This course is designed to introduce you to the multifaceted discipline of English studies and provide you with a solid foundation for future coursework. We will focus on the methods and theories that are used in the production, analysis, and interpretation of a variety of texts, including works of fiction, poetry, drama, oratory, life writing, film, and other media. The course also includes a general introduction to key concepts and methods in rhetoric. We will also spend some time on the theories and methods associated with cultural studies.
Throughout the semester, we will read texts from European and American traditions alongside scholarly and creative work situated in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. One of our goals will be to understand the aesthetic and social dimensions of written, visual, and oral communication in different historical periods and cultural contexts, emphasizing significant continuities throughout the history of scholarship in literature and rhetoric and at the same time examining the critiques and transformations that basic critical concepts and approaches have undergone in the course of their development.
Our particular focus will be on the complex problem of interpretation. What critical procedures allow us to grasp and to convey the meaning of what we read? How do we know that our interpretations are valid? What are the social and political consequences of our interpretations?
In addition to providing you with a background in English studies, this class aims to build your skills in careful reading, critical thinking, lucid argumentative writing, and articulate public speaking. Throughout the semester, we will also explore the diverse careers in which you might apply these skills.
This class has a Writing Intensive (WI) focus.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course you should be able to
- examine literary texts, films, orations, advertisements, and other forms of artistic and persuasive discourse critically, attending to details such as genre, narrative and poetic structure, style, figurative language, allusions, and logic
- situate texts in their historical and social contexts, accounting for formal, stylistic, thematic, and other relevant features in relation to these contexts
- identify and accurately employ key concepts in literary, rhetorical, and cultural theory
- write clear, coherent analyses of literature, film, oratory, and other forms of discourse for an academic audience
- use available resources, physical and electronic, to conduct thorough and responsible research
- demonstrate sound argumentation in your writing
- document sources accurately and responsibly in your writing in compliance with a standard academic style
Required Texts (available at the UHM Bookstore)
Julian Aguon. Not Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies. Astra House, 2022.
Noʻu Revilla. Ask the Brindled. Milkweed Editions, 2022.
George Saunders, Fox 8: A Story. Random House, 2018.
Sophocles. Oedipus Tyrannos. Translated by Emily Wilson. Norton, 2021.
Assignments
Your grade for this class will be based on your performance on the following assignments:
- a mid-term examination (25 points)
- a final examination (25 points)
- a proposal for a scholarly essay (10 points)
- a rhetorical analysis exercise (10 points)
- a creative writing exercise (10 points)
- two oral lightning-round presentations (10 points each, 20 points total)
- a scholarly essay (we will break up the components into five separate short assignments) (10 points each, 50 points total)