Syllabus

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English 2850 KMWA Professor Jennifer Sylvor

MW 2:55-4:35 [email protected]

 

Class Blog: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2850sp21sylvor

 

 

Great Works of World 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  (n.b.  This is NOT the most recent edition of this anthology.  Be sure to buy the third edition; otherwise you will not have the texts you need for the course.  See me if you have a problem with finding or acquiring the books.

 

Links to other required texts will be provided on the class blog.

 

Course Requirements:

• Two formal analytical essays

• Presentation

• Final Exam

• Participation in discussion via Zoom and on the course bog

• Weekly informal writing assignments

HOW WILL THIS COURSE WORK?

 

• Synchronous (“live”) Meetings:  We will be having a regular zoom session on Wednesdays at 3pm.  Unless you hear otherwise from me, assume that you will be expected to log on to a call each Wednesday.   You can find the link for our call on the course blog (url listed above.)  These calls will be recorded, and I will be posting the link to the recording within 24 hours after each call.   We will be using our Monday sessions, also at 3 pm, for meetings in small groups and for conferences.  You may not need to log on for a meeting every week during our Monday class session, but you should leave this time slot open and dedicated to English 2850.

 

• Asynchronous Work:  If “synchronous” refers to things that we all do at the same time, “asynchronous” is its opposite, meaning not at the same time.  A significant portion of the work for this course will happen asynchronously.  Each Friday, your work for the  coming week will be posted, and you will be expected to work on these assignments on your own throughout the week, reaching out to the professor with questions or problems and consulting with your classmates as needed.  It’s up to you to figure out how to organize this independent work.  Keep in mind that the rule of thumb for college classes is that students should expect to do two hours of work outside the classroom for every hour of scheduled class time.  You may find that you do even more than that during the weeks when major assignments are due and then less on weeks with no major writing assignments.

 

• Attendance:  You are expected to attend all scheduled zoom meetings as well as all scheduled small group meetings and one-on-one conferences with the professor.  If you need to miss a session, it is your responsibility to reach out to the professor to notify her of your absence, to contact a classmate to find out what you missed, to watch the recording of the zoom class when it becomes available, and to submit a missed-class form.  

 

• Preparedness: It is your responsibility to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings, where appropriate, as well as to have completed any assignments that were to be done before class.   If reading has been assigned, be sure to have the reading accessible and ready to refer to during our zoom calls.  Additionally, you should come to each class with a pen and paper or the ability to take notes and complete informal writing assignments on your computer or other device. 

 

• Participation:  This class cannot succeed without your participation.  I hope you will feel comfortable adding your voice to our classroom conversations on a regular basis.   What does participation look like in an online course?  It will mean speaking up and sharing your thoughts during our zoom calls, participating in online discussion on our course blog, and working with your peers on group projects both inside and out of class.  Expect that you will periodically be asked to share your writing with the group and to offer feedback on your classmates’ writing.  Keep the Golden Rule in mind, and treat your classmates’ work with the same respect and consideration you’d like your own writing to receive.  We will undoubtedly be discussing sensitive issues in class; it’s important that we all commit to creating an open-minded, respectful space in our classroom community, so that we all feel comfortable participating.

 

• Technology:  Technology is what makes remote learning possible.  To participate fully in this course, you will need access to a computer or tablet and reliable internet service.  We will be using several different applications or platforms for communicating with one another – blogs@baruch, e-mail, Zoom, and Google Docs among others.  See below for more details.

 

• Blogs@Baruch: Our course blog is the heart of our online course.   This is the first place you should go if you have any questions about the course.  This is where you can find your weekly assignments on Mondays, where you will be participating in online discussions with your peers, where you will be posting your informal writing assignments, and where I will share announcements with the class..   I will upload all handouts and assignments to the site.  We will be also be using the blog to share and comment on outside sources related to our theme.  If you have ideas about how we might make better use of this or other technology, please let me know.  This is a collaborative site that belongs to all of us, so I expect to see it grow and change with your contributions.  You have already been added to the blog as an “author,” so you shouldn’t have any difficulty logging on and posting.  The url for the blog is:  baruch.cuny.edu/eng2850sp21sylvor

Please bookmark it, and keep it handy!

 

• Zoom:  We will be using Zoom’s videoconferencing technology for our class meetings, small group sessions, and one-on-one conferencing by appointment or during open office hours.  Links for these sessions will be shared on our class blog.  We will be recording our zoom sessions, and I will be posting links to the recordings on our class blog.  If you miss a session,  you will need to watch the video of the session you missed and then fill out a short form about it.  I will do my best to make our Zoom classes engaging and effective.  In order for them to be successful, we will all have to be active participants.  There will be regular opportunities during our calls for you to share ideas with the class, pause for brief writing exercises, and connect with your classmates in small groups.  All of this will work best if we all have our cameras on.   This course has been designated a “cameras on” course by Baruch.  This means that, while  I recognize that there may be times during the semester when turning on your camera is simply not a good option for you, my expectation is that we will all make an effort to keep our cameras on as much as possible.  If you have a technological limitation or other issue that will make that impossible, please reach out to me about it as soon as possible, so that we can come up with an alternative plan for your participation.

 

• Slack:  We will be using Slack as a messaging platform for informal communication.  This is where you should go if you have questions about assignments, deadlines, or other work; if you want to crowdsource information from your classmates; or if you just want to chat with your peers about non-course related subjects.  You can find the link to our Slack channel on the course blog.

 

• Essays:  All formal essays will be submitted via Google Docs.  Informal work will be either posted to our class blog or shared with me via email or google docs.  Grades will be reduced at a rate of one half-grade a day for each day an essay is late.   Essays must be typewritten in 12 pt. type and double-spaced.  If you do not have regular access to a computer or tablet, informal writing assignments may be handwritten and submitted as photos or scans.  Late drafts will receive no feedback.   You will have opportunities to submit rewrites for most of our formal assignments, provided that you consult with me before embarking on the revision. 

 

• 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 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.   

 

 

Cheating is also a serious academic offense.   Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to: submitting essays or portions of essays written by other people, including friends and family; collaborating on an assignment without the explicit permission of the instructor; submitting an essay written for one course to another course without the explicit permission of both instructors; submitting work as one’s own that has been purchased or copied from a paper preparation service or website.  All work submitted in this course must be entirely your own!

 

• 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.

 

• Writing Center:  I will always be available to work with you on developing and executing ideas for your essays, reviewing writing mechanics, and revising and refining your work.  For additional support, I encourage you to reach out to the Baruch College Writing Center.  You can schedule an appointment and find out information about their workshops at https://bc.mywconline.com.

 

Grading: 

 

Your grade will be calculated as follows:

• Weekly Writing Assignments and On-Line Participation 25%

• Essay #1 20%

• Essay #2 25%

• Presentation 15%

• Final Exam 15%

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 and electronic assignments will be posted each week on our class blog.  For convenience, I’ve listed Mondays and Wednesdays below, though our all-class Zoom meetings are on Wednesdays only.  

 

Week #1 M 2/1 Introduction to Course – Getting Situated with Technology

W 2/3 Feng Menglong, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”

 

Week #2 M 2/8 Moliere, Tartuffe

W 2/10 Moliere, Tartuffe

 

Week #3 M 2/15 Presidents’ Day –  College Closed

W2/17 Akinari, “Bewitched” (link to text on blog)

 

Week #4 M 2/22 The Enlightenment

W 2/24 Pope, Essay on Man, I

 

Week #5 M 3/1 Rousseau and Wollstonecraft (selections)

W 3/3 Rousseau and Wollstonecraft

 

Week #6 M 3/8 Romanticism 

W3/10 William Blake et al. (selections to be announced)

 

Week #7 M 3/15 William Wordsworth (selections to be announced)

W 3/17 Romantic Poetry (selections to be announced)

Week #8 M 3/22 Frederick Douglass, 

Narrative of the Life Frederick Douglass

W3/24 Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, 

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

 

Week #9 ***SPRING BREAK***

 

Week #10 M 4/5  Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler  

W 4/7 Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler

 

Week #11 M 4/12 Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”

W 4/14 Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”

 

Week #12 M 4/19 Rabindranath Tagore, “Punishment”

W 4/21 T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

 

Week #13 M 4/26 Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”

W 4/28 Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”

 

Week #14 M 5/3 Borowski, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”

W 5/5

 

Week #15 M 5/10

W 5/12 Tayeb Salih, “The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid”

 

Week #16 M 5/17 Isabel Allende, “And of Clay Are We Created”