Go directly to the syllabus.
This course is an introduction to several complementary notions of the "literary mind" -- how the mind is depicted in literature, the ways that literature exploits and enhances features of everyday cognition, and the fact that literature is the product of human minds. Along the way, we will make a case for why the study of cognition needs the study of literature.
How can words on a page, or spoken on a stage, have any hope of producing reliable and complex effects on the thoughts and emotions in the minds of those who read and hear them? What relationship do the "minds" of literary characters have to the supposedly "real" minds of ourselves and the people we meet in real life? What can the forms of our literature tell us about the kind of the minds that produce and consume that literature?
During this course, we will look at representations of cognition and interiority in British and American literature, including Renaissance drama, the 19th century sensation novel, and contemporary science fiction. We'll examine how these texts reflect particular, historically specific, and varied models of how minds work, as well as the arsenal of experimental techniques they deploy for representing the internal experience of those minds. We'll also read contemporary work in cognitive science about the features of language and cognition that make literature possible.
Old Courses (Case Western Reserve University)
How does an entire orchestra play a symphony together? What makes humans able to carry on a conversation? How do we work together to construct interpretations of events? When do we get it wrong? In this course, we will both study and engage in the life of the mind, focusing on the role of shared, coordinated thought and action in human cognition and communication. Course readings will address these topics from various perspectives, including work in developmental psychology, linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, and behavioral economics. The writing component of the course will concentrate on how to recognize and master styles of writing, both academic and nonacademic, with emphasis on styles useful during a career.
About SAGES | Last year's syllabus | Final paper assignment | Blackboard snapshot | On writing in the "classic style"
The unfolding of cognitive structures and functions over time, in both the deep temporal perspective of evolution (measured across many lifetimes) and the shorter one of development (measured within single lifetimes). The approach of the course is cross-disciplinary, including approaches that come from anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, computing science, comparative psychology, primatology, and comparative linguistics, among others. For students familiar with basic research and theory in cognitive science.
A: "Is he a good student?"
B: "Well... he works very hard."
How do people use language to mean more than they say? In what ways is language context-sensitive? What, for that matter, constitutes a context? This class will introduce students to the major subjects of concern to pragmatics, the branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between linguistic signs and their context of use. We will examine the relationship between sentence meaning and speaker meaning, the inferential processes that mediate between them, and the ways that these processes ultimately affect the use and structure of linguistic form. Topics will include implicature, presupposition, speech-act theory, and pragmatic factors in language change.
This course approaches literature as a window into language, in which cognition is characterized by the same imaging and imaginary properties as artistic literature. It is an attempt to identify and analyze procedures as aesthetically interesting and generally relevant forms of human thinking, feeling, imagining, fantasizing, and conceptualizing. The course introduces current theories of literature in relation to language and mind, and it presents and discusses practical applications in critical reading and text analysis, using examples from modern literature in the main genres.
The second course in a two-course sequence designed to provide an introduction to cognitive linguistics at the M.A. level. As a continuation of COGS 406 (i.e. Cognitive Linguistics Theory I), this course introduces new theoretical concepts and expands significantly on many that students have already encountered. This semester's work will especially involve close attention to applications of cognitive and functional approaches to the study of specific phenomena in language.
The second course in a two-course sequence designed to provide experience in research methods in cognitive linguistics at the M.A. level. The Cognitive Linguistics Workshop complements the theory course on cognitive linguistics with a practical component. Participants focus on concrete research topics of their choice in cognitive linguistics and have the opportunity to present and discuss their research at different stages. The aim of these regular discussions is to create the opportunity for discussing and shaping the initial ideas and the methods into a final research paper.
English 280 introduces students to the structure, history, and varieties of the English language. We examine different types of language use, the writing and sound systems of the language, its national, regional and social diversity, and ramifications of its present status as a world language. By the time they have finished this course, students will:
- have some understanding of what it means to analyze a language
- understand the difference between facts about the structure of a language and the conventions that govern the use of that language in specific contexts -- the difference between prescriptive and descriptive approaches to language
- be aware of how English vocabulary is structured, where English words and phrases come from, and how new terms are developed
- have a basic understanding of English grammatical structure
- understand why the English spelling system seems so contrary to all sense and reason
- learn important facts about the history of English
- understand how language can vary in different contexts and how a language like English is likely to vary regionally and socially
While the category of "Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Literature" is canonized in the titles of courses like this one, anthologies of fiction and poetry, departments of bookstores, and elsewhere, the terms involved are in fact hotly contested. As we navigate the thorny boundaries of this category, we will continually examine and question the relations between sexual desire and literary expression. In order to pursue these goals, we will work to develop and practice skills of close critical analysis. This course takes a small sample of works from a range of periods and contexts and read them both with careful attention to the historical and social context in which they were written, and with an eye toward observing and analyzing recurrent themes and motifs that emerge across the works.
This
course is a rigorous introduction to writing at the college level, with
an emphasis on rhetoric -- that is, the art of persuasion grounded in
an awareness of the distinctive needs of different audiences and
purposes. The class draws on both classical and modern theories of
rhetoric to give students a functional toolset for thinking about their
own and others' writing. Students develop skills in building a coherent
and incisive argument, using and presenting research materials, and
revising for style, organization, and content. The course assignments
give students paractice in analyzing the rhetorical strategies of
others and then proceed through an extended research project, focusing
on different aspects of argumentation and audience awareness,
culminating in a fully-developed final paper.
This
course combines the goals of English 101 with added attention to issues
of style, mechanics, and other formal conventions that are of
particular interest to non-native speakers of English.
This
course integrates a rhetorical approach to academic writing into the
Technology and Social Policy "First Year Focus" curriculum. In this
class, writing assignments and discussions of the social implications
of rhetorical strategy are designed to coordinate with other first-year
courses in sociology, psychology, and history in a thematically unified
semester for advanced first-year students.
