L141 INTRO WRITING & STUDY OF LIT 1

TOPIC: Survivor
Lecture:
2917     12:20p-1:10p     MW     BH 109   Anderson, Dana

Discussion:
2918     9:05a-9:55a      TR     TBA
2919     10:10a-11:00a    TR     TBA
2920     11:15a-12:05p    TR     TBA
2921     12:20p-1:10p     TR     SY 006
2922     1:25p-2:15p      TR     TBA

Are you a "survivor"?
Do you have a story to tell?

Most people who answer "yes" to the first question also say so to
the second. Stories about survival are as common as they are
miraculous: from wars, ethnic "cleansings," and natural disasters to
plane crashes, personal traumas, and hiking mishaps that force one
to sever one's own arm with a pocket knife in order to escape a
crushing boulder, a broad range of human events inspire an equally
broad genre of what we would call survivor stories.

What are these events, these things that one can endure -- and
presumably live through -- and be called a "survivor"? For what
reasons do we tell these stories, as much in fiction as in
nonfiction? For what reasons do we read and view them, both
individually and as a culture that seems ever ready to hear the next
new tale of survival? These are some of the key questions we'll be
asking and trying to answer through a semester together of careful
reading and writing.

Because this is also a composition course, we will devote
considerable lecture and discussion section time to considering
about what we're reading. There will be two longer papers (4 pages),
four shorter papers (2 pages), and midterm and final exams. But if
you can muster Gloria Gaynor's helpful determination, you too will,
well, you know.