English 1A Instructors and Topics

Most English 1A sections include an "umbrella topic" for the research paper, and the outside reading of two full-length works.  Since these vary from instructor to instructor, this page contains information from professors on their course reading and themes as an aid to deciding which English 1A section best fits your needs and interests.

Barton,  Edwin 

The central themes of my English 1A are love and marriage, and the course as a whole is devoted to literature and literary analysis.  Students will be expected to read several poems, a Shakespearean play, and two British novels, as well as secondary sources pertaining to each of these works.  The major assignments include two summaries of poems, a synthesis of the play and background sources, and two research papers based on the novels and critical essays about them.

Besst, David

My class examines American culture by looking at historical and literary movements of the late nineteenth century that have influenced American society today.  Readings and films will explore American realism and naturalism as a reflection of society.  Students will read two novels, Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Norris's McTeague; short stories include such writers as Kate Chopin, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Susan Glaspell, and Flannery O'Connor.  Two short papers will be written on the novels.  Additional writing assignments include a long summary, two critiques, and a ten-page research paper which focuses on analyzing the origin of some change in an element of American society (women's rights, treatment of minorities, class divisions, labor movements, advances in technology, entertainment) and how that change has influenced American culture or society today.

Buis, Kerrie

My 1A focuses on problems of the post-colonial age and also questions whether we can truly be considered post-colonial.  Using this theme, we will focus on argument and rhetoric, and student essays will demonstrate critical thinking skills by applying techniques of argument, synthesis, and critique to the materials on post-colonialism.  The research paper will also focus on post-colonial issues.  The novels will be one classic of literature, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and one more contemporary reading, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.  We will be reading essays which discuss colonialism in India, Africa, and the Middle East, and we will also be reading poetry which is concerned with this theme.

Dumler, Gloria

To see the texts for the different sections of my classes, please go to my web site

Online Sections: Our focus will be on information competency, particularly as it regards what scholars call "popular culture." We'll be looking at the impact of television, film, the Internet, advertising, media multinationals, news media, and corporate America.  In order to give you practice at the critical evaluation of literature, we will also be reading Philip K. Dick's science fiction classic about a dystopian future, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Classroom-based Sections: Fairy tales, myths, wonder tales, and other magical stories are found in virtually every society, and they all have something to say about the human condition. Variants of some of the most familiar tales, like "Cinderella" and "Beauty the Beast," have existed for thousands of years and are found all over the world in different forms. They have been analyzed by scholars from a range of disciplines, including folklore, psychology, anthropology, history, literature, and gender studies.

We will study both the universal and cultural aspects of the classic stories, analyzing common themes as well as the changes they undergo from culture to culture and across time. We will also look at more modern literary works and adaptations.

 

Freeman, Kathy

It had all the ingredients for one of those summer blockbuster disaster movies — a hurricane, collapsed levees, citizens killed or trapped in their flooded city, and an ill-equipped federal government response. We were transfixed by the news coverage, and at times outraged and horrified by the images we saw. My Eng 1A will explore media coverage and interpretations of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. We will read 1 Dead in Attic by acclaimed columnist Chris Rose; After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina, edited by David Dante Troutt; and we will view Spike Lee’s award-winning documentary, When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.

We will also read Gary Soto's collection of essays, The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy: Recollections and Short Essays.

The readings will be the basis for in-class essays in the Humanities’ computer lab, as well as a short paper, as students learn how to cite sources to avoid plagiarism. Students also will learn how to find their own college-level research through the Bakersfield College library for a 10-page paper.

 

Graupman, Gary

The common thread running through my English 1A course is social issues that include prejudice, aging, sexism, raising children, the United States' role in the world, and the American dream. The United States' role in the world and the American dream are explored with the two novels used in the class: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The other themes are explored through short essays, poetry, lyrics, and video clips. The research paper topic is left to the student to decide with the approval of the instructor. Students are encouraged to research a topic that is relevant  and important to them.

Haley, Jennifer

Arthurian legend is the common theme in the readings for my class and is also the umbrella topic for the research paper. Students will be required to read and analyze Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and portions of Le Morte d'Arthur, and the class will watch films that incorporate the Arthurian legends. The class will discuss the differences between versions pertaining to the cultures and societies in which they were written and discover the enduring qualities that render the Arthurian legends so timeless and magical.

Jett, Jennifer

My English 1A focuses on the constructed connection between media, image, and self-image. Specifically, we will examine how media (television, film, and print) affects our perceptions of race, class, and gender. We will read Postman's non-fiction Amusing Ourselves to Death and Kozinsky's novel Being There. Additionally, we will be working with Goshgarian's critical anthology The Contemporary Reader. All students will complete one major research paper as well as three other critical essays. In addition to the intense reading and writing schedule, we will being viewing portions of films and television.

Juarez, Rebecca

My English 1A course explores concepts and considerations of beauty in classic to contemporary works of art, poetry, essays, short stories, movies, and novels created by a diversity of authors. The course examines historical, cultural, and religious concepts of beauty--some you will agree with, some you will not agree with.

Students exhibit their understanding of course concepts in writing assignments including summaries, a critique, essays, and a synthesis. Throughout the quarter, students learn the research techniques and the process of researching, writing, and presenting a research topic. The course culminates in a 10-12 page research paper.

Lamers, Andrew

Gender Conflicts and Issues

The umbrella topic for my English 1A course is "Gender Issues and Conflicts." Course readings, discussions, and essay assignments will focus on definitions of masculinity and femininity in American culture (and in other cultures as well), both now and in the past, and also on prominent issues that highlight the differing expectations and treatment of each gender. Students will read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms; each author provides intriguing insights into the motivations and behaviors of men and women. The research paper will be based on a "gender issue" selected by the student and approved by the instructor.
 

 

Marquez, Richard 

My English 1A will focus on issues of social justice.  The readings we will encounter throughout the course deal with a variety of topics, but the underlying theme is social justice in the United States.  Social justice leads to an ideal condition in which all members of a society have the same basic rights, security, opportunities, obligations, and social benefits.  We shall be considering throughout the semester whether or not we have succeeded in reaching this ideal condition in this country.  Your research paper will explore some element of social justice in the United States in greater detail.  The texts we will be using include Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, 6th ed; the MLA Handbook, 6th ed; The Tortilla Curtain; and A Hope in the Unseen.  More information about these texts and my class may be found on my website, which can be accessed by clicking on my name.

 

Mitchell, Denise

My topic is "Murder, Mystery, and Film Noir." We will be reading two celebrated novels that were made into even more legendary films: James M. Cain's 1936 novel Double Indemnity (1944 film directed by Billy Wilder), and Patricia Highsmith's 1950 novel Strangers on a Train (1951 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock). Over the semester we will read the books, view the films, and research the relevant history, critiques, and analyses of the works. Please see my web page for additional information: http://www2.bakersfieldcollege.edu/dmitchell/.

 

Moton, David

Advertising and Hollywood have us working jobs we really don’t want, just to buy things we don’t really need.  With this philosophy, Fight Club’s Tyler Durden tries to shake the sleeping giant of America awake and into action.  While this advice comes from the novel we’ll study in my course, it is the focus of much scholarship and criticism surrounding mass media and popular (consumer) culture.

This English 1A class will look at how multinational corporate giants have gained control of our airwaves and checkbooks to further their own agendas.  We’ll study the scholarship and fiction surrounding consumerism, ad techniques, and threats to democracy.  We’ll shake down Viacom, expose Disney, and wrestle with Wal-Mart in this class.  Finally, by the semester’s end we’ll study Kalle Lasn’s call-to-action book—Culture Jam—and explore ways counter problems that are arising in our post-human world and take some power back from these corporate giants.

Paradise, Cynthia

My English 1A course has two focal points and two medium-length research papers. The first research paper centers on popular culture, and the second on "the quest." Books include Carol Pearson's The Hero Within and Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. 

Smith, Janeen

This course explores the patterns of The Hero’s Journey from Greek myth, Medieval Legend, Religious doctrines, and Shakespeare through modern twentieth and twenty-first century novel and film.  However,  the journey concept is much more than that. It is about transformation and growth.  It is a process through which our ineffectual or limited understandings are replaced or reinterpreted as new understandings that are more in touch with who we are and the world in which we live.  The journey is the metaphorical expression of the process of living in and adapting to our world.  It is a model of what German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer called “the dialogue that we are.”

The journey pattern underlies all human experience and, consequently, is found in stories about those experiences.  Understanding this motif provides a basic schema for analysis of literature and film.  We will explore the journey on two levels: as the “monomyth,” as Joseph Campbell called it, an archetypal pattern of mythic and literary hero found in all cultures throughout all of recorded history, AND as a tool to help you not just understand literature, but to understand your own life.

Wayland, Scott

My English 1A focuses on the theme of journeys and quests, the search for meaning, achievement and knowledge. Starting with Joseph Campbell's ideas on the hero's quest, the course deals with short readings from an anthology called Thresholds, by J. Sterling Warner, and two full-length works; one, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, traces one young man's tragic pursuit of the perfect wilderness experience and what, for him, constitutes the most meaningful life. The other book, Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver, a novel, tells the story of a woman's search for meaning and belonging in the wake of a very difficult childhood. The research essay topic is up to the student's choice of any significant journey, quest, hero or heroine. Students will also need Lester's Writing Research Papers to help them through the course.

 

Willis, Julie

My 1A umbrella theme is work. The readings offer a chronological study of changes in the workplace over time, beginning with the Industrial Revolution and moving to the present, particularly focusing on issues affecting the worker (such as unions, working conditions, health and safety issues, family and childcare issues, outsourcing, retraining, Welfare, child labor, immigration, education, pay, vacation time, special skills, women in the workplace, discrimination in the workplace, and so on). 

 We focus the first half of the semester on two novels, The Jungle and Rocket Boys, with additional critical and contextual articles and a lengthy excerpt from Fast Food Nation.  Students write three short essays, two article summaries, and a critique.

 The latter half of the semester is devoted to writing a longer (persuasive) research paper on any approved topic relating to the umbrella topic of work.