2012-2013 Academic Year Calendar - Marianopolis

Creative Arts, Literature and Languages: EnglishDetective Fiction603-LCK-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsThis course explores the development,conventions and features of the formaldetective story. Through the examinationof works representative of keyperiods in the history of the genre,students explore the relationshipbetween a story’s particular use of theformal characteristics and the beliefsand anxieties of the historical periodin which it was written.Civilization in Crisis603-LEB-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsThis course focuses on the theme ofcivilization in crisis. We begin byexamining Margaret Atwood’s TheHandmaid’s Tale, focussing on theways in which her representation of afuturistic civilization in crisis reflectssocial anxieties particular to theperiod in which her novel waswritten. Then, through our analysis ofChinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,we re-examine our assumptions aboutcivilization and the often ironiccauses of its decline.Revenge603-LEC-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsThis course explores the literarytheme of “revenge,” as found in avariety of works from differenthistorical periods and cultures. Byexamining stories and passages fromvarious mythologies, as well plays,novels, short stories and movies,we explore our desire to “get even,”the ways in which this theme isconnected to the values of the societyand culture in which the works werecreated, the forms revenge may take,and the often-tragic consequencesthat result from vengeful acts.80Poetry603-LEH-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsIn this course, students will examinea variety of poetic forms and styles,covering a broad historical range,with emphasis on more recentsamples from the 20th and 21stcenturies. Topics to be coveredinclude: an overview of poeticperformance (from bardic recitationto the contemporary poetry slam);analyses of sound, rhythm and meter;a brief review of popular poetic forms(including ballads, sonnets, epigrams,and haikus); an exploration of controversiesregarding the interpretationof poetry; and, examinations of poets’prose commentaries on their influences,practices, and philosophies.The Western603-LEJ-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsThe Western remains a popular andinfluential genre constituted by avariety of motifs (e.g. cowboys,Native Americans, saloons, six gunsand sheriffs), settings (e.g. wild openspaces and the American West circa1870), plots (e.g. a train/stagecoachversus thieves and a man seekingrevenge) and subjects (e.g. freedom,violence, otherness andpersonal/national regeneration).Through short stories, novels andfilm, this course will explore how theformulas of the early Western haveparadoxically enabled the genre’smore recent engagement withrevisionist historicism and postmodernism.Contemporary American Drama603-LEL-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsThe tragicomedy of contemporaryAmerican life is thematicallyexplored through ContemporaryDrama’s early roots in the traditionsof the Theatre of the Absurd,postmodernism, and existentialism,to its more political, social, andexperimental aspirations in the Off-Off Broadway and performance artmovements. Students also explore theimplications of race, class, identity,gender, and AIDS in the variousplays from this period.Folk and Fairy Tales603-LFA-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsThis course explores the conventionsand characteristics of folk and fairytales. Students employ a variety ofcritical approaches (e.g. Freudian,Jungian, Feminist, Marxist) toanalyze tales. The course focuses firston fairy tales in early written forms,then on versions of these tales byauthors such as Charles Perrault,Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, andJoseph Jacobs, and finally onreinterpretations by 20th and 21stcentury authors and filmmakers. Thecourse also includes study of originalliterary tales by authors such as HansChristian Andersen and Oscar Wilde.Life Writing603-LFB-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsThis is a writing course whichfocuses on non-fiction writing basedon personal experience. Through anexamination of critical theory, writingtechniques and participation in thewriting process, students explore howwe shape and remake our reality withwords. Readings include five genresof life writing: diary and journal,letters, autobiography, biography,and the personal essay.Unheard Voices603-LFC-MS (3-0-3) 2 creditsThis course introduces a number oftexts (short stories, essays, poems,and two novels) in which the narratoror speaker’s point of view profoundly