Topics Courses Offered: Winter 2010

Every quarter, the English Department offers variable topics courses such as English 315 (Studies in a Literary Genre), English 324 (Studies in Literary Topics) and English 515 (Senior Seminar) on selected topics. The topics for these courses change each quarter, and may be repeated for credit as topics change. Those scheduled for Winter 2010 are described below. If you'd like further information about these courses or other English Department offerings, please contact the instructor. You'll find their contact information under faculty.

English 315: Studies in a Literary Topic / Prof. Sanders

MW 4:00-5:50 p.m.

Japanese Comics and Animation

This course will focus on manga (comics) and anime (animation) in Japan. We'll read books that range from funny (Yotsuba&!) to romantic (Maison Ikokku) to disturbing (The Quest for the Missing Girl), and we'll watch films (such as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and episodes of Astro Boy) that have a unique relationship with manga. We'll read these texts through historical, theoretical, and formal lenses to make insights about culture, art, and human experience. Assignments will allow students to pursue their own interests in the field. Please note that this course counts toward the Asian Studies minor.

English 319: Studies in Diversity / Prof. J. Luck

TR 2:00-3:50 p.m.

Poetry and Disability

The genre of poetry is often understood to be deeply connected to the body of the poet, to the rhythms of her breath and heartbeat. Poets emphasize the way that words sound in the ears, feel in the mouth, and look on the page; one poet has even said that a certain way of walking helps her write sonnets. But each person has a different way of walking, a different way of experiencing language in the body, which accounts for the many diverse styles of poetry we encounter today. These variations become particularly important when it comes to poetry written by people with disabilities. Disability, of course, is a social formation, playing across embodiment and cultural embedment, and disabled poets explore and enact this play in fascinating ways in their work. In this course, we will read and analyze poems that narrate the experience of being differently-abled, but we will focus particularly on the formal elements of the poetics of disability. (After all, not every poem by a disabled person is about his/her disability.) How does Josephine Dickinson’s deafness shape the soundscape of her poems in Silence Fell? How does Constance Merritt's blindness inform the perspective in the poems in A Protocol for Touch? How does Larry Eigner manifest his cerebral palsy in his poetic forms? We will examine poems on the page as well as performances (including song and sign language) by poets with disabilities.

This course fulfills the Diversity in Literature requirement for all English Majors.

English 423 – Studies in a Literary Theme / Prof. Ramirez

TR 10:00-11:50 a.m.

“Lost Race” Narratives

This course seeks to explore "lost race" narratives by British writers of the nineteenth and twentieth century. In this period, there were at least 70 British novels published about the "lost races" of the Aztec, Inca, and Maya--indeed there are so many as to be considered a corpus of literature.

This course features some of the more widely available texts such as Miles Sheldon-Williams The Power of Ula (1906) with its treacherous snake-wielding Amazonian Queen and Frank Aubrey's The Devil Tree of El Dorado (1897) with its mysterious mountain forest and flesh-eating tree monster. In our readings of these texts, we will examine the intersection between studies of colonial literature and science fiction.

English 463: Advanced Studies in a Literary Topic / Prof. Pigeon

TR 6:00-7:50 p.m.

Crime Fiction

This course will explore American crime fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, and feature novels by authors such as James M. Cain, Rudolph Fisher, Raymond Chandler, Dorothy B. Hughes, and Ross Macdonald. As we roam those mean streets down which the novels’ men (and women) go, we’ll explore both formal and historical and cultural aspects of the novels, as well as issues related to popular fiction and adaptation. No prior reading of crime or detective fiction required.

English 515: cancelled