Digital poetry is a genre based in literary, visual, and sonic arts launched by poets who began to experiment with computers in the late 1950s. Using Espen Aarseth’s concept of cybertext as a theoretical foundation, this course investigates the different activities taken up by poets who integrate computer technology in their works. Students will discuss and evaluate virtues of the dynamics presented in an array of works produced by poets and programmers. Poems that include algorithmic programming, graphical artistry, videography, and hypertext designs are introduced and explored, in order to build an understanding of the values of these disparate forms of expression and deliberate on the creative potential of this new genre.

Bible as Literature
Professor: R. Henry
Section: 111
Meeting times: MWR 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
1st Session -  5/27/07 - 6/30/07

Although the course considers the cultural and historical context of the literature of the Bible as well as the voices of the various authors and intended audiences, the focus is upon the characteristics of distinct literary pieces. Some linguistic aspects are examined relating to the various translations from original Hebrew or Greek as well as origins and development of individual stories and relationship to myths, legends, and archetypal characters. Much attention is placed upon forms of literature, such as parable, epic, proverb, lamentation, psalm, narrative. Explored extensively are the qualities contributed by literary techniques such as parallelism, lyricism, repetition, irony, paradox, metaphor, imagery, rhetorical persuasion, and thematic development.

Literature of the Jazz Age
Professor: D. Donahue
Sections: 021; 121
Meeting times: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm; 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
2nd Session - 7/7/07 - 8/7/07 

Students in this seminar will examine fiction and poetry by some of the major authors who created landmarks of American culture in the decade following World War I.  We will look at the fiction of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston, and the poetry of Eliot, Pound, Cummings, and Williams. We will pay added attention to the works associated with the Harlem Renaissance, including the poetry of Hughes, Toomer, McKay, and Cullen.  The major work in this seminar will be a multi-stage research paper on a specific work by an author from this period, not necessarily one on the reading list.  Students with an appropriate background may receive permission to study an important work of art, music, or architecture associated with the Jazz Age.

Non-Fiction Literature
Professor: J. Esche
Section: 011
Meeting times: MWR 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
1st Session - 5/27/07 - 6/30/07

While Truman Capote claimed to be pioneering a new literature form with the publication of his IN COLD BLOOD in 1966, in fact there had been a number of significant works - valuable both for their history and their literary style - published before and after it which drew directly from the non-fiction world. We will examine three of these in addition to the Capote book; BLACK LIKE ME, which influenced a generation's perception of the Civil Rights Movement as it saw actual conditions in the South through the eyes of a white reporter passing for black as he traveled through America; David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize winning biography of John Adams (and the Tony and Critics' Circle Award winning musical 1776 which covered some of the same territory), which demonstrates that some personal and political issues never become obsolete; and one further work yet to be named.

There will be one research paper required on a related subject in addition to a number of regular exams.

Romance in the Western Middle Ages

Professor: Kimmelman

Section: 451

Session: 7/7/08 - 8/7/08

http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDLsummer.html