Fall 2008

Please note that all honors courses have computer holds on them. Before you can register for the courses, you should email Robert Brunner—rbrunner@nvcc.edu--and 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 you; he removes the hold to allow you to register.

16690 English 111, 020A, MW 09:30A-10:45A, AA0440, Brunner, R.
Witches, Rebellion, Slavery, and Freedom
This course will focus on provocative writers of American literature as they explore the themes of superstition, rebellion, enslavement, and freedom. We will begin with Arthur Miller's dramatic presentation of life during the Salem witch trials in his play the Crucible, a study of misguided religious fanaticism and its effects on a pious community. Following Miller's work, we will read Thomas Paine, a writer who enflamed an American public to rise in rebellion against England. Enslavement takes various forms, some subtle and some overt, and most of them are explored vividly in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the most powerful story written by an American about the effects of slavery. Contemporary with Douglass, and as provocative--if not more so--are the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a man who saw the promise and failure of the young United States--and who was not afraid to tell a nation exactly what he thought about that failure. In addition, we will read essays of Henry David Thoreau, as he argues against the slavery of war and the slavery of race. In all of American literature, there are few writers who are as clear and crisp stylistically as Thoreau is. After Thoreau, we will switch our tone and read the emotionally explosive poetry of Emily Dickinson, a woman who knew more about love without having lovers than most of us will ever know. We will conclude the course with a view of the Civil War from the southern viewpoint in the fiction of the Nobel-Prize-winner William Faulkner, in his work the Unvanquished. Through literature, we will give flesh and blood to the development of what we now think of as our rugged American character. For more details about this course, contact Robert Brunner at rbrunner@nvcc.edu.
Note--English 111, 20A, is linked with Dr. Windham's American History 121, 02A; therefore, students who register for English 111, 20A, must also register for History 121, 02A.

14330 English 111, 021A, TR 09:30A-10:45A, 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 gives us glimpses into those ideas and visions that have shaped the world’s culture for thousands of years. Reading great books is an opportunity to study the originals, rather than reports compiled by others. 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 the books great. One thing that makes the books great is that they speak to each succeeding generation in its own terms and to each generation’s values. We will read Sophocles Three Theban Plays,; Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Sonnets; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; Keats’ Poems and Letters; and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. For more information about this course, contact Mr. Burton at jburton@nvcc.edu.

14338 English 111, 022A, M 07:30P-10:20P, AA 0470, Schroder, C.
Contact Dr. Schroder at cschroder@nvcc.edu for details about this course.

14346 English 111, 023A, W 04:30P-07:20P, AA0255, Harrison, W.
Seize the day
Seize the day or carpe diem has become one of the most frequently used of literary motifs of world literature. When the phrase was coined by the Roman poet Horace, it probably meant nothing more than “do not ignore the present, since there is no guarantee that there will be a future.” Writers of more recent times have elaborated it into a profound and far-reaching psychological and philosophical theme, one that has to do with how we are best to conduct our lives. In this course, we will examine some of the works in which this theme appears and consider its implications for the choices we make. For more information about this course, contact Mr. Harrison at wharrison@nvcc.edu.

11978 English 112, 001A, T 04:30P-07:20P, AA0234, Grant, S.
Focus on the Southern Writer
This course will focus on the literature of Southern Writers through the reading of short stories, novels, poetry, and plays about the South by writers such as William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor Eudora Welty, and Richard Wright.  Our discussion of the material will consider how we define "southern literature".  Finally, we will attempt to analyze the distinctive voice of the southern writer on topics of miscegenation, misogyny, racism, incest, the grotesque, the mythic, and religion. Readings will include the following selections: The Signet Classic Book of Southern Short Stories/ Dorothy Abbott (Penguin Group), Light in August by William Faulkner (Vintage), Ballad of the Sad Cafe and other Stories by Carson McCullers (Mariner Books), A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor (Harvest Books), Thirteen Stories by Eudora Welty (Harvest Books), The Theater of Tennessee Williams, Vol 3: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer (New Directions Publishing Corporation). For more information about this course, contact Ms. Grant at sgrant@nvcc.edu.

54688 English 295, 001A, Honors Seminar, T 04:30P-07:20P, AA0375, Moore, H.
Truth and the Documentary.
While it might seem obvious to reflect the “truth” in a documentary, most of us forget to question whose truth, and how exactly that truth is represented. In this course, you will learn to analyze the kinds of truths authors present on the page and on the screen. By reading historical and contemporary autobiographies, you will consider how we construct the truth in re-telling it. In addition, we will learn to analyze the form of documentary films, looking at the way they have changed from the realistic to the absurd. The result has been a truth continuum, running from the realist to the mockumentary. The purpose of the course will be to think deeply about the idea of the truth continuum, questioning what it might say about American culture. This course will require presentations and several research papers. Required Texts: Bedford Handbook 7th ed., plus numerous other texts. Students will be assigned readings in class (on reserve in the library or by handout). For more information about this course, contact Dr. Moore at hmoore@nvcc.edu.

14784 History 121, 002A, MW 11:00A-12:15P, AA 0440, Windham, J.
Discovery, Formation, and Tragedy
History 121 will focus on the history of the New World from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 through the American Revolution, then the formation of a democracy the likes of which the world had never seen, to its development and almost tragic dissolution during a long, bloody Civil War, a war whose casualities amounted to more than all the wars in the New World until Vietnam. For more information, email J. Windham at jwindham@nvcc.edu.
Note: History 121, 002A, is linked with Mr. Brunner's English 111, 020A. Therefore, students who take History 121, 002A, must also register for Mr. Brunner's Honors English 111, 20A, class.

15090 Mathematics 151, 002A, TR 09:00A-10:15A, AA0354, Wilkin, J.
In this honors course, we will include extensions of the required materials. For example, in the Logic material, we will include fuzzy logic, have groups of students present lectures on some of the required topics, have one exam that is a group exam, using the same group structure that works to present the lectures. Each group will work together on this exam. Then each person will turn in an exam paper which I will grade. The exam grade for each group member will be the lowest grade of the exams submitted by that group. In addition, we will have two required papers. The required text is the Expanded 11th edition of Miller, Hereen, and Hornsby, Mathematical Ideas, ISBN-10: 0321361466 | ISBN-13: 9780321361462. The e-book is ISBN-10: 032155163X | ISBN-13: 9780321551634 (available soon). The course syllabus will be available sometime in June on my web site, http://www.nvcc.edu/home/jwilkin/. For further information about the course, contact Mr. Wilkin at jwilkin@nvcc.edu.

Honors Options

An honors student may take a regularly scheduled class for honors credit if the instructor approves of your doing that. To earn honors credit in a regularly scheduled course, you should approach the instructor of the class either before you enroll in it or soon after you enroll and ask that professor if he or she will allow you to take the course as an honors option. If the professor agrees, you will then create a project, discuss it with the professor, 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 of it, then give it to the instructor to sign and deliver to him. The instructor should give Mr. Brunner the form--signed by him or her--approximately one week before the end of the semester. When Mr. Brunner receives that form, it will tell him that you have completed honors work in that course, and he will see that you receive the proper credit for the course. Be sure that your instructor submits that form, for without it, you won't receive honors credit.

Follow this link to learn more about an honors option.