Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2018 - ENGL 115W D900

Literature and Culture (3)

Class Number: 1402

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 3 – Apr 10, 2018: Mon, 10:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Surrey

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Apr 23, 2018
    Mon, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
    Surrey

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An Introduction to the study of literature within the wider cultural field, with a focus on contemporary issues across genres and media. Students with credit for ENGL 105W may not take this course for further credit. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

What culture(s) do we live in today? Is it a media culture, where we are always online, watching TV and movies made elsewhere? Is it a post-colonial culture, where, on the unceded traditional territories of Coast Salish people, we are aware of being guests? Or is it an individual, personal culture, where we confront our own desires, anxieties, cravings and memories? What - or how? - can literature help us to understand better these different cultures in which we live, where we come from, and where we imagine we belong? This course will help us to better understand our cultures with a variety of media that speak to Surrey, to Canada, and to the world. We will begin with, and watch throughout the course, the first season of The Wire, a crime drama set in Baltimore that is eminently binge-able, but also, given the Lower Mainland's ongoing opiate crisis, very relevant. We will continue with an introduction to psychoanalytic criticism, Slavoj Žižek's How to Read Lacan, where we learn that we live in the Imaginary (images of ourselves, from selfies to Instagram), have to deal with the Symbolic (the laws and rules) and sometimes encounter the Real (trauma but also enjoyment). We will then read Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, perhaps the first great video game novel, one that will force us to think about gamergate (but, even worse, 80s culture). We will finish with Mini Aodla Freeman's Life Among the Qallunaat, a memoir of an Inuit woman who moves to Ottawa and encounters such alien technology as elevators and stop lights.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Students will learn how to better analyze in a critical fashion the culture around them, doing so in well-argued, beautifully-written, essays.

Grading

  • 5 short (500 word) position papers; these will be graded for clarity more than for content, as a way to meet a W criterion: "revisions accomplished through successive similar assignments" 25%
  • digital curation: each tutorial will curate a splash page for ONE weekly lecture: images, links, videos/podcasts 10%
  • episode re-cap for The Wire, tying the series into Žižek 10%
  • term paper (1000 words) 25%
  • final exam 20%
  • tutorial participation 10%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Note: Season One of The Wire will not be available at the bookstore; you should buy/stream/download it (that is, I do not care if you buy the actual box set or merely stream/download the episodes) yourself. We will generally discuss one episode a week, so please have watched the first episode for our first class in January.

Slavoj Žižek, How to Read Lacan
ISBN: 9781862078949

Ernest Cline, Ready Player One
ISBN: 9780307887443

Mini Aodla Freeman, Life Among the Qallunaat
ISBN: 9780887557750

Department Undergraduate Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.

For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS