ENGL 504-01, Spring 2016 * ST: Animal Studies Course Outline

Date Topic Readings and/or screenings Jan 14 Course overview Jan 19 Animal Studies “Animal Studies and Film: An interview with Matthew Brower;” Shapiro and DeMello, “The State of Human-Animal Studies” Jan 21 Looking at Animals Berger, “Why Look at Animals?” Burt, “John Berger’s Why Look at Animals, A Close Reading” Jan 26 Nenette (in-class screening) Derrida, “The Animal That Therefore I Am’ (More to Follow);” Creed, “Nenette: Film theory, animals, and boredom”

Jan 28 Discussion (More to follow…) Gruen, “Dignity, Captivity, and an Ethics of Sight.” Feb 2 War Horse (novel) Michael Morpurgo, War Horse; DeMello, “Introduction: Speaking for Animals” Feb 4 War Horse Feb 9 The Making of War Horse Parker-Starbuck, “Animal Ontologies documentary (in-class screening) and Media Representations: Robotics, Puppets, and the Real of War Horse;” Woodward, “Verticality, Vertigo and Vulnerabilities: Giraffes in J.M. Ledgard’s Novel Giraffe and in the Handspring Puppet Company’s Play Tall Horse.” Feb 11 Discussion of War Horse (play [Screen] War Horse, Dir. Steven and film) Spielberg. Feb 16 Discussion of War Horse (film) Burt, “Film and the History of the Visual Animal” Feb 18 The Animal Gaze Woodward, “Introduction: The Animal Gaze; McHugh, “Video Dog Star:William Wegman, Aesthetic Agency, and the Animal in Experimental Video Art,” Woodward, “The Post-humanist Gaze: Reading Fanie Jason’s Photo Essay on Carting Lives” Feb 23 Animal narratives Brian Doyle, Martin Marten; McHugh, “Conclusion: Toward a narrative Ethology;” Banks, “Animal Narrativity: Lived Experiences in the More Than Human World.”

Feb 25 Martin Marten and umwelt Horowitz, Umweldt: From the Dog’s Point of Nose;” Peterson, “Introduction: Animals and Nature;” Abram, “Shadow (Depth Ecology I).” Mar 1 Martin Marten (discussion) Mar 3` Martin Marten (discussion) Mar 8 Animals and animality in poetry TBD Mar 10 Animals and animality in poetry Spring break Mar 22 Horse Heaven Smiley, Horse Heaven; Copeland, “’Straight from the Horse’s Mouth’ Equine Memoirs and Autobiographies.” Mar 24 Horse Heaven (discussion) Patton, “Language, Power, and the Training of Horses” Mar 29 When Species Meet Haraway, “Training in the Contact Zone” Mar 31 H is for Hawk Macdonald, H is for Hawk Apr 5 H is for Hawk (discussion) King, “Writing Grief” Apr 7 H is for Hawk (discussion) Apr 12 “Workshop” abstracts Apr 14 “Workshop” abstracts Apr 19 Individual consultations Apr 21 Individual consultations Apr 26 Conference paper/in-class presentations Apr 28 Conference paper/in-class presentations May 3 Conference paper/in-class presentations May 5 Conference paper/in-class presentations Finals’ Week, Hard copy of seminar papers Tuesday May 10 due no later than noon