Department of English
Summer 2010
Course Descriptions
The information printed is intended to
supplement the basic descriptions printed in the UNR catalog.
Last minute changes in course content are always
possible.
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Mini-Term - May 17-June 4
Eng 321.E01
Expository Writing
M-F 9:00am-12:00pm
Kmetz, M.
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at kmetzm@unr.nevada.edu
Eng 331.E01
Literary Themes
M-F 9:00am-12:00pm
Branch
Major American Film Directors
“Major American Film Directors” is being offered as a summer mini-session
section of English 331 (“Literary Themes”). Although the syllabus is not yet
finalized,
it is likely that we will study two films by each of the following major
American directors (with likely films specified): Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane
(1941) and
Touch of Evil (1958); Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) and
North by Northwest (1959); Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964)
and The Shining (1980);
Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H (1970) and Short Cuts (1993); Francis Ford
Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part Two (1974), and
Apocalypse
Now (1979); Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989) and Bamboozled
(2000); and Joel & Ethan Coen’s Fargo (1996) and Oh Brother, Where
Art Thou? (2000).
The course includes consideration of film as a technical medium and will thus
involve the use of a film studies textbook (William H. Phillips’s Film: An
Introduction, 4th
edition,
group work, film screening and analysis exercises, and cinema studies workshops,
and will engage cinematic works in terms of their historical and cultural
contexts while also
inviting close reading and careful analysis of the films as cinematic texts
shaped by their director’s individual styles.
Eng 422A/622A.E01
Topics in Literary Theory
M-F 9:00am-12:00pm
Francis
Libraries, Rare Books, Manuscripts and You: Practical Skills in Archival Research.
English 422/622, Practical Skills: Archival Research,
teaches students how to handle rare books, manuscripts and other archival
materials; considers the book as
material object; teaches students to recognize print styles, papers, bindings
and book design elements; teaches bibliographic description as a practical
skill; and introduces
students to the history of book. We will meet in class, in Special Collections
and in the Black Rock Press.
English 422/622 introduces students to the art and
practicalities of working with manuscripts as well. Students will learn the
rudiments of paleography, how to handle
and assess manuscripts, and how to correlate manuscript analysis with other
techniques of literary research.
English 422/622 is a practical, hands-on course. Students
will learn the art of textual research by completing a series of exercises
based on primary materials in
Special Collections, exercises designed to teach the skills described above. We
will ‘describe’ rare books, decipher several scribal hands, think through an
interesting
exercise re: late nineteenth/early twentieth century responses to an eighteenth
century question, identify prints and maps, and ultimately apply the skills we
learn to the
individual research interest(s) of each student enrolled in the class.
But English 422/622 is theoretical as well. It invites
students to examine theories relevant to textual criticism: editorial theory,
the materiality of the book and the
intersection of book production and readership studies.
Finally English 422/622 introduces students to the
etiquette and conduct of archival library research. Students will learn how to
establish good relations with a
research library and its staff, how to write introductions and queries, how to
prepare for a research visit, and how to use time efficiently and effectively in
a research
library.
Eng 425B/625B.E01 -
NEW INSTRUCTOR/NEW THEME
Topics in Literature
M-F 9:00am-12:00pm
Gifford
American Noir:
Starting with Edgar
Allan Poe’s gothic tales in the mid-nineteenth century, American crime and
detective literature has been an important site for authors to consider the
issues of racial and gender identity, urbanization, literary poetics, and
criminality. In this course, we will study a broad variety of American roman
and film noirs, ranging
from the nineteenth- to the twenty-first century. Students will be introduced
to hard-boiled detective novelists Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler,
pioneering black
crime writers Chester Himes and Iceberg Slim, and contemporary urban authors
Vickie Stringer and Sapphire. In addition to reading classic and contemporary
American
crime literature, students will also be expected to engage a variety of noir
films, including The Maltese Falcon, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,
and the first season
of the HBO series, The Wire. This course will also provide students with
a foundational knowledge of contemporary theories now prevalent in American
literary and
cultural studies, including the critical study of race, cultural Marxism,
feminism, queer theory, theories of space, vernacular criticism, and whiteness
studies. This course
will be both reading- and writing-intensive, requiring students to read ten
novels and write a long research paper.
Eng 427A/627A.E01
Women & Literature (Capstone and Diversity)
M-F 9:00am-12:00pm
Detweiler
In this capstone course, we will examine “women and/in
relationships,” with an emphasis on the ways that gender, race, class, and
sexual identity are intertwined with
personal relationships (as these are depicted in literature by women). The
course will be roughly divided into three sections that correspond to life
stages in which relationships
come into different focuses: childhood, adulthood, and elderhood. To begin, we
will explore childhood and the issues of early family life (relationships with
parents,
“coming of age,” “coming out,” and building an identity) in texts by Maxine Hong
Kingston and Jeanette Winterson. Next, we will focus on middle life and its
special
challenges (relating to spouses, having children, sexual love, alternative
notions of family, tradition and heritage), reading texts by Sharon Olds, Louise
Erdrich, and Jackie
Kay. Finally, we will study elders who write about art and life, aging,
illness, late-life autonomy and family difficulties, and dying: May Sarton,
Adrienne Rich, and Margaret
Edson. Throughout the course, we will thoughtfully discuss how culture shapes
women’s experience of their gender, race, class, sexual identity, and familial
connections.
We will also inquire into how some women have attempted to critique and/or
rewrite the cultural “scripts” available to them.
TENTATIVE BOOK LIST:
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine
Sharon Olds, The Dead and the Living May Sarton,
As We Are Now
Adrienne Rich, Atlas of the Difficult World Margaret
Edson, Wit
Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Jackie Kay,
Trumpet
**various handouts, details TBA
Eng 428A/628A.E01
Children's Literature
M-F 9:00-12:00pm
Grecu
First-Term - June 7 - July 9
Eng 098.F01
Preparatory Composition
M-R 8:00-10:00am
Hanselman
Eng 098.F02 - NEWLY
ADDED
Preparatory Composition
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
FH 129
Surges
Eng 100I.F01 (To be taken w/Eng 105 and Eng 106)
Composition Intensive
M-R 10:10am-12:10pm
Banville
Eng 101.F01
Composition I
M-R 10:10am-12:10pm
Brooks
Eng 101.F02
Composition I
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Ladd
Eng 102.F01
Composition II
M-R 10:10-12:10
Cooke
Writing, Research, and Ethnography
This course is designed to help you develop the writing,
research, critical reading, and critical thinking skills that will be integral
to your academic work
at UNR. You will be encouraged to look at things from angles you may not have
considered before and to engage in ethnographic study of the various
subcultures and virtual realities that make up (post)modern culture.
Ethnographic study requires that you bracket your own assumptions while engaging
in
the process of trying to understand others, and that you attempt to represent
the cultural experience of others as fairly as possible. Such study can help you
to
approach each encounter with difference openly, receptively, and reflexively. It
can aid your work as a reader and critic of literary and cultural texts and your
development as a researcher and student of culture.
Eng 102.F02
Composition II
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Camarena
Gender in the Movies
We will explore how
gender roles are created/reflected in mainstream and non-mainstream
contemporary films in
an effort to further develop critical thinking,
research and writing skills. Students will be encouraged to question and
challenge commonly held beliefs and stereotypes.
Eng 102.F03 - NEWLY ADDED
Composition II
M-R 10:10-12:10pm
Ghymn
Popular Culture
If popular culture is a reflection of social values, what
is society trying to tell us? What can we learn of our world through the art it
produces? This course will
explore past and current trends of popular music, film, literature, and art
through both analytical and creative expressions. Ideas will be shaped through a
variety
of media, writing assignments, and discussion.
Eng 105.F01 (To be taken w/Eng 100I and Eng 106)
Critical Reading
F 10:10an -1:10pm
TBA
Eng 106.F01 (To be taken w/Eng 100I and Eng 105)
Critical Reading
F 2:00-5:00pm
TBA
Eng 205.F01
Introduction to Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Jackson
This class will be
conducted largely as a writing workshop; we will focus a great deal on
student-generated works of fiction and poetry. Students will
write, share, and revise their own work and read, react to, and discuss the
work-in-progress by their peers. We will study elements of fictional and
poetic
craft and analyze how they are used in short stories and poems from both
recognized masters and members of the class. Students should expect to
write and
read daily, and participate actively in a writing community. For details on
this course, you may contact the instructor at
jackso82@unr.nevada.edu .
Eng 298.F01
Writing About Literature
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Kogos
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at kogosr@unr.nevada.edu
Eng 303.F01
Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism
M-R 8:00-10:00am
Lock
Selected literary theories, varieties of criticism and
texts, emphasizing their interrelation, and ranging from traditional literary
criticism and works, to
contemporary ones. Analysis of approaches to the novel, drama, and poetry from
varying time periods.
Eng 321.F01
Expository Writing
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Stottlemyer
In this advanced composition course, we will concentrate our efforts on various
forms of professional writing while studying the exigencies of the Rhetorical
Situation.
As such, our inquiry this summer will center on the relationship between
audience and purpose, writing as a process, and the importance of revision.
Students will
compose expert prose in numerous genres and will submit substantially revised
versions of a resume and cover letter, a white paper, a proposal (business or
otherwise),
a creative non-fiction essay, a popular and/or professional journal article, and
more.
This course will encourage students to focus their writing assignments on
subjects that are appropriate to their chosen disciplines. The assignments for
this course are
designed to expose students to the demands of the professional writing
situations they will encounter both within their chosen disciplines and in their
careers beyond
the university. To achieve this goal, we will discuss these situational demands
at length, and as a class we will define what it means to write successfully as
professionals
in various careers.
Eng 400A.F01 - This course will run
through all of first and second summer session 6/7-8/12/2020
Topics in Writing
W 6:00-10:00pm
Ludden
This is a creative writing workshop where each student
is expected to write and revise a short novel. Students will read two example
novels along with a book
on novel craft, outline their novel, and hand in two chapters every other week
for workshop. The class will focus on narrative trajectory, character
development,
subplot, and structure. By the end of the course, each student will have a
polished draft of their novel. Students should have previous creative writing
workshop
experience and it is suggested that they have taken ENG 305 and/or ENG 403/603
before taking this class. Students should arrive at the first class having read,
and ready to discuss, the following books:
- Marukami, Haruki, "Norwegian Wood." Published by
Vintage (2000). ISBN-10: 0375704027
- Greene, Graham, "The Heart of the Matter." Published by Penguin Classics
(2004). ISBN-10: 0142437999
- Gardner, John, "On Becoming A Novelist." Published by W. W. Norton (1999).
ISBN-10: 0393320030
Eng 449B.F01
British Literature II
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Koontz
Anti-Humanism and Ethics in Twentieth Century British Literature
Since the “linguistic turn” in
the late 1960s, the humanities has been identified with what Louis Althusser
called anti-humanism, which challenges Enlightenment
modernity’s conviction in both an autonomous agent and the possibility for a
future utopia based on a democratic politics and laissez-faire economics
(capitalism).
However, as one critic has recently noted, the seeds of anti-humanist thought—as
it is realized in contemporary theory—were sown in early-twentieth century
aesthetics, specifically in the sphere of literature that has come be to be
known as modernism, though such a term is deeply problematical for reasons that
we
shall discuss throughout the term. To complicate the matters of anti-humanism
and modernism, the twentieth century also witnessed the proliferation of
ethical theory in response to the various political predicaments and
catastrophes which largely characterizes that century: how, then, did writers
throughout
the century treat, think through, frustrate both the strains of anti-humanism
and its antagonist, ethics? In other words, how can anti-humanism and ethics
exist side-by-side, and how do twentieth century writers work through this
problem (if it is, in fact, a problem); or, in another way, what is the
relationship
between anti-humanist thought and ethics? Can they co-exist?
This course will begin by
looking at three key classic texts, from which we will develop our working
definitions of modern antihumanism: a section from
Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit called “Lordship and Bondage,”
(excerpts from) Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, and Louis
Althusser’s
“Marx and Humanism.” (These texts will be available on e-reserves, as I am
hopeful students will read these texts ahead of and for our first class
meeting.)
We will then quickly turn our attention to British literature written during
and/or immediately after World War I then expand our inquiry to texts written
throughout the century. We will read short novels, short stories, poetry,
perhaps some drama as we wrestle with the problems outlined above. And we
should also keep in mind that by reading British literature, we will be reading
texts written by British subjects from throughout the empire.
Possible Longer Texts: James
Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1915); T. S. Eliot The
Waste Land (1922); D. H. Lawrence,
St. Mawr (1924); Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts (1941); Graham
Greene, The Quiet American (1955); Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
(1956);
Doris Lessing, Memoirs of a Survivor (1974); Jamaica Kincaid, Annie
John (1983); Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (1988).
Requirements: short paper (2 – 3 pages), longer paper (5 – 7 pages), and presentation (20 minutes).
Second-Term - July 12-August 12
Eng 098.S01
Preparatory Composition
M-R 10:10am-12:10pm
Martinez
Eng 098.S02 - NEWLY
ADDED
Preparatory Composition
M-R 10:10am-12:10pm
FH 129
Gough
Eng 098.S03 - NEWLY
ADDED
Preparatory Composition
M-R 10:10am-12:10pm
FH 231
Werner
Eng 100I.S01 (To be taken w/Eng 105 and Eng 106)
Composition Intensive
M-R 8:00-10:00am
Colombini
Eng 101.S01
Composition I
M-R 8:00-10:00am
Farnsworth
Eng 101.S02
Composition I
M-R 10:10-12:10
Bankston
Eng 101.S03
Composition I
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Stewart
Eng 102.S01
Composition II
M-R 8:00-10:00am
Baaki
Crime and Punishment in America
In this
introductory course to academic research writing we will explore aspects of the
American legal system and analyze representations of “criminal”
behavior in American literature, film, and other media. Students will be
expected to produce a final research project on a topic of their choice that
relates
to the overall theme of the course.
Eng 102.S02
Composition II
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Chaput
This section of English 102 is a critical reading and
writing course focused on the theme of reality television. Reality TV includes
familiar shows like
Big Brother, Survivor, and American Idol, but it also
includes crime shows like Cops!, news programs, and special coverage of
events such as the
Michael Jackson funeral. In this course, we will explore reality TV, its
significance, and its relationship to our everyday lives. How do television
directors
narrate stories? What do they emphasize? What language do they use? Who do they
focus on? We will also discuss why this kind of television has become
increasingly popular. Is it a cheap response to the rising cost of paying for
“stars” on television? Is it a response to a culture of voyeurism? Is it about
diminishing
ethical and aesthetic standards? To answer these questions, we need to keep an
eye open to cultural, economic, and political questions. In this way, we will
learn to become critical viewers/readers of reality television (and other texts
as well). We also will learn to write arguments that add our own analysis and
research to current and ongoing conversations. That is, we will become critical
writers.
Eng 102.S03
Composition II
M-R 5:30-7:30pm
Koenig
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at koenigm@unr.nevada.edu
Eng 105.S01 (To be taken w/Eng 100I and Eng 106)
Critical Reading
F 10:10an -1:10pm
TBA
Eng 106.S01 (To be taken w/Eng 100I and Eng 105)
Critical Reading
F 2:00-5:00pm
TBA
Eng 304.S01
American Literature and Culture
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Hertweck
For details on this course, you may contact the instructor at thertweck@unr.edu
Eng 321.S01
American Literature & Culture
M-R 5:30-7:30pm
Johnston
Rhetoric, Argument, & Style
In this course, we will explore three main themes in
academic/scholarly writing: rhetoric, argument, and style. Rhetoric is a
discipline that focuses on the artful
use of language to persuade or move one's audience. By using rhetoric to analyze
various forms of communication (or, in some cases, cultural artifacts), scholars
raise questions about the construction of the speakers' and the audience's
identities, the speaker's representation of controversial issues, and the
techniques, images,
or ideas speakers employ to communicate effectively with their audiences. Next,
argument, in the formal sense that we will use the term, does not mean
disagreement,
but instead the move from reasoned propositions to the production of valid
(appropriate) conclusions. In other words, scholars will ask whether writers'
reasons and
evidence justify their conclusions, or their call to action, or their critique,
etc. Last, “style,” according to Joseph Williams refers to the way the "writer
chooses to
arrange words for the best possible effect." Style is both the music of language
and, at the same time, the raw grammatical mechanics.
Our approach to the analysis of writing rests on three
distinct but interconnected levels: context, content, and literal expression. By
analyzing what you read, paying
attention to rhetoric, argument, and style, you will learn to distinguish
between types of arguments, discern assumptions and implicit values, evaluate
warrants
(the connection between propositions and conclusions), and assess the overall
effectiveness of argumentative and persuasive texts. Last, you will employ these
skills to improve the ways that you synthesize information and, most
importantly, the way that you write arguments.
Eng 345.S01
Literature of Ethnic Minorities in the U.S. (Capstone and
Diversity)
M-R 1:00-3:00pm
Hemstrom
This class
will explore the literature of ethnic groups within the American population,
focusing on literature from Native American, Black, Arab American,
Asian American and Chicano/Chicana authors. By investigating conflicts and
connections of race, ethnicity, gender, class within these texts, we will
explore the
intricacies of ethnic American Literature and identity. This class meets the
requirements of a General Capstone and Diversity course.