R&C Courses
TuWTh 10-12:30 | Dwinelle 206 | Instructor: Nicole Trigg
Units: 4
This class will be taught via synchronous remote instruction. Time conflicts are not allowed for this class.
Our course is interested in the rudimentary question: how do we relate to one another? Among many possible answers, the family is prominent. In this class, we read literature and film drawn from modern and contemporary Italian and U.S. American cultural production, to consider how representations of family are constructed, reproduced, challenged, and reinvented. Informed by intersectional feminist scholarship, we read representations of family across differences of gender, race, class, and citizenship. Students participate as active learners and pursue research agendas of their choosing, informed by our close readings of fiction and film.
Readings selected from: Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Natalia Ginzburg’s The Dry Heart, Nanni Balestrini’s Sandokan, Igiaba Scego’s Adua, Elena Ferrante’s The Days of Abandonment. Films may include: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Mamma Roma, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert, Ettore Scola’s Ugly, Dirty and Bad, Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love, Emmanuele Crialese’s Terraferma, Barry Jenkin’s If Beale Street Could Talk. In addition, we will read selections from relevant critical and theoretical texts.
This writing-intensive course fulfills the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. We will hone our skills in close reading, critical thinking and research, peer review, and clear, effective writing to craft compelling literary essays. Assignments will include regular journaling and several papers of varying length, including one more substantial research paper. All readings are in English and students from all majors are welcome.
Required: The Adventures of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi, Trans. Geoffrey Brock (NYRB) 9781590172896 The Dry Heart Natalia Ginzburg, Trans. Frances Frenaye (New Directions) 9780811228787
Recommended: They Say/ I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (Norton) 9780393935844
Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.
TuWTh 1-3:30 | Dwinelle 246 | Instructor: Matthew Mason
Units: 4
From the conversion scene that begins the Dante’s Comedy to that at the narrative center of Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed, a key plot device in Italian literature is the conversion scene or narrative. In this course we will read from texts, including novels, poems, operas, songs, and films, that represent the conversion of characters, groups, and objects. To aid our critical discussion, comparison, and reflection on the narrative significance of these scenes, many of which are told or reported as narratives themselves, we will supplement our primary readings with materials by thinkers such as Augustine, John Freccero, and Levinas.
All readings are provided in English. Writing assignments will include three longer papers of increasing size, along with weekly reports and journal entries.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.
TuWTh 1-3 | Instructor: Kristen Keach
Units: 4
This class will be taught via synchronous remote instruction. Time conflicts are not allowed for this class.
Feelings. The most basic human reaction to life’s everchanging moments. We all have them and are all affected by our feelings on a daily basis. Even the slightest switch of an emotion turns the brightest of days into the darkest of nights. While seemingly minor or unimportant as a merely backgrounds or settings for texts, emotions, in fact, can shape the structure, meaning, and end result of a text. Emotions even have the power to transcend a text, impacting not only the narrative, but also the reader-spectator. Throughout the summer, we will examine the role emotions play in literary, visual, and musical contexts. How do emotions inform narrative, plot, drama, and the resolution of a text? What makes a comedy happy or funny? How does one feeling influence another? How do we define tragedy beyond sadness? Do emotions always work one at a time or can multiple emotions exist within a singular moment? Does happiness always mean the absence of sadness? Following the characters outlined in Disney Pixar’s Inside Out (Docter, 2015), we will focus on five key affective turns: Joy/Happiness, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness/Melancholy, to analyze how emotions influence narrative. At the same time, we will question the categories assigned by the Disney film to determine if emotions are more fluid than suggested by the film. How slippery is the slope from happiness to fear or from sadness to disgust and what emotions lie in-between? We will read texts by a wide variety of authors including Ovid, Giovanni Boccaccio, William Shakespeare, Giambattista Basile, Elena Ferrante, and Margaret Atwood to determine how emotions function throughout various genres and media. Do the emotional dynamics differ based on media?
By the end of the summer, we will have a better understanding of the importance of emotions and affect theory as driving forces behind literary works. In this writing-intensive course, you will use your critical reflections on the texts as starting points for developing two long research papers. You will develop your papers through a series of brainstorming assignments, drafts, in-class workshops, peer reviews, and revisions. In addition, you will also complete shorter weekly reading responses and assignments devoted to specific elements of essay writing and research.
Learning Objectives: Through this course, students will:
- Develop effective reading strategies to help students think actively and critically about a specific text
- Develop analytical writing and research skills that question the text in an advanced way
- Have a clear understanding of how emotions contribute to the overall meaning, plot, and experience of reading a text.
- Question how emotions function singularly, in dialogue with other feelings, or as intentional dichotomies and how emotions further the goals of a text.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.