Instructor
Dr. Stephen doCarmo
Office: Main 417
Hours: MWF 10:00-10:50
Phone: 2220
E-mail: snd3@lehigh.edu

Required Texts
The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, edited by Michael Meyer.
White Noise, By Don DeLillo.

The Compact Bedford Intro to Lit is already available for you in the bookstore, and you should get it immediately.  DeLillo's White Noise isn't there yet; I'll let you know as soon as it is.

Course Description and Objectives
The main objectives of English 165 are to introduce you to literature and to improve your critical thinking skills through three distinct but inter-related tasks: 1) close reading of imaginative literature, 2) discussion of that literature, and 3) the writing of critical essays about that literature, emphasizing careful textual analysis.  The readings, class discussions, and assignments (especially the three polished essays you'll need to compose for this writing-intensive course) are meant to build up your knowledge and appreciation of four major literary genres: the short story, drama (i.e. plays), poetry, and the novel.  To help you along, you'll be introduced in this course to the vocabulary of literary criticism, the language professional literary critics and scholars use when they make their own analyses of literature.

English 165 is required, I know, for lots of West Chester students who have no intention of becoming English majors, and I wouldn't blame you non-English major sorts at all for wondering why you have to be here.  Let me go ahead, then, and tell you right here on the syllabus what I think you stand to gain from this course.

First, you stand to become a better citizen -- not only of America, but of the world.  Sounds schlocky, maybe, but I believe it's true.  Literature, like all creative art, doesn't exist in a vacuum: the heavy cultural and political matters pervading the real world also pervade stories, plays, and poetry, and the consideration we'll give to stuff like race, gender, class, sexuality, nationalism, and technology as we read can only strengthen and refine our understanding of those issues as they exist off the page, too -- issues any educated and socially responsible person ought to have some awareness of.

Second, it doesn't really matter whether you plan on becoming a physician or an accountant, a chemist or a musician, an MBA or a CPA: you're going to need, no matter what profession you enter, to be able to think clearly and express yourself concisely on an everyday regular basis, with both spoken and written language.  Think pharmacists don't have to write?  You're wrong.  Think a zoologist doesn't have to speak clearly and thoughtfully?  You're way off.  The practice you'll get in English 165 at speaking, writing, and critical thinking about often difficult and challenging texts will serve you profoundly well no matter what your future plans are.

Course Requirements
First, and not surprisingly, you'll have to do a whole lot of reading.  Except for a handful of class days set aside for watching films, taking exams, or having one-on-one student-teacher conferences, you'll have readings due for every class meeting -- and I'll know whether or not you're doing them because I'll be giving regular quizzes on them.  Each quiz will be comprised of five short-answer questions and will receive a 1 - 5 grade: get two questions right, and get a "2," or the equivalent of a D; get all five right and get a "5," or the same as an A.  The twelve or so quizzes I'll give you over the course of the semester will together comprise 15% of your final grade.  You can count on my dropping your lowest couple quiz grades.  Please note also that if you miss a quiz but don't get the absence excused (more on absences later), it will count as a zero.  Due-dates for readings are on the course schedule at the end of this syllabus.

Second, you'll have two exams, a mid-term and a final, each worth 12.5% of your final grade.  I'll give you information on what to expect on the tests before you take them, but I can tell you now they'll be long on in-class essays about our readings and about the literary-critical terms you'll be learning to use.  I can also tell you the mid-term will pertain to our short story and drama units, which we'll do in the first half of the semester, while the final (non-cumulative) will pertain to our poetry and novel units scheduled for the second half of the semester.  Dates for the exams are on the course schedule.

Third, you'll have to write three polished essays, each corresponding to one of our four "genre" units.  That means you can pick one unit of readings (short story, drama, poetry, or the novel) not to write an essay on.  I'll give you a fairly broad, loose essay topic for each unit of readings -- thus you can decide which unit to skip writing on according to your like or dislike of the question I ask.

Each essay should be roughly three pages long.  You can write more than that if you feel you need to, but don't write me more than that just to impress me, since a sloppy six-page paper won't do any better grade-wise than a sloppy three-pager.  Your essays should be well organized, with a clearly identifiable, well-supported thesis.  They should also quote, when helpful or necessary, the texts they're about.  They should be well proofread and edited, too.  Since we don't have much time for writing instruction in this class, you'll need to be responsible for getting help and feedback on your drafts as you're writing them.  I'm setting aside some time for one-on-one draft conferences with you, but let me implore you to share drafts with each other outside of class, too, and to make good use of West Chester's Writing Center (Main 203).  It's important that you devote considerable time to your essays, since each of the first two you turn in will be worth 15% of your final grade and the third will be worth 20%.  Due dates for essays (except for whichever one you choose to skip) are on the course schedule below.

Fourth (and last), you'll have to participate in class discussions and activities.  While I won't expect  you to speak during every class meeting, I will expect to hear your voice at least somewhat frequently.  That doesn't mean, of course, that I should hear you constantly talking to the person beside you: nothing, in fact, will kill your participation grade, worth 10% of your final grade, faster.  It means I should hear you addressing the whole class about issues relevant to the text we're discussing.

Here, again, are the final-grade percentages from the "requirements" section above:

15% - Reading Quizzes
15% - Essay 1
15% - Essay 2
20% - Essay 3
12.5% - Midterm Exam
12. 5% - Final Exam
10% - Participation
100%

Late Work
The only things you could turn in late, really, are your essays, and I'll accept them at a deduction of one full letter grade per each class period they're late.

Since you get to choose one unit of the course not to write an essay on anyway, you might wonder why I enforce deadlines at all.  Two reasons: you'll write better papers about readings that are still fresh in your mind, and I don't want to wind up increasingly buried in essays as the semester wears on.  So please stay on top of things.

Attendance
Each unexcused absence after your fifth will diminish your final grade in the course by a third of a letter grade.  For example, if you had a B average on papers, quizzes, tests, and participation at the end of the semester but had six unexcused absences on the books, you would wind up with a B- instead.  With seven unexcused absences you'd drop to a C+.

Three late arrivals to class will constitute an absence.  And late arrivals will also diminish not only your participation grade but probably your reading quiz grade, too, since showing up too late to take a beginning-of-the-class quiz (and that's when they'll always be given) means you'll have to eat a zero on it.

Special Needs
Such accomodations as extended deadlines or added time for exams will naturally be given to anyone with a documented learning problem.  If you have such needs, and such documentation, please talk to me about it soon.

Plagiarism
 You're plagiarizing if you...

• lift either word-for-word passages or ideas from a published book, article, website, or any other  source without giving credit to the author,
• pass off another student's work as your own, or
• allow a "helper" to actually write parts of your paper for you.

If you're ever unsure whether something you're doing might be plagiarism, ask me.  You certainly don't get in any trouble for finding out before an assignment is due if what what you're doing is questionable.

Course Schedule
Unit One: The Short Story
All page numbers, unless otherwise specified, refer to your Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature.

Monday January 15: Introduction to the course; questions about the syllabus; some in-class writing.
Wednesday January 17: Discussion of "Reading Fiction," pages 9-13.  Skip the rest.
Friday January 19: Discussion of "Plot" (60-61) and of William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" (71-77).

Monday January 22: Discussion of "Character" (94-95) and of Bharati Mukherjee's "The Tenant" (99-109).
Wednesday January 24:Discussion of "Setting" (137-38) and of Ernest Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" (139-44).
Friday January 26: Discussion of "Point of View" (154-58) and of Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson" (159-64).

Monday January 29: Discussion of Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the Pet Dog" (165-76) and of Joyce Carol  Oates' "The Lady with the Pet Dog" (178-90).
Wednesday January 31: Discussion of "Symbolism" (193-95) and of Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal" (199-209).
Friday February 2: Discussion of "Theme" (211-214) and of Stephen Crane's  "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky"  (218-25).  I'll also bring the topic question for your "Short Story" essay on this day.

Monday February 5: The day we lost to snow.  The rest of this schedule is adjusted to compensate.
Wednesday February 7: Class replaced with one-on-one draft developing conferences with me.  I'll bring a sign-up sheet to class before this date.
Friday February 9: Discussion of "Style, Tone, and Irony" (234-37), of Raymond Carver's "Popular Mechanics"  (238-39), and of Susan Minot's "Lust" (256-63).

 Unit Two: Drama
Monday February 12: Discussion of "Modern Drama" (1137-1142) and of the start of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House,  pages 1142-1152 (just to read to the "Nora, lost in thoughts, breaks out into quiet laughter" at the bottom of 1152).
Wednesday February 14: Discussion of Ibsen's A Doll House, pages 1153-1171.
Friday February 16: Short Story essay due.  Also, discussion of the remainder of Ibsen's A Doll House (1172- 1192).

Monday February 19: Discussion of "Marxist Criticism" (1495) and of Barry Witham and John Lutterbie's "A Marxist  Approach to A Doll House" (1196-1198).
Wednesday February 21: Discussion of "Feminist Criticism" (1498-99), of Joan Templeton's "Is A Doll House a Feminist Text?" (1201-1202), of "Psychological Strategies" (1491-93), and of Carol Strongin Tufts' "A Psychological Reading of Nora" (1198-1200).
Friday February 23:  Reading day.  We won't be in class, but you should spend that time reading up through page 1232 of David Hwang's M. Butterfly.

Monday February 26: Discussion of David Hwang's M. Butterfly, through page 1232.
Wednesday February 28: Discussion of the remainder of Hwang's M. Butterfly (1232-1259).
Friday March 2: Discussion of "Cultural Criticism" (1496-1497), of "A Plot Synopsis of Madame Butterfly"  (1259-60), and of Richard Bernstein's "The News Source for M. Butterfly."  I'll also bring you the topic for your  "Drama" essay on this day.

Monday March 12: Discussion of Frank Rich's "A Theater Review of M. Butterfly" (1263-64)  and of David Savran's "An Interview with David Henry Hwang" (1264-65).
Wednesday March 14: Class replaced by one-on-one conferences with me on your "Drama" essay.
Friday March 16: Review for midterm exam.

Monday March 19: Midterm Exam.

Unit Three: Poetry
Wednesday March 21: Discussion of "Diction" (570-72), of "Denotations and Connotations" (572-73), of Randall  Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" (573), of e.e. cummings' "she being brand" (574), of "Word Order" (576), of "Tone" (576), of Derek Walcott's "The Virgins" (576), of Katharyn Howd Machan's "Hazel  Tells Laverne" (578), and of Martin Espada's "Latin Night at the Pawnshop" (579).
Friday March 23: "Drama" essay due.  Discussion of "Symbol" (635), of Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night" (636), of "Allegory" (637), of Poe's "The Haunted Palace" (638), of "Irony" (640), of E.A. Robinson's "Richard Cory" (640), of Janice Miriktani's "Recipe" (641), and of e.e. cummings' "next to of course god america i" (643).

Monday March 26: Discussion of "Listening to Poetry" (662), of Emily Dickinson's "A Bird came down the Walk"  (665), of Galway Kinnell's "Blackberry Eating" (668), of "Rhyme" (668), of Richard Armour's "Going to  Extremes" (669), of "Sound and Meaning" (673), and of Gerard Manley Hopkins' "God's Grandeur" (673).
Wednesday March 28: Discussion of "Some Common Poetic Forms" (706), of "The Sonnet" (709), of  Shakespeare's "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (712), of "The Sestina" (716), of Florence Cassen Mayers' "All-American Sestina" (717), of "The Haiku" (721), of Matsuo Basho's "Under cherry trees" (721), of "The Elegy" (721), of Andrew Hudgins' "Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead" (722), of "Picture Poem"  (725), and of Michael McFee's "In Media Res" (725).
Friday March 30: Discussion of "Open Form" (729), of Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric" (730), of Carolyn  Forche's "The Colonel" (736), of Sharon Olds' "Rite of Passage" (737), of Allen Ginsberg's "First Night at Ken Kesey's with Hell's Angels" (739), and of Gary Soto's "Mexicans Begin Jogging" (744), of "The Found Poem" (744), and of Donald Justice's "Order in the Streets" (745).

Monday April 2: Discussion of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (844-47), of "Biographical  Strategies" (1489-91), of Elisabeth Schneider's "Hints of Eliot in Prufrock" (848-49), and of Barbara Everett's "The Problem of Tone in Prufrock" (849-50).
Wednesday April 4: Discussion of "Formalist Strategies" (1487-89), of Michael L. Baumann's "The 'Overwhelming Question' for Prufrock" (830), of "Reader Response Strategies" (1501-03), and of Robert Sward's "A  Personal Analysis of 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'" (854-58).
Friday April 6: Discussion of Julia Alvarez's "Queens, 1963" (862-64), of "Cultural Criticism" (1496; just re-skim it),  and of Marny Requa's "From an Interview with Julia Alvarez" (864-66).  I'll also bring you the topic question  for your "Poetry" essay on this day.

Monday April 9: Class replaced by a film screening.  I'll let you know what film, as well as where and when we'll be watching it, before this date.
Wednesday 11: Discussion of our film, of "Queens: The 'Fair' Burough" (867-68), and of Norman Lear's "Talkin'  about Prejudice in Queens" (868-71).
Friday April 13: Class replaced by one-on-one conferences with me on your "Poetry" essay.

Unit Four: The Novel
Monday April 16: Discussion of DeLillo's White Noise, through page 53.
Wednesday April 18: Discussion of White Noise, through page 105.
Friday April 20: "Poetry" essay due.  Discussion of White Noise, through page 163.

Monday April 23: Discussion of White Noise, through page 262.  I'll also bring the topic question for your "Novel" essay on this day.
Wednesday April 25: Discussion of the Remainder of White Noise.
Friday April 27: Class replaced by one-on-one conferences with me on your "Novel" essay.

Your "Novel" essay will be due in my English department mailbox (Main 527) by noon on Friday, May 4.
 

Essay Topic for the Short Story Unit
I'd like you to write a roughly three page-long "reader response"-style critical essay telling me a) why you particularly like or dislike one of the short stories we've read together for class, and b) what your liking or disliking that story might have to do with your own background and upbringing.  Along the way, you should also show me that you can use some of the more "formalist" vocabulary we've been learning: that describing plot, character, setting, point of view, symbolism, theme, and style.  I think that if you can involve terms pertaining to at least three of those, that'll be fine.

Additional Requirements and Pointers:

1) First, nitty-gritty mechanical stuff: your paper should be typed, it should be double-spaced, it should be in 12-point font, and it should have one-inch margins all around.  Unless you're citing, in your essay, something other than stuff we've read for class, it doesn't need a "works cited" page.  And no cover sheets or plastic cover thingees, please.  All you need to do is staple it and make sure your name and your essay's title (it should have one) are at the top of the first page.

2) In your essay you should definitely quote, when it's appropriate, the story you're addressing.  When you do use a quote, always introduce it, letting your reader know which character they're about to hear speaking or what context the action they're going to hear about takes place in.  Don't "block" a quote, or separate it from your own writing by double-indenting it, unless it's at least four lines long.  And don't use quotes that are that long unless they're really important to the point you're making.  Otherwise it looks like you're just trying to eat up space.

3) Before you start, you might want to re-acquaint yourself with Meyer's description of "Reader-Response Strategies" (1501-03 of your Bedford book).  Also, flip back through his stuff on "plot," "setting," "characterization," "point of view," etc., so those terms will be fresh in your mind as you work.  You should also re-read the short story you're going to write about -- a couple of times at least, since the more familiar you are with it, the more likely you are to really do it justice when you write about it.

4) Don't hesitate to write in the first person (i.e., don't hesistate to use "I") or to use a relatively informal "voice" as you write.  The whole point of reader-response criticism is that it describes the reader's interactions with the text.  Putting on some formal, pseudo-scientific, supposedly "objective" style, then, wouldn't make any sense here anyhow.  This essay should be about how your own background and upbringing leads you to like or dislike some author's work -- thus you should feel free to tell about your own background in your own voice.  Just don't get so casual or informal that your writing gets sloppy or unfocused.  Even though you can, or even should, write in the first person, it doesn't mean you shouldn't have a clear, well-supported thesis.

Literary terms we've been using during our "short story" unit, and which you can now start incorporating into your first essay:

From our discussion of "Plot" (pages 60-68 of your Bedford Intro to Lit):
Plot, flashback, exposition, conflict, foreshadowing, protagonist, antagonist, climax.

From our discussion of "Character" (94-99):
Dynamic character, static character, foil, flat character, round character, stock character, motivation, consistency.

From our discussion of "Setting" (137-39):
Just the term itself, setting.

From our discussion of "Point of View" (154-59):
Point of view, narrator, third-person narrator, third-person omniscient narrator, third-person limited omniscient narrator, third-person objective narrator, first-person narrator, unreliable narrator, naive narrator.

From our discussion of "Symbolism" (193-96):
Symbol, conventional symbol, literary symbol.

From our discussion of "Theme" (211-14):
Just the term itself, theme.

From our discussion of "Style," "Tone," and "Irony" (234-38):
Style, tone, irony, dramatic irony, situational irony.
 

Essay Topic for the Drama Unit
Both of the plays we've read in our "drama" unit – Ibsen's A Doll House (1877) and Hwang's M. Butterfly (1988) -- might seem to have interests pretty far removed from present-day America.  Nevertheless, I'd like you to pick one of these two plays and, in a three-page essay, tell me what theme(s) present in it are relevant to the America you're living in.

Along the way, I'd like you to try to use some vocabulary from at least one mode of criticism we've learned about during our drama unit: psychoanalysis, feminism, Marxism, or cultural criticism.  I hope you'll also continue using whatever "formalist" terms (those we first used in our short story unit) seem appropriate.

Additional Requirements and Pointers:

Avoid concentrating on shallow, skin-deep similarities between contemporary America and the places/times depicted in the plays.  Writing about how spying can still get an American in trouble today the same way it got the Frenchman Gallimard in trouble fifteen years ago won't give you a whole lot to write about.  Concentrating on deeper, thornier issues like M. Butterfly's take on gender and nationalism probably will.

Be sure to re-read Meyer’s explanations of the critical modes we've been learning about. Let me go ahead, though, and remind you of some of the terms we've discussed in class:

• Pertinent to Feminism: patriarchy; biological essentialism; "gender" vs. "sex"; the literary work's accordant, negotiated, or oppositional stance toward the patriarchy.
• Pertinent to Marxism: economic class; proletariat and bourgeoisie; ideology; the literary work's accordant, negotiated, or oppositional stance toward the oligarchy (or society ruled by the wealthy).
• Pertinent to Psychoanalysis: the unconscious mind; unconscious desire; repression; reader-, writer-, and text-based psychoanalytic readings; oedipus complex; electra complex.
• Pertinent to Cultural Criticism: historical and cultural context of an artwork; "high" culture vs. "low" (or "popular") culture; “symbiosis” of art and other cultural forms; intertextuality; "postcolonial" criticism.

Be sure to directly quote the play you're writing on to support your major claims about it.

As you’re looking for good passages to quote, don’t rule out the playwright’s italicized stage instructions.  They’re part of the text, too, and often provide information relevant to a good interpretation.

As in your first essay, you shouldn't hesitate to write in the first person (no matter what your high school English teacher told you!) or to describe life experiences of your own that will help you illustrate a point.

Like last time, your paper should be typed, it should be double-spaced, it should be in 12-point font, and it should have one-inch margins all around.  Unless you're citing something other than stuff we've read for class, you don't need a "works cited" page.  And no cover sheets or plastic cover thingees, please.  All you need to do is staple it and make sure your name and your essay's title (it should have one) are at the top of the first page.

One last thing: play titles get italicized; short-story titles get quotation marks around them.  And if you want to bring up one of the short stories we read in our last unit as you’re writing about whichever play you choose, that’s fine.   Encouraged, even.

That’s it.  Good luck.
 

Essay Topic for the Poetry Unit
For this paper, I'd like you to write a three-page "reader-response"-style essay explaining how you make meaning in a poem.  To do this, you'll probably have to explain such things as who you are, where you're from, what your background is like, what you believe in morally and/or politically -- and how these things affect the way you read the poem you've chosen.  You might also want to tell about experiences you've had that affect your reading.  Lastly, you should make good use of some of the "formalist" terms we've used during our poetry unit.

If you like, you can compare (or contrast) two or three different poems, concentrating (again) on why your own identity and background makes you see the connections and/or differences between them that you do.

Additional Requirements and Pointers:

The "formalist" terms we've learned in our poetry unit are...

Formal diction, informal diction, middle diction, dialect, jargon, denotation, connotation, tone, theme, symbol, allegory, dramatic irony, situational irony, euphony, cacophony, alliteration, assonance, consonance, end rhyme, internal rhyme, masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme, rhyme scheme, near rhyme, fixed form, open form, stanza, couplet, tercet, quatrain, meter, iambic pentameter, sonnet, sestina, haiku, elegy, picture poem, found poem.

If any of the vocabulary from types of criticism besides formalism or reader response (i.e. feminism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, cultural criticism, biographical criticism) seems useful to you as you write, feel free to use it.

Keep a "historical consciousness" as you write.  In other words, always bear in mind the time and place where the poem you're writing about was written, and be sensitive to the differences between that time and place and your own.

Study the poem(s) you want to write about.  Before you start writing about them, read them over and over and over -- aloud, if you can.  You'll be amazed (I'm not kidding) at how much you see and hear in a poem after reading twenty times that you miss only reading it twice.

Feel free to write about any poem in your Bedford book, even if it's one we didn't read  for class.  I'd encourage you, in fact, to spend a couple hours flipping through the anthology looking for poems that really grab you.  If you want to use a poem you like that's not in our anthology, that's fine, but ask me about it first, and give me a photocopy of it when you turn in your final essay.

If you're going to quote more than, say, four lines of a poem, "block" quote it the way you would a chunk of prose.  (And as usual, only use a quote that big if it's really important.)  If you're quoting less than four lines at a time, just put slashes between the lines, like this: "'No time for lies,' he said, and pressed / A dollar in my palm, hurrying me / Through the back door."  Be sure, also as usual, to put quotation marks around your quotes -- unless they're block quotes, in which case you shouldn't.

If for any reason you want to, you can quote either Meyer's editorial comments or the critical stuff we've read on T.S. Eliot and Julia Alvarez.  Just be sure to introduce those quotes in your essay, letting your reader know whose words they're hearing.

As always, your essay should be in 12-point font, with one-inch margins all around.  And it should have a good title.

That's it, I think.  Talk to me if I can be of assistance.  Ciao --

                                                                                             S.
 

Essay Topic for the "Novel" Unit
In a three-page essay, please answer the following question(s): What is Don DeLillo trying to tell us in White Noise (1985) about the roles consumer culture and technology play in our lives, and how correct do you think he is in his assessments of them?

Additional Requirements and Pointers:

As you write, please try to make use of some of the critical vocabulary we've learned this semester: terms like theme, tone, irony, style, plot, setting, protagonist, and antagonist might prove useful, as might some of the terms we've used to describe different types of characters ("flat," "round," "static," "dynamic," etc.)  Like I wrote on your last paper topic, though, you shouldn't come up with ways to cram into your essay as much critical vocabulary as you can: you'll almost certainly hurt your writing that way.  Just use whatever terms will actually help you express what you want to say about the book.

Be sure your essay has a central thesis, and that each paragraph you write is somehow contributing to that thesis.

Be sure each claim you make in your essay is well supported, either by clearly introduced quotes from the text or by first-person accounts of your own experiences in / observations about the world.

Please put a page number in parentheses after each direct quote from the novel.

Like always, your essay should be done in 12-point font, with one-inch margins all around.  And be sure to give it a good title.

That's all.  Make me proud.  Call or write with questions.   Bye --

                                                                                                             S.d.