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Summer 2004 Course OfferingsCL N1A, #28305, MANALO, MWF 9-11, 125 DWINELLE“Friends and Enemies in World Literature”Thy friendship oft has made my heart ache Do be my enemy for friendship's Sake. -- William Blake This course will explore the theme of friendship in selected works of world literature. We will trace the different ways such texts have imagined friendship-whether as the logic of political association, as romantic love, or even as the communion of souls. But our main task will be to confront the following disturbing question: why does the figure of the enemy-and thus the threat of conflict, enmity and violence-so often lie at the heart of conceptions of friendship?
Please Note: To enrich our readings, we will watch cinematic adaptations of all the texts on our reading list. As a 1A, this class will also teach you how to write college-level papers. Thus, You will learn 1) to form arguments by writing frequent response papers 2) to improve your writing through collaborative group-work and peer review. Texts
CL N1B, #28310, GREEN, TT 9-11, 221 Wheeler“Sex, Psychosis, and the Spirit”Sexuality and Spirituality are equally taboo in polite conversation, yet they have long been intertwined in both religious and non-religious writing. In “Sex, Psychosis, and the Spirit” we will examine the intersections of sexuality and spirituality, even as they are mediated by mental illness. Through close reading of our common texts and in group discussion, we will explore the ways in which spirituality is conceived through sexual metaphor and sexuality is expressed through spiritual ideals. Finally, by comparing accounts of bodily and mystical union, we will attempt to trouble the boundaries between spirituality and sexuality as opposing realms of desire. This course will draw extensively on texts from Western Christian thought and tradition, but students are encouraged to introduce texts from non-Western and non-Christian religions and traditions for comparison. Texts
CL N41E, #28315, SAYAR, MWF 9-11:30, 56 Hildebrand“Influence vs. Appropriation: Woody Allen via Fellini, Bergman and the Marx Brothers”This course will examine the ways in which films by Woody Allen engage, pay tribute to, and define themselves through complex relationships with the works of Fellini, Bergman and the Marx Brothers. We will examine these relationships in cinematic terms from script to soundtrack, cinematography to mise-en-scene, in order to explore the notion of a European vs. an American cinematic language, and of influence vs. appropriation: to what extent does a work influence another work that comes after it, and to what extent does the latter appropriate from the former? We will link theoretical, historical and cinematic questions to examine how the cinematic language of this contemporary filmmaker has come to define itself through 'interactions' with earlier European and American 'vocabularies'. Texts
Films
CL 50, #28320, GOLD, MWF 9-11:30, 125 DWINELLE“Poetry Workshop”This class will be a forum for the creation and delectation of poetry. We will pay attention to the work itself and to the uncertainties and possibilities of the creative process. With a view to facilitating supportive and meaningful exchange, ways of responding to each otherÕs poems will be directly considered. Besides exploring their own poetic voices, students will broaden their familiarity with a range of poetic antecedents and contemporaries. They will also deepen their knowledge of other poetsÕ work, through discussion, memorization, and modeled composition. Basic elements of poetic language and form--such as sound, texture, imagery, rhythm, voice, and phrasing--will be reviewed, and some relations between poetry and other expressive media, including both visual and performing arts, will be investigated. Finally, even as this work together makes us more conscious of certain parts of the craft, we will continue to honor and nurture the unconscious aspect of composition. At least one local poet will visit to give a craft talk and reading during the semester. Requirements: Weekly submission of new work; regular attendance and participation; cumulative chapbook; anthology of favorite poems; memorization of poems; various homework and classroom exercises. NOTE: (EXTENDED DEADLINE!!)Students desiring admission to this course should send email containing their name, year and up to six original poems, if available, to poetrysubmission@yahoo.com . Poems sent as attachments should be included in the body of the email as well. Unless otherwise notified, all students should assume they have been admitted to the course. Please note that the new deadline for this submission coincides with the first day of the course, May 24. CL N60AC, #28320, WHITE, MWF 9-11:30, 221 WHEELER“Manifest and Contested Destinies: America's Imperial Past in Contemporary Literatures and Cultures”We often don't think of the U.S. as an empire, but history doesn't bear this out, as the nation's past (and present) is characterized by conquest and expansion, conflict and resistance. The connections and clashes between cultures, races, and empires are central to U.S. history, and we will question the ways in which (what came to be) the United States imagined its frontier as a line of opposition to indigenous and/or neighboring American cultures while frequently erasing the idea and the actuality of these peoples as a necessary ideological corollary to its drive for expansion, and at the same time enforced or encouraged the immigration of other groups to provide the labor for this expansion. This course will focus on contemporary literature that takes up this imperial history and its attendant problems of race, ethnicity, and culture. These Native American, Asian American, and Chicano/a, as well as Anglo-American, texts invoke the destruction, disruption, and displacement of Native American peoples and cultures and life on the reservation; Chinese immigrant labor on the transcontinental railroad; the U.S. annexation of Texas and parts of the Southwest at the end of the Mexican-American war that changed the nationality of its population overnight, but its culture and language more slowly; and the continued marginalization of these groups by a dominant white nationalism. We begin by looking at the various social movements taking place in the Bay Area and how they both came together and diverged while all exploring alternatives to mainstream society. By painting a picture of ‘60s culture through the literature, music, and political movements of Black Americans, Chicanos, and white American youth, we hope to offer a vivid context for understanding the significance of the decade in contemporary American history, and especially its role in breaking ground for imagining new cultural identities and exploring possibilities for a better world. Texts
Films
Selected Poetry
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