World Literature

Tentative Syllabus for English 2110 Summer Semester 2005

 

M-F 3:00-5:15 Humanities 227
Instructor: Dr. Micheal Crafton

Office: TLC 2-225 (770-836-6512) Office hours: M-F – 2-3 TLC 225

And by appointment.

Phone: TLC   770-836-6512

Current Schedule
Email: mcrafton@westga.edu
Home page: http://www.westga.edu/~mcrafton/

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 

Students will develop the ability to recognize and identify significant achievements in world literature. 

Students will understand the relevant social, historical, and aesthetic contexts of these literary works.
Students will appreciate the implications of theoretical and critical approaches to such literature.
Students will develop enhanced cultural awareness and analytical skills.
Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and of the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose. 

The purpose of this course is to survey literary and cultural documents from around the world, starting with the earliest extant materials and working our way by leaps and bounds up to the modern period. Although we shall try our best to view these documents in a historical and political context, we will be hard pressed to be very detailed due to the astonishing breadth of this survey. Given the fact that we will be moving quickly through a lot of cultures, we shall hold to two constants: one, mythology as a grammar for comparative analysis; two, literacy as the fundamental skill of skills that we shall practice. 

EVALUATION AND GRADING PROCEDURES 

The processes for assessing student performance in this class are four-fold: exams, papers, student presentations, and participation.

The in-class exams will consist of a mixture of quotations from the literature studied and some analytical questions relevant to class discussion. For more information on taking these exams, how to prepare for them, and how to write them, go to this web page.

Each out of class essay will consist of a two- to three-page typed essay (one-inch margins, 12 pt font) that allows the student to respond to a selection or selections of literature in a personal and analytical fashion.For topics and advice on writing this essay, including a sample essay, go t.o this web page

Participation in class is more that just passive attendance, especially in an honors seminar; participation should be understood as an active or productive process.  Students should come to class not only awake, dressed, and having read the material, but also they should during the course of the class reveal their live enactment of the material and the discussion through questions, answers, or at the very least non-verbal cues.

ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR GRADE WEIGHTS 

1. Two essays                          40%
2. Two Exams                          40%
3. Daily Quizzes                        10%

4. Student Participation             10% 

Texts:
Mack, Maynard, et al eds. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. New York: Norton, 1997. 

Daily Assignments for English 2110 Honors, Summer 2005

--------- week 1 ----------

M 6      First day of class: Introductions, overview, defining literature, myth, culture, history: Descent of Inanna, Gilgamesh begin; Egyptian Poetry; Old Testament

T 7       Babylonian Epic: Gilgamesh finish. (All of Gilgamesh; Selections from Genesis and Psalm 137; Egyptian Poetry)

W 8     Ancient Greek Epic: Homer’s Odyssey, pp. 101-152.

R 9       Ancient Greek Epic: Homer’s Odyssey, pp. 151-192.

10        Ancient Athens—Drama and Philosophy: Sophocles (Oedipus the King), 392-432; Aristotle, from Poetics, pp. 521-526;

link to handout on Greek drama.

http://www.perspicacity.com/elactheatre/library/greektheatre/index.html

 

--------- week 2----------

M 13    Ancient Rome—Empire: Virgil, Aeneid pp. 639-673, Ovid, pp. 684-694.

T 14     New Religions: Plato, pp 500-520; Confucius, p.548-555; Chuang Chou, Taoism, pp. 557-566; New Testament, pp. 708-721; and Review for mid-term

W 15   Test 1; Augustine and the Creation of Christian Orthodoxy, pp. 723-734

R 16     Islam and European Middle Ages: Koran, suras 1, 4, 19, 71; 1001 Nights, 923-947; Roland, p. 956-978; Eliduc, pp 998-1010

F 17     High Middle Ages: Dante, The Divine Comedy, cantos I-VIII, XVIII, XXXII-XXXIV

-------- week 3----------

M 20    Essay 1 due; Early Modernity—Renaissance: Hamlet

T 21     Romanticism: Rousseau, Blake, Wordsworth, Basho

W 22   Naturalism and Realism: Tolstoy, Baudelaire

R 23     Modernism: Kafka, T.S. Eliot, Mahfouz

F 24     Postcolonial Film: Whale Rider

--------- week 4----------

M 27    Mythology and Class Synthesis: Campbell, Power of Myth, on-line discussion

T 28     Mythology and Class Synthesis;: Cmpbell, Power of Myth, on-line discussion

W 29   Reading Day

R 30     Exam (3:00-5:00) Grades due July 5th