{"id":1038,"date":"2018-08-21T18:44:47","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T22:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/?page_id=1038"},"modified":"2025-03-03T09:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T14:54:17","slug":"selected-courses","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/?page_id=1038","title":{"rendered":"Selected Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Fall 2020 (2) \u00a0For course descriptions see below<\/strong>. \u00a0Email me if you&#8217;d like to see more details. \u00a0pschmid1[at]swarthmore.edu<\/h2>\n<h2>\u2022 English 009H, &#8220;Portraits of the Artist&#8221; \u00a0First-Year Seminar<\/h2>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/9H-Portraits-of-the-Artist.POSTER.pdf\">9H Portraits of the Artist.POSTER<\/a><\/h2>\n<h2>\u2022 English 052A, &#8220;US Fiction 1900-1950&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Engl-52A-poster.pdf\">Engl 52A poster<\/a><\/h2>\n<p>=============<\/p>\n<p>Portraits of the Artist (FYS, Fall 2020)<\/p>\n<p>In this first-year seminar we will study works portraying artists in a variety of media, seeking a critical understanding of the ways in which artists in\u00a0different times and places have interacted with their societies.\u00a0 We\u2019ll also seek to tackle answers to broader questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is cultural studies?<\/li>\n<li>How can we ask better questions about how a particular story-world creates meaning?<\/li>\n<li>In what ways are artists partof their place &amp; time, yet also able to imagine worlds that may resonate with audiences in very different eras?<\/li>\n<li>How does literature inspire critical thinking and imagining a different future?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are some of the materials on the Fall 2020 syllabus:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cHow 17 Outsize Portraits Rattled a Small Southern Town\/ Newnan, Ga., decided to use art to help the community celebrate diversity and embrace change. Not everyone was ready for what they saw.\u201d\/ Artist featured: Mary Beth Meehan\u00a0 <em>NYTimes<\/em>, Jan. 20, 2020<\/li>\n<li><em>Zoey\u2019s Extraordinary Playlist<\/em>, NBC TV series pilot (episode 1)(2020)<\/li>\n<li>Lin-Manuel Miranda, \u201cBreathe\u201d from <em>In the Heights<\/em>(2008) and \u201cMy Shot\u201d from <em>Hamilton<\/em>(2015)<\/li>\n<li>Hope Boykin, choreographer: \u201cIt\u2019s OK too. Feel\u201d (dance during 2020 quarantine)<\/li>\n<li>Plato (Parable of the Cave, from <em>The Republic<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Ted Chiang, \u201cThe Merchant and the Alchemist\u2019s Gate\u201d (2019)<\/li>\n<li><em>Ghost in the Shell\u00a0<\/em>(film, 1995). Based on the manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow.\u00a0 Screenplay by Kazunori It?; directed by Mamoru Oshii.<\/li>\n<li>A short story\/portrait of the artist as a young woman by Sandra Cisneros, from <em>Woman Hollering Creek\u00a0<\/em>(1991)<\/li>\n<li>Philip Pullman, <em>The Golden Compass\u00a0<\/em>(first novel in the <em>His Dark Materials\u00a0<\/em>trilogy, 1995, also made into an HBO series)<\/li>\n<li>Akwaete Emezi, <em>Pet\u00a0<\/em>(YA fiction, 2019)<\/li>\n<li>Louis Armstrong, <em>West End Blues\u00a0<\/em>(jazz; 1928)<\/li>\n<li>Janelle Mon\u00e1e, <em>Dirty Computer<\/em>2019 \u201cemotion picture\u201d\/music video<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also to be assigned are selected background and critical materials, including the Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat&#8217;s essay &#8220;Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work,\u201d and Karl Ove Knausgaard\u2019s \u201cThe Slowness of Literature and the Shadow of Knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Portraits of the Artist as a Tweet:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll enter Plato\u2019s cave, learn to use a Golden Compass, and befriend giant armored bears, an anime cyborg warrior, and an angel who\u2019s also a demon.\u00a0 Also on the syllabus: \u00a0<em>Zoey\u2019s Extraordinary Playlist<\/em>, Janelle Mona\u00e9, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sandra Cisneros.\u00a0 Oh, and there\u2019s a portal allowing time travel &amp; return, and another that explores why literature acts slowly, not quickly, to create dangerously.<\/p>\n<p>=======Note:<\/p>\n<h5><em>As with all first-year English Literature seminars, considerable time will be devoted to improving each student&#8217;s analytical writing and discussion skills. \u00a0The class typically includes a wide variety of students, with potential natural science and social science majors well represented, as well as those considering a major in the humanities.<\/em><\/h5>\n<h5>English 009H will be what Swarthmore is now calling a <em>hybrid\u00a0<\/em>course, with some in-person classes for enrolled studts.\u00a0 In-person classes and conversations will involve masks, safe social distancing, and any other safety measures judged necessary.<\/h5>\n<h5>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>The course is also designed to accommodate students who want to take it fully online<\/em>.\u00a0 These students will miss the face-to-face classes, but they all will be summarized by a student, whose notes will then be shared on the course\u2019s webpage so that all students can access and engage remotely with the content of the in-person discussions.<\/h5>\n<h5>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Students working in either the hybrid or the fully online mode will have the same reading\/viewing\/listening materials and approximately the same writing assignments.\u00a0 They will both have seminar discussions each week.\u00a0 The goal is to give students in either mode as equal a learning experience as possible, under the circumstances.<\/h5>\n<p>==========<\/p>\n<p><strong>US Fiction 1900-1950 \u00a0Fall 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This Covid-shortened 12-week course focuses on well-known and newly recognized novelists important for this period: L. Frank Baum, Jack London, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Anita Loos, Dashiell Hammett, and Zora Neale Hurston.<\/p>\n<p>There will be attention to innovations in the novel as a flexible and varied literary form, and to the ways in which these writers engage with their historical context, particularly regarding issues of immigration, race, redefinitions of gender roles, the rising influence of new commercial media, and contestations over the meaning of \u201cAmerican.\u201d<br \/>\n20th\/21st c.<\/p>\n<p>GATEWAY English Literature.\u00a0Open to any student without prerequisite.<br \/>\n1 credit.<br \/>\nFall 2020. Schmidt.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tweet for 52A:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A menagerie, not a conventional survey.\u00a0 You\u2019ll encounter \u00a0a wolf, a war, a gold-digger, a neighbor named Rossicky, a Maltese falcon, and a hurricane.\u00a0 Plus a primer on how to read.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>===============Spring 2020<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2>&#8220;The Short Story en las Am\u00e9ricas,&#8221; co-taught with Prof. Luciano Mart\u00ednez of the Spanish Department. \u00a0Email me if you&#8217;d like to see the syllabus: pschmid1[at]swarthmore.edu<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Spring 2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2>English 52C: &#8220;Towards a More Perfect Union: Contemporary Fiction in the U.S.&#8221; \u00a0 Peter Schmidt, Swarthmore College<\/h2>\n<p>For a list of authors on the syllabus, see below. \u00a0Here&#8217;s the course description:<\/p>\n<p>This course will focus on contemporary U.S. fiction published since 1990 or so. \u00a0The reading list will feature global perspectives on the U.S.\u00a0as well as new understandings of the U.S.&#8217;s past and present. \u00a0Some authors are U.S. natives or now live here; many are immigrants or from immigrant families; and others, such as Adichie and Hamid, live and work in several nations.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll explore these novels&#8217; formal inventiveness as well as their engagement with history, race, gender and sexuality, and a variety of other social issues, including multi-racial identities. Another key theme will be the role that contemporary fiction may play in pushing the U.S. away from its white supremacist roots. \u00a0Three of the readings will use the genre of \u201chistorical fiction\u201d to reinterpret U.S. history, but all the texts question and rewrite the possibilities of personal, family, and national\/transnational narratives. All also feature complex and compelling characters, both the heroes and their antagonists.<\/p>\n<p>The reading load for this course, frankly, will be intense. Some of the novels are long. But these books are compelling and transformative, both for their readers and for the future of the U.S. They brilliantly embody what daring contemporary fiction can aspire to do.<\/p>\n<p>A special feature of our course will be the celebration of Swarthmore alum Patricia Park, who will return to Swarthmore to read from and discuss her first novel. Entitled\u00a0<em>Re Jane<\/em>, its heroine Jane Re is a mixed-race orphan on a quest to learn more about her family history. The novel is set in Queens, Brooklyn, and Korea, and is simultaneously a fun romantic comedy, a detective story, and a clever reimagining of Charlotte Bront\u00eb\u2019s <em>Jane Eyre\u00a0<\/em>plot<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Historical fiction (the return of the repressed, revised and reimagined):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Philip Roth, <em>The Plot Against America<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Colson Whitehead, <em>The Underground Railroad<\/em><\/li>\n<li>George Saunders, <em>Lincoln in the Bardo<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>On the contemporary family, race, gender, and sexuality: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Luis Alberto Urrea, <em>House of Broken Angels<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Justin Torres, <em>We the Animals<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Mary Gaitskill, <em>The Mare<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>On relationships &amp; family in the U.S. from a transnational perspective: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Luis Alberto Urrea (above), plus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, <em>Americanah<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Gish Jen, <em>The Love Wife<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Patricia Park, <em>Re Jane<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Gary Shteyngart, <em>Super Sad True Love Story<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Mohsin Hamid, <em>Exit West<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>============================<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fall 2020 (2) \u00a0For course descriptions see below. \u00a0Email me if you&#8217;d like to see more details. \u00a0pschmid1[at]swarthmore.edu \u2022 English 009H, &#8220;Portraits of the Artist&#8221; \u00a0First-Year Seminar 9H Portraits of the Artist.POSTER \u2022 English 052A, &#8220;US Fiction 1900-1950&#8221; Engl 52A &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/?page_id=1038\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1038"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1038\/revisions\/1200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}