Transfer Student Courses in EnglishConsult the new Course Guide at: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/cg_subjectlist/0,2030,8,00.html?show=20&termArray=f_04_1510&cgtype=ug This page was created at 12:42 PM on Wed, May 5, 2004. Fall Academic Term, 2004 (September 7 - December 23)ENGLISH 305. Introduction to Modern English.
Section 001.Instructor(s): Anne Leslie Curzan (acurzan@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Recommended for students preparing to teach English. (4). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course introduces the systematic study of language and will give you entirely new ways to think about the English language all around you. The course covers the many levels of structure working in language — from sounds to words to sentences to discourse — as well as the ways speakers learn and change language over time. Discussions will also focus on the social issues tied up in language, including attitudes to dialects, gender and language, the teaching of Standard English, and national language policies. The focus of much of the course will be words — how they work structurally and socially. We will address questions such as: Why isn't pfigr a possible English word? Is it syllabi or syllabuses? When could boys be girls because girl meant 'child'? Words are one of the primary building blocks of language and by studying how they work, we can gain insight into the structure and meaning of language, as well as into the social and political power we wield with words. Course work will consist of frequent short assignments, three short papers, and a final. No background in linguistics is required; the critical prerequisite for the course is genuine curiosity about the details of language.
ENGLISH 317. Literature and Culture.
Section 002 — Arab American Literature.Instructor(s): Khaled Ahmad Mattawa (kmattawa@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). May be elected more than once for credit. Repetition requires permission of the department. Laboratory fee ($35) required. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($35) required. Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. Arab Americans have been a presence in the United States for more than a century. An active, diffuse, and heterogeneous group, Arab Americans have maintained a low profile even as their cultures of origin have received a great deal of negative media coverage for decades. Shaped by Middle East politics as well as American foreign and domestic policies, Arab American history and culture are still in the process of documentation and analysis. Scholars have suggested that Arab Americans have moved from exilic, to assimilationist, to ethnically conscious forms of identity, with these forms sometimes operating concurrently. These experiences of identity formation are best articulated in the small, and growing, body of Arab American literature. Thus as we track the evolution of Arab American identity and culture we will continuously refer to the community's literary output for illumination on the issues at hand. Because of the limited amount of research resources available, this course will attempt to engage the students in contributing to the field. Of great interest to us will be three historical events that have had a lasting effect on Arab American life: The 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Gulf War II, and the September 11 attacks. We will attempt to understand how these events helped shape the community and the popular perception of it. Along with short lectures, class discussions, and video presentations, the course will provide opportunities for students to present their research to the class, and ultimately in a small symposium that will be open to the university community.
ENGLISH 317. Literature and Culture.
Section 003 — Representations of Jewish Identity.Instructor(s): Tresa GrauerPrerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). May be elected more than once for credit. Repetition requires permission of the department. Laboratory fee ($35) required.
Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($35) required. Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. Our aim in this course will be to consider the ways in which Jewish American writing reflects and explores issues of identity formation, with particular attention to potentially competing and often problematic cultural allegiances. We'll ask such questions as: what does it mean to "be Jewish"? To "be American"? To be Jewish and a woman (or a man)? How do we understand the link between individual identity and collective identity? What role does memory play in the creation of a sense of self? What's the relationship between Judaism and Jewishness? Between identity and narrative traditions? We'll look at many forms of cultural production in our efforts to understand how these questions have been inscribed by American Jews; our texts will include not only novels, short stories, plays, and autobiographies, but also films and photographs, plus works of history, sociology, theology, and literary criticism. There will be a heavy emphasis on placing our primary texts within their cultural context(s), so that alongside our efforts at textual analysis and interpretation, we'll also be asking questions about the culture(s) that produced these texts. Our primary reading will be drawn from the works of Abraham Cahan, Mary Antin, Delmore Schwartz, Philip Roth, Grace Paley, Art Spiegelman, Cynthia Ozick, Eva Hoffman, Tony Kushner, Myla Goldberg, and Daniel Mendelsohn. Course requirements will certainly include regular reading and active participation; they will likely also include several short response papers, one longer paper, and a final exam.
ENGLISH 325. Essay Writing: The Art of Exposition.Section 007.Instructor(s):Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May not be repeated for credit.
Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. No Description Provided. Contact the Department.
ENGLISH 350 / MEMS 350. Literature in English to 1660.
Section 001.Instructor(s): Thomas Toon (ttoon@umich.edu), Macklin Smith (macklins@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Excl). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. Pre-1600 literary history has traditionally focused on a number of major literary monuments that stretch from the age of Beowulf thru the period of Milton, with close attention to Old English poetry, the Middle English lyrics, Chaucer, the Pearl poet, Piers Plowman, Spencer, Marlowe, and Shakespeare. Such a view of the literary canon, however, would not allow us to address a number of fundamental questions about literary culture. We will expand the canon in order to include a wider range of voices usually unheard--women writers as well as "non-literary" writers concerned with broader political, social, economic, and spiritual issues. Thus our course will also examine a range of writers, anonymous and known, on everything from mysticism to family lifes, including such female authors as Margery Kempe, Julia(n) of Norich, and Queen Elizabeth I. We will examine prose styles spanning centuries, and a variety of poetic forms. We will read narratives, plays, lyrics, and expositions. Secondary sources will include several approaches to literary history, but we will be especially concerned to formulate a critical history which includes our own readings of these seminal works. Course requirements will include copious, broad-based reading, frequent quizzes and short informal writing assignments, two formal essays, serious collaborative work, two hour exams and a final. This course is the first of a two-term sequence designed to study the development of English literature from a basically historical perspective. As such, it satisfies either the pre-1600 or the pre-1830 requirement for English concentrators.
ENGLISH 387 / AMCULT 327. Latino/Latina Literature of the U.S.
Section 001 — Language and U.S. Latino/Latina CulturesInstructor(s): Lawrence M La Fountain-Stokes (lawrlafo@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted.
ENGLISH 434. The Contemporary Novel.
Section 001 — Contemporary Gay Male Fiction.Instructor(s): David M Halperin (halperin@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Excl). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. A broad survey of novels and short fiction by and/or about gay men written in English since the Stonewall riots of 1969, with special attention to the period since 1988. Has the possibility of an "open" (uncensored, unexpurgated) gay male literature permitted a better or truer representation of gay men and gay male life? What experiences does this literature take in and what does it leave out? To what extent does it function as a means of defining or fashioning gay male identity and to what extent does it resist or refigure that identity? What literary structures does it employ, and what is the relation, if any, between gay male desire and literary form? Is this a minority literature or is it a universal literature that happens to be gay? What are the political or moral responsibilities, if any, of gay male writers in the age of HIV/AIDS? How do they write about sex, and why? Where are the happy endings that gay liberation promised us? Authors to be read include Neil Bartlett, Melvin Dixon, Allan Gurganus, Essex Hemphill, Alan Hollinghurst, David Leavitt, Mark Merlis, Jamie O'Neill, Dale Peck, Annie Proulx, and Christos Tsiolkas.
ENGLISH 447. Modern Drama.Section 001.Instructor(s): Enoch Brater (enochb@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. No Description Provided. Contact the Department.
ENGLISH 448. Contemporary Drama.
Section 001 — States of the Nation(s), Subjectivities, Resistances.Instructor(s): Barbara Hodgdon (hodgdonb@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course focuses on contemporary plays that take as their subject a concern with national and/or postcolonial subjectivities. Playwrights: Tony Kushner, Anna Deavere Smith, Suzan-Lori Parks, Guillermo Verdecchia, Athol Fugard, Tomson Highway, Carlos Morton, Cherrie Moraga, Anne Devlin, Wole Soyinka, Brian Friel, Luis Valdez, Martin McDonagh, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and Hanif Kureishi. In addition to reading and discussing these texts, the class will create an archive of contextual materials and explore selected critical and theoretical texts. Requirements: attendance; short in-class responses / presentations aimed at enhancing discussion; two 6-8 page papers; a final project/paper. Approximately $100 for books; course pack additional.
ENGLISH 463. Modern British Literature.
Section 001.Instructor(s): Andrea Patricia Zemgulys (zemgulys@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course will survey poetry, fiction, cinema, and drama composed in Britain from 1900 to 1965. Our reading list will include W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Bowen, Daphne DuMaurier, Graham Greene, D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, Jean Rhys, and Muriel Spark, among others. We will also think about these texts in relation to their historical and social contexts (such as the two World Wars, the rise of the welfare state, and changing class structures and gender roles over this period). Weekly writing assignments, two essays (5 pages and 10 pages), and two exams will be set for the course. Note: Students who miss either of the first two classes will be dropped from enrollment.
ENGLISH 482. Studies in Individual Authors.
Section 001 — Samuel Beckett.Instructor(s): Enoch Brater (enochb@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit. May be elected more than once in the same term. Repetition requires permission of the department. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This challenging course examines the work of Samuel Beckett, one of the major international literary figures of the twentieth century. The focus ranges widely, and considers his writing from a variety of perspectives and across a variety of genre, including stage drama; the novel and related prose; his work in film, television, radio and mime; his career as bilingual author and self-translator; as well as his poetry and criticism. Class participation will be held at a premium; students will be asked to write short weekly papers for our seminar meetings, as well as complete a long term project for class presentation. Course prerequisite: intellectual curiosity.
ENGLISH 482. Studies in Individual Authors.
Section 002 — William Carlos Williams.Instructor(s): Richard D Cureton (rcureton@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit. May be elected more than once in the same term. Repetition requires permission of the department. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course will study the life, ideas, and literary works of William Carlos Williams, one of the most original and influential of the great American modernist writers. Williams is primarily known for his free verse lyric poetry, so we will spend most of our time on this work (The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volumes I and II); but we will also study Williams' work in other genres — his epic poem (Paterson ), his imaginative historiography (In the American Grain), his prose improvisations (Kora in Hell), his short stories (The Collected Stories of William Carlos Williams), his plays (Many Loves & Other Plays), and one of his novels (e.g., A Voyage to Pagany ). For help with his ideas, we will read his essays (The Selected Essays of William Carlos Williams ). For his life we will read Paul Mariani's biography (William Carlos Williams: A New World Naked ) and Williams' own account in his autobiography (The Autobiography of William Carlos Williams). Requirements for the course will be a midterm exam on Williams' life, ideas, and artistic techniques; a short paper (5 pages) on an individual work; and a longer research paper (15-20 pages) on a more general issue in Williams' literary production as a whole.
ENGLISH 482. Studies in Individual Authors.
Section 004 — Vladimir Nabokov and World Literature I: The Russian Years. Meets with RUSSIAN 478.001.Instructor(s): Omry Ronen (omronen@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit. May be elected more than once in the same term. Repetition requires permission of the department. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted.
ENGLISH 486. History of Criticism.Section 001.Instructor(s): Jonathan Freedman (zoid@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. No Description Provided. Contact the Department.
ENGLISH 225. Argumentative Writing.
Instructor(s):Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This advanced writing course focuses on the elements of evidence and argument. Unlike ENGLISH 325 with its emphasis on exploration and style, ENGLISH 225 encourages students to analyze the various components of a given issue and the writing conventions of different disciplines in order to explore and defend their positions, ideas, and beliefs in writing. In the process, they will concentrate on the testing of assumptions and claims, the questioning of beliefs, and the analysis and rigorous articulation of evidence in written discourse. The course stresses the compilation of strong evidence, specifically the use of outside sources and the smooth integration of such material into the prose of an essay. The readings are primarily non-fiction, and discussions and writing assignments emphasize considerations of style, rhetorical strategies, and revision as integral to precision in developing a line of argument for the purposes of reflection as well as persuasion. NOTE: It is department policy that students must attend both the first and the second class meetings. Failure to do so may result in the student being dropped from the course. Prerequisites are being enforced.
ENGLISH 225. Argumentative Writing.
Section 011 — What's Wrong with this Picture?Instructor(s): LaTissia MitchellPrerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. Is a photograph factual? Is it neutral? Is it objective? Can a photograph be political or manifest a political agenda? Through what established cultural filters do we assess, judge, and categorize what we see? Why are these relevant questions? This course will focus upon photography, and compare this visual medium to other media, in an attempt to understand how it functions and why we are so attached to it.
ENGLISH 225. Argumentative Writing.
Section 013 — Argumentative Writing: How and Why We Do It.Instructor(s): Sridevi NairPrerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course will look at how to advance arguments with attention to the ways in which argumentative writing has been theorized and critiqued from different perspectives. A large part of this course will deal with thinking through our own strategies of persuasion and how they change in the context of different audiences. We will study how argumentative writing forms a central way in which we engage in scholarship and how we may best use argumentative writing to explore issues in contemporary culture. I always include grammar instruction and grammar exercises in my courses. I usually provide photocopied reading material rather than require a coursepack. A journal and a dictionary are mandatory. Attendance policies and writing requirements are fairly standard, and I will discuss them in detail during the first week of class. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions!
ENGLISH 225. Argumentative Writing.Section 023.Instructor(s):Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. No Description Provided. Contact the Department.
ENGLISH 225. Argumentative Writing.Section 024.Instructor(s):Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. No Description Provided. Contact the Department.
ENGLISH 229 / LHSP 229. Technical Writing.
Instructor(s):Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of the Introductory Composition requirement. (4). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. In this course, students analyze and practice the types of writing done by technical and professional writers — in particular, manuals, reports, correpondence, and proposals. 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.
ENGLISH 240. Introduction to Poetry.
Section 002.Instructor(s): Richard D Cureton (rcureton@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. The aim of this course is to introduce you to the art of poetry so that you can read and discuss any poem with understanding and delight. During the term, we will move from a general survey of poetic techniques and forms to a more detailed study of the work of a selection of authors from the Renaissance to the present. For the former, we will use Western Wind by John Frederick Nims. For the latter, we will use a course pack of selected poems. Formal writing will include three (ungraded) exercises in poetic analysis and four (graded) papers (3-5 pages) on individual authors and poems.
ENGLISH 240. Introduction to Poetry.
Section 008.Instructor(s): Andrea Patricia Zemgulys (zemgulys@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Prerequisite for concentrators in the Regular Program and in Honors. (3). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course aims to equip students with the skills necessary to writing and talking about poetry. We will cover a broad range of poems, from the sixteenth century to the twentieth, and think about them through critical topics such as meter, figurative language, and stanzaic forms. Students will be expected to write three essays (15 pages total) and eight (8) paragraphs over the course of the academic term, to keep a reading journal in preparation for class discussion, and to lead a discussion. There will be a final exam. Note: Students who miss either of the first two classes will be dropped from enrollment.
ENGLISH 245 / RCHUMS 280 / THTREMUS 211. Introduction to Drama and Theatre.
Section 001.Instructor(s):Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. No credit granted to those who have completed or are enrolled in RCHUMS 281.
Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted.
ENGLISH 267. Introduction to Shakespeare.
Section 001 — Shakespeare's Many Faces.Instructor(s): Lillian L Back (lillianb@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Completion of Introductory Composition. (4). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. We will, in this course, take a contemporary perspective on a varied selection of Shakespeare's plays. We begin by watching productions of the plays as represented on videos and continue our exploration with a close reading and conversation about the plays themselves. We want to compare the way in which directors, producers, actors, and various audiences (us included) revisit the great drama of the High Renaissance in England. For example, when we watch HAMLET as performed by Kenneth Branagh or Ethan Hawke, how do our individual perceptions of the play become enhanced? Or, as we watch Al Pacino's contemporary exploration of society's response to RICHARD III, how can we come to understand the very strange interpretation of the play by Ian McKellen's production? And how can our discussions help us come to grips with the brutal but brilliant Julie Taymor's production of TITUS ANDRONICUS? We want to do all that we can to understand the range of possibilities which Shakespeare's drama allows. We will continue our analysis of Shakespeare's drama by including the following plays in addition to HAMLET, RICHARD III, and TITUS ANDRONICUS: the very controversial MERCHANT OF VENICE; the joyful but bittersweet TWELTH NIGHT; the disturbing OTHELLO; and the exciting and suspenseful MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. The course will be all about discussion and more discussion. We will spend three hours a week discussing the plays in the class; in addition, we will need to watch the videos of all the plays outside of class — I will schedule the same showing two nights/wk, (Tuesday and Wednesday evenings approx. from 7-9:00 pm) so you will have a choice of the night that is convenient for you. The Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet production will be a four-hour production. The videos will also be on reserve in the video and media library (ugl/second floor) a week previous to the discussion — also almost all of the video stores carry productions to be rented on your own. Our task will be to come away from the class in the end with a sense of a personal Shakespeare who will remain our life-long mentor in shaping order into life from the chaos of experience; studying Shakespeare's work forces us into the beauty and the pain of the human range of emotional challenges. In addition to class and video watching, students will respond each week with a short one-page essay about each of these plays. The subject will be determined by the student as she or he finds an unresolved conflict to explore about the text. Papers will be discussed in class and I will offer my response to them. I would hope that feedback each week will give you confidence to take up the challenge of writing a longer even more analytical paper toward the ending of the season (6-8pp.). We will be using the Oxford School editions, exclusively sold at Shaman Drum on State Street.
ENGLISH 270. Introduction to American Literature.
Section 001 — Home.Instructor(s): MARIA SANCHEZ (maricarl@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. Narratives that center upon the home are important to U.S. literature, whether that home is understood as a physical structure, a geographic locale, or a spiritual setting. Perhaps because the United States is an immigrant country, questions of belonging (feeling at home, finding or coming home, seeing one's self or group as having ownership, authority, or precedence) permeate our history from its inception. In this course we will look at a variety of texts that span centuries and genres, and use questions concerning the home as a means of learning about U.S. literature. The class will be a mix of lecture and discussion, and all students are expected to read and be prepared to discuss the works in class. Requirements also include weekly reading responses, a final, and two short 4-5 page papers. Authors may include: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Jacobs, Edgar Allen Poe, Willa Cather, Dorothy West, Ralph Ellison, John Phillip Santos, and Michele Serros.
ENGLISH 285. Introduction to Twentieth-Century Literature.
Section 001.Instructor(s): Peter M Bauland (pbauland@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). May not be repeated for credit. Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. We will consider how a variety of writers reflect and respond to the major historical, social, political, philosophical, and moral issues and preoccupations of the 20th century. The works we will study are eclectic and arbitrarily chosen; there is no attempt to be all-inclusive, nor will we limit ourselves to English and American authors. Our subject will be some representative works of modern thought and literature. We will place equal emphasis on what these works say and how they say it. Our purpose is to sharpen the insight and intelligence with which we read and analyze some of the probing "documents" of our time. Candidates for the reading list [availability of texts and reasonableness of prices will be factors] include works by Albert Camus, D.M. Thomas, E.L. Doctorow, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Friedrich Duerrenmatt, Jerzy Kosinski, Margaret Atwood or several others. Informal lecture and discussion, the amount of which will be influenced by the size of the class. Thoughtful, active participation "counts." Two papers [ca. 5-7 pp. each] and a final exam.
Consult the new Course Guide at: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/cg_subjectlist/0,2030,8,00.html?show=20&termArray=f_04_1510&cgtype=ug This page was created at 12:42 PM on Wed, May 5, 2004.
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