Course Descriptions: Summer III (2008)

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. (Summer III) 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 four novels, all by controversial, contemporary authors from around the world who have written texts that challenge their home cultures or have been banned by that culture or who have been forced to live aboard because of their political perspective.  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); Half of a Yellow Sun (Nigeria) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006. Anchor. ISBN: 9781400095209); and The House of the Spirits (Chile) by Isabel Allende (1982. Dial Press Trade Paperback.  ISBN: 0553383809).  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 5903.50 Special Topics: Rhetorical Figures of Speech (Tropes and Schemes).  (Summer III) Online. 

Catalog Description: "ENG 5903.  Special Topics. Investigation in traditional lecture format of a specific literary or linguistic topic.  Prerequisite: Graduate standing and an undergraduate concentration in English.  Three lecture hours per week.  Credit: Three hours.  May be repeated for credit when the specific topic of investigation varies."

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). Over ten weeks, we will take a close look at style in rhetoric, specifically about 2,500 years of discussion about figures of speech called tropes and schemes--language used to create special effects in language. These special effects can include clarity, emphasis, or even altered meaning (i.e. aposiopesis, parrhesia, catachresis, irony, euphony, procatalepsis, etc.).  Figures of speech have been in the toolbox of rhetoric since classical times and are still used today by writers, often unconsciously.  Our primary goal will be to master an understanding their key characteristics and their theoretical function in language with the purpose of using them in rhetorical and literary analysis.

I will provide a photocopied collection of copied chapters and articles that you must pick up from campus (and return at the end of the course).  I will not be able to mail them to you.

In addition, I ask that you purchase and read the following books: (1) Rhetorical Figures in Science by Jeanne Fahnestock (194 pages.  Oxford University Press, 1999.  ISBN: 0-19-516-542-X);  A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms by Richard A. Lanham (Second Edition.  205 pages.  University of California Press, 1991.  ISBN: 0-520-07669-9); Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (242 pages.  The University of Chicago Press, 1980.  ISBN: 0-226-46801-1); More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor by George Lakoff and Mark Turner (230 pages.  The University of Chicago Press, 1989.  ISBN: 0-226-46812-7).  Also, we will draw upon essays in The Signet Book of American Essays, edited by M. Jerry Weiss and Helen Weiss (368 pages.  Signet Classics.  2006.  ISBN: 978-0451530219).

ENG 2143.50 Fiction (Summer III).  Online.  Catalog Course Description: “An introduction to the art of fiction, including the study of short stories, novellas, and novels, with emphasis on critical reading. Prerequisite: ENG 1023 or its equivalent. Three lecture hours a week. Credit: Three hours.” This is a CORE course that grants core humanities credit.  It can also grant multicultural credit (but not multicultural women's studies credit).

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 reading one novel and short fiction from the following required texts:

Also, I will ask you to purchase They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (W.W. Norton. ISBN: 0393924092).

Last updated: 5 May 2008