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Academic Year 2003/2004

Beyond Setting: Place in U.S. Fiction
ENGL 227 SP
Crosslistings:
AMST 234

Using contemporary ideas about space and place, representation and "reality", this course explores the relations between fiction and place. When and how does place matter? What is the relation between fictional settings and places? How does fiction help constitute place? What are the advantages and disadvantages of fiction that emphasizes place? Close readings of fiction from selected regions (e.g., New York, the South, California, the Southwest, New England) accompanied by theoretical and critical texts.

MAJOR READINGS

Text will include theoretical and critical works by such writers as Gaston Bachelard, David Harvey, Edward Casey, Yi-Fu Tuan, and John Brinckerhoff Jackson. Primary texts will include works by some of the following authors, and others not mentioned:

Stephen Crane
Edith Wharton
Chester Himes
Ann Petry
Chang Rae Lee

Nathaniel West
Raymond Chandler
Thomas Pynchon

William Faulkner
Zora Neal Hurston
Eudora Welty
Richard Wright

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Approximately five one-page responses, three short papers, and a take-home final due at the next-to-last class.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004

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