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SPRING 2011 | ENGLISH 220 (SECTIONS 3 THRU 10) MAIN LECTURE, MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY @ 11AM 

PETERSON GYM (PG) 153 {WITH BREAKOUT SECTIONS ON MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS, AS WELL} | SDSU

Dr. William A. Nericcio with Ryan Forsythe, Tara Whitehead, 

Rebecca Howat, & Zachary Cavanaugh, AssociatedAndroids, INC.

 

 

Make no mistake about it: this is NOT a survey of long, white-haired, sedate, upper-crust, high literature--we will be as obsessed with film, photography, and the internet, as we will the trappings of traditional literature.  More an introduction to Cultural Studies than a long-in-the-tooth worship festival of the old classics (sorry Shakespeare, get-out th'way Milton, adios Edmund Spencer), our multi-media exercise in fictional fetishism will try to set itself apart with vivacious books, paintings, and film filled with tortured, naked, broken imaginations.

 

We will be eccentric—ex-centric, outside the circle—as we explore the world of alternative subjectivities, "televisual" constructions (think Facebook) where individuals make and remake themselves on a daily basis.  The robotic electric will drive our curious thirst as we try to understand why our species creates versions of itself that it then re-markets (to itself) in various media: books, film, photography, the web, etc.  It turns out that the seductive fantasies, grotesque nightmares, and alluring hallucinations that our creative writers, directors, photographers, artists, philosophers make—shamans of fiction, all—form a key part of what we call our psyche: the psychology or soul that passes for the person you tell people you are.

Various folks will help us on our way: Franz Kafka, that dark closeted hallucinator whose bizarre imagination rewrites the course of 20th century literature; Dan Clowes, the graphic artist and novelist, whose Ghost World reveals the nightmare world of Americanicus Suburbia with cunning insight and vicious wit;  there are others, with the final lineup still in flux.

One last thing! I promise this class will do more for knowledge
of reading, writing, and literature than this one!

 

An invitation

Though this is an English 220 class, upper-division folks and graduate students who are crazy about literature, film, and visual culture can take the class as a Engl 499 Special Study course or an English or MALAS (Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences) 798 Special Study—do please check with your department advisor before pursuing this track.  Email me at bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu for more info!