Course Outline:
Week 1: Orientation, introduction to the course. What is Literature?
Fable: The Appointment in Samarra
The Fox and the Grapes
Parable: The Parable of the Prodigal Son
Week 2&3: Approaching Fiction: plot, character
The Short Story
Ernest Hemingway: Cat in the Rain (to be photocopied)
In-class 1: characterization
Week 4: Themes
Kate Chopin: The Story of an Hour and Desiree’s Baby (to be photocopied)
In-class essay 2: themes
Week 5: Narrative Point of View, Allegory and Symbolism.
1. Alice Walker: Everyday Use
2. Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado
3. In-class 3: point of view
Week 6: Approaching Poetry
Langston Hughes: Harlem
John Keats: La Belle Dame sans Merci
John Keats: Ode to a Nightingale
Week 7 and 8: Selections from Robert Frost’s poetry
The Importance of Poetic Metaphor
The Road Not Taken
Mending Wall
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Desert Places
In-class essay (4)
Week 9: Tone, Figurative Language
Robert Herrick: To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Thomas Hardy: The Man He Killed (to be photocopied)
Sylvia Plath: Metaphors
William Carlos Williams: The Red Wheelbarrow
Dickinson: Because I Could not Stop for Death
Week 10: Imagery and Symbolism, Irony
Ezra Pound: In a Station of a Metro
Percy Shelley: Ozymandias.
Andrew Marvel: To His Coy Mistress
John Donne: The Flea
Week10&11: Approaching Drama
Tragedy: Arthur Miller: Tragedy and the Common Man
Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House
Week 12&13: Criticism
Week 14: Things resolved and unresolved
Final Exam.
Grading Criteria:
- Content: the clarity and interest of the central idea (thesis), the strength and appropriateness of the support and the depth of the student’s insight into the topic. The quality of the work decreases if the support is not convincing, or not exciting.
- Organization: it is the construction of the paper in terms of paragraphs. This includes paragraph unity and development, logical progression of ideas, and the effectiveness of the introduction and conclusion.
- Style: this includes sentence structure, tone, and word choice. Clarity of diction and syntax is essential. Good writing usually employs varied sentence structures and vocabulary to maintain interest. The tone should be consistent and appropriate.
- Mechanics: it includes grammar, punctuation, spelling and correct application of appropriate conventions. Sloppy mechanics discredit a writer and distracts readers from the ideas presented in the writing.
The following criteria will be considered for any writing assessment in this course:
1. Outstanding Grade A/A-:
This is outstanding writing which reflects a perceptive and thoughtful response to the assignment. It is well organized with excellent development of its ideas and reflects the writer's command