This course examines the idea of “recycled” and “reused” content in the arts and humanities. We will observe how subjects—in art, literature, popular culture, politics, etc.—transform and progress through time, space, and place. By analyzing the many shifts a text undergoes in genre, style, tone, and content, we will begin to understand the cause-and-effect nature of these rhetorical decisions.

As we study the voices that have contributed to various artistic and academic conversations, so will we enter into a conversation of learning and inquiry. We will learn how to find, analyze, and respond to existing academic conversations, creating arguments with efficiency and style that contribute to the conversation.

We will accomplish this through a variety of methods, all leading toward the development of transferable skills as a writer. Through a variety of exercises—including personal responses, text analysis and synthesis, and creative response—we will develop a writer’s toolbox that you can carry with you throughout your life.

In these ten weeks we will explore voice and style, learn the methods of efficient writing, and create a culture of critical thinking that will allow us to enter into the academic conversation.

Some questions we might ask in this course:

• What is intertextuality?
• How do two texts relate to each other?
• How does a topic develop throughout history?
• How does genre effect a text, and what happens when that genre is changed?