Fall 2009

Please note that all honors courses have computer holds on them. Before you can register for the courses, you need to email Robert Brunner at rbrunner@nvcc.edu. Tell him what course you want, provide the section number (some courses have multiple sections), and include your student identification number. If you are eligible for the course, Robert will remove the hold, notify you in an email, and then you can register for the course. Robert does not register for you; he removes the hold, allowing you to register.

Below are the descriptions of the honors courses for the fall 2009.

THIS FIRST HONORS ENGLISH 111 COURSE--AND THE HISTORY COURSE LINKED WITH IT--IS CLOSED

16370 English 111, 020A, MW 09:30A-10:45A, Room AA440, Brunner, R.
(This course is linked with Dr. Windham's American History 121, 002A. Students who register for English 111, 020A, must also register for History 121, 002A.)
The Family in Crisis
From the ancient Greeks to the modern era, the crisis of the family has been a consistent theme in literature. To understand this crisis more fully, we will begin with the dramatic trilogy The Theban Plays, by Sophocles. Oedipus, a son who tries to escape the parricide (the killing of his father) that the prophet has predicted, comes face-to-face with his own pride and arrogance, on his path to the humility that emerges from his family tragedy. This theme will continue through Shakespeare's young Hamlet, a young man grieving for the death of his father, the loss of his mother, and the rejection of his girlfriend. On his journey through deception and vengeance, Hamlet learns self-awareness, in the powerful theme of identity that also runs through this course. Then we will immerse ourselves in the life of Edna Pontellier of Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening. Edna is at first a typical woman of the late nineteenth century who then discovers that being a wife and mother is not enough to satisfy her insatiable thirst for life in a stifling Victorian culture that labels her a misfit. From Kate Chopin's novel, we will move to the poetry of Emily Dickinson and see a different side of humanity, a view from one of the most dynamic poets of American literature, a woman who helped to shape the direction of modern poetry. A poem, she said, must "rip the top of my head off." And with her energy and passion, she will rip our heads off.. The course will conclude with one of the most dramatic--and violent--novels of the twentieth century, Richard Wright's Native Son, a story of a supressed young black man Bigger Thomas, who finds his identity through murder. This course will run the gamut of beauty, violence, sexuality, politics, and religion. Along this rugged path of family crises, we will create essays that reflect our interpretation of what these writers are saying about family life. And on the days that our essays are due, we will treat ourselves with bagels, jam, and cream cheese. For further information about this course, contact Mr. Brunner at rbrunner@nvcc.edu.

14260 English 111, 021A, TR 09:30A-10:45A, Room AA 127A, Burton, J.
Reading Great Books 
"The Possible’s slow fuse / Is lit by imagination"  Emily Dickinson
Reading the great books of the western world gains one admission to a large gathering of former readers who have made and re-made the world throughout the ages.  Reading great books also gives us glimpses into those ideas and visions that have shaped the world’s culture for thousands of years, and it provides us with an opportunity to study the originals, rather than reports compiled by others.  In addition, reading the great books gives us first-hand exposure and forces us to use our own imaginations.  And that, after all, is the point: to actively and imaginatively discover what makes books great.  One thing that makes books great is that they speak to each succeeding generation on its own terms and to each generation’s values.  We will read Sophocles, Three Theban Plays; Aristophanes, Lysistrata; Virgil, The Aeneid; Shakespeare, Hamlet and Sonnets; John Keats, Poems and Letters; and Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot. For further information about this course, contact Mr. Burton at jburton@nvcc.edu.

14276 English 111, 022A, W 07:30P-10:20P, Room AA 0255, Daily, D.
Much Ado About Something
W. H. Auden in a celebrated essay implies that three quarters of modern literature is concerned with one subject, love. He also suggests that the two great modern erotic myths are the myth of Tristan and Isolde or the world well  lost for love and the counter myth of Don Juan.  This course will analyze various literary works in relation to these polarities. We will be using Barthes’A  Lover's Discourse as a starting point and then move chronologically from Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Much Ado About Nothing, Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, Nabokov’s Lolita, Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, concluding with Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain and Winterson’s Written on the Body. Required work  for the course involves discussion, writing essays, and presenting the findings of a research project  to the rest of the class. For further information about this course, contact Ms. Daily at ddaily@nvcc.edu.

12060 English 112, 001A, T 07:30P-10:20P, Room 0418, Purugganan, A.
The Spirit World and the Supernatural on Stage
Today’s entertainment produces television programs that center on characters with mystic powers, films that romanticize vampires and werewolves, and novels that explore the realm of apparitions and demons.  All reinforce that there is a great contemporary interest in the supernatural, but has not this always been the case? The idea of the fantastic, the ethereal, and the unnatural has served as a popular motif in drama as far back as the Middle Ages. This course will investigate the spirit world and the supernatural in theatre from morality plays to twentieth-century drama.  How does the supernatural transfer onto the stage?  What do certain notions of the spirit world suggest about the cultures that created them?  Has the concept of what is supernatural evolved over time?  Are there superstitions behind the performances and work? We will closely analyze Everyman, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats, among other plays. Additionally, we will watch film excerpts of the plays, research and compose arguments that address the theatre of the supernatural, and write original monologues that possess an otherworldly theme. Students will also work in groups to examine, to direct, and to perform a scene from one of our readings, offering an oral report of the group’s intentions and discoveries. For further information about this course, contact Mr. Purugganan at apurugganan@nvcc.edu.

22662 English 295, 001A, TR 11:00A-12:15A, AA127A, Burton, J.
This is an honors seminar. Honors students who wish to complete the honors core curriculum must complete an honors seminar. There will also be a seminar offered in the spring term of 2010.
Some Classic Texts and Their Film Adaptations
Nearly every serious reader will readily admit that “it was good, but not as good as the book,” when asked an opinion about a film adaptation.  Many great films have been made from mediocre books, but it is rare that a great film is made from a great book.  Too often, weak films have been made from great books.  During the course of this seminar, we will read, or re-read, some great texts and view some of the film adaptations made from them.  The idea is to analyze why some of the films work and others don’t.  Our judgments will be based on thorough readings of the texts.  Do some texts lend themselves to film?  Will some classic texts never be made into films?  Try to imagine Walden on the silver screen. The texts for the seminar are Moby-Dick, Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. For more information about this course, contact Mr. Burton at jburton@nvcc.edu.

14704 History 121, 002A, MW 11:00A-12:15P, AA 0440, Windham, J.
America from the Early Years to the Civil War
(History 121, 002A, is linked with Mr. Brunner's English 111, 020A. Students who take History 121, 002A, must also register for Mr. Brunner's Honors English 111, 020A, class.
Honors History 121 is offered as a special seminar covering Early American History from 1492 to 1865. Dr. Joseph Windham will present lectures, multimedia resources, and classroom activities concerning the many salient themes and urgent topics from the Colonial through the Antebellum Eras, ending with the Civil War. Featured topics include: Gold , Glory and God: European Colonization, Capitalism and Slavery, the American Revolution and Federalist Era, the Early Republic, Westward Expansion: Neutrality, Diplomacy and War, “Jacksonian Democracy,” Sectionalism and the Civil War. Along with the various events, personages, and institutions covered we will observe the uniqueness of American democracy and class structures, new world freedom, racial slavery, ethnocentrisms, immigration, our Latino heritage, family and community building and social disfunctionalism, sexual and gender issues of empowerment, cultural expressions and interactions in a dynamically changing environment, and the genocidal dispossession of Native American civilizations. Our texts are Divine’s Past and Present, vol. I, and Zinn’s People’s History of the U. S. However, students will research topics (selected by students and confirmed by Dr. Windham) for the book review and term paper requirements. Of course, we will make use of our geographic area with its wealthy resources of archives, libraries, museums, and special historical events to supplement our course. Come prepared to read, write, test, research, and participate in our extraordinary journey through Early American History. For further information about this course, contact Dr. Windham at jwindham@nvcc.edu.

75309 Humanities 295, 001A, W 08:30A -09:20A, AA 0158, 1 credit, McClellan, J.
This special topics in American culture course will link twenty students from halfway around the world in Madagascar with students at the Alexandria Campus.  It will be an interdisciplinary, video-based lecture course.  It will be team-taught by faculty from the following disciplines: history, sociology, English, psychology, political science, and religion.

Honors Options

An honors student may take a regularly scheduled class for honors credit if the instructor approves. To earn honors credit in a regularly scheduled course, you should propose a project to the instructor (or ask for the instructor's suggestions about a project) either before you enroll in the course or during the first or second week of the course. If the professor agrees to give you honors credit, you will work on the project throughout the semester, meet several times outside class with the professor, and then submit the project about two weeks before the end of the semester. To receive honors credit, you must pick up a blue form--The Honors Option Form--on Mr. Brunner's desk (room AA252), fill out your part, give it to the instructor to sign, and then bring the form with a week remaining in the semester to Mr. Brunner . When the form is processed, your records will show the honors credit.

Follow this link to learn more about honors options.