INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE SYLLABUS:SUMMER2018 Class:Mon through Fri, 2.5 hours each day Credit Hours:86 Instructor:Kim Moreland Field Trip:According to Professors Teaching Plan Discussion:Sat,2 hours Credits:5 Office Hours:Fri,2 hours COURSE DESCRIPTION In this course, we will focus on six truly great writers, which means that you will learn a lot about these writers instead of just a little bit about many different writers. By reading their work, you will discover the elements that define three important types of literature: the short story, the novella, and the essay. You will also learn significant literary terms and will practice using them to analyze texts. In addition, your individual and group work in the class and discussion section will give you the background and the tools needed to write a literary essay at the end of the class. CLASS SCHEDULE Two-Hour Classes on Mondays-Fridays On Mondays-Thursdays we will focus on the readings. On Fridays we will complete our discussion of the readings, and we will then engage in lecture, group work, and individual work in order to identify and practice the elements necessary for writing essays about literature. Each Friday you will be assigned a writing project that will be due at the beginning of class on the following Tuesday. On Saturdays there will be a discussion/review section. CLASS MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS:
WEEK ONE: CHINA JILIANG UNIVERSITY Poetry, the Short Story, and the Essay Model Writer of the Week: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Poetry: The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Bells, To Helen, Eldorado, Alone, and Elizabeth (this last poem will be distributed in class) Romantic / Gothic Short Stories: The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Fall of the House of Usher Detective Story: The Purloined Letter Essays: The Poetic Principle and The Philosophy of Composition (these essays will be distributed in class) about Edgar Allan Poe Individual and Group Activity: How to Summarize a Plot WEEK TWO: The Essay and the Short Story Model Writer of the Week: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1844) Essay: The Preface to The House of the Seven Gables (this essay will be distributed in class) Short Stories: Young Goodman Brown, The Minister s Black Veil, Rappaccini s Daughter, The Birthmark, The Artist of the Beautiful, The Great Carbuncle, and Roger Malvin s Burial Tuesday: Plot Summary Paper Due
about Nathaniel Hawthorne Individual and Group Practice: How to Compare Two Texts WEEK THREE: The Novella Model Writer of the Week: Henry James (1843-1916) Reading: Novella: Daisy Miller Tuesday: Comparison Paper Due about Henry James Individual and Group Practice: How to Create Thesis Statements WEEK FOUR: Poetry Model Writer of the Week: Robert Frost (1874-1963) Poems: Design, The Tuft of Flowers, Fire and Ice, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, The Road Not Taken, Desert Places, To Earthward, Birches, Acquainted with the Night, and Home Burial Tuesday: Five Thesis Statements Due about Robert Frost Individual and Group Practice: How to Develop an Introduction and an Organizational Plan WEEK FIVE: The Short Story and The Essay Model Writer of the Week: F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
Short Stories: The Ice Palace, Winter Dreams, The Sensible Thing, The Rich Boy, Babylon Revisited, The Lost Decade, A Short Trip Home, Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les, and Two for a Cent Essays: Early Success, My Lost City, Show Mr. and Mrs. F. to Number, Auction Model 1934, The Crack-Up Tuesday: Introductions and Organizational Plans Due about F. Scott Fitzgerald Individual and Group Practice: How to Develop a Paper s Body and a Conclusion WEEK SIX: The Short Story Model Writer of the Week: Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) Short Stories: Indian Camp, The Doctor and the Doctor s Wife, A Way You ll Never Be, Big Two-Hearted River, Soldier s Home, Cat in the Rain, The Short Happy Life of Frances Macomber Thursday: Literary Essay Due about Ernest Hemingway COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADES Six Objective Quizzes: 25% Five Weekly Short Writing Exercises: 25% Literary Essay: 30% Participation in Class and in Small Groups: 20% Note: You must attend class in order to participate in class discussions and individual and group activities, and also to succeed at the objective quizzes and writing assignments. Absences will be excused only in the case of sufficiently serious problems or issues.
Note: Assignments are to be accomplished and/or submitted on the days specified in the Class Meetings and Assignments section of this syllabus. ACADEMIC HONESTY STATEMENT The College is committed to academic integrity in all its practices. The faculty values intellectual integrity and a high standard of academic conduct. Activities that violate academic integrity undermine the quality and diminish the value of educational achievement. Cheating on papers, tests, or other academic works is a violation of College rules. No student shall engage in behavior that, in the judgment of the instructor of the class, may be construed as cheating. This may include, but is not limited to, plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty such as acquisition without permission of tests or other academic materials and/or distribution of these materials and other academic work. This includes students who aid and abet as well as those who attempt such behavior. COURSE BOOKS: Note: The textbooks below include virtually all the assigned readings; I will supply handouts for those not included. You may use any other version of the short stories, essays, and the novella listed in the Class Meetings section. These texts are widely available in other books, in anthologies, in e-books (like Kindle), and often on the web as well. Edgar Allan Poe. The Best of Poe. Edited by Lisa M. Miller and Karen Frame, Prestwick House: Clayton, DE, A Literary Touchstone Classic, 2006. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne s Short Stories, ed. Newton Arvin, Vintage: New York, A Vintage Classic, 2011. Henry James, Daisy Miller and Other Tales. Introduction by Stephen Fender. Penguin Classics, 2017. Robert Frost. The Poetry of Robert Frost, The Collected Poems. Henry Holt and Company: New York, 1969. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Scribner: New York, 1989. Ernest Hemingway. The Short Stories: The First Forty-Nine Stories. Scribner: New York, 1995.