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Literary Analysis and InterpretationDr. Nicole SmithEnglish 2500.006Email: ndsmith@unt.eduLang 209Office:Language 408FT/TH 9:30-10:50amDepartment phone: 940-565-2050Office hours: T/Th 11-11:45am, and by appointmentENGL 2500 will focus on the analysis and interpretation of three major genres of literature: poetry, drama, and prose fiction. If you are an English major, you need this course not only to graduate but also to articulate for yourself and others what makes a degree in English so versatile and valuable. The course thus aims to enrich your experience with poetry, drama, and fiction by teaching strategies of reading, analyzing, interpreting, and writing about the words that authors use to create the worlds that appear on the page before us. The course’s larger aim is to provide you with a sense of what it means to participate in the discipline of literary studies. Like any discipline, there are methods, principles, and practices that distinguish our field from any other. To quote one of my illustrious colleagues, words make worlds. This is what makes literary studies so vitally important.THE OBJECTIVES:Develop a critical awareness of the discipline by mastering the following areas:Hone close reading, critical thinking, and textual analysis skillsWrite persuasive arguments about what is textually meaningful or significantAcquire knowledge of literary terms across genresDevelop critical self-awareness and intellectual flexibilityDevelop professional writing habits (writing for deadline, line-editing, proper citation)THE SPECIFICS:Assessment:Poetry Essay (15%)Drama Essay (25%)Fiction Essay (35%)Participation (25%) Your participation grade is based on punctual attendance, asking questions, answering questions, and promoting an intellectual environment in the classroom. The grade may also include pop-quizzes, informal in-class writing, or assigned responses.Required Texts:The Norton Introduction to Literature, (Portable Eleventh Edition). Ed. Kelly J. Mays.POLICIES:Attendance: The quality of class discussion depends on your presence and active participation. As such, I expect you to be here in both body and mind. This means that if you are habitually late, leave early, engage with social media, or sleep in class you will be considered absent. Upon your fifth absence, you risk failing the class. Perfect attendance (which is just that—no excuses, no notes) is rewarded with 3 bonus points on your overall average. Students are responsible for submitting the paperwork necessary to qualify for an “Authorized Class Absence/Field Trip” ( _fy0405_fhb/III-a.html). All other absences, per UNT policy, are unexcused. Communicating with Your Instructor: Please e-mail me at ndsmith@unt.edu to set up appointments and for all course-related concerns. For clarity’s sake, your e-mail should indicate the course and section. If you require particular accommodations per ADA (see below), please communicate them to me as soon as possible, and please provide the appropriate documentation. If you have any other concerns or special circumstances that I should be aware of please don’t hesitate to speak to me confidentially. Electronic Devices: Texting, tweeting, pinning, FB, e-mail, and all other social media are strictly prohibited during class time. Students wishing to take notes on a laptop must seek the instructor’s approval. Late papers & Incompletes: Late assignments drop by one letter grade for each day they are past due and do not receive written comments. Incompletes are only granted in emergency situations, and to students who have maintained good attendance and who have successfully completed a majority of the requirements.Plagiarism: The UNT Undergraduate Catalogue notes that “the term ‘plagiarism’ includes, but is not limited to, the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement. It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.” Plagiarized work will receive an F.Students with disabilities: In accordance with the terms and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504, Rehabilitation Act, the instructor will cooperate with the Office of Disability Accommodation to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. If you have a disability for which you will require accommodation, you must advise me of your needs in writing no later than the end of the second week of class.CalendarTues 8/25Introduction to the courseThurs8/27Introduction, pp. 1-10; Poetry: Reading, Responding, Writing; pp. 450-82, especially “Head, Heart,” “Divorce,” “Richard Corey,” “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” (p. 684) BB: Theodore Roethke, “Elegy for Jane”BB: Poetry/Poetry Exercises/Exercise 1Tues9/1Poetry: Speaker; pp. 483-500, especially “A Certain Lady,” “Home Burial,” “We Real Cool”BB: B. H. Fairchild, “Beauty”BB: Donatello’s David (YouTube)BB: Poetry/Poetry Exercises/Exercise 2Thurs9/3Poetry: Situation and Setting, pp. 501-26; especially “Daystar,” “To A Daughter Leaving Home,” “Persimmons”BB: Anthony Hecht, “The End of the Weekend”BB: Poetry/Poetry Exercises/Exercise 3Tues9/8Poetry: Theme and Tone, pp. 527-43, especially “Leaving the Motel,” “Last Night,” “Repulsive Theory,” “[Stop all the clock, cut off the telephone],” “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps”Thurs9/10Poetry: Language, Visual Imagery, and Figures of Speech, pp.548-72, especially “[The golf links lie so near the mill],” “Of Time and Line,” “Slim Cunning Hands,” “My Papa’s Waltz,” “Sex Without Love,” “At the San Francisco Airport,” “Lies,” “That time of year thou mayst in me behold,” “Marks,” “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” “A Red, Red Rose”Tues9/15Poetry: Symbol, Sound, pp. 570-610, especially “The Leap,” “The Vacuum,” “Jundee Ameriki,” “The Word Plum,” “Metrical Feet,” “The Raven”BB: Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”BB: Robert Mezey, “Words”BB: Poetry/Poetry Exercises/Exercise 4Thurs9/17Poetry: Internal Structure, External Form, pp. 611-56, especially “Blackberry Eating,” “Punishment,” “The Victims,” “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” “Myth,” “Ballad of Birmingham,” “A Noiseless Patient Spider” (p. 716BB: B. H. Fairchild, “Beauty” (again)BB: Wendell Berry, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”Tues9/22Poetry: The Sonnet, pp. 645-56, especially “Let me not to be marriage of true minds,” “Nuns Fret Not,” “How Do I Love Thee,” “What My Lips Have Kissed and Where and Why,” “Sonnet” Thurs9/24Writing WorkshopTues9/29Drama: Reading, Responding, Writing, and Elements of Drama pp. 740-83, especially “Trifles”Poetry Paper DueThurs10/1Drama: Ibsen, “A Doll House”Tues10/6Drama: Ibsen, “A Doll House”Thurs10/8Drama: Screening of selected scenesTues10/13Drama: Caryl Churchill, “Top Girls” (e-reserve; password: topgirls)Thurs10/15Drama: Caryl Churchill, “Top Girls”Tues10/20Drama: Caryl Churchill, “Top Girls”Thurs10/22Writing WorkshopTues10/27Fiction: Reading, Responding, Writing, pp. 12-56Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”Drama Paper DueThurs10/29Fiction: Plot, pp. 57-73; “The Jewelry”; Narration, pp. 102-22, “The Cask of Amontillado,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” “Girl”Tues11/3Fiction: Character, pp. 122-56, especially “Good People”; Setting, pp. 157-98, especially “The Lady with the Dog”Thurs11/5Fiction: Symbol, pp. 205-40, especially “The Birth Mark”; Theme, pp. 241-70, “The Open Boat,” “The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket”Tues11/10Fiction: BB: Andre Dubus II, “A Father’s Story”Thurs11/12Fiction: BB: Joyce Carol Oates, “Lovely, Dark, Deep”Tues11/17Fiction: DisgraceThurs11/19Fiction: DisgraceTues11/24Fiction: DisgraceThurs11/26THANKSGIVINGTues12/1 Writing WorkshopThurs 12/3 Writing WorkshopFiction Paper due by midnight ................
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