English 210-A                                                                          Fall 2005

Introduction to English Studies

Professor Hans Ostrom

 

Welcome to English 210-A. Here is some basic information:

 

My office: 336 Wyatt Hall.  Office hours: T-Th 9:30-11:00, and by appointment. Email:

ostrom@ups.edu. Webpage: www.ups.edu/faculty/ostrom/ .  Telephone: (879)-3434. Telephone for the English Department: (879)-3235. Mail box: located in the mail room near the English Department’s main office, third floor, Wyatt Hall.

 

The University’s Equal Opportunity Statement

The University of Puget Sound does not discriminate in education or employment on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, religion, creed, age, disability, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, Vietnam-era veteran status, gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by local, state, or federal laws. This policy complies with the spirit and the letter of applicable federal, state and local laws, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Questions about the policy may be referred to the University's Director of Human Resources and Affirmative Action (253-879-3116) or the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202.

 

 

 

Objectives of the Course

 

English 210 is designed as a “methods” course for students who have chosen to become or who are considering becoming English majors.  Consequently, one aim is to build upon what you have already learned—in high school, for example—about the study of literature, rhetoric, and writing.  In some cases, this aim may translate into ways of complicating texts with which you are already familiar, such as Romeo and Juliet.  That is, one feature of English Studies is the development of new readings of “old” texts, turning these texts, to some extent, into “new” works.  Heraclites claimed that we never step into the same river twice—that experience is in constant flux.  We might persuasively claim the same thing about reading: we never read the same text twice. 

 

Another aim is to explore the features of important literary genres: poetry (especially lyric poetry), the novel, short fiction, and drama. As we consider these genres, we will study some works that are more or less accessible and some works that, especially at first, appear to be difficult; the novel To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf, may qualify for this category.  The course is designed also to get you further acquainted with several critical methods and, even more broadly, with how literary theory works. We will also concentrate on the process of writing effective, persuasive critical essays; we will consider aspects of rhetoric, which in many ways is the foundation of English Studies; we will explore some ways of doing literary research; and we will do a bit of our own creative writing, for its own sake but also as another way to study literature.  One overarching purpose is to enrich our understanding of literature and, via literature, of our lives. This purpose includes appreciating the pleasures of studying literature, of reading, of writing.

 

Required Texts

 

If you are buying used copies, please try to buy unmarked ones, and please buy the correct edition from the correct publisher.

 

M.H. Abrams and Geoffrey Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms.  8th edition. Thompson, 2005.

 

James Baldwin. Giovanni’s Room. Delta paperback, 2000.

 

Jonathan Culler.  Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.  Oxford University paperback, 1997.

 

R.S. Gwynn, editor. Literature: An Anthology.  2nd edition. Longman/Pearson, 2005.

 

William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet. Signet Classics edition, revised (1998).

 

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, with an introduction by Eudora Welty. Harcourt, 1981.

 

The Etiquette and Atmosphere of the Course

Here are some guidelines to which all of us should try to adhere. None of them will be surprising to you or difficult for us to follow.   Indeed, I hope they’ll seem familiar, even obvious, but sometimes it’s good to reaffirm the familiar. All are aimed at creating a productive, workable environment.

  1. Please do attend class unless you are ill or otherwise indisposed, and please do try to arrive on time. I will try to do the same. Fair warning: If you are chronically late to class, I will probably ask the Registrar to drop you from the course.
  2. Please do listen while others are talking. I will do the same. Although conversations on the side are usually not intended to be rude or disruptive, they can have that effect. Respect each other and yourselves.
  3. Please try to do your best. The more each of us contributes to the course, the more each of us will get out of it. Bring something to the table.
  4. Please try to turn in work and complete reading-assignments on time. Do not assume that late work will be accepted. But also please ask me to clarify assignments and guidelines if they are unclear, and please let me know if an illness or an emergency has prevented you from completing your work on time.
  5. Please do buy all of the books required for the course, read them according to the syllabus, and bring them to class on the appropriate days. Do take pleasure in the works that appeal immediately to you, but also maintain patience with works that do not.  Resist the urge to “reject” works you find difficult and works you think you may have already “solved.”
  6. Please don’t eat in class (every professor has his or her pet-peeves); a cup of coffee (for example) is fine, however.
  7. Do your own work; don’t plagiarize. The University’s guidelines for responding to plagiarism are severe. If you are having difficulty with an assignment, talk to me—the sooner the better.

 

Elements on Which Your Grade Will Be Based

Participation (attendance, productive contribution to discussions, keeping up with the reading, working on drafts, etc.): about 20 per cent. Fair warning: Being late to class several times will affect your grade negatively.  Chronic tardiness and/or numerous absences may result in your being dropped from the course.

Three Essays: 50 per cent (total)—about 15-17 per cent each

Two tests: about 20 per cent (total) —10 per cent each

One Poem: about 5 per cent.

One Written Response to having seen the University’s production of Romeo and Juliet this semester: about 5 per cent.

 

Schedule of Classes and Assignments

 

Monday, August 29th.  Introduction to the course; review syllabus and course-policies. Objectives of the course.  Looking at a poem.

 

Genre: The Short Story

 

Wednesday, August 31.  For today, please read Chapter 2 of Culler’s Literary Theory: “What is Literature and Does it Matter?” In Gwynn’s anthology, please read “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allan Poe, “Mother Savage,” by Guy de Maupassant, and “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner.

 

Friday, September 2.  For today, please read, in Gwnn’s anthology, pages 7-26, as well as  “Eveline,” by James Joyce, and “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker.  Definitions and history of the short story.

 

Monday, September 5. No class-meeting: Labor Day.

 

Wednesday, September 7.  For today, please read “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway; “The Library of Babel,” by Jorge Luis Borges; and “Shiloh,” by Bobbie Ann Mason.

 

Friday, September 9. For today, please read, in A Glossary of Literary Terms, the discussions of Allegory, Conceit, Epiphany, Gothic Novel, Irony, and Narrative & Narratology. For today, please read “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, and “How to Talk to Your Mother,” by Lorrie Moore.

 

Genre: Lyric Poetry

 

Monday, September 12. For today, in Gwynn’s anthology, please read pages 421 through 462.  In A Glossary of Literary Terms, please read the discussions of Concrete and Abstract, Ambiguity, Ballad, Figurative Language, Free Verse, Imagery, and Lyric.  In Gwynn’s anthology, please read the poems “Bonny Barbara Allan” (463), “A Red, Red Rose” (512), and “We Wear the Mask” (p. 608).

 

Wednesday, September 14. For today, in A Glossary of Literary Terms, please read the discussions of Blank Verse and Meter. In Gwnn’s anthology, please read “To His Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell, “The Tyger,” by William Blake,” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” by John Keats. 

 

Friday, September 16.  War poetry. For today, in Gwynn’s anthology, please read “The Arsenal at Springfield,” by Longfellow; “The Dreamers,” by Siegfried Sassoon; “Dulce et Decorum Est,” by Wilfred Owen; “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” by Randall Jarrell; “For Malcolm X,” by Margaret Walker; and “For the Union Dead,” by Robert Lowell.

 

Monday, September 19.  First essay assigned, discussed.  For today, in A Glossary of Literary Terms, please read the discussion of Sonnet.  In Gwynn, please read “Sonnet 75,” by Edmund Spenser; Sonnets 18, 116, and 130, by Shakespeare; “Holy Sonnet 10” by John Donne; “It is a Beauteous Evening,” by William Wordsworth; “When I Have Fears,” by John Keats; Sonnets from the Portuguese, # 43, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

 

Wednesday, September 21. More sonnets.  In Gwynn’s anthology, please read “God’s Grandeur” and “The Windhover,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins; “The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus; “Design,” by Robert Frost; “Incident” and “Yet Do I Marvel,” by Countee Cullen; “Love Song: I and Thou,” by Alan Dugan;  “The Ache of Marriage,” by Denise Levertov; and “Dim Lady,” by Harryette Mullen.

 

Friday, September 23. Review for test. For today, please read the poems by Emily Dickinson on pages 581, 583, and 584; “Rape,” by Adrienne Rich; “Daddy,” by Sylvia Plath; “homage to my hips,” by Lucille Clifton. Be working on your essay.

 

Monday, September 26.  Review for test.  Poems we haven’t gotten to yet.

 

Wednesday, September 28.  Test.

 

Friday, September 30. Draft of essay due in class. Start reading Romeo and Juliet, please.

 

Genre: Drama

 

Monday, October 3.  For today, in Gwynn’s anthology, please read pages 839 through 861.  In A Glossary of Literary Terms, please read the discussion of Courtly Love and Tragedy.  What do we think we know about a) love and b) Romeo and Juliet?

 

Wednesday, October 5.  Essay due, in class. For today, please read page vii through page 1 of the Signet Classic Romeo and Juliet.  Also read Act I. Mark the text extensively.  Make a list of things in Act I that are surprising, interesting, or confusing to you.

 

Friday, October 7.  Please read Acts II and III of Romeo and Juliet. How would you stage these acts?  Please note: between now and October 14, go to the library’s webpage; experiment with using a variety of databases, including the following: ERIC, the MLA database, the Humanities Index, and the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language online.  Do the following types of searches on SIMON: Keyword, Author, and Title.  Do the same kinds of searches on SUMMIT.  Also, please visit the website of the Library of Congress, search the online catalogue, and do an Author or Title search.

 

Monday, October 10.  Please finish reading Romeo and Juliet.

 

Wednesday, October 12.  For today, bring in the full bibliographic information about two recent scholarly articles on Romeo and Juliet.  Also, bring in the full bibliographic information about a scholarly review of a book about Shakespeare’s drama.  Finishing our discussion of Romeo and Juliet.

 

Friday, October 14.  For today, in Gwynn’s anthology, please read pages 1379 through 1407.  As you read, list questions you have about critical essays and/or bibliographic formats.  Questions you might have about using the library’s research-tools. Please start reading Giovanni’s Room.

 

Monday, October 17.  Fall-break day.

 

Genre: Novel

 

Wednesday, October 19.  For today, in A Glossary of Literary Terms, please read the discussions of Narrative & Narratology, Novel, Plot, Periods of American Literature, and Periods of English Literature. Make your plans to see a performance of Romeo and Juliet on campus. Second essay assigned, discussed.

                                                       

Friday, October 21.  For today, please read Part One of Giovanni’s Room.

 

Monday, October 24.  For today, please read Giovanni’s Room through page 118.

 

Wednesday, October 26.  For today, please finish reading Giovanni’s Room.

 

Genre: Poetry

 

Friday, October 28. In Gwynn’s anthology, choose and read one poem that we have not read in the course yet.  Make some notes that will help you discuss the poem.

 

Monday, October 31.  Rough draft of essay due

 

Wednesday, November 2. Poem assigned, discussed.  For today, in Gwynn’s anthology, please read “Strangers Like Us,” by Gerald Barrax; “The Tunnel,” by Mark Strand; “Barbie Doll,” by Marge Piercy; “All-American Sestina,” by Florence Cassen Mayers; “Combing,” by Gladys Cardiff; “The Purpose of Altar Boys,” by Alberto Ríos; “Anecdote of the Jar” and “The Emperor of Ice-Cream,” by Wallace Stevens.  In A Glossary of Literary Terms, find Sestina in the index and go to that page and read the discussion, please.

 

Friday, November 4.  For today, in A Glossary of Literary Terms, please read the discussion of Modernism and Post-Modernism. In Gwynn’s anthology, please read “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T.S. Eliot.  How would you characterize the rhetoric of this poem?

 

Monday, November 7.  In Gwynn’s anthology, please read “The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats; “The Purse-Seine,” by Robinson Jeffers; “Musée des Beaux Arts,” by W.H. Auden; and “This Is Just to Say,” by William Carlos Williams.  Turn in your response to the performance of Romeo and Juliet today, please.

 

Wednesday, November 9.  Essay due. 

 

Friday, November 11.  For today, in Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, please read Chapters One and Three.

 

Genres: Novel, Poetry

 

Monday, November 14.  For today, please read To the Lighthouse, through page 40.

 

Wednesday, November 16. Draft of poem due. Continue reading To the Lighthouse. Note: you need to finish reading the novel before the 28th.  As you read, mark pages and passages you would like to discuss.  Also, think about what type of literary theory you might use to discuss this novel.

 

Friday, November 18.  For today, in Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, please read Chapters Four and Five.   Essay assigned, discussed.

 

Monday, November 21.  Poem due.  Writing in class.

 

Wednesday, November 23.  Professor is in his office, available to talk with students.

 

Monday, November 28.  For today, please finish reading To the Lighthouse.

 

Wednesday, November 30.  For today, in Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, please read Chapters Six and Seven.  Continue discussion of To the Lighthouse.

 

Friday, December 2. For today, in Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, please read Chapter Eight. Review for test.

 

Monday, December 5.  Test.

 

Wednesday, December 7.  Draft of essay due. 

 

The third and final essay will be due on Tuesday of Finals Week.

 

Finis