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ENGL 200 B: Reading Literary Forms

Texts and the City

Summer Term: 
A-term
Meeting Time: 
MTWTh 10:50am - 1:00pm
Location: 
MUE 155
SLN: 
11304
Instructor:
John O'Neill
John O'Neill

Additional Details:

English 200B, “Texts and the City,” fulfills both VLPA and W requirements.  This course is designed to introduce students to techniques and practices for reading and enjoying literature.

From participating in the staging of Japanese internment during WW II, to hosting the World’s Fair during the rising hostilities of the Cold War, to witnessing “the Battle of Seattle” at the end of the millennium, the evolution of Seattle as a global city will be traced in three recent, readable novels.  In these novels, we will see how these distinct historical moments affected the development and interaction between different local communities and identities. As characters stake a place in a city undergoing the transformation from a regional backwater to what one character refers to as “a true cosmopolis,” they will discover that home is as much an idea as a place, a contested future to be imagined as much as a past to be reclaimed.

There will be class discussions, short analytical essays, group work, and the possibility of some field work.

Course texts:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Waxwings by Jonathan Raban

Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch

Catalog Description: 
Covers techniques and practice in reading and enjoying literature in its various forms: poetry, drama, prose fiction, and film. Examines such features of literary meanings as imagery, characterization, narration, and patterning in sound and sense. Offered: AWSp.
GE Requirements: 
Arts and Humanities (A&H)
Writing (W)
Status: 
Active
Last updated: 
October 5, 2016 - 9:14pm
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