English 2112: World Literature II

First Day

2011-05-09T22:40:00.000-04:00

Welcome to your English 2112 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, but I also want to make you familiar with some useful technology that can help you discover new possibilities. Keep in mind, these tools are just for your benefit--the only required one is Google Drive:

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

Read the syllabus
Check the calendar
Using Google Drive
Resources on Google Drive

Other 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 2112 is World Literature II, a 3-credit hour course offered by the English Department in the College of Arts and Letters that fulfills the Area C "Literature" requirement, the Area B "Global Course" requirement, or an Area F course for majors that require or allow 2000-levels English courses. You must have earned a "C" in English 1102 before you can take this course.

In this course, you can achieve the following goals:

Learn methods for measuring the value of selected works of literature around the world.
Understand the intersection between appreciation, evaluation, and enjoyment.
Apply characters and dramatic situations to important ethical questions:
- How do we define human goodness and excellence?
- In what ways do the standards of goodness and excellence shift and change?
- What sorts of conflict between values give rise to ethical crisis?
Interpret characters and dramatic situations as examples of ethical complexity:
- What sorts of choices do characters or speakers make?
- What sorts of values do characters or speakers defend?
- What motivates them to make those choices or hold those beliefs?
- Where does their confidence come from?
Become proficient in responsible reading.
Learn literary terms to help you engage with the literature we read
Analyze works of literature with thoughtful and developed written responses
Develop confidence discussing literature with your classmates

Texts and Materials

Texts include free e-texts and The Stranger (available in the bookstore)
Access to online tools such as this blog, Google Drive, and UNG eLearning
Several working pens/pencils and lots of notebook paper

Course grading

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.
How your grade is calculated

Reading Notes
Quote Responses
Test One
Test Two
Test Three
Final Essay

25%
20%
15%
15%
15%
10%
Bonus Points. Earn extra points for discussion notes.

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. If you seek help on assignments before they are due, you will see progress more quickly. Be sure to use your UNG email account if you send me an email.
Take notes. Organized notes taken during both class periods in a week can earn you bonus points. These notes must reflect your attentiveness for the entire class period on both days.
Participation. All students should try to take an active, constructive part in discussion in class. If the class desires, we will meet in group to discuss various questions. The best way to prepare for discussion is to read and think about the assigned work well before class. When you take reading notes, write down intelligent thoughts about what you are reading, and write down questions you want to ask or comments you want to make. If you would rather not speak during class, please turn in comments and questions that I can express for you. Even if you are shy, you can always engage with the reading actively, on an intellectual level.
Make-Up Work. Work for this class includes assignments done online as well as assignments turned in during class. If you are unexpectedly absent, you need proof of excuse to turn in work you missed or take a test you missed. If your absence is planned (and excusable), you should do the reading, turn in related assignments, or take the test before your planned absence. Late or not, all assigned Reading Notes and Quote Responses must be completed and turned in for you to keep any extra credit you earn. There is no credit for late work, but you can restore your EXTRA CREDIT by turning in missed work.
Turning in work. Reading Notes (written on notebook paper) will be turned in at the beginning of class. All Quote Responses will be typed in Google Drive; you must type your work, as you go, in a Google Document. Do not copy and paste into a Google Document from some other place. Be sure to confirm that you have met the word count/length requirement for each writing assignment. You will become proficient in using online technologies for writing, so you will need a working computer with decent internet speed. The computers in the labs here on campus work great if you don't have one at home. Do not use email to turn in any work, no matter the circumstances.
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 to send a message to matthew.horton@ung.edu. This is my official 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. Any behavior that interferes with my learning environment is grounds for dismissal from class. 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, so you must set aside time to visit. You should, of course, disagree openly with my literary interpretations that you think are incomplete or misguided. I won't be angry at all; I will be quite pleased and take it as a sign of respect. 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. Some other rules: 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.
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. Also, I reserve the right to request that you be withdrawn from the class if you miss more the 10% of the class meetings before or after midpoint. Please be familiar with the University Attendance Policies.
Disclaimer. This syllabus is subject to change to meet the needs of the course.

Supplemental Syllabus
Student IT support

Calendar

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Reading Notes for assigned readings are due at the beginning of class on the days they appear on the calendar. That is, when a reading assignment is on the calendar, it must be read by the beginning of class that day, and you must turn in the notes when you arrive. Quote Responses will be submitted through Google Drive. Click on each agenda item to read additional details (if any) about the assignment. Please be aware that printing this calendar will hide the details for each item, so be sure to check the digital calendar often.

Page numbers refer to e-texts I've made for this course. They are available here. The only text you have to purchase is The Stranger.

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.

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, 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 "FirstName LastName"
In Google Drive, create a folder called "Lastname.Firstname.2112.Assignments.S18"
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.S18"
Now open this document and write a 300-word response answering both of these questions in as much detail as you can about your expectations for this course: Which elements of the course are you most looking forward to (read the website to learn about the course)? Which elements of the course are you most afraid of? Why?
When the time comes to do your first Quote Response, go to the template and "Make a copy" of it. Drag the copy into your assignments folder and rename the document "LastName.FirstName.QR1.S18"
Whenever you do a new Quote Response, you'll make a copy of the template, rename it appropriately, and move your new document into your assignments folder. Required Quote Responses will be "QR1, QR2, etc." and optional ones will be "Opt.QR.TitleofWork" like this: "LastName.FirstName.Opt.QR.Tintern.Abbey.S18"

Assignments

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Readings

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Check the calendar to know when we are reading each work. And don't forget that reading notes are due for every reading assignment.

François-Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778)
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Olympe de Gouges (1743-1798)
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Percy Shelley (1792-1822)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
James Joyce (1882-1941)
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

This list might change as the semester progresses . . .

Quote Responses

2011-05-09T22:10:00.000-04:00

On days indicated on the calendar, you will submit a quote response on an assigned work. I say "submit," but because you will be writing these assignments in Google Drive, I will be able to see your work on them even before the due date. So the deadline is actually when you should be finished so that I can evaluate your writing.

The goal is to think about a work we are reading and write short paragraph responses to three different quotations. The exercise, therefore, has three sections. To earn credit for the assignment, please follow the requirements and guidelines. If the quote response is optional, you will not be penalized for not doing it; however, a higher grade on an optional Quote Response can replace a lower grade on a required one. However, optional quote responses cannot replace zeros on required quote responses.

Concern: Choose a sentence or two from the work that reveals the concern of a character or narrator (fiction) or the speaker (poetry). After typing your selection, describe how your selection helps you see that concern. Demonstrate your thought process. Do not identify a personality trait of the person--I am not asking you to explain what someone is like. Instead, identify an idea that motivates his or her behavior. For example, "This passage suggests that Edna wants the men in her life to serve her, just as she has been expected to serve them." This kind of direct statement should start your response. Then you would explain how your chosen passage actually reveals that idea to you. Where in the language does the author communicate that idea? How can you tell that the character of speaker has that concern? Be careful here. Don't chose a passage that reports a concern directly. Simply repeating what the passage says will not be enough. Look for implications.
Conflict: Choose a different sentence or two that contain evidence of an important conflict within or around a character, narrator, or speaker. After typing your selection, identify the conflict you see and how the language in your selection reveals it to you. Make sure you understand what "conflict" means before attempting this one. You need to internalize the following expression: "conflict between A and B ," the two blanks containing the specific concerns, choices, or attitudes that are in disharmony. It's not enough to write "conflict between Edna and Leonce." Be more specific: "This passage underscores a conflict between Edna's desire to free herself from social expectations and Leonce's need to maintain the status quo to secure his financial stability." This kind of direct statement should start your response. Then you would explain how your chosen passage actually helps you see that conflict. Again, be careful to look for implications, not direct reports.
Craft: Choose another sentence or two that showcases an interesting way that the author uses words to express an idea. After typing the quotation, describe the feature that attracted your attention and explain the effect it has on your experience as a reader. Do not interpret the passage; instead, show how the author's use of words creates an experience of meaning. For example, "This passage contains a metaphor comparing Edna's longing for freedom to the act of swimming in a great expanse of water." This kind of direct statement should start your response. Then you would have to explain how that comparison makes sense and affects your experience as a reader. Simply interpreting the passage will not be enough.

concern: an idea that guides an individual's behavior and choices. Concerns demonstrate our definitions of right and wrong, helpful and hurtful, etc. There is always a value system in or behind a work, and one way to make sense of a story is to identify the shape and size of that system. Even if we happen to disagree with the concerns of a character, narrator, or speaker, we can benefit from literature that helps us see another point of view more clearly.

conflict: Any clash between one attitude and another, one behavior and another, one desire and another, or one choice and another that leads to crisis (crisis being a point of anxiety and uncertainty). If you have ever asked yourself the question "What should I do now?" you might know something about crisis. In literature, conflicts between characters or conflicts within the mind of a character or speaker allow us to observe crisis from a distance, but we can still be affected.

craft: The way an author uses words should matter in a work of literature, and most of the time it does matter. So we must pay attention to the author's language. Word choice, tone of voice, the rhythm of phrases, the level of detail, figures of speech, etc. all contribute to our impression of an author's style. Style is important to analyze in literature because in the end, we are reading words crafted to create a memorable effect and thought-provoking meaning.

To receive full credit:

Choose three unique selections to quote. Each one must be thought provoking and reward close reading.
Compose and edit your responses carefully in a Google Document. Do NOT do your work outside of Google Drive and then copy and paste.
Fill in all parts of the quote response, including (a) the name of the work at the top, (b) the page numbers of your selections, and (c) other blanks where appropriate.
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 appropriately and put it in your assignments folder in Google Drive. Leave the formatting in the quote response template as is.
Show me your unique thoughts. Tell me what YOU think, not something you found on Google.
Write no fewer than 100 words per response, no more than 150, not including the selections you choose from the work.
Dig deep in your interpretation instead of settling for obvious, superficial meanings.
Write clearly and proofread, just as your would for a formal essay. I am not expecting your voice to be "academic," but I am expecting your grammar and sentence structure to follow standard conventions of college-level writing.

Poorly written responses will receive low marks, and while you will have chances to improve your grades on required quote responses by doing optional ones, you will create more work for yourself if you rush through your work on these. I would say you need to give each one at least a solid, concentrated hour of your time (after selecting your lines). Less time spent now means more time spent later. Taking up space by building up to your response is not a good idea--plan ahead so that you can start specific. Summaries of the literature or general discussions about your opinions will not receive favorable credit.

Scoring Guide:

5 --> skillful, focused, impressive, and invested
4 --> complete, on topic, and clear, but less compelling
3 --> competent but lacking in content, depth, or clarity
2 --> incomplete, off-topic, or poorly written
1 --> same as 2 but worse
0 --> undone, unfinished, or plagiarized

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 that you have done 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 assignment on the calendar for that day.

Why?

To stay focused as you read so you can recall ideas for class discussion.
To record and remember specific details from your reading and create invaluable study materials for tests.
To collect text selections for your Quote Responses.

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

Be in class to discuss the reading!
Fill more than one side of standard notebook paper with the assigned number of observations before class begins--these notes must show that you recorded observations throughout the reading assignment. Use the space wisely and completely--too much white space makes your notes incomplete. If you write "big," then you should adjust by filling additional pages. Your grade will depend on coverage, not just length.
Make a numbered list, counting up for each observation. Each numbered item should include three things, in this order:
1. Paragraph number (use page numbers if pages are numbered; use line numbers for poems) of an interesting line or two of text
2. Exact quote, in quotation marks, of your selection
3. Your thought in response to that selection. Keep your thought brief but be specific, no more than a couple sentences.
When you record an observation, you must write down the paragraph number and then quote the exact text you've chosen. Then you provide a comment to let me know how you interpret that moment in the text. What does the author achieve in terms of character or meaning? When responding, you don't need complete sentences--you just have to express specific thoughts. If you write comments that are too long, your notes will take more time to write than I intend for this assignment.
The words you quote for each observation should create a significant experience of meaning for you, but that experience must be complex and thought provoking. If you settle for superficial, obvious comments, then you won't earn full credit. Look for examples of literary terms, imagery that seems packed with meaning, significant dialogue, expressions that point to compelling themes, raise questions, or highlight character dilemmas, conflicts, writing style features, etc. Collect a variety of observations. 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 assignment for that day. Your page numbers will help me see your coverage.
Make sure your notes are organized and readable. Write slowly enough to be legible--if I cannot follow your writing, I cannot give you credit for your ideas. Every single observation you record should be tied to a different quote from the work, so when you notice something interesting, number the observation, write the page number of the work, quote the selection from the text, and then provide your thought about it (be brief enough that you have room to make the assigned number of observations (check the calendar)). What does that selection show you? Why did you select it? 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.
Put your name, date, title of work, and pages of the reading assignment at the top of the first page.
Turn these notes in at the beginning of class for me to evaluate.

The notes should not just be a summary of the story or a random list of points. This is not busy work, but a chance to show me your active engagement in the reading. The best sets of notes will show 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! Your notes are meant to prove that you responsibly read the entire assignment. It's better to have wider coverage than to write too much in response to any one selection.

Scoring Guide:

5 --> Everything for a 4, plus thoughtful, impressive, and invested
4 --> Good coverage, complete, all observations have a quote with a thought
3 --> Lacking coverage or length, sometimes missing quotes or thoughts
2 --> same as 3 but worse
1 --> same as 2 but worse

Discussion Notes

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In order to earn bonus points, you have to take notes during our in-class discussions over reading assignments. You should fill more than one full side of notebook paper with observations on EACH of the two class meetings to earn bonus points for that week, but you must also take notes the whole period. You can write down things I say, things your classmates say, things you are thinking to yourself about the discussion, etc. Your notes will count for bonus points if they are detailed and full, you turn them in to me after each class, and you take notes this way in both class meetings in a week.

Discussion Notes

Conditions:

You must show me these notes at the end of each classroom meeting.
A page of notes with lots of white space or huge hand-writing is not really a full page, so fill more paper to account for lost space.
Your notes should reflect that you took notes all period, not stopping when you "have enough." Bonus points will be awarded only if your discussion notes show a serious effort to be attentive and active for the entire class period.
Balance your note-taking with participation in discussion.
Do not simply write group discussion questions from the website and answers for your notes. Your notes should be your observations from the start to the end of your time in the classroom.

Content:

Start a new sheet of paper for each day, and put the date of the class at the top.
Write down the main topics that come up in class.
Write down questions I ask the class and the various responses people make.
Write down questions that you or your classmates ask and the various responses.
Write down ideas that come to you about the work during our discussion.
DO NOT copy down the discussion questions on the website.

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.

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.

Literary Terms

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Poetry

speaker
persona
free verse
meter

caesura
enjambment
rhyme

alliteration
objective correlative
impersonal theory of poetry

Fiction

narrator
narrative
story
plot
setting
ellipsis

flashback
flashforward
character
point of view
free indirect discourse

parable
allegory
epiphany
catharsis
climax

General

dramatic irony
situational irony
verbal irony
ethical significance
negative capability
representation

ambiguity
juxtaposition
style
diction
image
symbol

metaphor
motif
hyperbole
allusion
historical sense
"make it new"

Literary Movements

Enlightenment
Romanticism
Realism

Impressionism
Naturalism
Modernism

Post-Modernism
Minimalism

Extra Credit

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You can earn bonus points all semester, but they will only count if you have turned in all of your Quotes Responses and Reading Notes. You can turn these assignments in on time (for credit) or late (for no credit), but they must be done and complete in order for extra credit points to kick in. Your extra credit points will accumulate even if you have missing assignments, but they will not be calculated into your grade as long as you have missing assignments.

Discussion Notes
Additional Readings (see below)

These books are available in the UNG Oconee Library. The bulleted items are sections of the books you can read for extra credit. Read a selection and then write a one-page response detailing how it informs your reading of one of our works for this course. This is a difficult task because you must think theoretically about the way you are reading, your method of reading, not just WHAT you are reading: In order to receive extra credit for this task, your report must make direct reference to the outside reading selection and one of the works for the course and also explain how they are connected. Of course, polished writing is a must, and a report that goes beyond the minimum length will be more strongly considered.

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

Chapter 5: "Who Is Responsible in Ethical Criticism, and for What?"
Chapter 6: "Implied Authors as Friends and Pretenders"

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

Chapter 4: Discourse: Nonnarrated Stories
Chapter 5: Discourse: Covert versus Overt Narrators

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

Chapter 1: Selection and "Significance"
Chapter 2: Character
Chapter 4: "Dubliners"

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.

Booth, Wayne. "Why Ethical Criticism Can Never Be Simple" pp. 16-29
Phelan, James. "Sethe's Choice: Beloved and the Ethics of Reading" pp. 93-109
Miller, J. Hillis. "How to Be 'in Tune with the Right' in The Golden Bowl" pp. 271-86

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

Chapter IV: People (continued)
Chapter V: The Plot

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

Chapter 1: "Spatial Form in Modern Literature"

Robbe-Grillet, Alain. For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction. New York: Grove Press, 1965.

"On Several Obsolete Notions"
"New Novel, New Man"
"Time and Description in Fiction Today"
"From Realism to Reality"

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

Chapter 1: "Three Images of Man"

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

"Moral Fiction" pp. 105-126
"Moral Criticism" pp. 127-146

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

Chapter 2: Virginia Woolf, "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown"
Chapter 7: Wayne Booth, "Distance and Point of View: An Essay in Classification"

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

Chapter 6: "From the Epic To the Lighthouse"

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

Chapters I-IV (as a group)
Chapter XI: The Experiment

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

Chapter 1: "Reading Doing Reading"
Chapter 6: "Re-Reading Re-Vision: James and Benjamin"

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

"Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" pp. 36-50
"The Nature and Aim of Fiction" pp. 63-86
"Writing Short Stories" pp. 87-106

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

Chapter 1: "The Implied Author, Unreliability, and Ethical Positioning"
Chapter 2: "Dual Focalization, Discourse as Story, and Ethics"

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

Chapter 5: "Reexamining Reliability: The Multiple Functions of Nick Carraway"

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

Booth, Wayne. "Are Narrative Choices Subject to Ethical Criticism?" pp. 57-78
Miller, J. Hillis. "Is There an Ethics of Reading?" pp. 79-101

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

Chapter 5: "Character in Narrative"
Chapter 6: "Plot in Narrative"
Chapter 7: "Point of View in Narrative"

How Your Grade is Calculated

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Grade calculation is pretty straightforward in this class: Reading Notes (25%), Quote Responses (20%), Test One (15%), Test Two (15%), Test Three (15%), Final Essay (10%).

Check your grades.

There is also extra credit that you can earn, but you need to be sure to do all of your required assignments, even if you do them late and get a ZERO. Furthermore, you will have the chance to do optional readings during the semester that can help out with poor grades. You will also have the chance to do optional Quote Responses during the semester that can replace lower grades on required Quote Responses. However, to replace a lower grade, you need to have done the original required Quote Response on time because zeros cannot be replaced.

Study Guides

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There will be THREE tests this semester, one for each third of the course. These tests will have quote identifications and short discussion questions. Full credit on quote IDs will be given for the correct FULL name of the author and title of the work, spelled and formatted correctly (i.e. quotation marks or underlining when necessary). In the discussion questions you will write about events, themes, and writing styles in the works; you will also be asked to define and give examples of literary terms. The third test will be considered the final exam, even though it will be formatted the same as the first two tests. A typed, out-of-class essay response to a larger cumulative question will be due on day of the final exam.

Use these study guides to prepare for each test:

Study Guide for Test One

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Below you will find review questions for each work we've read for Test One. Also, you will find the names of the authors and each work we read--study them carefully, writing each name and title as it appears on this page multiple times to learn the spelling, including quotation marks (" ") and italics (use underlining when writing by hand). You will be expected to provide these names and titles on the Quote ID section. As for the review questions, please consider them supplemental to the discussion questions found on each individual author page--you should re-study those as well.

Review Questions

François-Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778)

Candide

How does Voltaire use plot in this novel to ridicule the "optimistic" philosophy promoted by Pangloss?
As readers, how can we identify with Candide's movement from naive surrender to "the best of all possible worlds" towards a more practical wisdom: "we must cultivate our garden"?
In Voltaire's satirical critique of the Enlightenment, what is the problem with reason, if any? What kind of change is he trying to encourage with his satire?

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

"A Modest Proposal"

Why does Swift create an extreme fictional persona to deliver the "modest" argument in this essay?
How does the ironic distance between the literal and figurative meanings of this essay engage the reader on an ethical level?
What role does hyperbole play in creating satire? How does Swift manage to create content that both disturbing to our sensibilities and clearly recognizable as satire?
What social philosophy is Swift indirectly attacking by pretending to adopt it? How does Swift manage to expose the flaws of that philosophy?

Olympe de Gouges (1743-1798)

Declaration of the Rights of Woman

How do the arguments made by de Gouges reflect Enlightenment values, particularly when she insists that women "unite under the banner of philosophy"?
Is de Gouges the kind of optimist that Voltaire would ridicule, or does her outlook suggest a reasonable approach to problem-solving?

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

How does Wollstonecraft feel about her fellow women? Are they to blame for their current condition of "slavery"?
Why does Wollstonecraft take time to address her writing style? Does she distrust language? What takes precedence over words, for her?

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

"Preface to Lyrical Ballads"

What is the purpose the poems that Wordsworth is introducing with this preface?
Is the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" enough to create poetry with lasting value? Why not?
How does Wordsworth understand "taste" in Poetry? Are we all permitted to judge poems however we feel?

"Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"

How has the speaker changed during the five year absence? What has been lost and what has been gained?
What is the value of nature for the speaker? How is that value connected to the mind of the speaker?
How does the speaker propose to cope with the darker side of human life, the trials and suffering of city life, for instance?

"Ode: Intimations of Immortality"

What is the attitude toward childhood in this poem? Is this attitude straightforward or complex? How so?
What is the "philosophic mind," and what is its purpose?
What is more worth celebrating than the "delight and liberty" of childhood? What qualities of human experience replace that childhood condition?

Percy Shelley (1792-1822)

"A Defence of Poetry"

By distinguishing between reason and imagination, is Shelley challenging the Enlightenment as a good approach to the good life?
How can poetry make people better, according to Shelley, and how are poets "the unacknowledged legislators of the world"?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

"The Lotos-Eaters"

Is the argument made by the men in the Choric Song a genuine argument? If not, what does this poem suggest about the power of reason?
If the poem ends without returning to the speaker outside the Choric Song, is the reader left to think that the men, in fact, do not leave the island? Why would Tennyson revise the myth in this way?

"Ulysses"

What is the speaker’s attitude toward his own desire to venture out again?
Does the ending of the poem instill confidence in the heroic ideal?
On what basis can we critique (if at all) the ambition displayed in the poem?

Study Guide for Test Two

2011-05-09T18:25:00.003-04:00

Below you will find review questions for each work we've read for Test Two. Also, you will find the names of the authors and each work we read--study them carefully, writing each name and title as it appears on this page multiple times to learn the spelling, including quotation marks (" ") and italics (use underlining when writing by hand). You will be expected to provide these names and titles on the Quote ID section. As for the review questions, please consider them supplemental to the discussion questions found on each individual author page--you should re-study those as well.

Review Questions

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)

Notes from Underground

Why does the Underground man consider consciousness a disease? In what way is he handicapped by his ability to reflect?
As readers, how do we reconcile what seems to be an inherent paradox of this work: the Underground man claims that he "shall never have readers"?
In the end, what is the ethical effect when the Underground man accuses his imaginary audience of self-deception?

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

The Death of Ivan Ilych

How does this novella demonstrate the difference between plot and story? Why is this distinction so important to our experience reading the work?
Does Ivan's "dull gnawing ache" have symbolic meaning, or is it sufficiently significant as a physical reality? What is a symbol? What is realism?
How do we characterize the narrator's attitude toward Ivan and his ordeal? In what way does the style of narration change as the narrative unfolds?
What is the significance of the "black sack" that Ivan imagines himself being thrust into? Is it a symbol or a metaphor? What is the difference?

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)

"A Simple Heart"

How does Flaubert maintain our interest in the life of Felicity without the memorable events we would normally look for in a narrative?
Consider the point of view of the narrator: "But Felicite took no credit to herself, and probably never knew that she had been heroic." Why doesn't the narrator know for sure what she knows?
How do you interpret the ambiguous language at the end of the story: "and when she exhaled her last breath, she thought she saw in the half-opened heavens a gigantic parrot hovering above her head." Is she delusional?

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

"The Lady with the Dog"

What point of view of Gurov does the narrator give us? Do we read descriptions from the outside, or does the narrator allow Gurov's thoughts to shape his style?
What is the effect of ending this story with the word "beginning"?
Given that this story does not teach a clear lesson about love and adultery, what is the ethical challenge for the reader?

"A Doctor's Visit"

After deciding to stay the night, the doctor is burdened by thought--is this another example of the curse of consciousness? Is he a man of action?
Despite her physical symptoms, there does not seem to be anything physically wrong with the patient. If not, then what is her ailment? What is the doctor's theory?
How do you take the ending of the story, when the doctor imagines a better world: "but [he] thought of the time, perhaps close at hand, when life would be as bright and joyous as that still Sunday morning"? Can he cure the world?

Study Guide for Final Exam

2011-05-09T18:24:00.001-04:00

Below you will find review questions for each work we've read for Test Three, which is also your final exam. Also, you will find the names of the authors and each work we read--study them carefully, writing each name and title as it appears on this page multiple times to learn the spelling, including quotation marks (" ") and italics (use underlining when writing by hand). You will be expected to provide these names and titles on the Quote ID section. As for the review questions, please consider them supplemental to the discussion questions found on each individual author page--you should re-study those as well.

Review Questions

Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

The Metamorphosis

How does this story address the definition of "human"? In what way is Gregor still human? No longer human?
How does the premise of the story (a man turning into an insect) play with the idea of a metaphor?
Should this story be read allegorically? Why? Are we better able to think about its significance if we consider it allegorical elements, or does the story function better as science-fiction curiosity?

James Joyce (1882-1941)

"The Dead"

What is free indirect discourse, and how is this technique crucial to characterization in "The Dead"?
How does Gabriel's view of his wife develop from the end of the party until his final thoughts about "the dead"?
How does this story dramatize the idea of being "thought tormented"? Does Gabriel find a way out his paralysis by the end?

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

What kind of journey does the speaker of the poem want to take us on? Why?
Consider that the poem is Prufrock's attempt to be a poet. Does he have anything important to tell us?
What is an "objective correlative"? Does Prufrock manage to achieve this standard of poetry?

"Tradition and the Individual Talent"

What is the historical sense, and why does Eliot place so much emphasis on it?
Explain the significance of the shred of platinum in terms of writing poetry?
What is Eliot's "impersonal theory of poetry"? Why does it need to be impersonal in this way?

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

"How Should One Read a Book?"

To what extent are we responsible for the experience we have with a book? What role do we play in letting the artist's intended effect happen?
If the act of reading does in fact require us to judge, what kind of judgments are we making?
Can the act of reading have value as an end in itself? How so or how not?

Albert Camus (1913-1960)

The Stranger

The novel is clearly told from a first-person point of view, but exactly whose point of view is it? How does the novel make us question the use of first-person?
On what grounds might we sympathize with Mersault? Does he plead for sympathy, or are we invited to offer it regardless, in a more indirect way?
Why does Mersault have such a problem with execution by guillotine? How does his explanation help explain the detached tone of much of the narrative?

Check My Grades

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Go to UNG eLearning to view your grades:

Log on with 900 number and password
Choose my course from the "Course List"
Click on "My Grades"

James Baldwin

2011-05-09T18:20:00.000-04:00

Background of the author
Read about "Stranger in the Village"

Class Discussion Questions:

As an essay, this piece has a rhetorical purpose. Can you identify what it is (or several)? Who do you think the audience is for this argument?
What does Baldwin mean when he says, "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them"?
What are the implications of the idea that rage is not susceptible to argument?
Baldwin speaks to an idea we have discussed over and over this semester: "People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster." Are we guilty of this mistake if we try to resolve our race problems by being blind to race, by trying to define "human" regardless of race?

Virginia Woolf

2011-05-09T18:15:00.006-04:00

Background of the author
Read about "How Should One Read a Book?"

Class Discussion Questions:

"How Should One Read a Book?"

Woolf says that giving or taking "advice" about reading is ill-advised. But then she goes on to make some pretty strong-worded suggestions. Do you think she does want you to read with a particular mindset, or is the whole enterprise really wide open?
In terms of reading, what does it mean "to become" an author? Can you describe what that experience might be like? Are the words we read in books a channel to the mind of an author?
What activities are involved in reading even after we have put the book down?

Albert Camus

2011-05-09T18:15:00.005-04:00

Background of the author
Read about The Stranger

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?

T.S. Eliot

2011-05-09T18:14:00.007-04:00

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

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. 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:

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

You were asked to listen to T.S. Eliot read his own poem. As you listen and read along next time, mark your text when you notice the following. Have you already noticed some?
- repeated phrase or rhythm
- metaphors that capture an emotion
- signs of communication breakdown
- evidence of the speaker's self-consciousness
What is the significance of the epigraph, especially considering that the poem ends with the word "drown"?
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"?
If the speaker of this poem, Prufrock, is leading us on a journey, what kind of journey is it?

"Tradition and the Individual Talent"

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?
What is the catalyst analogy that Eliot explains and how does it relate to the impersonal theory of poetry (see beginning of Part II)?
What kind of emotion does Eliot want to see in poetry? How can the poet achieve this kind of emotion?
How can a poet be new and traditional at the same time? What does Eliot mean by "new"?
How does Eliot directly respond to Wordsworth's theory of poetry in his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads"?

Significant terms from or related to the essay

Franz Kafka

2011-05-09T18:11:00.004-04:00

Background of the author
Read about The Metamorphosis

Class Discussion Questions:

If what happens to Gregor is not a dream, not an hallucination, should we hesitate to look at it symbolically? What happens to the story if we look upon this event as a symbol?
Is Gregor still human after he turns into a bug? How does Kafka make this a debatable question? Does he act like a bug? Does he act like a man?
Can we account for the transformation? Are we meant to consider some sort of cosmic justice or is it little more than absurd?
"Was he an animal if music could captivate him so?" What can we make of this question? Does Gregor have a point of view?
What is the significance of Gregor's speech being unintelligible? Does this at all reflect the absurdity of the story we are reading? Do we struggle to understand the language of this narrative?
In addition, what is the significance of the assumption (except for the hired servant) that Gregor could not understand them?
What are some motifs from the narrative that might help us think more carefully about Kafka's design in telling this story?

James Joyce

2011-05-09T18:09:00.003-04:00

Background of the author
Read about "The Dead"
The Journey Westward

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? 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?