http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34008 Writing and Humanistic Studies (21W) http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49812 21W.742J / SP.575J / WGS.575J Writing About Race, Spring 2003 Faery, Rebecca Blevins The issue of race and racial identity have preoccupied many writers throughout the history of the U.S. In this subject, students read Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Louise Erdrich, William Faulkner, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sandra Cisneros, and Judson Mitcham, among others, as we consider the story of race in its peculiarly American dimensions. The reading, along with the writing of members of the class, is the focus of class discussions. Oral presentations on subjects of individual interest are also part of the class activities. Students explore race and ethnicity in personal essays, pieces of cultural criticism or analysis, or (with permission of instructor) fiction. All written work is read and responded to in class workshops and subsequently revised. From the course home page: Course Description In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), the great cultural critic W. E. B. Du Bois wrote that "…the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line." A century after Du Bois penned those words, most Americans would agree that at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the color line remains one of our most pressing social issues. In this course, we will explore the terrain of race in America by reading the works of writers of color and others concerned with the issue of race, by viewing films that address racial issues, and by writing to explore how the fictions and facts of race condition all our lives, social and civic, private and public. We will consider the complex question of racial identity, test the givens of history by uncovering histories that have been more elusive or more thoroughly suppressed, and explore how writing and reading can both reflect and challenge racial categories, hierarchies, and perceptions. The reading is at once wonderful and disturbing, and the writing you will do will open up arenas of increased understanding for both you and your readers. Thu, 29 May 2003 22:58:59 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46741 21W.731-1 Writing and Experience: Culture Shock! Writing, Editing, and Publishing in Cyberspace, Fall 2005 Faery, Rebecca Blevins This course is an introduction to writing prose for a public audience—specifically, prose grounded in, though not confined to, personal narrative and perspective. The focus of our reading and your writing will be American popular culture, broadly defined. That is, you will write essays that engage elements and aspects of contemporary American popular culture and that do so via a vivid personal voice and presence. Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:58:59 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46347 21W.730-2 Expository Writing - Food for Thought: Writing and Reading about Food and Culture, Fall 2005 Boiko, Karen "Civilization is mostly the story of how seeds, meats, and ways to cook them travel from place to place." - Adam Gopnik, "What's Cooking" "A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one's accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes." - Wendell Berry, "The Pleasures of Eating" If you are what you eat, what are you? Food is at once the stuff of life and a potent symbol; it binds us to the earth, to our families, and to our cultures. The aroma of turkey roasting or the taste of green tea can be a portal to memories, while too many Big Macs can clog our arteries. The chef is an artist, yet those who pick oranges or process meat may be little more than slaves. In this class, we will explore many of the fascinating issues that surround food as both material fact and personal and cultural symbol. We will read essays by Chang-Rae Lee, Francine du Plessix Gray, M. F. K. Fisher, Anthony Bourdain, and others on such topics as family meals, the art and science of cooking, fair trade, eating disorders, and food's ability to awaken us to "our own powers of enjoyment" (M. F. K. Fisher). We will also read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and view one or more films or videos as a class. Assigned essays will grow out of memories and the texts we read, and will include personal narratives and essays that depend on research. Workshop review of writing in progress and revision of essays will be an important part of the course. Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:58:59 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46342 21W.745 / SP.576J / WGS.576J Advanced Essay Workshop, Spring 2005 Faery, Rebecca Blevins For students with experience in writing nonfictional prose. Advanced study of rhetorical strategies and techniques of prose style. Considerable writing and revision required. In addition to analyzing the work of class members, students read and discuss the work of distinguished essayists chosen to represent a range of prose styles, subjects, and biographical patterns. From the course home page: Course Description This course is a workshop for advanced students with some experience in writing essays, nonfiction prose. Our focus will be negotiating and representing identities grounded in gender, race, class, nationality, sexuality, and other categories of identity, either our own or other's, in prose that is expository, exploratory, investigative, persuasive, lyrical, or incantatory. We will read nonfiction prose works by a wide array of writers who have used language to negotiate and represent aspects of identity and the ways the different determinants of identity intersect, compete, and cooperate. Sun, 29 May 2005 22:58:59 GMT