Sumita Lal English 10 Syllabus
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Sumita Lal: English 10 -- Introduction to Literary Study
Course hours: TA 12:30 - 2:10, HSSB 1237 (enroll# 15156)
Office Hours: R 2:15 to 4:15, South Hall 3432 H (green door)
Mailbox: South Hall, Sankey Room (across from 2617)
Email: s114tAumai1.ucsb.edu (checked only on TWR from 9-4)
(NB the instructor reserves the right to make changes to this document.)
Course Description
This course introduces students to various literary genres (i.e. fiction, poetry, drama), approaches or methods of literary analysis, and conflicting ideas expressed in prose about the value of studying literature. Students are exposed to different literary forms (e.g. the American short story, Victorian prose and poetry, contemporary multicultural poetry, the Theatre of the Absurd, the screenplay, and the postcolonial novel) while they are encouraged to develop an understanding of the different codes or contexts (e.g. aesthetic, economic, political, historical, theoretical) that inform both literary production and reception. The students' exposure to different texts and forms of analysis will help them to learn key literary terms, and they will learn how to apply this new vocabulary to literary texts in their own readings and in their discussions with fellow classmates.
The course's overall intent is to encourage students, by way of exposure to a wide range of literary texts and to many of the concerns and debates within the discipline, to formulate their own arguments about the aesthetic, political, and/or cognitive value of literature.
In very simple terms, students should leave this course with the ability to:
a) read literature "actively" (i.e. read and reread texts slowly, ask appropriate questions, research unfamiliar textual references, take notes recording a set of impressions in a reading log or in the margins of the text);
b) analyze the literature "logically" (i.e. compare and contrast the use of literary devices, make meaningful connections between references in the text or between texts written by different authors);
c) write about the literature "critically" (i.e. develop interesting claims, make arguable points, attempt to answer a set of questions raised during the reading process, understand and apply theoretical approaches, provide comprehensive commentary on ambiguous meanings, TAKE RISKS!!!).
Course Requirements and Grade Breakdown
(Important dates: Feb 5 and 19; Mar 5 and March 18)
Class Participation ... 10%: You are required to keep up with daily reading assignments and to come to class prepared to contribute to class discussions. If you know yourself to be particularly shy in group settings, you MUST still contribute to discussion by taking advantage of alternative forms of communication (e.g. via email or by submitting reading logs).
Quizzes and In-class writing ... 5%: There will be a number of "surprise" quizzes that will involve in-class writing. These quizzes will test for basic reading comprehension (i.e. your ability to identify the text's main characters, basic themes, key moments in terms of the plot, etc.), but they will sometimes also ask for a "critical" response to a passage or to the set of works we are reading for that day.
Midterm ... 15%: For the midterm (Feb 19), you will be expected to interpret - using short-answer form - various passages from the literature we will have covered up until the exam. The midterm will also ask you to identify important literary terms (from M.H. Abrams' A Glossary of Literary Terms) and other concepts discussed in lecture.
Two Papers ... 20% and 25% (total 45%): The first paper (due Feb 5) will be a 5-6 page "literary" interpretation of a short story, either John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums" OR John Updike's "A&P." The paper should consider the many literary devices that the writer uses in his fiction, and it should also formulate an argument about the short story in question. The second paper (due Mar 5) will be a 5-6 page "literary" interpretation of a poem that the student will select from the unit on "Multicultural Poetry" (Reader 85-114). It should demonstrate the student's proficiency in reading poetry (i.e. the student should attend both to the language and to the thematic content of the poem). BOTH papers must be original interpretations, and they should indicate that the student has carefully considered and attempted to answer questions raised in class or during lectures. One can prepare for the writing process by
a) reviewing one's reading log and lecture notes from class;
b) formulating arguments or debatable claims (i.e. theses) about the literary texts;
c) deciding on which arguments elicit the greatest interest;
d) re-reading those passages in the text that will help one to argue one's thesis;
e) keeping an open mind and taking risks with one's ideas.
Papers should be 5-6 pages in length, should be written using proper essay structure, and must be submitted on time. Also,
a) use standard 8-1/2" x 11" paper (white), and 12 point font (double spaced);
b) include a title page, on which you will type the title of your paper, your name, the name or number of the course, and the date. Do not number this title page, but number the pages of your paper consecutively, starting with 1;
c) allow margins of l-1/2" on the left-hand edge of each page and 1" on the other three edges. (Note: most word processors provide you with this standard.);
d) submit a final draft that is clean or without revisions which might have occurred in early drafts. Make sure the paper is stapled only ONCE on the upper left corner.
Final Exam ... 25%: The final (March 18th) will be an ESSAY EXAM. Students should demonstrate their understanding of cumulative material (e.g. application of literary terms from M.H. Abrams' A Glossary), but they should also manage the task of writing two essays in the allotted time. Six questions will be distributed in advance to help students prepare for the exam.
Required Reading
Selections from Fiction: A Pocket Anthology (Third Edition); course READER (Available at Grafikart, 6550 Pardall in Isla Vista); The God of Small Things (a novel, Arundhati Roy); selections from London Kills Me by Hanif Kureishi (Penguin, 1992); A Glossary of Literary Terms (7th Ed, M.H. Abrams).
Important Reminders
Attendance and Participation: Your participation grade depends on your regular attendance. The frequency with which we meet over the quarter provides us with the opportunity to engage in discussion, and this interaction with each other helps us to generate responses to the challenging questions the course poses.
Although classes will often begin with a short lecture, I expect you to take an active role in class discussions and group work. "Active" participation means that you are willing to take risks with your ideas while you attempt to present an informed opinion about a work. You can demonstrate that you are "active" by answering questions that I pose to the class, engaging in class discussions, expressing your views freely in small groups, sharing with the class your insights about the readings, and (if you know yourself to be particularly shy) discussing with me the class material either via email or during my office hours.
I will give you ONE excused absence during the quarter: for this SINGLE absence, I will require no explanation or physician's note. However, subsequent absences will lower your grade, the logic being that you cannot prove to me your enthusiasm for learning if you are not present in the classroom. I encourage you to save your ONE "free" absence for unexpected illness or emergency. Furthermore, you are responsible for whatever material you missed, including handouts, assignments, and announcements. Only after you have made an attempt to catch up with the course material will I answer questions concerning missed classes. Please do not email me with requests for missed material.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a crime. Materials submitted to fulfill academic requirements must represent a student's own efforts. Please read carefully Charles Bazerman's essay on "Plagiarism" in your Reader. Additional information can be obtained at XXX, or XXX . Realize that I will deal harshly with any suspicious activity. If you have questions, see me during my office hours or send me an email.
Syllabus
January 8: Intro to instructor, readings, and assignments; diagnostic essay (based on overhead prompt of a quotation from Cardinal Newman's The Idea of the University); terms from A Glossary of Literary Terms (Abrams) include "connotation/denotation", "figurative" vs. "literal" meaning
January 15: "Paul's Case" (Cather 94-113); "Eveline" (Joyce 113-117); "A Small, Good Thing" (Carver 304-326); terms from A Glossary of Literary Terms (Abrams) include "naturalism", "characterizing" (showing/telling, round/flat), "epiphany", point of view ("limited omniscience"), tragedy ("sympathy/empathy", "pathos/ethos"); sections from Aristotle's The Poetics (READER 161-174)
17: "The Rocking Horse Winner" (Lawrence 115-132); "Psychological and Psychoanalytic Criticism" (A Glossary Abrams 247-253), also "motif' (repetition); for help with your papers, read "Making a Mark" (Bartholomae et al.) in your READER 175-182.
January 22: "Vandals" (Munro 271-303); "Where are you Going, Where have you Been?" (Oates 327-343); "Happy Endings" (Atwood 344-347); "Feminist Criticism" (A Glossary Abrams 88-94), also from A Glossary "allusion" (popular, i.e. Bob Dylan), "mimesis" (representations of women)
24: "Sweat" (Hurston 142-153); "A Party Down at the Square" (Ellison 228-234); "Everyday Use" (Walker 362-370); "Barbie-Q" (Cisneros 410-411); terms from Abrams' A Glossary include "point of view" (first-person participant), "narratology" (implied reader/audience and, at times, a fictional "you")
January 29: From the course READER: "Poetic Meter... " and "Metrical Variations" (Fussell); "The Flea" (Dome); "Upon Julia's Clothes" (Herrick); "To His Coy Mistress" (Marvell); terms you should know are "scansion", "rhythm", "accent", "prosody", "poetic feet" (memorize only iamb, trochee, and spondee... and their effects on a poem's meaning), meter, caesura and its effects, and substitution or metrical variation and its effects; terms from Abrams' A Glossary include "tone", "diction", "carpe diem", "courtly love", "imagery" (five senses, also "kinesthetic" imagery), effect of "triplets" (Herrick), allusions (biblical, classical, courtly love), "ironic understatement" (figure of speech)
31: Matthew Arnold's poems and prose (READER); terms from Abrams' A Glossary include "lyric", "figures of speech" (metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe ["thou lonely heart"], and invocation); classical "allusion", looking for "double meanings" of words, "paradox" ("longing like despair"), changing mood/tone of speaker ("pathetic fallacy")
February 5: "PAPER #1" IS DUE!!!
Finish discussion of Arnold; begin Thomas Hardy's Poems (READER); terms from Abrams' A Glossary include "paradox" as a theme (how can hope and desolation coexist?), "figures of speech"
10: Fiction: A Pocket Anthology... "Introduction" (1-20); "Young Goodman Brown" (Hawthorne 31-43); "An Upheaval" (Chekhov 73- 80); terms from A Glossary of Literary Terms (Abrams) include "allegory", the "story", the "tale", "plot", "setting", "point of view" (omniscient third-person), "modern short story", "in medias res", "interior monologue", "realism", "naturalism", "theme" (of class consciousness); "irony"
7: Finish with Hardy; discuss poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning (READER); terms from Abrams' A Glossary include "dramatic monologue" (Browning) and "persona" (Tennyson's "Ulysses")
February 12: Discuss poetry of W.B. Yeats; begin discussion of poetry from Unsettling America (READER); also read the section called "Ethnic Studies and the Postcolonial Approach" (also from the course READER); ); terms from Abrams' A Glossary include "metonymy" (also a figure of speech), "symbol" (Byzantium), "alliteration", "invocation"
14: finish discussion of multicultural poetry from Unsettling America; read "Who is Ethnic?" (Werner Sollors, READER)
February 19: MIDTERM!!!
21: The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy); "The Story" and "The Plot" (E.M. Forster, in the course READER); "Form and Genre" (Seymour Chatman, in the course READER)
Februrary 26: Roy; read "Orientalism" (Said, READER)
28: Roy; also read "The Gendering of Critical Discourse" (READER)
March 5: "PAPER #2" IS DUE!!!; read "Semiotics of Theatrical Performance" (Eco, in the course READER); "A Preface to Drama" (in the course READER); also read The Sandbox (Edward Albee, in the course READER); "Theatre of the Absurd" (Abrams, 1)
7: begin discussion of "The Alchemy of Happiness" and "London Kills Me" (in Hanif Kureishi's London Kills Me 267-353); discuss Kureishi's screenplay; we will also watch sections of the film London Kills Me and compare the visual product with Kureishi's written text.
March 12: finish discussion of Kureishi; also, I will distribute the final exam questions (you will prepare answers to all six, but I will choose four questions from which you will answer two on the day of the exam... closed book).
14: review
March 18: FINAL EXAM
