First-Year Courses in Sociology (Division 482)

Winter Term, 2000 (September 8 - December 22, 1999)

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Timothy Killeen (tkilleen@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/

See University Courses 111.001.

Section 001 – Sociology of Literature. (3 credits only).

Instructor(s): Dana Greene (dmgreene@umich.edu)

Credits: (2-4; 3 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Literature may be seen as a tool with which authors express their viewpoints, perspectives, and thoughts, as well as those ideals that present themselves only in the imagination. Because literature is part and parcel of how the writer views both him/herself as well as the society in which s/he lives, we can see that we can use both classical and contemporary literature to understand sociopolitical occurrences that may influence both how a writer depicts his/ her story as well as how a reader interprets that very same story.

This course on the Sociology of Literature is designed to introduce the student to the politics of both reading and writing and looks to examine the theoretical and practical bounds of reading and writing. The course will be centered on the theme of identity and will seek to examine each work of literature from the perspective of identity politics. To this end, this course will examine different genres of writing (classical literature as well as more contemporary works by multi-ethnic authors) in an attempt to identify a writer's social location within society (as defined by culture, race, class, gender, national origin, religion, etc.).

This course takes both a classical and post-modern approach to the sociological examination of the theoretical bounds of writing and reading as well as addresses how authors and readers locate themselves in terms of their identities in literature. We will consider how different genres (poetry, fiction, science fiction, etc.) "inflect the representational practice of autobiography" in our examination of the role of history as a formative force in the sociological construction of everyday life experiences as depicted in literature.

Course requirements include class participation, two 4-6 page papers, a take-home midterm exam, and a final exam/paper.

Section 035 – County Jail: Women's Writing and Debate. (3 Credits)

Instructor(s): Nadja Hogg (nadjah@umich.edu)

Credits: (2-4).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($40) required.

Course Homepage: http://www.umich.edu/~mserve/ProjectCommunity

Students, working as a team, will act as leaders of creative writing and debate workshops at the Washtenaw County Jail on a weekly basis. For this section, students will be working with female prisoners who are awaiting trial, sentencing, or transfer to prison. The inmates at this facility have varying levels of ability with which students will work; however, no previous experience is necessary.

Permission of instructor is not required.