World+Lit

COURSE OUTLINE Lit 203: World Literature to 1650 Professor Ellen Feig Fall 2011 efeig@bergen.edu Office: L230 Paramus

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is a study of world authors to the sixteenth century. Students read works such as Gilgamesh; selections from the Old and New Testaments, the Ramayana; and writings of such authors as Homer, Aeschylus, Li Po, Dante, Shakespeare, and Sor Juana.

GRADING SCALE
Please refer to the following grading scale. Note that in order to receive the higher grade, a .5 and above is necessary. For example, an 89.4 is still a B+; only an 89.5 and above is equal to a 90, A. A 90-100% B+ 85-89% B 80-84% C+ 75-79% C 70-74% D 64-69%
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">F Below 60% **

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">STUDENT ASSESSMENT
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Short Essays 40% <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Final Paper 30% <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Class Participation and Attendance 30%

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As this class will move at a very quick pace over a short period, attendance is MANDATORY. **There are NO excused absences**. Each absence will result in a deduction of points from your class participation grade. In addition, two lates equal one absence. Arriving to class more than 30 minutes late will result in a marked absence. If you foresee difficulty in arriving on time, see me about withdrawing from class. If you are absent, you are still required to submit an assignment on time.
 * __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ATTENDANCE __**
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A general policy for this course is that no late assignments will be accepted. However, the instructor may make an exception for extreme circumstances.


 * __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">CELL PHONES AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES __**
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Cell phones are not allowed to ring or vibrate in my classroom **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Eating is not permitted in the classroom. Drinks are acceptable.
 * __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">FOOD AND DRINK __**

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This is a college class, and as such, no level of disruption will be tolerated. Any disruption, including talking out of turn, will be initially met with a warning, and then dismissal for theday. If disruptions continue, I will recommend to the Dean that you be withdrawn.
 * __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">CLASS DISRUPTIONS __**

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Active participation is a requirement in this class. This means that students are not only obligated to participate in class discussions, but earnestly follow the lectures as well. As such, students are required to come to class equipped with a pen, notebook, and the course texts. Students must take notes throughout the class. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> My classroom is a forum for the free exchange of ideas. Therefore, students are encouraged to challenge one another’s ideas. What’s more, you shouldn’t be afraid to disagree with me, your instructor. That said, if you have problems with how I’m running my class, you are welcome to discuss said issue with me. However, this may not be done during class time. Such problems are to be addressed after class or during my office hours.
 * __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">CONDUCT __**

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The principles of academic integrity encompass simple standards of honesty and truth. Each member of the College community has a responsibility to uphold the standards of the community and to take action when others violate them. Faculty members have an obligation to educate students about the standards of academic integrity and to report violations of these standards to the Office of Student Development and Campus Life. Students are responsible for knowing what the standards are and for adhering to them. Students also should bring any violations of which they are aware to the attention of their instructors. Any breach of academic integrity is a serious offense that may result in disciplinary consequences. Plagiarism is a violation of the integrity of the academic community. Representing someone else's work as one's own is a serious academic offense and may result in failure, suspension, or dismissal. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">At the end of the course, students are expected to have: <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developed critical thinking skills as evidenced by the ability to form a strong thesis and to develop and to organize an introduction, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion using the various modes of development. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developed critical reading skills through close reading, analysis, and evaluation of works of fiction. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developed a recursive process of writing through prewriting, drafting, and revising essays as evidenced by their writing portfolios. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developed research skills through researching, organizing, drafting, and revising a short 1500- word research essay.
 * __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ACADEMIC INTEGRITY STATEMENT __**
 * __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES __**<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">:

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developed the ability to use MLA Style of in-text parenthetical citation and a documented “Works Cited” page.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Developed the ability to properly cite print, nonprint, and electronic sources using the MLA Style of documentation and to avoid plagiarism. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developed unity and clarity in their writing by using transitional devices throughout all their writing. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Improved their language skills by using the appropriate diction and avoiding colloquialisms, slang, euphemism, regionalism, clichés, and archaisms. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developed the ability to analyze their papers for “Surface Errors” (fragments, comma splices, fused sentences, misplaced modifiers, misspellings, errors in agreement, mechanical errors, etc.) and make needed corrections. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Participated in a community of writers by sharing their writing and taking part in evaluative discussion and peer review. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developed the capacity to be supportive, constructive contributors to class discussion.
 * __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">LEARNING OBJECTIVES: __**

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Students will take part in the following activities: <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Keep a “commonplace book” (see directions below) <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Given a choice of topic, the student will write and revise two unified, coherent, well-organized mechanically correct two- to three- page essays using the structure of introduction, body, and conclusion to analyze literary readings <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Given a topic, the student will write a 1500 research essay demonstrating the proper use of MLA Style of research documentation using a minimum of two outside sources.


 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Text: **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> As the reading is available online, there will be no required text for this course.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This **course outline** contains all of your reading, class and writing assignments. As part of your class work, you will be expected to keep preparation notes and responses in your commonplace book for the week’s reading assignments; this is important for class discussion purposes. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Also, an introduction to [|__Commonplace Books__] (see below) and our [|__commonplace book project__], as well as a demonstration of the use of Moodle.
 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week One: //**
 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Introduction to the Course //**<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">: <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [|__How literature can be understood as a conversation__] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">, how reading, writing, and learning allow us to take part in that conversation.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“The Descent of Inanna.” Starting at p 23 in book 1 or at []
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment: **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> In your commonplace book, identify two elements of the writings that you find interesting, difficult or distinct; reflect upon these elements.
 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Two and Three //**
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> The Epic of Gilgamesh; starting at p 55 in book or at []
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment: **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In your commonplace book, identify three elements of the writings that you consider to be lessons learned by Gilgamesh. You will be asked to discuss at least one of your elements in class.
 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Four //**
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> “The Dhammapada” Chapters 2, 3, 12 and 15 at []
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment: ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In your commonplace book, identify two elements of the writings that you find interesting, difficult or distinct; reflect upon these elements.
 * //<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Five //**
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“The Book of Ruth” at []
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment: **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Write a two page essay that addresses the role of the kinsman/redeemer in the book. Use quotes/summary/paraphrase to support your argument.
 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Six: //**
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> The Allegory of the Cave by Plato starting at p 1111 in book or at []
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment: **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In your commonplace book, identify two elements of the writings that you find interesting, difficult or distinct; reflect upon these elements.
 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Seven and Eight: //**
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Odyssey by Homer, Book 1 through Book 4 starting at p 421 in book or at []
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">: In a two page essay, describe how the characters of Gilgamesh and Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh are similar to the characters of Achilles and Patroclus in The Odyssey. Use quotes to support your argument.
 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Nine: //**


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Metamorphoses (book 1 and 10) by Ovid starting at p 1270 in book or at []


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">: In your commonplace book, identify two elements of the writings that you find interesting, difficult or distinct; reflect upon these elements.


 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Ten //**


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> The Bhagavad Gita, Chapters Karma and Knowledge and Understanding at []


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment: **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In your commonplace book, identify two elements of the writings that you find interesting, difficult or distinct; reflect upon these elements.


 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Eleven //**


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Dante’s Inferno, Cantos 1, 3, and 8 at []


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment: **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> In your commonplace book, identify two elements of the writings that you find interesting, difficult or distinct; reflect upon these elements.


 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Twelve //**

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">[]
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Poems by Sor Juana de la Cruz at


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment: **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> In your commonplace book, identify two elements of the writings that you find interesting, difficult or distinct; reflect upon these elements.


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Week Thirteen and Fourteen **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Read Don Quixote, Part 1 at <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">[]

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Quixote as a “bible of humanity.” Using Part 1 as the basis for your argument <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">plus additional outside sources, write a paper that agrees or disagrees with this <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">quote.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Final Paper: **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">French literary critic Charles Sainte-Beuve described Don

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What is "Commonplacing" and what is a Commonplace Book? <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Commonplacing is the act of selecting important phrases, lines, and/or passages from texts and writing them down; the commonplace book is the notebook in which a reader has collected quotations from works s/he has read. Commonplace books can also include comments and notes from the reader; they are frequently indexed so that the reader can classify important themes and locate quotations related to particular topics or authors.

====<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">" <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Commonplacing is the practice of entering literary excerpts and personal comments into a private journal, that is, into a commonplace book or, to use a 17th century synonym, a silva rerum ("a forest of things"). Typically the excerpts were regarded as exceptionally insightful or beautiful or as applicable to a variety of situations, and so as such they are often especially quotable. . . . The practice of commonplacing can be traced back in the European tradition to the 5th century B.C.E. and the Sophist, Protagoras. ====  <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">--Norman Elliott Anderson, [|Commonplacing in the Spiritual Traditions]
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Historically commonplacing has played an important role in education, and it has served as a vital tool of erudition. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"Boys ... had to keep notebooks or commonplace books in which to record, and then learn, idioms, quotations, or figures useful in composition or declamation. Not a little of that wide learning and impressive range of quotation adorning Elizabethan literature comes from these commonplace books." Schools in Tudor England, by Craig R. Thompson (Washington: Folger Shakespeare Library, 1958): p. 16, cf. 44. "Students with literary tastes, in days when books were hard to come by, kept 'commonplace' or notebooks into which they copied out verses or prose extracts that particularly appealed to them." The Intellectual Life of Colonial New England, by Samuel Eliot Morison (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1965; reprint of the 2nd ed., 1956): p. 49 **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">.

====<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">"Commonplacing--The commonplace book began blank. The reader used it to collect premises, arguments and other quotes from the various books read. The common place book was always at hand for the next addition or as a conversational prompt. It might well fill up with contradictory snipets." [|__Book and e-book: The Future of the Book__] ====

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Commonplace book (n.): an edited collection of striking passages noted in a single place for future reference.
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There was a time when commonplace books were a popular way for civilized men and women to record striking passages they found in their reading. Who can forget the electrifying effect that some thoughts have on us when we encounter them for the first time? The commonplace book is a way of memorializing those striking passages so that one can return to them for renewed inspiration.

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"Time was when readers kept commonplace books. Whenever they came across a pithy passage, they copied it into a notebook under an appropriate heading, adding observations made in the course of daily life. Erasmus instructed them how to do it . . .The practice spread everywhere in early modern England, among ordinary readers as well as famous writers like Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, John Milton, and John Locke. It involved a special way of taking in the printed word. Unlike modern readers, who follow the flow of a narrative from beginning to end, early modern Englishmen read in fits and starts and jumped from book to book. They broke texts into fragments and assembled them into new patterns by transcribing them in different sections of their notebooks. Then they reread the copies and rearranged the patterns while adding more excerpts. Reading and writing were therefore inseparable activities. They belonged to a continuous effort to make sense of things, for the world was full of signs: you could read your way through it; and by keeping an account of your readings, you made a book of your own, one stamped with your personality. . . . The era of the commonplace book reached its peak in the late Renaissance, although commonplacing as a practice probably began in the twelfth century and remained widespread among the Victorians. It disappeared long before the advent of the sound bite." -- Robert Darnton, "Extraordinary Commonplaces," The New York Review of Books, December 21, 2000

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"An early practitioner of reflective journaling was Thomas Jefferson. He would synopsize and capture the key points of his readings and add his own reflections, recording them in a journal which he called his 'commonplace book.' One of his biographers quoted Jefferson as saying 'I was in the habit of abridging and commonplacing what I read meriting it, and of sometimes mixing my own reflections on the subject' (Cunningham, 1987, p. 9). His tutor, James Maury, commended the practice as a means 'to reflect, and remark on, and digest what you read' (Wilson, 1989, p. 7)."-Herman W. Hughes, [|Dialogic Reflection: A New Face on an Old Pedagogy] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Write a commonplace log before each class meeting and submit it by <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">[|Moodle] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">. You will also be required to keep a copy of all of your logs on the hard drive of your own computer or on floppy disks. (In either case, make sure you have several copies in different places.) Be sure to write and save your log as a word processing file before copying and pasting it onto Moodle. This will allow you to save a copy of your commonplace log for your ongoing "book"; it will also save you from losing your log if there is a technical error. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Each log should include at least three quotations from the readings due for the class and a reflective commentary (unless other directions are given). You can write your log in the form of an informal letter or essay, or you can write it as a list. Logs must be submitted before the beginning of each class. Any log submitted up to a week late will receive reduced credit. No logs will be accepted that are more than a week late.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">How do I construct my Online Commonplace Book? **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Each log should include at least three quotations from the readings that you find significant. If you have been assigned to read more than one text, be sure to include at least one quotation from each text. A quotation may be as short as a phrase or sentence, or as long as a paragraph. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Each log should also include your comments on the quotations you have selected. In your comments, explain why you chose each quote and what you can deduce from it. Who do you think is speaking here, and who is s/he speaking to? What is the speaker talking about, and what do you think s/he's hoping to accomplish by this? Do you have any ideas about how this quotation can help us understand the text? Do you have any thoughts about why it might-or might not-- have been persuasive to the intended audience? Is this something that you find persuasive now? Is there anything you would like to remember from this text for your own life; if so, what and why? Do you have anything you would like to say back to this author?
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What should I include in each log? **

//<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">REMEMBER: This is a list of suggestions to help you identify the quotations for your commonplace books. You don't have to follow all of these suggestions in each log. If you did, we'd all be worn out. //
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">How should I choose quotes for the commonplace book? **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Find a line or passage that offers a powerful statement. You are allowed to define powerful in any way you wish. Sometimes a quotation is particularly persuasive, emotional, descriptive, or meaningful-but there are all kinds of other things that set one line apart from the rest. Decide for yourself what is powerful, and then think about what makes it powerful. //Or//
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Find a line or passage that helps you understand this text//. Or//
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Find a line or passage that confuses you. You find yourself wondering if you might understand the whole text better if you could make sense of this part //Or//
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Find a line or passage that reminds you of another text (or "voice") in the American conversation. (How is this similar to or different from the other, and how can that comparison or contrast contribute to our understanding of the conversation.) //Or//
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Find a line or passage that demonstrates a noteworthy way of connecting with and persuading the audience. //Or//
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">or Find a line or passage which made a strong impression on YOU. It could be something you seriously disagree with; if so, go ahead and counter the argument. On the other hand, if it's something you like, is this something you want to remember and/or live up to in your own life? Would your life be any different if you do?

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Commonplace books have always been used as places where readers can explore new ideas and test old ways of thinking rather than simply as places to vent opinions. Of course, an "opinion" presented in a persuasive fashion and supported by reasoning and evidence is an argument and not an opinion. So go ahead and communicate your thoughts in a way that persuades other people to accept them or at least give them serious consideration.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Can I express my own opinions in my commonplace logs? **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">You can use an informal style as long as you write in a way that does not undermine your credibility as a commentator. (Significant grammar problems will affect your readability and your credibility.) As I recently learned from an online commonplace book, Confucius once said: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant;if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remainsundone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; ifjustice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion.Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters aboveeverything. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">THAT is an explanation of the way in which style and grammar are assessed. Concentrate on communicating clearly and effectively instead of worrying about avoiding mistakes.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Do Style and Grammar Count? **