Fall 2005
ENL 2990 Benjamin Franklin's World
Dr. Curtis
(MWF 1-1.50 CRN 10999)
With a malevolence which is without parallel in history, he
would work all day, and then sit up nights, and let on to be
studying algebra by the light of a smoldering fire, so that all
other boys might have to do that also, or else have Benjamin
Franklin thrown up to them. Not satisfied with these proceedings,
he had a fashion of living wholly on bread and water, and studying
astronomy at meal time--a thing which has brought affliction to
millions of boys since, whose fathers had read Franklin's
pernicious biography.
Mark Twain, The Late Benjamin Franklin
Nearly everyone knows some version of Benjamin Franklin, and
like Twain's, most of these versions are reactions to
Franklin's status as a cultural icon rather than to direct
experience with Franklin's own writings. This course will
take a closer look at those writings as we follow
Franklin's enormous curiosity through realms of journalism,
literature, economics, politics, travel, science, and ethics.
We'll examine and evaluate his contemporary impact on all
these fields of study and writing, along with his cultural legacy
in various representations of Franklin from his portraiture through
biographical and literary/pop culture depictions the man who has
been called everything from the essential founder to the eternal
shopkeeper. Participants in this course should expect to learn a
great deal about Benjamin Franklin, the status and production of
knowledge and transatlantic culture in the 18th century, and
Franklin's evolving status as an American icon; to be
graded on journals, an exam, and an extensive project on some
representation of Franklin; and to have the course enhanced by the
speakers and events of this Fall's Belmont Humanities
Symposium, which shares its subject matter with this course.
ENL/W 3500 History of the English Language
Dr. Monteverde
(TR 2-3.15 CRN 11001 for ENL; 11108 for ENW)
Recognizing that any description of this course is destined to
be off-putting, let me begin by stating that ideally this course
should make your own language come alive for you as a living entity
whose current form is the result of all its childhood experiences
and whose future shape, though predictable to some extent, is also
yet to be determined. We will study the growth of our language from
its origin as a descendant of the Indo-European language family in
distant prehistory to its current position as the 2nd most widely
spoken language in the modern world. Though required for all
students seeking teacher certification in English, this course also
is of value to students interested in the study of literature and
the development of a personal voice in writing, because it will
make the primary tool of writing, the language itself, more visible
to you. Tests will be augmented with a variety of assignments, such
as a personal language history, designed to help you appreciate the
on-going and individual process of change that can be experienced
in the study of English. An optional service learning unit can also
be taken as part of the course. While class content is the same for
undergraduates and graduates, out of class assignments differ, with
undergraduate students, for example, producing a brief essay
reflecting on how use of language shapes a particular work of their
own
choosing�past
students have considered books ranging from Dr. Seuss, to a play by
Shakespeare, to a novel by Faulkner, to a current movie.
ENL 3620
Shakespeare: Representative Plays
Dr. Wells
(TR 9.30-10.45 - CRN 11002 GS credit available)
This course will introduce students to the unsurpassed and
inexhaustible pleasures of Shakespeare's plays. We will
begin with a study of Shakespeare's language, with the goal
of helping students become competent readers of his plays, and move
to practicing a more accomplished literacy whereby we study how
Shakespeare's plays yield dizzyingly pleasurable
experiences through beauty, poignancy, irony, paradox and wit--the
qualities that make Shakespeare pre-eminent among dramatists in our
language. To these ends we will study plays from all four
traditional Shakespearean genres: comedies, tragedies, histories,
and romances.
ENL 3660
Satire Then and Now
Dr. Murray
(MWF 11-11.50 CRN 11004)
This course will examine parallels and continuities between
'texts' (including films and images) in two great
ages of satire, the 18th Century and the present. We will examine
(in addition to the predictable but necessary discussion of the
techniques of satire) the social functions of the satirist, the
social responsibilities of the satirist, the political allegiances
of satire, the dangers of satire, and other issues as they arise.
When possible, we will pair satirical texts: Swift's
Gulliver's Travels (The Book) and Jon Stewart's
America (The Book); Austen's Emma with Clueless and Pride
and Prejudice with Bollywood's Bride and Prejudice. Other
18th-century writers to be examined include Alexander Pope, John
Dryden and John Gay (Beggar's Opera). We will examine the
visual satire of William Hogarth and Erika Rothenberg and political
cartoonists. We will also pay attention to new forms and genres of
satire in each era, such as the hoax in the 18th century and web
satire (Tim Bedore and Co.) of today. Everyone will produce
intelligent, enlightening, and entertaining reports and write
comparative analyses of satires. The more adventurous and creative
among us will write our own satires.
ENL 3800
India in Film and Literature
Dr. Dale
(W 2-5 CRN 11003 - GS credit available)
We will explore the culture of India, including the traditions of
Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam by reading classical and contemporary
literature and by viewing key films that dramatize historical
events and contemporary Indian life.
ENL 3900
Introduction to Literary Criticism
Dr. Paine
(TR 11-11.50 CRN 11005)
This course is intended to deepen students' knowledge of
both the history and the practice of literary criticism. In
considering texts from Plato to the present day, we will study how
the critical examination of literature has evolved in the Western
tradition. During the latter weeks of the course, we will look
closely at a number of approaches to a particular work or works, as
a way of further developing students' familiarity will the
ways in which literature can be read today. This course can be
taken most profitably in a student's junior or senior year.
Prerequisite: ENL 2000 or permission of instructor.
ENW 2420
Intermediate Creative Writing
Dr. Alexander
(TR 12.30-1.45 CRN 11007)
Creative writing can be many different things--sometimes
exhilarating and challenging, sometimes just hard work. However, it
is always 'stretching,' and teaches you much about
both the craft of writing and what you feel it is important to say
to the world. This writing class will be a small and temporary
community meant both to challenge you and to support you in your
best creative writing efforts. In it
we�ll
expand our knowledge of the formal aspects of creative writing and
encourage each other to engage in the kind of courageous play that
renders writing vital and unique. We'll work in a variety
of genres--fiction, poetry, and forms that are a hybrid of the two,
and at the end of the term, we'll compose a class anthology
of your best work. The heart of the course is the workshops: what
you bring to them as a writer, how you respond to others'
work. Grades for stories and poems are based as much on your
sincere effort as they are on the ultimate success of the piece. In
fact, as your ideas become more complex and interesting, your
writing may actually seem to become less skillful, because you are
exploring new territory. You should expect this and even seek it
out. Be aware, though, that sloppiness is a different matter. You
should always be working at the top of your capacity in technical
terms. In other words, a poorly written sentence is still a poorly
written sentence, and your instructor will not be easily convinced
that carelessness is the equivalent of originality. The primary
goal of this course is to help you develop both your creative
vision and the tools you need to communicate your vision through
your work.
You�ll
also develop critical vocabulary needed to talk about creative work
in a workshop setting, and examine the techniques established
writers have developed. All creative work requires diligence and
courage and, in the end, is a solitary pursuit. However, all
writers need honest, sympathetic readers, and a community of
creators in which to work. We'll try to create such a
community here.
ENW 2510.01
Intermediate Composition
Dr. Cox
(MWF 9-9.50 CRN 11008)
In ENW 2510, we will explore how and why people are moved to
write about their experiences and seek to articulate their points
of view as we respond to a series of essays from
'alternative' presses and interpret a pair of
novels whose protagonists find themselves outside their comfort
zones. We will then go on to write and revise several essays of our
own; indeed, our efforts at articulating our own viewpoints and
experiences comprise the main activity of the course: the bulk of
our class time will be devoted to workshops that center on our
papers-in-progress. We will help one another
'shape' our essays in these workshops; we will also
review the rules of English grammar and mechanics as necessary.
Readings will include short stories and creative nonfiction:
'The Littlest Hitler,' 'Things We Knew When
the House Caught Fire,' 'The Guide to Being a
Groupie,' and 'How Susie Bayer's T-Shirt
Ended Up on Yusuf Mama's Back,' to name a few
selections. We will also read Dai Sijie's Balzac and the
Little Chinese Seamstress and Mark Haddon's The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
ENW 3550
The Journal: Reading, Writing, and Revelation
Dr. Pinter
(TR 11-12.15 CRN 11009)
This course asks you to read and write reflectively in order to
study the experience of journal writing. We will be studying the
genre of journal writing, while at the same time, we will be
actively engaging in the genre via our own journal writing.
Primarily, we will address the question that Frederick Buechner
poses when he admonishes listen to your life. All moments are key
moments (Now and Then 2). The texts we'll read are by
authors from different time periods and cultures; possible authors
include Etty Hilesum, Henri Nouwen, and Sei Shonagon. These texts
will be studied for the writer's experiences and used as
springboards for our own writing. In addition to keeping a journal,
assignments include analyses of journal writers. We'll meet
from 11-12:15, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
ENW 3990
Everyday Rhetoric
Dr. Smith
(TR 9.30-10.45 CRN 11011)
What is 'rhetoric'? While Plato attacked
rhetoric as 'mere cookery,' others have speculated
that rhetoric is at the heart of an ethical life. In short,
rhetoric is one of the thorniest, most contested --and most
endlessly fascinating--terms in writing theory. During
rhetoric's long history, it has been used to describe
everything from the arcane (e.g., stylistic devices) to the
holistic (e.g., ways of understanding meaning). Some of the debates
about rhetoric we'll consider in this course include: Is
rhetoric an innate skill? Can rhetoric be taught? Is rhetoric at
the heart of ethics? What can we learn from rhetoric as we navigate
our everyday lives?
Everyday Rhetoric will be a seminar-based course, which means most
of the class time will be spent discussing the readings, taking
them apart, playing them the ideas from the course, and placing
them in the context of our own everyday lives. So, along with
regular writing assignments, exams, and one major paper, active,
engaged course participation is an absolute essential. We will
consider a rich, diverse body of sources: Gorgias, Plato,
Aristotle, Augustine, Christine de Pizan, Erasmus, Frederick
Douglass, Friedrich Nietzsche, Virginia Woolf, Michel Foucault,
Adrienne Rich will be among the rhetoricians we engage. But we will
also look at 'everyday' rhetorical practices by
focusing on contemporary gang culture in Chicago and considering a
compelling argument that silence itself is a powerful rhetorical
tool. Through our reading, writing, and discussion, we will learn
about this tricky thing called 'rhetoric' as we
develop a heightened awareness of how writing and rhetoric infuse
our everyday lives.
If you'd like to talk more about this course, feel free to
email Dr. Smith at smithbk@mail.belmont.edu
