Summer 2019 Courses

English Courses

ENG 300 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS

Instructor: William Knight

English 300 introduces students to the practices of the academic study of literature—to the work of the English major. It does this first by slowing down our galloping leap towards interpretation and judgments about literary works. Instead of quickly jumping to theoretical conclusions, in English 300 we are granted permission to think carefully and patiently about how literary form enables our interpretations. Provided this luxury, we can turn our attention to some of the unquestioned assumptions we have about reading and about the nature of literary works themselves. What do we do when we read “literarily”? Is there such a thing? And what kinds of knowledges are specific to acts of reading in this way? What skills and practices make up the study of expressive and narrative writing according to the university discipline of English? And in what ways might we put some of the institutional authority, norms, and requirements of the study of English to question? Our course will encourage self-discovery, mindfulness of the processes of reading and interpretation, and an informed critical engagement with the norms and rules of the discipline this course calls home.

ENG 304 CRITICAL THEORY OF CINEMA

Instructor: Josh Epstein

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." –Yogi Berra

Critical theory, at its core, is an effort to ask questions about how films generate meaning—and then, to question the questions. ENG 304 aims to help students develop sophisticated critical tools for interpreting films as works of art, and questioning their effects on spectators in the world. Our four-week class will proceed, conveniently, in four units, each of which will raise central questions about what films mean and how they work:

1. Genre and authorship. Are films “texts” written by an author? How does our view on that question affect their meaning or formal construction? How do our preconceived assumptions about genre shape how we respond to films.

2. Gender, sexuality, and psychological subjectivity. What is the relationship between the film apparatus and the psyche of the spectator? How does a film’s manipulation of a “gaze” shape its—or our—attitudes, desires, and identification? How do films experiment with aesthetic or narrative form so as to challenge normative assumptions about gender and sexuality?

3 History, ideology, and realism. To what extent does a film present a vision of the “real world”; to what extent is that idea of “realism” bound up with ideological and historical assumptions; how can films not only represent or narrate the world, but act on it?

4. Race, nation, and empire. How have the racial or national roots of Hollywood film filtered down into contemporary film? What possibilities does film offer for resistant spectatorship that resists conventional stereotypes or inherited attitudes toward race? How do genre and spectatorship work differently in global or postcolonial contexts?

This course will be run entirely online through Canvas. Most of the theory readings will be made available as PDFs. Students are asked also to purchase one textbook: Ruth Doughty and Christine Etherington-Wright, Understanding Film Theory, 2nd ed. (Palgrave; ISBN 978-1137528230), which is a user-friendly accompaniment to the primary theory materials (and much cheaper than most theory anthologies). Films will be made available for free.

Due to the accelerated time frame, our coursework will consist mainly of reading exams and Canvas forum postings, without a long final paper. (If you're truly sad not to write a final paper, we can always arrange for one!)"

ENG 305U TOP: IMAGINARIUM IN FILM

Instructor: William Bohnaker

If, as Shakespeare suggested, we are such stuff as dreams are made on, movies are such dreams. In this course we will concern ourselves with films that brood on the peculiar nature irreal worlds–“imaginariums”—which dramatize the social structures, cultural presumptions, psychic patterns, and spiritual intuitions that are the warp and weft of our consciousness. We’ll expose ourselves to films fixated on an imaginarium, while we endeavor for an alertness to its effects to make some sense of the imaginary's role in “reality,” and what it means to be such stuff as dreams are made on. For our investigations, we’ll hope to get a little help from our friends in critical theory, film studies, and post-Jungian archetypal analysis. As important, we’ll bring our own imaginations.

ENG 305U TOP: AFRICA IN WESTERN FILM

Instructor: Sarah Lincoln

"The cinema is war pursued by other means." - Sylvère Lotringer

Since the earliest days of cinema, the "dark continent" has fascinated filmmakers and audiences, and provided a setting or subject for hundreds of Hollywood films, from big-budget epics to now-forgotten "B" movies. Recently, with films like Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, The Constant Gardener, The Last King of Scotland and Tears of the Sun, Hollywood has once again turned its attention to Africa. Why Africa, why now?

In this fast-paced 4-week summer course, we will be studying representations of Africa and Africans in Western film and television during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, looking at the ways that myths, stereotypes and assumptions about the continent have persisted, been reinforced, and evolved over time. Comparing films made during the British Empire with later works that tackle Africa's place in the ""war on terror,"" we will consider the relationship between film and imperialism, and the changing role of the media in shaping popular ideas about war, wealth, individualism, intervention and ethics.

We will work ONLINE each week between June 24 and July 20. Each week's work will include viewings of films (available online and on reserve in the library), as well as discussion of the films and supporting perspectives from theoretical, historical and critical works. Course requirements include semiweekly keyword journal essays, active contributions to online discussion and quizzes, and a final exam.

Required films include:

Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932)
King Solomon’s Mines (1937)
Zulu (1964)
Out of Africa (1985)
Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Blood Diamond (2006)
Black Panther (2018)

ENG 305U TOP: CINEMA OF THE US-MEXICO BORDER

Instructor: Anoop Mirpuri

"When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” – Donald Trump

Since the 1980s, U.S. immigration politics has been dominated by the demand for increased border security. Over these same years, the U.S. economy has become increasingly dependent on low cost immigrant labor. At first glance, these two realities appear to contradict one another: (A) growing political demand for border security, and (B) increasing economic dependence on immigrant labor. This course asks you to think about the historical coincidence of (A) and (B) since the 1980s as a structural (rather than contradictory) feature of American capitalism. In other words, it may appear that the demand for stronger border security is a contradiction to our economic dependence on immigrant labor. Yet, it’s more accurate to say that the push to “beef up” border security is a key structural component of our economic dependence on low cost immigrant labor.

The structural explanation suggests that how we talk about immigration and think about borders is invisibly shaped by capitalism’s need to exploit low cost labor. The structural explanation demands that we ask: how are films about the U.S.-Mexico border invisibly shaped by capitalism’s need to exploit labor?

Thus, this course will examine the relationship between border films, American nationalism, the belief that “we need to secure our borders,” and our economic dependence on the exploitation of immigrant labor. Specifically, we will explore how cinematic representations of the border have expressed, produced, and reinforced anxieties about “safety” and “security” that enabled President Trump to get elected while claiming that Mexicans are rapists and murderers, and that enabled President Obama to deport more people than any other president in U.S. history. How have border films helped shape the widespread belief that immigration is a form of violence against the American “body”? Where do these anxieties come from? What are the racial and gender assumptions that structure this anxiety? In other words, what does the American body look like, and what does its protector look like? What does the immigrant body look like, and how does this change depending on whether that immigrant is seen as “good” or “bad,” “legal” or “illegal”?

If border cinema tends to reflect imaginary anxieties in ways that facilitate the real-world exploitation of immigrant labor, is it possible to make a truly critical border film that disrupts this connection? What are some storytelling strategies that films have used to challenge border cinema’s traditional role in reinforcing American nationalism? In what ways can these strategies be successful, and in what ways might they be in danger of reinforcing the very system they appear to be protesting?

This course will be conducted fully online, via Canvas.

ENG 464 & 564 ADV TOP: AMER LIT 20TH C

Instructor: Thomas Fisher

In this class we'll read a range of key texts of American Modernism, which we'll date roughly from the first decades of the 20th century to the end of WWII. Key writers will include Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, William Carlos Williams, Laura Riding, Ezra Pound, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, and others. We will read poetry, novels, and short stories. Work will include weekly written responses and a final essay.

Books will include:

William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Jean Toomer, Cane
Langston Hughes, Montage of a Dream Deferred
Ezra Pound, A Draft of XXX Cantos
Richard Wright, Native Son

Writing Courses

WR 121-001 COLLEGE WRITING

Instructor: Michael Lucas

Writing the Self in Traditional and Digital Genres

This course focuses on writing and critical thinking by exploring various rhetorical strategies for constructing written and visual arguments. We will look to strategies within both print and digital environments, and in both the personal-everyday and the public sphere. You will write and revise three projects based on issues and research raised in the various texts read during the semester. The assignments will give you extensive practice in reading critically and writing according to the rhetorical conventions of an argumentative essay. There will be four course strands that guide your learning:

Rhetoric and Argumentation– we will explore the uses of rhetoric as a tool of persuasion in written, visual, and multimodal texts, as well as in local and global cultures.

Media and Cultural Studies– we will explore recently developed technologies for research, composing, and communication, as well as the peoples these communication practices effect. We will also learn to design multimodal compositions that form dynamic visual arguments to wide-ranging audiences.

Research– we will use a wide variety of conventional and online search strategies to gather information about a topic and learn to integrate these sources into writing while producing an original text. To that end, we’ll explore effective strategies for note-taking, integrating quotations, and learning to hold a scholarly conversation with our sources.

Collaboration – we will gain experience working with others to achieve a common goal and learn the social aspects of writing processes. We will learn the value of multicultural differences and the value of persuasive discourse in cultural contexts. We’ll learn about our texts, our topics, and our own methods as writers by engaging in many collaborative activities during class.

WR 121-002 COLLEGE WRITING

Instructor: Catherine Johnson

A writing course for lower-division students, in which they develop critical thinking abilities by reading and writing, increase their rhetorical strategies, practice writing processes, and learn textual conventions. Includes formal and informal writing, responding to a variety of readings, sharing writing with other students, and revising individual pieces for a final portfolio of work.

WR 212 INTRO FICTION WRITING

Instructor: Patrick Wensink

Introduces the beginning fiction writer to basic techniques of developing character, point of view, plot, and story idea in fiction. Includes discussion of student work. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry.

WR 213 INTRO POETRY WRITING

Instructor: Jessica Hiestand

Introduces the beginning writer of poetry to basic techniques for developing a sense of language, meter, sound, imagery, and structure. Includes discussion of professional examples and student work. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Expected preparation: Freshman Inquiry.

WR 222 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS

Instructor: Karyn-Lynn Fisette

An elective course. The techniques for compiling and writing research papers. Attention to available reference materials, use of library, taking notes, critical evaluation of evidence, and conventions for documenting academic papers. Practice in organizing and writing a long expository essay based on use of library resources. Recommended: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry. May not be used to fulfill English major requirements.

WR 227 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG

Instructor: Various Instructors

Practical experience in forms of technical communication, emphasizing basic organization and presentation of technical information. Focuses on strategies for analyzing the audience and its information needs. Recommended: Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry.

WR 301 WIC: CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH

Instructor: Michael Clark

Writing 301, a required course for all English majors, introduces you to the wide variety of interpretive and critical approaches used in the evaluation and understanding of works of literature. The course focuses on developing ways to clearly express your interpretation – that is, we’ll figure out how to translate our perceptions into clear, crisp writing.

Our initial task will be to enhance our appreciation and understanding of works of literature. Beyond that, however, we will try to develop a critical theory and voice about literature: we will try to develop written ways to express our understanding of works of literature (and all art, for that matter) that emphasize the central importance of such works to culture and human experience writ large.

In the end, this is a writing class, and we will work on some fundamentals: clear, crisp sentences that convey sharp ideas, proper grammar, clear statements of theme and thesis, issues of tone and voice, and more.

The course focuses intensively on one novel – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. If you’re taking the course, purchase that novel and read it now. We will read a few Fitzgerald short stories as well, but we will focus on Gatsby.

WR 323 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY

Instructor: Various Instructors

A writing course for upper-division students, which offers sophisticated approaches to writing and reading. Students enhance critical thinking abilities by reading and writing challenging material, refine their rhetorical strategies, practice writing processes with special attention to revision and style, and write and read in a variety of genres. Includes formal and informal writing, sharing writing with other students, and preparing a final portfolio of work. Recommended: satisfactory completion of Wr 121 or Freshman Inquiry.

WR 327 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING

Instructor: Tracy Dillon

In this course, you will have the opportunity to focus on solving a technical problem that is relevant to your professional development and academic discipline. Your report might solve an actual problem at your workplace, address a technical or theoretical problem in your academic discipline, or tackle a social problem of importance to you. The strategy is “problem solving,” and the intention is for you to deal with real-life issues that you are find relevant. Let’s pause, though, and end with The PSU Bulletin Course Description, which has this to say about WR 327: “Strategies for presenting technical information from the technician, management, and lay person's perspectives; rhetorical theory and techniques for adapting technical prose to nontechnical audiences; and techniques for emphasizing and de-emphasizing information.”

Huzzah! Sounds like fun to me. Questions? Email the Professor at dillont@pdx.edu.

WR 327 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING

Instructor: Various Instructors

Strategies for presenting technical information from the technician, management, and lay person's perspectives; rhetorical theory and techniques for adapting technical prose to nontechnical audiences; and techniques for emphasizing and de-emphasizing information. Recommended: Wr 323.

WR 474 PUBLISHING STUDIO

Instructor: Abbey Gaterud

Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. Departments include Acquisitions, Editing, Design and Sustainable Production, Marketing, External Promotions, Sales, Digital Content, Social Media, and Project Management and Operations. Course may be repeated multiple times.

WR 475 PUBLISHING LAB

Instructor: Abbey Gaterud

Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. Departments include Acquisitions, Editorial, Design, Marketing and Sales, Digital, and Social Media. Course may be taken multiple times for credit.

WR 574 PUBLISHING STUDIO

Instructor: Abbey Gaterud

WR 575 PUBLISHING LAB

Instructor: Abbey Gaterud

Perform the work of a real publishing house, from acquiring manuscripts to selling books. Gain publishing experience by participating in the various departments of a student-staffed publishing house, Ooligan Press. Departments include Acquisitions, Editorial, Design, Marketing and Sales, Digital, and Social Media. Course may be taken multiple times for credit.