2007-08 - Pitzer College

104 ENGLISH AND WORLD LITERATURE
10a. Survey of British Literature I. A survey covering representative works of British
literature from the early Middle Ages to the 18th century. Works will be studied
according to traditional methods of literary analysis. Fall, A. Wachtel.
10b. Survey of British Literature II. A survey of the important texts and contexts of
British literature from the 18th century to the present, with attention to representations of
gender, class, race, sexuality, and other aspects of identity. Spring, S. Bhattacharya.
11a. Survey of American Literature I. A survey of the important texts and contexts of
American literature from the Colonial period to 1880, with attention to the intellectual
and cultural forces that influenced the literary tradition. Fall, E. Vasquez.
11b. Survey of American Literature II. A survey of the important texts and contexts of
American literature from 1880 to the present, with attention to a variety of cultural and
literary movements of the period. E. Vasquez. [not offered 2007-08]
12 BK. Introduction to African American Literature. This course is a survey of major
periods, authors, and genres in the African American literary tradition. This is the second
half of a two-semester course offered through IDBS faculty. This course will cover the
major literatures produced from the turn of the twentieth century to a contemporary
period. Offered every spring semester. Spring, L. Harris.
14. Introduction to African Literature and Film. One of the seriously debated issues
concerning African literature today is whether that portion of it written in the European
languages forms a constitutive or central part of it. This issue is interwoven with the
relationship between oral literature and written literature within Africa’s cultural space.
Diverse genres from the different corners of Africa will be read into each other as
defining a particular discourse: for example, Ngugi wa Thiongo from Kenya, Wole
Soyinka from Nigeria, Nadine Gordimer from South Africa. N. Masilela.
[not offered 2007-08]
Crea 18. A History of the Creative Process. [See Creative Studies 18]. N. Masilela.
[not offered 2007-08]
20. Introduction to the Study of Drama. This class will study Postmodernism, a cultural
logic informing artistic creativity in the last quarter of the 20th century. The works of
Vladimir Nabokov and Samuel Beckett will be read as marking the end of Modernism
and ushering in the new age of Postmodernism. Then the class will explore such writers
as Italo Calvino, Julio Cortazar and Don DeLillo, among others, in the context of a variety
of Postmodernist theories. E. Vasquez. [not offered 2007-08]
25. World in a Nutshell: The Short Story. A close study of the short story genre, focusing
on such authors as Hawthorne, James, Hemingway, Joyce, Porter, Faulkner, O’Connor,
Elkin, Roth, Olsen, Malamud, and Updike. In addition to reading and writing about the
stories of others, students will be writing and revising stories of their own.
Recommended for first-year students and sophomores. A. Wachtel. [not offered 2007-08]
ENGLISH AND WORLD LITERATURE
30. Introduction to Creative Writing. We shall be studying and writing short stories,
poems, and short plays. Students will read their work at workshop meetings in class.
Fall, A. Wachtel.
30c. Creative Writing: Screenwriting. Introduction to and overview of the elements of
plot, theme, character and dialog in writing for television and film drama. Exercises in
screenwriting in which theme, plot, dialog and images are integrated into scenes and
sequences which will be read, analyzed and critiqued in a workshop setting.
[not offered 2007-08]
44. Introduction to Latin American Literature and Film. The course will attempt to
define Latin America as a literary and historical construct. The survey will cover essential
and classical works of Latin American literature. The literary lineages of these works will
be uncovered in an attempt to trace their historicity. A series of Latin American films
which grapple with the historical problems facing this continent will also be shown.
Spring, N. Masilela.
51. Literature of the Supernatural. This course investigates the idea of the strange and
uncanny in British literature, focusing on the theme of ghosts and hauntings. Through
encounters with some of the most famous and eerie specters stalking the pages of
literature, we explore the strange pleasures of feeling afraid and raise questions about the
persistence of the past into the present. Fall, S. Bhattacharya.
107. Harlem & Sophiatown Renaissance: A Comparative Study in Influences. The
course will explore how the American Harlem Renaissance influenced and inspired the
South African Sophiatown Renaissance in the construction of African modernities.
Although some films will be shown, the course will primarily preoccupy itself with
literary texts. Fall, N. Masilela.
108. Latino Literature: Through Time and Across Borders. This is a course in Latino
literature from the colonial era to the contemporary period and across national borders.
Reading major authors, themes, and movements, the class will also give critical
consideration to the manner in which Latino literature actively engages in an impels
societal change. Spring, E. Vasquez.
110. Novel on Screen. This class explores the intersections of film and literature to
discover how the dialogue between the two media enhances our reading experience of
the printed word while developing new kinds of visual literacy. The class will focus on a
selection of British novels that have been adapted for film. Fall, S. Bhattacharya.
105
112. Rule Britannia: Imperialism and Victorian Literature and Culture. This course
examines issues of empire in nineteenth-century British literature and culture. It
considers how the literature of the period represented, aided, or resisted the development
of the empire, both abroad and at home. It focuses on two key themes: the “civilizing
mission”; and the “imagined community” of Great Britain. S. Bhattacharya.
[not offered 2007-08]