Introduction to Literature
ENGLISH 270 – ENGLISH 273
Fall 2009

The following set of descriptions will help you choose a section of English 270: Literary History, English 271: Genre, English 272: Literature and Culture, or English 273: Creative Writing and Literature in an informed manner. All these classes emphasize the perceptive reading of imaginative literature and the development of your writing skills. The courses are considerably varied in terms of content and approach.

Please note that English 270, 271, 272, and 273 have replaced English 250-257. Both sets of courses, English 250-257 and English 270-273, fulfill the Diversification in Literature (DL) requirement. Upper-division 300- and 400-level English courses require one or two “English DL courses” as prerequisites; you may use either English 250-257 or English 270-273 courses to fulfill these prerequisites for upper-division English courses. English 250-257 courses are still offered at the Community Colleges.

Since these courses are meant to be sequels to English 100, all English 270-273 classes require a substantial amount of writing and all sections are now designated as Writing Intensive (W). In compliance with the Focus Hallmarks for Writing Intensive classes, you will produce a least 16 pages or 4,000 words, usually divided among three to six papers, in addition to the final exam and to other assignments such as journals, quizzes, or reaction papers that instructors may require. Essays are held to high standards of good writing, both in the presentation of arguments and in the use of evidence, style, grammar, mechanics, and spelling. Courses designated W will partially fulfill the Writing Intensive graduation requirements.

English 270-273 courses are considered non-introductory and count towards the Arts and Sciences non-introductory credit requirements, but they do not fulfill the upper-division credit requirements for the English Major or English Minor.

PLEASE NOTE that English 270-273 classes are NOT REPEATABLE, even though the course subtitles change from semester to semester. If you take ENG 270, for example, you may not enroll in another ENG 270 in a subsequent semester.

ENGLISH 270: LITERARY HISTORY

ENGLISH 270 (01) (W): BRITISH LITERATURE (MWF 12:30-1: 20) – Kristin McAndrews
The literal and figurative monster is a central figure in much of British literature. This class will introduce students to an array of monsters from medieval literature through the twentieth century. We will consider the creation and transformation of fiends and how these characters provide insight into cultural fears and challenges. Students will begin with Beowulf, an ancient narrative poem of encountering the monstrous and defeating it. Students will read SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT, THE TEMPEST and THE DUCHESS OF MALFI. In addition, we will study texts by Jonathon Swift, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Bronte, Robert Louis Stevenson and William Butler Yeats. We will finish the semester with Fay Weldons’s LIFE AND LOVES OF A SHE DEVIL.

Requirements: Two short essays (3-4 pages), one research essay (5-7 with additional works cited page), ten reader response papers, final exam, attendance, and participation.

Books will be available at Revolution Books on South King. I will email the book list a few weeks before class starts.

ENGLISH 270 (02& 03) (W): LITERARY HISTORY: AMERICAN SLAVE NOVELS (02) (MWF 12:30-1:20); (03) (MWF 1:30-2:20) – Joan Peters
This course is designed to introduce students to novels related directly or indirectly to the ethical, rhetorical, and literary implications of the historical event of American slavery. In addition, the course aims to help students develop confidence, ease, and skill in reading analytically and in articulating reasoned interpretive arguments about the material that is read.

Course requirements include two drafts of three 5-6 page papers.

Assigned readings include UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, THE CURSE OF CASTE OR THE SLAVE BRIDE, OUR NIG, HUCKLEBERRY FINN, CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER, THE COLOR PURPLE, BELOVED.

ENGLISH 270 (04) (W): AMERICAN LITERATURE (TR 7:30-8:45) – Gay Sibley
Students approaching this course with enthusiasm will gain an appreciation for American literature through the short story, the play, the poem, and the novel. We will spend classroom time not only on lecture and discussion, but also on the development of students’ critical writing skills. Writing assignments will include three short outside papers, two in-class essays, a midterm and a final examination.

MAJOR WORKS TO BE ASSIGNED:

• Chopin, THE AWAKENING AND SELECTED STORIES (Penguin);
• Faulkner, AS I LAY DYING (Vintage);
• Fitzgerald, THE GREAT GATSBY (Scribner);
• Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER (Penguin);
• Hemingway, THE SUN ALSO RISES (Scribner);
• Miller, THE CRUCIBLE (Penguin);
• O’Neill, LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT;
• Twain, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (Penguin);
• Williams and Honig, eds., THE MENTOR BOOK OF MAJOR AMERICAN POETS (Penguin).
• Short stories on handouts.

ENGLISH 270 (05): BRITISH LITERATURE BEFORE 1800 (TR 12:00-1:15) - Melanie Ried
Monsters! Wizards! Women knights! Sex! Slavery and death. This course will introduce you to major works and writers of English literature from the Anglo-Saxon period (about 500 A.D.) to the Restoration (1660-1700) and through the eighteenth century. We will pay particular attention to their historical, cultural, and biographical contexts as well as the literary modes and forms that they exemplify. Lectures on the works and their contexts will be combined with discussion of questions posed by myself and any that you may have. This course will be writing intensive, with short, one-page papers due weekly and two longer papers.

Texts will include:

• BEOWULF; LE ROMAN DE SILENCE;
• Marie de France’s LAIS;
• Excerpts from Chaucer’s CANTERBURY TALES;
• Excerpts from Sir Thomas Malory’s MORTE D’ARTHUR (legends of King Arthur and the Round Table);
• Shakespeare’s TEMPEST;
• Aprha Behn’s OROONOKO.
• Poems by Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Thomas Gray

ENGLISH 270 (06): BRITISH LITERATURE TO 1800(TR 1:30-2:45) – Frederika Bain

ENGLISH 271: GENRE

ENGLISH 271 (02 & 03) (W): POETRY AND DRAMA: (02) (MWF 1:30-2:20); (03) (MWF 2:30-3:20) – Jonathan Morse
Western civilization begins at the edge of the sea, with a Greek army sailing off to a war in THE ILIAD and a soldier coming home again in THE ODYSSEY. The heartbeat of literature has kept pace to oceanic rhythms ever since, so this semester we’ll be listening to that beat as it gives itself voice in some great stories of voyage and change.

Texts:

• THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY, shorter edition;
• Homer, THE ODYSSEY;
• Sophocles, OEDIPUS REX;
• Shakespeare, AS YOU LIKE IT and THE TEMPEST;
• Chekhov, THREE SISTERS. Four five-page papers, midterm and final.

ENGLISH 271 (04) THE FAIRY TALE (TR 12:00-1:15) – Cristina Bacchilega
The Western “fairy tale” is a genre we may think we know from childhood memories, but this course is an introduction to its history and multiple social uses, of which the Disneyfied fairy tale is only a recent episode. With the adaptation of oral tales of magic into print, especially from the XVII century on, fairy tales became established as a modern literary genre that continues to be popular across national boundaries. In these different contexts, fairy tales have offered an imaginative outlet for desire and change while also performing socializing functions. How has a story like “Rapunzel” or “Puss in Boots” changed over the centuries? When did fairy tales become bedtime stories for children? What interests feminist and postcolonial authors in the fairy tale? Is “happily ever after” the signature mark of this genre? How do fairy tales enchant us? These are some of the questions we will explore while reading a wide range of tales that may break some “magic spells” but also enliven our capacity for wonder in new ways.

REQUIREMENTS: assignments include an oral presentation, quizzes, several short papers, a midterm, and a final examination. Attendance is mandatory.

TEXTS:

• Jack Zipes, editor, THE GREAT FAIRY TALE TRADITION;
• Marina Warner, editor, WONDER TALES;
• Carlo Collodi (trans. Canepa), PINOCCHIO;
• Angela Carter, THE BLOODY CHAMBER;
• Salman Rushdie, THE WIZARD OF OZ.

ENGLISH 271 (05 & 06) (W): SHORT STORY AND NOVEL (05)(TR 12:00-1:15); (06)(1:30-2:45) - Morgan Blair
This is a writing intensive class which means a lot of writing and re-writing. There will be take-home papers as well as impromptu, in-class writing concerning the texts.

We will read each closely. Take notes while you read so that you can participate in the discussions during class

There will be handouts.

Four unexcuses absences and you fail the class. If you must be absent, please let me know so that I may be in touch with you and you can stay current. My email address is:
mblair@hawaii.edu

Only use it to let me know about your absence. If you become ill enough to be out of class for an extended period, drop the class. Concentrate on getting well.

Conferences are in Kuykendall 521, are working conferences, each one half hour long. Always bring all your notes and rough drafts paperclipped together so that we can look for ways to solve whatever problems there are in your pages.

The first paper will have either a check or an x on it. The second paper and all those following it will be graded. If a paper comes back to you with the note, “See me now” on it, make an appointment so that we can talk about re-writing it.

Discussion is important. Always be prepared. Almost bring your notes and the book we are talking about to class. Always take notes during class.

Your writing, how it improves, will count most heavily in your final grade. You will edit and re-write your papers toward clarity.

It is important to read closely; don’t skim, or get distracted, or impose ideas on the texts that are not there. Take notes. Always hand in fresh copy, no blemish on the page, and if asked for, all the notes and rough drafts you’ve made toward the final paper. Always proof what you hand in.

BOOKS:

• A STUDY IN SCARLET , A. Conan Doyle, Penguin, ISBN: 978-014-043-908-3
• NIGHT, Edna O’Brien, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN: 978-061-812-689-7
• ALL THE NAMES, Jose Saramago, Penguin, ISBN: 978-015-601-059-7
• LAZAR MALKIN ENTERS HEAVEN, Steve Stern, Syracuse U. Press, ISBN: 978-081-560-356-6
• SHAME, Salman Rushdie, Random House, ISBN: 978-081-297-670-0
• THE PASSION, Jeanette Winterston, Vintage, ISBN: 978-080-213-522-3

ENGLISH 271 (09)(W): LOVE STORIES IN WORLD LITERATURE (TR 1:30-2:45) – pending

ENGLISH 272 (01 & 05)(W): LITERATURE OF CONFLICT (01)(MWF 10:30-11:20); (05)(MWF 11:30-12:20) – Uzma Aslam Khan
We will look at the many dimensions of conflict in world literature, focusing particularly on the effects of individual and regional discord brought about by imperialism and war. How do private agonies shape global forces? How are they shaped by global forces? How do writers succeed or fail in depicting the complexity of both: the delicate nuances of human drama as well as the “big” themes?

This course is "writing intensive." It will focus on developing your ability to read and think critically, as well as your ability to write with skill and perceptiveness on the complex themes that arise in the novels assigned.

Class requirements include: weekly response papers; quizzes; two formal essays; a mid-term; a final exam; participation in class discussions; individual and/or group presentations on each book.

Texts: Matthew Kneale ENGLISH PASSENGERS; Eduardo Galeano MEMORY OF FIRE: GENESIS (part one of triology); Michael Ondaatje THE ENGLISH PATIENT; Leslie Marmon Silko CEREMONY; Betool Khedairi ABSENT. Books will be available at Revolution Books.

ENGLISH 272 (W) (02 & 03): MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (02) (MWF 10:30-11:20); (03) (MWF 11:30-12:20) – Steve Canham
This course will revisit what was being widely read on college campuses during the volatile period of the mid-1960s to the early 70s. Foreign wars, feminism, hippies, love-ins, riots, civil rights, assassinations, impeachment?these are just some of the issues and movements that shaped a generation (your parents’? your grandparents’? your own?). We will examine a wide range of texts from this time period, looking for the ideas and values that informed the thinking of 1960s culture and considering what, if any, relevance they may have forty or so years later.

What we actually read will is still up in the air: some possibilities include Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, Sylvia Plath’s Ariel, Richard Wright’s Native Son, Tom Robbins’ Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America, Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha or Steppenwolf, Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” John Barth’s End of the Road, Robert Creeley’s or Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poetry, Albert Camus’ The Stranger or The Plague--the list is potentially endless. We might even look at some of the Beat writers from the 1950s who were so popular in the 60s. In addition to a selection of primary texts (novels, mostly), we will have probably an anthology of political and social writing. There will be a unit on iconography/visual images of the period, as well.

This is a W section and you will write four to five formal response and research papers. The final essay will be a sizeable study of a cultural or political aspect of the 60s-70s that you have selected. This may be extra-literary. That is, it might look at music, art, film (documentary as well as Hollywood), political or social legislation, etc. Attendance and active participation will be required. You need to love to read and to think for this section—please don’t enroll just because it is a W and comes at a decent time. Peace.

ENGLISH 272 (04) (W): WOMEN WRITERS IN HAWAI‘I (06) (MWF 11:30-12:20) – Candace Fujikane
In this course, we will be looking at the ways different women writers in Hawai‘i engage, challenge, and transform historical, economic, and political conditions. We will begin by examining the historical problems that attend women’s attempts to write about their gendered experiences before turning to the strategies they use to write through the layers of cultural silences imposed upon their writing. As we foreground gender issues, we will also examine the ways in which constructions of gender are dependent upon constructions of ethnicity/race, class, sexual orientation and other forms of difference within a colonial framework in which Native Hawaiians fight for their right to self-determination. We will be thinking the material conditions each woman speaks to, and we will be asking ourselves questions about the narrative strategies of resistance these women writers use not only to represent but also to bring about changes in those conditions. To map out our own positions as readers, we will also be asking questions about the ways we read these texts: what are our assumptions about literary interpretation, and how do these texts challenge those assumptions?

Requirements: To help us think about the different strategies we use to write about literature, the course requirements will include four 4-page papers, informal reaction papers, peer-editing work, a group presentation, a final exam, attendance, and participation.

Required Texts (available at Revolution Books): Juliet Kono, HILO RAINS; Lois-Ann Yamanaka, WILD MEAT AND THE BULLYBURGERS; Nora Okja Keller, FOX GIRL; Haunani-Kay Trask, LIGHT IN THE CREVICE NEVER SEEN; Brandy Nalani McDougall, THE SALT WIND / KA MAKANI PA‘AKAI. A required course reader will include works by Donna Tanigawa, Puanani Burgess, ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui, Ka‘anohi Kaleikini, Eiko Kosasa, Karen Kosasa, Judy Rohrer, Peggy Choy, Ida Yoshinaga, Mavis Hara, Dana Naone Hall, Momiala Kamahele, Ann Inoshita, Darlene Rodrigues, Violet Harada, and others. The reader will be available during the second week of classes.

ENGLISH 272 (06): LITERATURE OF MIGRATION (TR 9:00–10:15) – Carmen Nolte
In this course, we will explore how migration has changed our notions of the nation, home, borders, and culture. After shedding light on the complexities of these terms with the help of essays by the theorists Giorgio Agamben, Benedict Anderson, and Edward Said, we will read six novels that approach issues of migration from very different angles. Specifically, we will discuss the American children’s book MESSENGER by Lois Lowry; Eva Hoffman’s autobiographical LOST IN TRANSLATION; Turkish author Orhan Pamuk’s bestseller SNOW; Czech writer Milan Kundera’s THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING; a modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel from Germany, Sybille Berg’s BY THE WAY, DID I EVER TELL YOU…; and local author Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s WILD MEAT AND THE BULLY BURGERS. We will also watch and discuss three films that focus on the migrant’s experience, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, NUOVO MONDO (THE GOLDEN DOOR), and AL OTRO LADO (TO THE OTHER SIDE).

Students are expected to lead class discussion on an assigned text and write response papers to each of the assigned novels and films (500-750 words each; 9 papers in total). All novels will be available through Revolution Books and will be supplemented with handouts in class.

ENGLISH 272 (07)(W)(H): MO`OLELO KU`E-HAWAIIAN LITERATURE AS RESISTANCE (TR 10:30 –11:45) – Brian Kuwada

ENGLISH 272 (08)(W)(H): ISLANDS & COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS (TR 1:30 –2:45) - Laura Lyons

ENG 272 (09) (W): SEEING THE UNSEEABLE IN NOVEL & FILM (MWF 12:30-01:20) -- Cynthia Ward
This course will look at looking by focusing on how systems of representation (i.e., the novel and film) structure our how we see, what we see, and what we don’t see. The novel, a print literary genre that did not come into existence until the 1700s (at the earliest) is a form of narrative that uniquely relies on point of view. Film, a technology that also relies on perspective (the camera lens or apparatus) nevertheless presents a very different concept of point of view, because of its seeming objectivity (as opposed to what is called a subjective viewpoint that a novel can present). In fact, in terms of human cognitive perception, there is no such thing as objectivity: 90% of what we see is informed by our previous experiences. We see what we expect to see. And our culture—novels and film—shape those expectations. While our culture maintains a firm belief in the objectivity of the real world (and in our own ability to see what’s there), other cultures recognize the reality of invisible worlds. For comparison, we will be focusing on West African "ways of seeing" in novels and popular film.

The works we will be examining all deal with—directly or indirectly—various aspects of seeing, looking, being seen, visualization, the unseen, and blindness. They do so by incorporating these as themes or narrative strategies, and/or by unconsciously omitting various other perspectives. We will also be looking at how the various conventions of these two genres develop those ideas and concerns. Finally, this course will direct your attention toward how to write effectively about literature and film.

Requirements: response papers; quizzes; two formal essays; a mid-term; a final exam; participation in class discussions; group presentations.

Required Texts (available at Revolution Books, 2626 S. King Street)
Charlotte Brontë, JANE EYRE Norton Critical Edition (3rd edition, 2000) ISBN-10: 0393975428
Jean Rhys, WIDE SARGASSO SEA Norton Critical Edition (1998) ISBN-10: 0393960129
Joseph Conrad, HEART OF DARKNESS Norton Critical Edition (4th, 2005) ISBN-10: 0393926362
Ben Okri, THE FAMISHED ROAD ISBN-10: 0385425139
Films we will view:
Robert Stevenson, JANE EYRE (1943)
Jacques Tourneur, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)
Frances Ford Coppola, APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX (1979)
Tunde Kelani, THUNDERBOLT (2000)

ENGLISH 273 (01) (W): IMAGING HONOLULU (MWF 11:30-12:20) – Gary Pak
This course will look at a number of writers and their perceptions/approaches to our city, HONOLULU. We will look at their work critically, in terms of how we must for an introductory literature course, and we will look at their work as apprentice writers trying to figure out how to create good writing. For requirements, there will be the standard midterm and final exams; two literary analysis papers; one creative writing project; active participation in class discussions; excellent attendance; and writing in a class blog.

Along with the text, we will be viewing two or three relevant films.

Required text: Daws and Hymer (eds.), HONOLULU STORIES. Course text can be purchased at revolution Books.

ENGLISH 273 (02 & 03)(W): FROM VISION TO TEXT (02) (MWF 2:30-3:20); (03) (MWF 3:30-4:20) – Steven Curry
“ Life is not that which one lives, but that which one remembers, and how one remembers to tell it,” writes Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his memoirs. In addition to reading short stories and poetry from writers who remembered, in great ways, “how to tell it,” this course is designed to give serious students an opportunity to write about their own lives—memories, feelings, thoughts, intuitions, dreams, and visions. The course will employ a workshop format, in which students will share both their rough and their finished writing with each other—something that will require honesty and courage. The goal of this course is to write poetry and prose that others will want to read., as well as to read a selection of “the best that has been thought and said.”

Your Participation is a major requirement in this class. A workshop cannot succeed without it. You are expected to be gracious and tactful in your responses to one another’s work, while remaining as honest and constructive as possible. Sand-baggers and sweet-talkers will be severely penalized. What we are doing is serious work but, at the same time, we should always consider ourselves at play.

Texts: A BOOK OF LUMINOUS THINGS: AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY, Czeslaw Milosz (ed). THE VINTAGE BOOK OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, Tobias Wolff (ed).

ENGLISH 273 (04): CREATIVE WRITING: THE SHORT STORY (TR 1:30–2:45) – Anjan Adiga
In this course, students will deepen their proficiency in the reading and writing of short fiction. For the first half of the semester we’ll study the basic elements of the short story—character, point of view, dialogue, plot, setting, etc.—and work our way through stories by such luminaries of the form as Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Ernest Hemingway, and Flannery O’Connor. Each student will write one 4-6 page essay focusing on some element of craft in the stories we read. In the second half of the semester we’ll turn our attention to student writing. Each student will submit two short stories (6-10 pages each), a week in advance of their respective workshop. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to read a wide variety of short stories, and each student will give a presentation on a story we read, or one he/she chooses to bring to class.

Text: Janet Burroway, WRITING FICTION 7th ed.

ENGLISH 273 (05): CREATIVE WRITING: POETRY (MWF 12:30–1:20) – Susan Schultz