Expository Writing (105-0-20)
Topic
Y2K Chronicles: Turn-of-the-Century Writing
Instructors
Michaela Filia Corning-Myers
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L04: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD! Just kidding, it's fine! On the eve of Jan 1st, 2000, some theorized that in all our busy progress, we hadn't accounted for an inevitable technological apocalypse that would occur when the clock struck midnight. But it never happened. This phenomenon reflected the anxieties that some felt as they entered what they considered to be a new era of humankind. In this course, we'll think about how these kinds of anxieties plague a culture as its members reflect on the century passed and look forward to another. We'll think about how literature reflects a kind of mixed bag of emotions at those times society decides that we are ready to enter a new era: anxiety, dread, trepidation, but also nostalgia. We will encounter texts published in the late 1800s and early 1900s, such as the stories of Edith Wharton and James Joyce, alongside films produced in the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as Moulin Rouge! and Girl, Interrupted. How does forward-looking progress affect the way individuals see themselves and their places in the world? How can we productively reflect on the past and the future?
As we consider these narratives about ‘progress,' we might think about our own identities as students, writers, and subjects in our contemporary world. Because this is a writing-focused course, we will work through these questions through reflective written assignments that analyze why authors choose to write in particular ways, reviews of films and books, argumentative papers, and a longer research paper. Writing isn't linear. Throughout the quarter we will think about how our different writing skills can and will develop or change at varied rates and in surprising directions.
Class Materials (Required)
o "They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, with 2016 MLA Update, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. ISBN: 9780393935844
o Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. 1911. Penguin Classics, 2005. ISBN: 9780142437803