3000-Level Course Descriptions
ENGL 3021-801: Intermediate Poetry Workshop.
Instructor: Professor Noah Eli Gordon
TR 11-12:15 — HLMS 259
Prereq: Creative Writing Major or Instructor Consent
Through group critique, discussion, experimentation, work and play, this course will create a space for you to simultaneously develop your poems and poetics. We will attempt to bridge the gap between intuitive artistic play and an intellectual understanding of the requisite work involved in the writing of poetry. This course will also include reading heavily in and around contemporary poetry, with four of the authors we’re going to investigate (Dan Beachy-Quick, Eric Baus, Arda Collins, Sasha Steensen) making visits to our classroom. The course will culminate in the creation of your own chapbook—a small booklet to both document our work together and further its reach.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Noah.Gordon@Colorado.EDU.
ENGL 3051-801/802: Intermediate Fiction
Instructor: Professor Stephen Graham Jones
TR 11-12:15 (801) / TR 2-3:15 (802) — HLMS 196 (801) / CHEM 133 (802)
Prereq: Creative Writing Major or Instructor Consent
Intermediate Fiction is equal parts workshop and reading. In here we'll be dealing with story elements—dialogue, exposition, narrative arc; character, scene, setting; voice, tone, tense—not with what you should already know from your Intro course (that is, the mechanics of writing). Expect to write a lot in here, and to get made fun of, and to read your stuff out loud and have it read out loud back at you. The idea is you either become a better writer or you quit wanting to be a writer. Aside from required reading in class, you'll of course have some readings you're required to attend as well. And, as for those in-class readings: short stories, articles, essays, maybe a novel or two. As for what you'll be turning in to workshop: maybe one thing you want to write, if we have time. The rest will be working off prompts or various restrictions (genre, POV, tense, and on and on).
Please contact the instructor for further information: sgjones@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3060: The Visable Word, From the 20th-21st Century
Instructor: Professor Lori Emerson
Call No. 75276
MWF 10:00-10:50
In this class we will study and even imitate a range of writing practices, from the end of the 19th century through the 21st century, in which the material qualities of the letter and the word are foregrounded—the shape, size, texture, and sound of the letter/word. We will attempt to "read" the visual poems of Guillaume Apollinaire and Stéphan Mallarmé and then we will move through the wild avant-garde, typographical experiments of Futurism and Dada, the concrete poetry of the 1950s and 1960s in the U.S. and Canada, the late 20th century collaged novels of Tom Phillips and Mark Z. Danielewski, and we will finish by reading the conceptual writing and digital poetry of the early 21st century. We will also watch the recently released film Helvetica, a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. In addition to the novels of Tom Phillips (The Humument) and Mark Z. Danielewski (House of Leaves), we will use the following electronic resources to supplement our reading (especially of twentieth-century and twenty-first century poets): Electronic Poetry Center (http://epc.buffalo.edu), PENNSound (http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/), and Ubuweb (http://www.ubu.com).
Please contact the instructor for further information: Lori.Emerson@colorado.edu
ENGL 3081-801: The Art of Truth: Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction
Instructor: Professor John-Michael Rivera
Call No. 84183
TR 9:30-10:45 — HLMS 259
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
In this course we will study a genre that has become tremendously popular in the literary market—creative nonfiction. We will begin be reading broadly in the area of nonfiction, studying creative non-fiction mostly, and, in doing so, we will explore how this genre uses fictive and poetic techniques in its aesthetic pursuit to represent the truth. Most of the course will run like a workshop, and we will work on our own creative projects and hold workshops throughout the summer. By the end of the summer, I want you all to not only be aware of the traditions and models of creative nonfiction but also become writers who are actively engaged in exploring the aesthetic limits and possibilities of writing the truth.
Please feel free to contact Professor Rivera with questions at John-Michael.Rivera@colorado.edu
ENGL 3116-001: Leftist Cultural Thought
Instructor: Professor Ann Kibbey
Call No. 84170
MWF 11:00-11:50 — HLMS 237
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
This is an advanced course in theory. Unlike introductory theory courses, this course focuses on a specific topic: Leftist cultural thought.
The purpose of the course is to consider the value of leftist theory as a critique of contemporary capitalist society, and to differentiate it from liberalism. The
assigned readings offer a variety of critiques of capitalist society, theories of social class, concepts of the corporation as a social entity, and ideologies of
power from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. In addition to selections from Marx’s writings on the capitalist system, the readings include Lukács,
History and Class Consciousness (on social class, reification and objectification), Volosinov, Marxism and the Philosophy of Language (a critique
of Saussure), Lindqvist, "Exterminate All the Brutes" (on the Darwinist rationalization of capitalist expansion and the origins of European genocide), Weber,
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Derber, Corporation Nation. These texts will be supplemented with descriptions of contemporary
American capitalism, such as Fast Food Nation, White-Collar Sweatshop, and The Student Loan Scam, and in general, the kinds of books you
will find at Left Hand Books.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Kibbey@colorado.edu
ENGL 3116-002: Digital Poetry
Instructor: Professor Lori Emerson
Call No. 84171
MWF 12:00-12:50 — ATLAS 1B25
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
In this course we will examine a range of digital poems side-by-side earlier, bookbound poems to establish the extent to which digital poems are a continuation or a definitive break from what has come before. We will also look at the surface-level effects of these digital poems and try to establish a working vocabulary for critiquing these 21st century literary artifacts; further, we will look at how these poems have been constructed—what software has been used or hacked to create these word objects? What can we learn from studying these works at the level of the code? We will also explore the ways in which the language of digital poems mimics or becomes an object, sometimes complete with its own emergent behavior.
Throughout the semester we will also have the opportunity to compare our findings with the authors’ intentions through videoconference meetings and/or online discussion forums. Further, since this course is as focused on the making and doing of digital poetry as much as on the critique and literary study of these poems, at the end of the semester we will have a “demo day” where you will exhibit for students and faculty the digital poems you will have created in response to the poems we will have studied in class.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
With the exception of the following book which you will purchase directly from me, all reading assignments will be available online or as a pdf which you will
download from our course website on CU Learn:
- Strickland, Stephanie. V: WaveSon.nets / Losing l'Una. Penguin, 2002.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Lori.Emerson@colorado.edu
ENGL 3116-004: Critical Theory and Web Design
Instructor: Professor Mark Winokur
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
This is an experimental course the purpose of which is to encourage students to understand creativity and critical thinking as complementary endeavors. We will
build a website in the light of our readings of criticism and theory of digital media. Your grade will depend on one presentation, one term paper, and your
contribution to the website under construction. Though useful, no background in web design in required.
Much more useful will be your skills in critical thinking.
Please contact the instructor of further information: Mark.Winokur@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3164-001: History and Literature of Georgian England
Instructor: Professor Scarlet Bowen
Call No. 84165
TR 9:30-10:45 — CLRE 104
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
This course offers a survey of eighteenth-century British literature, with a special emphasis on interpreting literature in its historical context. By studying poetry, plays, and novels of the period, we will discover how literature responded to and shaped understandings of politics, philosophy, economics, religion, gender roles, nationalism and empire, as well as the greater democratization of print culture. Possible course texts will include Pope’s Dunciad, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, Haywood’s Fantomina, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Hogarth’s graphic prints, poetry by Gray, Goldsmith, Duck and Leapor, as well as late eighteenth-century novels such as Smollet’s Humphry Clinker and Austen’s Northanger Abbey.
Please contact the instructor of further information: Scarlet.Bowen@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3226-001: Folklore 1
Instructor: Professor Michael J. Preston
Call No. 75294
TR 12:30-1:45 — HLMS 137
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
Folklore 1 is an introduction to and a survey of contemporary American folklore, the uninstitutionalized side of our lives, with emphasis upon Anglo American
traditions but supplemented with Mexican American materials. American college traditions are included. Although not foregrounded, everyday life theory, language
theory, performance theory, genre theory, and text theory underpin the course. Students are encouraged to integrate what they have learned in other English
courses and in other disciplines, but the emphasis is to be on understanding the texts of folklore.
The course will begin with a redefinition of folklore in order to separate it from obsolete romantic notions about "merrie olde England" and to base it
in contemporary American practices. Although designed to enable the student to understand and to enjoy more fully his or her cultural heritage, contemporary
issues will be addressed. This course will not involve just alligators in the sewers of New York, but rather representations of women and minorities, AIDS and
computer viruses, and the differences between stereotypes (racial and national) and ephemeral joking scripts, as well as dominant culture's appropriation of
various traditions. The metaphors and mythology of contemporary society will be considered, including legends/rumors in the marketplace and the controlling
metaphors of academe, the stockmarket, the sports world, etc. Joking and legend traditions will be emphasized, as most common today, but relatively minor
traditions, such as contemporary riddle traditions (e.g., in personal ads), will not be ignored. Special emphasis will be placed on how we modern "folk"
adapt developments in our technology in order to enhance our participation in millenia old traditions, thus making something new of the old to reflect our
contemporary situations. This will not be a comfortable course for some, because we are not always "politically correct" in what we actually do, nor is
every eccentric belief reinforced. The course requires intellectual honesty and candor, and every humanly possible attempt is made to avoid bashing or to cushion
the bashing of any individual.
There will be essay type mid term and final exams. The centerpiece of the course will be a major collecting effort which begins almost journal like with the odd
bits of folklore each student encounters in his or her life; a first short analytical paper will be due before mid course. Each student's collecting effort will
then focus on a particular area (genre, group, etc.) and be "topped off" by an analytical essay for which the collecting project will serve as the
primary "texts" for analysis. At least one half hour discussion with the instructor will be required.
Please contact the instructor for further information: preston@colorado.edu
ENGL 3226-880: Folklore 1 (Honors)
Instructor: Professor Cathy Preston
MWF 1-1:50 — KTCH 120
Prereq: Honors Standing
Folklore 1 (Honors) is designed as an interdisciplinary introduction to the non-institutionalized part of our lives: the stories and jokes we tell, the songs we sing, the games we play, the customs and belief practices that we participate in, and the material objects we make. While, in English department courses, students normally learn to read a variety of differently situated literary texts, in this course students will learn to document and “read” a variety of differently situated traditional, vernacular, and emergent cultural performances as texts. By the phrase “differently situated’ I refer to the ways in which one’s everyday-life-experience is enmeshed within the group and self-identity politics of class, gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, religion, age, occupation, region. Drawing on theoretical and methodological frameworks developed in the disciplines of literary theory, anthropology (and its subdiscipline, ethnography), sociology, psychology, socio-linguistics, history, communications, cultural studies, and folklore, we will work as a class to define the nature and function of folklore in our contemporary world.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Prestonc@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3312-001: The Bible as Literature
Instructor: Professor Sue Zemka
Call No. 84160
MWF 9:00-9:50 — HLMS 237
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
No other book has had as great an influence on literature of the English-speaking world as the Bible. In this course we will study the Bible as a work of
literature and a cornerstone of western culture. We will explore the history of Bible translations and interpretation. We will learn how the Bible’s enduring
importance has been due to its ability to generate conflict as well as consensus. We will observe British and American writers using the Bible to the ends of
inspiration, satire, and iconoclasm. And we will read the King James Bible — for its stories, poetry, and wisdom traditions.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Sue.Zemka@colorado.edu
ENGL 3312-010: The Bible as Literature
Instructor: Professor Sue Zemka
Call No. 84307
MW 1:00-1:50 (with seperate recitation) — CHEM 142
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
No other book has had as great an influence on literature of the English-speaking world as the Bible. In this course we will study the Bible as a work of
literature and a cornerstone of western culture. We will explore the history of Bible translations and interpretation. We will learn how the Bible’s enduring
importance has been due to its ability to generate conflict as well as consensus. We will observe British and American writers using the Bible to the ends of
inspiration, satire, and iconoclasm. And we will read the King James Bible—for its stories, poetry, and wisdom traditions.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Sue.Zemka@colorado.edu
ENGL 3377-001/002: African American Women Writers
Instructor: Professor Cheryl Higashida
Call No. 75299/75300
MWF 11-11:50 — ECON 13 (001) / MWF 12-12:50 — ECON 13 (002)
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
How have blackness and womanhood been at odds with each other, and how did this contradiction affect literary form?
Why would blackface minstrelsy be a means for African American female authors to critique white supremacy and patriarchy?
Is the black woman who passes for white a sell-out or subversive?
Why have Americans seen Michelle Obama as “angry,” and how might that perception have roots in the 1960s and even the 1860s?
Why does cultural critic Carole Boyce Davies contend that “[i]f we see Black women’s writing only as gender- and race-based,…then we miss a major understanding of
the very specific critique of imperialism that many of these writers are offering”?
These are some of the questions we will discuss—you will raise others—as we think about how the seemingly simple and transparent terms, “African,” “American,”
“Women,” “Literature,” are indeed markers of contestation. Their relationships to each other are troubled and troubling as a result of slavery and colonialism,
segregation and “miscegenation”, forced migration and homophobia (in its literal meaning and in Gloria Anzaldùa’s more evocative sense of “the fear of going
home”). As we look at the writing by African American women produced from within and against these historical processes and the myriad forms of resistance to them,
“African American women’s literature” will serve not as a given or starting point, but as a concept that we continue to invent through our readings and writings.
Our goals: developing close reading, critical thinking, and composition skills; learning about different genres such as the slave narrative, modernist poetry, social realism, classical Hollywood cinema, and postmodern fiction; understanding the key cultural and social movements, political struggles, and economic conditions that shape and are shaped by the literature under consideration; bringing feminist, Marxist, postcolonial, and cultural studies to bear on writings by and about African American women.
Course requirements (subject to change between now and the beginning of the fall 2009 term): two papers, final exam, and weekly reading responses in addition to consistent attendance and participation.
Possible primary readings include Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; Frances E.W. Harper, Iola Leroy; Nella Larsen,
Passing; Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Louise Meriwether, Daddy was a Number Runner; Alice Childress, A Short Walk;
Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven; and poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonia Sanchez, Carolyn Rodgers, and Audre Lorde.
Films might include Illusions, directed by Julie Dash; and Life and Debt, directed by Stephanie Black.
For further information, please contact the instructor at Cheryl.Higashida@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3377-004: U.S. Latino/a Literature: Chicanos y Boricuas on the Move
Instructor: Professor John Escobedo
Call No. 75302
TR 2:00-3:15 — GUGG 2
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
This course will provide a historical analysis of the development of Mexican American and Puerto Rican literature in the United States. In order to appreciate the richness of this trajectory, authors from both the nineteenth and twentieth century will be discussed throughout the semester. As such, this course will focus on the developmental stages from Mexican American and Puerto Rican literature to Chicano and NuyoRican literature. Special topics of interest for the course: significance of cultural politics, use of urban and rural landscapes, creation of hybrid identities, and the rise of Chicana/Latina feminism.
Please contact the instructor for further information: John.Escobedo@colorado.edu
ENGL 3377-005
Instructor: Professor Edward Maier
Call NO. 84404
MWF 2-2:50 — HLMS 137
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
In a statement that has caused much debate, Theodor Adorno claimed that after Auschwitz there could be no more poetry. In this course we will weigh the strengths and weaknesses of this claim by examining some key writings produced out of the unparalleled savagery and unparalleled loss which we call the Holocaust: autobiography, lyric poems, graphic novels, drama. Even while examining ethical and social issues, our perspective will be literary in the broadest and best sense: how has the Holocaust changed the ways we think about literature, about what it is and what it can or should do? You will be asked to respond to these works in writings of your own: two essays and two exams.
Please contact the instructor for further information: eddymaier@yahoo.com
ENGL 3563: Early Shakespeare
Instructor: Professor Michael J. Preston
Call No. 75304
TR 9:30-10:45 am— HLMS 137
Prereq: JR/SR ENGL/HUMN/THTR Majors
English 3563 is a basic course in the plays Shakespeare wrote in the first half of his career; some attention will be paid to his poetry. "Basic" is not a
tricky term, as I use it, but it can be misleading. My concern is that everyone read and understand about a dozen of Shakespeare's plays and demonstrate that
understanding through the traditional mechanisms of essay-exams, quizzes, and analytical papers.
Individuals who register for such a Shakespeare class are mostly English majors, but there is the occasional Humanities major as well as a handful of Theater
majors. Each comes with his or her acquaintance with Shakespeare's plays (sometimes minimal, not always happy) as well as his or her cultural background, biases,
interests, and concerns. Each comes with his or her preconceptions about how to read or otherwise "understand" a text.
Although Shakespeare's works are readily intelligible to some extent to any educated reader, as well as to many who are not so educated, one goal of the course is
to encourage twenty-first-century inhabitants of Boulder, Colorado, to stretch their historical imaginations and emotional responses to reach across time in an
attempt to understand and appreciate the achievement of a man who wrote in the late sixteenth century in southern England. There are a lot of differences as well
as similarities. The meanings of words have changed as have political, social, and economic issues. Those interested in theory should read John Locke's "Essay
Concerning Human Understanding."
Although Shakespeare was a great writer, whatever that may mean, he was human, and, as I am inclined to say, "he put his pants on one leg at a time." In this course
I am concerned to get Shakespeare down off the pillar upon which he was put (mostly in the 19th century) so that we can understand him and appreciate his
considerable achievements. Among other things, this means reading some of the books read by "everyone" at the time, such as Ovid's "Metamorphoses." Of course, no
one in the class will have the time to read everything that Shakespeare read, but someone in the class should read Machiavelli's "The Prince" and provide a
two-minute summary so that everyone knows about it "generally." Those who read such key additional texts may find themselves with potential paper topics.
I encourage discussions, whether after class, over coffee in the UMC, in my office, or at my home in south Boulder. Paper topics are often better after such
discussions.
Please contact the instructor for further information: preston@colorado.edu.
English 3655-001: Survey of American Literature to 1860
Instructor: Professor Mary Klages
Call No. 84169
TR 12:30-1:45 — CLUB 4
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR ENGL/HUMN/FILM Majors
This course will examine important works in American literature from “the beginnings” to the Civil War. We will begin by asking when “American” literature starts, and will read texts from the Puritan and Revolutionary eras, asking questions about the roles of nature, religion, and concepts of freedom in the shaping of early American culture. We will then focus on some of the greatest 19th-C. American writers, including Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, Poe, and Hawthorne, and conclude with reading Melville’s masterpiece, Moby-Dick, in its entirety.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Mary.Klages@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3856-001: Literature of the Third World
Instructor: Professor Ali Hasan
Call No. 84174
MWF 12-12:50 — MUEN E431
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
In this course we will look at different representations of the Third World that we find in short stories, novels and poetry (written in English, not translations) originating from or about different parts of the Third World. We will investigate the picture of the world (Third World) that this reading gives us by comparing it to the parallel understanding of the state of the world (Third World) we will be building in the class through short supplementary readings and viewing of short documentary clips. Some of the fiction in the course for example will range from Fidelis Odun Balogun’s Adjusted Lives, a book of short stories dealing with the devastation caused by imposition of World Bank and IMF economic policies on Africa for the past 30 years, to Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger, about the myriad issues facing the Indian masses, to Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, his famous novel about Vietnam, to Nobel prize winner J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, about post-apartheid South Africa.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Ali.Hasan@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3856-003: Special Effects in Film/Science Fiction
Instructor: Professor Mark Winokur
Call no. 84177
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
In this class we will discuss approximately a dozen representative films from the horror, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Beginning with the roots of
fantasy and horror (Nosferatu and Metropolis), we will continue chronologically through classic texts like Freaks and Night of the
Living Dead, and up to contemporary films like Dark Knight Returns.
We will discuss such issues as special effects, genre definition, influences on the American product (German romanticism and expressionism), gender, and race,
and so on. Grades will be based on a series of homework assignments, an oral presentation, midterm and final examinations, and a short term paper.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Mark.Winokur@colorado.edu.
ENGL3856-004: Hip Hop Poetics
Instructor: Professor Adam Bradley
Call no. 85431
TR 11:00-12:15 — HLMS 137
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
Every rap song is a poem waiting to be performed. Written or freestyled, rap has a poetic structure that can be reproduced, a deliberate form an MC creates for each rhyme that differentiates it, if only in small ways, from every other rhyme ever conceived. Thanks to the engines of global commerce, rap is now the most widely-disseminated poetry in the history of the world. Of course, not all rap is great poetry, but collectively it has revolutionized the way our culture relates to the word. The best MCs—like Rakim, Tupac, Nas and many others—deserve a place in any discussion of contemporary American poetry.
This course surveys rap’s development from its South Bronx roots in the 1970s to its worldwide influence in the present day. Along the way, we shall be asking a number of questions, including: How does rap extend the Western poetic tradition and how does it complicate it? How are we to judge the merits of a given rap verse? How do we square rap’s controversial public image with its aesthetic significance? While we’ll focus on the craft of rapping, we shall consider it within the broader context of hip hop’s other basic elements—DJ-ing, b-boying (or breakdancing), and graffiti art. And while we’ll primarily be concerned with matters of aesthetics, we shall also confront the implications of hip hop on race, politics, gender, and sexuality.
Please contace the instructor for further information: Adam.Bradley@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3856-010: The Graphic Novel (Lecture Format)
Instructor: Professor William Kuskin
Call No. 75311
MW 9:00-9:50 (with seperate recitation) — HLMS 199
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
The comic book pamphlet developed as an independent literary form in the 1930s and early 1940s and has been a favorite of adolescent enthusiasts and cult devotees ever since. Recently, it has entered into a process of transformation, moving from a species of pulp fiction on the margins of childrens literature to an autonomous genre, one Will Eisner labeled the graphic novel. This transformation has been noted in such literary venues as the New York Times and the New Yorker, as well as in an increasing number of university classrooms and bookstore shelves.
English 3856 presents a survey of the history of comics and of the major graphic novels in circulation today. Its governing question is simple: by what terms can we discuss comic books as literary art? Behind this question lies one of form. For the graphic novel makes a unique appeal to the magic of the book: jointly pictorial and textual it represents the human condition through both words and images.
All Graphic Novels are Available at Time Warp Comics
(3105 28th Street, Boulder CO)
They Have Been Set Aside for This Course
At a 15% Discount Off Cover Price
Please Ask at Counter
Reading List:
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home
Ellis, Warren and John Cassady. Planetary Vol 1
Millar, Mark and Bryan Hitch. Ultimates 1, Vol 1 & 2
Miller, Frank. Sin City: The Long Goodbye
Miller, Frank. The Dark Knight Returns
Moore, Alan. Watchman
Spiegelman, Art. Maus I & II
Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid on Earth
Willingham, Bill, Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha, and Craig Hamilton. Fables: Legends in Exile
English 3856 will be conducted in Monday and Wednesday lectures with additional recitation discussion sections. Coursework will likely include three essays, a
mid-term and final, and participation in creating a comic. Finally, as this literature is essentially engaged with contemporary cultural issues, it is not for
the faint of heart.
Please feel free to contact Professor Kuskin with questions at William.Kuskin@colorado.edu.