Undergraduate Courses, Fall 2001
Times and locations of class meetings are subject to change. Consult the UF Schedule of Courses for official class times and locations and an explanation of the class period abbreviations.
Lower Division (1000–2000) Special Content Courses
Note: Only course descriptions are listed below. For a comprehensive summary of course numbers, sections, times and locations, titles, and instructors, see the following web page:
AML 2410
Issues in American Literature and Culture:
Contemporary American Writing in the Contact Zone
Sarika Chandra
Mary Louise Pratt defines “contact zones” as those social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and negotiate with each other. These contact zones are often formed in the context of uneven power relations such as slavery and colonialism. This course will examine how and where these contact zones are constructed in contemporary American writing. Specifically, the course will focus on the writings of Americans who travel/emigrate out of the United States, as well as on the writings of people from other nations who travel/immigrate to the United States. Contact zones are formed as these texts and their writers find themselves in new cultural situations. We will examine how American notions of culture, politics, nationalism, gender, and sexuality are negotiated in these contact zones.
AML 2410
Issues in American Literature and Culture: Contemporary African-American Literature – Neo-Slave Narratives
Lorraine Ouimet
There has been, during the past twenty years, a virtual renaissance of fiction dealing with the traumatic memories of American slavery. Such authors as Octavia Butler, Charles Johnson, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, Ishmael Reed, and Shirley Ann Williams – to name a few – have sought to (re)capture in their novels a past drowned in the waters of the Middle Passage and scarred by the horrors of slavery and racism. This course proposes to investigate the formal, thematic, and political aspects of such neo-slave narratives. Specifically, we will attempt to answer such guestions as the following: why are a considerable number of African-American writers choosing to rewrite history through the (re)appropriation of the slave narrative genre?; what are the formal differences between traditional and neo-slave narratives?; and finally, what does this resurgence of slave narratives suggest about our own socio-historical moment?
AML 2410
Issues in American Literature and Culture: Women’s Issues in American Literature
Pat Campbell
This course will examine a newly emerging canon of literature by women as a diverse representation of female experience within American culture. Using feminist theoretical and philosophical concepts such as separatism, essentialism, black feminism, gynocriticism, and psychoanalysis, we will analyze how literature of women negotiates issues of marriage and employment laws, reproductive rights, sexuality, romantic love, family, aging, and hysteria.
ENC 1145
Writing about the Political and Didactic in Contemporary Cinema
Reagan Ross
Through a critical examination of a number of contemporary films, such as Fight Club, Bulworth, American Beauty, American Psycho, and Eyes Wide Shut, this course will explore a variety of current political issues (gender issues, class questions, race issues, American politics and so on), particularly as they relate to the deepening influence of capitalism.
ENC 1145
Writing about the Law in Literature
Bernie O’Donnell
This course will be taught in a computer lab.
This course will stress the importance of persuasive/argumentative writing within the template of the law in literature by considering the guilt or innocence of fictive characters. An effective writer is an effective communicator and is therefore better prepared to succeed in the professional world, especially in the legal milieu. Consequently, this course does not so much stress the earning of a letter grade as it does the empowering of students to write persuasively. Eventually, you will forget the grade you will have earned for this class, but with continual practice, you will not forget the skills you will acquire from this course and will use them on a daily basis. This course aims to assist you in improving your argumentative writing skills in all facets: i.e., recognizing your audience, identifying and developing an appropriate voice, creating a well-structured argument, organizing your thoughts into a coherent and persuasive presentation, and improving basic grammatical and rhetorical skills. Such an endeavor will require you to write and revise numerous papers, interact with peers by critically reading and responding to rough drafts, and maintaining an open mind and positive attitude.
Required Materials:
- Maggie, a Girl of the Streets, by Stephen Crane
- The Wild Duck, by Henrick Ibsen
- Miss Julie, by August Strindberg
- Dirty Work, by Larry Brown
ENC 1145
Writing about Feminism: Women, Popular Culture, and the Second Wave, 1962–1976
Kristen Chancey
This class examines one of the most critical periods in the formation of women’s modern cultural identity: the so-called “second wave” of feminism of the 1960s and early 1970s. A time of great social and political change, innovations in birth control, education, and employment opportunities gave women unprecedented control over their lives and their bodies. For the first time, it became feasible for large numbers of the female population, not just a privileged few, to live independent existences. How did women of the period come to grips with both the privileges and dangers offered by their expanded possibilities? How did such radical transformations affect American society at large? And how were such effects reflected in the popular culture of the period not just literature, but magazines, films, and television as well? Through the analysis of such texts, this course attempts to provide an answer to these and other crucial issues of the time. In thinking, writing, and talking about these issues, students will come to a fuller understanding of a period which still greatly influences our lives today.
ENC 1145
Writing about Technology, Race, and Culture
Lorraine Ouimet
This course will be taught in a computer lab.
This course will introduce students to discourses of cultural criticism, particularly in the context of race relations. Students will engage with existing scholarship on culture and cultural productions so as to develop an understanding of the role(s) cultural productions play in the shaping of American culture, American conceptions of race, and American race relations. Then through their own critical inquiries of music, films, advertising, and literary texts – with the goals of developing their own cultural theories – students will investigate the ways in which racial identities (predominantly, but not limited to, black and white) and ultimately race relations are shaped by such cultural phenomena. For example, as the visibility of black artists and black art forms (hip hop being the most obvious example) increases, and as the consumption of black culture reaches across race, class, and gender boundatires, it is interesting to consider the impact of such visibility on racial and cultural politics.
All writing assignments will be completed using computer technology, specifically the Web (html). The assignments will help students concurrently develop a relationship with the writing practices of the 21st century and develop the strong critical thinking and writing skills acquired in more traditional writing courses.
ENC 1145
Writing about Hispanic American Literature
Rosa Soto
The aim of this course is to provide a broad view of Hispanic literature and culture, and to broach topics such as narrative technique and the literary canon. The class will offer an introduction to some of the major writers of this century and an insight into Hispanic/Latino issues through poetry, short stories, novels, art, and film. In this way, we are then able to examine further issues of race, class, ethnicity, and gender. This in turn affords us the opportunity to examine other racial identities including Anglo identity and African American identity. It is important to question and investigate the contradictions and conflation of those often dual identities within Hispanic culture.
ENC 1145
Writing About Football
Dr. Kevin McCarthy
Do not call the professor at home. Please do not eat or drink in the classroom. Have breakfast before coming to class. ENC 1145 fulfills three hours of the General Education requirement in English Composition. This course presupposes no previous knowledge of football.
Required text: The Dark Side of the Game: My Life in the NFL by Tim Green (Warner Books, 1996) and Fightin’ Gators: A History of University of Florida Football by Kevin McCarthy. Available in the Campus Bookstore.
Purpose of course: to think, learn, and write about football by reading literature and writing a series of varied assignments. We will discuss the history of the game in some detail, both the college and professional levels, have appropriate guest lecturers, and see at least one video on the sport. We will have an etymology and rule quiz every class session.
Writing assignments: Because this is a Gordon Rule course, students will write a minimum of 6,000 graded words: four four-page essays plus two in-class essays, each 1,000 words long. Assignments will include different types of writing, for example, the Argumentative Essay (Should high schoolers be allowed/encouraged to jump to the NFL? Should there be a cap on rookie salaries?), the Comparative-Contrastive Essay (on two different football teams or positions or leagues or on the difference between football and another sport), a Descriptive Essay (on one player or team or league), and a Critique Essay about a football-related book to be read outside of class. Late papers will be penalized two points for each day late; a paper due on Thursday and handed in on Tuesday will lose ten points.
Grading:
- A: 90-100: this person writes clearly, has a strong thesis, organizes the material well, offers insight, uses creativity, and is free of errors. Participates regularly in class discussions.
- B: 80-89: this writer is articulate, concise, and clear; has an occasional off-day, commits some errors, but has flashes of brilliance. Participates occasionally in class discussions.
- C: 70-79: this student does competent work, but occasional errors and inconsistencies detract. Participates infrequently in class discussions. Misses class occasionally.
- D: 70-69: poor writing and thinking skills will send this person to the showers early. Seldom participates in class discussion. Misses many classes.
- E: 0-59: poor writing, thinking skills, poor attendance, lack of participation, and no motivation characterize this student. Attendance is required; every three unexcused absences will result in the loss of one point from the total.
Percentage of components:
60% – 6 written assignments, each worth 10 points.
30% – quizzes on readings and class materials.
10% – class participation and regular attendance
Instructor: Dr. Kevin McCarthy
Office: 4360 Turlington Hall
Office hours: T 5th-6th per., R 6th per. or by appointment
Office phone: 392-5299, ext. 281.
ENC 1145
Writing about Adventure: From the Iliad to Indian Jones
Megan Norcia
This course will be taught in a computer lab.
Narratives of adventure have always been deeply embedded in pop culture. Adventure tales attempt to transcend/transgress/transmute the ordinary; epic battles, cat-and-mouse games, thrillers, castaways, and high-noon showdowns all reflect our cultural investment in the vicarious adrenaline rush and the archetypal hero figure. Using adventure texts, students will form arguments on such topics as the following: the uses of weapons or technology, representations of gender, exploitation of the natural world, economic motives of adventurers, and adventure spaces as contact zones. The course pack will include excerpts from the critical work of Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces and Martin Green’s The Seven Etiologies of Adventure to facilitate a deeper engagement with the genre.
ENC 1145
Writing about Travel
Afshin Hafizi
This course will approach writing by exploring travel writings. Travel writing and other representations of journeys as cultural practice are engaging the attention of scholars and commentators in a wide range of disciplines and its study is becoming recognized as an important academic field. The writings about travel have become ever more sophisticated, reflecting the diversity and sophistication of modern travellers and tourist. People are encouraged to seek out new experiences in different countries and cultures and to write about them. So popular is travel writing as a genre that major bookshops have entire sections devoted to this area, and some bookstores stock nothing but books of this type.
Some of the issues or themes dealt with in this course are as follows: the ideology of leisure; fear and desire of the other; the discourse of experience and authenticity; the “authentic” versus the “perfect simulation” in tourism, travel in the colonial situation, as well as the categories of home and abroad, exile and immigration, heimliche and unheimliche.
ISS 2160
Cultural Diversity in the United States
Dr. Debra Walker King
The lecture is Tuesday and Thursday, 4th period in MCCA G186. Discussion groups are broken into 4 sections, meeting on Thursdays, either 5th or 6th period. Please look closely at the sections posted.
Course Description: Much discussion in recent years has focused on the multicultural character of U.S. society, the one nation in the world whose population, apart from Native Americans, consists entirely of immigrants from all continents of the globe. The great racial and ethnic diversity that contributed to the development of this nation and its contemporary social life is the focus of this course. We will explore both the contributions and experiences of a variety of American identities, drawing on the concepts of culture, race, ethnicity, language, gender, prejudice, discrimination, and social policy as the core ideas for examination. As such, this is an interdisciplinary course, employing perspectives and information from anthropology, education, communications, political science, history, sociology, literary criticism, and religion. Special emphasis is placed on developing a respect for and an understanding of diversity within and among various American perspectives.
Format: The course follows a unit format of lectures, films, and discussion. In addition to pop quizzes, evaluations include a mid-term, a journal, and an action project report. This report’s topic must be approved by me.
Journal:During weeks 3-14, students are asked to write weekly one-page journal essays commenting upon issues raised in unit reading assignments. You may respond using your own insights and analysis or you may address the following questions: What are the primary issues or questions raised by the reading selections and what are your impressions of these issues? How do these issues affect our interactions with each other in the US? What did you learn from the reading that you did not know previously? How important is this new knowledge? How does it transform your understanding of cultural diversity in the US? You may get ideas from the suggestions for responding sections of the primary course text but do not use these suggestions as a central focus. I do not want personal reflections but sound analysis and/or contemplation of the issues raised. Journals will be collected and evaluated twice during the semester.
The “Action Project” is intended to allow you to participate in changing the world in which you live and to help alleviate some manifestation of the social problems we are studying this semester. Your project must be based on a realistic, implementable, and attainable program for responding to the problem you have selected. This can be at any level – personal, familial, college, community, or political life, including your local, state, or national government. The total length of your final report will be around 10-12 typed, double-spaced pages.
Required Texts: Virginia Cyrus, Experiencing Race, Class, and Gender in the United States and Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks
LIN 2670
English Grammar
Dr. Kevin McCarthy
Course description unavailable at this time.