English 210 – Approaches to Literature

Extreme Themes, Word Slams, and Arguments in Literature

Department of English, Foreign Languages, & Journalism

MWSC Division of Liberal Arts & Sciences

TTH 12:30-1:50  JGM 104

 

Instructor:         Dr. Cynthia Jenéy

Office: S/SC 222K

Phone: 271-4447

Email: jeney@griffon.mwsc.edu

Office Hours: M 10:00- 2:00 | T 2:00-4:00 | By appointment

E-Forum: http://miranda.cailab.mwsc.edu:8080/~jeney21004

 

Required Textbooks:

Nims, Frederick Western Wind. Fourth Edition.

Kelly, Joseph (Ed.) The Seagull Reader: Stories.

Aeschylus. The Oresteia Trilogy.

Aristophanes. The Birds.

Shakespeare, William. King Lear.

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. No Exit and Three Other Plays.

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.

Caution – do NOT wait until later in the semester to buy your books –

the bookstore may sell them back to the publisher’s warehouse before you get to them!

 

Required Materials

A working, steady email account to which you know the exact address.

3.5” PC-formatted floppy diskettes (2 or 3 at least, labeled with your name & Eng. 210)

 

Recommended:

A good college dictionary

An edition of the MLA Style Handbook.

 

Course Description

English 210 fulfills Category IV General Studies requirements. All English 210 sections provide practice in reading poetry, prose fiction, and drama.
Objectives:

Upon completion of English 210 a student should be able to:

(1) Recognize the major characteristics of literary genres
(2) Discuss literature, orally and in writing, with assurance
(3) Appreciate literary works which are encountered
(4) Understand the different ways in which literary theme may be treated in literature

Students will be expected to:

(1) Read poetry, prose fiction, and drama
(2) Investigate various methods of approaching and understanding literature
(3) Write papers, including themes and essay examinations
(4) Read a variety of literary works in which a chosen theme is dominant

 

Class meetings: Class meetings of upper division courses are conducted under the assumption that students are well-versed in the conventions of college classrooms and academic environments.  Come to class prepared, and plan to participate and remain engaged with the materials for the entire class  period. In the unlikely and unfortunate event that you find yourself unprepared, come anyway, but I expect you to arrive doubly-prepared the next time. Should the situation become chronic, you may wish to re-examine your priorities for the semester, as this is a writing- and participation-intensive course. In short: develop good academic habits now, or pay later.

 

This Syllabus: Read this syllabus very carefully, and refer to it often. All information presented here is regarded as part of your own knowledge. All answers to your questions about the class will be based on an assumption that you understand the syllabus and seek further clarification. The teacher reserves the right to alter this syllabus and to make announced changes as need arises during the course of the semester.

 

Due Dates: Dates for handing in all required assignments are listed in the course schedule attached. There is no room in the semester calendar for late papers. I do not plan to be accepting late papers, due to my current teaching load and conference schedule. Make a note of all due dates now, and plan accordingly.

 

Attendance: A student with more than 4 (T-Th) unexcused absences will automatically be given a failing grade for the course.  It is your responsibility to keep track of your own attendance in the class. Please see the student handbook for the definition of "excused absence" (i.e., I do not wish to see doctor's excuses or obituaries).  If you miss class it is your responsibility to contact a classmate (and of course refer to this syllabus) regarding announcements, assignments, changes, class notes, and additional readings or writing.

 

Students who consult with me in advance of known conflicts will be given the option of  pre-arranged make-up work on a case-by-case basis. DO contact me in the event of unforeseen hardships and illnesses. Serious efforts to complete the work for this class will be given fair consideration, especially in cases of earnest dedication and hard work.

Note: Weddings and trips to Baja do not constitute “hardships” or “emergencies.”

 

Electronic Forum: Each student will be required to post regularly (once per week) to the class electronic forum. Posts to the forum will be full-length responses to assignments given in class. Therefore, be mature, be polite, be excellent online.

 

All members of the class will have posting and reading access to the forum on the web, but may also choose the additional option of receiving posts via email (posts will always remain on the web site). Although the forum works technically like an email listserv and web-board, it is not to be used for “Yeah, man. I agree” type messages.

 

You must have a stable email account established in order to satisfy this writing requirement for the course. I strongly urge you to use your MWSC email account for this forum. Do not shift around with Yahoo and Hotmail account subscriptions, as this will confuse the moderator, and possibly cause her to delete your membership. As moderator, I will do my best to insure that you do not receive advertising or other unwanted messages in your account. Expect the usual glitches and snafu’s when first getting subscribed to the electronic discussion group. I tend to use different technologies as time goes by, and as internet services evolve. I will try to make it as painless and easy as possible for you, but there is a certain amount of meticulous attention required at the outset, in order to get the forum up and running efficiently for us all.

Assignments: There will be four essays assigned during the semester. Papers will be fairly structured, and based upon 1) primary texts (literature) assigned for the semester, and 2) terms, concepts, theories, and ideas studied in lecture and in the textbook. While essay grading always involves non-mathematical principles, criteria and goals will be laid forth, and papers will be judged according to the writer’s ability to meet the demands of the reading and the assignments. Grades are weighted as follows:

 

10%             Paper #1 (required)

15%             Paper #2 (required)

15%             Midterm Exam (required)

15%             Paper #3 (required)

15%             Paper #4 (required)

15%             Electronic Forum (required)

15%             Class presentations and participation (required)

100%            Total

 

A note about the writing in this course: although we will all encourage each other to be open and to explore ideas, experiences, thoughts, emotions, and beliefs, essay assignments and the electronic forum posts shall be considered  public texts. Therefore I have a strict policy against writing about any un-prosecuted crime or suspected illegal activity which you have witnessed, or in which you have been involved. When in doubt, I will always err on the side of safety.

Grading: I expect papers to have a clear thesis, reasonable organization and development, focused paragraphs, and sentence-level competency. During the course of the semester you should integrate the literary and rhetorical terminology, ideas, and conceptual frameworks we have studied.

 

Academic honesty:  See Policy Guide II, B, C: “Since honesty in the classroom is required, cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the college constitutes a violation.” In short, the work you turn in must be your own.

 

Disabilities: Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents the fullest expression of abilities should contact the MWSC Special Needs Office as soon as possible so that we can discuss alternative ways to satisfy class requirements: Coordinator:

Lois E. Fox

Location: SS/C Building, Room 202

Office Hours: 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday

Phone: (816) 271-4330

 

Welcome To:

Extreme Themes,

Word Slams,

And Arguments in Literature

 

What does this title mean? What is an “extreme theme” or a “word slam”? We’ll be exploring these notions together, through study of methods for traditional literary analysis, as well as some dynamic principles of Rhetoric, Semiotics, and Dramatism. We’ll especially be asking ourselves “What does the written word DO to us? Why does it make us feel? think? respond?” And most importantly, why does one work inspire a writer to produce his or her own masterpiece? What is the conversation about, and how can we join in?

 

I’ll be supplying some rhetorical concepts and frameworks for us to use in concert with, and in juxtaposition to, the concepts of literary interpretation and analysis introduced in our books.

 

 

Tentative Class Schedule

(Subject to change, depending upon the needs of the class)

 

Week 1	8/21 8/23	Introduction; syllabus. Western Wind (WW) Chapters 1, 2
Week 2	8/28 8/30	WW Chapters 3, 4 WW Chapters 5, 6
Week 3	9/4 9/6	WW Chapters 7, 8 WW Chapters 9, 10
Week 4	9/11 9/13	WW Chapters 11, 12 WW Chapters 13, 14
Week 5	9/18   9/20	Paper #1 Due Elements of Fiction “Hills Like White Elephants” – Hemingway “A Good Man is Hard to Find” – O’Connor
Week 6	9/25   9/27	“The Cask of Amontillado” – Poe “The Yellow Wallpaper” – Gilman “Yellow Woman” – Silko
Week 7	10/2   10/4	“A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” – García “The Chrysanthemums” – Steinbeck  “A Worn Path” – Welty
Week 8	10/9 10/11	MIDTERM EXAM “A Hunger Artist” – Kafka
Week 9	10/16   10/18	“The Story of an Hour” – Chopin “A Rose for Emily” – Faulkner The Handmaid’s Tale – Atwood
Week 10	10/23   10/25	Paper #2 Due The Handmaid’s Tale – Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale – Atwood
Week 11	10/30 11/1	The Handmaid’s Tale – Atwood Agamemnon – Aeschylus
Week 12	11/6   11/8	Agamemnon – Aeschylus The Birds – Aristophanes The Birds – Aristophanes
Week 13	11/13   11/15	Paper #3 Due King Lear – Shakespeare King Lear – Shakespeare
Week 14	11/20 11/22	The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
Week 15	11/27 11/29	No Exit – Sartre No Exit – Sartre
Finals week	12/3-12/8	Paper #4 Due Final Exam Th Dec 6 11:30-1:20