Department of English
Hill Hall, Room 503
Phone:  (973) 353-5279, x503
Fax:  (973) 353-1450
http://english-newark.rutgers.edu/

SEE ALSO:
ENGLISH, AMERICAN LITERATURE

TOPICS IN LITERATURE: MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES (3 cr.)
21:350:337:W2:99216
Dec. 23, 2011 & Jan. 3-13, 2012
BLACKBOARD ENHANCED
MTWThF 12:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
KAHN                       HILL 106
SYLLABUS

This course will introduce students to basic concepts in media and cultural studies through critical work on a wide range of topics; in so doing, we will explore such themes as ideology, violence, representation, gender and sexuality, race, class, and how these intersect with different cultural texts ranging from film and television to the visual arts and social networks. Critics will include: Theodor Adorno; Roland Barthes; Jean Baudrillard; Walter Benjamin; Judith Butler; Guy Debord; Michel Foucault; bell hooks; Laura Mulvey; Susan Sontag; and others. Film will be an integral part of this course.

Note: This is a hybrid course. Approximately half of the meetings will be held in class, while the remainder of winter session will stress Blackboard as an online learning and discussion platform. The basic use of computers and the internet as learning tools; a working knowledge of Blackboard; and a short-term subscription to Netflix are required expectations for this course.

TOPICS IN LITERATURE: SPY STORIES (3 cr.)
21:350:338:W2:99219
Dec. 23, 2011 & Jan. 3-13, 2012
MTWThF 12:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
KENNEDY                HILL 115
SYLLABUS

By definition, spies are political figures, and in this course we will chart the political fictions they have inspired. Beginning in late-nineteenth-century imperial Britain, the spy thriller enjoyed a long Cold War heyday epitomized by the likes of James Bond on screen and John Le Carré’s double agents on the page. But though that tradition is still going strong (as any airport bookshop can attest), many other writers have turned to subverting the genre to suit their very different literary aims. This trend is especially evident among postcolonial writers exploring complicated geopolitical matters in places like Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Classtime will be devoted to discussion of some key texts (likely to include Sherlock Holmes stories, Greene’s The Quiet American, and Pamuk’s Snow) as well as to viewings of film and television renderings of the spy.