English R1A

Other Readings and Media

"Carroll, L.: Through the Looking Glass

Melville, H.: Moby-Dick

Hacker, D.: Rules for Writers



Course Reader includes (subject to change):

Borges, Jorge: ?The Garden of Forking Paths?

Carlyle, Thomas: Sartor Resartus (selections)

Dickinson, Emily (selections)

Donne, John (selections)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (selections)

Herbert, George (selections)

Kafka, Franz: ?The Metamorphosis?

Plato (selections)

Stoppard, Tom: Dogg?s Hamlet,Cahoot?s Macbeth

Taylor, Edward (selections)

Thoreau, Henry David (selections) "

Description

"Many works in literature have been said to have a ?metaphysical? quality; in this class we will examine some of those works, paying special attention to the claims of imaginative literature upon philosophy. During the course of the semester, our reading will be by turns fantastic, terrifying, frustrating, beautiful, sardonic and whimsical. By investigating how words are used and manipulated to press our assumptions about the physical world, we will discover the unique appeal of the literary approach to enduring questions about the nature of self and world.



As the authors we will read stress and attenuate the possibilities of language to achieve their effects, we will study the intricacies of the language not only to understand their works but also to refine our own writing. Students will learn to write clearly and succinctly about complex and difficult subjects, and they will experiment with their own expository voice. Students will write several short essays, at least three of which will be substantial revisions of previous essays. "