UNDERGRADUATE Capstone and Diver

UNDERGRADUATE
Capstone and Diversity Course Descriptions
Department of English
Spring 2010

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This general capstone course introduces you to a wealth of fascinating literature about Nevada, placing it in the context of Nevada history, geography, and culture. As we read, we will explore a variety of concerns: What does it mean to possess a “sense of place,” and how do you get one if you don’t have it? How is Nevada portrayed in literature?

Who are the major Nevada authors? How have different groups experienced Nevada's landscape? How is Nevada’s literary history tied to its economic and political history? Do insiders and outsiders write and respond to Nevada literature differently? Does the literature of a state create an identity for it? Will reading about Nevada change the way you experience the state? Films, guest speakers, and possible field trips complement the readings.

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345.001 (Capstone & Diversity)
Literature of Ethnic Minorities in the U.S.
2:30-3:45 MW
Calabrese

Readings from authors like James Baldwin, Sherman Alexie, Malcolm X, Jhumpa Lahiri and others. Three papers, with one enabling students to draw from their major area of study as preferred. We'll consider such themes as assimilation and the role of language, family, work etc. in the formation of identity. A discussion-based class, the syllabus will also include documentary and other videos.

calabj@unr.edu

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Contemporary Literature By and About Women

In good literature, questions are raised and values examined. In this section, we’ll confront and discuss various gender issues through the study of contemporary
works by and about women which address, in some significant way, the oft-asked question: “What do women want?”

To come to some sort of answer to this question, we’ll look at texts that examine or illuminate conditions of loss--of work, of dignity, of love/loved ones, of hope,
of community. We’ll note how authors/characters ultimately achieve (or don’t) a sense of self-identiity through their ability to survive what they face, and how
they do this through compassion, hope, an acute attention to desire, and perhaps, even a little bit of magic.

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427A.00 (Capstone & Diversity) (73296) NEWLY ADDED
Women and Literature
2:30-3:45 TR
Keniston

What does it mean to write “as a woman”? To what extent do women writers represent the social and political world around them, and to what extent does the
literature they produce offer a way to change that world? How does the multiplicity of women’s experiences—and in particular their differences in class, ethnicity,
and sexual orientation—affect the form and theme of their writing? In this capstone course we will develop a vocabulary with which to answer these questions by
juxtaposing influential works of feminist theory with fiction and poems by (mostly) twentieth-century American women. Topics will include representations of
patriarchy and the male tradition; female identity, sex, and gender; the intersection of gender, race, and class; gender as performance; the cinematic gaze; and
female audience. Course texts will include Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar, Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, Zora Neale Hurston’s
Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Jackie Kay’s Trumpet, as well as a range of poems and films. Students will also research popular genres, including
romance novels and “chicklit,” as well as television shows, movies, and how-to books marketed at women.

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In this course we will read and discuss substantial portions of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. Topics we will explore include: the formation of
the biblical texts, the historical contexts for the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, literary forms in the Bible, biblical archaeology, the Bible in art and literature,
critical approaches to biblical texts, problems in biblical translation, and changing visions of divinity in the texts. While this is not a course in religious history, we will
notice and discuss in the Bible certain texts that have shaped various religious traditions and beliefs. The recommended Bible will be the New Oxford Annotated Bible
(NRSV), and course work will include both exams and papers.

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491A.001 (Capstone)
Major Texts of the Environmental Movement
2:30-3:45 TR
Branch

There has never been a greater need for writers who can interpret science for a wider public of readers who may have little training or even interest in the sciences. In an
American culture in which the gulf between highly specialized science and average Americans—people whose values, decisions, and behaviors have a tremendous impact
upon the environment—seems ever widening, the work of the science writer has become increasingly urgent. “Minding the Gap: American Science Writing” examines the
work of authors who employ a range of literary, rhetorical, and aesthetic techniques to write into the troubling “gap” between what science knows and what general
readers need to understand. What is the role of the science writer as cultural translator or interpreter of environmental science? How do these writers make science
accessible and engaging to general readers? How do they accurately represent the dramatic insights of specific scientific disciplines without bogging down in technical
jargon? What approaches do they use to teach and to delight—to entertain us into becoming more ecologically literate? We’ll read prominent examples of American
science writing by such major figures as John Muir, Loren Eiseley, Rachel Carson, Stephen Jay Gould, E. O. Wilson, Sandra Steingraber, Chet Raymo, Michael Pollan,
and Jennifer Ackerman. We will conclude our survey with a unit examining several environmental films that attempt, just as do the literary texts we’ll read, to convey
scientific information in a clear and compelling way for the benefit of a general public.

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AMERICAN STORYTELLING REVIVAL

By studying and experiencing problems in collecting, transcribing, and interpreting oral narratives from three varieties of North American folk cultures (Native American,
African American, Anglo-American), we will learn about the relationship of storytelling and oral literatures to traditional communities. We will actively practice the techniques
of folktale-telling to gain an appreciation for vernacular culture and develop skill in relating our own individual and family experiences and contextualizing them within our own
cultural history. We will grow as storytellers, using our new skills to teach, persuade, comfort, distract and enrich the lives of our classmates, friends, family, and fellow citizens.

This is an upper-division English major capstone that involves reading, several different kinds of writing, critical thinking, discussion, a little research and a heavy schedule
of oral presentations. Course prerequisites include English 298, 303, and a declared major or minor in English or secondary education with an English emphasis.
I expect you to write at the level suggested by successful completion of these prerequisites, and to be familiar with basic literary and linguistic terminology and concepts.

Reading: 50-75 pages of folktale and prose narrative per week; an average of three pages per week of critical prose (approximately one article every other week).

Writing: three short (three to five-page) papers in various genres including memoir, literary analysis, and folktale retelling; weekly response journal; several shorter
assignments. Presentations: two ten-minute folktales based on traditional sources; one ten-minute personal story shaped by traditional folktale-telling techniques.
Extra credit available for service-learning activities (documented telling of stories to community audiences outside the classroom).

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Eng 493A is a capstone course which focuses on twentieth century African American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts Movement.