English 2850 Fall 2022: Great Works of World Literature II

As promised, I am linking here to your final task of the semester – the End of Semester Reflection and Grade Proposal. Once you have submitted your Final Exam, please take some time to reflect on your work in English 2850 this semester. You can find the form HERE. This form will remain available through Thursday, December 22nd. After that date, you forfeit your opportunity to propose your own grade; I will calculate your grade in the traditional manner, taking into account your missing final assignment.

Thank you all for your effort, thought, and open-mindedness this semester. Wishing you all a peaceful and restorative break and and a healthy, happy, and productive 2023. I will be in my office through the end of this week, returning in January. Feel free to reach out.

FINAL EXAM

Instructions:  Please compose your response to this final as a Word Document or Google Doc, give the file a name with the format:  Your Name, ENG2850 Final Exam, and share it with me at [email protected] by midnight (11:59 pm) on TUESDAY, DEC. 20th.   Late submissions will receive no credit.

Read the instructions in their entirety before you begin to work on this final exam. You are welcome to consult your notes from the course and all the texts we’ve read, but you are NOT allowed to do any internet research while completing this project. Use of outside sources will result in an automatic grade of F on the exam.

Plan to spend 2-3 hours on this exam (including thinking time). Be sure to proofread your work carefully before sharing it with me. If you have questions about any part of this exam, please  email me at [email protected].  Once you have submitted your exam, please complete the End of Semester Reflection – Grade Proposal (link will be available in a separate post) as soon as possible (no later than Thursday, Dec. 22nd).

Final Exam: Propose a Mini-Course

Your task is as follows:

Drawing on the list of works we’ve read this semester (available on your syllabus), please design and propose a “Mini-Course”.   This mini-course will bring together a selection of readings from our syllabus, but will focus on a particular topic or theme that is of interest to you. Coming up with your theme will be the key step in completing this assignment. You will need to identify some component or issue that you have encountered at several different points in your reading for this course and construct your proposal around this idea. [Your idea might be a particular element you’ve noticed in your reading (i.e. railroad travel) or a persistent question (i.e. what happens when we die?) I have deliberately chosen examples that wouldn’t work for our particular reading list because I don’t want to render any ideas off-limits, but I hope you get the idea!]  Your course proposal must contain the following components:

–Course Title: Your course title should be creative and inviting and should let us know what the focus of your course is.

–Course Description: In this one paragraph course description, articulate the subject that your mini-course will explore and lay out the central questions that you will be exploring in the course.  Your description should be as specific, detailed, and engaging as possible.

–Annotated Reading List: Select 5 texts from the semester as the reading for your mini-course. Write a thoughtful paragraph for each text in which you explain your rationale for including this text, offer a quotation from the text that illustrates how the text is connected to the topic of your mini-course, and provide at least three discussion questions you might ask about the text in the context of your course. List your texts in the order you think they should be read for your course. You don’t have to follow our chronological organization.  Feel free to comment on the logic of the sequencing of the readings, if you think that is important to the effectiveness of the course.

–Wild Card: Add a 6^th text of your choosing to your reading list. This text should NOT come from our syllabus. It should be a text that you have encountered elsewhere that you think would work with your theme and be a good addition to your reading list. This text could be a written text, or it could be a film, a tv show, a song, a painting, a photograph, a meme…. This is totally up to you. Don’t be afraid to be creative. Compose a paragraph in which you describe your wild card text and explain how it is connected to the subject of your mini-course.  Place your “Wild Card” text in the spot on your reading list where you think it would be most effective.

–The Pitch: In the final paragraph of your course proposal, make a “pitch” for your course. What would you say to convince a fellow student to enroll in this course?

Your final exam will be judged by the following criteria:

–Have you followed all the instructions and completed the assignment exactly as instructed?

–Have you come up with a creative and engaging course?

–Does your course make sense, given the texts you’ve selected?

–How thoughtfully does your course description reflect your engagement with our reading over the semester?

–Does your Wild Card add to and complement your choices?

–How successful is your “pitch” at selling your idea to prospective students?

Welcome to the Home Stretch of the semester. A few reminders about our course-end schedule:

• I have started to read and comment on your Final Essays. I hope to finish with them before your Final Exam. Feel free to reach out now or after the break if you have questions or want to discuss your paper.

• Your Final Exam is scheduled for Monday, December 19th. It is an “open book” at-home exam. I will be posting the exam here on the blog on Monday morning by 9am. Please read the instructions carefully, and reach out to me with any questions. The exams must be submitted by the end of the day on Tuesday, December 20th.

• On Tuesday, December 20th, I will post a link to your End of Semester Reflection and Grade Proposal. Do not complete the reflection until after your Final Exam has been submitted. You will only have a short time to complete the reflection and evaluate your work from this semester, so pay attention to the posted deadline.

• You can continue to make up late assignments on the blog through Sunday, December 18th. As of Monday morning, I will consider the blog “closed.”

Wishing you all a smooth and positive exam week. I am sending good vibes your way!

Professor Sylvor

• Conferences – if you’ve signed up to meet with me on Monday, December 12th, I encourage you to send me whatever material you have created for your final essay in advance of our meeting. This could be an outline, a draft, or a piece of a draft. If you send it to me by Monday morning, I will be able to read it before our conference.

• Essays – Your essays are due by Wednesday, December 14th. Please share your essay with me ([email protected]) as a Google Doc or email it as an attachment to [email protected].

• Final Exam – Your final exam will be posted here on the blog at 9 am on Monday, December 19th. The exam will be due by 5 pm on Tuesday, December 20th.

• Reading – For our last text of the semester, please read Junot Diaz’s short story “Drown”. Respond to two of the questions below. As always, feel free to post your ideas as a response to one of your classmates’ comments. Please post your responses by Friday, December 16th.

–Explain the meaning of the story’s title, “Drown”.

–Describe the voice of our narrator.  What does his language use tell us about him?

–What do you think the central “problem” or conflict of this story is?

–How might you connect the narrator’s relationship with his mother to other issues or themes in the story?

–What do you make of the anecdote the narrator recalls about a teacher comparing his students to space shuttles?

–What, if anything, does this story “get right” about the experience of young adulthood?

• Conferences – Don’t forget your individual conferences. These are mandatory. See weeks #13 and #14 for the link to sign-up. Contact me if you can’t find an available appointment that works for you.

• Modernism in Visual Art – Your posts are due by Monday, Dec.5. Don’t forget that I have asked you to provide me with proof of your visit. You can show me your proof in class on Wednesday, or send it to me via email.

• Essay Questions – By now, almost all of you have emailed me with proposed questions for your final essay. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help with this essay. I am happy to provide general feedback on drafts, outlines, etc….

• Reading for Monday, Dec. 5th – Jamaica Kincaid’s, “Girl” – Please read this short piece and answer two of the questions I have shared in a separate post.

• Reading for Wednesday, Dec. 7th – Isabel Allende, “And of Clay are They Created”. Choose one of the following questions to respond to in a comment on this post. Post your response before our class on Wednesday.

–What do you think the significance of Allende’s title is? What does it mean to be made of clay?

-What happens to Rolf in his encounter with Azucena?

–Why do you think Azucena becomes a symbol of the tragedy that is unfolding in the story?

–What did you make of the President’s visit to the site of the disaster? What kind of commentary is Allende making here?

–How can you connect this story with your own experiences of natural or other disasters? Are there elements of the story that you can relate to? How?

Please respond to any two of the following questions. Share your responses by Monday, December 5th. If you’d like, you can hear Jamaica Kincaid reading “Girl” HERE.

–How would you describe the STYLE of this text? Be specific in illustrating your response.

–Where do we see conflict in this text?  What is the nature of the conflict?

–What does this text tell us about the expectations placed on girls and women?

–Explain the text’s last line: “you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread? “.

–Choose a specific instruction or prohibition from the text that stands out to you.  What do you make of it?

–To what extent do you feel that you have been given, either explicitly or implicitly, instructions about what it means to be a woman or a man?  Share an example of an instruction that you have received.

• Don’t forget that you need to submit your proposed essay topic (in the form of a question you are asking about your two texts) to me via email by Sunday, November 27th.

• Reminder: Each of you needs to sign up to meet with me on one of the three remaining Mondays of the semester. You can find the sign up HERE.

• Your Modernism in Visual Art posts should be shared to the blog by Monday, December 5th.

• Our reading for this week is Tadeusz Borowski’s “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”. We will be discussing the story in class on Wednesday. Please respond to two of the following questions. Share your responses by Friday, Dec. 2nd.

Please respond to two of the following questions.  Remember to compose your answers in complete sentences and to ground your ideas in specific details from the text where appropriate. 

1. What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
2. This story can be described as a kind of “initiation story” for the narrator.  How is he changed or transformed by the events of the narrative?
3. Describe an example of dehumanization in the text.  What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
4. A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator.  What does she mean?
5. “Are we good people?” asks our narrator.  What is this exchange about? What do you think?
6. Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.”  What seems strange about it?

As an extension of our study of Modernism, you will be exploring Modernism in visual art through a visit to one of the NYC museums listed below.  All of these museums are currently requiring that visitors book their visit ahead of time, so be sure to go to their website and follow instructions to make a reservation before your visit. 

Museum of Modern Art (www.moma.org) 11 W.53rd Street

CUNY students can visit MoMA for free.  When booking your visit, click on the button that says “Reserve Affiliate Tickets”.

Neue Galerie (www.neue galerie.org) 1048 Fifth Avenue

This small museum focuses specifically on Austrian and German art.  It is housed in a beautiful mansion.  Admission is free on the first Friday of every month.  All other times, student admission is $12.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org) 1000 Fifth Avenue

This museum is “pay as you wish” for full-time students in NY and for all NYC residents. There is a suggested price listed for students, but you can choose how much you want to pay for admission. However you still need to make a reservation to book your visit!

At the museum, you will select one piece of work created between 1890 and the beginning of WWII in 1939 that you believe can be described as modernist.   It might be helpful to keep in mind that impressionism, expressionism, cubism, and surrealism are all streams of modernism. 

On our course blog, post an image of the work (preferably a photograph taken by you at the museum or an image found online) and a post of 400-500 words about the work.  If you consult any sources to complete this assignment, please include that information.  It’s fine to look up basic biographical information, but all description and thoughts about the work you’ve selected should be entirely your own.  Be sure to include the following elements:

–Basic information about the artist.

–A description of work you selected.

–An analysis of how this work reflects the aesthetic preferences associated with Modernism.

–A description of the context in which you encountered the work. 

–An explanation of what drew you to this piece.

–Any questions you have about the work.

***Your work must be posted to our course blog by Monday, Dec 5th.

Please retain proof of your visit to the museum to be submitted to me in class after your visit.