Required Texts:
The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Booth, Hunter, and Mays. Shorter Ninth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. ISBN: 0-393-92615-X.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Bram Stoker, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Introduction by Stephen King. New York: Signet Classic/Mass Market Paperback, 1978. ISBN: 0451523636.
Recommended Texts:
Harmon, William. A Handbook to Literature. New York: Prentice Hall, 2005. ISBN-10: 0131344420 ISBN-13: 978-0131344426.
Lynn, Steven. Texts and Contexts. 4th Edition. New York: Longman, 2004. ISBN-10: 0321209427 ISBN-13: 978-032120942. top
Course Overview:
Introduction to Literature is a course which is meant to expose you to a breadth of English literature in a relatively short period of time. As such we will be leaping through the centuries quite rapidly, but not to worry, frequent stops are on our schedule, allowing us brief glances at some of the jewels of English literature. On this journey, we will encounter a variety of genres from a variety of literary periods and cultures, and we will spend some time with each and every one of them.
In addition to reading some of the most important pieces of literary culture, we will also attempt to include as many other forms of media in our exploration as possible. As such we will listen to audio recordings, and we will watch movies whenever possible and appropriate. It is our goal this semester to encounter literature in its various forms, to engage with its varieties, and to respond to them critically.
Much of the literature we will be reading this semester will be just “south” of the twentieth century and thus it will take our combined effort to regain access to a past almost forgotten. To help the rest of us experience the literature we are reading more fully, you are strongly encouraged to bring in whatever visual aids or stories you might have discovered in preparation for class discussion or an oral report. As such, our primary focus this semester will lie on fostering a professional environment in which we can read, discuss, and write about literature freely and competently. top
Course Objectives:
At the end of this course you should be able to:
1) Read, comprehend, and respond to literature in a confident and competent manner.
2) Write reflective, interpretive, and critical essays about a variety of literary genres.
3) Identify, utilize, and criticize various critical/theoretical approaches to literature.
4) Contextualize and historicize texts from a variety of literary periods. top
Course Policies:
Read these guidelines carefully and ask me for clarifications if you experience problems understanding one or several of these policies. Your success in English 102 is dependent upon your complete comprehension of all guidelines and policies.
- All assigned readings need to be completed before class in preparation for class discussion, pop quizzes and short in-class reaction papers on the reading material. All assignments must be typed and proofread.
- No late assignments will be accepted; please plan accordingly.Remember, it is your responsibility to stay in contact with me and to ask me for help if you are experiencing difficulties following the course material or completing work on time.
- Timely attendance in class is a requirement for all students enrolled in English 102. Two late arrivals will count as one absence. Students with four absences will earn an F for the course. Excused absences are still absences, so please keep careful tabs on your attendance.
Note: By staying in this class, you are showing your acceptance of and compliance with these guidelines and policies. top
Absences and Contact Information:
You are responsible for finding out what you missed on the days you were absent, and this should not take place by asking me at the beginning of the next class period. Call, e-mail, or swing by my office prior to our next meeting as a class. Alternatively, gather the names, phone numbers, and E-mail addresses of at least two other students (preferably four) you can contact to find out what happened in class. I suggest that you record this information below, so you will have it handy when you need it.
Name: _________________________ Name: ________________________ Name: ________________________
Phone: ________________________ Phone: ________________________ Phone: ________________________
E-mail: ________________________ E-mail:_________________________ E-mail:________________________ top
Oral Presentations, Written Assignments, and Exams
- One 10 min. oral presentation on the biography of one of our authors: This presentation will account for 5% of your final grade.
- One 20 min. group presentation on one or several critical articles about one of the texts we are reading: The group presentation will account for 10% of your final grade.
- Three reflective papers (2-4 pages—see the daily schedule for due dates): Each of these reflective papers will account for 10% of your final grade for a total 30%.
- Three in-class exams (see daily schedule for dates): Each of these tests will account for 10% of your final grade for a total 30%.
- A take-home final exam: This exam will account for 15% of your final grade.
- Participation: Active class participation and weekly journal responses to the assigned reading will account for the remaining 10% of your final grade. top
Grading:
This course and all its assignments and components are graded on a standard A through F scale, with A representing >90% work and F representing <50% work. Class assignments, exams, and course projects are clearly marked with percentages; refer to the “Oral presentations, Written assignments, and Exams” section of this syllabus for assignment criteria and individual grade/percentage allotments. top
Where you can go when you need help and/or want to talk to me:
Robinson 202: My door is always open. If you have questions about assignment instructions or expectations please come and see me. I can guarantee you that I will be in my office during my scheduled office hours, but I am in my office quite a bit outside of office hours as well. I encourage you to stop by and talk with me.
My E-mail account: The quickest way to contact me outside of class is through E-mail. I check my E-mail account frequently, and both my home and my office computer are connected to the Internet at all times. I promise to try to get back to you within 24 hour of your message if at all possible.
A Note on E-mail Etiquette: I am more than happy to answer questions and discuss research topics via E-mail. I do trust, however, that all e-mails will be written in a respectful, professional tone and that they will be proofread before they are sent. Remember please that this is a university level English course and that your writing needs to reflect that.
Note: Students with disabilities need to come see me and arrange accommodations during the first week of class. top
A note about e-mail communication: I gladly answer questions and discuss literary or scholarly concerns via e-mail. I do trust, however, that all e-mails will be written in a respectful and professional tone and that they will be proofread before they are sent. I will not respond to unprofessional or sloppily composed e-mails, and I cannot accept assignments or drafts via e-mail. Remember that this is a University-level English class—your writing needs to reflect that. top
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is grounds for failing an assignment and the course, and all incidents of plagiarism will be reported to the Department Chair, the Dean, and the Academic Vice President. I strongly encourage you to save drafts, notes, and outlines for all of your written and oral assignments; you are expected to provide evidence of significant invention and revision if requested to do so. |
Week 1 Literature and the Canon
Tuesday, August 28
Introduction, Course Overview, and Syllabus
Thursday, August 30
Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
Week 2 Diction, Imagery, and Description
Tuesday, September 4
Short Stories: Sherman Alexie, Flight Patterns; Grace Paley, A Conversation with My Father; Raymond Carver, Cathedral, A. S. Byatt, The Thing in the Forest
Student Essays: Nina Sullivan, The Heart of Storytelling in “A Conversation with My Father” and “Flight Patterns”
Thursday, September 6
Short Stories: John Cheever, The Country Husband; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper; William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily
Week 3 Symbolism, Allusion, and Hyperbole
Tuesday, September 11
Poetry: Oscar Wilde, “Symphony in Yellow;” Ted Hughes, “To Paint a Water Lily;” Emily Dickinson, “Wild Nights—Wild Nights!” Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz;” Gerald Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty;” e. e. cummings, “in Just-;” Ben Jonson, “Still to be Neat”
Thursday, September 13
Poetry: Robert Herrick, “Delight in Disorder;” Andrew Marvell, “On a Drop of Dew;” Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose;” Shakespeare, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day;” John Donne, “Batter my heart, three-personed God,” “The Flea,” “The Canonization”
Week 4 Satire and Nature
Tuesday, September 18
Essays: Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal; Virginia Woolf, What if Shakespeare Had Had a Sister?
Thursday, September 20
Poetry: Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven;” Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode on a Grecian Urn;” William Wordsworth, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “A Sonnet is a Moment’s Monument;” Wilfrid Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est;” Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard;” William Wordsworth, “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798”
Week 5 Exam #1, Introduction to Ancient Tragedy
Tuesday, September 25 – Exam # 1
Thursday, September 27 – First Analytical Response
Drama: Sophocles, Oedipus the King or Antigone
Week 6 Ancient Tragedy (continued)
Tuesday, October 2
Drama: Sophocles, Oedipus the King or Antigone
Thursday, October 4
Drama: Sophocles, Oedipus the King or Antigone
Week 7 Early Modern Drama
Tuesday, October 9
Drama: Shakespeare, Hamlet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Thursday, October 11
Drama: Shakespeare, Hamlet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Week 8 Early Modern Drama (continued)
Tuesday, October 16
Drama: Shakespeare, Hamlet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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Week 9 Narrator, Point of View, and Theme
Tuesday, October 23
Short Stories: Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants; Flannery O’Conner, Everything That Rises Must Converge
Essays: George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant; Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death; Joan Didion, On Morality
Thursday, October 25
Short Stories: Eudora Welty, Why I Live at the P.O., Herman Melville, Bartelby, the Scrivener; Edith Wharton, Roman Fever
Poetry: John Milton, “When I consider how my light is spent;” Shakespeare, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;” George Herbert, “The Collar”
Week 9 Love, Death, and Divinity
Tuesday, October 30
Poetry: Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night;” Marianne Moore, “Poetry;” Gerald Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur;” Christina Rossetti, “In an Artist’s Studio;” William Wordsworth, “London;” Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “When our two souls stand up”
Thursday, November 1
Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess,” “Porphyria’s Lover,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister;” William Blake, “The Lamb,” “The Tyger;” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”
Week 10 The “Other” and America
Tuesday, November 6 – Second Analytical Response due Short Stories: Ursula LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, She Unnames Them; James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues; Shirley Jackson, The Lottery; Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown
Thursday, November 8
Poetry: Maya Angelou, “Africa;” Derek Walcott, “A Far Cry from Africa;” Phyllis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America;” Walt Whitman, “Facing West from California’s Shore,” “I Hear America Singing;” Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy,” “We Wear a Mask;” Langston Hughes, “Harlem,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Week 11 Monsters, Murderers, and Maniacs
Tuesday, November 13
Novel: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Bram Stoker, Dracula; or Robert L. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Tuesday, November 15
Novel: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Bram Stoker, Dracula; or Robert L. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Week 12 Monster, Murderers, and Maniacs continued
Tuesday, November 20 - Exam #3 due
Novel: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Bram Stoker, Dracula; or Robert L. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Thursday, November 22 - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Week 13 Plot, Passion, and the Peculiar
Tuesday, November 27
Short Stories: Ursula LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, She Unnames Them; James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues; Shirley Jackson, The Lottery; Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown
Thursday, November 29
Short Stories: Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour; Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find; Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk about Love
Week 14 Legends, Myths, and Tall Tales
Tuesday, December 4 – Third Analytical Response due
Short Stories: Bernard Malamud, Idiots First; Flannery O’Connor, Good Country People; Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge; Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (EXTRA CREDIT assignment due)
Thursday, December 6
Poetry: Robert Frost, “The Road not Taken,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Provide, Provide,” “Design”
Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott,” “Ulysses;” John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “Eleanor Rigby”
Week 15 FINALS WEEK
Tuesday, December 11 - No class
Thursday, December 13
Take-Home Final Exam due in my office, Robinson 202, at 5 pm |
