EN200: Introduction to Literature (modular)
Internet address: www.stfrancis.edu/en/chilton/insylmod.htm
Spring, 1999 (6:30-9:30 p.m.: Jan. 13, 20, 27; Feb. 3, 10, 17, 24; plus
final exam)
Room SJ4 (Rm. 4, St. Joseph's College of Nursing, 290 N. Springfield, Joliet)
Instructor information
Instructor:
Office phone:
FAX:
e-mail: |
Randolph
Chilton
815-740-3454
(ext. 3454 on campus)
815-740-4285
rchilton@stfrancis.edu |
Office:
Office hours: |
S308
9-11 TR
4-5:30 M
and by appointment |
Objectives:
This course will give you the opportunity to
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learn, use, and debate the basic vocabulary of literary criticism;
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develop the skills of critical analysis through the reading and interpretation
of selected literary and critical texts;
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develop, as part of these skills, a consciousness of the beliefs and preconceptions
that motivate and shape our interpretations;
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gain a critical understanding of literary works as art forms; and, through
all of this,
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gain a critical perspective on our culture, our common human experience,
and the mediation of culture and experience through language.
Required text:
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Fifth
edition. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1999.
Recommended text:
One of the various editions of Edgar V. Roberts' Writing Themes About
Literature (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, various dates).
Other texts may be mentioned during the course of the semester, and
I encourage you to use the library on your own. But this class does not
require that kind of research. Instead, you are expected to apply your
own mind, to exercise actively your own intelligence on what we read in
order to develop further your ability to think critically and analytically.
In other words, I will look most closely at how and what you think, not
what you find that someone else thinks.
Tentative Calendar
| Date |
Reading Assignments |
Writing Assignments |
|
[Reading and writing assignments are due on the dates
indicated.]
|
Week 1:
Jan. 13 |
-
Lecture: Language, Literature, Culture
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"Not Waving but Drowning" (handout)
-
"For Michael" (handout)
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Introduction (3-9)
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Reading Fiction (11-19)
-
Tallent, "No One's a Mystery" (handout)
-
Chopin, "The Story of an Hour"
|
|
Week 2:
Jan. 20 |
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Reading Fiction (cont.) (19-39)
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Van der Zee, from A Secret Sorrow
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Godwin, "A Sorrowful Woman"
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Modleski, "The Popularity of Romance Novels"
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Plot (39-48, 54-61)
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Burroughs, from Tarzan of the Apes
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Vidal, "The Popularity of Tarzan Books"
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Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily"
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Perspectives (61-64)
-
Judith Fetterley on Faulkner (2025-27)
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Character (78-83)
-
Mansfield, "Miss Brill" (219-222)
|
Quiz #1
|
Week 3:
Jan. 27 |
-
Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (91-115)
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Perspectives (115-118)
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Point of View (148-53)
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Bambara, "The Lesson"
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Symbolism (187-196)
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Cisneros, "Barbie-Q"
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Collette, "The Hand"
|
Quiz #2 |
Week 4:
Feb. 3 |
-
Updike, "A&P" (487-492)
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Hawthorne, "The Birthmark" (286-97)
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Perspectives (308-13, 317-20)
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Faulkner, "Barn Burning" (416-29)
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Perspectives (429-36)
|
Quiz #3 due (take-home)
Quiz #4
|
Week 5:
Feb. 10 |
-
Reading Poetry (587-609)
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Robinson, "Richard Cory" (698)
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Hughes, "Theme for English B" (904)
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Rios, "Seniors" (614)
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Pound, "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter" (987)
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Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone (621-38)
|
Paper #1 due |
Week 6:
Feb. 17 |
-
Haiku (handouts)
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Images (649-56)
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Imagist poems (handout)
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Figures of Speech (672-81)
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Sounds (719-31)
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Patterns of Rhythm (744-51)
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Yeats, "Leda and the Swan" (1018)
|
Test: In-class Explication |
Week 7:
Feb. 24 |
-
Drama
-
Strindberg, "The Stronger" (handout)
-
Miller, Death of A Salesman (1668-1733, 1986-89)
-
Citizen Kane (discussion)
|
Test: Sound and Rhythm
Paper #2 due |
Week 8
Mar. 3
(6:30-8:30 |
p.m., or by appointment) |
Final Exam |
Requirements:
Two 750-1,000 word analytical essays (200 pts. each); four in-class quizzes
on fiction (100 pts. total); two in-class tests on poetry (100 pts. total);
final essay test (200 pts.); some non-graded imitative writing; at-home
exercises (100 pts.); active participation (including hypernews, e-mail,
journals, discussion) (100 pts.); occasional unscheduled quizzes.
At-home exercises:
Exercises will be assigned on a weekly basis except when papers are due.
They will be marked with a check plus, check, or check minus, handed back
to you, collected again as a group at the end of the term, and assigned
a score (out of 100 possible points) at that time. The exercises are intended
to engage you in the readings in a way that will prepare you for class
and for other graded written work, but they will not be evaluated on the
basis of "correctness"--they are one of the places where you are invited
to work out and test your ideas.
We will use "Hypernews" as an electronic forum for discussion. Hypernews
allows you to participate in a discussion of texts and assignments in the
class at your convenience. You can read other people's contributions and
post your own in reply. You will need access to the Internet in order to
do this, however. Such access is available to all students through the
computers located on campus, and you are welcome to use them. But having
to do so defeats the purpose of allowing you to participate from remote
locations--anywhere where you can hook up to the net. In Hypernews, you
should count on responding to readings and your fellow students at least
three times a week, though this is a minimum. We will discuss this more
at the first class meeting. Keep in mind that Hypernews is a forum for
the whole class. If you have a message for an individual (including me),
use his or her individual e-mail address. (Note: If you do not have access
to the net, keeping a reading journal for the course is an acceptable substitute
for this requirement [see attached description]. But a friendly warning:
the journal is more time-consuming.)
Reading journal:
A reading journal is the place for you to record in written form your responses
to the assigned readings for the class. There are no restrictions in the
journal on what constitutes a "response," good or bad--it is the place
for you to put down on paper first impressions as well as ideas you have
spent more time thinking about. Evaluation will be based on evidence of
active reading and thinking about the assigned readings, but not on standard
grammar or "correctness." (See description.)
Academic Policies
-
Attendance and class participation: In-class participation will
be graded, and along with your Hypernews or journal entries, will count
as one full grade (100 pts.) in figuring the final grade. Participation
does not mean agreeing with the instructor. In fact, informed and well-reasoned
disagreement is liable to bring you more credit than simply repeating what
I have said. Questions, too, can play a very valuable part in class discussion,
including questions that begin, for example, "Are you saying that . . .
?" In general, I will look for participation that shows you to be engaged
in the work of the class--in active, critical reading, thinking, and writing.
To participate, of course, you must attend, so attendance is a requirement.
Missing one class in a modular course is equivalent to missing two weeks
in a regular college course, and will hurt your grade. Missing a partial
class will count as one week's absence. If you do miss a class, it will
be your responsibility to find out from your classmates what occurred and
what was said--I won't be able to reconstruct the experience for you. If
you have to miss more than one class, for whatever reason, I will ask you
to withdraw.
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Consultations: You will have questions and ideas about the works
we read that, for one reason or another, we may not be able to deal with
in class. You may also wish to discuss written assignments as you are working
on them or after you have had them returned. Feel free to talk to me about
any topic related to the class whenever you see me, in or out of my office.
(Make an appointment if you want to be sure to see me for an extended conversation
in my office.) I encourage you to talk about such topics with one another
and come to my office together, if you wish. I am also available by phone
and through e-mail.
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Help with writing: I will be available on an appointment basis.
Contact me any time, and we will schedule one. Again, you are also encouraged
to make full use of e-mail and fax if you have questions about your work
or want me to look over a rough draft.
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Grading
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Plagiarism
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Paper topics/assignments
| Introduction to Literature |
Instructor: Chilton
|
Spring, 1999 (modular)
Paper #2: Poetry
An analysis of poetry usually involves explication.
The root meaning of this term is "unfolding," and it may help you to think
of the analysis of poetry as the "unfolding" of its meaning. This is done
through the process of close reading--that is, through the process of attending
carefully both to what is said and to how it is said. In this class, you
have already been asked to do something like this with prose in your short
quizzes. With poetry, the process becomes even more focused. You may find
it helpful to think about and employ the vocabulary you have been learning
that names poetic devices--the vocabulary of metaphor, meter, sound and
rhyme, etc. But you will not be evaluated on how many of these terms you
can employ in the paper. Rather, you should think of your task as one of
illuminating the meaning of the poem--as explaining what it means and how
it conveys its meaning, and of course as showing your reader how the language
of the poem supports your understanding of it.
For your second paper explicate one of the
following poems:
Margaret Atwood, "February" (784-85)
Seamus Heaney, "Mid-term Break" (892)
Maxine Kumin, "Woodchucks" (727)
Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est" (763)
Theodore Roethke, "My Papa's Waltz" (871)
or"Root Cellar" (756)
William Shakespeare, "That time of year thou
mayst in me behold" (1117)
William Stafford, "Traveling through the Dark"
(813)
William Carlos Williams, "Spring and All"
(1126)
Alternately, compare and contrast the following
poems:
Emily Dickinson: "I heard a Fly buzz--when
I died" (946) and
"Because I could not stop for Death--" (948)
Requirements:
Length: 750 words (three double-spaced, typewritten
pages) minimum
Due date: February 24