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Fall 2010 English Department Composition Course Themes

English 2100 DG13AStaffFirst and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world beyond school.

English 2100 DG13BMonica VecchioDefining Our Heroes, Defining Ourselves

Whether in New York, Gotham City or the Himalayas, everyone seeks a hero or heroine, real or imaginary, be they on the battlefield, in the comics, on the beat, in the courtroom or the fire department. Young or mature, famous or unknown, he or she can wear a badge, perform surgery, throw a football, leap over buildings, save endangered species or lead a nation. All have been honored and imitated, but are they now? Do we still believe in the concept, or have we become too cynical? How do our perceptions shift from childhood, to youth, to maturity? Using texts such as Carlyle’s essay Heroes and Hero Worship, Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Emerson’s Representative Men we will explore this phenomenon and examine what our idols reveal to us about our values. Studying the words of Nobel Prize recipients we will determine whether events in our times have changed our perspective. Coursework will include writing about these questions and researching the topics in sports columns, current events, biography, superhero comics, non-fiction studies, war stories, political readings and famous speeches.

English 2100 DG13CSheila GetzenSatire: Canterbury Tales to Colbert Report

Satire is multifaceted. It can be a gentle and jovial, as in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales; urgent and cynical, as in Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”; or sly and highly ambiguous, as in Machiavelli’s The Prince. In this course, we will examine these three works and their social and historical contexts, and will then move on to contemporary satires. We will read a post-9/11 essay by Ian Frazier and a graphic arts memoir set in Iran by Marjane Satrapi. We will also look at satirical news programs—The Colbert Report and The Daily Show—and read interviews with their hosts on world view. Students will keep journals of their evolving perspectives on today’s society --and will write a satire of their own.

First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.

English 2100 DG13DThom DonovanEcological Practices in Writing and Visual Art

This course will explore writing and art that addresses ecology and attempts to intervene in ecological problems in various ways. Core texts for the class include William Cronon's "The Trouble with Wilderness," Charles Darwin's On Natural Selection, Frederick Law Olmstead's plans for Central Park, and Peter Linebaugh's The Magna Carta Manifesto. We will also look at poems from the journal Ecopoetics (ed. Jonthan Skinner) and other ecologically concerned poetries. The artists we will be looking at and reading include Robert Smithson, Agnes Denes, Mierle Ukeles, and Amy Balkin.

Throughout the course we will both write through critical discussions of core texts, as well as propose practical means to intervene in ecological problems via art and writing. Requirements for a grade in this class include three paper assignments, weekly "mini papers," and no less than two oral presentations. Rigorous participation through writing workshops and oral participation are also required.

English 2100 DG13ESTAFF


English 2100 DG13FMary Louise PenazFood Glorious Food: Sustainable Agriculture and Social Justice Issues

Ever since the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge tempted Eve, food has been a subject of endless fascination in prose and poetry. Food reveals our values, assumptions, and sometimes, political convictions. What we eat, where it grows, who grows it and why, is fast becoming a central social justice issue within the scope and complexity of oil and fossil fuels usage. Is the small, multi-crop farmer a relic of an agrarian American long past, or will the growing Farmers Green Market movement (or the 100-mile movement) reshape the way Americans choose to eat? In this course, we will discuss food from a historical and literary perspective to improve our critical writing and thinking skills.

In New York City, the largest urban setting in the country, the Farmers Market and Handmade Food Renaissance producer offer an alternative model to corporate style agri-business and reinforce the need in an economic crisis for tightly knit entrepreneurial alliances. At the same time, Internet-based social networks are now increasingly important to Foodies and local farmers alike.

First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world beyond school.

English 2100 DG13GSTAFF


English 2100 DG24AMonica Vecchio

Whether in New York, Gotham City or the Himalayas, everyone seeks a hero or heroine, real or imaginary, be they on the battlefield, in the comics, on the beat, in the courtroom or the fire department. Young or mature, famous or unknown, he or she can wear a badge, perform surgery, throw a football, leap over buildings, save endangered species or lead a nation. All have been honored and imitated, but are they now? Do we still believe in the concept, or have we become too cynical? How do our perceptions shift from childhood, to youth, to maturity? Using texts such as Carlyle’s essay Heroes and Hero

Worship, Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Emerson’s Representative Men we will explore this phenomenon and examine what our idols reveal to us about our values. Studying the words of Nobel Prize recipients we will determine whether events in our times have changed our perspective. Coursework will include writing about these questions and researching the topics in sports columns, current events, biography, superhero comics, non-fiction studies, war stories, political readings and famous speeches.

English 2100 DG24BSTAFF


English 2100 DG24CCatherine RussellHow to Improve Our Thinking: Critical Thought Skills

This course will develop your critical thought skills and help you to become a more articulate, thoughtful and opinionated thinker and writer. Each student will be required to write a weekly summary and response to a current newspaper or magazine article and then present it to the class; read any novel he/she chooses and then discuss it with me in an individual conference; write a series of essays at home and in class, and finally, as a research assignment, choose a prominent business figure and write a biography analyzing how and why he/she became a success. Expect a lot of heated discussion and lots of class participation; thinking critically should be fun! Readings may include passages from the following:

Justice by Michael J. SandelPredictably Irrational by Dan ArielyAmericans Talk About Love by John BoweWorking by Studs Terkel

English 2100 DG24DCynthia Thompson


English 2100 DG24EStaff


English 2100 DG24FKrista McGruderWriting the Inhabited Earth

The environmental movement of the early twenty-first century in the United States is commonly associated with global climate change. But broader issues—America’s place in nature, the responsibilities and privileges of land stewardship, and the natural world as a sublime inspiration for art—have been the source of literature, poetry and academic writing since Europeans settled in America.

This course begins with Thomas Jefferson’s view of nature as the source of human rights and continues with Garrett Hardin’s iconic Science essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons.” These pieces will frame the debate about the role of morality and self-interest in stewardship of the earth that Americans inhabit. Students will read selections from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Mary Oliver’s New and Selected Poems, and John McPhee’s chronicle of land use conflicts in Encounters with the Archdruid. The class will consult other works, such as Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond to better understand how writers define what it means to be American through the lens of living in nature, apart from social tradition. The class will also examine the Supreme Court’s Kehoe decision and the Constitution’s eminent domain clause.

Students will read Frank Cioffi’s The Imaginative Argument: A Practical Manifesto for Writers. This text will help students draft logical arguments about competing interests and perspectives in the context of land usage. As this is primarily a composition course,

students will produce in-class writing, at least two formal essays, and a research paper. Students will also be expected to contribute to class discussions and group presentations.

English 2100 DG24GMary Louise PenazFood Glorious Food: Sustainable Agriculture and Social Justice Issues

Ever since the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge tempted Eve, food has been a subject of endless fascination in prose and poetry. Food reveals our values, assumptions, and sometimes, political convictions. What we eat, where it grows, who grows it and why, is fast becoming a central social justice issue within the scope and complexity of oil and fossil fuels usage. Is the small, multi-crop farmer a relic of an agrarian American long past, or will the growing Farmers Green Market movement (or the 100-mile movement) reshape the way Americans choose to eat? In this course, we will discuss food from a historical and literary perspective to improve our critical writing and thinking skills.

In New York City, the largest urban setting in the country, the Farmers Market and Handmade Food Renaissance producer offer an alternative model to corporate style agri-business and reinforce the need in an economic crisis for tightly knit entrepreneurial alliances. At the same time, Internet-based social networks are now increasingly important to Foodies and local farmers alike.


English 2100 FJ13AChristina Christoforatou


English 2100 JM13A

Corey MeadDeviant Globalization

English 2100 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent essays with clear main ideas.

In this section of 2100, we will spend our time focusing on what might be called the underbelly of globalization, or “deviant globalization,” as we cover a series of topics that mainstream discussions of the global economy rarely address— topics such as drug smuggling, human trafficking, and contemporary slavery.

English 2100 JM13BGary Hentzi


English 2100 JM13CDavid Hohl


English 2100 JM13DJennifer SylvorFood and Identity

Hunger is perhaps the most basic of human urges; yet deciding what to eat has never seemed more complicated. In this course, we will sift through some of the complex and often contradictory messages we receive about eating in America. In this course we will investigate the social and symbolic underpinnings of human eating practices, particularly the use of food to define cultural or ethnic identity. How is our thinking about food informed by or reflective of our ideas about pleasure, sensuality, and morality? We will consider the impact of globalization, capitalism, and consumerism on the production, preparation, and consumption of food in the United States today. The French epicure Brillat-Savarin famously declared “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” Given the close relationship between food and identity, how do the choices we make around food signal our cultural, socio-economic, and ideological affinities? We will be reading texts that offer trenchant critiques of agribusiness, but we will also be exploring narratives that suggest alternatives to mainstream modes of production and consumption.

Sources:Wendell Berry, On Farming and FoodEric Schlosser, Fast Food NationJames L. Watson, Ed., The Cultural Politics of Food and EatingMichael Pollan, The Omnivore’s DilemmaFrances Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small PlanetBarbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, MiracleM.L.K. Fisher, Consider the Oyster“Food, Inc.” (Robert Kenner, Dir.)(plus a selection of short stories and poetry related to our theme)

English 2100 JM13EChris LitmanWriting and Righting the 21st Century—New Media, Commerce, and the Law

Twitter. Xbox 360. You Tube. Ipod. Google. Today's vernacular is littered with techno-brands: devices, tools, or services that allow people to consume and communicate in ways that were never possible even just a decade ago. And yet, some of the most salient issues that these new technologies force us to reckon with are ones that are centuries old: how do we encourage innovation among inventors and artists while protecting the rights of property owners? As the details of our lives become more publicly available, how should we enact laws that protect privacy while fostering the public good? How should we teach children positive values while they are endlessly exposed to seemingly harmful sources of entertainment?

This course will investigate how technologies such as video games, the Internet, and the Ipod have altered the way we think about communication, art, and commerce. We will study topics such as copyright law and music downloading by taking both an historical perspective and a prophetic, yet critical gaze at the debates that may lurk in the coming

years. In grappling with these issues, we may be led to investigate more fundamental and perhaps more difficult questions: what is a “good” society and how do we achieve it? What is our relationship to technology? What is progress and how do we define it?

Our readings will primarily consist of essays, articles, and even court documents. A few of the writers we will study during the semester include: Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, John Berger, Chris Anderson, Lawrence Lessig, Karl Marx, Mark Pesce, and Howard Gardner.

Given that ENG 2100 is first and foremost a writing course, students should expect a writing intensive experience with assignments ranging from formal essays to short response papers. Because many sessions will focus on applying topics in academic writing to our readings, vigorous discussion will be required. Additionally, attendance will be monitored and enforced.

English 2100 JM13FWalter CorwinThe Dramatic in English Literature


This section of 2100 will focus especially on plays, in addition to short stories and poetry. Works to be studied include Antigone, a play by Sophocles; Romeo and Juliet, a play by Shakespeare; “My Last Dutchess”, a poem by Browning; “Young Goodman Brown,” a short story by Hawthorne; “The Killers”, a short story by Hemingway; and “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson. We will also attend a play, meet the actors, and have the opportunity to ask questions of the director and actors. Students will write five papers that emphasize different kinds of writing practices.

English 2100 JM13GMary Ann CurleyWriting as Self-Expression and Discovery

English 2100 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop

convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent essays with clear main ideas.

This section of 2100 begins with essays on writing as a means of learning. We will then examine how and why some well-known writers, such as George Orwell, Joan Didion and Adrienne Rich, have chosen to become writers. We will conclude with essays by Robert Putnam, Jane Jacobs and James Baldwin, writers who have put their passions and concerns into essays about governmental, community and environmental issues that directly affect us all.

English 2100 JM13IStaff


English 2100 JM24AJessica LangGraphic Literature

Comic books, as we know them, took hold in American popular culture in the 1930s, a response to the stock market crash and the growing awareness of, and eventual involvement in, World War II. The term “graphic novel” emerged in the late 1970s and distinguishes itself from comic books and strips because, rather than being a series, it is a work with a beginning, middle and end. Many recent graphic works, both novel and memoir, respond to crises that are both intimate and global, private and commercial. In this writing course we examine the use of the graphic text, often identified as “fun,” “light,” and “juvenile” in relating important, and often somber, moments of fracture. We consider presentation in the broadest sense of that word: language, imagery, color, characterization, tone, framing, etc. Through the close readings and analyses of a range of texts, including Satrapi’s Persepolis, Spiegelman’s Maus, Bechdel’s Fun Home, Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen, Briggs’s Ethel & Ernest and the film “American Splendor,” as well as through reading a selection of (occasionally illustrated) essays and poems, we explore the effectiveness and meaning of graphic literature as cultural commentary and as art.

English 2100 JM24B

Erika Kaufman

Whether we realize it or not, every time we open our eyes we are confronted by a persuasion of some form. In fact, every person is in some way a summary of prior persuasions. The image of the half naked model on the side of the bus that tells us what to want, what to buy, and even who to be. The media undeniably influences the steps we take both in our individual minds and through out city life. Similarly, whether we are male or female this bus billboard speaks to us differently.

This Learning Community will explore these different questions of persuasion: How do we learn to be persuasive? How are we persuaded? By what or whom? What defines one’s persuasion or persuasive abilities? Where can innovation surface in a world full of such persuasions?

We will visit local museums (possible the Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Museum’s Sackler Center for Feminist Art) and cultural centers as a way to watch these models of persuasion in process—visually documented, and in response create our own visual documentation of who we are when we decide to be persuaded. Other possible models of persuasion to be explored include: socialization, prejudice, evolution, epigenesis, animal rights, life span development, etc. And, in order to launch ourselves right into these issues, both classes will begin the semester with As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto, followed with a variety of other relevant readings geared towards the individual classes.

English 2100 JM24CStaff


English 2100 JM24DMichael MillerIdentify and Culture in America

American culture is a stew in which the various parts retain something of their own identity and flavor as they rub up against and influence each other, affecting the flavor of the whole without necessarily losing our own original cultural identity in the mixture. Much of the challenge of becoming good citizens in an increasingly complex world is to

hold onto the parts of our culture that make us feel comfortable and at the same time to be part of the greater whole. As a writing course, each student will begin to explore his or her individual culture, where each comes from, and gradually move out into the challenges of understanding American culture and the problems we face.

We will examine the Freshman Text extensively. In the course of the semester we will also read and write in journals about such writers as Richard Rodriquez, Maya Angelou, Thomas Jefferson, Langston Hughes, Edward Said and many others, and discuss in groups within the class their writings from a cultural perspective. Writing assignments will move from the very personal recollections of the culture of the family and neighborhood into broader and more complex questions of the kind of world students want to create for ourselves.

English 2100 JM24ECatherine RussellHow to Improve Our Thinking: Critical Thought Skills

This course will develop your critical thought skills and help you to become a more articulate, thoughtful, and opinionated thinker and writer. Each student will be required to write a weekly summary and response to a current newspaper or magazine article and then present it to the class; read any novel he/she chooses and then discuss it with me in an individual conference; write a series of essays at home and in class, and finally, as a research assignment, choose a prominent business figure and write a biography analyzing how and why he/she became a success. Expect a lot of heated discussion and lots of class participation; thinking critically should be fun! Readings may include passages from the following:

Justice by Michael J. SandelPredictably Irrational by Dan ArielyAmericans Talk About Love by John BoweWorking by Studs Terkel

English 2100 JM24FCynthia Thompson


English 2100 JM35ASara RemediosIdeological Arguments

In the midst of a heated political climate it seems more important than ever that we, as engaged citizens, understand not only the competing positions in our national debate but also the ways in which those positions are expressed and the grounds upon which they rest. In this course we will enter into the study of argument and analysis by focusing on how and to what effect ideologies appear as arguments, and how ideological underpinnings influence the ways in which data is interpreted and presented in the public sphere. Is, for example, Fox News really “fair and balanced”? Is CNN? On what grounds do liberal voices like Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” attack Fox News, and how might we, in turn, critically evaluate those attacks? How do politicians adapt their messages in the face of different audiences? What do those adaptations tell us about underlying ideology? We will consider these questions, and more, as a way of thinking about how people frame and present political arguments, and how we might then better frame and present our own arguments, both political and otherwise.

Please be aware that our focus of study will be primarily on the form, not content, of political arguments. We are not interested in agreeing or disagreeing with any given positions, but rather in the strengths and weaknesses of those positions as they are presented.

Possible readings to include “The Declaration of Independence,” selections from the Federalist Papers, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” President John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner,” contemporary news media reports, campaign literature from upcoming midterm elections, student-selected political blogs, and more.

English 2100 LP13AMichael StaubLiterature, Law & Society

What is the relationship between literature, American society and the law? How has this relationship changed over time? This course will examine novels, short stories and plays which have represented how the law has addressed some of the more sensitive political and social issues in American history. These issues include: race relations and equal rights for minorities; freedom of expression; the separation of church and state; the death penalty and wrongful conviction; police brutality; and the rights of an individual to a fair trial. This course will explore these issues through the discussion of trial transcripts and legal scholarship as well as novels, stories and plays from the late nineteenth century to the present. Our readings will include: Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson; Jerome

Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Inherit the Wind; Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank, The Exonerated; and Harper Lee, To Kill Mockingbird. (Note: This course is paired in the Learning Community with LAW 1101.

English 2100 LP13BPaulette OkeFaith and Reason

Given recent occurrences of natural disasters coupled with ongoing acts of social injustice many are inclined to seek answers to human suffering. Oftentimes these explanations run the gamut of extraordinary tales of conspiracy to misappropriation and misinterpretation of the divine. In other words at the core of human discourse is the never-ending argument of belief vs. disbelief, faith vs. reason. It what ways might faith provide a way to understand the material world? When does it become necessary to reason rather than believe? Throughout the course students will read a variety of articles and short narratives by experienced writers in order to consider these questions. In addition, students will explore strategies of argument, observe sentence boundaries, complete in-class writing in addition to assigned papers, apply the proper rules of MLA citation, and conduct on-going visits to the library.

English 2100 LP13CYerra SugarmanWitnessing the World Around Us

We are witnesses to the world around us, often bridging, in our lives, the personal and political, what we might call the social. In this class, we will delve into how the private and public influence one another, the way historical and social conditions connect our daily lives to the public sphere, rendering us indirect or direct witnesses. The texts were selected to inspire deep thought about ethics and the social world, about racism, sexism, the ecology, economics, forms of oppression, and the ways in which writers of different genres (short fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction) think about language as a critical means of encouraging change and awareness of injustices, as well as how it is sometimes used to do the opposite. Readings will include texts by Martin Luther King, Jr., John Stuart Mill, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Anne Frank, Toni Morrison, among others.

First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. Along with considering the course’s theme, the emphasis will be on the development of your expository writing, on the processes and methods by which you can transform ideas into well-organized and original formal essays, while expanding your understanding of the conventions of written English and your ability to use language properly and powerfully. As you learn academic essay forms such as the “argument,” all writing, reading assignments and class

discussions will encourage you to think and write imaginatively, as well as analytically, and to find your own voice.

English 2100 LP13DSuzanna RiordanNew York: Experience, Diversity, and Promise

One of our most famous New York writers, O. Henry, said that New York will be great—once it is completed. By reading a variety of essays, short stories, poems and articles by writers experiencing New York from its beginnings to present day, we will try to understand the development of this great city. Questions that will be discussed include: What does it mean to be a New Yorker? How can an immigrant gain understanding of this diverse city by reading its history? What can my neighborhood teach me about who I am in the world?

Our text is Writing New York: A Literary Anthology , edited by Phillip Lopate. It includes writers from Washington Irving to Zora Neale Hurston to Oscar Hijuelos. I will also bring in other readings from local writers to add to the discussion.

This is a course in written composition. The main goal of the course is to enhance the students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, primarily with argumentative prose. We will have three short papers, weekly quizzes, two in-class graded essays, a journal, and, finally, a research paper relating to one of the many topics covered during the semester.

English 2100 PS13ADonald Mengay


English 2100 PS13BKiran MascarenhasHistory’s Losers

This course will start by attempting to arrive at a working consensus on the dominant values and ideas of our place and time: ideas/values like capitalism, heterosexuality, “modern medicine” and upward mobility. We will also consider the various degrees and categories of crime in our society, such as child abuse, domestic violence, and drug abuse.

We will then bring into the conversation voices of dissent, people who do not subscribe to, who critique, or who stand apart from our dominant schema. Among the voices we will consider are those of William Cobbett, Mohandas Gandhi and Eve Sedgwick.


English 2100 PS13CWalter CorwinThe Dramatic in English Literature


This section of 2100 will focus especially on plays, in addition to short stories and poetry. Works to be studied include Antigone, a play by Sophocles; Romeo and Juliet, a play by Shakespeare; “My Last Dutchess”, a poem by Browning; “Young Goodman Brown,” a short story by Hawthorne; “The Killers”, a short story by Hemingway; and “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson. We will also attend a play, meet the actors, and have the opportunity to ask questions of the director and actors. Students will write five papers that emphasize different kinds of writing practices.

English 2100 PS13DMary Ann CurleyWriting as Self-Expression and Discovery

English 2100 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a

text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent essays with clear main ideas.

This section of 2100 begins with essays on writing as a means of learning. We will then examine how and why some well-known writers, such as George Orwell, Joan Didion and Adrienne Rich, have chosen to become writers. We will conclude with essays by Robert Putnam, Jane Jacobs and James Baldwin, writers who have put their passions and concerns into essays about governmental, community and environmental issues that directly affect us all.

English 2100 PS13ESheila GetzenSatire: Then and Now

Satire is multifaceted. It can be a gentle and jovial, as in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales; urgent and cynical, as in Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”; or sly and highly ambiguous, as in Machiavelli’s The Prince. In this course, we will examine these three works and their social and historical contexts, and will then move on to contemporary satires. We will read a post-9/11 essay by Ian Frazier and a graphic arts memoir set in Iran by Marjane Satrapi. We will also look at satirical news programs—The Colbert Report and The Daily Show—and read interviews with their hosts on world view. Students will keep journals of their evolving perspectives on today’s society—and will write a satire of their own.


English 2100 PS13FMichael M. MillerIdentity and Culture in America

American culture is a stew in which the various parts retain something of their own identity and flavor as they rub up against and influence each other, affecting the flavor of the whole without necessarily losing our own original cultural identity in the mixture. Much of the challenge of becoming good citizens in an increasingly complex world is to hold onto the parts of our culture that make us feel comfortable and at the same time to be

part of the greater whole. As a writing course, each student will begin to explore his or her individual culture, where each comes from, and gradually move out into the challenges of understanding American culture and the problems we face.

We will examine the Freshman Text extensively. In the course of the semester we will also read and write in journals about such writers as Richard Rodriquez, Maya Angelou, Thomas Jefferson, Langston Hughes, Edward Said and many others, and discuss in groups within the class their writings from a cultural perspective. Writing assignments will move from the very personal recollections of the culture of the family and neighborhood into broader and more complex questions of the kind of world students want to create for ourselves.

English 2100 PS13GStaff


English 2100 PS13IKyle WaughPiracy

In the past decade, we’ve not only witnessed a surge in the number of incidents of piracy at sea, but also the radical expansion of the concept of piracy itself, and of the enterprises grouped under its rubric. (To take but one example, as consumers of digitized music—music that often contains pirated material—we increasingly participate in piracy’s functional networks.) Consequently, Cicero’s ancient definition of pirates as hostis humani generis (“enemies of the human race”) has recently been reasserted in the attempt to equate piracy with terrorism.

In this course, we’ll explore multiple forms of piracy through a core set of questions: what is the interaction between piracy’s fluidity and the rigidities of colonialism? How has the mobility of piracy adjusted itself with respect to imperial innovations in surveillance and military technology, and the accelerating flow of capital? How does piracy relate to contemporary environmental and socioeconomic crises, and to the formation of the “self”? We’ll also discuss the nature of property, examine competing histories and definitions of piracy, and explore piracy’s role in artistic production. Our texts will include selections from Peter Lamborn Wilson’s Pirate Utopias, Naomi Klein’s

Shock Doctrine, Walter Benjamin’s Illuminations, Ben Lerner’s Mean Free Path, Ariana Reines’s Coeur de Lion, John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things, Girl Talk’s Don’t Feed the Animals, Guy Debord’s In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni, Jean-Luc Godard’s Notre Musique, Alexander Kluge’s Power of Emotion, Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition, and more.

First and foremost, of course, this is a class in written composition. The purpose of the course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication. We will also locate, describe, and experiment with imitating (some of) the prose styles that we encounter in our selected readings. The overall goal here is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and a critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the so-called “real” world.

English 2100 PS35Bradley LubinThe Compost of Composition

Fending off charges of plagiarism, 17-year old award-winning German author Helene Hegemann told reporters, “There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity.” We often hear that “All art is theft” or some variation of this popular wisdom. But how do we tell the good theft from the bad? This course will examine works of art whose materials are (1) the plundered fragments of other media and (2) requisitioned artifacts from the American junk heap. Though our primary concern will be the virtues of creative appropriation, we will also pay close attention throughout to the fine line that distinguishes such artistic practice from plagiarism. We will think deeply about the variety of ways these works challenge our assumptions about originality, authenticity, creativity, property, and how, as writers, our attitudes towards cultural dumpster diving might just govern our own approach to composition.

We will read Jonathan Lethem’s “The Ecstasy of Influence,” short stories by Borges and the artist collective Wu Ming, excerpts from A.R. Ammons book length poem Garbage and Harryete Mullen’s Recylopedia, and film criticism on camp, sci-fi, and trash by Pauline Kael and Susan Sontag. We will also consider a flurry of essays on aesthetic theories of re-use in Dadaism, Surrealism, and Pop Art; view several films including Todd Haynes I’m Not There (a rhapsody on the many lives of Bob Dylan) and Agnes Varda’s documentary The Gleaners and I; survey the musical landscapes of mash-up artists like Danger Mouse and Gregg Gillis; and finally, evaluate several multimedia works (Heidelberg Project, Sears Roebuck Catalog of 1897) that defy the boundaries of traditional forms and genre. In addition to a rigorous writing component, students will be asked to assemble their own “composition” made up of entirely found media.

English 2100 RU13ANikolina Nedeljkov


English 2100 RU13BMelissa DennihyMulticultural America

This course will be situated around an exploration of everyday life in America and in the “globalized world” of the twenty-first century. Together, we will consider what it means to live in this nation and to “be” an “American,” while also exploring the ways in which our nation—its culture and its people—interact with and impact other nations of the world. In addition, we will examine just a few of the many interesting, important, and politically charged issues that are impacting people living in the United States today. This is a writing-intensive course and students will use the thematic content to participate in class discussions and to develop ideas and topics for written assignments. Work for the course will consist of four papers, a series of shorter writing assignments, a final presentation, and regular participation in class discussions.

English 2100 RU13CDennis DolackLiving with New Media

Although our means of interaction have increased drastically, often making information and communication available instantaneously, the quality and scope of that interaction are being challenged. Since when did saying ‘I love you’ become simply “ILY” typed into a digital screen? What are the consequences of being addicted to the availability of a cellular phone or email? When we socialize online, how does the fact that we can edit our own profiles impact our sense of identity? We are caught in the classic dichotomy of quantity verses quality, and are living within a culture that is redefining the ideas of personal contact and proxemics, while promoting abstraction as a viable means of correspondence. This course will explore the ways in which our basic human communication is being altered by the onslaught of technology and new media devices such as the internet (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, dating sites, blogs, etc.), cell phones, and PDA’s. It will also take a look at the discrepancies between our “real life”

personalities and our online identities and avatars, as well as how these differences can color our senses of self and our insecurities.

English 2100 RU13DSuzanna RiordanNew York: Experience, Diversity, and Promise

One of our most famous New York writers, O. Henry, said that New York will be great—once it is completed. By reading a variety of essays, short stories, poems and articles by writers experiencing New York from its beginnings to present day, we will try to understand the development of this great city. Questions that will be discussed include: What does it mean to be a New Yorker? How can an immigrant gain understanding of this diverse city by reading its history? What can my neighborhood teach me about who I am in the world?

Our text is Writing New York: A Literary Anthology , edited by Phillip Lopate. It includes writers from Washington Irving to Zora Neale Hurston to Oscar Hijuelos. I will also bring in other readings from local writers to add to the discussion.

This is a course in written composition. The main goal of the course is to enhance the students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, primarily with argumentative prose. We will have three short papers, weekly quizzes, two in-class graded essays, a journal, and, finally, a research paper relating to one of the many topics covered during the semester.

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English 2100 TW24BNikolina Nedeljkov

First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication,

particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.

English 2100 TW24CJohn Deming21st Century Lyrics

In this course, we will study trends in poetry and lyricism that have developed over the last decade. Students will expand their writing, critical thinking and argumentation skills by analyzing, discussing and composing essays about established contemporary American poets such as Rae Armantrout, John Ashbery, Louise Glück, W.S. Merwin, Charles Simic and Dean Young in addition to prominent younger poets, including Thomas Sayers Ellis, Ben Lerner, Wayne Miller, Laura Sims and Kevin Young. We will also consider the role of lyricism in popular culture as it extends to contemporary songwriters and hip-hop artists, and will assess what patterns and trends exist in the 21st century lyric, including some discussion of the differences between poem and song. Students will read essays about the role of poetry, music and literature in American life and study the ways that socio-political changes after 9/11 have informed the work of poets, writers and songwriters across the country.

English 2100 TW24DLorye WatsonWriting Baruch


This particular section of 2100 will focus on life at Baruch. Every semester Baruch offers fine programs beyond the regular curricula; this section will introduce students to several of these programs that relate to writing and art.

English 2100 TW24ERainer Hanshe


English 2100H TW24HJessica LangGraphic Literature

Comic books, as we know them, took hold in American popular culture in the 1930s, a response to the stock market crash and the growing awareness of, and eventual involvement in, World War II. The term “graphic novel” emerged in the late 1970s and distinguishes itself from comic books and strips because, rather than being a series, it is a work with a beginning, middle and end. Many recent graphic works, both novel and memoir, respond to crises that are both intimate and global, private and commercial. In this writing course we examine the use of the graphic text, often identified as “fun,” “light,” and “juvenile” in relating important, and often somber, moments of fracture. We consider presentation in the broadest sense of that word: language, imagery, color, characterization, tone, framing, etc. Through the close readings and analyses of a range of texts, including Satrapi’s Persepolis, Spiegelman’s Maus, Bechdel’s Fun Home, Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen, Briggs’s Ethel & Ernest and the film “American Splendor,” as well as through reading a selection of (occasionally illustrated) essays and poems, we explore the effectiveness and meaning of graphic literature as cultural commentary and as art.

English 2100 UX13ADonald Mengay


English 2100 UX13BAshley FosterJournalism and Propaganda


This focus on the critical reading of journalism, propaganda, and political pamphlets from the Spanish Civil War. We will engage authors such as Louis Delapree, Ernest Hemingway, and George Orwell in their extended historical non-fiction writings and compare them to the shorter articles featured in The New York Times and The London Times. We will also look at the posters and propaganda leaflets distributed throughout Spain, France, and England. Weekly blogs of 150 words, weekly readings, two short papers, one long paper, several in-class presentations, and a final exam will be required.

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English 2100 UX13DPaulette OkeFaith and Reason

Given recent occurrences of natural disasters coupled with ongoing acts of social injustice many are inclined to seek answers to human suffering. Oftentimes these explanations run the gamut of extraordinary tales of conspiracy to misappropriation and misinterpretation of the divine. In other words at the core of human discourse is the never-ending argument of belief vs. disbelief, faith vs. reason. It what ways might faith provide a way to understand the material world? When does it become necessary to reason rather than believe? Throughout the course students will read a variety of articles and short narratives by experienced writers in order to consider these questions. In addition, students will explore strategies of argument, observe sentence boundaries, complete in-class writing in addition to assigned papers, apply the proper rules of MLA citation, and conduct on-going visits to the library.

English 2100 WZ13AMelissa DennihyMulticultural America

This course will be situated around an exploration of everyday life in America and in the “globalized world” of the twenty-first century. Together, we will consider what it means to live in this nation and to “be” an “American,” while also exploring the ways in which our nation—its culture and its people—interact with and impact other nations of the world. In addition, we will examine just a few of the many interesting, important, and politically charged issues that are impacting people living in the United States today. This is a writing-intensive course and students will use the thematic content to participate in class discussions and to develop ideas and topics for written assignments. Work for the course will consist of four papers, a series of shorter writing assignments, a final presentation, and regular participation in class discussions.

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English 2100 MW54AWilliam TashmanHuman Potential and the Brain

Can we fundamentally change our behavior, modify our brains, control our futures—and to what extent? How much of our brief stay on earth is pre-ordained through DNA? How much through free will? The theme of my English 2100 and English 2150 courses—still evolving but somewhat consistent over the past couple of years—is human potential. Are we prisoners of destiny or can the chemists and psychologists help us achieve our dreams? Sub-themes include brain plasticity, nature versus nurture, family, and compulsive behavior including addiction. To this end, we read a number of articles and books that explore human behavior.

Non-fiction “Genius: The Modern View” and “They Had it Made,” by David Brooks “The Ballad of Big Mike,” by Michael Lewis“What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage,” by Amy Sutherland. We also read articles by Norman Doidge (who wrote The Brain that Changes Itself), Sharon Begley (who has written about the connection between meditation and modern brain science); Jill Bolte Taylor (who wrote My Stroke of Insight); Judith Rich Harris (who wrote The Nurture Assumption); and David Sheff (who wrote Beautiful Boy).

Fiction Poetry:“Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden

“In the Naked Bed, In Plato’s Cave,” by Delmore Schwartz“First Memory,” by Louise Gluck “Home Burial,” Robert Frost

Short stories:“White Nights,” by Fyodor DostoevskyStories from Dubliners, by James Joyce“Indian Camp,” by Ernest Hemingway

We also read, depending on the semester, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet, and The Assistant by Bernard Malamud

English 2100 MW74AWilliam TashmanHuman Potential and the Brain

Can we fundamentally change our behavior, modify our brains, control our futures—and to what extent? How much of our brief stay on earth is pre-ordained through DNA? How much through free will? The theme of my English 2100 and English 2150 courses—still evolving but somewhat consistent over the past couple of years—is human potential. Are we prisoners of destiny or can the chemists and psychologists help us achieve our dreams? Sub-themes include brain plasticity, nature versus nurture, family, and compulsive behavior including addiction. To this end, we read a number of articles and books that explore human behavior.

Non-fiction “Genius: The Modern View” and “They Had it Made,” by David Brooks “The Ballad of Big Mike,” by Michael Lewis“What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage,” by Amy Sutherland. We also read articles by Norman Doidge (who wrote The Brain that Changes Itself), Sharon Begley (who has written about the connection between meditation and modern brain science); Jill Bolte Taylor (who wrote My Stroke of Insight); Judith Rich Harris (who wrote The Nurture Assumption); and David Sheff (who wrote Beautiful Boy).

Poetry:“Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden“In the Naked Bed, In Plato’s Cave,” by Delmore Schwartz“First Memory,” by Louise Gluck “Home Burial,” Robert Frost

Short stories:“White Nights,” by Fyodor DostoevskyStories from Dubliners, by James Joyce“Indian Camp,” by Ernest Hemingway

We also read, depending on the semester, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet, and The Assistant by Bernard Malamud

English 2100 TR54ASean DoylePolitics of “Change” and the American Language

We can all agree that language is powerful, especially after our most recent presidential election, but few of us realize the complexity of the present relationship between language and politics. It seems there is a new identity emerging in this country, one that disrupts the somewhat rigid categories of “official” and “voter.” In the wake of this new identity, it is important that we consider the discourse which is possible between the State and the stated. Readings for this course consider the social, cultural and political institutions comprising the State and how they determine what we say about race (“Three is not Enough,” by Sharon Begley and “On Race and the Census: Struggling with Categories that no Longer Apply,” by Brent Staples). We shall also examine how much our language contributes to the construction and reconstruction of the State (“Civil Disobedience,” by Henry David Thoreau and “Protecting the Freedom of Expression on Campus,” by Derek Bok). What role does the individual play in shaping both the language and the law of this nation in terms of marriage and sexual identity (“Here comes the Groom: A (Conservative) Case for Gay Marriage,” by Andrew Sullivan, and “Gay Marriage: Not a Good Idea,” by William J. Bennett)? The course involves reader responses for each reading unit, each of which is 3-5 paragraphs in length, 3 essays (expository, persuasive, and analytical), and a longer research project based on one of the reading units.

English 2100T EL13AGerard Dalgish


English 2100T EL13BGregory GalassiniEntrepreneurs

There are over 200,000 small business entrepreneurs in New York City; men and women who own their own businesses. In this course, students will read a variety of essays, short stories, and short biographies about these people and the successes and problems they encounter.

We will read excerpts from the books “The Millionaire Next Door” and “Millionaire Women Next Door,” short stories such as Hemingway’s “Cat In The Rain,” essays about mid-century New York in Joseph Mitchell’s “Up In The Old Hotel,” and the historic essay “Black Innovators and Entrepreneurs Under Capitalism.” Entrepreneurs in developing countries are represented in “Lessons From The Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit.” Students will also investigate the role of the small business entrepreneur and prepare a written report on their findings.

In this writing course, multiple writing assignments will help second-language students improve their skills in standard and idiomatic English.

English 2100T FM24AKaren ThornhillScience, Technology and Society

This course will take a broad and sweeping multi-media view of how science and technology impact our culture and our world. This course will feature a different theme connected to technology each month and examine it from a global, multi-media perspective. By reading various articles and essays, a short novel, and by viewing films, video and print ads, we will analyze, discuss and write about technology and culture; technology and the environment; technology and the body; and technology and power. Through independent analysis, group discussions, a series of thesis-based essays, and peer review, we will fine-tune our writing as well as our critical thinking skills.

There will be seven (7) official essays, a midterm, a group presentation, and a final research project.

September: Technology and Culture: By examining the role of the internet, movies, music, video, print ads, and the vast array of high-tech gadgets we all carry around with us, we will reflect upon, write about and discuss how technology shapes our fast-paced culture.

October: Technology and the Environment: We’ll read about and consider how science and technology impact nature and our relationship to the world. We’ll take a look at an idealized view of nature as presented by classical essayists and poets, examine an idealized ecosystem, and read about and discuss nature’s more destructive aspects: global warming, extreme weather and natural disasters.

November: Technology and the Body: By viewing and analyzing a variety of images from print ads and video, we’ll discuss the impact of cosmetic surgery – that sometimes deadly quest to be beautiful – as well as explore recent medical breakthroughs; we’ll also examine and write about how science and technology impact fitness and lifestyle.

December: Technology and Power: We’ll read about, discuss and debate the role of science and technology in military campaigns, commando raids, and terrorism around the world.

Required Texts and Films viewed may include: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; 1984 by George Orwell; essays by Emerson and Thoreau; poems by Wordsworth and Shelley; “Gattaca”(1997); “Blade Runner” (1982); “Terminator”; various articles on global warming, extreme weather, and articles from The New York Times, Newsweek, Time Magazine, and various online articles from CNN. In addition, we will use The Little, Brown Handbook, Baruch College Edition.

English 2100T FM24BSylvia MoralesArtists from the Ghetto

For hundreds of years, the ghetto has been a place where people were separated from others: Jews from non-Jews, the poor from the well-to-do, newcomers from the established. Synonymous with ‘slum,’ the ghetto has never been an easy place to live. So how did many survive, and even produce great works in spite of great hardships?

This course will explore the art and literature of artists who survived ghettos throughout the world. Texts will include selections from Facing History and Ourselves, along with excerpts from the works of Bernard Gotfryd, Lorraine Hansberry, Claude Brown, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others. In addition to the poetry, plays, and personal narratives that we will read and discuss, we will also examine photographs, and other art forms, such as the graffiti art of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

English 2100T FM35ACarol Rial


English 2100T JQ13AMiriam ApplebaumWork in the 21st Century

What is work and what is its value? In this course we will look at the changing world of work in the 21st century and its affect on the individual, American society and the world at large. Using non-fiction, fiction, poetry and films, we will study such issues as the affect of work on family life, work in an increasingly global, technological world, and work and ethics. Readings may include Barbara Ehrenrich’s Nickel and Dimed, Jessica Mitford’s, “The American Way of Death” Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl Wu Dunn’s, “Two Cheers for Sweatshops” Jeremy Rifkin”s “High-Tech Stress” and Mark Twain’s “Two Views of the Mississippi.” We will also be viewing the film “Thank You For Smoking” and possibly segments from other films such as “Glengarrry Glen Ross” that relate to the subject of work. Class assignments will consist of 5 essays, including a narrative essay, a compare/contrast paper, a brief annotated essay and an argumentative essay. There will also be short response papers and quizzes based on the readings, writing workshop participation and other group work and an oral presentation.

First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world beyond school.

English 2100T TZ13AJoanne GrumetNew York City: Its People and Culture

New York City is a major economic and cultural center. It is also the traditional gateway to America for people from all over the world. Students will explore a neighborhood or area of the city and write a personal journal and essay about that experience. We will learn about the experience of immigrants to New York City over the last 100 years (Bintel Brief (letters from the Lower East Side), Crossing the Blvd (writings of recent immigrants to Queens)). We will explore the City in stories, poetry and in movies and write about the themes of these works. Cultural events might include trips to museums, Broadway shows, or historic areas. In addition, we will follow political events and social issues, such as pollution, homelessness, crime, the aftermath of 9/11, and the future of CUNY; students will debate in class and argue in a written research paper about an issue important to them.

English 2100 TZ13B

Casey GordonWord and Image

Words and images have coexisted since the beginning of recorded history. This learning community explores the co-habitual relationship of text and image from prehistory through the Middle Ages. Students will study this relationship in formats ranging from tomb inscriptions to illuminated manuscripts while learning to translate ideas into writing.

The writing component of this course will focus on structure, description, and argument; the art history component will focus on the formal analysis of artworks and the historical context that shaped those artworks. The writing course is intended for non-native speakers of English.


English 2100T TZ24ABarbara SchreiberImmigrants and the American Dream

This course engages the topics of immigration and The American Dream. We tackle both the myth and the reality of The American Dream and how it relates to large scale immigration and the immigration experience. What is the body of rhetoric that led to the foundation and development of the United States and how has the rhetoric evolved? What would it mean for immigrants and others to achieve The American Dream today? How does the current day immigrant experience relate to historical experiences in the U.S.? Is the notion of America as the land of opportunity for anyone around the globe a myth or reality? We will explore these pressing questions through historical and sociological texts, fictional accounts, documentary films, and rap lyrics

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First and foremost, this course will emphasize the process and product of academic writing. Multiple writing assignments will help speakers of English as a second or other language improve their ability to write fluently in English.

English 2150 DG24AJudith EntesYou Can’t Pick Your Family: Learning from Literature

What does family mean? How is it portrayed in literature? How do people deal with various situations? We will examine how there are different definitions of family. In addition, we will observe various strategies people use to survive in their family. Hopefully, since you can’t pick your family you will learn from literature how to make the best of the situation.

The textbook will be Literature: The Human Experience Reading and Writing, edited by Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz, Shorter Ninth Edition, 2007, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Some of the selections will include “Araby” by James Joyce, “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In addition, students will attend a Broadway, Off-Broadway, or Off-Off Broadway show where they will examine the family.


English 2150 DG24BBryant Hayes


English 2150 DG24CSaundra Towns


English 2150 JM13ASaundra Towns


English 2150 JM13BJeanne Stauffer-MerleThe Mystery Narrative and its Derivatives: A Landscape of the Surreal

The mystery narrative is one of the most popular forms in both text and film, but it is also a tradition that deeply penetrates our lives. According to the great mythologist Joseph Campbell, every story is, ultimately, the exploration of who we, as individuals and as a people, really are. As we do a close reading of how this genre works, we will look at a variety of media (text, art, photography, film) in order to examine how the mystery or detective narrative has been stretched and distorted into an uncomfortable, often surreal journey of the self. Authors will include one of the first “mystery” dramatists, Sophocles, and his intriguing masterpiece, Oedipus Rex, but we will also have fun with Edgar Allen Poe and masters of Magical Realism such as Carlos Fuentes and Jorge Borges. The Experimental writers Alain Robbe-Grillet and Graphic novelist Paul Auster will also inform our exploration, as will two fascinating films, Memento and Roshomon. We will end the semester by looking at how poets, possibly Eliot, Rich, and Sexton "investigate" the darker regions of self and society.

The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication. The written assignments will be comprised of formal argumentative essays, shorter in-class responses to the readings, peer editing and evaluating, as well as several fun and creative exercises. You will also be expected to participate actively and meaningfully during each class session.

English 21500 JM24BJudith EntesYou Can’t Pick Your Family: Learning from Literature

What does family mean? How is it portrayed in literature? How do people deal with various situations? We will examine how there are different definitions of family. In addition, we will observe various strategies people use to survive in their family. Hopefully, since you can’t pick your family you will learn from literature how to make the best of the situation.

The textbook will be Literature: The Human Experience Reading and Writing, edited by Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz, Shorter Ninth Edition, 2007, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Some of the selections will include “Araby” by James Joyce, “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In addition, students will attend a Broadway, Off-Broadway, or Off-Off Broadway show where they will examine the family.


English 2100 JM24CSaundra Towns


English 2150 JM24D

Staff


English 2150H JM24HHayes Bryant


English 2150 LP13AHoward RichAt War with Ourselves: Literature of Psychological Challenge

The theme of the course will be the responses of individuals to conditions of extreme psychological challenge. Sometimes when we are going through a rough patch in our lives, we are told we are our own worst enemies. Why is this the case? The reason, more often than not, is that our own trouble is caused not just by external factors but by our own demons, which prevent us from dealing effectively with whatever we perceive as threatening. This is strikingly true of Hamlet, whose own ambivalence toward completing his assigned task is an issue to which he cannot effectively respond. Likewise, Young Goodman Brown in Hawthorne’s short story of that name is faced with the challenge of reconciling h is ingrained Puritan morality with a suppressed desire to be free of it. Similarly, Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s “The story of an Hour,” upon learning of the sudden death of her husband, is rocked by an internal conflict she didn’t know existed: her love for him and an equal or stronger need to be free of him.

First and foremost, however, this will be a course in WRITTEN COMPOSITION. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.

English 2100 LP13BJohh LuxThe Power of Darkness


This section of 2100 will focus on the struggle within the human being to choose good over evil, to choose rational behavior over behavior which is violent and destructive. The archetypal tension between Apollonian and Dionysian modes of being, so clearly presented in Greek Drama, will form the beginning and end of the course, This conflict will be followed through the entire course, as humans are shown fighting--and often losing--the battle between good and evil. The readings, discussions, and writings in the course will focus on the WHY and the HOW of atrocious actions perpetrated by all too many people, nations, and--especially in the twentieth century--the leaders of nations. The emphasis will not be psychological, but generally philosophical.

Works to be covered:Myths of Apollo, Dionysus, and NarcissusMedea, EuripidesThe Metamorphoses, Ovid (selections)People of the Lie :The Hope for Healing Human Evil, M. Scott Peck, M.D. (excerpts)Titus Andronicus, ShakespeareGrimm’s Fairy Tales (selections)The French Revolution and the Reign of Terror--excerpts from Citizens, Simon SchamaYoung Goodman Brown, HawthorneThe Cask of Amontillado, PoeDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, StevensonThe Secret Sharer, ConradThe Bloody Twentieth Century--excerpts from W.L Shirer, V. Frankl, A. Solzhenitsyn, etc.This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, T. BorowskiLord of the Flies, GoldingThe Lottery, JacksonThe Use of Force, W.C. WilliamsA Good Man Is Hard to Find, F. O’ConnorGood Country People, F. O’Connor“The Dark Half”--movie based on The Dark Half , S. KingAgamemnon , Aeschylus

The Eumenides, Aeschylus

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English 2150 RU13ACharles Riley


English 2150 TW24AStaff

First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only

for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.

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English 2150 TR74AEllen LaskAmerican snapshots

Since its birth as a nation, the United States has grappled with a variety of social issues that remain unresolved even today. Many of them are a result of our unique history and development; others are universal concerns not necessarily specific to this country. Whichever the case, however, they are questions that caused conflicts in the past and that are still grounds for debate in the 21st century. Among them are economic and social inequality, religious differences, attitudes toward race and the absorption of immigrants into the fabric of American society.

Such questions will be the focus of our course. Through the reading of personal essays, memoirs and other non-fiction writing, we will examine, discuss and write about the role these issues have played in the American experience overall and the impact they have had, and continue to have, on individuals. Our readings will include works by Russell Baker, Barbara Ehrenreich, Zora Neale Hurston, Martin Luther King, Maxine Hong Kingston, Malcolm X, Mike Rose, Gary Soto, Studs Terkel and Richard Wright.

English 2150 UX13AJohn LuxThe Power of Darkness

English 2100 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull

together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent essays with clear main ideas.

This section of 2100 will focus on the struggle within the human being to choose good over evil, to choose rational behavior over behavior which is violent and destructive. The archetypal tension between Apollonian and Dionysian modes of being, so clearly presented in Greek Drama, will form the beginning and end of the course, This conflict will be followed through the entire course, as humans are shown fighting--and often losing--the battle between good and evil.The readings, discussions, and writings in the course will focus on the WHY and the HOW of atrocious actions perpetrated by all too many people, nations, and--especially in the twentieth century--the leaders of nations. The emphasis will not be psychological, but generally philosophical.

Works to be covered:Myths of Apollo, Dionysus, and NarcissusMedea, EuripidesThe Metamorphoses, Ovid (selections)People of the Lie :The Hope for Healing Human Evil, M. Scott Peck, M.D. (excerpts)Titus Andronicus, ShakespeareGrimm’s Fairy Tales (selections)The French Revolution and the Reign of Terror--excerpts from Citizens, Simon SchamaYoung Goodman Brown, HawthorneThe Cask of Amontillado, PoeDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, StevensonThe Secret Sharer, ConradThe Bloody Twentieth Century--excerpts from W.L Shirer, V. Frankl, A. Solzhenitsyn, etc.This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, T. BorowskiLord of the Flies, GoldingThe Lottery, JacksonThe Use of Force, W.C. WilliamsA Good Man Is Hard to Find, F. O’ConnorGood Country People, F. O’Connor“The Dark Half”--movie based on The Dark Half , S. KingAgamemnon , AeschylusThe Eumenides, Aeschylus

English 2150 UX13BStaff

First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only

for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.

English 2150 MW54AJoanna KydFood 101

The theme for my English class is FOOD. What are we eating? Why are so many Americans obese? Where does our food come from? What is the relationship between our government and Iowa farmers? How does a corporation turn a sugary soft drink into an American institution? What is food engineering? Why has high fructose corn syrup been found in our hair follicles? What’s on the lunch menu at your neighborhood middle school? What is a localvore—and what is the “slow food movement”? How are “natural flavors” created and marketed?

These are some of the questions we will entertain throughout the term. As you may have noticed, food is a very hot topic these days. Hardly a day goes by that there is not at least one article in the New York Times on the subject. Maybe it’s an Op Ed piece about a chemical additive in chicken soup, or a feature on the Food Network, or a review of the latest documentary on agribusiness. It has become a vast topic and the supply of reading material is practically endless -- but we will be reading, writing and learning a good semester’s worth!

Assorted readings will be selected from:Best Food Writing 2008, edited by Holly HughesFast Food Nation by Eric SchlosserUnited States Department of Agriculture publicationsFood & Drug Administration website

Articles will include:Rules to Eat By; In Defense of Food; To the Farmer in Chief; Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch by Michael Pollan

FilmsSuper Size MeKing CornFood, Inc.

English 2150 MW74AJoanna KydFood 101

The theme for my English class is FOOD. What are we eating? Why are so many Americans obese? Where does our food come from? What is the relationship between our government and Iowa farmers? How does a corporation turn a sugary soft drink into an American institution? What is food engineering? Why has high fructose corn syrup been found in our hair follicles? What’s on the lunch menu at your neighborhood middle school? What is a localvore—and what is the “slow food movement”? How are “natural flavors” created and marketed?

These are some of the questions we will entertain throughout the term. As you may have noticed, food is a very hot topic these days. Hardly a day goes by that there is not at least one article in the New York Times on the subject. Maybe it’s an Op Ed piece about a chemical additive in chicken soup, or a feature on the Food Network, or a review of the latest documentary on agribusiness. It has become a vast topic and the supply of reading material is practically endless -- but we will be reading, writing and learning a good semester’s worth!

Assorted readings will be selected from:Best Food Writing 2008, edited by Holly HughesFast Food Nation by Eric SchlosserUnited States Department of Agriculture publicationsFood & Drug Administration website

Articles will include:Rules to Eat By; In Defense of Food; To the Farmer in Chief; Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch by Michael Pollan

FilmsSuper Size MeKing CornFood, Inc.

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English 2150T FM13AIngrid Hughes


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English 2150T MW57AKathleen R. LawrenceKissing and Telling

The world’s greatest writers are obsessed with dating and mating. The stories, poems, films and plays that deal with such juicy business as sex, fidelity, cuckoldry, marriage, breakups, jealousy, love and lust are extremely compelling, perhaps because they address the deep human secrets your best friend is reluctant to share. Chekhov said that everyone leads their “most interesting life under the cover of secrecy.” Naturally, the most

carefully-guarded of these are secrets are about love and relationships. We’ll uncover them as we read and discuss stories by Andrea Barrett, Jhumpa Lahiri, John Cheever, and Lorrie Moore; plays by Ibsen and Shakespeare; poems by Sharon Olds, Li Po, Marilyn Chin, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Considering these issues in the safety of our class could change your life! Bad relationships cost money and stress. Before you take the leap, read what some of our greatest thinkers have to say on the matter.

This is a primarily a writing course. Writing, grammar, and revision will be stressed. Assessment will be based on two formal essays of 750 words; two in-class open book tests; regular quizzes and low-stakes writing exercises, peer review of student writing, conferences, class discussions, and an oral presentation of a poem. There will be opportunity for extra credit and regular conferences with the instructor.Text: The Norton Introduction to Literature, shorter 9th edition, Booth, Hunter, Mays

stephanie govan formatted version fall 2010 english ... · web viewagamemnon , aeschylus the...

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