"Ford, J., ?Tis Pity She?s a Whore
Jonson, B., Epicene
Lyly, J., Gallathea
McQuade, D. and C. McQuade, Seeing & Writing 2
Shakespeare, W., Othello
Shakespeare, W., Romeo and Juliet"
"A story of forbidden love can compel a reader through both sympathy and repulsion. We hope the frustrated lovers can somehow overcome the unjust exigencies preventing their happy union. We fear they will not demonstrate self-control if consummating their love would prove disastrous or horrific. Early modern authors capitalize on one or both of these potential reactions by depicting all manner of proscribed romantic relationships: two girls who each believe the other is a boy, two children of feuding families, a brother and a sister. There are more, of course, and we shall examine how each author crafts his language to produce in us the effects we register as we read his work.
In order to accomplish this sometimes daunting critical feat, students must develop their analytical instincts in order to articulate the intricacies of their observations in writing. To this end, students shall hone their observational skills by discussing the motivations and intentions behind some contemporary pieces suitable for critical examination?everything from an essay on shoelaces to a Coca-cola poster. Short weekly writing assignments chronicling the students? observations of these modern items will prepare them to write longer essays on the Renaissance texts. For these longer papers (4-5 pages), we will have thesis brainstorming sessions and peer editing workshops; students should expect to become very well acquainted with the writing of their peers. "
"Gary Snyder, Mountains and Rivers Without End
Eleni Sikelianos, The California Poem
Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax"
In this course we will explore the poetic representations of California?s wilderness. From the photography of A.P. Hill and Ansel Adams, to the letters, reports, and journal entries of Clarence King and John Muir, we will examine how an environmental consciousness grows out of the diverse poetic attitudes towards the wilderness and the wild. There will be three writing assignments in the class. First, you will write a literary interpretation of an individual poet or poem. Second, you will compile a nature-log, combining journal writing, poetry, photography, sketching, collage, etc. Third, drawing from your journal and our readings, you will compose an expository essay on an environmental issue or problem that California faces.
"Life and Times of Michael K. by J.M. Coetzee
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita
A course reader of short stories and poems will be made available during the first week of class. "
"A nomad is typically understood as a wanderer, rootless and given to vagrancy. However, as suburbanization and over-inflated housing markets continue to override interests in creating and maintaining public spaces, it might be more fitting to consider the nomad in terms of stagnancy: where can a nomad wander to if there is nowhere to go? Indeed, it might be truer to consider a nomad as the figure whom no one can get rid of. In this course, we will begin to define what ?nomad? might mean through the various texts we will be reading. Who and what might be considered nomadic? How does the nomad relate to the concept of a community? Moreover, how does the idea of a nomad or nomadic ways of life structure our readings of fictional works?
Since this course is designed to foster critical writing, you will be required to write a number of short essays (2-4 typewritten pages) that will help hone your skills in critical analysis and argumentation. And because no paper is ever created in a day, this course will further emphasize writing as a process of revision. To that end, you will be writing an equal number of drafts and revisions of your essays so that, ultimately, you will be writing a minimum of 32 pages. Small exercises will be assigned occasionally to aid you in not only the intense process of writing, but also to help you understand that essays are creative acts. "
"(It is preferable that you use the specified editions, since line numbers and footnotes are different in different editions.)
Hamlet, Norton critical edition
Macbeth, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004
King Lear, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004"
"This is a writing course whose main objective is to turn you into competent writers of academic prose. However, since we need a subject to write about, I decided on one I am interested in and which, I hope, will be of interest to you: Shakespeare. I think, I can teach you more about the Shakespeare plays we won?t be reading in this class by looking closely at just three of his works: Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth. We?ll look at these plays so as both to enjoy them (at a reasonably leisurely pace) and try to determine what it is about these plays that has made them so popular with generations of readers and playgoers. In our discussions we?ll try to cover a broad array of subjects, and you will certainly enjoy great latitude in choosing your own topics. However, I will insist that you consider the plays, first and foremost, as works of art, pay particular attention to Shakespeare?s language, think about his stagecraft and your own experiences as readers or spectators. This course is not meant to do the work of a regular Shakespeare class: I?m not concerned with leaving you by the end of the semester with a jumble of facts that one is supposed to know about Shakespeare, although, understandably, in order to facilitate your understanding of the works you?re writing about, their frame of reference, I will from time to time take up certain issues of Shakespearean lore.
Much of our in-class time will be dedicated to discussing your writing, developing your skills of close and analytical reading, and learning how to be effective when sharing your insights with your readers. Other than the three tragedies, I will ask you to read some secondary materials?a few short scholarly essays. You will be also asked to see at least one film or television adaptation of each play. I will ask you for a short essay every week or two and give you a chance to revise some of them. You can expect some specific assignments aimed at polishing your grammar, improving you vocabulary, etc. We will conduct in-class writing assignments and peer-review exercises regularly. The assignments will insure that by the end of the semester you know what a solid academic essay looks like and can produce one of your own. "
"Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula, Bram Stoker
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore
Geek Love, Katherine Dunn
A Writer?s Reference, Diana Hacker
Course reader"
"Who are our monsters, and why? This course will examine the idea of the monstrous in literature and culture, from the Romantic era to the present day. Through a variety of texts and other media, we will explore a wide range of issues: how the monstrous has been defined as both completely other and completely human (sometimes at the same time); what happens when a monstrous figure takes control of the narrative as a speaking subject; how different versions of monstrosity intersect with race, class, and gender; how, and why, portrayals of particular monstrous figures have shifted over time; and what makes these monstrous figures the objects of both fascination and repulsion. Taking the complex relationships between the ?freakish? and the ?normal,? the ?grotesque? and the ?beautiful,? the ?monstrous? and the ?good? as our basis, we will examine how monstrous bodies and minds disrupt attempts to read them and complicate the act of interpretation.
This course is aimed at developing reading and writing skills in a variety of genres. Students will learn and practice strategies for all stages of the writing process, from prewriting to revision, and also work on grammar, syntax, and style. Course assignments will include a minimum of 32 pages of writing divided among a number of short essays, at least three of which will be revised. This course fulfills the first half of the university?s R&C requirement. "
"Baldwin, James, Giovanni?s Room
James, Henry, Wings of the Dove
Nabakov, Vlamir, Lolita
Wharton, Edith, The House of Mirth
Wilde, Oscar, The Picture of Dorian Gray
A course reader containing critical writing on the topic of the course."
"Throughout this course, we will consider a broad range of aesthetic responses to the problem of representing sexuality in literature, with a particular focus on the role that secrets play in literary constructions of non-normative sexual desire. Beginning with Oscar Wilde?s The Picture of Dorian Gray, we will examine novels that represent and respond to cultural issues that are grounded in questions of sexual representation (for example, aestheticism, feminism, and homosexuality). We will also engage ourselves with the formal dimensions of the narratives that house sexuality by focusing on such techniques of secrecy as indirection, suggestion, and artifice. Along the way, we will ask ourselves a number of questions: Beyond signifying states of concealment and sexual repression, what larger work might sexual secrets perform in the modern novel? How might we describe the ?self? of the character who holds a sexual secret? What would it mean to read a novel from a sexual viewpoint?as opposed to, say, a political or a social one? Finally, what happens when sexuality is no longer a secret, but still remains represented as if it were one?
We will devote the majority of our time to developing our critical thinking and analytical writing skills. More specifically, we will practice applying our close reading skills of literary texts to the writing of solid analytical prose. Our journey through the world of ?exposition and argumentation? (two of the main foci of this course) will include visits at the following destinations: grammar; sentence and paragraph construction; essay structure; thesis development; proper use of evidence; and style.
Each student will be assigned five papers and a number of short take-home assignments. Class time will frequently be spent on group work and in-class writing. Three of the papers will involve a primary draft, a peer editing phase, and then the revision and resubmission of a final draft to the instructor for a grade. Students can expect to receive a substantial amount of commentary from the instructor on all five essays.
Regular attendance, frequent in-class participation, and dedication to the reading are required for this course. "
"Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration...
Jan Martel, The Life of Pi
Diana Hacker, A Writer?s Reference
A course reader including selections from the following:
* Michel de Montaigne, ?Of Cannibals?
* Jonathan Swift, ?A Modest Proposal?
* Claude L?vi Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked
* Mary Douglass, Purity and Danger
* Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation
* Michael Pollan, The Omnivore?s Dilemma
"
"What we eat and how we eat it says a lot about our culture?our history, our politics, our religious beliefs, and our ways of relating to each other. Why are some foods distasteful, or even taboo? How can choosing what to have for lunch be a political statement? How does our food get to our tables? These are just some of the questions we will attempt to answer in this course. Two longer literary pieces?a colonial American woman?s account of her capture by native Americans, and a recent Canadian novel?will help us begin thinking about some of the symbolic significance of food and eating; but the majority of our reading will be in the form of shorter, nonfiction essays on topics ranging from cannibalism to fast food.
The primary aim of the course is to develop students? expertise in writing persuasively, clearly, and precisely. With this in mind, the readings are designed to help students form their own arguments about the cultural significance of food and eating. Students will learn effective strategies for constructing strong sentences and paragraphs, developing thesis statements, designing logical arguments, and expressing themselves with energy and style. In addition to essays of literary analysis, students will write argumentative, personal, and expository essays, developing skills that will apply to all types of college and professional writing. "
"Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee
Tim O?Brien, Things They Carried
Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5
Course reader (with critical essays and some short fiction) "
"The blurb on the back of Robert Coover?s 1977 novel The Public Burning claims that the novel was the ?first major work of contemporary fiction ever to use living historical figures as characters.? But Coover?s novel certainly doesn?t read like history; it is narrated by both Richard Nixon and ?Uncle Sam? (a kind of ghoulish two-hundred-year-old demon who secretly runs America), and in this way it is at the same time rigorously historical and wildly and absurdly fictitious. How can a text so interested in history (and in these ?real historical figures?) so thoroughly undermine our traditional notions of what ?history? actually is?
In this course, we will read a selection of experimental texts from the last forty years that claim to be, in various ways, ?historical??fiction that is set in the context of real historical events, that investigates what it means to be a historiographer, or that claims to be itself (truly or falsely) a ?real? historical document. What happens in a narrative when history is stopped, reversed, or repeated? Are such narratives historical or ahistorical?reliable or unreliable? How might they use the very materials of history to question historical claims about experience, truth, and knowledge?
As we think through these questions alongside a strange and sometimes difficult (always interesting and maybe a little insane) set of contemporary novels, we will learn how to read and respond (and trust our responses) to the estrangement we experience from novels that don?t conform to our narrative expectations. In this way, we will also have the more general (and just-as-important) opportunity to investigate what ?postmodernism? itself might actually be. In addition to the literature, as well as a film or two, we will look briefly at more ?theoretical? accounts of postmodernism and history in order to investigate the interaction between the theoretical and the literary and highlight the role of argumentation in our own work. In bringing together our literary curiosity with more theoretical questions (about history, knowledge, reliability, and representation), this course will emphasize close reading, critical thinking, and critical writing (a lot of it). You will write a number of short essays (and a bunch of drafts) that will focus on both closely analyzing the texts and exploring more broadly the period and concepts of postmodernism as an artistic and cultural form. We will concentrate on crafting specific and sustained arguments that engage and synthesize the novels, the theory, and the history that we?ll be talking, thinking, and writing about. "
"Faulkner, W.: As I Lay Dying
Hacker, D.: Rules for Writers
Kafka, F.: The Metamorphosis
Kuper, P.: The Metamorphosis
Sexton, A.: Transformations
Stevenson, R. L.: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Woolf, V.: Orlando
Course reader, including selections from Ovid, Angela Carter, Sigmund Freud, and the Grimm Brothers"
"This course examines why metamorphosis has been such an enduring motif in literature and how its meanings change over time. Starting with classical myths and working through more modern fairy tales, poems, novels, and psychological case studies, we will ask what metamorphosis implies about voluntarism and the unconscious; nature, animality, and the demands of socialization; and the possibilities and limits of subjectivity. In each text, we will pay close attention to the kinds of language and narrative techniques used to express changes in form. We will also examine generic transformations, considering, for example, how Anne Sexton's poems revise the tales of Grimm, and how Hollywood films transform the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The theme of metamorphosis informs the primary goals of the course: becoming more critical readers and more effective writers. In class discussions, response papers, and short essays, we will focus on developing critical arguments from initial observations or questions about the texts, and we will practice revision strategies that transform essays from their first incarnations. "
"Caroll, Lewis, Alice?s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Modern Library Classics)
Christie, Agatha, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Berkeley)
Murakami, Haruki, Hard-Boiled Wonderland (Vintage)
Leiber, Fritz, Our Lady of Darkness (Tor)
Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers (Fifth Edition)
Course Reader: Various poems, short stories and essays of literary criticism, including:
Atwood, Margaret, ?Homelanding?
Coleridge, S.T., ?The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?
Rossetti, Christina, ?Goblin Market?
Poe, ?Murders in the Rue Morgue?
Tolkien, J.R., ?Fantasy?
Todorov, T., ?Definition of the Fantastic? "
"In this course, you will focus on the craft of writing college essays?a vast process that includes everything from refining grammar and style to developing theses, engaging critical thinking, and structuring your arguments in logical and dynamic ways. You are required to produce 32 pages of writing for this course, consisting of several short assignments, drafts, and five essays. All the while, you will be introduced to techniques of literary analysis, which require you to read slowly, carefully, and many times over, in order to discover the ways in which formal and rhetorical practices (not confined to literary texts alone, but ones that you may also see in, say, a State of the Union address) convey multiple meanings.
As an extension of our simultaneous foray into analytical writing and reading, I?ve chosen a set of texts, from the genres of detective fiction and fantasy. These works provoke us to sort fact from fiction and, in so doing, demand that we consider our own ways of grasping the truth in what we see, hear, read and write. In various ways, these texts capitalize on questions that you (as burgeoning critical writers) will encounter in the course of your own work: how do we ?know? the truth about the world that we see before us?is it a process that requires rational deduction or does it demand imagination? Are our perceptions based on assumptions and/or desires? Or do they accurately register and comprehend the signs we encounter? "
"Thomas More, Utopia
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver?s Travels (selections)
H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
+ a course reader "
"The point of this class is to help you become better writers and critical thinkers, and we?ll approach that goal by discussing and writing about an enduring literary topic -- utopia. In its strictest sense ?utopia? doesn?t mean ?good place,? but simply ?no place.? A utopia, then, can also be what we usually call a ?dystopia,? and upon closer examination of works like Thomas Moore?s Utopia, which gave us the term, we might ask whether every utopia actually contains a dystopian seed.
We?ll be discussing and writing about the ways authors have created these other worlds to work through issues that can?t be easily resolved in this one. What do utopias gain from including dystopian elements, from acknowledging, in effect, that they are a kind of nonsense? What do their successes and failures tell us about their imagined worlds and our actual one? If the utopian project is about creating an imaginative space to examine vexing issues, how might we relate it to our own writing? We?ll make a point of discussing these issues from perspectives you might employ in your research papers -- in terms of historical context, rhetorical strategies, and formal characteristics.
You?ll notice that this description asks as many questions as it answers. That?s because I want to make clear that critical writing is as much about learning to ask good questions as about providing good answers. We will focus rigorously on those tasks as you improve your ability to produce longer, more complex papers. You?ll write responses to each week?s reading, try your hand at your own utopias, and submit drafts and revisions of a 7-9 page critical essay and an 8-10 page research paper. "
"Jane Austen, Persuasion
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night
Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not
Andrea Lunsford, Easy Writer
Edith Wharton, Age of Innocence
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Course reader
Michael Curtiz, Casablanca
Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove
Mel Stuart, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"
"This course continues your R1A training in the systematic practice of reading and writing, with the aim of developing your fluency through longer expository papers, and the incorporation of research into argumentation. You will be responsible for writing and revising 3 papers (each 5-8 pages in length), two in-class essays, three rounds of peer editing, and weekly responses to required reading.
The topic of this course, ?Trade-offs and Sacrifices,? says as much about the thematic concerns of the works we?ll be reading as it does about the practice of writing itself. While we strive for the perfect realization of all our arguments in well-wrought, cognitively sound prose, this course will help us recognize our striving as a ?tending toward,? valuing the imperfect effort as a stage in our life-long relationship to writing. We will focus our development as critical thinkers on the substance and style of the expository essay, and learn how to find and manage our weaknesses in the genre with practical techniques. "
"Assayas, Olivier: Irma Vep
Greene, Graham: The Quiet American
Herr, Michael: Dispatches
Le Minh Khue: selected stories
Liu Yi-chang: ?Intersection?
Maugham, W. Somerset: The Painted Veil
Toklas, Alice B.: The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook
Truong, Monique: The Book of Salt
Yu, Ronny: Fearless"
"This class will examine how the figure of the Asian horde functions in cultural texts about modernity and postmodernity. What historical contexts have given rise to particular ways of representing Asians as hordes? How have cultural exchanges across the Pacific impacted narrative visions of modernity and postmodernity? What social and political purchase have these representations had, both within and outside of the Asian context? From Hong Kong martial arts films to documentaries about post-war Vietnam, we will look at a range of genres produced in a variety of locations in our attempt to perform a comparative study of the selected works.
Our critical approach to the texts will interlace with our own critical approaches to writing. We will compose essays gradually, beginning with questions that emerge from our initial responses to the texts and working our way toward effective writing and argumentation. Students will extend their English 1A skills by focusing on how more complex ideas and research results can be refined and integrated into progressively longer essays. A series of in-class workshops will be held to assist students with discussing, drafting, and revising critical essays. (Please note: book list is subject to change.) "
"Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
George Eliot, Adam Bede
Diane Hacker, A Writer?s Reference 5th Edition (Bedford/St. Martin?s)
Course Reader, available at University Copy (on Channing Way) "
"In this class, we will be interested in the question ?what is realism?? and, specifically, in figuring out what makes a novel or a short story a ?realist text,? as opposed to something else (like a fable, romance, myth, or tale). We will focus our investigation on the 18th and 19th century essayists, novelists, and thinkers who shaped what we now (too confidently?) refer to as ?narrative realism,? spending much of our time in Victorian England, the site where ?the realist novel? is said to have flourished. Since this subject is vast and formidable, our reading selection will be highly-selective and representative, not exhaustive. We will read texts from across the genres, including the scientific, the theoretical, and of course, the fictional. Is realism a ?mirror held to nature?? Is it ?a mirror carried along a road?? We will attempt to answer these questions by reading, discussing, and writing about realist texts.
English R1B is intended to develop students? writing fluency and to introduce students to the principles of research. The assignments lead to an increasingly complex application of these skills. The focus is on exposition and argumentation, particularly with the use of research. In English 1B, readings are chosen to facilitate analysis and develop student-generated research projects. You will be writing every week: sometimes in short close reading assignments that you produce at home, and other times in small groups. In addition, you will write two short papers (4-5 pages) that lead into a larger research project (8-10 pages) of your own design. You will need to devote several hours to reading each week. You must also attend class regularly and participate in various in-class assignments, as attendance and participation will weigh substantially in the final grade. "
"Harper, Michael S., and Anthony Walton, eds., Every Shut Eye Ain?t Asleep: An Anthology of Poems by African Americans Since 1945
Lew, Walter K., ed., Premonitions. The Kaya Anthology Of New Asian North American Poetry
Keene, John, Annotations
Mullen, Harryette, Trimmings, S*perm**k*t, And Muse & Drudge
Cha, Theresa Hak-Kyung, Dictee
Yau, John, Radiant Silhouette: New and Selected Work, 1974-1988
Harvey, Michael, The Nuts And Bolts Guide To College Writing
A Course Reader"
"Within the traditions of contemporary African American and Asian American poetry, a category of self-identified ?experimental? writing has emerged recently. What is minority ?experimental? poetry? One of the primary aims of this course is to familiarize ourselves with some exemplary works along with the debates ignited by these new trends. Since this course is also meant to satisfy the R1B requirement, our other aim is to improve students? reading, writing and research skills. The potential anxiety students might feel about writing longer expository essays should be lessened by breaking up assignments into research, prewriting, outlining, drafting, and editing components.
Our readings will be guided by several overarching questions. First, how might we provisionally define ?experimental? writing in a minority context? Second, how are African American and Asian American versions of ?innovative? or ?experimental? writing conditioned by each group?s specific literary history? We will investigate arguments concerning identity politics, ?political correctness,? and contemporary poetry?s notorious opacity and ?difficulty.? We will also ask how poetry attempts to repress or engage the political.
This course will be geared toward sharpening students? ability to hone their responses to weekly readings into textually-supportable, tightly-organized critical arguments. Also, we?ll take time to focus on research skills, including compiling annotated bibliographies and using online resources. Along with journal responses to weekly readings, students will be expected to write two research papers (4-6 and 7-10 pages) that will be critiqued and revised over the course of the semester. "
"Harriet Jacobs, Incidents In The Life of a Slave Girl
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close : A Novel
Elie Wiesel, Night
Elie Wiesel, Day: A Novel
Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl
Paul Celan, selected poetry
A reader to include theoretical and historical articles. "
Trauma, in its essence, is paradoxical. On the one hand, it yearns to be inscribed, even broadcast; on the other, it often stubbornly refuses inscription. This course will examine how literature has grappled with this paradox of trauma. Why do trauma survivors have so much trouble putting their experience to words? What form does literature take when it is subject to this struggle? We will look at a wide array of texts associated with historical traumas in order to examine these questions. In particular, we will focus on literature that has emerged from slavery, the Holocaust, and 9/11. As we trace the development of trauma and literature, we will follow what it teaches us about nation, ethics and identity.
"Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture, ed. Lorraine Anderson, Scott Slovic, and John P. O?Grady
An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore
A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
Jokerman 8, Richard Melo
Rules for Writers, Diana Hacker, or The Everyday Writer, Andrea Lunsford
A course reader with critical essays, historical documents and literary works Several films"
"For many generations of authors, writing about the Earth and our human impact upon it has been an intriguing artistic challenge. In this course, we will explore the challenges of representing our natural environment and its human stewardship by considering an array of stories, essays, media commentary, films, and other materials. A primary goal will be to familiarize ourselves with a) the rhetorical devices used to fashion persuasive arguments, including ?spin?; b) current and historical narratives of how the world?s natural resources are endangered (or not) by human activity; and c) literary representations of the Earth and the possibility of its irrevocable decay. One of our primary inquiries will be, ?is the natural environment an artistic and cultural resource?and if so, what can literary representation do to preserve or renew it??
Our classroom will be both a writing workshop and a forum for discussing literature and environmental issues. No prior knowledge of environmental concepts is required. This class will expose you to a wide variety of literary styles, from naturalists? diaries to epic poetry, as well as pieces considered journalistic or scientific, rather than literary. In assessing the argumentative and narrative techniques of these materials, you will develop and hone your own researching, reading, and writing skills. Brief weekly writing assignments will help you digest and evaluate the required reading, and also give you the chance to select and comment upon some of the environmental news that pours in everyday. Finally, you will also write two argumentative essays of increasing length, projects for which you will research outside sources and develop a topic of personal interest. Your finished essays will emerge from a process we might think of as ?creative reuse??the process of extensive drafting, reviewing, and revising. "
"R.L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Faye Ng, Bone
Recommended Texts:
Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers 5th ed. "
"The texts we will read in this course will challenge us to think about how a story is constructed. We will enter the mind of a child who believes his dead mother is a fish, and a mentally unstable woman who sees another woman hiding in a wallpaper. We will be confronted by scattered pieces of narrative that will require the work of our hands and our minds to piece together. The skill of close reading will help us to see the pieces more clearly and how they might fit together; moreover, the way we think about a text will also help us to think about how we write.
I want us to think about writing as an ongoing discussion we have with ourselves and the ideas that others have had on the text. Our job is to understand how we can incorporate the research that we conduct with the ideas we have found through close reading. You will be asked to write two essays for the class. The first will be a critical essay of seven pages in length consisting of evidence you have gathered from the assigned readings. The second will be nine pages in length and consist of evidence you have gathered from outside sources. The practice of writing will be mediated by peer editing and one-on-one meetings with me. "
"In ?The Philosophy of Composition,? Edgar Allan Poe writes, ?the death . . . of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.? A recurring focus of interest in Anglophone literature is the dead woman?literally dead, imaginary, slowly perishing of a mysterious spiritual affliction, or rendered ghostly by her social context. In this discussion-based course, we will interrogate the notion of the female-gendered cadaver: what does it mean to have gender if one is dead? What attributes does femininity lose?or gain?in spectrality?
This course fulfills the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement; therefore, it will emphasize expository writing and research skills. Two papers, a research proposal, an annotated bibliography, and supplementary exercises will be required. Readings will include Hawthorne?s The Blithedale Romance, Woolf?s A Room of One?s Own, Toomer?s Cane, and Morrison?s Beloved, as well as short prose by Irving, Poe, and James; poems by Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Dickinson; critical essays; and the writing of peers. "
"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)
In the Shadow of No Towers (Art Spiegelman)
Rules for Writers, 5th edition (Diana Hacker)
A required course reader containing poems, short stories, essays and critical articles. "
"Responses to the events of September 11th, 2001 made surprisingly frequent reference to narrative: unable to describe the attacks any other way, we either noted their similarity to film or TV, or we described our shock by saying, as the title of this course puts it, ?If it had been a movie, I wouldn?t have believed it.? In this class, we?ll consider representations of and in the aftermath of September 11th as they appear in fiction, poetry, media, visual art and film. We?ll also read critical essays on issues such as the media and trauma, historical analogy, 9/11 and commerce, and memorialization. What are the available literary, narrative, or cultural forms for describing events we couldn?t imagine? What comes in the aftermath of national or personal trauma? Do we seek something different in literature after experiencing a ?nightmarish? reality? How do we properly memorialize national tragedies, and what political questions do these memorials raise?
And of course we?ll also be thinking about, talking about, and doing a lot of writing! The goal of R1B is to equip you with the skills needed to read, analyze, and write about literature and culture effectively, and to refine your skills in using research and evidence to construct persuasive expository essays. Throughout the semester you?ll work on a series of assignments designed to develop specific reading and writing skills. After getting your muscles stretched with these short assignments, we?ll shift to the long-distance running of longer and more argumentative expository papers, essays for which you?ll be free to develop both a topic and a set of research sources/primary texts according to your own interests and/or academic discipline. These essays will go through an extensive drafting process, both in peer workshop groups and in one-on-one meetings with me. "
"Bombal, M. L., House of Mist/The Shrouded Woman
C?saire, A., Notebook of a Return to the Native Land
Neruda, P., Canto General
A course reader"
"Literary movements described as ?modernist? are typically associated with the social phenomena of ?modernity?: urbanization, industrialization, and secularization, to name a few. But these social developments occurred at very different times, and in very different ways, in the various regions that were to produce experimental, ?modernist? literature. For example, it was after World War II, in the midst of growing nationalist sentiment in Iraq and Syria, that writers in these countries developed literary forms marked by free-verse composition, anti-traditionalist values, and allusions to pre-Islamic mythic systems. This is in marked contrast to Latin American modernism, which is classically defined by a much earlier sequence of periods: modernismo (1882-1896), postmodernismo (1905-1914), and ultramodernismo (1914-1932). In this class, we will investigate the cultural and geo-political circumstances out of which different ?modernist? movements arose in the Americas, Africa, Central Asia, and East Asia. We will examine the meaning and value that ?new,? non-traditional writing took on in these regions and the various political anxieties and commitments that experimental literature came to express in them. Of special importance will be the relationship of modernism to national liberation movements in the Global South. Students will be expected to conduct independent research into the cultures and political economies of the regions on which we focus, and write a research paper on their findings.
The first paper in the class should exhibit the student?s ability to employ close reading, literary analysis, and theoretical argumentation. The second paper should integrate these interpretive techniques with the research in history and political economy the students will conduct. "
"Sigmund Freud, ?Mourning and Melancholia?
Gwendolyn Brooks, In the Mecca
Alan Ball, Six Feet Under
Philip Levine, The Simple Truth
Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy (selections)
Selected lyric poems by Ben Jonson; Katherine Philips; John Donne; Lucy Hutchinson; John Milton; Andrew Marvell; Emily Dickinson; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Gwendolyn Brooks; and Elizabeth Bishop "
"What do we expect from a work of art that takes death as its subject? How do we expect it to make us feel? Do we read it differently than, say, a love poem, or a comedy ? and what happens when love, comedy, and death intermix? What can the disappointment or fulfillment of our expectations tell us about how we read, and how we write?
This course takes works of art commemorating death as the starting point for an investigation of literary form and critical reading practice. We will attend not only to the ideas and images of the texts we study, but also to the difference it makes that they come to us in the forms that they do ? whether as lyric poems, physical monuments, or TV shows.
Our study of how these texts work will illuminate not only how we read, but also how our expectations and assumptions shape us as writers. Writing assignments will include: a pr?cis of Freud?s ?Mourning and Melancholia;? a close reading of a lyric poem; writing an obituary; an analysis of a physical monument; two short argumentative papers; and an extended research paper. Short research assignments will entail exploring newspaper debates about the Vietnam Veterans? Memorial and the World Trade Center memorial, using online archives of early printed books, and comparing contemporary and later reviews of poems. The shorter assignments of the course build toward your final research project, teaching you to plan your research, evaluate sources, and incorporate the results into an argumentative paper, with appropriate drafting and revision. In all cases the goal will be clear, grammatical English prose that communicates effectively. "
"Bantock, Nick: Griffin and Sabine
O?Brien, Tim: The Lake in the Woods
McEwan, Ian: Atonement
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Course Reader "
"What constitutes evidence? Epistemology is the study of the origin, nature, and methods of human knowledge, and in this course we will address in our reading, writing, and discussion such questions as: When should one trust one?s intuition? When and how should one seek validation? When should one trust others instead of one?s own instinct? How can one be fooled or misinterpret things? An essential aspect of analytical writing is finding and utilizing evidence to substantiate one?s points, and our interrogations into literary characters who must face their own conceptions and misconceptions about proof will inform our own strategies of writing and developing a convincing argument. R1B is a course that incorporates research into analytical writing, and part of our focus will be learning how to integrate the opinions of others into our own, whether as supplement or counterpoint.
There will be three required papers in this class: two short essays and a longer research paper, each of which will be revised and rewritten. There will also be a final exam. "
"Anton Chekhov, The Portable Chekhov
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy, eds., The Norton Anthology of Poetry
(e.g., at least one sonnet from Shakespeare, a couple songs from Ben Jonson?s plays, Blake?s ?The Tyger,? something by Keats, Frost?s ?Spring Pools,? Yeats?s ?The Wild Swans at Coole,? Roethke?s ?My Papa?s Waltz,? something by Philip Larkin, something by Robert Hass, etc.)
Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
A course reader "
"In this course we will read closely and write about markedly different kinds of literature ? a novel, verse, a couple short stories, and one play in two different translations ? with the aim of coming to some conclusions about what makes great literature great. The reading list is thus made up some of the war-horses of this culture?s literature. We will start with the presumption that these works are great and worth studying.
I?ve chosen not to organize this class around a single theme or what-have-you because I want students to resist the urge to compartmentalize experience. It?s common for people to like different sorts of literature, but uncommon for students and teachers to think about what, for example, the experience of little poems and big novels have in common. In this class we will try to make such connections, not only between the works on the reading list, but also between the works on the reading list and contemporary popular art forms like country song lyrics, television sitcoms (and so on).
This course is designed to help students write clearly and honestly about the experience of reading. Students will write weekly 1 page papers as well as two research papers totaling 16 pages. "
No course description is available at this time
No course description is available at this time
"Joanna Gavins and Gerard Steen,Cognitive Poetics in Practice.
Richard Gerrig, Experiencing Narrative Worlds: On the Psychological Activities of Reading.
Mark Johnson, The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason.
Peter Stockwell, Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction.
Mark Turner, Reading Minds: The Study of English in the Age of Cognitive Poetics.
A course reader which will include essays, poems, and short stories."
"In this class, we will learn about a new and exciting approach to the study of literature called cognitive poetics. Cognitive poetics is not a homogeneous school of criticism, but a constellation of diverse assumptions about and practical techniques for analyzing how readers cognitively process the stylistic features of literary texts. It draws from many areas of cognitive science, including cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology, discourse psychology, social psychology, and psycholinguistics. When studies in cognitive poetics appeared in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, the majority of them were produced by scholars from literature departments in Europe and Israel, and went virtually unnoticed by their American counterparts. However, over the last decade, cognitive poetics has become increasingly accepted among American literary critics. This class will introduce students to its goals, methods, problems and possibilities.
We will consider cognitive poetics in relation to some of its methodological predecessors and think about their similarities and differences. How does it compare to formal, historical and cultural interpretations of literature? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a cognitive poetic approach? Adopting the principles of particular cognitive poetic frameworks--including prototype theory, possible worlds theory, research on figure and ground, cognitive grammar, and cognitive deixis--we will produce analyses of poems and short stories and think about how these analyses might relate to readings motivated by more conventional forms of literary criticism.
Students will explore these issues while learning to read critically, propose arguments, and perform research tasks. Over the course of the semester, students will produce approximately 32 pages of writing. This writing will be broken down into three essays which will increase in length as the term progresses. The final two papers will require students to use academic sources beyond those provided in class. "
"Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil
Richard Wright, Native Son
Supplementary Texts:
Frederick Crews, The Random House Handbook, 6th ed.
Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed.
William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, Roger Angell, The Elements of Style"
"What is social reform? What are the thought processes involved in defining a social problem? And how does this definition affect the manner and methods used to solve it? This course seeks to better understand the impulse to want to solve a problem perceived in society. Before they can be solved, problems are things that first must be imagined as solvable. The literature of social reform affords us the distinct opportunity to observe such imaginings.
This course is reading and writing intensive, and aims to develop in students fluency with the method and discourse of the analytical essay. Special emphasis shall be placed on the refinement of sentence construction, thesis development, and research methods. Additionally, systematic reasoning through close reading will be stressed both in class discussion and in the course?s various writing opportunities. This course fulfills the second half of the University Reading and Composition requirement. "
"Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Mistress of Spices
Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living
Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers
A substantial course reader"
Often mentioned but rarely explained, the term ?globalization? provides one way of thinking about the economic, social, and cultural processes of recent years. For some, globalization promises a world at our fingertips, an exciting world free of boundaries and borders. For others, it means an intensification of suffering and inequality on a global scale. This course offers a user-friendly introduction to globalization?s often sharply opposed meanings. Class material will be drawn from a variety of sources, ranging from fiction and film to recent scholarly and political writing. While presenting important ideas and frameworks for thinking, these sources will also provide occasions to develop skills in reading, writing, and critical analysis. Assignments move from personal response papers to formal academic essays, culminating in a 10 pp. research paper and oral presentation at the end of term. Students can expect frequent exercises in peer-editing and revising. An area of special focus will be the elements of the research process, which we will target and practice in both in-class and out-of-class activities, including hands-on sessions in the library. No previous knowledge required.
"William Faulkner, Light in August (1932)
Boris Vian, I Spit on Your Graves (1946)
Chester Himes, A Rage in Harlem (1957)
Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972)
Films:
The Searchers (1956)
Sweet Sweetback?s Baadasssss Song (1971)
Rocky (1976) "
"As the title suggests, this course will consider the relationship between race, violence, and paranoia. Often when narratives (whether novels or films) explore racial difference, depictions of violence are not far removed. The texts I?ve assembled for this course identify paranoia as the fundamental link between race and violence. It will be our job to attempt to identify how and why these authors and filmmakers link race to violence through the lens of paranoia.
Additionally, almost all of these texts come from the US. The only exception is I Spit on Your Graves, which was written by a French author who claimed to have translated this novel from one written by an African-American. Hence, we will also consider the relevance of American culture to this intersection. Richard Hofstadter?s 1964 essay, ?The Paranoid Style of American Politics? presents us with a useful starting point: the paranoid ?does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised . . . [W]hat is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish.? This sentiment and its relevance to American culture will be a guidepost for us throughout the semester.
Above all, this is a writing course, so your primary goal will be to refine and develop analytical writing skills. You will be expected to write a series of progressively longer and more complicated essays throughout the semester. In addition, this course carries a research component; you will learn basic research methods (library, internet, etc.) and apply them to your writing. You will also be required to purchase a course reader that includes literature and relevant literary criticism not listed below. "
"The Weather, Lisa Robertson (New Star Books, 2001);
Don?t Let Me Be Lonely, Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press, 2004);
Somebody Blew Up America, Amiri Baraka (House of Nehesi, 2003);
Deer Head Nation, K. Silem Mohammed (Tougher Disguises, 2003);
My Way, Charles Bernstein (U of Chicago, 1999); and a reader of poems and essays. "
"There are several varieties of contemporary poetry: Lyric, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, Post-Lang, ?mainstream?, slam, and flarf poets, as well as others who can?t or won?t be categorized. Major publishers, university presses, and dozens of small presses publish hundreds of poetry books every year. Nevertheless, you rarely ? if ever ? read about contemporary poetry in the paper, see it shelved in the bookstore, or learn it about it in the high school or college classroom. That may well be because it?s hard to know how to approach recent poetry, and critical methods like New Criticism, Deconstruction, and New Historicism offer conflicting models of interpretation.
In this course, we?ll put literary criticism and theory to the test by practicing it and applying it to works of recently published poetry. We?ll ask about contemporary poetry?s function, purpose, and responsibilities ? whether it?s any good, and whether it does any good. You?ll do a close reading of a poem, write your own evaluation of a work of criticism, and present your interpretation of a book of poetry to the class. Finally, you?ll research and write about a contemporary poet of your own choosing. This course will help you perfect your arguments by formulating and re-formulating critical questions and thesis statements; it will also help you learn the methods and protocols of literary research. "