Fall 2023, 205 Courses

 

APOCALYPSES & REVELATIONS

In Literature and the Moral Imagination: Apocalypses and Revelations, we will read apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction to examine what these texts reveal about society, history and the present, the human condition, and human nature. Specifically, we will focus on how the thematic concerns of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction offer insight into current events, such as the COVID-19 outbreak and human reactions to the pandemic, and comment on issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and class in our contemporary society.

 

Diversity and Identity

In this course, we will read, write about, and discuss a variety of literary texts with an emphasis on thinking critically about their social and ethical implications, understanding them not only in terms of our own perspectives but also in relation to the times and places for which they were produced. In specific, we will focus on how identity is constructed by and through factors such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, religion, and age as well as the intersections of these social categories. We will also consider how these categories shape power relations between individuals and groups, the relation of the individual to society, and how much of our identity formation entails assimilating to dominant cultural norms and expectations. Consequently, this course fulfills the Diversity Curriculum Flag as well as serves as an elective for the Peace and Justice Studies minor and the Gender and Diversity Studies major and minor.

 

I Need A Hero

 

If everyone is 'the hero' of his or her own story, despite having very different approaches to life, then why in literature are readers often able to easily identify the hero of the story? Alternatively, what does it suggest to readers about literature (and about life) when a text presents no clear hero, or that role in a text is disputed? Examining changes in literary portrayals of heroism over time also raises questions about how our own lived 'heroics' may be viewed by future generations. By studying texts from Classical to contemporary, we will refine our understanding of and engagement with the societal role of hero, in both private and public spheres. 

 

Identity in SF and Fantasy 

 How do we understand and construct our identities? How can we understand ourselves in relation to others? And what do we do when those others are completely unrecognizable? This class examines how we construct our own identities through the lenses of science fiction and fantasy. What does it mean to be a human when your spaceship is invaded by aliens? What does it mean to be a disguised woman in an all-male army—especially when surrounded by trolls and vampires? How can you have a solid sense of self when you wake up each day as a different person? Through examining genre and genre conventions alongside the stories of robots, wizards, and space travelers, we can question what it means to be human, what it means to be an individual, and what it means to claim an identity.

 

The Literary Club of Cincinnati 

The Literary Club of Cincinnati formed in 1849 with an initial meeting of twenty-five members. Like that club, our class will use literature as an occasion for cultivating sociality and intellectual seriousness. What unites our otherwise disparate texts—speeches, debates, treaties, theories, convention proceedings, as well as poems and novels—is that they were written by people who lived near where we will meet. By reckoning with stories from about two thousand years of Cincinnati’s past (200 B.C. to 1920), you will learn about the city where you have chosen to spend part of your life and accrue a set of valuable skills as you read and write about it. 

  

Literature of Diversity 

Literature raises questions about ethics and society, but rarely answers them; as readers, we must interpret these matters ourselves. In this course, students will develop skills of literary interpretation and analysis to help them discovering and articulating their own responses to the texts. We will examine literature that represents and addresses diversity. We will read books, short stories, and essays that engage with diversity and intersectionality on many levels. We will discuss how these works construct the voices of marginalized people and how our understanding of the marginal can be shaped by art. We will consider how literature represents moral and ethical issues inherent in diversity. 

 

Memory and Morality

“Memory and Morality” will consider the ethical implications tied to memory. At both a personal and community level, our ability (indeed obligation) to remember the past is challenged by multiple factors. We will consider some of the practical ways in which human memory works according to recent brain science (explaining how we mis-remember and forget events), as well as society’s power structures that actively manipulate memory (leading to misrepresentation, denial, and misunderstanding of crucial narratives). Course texts explore a breadth of genres and include Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel Fun Home, Toni Morrison’s short story “Recitatif,” Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden, and Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl.

 

Place, Identity and Imagination

This course is designed to be an introduction to literature with a focus on the short story and the novel. We will be reading two novels and a combination of short stories, poetry, nonfiction, and critical essays. This course allows students to study elements of literature, to interpret selected texts, to consider viewpoints of literary critics, and to form and support critical arguments, both informally in class discussion and formally in essays. The course aims to enhance the student’s ability to enjoy and interpret the works we read. This course will operate as a discussion rather than a lecture—so students will need to keep up with the reading and come to class prepared to contribute.
The theme for this course is Identity, Place, and the Imagination. This semester we will explore how writers perceive and portray the interplay between these three elements. We will consider the possibilities that writers of place provide as they attempt to reimagine the human role in the ecological narrative. We’ll ask the following questions, and more: What does it mean to have a sense of place? Do we still have a sense of place? How does displacement, either figurative or literal, affect our identity? How does place inform a person’s or a culture’s identity, and what role does the imagination play in the creation of both place and self? How do the stories we tell affect the actions we take? Do our dominant narratives encourage or discourage a sense of alienation or interdependence? How might the imagination help us to see our part and to feel at home in a world that may not feel like home?  

 

 The Soulmate

This course will offer an investigation into the concept of the soulmate as represented in literature: what exactly is a soulmate? In what ways (besides romance) might two souls or two lives become intertwined? How is this concept represented in popular culture or popular literatures and what are the implications of those representations? We will consider these questions primarily through a range of literary, popular, and rhetorical texts such as Never Let Me Go and Kindred, as well as a range of other narratives that feature or interact with the idea of the soulmate. This course will investigate the cultural hold of the soulmate narrative and how it supports or subverts anxieties and desires pertaining to love and identity. 

 

Stay Woke and Other Black Expressions for Justice

Currently, the phrase “stay woke” is associated with a political movement in the United States that contests diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Where did this phrase originate? In this course we will examine the social justice foundation of the phrase “stay woke,” and put it in conversation with other phrases originating in Black culture, literature, and history. We will explore the significance of phrases, mantras, mottos, academic terminology, and slogans in Black liberation movements. While analyzing speeches, visual art, music, fiction, and non-fiction, students will develop a consciousness around words and activism. We will look at the evolution of “woke culture” and explore misconceptions, ramifications, social action, and creative expressions of its usage.

 

Transformations

Engl 205 in general considers the ways literary texts inherently reflect or interrogate ethical or moral action, and how various stakeholders in literary works “read” the world around them. In this course, we’ll be looking at ‘transformations’—reshapings and retellings—in realistic and fantastical fiction and poetry. How do authors/characters/readers deal with challenges to their beliefs or social norms? When their world changes, do they find a new path, and if so, how? This course provides opportunities for us to examine these questions, and to assess how the knowledge, beliefs and values we as readers bring to literature affect our understanding of the works we encounter.