W African & European Novels in Dialogue

This course explores how African novels are in conversation with European literary texts. More specifically, we will address how these African novels function as “histories,” by revising European colonial representations of Africa. In the process of examining these dialogues on a thematic, conceptual, and historical level, we will also address the genealogy of the novel in Africa as a genre and how African novelists reinvent it. To these ends, the course is built around four literary pairings. We will focus on four key African novels including Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K, as well as those texts in the English literary canon to which they “speak,” including Alice in Wonderland and ‘Bartleby the Scrivener.’ Fulfills: Literature & Diversity requirement (LT), World Literature requirement for English Education students.

The nineteenth century saw the development of a distinctly American literature, along with a flowering of American visual art that, like much of the literature, was concerned with notions of national self-definition. The premise of this course is that these literary and visual discourses were closely intertwined and can be examined together in productive ways, particularly as indexes of both aesthetic and ideological developments in nineteenth-century America. Visual media under consideration will include painting, photography, illustration, sculpture, architecture, fashion design, and various forms of public display.

In his classic Letters from an American Farmer (1782), French immigrant Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur asked “What…is this American, this new man?” In this course, we will investigate a range of responses to this question through a selective survey of American autobiographical writing from the colonial period to the twentieth century, with special attention to the formative period of the nineteenth century. Our texts will reflect a variety of perspectives on the American experience and construct multiple notions of what it means to be an American. The reading list is likely to include classic examples of American life-writing by Mary Rowlandson, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Zitkala-Sa and Henry Adams, along with several more recent works by writers reflecting a range of ethnic perspectives. Fulfills 400 level American Literature Requirement or 400 level Literature and Diversity Requirement

Over the years, Henry James wrote several pieces on Nathaniel Hawthorne, increasingly casting aside early qualifications of the romancer’s works and paying tribute to him as the founder of American art in fiction. Different as the two authors seem to be, writing about times and places remote from one another, they share much in common in their devotion to the traditions of highest art—including, among other things, a concern about the moral circumstances of individuals and society, the importance of art for American culture, a dispassionate critique of American shibboleths, a penetrating analysis of human psychology, the need for love and community, and the importance of history. The course will take up these and related matters by examining a variety of stories published throughout the careers of both writers.

For evaluation: one short paper (8–10 pp.) on Hawthorne (30% of course grade); one critical paper (16–20 pp.) on James or on James and Hawthorne (50%); participation (20%). Fulfills American Literature requirement.
428W 20th Century Irish Literature

Brannen, A. (Summer 2008)

This course provides an overview of Irish literature, from 1890 to 2000; that is, from the Irish Revival, through the Counter-Revival, and on into the Non-Revival. We'll pay particular attention to politics, religion, historical context. Much of what we read will have originally been written in Irish; we will, naturally, be reading such works in translation. By the end of the semester, students should be able to discuss 20th century Irish literature coherently, identifying major issues in the works, and articulating the relationships of the works we read to each other and to the States, to Britain, and to the Continent. Typically, authors will include J. M. Synge, G.B. Shaw, Patrick Pearse, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Máirtín Ó Direáin, Tomás Ó Crohan, Flann O’Brien, Frank O’Connor, Sean O’Faolain, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Elizabeth Bowen, Seumas O’Kelly, Sean O’Casey, Brendan Behan, Edna O’Brien, Brian Friel, Julia O’Faolain, John Mc Gahern, Roddy Doyle, Ciaran Carson, Micheál Ó hÁirtnéde, Caitlín Maude, Micheál Ó Siadhail, Nuala Ní Dhomnaill. Fulfills British Literature requirement OR Literature and Diversity requirement.

This course will introduce students to American Fiction of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Texts will be considered individually as well as in relation to their larger cultural, historical, and intellectual contexts. Some critical/theoretical reading will be required to help provide that context. Among other things, the class will examine this fiction within the context of the growing vitality of various forms of cultural critique across the spectrum of cultural practices. In addition, the course will examine recent American fiction’s engagement with difficult issues such as violence, race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, and colonialism—issues that are usually intertwined, have dominated globally at the turn of the twenty-first century, and have become increasingly visible to Americans recently—and the difficulties fiction faces in engaging such issues in the wake of the questioning of representation and language that has characterized twentieth century fiction. The class will consist of active and engaged intellectual discussion (seminar-style) among all participants. The class will read fiction such as Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957), Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (1965), Robert Coover’s “The Babysitter” (1969), Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior (1975), Tim O’Brien’s “Going After Cacciato” (1975) & “The Things they Carried” (1986), Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street (1984), Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), Don DeLillo’s Libra (1988), Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms (1995), Michael Cunningham’s The Hours (1998), selected stories from Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies (1999), and Diana Abu-Jaber’s Crescent (2003)—selection of texts has not been finalized.

Fulfills 400-level American Literature or Literature and Diversity Requirement
432W 20th Century American Ethnic Literature

Nowacki, J. (Spring 2010)

This course focuses on the relationship between established definitions of American literature and American national identity and the ways writers from various ethnically identified groups sustain, revise, and/or dismantle these definitions and the cultural myths that underpin them. We will consider these and other ideas in novels, short stories, poetry, autobiography, and films by Native American, African American, U.S. Latino/a, and Asian American writers from the late Victorian period to the present. A sampling of possible writers examined in this course includes but is not limited to Jose Martí, Zitkala-Sa, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, John Okada, Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz, Linda Hogan, and Ana Castillo. Fulfills 400 level American Literature requirement and 400 level Literature and Diversity requirement.

Why can you say I am sleepy and I’m sleepy but not Donna is sleepier than I’m? Why is thirteen pronounced thirTEEN in I’m thirteen but THIRteen in I have thirteen goats? How do we know these facts without having been taught them? In this course, we will answer such questions about language through an introductory exploration of linguistics, the science of language. Our topics will include the structure of sentences and words, the sounds of language, and linguistic meaning, with an emphasis on fundamental theoretical issues. Time permitting, we may also explore the distinctive properties of literary language, the mechanisms of language learning, and the role of language in society.

This course fulfills the linguistics/grammar requirement for English Education students.
434W Approaches to Teaching Literature: Fiction, Drama, & Poetry

Howard, S. (Summer 2011)

This course is designed with the following audience in mind: high school English teachers; those studying to teach high school English; and graduate students in English who have taught or are planning to teach in the Core writing and literature courses at Duquesne or another college/university. The class is structured around informal discussion of the assigned readings-- of poetry, drama, and short stories, and of various critical approaches that may be taken in teaching the literature–, as well as students’ experiences teaching in the various genres. In addition to participating actively in class discussion, students will write three formal papers in which they show how one or more critical approaches may be used to teach a particular poem, a play, and a short story, respectively, and they will present each of their papers to the class. Fulfills 400-level British literature or 400-level American literature requirement.

In this course we will read novels by male and female 18th-19th-century British novelists which focus on the lives of women of varying age, class, marital status, temperament, and experience. We’ll be interested in discussing the social, political, and economic contexts in which the novels were written, the issues to which they respond, as well as in determining how the lives of the

women at the centers of these novels function thematically and narratively. All

methodologies/theoretical perspectives are welcome, though of course gender will be a primary lens through which we will read these novels.

Course Requirements: oral presentation, short paper, long paper, class participation, quizzes. Fulfills the 400-level British requirement. Fulfills 400-level Literature and Diversity requirement.
442W Kubrick & Film Genre

Fried, J. (Fall 2007)

Horror. Comedy. Science Fiction. Film Noir. Legendary director Stanley Kubrick's list of films cover nearly every major genre in cinematic history. Kubrick himself was often considered a student of the genres: Before starting any new film project, he supposedly sat down and watched as many films as possible focused on the type of film he was wanted to make, whether it was a war/action film (Full Metal Jacket), a literary historical drama (Barry Lyndon), or a twisted romance (Lolita). In this class, we'll watch most of Kubrick's films with an eye toward considering the stylistic and thematic connections between these seemingly disparate collection of movies. In addition, we'll examine the ways in which Kubrick's self-conscious treatment of each genre's themes and techniques helps us better understand the constructed nature of genre as a concept. Films will include A Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining, and many others, including, A.I., his last project with Steven Spielberg, made at the time of his death. Students will be required to master the language of film analysis and write several film analysis papers. Fulfills Film Studies track Departmental Film requirement.

a x-list of a Modern Languages class

How did nineteenth- and twentieth-century black women record their versions of reality and visions of a democratic future? How did they strive to recreate their realities through the power of the Word? How do spirituality and feminism intersect in literary works produced by black women? These are some of the questions that will guide class discussions.

Fulfills the 400-level American requirement. Fulfills 400-level Literature and Diversity requirement.

This senior seminar will examine the relationship between public writing and questions of ethics. Can a writer misrepresent him or herself to the public? What is the nature of plagiarism, and who owns ideas? How “true” must something be to be “nonfiction”? What is the difference between ethnography and journalism? When a writer is reporting on illegal activity, is he or she complicit in that activity? What is permissible when a writer of one social or ethnic group writes about another? How has the anonymity and immediacy of the Web changed public writing? What is pornographic writing, and how does it affect women’s place in society? How do photography and writing interrelate? Texts studied might include Phillippe Bourgois’ In Search of Respect, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Hunter S. Thompson’s Hells Angels, Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader for a Day, Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, Rigoberta Menchu’s I, Rigoberta Menchu, David Stoll’s Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans, and a collection of essays. Students will produce two long papers as well as several exercises in style and revision. Fulfills: Senior Seminar requirement (ALL TRACKS).

This course will address several Victorian novels through the lens of current theories of trauma. Beginning with Cathy Caruth’s groundbreaking study, Unclaimed Experience, among others, the study of trauma as theme and underlying narrative structure in literary works has proliferated. We will real a representative survey of these theoretical works and then discuss their application to a range of Victorian novels. Beginning with the pre-Victorian Frankenstein, texts could include Mansfield Park, Wuthering Heights, Villette, Daniel Deronda, The Egoist, and The Odd Women. As this is a senior seminar, students will be responsible for presentations and for conducting original scholarship on one of these primary texts for a final research paper. Fulfills: Senior Seminar requirement (ALL TRACKS), 400-level British Literature requirement (LT).

This course will read and discuss what established writers have to say about the craft of writing. We will read several texts and discuss how the process of writing is constructed—is the writer simply a cipher for inspiration to flow through? Is the writer a craftsperson akin to a plumber or carpenter? Is there such a thing as innate talent, or is good writing simply a product of hard work? What are the class and gender dimensions of these questions? What are the ramifications of these ideas for those who want to write for a living? What is it we think we’re doing when we write? Students will complete a range of writing assignments consisting of reading responses, workshop responses, and a final project consisting of each student’s own writing memoir. Texts will include the following: Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, Natalie Goldberg’s The Long Quiet Highway, and Stephen King’s On Writing.

Fulfills: Senior Seminar requirement (ALL TRACKS).
450W Fiction & Form

Fried, J. (Spring 2007)

Writing fiction of any kind-short stories, novels, novellas-is often a multi-staged process: First we let it all flow, uncensored, getting everything down on the page, knowing very few people (if any) will ever see it. Then we look at what we’ve created and decide what works, what doesn’t and what story we seem to be trying to tell. This typically involves asking specific questions with regard to form and structure: From whose perspective do I really want to tell my story? What kind of voice do I want to use? Would my story work better in the present tense? What’s the best point in time to start my story? Do I need more or less dialogue? The goal of this senior seminar is to closely examine these questions of form and structure and to consider how a better understanding of such issues can often make the initial encounter with the blank page feel less like finding your way in the dark. Students will be required to do a substantial number of creative exercises devoted to form and craft, as well as draft and revise at least two complete short stories. Coursework will be largely devoted to workshopping student writing, but readings (both fiction and critical writing on fiction) will be assigned and discussed throughout the semester.

• Satisfies requirement for Senior Seminar in Writing.

• Open ONLY to ENGLISH MAJORS (including English Education majors) who are seniors or second-semester juniors.

We will read selected Gothic novels written during the late eighteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth century in Britain. Our goals will include determining the characteristics of the gothic novel; its historical motivations; its sources; and the societal, imaginative, and political needs it meets. In particular, we will explore issues of gender, especially gender roles and relationships, creation/procreation, agency, and patriarchal family structures, as well as the presence of the following in these novels: the supernatural, the monstrous, the grotesque, horror, suspense, the medieval atmosphere, nature, science, and violence. We will begin with a discussion of the roots of the Gothic novel in Walpole, Lewis, Dacre, and Radcliffe, and move on to nineteenth-century examples and/or critiques of the gothic by Austen, Shelley, and E. Bronte. Course requirements include class participation (quizzes, attendance, active participation in class discussion, and an oral presentation); a midterm and final exam; and a 5-7 page paper.

Texts: Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. Broadview Press, Radcliffe, Ann. Romance of the Forest, Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. Broadview Press, Dacre, Charlotte. Zofloya. Broadview Press, Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights, Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Fulfills senior seminar requirement or 400 level British Literature requirement and 400 level Literature and Diversity requirement.
450W Ecocriticism and American Literature

Kinnahan, T. (Spring 2010)

Taking the relationship between nature and literature as its central concern, ecocriticism in an emerging and increasingly important field of literary studies. In this course we will survey major ecocritical concepts and apply them to the interpretation of American literary texts with environmental themes, which will likely include works by James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, Willa Cather, Aldo Leopold, and others. We will focus on modes of geographic perception and environmental thought reflected in American literature, with special attention to notions of wilderness and the “middle ground” of American pastoralism. We will also survey influential critical texts by Leo Marx, Annette Kolodny, Roderick Nash, Lawrence Buell, and others, along with theoretical works collected in the The Ecocriticism Reader. Fulfills senior seminar requirement or 400 level American Literature requirement.

For 21st century readers and theatregoers, the plays of the English dramatist William Shakespeare may seem both familiar and strange, products of a very different time and culture that still speak in various ways to our own lives and interests. This senior seminar will explore selected Shakespeare plays in relation to the life experiences, beliefs, and concerns of Shakespeare’s contemporaries—insofar as they can be reconstructed from surviving documents. By taking a historical approach to selected plays from various genres, we will attempt to understand these works more fully than if we were to read them from a strictly modern perspective.

By reference to three major authors, this course will highlight characteristics of metaphysical poetry: highly fanciful and witty conceits that reorient the reader's attention from the phenomenal world into the metaphysical realm, irregular prosody that approximates conversational rhythm and uses colloquial diction, the fusion of thought and feeling in the speaker's closely reasoned and subtly modulated argument, literary devices such as paradox and irony that enrich the tonal range of the speaker, and an emphasis on an interpersonal and complex psychodynamic relationship between the speaker and the addressee. Satisfies requirement for Senior Seminar in Literature OR British Literature requirement. Requires SPECIAL PERMISSION (get form from Gabrielle Rebottini in 637 College Hall).