Natasha Sajé, Ph.D.
Foster Hall 405 Office Phone: (801) 832-2376
Home phone: 474-3579 email: nsaje@westminstercollege.edu
Office Hours: Mondays
E220-07: INTRODUCTION TO
LITERATURE (Fall 2003)
M/W
Objectives:
This course gives you the
tools for close-reading literature (and film) and applying various critical
strategies to their understanding and explication. I will also help you learn how to conduct
basic library research in literature and how to write a paper for an English
class. Most important, we shall seek to appreciate literature for the space it
provides: space for imagining other ways of being and thinking.
Required texts:
handouts of poems by visiting
poets
Scott Carpenter, Reading
Lessons: An Introduction to Theory
Sandra
Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
Michael
Downing, Breakfast with Scot
Barbara
Hamby, The Alphabet of Desire
Emily
Mann & Federico Lorca, The House of Bernarda Alba
Toni Morrison, Tar Baby
William Shakespeare, Twelfth
Night
(All of these books are
available in the library.)
Please also anticipate
spending about $5 in photocopying costs.
Requirements:
If you have a documented
disability, please see me (and the
1) Regular class attendance,
careful reading, participation in class discussions and discussion questions,
attending two poetry readings or book festival events, and some in-class or
informal writing assignments. Some weeks
the reading load is heavier than others—plan ahead. Missing more than two
classes precludes an A; missing more than six means failing the class. As a
courtesy, please call me if you are ill; you are responsible for finding out
what you missed from a classmate, and for keeping up with any changes in the
syllabus. I will distribute a class list of phone numbers. For
each day of class, bring one discussion question on a piece of paper with your
name on it. These represent a large part of this segment of your grade;
they are in lieu of reading quizzes, so they should be thoughtful and let me
know you read the assignment carefully. If you are distributing a one-pager
that day, simply type your discussion question at the bottom. 25% of grade.
3) Ten weekly one-page,
single-spaced, carefully focused and written and typed
response/application/analysis papers.
Make copies for the entire class. 60% of your grade. See sample
(attached). You may skip four weeks out of the fourteen. Keep in mind that you
should not merely repeat what we’ve said in our discussions, and that it may be
easier to distribute a paper on the first day that we discuss the book because
that way you have an “open field.” One fun way to do these is in the form of
letters, addressed to a particular person in the book, the author, or to a
student in the class, or me. You can also take on different personae in your
letter, writing as if you were one of the characters or an author. For
instance, you might want to be Toni Morrison responding to William Downing or
William Shakespeare responding to Federico Lorca. Another way to do these is to
compare one (small) aspect of the book to its treatment in film or stage. You
can also try applying the theoretical insights from the Carpenter book to the
other books; for instance, do a structuralist analysis of one of the novels or poems. Or apply one of
the handouts on genre and theory to one of the texts, for instance using J.
Hillis Miller's definition of narrative as a template to explain Tar Baby.
Anything is possible as long as it pays close attention to the text(s) and
shows you thinking.
4) One (one page, single-spaced) abstract of a
scholarly article. 7.5% of grade (due anytime we are discussing the book).
5) Take home midterm exam
(details follow) and final in class overview: 7.5% of grade
COLLECT ALL PAPERS AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS TO BE HANDED IN AT THE END OF THE CLASS AS A PORTFOLIO
Grades are based on your work
as described above, but how much you improve will also be taken into account
when I determine your final grade. I will grade the one-pagers check, check
plus, check minus, but will give you a midterm grade and write a paragraph
about your work at midterm. Here are the guidelines I use for grading papers
(Adapted from Adelstein and Pival, The Teaching Commitment). Note that a
paper must earn its grade: it starts with a "0" and works its way up.
1. Organization (10 points)
A.
Is the paper about the assigned subject?
B.
Does it have a clear, logically developed plan unified around a central thesis?
C.
Is the subject adequately limited?
D.
Is the paper written from a consistent viewpoint?
E.
Does the paper have an effective introduction, conclusion and transitions?
F.
Are the paragraphs organized around a topic sentence?
2. Support of Generalizations (10 points)
A.
Are relevant examples, illustrations, facts, or other forms of evidence used?
B.
Would an intelligent reader accept the evidence used?
C.
Are abstract words defined or illustrated?
D.
Is the support of generalizations as complete as the time allotted for the
assignment will allow?
3. Mechanics/Usage (10 points)
A.
Is the paper free of spelling errors? Is it generally free of others?
1.
punctuation
2.
fragments/comma splices/run on sentences
3.
subject-verb agreement
4.
pronoun-antecedent agreement
5.
errors of case (him for he, etc.)
6.
dangling or misplaced modifiers
4. Content (50 points)
A.
Is the paper interesting? Do the ideas reveal some maturity of judgment, some
insight and critical perception?
B.
Has the writer analyzed the subject accurately and thoroughly?
C.
Have the writer's conclusions been developed from an objective, logical,
comprehensive examination of the subject?
D.
Has the writer gone beyond the obvious?
5. Language (10 points)
A.
Is it appropriate for the purpose, audience and subject?
B.
Are words used accurately and defined where ambiguous?
C.
Has the writer avoided cliches and unnecessary repetition?
D.
Is the language concrete and clear?
6. Style (10 points)
A.
Are unnecessary words eliminated?
B.
Is the tone appropriate to the audience, subject and purpose?
C.
Does the writer appear to be sincere, reasonable and unbiased?
D.
Are sentences varied in length and type? Is passive voice used only where
necessary? Is subordination used to signal intended relationships?
Standards for paper grades:
The A paper not only fulfills the assignment but does so in a
fresh and mature way. (It teaches me something!) Every paragraph has a clear
purpose. Evidence is detailed, and the organization gives the reader a sense of
the necessary flow of the argument. Prose is clear, apt and occasionally
memorable. It contains few errors.
The B paper fulfills the assignment and may show some interesting
thinking but has lapses in one of the crucial elements of good writing; it may
be detailed and well-organized in one section, but not so in another. Or
perhaps the argument is clear, but the prose is lackluster or contains several
kinds of errors.
Note: Papers that earn C, D,
and F grades tend to have underdeveloped paragraphs.
The C paper follows the assignment but does so either
conventionally or superficially. (I've heard it before.) Adequate evidence is
provided, but the reasoning is predictable and/or occasionally flawed. Sentence
structure is generally correct, but not very interesting: the writer fails to
use subordination, sentence variety, and modifiers to achieve emphasis.
The D paper either doesn’t follow the assignment or does so in a
flawed manner. Often D papers do not have well developed paragraphs or a clear
thesis.
The F paper could be off the assignment, could fall seriously
short of minimum length requirements, or could be plagiarized. The thesis is
unclear. Evidence is scarce. Organization is haphazard or arbitrary. The paper
may contain numerous errors of grammar, spelling, punctuation, diction or
syntax that hinder communication.
Assignments are due on the
date next to which they appear. We'll fill in the presentation due dates early
in the semester.
View the film
topics: structuralism and
close reading techniques
Read Carpenter, pp-1-35.
Read Cisneros, Woman
Hollering Creek
Monday September 8
handout on narrative
Woman Hollering Creek
Wednesday September 10
handout of poems by Alexander
Shurbanov
Woman Hollering Creek
Book Festival
Weekend—schedule to be distributed.
Get your book signed by
Cisneros if you like.
Thursday September 11
Alexander Shurbanov reads in
Monday September 15
Read Carpenter, pp 37-64.
topic: poststructuralism and deconstruction
Read Downing, Breakfast with Scot
Wednesday September 17
Downing, Breakfast with Scot
Monday September 22
Read Carpenter pp.89-114.
topic: gender studies
Downing, Breakfast with Scot
Wednesday September 24
Breakfast with Scot
topic: postmodern fiction
Read handout of story by
Grace Paley, “ A Conversation with my Father”
Wednesday October 1
topic: psychoanalysis
Read Carpenter pp.65-88.
Monday October 6
Wednesday October 8
Read handout of poems by Mary
Jo Bang
Thursday October 9: Poetry
reading by Mary Jo Bang in
Monday October 13
Midterm exam due in class:
make copies for everyone.
On one single-spaced page,
write four paragraphs about the theoretical frameworks we’ve been studying. You
may use the books or poems as examples, but the focus should be on genre,
theory, or criticism. (I'll attach an example.) When you write these, remember
that we are interested in how you think, so don’t just copy a definition of
modernism, for instance, onto the page, but rather, synthesize or question it.
Make copies for the whole class (15 copies).
1) about something you
understand completely
2) about something you more
or less understand
3) about something you’re
less sure of
4) about something that you don’t understand at all (it’s ok to make this last one a question)
Wednesday October 15
Read everyone’s midterm; come
to class with questions.
in class: midterm evaluation
Read Carpenter pp. 115-134 and 151-158
topic: new historicism and
cultural studies
Monday October 20
Meet in Library Classroom for
Session with Pavi Rentz on the MLA bibliography.
During this period you will
find a scholarly article on Tar Baby, Twelfth Night, Woman Hollering Creek, or House of Bernarda Alba to abstract for the class.
Begin reading Tar Baby
Wednesday October 22
Tar Baby
Monday
October 27
Tar Baby
Wednesday
October 29
Tar Baby
Monday
November 3
Tar Baby
Wednesday
November 5
Read
Barbara Hamby, The Alphabet of Desire
and
handout of poems by David Kirby
Monday November 10
Finish Discussion of poems.
Wednesday November 12
Read House of Bernarda Alba
Monday November 17
Discuss House of Bernarda Alba
Wednesday November 19
Read Shakespeare, Twelfth
Night
Monday November 24
Twelfth Night
Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday December 1
Twelfth Night
Wednesday December 3
Synthesis of critical
approaches.
Monday December 8
Last day of class: synthesis
of critical approaches.
Final Exam Period:
Portfolios Due
In class: You will write an
overview of your learning in the course.