Dr. Donna Campbell
Avery
357; 335-4831; campbelld@wsu.edu
Office Hours: M W F 11:10-12:10
and by appointment
Virtual Office Hours: Send an instant message at any time to drcampbell6676@hotmail.com, drcampbell6676@aol.com, or drcampbell6676@yahoo.com.
Required Materials
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
Benstock, Shari, ed. Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth: Complete, Authoritative Text with Biographical and Historical Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Five Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Boston: Bedford St. Martin's, 1994.
An e-mail account that you check frequently.
Recommended Materials
Abrahms, M. H. A Glossary
of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace,
1999.
Ann Raimes's Keys for Writers or
Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference.
A good college
dictionary.
Course Description
Joseph Conrad once wrote that his task as a writer was "to make you hear, to make you feel - it is, above all, to make you see. That - and no more, and it is everything." In English 199, our goal will be to live up to Conrad's faith in us as readers by learning to see, really see, the kinds of literature we've been reading all our lives. We'll study fiction, poetry, and drama through various lenses, among them the techniques of close reading; the issues of race, class, gender, and ethnicity; and current theories of literary criticism, with special attention to historical and cultural criticism and issues of social justice.
We'll begin with short fiction, move through poetry and drama, and conclude with an in-depth analysis of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. We'll consider not only in critical theories but also in juxtaposition with selections from contemporary texts (such as Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives) that will illuminate the issues of immigration, poverty, discrimination, nativism, and class that the novel raises. To read effectively, it is necessary to see what is absent from a text as well as what is present, and we will also look at some contemporary issues left unspoken in her narrative.
Objectives
1. To learn ways of understanding and engaging with literature, both in discussion and in writing; to become skilled, self-conscious readers of literature through the study of a variety of texts representing diverse voices in different modes, genres and contexts.
2. To gain experience in close reading, analyzing, and interpreting literary texts—including significant engagement with poetry; with at least one novel, one play, and a range of other kinds of literary texts; with literature written prior to the 20th century; and with the study of literature in cultural and historical contexts.
3. To learn basic conventions of and to gain experience in analytical writing about literature, including a minimum of two formal, revised critical essays.
4. To learn the basic terminology relevant for critical analysis of figurative language, of narrative structures, and of important literary forms and conventions.
5. To become aware that there are various contemporary critical approaches to literary texts, debates over literary canons, and shifting assumptions (about literature, the author the reader; about gender, race, sexual orientation, and class) that have informed such approaches and debates.
Course Schedule
This schedule is a tentative guide to the assignments; it will change as the semester progresses. Because good, in-depth class discussion is more important than keeping up with the schedule, you should not be disturbed if some selections are omitted or changed. If you are absent, please check with me or with a classmate to make sure of the assignment.
| Reading Assignments |
Writing Assignments |
||
| 1 |
8/23 |
Introduction |
|
| 8/25 |
Character (91-94) Walker, "Everyday Use," 102-109 Historical Criticism, 2212-2213 and 2216-2218 |
||
| 8/27 |
Point of View (23-29) Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" (29-37) |
||
| 2 |
8/30 |
Style (170-174) and Setting (124-127) London, "To Build a Fire" (132-143) |
|
| 9/1 |
Gilman, "The
Yellow Wall Paper" (571-584) |
||
| 9/3 |
Appachana, "The Prophecy" (485-497) Steinbeck, "The Chrysanthemums" (253-261) |
||
| 3 |
9/6 |
No Class: Labor Day |
|
| 9/8 |
Initiation, Paths, and Journeys Joyce, "Araby" (612-617) |
||
| 9/10 |
Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" (584-594) |
||
| 4 |
9/13 |
Faulkner, "Barn Burning" Mythological Criticism 2223-2227 |
|
| 9/15 |
The Uncanny and the Grotesque Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher" (391-405) Poe on Poe (405-407) |
||
| 9/17 |
LeGuin, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (278-279) Jackson, "The Lottery" (262-269) |
||
| 5 |
9/20 |
O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" O'Connor on O'Connor, 459-465 Critics on O'Connor, 465-472 |
Thesis statement for Paper 1 due in class |
| 9/22 |
Cultural Conflicts and Expectations Achebe, "Dead Men's Path" (475-478) Silko, "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" (693) |
||
| 9/24 |
Atwood, "Happy Endings" (497-501) Kincaid, "Girl" (617-619) |
||
| 6 |
9/27 |
Workshop for Paper 1 |
Typed draft of Paper 1 due in class |
| 9/29 |
Reading a Poem (701-703) Rich, "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" (707) Jarrell, "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" (1195) |
Paper 1 due |
|
| 10/1 |
Voice and Irony Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est" (742) Lovelace, "To Lucasta" (741) McDowell, "At Home with Dollface" (740) |
||
| 7 |
10/4 |
Words and Imagery Hardy, "The Ruined Maid" (764) Toomer, "Reapers" (797) Haiku (798-801) |
|
| 10/6 |
Figures of Speech Plath, "Metaphors" (820) Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1117) Hughes, "Dream Deferred" (1124) Sor Juana, "A Simple Gift Made Rich by Affection" (1044) |
||
| 10/8 |
Discussion and Review |
||
| 8 |
10/11 |
Midterm Examination |
|
| 10/13 |
Closed form (908-911); The Sonnet (917) Shakespeare, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds" (917) Addonizio, "First Poem for You" (920) Wordsworth, "The World is Too Much with Us" (978) |
||
| 10/15 |
Borges, "The Enigmas" (1051) Shakespeare, "That time of year thou mayest in me behold" 1238 |
||
| 9 |
10/18 |
Love Poems? Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress" (1208) Rich, "Living in Sin" (1230) Fairchild, "A Starlit Night" (1174) |
Thesis statement for Paper 2 due in class |
| 10/20 |
Allusion (read Myth and Narrative, 974-979) Eliot, "Journey of the Magi" (1167-1168) Yeats, "The Magi" (1268) |
||
| 10/22 |
No Class: Reading Day |
||
| 10 |
10/25 |
Poetry and Personal Identity (1002 and following) Alexie, "Indian Boy Love Song" (1012) Uyematsu, "The Ten Million Flames of Los Angeles" (1255) McKay, "America" (1007) |
|
| 10/27 |
Recognizing Excellence (1066-1091; read all, especially Shelley's "Ozymandias" and Auden's "September 1, 1939") |
||
| 10/29 |
Workshop for Paper 2 |
Bring typed draft of Paper 2 to class |
|
| 11 |
11/1 |
Background on Hamlet |
Paper 2 due |
| 11/3 |
Hamlet, Act I |
||
| 11/5 |
Hamlet, Act II |
||
| 12 |
11/8 |
Hamlet, Act III |
|
| 11/10 |
No Class: Reading Day |
||
| 11/12 |
No Class: Reading Day |
||
| 13 |
11/15 |
Hamlet, Act IV |
|
| 11/17 |
Hamlet, Act V |
||
| 11/19 |
Discussion of Hamlet |
One-paragraph proposal for Paper 3 or final project due in class |
|
| 14 |
11/22-26 |
No Class: Thanksgiving Vacation |
|
|
|
|||
| 15 |
11/29 |
Contexts for understanding Edith Wharton (optional reading: pages 1-23); read all of House of Mirth by this date. |
|
| 12/1 |
Wharton, House of Mirth, discussion |
||
| 12/3 |
Wharton, House of Mirth, discussion |
Paper 3 or group project |
|
| 16 |
12/6 |
(group presentations) |
|
| 12/8 |
(group presentations) |
||
| 12/10 |
(group presentations) |
||
| 12/14 |
Final Examination: 3:10-5:10 p.m. |
||
Course Policies and Requirements
Attendance and Class Participation. Attendance is expected, as is class participation; both are essential parts of the course. You have five free absences (excused and unexcused); a sixth absence means that you will fail the course. You should come to class prepared to discuss each day's reading, and your well-informed, enthusiastic participation will help everyone to discuss the material effectively.
Disability Accommodation. If you have a disability that may impair your ability to complete the work in this course as it is designed, please contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) located in the Administrative Annex Building, Room 206, 335-1566, so that the necessary accommodations can be made.
Papers
You'll write three short papers, the first on fiction (4-5 pages), the second on poetry (3-4 pages), and the third on drama or the novel (5-6 pages). For the third paper, you have the option to collaborate with others in the class to prepare a web page project or collaborative paper. Paper topics will be handed out well before the paper is due.
All out-of-class work must be typed, with citations following MLA style; for information, see the MLA Handbook or the examples in our book.
Electronic Version. You will need to turn in a computer-readable version (as a Word or .rtf attachment) of your paper by e-mailing it to me in addition to, or instead of, turning in a paper version.
Late Papers and Extensions. Late papers are penalized at the rate of one letter grade per class day late; a paper that would have received a "B" on Monday will receive a "C" if handed in on Wednesday. However, you have one 48-hour extension in this class. This extension means that your paper will be due on the next class day, which could be more than 48 hours, without penalty. You must request the extension ahead of time, and you should save it for a true emergency, since no other extensions will be granted for illness or any other reason.
Plagiarism Policy. Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else's words or ideas. This definition includes not only deliberately handing in someone else's work as your own but failing to cite your sources, including Web pages and Internet sources . Penalties for plagiarism range from an F on the paper or the course to suspension from the university. For a first offense, any paper plagiarized in whole or in part will receive an "F," and the incident must be reported to the WSU Office of Student Affairs. We'll discuss plagiarism and methods of citing works during our workshops on each paper.
Exams
The midterm and final exams in this course will consist of objective (multiple choice, short answer, matching) and identification questions and an essay. Exams cannot be made up without a doctor's note.
Other Work
In-class writing and short assignments. Short, typed responses to the reading or short pieces of in-class writing may be assigned from time to time.
Quizzes. Short reading quizzes may be given from time to time. Quizzes cannot be made up, but the lowest quiz grade will be dropped.
Group presentations. During the last week of class, you'll make a presentation to the rest of the class on a theme, idea, or critical perspective that has intrigued you during the course of the semester. The presentation should relate to The House of Mirth or the issues it raises, but the topics are otherwise open. For example, you might be intrigued by the idea of a particular myth as it appears in several works, or a particular kind of injustice, or the motif of revenge. If you have chosen to do a group project or paper, you can present some portion of it as your group presentation.
Exams: 35 percent
Paper 1: 15 percent
Paper 2: 15 percent
Paper 3 or group project: 20 percent
Class participation,
quizzes, group presentations,
and in-class writings: 15 percent