ENGL 2110-02: World Literature

Traveling the World, Writing the National Epic

Thursday's Assignments are at the bottom of this document.

Instructor: Dr. Joshua Masters

Office: Humanities 214

Phone: 678-839-4862

Email: jmasters@westga.edu

Office Hours: Mon 1-3, Tues 4-5, Wed 10-12, Thurs 2-5, and by appointment.

Course Description

This course investigates the origins and development of the human capacity to create narratives epic in their scope: narratives that establish the myths, values, character, and history of a tribe, nation, or culture. Rather than assigning a host of excerpts from the diverse literatures of the entire world that were ever written or spoken, I have chosen six representative texts for us to analyze and explore in great detail. Each of these texts focuses on a traveler seeking heroic adventures in new worlds, cultural encounters with new beings, and ultimately someplace to settle down and call “home.” And more importantly, each of our texts chart the imagined origins and history of a new culture, nation, or even empire, from Greek and Roman, to Italian and British, to African and Native American.

Because traveling factors so heavily in these stories of national development, cultural identity, and colonization, we will pay particular attention to issues of travel: What are the central motives that drive us to travel? Why do some people choose to wander the earth, while others need the imagined permanence of a stationary “home?” What is the relationship between home and away, here and there, self and Other? Most importantly, why has much of the world’s imaginative literature developed within the context of travel, adventure, exploration, and conquest, from Odysseus’s trials on the road (and sea) home, to Moses’s quest for a homeland, to Arthur’s search for the Grail, to Keruac’s desire simply to be “on the road”?  What are some of the dominant myths and themes that attend narratives of travel? How is travel experienced differently by different people and different cultures? Does it matter if the traveler has chosen to travel (i.e. Christopher Columbus), or if he or she has been forced to travel (i.e. the slave of the Middle Passage)? These questions, and many more, will fuel our literary explorations and wanderings this semester.

Course Requirements

Students are expected to complete the day’s reading assignment in advance and come to class prepared to participate in discussion. In addition to your attendance, preparation, and intellectual curiosity, you are also encouraged to discuss your writing and thinking with me in my office. In order to pass the class, you must earn a passing quiz score (averaging 65% on all of the quizzes given), complete both 1500 word essays, and take the final exam.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Homer. The Odyssey (trans. Fitzgerald)

Virgil. The Aeneid (trans. Mandelbaum)

Dante. The Inferno (trans. Ciardi)

Shakespeare. The Tempest

Ngugi. A Grain of Wheat

Silko. Ceremony

Explanation of Course Requirements

Final Grade: To pass the course, students must turn in all written work, have less than five absences, and earn a passing quiz grade. If you average less than 65% on quizzes, you will not pass the course. Your final grade is comprised of the following: Essays (50%); Quizzes (25%); Final Exam (10%); Short Writing Assignments (10%); and Participation—group work, peer editing, and contributions to discussion (5%).

Please Note: I am always happy to discuss your progress in the class with you and explain my evaluation of your work. You can expect to receive the grade you earn in this class; please refrain from telling me what grade you “need” in the class (for Hope, for athletics, to fulfill a dying relative’s final request, etc.), or what grade you “really want” (presumably an A). Writing is a process that involves creative thinking, critical analysis, and organizational strategies; improvement is sometimes slow, but with hard work, it does happen.

Essays: Your basic task for each paper is to produce a well-written, coherent essay whose central argument is both interesting and significant. Your essays will be thesis-driven, argumentative papers, and your grade will be determined by the complexity of your central argument, the structure of your paragraphs, the logic of your organization, and the strength of your prose (i.e. your writing).

Late Papers: I will accept late papers, but always with a penalty. For each weekday that a paper is late, 1/3 of a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade. For instance, if the paper is due on Tuesday and you turn it in on Wednesday, you will lose 1/3 of a grade (i.e. a C+ becomes a C). If you turn it in on Thursday, 2/3 of a grade is deducted (a C+ becomes a C-). Emailed papers will not be accepted. All papers must be handed to me and entered into the record book as received.

Discussion and Attendance: Students are expected to attend every class and arrive on time, prepared, and eager to discuss the day’s reading. Your participation grade is based upon your performance in the class in terms of group work, discussion, and attendance habits. You are expected to demonstrate genuine engagement with the material, actively contribute to discussion topics, show adequate preparation for each class, and respect the arguments and ideas of your classmates.  Be sure to bring the text under discussion to every class.

Quizzes: At the beginning of each Tuesday class, you will take a comprehensive, fact-based quiz on the week’s reading assignment. Once the quiz is distributed, the door to the class will close, and you will have about five minutes to complete the quiz. If you arrive late, you will not be allowed to take the quiz, and you must wait outside until the quiz is completed. If you are absent for whatever reason, you will not be allowed to retake a quiz. Under no circumstances will I give make-up quizzes. If at anytime during the semester it becomes mathematically impossible for a student to earn a passing quiz score (at least a 65%), he or she will be told to stop coming to class. This policy is absolutely and utterly inflexible. Each quiz is worth 10 points, and at the end of the semester, assuming that you've earned the required 65%, I will then drop your lowest quiz score when determining your quiz average and quiz grade. All quizzes are open note (but not open book), and you are encouraged to bring notes based on the reading to class.

Reading Assignments: The reading assignments for each class can be found in this document and are also available through Dr. Masters’ website, http://www.westga.edu/~jmasters/, under the heading “ENGL 2110.” All reading will be due on Tuesday, and you can expect to read between about 100 pages each week. Remember, Tuesday’s quizzes are open note, so write down names and descriptions of important characters, significant plot developments, key images and themes, etc. The key to doing well on the quizzes is to read carefully and consistently.

Short Writing Assignments: At the beginning of each week, Dr. Masters will post Thursday’s reading question, writing assignment, and/or preparation task on the website at the end of the syllabus. If you are asked to bring the writing assignment to class, it must be typed.

Tardiness: Each tardy will count as ½ of an absence. On Tuesdays, after quizzes are collected, the doors will be opened and late arrivals will be allowed to find a seat. At the end of class, late students are responsible for informing me that they arrived late and missed the quiz. On Thursdays, role will be taken at the beginning of class, and any student arriving late will then need to check in with the instructor at the end of class.

Absences: I understand that illnesses and emergencies are a part of life, and therefore you are allowed to miss one Tuesday class and one Thursday class without penalty. However, if you miss more than four classes, you will automatically fail the class, no exceptions. Medical emergencies and medical conditions can result in excused absences, but keep in mind that quizzes cannot be made up.

Cellphones and Sleeping: These aren’t just “pet” peeves that get under my skin; they are flesh-eating monsters that haunt my waking dreams. I don’t ever want to see or hear a cellphone inside the class; enough said. If you fall asleep, you will be awakened the first time with gentle words and a mild frown. If you fall asleep a second time, five points will be deducted from your quiz score; a third time, ten more points will be deducted; a fourth time, ten more points, etc.

My Plagiarism Policy: If a student is caught plagiarizing (and this includes short writing assignments) or cheating on a quiz, he or she will automatically fail the course. No exceptions. Also, I consider Cliffnotes, Sparknotes, and other similar “resources” out of bounds. You must complete the reading on your own and do your own thinking in the class. Quizzes will be designed in such a way that these “sources” will be of no use to you.

Departmental Plagiarism policy: The Department of English and Philosophy defines plagiarism as taking personal credit for the words and ideas of others as they are presented in electronic, print, and verbal sources. The Department expects that students will accurately credit sources in all assignments. An equally dishonest practice is fabricating sources or facts; it is another form of misrepresenting the truth. Plagiarism is grounds for failing the course.

Reporting procedures for plagiarism:
1. Instructor should meet with the student whose work is suspected of having been plagiarized to discuss the correlation(s) between the student’s paper and the source(s) from which that paper has been constructed. 
2. During this meeting, the instructor should inform the student of the penalty s/he intends to institute (failing the individual assignment, failing the class, sending the case forward for further sanctions from the University).
3. After meeting with the student, the instructor should send a brief report of the case, including the plagiarized student work and supporting documentation, forward to Dr. John Clower, Director of Residence Life, requesting that this case become a permanent part of the student’s record at West Georgia. THIS REPORT SHOULD BE FORWARDED EVEN IF THE INSTRUCTOR DOES NOT WANT THE UNIVERSITY TO SANCTION THE STUDENT.  It is important to create a record of students’ infringement of academic honesty policies so that should a student develop a pattern of dishonesty the University can take appropriate actions to suspend or expel the student.

Students with disabilities should meet with me at the beginning of the semester, and we will make any necessary arrangements.

Schedule

8/23           Introduction to Class and Course Policies.

8/25           Begin Homer’s The Odyssey. Read Books 1-3 (pages 1-49).

8/30           Homer: Book 5 (79-95), Books 8-11 (123-206).

9/1             See on-line syllabus for assignment.

9/6             Homer: Books 12-14 (207-64) and Books 16 and 17 (287-331).

9/8             See on-line syllabus for assignment.

9/13           Homer: Books 18-23 (333-441) plus Book 24, line 230 to the end (p. 451-462).

9/15           See on-line syllabus for assignment.

9/20           Begin Virgil’s The Aeneid. Read Book 1-4 (1-102)

9/22           See on-line syllabus for assignment.

9/27           Virgil: Books 5-8 (103-211).

9/29           See on-line syllabus for assignment. Discuss Assignment #1.

10/4           Virgil: Books 9-12 (212-331)

10/6           See on-line syllabus for assignment.

10/11         Begin Dante’s The Inferno. Read Cantos 1-11 (27-109). Much of this is footnotes, which you can skim.

10/13         Rough Draft of Essay #1 Due.

10/18         Dante. Read Cantos 12-17 (110-156), Canto 26 (Ulysses, 220-26), and Cantos 32-34 (265-88).

10/20         Final Draft of Essay #1 Due.

10/25         Read all of Shakespeare’s The Tempest

10/27         See on-line syllabus for assignment.

11/1           Begin Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat. Read Chapters 1-7 (1-121).

11/3           See on-line syllabus for assignment.

11/8           Complete A Grain of Wheat.

11/10         See on-line syllabus for assignment.

11/15         Begin Silko’s Ceremony. Read to the top of p. 116.

11/17         See on-line syllabus for assignment.

11/22         Silko: 116-213. Discuss Final Assignment

11/24         No Class

11/29         Finish Silko

12/1           Rough Draft #2 Due.

12/6           Last Day of Class. Final Draft #2 Due.

Final Exam: TBA

Assignments for Thursday Classes

For Thursday, 8/25

For class on Thursday, read Books 1-3 of The Odyssey. After you've completed the reading, write down a single line that interests you in your reading notes. Bring your reading notes to class, use them to help you with the quiz, and write down the line you chose on the back of the quiz. We'll look at these lines during discussion.

For Thursday, September 1

For Thursday, please bring a typed paragraph about, well, anything that interests you thus far in the Odyssey. I ask only three things: 1) Make sure you keep it to one paragraph, and that you put some thought into the structure and organization of the paragraph. 2) Open the paragraph with an idea, argument, or interpretive position of your own design. 3) Cite a specific passage from the text using MLA citation and punctuation rules (skipping the works cited, of course).

As for a topic, I leave that to you. I'm hoping that we will continue our discussion of Odysseus and his (seemingly?) conflicted motives, so you might examine the nature of his "spirit of adventure," his role as a "wanderer," his encounters with the "savage" Other (such as the Cyclopes), or his encounters with "civilized" Greeks. Or, if there's a passage, image, or moment in the epic that has really captivated your attention, you could base your paragraph on the passage. I look forward to seeing what kinds of ideas (and pieces of evidence) you unearth! Until Thursday, jm

For Thursday, September 8

This is more of a preparation assignment than an actual writing assignment, though you will be bringing in a piece of paper with some words typed on it to class (and which you will turn in). Your basic task is to read the four page history of Ancient and Classical Greece, and then to find a passage from The Odyssey that relates specifically to one of two categories:

Greek Culture: This includes the people's values and mores, their literary (and/or storytelling) traditions, their notions of gender, their religious system and belief structure, their modes of celebration and rituals, etc.

Greek Society: This category relates more to the Greek city-state and its organization: modes of government or governance, forms of economic exchange, the relationship between city-states, military organization, etc.

For class, type out a passage from our most recent reading assignment (Books 12-14 and 16-17) that you think relates to (or helps reveal something about) either Greek culture or Greek society. Below the passage, very briefly explain how it relates to something that you read in the handout and how it fits into either one of the two categories listed above. I will not be grading these, so don't worry about your prose (i.e. your writing); just try to get a few specific ideas down on paper.

For Thursday, September 15

During our last discussion, we began to touch on two subjects that I want us to pursue further: the representation of violence in the epic, and the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope (and its dynamics of power, their methods and modes of communication, the meaning of their "reunion", etc.). For Thursday, you will be typing out and turning in another paragraph on either one of these two topics, this time with a little more emphasis on the textual analysis.

As with the first paragraph assignment, you need to begin with a clearly defined, original, and complex argument. You might not know the shape and contours of that argument until after you've written the first draft of the paragraph, so be prepared to revise and redefine your argument once you've gotten your thoughts down on paper (or up on the screen) and you've thoroughly analyzed the passage you've chosen.

In order to engage in the kind of textual analysis we've been discussing (and practicing) in class, you need to select a passage that you feel you can really sink your teeth into (and which helps support the argument you have in mind). If possible, please choose a passage that includes a particularly provocative, interesting, and/or suggestive image. In this case, an "image" is a description of something (an object, a person, an action, a place, etc.) rooted in the senses, usually visual, but not always. "Imagery" covers a broad range of figurative devices in literature: symbolism (where the thing described or depicted signifies something beyond itself), metaphor and simile (where one thing is understand in terms of another, such as the executed maids being compared to birds), and synecdoche (where the part stands for the whole, such as Athena being simply "the grey-eyed"). But images don't have to be rooted in these figurative devices. They might be so strong and fully rendered that they simply evoke a response in the reader--we can almost see, hear, touch, or smell the thing before us. Thus I'm not sure if the goatherd having genitals "pulled off" is particularly symbolic, but it sure is evocative, and it might be so for a reason. (But it also might be symbolic: remember that Pan, the hyper-sexual god of male potency and fertility, was half man and half goat, so to castrate the goatherd would be symbolically to disconnect him from his most immediate god-figure. Just an idea.)

Be sure to choose a passage that interests you and is suitably complex, and spend some time analyzing the language and connecting your interpretations to your central argument. See you in class. jm

For Thursday, Sept. 22

Friends, Romans Countrymen (and women)! On Thursday, I'll expect you all to be completely prepped for the quiz and pumped for discussion. Well, that's asking a lot, since you seem to be having some difficulty getting too pumped up over Virgil. To each her own, I suppose. In preparing for class, I'd like everyone to select a passage that helps to relate The Aeneid to The Odyssey and indicates an important shift or difference in the two texts. Please type out the passage, noting the page and line number, and jot down a couple of ideas below it. Any writing you do below the passage can be completely informal. In fact, if you just want to brainstorm for a couple of minutes, typing anything and everything that comes to mind about the passage and the connection(s) you see, that's fine.  (These won't be evaluated, but I will be collecting them and making some sort of mark in my grade book.) Until tomorrow.

For Thursday, Sept. 29

Tuesday was a catch up day, so if you missed class, the quiz is going to be given on Thursday, 9/29. There isn't a new writing assignment, unless you didn't turn in the assignment due last week. In which case, please review the instructions for 9/22, and choose your passage from Books 5-8.

For Thursday, Oct. 6

This posting comes a little late, so I'll make the assignment informal, and it need not be typed. As I said in class on Tuesday, I'd like you to bring to class either one fully developed paper topic idea/proposal, or else a couple that you're thinking about working on. Try to come up with as many ideas as you can about how the connection or intersection you've chosen to explore will help you to investigate and examine some key differences between the two texts: the cultural values and belief systems (or ethos) they celebrate and defend; the heroes that embody those values; and the differing social and political structures that helped to produce those values.

Dante Reading Is Now Posted Above!

Final Drafts of Papers are Due on Thursday, October 20th. Please look over the paper submission guidelines below.

Turning in Your Final Draft

¨      Use a standard font and margins that put approximately 300 words on a page (choose from Palatino, Helvetica, Times, or Times New Roman).

¨      Devise an interesting, engaging title for your paper.

¨      Create a title page for your paper. The title should be printed in the middle of the page, and your name, the course number, and the date should be printed in the lower right-hand corner. The title (and your biographical info) should not appear again on the first page of your paper.

¨      Your pages must be numbered. The title page is not page one. You might have to create the title page as a separate document in order to keep it unnumbered.

¨      All quotations should be properly cited and punctuated. Passages of more than 40-50 words should generally be block-quoted. Double-check all quotations for accuracy.

¨      Include a properly formatted Works Cited page.

¨      There should not be an extra space between paragraphs.

¨      Your paper should be carefully revised, proofread, and edited.

¨      Please bind your paper together with a paper clip (or with one of those cool plastic binders) so that I can easily attach comments.

¨      Make a duplicate copy of your paper (or email yourself a copy of the paper). I am not responsible for lost papers.

¨      I will deduct one-half letter grade per day on late papers.

Thursday, October 27th

In preparation for class Thursday, I'd like you to do a little informal writing on The Tempest, with John Gast's 1872 painting American Progress as a prompt. Go to my website, and study the image of "Progress", conquest, and colonization at the top. The caption below it comes from an 1805 narrative written by a white explorer (whose name escapes me at the moment) who documented his contact with various Pacific Northwest Indian tribes (Flatheads, Spokans, Snake, etc.). He quotes several prophets and "medicine men" from these groups, and I found this prophecy particularly interesting.

So, you're job is to find a quotation from The Tempest that you feel relates somehow to the painting, either to a particular image in it or to the larger story it seems to tell. Write down your thoughts and ideas on the passage and how it connects to the painting. I'm particularly interested in discussing Miranda, Prospero, Caliban, and Ariel further. These responses must be typed,  and since you will be working with them in class, you must have the hardcopy with you in class.

Thursday, November 3rd

You are spared a writing assignment for tomorrow. Just come to class with your reading done. Any extra energy and enthusiasm you can generate in discussion will be greatly appreciated. jm

Thursday, November 10th

For Thursday, I'd like you to look for a connection between a character in Grain of Wheat--Mugo, Kihika, Gikonyo, Karanja, Mumbi, John Thompson, Margery, or one of your own choosing--and a character in another epic we've read this semester. The Tempest is obviously fruitful ground (though the connection you make doesn't have to be "obvious": it can also be subtle. Do we see, perhaps, a combination of Caliban and Ariel in one of the characters?). Also, consider figures like Odysseus, Penelope, Aeneas, Dante, and Virgil.

I'd like you to type up and print out some thoughts on the connection, but it doesn't need to be anything formal. Perhaps just five to ten minutes of mad-brainstorming as fast as your fingers can type. If you can point to a specific passage, so much the better. I look forward to our discussion.

Thursday, November 17

You don't need to do any writing in preparation for class. Just be sure to have all the reading completed; as usual, some reading notes are surely in order. I'd also like everyone to select a specific image in Ceremony that you'd like us to discuss. Obviously, this is an exquisitely visual novel, in terms of its metaphors (storytelling as a spider's web), its descriptions of the natural world (the cattle becoming the snow), and its characterization (Tayo becoming "white smoke"). Choose a passage that you think contains a particularly compelling and/or significant visual image. I plan to list these on the board tomorrow so that we can look for connections; please expect to be called on.