English 2112H: Honors World Literature II

Research Questions - Fall 2014

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Please click here to type in your revised question so that we can look at them as a group and critique each other's ideas.

Citation Examples

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Journal Article from Galileo Database:

Diffie, Whitfield, and Susan Landau. "Brave New World of Wiretapping." Scientific American 299.3 (2008): 56-63. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 29 October 2010.

Journal Article from Paper Version:

Diffie, Whitfield, and Susan Landau. "Brave New World of Wiretapping." Scientific American 299.3 (2008): 56-63. Print.

Book from eBook Collection (EBSCO Host):
Dulworth, Mike. Connect Effect: Building Strong Personal, Professional, and Virtual Networks. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). EBSCO. Web. 26 October 2011.

Book from netLibrary:

Cohen, Daniel. Our Modern Times: The New Nature of Capitalism in the Information Age. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. NetLibrary. Web. 11 Jan. 2010.

Book in PDF format (on website):
Dulworth, Mike. Connect Effect: Building Strong Personal, Professional, and Virtual Networks. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2008. PDF file.

Book in Print Form:

Cohen, Daniel. Our Modern Times: The New Nature of Capitalism in the Information Age. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. Print.

Book Chapter from eBook Collection (EBSCO Host):
Dulworth, Mike. "Entering the Network Zone." Connect Effect: Building Strong Personal, Professional, and Virtual Networks. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2008. 75-88. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). EBSCO. Web. 26 October 2011.

Book Chapter from NetLibrary:

Duff, Carolyn S. "Extending the Wisdom." Learning From Other Women: How to Benefit From the Knowledge, Wisdom, And Experience of Female Mentors. New York: AMACOM, 1999. 139-158. NetLibrary. Web. 3 Nov. 2010.

Book Chapter in Print Form:

Duff, Carolyn S. "Extending the Wisdom." Learning From Other Women: How to Benefit From the Knowledge, Wisdom, And Experience of Female Mentors. New York: AMACOM, 1999. 139-158. Print.

Work from an Anthology:

Weiss, Loel M., and Mark Itzkowitz. "Unholy Waters." Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities and Child Sex Scandals. Ed. Amy Neustein. Brandeis University Press, 2009. 13-42. Print.

First Day

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Welcome to your English 2112H course! I hope this semester will be both fun and challenging for you! Your professor's name is Dr. Matthew Horton (that's me!), but you can call him Dr. H. I have high hopes that this semester will help you improve your skills as a college-level reader and writer.

Click on these icons and see what you can do! This course is about reading great literature, sure, but it is also about using technology to help you discover new possibilities. So some of your assignments will be PAPERLESS! This might be a little scary for some of you, but I assure you, the skills you'll learn will be just as important as effective reading and writing!

Also, go ahead and look through some of the most important resources on this course website:

Read the syllabus
Check the agenda
Using Google Drive

Additional resources are available by clicking the tabs across the top and various links in the right-hand margin. As much as you can, familiarize yourself with this course website. My contact info is in the right-hand margin at well, towards the top.

Syllabus

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Description of Course
English 2112H is Honors World Literature II, a 3-credit hour, 2000-level course offered by the English Department in the College of Arts and Letters that fulfills either your Area C Literature Requirement or your Area B Global Requirement. You must have earned a "C" in English 1101 and English 1102 to take this course.

Fall 2014 Semester

In this course, you can achieve the following goals:

Learn methods for measuring the value of literary works from various times and parts of the world. Learn about the intersection between appreciation, evaluation, and enjoyment.
Explore how characters and situations in literature help us answer important questions:
- How do we define human excellence?
- In what ways do the standards of excellence shift and change?
- What sorts of conflict between values give rise to ethical crisis?
For each work of literature we study, ask the following questions:
- What sorts of choices do characters or narrators make?
- What sorts of values do characters or narrators defend?
- What motivates them to make those choices or hold those beliefs?
- Where does their confidence come from?
Ask questions about how literature explores conflict and crisis.
Perceive how ethical complexity makes literature compelling and memorable.
Explore how ethical themes in literature can help us know our own ethics.
Contemplate the meaning of the following concept: responsible reading.
Learn to use various literary terms to discuss the assigned works.
Take reading notes to record the details of your experience reading.
Prepare a research proposal and presentation for a conference.
Review and comment on various articles that speak to your research topic.

Texts and Materials

Readings include several e-texts and the following books for purchase:

Virginia Woolf. To the Lighthouse (1927)
Albert Camus. The Stranger (1946)
Vladimir Nabakov. Lolita (1955)

Buy these soon in case you decide to use one of them for your research topic. Otherwise, these books will be the last three we read together as a class.
Access to the internet and a reading light
A Google account in order to use Google Drive
Several working pens and lots of notebook paper

Course Requirements

Reading. This course involves more reading than writing. To keep up, you should read diligently, repeatedly, and not all in one sitting. I hope that, with dedicated reading, you will find a new passion, even if you have no plans ever to study literature again.
Grades. Your grade is calculated according to the following weighted scale:

Conference Presentation
Discussions
Reading Notes
Quote Responses

400 points
100 points
300 points
200 points

Course Policies

Ask for help. If you are struggling or need help, tell me right away—we can meet for tutoring in my office. Please use extra time before class to ask me questions and seek help on assignments before they are due. Be sure to use your UNG email account if you send me an email.
Participation. All students should take an active, constructive part in discussion in class. The best way is to read and think about the assigned work well before class. Take reading notes, write down your honest reactions to what you are reading, and write down questions you want to ask or comments you want to make. If you are deathly fearful of speaking during class, please turn in comments and questions that I can express for you. Even if you are shy (like me), you can always engage with the reading actively, on an intellectual level.
Make-Up Work. Work for this class includes assignments done on your own time online as well as assignments you'll turn in during class. When you are absent or sick on a due date, you need proof of excuse to turn in missed work.
Turning in work. All Quote Responses (typed) will be submitted through Google Drive. All discussions will occur during class time. Reading Notes (written on notebook paper) will be turned in at the beginning of each class. Do not use email to turn in work.
Email. The official form of communication at UNG is email. This policy protects all of us in the exchange of information. If you need to contact me about anything, whether personal or class related, please use your UNG email account and my UNG email address. Check your email two or three times a day for updates. Check it every hour if you have emailed me a question.
Disruptive behavior. I emphasize the importance of sensitivity and respect in and out of class between you and me and between you and your classmates. Refrain from gestures, attitudes, tones, and words that are meant to be base, insulting, or provocative. Please do not express disagreement with my policies, decisions, or academic help in front of other students; I am happy to field complaints privately during my office hours. You should, of course, disagree openly with any of my literary interpretations that you think are incomplete or misguided. I won't be angry at all; I will be quite pleased. If I disagree right back, don't get angry or feel embarrassed; just keep talking. Disagreement about literature is a sure sign of its value. One other rule: if you come to class, don't leave early unless you have checked with me before class begins. You may have bottled water in the classroom, but food is too distracting (see me if you have health-related reason to need food in the classroom).
Academic honesty. All work submitted to fulfill requirements of this class must meet UNG standards of academic honesty. Violations of these standards include receiving or giving assistance on any graded assignment without my permission (aka, cheating), fabricating evidence for use in an assignment (aka, lying), and using another person's words or thoughts in your assignment without giving that person credit (aka, plagiarism). Penalty for committing these acts could range from a zero on the assignment to an "F" in the course.
Withdrawal. Remember that you cannot withdraw from a class simply by not coming anymore; rather, you must withdraw yourself through Banner Web before the midpoint.
Disclaimer. This syllabus is subject to change to meet the needs of the course.

Supplemental Syllabus
Student IT support

Calendar

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Each item on the agenda can be clicked to reveal a description, if any. All assignments are due on their deadline days, but the times will vary depending on the assignment.

Readings

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Only three of the readings this semester will come from purchased books. The rest will be e-texts that you can download from Google Drive. Check the calendar for chapter/page numbers to read for each class meeting. Additional reading assignments will be provided as needed. All literary reading will be the basis for reading notes and engaging class discussions. For quote responses, students will look up scholarly articles that discuss topics of interest related to the literature.

E-texts are available here. You download the Google Document as a PDF to print if you'd like, or you can download the ".epub" version to read on your tablet of smart phone (I recommend the Google Book app, if you have Android). I will need your Gmail address to give you access to the e-texts.

Featured authors:

François-Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778)
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
James Joyce (1882-1941)
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)

The following books are available in the UNG Oconee Library.

Booth, Wayne. The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction. Berkley: University of California Press, 1988.

Chatman, Seymour Benjamin. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978.

Daiches, David. The Novel and the Modern World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.

Davis, Todd F. and Kenneth Womack, eds. Mapping the Ethical Turn: A Reader in Ethics, Culture, and Literary Theory. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.

Forster, E. M. Aspects of the Novel. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1954.

Frank, Joseph. The Idea of Spatial Form. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1991.

Fuller, Edmund. Man in Modern Fiction: Some Minority Opinions on Contemporary American Writing. New York: Random House, 1958.

Gardner, John. On Moral Fiction. New York: Basic Books, 1978.

Hoffman, Michael J. and Patrick D. Murphy, eds. Essentials of the Theory of Fiction. 3rd Ed. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.

Levenson, Michael H. Modernism and the Fate of Individuality: Character and Novelistic Form from Conrad to Woolf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Lewis, C. S. An Experiment in Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961.

Miller, J. Hillis. The Ethics of Reading. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987.

O’Connor, Flannery. Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose. Eds. Sally Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

Phelan, James. Living to Tell About It: A Rhetoric and Ethics of Character Narration. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.

Phelan, James. Narrative as Rhetoric: Technique, Audiences, Ethics, Ideology. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1996.

Phelan, James, ed. Reading Narrative: Form, Ethics, Ideology. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1989.

Scholes, Robert and Robert Kellogg. The Nature of Narrative. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.

Assignments

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Responsible Reading

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Some of you will be familiar and concerned with the following question:

How should I live my life?

If this question matters to you, then you can consider yourself, on some level, a responsible person. You are responsive to the world around you, the people you interact with, the influence you have on your environment, etc.

To be a responsible reader, you have to adopt a similar mindset about the language and ideas of an artist of words. You will ask a similar question:

How should I read this work?

If this question matters to you, then you will grow into being a responsible reader, and a better reader. If you are responsive to the world of the work, the characters who reside there, the influence of your interpretation on the way you judge the work, etc., then you might find that reading is, after all, extremely intense. If you are one of those people who claim to be "bad at reading," reconsider how your own attitude about reading might be getting in the way of a richer experience. You might only have a dismissive mindset about reading, and that is easy to fix.

Values of Literature

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What is value?
The phrase "values of literature" refers to those qualities of poems, stories, novels, etc. that make them worthwhile to read. If we feel our time reading is well spent, we can say that a work has value for us. If reading the work was a complete waste, then we might say it has no value for us. And there is a spectrum between the two extremes. Of course, if you simply do not like reading, then you really have no say in the matter, right?

What is there to value?
A work of literature can be valuable in several ways. Open your mind:

Literature has . . .

entertainment value

political value

artistic value

cultural value

historical value

philosophical value

moral value

ethical value

if reading it . . .

is an enjoyable way to pass the time.

can change the way people live with and influence each other.

helps us contemplate the nature of beauty and human creativity.

sheds light on the place and time of the author of the work.

helps one understand the past and how the world has evolved.

explores human knowledge, how we know and what we know.

teaches a lesson that will inspire the reader to live a better life.

helps us asks questions related to the standards of a "good" life.

What value matters most?
It partly depends on what you are looking for and how you tend to interact with the world. And here is where things get interesting. . . . we do not all agree on what to look for or how we should interact with the world. How to read is a matter for debate.

Does any literature have no value?
Hard to say. There is certainly some that has no value for me. If I could somehow obtain evidence that no one who had ever read a particular work gained anything from it, I might be able to argue that the work was valueless. But then I would also have to prove that no one who might read it in the future would get anything from it either. And I cannot see beyond now.

entertainment value
Literature has entertainment value if reading it gives occasion to enjoy yourself. This type of value is inherently subjective because not everyone will enjoy the same kinds of stories, styles, or themes. Being entertained is important, but being bored does not give anyone license to reject a work outright. I can put the book down and not read it anymore, but I should be careful not to assume that my boredom is somehow a characteristic of the work I tried to read. Rather, I was bored, plain and simple. Someone else might not be. At the same time, if a work is awesome to me, exciting, intriguing, etc., I should not assume that my interest is somehow a characteristic of the work I enjoyed reading. Rather, I was interested, plain and simple. Someone else might not be.

political value
Literature has political value if reading it gives occasion to change how a person thinks or acts. Politics is about the management and flow of power. And power, like electricity, flows from one end of a circuit to another to make things happen. Reading a work can jolt someone into action. It can reveal an injustice, outrage its readers, give voice to the oppressed, ridicule those who are corrupt, etc. The main idea here is to think about what the work of literature is trying to do. It has political value if it attempts to persuade people or the world to start acting and thinking in "this" way. We can see the political leanings of a work without necessarily being persuaded ourselves. But most of the time, we will like a work for its political leanings if we are in fact persuaded to align ourselves with the author.

artistic value
Literature has artistic value if reading it gives occasion to contemplate the nature of beauty and human creativity. There are many works of literature that experiment with the limits of language and its expressive power. If I like how words can be manipulated to create beautiful works of art, then a work that tries to use words that way in a new and unique way will have artistic value for me. I would say that every work of literature that we read in this course has artistic value because they are all works that have remained important over the years for the way they extended the power of language in a new direction. If you don't like words, it will be difficult to see the artistic value of any poem or story. The value will still be there even if you don't see it, however.

cultural value
Literature has cultural value if reading it gives occasion to think about the place and time of the author at the time the work was written. Authors might seems like supernatural beings or at least people who are way above us, transcending the world down here to live among the heavens with their artistic visions, but they are actually regular people like the rest of us. They care about what is happening in the world around them, and they have experiences in life that shape their attitudes toward various issues. If their work addresses the attitudes, customs, and values of their time (or another time), then the work has cultural value. The work becomes a window into a world that is unfamiliar, and we are encouraged to compare cultural differences.

historical value
Literature has historical value if reading it gives occasion to think about the past, how things changes overtime, and how the world has evolved into what it is today. Historical value sometimes overlaps with cultural value; if a work is really old, then it can give us insight into a culture so far back that we can also think about how that culture might be a foundation for our own. The cliché about history is true--the less we now about how things were, the more likely we are to relive them. Of course, some things might be worth reliving, and we might regret some of the history we have left behind, but other things we want to avoid repeating. Works of literature can help us learn about the past, process the past, and use the past to our advantage. Sometimes the historical value of a work is that it shows us what we have gained and what we have lost.

philosophical value
Literature has philosophical value if reading it gives occasion to explore the nature of human knowledge, how we know and what we can know. These questions are central to the production of art because any artist must interact with the world in order to represent it, whether lyrically in a poem or through storytelling in fiction; he must, to some extent, know the world. But it is hard to be certain about what we know or even whether we can know anything at all. Some writers explore philosophical issues pretty deeply because they are often a source of crisis that can create great drama and raise intriguing questions. If a work invites us to think about perception, making sense of our place in the world, or self-awareness, then we can say that it has philosophical value. In response to such works, we tend to look inward and wonder, "who am I?"

moral value
Literature has moral value if reading it gives occasion to learn a lesson. If a story or poem TEACHES us how to live, or attempts to teach us, then it has a moral dimension. Is the work still valuable if we do not like the lesson it teaches? Perhaps so. The best readers will see the moral value of a work even if the morals it endorses are somehow distasteful to them. Moral value is a dangerous value to measure. The history of censorship, for instance, is based on the idea that if a work teaches the "wrong" thing, it should not be read at all. This idea goes all the way back to Plato, one of the earliest philosophers to explore the moral dimension of stories and poetry. We have to be careful, I think, not to hold moral value as the most important one. If we reduce a story or poem to a moral lesson, or require that a story or poem BE a moral lesson that we can endorse, then we are USING literature to back up our own beliefs. To avoid this mistake, we must learn to appreciate works of literature for its various kinds of value. "To appreciate" means "to measure the value of something," and we need to try to find value in a work if we are inclined to reject it simply because we think it teaches the wrong lesson. Here is where ethical value comes into play.

ethical value
Literature has ethical value if reading it gives occasion to think about ethical questions. If a story dramatizes conflicts and dilemmas, it is not necessarily teaching us how to live, but it encourages us to contemplate the codes that the characters live by. If a poem has a speaker who promotes a particular world view or seems conflicted about the world he lives in, the reader can try to look through the eyes of that speaker and see what he or she sees. We may not agree with a speaker's or character's morality, but seeing that morality in action can shed light on what it means or how it changes the world. If we reflect on a moral code, instead of simply rejecting it or embracing it, then we are thinking ethically, and literature that promotes such thinking is ethically valuable. Here are some important ethical questions: What is the good life? What is the excellent life? Where do the definitions of good and excellent come from? Why do different definitions come into conflict? On what basis do they conflict? Remember: works that raise questions do not always answer them. To measure the ethical value of a work of literature, we need to ask the following questions:

Do the characters make choices in the work? What are those choices?
Do the characters or speakers defend particular beliefs or points of view? What are they?
What motivates those choices or beliefs or points of view in the work?
Where does the confidence in that motivation come from in the work?
Is there a crisis in that confidence in the work? Why?
To what place do those choices or beliefs or points of view lead in the work?

Yes, we can appreciate literature in the negative: we CAN decide that it holds little to no value for us, ethically speaking. But we must be able to explain WHY it holds no value, the same way we have to explain WHY it does. Your goal this semester is to learn how to explain your evaluation one way or the other. Before you accept or reject a work of literature based on its ethical value for you, you must first actually MEASURE that value.

Quote Responses

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On days indicated on the calendar, you will compose a quote response on a scholarly article you choose. You will be writing these assignments in Google Drive, so I will be able to see your work on them even before the due date. The deadline is actually when you should be finished so that I can evaluate your work.

The goal is to look for a scholarly article related to one of the works we are reading. You can look up articles on the works we happen to be reading at that time, or you can look up articles that you plan to incorporate into your research topic for the conference presentation you prepare. In fact, the sooner you can decide on research question, the more work you can get done for the conference presentation at the same time you are doing your quote responses.

For each quote response, you will read the scholarly article and select TWO salient points the author makes about the work under discussion. Each point should be represented by a two-three sentence passage from the article itself, not the literary work. Your "response" will be a thought-provoking reflection on the importance of the author's point. Please do not agree or disagree with what the author is saying. Instead, evaluate the importance of what the author is saying by addressing its implications about or relevance to some idea you've fashioned about the literary work under discussion. To earn credit for the assignment, please follow the requirements and guidelines.

Evaluation

A quote response that is complete, follows the guidelines, and is clearly written will earn full credit for being done on time.
If your quote response demonstrates any serious problems, I will ask you to do it again. Serious problems include failure to respond according to the guidelines or failure to exercise great care in proofreading your work for grammar and clarity.
To earn credit, your two quotations must be unique and carefully chosen, your responses must be professional and edited carefully, and all parts of the quote response template must be filled in, including (a) the name of the work and your name at the top and (b) the page numbers of your quotes (and other blanks where appropriate).
Please use the quote response template to type your work. When you open this document, you can go to "File" to "Make a copy"; then rename the document (LastName.FirstName.QR1.F14) and put it in your assignments folder in Google Drive. Leave the formatting in the quote response template as is.
No fewer than 150 words per response, not including the quotation itself. The strongest Quote Responses will go beyond the minimum length requirement.

Reading Notes

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For this course, instead of quizzes, I require note-taking on the reading assignments so that you can demonstrate thorough reading of each work. Also, they will help you remember more of what you read, making you more confident during class discussions. When you come to class, please bring with you a substantial set of hand-written notes on standard notebook paper about the reading assignments for that week.

To receive full credit when we have a reading assignment, you have to

Be in class to discuss the reading!
Take at least two full pages of notes before class begins--these notes must show that you recorded observations throughout each reading assignment for that class period. Use the space wisely and completely--if you like white space, then make up for it by going past two pages.
Record your observations and thoughts instead of summarizing. Here's how:

Make a bullet list as you go through the reading.
Whenever you want to record an observation in your notes, give the page number of the sentence you just read, quote the exact words of the selection, with quotation marks, and respond with a brief but thoughtful response.

Observations can include examples of literary terms, images that are packed with meaning, compelling lines of dialogue, confusing expressions, questions you have, character dilemmas, conflicts, writing style, etc. Really, you need a mixture of the above items, not an exclusive focus on any one thing. DO NOT summarize what you are reading; instead, select what is interesting and important to you, what you would bring up in class to discuss. Your notes must reflect that you read the ENTIRE portion of pages for that class period.
Make sure your notes are organized and readable. I don't mean "pristine"--don't rewrite them or anything, but don't just scribble meaningless phrases everywhere. Use page numbers. Every observation should be tied to a different quotation from the work, so use bullet points. Give your notes some structure so they are not just one big mass of words. Use underlining and boxes to emphasize and separate ideas, for instance. Your notes should show that you are thinking actively and making connections between stories.
Turn these notes in at the beginning of class for me to evaluate.
Put your name, date, and the name of the reading assignment at the top of the first page.

The notes should not just be a summary of the story or a random list of stopping points. The best sets of notes will how that you are responding to what you read, asking questions, noting significant moments, actively thinking. Remember, you are being graded on effort, so be sure that I can see your effort!

Discussions

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Your participation in our class discussions is part of your grade, but good performance in this area should not be a problem for any of you. You will have taken reading notes on the pages we read for each meeting, so you will be very familiar with the text and have already come up with questions and ideas to share. When you arrive, articulate those questions and ideas. Our discussions are for you, and our most interesting sessions will be the result of your honest, inquiring attempts to grapple with this difficult literature.

During each class meeting, you should raise your hand to speak at least once. You can offer clarification, ask a question, elaborate on an idea, challenge an interpretation, give an example or counterexample--in other words, you don't have to be "right" or "know the answer" to speak. Actually, I would rather you speak precisely when you DON'T know the answer or when you are uncertain.

Your presence and involvement will be worth daily credit, worth a total of 100 points spread over the entire semester.

In the event that discussions become routinely focused around the same few students making an effort to participate, I will begin requiring discussion postings before class so that everyone has a chance to try out communicating their thoughts before our discussions.

How Your Grade is Calculated

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I am using a flexible system that gives you almost complete control over the grade you earn in this class. My goal, actually, is to change your view of grading, at least as it applies to your pursuit of better reading and writing skills. Your grade in this course will, very simply, reflect how hard you worked at making yourself a better reader and writer than you are right now.

You'll participate in discussions, produce reading notes, and compose quote responses. Timely completion of all assignments accounts for 600 pts. The conference presentation is worth a maximum of 400 pts. A total of 900-999 points equals an "A" in the course (800-899 equals a "B" and 700-799 equals a "C").

Timely completion means (a) meeting deadlines and length requirements for assignments and (b) following guidelines for assignments. Why? Most students want a course grade to reflect their effort in a course; this approach to grading rewards effort without sacrificing academic rigor.

Using Google Drive

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Your quote responses this semester will be done on Google Drive. This online document creation and storage tool allows you to compose without any word processing software on your computer. The sharing feature allows you to collaborate with me and your classmates as you write your assignments. You can also comment and make suggestions on assignments shared with you.

In order for this tool to work for us, we will all have to cooperate, learn some new skills, and follow some rules. It might be a steep learning curve for some of you, but I think you'll be pleased with the results!

First, you'll need a Google account. If you have a Gmail account, then you already have a Google account, so all you need to do to get started is to sign in to Google Drive! If you don't have a Google account, the easiest way to start one is to sign up for Gmail! This link will allow you to designate a username for a Gmail account--I recommend using something like "LastName.FirstName" for your username.

Once you have your Google account, let me know the Gmail address you'll be using and sign in to Google Drive so that you can configure some things. If you need any help along the way, just let me know. We'll go over some of this in class also:

Edit your Google profile and make sure your display name is "LastName FirstName"
Create a folder called "Lastname.Firstname.2112H.Assignments.F14"
Share the folder with me and grant me "edit" privileges (I'll give you my sharing address during class)
Create a document in that folder called "Lastname.Firstname.My.Expectations.F14"
Now open this document and write a 300-word response about your expectations for this course this semester. What are you most looking forward to? What are you most afraid of?

As for the quote responses, I will explain in class how to do them, but the basic idea will be to create documents in your assignments folder and name them appropriately (LastName.FirstName.QR1.F14).

Check My Grades

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Go to UNG eLearning to view your grades:

Log on with your user ID and password
Choose my course from the "My Courses"
Click on "Grades"

Conference Presentation

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The Conference Presentation project consists of four main parts:

A complex and refined research question, subject to my approval
A one-page proposal explaining the content, purpose, and importance of your presentation
A collection of FIVE sources with a brief explanation of the idea you plan to use from each one
The presentation itself, one of two options, incorporating the FIVE sources into your own discussion:
- A paper that you could read in fifteen minutes
- A PowerPoint presentation with a script that you could deliver in 15 minutes

You must incorporate the secondary sources into your presentation, but you must also use examples from the literary text you are analyzing to help explain your view as you discuss your topic.

In your Google Drive assignments folder, make another folder called "LastName.FirstName.Conference.Presentation.F14"--in that folder create four documents, one for each of the elements above.

Vladimir Nabokov

2013-08-11T16:58:00.000-04:00

T.S. Eliot

2013-08-11T16:57:00.002-04:00

Read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Read "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

Background of the author
Read about "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Read about "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

Audio:

Eliot reading as a younger man?
Eliot reading as an older man?
Eliot reading with animated words

Translation of epigraph:

The epigraph comes from Dante's Inferno, Canto 27, lines 61-66. The words are spoken by one Guido da Montefeltro, who has been consigned to a suit of flame in the eighth circle of Hell as punishment for giving false counsel. He is, essentially, a liar, one who withholds or obscures the truth for personal gain at the cost of others. He is willing to speak to Dante because he does not believe that Dante can return to earth to report. Of course, he can and does, according to the fictional framework of The Divine Comedy. Interestingly, the famous literary hero Ulysses is also there, trapped in his own suit of flame for the same sin: he convinced his crew, after they had all safely returned home from war, to venture back out into open sea to look for more adventure. The ship was ultimately destroyed in a storm, and they all drowned. Here is the translation:

If I believed that my reply were made
  to one who could ever climb to the world again,
  this flame would shake no more. But since no shade

ever returned—if what I am told is true—
  from this blind world into the living light,
  without fear of dishonor I answer you.

The presence of this epigraph, followed by the ambiguous "then" in the first line of the poem, suggests that Prufrock is (a) a false counselor himself, (b) the Dantean poet who has returned from Hell to report back to us, or (c) some combination of both. Consider the last word of the poem--is Prufrock the anti-hero who invites us on a journey that ends in death?

Class Discussion Questions:

1. We are going to listen to T.S. Eliot read his own poem. As you listen and read along, I would like you to mark your text when you notice the following:

repeated phrase or rhythm
metaphors that capture an emotion
signs of communication breakdown
evidence of the speaker's self-consciousness

2. What is the significance of the epigraph, especially considering that the poem ends with the word "drown"?

3. Identify some words in the poem that suggest the act of writing itself. Why would this speaker use these kinds of words in a "love song"?

4. If the speaker of this poem, Prufrock, is leading us on a journey, what kind of journey is it?

"Tradition and the Individual Talent"

5. What does Eliot mean by "No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone"? How does the "historical sense" relate to being part of a bigger collection of meaning?

6. What is the catalyst analogy that Eliot explains and how does it relate to the impersonal theory of poetry (see beginning of Part II)?

7. What kind of emotion does Eliot want to see in poetry? How can the poet achieve this kind of emotion?

8. How can a poet be new and traditional at the same time? What does Eliot mean by "new"?

Significant terms from the prose

Impersonal theory of poetry
- historical sense
- catalyst metaphor
"make it new"
objective correlative

Virginia Woolf

2013-08-11T16:57:00.001-04:00

Albert Camus

2013-08-11T16:57:00.000-04:00

Background of the author
Read about The Stranger

The first line

Class Discussion Questions:

What do you make of the narrator's emotional involvement in the world around him? Is he masking real concern, or does he truly experience one thing as more important than another?
How does his response to events in his life challenge your sympathy as a reader?
How does the narrative style, which in some way reflects the emotional distance of the protagonist, threaten (or enhance) your involvement in reading this novel?
How does the trial change how we feel about his emotional detachment in the first part of the novel?
From what point of view is Meursault narrating his own experiences? How does Camus play around with this first-person narration?
What is the significance of the story about the Czechoslovakian?
When Meursault looks at his reflection in the tin plate (p. 81), what does he realize? What does this discovery have to do with the narration style?
Why does Meursault's lawyer use first-person to talk about his client (p. 103)? What effect does this have on Meursault?
According to Meursault, what is the problem with the guillotine as a form of execution?
If Meursault still has not been called to his execution by the end of the narrative (he couldn't have, right?), then what is the outcome of this story?

Leo Tolstoy

2013-08-11T16:56:00.002-04:00

Background of the author
Read about The Death of Ivan Ilych

Class Discussion Questions:

How do the acquaintances of Ilych respond to the news of his death?
Who is the narrator of this story? What attitude, if any, does he display toward the characters and action of the story? Does he pass judgment?
How does Tolstoy reinforce the motif of "propriety" through the tone of the narrator? How can we tell that "propriety" is an important theme of the story?
Why does this narrative begin after Ilych has already died? Why, in other words, does the narrative not start where Chapter II begins?
What does Ilych want out of life, and how does he conduct himself in order to maintain this expectation?
How is Ilych injured? Is this event allegorical?
What kind of relationship are we encouraged to have with Ilych as we read?
On what levels does Ilych see his own illness? Does it have symbolic value for him, or is his fatal condition just an unfortunate fact?
What direction does Ilych turn as his condition worsens?
When does Ilych begin to use his imagination? For what purpose? Does this change in thinking ultimately help Ilych? How so?
What is It?
How does the narration style change as Ilych descends further and further into his suffering? Identify some unexpected strangeness in the approach to storytelling.
What causes Ilych the most torment as "his last days"?
The black sack, the falling stone, the railway carriage--what do these images have in common in the story? What do they indicate, being used in the narrative, about Ilych's mind?
What is the one possibility, which might explain everything, that Ilych cannot at first bring himself to consider seriously? Where is Ilych's epiphany?
"This consciousness intensified his physical suffering tenfold." Consciousness of what?
Is this a story with a moral? Or does it have more value as an ethical exercise in distinguishing between what is true and what is false? That is, do we learn a lesson to apply to our lives or do we learn how to interpret more effectively? Or both?

Anton Chekhov

2013-08-11T16:56:00.001-04:00

Background of the author
Read about "The Lady with the Dog"

Class Discussion Questions:

When the narrator first mentions Gurov's unfaithfulness, how would you describe the point of view and tone? Is the narrator seeing something the character does not himself see? Is there judgment in the tone? If so, where?
What is free indirect discourse? Can you identify a moment in the narrative that demonstrates this technique? Consider the descriptions of women as an example.
Look for words like "seemed" (18 times) or "as though" (14 times) or "clear" (4 times) or "probably" (6 times). What do these words suggest about the point of view in this narrative? What type of Realism is Chekhov using?
Did you notice when the narrative shifted to present tense? How do we account for this narratorial intrusion?
Before the actual "end" of the narrative, Chekhov is sure to make us think about the idea of endings. How does these moments make the actual end of the narrative more shocking?
How does this narrative demonstrate the importance of distinguishing between plot and story?
Is this short story anything more than prelude to what we would really expect a story to be? How is it still a story unto itself?

James Joyce

2013-08-11T16:56:00.000-04:00

Background of the author
Read about "The Dead"

Class Discussion Questions:

What is ironic about the first line of the narrative? What kind of irony is this? How are the narrator's words an example of free indirect discourse?
What happens to the narrative voice when Gabriel finally arrives to the party?
How does Gabriel see himself? What is he worried about in the first half of the story?
Given his preoccupations and anxiety, what seems to be the problem with Gabriel? What is his besetting personality trait that helps explain why so much of the narrative gives us access to his mind?
How does Gabriel think? Where are some other examples of the way his mind works?
What two-worded descriptor does Gabriel use in the narrative, once to describe "music" and once to describe "the age"? What is the significance of this phrase in helping us understand Gabriel?
How does Gabriel think of his wife when he sees her standing on the stairs (p. 44)? What is the name of the painting he would paint?
How does Gabriel begin to think of his wife once they are on the back to their hotel? What starts to happen inside his mind, as a result?
How does Gabriel respond to humiliation?
Does Gabriel have an epiphany? What is he doing when it occurs? And what is the result of this epiphany, if any?

Jonathan Swift

2013-08-11T16:55:00.001-04:00

Background of the author
Read about "A Modest Proposal"

Class Discussion Questions:

What is "modest" about this proposal? It would seem to be the very opposite, right? So how does the title orient us to the motivations of the author?
What methods does Swift use to make sure we read this proposal on a figurative level, instead of a literal level? On the other hand, why be figurative when he could have been more literal?
Identify some of the advantages put forth by the author. Are these advantages part of the satire, or are we meant to see them as good things, apart from the actual proposal that they are offered to support?
Judging from the second to last paragraph, what is the real message of this proposal, assuming as we should that Swift does not actually want his readers to eat one year olds?

Fyodor Dostoevsky

2013-08-11T16:55:00.000-04:00

Background of the author
Read about Notes from Underground

Class Discussion Questions:

Part I

We know the man is writing, literally, but to whom is he writing? How does the man feel about his audience? Do you feel like a member of his audience?
In what way, according to the man, is consciousness a disease? That is, what are the symptoms of this illness? How does this idea challenge Wordsworth's confidence in reflection and the "philosophic mind"?
How is a man of action different from a man overwhelmed by his own consciousness? How is the "direct" person able to act with confidence?
What is the one "advantage" that the scientists and statisticians cannot take into account, the one that "upsets everything"?
What is the irony of trying to figure out the formula for our desires and advantages so that we can, ultimately, reach moral perfection?
How do the man's questions make us think about "negative capability"?
Which is better for the man underground: "conscious inertia" or moral perfection? Why?
Does the man believe he has an audience? Why does he write? Were we meant to read this narrative? If not, what does it mean that we are reading it?

Part II

How does the officer offend the underground man so deeply? What is the nature of his offense?
Why does the man write a satirical novel about the officer? What becomes of this novel?
What is the underground man's method of revenge on the "disrespectful" officer?
What seems to be the man's primary urge in his dealings with other people? What does he want most to do?
After hearing his tirades against Liza, do we look at the underground man's words in the first part differently? What motivates his use of words?
Does the man experience an epiphany? If so, what is it, and what is the result of it?
What is love to the man?
Why are we repeatedly made to think about the difference between books and real life? Why would the man's words sound as if they come from a book? Why is the man's ultimate act of cruelty described as being a product "of books"?
"And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better--cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?"
Why should these "Notes" perhaps never have been written, according to the man? what is wrong with the novel he has written?
Nevertheless, what does the underground man hope that his "audience" will look into "more carefully"? What is it that we continue to deny? What direction are we heading because of this denial?
How does Part II shed light on Part I? Why doesn't Part I come after Part II in the narrative? That is, why did Dostoevsky arrange the events the way he did?