FALL 2003 LIT 203

Text: Davis, et al., The Bedford Anthology of World Literature Pack B (Volumes 4-5-6), available at Bergen CC Bookstore, or www.amazon.com; a reserve copy is available at the BCC Library.

Bedford Anthology of World Literature has a companion web site at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/worldlit/. Also http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/

You can find much general information for the course from the Bedford web site, but it is not a replacement for the Anthology, since it does not contain the actual readings. It nicely packages overviews in multimedia format. Most areas are unrestricted, but the quizzes, for example, can only be accessed with a username and password. To create your own account, use my email address: mmakowiecka@bergen.edu to get into the database. Then follow the given directions.

Also http://bedfordstmartins.com/researchroom/ This Research Room provides you with basic info on doing research. Not as good as the recommended Online Writing lab at Purdue U at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ with an excellent guide to MLA Style.

Course Description from Bergen Catalog
This course is a study of world authors from the sixteenth century to the present. Students read works by such authors as Wu Ch’Eng-En, Racine, Goethe, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Eliot, Mahfouz, and Achebe.
3 lectures, 3 credits Prerequisite: WRT-101 } General Education Course } Diversity Course

Course Description for This Section
This course will focus on the themes of actual, fictitious and metaphoric travel accounts in world literature after 1650. We will read short novels and short stories by such authors as Behn, Swift, Voltaire, Basho, Tagore, Jacobs, Dostoyevsky, Gilman, Conrad, Achebe, and Anzaldua, and discuss literary representations of the shrinking world, the crossing of global boundaries, and the rise of a global literature and culture.

More importantly perhaps is the understanding that people have struggled with many of the same basic issues throughout history and across cultures. We will discuss issues such as desire to make sense of the world near and far, the ideas of the center and margin, gender roles and the mixing of cultures. Additional links at www.bergen.edu/faculty/mmakowiecka. Students will participate in online discussions, submit their work, and communicate with the instructor through WebCT.

Course Requirements

1. Participation in weekly bulletin board discussions of the readings. Each week I will post several questions to get the discussion going and will also post follow-up questions to make the discussion more fun. You will be responsible for contributing to the discussion several times each week. At the end of each week the discussion will close, so you must keep up with the board each week. Each student will be asked to prepare an online presentation in the form of a short essay or a Power Point presentation. I will grade your participation based on the frequency and quality of your responses. (20 pts. total for semester.)

2. Two short research papers of about 750 words each. I will give you several choices based on the readings. The dates the papers are due are in the Syllabus. Detailed instructions for the two paper assignments will be posted in the course. Each paper must be submitted by a specific due date. You may turn the paper in sooner if you wish. (20 pts. each.)

To earn credit on a paper, you must complete the following:

a.      Write your name and the assignment number in the upper left-hand corner of the first page of your summary.
b.      Write the analytic essay in complete and grammatically correct sentences and paragraphs.
c.      Compose the essay on your word processor.
d.      Submit an essay of appropriate length.
e.      Submit an essay that does not engage in plagiarism.
f.      Name the essay document, include your last name plus the assignment number (i.e. "Essay 1"). Don't forget to write your own title and to use title format for it (one standard font, no underline, or bold, etc.).
g.      Format a Works Cited page according to MLA Style.
h.      Submit the essay to http://www.turnitin.com and send a copy to me at mmakowiecka@bergen.edu.

Tips for Writing Essays http://writingguide.geneseo.edu/?pg=topics/organization.html
Tips for Writing Exam Essays http://writingguide.geneseo.edu/?pg=topics/essayexams.html
Tips for Formatting Works Cited in MLA Style http://www.bergen.edu/owl/resources.html

3. A midterm and final exam online. Each will consist of short responses to several questions. The exams will be posted on the web site and you will have to complete them in one hour and twenty minutes. (20 pts. each exam.)

Please feel free to ask questions at any time. Posting questions to the discussion board is a valid form of class participation. You may e-mail me privately if you have a question about the readings or the course, but I would prefer you to share your concerns with your classmates.

STUDENT LEARNING GOALS
If you do the work required for this course (reading, studying, thinking, writing, participating in class discussions, etc.), you will be able to

1.      identify major authors in the history of literature;
2.      identify the methods and contexts in which one can understand a work of literature;
3.      summarize and paraphrase, both orally and in writing, the content of specific writings;
4.      use the methods of literary interpretation to understand, analyze and evaluate texts;
5.      state and support your own views on literature more coherently, both orally and in writing.
6.      present and interpret the words of critics in an MLA documented research paper on one literary work studied (with Works Cited and parenthetical citation) of 6‑7 pages.

Course Policies

HOW THE COURSE WILL WORK
      For the most part the course will run much like an in-class literature course. That is, you will buy the book for the course, read the assigned selections by a specified time, participate in class discussions on those readings online, and complete papers and exams based on the readings, the information I give you, and the class discussions. Each week I will post initial discussion questions and you will be responsible for posting your comments about the readings for that week. (Please note that each week's discussion string will be closed at the end of a given week.) I will post questions to guide the discussion, but I am interested in your reactions to the readings, so feel free to go off the topics I post, as long as your comments are related to the readings we are covering! Please feel free to comment on what others in the class have posted as well. You will be responsible for at least one comment for each separate reading on the syllabus.
      Background information for each week is available online and all the selections are brilliantly introduced in the text (a brand new anthology with great, readable translations and informative and clear introductions!), so read this material before, or while, you complete the readings in the text.
      Your grade will be determined by the grades on the papers and exams and on your participation in the discussion sessions. See the section on grading policies for a more detailed explanation.

WHAT YOU WILL DO EACH WEEK
Log onto the Web site several times every week, since the discussion postings will be coming in at all times. (My initial questions will be posted Sunday/Monday.) Read the Introductions to Readings for the week online and in the text. Read the material. It's a good idea to write a list of questions or comments as you are reading. These will help you both in the weekly discussion sessions and on the papers and exams. After doing the readings, log onto the discussion for the week. There are no wrong or right answers to the questions I post; I'm interested in what you think of the material. As the course goes on, we'll be making comparisons among the different pieces we read.

GRADING POLICIES
Your final grade for this course will be based on the number of points you accumulate this semester. You can earn 100 performance points in this course. If you accumulate 90-100 performance points, your final course grade will be "A;" 85-89 points = "B+;" 80-84 points = "B;" 75-79 points = "C+;" 70-74 points = "C;" 60-69 points = "D;" and 0-59 points = "F." You will accumulate points by meeting the course requirements.

PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas in such a way that a reader cannot distinguish them from your own work. As such, it is a form of cheating. If you have questions about plagiarism, please ask me about it before your paper is due; after a paper is handed in it's too late to claim ignorance. The penalty for plagiarism is an automatic F for the essay without a chance to rewrite it, in addition to whatever penalty the College sees fit to impose, including expulsion from school. Plagiarism is increasingly a problem, especially in online courses. As a result, all faculty at Bergen Community College have access to a Web site (http://www.turnitin.com) that can determine, usually within 24 hours, whether a paper has been plagiarized.

EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENTS
From time to time, I will post an extra credit activity (up to four in the course of one semester) to be completed by the students who wish to prove their excellence and motivation. I would like to make it clear that extra credit activities are not a replacement for a missing essay, lack of participation in class discussion or an exam, and so forth. :)

GENERAL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE COURSE
"Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre‑packaged assignments, and spitting out answers." (Chickering & Gamson, 1987)

The Active Learning Pyramid

The pyramid diagram below shows the effectiveness of different approaches to learning. The point is "Be active!"

AND FINALLY
Please do not hesitate to e-mail me if you have any problems at any time. At the end of the course I'll be asking for an evaluation from you, but please let me know how things are going throughout the semester. The readings in this course are very interesting and, I think, very relevant to us. I hope you enjoy the course! :)

FALL/SPRING SYLLABUS [Summer I is a six-week course]

Week I

Behn, Oroonoko (94) A short romance that introduces the themes of gender, race, cultural interaction, and relations of power covered throughout this course.

Week II

Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Part IV, “A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms,” (147) Swift’s satire, modeled upon travel and exploration narratives. finds Gulliver among the super rational horses, whose ideal society places European vice and folly into an ironic perspective.

In the World: Travel Narratives (199) A collection of excerpts from important eighteenth-century travel narratives from around the world.

Week III

Voltaire, Candide (275) Voltaire’s famous satire that, like Guliver’s Travels, takes the form of a travel narrative.

Basho, Narrow Road to the Backcountry (657). This meditative and poetic account of Japan’s greatest haiku master’s journey to the north of Japan offers a striking contrast to the European narratives of travel and encounter.

Week IV

Mary Rowlandson, Narrative of the Captivity (Book 483) Mary Rowlandson’s account of being captured by the Wampanoag people.

In the Tradition: Declarations of Rights and Independence: Iroquois Nation, The Great Binding Law. This constitution of the Iroquois, handed down by oral tradition, provides context for Rowlandson’s account of American Indians.

Essay 1 (Topics cover Weeks I-IV)

Week V

Equiano, Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (405) One of the first slave narratives, Equiano’s important biography takes account of his capture, slavery, conversion, and emancipation. This week’s readings provide a transition to the next unit.

Heine, “The Slave Ship” (Book 5 327) Heine’s critical poem on the master-slave relationship, published in 1854, the year France finally banned slavery in its colonies.

Week VI

Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl () Harriet Jacobs autobiography is one of the most important American slave narratives.

In the World: Emancipation (Book 5) A collection of excerpts from around the world on human and civil rights, freedom, and emancipation.

Week VII

Whitman, “Passage to India” Whitman’s romantic tribute to India as a source of spirituality anticipates a world united in a transcendent vision.

Tagore, Broken Ties (Book 5) A novella by one of India’s greatest writers about the self-realization of an Indian youth in an India divided between its own traditions and Western values.

Week VIII

Gilman “Yellow Wall-paper” (941) Metaphoric Travels of the Self.

Midterm Exam to cover weeks V-VIII

Week IX

Conrad, Heart of Darkness (35-95) Conrad’s short novel about colonialism in West Africa.

In the World: Colonialism: Europe and Africa (97) A collection of excerpts about African colonialism, independence, and postcolonialism.

Week X

Yeats, “The Second Coming”; Eliot, The Waste Land (Book 6) Yeats and Eliot’s poems about the breakdown of values in Europe provide a transition to Achebe’s novel which looks back to these works.

Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Book 6) Nigerian novelist Achebe’s response to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness depicts the breakdown of tradition in West Africa.

In the World: Imagining Africa (Book 6) A collection of excerpts about the representation of Africa in world literature.

Week XI

Achebe continued.

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o “Creating Space for a Hundred Flowers to Bloom” (150) deals with globalization and creolization.

Chinweizu “Decolonizing the African Mind” (143-147) comments on the postcolonial reproduction of old structures.

Second Essay (Topics cover Weeks IX-XI )

Week XII – APRIL 11-17

Camus, “The Guest” (Book 6) This short story by Camus depicts an existential crisis brought about by the conflict of values in French-dominated Algeria.

Week XIII

Desai, “The Farewell Party” (Book 6) Desai’s story depicts the clash of values that emerge during a dinner party of members of the managerial class in the Euro-Indian corporate world.

Narayan, “A Horse and Two Goats” (Book 6) Narayan’s comic tale of the difficulty, even impossibility, of communication across languages and cultures when an American businessman encounters an Indian villager and tries to strike a bargain.

Week XIV

Szymborska “The Terrorist. He Watches” (533).

Kundera “The Hitchhiking Game” (1005-1017)

Week XV

Silko, “Lullaby” (Book 6) This story by Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Silko dramatizes the difficulty of preserving native values in a culture under pressure from outside influences.

Final Exam to cover weeks XII-XV.