Fall 2006 Curriculum

TRANSLATION WORKSHOPS

Specialized workshops training students to translate usually from foreign languages to English. Scheduled instruction in French, Spanish and Portuguese. Rosemary Arrojo, Marilyn Gaddis Rose. (Students interested in other languages should speak with the director, Rosemary Arrojo.) See descriptions below:

TRIP 572/472/COLI 572/472/FREN 572/LACS 480A /PIC 612B/ SPAN 582 LITERARY WORKSHOP

This is a creative writing workshop in which students meet weekly with their instructor and work on texts of their choice. Texts should be of moderate length, e.g. a novelette, a long one-act play, a poem cycle. Students are strongly encouraged to look for materials that have not yet been translated and to seek formal permission from publishers. Arrojo, TR 11:40-1:05

TRIP 573/473/COLI 573/473/FREN 573/LACS 480B/PIC 612C

SPAN 583 NON-LITERARY WORKSHOP

This workshop develops a routine of translation practice organized by language pairs. Students are expected to work at a professional pace, with an average of 1,000 words per week. Arrojo, TR 11:40-1:05

Other required activities: Both literary and non-literary translators are required to participate in three 1 hour seminars conducted by R. Arrojo (times and dates TBA), in which they will be expected to discuss reading assignments in connection with their practical experience. Both literary and non-literary translators will be required to briefly discuss a chosen topic in our final meeting.

TRIP 580A/460/COLI 580A/LACS 580A/LING 449A/PIC 612D INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION STUDIES

The seminar will discuss the main basic issues that have informed the general reflection on translation in the West in the last twenty centuries. Among these issues, we will be examining, some of the consequences of the relationships that have been traditionally established between the so-called original and the translated text, between the author and the translator, and the source and the target languages and cultures. We will be reading texts from different ages and traditions, and, at the same time, we will be comparing these texts to some of the most relevant theoretical work produced in the area in the last fifty years or so. Arrojo, W 1:10-4:10

TRIP 580C/COLI 535F CAPSTONE RESEARCH SEMINAR

Advanced seminar on translation studies open only to students who are doing research in the area, and who have taken both TRIP 580A and 580B. The reading list will cater to students research interests. Arrojo, T 2:00-5:00

TRIP 707 FOREIGN READING PROFICIENCY

Course designed to enable graduate students to acquire a foreign language as a research tool. Targets acquisitions of reading knowledge by going directly to actual texts. Grammar and pronunciation essentials built into reading materials. (Available to undergraduates through Comparative Literature). Scheduled instruction in French and Spanish. Arrojo, Gaddis Rose; days and times TBA

COORDINATED CURRICULUM

COLI 512C DANTE'S INFERNO

In-depth study of Dante's Inferno. Also considers some of Dante's sources, including other narratives of hell (such as Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid) and works by classical and medieval authors such as Ovid, St. Augustine and Boethius. Students who have studied Dante before, as well as those who have not, are welcome. Lectures and assignments in English. Italian majors and minors are expected to read Italian texts in the original and to participate in an Italian discussion section (to be scheduled at a later date).Two tests, various written assignments and projects.

Prerequisites: ITAL 360 or equivalent. Stewart, TR 11:40-1:05

COLI 512E BLACK AUTOBIOGRAPHY: AFRICAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN, CARIBBEAN

This course seeks to understand the nature of autobiography by examining various kinds of autobiographies written in Africa and the African Diaspora. Although it acknowledges the genre of autobiography as a convention with a respectable history in the literate traditions of Europe and elsewhere, the course is built on two premises: First, it identifies the presence of autobiographical literature even within oral culture, using African oral texts as an illustration. Next, the course examines a variety of autobiographical texts from societies that have experienced various forms of domination--slavery, colonialism and post-colonialism--to see what marks the experience has left on their writers. This course therefore looks at autobiography writing from two perspectives: literary and political. OPEN TO JUNIORS, SENIORS AND GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY.

This is a seminar course based largely on student presentation of primary texts and the discussions arising from them. Each text is first contextualized with an introduction of its author and the backgrounds--historical, cultural and otherwise--to its writing as well as a showing of videos that provide some context within which the statement made by the book may be adequately appreciated. Undergraduates in the course are expected to write two pieces of work: first, an assessment (5-7 pages) of the work they have presented, and a final essay (10 pages) from a choice of topics set at the end of the semester. Both essays are take-home. Graduate students are expected to develop a scholarly essay of about 25 pages--the topic of which must first be cleared with the instructor--that addresses a chosen issue through an examination of at least five class texts. Okpewho, TR 4:25-5:50

COLI 512K LITERATURE-RENAISSANCE AND THE BAROQUE (GOLDEN AGE)

General survey of drama, narrative and poetry of Spain's Golden Age. Includes the dramatists Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Calderon de la Barca; the poets Garcilaso de la Vega, Fray Luis de Leon, San Juan de la Cruz, Gongora and Sor Juana, and such prose works as Lazarillo de Tormes and El Buscon. Grade based on term paper and two examinations.

Prerequisites: Primarily for seniors, or those who have already completed 400-level Spanish courses. OConnor, TR 2:50-4:15

COLI 514P LITERATURE OF 18th AND 19th CENTURIES

This course is devoted to study the development of narrative, poetry and theater in 18th- and 19th-century Spanish literature through its most relevant exponents. The course will include such authors as Duque de Rivas, Bcquer, Pardo Bazn, Galds.

Lecture/discussion, reports, three quizzes, one paper, class participation. Taught in Spanish.

Prerequisites: SPAN 344, 360 or equivalent. Sobejano-Moran, TR 10:05-11:30

COLI 517B 20th CENTURY FRENCH DRAMA

Development of French theater in the 20th century with emphasis on the importance of particular movements, such as surrealism, existentialism, and the absurd, for the theater in general and types of plays in particular. Students will read and discuss plays by Claudel, Giraudoux, Anouilh, Montherlant, Sartre, Genet, Beckett, Ionesco and others.

The course will consist of lectures and discussions. Student evaluation will be based on class participation, class reports, a midterm exam and a final seminar paper. The course will be conducted in French.

Prerequisites: At least one 300-level course and one grammar course beyond the second year. Sticca, MW 4:40-6:05

COLI 535L MASTERS OF THE SHORT STORY

How does a short story work? Examines the structural, thematic and technical choices of two masters of the genre. Close reading of Boccaccio's Decameron and Pirandello's Novelle per un Anno in order to promote linguistic competence and textual awareness. Drawing from narratology, focuses upon story line and plot; point of view; time and space of the narration; relationship between author and characters, event and accident, reality and epiphany, etc. With a firm grasp of these essentials, students are then encouraged to apply a variety of critical methodologies to selected texts.

Short background lectures; guided textual analysis; discussion and peer editing. Active class participation; several short papers and one examination.

Prerequisites: ITAL 360-361 or equivalent. Lavalva, MW 3:30-4:55

COLI 541S SARTRE AND DE BEAUVOIR

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), two of the most eminent 20th-century French philosophers, continue to intrigue readers as postwar dramatis personae. All seminar participants will have some shared readings from Sartre's and De Beauvoir's fiction and drama, but participants should expect to make individual reports on other works from these writers' works. Gaddis Rose, MW 1:10-4:10

COLI 574E THE EVENT

The "material base," once viewed as the name for the site that resists representation and appropriation, has recently yielded to the notion of "singularity" or "the event." Taking advantage of the 2006 publication in English of Badiou's Being and Event (to be examined in detail), we will study this phenomenon through a reading of Heidegger's Ereignis, Kristeva's notion of trauma and depression, Lacan's idea of missed encounter, Derrida's "it comes," Ranciere's ruminations on aesthetics, Virilio's "landscape of events" and three recent essays on September 11: Does that date constitute an event? We will also scrutinize a series of short stories. Levinson, W 1:10-4:10

COLI 574H RACE, PLACE, NATION IN LATIN AMERICA

This graduate seminar will read provocative and controversial historiography and related scholarship on 19th- and 20th-century Latin America that examines the interlocking dynamics of political culture, race, social history and geographical space. The theoretical and historical issues discussed are relevant for both for Latin Americanists and for scholars of history and culture in other regions of the world. Students will write a series of historiographical essays based on course readings and some related outside readings. Some essays will include an option to revise.

Prerequisites: The course is appropriate for graduate students in the social sciences and humanities. A small number of advanced undergraduates may enroll by permission only. Appelbaum, M 3:30-6:30

COLI 574N NARRATIVES OF SURVIVANCE

Course focus will be emergent diasporic and feminist narratives, drawn primarily from recent African and Asian visual productions, literatures and theorizings. Motile debris, the residue of post, neo, and trans-colonial implosions, scatters everywhere, not into a collection of readily identifiable categories, but into a fractious gnawing at the marrow of contemporary life. Ever in relation to memory and vast forgetting, omissions, burials and denials, the course will examine the critical implications and promise of narratives that persistently erode predictable parameters that inhabit transborder flows, unstable dimensions, gelatinous intervals and glossy strands. Such chancy narratives, animated by the gravitational push, or pull, of borders, longings and luminous habitations, are themselves pierced with incongruous linkages and the ambiguity of unknown error. Do such entangled narrative forms render ecologies of survival? Student projects for the course may be in any medium. Allen, M 3:30-6:30

COLI 592 PROSEMINAR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

The seminar is organized around the question of comparative literature: What has been the historical, social-political practice of the discipline? How do theories become transnational, transdisciplinary practices of comparative literature? What is the state of the discipline today? Three short papers (8-10 pages) required.

Prerequisites: Students other than comparative literature graduate students new to Binghamton University, including undergraduates, may be admitted as space permits and with consent of instructor. Brinker Gabler, T 1:15-4:15

EDUC 680N CRITICAL LIT ACROSS CURRICULUM

This course is about critical literacy in all of its possible manifestations, both within institutions like schools and human service agencies, and in our own public, social and personal lives. So it is not just about critical literacy "across the curriculum" but about critical literacy across life. Sheridan-Thomas, M 4:40-7:10

ENG 513D RENAISSANCE VERSE

This course covers poetry written in England and Scotland between the late 15th and late 17th century. While we will focus primarily on short forms, such as the sonnet, for most of the course, we will end the semester with John Milton's epic Paradise Lost (1667), in its entirety. Graduate students will teach the course in pairs, rotating to a different pair each week. The course will juxtapose formal criticism (which involves close reading of the poem as a literary object, a process central to New Critical practices of the mid-20th century) and cultural studies (which attends to the poem's relationship to the dominant -- and oppositional -- discourses of its time) as competing/complimentary modes of literary analysis. We will use the most recent work of controversial cultural critic (and Binghamton grad!) Camille Paglia, entitled Break, Blow, Burn, as provocation to our discussions. Weekly teaching, response papers and online discussions, occasional short papers, research paper. Sharp, F 1:10-4:10

ENG 516D VICTORIAN REALIST FICTION

This course will look at some of the most influential examples of Victorian realist fiction. We will consider the scientific, philosophical and political bases of the realist aesthetic. Works by Dickens, Gaskell, George Eliot, Trollope and Gissing will be read in the light of critical treatments of the concept of Realism from George Henry Lewes through Nancy Armstrong. Primary texts may include Dickens's OLIVER TWIST, Gaskell's MARY BARTON, George Eliot's ADAM BEDE, Trollope's THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET and Gissing's THE WHIRLPOOL. Assignments will include a critical bibliography, book review and research paper. Henry, TR 4:25-5:50

ENG 565Y THE 18th CENTURY NOVEL

This seminar addresses the social, literary and philosophical changes in the period from 1660-1798 that contributed to the rise of the novel as a favored genre. Our point of departure will be Michael McKeon's argument in The Origins of the English Novel 1600-1740 (1987) that the novel "attains its modern institutional stability and coherence at this time because of its unrivaled power both to formulate, and to explain, a set of problems that are central to early modern experience. These may be understood as problems of categorical instability, which the novel, originating to resolve, also inevitably reflects" (20). We will examine and debate this argument in the context of eight representative fictions from the period: Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (W.W. Norton, 1997), Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (W.W. Norton, 1994), Samuel Richardson, Pamela (Houghton Mifflin, Riverside Editions, 1971), Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews and Shamela (Houghton Mifflin, Riverside Editions, 1961), Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (W.W. Norton, 1983), Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (Oxford World Classics, 1990), Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (W. W. Norton, 1979) and Frances Burney, Evelina (W. W. Norton, 1998).

Participants in the seminar will present written critical problems on the assigned readings each week. These short papers (1-2 pages) will focus discussion and provide topics for two outside critical essays (8-10 pages). In addition to the short papers and outside essays, there will be a final essay examination on the primary and secondary readings for the course. Conlon, TR 11:40-1:05

ENG 589A TEACHING COLLEGE ENGLISH

This course introduces graduate students to the major theories behind the teaching of reading and writing in contemporary English studies. There is a focus on pedagogy and the creation of effective classroom practices. Special attention is paid to the ways that writing to learn and learning to write inform the teaching of college English. Dejoy, W 5:50-8:50

ENG 593Y MISSIONARY AMERICA

This is a cultural studies course whose aim to illuminate the cultural divide in America, yesterday and today. It focuses on two enduring themes of conflict -- labor and religion. I have selected numerous canonical books. On labor, we will read Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Crane's Maggie, A Girl of the Streets. The master of America's cultural divide is Sinclair Lewis, especially in Main Street and, in respect to religion, Elmer Gantry. Important novels registering the advent of scientific ideas (evolution) challenging traditional religious and social values are Lane's The Reign of Law and the probing study by Crane's contemporary, Frederic, The Damnation of Thereon Ware. The cultural significance of the issues treated will be amplified by examining Jacob Riis's turn-of-the-century picture book, How the Other Half Lives, and the 1960's film, "Inherit the Wind."

I am a proponent of student-based learning as a social as well as an intellectual process. I attempt to foster a supportive classroom environment that facilitates the development of critical thinking skills among a community of learners. For this reason, this course features Team-Led Events (TLE) and a Team Project. Each student joins a self-chosen team on a novel. The team is responsible for creatively constructing the TLE Teaching Strategies of 2-3 pp total (10% of grade) and TLE itself (25%) to facilitate the active learning and participation of the entire class. This joint effort leads to a Scholarly Team Project Essay of 21 pages total (6-7 pages per person, assuming teams of 3) (25%). There will be one individually done Take-Home Comparative Essay Exam of 10 pages (25%). The final 15% of the course grade includes my evaluations of the Peer Assessments and my assessment of the helpfulness of each student's contributions to the learning of others. Tricomi, TR 10:05-11:30

ENG 640 POETRY WORKSHOP

A workshop for writing poetry and discussion of fellow students' work. Staff, R 6:00-9:00

ENG 641 FICTION WORKSHOPS

Two sections will be offered in the fall. Section 01 taught by Professor Colbert and section 02 taught by Professor Whittier. Colbert, R 6:00-9:00; Whittier, M 4:40-7:40

FREN 581A BEASTS/HUMANS: LAFONTAINE (17th Century) Les fables

Besides being one of the best-known authors in France, La Fontaine has been termed the "only true lyric poet" of the 17th century. La Fontaine enjoyed little favor with Louis XIV, whose basic power strategy was to control thought and language. Many people know some of the more popular fables, such as "La Cigale et la Fourmi" and "Le Corbeau et le Renard." But the appearance of amusing animal tales accompanied by morals for the young has generally masked La Fontaine's poetic and verbal artistry--at once formally and ideologically subversive. Les fables will be the primary focus of reading, discussion and written work in this course, with some attention paid to the contemporary literary, social and political context. A few texts by other authors (especially the famous moralists La Bruyre, La Rochefoucault, Perrault et al.) will be used for comparison and contrast.

Three or four written analyses of individual fables; at least two oral presentations in class--one on background topics and the other a dramatic presentation of a fable selected by each student.

Prerequisites: At least one 300 level course. Coates, TR 4:25-5:50

LACS 552 RACE AND HISPANIC CARIBBEAN PEOPLE

Past and present contexts of how race has been experienced among peoples in and from the Hispanic Caribbean. Broad historical settings and socio-cultural circumstances of the question of race. Racial identities, questions of gender, class and sexuality in the Caribbean and U.S.

Prerequisites: MASS section requires matriculated MASS status. Jimenez Munoz, R 10:05-1:05

LACS 580H BRAZILIAN THEATRE

This course uses the study of play scripts by some of Brazil's most significant playwrights from the 1940s to the present to further the development of Portuguese language with an emphasis on spoken dialogue. Reading skills and writing practice at an intermediate level are also developed. In considering plays by Nelson Rodrigues, Augusto Boal, Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, Roberto Athayde, Ariano Suassuna, Dias Gomes and Maria Adelaide Amaral, we will also discuss some of the experiments which led to a national Brazilian consciousness in theater. This is the fourth course in the series, Brazilian Portuguese for Spanish Speakers, and is not appropriate for native speakers of Portuguese.

Prerequisites: ROML 200D/LACS 280D, ROML 200E/LACS 280G, SPAN 473/LACS 480R or SPAN 581Z/LACS 580T or permission of instructor. Students who have completed five semesters of college Portuguese may waive the Spanish requirement. Sullivan, TR 4:25-5:50

LING 449R LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY

Examines theoretical and ethnographic perspectives on the role of language ideologies and practices in shaping cultural dynamics of community, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class and nation; linkages between identity formation and everyday speech practices, including code-switching, crossing, register and accent; readings drawn from post-structuralist theory and cultural and linguistic anthropology.

Prerequisites: Open to juniors, seniors and grad students only. Shankar, T 2:50-5:50

MASS 581Q ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

General introduction to theory and scholarship on organizational behaviors, with specific attention to higher education in the United States. Some understanding of basic theoretical perspectives, such as organizational culture theory, is expected. Further, an understanding of the literature in higher education that addresses organizational behaviors and the administration of institutions is also expected. Major topics found within higher education literature, such as leadership, organizational change, re-structuring, technological change and the impact of concepts of race, class and gender on organization and governance are focal points of course. To provide multiple levels of understanding of the readings and concepts and facilitate understanding of the topics and issues, multiple approaches will be used. Class discussion, small group work, student presentations, library research, in addition to planned and spontaneous lectures, will comprise the bulk of instruction. Student interaction and participation will be featured. Expect to be asked to lead or initiate a discussion during a class session.

Prerequisites: Open only to matriculated MASS students. Pogue, W 3:30-6:30

PIC 550K WILLIAM JAMES

Philosopher, physician, psychologist and religious apologist, William James is perhaps the most radically challenging of all American thinkers. In this course, we will read his most famous works, including The Will to Believe and The Varieties of Religious Experience. There will be three or four papers; no exams.

Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy. Weiss, MW 10:50-12:20

PIC 550S SPINOZA'S VOICE

A course on Spinoza, primarily a reading of his ethics, but including some of his political writings; also including readings of his work by philosophers who have been deeply influenced by his most extreme and radical side. Ross, M 3:30-6:30

PIC 550T IRIGARAY

Course focuses on the ground-breaking work of one of the essential thinkers of our time. It will concentrate on key works across the fields of philosophy, linguistics, spiritualism, arts and politics.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. Brinker Gabler, W 4:30-7:30

PIC 659A THE ENCHANTMENT OF THE WORLD

Some say our times are characterized by modernization, globalization, perhaps postmodernism. This course will begin with Max Weber's suggestion that these are disenchanted, including religion, "that principally there are no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play, but rather that one can, in principle, master all things by calculation. This means that the world is disenchanted. One need no longer have recourse to magical means in order to master or implore the spirits, as did the savage, for whom such mysterious powers existed. Technical means and calculations perform the service. This above all is what intellectualization means." Everything is rational, accountable, and technical, science and academic knowledge of course, but also religion. Ross, W 3:30-6:30

SOC 601 INTRODUCTION TO MODERN WORLD SYSTEM STUDY

Modern-world system from its origins to present. Transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe. Formation of the axial division of labor, the interstate system and the structures of knowledge. Expansion/incorporation; movements/revolutions; imperialism, nationalism, hegemony. Lee, M 1:10-4:10

SOC 690P COMPARATIVE HEGEMONIES

Compares and contrasts Dutch, British and U.S. hegemonies: interstate system, balance of power and hegemony; theories of imperialism; capitalist vs. territorialist logics of power; chaos and anarchy in the interstate system; global projection of military power; empire and resistance; changing geographical scales in the dialectic between the self-regulating market and the self-protection of society; oppression and legitimate resistance; new imperialism. Palat, T 1:15-4:15

SPAN 566B SPANISH POETRY SINCE THE CIVIL WAR

This course will study important literary developments in Spain since the Civil War, and will include as well the works of exiled writers. Although our readings will not be tied to any single analytical model, we will underline the rhetorical/ideological components of the main texts. Lectures and seminar discussions in Spanish; grade based on class participation, written and/or oral reports, research paper. Fajardo, T 4:25-7:20

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