English R1A

Other Readings and Media

"Julian Barnes, The History of the World in 10� Chapters

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward

David Bradley, The Chaneysville Incident

Octavia Butler, Kindred



Supplementary Texts:

Frederick Crews, The Random House Handbook, 6 th ed.

Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed.

William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, Roger Angell, The Elements of Style"

Description

"What is history? What effect does it have on our projects in the present? And on our future projects? This course is interested in exploring what role the way in which we imagine past events has in shaping our understanding of what�s possible and impossible, now or later. We will be reading texts which self-consciously take up the issue of history in a variety of ways � some do this by returning imaginatively to moments of historic significance, and some by imagining what happened in the past from the standpoint of the �present,� while others imagine the present as the past of some future time, all challenging us to consider history as an imaginative act with consequences.



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 first half of the University Reading and Composition requirement."