Training in writing expository prose. Further instruction in expository writing in conjunction with reading literature. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

“Whatever starts in California, unfortunately, has an inclination to spread.”—Jimmy Carter. This course will follow modern California history from 1900 to the present, examining literary and cinematic representations of the oil boom of the 1910s; the arrival of (im)migrants during the Great Depression and the war years; the Beat generation of the 1950s and social movements of the 1960s (including the inception of the Black Panther Party, the San Francisco State student strike, and the occupation of Alcatraz Island by Indians of All Tribes); the 1965 Watts Rebellion and 1992 Los Angeles Uprisings; and all the way up to today’s tech industry and extreme gentrification. We will read and critique texts by writers including (in loosely chronological order) Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Carlos Bulosan, Maya Angelou, Jack Kerouac, Eldridge Cleaver, Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Joan Didion, Mike Davis, Anna Deavere Smith, Walter Mosley, Elaine Castillo, Dave Eggers, Tommy Orange, and Rebecca Solnit. Films will include Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, Kent Mackenzie’s The Exiles, Carlos López Estrada’s Blindspotting, and Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, among others. Building on the skills students have acquired in R1A, this course will continue to develop reading, writing, and research skills with the aim to practice writing longer essays that are rhetorically aware and partake in relevant scholarly conversations. To this end, students will practice creating varied, rhetorically aware compositions; reflect on writing practices, processes and strategies; and incorporate feedback to globally revise drafts. To develop responsible positions, students fine-tune research skills, evaluating scholarly and non-scholarly sources and incorporating a variety of perspectives. In addition to regularly contributing informal blog posts, students will write and revise two shorter (approx. 4-page) papers and a final research essay (8-10 pages).

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills