The RWC Department of English, Speech, and Communication is offering the following Topics in Literature classes for Spring Quarter. These courses generally fill Sophomore English requirements or Humanities electives. Take your pick among the following options, according to your interests:The Songs of Bob Dylan: 1965-1966
Professor Mike Roos
Explore the works of the master poet/songwriter of our times during the seminal period of the mid-1960s, when he was not only revolutionizing rock music, but also changing identities about as fast as he could change clothes. We’ll devote class time to listening to and discussing the best of the best of his songs from this period, songs like “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” “Desolation Row,” and “Visions of Johanna,” among others, and we’ll also watch a few of the important film studies of Dylan made during this period, with lots of concert and interview footage that provides a fascinating glimpse into a mysterious personality and an incredibly creative period in American cultural history.
The Black Arts Movement
Professor Rhonda Pettit
Topics in Literature III: the Black Arts Movement will explore the poetry and prose of African American writers in the 1960s and 1970s, and its relationship to the political and social movements of the period. Other connections to music, film, and drama will also be explored.
Literature and Film-Adaptations
Professor Cynthia Crane
This is a course in the study of literature and its adaptation into film. We will look at a variety of styles and a few genres (for ex. Cheever’s “The Swimmer” and Cunningham’s “The Hours”). We will talk about elements of fiction and the terms needed to discuss fiction, and their corollaries in film, and terms and concepts specific to film. We will evaluate the merits/deficits of adaptation, and explore the reading and celluloid experience further in various writing assignments.