Welcome to ENGL103 The Outsider

Staff and Contact Details:

Dr. Nicholas Wright Phone: 3642 987 ext.: 7468. Email: nicholas.wright@canterbury.ac.nz History 617; Office hours: Wed 2 3, Thurs 3 4pm Erin Harrington. Phone: 3642 987 ext.: 8231 Email: erin.harrington@canterbury.ac.nz History 616 Associate Professor Paul Millar. Phone: 3642 987 ext.: 6313 Email: paul.millar@canterbury.ac.nz History 503 Tutors: Michael Potts. Office: Locke 319 Phone: 3642 987 ext.: 7932 Email: michael.potts@pg.canterbury.ac.nz Office Hour: Monday 2 4pm Kim Parrent. Office: Locke 319 Phone: 3642 987 ext.: 7932 Email: kim.parrent@pg.canterbury.ac.nz Office Hour: Tuesday 2 3pm

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How to do well in ENGL 103

Tutorials are important Use the forum Switch on for lectures, be prepared, bring the texts Read and read Make arguments and support them by referring to the texts Share your ideas and respect each other

Why study the Outsider?

(a) Critical thinking to debate respectfully with others, to tell a good argument from a bad one, to examine tradition and prejudice in a Socratic spirit. (b) Historical context to pit knowledge against stereotype and, by doing so, establish a basis for mutually respectful debate (c) The power of perspective - to imagine ourselves in the place of others.

See Martha Nussbaums Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the

Humanities, Princeton University Press, 2010.

The Outsider some examples?

What is the significance of such characters, and why do they figure so prominently in the western imagination?
Because they Entertain a form of wish fulfilment? Help us imagine difference? Are a celebration of individual agency? Offer a way of policing difference and behaviour that is too individualistic? May be used to challenge or cherish certain values or norms? Mirror society? Help groups and individuals define themselves cf. the scapegoat? Are figures of redemption cf. the sacrifice? Are omens or messengers? Are figures of complexity, hybridity, and contradiction? Expose hypocrisy, corruption, the ills of power and the experience of suffering?