Effective Date of this Description/Syllabus: Fall 2007
Prepared by: Dr.
Office: Fine Arts 202
Phone: (770)358-5296
email: rhonda_w@gdn.edu
Fall Office hours:__________________
COURSE
DESCRIPTION/SYLLABUS
Course Designation: English 2112
Course Title: World Literature II
Class hours per week: 3
Credit hours: 3
Division offering course: Humanities
Prerequisite for the course: A C or better in English 1101.
Course description for college bulletin: A study of important works of world
literature from the seventeenth century to the present.
Teacher’s Course objectives:
To acquaint students with seminal
works of world literature and the cultural milieux in which they were produced;
To give students a background for
appreciating the values and concerns of modern literature by studying the
traditions which preceded it;
To awaken in students an interest
in literatures and cultures quite different from their own and an awareness of
literary/cultural richness and diversity; in short—
To have fun.
Humanities Division Literature Course Objectives
Course Objectives: Upon completion of ENGL 2112, World Literature II, the student will
have:
Course Content:
The
course plan is to focus on the following authors; others will also be assigned:
Moliere, De La Fayette, Pope,
Swift, Voltaire, Douglass, Goethe, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Dickens,
Dickinson, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Yeats, Eliot, Kafka,
Pirandello, Marquez, and others
These are literally world-famous
stories, poems, and plays. People have enjoyed them around the world. However,
if you do not budget enough time for your reading, you may start to view them
as a burden rather than a pleasure. Instead, expect to take a great deal of
time—then relax and enjoy yourself. The best pleasures cannot be hurried.
Required
Text: The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Vol. 2. 8th
ed. Ed. Sarah Lawall.
Dickens,
Charles. Great Expectations.
Grading: Class
participation/pop quizzes: 15%
First Paper: 15%
Second Paper: 15%
Midterm Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 30%
There will be some opportunities
for extra credit.
Standards: A=90-100, B=80-89,
C=70-79, D=60-69
Your failure to do any assignment
listed above (except pop quizzes)
will result in your failing the course. If you believe you have a good reason
for being excused from a pop quiz, discuss it with me promptly; I will decide
on a case-by-case basis whether or not to keep the zero, excuse the quiz, or
give a make-up with or without grade penalty.
Your
first paper does not have to have
outside sources: it should represent your own response to the reading,
supported by copious specific
evidence from the reading. The subject should be one of the pieces of literature
from our text; the specific subject choice must be approved by me beforehand. A
planning conference is required.
Your
second paper will be a researched
assignment. You may choose to do either an annotated bibliography with oral
presentation or a traditional term paper. Again, the subject must be approved.
MLA
form for quotation, bibliography, etc., should be used for both these
assignments.
Your
exams will probably include some
“objective” questions (e.g. identifying quotations); they will certainly
include some discussion questions. Each will cover approximately half the
course work.
Attendance policy: Without class discussions and
lectures, you might as well read this literature on your own. You will find
that experiencing a group’s reaction to a piece of writing is something that
cannot be recreated through merely reading class notes. This is not just a
lecture class. Furthermore, you can contribute to the class: thoughtful
questions can be just as valuable as insightful comments (though they should be
the questions of a person who has read the material). Missing classes will
reduce your ability to contribute and will therefore lower your class participation grade. Furthermore,
specific in-class activities will be used to help establish your participation
grade, and in most cases these activities must be carried out during a
particular class period.
If
you must miss a class, let me know beforehand if you can (or leave a phone or
email message even during class if need be); ask me or a classmate about
assignments so you can prepare in case there is a pop quiz when you return to
class. My home phone number is (404)373-5328. If you cannot contact me or a
classmate, then read the next assignment listed on the syllabus. If you are in
class, you will be expected to take the quiz.
Student Evaluation of
Instruction: Near the end of this course, you may be asked to evaluate the
instruction of the course. Your honest responses will help make this a better
course. Also, please feel free to make suggestions during the course. Remember, I want to hear from you.
TENTATIVE
SCHEDULE
Week One: 8/13-15: Introduction;
17th century: Moliere: Tartuffe
Week Two: 8/20-22: De La Fayette:
The Princess of
Week Three: 8/27-29: 18th
c.: Swift: Gulliver's Travels, Pt. 4
Week Four: 9/3-5: Labor Day
Week Five: 9/10-12: Voltaire: Candide;
Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Week Six: 9/17-19: 19th
c.: Goethe: Faust, Pt. 1
Week Seven: 9/24-26: Romantic
poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats,
Heine;
Short essay due
Week Eight: 10/1-3: Dickens,
selections from Great Expectations; midterm
exam (Official
Midterm
[last day to drop classes without penalty] is Oct. 4)
Week Nine: Fall Break 10/8-9;10/10: Transitional Poets: Dickinson, Baudelaire
Week Ten: 10/15-17: Flaubert, Madame Bovary
Week Eleven: 10/22-24: Tolstoy,
"The Death of Ivan Ilych"; Ibsen, Hedda Gabler
Week Twelve: 10/29-31: 20th
c.: Modern poets: Yeats, Stevens, Eliot
Week Thirteen: 11/5-7:
Pirandello: Six Characters in Search of an Author; Kafka, The
Metamorphosis
Week Fourteen: 11/12-14: Marquez,
"Death Constant Beyond Love"; Silko,
"Yellow
Woman"; Wright, "The Man Who Was Almost a Man"
Week Fifteen: 11/19: Beckett, Endgame;
Week Sixteen: 11/26-28: Term papers and/or oral presentations with
annotated bibliographies due M.
Final Exam Tues. Dec. 4, 10:15
a.m.—12:15 p.m.