Current Happenings 

Dr. Matthew Cella will give a presentation on Thursday, 11 April at 3:30 in DHC 051. The title of his talk is "You Don't Have to Hike the Trails to Care About the Forest: Disability Narratives and the Environment."

The talk examines how autobiographical narratives by people with disabilities challenge normative (even ableist) constructions of the body-environment relationship. The study of these disability narratives therefore provides an opportunity to develop a richer and more inclusive ecological criticism.

Matthew J.C. Cella is an assistant professor in the English department at Shippensburg University. He has published articles and reviews in a variety of journals, including Western American Literature, MELUS, and ISLE. His book, Bad Land Pastoralism in Great Plains Fiction, was a finalist for the Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize in 2011.
 

 

 

 

Contact Information

Dauphin Humanities Center, 128
Shippensburg University
1871 Old Main Drive
Shippensburg, PA  17257
Phone: 717. 477.1495
Fax: 717.477.4025

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Spring 2013 Course Descriptions

Following are descriptions for courses being offered in the Spring 2013 semester. 

 Please contact the professor with any questions. 

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English 107: Introduction to Literary Studies I

Dr. Michael Bibby
MW 2:00-3:15

English 107: Introduction to Literary Studies I

Dr. Catherine Dibello
MWF 1:00-1:50

As the first required course for English majors and minors, Literary Studies I introduces the primary components of the major genres of literature (drama, fiction, poetry), including plot, character, point of view, figures of speech, rhyme, and rhythm. Students are taught to identify and evaluate these components in a range of representative works.This course will also teach the fundamentals of literary research and the conventions associated with writing about literature.  In this section of the course, we will write three papers, present oral reports, and take two exams. Required texts are Kirszner and Mandell's Compact Literature: Reading, Reacting, and Writing (8th ed.) and the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.). This course is a prerequisite for 300- and 400-level English courses.

English 111: Introduction to Literary Studies II 

Dr. Matthew Cella
TR 12:30-1:45

English 111: Introduction to Literary Studies II
Dr. Erica Galioto
TR 9:30-10:45      

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of the writing and research process as well as critical approaches to writing in the English major.  Our dual focus, as we shall see, is actually one in the same, for standard writing and research practices in our discipline rely on our ability to understand, apply, and challenge critical perspectives, such as New Historicism, psychoanalysis, feminist criticism, queer theory, deconstruction, Marxism, cultural studies, postcolonial theory, and reader-response criticism.  This introduction to the major schools of literary criticism emphasizes perspective-taking as a tool for understanding how literary theory informs the analysis of literature.  Reading Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, and Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw through these various lenses and examining their accompanying critical discussions exposes students to the multiple interpretations and conversations that surround any literary work.  After this comprehensive exposure, students should feel comfortable adopting their own “lenses” as they move to the 300- and 400-level English courses that expect theoretical analyses of literature.  Course work includes rigorous reading, formal and informal writing assignments, presentations, and active participation.

English 233: American Literature I 

 Dr. Nathan Mao
TR 5:00-6:15
 

 This isthe first of a two-part chronologically based survey of American literature. Work of fiction and poetry by native Americans such as the Iroquios Creation Story and the Cherokee Memorials are studied. Representative writers include John Smith, William Bradford, John Winthrop, Ann Bradstreet, Mary Rowlandson, Samuel Sewall, Jonathan Edwards, Ben Franklin, Washington Irving, James F. Cooper, Thomas Paine, Edgar A. Poe, Ralph W. Emerson, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Fredrick Douglass, Henry D. Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Walt Whitman. 

Studying the great American books (authors) is a unique way to understand the history of this country. American classics are wonderfully rich fare. America is a mythic land with a sense of its own destiny and promise. The events of American history shine forth in our classics.  The course will lead you to read or reread masterpieces that interest you most. 

 Grade analysis:

• classroom participation 10%
  class presentations 10%
   
• quizzes 20%
• tests: 20%
• essays 20%
• midterm and final 20%
   

REQUIRED TEXTS  

Baym, Nina, ed.  The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 7th edition, Part I: Volumes A & B.
 
 

 English 234: American Literature II

Prof. Misun Dokko

TR 12:30-1:45

English 236: British Literature I 

Dr. Sharon Harrow

MW 2:00-3:15

Course Description: This class will familiarize you with British literature from the Middle Ages (to ca. 1485) to the Renaissance (1485-1660) and the Restoration/ 18th Century (1660-1798). Given that we must cover centuries of material, this will be a broad chronological survey. We will focus on histories of ideas as a way to contextualize the texts we read. We will consider the various social, political, economic, and religious questions that influenced writers. There are many more exciting and compelling works than we have time to read together, and I strongly encourage you to read beyond the requirements of this syllabus. Endeavor to read additional authors in the Norton as a way of filling out what we cover in class and for pleasure. Throughout the course, I hope you will consider the ways in which the ideas we discuss inform our present day culture. This course will help you understand literary history and hone your literary critical skills.

Possible Assignments :
 

• mid-semester exam: 25%
• essays: 20%
• final exam: 25%
• quizzes/ blackboard writing or presentation: 20%
• small group work, in-class participation: 10%
  
   

English 237: British Literature II 

Dr. Dawn Vernooy
MW 5:00-6:15

English 238: Technical/Professional Writing I

Dr. Carla Kungl
TR 8:00 - 9: 15 

 You know what? Descriptions of technical writing classes can be sound really boring: you'll write memos, business letters, a status report, and a resume; you learn how to write formal, research-based documents; how to work collaboratively to finish a project; how to design documents using technical writing conventions. Nothing too exciting, right?

But the truth is, you'll learn more about the intricacies of being a good writer than you could have imagined. Technical writing is all about conciseness, precision, clarity, and meeting the needs of an audience. Thus, regardless of your major, if you want practice in these skills, this is the writing class for you.

My overall goal is to help you become a more capable and more confident reader and writer as you learn to create documents that are appropriate for a specific audience and purpose. On the way, you will learn how how to conduct primary and secondary research, how to use advanced features of Microsoft Office, and how to work collaboratively to meet a project goal. Your major project for the course, a Research Report, will bring together all aspects of a long technical document, including appropriate graphics, front and back matter, correct documentation style, effective document design, and, since you will deliver your findings orally in front of your colleagues, professional presentation skills.

Another plus: because this course is required for the Technical/Professional Communications Minor, it fills up fast with students from many different majors. You'll learn a lot from interacting with other students who have such a variety of interests, career goals, and writing backgrounds.
  

English 243: Art of the Film

Dr. Mike Pressler
M 12:00-12:50; W 12:00-1:50; F 1:00-1:50

Education 290: Introduction to English Language Arts Education

Dr. Erica Galioto
TR 8:00-9:15

This course offers Secondary English certification students their foundation in English/Language Arts education. As the first of three pedagogy courses, Introduction to ELA Education provides students the history of American education with an emphasis on middle and high schools and the fundamentals of educational and adolescent psychology and then moves to a more specific focus on the secondary ELA classroom. Students will be introduced to the philosophical beliefs and practical realities of American education (with a special focus on middle and high schools), the array of learning and development theories that inform effective educators, and the range of effective literacy practices involved in ELA teaching and learning at the secondary level. Curriculum, student diversity, assessment, technology, differentiation, and classroom management are some of the topics that will be explored both generally and then with an ELA focus as students work toward becoming reflective collaborative decision-makers. Readings, assignments, and practical demonstrations will provide students with an opportunity to engage with theory and research that will be relevant to their future coursework and eventual middle and high school ELA classrooms. This course is a prerequisite for ENG-426: Teaching Adolescent Literature and EDU-422: Teaching English in the Secondary Schools (II).
 

English 307: Poetry Writing

 

Prof. Zach Savich

MW 5:00-6:15

This class will introduce students to the fundamentals of poetic craft. It emphasizes the production and discussion of original creative work: we will explore all concepts, texts, and techniques through students’ writing. We will also consider poetry’s broader connections to life, literature, education, and other arts.

The class has three parts: (1) the completion of a series of fundamental exercises, (2) the lively examination of four recent books through a creative research project, which will include a service-learning component and visits by published poets, and (3) the composition and critique of new poems. For the final, students will revise several poems and complete a final reflective project. Students are not presumed to have any previous experience with poetry.

Please contact Prof. Zach Savich at zasavich@ship.edu with any questions.

English 308: Fiction Writing

Prof. Neil Connelly

MWF 12:00-12:50

English 323: Reviewing the Arts for Publication

Dr. Laurie Cella

MW 2:00-3:15

The course provides practical experience in writing critically about the arts--music, dance, theater, painting, sculpture, literature, photography, and film.   During the semester, in response to arts events on campus or in the local area, students will write several reviews, plus an extended feature article on a particular artist, group of artworks, or theme of contemporary artistic interest.   For the most part, students will choose the events that they write about and thus determine the deadlines for submitting their work.   I will serve as an "editor," offering suggestions for improvement as students create a professional portfolio, to be turned in at the end of the semester. 

In addition to our textbook, we will read a range of styles and types of reviews from different media. We will also work steadily on writing through simple but important exercises.  In keeping with the professional emphasis of the course, we will hold several workshops and hands-on editorial sessions. 

This course will be excellent for students who are able to work independently and who have an interest in building up a portfolio of quality work for newspapers or magazines. 

English 330: Shakespeare 

Dr. Deb Montuori

TR 11:00-12:15

English 333: Cultural Studies
Dr. Carla Kungl
TR 11:00-12:15 

 

 Scandal, Sex, and Secrets in the Victorian Age  

We know all we need to know about the Victorians, yes? They were the people so straight-laced that, not content to hide merely women's legs, they put skirts around their pianos, so as to hide THOSE legs, and developed tiny pantaloons to dress a pork chop. An ankle? Egads!

Rest assured, gentle reader, that there was a lot more the Victorians were hiding. This course will look at the more unseemly side of the stereotype of prudishness surrounding the time period that has come down to us, centered around thematic issues of concern to them: marriage and divorce, the proper roles of men and women, the clash of religion and science, the rise of the periodical and other dangerous forms of writing. Probably not fashion, but I won't count it out.

Texts may include:

Parallel Lives, Phyllis Rose
The Victorian Novel in Context (Continuum Press)
The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
The Rebel of the Family, Eliza Lynn Linton
Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon

 

English 335: Creative Nonfiction Writing

Dr. Kim van Alkemade
MW 2:00-3:15

English 336: Theories and Approaches

Dr. Shannon Mortimore
W 6:30-9:15

Graphics and Gaming: The Language, Literacy and Learning of Art and Play 

“Comics are the hunch-backed dwarves of the arts and they should be proud of that fact."
—Art Speigelman

“I like the term ‘gaming literacy’…because of the mischievous double-meaning of ‘gaming,’ …Gaming a system, means finding hidden shortcuts and cheats, and bending and modifying rules in order to move through the system more efficiently— perhaps to misbehave, but perhaps to change that system for the better. We can game the stock market, a university course registration process, or even just a flirtatious conversation. Gaming literacy, in other words, ‘games’ literacy, bending and breaking rules, playing with our notions of what literacy has been and can be.”
—Eric Zimmerman


Course Description:
This section of English 336 seeks to “bend the rules” and “play” with traditional notions of how language and literacy are constructed. The first half of the course will examine visual and multimodal literacies through the study of comics and graphic novels. The second half will explore games and gaming literacy under the umbrella of New Media and 21st century literacies. While traditionally designed for English education majors, this class is open as an elective to all majors. This course additionally meets the English department’s criticism requirement.
Texts for the course will include all or a choice of the following:

• Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud
• Blankets, Craig Thompson
• American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang
• Fun Home, Allison Bechdel
• The Sandman: Dream County, Neil Gaiman
• Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
• V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and David Lloyd
• What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Literacy and Learning, James Gee
• Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle

Games are also considered “texts” in this class, and students will be required to select from one of the titles listed below to complete at least 20 hours of gameplay:

• Final Fantasy VII-XIII
• Zelda (any)
• Fable II or III
• Mass Effect I, II, or III
• Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Additionally, we will engage in MMORPG gameplay together. Students will design avatars and engage in multiplayer gameplay in World of Warcraft or another (to be determined) free-to-play MMORPG. Access to an updated personal computer and/or gaming systems (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) is crucial for the gaming component of the class. Please feel free to contact Dr. Shannon Mortimore-Smith with any questions.  
  

English 343: Film Criticism
Dr. Mike Pressler
M 10:00-11:50; WF 10:00-10:50
 

Alfred Hitchcock
 

While film is always a collaborative effort that depends on the work of many artists and technicians, most people would agree that film directors are mostly responsible for what goes on the screen and that the most interesting directors are those whose personality, thematic interests, and artistic style unmistakably shape their work. This course will feature a director whose movies have continued to appeal to both the general public and to film scholars, who have unanimously granted him the status of what French film critics in the sixties called an auteur, a creative “author” of films bearing a unique personal imprint.
 
In considering Hitchcock's films, however, we will not apply a rigidly auteurist perspective by regarding him as a demigod or puppet-master who was in complete control of his material and operated outside the boundaries of culture and ideology. Instead, we will apply a variety of critical approaches that will illustrate the advantages of a multiple perspective. Looking at Hitchcock movies critically means considering the aesthetic and technical elements of film narrative, of course, but it also means exploring such things as their representation of gender, their vision of human nature, and their implications for personal values and behavior in our daily lives.
The method will be interactive, with reading assignments and weekly film screenings complemented by class discussion, lecture, and group work.
 
Films to include:

• The 39 Steps 
• The Lady Vanishes 
• Suspicion 
• Shadow of a Doubt 
• Notorious 
• Rear Window 
• Vertigo 
• Psycho 
• The Birds
   

Note: Although the 2011-2013 Course Catalog states that this course has a prerequisite, this is no longer the case. Film Criticism is open to all undergraduates, and satisfies a criticism requirement for English majors.
 

English 366: History and Structure of English Language

Dr. William Harris

MW 2:00-3:15

English 370: Queer Studies

Dr. William Harris
T 6:30-9:15

“Queer” can be a slur, motivated by hatred or ignorance. More recently, though, many gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender persons have recuperated the term, embracing it as a more inclusive group label than “gay and lesbian”—and even as a sign of an individual's active resistance or critical thinking about prescribed gender and sexual norms. The term “queer,” some activists and scholars have argued, is not necessarily limited to those who identify as GLBT but can be used, positively, to describe anyone who resists or finds himself or herself outside what some institution or group defines as “normal.” In addition to different ways of being “queer” (gay as a sexual and sociopolitical identity), this course will also examine issues of gay culture: for instance, are there distinctly gay versus straight forms of cultural practice? Are there gay ways of reading, enjoying, and communicating through cultural artifacts, objects, texts, and gestures that may be either “taken straight” or “queered”?
 
ENG 370 is a concentrated study of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender literature in the context of the history of GLBT social and political movements and the branch of cultural theory known as queer theory. Works from a variety of genres by GLBT authors and/or containing queer thematic content will be examined in a non-homophobic environment. Students will examine continuing debates, sparked by the rise of queer theory, about topics such as the constructed or essential nature of sexuality and gender. This course will provide students with a better understanding of the artistic contributions and political struggles of GLBT figures as well as an invigorating analytical tool (queer theory) with interdisciplinary applications. Assignments may include midterm and final exams as well as a research paper. Films screened may include Mildred Pierce, Mommie Dearest, The Boys in the Band, Girls Will Be Girls, and Suddenly, Last Summer. Handouts will be used to supplement the required texts with other key literary, theoretical, and historical texts.

Required Texts
 

• Mart Crowley, The Boys in the Band (Alyson, 40th Anniversary Edition)
• Donald E. Hall, Queer Theories (Palgrave)
• David M. Halperin, How To Be Gay (Harvard U)
• Andrew Holleran, Dancer from the Dance (HarperPerennial)
• Ethan Mordden, Some Men Are Lookers (Stonewall Inn Editions/St. Martin’s)
• Eve Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet (U of California)
• Tennessee Williams, Suddenly, Last Summer (Dramatists Play Service)

   

English 375: African-American Literature

Dr Raymond Janifer

TR 12:30-1:45  
 

English 377: Studies in Restoration/18th Century Literature
Dr. Sharon Harrow
MW 3:30-4:45

Pugilists, pirates, prostitutes, rogues, highwaymen, murderers, adulterers, seducers, cross-dressers, political criminals, war criminals, slavers, cutpurses, immoralists, writers. Such figures populated the pages of 18th-century British literature. Called an age of reason and an age of enlightenment, the eighteenth century was a time of great social upheaval. Writers were fearful of and fascinated by crime and social transgression. We will read major works of literature against political and social movements, exploring how eighteenth-century British writers represented morality, corruption, crime, sex, humor, commercialism, patriarchy, and politics. In addition to great commercial, religious, and social changes, the eighteenth-century bore witness to a veritable explosion of literary genres. We will read across genres, including periodical essays, plays, poems, novels, criminal biographies, and political satire, questioning the way genres overlapped and developed. Writers were very self-consciously concerned with what makes good literature and with what value literature has. This course aims to understand how writers envisioned such literary and social value. This course will help you understand literary history and hone your literary critical skills. And it will be a lot of fun!

Likely Assignments:
 

• analytical essay
• mid-semester exam
• presentation
• d2l assignments/ mini-essays, quizzes & discussion
• annotated bibliography

 

English 383: Studies in 20th Century American Literature

Dr. Michael Bibby
MW 3:30-4:45

Caroling Dusk: 20th-Century African American Poetry and Poetics 

  

This course will survey the varieties of African American poetry and poetics of the twentieth century with special attention given to the New Negro era, the "Red Decade," the early postwar period, and the Black Arts movement.  We will read poetry by well-known authors, such as Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Margaret Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, and Nikki Giovanni, as well as works by lesser-known authors, such as Gwendolyn Bennett, Owen Dodson, Frank Marshall Davis, and Beah Richards.  Our readings in the poetry will be supplemented by not only important critical works but also historical studies and theoretical work on race and poetics.  Course work will include a short papers, a final research paper, and class presentations. 

  

Possible Texts 

Joanne V. Gabbin, ed., Furious Flower: African American Poetry from the Black Arts Movement to the Present 

James Weldon Johnson, ed., The Book of American Negro Poetry 

Arnold Rampersad, ed., The Oxford Book of African American Poetry 

NOTE: This course fulfills both a post-1800 period and a multicultural requirement for the major. 

English 385: Studies in Literature of the Post-Colonial World

Dr. Catherine Dibello

TR 11:00-12:15 

 

This section of ENG 385 will concentrate on twentieth- and twenty-first- century African novels. Obviously, no single course can fully represent the rich, diverse literature of this large continent, and African fiction cannot be reduced to a simple list of homogeneous traits. Instead, the course will focus on six novels and on the cultural, historical, and biographical background necessary to understand these works. This student-centered coures will emphasize discussion and oral presentations. Writtten assignments include a short paper on Things Fall Apart and a longer paper on any of the course's texts. For English majors and minors, this course counts in the post-1800 Historical Approaches category. For secondary-certification English majors, it also fulfills the muilticultural literature requirement.

Required Texts: Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood, Sembene Ousmane's God's Bits of Wood, Ngugi wa Thiong'o's The River Between, Nuruddin Farah's From a Crooked Rib, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun 

English 394: Special Topics

Dr. Mary Stewart

TR 11:00-12:15

Southern Literature: Women Writers 

 In this course we will examine questions that scholars often ask about southern women writers. Can we read between the lines in their writings and discover more subversive meanings? Is their sense of place a shared legacy? We will address the history of southern women’s literature and what conclusions we can reach about the South as we read their works. Our examination will include such topics as gendered bodies. We will also explore the universal questions these women writers present about race, class, and gender in their literary legacies as we read memoirs, fiction, and critical texts to find our own answers.
 
Possible required texts:

• Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina.
• Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God.
• Mee, Susie, ed. Downhome: An Anthology of Southern Women Writers.
• Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi.
• Stockett, Kathryn. The Help.
• Walker, Alice. The Color Purple.
• Welty, Eudora. One Writer’s Beginnings.

 

English 420: Studies in Writing 
Dr. Karen Johnson
TR 11:00-12:15

Education 422: Methods of Teaching English in the Secondary School

Dr. Shannon Mortimore-Smith
T 8:00 - 10:45
 

  English 426: Teaching Adolescent Literature

Dr. Thomas C. Crochunis 

MW 6:30-7:45 

This course combines several linked purposes: It introduces you to a range of young adult literature (YAL) so that we can explore the theory and practice of teaching works written for young people in the secondary English classroom. At the same time, we will look more broadly at why and how to teach reading and literature to adolescents. You will further be introduced to several different approaches to lesson and unit planning. Appropriately then, for the course’s central project, you will work—independently or with a partner—to create a “conceptual unit” that incorporates young adult literature appropriate for engaging either middle or high school students. 

Pedagogy Texts  

• Beach, Richard, et al. Teaching Literature to Adolescents. Routledge.
• Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do. Heinemann.
• Frey, Nancy and Douglas Fisher. The Purposeful Classroom: How To Structure Lessons With Learning Goals In Mind. ASCD.
• McCann, Thomas M., et al. Talking in Class. NCTE.

Literary Texts 

• Alexie, Sherman. Flight.  
• Billingsley, Franny. Chime. 
• Booth, Coe. Tyrell.
• Brooks, Laurie. The Wrestling Season.  
• Connelly, Neil. The Miracle Stealer.
• Goodman, Allegra. The Other Side of the Island.   
• Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild.  
• Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn.  
• Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet.   
• Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis.  
• Choice among Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak; Crutcher, Chris. Deadline; Hornby, Nick. Slam; Konigsberg, Bill. Out of the Pocket; and Levithan, David. Love Is the Higher Law.  
• Choice among Buyea, Rob. Because of Mr. Terupt; Reger, Rob and Jessica Gruner. Emily the Strange; Schmidt, Gary. The Wednesday Wars; Shimko, Bonnie. Letters in the Attic; and Weeks, Sarah. Pie.
• Choice between Carman, Patrick. Skeleton Creek: Ryan’s Journal and Selznick, Brian. Wonderstruck.
• Choice between Green, John and David Levithan. Will Grayson, will grayson and Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me.

 

English 427: Advanced Poetry Workshop

Prof. Zach Savich

MW 2:00-3:15

This class will continue to develop students’ skills as readers and writers of poetry. It combines practice in advanced poetic techniques with the examination of ideas and texts that are central to contemporary poetry. Throughout the semester, students will receive detailed feedback about their writing through workshop and conferences.

The class has three parts: (1) the completion of a series of creative and critical responses to essays by poets including Lyn Hejinian, Mary Ruefle, Dan Beachy-Quick, Carl Phillips, Adrienne Rich, Charles Bernstein, and Robert Hass, (2) the lively consideration of three recent books of poetry that explore other arts and the sciences, leading to a presentation of original research, and (3) the ongoing composition and critique of student poems. For the final, students will revise several poems and complete a project on poetics. To enroll in this course, students must have taken Eng 307: Poetry Writing or receive instructor permission.

Please contact Prof. Zach Savich at zasavich@ship.edu with any questions.

 June 16, 1904, the day the novel Ulysses takes place, occurs a few weeks after this picture was taken. Joyce had just published a story in The Irish Homestead Journal under the pseudonym Stephen Dedalus, who becomes the narrator-protagonist of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Rather than attend medical school in Paris in 1903, and rather than becoming a professional singer, Joyce wrote his aesthetic theory and reviews for the Dublin Daily Express, including a review of F. C. S. Schiller’s book on pragmatism on 12 Nov. 1903.

Pragmatism is the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce (1842-1910), which was developed by John Dewey and William James, of whom Schiller is the European disciple. This course will show how pragmatism, which was all the rage at the time, provides an interpretive strategy for Joyce’s Ulysses. Pragmatism has become the foundation of linguistics, cognitive science and semantics. Charles Peirce, in a review of the Collected Works of George Berkeley, credited Berkeley with the philosophy. Our class will consider how James Joyce’s Ulysses can be read within the basic tenets of pragmatism. In other words, we will consider pragmatism as a theory of reading Ulysses. We will read the essay on pragmatism by Schiller that Joyce quotes from and Peirce’s 1903 review of Frazier’s edition of Berkeley’s works, especially as Berkeley is used in Ulysses as the center of a new theory of vision
The course will consist of an episode-by-episode close reading of the eighteen episodes of the novel Ulysses. We will consider the three sections of the novel in relation to Joyce’s aesthetic theory and the triadic nature of reading and thinking. We will use as a guide the classic rhetorical, semantic, and semiotic triangles of I. A. Richards and C. K. Ogden in their still respected text The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism (1923).

Readers’ responses and participation in the gaming nature of the novel will be the basis of class. The interpretant, or governing thought, is always and already built into the novel, which encourages readers to compete within the gaming system. To jump to a more competitive level students will need to master becoming aware of the game involved in manipulating language, context, and thought. Students will be asked to keep a reading journal and participate in group discussions. This is a novel approach that I have been developing for Ulysses☺. The techniques can be applied to other texts.

Students should be willing to have fun, to compete, to make pratfalls, and to score in the game of the novel. Students will write their responses to reading and a short analysis of a passage of the novel. There will be a short identification midterm and final and a 12-15 page analytic essay, which will be their application of the strategy to the novel.