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English 105—Composition and Literature Suzanne Keen
Reading the Golden Compass: the materials of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials
office: Payne Hall 32A
TuTh AB (class starts at 8:30 a.m.)
Washington Hall 4

Fall 2008: Reading The Golden Compass: the materials of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. Full syllabus.

With a film of The Golden Compass out just last year, the controversy about Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy His Dark Materials has heated up. Though some Christian readers have taken offense at the author’s critique of an oppressive instititutional Church, the Magisterium, the author asserts that he meant his work to update Milton, as a “Paradise Lost for teenagers.” Few contemporary authors have so vividly depicted human souls, Pullman’s daemons. Other sources of His Dark Materials include the poetry of Blake, Dante, and Shelley. A careful reading of Pullman will be accompanied by study of his major literary and scientific sources, and engagement with the critical controversy, including Pullman’s criticism of the Narnia novels as sexist and racist works. Watch the film trailer at goldencompassmovie.com.

Q&A with Philip Pullman.
Writing exercises to accompany Hacker's A Writer's Reference
Bible stories in Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost Study Guide

Fall 2007: Sherlock & Co.

Beginning with the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning, H. R. F. Keating's verse novel Jack the Lady Killer , and Susan Glaspell's play Trifles , this section of Literature and Composition focuses of the narrative forms and interpretive challenges of detective fiction.   Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories will be accompanied by modern revisions of the legendary detective, in Michael Chabon's The Final Solution and Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice , as well as Julian Barnes's celebrated novel, Arthur and George , about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's intervention in a real-life wrongful conviction. The course readings will coordinate with the visit of Michael Chabon to campus in the fall.

Required books:

Julian Barnes, Arthur and George
Michael Chabon, The Final Solution
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes
Laurie R. King, The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess and Other Poems
H.R.F. Keating, Jack, the Lady Killer
Susan Glaspell, Plays
Diana Hacker, Writing about Literature (pamphlet)

Diana Hacker, A Writer's Reference .  I refer to this text by section and page # when you have grammar, punctuation, or style errors. I expect you to have it. It is shelved separately in the Bookstore. Buy a copy there.

Grammar Girl podcast typescripts.

(I will periodically ask you to listen to a podcast about particular matters of grammar, style, or punctuation.   These are brief, free podcasts readily available through the iTunes store.   If for some reason you cannot listen to the podcasts, the transcripts are available for reading through this website.)

Fall 2006: Life's Little Ironies.

Every high school student learns that "The Gift of the Magi" exploits irony. The complex of effects that fall into the category of "irony" receives full exploration in a study of poetry and short fiction, beginning with the volume of stories in which Thomas Hardy originates the phrase "Life's Little Ironies."

Thomas Hardy, Life's Little Ironies
Thomas Hardy, Selected Poetry , ed. Samuel Hynes. Oxford World's Classics
John Cheever, Stories of John Cheever
Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories
Bobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh and Other StoriesFall 2007: Courage and Integrity

Contemporary American dramatists, poets, and writers of fiction explore courage, and integrity in pressing circumstances. How can characters maintain their pride and act honorably when faced with challenges to their personal safety, well-being, and identity? The plays, poems, and stories we read (and the performances we view) offer an array of answers to the question.

Adrienne Kennedy, People Who Led to My Plays
Adrienne Kennedy, In One Act
Marilyn Nelson, A Wreath for Emmett Till
Kevin Quashie, Joyce Lausch, and Keith Millers, eds. , New Bones
Anna Deavere Smith, Fires in the Mirror
August Wilson , Joe Turner's Come and Gone
August Wilson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

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