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ENGLISH 12

“Language in evolution”

Syllabus 2018-19

Ms. Ryan, Room 516

“It is not we who speak language, but language that speaks us.” Heidegger

“There’s nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare

“Language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas.” Benjamin Whorf

When you began at Eleanor Roosevelt in 9th grade, we explored the heroic quest to be fully human. In the study of ancient and classic literatures, we saw cultures and individuals struggle to understand and attain the potential within humanity. Unfortunately, in the 21st century we, both individually and culturally, still find ourselves filled with monstrous instincts and destructive desires all the while claiming to strive towards becoming more evolved human beings.

In our class we will begin to consider this paradoxical behavior through an exploration of British literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, including an historical overview of the development of the English language during that time. Our class will provide a foundational understanding of the English literary tradition by means of a survey of major British authors, including:

Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales

William Shakespeare, Othello, Midsummer’s Night Dream or a sonnet unit

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

A 19th Century Novel, possibly Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights or Bram Stoker, Dracula

Modernist poetry (Yeats, Eliot, Stein, Williams and Stevens, among others)

“Traditionalist” and “Experimentalist mid-century writers: possible choices, Graham Greene, Chester Himes, Raymond Chandler and Flannery O’Connor among the traditionalists and Calvino, Borges, Burroughs and Flann O’Brien in the experimental group.

I have tried to select texts that represent the full span of genre—narrative poetry, lyric poetry, mock epic, drama and prose.

As our course explores the evolution of language within culture, its organization will be primarily chronological, but thematic underpinnings will allow for a diversity of readings as we make our way forward in the history of English literature. Both interspersed with and subsequent to our survey of foundational English texts, we will look at various modern and post-modern texts, British and American, to explore how we make sense of the chaotic, fractured world we live in today and how the development of experimental/ unconventional forms of literature is an attempt to question and engage in that possibility. Throughout the year, students will continue to develop writing skills in preparation for college through both analytic essays and creative assignments written in response to our readings. The texts we will study in this alignment of the curriculum may include:

Don DeLillo, White Noise

Chimamanda Adiche, “The Danger of a Single Story”

Zadie Smith, “ Speaking in Tongues”

James Baldwin, “If Black English isn’t a Language, Tell Me What is?”

Jamaica Kincaid, “Upon Seeing England for the First Time”

Margalit Fox, “On Language”

Maxine Hong Kingston, “No Name Woman”

Barak Obama, Dreams of My Father Chapter Four

Howard Zinn, The Young Peoples’s History fo the United States, Chapter one

Leslie Marmon Silko, “Fences Against Freedom”

Natalie Diaz, When My Brother was an Aztec

Sherman Alexie, “Superman and Me”

Frederick Douglass, “Learning to Read and Write”

Keith Gilyard, Voices of the Self

Gloria Anzaldua, How to Tame a Wild Tongue

Toni Morrison, “A Humanist View,” transcript

John Biewen, Seeing White, Podcast, episode 37 “Little War on the Prairie”

We will with literature circle structures two times during the year. Once we will focus on dystopian novels and the other on personal narrative, titles to be developed.

Essential Questions in our Study of Evolutions in English Literature:

• What does it mean to be fully human?

• How have the evolutions of economic structures and science determined ideas of identity?

• How are gender, race and sexuality marked in our texts?

• How does societal inclusion or exclusion impact the self?

• What does it mean to “colonize” another?

• How does “language speak us?”-Heidegger

COURSE EXPECTATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

As 12th graders, you need to be prepared for the self-reliance and responsibility that will be required in college. The training wheels are off! Because this is your fourth year in high school, you should be familiar with the following policies:

1. Bring the current text, hand-outs, notes, as well as pen and paper to class each day.

2. Please ready “to go” at the beginning of class. We have a lot to cover each semester, so there is no time to waste.

3. You will be expected to take detailed notes, both from what is written on the board and said during our discussions. In college you will not be told when to take notes, so look at this as a way to practice.

4. Please be respectful of yourself, your classmates and your teacher, i.e., me. ‘nough said.

GRADING

Tests, projects and essays: 70%

- This grade will include projects, essay exams, group presentations and papers.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this class. This goes for using an essay found online, or copying from a book or a classmate. If you are unclear about what constitutes plagiarism, or about the consequences for plagiarizing, review the policies in your ERHS student handbook or speak with me directly. Many colleges expel students for plagiarism.

Participation: 15%

-Participation is essential in this class because it will be based heavily on discussions. The success of ours class depends on active participation.

Homework: 15%

- You will be assigned reading and written homework every night. You will be expected to have detailed answers with reference to textual specifics. Remember, your nightly notes and question responses are used during discussion the next day. I will know if you are unprepared. Thus, lack of HW prevents adequate class participation. Double whammy. The purpose of homework is to help you contribute to the class discussion and understand the material we cover in class It makes your life a little easier when you already have a page or two of observations, connections and questions to discuss in class. Late homework is not acceptable.

- Again, plagiarism of the homework and notes will not be tolerated.

“The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve and protect the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.” George Simmel

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