printer friendly pageENGLISH 67: Contemporary Chicano & Latino Literature (CHILATST 67)
What does it mean to be Chicano and Latino in the United States today? And, how have U.S. writers portrayed the evolution of a Latino identity as it has changed from the age of the Civil Rights Movement to the age of Twitter? This class provides students with an overview of 20th and 21st century U.S. Latino/a literature by focusing on American authors writing after the 1960s to the present. We will read a range of writers, including Gloria Anzaldúa, Sandra Cisneros, Héctor Tobar, and Junot Díaz, and examine how these authors grapple with the artistic task of representing the different national cultures and histories (Mexican American, Puerto Rican, etc.) that inform the U.S. Latino experience. Throughout the quarter we will explore how these fictional narratives offer insights into the topics of American identity, immigration, assimilation, class status, Women of Color feminism, gender and sexuality. In addition, we will also consider contemporary representations from film and television, ultimately working toward a comprehensive analysis of how literary genres and popular cultural contribute to the meaning of Latinidad in the U.S.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Carrillo, L. (PI)
ENGLISH 67N: The Ethical Gangster: How to be Moral, How to be Good--Mafia Style
Is there a difference between being moral and being good? Does it matter? Does knowing the difference matter at all to how a person should conduct him or herself in close relationships, in social groups, in professional life, in politics? The answer to all these questions is a resounding yes. This class will explore human moral psychology: the intuitions we have about right and wrong, fair and unfair, harm, justice, loyalty, authority, sanctity, freedom and oppression. We will then relate these intuitions to systematic ethical theories of right and wrong. We will do so by immersing ourselves in a somewhat surprising source¿the greatest hits of Mafia movies from Little Caesar to The Sopranos. We will also consider recent findings in experimental moral psychology.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
Instructors:
Vermeule, B. (PI)
ENGLISH 68N: Mark Twain and American Culture (AMSTUD 68N)
Preference to freshmen. Mark Twain defined the rhythms of our prose and the contours of our moral map. He recognized our extravagant promise and stunning failures, our comic foibles and tragic flaws. He is viewed as the most American of American authors--and as one of the most universal. How does his work illuminate his society¿s (and our society¿s) responses to such issues as race, gender, technology, heredity vs. environment, religion, education, art, imperialism, animal welfare, and what it means to be ¿American¿?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Fishkin, S. (PI)
ENGLISH 79N: The Renaissance: Culture as Conflict
Focus is on the Renaissance not as a cultural rebirth but as a scene of cultural conflict. Course materials are selected from Renaissance art, history, philosophy, politics, religion, and travel writing; authors include More, Luther, Erasmus, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Montaigne, Shakespeare. Among the conflicts we will explore are: old (world)/new (world), wealth/poverty, individual/collectivity, manuscript/print, religion/secularism, Catholicism/Protestantism, monarchism/republicanism, femininity/masculinity, heterosexuality/homosexuality.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Lupic, I. (PI)
ENGLISH 81: Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Dannenberg, J. (PI)
;
Landy, J. (PI)
ENGLISH 90: Fiction Writing
The elements of fiction writing: narration, description, and dialogue. Students write complete stories and participate in story workshops. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite:
PWR 1 (waived in summer quarter).
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 90Q: Sports Writing
Study and practice of the unique narratives, tropes, images and arguments that creative writers develop when they write about popular sport. From regional fandom to individualist adventuring, boxing and baseball to mascot dancing and table tennis, exceptional creative writers mine from a diversity of leisure activity a rich vein of ¿sports writing¿ in the creative nonfiction genre. In doing so, they demonstrate the creative and formal adaptability required to write with excellence about any subject matter, and under the circumstances of any subjectivity. Discussion of the ways in which writers have framed, and even critiqued, our interest in athletic events, spectatorship, and athletic beauty. Writers include Joyce Carol Oates, Roland Barthes, David James Duncan, Arnold Rampersad, John Updike, Maxine Kumin, Susan Sterling, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Dervla Murphy, Haruki Murakami, Don DeLillo, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Annie Dillard, John McPhee, and Laura Hillenbrand. Close readings of essays on form and sport, as well as book excerpts. Students will engage in class discussions and write short weekly papers, leading to a more comprehensive project at the end of the quarter.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors:
Evans, J. (PI)
ENGLISH 90V: Fiction Writing
Online workshop course that explores the ways in which writers of fiction have used language to examine the world, to create compelling characters, and to move readers. We will begin by studying a selection of stories that demonstrate the many techniques writers use to create fictional worlds; we'll use these stories as models for writing exercises and short assignments, leading to a full story draft. We will study figurative language, character and setting development, and dramatic structure, among other elements of story craft. Then, each student will submit a full draft and receive feedback from the instructor and his/her classmates. This course is taught entirely online, but retains the feel of a traditional classroom. Optional synchronous elements such as discussion and virtual office hours provide the student direct interaction with both the instructor and his/her classmates. Feedback on written work ¿ both offered to and given by the student ¿ is essential to the course and creates class rapport.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
Instructors:
Pufahl, S. (PI)
ENGLISH 91: Creative Nonfiction
(Formerly 94A.) Historical and contemporary as a broad genre including travel and nature writing, memoir, biography, journalism, and the personal essay. Students use creative means to express factual content.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 91Q: Twitter Fiction/Future Forms
Digital media--from Twitter to the Kindle--are roiling the literary marketplace. But could these new forms and content delivery methods also create new opportunities for creative work? Twitter is a hotbed of adopted personae and clearly false characters; sites from FiveChapters to Plympton are reviving the serial form; new apps feature inventive short fiction. Additionally, established writers, from Margaret Atwood to Jennifer Egan, are harnessing the forms offered by digital media to spur their own artistic invention. In this unsettled landscape, what does it even mean to write fiction? What does it mean to create stories without the assumption of the reader's undivided attention? And what do lessons from our literary history--from Gutenberg to the serial novels of the Victorian age--have to teach us about our current historical moment? These and many more questions will be our subject as we read the exciting work being done in this new world--and then become pioneers ourselves, by writing, workshopping, and publishing our own Twitter fiction and future forms.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors:
Hutchins, S. (PI)
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