ENGL 008 A-Z - ExplorationsSemester Hours: 1-1.5
Periodically
Introductions to specific literary concepts, authors, or genres. Courses may be linked to on-campus cultural events, such as conferences, invited lectures, the Hofstra Shakespeare Festival, or the Great Writers, Great Readings series.
Current Special Topics
ENGL 008R - Great Writers: Adichie
This 1.5 credit course will be a creative companion to the visit of the renowned writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who will come to Hofstra for the Great Writers Great Readings series on October 16th, 2024. Adichie is one of the most important writers of our time, writing on a range of topics through a range of genres—feminism, immigration, grief, and beyond. In this class, we will read her novel, Americanah, looking deeply into both how the novel is constructed and how, through story, the work conveys cultural concerns and realities of the immigrant experience. We will discuss the work specifically while also looking at the ways fiction can speak to (and inform) culture and history. The course comprises six class sessions, including the writer’s visit. There will be one paper, a creative response to the novel. Students will also create questions for the conversation with Adichie.
ENGL 008S - Fashion Magic: Arts-Biz Media
Featuring a line-up of real-world experts, this course will introduce students to the centrality of fashion in the arts, humanities, media, and business worlds. We shall explore the myriad ways fashion participates in cultures, influences our daily lives, shapes history, affects the planet, and offers a new, illuminating perspective on a vast array of university studies and career options. We shall examine fashion’s role in constructing the narratives that surround us in daily life, in the commerical world, in writing, in visual cultures (film, television, media), and in constructed envrionments of multiple sorts (museum exhibitions, retail spaces). We shall also examine the assumptions we make about fashion as a conveyor of aesthetic, social, political, and psychological meaning, considering the realities of globalization, commerce, environmental challenges, gender constructions, and societal constraints.
The course consists of lectures followed by discussion with the speakers, offered every other week during the semester. There will be one optional field trip. Juniors, Seniors, and graduate students only.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
WSC 001 or WSC 002 . As individual subjects are selected, each is assigned a letter (A-Z) which is affixed to the course number. Specific titles and course descriptions for special topics courses are available in the online class schedule. May be repeated for up to 3 s.h. when topic varies.
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