Designed mainly for MA students but open to others, and running parallel with English 700 designed for Ph.D. students, this course will survey a range of contemporary theories, including structuralism, phenomenological hermeneutics, reception theory, reader response criticism, the Frankfurt School, Foucault, and feminist theory. The course is an introduction and a survey. We will read only primary texts. Various assignments will be available as ways of fulfilling the course requirements. Staff Permission of instructor is required for enrollment Intensive practice in writing fiction.
Emphasis is on development of fictional technique and individual styles.
Students' work is discussed and criticized by all participants in the workshop. Instructor may bring to bear on the criticism of students' work a discussion of writing by pertinent authors. Accordingly, part of the agenda of this course is to explore the theories and practices that define the field and to encourage students to examine their participation in that field as teachers, scholars, researchers, and writers. Through varied readings and in-class activities, the course will explore some of the important issues, problems, discourses, activities, and questions around which the field has organized itself. Ultimately, however, this course is about the teaching of literacy at all levels and the myriad ways in which the teaching of writing is understood and enacted.