2012-2013 Academic Year Calendar - Marianopolis

General Education: Englishas the figurative expression of themesrelated to honesty and deception, andshifting views of transgressions ofaccepted order. As part of thisthematic focus, we will consider howthe subversive nature of the figure ofthe liar and thief is both a reflectionof and response to social values.The Beat GenerationThe Beat movement in literaturebegan in the mid-1950s as a responseto the post-war conservatism of theUnited States. The writings of itsseminal figures, Kerouac, Ginsberg,Corso, Snyder and others deal withthe relationship of the individual tosociety, aspects of which includea questioning of political values,sexual and religious norms, and theintroduction of non-western culturaltraditions and popular culture into theAmerican consciousness. Throughouttheir study, students assess theinfluence of the Beats on popularculture, particularly the folk musicand rock ‘n’ roll of the 60s and 70s.MetamorphosisMetamorphosis is defined as ‘radicalchange or transformation’ and hasconcerned writers from ancientGreece to the present. Studentsanalyze works of fiction, non-fiction,and poetry in order to recognize aconnection between the theme ofmetamorphosis and the values of thesociety and cultures in which theseworks were created. The objectivesof the course are to provide studentswith a method of explicating literarytexts from a thematic perspective, andexpressing what they have learned inwritten and oral work.Bare SurvivalStudents will explore the theme of“bare survival” in Canadian literature,or what one critic calls literature “notabout those who made it, but thosewho made it back.” We will analyzeperceived differences betweenCanadian, American, and Britishculture before identifying ways inwhich Canadian literature differsfrom its cultural influences. Wewill then examine bare survival subthemessuch as nature as enemy,animal as victim, the “noble savage”and other solitudes. We will alsoapply renowned critical approachesto selected texts.Betwixt and Between: Liminalityand Rites of PassageNo longer in high school but not yetin university, CEGEP students are ina situation Arnold van Gennep mightsay resembles the liminal phase of arite of passage, a period of transitionbetween two states. Expanding vanGennep’s ideas, Victor Turner arguesthat liminality or being “betwixt andbetween” characterizes much of thehuman experience. Students willexplore the theme/concept ofliminality through the literature andcinema of war, Renaissance politicsand fantasy.Sounding Off: Representations ofPopular Music in LiteratureIn this course, students study howpopular music informs contemporaryliterature on both literal and figurativelevels. Through close reading of thetexts and related materials, studentsexamine, among other themes, howmusic can fill people’s needs to belongbut not conform to family/socialgroups; how the emotional immediacyof music affects its use and misuse bymusicians and fans, and how musicoperates as a source of profoundsanctuary as well as a proving groundfor talent and courage.Misanthropy in LiteratureThis course is an exploration ofmisanthropy – a dislike and/or distrustof people – as it has appearedthroughout several literary genres andhistorical periods. Each text coveredin the course puts forward its own listof humanity’s flaws, theories as totheir origins, fears and frustrationsconcerning their consequences, andsuggestions as to what can be doneeither to remedy the situation or tocope. This focus is used to hone thestudent’s use of literary analysis andunderstanding of the impact ofhistorical context and genre onthematic concerns.Images of WomenThis course will explore representativeimages of women in nineteenthandtwentieth-century fiction (poems,short stories, and a play). Throughthis exploration of images of women,we will uncover images of men. Wewill look at the ways in which variousauthors accept or challenge, throughtheir depictions of women and menand situations, the traditionalstereotypes held for both genders.Ultimately, the course will examinethe legacy of the Adam and Evearchetypes, a legacy that has shapedour present gender relations.Power and SightThis course will introduce students toliterary texts that have a thematicfocus on the methods and means bywhich vision – seeing and being seen– interacts with power. Throughconcepts including exhibition, socialperception, and the way in whichpeople are hidden or hide from view,as well as the literary techniques suchas character and setting, we willconsider the ways in which power inrelationships and communities shifts30