English 118 - COlQ IN WRITING: BAD HISTORY

In sections limited to 15 students each, this course primarily provides systematic instruction and practice in reading and writing academic prose, with emphasis on argumentation. The course also provides instruction and practice in conducting research and in public speaking. Particular sections of this course are designed to support nonnative speakers and bilinguals, who are strongly encouraged to consider those sections. Priority is given to incoming students in the fall-semester sections. Course may be repeated for credit with another instructor.: George Santayana famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” but can anyone remember all the past? Which past should I remember? Whose past? Maybe history isn't one memorizable narrative, but billions of individual stories and perspectives. Even if you told your own life story, which events would you include or leave out? Would you tell it as a tragedy? Comedy? Coming-of-age story? In this class, we consider the distance between history and myth, story and storyteller, the event and how it's remembered. We uncover histories, doubt histories, and write our own. (E)