Winter Term 2016 Course Descriptions
School of Writing, Literature, and Film
ENG 104: Intro to Literature – Fiction
Bushnell
This course introduces students to prose fiction through the short story, novella, and novel, with particular (but not exclusive) focus on 20th-century American
writers. Students will learn to read closely for fundamental craft concepts such as descriptive detail, plot, characterization, point of view, structure, symbolism,
and theme. By the end of the term, students will have received exposure to a broad array of narratives, cultures, and ideas, and will have developed the skills to
analyze them for meaning and value.
ENG 104: Intro to Literature – Fiction
Delf
What is a story? How does fiction create or reflect the culture and historical moment in which they are written? Why do we (or why should we) read literature
at all? In this class, we will build answers to these foundational questions. Using a critical lens, we will work to understand both the implied and stated meaning
of short stories from the last two centuries, as well as developing our knowledge of the key elements of fiction.
ENG 104: Intro to Literature – Fiction
Harrison
Introduction to Fiction. Required texts: 1) Coleman Dowell: The Houses of Children. 2) Flannery O'Connor: Wise Blood. 3) Italo Calvino: If On a Winter's Night a
Traveler. 4) Gilbert Sorrentino: Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things.
ENG 104: Intro to Literature – Fiction
Davison
This course will introduce the student to the structural and thematic rudiments of narrative prose fiction and the concepts of both critical interpretation and
contextual analysis through the study of the short story genre. We will learn and practice the skill of close reading so as to conduct character, structural, symbol,
and linguistic analyses toward the drawing of major thematic inferences. The class will read a series of late-19th and 20th century short stories, examining the
texts and their respective historical, cultural, and philosophical contexts as entrances into forming interpretive arguments about the meanings and implications
of each story. Students will be evaluated through a series of weekly quizzes and short essay-question in-class midterm and final examinations.
ENG 104: Intro to Literature – Fiction
Larison
Introduction to Fiction offers you a chance to read, ponder, and explore some of the most influential short stories of the last century. Specifically, we’ll be
focusing our explorations on issues of theme, context, and craft. Expect an inspiring and intellectually rigorous—class, one in which you will produce several
short writing assignments and two papers.
ENG 104: Intro to Literature – Fiction
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Schwartz
Why fiction? This course will attempt to answer this question by presenting literary fiction as a unique art form that, like other forms of art, is crafted in order
to induce aesthetically pleasurable responses. Beyond its status as art, however, fiction has the unique capability of blending language, rhetoric, and
storytelling in ways that no other art form can. In fact, the comparison should not be limited only to other forms of art, but to any method of inquiry and to any
academic discipline. That is, as a method for developing quality critical thinking, fiction stands alone in its ability to provoke the emotions and the intellect
simultaneously and equally. Given the relatively brief amount of time we have, we will read mostly short fiction, and we’ll end with a short novel by Joseph
Conrad. The course will not require heavy doses of reading in terms of page numbers—but it will require students to pay attention and to read slowly and
carefully. I’m more interested in depth than breadth.
ENG 106: Intro to Literature – Poetry
Biespiel
Study of poetry for greater understanding and enjoyment.
ENG 106: Intro to Literature - Poetry
Brock
What is a poem? Why do poems matter? In this class, we will begin to look at poetry through a critical lens, and we’ll begin to answer these questions, looking
at both the stated and implied meanings in a variety of different poems. We will also develop an understanding of the tools poets use. Participation in class
discussions and short quizzes testing reading comprehension will make up a significant part of your grade. A writing portfolio composed of in-class and out-ofclass writings will be submitted for credit at the end of the term. Two in-class exams will illuminate your understanding of various poems we’ve read and
discussed.
ENG 106: Intro to Literature - Poetry
Elbom, G.
Through a close reading of traditional and innovative poetry, we will explore a variety of poetic devices and forms. We will examine a collection of
approximately 50 poems from different perspectives: historical, comparative, structural, theological, and so on.
REQUIRED TEXTS
-- The Top 500 Poems. Edited by William Harmon. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
-- The Jazz Poetry Anthology. Edited by Sascha Feinstein & Yusef Komunyakaa. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1991.
ENG 106: Intro to Literature - Poetry
Gottlieb
This course is a thematic introduction to the study of poetry. For our first three units – on Love, Loss, and the Human Condition – we read
chronological selections of poetry from some of the greatest poets in the English language. The third unit focuses on a volume of contemporary
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poetry by Michael Robbins, a talented and provocative young American poet. Throughout, we will focus on learning to read poetry for both
enjoyment and critical understanding, while gaining some sense of its historical evolution and cultural relevance.
ENG 106H: Intro to Literature - Poetry
Holmberg
This course examines the kind of knowledge poetry makes – and makes available to us as readers. Students will learn not only about the conventions of poetry
(formal, figurative, thematic) but will see how these conventions are upheld and challenged, preserved and adapted over the course of centuries. We will also
consider the cultural and intellectual contexts of the poets we study, as well as issues of influence and inheritance. By reading broadly in British and American
poetry from the fifteenth century to the present, the student will gain an appreciation of the movements within the history of modern poetry in English, will
practice close reading and interpretive skills, and learn the basic terms of poetic form and structure. By reading a collection of poems in its entirety (Rita Dove’s
Thomas and Beulah), students will have a chance to explore how poetry books are conceived, structured, and ordered. Student will be evaluated based on 2
exams, bi-weekly quizzes/reading activities, and a short close-reading essay.
ENG 200: Introduction to Library Resources
Nichols
English 200 Introduction to library resources such as catalogs, Google Scholar, JSTOR, MLA International Bibliography, primary resources, etc., and to scholarly
issues including intellectual property and scholarly practices for the study of literature. Required for English majors.
ENG 201: Shakespeare
Olson
An introduction to the first half of Shakespeare’s dramatic career. This course is designed to help students become confident readers of Shakespeare’s language,
articulate the significance of aural and visual elements of Shakespearean scripts, and analyze the plays within a specific cultural and historical context. Plays
include Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, and Othello. The course is included in two Baccalaureate Core categories: Western
Culture and Literature and the Arts.
ENG 208: Literature of Western Civilization
Anderson
This is a survey course that engages both intellectual contexts and key literary texts of Western literature from the late 18th through the 20th century, a period
often referred to as Enlightenment Modernity. We will first attempt to read, position, and understand Enlightenment pieces of literature as they give way the
Romantic movement of the late-18th and 19th centuries. A study of both English and Continental first generation Romantic poetry will move into an
examination of the second generation Romantic writers referred to as the Decadent movement in Western literature. We will also read background materials
and fiction from the Realist and Naturalist schools of literature. Finally, we will consider how Romanticism, Symbolism, and Naturalism planted the seeds of
literary Modernism. If time permits, we may also attempt to move further into the 20th century and study texts that continue the Modernist aesthetic into the
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Postmodern, as well as address the more overt politics of race, colonialism, class, and gender in the mid-to-late 20th century. Grades will be based on a takehome mid-term exam and a two-hour, in class final.
ENG 210: Literatures of the World: Asia
Fearnside
Utilizing multiple perspectives—cultural, geographical, historical, linguistic, political, religious, structural, stylistic, thematic, and other points of view—students
read, discuss, analyze, and write about representative works of poetry, prose, and drama from Asia, with a special emphasis on the literatures of countries along
the historic Silk Road. Texts will be examined in a comparative context and analyses expanded with the help of secondary sources. Involves reading modern and
contemporary authors, formal writing assignments involving research, lectures, moderated discussions, and online activities.
ENG 213: Literatures of the World: Middle East
Elbom, Gilad
This class will focus on modern Middle Eastern narratives from multiple perspectives: cultural, political, religious, historical, geographical, linguistic, structural,
stylistic, thematic, comparative, and other points of view. The texts on our reading list include a postmodern Palestinian novel, a stream-of-consciousness
narrative from Egypt, innovative and controversial poetry in Hebrew, a curious bildungsroman from Yemen, and a surrealistic, hallucinatory, self-deceptive
novel from Iran. We will also watch and analyze several Middle Eastern movies.
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. Anton Shammas: Arabesques.
2. Naguib Mahfouz: Adrift on the Nile.
3. Zafrira Lidovsky Cohen: Loosen the Fetters of Thy Tongue, Woman: The Poetry and Poetics of Yona Wallach (to be posted on Canvas).
4. Zayd Mutee’ Dammaj: The Hostage.
5. Sadeq Hedayat: The Blind Owl.
ENG 215: Classical Mythology
Barbour
Tales of the ancient Greek and Roman deities, epic heroes/heroines and their monstrous adversaries speak to our primal concerns about the origins and
destinies of human beings, the nature of the world, and the mysteries of the spiritual realm. This course will trace the mythic genealogy of the first beings, the
Titans, the Olympians, and heroic humans, examining their domains, conflicts, journeys, and amorous encounters. We will study the myths in their primary
ancient sources, which include some of the most significant and influential works in the “Western” literary tradition, and relate them to narratives important in
our culture today. Interrogating the human uses of story-telling and other muse-inspired arts, we will also examine the representation of the myths in painting,
sculpture, and music.
ENG 220/FILM 220: Topics in Difference, Power, and Discrimination – Sexuality in Film
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St. Jacques
This course will concentrate on analyzing representations of sexuality in relation to difference, power and discrimination in contemporary Western cinema.
Viewing films that represent a diversity of sexual vantage points in a variety of directorial styles, ENG220 participants will evaluate the construction of
sexualities in contemporary film. Beginning with overtly heterocentric films, such as What Women Want (Nancy Meyers, 2000) and Fatal Attraction (Paul
Verhoeven, 1992), students will learn to critically explore and evaluate typical and atypical representations of hetero- and homosexuality, queerness, sexual
aggression and homophobia, transvestism, transsexualism and intersexuality - as well as intersections of sexuality and discrimination in terms of age and race.
Our exploration will be activated through student participation in research, writing, experiential exercise, group discussion forums and personal reflection.
ENG 253: Survey of American Literature: Colonial to 1900
Robinson
This course will focus on American literature before 1900, emphasizing representative works that illustrate accomplished literary form and address central
issues in American history and culture. In the first section of the course we will read two longer narratives, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, his autobiographical
account of his secluded life in the woods, and Black Elk Speaks, a moving narrative of the life of an Oglala Sioux in the 19th century, and the fate of his people
and culture. In the second section we will study several 19th century American poets, including Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Henry Wadsorth
Longfellow. We will conclude with a section on short fiction and prose, focusing on the chilling and complex work of the Gothic genius Edgar Allan Poe, the
powerful narratives of the great African American philosopher W.E.B. Du Bois, and the remarkable outpouring of women’s fiction in the later nineteenth
century. Detailed analytical papers and in-class written exams will be the basis for the course grade.
ENG 260: Literature of American Minorities
León
Study of the literature of American minorities: North American Indian, black, Chicano/Chicana, Asian, Middle Eastern, gay and lesbian. Not offered every year.
(H) (Bacc Core Course) PREREQS: Sophomore standing.
ENG 275H: The Bible as Literature, Honors
Anderson
In this class we’ll try to set aside everything else and look closely at the language and style of the four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as if
we are reading any other story, the work of any other creative writer: the narrative arcs, the development of character, what the stories say and what they
don’t. I’ll ask you to do a short warm-up essay, a take-home essay midterm, and a take-home essay final. There’ll also be pop quizzes along the way, as well as
frequent in-class freewriting. Our emphasis will be on ways of reading--on kinds of truth and methods of interpretation. Satisfies Bacc Core Literature and the
Arts; Western Culture.
ENG 311: Studies in British Prose
Gottlieb
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This class explores a particularly entertaining and important tradition in British literature: the Gothic novel. Starting with the original Gothic novel, Horace
Walpole's zany The Castle of Otranto (1764), we will read two more fictions that exemplify the flowering of the tradition in the 1790's: Ann Radcliffe's dignified
A Sicilian Romance (1790), and Matthew Lewis' blood-drenched shocker The Monk (1796).We will then examine the three most influential Gothic novels of the
nineteenth century (and probably of all time): Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886),
and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Finally, we will conclude by jumping ahead to a contemporary Gothic novel, David Mitchell’s Slade House (2015), to see what
has changed and what hasn’t. As we read, discuss, and write about these novels, we will focus on the evolution of their forms and styles, as well as on their
evolving productions of effects of terror and horror (the effects on which the Gothic thrives). Throughout the course, special attention will be paid to the
anxieties of gender, sexuality, class, race, and religion that these novels seem alternately to relieve and to enflame.
Note: this class fulfills WIC requirements.
ENG 317: The American Novel: Beginnings to Chopin
Betjemann
Between the novel and America there are peculiar and intimate connections, “wrote Leslie Fielder in 1960; "a new literary form and a new society, their
beginnings coincide." This course looks at those beginnings to test Fielder's hypothesis: is there really something uniquely novelistic about the nation, and is
there really something uniquely national about the American novel? Our study will begin in the new national period - just after the Revolutionary War - and will
extend to 1900.
ENG 318: The American Novel – The Modernist Period
Elbom, G.
Focusing on some of the prominent thematic, stylistic, historical, and cultural aspects of American modernism, this class will combine famous classics with
important novels other than the ones commonly perceived as canonical. Through close textual analysis and active participation in ongoing class discussions, we
will examine seminal works of American modernism that have paved the way for previously silenced voices, paying attention to the rise of nontraditional
authors, characters, literary strategies, and subject matters.
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. Willa Cather: My Ántonia (1918).
2. George Schuyler: Black No More (1931).
3. Djuna Barnes: Nightwood (1936).
4. Gertrude Stein: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933).
5. Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises (1926).
ENG 319: The American Novel: Post-World War II
Leon
This course will look at the American novel written after WWII. Often deemed the era of the postmodern novel, this time period produced a number of
aesthetically diverse novels. In this class, we will read: Lolita, Beloved, Blood Meridian, Housekeeping, and The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. As we
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traverse this diverse set of texts, we will think through the inheritance of history, the role of gender and race, the force of immigration, and the various
experimentations of long prose that we call the novel.
ENG 321: Studies in Word, Object, and Image – Media and Literature
Ward
What is the difference between reading a Pride and Prejudice and watching the BBC miniseries? Between reading a newspaper article and then reading a novel
based on the same events? This course asks how different kinds of texts make meaning and whether those meanings depend upon the text’s medium. In order to
do that, we’ll begin the course with some foundational ideas in media theory. Then, in the first half of the term, we’ll read Pride and Prejudice before experiencing
it several times over as film, web series, and comic strip. In the second half of the term, we’ll read a series of newspaper articles about the Collyer brothers in
early twentieth-century New York, read E.L. Doctorow’s novel Homer and Langely, and experience their story as YouTube documentary and reality television.
Along the way, we’ll tweet in character, analyze selfies, and learn about narrative theory in order to write two essays, a response paper, and a final exam.
ENG 375: Children’s Literature
Ward
Children’s literature and the idea of childhood grew up together. This course will examine their mutual maturation through the British school story, a genre of
children’s literature largely set in British boarding schools but influenced by British imperialism. There are pranks and hijinks as well as sentimental moments;
children form close friendships, deal with authority figures, and even go to class sometimes. These stories help define the emerging body of children’s literature
– and emerging cultural ideals of childhood. These stories most strongly define “boyhood” in relation to changing concepts of nationhood and empire. We’ll
begin the course with the originator of the school story genre, Tom Brown’s School Days, set entirely in England, and a later version, Stalky & Co., that moves
from boarding school to the battlefields of empire. We’ll then examine how boys’ and girls’ stories circulate via children’s periodicals. We’ll conclude with the
most famous schoolboy of our time, Harry Potter. Through Muggles, giants, wizards, and dragons, we’ll consider whether the school story has moved beyond its
nationalistic origins or if we continue to define childhood in relation to nationhood and empire.
ENG 435/535: Studies in Shakespeare
Olson
What is the First Folio and why is it one of the most important books ever published? To what extent has it shaped our conception of Shakespeare and his
works? This course covers the print history of Shakespeare’s plays up to publication of his first collected works in 1623. Students will undertake their own
literary detective work and produce new editions based on comparative analysis of surviving copies. We will also take advantage of the Folger Shakespeare
Library’s traveling exhibition “Shakespeare and his First Folio” (at U of O). In the process, we will debate some of the most pressing issues in book history and
literary studies today: How is the nature of archival work changing in the so-called digital age? To what extent does our idea of authorship depend on material
format? How have books, in addition to live performances, made Shakespeare the cultural icon that he is?
ENG 460/560: Studies in Drama: Classical Greek & Roman Drama
Barbour
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The course examines the tragedy and comedy of classical Athens and imperial Rome. Studying powerful dramas crucial to literary and theatrical history, we will
read them as both texts and shows: formal structures and productions of particular historical moments. Our concerns will range from poetry and politics to
economies of race, gender, and class. We will examine the myths that imparted action and imagery to the plays, the festivals where they were staged, and the
historical pressures that shaped the visions of dramatists and spectators. We will also explore the meaning and impact of classical drama for audiences today.
Course requirements include an oral presentation, a critical essay, a research paper, and a final exam.
ENG 482/582: Studies in Literature, Culture & Environment – Thoreau/Eco-Lit
Robinson
In 1845 Thoreau built a cabin near Walden Pond, and began a two-year experiment in simple living. His experience, recorded in the still vibrant classic Walden,
changed not only Thoreau’s life, but the course of American literary and cultural history. This course will begin with the study of Thoreau, and move on to
modern writers who have carried on his legacy in different ways. Robinson Jeffers built of the stone Tor House as a watchtower over the Pacific coast,
reenacting Thoreau’s experiment and writing a series of works that challenged the assumptions of humanism. Gary Snyder’s Pulitzer Prize winning Turtle Island
and his inspiring essays on “the wild” established “bioregionalism” as a crucial theory of modern reinhabitation of the earth. Ursula Le Guin used the genre of
science fiction in The Lathe of Heaven to foresee a climate crisis that we now confront. Mary Oliver emerged as one of America’s most widely read poets in the
late 20th century with American Primitive, poems of utter immersion in the natural world. W. S. Merwin undertook the restoration of a damaged area of Maui
to be closer to the cosmic guidance of both the earth and the stars, and described that closeness in The Shadow of Sirius. These influential writers have carried
on and expanded the example of Thoreau, and their writings bear out Thoreau’s declaration that “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are
earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and
unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
ENG 485/585: Studies in American Literature: Digital Studies
Malewitz/Pflugfelder
ENG/HIST 485/585 is a newly designed course focusing on the digital humanities. The course will move from theory to practice, with a specific focus on studentdriven digital humanities projects. Team-teaching the course, Professors Pflugfelder and Malewitz combine critical thinking with visualization and digital media
skills that will result in digital humanities projects that will be hosted through OSU’s Valley Library. Part of the course is built around archival material for the
noted author Bernard Malamud. Malamud, the author of The Natural, The Magic Barrel, and numerous short story collections, was a past winner of the
National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the O. Henry Award. The course examines the time he spent teaching, writing, and living in Corvallis (1949-1961),
and centers upon his 1961 novel A New Life, written about his time at OSU.
ENG 489: Writing, Literature and Medicine
Estreich
In this course, we'll read literature about medical experience, exploring illness from the perspectives of doctors, patients, and caregivers. Examining fiction,
nonfiction, and poetry, and drawing on scholarly points of view from Rita Charon, Eric Cassel, and others, we'll work together to develop and refine "narrative
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competence"--the ability to attend more closely to the nuances and ramifications of others' stories. Requirements include regular readings, two 6-8 page
papers, one 5 page personal narrative, and active class participation.
ENG 507: Seminar: Lit. TA Practicum
Betjemann
May be repeated for credit as topics vary. CROSSLISTED as AMS 507. This course is repeatable for a maximum of 16 credits. PREREQS: Departmental approval
and graduate standing required.
ENG 519: 20TH Century English Novel: British/Anglophone Colonial & Postcolonial Novel
Davison
Aside from the formalist experiments of international Modernism, the 20th century English language novel was also what might be thought of as a battleground
over the controversies of empire, race. colonialism, and postcolonialism. At both the height of the global reach as well as the break-up of what was the largest,
most significant empire of the modern world, early 20th century English novelists opened a critical fissure in the assumptions of empire and race which set the
ground for postcolonial subjects of that rule to continue to engage both the injustices of colonialism and the possibilities and ironies of postcolonial national
reformation/identity in both independent and commonwealth countries. In this course we will contextualize a selection of English/Anglophone novels through
readings of both postcolonial theorists (Arendt, Fanon, Bhabha, Spivak, Ashcroft, JanMohammend, etc) as well as supplemental political essays of the authors of
the primary works in question. To study such novels from the Modernist era to the late century is, in a manner of speaking, to discover again how “the spiritual
struggle in the twentieth-century is the political struggle” or that aesthetics most often serves politics. We will examine chronologically a group of novelist
selected from key moments of crises from the most volatile commonwealth and postcolonial nations, with a special interest in identity (re)formation and
hybridity of the postcolonial subject. The novels have been selected predominately on the basis of content of cultural issues and not for their experimental
structures, be they Naturalist, High Modernist, or Postmodernist. The orientation of the course will be consistently one of Cultural Studies, through which we
will investigate political and social history; gender, race, and class identities; and colonial\postcolonial discourse within the text of the novels. Novelists to be
studied include a changing selection from such authors as Conrad, Forster, Orwell, Achebe, Cary, Narayan, Gordimer, Coetzee, Rushdie, Philips (Caryl), Naipaul,
Smith (Zadie),. Students will write a short paper at the midterm making use of one or two supplement pieces to frame an issue in the primary work, and then
have the rest of the term to research and write a graduate style essay of 20 or more pages in length with at least 10 secondary sources.
ENG 575: Studies in Criticism; Feminist Text and Discourse
Sheehan
This course introduces graduate students to an array of current feminist methods of analyzing literature, film, and new media. There will be units on feminism
and historicism; approaches to genre and to life-writing; intersections of aesthetics, race, and diaspora; and theories of affect and agency. The class emphasizes
application, so students will have a chance to practice using the theories and methods that we discuss.
ENG 580: Studies in Literature, Culture, and Society – Uncanny Novella
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Sandor
In this graduate-only course we will study the appearance of “the uncanny” in literature, studying its definitions in Freud, Royle, and Vidler, and observing its
behavior in six novellas ranging from 19th century Germany to 20th century Great Britain, North and South America. Along the way, we will consider the origins
and properties of the novella (sometimes a long story, sometimes a short novel), and study the craft of a few literary masters as they step into the realm of the
psychologically disturbed and possibly supernatural. Graduate requirements: two 10-15 page papers (one of which can be a creative work), two short written
analyses, a short creative exercise, and an oral research presentation.
Required Texts
The Uncanny, Sigmund Freud
Rappaccini’s Daughter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Touchstone, Edith Wharton
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
The Vet’s Daughter, Barbara Comyns
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo
FILM 110: Intro to Film Studies: 1895-1945
Lewis
An introduction to the academic study of world cinema, 1895-1945. Class lectures will offer a variety of historical, critical and theoretical approaches. Although
we will screen and discuss films from a variety of nations and geographical regions, we will primarily focus on the development of the film industry in the United
States. This focused area of study will enable us to engage more fully in discussions of the industrial and aesthetic development of the US cinema and cultural
and ideological aspects of film production and exhibition, such as race, class, and gender. Class readings, lectures discussions, and assignments will engage
students in critical thinking and analysis in order to develop a more fulfilling engagement with classical cinema.
FILM 220: Diff, Power & Discrim: Sexuality and Film
St. Jacques
This course will concentrate on analyzing representations of sexuality in relation to difference, power and discrimination in contemporary Western cinema.
Viewing films that represent a diversity of sexual vantage points in a variety of directorial styles, ENG220 participants will evaluate the construction of
sexualities in contemporary film. Beginning with overtly heterocentric films, such as What Women Want (Nancy Meyers, 2000) and Fatal Attraction (Paul
Verhoeven, 1992), students will learn to critically explore and evaluate typical and atypical representations of hetero- and homosexuality, queerness, sexual
aggression and homophobia, transvestism, transsexualism and intersexuality - as well as intersections of sexuality and discrimination in terms of age and race.
Our exploration will be activated through student participation in research, writing, experiential exercise, group discussion forums and personal reflection.
FILM 245: The New American Cinema
Rust
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This class will attend post-rating system Hollywood (1968-present) by closely examining the important films and filmmakers of the period along with key events
in the business of developing, producing, distributing, and exhibiting motion pictures. There are no prerequisites for this course. This is an ambitious (but fun)
academic course, not a film appreciation class.
FILM 255: World Cinema Part I: Origins to 1968
Zuo
This course focuses on the global evolution of motion pictures from the 1890s to the beginning of cinema’s modern era. It will provide historical,
industrial/technological, and cultural understandings in relation to the development of cinema by examining a variety of filmic traditions around the world
including German Expressionism, Russian Formalism, classical Hollywood cinema, Italian Neorealism, and classical Asian cinemas (Indian, Chinese, Japanese).
Although the course centers on narrative cinema, other filmmaking modes including documentary and avant-garde will also be explored. In addition to a
historical appreciation of world cinemas, students will also learn the basic elements of film grammar and analysis.
FILM452/552: Studies in Film: East Asian Film Genres
Zuo
Genre films (commercial feature films) are sometimes dismissed for their formulaic storytelling and sensationalistic low-brow appeal. Nevertheless, genre films
are the most visible and patronized type of film product, as they constitute the majority of global filmmaking practices. In this course, students will develop
deeper understandings of the forms, ideologies, and social significance of the film genre, specifically through an interrogation of East Asian (Chinese, Korean,
Japanese) popular cinemas, including melodrama, wu xia (martial arts) and action, horror, animation, and urban romance. Using a transnational framework, we
will examine the unique developments of genre cinemas in East Asia as well as the ways in which they become repackaged for Western audiences. Students will
learn various methodologies for critical analysis in addition to ethical and philosophical issues underlying cross-cultural study.
FILM 480/580: Studies in Lit. Culture and Society: Hollywood: A Cultural History
Lewis
This course offers an interdisciplinary study of Hollywood. We will engage three intersecting histories in this expansive cultural studies course: industrial history
(the history of the film business), urban history (the history of Los Angeles in the 20th and 21st centuries), and pop-culture history (Hollywood as it evolved into
a popular American pastime … Hollywood as it has been serially regarded in the American popular imaginary – the American zeitgeist).
Weekly screenings will be supplemented by readings in film history, cultural and urban history, and modern American fiction.
WR 121: English Composition
Staff
WR 121 is designed to help you develop and strengthen your writing skills and prepare you for other writing you will do at Oregon State and beyond. Emphasis
in WR 121 is placed on the process of writing, including acts of reading, researching, critical analysis, pre-writing, drafting, and revision. Complementing this
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approach is our focus on the final product—quality compositions that demonstrate rhetorical awareness and evidence of critical thinking. We envision this
course as the beginning of and foundation for your writing development as an undergraduate at OSU.
WR 201: Writing for Media
Munk
In recent years, journalism has been transformed by information technology, corporate media systems, and new social media. This class introduces journalistic
techniques and concepts that will enable you to participate in writing for newspapers, magazine, blogs, and other popular media forms. Although these various
styles sometimes use different storytelling techniques, they all value the writer’s ability to generate tight, accurate, exciting stories at a moment’s notice.
Students begin WR 201 by learning to write hard news, summary leads, and headlines using the inverted pyramid style. After gaining command of this basic
writer’s toolbox, students’ progress to writing their own feature stories and in-depth profile articles, which are placed in a blog gallery for sharing and
discussion. Students will also study basic media theory concerning ethics, First Amendment law, and the fight for objectivity in the worlds of corporate and
citizen journalism.
WR 201: Writing for Media
St. Jacques
Since the golden days of print journalism, and the rock solid reporting of correspondents like Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow and Kit Coleman, there has
been an explosion of media culture and forms. We still have “traditional” media—magazines, journals, newspapers, newsletters, press releases, television
shows, and radio. But the advent of interactive media has also given us Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, flash mobs, citizen reporting … and whatever forms
of “new media” are in the works even as we speak. Although each of these media forms engages in a different style of representation, and (sometimes)
conforms to a different set of rules, their core skills involve the ability to generate tight, accurate, exciting stories at a moment’s notice. Students begin WR201
by learning how to write headlines, deks and summary leads using the inverted pyramid style. Once participants are able to fully command their basic writer’s
toolbox, they progress to pitching and generating their own reviews, feature stories and profiles. Along the way, they learn to conduct interviews, assemble
evidence packets, and utilize journalistic databases such as Lexis-Nexis to strengthen the factual muscle of their stories.
WR 201: Writing for Media
Strini
This course introduces students to the principles and practices of news gathering and writing, with an emphasis on online media. They will learn to interview,
research and write accurate, pithy copy on deadline. We will learn how traditional journalistic forms – headline, deck, creative and summary leads, and inverted
pyramid – apply to business writing and to blogging. Students will write three stories over the course of the quarter and, in peer-review sessions, edit copy and
write headlines and decks for classmates’ stories.
WR 214: Writing in Business
All Instructors
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Writing is a social act. Through writing we preserve or change the attitudes and beliefs of others, build and maintain relationships, and persuade others to take
specific actions. To communicate effectively in the workplace, it is essential to read contexts, think critically, and write clearly.
This course focuses on the rhetorical nature of organizational communication and will help you develop a better understanding of audience, argument,
convention, and expression. Your work in this course will help prepare you to engage with a wide range of institutions; however, you are encouraged to use
coursework to develop a better understanding of workplaces within your major.
WR 222: English Composition
All Instructors
This course aims to increase your textual power by increasing your ability to read, think, and write about ideas and issues in academic and civic conversations.
To do this, we will consider what “they say” and what “you say” in response, as well as why (so what? who cares?). You will analyze viewpoints (with a close
look at how different authors and stakeholders are situated) and study the elements that go into crafting powerful written and visual arguments in both public
and academic realms. Reading contemporary and classic arguments from the textbook and the New York Times provides a sense of our rhetorical tradition over
time. You will be responsible for analytical reading, thinking, discussing, researching, and writing. Instructor conferences and peer review as well as consultation
with the Writing Center will guide you through various drafts. This classroom is a learning community, so we will show respect for the ideas of all individuals.
WR 224: Introduction to Fiction Writing
All Instructors
WR 224 is a Writing II course that seeks to unveil the mysteries of writing literary fiction. We’ll read both craft advice and short stories as we learn the concepts
and practices behind vibrant and compelling stories. Students will be expected to “workshop” the short stories of their peers, as well as write short stories of
their own.
WR 239: Intro to WR: Fiction and Creative Non-fiction
Katz
This class explores how to write good stories, whether real or imagined. We'll read and write in both genres, identifying the elements that make stories more
vivid, more human, and more true. Students will write informal pieces and one longer work in each genre, and will workshop one story and one essay. Students
will read and write both memoir and short fiction pieces. In recent years the lines that separate these two genres have become increasingly blurry. Memoirs
sometimes read like novels, and short stories often sound more true than invented. As writers, how do we know the best vehicle to tell the stories we’ve lived
and observed? This course addresses this question directly. In the reading component, we’ll look at works in both genres centered around themes: parents
and children, friends and lovers, living with death, and telling stories. We’ll examine and discuss the ways the tools of each genre are used to reveal the heart of
the story. In the writing component, students will write one piece in each genre, using techniques from the published pieces we’ve read. Through this
exploration, students will gain a deeper understanding of the ways they can use the elements of good storytelling—voice, point of view, characterization,
dialogue, description, setting, and rhythm—to bring any story to life, whether true or imagined. This course combines approximately 90 hours of instruction,
online activities, and assignments for 3 credits.
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WR 240: Intro to Non Fiction Writing
Staff
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction offers ten weeks of experience reading, writing and workshopping the very popular genre of Creative Nonfiction. Over the
course of the term, students will learn how to use their memories, as well as the facts of our world, to make essays and memoirs. The class will discuss
contemporary essayists like David Sedaris, Jamaica Kinkaid, and Joan Didion; we will write several short creative prompts; we will also develop more polished
writing in creative peer workshops. This fun, lively course proves very helpful to students when they write personal essays for job or graduate school
applications. It’s also essential to anyone interested in creative writing practice.
WR 241: Intro to Poetry Writing
Roush
“The art of poetry is ultimately an art of attention—Michael Blumenthal.” Throughout this course, we will consider the tools necessary to approach poetry more
attentively as both readers and writers. This course will provide a firm grounding in the rudiments of poetic craft such as word choice, line breaks, imagery,
figurative language, and structure as well as an introduction to different forms available to poets. We will consistently work through writing exercises and read
the work of various poets in order to aid us in the generation of our own poems. I hope that you will become genuinely attached to the works/words of a few, if
not all, of the poets we engage. I’d like to think you might leave this course with a deeper appreciation of language and dare I say be excited by the prospect of
writing.
WR 241: Intro to Poetry Writing
Biespiel
We'll break down and transform the writing of poetry so that the typical fears of writing won't apply. We'll work on self-portraits, imitations, inventions,
examinations, and tapping into memory and dream. Through an expressive process that emphasizes doing instead of making products, we'll explore not only
what you're writing about but also the pleasure of making new discoveries. Students must be comfortable with experimenting and working in traditional forms
-- and most important, students must be willing to take risks.
WR 323: English Composition
Peters
Writing and the reading of writing are social processes that encourage the reader to interpret and respond to texts in varied, unique, and often complex ways.
Students in WR 323 will be asked to read and respond to the work of others and compose their own texts with a heightened awareness of style, or the way in
which language is used to clearly and gracefully articulate one’s own worldview. Students will be challenged to conceive of and develop their own style,
focusing on elements of diction, tone, emphasis, shape and clarity.
WR 323: English Composition
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Passarello
This section of WR 323 investigates non-fiction forms that emphasize stylistic creativity. Our goal in this investigation will be a clearer understanding of the
diverse ways in which language can be used to gracefully and persuasively articulate emotional, collective, or logical “truth.”
My goal for this class is to give every student some experience in the life of a creative writer. Successful writers almost always READ extensively, take tons of
daily NOTES, DRAFT essays long before their polished due dates and REVISE a piece several times (or several hundred times) before they consider it publishable.
To mirror this lifestyle, you will be reading at 20-30 pages of text a week in my class. You will be writing and responding at least 500 words per week as well.
Please seriously consider whether or not you can commit to this reading and writing workload before joining me.
WR 324: Short Story Writing
Brock
In this course, you will work to develop an understanding of the fundamental tools employed by fiction writers, including character, dialogue, point of view,
narrative distance, image, and language. You will also work to become an effective and respectful critic of peer writing, learn to think critically about short
fiction, and become, through the practice of reading and writing, a textually literate citizen.
Additionally, as this course satisfies the Writing II requirement for Bac Core, you will work to:
• Apply multiple theories, concepts, and techniques for creating and evaluating written communication. • Write effectively for diverse audiences within a specific area or discipline using appropriate standards and conventions.
• Apply critical thinking to writing and writing process, including revision.
WR 324: Short Story Writing
Dybek
Tim O’Brien writes that a story, if truly told, makes the “stomach believe.” But how do you convince a reader to believe, or even care about, something that
never happened? In this class, we will attempt to answer this question—and many others—by reading and critiquing works of fiction (by published writers and
by you and your classmates), and by completing short exercises that aim to illuminate the craft by calling attention to choices and effects of imagery,
perspective, character, etc. This course will follow the workshop model of peer critique, so be prepared to write and read quite a bit and have at least two
pieces of original fiction workshopped in class. Many would argue that writing cannot be taught. But, as with any craft—origami, ship carpentry—there is a long
tradition of studying fiction in order to learn specific and/or established techniques and writing strategies. On the other hand, some of the most exciting fiction
occurs when a writer disregards or flouts expected craft choices. In this course we’ll endeavor to figure out what “the rules” are and how and when to break
them.
WR 324: Short Story Writing
Rodgers
WR 224 is the prerequisite for this class (no exceptions). In 324 you’ll further develop your understanding of the elements of narrative (plot, point of view,
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characterization, setting, tone, metaphor, subtext, etc.) both as writer and reader; engage in a range of writing exercises and prompts to help you develop voice
and material; become a more sophisticated reader of your peers’ stories, and the stories of contemporary authors; and hone your critical skills, written and oral.
Course requirements (subject to change) include three graded exercises, one short story, regular quizzes, written responses to the readings, and participation.
Please note that we will NOT consider genre fiction in this class (fantasy, science fiction, romance, mysteries, young adult fiction, etc.).
WR 327: Technical Writing
All Instructors
Technical Writing (WR 327) will prepare you to produce instructive, informative, and persuasive documents aimed at well-defined and achievable outcomes.
Technical documents are precise, concise, logically organized, and based on factual information. The purpose and target audience of each document determine
the style that an author chooses, including document layout, vocabulary, sentence and paragraph structure, and visuals. To this end, this course will teach
processes for analyzing “writing contexts” and producing effective, clean, and reader-centered documents in an efficient manner. You can expect to gather,
read, and present the technical content of your field to various audiences in attractive, error-free copy, as well as to learn strategies for presenting that content
orally.
WR 330: Understanding Grammar
Brock
Through a variety of learning activities, you will demonstrate that you:
• Are able to recognize and use a range of sentence structures and punctuate them correctly
• Are able to compose rhetorically effective and grammatically correct sentences
• Have the vocabulary to think about and discuss language, especially the structure of sentences
• Are able to recognize and avoid the twenty most common errors in your writing
• Are able to think critically about rhetorical choices in grammar and syntax based on purpose and audience
• Understand language differences, including ethnic, international, and disciplinary differences
• Understand ways that language usage and correctness connect with issues of power in our culture
• Are able to analyze your own style and syntax
• Are capable of effectively revising and editing / proofreading your own writing
You will learn through reading assignments, Discussion Board assignments, two short formal writing assignments, and two exams. Completing all assignment
will be essential for your success in this course.
WR 341: Poetry Writing
Richter
This course is designed to sharpen the writing, critiquing, and close-reading skills gained in WR 241. Through in- and out-of-class exercises, you will work to
improve the imagery, voice, lineation, and rhythm of your poems. In this course you will practice the stages of writing—from generative brainstorming to
composing solid drafts to polishing accomplished work; revision will be emphasized at every stage. In our rigorous, supportive workshop, we will discuss your
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poems in depth and offer useful, insightful feedback. We will also read, study, and imitate a variety of contemporary poets as models and inspiration.
Prerequisite: WR 241.
WR 362: Science Writing
Jameson
You will learn and practice the conventions for writing scientific materials for a variety of audiences, including print and digital publishing sites, adapting the
materials and texts as needed to become increasingly sophisticated critical thinkers and writers who can shape material effectively. While working on good
writing to create engaging feature articles which explain science to a general educated audience, the course will also look at the history of science writing and
compare to scientific writing. You can work in the areas of science that most interest you and/or fields in which OSU excels.
You will interview scientists outside of class to gather information for assignments. In addition, a service learning project may be available and guest speakers
may present, such as from OSU’s Terra Magazine, for example. This 3-credit course involves writing and research assignments, lecture, and in-class and on-line
activities.
WR 383: Food Writing
Griffin
Writing about food is a way of looking at the world through a specific lens. In this way, you’ll find that food is so much more than a favorite recipe or warm
memory at the table (although of course it is that, too). Where there is food there is also the lack of it. Where there is a dish you’ll never forget for the best of
reasons, there is also one remembered for the opposite. We learn who we are through what and how we eat. Food is political. It is personal. Writing about it is
a complex and essential business.
In this course, you will read the greats of yesterday and today who all use the act of cooking, eating, sharing, and recalling to connect their readers to larger and
important truths. You’ll jump in with these writers to adapt your own work for multiple audiences and in multiple formats from the memoir essay to the feature
article. Along the way, you will refine your palettes and expand your understanding of what food means and how to write about it effectively and meaningfully.
We will use time outside of class to engage with the local food scene and culture here in the Willamette Valley.
WR 414: Advertising and Public Relations Writing
St Jacques
Writing news releases, annual reports, brochures, newsletters, and other PR materials. Writing advertising copy. PREREQS: WR 214 and upper-division
standing.
WR 420/520: Studies in Writing: Writing and Women’s Lives
Detar
This course explores how women’s lives are transformed from lived experience into written texts of many different forms: from autobiography, memoir, poetry,
fiction, personal essays, and academic writing, to comics and films. We will explore what moves us to write the story of our lives or someone else’s and how
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questions of genre and form are related to the story being told. Selected texts highlight lives and communities historically marginalized in one way or another,
and as we read, we will pay particular attention to articulations of self that both inhabit and resist cultural configurations of gender, sexuality, race, class and
ethnicity. What does that resistance to these categories look like in textual form? What are its possibilities and its limits? Through these discussions, we will
explore how the acts of writing are “performative” and strategic representation of the self and of personal experience. To articulate this, we will draw from
literary theory and feminist and post-colonial studies.
WR 424: Advanced Fiction Writing
Larison
“Studies in the Novel” is sequence of classes designed with the budding novelist in mind. Each term, we’ll read two or three exquisitely crafted novels, a wellregarded book on fiction theory, and the work of our colleagues. Through private study, craft presentations, and workshop sessions, we’ll develop our critical
reading skills, our writer’s vocabulary, and—most importantly—our craft routines. The content for this sequence is accumulative (meaning the content builds
on what was covered in the prior term), providing students with a sustained, graduate-level look at the novel and its particular challenges. (However, students
are welcome to start any term: fall, winter, or spring).
WR 449: Critical Reviewing
Strini
Writing practicum in the context of critical writing about the arts. Develops both insights into the nature of art and the skills and mindset required to write
efficiently and clearly for a readership beyond the classroom. Students write for the Corvallis Arts Review and online magazine available to the public.
WR 508: Workshop: Annotated Editing & Publishing
St. Germain
ENG 508: 45th Parallel
This course is a practicum in producing a new national literary magazine, 45th Parallel. Starting a magazine from scratch has already required an
enormous amount of effort and work by graduate students, and producing the first issue will require even more: reading submissions by the
thousands, clarifying the magazine’s aesthetic, identifying and pursuing fundraising opportunities, designing and maintaining the magazine’s brand
and web presence, attending editorial and board meetings, coordinating with the MFA program and SWLF, publicizing the issue and doing public
relations, dealing with finances and paperwork and endless logistical issues, and surely many other tasks we don’t anticipate. This course is
designed to give you credit for that work; as such, it won’t operate or look much like other graduate courses, in terms of meetings or assignments.
This is also a pilot course—a work in progress, like the magazine itself. On an individual level, it will work much like an independent study, but
within the larger collective effort of building and publishing a magazine. Magazine meetings will serve as course meetings, and course members
will log all hours spent on the magazine in lieu of traditional assignments. If any students enrolled in the course are not also on the editorial board,
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they will be required to complete supplementary assignments directly related to the production of the magazine.
WR 512: Current Composition Theory
Jensen
This course is designed to introduce you to the current theories, practices, and principles of Composition as a field of academic inquiry.
WR 518: Teaching Practicum: Business Writing
Jameson
This practicum prepares graduate students to teach professional writing for the workplace, specifically OSU’s WR 214 Writing in Business (Business Writing). It
provides grounding in rhetorical theories and practices for effective teaching of this course. The curriculum for WR 518 is consistent with the National Council
of Teachers of English (NCTE) Two-Year College Association (TYCA) recommendations for graduate preparation for teaching workplace writing for
undergraduates.
The course will include familiarity with rhetorical principles in the workplace, typical textbooks, standard syllabus and schedule, typical assignments, managing
workload, and using software such as Track changes, Excel and PowerPoint common in the workplace. Visits to current WR 214 classes will provide firsthand
experience of the class in action. OSU Career Services and WR 214 instructors may visit the practicum to share their expertise and discuss issues.
WR 521: Teaching Practicum: Fiction Writing
Passarello/Dybek
WR 521 is a teaching practicum; enrollment is limited to graduate teaching assistants currently teaching WR 224.
WR 522: Teaching Practicum: Poetry Writing
Richter
In WR522, Poetry Teaching Practicum, students will prepare teaching materials (syllabus, reading packets, guideline sheets, exercises, and workshop strategies)
necessary to teach WR241: Introduction to Poetry Writing. Students also will develop and articulate a statement of teaching philosophy for the teaching of
poetry writing. Practical matters of the course include: choosing readers and handbooks; designing poetry assignment guidelines and relevant exercises; workshopping strategies; commenting on student work; teaching prosody and close reading skills; assessing one’s course. This class is offered every spring, and must
be taken by any poetry MFA student who wants to teach poetry writing in their second year.
WR 524: Advanced Fiction Writing
Dybek
WR 524 is a graduate level fiction workshop, available only to students admitted into the MFA program. We will discuss student fiction (and occasionally
published fiction) with an eye towards answering two essential questions. First, what experience is this piece of fiction asking us to have? And second, how can
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that experience be made more potent or successful upon revision?
WR 540: Nonfiction Workshop
St. Germain
This graduate workshop, the second in the three-term nonfiction workshop sequence, is designed to be flexible to student needs. You won’t be required to
submit new material, nor required to revise the pieces you submit; your valuable workshop time is yours to use however will be most valuable to you. We’ll also
read published pieces as departure points for discussing specific issues of craft, and students will be required to choose one published work for the class to read.
Graduate standing in Oregon State’s MFA program, or special permission from the instructor, is required for registration.
WR 541: Advanced Poetry Writing
Biespiel
Each workshop we will review a poem or two of yours. Plus, you will make one 30-minute presentation about a poet born before 1920 with an emphasis on
appreciation and encouraging the rest of us to read your poet. No final exam.
WR 599: Special Topics: Grad Diss Workshop
Tolar Burton
Students who enroll in this course must be at the writing stage of their project. This is not an introduction to the thesis or dissertation.
Learning Outcomes:
arn and practice new habits of writing that help completion of a thesis or dissertation
participate in peer review with other thesis writers
-assessment to discipline your writing process.
will meet individually in conference with the professor every day to examine your progress on the thesis and address problems.
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