Spring 2007 Undergraduate Course Descriptions |
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No Course Offerings Spring 2007 |
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LITERATURE OF THE AMERICAS |
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No Course Offerings Spring 2007 |
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| (The following courses in Classical Literature can be found under their
respective Literature sub-headings: European, Greek, Latin, and World) LTGK 3 (INTERMEDIATE GREEK II) LTGK 130 (TRAGEDY) LTLA 3 (INTERMEDIATE LATIN II) LTLA 131 (PROSE) LTWL 19C (INTRODUCTION TO THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS III) |
| COMPARATIVE LITERATURE No Course Offerings Spring 2007 |
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| CULTURAL STUDIES LTCS 87 - FRESHMAN SEMINAR: READING TELEVISION: TV, POLITICS, AND POPULAR CULTURE Instructor: Meg Wesling How do we produce meanings and pleasures from television, and how TV does present to us a particular view of the world around us? We'll focus on two genres: reality TV and the teen drama, using episodes from The O.C., Laguna Beach, Lost, Celebrity Makeover, to name a few. Seminar will meet April 10, 17, 24; May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29. This is a 1 unit course. LTCS 87 - FRESHMAN SEMINAR: HOLLYWOOD ROMANCING THE ASIANS: ETHNICITY, GENDER AND SEXUALITY Instructor: Yingjin Zhang This seminar examines three stages of Hollywood's romance with the Asians--silent, cold war, and postcolonial--as exemplified by Broken Blossoms (1919) to Sayonara (1957) to M. Butterfly (1993)--and explores changes in screen representations of ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Seminar will meet April 3, 10, 17, 24, May 1, 8, 15, 22. LTCS 125 - CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP Instructor: Fatima El-Tayeb This course will focus on contemporary continental Europe and the ways in which race, class, religion, gender, and sexuality intersect in debates on immigration and identity. We will concentrate on cultural productions by “2^nd generation” artists and activists and their strategies of undermining dominant perceptions of what it means to be European. LTCS 130 - GENDER RACE ETHNICITY CLASS AND CULTURE: “MASCULINITIES” Instructor: Roddey Reid This course will investigate the making and unmaking of different definitions and styles of masculinity across different historical eras and regions (North America, Europe, and East Asia). Through an examination of films, videos, advertising, and writings by novelists, philosophers, medical researchers, and social scientists, students will be come acquainted with how what counts as masculine attributes and behavior is staged, enforced, and at times challenged in different cultural contexts from family and school to the daily routines of consumption and the workplace to sports and the trauma of war. What are the dominant and marginal models of masculinity today? Are they the same across all social groups and between generations? Or are they distributed differently in society? How stable or fragile are they? And how have they changed? How well do they resist the challenges of illness, age, or disability? Is masculinity always the exclusive province of boys and men? Why is it that models of masculinity rarely stand alone but are always bound up with other types of differences such as nationality, ethnicity, and sexual orientation? What types of social arrangements and behavior do they validate and favor? Films will include everything from film noir, the Western, war, spy, gangster, adventure, queer, comedy, and coming of age genres from the U.S., Mexico, France, the U.K., Japan, Hong Kong, China, and South Korea. This course will count toward requirements for the Critical Gender Studies major or minor as well as a LTEN course. |
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| EAST ASIAN LITERATURE LTEA 142 - KOREAN FILM, LITERATURE AND POPULAR CULTURE This course traces South Korean history from 1945 to the present through a comparative examination of literary works and films, paying particular attention to representations of the colonial past, national division, the Korean War, authoritarianism, industrialization process, family and gender relations, and contemporary popular and consumer culture. Some of the questions we will explore include the following: How do film genres/cinematic forms and literary styles/forms diverge in dealing with common topics? ; What are the respective particularities of visual/cinematic and literary representations of major historical issues? ; Have South Korean films and literary works served different political and social functions in various historical contexts? ; What kind of impact have the flourishing South Korean film and popular culture industry and its globalization in recent years had on South Korean literature, culture and society? We will pair a film with literary works for each week in addition to our reading of secondary materials that will help contextualize both films and literature. |
| LITERATURES IN ENGLISH |
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LTEN 23 - INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF THE BRITISH ISLES Between 1832 and the present Britain has undergone radical changes socially, politically, sexually, economically, religiously, and . . . literarily. Besides getting a sense of some major authors of this period, we will also try to grasp the ways in which literature has undergone transformations both to create and to keep up with those other categories of alteration. One marked transition has been the appearance of more women, more (openly) gay/lesbian, more working-class, and more post-colonial writers, so we will sample writings by all of these. Another important set of shifts has been in the modes and lengths of narrative and in the formal features and social significance of poetry; these too will occupy our attention, and we’ll spend some time getting an adequate vocabulary to talk about them. Books will be available at Groundwork Books, and course grades will be based on a mid-term essay, final exam, weekly quizzes, and attendance/participation in discussion sections. LTEN 26 - INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES In this survey of literatures written in the U.S. since the Civil War, we’ll take as our theme “Narrating Our Americas,” reconsidering the relation between American literature and U.S. nationhood as a way of posing a number of questions about the historical importance of literary study. In particular, we will trace the development of the idea of “the people” across 150 years, considering how literary texts, from late nineteenth-century populism to early twenty-first century popular culture, have constructed competing and often contradictory understandings of U.S. culture. We’ll pay particular attention to the evolution of national identity in relation to major social and economic transformations such as industrialization, migration, and urbanization; to explosive cultural developments like the introduction of mass consumer technologies of film and television; and to radical political reorientations through broad-scale movements like anti-racist struggles, feminist movements, and workers’ rights. Our goal will be to conceive of the literary in dynamic relation to the cultural and political history of the U.S. since 1865, to ask how these literary texts offer their own visions of U.S. history, and to consider how these visions might productively challenge and radically reshape our notions of Americanness in the twenty-first century. LTEN 27 - INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE This course will explore multiple forms of black literary production beginning in the late eighteenth-century through the late twentieth-century. We will consider the theme of selfhood, studying ways in which African American writers have sought to define themselves as a people and as individuals in this nation. Questions framing for our investigation include: what terms and what means have blacks in America used to speak of their experience? How have particular historical periods helped shape black literary production in the U.S.? What are some key elements in the African American literary tradition? Our texts will include poetry, autobiography, short stories, novels, and spoken word. LTEN 107 - CHAUCER: THE CANTERBURY TALES (a) In this course we will attempt to situate Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales within historical, cultural, and literary contexts. We’ll pay special attention to issues of gender and sexuality and how they inflect Chaucer’s poetics and politics and also consider how Chaucer’s work engages with contemporary events, such as the Black Death and the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. All readings will be in Middle English, which students will learn to read and to pronounce. Because we will be learning how to read Chaucer in the original in the first few sessions, this class gets off to a quick start with early assignments. Please be prepared to attend and participate from the first session and bring our text, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, ed. Jill Mann, Penguin, 2005. LTEN 118 - MILTON (a) This course entails a critical examination of the major works, including Paradise Lost, by an author who was both a central figure in English political life in a revolutionary age and, in the view of most critics, the greatest non-dramatic poet in the English language. We will read selections from a brief history of the period to better understand the complex milieu in which Milton’s works were produced. LTEN 120A - EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THEMES AND ISSUES (b) This course will focus upon the performance of gender and sexuality in British comic drama, from the sex comedies of the Restoration to the sentimental and "laughing" comedies of the eighteenth century. We will be discussing changes in theatrical representations of sexual relations and gender identities as they both intersect with changes in British culture, particularly the development of eighteenth-century domestic ideology. We will concern ourselves with such topics as: shifting representations of courtship and marriage, the responses to the introduction of women on the stage, the issues confronting female playwrights, representations of the male libertine and feminized men, the theatrical practice of female cross-dressing ("breeches parts"), the situation of female playwrights, the moral backlash against the sexual explicitness and "immorality" of Restoration comedy, sentimental comedy's re-writing of gender relations and the nature of comedy itself, and “laughing” comedy’s ostensible rewriting of sentimental comedy. Though the emphasis will necessarily be placed upon the plays as written texts, we will also be viewing taped productions of several of them. In addition to the plays, we will be reading some scholarly material on various aspects of this period. Playwrights will include: William Wycherley, Aphra Behn, William Congreve, Susannah Centlivre, Richard Steele, Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. LTEN 127B - VICTORIAN POETRY (b) Shake your hips; tap your foot; lend me your ears; let’s talk about poetry. It’s about sound, about soul, about sex; it deals with death, and doubt, and difference. Whether you want to write poetry or just learn to be a better reader of it, it’s indispensable to know about the things you thought you hated: meter, and alliteration, and the difference between sonnets and sestinas. Here is your chance to learn that vocabulary (no experience required) and why it really matters—the Victorians can show you how. The Victorians also struggled with the appropriate subjects for poetry: should it address large, contemporary social issues? the realities of the domestic sphere? the subjective experience of the lyric “I”? They wondered how to (and whether to) represent the individual’s sense of alienation from self, how much poetry should seem like painting or music. They created a wide cast of characters, from the criminally insane to the deeply pious to the prostitute to the classical hero, and we’ll encounter many of them in the course of our study. This will be a strongly participatory class, with grades dependent on weekly exercises, attendance/participation, a mid-term paper, and a final exam. Books will be available at Groundwork Books. LTEN 142 - THE END OF VICTORIANISM: FROM STEVENSON TO KIPLING: THE LATE VICTORIAN NOVEL (b) Towards the end of the Victorian period, literature went into a new phase, and the old names of Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and George Eliot became replaced by those of Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling. “High” literature--the serious social novel of up to a thousand pages which went inexhaustibly into our daily lives was replaced; the new fiction being shorter, more action-oriented, tilted towards a new marketplace. The forms of fiction changed--from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories of Sherlock Holmes, there was a new kind of look at life at the end of the nineteenth century. LTEN 159 - CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE (d) The focus of this class is on women’s postmodernist fiction. We’ll be reading contemporary texts written by women whose unconventional aesthetic approaches reflect the authors’ multifaceted identity-complexes. The course readings specifically explore women’s physical, intellectual, discursive, spiritual, and political interactions (and fights) in their world(s) and the vicissitudes and interplay of characters’ “identities” as gendered, racialized, nationalized, aged, embodied subjects of a specific moment in history – from the late 70’s to now. In addition to scholarly essays on issues of postmodernist literature and contemporary understandings of identity, we will read the novels Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker, Incubation: A Space For Monsters by Bhanu Kapil, The Beautifully Worthless by Ali Liebegott, The Parable of the Sewer by Octavia Butler, plus excerpts from Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and comics selections from Hothead Paisan by Diane DiMassa, A Child’s Life by Phoebe Gloekner, Rent Girl by Michelle Tea, and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Each of the course texts will provoke questions about what literature is and what it can do to in the world outside of the book. Via theme, syntax, methodology, and structure, these works provide counter-narratives to a variety of dominant and dominating discourses. In so doing, they galvanize critical/creative agility, allowing fresh possibilities for understanding and re-imagining womanhood and selfhood. Grade based on 2 papers (possible to substitute one critical-artistic work for one conventional critical paper), midterm & final. LTEN 181 - ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: TOPICS IN FILIPINO/AMERICAN LITERATURES
(d) This course takes up the histories and cultures of US imperialism in the Philippines and Filipino/a migration to the US through 20th century literature and film. We will focus on the complex relationship between the history of Philippine national independence and US immigration in order to highlight the formation of racial and class barriers, US and Filipino attitudes towards gender, the creation of trans-Pacific cultural identities, and the precariousness of social belonging. Readings / films will include texts by María Paz Latorena, Paz Márquez Benítez, Carlos Bulosan, José García Villa, Bienvenido Santos, Renato Constantino, Kerima Polotan, Jessica Hagedorn, María Victoria Soliven, Curtis Choy, and Marlon Fuentes. LTEN 185 - THEMES IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE: AFRICAN-AMERICAN HUMOR (c) This course is a study of African American humor, particularly in performance, from slavery (ca. 18th century) to today. The humor of African Americans has historically been divided, consisting of humor created by and for a black audience, and humor performed for a white audience. We will investigate the origins of this division, and the ways in which African American humor has shaped American culture. Keeping in mind the social and cultural context in which African American humor emerged and developed, we will take an interdisciplinary approach to our subject. We will use various materials from cartoons, folklore, literature, and film (among others) to study the African American comic tradition. LTEN 187 - BLACK MUSIC AND TEXTS: COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE Modern Western discourse is structured around interrelated, hierarchal binaries; mind/body, male/female, subject/object, word/sound, culture/nature, white/black; in which one appears as norm, the other as aberration. Black people have traditionally been assigned the deviant, lesser position in these equations (body, female, sound, nature etc.), classifying them as less than human. In this class we will explore some of the ways in which black music has been a site of resistance against interlocking forms of race, class, gender, and sexual oppression, aimed at deconstructing the binary system itself. LTEN 188 - CONTEMPORARY CARIBBEAN LITERATURE Physically, the Caribbean is a region consisting mainly of several strings of islands and waterways. These constitute numerous nations speaking at least four languages and their related dialects. Since the history of diverse peoples of the Caribbean is as fragmented as the islands themselves, cultural representations are used to create identities and fill gaps in written and oral histories. Among the experiences and identities considered and constructed are those rooted in race, class, gender and ethnicity. Caribbean writers transform these sources and experiences into literary works that, seen in an overview and in relation to one another, comprise a mosaic of the region’s recent and past history. Working with texts from the English-speaking, or anglophone, Caribbean, we will examine several literary genres—novels, poetry and drama—as well as early forms of contemporary music popularly known as “reggae” to understand the ways in which these artists create or recreate their world. In addition, these course can also count as a LTEN Course: |
| LTEN Upper Division Codes:
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| EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN
LITERATURE |
| No Course Offerings
Spring 2007 |
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| FRENCH LITERATURE |
LTFR 2A - INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I Second-year course designed to be taken after 1C/CX. We undertake a thorough review of grammar while continuing to develop language skills (oral and written) by studying short stories, cartoons and movies from various French-speaking countries. May be applied towards a minor in French literature. Prerequisite: LIFR 1C/CX or equivalent or a score of 3 on the AP French language exam. LTFR 2B - INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II We continue the review of grammar begun in LTFR 2A. To strengthen language skills, plays from the 19Th and 20th centuries as well as the movie interpretation of Cyrano de Bergerac are studied. May be applied towards a minor in French literature or towards fulfilling the secondary literature requirement. Prerequisite: LTFR 2A or equivalent or a score of 4 on the AP French language exam. LTFR 2C - INTERMEDIATE FRENCH III Designed for students who wish to further improve writing and conversational skills. Most advanced course in the program that offers a formal review of grammar. Oral skills are practiced through discussions of cultural issues presented in a contemporary novel and a film. May be applied towards a minor in French literature or towards fulfilling the secondary literature requirement. Students having completed 2C can register in upper-level courses (115 or 116). Prerequisite: LTFR 2B or equivalent or a score of 5 on the AP French language exam. LTFR 21 - CONVERSATION WORKSHOP I One-unit, one-meeting-a-week courses, designed to develop and maintain oral skills by discussing current cultural issues of the francophone world. These courses may be taken more than once, alone or in combination with any other literature course. Prerequisite: LIFR 1C/CX or consent of instructor. LTFR 31 - CONVERSATION WORKSHOP II One-unit, one-meeting-a-week courses, designed to develop and maintain oral skills by discussing current cultural issues of the francophone world. These courses may be taken more than once, alone or in combination with any other literature course. Prerequisite: LTFR 2B or consent of instructor LTFR 50B - INTERMEDIATE FRENCH III: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS This course emphasizes the development of language skills and the practice of textual analysis. Discussions are based on the analysis of various poetic texts as well as on a film. May be applied towards a minor in French literature or towards fulfilling the secondary literature requirement. Students having completed 50 can register in upper-level courses (115 or 116). Prerequisite: LTFR 2B or equivalent or a score of 5 on the AP French language exam. LTFR 116 - THEMES IN INTELLECTUAL AND LITERARY HISTORY: SURVOL DES 19E ET 20E SIÈCLES À partir de textes représentatifs, que nous situerons dans leur contexte historique et culturel, ce cours présentera les principaux mouvements et auteurs de la littérature française des 19e et 20e siècles. Le cours est entièrement en français. Prerequisite: LTFR 2C or LTFR 50 or equivalent. LTFR 123 - EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: LA SOCIÉTÉ AU XVIII E SIÈCLE Maîtres et domestiques, femmes et hommes, bourgeois et aristocrates..: comment leurs rapports sont-ils représentés par les romanciers, les philosophes , les dramaturges de ce siècle qui marque la fin de l’Ancien Régime? Nous l’analyserons à partir de textes de Marivaux, Laclos, Rousseau…Prerequisite: French 115 or French 116 or consent of instructor LTFR 125 - TWENTIETH CENTURY PROSE This course will deal with 20th century literature from various parts of the francophone world, including France, the Caribbean, Quebec, Senegal, Algeria, Lebanon, and Romania. Texts will be analyzed in relation to the social contexts of their emergence. |
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| GERMAN LITERATURE |
LTGM 2C - INTERMEDIATE GERMAN III 2C is the last course in the Intermediate German series. We are using a multimedia approach to retrace the difficult years from the end of the war to the building of the Wall with news reports, personal interviews and videos. The feature film” Das Wunder von Bern” tells the story of a soccer match that lifted the somber mood of the nation. LTGM 132 - MODERN GERMAN POETRY AND TRANSLATION The objective of this course is two-fold: we will read and discuss poetry by representative 20th century writers like Benn and Brecht, Kaschnitz and Fried, Celan and Bachmann, Kirsch and Runge and some contemporary immigrant authors. We will also see how different translators have rendered these works into English. Our evaluation and analysis of the English versions will be informed by our readings of seminal essays in the theory and practice of translation. |
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| GREEK LITERATURE |
LTGK 3- INTERMEDIATE GREEK II: READING HOMER’S ODYSSEY Having mastered (most of) the morphology of Ancient Greek, we'll turn this quarter to the reading of Homer's Odyssey. Besides translating passages from the poem, we'll discuss and review forms and constructions as they appear in our reading. Midterm, final, and some quizzes. Prerequisite: Greek 2 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor. LTGK 130 - TRAGEDY: AESCHYLUS’ PROMETHEUS BOUND Fans of polyptoton, take heart: you will not be disappointed. |
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| HEBREW LITERATURE No Course Offerings Spring 2007 |
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| LITERATURES IN ITALIAN |
LTIT 50 - ADVANCED ITALIAN This course provides an introduction to Italian literature and culture. Students will read 20th century short stories and newspaper articles. Close reading, written assignments, and conversation will prepare them for upper-division literature courses. Prerequisite: LTIT 2B or permission of instructor. LTIT 110 - ITALIAN LITERATURE: CRISTO SI E’ FERMATO A EBOLI: COMPETING NARRATIVES OF HISTORY, FILM AND FICTION This course, conducted in Italian, will use Carlo Levi’s novel Cristo si e’ fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli) and Francesco Rosi’s film of the same title as a way to consider the interactive aspects of history, film and fiction toward the construction of a post World War II national identity. During the course of the class we will read the film and novel through a variety of lenses: the Southern Question, national identity, the effects of Fascist ideology. Finally, we will discuss the lasting commentary and effects of the film and novel in today’s socio-political climate. |
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| KOREAN LITERATURE |
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LTKO 1A - BEGINNING KOREAN: FIRST YEAR I Please visit our Korean Literature website at: http://korean.ucsd.edu/ for a course description for this course. LTKO 1C - BEGINNING KOREAN: FIRST YEAR III Please visit our Korean Literature website at: http://korean.ucsd.edu/ for a course description for this course. LTKO 2A - INTERMEDIATE KOREAN: SECOND YEAR I Please visit our Korean Literature website at: http://korean.ucsd.edu/ for a course description for this course. LTKO 2C - INTERMEDIATE KOREAN: SECOND YEAR III Please visit our Korean Literature website at: http://korean.ucsd.edu/ for a course description for this course. LTKO 3C - ADVANCED KOREAN: THIRD YEAR III |
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| LATIN LITERATURE |
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LTLA 3 - INTERMEDIATE LATIN II Upon completion of the formal grammar midway through the term, we will metaphorically run through the meadows of Latin literature, sipping of the nectar of love poetry, inhaling the aroma of forceful rhetoric, winking at the cleverness of witty anecdotes, marveling at the wit compacted into epigrams. LTLA 131 - PROSE: JULIUS CAESAR We will be reading selections from Caesar's Gallic War and Civil War. There will be a midterm, final and paper.
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| NEAR EASTERN LITERATURE |
| No Course Offerings
Spring 2007 |
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| PORTUGUESE LITERATURE |
| No course offerings Spring 2007 |
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| RUSSIAN LITERATURE |
LTRU 1C - FIRST YEAR RUSSIAN III Continuing expansion of previous language acquisitions and introduction to new, unexplored territories. While systematically reviewing grammar, we will begin focusing on the language for more creative purposes in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Language lab videos and readings texts will supplement the basic text. This course meets two days a week for grammar lectures and two days per week for conversation. Every effort will be made to integrate material on Russian culture into the language curriculum. LTRU 2C - SECOND-YEAR RUSSIAN III LTRU 104C - ADVANCED PRACTICUM IN RUSSIAN Development of advanced skills in reading, writing, and conversation. Course based on written and oral texts of various genres and styles. Individualized program to meet specific student needs. May be substituted for LTRU 101 A-B-C as requirement for major. Prerequisite for 104A: LTRU 2C or equivalent. LTRU 110C - RUSSIAN AND SOVIET LITERATURE: 1917 TO PRESENT This course will explore Soviet and Russian literature from post-Revolution to post-communism. Topics include: the “sovietization” of Russian literature and the responses of writers to the legacy of the Revolution and communism; the question of Russian modernist and post-modernist aesthetics; and the rise of New Women’s Prose from glasnost’ to the present. All readings in English, no knowledge of Russian required.
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| LITERATURES IN SPANISH |
| INTERMEDIATE COURSES IN SPANISH
LANGUAGE/LITERATURE: The introductory Spanish sequence (1ABCD) is offered through the Linguistics Language Program Intermediate language and upper-level language and literature courses are offered through the Literature Department. Contact course instructor for further information and with questions regarding placement in LTSP 2ABCDE & 50ABC. Students in LTSP 2A and 2B must attend both the lecture and discussion sections of the course. Note: The final examinations for LTSP 2ABCDE & 50ABC will be held in common; see below for dates. |
LTSP 2A - INTERMEDIATE SPANISH l: FOUNDATIONS Instructors: TAs supervised by Beatrice Pita This 5 unit intermediate course meets 4 days per week and is taught entirely in Spanish. LTSP 2A emphasizes the development of communicative skills, reading ability, listening comprehension and writing skills. It includes grammar review, short readings, class discussions and working with Spanish-language video and Internet materials. This course is designed to prepare students for LTSP 2B and 2C. A diagnostic test will be administered on the first day. Prerequisites: Completion of LISP 1C/CX, its equivalent, or a score of 3 on the AP Spanish language exam. NOTE: THE FINAL EXAM FOR LTSP 2A IS SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY JUNE 11th, 2007. LTSP 2B - INTERMEDIATE SPANISH ll: READINGS AND COMPOSITION This intermediate course is designed for students who wish to improve their grammatical competence, ability to speak, read and write Spanish. It is a continuation of LTSP 2A with special emphasis on problems in writing and interpretation. Students meet with the instructor 4 days per week. Work for this 5 unit course includes oral presentations, grammar review, writing assignments, class discussions on the readings and work with Spanish-language video and Internet materials. A diagnostic test will be administered on the first day. Prerequisites: Completion of LTSP 2A, its equivalent, or a score of 4 on the AP Spanish language exam. NOTE: THE FINAL EXAM FOR LTSP 2B IS SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY JUNE 11th, 2007. LTSP 2C -INTERMEDIATE SPANISH lll: CULTURAL TOPICS The goal of this intermediate language course is twofold: to further develop all skill areas in Spanish and to increase Spanish language-based cultural literacy. LTSP 2C is a continuation of the LTSP second-year sequence with special emphasis on problems in grammar, writing and translation. It includes class discussions of cultural topics as well as grammar review and composition assignments. The course will further develop the ability to read articles, essays and longer pieces of fictional and non-fictional texts as well as the understanding of Spanish-language materials on the Internet. A diagnostic test will be administered on the first day. Prerequisite: Completion of LTSP 2B, its equivalent, or a score of 5 on the AP Spanish language exam. This course satisfies the third course requirement of the college-required language sequence as well as the language requirement for participation in UC-EAP. NOTE: THE FINAL EXAM FOR LTSP 2C IS SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY JUNE 11th, 2007. |
| DEPARTMENT APPROVAL FOR LTSP 2D AND 2E IS AVAILABLE IN THE LITERATURE UNDERGRADUATE OFFICE FROM 9:00-3:30, MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, BEGINNING 10/30/2006. LTSP 2D IS INTENDED FOR STUDENTS WITH SPANISH-SPEAKING BACKGROUND. PLEASE CONTACT INSTRUCTOR PRIOR TO ENROLLMENT |
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LTSP 2D - INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED SPANISH: SPANISH FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS LTSP 2E - ADVANCED SPANISH READINGS AND COMPOSITION: SPANISH FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS An advanced/intermediate course designed for bilingual students who may or may not have studied Spanish formally, but possess good oral skills and seek to become fully bilingual and biliterate. Reading and writing skills stressed with special emphasis on improvement of written expression, vocabulary development and problems of grammar and orthography. Prepares native-speakers with a higher level of oral proficiency for more advanced courses. A diagnostic test will be administered on the first day. Prerequisite: Native speaking ability and/or recommendation of instructor. Note: The Final Exam for LtSP 2E is scheduled for MONDAY JUNE 11th, 2007. Contact instructor with any questions regarding placement. LTSP 41 - CONVERSATION WORKSHOP llI The one-unit workshop format of this course will allow students to attain a stronger command of skills in matters of conversation, pronunciation, spelling, punctuation and accent rules. Focus will be on vocabulary development, use of idiomatic expressions and advancing oral and written proficiency in Spanish. Pre-requisites: LISP 1C/CX or consent of the instructor. Note: This conversation/discussion class meets once a week. May be taken as an adjunct to lower division LTSP courses, alone, or in combination with any other LTSP course. Recommended for students planning to study abroad. May be taken 3 times for credit as topics vary. May be taken P/NP or for a letter grade. LTSP 50C - READINGS IN LATIN AMERICAN TOPICS This course introduces students to literary analysis through the close textual reading of a selection of Latin American texts including novels, plays, short fiction and poetry. Coursework includes reading of texts, participation in class discussions and written assignments. LTSP 50C prepares Literature majors and minors for upper-division work. LTSP 50A and either 50B or 50C are required for Spanish Literature majors. May be applied towards a minor in Spanish Literature or towards fulfilling the second literature requirement for Literature majors. Prerequisites: Completion of LTSP 2C, 2D, 2E or 2 years of college level Spanish. Prerequisites: Completion of LTSP 2C, 2D or 2E or 2 years of college level Spanish. NOTE: THE FINAL EXAM FOR LTSP 50 IS SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY JUNE 11th, 2007. Contact instructor with any questions regarding placement. LTSP 116 - REPRESENTATIONS OF SPANISH COLONIALISM Desde los fines de la Conquista en el siglo 16 hasta nuestros tiempos, la definición de la relación entre la península ibérica y “las Españas” transatlánticas ha sido un sitio contestado de la política colonial y pos-Independencia. Empezaremos con una discusión general sobre las crónicas de la sociedad colonial de Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, Guamán Poma y Gracilaso de la Vega, El Inca, cuyos textos ejercieron una influencia sobre la emergencia del patriotismo criollo durante las guerras de la Independencia (s. 19). También examinaremos aquellas representaciones del colonialismo producidas por los reformadores “ilustrados” del siglo 19 en Cuba y Filipinas; y terminaremos con la representación de la “herencia colonial” en México y Perú durante la primera mitad del siglo 20. Adicionalmente veremos una serie de películas sobre la conquista y el coloniaje, comparando y yuxtaponiéndolas a nuestras lecturas. LTSP 119C - CERVANTES: DON QUIXOTE A reading of two 17th-century novels that some people (who think it is one novel) have called "the greatest novel of all time." We will focus on the society in which a military veteran, former prisoner of war, and failed dramatist-poet (Cervantes) transformed early modern narrative forms in order to attack one of the underlying discriminatory principles of his culture--blood purity. We will learn why these two books are not "the greatest novel of all time" and why they have little to do with windmills and nothing to do with "the impossible dream." Students will be asked to read carefully and formulate analyses of the texts. Final grade is based on class participation, two midterms, and a final. LTSP 130B - DEVELOPMENT OF LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE This course introduces students to key readings in 19th and 20th century Latin American Literature. Prior to discussion of these texts, we will undertake a rapid review of pre-Columbian, colonial and post-independence historical periods. Texts to be considered include indigenous poetry, colonial literature, a range of short narratives, plays, poetry and three novels: Canek by Ermilo Abreu Gómez, Tomochic by Heriberto Frías and Huasipungo by Jorge Icaza. Aside from these three novels, the other texts to be studied are included in a course Reader that will be available at Cal Copy. LTSP 135A - MEXICAN LITERATURE BEFORE 1910 Curso de introducción a la literatura mexicana del siglo XIX. Leeremos textos representativos del período. Una de las constantes del curso será el problema de la relación entre literatura y formación nacional. Se dará especial énfasis a la literatura de bandidos y a la didáctica, asi como a los cambios literarios que se producen hacia el final del siglo. Entre los autores leídos: Lizardi, Riva Palacio, Altamirano, Barrágan de Toscano, Rabasa, y Roa Bárcena. Curso de lectura intensiva. LTSP 136 - ANDEAN LITERATURE: EL INDIGENISMO Y AL NARRATIVA URBANA EN EL PERÚ En este curso vamos a leer ensayos, cuentos, novelas y alguno que otro poema sobre la migración interna de los Andes a la costa y del campo a la ciudad. Desde las primeras décadas del siglo XX, los peruanos del interior andino, muchos de ellos indígenas quechua-hablantes, han migrado a las ciudades de la costa en busca de trabajo y una nueva vida. Este proceso migratorio ha transformado (y andinizado) las ciudades costeñas, sobre todo la capital, Lima, que hasta mediados del siglo XX habían sido baluartes de la élite criolla. Vamos a empezar con un par de obras indigenistas de los años 1930s y 1940s, que por primera vez en la literatura peruana se refieren a la migración andina hacia la costa. Después pasaremos a analizar la representación de la nueva experiencia urbana de los migrantes andinos y la reacción de la élite criolla a esta “invasión” de ciudades que consideraba suyas. Como la guerra de Sendero Luminoso contra el estado peruano fue un factor importante en la migración de los Andes a las ciudades de la costa durante los 1980s, también estudiaremos los efectos de este conflicto armado. A lo largo del curso investigaremos no solamente cómo se ha representado la migración y la vida urbana en la literatura, sino también los efectos que estos procesos sociales han tenido sobre la literatura. Las lecturas incluirán obras de Arguedas, Salazar Bondy, Ribeyro, Bryce Echenique, y Vargas Llosa, entre otros. LTSP 176 - LITERATURE AND NATION: CARIBBEAN NATIONALISMS Este curso es una introducción a la cultura cubana a través de la literatura, la música y las artes visuales. Examina momentos históricos integrales al desarrollo de la nación, incluyendo la época colonial, las Guerras de Independencia contra España, el período republicano, la Revolución de 1959, y el “período especial” contemporáneo. Explora el concepto de la sociedad ideal según la política del momento—de los mambises del siglo diecinueve hasta la diáspora más reciente. Novelas, cuentos, ensayos y poesía se leen al lado de la narrativa musical (e.g. rumba, la nueva trova, salsa), películas, y artes gráficas en busca de como “la cubaniá” ha sido influida por proyectos imperiales, el legado de la esclavitud y las luchas continuas entre diversas clases sociales. |
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| LITERATURE/THEORY |
LTTH 115 - INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THEORY |
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| LITERATURES OF THE WORLD |
LTWL 4C -FICTION AND FILM IN TWENTIETH CENTURY SOCIETY: ASIAN AESTHETICS OF ASIAN CINEMA This class is an introduction to Asian cinema through appreciation of its multifaceted dimensions of aesthetics. Instead of attempting an inadequate survey of Asian film history in ten weeks, we will pursue close readings of ten select films by internationally renowned directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Wong Kar-Wai, and Edward Yang, aside from discussing recommended titles for further viewing. Our emphasis is placed as much on aesthetic (stylistic) and thematic (narrative) aspects as on conceptual (ideological) and cultural ones. Keyed to individual films, lecture topics include (1) aesthetics of narrative suspense (Rashomon [Japan, 1950]), (2) aesthetics of traumatic memory (Rhapsody in August [Japan, 1981]), (3) aesthetics of gender performance (Woman Demon Human [China, 1987]), (4) aesthetic of reflexive nostalgia (In the Mood for Love [Hong Kong, 2000]), (5) aesthetics of natural landscape (Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East [South Korea, 1989]), (6) aesthetics of globalized cityscape (Autumn Moon [Hong Kong, 1993]), (7) aesthetics of romanticized mindscape (The Scent of Green Papaya [Vietnam, 1994]), (8) aesthetic of postmodern comedy (Big Shot’s Funeral [China, 2000]), and (9) aesthetics of translocal life (Yiyi [Taiwan 2000]). All films carry English subtitles, and your knowledge of these films and the required reading will be tested in quizzes and exams. LTWL 19C - INTRODUCTION TO THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS III This course is an intensive introduction to the history, culture, and literature of ancient Rome and is meant to expose students to a broad range of ancient Roman characters, events, literary forms, and cultural practices. In the first place, we will look at the origins of ancient Roman and the formation of the Roman Empire as seen in the works of Livy, Tacit, Plautus, and Virgil. We will pay close attention to literary texts from different periods of Roman history, and look at the ways in which those texts are related to cultural developments, including works by Catullus, Horace, Ovid, and Martial. We will also try to get a glimpse of social life by reading narrative texts like Satyricon, an abrasive satire by Seneca, and a shockingly modern novel by Apuleius. A selection of letters and inscriptions will help illuminate the diversity and strangeness of Roman everyday life. LTWL 87 - FRESHMAN SEMINAR: WORK, TRAVEL AND STUDY IN AFRICA Using a variety of resources--texts, video and visitors--we will look at the realities of work, travel and study opportunities in contemporary Africa. A three-page travel proposal/country description will be required of all students. Seminar will meet April 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26; May 1, 3. LTWL 120 - POPULAR LITERATURE AND CULTURE: YOUTH IN THE AGE OF ROCK AND ROLL In the early years of the 20th century, a combination of historical and sociological forces in the U.S. laid the groundwork for a distinct youth culture that first peaked in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. In the aftermath of World War II, youth acquired even greater importance as the Age of Rock began. In this course we will examine the movements, fads, styles, and pop arts that shaped the sub-cultures of teens and twenty-somethings—from the Beats of the 50s through the Boomer Revolution of the 60s to today’s MTV and Internet generation. In the process we will read the novels (from On the Road to Fight Club), excerpt the cult movies and music, and discuss the trends that have made youth culture an essential institution of postmodern society. *This course will also count as a LTEN course. LTWL 128 - INTRODUCTION TO SEMIOTICS: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND
CINEMA Dreams and dream interpretation, the flashback as art and
convention, (audiences) patients and psychoanalysts in cinema (with
rf. to C. Metz, L.Mulvey, G.Gabbard and K.Gabbard): As we know, the
relationship of psychonalysis and cinema is at the heart of film
theory and film history, as are several approaches to the semiotics
of cinema. This introduction to semiotics will focus upon
psychoanalytic theory in cinema as a method and an open system,
which ranges from Freud to the present. LTWL 131A - TOPICS IN EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE: NEW TESTAMENT An introduction to the writings of the New Testament: their creation, collection and critical study. LTWL 131G - TOPICS IN EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE: AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS From Celsus to Julian the Apostate, the pagan assault on Christianity in the intellectual, political, and religious context of late antiquity. LTWL 154 - LITERATURE IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE This course examines the history and the theoretical relationship between public space and civic association from the early modern period to contemporary era. We will study the dynamics of what (ideas, languages, symbols, etc…) can be made in public in the everyday life of human societies, with a special focus on race and religious spheres of life; in this respect, a study of race-relations and Islamophobia in the U.S. will be central to the second half of this course. *This course will also count as a LTEN course. LTWL 155 - GENDER STUDIES: “CULTURES OF GLAMOUR” This course will look at the changing notions of glamour in the US, Europe, and East Asia from its beginnings in the days of classic Hollywood cinema and glossy magazines (1930s-1940s) to the rise of television, independent cinema, video, and digital imaging. Who and what counted as glamorous? How were ideas of glamour produced and circulated? Did they apply equally to men and women alike? Were they presumptively heterosexual or were there queer elements? And today in a dressed-down world of designer jeans, high-end sneakers, body tattoos, and the unrestricted circulation of personal digital photos on the Internet does the word glamour make sense anymore? Or is glamour now simply the expression of nostalgia for another age? Subjects will include glamour as commodity and fetish, glamour as image and performance, the question of camp (as failed glamour), the threat of aging and illness, and the social and economic context of glamour. We will read texts such as Jackie Stacey, Star-Gazing, Valerie Steele, Wayne Koestenbaum, Jackie under My Skin, Valerie Steele, Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now, and Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson, eds., Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations, and Analysis. Possible films and videos include Mackiewicz, Sunset Boulevard (1950), Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless (1960), D.A. Pennebaker, Ziggy Stardust (1973; on David Bowie), Chuck Workman, Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990), Jenny Livingston, Paris Is Burning (1991), Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven (1992), Isaac Julien, Baad Asss Cinema (2002), Todd Haynes, Velvet Goldmine (1999), Wong Kar-Wai, Chungking Express (1994), Seijun Suzuki’s Pistol Opera (2001), Steven Soderbergh, Ocean’s Eleven (2001), episodes from Sex and the City (1998-2004) and The L-Word, and Madonna’s videos from the 1990s. This course will count toward requirements for the Critical Gender Studies major or minor as well as a LTEN course. LTWL 167 - MODERN JEWISH LITERATURE: EASTERN EUROPE AND BEYOND In this course, we will probe the East European Jewish Imagination in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will pay close attention to the importance of text and language in the Jewish literary tradition, beginning with tales by rabbis and their followers, continuing with Enlightenment (maskilic) writers in Hebrew, Russian and Yiddish. We will examine the way that the multiple languages of the Jews in Eastern Europe influenced the development of Russian Jewish literature during and after the Soviet Union. The final weeks will be spent examining writings by Jews in what some have called the Russian Diaspora, including Israel and the United States. All readings will be in English. An XL section will be available in Russian. LTWL 168 - DEATH AND DESIRE IN SOUTH ASIA This class investigates the link between desire and death in classical and modern Hindu thought. In the most elementary formulation, this link is expressed as follows: Human beings are subject to death because they have desires; by controlling desire, human beings can escape death. This correlation between desire and death holds true for men and women alike, but it leads to disparate constructions of gender. Men are expected to practice self-control, while women are expected to submit themselves to the control of men. LTWL 183 - FILM STUDIES AND LITERATURE: DIRECTOR’S WORK: VAMPIRE CHIC CINEMA «Vampire films» represent a challenge for many master filmmakers
(F. F. Coppola, T. Scott, R. Polanski, A. Ferrara, W. Herzog, S.
Frears, P. Morrissey, E. Elias Merhige, to name just a few) as well
as for many of the most renowned film actors and actresses. These
films vary from surrealistic paroxysm to kitsch, or to
quasi-documentary style. While some vampire films reach cult status
for their unconditional aficionados, others have become part of the
classic repertoire of cinema. Although often categorised as part of
the horror genre of cinema, their usual dark humor, hyperbole, and
play with stylistic conventions seem to set them either at the
threshold or at the periphery of the horror genre. A case will be
made for a “sub-genre.” The structure of film offers viewers a narrative that, regardless of what might take place within the film’s visual sequences, is in part dictated by the nature of the medium itself. A consecutive series of frames would seem to suggest an unequivocal sense of linearity and narrative. Apparently, a sequence constructs a logical unit of meaning; yet, the visual vocabulary and narrative continuity also propose an opening beyond the “story line”. Our concern during this course will be the “opening sequences” of film. Is the function of such a sequence to captivate the audience by creating a strong identification with some element of the film, or is to open an ever-widening set of corridors to envelop the viewer in their atmosphere and convey us through the film, toward its conclusion? Is the opening sequence already a conclusive statement regarding the film’s discourse? Fun? Yes, through a variety of readings (Benjamin, Pasolini) and the viewing of opening sequences (Grand Canyon, Falling Down, La dolce vita) the aim of this course is to engender interpretative fun and happiness. This course will also count as a LTEN course. LTWL 192 - SENIOR SEMINAR: THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE PROBLEM: CAN ESPERANTO HELP Informal discussions of Esperanto in: world relations, commerce and trade, human rights, travel, science, literature/poetry, Third World, computer translations; Esperanto vs. national language for international communication. Develop knowledge to read, understand spoken Esperanto, and, maybe, speaking. |
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| WRITING |
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STUDENTS MUST HAVE COMPLETED THEIR COLLEGE WRITING REQUIREMENTS |
LTWR 8A - WRITING FICTION This course introduces the basic elements of fiction: characterization, dialogue, setting, point-of-view, and narrative structure. To explore craft and technique, there will be a number of brief writing exercises that will help to generate a short story as the quarter progresses. Writing will be reviewed in class workshop groups, as well as by T.A.s and the instructor, and revised based on these critiques. In addition, we will discuss a range of short fiction in class, providing an opportunity to experience in context some of the techniques that will figure in the course. In addition to attending class lectures and workshops, students will be asked to attend at least three readings in the UCSD New Writing Series. Evaluation will include short quizzes, a midterm, a portfolio of writing submitted at the end of the quarter, brief reports on readings, and regular attendance and participation. LTWR 8B - WRITING POETRY |
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DEPARTMENT APPROVAL FOR UPPER-DIVISION WRITING COURSES IS AVAILABLE IN THE LITERATURE UNDERGRADUATE OFFICE FROM 9:00-3:30, MONDAY-FRIDAY. |
LTWR 100 - SHORT FICTION This writing workshop will approach short fiction from both traditional and alternative standpoints. Through readings, writing exercises, peer review and the completion of two pieces, we will explore notions of narrative in the practice of story-making, opening up the possibilities of prose to include the unexpected. LTWR 100 - SHORT FICTION This course will be a workshop focused on short fiction. This class will give students a chance to discuss each other's work in a challenging but supportive environment. All forms of short fiction will be encouraged. The professor is a widely published writer of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, and an experienced literary editor. LTWR 102 - POETRY This course is for students with an interest in writing (and reading) contemporary poetry. Poetry has been variously defined by modern poets. William Carlos Williams said a poem is a "small (or large) machine made of words." Charles Bernstein described poetry as "turbulent thought" which "leaves things unresolved." We will explore a range of approaches to poetry writing and students will be encouraged to invent their own poetic forms. Assigned readings may include work by Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Charles Bernstein, Frank O'Hara, and Harryette Mullen. There will be intensive small group discussion of student poems. Prerequisite: LTWR 8B. LTWR 104 - THE NOVELLA The novella combines the pleasures of the novel, duration and dwelling, with those of the short story, compression and heightened pace. In this workshop we will experiment with creating our own novellas, and look at how various authors have taken up the form. Readings will include "The Death of Ivan Illyich", by Leo Tolstoy, "The Descent of Allette", by Alice Notley, and others. Prerequisite: LTWR 100 LTWR 107 - WRITING FOR CHILDREN This workshop class focuses on the writing fiction for young readers. Texts include excerpts from A Wrinkle in Time, The Chocolate War, Silent to the Bone and others by selected authors. Such readings have been chosen to illustrate the range of options available to writers in this genre. Students will work on in-class writing exercises based on the Amherst Writers and Artists workshop method. Manuscripts will be discussed and critiqued by one’s peers in a supportive, non-threatening context. LTWR 110 - SCREEN WRITING LTWR 110 will focus on writing the short story, novel, or screenplay for motion picture sale and eventual development into an independent or studio feature-length film. The course will concentrate on the fundamentals of character development and narrative, specifically as they relate to the translation from the page to the screen and, more specifically, as they pertain to the commercial viability of the project. Writers, producers, agents, directors, heads of development and other professionals from the motion picture and the publishing industry will appear as special guests on a random and unscheduled basis, depending on availability, in an effort to afford students an opportunity to meet some real-life players in the film and the publishing world. This upper division workshop is designed to give undergraduates an insight into the craft of professional writing and impart a feel for what it’s like to forge a career as a writer, with an emphasis on creating stories and fashioning characters for film. Enrollees will be expected to produce first drafts of feature-length screenplays, short stories that have movie potential, or partial drafts of novels that are character-driven and also possess film adaptation potential. This course is intended for students who are considering pursuing a career as a writer in the motion picture industry. LTWR 113 - INTERCULTURAL WRITING The diverse reading selections from the likes of Luis Urrea, Amy Tan, Naguib Mahfouz, Louise Erdrich, Kazuo Ishiguro and Alice Walker, to name a few, will serve as a springboard for your own writing. The workshop’s goal is to provoke, stir and ultimately inspire you to write with passion, subtlety, and clarity from your own intercultural points of reference. Although the focus of the workshop will be on short fiction, I invite you to read poetry, essay and drama selections from the required text, Discovering the Many Worlds of Literature (Pearson Longman, 2004) Hirschberg & Hirschberg, eds. (which I will put on reserve). The other required text is Francine Prose’s Reading Like A Writer--A guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them (HarperCollins, 2006). Students will workshop short stories or pieces of short prose. You will be graded on assigned readings, writing exercises, peer critiques, your growth as a writer and a final portfolio of 20 to 30 pages. LTWR 115 - EXPERIMENTAL WRITING: THE POETICS OF VISUAL CULTURE In this course we will examine the great poetic tradition of ekphrasis: the use of one art form to speak about or illuminate a work of art from another medium. More specifically, we will look at films and visual art that are influenced by, in conversation with, or influential to works of poetry and vice versa. The films, art and texts we will use will also serve as a starting point for your own writing. During the quarter, we will workshop your poems written about, through, or after the films and art shown in class. Your work will culminate in a 10 page chapbook comprised of a serial poem or long poem written in response to another work. LTWR 120 - PERSONAL NARRATIVE In this course we will explore the shifting border between the social and “personal,” the public and the private, through writing. Students will work on memoirs, dream journals, travel journals, etc. We’ll study examples of such writing in the work of Jack Kerouac, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, David Antin, Roland Barthes, Joan Didion, Charles Olson, Sandra Cisneros, and others. Students will be asked to produce five short pieces and one longer narrative. There will be intensive small group discussion of student work. Prerequisite: LTWR 8C and departmental approval. LTWR 126 - CREATIVE NON-FICTION: SOCIOLOGY AND LITERATURE Students will read and write texts which focus on both social issues and on stylistic and literary innovation: not academic sociology, the readings will fall within a range of genres, including feature writing, reportage, (photo) essays, social text. This includes James Baldwin’s The Evidence of Things Not Seen, excerpts from Agee’s Let us Now Praise Famous Men, Elias Canetti’s Crowds and Power, and works by Barthes, Susan Faludi, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, Jonathan Kozol and others. Several writing exercises will involve analysis of writers’ rhetorical strategies. The readings are also models for how to approach the writing project: to create a portrait of a social scene and/or sub/cultural trend and to discuss its ramifications. In all cases, projects will include interviews, observation, research and student writers consciously positioning themselves in relation to their subject matter (which might range anywhere from remote observer to intimate participant). You will provide first drafts of your projects for everyone in the class. We’ll discuss all student projects in the second half of the quarter; and you will also provide written critiques for about half of these. Revised projects are due finals week. Prerequisite: LTWR 8C. LTWR 148 - THEORY FOR WRITERS This course applies philosophy, historical analysis, and literary theory to creative writing projects. To this end we will read Badiou, Derrida, Gramsci, Deleuze, Benjamin, Althusser, Foucault, Wittgenstein, and others. Participants will workshop weekly writing exercises written in response to theoretical positions, leading to a ten-page final project representing, with a greater critical awareness, what writers do. Required text: The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (NY: Norton, 2001). Required work & grade breakdown: weekly exercises (50%); final project (50%). |