Fall Courses 2011
ENG 307: English Travelers in the Middle-East: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
M, W 2:30-3:45
Dr. Mary Jo Kietzman
Since the Renaissance, Western civilizations and nations have defined themselves in relation to the Middle East. This course surveys a history of encounters from the Renaissance to the present between English travelers and the native Muslim as well as individuals belonging to other religious and ethnic groups they encountered in the Ottoman Empire, Morocco, and later the nations of the Middle East. As well as understanding a great deal about the ways travel writing and encounters with the Middle East shaped Western civilization, students will learn about Islam and the cultures of many different Middle Eastern countries. The texts we study, more and less literary, give students access to historical, political, sociological, and anthropological understandings of foreign cultures. Furthermore, travel writing is a perfect antidote to media journalism dominated by the sound byte since writers strive to convey the experience of being on the ground, encountering the otherness of places and peoples. As a result, students learn a lot about geography and the natural world in the process.
This course fulfills the Global Studies General Education requirement. It also may be counted toward the English Department pre-1800 British Literature requirement.
Eng 336: History And Principles Of Rhetoric
MW 4:00-5:15
Dr. Stephanie Roach
Curious about RHETORIC? Interested in the STUDY OF LANGUAGE? Want to learn how FAMOUS THINKERS have thought about the RESPONSIBILITIES OF READERS AND WRITERS
and the POWER OF LANGUAGE?
ENG 336 is as an introduction to rhetorical theory that surveys the history of rhetoric from the Greeks to the 20th Century. ENG 336 examines current and historical definitions of rhetoric and explores the evolution and development of some of the historical thinking about language and rhetoric that has influenced modern composition theory and practice. ENG 336 helps fulfill the “Composition Theory” requirement for those majoring in English with a Specialization in Writing but is taken by anyone interested in a historical look at how oral and written language works.
Required text:
The Rhetoric of Western Thought from the Mediterranean World to the Global Setting, 9th edition, Golden, Berquist, Coleman and Sproule. Kendall/Hunt Publishers, 2007.
ENG 400: Women & Fiction
T, TH 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Dr. Jacqueline Zeff
“I am not at all in a humour for writing; I must write on till I am.”
(Jane Austen in a letter to her sister, Cassandra, 26 October 1813)
In this seminar we will examine a variety of British, American, & Canadian women storytellers who write in many “humours” but all contribute to the re-imagining of prose fiction. Texts include:
J. Austen, Mansfield Park
V. Woolf, Orlando; A Room of One’s Own
T. Morrison, The Bluest Eye
P.D. James, A Certain Justice
J. Kogawa, Obasan
J. Alvarez, ¡Yo!
Plus student’s choice of a novel or short story collection in one of the following genres: science fiction, young adult, western, gothic
AMC 501: The Mind of American
R 4:00-6:45
Dr. Jacqueline Zeff
Fall 2011
Eng. 354-W1
Unv. 100-02 T/R 2:30 – 3:45 in 161 FHFrom this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,
Listening to others, considering well what they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.—Whitman, “Song of the Open Road”
What makes us distinctively American? What is American about how and what we think? Where are the tensions or contradictions in what we think we are? Who and what have influenced our ideas? This course is designed to introduce you to some Americans who “loos’d” their cultural limits and lines (real and imaginary), and whose complex and thoroughly “American” lives and achievements may help us more fully and clearly understand the American mind. Through reading, research, and classroom discussion we will explore how these writers, artists, architects, designers and activists defined and challenged their own American experience, and thereby shaped our own. And you will be encouraged to see and hear it all through the measure of your own cultural principles and intellectual experience.
This class is an elective for English MA students.
Texts:
Hughes, American Visions: the Epic History of Art in America
Emerson/Thoreau, Nature/Walking
Rybczynski, A Clearing in the Distance
Cather, O Pioneers!
Leopold, Sand County Almanac
Giovanni, The Collected Poems
Wilson, Seven Guitars
Eng. 562 Prose Fiction Forms
T 5:30-8:15
Dr. Stephanie Carpenter
This workshop-style course will explore a variety of prose fiction forms through study of published works and craft essays. These will provide a foundation and reference point for the most important component of the course: writing and discussing original student work. We will begin with a unit on flash fiction (stories of 1500 words or less), continue with a unit on longer short stories (of 5,000-10,000 words), and conclude with a unit on the short novel. Students will be expected to produce new work in each form, including an outline of a short novel or novel-in-stories.