The generic:
Fall, 288(0); Spring, 289(0). 4 credits. Each section limited to 16 students. Students must have completed their colleges' first-year writing requirements or have the permission of the instructor. S. Davis and staff.
English 288(0)-89(0) offers guidance and an audience for students who wish to gain skill in expository writing. Each section provides a context for writing defined by a form or use of exposition, a disciplinary area, a practice, or a topic intimately related to the written medium. Course members will read in relevant published material and write and revise their own work regularly, while reviewing and responding to one another's. Since these seminar-sized courses depend on members' full participation, regular attendance and submission of written work are required. Students and instructors will confer individually throughout the term.
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Global Romance: Crossing Boundaries (fall 2007, spring 2008) |
Do people the world over love in the same way, or does romance mean different things in different cultures? What happens when love violates social norms? Is the "romance" genre an escape from real-world conflicts or a resolution of them? This course examines romantic narratives produced in Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean and contrasts them with romantic narratives from the West. We will look at such works as Othello, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre, juxtaposing them with Saleh's Season of Migration to the North, Gurinder Chaddha's film Bride and Prejudice, and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea -- paying attention, too, to the Western romantic-comedy film and the Bollywood spectacular and writing reviews and critical essays.
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The Autobiographical Essay: I Write, Therefore I Am (spring 2008) |
The autobiographical essay has had a long history in the African American literary tradition. Black people literally wrote themselves into existence, since the ability to write in America became indistinguishable from the ability to be taken seriously as an intelligent human being. In this seminar, we will read important autobiographical narratives by Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King and others, examining how one's personal experience -- when rendered in good, trenchant prose -- can make powerful analytic statements. Students will be expected to write about their own lives, paying attention to their respective histories, and working, as all good writers must, to make the seemingly incoherent coherent.
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Controversies in Criminal Justice (fall 2007, spring 2008) |
With over two million individuals currently incarcerated, the criminal justice system is a formidable part of American government. From indictment to trial, and post-conviction, the criminal justice system is fraught with contradictions and controversies. Is a person who accidentally commits a crime really a criminal? May a jury disregard the law in determining an individual's guilt? Can a criminal act ever be the "right" thing to do? This course will critically consider these issues and others in the context of criminal law. Along the way, students will draw on case law, philosophical texts, and legal scholarship. Through expository and persuasive papers and through class discussions and simulations, students will analyze controversial concepts of criminal justice and respond with original arguments and proposed solutions.
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The University, Society, and the Law (fall 2007, spring 2008) |
Is the American university an enclave of privileged anarchy or a microcosm of a society that tries to settle its conflicts by law? What happens when students, faculty, and the university go to court against each other? Where do conduct codes come from? Who enjoys "academic freedom"? Should universities be concerned with gender, ethnic, and economic diversity? Who owns the products of the knowledge factory? This course will take up such issues as freedom of speech, equal protection, affirmative action, sexual harassment, intellectual property ownership, and collective governance -- looking at these and other concerns through the lens of higher education. Students will write case briefs, opinion and advocacy pieces, and a final project involving research.
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Endsight: Apocalyptic Fictions (fall 2006, spring 2007) |
"Apocalypse" evokes visions of the end of the known world but also points to a new and improved one. Today, the apocalyptic imagination flourishes as almost never before, in part thanks to serious threats to human survival (ecocidal, nuclear, pathological). It converges strikingly with science fiction's speculative impulse; some critics contend that the two genres are one. We will trace the apocalyptic in science fiction films (eXistenZ), novels (The Handmaid's Tale, Riddley Walker), and short stories (Super Flat Times), asking what each posits about appropriate human relationships with the environment, technology, and government, the transmission and application of knowledge, and human nature itself. Armed with these "endsights," we will write analytically and creatively about our world from arrestingly different perspectives.
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Choosing Sides: Horror and Drama in Cinema (fall 2006, spring 2007) |
This course explores spectatorship, cinematic identification, and the active ways in which we interact with film. We'll study the ways in which films assault viewers -- with the gore of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, with the ultra-violence of Dario Argento's Opera. We'll read critical texts by people who have already plumbed the dark depths of film: Laura Mulvey and Carol Clover. Then we'll see whether the horror film's relationship with its viewers applies to such non-horror films as Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express and Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape. (If a film can make you fear for your life, can it make you fall in love?) Students will learn to write technically and analytically about film and how to write good critical essays.
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Constitutional Law and the Media (fall 2006, spring 2007) |
Controversial issues like abortion, affirmative action, and gay marriage seem to surface in the news almost daily: what are the legal principles behind these conflicts, and how do the media handle them? This course will read Supreme Court opinions, scholarly commentary and relevant Constitutional provisions that have sparked debate and will make comparisons with media portrayals of the cases, their outcomes, and the judges who decide them. We'll also pay attention to media-specific questions like reportorial privilege. Students will write shorter papers on selected cases and controversies and undertake a final research project on a topic of their choosing.
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Sex on the Brain (spring 2007) |
In the 19th century, scientists proved that since women had smaller brains than men, women were less intelligent. In the 21st century, former Harvard president Lawrence Summers speculated that women were underrepresented in the sciences because of innate brain differences. Current research looks for evidence of structural differences using brain scanning technologies. This course will investigate how this and other attempts to distinguish male and female abilities get portrayed in scientific studies, the news media, and the popular press. We will consider such topics as the "gender gap" in higher education and the way scientific research affects our conceptions of gender distinctions. In addition to regular short essays, students will write one long essay based on research into a topic connected to their interests.
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American Political Satire After 9-11 (fall 2006, spring 2007 |
It's been said that on September 11, "The Age of Irony" suddenly, painfully came to an end. Yet in the months that followed, political satire--brash, ironic, reform-minded--revived with unexpected success. In this seminar, we will analyze works of political satire from the likes of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, The Onion, Dave Chappelle, David Rees, and Sacha Baron Cohen. We will locate these works within the historical tradition of American political satire (Mark Twain, Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks) and study them as indexes of the post-9/11 political and cultural climate. Students will write critically about the form and function of political satire, and they will experiment with writing topical political satires of their own.
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Making the News (fall 2005, fall 2006) |
What is news? Who makes it? For whom? The mass media are central to the life of societies. In Europe, they've been called the fourth estate; in the United States, our fourth branch of government. In this course, we will talk, think, and write about journalists, reporting and the media. We will inform ourselves of current events and read critics across the political spectrum from Noam Chomsky and Marshall McLuhan to Richard Viguerie. In a series of papers culminating in a final research project, students will write critically about the readings, discussions and the wider world. Films such as Network and Wag the Dog and brief field trips at regular intervals should keep things interesting.
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Hollywood Babylon (fall 2005-spring 2006) |
Dream factory or nightmare? Promised land or wasteland? This course will nexplore Hollywood's symbolic role in American culture from the 1920s to the present, considering the myriad ways in which the film capital has been imagined and understood. As we examine representations of Hollywood in relation to sexuality, gender, politics, and popular culture, our chief focus will be on developing critical reading and viewing skills and, through extensive and varied writing practice, sharpening our techniques of argument and expression. Texts include the films A Star is Born, Sunset Blvd., Barton Fink, L.A. Confidential, and Mulholland Dr.; the novels The Love of Last Tycoon, The Day of the Locust, and Myra Breckinridge; and artwork by Joseph Cornell, Andy Warhol, and Cindy Sherman.
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War, Peace, Terror, and the Law (fall 2003-spring 2006) |
This course examines the War on Terror and related U.S. foreign policy actions through a legal lens. What are the "laws of war" for states fighting terrorism? What constitutes a war? When is war legally justified? What guidelines must American soldiers in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay follow in treating prisoners? This course will expose students to the basics of public international law by critically examining U.S. case law and statutes, treaties, cases from the International Court of Justice, and other international instruments. Students will write case briefs, opinion and advocacy pieces, and a final research project on a topoic related to course reading.
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Cooperation, Collaboration, Invention (spring 2006) |
Collective invention is a feature of most public writing. Even when a single author receives credit, published texts are routinely shaped by colleagues, editors, and other readers. In this course we will study the collaborative production of published texts. We will also collaborate on a daily basis. Students should be prepared to work cooperatively as writers, researchers, and editors. In addition to other assignments, each student will work with colleagues to research, present, and write about a case study drawn from a range of genres which may include fiction, non-fiction, legal writing, film, drama, and poetry. Possible case studies may include Supreme Court opinions, Brothers and Keepers, "The Wasteland," Frankenstein, Shakespeare in Love, and the film version of The Big Sleep.
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Finding Justice in the Law (fall 2004-spring 2005) |
Clarence Darrow wrote, "there is no such thing as justice, either in or out of court." How can we test his claim while exploring our definitions and understandings of "justice" and those of other legal and philosophical writers? Our generation has had unprecedented access to such highly publicized trials as People v. O.J. Simpson and United States v. Martha Stewart: how have they shaped our conceptions of law and justice? We'll use narrative, journal articles, appellate opinions, and multimedia to explore and critique our (primarily criminal) justice system while examining the roles of attorneys, judges, jurors, victims, defendants, and ourselves in the pursuit of justice in American law. Students will write analyses of legal and other issues, and a final paper.
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Media Events: Making Stories in Fact and Fiction (fall 2003-spring 2005) |
This course will take a comparative approach to three cultural forces: news media, the arts, and a wide range of nonfiction. Using major events past and present as case studies, we'll examine the economic, cultural, and rhetorical structures of U.S. news media in relation to essays, fiction, histories, film and other materials. In exploring the many mediations between "us" and "event," we'll map relationships between narratives and information, news and advertising, politics and memory, and public interest and the corporate marketplace. We'll also look to alternative news reportage and the arts as both promising and problematic counterforces to mainstream event-making. Students will regularly conduct research, present their writing and findings to each other, and write a research paper based on individual interests.
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Reality TV: Voyeurism and Survelliance in America (spring 2005) |
This course will take a critical look at voyeurism and surveillance in American culture, from the hermetically-sealed-for-display world of CBS's Big Brother series to the Bush administration's Total Information Awareness Program. Questions we'll ask include: Why is watching "real people" on TV so widely popular in America right now? What ís the connection between narratives of voyeurism and surveillance and contemporary political issues such as gay marriage and terrorism? We'll examine reality television shows, post-9/11 anti-terrorism strategies, and pre-2000 stories about being watched in America. Students will write short reading responses, longer critical essays, and a final research project involving reality television, surveillance, and voyeurism.
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Inventing Nonfiction (spring 1999-spring 2005) |
Writers of nonfiction do not invent their subject matter, but they do use the inventive techniques of fiction writing to shape their material and capture their audiences' attention. In this course we'll see how they do it, reading works by such authors as Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Frederick Douglass, and Ian Frazier. In short writing assignments and a substantial final project, students will experiment with techniques of invention to write about events they have experienced and/or researched themselves.
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Gangsters, Hippies, Punks & Ravers: American Subcultures (fall 2004) |
What do punks, hip-hoppers, and bar hoppers all have in common? Are body artists and bikers resistors to mainstream style or the source of it? How has the rebel chic of the riot grrl subculture altered the course of American politics? After a brief survey of historical subcultures such as those of gangs, jazz musicians, and prostitutes, we will explore more recent ones even as they multiply in number and complexity. Before undertaking a final research project, course members will write essays in different rhetorical modes, from description to critical analysis. In addition to readings about subcultures, course materials will include music, websites, and films such as Sid and Nancy and The Warriors.
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From Brains to Clones: Science in the Media (spring 1998-spring 2003) |
Will cloning sheep lead to designer babies? Will genetic research alter our intelligence levels, our sexual preferences, our propensity to violence? Can MRI brain scans provide insights that explain morality and religion? News reports about such topics can change the ways we see ourselves and redefine our sense of what it means to be human. In this course, students will write essays that address such issues as these as they are discussed in the popular media. Assignments will allow students to develop their writing skills by working in a variety of forms, from direct reporting to argument and analysis.
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Hollywood and the Art Film (spring 2003, fall 2004) |
Independent films: they're cheap, they win Oscars, and they have their own cable channel. But what are they, really, and how do we watch them? What must we know about Hollywood filmmaking before we can appreciate other ways of making movies? And how do various styles of writing about cinema help us perceive the artistic, thematic, and ideological nuances in the movies we watch? Participants in this course will practice many forms of film writing, including formal essays, short reviews, and political analyses, which will both expand our grasp of film studies and refine our overall techniques of expression. Filmmakers to be studied include Sam Mendes (American Beauty), Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust), Todd Haynes (Safe), and David Lynch (Mulholland Drive).
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True Romance (spring 2002, fall 2003) |
This course will pay close attention to texts that aren't always taken seriously: romantic fiction and "real-life" romance found in cinema, TV, advertising, and print media. What conventions shape romantic narratives? What do these cultural forms tell us about the meanings assigned to "romance" and "love," and how can they help us interrogate gender, identity, and desire? Is our understanding of real-life romance mediated by the structures and tropes of fictional narratives? We will discuss and write about romantic fictions ranging from Pride and Prejudice to Pretty in Pink, as well as some things and persons which may or may not be "true," including personal ads, weddings, Ben and J.Lo, and reality TV.
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Making the News (fall 2001-fall 2004) |
What is the responsibility of the media in our society? What is the proper relationship of the media to democracy, to the Internet, to government? Do American mainstream media "manufacture" our "consent"? In this course, we will investigate how the news is made--by public events and figures and by the media themselves--as well as whom it is made for. We will explore current newspaper, magazine, television, and Internet news reportage throughout the semester, considering it in the context of critical readings in American journalism and mass communications by such writers as Noam Chomsky, Robert McChesney, and Norman Solomon. Writing will include short critical responses, longer analytic essays on media issues, and a final paper involving research.
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The Misfit and the Mainstream: Cultural Conformity and Rebellion (fall 2003-spring 2004) |
In this course we will think and write about the role of outcasts, outlaws, and dissenters in American culture. Course members will draw on fiction, speeches, television shows, films, and their own experience to write critical and creative nonfiction exploring such questions as these: Why are some people set apart from society, and how does society define itself by these exclusions? Why do some choose nonconformity and resistance as responses to adversity or injustice? Why are we fascinated by the renegade on the run from the law and the child who gains magical authority? Authors may include Flannery O'Connor, Shirley Jackson, Toni Morrison, and Martin Luther King, Jr.; we may view Harry Potter and James Dean films as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Matrix, and Fight Club. |
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Queer TV: Television in the Post-Stonewall Era (spring 2004) |
As shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Will & Grace, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer demonstrate, queerness has found a space on television that remains unmatched in other media. In fact, television has played a major role in fostering both lesbian and gay visibility and progressive social change. This course will combine television studies and queer theory to consider what it is about television -- its seriality, its broad/narrowcasting strategies, its topicality, its dominant genres -- that makes it such a productive forum for the exploration of queer issues. We will also examine how television has historically shaped and been shaped by queer culture from Stonewall through the AIDS crisis to the current era of "metrosexuality." |
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Free Speech Under the First Amendment (fall 2002 - spring 2003) |
This course focuses on key questions in American politics and constitutional law: What constitutes protected speech? Why, how, and when does the government restrict speech? And when should it do so? By critically reading major court cases and journal articles, we will explore the ways in which courts and commentators have posed, resolved, and redefined issues of free speech under the First Amendment. Students can expect to examine a range of issues, including fighting words, hate speech, incitement, obscenity, and pornography. In addition to participating in classroom discussions, they will address the issues in case briefs, opinion pieces, and a final project involving research. |
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Nature, the "I" and the Object (fall 2002 - fall 2003) |
For the writer as well as for the scientist, curiosity leads to discoveries. This course will engage students' curiosity in seeking a deeper understanding of what it means to be human amid the complexities of nature. Students will gain experience writing essays in a personal voice about the environment, natural history, and natural science. These essays will resemble experiments in which ideas are explored and tested against observations made about the physical world and its inhabitants. We will also read widely, with an inclination toward writers who draw connections among disparate areas of knowledge, such as Annie Dillard, E. O. Wilson, and Lewis Thomas.
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Into the Wild (fall 1999-spring 2000) |
This is a course in nature writing and in the nature of good writing. Prerequisites are a sense of wonder and a desire to make connections between human nature and the natural world, which we will do by writing essays based on close observation of the world and on informed reflection about ecological and social issues. Readings will include short essays by such writers as Virginia Woolf and John Updike as well as excerpts from H. D. Thoreau's Walden, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild.
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Myths of the City (fall 2001) |
This course will focus on the stories we hear, read, and see about cities in order to explore myths of "the urban" in American life. We'll ask: why do people perceive cities as spaces of personal renewal and self-invention? What do stories about cities teach us about the places we live and the way we experience our communities? How do cities shape the way we experience race, gender and class? We'll read novels by Paul Auster, Bharati Mukherjee, and Fae Ng and essays by Mike Davis and Joan Didion. Writing assignments will include short critical essays and reflective essays based on students' own urban experiences.
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America Dreaming (spring 1999, spring 2000) |
Societies generate myths - social fictions that may be true or false - in order to shape a common reality. In this course we'll examine several myths that Americans cherish: the importance of material success, the significance of the individual, our society's openness to cultural pluralism and change, the nobility of environmentalism, and the value of education. We'll read essays and poetry that challenge conventional assumptions and patterns of thought. Written assignments will include analysis, argument, and personal essay.
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The Cultures of Television (spring 2001) |
Just entertainment? Television is much more: a commercial enterprise, a cultural product, and a powerful influence on the way Americans imagine and inhabit the world. This course will approach the critical study of television not by dismissing our pleasure in TV but by examining how that pleasure is produced and how television situates us as spectators, as consumers, and as American subjects. Readings and viewings will include features, clips from contemporary programs, and articles on the history, technology, genres, and audiences of this medium. Writing assignments will include critical essays, "close readings" of televisual texts (including sitcoms, dramas, music videos, etc.), and one final project on a subject of the student's choosing. |
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Coming of Age
in the City (fall 1996-spring 1998) |
This course will examine what
it means to grow up in the American city. Using novels, films, and
autobiographical writings, we will ask such questions as these: How might
living in an urban environment influence a young person’s outlook on
the world? To what extent do race, class and gender govern a person’s
perception of, and experience in, the urban environment? How and when do
cities develop their own personalities, becoming living, breathing
"characters" in writing and art? Authors will include Toni Morrison,
Amy Tan, Leonard Michaels, and Joan Didion. Students will write both
critical essays on the works we consider and personal, reflective essays. |
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Minding the Body (spring 1996-spring 2001) |
What does it mean to have a body? When does the body come to mind? When it's hurt, exercised, endangered, excited, or admired; when it's studied by scientists or artists; when it's most estranged from its owner or most suddenly present to him or her. Students will read a wide variety of literary essays on the relationship between mind and body. In personal and critical essays they
will explore that relationship, asking the cardinal question of the course: what does it mean to have a body?
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Writing in the Electronic Age (fall 1997, fall 1999) |
This course explores the potential of electronic media for reading, writing, and research. Class members will tap the resources of the Internet and the Web in writing their essays, learning about online sources of information and about Net culture as they pursue their interests and share them with others. This is not a workshop in new technologies but a course in investigative and argumentative writing for students in all disciplines. Students should be willing to use standard Bear Access tools for research and communication and to share their work with one another electronically and in hardcopy. |
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Reviewing Women, Women Reviewed (spring 1995-fall 1996) |
This course will explore the relationship between works of art and what is written about them. We will read poetry and fiction and watch movies by and about American women; subjects for study will range from Gwendolyn Brooks to Thelma and Louise, from Sylvia Plath to Tank Girl. At the same time, we will read contemporary reviews of this work from a range of popular and scholarly sources. These questions among others will arise: in what ways does an artist's gender affect the way his or her work is received? How has the idea of the "woman artist" changed over time? What role do reviews play in shaping artistic reputations and reading/viewing communities? Students will write in a number of different critical modes: popular reviews, critical papers, and speculative essays.
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Rights, Politics, and the Constitution (fall 1995-fall 1998) |
This course examines current problems in American politics and constitutional law and looks critically at the languages in which they are posed, resolved, and redefined. By reading major court cases and the work of such legal theorists as Catharine MacKinnon, Patricia Williams, and Michael Walzer, students will examine the meaning of due process, equal protection, discrimination, and First Amendment freedoms. There will be short written assignments throughout the semester, and a longer final research project.
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Inventing Nonfiction (spring 1999, spring 2000, spring 2001) |
Writers of nonfiction do not invent their subject-matter, but they do use the inventive techniques of fiction writing to shape their material and capture their audiences' attention. In this course we'll see how they do it, reading works by such authors as Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Frederick Douglass, and Ian Frazier. In short writing assignments and a substantial final project, students will experiment with techniques of invention to write about events they have experienced and/or researched themselves.
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The Essay: Personal to Public (fall 1996-spring 2001) |
This course examines the essay as a form with both personal and public consequences. Course members will explore the essay in its reflective, investigative, and argumentative moods, considering relevant issues of personal voice and public audience. They will also respond to published writing -- essays by such writers as Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Raymond Carver, and Maya Angelou -- as a way of experiencing themselves as public creatures. The course is run as a workshop in which course members will be each other's editors and advisors; students' own writing will be central to the course.
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Languages of Community (fall 1995-spring 1996) |
Language creates and defines communities, determining whom we speak with and what we believe we have in common to speak about. In this course we'll examine the strategies employed in the social use of language through political documents such as party platforms and speeches from the current presidential campaigns and innovative cultural texts such as alternative 'zines, Nuyorican performance poetry, and Internet newsgroups. We may also consider the definition of a Queer community in the wake of Stonewall and AIDS, the current popularity of talk radio programming, and what campus publications call "the Cornell community." Students will write critically about the texts under discussion and employ the rhetorical techniques of those texts in writing about their own communities.
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Writing about Women, Anger, Culture (fall 1998-spring 1999) |
Xena, Thelma and Louise, Sylvia Plath-- mad women or madwomen? This course will focus on representations of angry women, crazy women, and aggressive women in literature and the popular media and on the critics who write about them. We'll concentrate on what's bugging these women, and in what particular ways they respond. At the same time, we will read what gets written about them in order to understand how that critical writing codes their responses as "madness" of one kind or another. We will look at novels, poems, movies, TV, book reviews, and web sites; students will write in a variety of modes, including informal responses, critical reviews, and expository essays.
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Writing in the Humanities (fall 1995-fall, 1998) |
In this course, students may strengthen reading and writing skills particularly appropriate to the humanities. They will also be encouraged to reflect on what they do when they interpret literature, philosophy, and art. Works studied may include paintings by Da Vinci and Velázquez; fictions by Nabokov, Jean Rhys, Conrad, and Achebe; and philosophic writing by Plato, Nietzsche, and J.L. Austin. Written work will include reading responses, interpretive essays, and perhaps an experiment in philosophic dialogue.
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Artworks in Controversy (fall 1995, fall 1996) |
The course looks at artistically powerful works that have excited extreme responses among readers and viewers. Focusing on such texts as Griffiths' Birth of a Nation, Riefensthal's Olympia, Ellison's Invisible Man, Ginsberg's Howl, Fugard's play Statement After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, and Mapplethorpe's exhibit "The Perfect Moment," we will ask what values have surfaced in their reception and what historical and social factors have shaped their careers as public works of art. Students will write frequently on these issues and will be required to attend several film screenings outside of class at times to be arranged.
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Body Politics (fall 1995-spring 1996) |
This course will examine representations of disease and health in both medical and popular literature, focusing on writings about AIDS, cancer, abortion, and reproductive technologies. We will seek to understand the way in which these representations confirm or challenge medical authority and the effects that they have on public debates about gender, sexuality, race, and heredity. Texts read and screened may include Audre Lorde's Cancer Journals, Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor, John Greyson's Zero Patience, and Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale. Students will write a number of short papers, both critical and creative, and will complete a longer research project on a topic of their choice.
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What's Yours Is Mine: Cultural Appropriations (fall 1996, fall 1997) |
One can scarcely turn on the TV, go to the movies, or open a book without confronting some decades-old style or discourse or ideological slogan that's been plucked from its original context and dressed up in the garb of a new era. This course will study such strange appropriations as they've occurred in 20th century American culture. How, for instance, do the postures of the Harlem Renaissance get repossessed, many years later, by the Beat poets and novelists? Why are the idioms and styles of blaxploitation films so important to Quentin Tarantino's ultra-hip Pulp Fiction? Why, in short, might one population want to make use of terms that belong more familiarly to a very different population? We will look at a wide variety of cultural artifacts: novels, poems, films, essays, speeches. Authors may range from Langston Hughes to Gloria Steinem to Rush Limbaugh to Green Day.
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Nature in History, Humans in Nature (spring 1995-spring 1996) |
Historical time and personal experience will furnish the lenses through which we'll view interactions between nature and humans. How, for example, did the landscape originally populated by Native Americans shape the culture of European settlers and their descendants -- and how has human activity reshaped that environment? How have the natural environments in which you've grown up shaped your personal history -- and how have you reshaped those environments? In writing that ranges from the analytical to the personal we will examine the connections between human history, personal history, and natural environment. Students can expect to go on one single day outing on a weekend in September.
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