McNamara, Cynthia

Contact Numbers

Biography 

Dr. Cynthia McNamara is a member of the English faculty, teaching composition and literature. She has been for several years an Assistant Chair for English Composition, a senator of the HCCS Faculty Senate, and an editor for Illuminations, a journal of student writing and art. She received her B.A. in English from Lamar College of Technology (presently Lamar University) in Beaumont, Texas, her M.A. in English Literature from The University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, and her Ph.D. in English Literature from The University of Houston, Houston, Texas. Her Master’s thesis is entitled William Butler Yeats’s Use in His Major Works of the Greek Mystery Religions. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on Tropes, Memory, and the Everyday in Virginia Woolf’s The Years. She has since been a contributor to The Medieval Folklore Encyclopedia, published by Oxford University Press. She has taught English in Higher Education for over 35 years—at San Jacinto Junior College, The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston Downtown, the University of Houston Central Campus, and Houston Community College.

Courses for Fall 2008

English 1301

English 2328

Course Documents Previous Semesters

English 1302

English 1301 Second Start

Web Links & Resources  

 1301 On-line Resources   

The Penguin Handbook Online:

http://wps.ablongman.com/long_faigley_penguinhb_1

The Arlington Reader Companion Site:

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/toplinks/index.asp?book=bsa&book_id=81

Purdue University's on-line Writing Center:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

1302 On-line Resources

Voices from Gap

http://voices.cla.umn.edu/newsite/authors/POWERsusan.htm

The Penguin Handbook Online:

http://wps.ablongman.com/long_faigley_penguinhb_1

LANGUAGE & CULTURE

"Do You Speak American?"

A PBS series with accompanying website that investigates all the varieties of "American English"--and what we think of them. http://www.pbs.org/speak/

"I Has a Dream"

A controverisal 1998 New York Times ad about the issue of Ebonics (also called Black English Vernacular or African- American Vernacular English). Click on the first link to view the ad; click on the second link to read the ad body copy (which is very small), and to read a response from linguists about the ad and the issue in general.   

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US8/EBO/dream-ad.html

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US8/EBO/hasdream.html

Language and Gender

A site devoted to ideas about how we speak and interact (and perhaps very differently) as men and women: http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.htm

Language in Politics, the differences between the Democrats and the Republicans: An Interview With George Lakoff.

Linguist and cultural critic Lakoff describes his theories of the linguistic and rhetorical foundations at the heart of American conservatism and liberalism, and the role of deeply-held American values in U.S. politic.: http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=832

James Baldwin, "If Black English Isn't a Language, ThenTell Me What Is"

http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/baldwin.html

NATURE, SPACE & PLACE

Henry David Thoreau, Walden.  See for the complete text of "Where I Lived and What I Lived For."

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/walden/

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature"

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/naturetext

ADVERTISING & CONSUMER CULTURE

Houston: It's Worth It.

The pseudo ad campaign promoting the merits of Houston--despite the mosquitos, the heat, the traffic--and the flying roaches.: http://www.houstonitsworthit.com/

Adbusters Magazine

Ironic send-ups of the products, advertisements and admakers in our consumer culture: http://adbusters.org/magazine/

IMAGINING AMERICA: AMERICAN VALUES & BELIEFS 

Janis Joplin, "Mercedes Benz" (1970)

See lyrics at http://www.inlyrics.com/lyrics/J/Joplin%20Janis/59975.html

Susan Sontag, "A Mature Democracy"

http://www.wingo.com/opinion/sontag.html  or http://www.american-pictures.com/english/jacob/Sontag.htm

 1302 On-line Resources

Adbusters Magazine

Ironic send-ups of the products, advertisements and admakers in our consumer culture: http://adbusters.org/magazine/

Rereading America Companion Site

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/ra/

 On-line Literature Resources

Alice Walker, "Everyday Use"

Full text on-line: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/quilt/walker.html

Short analysis of the text and its relation to art and art appreciation: http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/handouts/sample/walker.html

David White: "'Everyday Use': Defining African-American Heritage" http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/alicew/davidwhite.htm

Helga Hoel, "Personal Names and Heritage: Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'" http://home.online.no/~helhoel/walker.htm

Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried" (no available full text on-line; see anthologies and the full-length book) Short analysis of the text w/other readers' comments: http://www.jvoegele.com/essays/things.html

Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour"

Full text on-line: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/chopin.html