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Summer 2022: Undergraduate English Courses
ENG 300 001 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS
Instructor: Josh Epstein
Instructional Method: Online
“During these challenging times”—this phrase has become almost a cliché over the past couple years, the official way of acknowledging our shared difficulties. What if we take the next step, and think about the virtues of reading and writing about “challenging” texts in “challenging” ways? What if we consider the possibility that literary texts push us toward unfamiliar kinds of reading and thinking—ones that suit our “challenging times” precisely because they refuse to be easy and comfortable? At a moment when every corner of our lives gets couched in empty technocratic Newspeak (“future-forward thinkfluencing benchmark competencies”), might we find a different kind of value in rich and strange forms of expression that resist readymade clichés? What better time to sharpen our critical understanding of the language we use to read, write, and reimagine our way through the world?
A core class in the PSU English major (though open to all), ENG 300 aims to prepare students for upper-division coursework and, ideally, for a lifetime of thinking about the challenges and pleasures of the written word. Reading texts across multiple genres (poetry, fiction, drama, film), we work on analyzing texts for both content and form—both what these texts convey and how they are put together—so that we can examine how works of art speak to their contexts, and to ours. We will focus especially on works that that stretch the limits of their genres and encourage the agency of their readers/audiences to reconstruct what they’re reading, on a literal level and on an intellectual, ethical, and emotional level. (Yes, you are allowed to have feelings about the things you read. As long as they're exactly the same as my feelings! Just kidding.)
This class will be taught asynchronously via Canvas.
Textbooks:
- The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (the 4th edition is quite expensive; older editions are perfectly fine and available online for under $10)
- Federico García Lorca, The House of Bernarda Alba (this will be made available for free via the PSU library, but feel free to purchase a physical copy. If you speak/read any Spanish, I recommend the Methuen dual English/Spanish edition, ISBN 978-0713686777)
- Jean Rhys, After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (ISBN 978-0393357813)
- Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion (ISBN 978-0679772668)
- Film: Agnès Varda, Cléo from 5 to 7 (made available online)
- Selected poems, short stories, essays made available via Canvas
ENG 305U 001 TOP: AFRICA IN WESTERN FILM
Instructor: Sarah Lincoln
Instructional Method: Online
"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. This century, with films like Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, The Constant Gardener, The Last King of Scotland and Black Panther, 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 century, 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, the environment, intervention, and ethics.
We will work ONLINE in the first four-week summer term. 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 a final exam. Previous experience with film analysis is recommended but not required.
Required Films: (all available electronically)
- Kony 2012
- Tarzan, the Ape Man, dir. W.S. Van Dyke (1932)
- Zulu, dir. Cy Enfield (1966)
- Out of Africa, dir. Sydney Pollack (1985)
- Gorillas in the Mist, dir. Michael Apted (1988)
- Black Hawk Down, dir. Ridley Scott (2001)
- Blood Diamond, dir. Edward Zwick (2006)
- Black Panther, dir. Ryan Coogler (2018)
ENG 305U 002 TOP: MASTERPIECES OF CINEMA
Instructor: Michael Clark
Instructional Method: Online
ENG 305U 002 TOP: EMPIRE/POPULAR IMAGINATIO
Instructor: W. Tracy Dillon (dillont@pdx.edu)
Instructional Method: Online
“Empire not only manages a territory and a population but also creates the very world it inhabits. It not only regulates human interactions but also seeks directly to rule over human nature. The object of its rule is social life in its entirety...” –Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri, 2000
“The age of formal empire is clearly dead.” –Steven Howe, 2002
“When a man looks and feels his best he is automatically in a more powerful position. Because every man has his own empire to build.” –Donald Trump, 2015
Course Overview:
EMPIRE is the perpetual condition of contemporary existence, whether you are an Emperor, a common citizen of an Empire, a colonized subject of an Empire, or a savage on its periphery.
We will touch on the greatest historical all-stars of Empire, but our main focus will be on Empire as a state of mind. We will focus our attack on the psychology of Empire from two perspectives, which are foregrounded in our course prefix/suffix: “ENG” and “U”.
“ENG” typically means “English literature,” but let’s expand the Empire of the English Department to include literature, film, music, games—in short, all texts or discourse. You will not be limited to writing about Victorian British poems and novels by Rudyard Kipling (although there is nothing wrong with that). Instead, you might finish the class by examining the psychology of empire in the creation and play of MMOGs. Whatever medium inspires you: that’s the one you’ll be able to explore this term.
As long as it has to do with EMPIRE in the Popular Imagination.
And EMPIRE is everywhere.
“U” at Portland State means that this is a university-studies cluster course, specifically in the Popular Culture cluster. We will employ “pop” theory along with cultural theory, literary theory, and all theories necessary to conquer the topic.
So. EMPIRE in the Popular Imagination refers to the states of mind that create and consume EMPIRE as a product of the human experience.
Our first two lecture modules review the Empire context using quasi-theoretical reflections. Once we’ve established terms and definitions, along with generating personal examples that reflect our own histories and interests, we will turn in modules 3-5 to “case studies” of the psychology of Empire. These topics are Creative Masochism, which examines the effects of U.K/U.S. occupation of post WW2 on Japanese popular culture and derives from author Takayuki Tatsumi; Survivance, a concept popularized by Anishinaabe author Gerald Vizenor and denoting the endurance of Indigenous populations in the Americas pre-and post-Manifest Destiny; and, finally, Science Fiction as a creative landscape for imagining empire.
After that, you write a nifty paper about the interest that you have developed in “Empire in the Popular Imagination.”
This is a low-cost/no-cost course. No official textbooks are required, but you will be directed to important contributions to the topic that can help you with research. Ultimately, remember that you get the chance to discover and talk about Empire in the Popular Imagination using a relevant text of your own choice.
What fun!
ENG 326 001 LIT COMM DIFF
Instructor: Anoop Mirpuri
Instructional Method: Online
What is the relation between a work of literature and its author? What makes literature different from other forms of writing, and what makes works of art different from other forms of communication? How did Western culture come to share the assumption that a work of literature is the “expression” of an author’s “voice”? Why do we tend to assume that works of literature and art represent the experience of the identity group to which an author is said to belong? How have these assumptions shaped our approach to reading literary texts?
We will address these questions through a carefully curated study of works of literary criticism as well as through a reading of one of the greatest works of American literature, Herman Melville’s novella, Benito Cereno (1855). The aim of this course is to develop a critical understanding of the way that racial classification has shaped the study of literature, and in turn, how the study of literature has shaped how we think about race. At the same time, we will reflect on how the study of literature can challenge the ways we’ve been taught to view the world around us. Finally, perhaps the most important objective of this course is to expand the critical and aesthetic potential of the literature that we read by expanding our own capacities as readers and lovers of literature.
This course fulfills the “Culture, Difference, and Representation” component of the PSU English Major.
ENG 335U 001 TOP: ADAPTING LIT TO FILM
Instructor: Marcel Brousseau
Instructional Method: Online
ENG 387U 001 WOMEN'S LITERATURE
Instructor: Susan Reese
Instructional Method: Hybrid
I'm so excited to share the works I've selected as they are among my very favorites. I've spanned time a bit, moving from Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse to Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits, Shandi Mitchell's Under This Unbroken Sky, Louise Erdrich's The Round House, Natalie Diaz's Postcolonial Love Poem and Nattasha Tretheway's Memorial Drive.
All engage generations, roles, the passage of time, breaking free, survival, strong women, and gorgeous, powerful, soft, strong, and often sumptuous language. Just wait and see what you find on these pages to love, to challenge, to inspire, as you come together as a group of humans, maybe changing your thinking and your lives, just a little bit, as we move from England to South America, to Ukrainian immigrants in Canada, to two Native American reservations, and to the southern United States. We will find and trace the thread that runs through them, and us, all.
Please join me!
ENG 464 001 ADV TOP: 20TH C AMER MODERNISM
Instructor: Tom Fisher
Instructional Method: Online
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.
Texts:
- Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
- Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons
- Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Jean Toomer, Cane
- Ezra Pound, A Draft of XXX Cantos
- Richard Wright, Native Son
- Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark
- and supplemental material provided by instructor
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Summer 2022: Graduate English Courses
ENG 564 001 ADV TOP: 20TH C AMER MODERNISM
Instructor: Tom Fisher
Instructional Method: Online
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.
Texts:
- Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
- Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons
- Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Jean Toomer, Cane
- Ezra Pound, A Draft of XXX Cantos
- Richard Wright, Native Son
- Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark
- and supplemental material provided by instructor
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Summer 2022: Undergraduate Writing Courses
WR 121 001 COLLEGE WRITING
Instructor: Ryan D. O'Connell
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
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 121 002 COLLEGE WRITING
Instructor: Lee Ware
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 212 001 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Josef Ginsberg
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course will guide the beginning fiction writer through the creative process, introducing the principle elements of fiction, and offering an intuitive grasp of narrative technique. The writing process will be parsed into a manageable sequence of exercises and drafting stages, culminating with a final short story (or section from a longer work), developed and refined through peer feedback and progressive revision.
WR 213 001 INTRO POETRY WRITING
Instructor: Jason Stieber
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 222 001 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
Instructor: Travis Willmore
Instructional Method: Online
WR 227 001 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG
Instructor: Jacob Tootalian
Instructional Method: Online
WR 227 002 INTRO TECHNICAL WRTG
Instructor: Anna Diehl
Instructional Method: Online
WR 301 001 WIC: CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH
Instructor: Sarah Lincoln
Instructional Method: Online
"There is no document of culture that is not at the same time a document of barbarism." –Walter Benjamin, 1940
The course provides a rigorous introduction to the methods, approaches and questions necessary for advanced scholarly work in English, including close reading, historicism, research and argument: consider it boot camp for English majors! This is not a survey of theoretical perspectives, though we will read and discuss some important examples of literary theory along the way. Rather, the class prepares you for upper-division scholarship by asking what it is that we “do” as readers and critics—what English is “for,” why literature matters, and how encounters with the strangeness of literary language reflect and model other sorts of strange encounters.
A careful reading of J.M. Coetzee’s 1980 novel Waiting for the Barbarians serves as a basis for our broader consideration of the ethical and political significance of reading, interpretation, and translation; we will also put the novel in dialogue with other works of literature, including Camus’s “The Guest”; Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden; Kafka’s "In the Penal Colony"; DH Lawrence, “Snake”; and Cavafy’s "Waiting for the Barbarians"; along with theoretical perspectives from Derek Attridge, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault and others.
As a Writing Intensive Class (WIC), the course will also focus on the strategies, conventions and techniques of scholarly writing. Reading and responding to other students’ work; drafting, revising and polishing written assignments in response to feedback; and improving grammar, style, clarity and argument will all form part of your work in the class.
Required Books:
- Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians (Penguin Ink)
- Dorfman, Death and the Maiden (Penguin)
- Graff & Birkenstein, They Say/I Say (5th ed.)
WR 323 001 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Susan Reese
Instructional Method: Online
WR 323 002 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Hildy Miller
Instructional Method: Online
In this upper division writing course we will focus on developing a more sophisticated understanding of our own writing processes; reflecting on the concept of how to reach consensus rather than strictly to argue; and exploring how, as you leave the university, developing a job portfolio or writing statements of intention for further education requires other conventions. Includes formal writing, responding to a variety of readings, sharing writing with other students, and reflecting on writing. Our class will run as a workshop in which you’ll be collaborating with other students throughout phases of both your and their writing processes.
WR 323 003 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Mackenzie Streissguth
Instructional Method: Remote - Scheduled Meetings
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.
In this course, we will practice critical inquiry in personal, academic, and professional writing. This is a process-oriented class, which means we will be studying and practicing writing techniques to develop insight into how we function best as writers. We will develop skills in critical reading, thinking and writing.
Students will be given reign to choose their own topics within the assignment structures, so our work can encompass personal writing goals. There is no required textbook; all readings will be provided. Required course work will constitute multiple drafts of three essays, peer-review workshops, weekly low-stakes writing assignments, participation in class discussions, and a final self-reflective essay.
WR 323 004 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Elle Wilder Tack
Instructional Method: Online
WR 323 005 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Caroline Hayes
Instructional Method: Online
WR 327 001 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Instructor: Julie Kares
Instructional Method: Online
WR 327 002 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Instructor: Lee Ware
Instructional Method: Online
WR 331 001 BOOK PUBLISHING FOR WRITERS
Instructor: Robyn Crummer-Olson
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Provides writers who aspire to one day publish a book or those who are curious about the book publishing industry with an overview of the business and process, organized around the division of labor typically found in publishing houses. In addition to learning how to find an agent or publisher, students learn about editorial, design, production, marketing, distribution, and sales.
By the end of this class, you should be able to
- Understand book publishing terminology and processes
- Effectively target literary agents and publishers for publication
- Organize developmental editing feedback
- Copyedit
- Identify a book’s audience
- Write book marketing copy
Textbook: Biel, Joe. A People’s Guide to Publishing: Build a Successful, Sustainable, Meaningful Book Business from the Ground Up (Microcosm, 2018)
WR 410 001 TOP: SUMMER TECH TRAINING
Instructor: Bruce Elgort
Instructional Method: Remote - Scheduled Meetings
WR 474 001 PUBLISHING STUDIO
Instructor: Robyn Crummer-Olson
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
WR 475 001 PUBLISHING LAB
Instructor: Robyn Crummer-Olson
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
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Summer 2022: Graduate Writing Courses
WR 510 001 TOP: SUMMER TECH TRAINING
Instructor: Bruce Elgort
Instructional Method: Remote - Scheduled Meetings
WR 574 001 PUBLISHING STUDIO
Instructor: Robyn Crummer-Olson
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
WR 575 001 PUBLISHING LAB
Instructor: Robyn Crummer-Olson
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
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