ENG 1100: Introduction to Literature

 


Metro State, Spring 2003, section 4
Dr. Cynthia Kuhn

Course Description: English 1100 provides an introduction to reading and writing about literature.  We will explore literary elements in three genres: fiction, poetry, and drama.  Coursework will include discussion, group activities, examinations, essays, and a group presentation. 

Required Text: The Norton Introduction to Literature (Beaty, Booth, Hunter, and Mays, shorter 8th ed., Norton, 2002)

Assignments:
Participation    100
Essay     100
Presentation    200
Exam 1 (fiction)   200
Exam 2 (poetry)   200
Exam 3 (drama)   200
Total points 1000
900-1000 = A
 800-899 = B
 700-799 = C 
 600-699 = D
 0-600 = F 

SCHEDULE

To prepare for class, please read the assigned texts carefully, more than once. The first time, you might skim quickly to get a sense of the whole, then read the material again, more slowly, to identify the text’s main issues, its structure, and any significant patterns worthy of exploration. You might also think about our class discussions and the ways in which you could draw connections to literary concepts or to other texts we’ve read. 
 
 
Date
Topic
Assignment
W 1/22
introductions 
M 1/27
reading, writing, & responding to fiction
read: 2-22 (introductory material)
including “The Zebra Storyteller” 
Tallent, “No One’s a Mystery”
de Maupassant, “The Jewelry” 

and Atwood, “Happy Endings”

W 1/29
point of view and characterization
read: 66-69
Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” 
read: 102-107
Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.” 
M 2/3
setting and symbol
read: 157-158 
Tan,”A Pair of Tickets”
read: 186-188 
Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” 
W 2/5
theme
read: 214-217
Chopin, “The Story of An Hour”
GarcíaMárquez, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” 
LeGuin, “She Unnames Them”
M 2/10
evaluating fiction
read: 423-425
Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” 
Rodgers, “We All Said, ‘she will kill herself’…”
Dillon, “Styles of Reading” 
Fetterley, “A Rose in ‘A Rose for Emily’” 

Moore, “Of Time…”

W 2/12
Exam 1: Fiction
Note: in the poetry section, read all of the poems within the page numbers given below…and pay specialattention to the poems listed beneath the reading assignments.
M 2/17
reading, writing, & responding to poetry
read: 600-614
Sexton, “The Fury of Overshoes” 
Auden, “[Stop all the clocks…]” 
Bradstreet, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” 
W 2/19
tone
read: 620-629
Piercy, “Barbie Doll” 
Rich, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
Baca, “Green Chile
M 2/24
speaker
read: 640-659
Parker, “A Certain Lady” 
Lorde, “Hanging Fire” 
Whitman, “[I celebrate myself…]” 
W 2/26
situation/setting
read: 660-677
Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” 
Plath, “Point Shirley”
Nelson, “How I Discovered Poetry”
M 3/3
time & place
read: 679-687
Shakespeare, “[Full many a glorious morning have I seen]”
Lampman, “Winter Evening”
Oliver, “Singapore
W 3/5
language: precision & ambiguity
read: 691-702
Dickinson, “[I dwell in Possibility--]” 
cummings, “[in Just--]”
Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow”
M 3/10
metaphor and simile
Essay due 
read: 717-728
W 3/12
symbol
read: 729-742
Lawrence, “I Am Like a Rose”
Parker, “One Perfect Rose” 
Blake, “The Sick Rose”
M 3/17
sound
read: 743-759
Cope, “Emily Dickinson”
Poe, “The Raven” 
Dickinson, “[A narrow Fellow in the Grass]” 
W 3/19
internal structure
read: 770-789 
Olds, “The Victims”
Williams, “The Dance”
Borson, “Save Us From” 
M 3/31
external form
read: 793-814
Rosetti, “In an Artist’s Studio”
Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
Bishop, “Sestina”
W 4/2
the whole text
read: 815-820
Auden, “Musée des Beaux Arts” 
Dickinson, “[My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun--]”
M 4/7
evaluating poetry
read: 924-955
Plath, “Daddy” 
Steiner, “Dying Is An Art”
Alvarez, “Sylvia Plath
Kroll, “Rituals of Exorcism: ‘Daddy’”

Homans, “from A Feminine Tradition” 

W 4/9
Exam 2: Poetry
M 4/14
reading, writing, and responding to drama
read:1016-1039
Glaspell, Trifles
W 4/16
read: 1043-1050
Sophocles, Antigone
M 4/21
read: 1578-1584
Ibsen, A Doll House
W 4/23
Ives, Sure Thing
M 4/28
Exam 3: Drama 
W 4/30
in-class performance work
M 5/5
Performances
W 5/7
Performances
TBA
Performances (Final Exam Week Meeting) 

 

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Please see the official (paper) syllabus for course policies, academic responsibilities, important dates, etc.

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