University of Connecticut Hartford Campus Department of English Course Description Booklet Fall 2018

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University of Connecticut Hartford Campus Department of English Course Description Booklet Fall 2018 The pages that follow contain section-by-section descriptions of the Department of English

1 University of Connecticut Hartford Campus Department of English Course Description Booklet Fall 2018 The pages that follow contain section-by-section descriptions of the Department of English undergraduate course offerings for the Fall 2018 semester at the Hartford campus. Prepared by individual instructors, these descriptions are much more precise and detailed than those given in the University Catalog.

2 W 1616 MAJOR WORKS OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE General Education Requirements: Content Area One (Arts & Humanities - Literature) and one Writing Competency course 1616W (MW 4:40-5:55) Duni, Michael During this semester we shall concern ourselves with selected works by both English and American writers. Authors have attempted to share their perceptions of the world and how it works. Consequently, the representations of man and his world according to various writers prove as varied as does each one of our descriptive explanations of our world. We shall examine works by such authors as Donne, Shakespeare, Melville, Forster, Hawthorne, Crane, Milton, Dickens, Norris, O Neill, and T. Williams to encounter each writer s configuration of the world and what he or she has to say about it. In this way, our understanding of how the world might work and how man may fit into this world will become enhanced, if not further complicated! Beware: You are expected to read voraciously. I have chosen works that I like and that I believe prove provocative. Provocative in that they offer suggestions about themes in life as well as insights about the characters and the authors of these characters. I feel that these works will say something about each one of us as well. Yes. We read about others so as to discover truths about ourselves. What might each work say about you?! Along with our perusals and close examinations of these works, our composition tasks will become effective exercises for the expression of this enhancement or confusion. As authors offer their arguments, you will share your reactions, impressions, and further contributions regarding these literary works and their messages in written responses and academic essays. Writing is a required and crucial component of this course. 1616W (TuTh 12:30-1:45) Verstandig, Davyne Three credits. Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or Includes important works from the major genres and historical periods since Beowulf. Courses with a W designation should: Require that students write a minimum of fifteen pages that have been revised for conceptual clarity and development of ideas, edited for expression, and proofread for grammatical and mechanical correctness; Address writing in process, require revision, and provide substantial supervision of student writing. Make explicit in this course the relation between writing, learning and being able to articulate yours ideas with clarity in speech and writing. Articulate the structure of supervision of student writing; Students must pass the writing component in order to pass the course. Moreover, W courses play a central role in one of the goals of our curriculum, which is that General Education courses ensure that students become articulate.

3 What does it mean to be human? The most important task we can set ourselves...is to sustain, articulate, and persevere through literature the essential human values that early in the evolutionary history of our species distinguished us from our higher primate cousins loving kindness, protection of the young, the weak, and the elderly, and consciousness of mortality... Simply put, we must not be allowed to forget what it is to be human...it is our story tellers, our poets, our novelists and dramatists, who have always performed this task. Russel Banks Notes on Literature and Engagement from Burn This Book edited by Toni Morrison....the human project is to remain human and to block dehumanization and estrangement of others. Toni Morrison The Origin of Others. Reading, critiquing, and appreciating literature is a way to understand what it means to be human in our sometimes broken and chaotic world. We will be reading from some of the following writers: William Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde (De Profundis), Virginia Woolf, (To The Lighthouse), Emerson s Self Reliance or Nature, Henry David Thoreau s Walking, Arthur Miller s Focus, James Baldwin ( Sonny s Blues ) and Toni Morrison s The Bluest Eye. Course requirements include class discussion, three essays and an occasional quiz. Book titles may change due to availability BRITISH LITERATURE I o Plan: Section B1 (Survey and Period Courses Before 1800) and Distribution Requirement 1 o 2017 Plan: Section B1 (British Literature) Meets one of NEAG s Secondary Education British Literature Requirements Meets one of the requirements for the English Minor 2100 (M 6:30-9:00) Kneidel, Gregory A survey of great pre-1800 works of British literature in a broad range of genres, with particular focus on three evolving conceptions of three character types: the hero, the saint, and the lover. Graded requirements will include class participation, three short essays, and a final exam AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE General Education Requirements: Content Area Four (Diversity & Multiculturalism - USA) o Plan: Section B3 (Multi-Period, Multi-Cultural, and Ethnic Lit) or F (Elective courses) and Distribution Requirement 2 o 2017 Plan: Section B2 (American Literature) or F (Elective courses)

4 Meets one of NEAG s Secondary Education Multicultural Literature Requirements 2214 (TuTh 3:30-4:45) Verstandig, Davy (Also offered as AFRA 2214.) (Formerly offered as ENGL 3214.) Three credits. Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or Critical and historical examination of the literature of African American writers from Phyllis Wheatley to the present. Toni Morrison stated she did not regard Black literature as simply books by Black people, or simply as literature written about Black people or simply as literature that uses a certain mode of language in which you sort of drop g s. There is something very identifiable about it and it is my struggle to find that elusive but identifiable style in the books....the human project is to remain human and to block dehumanization and estrangement of others. Toni Morrison The Origin of Others. This course will explore the rich traditions of African American literature in the U.S. and the Caribbean. We will be reading excerpts from some of the following as well as some full texts. We will begin with the writing of enslaved people (Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs-W.E.B. DuBois, Nell Larson, (Passing) 12 years of a Slave, William Wells Brown (Clotel or The President s Daughter). We will end the semester with a focus on award winning twenty-first century writers (Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Jesym Ward, Zinzi Clemmons, Coates graphic novel Black Panther, excerpts from - Between the World and Me and African American Poets). I am looking at a new anthology Black Ink (ed. Nikki Giovanni- pub. 2018). Course requirements include class discussion, three essays, mid-term and an occasional quiz Book titles may change due to availability. W 2274 DISABILITY IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE General Education Requirements: Content Area One (Arts & Humanities - Literature), Content Area Four (Diversity & Multiculturalism - USA), and one Writing Competency course o Plan: Section B3 (Multi-Period, Multi-Cultural, and Ethnic Lit) or F (Elective courses) o 2017 Plan: Section F (Elective courses) Meets one of NEAG s Secondary Education Multicultural Literature Requirements 2274W (MWF 1:25-2:15) Horn, Jacob Often left out of discussions of identity, ability and disability are categories that all of us will move between at various points of our life, and yet the disabled body and mind have become touchstones for otherness and difference in literature and culture. This class will explore

5 representations of disability in our culture, placing Disability Theory as our starting point and expanding outward from this to incorporate explorations of literature, film, and other media. There will be a few short lectures, but the majority of this class will be discussion-based, looking to bring our own experiences and texts into class; as this is a W course, there will be significant discussion of and opportunity to practice writing, along with two longer essays ANGLOPHONE LITERATURES General Education Requirements: Content Area 4 (Diversity & Multiculturalism - International) o Plan: Section B2 (Survey and Period Course After 1800) and Distribution Requirement 2 o 2017 Plan: Section B3 (Anglophone & Postcolonial Literature) Meets one of NEAG s Secondary Education Multicultural Literature Requirements 2301 (TuTh 2:00-3:15) Shea, Tom World Literature in English: Let s Get More Camera Angles will survey some of the most intriguing writers from around the globe. Authors we will consider may include Jorge Luis Borges, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Jean Rhys, Alice Walker, Kazuo Ishiguro, Chinua Achebe, and Maria Konnikova. Prose readings will be complemented by their film versions. Course grades will be based on class participation (a MAJOR component), brief in-class writings, a mid-term essay, and a medium-length final essay. Usually NO FINAL EXAM. Permission Numbers or Queries: thomas.shea@uconn.edu 2407 THE SHORT STORY General Education Requirements: Content Area One (Arts & Humanities - Literature) o Plan: Section C (Methods) or F (Elective courses) o 2017 Plan: Section C (Genre) or F (Elective courses) Meets one of NEAG s Secondary Education Genre Courses Requirements 2407 (TuTh 9:30-10:45) Shea, Tom OPEN TO SOPHOMORES This course in the Short Story will center on a nexus of three valences: - Diverse, International authors (e.g. Polish, British, Irish, American).

6 - Collections of short stories as coherent, organic wholes (e.g. James Joyce s Dubliners, Ernest Hemingway s In Our Time). - CSI Detective thinking via authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), and Eilis Ni Dhuibhne. Course grades will be based on class participation (a MAJOR component), brief in-class writings, a mid-term essay, and a medium-length final essay. Usually NO FINAL EXAM. Permission Numbers or Queries: thomas.shea@uconn.edu W 2411 POPULAR LITERATURE General Education Requirements: Content Area One (Arts & Humanities - Literature) o Plan: Section C (Methods) or F (Elective courses) o 2017 Plan: Section F (Elective courses) 2411W (MWF 9:05-9:55) Horn, Jacob We are surrounded by the popular, inundated on all sides by the newest movies, television shows, and books, all of which are clamoring for our attention--and in this class we will give the idea of "the popular" significant scrutiny. Organized around four popular genres of literature, Romance, Crime/Mystery, Fantasy, and Science Fiction, our class will work to situate these genres within a critical framework that treats "non-literary" texts as serious material worth our time. Class will consist of some lecture and mostly discussion, with participation being a central factor; as this is a W course, there will be significant discussion of and opportunity to practice writing, along with two longer essays TOPICS IN LITERARY STUDY: WALLACE STEVENS IN HARTFORD o Plan: Section F (Elective courses) 2627 (W 1:25-3:55) Macleod, Glen Wallace Stevens ( ), one of the greatest twentieth-century American poets, lived in Hartford most of his adult life, from 1916 to In Wallace Stevens in Hartford we will study Stevens s writing in the context of the city where he worked and lived. We will analyze his poetry and learn about his life at the same time as we are exploring places that had special significance to him. The course is suitable for upper-division English majors, particularly those with a special interest in poetry. Honors students are encouraged to take this course with an Honors conversion. Hartford Consortium students are welcome.

7 W 3235 READING THE AMERICAN CITY o Plan: Section F (Elective courses) 3235W (TuTh 12:30-1:45) Kneidel, Gregory This class focuses on the American city through the lens of American citizenship. How has citizenship been defined throughout American history, especially through and against other forms of association (family, church, work, ancestry, neighborhood)? What is the relationship between rights-bearing citizenship and actual urban living? Readings will include a novel, some short stories, some poetry, and a couple plays and films and may include some of the following: Hawthorne s tales, Lewis s Babbitt, Cicneros s House on Mango Street, Kushner s Angels in America, Daisey s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, Lee s Chi-Raq, and Rankine s Citizen. To help us on the legal side, we will also listen to and discuss some podcasts (especially More Perfect, Constitutional, and Heightened Scrutiny) about legal rulings that have transformed American citizenship and urban living. We may also visit the federal courthouse on Main St. Graded requirements will include class participation and writing sufficient to satisfy University W-requirements.

University of Connecticut Hartford Campus Department of English Course Description Booklet Spring 2018

University of Connecticut Hartford Campus Department of English Course Description Booklet Spring 2018 The pages that follow contain section-by-section descriptions of the Department of English undergraduate