Sample Syllabus 2

English 220: Principles of Literary Study
Section 6, Fall 1998, Murray 208, TTh 6

Alex Bain
Murray Hall 027
Office Hrs: T 6:15-7:15 PM and by appt.
Office Phone: 932-8538
email: abain@rci.rutgers.edu

Goals of the Course
English 220 is meant to be a course in the techniques of narrative analysis, with the primary goal of helping English majors become better critical readers of both prose fiction and the theoretical contexts surrounding fictional narratives. We will therefore focus primarily, with the aid of a packet of critical excerpts, on several fundamental practices of critical reading:

--the practice of paying attention not only to the impressions and ideas that you receive as you read, but also to the specific strategies, devices, and methods which produce those impressions and ideas (even beyond the intentions of the author);

--the practice of reading not only for plot, individual character, and theme, but also for the structures which determine those elements and which set them in motion across a field of other textual/social elements (e.g., cultures, ideologies, nationalities);

--the practice of reading individual texts in a variety of interrelated contexts-historical, political, philosophical, linguistic, and even biographical.

In addition, 220 is designed to give majors intensive experience in class discussion and critical writing. To achieve this, we'll be focusing on a fairly limited set of texts; we'll read them slowly and carefully, explore several critical contexts and methods in some detail, pose questions to the texts and to one another in our discussions, and do a good deal of writing to further test our readings.

Required Texts (all available at Rutgers University Bookstore)
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Penguin)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables (Penguin)
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin)
Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz (Noonday/FSG)
Xeroxes (available from me): Edgar Allen Poe, "The Purloined Letter"; Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil"; Virginia Woolf, "Kew Gardens"; Jorge Luis Borges, "The Garden of the Forking Paths"; Critical Terms Packet

Course Requirements
3 Papers [75%]
3 Responses [15%]
Attendance; Participation; Additional Writing [10%] (This 10% will be disproportionately weighted against you if have in-class writing and/or participation problems.)

1. Written Work. You will write 3 Papers [5-7 pp. each] for this course, as well as three shorter Responses [2 pp. each] and a couple of in-class writings. Each Paper will count for 25% of your final grade; the complete percentages are listed above. All written assignments done outside of class must be typed in a double-spaced, 12-pt. Courier or Times font and must observe all the usual rules of formatting (including correct citation form, which we'll go over). No title pages please, but do title your work. I expect all written work to be handed in on time; late assignments will be penalized 1/2 of a letter grade per day (not class) late unless a reasonable extension is arranged with me beforehand.

2. Faithful Attendance and Participation. Attendance: please be here on time, all the time. After your FOURTH unexcused absence, your final course grade will drop 1/2 of a letter grade per additional absence. Also, being more than 10 minutes late to class will count as 1/2 of an absence. Legitimate emergencies and illnesses are excusable, but please let me know beforehand and make sure you stay on top of things. Participation: this is a discussion class, and participation is therefore crucial for all of us. Active, responsible participation will help your grade and your understanding; lack of participation, as noted above, will hurt. Participation here also means being willing to share your own work with the class and to comment on the work of others. The fundamental way to ensure lively and productive classes is by...

3. Keeping up with the reading. This should go without saying. Short stories and Critical Terms material should be read multiple times before class; read the Terms packet with special care, grappling with key terms and exploring their relation to what we're reading at the moment and to what we've already covered. We will discuss roughly 1/4 of each novel on each day-I'll provide more precise divisions as we go along. Beware that if it begins to look as though people aren't keeping up with the reading (in terms either of sheer pages or of thinking), quizzes and supplementary in-class writings will be inflicted on you.

Schedule
Tues. 9/1 Introduction
Thurs. 9/3 Critical Terms I: A Story-Shaped World...; In-class writing

Tues. 9/8 Poe, "The Purloined Letter"; Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil"
Thurs. 9/10 Critical Terms II: The Self in Language; Response #1 due

Tues. 9/15 Woolf, "Kew Gardens"; Borges, "The Garden of the Forking Paths"
Thurs. 9/17 In-class writing; Discussion

Tues. 9/22 Jane Eyre
Thurs. 9/24 Critical Terms III: Designs of Fiction; Response #2 due

Tues. 9/29 Jane Eyre
Thurs. 10/1 Jane Eyre

Tues. 10/6 Jane Eyre
Thurs. 10/8 Critical Terms IV: Discourses and Knowledge Systems

Tues. 10/13 CANCELED
Thurs. 10/15 Seven Gables; Response #3 due-Preface & 1st 5 Chapters

Tues. 10/20 Seven Gables-Ch. 6-10
Thurs. 10/22 Seven Gables-Ch. 11-15

Tue. 10/27 Seven Gables; Paper #1 due
Thurs. 10/29 Portrait

Tues. 11/3 Portrait
Thurs. 11/5 Critical Terms V: Imaginative Geographies

Tues. 11/10 Portrait
Thurs. 11/12 Portrait

Tues. 11/17 Portrait
Thurs. 11/19 Artemio Cruz; Paper #2 due

Tues. 11/24 Critical Terms VI: Narrating, Knowing, Ending
Conferences?

Tues. 12/1 Artemio Cruz
Thurs. 12/3 Artemio Cruz

Tues. 12/8 Artemio Cruz
Thurs. 12/10 Conclusions; Paper #3 due

FOR THURSDAY 9/3!!!
Please write the following information on the notecard I've provided and return it to me in class. If you don't want your phone #/e-mail address distributed to the class, note this on the card. Thanks.

Name
Campus phone # (if you live on campus)
Home (if you live there) or other # where I can reach you in an emergency (like over the weekend)
e-mail address if you have one
Where you're from-in NJ, or elsewhere, or both
What year and college you're in
Previous English courses taken and area(s) of concentration in and outside the major
Previous writing courses taken, along with any "non-academic" writing interests