ENG 371: World Lit I, Winter 2014 Dr. Patsy Callaghan, callaghp@cwu.edu, 408E Language and Literature Bldg. Office Hours: 1-3 M and by appointment Text: The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Shorter 3rd Edition Outcomes 1. Students will understand and be able to articulate orally and in writing how literature is contextualized historically. 2. Students will be able to identify the characteristic themes, techniques, and conventions of a series of texts focused by theme, author, theoretical approach, or social and historical context. 3. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the range of literary perspectives, conventions, and forms. 4. Students will develop a personal and professional appreciation for literary culture. Policies Participation: Bring your text and come to class with the reading done so that you can offer relevant and useful observations and comments. Attendance, Lateness, General Courtesy: To allow for emergencies, you may be absent up to 3 sessions without penalty or explanation; each absence over 3 will lower your grade by 10 points. Being chronically late will also lower your grade by 10 points. Please remember to turn off your cell phones. Texting during class will count as an absence. Disability: If you wish to set up academic accommodations for the course, make sure I ve been sent a copy of your Confirmation for Eligibility from DSS and we ll talk about what will work best for you. Diversity: In the English department and in this class, diversity of opinion and perspective is welcomed and celebrated. We are here to learn in a climate of civility and mutual respect. Course Assessments Group presentations Creation Myths Ways and Paths Writing Assignments (2 @ 50 points each) Class Contributions (see options attached) Participation Final Exam Total 10 points 20 points 100 points (see options below) 10 points (see options below) 10 points 50 points 200 points Group Presentations: Collaborations are designed to share the labor of surveying and relating sets of ideas or concepts. Reading and research assignments will be given in class Writing Assignments: (See Writing Assignments handout for more complete guidelines, including rubrics and criteria.) Choose any two from any of the five options below. The assignment options are designed to allow relevant choices for Language and Literature, Writing Specialization and English Language Arts Teaching majors. Each assignment should consist of 4-5 pages of concise, organized, clear writing. Examples and rubrics are available on your Canvas site. 1. Literary analysis essay: As practiced in ENG 303. 2. Old and New: Essay analyzing elements of an ancient/classical text and associating it with new media--a film, a video game, a CD, a television show, anime series, a graphic novel. How does the new medium both reflect and tell a different story from the literary text? What do the similarities and differences say about our time, our needs, our purposes and values?
3. Re-creation--Across Time and Space: a creative re-writing of one or of a part of one of the texts in a different time period and place need not be our time. (Example Rewrite section of The Odyssey as a soldier returning from the Iraq war or World War I.) You may change genres, for example from myth, epic, fiction or non-fiction prose to screenplay. 4. Reflection Essay: a personal reflection on the significance to you, your community or our society of the ideas or issues raised in one of the literary texts. 5. Pedagogy Unit: A series of lessons based on one or a part of one literary work. Class Contributions (See attached list, with guidelines): 1. Lead/facilitate a group for either the Creation Myths or Ways and Paths projects (10) 2. Present a Ten On, an up-to-ten minute presentation on a topic related to the works. Sign-up sheet provided. Visuals are not required but may be used. Bring any digital materials on a thumb drive. 3. Review a critical article, 2-3 pages double spaced, and be prepared to introduce the key ideas into a class discussion on the relevant literary work. Tentative Calendar: Complete the reading assignments as indicated. Come to class prepared. The reading assignments are balanced and manageable, but I reserve the option of giving quizzes over readings. 1/6 Introduction to the Course, Literature as Storytelling, Literary History in Translation 1/7 Introduction to Assignment Options, Inquiry Questions, Literary Strategies 1/9 Mythology; Introduction to Creation Myth Group Project (Readings assigned in class) 1/10 Planning for Creation Myth Group Project 1/13 Creation Myth Group Project Presentations (8-9 minutes each) 1/14 Gilgamesh Annenberg Video and Discussion (have at least Tablets 1-6 read) 1/16 Gilgamesh Discussion (have Tablets 7-11 read) 1/18 Gilgamesh Group Questions 1/20 MLK Day Holiday 1/21 Homer, The Odyssey Annenberg Video and Discussion (have read Books I, V) 1/23 Discussion of The Odyssey (have read Books IX, X, XVI, XIX) 1/24 Discussion of The Odyssey (have read Books XXII, XXIV) 1/27 Structural Frames: Propp, Raglan, Campbell s The Hero s Journey 1/28 Video, The Hero s Adventure 1/30 Sophocles, Oedipus the King (have read the complete play) 1/31 Discussion of Oedipus the King as Tragic Hero 2/3 Virgil, The Aeneid Lecture/Discussion (have read 577-598) Review Writing Options and Rubrics 2/4 The Aeneid Discussion (have read 620-648) 2/6 Ovid, Metamorphoses Lecture/Discussion (have read Apollo and Daphne, Jove and Io, Pygmalion, Venus and Adonis) 2/7 Writing Assignment 1 Due, Introduction to Ways and Paths Projects, Reading Assignments will be made in class. Rama, Arjuna, Confucius, Zhuangzi, Buddha 2/10 Have read Ways and Paths primary texts. Groups meet, discuss all elements, divide research (beyond the text) and presentation responsibilities 2/11 Plan Group Projects: Have your texts read and your background research materials collected. Group members rehearse presentations, focusing on integration among presenter s information and tracking time use. 2/13 Ways and Paths Presentations 2/14 Ways and Paths Presentations
2/17 President s Day Holiday 2/18 Love, Courtly and Otherwise (have read Marie de France, Lanval 1032-44) 2/20 The Tale of Genji Annenberg Video (have read excerpt from Ch. II, The Broom Tree) 2/21 The Tale of Genji Discussion (have read excerpts from Ch. XIII, The Lady at Akashi, and Ch. XXV, Fireflies) 2/24 1001 Nights, Annenberg Video, Cultural Perspectives; Transcultural Perspectives on Transmission and Translation; Orientalism. Have read Prologue. 2/25 1001 Nights (have read The Story of the Ox and the Donkey. The Tale of the Merchant and his Wife ) 2/27 1001 Nights (have read The First/Second/Third Old Man s Tale ) 2/28 1001 Nights (have read The Story of the Merchant and the Demon ) 3/3 Dante, The Inferno, Lecture (have read Cantos 1-4) 3/4 Dante, The Inferno (have read Cantos 5-8) 3/6 Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (have read The General Prologue) 3/7 Canterbury Tales (have read The Wife of Bath s Prologue and Tale) 3/10 Storytelling as Survival Skill, Myth and Ecocriticism (You may watch the video anywhere) 3/11 Discussion of Myth and Ecocriticism 3/13 Contemporary Versions of Classic Literature 3/14 Course Review 3/15 Writing Assignment #2 Due 3/19 Final Exam 12-2 Class Contribution Assignment: Choose one of the following ways of contributing to the class information base. I may add other options to the list during the term. Group Leaders for Creation Myth and Ways and Paths Projects GROUP LEADERS will earn points up to 10 for: 1. Facilitating the discussion in relation to the questions and elements, noting, selecting and sequencing the most salient observations. 2. Making sure all the questions relevant to your myth are accounted for. 3. Making sure everyone has a role to play in presenting the information. 4. Acting as moderator during the presentation. 10-On (10 minute presentations of background information) 1/23 The Geography of The Odyssey 1/30 Greek Theater and Staging 2/6 Ovid s Biography 2/18 The Idea of Courtly Love (Europe and Japan) 2/24 Edward Said s Orientalism 2/28 Tale Telling, 1001 Nights, The Story of the Merchant and the Demon 3/3 Dante s Biography 3/6 Chaucer Biography Rubric for 10-on s: 10 points Used time judiciously. Information is not random but strategically selected to emphasize what we know and don t know about origins/authorship and socio/historical context. Organized, clear. Stayed within time limit. Information generally specific and relevant but not well organized or presented. 9-10 7-8
Relevance and usefulness to the reader of the information not readily apparent. Lacks organization and clarity. 5-6 Review Articles: Review a Critical Article in 2-3 pages double spaced, up to 10 Points The first and most important step in writing a review of a critical article is reading it carefully at least twice to come to a full understanding of the author's position. Your first reading will give you a preliminary impression of the author's thesis and will help you understand the basic structure of argument. When reading the article a second time, consider and respond to the following questions: What is the author's primary thesis? What is the intent of the article? What arguments or examples does the author use to support his/her position? How does the writer relate his or her interpretive arguments to those of other scholars? To what extent are the arguments/examples persuasive and adequate to support the thesis? Article reviews are due on the date when the relevant literary work will be the focus of the class lecture or discussion. Points are awarded for responsibly addressing the questions above. Three of the ten points will be based on how you bring the ideas from the article into the discussion of the literary work. (All entries are available through JSTOR unless otherwise noted. Entries are sometimes accompanied by annotations if the titles don t make the content evident.) Childs, Margaret H. The Value of Vulnerability: Sexual Coercion and the Nature of Love in Japanese Court Literature The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Nov., 1999), 1059-1079. Damon, S. Foster. Marie de France: Psychologist of Courtly Love. PMLA, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Dec., 1929), 968-996. Dobbs, Darrell. Reckless Rationalism and Heroic Reverence in Homer's Odyssey. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Jun., 1987), 491-508. Dundes, Alan. The Hero Pattern and the Life of Jesus. In In Quest of the Hero, ed. Robert A. Segal. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. 179-223. Eisele, John C. The Wild East: Deconstructing the Language of Genre in the Hollywood Eastern. Cinema Journal, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Summer, 2002), 68-94. (Not exactly on the Tales themselves, but examines the sub-genre of the Arabian Nights film in early cinema.) Galinsky, Karl. The Anger of Aeneas. The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 109, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988), 321-348. (Interesting study of the psychology of Aeneas anger management issues.) Hollander, Robert. Dante's Use of Aeneid I in Inferno I and II. Comparative Literature, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Spring, 1968), 142-156. Kennedy, Dane. "Captain Burton's Oriental Muck Heap": The Book of the Thousand Nights and the Uses of Orientalism. The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Jul., 2000), 317-339. (A good article for familiarizing yourself with Edward Said s concept of orientalism and its relationship to the British Victorian crisis of identity.) Malvern, Marjorie M. Marie de France's Ingenious Uses of the Authorial Voice and Her Singular Contribution to Western Literature. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 1983), 21-41. Lynne K. Miyake. "Graphically Speaking: Manga Versions of The Tale of Genji." Monumenta Nipponica 63.2 (2008): 359-392. Project MUSE. Web. 28 Aug. 2013. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>. Myers, Sara. The Metamorphosis of a Poet: Recent Work on Ovid. The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 89, (1999), 190-204. Rosenthal, Melinda M. Burton's Literary Uroburos: The Arabian Nights as Self- Reflexive Narrative. Pacific Coast Philology, Vol. 25, No. 1/2 (Nov., 1990), 116-125. (Don t let the title scare you this is about the rhetoric of the frame-tale; uroburos is a dragon or snake that bites its own tail.)
Rutherford, R.B. Philosophy of the Odyssey. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 106, (1986), 145-162.