ENGL 300

Spring 2015 All Classes

All Classes

Writing About Lit Text&Culture

Credit: 3 hours.

Writing-intensive, variable topic course designed to improve English majors' ability to write clear, well-organized, analytically sound and persuasively argued essays relevant to literary studies. Introduces students to some strategies of literary criticism and research through examination of critical texts appropriate to course topic. For majors only.

Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement; one year of college literature or consent of instructor.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Advanced Composition

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ENGL 300 class schedule data for spring 2015
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
32119	Lecture-Discussion	C	10:00AM -10:50AM	MWF	104 English Building	Barrett, R	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/15-05/06/15 Degree Notes: Advanced Composition course. Section Title: Contemporary Fantasy Novels Section Info: Topic Section C: Contemporary Fantasy Novels In this section of ENGL 300, we?ll develop our composition and research skills by journeying to the worlds of contemporary Anglophone fantasy novelists. Some of our destinations are realities independent of our own: China Mi�ville?s Bas-Lag, Terry Pratchett?s Discworld, Ursula K. Le Guin?s Western Shore, and N.K. Jemisin?s Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Others operate at the intersection of the fantastic and the quotidian: J. K. Rowling?s Wizarding World, Junot D�az?s diasporic New Jersey, Jo Walton?s Anglo-Welsh borderlands, and G. Willow Wilson?s anonymous security state in the Persian Gulf. But the novels set in these disparate worlds all share a common interest in the ambiguous power of language and magic (or, rather, language as magic). Is fantasy liberatory or retrograde? Enlightening or obfuscating? What does the literature of the impossible have to offer our so-called ?real world?? Writing assignments will be broken down into multiple stages of draft and revision so as to emphasize the importance of process as well as product. We?ll also develop strategies for researching books with minimal critical profiles?a problem for most contemporary novels, but one that is especially acute for the low-status ?genre? of fantasy. Finally, expect a pair of exams focusing on critical terms and key passages from class discussion. It is strongly recommended that all English and Teaching of English majors take ENGL 300 and ENGL 301 BEFORE taking any other 300- or 400-level courses. Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Rhetoric or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).
32121	Lecture-Discussion	M	9:30AM -10:45AM	TR	104 English Building	Quintana Wulf, I	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/15-05/06/15 Degree Notes: Advanced Composition course. Section Title: Lit, Law, & that Melting Pot Section Info: Topic Section M: The Making of Americans: Literature, Law, and that Old Melting Pot In this course we will read US literature from the 20th and 21st centuries in conversation with the law and ideological discourses about national identity. Do you ever wonder what forces shaped the multicultural society we have inherited? Are you curious about how we craft a public discourse about national identity? Does the metaphor of the melting pot still echo in your head after all these years? In this class we will take a careful look at how legislation and discourses of national identity work to both create and smooth the wrinkles of social inclusion and exclusion in the name of the American Dream. Legal landmarks such as the immigration restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), the Japanese internment through Executive Order 9066 (1942), the relocation and termination of Indian tribes through the House Concurrent Resolution 108 (1953), the outlaw of discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin of the Civil Rights Act (1964), the nativist drive fueling California Proposition 187 (1994), or the anti-immigrant provisions of Arizona?s SB 1070 (21012), speak to moments of crisis in the US that call for a revision of the idea of ?American-ness.? We will look at how those moments are reflected in literary works as a way to tease out and understand the social rifts they create. Since this course focuses on writing about literature and fulfills an advance composition requirement, we will practice close reading in our class discussions, we will pay careful attention to the development of patterns and ideas, and we will fine-tune our critical skills to develop a common language that will help us interpret and engage with the texts both in conversation and in writing. You will develop your skills in literary analysis while writing three short responses to the weekly readings; after that, you will try your hand at a longer paper for the course. Class presentations along with midterm and final exams will serve as further opportunities for you to apply what you have learned in class and gauge your progress throughout the semester. Overall, this class will ask you to read, think, talk, and write about these texts, so come to class prepared to share your thoughts and to think through the thoughts of your peers. It is strongly recommended that all English and Teaching of English majors take ENGL 300 and ENGL 301 BEFORE taking any other 300- or 400-level courses.
47579	Lecture-Discussion	P	11:00AM -12:15PM	TR	149 English Building	Pollock, A	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/15-05/06/15 Degree Notes: Advanced Composition course. Section Title: Romantic Narrative Section Info: Topic Section P: Romantic Narrative This course will serve two primary curricular goals: 1) to immerse ourselves in (mostly British) prose fiction of the Romantic period?meaning, for the purposes of this course, roughly the three decades between 1790 and 1820?in order to understand how Romantic narrative forms engage with widespread cultural anxieties brought about by discourses of ?revolution,? focusing on the inter-related arenas of political critique, gender construction, and scientific inquiry; and 2) to spend a lot of time thinking and writing (and revising our writing) about literary and cultural texts: how can you most effectively construct persuasive arguments about the kinds of texts you will routinely encounter in upper-division English courses? To achieve the first of these goals, we?ll read very closely through five major novels from the period?texts by William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Mary Shelley?and we?ll study some of the most influential critical arguments that have been made about them. Our work toward the second goal?writing?will be comprehensive: we will develop precise close readings of particular textual passages; we will discuss strategies for building complex arguments from these detailed readings; and we will come to understand writing as a necessarily recursive process through assignments focused on both stylistic and analytical revision. Finally, we will work on research methods: how do you figure out where the current scholarly conversation stands on different topics in the field, and what does it mean to engage productively in your own written arguments with materials from the historical context, the work of other critics, and key concepts from critical theory? Requirements: regular participation, short responses and presentations, two shorter essays, and a longer project that will involve individualized historical research and readings in criticism and theory. It is strongly recommended that all English and Teaching of English majors take ENGL 300 and ENGL 301 BEFORE taking any other 300- or 400-level courses. Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Rhetoric or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).
32118	Lecture-Discussion	S	2:00PM -3:15PM	TR	108 English Building	Baron, I	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/15-05/06/15 Degree Notes: Advanced Composition course. Section Title: Contemporary British Fiction Section Info: Topic Section S: Memory and Nationalism in Contemporary British Fiction In The Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore introduces Harry Potter to the Pensieve, a magical font which serves as the repository of memories that can be easily stored, retrieved and reexamined at will. But as Harry quickly learns, memory is not a static and discrete entity that paves the way to a clear understanding of the past. Instead, memory can be elusive, it can be mutiplistic and it can be tweaked or completely altered. What attributes then constitute a unified national memory and how is it informed by social class, by race and by gender? In this course, we?ll examine the rise of contemporary fiction in Britain as a lens through which social progress can either be seen as a flourishing or flagging political standard. We?ll determine whether British citizens have prospered from modern socialist policies or if welfare reform forced Britain to lose its edge in the world market, which it is now trying to recapture by a renewal of political platforms based on educational elitism, neoconservatism, capitalist enterprise and racial purity. Our thematic anchor will be the importance of individual and collective memory to define social progress or to incite class war. Through the medium of memory, we?ll focus our attentions on the history of class politics in Britain over the last twenty years. We?ll explore whether the future lies with traditional parties such as the Tories, New Labour and the Liberal Democrats, or with right-winged groups such as the British National Party and the English Defense League. Finally, we?ll ponder whether Britain has become an enlightened utopia where social mobility is universal or whether it is transforming into a dark distopian zone, in which only those powered by money, status and ancient family ties have any rights. Students are expected to attend class regularly and to actively participate in class discussions. In addition, students will be required to give oral reports and to write four papers. Novels and films may include: The Remains of the Day, Atonement, Trainspotting, Once Upon a Time in England, Harry Potter and the Philosopher?s Stone, The Half Blood Prince, The Golden Compass, About a Boy and Shaun of the Dead. It is strongly recommended that all English and Teaching of English majors take ENGL 300 and ENGL 301 BEFORE taking any other 300- or 400-level courses. Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Rhetoric or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).