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Syllabi
Completed Courses
American Novelists on Film
Through The Eyes of A Child: Representing Adolescence in American Literature
Chief American Writers
American Presidential Rhetoric
Text and Tradition: Special Focus in Composition
Proposed courses
Text And Tradition: Special Focus In Composition
Course Syllabus:Freshman Composition 100: Text & Tradition
Course Objectives:
This course takes advantage of links with the Introduction to Classics and the Classical Texts courses, and encourages student writing across these various curricula. As we attempt both to read ancient texts and to interpret them in our decidedly non-ancient ways, we will try to see how these Great Books have "lived" beyond their original contexts. This class will complement the readings in the other courses and will provide the more writing-intensive component, in which we shall ask how the knowledge we gain from classical texts might best be shaped into persuasive arguments and collegiate compositions. Questions such as the following will guide our inquiries: How have ancient heroines and heroes been reevaluated and refashioned in light of more modern, more pressing needs? How can we compare philosophical approaches to understanding the world as people perceived it centuries ago with the ways they perceive it now? Can we accurately receive oral, epic, legendary narratives in an age of high-tech, "realistic" texts, hypertexts, and films, and why might these differences in technology matter? How do writers use and abuse the classical heritage when they see it as a ready source of literary and rhetorical allusions? Grammatical concerns, structuring of arguments, and logical consistency, while admittedly more mundane, will also shape our group effort to read and write about these texts knowledgeably, analytically, and sensitively.
Required texts: Available from the bookstore: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (Norton Critical Edition); Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra; W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk; Diana Hacker, The Bedford Handbook for Writers (Fifth Edition, paperback); Barnett and Bedau, Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing. I strongly recommend that you also purchase the collegiate dictionary of your choice. Also, a course packetis available from the English Department secretary.
Course Schedule:
(Key:an asterisk denotes that the selection is included in the course packet; A & C = Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra; B&B = Barnett & Bedau, Critical Thinking, Reading & Writing; BHW = Bedford Handbook for Writers)
Class Meeting Topics Reading Assignments Writing Assignments:
Aug 25, 27 Introductions; *Tennyson, "Ulysses," "The Lotos Eaters" in-class writing 8/25
Revising *Welty, "Circe"
heroes
Aug 30, Ideals & Plato, "The Myth of the Cave" (in B&B) Essay 1 due Sept 3
Sept 1, 3 arguments *Plato, "Phaedrus"
B & B, "Critical Reading: Getting Started"
BHW, "Clear Sentences" (SKIM)
Sept 8, 10 Observations Swift, Gulliver's, Book I
& theses
Sept 13, 15, 17 Lemuel as Swift, Gulliver's, Book 2 Essay 2 due Sept 15
hero or dupe Swift, Gulliver's, selections from Book 3
Swift, "A Modest Proposal" (in B&B)
*selected Swift poems
BHW, "Building Paragraphs" (SKIM)
Sept 20, 22, 24 Workshops Revising Essay 1 or 2
Continue reading Swift for next week
Sept 27, 29 Arguments & Swift, Gulliver's, Book 4 Revisions due Sept 29
Oct 1 fallacies B & B, "Getting Deeper into Arguments"
B & B, "A Logician's View"
Oct 4, 6, 8 Applying Selected criticism of Gulliver's Essay 3 due Oct 6
arguments B & B, "A Literary Critic's View"
A & C Act I
Oct 11, 13 Staging sexual A & C, Acts II and III
politics
Oct 18, 20, 22 "The greatest A & C, Acts IV and V Essay 4 due Oct 20
prince o' th' B & B, "Using Sources"
world. . ."
Oct 25, 27, 29 Classic echoes *Emerson, from Nature Essay 5 due Oct 27
*Hawthorne, "Rappaccini's Daughter" Brief description of
*Hawthorne, "The Artist of the Beautiful" research topic due
*Hawthorne, "The Three Golden Apples" Oct 29
Nov 1, 3, 5 Workshops Revising essay 4 or 6
Develop research paper topics for coming
weeks
Nov 8, 10, 12 Classical BHW, "Researched Writing" (SKIM) Revisions due Nov 10
training & Du Bois, "The Forethought"
modern "Of Our Spiritual Strivings"
identity "Of Mr Booker T Washington . . . "
Nov 15, 17, 19 Personal Du Bois, "Of the Training of Black Men"
examples "Of the Meaning of Progress"
& applied "Of the Passing of the First Born"
allusions "Of the Wings of Atalanta"
"Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece"
Nov 25 "The armchair Du Bois, "Of the Black Belt"
sociologist"
Nov 29, Anthropology Du Bois, "Of the Faith of the Fathers" Research Paper
Dec 1, 3& mythology "Of Alexander Crummell" Rough Drafts due
"Of the Coming of John" Dec 1
*Johnson, from The Autobiography of an
Ex-Colored Man
Miniworkshops Friday, Dec 3
Dec 7 Conclusions Du Bois, "Of the Sorrow Songs" Research Paper final draft (Essay 6) due
Dec 9
Essay 7, all inde-pendent revisions, and all other materials due Dec 14
