Fall 2008 LTWR 400-level Course Offerings
(Click on the Course to jump to its description):

View the LTWR Course Offering Patterns
LTWR Major and Minors, you will likely find the chart of Course Offering Patterns useful as you plan your coursework for the next academic year. The LTWR Department plans to offer courses in the following patterns, depending upon the availability of faculty, enrollment, and budgetary constraints. This chart also lists the LTWR courses that satisfy various GE requirements.

View the LTWR Night Major Track Schedule
For those of you on the LTWR Night Major Track, this is the schedule of night
classes offered from the Fall 2005 semester (Year 1) through the Spring 2008
semester (Year 3).

LTWR 402 Studies in Shakespeare
CRN 40442
Heidi Breuer
MW 16:00 -17:15

Course Description: Shakespeare occupies a unique and privileged position in American literature and writing studies. Despite his popularity in classrooms, film, and contemporary culture, an increasing number of scholars have challenged Shakespeare's unquestioned supremacy within contemporary literary canons. In fact, there seem to be two Shakespeares - the magical "Bard", whose works are known as "universal" masterpieces, and the shadowy figure whose works reflect the rampant sexism and racism of Renaissance England. This semester, we will investigate both Shakespeares as we read and analyze comedies, histories, tragedies, and the sonnets, examining a variety of critical responses to the famous playwright and his corpus. Readings about historical contexts will further inform our consideration of the question, "Just who is this 'Shakespeare,' anyway?" Let's find out.

Check the LTWR Course Offering Patterns chart
to see how often this course is offered.

LTWR 410 Global Literature
CRN 40448
Faculty, Staff
TR 10:30-11:45

Course Description: For course description please contact instructor.

Only six (6) units of credit may be applied toward the major. This course requires advanced critical reading and writing skills.

Check the LTWR Course Offering Patterns chart
to see how often this course is offered.

LTWR 450 Comparative Ethnic American Literature
CRN 40454
Catherine Cucinella
TR 14:30-15:45

Course Description: In this course we will pose and (hopefully) answer the following questions: What is American literature?  How does this literature reflect the diversity that comprises America?  In order to answer these questions, we will listen to a variety of ethnic American voices as we read the various novels and plays, and we will consider if these works uphold, challenge, or subvert existing views regarding race.  We will look at the racial, political, familial, economic, interpersonal, psychological tensions and conflicts in these works.  Throughout the semester we will attempt to situate these texts in relation to the historical, social, and political contexts particular to each text.  Finally, we will consider the way in which these various literatures broaden (or complicate) our understanding of “American identity.”

Required Texts: Texts may include the following: Portable Harem Renaissance Reader; Cane (Jean Toomer); Passing (Nella Larsen); Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison); The Known World (Edward P. Jones); Mexican Village and Other Works (Josefina Niggli); Zoot Suit and Other Plays (Luis Valdez); So Far from God (Ana Castillo); and La Maravilla (Alfredo Véa, Jr).

Only six (6) units of credit may be applied toward the major. This course requires advanced critical reading and writing skills.

Check the LTWR Course Offering Patterns chart
to see how often this course is offered.

LTWR 460 Cultural Studies
CRN 40437
Yuan Yuan
MW 13:00-14:15

Course Description: This class offers theoretical exploration of some of the main issues in current cultural debates: (ir)rationality, gender and postcolonial conditions.  Apparently rationality has been functioning as the dominant paradigm in Western civilization shaping all other discourses whereas gender itself has been subject to genderized discourse.  Colonialism and colonization did not simply happen elsewhere, they occur everywhere, even in this classroom, as some cultural comparatists argued, because knowledge is power, but for whom?  Some of the issues we deal with in this class are inconclusive, and that is perhaps the intriguing part of learning.

Required Texts:
Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents; Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals; Said, Orientalism; Foucault, Madness and Civilization; Trihn, Woman, Native, Other; Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition; Fisk, Understanding Popular Culture; Baudrillard, The Illusion of the End.

May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for LTWR 510.

Note on prerequisites: This course is designed for students near the end of their LWTR major and is required of all majors. You must have successfully completed 300A or 300B prior to enrolling in this course.

Check the LTWR Course Offering Patterns chart
to see how often this course is offered.

LTWR 465 Theory and Practice of K-12 Writing
CRN 40449 (Section 1)
Faculty, Staff
MW 10:30-11:45

Course Description: For course description please see instructor. 

May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for LTWR 505.

Check the LTWR Course Offering Patterns chart
to see how often this course is offered.

LTWR 465 Theory and Practice of K-12 Writing
CRN 40455 (Section 2)
Dawn Formo
TR 14:30-15:45

Course Description: Welcome! My guess is that many of you look forward to careers as teachers, teachers committed to enriching your students’ literacies. I certainly intend to guide you as you prepare for the stimulating challenge ahead—designing writing intensive curricula that fully engage your students. There are likely a few folks enrolled in this class who never intend to teach. You are a welcome addition to this class. Maybe you are looking forward to careers in educational law or administration, maybe you plan to pursue a career unrelated to education (that’s ok:>), maybe you have children in school or look forward to enrolling your kids in school, maybe you never intend to have kids but you are committed to education. Together we will embark on a study of the theory and practice of teaching writing. In the process of understanding why and how we write, we will study a range of writing theories and practices ( i.e. process, reader-response, cognitive, social constructionist, and post-process theories) that inform what we do as writers and as future teachers of writers. You will then apply the theory and practice through a case study of a young writer. With this case study approach, my goal is to provide you with the knowledge and practice necessary to do the following:

· Strengthen your own writing
· Improve your ability to respond to your peers’ and future students’/colleagues’ writing
· Critique constructively writing curricula
· Design your own writing-intensive classrooms.

I look forward to an intellectually invigorating semester with you!

Anticipated Required Texts:
1. Lindemann, Erika. A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers.
2 Raimes, Ann. Keys for Writers.
3. Several materials will be made available via the library's hardcopy and electronic reserves.

Recommended Texts:
4. National Writing Project and Carl Nagin. Because Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in Our
School

May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for LTWR 505.

Check the LTWR Course Offering Patterns chart
to see how often this course is offered.

LTWR 475 The Writing Process
CRN 40434
Robin Keehn
MW 10:00-11:15

Course Description: Please contact instructor for course description.


May be repeated for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for LTWR 515.

Check the LTWR Course Offering Patterns chart
to see how often this course is offered.