COURSE SYLLABUS English 130S2

[Pages:10]COURSE SYLLABUS ENGLISH 130: WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

Fall 2016 M/W 1:40-3:30 Location: Delany Hall G15 Section 32974

Instructor: Shahriar Ashraf Email: Shahriar.ashraf@ Office: Delany Hall G18 Office Hours: M/W 12:00-1:00

(Or by appointment)

Course Description: English 130 is a course focused on the study of Anglophone literature. In this course you will learn how to engage in scholarly conversations about literature: by conducting close readings of primary and secondary sources; pursuing original research; and developing analytical arguments about literary texts in different genres. In the course of this semester we will read literary texts, ranging from the 17th to the 20th century, of various genres: poetry, a play, numerous short stories, two novellas, short films and finally a novel. In addition, we will survey literary scholarship that engages with these texts from very disparate angles and time periods, thus familiarizing ourselves with structuralist, Marxist, feminist, and post-colonial interpretations of these works. We will also read each of these articles from the perspective of the essayist, studying effective strategies to articulate and support an argument. In three assignments--a shorter close reading, a comparative essay, and finally a fully developed critical essay--we will practice how to insert our own original ideas into ongoing scholarly debates.

Course Goals: ? Read and listen critically and analytically including identifying an arguments major assumptions and assertion and evaluating its supporting evidence. ? Write clearly and coherently in varied, academic formats (such as journals, formal essays, and research papers) using standard English and appropriate technology to critique and improve one's own and other's texts. ? Demonstrate research skills using appropriate technology, including gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing primary and secondary sources. ? Support a thesis with well-reasoned arguments, and communicate persuasively across a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and media. ? Formulate original ideas and relate them to the ideas of others by employing the conventions of ethical attribution and citation.

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Course Requirements and Grades: The following formula will determine your grade:

Response Blogs and participation: 30% Essay 1 (4-5 pgs.): 10% Essay 2 (5-6 pgs.): 15% Essay 3 (8-10 pgs.): 25% Annotated Bibliography: 10% Presentation: 10%

Response Blogs There will be a total of five response blogs, which are mentioned in the syllabus. Each blog is to be written on the virtual website of the class located on the QWriting website at the following address: seekenglish130fall2016s2.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu. If for any reason you cannot access or post your blogs online, you may email them to me on the due date. Each blog is to be written in a conventional academic tone, and will be graded for grammar and richness of analysis. The blogs are a springboard for your ideas, and are intended to help you formulate and employ critical thinking and writing skills. The blogs do not need to be more than one or two paragraphs.

Essays Essay 2 and Essay 3 will be counted as the midterm and final respectively. All essays must have a draft, and must be typed in the MLA format, double-spaced, one-inch margins, Times New Roman 12 font, with an appropriate heading and title. Late papers will be severely penalized, and will risk your chances of passing the class. Specific details about each essay will be given the day the essays are assigned.

Presentation For the presentation each student will choose a work or an author on the first day of class, and present a short 3-5 minute presentation on the background and significance of the work or author in the beginning of class on the day that particular author or work is covered. On days that there are multiple works, there will be multiple presentations. Students must be prepared with notes, or a PowerPoint, and questions to ask the class for full credit for the assignment.

Annotated Bibliography This applies to both the midterm and the final. For the midterm you will need to have one primary source and two secondary sources. For the final you will need to have two primary sources and five secondary sources. Each description should be no longer than a paragraph long and should include in-text citations from the sources themselves. The sources MUST be from the academic database, and major point deductions will be made for any sources that are not academic peer reviewed articles.

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Required Texts: Gardner, Janet, et al. Literature: A Portable Anthology. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's,

2012. (ISBN-13: 978-1-4576-0650-2) Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: HarperPerennial, 1946. (ISBN-13: 978-0-06-

085052-4) Orwell, George. Animal Farm. 50th Anniversary ed., Signet, 1996. (ISBN-10: 0451526341) Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. Dover, 1991. (ISBN-13: 978-0486266909)

Schedule:

Literature: A Portable Anthology = LAPA

Date

Discussion and Activity

Assignment

WEEK 1: Short Stories

Monday, 8/29

Introduction: Overview of the Read: Kate Chopin "Story of an

Syllabus

Hour" (1894) LAPA 59-62 for 8/31

Presentation Sign Up

Wednesday, 8/31

In Class Diagnostic Essay Discussion of "Story of an Hour" LAPA 59-62

Key Concepts: Elements of Fiction LAPA pgs. 1197-1200

Response Blog # 1 (Must be posted by 9/5): How do the elements of fiction (Plot, character, point of view, setting, theme, and symbolism) contribute to the complexity of Chopin's work? Analyze one element of your choice.

Monday, 9/5 Wednesday, 9/7

WEEK 2 Labor Day ? College Closed Discussion of "Bartleby" LAPA pgs. 20-51

Read: Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1853) LAPA pgs. 20-51 for 9/7 AND start reading Naomi Reed, "The Specter of Wall Street: "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and the Language of Commodities" (PDF) for 9/14

Blog 1 Due Continue reading: "Bartleby"

Key Concepts: Critical Reading LAPA 1137 Active Reading LAPA 11381141

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Monday, 9/12 Wednesday, 9/14

Monday, 9/19 Wednesday, 9/21

Note Taking LAPA 1141

WEEK 3

"Bartleby"

Read: Naomi Reed, "The Specter

of Wall Street: "Bartleby, the

Key Concepts:

Scrivener" and the Language of

Using Quotations LAPA 1172- Commodities" (PDF)

1180

for 9/14

Discussion of "The Specter of Response Blog #2 (Must be

Wall Street: "Bartleby, the posted by 9/19):

Scrivener" and the Language What is the central argument in

of Commodities" (PDF)

Naomi Reed's essay? How does

the scholar use evidence to

Tips for Writing about

support her work?

Literature LAPA 1170

Read: Benedict Anderson,

Imagined Communities (1983)

(PDF) and Gordon Harvey,

"Elements of an Academic Essay"

(PDF) for 9/19. Begin thinking

about how these elements are used

in Anderson's work.

WEEK 4: Theory

Gordon Harvey, "Elements of Blog 2 Due

an Academic Essay" (PDF)

ESSAY 1: 4-5 pgs. First draft due

Discussion of Imagined

9/28, final version due 10/6

Communities

ESSAY 1

Key Concepts: The Thesis LAPA 1153 Gathering Support for Your Thesis LAPA 1156 Discussion of Imagined Communities

Key Concepts: Introductions, Conclusions, and Transitions LAPA 1159 Explication or "close reading" LAPA 1185 Analysis LAPA 1188 Comparison and Contrast LAPA 1191

WEEK 5

Read: Donna Haraway "A Cyborg's Manifesto" (PDF) for 9/26

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Monday, 9/26 Wednesday, 9/28

Monday, 10/3 Wednesday, 10/5

Thursday, 10/6

Discussion of "A Cyborg's

Manifesto"

Discussion of "A Cyborg's ESSAY 1 first draft due

Manifesto"

Read: William Shakespeare,

Key Concepts:

Sonnet 18 (1609) LAPA 453

Peer editing and Workshops Sonnet 73 (1609) LAPA 73

LAPA 1168-1170

Sonnet 116 (1609) LAPA 116

WEEK 6: Poetry

NO CLASS

Discussion of Sonnets 18, 73, Read: John Donne, "Death be Not

and 116

Proud" (1633) LAPA 457

John Milton "When I consider

Key Concepts:

how my light is spent" (1673)

Elements of Poetry LAPA

LAPA 462

1208-1212

Allan Ginsberg "A Supermarket

in California" (1956) LAPA 588

Discussion of "Death be Not ESSAY 1 DUE

Proud," "When I consider how

my light is spent," and "A

Read: T.S. Eliot "The Waste

Supermarket in California" Land" (1922) (PDF)

Robert Langbaum "The Walking

ESSAY 2

Dead" (PDF)

A.D. Moody "A Cure for the

Crisis of Civilization" (PDF)

MIDTERM ESSAY 2: 5-8 pgs. First draft due with annotated bibliography 10/24, final version due 11/9

Response Blog # 3 (Must be posted by 10/17): What are some of the similarities in terms of the poetic elements in the earlier 17th Century poems, and later 20th century poems? Choose two poems, one earlier and one more contemporary and compare and contrast.

Monday, 10/10 Wednesday, 10/12

Monday, 10/17

WEEK 7

NO CLASS

WEEK 8 Discussion of T.S. Eliot "The Blog 3 Due

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Wednesday, 10/19 Monday, 10/24

Waste Land" (1922) (PDF)

Robert Langbaum "The

Read: Adrienne Rich, "Diving

Walking Dead" (PDF)

into the Wreck" (1973) LAPA 601

A.D. Moody "A Cure for the Sylvia Plath, "Metaphors" (1960)

Crisis of Civilization" (PDF) LAPA 608

Audre Lorde "Coal" (1992) LAPA

614

Discussion of Adrienne Rich, Read: Edith Wharton, Ethan

"Diving into the Wreck"

Frome (1991)

(1973) LAPA 601

Sylvia Plath, "Metaphors"

(1960) LAPA 608

Audre Lorde "Coal" (1992)

LAPA 614

WEEK 9 : Novellas

Discussion of Ethan Frome ESSAY 2 first draft due with

annotated bibliography (3

sources, 1 primary, 2 secondary)

Wednesday, 10/26

Discussion of "Imagery and Symbolism in Ethan Frome"

Read: Bernard, Kenneth. "Imagery and Symbolism in Ethan Frome"College English: 23.3 (Dec. 1961): 17884. JSTOR Read: Ammons, Elizabeth. "The Myth of Imperiled Whiteness and Ethan Frome" New England Quarterly: A Historical Review of New England Life and Letters: 81.1 (Mar. 2008): 5-33. JSTOR

Monday, 10/31

Wednesday, 11/2 Monday, 11/7

WEEK 10 Discussion of "The Myth of Imperiled Whiteness and Ethan Frome"

Discussion of Animal Farm WEEK 11

Discussion of Animal Farm

Response Blog # 4 (Must be posted by 11/7): What are some of the differences in the scholarly essays? What is the motive of Bernard, and how is Ammons motive different?

Read: George Orwell, Animal Farm (1996) Continue Reading: Animal Farm

Blog 4 Due

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Wednesday, 11/9

Monday, 11/14 Wednesday, 11/16 Monday, 11/21 Wednesday, 11/23 Monday, 11/28 Wednesday, 11/30 Monday, 12/5

Continue Reading: Animal Farm

Discussion of Animal Farm ESSAY 2 DUE

Read: William Shakespeare, The

Tempest (1610-11) PDF Acts 1-2

And Jerry Brotton, "Contesting

Colonialism in The Tempest"

(1998) PDF

WEEK 12 : Play

Discussion of The Tempest Read: The Tempest Acts 3-4

And "Contesting Colonialism

in The Tempest"

FINAL

ESSAY 3: 8-10 pgs. First draft

ESSAY 3

due 11/28, final version due 12/19

Discussion of The Tempest Read: The Tempest Act 5

Acts 3-4 and "Contesting

And Jessica Slights, "Rape and

Colonialism in The Tempest" Romanticization of Shakespeare's

Miranda"

WEEK 13

Discussion of The Tempest Read: Aldous Huxley, Brave New

Act 5

World (1946) chapters 1-2

And Jessica Slights, "Rape

and Romanticization of

Shakespeare's Miranda"

Discussion of Brave New

Read: Brave New World ch. 2-6

World ch. 1-2

WEEK 14 : The Novel and Film

Discussion of Brave New

ESSAY 3 First Draft Due with

World ch. 2-6

Annotated Bibliography (7

Sources, 2 primary and 5

Screening of Animatrix (2

secondary)

Visions)

Read: Brave New World ch. 6-8

Discussion of Brave New

Read: Brave New World ch. 8-12

World ch. 6-8

and

Andrea Walsh "Reading Films

Screening of Animatrix (2

Critically" (PDF)

Visions)

WEEK 15

Discussion of Brave New

Read: Brave New World ch. 12-6

World ch. 8-12 and

Andrea Walsh "Reading Films Response Blog # 5 (Must be

Critically" (PDF)

posted by 12/12): How do the

visions of the future compare in

Screening of Animatrix (2

Brave New World, and the

Visions)

Animatrix? What are some of the

symbolism used to describe the

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Wednesday, 12/7

Monday, 12/12 Monday, 12/19

Discussion of Brave New World ch. 12-6

Screening of Animatrix (2 Visions)

WEEK 16 Discussion of Brave New World ch. 16-18

WEEK 17 Evaluation

Important Dates:

Blogs

Blog 1 Due: 9/5 Blog 2 Due: 9/19 Blog 3 Due: 10/17 Blog 4 Due: 11/7 Blog 5 Due: 12/12

Annotated Bibliographies Midterm Essay 2: 10/24 Final Essay 3: 11/28

Essays Essay 1: 10/6 Midterm Essay 2: 11/9

Final Essay 3: 12/19

Holidays (No Class)

Labor Day: 9/5 Rosh Hashanah: 10/3 Columbus Day: 10/10 Yom Kipur: 10/12

Misc. Last Day of classes: 12/12 Final exam week: 12/19-12/23

tensions and conflicts? Identify a conflict explain its significance and what it represents. Read: Brave New World ch. 16-18

Blog 5 Due

ESSAY 3 DUE

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