James H. Cox

Instructor:  Cox, J

Unique #:  35490-35575

Semester:  Fall 2018

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 303C (or 603A), RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 303C (or 603A).

Description:  Literature and Cultural Identity -- This course is a survey of American literature from the pre-Civil War era to the present.  In order to explore the diversity of American experiences as represented in writing, we will read works by African American, Mexican American, Chinese American, European American, Indian (Bengali) American, and Native American authors.  We will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each piece of writing on the syllabus, but one main interest will be the way that these authors explore what being “American” means both to them and the community or communities that they represent.  Many works we read will also address questions of personal and social responsibility within specifically American contexts.  With some frequency, we will ask what these works communicate about the values and choices of different people and groups living in different social and historical contexts.  I will provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in these contexts.  In addition to familiarizing yourself with these important and compelling pieces of writing and the historical contexts in which the authors produced them, a primary goal will be for you to practice becoming critical readers, thinkers, and writers.

Texts:  We will read works by Sherman Alexie, Gertrude Bonnin / Zitkala-Sa, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Jacobs, Jhumpa Lahiri, Abraham Lincoln, and Walt Whitman, for example, and the novels The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Requirements & Grading:  Three exams, with short answer and essay questions, which cover the three general historical periods that we will be studying.

This course is designed to prepare students in the 4th, 5th, and 6th years of the program to seek employment. It introduces them to the various positions available to our PhDs at different types of colleges and universities as well as to “alt-ac” careers outside of postsecondary education in business, non-profit organizations, and university administration. Guests will visit the class to talk about their experiences in these academic and alt-ac positions and share strategies for applying for them. The class uses a small group, workshop format to develop and hone application materials—e.g. CVs, letters of application, dissertation abstracts, teaching portfolios, teaching philosophies—and to practice interviewing skills for a variety of academic positions.

We will cover these topics in roughly this order:

Employment at Community Colleges, Liberal Arts Colleges, and Research Universities

Alternate Academic Careers

Teaching portfolios and teaching statements

Fellowships and postdocs

Dissertation abstracts and CVs

Reading job ads, writing job letters, applying to the situation

Interviewing Skills

Instructor:  Cox, J

Unique #:  35260-35335

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 303C (or 603A), RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 303C (or 603A).

Description:  Literature and Cultural Identity -- This course is a survey of American literature from the pre-Civil War era to the present.  In order to explore the diversity of American experiences as represented in writing, we will read works by African American, Mexican American, Chinese American, European American, Indian (Bengali) American, and Native American authors.  We will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each piece of writing on the syllabus, but one main interest will be the way that these authors explore what being “American” means both to them and the community or communities that they represent.  Many works we read will also address questions of personal and social responsibility within specifically American contexts.  With some frequency, we will ask what these works communicate about the values and choices of different people and groups living in different social and historical contexts.  I will provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in these contexts.  In addition to familiarizing yourself with these important and compelling pieces of writing and the historical contexts in which the authors produced them, a primary goal will be for you to practice becoming critical readers, thinkers, and writers.

Texts:  We will read works by Sherman Alexie, Gertrude Bonnin / Zitkala-Sa, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Jacobs, Jhumpa Lahiri, Abraham Lincoln, and Walt Whitman, for example, and the novels The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Requirements & Grading:  Three exams, with short answer and essay questions, which cover the three general historical periods that we will be studying.

Race and the History of American Literary Studies

This course will provide an introduction to key texts and scholarly conversations in African American, Latina/o, Mexican American, and Native American literary traditions. We will begin in the 1920s, when, as Terry Eagleton observes, “it was desperately unclear why English was worth studying at all,” and American literature faced what Elizabeth Renker calls “disparagement” and “hostility” within many university English departments. We will think about the place of these literary traditions in the broader institutional contexts of American literary and English studies while paying attention to their links to cultural forces, historical contexts, and political movements. Important questions under our consideration will include: what role did social and intellectual issues related to race play in the practice of American literary studies in the years before it “achieved institutional maturity” (Renker); what were the productive conflicts within these specific literary traditions and in American literary studies during the pre-civil rights era; how did these specific literary traditions and American literary studies change, if they did, during and after the Civil Rights era and, again, after the turn of the century and 9/11?

Writing assignments: weekly reading responses, a conference paper for presentation at a class conference in the eighth week, and a seminar paper due at the end of the semester.

Reading List

Lynn Riggs, The Cherokee Night (1932; 1936)*

James Baldwin, Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953)

N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (1968)

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970)

Louise Erdrich, Tracks (1988)

Julia Alvarez, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991)*

Junot Díaz, Drown (1996)

Nina Marie Martínez, Caramba! (2004)

Dinaw Mengestu, How to Read the Air (2010)

Benjamin Saenz, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club (2012)

Selections, for example, from Rachel Adams, Continental Divides: Remapping the Cultures of North America (Chicago, 2009); Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (Aunt Lute, 1987);** James English, The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value (Harvard, 2008); Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (Oxford, 1993); Gordon Hutner, What America Read: Taste, Class, and the Novel, 1920-1960 (UNC, 2009); Robert Dale Parker, The Invention of Native American Literature (Cornell, 2002); Elizabeth Renker, The Origins of American Literature Studies: An Institutional History (Cambridge, 2007); and Ramón Saldivar, The Borderlands of Culture: Américo Paredes and the Transnational Imaginary (Duke, 2006).

*Harry Ransom Center.

**Benson Latin American Collection.

Instructor:  Cox, J

Unique #:  35455

Semester:  Spring 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  In this course we will devote ourselves to a study of the author and celebrity Ernest Hemingway, the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.  We will read short fiction, novels, and non-fiction from throughout his entire career, beginning with the Paris years, including In Our Time, The Sun Also Rises, and the posthumously published A Moveable Feast.  The semester ends with the last book published during his life: the wildly celebrated, Pultizer-prize winning novel The Old Man and the Sea.  We will take formal, historical, literary historical, and cultural approaches to all these works and discuss, for example, Hemingway the stylist; Hemingway as the voice of the Lost Generation; and Hemingway as an icon of American masculinity.  We will also consider issues such as race, nationality, class, and religion that permeate his writing. Primary goals of the course include closely examining from the aforementioned perspectives the main concerns and features of Hemingway’s work as well as strengthening your critical reading and writing skills.

Required Reading (Tentative):  The Sun Also Rises (1926); A Farewell to Arms (1929);The Short Stories: The First Forty-Nine Stories (1938); For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940); The Old Man and the Sea (1952); A Moveable Feast (1964).

Requirements & Grading:  Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way: 60% for two essays of five pages each; 20% for one substantial revision of one of the five page essays; and 20% for attendance, class participation, and one presentation of a daily reading assignment.

Attendance:  Required.  Excessive absences (more than 4) will adversely influence your final grade.

E384K Professional Outcomes

Gretchen Murphy and James Cox

This course is designed to prepare students in the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th years of the program to seek employment. It introduces them to the various positions available to our PhDs at different types of colleges and universities as well as to “alt-ac” careers outside of postsecondary education in business, non-profit organizations, and university administration. Guests will visit the class to talk about their experiences in these academic and alt-ac positions and share strategies for applying for them. The class uses a small group, workshop format to develop and hone application materials—e.g. CVs, letters of application, dissertation abstracts, teaching portfolios, teaching philosophies—and to practice interviewing skills for a variety of academic positions.

We will cover these topics in roughly this order:

Employment at Community Colleges, Liberal Arts Colleges, and Research Universities

Alternate Academic Careers

Teaching portfolios and teaching statements

Fellowships and postdocs

Dissertation abstracts and CVs

Reading job ads, writing job letters, applying to the situation

Interviewing Skills

E 316M  l  American Literature

Instructor:  Cox, J

Unique #:  35030-35085

Semester:  Fall 2016

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description:  Literature and Cultural Identity -- This course is a survey of American literature from the pre-Civil War era to the present.  In order to explore the diversity of American experiences as represented in writing, we will read works by African American, Mexican American, Chinese American, European American, Indian (Bengali) American, and Native American authors.  We will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each piece of writing on the syllabus, but one main interest will be the way that these authors explore what being “American” means both to them and the community or communities that they represent.  Many works we read will also address questions of personal and social responsibility within specifically American contexts.  With some frequency, we will ask what these works communicate about the values and choices of different people and groups living in different social and historical contexts.  I will provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in these contexts.  In addition to familiarizing yourself with these important and compelling pieces of writing and the historical contexts in which the authors produced them, a primary goal will be for you to practice becoming critical readers, thinkers, and writers.

Texts: We will read works by Sherman Alexie, Gertrude Bonnin / Zitkala-Sa, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Jacobs, Jhumpa Lahiri, Abraham Lincoln, and Walt Whitman, for example, and the novels The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Requirements & Grading:  Three exams, with short answer and essay questions, which cover the three general historical periods that we will be studying.

E 384K • Disciplinary Outcomes • Gretchen Murphy and James Cox

This course is designed for students preparing to seek employment while completing the PhD in the 5th or 6th years of the program. It introduces students to the various positions available to our PhDs at different types of colleges and universities as well as to “alt-ac” careers outside of postsecondary education in business, non-profit organizations and university administration. It uses a small group, workshop format to develop and hone application materials  -- e.g. CV, letter of application, dissertation abstract, teaching portfolio, teaching philosophy -- and to practice interviewing skills for a variety of academic positions.

Rough Course Schedule

Jan 15 No class

Jan 25 Employment at Community Colleges, Liberal Arts Colleges, and Research Universities

Feb 1 No Class

Feb 8 Alternate Academic Careers

Feb 15 Reading assignment: Placement Document

           Teaching portfolios and teaching statements

Feb 22 Small group workshop: Teaching portfolios and teaching statements

Feb 29 Due: Revisions of teaching portfolios and teaching statements

March 7 Fellowships and postdocs; the dissertation abstract and CV

March 14 Spring break

March 21 Small group workshop: dissertation abstracts and CVs

March 28 Due: revisions of dissertation abstracts and CVs

April 4 Reading job ads, writing job letters, applying to the situation

April 11 Small group workshop: job application letters to research and teaching positions due

April 17 Revised drafts of job letters due

April 18 Interviewing Skills

April 25 No class

May 4 No class

E 316M  l  American Literature

Instructor:  Cox, J

Unique #:  34180-34334

Semester:  Fall 2015

Cross-lists:  n/a

Flags:  Cultural Diversity in the U.S.

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: One of the following: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: Literature and Cultural Identity --

This course is a broad survey of American literature. In order to explore the diversity of American experiences as represented in writing, we will read works by African American, Asian American, Chicana/o (Mexican American), European (English, French, Spanish) American, Latina/o, and Native American authors. We will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each piece of writing on the syllabus, but one main interest will be in the way that these authors explore what being “American” means both to them and the community or communities that they represent. I will also provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in context. In addition to familiarizing yourself with these important and compelling pieces of writing, a primary goal will be for you to practice becoming close, critical readers.

Texts: Selected novels or short stories by Sherman Alexie, Oscar Casares, Junot Díaz, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gish Jen, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Alice Walker, for example.

Requirements & Grading: Three exams, with short answer and essay questions, which cover the four general periods that we will be studying.

E f316M  l  American Literature

Instructor:  Cox, J

Unique #:  82535

Semester:  Summer 2015, first session

Cross-lists:  n/a

Flags:  Cultural Diversity in the U.S.

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: One of the following: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: This course is a survey of important American authors. We will read works by a diverse group of writers, including African American, European American, Native American, Latina/o, Mexican American, and Asian American authors. Though we will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each text on the syllabus, one main interest will be in the way that these authors explore what being “American” means both to them and the community or communities that they represent. I will also provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in context. Another important goal will be for you to practice becoming close, critical readers.

Texts: Selected novels or short stories by Sherman Alexie, Oscar Casares, Junot Díaz, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gish Jen, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Alice Walker, for example.

Requirements and Grading:

ATTENDANCE: Regular attendance is a requirement.

IN CLASS WRITING: You will be required to do four short writing activities modeled on the genres that we are studying in the class: a short memoir or autobiography; a short commentary on a social, political, or community issue of importance to you or a short history or profile of your home community; a short work of fiction; and a short poem.

TWO EXAMS: You will take four exams over the course of the semester. These exams will consist of a short answer section and short essay questions.

In class writing, 20%; Exams, 30% each [graded on a 0-100 scale]

FLAGS:  CD

DESCRIPTION:

This class will focus on a selection of influential and award-winning late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century American Indian (Native American) and Mexican American writers and filmmakers. We will discuss issues such as form and style, identity, storytelling, tradition, community, citizenship, and the representation of Native Americans and Mexican Americans in popular culture. One primary goal will be to foreground and draw explicit links between Native American and Mexican American historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts and to attempt to understand the readings and films from within those contexts. An equally important goal of the course will be to strengthen both your historical and cultural knowledge and your critical reading and viewing skills.

TEXT:

Alexie, Sherman (Spokane and Coeur d’Alene). The Toughest Indian in the World. (Grove, 2000)

Arias, Ron. The Road to Tamazunchale. (West Coast Poetry Review, 1975; Bilingual Press, 1987)

Bratt, Peter. La Mission. 2009.

Casares, Oscar. Amigoland. (Little Brown 2009; Back Bay Books, 2010)

Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek. (Vintage, 1991)

Harjo, Sterlin. Four Sheets to the Wind. 2007.

King, Thomas (Cherokee). The Truth About Stories. (House of Anansi, 2003; Minnesota, 2008)

Silko, Leslie Marmon (Laguna Pueblo). Ceremony. (Penguin, 1977)

GRADING :

Two exams, 40% each

Participation, 20%

We will devote ourselves in this course to the study of late twentieth and early twenty-first century short fiction and novels about immigration, primarily but not exclusively to the United States, from a diverse range of home countries. We will think about these novels within the contexts of U.S. literary history; immigration debates in the U.S. in the 1990s and 2000s; 9/11; and the Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidencies, for example. Key questions will include how class, education, gender, race, and religion shape the experience of immigration as well as the form of immigration narratives.

Tentative Reading List: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (2013, Knopf); Oscar Casares, Amigoland (2009, Little Brown); Junot Diaz, Drown (1996, Riverhead); Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002, Picador); Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake(2003, Mariner); Joseph O’Neill, Netherland (2008, Vintage); Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (2005).

Requirements & Grading: Class participation, attendance, and presentation: 20%; Short essays (3-4 pages): 40%; Research paper (10-12 pages): 40%.

Flags:  Cultural Diversity, Writing

Prerequisite: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Instructor:  Cox, J

Unique #:  35805

Semester:  Fall 2014

Cross-lists:  n/a

Flags:  Writing

Computer instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Six semester hours of upper-division coursework in English.

Description: In this course we will devote ourselves to a study of Ernest Hemingway, the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. We will read short fiction, novels, and non-fiction from throughout his entire career, beginning with early works such as In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises and finishing with the posthumous A Moveable Feast. We will take formal, historical, and cultural approaches to all these works and discuss, for example, Hemingway the stylist; Hemingway as the voice of the Lost Generation; and Hemingway as an icon of American masculinity. We will also consider issues such as race, nationality, class, and religion that permeate his work.

Required Reading (Tentative): In Our Time (1925); The Sun Also Rises (1926); A Farewell to Arms (1929); Green Hills of Africa (1935); Across the River and Into the Trees (1950); The Old Man and the Sea (1952); A Moveable Feast (1964).

Requirements & Grading: Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way: 60% for three essays of three to four pages each; 20% for one substantial revision of one of the three to four page essays; and 20% for attendance, class participation, and one presentation of a daily reading assignment.

Attendance: Required. Excessive absences (more than 5) will adversely influence your final grade.

Instructor:  Cox, J

Unique #:  36220

Semester:  Spring 2014

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites: Six semester hours of upper-division coursework in English.

Description: This class will focus on influential, award-winning, and often controversial Native American (American Indian) writers that are part of the first two generations of the post-1968 Native American Renaissance. The authors that we read will provide us with the critical framework for our discussions of form, identity, storytelling, tradition, community, citizenship, and the representation of Native Americans in popular culture.  One primary goal will be to foreground Native historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts and to attempt to understand the readings from within those contexts. An equally important goal of the course will be to strengthen your critical reading, writing, and research skills.

Tentative reading list: Alexie, Sherman (Spokane and Coeur d’Alene). The Toughest Indian in the World.

Erdrich, Louise (Turtle Mountain Ojibway). The Round House.

King, Thomas (Cherokee). The Truth About Stories.

Power, Susan (Standing Rock Dakota). The Grass Dancer.

Silko, Leslie Marmon (Laguna Pueblo). Ceremony.

Welch, James (Blackfeet / Gros Ventre). Winter in the Blood.

Selected poems and short stories by Alexie, King, Stephen Graham Jones, and others.

In-class handouts.

Requirements & Grading: 10% for annotated bibliography and other short writing assignments related to the research paper; 20% for attendance, participation, and oral presentation; 30% for two critical essays of 4-5 pages each; 40% for one research paper of ten pages.

Instructor:  Cox, J            Areas:  I / H

Unique #:  35830            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Fall 2013            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Six semester hours of upper-division coursework in English.

Description: In this course we will devote ourselves to a study of Ernest Hemingway, the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. We will read short fiction, novels, and non-fiction from throughout his entire career, beginning with early works such as In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises and finishing with the posthumous A Moveable Feast. We will take formal, historical, and cultural approaches to all these works and discuss, for example, Hemingway the stylist; Hemingway as the voice of the Lost Generation; and Hemingway as an icon of American masculinity. We will also consider issues such as race, nationality, class, and religion that permeate his work.

Required Reading (Tentative): In Our Time (1925); The Sun Also Rises (1926); A Farewell to Arms (1929); Green Hills of Africa (1935); Across the River and Into the Trees (1950); The Old Man and the Sea (1952); A Moveable Feast (1964).

Requirements & Grading: Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way: 60% for three essays of three to four pages each; 20% for one substantial revision of one of the three to four page essays; and 20% for attendance, class participation, and one presentation of a daily reading assignment.

Attendance: Required. Excessive absences (more than 5) will adversely influence your final grade.

Instructor:  Cox, J            Areas:  -- / B

Unique #:  34790-34835            Flags:  Cultural diversity

Semester:  Spring 2013            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A; and a passing score on the reading section of the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) test.

Description: Literature and Cultural Identity --

This course is a broad survey of American literature from its origins to the present. In order to explore the diversity of American experiences as represented in writing, we will read works by African American, Chicana/o (Mexican American), Chinese American, European (English, French, Spanish) American, and Native American authors. We will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each piece of writing on the syllabus, but one main interest will be in the way that these authors explore what being “American” means both to them and the community or communities that they represent. I will also provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in context. In addition to familiarizing yourself with these important and compelling pieces of writing, a primary goal will be for you to practice becoming close, critical readers.

Texts:

Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar Nunez. Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America. 1542. [available on Blackboard; designated Bb on Daily Course Schedule; please print a copy]

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 1899.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. 1845. [available on Blackboard; designated Bb on Daily Course Schedule; please print a copy]

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises. 1926.

Course Packet [designated CP on the Daily Course Schedule] available at IT Copy, 512 W. MLK Blvd.

All poems are available on multiple websites.

Requirements & Grading: Four exams, with short answer and essay questions, which cover the four general periods that we will be studying.

Contemporary Native American Fiction and Theory

This course is a survey of contemporary Native American fiction within the context of current criticism and theory. We will have as our three main objectives: to become familiar with the history of the field of American Indian literary studies; to become familiar with the two influential modes of inquiry--tribal nation specificity and American Indian literary nationalism--at the forefront of current theory and practice; and to become familiar with some canonical and other less well-known Native American fiction writers. We will spend the first part of the semester reading recent overviews of the field before focusing on the critical and theoretical work of those scholars--Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, LeAnne Howe, Sean Teuton, Robert Warrior, Jace Weaver, Craig Womack--currently shaping the conversations in the field. The work of these scholars and others will inform our approach to the short stories and novels on the reading list. The politics of fiction in Indian Country will be of particular interest. What place does fiction have, if any, within contemporary American Indian struggles for self-determination?

Instructor:  Cox, J            Areas:  I / H

Unique #:  35470            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Six semester hours of upper-division coursework in English.

Description: In this course we will devote ourselves to a study of Ernest Hemingway, the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. We will read short fiction, novels, and non-fiction from throughout his entire career, beginning with early works such as In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises and finishing with the posthumous A Moveable Feast. We will take formal, historical, and cultural approaches to all these works and discuss, for example, Hemingway the stylist; Hemingway as the voice of the Lost Generation; and Hemingway as an icon of American masculinity. We will also consider issues such as race, nationality, class, and religion that permeate his work.

Required Reading (Tentative): In Our Time (1925); The Sun Also Rises (1926); A Farewell to Arms (1929); Green Hills of Africa (1935); Across the River and Into the Trees (1950); The Old Man and the Sea (1952); A Moveable Feast (1964).

Requirements & Grading: Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way: 60% for three essays of three to four pages each; 20% for one substantial revision of one of the three to four page essays; and 20% for attendance, class participation, and one presentation of a daily reading assignment.

Attendance: Required. Excessive absences (more than 5) will adversely influence your final grade.

Instructor:  Cox, J            Areas:  III / U

Unique #:  35680            Flags:  Cultural diversity; Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: The many enduring contacts and conflicts between diverse communities have always been of interest to American novelists. In this class, we will consider the contributions to this literary history made by authors who place these contacts and conflicts at the center of their work. In our consideration of the novels on the reading list, we will discuss issues such as representation and self-representation; familial, cultural, communal, regional, socio-economic, and national identities; and immigration, assimilation, and cultural authenticity. We will discuss the specific kinds of borders between people that these authors erase, negotiate, and, often, reconstruct in old and new ways and look at the specific kinds of contacts and conflicts between people and the various consequences of and resolutions to these conflicts that these authors depict. Primary goals of the course include closely examining the aforementioned key features of the twentieth- and early twenty-first century U.S. novel as well as strengthening your critical reading and writing skills.

Texts: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925); Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926); Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957); Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985); Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (2003); Nina Maria Martinez, Caramba! (2004); Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (2005); Sherman Alexie, Flight (2007).

Requirements & Grading: Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way: 60% for three essays of three to four pages each; 20% for one substantial revision of one of the three to four page essays; and 20% for attendance, class participation, and one presentation of a daily reading assignment.

Attendance: Required. Excessive absences (more than 5) will adversely influence your final grade.

Instructor:  Cox, J            Areas:  I / H

Unique #:  83875            Flags:  n/a

Semester:  Summer 2012, second session            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: In this course we will devote ourselves to a study of Ernest Hemingway, the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. We will read short fiction, novels, and non-fiction from throughout his entire career, beginning with early works such as In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises and finishing with the posthumous A Moveable Feast. We will take formal, historical, and cultural approaches to all these works and discuss, for example, Hemingway the stylist; Hemingway as the voice of the Lost Generation; and Hemingway as an icon of American masculinity. We will also consider issues such as race, nationality, class, and religion that permeate his work.

Required Reading (Tentative): In Our Time (1925); The Sun Also Rises (1926); A Farewell to Arms (1929); Green Hills of Africa (1935); Across the River and Into the Trees (1950); The Old Man and the Sea (1952); A Moveable Feast (1964).

Requirements & Grading: Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way:  Two Exams – 40% each; Attendance, class participation (quality and quantity), in-class writing, including reading quizzes – 20% total.

Instructor:  Cox, J            Areas:  n/a

Unique #:  34715-34750            Flags:  cultural diversity

Semester:  Spring 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Completion of at least thirty semester hours of coursework, including E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A, and a passing score on the reading section of the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) test. 

Course Description: Literature and Cultural Identity --

The goal of this course is to study the "masterworks" of American literature, and we will, therefore, read masterworks by some combination of African American, Asian American, European American, Native American, and Latina/o authors. Though we will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each text on the syllabus, one main interest will be in the way that these authors explore what being "American" means both to them and the community or communities that they represent. I will also provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in context.

Texts: The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter seventh edition, ed. Nina Baym

SAMPLE AUTHORS: Rudolfo Anaya, William Bradford, Sandra Cisneros, Charles Alexander Eastman, William Faulkner, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Langston Hughes, Gish Jen, Flannery O'Connor, Alice Walker.

Grading: Four exams, with short answer and essay questions, which cover the four general periods that we will be studying.

Instructor:  Cox, J            Areas:  III / U

Unique #:  35495            Flags:  Cultural diversity; Writing

Semester:  Spring 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: The many enduring contacts and conflicts between diverse communities have always been of interest to American novelists. In this class, we will consider the contributions to this literary history made by authors who place these contacts and conflicts at the center of their work. In our consideration of the novels on the reading list, we will discuss issues such as representation and self-representation; familial, cultural, communal, regional, socio-economic, and national identities; and immigration, assimilation, and cultural authenticity. We will discuss the specific kinds of borders between people that these authors erase, negotiate, and, often, reconstruct in old and new ways and look at the specific kinds of contacts and conflicts between people and the various consequences of and resolutions to these conflicts that these authors depict. Primary goals of the course include closely examining the aforementioned key features of the twentieth- and early twenty-first century U.S. novel as well as strengthening your critical reading and writing skills.

Texts: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925); Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926); Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957); Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985); Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (2003); Nina Maria Martinez, Caramba! (2004); Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (2005); Sherman Alexie, Flight (2007).

Requirements & Grading: Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way: 60% for three essays of three to four pages each; 20% for one substantial revision of one of the three to four page essays; and 20% for attendance, class participation, and one presentation of a daily reading assignment.

Attendance: Required. Excessive absences (more than 5) will adversely influence your final grade.

E 350R (Topic: Interwar U.S. Literature) and 379R (Topic: Interwar U.S. Literature) may not both be counted.

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: This course takes as its purview novels published by US writers in the 1920s and 1930s. The interwar period includes major movements such as the Harlem Renaissance and Modernism, and it was also the golden age of detective fiction.  The required readings offer a geographically diverse range of works: Hemingway's France and Spain; Larsen’s Chicago, New York, and Denmark; Faulkner's Mississippi; Hammett’s and McNickle's Montana; Hurston's Florida; and Chandler's Los Angeles. We will place these works in their regional, national, and historical contexts, consider their stylistic innovations, and attend particularly to questions of class and ethnicity. 

Texts: Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises (1926); Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928); Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest (1929); Faulkner, William, As I Lay Dying (1930); McNickle, D'Arcy, The Surrounded (1936); Hurston, Zora Neale, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (1939).

Requirements & Grading: Class participation and in-class writing: 25%; Three exams: 25% each.

Contemporary Native American Fiction/Theory

Course Description: This course is a survey of contemporary Native American fiction within the context of current criticism and theory. We will have as our three main objectives: to become familiar with the history of the field of American Indian literary studies; to become familiar with the two influential modes of inquiry--tribal nation specificity and American Indian literary nationalism--at the forefront of current theory and practice; and to become familiar with some canonical and other less well-known Native American fiction writers. We will spend the first part of the semester reading recent overviews of the field before focusing on the critical and theoretical work of those scholars--Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, LeAnne Howe, Sean Teuton, Robert Warrior, Jace Weaver, Craig Womack--currently shaping the conversations in the field. The work of these scholars and others will inform our approach to the short stories and novels on the reading list. The politics of fiction in Indian Country will be of particular interest. What place does fiction have, if any, within contemporary American Indian struggles for self-determination? What role can it play, if any, in a tribal nation's enduring economic or health crises? What does it mean for our work with American Indian fiction that many tribal nation scholars ask these questions?

*Required Readings Come Primarily from the American Indian Literature Field Exam List*

Possible Primary Texts:

Alexie, Sherman. The Toughest Indian in the World. 2000.

Erdrich, Louise. Tracks. 1988. ---. Four Souls. 2004.

Howe, LeAnne. The Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story. 2007.

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. 1993.

LaDuke, Winona. Last Standing Woman. 1999.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. 1977.

Welch, James. Winter in the Blood. 1974.

Possible Secondary Texts:

Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth. Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner: A Tribal Voice. Selections. 1996.

Howe, LeAnne. "The Story of America: A Tribalography." 2002.

Justice, Daniel Heath. Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History. Selections. 2006.

Teuton, Sean. Red Land, Red Power: Grounding Knowledge in the American Indian Novel. 2008.

Warrior, Robert. The People and the Word: Reading Native Non-fiction. Selections. 2005.

Weaver, Jace, Craig Womack, and Robert Warrior. American Indian Literary Nationalism. Selections. 2006.

Weaver, Jace. That the People Might Live: Native American Literatures and Native American Community.Selections. 1997.

Womack, Craig, Daniel Justice, and Christopher Teuton, eds. Reasoning Together: The Native Critics Collective. Selections. 2008.

Womack, Craig. Red on Red: Native American Literary Separatism. Selections. 1999.

Requirements and Grades: Reading Responses 25%; Oral Presentation 15%; Seminar Paper 50%; Conference Proposal 10%

Course Description: Literature and Cultural Identity -- The goal of this course is to study the "masterworks" of American literature, and we will, therefore, read masterworks by some combination of African American, Asian American, European American, Native American, and Latina/o authors. Though we will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each text on the syllabus, one main interest will be in the way that these authors explore what being "American" means both to them and the community or communities that they represent. I will also provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in context. 

Texts: The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter seventh edition, ed. Nina Baym

SAMPLE AUTHORS: Rudolfo Anaya; William Bradford; Sandra Cisneros; Charles Alexander Eastman; William Faulkner; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Langston Hughes; Gish Jen; Flannery O'Connor; Alice Walker.

Grading: Four exams, with short answer and essay questions, which cover the four general periods that we will be studying.

Prerequisites: Completion of at least thirty semester hours of coursework, including E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A, and a passing score on the reading section of the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) test. 

Course Description: The many enduring contacts and conflicts between culturally and ethnically diverse communities have always been of interest to American novelists. In this class, we will consider the contributions to this literary history made by authors who place these contacts and conflicts at the center of their work. In our consideration of the novels on the reading list, we will discuss issues such as literary representation and self-representation, cultural sovereignty, cultural authenticity, and community identity. The diverse regional, religious, and cultural contexts that inform these novels provide a broad variety of perspectives on what W. E. B. Du Bois called in 1903 the problem of the twentieth century: the color line or, more specifically for this class, the color lines that these authors erase, negotiate, and, often, reconstruct in old and new ways.

Texts: Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925); William Faulkner, Light in August (1932); Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970); Sherman Alexie, Reservation Blues (1995); Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (2003); Nina Maria Martinez, Caramba! (2004).

Grading: Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way:  40% total for five reading responses of two pages each; 40% total for two formal essays of three pages each; 20% total for class participation and reading response presentation. Attendance: Required. Excessive absences (more than 5) will adversely influence your final grade.

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Dr. James Cox
Office: CAL 14
Office Phone: 232-7804
E-mail: jhcox@mail.utexas.edu
Office Hours: MW 7:00-7:50, MW 9:00-9:50, and by appointment

English 377K: The American Novel After 1920 (W)
MWF 8:00-8:50 P.M.
PAR 204
Spring 2010

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The many enduring contacts and conflicts between culturally and ethnically diverse communities have always been of interest to American novelists.  In this class, we will consider the contributions to this literary history made by authors who place these contacts and conflicts at the center of their work.  In our consideration of the novels on the reading list, we will discuss issues such as literary representation and self-representation, cultural sovereignty, cultural authenticity, and community identity.  The diverse regional, religious, and cultural contexts that inform these novels provide a broad variety of perspectives on what W. E. B. Du Bois called in 1903 the problem of the twentieth century: the color line or, more specifically for this class, the color lines that these authors erase, negotiate, and, often, reconstruct in old and new ways.

TEXTS:

William Faulkner, Light in August (1932)
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970)
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (2003)
Nina Maria Martinez, ¡Caramba! (2004)
Sherman Alexie, Flight (2007)
Casares, Oscar. Amigoland (2008)

CLASS REQUIREMENTS:

ATTENDANCE:

You should plan to attend every class. Excessive absences (more than 5) will lower your final grade one full letter. Please do not be late to class, as being late is disruptive and disrespectful to your classmates, and please do not bring laptop computers to class.

PRESENTATION:

I will ask each one of you to facilitate class discussion one day during the semester. For this assignment, please plan to speak for 5-10 minutes solely about the reading assignment for that day. There are several possible formats for your presentation, but your main goal should be to share your thoughts and questions about the reading.

TWO-PAGE ESSAYS:

Four (4) two-page, double-spaced analyses of four (4) different reading assignments of your choice. The short essays should be explorations of very specific questions, concerns, insights, observations, etc., that you have about the readings. Your discussion might focus on aesthetic (formal), historical, and/or cultural (gender, religious, political) concerns, for example. You are welcome to ask me for suggestions about what ideas to explore in these essays, though I strongly encourage you to make these decisions on your own. These short essays can be developed into one of the longer essays. PLEASE SEE SHORT ESSAY DUE DATES IN THE DAILY CLASS SCHEDULE BELOW.

FOUR-PAGE ESSAYS:

Two (2) four-page, double-spaced analyses of a specific issue (literary, cultural, historical, political, etc.) or problem in one of the works we are reading.  These papers should include an introduction with a clear, specific thesis and a general outline of your argument and its main points.  In addition, the writing should be clearly focused, well-organized, well-polished, and demonstrate careful reading of the text/s that you discuss.  Please use one-inch margins and twelve-point type, preferably Times New Roman, and correct MLA format.  PLEASE SEE THE LONGER ESSAY DUE DATES IN THE DAILY CLASS SCHEDULE BELOW.

EIGHT-PAGE ESSAY OPTION:

You have the option of writing one eight-page essay rather than two four-page essays. The requirements other than the page length are the same. If you choose this option, your essay is due on either one of the four-page essay due dates.

For those of you who are concerned about your writing, determined to earn a high grade in the class, and/or interested in working on your writing skills, I will read rough drafts of your papers.  In addition, I have graded papers in my office from other classes that you can read in order to get some sense of how I grade.

*GRADES: 

Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way:

• Four 2-page essays – 40% total
• Two 4-page essays OR one 8-page essay – 40% total
• Attendance, class participation (quality and quantity), presentation – 20% total

*Plus/minus grades will not be assigned.

For more information, please download the full syllabus.

Dr. James Cox
Office: CAL 14
Office Phone: 232-7804
E-mail: jhcox@mail.utexas.edu
Office Hours: MW 7:00-7:50, MW 9:00-9:50, and by appointment

English 379N: Interwar US Literature (W)
MWF 10:00-10:50 P.M.
MEZ 1.104
Spring 2010

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course takes as its purview novels published by US writers in the 1920s and 1930s. The vexed and vibrant interwar period includes the Jazz Age and the Great Depression as well as the publication of major works by Nobel Prize-winning authors Pearl Buck, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O'Neill, Sinclair Lewis, and John Steinbeck. This period was also the golden age of detective fiction. The required readings offer a geographically diverse range of works: Faulkner's Mississippi; Hemingway's France and Spain; Hurston's Florida; Larsen's Chicago, New York, and Denmark; Downing's Mexico; McNickle's Montana; Niggli's Mexico; West's Los Angeles; and Wright's Chicago. We will place these works in their regional, national, and historical contexts, consider their stylistic innovations, and attend particularly to questions of class and race. Visits to the Harry Ransom Center, which has substantial collections from this period, will also be a part of the course.

TEXTS:

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises (1926)
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929)
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying (1930)
Downing, Todd. Murder on the Tropic (1935)
McNickle, D'Arcy. The Surrounded (1936)
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
West, Nathanael. The Day of the Locust (1939)
Wright, Richard. Native Son (1940)
Niggli, Josefina. Mexican Village (1945)

CLASS REQUIREMENTS:

ATTENDANCE: You should plan to attend every class. Excessive absences (more than 5) will lower your final grade one full letter. Please do not be late to class, as being late is disruptive and disrespectful to your classmates, and please do not bring laptop computers to class.

PRESENTATION: I will ask each one of you to facilitate class discussion one day during the semester. For this assignment, please plan to speak for 5-10 minutes solely about the reading assignment for that day. There are several possible formats for your presentation, but your main goal should be to share your thoughts and questions about the reading.

TWO-PAGE ESSAYS: Four (4) two-page, double-spaced analyses of four (4) different reading assignments of your choice. The short essays should be explorations of very specific questions, concerns, insights, observations, etc., that you have about the readings. Your discussion might focus on aesthetic (formal), historical, and/or cultural (gender, religious, political) concerns, for example. You are welcome to ask me for suggestions about what ideas to explore in these essays, though I strongly encourage you to make these decisions on your own. These short essays can be developed into one of the longer essays. PLEASE SEE SHORT ESSAY DUE DATES IN THE DAILY CLASS SCHEDULE BELOW.

FOUR-PAGE ESSAYS: Two (2) four-page, double-spaced analyses of a specific issue (literary, cultural, historical, political, etc.) or problem in one of the works we are reading.  These papers should include an introduction with a clear, specific thesis and a general outline of your argument and its main points.  In addition, the writing should be clearly focused, well-organized, well-polished, and demonstrate careful reading of the text/s that you discuss.  Please use one-inch margins and twelve-point type, preferably Times New Roman, and correct MLA format.  PLEASE SEE THE LONGER ESSAY DUE DATES IN THE DAILY CLASS SCHEDULE BELOW.

EIGHT-PAGE ESSAY OPTION: You have the option of writing one eight-page essay rather than two four-page essays. The requirements other than the page length are the same. If you choose this option, your essay is due on either one of the four-page essay due dates.

For those of you who are concerned about your writing, determined to earn a high grade in the class, and/or interested in working on your writing skills, I will read rough drafts of your papers.  In addition, I have graded papers in my office from other classes that you can read in order to get some sense of how I grade.

*GRADES: 

Your overall grade will be calculated in the following way:
     Four 2-page essays – 40% total
     Two 4-page essays OR one 8-page essay – 40% total
     Attendance, class participation (quality and quantity), presentation – 20% total

*Plus/minus grades will not be assigned.

For more information, please download the full syllabus.

Dr. James Cox
Office: CAL 14
Office Phone: 232-7804
E-mail: jhcox@mail.utexas.edu
Office Hours: MWF 9:00-9:50 and by appointment
E316K: Masterworks of Literature–American
MWF 10:00–10:50
JES A121A
Fall 2009

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course is a broad survey of American literature from its origins to the present. In order to explore the diversity of American experiences as represented in writing, we will read works by African American, Chicana/o (Mexican American), Chinese American, European (English, French, Spanish) American, and Native American authors. We will discuss many aspects (literary, cultural, historical, political) of each piece of writing on the syllabus, but one main
interest will be in the way that these authors explore what being "American" means both to them and the community or communities that they represent. I will also provide some historical and cultural materials to help place the readings in context. In addition to familiarizing yourself with these important and compelling pieces of writing, a primary goal will be for you to practice becoming close, critical readers.

For further information, please download the full syllabus.

TBD