Summer Session One
2007
May 14 -- June 25
Eng. 503: Theory of Writing
Professor Barbara Henning
Saturdays, 10:00 am - 3:15 pm.
In this class we will read some theoretical essays that have
been important to writers, both poets and fiction writers,
since the early 20th century. There will also be a creative
writing assignment and workshop each week.
The tentative plan for the reading is as follows:
Week 1 - Essays by Mallarme, Pound, Eliot, Williams and Fenallosa;
Week 2 - An essay by Berger on Cubism, as well as writing
by Stein and others;
Week 3 - Essays by Cesaire, Sartre, Hughes, Dubois, and others;
Week 4 - Essays by Zukofsy, Olson, Creeley, Jones, and Levertov;
Week 5 - Sections from Robbe-Grillet's New Novel, as
well as writing by Duras;
Week 6 - Sections from Bahktin's The Dialogic Imagination.
Each week you will write a poem or a story and a two page
typed response to the readings, thinking about the ideas and
considering their importance to your practice as a writer.
This will be a very "condensed" class. We are meeting
for six Saturdays. Because the first class is the equivalent
of 2 ½ regular classes, there will be an assignment
to prepare before the first class begins. You can pick up
the first assignment from Marilyn Boutwell. Required text:
Toward the Open Field: Poets on the Art of Poetry (1800-1950)
and handouts. If you have any questions, feel free to contact
me. E-mail Marilyn
Boutwell , who can forward your message to me.
English 624: American Detective Fiction
Professor Donald McCrary
Summer Session One 2007: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1-4:40
pm
According to critic Brian McHale, the detective novel, in
its search for truth and certainty, is the quintessential
modernist fiction. Even in our so-called postmodern society,
detective fiction is wildly popular, as evidenced by the proliferation
of detective novels that address unique perspectives of gender,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, and, yes, postmodernism. While
the roots of American detective fiction are widely debated,
with critics locating diverse sources from classical literature
to Edgar Allen Poe, it is indisputable that American writers
created a unique type of detective fiction, influencing everything
from French cinema to modern constructions of masculinity.
In this course, we will analyze psychological, philosophical,
epistemological, social, and cultural ideas and themes within
American detective fiction, as we attempt to answer this framing
question: What does American detective fiction have to tell
us about ourselves and the world in which we live? Writers
we will read include Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, John
M. Cain, Walter Mosley, Sara Peretsky, Barbara Neely, and
RD Zimmerman.
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