Skip to main content
Department of English
Search
Log in
Navigation
About
Current Office Hours
Diversity Resources
English Library
Faculty Statement Archives
Internal Dept Resources
Medieval and Early Modern Studies
University Writing Program
Video Guides & Worksheets
Visit us on Facebook
Major/Minor in English
Advising
Creative Writing Application
Honors Program
Internships
Literary Magazines
Major Requirements Guide & FAQ
Minor Requirements
Study Abroad
Why Major in English?
MFA in Creative Writing
Admissions
Events, Prizes, and Resources
MFA Program Faculty
Newly Admitted Grad Students
Resources
Ph.D. in Literature
About
Admissions
Newly Admitted Grad Students
PhD Alumni Directory
Resources
Courses & Schedules
People
News & Events
Off the Syllabus Podcast
Recent News
Contests
Contest Winners
Previous Contest Winners
Newsletters
You are here
Home
»
Courses & Schedules
English 188A - Fall, 2020
Topics in Literary & Critical Theory
Topic: TIME & NARRATIVE
Class Information
Instructor:
Ziser, Michael
CRN:
32161
Time:
MW 3:10-4:30
Description
This advanced seminar will explore the slippery subject of time from a wide variety of perspectives in literature, media studies, philosophy, linguistics, and history. Starting with the science fiction of time travel, which gives us some concrete ways to think about the interaction of logic, story, history, biology, and time, we will turn to modern philosophical and literary experiments with duration and memory; attempts in narratology to develop a precise vocabulary for temporal phenomena; linguistic investigations of tense, aspect, and mood; analyses of the way that media technologies shape human experiences of time; questions of temporal scale; and the emergence of our sense of history from the technologically-mediated superimposition of specific moments. Should we stumble across a working prototype of a time machine, we will either split the profits evenly or engage in an epic no-holds-barred, winner-take-all contest across all time and space.
Class will meet on Zoom MW 3:10-4:30pm
Grading
Weekly Oral Discussion Participation: 20%
Weekly Discussion Writing: 25%
Class Leading: 5%
Research Jag: 5%
Extra Reading: 5%
Final Project Presentation: 5%
Final Project: 35%
Texts
From Eternity to Here
, Sean Carroll
Four Quartets
, T. S. Eliot
Exhalation
, Ted Chiang
Mrs Dalloway
, Virginia Woolf
Camera Lucida
, Roland Barthes
Austerlitz
, W. G. Sebald
The Man In The High Castle
, Philip K. Dick
Last and First Men
, Olaf Stapledon
The Time Machine
, H. G. Wells
Arcadia
, Tom Stoppard
A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time
, Adrian Bardon