Some Recent Special Topics and Seminars

“Fabulous Las Vegas.”  (Nat Lewis) This course considered a series of theoretical approaches to the culture, literature, architecture, and art of Las Vegas.  We used as a starting point Dave Hickey’s wonderful remark that “America is a very poor lens through which to view Las Vegas, while Las Vegas is a wonderful lens through which to view America.”

“Beauty and Desire in the Postmodern American Novel.”  (Nat Lewis) Traversing theories of literature and the body, we studied works by McCarthy, Garcia Marquez, Nabokov, and Morrison.

“Boredom, Sincerity, and Artifice.”  Carey Kaplan and Nat Lewis used these surprisingly complex cultural notions to read works by authors such as Henry James, Marcel Proust, and Herman Melville.

“Textual Pleasures.”  As the name suggests, Carey Kaplan and Nat Lewis investigated the notion of pleasure, as a literary theme, textual property, and readerly experience.  Our authors included Proust, Nabokov, Dickens, and Emily Bronte.

"The Existential Novel." (Bob Niemi) An exploration of existential ideas through a diverse array of literature, e.g., Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Rilke, Kafka, Sartre, de Beauvoir etc.

Teaching Writing. (Liz Inness-Brown) The training course for students wishing to become Writing Center tutors, this writing-intensive course not only explores contemporary theories of writing and methods of teaching writing, but asks students to use them as they write and as they coach two hours per week, working with their peers, graduate students, and international students on a wide range of writing assignments. A true case of hands-on learning.

Fiction Writing (Liz Inness-Brown) The only way to learn to write fiction is…to write fiction. So, in this course, students begin with a series of ten exercises exploring various techniques, then write a story a week for three weeks. During this period they get feedback mainly from their peers in small groups. Then follows, in keeping with the tradition of workshop classes, a series of whole-class workshops in which students give each other written as well as spoken feedback. The course culminates in a portfolio of two polished stories and a self-critique essay.

Writing Center Internship. (Liz Inness-Brown) The “sequel” to EN314, this course provides ongoing support to new writing coaches and also offers them an opportunity to become involved in the business end of the Writing Center so that they can develop their organizational skills. Every student becomes a member of a department (e.g., the Promotion Department, the Continuing Education Department, the Outreach Department) with a mission. Departments then plan and collaborate on activities designed to achieve their missions.