuals, though there warn’t really anything the matter with
them. That is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel
of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind
of swaps around, and the things go better.” Huck’s critique of the
Widow’s culinary presentation (among other topics) occurs within a cultural
context that Kenneth Warren calls “a multiracial, multiethnic society [where]
race, particularly black/white racial difference, emerges not merely as a
problem but as part of the discursive building blocks that make expression—political
and aesthetic—possible.” Given this emergence, we’ll have ample opportunity
to explore the tensions between those spaces where “everything” was imagined
to be “cooked by itself” and those spaces where “things get mixed up.”
Between romance and realism, between the failure of reconstruction and the
reification of the color line, between the impossible ideal of racial purity
and the hard fact of miscegenation, we’ll see that the very idea of America
as a “barrel” where various juices “kind of “ get “swap[ped] around” didn’t
exactly make “things go better” for everyone. Classroom participation
required; two papers (5 pages); final exam. Please have read Iola Leroy
for the first class session. Texts: Frances Harper, Iola
Leroy; William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes; Mark Twain,
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Henry James, Princess Casamassima;
Albion Tourgee, A Fool’s Errand; Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of
Tradition; W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk.
354 A
(American Literature: The Early Modern Period)
Dy 9:40
Wacker
American literary modernism raised enduring questions about the possibilities
for securing order and meaning outside the transformations of industrial
capitalism,
even as its literary formalist experiments were the product of new technologies
of travel, perception and communication. This course will place great
emphasis on modernist experiments in form that have altered the practice
and reception of all subsequent literary work, even work written in opposition
to the cultural politics of high modernism. However, coming after modernism,
we can also see in these early experiments a dance between impulses to formal
order and the provocation to formal innovation presented by the boundary-dissolving
rhythms of markets. We will explore the possibility that the modernist
enterprise can still renew our need to both embrace and fend off the vicious
and productive circularity of the culture of late capitalism. Texts:
Faulkner, Go Down, Moses; Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises; Ellman,
ed., The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry; Wright, Native Son;
Wharton, Summer.
355 U
(American Literature: Contemporary America)
MW 7-9:10 pm
Cummings
Living on the Edge. During the quarter we will direct our critical
attention to portrayals of “ex-centric” Americans in recent U.S. novels, short
stories, essays, film, and popular media. A few of them are historical
figures commonly identified with political extremes: they are self-styled
“cold war warriors” and alleged “national security threats.” We
will (re)discover these ex-centrics in Doctorow's Book of Daniel and sample
practices (i.e., other works and historical events) to which the novel is
related. We’ll then consider the presence and evaluate the impact of
similar ex-centrics in documentaries and short fictions about the VietNam
War. The Cold War and VietNam are likely to engage the first 4 weeks;
by the end of this period we should all have a working knowledge of cultural
studies’ methodology and uses to which ex-centricity has been put.
Over the weeks remaining, the objective is to hone cultural studies reading
skills and complicate understandings of “ex-centric.” In these weeks
we’ll shift attention to fictional figures whose life experiences, behavior,
or identity are outside the American mainstream—trivialized, marginalized,
and/or villified as exceptions to the natural order of things. Some
of these figures are genuinely disturbed; a few cross the line into criminality.
The vast majority seem queer from a conventional perspective; significantly,
they live in locales where conformity to middle-class scripts, traditional
family values, established gender roles, and sexual norms is strictly enforced.
They are represented as troubled youths/juvenile delinquents; gritty survivors/white
trash; free spirits/gender deviants; perverts and diseased/lovers and dreamers
in the novels and supplements we’ll read; our task will be to discuss these
ex-centric representations in context and to evaluate their human effects. Requirements:
active engagement in class discussion; short written responses to readings
and films; a final (7-8 page) paper. Texts: Doctorow,
Book of Daniel; Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues; Kenan, Let
the Dead Bury Their Dead; Robinson, Housekeeping;
Allison, Bastard out of Carolina; in-class films; photocopied course
packet.
359 U
(Contemporary American Indian Literature)
MW 6:50 pm
Colonnese
American Indians have been portrayed in thousands of books and movies and
many or most of these portrayals have been unsympathetic, culturally biased,
and inaccurate. During this century, American Indian authors have used
the artistic form of the novel in an act of resistance to regain Indian identity.
This course will examine some of these novels in terms of the statements
each makes about Indian identity. The course will involve two in-class
tests, a short analysis assignment, and a small group presentation. Meets
with AIS 377U. Texts: Deloria, Waterlily; Welch, Fools
Crow; Erdrich, Tracks; Alexie, Indian Killer; Silko, Ceremony.
370aA
(English Language Study)
M-Th 8:30-10:40
Tollefson
(A-term only)
This course is an introduction to major issues in English language study,
The emphasis is on the links between language and society, with particular
attention to issues in language education. Major topics include dialects
and standards in schools, language acquisition, and socially patterned language
variation. Text: Virginia P. Clark, Paul A. Eschholz, & Alfred
F. Rosa, eds., Language: Readings in Language and Culture.
381 A
(Advanced Expository Writing)
MW 8:30-10:00
Dillon
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. 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. No texts.
381 B
(Advanced Expository Writing)
TTh 8:30-10:00
Butwin
Only a handful of people write novels, poems, and plays; almost all of us
are obliged to make our writing serve a particular function in letters, applications
and recommendations. We will write and revise a personal letter, an autobiographical
essay, a letter of application and a letter to the editor. This last
will be based on reading in the New York Times; the first three will be based
in your own experience and your own needs. 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.
Text: New York Times.
381 C
(Advanced Expository Writing)
TTh 10:50-12:20
Butwin
Only a handful of people write novels, poems, and plays; almost all of us
are obliged to make our writing serve a particular function in letters, applications
and recommendations. We will write and revise a personal letter, an autobiographical
essay, a letter of application and a letter to the editor. This last
will be based on reading in the New York Times; the first three will be based
in your own experience and your own needs. 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.
Text: New York Times.
383 A
(Intermediate Verse Writing)
TTh 10:50- 12:10
Wagoner
Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem. Further development
of fundamental skills. Emphasis on revision. Meets with 483A.
Prerequisite: ENGL 283. No texts.
384 A
(Intermediate Short Story Writing)
MW 9:40-11:10
Shields
Reading and writing short-short stories. Prerequisite: ENGL 284. Text:
Photocopied course packet.
471 A
(The Composition Process)
MW 10:50-1:00
Dillon
This is a course about writing and the teaching of writing in the schools.
We will discuss designing courses and assignments, responding to writing,
standards and evaluation, roles of the teacher, and issues of difference.
“Writing” more and more involves CMC (Computer Mediated Communication), and
we will have a look at networked classes, virtual discourse communities, and
the notion of net literacy. Writing for the course will include keeping
a response journal (for some time), posting to an on-line LIST, and reflecting
on that experience. Also a mid-term and a final. 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.
Texts: Villaneuva, ed., Cross-Talk in Composition Theory;
Harris, A Teaching Subject.
483 A
(Advanced Verse Writing)
TTh 10:50-12:10
Wagoner
Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem. No texts.
Meets with 383A. Prerequisite: ENGL 383 and writing sample. (Add codes
in Creative Writing office, B-25 PDL, (206) 543-9865, open 1-5 daily.)
485 U
(Novel Writing)
Mon. 6:00-9:00 pm
Bosworth
--Cancelled 7 June 1999--
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 Programs office, A-11 Padelford (543-2190).
497/498 A (W)
(Honors Senior Seminar/Senior Seminar)
MW 12:00-2:10
Fisher
Shakespeare’s (English and Roman) History Plays. A good
look at such questions as how history provides a playwright with material—and what
a playwright must do with it to make it work; what Shakespeare’s take on
the course of recent (but not too recent) history was; why Rome mattered nearly
as much as England did; how Rome (however) left a playwright more free. Weekly
paper portfolio; choice of research paper or final exam. 497: Honors
Senior English majors only. Add codes for in Undergraduate Advising office,
A-2-B Padelford. 498: Senior English majors only.Text: Greenblatt,
ed., Shakespeare: Complete Works.
497/498 B (W)
(Honors Senior Seminar/Senior Seminar)
TTh 9:40-11:50
Dunlop
There is a quaint theory that claims that “the canon” is a largely arbitrary
construction, dependent more on forms of “political correctness” than literary
merit. The beauty of this idea is that it relieves one of the need
to read closely, sensitively, and with due discrimination. But, in
this seminar, we will indulge in these old-fashioned habits. With their
help, moreover, we’ll investigate whether traditional ratings hold good when
(as we’ll be doing three times over) we put a “First Division” work alongside
a “Second Division” one. As there are no representatives from lower
echelons (they disappeared from print long ago) every thing we read will
be good—except when it’s very good. 497: Honors Senior English majors
only. Add codes for in Undergraduate Advising office, A-2-B Padelford. 498:
Senior English majors only. Texts: Webster, The Duchess of
Malfi; Shakespeare, Othello; Burney, Evelina; Austen, Northanger
Abbey; Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread; Lawrence, The Rainbow.
497/498 C (W)
(Honors Senior Seminar/Senior Seminar)
TTh 12:00-2:10
Moody
African American Feminist Epistemology. “To separate [black women]
from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race
generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that
may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”
So declared the 1954 Supreme Court in Brown vs. …Topeka, banning as unconstitutional
“separate but equal” education. This seminar proceeds from this federal
case to explore a range of issues related to African American women’s intellectual
and academic lives. We will study black feminist epistemology—theories
of how African American women learn (and teach); of how preliterate 19th-century
black women developed knowledge, then articulated what they knew; of how
race, gender, class and sexuality identifications affect learning; of how
the complex, gendered dynamics of university classrooms influence learning;
and so on. We will also examine the politics of active learning and
its relation to contemporary feminist ideologies. This interdisciplinary
course combines literary studies with feminist methodologies from such disciplines
as History, Philosophy, Education, Women Studies, and Psychology. Moreover,
although the formal research paper is a major course requirement, that particular
assignment will probably not take the traditional form of researched essays
written for English courses. 497: Honors Senior English majors only. Add
codes for in Undergraduate Advising office, A-2-B Padelford. 498: Senior English
majors only. Texts: Ann duCille, Skin Trade; Sherene H.
Razack, Looking White People in the Eye; Beverly Guy-Sheftail, ed.,
Words of Fire; Andrea Lunsford & Robert Connors, eds., Easy
Writer: A Pocket Guide; Murfin & Ray, eds., Bedford Glossary of
Critical and Literary Terms.
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.
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).
