SPRING 2011 BARUCH ENGLISH DEPARTMENT THEMES
2100/2100T/2150/2150T
As of October 14, 2010
ENG 2100 DG13A
Towns, Saundra
Engagement
The course aims to introduce student writers to the conventions of academic writing and
to develop those critical reading and thinking skills that will be called for in academic,
civic, and professional life. Primary attention is given to writing as a process, from
formulating a thesis, to outlining, drafting, and revision, to writing the research paper.
Essays by both contemporary and "classic" writers will be read and analyzed as they
speak to both rhetorical and cultural issues of concern.
ENG 2100 DG24A
Donovan, Thom
Writing as Civic and Social Mediation
The following course will attempt to teach students to write with rhetoric effectiveness
and critical rigor through the study of ways that writing and art mediate our civic and
social responsibility. The first part of the class will be devoted to studying the essay as a
literary form; the second to writing and art practices concerned with land use and
ecological responsibility; the last to media literacy and ecology. Core texts include
writings by Martin Luther King Jr., Jonathan Swift, Michel de Montaigne, George
Orwell, Karl Marx, William Cronon, Stephen Collis, Henry David Thoreau, Agnes
Denes, Robert Smithson, Amy Balkin, The Yes Men, Roland Barthes, and The
Situationist International. Students will be expected to write two shorter papers and one
longer one, participate in class discussion and writing exercise, fulfill regular homework
assignments, and provide one oral presentation throughout the semester.
ENG 2100 JM13A
Towns, Saundra
Engagement
The course aims to introduce student writers to the conventions of academic writing and
to develop those critical reading and thinking skills that will be called for in academic,
civic, and professional life. Primary attention is given to writing as a process, from
formulating a thesis, to outlining, drafting, and revision, to writing the research paper.
Essays by both contemporary and "classic" writers will be read and analyzed as they
speak to both rhetorical and cultural issues of concern.
ENG 2100 JM13B
Mascarenhas, Kiran
It’s Not Easy Being Green
Nature is in. You can see concern for nature everywhere, from President Obama’s
campaign promise to create “green jobs” to the changing aesthetics of potato chip
packages, from bright yellow plastic to brown plastic (that looks biodegradable). What
feels like a current American mood, however, has been a cause of anxiety, speculation
and ineffectual reparative action for human beings for centuries. In this course, we will
examine some of the discourses around environmentalism. We will see what novelists,
poets, politicians and advertising agents have to say about the environment.
The discourses around environmentalism will hopefully provide us with a rich source of
material to think, read and write about. This is primarily a composition course, and so
our aim will be to take all this green stuff and put it down as clearly as possible, in black
and white. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills
and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is
to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective
participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the
"real" world beyond school.
ENG 2100 LP13A
Riley, Charles
(not submitted)
ENG 2100 MW74A
Lask, Ellen
American snapshots
Since its birth as a nation, the United States has grappled with a variety of social issues
that remain unresolved even today. Many of them are a result of our unique history and
development; others are universal concerns not necessarily specific to this country.
Whichever the case, however, they are questions that caused conflicts in the past and that
are still grounds for debate in the 21st century. Among them are economic and social
inequality, religious differences, attitudes toward race and the absorption of immigrants
into the fabric of American society.
Such questions will be the focus of our course. Through the reading of personal essays,
memoirs and other non-fiction writing, we will examine, discuss and write about the role
these issues have played in the American experience overall and the impact they have
had, and continue to have, on individuals. Our readings will include works by Russell
Baker, Barbara Ehrenreich, Zora Neale Hurston, Martin Luther King, Maxine Hong
Kingston, Malcolm X, Mike Rose, Gary Soto, Studs Terkel and Richard Wright.
ENG 2100 PS13A
Stewart, Michael Seth
The Dark American Woods
In this class, we will be examining the trope of the dark woods in American literature. In
the stories and poems of early settlers through the twentieth century (and beyond), the
woods have functioned in literature (and other media) as a place of temptation, mystery,
and transformation. We will be reading exemplary texts by writers including Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Emerson and Thoreau, Robert Frost, Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor. The
focus throughout will be on the development of strong critical reading and writing skills,
developed over the course of three papers of increasing complexity, responding to the
class’s texts and the ones you bring in yourself.
ENG 2100 TR54A
Hoffman, Meechal
Authorship: A Study in the Nature of Authority
The theme of our course is “Authority.” In what ways do we assert our authority with
family members, friends, teachers, bosses, coworkers, and strangers, or fail to, in our
daily lives? In what ways have we been affected by authority—our own and that of
others? How does authority affect our lives on a global scale? What are some ways of
gaining authority? Is writing an assertion of authority? What is the word “author” doing
in the word “authority?” Why does an essay written in a clear, meditative, and factual
voice assert authority? In what ways can playing with the form of our essays (writing
personal narratives, opinion pieces, research papers, etc.) assert our authority, or detract
from it?
Our course will be split into three main sections. First we will discuss the role authority
plays in personal relationships. Next, we will look at the effect authority has on the world
around us, on a global scale. Lastly, we will look at writing as a way of asserting
authority, and we will make sure that our writing has the power to grant us the authority
we need, for the rest of college and beyond, and for our personal satisfaction. By finding
ways compose writing with more authority, be it through experimentation with different
stylistic voices or through a nuanced use of punctuation or paragraph form, we will
become writers better equipped to write for college and beyond.
Each of our three units will culminate in an essay, at least one of which will involve
research. We will also practice writing outside the essays (by writing outlines, by
practicing free writing, by writing in journals) in order to prepare for and reflect on our
writing. Our readings will include Moshin Hamid’s “Focus on the Fundamentals;” Joan
Didion's "Why I Write" and "On Keeping a Notebook;" George Orwell's "Why I Write,"
"Shooting an Elephant," and "Politics and the English Language;" Kurt Vonnegut's "How
to Write With Style;" and Stanley Milgram's "An Experiment in Autonomy." We will
also regularly read work written by the students in our class.
ENG 2100 TW24A
Dolack, DJ
Living with New Media
Although our means of interaction have increased drastically, often making information
and communication available instantaneously, the quality and scope of that interaction is
being challenged. Since when did saying ‘I love you’ become simply ‘ILY’ typed into a
digital screen? What are the consequences of being addicted to the availability of a
cellular phone or email? When we socialize online, how does the fact that we can edit our
own profiles impact our sense of identity? We are caught in the classic dichotomy of
quantity verses quality, and are living within a culture that is redefining the ideas of
personal contact and Proxemics, while promoting abstraction as a viable means of
correspondence. This course will explore the ways in which our basic human
communication is being altered by the onslaught of technology and new media devices
such as the internet (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, dating sites, blogs, etc.), cell phones,
and PDA’s. It will also take a look at the discrepancies between our “real
life” personalities and our online identities and avatars, as well as how these differences
can color our senses of self and our insecurities.
Sample of readings to include:
“Television: The Plug-In Drug” by Marie Winn
“Dearly Disconnected” by Ian Frazier
“On the Internet, There’s No Place to Hide” by Jonathan Koppell
“Convergence Culture” by Henry Jenkins
“It’s All About Us” by Steven Johnson
“Enough About You” by Brian Williams
“Multitasking State of Mind” by Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson
“Free Speech and Censorship in Online Communities” by Teten and Allen
Also, articles from the New York Times, Wired Magazine, New York Magazine, etc.
ENG 2100 UX13A
Miller, Michael
Identity and Culture in America
American culture is a stew in which the various parts retain something of their own
identity and flavor as they rub up against and influence each other, affecting the flavor of
the whole without necessarily losing our own original cultural identity in the mixture.
Much of the challenge of becoming good citizens in an increasingly complex world is to
hold onto the parts of our culture that make us feel comfortable and at the same time to be
part of the greater whole. As a writing course, each student will begin to explore his or
her individual culture, where each comes from, and gradually move out into the
challenges of understanding American culture and the problems we face.
We will examine the Freshman Text by Charles Li extensively. In the course of the
semester we will also read and write in journals about such writers as Richard Rodriquez,
Maya Angelou, Thomas Jefferson, Langston Hughes, George Orwell and many others,
and discuss in groups within the class their writings from a cultural perspective. Writing
assignments will move from the very personal recollections of the culture of the family
and neighborhood into broader and more complex questions of the kind of world students
want to create for ourselves.
ENG 2100 CNOW
Sylvor, Jennifer
Come to the Table
Hunger is perhaps the most basic of human urges; yet deciding what to eat has never
seemed more complicated. In this course, we will sift through some of the complex and
often contradictory messages we receive about eating in America. We will investigate
the social and symbolic underpinnings of human eating practices, particularly the use of
food to define cultural or ethnic identity. How has the desire for certain foods (sugar,
spices, salt) shaped the course of history, nation-building, and colonialization? How is
our thinking about food informed by our ideas about pleasure, sensuality, and morality?
We will consider the impact of globalization, capitalism, and consumerism on the
production, preparation, and consumption of food in the United States today. The French
epicure Brillat-Savarin famously declared “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who
you are.” Given the close relationship between food and identity, how do the choices we
make around food signal our cultural, socio-economic, and ideological affinities? We
will be reading texts that offer trenchant critiques of agribusiness, but we will also be
exploring narratives that suggest alternatives to mainstream modes of production and
consumption.
ENG 2100T EL13A
Dalgish, Gerard
Writing I for ESL Students
This course is designed to provide you with additional preparation in writing,
reading and speaking to help you improve your written academic English, your speaking
fluency and oral presentations, your reading comprehension, and your vocabulary and
idiom. We will focus on grammar, writing, reading, and vocabulary development, with
the study of your first language, the role of language and communication in the world
today, the freshman text, and other related activities as the source materials. You will also
learn how to do research, how to edit, how to rewrite, and how to participate and
communicate effectively in a class setting.
ENG 2100T EL13B
Gordon, Casey
The Eye of the Beholder
We view, we interpret, and we give meaning to all things we encounter visually – so
much so, that we often encounter images with a certain amount of passivity, never
pausing to ask ourselves how an image works aesthetically, sociologically, and
psychologically. This course is a writing course intended for speakers of languages in
addition to English; while we will spend much of our energy studying the process of
essay writing, essay structure, methods of analysis, methods of argument, and sentencelevel grammar, we will center our writing on the ideas we glean from our studies of the
image. We will study the fine arts and photography, pop culture images, advertisements,
comic books, and literature. Readings will include two graphic novels, one novella
(Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur), several essays, one book on writing
(Seeing and Writing by Donald McQuade and Christine McQuade), and various
handouts. In addition to readings and classroom discussions, we will take a field trip to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Students will write several short, ungraded
assignments, three three-page papers, and a final six-page persuasive paper; students will
also give a group presentation.
ENG 2100T EL24A
Thornhill, Karen
Nature and Ecology
This course will focus on a multi-media approach to Nature and Ecology. We will
conduct independent internet research projects in class on a variety of natural phenomena
to discover and foster a greater understanding and deeper appreciation of the beauty and
complexity of nature. Topics of choice may include Rainforest Ecology; The Marshlands
of Louisiana; coral reef formation; the jet stream and weather patterns; earthquakes,
volcanoes, tsunamis and global warming; how the aurora is formed; meteor showers;
how butterflies ‘see’; the great Monarch butterfly migration; flowers of the tropics; how
medicine is harvested from plants; etc. In addition to the independent internet research
projects, we will view three-and four-star films /documentaries in class which link to our
theme, we will read from a selection of both English and American nature poets and
essayists, including Wordsworth, Shelley, Emerson and Thoreau.
A variety of essay types will be introduced, including narrative, descriptive, comparison
and contrast, and persuasive. There will be continued emphasis on improving grammar
and mechanics, English usage, paragraph unity and coherence, as well as refining the
structure and style of our essays.
There will be a various in-class writing assignments ranging from informal brief
responses, to mini group presentations, to more official essays. There will be
approximately six (6) official essays, and students will have the opportunity to write and
revise for the best possible grade.
There will be a total of two exams given: a midterm and a final, along with a small
number of announced quizzes.
Required Texts: The Norton Anthology of English Literature
The Elements of Style
and Strunk and White’s
ENG 2100T TZ13A
Hughes, Ingrid
Diversity in the United States.
The U.S. today includes substantial populations defined by race, ethnicity, religion,
sexual preference and gender. This course examines the issues that members of such
groups have experienced over the history of the U.S. and today. Students will also
consider the role such issues have played in their own lives. Readings are drawn from the
textbook, Diversity: Strength and Struggle a collection edited by Calabresi and Tchudi ,
as well as other sources. We will also read Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers, a novel
about immigrants on the Lower East Side in the early twentieth century.
ENG 2100T TZ24A
Applebaum, Miriam
Work in the 21st Century
What is work and what is its value? In this course we will look at the changing world of
work in the 21st century and its affect on the individual, American society and the world
at large. Using non-fiction, fiction, poetry and films, we will study such issues as the
affect of work on family life, work in an increasingly global, technological world, and
work and ethics. Readings may include Barbara Ehrenrich’s Nickel and Dimed, Jessica
Mitford’s, “The American Way of Death” Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl Wu Dunn’s,
“Two Cheers for Sweatshops” Jeremy Rifkin”s “High-Tech Stress” and Mark Twain’s
“Two Views of the Mississippi.” We will also be viewing the film “Thank You For
Smoking” and possibly segments from other films such as “Glengarrry Glen Ross” that
relate to the subject of work. Class assignments will consist of 5 essays, including a
narrative essay, a compare/contrast paper, a brief annotated essay and an argumentative
essay. There will also be short response papers and quizzes based on the readings,
writing workshop participation and other group work and an oral presentation.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The goal is to
prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective
participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the
"real" world beyond school.
ENG 2100T TR57A
Shariff, Shelina
Diversity in a Changing World
As the world seems to become smaller there is more communication between people from
different cultures. A student may have Facebook friends from Mozambique, China, Uzbekistan
and Pakistan. They might instant-message regularly and exchange information about their daily
lives. Yet how much do we really know about customs and habits in countries outside the United
States. Wearing hijaab, arranged marriages, four generations living under one roof or ancestor
worship are just some of the customs seen as being “strange” or “weird” by many Americans. Yet
these are customs that have existed for hundreds if not thousands of years. So what lies behind
them?
This course English 2100T seeks to deepen your understanding of lives lived differently from
mainstream American values. We will examine fiction and non-fiction written by authors as
varied as Salman Rushdie, Firoozeh Dumas, Azar Nafisi, Tehmina Ahmed, Ngugi Wa Thiongo,
Nadine Gordimer and Zadie Smith. The works may be set inside and outside the United States,
but will primarily concentrate on non-American authors. We will also read non -fiction articles
including pieces from “The New York Times” and “Granta” We may watch one or two films and
go on a field trip while exploring our chosen theme.
The books used will be “One World, Many Cultures” by Stuart and Terry Hirschberg and "The
Mystic Masseur" by V.S. Naipaul.
ENG 2150 AD13A
Entes, Judith
You Can’t Pick Your Family: Learning from Literature
What does family mean? How is it portrayed in literature? How do people deal with
various situations? We will examine how there are different definitions of family. In
addition, we will observe various strategies people use to survive in the family.
Hopefully, since you can’t pick your family you will learn from literature how to make
the best of the situation.
The textbook will be Literature: The Human Experience Reading and Writing Edited by
Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz, Shorter Ninth Edition, 2007, NY: Bedford/St.
Martin’s. We will read about the absent parent. Some of the selections will include
“Araby” by James Joyce, “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, “A Rose for
Emily” by William Faulkner, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
There will be discussion of the father’s role in “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller
and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The mother’s role will be analyzed in “My
Mother” by Robert Mezey, “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, and “Two
Kinds” by Amy Tan.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare
students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in
and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world
beyond school. In addition, students will attend a Broadway, Off-Broadway, or Off-OffBroadway show where they will examine the family.
ENG 2150 AD24A
Remedios, Sara
Books and the Real World
In this course we will consider the ways in which “real world” social, political, and
economic contexts influence literary production (and vice-versa), focusing primarily on
moments of heightened political tensions and crisis in the Global North of the 20th
century. We will ask how and why political ideologies take shape in literary works, as
well as examine how literature functions internally as social criticism and what is (or can
be) the effect of that criticism in the public life. Students will learn to read critically for
underlying agendas while expanding and improving upon skills in analytic and
researched essays.
Texts will be drawn from literary, critical, and historical sources; possible readings to
include Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and more.
ENG 2150 DG13A
Russell, Catherine
Develop Your Own Critical Voice
In English 2150, you will learn to develop and refine your critical thought skills and your
critical voice. We will read poems, short stories and plays and analyze the works in terms
of the historical, psychological, philosophical and social context of the period in which
they were written and then analyze their relevance and resonance in today’s world. Each
student will also be required to read a novel of his/her choice and discuss it in a one-onone conference and see a play and discuss the experience with the class. One brief
creative writing assignment will also be required.
ENG 2150 DG13B
Getzen, Sheila
Humor: Mirth to the Absurd
Humor is a poplar traveling companion in life, and in this class, we will follow the
comic muse. We will first read the Prologue to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales—with its
profiles of a colorful medieval group, setting off on a pilgrimage one bright springtime
day. Our last journey will be Sarah Ruhl’s imaginative contemporary play The Dead
Man’s Cell Phone.
In addition, we will read and write about comic rivalries, in romance and with
siblings: Chekhov’s one-act “vaudevilles, ” “The Bear” and “The Wedding”-- set in 19th
century Russia--, as well as Sam Shepard’s play True West --set in 1980’s suburban Los
Angeles.
In terms of theory, we will study the literary traditions of Medieval estates satire ,
French farce, and theater of the absurd. For added perspective, we will read
“Appropriate Incongruities” by humor expert and anthropologist Elliot Orang.
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose
of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication,
particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only
for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical
understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond
school.
ENG 2150 DG13C
Penaz, Mary Louise
Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making 2011: Where Do Ideas Come
From?
Daniel Pink tells us “The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind
of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers—creative and emphatic “right-brain”
thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t.”
How then can we become more creative and emphatic thinkers to meet the challenge of
this new playing field? Where exactly do our ideas come from? Since knowledge is
relative to our human interaction with the world, many of our ideas come from the
thought training we use most often. With so many decision-making systems available,
what kind works best in a given situation? These are only a few of the questions we will
ponder in this course. In this course, we will read and discuss how literature, poetry,
nonfiction essay and science fiction use problem-solving methods.
The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and
rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to
prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective
participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the
"real" world beyond school.
Potential Booklist:
A selection of literature, poems, essays, and science fiction stories will be supplied by the
instructor.
Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
Adams, James L. Conceptual Blockbusting
Michalko, Michael. Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking
De Bono, Edward. Six Thinking Hats
Kelley, Tom. The Ten Faces of Innovation
Turner, Mark. The Literary Mind
Lakoff, George. Metaphors We Live By
ENG 2150 DG13D
Vecchio, Monica
Americans on Planet Earth: Where Are We Going?
Using a variety of media and print sources, the class will investigate growing concerns
over the state of the natural world. Readings will be taken from the works of authors like
Walt Whitman, Al Gore, Rachel Carson, Henry David Thoreau, Sarah Orne Jewett, John
Muir, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Henrik Ibsen. Current relevant issues include water, air,
land use, the food chain, climate, energy, endangered species and risks to our health. The
goal is to increase our awareness so that each can become an informed citizen of the
globe.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare
students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in
and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world
beyond school.
ENG 2150 DG13E
Kaufman, Erika
Happiness
Everyone wants to be happy, or at least we all think we do. But, what is happiness? Why
do advertisements, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, parents, and friends all think they
know the big answer? In “Happiness,” Dead Prez writes, “we can’t escape from the
realness/happiness is all in the mind.” Following this notion that “happiness is all in the
mind,” this course will begin by exploring and interrogating recent work in the recent
field of psychology often referred to as “happiness studies,” beginning with Daniel
Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness. The course will include a wide variety of texts, with
an emphasis placed on looking at scientific studies and newspaper articles alongside
literature (both contemporary and canonical). In exploring different types of literature—
from nonfiction to fiction to poetry and plays—you will learn how to look for intriguing
questions in a text, pull together evidence and analyze its implications, make sound and
interesting claims based on your evidence, develop convincing arguments, and structure
coherent essays with clear theses. Be prepared to write frequently, engage in class
discussions of assigned readings, respond to student work, share your own writing with
peer editors, and participate in small group work and presentations.
ENG 2150 DG24A
Russell, Catherine
Develop Your Own Critical Voice
In English 2150, you will learn to develop and refine your critical thought skills and your
critical voice. We will read poems, short stories and plays and analyze the works in terms
of the historical, psychological, philosophical and social context of the period in which
they were written and then analyze their relevance and resonance in today’s world. Each
student will also be required to read a novel of his/her choice and discuss it in a one-onone conference and see a play and discuss the experience with the class. One brief
creative writing assignment will also be required.
ENG 2150 DG24C
Penaz, Mary Louise
Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making 2011: Where Do Ideas Come
From?
Daniel Pink tells us “The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind
of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers—creative and emphatic “right-brain”
thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t.”
How then can we become more creative and emphatic thinkers to meet the challenge of
this new playing field? Where exactly do our ideas come from? Since knowledge is
relative to our human interaction with the world, many of our ideas come from the
thought training we use most often. With so many decision-making systems available,
what kind works best in a given situation? These are only a few of the questions we will
ponder in this course. In this course, we will read and discuss how literature, poetry,
nonfiction essay and science fiction use problem-solving methods.
The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and
rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to
prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective
participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the
"real" world beyond school.
Potential Booklist:
A selection of literature, poems, essays, and science fiction stories will be supplied by the
instructor.
Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
Adams, James L. Conceptual Blockbusting
Michalko, Michael. Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking
De Bono, Edward. Six Thinking Hats
Kelley, Tom. The Ten Faces of Innovation
Turner, Mark. The Literary Mind
Lakoff, George. Metaphors We Live By
ENG 2150 DG24C
Vecchio, Monica
Americans on Planet Earth: Where Are We Going?
Using a variety of media and print sources, the class will investigate growing concerns
over the state of the natural world. Readings will be taken from the works of authors like
Walt Whitman, Al Gore, Rachel Carson, Henry David Thoreau, Sarah Orne Jewett, John
Muir, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Henrik Ibsen. Current relevant issues include water, air,
land use, the food chain, climate, energy, endangered species and risks to our health. The
goal is to increase our awareness so that each can become an informed citizen of the
globe.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare
students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in
and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world
beyond school.
ENG 2150 DG24D
Oke, Paullette
Faith and Protest
This course emphasizes strategies of argument and multiple uses of writing as a skill,
talent, and means of critical engagement. Throughout the course students will read a
variety of articles and short narratives by experienced writers in order to consider
thematic implications of faith as personal and political, even at times contradictory. In
other words, what are the underlying constructs of faith that make it both personal and
“public?” Are the boundaries between each clearly drawn? Students are expected to read
assigned material, conduct visits to the library, participate in-class discussions and inclass writing, model select essay forms, and identify and apply standard grammar,
observe sentence boundaries, and MLA citation.
ENG 2150 DG24E
Deming, John
Music, Lyrics & Language
In this course, students will analyze and compose argumentative essays about a broad
sampling of 19th- and 20th-century writers and musicians including John Ashbery, James
Baldwin, Miles Davis, Annie Dillard, Bob Dylan, George Gershwin, Robert Hayden,
Wallace Stevens, Walt Whitman and Thom Yorke. Students will read a variety of
argumentative essays, and will also study lyricism: the differences between poem and
song, the ways that language contains elements of sound and the way that language
changes when it is coupled with music. There will also be an emphasis on rhetorical
language, and the specious ways that a stirring speech or performance might “convince”
even if it is absent logical reason: the notion that a person might be swayed by a
dynamically performed political speech in the same way that they are “convinced” by
live or recorded music.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare
students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in
and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world
beyond school.
List of possible readings:
Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
“Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin
“A More Perfect Union,” Barack Obama
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashbery
Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
“The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro,” Frederick Douglass
“Middle Passage,” Robert Hayden
“State and Revolution,” Vladimir Lenin
“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“The Hope Speech,” Harvey Milk
from Miles, Miles Davis
Poems by: Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Creeley, Robert Frost, Frank O’Hara Wallace
Stevens, William Carlos Williams
Songs by: George Gershwin, Billie Holliday, Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke, and more
ENG 2150 DG24F
McGruder, Krista
The Business of America is Business
President Calvin Coolidge said that “The business of America is business.” But
Americans’ interest in the “business of America” existed long before and has continued
after Coolidge coined the now-famous aphorism. The literature about business is not
confined to the dry texts of business schools, and the jargon of trade magazines. Fiction
writers, poets, and playwrights have addressed the idea of what it means to be an
employee, an owner, a retiree, and a man who is down on his luck within the rubric of an
American economy that, for better or worse, depends on the workings of business.
This class will examine the literature of business in America, how the founding
documents shaped enterprise, and how writing, both journalistic and otherwise, affected
Americans’ views of industry. The course will start with selections from The Federalist
Papers then continue with a look at the vanishing of agrarian America in Wendell
Barry’s works. Poems by Walt Whitman and fiction by Herman Melville will illuminate
how writers described the place of work in everyday life. Students will read Upton
Sinclair’s The Jungle and James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men to better
understand the depiction of the conditions for workers in urban and rural enterprises. The
course will continue with A Random Walk Down Wall Street and Michael Lewis’s sendup of Wall Street in Liar’s Poker.
First and foremost, however, this course will be a course in composition. Heavy
emphasis will be placed on writing inside and outside of class. Students should be
prepared to use The Little, Brown Handbook for their usage guide and Frank Cioffi’s The
Imaginative Argument as their guide to rhetoric in composition. Students will be
expected to complete three essays, a research paper, and many in-class writing
assignments.
ENG 2150 FJ13A
Entes, Judith
You Can’t Pick Your Family: Learning from Literature
What does family mean? How is it portrayed in literature? How do people deal with
various situations? We will examine how there are different definitions of family. In
addition, we will observe various strategies people use to survive in the family.
Hopefully, since you can’t pick your family you will learn from literature how to make
the best of the situation.
The textbook will be Literature: The Human Experience Reading and Writing Edited by
Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz, Shorter Ninth Edition, 2007, NY: Bedford/St.
Martin’s. We will read about the absent parent. Some of the selections will include
“Araby” by James Joyce, “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, “A Rose for
Emily” by William Faulkner, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
There will be discussion of the father’s role in “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller
and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The mother’s role will be analyzed in “My
Mother” by Robert Mezey, “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, and “Two
Kinds” by Amy Tan.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare
students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in
and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world
beyond school. In addition, students will attend a Broadway, Off-Broadway, or Off-OffBroadway show where they will examine the family.
ENG 2150 FJ13H
Hayes, Bryant
English 2150 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and
writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a
text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull
together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop
convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent
essays with clear main ideas.
The theme of this section of 2150 is Immigration. The textbook is the anthology
Imagining America, edited by Wesley Brown and Amy Ling.
ENG 2150 FJ13C
Litman, Chris
Myths of the Vampire: Cultural Reinventions of Bloodsuckers
Although we live in an age of science and secularism, perhaps no myth of the
supernatural has had equal popularity and appeal as the vampire narrative. This course
will investigate the reinvention and reinterpretation of these stories over the last twohundred years. From Bram Stoker’s classic, Dracula, to contemporary incarnations such
as the characters in Stephenie Meyer’s series, Twilight, we will study how writers have
adapted the vampire myth to the needs and desires of their audiences while at the same
time drawing off a universal fear and fascination with macabre narratives. Through our
readings and discussions, we will continually respond to a central question: are vampires
blank screens on which writers and readers project their own cultural interests (for
example, vampire stories being allegories for adolescent experiences with sexuality) or
do they represent emotions that are primal in all human beings (lust, consumption, power,
etc.)? Readings will include Bram Stoker’s Dracula (A Norton Critical Edition), Anne
Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, and The Penguin Book of
Vampire Stories, in addition to popular and scholarly criticism.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The written assignments
will be comprised of formal argumentative essays, shorter in-class responses to the
readings, peer editing and evaluating, as well as several fun and creative exercises. You
will also be expected to participate actively and meaningfully during each class session.
ENG 2150 JM13A
Getzen, Sheila
Humor: Mirth to the Absurd
Humor is a poplar traveling companion in life, and in this class, we will follow the
comic muse. We will first read the Prologue to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales—with its
profiles of a colorful medieval group, setting off on a pilgrimage one bright springtime
day. Our last journey will be Sarah Ruhl’s imaginative contemporary play The Dead
Man’s Cell Phone.
In addition, we will read and write about comic rivalries, in romance and with
siblings: Chekhov’s one-act “vaudevilles, ” “The Bear” and “The Wedding”-- set in 19th
century Russia--, as well as Sam Shepard’s play True West --set in 1980’s suburban Los
Angeles.
In terms of theory, we will study the literary traditions of Medieval estates satire ,
French farce, and theater of the absurd. For added perspective, we will read
“Appropriate Incongruities” by humor expert and anthropologist Elliot Orang.
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose
of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication,
particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only
for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical
understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond
school.
ENG 2150 JM13C
Corwin, Walter
The Dramatic in English Literature
The dramatic is often an essential part of literature. Readers are drawn by it through a
work of art, and made at the end aware of a story’s significance. This is true, of plays, of
course, but also short stories and poetry. The purpose of this course is to examine exactly
what makes the “dramatic” so compelling (foreshadowing the climax, the hidden for
example) from the point of view of the work and for its audience. The course, starting
with Antigone, a play by Sophocles; Romeo and Juliet, a play by Shakespeare; “My Last
Dutchess”, a poem by Browning; “Young Goodman Brown,” a short story by Hawthorne;
“The Killers”, a short story by Hemingway; and ending with “The Lottery”, a short story
by Shirley Jackson, will also help the student understand how the dramatic differs from
other ways of storytelling. Through this process, the student will come to understand how
the dramatic strengthens the social significance of each work. The student will attend a
play, meet the actors, and will have the opportunity to ask questions of the director and
actors. In addition, the students will write 5 papers that emphasize different kinds of
writing practices in order to help them use writing to learn.
ENG 2150 JM13D
Kaufman, Erika
Happiness
Everyone wants to be happy, or at least we all think we do. But, what is happiness? Why
do advertisements, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, parents, and friends all think they
know the big answer? In “Happiness,” Dead Prez writes, “we can’t escape from the
realness/happiness is all in the mind.” Following this notion that “happiness is all in the
mind,” this course will begin by exploring and interrogating recent work in the recent
field of psychology often referred to as “happiness studies,” beginning with Daniel
Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness. The course will include a wide variety of texts, with
an emphasis placed on looking at scientific studies and newspaper articles alongside
literature (both contemporary and canonical). In exploring different types of literature—
from nonfiction to fiction to poetry and plays—you will learn how to look for intriguing
questions in a text, pull together evidence and analyze its implications, make sound and
interesting claims based on your evidence, develop convincing arguments, and structure
coherent essays with clear theses. Be prepared to write frequently, engage in class
discussions of assigned readings, respond to student work, share your own writing with
peer editors, and participate in small group work and presentations.
ENG 2150 JM13E
Merle, Jeanne-Stauffer
The Archetype of the Labyrinth: The Dark Spiral to Self-Discovery
In ancient Crete, King Minos was given a gift by the gods, a beautiful white bull, but the
king’s wife, Pasiphae, developed an uncontrollable lust for the animal and finally
satisfied her longing. The result of this union between queen and bull was the Minotaur,
a half-man half-bull creature that ate only human flesh. The King, despairing and
ashamed, tried to hide the monster in a special prison, a labyrinth so dark and convoluted
that the creature could never escape and his queen’s unspeakable secret never be
known: Just another Greek tragedy of unnatural love? No, this archetype represents a
good deal of psychological exploration, both inspiring and horrifying, and informs a
wealth of literature, art, music, and film.
During our spiral into the uncomfortable whirlpool of desire and fear that will permeate
many of our discussions, we will look at various texts and other media. Some likely
works: shorts pieces of fiction and essays by John Barth and Jorge Borges, Pedro
Paramo, by Juan Rulfo, The Erasers, by Alain-Robbe-Grillet, City of Glass, the graphic
novel, by Paul Auster. A theater piece and one film, to be announced, will help to
broaden our understanding, as will various examples of poetry, modern art and
photography.
The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and
rhetorical sophistication. Along with a fair amount of reading, you will need, of course,
to be prepared to do a good deal of writing, which will be comprised of formal
argumentative essays, shorter in-class responses to the readings, peer editing and
evaluating, as well as several energizing and creative exercises. You will also be
expected to participate actively and meaningfully during each class session.
ENG 2150 JM13F
Hohl, David
Sex, Love, Violence and Death
The selections for this course will be short stories, plays and poetry. Brief
summaries of some tentative selections: a daughter, niece and fiancée commits suicide
rather than submit to her uncle’s demands not to bury her brother (Antigone); a son
thinks he can scarcely tolerate his mother until his utter dependence on her is exposed at
her death (“Everything that Rises Must Converge”); a chance encounter with escaped
convicts results in the mass-murder of an entire family (“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”);
a woman who refuses to let her lover and fiancé leave her poisons him and for years
thereafter sleeps with his corpse beside her (“A Rose for Emily”); a woman chooses
abortion in the unlikely hope of keeping her lover (“Hills Like White Elephants”);
humanity tries to erase its own erasure following the atomic bomb explosion on
Hiroshima (“Welcome to Hiroshima”); an African American matriarch teaches her son
the importance of family and love (A Raisin in the Sun); a Renaissance poet gives men a
textbook argument for seducing their girlfriends (“To His Coy Mistress”); a man commits
murder and then cannot control his own betrayal of himself (“The Telltale Heart”).
ENG 2150 JM13G
Rich, Howard
At War with Ourselves: Literature of Psychological Challenge
The theme of the course will be the responses of individuals to conditions of extreme
psychological challenge. Sometimes when we are going through a rough patch in our
lives, we are told we are our own worst enemies. Why is that the case? The reason, more
often than not, is that our own trouble is caused not just by external factors but by our
own demons, which prevent us from dealing effectively with whatever we perceive as
threatening. This is strikingly true of Hamlet, whose own ambivalence toward completing
his assigned task is an issue to which he cannot effectively respond. Likewise, the
eponymous hero of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is faced with the
challenge of reconciling his ingrained Puritan morality with a suppressed desire to be free
of it.
Similarly, Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour,” is rocked by an
internal conflict she didn’t know existed until she learns of the death of her husband: the
tension between her love for him and her need to be free of him.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare
students for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical
understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond
school.
ENG 2150 JM24A
Darin, Doris
Pride and Prejudice in Society
English 2150 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and
writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a
text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull
together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop
convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent
essays with clear main ideas.
In this section of 2150 we will focus on writers who write about societal prejudices: the
ways that societies value some people and dismiss others. We will explore how each
writer reflects and amplifies personal and societal values.
ENG 2150 JM24B
Mengay, Donald
(not submitted)
ENG 2150 JM24C
Mead, Corey
English 2150 is a course on college-level essay writing. At the beginning of this course, we will
focus on autobiographical writing. Following this, we will spend the rest of the semester focusing
on what might be called the underbelly of globalization, as we cover a series of topics that
mainstream discussions of the global economy rarely address— topics such as drug smuggling,
human trafficking, and contemporary slavery.
ENG 2150 JM24D
Towns, Saundra
Traditions
The rich and varied literary tradition of the West (just as a start) can only be hinted at in
an advanced writing course. Nevertheless, the course attempts to present a brief
sampling of that tradition through the study of short pieces from two to three literary
genres (short fiction, poetry, drama) while continuing to address the needs of academic
writers:close reading;the development and support of written arguments; familiarity with
the conventions of standard English grammar and usage.
ENG 2150 JM24E
Oke, Paullette
Faith and Protest
This course emphasizes strategies of argument and multiple uses of writing as a skill,
talent, and means of critical engagement. Throughout the course students will read a
variety of articles and short narratives by experienced writers in order to consider
thematic implications of faith as personal and political, even at times contradictory. In
other words, what are the underlying constructs of faith that make it both personal and
“public?” Are the boundaries between each clearly drawn? Students are expected to read
assigned material, conduct visits to the library, participate in-class discussions and inclass writing, model select essay forms, and identify and apply standard grammar,
observe sentence boundaries, and MLA citation.
ENG 2150 JM24F
Deming, John
Music, Lyrics & Language
In this course, students will analyze and compose argumentative essays about a broad
sampling of 19th- and 20th-century writers and musicians including John Ashbery, James
Baldwin, Miles Davis, Annie Dillard, Bob Dylan, George Gershwin, Robert Hayden,
Wallace Stevens, Walt Whitman and Thom Yorke. Students will read a variety of
argumentative essays, and will also study lyricism: the differences between poem and
song, the ways that language contains elements of sound and the way that language
changes when it is coupled with music. There will also be an emphasis on rhetorical
language, and the specious ways that a stirring speech or performance might “convince”
even if it is absent logical reason: the notion that a person might be swayed by a
dynamically performed political speech in the same way that they are “convinced” by
live or recorded music.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare
students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in
and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world
beyond school.
List of possible readings:
Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
“Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin
“A More Perfect Union,” Barack Obama
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashbery
Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
“The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro,” Frederick Douglass
“Middle Passage,” Robert Hayden
“State and Revolution,” Vladimir Lenin
“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“The Hope Speech,” Harvey Milk
from Miles, Miles Davis
Poems by: Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Creeley, Robert Frost, Frank O’Hara Wallace
Stevens, William Carlos Williams
Songs by: George Gershwin, Billie Holliday, Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke, and more
ENG 2150 LP13A
Entes, Judith
You Can’t Pick Your Family: Learning from Literature
What does family mean? How is it portrayed in literature? How do people deal with
various situations? We will examine how there are different definitions of family. In
addition, we will observe various strategies people use to survive in the family.
Hopefully, since you can’t pick your family you will learn from literature how to make
the best of the situation.
The textbook will be Literature: The Human Experience Reading and Writing Edited by
Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz, Shorter Ninth Edition, 2007, NY: Bedford/St.
Martin’s. We will read about the absent parent. Some of the selections will include
“Araby” by James Joyce, “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, “A Rose for
Emily” by William Faulkner, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
There will be discussion of the father’s role in “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller
and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The mother’s role will be analyzed in “My
Mother” by Robert Mezey, “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, and “Two
Kinds” by Amy Tan.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare
students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in
and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world
beyond school. In addition, students will attend a Broadway, Off-Broadway, or Off-OffBroadway show where they will examine the family.
ENG 2150 LP13B
Hayes, Bryant
English 2150 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and
writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a
text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull
together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop
convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent
essays with clear main ideas.
The theme of this section of 2150 is Immigration. The textbook is the anthology
Imagining America, edited by Wesley Brown and Amy Ling.
ENG 2150 LP13C
Curley, Mary Ann
Magic, myths and dreams –
The persistence of myths, archetypal patterns, magical transformations and ghosts in
drama and stories from Oedipus to the present. Using Edith Hamilton’s Mythology as a
jumping off point, we will look at the way writers from Sophocles and Shakespeare to
Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood have made use
of the mysterious and the otherworldly in their works.
ENG 2150 LP13D
Cucu, Sorin
(Not yet submitted)
ENG 2150 PS13A
Corwin, Walter
The Dramatic in English Literature
The dramatic is often an essential part of literature. Readers are drawn by it through a
work of art, and made at the end aware of a story’s significance. This is true, of plays, of
course, but also short stories and poetry. The purpose of this course is to examine exactly
what makes the “dramatic” so compelling (foreshadowing the climax, the hidden for
example) from the point of view of the work and for its audience. The course, starting
with Antigone, a play by Sophocles; Romeo and Juliet, a play by Shakespeare; “My Last
Dutchess”, a poem by Browning; “Young Goodman Brown,” a short story by Hawthorne;
“The Killers”, a short story by Hemingway; and ending with “The Lottery”, a short story
by Shirley Jackson, will also help the student understand how the dramatic differs from
other ways of storytelling. Through this process, the student will come to understand how
the dramatic strengthens the social significance of each work. The student will attend a
play, meet the actors, and will have the opportunity to ask questions of the director and
actors. In addition, the students will write 5 papers that emphasize different kinds of
writing practices in order to help them use writing to learn.
ENG 2150 PS13B
Sylvor, Jennifer
The View from the Margins
While much great literature has described the fictional feats of larger-than-life heroes,
many of literature’s most memorable figures have been drawn from the margins of
society and can be defined against the contours of the conventional hero. In this course,
we will explore novels, short stories, non-fiction, art, and film that feature “marginal”
individuals – loners, outcasts, eccentrics, oddballs – and we will consider the special
perspective afforded by these characters. What does it mean to be an outsider? Why is
the figure of the artist or writer so frequently located on the margins of society? In what
ways does modern culture sometimes privilege this “outsider’s” perspective? How does
society deal with those who are outside the mainstream? In addition to our reading, we
will consider visual art related to our subject, particularly the “outsider art” of Howard
Finster and the work of photographer Diane Arbus, whose lens was drawn again and
again to those on the fringes of society.
Readings:
Nikolai Gogol, “The Overcoat”
Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”
Herman Melville, “Bartelby the Scrivener”
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Junot Diaz, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (excerpts)
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers (excerpt)
Adrian LeBlanc, Random Family (excerpt)
Grey Gardens/The Beales of Grey Gardens
Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus
Freaks, Todd Browning, dir.
Howard Finster and Tom Patterson, Howard Finster, Stranger from Another World
ENG 2150 PS13C
Lux, John
The Power of Darkness
For the most part, this course will explore the choices people make to follow the dark
side of their nature. The focus will be on the struggle within the human being to choose
good over evil, to choose rational behavior over that behavior which is violent and
destructive. The archetypal tension between Apollonian and Dionysian modes of being,
so clearly presented in Greek Drama will form the beginning and end of the course--and
this conflict will be followed through the entire course, as humans are shown fighting-and often losing--the battle between darkness and light, good and evil, as violence
pervades much of human behavior, on individual and group (national) levels.
While it is both undeniable and obvious that humans have too often inflicted violence on
other humans, the course will not focus on the violence per se, but will explore the
element of choice--even desire--in those who choose violence. Of course, choice involves
the possibility of restraint, self-control, and these aspects of possible choices--as well as
the absence thereof --will form an essential aspect of the course. Thus, the readings,
discussions, and writings in the course will focus on the WHY and the HOW of atrocious
actions perpetrated by all too many people, nations, and--especially in the twentieth
century--the leaders of nations. The emphasis will not be psychological, but generally
philosophical. Students will be instructed to inspect, to analyze, the possible reasons, the
deep motives, the behavioral choices in acts of violence, especially as these reflect the
struggle between Apollonian and Dionysian forces in human nature--with a push from
Narcissus as well.
Works to be covered:
Myths of Apollo, Dionysus, and Narcissus
Medea, Euripides
The Metamorphoses, Ovid (selections)
People of the Lie :The Hope for Healing Human Evil, M. Scott Peck, M.D. (excerpts)
Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare
Grimm’s Fairy Tales (selections)
The French Revolution and the Reign of Terror--excerpts from Citizens, Simon Schama
Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne
The Cask of Amontillado, Poe
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson
The Secret Sharer, Conrad
The Bloody Twentieth Century--excerpts from W.L Shirer, V. Frankl, A. Solzhenitsyn,
etc.
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, T. Borowski
Lord of the Flies, Golding
The Lottery, Jackson
The Use of Force, W.C. Williams
A Good Man Is Hard to Find, F. O’Connor
Good Country People, F. O’Connor
“The Dark Half”--movie based on The Dark Half , S. King
Agamemnon , Aeschylus
The Eumenides, Aeschylus
The course will end with the two Aeschylus plays because these show clearly the choices
that must be made between violence and restraint, between the rational and the irrational.
They clearly show that people/groups/nations can and must choose light over darkness,
reason over passion, justice over blood vengeance.
ENG 2150 PS13D
Riordan, Susanna
Writers and Their Influences
What influences bring writers to create their individual work? Do they draw from life
experiences, family, culture, locale, or all of the above?
In this class we will do close readings of short stories, poetry, and the novels to
understand this question, such as works by Langston Hughes, Raymond Carver, Flannery
O’Connor, Kate Chopin, as well as many others. We will use Backpack Literature and
the novel to be decided.
ENG 2150 RU13A
Litman, Chris
Myths of the Vampire: Cultural Reinventions of Bloodsuckers
Although we live in an age of science and secularism, perhaps no myth of the
supernatural has had equal popularity and appeal as the vampire narrative. This course
will investigate the reinvention and reinterpretation of these stories over the last twohundred years. From Bram Stoker’s classic, Dracula, to contemporary incarnations such
as the characters in Stephenie Meyer’s series, Twilight, we will study how writers have
adapted the vampire myth to the needs and desires of their audiences while at the same
time drawing off a universal fear and fascination with macabre narratives. Through our
readings and discussions, we will continually respond to a central question: are vampires
blank screens on which writers and readers project their own cultural interests (for
example, vampire stories being allegories for adolescent experiences with sexuality) or
do they represent emotions that are primal in all human beings (lust, consumption, power,
etc.)? Readings will include Bram Stoker’s Dracula (A Norton Critical Edition), Anne
Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, and The Penguin Book of
Vampire Stories, in addition to popular and scholarly criticism.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical
sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The written assignments
will be comprised of formal argumentative essays, shorter in-class responses to the
readings, peer editing and evaluating, as well as several fun and creative exercises. You
will also be expected to participate actively and meaningfully during each class session.
ENG 2150 RU13A
Thompson, Cynthia
Crazy in Love
Dante writes, “Behold a god more powerful than I, who, coming, will rule over me.” The
god referred to here is Love, and Dante literarily goes through hell for it.
In this course, we will look at love through the poetry of such masters as Dante,
Shakespeare, Marvell, Whitman, Dickinson, Rossetti, Bishop, and Donne, and through
stories by Chopin, Gilman, Hong Kingston, Natalia Ginzberg, Hemingway, Faulkner,
Langston Hughes, Lauren Slater, Irwin Shaw, and Updike, among others. We will read
plays by David Ives and Susan Glaspell, excerpts of novels by Marguerite Duras, Jean
Rhys, and Tim O’Brien, and examine films on the topic as well. We will read these
works closely to analyze how culture, social mores, gender, and the theme of madness
affected the writings about love in different epochs.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course is to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication,
particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only
for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical
understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world beyond
school.
ENG 2150 RU13B
Curley, Mary Ann
Magic, Myths and Dreams
The persistence of myths, archetypal patterns, magical transformations and ghosts in
drama and stories from Oedipus to the present. Using Edith Hamilton’s Mythology as a
jumping off point, we will look at the way writers from Sophocles and Shakespeare to
Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood have made use
of the mysterious and the otherworldly in their works.
ENG 2150 RU13C
Nedeljkov, Nikolina
Remixes and Flows: Literature, Our Good Selves, and Everything Else
Remix is typically understood as part of a song making process, just as storytelling is
traditionally considered to belong in the world of letters. Reading and writing across
media, disciplines, and genres enables a view based on a flow and intersections between
words, sounds, and images, simultaneously remixing the notion of storytelling. We will
read literature, relating it to music and visual arts to explore the redescribed meaning of
the stories. Likewise, we will look at culture as a flux of interrelated stories. Analogously,
self is experienced as fluid and revisable through an exchange with fellow humans.
Reading literary works as responses to other writings is parallel to understanding of
tradition as dynamic and reworkable. Apart from illuminating the theme of flow and
remix, this approach indicates potential for change in diverse aspects of life, social
included. We will read from the works of the authors such as Douglas Adams, Chris
Kraus, Dennis Cooper, Stewart Home, Jeff Noon, Kathy Acker, Flann O’Brien. The class
will open with the screening of the film Godfathers and Sons by Marc Levin. Among the
audio assignments are the tracks by The Ruts, Miles Davis, Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal
Scream, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gang, Gang Dance, and many more.
ENG 2150 TW24A
Darin, Doris
Pride and Prejudice in Society
English 2150 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and
writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a
text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull
together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop
convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent
essays with clear main ideas.
In this section of 2150 we will focus on writers who write about societal prejudices: the
ways that societies value some people and dismiss others. We will explore how each
writer reflects and amplifies personal and societal values.
ENG 2150 TW24B
Mengay, Donald
(not submitted)
ENG 2150 TW24C
Nedeljkov, Nikolina
Remixes and Flows: Literature, Our Good Selves, and Everything Else
Remix is typically understood as part of a song making process, just as storytelling is
traditionally considered to belong in the world of letters. Reading and writing across
media, disciplines, and genres enables a view based on a flow and intersections between
words, sounds, and images, simultaneously remixing the notion of storytelling. We will
read literature, relating it to music and visual arts to explore the redescribed meaning of
the stories. Likewise, we will look at culture as a flux of interrelated stories. Analogously,
self is experienced as fluid and revisable through an exchange with fellow humans.
Reading literary works as responses to other writings is parallel to understanding of
tradition as dynamic and reworkable. Apart from illuminating the theme of flow and
remix, this approach indicates potential for change in diverse aspects of life, social
included. We will read from the works of the authors such as Douglas Adams, Chris
Kraus, Dennis Cooper, Stewart Home, Jeff Noon, Kathy Acker, Flann O’Brien. The class
will open with the screening of the film Godfathers and Sons by Marc Levin. Among the
audio assignments are the tracks by The Ruts, Miles Davis, Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal
Scream, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gang, Gang Dance, and many more.
ENG 2150 TW24D
Dennihy, Melissa
The Idea of America: Examining Versions of the American Dream
The idea of the “American dream” has been imagined and represented in innumerable
ways throughout the brief history of our nation, not only by “ordinary people” with
everyday hopes and aspirations, but also by politicians, advertisers, poets, authors,
musicians, filmmakers, artists, and performers whose “versions” of the American dream
often reach large audiences and help to shape and change our ideas about national culture
and identity. In this course, we will examine how the American dream has been used as a
theme in literary works from a variety of genres—essays, poetry, novels, and short
stories—as well as in films, advertisements, television shows, speeches, and popular
songs. We will consider how versions of the American dream have changed over time
and have been re-created by people of different genders, races, and ethnicities; we will
also look at how the American nation (its history, culture, and politics) has been imagined
by various groups both within and outside of its borders. In addition, we will engage with
several texts that satirize, critique, or challenge the idea of the American dream, offering
a more nightmarish vision of what life in this nation can be like. Students will use the
thematic content of the course to participate in class discussions and to develop ideas and
topics for writing assignments. Work for the course will consist of four papers (including
one creative assignment and one research-oriented assignment), an in-class presentation,
and regular participation in class discussions.
ENG 2150 TW24E
Watson, Lorye
Advertising as a Theme
Advert – to call or turn one’s attention to
Consumerism – the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and
services in ever greater amounts
Advertising and consumerism are closely linked and both have been with us since
time immemorial, now constituting one of the largest world industries both locally and
globally. In fact, to outlaw advertising would most likely throw world economies into a
pernicious downward spiral. So, it seems there will always be an adman and/or woman.
What do we think of advertising and its ever encroaching omnipresence in our
lives? Is it a good thing? Bad? Educational? Mind Numbing? Necessary?
Unnecessary? Does advertising make us want to buy something? Or, eschew it?
We will consider some of the mainstay theories practiced by advertisers:
conspicuous consumption, keeping up with the Joneses, snobbery, never-enoughism,
fetishism and so on.
ENG 2150 TW24F
Hussey, Miciah
Madness
What does it mean to go mad in our very mad mad world? In this class we will explore
madness in a variety of manifestations from the disintegration or aberration of thought
and feeling to the violation of social norms to see how this idea created in response to
different behaviors is constructed as much by the “sane” as it is by the “insane.” We will
query madness as a cultural construction and how it coexists with the very real notion of
mental illness: How has this fraught relationship vacillated through different times and
places and reacted to larger cultural changes, medical breakthroughs and sociological
studies? Through reading various texts including novels and poetry to medical case
histories and memoirs, we will look at madness in its multiple forms as a diagnosis, a
performance, a creative outlet, and a symptom of social control. We will also engage
feminist perspectives that look to debunk the myth of madness and reveal the inveterate
biases that have shaped the conception and treatment of insanity in women. Other issues
to be discussed will be the relationship between fantasy and reality, recovery as
conclusion, the internalization of psychoanalysis in everyday life, and pop culture’s
continuing fascination with the pathological.
Readings may include works by authors such as:
Antonin Artaud
Charlotte Bronte
Phyllis Chesler
Georges Didi-Huberman
Dorothea Dix
Sigmund Freud
Susanna Kaysen
Sylvia Plath
Oliver Sacks
Elaine Showalter
ENG 2150 TW24G
Waugh, Kyle
Correspondence
As the ever-increasing speed and rapidly expanding scope of technological innovation
seem daily to transform our methods and modes of communication, these advancements
also intensify pressures on the individual to keep up with the confounding diversity and
demands of human interaction in the 21st century. Indeed, whether or not one thinks of
oneself as a writer, one’s “presence” in the digital world is largely determined by the
rhetorical identity one establishes through writing. The advent of email and textmessaging, for example, have transferred a great deal of oral communication to the realm
of written correspondence. Likewise, we now live in an environment in which a great
deal of our communication is not only recorded but is available to us for perusal and
reconsideration.
In this class we’ll explore the nature of correspondence (i.e. written communication) as it
relates to imagining and locating the “self” with respect to its community. Over the
course of the semester we’ll interrogate three general categories of texts that treat this
theme: texts dealing with historical trends in correspondence; primary sources of
correspondence; and creative works that scrutinize the essential character of
correspondence and suggest alternative roles it might play in evaluating, critiquing, and
rethinking our cultural moment. Readings will include, but are not limited to: Lyn
Hejinian’s The Fatalist; Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s The Lord Chandos Letter; Susan K.
Harris’s The Courtship of Olivia Langdon and Mark Twain; plus selections of letters by
Friedrich Nietzsche, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Hart
Crane, and Amiri Baraka; and letters between Denise Levertov and Robert Duncan, and
Charles Olson and Robert Creeley. Students will also engage their own already-scripted
email correspondence—an archive from which they will select and cannibalize material
for projects designed to improve their understanding of the various activities constituting
the composition process (e.g. research, organization, citation, editing, etc.).
First and foremost, this is a class in written composition. The purpose of the course will
be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication. The overall goal here
is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective
participation in and a critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of
the so-called “real” world.
ENG 2150 UX13A
Lux, John
The Power of Darkness
For the most part, this course will explore the choices people make to follow the dark
side of their nature. The focus will be on the struggle within the human being to choose
good over evil, to choose rational behavior over that behavior which is violent and
destructive. The archetypal tension between Apollonian and Dionysian modes of being,
so clearly presented in Greek Drama will form the beginning and end of the course--and
this conflict will be followed through the entire course, as humans are shown fighting-and often losing--the battle between darkness and light, good and evil, as violence
pervades much of human behavior, on individual and group (national) levels.
While it is both undeniable and obvious that humans have too often inflicted violence on
other humans, the course will not focus on the violence per se, but will explore the
element of choice--even desire--in those who choose violence. Of course, choice involves
the possibility of restraint, self-control, and these aspects of possible choices--as well as
the absence thereof --will form an essential aspect of the course. Thus, the readings,
discussions, and writings in the course will focus on the WHY and the HOW of atrocious
actions perpetrated by all too many people, nations, and--especially in the twentieth
century--the leaders of nations. The emphasis will not be psychological, but generally
philosophical. Students will be instructed to inspect, to analyze, the possible reasons, the
deep motives, the behavioral choices in acts of violence, especially as these reflect the
struggle between Apollonian and Dionysian forces in human nature--with a push from
Narcissus as well.
Works to be covered:
Myths of Apollo, Dionysus, and Narcissus
Medea, Euripides
The Metamorphoses, Ovid (selections)
People of the Lie :The Hope for Healing Human Evil, M. Scott Peck, M.D. (excerpts)
Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare
Grimm’s Fairy Tales (selections)
The French Revolution and the Reign of Terror--excerpts from Citizens, Simon Schama
Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne
The Cask of Amontillado, Poe
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson
The Secret Sharer, Conrad
The Bloody Twentieth Century--excerpts from W.L Shirer, V. Frankl, A. Solzhenitsyn,
etc.
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, T. Borowski
Lord of the Flies, Golding
The Lottery, Jackson
The Use of Force, W.C. Williams
A Good Man Is Hard to Find, F. O’Connor
Good Country People, F. O’Connor
“The Dark Half”--movie based on The Dark Half , S. King
Agamemnon , Aeschylus
The Eumenides, Aeschylus
The course will end with the two Aeschylus plays because these show clearly the choices
that must be made between violence and restraint, between the rational and the irrational.
They clearly show that people/groups/nations can and must choose light over darkness,
reason over passion, justice over blood vengeance.
ENG 2150 UX13B
Riordan, Susanna
Writers and Their Influences
What influences bring writers to create their individual work? Do they draw from life
experiences, family, culture, locale, or all of the above?
In this class we will do close readings of short stories, poetry, and the novels to
understand this question, such as works by Langston Hughes, Raymond Carver, Flannery
O’Connor, Kate Chopin, as well as many others. We will use Backpack Literature and
the novel to be decided.
ENG 2150 UX13C
Sugarman, Yerra
Witnessing the World Around Us
We are witnesses to the world around us, often bridging, in our lives, the personal and
political, what we might call the social. In this class, we will delve into how the private
and public influence one another, the way historical and social conditions connect our
daily lives to the public sphere, rendering us indirect or direct witnesses. The texts were
selected to inspire deep thought about ethics and the social world, about racism, sexism,
the ecology, economics, forms of oppression, and the ways in which writers of different
genres (short fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction) think about language as a critical means
of encouraging change and awareness of injustices, as well as how it is sometimes used to
do the opposite. Readings will include texts by Martin Luther King, Jr., John Stuart Mill,
Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Anne Frank, Toni Morrison, among others.
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. Along with considering
the course’s theme, the emphasis will be on the development of your expository writing,
on the processes and methods by which you can transform ideas into well-organized and
original formal essays, while expanding your understanding of the conventions of written
English and your ability to use language properly and powerfully. As you learn academic
essay forms such as the “argument,” all writing, reading assignments and class
discussions will encourage you to think and write imaginatively, as well as analytically,
and to find your own voice.
ENG 2150 WZ13A
Riley, Charles
(not submitted)
ENG 2150 WZ13B
Thompson, Cynthia
Crazy in Love
Dante writes, “Behold a god more powerful than I, who, coming, will rule over me.” The
god referred to here is Love, and Dante literarily goes through hell for it.
In this course, we will look at love through the poetry of such masters as Dante,
Shakespeare, Marvell, Whitman, Dickinson, Rossetti, Bishop, and Donne, and through
stories by Chopin, Gilman, Hong Kingston, Natalia Ginzberg, Hemingway, Faulkner,
Langston Hughes, Lauren Slater, Irwin Shaw, and Updike, among others. We will read
plays by David Ives and Susan Glaspell, excerpts of novels by Marguerite Duras, Jean
Rhys, and Tim O’Brien, and examine films on the topic as well. We will read these
works closely to analyze how culture, social mores, gender, and the theme of madness
affected the writings about love in different epochs.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary
purpose of this course is to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication,
particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only
for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical
understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world beyond
school.
ENG 2150 WZ13C
Lubin, Bradley
Collections, Catalogs & Exquisite Corp(u)ses
Rivaling elephants in size, ground sloths were indigenous giants of South American that
successfully immigrated to North America in the late Cenozoic. The specimen seen here,
Lestadon armatus, is 15ft (5 m) long. When alive, it may have weighed several tons.
--"Ground Sloth" Placard, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology
The act of seeing a ground sloth, whether at a museum or in a course description, requires
a certain willing suspension of disbelief; the “specimen seen here”—viewed either on a
webpage or in the context of the museum—is not, of course, the extinct terrestrial
mammal (Order Xenathra) that weighed as much as a pick-up truck, nor its original
skeletal structure even. What is it we’re looking at then? What is it that transports us
through time and impels us to experience states of terror, beauty, and wonder?
In this course, we will address a series of questions related, but not limited to, ground
sloths as we visit the architectural and textual spaces that house all the things we like to
collect, preserve, and put on display. What are the various rituals we observe when
occupying these environments? How is the formation of meaning and memory
connected to the use of exhibits, showcases, catalogs, lists, and inventories (and how are
words, graphics, things employed in each)? What is the nature of the relationship
between the viewer and the object, and how might we get a better sense of this by
considering the work of a curator? Throughout the course, we will also investigate (1) the
architectural/textual design of these spaces and (2) the way that things are
arranged/configured in these spaces (and to what end).
Topics that we will cover might include the wunderkammer, the uncanny, the sublime,
the history of the museum, the legacy of Diderot's encyclopedia, the rise of the
department store, the World’s Columbian Exposition, animal and human zoos, taxonomy
and taxidermy, the anatomical museum, freak shows, the idea of Arcadia and Eden,
Joseph Cornell's boxes, Nabokov's butterflies, the history of the National Park system, the
artificial and the simulated, and some theories on nationalism. In addition to a rigorous
writing component and reading schedule, I will also ask you to write a brief report on a
trip to a NY museum of your choosing.
ENG 2150 MW54A
Doyle, Sean
Literary Spaces: Places and Absence in Multicultural Literature
Literature has the power of reshaping the world, allowing its audience to connect on
multiple levels with its subjects and its authors. Much of this power comes from what the
text does not say, what its characters suppress. These gaps constitute the basis for inquiry
in this class, as they reveal something very different, given their cultural and historical
context. For example, a poem like “Incident,” by Countee Cullen speaks of a young
boy’s first encounter with racism. It does not, however, offer any comment on the power
of the places—both geographic and psychological—in which he encounters this racism.
Our task this semester is to give voice to these decisions and elisions, and build upon
them as a class. We will consider the connections that link memory to physical space—
in Hamlet, for example—and why those connections often remain implicit, rather than
explicit. We will also create contrasting frameworks for global literature—using Derek
Walcott’s “A Far Cry from Africa” to interrogate such texts as Toni Cade Bambara’s
“The Lesson”—to examine the influence of place on character. This 2150 course is
writing-intensive, and, as a community of writers, we will also contend with the effects of
how the demands of the classroom shape our own writing.
ENG 2150 MW54B
Tashman, William
Human Potential and the Brain
Can we fundamentally change our behavior, modify our brains, control our futures—and
to what extent? How much of our brief stay on earth is pre-ordained through DNA? How
much through free will? The theme of my English 2100 and English 2150 courses—still
evolving but somewhat consistent over the past couple of years—is human potential. Are
we prisoners of destiny or can the chemists and psychologists help us achieve our
dreams? Sub-themes include brain plasticity, nature versus nurture, family, and
compulsive behavior including addiction. To this end, we read a number of articles and
books that explore human behavior.
Non-fiction
“Most Likely to Succeed,” by Malcolm Gladwell
"The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race," by Jared Diamond
“That which does not Kill Me Makes me Stranger,” by Daniel Coyle
“Why Talent is overrated,” by Geoff Colvin
“Talent Dynasties,” by Carlin Fiora
Fiction
Poetry:
“America,” by Allen Ginsberg
“Leda and the Swan,” by William Butler Yeats
“The Well Rising,” William Stafford
“First Praise,” William Carlos Williams
Short stories:
“Parker’s Back,” by Flannery O’Connor
“Teddy” and “Pretty Mouth and Green my Eyes,” by J.D. Salinger
“The Lady with the Dog,” by Anton Chekov
Plays:
Othello, by William Shakespeare
Oleanna, by David Mamet
ENG 2150 MW74A
Tashman, William
Human Potential and the Brain
Can we fundamentally change our behavior, modify our brains, control our futures—and
to what extent? How much of our brief stay on earth is pre-ordained through DNA? How
much through free will? The theme of my English 2100 and English 2150 courses—still
evolving but somewhat consistent over the past couple of years—is human potential. Are
we prisoners of destiny or can the chemists and psychologists help us achieve our
dreams? Sub-themes include brain plasticity, nature versus nurture, family, and
compulsive behavior including addiction. To this end, we read a number of articles and
books that explore human behavior.
Non-fiction
“Most Likely to Succeed,” by Malcolm Gladwell
"The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race," by Jared Diamond
“That which does not Kill Me Makes me Stranger,” by Daniel Coyle
“Why Talent is overrated,” by Geoff Colvin
“Talent Dynasties,” by Carlin Fiora
Fiction
Poetry:
“America,” by Allen Ginsberg
“Leda and the Swan,” by William Butler Yeats
“The Well Rising,” William Stafford
“First Praise,” William Carlos Williams
Short stories:
“Parker’s Back,” by Flannery O’Connor
“Teddy” and “Pretty Mouth and Green my Eyes,” by J.D. Salinger
“The Lady with the Dog,” by Anton Chekov
Plays:
Othello, by William Shakespeare
Oleanna, by David Mamet
ENG 2150 TR54A
Miller, Michael
Social Upheaval and Ibsen’s Legacy
Some of our best writers and artists had the audacity to explore the new and the
unconventional. In this course we will explore what it takes to change people’s minds
and prevailing conventions. We will look at different topics—death, race relations, love
and commitment, and painting—from the point of view of how social attitudes change,
what is conventionally acceptable, into a different way of seeing the world.
For example, Henrik Ibsen’s plays flew against the conventional wisdom of his day. It
took many generations, and the evolution of women’s rights and suffrage, before A Doll’s
House was full accepted. Ibsen’s legacy is embodied in any work that goes against the
flow of conventional opinion. In this course we will examine written works that follow
in Ibsen’s footsteps—works that defied the conventional, that challenged existing
stereotypes, and that made their readers examine preconceived notions.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in close reading and written
composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing
skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The
goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective
participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the
world beyond school.
ENG 2150 TR54B
Kyd, Joanna
Eating in America: A Historical View
This course will explore our gastronomic coming of age, from the Great Depression
through the mid-1990s. While we are all grimly aware of the obesity crisis in this country
and the implications thereof, how much do we know about the changes in social
conditions, government policies, food processing, and marketing that have influenced
what – and under what circumstances – Americans have been eating for the past half a
century? From bologna and processed cheese sandwiches to ravioli stuffed with lobster
mousse, from Metra-Cal to Vitamin Water, we’ll use social history to better understand
America.
Text: A Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America by
Harvey Levenstein;
ENG 2150 TR74A
Kyd, Joanna
Eating in America: A Historical View
This course will explore our gastronomic coming of age, from the Great Depression
through the mid-1990s. While we are all grimly aware of the obesity crisis in this country
and the implications thereof, how much do we know about the changes in social
conditions, government policies, food processing, and marketing that have influenced
what – and under what circumstances – Americans have been eating for the past half a
century? From bologna and processed cheese sandwiches to ravioli stuffed with lobster
mousse, from Metra-Cal to Vitamin Water, we’ll use social history to better understand
America.
Text: A Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America by Harvey
Levenstein;
ENG 2150 TR74B
Miller, Michael
Social Upheaval and Ibsen’s Legacy
Some of our best writers and artists had the audacity to explore the new and the
unconventional. In this course we will explore what it takes to change people’s minds
and prevailing conventions. We will look at different topics—death, race relations, love
and commitment, and painting—from the point of view of how social attitudes change,
what is conventionally acceptable, into a different way of seeing the world.
For example, Henrik Ibsen’s plays flew against the conventional wisdom of his day. It
took many generations, and the evolution of women’s rights and suffrage, before A Doll’s
House was full accepted. Ibsen’s legacy is embodied in any work that goes against the
flow of conventional opinion. In this course we will examine written works that follow
in Ibsen’s footsteps—works that defied the conventional, that challenged existing
stereotypes, and that made their readers examine preconceived notions.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in close reading and written
composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing
skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The
goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective
participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the
world beyond school.
ENG 2150T FM13A
Grumet, Joanne
Growing Up in America
How do we become who we are as adults? How do family, peers, and education affect
us? What influence do class, gender, race and ethnicity have on us? We will examine
these issues in poetry (Sharon Olds, Gwendolyn Brooks, Peter Meinke, Langston
Hughes), autobiography (Tobias Wolf This Boy’s Life, Frederick Douglass), short stories
(Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros, Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie) and a short play (Wendy
Wasserstein). We will also analyze articles dealing with contemporary issues that affect
teens and college students. Students will write 5 essays, including comparison/contrast,
analytical argument and narrative.
ENG 2150T FM13B
Rial, Carol
The Literature of Banned Books
As long as books have been around they have been considered by turns enlightening and
threatening. Indeed, throughout history, including in our own time, an array of countries
has banned books, all in the name of creating a better society. Through a variety of
works and class discussion, this course will help you develop your ideas about this
phenomenon of book banning. Its particular focus on writing will allow your new ideas
to take form with finesse and depth. All of our readings are to some degree about the
banning of books, including Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451; the graphic memoir,
Persepolis; and Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress. In fact, all of these works
themselves have been banned or altered. Finally, we will read the famously banned
book, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Students will write four papers, keep an academic
journal, and participate in a variety of writing exercises.
ENG 2150T FM24A
Schreiber, Barbara
The American Dream
This course engages the topics of immigration and The American Dream. We tackle both
the myth and the reality of The American Dream and how it relates to large scale
immigration and the immigration experience. What is the body of rhetoric that led to the
foundation and development of the United States and how has the rhetoric evolved? What
would it mean for immigrants and others to achieve The American Dream today? How
does the current day immigrant experience relate to historical experiences in the U.S.? Is
the notion of America as the land of opportunity for anyone around the globe a myth or
reality? We will explore these pressing questions through historical and sociological
texts, fictional accounts, memoirs, music, and film. Some of the authors we will read are
Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Richard Rodriguez, Edwige Danticat, Junot Diaz, Joseph
O’Neill and Lucette Lagnado.
ENG 2150T FM24B
Galassini, Gregory
Breaking the Fourth Wall
In theater and film, characters relate to each other but rarely do they acknowledge the
audience. When they do, it’s called breaking the fourth wall, the space the viewer
inhabits. Something like this occurs in the Japanese and American films of “The Ring,”
where playing a video tape causes a demon to literally crawl out of the tv set. (Don’t you
hate it when that happens?) In this class, we will read plays separated by over 2,000
years: Sophocles’ “Antigone” and, from the 20th Century, Thornton Wilder’s “Our
Town.” Both feature characters who speak directly to you, the reader or viewer. In film,
we will see examples of the fourth wall being blurred or broken in a Buster Keaton silent
comedy, in the Japanese “One Nice Sunday,” and the Swedish “Persona.” In fiction, this
form of address is common and by looking at selected short stories, we will see why.
Using this theme to engage different genres is one element of a class whose larger
purpose is to help students develop their writing skills.
ENG 2150T TZ13A
VIGO, ANN
Intellectual Milestones: Coming of Age as a Critical Thinker and Writer
All of you are in the process of “coming of age.” As you start your college experience,
you are marking the passage from adolescence to young adulthood. Some of you already
have had a head start in this process by leaving your country to begin a new life in
America, whether on your own or with family. We can think of these events as
“milestones,” or rites of passage. We will read essays, short stories and recent articles
from The New York Times that deal with this theme. Authors will describe their own
milestones, both developmentally and intellectually, as they refer to such topics as
childhood memories, customs and trends, gender differences, racism, environmental
protection and animal rights. The course begins with a close look at the narrative essay
and progresses toward a focus on the argument. Students will write four typed papers,
present an oral report, and participate in a variety of writing and speaking activities.
Some specific assignments include essays about Richard Wright’s transformation by
reading H. L. Mencken (Black Boy), the shaping of Russell Baker’s personality as a child
growing up in the Great Depression (Growing Up), the history of slavery and struggle for
civil rights in America as depicted by Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr.
(“The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro,” “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), and
the protest of environmentalist Edward Abbey against the misuse of national parks
(“Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks”). The major goal of the class is to
improve your expository writing and overall fluency. To this end, you will be introduced
to academic writing and learn how to organize and develop ideas into coherent,
interesting and effective essays that respond to a text. As you “wrestle with” your own
opinions and beliefs, you will be coming of age both as a critical thinker and writer.
ENG 2150T TZ24A
Block, Ellen
(not submitted)
ENG 2150T MW57A
Lawrence, Kathleen
Does Marriage Need Love? Does Love Need Marriage?
Hearts filled with passion, jealousy and hate...the fundamental things apply, as
time goes by.
My students and I seem to find the stories, poems, and plays that deal with
sexuality the most compelling--fidelity, cuckoldry, marriage, incest, jealousy, love and
desire and hate. Is it possible to resolve the basic conflict between the security and
comfort of home and hearth and the desire for the open road of free love? Writers, too,
seem to be obsessed with love and sex--the greatest theme in literature.
Students will read such fascinating stories as Moore's “How;” Barrett's “The
Littoral Zone;” Chekhov's “The Lady with the Dog;” Chopin's “The Story of an Hour;”
Lawrence's “Odour of Chrysanthemums;” Beattie's “Janus.” Plays will include: A
Streetcar Named Desire; Oedipus; A Doll House; Death of a Salesman; A Midsummer
Night's Dream; Trifles; and Othello. After a conference, each student will choose a poem
to present to the class. Among the scores of poems on this theme are: “The River
Merchant's Wife;” “Married Love;” “On Her Loving Two Equally;” “The Flea;” “To His
Coy Mistress;” “I being born a woman;” “Sex Without Love;” “A Blank.” We will read
“How Love Conquered Marriage,” a controversial essay by Stephanie Coontz, the
historian of marital customs, who believes that the modern romantic emphasis on love is
the great culprit in the rise of divorce.
We will discuss these literary relationships openly in the safety of our class,
considering issues which are so seldom discussed maturely and honestly in other forums.
Bad relationships cost money, pain, and, sadly, psychological damage to family
members. The theme holds intrinsic interest and offers enduring benefits for our students.
Assessment will be based on class participation (small groups, poetry
presentations, low-stakes writing); quizzes, and formal essays.
Texts: The Norton Introduction to Literature, shorter 9th edition, Booth, Hunter, Mays.