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ENGL-043-01 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
Theorizing Race
Fall 2009
Race is generally taken to be something that we 'know' – it is
something that is alternatively taken for granted and unquestioned,
thought of as a biological and social given, or contested as a trope
and social fiction with embodied effect. This course unpacks the
contested terrain of the term and idea 'race' and critically examines
the construction of race and racism within Western thought. We will
examine the work of thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, Thomas Jefferson,
Patricia J. Williams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Franz Fanon, Edward Said,
Patricia Hill Collins, and Richard Dyer and consider racial theory
through the prism of: enlightenment thought; scientific racism;
whiteness studies; black philosophy; critical race theory and;
postcolonial theory. The aim in this course is to interrogate the
assumption that race exists as a natural category and, instead,
question the intricacies of race as a production.
Professor Henry Schwarz
Spring 2010
This course is an introduction to some of the prevailing theories and methods of cultural criticism practiced in Europe and America in the 20th century. We will discuss why critical cultural analysis is important and why and how to think theoretically. Methods covered will include Marxism, Feminism, Postmodernism, Postcolonialism, Cultural Studies and Media Literacy, among others.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
Course syllabi
The following syllabi may help you learn more about this course (login required):
Spring '10:
Nestor, Amy
(description)
Spring '10:
Zayani, M
(description)
Fall '09:
Fox P
(description, file download)
Fall '09:
O'Connor, P
(description)
Fall '09:
Schwarz, H
(description)
Additional syllabi may be available in prior academic years.
Sections:
ENGL-043-02 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
Fall 2009
Professor Pamela Fox
This course introduces you to the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies: an approach to interpreting culture that draws on literature, anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy, film studies. One of its founders, British cultural critic Raymond Williams, begins with this premise: “Culture is ordinary; that is where we must start.” In that sense, the object of analysis in cultural studies is virtually limitless—the images, texts, and practices of everyday life. As a field of inquiry, cultural studies tends to focus on popular forms of contemporary culture, including television, advertising, sports events, animation, the Internet, social institutions (such as schools and prisons), fashion, movies, video/digital games, music, fiction.
We’ll study a wide variety of such materials in order to grasp how they become invested with much broader social meaning and to understand why such meaning matters. Any course in cultural studies will take up the following central concerns: 1) issues of ideology, hegemony, class difference; 2) questions of gender and sexuality; 3) formation of categories of race and ethnicity; 4) effects of ‘globalization.’ We’ll also be focusing on technology’s role in both the formation and reading of ‘culture’: how has it transformed the very way we access, and interpret, our world?
Students will demonstrate their engagement with (and comprehension of) course texts and concepts in the following ways: essays; mid-term exam; class presentations; Blackboard postings; consistent participation in class discussion.
Spring 2010
Professor Nolana Yip
Reading and Writing Critical Theory: Crimes Against Humanity
This course is a reading and writing intensive course that will examine the
ways in which literary theory and cultural studies may help us extract meaning from the texts that we will study or that you will later encounter both in your academic careers and your life. These texts will range from various literary genres, films and popular cultural objects from across the globe. We will investigate contemporary conflicts in the world and consider the ways in which these conflicts are, or are not, considered crimes against humanity as the United Nations defines them. We will seek to achieve an understanding of how these
conflicts have arisen, their affects and consequences, and what the diverse
responses are by the global community. Some critical approaches that we will
investigate are feminism, queer and gender studies, postcolonial theory,
disability studies, deconstructionism, poststructuralism and postmodernism.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
ENGL-043-03 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
This course will focus on a history and examination of the set of theories, practices and methodologies which define the field of Cultural Studies. By reading and situating the theory, we can critique the production and consumption of cultural objects, including popular culture and avant garde art. In order to pursue critical analyses of our own in the class, we will interrogate concepts such as culture, ideology, representation, taste, style and subculture, with attention to the specific tensions between language and visual images. Texts will draw from critical and cultural theory, literature, film, video, music and the graphic novel, with a particular emphasis on rap, poetry and contemporary artistic modes of expression.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
ENGL-043-04 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
This course will focus on a history and examination of the set of theories, practices and methodologies which define the field of Cultural Studies. By reading and situating the theory, we can critique the production and consumption of cultural objects, including popular culture and avant garde art. In order to pursue critical analyses of our own in the class, we will interrogate concepts such as culture, ideology, representation, taste, style and subculture, with attention to the specific tensions between language and visual images. Texts will draw from critical and cultural theory, literature, film, video, music and the graphic novel, with a particular emphasis on rap, poetry and contemporary artistic modes of expression.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
ENGL-043-05 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
Fall only
The Female Bildungsroman: Coming of Age in Twentieth-Century U. S. Women’s Writing
This course will examine the bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, as a mainstay of U. S. women’s writing, focusing especially on texts from the second half of the twentieth century and on into the contemporary moment. We will also watch a number of films organized around this thematic as well. Examining narrative depictions of coming of age by a diverse group of writers and filmmakers, the course will explore ways in which gendered subjectivity is shaped by historical context and historical “memory”: indeed, many of these texts deal explicitly with issues of history, historiography, and remembrance, and depict the act of recovering some sense of the past as central to the formation (or re-formation) of personal and/or collective identity. In addition, we will examine how specific social differences of gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationality shape the narrative paradigm of “coming of age”; toward that end we will pay special attention to coming-of-age texts by “ethnic,” working-class, and GLBTQ authors. We will also become familiar with some important critical debates about the bildungsroman as a major subgenre of the novel form, and we will read a number of contemporary critical and theoretical essays on cultural constructions of gendered subjectivity.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
ENGL-043-06 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
Fall only
Narratology
This course fulfills the second Humanities and Writing requirement and also introduces the English major through examination and creation of one its most prevalent forms–the narrative. Students will read the brief autobiography of Eudora Welty --One Writer’s Beginnings; the historical fiction novel (written as a series of poems) by Karen Hesse -- Out of the Dust and the Short Stories of Breece Pancake. Students will explore these texts as well as oral narratives collected in everyday life using structural approaches as found in On Narratology by Mieke Bal and Michael Toolan—Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction. Using the work of Wolfgang Iser in Prospecting we delve into reader-response theory where we react to how the writer sets up for readerly engagement as s/he composes a text. As well as two analytical essays, students produce a piece of historical fiction as the major project for the course. Diana Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manual will be used for matters of clarity and style in writing and producing MLA citation forms.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
ENGL-043-07 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
Fall only
This course is an introduction to some of the prevailing theories and methods of cultural criticism practiced in Europe and America in the 20th century. We will discuss why critical cultural analysis is important and why and how to think theoretically. Methods covered will include Marxism, Feminism, Postmodernism, Postcolonialism, Cultural Studies and Media Literacy, among others.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
ENGL-043-08 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
Fall only
Introduction to Film Studies
This course introduces students to the study of film as an art form. We will focus on the range of choices available to filmmakers as they compose and combine images, incorporate sound, and use film as a medium to tell stories, express ideas and present arguments. The films we study range across the history of cinema (1890s-1990s) and include films produced not only in the US but also in Germany, France, the Soviet Union, Japan, Canada, and elsewhere. This course defines cinema broadly and therefore includes documentary, animated, and experimental films as well as feature-length, fictional movies. While our focus will often be on the close analysis of individual films (considering them at the level of individual shots, individual scenes, the use of specific techniques), we will undertake this close analysis in light of the contexts (social, artistic, economic) that shaped specific film practices. Course requirements include attendance at weekly film screenings, exams, short writing assignments and reading quizzes. Note: This course has an attendance policy.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
ENGL-043-09 Gateway: Introduction to Critical Methods
Fall only
Introduction to Film Studies
This course introduces students to the study of film as an art form. We will focus on the range of choices available to filmmakers as they compose and combine images, incorporate sound, and use film as a medium to tell stories, express ideas and present arguments. The films we study range across the history of cinema (1890s-1990s) and include films produced not only in the US but also in Germany, France, the Soviet Union, Japan, Canada, and elsewhere. This course defines cinema broadly and therefore includes documentary, animated, and experimental films as well as feature-length, fictional movies. While our focus will often be on the close analysis of individual films (considering them at the level of individual shots, individual scenes, the use of specific techniques), we will undertake this close analysis in light of the contexts (social, artistic, economic) that shaped specific film practices. Course requirements include attendance at weekly film screenings, exams, short writing assignments and reading quizzes. Note: This course has an attendance policy.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
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Other academic years
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