Spring 2009 Courses 4000 Level

English 4523: 001: Advanced Fiction Workshop

Wednesdays 2-4:45 pm

1604 Campus, Main Building, 1.208

Creative Writing-Advanced Fiction

 

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. 
 

Instructor: Dr. Catherine Kasper

Catherine.Kasper@utsa.edu

Office MB 2.484      Telephone:  x7722

 

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. We will workshop student writing, and all students will be expected to discuss and write comments demonstrating sensitive skills of critical analysis which will be given to the writer, as well as to the professor. 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 the genre, and to improving their work through the workshop process.

 

Requirements:

Class participation (which means regular attendance and informed discussion are a crucial part of your grade), in-class writing; two short stories, clearly written and typed critiques of all your classmates’ workshopped pieces, two critique leader oral and written presentations, and attendance of one literary outside event. All homework assignments must be typewritten/word processed.

 

Texts:

The following texts are required for this course (that is, you must obtain a copy of each text, and you must bring these texts to each class in which we discuss them):    

 

Italo Calvino, The Watcher and Other Stories, Harvest books

           

Rikki Ducornet, The One Marvelous Thing, Dalkey Archive Press

 

Strunk/White/Kalman, The Elements of Style, Penguin Press, 2005, 1-59420-069-6

 

Recommended texts/suggested reading:

 

Michael Martone & Neville editors, Rules of Thumb: 73

Authors Reveal Their Fiction Writing Fixations, Writer’s Digest Books

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ENG 4533: Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry

Spring 2008

Thursday 5:30-8:15

Wendy Barker 

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This is a course for students eager to work on developing their craft in writing poetry, a genre that includes a wide range of styles. Since permission of the instructor is required, interested students should contact Wendy Barker as soon as possible atwendy.barker@utsa.edu.

 

We will function as a workshop, with regular but flexible assignments weekly. We will be encouraging and supportive of every student’s uniqueness, while also offering specific suggestions for growth and improvement.

 

Regular readings will also be required, with responses due weekly in addition to a weekly (new) poem. The grade will be based on participation, weekly assignments, and a portfolio due at the end of the semester.

 

TEXTS:

1. Kevin Clark The Mind’s Eye Pearson/Longman
ISBN 978-0-205-49823-9

 

2. Wendy Barker Poems’ Progress Absey & Co.

ISBN 1888842350

 

3. Benjamin Alire Saenz Dreaming the End of War Copper Canyon

ISBN 1556592396

 

4. Donald Platt  My Father Says Grace  U of Arkansas P

ISBN 978-1-55728-837-0

 

5. Nick Flynn  Some Ether  Graywolf

ISBN 1-55597-303-5

 

6. Natasha Trethewey  Domestic Work  Graywolf

ISBN 1-55597-309-4

 

7. Daisy Fried My Brother is Getting Arrested Again U of Pittsburgh P 

ISBN 0-8229-5919-4                

 

8. Kimiko Hahn  Mosquito & Ant  Norton

0-393-32062-6

 

9. Denise Duhamel Two and Two  U of Pittsburgh P

0-8229-5871-6 

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Course Number: ENGL 4713/AMS 3343.001: Black Women in Science

iction/Fantasy/Horror 
Instructor: Kinitra D. Brooks
Class Time: T 2:00 – 4:45 pm
Class Location: MB 1. 208

Course Description: 

This course will critically analyze the differences that occur when others write black women in fantasy literature against when black women write themselves within this expanding genre. This class will also expand the notion of text, including novels, short stories, movies, comic books and graphic novels.

 

Content and Goals:

1.      To examine and master the language of science fiction/fantasy literature and culture.

2.      To analyze how black women complicate the genre of science fiction/fantasy/horror.

3.      To distinguish the differences in voice and construction when black female writers write themselves into this genre.

 

Requirements:

1. Midterm Exam
2. Two papers:
   1. One paper will compare of two different creators and their texts that further explicates the foundational ideas of this course.
   2. One paper will focus on the creation and exploration of a black female character within the realm of science fiction/fantasy/horror.
3. Final Exam
4. Group Project

Texts:

Marleen S. Barr , Afro-Future Females: Black Writers Chart Science Fiction’s Newest New-Wave Trajectory

Octavia Butler, Fledgling

L.A. Banks, The Awakening

Nalo Hopkinson, Brown Girl In the Ring

Tananarive Due, The Living Blood

Sheree R. Thomas, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora [Anthology of Short Stories]

Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead [comic book]

Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later [movie]

Richard Wenk, Vamp [movie]

Episodes from the Following Series:

Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek: The Original Series

Visual Images of the Following Comic Book Characters:

Misty Knight, Heroes for Hire (Marvel Comics)

Vixen, Justice League of America (DC Comics)

Storm, X-Men (Marvel Comics)  

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ENGLISH 4973/Humanities 4973: Modern European Novel

Wednesday 2-4:45 p.m. 
Steven G. Kellman                                     
3.03.10 HSS

Office 2.454 MB  hrs.: Monday and Wednesday 12-2 & by appointment Telephone 458-5216                        steven.kellman@utsa.edu

 

 

There are three rules for writing the novel.  Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. --Somerset Maugham

 

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything.  The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.  --Milan Kundera

 

 

          The wisdom of this senior seminar will come from posing some fundamental literary questions, including: What is "modern"?  What is "European"?  And what is a "novel"?  The class will examine some of the more memorable fictions produced in the area

east of the Atlantic and west of the Urals during the last hundred years.  Works will be studied as an expression of individual sensibility and within the contexts of national and international cultures.  The course will focus on novels that question the very nature of fiction, as well as those that probe the meaning of private and social experience in successive decades of the twentieth century. We will encounter some indelible stories and some unavoidable questions about the curious art of storytelling, in a smorgasbord of nationalities and languages (Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish).  Not for the dyspeptic, this course, which includes quizzes, papers, class presentations, and exams, is for those with an appetite for the piquant variety of modern European fiction. 

 

 REQUIRED READING

 

Samuel Beckett.  Molloy.  Grove 039417027X.

Mikhail Bulgakov.  The Master and Margarita.  Vintage 0679760806.

Max Frisch.  Homo Faber. Harcourt 0156421356.

Knut Hamsun.  Pan.  Penguin  0141180676.

Nikos Kazantzakis.  Zorba the Greek.  Scribner  0684825546.

Milan Kundera.  The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  Harper                 Perennial 0061686697.

Pär Lagerkvist.  The Dwarf.  Noonday  0374521352.

Harry Mulisch.  The Assault.  Pantheon 0394744209.

 

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ENG/HUM 4973: Classical Rhetoric

Instructor: Dr. Sue Hum
Class Time: T 2:00-4:45 p.m.
Class Location: TBA

Course Description:

ENG/HUM 4973 examines the language theories of classical rhetoricians, focusing on their views of the relationship among language, thought, and reality.  We shall see how the health of the Greek polis (public sphere) and its citizens (private sphere) were inextricably intertwined with uses of language and acts of persuasion.

 

ENG/HUM 4973 has three goals: first, the study of classical theories of language, ideology, and epistemology; second, the exploration of the relationship between our definitions of rhetoric and how we practice it; and third, the use of classical strategies to improve our writing/communication skills.

 

Course Texts:

1.  Murphy, James J., and Richard Katula, ed.  A Synoptic History of Rhetoric.  3rd. ed.  Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003.  (SYN)

2.  D’Angelo, Frank J.  Composition in the Classical Tradition. Allyn and Bacon, 2000. (CCT)

3.  Course packet, available at UTSA Copy Center.

4.  About $40 for course reserves, multi-media disks, folders, poster board, etc.

5.  Own e-mail account & regular, daily internet access from home

 

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