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Faculty - English

Citing the Norton Anthology

Writing guidelines and resources

WORKS CITED:

Author’s last name, first name. Title of Work. Trans. Name of Translator. The Norton Anthology of  World Literature. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. 3rd ed. Vol. A/B/C. New York: Norton, 2012. Page numbers. Print.

The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans Benjamin R. Foster. The Norton Anthology of
World Literature. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. 3rd ed. Vol. A. New York: Norton, 2012. 95-151. Print.

IN TEXT: Use parenthetical citations AFTER the quote! 

As Arjuna prepares to enter battle against his family members, he questions, “O Krishna, what good is kingship?/What good even life and pleasure?” (Chapter 1, verse 32). 

AVOID SAYING PAGE/LINE NUMBERS IN SENTENCE ITSELF:  In Chapter 1, Arjuna says, “O Krishna, what good is kingship?/What good even life and pleasure?” 

  • Save page numbers for citation; instead, give context for quote (who says it, what is happening, etc)!

 

MORE ON IN-TEXT CITATION: For your short papers and other papers, here is how you should do your in-text citations from Norton World Anthology texts:

For texts with line numbers and section numbers: instead of citing the page number, instead cite section and line number

Gilgamesh: cite the tablet number and the line number. For the first time you cite it, write the words “tablet” and “lines” out: (Tablet X, line 13). After that, just give numbers: (X.14-17).

Bhagavad Gita: cite the chapter number and the verse number. For the first time you cite it, write the words “chapter” and “verse” out: (Chapter 3, verse 33). After that, just give numbers (3.43).

Medea: cite the line number of the text. For the first time you cite it, write the word “lines” out: (lines 119-120). From there on out, just cite the number (143-145). Same goes for Hymn to the Aten.

Sakuntala and Othello: cite the act and line number.  For the first time you cite it, write the words “act” and “lines” out: (Act IV, lines 119-120). After that, just give numbers (IV.119-120).

Short poems (Tang dynasty poems: cite the line number of the poem. For the first time you cite it, write the word “lines” out: (line 1). From there on out, just cite the number (1).

The Pillow Book: cite entry number and page number (20, p. 1136).

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:  cite the Fitt and line number.  For the first time you cite it, write the words “Fitt” and “lines” out: (Fitt 1, lines 70-73). After that, just give numbers (1.70-73).

Short paper no 2: Argument from close reading

Writing assignments
This short paper can be on:

Wednesday, September 16th

Selections from Bhagavad-gita (1282-1301) (Volume A)

Monday, September 28th

Medea, lines 1-680 (pp. 783-803)
OR
Creation stories on the syllabus for 9/21 (you’ll be covering these on the 21st, but you can hand in your short paper on this date).

***

Close reading and argument: When we close read, we “observe facts and details about the text,” looking for patterns (repetitions, contradictions, similarities between characters and other parts of the text) (Kain). To observe and find these patterns, we should focus our attention on short, manageable passages of a longer text and annotate, or write notes on and next to, these shorter passages (annotation is a good way to help us keep track of observations, force ourselves to pay close attention, and to think not just silently, but through our writing itself). We then interpret these observations in order to make an argument (which should be an answer to a question or questions you formed while annotating and close reading the text).  An interpretation of a text is an argument for how to understand it AND why that matters. If we start from the assumption that all texts are trying to teach us something, then the interpretation is an argument for what it is trying to teach us, how it does so, and why that lesson matters for the text

Assignment:

  1. Repeat the process you did for the first short paper: Find a passage that sparks your interest, that you think could have multiple meanings, or that you find ambiguous: in other word, a passage about which you have some questions (remember short paper no 1!).
  2. Pay attention to the language of the passage: observe the language of the text by annotating it. In other words, underline/highlight key words and phrases–”anything that strikes you as surprising or significant, or that raises questions”–and make notes about the text in the margins (provide a cell phone picture or a copy of your annotations so I can see them) (Kain). As you did for the first short paper, ask questions that arise for you based on the passage (repetitions that strike you as odd, characters whose motivations are unclear to you, questions about whether a passage is celebrating or critiquing a social value presented in the text–see short paper prompt #1).
  3.  After you have attended to the words of the passage and asked your questions, try to pose an argument that answers one of your questions using what you have observed about the text. Note that an argument should be debatable (in other words, another person should be able to disagree with it), so if your question does not lead to a debatable answer, you haven’t found a good enough question for an argument (For example, the answer to the question “Who is Arjuna’s charioteer in Bhagavad Gita?” is “Krishna,” and no one will disagree about that).

Some instruction in how to do a close reading: http://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-do-close-reading

Works Cited:

Kain, Patricia. “How to do a close reading.” Harvard College Writing Center. Harvard U, 1998. Web. 21 Sep. 2014.

Blog sign-up list

Writing assignments

Blog hosts should post by 5pm the day before class; respondents should do so before class begins OR while we are still discussing the text in class generally.

Week 2: Wednesday, September 9th Gilgamesh, 95-99 (overview), 99-112 1. John Kim
2.
Thursday, September 10th Gilgamesh, 128-151 1. Denis Dikara
2.
Week 3: Wednesday, September 16th Bhagavad-gita (1282-1301) 1. Penina Viñas
2.
Week 4: Monday, September 21st
Creation and the Cosmos Volume AIntroduction to Creation and the Cosmos, pp. 23-25
“The Great Hymn to the Aten,” pp. 29-33
from Genesis, 158-161
West African Creation stories and Rig Veda selection (Bb)		 1. Jakob Yusupov
2.
Week 5:Monday, September 28th Medea, lines 1-680 (pp. 783-803) 1. Yun Ye
2.
Wednesday, September 30th Medea, lines 681-end (pp. 803-822) 1. Navin Kwong
2
Week 6: Monday, October 5th Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection, Acts 1-4 (pp. 871-910) (Volume B) 1. Anne Xie
2.
Wednesday, October 7th Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection, Acts 5-7 (pp. 910-942) 1. Jasmin Rodriguez
2.
Week 8: Wednesday, October 19th Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection performance (this blog can wait, of course, until you see the performance). 1.
2.
Week 9:Monday, October 26th
Selections from The Thousand and One Nights (Volume B)		 1. Kristin Podlovits
2.
Wednesday, October 28th  Selections from The Thousand and One Nights (Volume B) 1. Vivian Lau
2. Steven Israilov
Week 10: Monday, November 2nd
T’ang Poetry: introduction and the poetry of Wang Wei (pp. 1019-1022) and Bo Juyi (pp. 1035-1041; 1045-1047; printout of more Bo Juyi poems on Blackboard under “Content”) (Volume B) 		 1. Tahirah Jarrett
2.
Wednesday, November 4th T’ang Poetry: the poetry of Li Bo and Du Fu, pp. 1022-1035 (Volume B) 1. Silvana Bada
2.
Week 11:Monday, November 9thThe Pillow Book of Sei Shonagan (pp. 1127-1141); Selection of poetry from the Kokinshu (Volume B) 1. Muhaimen Ahmed
2.
Wednesday, November 11thThe Pillow Book of Sei Shonagan (pp. 1142-1153) 1.
2.
Week 12:Monday, November 16th Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitts I-II (pp. 725-751) 1. Rebecca Simon
2.
Wednesday, November 18thSir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt III (pp. 751-769) 1. Shile He
2.
Week 13:Monday, November 23rd Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt IV (pp. 769-780) 1.
2.
Wednesday, November 25th Othello, Act I 1. Jason Ng
2.
Week 14:Monday, November 30th Othello, Act II-III 1. Gloria Espinoza
2. Genesis Campoverde
Wednesday, December 2nd Othello, Act IV 1. Jacob Kabariti
2.
Week 15 :Monday, December 8th Othello, Act V 1. Katherine Sanchez
2. __________________________
Wednesday, December 9th Selections from “The Encounters of Europe and the New World” (Volume C)  1. David Silolezya
Monday, 12/14
Selections from “The Encounters of Europe and the New World” Part II (Volume C)

Short paper #1: Due 9/9 or 9/10

Writing assignments

As you know, your first short paper is due one of two days, depending on when you choose is best for you to do it: Wednesday, 9/9 or Thursday, 9/10 (usually dates short papers are due won’t be so close to each other!). Your short paper should be on the text due to be read for that day, though you may compare that text to something we’ve read on a previous class day. In other words, here’s what you should write about depending on the day you choose to hand in the paper.

Wednesday, September 9th

Gilgamesh, 95-99 (overview), 99-112

Thursday, September 10th

Gilgamesh, 128 (Tablet VII)-151

****

Asking questions: Find a passage in the reading for the day that confuses you, sparks your interest, calls your attention, or seems like it might be interpreted in a few different ways. Start by asking yourself the simple questions “what do I find confusing or ambiguous about this passage?” and “why is that confusing?” What confuses you or interests you about this passage: is it something in the language or imagery? Is the way a character behaves  unexpected or unusual to you, or do the social/cultural values the text presents feel unfamiliar or confusing? Do you just feel uncertain about what is going on in the text, or why it is happening?

Assignment: In 1-2 pages, present the passage (or passages) and your questions about it; explain how the text creates this ambiguity/confusion, and the effect that it has on you as a reader (does it make you uncomfortable, frustrate you, leave you wanting to know something? Does it make you start guessing about possible outcomes? Do you feel you have a cultural ignorance about the social values of the people who would have read or heard these texts when they were produced?). Try to pose some possible answers to these questions, and pay attention, where you can, to how being geographically and temporally distanced from the culture this text comes from affects how we read and understand it.

  • Purpose: By asking these questions, we can begin to weed out what makes a good research question for a paper vs. what makes for a factual question that has a brief answer (A factual question might be, “Who is Gilgamesh historically?” while a good research/interpretative question might be “Are we expected to admire Gilgamesh and his actions, or should we critique him in some way?”). A factual question results, usually, in one answer; a solid research question allows for several answers, which means we can get a debatable argument out of it.

Welcome to the class blog

Student blog post

Welcome: I hope you find this a productive space in which to explore the texts we read. While each student is assigned a blog post and four responses, feel free to use this blog to post questions, links to relevant videos and information, and thoughts at any time; we can use these posts to generate discussion in the classroom.

If you have IT troubles or are new to WordPress, here’s the link to the Blogs@Baruch help forum: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/groups/blogsbaruch-help/forum/. Here’s the link for the “Support for Students” page, which explains in more detail how these blogs work: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/support/for-blog-authors/.