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Fall 2008
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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
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.
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- 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.
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- 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?
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