Syllabus
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W100: Introduction to English Studies
Section 004
T R 11:40am - 1pm
Room: Gladfelter Hall 310
Spring 2007
Contact Info/Office Hours
Dr. Matthew Gold
Email: mailto:matthew.gold@temple.edu
Phone: none
Office: 1146 Anderson Hall
Office Hours: Tuesday 1:15 - 2:15 p.m. and by appointment
Blackboard Site: http://TUPortal.temple.edu (click on “Blackboard”)
Course Website: http://mkgold.net/sp2007/w100/
Course Description
This course provides an intensive introduction to the fundamental techniques of literary analysis. As we consider a broad selection of works from a range of periods and genres, we will explore various ways of approaching and investigating meaning in literary texts. We will develop our skills not only through collaborative critical analysis and discussion in class, but also through writing assignments and online exercises designed to cultivate the writing and research skills that will help you succeed as an English major.
Throughout the semester, we will consider the following questions:
- What is literature? What is criticism?
- How might the meaning of a text be articulated through a “close reading”?
- How do writers use specific literary techniques to shape meaning?
- In what ways do literary works respond to one another?
- What are the major literary genres and how do they differ from one another?
- How do authors work within and outside of generic conventions and themes?
- What is the relationship of literature and culture?
- Should we study only “major” authors and genres?
- What are the major schools of literary criticism? What kinds of questions do they raise about literature? How do they conceive of the interpretative task in different ways?
- How can we can use library and internet resources to explore literary scholarship?
- How might we compare and synthesize multiple interpretations of a single text?
- How can we construct persuasive arguments about literary texts?
Texts
Primary Texts:
Martin Amis, Money
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Herman Melville, Bartleby, The Scrivener
Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Course packet of poems by Robert Herrick, Andrew Marvell, John Donne, Thomas Wyatt, Mary Leapor, John Keats, William Butler Yeats, Adrienne Rich, Seamus Heaney, Mark Strand, and others.
Secondary Texts:
Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
Supplemental Critical Essays on Blackboard.
Requirements
Attendance and Participation: I expect you to come to every class meeting having read the assigned reading and having formulated a few discussion questions about it. You should be ready to contribute to class discussion by listening and responding to your classmates.
Short Assignments: The short assignments will consist of brief exercises -- such as a scansion of a poem, an OED research definition, a blog post, or a wiki entry -- that are designed to build on our classroom discussions and course readings.
Group Presentations: Small groups of students will present very short presentations (5-10 minutes) on terms that can be found in The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. We will expand on those presentations as a class as we consider supplemental critical essays.
Weekly Responses (1 page or less): Each week, you will write a short response to our reading. Every Monday by 5pm, you should post your response in our online discussion forum. Please print out a hard copy of your response and hand it in to me every Tuesday. We will use these responses to provoke class discussion during the week.
Please use these response papers to articulate those aspects of the text that you find exciting, problematic, or confusing. Try to explore new ideas and to define topics that you might want to explore in a longer paper.
If you are having a hard time finding something to write about, you might perform a close reading of a line or phrase from the assigned reading that seems central to the text as a whole or to a particular aspect of it. Paying close attention to language and phrasing, explain the ways in which the line you have chosen encapsulates -- or contradicts -- some larger aspect of the text.
I will grade these papers with a +, √, -, or 0. You may take two weeks off from this assignment during the semester. No short papers will be required on days when another paper is due.
Two Short Papers (3-4 pages): These papers should grow out of your response papers. Since they will be very short, you must limit the scope of your argument and present a highly focused thesis. The specificity of your topic is likely to determine your success on these papers. Each one should discuss and respond to at least one critical essay on the chosen text.
Midterm Paper (6-8 pages) and Final Paper (8-10 pages): These papers may build on a response paper or on a short paper. Each one should present a sustained argument about a course text (or texts), and should interrogate at least one primary source and at least two secondary sources. I will distribute essay prompts, but I encourage you to formulate your own paper topics.
If you’re having problems generating paper topics for any of these assignments, please meet with me during office hours.
Essays must conform to MLA standards (I will provide you with the guidelines in class) and are to be handed in at the beginning of class unless otherwise instructed. Submissions may be emailed with prior approval of the instructor.
Grades:
Attendance and Participation: 15%
Short Assignments: 5%
Weekly Responses: 10% (total)
Two Short Papers: 20% (10% each)
Midterm Paper: 20%
Final Paper: 30%
I will use attendance and participation to resolve borderline grades.
Policies
Participation: The success of this course depends upon your regular and active participation in class discussions. To receive full credit for participation, you must come to class having completed all of the reading and having prepared a few questions and comments about it.
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory in this discussion-based course. Students who miss more than three classes will lose one-third of their final grade for each additional absence. Students who enter the classroom late or leave it early can be very disruptive; please make every effort to arrive on time. Arriving after roll has been taken will count as one-third of an absence.
Deadlines: Late papers and assignments will be marked down one-third of a grade per day late including weekend days and holidays. If you anticipate trouble completing an assignment on time, please speak to me ahead of time. You will be responsible for all assignments and deadlines regardless of absences. Hence, I strongly recommend that you have a contact person in the class from whom you can get assignments and notes in the event of an absence.
Incompletes: Incomplete grades will not be given except under extraordinary circumstances, and even then, the student must have completed the majority of the work at a passing level and must complete a written agreement with me and the department regarding the completion of the work. The completion date may be no later than one year from the end of the semester in which the student took the course. For more information, please visit this link: http://www.temple.edu/bulletin/Academic_policies/policies_part3/policies_part3.shtm
Academic Honesty: Please review Temple University’s guidelines regarding plagiarism and academic misconduct: http://www.temple.edu/bulletin/Responsibilities_rights/responsibilities/responsibilities.shtm
All suspected cases of academic misconduct will be immediately reported to the University. If you are confused or have any questions about how to integrate secondary critical sources, please see me in advance of the due dates.
Students With Disabilities: Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible. I will work with Disability Resources and Services at (100 Ritter Annex - 215-204-1280) to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.
Statement on Academic Freedom: Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The University has adopted a policy on Student and Faculty Academic Rights and Responsibilities (Policy # 03.70.02) which can be accessed through the following link: http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02
Course Resources
Grammar: If I have noted grammatical problems in your writing, you would do well to work on those issues throughout the semester. I recommend Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference and Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/). During the semester, I will hand out grammar and paper-writing resources and tips, and will make available on our course website a list of online references.
The Writing Center: Tuttleman Learning Center, Room 201, (215) 204-0702 http://www.temple.edu/writingctr/ The Temple University Writing Center offers free tutoring sessions to undergraduate students at Temple. I highly recommend that you visit the Writing Center as often as possible this semester. The tutors there can help you improve your grammar and focus your arguments. The Writing Center website also contains useful handouts on grammar, thesis construction, and citation. Take advantage of this resource.
The University Library System: It is my hope that you will be intimately familiar with the Samuel L. Paley library, which is located just a block away from our classroom. While I encourage you to make use of online resources, it is important that you spend time browsing the shelves, letting your curiosity lead you towards new ideas.
We will travel to the Paley Library on January 25th to meet with Kristina De Voe, a librarian who focuses on resources related to the study of literature. She will hold office hours throughout the semester on Mondays and Tuesdays from 3:00 – 4:30pm in Anderson 1044.
Reading and Assignment Schedule
(I'll clean up the formatting here soon)
Items marked with an asterisk (*) will be provided on our course website or in class. Supplemental readings will be added throughout the semester.
Weekly responses should be posted in the online class forum on Mondays, and should be handed in to me on Tuesdays.
Week 1:
T Jan 16: Opening Ceremonies
Adrienne Rich, "Diving Into the Wreck"*
Mark Strand, "Eating Poetry"*
Seamus Heaney, “Digging”
Th Jan 18: Terry Eagleton, "What is Literature?" (from Literary Theory: An Introduction)* A comparison of two passages from Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Thoreau’s Walden
Week 2:
T Jan 23: Weekly Response Due
John Frederick Nims, “The Dancer and the Dance” (from Western Wind)*
Robert Herrick, “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time”*
Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”*
Robert Graves, “Counting the Beats”*
Th Jan 25: Poetry Scansion Exercise Due Library Session with Kristina De Voe, University Librarian Meet in Room 130 (computer classroom) on the Library Mezzanine Level
Week 3:
T Jan 30: Weekly Response Due
Group Presentation: New Criticism
Cleanth Brooks, “My Credo: Formalist Criticism”*
Cleanth Brooks, “Keats’s Sylvan Historian: History Without Footnotes” (from The Well Wrought Urn)*
John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”*
William Butler Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”*
Th Feb 1: Group Presentations: Biographical, Feminist Criticism Thomas Wyatt, “They Flee From Me”* Mary Leapor, “Man the Monarch”* John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”*
Week 4:
T Feb 6: Short Paper #1 Due
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Th Feb 8: Group Presentations: New Historical and Post-Colonial Criticism William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Week 5:
T Feb 13: Weekly Response Due
OED Exercise Due
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Th Feb 15: William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Week 6:
T Feb 20: Weekly Response Due
Group Presentation: Reader-Response and Feminist Criticism
Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple
Th Feb 22: Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple
Week 7:
T Feb 27: Weekly Response Due
Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple
Th Mar 1: Mid-term paper Due (6-8 pages) Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener
Week 8:
T Mar 6: No Class -- Spring Recess
Th Mar 8: No Class -- Spring Recess
Week 9:
T Mar 13: Weekly Response Due
Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener
Th Mar 15: Group Presentation: Structuralism Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener
Week 10:
T Mar 20: Weekly Response Due
Group Presentation: Race and Literary Studies
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Th Mar 22: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Week 11:
T Mar 27: Short Paper #2 Due (3-4 pages)
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Th Mar 29: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Week 12:
T Apr 3: Weekly Response Due
Bibliography Exercise Due
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Th Apr 5: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Week 13:
T Apr 10: Weekly Response Due
Martin Amis, Money
Th Apr 12: Group Presentation: Post-Structuralism Martin Amis, Money
Week 14:
T Apr 17: Weekly Response Due
Martin Amis, Money
Th Apr 19: Martin Amis, Money
Week 15:
T Apr 24: Weekly Response Due
Martin Amis, Money
Th Apr 26: Closing Ceremonies
Final Essay (8-10 pages) due Monday, April 30th in Instructor’s Mailbox, 10th Floor Anderson Hall.
