Courses in English (Division 361)

Winter Term, 1999 (January 6-April 29, 1999)

Take me to the Winter 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).

WRITING COURSES:

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:

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.

English 350 & 351

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.

English 370, 371, & 372

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.

Section 002 – Gender and Popular Culture. Meets with Women's Studies 150.002

Instructor(s): Sally Robinson (sallyr@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (HU).

First-Year Seminar

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Romance fiction, that most "feminine" of genres, is often derided as the lowest of low culture: trashy, trivial, even dangerous. In this seminar, we'll approach this broad topic by exploring the gender of, as well as the gender in, romance. What kinds of femininity and masculinity do romances construct as ideal? As monstrous? We'll look at "straight" examples of romance (perhaps Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a mass-market Harlequin, The Bridges of Madison County, Disney's Beauty and the Beast); and parodies or revisions of the genre (Bridget Jones's Diary, Faye Weldon's The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, the film True Lies, perhaps); some critical essays on romance. Seminar members will be responsible for presenting work to the class, and will do research via the Internet, popular magazines, self-help books, television, or film, to broaden the class's investigation. Vigorous participation, two short papers, one longer paper.

Section 003 – Of Human Bonding: The Art of Friendship

Instructor(s): Ralph Williams (fiesole@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (HU).

First-Year Seminar

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The course is intended as an introduction to the University as a community of discussion. The course is a seminar, a structure which asks active participation both orally and in writing. Our discussion will focus this term on "Arts" of friendship, those works which define and explore personal bondings formed by choice. These works will raise issues of social class, of economic rank, of age, gender, and taste as either helps or impediments to friendship. Authors or artists whose works will form the basis of discussion will include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Michelangelo, Montaigne, Bacon, Whitman, Douglas, Woolf, and Toni Morrison. Writing: informal writing each week; more formal writing every other week throughout the term. Each student will make a seminar presentation; there will be a seminar-style final examination.

Section 001 – The Memoir As Art and Remembrance

Instructor(s): Peter Bauland (pbauland@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (HU).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The art of the author's personal memory, whether taking the form of autobiography, fiction, drama or film, has found great favor in recent years. Examples from several genres will help us study the importance of memory and the artistic forms it can take. We will try to determine what these varied works have to say about the individuals recalling their life and times. Possible authors and filmmakers: R. Baker, T. Williams, Atwood, Levi, P. Roth, Apple, F. McCourt, Simon, Wiesel, W. Allen, Fellini. About 6 books and 2 films; I will post the list outside my office (3180 Angell Hall) in December. Class size should allow each student a chance to lead discussion. One short paper; one longer critical/analytical essay. Course requires your actively and intelligently participating presence as we try to learn together (which is the nature of a seminar) about the nature and importance of remembrance.

Section 002 – Literature and Film – Kinds of Love

Instructor(s): Alan Howes (ahowes@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (HU).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This sophomore seminar will explore different kinds of love in diverse situations, drawing on selected texts mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries. The tentative list includes these books, each of which will be compared with a respective film version: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet; Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Lawrence, Women in Love; Puig, Kiss of the Spiderwoman; Walker, The Color Purple; Nabokov, Lolita; and Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. Mandatory screenings on video projection will be on Tuesdays (make-up on Thursdays) from 7 to 10 p.m. (most will be shorter than this). There will be several short writing exercises and a final exam. Students will have an opportunity to lead class discussion at least once during the term.

Section 003 – American Ethnic Women's Literature

Instructor(s): Janet Meier

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (HU).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course examines primarily twentieth-century immigrant and minority women's literature from a wide variety of perspectives: literary, social, and historical. Focussing on fiction, the course will also include some poetry, autobiography, and essays by multi-cultural women writers, who comment on their experiences as women, their sense of community and alienation, their relationship to both specific ethnic heritage and mainstream culture, and their awareness of where ethnicity intersects with gender and class. Course format will alternate between lectures about the history of specific ethnic groups in this country, and discussion of the readings assigned. Course grade will be based on class participation, several short papers, a midterm and a final paper, and an oral report featuring a specific ethnic woman poet (and sample poem) of the student's own choosing. Throughout the course, we will strive to explore the range of voices within any specific so-called "ethnic" identity such as Asian American, so that under that very general umbrella, we will read and compare texts by a Filipino American, a Japanese American, an Indian American, and a Chinese American women writer.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Melanie Cooley

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

We write to communicate – because we have ideas, emotions, and experiences which we feel passionately about. We also write because we love language, because the careful writing of a poem or story can transform our ideas, emotions, and experiences into art. In this course we will explore that transformation, developing and honing the skills which will help us to become better writers. The term will be divided evenly between fiction and of poetry. In each section we will incorporate several exercises to facilitate the writing process from the generation of ideas to revision. By the end of the term each student will have completed a portfolio consisting of several poems and short stories.

Section 002.

Instructor(s): Gabriel Tovanche (tovanche@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

We write to mark our sorrow, anger, joy, or fear upon the world. For the world to care we must make our writing memorable; we must express ourselves well. Therefore, students in this introductory workshop in fiction and poetry will learn and develop the techniques, strategies and skills which, through writing, remake the world. The assigned readings are from diverse cultures and they will help us to appreciate what other writers have done and how they have done it. Our own writing will be the practical exploration of how to transform the warm hum of the mind into the deceptive stillness of words. Students will be required to write and revise six poems and two short stories. Students will also be required to keep a journal.

Section 003, 004.

Instructor(s): Eric Leigh Breedon (stipe@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Prepare to be moved! This introductory course in creative writing will be both rewarding and strenuous as we will seek to become better writers and better witnesses. Each day that we are together we will consider how we can more wisely honor the gift, the miracle, the necessary ritual of language! We will be inspired not only by the works of prominent authors but also by the world around us. Never lazy, we will on occasion go in search of (and find) inspiration in the streets, the museum, the cafe, the salt mines. Though we will focus primarily on reading and writing poetry, we will also spend a significant amount of time examining and creating fictional pieces. Much of our time will be spent considering the elements of craft in a workshop setting wherein students will comment thoughtfully and thoroughly on each others' work with an eye toward revision. Each student will complete seven poems and two short stories. All works will be revised and polished for inclusion in a cumulative portfolio. Passion, a love of language, vocal participation, and attendance are all mandatory.

Section 005, 008.

Instructor(s): Louis Cicciarelli (lcicciar@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this section of introductory creative writing, the means of effective storytelling and poetic expression will be studied and developed in the students' own work. Since precise, evocative language is vital to both stories and poems, we will practice working with words in these forms. A greater portion of our focus will be on the short story, and we will begin with the basics – characterization, setting, tension, point of view, etc.; we will use exercises, readings, and a survey of contemporary short fiction to build our understanding of the elements of the story. One of the most useful tools available to the beginning writer is the workshop; each student will have at least one piece of fiction and one poem workshopped in class. Students must complete a 25-30 page portfolio containing the revisions of two pieces of short fiction and 6-8 poems. There will also be a journal requirement that will include exercises, reactions to readings and other assignments, as well as a brief biographical presentation on a writer of your choice.

Section 006.

Instructor(s): John Ponyicsanyi (johnpony@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The poet Marianne Moore called poetry "imaginary gardens with real toads in them." In this introductory writer's workshop in poetry and fiction, we will talk about what these gardens and toads are – in other words, how to blend dream with reality. We will do this by reading and discussing several authors to learn what we can about good imaginative writing. Class time will be devoted to discussions of the readings, occasional writing exercises, and critiques of classmates' work. Besides attending class and completing reading assignments on time, students will be expected to take their own creative work seriously, and revise it based on in-class discussions, other students' comments, and the required reading assignments. You will be asked to write and revise 5-10 poems and 25-30 pages of fiction, as well as participate in class, offer written and oral critiques of classmates' work, read one collection by an author or poet of your choosing, and attend two outside readings in Ann Arbor.

Section 007, 012.

Instructor(s): Christine Montross (stine@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Our aim in this introductory writing course will be to understand contemporary writing as accessible, relevant and important, and to develop our own voices with which we might contribute to such a chorus. The primary emphasis of the course will be on poetry, although we will experiment with fiction as well. Class will be held as a workshop in which your writing will be heard and discussed, and in which you will hear and discuss the work of others. The approach will be both supportive and constructive, both serious and, I hope, amusing. Although your original work will be the main focus of the class, we will look to important writing within past and present literature for inspiration. You may expect to produce 12 poems and 10-15 pages of fiction. In addition, weekly entries in a writer's journal, and brief reviews of a literary reading and a poetry book of your choice will be required.

Section 008.

Instructor(s): Louis Cicciarelli (lcicciar@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 223.005.

Section 009.

Instructor(s): Kelly Allen (pulchela@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

"The main element of technique is verve, movement, energy, you have to hit and keep on hitting, sharp, hard, make it crackle, make it brilliant". says Hayden Carruth. This introductory course is designed for beginning writers of poetry and short fiction. The goal of this course is to help you listen for and discover new possibilities for developing your own writing voice. Although we will explore technique in both poetry and fiction, slightly more emphasis will be placed on poetry. Since this course is taught in a workshop setting, the focus will be on your writing. "Surprise" writing exercises will help break new creative ground and hone tools for shaping your words into art. We will explore lyric and narrative, and experiment with syntax, meter, and dialogue (techniques employed in both genres). To help you develop a more critical ear and eye, you will write constructive and encouraging critiques of each other's work as they are presented for workshop discussion. Requirements: attendance/participation, written/oral comments on peers' work, 30-40 pages revised final portfolio (i.e., 8-10 poems/15-30 pages short fiction), attendance of at least two public readings.

Section 010, 011 – Publishing Poetry and Fiction

Instructor(s): Josie Kearns (jakearns@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will provide visits by numerous writers who have published their work in a variety of national magazines as well as their own books of poetry and prose. Publishing the student's own work will form the basis of some criticism. How to submit your work, cover letters and researching markets will be covered as well as numerous approaches to detail, persona, memory, extension of ideas, layering, crosscutting stories, polyphonic (many-voiced) pieces and revision and polishing techniques. The performance of poetry and the short story will also be covered and students should attend at least three outside events (Guild House Series, the Slam, Visiting Writers Series at U-M, etc.). Also, the class will culminate in a reading of each students' work. A writing workshop will form the basis of class discussion as well as the visits of other authors. A portfolio will serve as the final project of this course as well as three short papers displaying critical writing. A connection will be made between historical writers and current trends in literature.

Section 012.

Instructor(s): Christine Montross (stine@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 223.007.

Section 013, 016.

Instructor(s): Therese Stanton (theresem@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course is structured to foster the beginning writer's imagination and artistic potential. Emphasis will be on developing an alertness to the observed world and a feel for the vividness and accuracy of language. Our work will center on fictional and autobiographical traditions. While we will primarily focus on student work, we will also read short stories and essays by Anton Chekov, James Baldwin, Michael Ondaatje, Katherine Anne Porter, Flannery O'Connor, and Lucy Grealy. Class time will consist of a close, critical reading of student work, writing exercises, and discussion. In addition to reading assignments, students are responsible for a final portfolio, weekly writing sketches, at least one student-teacher conference, and consistent attendance. There is no final exam. Required Text: The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, Ann Charters, editor, and a course pack.

Section 014.

Instructor(s): Peter Munoz (munozp@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will provide students with a basic foundation in the craft of creative writing. The course will be taught in two units – poetry during the first six weeks and fiction during the last seven. During each unit, we will study the work of published masters to gather insights into technique. Written exercises – both in-class and take-home – will complement classroom discussions of reading assignments. The emphasis, however, will be on workshopping poems and stories written by students. Each student will submit at least one poem and one story for peer review. Grades will be based largely on a midterm portfolio (containing five revised poems), a final portfolio (containing two revised stories totaling 15-25 pages), and participation.

Section 015.

Instructor(s): Belinda Kremer (belindak@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Though for some the idea of "practicing" or "studying" creative writing is counter-intuitive, the truth is that writers become better writers through the study and practice of craft. Poet Mary Oliver: "...knowledge (power) will open the doors of process. It is craft, after all, that carries an individual's ideas to the far edge of familiar territory." We will engage in close readings and focused discussions of poetry and fiction by accomplished writers, as well as execute an extended series of directed writing exercises, understanding that a solid grasp of technique hones aptitude and fluency with the creative process. A good deal of class time will be spent reading and workshopping poems and short fiction written by members of the class. Throughout, we will note and sharpen the skills specific to productive criticism. There will be a slightly heavier emphasis on poetry than on fiction. Students will write, and diligently revise, six poems and two short stories.

Section 016.

Instructor(s): Therese Stanton (theresem@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 223.013.

Section 017.

Instructor(s): Inci Sayman (zsayman@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this introductory creative writing class we will explore the crafts of fiction and personal narrative (memoir). To do this we will ask and attempt to find answers to questions such as: How do we transfer personal experience onto the page? What makes our favorite stories our favorite stories? To these ends we will read published works, but our main goal will be to write and discuss our own fiction and nonfiction. Together we will discover previously not-thought-of ways to write about our lives and the lives of others. There will be a requirement of 35-40 pages of combined fiction and personal narrative. You are expected to complete assigned readings and to thoughtfully comment on the works of your classmates. You need only your experiences and imaginations. The rest we will wrestle with together.

Section 018.

Instructor(s): Michael Haskell (mhaskell@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

According to Louis Simpson, American poetry "must have/ A stomach that can digest/ Rubber, coal, uranium, moons, poems." That list is almost infinitely expandable with race riots, television shows, amusement parks, dawns, and poets. This course will be an experiment in how we learn to digest in language the facts of our lives. It will concern the writing of poetry and fiction, though the emphasis will be on poetry. Students will be expected to write and revise 8-10 pages of poetry, a 10-15 page short story, and 5 pages of short-shorts. Toward this end, we will workshop student pieces and examine the processes that lead from experience to writing and back again. Students will keep a writing notebook with in-class and out-of-class exercises designed to train the inner eye on places it might not normally focus. We will read closely the works of writers such as Heaney, Kafka, Neruda, O'Connor, James Wright, Plath, Rich, Kinnell, and spend some time on an in-depth examination of one writer's career. But our main focus will be on helping each student find a voice that can digest uranium and still "swim for miles through the desert/ Uttering cries that are almost human."

Section 019.

Instructor(s):

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 020.

Instructor(s):

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (3). (CE). May not be repeated for credit.

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 002, 012, 017.

Instructor(s): John Rubadeau (jwr@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The course, using the workshop approach to the teaching of writing, is designed to help you improve your writing – read rewriting – by writing argumentative essays. (For a more detailed description of this course, see my Policy Statement.) When I use the word "argumentative," I don't employ it in the normal sense to refer to fighting or bickering; rather, I use it to refer to your taking a stance on a controversial or ambiguous issue and then defending, in readable English, your position by supporting it with specific details and/or logical reasons. Truth to tell, I should much prefer this course be English 225 – Persuasive Writing. The stress is heavily upon "writing" rather than on "argumentative." The aim of the course is, finally, to teach you to think logically and then to express your thoughts in clear, readable prose. This should be a fun and an interesting class; indeed, I love teaching this course. I view my role as that of a devil's advocate – a gadfly – and my observations and comments – a few of which might strike you as somewhat bizarre. I, for one, intend to have a good time. (If you think I jest, ask any of my former students.) You can also enjoy the class and learn something too. Utile dulci, as they say ("they" being, in this case, Horace in Ars Poetica).

Section 003, 004 – Restricted To CSP Students

Instructor(s): Jane Zukin

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 005, 008.

Instructor(s): Martha Patterson (pattersn@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will help you develop your skills at constructing persuasive arguments. As we read and analyze a series of essays about American twentieth-century culture, we'll practice strategies of gathering and presenting evidence, developing a personal writing style, writing for different audiences, considering counter arguments, and avoiding logical fallacies. Students will be expected to write four formal essays for the course: the first, a thesis-driven paper based on close textual analysis; the second, an analysis of a public event; and the third and fourth, research-based argument papers about a specific American social issue.

Section 006 – Arguments of Our Times

Instructor(s): Gene Laskowski (point@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Students of the course will choose areas of discussion from Robert Atwan's text, Our Times: Readings from Recent Periodicals (5th ed.). (Textbook available at Shaman Drum.) Within these areas, students will read, discuss, and evaluate essays that express differing, even opposing, viewpoints. Informed by these viewpoints and their own research, students will write, critiquing differing views and arriving at convincing conclusions. The course in not one for those who think that argument is simply stating an opinion. Those who want to consider differing views, critique them, and draw conclusions based on critical thinking might find this course to their liking.

Requirements: Class attendance & participation in discussion; four essays based on critical evaluation of differing views of an issue (1000-1500 words/essay); critical reviews (two pages each) of other students' essays (the number of reviews depending on the number of students in the course); daily reading response papers.

Section 007 – Meeting the "Other" in America

Instructor(s): Anne Berggren (agbergrn@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Meeting the "Other" in America: Here at UM we are putting lots of energy lately into understanding "others" – people of genders, races, classes, ethnicities, and cultures other than our own. There are some people and groups, however, that I think we would just as soon forget about or that we make no effort to understand: the poor, for instance, the mentally ill, and the violent. In this writing class, we will try to see the world from other people's perspectives, people who see a different world than we do, people whose ideas or mindset we have difficulty explaining. The final essay will involve research on a current issue relating to a specific "othered" group interesting to you. Other writings will include two revised and polished essays, four short reflective papers, exploratory drafts, freewritings, in-class exercises, reading responses, critiques of other students' drafts, and analyses of the writing process.

Section 008.

Instructor(s): Martha Patterson (pattersn@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 225.005.

Section 010, 023.

Instructor(s): Andrew Sofer (soferand@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this course, we will strengthen our writing muscles by practising a particular mode of communication: argumentative (or persuasive) writing. While some of the writing you will do in college and after will be strictly argumentative – in other words, designed to win the reader over to your way of thinking about a particular issue – you will no doubt be asked at various times to define, describe, analyze, compare, contrast, and evaluate. This course will allow you to practise and develop these skills within an argumentative framework.

The philosophy of this course is that the best way to improve your writing is through a collaborative process of drafting, workshopping, and revising. Only by testing our ideas against those of a particular reading community – in this case, the class – can we discover if our arguments hold water or tend to spring leaks! Thus a good deal of class time will be spent workshopping student work in process. You should expect to do a lot of writing in this course; we will also be reading and discussing a range of argumentative essays drawn from a course pack.

Our short assignments will include a letter to the editor and an "Op-Ed" piece. Longer assignments will include three papers (3-5 pages) and a revision of one of those papers. Each student will be expected to participate actively in class discussions, exercises, and workshops, as well as meeting regularly outside class in a small "writing cell" for peer response sessions. Please note that regular attendance and extensive class participation are required to pass this course.

Section 011.

Instructor(s): Kelly Allen (pulchela@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

An argument can be any text that expresses a point of view. Strong persuasive writing is as creative, engaging, and rigorously articulated as any other form of art – whether written, spoken or visual. With these statements in mind, this course will focus upon further developing diverse rhetorical strategies employed in argumentative writing. We will read nonfiction essays by writers from widely ranged backgrounds ("creative" and "scholarly". contemporary and historical), as well as essays-in-progress by students in the class. Course requirements include active participation, in-class writing exercises, weekly reading responses, four formal essays, and peer critiques of essays presented in workshop.

Section 012.

Instructor(s): John Rubadeau (jwr@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 225.002.

Section 013, 015 – Friendly Persuasion

Instructor(s): Daphne Swabey (swabey@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~swabey/english225web.htm

In this course we shall read a variety of texts and then find ways to differ politely, yet convincingly, with the writer, and with one another. The art of persuasion is an honorable tradition in scholarship and one that you will be developing throughout college. This course teaches the fundamentals of persuasive writing which include issues of audience, context and purpose. We shall learn about logical fallacies (or common mistakes in arguments) and we shall learn how to avoid such mistakes ourselves. There will be plenty of discussion as we talk about how ideas are developed, and how issues such as political bias, or gender affect our perceptions. There will be short weekly essays, four 3-5 page papers, and lots of revision because writing persuasively means refining ideas until they are just right. Our text will be Ways of Reading, ed. David Bartholomae.

Section 014 – Seeing is Believing: Argument and Visual Culture

Instructor(s): Colleen O'Brien (mmajomo@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This class focuses on the skills necessary for effective argumentative writing. Critical reading is indispensable to writing an argument. By concentrating on model essays in the reader as well as various samples of "visual culture" ranging from television and magazines to sports and photography, we will build on critical reading and writing skills. As we gain expertise in cultural commentary, we will read essays by William Bennett, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and a broad range of other writers in a course pack. By assessing the meaning of various markers of difference such as gender, race, class, and sexuality in popular culture, we will generate essay topics. Three formal essays and several weekly assignments will be assigned.

Section 015 – Friendly Persuasion

Instructor(s): Daphne Swabey (swabey@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~swabey/english225web.htm

See English 225.013.

Section 016.

Instructor(s):

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 017.

Instructor(s): John Rubadeau (jwr@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 225.002.

Section 018.

Instructor(s):

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 019 – Legal Storytelling

Instructor(s): Jeff Buchanan (jmbuchan@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This is foremost a course in argument. As such, we will spend much time constructing, rhetorically and stylistically, written arguments, considering in the process issues like audience and evidence. We will focus our attention on legal storytelling and examine the effects narrative may have on formal argument. We will read some legal cases, such as Brown vs. Board of Education, and legal scholarship, including articles by Patricia Williams and Alan Dershowitz. You will be expected to write four 5-7 page papers, several one-page reading responses; you will also be asked to revise your writing often. Your participation is crucial to your success in this course.

Section 020, 021 – Restricted To CSP Students

Instructor(s): Deanne Lundin (dlundin@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 022, 024.

Instructor(s): Melissa Aaron (mdaaron@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will develop the twin branches of argumentative, or persuasive, writing: logic and rhetoric. Using a reader, we will study classic arguments, including the writing of Marvell, Swift, Thoreau, Martin Luther King, and others. We will work on constructing valid, logical arguments, assembling evidence, and using it effectively. Finally, we will hone persuasive skills. Students will be required to write three "formal" essays, at least one of which will be revised during the course of the term, to read and prepare assigned readings, to write peer responses to one essay of each of his or her fellow students, and to participate actively and fully in the class. The class will also make use of Internet-based instruction.

Section 023.

Instructor(s): Andrew Sofer (soferand@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 225.010.

Section 024.

Instructor(s): Melissa Aaron (mdaaron@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 225.022.

Section 025 – How to Persuade Your Mother to Get a Tattoo

Instructor(s): Anne Widmayer (afwidma@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

First, think about your mother. Does she like hummingbirds or true-love knots? Would she like a full-body tattoo or an ankle tattoo? Next, consider how to present this proposition to her. Should you spring it on her at once? Or direct the conversation another way at first to quell her suspicions? And finally, consider how you should structure your arguments. What sort of evidence will you use? How will she respond to your arguments and evidence? In this section we will first learn the rules for classical argumentation. Always bearing in mind the audiences to whom writers address their arguments, we then will learn how to parse and evaluate the arguments of such writers and orators as: Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., George Orwell, James Baldwin, Barbara Tuchman, Stephen Jay Gould, Alice Walker, Charles Darwin, and Linda Hasslestrom. Course requirements will include participating vigorously in class or small-group discussions, composing reading responses, writing five essays – two of which will require outside sources, formulating critiques of your classmates' and your own writing, and presenting arguments in formal class debates.

Section 026 – Using Technology for Argumentative Writing: Culture, Context, and Composition

Instructor(s): Jim Crowley (jcrowley@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: http://www.umich.edu/~compcomp/

What does computer technology have to do with writing? A person can certainly become a good writer without ever learning how to use a computer, but because of its novelty and increasing prevalence, technology can intensify and highlight common writerly concerns such as audience and structure. This course will teach and encourage you to use the technological resources for writing that are available to all students here at the University of Michigan. As a class, we will read, discuss, and evaluate a diverse array of argumentative writings from books, journals, and the Internet. The assigned readings will cover a variety of topics, but most will touch on the implications, both good and bad, of the increasingly strong presence of electronic media in our daily lives. You will evaluate the kinds of argumentative challenges that the different forums, both old and new, present to us as writers. In keeping with the multimedia nature of the course, you will formulate your own opinions and write short formal arguments for presentation and discussion within our electronic mail group. You will also write two to three printed essays and will have the opportunity, if you choose, to design and implement a site on the World Wide Web. As a class we will discuss the implications of having and making this kind of choice, and ideally much of your writing will engage with arguments and choices that your classmates are making.

Requirements: active participation in class and in our electronic mail group, five formal responses (300 words each) to assigned reading for dissemination and discussion within the electronic mail group, two short essays (five to six pages), and a longer project consisting of either eight to ten pages of writing or five well designed and linked HTML (World Wide Web) documents.

Section 027.

Instructor(s): Beth Haas

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 028.

Instructor(s): Laura Williams (laurawil@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~laurawil/

The purpose of this course is to help you develop your argumentative writing skills. In this class, we will focus upon the different components of argumentative writing, including: the use of evidence, the importance of research, the development and articulation of an argument, and the importance of rigorous analytical thinking.

Be prepared to spend a great deal of time reading, writing, and thinking. We will be reading primarily non-fiction essays (both contemporary and historical) on a variety of topics such as education, gender, and contemporary media. Our course texts may also include a novel, film, web sites, and television programming. The readings assigned will represent a variety of different perspectives on designated topics. We will discuss the ways in which these texts may or may not present models of good writing and argument, and you may also use these texts as springboards from which to develop the ideas you explore in your own writing.

Course requirements include active and earnest class participation and prompt, regular attendance. You will be asked to write a total of five paper. You may also be asked to participate in on-line discussion of course assignments or your writing.

Section 030.

Instructor(s): Eric Leigh Breedon (stipe@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

If you don't have an opinion about the goings-on in the world – here's your chance to get one! This class requires an interest in the nature of the argument, a desire to improve your analytical thinking and writing, and an interest in having your say and making it count. In this class we will discover the joys and hardships of constructing a solid, powerful, inspired and inspiring written argument. Each week will take a look at the world around us via the Sunday New York Times, gauging our reactions, formulating questions, and developing arguments that will become the basis of the essays we will write. Each student should expect to produce a total of 20-30 pages of polished prose over the course of the term. A good deal of class time will be spent workshopping student essays as we help one another become stronger writers and better critics.

Section 031.

Instructor(s): Margaret Price

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 032.

Instructor(s):

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU).

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Instructor(s):

Prerequisites & Distribution: Permission of instructor. (1-3). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for a total of three credits.

No Description Provided.

Check Times, Location, and Availability

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Wendy Hammond (wham@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (CE).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this course, we will write a one act play. We will start with the first whisperings of an idea, then nurture it, develop it, and workshop it. Class time will be divided in three ways: (1) Writing games to stir imagination, touch passion, inspire ideas, explore voice. (2) Lectures on story telling principles and dramatic structure common to plays, screenplays and teleplays. (3) Discussions of student writing. Other assignments will include reading plays, keeping a journal and meeting regularly with the teacher. Ambitious students are encouraged to write more than a one act play, e.g., a series of 10 minute plays or a first draft of a full length play.

Section 001 – Technical and Professional Writing

Instructor(s): Scott Kassner (skassner@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the introductory composition requirement. (4). (HU).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~skassner/Eng229.html

In this course, students analyze and practice the types of writing done by technical and professional writers. Like all effective writing, technical and professional writing emerges from an understanding of purpose and audience, from an understanding of "the rhetorical context." It is the specifics of its rhetorical context – not any implied intellectual difference – that distinguishes technical and professional writing from other forms of writing. Thus, a major goal of this course will be to help students develop the analytical skills they will need to navigate the rhetorical contexts technical and professional writers encounter in a variety of fields.

Since most technical and professional writing is the result of collaborative activity, students should expect to work in teams in the course, but the course will also address more personal issues, such as the writing of resumes and letters of self-promotion.

Section 001 – Heroes and Heroines: Reviewing the Protagonist from Romantic to Cyberpunk

Instructor(s): Allan Cook (arcook@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~arcook/230_001.htm

When we read a novel or short story, we develop an association with the main character or protagonist. That hero or heroine confronts the dilemma of the fictional story and either succeeds or fails. But that success or failure is less important than the manner of that confrontation. That is what defines the hero as better than us, worse than us, or just like us. In this course, we will discuss the presentations of those confrontations in a variety of literature, from the Renaissance to the Postmodern, to ponder what those literary heroes suggest about their times and why they go out of fashion. In our investigations we will ask how the form of the novel or short story contributes to the evolution of the hero from, in Northrope Frye's terms, mythic to ironic. We will consider what makes a hero tragic or comic and ponder how heroines differ from heroes. Our readings will be stories from Aphra Behn; Cervantes, Don Quixote; Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground; Albert Camus, The First Man; H. Ridder Haggard, She; William Gibson, Neuromancer; Maxine Kingston; Ernest Hemingway; Alice Munro; Margaret Atwood; and others. Requirements will include active class participation, brief response papers, two essays and one final take-home exam.

Section 002 – Writers Without Homes

Instructor(s): Rona Kaufman (rdk@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Because I grew up as a military dependent, I never had a home. Instead I constantly found myself in new places and new contexts, always wondering how I would ever fit "in." My own struggles to be counted as "there" with each move has made me interested in ways that others negotiate their "homelessness."

This course focuses on writers who struggle to stretch between multiple contexts, with an emphasis on those who must acquire a second language to even begin the journey. The readings move between fiction, autobiography, and poetry. Examples of possible selections include Rodriguez's The Hunger of Memory, Hoffman's Lost in Translation, and Kingston's The Woman Warrior, as well as short stories and poems by others. We will be asking what these writers lose and gain with each new home.

Our writing emphasis will be on revision. You will be asked to produce three essays with three complete revisions. In addition, you will have many other writing opportunities – including journaling, shorter pieces, and in-class writing.

Section 003 – Diverse Voices

Instructor(s): Maureen Aitken (aitkenm@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

We will look at how voices from our multicultural communities are breaking conventional language rules, and changing our perceptions about literature. Many of the writers for this class question authority in unique ways. We will consider how writers subvert social norms through their unique stories – especially stories that question concepts of race, class, and place. We will read short fiction from James Joyce, James Baldwin, Alice Munro, Ben Okri, and Gabriel García Márquez. Novels will include Beloved, The Remains of the Day, and Love in the Time of Cholera. Students will participate in class discussion, regular quizzes, and in-class writings. Students will also write one midterm (5-6 pp.) and one final (8-9 pp.) paper.

Section 004 – The Home and the World

Instructor(s): Bradley Kodesh (bkodesh@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

What shape is your bedroom? What color is your kitchen? What does your house say about you? How did the house you grew up in influence the development of your identity? In this course we will discuss these issues and the concept of home in relation to some novels written in Britain and its former colonies. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which where one lives is linked to questions of who is "civilized" and who is not, who is "English" and who is not, and also to the ways in which the house is connected with issues of race, gender, sexuality and class. Some other questions we might ask: Can one ever return "home" as Kazuo Ishiguro's and David Leavitt's characters attempt to do? Can you take "home" with you if forced to flee Nazi Germany for England via China to escape the Holocaust as those in Jonathan Wilson's "Boxes From Shanghai" must? Most importantly, we will consider whether "home" means the same thing for Emily Brontë in nineteenth-century England as it does for Tsitsi Dangarembga a century later in Zimbabwe. In asking these questions, we will learn to track some of the forces which have shaped our century as they are reflected in and influence the development of the short story and the novel.

Requirements: Writing (three papers, two short and one longer), participating (actively), and thinking (constantly).

Readings: Brontë, Wuthering Heights; Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions; Forster, Howard's End; Ishiguro, "A Family Supper". Leavitt, "Territory". Lessing, The Grass is Singing; Marechera, "House of Hunger". Mphahlele, "Mrs. Plum". and Wilson, "Boxes from Shanghai". among others.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Lillian Back (lillianb@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this class, we will want to think about the power and the connectedness that the act of telling stories might provide. For example a character in Ursula Hegi's Stones From the River thinks:

Every time I take a story and let it stream through my mind from beginning to end, it grows fuller, richer, feeding on my visions of those people the story belonged to until it leaves its bed like the river I love. And then I have to tell the story to someone.

Section 002.

Instructor(s): Lem Johnson (eljay@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Here's a laundry list of the Classics versus(?) Trash questions that we'll be tackling this term. How available should any Reader be to a given Text or Author? How does "degree of availability" relate to how we answer the question: "What is literature?" What roles do Conversion, Coercion, and Resistance play when we respond to a literary work? What determines the kind of authority over Beauty and Truth that we are willing to allow an Author and his Word to have – in our personal lives and in that of our communities, institutions, and nations? With what kinds of devices does "literature" go about trying to do what it does? Does this course's major preoccupation (i.e. What is literature?) imply a gate-keeping function by someone somewhere? If so, what are the criteria, and who determines their status? To be considered then: what are we to do when any Reading-Conversion-Coercion experience confronts us with the Word of a God or an Allah (selections), with that of Chaucer ("The Miller's Tale") and Shakespeare (Othello). We'll also be looking at a Leslie Silko (Ceremony) and an E.M. Forster (A Passage to India); so, too, at the Ariel Dorfman of How to Read Donald Duck? Note: Dorfman is seriously interested in showing us what political ideology and artistic skill can "do to our minds," never mind that the contexts seem to involve only the "Lone Ranger, Barbar, the elephant, and other innocent heroes." Workload: short reports (one and half pages) on all the readings, and upon which class discussion depends; two 5 -page papers; a final comparative essay.

Section 003.

Instructor(s): Rosemary Kowalski (rkowalsk@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

People read all the time; that is, they attempt to make meaning of all that they see or hear or, well, read! When you see a person dressed in dirty clothes, with rips and patches at elbows and knees, you read her differently than you do a fellow with CLEAN clothes (also with rips and patches). When you drive through an unfamiliar neighborhood, you make note of the buildings and natural landscape, if any, and formulate some idea of the sociological and economic status of the inhabitants. When you hear someone speak, you make similar assumptions. When you read – whether it be "literature" or the other stuff which is "not literature" – you are also trying to come to some understanding of the text. This class will try to answer the question "What IS literature?" and will also try to help explain the ways in which we read literature and talk about it. We will watch a few films (The Postman and Pulp Fiction if they are available), read some short stories (as yet to be determined) and several novels (probably including Pride and Prejudice, A Hundred Years of Solitude, and others). These pieces will provide us with some visual and written representations of the world and opportunities for reading them in various ways. There will be two short papers and a final exam. Also an oral presentation as well as participation in a class computer conference.

Section 004.

Instructor(s): Steven Mullaney (mullaney@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this course we will examine the ways in which different genres and periods have employed literature to understand and reflect upon historical catastrophes and crises. The genres considered will include drama, narrative poetry, novels, short stories, and the non-fictional memoir, and will range from the 17th century to recent fiction; each work will be paired with another from a different genre or period that shares with it certain themes, which will allow us to determine how our critical questions change when we move from one genre or historical period to another. Shakespeare's King Lear, for example, will be read alongside Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres; Milton's Paradise Lost will be contrasted with James Galvin's account of a harsher Eden lost in this century in the American West. Grades will be based on short weekly writing assignments and two longer essays.

Section 005.

Instructor(s): Daphne Swabey (swabey@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~swabey/english239web.htm

This course examines a variety of texts which center on a violent crime. If literature "instructs and entertains" then what are we being instructed and entertained about? Are we being instructed not to imitate, not to enjoy violence? Are we supposed to be entertained by patricide, infanticide, and other forms of murder? Or should we perhaps look more carefully at these texts for what they tell us about our culture – a culture that may be founded on violence – inextricably bound up with it? Our texts will include the Greek tragedies Oedipus Rex and Medea; the Biblical stories of Cain & Abel, Jacob & Esau, Joseph and His Brothers; Beowulf; Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and Julius Caesar. There will be short weekly papers, and two 3-5 page papers.

Section 006.

Instructor(s): John Tanke (jtanke@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

If literature is always historical, in that it arises from and speaks to a particular culture in time and space, how do we respond to works of literature that weren't written with us in mind? What does it mean to study an ancient text? To read it for pleasure? Can we appreciate an ancient work on its own terms, without judging it from a contemporary perspective? In this section of English 239 we will be reading works from the past (selections from The Iliad, Le Morte D'Arthur, and King Lear) beside contemporary novels that either recreate past worlds (Christa Wolf's Cassandra; Bradley's Mists of Avalon) or enable us to interpret present conditions in terms of the literary past (Smiley's A Thousand Acres). There will be a reader containing various essays in literary theory. Plan on two short papers and one longer term paper.

Section 007.

Instructor(s): David Thomas (dwthomas@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Honoring one classic definition of literature, this course aims both to instruct and to delight. We examine a variety of literary periods and genres, ranging from 19th-century novels to present-day films. On the way, we acquaint ourselves with the terminology needed for serious critical work in each of the genres we discuss – exploring, for example, how written narrative, drama and film each require distinct analytical tools and vocabulary. Figures for study will include Virginia Woolf, David Henry Hwang, Charles Dickens, director Ridley Scott, Mary Shelley, and Patrick Süskind. Graded coursework consists primarily of short critical papers, with some in-class presentations and quizzes filling out the picture.

Section 008.

Instructor(s): Merla Wolk (merla@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

We will examine stories and their telling, using fiction to explore some factors prompting the question "what is literature." From their inception, novels were imagined as imitating life. Throughout the history of fiction, from the efforts to capture "ordinary life" in George Eliot's fiction to the impressionistic style of Virginia Woolf, to post-modern novels of John Fowles and Tim O'Brien whose renderings of "reality" include writing about themselves writing. Novelists have kept shifting definitions of social and psychological reality in focus as they conjure their worlds. We, too, will keep those shifts in focus, asking how new ways of seeing influence the strategies writers use to create illusions of reality. We will also consider what parts readers play in pulling the rabbit out of the hat. Texts by writers mentioned above and others including Morrison, James, Kundera, and Hemingway. Requirements: two essays, final exam, responses to readings.

Section 009.

Instructor(s): John Young (jkyoung@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this class, we will examine the relationship between literature and memory. More specifically, we will investigate the ways in which authors create – for characters, readers, and themselves – by telling and remembering stories. In the texts we will read, memory refers not to a clear and stable past, but to a story that allows for multiple interpretations. In addition, we will cover the fundamental methods of literary interpretation. Our discussions will cover shifts in historical period (we will begin in the Renaissance, move to the nineteenth century, and spend considerable time in the modern and postmodern periods) as well as differences in genre. Finally, we will consider books as physical artifacts, so the historical context of publication will be of interest as well. Texas will include: a Shakespeare play; Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; Nella Larsen, Passing; Toni Morrison, Beloved; and others.

Section 010.

Instructor(s): Andrea Kaitany (akaitany@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

"Literature" is an amorphous term; its definition changes with time, through cultures and among social groups. In this course we will explore the definitions of literature that are manifested across works from a wide range of time periods and cultures. Readings will range from Shakespeare's King Lear to Toni Morrison's Sula and Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, as well as including other selections from the genres of drama, fiction, poetry and the non-fiction essay. We will focus broadly on the themes of family and origins and examine some of the ways in which these themes develop across the genres of the works and across the various social matrices within which the works were created. Grading will be based on class discussion, brief content-based quizzes and several essays.

Section 011.

Instructor(s): Scott Melanson (melanson@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The study of literature today tends to focus on the multiplicity of "voices" within literary texts. Regardless of its genre or geographical/historical context, we can look for and discuss the ways in which a text's characters (both central and minor), narrator(s), speakers, etc., are represented or ignored by the author, as well as how they interact linguistically with one another. More often than not, contemporary literary critics use this focus on these textual representations and dynamics to raise important questions about the social and political ramifications of literature. In this course, students will ask these kinds of questions about a wide variety of literatures, then test out answers to these questions through extensive in-class discussion, and three short papers (3-4 pages) and one longer paper (7-10 pages).

Section 012.

Instructor(s): Rei Terada (terada@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course gives a sense of the relations between different kinds of approaches you might want to take in your readings of literary works. We will read and discuss prose works of various genres and periods, and will also discuss critics' interpretations of them. How are questions about gender and society related to questions about language and form? How should we talk about a work as both the product of a culture and the product of an individual author? How should you deal with the work's connections to the audience of its time, and its connection to you as a reader now? As a group, we'll debate these questions; each member of the class will also learn how to develop a topic of her/his own into a research interest. The main requirement of the course will be a research paper based on this interest, done in stages. Possible texts (not definite) include: Brontë, Wuthering Heights; Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; Morrison, Song of Solomon; Robinson, Housekeeping.

Section 013.

Instructor(s): Kirsten Herold (fogh@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The purpose of this section is to introduce you to a wide range of the critical concepts and issues you are likely to encounter in other English courses. To that end, we will read some very different works – a couple of "classics" and some contemporary works – along with various critical responses. The course will also have a practical research component, including a field trip to the library. Texts: Hamlet, Endgame, Cloud 9, Wuthering Heights, Beloved, and a course pack. Requirements: faithful and enthusiastic attendance, participation, three short writing exercises, an eight-page paper, an oral report, a midterm, and a final.

Section 014.

Instructor(s): Lem Johnson (eljay@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 239.002.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Richard W. Bailey (rwbailey@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Poetry sings, tells stories, celebrates, and mourns. It is structured language that becomes fixed in our minds and shapes the way we see the world. Understanding poetry is often challenging and (almost) always rewarding. Poetry teaches slow and careful reading; it invites connections. Learning to read it well is demanding and forms the basis for life-long skills applicable wherever reading is done attentively. Our course will involve close attention to a broad range of poetry; there will be many short response papers to stimulate discussion, a midterm, and a final.