SYLLABUS FOR E300 ANALYSIS OF LITERARY FORMS
CSU FULLERTON, SPRING 2013

*2023 Note. Links have been removed from this archival version of the syllabus.

COURSE INFORMATION. English 300, Course Code 16634, Section 80. Tuesday 7:00 – 9:45 p.m., Irvine Campus (IRVC) 120. Instructor: Alfred J. Drake, Ph.D. Office hours: Tuesdays 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. in IRVC Room 212. Email: e300_at_ajdrake.com. Catalog: “Main literary forms—prose fiction, poetry and drama—are studied and analyzed. English majors should schedule this basic course as early as possible. Units: (3).” I will use +/- grading. The English Dept. may be reached at (657) 278-3163. Students who need special accommodations at the main campus should contact the Disabled Student Services Office in UH 101 or call (657) 278-3117; for the Irvine Campus, see Student Affairs, IRVC-159, phone (657) 278-3112. One other required link: Emergency Preparedness Guidelines.

REQUIRED TEXTS AT IRVINE CAMPUS BOOKSTORE

Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Shorter Eleventh Edition. New York: Norton, 2012. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-0393913392.

Appelbaum, Stanley, ed. English Romantic Poetry: an Anthology. Dover, 1996. ISBN-13: 978-0486292823.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Modern Library, 2001. ISBN-13: 978-0375756887.

Pirandello, Luigi. Six Characters in Search of an Author. Signet Classics, 1998. ISBN-13: 978-0451526885.

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Dover, 1990. ISBN 13: 978-0486264783

COURSE RATIONALE AND ACTIVITIES

FOCUS AND OBJECTIVES. This course will cover a broad selection of literary texts, but our main purpose is to consider the major genres (fiction, poetry, and drama) in a way that will help students move forward with their studies in English and world literature. The course will center on discussion of assigned texts. The assigned works of fiction can teach us a great deal about plot, narration, character, setting, and other matters, while our poetry selections reveal much about the special properties of language when it is shaped into a poem. Poetry, we might say, is where language goes to be most fully itself, and least referential with respect to the world beyond it. As Hannah Arendt observes in The Human Condition, “Poetry, whose material is language, is perhaps the most human and least worldly of the arts, the one in which the end product remains closest to the thought that inspired it.” Poetry, then, demands a certain kind of attentiveness to its status as highly compressed language and to its multiplicity of forms, both simple and complex. Finally, with drama we enter the realm of dynamic representation of something very particular, yet incredibly multifarious: action. Perhaps the stage seems limiting from one perspective, but it opens out into a world of motivations and deeds. Henry James wrote of his beloved genre, fiction, that “There is no impression of life, no manner of seeing it and feeling it, to which the plan of the novelist may not offer a place.” There may be some justice in making the same assertion on behalf of playwrights: drama runs from the lightest to the weightiest of human affairs, from rollicking farce and elegant comedy of manners to stark realism and the deepest tragic dimensions, and everything in between. We will try to attend to that capaciousness in our exploration of the genre.

ACTIVITIES. In class, there will be a mix of lectures, whole-class and smaller-group discussion, occasional quizzes, an essay, and a final exam. I encourage questions and comments—class sessions improve when students take an active part. Outside class, do the assigned readings before the relevant discussion dates, complete your journal sets as outlined below, and start planning and drafting your essay early. In literary studies, the aim is to read and discuss actively and thereby to develop your own voice in response to the texts you read. Insightful interpretation and the ability to make compelling connections are central goals. The essay, discussions, and journal-keeping should combine to help you work towards these goals.

HOW YOUR PERFORMANCE WILL BE EVALUATED

COURSE POLICIES. Please review the Course Policies page early in the semester. Key points easily stated here: missing more than 20% of sessions may affect course grade; academic dishonesty on any assignment (journals, presentation, paper, exam) may result in course failure. The evaluative requirements outlined below must be substantially completed to pass the course. Since the assignments will be due by email, it is students’ responsibility to contact me promptly if they do not get an email verifying receipt.

JOURNALS REQUIREMENT. Three separate journal sets due by email as specified below in the session schedule. Electronic format required. I will not mark journal sets down unless they are late (maximum grade = B), incomplete, or so brief and derivative as to suggest evasion of intellectual labor: they should consist of honest responses to the assigned readings, not “yes-or-no” style answers, quotation of the assigned texts without further comment, or pasted secondary material from Internet sources. How to do well on this assignment: read instructions; complete entries as you go through the assigned readings; send sets on time, making sure I verify receipt; respond thoughtfully, using your own words and referring to the texts’ specific language. (35% of course grade.)

PAPER REQUIREMENT. By the end of Week 13 (04/22) a one-paragraph description addressing the general topic and specific argument of the projected paper will be due by email. (Full rough drafts are also encouraged.) Not providing this description on time may affect the final draft grade. Please read the term paper instructions carefully since they contain the general prompt, suggested topics, and advance draft comments. I reserve the right to require proof of the final paper’s authenticity, such as notes or an early draft. Final draft (5-7 pages) due as specified towards the bottom of the syllabus page. There is no need to consider this a research paper, though you are free to make it one. CSUF academic integrity policies apply. How to do well on this assignment: send required advance paragraph on time and incorporate advice I send; allow time for revision; proofread and follow MLA formatting and style guidelines; avoid exhaustive coverage and stale generalities: instead, develop specific, arguable claims, demonstrating their strength by showing how they enhance our understanding of specific language, structures, and themes; document your online/print sources; read instructions and take advantage of course Writing Guides. (35% of course grade.)

FINAL EXAM REQUIREMENT. The exam will consist of substantive id passages (33% of exam), mix-and-match questions (match phrase or concept x to speaker/play y; 33% of exam), and key lecture points paired with substantive quotations from the assigned texts (33% of exam). There will be more choices than required responses. Books and notes allowed for all sections, but no laptops. Students may not share books or notes during the exam. Exam date: see below. How to do well on this assignment: read the online prep. sheet; take good notes and ask questions/make comments; above all, enjoy the works rather than thinking of them only as test material. If you take pleasure in the assigned texts’ language, attend to the sophistication with which they have been structured, and reflect on the intellectual/moral/spiritual value you derive from them, you are likely to earn a good exam grade. (20-30% of course grade.)

IN-CLASS QUIZZES. No need for further instructions here: we may have a number of brief in-class quizzes (usually 5-10 minutes) that will explore your readiness to participate in discussions about our assigned texts; both basic plot and structure considerations and genre/thematic issues that require some independent thought are possible question material. (10% of course grade max.)

EMAILING ASSIGNMENTS. Email journals and the term paper as attachments. Don’t send more than one document in the same email. Label subject lines appropriately: “E300 Journal 1, John Doe” etc. You can paste journal sets into a regular email or send them as an attachment. (Journal “sets” include responses to questions about several authors; do not send entries on each author in a given set separately; responses on the relevant authors should be combined into one document.) Please contact me if you don’t receive a prompt email confirmation.

QUESTIONS FOR JOURNALS

I am offering a general set of optional questions that should help students develop specific responses to the assigned texts by individual authors, but you are free to develop your own material for the journal sets: see questions page and journals page.

SCHEDULE: WORKS DISCUSSED ON DATES INDICATED

WEEK 1 FICTION

Tu. 01/29. Course Introduction.

WEEK 2 FICTION

Tu. 02/05. Norton Chapter 1: Plot. Read this chapter’s introductory material (82-89). Guy de Maupassant. “The Jewelry” (90-95). Edith Wharton. “Roman Fever” (118-28). Chapter 2. Narration and Point of View: read this chapter’s introductory material (160-64). Edgar Allan Poe. “The Cask of Amontillado” (164-70). Jamaica Kincaid. “Girl” (170-71).

WEEK 3 FICTION

Tu. 02/12. Norton Chapter 3. Character: read this chapter’s introductory material (180-87). David Foster Wallace’s “Good People” (215-20); Toby Litt’s “The Monster” (241-43). Norton Chapter 4. Setting: read this chapter’s introductory material (245-51). Anton Chekhov. “The Lady with the Dog” (251-62). Norton Chapter 5. Symbol and Figurative Language: read this chapter’s introductory material (285-90). Edwige Danticat. “A Wall of Fire Rising” (317-29).

WEEK 4 FICTION

Tu. 02/19. Special Focus on Fyodor Dostoevsky. Read Norton Introductory material on Theme (Ch. 6, 334-38). We will in part discuss this aspect of literary texts though Fyodor Dostoevsky. Read Notes from the Underground (Dover 95-215).

WEEK 5 FICTION

Tu. 02/26. Special Focus, continued: Fyodor Dostoevsky. Notes from the Underground (Dover 95-215) and “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” (Dover 263-86).

JOURNAL SET 1 DUE BY EMAIL SUNDAY 03/03. (Reminder: this set includes journal entries on fiction. I will verify receipt by email within a few days.)

WEEK 6 POETRY

Tu. 03/05. Norton Introductory Material on Poetry, Chapter 10 (618-36). Special Focus: English Romanticism. William Blake and Lord Byron. Read all Blake selections (Dover 1-22) and Byron’s “The Prisoner of Chillon” (Dover 116-27).

WEEK 7 POETRY

Tu. 03/12. Special Focus: English Romanticism. Selections from Wordsworth’s “Preface” to Lyrical Ballads, 1802. (Brief excerpts originally available.) Read also in the Dover edition: “We Are Seven” (23-25); “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour. July 13, 1798” (25-29); “She dwelt among the untrodden ways” (31-32); “A slumber did my spirit seal” (32); “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (43-44); “The Solitary Reaper” (42); “My heart leaps up when I behold” (35); “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (51-57).

WEEK 8 POETRY

Tu. 03/19. Special Focus: English Romanticism. From English Romantic Poetry: an Anthology (Dover): Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (63-81); “Frost at Midnight” (100-01); “Kubla Khan” (105-06); “Dejection: An Ode” (106-10). Percy Bysshe Shelley. “Ozymandias” (147); “Ode to the West Wind” (151-53); “To a Skylark” (157-59). John Keats. “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer” (189); “To Autumn” (222-23); “Ode to a Nightingale” (216-18); “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (218-20).

WEEK 9 POETRY

Tu. 03/26. Special Focus: Modernist Poetry. W.B. Yeats. “William Butler Yeats: an Album” (Norton 955-965); Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens. Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” (1102). T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1087). Wallace Stevens’ “The Emperor of Ice Cream” (1103) and “Anecdote of the Jar” (1102).

WEEK 10 POETRY

Tu. 04/02. Spring Recess, No Classes.

WEEK 11 POETRY

Tu. 04/09. Poetry as Form and Foregrounded Language. Norton Chapters 13-16, etc. Emily Dickinson: “Because I could not stop for Death” (807); Edgar Allan Poe: “The Raven” (838); W.C. Williams: “The Red Wheelbarrow” (796), “This is Just to Say” (797); G.M. Hopkins: “Pied Beauty” (798), “God’s Grandeur” (1094), “The Windhover” (1095); E.E. Cummings: “in Just” (1081); “The Twenty-Third Psalm” (810); Wilfred Owen: “Dulce et Decorum Est” (1101); Robert Frost: “Design” (898), “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (1091); Shakespeare: “Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame” (868); Dylan Thomas: “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” (878); Elizabeth Bishop: “Sestina” (879); Marianne Moore “Poetry” (703); Archibald MacLeish: “Ars Poetica” (700); Alfred Tennyson: “Ulysses” (990); Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess” (1078).

JOURNAL SET 2 DUE BY EMAIL SUNDAY 04/14. (Reminder: this set includes journal entries on a selection of poems from among the broader selection assigned; see more detailed instructions in the link.)

WEEK 12 DRAMA

Tu. 04/16. William Shakespeare. Hamlet Acts 1-3 (Norton 1363-1424).

PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING TOPIC AND ARGUMENT FOR PAPER DUE BY EMAIL SUNDAY 04/21.

WEEK 13 DRAMA

Tu. 04/23. William Shakespeare. Hamlet Acts 4-5 (Norton 1424-58).

WEEK 14 DRAMA

Tu. 04/30. Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest (Dover 1-54).

WEEK 15 DRAMA

Tu. 05/07. Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest (Dover 1-54).

WEEK 16 DRAMA

Tu. 05/14. Luigi Pirandello. Six Characters in Search of an Author (Signet 2-74).

JOURNAL SET 3 DUE BY EMAIL EXAM DAY. (Reminder: this set includes journal entries on each assigned drama.)

FINALS WEEK

Final Exam Date Tuesday, May 21 at 7:30 – 9:20 p.m. You don’t need to bring a bluebook; the exam is open-book and open-note, but no laptops and no sharing books or notes. Paper due by email by Friday, May 24, 2012. (I must turn in grades by Friday May 31, 2013.) For your other courses, check CSUF’s Final Exam Schedule.