Catalog Description:  Major literary works of the modern world drawn from western and non-western literature and comprising such authors as Wordsworth, Dickinson, Yeats, Faulkner, Woolf, Rushdie, Joyce, Morrison, and O’Neill.  A close reading of texts organized around the evolution of the classic genres, including epic narrative, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, and romance.

Course Objectives:  Through reading and discussion of a variety of texts, students will learn the basics of literary analysis and how to use these skills in their academic writing. Students will examine how modern authors have implemented and altered the various classical genres, and will become adept at identifying and describing the hallmarks of these genres.  Students will become more proficient writers and speakers by working on several different writing projects and by organizing class presentations.

Required Texts:  These texts are on order in the Iona College Bookstore.  If you intend to purchase your books from the bookstore, please do so promptly—the bookstore tends to return unpurchased books at the end of September, so if you wait, you might not find what you need.  Most of these texts, however, are readily available in libraries and other bookstores.

Erdrich, Louise.  Tracks.  New York: Harper, 1988
Fugard, Athol.  Master Harold and the Boys.  New York: Viking
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter.  New York: New American Library
Ibsen, Henrik.  A Doll’s House.
Shaw, Bernard, Pygmalion.  Pocket Books

Course Requirements
Email:  All students should have an email account that they check regularly.

Participation: Participation is a significant element of your final grade.  Participation means being actively engaged in the class by asking questions, doing the reading and thinking about what you’ve read, being on time, listening attentively to your classmates’ questions and ideas about the reading, taking notes, and so on.

Writing:  You will do several different kinds of writing in this course.  These assignments, listed briefly below, will be explained in more detail during the semester.  Please note that unless otherwise noted, all assignments must be typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins, and adhere to the MLA citation format. (MLA online: http://www.mla.org).

• Response writing: Approximately every other week you will be required to write a short paper (typed, 2-3 pages) that will address an aspect of the text currently being discussed in class.  Sometimes I will assign a specific question for you to write about and sometimes I will ask you to write about a topic of your own devising.  These response writing will help you to keep track of what you are reading and may be developed into your final essay for the class.
• Formal essay or hyper-text project: The formal essay is an analytic literary essay (5-7 pages) that focuses on one or two texts from the course.  No secondary research is required.  The hyper-text project analyzes a particular section of text by creating interpretative, contextual, and biographical links to that passage.  Both of these projects will be explained in further detail later in the semester.  For examples of student hyper-texts, see http://www.iona.edu/faculty/dwilliams

Exams and Quizzes:  There will be one mid-term exam and one final exam.  There will be a number of pop quizzes on the reading, although the number of these quizzes can be reduced if there is strong and consistent evidence that people are doing the reading.  The quizzes will not be announced beforehand and will always be given at the beginning of class.  If you miss a quiz and do not have an excused absence from class that day, the quiz cannot be made up: you will get a zero for that quiz score.

Attendance:  I take attendance at each class; chronic lateness and/or absence will severely affect your final grade for the course.  Be on time and be prepared for class.  It is college policy that a student who misses 20% of the classes may be assigned an FA (failure on account of absence).

Grading:  The grading percentages are approximately as follows:
Response writings:    15%
Final essay/hyper-text    15%
Participation (including pop-quiz average) 20%
Presentation(s)1    15%
Midterm     15%
Final      20%
 
 

Tues Sept 5  Introductions

Thurs Sept 7 “Strawberry Spring” (xerox)

Fri Sept 8 O’Connor (xeroxes)

Tues Sept 12 Poe (xeroxes)

Thurs Sept 14 Poe (xeroxes)

Fri Sept 15 Fisher/Hurston (xeroxes)

Tues Sept 19 Tracks - answer reading questions
Response writing #1 due

Thurs Sept 21 Tracks-answer reading questions

Fri Sept 22 Tracks-answer reading questions

Tues Sept 26 Tracks-answer reading questions

Thurs Sept 28 Tracks-answer reading questions

Fri Sept 29 Tracks-answer reading questions
Response writing #2 due

Tues Oct 3 Monday Schedule of Classes – No Class

Thurs Oct 5  Tracks – Prepare group discussion questions

Fri Oct 6 Tracks – group discussion questions

Tues Oct 10 Whitman, “Song of Myself”  (xeroxes)

Thurs Oct 12 Whitman

Fri Oct 13 Whitman

Tues Oct 17 Poetry – various

Thurs Oct 19 Poetry

Fri Oct 20 Poetry – Midterm review

Tues Oct 24 Poetry – group discussion questions
Sonnet due (response writing # 3)

Thurs Oct 26 Poetry

Fri Oct 27 Midterm

Tues Oct 31 Pygmalion

Thurs Nov 2 Pygmalion

Fri Nov 3 Pygmalion

Tues Nov 7 The Scarlet Letter
READING NOTES

READING QUESTIONS

PLOT SUMMARY

Wed Nov 8 Friday Schedule of Classes SL

Thurs Nov 9 The Scarlet Letter

Fri Nov 10 SL

Tues Nov 14 SL

Thurs Nov 16  SL  / prepare group discussion questions

Fri Nov 17  SL /group discussion questions

Tues Nov 21 SL
Response writing #4

Thurs Nov 23 Thanksgiving Holiday – No Class

Fri Nov 24 Thanksgiving Holiday – No Class

Tues Nov 28 Master Harold and the Boys
last day to turn in paper/project drafts

Thurs Nov 30 Master Harold and the Boys
READING QUESTIONS (complete reading questions for Tuesday, Dec 5)

Fri Dec 1 Master Harold and the Boys

Tues Dec 5 Master Harold and the Boys

Thurs Dec 7 Master Harold and the Boys
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Fri Dec 8 electronic class meeting

Tues Dec 12 A Doll’s House
Last day to turn in final papers and projects

Thurs Dec 14 A Doll’s House

Fri Dec 15 Last Class - FINAL REVIEW

Final Exam TBA

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