Peace through Art and Writing

Dr.Maryann DiEdwardo

Civic Values, The Novel As A Catalyst for Change, Literature Seminar

Civic Values

Method

English Literature Seminar, is a computer-enhanced class. Bring your laptop to class. Readings, essays, the writing process, discussions in blogs, private wiki journaling, and group projects push students beyond conceptual frameworks to challenge from a range of perspectives. Students must keep backup copies of all documents. Electronic documents are preferred. We will use the course site virtual space with attachments, blogs, wikis, presentations, and chats.Required reading for the seminar included: S. Powell Watts. No One is Coming to Save Us. New York: Harper Collins, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-062-47298-4; Cline. Ready Player One. Crown (Random House, 2011. ISBN 978-0-307-88743-63; Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale. New York: Anchor, 1998. ISBN 978-0-385-49081-8; Hosseini. The Kite Runner. New York: Penguin (Riverhead), 2003. ISBN 978-1-59463-193-1

Objectives

Learn to engage in reasoned conversation with others about the novel and social justice.Use reading and writing or technology to engage in public or academic discussions of themes within groups. Enter blog discussions and coffeehouse presentations with a willingness to entertain a range of viewpoints on multicultural issues with inspiration from essays, film, music, art, teleplays, and required readings.

Writing assignments ask students to take positions on cultural issues (or questions of interpretation) about narrative, social justice, film aesthetic, or urban spaces in an essay and/or a blog that extend to letter, author impersonation or biographical sketch, and travel writing or service creative non-fiction genres.

Make claims that incorporate clear thoughts and deep convictions to defend and support essays. We combine poetic and hermeneutic models to ask how a particular effect is achieved or why an ending seems right but also what a particular line means and what a literary work tells us about the human condition.