Course Descriptions: Summer III 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 3023.50 British Literature after 1765.

Catalog Description: “Representative Works of British Literature from 1760 to Present.  Examines significant works in depth with study of authors and genres in relation to the aesthetic, historical, and cultural contexts.  Requires research with primary and secondary sources.  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).  If you have never had an online class before, I recommend that you make an appointment to meet with me at soon a possible for a one-on-one orientation.  To schedule that, contact me at rgreer@twu.edu.  Texts: The Norton Anthology of English Literature.  Eighth Edition.  Vol 2 (ISBN: 0-393-92532-3), Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (W.W. Norton.  ISBN 0393959031);
The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy (Faber and Faber.  ISBN: 0-571-19995-X)); They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (W.W. Norton. ISBN: 0393924092).  Please note: I have submitted my book order to the TWU bookstore for this books.  I submitted that order on 22 March (and revised it on 28 March to include Tess; during the first week of May I had to change the Duffy book to The World's Wife because of availability issues).

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); 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).  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).   Please note: I have submitted my book order to the TWU bookstore for this books.  I submitted that order on 23 March.

ENG 5903.50. Special Topics: The "Golden Age" Twentieth-Century American Private Detective Novel. Online. Catalog Description: "Investigation of a specific literary or linguistic topic. Prerequisite: Graduate standing and an undergraduate concentration in English.  Three lecture hours a week.  Credit: Three hours.  May be repeated for credit when the specific topic of investigation varies."

This is the third course I have offered recently with the purpose of exploring the Anglo-American tradition of the mystery novel.  In summer 2005 we studied the Victorian Sensation Novel and Mystery Novel.  In summer 2006, we studied the Twentieth-Century English Mystery Novel (from the "Golden Age").  This summer we will focus on the American tradition, specific the "Golden Age" of the hard-boiled American private detective novel.  At this time, I am planning to read the following novels in this class: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammett (1930. 224 pages.  Vintage.  ISBN: 0679722645); The Thin Man by Dashiel Hammett (1934.  208 pages.  Vintage.  ISBN: 0679722637); The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (1954. 384 pages. Vintage. ISBN: 0394758277; Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940. 304 pages.  Vintage.  ISBN: 0394757688); The Case of the One-Eyed Witness by Eric Stanley Gardner (229 pages.  Ballantine Books.  ISBN: 0-345-39225-6); I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane (in the Mike Hammer Collection Book Volume 1.  NAL Trade.  ISBN: 0451203526); The Goodbye Look by Ross McDonald (256 pages.  Vintage.  ISBN: 0375708650).  In addition, I will ask you to read and report to the class on one "hard boiled" work of fiction by a woman from the period (from a list I will provide).  Typically I prefer to teach equal numbers of male and female authors, but for this special topic, men clearly dominated the genre in the "Golden Age"; since then, however, more women in contemporary writing are successfully publishing in this genre.  But to understand its roots, we will need to focus on it earliest days, which were dominated by the men who wrote pulp fiction for the Black Mask magazine.  Next summer, if I am allowed to continue this series of courses, I would like to read women's reaction to this tradition of the hard-boiled American detective novel, using a book like Detective Agency: Women Rewriting the Hard-Boiled Tradition as our guide.  I will mention that reaction this summer, but full study would only occur after this course.

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).

Please note: I have submitted the book order to the TWU bookstore, but because of availability issues I was forced to assigned The Case of the One-Eyed Witness by Erle Stanley Gardner instead of the earlier selection I listed.  I had to make this change in the first week of May)

Last updated: 5 May 2007