Reading & Composition

Writing can be considered a heroic task in that the writer navigates a space and experience and serves as guides for the next to come, directing their attention at certain sights and sounds. In fact, writing shares much with space-building and architecture. Many of the texts and films we will read foreground their made-ness by incorporating multiple layers of media and perspective, as well as encouraging flexibility and plasticity in their readers.

As this is a writing intensive course, many of our activities will be dedicated towards sharpening your awareness of environmental cues and their relationship to your reactions and feelings. You will then explore these correlations in your prose using precise examples from the text. Assignments include a diagnostic paper, a 6-7 page analytical paper and a 10-page research paper. The two larger papers will include a draft and the final paper, and we will place a major emphasis on the process of revision. Other assignments include approximately bi-weekly bSpace postings, group presentations, a final, independent presentation and in-class writing exercises.

Course Objectives

This is the second class in the Reading and Composition series, and will specifically address the process of writing a research paper. We will build upon the analytical writing skills students have acquired through their experience in R1A, and gradually work towards producing a final research paper.

Books

N.B. Books are available for purchase at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way across from MLK student union, (510) 548-0585.

Edwin A. Abbott. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. ISBN: 978-0486272634

Mikhail Lermontov. A Hero of Our Time. Trans. Natasha Randall. Penguin. 978-0143105633

Tayeb Salih. Season of Migration to the North ISBN: 978-1590173022

Virginia Woolf. A Room of One’s Own. Harvest Books. 0156787334

 Films

2001: A Space Odyssey, dir. Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1968 (148 min)

A Sixth Part of the World. dir. Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1926 (73 min)

Stalker, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR, 1979 (163)

A Flood in Baath Country. dir. Omar Amiralay, Syria, 2003 (45 min)

Modern Times. dir. Charlie Chaplin, USA, 1936 (87 min)