Criteria: Students will write 18-20 pages (5400-6000 words) of closely graded work distributed over 4-5 formal essays, one of which will be a major research essay. Instructors may assign a number of informal writing tasks over the course of the semester, such as journal entries, free-writing, non-graded essays, drafts, and in-class writing assignments.

ENGL 1302-001, 002

Professor Tom Stone
mailto:tstone@mail.smu.edu

On the Trail of the Assassin(s): What Do We Mean When We Ask Who Did It? This course uses primarily texts and films about political assassinations to explore what can happen when politics, history, and rhetoric converge.

ENGL 1302-004, 005 (ESL)

Professor Pamela Lange
mailto:plange@smu.edu

Voices of America: Harmony or Discord?: Voices of America is designed to examine the many cultural "voices" that can be heard in the United States, whether these voices blend harmoniously or clash in discord. Students will share their own cultural backgrounds and examine those very different from their own.

This seminar will enhance students' reading comprehension with weekly sets of study questions designed to elucidate the texts. Student groups will present these questions each week to improve speaking skills and allow students to provide their own historical and cultural perspectives to the course. One-hour essay exams will test students' understanding of the texts and ability to organize their thoughts in a limited amount of time. Three five-page, thesis-based essays will provide and opportunity for students to grapple with ideas and defend a thesis of their own creation with evidence from the texts and their own research. Daily reading journals may be assigned as needed for students needing writing practice. A comprehensive final exam will draw all elements of the course together.

Reading list:

Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars

Stanford, Judith A. Connections: Reading and Writing in Cultural Contexts

Troyka, Lynn Quitman. Handbook for Writers

ENGL 1302-007

Professor Ona Seaney
mailto:oseaney@smu.edu

Visions of the Future: Finding Ourselves in Science Fiction: Science Fiction is more than bug-eyed monsters, rocket ships and laser guns. Since H.G. Wells, science fiction has taken us to the future, to alternate pasts and to parallel realities. It has taken us "where no one has gone before" only to discover more about ourselves and the society in which we live. This course will use science fiction stories, novels and movies to explore the concept of "other," gender roles, socio-political commentary and visions of the future. Readings will include works by Anne McCaffrey, Octavia Butler, and William Tenn as well as episodes from Star Trek and The Twilight Zone among others.

ENGL 1302-008 (ESL)

Professor Ona Seaney
mailto:oseaney@smu.edu

Does "Globalization" Mean "Americanization"? McDonald’s in Tiananmen Square. KFC on Red Square. The Simpsons on Arab television. With the youth of the world shod in Levi’s jeans and listening to Apple iPods one has to wonder how Americanized the global community has become. Coca-Cola wants to “teach the world to sing,” but is the song one of harmony or discord? How much globalization is Americanization and what effects does it have on the lifestyles, cultures and values of other countries? Using current events and first-hand accounts, this class will examine the effects of a “global America.”

ENGL 1302-009, 010, 013, 014

(Computer Lab)

Professor Harold Knight
mailto: haknight@smu.edu

"It's a Grand Old Flag": Electioneering or Belief?: From “Hail to the Chief” to “It’s a Grand Old Flag” Americans have a rich tradition of political music and political slogans that perhaps tells more about us as a nation than about the politicians who have used these catchy songs and phrases. Songs and slogans such as “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too” (John Tyler), “Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge” (Calvin Coolidge), “I'm Just Wild About Harry” (Harry S. Truman), “California, Here We Come” (Ronald Reagan) and “Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” (Bill Clinton) are quintessential rhetorical devices—simple, direct, memorable. What do these tidbits of language have to say about the American ethos? What do they have to do with our democratic process? These and other (serious) questions will be our subject matter while we have a rollicking good time delving into some historical oddities.

Course Plan: The beginning of the course will be a general introduction to the rhetoric of campaign songs—images, historical references, “negative” campaigning. This will include studying how the “jingles” condense the issues of the campaigns into memorable (or not so memorable) one-liners that, in some instances, are about the only idea most Americans have of a given President or candidate. We will explore the verbal as well as the musical rhetoric (keeping in mind that the students know precious little about music qua music).

About a month before the November election, we will move into the era from which the students will at least remember names: John F. Kennedy forward, and we will end that section on election day, culminating with the music we have discovered the 2008 candidates to be using.

After the election we will do a short study of how music has affected the policies and politics of Presidents after they came into office, especially the rhetoric of Civil War songs and the rhetoric of anti-war protest music of the ‘60s.

I tentatively plan to assign in-depth studies of the “rhetorics” of specific campaigns to groups of three students each as their research projects, culminating in a web-page with short essays and annotated bibliographies.

Discography:

(Whether or not these are available is uncertain; I will find a way to copy the necessary songs onto CD’s for the students to purchase.)

Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789 - 1996. Oscar Brand.
Hail to the Chief! John Ostendorf.

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too. John Ostendorf.

Required Texts:

Boller, Paul F. Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush.

Oxford University Press. Rev. Ed. 2004. (Paperback)

Eyerman, Ron. Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Traditions in the Twentieth

Century (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies). Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Internet Sources:

CB Presidential Research Services. Presidents’ Home Page. 2005.

http://www.presidentsusa.net/campaignslogans.html

Resources for my preparation:

Williams, Miles. Songs, Odes, Glees, and Ballads: a Bibliography of American

Presidential Campaign Songsters. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.

Hamon Library, Reference

Call Number: ML128.C13 M5 1990b

Reisinger, Frederick. “Presidential Elections in Song, Verse, Commercials, and More.”

Social Education 68.6, (Oct2004), 388.

Silber, Irwin. Songs America Voted By. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books,

1971.

ENGL 1302-015, 016, 018

Professor Jacqueline Bradley

mailto: jdbradle@smu.edu

Visual Rhetoric: Images as Arguments: The stories depicted in stained glass, the architecture of Notre Dame, the props in a painting, the shot angle in film, the color in advertisement or photograph-all require visual literacy. In this class we will learn how to read images and visual clues as rhetorical arguments. For the major assignments, "texts" may include paintings in the Meadows Museum, political ads, cartoons, films, stained glass, photo-essays, and product advertisements. Students are required to produce 4-5 major writing assignments, one collaborative learning project, one oral presentation, one composition exam, and several daily quizzes. Typically, day sections spend about 5 weeks of the semester in the Meadows Museum.

ENGL 1302-019, 020

Professor Shirley Alane Hall
mailto:alaneh@smu.edu

The Intersection of Visual and Written Rhetoric - This course examines the power of argument in visual as well as written mediums. How do artists create an argument or make a statement visually? How is that visual argument effective in comparison to a written argument? In this class, we will study the theories that define and categorize visual art, and apply those theories to works of art in the Meadows Museum. The course will also require an analysis of a variety of written texts, and the final research project will synthesize the visual and written arguments studied throughout the semester. Major assignments will require an analysis of fiction, non-fiction, and paintings using a variety of analytical methods from gender, psychological, and Marxist to achieve a fuller appreciation of the works studied. Students will produce 4-5 major writing assignments based on: the summer reading selection, a novel, a variety of non-fiction essays, a comprehensive research project, as well as, a collaborative and individual oral presentation, and multiple daily quizzes.

ENGL 1302-023, 024, 025

Professor Diana Gingo

mailto:dgingo@smu.edu

Film Adaptation & Intertextuality - Although film adaptations of literary and other works have been around since the beginning of cinema itself, the study and understanding of film adaptation is continuously debated and discussed. Even after a century, film scholars have yet to come to any general consensus concerning adaptation studies, especially regarding the issue of originality.

This course seeks to challenge students to think, read, and write critically about literature and film while considering theories of adaptation and intertextuality. Students will read a selection of literature in order to analyze and think critically about the literature and the resulting adapted works. In addition to these traditional literature-based adaptations (e.g. Madame Bovary), students will also study film texts that make use of multiple visual and written texts (e.g. Moulin Rouge!). The required course texts include essays, short stories, novels, plays, scholarly articles, and of course--a variety of films. Please note: Whenever possible, films will be shown in class; however, some films may be assigned for required out-of-class viewing.

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