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Prerequisites/Co-requisite
One GE Foundation course. 
Nature of the Course
The course studies works representing the scope and variety of themes and types of imaginative literature. It offers an introduction to three major literary genres - poetry, fiction, and drama - and to methods of critical expository writing.
Expected Student Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course you should be able to:
- gain an understanding of some of the literary traditions, forms, and genres in the English literary tradition.
- gain a basic ability to read closely and carefully and to look deeply for thematic, imaginative, and cultural content.
- develop and hone skills in composition and expository argumentation.
- build vocabulary and reading proficiencies by reading texts of varying difficulty across a number of periods, styles, and genres.
- locate, evaluate, and use secondary sources on specific writers and texts such as journal articles, book chapters, and critical biographies
- support interpretations of literary texts using primary and secondary sources
Course Texts
The following text has been ordered from the University Bookstore:
Mays, Kelly J., ed. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. New York: Norton. 2013. Print.
NOTE : many of the texts in the Norton are also available free online at www.gutenberg.org, www.online-literature.com and elsewhere.
You should also consult:
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: MLA, 2009. Print.
Other Resources
Writer’s Resource Lab, located in LAB-206; phone 985-4329; http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/cla/departments/english/wrl/
Website for help with writing: https://owl.english.purdue.edu
Course Requirements
BEACHBOARD. This syllabus and topics for written papers and part two of the final exam will be available on Beachboard. Grades for your written papers (but not for quizzes) will be posted on Beachboard once they are awarded.
ATTENDANCE. Regular attendance is important and counts towards your grade. If you are unavoidably absent please email me in advance. More than three unexcused absences will lower your course grade by a grade point. More than six unexcused absences could result in a course grade of F. See “Makeup and Attendance Policy” below.
READING. You are all expected to have read the literary texts listed in the syllabus before the first class in which they are listed. Unannounced quizzes on the text of the day will occur at the start of a number of classes.
FIRST SHORT PAPER. You are required to present a two-page paper in MLA style offering an analysis of Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” This should focus on one aspect of the story (e.g. character; theme; use of imagery; etc.) and include brief quotations from the text. You are not required to use critical sources for this paper. If you receive a grade lower than C you will be allowed to re-submit the paper within two weeks, but consult me before starting it.
TWO PRINTED PAPERS. You are required to present two 4-page printed papers in MLA style, the first on one of the stories studied, and the second on one or more of the poems covered. You will be asked to cite at least two sources for each text you choose to write on. You will find lists of topics and more detailed instructions on Beachboard under CONTENT.
FINAL EXAMINATION. The exam will consist of two parts. The first section will test you on the course as a whole. The second section (which will be pre-released on Beachboard) will offer a choice of questions on either of the two main plays studied.
Grade Point Computation
See the University Catalog: Regulations – Grades and Grading Procedures for definitions of grades A-F.
Attendance, participation, and quizzes: 15%
Initial 2-page printed paper on Chopin: 5%
2 printed papers: 25% each
Final examination: 30%
Syllabus
- T 21 Jan Using the library. MLA style. Introduction: what do we mean by literature?
- Th 23 Jan Narrative: Chopin: “The Story of an Hour.”
- FICTION
- T 28 Jan Responding to fiction: Carver: “Cathedral.” PAPER DUE ON CHOPIN’S STORY.
- Th 30 Jan Plot: Baldwin: “Sonny’s Blues.”
- T 4 Feb How to write a paper.
Setting: Tan: “A Pair of Tickets.”
- Th 6 Feb Character: Wallace: “Good People.”
- T 11 Feb Point of view: Poe: “The Cask of Amontillado.”
- Th 13 Feb Representations of society: Cheever: “The Country Husband.”
- T 18 Feb Figurative language: Lawrence: “The Rocking-Horse Winner.”
- Th 20 Feb Cultural contexts: Fitzgerald: “Babylon Revisited.”
- T 25 Feb Theme: Kafka: ”The Metamorphosis.”
- Th 27 Feb Kafka: “The Metamorphosis” continued.
- T 4 Mar Ideology: O’Connor: “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
- Th 6 Mar Prose style: Hemingway: “Hills Like White Elephants.”
POETRY
- T 11 Mar How to research a topic and incorporate your findings in a paper.
- Responding to poetry: Dickinson: “The sky is low--”; Billy Collins: “Divorce”; Julia Alvarez: “’Poetry Makes Nothing Happen’?”
- Th 13 Mar Speaker’s voice: Edna St. Vincent Millay: “I, being born a woman. . .”; Robert Browning: “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister:’ Dorothy Parker: “A Certain Lady.” Walt Whitman: “I celebrate myself . . .”
- T 18 Mar Situation and setting: John Donne: “The Flea”; John Keats: “To Autumn”; Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Ozymandias.”
FIRST PAPER ON FICTION DUE.
- Th 20 Mar Theme and tone: Sylvia Plath: “Daddy.”
- T 25 Mar Language: Sharon Olds: “Sex without Love”; E. E. Cummings: “in Just-”; Alfred Lord Tennyson: “Tears, Idle Tears.”
- Th 27 Mar Imagery and symbolism: Robert Burns: “A Red, Red Rose”; Edmund Waller: “Song”; David Ferry: “At the Hospital”; William Blake: “The Sick Rose.”
- 29 Mar-4 Apr SPRING RECESS
- T 8 Apr Sound: Alexander Pope: “Sound and Sense”; Helen Chasin: “The Word Plum”; Gwendolyn Brooks: “We Real Cool”; Gerald Manly Hopkins: ”Pied Beauty.”
- Th 10 Apr Internal structure: Philip Larkin: “Church Going”; Seamus Heaney: “Punishment”; Thomas Hardy “Convergence of the Twain.”
- T 15 Apr External form: Dylan Thomas: “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”; Richard Wilbur Terza Rima”; Ciara Shutleworth: “Sestina”; William Shakespeare: “Let me not to the marriage of true minds.”
- Th 17 Apr Culture and gender: Adrian Rich: “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”; Ani DiFranco: “Adam and Eve”; Langston Hughes: “Harlem.”
DRAMA
- T 22 April How does drama differ from other forms of narrative?
Samuel Beckett: Act Without Words I.
- Th 24 Apr Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire.
- T 29 Apr Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire. SECOND PAPER ON POETRY DUE.
- Th 1 May August Wilson: The Piano Lesson.
- T 6 May August Wilson: The Piano Lesson.
- Th 8 May August Wilson: The Piano Lesson.
- T 13 May 10:15-12:15: FINAL EXAM
Useful web sites:
Plagiarism
If you use the ideas or words of another writer as if they were your own without giving credit to the other writer you are guilty of plagiarism. Please consult the University Catalog (“Cheating and Plagiarism”) for details of the University’s policy regarding plagiarism. If you are found to have plagiarized another writer’s words you will receive an F for the paper the first time and an F for the course on a repeat occasion.
Campus Technology Help Desk
The CSULB Technology Help Desk in the Horn Center Lobby is available for students. The Help Desk can assist you on a wide range of computer issues including: Operating Systems, CSULB Email Accounts, My CSULB, Beachboard, Remote Connection to CSULB, Microsoft Desktop Applications, Anti-Virus, Internet and Web related topics,. Contact the Help Desk by phone at 562-985-4959, email to helpdesk@csulb.edu or visit them on the web at helpdesk.csulb.edu.
Withdrawal Policy
Students who choose not to complete this course should withdraw officially as soon as possible and inform me. Withdrawals during the first two weeks do not appear on official records. Withdrawals between the third and twelfth weeks must be for “serious and compelling reasons” and require signed approval by me and the department chair. Withdrawals during the final three weeks of instruction are generally permitted only for accident or serious illness. They require signatures from me, the chair, and the Dean of the College, who may require withdrawal from all classes in which the student is enrolled.
Makeup and Attendance Policy
For a definition of “excused absences” see the University Catalog: Regulations – Class Attendance. Excused absences require you to inform me a week in advance of your absence. More than three unexcused absences will result in the lowering of your course grade by a grade point or more depending on the number of such absences. Students who miss exams or fail to meet deadlines for graded papers for what I consider a compelling reason (such as a religious holiday or jury duty) may make up that part of the grade. It is your responsibility to arrange with me an alternative if you miss the deadline for an assignment. If you submit an assignment late without a documented excuse a penalty for lateness will be imposed. A student who misses the final exam or fails to submit a final paper in lieu of a final exam without a documented excuse will probably receive an F or an Incomplete, depending on the circumstances and previous work.
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