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Summer
2009
(May 18 -- June 29)
Program Guidance and Early Registration begin on Monday,
April 6, 2009.
English Majors: If you are an English major, please
meet with Wayne Berninger
(the English Department's new Registration Advisor) as early
as possible to register for the advanced English classes you
need. Doing so will help ensure that courses are not cancelled
and that you don't have to scramble to find replacement courses
at the last minute. Attached to this flyer you will find descriptions
of the courses being offered in Summer & Fall 2009. Consult
the English Department website to determine which courses
you still need for your particular concentration (i.e., Creative
Writing, Literature, or Writing & Rhetoric). Contact Wayne
Berninger in the English Department at 718-780-4328 or via
e-mail at wayne.berninger@liu.edu.
Non-English Majors: Advanced English courses aren't
only for English majors! The writing and analytical skills
that students gain in English classes are very useful in a
variety of professional careers. So even if you are not majoring
in English, you can still take upper-division English courses-as
long as you have completed the prerequisites. If you really
want to build up your transcript, consider an English Minor,
which consists of any four English courses numbered 100 or
above. If you'd like more information about minoring in English--or
if you think you might like to major in English--contact Wayne
Berninger in the English Department at 718-780-4328 or
via e-mail at wayne.berninger@liu.edu.
English 180-Genre Studies: American Detective Fiction
(Class ID# 7835)
Professor Donald McCrary
Tuesdays & Thursdays 2:00-4:50 PM
This course will satisfy a requirement in the Literature
concentration. You can also use it to satisfy a literature
requirement in the Creative Writing concentration or in the
Writing & Rhetoric concentration.
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 Allan 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? To answer
these framing questions, students will explore detective fiction
through a variety of critical lenses, including film theory,
discourse analysis, critical race theory, genre studies, queer
theory, and psycholinguistics. In addition to critical texts,
students will read detective fiction representing a wide range
of identities, including African-American, Asian, Hispanic,
gay, feminist, and traditionalist. Writers students will read
include Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley,
Amanda Cross, Barbara Neely, RD Zimmerman, Naomi Hirahara,
and Paul Auster. Each week students will read, discuss, and
write about both creative and critical texts. Students will
write a critical essay of at least eight pages in length or
a creative detective fiction work with critical analysis of
at least fifteen pages. Students will also make a twenty-minute
presentation of one of the assigned course texts.
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