Spring 2011

Big Books

Listed in: English, as ENGL-01

Faculty

Dale E. Peterson (Section 04)

Description

This course explores the particular pleasures and interpretive problems of reading (and writing about) very long works--books so vast that any sure sense of the relation between individual part and mammoth whole may seem to elude the reader who becomes lost in a colossal imaginative world.  How do we gauge, and engage with, works of disproportionate scale and encyclopedic ambition?  How do we find our bearings within huge texts and who or what is our guide?  In spring 2011 we shall read three fictional representations of entire societies undergoing massive transformation: Leo Tolstoy's epic account of Russia in the age of Napoleon, War and Peace; John Dos Passos' modernist "documentary fiction," 1919; and Roberto Bolano's postmodern panoramic novel, 2666.

Preference given to first-year students and sophomores.  Limited to 15 students.  Spring semester.  Professor Peterson.

If Overenrolled: If more than 15 students pre-register, preference will be given to first-year students.

Offerings

2022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 20122022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 20112022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 20212022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2021, Fall 20212022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 20162022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 20132022-23: Not offered
2022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 20222022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010