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ENGL210

Course Summary

Course : ENGL210 Title : Introduction to Literature

Length of Course : 8

Prerequisites : Credit Hours : 3

Description

Course Description:

Enter the deep catacombs of Italy, feel the thrill of detective work, relish in the beauty of lyrical poetry, and experience historical events through a first-person perspective. ENGL210 is a course that gives students access to many worlds, plots, themes, and voices. You will feel what it is like to be a critic, director, author, and audience member. Come join an entertaining way to gain insight into the human experience!

Course Scope:

ENGL 210 introduces students to different genres of literature, including short fiction, poetry, drama, and essays. Students will write forum responses and create assignments in response to the assigned readings, which will develop their critical thinking and analytical skills. Students will also be introduced to critical theory and use different critical lenses to interpret forms of literature.

Objectives

1. Identify distinctions between forms of literature.
2. Explain personal responses to literature.

• Differentiate between forms of literary criticism.
• Analyze works of literature for larger cultural and historical meaning.
• Examine scholarly secondary sources.
• Produce researched literary interpretations.

Outline

Week 1: Introduction

Learning Objectives:

• Identify best practices in reading literature.
• Understand literary terminology.
• Understand the components of a short story.

Reading(s):

Edgar Allen Poe – “The Purloined Letter”

Ambrose Bierce – “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Edgar Allen Poe – “A Cask of Amontillado”

James Joyce – “Araby”

Mary E Wilkins Freeman “The Revolt of Mother” Richard Connell – “The Most Dangerous Game” Alice Dunbar-Nelson – “Tony’s Wife”

Kate Chopin – “The Story of an Hour” Washington Irving – “Rip Van Winkle”

F. Scott Fitzgerald – “Winter Dreams” Nathaniel Hawthorne – “The Birthmark” “The Elements of Fiction”

“Elements of Fiction” “Interpreting   Fiction” “Writing a Short Story Essay”

Tredinnick’s Little Green Grammar Book. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-styleguide/

Specifically this: “Module 7: MLA Citations” and “Module 5: Writing Process” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-introliterature/chapter/defining-literature/ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-introliterature/chapter/how-to-analyze-a-short-story/

Assignments:

Week One Forum – initial post and responses are due on Sunday

Week 2: Short Fiction and the Writing Process

Learning Objectives:

Identify various styles of literary criticism.

Analyze assigned short stories through the weekly forums and an essay. Develop a creative voice through the short story classroom project.

Reading(s):

“Literary Critical Theory”- https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/crit.summaries.html

Bloom, Harold. “How to Write a Good Essay.” How to Write about Shakespeare’s Comedies. 1- 39.

Assignments:

Week Two Essay

Week Two and Three Classroom Project: Short Story

Week 3: Interpreting Poetry

Learning Objectives:

Identify best practices in reading poetry. Understand poetic terminology.

Understand the components of a poem.

Reading(s):

“Explicating Poetry“

“Elements of poetry“

“Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter” – Robert Bly

“To My Dear and Loving Husband” – Anne Bradstreet.”

“Mending Wall” –  Robert Frost

“The Road Not Taken” – Robert Frost

“Harlem” – Langston Hughes

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” – Langston Hughes

“Go Down Moses”

“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” – Christopher Marlowe

“To His Coy Mistress” – Andrew Marvell

“The Nymph’s Reply” – Sir Walter Raleigh

“My Papa’s Waltz” – Theodore Roethke

“Uphill” – Christina Rossetti

“Ozymandias” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night” – Dylan Thomas

“Liberty and Peace” – Phillis Wheatley

“On Being Brought from Africa to America” – Phillis Wheatley

“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” – Walt Whitman

“Lake Isle of Innisfree” – W. B. Yeats

Assignments:

Week Three Forum – Initial post is due Thursday and the responses are due Sunday. Week Two and Three Classroom Project: Short Story

Week 4: Poetry and Critical Approaches

Learning Objectives:

Identify various styles of literary criticism. Analyze a poem using several critical lenses.

Construct a poem in the poetry classroom project.

Reading(s):

“Literary Criticism“

“Explicating Poetry“

“Elements of poetry“

“Blues as Protest” – https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197401/

“Folk Music as Song” – http://www.loc.gov/folklife/guide/folkmusicandsong.html

“The Roots of Country Music” https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-09-16- 9809190003-story.html

“The Anthology of Rap: Lyrics as Poetry” https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131125923

“A Hard Rain is Gonna’ Fall” – Bob Dylan – This is a video. You can read the lyrics here: “A Hard Rain is Gonna’ Fall.”

“Plane Wreck at Los Gatos” – Woody Guthrie

“This Land is Your Land” – Woody Guthrie

“The Sound of Silence” – Simon and Garfunkel.

“Keep Ya Head Up” – 2Pac

“Can the Circle Be Unbroken” – The Carter Family.

“Come as You Are” – Nirvana

“Folsom Prison Blues” – Johnny Cash

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” – Bernie Taupin

“Like Toy Soldiers” – Eminem

“He Calls That Religion” – Mississippi Sheiks

Assignments:

Poetry PowerPoint

Week Four and Five Poetry Project

Week 5: Performing Literature

Learning Objectives:

Understand the components of a play.

Identify how performance choices can affect a play’s meaning. Analyze how two different performance genres hold similar themes.

Reading(s):

“Writing about Drama.” https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/drama/

Pygmalion. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3825/3825-h/3825-h.htm

The Importance of Being Earnest. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/844

Optional choices:

• Performance of Pygmalion. Use CC to view the text while watching the play. https://youtu.be/AM5t64WzSng

• 1986 Television version of The Importance of Being Earnest. Use CC to view the text while watching the movie.

Assignments:

Week Five Forum

Week Four and Five Poetry Project

Week 6: Performing Literature

Learning Objectives:

Recognize Shakespeare’s cultural impact and literary value. Understand iambic pentameter at a basic level.

Examine a Shakespeare performance.

Reading(s):

The Taming of the Shrew (comedy): https://youtu.be/tccWM8wK2Mo

Richard III – https://youtu.be/-ybjyRxSUBs

MacBeth – https://youtu.be/3qkVDfLBMTE

For the text version of each play, please use this website: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/

Harold Bloom’s “How to Write about Shakespeare: An Overview.” How to Write about Shakespeare’s Tragedies, 41-54.

Assignments:

Week Six Forum

Week 7: Research Project

Learning Objectives:

Identify themes of a play in an assigned essay.

Discuss and evaluate interpretations of literary/nonliterary works from peer reviewed articles. Identify different forms of literary criticism in a final research project.

Locate peer reviewed articles through the final project. Develop a research project, focused on literary interpretations. Reading(s):

You are required to focus on the reading that relates to your chosen play for the play project:

For The Importance of Being Earnest, please read Harold Bloom’s “How to Write about Oscar Wilde” and “The Importance of Being Earnest” in Bloom’s How to Write about Oscar Wilde, pages 134-151.

For Pygmalion, please read both Paul Bauschatz’s “The Uneasy Evolution of ‘My Fair Lady’ from ‘Pygmalion’” and Marcie Ray’s “My Fair Lady: A Voice for Change.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/40681546.

You may also want to watch a production of My Fair Lady: https://youtu.be/HwrE2-31HOc.

For The Taming of the Shrew, read Harold Bloom’s “How to Write about Shakespeare’s Comedies” and “The Taming of the Shrew” in Bloom’s How to Write about Shakespeare’s Comedies.

For Richard III, read Harold Bloom’s “How to Write about Shakespeare’s Histories” and “Richard III” in Bloom’s How to Write about Shakespeare’s Histories.

For MacBeth, read Harold Bloom’s “How to Write about Shakespeare’s Tragedies” and “MacBeth” in Bloom’s How to Write about Shakespeare’s Tragedies.

Assignments:

Final Research Project

 Week 8: Creative Nonfiction                                                                                                          

Learning Objectives:

Understand connections between different forms of literature. Recognize creative nonfiction as a form of literature.

Compare similar themes between different forms of literature.

Reading(s):

David Sedaris- “The Youth in Asia.” https://www.thisamericanlife.org/639/transcript (Scroll down to “Act One: The Youth in Asia.”

Podcast: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/639/in-dog-we-trust/act-one-3

Lindy West “The Day the Scales Fell from Her Eyes.” Scroll down to Act One. Podcast: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/589/tell-me-im-fat/act-one

Molly Antopol “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.” Scroll down to Act Three. Podcast: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/378/this-i-used-to-believe/act-three

Neal Drumming “It takes a Villa.” Scroll Down to Act Three

Podcast: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/594/my-summer-self/act-three-0

Anthony Devito “Optimus: Way Past Her Prime.” Scroll down to act one. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/572/transformers/act-one-0

Nancy Updike “Airport.” Read up to act two. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/266/im-from-the-private-sector-and-im-here-to-help

Assignments:

Week Eight Forum

Evaluation

This course has the following assignments:

1. Seven Forums
2. Two Essays
3. One PowerPoint Presentation

Materials

Course Guidelines

School of Arts & Humanities Late Policy

Students are expected to submit classroom assignments by the posted due date and to complete the course according to the published class schedule. As adults, students, and working professionals, we understand your must manage competing demands on your time. Should you

need additional time to complete an assignment, please contact your instructor before the due date so you can discuss the situation and determine an acceptable resolution.

Work posted or submitted after the assignment due date will be reduced by 10% of the potential total score possible for each day late up to a total of five days, including forum posts/replies, quizzes/tests, and assignments. Beginning on the sixth day late through the end of the course, late work, including forum posts/replies, quizzes/tests, and assignments, will be accepted with a grade reduction of 50% of the potential total score earned.