ENGL 105 Introduction to Literary Scholarship I Fall 2017

Hande Tekdemir

Office: TB 529

Office Hours: Monday 14:30-15:30; Wednesday 15:00-16:00 & by appointment

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to introduce students to the reading, appreciation, and analysis of literature. Focusing on three main literary genres, (poetry, short story, drama) this class will introduce you to the basic vocabulary of literary analysis such as plot, theme, character, tone, style, narrative structure, point of view, setting.In our discussion of poetry, we will examine certain poetic elements and analysis techniques. As we study different forms, we will get to know a number of major writers and poets from around the world, and consider the function of literature.What does literature do to us? Why do we read stories, poems, plays, and what do we find in them? What is the potential of literature? As we address these questions we will discuss the possibilities of literature as well as its limits.

Despite the big size of the class, I will encourage you to participate and will always value your opinion as long as it is relevant to the readings.

Requirements:

Participation and inclass activities20

Reading Quizzes20

Midterm Exam30

Final Exam30

Schedule of Readings:

The Reader for this course is available at the Boğaziçi University Library’s Copy Center, located on the first floor. All the readings indicated below are in the Reader.

SHORT STORY

Week 1:Introduction to Short Story: Plot vs. Theme

Sept. 18Introduction

Sept. 20John Cheever, “Reunion”

optional: “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood and “A Conversation with my Father” by Grace Paley

Week 2:Narration and Characterization

Sept. 25Anton Chekhov, “The Lady with the PetDog;” start reading Maupassant

Sept. 27Guy de Maupassant, “The Necklace”

Week 3:Point of View

Oct. 2Virginia Woolf, “Kew Gardens,”Colette “The Other Wife”

Oct. 4Edgar Allan Poe, “Tell-Tale Heart”

Week 4:Setting

Oct. 9Flannery O’Connor, “The Enduring Chill”

Oct. 11Katherine Karlin, “Muscle Memory”

Week 5:Symbol, Allegory, Parable

Oct. 16Ursula Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,”OR Julio Cortazar, “After Lunch”

Nagouib Mahfouz, “Half a Day”

Oct. 18Franz Kafka, “My Destination;” “Before the Law”

Week 6:Narrative structure

Oct. 23John Barth, “The Fun House”

Oct. 25Aime Bender, “The Rememberer”

POETRY

Week 7: Word Choice, Tone,Poetic Line, Syntax andstructure

Oct. 30“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden; “Belfast Confetti” by Ciaran Carson; “l(a” by e.e.cummings; also read the chapter “Syntax and Poetic Line” by Shira Wolosky

Nov. 1“Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde; “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan

Week 8:Figures of Speech: Metaphor, Simile, Personification

Nov. 6-8“On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High” by D.C. Berry Check; “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath; “The Vacuum” by Howard Nemerov; “Coda” by Ezra Pound”; also read the chapter “Figurative Language”

Week 9:Sound and Rhythm in Poetry

Nov. 13-15“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou; “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson; “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks; “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe; “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke; also read the assigned sections from the chapter “Sound” in Introduction to Poetry

Nov 15Scansion, read the chapter “The Line” in A Poetry Handbook

Week 10:Verse Forms: Ballad, Sonnet, and Pantoum

Nov. 20Sonnet: “Like as a Huntsman” by Spenser; “Batter My Heart” by John Donne; “America” by Claude MacKayBallad: “Sir Patrick Spens,” “My Boy Willie,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “Ballad of Birmingham”

Nov. 22Pantoum: “Pantoum of the Great Depression” by Donald Justice; “Incident” by Natasha Tretheway; “She put on her Lipstick in the dark” by Stuart Dischell

Week 11:Open Forms & Parody

Nov. 27-29selection from the Course Reader

DRAMA

Week 12:

Dec. 4Ariel Dorfman, Death and the Maiden

Dec. 6continue Dorfman

Week 13:

Dec. 11continue Dorfman

Dec. 13Final Review

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