Summer 2008 Graduate Literature Course
ENGL 5680. 231 - Seminar in Contemporary Literature: Positioning Postmodernism / Walkiewicz
June 2-27 MTWR 12:00-2:40. CID 14793
In this course we will explore conceptions of postmodernism, focusing on such things as the blurred margins between genres and disciplines and between high and low culture; the influence of science, technology, psychology, linguistics, and post-Kantian philosophy. We will examine postmodern attitudes toward and notions of parody, representation, and historiography, and we will model the relationship between postmodernism, feminism, and postcolonialism. We will begin our effort to position the postmodern by reading and discussing a number of philosophical and theoretical texts; then we’ll move on to fiction, film, drama, and poetry. The course will be designed to be useful to students specializing in a number of fields.
Fall 2008 Graduate Literature Courses
ENGL 5480. 001 - Seminar in Modern Literature: American Poetry in the Little Magazines / Leavell
MW 6:45-8:00. CID 19557
The seminar will provide an overview of American modernist poetry from 1912 to 1929. Students new to the subject will meet the major poets and study key works of the period. But a significant portion of the class will be devoted to the study of “little magazines”—so called because of their experimental nature and small circulation. What can be learned about the politics, aesthetics, and development of modernist poetry, the seminar asks, by examining it on the pages where it first appeared?
ENGL 6220. 351 - Seminar in Genre: The Narrative & Techniques of Persuasion / Walker
MWF 1:30-2:20. CID 13894
A close examination of storytellers (novelists, playwrights, filmmakers, historians, poets) and the diverse narrative strategies they employ to shape the attitudes and beliefs of their readers.
ENGL 6240. 351 - Studies in Literature: Utopia and Dystopia from the Garden of Eden to
V for Vendetta / Price, M.
MWF 12:30-1:20. CID 13895
Utopias and dystopias restructure the world, in optimism or in horror, respectively. This class will explore some of the classic utopian and dystopian texts that have permeated our culture, and supplement them with interdisciplinary readings on the nature and function of the genre. Presentation; discussion; research paper.
ENGL 6250. 001 - Seminar in Race/Region/Gender: Major Works in Native American Literature / Smith
MWF 10:30-11:20. CID 19559
Responding to new methodologies, scholars of American literature are reexamining and interrogating constructs of "the frontier," "wilderness," and "the West" and seeking more nuanced approaches to the mythologies of American literatures and cultures. Part of this effort involves learning about indigenous writers who respond to and contradict such constructs as well as offer wholly separate portraits of their literatures and cultures. With the goal of preparing students to meet a growing expectation for greater breadth and diversity in American literary study, this course is an introduction to major works of Native American literature and the theoretical parameters for the field of Native American studies. We will read selections from early, modern, and contemporary authors such as William Apess, Zitkala Sa, Alice Callahan, Ella Cara Deloria, Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, Susan Power, and Sherman Alexie. Our secondary readings will include the work of Gerald Vizenor, Paula Gunn Allen, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Robert Warrior, Craig Womack, and others. Course requirements include class leadership assignments, conference presentations, article-length manuscripts, and peer review.
English Department
College of Arts & Sciences
Oklahoma State University
205 Morrill Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-9474
For Information about English Programs: english.information@okstate.edu
Webmaster: engweb@okstate.edu
