ENGL 501: Literature for Children. Professor Alida Allison.
Class Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00-12:15 p.m.
English 501 introduces students to the literary study of children's
books. Approached historically and generically, readings for the
class will be read closely and discussed in terms of post-colonial,
gender, aesthetic, and multi-cultural perspectives. Grading is
based on four 2 pp. study question responses, the occasional quiz,
a midterm, and a final exam that includes an 8 pp. research paper.
READING LIST WILL BE SELECTED FROM:
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer
Jane Vejjagiva, The Happiness of Kati
I.B. Singer, Stories for Children
David and Meeks, Twelve Dancing Princesses (fairy
tale collection)
L. Frank Baum, Ozma of Oz
F.H. Burnett, A Little Princess
Randall Jarrell, The Animal Family
Karen Hesse, Witness
Julius Lester, Cupid
Leon Garfield, Smith
B. Feinberg, The Big Big Big Book of Tashi
De Brunhoff, The Story of Babar
Dr. Seuss, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Anushka Ravishankar, Moin and the Monster
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting
Lawrence Yep, Child of the Owl
ENGL 502: Adolescence in Literature.Professor
Phillip Serrato. Class Schedule: Mondays and Wednesdays,
3:30-4:45 p.m.
This semester we will survey the ways that adolescence has been
depicted in a splendid sample of texts. We will begin by accompanying
Alice, Frank and Joe Hardy, and Nancy Drew on their adventures
in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Tower Treasure,
and The Secret of the Old Clock, contemplating on the
way how the experience of adolescence is configured in these early
texts. Then we will take an interesting look at the landscapes
of male adolescence drawn out by James Joyce and J.D. Salinger
in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and The
Catcher in the Rye. After looking at some other classics
like Judy Blume's Deenie and S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders,
and asking, What's with Deenie's secret place? and, Why does Pony
Boy have Paul Newman on his mind? we'll plunge into more contemporary
fare that expands the parameters of adolescent literature. We'll
consider the breakthroughs managed by Patricia McCormick in Cut,
Zoe Trope in Please, Don't Kill the Freshman, and Juan
Felipe Herrera in Downtown Boy. For the last unit we
will look at a futuristic vision of adolescence with Anthony Burgess's
A Clockwork Orange. Requirements include 2 exams, a final
exam, a paper, and frequent in-class writing. For a specific reading
schedule, you are welcome to email the instructor (pserrato@mail.sdsu.edu)
over the summer.
Graduate Courses
ENGL 727: Seminar: Adolescence in Chicano Literature.
Professor Phillip Serrato. Class Schedule: Thursday,
7:00-9:40 p.m.
This course examines the depiction of adolescence (and adolescents)
in Chicana/o literature from the early twentieth century to the
present day. We will start the term scrutinizing classic texts
such as Américo Paredes's George Washington Gomez, Antonio
Villareal's Pocho, and Victor Villaseñor's Macho!.
As these early texts are by male writers and focus on adolescent
male protagonists, we will especially concern ourselves with the
ways that Mexican-Americans' socio-political subordination in
the United States in the wake of the Treaty of Guadulpe-Hidalgo
precipitates the authors' preoccupation with adolescent Mexican-American
masculinity. Soon enough, these conversations about masculinity
and Mexican-American socio-political realities will expand into
more nuanced explorations of issues of gender, sexuality, cultural
identity, and the emergence of literature written for adolescent
readers as we engage works such as Yxta Maya Murray's Locas,
Cherríe Moraga's The Hungry Woman, Sandra Cisneros's
The House on Mango Street, Luis Alfaro's Down Town,
Gloria Velasquez's Maya's Divided World, Carla Trujillo's
What Night Brings, and Benjamín Alire Saenz's Sammy
and Juliana in Hollywood. Readings of primary texts will
be supplemented with a course reader of critical/theoretical essays.
For a specific reading schedule, you are welcome to email the
instructor (pserrato@mail.sdsu.edu)
over the summer.