Page 83 - SYU Prospectus

English Language & Literature

ENG 185 Greek and Roman Mythology in Western Literature
1 Term; 3 Credits
The myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome permeate Western literature, culture
and language. This course aims to introduce students to the primary classical myths and their
meaning and examine the various ways they underlie and shape Western (especially English)
literary texts. Students will also be exposed to the treatment of Greco-Roman myths in various
genres and cultural media, from poetry to prose to visual art.

ENG 233 The Language of Poetry
1 Term; 3 Credits
This course outlines a historical overview of English poetry from Shakespearean sonnets
to modern poetry. Poetry involves an extensive amount of imageries, icons, figures, and
rhetorical devices. While poetry requires a meticulous examination of figurative languages
along with an awareness of the auditory effects produced by figures of sounds, students will
develop skills of analysing poetic images and deciphering literary codes. Students will be able
to detect the characteristics of different forms of poetry and make use of various critical
approaches in their reading. The class will relate the poems and critical theories with
contemporary issues.

ENG 234 City Culture and Hong Kong Urbanscape
1 Term; 3 Credits
This course adopts a cultural studies approach to the exploration of how the modern and
postmodern cities can be “read” as cultural texts, and also how Hong Kong as a socio-cultural
milieu can be mapped by academic discourse. The categories of class, gender and race in
relation to the city will be the central issues for discussion, and specific venues such as airport,
MTR, shopping malls, theme parks and heritage sites will be important cases in point. Students
will be introduced to a wide range of theoretical debates related to city studies, and they will be
the conceptual ground for in-depth analysis of texts both in print culture (i.e. fiction, poetry,
drama and other writings) and media culture (i.e. films, TV programmes and on-line materials).
The ultimate aim of this course is to provide students with insights into how cultural identity is
constructed through the consumption of cityscape as their everyday life experience. Concepts
relating to the postcolonial city, the cosmopolitan, the cinematic city, the fantastic city for
tourism, the technocity and the green metropolis of the future will be explored in terms of
sociocultural dynamics and changes.
After the course, students are expected to have a comprehensive understanding of how
urban space and time (history), value and meaning, milieu and community, all form a complex
structure of cultural forces that guide the very process that fashions our built environment.
Such a recognition will help students develop an awareness of how important it is for them to
reconsider urban culture in view of the imminent environmental crisis we all are facing
nowadays.

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