SAINT LOUIS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE



SAINT LOUIS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

1360 Grandview Dr. / Florissant, MO / 63033 / 314-837-6777

INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE GEN220n

Fall 2008

Professor Lay

MISSION STATEMENT

Saint Louis Christian College equips men and women as leaders who impact the world for Christ.

DESCRIPTION

This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of literary study. Students will focus on the interpretation, criticism, and worldview of fiction and poetry. Emphasis is on producing written analysis of selected works.

RATIONALE

A study of a sampling of literature will assist students to better understand the diverse culture they live in and to prepare them for ministry in a global environment.

OBJECTIVES

Educational:

Engage modern global, pluralistic, diverse cultures from the standpoint of a robust Biblical worldview. Therefore the SLCC curriculum aims to integrate thought and life across a broad range of knowledge.

Divisional:

Given instruction in the communication skills, the student will demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively and will be able to use a variety of research and documentation techniques.

Upon completion of the study of humanities, the student will be able to analyze major components of culture and will be able to understand the differences between Christianity and other worldviews.

Course:

▪ Introduce the entertainment value of literature—the short story and poetry.

▪ Present literary works from diverse perspectives—gender, race, culture, religion, and generation.

▪ Understand fiction using seven levels of literal and inferential comprehension.

▪ Identify six major elements of literature-plot, point of view, characterization, symbol, style, and tone.

▪ Identify the six substructures of a poem-paraphrasable, rational, image, metrical, sound and syntactical.

▪ Evaluate a work of literature according to its contextual elements-biographical, literary, historical, ideological, and reader.

▪ Analyze the worldviews of fiction and poetry and compare and contrast it with the students’ Christian world-view.

Required Materials

Gioia, Dana, and R. S. Gwynn. The Art of the Short Story. New York: Pearson

Longman, 2006.

Sire, James. How To Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension. 2nd Ed. Wheaton, IL:

Harold Shaw, 1978.

Trott, James H. ed. A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from

Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century. 2nd ed. Nashville: Cumberland, 2006.

REQUIREMENTS

Reading Journal Entries

You are to read each day’s reading assignment and record the amount of reading you did for each day’s assignment (0, ¼, ½, ¾, All) next to your name on the reading journal. Then you are to write a journal entry for each class period. For most of them, you are to examine each of the short stories and poems. You are to follow the guidelines on the worksheet and answer the statements for each work. For a few others, follow the instructions in the syllabus. The journals are to be typed.

Fiction Essay

Produce a critical analysis (2,000+ words) of a short story by one of the author’s in the textbook not discussed in class. The professor will provide a list. Provide an analysis of the paper, focusing on several of the elements discussed. The paper is to include at least three sources. The paper will be assessed according to the Fiction Guidelines and the Essay Assessment located in the syllabus.

Creative Project

Produce an original work of literature—poem(s). Develop a creative way to display the work. Analyze the work, following the model for the fiction essay. Present the work to the class in an oral presentation.

Classroom Discussion

You are to read each assignment and be prepared in class to answer questions from the professor and to ask quality questions based on the text for that day. Also, you will participate in occasional small group projects in class. Unexcused absences will affect the discussion grade.

ASSESSMENT

Reading Journals (180 pts / 18 @ 10 points each)

|Grade |Points |Description |

|A |10 |Read the entire assignment. |

| | |Answered all of the questions. |

| | |Gave detailed, specific, and extended information. |

|B |9 |Read the entire assignment. |

| | |Answered almost all of the questions. |

| | |Gave adequate and general information. |

|C |8 |Read the entire assignment. |

| | |Answered some of the questions. |

| | |Gave adequate and general information. |

|D |7 |Read part of assignment. |

| | |Answered few of the questions. |

| | |Gave adequate and general information. |

|F |5 |Read part of the assignment. |

| | |Answered very few or none of the questions. |

| | |Gave minimal or incorrect answers. |

|F |0 |Did not submit the journal |

Fiction Essay (100 points)

|Trait |A |B |C |D |F |

|Content |40 |36 |32 |28 |0 |

|Style |30 |27 |24 |21 |0 |

|Grammar |20 |18 |16 |14 |0 |

|Format |10 |9 |8 |7 |0 |

|Total |100 |90 |80 |70 |0 |

Refer to the Essay Assessment Guide for a more specific description of each trait.

Original Poetic Work (100 pts)

|Grade |Points |Description |

|A |100 |Meets the 150+ words/ 1500+ words. |

| | |Includes an extensive analysis of the work. |

| | |Analysis exhibits the 4 criteria of an A essay (Content, Style, Grammar, Format) |

| | |Copies provided for every student. |

| | |Oral presentation: Speaks clearly, presents the explanation clearly and concisely. |

|B |90 |Meets the 150+ words/ 1500+ words |

| | |Includes a proficient analysis of the work |

| | |Analysis exhibits the 4 criteria of a B essay (Content, Style, Grammar, Format) |

| | |Copies provided for every student. |

| | |Oral presentation Speaks clearly and presents the poem clearly and concisely. |

|C |80 |Meets the 150+ words/ 1500+ words |

| | |Includes an adequate analysis of the work |

| | |Analysis exhibits the 4 criteria of a C essay (Content, Style, Grammar, Format) |

| | |Copies provided for every student. |

| | |Oral presentation: Speaks semi-clearly and presents the poem adequately. |

|D |70 |Meets 100 words of the length requirement / 1300 + words. |

| | |Includes a minimal analysis of the work. |

| | |Analysis exhibits the 4 criteria of a D essay (Content, Style, Grammar, Format) |

| | |Copies were not provided for every student. |

| | |Oral Presentation: Speaks unclearly and presents the poem unclearly. |

|F |50 |Meets 75 words of the length requirement / 1000 + words. |

| | |Includes an unacceptable analysis or none at all. |

| | |Analysis exhibits the 4 criteria of a F essay (Content, Style, Grammar, Format) |

| | |No copies provided. |

| | |Does not orally present the poem. |

|Z |0 |Poem and/or Analysis was not submitted |

Classroom Discussion (20 points)

|Grade |Points |Description |

|A |20 |0-1 absences. Prepared to answer fully. Asks thought-out questions. Actively participates in small |

| | |groups. Is not disruptive or distracted in class. |

|B |18 |2 absence. Prepared to answer and ask questions adequately. Asks good questions. Participates in |

| | |small groups. Is rarely disruptive or distracted in class. |

|C |16 |3 absences. Answers questions minimally. Asks general questions. Minimally participates in small |

| | |groups. Occasionally is disruptive or distracted in class. |

|D |14 |4 absences. Not always prepared to answer questions. Usually does not ask questions or provide |

| | |comments. Rarely participates in small groups. Is regularly disruptive or distracted in class. |

|F |0 |5 absences. Or Rarely answers or asks questions. Dos not participate in group work. Consistently |

| | |disruptive or distracted in class. |

1 absence = one 50 min class. 6:00-6:50 or 7:00-7:50

Final Grade (200 Points)

|A |192-200 |B+ |184-187 |

|Conten|Focus |Audience |Addresses the target readers—their knowledge, interest, and motivation |

|t | | |towards the thesis. |

| | |Voice |Contains an effective point of view and your personal tone and perspective |

| |Ideas |Purpose |Utilizes the appropriate purposes—reflection, analyzes, information, or |

| | | |persuasive—to communicate the topic. |

| | |Thesis |Includes an engaging and meaningful topic, displayed in a specific, |

| | | |manageable, and engaging declarative sentence that meets the objectives of |

| | | |the assignment. |

| | |Evidence |Shows accurate, reliable, and effective sources--experiential and/or |

| | | |documented--to support the thesis, using a variety of summaries, |

| | | |paraphrases, and quotations. |

| |Structure |Outline |Exhibits a logical progression of thought, clear transitions between ideas, |

| | | |and discipline-specific structure to complement the support. |

| | |Patterns |Organizes the ideas around appropriate paragraph patterns—narration, |

| | | |description, comparison/contrast, definition, examples, cause/effect, and |

| | | |classification/division to enhance the thesis. |

|Style |Paragraphs |Coherent |Exhibits understandable and clear readability. |

| | |Unified |Demonstrates one main idea with an explicit or implicit topic sentence. |

| | |Complete |Includes sufficient information yet varied lengths. |

| | |Engaging |Introduces the topic with an engaging beginning. |

| | |Strong |Concludes the topic with a strong ending. |

| |Sentences |Varied |Demonstrates a variety of lengths--short, medium, and long. |

| | |Diverse |Exemplifies a diverse use of structures--simple, compound, complex, and |

| | | |compound/complex. |

| | |Parallel |Contains equal or parallel wording, phrases, clauses, or sentences. |

| | |Transitional |Incorporates significant transitions within and between sentences. |

| |Words |Appropriate |Shows appropriate levels for the audience. |

| | |Concise |Incorporates as few words as possible. |

| | |Specific |Demonstrates precise and exact wording including active verbs and |

| | | |descriptive nouns. |

| | |Inclusive |Incorporates sensitive language when referring to gender, race, religion, |

| | | |occupation, economic status, and age. |

| | |Trait |Description |

|Gramma|Syntax |Fragments | Incomplete sentences. |

|r | | | |

| | |Run-On |Two or more complete sentences without proper punctuation. |

| | |Comma Splice |Two or more complete sentences separated by a comma. |

| | |Person Change |Interchanging first, second, and third person. |

| | |Subject-Verb Agreement |Subject and verb do not agree in number—singular or plural. |

| | |Pronoun Disagreement |Pronoun does not agree in number—singular or plural—with |

| | | |antecedent. |

| | |Past Tense/Past Participle |Past tense of a verb is substituted with the participle of a verb. |

| | |Mix | |

| | |Verb Tense Shift |Multiple verb tenses within the same context. |

| | |Mood Shift |Unnecessary change in mood—indicative, imperative, and subjunctive.|

| | |Adjective/Adverb Shift |Use an adjective as an adverb or an adverb as an adjective. |

| | |Dangling Modifier |A modifier has nothing to modify. |

| | |Passive Voice |The subject receives the action of the verb. |

| |Punctuation | |Exhibits the acceptable usage of all punctuation marks. |

| |Mechanics | |Shows an accurate usage of capitalization, italics, abbreviations, |

| | | |acronyms, and numbers. Uses proper spelling. |

|Format|Layout |Margins |One-inch margins |

| | |Spacing |Double spacing |

| | |Font |12-point |

| | |Indent Paragraph |One-half inch |

| | |Page # |Last name / Page number / Half inch |

| | |Title |Title of the essay |

| | |Title Page |MLA |

| | |Paper |8.5 x 11 |

| |In-Text Documentation |Summary |One or two sentence overview of the author’s ideas in your own words. |

| | |Paraphrase |Longer summary of the author’s ideas in your own words. |

| | |Quotation |Use a lead-in of the author’s last name. |

| | |Block Quote |Indent one-inch with no quotation marks over four lines long. |

| | |Style |Place the author’s name in a variety of positions in the quote. |

| | |Parenthetical |(Author’s last name page number). |

| |Works Cited Page |MLA |Books, Journals, Online. |

• Any form of plagiarism will not be tolerated. Intentional plagiarism will result in an F for the class. All other forms of plagiarism will result in an F for the assignment.

• Any essay requiring a minimum number of words will be reduced 1% for every 100 words short.

• Any essay requiring a minimum number of sources will be reduced 3% for every source short.

SCHEDULE

Oct 6 M Introduction to Literature

▪ Read Chapters 1,3,4,5 of Sire.

▪ Answer the following questions:

1. Describe your reading habits from as a child to the present.

2. Describe your attitude towards reading fiction/poetry.

3. Describe the most significant work you have read.

4. Describe reasons, if applicable, why you do not enjoy reading literature.

5. Look in the table of contents of the Short Story book and list any of the short stories you have already read and indicate which ones you enjoyed and did not enjoy.

6. Describe your position on this question: Should Christians read non-Christian literature and why or why not?

▪ Type your answers, using MLA formatting. Write 500+ words.

Oct 13 M Gender

▪ Read Kate Chopin: The Storm (p153) and Author’s Perspective

▪ Read Song of Songs (The Message)

▪ Journal 1 The Storm (#1-22)

▪ Read Bobbie Ann Mason: Shiloh (p 577) and Author’s Perspective

▪ Journal 2: Shiloh (#1-22)

Oct 20 M Race

▪ Read James Baldwin: Sonny’s Blues (p26) & Author’s Perspective

▪ Journal 3: Sonny’s Blues (#1-22)

▪ Watch a video on of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker.

▪ Read Alice Walker: Everyday Use (809)

▪ Journal 4: Everyday Use (#1-22)

▪ Read Isaiah 50-53 (Message)

Oct 27 Worldviews

▪ Read: “Worldviews” by Jerry Solomon (Part 1)

▪ Web Source:

▪ Read Ernest Hemingway: A Clean-Well Lighted Place (p370) & Author’s Perspective

▪ Journal 5: A Clean-Well Lighted Place (#1-28)

▪ Read Franz Kafka: Before the Law (466)

▪ Journal 6: Before the Law (#1-28)

▪ Read Ecclesiastes 1-12 (Message)

Nov 3 Worldviews

▪ Read Flannery O’Connor: A Good Man is Hard to Find (p 677) & Author’s Perspective

▪ Journal 7: A Good Man is Hard to Find (#1-28)

▪ Read Young Goodman Brown (347) and Author’s Perspective

▪ Journal 8: Young Goodman Brown (#1-28)

▪ Read Romans 1-8 (The Message)

Nov 10 Seventeenth Century (1603-1660)

▪ Read Trott: Chapter Four (pages 147-150)

▪ Read Donne, John (151) & Holy sonnets x and xiv (152)

▪ Read Jonson, Ben (157) & A Hymne to God the Father (158)

▪ Read Herrick, Robert (191) & all poems (194-197)

▪ Read Herbert, George (203) & Easter Wings (210)

▪ Read Bradstreet, Anne (225) & Upon the Burning of our House (226).

▪ Read Marvell, Andrew (245) & The Coronet (246)

▪ Read German Hymns (258-265)

▪ Journal 9:Donne Sonnet XIV (1-30)

1. Journal 10: Luther A Mighty Fortress is Our God (1-30)

Nov 17 Eighteenth Century (1660-1776)

▪ Read Trott: Chapter Five (266-269)

▪ Read Watts, Isaac (290) & All poems (290-295)

▪ Read Pope, Alexander (304) & Ode on Solitude (305)

▪ Read Wesley, John (311) & all poems (311-312)

▪ Read Wesley, Charles (313) & all poems (313-322)

▪ Read Newton, John (340) & all poems (340-343)

▪ Read Toplady, Augustus Montague (350) & Rock of Ages (350)

▪ Read Eighteenth Century Hymnody (352-358)

▪ Journal 11: Watts The Cross (293) (1-30)

▪ Journal 12: Montague Rock of Ages (350) (1-30)

Nov 24 Romantic Age (1776-1837)

▪ Read Trott: Chapter Six (359-364)

▪ Read Wheatley, Phyllis (370) & On Being Brought From Africa to America (371)

▪ Read Adams, John Quincy (377) & Lord of all Worlds (378-379)

▪ Read Wordsworth, William (383) & For Inspiration (383) & Hymn—Blest Are the Moments, Doubly Bles (383)

▪ Read Heber, Reginald (412) & Holy, Holy, Holy (413)

▪ Read Browning, Elizabeth Barrett (438) & Comfort & Bereavement (439)

▪ Read Hymns of the Romantic Period (454-458)

▪ Journal 13: All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (455) (1-30)

▪ Journal 14: Holy, Holy, Holy (413) (1-30)

Dec 1 Victorian Period (1837-1861)

▪ Read Trott: Chapter Seven (459-462)

▪ Read Tennyson, Lord Alfred (471) & St. Agnes’ Eve (473)

▪ Read Browning, Robert (477) & Hymn: I Intend to Get to God (479)

▪ Read Bronte, Anne (507) & The Doubter’s Prayer (508-509)

▪ Read MacDonald, George (521) & All poems (522-523)

▪ Read Clephane, Elizabeth (546) & Beneath the Cross of Jesus (547)

▪ Read Baring-Gould, Sabine (570) & Onward Christian Soldiers (570)

▪ Read Brooks, Phillips (571) & O Little Town of Bethlehem (572)

▪ Read Havergal, Frances Ridley (573) & On the Lord’s Side (574) & Consecration Hymn (577-578)

▪ Read Spirituals (585-586) & Were You There (587) & Nobody Know the Trouble I’ve Seen (587)

▪ Journal 15: Onward Christian Soldiers (570) (1-30)

▪ Journal 16: Consecration Hymn (577) (1-30)

Dec 8 Victorian Period (1861-1918)

▪ Read Trott: Chapter Eight (595-599)

▪ Read Hopkins, Gerard Manley (599) & God’s Grandeur (601)

▪ Read Chapman, Wilbur (623) & One Day (623)

▪ Read Johnson, James Weldon (652) & Go Down, Death (655)

▪ Read Dunbar, Paul Laurence (657) & We Wear the Mask (658)

▪ Read Chesterton, G.K. (662) & The World State (663)

▪ Read Late Victorian Hymns (667-689)

▪ Journal 17: God’s Grandeur (601) (1-30)

▪ Journal 18: We Wear the Mask (658) (1-30)

Dec 15

1. Oral Presentations of Projects

a. Public reading of original poem

RESOURCES

Burt, Daniel S. The Literary 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets Of

All Time. New York: Checkmark, 2001.

Clarke, John Henrik, ed. Black American Short Stories: A Century of The Best. New York: Hill

and Wang, 1996.

Cone, James H. A Black Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1998.

Cowan, Louise and Os Guiness, Ed. Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You’ve Always

Wanted to Read. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998.

Fadiman, Clifton and John S. Major. The New Lifetime Reading Plan: A Classic Guide to

WorldLiterature, Revised and Expanded. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. New

York:McGraw-Hill, 1988.

Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. New York: Quill, 2003.

Gallagher, Susan V. and Roger Lundin. Literature Through the Eyes of Faith. New York:

Harper and Row, 1989.

Glaspey, Terry W. Book Lover’s Guide to Great Reading: A Guided Tour of Classic and Contemporary

Literature. Downers Grove, ILL: InterVarsity, 2001.

Hart, James D. The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature. New York: Oxford

Press, 1986.

Holman, C. Hugh. A Handbook to Literature. 3rd ed. Indianapolis: Odyssey Press, 1978.

Hughes, Langston, Milton Meltzer, C. Eric Lincoln, Jon Michael Spencer. A Pictorial History

Of African Americans: From 1619 to the Present. 6th Ed. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.

Jerome, Judson. The Poet’s Handbook. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1980.

Kochman, Thomas. Black and White: Styles in Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1981.

Langston Hughes. The Ways of White Folks. New York: Vintage Classics, 1962.

Lopez, Tiffany. Ed. Growing Up Chicana/o: An Anthology. NY: William Morrow, 1993.

Miller, Perry. Ed. The American Transcendentalists: Their Prose and Poetry. Garden City, NY:

Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957.

Perkins, John. With Justice For All. Ventura, California: Regal Books, 1982.

Peters, Thomas C. Simply C. S. Lewis. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1997.

Polonsky, Marc. The Poetry Reader’s Toolkit. Lincolnwood, Ill: NTC, 1998.

Rodriguez, Max, Angeli R. Rasbury, and Carol Taylor. Sacred Fire: The QBR 101: Essential

Black Books. NewYork:John Wiley and Sons, 1999.

Ryken, Leland. ed. The Christian Imagination. Colorado Springs: Shaw Books, 2002.

---. Triumphs of the Imagination: Literature in Christian Perspective. Downers Grove, IL:

InterVarsity, 1979.

---.Windows to the World: Literature in Christian Perspective. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock,

2000.

Sire, James. How to Read Slowly. Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw, 1989.

Strouf, Judie L.H. Literature Lover’s Book of Lists. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Thurman Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited. Boston: Beacon Press, 1976.

Trout, James H. ed. A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English fromCaedmon to

the Mid-Twentieth Century. Nashville: Cumberland, 1999.

Veith, Gene Edward, Jr. Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature. Wheaton,

IL:Crossway Books, 1990.

Whitherington, Ben III and Christopher Mead Armitage. The Poetry of Piety. Grand Rapids:

Baker, 2002.

Vendler, Helen. Poems, Poets, Poetry. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Web Sites

1. General Information covering a variety of areas of interest for African Americans



2. A Guide for Writing Research Papers Based on MLA



3. Guide to Grammar and Writing



4. Research Paper Information



5. Librarian’s Index to the Internet



6. Library of full text of books, journals, magazines, and newspapers.



7. Quality Educational Resources



8. Writing Assistant



Course Covenant: Students

As a student at Saint Louis Christian College and in Introduction to Literature, I commit to . .

Attend every class period and arrive on time. If I am going to be absent for any reason, I will inform the professor by email or phone. I will explain which class I will miss, the day, and the reason. I understand if I miss 3 class periods—regardless of the reason—I will be automatically withdrawn from the class with an F.

Submit all of my work on time. For school walks, I will submit my work before I miss the class. If I am absent for unforeseen circumstances (illness, weather, death in the family), I will contact the professor. He, however, reserves the right not to accept my late work.

Do my own work. If I commit any act of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or deception, I will automatically receive a zero (0) for the assignment, or I will receive a zero (0) for the class. Any cases of plagiarism, etc. will be reported to the academic dean. Additional consequences may apply.

Conduct myself in the classroom in a mature, respectful, and honorable manner. If I engage in any disruptive or inappropriate behavior, I will be asked to leave the classroom, and I will be counted absent.

Course Covenant: Professor

As a professor at Saint Louis Christian College and of Introduction to Literature, I commit to . . .

Arrive to class on time, be prepared for each class, be present during my office hours, and return assignments in a timely fashion.

Follow the syllabus. If I need, however, to modify this course plan by changing topics, due dates, or even an assignment, I will not add to your current workload, and I will notify you well in advance of the changes.

Treat you in a fair, honest, and respectable manner as a student, as an adult, and as a fellow Christian brother or sister.

Provide academic assistance to best accommodate your learning styles and prayer support for your spiritual growth.

LEARNING DISABILITY

If you have a diagnosed learning disability, please see the professor privately to discuss assessment measures that would enhance your ability to learn.

INSTRUCTOR

Office Hours: Tue 8:30-10:30

Wed 8:30-10:30

Thu 8:30-10:30

Fri 8:30-10:30

Campus Phone: 314-837-6777 Ex. 1514

Campus E-Mail: dlay@slcconline.edu

DISCLAIMER

Please understand that the Professor reserves the right to modify this course plan by changing topics, due dates, or even and assignment as long as it does not add to the learners’ workload.

Reading Literature

Observing the Obvious to Uncover the Unobservable

As you begin the journey of reading fiction/poetry, be prepared to take your time, to enjoy the process as much as the “finishing the story.” Begin reading the story/poem through a first time, simply to get an overall picture of the work. Afterwards, complete this sentence: The story/poem is about ……

Next, go back to the story/poem a second time, this time with a pen/pencil in hand. Reading slower this time, begin to observe, identify, and describe these elements of a story—plot, characters, ideas, point of view, objects, setting, mood, allusions, and style. Use the statements below to help guide your investigation. You may want to focus on only one of the elements at a time.

INSIDE THE TEXT

1. PLOT: Describe the order of events—what happened first, second, third, etc.—and identify any flashbacks or flash forwards.

2. CHARACTER: Identify the main characters and describe them as explained in the story—name, age, sex, personality, education, religion, marital status, etc. Do the same with the minor characters. Describe the relationships the main and minor characters have with the other characters in the story—family, friends, enemies, co-workers, neighbors, boss, employee, etc.

3. SETTING : Describe the place, the time, the location, and any other information stated in the story.

4. IDEAS: Describe any ideas specifically mentioned—political, religious, racial, cultural, economic, philosophical, etc. and identify which ones appear the most in the story.

5. POINT OF VIEW: Identify the type of narrator in the story—first or third person and describe the type of narrator (Omniscient—Editorial or Objective or Limited—Major or Minor character).

6. MOOD: Describe the moods displayed in the story—anger, sadness, depression, joyful, contentment, doubt, unbelief, courage, fear, forgiveness, bitterness, greed, compassion, etc.

7. OBJECTS/EVENTS : List any concrete objects or events that are mentioned, especially if they are repeated (water, flag, church, holidays, geography, season, weather, disease, dates, everyday objects (rocks, table, tree, etc.) and indicate their possible reference.

8. STYLE” Describe the sentences in the story—long, short, simple, complex, reflective, factual, etc. Describe the words in the story—formal, informal, sophisticated, professional, slang, regional, cultural, etc.

9. METER (Poetry): Identify and describe the type of syllables in the poem—number of syllables per line, which syllables are emphasized, etc.

10.SOUND (Poetry): Describe the type of sounds in the poem—rhyming from one line to the next, repeated sounds, etc.

OUTSIDE THE TEXT

10. BIOGRAPHY: Examine the author’s background—family, birth, education, personality, occupations, life goals, accomplishments, disappointments, reputation, lifestyle, religious and political views, death.

11. HISTORY: Examine the historical setting of the work—the date of the story’s setting, the history of that time era including political, religious, social, and racial issues.

Examine the historical setting of the era the author wrote the story, including the political, religious, social, and racial issues.

12. LITERARY: Examine the other genres of literature the author composed—essays, novels, short stories, poetry, drama, etc and describe the types of literature composed by the author.

13. IDEOLOGY: Examine the ideas and philosophies of the author—religious, political, social, cultural, racial—and describe how they affected the author’s perspective of this work.

OVER THE TEXT

14. EXPECTATION: Describe your attitude and expectation towards the work before you read it.

15. STRATEGY: Describe how you read the work—straight through, stages, at night, alone, with others, etc.

16. REACTION: Describe your initial reaction to the work—joy, sadness, denial, etc.

17. OPINION: Describe what areas of the work you were in agreement and disagreement and why?

18. REFERAL: Describe if you would recommend the work or not and why.

UNDER THE TEXT

MONOMYTH: Describe the one story in the work, showing how the work illustrates it.

19. MOTIFES: Describe the major motif(s) in the work, explaining how they are represented in the work.

20. ARCHETYPES: Describe the major archetypes in the work and their references.

21. BORROWING: Describe any similarities with the work and other works of literature.

AROUND THE TEXT

22. REALITY: What is the ultimate nature of reality in the story and of the author?

23. HUMANITY: What is the origin and nature of humanity?

24. DEATH: What happens after death?

25. MORALTY: What is the basis for morality?

26. KNOWLEDGE: How is knowledge obtained?

27. HISTORY: What is the meaning of history?

UNDERSTANDING LITERATURE

LITERAL AND INFERED COMPREHENSION OF LITERATURE

LITERAL COMPREHENSION

1. Basic Stated Information:

Fundamental stated information dealing with who, what, where and when.

2. Key Details:

Information important to the twists and turns of the plot. These details usually appear at key junctures in the plot and bear some causal relationship to the plot.

3. Stated Relationships:

Information specifically stated existing between at least two pieces of information (two characters, two events, a character and an event).

INFERENTIAL COMPREHENSION

4. Simple Implied Relationships:

Information not explicitly stated existing between at least two pieces of information (two characters, two events, a character and an event).

5. Complex Implied Relationships:

Inferred information involving a large number of details from many different pieces of information.

6. Author’s Generalization:

Implied information based on the whole literary work as it relates to situations outside of the work.

7. Structured Generalizations:

Examine how parts of the work operate together to achieve certain effects. It requires a reader to deal with the arrangement of certain parts of the work and to explain how the structure works in supporting certain effects.

Hillocks, George Jr. “Toward a Hierarchy of Skills in the Comprehension of Literature.” English Journal. 69:3, 54-59.

THE LITERARY 100:

A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time

By Daniel S. Burt

“What makes a literary artist great? How can we measure and compare that greatness? I have been guided by my sense of which authors have exerted the greatest influence over time in fundamentally establishing or altering the way we see the world through literature. The degree to which each writer shaped his or her literary tradition through the imagination and genius helped determine the ranking…all of the writers in this ranking helped redefine literature, establishing a standard with which succeeding generations of writers and readers have had to contend” (xiii-xiv).

|Rank |Author |Date |Country |Major Work |

|1 |William Shakespeare |1564-1616 |English |Plays |

|2 |Dante Alighieri |1265-1321 |Italian |The Divine Comedy |

|3 |Homer |750 BC |Greek |Iliad, Odyssey |

|4 |Leo Tolstoy |1828-1910 |Russian |War and Peace, |

| | | | |Anna Karenina |

|5 |Geoffrey Chaucer |1340-1400 |English |The Canterbury Tales |

|6 |Charles Dickens |1812-1870 |English |A Tale of Two Cities, |

| | | | |Oliver Twist, |

| | | | |David Copperfield, |

| | | | |Pickwick Papers |

|7 |James Joyce |1882-1941 |Irish |Ulysses, |

| | | | |A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man |

|8 |John Milton |1608-1674 |English |Paradise Lost |

|9 |Virgil |70-19 BC |Italian |Aeneid |

|10 |Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe |1749-1832 |German |Faust |

|11 |Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra |1547-1616 |Spanish |Don Quixote |

|12 |Murasaki Shikibu |978-1030 |Japanese |The Tale of Genji |

|13 |Sophocles |496-406 BC |Greek |Oedipus Rex |

|14 |William Faulkner |1897-1962 |American |The Sound and the Fury, |

| | | | |As I Lay Dying |

|15 |Feodor Dostoevsky |1821-1881 |Russian |Crime and Punishment, |

| | | | |The Brothers Karamazov |

|16 |T. S. Eliot |1888-1965 |American |The Waste Land |

|17 |Marcel Proust |1871-1922 |French |Remembrance of Things Past |

|18 |Jane Austen |1775-1817 |English |Sense and Sensibility, |

| | | | |Pride and Prejudice |

|19 |George Eliot |1819-1880 |English |Middlemarch, |

| | | | |Adam Bede |

|20 |William Butler Yeats |1865-1939 |Irish |Cathleen in Houlihan, |

| | | | |A Vision |

|21 |Alexander Pushkin |1799-1837 |Russian |The Prisoner of the Causcasus, |

| | | | |The Robber Brothers |

|22 |Euripides |480-406 BC |Greek |The Trojan Women, |

| | | | |Hippolytus |

|23 |John Donne |1572-1631 |English |Holy Sonnets |

|24 |Herman Melville |1819-1891 |American |Moby Dick |

|25 |John Keats |1795-1821 |English |“Ode on a Grecian Urn” |

|26 |Ovid |43 bc-17 ad |Italian |Metamorphoses |

|27 |Tu Fu |712-770 |Chinese |Poetry |

|28 |William Blake |1757-1827 |English |Songs of Innocence |

|29 |Aeschylus |525-456 BC |Greek |Agamemnon, |

| | | | |The Libation Bearers, |

| | | | |The Eumenides |

|30 |Gustave Flaubert |1821-1880 |French |Madame Bovary |

|31 |Franz Kafka |1883-1924 |Czech |“The Metamorphosis” |

|32 |Moliere |1622-1673 |French |Tartuffe |

|33 |William Wordsworth |1770-1850 |English |Lyrical Ballads |

|34 |Aristophanes |450-385 BC |Greek |Acharnians |

|35 |Thomas Mann |1875-1955 |German |The Magic Mountain |

|36 |Henrik Ibsen |1828-1906 |Norwegian |A Doll’s House |

|37 |Anton Chekhov |1860-1904 |Russian |The Seagull, |

| | | | |The Cherry Orchard |

|38 |Henry James |1843-1916 |American |The Portrait of a Lady, |

| | | | |Daisy Miller |

|39 |Vladimir Nabokov |1899-1977 |Russian |Lolita |

|40 |Walt Whitman |1819-1892 |American |Leaves of Grass |

|41 |Honore De Balzac |1799-1850 |French |The Human Comedy |

|42 |Jonathan Swift |1667-1745 |Irish |Gulliver’s Travels |

|43 |Stendhal |1783-1842 |French |The Charterhouse of Parma |

|44 |Thomas Hardy |1840-1928 |English |The Mayor of Casterbridge |

|45 |George Bernard Shaw |1856-1950 |English |Major Barbara |

|46 |Ernest Hemingway |1899-1961 |American |A Farewell to Arms, |

| | | | |For Whom the Bell Tolls, |

| | | | |The Old Man and the Sea |

|47 |D. H. Lawrence |1885-1930 |English |Sons and Lovers |

|48 |Charles Baudelaire |1821-1867 |French |Poetry |

|49 |Samuel Beckett |1906-1989 |Irish |Finnegans Wake |

|50 |Virginia Woolf |1882-1941 |English |To the Lighthouse |

|51 |Alexander Pope |1688-1744 |English |Poetry |

|52 |Francois Rabelais |1494-1553 |French |Gargantua and Pantagruel |

|53 |Francesco Petrarch |1304-1374 |Italian |Poetry |

|54 |Emily Dickinson |1830-1886 |American |Poetry |

|55 |Edgar Allan Poe |1809-1849 |American |The Fall of the House of Usher, |

| | | | |The Tell-Tale Heart, |

| | | | |“The Raven” |

|56 |Henry Fielding |1707-1754 |English |Tom Jones |

|57 |Joseph Conrad |1857-1924 |Polish |Heart of Darkness |

|58 |Robert Browning |1812-1889 |English |Poetry |

|59 |Albert Camus |1913-1960 |Algerian |The Stranger, |

| | | | |The Plague |

|60 |Charlotte Bronte |1816-1855 |English |Jane Eyre |

|61 |Emily Bronte |1818-1848 |English |Wuthering Heights |

|62 |Jean Racine |1639-1699 |French |Phedre |

|63 |Mark Twain |1835-1910 |American |The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |

|64 |August Strindberg |1849-1912 |Swedish |Miss Julie |

|65 |Emile Zola |1840-1902 |French |Therese Raquin |

|66 |Jorge Luis Borges |1899-1986 |Argentinean |The Garden of Forking Path |

|67 |Cao Xueqin |1715-1763 |Chinese |Dream of the Red Chamber (The Story of the Stone) |

|68 |Giovanni Boccaccio |1313-1375 |Italian |Decameron |

|69 |Voltaire |1694-1778 |French |Candide |

|70 |Laurence Sterne |1713-1768 |Irish |Tristram Shandy |

|71 |William Makepeace Thackeray |1811-1863 |English |Vanity Fair |

|72 |Percy Bysshe Shelley |1792-1822 |English |Poetry |

|73 |Eugene O’Neill |1888-1953 |American |The Iceman Cometh |

|74 |Wallace Stevens |1879-1955 |American |Poetry |

|75 |George Gordon, Lord Byron |1788-1824 |English |Poetry |

|76 |Gabriel Garcia Marquez |1928- |Columbian |One Hundred Years of Solitude |

|77 |Walter Scott |1771-1832 |English |The Lady of the Lake |

|78 |Pablo Neruda |1904-1973 |Chilean |Poetry |

|79 |Robert Musil |1880-1942 |Austrian |The Man Without Qualities |

|80 |Alfred, Lord Tennyson |1809-1892 |English |Idylls of the King |

|81 |Flannery O’Connor |1925-1964 |American |Wise Blood |

|82 |Catullus |84-54 BC |Italian |Poetry |

|83 |Federico Garcia Lorca |1898-1936 |Spanish |Mariana Pineda |

|84 |Nathaniel Hawthorne |1804-1864 |American |The Scarlet Letter |

|85 |Theodore Dreiser |1871-1945 |American |Sister Carrie |

|86 |Ralph Ellison |1914-1994 |American |Invisible Man |

|87 |Anthony Trollope |1815-1882 |English |Chronicles of Barsetshire |

|88 |F. Scott Fitzgerald |1896-1940 |American |The Great Gatsby |

|89 |Victor Hugo |1802-1885 |French |Les Miserables |

|90 |Rabindranath Tagore |1861-1941 |Indian |Poetry |

|91 |Daniel Defoe |1660-1731 |English |Robinson Crusoe |

|92 |Gunter Grass |1927- |German |The Tin Drum |

|93 |Lu Xun |1881-1936 |Chinese |Diary of a Madman |

|94 |E. M. Forster |1879-1970 |English |A Passage to India |

|95 |Isaac Bashevis Singer |1904-1991 |Polish |The Family Moskatt |

|96 |Tanizaki Jun’ichiro |1886-1965 |Japanese |Some Prefer Nettles |

|97 |Richard Wright |1908-1960 |American |Native Son |

|98 |Gertrude Stein |1874-1946 |American |Three Lives |

|99 |Zeami Motokiyo |1363-1443 |Japanese |Fushikaden |

|100 |Oscar Wilde |1854-1900 |Irish |The Happy Prince and Other Tales |

Burt, Daniel S. The Literary 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of all Time. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001.

Top 100 Novels

|Rank |Author |Date |Novel |

|1 |Miguel de Cervantes |1605,1615 |Don Quixote |

|2 |Leo Tolstoy |1869 |War and Peace |

|3 |James Joyce |1922 |Ulysses |

|4 |Marcel Proust |1913-1927 |In Search of Lost Time |

|5 |Feodor Dostoevsky |1880 |The Brothers Karamazov |

|6 |Merman Melville |1851 |Moby-Dick |

|7 |Gustave Flaubert |1857 |Madame Bovary |

|8 |George Eliot |1871-72 |Middlemarch |

|9 |Thomas Mann |1924 |The Magic Mountain |

|10 |Murasaki Shikibu |11th Cent. |The Tale of Genji |

|11 |Jane Austen |1816 |Emma |

|12 |Charles Dickens |1852-53 |Bleak House |

|13 |Leo Tolstoy |1877 |Anna Karenina |

|14 |Mark Twain |1884 |Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |

|15 |Henry Fielding |1749 |Tom Jones |

|16 |Charles Dickens |1860-61 |Great Expectations |

|17 |William Faulkner |1936 |Absalom, Absalom |

|18 |Henry James |1903 |The Ambassadors |

|19 |Gabriel Garcia Marquez |1967 |One Hundred Years of Solitude |

|20 |F. Scott Fitzgerald |1925 |The Great Gatsby |

|21 |Virginia Wolf |1927 |To the Lighthouse |

|22 |Feodor Dostoevsky |1866 |Crime and Punishment |

|23 |William Faulkner |1929 |The Sound and the Fury |

|24 |William Makepeace Thackeray |1847-48 |Vanity Fair |

|25 |Ralph Ellison |1952 |Invisible Man |

|26 |James Joyce |1939 |Finnegan’s Wake |

|27 |Robert Musil |1930-31 |The Man Without Qualities |

|28 |Thomas Pynchon |1973 |Gravity’s Rainbow |

|29 |Henry James |1881 |The Portrait of a Lady |

|30 |D.H. Lawrence |1920 |Women in Love |

|31 |Stendhal |1830 |The Red and the Black |

|32 |Lawrence Sterne |1760-67 |Tristram Shandy |

|33 |Nikolai Gogol |1842 |Dead Souls |

|34 |Thomas Hardy |1891 |Tess of the D’Urbervilles |

|35 |Thomas Mann |1901 |Buddenbrooks |

|36 |Honore de Balzac |1835 |Le Pere Goriot |

|37 |James Joyce |1916 |A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man |

|38 |Emily Bronte |1847 |Wuthering Heights |

|39 |Gunter Grass |1959 |The Tin Drum |

|40 |Samuel Beckett |1951-53 |Molly, Malone Dies, the Unnamable |

|41 |Jane Austen |1813 |Pride and Prejudice |

|42 |Nathaniel Hawthorne |1850 |The Scarlet Letter |

|43 |Ivan Turgenev |1862 |Fathers and Sons |

|44 |Joseph Conrad |1904 |Nostromo |

|45 |Toni Morrison |1987 |Beloved |

|46 |Theodore Dreiser |1925 |An American Tragedy |

|47 |Vladimir Nabokov |1955 |Lolita |

|48 |Doris Lessing |1962 |The Golden Notebook |

|49 |Samuel Richardson |1747-48 |Clarissa |

|50 |Cao Xueqin |1791 |Dream of the Red Chamber |

|51 |Franz Kafka |1925 |The Trial |

|52 |Charlotte Bronte |1847 |Jane Eyre |

|53 |Stephen Crane |1895 |The Red Badge of Courage |

|54 |John Steinbeck |1939 |The Grapes of Wrath |

|55 |Audrey Bely |1916/1922 |Petersburg |

|56 |Chinua Achebe |1958 |Things Fall Apart |

|57 |Madame de Lafayette |1678 |The Princess of Cleves |

|58 |Albert Camus |1942 |The Stranger |

|59 |Willa Cather |1918 |My Antonia |

|60 |Andre Gide |1926 |The Counterfeiters |

|61 |Edith Wharton |1920 |The Age of Innocence |

|62 |Ford Madox Ford |1915 |The Good Soldier |

|63 |Kate Chopin |1899 |The Awakening |

|64 |E. M. Forster |1924 |A Passage to India |

|65 |Saul Bellow |1964 |Herzog |

|66 |Emile Zola |1885 |Germinal |

|67 |Henry Roth |1934 |Call It Sleep |

|68 |John Dos Passos |1930-38 |U.S.A. Trilogy |

|69 |Knut Hamsun |1890 |Hunger |

|70 |Alfred Doblin |1929 |Berlin Alexanderplatz |

|71 |Abd al-Rahman Munif |1984-89 |Cities of Salt |

|72 |Carlos Fuentes |1962 |The Death of Artemio Cruz |

|73 |Ernest Hemingway |1929 |A Farewell to Arms |

|74 |Evelyn Waugh |1945 |Brideshead Revisited |

|75 |Anthony Trollope |1866-67 |The Last Chronicle of Barset |

|76 |Charles Dickens |1836-37 |The Pickwick Papers |

|77 |Daniel Defoe |1719 |Robinson Crusoe |

|78 |Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |1774 |The Sorrows of Young Werther |

|79 |Voltaire |1759 |Candide |

|80 |Richard Wright |1940 |Native Son |

|81 |Malcolm Lowry |1947 |Under the Volcano |

|82 |Ivan Goncharov |1859 |Oblomov |

|83 |Zora Neale Hurston |1937 |Their Eyes were Watching God |

|84 |Sir Walter Scott |1814 |Waverley |

|85 |Kawabata Yasunari |1937,1948 |Snow Country |

|86 |George Orwell |1949 |Nineteen Eighty-Four |

|87 |Alessandro Manzoni |1827, 1840 |The Betrothed |

|88 |James Fennimore Cooper |1826 |The Last of the Mohicans |

|89 |Harriet Beecher Stowe |1852 |Uncle Tom’s Cabin |

|90 |Victor Hugo |1862 |Les Miserables |

|91 |Jack Kerouac |1957 |On the Road |

|92 |Mary Shelley |1818 |Frankenstein |

|93 |Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa |1958 |The Leopard |

|94 |J.D. Salinger |1951 |The Catcher in the Rye |

|95 |Wilkie Collins |1860 |The Woman in White |

|96 |Jaroslav Hasek |1921-23 |The Good Soldier Svejk |

|97 |Bram Stoker |1897 |Dracula |

|98 |Alexandre Dumas |1844 |The Three Musketeers |

|99 |Arthur Conan Doyle |1902 |The Hounds of the Baskervilles |

|100 |Margaret Mitchell |1936 |Gone with the Wind |

Burt, Daniel S. The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time. New York: Checkmark Books, 2004.

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