Course Descriptions (as of 19 March 2003)
The following course descriptions have been written by individual instructors to provide more detailed information on specific sections than that found in the General Catalog. When individual descriptions are not available, the General Catalog descriptions [in brackets] are used. (Although we try to have as accurate and complete information as possible, this schedule remains subject to change.)
304 A (History of Literary Criticism and Theory II)
This course is an introduction to the revolution in ways of thinking about literature and literary criticism that has taken place in the last few decades. Beginning with Structuralism, and followed by Post-structuralism, Deconstruction, Feminism, Queer Theory, New Historicism, and Post-Colonialism, a whole array of new “theories” has emerged. While there is a great deal of disagreement among proponents of these various approaches, all of them together constitute something of a new synthesis that is in fundamental ways opposed to the older “humanistic” criticism.
By the end of this course you should be able to understand what the preceding paragraph means.
We will not be able in the course of ten weeks to cover all of the developments described above, but we’ll do as much as possible. We will read texts by Aristotle, T.S. Eliot, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Derrida, Marx, Butler, and others. All readings will be available in a course packet from the Ave Copy Center, 4141 University Way NE. You will write an opening two page paper on Aristotle at the end of the first week, 3-4 page midterm paper, and a final paper of 4-5 pages in which you will be asked to put together some of these ideas in a coherent way. Class attendance is essential. Anyone not attending class with strict regularity is by definition not serious about this class, and will be treated accordingly. Meets with C LIT 400A.
307 A (Cultural Studies: Literature and the Age)
Liberalism, U.S. Global Politics and the Novel after 1945. This course investigates U.S. literary history after 1945 from the point of view of the entanglement of literature, liberalism and U.S. global politics. We will examine how liberal cultural politics in the middle of the 20th century, in defining literature as a tool for anti-racist social transformation, an aid to the liberal social sciences, and a weapon in the Cold War, came to assign positivist, evidentiary, and explanatory value to fiction by African American authors or about race relations. We will then examine the reformulation, revision, dilution and reinterpretation of liberal cultural political agendas for literature throughout the later half of the 20th century, in liberal nationalism, multiculturalism and neoliberalism. Recognizing that a new style of Empire, led by the U.S., unfolds in the period after World War II, our frame for investigating US cultural politics will be international. We will consider how international conflict and the internal and global dynamics of empire-building shape culture, class, gender, racial formations and social and political movements in the U.S. and, in turn, consider how U.S. culture becomes the battleground for shaping political subjectivities and social philosophies that condition the terms of U.S. Empire. (We shall pay particular attention to the impact of decolonization, U.S. wars in Asia, and the economic restructuring of the planet called 'globalization'.) We will read novels that were embraced by liberal cultural politics as well as many that seem to challenge, rupture, and repudiate liberal thinking about the uses of literature, U.S. nationalism, cultural pluralism, and international hegemony. In the course, we will historicize the question and examine the politics of what it means to write and to read literary fiction. Final booklist TBA, with possible selections from Richard Wright (Native Son), William Faulkner (Intruder in the Dust), Chester Himes (End of a Primitive), Theresa Cha! (Dictee), Leslie Marmon Silko (Almanac of the Dead), Don Delillo (White Noise), and Jamaica Kincaid (Lucy), Jessica Hagedorn (Dogeaters) and Junot Diaz (Drown).
310 A (The Bible as Literature)
A rapid study of readings from both the Old and New Testaments, focusing primarily on those parts of the Bible with the most “literary” interest – narratives, poems and philosophy. Students will be expected to attend class regularly, keep up with reading assignments, and take part in open discussion. Written work will consist entirely of a series of in-class essays, done in response to study questions handed out in advance. Texts: Michael Googan, ed., New Oxford Annotated Bible, 3rd ed.
315 A (Literary Modernism)
Various modern authors, from Wordsworth to the present, in relation to such major thinkers as Kant, Hegel, Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Bergson, and Wittgenstein, who have helped create the context and the content of modern literature. Recommended: ENGL 230 or one 300-level course in 19th or 20th century literature. Texts: Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents; Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground; Beckett, Endgame; Mann, Death in Venice; Kafka, Metamorphosis; Ibsen, Hedda Gabler; Eliot, Selected Poems.
316 A (Literature of Developing Countries)
Contemporary Literatures from Zimbabwe. This reading-intensive course investigates literature written by authors from Zimbabwe, known earlier as Rhodesia. We will read short stories and novels in conjunction with essays and social history, as well as screen two/three films in class. Topics that will be covered include the following: imperialism and colonial history; social constructions of identity; sexuality and cultural production; class relations; race and racism; patriarchy; religious identities, gender identities and feminism. Students who enroll in this course must be prepared to engage with these and other related issues. Texts: Dambudzo Marechera, Scrapiron Blues; Yvonne Vera, Without a Name & Under the Tongue; Dangaramba, Nervous Conditions; Shimmer Chinodya, Harvest of Thorns; J. Nozipo Maraire, Zelzele: A Letter for my Daughter.
320 A (English Literature: The Middle Ages)
This course will provide a lively and wide-ranging introduction to the literature of the Middle Ages, in which students will have the opportunity to place texts remote from our modern era in their social and historical contexts. In this offering of the course, an emphasis will be placed on the fictional Universe of the court, and on the literary medium of the dream-vision. Students will read and discuss important works of prose and poetry of the early Middle Ages and the Middle English periods, including works by a range of Anglo-Saxon poets, the Old Irish Tain, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and a selection of non-canonical items. There will be a mid-term, final, and major term paper. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Heaney, tr., Beowulf; Winny, ed., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Gantz, Early Irish Myths and Sagas; Amt, Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe: A Source Book.
321 TS/U (Chaucer)
MW 4:30-6:20 pm
In this course we will read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, with some of the shorter poems as an introduction. Attention will be paid to locating the texts within their social and intellectual contexts in the fourteenth century. Students will write two main papers, some short papers, midterm and final. (NOTE: ENGL 321 TS is available only to Evening Degree and non-matriculated students; for information contact UW Educational Outreach, (206) 543-2320. ENGL 321 U represents spaces in this class that may be available for regularly-enrolled UW day students during Registration Period 3, the first week of classes; add codes will be required for 321U, available from the instructor.) Texts: Benson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer; Miller, Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds.
322 A (English Literature: The Age of Queen Elizabeth)
The golden age of English poetry, with poems by Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, and others; drama by Marlowe and other early rivals to Shakespeare; prose by Sir Thomas More and the great Elizabethan translators. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1B; Sir Thomas More, Utopia; Machiavelli, The Prince; Julia Briggs, This Stage Play World.
323 A (Shakespeare to 1603)
Study of Shakespeare’s poems and plays to 1603 with emphasis upon meter, rhythm, imagery, tone, explication, interpretation, reader-response, critical issues, and student performance. All students are required to perform memorized parts in a small performance group that meets for most of the quarter (one or two days/week during class time); final performance is in last week before whole class. Also required: discussion, written exercises, midterm, and two-hour, cumulative, in-class final (short-answer and essay questions). Meets five days a week (total of 50 class meetings; participation/attendance carefully graded for both full-class and small-group meetings). A demanding course. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Shakespare, The Poems; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Romeo and Juliet; Twelfth Night; Henry V; Hamlet.
325 A (English Literature: The Late Renaissance)
This course will trace the development of English poetry in the first half of the seventeenth century (1603 – 1660: from the death of Elizabeth I to the Restoration). We will study a comprehensive selection of poems covering both the “school of Donne” (“Metaphysical Poetry”) and the “school of Jonson” (“Cavalier Poet”) in the context of the history of ideas, European (“Baroque”) poetry as well as the social and political history of 17th-century England. Requirements: Regular attendance and participation in ongoing seminar discussions, 2 presentations (e.g., report on secondary literature or introduction to one or more poems) (25%), one short paper (4-5 pages: poetry analysis); one longer paper (8-10 pages, e.g., dealing with a research topic or with a critical study of several poems) (50%); no final. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Preparatory reading: Students wishing to familiarize themselves with the topic before the course begins are encouraged to read pp. 1209-1232 ("The Early Seventeenth Century 1603 - 1660") of the Norton Anthology and George Parfitt, English Poetry of the Seventeenth Century. Texts: Abrams, et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1, 7th ed. , or Ferguson, et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 4th ed. (It is assumed that many students will already possess the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1. Conversely, if they own The Norton Anthology of Poetry, this is also acceptable. The reading list concentrates on poems which are in both anthologies, so students owning one or the other do not need to purchase a second text.) Optional: Parfitt, English Poetry of the 17th Century.
328 TS/U (English Literature: Later 18th C.)
TTh 7-8:50 pm
Poetry, fiction, and non-fiction prose of the later eighteenth century, formerly called “The Age of Johnson,” when it was fashionable to name periods after their most prominent writers. The novel was beginning to achieve the dominance it was to have in the century following, but novels and non-fiction still tended to resemble one another; poetry was experimental. The course will require daily response papers (1-2 pp.), class participation, and a final examination; the three will be weighted equally. (NOTE: ENGL 328TS is available only to Evening Degree and non-matriculated students; for information contact UW Educational Outreach, (206) 543-2320. ENGL 328U represents spaces in this class that may be available for regularly-enrolled UW day students during Registration Period 3, the first week of classes; add codes will be required for 328U, available from the instructor.) Texts: Johnson (ed. Greene), Samuel Johnson; Burney, Evelina; Fielding, Joseph Andrews; Sterne, A Sentimental Journey.
329 A (Rise of the English Novel)
The beginnings of the English novel in modern form, vividly illustrated in works by Defoe, Haywood, Richardson, Fielding, and Burney. This course aims to give students a detailed appreciation of six classic novels of the eighteenth century, along with some understanding of the history and theory of fiction at a crucial moment of change, and a picture of the social and cultural background. Response papers, two longer revision papers, two tests, and lost of reading. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Defoe, Moll Flanders; Haywood, Love in Excess; Richardson, Pamela; Clarissa; Fielding, Joseph Andrews; Shamela; Burney, Evelina.
332 A (Romantic Poetry II)
An examination of poetry and some prose by selected writers of the "second generation" of English Romantics (Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Felicia Hemans, John Keats, Mary Shelley). Additional information to be available on instructor’s website toward the end of Winter Quarter 2003 (http://faculty.washington.edu/nh2/classes/332-03.htm) Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Percy Shelley, Shelley’s Poetry and Prose; Lord Byron, Major Works; John Keats, Selected Poetry.
333 A (English Novel: Early & Middle 19th C.)
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. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Shelley, Frankenstein; C. Brontë, Jane Eyre; E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights; Dickens, Oliver Twist.
333 TS/U (English Novel: Early & Middle 19th C.)
MW 7-8:50 pm
Few periods—including our own—can have seen such great and sudden changes as the first half of the 19th century in England. Our task will in part be to chart those changes within the boundaries of the novel, the genre that would come to epitomize the age. Like that other great signature of rapid change—the railroad—English fiction would transport all classes of people and pass through all terrain, urban and rural, where nothing would be left unseen or unaltered by its presence. At the same time we will have to drop the industrial metaphor and learn to understand the art of the novel in its own terms. The course will takes its shape in lecture and discussion and a series of short essays. (NOTE: ENGL 333 TS is available only to Evening Degree and non-matriculated students; for information contact UW Educational Outreach, (206) 543-2320. ENGL 333 U represents spaces in this class that may be available for regularly-enrolled UW day students during Registration Period 3, the first week of classes; add codes will be required for 333U, available from the instructor.) Texts: Jane Austen, Emma; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre; Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton; Charles Dickens, Hard Times.
334 A (English Novel: Later 19th C.)
This course centers on four major novels by four of England’s greatest novelists, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), and Joseph Conrad. Published between 1860 (Great Expectations) and 1900 (Lord Jim), these texts (including also Jude the Obscure, 1896, and Middlemarch, 1872) reflect what at the middle of the 19th century the poet Mattehw Arnold had termed “this strange disease of modern life,/ With its sick hurry, its divided aims,/ Its head o’ertaxed, its palsied hearts. . . .” Spurred by “great expectation,” central characters of these novels struggle to know themselves and their worlds, to find meaningful relationships defying constraints of class and gender, and to overcome the confining provinciality of small mindedness, be it that of household, village, or nation. To present such stories, each of these novelists found conventions of the novel confining, and each sought new means for representing situations and topics of that required innovative art. Short weekly writing in preparation for class discussion, midterm paper/exam; final paper/exam. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Dickens, Great Expectations; Eliot, Middlemarch; Hardy, Jude the Obscure; Conrad, Lord Jim.
334 B (English Novel: Later 19th C.)
--cancelled Feb. 14--
339 A (English Literature: Contemporary England)
The Empire at Home. The period after World War II saw a wave of immigrants who came to Britain from formerly colonized countries, particularly countries from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Ghana. Since the early 1950s, many of these immigrants have found themselves dealing with issues of race and racism, poverty, sexuality, gender, right-wing policies, anti-immigrant sentiments, homeland cultures and customs, etc. These negotiations are articulated through a strong genre in British fiction as Black British authors seek to explore their cultural dualities and ultimately create their own niche in Britain, creating a new British experience, as well as innovative theories of understanding culture itself. This reading-intensive course will focus on the above issues through an examination of literature, cultural studies, theoretical texts, and films. Students who enroll in this course must be willing to engage with the above listed and other related issues. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Samuel Selvon, The Lonely Londoners; Joan Riley, Waiting in the Twilight; Bernardine Evaristo, Lara; Buchi Emecheta, Head Above Water; Baker, et al, eds., Black British Cultural Studies; James Proctor, ed., Writing Black Britain, 1948-1998.
342 A (Contemporary Novel)
Although difficult to define, the term postmodern suggests both a way of conceptualizing culture and a departure from modernist aesthetics. In this course, we will investigate the ideological and stylistic similarities and contrasts between novels termed postmodern. The texts we will analyze take a variety of forms -- print, graphic novel, and hypertext. As we discuss these works, we will consider how postmodern narrative experimentation differs from modernist experimentation. We will also examine how postmodern novels emerge from, shape, and critique contemporary culture. By the end of the course, students will have developed an understanding of what it means for contemporary culture adn texts to be deemed postmodern. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Paul Auster, City of Glass; Don DeLillo, White Noise: Text & Criticism; Neil Gaiman & David McKean, Violent Cases; Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl (CD-ROM); Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony; photocopied course packet.
345 A (Studies in Film)
MW 1:30-4:20/TTh 1:30-3:20
American Independent Film Since Soderbergh. How do we define the independent film in America? When Steven Soderbergh won the Oscar for Best Director at the 2001 Academy Awards, it marked the culmination of a fitting metaphor for the development of the American independent industry and its commodification by the Hollywood industry. Debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989, Soderbergh’s sex, lies and videotape was hailed as the coming of American independent cinema’s new voice, and was almost single-handedly responsible for establishing Sundance as the primary marketplace for filmmakers looking to make an entrance to the American film industry. Soderbergh’s career since 1989 has shuttled between intensely personal and esoteric films such as Schizopolis (1996) and more straightforward, though intelligent, Hollywood fare such as Out of Sight (1998). Looking to Soderbergh’s career and Sundance’s history as two templates for understanding recent events in American film, this course traces the independent aesthetic through filmmakers such as Richard Linklater, Hal Hartley, Quentin Tarantino, and Alison Anders. Pointing to films like Being John Malkovich (1999), Election (1999), American Beauty (1999), and Soderbergh’s Traffic (2000), we will discuss the influence of the independents upon the larger film industry. Soderbergh’s acceptance of the Best Director Oscar then parallels both the commercial victory of American independent filmmaking and the consumption of that vision by Hollywood at large. Text: Emmanuel Levy, Cinema of Outsiders.
350 A (Traditions in American Fiction)
Stories of Experience: Work, Writing and Selfhood. This course explores the relationship between work, writing, and selfhood in nineteenth-century American literature, focusing on the increasingly fraught dichotomy between mental and manual labor in an industrializing society. We will gain a working familiarity with this important theme through an examination of literary texts in a variety of genres: the nature essay, the romance, sentimental fiction, and the naturalist novel. Theoretical and historical contexts for our inquiry will include writings by John Locke, Karl Marx, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and some historical and cultural texts. Questions we’ll consider: How do nineteenth-century writers conceptualize the relationship between writing and other forms of work (agrarian, industrial, domestic)? What relationships to oneself, and to the material and social worlds do these various forms of mental and physical work enable or restrict? How and why do nineteenth-century writers resurrect, reinvent, or reject the agrarian ideals of eighteenth-century writers like de Crevecoeur and Jefferson? How do experiences of work give rise to selfhood, and/or how do experiences of selfhood constitute a form of resistance to work? How can these nineteenth-century texts inform our thinking about our own work, scholarly and otherwise, in a post-industrial world? Students should come prepared to approach the work of the course with vigor and curiosity. Active participation, both physical and mental, is required. Assignments will include several short reading responses, one short and one long essay, one group presentation, and a final exam. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Davis, Life in the Iron Mills; Thoreau, Walden; Hawthorne, The Blithesdale Romance; Alcott, Work: A Story of Experience; Dreiser, Sister Carrie; photocopied course packet.
352 A (American Literature: The Early Nation)
Conflicting visions of the national destiny and the individual identity in the early years of America's nationhood Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Margaret Fuller, Summer on the Lakes; Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; Henry Thoreau, The Portable Thoreau; Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Portable Hawthorne; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selections; Herman Melville, Moby-Dick.
353 A (American Literature: Later 19th C.)
We will concentrate on major American writers and their efforts to create satisfying art during an especially interesting period in American history. How these authors responded to a variety of traumas, jolts, and anxieties--the Civil War, the accelerating rate of growth and technological change, the rise of commercialism, the waning of old values, the new discoveries of science--will be the subject of the course. Probably two papers of reasonable length and a final exam. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems; Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Henry James, The Portable Henry James; Stephen Crane, The Portable Stephen Crane; Kate Chopin, The Awakening and Selected Stories; Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories.
354 A (American Literature: The Early Modern Period)
Literary Modernism in the United States: The Cosmopolitan Paradox. In this introduction to literary modernism, we will ask how canonical texts both interrupt and extend the nationalism of “American literature.” Literary modernism has at times been described as a profoundly cross-national phenomenon. Modernism arose in a range of national contexts, resulting in a complex cosmopolitan dialogue on aesthetic expression and historical innovation. Particularly in the United States, high modernist experiments with form and the materiality of language seemed to supplant earlier, more nationalist concerns associated with nineteenth century romance and realist fiction. Yet high modernism in the U.S. has also been perceived to punctuate and extend the nationalist concerns of early periods. In this class, we will read key canonical texts to compare modernist attempts to “make it new” with companion efforts to explore the legacy of the “old” in early twentieth century literature. Over the course of these readings, we will explore how literary modernism intersects with the modern city, cosmopolitanism, colonialism, and the construction of “history,” asking in particular how specific texts have been canonized to represent this era as a literary period. In this course we will read critical manifestos and creative work by the following authors: Henry James, William Dean Howells, Gertrude Stein, James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. DuBois, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, William Faulkner, Jean Toomer, William Carlos Williams, Countee Cullen, Ernest Hemingway, Nella Larsen, and Djuna Barnes. Majors only, Registration Period 1.
355 A (American Literature: Contemporary America)
Contemporary American Literature of Nature: The West. This course explores a field that is developing in English departments and is a relatively new departure for me (as a Western American who love the region and its writing but usually teaches 19th-century British literature). While English classes offer “acculturation” in language and literature, here you will go “back to nature.” But culture is part of nature – as Gary Snyder says, words are wild. Following initial short readings from the Bible, William Shakespeare, Edmund Burke, Henry David Thoreau, and John Muir that set historical reference points in a tradition of nature writing, the course then directs its main focus to American Literature of Nature in the West from the mid-20th century to the present. The West here means the West Coast and inland Northwest. Our region has produced writers worthy of the tradition.
In registering, you should be aware of the focus on Western Literature of Nature (mostly contemporary), rather than expecting general coverage of Contemporary American Literature. And be aware that the “Western” of story and the silver screen is a subject in itself and beyond our range. Perspectives include: Christian, pastoral, romantic-sublime, Zen, environmentalist, work-oriented, native American, feminine-feminist. We cover essays, history, fiction, poetry, video/film, making for quite a number of works, but many are in slim volumes or short selections. Class format: lecture-discussion. Class participation is expected. Expect two essay exams and a paper (c. 8-9 pp.), counting 30%, 30%, 40%. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts drawn from: In-class handouts of passages from the Bible and Shakespeare; photocopied course packet including Edmund Burke, “Of the Sublime and the Beautiful” (sel.), with Barry Lopez, “A Presentation of Whales”; if time allows, video viewing of Ishi Between Two Worlds from Theodora Kroeber’s account; video viewing of Marc Reisner’s “Cadillac Desert” (Pt. I); John McPhee, “Los Angeles Against the Mountains”; Henry David Thoreau, Walden (sel.); John Muir, The Yosemite (sel.); Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums; James Welch, Winter in the Blood; a story from Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; 1-2 essays from Victor Davis Hanson, Fields without Dreams; Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces (sel.); Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping; sel. from The Gary Snyder Reader; recommended: William Cronon, Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (sel., esp. essay by former UW historian/environmentalist Richard White).
359 A (Contemporary American Indian Literature)
In this course we will engage American Indian novels with Benedict Anderson’s idea of imagined communities. We will ask what kinds of communities these novels imagine and how these imaginings relate to, engage with, challenge, and contradict national narratives, and how such a critical investigation might be a useful way of studying American Indian literature. Further we will examine the questions these novels raise about history, space, narration, and nation, and how the form of the novel assists a particular text in making its argument. This course will help students develop and practice critical reading and thinking skills, ask intellectually stimulating questions, and situate texts within larger critical contexts. Students are expected to be prepared and actively participate in class discussions. Grades will be based on participation, a group presentation/project, weekly response papers, a short mid-term paper, and a longer final paper. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Offered jointly with AIS 377. Texts: James Welch, The Heartsong of Charging Elk; Louise Erdrich, Tracks; Thomas King, Green Grass Running Water; Ella Deloria, Waterlily; Leslie Silko, Ceremony; photocopied course packet.
363A (Literature and the Other Arts and Disciplines)
Freud and Modern Literature. In a series of endeavors to define and redefine the psychic apparatus, Sigmund Freud frequently concerned himself with art and literature as a terrain in which the otherwise suppressed content of the Ego surfaces and makes itself available for psychoanalytic interpretation. Artistic production becomes a method that bypasses social constraints and momentarily liberates unconscious drives within the creative medium, a process that in turn is emulated by the recipient of art and thus explains the pleasure associated with 'entertainment.' The course invites participants to familiarize themselves with Freudian theory and to explore its application to a variety of cultural subjects such as literature, painting and film. At the same time – more than a hundred years after the inception of psychoanalysis – a course on Freudian theory must prompt a discussion that examines the relevance of psychoanalytic description and investigates various modes of its reinvention. Readings, discussions, and assignments are in English. Offered with GERM 390A, C LIT 320A .
370 A (English Language Study)
English 370 is an introduction to the study of the English language. Our focus will be on language as both systematic and social. We will examine the structures of English - from sounds to syntax, from words to texts - in order to accurately describe and analyze the language we all use. We will also question these structures and their social implications. This course will require you to think about language in new ways, and to explore the social, political, and personal power that language encodes. Majors only, Registration Period 1.
381 A (Advanced Expository Writing)
The Art of the Essay: Nature/Science and Writing. This is first and foremost a course in advanced expository writing. That is, you should be prepared for a great deal of practice in the writing process. Topically, this quarter we will take advantage of the season and spend a majority of our time thinking about our writing in relation to nature. Defining nature will likely be an ongoing and incomplete endeavor. We will read a variety of current essays focusing on topics of science and nature and discuss the rhetoric, craft and discourse assumptions of this genre. We will also consider the role of environment on our own writing. Rain or shine, we will spend some time practicing writing exercises outdoors. Writing assignments will include daily responses and exercises, three multi-draft essays (two on topics of your choice), and numerous peer reviews. We will revise our writing in a supportive workshop environment. The reading will be light; the writing will be heavy. Most of all, come prepared to care about and take responsibility for your writing. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Natalie Angier, ed., The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2002; Andrea A. Lunsford, The Everyday Writer/With 2001 APA Update.
381 B (Advanced Expository Writing)
Writing and Environment. This advanced composition course offers experienced writers a chance to hone their skills by examining questions of audience, context, purpose, and style in the dynamic arena of public discourse about nature and the environment. Rather than focusing exclusively on the nature essay, we will consider a variety of ways in which writers use language to convey experience and influence public opinion. We will read and experiment with at least three distinct genres: the academic essay, the personal narrative, and the editorial or polemical opinion piece. Course work will involve some research, an outdoor field trip, a "newswatch" assignment, and a lot of writing and revision, including peer workshops and, yes, some intensive practice revising sentences for effectiveness, clarity, and grace. Student should come prepared to adopt a lively curiosity about environmental questions, and to attend thoughtfully to language on the level of the word, the sentence, and the paragraph. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Anderson, Slovic & O'Grady, eds., Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture; Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace; photocopied course packet.
381 C (Advanced Expository Writing)
Concentration on the development of prose style for experienced writers. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Text: photocopied course packet.
382 A (Advanced Web Writing)
The internet is like one of those garbage dumps outside of Bombay. There are people, most unfortunately, crawling all over it, and maybe they find a bit of aluminum, or perhaps something they can sell. But mainly it’s garbage. (Dr. Joseph Weizenbaum, author of the ELIZA [aka “doctor”] program.)
383 A (Intermediate Verse Writing)
Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem. Further development of fundamental skills. Emphasis on revision. Prerequisite: ENGL 283.
383 B (Intermediate Verse Writing)
Poetry Writing: Form and Pattern. A workshop exploring poetic forms and patterns of contemporary poetry – sound, language, and imagery. Prerequisite: ENGL 283. Text: Bosselaar, Urban Nature.
384 A (Intermediate Short Story Writing)
In this course we will test the notion that the best teacher of writing is writing. Students will be responsible for three short works of fiction as well as weekly writing assignments. Furthermore, each student will be responsible for detailed analysis and critique of their colleagues’ work. There will be no airy lectures on the vague guidelines of crafting solid fiction; instead, class discussions will be based on in-hand manuscripts and the specific problems and concerns that you, as a writer, bring to the table. Outside reading will be expected, though not policed. Writing is the key here. Prerequisite: ENGL 284. No texts.
384 B (Intermediate Short Story Writing)
Exploring and developing continuity in the elements of fiction writing. Methods of extending and sustaining plot, setting, character, point of view, and tone. Prerequisite: ENGL 284.
384 C (Intermediate Short Story Writing)
This class continues the introduction to fiction writing series through the study and practice of the short story. Various elements of story writing such as character, narrative, style of voice, structure and theme will be explored through reading, discussion, and writing exercises. Besides exercises, students will be responsible for writing a minimum of one short story plus a substantial story revision. The course will also include in-class workshops of student work-in-progress. Prerequisite: ENGL 284. No texts.