UK Core - University of Kentucky

INTELLECTUAL INQUIRY IN THE HUMANITIES CONTINUEDENG 191ENG 230ENG 234ENG 264(AAS 264)ENG 281FR 103LITERATURE AND THE ARTS OF CITIZENSHIP (3 CR)A survey and investigation of contemporary literature of modern American citizenship,with an emphasis on questions of race, religion, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomicclass. ENG 191 provides UK Core credit for Humanities or the Community, Culture andCitizenship in the USA requirement.INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE: (Subtitle required) (3 CR)In this course we will read and analyze literature that asks us to think about seeing,blindness, invisibility, appearing, surveillance, and visual technologies. These ways of“seeing” and “not seeing” filter how characters understand their worlds, how narratorstell their stories, and how readers engage with texts. In metaphors, the language ofsight has a strong hold over the everyday expression of knowledge and understanding,and so it is, both literally and metaphorically, that seeing and not seeing inform the waywe understand both our world and the worlds we read about. In attending to thelanguage of our texts, we will investigate how literary works present the world wethought we knew and return it to us from a fresh perspective and a different way ofseeing. Our readings will thus encourage us to ask many different kinds of questions:generic (why is blindness a punishment fit for tragedies?), social and political (how isracial prejudice paradoxically experienced like a feeling of invisibility?) and historical (istwentieth-century history simply a series of spectacular events?).INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S LITERATURE: (Subtitle required) (3 CR)Students will be introduced to a sampling of the rich body of women’s writing, focusingon some important issues and representative examples. Students will read canonicaland non-canonical works, discuss continuities and differences among women writers,and master some of the concepts of gender studies. Attention will be paid to studentwriting, particularly to devising a thesis, crafting an argument, and learning how to usesupporting evidence.MAJOR BLACK WRITERS (3 CR)A cross-cultural and historical approach to written and oral works by major Blackauthors of Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. The course includes writers suchas Chima Achebe (Africa), Wilson Harris (Caribbean), and Toni Morrison (USA).INTRODUCTION TO FILM (3 CR)This course attempts to break down the elements of our film experience into smaller,more manageable units – cinematography, editing, music, dialogue, special effects, etc.At the same time, however, we will study the relations between those components innarrative patterns and genre conventions. To that end, we will look at both classical andrecent examples of the horror film, the screwball comedy, the western, the noir, etc.We will also examine at least one silent film and a handful of so-called “art” films fromother countries. Although attention to such matters as character, dialogue, acting,conflict, and theme is important, even essential, we will find ourselves chiefly analyzingfilm as film; that is, looking into the uniquely cinematic properties of the visual “texts”before us.FRENCH CINEMA (3 CR)A history of the French Cinema from the early twentieth century to the present.Emphasis on the primary aesthetic movements of French cinematic expression in socialand historical context. Attention given to the formal elements specific to film,techniques of film analysis, and the nature of visual culture. Viewing of films outside ofclass required. Taught in English, with no knowledge of French necessary.9