HUMW-011-01 Germanic Christian Hero

Faculty:

Murphy, G. Ronald

This course is aimed at the cultural transformation of the hero/protagonist over the course of time. The interactions and poetic syntheses of the Germanic and the Christian imagination of the human person will be examined from their origins to the nineteenth century in reading the following works: the Heliand, (the Dark Ages); Parzival (the time of the Crusades); In Praise of Folly (the Humanist Renaissance); Faust I (the Classical Period); and Mother Courage (the Twentieth Century). This course does not count toward the major, but it does satisfy the humanities requirement.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

Course syllabi
The following syllabi may help you learn more about this course (login required):

Spring '07: Jankowsky K (file download)

Fall '06: Nanney, L. (file download)

Fall '06: Sitterson, J. (file download)

Fall '06: Sitterson, J (description)

Additional syllabi may be available in prior academic years.

HUMW-011-02 Virtuous Hero: Medieval Poetry

No faculty information available

This course will examine Old English, Old High German, and Middle High German representative poetic texts featuring the performance of heroic deeds and the development of individual virtues within a framework of values which the Germanic warrior strives to achieve on his way to becoming a true Christian knight.
Students will read texts in New High German and/or English translations. Each text will be studied in its appropriate historical and cultural context with a focus on what essential traits are shared by all selections and to what extent language- and culture-specific trends of development can be identified.

The interpretation of the texts in a seminar-style classroom setting will familiarize students with numerous aspects of a bygone world which holds an abundance of features still relevant, interesting, and even fascinating for modern man.

Students will become acquainted with the early Germanic literary tradition and gain an insight into how the literary dimension in each of the three selected language areas is interrelated with pertinent socio-cultural and historical facts.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-03 Russian Realism and Truth

Faculty:

Mihaychuk, George

In this course we will examine how literary realism in Russia was shaped by the interaction between writers such as Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov and critics of the 19th c. We will analyze literary texts and critical writings to understand the specific dynamics of the Russian literary context in terms of both its historical and theoretical development. The course will close with a consideration of several scholarly approaches to 19th-century literary Realism.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-06 Critical Reading and Writing

Faculty:

Debelius, Margaret

Spring 2007

This section is organized as a writing-intensive workshop, which makes it possible for students to have their work read and discussed by several audiences, including a team of instructors, small groups of classmates, and tutors who meet regularly with students in the class. Our theme for the semester is “Nice Work,” which we’ll explore by reading several pieces of fiction and nonfiction about the concept of work (both academic and professional). Through frequent in-class writings, drafts, exchanges and essays, we’ll come to some understanding about what constitutes nice written work in a variety of contexts.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-07 Critical Reading and Writing

Faculty:

Tilden, Norma

Spring 2007

This course explores the reading and writing of nonfiction prose. The readings provide questions, prompts, and models for the writing--all in a workshop setting, which means that the full and ready participation of each student is required. Thematically, the course is structured around a relationship which challenges us as both readers and writers; poet Margaret Atwood has stated it plainly: “A word after a word / after a word is power.” Students will explore this equation as it subtly–and sometimes insidiously–operates in texts of many kinds: essays, journalistic features, poems, fictional and nonfictional narratives. At the same time, we will look for evidence of growing power in the writing done by the class. Through frequent papers and revisions, in-class workshops, and individual conferences, we’ll work together to shape unruly words and elusive insights into clear, persuasive prose. Not to mislead you: this approach has less to do with politics than with grammar, but without the basic power of “a word after a word,” you are unlikely to achieve any other kind.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-08 Critical Reading and Writing

Faculty:

Tietz, Edward

Spring 2007

Space, Place and Position

Why is the question, “Where are you from?” one of the first questions we ask when we meet someone? Why is place so defining to who we are? And if place is so crucial to how we understand and explain ourselves, what bearing does place have on a similar concept, that of space, a concept that has a similar but less specific hold on our identities and the stories we tell?

We will explore various notions about place and space in trying to answer these questions. We will concentrate, in class discussions and written assignments, on how place and space are represented and theorized in writing, film, television and architecture and try to see how such representations and theories affect how we think about place and space. We will also try to understand how concepts of place and space affect how we understand our own positions in society and culture, how they affect who we are and how we act, how places and spaces can empower us and overpower us, in towns, cities and elsewhere, but also in time, since it is often through concepts of place and space that we remember a past, act on a present and imagine a future.

The course material, as well as the concepts we will discuss and develop in class, will be the basis for four writing assignments. In connection with these assignments, we will discuss thesis development, paper organization, research and documentation. There will also be a final.

Texts

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

The Pine Barrens by John McPhee

Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas

The Lunch Poems by Frank O’Hara

Native Son by Richard Wright

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Films

Metropolis; 2001: A Space Odyssey; The Matrix

Television

The Andy Griffith Show; The Flintstones; The Jetsons; Lost in Space

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-09 Critical Reading and Writing

No faculty information available

Spring 2007

New American Voices

The voices of American fiction today include the sounds of Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Hindi, from immigrant writers and those who, though born in the U.S., have chosen to write from their families’ particular cultural perspective. In this course we will read novels and short stories by contemporary American fiction writers, some whose primary culture is of another place. Students will be required to attend author readings at Georgetown and other venues during the semester.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-10 Critical Reading and Writing

Faculty:

Barnett, Mary Jane

Spring 2007

Introduction to Monster Studies

From the bestial Minotaur of Crete to the delicate and peculiar Edward Scissorhands (1990), monsters define the transgressive, a territory often terrifying and sometimes inspiring. At the same time, they seem to occupy a liminal, in-between space that we seem to be able to imagine no other way. Why do monsters haunt us so persistently in myth, literature and film? Readings will include selections from the Odyssey; Shakespeare’s Tempest; Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. We will also view at least one film, possibly 28 Days Later or in a more traditional vein, Nosferatu. As a course about clear and incisive writing as well as those lovely, freaky monsters, Introduction to Monster Studies requires four short papers and one somewhat longer research paper. (You will also be asked to revise at least two of these papers.)

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-11 Critical Reading and Writing

Faculty:

Tietz, Edward

Spring 2007

Space, Place and Position

Why is the question, “Where are you from?” one of the first questions we ask when we meet someone? Why is place so defining to who we are? And if place is so crucial to how we understand and explain ourselves, what bearing does place have on a similar concept, that of space, a concept that has a similar but less specific hold on our identities and the stories we tell?

We will explore various notions about place and space in trying to answer these questions. We will concentrate, in class discussions and written assignments, on how place and space are represented and theorized in writing, film, television and architecture and try to see how such representations and theories affect how we think about place and space. We will also try to understand how concepts of place and space affect how we understand our own positions in society and culture, how they affect who we are and how we act, how places and spaces can empower us and overpower us, in towns, cities and elsewhere, but also in time, since it is often through concepts of place and space that we remember a past, act on a present and imagine a future.

The course material, as well as the concepts we will discuss and develop in class, will be the basis for four writing assignments. In connection with these assignments, we will discuss thesis development, paper organization, research and documentation. There will also be a final.

Texts

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

The Pine Barrens by John McPhee

Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas

The Lunch Poems by Frank O’Hara

Native Son by Richard Wright

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Films

Metropolis; 2001: A Space Odyssey; The Matrix

Television

The Andy Griffith Show; The Flintstones; The Jetsons; Lost in Space

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-12 Critical Reading and Writing

No faculty information available

Spring 2007

The Country and the City
How are country places and urban spaces imagined in literature? What sorts of stories unfold in each and why? How are characters shaped by their environment? How does setting constitute meaning in a poem, play, or novel? These are some of the questions we’ll consider as we travel within and between the literary locales of rural and urban life. In this course we will read various poems, Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It, and Dickens’s novel The Old Curiosity Shop. Written assignments will consist of drafts and revisions of two five-page papers and one eight-page paper, weekly reading quizzes, and peer evaluations as part of writing workshop.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-13 Critical Reading and Writing

No faculty information available

Spring 2007

The Country and the City

The Country and the City
How are country places and urban spaces imagined in literature? What sorts of stories unfold in each and why? How are characters shaped by their environment? How does setting constitute meaning in a poem, play, or novel? These are some of the questions we’ll consider as we travel within and between the literary locales of rural and urban life. In this course we will read various poems, Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It, and Dickens’s novel The Old Curiosity Shop. Written assignments will consist of drafts and revisions of two five-page papers and one eight-page paper, weekly reading quizzes, and peer evaluations as part of writing workshop.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-14 Critical Reading and Writing

No faculty information available

Spring 2007

“Literature into Film: From Shakespeare to Shawshank”

What is at stake when literary works are translated into feature films? What do we make of the finished product?—Is the film better than the book? Is the book better than the film? How are films important visual texts to “read,” analyze, and discuss? How can film and literature be juxtaposed to trace connections, commonalities, and criteria across different media and disciplines? How can film and literature complement each other, and why do each have such vast cultural influence over their viewers and readers?

This course will examine the following book-film pairings: William Shakespeare’s Richard III (Dir. Al Pacino, 1992; Dir. Richard Loncraine, 1995) and Romeo and Juliet (Dir. Baz Luhrmann, 1996), John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (Dir. Fred Schepisi, 1993), David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross (Dir. James Foley, 1992), and Stephen King’s “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (Dir. Frank Darabont, 1994). All of these literary texts and their respective adaptations will center on developing the students’ reading, writing, and critical thinking through different types of writing assignments and frequent class discussion.

This course’s lectures, class discussions, and writing assignments will incorporate multiple facets of literature and film: narration, story-making, and storytelling; characterization; theme, imagery, and motif; dialogue; music; the writer’s/director’s individual “style”; the demands and differences between stage and screen acting; and the cultural sway of certain books, actors/celebrities, canonized films, and Hollywood conventions.

Writing assignments will include the following: reviews and analyses of each text and film; a 6-page personal essay about a favorite film; a handful of short in-class essays about key topics; a longer project about a chosen set of ideas concerning literature, film, and film adaptations.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-15 Critical Reading and Writing

No faculty information available

Spring 2007

“Literature into Film: From Shakespeare to Shawshank”

What is at stake when literary works are translated into feature films? What do we make of the finished product?—Is the film better than the book? Is the book better than the film? How are films important visual texts to “read,” analyze, and discuss? How can film and literature be juxtaposed to trace connections, commonalities, and criteria across different media and disciplines? How can film and literature complement each other, and why do each have such vast cultural influence over their viewers and readers?

This course will examine the following book-film pairings: William Shakespeare’s Richard III (Dir. Al Pacino, 1992; Dir. Richard Loncraine, 1995) and Romeo and Juliet (Dir. Baz Luhrmann, 1996), John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (Dir. Fred Schepisi, 1993), David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross (Dir. James Foley, 1992), and Stephen King’s “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (Dir. Frank Darabont, 1994). All of these literary texts and their respective adaptations will center on developing the students’ reading, writing, and critical thinking through different types of writing assignments and frequent class discussion.

This course’s lectures, class discussions, and writing assignments will incorporate multiple facets of literature and film: narration, story-making, and storytelling; characterization; theme, imagery, and motif; dialogue; music; the writer’s/director’s individual “style”; the demands and differences between stage and screen acting; and the cultural sway of certain books, actors/celebrities, canonized films, and Hollywood conventions.

Writing assignments will include the following: reviews and analyses of each text and film; a 6-page personal essay about a favorite film; a handful of short in-class essays about key topics; a longer project about a chosen set of ideas concerning literature, film, and film adaptations.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-16 Critical Reading and Writing

Potts, Jason

Spring 2007

Inequality and America

Do Americans really believe that "all men are created equal?" Are individuals responsible for their own luck? Should institutions like universities take into account race, gender and inequalities in education and social conditions when assessing an individual’s merit? Is the State responsible for creating a level playing field? In this course we will examine how the nation began to think through these problems in the literature produced in the latter half of the 19th-century and how the positions emerging out of these texts inform current debates about egalitarianism.

We will read both a selection of literary works (including pieces by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Owen Wister, Walt Whitman, Charles Chesnutt, Thomas Dixon and Thorsten Veblen). An emphasis will be placed on close reading, critical thinking, and argumentative writing.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-17 Critical Reading and Writing

Faculty:

Young, Joy

Spring 2007

Drama & Performance

In this course we will read and watch drama and performance from a variety of national contexts and theatrical traditions, paying particular attention to "witnesses" and the "act of witnessing," and to the ways that spectators are being engaged, exposed, dramatized, and argued with. We will consider the role of theatrical illusion and the uses of performance as a means of political engagement in community-based theatre endeavors; spoken word and Hip-Hop Theatre, experimental theatre, and Performance Art as well as dramatic works by Bertolt Brecht, Sarah Kane, Heiner Mueller, Wallace Shawn, and Caryl Churchill. This course will make use of various mid-week performances taking place in Washington over the course of the semester. Prior knowledge of theatre and/or performance is not required.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-18 Critical Reading and Writing

Young, Joy

In this course we will watch and write about live theatre. We will pay special attention to "witnesses" and the "act of witnessing," to the ways that we as spectators are being engaged, exposed, dramatized, and argued with. Issues we will explore will also include: the role of theatrical illusion, multi-cultural modes of performance,and the various uses of theatre as politics. Beyond theatre, our working definition of performance will extend to performance art, festivals, protests, and spoken word events. Students must be available to attend at least five evening performances over the course of the semester. Our readings range in time and form: they draw from texts, film, and/or live performance and may include works by Euripides, Pirandello, Brecht, Artaud, Beckett, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Anna Deveare Smith, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, Teatro delle Albe, Ariane Mnouchkine and Théatre du Soleil, Annet Henemann, Teatro di Nascosto, DJ Spooky, Martin McDonaugh, Robert Wilson, The Laramie Project and others. No prior knowledge of drama or theatre is needed.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-19 Critical Reading and Writing

Young, Joy

In this course we will watch and write about live theatre. We will pay special attention to "witnesses" and the "act of witnessing," to the ways that we as spectators are being engaged, exposed, dramatized, and argued with. Issues we will explore will also include: the role of theatrical illusion, multi-cultural modes of performance,and the various uses of theatre as politics. Beyond theatre, our working definition of performance will extend to performance art, festivals, protests, and spoken word events. Students must be available to attend at least five evening performances over the course of the semester. Our readings range in time and form: they draw from texts, film, and/or live performance and may include works by Euripides, Pirandello, Brecht, Artaud, Beckett, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Anna Deveare Smith, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, Teatro delle Albe, Ariane Mnouchkine and Théatre du Soleil, Annet Henemann, Teatro di Nascosto, DJ Spooky, Martin McDonaugh, Robert Wilson, The Laramie Project and others. No prior knowledge of drama or theatre is needed.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-2 Germanic Christian Hero

Faculty:

Murphy, G. Ronald

This course is aimed at the cultural transformation of the hero/protagonist over the course of time. The interactions and poetic syntheses of the Germanic and the Christian imagination of the human person will be examined from their origins to the nineteenth century in reading the following works: the Heliand, (the Dark Ages); Parzival (the time of the Crusades); In Praise of Folly (the Humanist Renaissance); Faust I (the Classical Period); and Mother Courage (the Twentieth Century). This course does not count toward the major, but it does satisfy the humanities requirement.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-20 Critical Reading and Writing

Faculty:

Merish, Lori

Fictions of Selfhood: Coming of Age in America

In this course, we will study narrative depictions of coming of age in literature and film, focusing especially on literary and filmic “texts” by women and people of color. Examining fictional constructions of selves by a diverse group of contemporary American writers and filmmakers, the course will explore the ways in which identities are shaped by historical contexts as well as by specific social differences such as race, class, gender, nation, and sexuality. We will also read a few theoretical and critical essays on the relationship between identity and culture. Class attendance and regular participation in discussions are required. Course texts will include: Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy; Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina; Fae Myenne Ng, Bone; Toni Morrison, Beloved; Richard Wright, Black Boy; short stories by Helena Maria Viramontes, Ellen Gilchrist, and Tomas Rivera; and theoretical essays by Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, Kate Bornstein, and Louis Althusser. Films will include Boys Don’t Cry; Six Degrees of Separation; Lone Star. Written assignments: weekly 1-page responses to course readings; in-class writing assignments; peer editing responses; three 5-7 page essays.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-21 Critical Reading and Writing

Faculty:

Merish, Lori

Fictions of Selfhood: Coming of Age in America

In this course, we will study narrative depictions of coming of age in literature and film, focusing especially on literary and filmic “texts” by women and people of color. Examining fictional constructions of selves by a diverse group of contemporary American writers and filmmakers, the course will explore the ways in which identities are shaped by historical contexts as well as by specific social differences such as race, class, gender, nation, and sexuality. We will also read a few theoretical and critical essays on the relationship between identity and culture. Class attendance and regular participation in discussions are required. Course texts will include: Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy; Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina; Fae Myenne Ng, Bone; Toni Morrison, Beloved; Richard Wright, Black Boy; short stories by Helena Maria Viramontes, Ellen Gilchrist, and Tomas Rivera; and theoretical essays by Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, Kate Bornstein, and Louis Althusser. Films will include Boys Don’t Cry; Six Degrees of Separation; Lone Star. Written assignments: weekly 1-page responses to course readings; in-class writing assignments; peer editing responses; three 5-7 page essays.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-22 Critical Reading and Writing: Utopian Ideals and Dystopian Disappointments

Barnett, Mary Jane

Utopian Ideals and Dystopian Disappointments

Hesiod described a Golden Age that writers have tried to re-imagine ever since. What are the versions of humankind on which these texts are founded? How are they a part of their cultural context? What do their authors seem to fear? These questions will guide our reading of Plato’s Republic (Bks 1 & 2), Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Shakespeare’s Tempest, Voltaire’s Candide, and Huxley’s Brave New World. Other shorter nonfiction readings will be included as well, including “Justice as Fairness,” an important essay by philosopher John Rawls. And finally, “Utopian Ideals” will end with an examination of a modern film dystopia, probably Blade Runner (1982). As a course as much about clear and incisive writing as critical thinking–and surely one project supports the other–“Utopian Ideals” requires three short papers (with revisions) and one somewhat longer research paper. Writing “workshops” and instruction in research methods will alternate with our ongoing discussion of the texts and the persistent human desire for something or some place more perfect than what we know.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-23 Critical Reading and Writing: Utopian Ideals and Dystopian Disappointments

Barnett, Mary Jane

Utopian Ideals and Dystopian Disappointments

Hesiod described a Golden Age that writers have tried to re-imagine ever since. What are the versions of humankind on which these texts are founded? How are they a part of their cultural context? What do their authors seem to fear? These questions will guide our reading of Plato’s Republic (Bks 1 & 2), Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Shakespeare’s Tempest, Voltaire’s Candide, and Huxley’s Brave New World. Other shorter nonfiction readings will be included as well, including “Justice as Fairness,” an important essay by philosopher John Rawls. And finally, “Utopian Ideals” will end with an examination of a modern film dystopia, probably Blade Runner (1982). As a course as much about clear and incisive writing as critical thinking–and surely one project supports the other–“Utopian Ideals” requires three short papers (with revisions) and one somewhat longer research paper. Writing “workshops” and instruction in research methods will alternate with our ongoing discussion of the texts and the persistent human desire for something or some place more perfect than what we know.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-24 Critical Reading and Writing

Fruscione, Joseph

“Literature into Film: From Shakespeare to Shawshank”

What is at stake when literary works are translated into feature films? What do we make of the finished product?—Is the film better than the book? Is the book better than the film? How are films important visual texts to “read,” analyze, and discuss? How can film and literature be juxtaposed to trace connections, commonalities, and criteria across different media and disciplines? How can film and literature complement each other, and why do each have such vast cultural influence over their viewers and readers?

This course will examine the following book-film pairings: William Shakespeare’s Richard III (Dir. Al Pacino, 1992; Dir. Richard Loncraine, 1995) and Romeo and Juliet (Dir. Baz Luhrmann, 1996), John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (Dir. Fred Schepisi, 1993), David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross (Dir. James Foley, 1992), and Stephen King’s “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (Dir. Frank Darabont, 1994). All of these literary texts and their respective adaptations will center on developing the students’ reading, writing, and critical thinking through different types of writing assignments and frequent class discussion.

This course’s lectures, class discussions, and writing assignments will incorporate multiple facets of literature and film: narration, story-making, and storytelling; characterization; theme, imagery, and motif; dialogue; music; the writer’s/director’s individual “style”; the demands and differences between stage and screen acting; and the cultural sway of certain books, actors/celebrities, canonized films, and Hollywood conventions.

Writing assignments will include the following: reviews and analyses of each text and film; a 6-page personal essay about a favorite film; a handful of short in-class essays about key topics; a longer project about a chosen set of ideas concerning literature, film, and film adaptations.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-25 Critical Reading and Writing

Fruscione, Joseph

“Literature into Film: From Shakespeare to Shawshank”

What is at stake when literary works are translated into feature films? What do we make of the finished product?—Is the film better than the book? Is the book better than the film? How are films important visual texts to “read,” analyze, and discuss? How can film and literature be juxtaposed to trace connections, commonalities, and criteria across different media and disciplines? How can film and literature complement each other, and why do each have such vast cultural influence over their viewers and readers?

This course will examine the following book-film pairings: William Shakespeare’s Richard III (Dir. Al Pacino, 1992; Dir. Richard Loncraine, 1995) and Romeo and Juliet (Dir. Baz Luhrmann, 1996), John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (Dir. Fred Schepisi, 1993), David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross (Dir. James Foley, 1992), and Stephen King’s “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (Dir. Frank Darabont, 1994). All of these literary texts and their respective adaptations will center on developing the students’ reading, writing, and critical thinking through different types of writing assignments and frequent class discussion.

This course’s lectures, class discussions, and writing assignments will incorporate multiple facets of literature and film: narration, story-making, and storytelling; characterization; theme, imagery, and motif; dialogue; music; the writer’s/director’s individual “style”; the demands and differences between stage and screen acting; and the cultural sway of certain books, actors/celebrities, canonized films, and Hollywood conventions.

Writing assignments will include the following: reviews and analyses of each text and film; a 6-page personal essay about a favorite film; a handful of short in-class essays about key topics; a longer project about a chosen set of ideas concerning literature, film, and film adaptations.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-26 Critical Reading and Writing

No faculty information available

New American Voices


The voices of American fiction today include the sounds of Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Hindi, from immigrant writers and those born in the U.S. who have chosen to write from their families’ particular cultural perspective. In this course we will read novels and short stories by a variety of contemporary writers, with an emphasis on those whose fictions and essays explore questions of cultural identity. Students will be required to attend readings by some of the authors studied and other writers during the semester. Texts may include books by Sherman Alexie, Julia Alvarez, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Richard Ford, Jamaica Kincaid, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chang-rae Lee, Amy Tan, and others.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-27 Critical Reading and Writing

No faculty information available

New American Voices


The voices of American fiction today include the sounds of Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Hindi, from immigrant writers and those born in the U.S. who have chosen to write from their families’ particular cultural perspective. In this course we will read novels and short stories by a variety of contemporary writers, with an emphasis on those whose fictions and essays explore questions of cultural identity. Students will be required to attend readings by some of the authors studied and other writers during the semester. Texts may include books by Sherman Alexie, Julia Alvarez, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Richard Ford, Jamaica Kincaid, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chang-rae Lee, Amy Tan, and others.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-28 Critical Reading and Writing

Boylan, Rebecca

From Shutter to Screen to Sculpture to Script: How War’s Art Frames the Spectator

This course begins with Susan Sontag’s essay length book, Regarding the Pain of Others, in which she raises intelligent questions about how the portrayal of war conscripts its audience. What do we know about war from a particular source and how do we know it? Does understanding war, in general or specifically, necessitate discovering its own set of truths and ethics? How does individual morality find a place within a national war? What are the ethics involved in looking at a person photographed as dying or dead? In dissecting these questions and seeking others, we will study the work of a variety of war’s photographers (Brady, Capa, Fenton, Adams et al), war documentaries such as Control Room, war films such as Saving Private Ryan, local monuments such as The Vietnam Wall, the WWII Memorial and Iwo Jima sculpture, artists such as Goya and Picasso, and read a medley of literature portraying different wars focused through different viewpoints and expressed in different genres, including epic, drama, history, philosophical argument, journal, thriller, and literary novel. Our mission will be to find the questions we must ask of the artist recording/responding to war, of the artistic conveying scenes of war, and of ourselves consuming these images and impressions. Student essays will try out lucid, imaginative, thoughtfully developed, and logically articulated responses to questions they take risks to uncover. For example, what are our responsibilities as spectators of a specific artist’s perspective? How do these “pictures” affirm and challenge our own individual, national, and international role within a war? How can we, or should we, separate the ghostly spectre from the concrete reality? The just tragedy from the mad monster? How do we articulate questions that allow us to probe political and spiritual polemics of war? Texts will include: excerpts from Plato’s Republic; Herodotus’s The Histories, Aeschylus’ The Persians, Homer’s the Iliad, Vergil’s the Aeneid and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, and in entirety, Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, Ernest Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms, E. L. Doctorow’s The March, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and McEwan’s Saturday.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-29 Critical Reading and Writing

Boylan, Rebecca

From Shutter to Screen to Sculpture to Script: How War’s Art Frames the Spectator

This course begins with Susan Sontag’s essay length book, Regarding the Pain of Others, in which she raises intelligent questions about how the portrayal of war conscripts its audience. What do we know about war from a particular source and how do we know it? Does understanding war, in general or specifically, necessitate discovering its own set of truths and ethics? How does individual morality find a place within a national war? What are the ethics involved in looking at a person photographed as dying or dead? In dissecting these questions and seeking others, we will study the work of a variety of war’s photographers (Brady, Capa, Fenton, Adams et al), war documentaries such as Control Room, war films such as Saving Private Ryan, local monuments such as The Vietnam Wall, the WWII Memorial and Iwo Jima sculpture, artists such as Goya and Picasso, and read a medley of literature portraying different wars focused through different viewpoints and expressed in different genres, including epic, drama, history, philosophical argument, journal, thriller, and literary novel. Our mission will be to find the questions we must ask of the artist recording/responding to war, of the artistic conveying scenes of war, and of ourselves consuming these images and impressions. Student essays will try out lucid, imaginative, thoughtfully developed, and logically articulated responses to questions they take risks to uncover. For example, what are our responsibilities as spectators of a specific artist’s perspective? How do these “pictures” affirm and challenge our own individual, national, and international role within a war? How can we, or should we, separate the ghostly spectre from the concrete reality? The just tragedy from the mad monster? How do we articulate questions that allow us to probe political and spiritual polemics of war? Texts will include: excerpts from Plato’s Republic; Herodotus’s The Histories, Aeschylus’ The Persians, Homer’s the Iliad, Vergil’s the Aeneid and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, and in entirety, Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, Ernest Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms, E. L. Doctorow’s The March, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and McEwan’s Saturday.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

HUMW-011-30 Critical Reading and Writing

Attie, Katherine

The Country and the City

How are country places and urban spaces imagined in literature? What sorts of stories unfold in each and why? How are characters shaped by their environment? How does setting constitute meaning in a poem, play, or novel? These are some of the questions we’ll consider as we travel within and between the literary locales of rural and urban life. In this course we will read various poems, Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It, and Dreiser’s novel Sister Carrie. Written assignments will consist of four five-page papers, weekly reading quizzes, and peer evaluations as part of writing workshop.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

Other academic years
There is information about this course number in other academic years:

• 2005-2006 Fall and Spring
• 2007-2008 Fall and Spring
• 2008-2009 Fall and Spring
• 2009-2010 Fall and Spring
• 2010-2011 Fall and Spring
• 2011-2012 Fall and Spring
• 2012-2013 Fall and Spring
• 2013-2014 Fall and Spring

More information
Look for this course in the schedule of classes.

The academic department web site for this program may provide other details about this course.