Syllabus Review

I had a very difficult time finding syllabi that I liked. What I have here are a haphazard collection of some of the syllabi for specialty courses I found along with two that address my proposed dream course subject.

A course on Jane Austen : This course made it on my list because it's opening line caught my attention. "Do Jane Austen's novels simply cultivate a small and self-enclosed world?" it asks. Could this qualify as problem posing? Maybe. I think it obviously starts in that direction, but the rest of the course descriptions makes it pretty clear to me that the professor already knows the answer to that question--a very strong no. I would like to think that a genuinely problem posing course would ask a more open ended question.

In terms of theoretical lens, I think this course is working primarily under a New Historicist framework. The inclusion of other primary texts obviously fits in with this concept. Also, I imagine there will be an element of feminist criticism as well. This is Jane Austen after all.

The syllabus design obviously leaves much to be desired. Course goals are missing entirely, as is any real explanation of assessment. Also as a composition-type person his statement on writing ("In general, the instructor appreciates either good writing or a reasonable simulacrum of it. He looks with extreme disfavor upon poorly-written essays. Sloppy writing normally means sloppy thinking.") made me question his ability to give useful and constructive directions for his assignments. If he wants his students to display "good writing" he should probably give a more specific defintion of what he means by good.

Literature of Hunger : First things first, this is a pretty funky course idea. I like a lot of things about it. For example, the teacher has her students look at whole lot of different texts ranging from promotional material from the National Beef Council to Orwell's essays to supermarket design. I think the service learning aspects are also really cool.

I think, generally, this is fitting under a poststructural/postmodern lens. The explosion of the word 'text' to apply to just about everything is my first clue. Also, talking about the social construction of 'hunger' is rather postmodern/cultural studies.

As a syllabus, it leaves out a lot. Course goals, assignments, a coherent version of a calendar, etc. . .

Death and Dying; Life and Living : This course focuses on the same subject matter as my dream course, but certainly not in the same way. I see this course as part academic inquiry, part caretaker training, part therapy group, and part diversity training. I could see myself emulating some of the elements, like the comparison of different models of the grieving process, but others I would shy away from. The personal essay about experiences with loss, for example, runs the risk of becoming far too confessional. I like personal essays, but they are a very tricky genre to assign.

The theoretical perspective for this course is difficult to pinpoint. I think it employes a sort of pop-culture, feel-good version of multiculturalism. I am also tempted to say that there is a bit of psychological criticism coupled with reader-response (again in its pop culture form) implied in the language of the course description and the course goals.

Medicine, Aging, and Literature: I find this course interesting because it approaches the literature of aging not from a literature deparment but from a department of "Medical Humanities." From what I can gather, most if not all of the students taking the course are med students. The professor's overarching goal of the course is "Simply put, I believe we need to balance the "negative" views of old age and aging with some of the "positives". Young people, especially physicians-to-be, ought to be exposed to non-pejorative stories of and by old people." In some ways, I see this goal as related to my own goal for a course on the literature of death and dying. Where this course's goal is to replace one view of aging with another, however, my goal is more to open up students reading of the cultural text of death to many interpretations.

I'm not quite sure how to characterize the theoretical approach of this course. Perhaps cultural studies, though it feels a little too Dr. Phil for that.

Note: Sorry I didn't get to a fifth syllabus. I'm taking my exams this weekend. (What will I do when that excuse is gone?)