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ENG 2100 Introduction
to Literary Studies
Metro State, Spring 2003, section 5
Dr. Cynthia Kuhn
Course Description: ENG 2100 provides
an introduction to academic literary study—its concepts, traditions, critical
approaches, and controversies. Students will read and write about
literature written by women and men from diverse backgrounds. In
addition, we will discuss critical terms and concepts useful for working
with literary texts. By the end of the semester, students should
understand general features of major types of literature and should be
able to write an effective interpretive paper.
Required Texts: The Norton Introduction
to Literature (Beaty, Booth, Hunter, and Mays, shorter 8th ed., Norton)
and A Handbook to Literature (Holman & Harmon, 9th ed., Prentice
Hall).
Assignments:
Response Papers (10 @ 20 ea.) 200
Presentation 100
Critical Essay 100
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. In addition, I highly recommend that you use the Holman
and Harmon handbook to further your understanding of terms/concepts introduced
in the Norton anthology.
Page
numbers below refer to Norton.RP
= response paper topic.
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Date
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Assignment
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F
1/24
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F
1/31
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read: 2-22 (introductory material)
including “The Zebra Storyteller”
Tallent,
“No One’s a Mystery”
de
Maupassant, “The Jewelry”
Atwood,
“Happy Endings”
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read:
66-69
Poe,
“The Cask of Amontillado”
read:
102-107
Welty,
“Why I Live at the P.O.”
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F
2/7
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read:
157-158
Tan,”A
Pair of Tickets”
read:
186-188
Hawthorne,“Young
Goodman Brown”
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read:
214-217
Chopin,
“The Story of An Hour”
García
Márquez, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”
LeGuin,
“She Unnames Them”
write
RP 1: Discuss how reading short short fiction differs from reading longer
fiction (aside from length)--what demands does it make on you as a reader?
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F
2/14
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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…”
write
RP 2: How do the critical essays affect your reading of the story? With
which points do you agree/disagree?
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Exam
1: Fiction
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Note:
in the poetry section, read all of the poems within the page numbers given
below…and pay special attention to the poems listed beneath the reading
assignments.
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F
2/21
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read:
600-614
Sexton,
“The Fury of Overshoes”
Auden,
“[Stop all the clocks…]”
Bradstreet,
“To My Dear and Loving Husband”
RP
3: Are there any recognizable patterns in one or more of these poems?
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read:
620-629
Piercy,
“Barbie Doll”
Rich,
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
Baca,
“Green Chile”
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F
2/28
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read:
640-659
Parker,
“A Certain Lady”
Lorde,
“Hanging Fire”
Whitman,
“[I celebrate myself…]”
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read:
660-677
Marvell,
“To His Coy Mistress”
Plath,
“Point Shirley”
Nelson,
“How I Discovered Poetry”
write
RP 4: Which of these poems seems to have the strongest, most interesting
speaker, situation, or setting?Explain.
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F
3/7
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read:
679-687
Shakespeare,
“[Full many a glorious morning have I seen]”
Lampman,
“Winter Evening”
Oliver,
“Singapore”
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read:
691-702
Dickinson,
“[I dwell in Possibility--]”
cummings,
“[in Just--]”
Williams,
“The Red Wheelbarrow”
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F
3/14
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Critical
Essay due
read:
717-728
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read:
729-742
Lawrence,
“I Am Like a Rose”
Parker,
“One Perfect Rose”
Blake,
“The Sick Rose”
write
RP 5:Discuss the effectiveness of
the dominant symbol in one or more of these poems—or compare the dominant
symbol in these three poems.
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F
3/21
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read:
743-759
Cope,
“Emily Dickinson”
Poe,
“The Raven”
Dickinson,
“[A narrow Fellow in the Grass]”
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read:
770-789
Olds,
“The Victims”
Williams,
“The Dance”
Borson,
“Save Us From”
RP
6: Make an argument about the sound or structure of one of these poems.
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F
3/28
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read:
793-814
Rosetti,
“In an Artist’s Studio”
Thomas,
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
Bishop,
“Sestina”
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read:
815-820
Auden,
“Musée des Beaux Arts”
Dickinson,
“[My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun--]”
RP
7:Emily Dickinson’s poetry commands
much critical attention.After having
read some of her poetry, do you think it is deserved?Explain.
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F
4/11
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read:
924-955
Plath,
“Daddy”
Steiner,
“Dying Is An Art”
Alvarez,
“Sylvia Plath”
Kroll,
“Rituals of Exorcism: ‘Daddy’”
Homans,
from A Feminine Tradition
write
RP 8: How do the critical essays affect your reading of the poem?With
which points do you agree/disagree?
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Exam
2: Poetry
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F
4/18
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read:1016-1039
Glaspell,
Trifles
RP
9: Make an argument for or against Trifles as “good literature.”
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read:
1043-1050
read:
Sophocles, Antigone
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F
4/25
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read:
1578-1584
Ibsen,
A
Doll House
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Ives,
Sure
Thing
write
RP 10:Which genre--fiction, poetry,
or drama--places the most difficult demands on you as a reader?Explain.
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F
5/2
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Exam
3: Drama
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in-class
performance work
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F
5/9
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Performances
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TBA
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Final
Exam Week Meeting / Performances
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Some
Helpful Appendices in the Norton:
·Writing
About Literature A28-A52
·Glossary
of Terms A53-A63
·Critical
Approaches to Literature A18-A27
Please see the official (paper) syllabus for course
policies, academic responsibilities, important dates, etc.
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