the longest island: Advanced Undergraduate Courses -- Spring 2013

Advanced Undergraduate Courses -- Spring 2013

English Majors — Before you register, please make an appointment to meet with Wayne Berninger to review your outstanding requirements. Then register as early as possible to keep courses from being canceled.

Non-Majors — The writing and analytical skills gained in English courses are useful in a variety of professions. Any student may take these courses as general electives. A minor in English (four courses 100 or above) will satisfy the Distribution Requirement for any major. For more information, see Mr. Berninger.

English 126 News Writing (ID# 4887)
cross-listed with JOU 119 (ID# 4205)

Professor Donald Bird (Journalism Department)

Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:30-2:45 pm

English 129 Later British Literatures (# 4518)
The Artist Coming of Age: Creating the “Uncreated Conscience”
Professor Maria McGarrity
Tuesdays 3:00-5:30 pm

This course is required in the Literature concentration. It can satisfy a Literature requirement in either the Creative Writing concentration or the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor.

This course will examine the development of artistic consciousness in the British tradition. We will examine the role of the artist in society, his or her alienation from society, the unique perspectives of the artist and his or her role as critic, both literary and social. We will begin with the youthful artistic idealism of Keats, move onto a discussion of Wordsworth’s vision of the poet, Byron’s art in action, and expand our vision of the artist to include the feminine with Christina Rosetti and Virginia Woolf. Finally we will examine modernity and the aftermath of Joyce’s achievement through the twentieth century. We will challenge the idea that any writer can, as Joyce claimed to through his character Stephen Dedalus, “create the uncreated conscience of [his] race.”

Required Texts:

Greenblatt et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors, 8th Edition, Volume B.
Joyce, James, A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man, Norton Critical Edition.

English 159 Literatures of the U.S. Since 1865 (# 4200)
Modern American Culture & the Myth of Oz
Professor Patrick Horrigan

Wednesdays 6:00-8:30 pm

The course follows the figure of the wanderer in search of home as s/he is re-incarnated again and again throughout modern American culture. Using Frederick Jackson Turner’s seminal 1893 essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” as framework, the course finds echoes of Baum’s pilgrims (Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion) in Eliot’s mournful wanderer through the waste land, Hurston’s restless and love-hungry Janie, Baldwin’s tragically self-ignorant gay American in Paris, Capote’s sympathetic murderers, and the real-life figure of child star and lost boy, Michael Jackson. The course is writing-intensive. Syllabus: Week 1: Introduction: Turner’s thesis; 2: Baum; 3 & 4: T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land; 5 & 6: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; 7 & 8: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film version) and Salman Rushdie’s essay on the film; 9: James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room; 10 & 11: Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood; 12 & 13: The Wiz (1978 film version); 14: Margo Jefferson’s On Michael Jackson.

English 163 Explorations in Nonfiction Writing (# 6070)

Professor Deborah Mutnick

Mondays 3:00-5:30 pm

This course will satisfy a Writing & Rhetoric elective requirement in the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can satisfy a general English elective requirement in the Literature concentration. It can satisfy the Writing & Rhetoric requirement in either the Literature concentration or the Creative Writing concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor. Any student may take this course a second time for credit.

In this nonfiction workshop, you will explore nonfiction writing with a focus on zines and digital storytelling. A zine—short for fanzine—is a self-published work of original or remixed texts or images. Digital storytelling is a new genre utilizing video, still images, text, and audio to create short, multimedia narratives. Students will write and create their own zines, and write and produce a digital story. In addition to writing techniques and strategies, students will learn how to make a zine, and to use iMovie, GarageBand, and other digital technologies. Students will get feedback on their writing from class workshops and individual conferences.

English 166 Fiction Workshop (# 4260)
Professor Lewis Warsh
Thursdays 6:00-8:30 pm

This course will satisfy a Creative Writing elective requirement in the Creative Writing concentration. It can satisfy a general English elective requirement in the Literature concentration. It can satisfy the Creative Writing requirement in either the Literature concentration or the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor. English majors concentrating in Creative Writing may take this course a second time for credit.

This workshop will focus on the way autobiography overlaps with fiction and how the past is fictionalized as a way of keeping it alive. We'll consider the possibility of writing about ourselves with total detachment, as objectively as if we were writing about someone else. Our writing project will include working with secrets, memories, observations, opinions, overheard conversations--fragments of everything. Class time will be spent critiquing each other's writing and discussing traditional and experimental forms and approaches. Writers under discussion include Marguerite Duras, Paul Bowles, Anna Kavan, Clarice Lispector, Roberto Bolaño, Jack Kerouac, Zora Neale Hurston and Franz Kafka.

English 175 Writing for the Professions (# 4885)
Professor Michael Bokor

Tuesdays 6:00-8:30 pm

This course is a writing workshop in which students will study rhetorical strategies for professional and technical writing (including reports, flyers, brochures, technical manuals, and a range of public documents). It is good for students in all disciplines looking for opportunities to improve their skills for professional writing in their careers. The course will help students:

· *Learn specific skills for generating ideas and writing with confidence;

· *Learn how to write for specific target audiences;

· *Develop skills for creating documents commonly used at the workplace.

English 180 Genre Studies (# 6071)
The Slave Narrative and Neo-Slave Narrative Fiction

Professor Louis Parascandola
Mondays 6:00-8:30 pm

This course will satisfy the Literature requirement in either the Creative Writing concentration or the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. It can satisfy a general English elective requirement in the Literature concentration. It can also be applied toward the English minor or the Africana Studies minor. Any student may take ENG 140, 150, 170 or 180 a second time for credit.

This course will examine the classic slave narratives The History of Mary Prince and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in their entirety as well as excerpts from Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, and William and Ellen Craft’s Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom. Our focus will be on how these works are both public and personal documents as well as a blend of autobiography and fiction. In addition, we will look at several neo-slave narratives (contemporary fictional reworkings based on the original slave narratives) including Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage, and Octavia Butler’s Kindred. We will also watch sections of several films based on these works and examine some historical/critical writings treating the readings. Students may write a traditional research paper on one or more of the narratives/fictions or write their own creative piece or lesson plan based on the readings.

English 190 Senior Seminar in Literature (# 4093)
Professor Michael Bennett
Wednesdays 1:00-3:30 pm

Converted to tutorial: You now need permission from chair, instructor, and dean.

This course is required in the Literature concentration. If you register for this course, and it cancels due to low enrollment, consult the Undergraduate Advisor (Wayne Berninger). If you need it for May graduation, we can arrange for you to take it as a Tutorial. Otherwise, we may ask you to wait until the next time it’s offered.

This course will guide students through the process of writing a long research paper (20-25 pages) of literary/cultural criticism on a topic of their own choosing. Students will use a range of research resources and write an informal proposal, a formal proposal, a first draft, and a final draft of the paper. During the first half of the course, we will read texts from a variety of genres, including poetry, fiction, drama, nonfiction, and cross-genre writing. We will also read a variety of critical responses to these texts. During the last half of the course, students will lead discussions of their own works-in-progress, read and critique each other’s work, and hand in a final seminar paper. Required Texts:

Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home.
Carson, Anne. Autobiography of Red.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus.

English 191 Senior Seminar in Creative Writing (# 4441)
Professor John High
Wednesdays 3:00-5:30 pm

This course is required in the Creative Writing concentration. If you register for this course, and it cancels due to low enrollment, consult the Undergraduate Advisor (Wayne Berninger). If you need it for May graduation, we can arrange for you to take it as a Tutorial. Otherwise, we may ask you to wait until the next time it’s offered.

English 192 Senior Seminar In Writing & Rhetoric (# 4204)
Professor John Killoran
Wednesdays 3:00-5:30 pm

Converted to tutorial: You now need permission from chair, instructor, and dean.

This course is required in the Writing & Rhetoric concentration. If you register for this course, and it cancels due to low enrollment, consult the Undergraduate Advisor (Wayne Berninger). If you need it for May graduation, we can arrange for you to take it as a Tutorial. Otherwise, we may ask you to wait until the next time it’s offered.

English 203 Starting from Paumanok (# 4023)
Black Women Pulitzer Prize Winning Poets
Professor Louis ParascandolaThis course will count as a general elective.

This one-credit course will focus on the four Black women poets who have won the Pulitzer Prize: Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, Natasha Trethewey, and Tracy K. Smith. In addition to exploring the poets’ works, the students will have the unique opportunity to attend a reading by Tracy K. Smith (this year’s Paumanok speaker) and to discuss her writings. Students are expected to attend all classes, including the Tracy Smith reading. They will write a 2-3 page paper on the reading (due Feb. 12), a 2-3 page paper on either Brooks, Dove, or Trethewey (due Feb. 19), and a 6 page paper on all of the four authors (due March 5).

January 29, 6:00-8:30 pm: Introduction, discussion of Gwendolyn Brooks.
February 5, 6:00-8:30 pm: Reading by Tracy K. Smith.
February 12, 6:00- 8:30 pm: Discussion of Rita Dove and Natasha Trethewey.
February 19, 6:00-8:30 pm: Discussion of Tracy Smith, Paper Writing.

Honors Courses Taught by English-Department Faculty

When taught by English Department faculty, Honors courses numbered 100 and above may be applied toward the English major or the English minor. Please discuss your plan with Wayne Berninger in the English Department before you register in order to confirm which requirement the course may satisfy. The following are eligible courses being offered in Spring 2013.

HHE 182 Through the Looking Glass (Class ID# 6125) / Professor Andrea Libin / Wednesdays 6-8:30 pm

HHE 183 Satan in Art and Literature (Class ID# 6126) / Professor Bernard Schweizer / Thursday 3-5:30 pm

HHE 186 Adaptations (Class ID# 6129) / Professor Michael Bennett / Day & Time TBAt!

Advanced Undergraduate Courses -- Spring 2013

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