Course Descriptions: Spring 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 3353.50 The Twentieth-Century English Novel. Catalog Course Description: "Analysis of works by the major novelists from 1900 to the present, including such figures as Conrad, Joyce, Waugh, and Greene.  Prerequisite: 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 six novels: The Secret Agent (1907. Modern Library. ISBN: 0812973054) by Joseph Conrad; The Rainbow (1915. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN: 0192835246) by D.H. Lawrence; To the Lighthouse (1927. Harvest Books. ISBN: 0156907399) by Virginia Woolf; The Quiet American (1955. Penguin.  ISBN: 014024350X) by Graham Greene; Written on the Body (1992. Vintage.  ISBN: 0679744479) by Jeanette Winterson; and The Inheritance of Loss (2006.  Grove Press.  ISBN: 0802142818) by Kiran Desai.  I will also ask you to purchase and read The Modern Novel: A Short Introduction by Jesse Matz (2004. Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-0049-4); They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (W.W. Norton. ISBN: 0393924092).

ENG 4333.50 Introduction to the Study of World Literature.  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 and one book of poetry, all by controversial, contemporary authors from around the world who have written texts banned 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); Children of the Alley (Egypt) by Naguib Mahfouz (1959. Anchor Books. 0385264739); 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).  We will also read poems from one collection of poetry that covers several decades in the twentieth century: The August Sleepwalker (China) by Bei Dao (published in 2001.  New Directions. ISBN: 0811211320).  In addition, I have assigned one book of criticism: What is World Literature? by David Damrosch (Princeton University Press.  2003. ISBN: 0691049866); They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (W.W. Norton. ISBN: 0393924092).

ENG 6313.01. Studies in Rhetorical Criticism and Discourse Analysis: Seminar in the work of Michel Foucault and his Influence on Discourse Analysis.  Thursdays. Traditional class.  6-9 p.m. Course catalog: "Directed investigation of topics in semiotics, narratology, discourse analysis, and stylistics as approaches to written texts and other forms of symbolic communication.  May be repeated for credit when the special topic of investigation varies.  Three lecture hours a week.  Credit: Three hours."

Our goal in this course is to identify and understand the  concepts, methodologies, and techniques introduced by Michel Foucault that may be used in rhetorical criticism and discourse analysis.  In addition to  presenting one major Foucault text to the class, each student will (1) assemble and present an annotated bibliography in a different field influenced by Foucault (rhetoric, feminism, sociology, medicine, mass media, history, literary studies, political science, etc.); (2) write a short paper on the scope of that influence; and (3) write a long paper on a subject of the student's choice, applying the concepts, methodologies, and techniques modeled by Foucault.  The comprehensive final examination will focus on the concepts, methodologies, and techniques discussed in the class. 

Of course, in fifteen weeks, it will be impossible to survey all of the works of Michel Foucault, arguably one of the most important but controversial thinkers of the twentieth century (here's someone who loves him; here is someone who hates him).Therefore, we will read in depth (and as a class) just one of his extended studies (Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1965. Vintage. 320 pages. ISBN: 067972110X), using it as a model to understand his approach to discourse analysis.  We will assign his other major texts to individual members of the class to read and teach to the rest of the class.  Every class member will not read every text being discussed, but we will be able to sample key concepts in the anthology I am assigning that will give you a small portion of each individual text being presented: The Foucault Reader.  Edited by Paul Rabinow. 1984.  Pantheon Books.  ISBN: 0-394-71340-0.

(Individual students or small groups will read and give reports on these works: (1) The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception (1973. Vintage.  240 pages.  ISBN: 0679753346); (2) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison  (1975. 352 pages.  Vintage.  ISBN: 06797525520; (3) The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (1976. 176 pages. Vintage. ISBN: 0679724699); (4)  The History of Sexuality: The Uses of Pleasure, Volume 2.   Vintage.  1984. 304 pages. ISBN 0394751221); (5) The History of Sexuality: The Care of the Self, Vol. 3.  Vintage.  1984. 288 pages.  ISBN: 0394741552);(6) This is Not a Pipe (1982.  112 pages.  University of California Press.  ISBN: 0520049160);  (7) Fearless Speech (2001. Semiotext(e). 173 pages. ISBN: 1584350113); and (8) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar With Michel Foucault (1988. U of Mass Press.  ISBN: 0870235931); (9) language, counter-memory, practice: selected essays and interviews by Michel Foucault (Cornell UP.  1977.  240 pages.  ISBN: 0-8014-0979-9).  Depending on the size of the class, I have other texts that can be assigned also on fairly short notice, but I am not planning to order them at this time: I will need to see if the course makes and how many people sign up for it.  Among these possible additions are the three volumes just published in paperback by New Press of Foucault's short works, interviews, and fragments with eleven previously unpublished lectures from the College de France.

For this class, however, you will only be responsible for purchasing and reading the five books that will be reading as a class and your assigned text for presentation, but I am ordering enough copies of every text for the class (as supplemental or recommended works) in case you wish to add them to your library. It is often quite difficult to find Foucault texts in libraries and bookstores.  Also, I am trying to make available all of these books on two-day reserve in the TWU library).

In addition to Madness and Civilization, as a class we will also read three of Foucault's important works on epistemology: The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences (1971. 416 pages. Vintage.  ISBN: 0679753354); The Archaeology of Knowledge (1972. 256 pages. Pantheon. ISBN: 0394711068); and Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977 (1980. 288 pages. Pantheon.  ISBN: 039473954X). 

Last updated: 27 December 2006