Kansas State University

In 2010, the presence of a clandestine network of Russian agents operating on US soil was reported to the world. While the discovery of these spies seemed a throwback to the Cold War era, the shadowy world of espionage, or what Rudyard Kipling referred to as ‘the Great Game,’ continues to captivate the popular imagination. TV shows like Alias, 24, and FX’s The Americans, and Hollywood movies such as the James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Mission Impossible series evince our cultural fascination with spies. In this course, we will focus on literary representations of spies and the ethical and psychological implications of spying. As literary scholars, we will become familiar with some of the terms and practices associated with spying and decipher and decode texts and collect information from indirect and typically unreliable sources. We will read texts that cover a broad range of literary styles, from non-fiction news reports and memoirs to fiction in novels and short stories. These texts will allow us to examine the formal and ethical strategies used by individual authors. Our goals include the development of techniques of literary analysis and the translation of these techniques into writing skills. You will write and revise three essays and several shorter assignments.

How does Hollywood imagine writers and how they really write? This class will offer a historical exploration of representations of famous authors—as well as everyday writers from a range of historical periods and diverse backgrounds—in literature and on film. Works will vary from representations of playwrights and poets, such as Shakespeare in Love and Sylvia, to page-to-screen epistolary novels, such as Dangerous Liaisons, The Color Purple, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. But we will also engage with filmic representations of writers using new online media, such as email, text messages, and social media platforms, as seen in classics like You’ve Got Mail and last year’s Searching. Through hands-on activities and written exercises, we will examine questions of letters and literature as cinematic objects of spectacle or nostalgia, letter-writing as a narrative device, and myths about writing as a material and cultural practice. K-State 8 Tag: Aesthetic interpretation.

A discussion-survey of some seminal works in the Western literary, philosophical, and cultural tradition: enrollment limited to entering Honors Freshmen in all colleges. Common reading list with HIST-297. There will be four evening meetings of both sections jointly during the semester. In both, students will be encouraged to engage with important works of literature, history, and philosophy representing germinal and controversial views of the human condition, the nature of humanity and society, and the character of the Good Life. Emphasis on class discussion and the exchange and testing of ideas and interpretations; concentration on developing clarity and forcefulness in written and spoken discourse concerning issues and ideas. Readings range from Homer’s Iliad and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra through Machiavelli’s The Prince, Goethe’s Faust,
Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto, to Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents. Two papers 4-6 pp., with conferences and revisions, one term paper 6-9 pp., and a take-home final consisting of three essays of 3-4 pp. on a choice of set topics. Class participation will be a substantial component in the course grade.

Public spats between stars splashed on every page. “Tell-all” books promising scandal and salacious details. Criminals turned celebrity and celebrities turned criminal. Demagogues decrying “fake news.” Just another day in the life of the 21st-century media cycle, right? Wrong. Welcome to the 18th century that history books never told you about. From the first daily periodical, The Spectator (1711), to what’s trending on Twitter, this class will draw parallels between eighteenth-century and present-day cults of celebrity to explore what this obsession with superstardom tells us about our culture and ourselves. Some of the writers we will read include Joseph Addison, Aphra Behn, James Boswell, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Johnson, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and John Wilmot (2nd Earl of Rochester). Course requirements: active participation, weekly online discussion board posts, a presentation, a short paper, and a final research project. English 698 fulfills three credits of the pre-1800 overlay req. for English majors.

Obtain permission to enroll in this course from the English Department, ECS 108.

This course invites you to explore influential classical Greek and Roman texts, including those of Homer, Euripides, Ovid, and others. We will look at how these classics have been retold and adapted for new audiences throughout the world, including, of Percy Jackson fame, Rick Riordan’s The Hidden Oracle, Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls, and Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad. We will also see the ways in which Classical Greece and Rome appear in comic books, movies, and musicals. Students will participate actively. We will discuss the new audiences and purposes for these texts, the feminist power of these adaptations, and the marketing of classical images and themes. In addition to discussions and brief responses and quizzes, you will work collaboratively to create a Reader’s Guide for one of the adaptations we read. As a final project, you will propose your own creative adaptation.