ENGL 110-006: Critical Reading and Writing II (RLWS)
Class Time: TR, 2:30PM-3:45PM Class Location: Remote Online
Instructor: Dr. Jason Demers Office: Zoom
Office Hours: Biweekly Zoom (see UC Courses for links)
Email: jason.demers@uregina.ca

Course Description: Prison Writing
Since 1970, the rate of incarceration in the United States has been on a steady rise. By
2013, approximately 2.3 million Americans were in prison. What types of writing are
produced in prison, and what does this writing tell us about the growing world that exists
behind bars? Through systematic study of the writings of individuals who have first-hand
experience of incarceration, we can learn about the history of the penitentiary, the
experiences of particular prison populations, and the nature and effects of different forms
of punishment.

Adopting a social justice and human rights perspective, this course examines over a
dozen prison texts including poetry, essays, correspondence, memoirs, television
adaptations, and podcasts. As we read these texts, we will focus on the politics of writing,
speech, and information flow to consider how different forms of discourse affect our
understanding and treatment of not only individuals, but entire populations of people. We
will also consider why people write from prison; the difference between people’s
histories and institutional history; how form and context affect content; and how texts
written by prisoners force us to think about much larger issues like race, class, gender,
nation, justice, and what it means to be human. This course has five aims: 1) to make you
consider prison from a social justice and human rights perspective; 2) to increase your
appreciation of literary non-fiction; 3) to develop your analytic and critical thinking
skills; 4) to improve your writing skills; and 5) to demonstrate the key principles of
writing a research essay.

Required Texts
Jackson, George. Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson. Lawrence Hill
Books, 1994 (ISBN: 978-1556522307)
Kerman, Piper. Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. New York:
Spiegel & Grau, 2011 (ISBN: 978-0385523394)
Wiebe, Rudy, and Yvonne Johnson. Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman. Toronto:
Vintage Canada, 1999 (ISBN: 978-0676971965)

Weighting
Micro-Assignments (5x3%) = 15% (see dates below)
Essay #1 (1500 words) = 20% (March 11)
Essay #2 (2000 words) = 30% (April 13)
Final examination = 35% (April 27, 2PM-5PM)

Assignments
All assignments must be completed in order to receive credit for this course. The two
essays for this course will ask you to analyze texts employing the skills and knowledge
that you have acquired in the classroom, and that you have acquired doing the micro
writing assignments. I will assess your ability to craft a solid, university-level essay with
an argumentative thesis, proper paragraph structure, spelling, and grammar. There will be
a mandatory, final exam that covers the entire course.

Micro-Assignments
These micro writing assignments are meant to help you to establish various skills as you
prepare to write your essays, and they are meant to mimic the types of classroom
activities we would be doing if we were meeting in the classroom. These assignments are
very short, requiring you to write a paragraph or two, or asking you to provide a few
bibliographic entries. Provided that you follow the instructions provided and complete
these assignments by the due date, these should be relatively easy marks to attain. The
due dates for these micro-assignments are as follows.
1&2). Summary & Synthesis (Jan.26)
–each component of this assignment counts as a complete micro-assignment
3). Exemplification (Feb.9)
4). Attica Documentary Forum: On Subjectivity and Truth (March 2)
5). Bibliography (April 1)

Essays
For Essay #1, you will be asked to perform a rhetorical analysis of a text, or to analyze
how the politics of “truth” and “subjectivity” operate with respect to a person on death
row.

Essay#2 will be a research essay. There are three required textbooks for this course. We
will be reading excerpts from each. For this essay, you must read one of these books in its
entirety. You will discuss how the book you selected helps us to think about:
-The incarceration of African Americans (Soledad Brother)
-The incarceration of Indigenous peoples (Stolen Life)
-The incarceration of women (Orange is the New Black; Stolen Life)
In order to contextualize the individual contribution being made by your selected text,
you will be required to conduct additional research at the University of Regina library.

Public Forum
Except for a required public forum entry on the Attica documentary (micro-assignment),
participation in public forums is entirely optional. I will sometimes provide specific
questions that you might consider in the public forum, but please feel free to post any
observations or queries you have about course materials on any given week in order to
more organically engage your peers in discussion about the works we’re reading this
semester. When you engage with others’ work, you must do so respectfully at all times
(please see note re: general conduct below).

Office Hours / Zoom Sessions
I will hold biweekly office hours which will act as a time when we can collectively
discuss texts, or when anyone can raise any questions that emerge from the lectures.
Please also feel free to contact me to schedule an alternative meeting if you would like to
discuss an assignment or your progress in the course.

Rules Governing the Course
General Conduct: The classroom (in this case, zoom, or any public forum) is a space of
mutual respect and understanding. Students should respect the opinions and ideas of their
colleagues.

Readings: This class has a fast-paced reading schedule. For the overall learning
experience of the class, you must do your reading before the scheduled class.

Academic Honesty: Students are expected to acquaint themselves with the rules of
academic dishonesty including plagiarism, cheating and examination impersonation.
Not knowing what constitutes plagiarism is no excuse. The rules concerning academic
misconduct are covered in the University of Regina Undergraduate Calendar – see
section 5.13.2.

Assignment Submission: All assignments are to be submitted on UR Courses in the
submission portals provided.

Late Submission and Make-up Policy: Late papers will be accepted up to one week after
the due date, but with a penalty of five percentage points (5%) for each day late. I will
not allow opportunities for extra-credit work.


Course Schedule

Week 1: Introduction
January 12 - Introduction
January 14 - Michel Foucault, “The Body of the Condemned,” pp.3-10 (UR)


Week 2 – What is the Penitentiary? Why Write?: Summary and Synthesis
January 19 Jack London, “Pinched” (UR)
Summary
January 21 Donald Lowrie, My Life in Prison, Chpt 4 (UR)
Synthesizing

Week 3 – From the Plantation to the Penitentiary / Persuasive writing and Rhetoric
January 26 Frederick Douglass, excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, An American Slave (UR)
à Summary and Synthesis micro-assignment due
January 28 Frederick Douglass, excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, An American Slave (UR)

Week 4 –Persuasive writing and Rhetoric / Exemplification
February 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (UR)
February 4 Jimmy Santiago Baca, “Coming into Language” (UR)

Week 5 – Neo-Slave Narratives: George Jackson
February 9 George Jackson, Soledad Brother (selections)*
*pp. 37-44; 61-66; 124-127; 146-147; 155-180; 206-208; 233-266; 291-292;
300-303; 309-311; 314-315; 327-330
à Exemplification microassignment due
February 11 George Jackson, Soledad Brother (selections)*
*pp. 37-44; 61-66; 124-127; 146-147; 155-180; 206-208; 233-266; 291-292;
300-303; 309-311; 314-315; 327-330

*******Reading Week


Week 6 – Subjectivity, Truth, and Power
February 23 Michel Foucault, “The Subject and Power” excerpt (UR)
pp.329(bottom)-332(top)
Michel Foucault, “Truth and Power” excerpt (UR)
pp.131-133
February 25 Attica Liberation Faction, “The Attica Liberation Manifesto”
Attica screening

Week 7- Subjectivity, Truth, and Genre
March 2 Attica forum discussion
à Attica Documentary Forum micro-assignment
March 4 Documentary, Epistolary, Manifesto
No reading

Week 8 – Escape from Solitary
March 9 William Blake, “A Sentence Worse than Death” (UR)
March 11 Herman Wallace, “Dream House” (UR)
Essay #1 Due

Week 9- Live from Death Row / Writing Research Essays
March 16 Mumia Abu-Jamal, selections (UR)
March 18 Writing Research Essays

Week 10 – Stolen Indigenous Lives I /
March 23 Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson, Stolen Life (selections)*
*Chapters: 2, 4, 9,10, 11, 12, 15
March 25 Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson, Stolen Life (selections)*
*Chapters: 2, 4, 9,10, 11, 12, 15

Week 11: Stolen Indigenous Lives II
March 30 Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson, Stolen Life (selections);* Pine Grove letters
*Chapters: 2, 4, 9,10, 11, 12, 15
April 1 Screening: Orange is the New Black
à Bibliography microassignment due

Week 12 Adapting: Women in Prison
April 6 Piper Kerman, Orange is the New Black (selections)*
April 8 Piper Kerman, Orange is the New Black (selections)*
*Chapters 2,3,4,8,9,12,16,18

Week 13 – Conclusions
April 13 Conclusions
Essay #2 due