Course Descriptions: Fall 2007

Please note that these course descriptions are preliminary only and subject to change before the course begins. Check my web site at www.russellgreer.com for updates before the courses begin.

ENG 4333.50 Introduction to the Study of World Literature.  Online.  Catalog Description: "Study of representative masterpieces of ancient, classical, medieval, and modern literature in translation.  Stress of intercultural relationships as well as individualizing characteristics of work's analyzed. Prerequisites: Nine hours of English.  Three lecture hours a week.  Credit: three hours."

This course will be taught completely online. There is no required face-to-face meetings, no orientation (except by appointment in my office), and no final examination (although there is a final project).  We will read five novels, all by controversial, contemporary authors from around the world who have written texts banned or challenged by their cultures or who have been forced to live aboard.  We will read Paradise of the Blind (Vietnam) by Duong Thu Huong (1991. Harper Perennial.  ISBN: 0060505591); Snow (Turkey) by Orhan Pamuk (2002. Vintage International. ISBN: 0-375-70686-0); Purple Hibiscus (Nigeria) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1993. Anchor. ISBN: 1400076943); and The House of the Spirits (Chile) by Isabel Allende (1982. Dial Press Trade Paperback.  ISBN: 0553383809); and The Bastard of Istanbul (Turkey) by Elif Shafak (Viking Adult.  ISBN: 978-0670038343).  In addition, I have assigned one book of criticism: What is World Literature? by David Damrosch (Princeton University Press.  2003. ISBN: 0691049866), and one book on writing: They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (W.W. Norton. ISBN: 0393924092).  

ENG 3323.50 American Fiction.  Online.  Catalog Description: “American fiction from the eighteenth century to the present, with stress on major novels and short stories.  Three lecture hours a week.  Credit: three hours.” 

We will read The Spy (Penguin.  ISBN: 0140436286) by James Fenimore Cooper; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bedford/St. Martins.  ISBN: 0312400292) by Mark Twain;  The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin.  ISBN: 0142000663) by John Steinbeck;  and The Bluest Eye (Penguin USA.  ISBN: 9780452273054 ) by Toni Morrison, Ceremony (Penguin.  ISBN: 0143104918) by Leslie Marmon Silko, The Adventures of Augie March (Penguin.  ISBN: 0143039571) by Saul Bellow ; and They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (W.W. Norton. ISBN: 0393924092).    

Last updated: 22  June 2007