The University of Tennessee - Martin

Fall 2007

English 112 & 112 Honors

Composition Course Themes Spring 2010

                                                 English 112

The sections of English 112 listed below have special themes and are open to all students.  Requirements for all English 112 sections are the same.  These sections give you the opportunity to explore a variety of writing and reading assignments connected with the announced theme. All sections of English 112 are reading-intensive.  In DM sections, students will be joined, via interactive television, by students from a regional high school.  The high school students are taking the course for dual high school and college credit.

Allegory and the Art of Reading: an I Can Read and See Course                      John Glass
Section 5                        TR  1-2:15                                                                      CRN  20298
How does a literary text produce multiple layers of meaning?  How do readers make sense of and find meaning in what they read?  Beginning with a discussion of literary terms and an introduction to specific approaches to reading, students will read and discuss a selection of works and produce a sequence of research papers focusing on the interplay between the literal and figurative, or allegorical, meanings of texts.

Freedom of Expression                                                                                  Leslie LaChance

Section DM2                  MWF  9- 9:50                                                                CRN  20338

This section of English 112 will be a theme-based, multi-media course in which we will read and write extensively about freedom of expression in the United States and abroad.  We’ll study literary texts, articles, films, and websites that raise numerous questions about freedom of expression, and we will consider these questions from a variety of perspectives.  For instance, we'll have the chance to discuss freedom of expression as an artistic matter, as a human rights issue, as a legal question, as a journalistic issue, as a security concern.  We'll learn more about when, why and how limits for expression are established.  Students will have the opportunity to conduct research on such topics as book banning, music and film censorship, student literary productions and blogs, political protest, religious expression and the like.  In addition to reading extensively on the course topic, students will write critical essays, short response papers, and will undertake a semester-long research project to produce a substantial documented essay dealing with a key question about freedom of expression.

This class will be joined via interactive television by students at Henry County High School who are taking the course for dual credit.                                                            

Grendel's Offspring: Villains Through the Ages                                              Daniel Pigg  

Section DM3                  MWF  8.00-8.50                                                         CRN  20362    

Villains have intrigued writers and readers from the earliest pages of recorded history. What motivates these characters? Are they born that way? Are they products of the society in which they live? Are they themselves victims? All of these questions are important to our exploration of villains.  Our readings and writing assignments begin with the epic Beowulf, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone and include Shakespeare's Othello to develop one definition of villain (a person with a darkened conscience). We will also look at Shelley's Frankenstein and the poets of World War I to develop an image of society as villain. In the twentieth century, we will examine several films, including classic films, that raise an even more complex understanding of villains. Knowing how to define and identify the "bad guy" may be harder than we think.

Students in this section will be joining a group of advanced high school students pursing dual credit English at Lake County High School via interactive television.

The Iconic Hero in the West                                                                                  John Glass

Section 4                        TR  930-10:45                                                                CRN  20293

Section 6                        TR  8-9:15                                                                      CRN  20298
What are the qualities of a hero?  What do we mean when we call something heroic?  Can these questions be answered precisely, or does the idea of the hero and the nature of what is heroic shift from age to age?  Students in this section of 112 will examine and discuss four major literary heroes from different places and periods in western civilization.  The course will provide instruction on forming well-constructed papers, conducting research, and using source material correctly and effectively.  Students will write a series of essays on topics arising from class discussions and supplemented by research in secondary source material.

Race, Identity, and Privilege                                                                                Melvin Hill

Section 22                      MWF  9-9:50                                                                 CRN  20469

Section 34                      MWF  11-11:50                                                             CRN  20471

This course introduces ideas about race, identity, and privilege in American society. We'll learn the history of the concept of race in the “New World” and how this idea came to have lasting social and political consequences. We will also survey some of the historical phenomena such as passing and its relation to being American. Finally, we will investigate “privilege” and consider how we can create meaningful, authentic relationships across race and ethnicity. Texts written by various writers will be read and discussed to gain a better understanding of race, identity, and privilege in American society. Throughout the semester, we will discuss and attempt to answer questions such as, but not limited to “What is race?” “How does privilege affect both whites and people of color?” and “How might we create a society that accepts difference and eliminates inequality based on racial and ethnic characteristics?” The premise of this course is research, and as such, we will write an array of projects to fulfill the course requirements, as we better understand the dynamics of our nation and our social responsibilities.

Reading American Culture                                                                                    Beth Powell

Section 16                      MWF 10-10:50                                                               CRN  20370

We are “readers” in contemporary American culture. We “read” visual, aural, and alphabetic texts every day. These texts surround us: billboards, signs, cereal boxes, television, movies, Facebook, websites, email, cell phones, et cetera. We are constantly bombarded with, interact with, and create messages. How much are these messages a part of our identity? How, for example, have television shows shaped who we are—or have contributed to mainstream culture? In this course, we will be examining how multiple media promote certain values, beliefs, and attitudes in contemporary America. We will research, for example, the way advertisements through the decades have chronicled mainstream America’s image of itself or of society’s attitudes towards race and gender. We will examine how a seemingly innocent artifact, an elementary school textbook, actually promotes certain ways of looking at the world (and our places in that world). We will look at how cultures—youth culture, minority culture, et cetera—are portrayed in film. These are just a few of the issues the course will investigate.

Though the course investigates a theme, it is a writing class. That means that the true focus for the class is your writing. In a workshop setting, you will practice strategies and techniques to strengthen your composing and research skills.

Books: Reading Culture, 7th Edition, by Diana George and John Trimbur. The Concise Wadsworth Handbook, 2nd Edition, by Kirszner and Mandell.

Revising the Holocaust:  Moral Leadership—Rescuers and Protesters           Tim Hacker

Section DM1                  MWF  8-8:50                                                                 CRN 20308 

 Most of us are familiar with a Holocaust “story” that goes like this: during the Nazi occupation of Western and Central Europe during World War II, Jews were confined to cities or neighborhoods of cities.  They were then transported by train to concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, where they were either gassed on arrival or worked to death.  We see it as cold, remorseless, impersonal, assembly-line destruction.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain in the early 1990s, however, the story of the Holocaust has been revised because of new access to archives in Eastern Europe.  The nature of the killing there has shifted the focus from structures—the bureaucracy that operated the railroads and concentration camps—to a new understanding based on participant roles.  Who was—and what does it mean to be—a perpetrator of the Holocaust?  A victim?  A bystander?

Our class will group two categories of Holocaust participants—rescuers and protesters—under the heading of moral leadership.  By studying these people, we’ll continue to work for answers to this question: where does moral leadership come from?  Is it a personality trait?  Does it arise from the situation?  Or is it some combination of personality and situation—nature meeting nurture?  We’ll begin with an overview of the Holocaust with Doris Bergen’s War and Genocide and chapters from Samuel Oliner’s The Altruistic Personality.  We’ll match these works against other materials:  chapters from Resistance of the Heart, by Nathan Stoltzfus, the DVD The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, and two accounts of the Munich student protest, Inge Scholl’s The White Rose and Sophie Scholl.  We’ll write about these works and allow them to inspire our individual research projects.

This class will be joined via interactive television by students at Camden Central High School who are taking the course for dual credit.

Utopian Thought—The Perfect Society from Plato to the Present                        Chris Hill
Section 10                      MWF  8-8: 50                                                                CRN  20310
Section 11                      MWF  11-11:50                                                             CRN  20311
It’s still a vexing question:  how do we create a perfect society--where everyone’s needs are anticipated and provided, where injustice and corruption are unknown, where human potential can be fully realized?  We will spend the term studying theoretical and practical answers to this question, using utopian ideas in literature and political science to serve as possible, though debatable, options.  We will read widely from a broad range of sources, including Plato's Republic, More's Utopia, Bellamy's Looking Backward, and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.  Our primary focus, however, will be on generating formal and informal writing in the opinion, analysis, and research veins.  This course will use a writing workshop format emphasizing the use of class time to actively work on writing skills with peers. 

Visions of the End                                                                                            David Williams

Section  DM 4               MWF  10-10:50                                                          CRN  20383

Section 21                      MWF  9-9:50                                                              CRN  20382    

Section 23                      MWF  1-1:50                                                              CRN  20384    

Section 24                      MWF  3-3:50                                                              CRN  20385

It turns out I suddenly find myself needing to know the plural of apocalypse.

(Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Prod. Doug Petrie. Warner Bros. Television Network, Burbank. 25 Jan. 2000.)

In the 14th century, the Black Death ravaged Europe. Many thought the epidemic was a divine punishment, the beginning of the end of the world. In the 1950s, school children were taught how best to shield themselves from the lingering, background radiation of a nuclear attack. Many suggested that humanity had invented the tools of its own destruction. In 1998, the movies Armageddon and Deep Impact posited that global extinction could result from the impact of a massive meteor on Earth. Many pondered the fragility of human civilization in an uncaring, uncontrollable universe.

Humanity has long pondered the end of the world. Different cultures have suggested very different fates for humanity. In this course we will discuss the human preoccupation with apocalyptic visions. What does it say about us that we ponder our own doom? How might society change with the realization that the end is near? How might the survivors of a great catastrophe pick up the pieces and rebuild?

Readings will include Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death", H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Richard Matheson’s I am Legend, and several scholarly essays.

What’s the Big Idea?  Great Ideas That Changed the World               Jeff Longacre

Section 13                      TR  9:30-10:45                                                              CRN  20357

Section 14                      TR  11-12:15                                                                 CRN 20358

Developing strong reading and writing skills are imperative in today’s world, not only as part of the process of your higher education, but as a prerequisite for most professions.  Furthermore, as a citizen in a democracy, you have a responsibility to yourself and to others to have a well-rounded base of knowledge from which you can make informed decisions and actively participate in the larger world around you.  In this course, you will have the opportunity to explore ideas that literally changed the world and continue to exert strong cultural influence.  Readings will be selected from some of the greatest thinkers and writers—from around the globe and across the ages—that the world has ever known, such as, Plato, Sun-Tzu, Mary Wollstonecraft, Frederick Douglas, Paulo Freire, Lao Tzu, Machiavelli, Martin Luther King, Jr., George Orwell, Margaret Mead, Gandhi, Chinua Achebe, and Toni Morrison.  Specifically, this course will focus intensively on critical reading, argumentation, and research-based writing as a means to further improve and develop you college-level reading and writing skills. 

English 112 Honors

The English 112H sections listed below are open to students with an Enhanced ACT score in English of 28 or above.  Honors English is not more difficult than the standard English 112 classes; rather, the courses are approached differently and may include enrichment activities that are not available in regular English 112 classes.

Rethinking Thin: Diet, Exercise, and Body Image                                  Charles Bradshaw

Section 1                        MWF 10-10:50                                                              CRN  20205

Section 2                        MWF 11-11:50                                                              CRN  20206

This course looks at the symbolic value of the “fit” body in contemporary culture and its relation to the billion dollar diet and exercise industries. From Jack LaLanne to Hugh Jackman, from Venus de Milo to Venus Williams, our infatuation with the ideal body seems to be a hallmark of our culture. However, we have also internalized this ideal as a symbol of our own notions of beauty, health, social responsibility, self-determination, and even self-worth. We’ll examine (along with “classic” texts from Keats, Kafka, and Hawthorne) selections from Michel Foucault and Mikhail Bakhtin. And we’ll read all of Gina Kolata’s Rethinking Thin about the history of the diet industry. Documentaries about overeating and steroid use (Supersize Me; Bigger, Faster, Stronger, etc.), will help us analyze commercial images and advertisements perpetrated through media. Students will be expected to produce personal responses, literary and visual analyses, and research-driven essays based on our reading, discussion, and viewing.

                                                English 111

Diversity Speaks: Enjoying Various Cultures in America                                    Pam Davis

Section 6                        MWF 11-11:50                                                               CRN  20289

Section 7                        MWF 1-1:50                                                                   CRN  20290    

America is rich with interesting people who have a story to tell.  In this course we’ll avail ourselves of some literature from a few people groups in our borders and walk a mile in their moccasins—shoes. We’ll have a lot to think and write about as we read novels, short stories, essays, and poetry and view a film or two as well. These are the main texts:  M. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain (Native American); Maxine Kingston’s The Warrior Woman (Chinese-American), Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek (Mexican-American); and Freedom Writers (mixed bag of young Americans). Expect to immerse yourselves in these works and then have a chance to write in response.  I am hoping for lively discussions, cultural food-tasting, guest speakers, and lots of good writing.

If you have any questions about these classes or about the English Department generally, please call Lynn Alexander at 731.881.7300 or visit our website at http://www.utm.edu/departments/chfa/english/.