Selected Fall 2009
2000-Level Course Descriptions

ENGL 2000-001/003: Literary Analysis
Instructor: Professor Cathy Preston
Call No. 75225/75227
MWF 9-9:50 — LIBR N424B / MWF 11-11:50 — HLMS 259
Prereq: Restricted to ENGL Majors only

This is a basic skills course which will emphasize close readings of literature, critical writing, and the techniques and vocabulary of literary criticism. The course will focus on poetry and prose fiction.

Please contact the instructor for further information: Prestonc@colorado.edu.

ENGL 2000-005: Literary Analysis
Instructor: Professor Ed Rivers
Call No. 75229
MWF 1:00-1:50 — ATLAS 1B25
Prereq: Restricted to ENGL Majors only

This course prepares students for the English major by teaching them how to analyze and write about poetry and prose. It will study a variety of authors, focusing on techniques of close reading, and will include extensive practice in analyzing sound, rhythm, and structure in both poetry and prose.

Texts: Students will buy a course pack in the UMC, which will be supplemented by material on e-reserve.

Probable requirements (subject to change): Two in-class tests; various written exercises; mid-term; final.

Please contact the instructor for further information: Ed.Rivers@colorado.edu.

ENGL 2010-001: Intro to Literary Theory
Instructor: Professor Karen Jacobs
Call No. 75234
MWF 1-1:50 — HLMS 267
Prereq: Restricted to ENGL Majors Only

This course is intended to introduce students to the most significant theoretical movements that have influenced literary studies over the last several decades, with an emphasis on the ways in which the activity of interpretation has been conceptualized and practiced.

Organized as a survey, the course will work towards a breadth of coverage, rather than undertaking in-depth analyses of any particular school. We will examine works drawn from structuralist, deconstructionist, and psychoanalytic theory; Marxist, historical and postcolonial theory; and feminist, racial and queer theory. We will intermittently apply these approaches to a selection of short stories and films. Class grade will be determined through three take-home exams, class participation, and attendance.

Please contact the instructor for further information: Karen.Jacobs@colorado.edu.

ENGL 2010-010: Intro to Literary Theory
Instructor: Professor Mark Winokur
Call No. 75236
TR 11:00-11:50 — HUMN 150
Prereq: ENGL Majors Only

This course will examine the major literary theory paradigms of the post-World War II era, including Marxism, structuralism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, feminism, queer theory, race theory, body theory, and reader-response. We shall do readings of particular texts based on these theoretical paradigms. Class grade will be determined through exams, papers, and attendance. There will be two or three mandatory evening film screenings.

Please contact the instructor for further information: Mark.Winokur@colorado.edu.

English 2030-001: Introduction to Digital Media
Instructor: Professor Lori Emerson
MWF 9:00 - 9:50 — Atlas 1B25

This course is intended as a pre-requisite for other courses in the English department on digital media/writing/gaming. I strongly suggest you take this course before taking any others on digital media.

While it is becoming ever-more common for undergraduates to be called “digital natives,” it is clear that not all are not literate—let alone fluent—in the use and critique of digital media that permeate their everyday lives. Furthermore, it is also all too apparent to us that the very notion of “textuality” and “literary studies” has already been transformed by digital media. This course will, then, serve as a humanities-based introduction to digital media structures such as the digital archive and reading/writing software that fundamentally affects what we ourselves are able to read/write; theories and methodologies for under-taking digital media scholarship in the humanities; and, finally, digital textualities ranging from text messaging, blogging, and games to digital fiction and poetry. This course will give students the critical skills they themselves recognize they need to understand and navigate a 21st century world in which digital media govern the storage, transmission and reception of a whole range of textual material. In short, then, English 2030 will give a broad survey of what digital media can do in the area of language-based (or language-involving) art, covering the major genres and it will offer a range of critical perspectives on new media technology.

Topical Outline:

Backgrounds, Theories, and Methodologies: Weeks 1-5

  • Week 1: brief history of computing
  • Week 2: definition of 'media' and 'digital media'
  • Week 3: how digital media structure/represent discourse
  • Week 4: how digital media represent/construct gender, race, sexuality, ideology
  • Week 5: how literary studies prepares us to study/critique digital media
Structures: Weeks 6-10
  • Week 6: digitization and creating/critiquing digital resources
  • Week 7: networks
  • Week 8: search and research tools
  • Week 9: reading/writing software
  • Week 10: reading/writing software
Textualities: Weeks 11-15
  • Week 11: text-messaging, blogging, kinetic typography, animation
  • Week 12: hypertext poetry and fiction
  • Week 13: animated/kinetic poetry and fiction
  • Week 14: computer-generated poetry and fiction
  • Week 15: three-dimensional poetry and fiction

Please contact the instructor for further information: Lori.Emerson@colorado.edu.

ENGL 2502-002: British Literary History I
Instructor: Professor Richelle Munkhoff
Call No. 84159
TR 11:00-12:15 — KTCH 303

This course focuses on the traditions, forms and topics of English literature from Beowulf to 1660. Intertwined with history and material conditions far removed from our own, the literature of this period can sometimes seem foreign and difficult. Yet these texts contain many familiar and beloved characters, or those who are the antecedents to contemporary favorites. Thus, learning about the past helps us more fully appreciate the present. This period of literature also constitutes the backbone of English literary history and particular kinds of scholarly skills have developed out of its study. The goals of this course are therefore twofold: (1) to provide a clear introduction to the major figures of the English canon of this period in relation to their genres and historical contexts in order to bridge the distance between the text and the reader, and (2) to practice students in the critical skills of close-reading, cogent analysis, and textual materialism, skills that are essential to the major.

Please contact the instructor for further information: Richelle.Munkhoff@colorado.edu.

ENGL 2747-001: (De)Constructing Identities: Mexicanos, Pachucos, Pochos, y Chicano/as
Instructor: Professor John Escobedo
Call No. 84178
TR 12:30-1:45 — ATLS 1B31

The working theme for this course, “(De)Constructing Identities,” examines the various characterizations Mexicans have attained in the U.S. since the Mexican American War. As such, this course will present a body of texts that illustrates the development of Mexican American literary traditions that reflect the inherent divergence within Mexican identities in the United States. Throughout the course, we will review legal documents, newspapers, manifestos, poetry, short stories, and novels to explore lo Mexicano, lo Hispano, y los Pochos y Chicano/as.

Please contact the instructor for further information: John.Escobedo@colorado.edu.