4 AM Post VMA Ramblepants

The VMAs are over! Technically. If you don’t have cable or just like your TV on the interwebs, you can watch the show on the MTV.com.

I love this song.

I started my second semester at the New School again this past Monday. As you probably guessed, it’s hard to be in school during VMA week. Luckily it’s an online class and the real homework doesn’t start til… Well. Right now.I have a lot of reading to catch up on.

See class details after the jump. 

Prof. Frances Chiu
Introduction to Literary Analysis

NLIT.2001.A CRN5681
Fall 2008 15 Weeks
Sept 2 – Dec 12

Course Syllabus

Course Description

This course is designed to render literary classics challenging, yet accessible—even entertaining. We concentrate on British and American literature, from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, traversing a variety of authors and genres in mostly chronological order: the narrative poem, novel, and drama. We open with Shakespeare’s tragic King Lear before turning to Swift’s biting satire, A Modest Proposal. We then explore the Romantic period in all of its diversity, as represented by William Blake’s seemingly iconoclastic illuminated poetry, Austen’s ever popular Pride and Prejudice, and Byron’s mock-epic Don Juan. We proceed to Wilde’s witty comedy of manners, The Importance of being Earnest before venturing into 19th and 20th-century American literature. Works include Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables, excerpts from Walt Whitman’s epic Leaves of Grass, and Zora Neale Hurston’s poignant Their Eyes were Watching God. Special attention will be paid to the analysis of narrative strategies from plot structure and characterization to imagery, theme, setting, style, and tone. Not least, we will also devote time to the use of critical methodologies.

Course Objectives

The objectives of the class are twofold. The first entails learning the different tools involved in the analysis of different literary genres: primarily, the drama, the novel and the poem. Class discussions will identify the uses of close textual analysis in poetry: for instance, the ways in which rhyme, rhythm and meter enhance the imagery and thematic content of a given poem. Or the manner in which literary conceits and conventions are manipulated or even overturned. Similarly, as we examine the novel, we explore the balance of characters and their relationships, ascertaining ways in which speech patterns and motivations yield clues to the meaning of a novel and the values of the author. Class discussions will also address the value of current critical methodologies such as historical, feminist, and psychoanalytical approaches in the interpretations and critical assessments of literary works: for instance, how can the knowledge of a period or the personal circumstances behind the composition of a work provide keys to understanding the narrative and thematic design of a composition?

The second objective entails the writing of scholarly literary criticism: for instance, how to craft an argument about a given literary work or genre, develop it in a fashion that is both rational and compelling, and how to support it with appropriate and relevant examples. Not least, the proper citation of primary and secondary sources with correct documentation will be examined and discussed.

Course Requirements

• Attendance: You are required to log in at least 5 times a week.
• Class Participation: Since this is an online class, participation is extremely important and counts as 60% of your grade. You must post at least 3 times a week. These responses should take the form of substantiated comments with examples. Responses which merely parrot others or state “I agree/disagree with X” with no further explanation do NOT count as posts. Posts should adhere to the conventions of standard English. Excessive informality (i.e., instant-message speak) and formality are discouraged in the interests of developing a meaningful and insightful discussion.
• Written Assignments: There will be two formal assignments: the first will be a short paper, 4-5 pages. This will be submitted in the form of 3 drafts.The first draft will take the form of a detailed outline with examples from the text, due at the end of wk. 4.Your outline will be returned to you with my comments for improvement at the end of wk. 5. You will then transform your outline into a draft of a paper, submitting it at the end of wk. 6; this will be returned to you with comments in wk. 7. You will proceed to submit your final draft at the end of wk. 8. There will be a similar process for your long paper, 10-12 pages, with two drafts rather than three. An outline will be due at the end of Week 10 which will be returned to you with comments at the end of Week 11. You will submit another draft at the end of Wk. 12 (to be returned to you at the end of Wk. 13) and the final draft at Tuesday noon after the last day of class.
• Grading:
  Class participation counts as 50% of your grade.
  The first and second papers count as 15% and 25% of your grade respectively;
  the class presentation in Wk. 11 counts 10%.
• Grading Standards
  

  A = “A” quality work is generally highly perceptive and insightful; indicates skilled use of inductive and deductive reasoning; richly substantiated with relevant examples from the text(s) under discussion; structured and well-organized; cogent; and well or even elegantly articulated. In order to earn at least an A, you must post at least 3 times throughout the week—not save them until the very end.

  B = “B” quality work is generally perceptive and insightful; indicates use of inductive and deductive reasoning; well substantiated with examples from the text(s) under discussion; generally well-organized ; well-articulated with only minor errors in syntax. In order to earn at least a B, you must post at least 3 times throughout the week—not save them until the very end.

  C = “C” quality work is generally perceptive; substantiated with examples from the text; adheres to conventions of standard written English. In order to earn at least a C, you must post at least 3 times throughout the week—not save them until the very end.

  D = “D” quality work is occasionally perceptive; only thinly or vaguely substantiated with examples from the text. In order to earn at least a D, you must post at least 3 times a week.

  F = Fortunately, “F” quality work is genuinely rare. It can comprise of the following: posting less than 3 times a week; posts and papers that are irrelevant, barely irrelevant and/or do not follow the conventions of standard English, and plagiarism.

  Please remember that this is only a general guide to the manner in which I grade posts and formal written assignments—although, of course, standards will be higher for the latter since you have more time for preparation. It is possible, for instance, to have a post or assignment that is very skillfully written in regards to style, yet not up to par content wise. Or vice-versa. In fact, I’ve found in past classes that I’ve usually have had to weigh one or several factors against others.

  A very important additional criterion to my grading is your overall progress. If you are between two grades and have made vigorous efforts to improve—as evinced in the frequency and quality of your posts and drafts throughout the term—I will give you the higher grade.

• Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the academic equivalent of theft, resulting in automatic class failure.

Reading List

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ed. Fiona Stafford (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2004)
ISBN 978-0199535569

William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience in Poetry and Designs of William Blake, ed. Mary Lynn Johnson (New York: Norton, 2007)
ISBN 978-0393924985

Lord Byron, Don Juan, ed. Susan Wolfson (London: Penguin, 2005) ISBN 978-0140424522

Nathaniel Hawthorne, House of Seven Gables, ed. Michael Bell (Oxford: Oxford World Classics, 1998)
ISBN 978-0192836458

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes were Watching God (New York: Harper, 2006)
ISBN 978-0061120060

William Shakespeare, King Lear, ed. R.A. Foakes (London: Arden Shakespeare, 1997).
ISBN 978-1903436592

Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/modest.html

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, ed. Michael Moon (New York: Norton, 2002)
ISBN 978-0393974966

Oscar Wilde, Importance of Being Earnest, ed. Michael Patrick Gillespie (New York: Norton, 2005)
ISBN 978-0393927535

Viewing List

The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Anthony Asquith (1952)
ISBN 0-78002-498-2

The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Oliver Parker (2002)
ISBN 0-7888-3945-4

Course Outline

Week 1: Sept 4-7 Introductions

Weeks 2-3: Sept. 8-21 William Shakespeare, King Lear

Week 4: Sept. 22-28 Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal

First Draft of 1st Assignment due on Sept. 28

Week 5-6: Sept. 29-Oct. 12 William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience

Second Draft of 1st Assignment due on Oct. 12

Weeks 7-8: Oct 13-26 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Third Draft of 1st Assignment due on Oct. 26

Week 9: Oct- 27-Nov. 2 Lord Byron, Excerpts from Don Juan, Cantos 11-14

Week 10-11: Nov. 3-16 Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

1st Draft of 2nd Assignment due on Nov. 9 Group presentations on dramatic adaptations of Earnest, 10-16

Weeks 12-13: Nov. 17-30 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of Seven Gables

2nd Draft of 2nd Assignment due on Nov. 23

Week 14: Dec. 1-7 Walt Whitman, Excerpts from Leaves of Grass—”Song of Myself” (1-26); “Children of Adam”; “Calamus”; “Salut au Monde”

Week 15: Dec. 8-12 Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes were Watching God

Course Outline

Reading and Assignment Due Dates
(all readings in required texts and E-Reserves unless otherwise specified)

I have two more classes that start in October. I plan on blogging about my experience this fall juggling being in school, working on short films and doing the regular job thing. It is going to be pretty hectic but also probably exciting.