In this class, students will prepare for extensive study in English Studies by exploring different aspects of the field, especially as it is manifested in our department. We will engage Composition Studies & Rhetoric; Creative Writing; and Literary & Cultural Studies.
Part of the semester will be devoted to exploring in depth keywords for English Studies as constituted today, ranging from form and content to the rhetorical triangle to race and ideology. Students will work with the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms here. We will also review common practices of English Studies such as close reading, research, workshopping and rhetorical analysis.
Throughout, we will engage with literary and cultural texts alongside critical works to ground our discussions. The following are the literary and cultural texts: Shakespeare’s The Tempest (play), Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (novel), Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood (novel), Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (film), Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place (non-fiction/essay), and poems by Hawaiian authors Wayne Westlake, Haunani-Kay Trask, and Brandy Nalani McDougall. Thus we will cover a variety of genres. Readings will also include critical/theoretical essays from Karl Marx, Edward Said, Judith Butler and others.
Students will purchase (1) Murfin & Ray, Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Fourth Edition; 2. Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place; and 3. Buchi Emecheta, Joys of Motherhood. The rest of the material–literary as well as critical–will be made available as PDFs or as online material.
Students will write quizzes, short reflections and longer critical and creative works. They will have opportunities to write in several modes representative of English Studies: critical review, rhetorical analysis, creative writing, and more. This class has a Writing Intensive (WI) focus.