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Department of English
Spring 2005 Courses ENG 112 Classical and Scriptural Backgrounds to Literature
Instructor: Hahn, T.
Mondays and Wednesdays,
CRN 47226 As the title suggests, this will be a comprehensive survey that tries to balance the understanding and enjoyment of individual works with a constant sense of the vast questions a course like this properly raises: how and why did people read these books during the last two millennia and more? why are we reading them now? what is the meaning of life? did the fall of Troy occur through the equivalent of a presidential sex scandal? We will read Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, substantial parts of Plato, a dozen or so Greek dramas, large chunks of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, and Dante's Inferno. The class will proceed by lecture and discussion. Fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the English major. Applicable English Clusters: Medieval Studies. See webpage at www.courses.rochester.edu/hahn/eng140/
ENG 114 British Literature II
Instructor: Gladfelder, H.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:50-6:05
CRN 47234
(Formerly Eng 151) This course surveys a small part of the range of British and Irish literature from the early eighteenth century to somewhere close to the present. We will explore the works in relation to their social, historical, and cultural contexts (including their relationships to earlier texts), and will engage them from a variety of critical and thematic angles. Among the authors whose works we'll read are Behn, Defoe, Gay, Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Browning, Hardy, Carroll, Wilde, Joyce, Yeats, Eliot, Woolf, Beckett, and Pat Barker. Applicable English Cluster: Modern and Contemporary Literature. (Formerly Eng 131) This course provides a broad overview and introduction to media. We will cover histories of different types of media (telegraph, radio, audio recordings, television, film, internet, etc.) as well as various theories and approaches to studying media. No prior knowledge is necessary, but a real interest and willingness to explore a variety of media will come in handy. Occasional outside screenings will be required (but if you cannot attend the scheduled screenings, you may watch the videos on your own time). Students will be evaluated based on assigned writing, class room discussion leading, participation, and short quizzes. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. (Formerly ENG 117) This course is intended for beginning fiction writers. Although focused as a traditional workshop in which students discuss each others short stories or novel segments as a group, there will also be assigned readings of selected short stories and literary essays. Permission of instructor required. Applicable English Cluster: Creative Writing; Novels. (Formerly Eng 116.) This introductory course is a workshop/seminar on the writing of poetry intended for students who have already begun to write poetry on their own. The course will work not only to develop poetry writing skills, but to improve our ability to talk about and appreciate a wide variety of poetry - narrative, lyric, formal, and experimental. Our study presumes that good writers are good readers and class time will be divided between the study of poetic models and the poetry workshop, where student writing will be openly discussed. Throughout the semester students will be required to complete a variety of writing assignments, including: exercises, critiques, responses to readings, and a final poetry portfolio. Permission of instructor is required. Please submit 3-5 poems to the instructor, preferably before the first class, since space is limited. Applicable English Clusters: Creative Writing; Poems, Poetry, and Poetics. (Formerly Eng 118) 2.0 credits. A course devoted to the understanding and execution of dramatic writing that is unique to the theatre. Students will analyze and discuss selected readings while writing an original one-act play to be completed by the end of the semester. Meets during one half of the semester only. Check the Theatre Program website for details. Applicable English cluster: Creative Writing.
ENG 132 Feature Writing
Instructor: Memmott, J.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:25-4:40
CRN 47300
(Formerly Eng 114) The study and practice of longer, more complicated newspaper and magazine stories, such as investigations and profiles. Emphasis will be on the consideration of the various techniques of non-fiction writing. Eng 131 and permission of instructor required. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. ENG 134 Public Speaking
Instructor: Smith, C.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:40-10:55
CRN 47325 (Formerly ENG 123) Basic public speaking is the focus of this course. Emphasis is placed on researching speeches, using appropriate language and delivery, and listening critically to oral presentations. English 134 contains two quizzes, a final exam, and four speeches to be given by the student. The speeches include a tribute, persuasive, explanatory, and problem solving address. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. ENG 135 Debate
Instructor: Nelson, S.
Mondays, 11:00-1:50
CRN 47333 (Formerly ENG 125) The purpose of this course is to give students an appreciation for and knowledge of critical thinking and reasoned decision-making through argumentation. Students will research both sides of a topic, write argument briefs, and participate in formal and informal debates. Students will also be exposed to the major paradigms used in judging debates. There will be two sections of this course, with two instructors, meeting at the same time so that the "teams" can debate each other. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication.
ENG 136 Advanced Debate
Instructor: Johnson, K.
Mondays, 2:00-4:40
CRN 47344
(Formerly Eng 126) Students will build their knowledge of debate theory and practice through varsity level intercollegiate competition and research. Prerequisites: ENG 135 or permission of instructor. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication.
ENG 138 Journalism Case Studies
Instructor: Memmott, J.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:50-6:05
CRN 68047
The study and analysis of a few high-impact news stories. Through readings and interviews with the reporters and editors who worked on the story, as well as interviews with the subjects of the stories, the class will gain an understanding of the issues involved in covering major news events. Eng 131 and permission of the instructor required. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. ENG 171 Technical Theater
Instructor: Gilfus, J.
CRN 70437 (Formerly ENG 177) This course investigates technical theater beyond the realms of Eng 290/291, Plays in Production. It focuses on work related to the scenic design and technical production of the two Fall Theatre Program productions. Working in small seminars and one-on-one tutorials, the instructor will assist students in learning more in their chosen technical areas and about problem solving scenic and technical questions raised by the set/s being built. Course work will consist of supervisory responsibilities, one major and several smaller research projects. Prerequisites: Eng 290 or 291. (Formerly Eng 179) Acting Techniques II focuses on developing the student's ability to analyze texts from a performer's viewpoint, on heightening the actor's sensitivity to language, on developing the actor's physical and vocal technique, on building a deeper awareness of character and characterization in the student actor, and on engaging and actively developing creativity and imagination. This is done by the constant investigation, rehearsal, and presentation of assorted texts ranging from poetry to contemporary and classical scenes and monologues. Attendance at all classes is mandatory. Note: Acting Techniques I is NOT a requirement for this class. ENG 177 Voice Techniques II
Instructor: Fox, S.
Mondays and Fridays, 4:50-6:05
CRN 47379 2 credits. An introductory course on voice for the actor. Classes will include physical warm-up exercises and vocal techniques. Meets during one half of the semester only - check the Theater Program website for dates. ENG 204 Chaucer
Instructor: Hahn, T.
Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:25-4:40
CRN 47410 (Formerly ENG 206) Chaucer's reputation as "Father of English Literature," though deserved, sometimes obscures the fact that he is perhaps the funniest (laugh-out-loud) writer in our language. He is also among the most intellectually curious, most book-learned, and most experimental of authors. Writing at a moment when there was virtually no "serious" poetic tradition in English (hence the title), Chaucer more or less invented vernacular literature as a category. He did this in part by placing the writer "Geffrey" - a version of himself - at the heart of many of his fictions, and this entirely likeable but totally elusive sense of Chaucerian personality contributes greatly to the pleasure and challenge of reading. Chaucer's language (Middle English) is old, and initially requires conscious effort for understanding; it is also one of the most distinctive and direct versions of English that we have, melodious, abrupt, and plangent by turns, memorable in itself and in the ways it forces us to pay attention to the language we now speak. We will read Troilus and Criseyde (one of the two or three greatest poems in English), The Canterbury Tales, and a selection of shorter narrative poems. Students will write two short papers or reports (2-3 pages each), and a longer final paper; there will be a final exam. Fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the English major. Applicable English Clusters: Medieval Studies; Great Books, Great Authors. ENG 210 Shakespeare
Instructor: Gross, K.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:50-6:05
CRN 47432 The course will explore the full range of Shakespeare's theater, including history plays, comedy, tragedy, and romance. We will be approaching the plays from many angles, looking at their extravagant language, their invention of complex human psyches, their love of intricate plots, their theatrical game-playing, their fascination with madness and delusion, their use of ghosts, witchcraft, and magic, their penetrating explorations of human history and politics. Lectures will consider Shakespeare both in his own time and in ours, in order to understand why his work still speaks to us so powerfully, why modern writers and directors cannot get Shakespeare out of their heads. We'll also be doing in-class readings of scenes from the plays, as well as some performance exercises and even parodies of the plays, in order to get more direct access to their dramatic life. The reading list will include Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Coriolanus, Antonyand Cleopatra, and The Winter's Tale. Course Work: two shorter and one longer essay and a final examination. Also fulfills pre-1800 requirement for the English major. Applicable English Clusters: Great Books, Great Authors; Plays, Playwrights, and Theater. This course will examine the texts of sixteenth-century English Renaissance magic. Alongside Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Jonson's The Alchemist, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Milton's Comus, we will read the works of Renaissance magicians such as Agrippa, Bruno, and Dee, as well as Renaissance psychologists and theologians, and twentieth-century historians and anthropologists of magic. As we explore the dynamic and conflicted relation between poetry and magic in the English Renaissance, we will also attempt to elaborate theories of the relationship between literary and magical language in general. Course requirements: a short mid-term and non-cumulative final, a 5-page paper, and a 10-page final paper. Fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the English major.
ENG 228 Slavery and the 20th Century African American Novel
Instructor: Tucker, J.
Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:25-4:40
CRN 47461
Although race-based chattel slavery in America officially ended well over a century ago, our nation continues to grapple with the legacies of "the peculiar institution." Slavery has haunted, in particular, the literary imaginations of African-American writers of the last century. This course surveys a range of African-American novels, from the end of the 19th century to our present era, in order to analyze the ways in which these texts both portray and represent slavery's lasting effects on American culture, society, and politics. Readings: Steven Barnes, Lion's Blood; Arna Bontemps, Black Thunder; Octavia Butler, Kindred; Pauline Hopkins, Contending Forces; Charles Johnson, Middle Passage; Edward P. Jones, The Known World; Gayl Jones, Corregidora; Toni Morrison, Beloved, Song of Solomon; Margaret Walker, Jubilee. Students will be evaluated on class participation, an in-class presentation, weekly reading responses, and two formal papers. Applicable English Cluster: American and African American Studies; may be applied to the cluster on Modern and Contemporary Literature on an exceptional basis.
ENG 230 Whitman Traditions
Instructor: Michael, J.
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:15
CRN 68367
(Formerly Eng 325) We will focus on the works of Walt Whitman, Jean Toomer, Hart Crane, and William Carlos Williams. In each case we will develop readings of the major works of each poet, with special attention to the attempt in each case to create the paradoxical form of an "American epic." We will also develop an account of the idea of poetry, the claims made for poetry, and the character of the poetic career of each writer. We will consider less extensively but in some detail works by T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and others to help us frame these questions. We will consider the nature and significance of "tradition" for these poets, the surprising importance of gender and sexual identity in their work, and the visions of American culture and history that each reflects upon and helps construct. May be applied on an exceptional basis to the English Cluster in American and African American Studies.
(Formerly Eng 232) When the now-classic novels of writers like Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and D.H. Lawrence were published in the first part of the 20th century, readers were shocked by both their style and content. In the face of revolutionary upheavals in social and political life and in the understanding of human psychology and personal relationships (including the devastating effects of WWI), modernist writers proclaimed the end of fiction as we know it, calling into question the very notion of "reality". Looking back at this fiction from our vantage point at the beginning of the 21st century, we will reconsider what made these works both "modern" and shocking". We will pay particular attention to the challenges they posed to received understandings of gender, sexuality, history, and personal identity, and to the ways they explored the limits and possibilities of language and representation. Pairing earlier twentieth-century novels with novels from the second half of the century, we will also look at the way later writers revised the idea of modern consciousness and the fiction appropriate to it and at the ways they responded to the post WWII remapping of the British Empire and to the construction of postmodern and postcolonial identities. Applicable English Clusters: Novels; Modern and Contemporary Literature. ENG 232 Modern Literature
Instructor: Longenbach, J.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:05-12:20
CRN 68348 Looking back over the twentieth-century, this course will concentrate on the innovative, often wildly experimental writing produced in the period we still call "modernist". We will concentrate on five writers, two of them American (T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound), two of them Irish (W.B. Yeats and James Joyce), and one of English (Virginia Woolf). We will read some of the most beautiful and ambitious works of the century (Eliot's Waste Land, Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway), but the centerpiece of the course will inevitably be our extended reading of Joyce's novel Ulysses - one of the most difficult, most rewarding books in our language. And while we will consider the individual achievements of all the writers, we will also consider their work in the context of the avant-garde aesthetic and social movements in which these writers participated. Course Work: participation in class discussion, two papers, several short tests, and a final exam. Applicable English Cluster: Modern and Contemporary Literature. ENG 237 Contemporary Poetry
Instructor: Keith, S.
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:00-10:50
CRN 47493 “I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave all out would be another, and truer, way,” writes John Ashbery in his poem The New Spirit. And similarly this course will examine the ways poetry best speaks and resists speaking within the context of contemporary American culture. We will consider the relationship between poetry and new conceptions of history, race, ethnicity, and sexuality as well as amongst current political and environmental crises. After a preliminary study of John Ashbery’s first books, through which we will witness how poetic tradition crosses experiment and also familiarize ourselves with new poetic vocabulary (including indeterminacy and disjunction), we will study a variety of innovative projects by the poets writing today. How have the traditional schools collided with and expanded into contemporary poetry? What are the songs like that the poets now sing? How can we best describe and enjoy them? Our study will likely include Jorie Graham, Carl Phillips, Agha Shahid Ali, Harryette Mullen, Myung Mi Kim, d.a. powell, and Dean Young, as well as Alan Shapiro and Louise Glück who will visit the University of Rochester for a reading. Applicable English Clusters: Creative Writing; Poems, Poetry, and Poetics; Modern and Contemporary Literature. ENG 238 MisReadings - The Fiction Writer as Critic, The Critic as Fiction Writer
Instructor: Anastasopoulos, D.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45
CRN 68240 In this course, we will read the novels and critical essays of selected fiction writers in order to investigate the terms by which they elaborate, critique, and/or misread (as the case may be) the writing of other novelists. Taking Maurice Blanchot’s fictions as well his theories of fiction and fictional language as the lynchpin of the seminar, the class will begin by reading several of Gogol’s short stories (The Nose and The Overcoat respectively), before turning to Nabokovs critical work on Gogol. We will then read Nabokovs Pale Fire, before investigating Nabokov’s essay on Proust. From the first volume of Prousts In Search of Lost Time (Swann’s Way), we will then turn to Beckett’s book on Proust. From Beckett’s fictions (Murphy or Watt) we will move on to Blanchot’s writings on Beckett. From Blanchot’s Madness of the Day, we will continue on to Helene Cixou’s comparative essay of Blanchot’s fiction and the novels of Clarice Lispector. The course will end with a reading of Lispector’s novel The Foreign Legion and Cixou’s novel Promethea. The structure of this course, in other words, will take on a chain-link approach - connecting writers to writers, their fictions, as well as their theories on writing in order to investigate the poetics of writers as they describe them in their own terms. We will ask questions such as (for instance): why does Nabokov deem Gogol a ventriloquist (with regard to the question of realism), or Gogol’s fictions four-dimensional? What do these terms reveal about Nabokov’s own technique, and the problems of narration he undertakes to resolve in his own work? By investigating the roles of both writer and critic that writers of fiction have alternately played during their careers, this course hopes to answer not just how writers think about fiction when they write, but to also identify the problems with which they struggle - how they choose to elaborate the questions they have asked themselves about fiction in critical forms. Applicable English Cluster: Modern and Contemporary Literature.
This course will survey the major schools of modern and postmodern literary criticism and theory, including formalism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, gender and race theory, queer theory, new historicism and cultural studies, post-colonial criticism, and deconstruction. Our purpose will be not only to understand the ideas of these different schools of thought but also to discern the ends which these ideas serve in their critical and institutional contexts. Course requirements: daily reaction paragraphs, a 5-page mid-term paper, and a 15-page final paper (graduate students must write a 25-to 30-page final paper. ENG 242 Death in Renaissance Drama
Instructor: Kegl, R.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:40-10:55
CRN 68283
This course is organized around a careful analysis of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English comedies, tragedies, and romances. The plays’ depictions of death vary in kind – macabre and mundane, sensationalized and sanitized, feigned and fantastic—and yet share an oddly elusive quality. Over the semester we will consider why these plays so delighted and horrified their Renaissance audiences, why these plays demanded that characters and audiences struggle to make sense of their death scenes, and what a close consideration of death on stage might tell us about the authors’ manipulation of comic and tragic conventions.We also will become familiar with descriptions of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century theatrical spaces – their geographical location and physical properties, the composition of their audiences, the training and performance practices of their actors, and the aesthetic, economic, and political contexts of their productions. Readings include plays by Beaumont and Fletcher, Cary, Dekker, Ford, Johnson, Kyd, Marlowe, Marston, Middleton, Shakespeare, and Webster. Fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the English major. Applicable English Cluster: Plays, Playwrights, and Theater. ENG 244 Black Intellectuals
Instructor: Michael, J .
Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:50-6:05
CRN 68537 In this course we will, starting with the nineteenth-century in the U.S., consider the special contributions of black intellectuals to the culture and controversies of America and the Atlantic world. Analyses and criticisms of racial identity, national belonging, artistic expression, and gender politics as well as novels, plays, and films will focus our discussions. Works by Wheatley, Douglass, Jacobs, Crummell, DuBois, Washington, Harper, Leroy, Cesaire, Wilson, Lee, Gates, West, Appiah, Gilroy, Morrison, and Williams will figure prominently in our discussions. The word romance has come to refer to a type of popular fiction written primarily by and for women, usually of indifferent literary quality. However, these are relatively modern attitudes. For most of their history, romances were written for the consumption of both men and women, and often for the wealthiest and most sophisticated readers. Many of the most ubiquitous modern genres including horror, science fiction, and fantasy developed directly out of romance. In this class, we will trace the evolution of the romance from the royal courts of the Middle Ages to the modern-day drugstore rack. Readings may include selections from Chaucer and Jane Austen, as well as those from a number of less well-known writers. ENG 246 Detective Fiction
Instructor: Grella, G.
Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:25-4:40
CRN 68312
We will read and discuss a generous sampling of some of the major authors and books of detective fiction, concentrating on the twentieth century. The syllabus will demonstrate the history and development of the form in both England and America. We will also read some of the significant secondary material. The authors may include Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and others. Not open to freshmen. ENG 247 Science Fiction
Instructor: Tucker, J.
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 11:00-11:50
CRN 68269 (Formerly Eng 244) This course covers a range of science fiction texts and issues, including the genre's European literary antecedents, its "roots" in American pulp fiction, the emergence of the science fiction novel, the genre's treatment of issues of difference, the rise of cyberpunk, and beyond. Authors include Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Hugo Gernsback, John Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Samuel R. Delany, Joanna Russ, Octavia Butler, William Gibson, Maureen McHugh and more. Course Work: Students will be evaluated on class participation, weekly reading responses, and two formal papers. Instructor: Bleich, D.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-3:15
CRN 47520
This course considers the founding of Hollywood by the sons of East European Jewish immigrants in the early part of the 20th century. Readings include some histories of Hollywood, such as Neal Gabler's An Empire of Their Own. Some attention is given to how film making grew from earlier popular art forms and, under the influence of several major Jewish studio heads, took on forms and values of Yiddish theater melodrama, which blended with indigeneous American values and styles. The course will try to relate generic features of Hollywood films and related popular literature--such as the happy ending, the relation of women to men, the treatment of love and violence, the use of spectacle, the western, gangster, family, and glamor motifs--to Jewish and American values, their differences, and their combinations. If there is interest film music can also be part of the course. Mandatory weekly film screenings. Applicable English cluster: Literature and Ethnicity. ENG252 Theatre in England: Course Description, Winter 2005-06 Past students describe this course as “an incredible experience, unlike any other,” “one of the best of my life,” and “the richest exposure to contemporary theater imaginable in a two-week time frame.” The course will be conducted in London and Stratford-upon-Avon from January 1, 2006, through January 14, 2006, (15 nights). We will see between 18 to 20 plays, depending on what is on. If you wish to see what students have seen in previous years, go to the web site for the course, where you can investigate various aspects of the seminar—syllabi from 1992 to the present; student journals; information about the Harlingford Hotel, in Bloomsbury, where we always stay; the London Theatre scene in general; our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon; the visit to Warwick Castle; and a host of pictures. Last year’s offerings provide a good index of what’s to come, a wonderful slate of great plays with great casts. We ended up seeing at least eighteen plays in all, including Holly Hunter in Marina Carr’s remarkable play, By the Bog of Cats; Sleeping Beauty at the elaborate Barbican Theatre; Nikolai Erdman’s biting satire, The Mandate; Alan Bennett’s Olivier Award winner, The History Boys; the world premier of Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Fix-Up; Nicholas Wright’s richly mythic and phenomenally staged play, His Dark Materials; an Icelandic acrobatic troupe’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet (followed by a very different production of the same play by the Royal Shakespeare Company); Festen, directed by Olivier Award-winner David Eldridge; Aladdin rendered in comic pantomime; William Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona and Julius Caesar, both performed at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon; the tragicomic musical, Grand Hotel; concluded by Mel Brooks’ smash hit, The Producers, which has won numerous awards on both sides of the Atlantic. London is the world’s greatest theater city, and we will certainly see the best of what is running when we are there. Most of the plays will be in the West End or at the National Theatre or at experimental theatres like the Royal Court. The course will include a backstage tour of the National Theatre; we might also visit the old and new Tate Galleries, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Art, the Courtauld Institute, the Tower, the London Museum, and Dickens’ House. There will be time to witness the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and to explore the market at Covent Garden, the antique shops of Islington or Portobello Market, and to go to Harrods. And you will be able to sample the atmosphere of many a historic pub, like the Sherlock Holmes. You might also want to hear evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral and/or Westminster Abbey and attend free lunchtime concerts at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. We will stay at the Harlingford Hotel, 61-63 Cartwright Gardens, a couple of blocks from the British Museum and the new British Library. The course is restricted to 23 students and carries four credits. The fee is $1950.00, which includes tickets to all plays and housing. A down payment of $700 is due at the English Department office in Morey Hall on or before October 10, 2005. The remaining $1,250 will be charged to your November term bill. Students must obtain passports and make their own travel arrangements to and from London. You will need to leave the United States on the evening of December 31, 2004 at the latest. Return flights may be scheduled for Sunday, January 15, 2006, or later. The UR second semester begins on Wednesday, January 18, 2006. You may obtain an application form from the English Department or Professor Peck. You need permission of the instructor to register. See Professor Peck for more details (phone 275-0110 or 473-7354). (Formerly Eng 134B) This course will explore the developments in world cinema - industrial, technological, social and political - in the second half of the sound period (1959 to the present). What brought about the collapse of the Hollywood studio system? What's new about the French New Wave? What do we mean by "Third Cinema"? How do different national cinemas influence each other? Requirements: mandatory weekly screenings, participation in class discussions, weekly film journals, and three take-home exams. Applicable English clusters: Modern and Contemporary Literature; Media, Culture, and Communication.
ENG 260 Studies in Film History: Films of the 30's
Instructor: Grella, G.
Wednesdays, 6:15-10:00 p.m.
CRN 68431 The course will deal with a selection of American films from the richest and possibly most important decade in the history of Hollywood. We will screen and discuss a variety of genres, from horror to documentary, concentrating on the films themselves, their place in the history of cinema, their relevance to social, political, and cultural issues. Supplementary reading will include texts on the period and on films of the time. Two or three papers will be required, along with a final examination. Possible films include King Kong, Frankenstein, Our Daily Bread, Public Enemy, Golddiggers of 1933, Dinner at Eight, etc. Applicable English Clusters: Media, Culture, and Communication; Modern and Contemporary Literature.
ENG 265 Blaxploitation and its Contexts
Instructor: Wlodarz, J.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45
CRN 68560
In the history of black cinema, seldom has a body of filmmaking been as controversial and as rife with contradiction as the so-called blaxploitation films of the early 1970s. An outgrowth of the collapse of the Hollywood studio system, the civil rights and Black Power movements, the counterculture, feminism, and gay liberation, the blaxploitation films embody the cultural crises of 70s America. Although the short-lived era remains tainted in the eyes of many due to valid charges of white opportunism and black exploitation, the cultural significance of blaxploitation cinema cannot be overestimated given its undeniable influence on both hip-hop culture and contemporary filmmaking (from Tarantino to John Singleton to the Hughes Brothers). The primary goal of this course will be to unpack the culturally loaded term "blaxploitation" in terms of its relationship to economics, audience, identity politics, art, music, stardom, and genre. While the core of the course will focus on legendary films such as Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Shaft, Coffy, Superfly and The Mack, the "contexts" surrounding this body of films will be given similar critical attention. Thus, readings by key Black Power figures such as Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton, Angela Davis, and Amiri Baraka will help establish one primary context for the genre. In addition, works by black literary figures such as James Baldwin, Chester Himes, and Iceberg Slim will help further ground film discussions. Finally, mainstream counterpoints to blaxploitation such as Sounder and Claudine will be analyzed alongside the fully independent countercinema of UCLA filmmakers Haile Gerima, Charles Burnett, and Julie Dash. Critical readings on the period will include the work of Donald Bogle, Robyn Wiegman, Ed Guerrero, Jennifer Devere Brody, Kobena Mercer, and Michelle Wallace. Potential screenings include: Willie Dynamite, Car Wash, Cooley High, Cleopatra Jones, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Across 110th Street, Black Belt Jones, and The Wiz. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. ENG 266 Sound Theory
Instructor: Wlodarz, J.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:25-4:40
CRN 68606 Although cinema is an audiovisual medium, there has long been a tendency by critics, historians, theorists, and audiences to privilege the visual component of film over the essential element of film sound. In an attempt to redress this imbalance, this course will focus on the technological, cultural, and theoretical histories of film sound throughout the twentieth century. We will examine the use of sound in silent cinema, radios role in the development of sound cinema, alternative and avant-garde uses of sound, and the complex effects of contemporary sound technologies (Dolby, THX, DTS, etc.) on the medium and experience of film. The course will also pay particular attention to the role of voice (and song) in cinema as well as the various ways that sound technology and sound practices affect our understanding of narrative, space, the body, and social identity. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. Museums are no longer mere repositories of fine art treasures - they are complex, multipurpose organizations that exhibit a growing variety of artifacts and cater to an increasing diverse public. Taking full advantage of George Eastman House's rich cultural heritage and screening facility, this course combines a training in motion picture, video, and photography archiving, with classes in the following: preservation; research; programming; cataloging; digital technologies; management and interpretation of collections; museum politics and policies; philosophies of collecting; museum architecture; fundraising; and education. Students have the opportunity to pursue specific projects and are encouraged to maintain an active involvement in an area of study relevant to their academic interests and professional talents. Film screenings will be organized on a weekly basis at the end of each class. Enrollment is limited to 20 students. This course investigates technical theater beyond the realms of Eng 170 (Technical Theatre). It focuses on work related to the scenic design and technical production of the two Fall Theatre Program productions. Working in small seminars and one-on-one tutorials, the instructor will assist students in learning more in the chosen technical areas and about problem solving scenic and technical questions raised by the set/s being built. Course work will consist of su supervisory responsibilities, one major and several smaller research projects. Prerequisite: Eng 290/291. ENG 276 Advanced Creative Writing – Poetry
Instructor: Longenbach, J.
Tuesdays, 2:00-4:40
CRN 47607 (Formerly Eng 360) Advanced creative writing workshop in poetry. Work by various contemporary poets will provide the framework for explorations into technique and poetic narrative. Students' poems will be discussed weekly. Students will be expected to do extensive reading and research on their own and to keep a poetic journal. Assignments will be given, but there is a lot of latitude for students who wish to design a poetic project or work on a series. Prerequisites: Eng 122 or equivalent work. Permission of (Formerly Eng 248) This course prepares selected undergraduates for work as writing advisors. The course design reflects the kind of growth that is necessary for a strong, intuitive writer and speaker to become a successful reader, listener and responder in peer-advising situations. Through a great deal of writing and rewriting, critical reading of published essays and student work, and informal and formal speaking, students will develop a conscious understanding of themselves as communicators and become aware of the choices they make to reach their audience. The course work includes four formal essays in draft and revised forms, group and individual presentations, informal writing and speaking, and regular critiques of peers' written and spoken work. Through a mentor program coordinated by the current writing fellows, students will also observe writing tutors conducting writing conferences and then begin conducting their own sessions. By the semester's end, students should be ready to take on their own hours as writing advisors. Special application required. ENG 286 Presidential Rhetoric
Instructor: Smith, C.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:25-4:40
CRN 47642 (Formerly ENG 375). "Presidential Rhetoric", taught by former Presidential speechwriter Curt Smith, helps students critically examine the public rhetoric and themes of the modern American presidency. Particular attention will be given to the symbolic nature of the office, focusing on the ability of 20th-century presidents to communicate via a variety of forums, including the press conference, inaugural and acceptance speeches, political speech, and prime-time television address. Mr. Smith will draw on many of his experiences in Washington and with ESPN/ABC Television to link the most powerful office in the world and today's dominant medium. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. ENG 287 Communication and Controversy: The Rhetoric of Terrorism
Instructor: Nelson, S.
Mondays, 2:00-4:40
CRN 47650 Ever since September 11, 2001, scholars of rhetoric, not only in the United States but throughout the world, have substantially increased their efforts in an attempt to better understand terrorism. Students will learn basic rhetorical analysis techniques and then apply these techniques in critiquing historical and current speech acts and primary texts dealing with the issue of terrorism and counter-terrorism. Grades will be based on tests, a project, and a final paper. Applicable English cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. ENG 291 Plays in Production
Instructor: Maister, N.
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:40
CRN 47668 Each student in Plays in Production participates fully in the exciting behind-the-scenes world of theatrical production. Students build sets, create and make props and costumes, hang and rig lighting and sound equipment, and create and distribute publicity materials for the plays currently in production in Todd Theatre. The class comprises a once-weekly lecture and a series of practical labs. This 4.0-credit course meets for the entire semester. Applicable English Cluster: Plays, Playwrights, and Theater. "Plays in Performance" is a class made up of actors and stage managers working on the current production in Todd Theatre. Actors are cast after auditioning at the beginning of each semester. Students wishing to stage manage should approach the director of the production either at the time of auditions or before the beginning of the play's rehearsal process. Although there is no written component for this course (the performance of the play constitutes a final "exam"), a significant time commitment is required of actors and stage managers, both on weekday nights and over weekends. This class meets during the second half of the semester. Permission of instructor required. Applicable English Cluster: Plays, Playwrights, and Theater. "Plays in Performance" is a class made up of actors and stage managers working on the current production in Todd Theatre. Actors are cast after auditioning at the beginning of each semester. Students wishing to stage manage should approach the director of the production either at the time of auditions or before the beginning of the play's rehearsal process. Although there is no written component for this course (the performance of the play constitutes a final "exam"), a significant time commitment is required of actors and stage managers, both on weekday nights and over weekends. This class meets during the first half of the semester. Permission of instructor required. Applicable English Cluster: Plays, Playwrights, and Theater. Mandatory acting lab for actors in Eng 293. 2.0 credits. Permission of instructor required. ENG 375 Seminar in Fiction Writing
Instructor: Scott, J.
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:40
CRN 68711 This is a workshop for students who have completed ENG 117 or have some experience writing fiction on their own and are ready to concentrate on more ambitious projects. We'll read short stories by contemporary writers along with fiction by the students in the workshop, and we'll discuss ways writers can sharpen the conversation between text and reader. We'll also consider editing and reviewing techniques. Students will be expected to write and revise at least three original stories (or three chapters of a novel-in-progress). Permission of instructor required. Applicable English Cluster: Creative Writing. ENG 380 Postcolonial Literature
Instructor: London, B.
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:15
CRN 47696 RESEARCH SEMINAR. One of the richest and fastest growing arenas of literary production today is postcolonial literature -- literature written by authors whose homes or origins are in nations formerly colonized by European powers. In recent years, postcolonial writers have, in significant numbers, garnered some of the most coveted literary prizes: the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Booker Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. Indeed, the prominence and profusion of postcolonial writing has made contemporary literature a truly global phenomenon. This course will examine some of the exciting new literature emerging from countries that once formed part of the British Empire. We will look at literature from Africa, the Caribbean, and, especially, the Indian subcontinent. Our focus will include such questions as, What does it means for postcolonial writers to write in English? How do these writers use language to express and conceal identities, and to construct new hybrid subjectivities? What is the role of parody and appropriation in postcolonial literature? How does this literature negotiate between indigenous cultural traditions and the legacy of empire? How have postcolonial writers played with narrative and form? We will also explore some of the debates and controversies surrounding the term postcolonial. Research projects may address both literary and historical perspectives on postcolonial literature, and may include, as an option, website development. Open only to Junior and Senior English majors. ENG 380 Renaissance Utopian Writing
Instructor: Kegl, R.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:45
CRN 68733 RESEARCH SEMINAR. This course focuses on English Renaissance utopian writing, including work contemporary readers might consider “fantasy” or “science fiction.” This writing tends to generate excitement in Renaissance courses because of its narrative properties – its outlandish stories, its eye for unexpected details, and its stylistic quirks. We move slowly and carefully through each of these works, considering, among other topics, why Renaissance writers and readers might have been attracted to these particular kinds of utopian fantasies; what utopian writing might tell us more generally about the conventions of Renaissance fiction-making; and how we might best describe the links among Renaissance political, religious, and scientific models for imagining a better world. Readings emphasize sixteenth- and seventeenth-century narrative fiction and drama (including work by Bacon, Cavendish, Milton, More, and Shakespeare) and related writing by travelers, professional and amateur scientists, and members of various religious and political groups (including the Diggers, Levellers, Quakers, and Ranters). Students will design and complete a series of shorter and longer research assignments throughout the semester. This course fulfills the Pre-1800 and the Research Seminar requirements for the English major. Open only to Junior and Senior English majors. ENG 380 Word and Image
Instructor: Eaves, M.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:05-12:20
CRN 47703 RESEARCH SEMINAR. Words and images light up different parts of our bodies and minds-different parts of our brains, our thoughts, our lives, and our societies. We receive language and pictures through sensory channels that are sometimes different (ears, eyes), sometimes the same ("texts" and "images" are often printed together on the same page or displayed together on the same website). The differences have registered in the way we remember and study them: in different academic "disciplines" and even in different departments of the University (English, for one, and Art History). As you would expect, then, these two ways of perceiving the world and communicating what we think about it have a long and tangled history of cooperation and conflict in the visual and literary arts. This seminar will sample some of the high points of this collusion along with some of the low points: in "shaped" poems, "graphic" novels in the comic-book tradition, movies, and in the strange and bizarre "illuminated books" of William Blake-exciting and thought-provoking evidence of what has been called "the problem of pictures." Work in the course will concentrate on short but intense stints of reading/looking, research, and writing. Open only to Junior and Senior English majors. RESEARCH SEMINAR. This seminar stipulates the following issues as underlying problems of Western civilization: pederasty, slavery, censorship, heresy, witch-hunting, androcentrism and misogyny, violence against children, and war. It studies literary treatments of these issues as well as some nonliterary texts. Emphasis is on how literature (and our responses to it) dealing with these problems reaches forms of understanding that are distinct from what is given by critical and historical accounts. The seminar addresses how the different problems overlap and continue in contemporary societies. We will ask how they are rationalized and treated as normal or as strange aberrations, though rarely as practices that constitute civilization. The seminar proceeds in two phases. The first part, of seven or eight weeks, articulates the themes. Modern readings come from Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas, Kafka, Morrison, Ibsen, Dostoevsky, and Freud's commentaries on the problems of civilization. Classical readings will likely include: Plato's Symposium and Republic, Aristotle's Biology, Aristophanes' Lysistrata, Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. The second part of the course asks members to present research proposals related to one or more of the stipulated problems. Readings and discussions in this part of the course are determined by the students' research projects. Open only to Junior and Senior English majors. |
