Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. There was nothing before, there has been nothing after." Twain remains America's most famous author; he is also widely recognized as most likely America's most successful and famous stage humorist. What is less known about Twain is his late-life ranting and despair regarding "The Damned Human Race." This course will survey a broad selection of Twain's writings and oratory to develop and enhance the student's analytical tools regarding written and oral expression. There will be a mid-term and final exam, along with several short quizzes on the assigned reading, plus three papers from each student.

Seth Macfarlane and Aristotle have very different notions of about realism. When we examine cultural products like cartoons, comics, video games, etc., we discover that many of the same motivations and techniques go into their production that goes into novels, films, and philosophical disquisitions. And, more importantly, their appeal to the culture and to academic scrutiny is equivalent. In this course we will examine a number of cultural products from a broad range of media and expose them to determined interrogation. We will apply theoretical lenses to understand why humanity has for millennia been engaged in storytelling of one kind or another. We will READ films, music videos, novels, and video games in an attempt to understand what these artistic forms have to say to us, and what we have to say about them. We will explore questions of identity, the industry of culture, the real and the virtual, with an eye toward exploding myths, breaking paradigms and general nonconformity. We will ask big questions and engage in heated debate and discussion with the idea that we can produce new knowledge about the culture we all experience everyday.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

This course is a survey of the literature written by British authors during the tumultuous and vibrant period beginning with the onset of the French Revolution in 1789 and ending with the ascension of Queen Victoria in 1837. It was during this period that England began its transformation from an agrarian society in which the landed aristocrats held most, if not all, of the social and economic power, to an industrial society which became more democratic and egalitarian. These various changes and shifts in society are reflected in the literature of the period, making it one of the richest and most varied in British history. This course will cover the work of the six canonical English poets (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats); the influential prose writers (Paine, Wollstonecraft, Godwin, DeQuincey, Thelwall, and others); as well as some of the suppressed, ignored or only recently re-discovered voices of the period (mainly those of women, reformers and other canonically-marginalized writers).

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

From ancient to contemporary times, constructed narratives are embedding values prized by the culture. This course considers narrative examples in epic, saga, film, song, and short story from several global cultures in order to examine the creative process of self-definition embodied in hero myths. From the Gilgamesh epic to the Volsunga Saga to Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali to contemporary films such as Lone Star and Hero, it creates a context within which to examine heroic storytelling in song and the cultural implications of “hero” presented in short stories and drama. Students will study literary and cultural texts selected from traditional literature to contemporary media and culture (e.g. literature, film, graphic novels, television, advertising, anime). Students will analyze these texts from a variety of perspectives and become familiar with current debates about literature and/or culture as arenas of human experience. This course will fulfill a humanities core requirement.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

This class will quickly trace the historical development of the western hero (Beowulf, Robin Hood, King Arthur) then slow down to focus more fully and particularly on the contemporary heroic image of the past fifty years, including the rise of the superhero in comics and film and the recent influx of female/multicultural heroes such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Storm of the X-Men, and Sarah Connor. We’ll explore what might be behind the public’s seemingly increasing fascination with superheroes as evidenced by the popularity of Marvel and DC franchise films and recent television shows.

Some of the questions we’ll ask include: What is the definition of a hero? Who decides what is heroic? Has this changed over time? What is different, if anything, when the hero is female rather than male? What is an anti-hero? What functions do heroes perform in a culture? What do the heroes of a particular time or place say about that time or place? What do a culture's villains reveal about that culture? Is there such a thing as "everyday heroism"? Do particular cultural moments/eras give rise to a particular type of hero/anti-hero/villain?

Students will hone reading and writing skills learned in prior writing classes, read and respond to a variety of creative and critical texts (both written and visual) focused on our theme, and complete group and individual research projects on related topics.
 

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

Most historians see the fall of the Berlin wall as the beginning of a new chapter in world history. With the end of Communism, the United States has become the single most powerful financial, military and (arguably) cultural force in the world. Scholars view the thrust of contemporary globalization as inexorably linked with the rise of American influence and hegemony.

This course will consider some of the key historical forces that have been bringing the globe's inhabitants into contact with and awareness of one another under the auspices of cultural, aesthetic and commercial expression. We will examine a host of artistic and popular forms that exist along the conduits and fault-lines of the global world system: possible primary texts include television programs and commercials, film, animation, music, visual art, literature and new media.

The bulk of course “readings” will be determined based on class input. Lectures and scholarly readings will contextualize our examination and analyses of cultural artifacts produced in this era of global capital. Participation in class discussion will comprise a significant component of the final grade. In addition, students will be responsible for two papers, a graded draft (of the second paper) and an in-class presentation. Individual Student and Group project proposals may also fulfill course requirements.
 

American Studies invites students to make connections. It is a crossroads space where students encounter American culture and history from multiple perspectives. It offers a glimpse into a big picture of America through literary, historical, and cultural “snapshots” of American life. What did it mean, for example, to be an American in 1953 and how is it different from today? How are the ideals of America as the land of liberty and freedom perceived at home and in the world? How do national politics shape literary formations? We begin by investigating key words and selective foundational texts. Through literature, film, photographs, and other forms of cultural expression, we explore questions about democratic culture and the significance of American identity from within and beyond national borders. The focus for this version of the course is on the 1950s—that decade wedged between the end of World War II and the beginning of the psychedelic 1960s. Students will investigate, for example, how Sputnik, McCarthyism, I Love Lucy, the Civil Rights movement, the Beats, the atomic bomb, interstate highways, and Elvis converged in the formation of post-war American culture and society. Assignments include investigations of key words, literary analyses, timelines, oral history, and student presentations. Students will become modest experts on a literary text or cultural phenomena or critical event or new movement that surfaced during this decade. Invited speakers will offer their expertise about one aspect of this anything-but-dull decade. Students may take this course as Honors Literature: American Studies 0504-324, as a general education elective, American Studies 0523-400, or as a course in the Literary/Cultural Studies concentration and minor.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

This course will survey the history of the novel, from its beginning in the 18th century epistolary tradition, through the early 19th century sentimental novel, its experimental reimagination in 20th century modernism, ending with contemporary novels approximating slow-tech information databases. Though we may think of the print novel as a comparatively static and self-contained object, its history tells another story about the dynamic and, oftentimes scandalous and disturbing links influential novels established between individual readers, their sense of self and possible modes of cognition, the body of the text, and an imagined national and/or global community. Focusing on the technics, or art and process of the novel, as it generates specific relations between text, readers, and an “imagined community,” the course will shed light on the innovative ways in which novels actively shape and reshape our understanding of self, nation, and world. We will consider the cultural and political consequences, past and present, of the understandings of public and private, fellow-feeling, self, memory, knowledge, and world that the novel has worked to transform and resolidfy. Expect to read close to a novel a week, alongside essays on the history and cultural politics of the genre from a variety of critical traditions. Assignments will include two to three formal reading responses (3-4 pages), a group presentation, and a final researched paper/project (6-7 pages).

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

This section of Contemporary American Literature focuses on poetry and poetics: our required textbook is Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, edited by Paul Hoover (1994), paperback. As used here, "postmodern" refers to the historical period following World War II, and "contemporary" refers to the present time. Readings will be drawn primarily, but not solely, from the required text, and will include poetry intended for printed distribution, oral delivery, and interactive digital media. Although our primary emphasis will be on formally innovative work, our readings will include some material that today might be considered mainstream. Students will write responses each week to the assigned readings, and these responses may take the form of literary analysis, personal essay, or poetic imitation. Active class participation and discussion are expected. Each student will submit a final portfolio of original work, plus an introduction, as a final project. I ask that all student writing be submitted in hard copy (print), not electronic, format, with the exception of the following, which will serve as the final exam: students will create a list of poems they consider to be essential readings for a course they might someday design in Contemporary American Poetry, together with a course description and a short essay explaining the principles determining their selection.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

In Toni Morrison’s America, ghosts shed tears and save the world, language is as joyous and liberating as jazz improvisation, and our official understanding of history is only one possible way of confronting the past. These visions come to us in an astonishing array of Morrison's novels -- The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Jazz, Beloved, A Mercy. Offering alternate realities of the post-Civil War era, black life in New York City during the 1920s, and the very beginning's of American slavery (and much, much more), Morrison's work continues to amaze and inspire critics and general readers alike. In this class, we will take a tour through Toni Morrison's America by reading some of her more compelling novels (including Song of Solomon and Beloved), as well as bits and pieces of her literary criticism and public writing (especially her speech upon receiving the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature). We'll also pay particular attention to the way that Morrison investigates -- and is obsessed by -- the American past. Why does she insist that opening up the past even matters (to her characters and to us)? How do we do retell complex events in both American and African American history? And what forms (literary, technological, philosophical) allow us to glimpse alternate but perhaps more truthful conceptions of the past? Class sessions will emphasize discussion. We'll also listen to music and watch films that may help further illuminate Toni Morrison’s America. And student will write medium length papers and have the option of working on a creative final project (web-based and otherwise) of their choosing.
 

Leo Tolstoy – the great aristocrat of Russian literature – was an anarchist, a vegetarian, a pacifist, a founder of his own brand of Christianity, an untiring engine of public controversy, and a constant nuisance to authorities. His works confront key questions of modernity that continue to occupy us to this day. Do social pressures confine an individual and make genuine freedom impossible? What should guide us in navigating the stormy whirl of modern life: science, humanism, or religion? What are the physical, social, political, romantic, and ethical dimensions of sexuality? Finally and most importantly– what is the meaning of life and how does death tend to put this question in focus? Part of the Russian language/culture concentration; the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor; and may also be taken as an elective.

This course, which is multicultural in approach, will survey the wealth of Irish literature from ancient Celtic sagas to contemporary poetry and fiction. The course will focus on selected early texts (in translation) as well as on selected works of nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers. We will study particular poems, short stories, plays, novels, and essays in the context of Irish history and culture. Part of the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227 or equivalent

Reading the myths, sagas and folktales of the Viking world reveals the values of a people that created the world’s oldest extant democratic society. Both women and men fiercely defend their honor and freedom, willing to risk death rather than to bow in submission. The sagas are analyzed as compelling narrative structures and as documents of a culture that continues significantly to shape western civilization. Part of the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

The rediscovery of the Greek language and culture in the city of Florence late in the fourteenth century brought about the era we now call the “Renaissance” with its doctrine of humanism and tendencies towards secularization. Unlike most of their Medieval predecessors who focused almost exclusively on religious matters, learned Italian writers of the Renaissance wrote about Art, Love, Manners, War, and Politics in ways that are still relevant and important in the Western World. This course is an introduction to some of the prose texts of the period by such writers as Dante, Castiglione, Machiavelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Vasari, and others. Part of the Italian language/culture concentration and minor; the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor; and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

This course will focus on the notion of “Love” as presented in the works of world-renown masters of storytelling–Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov, Bunin, Nabokov, as well as in the works of contemporary Russian authors. We will examine love triangles, jealousy and adultery, virginity and sexual asceticism. Sometimes placed in tragically inescapable situations, our heroines and heroes will struggle with eternal questions, emphasizing the fundamental contradictions of life and the endless struggle b/w the rational and animal principles in man. The material studied in class will be accompanied by the film versions, which will be screened and discussed.

Note: no knowledge of Russian is required as all texts will be studied in excellent translation 
 

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

This course charts the development of the graphic novel, examines that history in relation
to other media (including literary works, comics, film and video games) and reflects on how images and writing function in relation to one another. Primary readings will be supplemented with secondary works that address socio-historical contexts, interpretive approaches and the cultural politics of the medium, such as representations of class, race, gender and ethnicity.

Texts will likely include: 

            5.1. David Berona, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novel

            5.2  William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

            5.3  Michael Chabon, "The Return of the Amazing Cavalieri" and “Escapist”

            5.4  Will Eisner, Graphic storytelling and visual narrative

            5.5  Neil Gaiman, Sandman

\            5.6  Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

            5.7  James McTeigue, V for Vendetta.

            5.8  Frank Miller, Lynn Varley and Klaus Janson, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

            5.9  W.J.T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation.

            6.0  Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins, Watchmen

            6.1  Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V for Vendetta

         6.2  Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”

            6.3  Joe Sacco, Palestine

            6.4  Zack Snyder, Watchmen

            6.5  Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis

            6.6  Art Spiegelman, Maus

            6.7  Rodolphe Töpffer, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck

            6.8  Rocco Versaci,  This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature.

            6.9  Joseph Witek, Comic Books as History

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

Drama as a genre and theater as a performing art. Intensive study of at least one major playwright or period complements a general survey of drama/theater from ancient Greece to modern Broadway. Part of the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor and the Theatre Arts minor. It may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227 or equivalent.

The short story is a perfect unit of study. Whereas the novel is leisurely and winding, multilayered and complicated, the short story is focused and quick, unified and purposeful. With this in mind we will be reading a number of short stories so as to assess their impact, importance, reveal their secrets and understand their function. We will read some of the masters of this art form and some of its less successful practitioners. This course will be a five –week online course; while the individual readings will be short, there will be many of them. So be prepared, because like the short story this will be an intense and focused experience.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227 or equivalent.

A close reading and analysis of several novels selected to show the range of narrative techniques, methods of characterization and plot construction, and styles representative of the genre. Part of the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor; the creative writing minor; and may also be taken as an elective. Prerequisite of Writing Seminar 0502-227. May be taken as an elective.

Recently, Iranian film director Jafar Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison and a ban was placed on his films. His fate is similar to that of Iranian writers of fiction in the past. This course examines this intriguing and provocative tradition of fiction and film. Iranian films have been gaining worldwide recognition. They are as important in global cinema today as French and Italian films were in the 1960s. This course examines the literary, political, cultural, and socio-religious contexts of Iranian cinema. We will view one film per week, and read short stories and one short novella to gain a broad socio-cultural understanding of Iran. Lectures will introduce students to Iranian cultural history as well as to concepts of narrative, both visual and literary. Part of the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

Examines the nature of narrative in both film and literature, the various aspects of adaptation of literature into film and the relationship between social reality and storytelling in documentary film, utilizing a non-technical approach to the study of film. Part of the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor. May also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

Examines the nature of narrative in both film and literature, the various aspects of adaptation of literature into film and the relationship between social reality and storytelling in documentary film, utilizing a non-technical approach to the study of film. Part of the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor. May also be taken as an elective. Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227 or equivalent.

Who doesn’t love a good story? But what exactly makes a story a story, what isn’t a story, why do we love to read, hear, retell, re-write, adapt, or re-mix stories? As importantly, what makes a story a good story (unlike your Aunt Edna’s boring yearly holiday chronicle, which only gets worse with every retelling)? This course will introduce you to the basic elements of narrative, reflecting on key concepts in narrative theory such as “worldmaking,” “voice,” “perspective,” “characterization,” and “plot” to enhance your understanding of how stories work and your ability to understand how such storytelling strategies convey their meaning and themes.

After an initial exploration of myth as an oral narrative form and of short stories in print, we will expand our inquiries into what a narrative is and what it can do by considering what happens to storytelling in digital games, in film, in graphic novels, and other visual media, and in emerging forms of electronic literature. Are digital games, in fact, narratives? How do visual media tell stories through a combination of text and image? Are completely new, interactive kinds of narrative emerging in digital media or are we only seeing subtle variations on an unchanging, essential form of narrative? Are narratives and information databases natural-born enemies?

In asking these questions and considering competing definitions and varieties of narrative, the course will raise the over-arching question of why how we access, read, write, and circulate stories as a culture matters. What, in other words, are the cultural stakes in understanding how and why narratives move the way they do? Who cares, for instance, if James Cameron’s movie, Avatar, is a thinly adapted retelling of the Pocahontos story, anyway, or that the films Pulp Fiction and Memento feature non-linear plots ?

Expect to “read” stories in a variety of media, to review basic concepts and conversations drawn from narrative theory, and to creatively experiment with the storytelling strategies we are analyzing in class. No familiarity with specific print, digital, or visual media necessary, though a willingness to read and reflect on stories in various media and their cultural significance will be essential. Written assignments will include a reading journal, one 3-4 page essay, a group project, and a final project on a narrative of your own choosing.
 

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

How do you make a Black Mountain Omelet? Put some of America’s greatest artists, poets, thinkers on a hilltop in the Smoky Mountains, stir in the Bauhaus refugees from Hitler, add fresh eggs and butter from the campus farm, add a quart of moonshine, then slow bake for 24 years. Then, send them all out as cultural provocateurs to NYC and San Francisco and Buffalo and Alfred University and RIT. Prerequisite of Writing Seminar 0502-227. May be taken as an elective.

What we have known as “madness” and now refer to as “mental illness” has assumed many names: mania, lunacy, melancholy, insanity, and mental disorder. The “mad” have been admired, mocked, hospitalized, analyzed, and medicated. Few topics attract greater interest than stories of “mad men” and “mad doctors” in the asylums, “mad women” in the attic, “mad scientists” in the labs, and “mad artists” in the studios.” This course will introduce students to the history of madness, mental illness, and psychiatry in the western world: the language used to shape the experiences of those considered to be “mad,” the development of psychiatry as a profession, and the assumptions regarding treatments, especially the use of psychopharmaceuticals.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

James Merrill said that we live in an age of “me-moir” in American culture—a claim challenged by the diversity of 21st century representations in art, film, literature. This interdisciplinary course explores a rich spectrum of contemporary life-writings, ranging from traditional autobiography to graphic memoir; from visual self-portraits to global film. Included in the course will be works by international graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister; a film by Jane Campion; Pulitzer-prize winning journalism of David Finkel; Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family. Through a range of cultural works, we will discuss such ideas as the function of gender and language in constructing new modes of identity and community; the escalating quarrel between truth and fiction; the “rogue” role of memory; and the changing writer’s pact crafted with the reader. Emphasis is on participation in class discussion, individual and group presentation and projects. Course can be taken for WGS credit.

The class will treat the biographies of the science museum and forensic medicine as much of interest as “the lives of the scientists.” We will read K. C. Cole’s Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens, a biography of Frank Oppenheimer and his creation of an “Exploratorium”–the first science museum of its kind. And delve into Deborah Blum’s, The Poisoner’s Handbook, an account of the unglamorous but monumentally important careers of Dr. Charles Norris, Manhattan's first trained chief medical examiner, and Alexander Gettler, its first toxicologist. Student will select a third biography that also succeeds at creating unconventional, storied and complex, biographies of scientific practices and the scientists who participated in their production.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

For almost four hundred years Shakespeare’s work has stood as a monument to the literary imagination. He is widely regarded as the supreme exemplar of not just British, but world literature. How deserved is that reputation? Upon what basis has it developed? Are there political, social and cultural forces at work in the reverence we pay to the Bard? In this course, we will study Shakespeare's tragedies and romances, with a view toward exploring the influence of his work through the ages, as well as addressing questions of canonicity. Through class discussion, interactive activities, and examination of film, students will develop strategies both to investigate the literary and theatrical power of these works as well as to consider their cultural presence in both contemporary American culture and Shakespeare's England. Particular attention will be devoted to literary theory and the variety of interpretation in order to inform our readings of the plays. Part of the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor. Prerequisite of Writing Seminar 0502-227. May be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

In this course, students will study Shakespeare’s festive comedies as well as his controversial historical plays. Through class discussion, interactive activities, and examination of film, students will develop strategies both to investigate the literary and theatrical power of these works as well as to consider their cultural presence in both contemporary American culture and Shakespeare’s England. Particular attention will be devoted to Shakespeare in performance, and students may have the opportunity to engage creatively with the plays. Part of the Literary and Cultural studies concentration and minor; the Theatre Arts minor; and as an affiliated course in the Women's and Gender Studies minor. May also be taken as an elective or as Honors elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

From Walt Whitman’s “Barbaric Yawp,” to Emily Dickinson’s “Letter to the World that Never Wrote to Me,” and Baudelaire’s “Breath of Wind From the Wings of Madness,” Modern Poetry is a body of literature characterized by bold changes in voice, form, and subject matter. This course offers a close examination of poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries, with attention to such things as the role played by technological, historical, and political developments; what it means to be “modern” and how other modern arts movements, for instance, visual arts, music, or film, have influenced poetry. Part of the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor; the Creative Writing minor; and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

Reading short stories, novels, poetry, and essays, as well as viewing films of modern Mexico and Central and South America reveals a literature and culture wherein the mythic functions as an integral part of the modern world view and the poetic functions as a political power. The impressive vitality of modern Latin American literature can be attributed to its indigenous roots and to its branches that, stemming from a common language and a shared continent, overarch national boundaries and political regimes to form an international literary community. Part of the Latino/Latina/Latin American and minority relations concentrations; the Spanish language/culture concentration and minor; the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor; and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

This course will examine the rise of computing technologies and the resultant theories of information spawned by the rapid developments of the last half century. Part of the science and technology studies concentration; the science, technology and environmental studies minor; the science writing minor; the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor; and may also be taken as an elective. Prerequisite is Writing Seminar 0502-227 or equivalent.

Myths are commonly understood to be ancient stories that attempt to answer fundamental questions about the origin, character, and purpose of human cultures in the universe. The answers myths give to these questions are often perceived to be a “problem for modern rationality,” as William Doty has noted, and the study of myth, or mythology, is seen as an attempt to make sense of and decipher these “irrational” remnants of “primitive,” pre-modern cultures. Yet in spite of this commonplace view, and its assumption that modern science and rationality have displaced mythic explanations, everyday people around the world (not just anthropologists and historians) continue to read, retell, and write or rewrite myths. In this class, we will consider myths and mythic explanations from around the world as living texts that inform modern cultures in important ways. We will ask why myths continue to play such a central, though perhaps quite different, role in modern society and reflect on how myths enter into struggles over the nature of truth, religious belief, politics, cultural identity, and history in contemporary American culture, in particular.

This class will introduce you to key types of myth such as creation stories, goddess stories, hero stories, and trickster stories and to quite diverse ways of reading myths (in terms of their subject matter, their social function, their cultural origin and context, their structure, their psychological content, their narrative form, etc). While experimenting with these different ways of reading and understanding myth, we will pay special attention to myth as an expressive narrative form. In the final unit of the class we will focus in on the relationship between myth and modern literary narratives to consider exactly how and why these narrative traditions converge and diverge in texts like Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer prize-winning novel, Middlesex, as well as how myths inform other contemporary cultural texts and visual media.

Assignments include a reading response journal, a midterm, an essay analyzing a myth, and regular in class activities on our readings and on lecture materials.
 

Scholarly investigation into the rationale, origins and sources of myths, legends and folklore of the western world and the effect these primary forms have had on our literature. Part of the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

The reign of Queen Victoria lasted from 1837-1901, when England reached its pinnacle of power and prestige, dominating the world in a way not seen since ancient Rome. It was the inaugurator of the Industrial Revolution, shifting the workforce from rural to urban with the consequent rise of city slums, pollution, and poverty. No other country rivaled it in colonial acquisition as Its empire expanded to include India, Australia, and Canada. Its values were rocked by Evangelical Protestantism, the rise of the bourgeoisie, and Darwin’s treatise on evolution. This course will examine the ways in which literature (and other arts) responded to the dramatic challenges posed by the economic, political, and scientific tremors of the time. Readings will focus on three genres—poetry, prose, and fiction—of the major literary figures of the period, with attention to current innovation in the pictorial arts as well. Classes will depend on discussion of literary and visual texts that best capture what it meant to live in England during the Victorian era. Part of the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor.  May be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

This course offers a study of medieval English literature from its beginnings in the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) period through the 18th century. Texts studied include those from British literary traditions that include Arthurian Romances and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Themes and topics to be discussed may range from leprosy to sainthood, from military exploits to adulterous frolics, from selfless devotion to otherworldly adventure—not to mention the legendary King Arthur and his court. The course also emphasizes changing national British identities over the course of the period.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

Latina(o) culture is a social construct and an identity trait, both a significant ethnic group and a convenient term to refer to very different kinds of people. Ultimately, there is no real single Latina(o) experience, but at the same time, there is a necessity to consider the various experience of Latino and Latinas in the US unified by a kind of affinity, a commonality that is true for all people regardless of history, ethnicity, gender or race. To be Latino in the US is something; it’s just not always the same something. In this class we will read text from a variety of Latina(o) authors and talk about the history of their experience in relation to the mainstream culture. We will explore issues of identity, politics, prejudice, cultural difference, and assimilation in order to make arguments about the experience of Latina(o)s in the US.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

This course concentrates on literature by women authors, literary representations of women, and other means by which representational practices and the politics of language are engaged to critically examine gender roles, sexuality and their social consequence in various historical contexts. Part of the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor; and the women and gender studies concentration and minor (0522-481). It may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

This course concentrates on literature by women, about women, primarily from the early 19th century to the present. Considers the aspirations, frustrations and achievements of women as documented by themselves, as well as the perceptions and representations of women in literature by male writers. Works are examined for their literary value as well as their documentation of broader feminist issues. Part of the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor, and the Women and Gender Studies concentration and minor (0522-481). May also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

This course provides a selective survey of science fiction from its antecedents to its foundational texts and through many of its developments in the 20th and even the 21st centuries. With a variety of authors who exhibit varying intentions and effects, the course approaches these texts as literary form, as cultural artifact, as philosophical speculation, and as scientific and technological imaginary. Part of writing studies concentration and minor, the literary and cultural studies minor, and the science writing minor.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

Most historians see the fall of the Berlin wall as the beginning of a new chapter in world history. With the end of Communism, the United States has become the single most powerful financial, military and (arguably) cultural force in the world. Scholars view the thrust of contemporary globalization as inexorably linked with the rise of American influence and hegemony.

This course will consider some of the key historical forces that have been bringing the globe's inhabitants into contact with and awareness of one another under the auspices of cultural, aesthetic and commercial expression. We will examine a host of artistic and popular forms that exist along the conduits and fault-lines of the global system: most of our readings will involve literary works, and in addition we will consider examples from film, television, animation, music, visual art, literature and new media. Our readings will include works from Julio Cortazar, Edwige Danticat, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Bessie Head, Jhumpa Lahiri, Yukio Mishima and Salman Rushdie, amongst others. Films will include Slumdog Millionaire and Waltz with Bashir.

Some of our course materials will be determined based on class input. Lectures and scholarly readings will contextualize our examination and analyses of cultural artifacts produced in this era of global capital. Participation in class discussion will comprise a significant component of the final grade. In addition, students will be responsible for two papers, a graded draft (of the second paper) and an in-class presentation. Individual and Group projects may also fulfill course requirements.
 

What role do regional expressions in global literatures play in an increasingly globalized world? This course explores a selection of Caribbean Literatures and artistic works produced since the 1950s to address this question. We will be placing the Caribbean experiences and perspectives within a global framework. Students will be introduced to selected poetry, drama, fiction, non-fiction and films of the region by writers and artists of Caribbean descent. Emphasis will be placed on examining key concepts, cultural contexts, issues, and events articulated in these works. In our discussions we will consider key features of cultural and literary expressions: colonial and anti-colonial sentiments; nation-formation; the struggle for race, ethnic, gender, and sexual equality; human dignity; and freedom of expression. We will also examine the aesthetic strategies the creators use to address specific social and political questions from a Caribbean perspective. The course draws on cultural studies, postcolonial theory, and historical sources, as appropriate, to provide contexts for our discussions. All of this is to argue that globally the Caribbean is an important site with its own achievements and dreams. Assignments will include essays/response papers, a seminar presentation, a midterm exam, and a final exam. There may also be a course kit of required theoretical readings for this course.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227

Space Speaks! Rethink space through dynamic novels, poetry, films – from Michael Ondaatje’s Burnt, talking postcolonial head in The English Patient, Annie Proulx’s Bad Dirt Wyoming stories, to Seamus Heaney’s Bog People. Explore the paradoxes of mapping as they shape the cartographic imagination and create new forms of authority and social life. Develop a final paper or digital map project. Map a communal “Reading Rochester / RIT as Text,” orienteer, or work with GIS analysis.

The end of WW2 marked a great shift in the direction of Italian literature: the explosion of Neorealism, whose earlier beginnings had been oppressed by Fascism. Social realism dominated postwar Italian literature and intellectual culture, as authors explored the repercussions of Fascism and the war, the socioeconomic plight of the southern Italian regions, and the human condition in general (e.g. Elio Vittorini’s Conversations in Sicily, Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz). Works from the latter part of the century are more eclectic and include the lively, fantastic, and cosmic tales of Italo Calvino and the rich and enigmatic work of Umberto Eco. We will also view films. All readings will be in English translation—no knowledge of Italian is needed. This course is part of the Literary and Cultural Studies concentration and minor, the Italian concentration and minor, and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

From Charles Baudelaire and Marcel Proust to Assia Djebar and Dai Sijie, modern and contemporary French writers view France and the impact of its global presence from the dominant cultural platform that metropolitan Paris affords. Part of the French language/culture concentration; the literary and cultural studies concentration and minor; and may also be taken as an elective.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.

Through detailed analysis of the major works of a single author, J.R.R. Tolkien, this class will enhance student’ analytical reading skills and develop their familiarity with the tools of critical analysis. The texts specifically covered in class will be The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, while students will have opportunities to write papers on other writings of Tolkien, including segments of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales or Tolkien’s most noteworthy essays on Beowulf or On Faerie. The course will be run as a quasi-seminar with in-class student reports critiquing critical essays about Tolkien’s writings found in contemporary journals.

Prerequisite: Writing Seminar 0502-227.