Course Descriptions
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Upper Division Courses - Summer 2007

Please note: the following list is subject to change and may not be comprehensive. Please check the online course listing for the full roster along with information on class days/times. The course location is at UHD Main Campus unless otherwise noted. 

Course Titles

ENG 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing

ENG 3305 - Essay Writing (Fully Online)

ENG 3309 - Creative Writing

ENG 3312 - Studies in Fiction: The Short Story

ENG 3312 - Studies in Fiction

ENG 3313 - Studies in Dramatic Literature

ENG 3315 - Studies in Science Fiction: Created Universes

ENG 3316 - History of Rhetoric

ENG 3321 - Tragedy, Transgression, and Triumph: An Introduction to African American Literature

ENG 3333 - Writing for the Media

ENG 3340 - Harlem on My Mind:  The Literature, Sights, and Sounds of the Harlem Renaissance

ENG 3352 - Introduction to Folklore

ENG 3354 - Introduction to Film Studies: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology

ENG 4390 - Literary Representations of Slavery and Abolition

ENG 4390 - American Indian Literature

 

Course Descriptions

 English 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing

Wayne Schmadeka

Summer I and II

MWTR 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Prerequisite

Three credit hours of English literature.

Description

Study and practice writing the types of documents frequently used in the workplace, including cover letters and resumes, proposals, progress reports, formal reports, and PowerPoint presentations.

Objectives

Learn to develop documentation to identify, study, and document real world solutions for the real world challenges students face in their work and personal lives. 

Probable Major Assignments

•  Propose a formal report
•  Write a progress report
•  Write a formal report

Recent examples of formal reports include:

•   Recommending construction of a pedestrian walkway from an off-campus parking lot to the UHD campus
•   Evaluating whether it is better for the student to remodel her existing home or build a new home
•   Soliciting funds from the Gates Foundation for an HIV prevention program in provincial China
•   Recommending upgrading HISD Police vehicles with state-of-the-art communications equipment

Textbook

Jones, D., and Lane, K. Technical Communication . 7th ed. New York : Pearson Education, 2002.

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ENG 3305 Essay Writing (Fully Online)

Dagmar Stuehrk Scharold

Summer 9-week

CRN 35043

Course Description: In this course, students will study, analyze, and practice advanced rhetorical principles in non-fiction, with a view to increasing clarity, effectiveness and precision in academic style.  The prerequisites for English 3305 are Sophomore Literature and junior standing. This semester we will focus on the topic of education and writing in the social sciences. We will also use the APA style for formatting and documentation of sources. 

Required Texts:

•  McCourt, Frank (2006). Teacher Man. Scribner Publishers. ISBN: 0743243781. 
•  Galvan, Jose L.  (2006). Writing Literature Reviews:  A Guide for Students of Social and Behavioral Sciences. 3rd Edition.  Pyrczak Publishing. ISBN: 1-884585-66-3.

Online Time Available per Week

Traditionally, a university student is expected to spend 2 hours outside of class for each hour spent within class. Therefore, approximately 9 hours a week should be devoted to our online class. This course is divided into units, with each unit covering 2 weeks of the semester. During the summer semester, each unit will begin on a Monday and end on a Sunday, at midnight. Time-management skills are essential.

Scheduled attendance times or places, if any

There will be no scheduled face-to-face meeting times during the summer semester. I will be on the UHD campus Monday-Thursday. Please call me to schedule an appointment so that we can meet face-to-face, via telephone, or through the Chat function in VISTA .

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English 3309 - Creative Writing

Robin Davidson

Summer II

MTWR 12:30 - 2:30 pm

The Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva writes, "The whole event of poetry -- from the poet's vision to the reader's reception -- takes place entirely within the soul, that first, lowest sky of the spirit." In the twenty-first century -- an age of e-mail and e-books, video conferencing, laptops, cell phones, and video games -- one may question the value of reading paperbound books and in particular, reading such non-rational works as poetry or fiction. In this course, which is the first in a two-course sequence of creative writing classes at the University of Houston-Downtown, we will explore the craft of writing across a variety of genres, centuries, and cultures seeking what Tsvetaeva calls the "event of poetry" (or literary discourse), and distinguishing that event from the ordinary commerce of our daily lives (e.g. e-mail or cell phone text messages). Our four sessions each week will be composed of: (1) lectures on particular topics related to literary craft, an examination of one or more exemplar writings, class discussion, in class writing exercises, and occasional sharing of your journal musings; and (2) workshops in which you will share your own creative work in response to writing assignments in poetry, memoir, and short fiction. A review syllabus is available to students upon request ( davidsonr@uhd.edu ).

 Textbooks:

An Invitation to Poetry: A New Favorite Poem Project Anthology . Eds. Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz. Norton, 2004. (Book and DVD)

The Sincerest Form: Writing Fiction by Imitation . Nicholas Delbanco. McGraw-Hill, 2004.

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English 3312 - Studies in Fiction: The Short Story

Paul Kintzele

Summer I

MTWR 8:00 - 10:00 a.m. 

"When I started to write, the idea was very small, just an image, not an idea actually. A man who is 30, cooking spaghetti in the kitchen, and the telephone rings -- that's it. It's so simple, but I had the feeling that something was happening there." This class will focus on the distinctively modern literary genre of the short story. We will read a variety of examples, starting from the early 19th century, and as we move forward chronologically and expand out geographically, we will see how new generations of writers tailored the genre to fit their needs. We will investigate why short stories emerged in the way they did in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the particular challenges of writing in this format. Authors may include: Balzac, Chekhov, Poe, Melville, Kafka, Joyce, Woolf, Wright, O'Connor, and Murakami (who is quoted above). Requirements: three essays and occasional quizzes. 

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English 3312 - Studies in Fiction

Giuliana Lund

Summer II

MTWR 5:30pm - 7:15pm 

This course will introduce students to the interpretation of fiction through the study of short stories and novellas produced around the world from the nineteenth century to the present. It will familiarize students with literary styles ranging from the gothic and fantastic to the realist, modernist, existentialist, magical realist, and postmodernist. Students will also encounter works from a variety of genres, including fairytales, ghost stories, romances, science fiction, and mysteries. This engagement with diverse works of fiction will be complemented by exposure to relevant narrative theories. 

This course may include short works by the following authors: Emily Bronte, Edgar Allen Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Rabindranath Tagore, Henry James, H. G. Wells, Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, Albert Camus, John Barth, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Angela Carter, Naguib Mahfouz, Philip K. Dick, Italo Calvino , Jamaica Kincaid, and Salman Rushdie. 

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ENG 3313 - Studies in Dramatic Literature

Bill Gilbert

Summer I

MTWR 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

N613

3 credit hours

Prerequisite: 3 hours of literature

CRN 30282

ENG 3313 offers a whirlwind tour of nine or ten major plays forming part of the canon of Western literature, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary playwrights. Studied in chronological order, these plays illustrate the development of drama as a genre and the ways that literature reflects the culture that produces it. 

Ports of call: Periclean Athens, 15th-century England, Elizabethan London, 17th-century Paris, fin de siecle Scandinavia, post-World War I Italy, pre-World War II Spain, World War II-era USA, and assorted locales (for students to choose) on the cusp of the 21st century.

Your tour guide: Bill Gilbert 

Don't let the roller-coaster leave without you! Be prepared to read and discuss two major plays per week, attend a play or two (about which you'll write trip reports), write an academic paper, test, or trip report once a week. A lot of work and a lot of fun. 

Required textbook: Stages of Drama, 5th edition 

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ENG 3315 - Studies in Science Fiction: Created Universes

Dr. Carol A. Bernard

Summer I

MTWR 12:30 - 2:30 pm

The University Center, The Woodlands 

Writers of science fiction and fantasy fiction often create alternate universes in which they can set up scenarios that might not be possible in a world that looks like ours. In this course, the scenarios that will interest us will be those that engage in discussions of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Science fiction and fantasy authors often use created universes as a way of exploring and experimenting with what is possible and what these concepts mean. In this course we will survey some popular science fiction and fantasy texts and examine how the authors address these central themes by using a world and/or a universe that is radically different from our own. The survey may include works from Frank Herbert, J. R. R. Tolkien, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Ursula LeGuin, and others. We will also be examining some of the presentations of novels in film. Readings will also be drawn from theorists and critics of science fiction. Students will be expected to complete weekly readings and quizzes, a mid-term exam, a short paper, a longer research-oriented paper, and a final exam. 

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English 3316 - History of Rhetoric

Professor Anthony Chiaviello

Summer I

MTWR 12:15 - 2:15 pm 

This course will present a synoptic history of Western rhetoric, with a focus on developing a foundational understanding of the major theorists and theories that have contributed to the contemporary concept of Rhetoric as a basis for critical analysis and evaluation of the way human communication functions in society. Eras covered will include Classical Greek, Roman, Renaissance, Reformation, Modern and Contemporary. By the end of the course you will be able to identify the major rhetorical periods and theorists and interpret the historical canon for contemporary purposes. You will also have developed some ability to appreciate how contemporary pundits and opinion leaders use rhetorical strategies, and identify rhetoric's relationship to power and knowledge. 

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English 3321 - Tragedy, Transgression, and Triumph: An Introduction to African American Literature

Dr. Vida A. Robertson

Summer I

MTWR 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

UH System - Sugar Land

This course will explore and examine our American reality through the cultural production of African American writers, poets, activists, and scholars. By contextually engaging these representative works in their social and historical circumstances, we as a community of scholars hope to gain insight into their ideological function and form as literary works. This discussion-oriented course provides a broad perspective on the various ways that African Americans have managed the lingering tragedy of slavery, transgressed the boundaries of their racial construction, and triumphed over the disparity of their condition to declare themselves as equals. This course will trace the life and thought of African American Literature from its earliest beginnings in African American Folklore to its widespread inclusion in the twentieth-century American literary canon.

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English 3333 - Writing for the Media

Professor Anthony Chiaviello

Summer I

MTWR 2:30 - 4:30 pm 

This course provides an introduction to the varieties of writing forms currently in use across the media, with a foundation in newswriting, the basis for all writing applications in newspapers, magazines, on the Web, in advertising and public relations, and in broadcast media. Legal and ethical issues involved in the media will be addressed as well. After an introduction to the field and the basic tools of writing (grammar, usage, mechanics, clarity), the course will consist of daily writing assignments in the various media, with opportunities to revise and edit your work.  

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English 3340 – Harlem on My Mind: The Literature, Sights, and Sounds of the Harlem Renaissance

Dr. Vida A. Robertson

Summer I

MTWR 10:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

UH System – Sugar Land

This course examines one of the most tumultuous and exciting moments in American cultural history, the "Harlem Renaissance." Through the consideration of literature, history, politics, art, and music, we will probe the impetus behind, the meaning, and legacy of this unprecedented period of artistic experimentation and socio-political activism. We will see how the divergent perspectives of African American leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, and Marcus Garvey gave rise to the eclectic nature of "The New Negro Movement." Our class readings will primarily focus on literary texts, with careful and considerable attention given to their historical and political contexts. We will attempt to come to our own understanding of when the Renaissance started, when it ended, and why it happened. We will explore all aspects of the debate surrounding the Renaissance - whether it was, as many critics have argued, a flowering of Black art, or whether it was, as others claim, a period when Black artists allowed their work to be appropriated and exploited by mainstream America. Finally, this course will examine the products of the Harlem Renaissance literarily in relation to Modernism, politically in relation to communism, and historically in relation to the "roaring twenties" of the American industrial age.

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English 3352 - Introduction to Folklore       

Dr. Sandra Dahlberg

Summer I

MTWR 12:30 - 2:30 pm

The University Center , The Woodlands

CRN 30298 

This course will explore the origins of important Southwestern folkloric traditions, the contradictions and similarities between common myths and legends and the historical record, and examine the "cultural work" performed by folklore. The various methodologies used to record and analyze folklore will be studied. The course will begin with a thorough assessment of two significant folkloric figures: Billy the Kid and Gregorio Cortez. Texts include Pat Garrett's The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid ; Miguel Otero's The Real Billy the Kid ; Stephen Tatum's study titled Inventing Billy the Kid ; Americo Paredes' seminal study of Gregorio Cortez With His Pistol in His Hand ; and Elmer Kelton's Manhunters . A group folklore project will be conducted, with students determining the subject of that project. 

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English 3354 - Introduction to Film Studies: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology

Dr. Chuck Jackson

Summer I

MTWR 12:30 - 2:30 pm

This course will teach students how to read film as a narrative structure and why an understanding of social and theoretical contexts matter to our interpretations of it. Far from the everyday, response-based activity of "appreciating" film, this class gives students the vocabulary needed to study film from a scholarly perspective. Because this is an introductory course, and a condensed summer schedule, our readings will be sizably limited, but intellectually deep.

We will begin with formal analyses of film, including how to recognize and interpret shots, cuts, sequence, scene, montage, and mise-en-scene, as well as acting, costume, and lighting. Identifying and understanding genre, Hollywood , and the star system will help us to flesh out our critical reading practices. From here, we will think about how theories of looking open up the meaning of the cinematic image. We will read Marxist, feminist, queer, and race-based approaches to classic and contemporary U.S. cinema. All films will be screened in class (one of the benefits of the two-hour summer session!).

Possible films to be studied include, but are not limited to:

Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950)

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

Sweetie (Jane Campion, 1989)

Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)

Paris Is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990)

Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1990)

Required text:

Hill, John and Pamela Church Gibson, Eds. The Oxford Guide to Film Studies . New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Lengthy reading assignments on complex material must be completed and ready for discussion for each class. All students will write four five-page essays based on narrative analysis, genre interpretation, and theoretical application. There will be a final exam.

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ENG 4390 - Special Topic:  Literary Representations of Slavery and Abolition

Susan K. Ahern

Summer I

MTWR 10:15 am - 12:15 pm

CRN 30336 

Attempts by Western writers, artists, and politicians -- including those by black slaves themselves -- to record the slave experience have resulted in what Marcus Wood has called a "history fraught with irony, paradox, voyeurism and erasure" (Blind Memory [Routledge, 2000] 8).  In this course, we will examine literary representations of the Atlantic trade in African slaves and the growing resistance to that slavery in the movement for abolition.  We will be reading, discussing, and writing about a number of works written in English and published in Britain, America, and the Black Atlantic from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. Assisted on occasion in unpacking this history by readings in literary theory and applied criticism, we will focus on Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave (1688) and selections of dramatic adaptations of Behn's work, selections from Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Written by Himself (1789), and a generous selection of poems from Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems About Slavery, 1660-1810 (a work called by Henry Louis Gates, "The most definitive collection of anti-slavery sentiment in verse yet compiled, essential reading for historians and literary critics alike. . . . A major contribution").  We will make use of a class website through WebCT/Vista (and take quizzes if they are necessary ), and write two papers, one of them linked to a group project and presentation.

In the process of our work together, you should enrich your knowledge of the cultural history of the Atlantic slave trade, strengthen your skills as analytic reader, writer, and researcher, and gain fluency in using literature to build cultural history.

Required texts:

Basker, James G., ed. Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems About Slavery, 1660-1810.  New Haven , CT : Yale University Press, 2005. paper edition, ISBN  0-300-10757-9.  Also available in clothbound edition: ISBN 0-300-09172-9.

Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave . Ed. Joanna Lipking. Norton Critical Edition. New York :  W.W. Norton & Co., 1997.  ISBN 0-393-97014-0.

Handouts and links on the class website will include selections from Oladauh  Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oladauh Equiano, Written by Himself, and readings from Bhabba, Pratt, and others.

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English 4390 - American Indian Literature

Dr. Sandra Dahlberg

Summer I

MTWR 10:15 am - 12:15 pm

The University Center, The Woodlands

CRN 30299

This course examines the significance of storytelling traditions in five American Indian cultures: Pueblo (Southwest), Blackfeet (Plains), Osage (removed Southeast), Ojibwe (Western Woodlands), and Spokane/Coeur d'Alene (Northwest). This course explores the ways that culturally specific myths, legends, and history central to memory culture are incorporated into written form -- fiction and drama -- along with materials that will enable students to contextualize culturally specific American Indian archetypes, narrative strategies, and major historical events such as contact/conquest, the Pueblo Revolt, and Wounded Knee I and Wounded Knee II. The readings also address issues of removal, allotment, sovereignty, and urbanization. Works include: Leslie Marmon Silko's (Laguna Pueblo) Ceremony , James Welch's (Blackfeet) Fools Crow , Linda Hogan's (Osage) Mean Spirit , Louise Erdrich's (Ojibwe) The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse , Tomson Highway's (Ojibwe) Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing , and Sherman Alexie's (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene) Ten Little Indians.