marguerite helmers

 

professor of english

university of wisconsin oshkosh

 

Fall 2008

English 481: Senior Seminar
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

The senior seminar will investigate the “big book” On the Road by Jack Kerouac. This legendary work inspires and infuriates. It is a foundational work for any consideration of the American cultural fascination with the road and the car, yet the book remains controversial because of its fascination with drugs, alcohol, sex, and its representation of women. Kerouac’s writing leads us into discussions about the relationship between fiction and autobiography.

English 387/587: Special Topics in Rhetoric and Composition
Visual Rhetoric

Through readings in a variety of disciplines and through analyses of many different types of images, we will explore some of the ways in which visual information and design are used to influence viewers' opinions, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (the art of rhetoric). We will explore questions such as the following: How are pictures perceived and interpreted? How do cultural and social contexts influence viewers' responses to images? Why are images so persuasive? How do images and written text work together to influence readers/viewers?
 

Current Courses & Syllabi Spring 2008

The Rhetoric of Literature: Women's Travel Writing (ENG 386/586) . Syllabus

Since the explosion of interest in travel narratives in the 18th century, women travelers have used travel and the occasion it affords to write as a means of exploring the possibilities of gender and identity. This course provides a foundation for students’ inquiry into women’s nonfiction travel literature and memoir, addressing recurrent themes in travel writing, such as self-fashioning, the body, Orientalism, imaginative geography, "Othering", the rhetoric of anti-conquest, and the tourist gaze. The particularly rhetorical nature of women's travel writing--how writing the journey provides arguments for future women travelers to explore identity--will be a focal point. Texts include: Dervla Murphy, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle; Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place; Faith Adiele, Meeting Faith; Robyn Davidson, Tracks; and the film Thelma & Louise
 

WBIS (188) . Creating Identity . Syllabus

 

Syllabi Fall 2007

English 390: Film & Literary Studies (undergraduate syllabus)

English 590: Film & Literary Studies (graduate syllabus)

English 387: Special Topics in Rhetoric & Composition: Visual Rhetoric (undergraduate syllabus)

English 587: Special Topics in Rhetoric & Composition: Visual Rhetoric (graduate syllabus)

 

Syllabi Spring 2007

English 704: Research Methods (link to syllabus in pdf)

English 321: Advanced Composition (link to syllabus in pdf)

 

Syllabi Fall 2006

English 335 / 535: Personal Narratives (link to syllabus)

English 225: Modern British Literature

 

NCTE 2007

Handout on Strategies for Teaching Visual Analysis

 

Links

WBIS Program

International Society for the Study of Travel Writing Conference, October 2004

 

Links

Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference. Great ideas on doing research, grammar.

Internet Movie Database

Notes on Creating a Visual Interpretive Analysis

How to analyze a postcard, by Joe Trimmer

Mark Hardin's Artchive

World Wide Art Resources

The Art Institute of Chicago

The Milwaukee Art Museum

 

About Marguerite Helmers
Education

PhD 1992. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Composition and Rhetoric.
M.A. 1987. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. British and American Literature.
B.A. 1983. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Major: English. Minor: Music. Semester abroad at King Alfred's College, Winchester, England in 1982.

 

Writing Published Online

Review of The Soundscapes of Modernity by Emily Thompson. Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments  8.1 (2003). 

Reading Images on the World Wide Web, Teaching with Technology Today 9.5 (January 28, 2003).

"Popular Icons and Contemporary Memory: An Apology, Year 2000." Enculturation 3.2. Spring 2002.

"The Truth is Here: Strangers in Roswell, New Mexico." Bad Subjects 54: Strangers. 2001.

"Using Student-Created Maps to Understand Web Navigation." Technology and the Face of Language Arts in the Classroom CoverWeb. Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 5.1 (Spring 2000).

 

Courses Taught, selected

The American Road Narrative: Contemporary Cultural Mythologies, English 382.

This course examined classic road narratives and the mythology of the road in America: The Grapes of Wrath, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Easy Rider, and Thelma and Louise.

Fashion and the Body: Introduction to Cultural Studies, English 710. 

Examined the breadth of cultural studies, then focused on feminist case studies that stress beauty and the construction of gender identity. Texts included Footnotes: On Shoes; Unbearable Weight, and Appropriate[ing] Dress.

American Writers on the Roads, Roofs, and Rivers of the World. American Literature, English 226.
 
Adventure stories, wilderness, and issues of race, gender, and culture. Included the works Annapurna: A Woman’s Place by Arlene Blum, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Reading The River by John Hildebrand, Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams, and A Place To Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca.  
 
Art, Life, Politics. Theme Based Inquiry Seminar, English 101.

Representing the world through painting and photography. Featured texts include Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and Remembering to Forget by Barbie Zelizer.

Visions of Space and Place. Theme Based Inquiry Seminar, English 101.
Questions of Nature, culture, and wilderness addressed through John Brinckerhoff Jackson's work and Writing Towards Home by Georgia Heard.

History, Memory, Literature. Senior Seminar in English, 481.

In what ways do literary works serve as documents of historical memory? 

Contemporary Cultural Icons. Senior Seminar in English, 481.

How are Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Onassis, JFK, Princess Diana, Elvis, Madonna, and Virginia Woolf constructed to mean something for Americans? How are Americans formed as a community by cultural icons? Who are the literary icons of today?

  

department of english

university of wisconsin oshkosh

800 algoma blvd.

oshkosh, WI 54901

(920) 424-0916

helmers[at]uwosh.edu

03/04/2008