Fall 2011 Courses: 400-Level

ENG 4033.001: Literary Modes & Genres: Satire

Instructor: John Stoler
Class Time: MWF 1:00 - 1:50 p.m.
Class Location: MB 1.101

Course Description
This course is not an historical survey but rather an eclectic attempt to define “satire” by exploring its appearance in fiction and poetry, with some attention to essay, drama, and art. Very little formal background will be needed for this course but students will be expected to write well on the two required papers.

Course Texts
At this time the reading list is incomplete but the readings will include:

  1. Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
  2. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
  3. Animal Farm, George Orwell
  4. The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh
  5. Candide, Voltaire
  6. The Rivals, Richard Brinsley Sheridan
  7. A few selected poems and essays.

Course Assignments For Grades
There will be two short papers (5-7 pages each) for 50 percent of the grade—the first paper may be rewritten for a higher grade not to exceed 85; several quizzes for 20 percent of the grade (the two lowest quiz scores will not be counted0; a comprehensive final exam for 30 percent of the grade; and an extra credit quiz will be given at the end of the semester to accommodate those who have missed quizzes for legitimate reasons—no other make-up quizzes will be given.

ENG 4033.002: Literary Modes & Genres: Visual Poetry

Instructor: Elaine Wong
Class Time: TR 2:00 - 3:15 p.m.
Class Location: TBA

Course Description
Attention to visual aspects of language has brought about attempts by poets and writers to liberate words from referentiality, discursiveness, and syntactic logic through foregrounding graphic form, structural composition, space as structure, typography, and the materiality of written signs. Notably starting with Stéphane Mallarmé, such attempts have resulted in modernist experiments with the ideogram spearheaded by Ezra Pound, the international movement of concrete poetry led by Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos, and Eugen Gomringer among others in 1950s and 60s, and other ongoing explorations with the printed page and the electronic page.

Focusing on poems designed specifically for the eyes, this course examines poetry, poetics, and language from visually-oriented perspectives. How does language communicate visually? What does visual poetry inform regarding the nature and use of language? What are the problems, limitations, and complexities of visual poetry? How do visual poetry and poetics function cross-culturally? How do technological and historical factors affect visual poetry? These are some of the questions we will critically explore by reading a variety of visually-oriented poems and poetical theories, and by applying semiotic and poststructuralist conceptual frames.

Required Texts (Tentative)

  1. e. e. cummings, Selected Poems, Liveright 2007, paperback [0871401541].
  2. Ernest Fenollosa, The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry, City Lights, 2001, paperback [0872860140].
  3. Susan Howe, The Nonconformist's Memorial: Poems, New Directions, 1993, paperback [0811212297].
  4. Stéphane Mallarmé, Henry Weinfield (trans.), Collected Poems: A Bilingual Edition, U of California Press, 2011, paperback [0520268148].
  5. Poems and articles to be downloaded from Blackboard.

Course Assignments for Grades

  • Class Participation (Preparation, Discussion, & Quizzes) 15%
  • Oral Presentation 10%
  • Annotated Bibliographies 10%
  • Mid-term Exam 20%
  • Final Exam 20%
  • Research Paper 25%

ENG 4113.001: Renaissance Literature (Cross-listed with HUM 3033 Renaissance Ideas)

Instructor: Bernadette Andrea
Class Time: TR 12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
Class Location: MH 3.01.18

Course Description

The English Renaissance represents a late blossoming of the general cultural “rebirth” in Western Europe characterized by the recovery of Greek and Roman classics, the celebration of the multifaceted individual, and a renewed emphasis on the secular world. Alternatively labeled “the early modern period,” this era also saw the voyages of Columbus, the development of the printing press, the Protestant Reformation, and the rise of centralized monarchies. English writers expressed the vitality and volatility of the Renaissance/early modern period in an outburst of prose, poetry, and drama that spanned the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century. We will focus on canonical writers such as Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson, as well as a number of important women writers. We will cover a variety of literary genres, including utopias, travel narratives, and romance in prose; sonnets, other lyrics, and plays in verse; and performance and visual images where appropriate. This course therefore offers students the opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of the English Renaissance, especially in its literary aspect.

Texts

  1. Black, Joseph, et. al.,  eds. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century. Broadview Press, 2006.
  2. Weller, Barry, and Margaret Ferguson, eds. Elizabeth Cary, The Lady Falkland: The Tragedy of Mariam  . . . with The Lady Falkland Her Life. University of California Press, 1994.


Course Assignments for Grades

Class participation, including in-class writing and unannounced quizzes; mid-term exam;
final exam; final research paper.

ENG 4143.001: Victorian Literature

Instructor: Debbie Lopez
Class Time: TR 2:00 - 3:15 p.m.
Class Location: MB 0.208

Course Description
During Victoria’s reign England was at the height of its power.  However, as Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli described it, the nation was in fact divided between two—that of the rich and that of the poor.  Through the era’s literature, this course studies Victorian debates concerning industrialism, as represented, for example, by Macaulay and Engels, and as addressed in Dickens’ Hard Times.  The “Woman Question” and its relation to Britain’s Reform Bills will be explored through Bronte’s Jane Eyre.  We will conclude by looking at cultural anxieties, via Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret and Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Texts

  1. Abrams, Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2 (8th ed.)
  2. Bronte, Jane Eyre (Norton)
  3. Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret
  4. Dickens, Hard Times (Oxford)
  5. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Bantam)

Percentages

  • 20% class participation.
  • 20% class report on the history, music, art, science, or socio-political context of the literary work assigned for that day.  Students should feel free to use audio-visual components.  A three page summary must be submitted on the day of the presentation.
  • 20$%  one 6-8 page researched paper.
  • 60%  three exams.

ENG 4523.001: Creative Writing-Advanced Fiction on Blackboard

Instructor: Catherine Kasper
Class Time: TBA
Class Location: Blackboard

NOTE: To be considered for enrollment for this course, please contact the professor by email. Students must meet the prerequisite and will be asked to submit a writing portfolio via email for consideration for approval to enroll.

Content and Goals
This course assumes the student has previous experience writing the short story and has taken an introductory university-level course in creative writing, such as English 2323 or 2333, 3423, or an approved equivalent. Students will have the opportunity to engage in the rigors of a serious writing workshop online. Students will have the opportunity to discuss relevant works of fiction in an online forum, and to engage in a number of writing exercises employed to generate ideas and improve writing through extended practice. Revision being crucial to writing improvement, students will be required to turn in substantial revisions of their work. Students must be open to traditional and experimental writing, and to learning more about genre, and to improving their work through participation in an online writing class. Students are required to have regular access to computers that support UTSA’s Blackboard system, to be responsible for maintaining communication online, and to adhere to the UTSA Blackboard and Creative Writing Workshop codes of conduct in all their online work.

Requirements
Class participation in online discussions (which means regular attendance and informed discussion are a crucial part of your grade), regular writing assignments; one longer short story, story critiques, final revision and writing assessments. All homework assignments must be typewritten/word processed according to the posted guidelines.

Texts
The following texts are required for this course: You will have reading and discussion assignments that require your knowledge of the following:   

  1. Italo Calvino, Difficult Loves, Harvest Books, 1985.
  2. Grace Paley, The Collected Stories, (FSG Classics), FSG, 2007.
  3. John Dermot Woods, The Complete Collection of People, Places and Things, BlazeVox
    Books, 2009.

Recommended Books

  1. Strunk/White/Kalman, The Elements of Style, Penguin Press, 2005, 1-59420-069-6
  2. Flash Fiction, edited by James Thomas et al, W. W. Norton, 1992, 978-0393-308839

ENG 4933.001: Internship

Instructor: Maia Adamina
Class Time: MWF 1:00 - 1:50 p.m.

Course Description
The Department of English offers students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in editing and technical writing, journalism writing, desktop publishing, mass media writing/production, and/or creative writing through their participation in the English Internship Program.  In addition to providing them with the opportunity to network, an internship provides students the opportunity to translate their academic skills and interests into a real-world, professional setting as they prepare for graduation and their careers.

ENG 4973.001: : Senior Seminar: Neoslavery Narratives Since 1976

Instructor: Joycelyn Moody
Class Time: M 2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
Class Location: TBA

Course Description
This seminar will examine a variety of novels known as “neoslavery” or freedom narratives written by African American writers from the middle of the twentieth century to the present. We will investigate ways that African American novelists and poets retell—and re-form the telling of—antebellum US slavery more than 100 years after the abolition of slavery in 1865. The seminar traces literary, cultural, sociopolitical, and historical developments in blacks’ neoslavery novels and poetry, and explores the recuperation of black independent voices and subjectivities.

This seminar requires students to be active participants.  The main goals include strengthening students’ analytical and expository writing abilities. Special attention will be given to the enrichment of students’ historical knowledge to support literary, critical, and textual explications. A 12-15 page research paper will be required.

Course texts will include:

  1. Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say, I Say. W. W. Norton & Co. Second Edition ISBN-10: 039393361X and ISBN-13: 978-0393933611 (paperback)
  2. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris (Eds). The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Oxford UP. ISBN-10: 019513883X and ISBN-13: 978-0195138832 [Paperback]
  3. Octavia Butler, Kindred. 1976
  4. Sherley Anne Williams, Dessa Rose. 1986. Berkley Books, 1999
  5. Alice Randall, The Wind Done Gone. Mariner Books, 2001
  6. Edward P. Jones, The Known World. 2003
  7. Toni Morrison, A Mercy. 2009

Films we will watch:

  1. Sankofa
  2. Brother from Another Planet
  3. Gone with the Wind


Course assignments for grades will include:

  • Weekly reading quizzes
  • Midterm exam
  • Short explication (4-6 pp)
  • Research paper (12-15 pp, draft version and final version)
  • Students’ self-assessments

ENG 4973.003: : Visual Cultural Studies

Instructor: Sue Hum
Class Time: R 2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
Class Location: MB 1.206

Course Description
In today’s multimedia world, effective communication relies increasingly on images and words to persuade their audience. This course explores effective communication that draws on both rhetorical and visual strategies.

Visual Cultural Studies is divided into two parts.  The first focuses on the exploration of principles of perception and visual interpretation. We will study different ways of understanding visuals, reading in a variety of disciplines: media and film studies, cultural studies, art, literature, electronic media, etc. We also investigate the design of visual communication both in traditional and electronic formats. Most importantly, we study how ways of seeing and ways of speaking—habits and conventions—are symbiotic modes for representing and influencing our world(s)

Second, we will create our own powerful visual and rhetorical arguments, after we become proficient readers of visual arguments.  Students are encouraged to take an active role in articulating what issues they would like addressed as well as teaching and learning from each other.

Texts

  1. Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright.  Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.  2nd ed.  Oxford UP, 2008.

Grade distribution

  • Quizzes and Final Exam: 25%
  • 8 Blogs & In-Class Assignments: 25%
  • 3 Projects: 50%

ENG 4973.004: Senior Seminar: Chicana Feminist Writers and Artists

Instructor: Annette Portillo
Class Time: T 2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
Class Location: TBA

Course Description
This interdisciplinary course will examine contemporary Chicana writers whose works provide a counter discourse to the canon of American literature. Foregrounding race, class, gender and sexuality we will analyze the historical and contemporary experiences of Chicanas across borders. In addition, this class will provide students with a framework for better understanding Chicana feminist thought. Throughout the course our readings of literature will consider political and historical events as well as social and cultural lenses that inform the authors. In addition, we will review the work of several Chicana artists and critically examine the significance of artwork in relationship to social justice movements. This course asks that students participate weekly in a collective dialogue that seeks to create a classroom environment of mutual respect where one’s lived experiences will be valued as a way to theorize and inspire social justice, empowerment, and healing.

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