Summer 2012 Courses

Designed for prospective majors in English and for students interested in a general literature course, English 12 offers an introduction to the critical, historical, and creative study of literature. Each of the sections provides a survey of literature from different historical periods and an overview of the aims, assumptions and methodologies of reading, critical analysis and creative practice. The course counts for credit in the major. Dist: LIT. No course group or CA tag designation.

• Introduction to Literary Study--Poetry, at the 10A hour with Professor Gamboa
  This section addresses poetic language and form. It offers practice in reading poems and skills in interpreting and producing densely figured language. Each section will focus on poetry of threw (not necessarily consecutive) centuries, with some contextualization for every period. reading will include some of the large body of critical work that helps foster analytic and writing skills; writing for the class will include both critical and creative practices.  

At the 2A hour with Professor Gamboa.

A study of about ten plays spanning Shakespeare's career, including comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. Attention will be paid to Shakespeare's language; to his dramatic practices and theatrical milieu; and to the social, political, and philosophical issues raised by the action of the plays. Videotapes will supplement the reading. Exercises in close reading and interpretative papers.Prerequisite: English 2/3, English 5 or English 5 exemption status. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I, CA tag Genre-Drama.

At the 10A hour with Professor Vasquez (crosslisted with AAAS 35)

A study of African American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the present, this course will focus on emerging and diverging traditions of writing by African Americans. We shall also investigate the changing forms and contexts of 'racial representation' in the United States. Works may include those by Hurston, Hughes, Wright, Ellison, Morrison, Schuyler, West, Murray, Gates, Parks. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Studies.

At the 2A hour with Professor Vasquez (crosslisted with AAAS 26)

This course is an intensive study of Toni Morrison's major fictional works. We will also read critical responses by and about the author. Required texts may include Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise, Playing in the Dark, and critical contributions by writers such as Barbara Smith and Paul Gilroy. Some of the central issues we will examine include alternative constructions of female community and genealogy, and representations of race, class, nationhood and identity. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-narrative. 

M/W 7-9pm, with Professor Hebert

This course offers a workshop in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Seminar-sized classes meet twice a week and include individual conferences. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and to first-year students who have completed Writing 5 (or have exemption status). Students who wish to enroll in 80 must submit their applications to the administrative assistant in the English Office by the last day of the term preceding the term for which they wish to enroll. Students do not submit work for entry into the course. A brief application form is available in the English Office.  English 80 is the prerequisite to all other Creative Writing courses. Dist: ART. 

Tu/Th 7-9pm, with Professor Hebert

This course offers a workshop in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Seminar-sized classes meet twice a week and include individual conferences. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and to first-year students who have completed Writing 5 (or have exemption status). Students who wish to enroll in 80 must submit their applications to the administrative assistant in the English Office by the last day of the term preceding the term for which they wish to enroll. Students do not submit work for entry into the course. A brief application form is available in the English Office.  English 80 is the prerequisite to all other Creative Writing courses. Dist: ART.