Missouri Western State College

School of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism

ENG 357-16

Literature in English: 1945-present

Dr. Mike Cadden

Second Summer Session, 2003

Class time: 7:30-10:20 am M-Th

Class place: Murphy Hall 108 (JGM)

Dr. Cadden’s Office: 222-F Eder Hall (SS/C)

Office Hours: The hour following class on class days.

Phone: 271-4576

E-mail: cadden@missouriwestern.edu

URL: http://www.missouriwestern.edu/eflj/faculty/cadden.asp

Course Description: ENG 357 is a survey of literature originally written in English from 1945 until the present day. While the course doesn’t designate national parameters, this section will focus on American, Irish, and British literature of that period. The era in question spans post-war literature, still the domain of the Moderns, to the postmodern movement in literature. Where we are now is anybody’s guess. Because of the nature of a four-week session, the course will focus on short fiction, poetry, and short drama rather than the novel.

Prerequisite for ENG 357: ENG 220 or ENG 210.

Required Books:

Abrams, M. H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth Century. 7th ed. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 2000.

Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: American Literature Since 1945. Volume E. 6th ed. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 2003.

See http://www.wwnorton.com/ for additional apparatus for both texts.

Evaluation:

Participation: 10%

Midterm Exam: 25%

Final Exam: 25%

Two Short Papers: 40%

Attendance:

The MWSC Policy Guide states that "each instructor will determine and make known to the class the requirement for attendance" (45). Obviously, absence puts into jeapoardy your class participation grade, but I will not quantify how much presence equals what grade. I will be judging your total participation performance, not your presence. It’s your dime; come to class if it suits you. When you do come to class I expect that you will be on time, however. Absence is less annoying and disruptive than lateness.

Academic Dishonesty: All cases in which students pass off others’ work as their own will be referred to the Dean of Students. Students also run the risk of failing the assignment as well as the course, depending on the magnitude and nature of the offense. If you are unsure about how you are using sources, please check with me.

Late and Missing Work: I reserve the right to refuse any late work.   

Revision Policy: I require that all revisions be accompanied by the original graded paper that contains my comments.

Policy on Students with Disabilities: Any student in this course who has a disability which requires different contexts for either evaluation or expression should contact me in the first few weeks of the course so that those needs can be considered. 

Calendar:

6/24 T- Introduction to the course.

25 W- poetry: Thomas; Larkin; Reed, Walcott.

26 H- poetry: Hughes; Plath; Bishop.

30 M- Death of a Salesman: A tribute to the modern(istic) man.

7/1 T- poetry: Warren; Roethke; Pinsky; Collins.

2 W- poetry: Heaney; Boland; Rich.

3 H- Endgame: Theatre of the Absurd, a precursor to the postmodern; short paper on poetry or drama due.

7 M- Midterm Exam; setting up novels/short prose issues.

8 T- fiction: Lessing; Gordimer.

9 W- fiction: Bellow; Vonnegut; Roth.

10 H- fiction: Le Guin; Pynchon; Carver.

14 M- fiction: Reed; Bambara; Walker.

15 T- fiction: Cisneros; Silko; Cofer; Erdrich.

16 W- fiction: Flash fiction; children’s picture books; short paper on short fiction due.

17 H- Final Exam

Short Papers

Length: ~5 pp of double-spaced prose.

Sources: Each will employ at least one outside source in the assistance of the argument to be documented in flawless MLA fashion.

Revision: The first is revisable. The revision grade will replace the original grade. Revisions are due by the beginning of the Final Exam.

Options:

1. Compare two works from our syllabus in terms of situation (context).

2. Compare two works from our syllabus in terms of structure (text).

3. Compare two works from our syllabus in terms of subject (subtext).
  1. Show, in any one work from our syllabus, the relationship among situation, structure, and/or subject.

Each paper will begin with a statement of thesis and then a paraphrase/summary of the work(s) in question. It will proceed with evidence for the thesis and will end with a claim for significance of the thesis (or "so what?")

I expect that these will not simply relay class argument, though it certainly may draw upon it.