ENGL 325:001 Dimensions of Literature Spring 2009 M & W 1:30-2:45 Rob A248 Recitation W 5:55-7:10 ENT 178

Professor Rosemary Jann - rjann@gmu.edu Office: Rob A435 703-993-3248 Office hours: M 12-1 pm W 3-5 pm and by appt. Website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~rjann

Reading Response Topics
Recitation Response Topics
Essay Topics

Dimensions of Literature is the required course for English majors. Its central objective is to develop your ability to appreciate and analyze literary texts through extensive reading, analysis, and writing. Its more specific learning objectives include:

to understand how literary genres are constructed and function
to appreciate how performance contributes to literary meaning
to develop advanced techniques for analyzing literary form and language
to understand the role of historical and cultural context in shaping literature and literary interpretation
to understand and be able to apply varied theoretical approaches to analyzing literature

In addition to attending our twice-weekly class meetings, you will be required to attend the Wednesday night recitation series. Different presentations in the series model interpretive techniques, offer additional support for our study of key texts, or showcase different specialties within the department. For some presentations you will need to look at supplemental materials in advance. You can view the 325 recitation schedule and attachments online at http://english.gmu.edu/undergraduate/engl325materials.php.

Because this is a writing-intensive course worth 6 credit hours, I will expect you to complete the equivalent of two courses' worth of reading and writing for each week of the course. You will have a writing assignment due for almost every class. I urge you to consider carefully whether your other commitments this semester will allow you adequate time to keep up with the work in this course. English majors must earn at least a C (2.0) in English 325 to fulfill their major requirements. Successful completion of ENGL 325 satisfies the Writing Intensive course requirement and the General Education Synthesis requirement for English majors.

Texts:
Booth, Hunter, and Mays, eds. Norton Introduction to Literature, Portable Edition. New York: WW Norton, 2006. ISBN:9780393928563 [NIL in syllabus]
Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions. New York: Lynne Rienner, 1988. ISBN:9780954702335
Scholes, Comley, and Ulmer. Text Book: Writing through Literature. 3rd ed. New York: Bedford-St. Martin's, 2002. ISBN:9780312248796 [TB in syllabus]
Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. New York: Grove/Atlantic, 1971. ISBN:9780802132758
Wofford, Susan, ed. Hamlet: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. New York: Bedford-St. Martin's, 1994.ISBN: 9780312055448

The Norton Introduction to Literature, Portable Edition comes with a companion website. Go to http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/literature/welcomeSplash.asp to enter the site. Works with "WEB" next to their titles in the anthology have supporting materials online under the "workshop" links: reading questions, re-reading questions, and additional materials by and about the author. It is always a good idea to look at these materials before class, even if I don't mention them in the syllabus. I will base some optional reading response topics on them.

Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel Nervous Conditions is the featured text in the English Department's Text and Community program this spring, and she will be speaking to the ENGL 325 recitation on April 29th. I encourage you to participate in the contests and other events sponsored by T&C this semester. You can find complete information at http://textandcommunity.gmu.edu.

Requirements:
10 % Reading Responses. Reading responses are short analyses (approximately 200-words) or creative works that help prepare you for class discussion and apply what you've been learning in class. In them you should take a specific position in response to the questions asked and cite specific evidence to back up your claims. Creative assignments should be accompanied by a short paragraph explaining your intentions in your work. You are required to turn in one reading response per week unless otherwise noted. Topics are listed on the page linked under "Reading Response Topics" to the online syllabus.
5% Recitation Responses. Unless otherwise noted, I will post one or more response options to the Wednesday recitation by noon on Thursday on the page linked under "Recitation Response Topics" to the online syllabus. You choose one and turn in your response at the beginning of class the following Monday.
5% annotation assignment for sonnet analysis
10% sonnet form analysis essay
10% point of view analysis essay
10% theoretical views of Hamlet essay
5% annotation assignment for figurative analysis
10% figurative language analysis essay
10% Nervous Conditions essay
15% final examination
5% quizzes. You can expect regular quizzes on literary terms from the glossary at the back of the NIL. You should also be prepared for unannounced reading quizzes on any assignments.
5% Participation. I expect you to attend all class meetings, to complete all reading assignments before class, to bring your textbook to class, and to be prepared to participate in class discussions, quizzes, and small group exercises. Since you cannot participate if you do not attend class, more than two absences may lower your participation grade. Quizzes may be given at any time and may not be made up.
You will be required to attend a live performance of the GMU Players' production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead between April 9-12. See course schedule for April 6 for details.

Policies:

Pre-requisites for this course include completion of ENGL 101 and two 200-level literature courses or their transfer equivalents.

Please turn off all cell phones and other electronic devices during class. Please treat other members of the class with the respect that you would want for yourself.

You will need access to email and to the internet for this course. University regulations require that all official communications be sent to your GMU email address, so you must activate your GMU account and set up automatic forwarding if you prefer to receive mail at a different address (see "options" in your GMU email account to set up automatic forwarding). You are responsible for all messages that I send to your GMU email address.

Paper Policies: analytical essays and other writing assignments are due at the beginning of the class for which they are listed. Unless otherwise noted, written assignments should be typed double-spaced with 1-inch margins in a 12-point font. You may send me an assignment as an email attachment in order to prove that you completed it by the deadline, but I will not grade it unless and until you bring me a hard copy. Late papers will be penalized at 1/3 grade per day. I will not accept late papers after I have returned graded assignments to the rest of the class (usually one week after the due date). You may rewrite the sonnet, point of view, Hamlet, and figurative language essays. Your final grade on rewritten assignments will be an average of the original grade and the rewrite grade. Assignments not turned in will be averaged as zeroes on a 100-point scale.

Registration: students are responsible for verifying their enrollment in this class through Patriot Web. The last day to add this course and to drop it without a tuition penalty is Tuesday, Feb. 3. The last day to drop the course is Friday, Feb. 20. Withdrawals after Feb. 20 normally require the approval of the Undergraduate Academic Affairs office and are allowed only for nonacademic reasons, unless you are using one of your selective withdrawals. See the GMU catalog for details: http://www.gmu.edu/catalog/apolicies/

Disability Accommodation: if you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Office of Disability Resources at 703-993-2474. All academic accommodations need to be arranged through that office.

Honor Code: the GMU Honor Code requires all members of this community to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity. Cheating, plagiarism, lying, and stealing are all prohibited. I will report all violations of the Honors Code to the Honors Committee. See http://academicintegrity.gmu.edu/honorcode/ for details on how the code works. If you are confused about what constitutes plagiarism, see this link: http://english.gmu.edu/forfacultystaff/plagirism.php

 

Class Schedule

Note that you are required to submit one reading response per week. Your response is due at the start of class on the day for which the question is listed. See the "Reading Response Topics" link at the top of the online syllabus for specifics.

W Jan. 21	Introductions to Genres
W Jan. 21	Recitation: Professor Sample, "The Technology of Reading"
M Jan. 26	The Shapes of Narrative Read: TB Natural Narrative 2-12; The "Literary" Anecdote 12-18; Chopin "The Kiss" 19-21; Williams "The Use of Force" 21-4; NIL "Fiction: Reading, Responding, Writing" 12-3; "The Elephant in the Village of the Blind" 13-5; "20/20" 15-16	Recitation response on Sample due
W Jan. 28	The Shapes of Narrative Read: NIL Paley "Conversation with My Father" 32-6; Bierce "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" 307-13; TB Erdrich "The Red Convertible" 183-90 Quiz terms: action, flashback, exposition, genre, initiation story, in media res, motif, subgenre, subplot, suspense, turning point
W Jan. 28	Recitation: Professor Samuelian, "How We Read"
M Feb. 2	Form in Poetry Read: NIL "The Sounds of Poetry" 501-4; Pope "Sound and Sense" and discussion of meter 505-509; Coleridge "Metrical Feet" 509-10; Dryden "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham" 511; External Form/The Sonnet" 540-46; "Stanza Forms" 553-59 Quiz terms: anapestic, assonance, ballad stanza, blank verse, caesura, dactylic, enjambement, heroic couplet, iamb, stanza, trochee	Recitation response on Samuelian due Annotation Assignment #1 due
W Feb. 4	Form in Poetry: The Sonnet, continued Read: NIL Brooks "First Fight. Then Fiddle" 548; Lazurus "The New Colossus" 548; Milton "When I Consider How My Light is Spent" 550; Harwood "In the Park" 552 Quiz terms: English sonnet, Italian sonnet, Petrarchan sonnet, limerick, lyric, meter, octave, rhyme scheme, rhythm, sestet, Shakespearean sonnet
W Feb 4	Recitation: Professor Hoffmann, "Drama: Texts, Spaces, Bodies"
M Feb. 9	Character and Confrontation TB: Glaspell "Trifles" 29-40; "Staging and Writing Drama" 40-1;Glaspell "Trifles" 29-40;"Character Contests" 42-6 (includes Goffman excerpt); "The Stronger" 46-50	Recitation Response on Hoffmann due First Draft of Sonnet Form Analysis due
W Feb. 11	TB: Esslin "Aristotle and the Advertisers" 51-54; AIG Video 55-6 Quiz terms: classical unities, climax, conflict, dramatis personae, falling action, flat character, foil, rising action, round character, stage directions, stock character, tragedy
W Feb. 11	Recitation: Professor Malouf, "Traditional Forms and Global Poetry"
M Feb. 16	Tone and Voice in Poetry Read: NIL Tone 416-25; Hayden "Those Winter Sundays" 427; Speaker 431-32; Parker "A Certain Lady" 438-9; Brooks "We Real Cool" 444; Betjeman "In Westminster Abbey" 461-2 Quiz terms: colloquial diction, confessional poem, formal diction, free verse, haiku, lyric, elegy, ode, epic, pastoral, tone, voice	Revised Draft of Sonnet Analysis due Recitation response on Malouf due
W Feb. 18	Point of View in Narrative Read: NIL "Narration and Pt. of View" 106-8; Poe "Cask of Amontillado" 108-114; Hemingway "Hills like White Elephants" 114-17; Kincaid "Girl" 385-86 Quiz terms: first-person narrator, focus, irony, implied author, narrator, satire, second-person narrator, situational irony, third-person narrator
W Feb. 18	Recitation: Professor Reid "Rhetoric, Genre, Discipline: So You Think You Can Revise?"
M Feb. 23	Point of View in Narrative Read online and print out and bring to class: James Joyce, "The Boarding House" http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/955/ Quiz terms: centered consciousness, dramatic irony, limited point of view, persona, unlimited point of view, psychological realism, unreliable narrator, verbal irony	Recitation response on Reid due
W Feb. 25	Point of View in Narrative Read: NIL Baldwin "Sonny's Blues" 81-105	First draft of point of view essay due
W Feb. 25	Recitation: Professor Clark "Point of View: 'Sonny's Blues'"
M March 2	Intertextuality Read: TB: Texts and Other Texts 150-53; examples of Samson story 153-57; Transforming Texts 2: versions of Sleeping Beauty 161-76; Bettelheim essay 214-222; Prose essay 222-28	revised draft of point of view essay due Recitation response on Clark due
W March 4	Intertextuality Read: TB Identifying with Texts 190-92; Selections by Ray 193-98; Allen 198-99; Banks 199-207
W March 4	Recitation: Professor Scarlata, "Point of View in Film"
March 9-11	No class: spring break
M March 16	Hamlet, acts I-III	Recitation response on Scarlata due
W March 18	Hamlet, acts IV-V; "A Critical History of Hamlet" 181-205
W March 18	Recitation: Professor Lin, "Hamlet and Performance"
M March 23	"What is Feminist Criticism?" 208-20; Showalter, "Representing Ophelia" 220-240; "What is Psychoanalytic Criticism?" 241-55; first half of Adelman "'Man and Wife is One Flesh'" 256-68	Recitation response on Lin due
W March 25	What is Marxist Criticism?" 332-48; Bristol "Carnival and the Carnivalesque in Hamlet" 348-6
W March 25	Recitation: faculty panel on Hamlet
M March 30	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead	Recitation response on panel due
W April 1	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead	Comparative Performances of Hamlet essay due
W April 1	Recitation: Professor Nanian, "Words Fail: How Poets Push the Limits of Language"
M April 6	Figurative Language Read: TB "Texts, Thoughts, and Things" 62-3; Brown "What Words Are" 63-72; "Metaphor in Three Poems" 72-75 Quiz terms: colloquial diction, connotation, denotation, controlling metaphor, figures of speech, imagery, metaphor, simile	Recitation response on Nanian due
W April 8	Figurative Language Read: TB "Poetic Uses of Metaphor" 87-94; "Metaphor and Metonymy: Advertising" 142-49 Quiz terms: hyperbole, myth, oxymoron, personification, rhetorical trope, symbol, syntax
W April 6	No recitation: time off to see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by GMU Players (performances 8 pm on April 9, 10, and 11; and at 2 pm on April 11 and 12. For ticket information, see this link: http://www.gmu.edu/org/gmuplayers/upcoming.html )
M April 13	Figurative Language Read: TB "Metaphor as a Basis for Thought" 94-106; "Arguing with Metaphor" 113-28; Barth "Night-Sea Journey" 135-42	Review of "R & G are Dead" due Annotation assignment #2 due
W April 15	Symbolism Read: TB "Metaphor and Dream" 75-79; "Symbolism" 79-81;"The Parables of Jesus" 129-30; NIL Kafka "The Hunger Artist" 207-14; Sections on "Metaphor and Simile" 481-90 and on "Symbol" 491-96
W April 15	Recitation: Professor McCarthy: "Sociolinguistics: Exploring the Links between Language and Society"
M April 20	Nervous Conditions	Recitation response on McCarthy due Figurative Language essay due
W April 22	Nervous Conditions
W April 22	Recitation: Professor Yocom, "Folklore, Contemporary Legends, and the Oral Tradition"
M April 27	Revised 4/25: Read critical essays by Sugnet, Thomas, and Wright: see "essay topics" link for the last paper to get full citations	Recitation response on Yocom due
W April 29	Revised 4/25: Read critical essays by Aegerter, Gorle, and Nair: see "essay topics" link for the lat assignment to get full citations
W April 29	Recitation: Tsitsi Dangarembga
M May 4	Review for final examination; course evaluation	Nervous Conditions essay due
W May 6	Final Examination 1:30-4:15

Preview of Final Examination

Your final examination for ENGL 325 will take place in our regular classroom from 1:30-4:15 on Wednesday, May 6. I do not expect the exam to take the entire time. The emphasis in the exam will be on your ability to apply concepts we have covered in the course rather to provide definitions or summaries of them. During the exam you may consult any of your textbooks for the course and anything in your notes on our in-class discussions or the recitations. You will need to bring your Norton Introduction to Literature with you to the exam. Please also bring writing materials and either blue books or paper to write on. I will bring a dictionary with me in case you want to look anything up.
Note: you may write your exam answers on your laptop, under the following conditions, which I impose out of fairness to other students: 1) you may not consult any Internet sources during the exam. I'll ask you to turn your desk facing the back of the room so that I can be assured of this by seeing your computer screens. 2) You will send me your exam documents as email attachments before you leave the classroom at the end of the exam.

For part 1 of the exam, you will read a short story that we have not discussed in the Norton Introduction to Literature and provide short answers to interpretive questions about it. For part 2, you will do the same for a poem. Part 3 will consist of additional short answer questions based on dramatic texts assigned and discussed in class. Re-read Susan Glaspell's short play, "Trifles," before the exam.

In addition to all the terms listed for the vocabulary quizzes in the class schedule, you will be responsible for knowing how to apply the following terms:

Allegory
Character Contest
Feminist Criticism
Free Indirect Style Narration
Hypertext
Intertextuality
Metonymy
Parable
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Reading vs. Interpretation vs. Criticism
Rhetoric
Six parts of a complete narrative
Sociolinguistics
Story Order/Time versus Discourse Order/Time
Synecdoche

The best way to prepare for the exam is to review these terms and your notes on our class discussions and recitations. The GMU Honors Code applies to the taking of this exam; review its provisions in the online catalog if you are unclear about them.

 

 

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