While many other 200-level English literature classes focus on fundamental, broad portions of literature, such as by genre or country of origin, English 254: Themes in Literature has 14 sections and seven highly specific course topics.

Hodgepodge of students fit in ‘Unusual Body’
English lecturer Robert Spirko thinks his English 254 section, “Freaks, Gimps and Angels: The Unusual Body in Literature,” adds a perspective that most students do not get exposed to in English classes.
“There are not a lot of classes in this university that deal with writing by or about disabled people,” Spirko said. “That’s something I wanted in this class.”
In addition, students can start branching off into mulling over broader topics related to the theme.
“I think it’s sort of to expose them to things they haven’t even thought about ... disability rights issues, people with different bodies and how they historically were treated,” he said.
Spirko said the class will look at the emerging subgenre’s works, such as 2005’s critically acclaimed documentary “Murderball” about rugby-playing paraplegics, while also looking back at writings like Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”
“You go back, and you consider ‘Frankenstein’ from the perspective of the monster, a creation physically different than the humans he runs into,” he said. “And that physical difference causes people to reject him, and that’s when he turns into the monster.”
This semester is Spirko’s second semester teaching the topic, and he said the class appeals to a broad variety of students. He said students in majors like psychology, business and interior design are enrolled this semester.
He said the section’s class presentations allow students from different majors to find a portion of the topic that interests them. Previous presentations about “Freaks, Gimps and Angels” have included a look at the disabled in film, as well as a documentary of trying to get up the Hill to Ayres Hall in a wheelchair.
Spirko said a then-UT basketball player interpreted the word “disability” differently, applying it to basketball, and took a look at short players in the game.
“That’s the kind of thing you just don’t get in other kinds of classes,” Spirko said.

Seeing what’s creative, what’s real

English lecturer Harry Newburn identifies his class’s theme as not only off the beaten path within the English department but also to most readers.
He hopes his topic, “Shifting American Values in Contemporary Non-Fiction,” fills in the gaps both in the department and in students’ literary experiences.
“Non-fiction isn’t something that people read all that often,” Newburn said.
Still, the class will peruse two non-fiction books which have been adapted into major motion pictures — Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” and John Berendt’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”
Newburn breaks up his main class topic into three basic themes — the shifting nature of the American South, changing definitions or changing nature of the family and the difficulty of young people coming of age in a changing world.
“So we’re reading for that theme and for talking about those ideas about what America is and how our family structure is altered and how the South is reidentifying itself if it is,” Newburn said. “... but we’re also looking at it in terms of what is creative nonfiction, and what is it about?”
The class will analyze how creative nonfiction differs from other, similar nonfiction mediums.
“How does it tell a story and convey meanings in a way that would be different in a novel or if you want to look at the other end of the spectrum, a newspaper article?” Newburn said.
Going further, he hopes his class can begin to identify the elements of creative nonfiction and how they play into a piece.
“Hopefully they start to read things a little bit more intently,” Newburn said. “OK, what’s fictional? What’s creative? What’s real? Where are the lines drawn between objective journalism and the creative minds of the writer?”

The end of the world as we know it

“The Idea of the Apocalypse in American Culture,” the class English lecturer James Hewitson is teaching for a second time this semester, shows that there are many different ways to convey the Apocalypse.
The history of the notion that Hewitson plans to unpack with the class will highlight many different forms the Apocalypse was feared to come through — industrialism, imperialism, the Cold War, atomic-bomb threats, the environment and more.
Hewitson looks at how the word “apocalypse” can mean different things to different people.
“In a religious context, the idea of the Apocalypse is generally positive, but when it is used in a secular manner, it generally describes some kind of cataclysm,” Hewitson said.
Moreover, he points out how a fear of a coming doom — as shown through history — can have adverse effects on government.
“When we perceive problems — social, economic or environmental — we tend to process them in apocalyptic terms,” he said. “This can be a very effective way of highlighting real problems, but it can also often have a distorting effect — every issue we face is the biggest issue ever, threatening us fundamentally.”
The class will look at how the fear of the Apocalypse has affected nations, while also observing entertainment that might be familiar to college eyes — “South Park” and “Fight Club.”
“The demand for the class is very high,” he said. “I think that there are 10 people on the waiting list, this partially because I’m including both ‘South Park’ and ‘Fight Club’ in the course.”

The other four English 254 topics include “The Vampire Myth: From Dracula to Twilight,” “Literary Aspects of World Religions,” “America’s Detectives” and “Comic Compositions.”