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COL 288

Writing on the Margin
COL 288 FA

Crosslistings: WMST285
SectionClass Size*AvailableTimesPOIPrereq
1 24 0 Times: .T.T... 10:00AM-11:20AM;NoNo

*The number of spaces listed as available is based on class seats open for the Blue Add phase of registration. Some seats may be taken in previous phases while others may be held out for subsequent phases of registration. (Last Updated on Tue Aug 10 05:00:30 EDT 1999 )

As we approach the limit of the 20th century, ancient questions remain, none more ancient than those concerning how human beings come to "have," to recognize and experience, an identity. Yet in an increasingly global and multicultural society, such questions must be asked under radically transformed conditions and with an unprecedented sense of urgency. No longer can we only ask the traditional foundational questions of who we are, how we are, why we are. Today, we must also ask where. Recognizing the importance of that perception, this seminar examines the work of modern authors who have dedicated their writing to probing identity at its boundaries--crossing and recrossing, dissolving and transforming traditional contours of personhood, sexuality and gender, race and ethnicity, language, indeed of sanity itself. The narratives of these authors, taken together, both confirm and contest the hypothesis that in modern societies the margin is no longer a marker of division. No longer a separator of identity from difference, the margin has become a perpetual site of subject-formation: identity now is difference.

MAJOR READINGS

Virginia Woolf, THE WAVES and A WRITER'S
DIARY (selections)
Thomas Mann, DEATH IN VENICE
E. M. Forster, A PASSAGE TO INDIA
Marguerite Duras, THE VICE CONSUL
Alain Robbe-Grillet, TOPOLOGY OF A PHANTOM CITY
Angela Carter, THE INFERNAL DESIRE MACHINES OF DOCTOR
HOFFMAN
Christa Wolf, CASSANDRA: A NOVEL AND FOUR ESSAYS
Carlos Fuentes, THE ORANGE TREE
Julia Kristeva, Homi Bhabha, Rey Chow, Gilles Deleuze:
theoretical and cultural essays.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Thoughtful preparation, dedicated participation in class discussion, two interpretive essays and one creative project.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA COL

Prerequisites: None

Section 01
Weissman, H
Times: .T.T... 10:00AM-11:20AM;
Grading Mode: Mixed
Registration Preference (1 high to 6 low, 0=Excluded) Sr: 1, Jr: 1, So: 1, Fr: 1
No Major Preference Given

Last Updated on MAR-22-1999




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