
Take me to the Fall Term '99 Time Schedule for English.
A complete up to date listing of English Department course descriptions can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/.
For all English classes, registered students must be present at each of the first two meetings to claim their places. Any student who does not meet this requirement may be dropped from the course. NOTE: If you must miss a class due to religious observances, contact the instructor or leave a message for the instructor with the department (764-6330).
After taking or placing out of Introductory Composition, students may elect either English 224 or 225 for further practice in the fundamentals of expository and argumentative prose. English 325 offers the opportunity for work in argumentative and expository prose at a more advanced level.
Several sections of English 223, the beginning course in creative writing, are available each term. The work is multi-generic, and two of the following will be covered in each section: fiction, poetry, and drama, or you may take English 227 (Introductory Playwriting). A more advanced course for creative writers is English 323 (Fiction or Poetry), which is available after completion of the prerequisite, English 223. More experienced writers may apply for admission to specialized sections of English 327 (Playwriting), English 423 (Fiction), English 427 (Advanced Playwriting), and English 429 (Poetry). Admission to these advanced courses is by permission of the instructor, who may require writing samples.
Independent study in English must be elected under one of the following numbers: 226 (Directed Writing, 1-3 hours), 299 (Directed Reading, 1-3 hours), 426 (Directed Writing, 1-4 hours), 499 (Directed Reading, 1-4 hours). There is a limit to the total hours that may be taken under any one number. Students interested in independent study should obtain an application from the English Department office on the third floor of Angell Hall. Independent study proposals must be approved by a supervising professor and by the Undergraduate Chair of the department. The deadline for Independent Study in the Winter Term 1998 is January 16, 1998.
This two-term sequence is designed to give students a principled sense of the range of literary works written in English; the first term will characteristically deal with works produced before the later seventeenth century – to the time of Milton, that is; the second term will begin at that point and proceed to the present. These courses will be open to English concentrators and to non-concentrators alike.
Each of these courses will range over the materials of the periods indicated below in one or more of a variety of ways. Some may be multi-generic surveys; some may focus on the development during the period of specific genres; some may be topical, others formal in their principle of organization. All sections will emphasize the development of student skill in writing essays analyzing the materials and evaluating the approaches in question.
Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
By connecting the two terms of its title, Writing and Literature aims to help prepare the student to produce the range and quality of expository prose expected in college courses. Works of literature will be considered for their effective use of language and argument. They will serve as reference points for thinking and writing strategies. Characteristically, sections of English 124 will involve the writing of a minimum of five essays, with considerate attention given to the preparation of drafts and to revision. The literary works which will serve as points of reference will vary from section to section and from term to term. Section descriptions for courses not listed below can be found on the department's Web page (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/courses/f99/f99courses/124cds.htm).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
This introductory writing course will use three plays by Shakespeare as texts with which to practice and refine our reading and writing skills. The reading load is light so that we can concentrate our attention all the more on the subtleties and implications of a writer's technique – both Shakespeare's and our own. By the end of the semester we will have greatly improved our ability to read and interpret difficult texts with confidence and originality, and we will have written essays with a deepened understanding of how to build a sophisticated argument and use evidence effectively. Students will be expected to write and rigorously revise four papers of varying lengths; the course work will also include small group workshops, peer evaluations, and in-class writing assignments.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
The short version is that we will read some really good books, talk about them, write about them. Your interests will shape the course as much as mine. Mine include narrative, point of view, voice, and style. The work will be as student centered as possible – expect no lectures, but plenty of group assignments.
Course texts may include, subject to availability, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Room with a View, Mr. Vertigo, Snow Falling on Cedars, as well as a slim course pack with a few short stories. We will also need a handbook.
Required work includes faithful and enthusiastic attendance and participation, two short exercises, three papers (with revisions) in the 3-6 page range, and one formal presentation.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
What can we learn about about a person based on the way he or she speaks, writes, and reasons? Does language reflect a person's identity, or does it mask it? In this course, we will attempt to answer these questions by examining texts that explore people's use of language. Students will also examine their own use of language and reasoning in their written assignments. The goal of the course will be to develop strong academic writing skills and critical reading skills. We will read texts from a variety of genres – novels, poems, plays, short stories, and essays – that will help us examine and question the structure and language of our own essay writing. Authors may include J.D. Salinger, Alice Walker, David Mamet, and others. By the end of the term you can expect to have completed 20-30 pages of revised, polished prose.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
This composition class uses the study of literature to aid us in our approach to writing sophisticated, polished prose and helps to develop our ability to think analytically. In this course we will read some of literature's greatest moments of persuasion: Romeo's attempt to persuade Juliet to kiss him, Satan's ability to persuade Eve in Paradise Lost, or Swift's proposal that eating children might alleviate social ills (to name only a few). How does a writer persuade (or deceive) us into loving what we would otherwise detest, and detesting what we anally love. How does persuasion "work"? You will learn to write persuasively in this course by learning to improve your sense of audience, tone, voice, and style (among other features of writing). We will write in every class meeting, turn in weekly assignments, and learn to revise your work. By the end of the term you can expect to have completed 20-30 pages of revised, polished prose.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
The literature of the course critically examines war and its effects on combatants and non-combatants, in the battlefield and at home. Readings: Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms; Silko, Ceremony; Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars; O'Brien, The Things They Carried; Gray, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle. Film: Stone, Platoon; Keen, Faces of the Enemy.
Requirements:
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
Good writing depends on asking good questions, and making these questions interesting to your reader. It's also crucial to keep the reader's attention as you provide compelling answers. Powerful writing does these things by creating suspense, revealing information gradually, and withholding it at the right moments. Many narratives or arguments lead up to a final revelation, a climax, but a non-linear, even fragmented structure can be just as fascinating. Creating a compelling academic argument often involves the same processes as writing a suspenseful narrative. In this course, we'll explore the various ways in which writers create and hold their readers' interest, and students will work towards different understandings of how structure creates meaning. We'll read some classic suspense narratives, which may include stories by A. Conan Doyle, Poe, Wharton, and Shirley Jackson. We may also study Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and/ or Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. By the end of the term you can expect to have completed 20-30 ages of revised, polished prose.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
This course foregrounds literature; however, it is a course about writing. Hence, we will make use of literary works to facilitate discussions of issues of writing. We will read novels and stories that reflect on childhood and adolescence and that bring questions of race, class, and identity to the surface. You will then be asked to write on similar topics. Expectations for written work include: two 5-7 page essays, two 3-5 page essays, and at least ten 1 page papers. You will also be asked to keep a reading journal. Reading might include Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Kaye Gibbon's Ellen Foster, stories by Sandra Cisneros and Mark Richard, and William Faulkner's Absalom Absalom.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
How are places important in literature and why should we care about setting? This course will explore the way various places – both rural and urban, American and British – function in late-nineteenth and twentieth-century texts. I hope to explore primarily the differences between the rural community and the bustling metropole: What are the experiences of the individual in each of these settings? How are places defined by the communities that inhabit them? To what extent does place itself become a character? From William Faulkner's depiction of Mississippi to James Joyce's portrayal of Dublin, literary places will provide the framework for you to improve your writing. Beginning on the level of word choice and sentence structure, we shall move in stages towards our ultimate goal: argumentative literary analysis. Texts may include Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, James Joyce's Dubliners; short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Oscar Wilde, and Flannery O'Connor; and poetry by Frank O'Hara and T.S. Eliot. Active participation is required. By the end of the term you will have written 20-30 pages of revised, polished prose.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
Writing and the ability to write effectively will shape the nature of your academic college experience. The skill of writing is necessary for whatever discipline you may pursue, whether that be in the humanities or sciences. If you are able to construct arguments and explain your positions convincingly using evidence, then you will be adequately equipped with the tools required for undergraduate success.
In this course, we will be reading novels, essays and poetry that focus upon the ideas of travel and writing. Through examining these novels and the ways in which they present their ideas, we will work towards understanding what makes style and language so crucial and so difficult. You will gain a great amount of experience in writing, revising, and critiquing papers. In class we will discuss what makes writing strong or weak (i.e., rhetorical devices, language, argumentation) through the examples of the novels and student -written papers with the aim of understanding what makes an excellent paper. We will focus on the revising of written work through workshopping sessions in small groups as well as in a larger setting. The writing and reasoning skills that you will utilize in this class will be useful in all the courses you will take at the University of Michigan. You can expect to produce between 20-30 pages of polished prose by the end of the semester.
Novels may include As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, Dark Child by Camara Laye and Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. We will also be reading short articles on writing and crafting essays.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
First-Year Seminar
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
This course will examine the ways in which twentieth-century writers have dealt with the issues of loss and death, and with the challenges of living in a world bounded by the fact of mortality. Because all living persons are, by definition, alive (!), writing about death becomes an exercise in probing the unimaginable, the traumatic, and the taboo. By examining the strategies that authors have developed to discuss this most elusive of subjects, we will explore – and write frequently about – such issues as mourning, memory, human connectedness, and the responsibility of the living to the dead. We will focus our study on three novels (Toni Morrison's Beloved, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and Kate Phillips' White Rabbit) and one nonfictional account (Elie Wiesel's Night). Students will write four papers (4-6 pp.) and revise one. Though our subject is weighty, conversation should be lively and engaged; to that end, students should come to each class prepared to participate in discussion.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
What is a man? What is a woman? How do writings in a number of genres represent, construct, and question the category of gender? Students will practice skills in critical thinking, close reading, and argumentative and expressive writing through intensive engagement with a variety of texts dealing with issues of masculinity and femininity, male and female roles, and identity. Examining fiction, essays, memoir, poetry, and drama, we will look at a wide range of interpretations and representations of this social category. Students will write 4-5 short papers, complete a number of informal writing assignments, and participate in class discussion about readings. Texts may include Virginia Woolf, Orlando; Tom Spanbauer, The Man who Fell in Love with the Moon; Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body; Kate Bornstein, Gender Outlaw; essays by Jay Prosser, Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler, Will Roscoe, and Freud; and poetry by Walt Whitman, Marlon Riggs, and Judy Grahn.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
As a framing theme, this course investigates the ways in which otherness and others (children, the poor, the undereducated, foreigners, exiles, non-middle-class Americans generally) are imagined in contemporary fiction. The goals of the course are to teach you methods of reading stories so as to develop your skills in attentive reading, critical thinking, an written analysis. Our readings and essays will focus on selected stories and novels from the United States, Canada, England, and Ireland. There will be short and long writing assignments amounting to approximately 30 pages of writing.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
Basic introduction to literary interpretation and the critical writing about literature, with an emphasis on the psychology of short fiction. Students will be expected to write three to four 4-6 page papers as well as several shorter response papers. Required texts: Hawthorne's Short Stories, The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels, Stories by Katherine Mansfield, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Seven Gothic Tales, Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources, The Little Brown Essential Handbook.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
What separates personal spaces – our homes, the inner space of memory – from the world at large? Why is a "sense of place" important for so many writers? Through readings centered around questions like these, this course will introduce you to writing about literature. We'll visit writers' private spaces (Annie Dillard's Cabin, Virginia Woolf's Room of One's Own) and public landscapes (Joan Didion's L.A., Stuart Dybek's Chicago). In the process, we will find models for our own writing; we will discover how to "translate" the raw materials of our personal experience – including our responses to literature – into words, and eventually into finished work that we can be proud to show others. You can expect to undertake four formal writing assignments for a total of around 25 pages of revised prose. In-class workshops and informal assignments will take you through the writing process and encourage you to become self-aware readers and revisers.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
Why do many people spend Thanksgiving watching The Wizard of Oz? Why do conversations often become discussions of Jerry Seinfeld or William Shakespeare or Steven King? Why have more people written about Jane Austen's novels than the Bible? In this class we will explore how fiction seems to work: goals of authors, expectations of audiences, and how fictional content and structures often comment on the content and structure of human lives. We will read novels such as Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. We will also read short stories by James Baldwin, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Scott Fitzgerald, Charlotte Gilman, and Dorothy Parker, as well as nonfiction writings by Donald Murray, John Thurber, and Alice Walker. We will create similarly diverse sorts of writings: journal entries, responses to peer journal entries, fiction, and nonfiction. We will do a great deal of informal writing and multiple drafts of four more formal papers. We will discuss student informal and formal writings in small groups, large groups, and during several student/teacher conferences. This course will also ask that students work as hard on developing their class discussion skills as they work on developing their writing – a satisfying college career depends on being highly competent in both these arenas.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
This course will consider how twentieth-century writers represent places. Descriptions of landmarks and well-known places help to orient readers as they make their way through a novel. Conversely, literary evocations of maps can also disorient readers as they ask us to look at places in new ways. For example, Gertrude Stein invites us to consider how America would appear if viewed through a magnifying glass; Virginia Woolf imagines flying over London and seeing it from above. We will discover how representations of places are linked to gender, sexuality, and geopolitics. Our readings will include works by James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, and Virginia Woolf. You will be expected to submit weekly response papers and to write four essays.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
I conceive of this course as a series of exercises in thinking as much as in writing. To speak of writing and literature is already to confront preconceptions we have about what each of these terms means, particularly as they relate to ideas about ourselves and our reality. As students in a major American (and public) university, you are being asked to think and write in a variety of ways that reflect the different environments in which you live and work. We will think about how language both creates and is created by these environments, but at the same time gives us the means to question and perhaps overcome some of the differences between, for example, the kind of writing we do in an Engineering class and the kind of writing we do in an English class. This kind of questioning will allow us to develop some important definitions of both writing and literature, especially as those terms have come to have particular meanings for us through history. What's the relationship between the invention of printing and the idea that a poem expresses the personal emotions or thoughts of the poet? How can we talk about freedom in writing when we still have grammar? These are just some of the questions you can expect to explore this term as we consider what language is and how it works, and why it is not just a simple "tool" of communication in the way we are often led to believe. We will read a generous selection of texts both ancient and modern, with a special focus on writing being produced in our contemporary, allegedly "post-modern" world. Class time will be a mixture of both lecture and discussion, with a heavy measure of group critique and public debate about issues, ideas, and particular examples of student writing. Participation is a strong element of the course grade, as it is through sharing ourselves, our beliefs about and our approaches to writing, that we will further our understanding of who we are and how and why we write. Course requirements will include: mandatory attendance and participation, group workshop activities in which students will share their writing with each other and provide guided feedback for revision, occasional in-class writing, several short writing assignments, and three longer papers. The emphasis is on BOTH process and product, and student work on these papers will include prewriting activities, a finished draft (graded separately), and a final revision.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
In this course we will read works of literature which deal with interpreting a culture, locale, and/or group of people to a "larger" audience. Readings will include short stories, poems, and novels by such nineteenth and twentieth century writers as Henry James, Charles Chesnutt, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Whitcomb Riley, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, and Amy Tan. We will use this literature to help you think about and practice writing as an act of interpretation. Writing assignments will be based on close readings of a text, but should also integrate outside resources and engage in the broader issues raised by a reading. Assignments will include one-page response papers to all of the reading assignments, two 4 to 6 page papers and two 5 to 7 page papers. You will also be expected to revise at least two of your longer papers and to participate actively in class discussions.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
In this section we will use contemporary literature to provoke classroom discussion and stimulate student writing. We will read four short novels, a collection of short stories and a volume of poetry, as well as various shorter pieces of fiction and non-fiction. Texts may include The Branch Will Not Break, Jesus' Son, Housekeeping, The Bluest Eye, Bone, High Fidelity, Into the Great Wide Open and Mystery Ride. We will use a workshop format to critique student essays and create a collaborative writing environment that will encourage the exploration and development of our individual voices. Active class participation will be a vital component of our work. While developing critical thinking and argumentation skills in our discussions, we will learn to make our writing a clear, persuasive account of our ideas and beliefs. This class will provide you with both technical skills and an awareness of the various forces that work upon the effect of your writing. Students will be expected to complete four revised essays of various lengths and several one-page response papers.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
This course will focus on developing your ability to interpret, discuss, and write about literary texts. We will read texts, primarily fiction and non-fiction, that investigate the relationship between education, writing, and ourselves. How does literature "teach" us to see our world and who we are? In what ways does our education affect our earlier relationships to familiar people and places? As we read authors and works such as Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory, Tillie Olson's "I Stand Here Ironing," and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, you will flex and tone your own analytical, oral, and writing skills. Peer revision and workshops are a central component of the class. These activities will help you acquire a sense of your own writing style and its particular strengths and weaknesses, in addition to improving crucial editing and revision skills in a collaborative environment. Assignments will include three revised essays of varying lengths (including one 7-10 page paper) in addition to peer critique, short written responses, and active participation.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
Who tells stories? To whom? Why are they told? How do we analyze stories written by others? These are some of the questions we will answer in this composition course. We will use storytelling as a critical approach to the audience, content and form of writing. African-American literature is a rich source of stories in a variety of forms (folktales, fiction, plays, and poetry) from which we will draw. Our readings will include stories from Charles Chesnutt and Zora Neale Hurston, and more contemporary works such as Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak! and Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. While there will be much spirited discussion of the readings, our main focus will be the writing process itself. You will complete weekly reader responses (one to two pages) examining major themes, characterizations, and writing styles of the literature; four formal, revised essays (from three to eight pages); and several in-class writing exercises. By the end of this course you should be able to write more clearly and confidently, and with increased complexity, about a range of texts and ideas.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/1999/fall/lsa/enll/124/041.nsf
Are you fascinated by the mysterious? How can we begin to talk about the mysterious events or occurrences that happen in the world around us, or about the mysterious feelings that you find in yourself? Join our discussion as we test our perceptions of reality and analyze our views of the unreal. We're going to investigate the unusual settings, strange characters, surreal events, and fantastic images conjured up by writers from different cultures and time periods. And, hopefully, in developing our ability to interpret the mysterious in literature through class discussions, we can find ways to interpret the mysterious in ourselves and our worlds in our own writing. For this journey into the mysterious, we will read and discuss a mix of literary genres which touch upon the peculiar, the unknown, or the supernatural. Some readings may stem from legends and folktales from African, Asian, Celtic, Mayan, and Native American folklore. Most of the readings will be from a selection of short stories with mysterious twists and problems (which may include Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, Borges' Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote, or others by Camus, Márquez, Hawthorne, Welty, Silko, and Wharton), and a few novels by authors who write about mysterious presences in different cultures (which may include Carlos Fuentes in Aura, Toni Morrison in Beloved, Henry James in The Turn of the Screw, and Maxine Hong Kingston in The Woman Warrior). Our writing and analysis will speculate on the social and psychological implications found within these works (for example, what our fears tell us about ourselves, and how we explain or understand the mysterious in our lives). Be prepared to share your thoughts and your writing with other students so that we can consider what you and other students find mysterious and fascinating. Course requirements include reading, participating actively in class discussion and collaborative discussion and writing work, writing in-class and out-of-class responses to reading, and writing and revising four formal papers.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
What is good writing? What assumptions regarding context, appropriateness, and effectiveness have to be in place before we can begin to answer this question? This course will use a diverse range of texts addressing both real and fictional crises in an attempt to come to terms with this question. What rhetorical choices do writers employ in order to convey a sense of crisis (both real and imagined)? Our working hypothesis will be that the effectiveness of any writing is more a function of its rhetorical force than its specific substantive content (as important and compelling as that content may be). My goal will be to provide you with a sense of the range of choices available to you in your own writing. The writers to be studied will include Jonathan Swift, Flannery O'Connor, Joy Kogawa, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Franz Fanon, Stanley Fish, and William Safire. You can expect to write 20-30 pages of revised, polished prose by the end of the term.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
Among the many types of stories out there in literature-land, the ones we best relate to often have as their subject the messy business of growing up. "Literary types" call this the "coming of age" motif, and it's this which we will be exploring in our reading of not-what-you'd-expect novels, stories, memoir, and drama. Many, but not all, of these selections share the setting of student life, something which we should relate to even more. We will be journaling our responses to the readings, writing several one to two page pieces, and completing a variety of non-traditional assignments, but emphasis will be on developing reading and writing skills so that when we enter into each literary experience, we have with us a full kit of tools with which to talk about it. To that end a 3-5 page paper, a 5-7 page paper, and one 10-page paper will also be required.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
First-Year Seminar
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
In this course we will view eight films by major directors, all of which deal with political or social issues, as the basis for discussion and writing. The earliest film is D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), the latest, Akira Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August (1991). Other directors and films include: Charles Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux; John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath; Orson Welles, Citizen Kane; Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove; Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now; and David Lean, A Passage to India. We will also read some of the sources for these films. Frequent writing with opportunities for revision. Paper topics will be drawn both from the films themselves (e.g., the styles of different directors), and from some of the issues they deal with.
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Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Introductory Composition).
First-Year Seminar
Credits: (4).
Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.
| Check Times, Location, and Availability | Cost: No Data Given. | Waitlist Code: 4 |
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