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Spring 2006
English 101.001: Introduction to English Studies
Professor Srividhya Swaminathan
Mondays
6:00 to 8:30 pm
What, exactly, is an English major? What can you do with
a degree in English? This course will introduce students
to the three concentrations in the English major—Literary
Studies, Creative Writing, Writing and Rhetoric. We will
perform close readings of literary texts to understand better
the underlying meaning of the work. A brief introduction
to the field of literary criticism will allow students to
practice analyzing texts using literary theory. The study
of creative writing provides an opportunity to exercise
creative talents and workshop a piece of writing with the
entire class. Finally, the study of writing and rhetoric
will enable students to trace the types of persuasion used
in an argument and to craft a more persuasive argument in
their own work. The class will end with a seminar on the
career opportunities available to students who pursue a
degree in English.
English 104: Creative Writing (section 1)
Professor John High
Mondays & Wednesdays
1:30 to 2:45 pm
This class is designed for anyone who has ever wanted to
write creatively yet who is not sure how to begin or how
to move beyond where he or she is presently in his or her
own writing. Topics include: getting started, establishing
a passionate discipline, making time, focusing on ideas
and feelings and giving them shape through the language
of fiction, poetry and drama. The course will also zero-in
on backbone issues of style and technique, ranging from
those of characterization and plot, continuity and vividness
of imagery; to clarity of diction and the use of phrasing
and structure in the writing of our worlds-—the various
ways that elements of craft inherently dovetail with content.
There will be weekly creative writing exercises and group
discussions, as well as commentary on the writing process
and how to make it come alive for you. What do we mean when
we talk about issues of style, form and voice(s)? What is
fiction, a poem—what is a metaphor, what is the magic
of language, the ghost of echoes, which reflects your own
vision of the world, your experience or past, your dreams
or visions? What do we mean when we talk about taking chances
in writing? We'll look at the work of Modern and contemporary
writers ranging from James Baldwin to Anna Akhmatova to
Jorge Luis Borges to that of younger writers publishing
today. Critiques will focus on motivating the student to
tap the undefined territory of his or her own imagination
in order to more fully cultivate and mature her or his own
voices(s) and styles. The goal of the course includes completing
a portfolio and/or anthology of our work.
English 104: Creative Writing (section 2)
Professor Lewis Warsh
Tuesdays
6:00 to 8:30 pm
THIS SECTION WAS CANCELLED.
The goal of this workshop is to expand our ideas of "what
is a poem" and "what is a work of fiction."
Are poetry and fiction exclusive or related genres? Weekly
assignments will question the preconceived notions of form,
content, and gender, with emphasis on the best ways to transcribe
thought processes and experiences into writing. Work by
Marguerite Duras, Ted Berrigan, Frank O'Hara, William Carlos
Williams, Lydia Davis, Lyn Heijinian, Elizabeth Bishop,
and Andre Breton and others will be discussed in class,
and used as models; but much of the workshop time will be
spent reading and discussing our own writing. A final portfolio
of work will be required.
English 129: British Literature II
Professor Bernard Schweizer
Tuesdays & Thursdays
1:30 to 2:45 pm
Realism-Modernism-Postmodernism: Through the lens of outstanding
achievements by men and women writers of Britain, this class
will explore the formal, aesthetic, thematic, and ideological
implications of three dominant literary movements from the
mid-nineteenth century to the present. We begin with two
novels of the realist period: Jane Eyre by Charlotte
Bronte and Silas Marner by George Eliot. Next we
will explore masterpieces of modernism, beginning with poetry
by W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, and H.D., before approaching
the fiction of D.H. Lawrence, Rebecca West, and Virginia
Woolf. Finally, the course will move into the postmodern
era with Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, a re-working
of Jane Eyre; followed by No Man's Land, a
play by Harold Pinter. We will finish with Higher Ground
by the Caribbean diaspora writer Caryl Phillips. Besides
studying the intrinsic differences in form and content between
realist, modernist, and postmodernist literary discourses,
we will keep an eye on such recurring themes as romance
and gender politics, social class conflict, colonialism,
and national identity.
English 150: Contemporary Latino/a Lit. & Culture
Professor Joselyn Almeida-Beveridge
Tuesdays & Thursdays
3:00 to 4:15 pm
THIS SECTION WAS CANCELLED.
Click here to see the
poster Professor Almeida-Beveridge created to advertise this
course (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader).
In this course we will examine contemporary Latino/a writers,
films, and popular culture to explore the representation
of Latino/a life in the United States. Through class discussion,
electronic forums, and written work we will analyze the
themes that have emerged in this body of writing and film:
identity, language, cultural hybridity, and the redefinition
of what it means to be American.
Requirements: two 5-7 page papers, a midterm, short response
papers, and student presentations.
Texts: Alverez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their
Accents (l991); Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango
Street (l991); Gomez-Pena, Guillermo. Dangerous Border
Crossers: The Artist Talks Back (2000); Hijuelos, Oscar.
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (l990); Rodriguez,
Richard. Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican
Father (l992); Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto
Rican (l994); and Latino Boom: An Anthology of U.S.
Latino Literature (2006).
Films: Pinero (2001); The Mambo Kings (l992);
Tortilla Soup (2001); and Zoot Suit (1981).
English 159: Literature of the U.S. II
Professor Carol Allen
Thursdays
6:00 to 8:30 pm
This is a survey that covers American literature from the
second half of the nineteenth century to the present. The
course will provide general information about the major
writers and texts that have contributed to the great, diverse
tradition of American Letters. We will chart our discoveries
by peering through the lens of representation, asking such
questions as who names and describes the newly unified,
post-civil war America; how do turn-of-the-century and early
twentieth century creative artists re-envision America during
an age of Western imperialism/expansion/colonialism; how
does literature compete with the new technologies that produce
representation as well (photography, film, and television);
and what is meant by and what are the politics of "American"
modernism and post-modernism? Reading representative texts
from several periods, we will concentrate on three vital
and prolific eras: late nineteenth-century regional writing;
Modernism (l912-1936); and contemporary, post-war production.
English 166: Fiction Writing
Professor John High
Mondays & Wednesdays
3:00 to 4:15 pm
This workshop will focus on the way autobiography and dreams
overlap with story writing and how the past is fictionalized
as a way of giving it a voice. The premise is that the source
of most fiction is based on memories and dreams. We'll look
at writers of the last century as well as contemporary writers
of today (Jean Toomer, Marguerite Duras, Jorge Luis Borges,
Michael Ondaatje, Lydia Davis, John Berger, Rosemary Waldrop,
Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf, James
Baldwin, Jamaica Kincaid, and Sherman Alexie, among others)
who often blur the borders between fiction, dream, and life
story. We'll concentrate on the various traditions of narrative,
including plot, character, and conflict—with an eye
towards expanding on what's already been done. There will
be weekly creative writing exercises and group discussions,
as well as commentary on the writing process and how to
make it come alive for you. The course offers relaxed, though
thorough and individualized investigation of the participants'
work in relation to craft, theme, and content of writing.
Our writing project will include working with dreams, secrets,
memories, observations, opinions, overheard conversations,
and random fragments of language. The goal of the course
includes completing a portfolio and/or anthology of our
work.
English 168: Creative Non-fiction
Workshop
Professor Hettie Jones
Wednesdays
6:00 to 8:30 pm
The personal essay has a long history but a short list
of conditions: informality, intimacy, honesty, and autobiographical
content. How do we go about completing this list? How do
we convince the reader of the truth of our tales? How do
we confront our own experiences creatively? What does it
mean to write creative nonfiction?
In this writing workshop, the student is guided through
the classic questions of form and style, the building materials
of the personal essay, through reading and writing assignments.
Craft is emphasized, revision expected, but we will also
focus on our sources: What do people write about? How do
they expose themselves and still keep their privacy? Is
it a contradiction to call nonfiction "art"? What
techniques are applicable to all creative writing?
Readings for the class will be wide-ranging historically
as well as culturally, but with a focus on the contemporary
essay in English. Writing assignments will cover various
forms (such as memoir and diary) and themes such as friendship
and solitude. Students should be prepared to read aloud
and discuss their own work and that of others.
About the instructor:
Hettie Jones is a visiting writer. She is a poet and prose
writer, author of How I Became Hettie Jones, a memoir
of the "beat scene" of the fifties and sixties.
It is a story of her life together with then-as-yet-to-be
published LeRoi Jones (now Amiri Baraka). They were one
of the few visible interracial couples at that time. They
had two children, co-edited Yugen, an influencial
literary magazine, and were at the "hot center"
of the downtown bohemian New York literary, jazz, and art
worlds.
Jones has published short prose in journals such as The
Village Voice, Global City Review, and Ploughshares.
She has also written numerous books for children and young
adults, including an ALA Notable, The Trees Stand Shining.
She is the author of a poetry collection, Drive,
which won the Poetry Society of America's l999 Norma Farber
First Book Award. Her second poetry collection, All Told,
was published in 2003.
She has numerous other publications and has done readings
in various venues from cafes to colleges. She is a longtime
editor for many publishing houses, and has taught writing
at local and national colleges such as NYU, The New School,
Penn State University, and the University of Wyoming. Jones
is the former Chair of the PEN Prison Writing Committee,
and from l989-2002, ran a writing workshop at the NY State
Correctional Facility for Women in Bedford Hills, from which
she published a nationally distributed collection, Aliens
at the Border. From l994-l996 she was a member of the
Literature Panel of the NY State Council on the Arts, and
she is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Cave
Canem, an organization in support of young African American
poets.
back up to the description of English
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English 169: Postcolonial or Global Literature: the
Caribbean
Professor Maria McGarrity
Mondays & Wednesdays
4:30 to 5:45 pm
This class will offer a basic grounding in the literatures
and cultures of the Caribbean, including a focus on such
nations as Haiti, Cuba, St. Lucia, Monsterrat, and Guyana.
We will study the work of Nobel Prize-winning St. Lucian,
Derek Walcott, as well as such writers as Wilson Harris,
Edwidge Danticat, Alejo Carpentier, and EA Markham. Our
reading of short stories, poetry, longer fiction, and film
will take us through the 20th century struggle for decolonization
as we examine issues of gender, class, race, and colonialism.
One short paper and two exams (one as a take home).
English 172: Introduction to Contemporary Rhetorical
Theory
Professor Mary Hallet
Mondays & Wednesdays
4:30 to 5:45 pm
THIS SECTION WAS CANCELLED, but
because this is a required class for our new Writing &
Rhetoric concentration, Professor Hallet is working on an
individual basis with those students who were registered
prior to the course's being cancelled.
This course will not only introduce students to the major
debates and conversations among contemporary rhetorical
theorists but will also locate issues raised by these theorists
within their historical, political, and cultural contexts.
We will discover how the rhetorical theories of the last
forty years or so, just as the theories of the ancient (classical)
rhetoricians, were not simply born out of spaces of isolated
intellectual activity, but rather arose as responses to
new and rapidly evolving forms of written, oral, and visual
communications. In doing so, we will also explore the interdisciplinary
nature of contemporary rhetorical theories—how they
simultaneously draw from and feed into other disciplines,
such as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy. It will
not be possible, of course, to cover every theory in the
broad field of contemporary rhetoric, but students should
leave the course with an overall picture of the major issues
and figures in the field. Through journal entries, a short
midterm paper, and a longer final project, students will
have the opportunity to apply the theories they learn to
their own analyses of rhetoric. Readings may focus on, among
others, the new rhetorics of Kenneth Burke and Chaim Perelman,
deconstruction, feminist theory and criticism, and the rhetorics
of inquiry.
English 190: Senior Seminar in Literature
Professor Seymour Kleinberg
Tuesdays
6:00 to 8:30 pm
In this capstone course, English majors concentrating in
literature pursue independent research projects in the history
of literary studies or critical analysis. Each student develops
a substantial research paper and presents it to the seminar.
English 191: Senior Seminar in Creative Writing (conducted
as tutorial)
Time to be arranged with instructor
THIS SECTION WAS CANCELLED.
English 192: Senior Seminar in Rhetorical Writing (conducted
as tutorial)
Time to be arranged with instructor
THIS SECTION WAS CANCELLED.
English 235: Arts of Portraiture
Professor Patrick Horrigan
Tuesdays & Thursdays
4:30 to 5:45 pm
THIS SECTION WAS CANCELLED.
Click here to see the
flyer Professor Horrigan created to advertise this course
(you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader).
Portraiture is one of the world's most popular art forms.
Museums display hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and photographs
of people, whether singly or in groups. Places of worship
are decorated with images of gods, saints, and prophets.
We are surrounded by portraits in our daily lives: the faces
of people stare out at us from newspapers and magazines;
movies and TV shows contain countless "close-ups";
coins and paper currency are stamped with the faces of presidents
and politicians; our own faces adorn ID cards, passports,
and driver's licenses; snapshots fill our wallets and photo
albums; and pictures of family and friends cover our desks
at work and the walls of our living rooms. The ancient Egyptians
buried people along with their portraits; even today some
people affix portraits to the tomb stones of their loved
ones.
And portraiture is not just a visual art. Writers, too,
make portraits and self-portraits with words. Every character
in a novel, play, or work of non-fiction; every subject
of biography or autobiography; every person whose beautiful
face has ever been described by a poet—all of these,
potentially, are portraits. An obituary is a portrait.
What exactly is a portrait, and how does it speak to us?
The purpose of this course is to study both verbal and
visual portraiture through class discussion, slide presentations,
field trips to museums, and the writing of essays. Topics
for discussion will include photographic vs. painted portraits;
portraits in literature; autobiography and self-portraiture;
Latin American portraiture; portraits of non-humans; and
Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," the world's best-known
portrait.
Texts and films for discussion may include: Johann Kaspar
Lavatar, excerpts from Essays on Physiognomy; Edgar
Allan Poe, "The Oval Portrait;" Henry James, "The
Real Thing;" Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian
Gray; Gertrude Stein, "Cezanne," "Matisse,"
and "Picasso;" E.M. Forster, excerpts from Aspects
of the Novel; Ingmar Bergman (director), Persona;
Susan Sontag, excerpts from On Photography; bell
hooks, excerpts from Black Looks: Race and Representation;
Michael Apted (director), scenes from the 7 Up series;
and Howard Raines (editor), Portraits: 9/11/01.
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