English 2850 Great Works II Fall 2016

English 2850 | Great Works II | Fall 2016

M-W 7:50-9:30 Chelsea Largent Room: VC 4-214 [email protected] Office Hours: By appointment English Department VC 7th floor

Required Texts:

The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 3rd edition. Package 2 (volumes D, E, and F).

The purchase of one text either Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi or Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante TBD

Additional Resources: MLA formatting and style guide: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ www.PurdueOWL.edu

Course Description: English 2850 will introduce you to a selection of literature from 1650 to the present, covering a number of major literary genres and examining works from around the world. You will study the historical and cultural contexts of the pieces we read and learn about literary themes, techniques, and terminology. In the process, English 2850 will help you develop advanced reading and analytical capabilities. You will also hone your creative thinking and writing skills. This is a communication-intensive course that requires active class participation, oral presentations, and frequent writing. Through these activities you will develop:

 The ability to interpret meaning in literary texts by paying close attention to an author’s choice of detail, vocabulary, and style;  The ability to discuss the relationship between different genres of literary texts and the multicultural environments from which they sprint;  Increased confidence in offering a critical evaluation and appreciation of a literary work’s strengths and limitations;  Increased confidence in the oral presentation of ideas; and  Increased ability to write critical essays employing a strong thesis statement, appropriate textual citations, and contextual and inter-textual evidence for your ideas.

1 COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

 Participation: This includes active participation in class, as well as any extra assignments given by the professor. Moreover, as part of the participation mark, a very simple reading comprehension quiz will be given at the beginning of each class. On certain occasions, a reading response will replace the comprehension quiz.  Class presentations: You will sign up to present on one day’s reading. Presentations serve to help your fellow classmates understand a text and must be creative. You must make some type of argument or choose to focus on a particular aspect of the text that you find interesting.  First essay (5 typed, double spaced pages): Comparing two works of literature. More information to follow.  Final Paper and Presentation (7-8 typed, double spaced pages): You will develop a final project on the course materials and present it to the class during the final exam period. The final project will require various short assignments leading up to a capstone project. More information to follow.  Reading Quizzes: At the beginning of each class we will start with a short reading quiz. This quiz serves as a way for me to check your understanding of the text and for us to prepare ourselves for classroom discussion.

Classroom Policies

Attendance:

. If you have more than 2 absences, your final course grade will be lowered by a half letter for each additional absence (a B+ becomes a B)—and your grade likely will be otherwise affected simply because of the activities and work you’ll miss. . If you miss class more than 4 times, you must arrange to meet with me privately and, according to Baruch College policy, you will be subject to a WU grade, which counts as an F on your transcript and your GPA. . From the official Baruch College attendance policy: “If a freshman or sophomore is absent in excess of twice the number of class sessions per week, the instructor must give the student a WU grade, which counts as an F. The instructor may give a junior or senior a WU grade if he/she has excessive absences. Attendance and lateness clearly play a role in class participation. Instructors have the right to weigh attendance, lateness, and class participation in determining grades.” . If you must miss class, let me know ahead of time if possible to make sure you stay caught up. If you miss unexpectedly, check the schedule on our course website and make friends with someone in class to see what you missed so you can stay up with your work. If you miss class, please do not email me asking what we did in class, or, worse, if we did anything in class you should know about. . If an assignment is due on a day that you miss because of an unexcused absence, you are responsible for keeping up with the daily schedule and contacting someone in the class to see what you missed and for turning in your work at the same time it was due for those who were in class [see “Late Work”].

Late Policy

. Because showing up on time and respecting other people are important parts of being a good student (in your case), a good teacher (in my case), and ultimately a good human being, I’ll hold

2 all of us to a standard of being on time to class and staying until class is over. Late arrivals and early departures are disruptive and ultimately disrespectful. Therefore, if you arrive late to class late more than twice it will count as an absence. The same will hold true if you leave class early more than twice. If you do arrive late to class, please check with someone nearby to see what you may have missed.

Technology in the classroom:

Each and every student must have the text in front of them in physical good old fashion paper form every single class. You are required to respect the classroom space. Laptops are only permitted when absolutely necessary and for taking notes. This means you should only be working on directly related to the course and classroom discussion while you are present. If this becomes a problem, technology will no longer be an option for use in the classroom.

Cell phones are absolutely not permitted. Should you need to use your cell phone, excuse yourself from the classroom.

Participation and Reading:

Regular attendance and active participation in class discussions and activities are required for success in this class. Preparation includes, finishing all writing assignments prior to the due date, having the text in front of you every single class, and entering the classroom with an open mind. Remember to bring the textbook to every class period. If you do not have the text you will not receive participation points for the class on that day.

Our classroom is a safe space for learning and it is expected that everyone will participate in a considerate way, which means listening to, engaging with, and respecting every participant.

Accessible Participation

Baruch College is committed to making individuals with disabilities full participants in the programs, services, and activities of the college community through compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. It is the policy of Baruch College that no otherwise qualified individual with a disability will be denied access to any program, service, or activity offered by the university. Individuals with disabilities have a right to request accommodations. If you require any special assistance or accommodation, please contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities at (646) 312- 4590, and let me know as soon as you can, ideally during the first three weeks of the semester. I encourage persons with disabilities or particular needs that impact course performance to meet with me to co-design accommodations.

For additional information see: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/facultyhandbook/DisabilitiesInformation.htm

3 Deadlines:

Deadlines are fixed. Barring extenuating circumstances, all work needs to be completed on time. Please always feel free to talk to me about any problems that would prevent you from participating fully in the classroom or completing your coursework.

Expectations for coursework:

Over the course of the semester you will be required to invest a lot of time and energy into the work for this class. It is a four-hour course and the college standard is that students will spend about two hours working for every one hour spent in class. For our class, that amounts to about 8 hours per week outside of class. I don’t imagine you will always spend 8 full hours working outside of the classroom, but I do expect that you set aside this time for readings, rhetorical responses, analyses, writing, and preparation for class.

GRADING:

Late work will not be accepted unless you have made arrangements with me beforehand. If you are absent on the day an essay or assignment is due, email me your assignment by midnight the day it is due. Email it as a MS Word file (.doc or .docx). Make sure I receive it. The responsibility is yours.

Your course grade will be calculated according to the following breakdown:

Participation: 15% (5% for blog participation and 10% for all in class activities and discussions) Paper 1: 25% Paper 2 (final paper): 35% Oral Presentations: 15% Reading Quizzes: 10%

It is your responsibility to keep up-to-date with your standing in the course. If you would like to know, make an appointment with me to discuss your grade and progress ahead of time. I will not have any grade discussions via email.

Your grades will be calculated using a 100% grading scale for all individual assignments and the final course grade. Assignments can be rewritten in extenuating circumstances. Please feel free to email or visit my office hours if you ever have any questions regarding a grade you have received. I am always open to discussion.

B+ 87-89 C+ 77-79 D+ 67-69 A 93-100 B 83-86 C 73-76 D 60-66 A- 90-92 B- 80-82 C- 70-72

4 Academic Integrity:

Plagiarism is a serious offense that, if done knowingly and depending on the severity and other factors, can result in a failing grade (or worse) and a mark on your permanent academic record. I’ll expect you to compose your projects ethically, meaning that if you use the work of others you cite that work, and that all work in this course is original, composed for the first time for this course, and is entirely your own, to the degree that anything we write is entirely our own. All students enrolled at Baruch are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty, as defined in the Baruch Student Handbook. Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses. The following definitions are based on the College's Academic Honesty website:

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person's ideas, research or writing as your own, such as:

• Copying another person's actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes (a functional limit is four or more words taken from the work of another) • Presenting another person's ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging them • Using information that is not considered common knowledge without acknowledging the source • If you ever have any questions or concerns about plagiarism, please ask me. You can also check out the online plagiarism tutorial prepared by members of the Newman Library faculty at http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/help/plagiarism/default.htm and Baruch College’s academic integrity policy at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.htm.

Tentative Reading List:

All Texts can be found in The Norton Anthology of World Literature Volumes D, E, and F unless otherwise noted. Please always read the introductions to each text they are extremely helpful in situating the text and your reading quiz will have one question about the introduction each time.

Week One:

8/29 Introduction to the course/Syllabus/ Writing diagnostic

*You will also be assigned a reading for your Oral Presentation on this day

8/31 What Is Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant

The Discourse on Method René Descartes

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft

Week Two:

9/5 No class: Labor Day

9/7 Tartuffe Moliere

5 Week Three:

9/12 Blog Response #1 Due

Bewitched Ueda Akinari

9/14 Candide – Voltaire

Week Four:

9/19 Life of a Sensuous Woman Ihara Saikaku

9/21 The Sufferings of Young Werther Goethe (Selections on class blog)

Week Five:

9/26 Blog Response # 2 Due

Bartleby, the Scrivener Herman Melville

9/28 Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Week Six:

10/3 NO CLASS

10/5 Blog Response #3 Due

Romantic Poetry:

Ode on Intimations of Immortality William Wordsworth

Kubla Khan Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Conversation Between Me and the Women Anna Bunina

A Defense of Poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ode on a Grecian Urn John Keats

10/6 CLASSES FOLLOW A MONDAY SCHEDULE! We have class on this day!

Week Seven:

6 10/10 NO CLASS- Readings and first paper topic proposal

10/12 NO CLASS- Readings and first paper topic proposal

Week Eight:

10/17 Symbolist Poets

Charles Baudelaire

Mallarmé

Rimbaud

(Selections TBA)

10/19 Workshop for Paper One

Week Nine:

10/24 Draft one of paper one due

Notes from the Underground Fyodor Dostoyevsky

10/26 A Simple Heart Gustave Flaubert

Week Ten:

10/31 Edith Wharton (Roman Fever or Muse’s Tragedy; Selections TBA)

11/2 Wharton Cont.

Week Eleven:

11/7 Final Draft of Paper One due

Heart of Darkness (begin) Joseph Conrad

11/9 Blog Response # 4 Due

Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola

Heart of Darkness (continued) Joseph Conrad

Week Twelve:

11/14 The Tattooer Tanizaki Jun’Ichirō

In Praise of Shadows (excerpts on the class blog) Tanizaki Jun’Ichirō

7 Samurai Champloo- Netflix

* Assign contemporary novel selections here :

TENTATIVE LIST

Begin Reading from the following: * You will be assigned one text out of the following list. Whichever text you are assigned, you will need to purchase it as these texts are full novels and not in the anthology*

Troubling Love Elena Ferrante

Persepolis (ALL VOLUMES) – Marjane Satrapi

11/16 Manifestos:

Dada Manifesto 1918 Tristan Tzara

Manifesto of Surrealism André Breton

The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism F.T. Marinetti

Week Thirteen: Contemporary Fiction

11/21 Discussion (contemporary fiction)

11/23 Final paper project discussion

Week Fourteen:

11/28 + 11/30 : Blog Response # 5 Due

- Individual Meetings

- Continued Reading for final project

- Work on final Presentation

Week Fifteen:

12/5+12/7

Oral Presentations / Final Project Workshopping

Week Sixteen:

12/12 Last Day of Scheduled Class TBA

8 Final Project due during Exam week TBA