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 of appropriate rhetorical strategies. The prose is vigorous and fresh, and the writer is clearly in control of the standard conventions of English prose. There are no errors in the mechanics of writing
2. Very good Grade B/B-:
This is very good writing that fulfils the assignment and shows evidence of clear thought and good planning. It is well organized with good supporting details. The writing is fluent, and there are only minor errors in the mechanics of writing which do not detract from a reading of it.
3. Satisfactory Grade C/C-
This is satisfactory writing that fulfils the assignment and is adequately developed. The writing is clear and coherent with relatively few errors in usage and mechanics, but the writer fails to demonstrate any particular strength that would mark this writing above average.
4. Below Average Grade D/D-
This is below-average writing which fulfils the assignment but exhibits major problems in writing. It may have difficulty with the presentation of ideas (e.g., lack of clear thesis, weak organization, poor development of ideas, or incoherence), or it may reflect poor control of the conventions of standard English prose (e.g., poor use of idiom, inappropriate diction, poor spelling) or be marred by enough errors in the mechanics of writing to seriously distract the reader.
5. Unsatisfactory Grade F
This is writing that relates to the topic but is so poorly presented that it fails to fulfil the assignment. It fails to present its basic ideas, either because of poor organization and lack of clarity or because the writing reflects a lack of control over the basic conventions of standard English usage. There may be sentence boundary problems, poor use of idiom, inappropriate diction (words used incorrectly), agreement errors, or verb tense problems.
Please note the grades in letters for the in-class and out-class assignments are equivalent to the following numbers:
A : 10
A- : 9.5
B+ : 9
B : 8.5
B- :8
C+ : 7.5
C :7
C- : 6.5
D+: 6
D: 5.5
D-: 5
Below that is a failing grade (F)