Department of English Faculty Contacts Spring 2013 Chair, English Department Sandra Grayson D 316 x 4160 sgrayson@stmarys-ca.edu Director, Composition Lisa Manter D 300 x 4462 lmanter@stmarys-ca.edu Director, MFA Creative Writing Brenda Hillman D 322 x 4457 bhillman@stmarys-ca.edu riverrun Faculty Advisor Molly Metherd D 309 x 4166 mmetherd@stmarys-ca.edu English Underground (English Club) Hilda Ma D 307 x 4132 hm1@stmarys-ca-edu Lisa Manter D 300 x 4462 lmanter@stmarys-ca.edu Graduate School Advisor Kathryn Koo D 319N x8782 kkoo@stmarys-ca.edu SMPP Advising Janice Doane D 306 x 4424 jdoane@stmarys-ca.edu English Department website: www. stmarys-ca.edu/english ` Enjoy Literature, Poetry, Film, Plays Spring 2013 19-1 19-2 24 25 26 27 29-1 29-2 Introduction to Literary Analysis Introduction to Literary Analysis SMPP Assessment & Portfolio (.25) Creative Writing: Multi-Genre MWF T/Th TBA T/Th Wed. Creative Writing Reading Series (.25) Book Club (.25) Wed. Issues in Literary Study Issues in Literary Study M/F T/Th 101-1 Writing Tutor Workshop-Primary (.25) Wed. 101-2 Writing Tutor Workshop-Advanced (.25) TBA 102-1 Creative Writing: Fiction 102-2 Creative Writing: Nonfiction 103 British Literature I 110 Linguistics 118** 20th Century Lit.:Stories of our World 124 SMPP Assessment & Portfolio (.25) 126** Film: Hitchcock and the Critics 144**19th Century Women Writers 150** American Literature before 1800 154 Trauma in African-Am Lit. 170 Problems in Literary Theory 175 Shakespeare as Dramatist 198 Senior Honors Thesis Graduate: 211 Fiction Workshop 212 Poetry Workshop 214 Nonfiction Workshop *261 Craft Seminar in Fiction *262 Craft Seminar in Poetry *264 Craft Seminar in Nonfiction 11:30 11:20 Robert Gorsch Molly Metherd Janice Doane 1:10 Alex Green 7:00 pm Brenda Hillman 3:20-4:50 Kathryn Koo 12:40 Hilda Ma 9:40 Janice Doane 11:30-12:30 Mick Sherer Tereza Kramer M/W T/Th MWF MWF T/Th TBA T/Th MWF MWF MWF T/TH MWF 4:30 4:30 9:10 2:15 11:20 Wed. Wed. Wed. Thurs. Tuesday T/Th 3:45 3:45 3:45 4:30 4:30 2:50-4:20 1:10 11:30 10:20 2:15 9:40 10:20 Mary Volmer Marilyn Abildskov Clinton Bond Robert Gorsch Barry Horwitz Janice Doane Lisa Manter Sandra Grayson Kathryn Koo Jeannine King Ben Xu David DeRose Sandra Grayson Lou Berney Kazim Ali Susan Griffin Wesley Gibson Matthew Zapruder Marilyn Abildskov *Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of instructor. *** NOTES: In addition to English Major Requirements, English 100, 102, 110, 125, 126, 153, 154, 173, 182, 183, 184 can be used to satisfy The Subject Matter Preparation Program. See following page. ** English 118, 126, 144, and 150 are cross-listed with Women’s Studies English 144 satisfies literature before 1900 requirement for the major English 150 satisfies literature before 1800 requirement for the major English 154 satisfies the Diversity Requirement and is cross-listed with Ethnic Studies THE ENGLISH MAJOR Lower Division: The lower-division requirements are as follows: English 19: Introduction to Literary Analysis (prerequisite to English 29) English 29: Issues in Literary Study It is recommended that students take these courses prior to the junior year. Upper Division: English 19 is prerequisite to English 29. English 29 is prerequisite to English 167, 168, and 170. The upper-division requirements are as follows: English 103: British Literature I English 104: British Literature II English 150: American Literature Before 1800 or English 151: American Literature 1800-1900 or English 152: Twentieth-Century American Literature English 175: Shakespeare One additional course in English or American literature prior to 1800 One additional course in English or American literature prior to 1900 One course in literary criticism or literary theory: English 167, 168, or 170. (It is recommended that the course in literary criticism or literary theory be taken in the senior year.) Four additional English courses, not more than one of which may be lower division. English 3, 4, and 5 do not count towards the major. Updated 4/15/09 The English Minor The minor in English requires: English 19: Introduction to Literary Analysis (prerequisite to English 29) English 29: Issues in Literary Study English 175: Shakespeare and three upper division English electives Updated June 2004 Effective Fall 2002 The Creative Writing Minor The Creative Writing Minor, offered through the Department of English, is designed for students who wish to explore their creative potential as writers. The Creative Writing Minor is an excellent place for students who wish to gain a greater appreciation of the art of writing, who may wish to pursue a career in writing or journalism, or who simply wish to develop their academic or business writing skills by applying the techniques offered in creative writing classes to their writing at large. Requirements: (total 5.5 courses) English 19: Introduction to Literary Analysis English 25: Creative Writing: Multi-Genre Studies Three courses from the following: English 100: Advanced Composition English 102: Creative Writing Workshop (in Fiction, Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, Drama, or Screenwriting) (may be repeated for credit) English 26: The Creative Writing Reading Series (.25 units) (Must be taken at least twice for credit) 3/07 Emphases Within the English Major The English major provides a broad foundation in the discipline. Students who desire to focus on a special area of interest may do so by choosing electives within the major that meet the following requirements: Creative Writing Emphasis: -- English 25 (preferably freshman or sophomore year) -- Any three upper division Creative Writing classes: English 102 (Poetry, Fiction, Non-fiction, Dramatic Writing, Screenwriting) -- Two semesters of English 26 (.25 credit) Literary Theory and History Emphasis: (preparation for graduate study) -- One additional course in literary criticism or theory -- One additional pre-1900 course -- English 198 (honors thesis) in the fall semester of the senior year -- English 200, the graduate-level course in Modernism (undergraduates must apply to enroll in this course) Dramatic and Film Arts Emphasis: -- English 125 or 126 (Film) -- Any three of the following: English 102: Dramatic Writing or Screenwriting English 182: The Drama English 183: Topics in Drama English 184: Contemporary Drama English 185: Individual Dramatists -- Other English and Upper Division January Term courses with film or dramabased content may also apply to the concentration. For the Subject Matter Preparation Emphasis, please see the next page. Beginning in Fall 2010, students may petition for the emphasis to be listed on their transcripts. SUBJECT-MATTER PREPARATION PROGRAM All students in the Subject-Matter Preparation Program must enroll in the following special courses: English 24/124: SMPP Assessment and Portfolio English 24 (offered in Spring Only) English 24 is a .25 credit course that students in the English Subject-Matter Preparation Program, designed for prospective secondary school teachers, are required to register for once prior to their senior year. The course assists students in beginning their portfolio and preparing them for the initial assessment interview required by the SMPP program. English 124 English 124 is a .25 credit course that students in the English Subject-Matter Preparation Program are required to register for during one semester of their senior year. The course assists students in assembling the final version of their portfolio and preparing them for the final assessment interview required by the SMP program Instructor: Janice Doane Schedule to be arranged with students Full requirements for the SMPP are listed on the facing page. SUBJECT-MATTER PREPARATION PROGRAM IN ENGLISH Saint Mary’s College has been approved by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing of the State of California to offer a student who majors in English appropriate preparation for a teaching credential in English. The following course of study is the normal preparation for a prospective secondary school English teacher. Those who complete this program are allowed to waive the CSET exam required for high school classroom teaching. I. CORE STUDIES: 13 courses (12.25 units) Composition and Rhetoric – 2 courses (1.25 units) English 100: Advanced Composition English 101: Writing Tutor Workshop (.25 units) Linguistics – 1 course English 110: Linguistics—Language, Mind, and Culture Literature – 8 courses English 19: Introduction to Literary Analysis English 29: Issues in Literary Study English 103 and 104: Major British Writers English 175: Shakespeare English 150, 151or 152: American Literature One course in English or American Literature before 1800 One course in English or American Literature before 1900 Speech, media and creative performance: 2 of the following courses. Choose 1 Communication and 1 in Performing Arts: Communication 10: Argument and Advocacy Communication 2: Communication and Social Understanding Communication 3: Communication Inquiry Performing Arts 1: Perceiving the Performing Arts Performing Arts 33: Acting 1: Principles of Performance Performing Arts 132: Performing Arts in Production continued II. EXTENDED STUDIES: 9 courses (7 units) The extended studies curriculum is designed to supplement the core by providing students with depth, breadth, areas of concentration, and an introduction to classroom teaching and teaching technology. One of the following courses: English 167: Literary Criticism: From the Ancient Greeks to the Romantics English 168: Literary Criticism: the 19th and 20th centuries English 170: Problems in Literary Theory One of the following courses: English 153: American Ethnic Writers and Oral Traditions English 154: Studies in African-American Literature Two of the following courses: English 102: Creative Writing English 105: Children’s Literature English 125 or 126: Film English 140: Literary Genres (Including Popular Genres) English 163: The Other English Literatures English 173: Women Writers English 182, 183 or 184: Drama Internship Requirement and Classroom Technology All of the following courses: Registration in SMPP: English 24 first semester in program (.25 units) Registration in SMPP: English 124 senior year in program (.25 units) Education 122: Field Experience (1 unit) Single Subject Teacher Education 224: Technology in the Classroom (.5 units) *** SMPP Coordinator: Professor Janice Doane Dante 306, 631-4424 jdoane@stmarys-ca.edu October 7, 2010 English 19: Introduction to Literary Analysis There are courses in speed reading. This is a course in slow reading, for reading works of literature is a reading that never quite finishes. A good reader has a hard time getting to the end. There is so much to pay attention to along the way: a surprising word or comparison, a distracting digression by the narrator ... Why won't that narrator get out of the way? Although primarily designed as an introductory course for English majors, this course is open to all lovers of literature. It will give more experienced readers a chance to perfect their analytical skills and less experienced readers a chance to acquire new skills. We will concentrate on learning how to pay the kind of attention that literature demands and how to ask and answer fruitful questions. We will begin to master the language of literary criticism, the technical vocabulary that makes it possible for a reader to ask and to answer interpretive questions with clarity and precision. Texts: Scholes et al., eds., Elements of Literature Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms Requirements: Careful reading and rereading, active participation in class discussions, and several short essays. 19-1: Instructor: Robert Gorsch MWF 11:30-12:30 19-2: Instructor: Molly Metherd T/Th 11:20-1:10 English 25: Creative Writing Introduction This course will introduce you to writing fiction, poetry, and plays. By writing and examining creative writing to see how it works, you’ll learn to better understand what is being expressed. Whether or not you plan to become a professional writer, you’ll find that an awareness of craft will enhance greatly your critical appreciation of art. No creative writing experience is required. This course is open to all majors and counts as an Area A requirement. Reading: Assorted stories, poems, and plays. Writing: Two short essays, two major creative projects, various creative writing activities. Instructor: Alex Green T/Th 1:10-2:40 English 26: Creative Writing Reading Series (.25) “You are young, so before all beginning, and I want to beg you to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and tot try to love the questions themselves…” So the poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes to a friend, a young writer who asks him about the writing life. From writers we hear about bringing language to the unsolved questions. Every semester, some of our finest contemporary writers visit Saint Mary’s to read from their work and to discuss their writing processes. English 26 is a quarter-credit class designed to give students an opportunity to be more active members of the audience. The student will attend the events in the Creative Writing Reading Series, read the work of some of the writers, and have a chance ask the visitor questions about the life of a writer. Requirements: Regular attendance at all events in the Reading Series; brief reviews of two events and a longer review of one writer’s book. Instructor: Brenda Hillman Wednesdays 7:00-8:30 p.m. English 27: Book and Film Club “Your only duty is to write a really good screenplay with the same title as my book.” -Kazuo Ishiguro That exactly is the relationship between a book and a screenplay? Between what is found in the pages of a book and what is later illuminated on the screen? In this book club, we’ll explore the transformation of books into film and develop our own theory of adaptation along the way. If you’ve ever wanted to be a film critic, this is the book club for you. Book/film selections will be drawn from the list of possibilities below. All are welcome. Join us! Instructor: Kathryn Koo Wednesdays 3:20-4:50 Into the Wild Brokeback Mountain The Lovely bones The Help The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Cosmopolis The Hobbit Anna Karenina The Life of Pi The Great Gatsby On the Road The Bell Jar English 29: Issues in Literary Study This is an introductory course for English majors and minors, and also for any student who wants to know what concerns those who study literature in college and beyond. In English 19, or other introductory English courses, you learned to value reading a text closely for its form and aesthetic features. In this course, we’ll start with a brief review of this formal (text-based) approach to literature. Then we’ll read a range of literature and learn how different interpretive approaches can enrich our reading and writing about texts. We’ll ask many questions: Is it possible (or desirable) to read a text “objectively”? Why might we want to read familiar literature “against the grain’? Can we really say that some texts embody “timeless values” and teach “universal truths”? What’s the role of ideology in interpretation? What does it mean to say that texts and readers are “situated”? Why do we read and discuss certain texts in the classroom and not others? What’s the distinction between “serious” and “popular” literature? Is the distinction meaningful? By the end of the course, you’ll be a more sophisticated reader, with new reading strategies: new questions to pose about texts, new ways to answer those questions. You’ll understand why and how serious readers of literature can disagree. With the new perspectives you’ll develop, you’ll find literature a richer field of exploration. Tentative Reading List: Lynn, Steven. Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. 6th ed. Longman, 2011. Shakespeare, William. The Tempest: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. Eds. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000 Tatar, Maria, ed. The Classic Fairy Tales, Norton, 1999. Course reader Requirements: Response papers, Moodle forum posts, three formal essays, careful reading, participation in class discussions, and a final exam. Instructor: Hilda Ma M/F 12:40-2:10 English 29-2: Issues in Literary Study This is an introductory course for English majors and minors, and also for any student who wants to know what concerns those who study literature in college and beyond. In English 19, or other introductory English courses, you learned to value reading a text closely for its form and aesthetic features. In this course, we’ll start with a brief review of this formal (text-based) approach to literature. Then we’ll read a range of literature and learn how different interpretive approaches can enrich our reading and writing about texts. We’ll ask many questions: Is it possible (or desirable) to read a text “objectively”? Why might we want to read familiar literature “against the grain’? Can we really say that some texts embody “timeless values” and teach “universal truths”? What’s the role of ideology in interpretation? What does it mean to say that texts and readers are “situated”? Why do we read and discuss certain texts in the classroom and not others? What’s the distinction between “serious” and “popular” literature? Is the distinction meaningful? By the end of the course, you’ll be a more sophisticated reader, with new reading strategies: new questions to pose about texts, new ways to answer those questions. You’ll understand why and how serious readers of literature can disagree. With the new perspectives you’ll develop, you’ll find literature a richer field of exploration. Requirements: Careful reading and re-reading, scrupulous attendance, active participation in class discussion, short essays, final exam. Readings: Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory by Steven Lynn; a variety of literary texts Instructor: Janice Doane T/Th 9:40-11:10 English 101.01 Primary (.25) Writing Adviser Training Workshop You will explore ways to help peer students express themselves in all stages of the writing process – including discovering and organizing ideas and editing drafts. By learning practical techniques, you will strengthen your own writing and develop confidence in working with others. This training could be valuable for those who are considering working as teachers, counselors, lawyers, business executives, or other positions that involve mentoring and professional communication. After this course, you are eligible to apply to work in the Center for Writing Across the Curriculum. If you are interested, please contact the Director for details of the application process. Readings: Tutors Ryan, Leigh, and Lisa Zimmerelli. The Bedford Guide for Writing and as assigned Requirement: One class hour per week (l hour/.25 unit) Instructor: Mick Sherer Wednesday 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. English 101.02 Advanced (.25) Writing Adviser Training Workshop This is a weekly Staff Workshop taken by everyone who works in the Center for Writing Across the Curriculum (CWAC). We will explore various facets of Writing Center work, weaving in ideas from scholarly research and our practical experience. Through this ServiceLearning approach, we will build our repertoire of strategies to share with peer writers and continually improve our own writing and empathic skills. Readings: Requirement: Instructor: As assigned One workshop hour per week (l hour/.25 unit) Tereza Joy Kramer TBA Enrollment: By permission of instructor English 102: Fiction Writing In this introductory fiction writing course we will learn to read like writers and to recognize, analyze and then utilize the traditions of short fiction in the creation of our own stories. We will learn the tools of the craft, the practices common among successful writers, how to discover the shape of a story and the importance of creative revision. While we will focus on the short form we will also consider the challenges inherent in the novella and the novel and there will be no restrictions regarding genre. Needless to say, this will be a reading and writing intensive class. No one has ever learned to paint without painting, or developed a style of her own without first immersing herself in the work of masters. You can expect both creative and analytic assignments every week and the semester will culminate in the production of a work of original short fiction with an accompanying exegesis that describes your artistic influences, intentions, and the revision process. Course requirements: Weekly writing exercises (to be gathered in a portfolio), extensive written critiques of published stories and student work, an original short story (10-15 pages) and accompanying exegesis, attendance at no fewer than three Creative Writing and Reading Series events and, of course, class participation. Instructor: Mary Volmer M/W 4:30-6:00 English 102—Creative Writing Mythical Pictures: Autobiography distilled Any given moment—no matter how casual, how ordinary—is poised, full of gaping life.” So says a character in the novel Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. And is with this understanding—of the fullness of small moments—that we will approach the task of this personal writing course: to distill on the page particular moments from our lives—moments experienced, observed, imagined, and misunderstood. We will look to practitioners of the form for inspiration, studying texts by such writers as Jo Ann Beard, Joan Didion, and Rick Bass to learn about craft: how to shape narrative time, for instance, turning decades into pages, years into paragraphs, and moments into scenes; how to modulate our voices on the page; how to move between showing (scene) and telling (exposition) to create a rich experience for our readers. In workshop, we will engage one another’s pieces with the motive of providing—and receiving—constructive criticism, the kind that draws a writer toward purposeful revision. By the end of the semester, students will not only have a better understanding of specific writing techniques and a fuller appreciation of the personal essay as a literary form—what Phillip Lopate called “the genre of littleness”—but a sense of discovery about the way writing can teach us things about ourselves that we didn’t know before. As Stuart Dybeck writes: “It’s only a relatively few moments that we get to keep and carry with us for the rest of our lives. Those moments are our lives. Or maybe it’s more like those moments are the dots and what we call our lives are the lines we draw between them, connecting them into imaginary pictures of ourselves. You know? Like those mythical pictures of constellations traced between stars.” Instructor: Marilyn Abildskov Tuesdays & Thursdays, 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. English 103: British Literature, “The Giants before the Flood” The oldest hath borne most; we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long. As the title above reminds us, while reading the authors who make up this course, one is often amazed by the force of their brilliance; they sometimes seem to occupy a region of art forever beyond our reach. But that is also why it is so valuable to read and study them. English 103 provides an introduction to English literature from the middle ages to the beginning of the modern world and includes works by many of our greatest writers. It isn’t possible to understand how our language and culture came into being without understanding its birth and its flowering. In the brilliant humor of Geoffrey Chaucer, the tragedy of Shakespeare, and the splendor of Milton, we will begin to discover why they are still considered the three greatest poets who have ever written in English. We will read works which expose the values, problems, and desires of men and women from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. In these works we will find wonderful and creative minds struggling to understand their place in the world. Texts: Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1. Requirements: Careful reading, class participation, two essays, final exam. Instructor: Clinton Bond MWF 9:10-10:10 English 110: Linguistics This is an introductory course in "linguistics," the scientific study of language. We will be paying due attention to the usual concerns of introductory linguistics: e.g., phonetics, morphology and syntax, semantics, language change, and first and second language acquisition. But we will be concentrating on less narrowly technical issues and questions: It is often thought that one's native language is a sort of lens that determines the way one sees the world. Is it? What can we tell about world-views from an examination of languages? What can one tell about the intellectual and imaginative structure of one's culture from one's language? How does language use function in society? What distinguishes acceptable usage from unacceptable usage? Is "good grammar" a matter of fact or is it the decree of some intellectual ruling class? Is English (or any other language) biased with regard to gender and ethnicity? Or is bias purely a matter of the intentions of the speaker? Texts: Fromkin, Victoria, and others, An Introduction to Language Suzuki, Takao, Words in Context: A Japanese Perspective on Language and Culture Frank, Francine, and Frank Anshen, Language and the Sexes Requirements: Faithful attendance and active participation in class discussion of assigned readings and other in-class activities; a final paper; and a final take-home examination. Instructor: Robert Gorsch M W F 2:15-3:15 English 118: Twentieth Century Lit: Stories of Our World From 1900 until today, in the 20th and 21st Centuries, short-story writers around the world have tried to understand and express what has been happening to them, and to us. We have been through the collapse of the British Empire, the Russian Revolution, two World Wars, the Great Depression, revolts, reforms, Cold Wars, hot wars, and countless revolutions in our personal lives. Short story writers have captured the beauty and “the horror!” of it all. We will read modernist writers and post-modernist story writers—to find out how the world has brought us to the present moment. We will sample important writers from many countries and cultures. Join us—to find out how we got here and who we are, today! Franz Kafka, Chinua Achebe, Albert Camus, James Joyce, Zora Neale Hurston, Tim O’Brien, Alice Walker, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Sandra Cisneros, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid, Leslie Marmon Silko, David Leavitt, Juno Diaz, Margaret Atwood, Raymond Carver Text: The Art of the Short Story. Edited by Dana Gioia and R.S Gwynn: Pearson Longman, 2006. ISBN # 978-0-321-36363-3. 30/30: Thirty American Short Stories from the Last Thirty Years. Edited by Minh B. Nguyen and Porter Shreve: Pearson Longman, 2006. ISBN # 0-321-33898-7. Requirements: Regular attendance, a Writer’s JOURNAL, helpful discussion, two essays on writers of your choice, and enjoying yourself in modern times. Instructor: Barry Horwitz Tu-Th 11:20 to 12:50 This course is cross-listed with Women’s Studies. English 126: Hitchcock and the Critics "To speak of Alfred Hitchcock is to evoke a remarkable series of histories: the history of cinema generally, in which Hitchcock plays an exemplary role as a technical and stylistic innovator; a history of Hitchcock's films themselves, . . . a history of film criticism, especially given Hitchcock's status as a primary test case for auteur theory, which held that commercial films . . . can and should be discussed in the same terms as were previously reserved for "art" films; a history of contemporary film theory, understood at least in part as involving a return to more sociological concerns after the excesses of auteurism; etc." -- A Hitchcock Reader The artistic career of the Master of Suspense ranges from the silent period to the seventies. The films produced during this extensive career have won over popular audiences with their morbid sense of humor and ability to reveal the dark side of everyday life. But his films aren't just box office hits; they hold a special fascination for film critics as well. Hitchcock and his films have helped shape the direction of film criticism: he's been used as a basis for the development of the French auteur theory, he's been touted as the genius of the psychoanalytic narrative, and both Marxist and Feminist critics find class and gender to be central motifs for the director. Each week we will view and discuss a Hitchcock film in light of the criticism that it has generated. Previous knowledge of film techniques and literary theory aren't necessary (though helpful) -Hitchcock will lead us to an understanding of both. Required Texts: Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. Deutelbaum, Marshall and Leland Poague, eds. A Hitchcock Reader. Mast, Gerald, Marshall Cohen, and Leo Braudy, eds. Film Theory and Criticism. 7th ed. Modleski, Tania. The Women Who Knew Too Much. Zizek, Slavoj. Everything You Wanted to Know About Lacan (But Where Afraid to Ask Hitchcock) *Film Viewing: TBA (attendance is mandatory) Instructor: Lisa Manter T/Th 1:10-2:40 Prerequisite: English 29 or permission of the instructor English 144: 19th Century Women Writers “Men have had every advantage of us in telling their story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands.” – Jane Austen, Persuasion, 1818 Austen’s heroine, Anne Elliot, was right. Prior to the nineteenth century, English literature primarily belonged to men. But this changed dramatically, and this course traces that change. What happened to literature when women took up the pen? Did they tell new kinds of stories, and were these specifically women’s stories? Did they create new kinds of heroines and plot their characters’ lives in new ways? Did they handle literary form differently? This course explores these questions. We’ll begin with Austen’s last novel, and then trace the achievements of nineteenth-century women writers, and the obstacles they faced. Readings will range from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, with its bold feminism and impassioned narration, to George Eliot’s examination of sisterhood and love in The Mill on the Floss. We’ll read excerpts from conduct books, which taught women how they should behave, and sample a sensation novel, about a woman who broke all the rules. We’ll look at work by women poets. Finally, we’ll explore the appeal of these women writers today, viewing scenes from some films based on their works. We’ll be reading with appreciation for each writer’s voice, but also asking what – if anything – the works we consider have in common, whether there is such a thing as “women’s writing,” and how much literature changed when women took up the pen. Readings: Jane Austen, Persuasion, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss; poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, and Amy Levy; Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic; excerpts from conduct books and popular fiction. Requirements: Active class participation, weekly written responses, two formal essays, class report. Instructor: Sandra Grayson MWF 11:30-12:30 English 150: Early American Literature Race, Gender, and the Origins of Division In this survey of early American literature, we will search for the origins of division in America through the prisms of race and gender. Our search will lead us to the earliest encounters between Native Americans and English settlers and the first accounts of African slavery in New England. We will also explore two critical moments in early American history – the Antinomian Controversy and the Salem Witchcraft Crisis – that reveal the challenges that women posed to the existing social order and the authority of the established church. We will also have the opportunity to examine the intersection of race and gender in such works as Mary Rowlandson’s famous captivity narrative that retraces her experience as a captive of the Algonquin Indians during King Philip’s War. Early America was a richly textured and highly diverse world of competing voices and conflicting interests. Early print materials, archival documents, and documentary films will help us to uncover this fascinating world. This course will offer students the opportunity to explore the foundational texts of the new republic and the origins of American identity, culture, and society. Readings: Nina Baym, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. A, 7th Edition Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland, Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, A course reader Requirements: Close and dedicated reading, active participation, group presentations, journals, midterm and final examinations Instructor: Kathryn Koo MWF 10:20-11:20 This course is cross-listed with Women’s Studies. This course satisfies the pre-1800 requirement for the English major. English 154: Trauma in African-American Literature Modern life begins with slavery… These things had to be addressed by black people a long time ago: certain kinds of dissolution, the loss of and the need to reconstruct certain kinds of stability. Certain kinds of madness, deliberately going mad in order not to lose your mind.” These strategies for survival made the truly modern person. They’re a response to predatory western phenomena. You can call it an ideology and an economy, what it is is a pathology. (Toni Morrison) Slavery sought to repress the human instinct to question, to resist, and to love. While this endeavor failed in many respects, it did create a pathology, one that novelist Toni Morrison attributes to “predatory Western phenomena.” One example of these phenomena is the master narrative of Truth that repressed the psyches of AfricanAmericans, hindering their ability to speak their own truth. In this class, we will consider literature and artistic expression as antidotes to the master narrative and to psychological trauma. Texts: Morrison, Toni. Beloved Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl Toomer, Jean. Cane Petry, Ann. The Street Larsen, Nella. Passing Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time Souljah, Sistah. The Coldest Winter Ever Supplemental readings Requirements Active class participation Essays (2) One-page Talking Papers (7) Group presentation Harlem By Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? English 170: LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM Over time, critics change their approaches to literature and reading. Do we read to discover the author's intention? To analyze the ways in which a writer has created a unified work of art? To understand the writer's view of the society? To encounter timeless truths? To see how the assumptions of a particular time and place are inscribed in the text? Do we pay primary attention to themes, to images, to plot, to language, to our own reactions? Do we expect literature to provide answers, or to pose new questions? Literary Theory and Criticism is a course designed to cope with these questions and others. It is for the student who is uncertain about or even frightened by such labels as "New Criticism," "New Historicism," "Feminism," "Post-Colonialism," "Deconstruction," etc. The only prerequisite is openness to considering new, sometimes foreign ideas or ways to study and think of literature. The aim of the course is to break down the fear and resulting mistrust or mysticism that grows up around these terms and to encourage a more sophisticated reading of text than that based on mere common sense and impression. Readings: M.H. Abrams. A Glossary of Literary Terms. K.M. Newton. Twentieth-Century Literary Theory: A Reader Essays of Practical Criticism (Handouts) Herman Melville, Billy Budd Milder Robert, Critical Essays on Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor (Handouts) Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Anchee Min, Red Azalea David Henry Huang, M Butterfly Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being Requirements: Careful reading and re-reading, diligent marking of the texts, active participation in class discussions, and two papers. Instructor: Ben Xu T/Th 9:40-11:10 English 175: Shakespeare as Dramatist We sometimes forget when discussing the "greatest poet of the English language" that Shakespeare was a commercial playwright who made his living from writing plays to be performed for “the masses.” A poet, yes, but Shakespeare was also the greatest dramatist of his or, arguably, any other age -- a true craftsman of the spectacle of the stage, and of spoken language, dramatic form, and both profound and humorous characterization. This course will study a cross-section of Shakespeare's plays, paying special attention to the plays as dramatic texts intended for live performance. In order to better appreciate Shakespeare's plays in performance, we will regularly view excerpts from films and videotaped productions to supplement our careful reading of the texts. Readings (tentative): A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV: Part 1, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, King Lear. Requirements: Careful reading, thoughtful participation in class discussions; 3 short essays and short weekly written responses. Instructor: David DeRose MWF 10:20-11:20 Note: May be taken more than once for credit. Open to non-majors. Fulfills English Department Shakespeare requirement. English 198: Senior Honors Thesis (Independent Study) Directed reading and research under the supervision of a department faculty member, culminating in the writing of an academic thesis. Prerequisites 1. Senior standing in the English Major (for the semester in which thesis is to be undertaken) 2. 3.70 GPA in the English Major Exceptions must be pursued with the Department Chair. Application and Deadlines To undertake an Honors Thesis in Spring 2013, apply by November 13, 2012. Students are responsible for contacting and proposing projects to potential faculty supervisors. They must then submit a proposal containing the following to the Department Chair by the above deadline. Final approval rests with the Dept. Chair 1. a page-long description of the academic project to be undertaken 2. the signature of a faculty supervisor for the project, to be solicited by the student 3. evidence of 3.70 GPA in major Course Credit Students will receive 1 course credit for English 198. The course must be taken for a grade and may not be repeated for credit. Requirements 1. Regularly scheduled meetings with faculty supervisor to establish a reading list, organize research, and confer on progress and on drafts of the essay. 2. To equip the student with the skills necessary to complete a significant research study, the student will meet early in the semester with the librarian subject specialist (Sharon Walters) who will assist the student in formulating a search strategy, and in identifying, using, and evaluating appropriate sources of information. 3. The final project for this course will be a scholarly research essay of at least 20 pages, in addition to a Bibliography or Works Cited list. The essay must conform to MLA citation procedures. The faculty supervisor must approve and grade the final project. Graduate Level Courses English 211: Fiction Workshop This course is an intensive exploration of the ideas, techniques, and forms of fiction, such as the short story, novella, and novel, with primary emphasis on the careful analysis and discussion of student works-in-progress Instructor: Lou Berney Wednesday 3:45-6:45 English 212: Poetry Workshop The primary aim of this course is to allow the students as much freedom as possible in their writing while teaching them the skills to identify their strengths and weaknesses. The most important work for the student will be to generate new work and to refine the editing skills in the context of the group. By the end of the course, the students should develop the terminology and the critical skills for revising poetry, and should have a good understanding about issues and historical vocabularies for their practice in the art. Students may also be encouraged to write a poetic statement in which they will analyze their own poems---with particular attention to their development over the semester. Instructor: Kazim Ali Wednesday 3:45-6:45 English 214: Nonfiction Workshop This course gives students the opportunity to explore material in various areas of nonfiction, such as memoir, personal essay, or travel writing. The course addresses issues of voice, scene, point-of-view, and theme, as well as any other elements of nonfiction writing that will emerge from individual manuscripts. By the end of the course, the students should develop the terminology and the critical skills for revising nonfiction, and should develop a good understanding about issues and trends in the genre. Instructor: Susan Griffin Wednesday 3:45-6:45 *English 261: Craft Seminar in Fiction This course focuses on issues that influence the writing of fiction. Some seminars may focus on issues of craft or aesthetics – narrative structure in the novel, point of view, or dialogue – and others may be thematic in nature – historical fiction, realism or the postmodern ethos. Readings may include a wide range of fiction from diverse backgrounds and historical periods as well as the students’ own works-in-progress. Instructor: Wesley Gibson Thursday 4:30-7:30 *English 262: Craft Seminar in Poetry : The New American Poetry In 1960, Donald Allen and Grove Press published The New American Poetry 1945-1960. It included many poets (Ashbery, Creeley, Ginsberg, Guest, Jones, Koch, O'Hara, Schuyler, Spicer, etc.) of great future influence, and sorted the poets into categories (Black Mountain, Beats, San Francisco Renaissance, New York School) familiar to us to this day. Reading the anthology today, we can see how what is thought of as "new" in American poetry has (for better and worse) been profoundly influenced by this book, and beneath a surface idea of the "experimental," a deeper metabolizing of the innovations and values, both traditional and revolutionary, of the previous 150 years. In the first half of this course we will read the anthology, as well as separate full books by some of the poets (Guest, Ashbery, O'Hara, Creeley, Spicer, Wieners, and Creeley) along with supplementary material, in order to think about the "new" in American poetry, and how those ideas have influenced our understanding and practice of poetry. In the second half of the course students will choose and present work they feel has, or will, or should, determine what we think of as the new American poetry of the 21st century: what has mattered, what seems to matter now, and what will matter to poets and readers in the future. Instructor: Matthew Zapruder Tuesday 4:30-7:30 *English 264: Craft Seminar in Nonfiction: THE CHARACTER OF CHARACTER Many of the most acclaimed novels in the history of literature focus on and are named after a single character: Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dallaway, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. We read with focus, then, as we come to know the texture of Anna’s troubles, the quality of Clarissa’s mind, the futility of Emma Bovary’s aspirations. Much of what we think of as modern realist fiction probably centers on character. And so, in discussing the writing of fiction, it’s natural to discuss the fleshand-blood reality of characters we encounter on the page, how to build characters, how to make them appear more believable and as complex as we know real people to be. But what of character in nonfiction? How does the writer of memoir and essay bring to life people on the page who already exist or existed in real life, characters who do not need to be built so much as revealed? This course will look at a range of work from the autobiographical novel to the fragmented memoir to long-form literary journalism with an eye toward studying the nature of characterization: how writers bring to life people on the page: through glimpses, sketches, full-length scenes that rely on gestures, descriptions, dialogues, and monologues, and double portraits arranged through memories, questions, and riffs of imagination). We will ask ourselves in what way firstperson narrators—those who recede into the background and those who take center stage—are crafted (often through a distinctive voice) to become essential characters. We will also ask, to what effect? For what purpose do these characters exist on the page? As windows into another culture? As a way of examining—and arguing—political ideas? As the canvas on which an elegy is composed? And what particular issues regarding character do nonfiction writers face? Do readers expect to “like” a narrator in nonfiction in ways they do not when reading fiction? Do we yearn to know a narrator will be OK at the end of a memoir in a way that we do not when reading a novel? We will pose these questions and many more by delving into the character of characters (whether these are people, places, or ideas) in each text. READING LIST: Sylvia by Leonard Michaels Long Ago in France by MFK Fisher Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas Michael Martone by Michael Martone “Undertaker, Please Drive Slow” by Jo Ann Beard An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorján Instructor: Marilyn Abildskov mabildsk@stmarys-ca.edu T/Th 2:50 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. *Open to Undergraduates with Permission of Instructor