WRITING AND COMMUNICATION PROGRAM
FALL 2016 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
ENGL 1101: N3, D5, HP2
Fashioning Monsters, Preserving Normalcy
John Browning
"Monster," like evil, race, or beauty, is an evolving and socially constructed category. Monsters have embodied and continue to embody whatever the dominant groups in society have feared most or considered most abnormal. This section of ENGL 1101 will focus on the conflicting dynamics in American history and culture that have shaped and reshaped our ideas about deviance and normalcy, concepts out of which the monster is born. We will situate literary and visual narratives, commercial ads, and news stories within historical, cultural, and political contexts, allowing students to examine and write about the monster - the other - in all its many guises as an expression of cultural anxieties about race, class, sexuality, and gender. In the course of the semester, students will engage in a variety of texts and genres (Horror fiction and film, non-fiction, documentaries, etc.) and, in the process, produce various written works and multimodal artifacts that will enhance students' written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal (WOVEN) communication skills. Assignments and group work will require students to engage in dialogue about and argue from various viewpoints pertaining to the relationship between monstrosity and culture, thereby helping to promote our understanding of otherness and "deviant" identities.
ENGL 1101 A4, G1, L
“Truthiness”
Owen Cantrell
In nearly every hour of every day, we are bombarded with arguments and statements meant to persuade us. Whether it be on television, social media, Internet web pages, or directly from media figures and politicians, persuasive arguments based in “truth” are the coinage of the world we live in. This 1101 course will focus on the ways in which the “truthiness” of arguments often trumps their verifiable, empirical reality. This epistemological dilemma will be explored in psychological and neuroscience literature that presents the cognitive make up of our minds as one of the essential problems to our understanding of complex issues. Additionally, we will discuss the ways in which “truthiness” has infected our social and political discourse, as well as the often dramatic results that come from allegiance to “truthiness” over empirical fact. Topics will include metacognition, anti-intellectualism, political and social issues, and the tradition of anti-rationalism. Class discussions will focus on a mix of evaluation of class readings, application of concepts from class to contemporary debates, and student presentations utilizing “truthiness” as it relates the issues of the day. Evaluating the limits of our thinking, and the results that stem from our innate cognitive biases, is important. However, the goal of this course is to engage and develop general critical thinking and communication skills. You will learn to think critically—that is, to break down ideas into their constituent parts, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and learning to apply those ideas to new contexts. You will learn communication strategies that will prepare you to succeed academically at Georgia Tech and professionally in the workplace. In particular, this class will introduce you to the complexities and challenges of communicating with audiences in contexts where the written word exists as part of a larger “WOVEN” framework.
ENGL 1101 J4, P2, L2
Science and Culture
Tina Colvin
Neil deGrasse Tyson, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Nye the Science Guy: these household names likely come to mind when we consider the "public face" of science. Beyond the work of these popular figures, a diversity of science communicators—journalists, artists, web designers, documentary filmmakers, and others—also nourish the public’s appetite for accessible and entertaining discussions of scientific breakthroughs, controversies, and curiosities. Broadly, this course will explore the values, ethics, and communication challenges revealed when we look closely at the intersections of science, culture, and composition. We will analyze a range of recent nonfictional texts composed about science-related topics; in so doing, we will develop a familiarity with the rhetorical strategies and cultural trends that currently shape how public audiences consume, circulate, and comprehend scientific knowledge and methods. This course will train you to identify, employ, and synthesize the principles of written, oral, visual, electronic, and non-verbal (WOVEN) communication through informal and formal writing assignments, collaborative work, in-class discussion, exercises, and presentations, as well as the use of a variety of digital tools.
ENGL 1101 A, C
The Role of Fantasy
Andrew Eichel
We live in a world that many previous generations could hardly have imagined, and developments in science continue to make this century potentially the most expansive in terms of technological advancement. Although we are immersed in the Internet and nearly dependent on various smart devices, we are also more obsessed than ever with what is outside the boundaries of science, the “fantastic.” Fantasy fills our TVs and movie screens, it populates our phone, computer, and console games, and it is one of the most popular literary genres. Why? Why is Game of Thrones the most successful TV series of all time? Why are comic book characters now the driving force in Hollywood? Why does reality TV portray what is very clearly not real? Why, when we have the fruits of technology and scientific progress everywhere around us, must we resort to fictions that rely on non-mimetic aesthetics and styles? Some people claim fantasy is mere escapism-we use it to flee from reality and this is a bad thing because reality is all we have. Others argue instead that fantasy allows us to imagine a better world in order to improve our own. In this course, we will embark on an investigation of what fantasy is (and what it isn't), why our brains seem to be hardwired to enjoy it, and what role it has in a technologically advanced society. We will discuss everything from ancient myths to superhero movies, Disney to the Lord of the Rings. This is not a literature class so we will focus on what writers, intellectuals, teachers, scientists, artists, and critics have said or written. To properly conduct these investigations, you will complete a number of individual and group projects that improve your fluency in the WOVEN modalities by enhancing your knowledge of a wide array of rhetorical, stylistic, and communication strategies.
ENGL 1101 B2, C2, J5
“Adulting”
Rebekah Fitzsimmons
In this course, we will examine the historical, cultural and social meanings implicit in the term “coming of age” when used to describe the transition from childhood to adulthood. This course will use a wide variety of nonfiction genres such as memoirs, biographies, op-eds, scholarly articles, news articles, films, documentaries and digital texts to examine the cultural significance and social implications of childhood, adolescence and adulthood, as well as the process(es) considered integral to growing up in our contemporary culture. We will strive to identify and define key milestones that mark adulthood in 21st century America and compare those to markers of adulthood for older generations. Students will examine, analyze and fact check criticisms of the Millennial generation and learn to harness their own personal experiences into rhetorically sound, well-supported arguments and counter-arguments. By the end of the semester, students will have explored the complexities, social assumptions and changing realities associated with “adulting” and will be more empowered to present their own ideas about the coming of age process to a variety of audiences and age groups. The course theme of “Adulting” will help students to learn new approaches to research using digital and social media tools, as well as critical thinking skills and creativity to communicate their grasp of non-fiction genre conventions, the rhetorical strategies of different audiences, their own academic analysis, and definitions of coming of age concepts. The assignments in this course are designed to give students opportunities to learn multiple approaches to rhetorical analysis, writing for an audience, close reading, strategic communication, multimodality, research methods, and the writing/revision process.
ENGL 1101 N1, D8, F2, H
The Election
Jennifer Forsthoefel
Few events in American culture are as consistent and inescapable as presidential politics. Every four years, radio, television, the Internet, and print media collectively agree to inundate their respective audiences with reportage, opinions, analysis, and gossip about the men and women who “throw their hats into the ring,” competing for the nation’s most eminent responsibility. This 1101 course will consider the presidential election both as a kairotic moment of rhetorical awareness and a quadrennial celebration of media spectacle. Topics will include political and presidential rhetoric; the function of the presidency in American culture; representations of the presidency and presidential politics in literature, film, television, and other media. What rhetorical strategies do candidates employ to appeal to their audiences? How do these strategies differ from those employed by candidates at other points in American history? To what extent do these strategies reflect current cultural trends? And what do these choices and their increasingly complex representations in the media say about American culture more broadly, outside of the political arena? Class discussions will focus on a mix of current event coverage, canonical texts of political rhetoric and journalism, documentary films, and presidential politics as they appear in popular culture.
While the rhetoric and spectacle of presidential politics will be our topic, our goals concern general critical thinking and communication skills. You will learn to think critically—that is, to break down ideas into their constituent parts, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and learning to apply those ideas to new contexts. You will learn communication strategies that will prepare you to succeed academically at Georgia Tech and professionally in the workplace. In particular, this class will introduce you to the complexities and challenges of communicating with audiences in contexts where the written word exists as part of a larger “WOVEN” framework.
ENGL 1101 K
The Development of the English Language
James Howard
In this course, we will use Georgia Tech’s WOVEN curriculum (consisting of written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal modes) to practice communication, critical thinking, and rhetorical awareness. As subject matter, we will look at the development of the English language across historical and geographical boundaries. English is a product of medieval conquests and modern colonialism, and the dialects of English range widely from the island which shares its name. Some of us grow up with one dialect only to be pressured to use a standard, formalized version in our work lives. Some of us have to learn English as a new language altogether. We will ask the following: how has English changed over time? How is English influenced by culture, geography, gender, race, and class? How do we describe our own place in this history?
We will explore examples of earlier Englishes, the formation of "proper" grammar, and the development of distinct dialects in Great Britain, the US, Canada, India, and other locales. We will also figure out how to effectively present what we study in distinct audiences and genres, including essays, infographics, presentations, and board games. "
ENGL 1101 D2, H, N4
Afterlives of Slavery
Anna Ioanes
This is a course about what, how, and why we communicate. Throughout the semester, we will analyze the relationship between the rhetorical choices you make, the argument you want to articulate, and the audience you intend to address. The course is designed to help you strengthen Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal communication skills through research-based analysis of cultural forms--fiction, essays, poetry, art, and film. Resting on a founding assumption that the legacy of slavery has shaped US culture, this class will explore how writers, artists, and performers respond to and remake that legacy. By analyzing the rhetorical strategies and implicit arguments artists and writers make about how to represent a past that is at once inaccessible and immediate, we will hone cultural literacy and expand our repertoire of of interpretive and creative strategies. The course will consider the affordances of creative genres for responding to the social and material legacy of slavery and the ways representations shape the past and the current moment. Texts will include work by M NourbeSe Philip, James Baldwin, Kara Walker, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Spike Lee. Assignments may include video essays, infographics, book designs, and collages.
ENGL 1101 F3, N2, D7
The Rhetoric & Spectacle of Presidential Politics
Andrew Marzoni
Few events in American culture are as consistent and inescapable as presidential politics. Every four years, radio, television, the Internet, and print media collectively agree to inundate their respective audiences with reportage, opinions, analysis, and gossip about the men and women who “throw their hats into the ring,” competing for the nation’s most eminent responsibility. This 1101 course will consider the presidential election both as a kairotic moment of rhetorical awareness and a quadrennial celebration of media spectacle. Topics will include political and presidential rhetoric; the function of the presidency in American culture; representations of the presidency and presidential politics in literature, film, television, and other media. What rhetorical strategies do candidates employ to appeal to their audiences? How do these strategies differ from those employed by candidates at other points in American history? To what extent do these strategies reflect current cultural trends? And what do these choices and their increasingly complex representations in the media say about American culture more broadly, outside of the political arena? Class discussions will focus on a mix of current event coverage, canonical texts of political rhetoric and journalism, documentary films, and presidential politics as they appear in popular culture.
While the rhetoric and spectacle of presidential politics will be our topic, our goals concern general critical thinking and communication skills. You will learn to think critically—that is, to break down ideas into their constituent parts, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and learning to apply those ideas to new contexts. You will learn communication strategies that will prepare you to succeed academically at Georgia Tech and professionally in the workplace. In particular, this class will introduce you to the complexities and challenges of communicating with audiences in contexts where the written word exists as part of a larger “WOVEN” framework."
ENGL 1101 K1
Maker Culture
Monica Miller
In broad terms, Maker culture is a technology-based expansion of DIY (“Do It Yourself”) culture. Ultimately, we will approach this class as a “makerspace,” a collaborative community in which students will work both individually as well as in a variety of team situations. In the spirit of Maker culture, the values of collaboration, creativity, and play will be emphasized. In this section of 1101, we will investigate the evolution of maker culture, maker ideology, as well as look at a variety of maker texts. Within our own classroom community, we will complete projects that enhance your written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal (WOVEN) communication skills.
ENGL 1101 A1, HP1, J2
Siri’s Progeny: Voice and the Future of Interaction Design
Lauren Neefe
This course links the first-year composition and technical communication curricula by exploring the hierarchy of the senses and questions of speech in human-computer interaction design. It asks students to conceptualise a world where speech has to be designed for specific and novel communicative interactions, as with Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. It asks, How do we make sense of what we hear? What makes a good speech interaction? And how can design concepts we use for visual and textual design be deployed in speech interaction design? The course seeks to build a vocabulary for thinking about modes of listening as well as speech or sound that doesn’t rely on text and visual elements and cues. Organized into modules on the media history, bias in technology, and the future of voice representation, the course asks students to critically examine the fundamental similarities and differences between human-human interaction and human-computer interaction. Multimodal projects will include group presentations, blog forums, and a podcast that reconceives a present-day interface as a sound- and speech-directed experience."
ENGL 1101 L7
Sarah O’Brien
ENGL 1101 N5, D8
The Censorship Files: A Study of Texts, Images, and Information
Julie Weng
This course will introduce you to rhetorical principles and multimodal composition through a variety of individually- and collaboratively-composed projects. With these goals in mind, we will rely on the power of Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal forms of communication to explore our course theme, “Censorship.” By consulting and producing a range of artifacts, we will investigate the use of censorship policies around the globe to condemn and outlaw texts, images, and information. Through our class activities, we will aim to understand the political, social, and cultural contexts behind censorship’s implementation. More importantly, we will question what is at stake by altering, removing, or prohibiting certain expressions, images, and ideas from public circulation. Altogether, our classroom exercises will support our semester-long project as we create collaboratively an open-access digital database called "The Censorship Files." This website will showcase your original, interactive editorials on instances of censorship from around the world. Combining your editorials with images, interviews, legal documents, film clips, and more, these editorials will demonstrate your skills as a historian, documentarian, analyst, synthesizer, web designer, and creative, critical thinker.
ENGL 1101 D3, H3, I
Communicating in Time.
Tobias Wilson-Bates
This section of 1101 will take Time as its central organizing theme. Beginning with the book, Einstein's Dreams (2004), the class will investigate how time has been imagined and communicated in the modern world. In order to make time visible, students will engage with the concept by learning and applying Written, Oral, Verbal, Electronic, and Non-verbal forms of communication to the subject. How do we see or feel Time? Why do we organize our lives so rigidly around the concept? And how does its complex non-presence construct our technologies and rituals?
ENGL 1102 E1, G3, L
From Print Culture to Digital Archive: Modern American Literature and its Periodicals
Ian Afflerbach
It is easy to imagine “literature” as a bundle of books that have always filled library shelves. Much of the most powerful and influential modern American writing, however, first appeared in periodicals, in weekly or monthly magazines where readers encountered not only the newest fiction and poetry, but also social commentary, political debate, artistic reviews, and commercial advertisements. Our class will examine how the development of a modern American literature—from roughly 1865 to 1965—was continually shaped by periodical culture and the ongoing rhetorical exchanges of their authors, editors, and readers. To do so, this course will introduce students to research methods and archives in the digital humanities, working with electronic editions of publications that have only recently been made available. We will read 19th century regionalism through Cornell’s digitized Atlantic Monthly; we will use the Modernist Journals Project to examine how Margaret Anderson’s Little Review and W.E.B. DuBois’ Crisis promoted experimental art as well as social consciousness; and we will map the postwar literary field through the contested reviews produced by Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man using DePaul’s “Digital Critical Edition.” Throughout this class, we will use American periodicals as a way to explore how communication is a fundamentally multimodal enterprise—fusing Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal modes. Your assignments will ask you to create audience-driven artifacts that follow the same WOVEN approach. Over the semester, you will write argumentative prose, as well as explore how photographs and ads in magazines influence the reading process; create a visual model depicting the major concerns in a novel’s reception, and then design your own book review; explore how a “little magazine” engaged questions of race, gender, art, or radical politics through a collaborative group presentation; and produce a cumulative portfolio in which you reflect on how your projects and ideas have developed throughout our class.
ENGL 1102 G6, L1, P5
Literature, Critique, and Politics in the Twenty First Century
Matthew Dischinger
In our course, we will read and discuss a variety of approaches used to interpret literature, culture, and critical theory. The course will seek to multiply the ways in which you read texts of all types. We will survey major interpretive movements from the early twentieth century to present, all the while reading and discussing primary texts meant to help us consider the role of politics in literature, broadly defined. So our goals will be twofold: we will defamiliarize how we read, and we will think about how what we read narrates the political consequences of reading itself. Along with the WOVENText, which will serve as our guide to multimodal communication about these conversations, we will use a critical theory reader and three works of fiction: Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel about Chicago meatpacking, The Jungle; Chris Bachelder’s absurdist novel circling around Sinclair, U.S.! (2006); and, finally, Paul Thomas Anderson’s art film, There Will Be Blood (2007), which took its inspiration from Sinclair’s novel, Oil! (1927). These texts will offer a discourse about the interplay between politics and art to which we will add our own written, visual, and oral contributions.
ENGL 1102 D3, N4, F1
Utopias & Dystopias
Jeffrey Fallis
Our theme in this course will be utopias and dystopias (ideal societies and nightmarish societies, defined broadly and respectively), their social, political, and cultural histories, and how they have been represented in literature, film, and other art forms. We will examine the evolution of the two literary (and philosophical) genres, consider how they are inextricably interrelated, and discuss how they were impacted and shaped by socioeconomic, political, and historical forces. We will imagine utopias and dystopias of our own and discuss why and how the dystopian genre has become so prevalent and pervasive in recent popular culture.
ENGL 1102 B5, L4, & G
Comics and Graphic Narratives: Superhero Edition
Michael Griffin
From comics to graphic novels to visual narrative, this ENGL 1102 course will use these textual forms as a vehicle to discuss multimodality, a central concept to Georgia Tech’s Writing and Communication Program. Students will learn about these forms of composition and key terms—such as like gutter, panel, splash, and spread—in the field through the reading of significant texts in comics. Our special focus in this class will be superhero comics and the superhero as a communication phenomenon of the 20th and 21st centuries. This course will delineate the various ways that artists and writers disseminated fantastical narratives about real and imagined figures to interrogate the link between communication and culture, through a primary interrogation in the modality of comics. As we move from the creative to the critical and the in-between, students will study a variety of artists who use the form of comics to tell stories, share information, and document the fantastical. In turn, students will learn how to critique and reproduce these forms through research, the use of visual and electronic software programs, and a combination of critical and creative responses.
ENGL 1102 D1, HP3, I
Odd Bodies
Kathryn Huie Harrison
With the pseudoscientific, scientific, and technological advancements that accompanied the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, new curiosities emerged about bodies: the study of bodies, the appearance of bodies, what constituted a “natural” body and, thus, an “unnatural” body. The ideas that emerged are often evocative of those we see in literature, science, and popular culture today, with bodies constantly being compared to the ideal, the typical, the “natural.” This course will explore literary and cultural bodies in the Victorian period, asking such questions as: What makes a body “normal” or “natural”? In what ways can bodies be construed as “unnatural” or “odd”? Are not all bodies, in some ways, “odd”? How do Victorian representations of odd bodies echo discussions of bodies today? While odd bodies is our topic and Victorian England is our setting, our goals concern communication and critical thinking. You will use the course topic to hone your understanding of the various rhetorical processes involved in effective communication. You will learn to identify relevant questions about an issue, synthesize multiple perspectives, assess the soundness of a position, revise your work based on feedback, and apply your research to real world issues. The course will also help you formulate and defend your point of view through written essays, oral presentations, visual analysis, and through electronic and nonverbal communication.
ENGL 1102 D4, N, F2
Shakespeare and Justice
Sarah Higinbotham
Shakespeare’s lines reverberate not only on stages and in university classrooms, but also in courtrooms: he has been cited in more than 800 judicial opinions. This course will explore three of Shakespeare’s plays through the lens of the law, examining the ways in which justice, punishment, and litigation are a cultural practice often rooted in our shared stories. Students will learn to identify relevant questions about an issue, synthesize multiple perspectives, assess the soundness of a position, revise their work based on feedback, and apply their research to real world issues. The course will also help students formulate and defend your point of view via written essays, oral presentations, visual analysis, and through electronic and nonverbal communication.
By analyzing real-world business examples and producing our own rhetorically sound business documents, we will learn to navigate various types of workplace communication. To meet the needs of dynamic workplace environments, the artifacts we produce will employ different types of media and perform various rhetorical functions. This course is designed to enhance students’ abilities to assess rhetorical situations, make clear rhetorical choices in order to compose for a specific audience, and prepare rhetorically sound and well-designed documents appropriate for business settings.
ENGL 1102 B2, C, J1
Digital Humanities and New Media
Kate Holterhoff
This course is designed to introduce students to key concepts in new media and the digital humanities by exploring ways in which technology has altered the form and study of literature. In recent years new media including computers, the Internet, social networks, and video games have all acted as provocative disruptions to more traditional ideas about the scope and significance of the humanities. While some luddites worry that technology endangers the arts, digital humanists welcome new media’s ability to enrich and expand the field. Students will study and actively participate in the digital humanities by engaging with the intersection of new media and literary studies. By critiquing fundamental points in this discourse students will begin to address the following questions: What are the historical and cultural repercussions of new media on the ways in which we read and write? In what ways does reading texts on a monitor differ from reading out of a codex? How has the Internet created new opportunities, both thematic and formal, for literary expression? What will be the role of libraries in our increasingly digital world? In what ways can new media subvert the status quo to act as a means of activism? Should literature be a solitary experience, as Jonathan Franzen suggests, or is it instead, as Neil Gaiman counters, an opportunity for social engagement and collaboration? How has interactive media changed the role of audiences from consumers and spectators to authors, players, and creators? How does the narrative of video games parallel and diverge from that of novels? Students enrolled in this course will be evaluated on their successful engagement with course themes through the completion of written assignments as well as multimodal and digital projects.
ENGL 1102 A2, J2, B
Detective Literature: Mystery’s Agent and Me, an Unlikely Sleuth: Season 2
Joshua Hussey
“She looked for it in the shadows, she found it at first sight among the many, many easily confused names from this world and the other, and she nailed it to the wall with her well-aimed dart, like a butterfly with no will whose sentence has always been written.” —Gabriel García Márquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold
This course asks students to develop communication strategies through the analysis of fictional texts (novels, short stories) set in the detective, hard-boiled, and crime genres. In addition to traditional literary works, we will analyze film, videogames, comic books, and audio dramas, whose content directs us toward various compositional structures. We will address common motifs such as the double, the locked room, the labyrinth, maze, and rhizome, as well as patterns of polyvocal narrative. We will look at the construction of gender identity and the social politics that accompany historic or textual domains. We will discuss basic linguistic theory.
The purpose of this course is to gain sophisticated abilities in multimodal (WOVEN) communication that build off of ENGL 1101. Assignments will encourage the development of communication skills in academic research and argumentation. While this class covers specific content, the emphasis of the course remains on techniques of composition and rhetorical/argumentative strategies. All of our discussions and assignments will engage with Georgia Tech’s multimodal WOVEN communication (Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal), which taken together in synergy, will better enable us to describe the material and digital worlds in which we exist.
Assignments: Short essay, long essay, material & digital archival mystery, blog writing
ENGL 1102 L3, M, P3
Black Science Fiction
Bethany Jacobs
In the 1998 article “Racism and Science Fiction,” author Samuel Delany explains that critics and fans have been calling him the first African American science fiction writer his entire. But Delany rebukes this description by pointing to authors like Sutton E. Griggs and Martin Delany, who were publishing highly “speculative” predecessors to the Sci-Fi genre as early as the 1850s. Delany argues that the ignorance of these writers points to a history of racism within the often white-washed genre of science fiction, and that the only way to fight that racism is “to build a certain social vigilance into the system” through an increased respect for, and openness to, the presence of race in science fiction. Like Delany, the most prominent authors of black science fiction have committed themselves to pursuing an end to racial and gendered violence in America, not only by writing black subjects into the genre, but by writing black subjects who fight for their rights. This course contributes to that goal by exploring black speculative literature of the past century, beginning with W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Comet” (1920) and continuing to the Afrofuturist albums of contemporary singer Janelle Monáe. How does an attention to race, ethnicity, the history of slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights, and contemporary experiences of racism, expand our understanding of the themes and forms of black speculative literature? This will be the central question driving our course.
As we hone our communication and critical thinking through Georgia Tech’s WOVEN method (written, oral, visual, electronic, nonverbal), we will read short stories, novels, and essays, listen to music, watch films, and consider digital sources created by black speculative fiction writers. This multimodal approach will help us consider how different texts communicate their ideas, and teach us to communicate ours. In this course, you will improve your ability to think, read, and communicate critically, as well as to situate our texts within a broader historical, social and cultural context. Our work will include formal writing, creative projects, and class presentations. Vigorous discussion will fuel the questions and revelations that produce our work.
ENGL 1102 A3, J, G5
Haunted America
Amy King
In this section of English 1102, we will engage with the theme of hauntings in the United States. Films and writing from various temporal and cultural contexts will lead us to explore questions such as: How have representations of cultural “outsiders” changed throughout time? How have the literatures and artwork of people colonized in the U.S. appropriated and transformed popular myths for their own purposes? How do “the colonized” attempt to work through the unspeakable atrocities of history via representations of a haunting past? Using writing about southern plantations as a starting point for our study, we will question popular understandings of how the “outsider” invades American cultures, and from there we will move into deciphering how other “haunting” presences—such as ghosts, zombies, and vampires—in twentieth and twenty-first century fiction, poetry, and films operate within the context of colonization in the U.S.
We will also discover that communication in these texts and contexts is rhetorical and multimodal, as people communicate in multiple ways. Building on the strategies developed in 1101, we will hone our communication abilities through practice of the WOVEN (Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal) principles, while developing and exercising strategies as researchers. The projects for this course will activate all modes in WOVEN, resulting in a diverse portfolio that might include, but will not be limited to, forum responses, PowerPoint presentations, and movie trailers. By constantly looking at the “bigger picture” of American nationalism in a global context, we will situate our own WOVEN arguments in the greater conversations that have been going on for centuries.
ENGL 1102 B1, G1, HP4
Technology and Disaster
Melissa Sexton
This course will examine how films, novels, and short stories represent the relationship between technology and disaster. We'll trace complicated perceptions of technology back to the Industrial Revolution, seeing how technological innovations have been portrayed as both the cause of and the solution to acute social and environmental problems. We'll then look at depictions of technology in more recent disaster narratives. Our goal will be to speak thoughtfully, and with some historical context, about cultural depictions of technological development.
As we investigate these themes, we will be focusing on developing our own critical thinking and communications skills. Specifically, in this class, we will be working on honing our WOVEN (Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal) communications skills as we produce our own essays, videos, and presentations. In all of the work for this class, we will be thinking critically about the relationship between technology, society, and the environment. Finally, this class will also allow us to integrate research about historical environments and technologies into our work.
ENGL 1102 F4, HP1, N2
One World is Not Enough
Caroline Young
This class will explore the work of three contemporary literary masters who draw from eastern and western influence alike in the invention of stories that dwell beyond natural laws of time and space. What happens in a world where fish fall from the sky, ogres attack villagers, and spirits wander freely around our waking and sleeping lives? How does our increasingly globalized culture generate exciting new pathways for storytelling? We will read the work of three novelists who freely bend time and space in service to their work: David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami, and Kazuo Ishiguro. While exploring novels at varying stages of these authors’ careers, we will consider how writers from multi-national and cultural influences depict the universal human experience of life on planet earth. In turn, we will respond to these works creatively and critically through a variety of media, including film, visual design, and geographical mapping, to better understand these writers’ influences on the changing face of literature in the twenty-first century.