Course Syllabus

Download syllabus pdf here

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English 111 K: Imagining Identity (Composition: Literature)

Dr. Matt Poland (mjpoland@uw.edu)

TuTh 11:30-1:20pm, Communications Building (CMU) 243

Canvas: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1633574

Drop-in office hours: TuTh 2-3pm or by appointment, in person (Padelford A312) or Zoom

                                    See availability and schedule on Google Calendar   

When being is laboring, we are creating more than ourselves.

(Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life)

This literature-oriented writing course has two purposes. First, we will develop analytical sensitivity to the formal and discursive features of texts using the methods of close reading and ideology critique through reading, writing, and discussion. Second, we will consider how critical attentiveness to language and history can help us navigate current issues of identity and social inequality. By the end of the course, you will be a more analytical, reflective, and resourceful user of language, which will be helpful whatever your personal and professional goals.

We will be guided by two novels, Re Jane and Jane Eyre, and a film, Parasite. They are in some respects quite different: Re Jane is set just after 9/11 in New York and Seoul, Jane Eyre was written in the 1840s and is set in northern England, and Parasite takes place in contemporary Seoul. But all the texts feature characters fighting to establish independent lives even as they come to terms with their enmeshment in communities and constrained by inequalities based on gender, race, culture, and economics. Their stories will act as a jumping-off point as you think deeply about your own situatedness, allowing critical insight to develop from your particular perspective. By asking more probing questions and communally producing new knowledge, we begin the work of making society better for ourselves and one another.

Textbooks

• Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) (Norton Critical Edition, 4^th edition, ed. Deborah Lutz, ISBN 9780393270624, $21.25 new at UW Bookstore online)
• Patricia Park, Re Jane (2015) (Penguin, ISBN 978-0143107941, $17 new at UW Bookstore online)

Note: I recommend that you buy/borrow these particular editions (new or used). This helps class discussions run smoothly. If buying online, search by the ISBN number. If this requirement constitutes a financial hardship or presents accessibility issues, let me know and we’ll figure out a solution together.

Additional Materials

• A notebook for in-class writing and out-of-class reading notes
• A folder to keep class materials together
• All supplemental class materials and links will be posted on our course website
• Internet access, UW Net ID and password, UW email account that you check every day.

Coursework

For more detailed information, see policies (below) and individual assignment prompts (to be distributed throughout the course). You will receive extensive written feedback on all formal assignments, and will resubmit the first three at the end of the quarter to practice the important step of revision and to potentially improve your grade.

Points to 4.0 scale conversion: