MW 2:55 – 4:35 jennifer.sylvor@baruch.cuny.edu
VC 11-145
Office Hours: W 1-2:30 and by appointment
Office: VC 7-290 – cubicle “O”
Course Blog: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2850sp20sylvor/
Great Works of Literature II
Learning Goals:
- Increased ability to interpret meaning in literary texts by paying close attention to an author’s choices of detail, vocabulary, and style
- Ability to discuss the relationship between different genres of literary texts and the multicultural environments from which they spring
- Increased confidence in offering a critical evaluation and appreciation of a literary work’s strengths and limitations
- Increased confidence in the oral presentation of ideas
- Increased ability to write a critical essay employing a strong thesis statement, appropriate textual citations, and contextual and intertextual evidence for your ideas
Required Texts:
Puchner, et al. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Package II, volumes D,E,F. THIRD EDITION
Additional readings will be provided by the professor as links on the course blog.
Course Requirements:
- Two formal analytical essays
- Midterm exam
- Final exam
- Participation in both in-class and blog-based discussion
- In-class and at-home informal writing
This is a Communication Intensive Course (CIC), which means that in addition to written work, you will be expected to be an active participant in classroom discussions.
Policies and Procedures:
- Attendance: Every absence beyond three will lower your course grade by one half step (an A- becomes a B+, a B+ becomes a B, etc…).
- Lateness: Three late arrivals will be treated as an absence.
- Preparedness: It is your responsibility to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. Please come to each class session with the appropriate text, lined paper, and a writing implement.
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- Electronics: In order to facilitate full participation and optimal focus, we will be refraining from using electronic devices during class. This means we will be taking notes by hand and using hard copies of all assigned texts. Cell phones will remain out of sight during class.
- Blog: We will be using our class blog, hosted by blogs@baruch throughout the semester. Be sure to bookmark the address: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2850sp20sylvor/ I will be posting a set of discussion questions about each text we read. You are expected to respond to at least one question per week or to offer a comment on one of your classmates’ responses. This can be done either before or after our class discussion about the text.
- Essays: Essays for this class will be submitted electronically via turnitin.com (details to follow). Grades will be reduced at a rate of one half grade a day for each day an assignment is late. Formal essays must be typewritten in 12 pt. type and double-spaced.
- Academic Integrity: Plagiarism and cheating are serious academic offenses and will not be tolerated. Plagiarism means presenting another author’s words or ideas without crediting them to their source. When you include another author’s words in your work, whether taken from a printed source, from the internet, or from a live presentation, those words must appear in quotation marks and be properly cited. When you include another person’s ideas in your work, you must indicate where you found those ideas, even if you are paraphrasing rather than quoting them. If you have any questions at all about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult me. Any work submitted for this course that has been plagiarized will receive a failing grade and be reported to the Dean of Students. For more information on Baruch College’s policy, see http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.htm
- Accommodations Policy: Baruch College is committed to making individuals with disabilities full participants in its programs, services, and activities through compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. It is the policy of Baruch College that no otherwise qualified individual with a disability shall be denied access to or participation in any program, service, or activity offered by the university. Individuals with disabilities have a right to request accommodations. If you require any special assistance or accommodation, please let me know as soon as you can, ideally during the first three weeks of the semester.
Grading:
Your grade will be calculated as follows:
- Participation in in-class and on-line discussion/low-stakes writing 20%
- Group Presentation/Blog Post 10%
- Essay #1 20%
- Essay #2 25%
- Final Exam 25%
Tentative Reading Schedule
What follows is a tentative schedule. Expect that we will be making adjustments as the semester progresses. More specific reading assignments will be announced in class, and discussion questions will be posted each week on our course blog.
M 1/27 Introduction to the Course
W 1/29 Feng Menglong, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”
M 2/3 Moliere, Tartuffe
W 2/5 Moliere, Tartuffe
M 2/10 Akinari, “Bewitched” (Link to text will be posted on class blog.)
W 2/12 College Closed
M 2/17 College Closed – Presidents’ Day
W 2/19 Pope, Essay on Man, I
M 2/24 Rousseau, from Confessions
W 2/26 Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Link posted on blog.)
M 3/2 William Blake (selections to be announced)
W 3/4 William Blake
Su 3/8 Essay #1 due by midnight. (electronic submission)
M 3/9 William Wordsworth (selections to be announced)
W 3/11 Percy Bysshe Shelley (selections to be announced)
M 3/16 Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
W 3/18 Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (excerpts)
M 3/23 Midterm Exam
W 3/25 Ibsen, Hedda Gabler
M 3/30 Ibsen, Hedda Gabler
W 4/1 Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
M 4/6 Rabindranath Tagore, “Punishment”
W 4/8 Spring Break
M 4/13 Spring Break
W 4/15 Spring Break
M 4/20 T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
W 4/22 Lu Xun, “Upstairs in a Wineshop” (Link to text will be posted on blog)
M 4/27 Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”
W 4/29 Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”
M 5/4 Borowski, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”
W 5/6 Tayeb Salih, “The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid”
M 5/11 Toni Morrison, “Recitatif”
W 5/13 Isabel Allende, “And of Clay are They Created”
F 5/15 Essay #2 Due by midnight. (electronic submission)
M 5/18 Final Exam 3:30 – 5:30 pm
