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No course Offerings Winter 2007 |
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LTAM 111 - COMPARATIVE CARIBBEAN DISCOURSE This course presents a comparative survey of Caribbean literatures from the Spanish, French and English Caribbean. Given these islands' linguistic, political and cultural diversity, we look for what Antonio Benítez-Rojo calls the “dynamic states or regularities that repeat themselves” in the region. These repetitions help us focus on key social and cultural movements that have emerged in response to the region’s dynamism and status as one of the world’s most sought-after imperial frontiers. The course is grounded in a socio-historic approach to literature, hence we investigate literary movements by tracing critical historical paradigms. These paradigms include the plantation, emancipation and its subsequent new labor arrangements, the quest for nationhood and its frequent association with the role of public intellectuals, and the most recent debates around post-coloniality and transnational identities. Students will be asked to imagine to whom the texts are “talking back.” What debates inform each author's arguments and equally important, what aesthetic strategies have Caribbean artists used to creatively engage their environments? Authors include Moreau de Saint-Méry, Mary Prince, Juan Francisco Manzano, Jean Rhys, Alejo Carpentier, Sam Selvon, Pedro Mir, Ana Lydia Vega and Edwidge Danticat. Primary texts will be complemented by Monday evening film screenings. |
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LTCH 101 - READINGS IN CONTEMPORARY CHINESE LITERATURE: EILEEN CHANG’S WRITING AND FILMS This class is a survey of Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing), perhaps the most famous female Chinese writer in the 20th century. We will explore her writings in relation to the rise of Shanghai culture, dilemmas of tradition and modernity, the puzzle of rewriting, the cross-fertilization of literature and visual arts, and the making of a literary star. We will also analyze several films based on her scripts or adapted from her works in order to evaluate popular and critical responses to her imaginative writing and her legendary life. Class requirements include all required readings and viewings, a class presentation, four short commentaries, one term paper, a midterm and a final exam. Advanced reading in Chinese (beyond the fourth-year level) is required. Students can choose to do presentations and write papers in Chinese or English, but exams must be done in English. |
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(The following courses in Classical Literature can be found under their
respective Literature sub-headings: European, Greek, Latin, and World) |
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| COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
No Course Offerings Winter 2007 |
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LTCS 100 - THEORIES AND METHODS IN CULTURAL STUDIES: BORDER CROSSINGS: THE LITERATURE AND ART OF IMMIGRATION LTCS 145 - NATIONAL CULTURES IN COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL CONTEXTS: TRANSCOLONIAL AMERICAN STUDIES This course examines inter-American contact zones of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, examing the ways in which novels, travel literature, short stories, political essays and music knit the regions together in complex narratives of interdependence. In an era that witnessed the momentous upheavals occasioned by the North American, Haitian, and South American Revolutions, populations regularly traveled throughout the circum-Caribbean and northeast seabord of the United States. Focusing on historic paradigms such as piracy, sea travel, the plantation complex, and manifest destiny, we examine the ways in which the complexities of multi-lingualism, competing claims of ethnic and racial self-identification, and the realities of migrating labor forces were actively theorized a century ago. Particular attention is paid to tensions between colonial loyalties and burgeoning nationalist movements, growing U.S. imperialism and the legacy of slavery in the region. The class engages current debates about the conceptualization of literatures of the Americas by exploring terminology such as "hemispheric American studies," "transnational Southern literature" and "comparative American studies." Authors include Simon Bolívar, José Martí, Alejo Carpentier, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, and Maryse Condé. |
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LTEA 120B - TAIWAN FILMS: NATION, STATE, AND PEOPLE This class deals with issues of nation, state, and people in a century of Taiwan cinema, which articulates multifaceted, oftentimes contradictory experiences of colonization, migration, militarization, nationhood, urbanization, modernization, democratization, and globalization. After a brief survey of the Japanese occupation and the early Nationalist rule, we will concentrate on “New Taiwan Cinema”—with its representative directors Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Wu Nien-chen—and what is sometimes known as “New New Cinema,” represented by Tsai Ming-liang, Ang Lee, and many other newcomers. Students are required to view two films a week, do a presentation in class, complete all required readings, write four short commentaries and one term paper, and take a midterm and a final exam. All films carry English subtitles; all readings are in English. No knowledge of Chinese is required. LTEA 144 -
KOREAN AMERICAN LITERATURE, KOREAN DIASPORA AND ASIAN
MIGRATION IN SOUTH KOREA This course is a survey of literary works, produced both within and outside the Korean peninsula, concerning the experience of migration, emigration and immigration of “ethnic Koreans” to various parts of the globe since the early 20th Century. We will attempt to place these literary representations of Korean diaspora between the contexts of Korean history and the histories of regions and nation-states to which ethnic Koreans migrated. We will also examine the more recent phenomenon of labor migration of Southeast and South Asians and returning diasporic ethnic Koreans into South Korea. Our readings will include diverse materials such as South Korean literary works on emigration to the US, Korean American literature, literature by Korean residents of Japan, historical sources on global Korean diaspora and contemporary theorizations of South Korea’s recent transition into an increasingly multi-ethnic immigrant society. |
| LITERATURES IN ENGLISH LTEN 22 - INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF THE BRITISH ISLES: 1660-1832 Instructor: Kathryn Shevelow This course covers the literature written in the British Isles during a period of profound political, economic, social, and literary change. These included industrialization and imperial expansion; the growing power of the middle classes; changes in thinking about gender; revolution, radicalism, and political backlash; the rise of reform movements such as abolition, Catholic emancipation, and animal protection. For the literary world, this was a time of the growth of the publishing industry; battles between “high” and “low” culture; the development of a new genre that came to be called the novel; and the emergence of women writers. This course will examine representative literary texts in various genres in the context of such developments. Writers will include, among others, Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Alexander Pope, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Jane Austen. LTEN 28 - INTRODUCTION TO ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: IMMIGRATION, RACE, AND U.S. MODERNITY An introductory course to the literature by Asian immigrants and Asian Americans, as expressions of the racial histories of groups immigrating from origins ranging from China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Novels, short fiction, and films will be our media for studying the “immigrant narrative,” and its revision, complication, or disruption by the multiplicity of national origins, the uneven shift from non-citizenship to citizenship, from 19th-century to post-1965 immigrations, displacements by U.S. wars in Asia, the loss of ‘culture’ and the invention of ‘tradition,’ the spatiality of ethnic enclaves and suburbia, and gender roles and relations in immigrant communities. Readings include: Shawn Wong, “Each Year Grain”; Fae Myenne Ng, Bone; John Okada, No-no Boy; Hisaye Yamamoto, Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (rev. 2nd ed.); Milton Murayama, All I Asking For Is My Body; Bienvenido Santos, “Scent of Apples,” “Day the Dancers Came”; Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters; Kim Ronyoung, Clay Walls; Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker; Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies; Lê Thi Diem Thúy. The Gangster We Are All Looking For; Andrew Lam, “Show and Tell.” LTEN 113 - SHAKESPEARE II: THE JACOBEAN PERIOD (a) A lecture/discussion course exploring the rich and varied achievements of Shakespeare’s later plays. Issues of form, theme, action, and language will be studied in the context of Shakespeare’s theatre and society. Six plays will be read -- Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest. Film versions of a number of these will be viewed and discussed. LTEN 125C - SECOND GENERATION ROMANTIC POETS: BYRON, THE SHELLEYS, AND ROMANTIC RADICALISM (b) As Europe entered a period of Restoration and Reaction after the tumultuous years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Lord Byron, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and Percy Bysshe Shelley shocked their contemporaries with daringly experimental writings and daringly experimental lives. They challenged traditional conceptions of literature, politics, religion, gender, and sexuality, and they produced works that continue to provoke delight, admiration, outrage, and debate. In this class we will draw upon relevant historical contexts as we examine closely some of this circle of rebels’ best writings, with a view toward grasping how they work, why they matter, and what they mean. Among the writings to be treated will be Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Cantos 3 and 4, and selections from Don Juan; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; and Percy Shelley’s “Mont Blanc,” The Cenci, “The Masque of Anarchy,” and Prometheus Unbound. LTEN 140 - THE EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH NOVEL (b) This is a course about the novels of Jane Austen and their social and historical contexts in the early nineteenth century. We will be reading all of Austen's major completed novels in order of their estimated dates of composition: Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. We will be discussing issues that arise from a historically-informed reading of the novels, such as her status as a woman writer and her discussion of gender in her fiction, the questions about her political views and the extent of her acknowledgment of the great historical events of her own day (such as the Napoleonic wars and England's active empire-building), and her representations of economic relations and social class. We will also be discussing the history and the image of "Jane Austen," from early attempts by members of her own family to manage her posthumous reputation through various subsequent celebrations and critiques to the present-day fascination with Austen and Regency England. LTEN 141 - THE HIGH VICTORIAN NOVEL (b) The leading novelists of the mid-nineteenth century: the Brontës, Charles Dickens, and Anthony Trollope. LTEN 148 - GENRES IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE (d) This course will study film noir as a cultural style in the postwar era, one that has, in its “retro” mode, become one of the defining characteristics of postmodernism. Film noir describes a series of American films made in the period between 1944 and 1956 that are known for their dark, existential themes and their relationship to the French Serie Noir hardboiled detective novel series. Film Noir has become a classic American genre, drawing from Grade B gangster and detective films of the 1930s as well as from German expressionism and French surrealism. Films like Double Indemnity, The Lady from Shanghai and Kiss Me Deadly have been seen as quintessential interpretations of American Cold War alienation and anomie. More recent films such as Breathless, Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, Bladerunner, and The Black Dahlia owe substantial debts to the film noir tradition. In this class we will see five or six classic noir films, including Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, The Lady from Shanghai, The Killers, and Kiss Me Deadly. In the last part of the class we will consider films that are, to some extent, spawned by this first group. Among the films being considered in the “retro” noir tradition are Chinatown, Bladerunner, Chan is Missing, L.A. Confidential, Bob Le Flambeur, and Mulholland Drive. In addition to these films, we will read essays in cultural and literary theory that identify the impact and historical resonance of film noir on the postmodern landscape. Students will view films weekly in the Film and Video Reserves section of the library and will write three short papers. LTEN 149 - THEMES IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICAN GOTHIC (c) In this course we will read and discuss texts, most of them written in the nineteenth century, that we now classify as gothic. (These will include short stories and poetry by Poe, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Stowe, Gilman, and Chesnutt.) We will read about haunted houses, ghostly apparitions and séances, deranged psyches, and mad scientists. In the second half of the quarter, we will turn our attention to how nineteenth-century histories haunt late twentieth-century fictions, reading several contemporary texts, including Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer and Toni Morrison's Beloved, in which historical events become the basis of uncanny plots. I will make several writing assignments and there will be a mid-term and a final exam. LTEN 159 - CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE: “IT’S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL:” 1960s POPULAR MUSIC IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT (d) Contrary to current mythology, most popular music during the decade of the 1960s was neither revolutionary nor particularly innovative. Mainstream radio was mostly AM and the music industry controlled what was played and created for the teen audiences. It was only in the late 1960s that innovations born of the rise of FM radio, national cultural politics, the confluence of several genres of music, and formerly underground publications began to change the shape of popular musical tastes. We will consider music from the entire decade, reading not only histories of the industry and its performers, but also cultural criticism developed first by the emerging “rock press” of the late sixties and contemporary cultural studies looking back at that period. We will examine the roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll (including Blues, R&B, and Rockabilly), the musical streams of the decade (teen idols through surf music, the folk revival, the British Invasion, the San Francisco scene, guitar heroes, etc.), and also learn the economics of the industry and the major role played by record producers and song-writers. Moreover, the political and economic history that shaped the decade will be seen as profoundly influencing the evolution of popular music and its reception. Readings and listening will be combined with lectures and video material, and discussion will be highly encouraged in class. LTEN 174 - AMERICAN FICTION II: MIDDLE JAMES (d) This course covers American fiction from 1900 to 1930. The reading will be Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, Sinclair Lewis’s Babbit, T. S. Elliot’s The Waste Land and short poems, and short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. LTEN 181 - ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE (d) Since the Chinese Exclusion Act of the turn of the late nineteenth century, the Asian presence in the U.S. has been understood as posing major social and cultural threats. Moreover, the American relationship to Asia has been dominated by war and militarism, whether in the form of armed conflicts, ideological battles, or economic rivalry. Casting Asians as inscrutable "enemies" – past, imminent, reformed, potential, or ungrateful – has thus been central to dominant representations and understandings of Asians and Asian Americans. The "Yellow Peril" as a gendered, sexualized, classed, racialized and globalized epistemological and affective structure of knowledge has been mediated to us through various forms of representation. It is inscribed in official histories, disseminated through Hollywood films and other popular media, and objectified as academic knowledge. Yet, this "Peril," imagined and real, is constantly contested at various local sites, at the in-between places of Asian/American cultural activities. There we can find various alternative representations and counter-memories. The course will examine the still persistent “Yellow Peril” complex as well as the Asian/American response manifested in diverse cultural forms. LTEN 186 - LITERATURE OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE This course examines the period (roughly 1920 to the early 1930s) that was known as the New Negro Movement, later referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. Although the Harlem Renaissance is often thought of as a literary movement, it was much more than this; it was a time of developing racial consciousness expressed through various media, including the visual arts, the performing arts, poetry and prose. Our class will include incorporation of music as well as close readings of major poetry and prose writers studied in the context of cultural history. We seek to understand the sociocultural significance of the historical moment as well as the texts written during it. |
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EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN
LITERATURE |
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| FRENCH LITERATURE |
| The introductory sequence (1A, 1B,
1C) is offered in the Department of
Linguistics. Intermediate and upper-level courses are offered in the Department of Literature. Note: The final exams for all sections of Literature/French 2A, 2B, and 50 will be held in common. Please see instructor for further information. Students enrolled in LTFR 2A and 2B must attend both the lecture and discussion portions of this course. |
| LTFR 2A -INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I Instructors: TAs supervised by Catherine Ploye 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 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 50 - 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 115 - THEMES IN INTELLECTUAL AND LITERARY HISTORY: DU MOYEN-AGE À LA RÉVOLUTION DE 1789 Nous étudierons quelques textes littéraires représentatifs de leur période et les situerons dans leur contexte historique et social. Prerequisite: French 2C or French 50. LTFR 124 -NINETEENTH CENTURY FRENCH FICTION: SEXUALITY AND FAMILY Ce cours propose d'étudier plusieurs textes de fiction au point de vue des discours qui leur sont contemporains sur le genre, les pratiques sexuelles et la vie de famille. Il s'inspire des enquêtes récentes qui ont été faites sur l'histoire de la sexualité et de la famille par des spécialistes. Auteurs prévus: Honoré de Balzac, Georges Sand, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant Le cours pourra compter pour la spécialisation en études féminines/sexuelles (Critical Gender Studies). LTFR 145 - AUTOBIOGRAPHIE: SARTRE, DURAS, SARRAUTE, MILOVANOFF Toute vie est un roman nous explique Sartre. Que signifie cette nouvelle ambition de se raconter? Nous essaierons de le comprendre à travers les textes autobiographiques de quatre auteurs contemporains très différents.
Prerequisite: LTFR 115 or 116. |
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| GERMAN
LITERATURE
LTGM 2B - INTERMEDIATE GERMAN II In this second course of the Intermediate German series, we are using a multimedia approach to trace the dramatic events in post-war Germany, divided into East and West. We will read eyewitness accounts and personal journals about the tremendous impact of the Berlin Wall on everyday life. We will also watch video clips of actual TV news stories from the period, and the feature film, “Das Versprechen, a tragic East-West love story. Our reading of several short stories, one of them Brecht’s gripping “Augsburger Kreidekreis, will add to our investigation of the East-West situation and to what should be lively discussions of this remarkable period in Germany. Last, but not least, there will be the usual dose of exciting German grammar exercises, to help us get the most out of the various materials in the course, and to refine our skills in German. LTGM 131 - GERMAN DRAMATIC LITERATURE For a Marxist, Brecht has made it pretty big in Amerika, which he loathed. He may not be a household name, but his show tunes have their place in our pop culture. Just buy the CDs: Sinatra croons out the ballad of “Mack the Knife” live in Las Vegas, and Jim Morrison covers the “Whiskey Song” for a new generation on The Doors’ debut album. Brecht’s dramas--especially The Three Penny Opera—play regularly coast-to-coast. Just this summer La Jolla Playhouse premiered a new version of Brecht’s Mother Courage—a warning to war profiteers—and the San Diego audiences thoroughly enjoyed themselves. A sure a hit, the play next went to New York, where Meryl Streep delighted star-stuck crowds in Central Park. It’s 2006, and Bertold Brecht is playing to rave reviews in the economic center of the world’s foremost capitalist nation, currently at war. Is there something wrong with this picture? Yes and no. After all, Brecht did insist that theatre must—before all else—entertain. To ensure this, he collaborated with some of the 20th century’s most innovative composers—Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau—and directed a host of brilliant actresses and actors—Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Helene Weigel, Ernst Busch, and many others. Today he is universally acknowledged to have revolutionized theatrical performance with his “epic theatre” and its famous “alienation effects.” But if Brecht knew how to put on a good show, it wasn’t for nothing that the day after his own one-man performance—before Senator Joe McCarthy’s infamous Committee on Un-American Activities—he jumped a plane for Europe. Brecht is all about performance, and so is this class. We will watch the rare film of Brecht’s own production of Mutter Courage and compare it to later ones. We will listen to the original 1928 recording of Die Dreigroschenoper, and trace its changes up to the present. We will hear Brecht’s most famous actors and actresses sing his songs and recite his poetry. We will read some of Brecht’s dramatic theory, and in order to understand it, we will read some Marx, too. We will even treat ourselves to a recording of Brecht’s performance before the Committee on Un-American Activities. This course is about Brecht’s work in action. We will enjoy great performances; we will explore the various media of his productions; and we will learn about his constant subject, war. LTWL 180 - FILM STUDIES AND LITERATURE: FILM HISTORY Please see course description under LTWL 180. Note: For students who would like to take this course for credit in German, there will be a weekly one-hour foreign-language discussion section (LTWL 180XL) |
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GREEK LITERATURE We'll continue to make our way through the same introductory text. There will be longer passages of real Greek (Homer, Plato, Euripides, Theognis, New Testament, etc.) and more complexity....but also more pleasure! By the end of the term we will be prepared to embark on reading the Odyssey in Greek 3. Midterms, quizzes, and final. Prerequisite: LTGK 1 or permission of the instructor. LTGK 120 - NEW TESTAMENT GREEK Readings from the Gospel of Mark in the original Greek, with special attention to identifying its intended audience and particular view of Jesus. Midterm, Final, and Paper. |
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| HEBREW LITERATURE
No Course Offerings Winter 2007 |
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| LITERATURES IN ITALIAN
LTIT 2B - INTERMEDIATE ITALIAN II A second-year course in Italian language and literature. Conversation, composition, grammar review, and an introduction to literary and nonliterary texts. Prerequisite: LIIT 1C, LIIT 1C/1CX, or equivalent or consent of the instructor. LTIT 143 - MAJOR ITALIAN AUTHORS: PIER PAOLO PASOLINI Thirty years after his murder Pier Paolo Pasolini still stands as one of the most controversial and influential intellectuals of the 20th century. As a most important social activist Pasolini’s Marxism, Catholicism and homosexuality became irritants for purists in each community and for antagonists beyond them. This course will give us the opportunity to consider Pasolini’s films, essays, poetry and prose as both historical documents and in a contemporary context. Among other things we will view films such as Accatone and Hawks and Sparrows and read from the essay collection Scritti Corsari. |
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LTKO 1B - BEGINNING KOREAN: FIRST YEAR II 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 2B - INTERMEDIATE KOREAN: SECOND YEAR II Please visit our Korean Literature website at: http://korean.ucsd.edu/ for a course description for this course. LTKO 2B - INTERMEDIATE KOREAN: SECOND YEAR III Please visit our Korean Literature website at: http://korean.ucsd.edu/ for a course description for this course. LTKO 3 - ADVANCED KOREAN: THIRD YEAR II Please visit our Korean Literature website at: http://korean.ucsd.edu/ for a course description for this course. |
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LTLA 2 - INTERMEDIATE LATIN I This course takes up where the last one left off, with the memorization of forms (increasingly easier) gradually giving way to the study of the rules for the syntax of complex sentences (i.e., ones with two or more clauses). It sounds fascinating, but most find it an exquisite mix of the challenging and the daunting. Students who take this course should remind themselves of the sunny optimism they had when they first chose Latin, feeling that they were embarking on the study of an exotic, important language which sets those versed in it apart by their sesquipedalian quisquiliousness. This truth hasn't changed, but the journey to that Shangri-la isn't always joyous; it remains, however, a very worthwhile struggle to get there. Daily recitation, six quizzes, mid-term, final. LTLA 2 - INTERMEDIATE LATIN I We will cover chapters 17-32 of Wheelock's Latin by Frederic M. Wheelock (6th edition). Expect to have a quiz almost every week, plus two midterms and final. Quizzes are worth 30 %, the midterms 20 % each, the final 30 %, class participation and other factors 10 %. However, when figuring your final grade, I will take improvement (or the lack thereof) into account. I also reserve the right to institute written homework assignments and more frequent quizzes if necessary. Latin is not taught as a spoken language, so the emphasis will not be on conversing so much as pronouncing correctly through oral drills. There are, however, many grammatical principles to be learned. In some ways, Latin is more like math or science than it is like a modern foreign language; you will soon find it impossible to "get the gist" of the readings unless you know the grammatical rules thoroughly. Therefore, I urge you not to fall behind -- it is very difficult to catch up. LTLA 114 - VERGIL: AENEID The text for this course will be book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid, though we'll read the entire poem in English translation. Our day-to-day focus in class will be on the Latin text, but we will devote time and discussion as well to the interaction between Vergil's narrative and Roman history, specifically the Augustan period, and to the relationship between the Aeneid and the Greek texts--primarily Homer's and Apollonius's--to which Vergil makes repeated allusion. Paper, midterm, final.
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No course offerings Winter 2007 |
| PORTUGUESE LITERATURE No course offerings Winter 2007 |
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LTRU 1B - FIRST-YEAR RUSSIAN II Continue exploring the mechanics and mystery of Russian language, culture, and people. We will journey forth into all forms of communication: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. We will continue acquiring basic vocabulary and grammar skills and attempt to apply them both mechanically and creatively. Original Russian materials will supplement the basic text and language lab tapes. This course meets two days per 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 2B -SECOND-YEAR RUSSIAN II 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 104B - 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 110B - RUSSIAN AND SOVIET LITERATURE 1860-1917 This course focuses on Russian literature from high Realism to the Silver Age. We will cover works by Turgenev, Dostoevskii, Tolstoi, Chekhov, and the Silver Age poets. 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 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 MARCH 19th, 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, MARCH 19th, 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, MARCH 19th, 2007. |
| DEPARTMENT APPROVAL FOR LTSP 2D AND 2E IS AVAILABLE IN THE LITERATURE UNDERGRADUATE OFFICE FROM 9:00-3:30, MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, BEGINNING WEDNESDAY, 10/30/06. LTSP 2D IS INTENDED FOR STUDENTS WITH SPANISH-SPEAKING BACKGROUND. PLEASE SEE INSTRUCTOR PRIOR TO ENROLLMENT. |
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LTSP 2D - ADVANCED SPANISH AND COMPOSITION: SPANISH FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS Designed for bilingual students who have been exposed to Spanish at home but have little or no formal training in Spanish. The goal is for students who are comfortable understanding, reading and speaking in Spanish to further develop existing skills and to acquire greater oral fluency, and grammatical control through grammar review, and reading and writing practice. Building on existing strengths, the course will allow students to develop a variety of Spanish language strategies to express themselves in Spanish with greater ease and precision. Prepares native-speakers 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 2D IS SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY, MARCH 19th, 2007. Contact instructor with any questions regarding placement. LTSP 2E - ADVANCED SPANISH 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, MARCH 19th, 2007. Contact instructor with any questions regarding placement. LTSP 31 - CONVERSATION WORKSHOP ll Designed to allow students with a basic grounding in Spanish to discuss a variety of topics related to literary and current cultural issues. Focus will be on vocabulary development, use of idiomatic expressions and advancing oral proficiency in Spanish. Pre-requisites: LISP 1C/CX or consent of the instructor. Note: This conversation/discussion 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 50B -READINGS IN LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE 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. Lit/Sp 50B prepares Literature majors and minors for upper-division work. Lit/Sp 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. Contact instructor with any questions regarding placement. NOTE: THE FINAL EXAM FOR LTSP 50 IS SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY, MARCH 19th, 2007. LTSP 123 - TOPICS IN MODERN SPANISH CULTURE: LA REGENTA Considerada por muchos la mejor novela española del siglo XIX, La regenta de Leopoldo Alas “Clarín” es la historia de cómo Ana Ozores, la joven y bella mujer del regente (chief judge) de una capital provinciana, intenta trascender el mundo que le rodea. La novela representa este mundo con tanta complejidad y riqueza de matices que servirá en este curso como base para explorar la cultura española de la última parte del siglo XIX. Además de leer la novela—que es larga—leeremos cortos textos complementarios. La participación de los estudiantes incluirá informes orales acerca del contexto cultural, cortos comentarios del texto, un trabajo escrito de 6 páginas, y un examen final. LTSP 130A - DEVELOPMENT OF SPANISH LITERATURE This class is designed as an overview of Spanish Literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with the main trends in Spanish literature. Special emphasis will be placed on the relationship between literary currents and historical processes. The class will be conducted in Spanish. LTSP 134 -LITERATURE OF THE SOUTHERN CONE Estudio de varios autores y textos significativos de varias fases del siglo XX: Roberto Arlt (Los siete locos), Juan Carlos Onetti (Dejemos hablar al viento), Manuel Puig (The Buenos Aires Affair) y Roberto Bolano (La pista de hielo). Comentario de textos y debida contextualizados en términos históricos y políticos. Un examen intermedio y examen final o paper. LTSP 142 - THE LATIN AMERICAN SHORT STORY Análisis y comentario de colecciones de cuentos de autores importantes en la segunda mitad del siglo XX, de diversas nacionalidades: Octaedro, de Julio Cortázar; Doce cuentos peregrinos, de Gabriel García Márquez; Llamadas telefónicas, de Roberto Bolano y de tres autores más. Examen intermedio y examen final o paper. LTSP 151 - TOPICS IN CHICANO/A-LATINO/A CULTURE: REPRESENTACIONES DEL INMIGRANTE Un estudio de varios textos que representan la experiencia contemporánea de los inmigrantes latinoamericanos en los Estados Unidos. Estudiaremos testimonios, novelas, documentos oficiales y películas en que los trabajadores inmigrantes emprenden el viaje al norte y establecen su vida en una sociedad contradictoria y a veces hostil. Los textos incluyen Ramon Perez, Diario de un mojado; Francisco Jimenez, Senderos fronterizos; Alicia Alarcon, La migra me hizo los mandados. Los estudiantes tendrán la responsabilidad de leer y analizar los textos; el profesor dará ponencias breves sobre el panorama político y cultural. Tambien tendremos visitas en clase de expertos en cuestiones de los derechos del inmigrante. LTSP 176 - LITERATURE AND IDEAS: CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR In this class we will analyze different representations of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Spanish Civil War is one of the most important events both for Spain and for the rest of the world. As such, it stirred not only intense debates, but also an enormous amount of literary and artistic works. The class is an introduction to the Spanish Civil War through novels, poetry, and visual representations. The rise of European fascism, the crisis of political and esthetical avant-garde movements, the politics of war and revolution, and the role of the intellectuals will be among the topics discussed in the class. Some of the authors that we will discuss include, but are not limited to, Pablo Neruda, César Vallejo, Ernest Hemingway, Elena Garro, Tina Modotti, George Orwell, Pablo Picasso, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti etc. LTSP 177 - LITERARY AND HISTORICAL MIGRATIONS
En este curso
analizaremos diferentes representaciones culturales de la frontera,
enfocándonos principalmente en la zona Tijuana / San Diego. A través
de novelas, cuentos, ensayos y películas pensaremos, entre otros
temas, el desarrollo histórico de la frontera, las distintas
imágenes míticas y abyectas de la ciudad de Tijuana y de la frontera
en general, a la vez que tendremos en cuenta las condiciones socio-económicas
que se desprenden de la existencia de la frontera como zona de
contacto y zona de conflicto. En el curso analizaremos la
perspectiva de la frontera desde el norte, desde la cultura local
tijuanense y desde el interior de México con el objetivo de comparar
y discutir los distintos modos de construir esta realidad fronteriza.
Algunos de los autores que estudiaremos incluyen: Hernán de la Roca,
Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, Gloria Anzaldúa, Federico Campbell,
Teresa Avedoy, José Manuel Valenzuela Arce, y María Novaro.
La evaluación se basará en pruebas de lectura, dos composiciones
formales, la participación activa en clase y varios proyectos
informales de escritura asignados a lo largo del semestre. |
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No course offerings Winter 2007 |
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| LITERATURES OF THE WORLD
LTWL 4D - FICTION & FILM/20TH CENTURY/ ITALIAN LTWL 4D is a course in Italian Cinema that requires no knowledge of Italian or previous training in film studies. It is a course geared to benefit anyone with an interest in Film, Culture, Literature and Social issues. The course will address issues related to the changes in the Italian social and cultural landscape as manifested in film from the immediate post-WWII period to today. From the first days of Neorealism Italian cinema has carried out an attempt to define a national culture, first in opposition to the fascist regime that reigned from 1922-1944, then as modern nation state participatory in the creation of the United European Nations. Neorealism continues to manifest itself in Italian cinema often in unexpected contexts with re-incarnations, revivals, renewals, citations, etc. As we make our way through the films in this course we will attempt to analyze its influence on successive generations of film-makers not only in relation to the parameters of film-making but also in the social/political function of the manufactured image. LTWL 19B - INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS II This course presents for consideration some of the works of some of the most interesting thinkers of the Classical Age of ancient Athens. If all goes well, students will realize that many of our own perennial concerns were shared by the ancient dramatists, philosophers, and historians and vividly presented in their writings. In the course of studying this quite different culture with its unfamiliar forms of thought and expression, the realization that their ways of looking at the world are fresh and enlightening and useful impresses itself on us. The perspective gained from such a discovery doesn't translate into fungible assets, but is invaluable. Two 5-page papers, a mid-term, and a final. LTWL 107 - PROSE FICTION: MANHATTAN As a center of intellectual, artistic and financial power, Manhattan has played an enormous role in America’s cultural life and imagination, and especially since 9/11, the world’s view has been on Manhattan. This course will primarily look at the fiction that came from and characterized Manhattan in the late 19th and 20th centuries. This will be viewed in context of many intersecting historical, sociopolitical, and cultural factors such as Margaret Sanger and the birth control movement, The Masses and opposition to WWI, artistic movements (Dadaists; CIA funding of the abstract expressionists; AIDS activism and graphics) including the physical development of the city: growth of neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village and Harlem; the significance of public spaces (department stores, Central Park, public housing). Texts include Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, Mike Gold, Jews Without Money, Nella Larsen, PASSING, Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man, Kathy Acker, Blood and Guts in High School, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. We’ll also read fiction and essays by Melville, John dos Passos, James Baldwin, Grace Paley, Samuel Delaney and others. There will be quizzes and writing exercises on the readings, a take-home midterm, a final paper and an optional extra credit paper on the documentary Paris Is Burning. *This course will also count as an LTEN course. LTWL 110B - FOLK AND FAIRY TALES One of the purposes of fairytales is to teach children about the variety of destinies in life. Fairytales impart knowledge about maturation between an older voice of experience and a younger audience. They present pictures of future dangers and possibilities. They use fear and love to help us with our moral decision-making, and they draw maps of socialization for boys and girls, the rich and the poor, rulers and their subjects. But folk and fairytales also give us the opportunity to uncover the stories in our own lives. The aim of this course is two-fold: we will focus on the pedagogical, socializing dimension of the fairytale (textual analysis), and we will study the art of story-telling, for part of the socializing process of fairytales lies in the experience of telling and listening. We will study the classic European fairytales and their adaptations throughout the world. We will study Italo Calvino’s collection of Italian folktales, Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose, and two life stories, including Joel ben Izzy’s, The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness, Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish. We will pay special attention to storytellers, storywriting and our own life stories. We will discuss the role of fairytales in fiction and pop culture. *This course will also count as an LTEN course. LTWL 116 - ADOLESCENT LITERATURE: RITES OF PASSAGE As we make our way through the films in this course we will attempt to analyze its influence on successive generations of film-makers not only in relation to the parameters of film-making but also in the social/political function of the manufactured image. This quarter the course will focus on the literature of pubescence, coming-of-age stories that reflect the unique expectations and travails of the transition from childhood to adolescence and by extension adulthood—roughly during the ages 11-14. Using an approach that links developmental concerns with literary ones, we will examine how authors handle issues of social acceptance, disillusionment, sexuality, relations with parents, authority figures, and peers, culture and ethnicity, as well as matters of literary presentation and audience. Novels will span the genres from realism to fantasy. *This course will also count as an LTEN course. LTWL 138 - CRITICAL RELIGION STUDIES This course will study the religion of ancient Israel as a complex historical phenomenon reflected in biblical literature. Primary Biblical and other ancient Near Eastern texts will be studied in translation, and readings will be drawn from a variety of relevant disciplines: archaeology, anthropology, philosophy, and history of religions. LTWL 149 - THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY IN THE WEST The period from 1880 to 1930 was a time of tumultuous change in Europe and the United States. In this highly interdisciplinary course, we will look at the changes that occurred in everyday life, family life, social attitudes, politics, science, philosophy, and the arts. We will examine how technology changed domestic life and how changes in domestic life led to changes in attitudes toward women and sexuality. We will examine the rise of racial thinking in connection with European and American imperialism and in connection with the modern concept of human rights. We will look at philosophies of mind and new developments in religious thinking. This is the era that brings revolutions in biological sciences and physics. We will look at the rise of modern neurology and relativity theory. Finally we will look at the enormous changes that occurred in the arts, for example, the rise of abstraction in the visual arts, “emancipation of dissonance” in music, the abandonment of conventional forms in literature, and the emergence of cinema as an art form. *This course will also count as an LTEN course. LTWL 150 - MODERNITY AND LITERATURE Why periodize? What is wrong with the period ‘now’? This course examines seven narrative forms of ‘modernity,’ attempting to show what modernity is—how modernities differ—what ruptures produced them—what inevitably ended them, and why. Readings include Samuel Beckett, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable (translated from French by the author); Jean Genet, Our Lady of the Flowers; João Guimarães Rosa, The Devil to Pay in the Backlands; Lu Xun, “Diary of a Madman”; Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo; Rainer Marie Rilke, Duino Elegies; and Frederico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding. Highly recommended background reading: Fredric Jameson, A Singular Modernity: Essay on the Ontology of the Present (Verso, 2002). Of interest: Douglas Mao and Rebecca L. Walkowitz, eds., Bad Modernisms (Duke UP, 2006). Course requirements: two six-page papers and reading responses. LTWL 166 - THE YIDDISH NOVEL Where did Saul Bellow get his melancholy? Where did all of the love and darkness in Amoz Oz originate? What's behind Isaac Babel's irony? Get to the bottom of these questions and more by discovering the Yiddish Novel. No prior knowledge of Yiddish or Jewish culture is necessary, but a Yiddish language section may be available for students eager to read selections in the original. We will be reading works by the Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, his brother Israel Joshua Singer, and his sister Esther Kreytman, Sholem Aleichem, Mendele Moykher-Sforim, Chava Rozenfarb and others. LTWL 176 - LITERATURE AND IDEAS In this class we will analyze different representations of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Spanish Civil War is one of the most important events both for Spain and for the rest of the world. As such, it stirred not only intense debates, but also an enormous amount of literary and artistic works. The class is an introduction to the Spanish Civil War through novels, poetry, and visual representations. The rise of European fascism, the crisis of political and esthetical avant-garde movements, the politics of war and revolution, and the role of the intellectuals will be among the topics discussed in the class. Some of the authors that we will discuss include, but are not limited to, Pablo Neruda, César Vallejo, Ernest Hemingway, Elena Garro, Tina Modotti, George Orwell, Pablo Picasso, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti etc. LTWL 180 - FILM STUDIES AND LITERATURE: FILM HISTORY This course will explore the evolution of representations of Jewish figures in film across the twentieth century, from Germany, Austria, Israel, and America. Beginning with the antisemitic stereotype of the mystical, transformative power of the Jewish people depicted in The Golem (Germany, 1920), we will trace the development and reinvention of Jewish identity in film by Jewish and non-Jewish directors and writers. Topics will include Nazi propaganda, the Holocaust, German-Jewish relations, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Jewish heritage tourism in Eastern Europe. LTWL 184 - FILM STUDIES AND LITERATURE: CLOSE ANALYSIS OF FILMIC TEXT The renowned SciFi masterpieces by Stanley Kubrick 2001.A Space Odyssey (1968), Ridley Scott, Blade Runner(1982), L. & A. Wachowski The Matrix(1999), Steven Spielberg’s AI Artificial Intelligence (2001) or Minority Report (2002), and one of George Lucas’s StarWars and will be studied in depth. Clips from these films as well as from many other well-known SciFi films (such as CloseEncounters of the Third Kind, Total Recall, Terminator 2, Matrix 3, Dark City, Simøne, et al.) will be presented and analysed during the unfolding of the course. Directions: Is speculative fiction (SF) a New Wave or a newer version of science fiction (SciFi)? Or did SciFi reach entropy? (Have “cyborgs” become obsolete? – so fast?) Does SF transcend SciFi? Are the utopian and apocalyptic questions of SciFi which were once addressed to (post)modern generations of audiences reconfigured in our own digital new age? Does every film generation repeat the same type of questions, albeit with different modalities? Why do so many renowned film directors feel challenged by the medium, or by the genre, of SciFi? Is SciFi about something other than questions of SciFi? E.g. philosophical and metaphysical issues about time, death and immortality, going ‘back to the future,’ cultural mythology, and especially scientific investigation? Methods: technical analysis of films will be highlighted in the first part of the quarter – close shot-by-shot analysis, narrative programs vs plots, f/x effects, filmic metaphors, et al.– the better to deal with the questions suggested in the previous paragraph during the second half of the quarter. Note: Reference will be made to the works of AClark, PKDick, JGBallard et al. However, students who wish to be more involved with questions of text-to-film transposition should signal their interest at the beginning of the quarter. Science and Engineering students who may also wish to take other directions in their study of SciFi cinema (e.g. nanotech, et al.) should indicate early on such interest. “Veteran” AJJCohen’s students are, of course, welcome and will be directed to more advanced work from the start. This course will also count as an LTEN course. |
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| WRITING |
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STUDENTS MUST HAVE COMPLETED THEIR COLLEGE WRITING
REQUIREMENTS |
This introductory fiction course is primarily a studio class,
meaning everyone will write, write, and write – in class, out of
class, every day. I will emphasize techniques of generation and
revision. We will read works of conventional and experimental
fiction to see what the writing is trying to do, moment by moment
and overall, and how the writing is accomplishing its desired
effects. With at least as much attention, we’ll read one another’s
exercises and works-in-progress. This intensive immersion into
readings, discussion, and practice should help participants
recognize and nimbly employ conventional “elements of fiction,” such
as voice/style, characterization, location and timing, and narrative
structure/plot. But we won’t just learn the tried and true
conventions; we’ll also read and experiment with newer,
less-sanctioned techniques; for instance, we may write a story with
more than one outcome, or without a main character, or using the
structure of a dictionary. LTWR 8C - WRITING NON-FICTION Like all writers, nonfiction writers build characters, craft descriptions, and create symbols. Unlike poets and novelists, however, they cannot “make something up.” The class will examine multiple types of nonfiction writing, including memoir, journalism and personal essay. We will examine how facts are woven into narrative forms to portray real, rather than imagined, people, places and events. At issue will be the nature of nonfiction writing and how practitioners can write with style while sticking to the facts. Reading assignments will include a broad array of nonfiction models. Students will apply what they learn from the readings to their own nonfiction writing.
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DEPARTMENT APPROVAL FOR UPPER-DIVISION WRITING
COURSES IS AVAILABLE IN THE LITERATURE UNDERGRADUATE OFFICE FROM
9:00-3:30, MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. |
LTWR 100 - SHORT FICTION Instructor: Amra Brooks The purpose of this course is to inspire you to write and explore the craft and different styles of writing, focusing on short fiction. Students will workshop short stories, or pieces of short prose writing; chapters or sections of novels are also acceptable although our reading list will be solely comprised of short stories. We will make a workshop schedule in the first class, which will allow each student to workshop their writing at least twice to the group. This means reading your writing out loud to the class when it is your turn. We will discuss and critique the work as a group each week. Each student is responsible for making and handing out copies of their work to the class the week before. You are responsible for at least five pages when it is your week to workshop. You are responsible for writing detailed comments on your fellow student’s stories each week. In addition, there will be several writing assignments based on issues that arise during the course of our discussion as a group. Each assignment will be 2-3 pages long double-spaced. The purpose of this to get you writing-- to help your work as a writer be a part of your weekly life. These will be turned in to me the following week. Some assignments will be done in class. Each week we will discuss stories from our reading list, depending on length we will discuss between 1 and 4 short pieces a week. The literature component is a very important part of the class. We will start off each class discussing the assigned reading from that week, to get our minds thinking critically. Discussion will focus on issues of craft, style and voice. These discussions and readings will infiltrate our work and the way we think about writing and generate creativity. Readings will include Sharon Doubiago, Raymond Carver, Joan Didion, Jayne Ann Phillips, Eileen Myles, Haruki Murakami, Junot Diaz, Alice Munro, Charles Baxter, Amy Hempel, and possibly others. We won’t have a mid-term. Instead there will be an evaluation based on your class participation, writing and how you engage with the readings and your classmates work. Your final grade will be based on a minimum of 15 pages of fiction writing. This may be a new draft of a piece from early on in the quarter, but if so, the revision should be significantly different, and your first draft should accompany it. In addition, you are responsible for keeping all of our assignments and each story that I hand back to you in a folder, which will be turned in with your final paper. Your final grade will be equally based on class participation in critical discussion, you showing up and doing all of the work, and your ability to listen to criticism and show willingness to accept the challenges that come up for you in the class. I am open to reading, editing and discussing your work as the course progresses even if it is not your week to workshop. Prerequisite: LTWR 8A LTWR 100 - SHORT FICTION In this labor-intensive Writing course, participants will study and practice innovative techniques for creating short works of literary fiction. Our exercises and readings will address recent takes on narrative structure, character, scene, musicality, abstraction, point of view, and modes of address (narration). We will engage contemporary methods of story generation and revision. Not only a writing course, this class also serves as a forum to investigate important issues in literature, such as the relationship between aesthetics and ethics and what literature does to its readers, personally and culturally. In this class we will not conduct conventional, editorial workshops. Rather, we will discuss both the cultural messages embedded within participants’ stories-in-progress and learn to articulate the ways we generate meaning while reading. In addition to one-another’s work, we will read short works and novels by contemporary fiction writers like Kelly Link, Noy Holland, Ishmael Reed, Robert Coover, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, Thomas Glave, Jorge Louis Borges, Toni Morrison, Lucy Corin, and Rikki Ducornet. Furthermore, as a way to understand how literature makes meaning(s) in the world, we will read and discuss relevant literary criticism, author interviews, and discussions of Modernist and Post-modernist aesthetic approaches. I will grade participants on willingness and effort in generating and revising works of fiction, on specificity and depth of analysis of letters to peers about works-in-progress (rather than editorial advice), reading quizzes, and a final portfolio, 20-30 pps. Prerequisite: LTWR 8A LTWR 102 - POETRY In this class we will read and write poems of all shapes and sizes. We will look at formal styles like the sonnet and villanelle as well as free verse samples. We will also read books by poets who have tackled longer pieces like the book-length poem. Students will have weekly reading and writing assignments and will also share and workshop their poems with each other. For a final project, each student will be required to make a chapbook, with a compilation of the poems they wrote over the quarter. In addition, we will have a class reading of our work. Be prepared to work hard, open your mind, and laugh. Some of the poets we will read are: Anne Carson, Anna Akhmatova, Rilke, Joy Harjo, and many more. Prerequisite: LTWR 8B LTWR 106 - SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND IRREALISM This course will provide you with a grounding in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and irrealism (expressionism, surrealism, fabulism, metafiction). We will begin with readings and discussions of representative stories—ideally cleansing your generic assumptions you may have acquired from other media. Through lectures, exercises, and creative brainstorming we will work through conventions of narrative, character, setting, and style while confronting the unique requirements of suspending disbelief in non-realistic fiction. Emphasis is placed on producing a substantial piece of work, and revising it not only to your own satisfaction but to that of your editor and readership (i.e., instructor and workshop). Prerequisite: 8A. LTWR 110 - SCREEN WRITING The course explores the art and craft of writing a feature-length narrative screenplay. Fundamentals include: scene structure, conflict, visual story telling, character development, dialogue, and theme. Includes regular presentations of scenes to fellow writers. LTWR 115 - EXPERIMENTAL WRITING I always think of poet Bob Perelman saying that experimental writing sounds like you put your lab coat on and then hope you don't blow up the science building. I'm not crazy about the label experimental myself but I think it covers every that doesn't fit someplace else. “It” doesn't have to be cross genre or hybrid or even weird. If you look closely most writing that's fresh is “experimental.” So - this a class in which we'll read a couple of challenging texts: Lawrence Ytzhak Brathwaite's Ratz Are Nice and Lynne Tillman's American Genius, A Comedy (btw this class is slanted more towards prose than poetry) then we'll talk about them closely (you'll write about them too) and then we will write (your own experimental texts) like hell. You'll be graded on the 25 pages you produce during the quarter. LTWR 121 - MEDIA WRITING Writing exercises involve emulating and analyzing the rhetorical styles of feature articles in a variety of publications such as tabloids, People, and particularly the New Yorker; this also entails readings about underlying marketing strategies and commercial concerns (Susan Faludi, The Baffler, Eric Schlosser). The chief project is to conceive of an arts and culture magazine that you would like to publish and edit. This might have a specific focus (music, film, literature, pop culture) or include a wider range of genres, social and cultural issues, personality profiles. Your approach could fall anywhere on the spectrum from alternatives to established slick, mainstream publications like Spin or Wired to more experimental or specialized approaches (Punk Planet; Giant Robot; design or film magazines; periodicals for particular age groups), freebie regional newsmagazines, on-line mags with a satiric edge like the onion. (We’ll examine a number of articles and publications in class.) In any case, take the high road: aim for originality and intellectual quality. The project will consist of a manifesto or letter from the publisher appearing in the premiere issue of your publication, discussing its goals and intent. You’ll also write a major feature article for that first issue. First drafts of these projects will be read and workshopped by everyone in the class. Final, revised papers will be due finals week. Prerequisite: LTWR 8C. LTWR 122 - WRITING FOR THE SCIENCES This course is designed for the writing major who wants to write about science or nature, and for the science major who wants to write for laypeople, or would like to improve his/her writing skills. Classes alternate from workshops (Thursdays) to lectures and discussions of the readings, and whatever else arises (Tuesdays). All readings are selected from Brian Greene, ed., The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006 and Atul Gawande, ed., The Best American Science Writing 2006. Required work and grade breakdown: weekly writing exercises from Joseph M. Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, 10th ed. (10%); workshop performance (40%); and a ten-page term project begun second week (50%). LTWR 126 - WORKSHOPS IN CREATIVE NONFICTION: WRITING AS REPORTAGE—DOCUMENTARY FICTIONInstructor: Chris Kraus This class will focus on how writers can use documentary material as the basis of “fictional” stories or essays. Can documentary material be used to shape a novel, without the contrivance of plot? The class will emphasize observation, large and small. Can the problems of finding the writer’s “voice” be overcome by simply writing things down as they happen? Our writing will range from descriptions of mundane daily occurrences to social events and phenomena. Readings will include a wide range of documentary fiction including Balzac, Proust, Zola, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, Zola Neale Hurston, Michelle Tea, Alexander Trocchi, Janet Flanner, Gary Indiana. Each person will undertake a substantial (10-15 page) writing project based on reportage and observation. Topics can range from night-life and clubbing to border issues/lawsuits/university politics to memories of early childhood. LTWR 148 - THEORY FOR WRITERS In this course we will study the interactions between literary theory and poetry or fiction. How have theory and “creative writing” influenced (or anticipated) one another? We will read Freud with Poe, Judith Butler with Kathy Acker, and Kamau Brathwaite with Harryette Mullen. Students will be asked to produce poems or stories in response to ideas suggested by these texts. You will also write a “poetics statement” and a book review. |