English 212 World Lit. II Evening Class 6-8:45 Wallace Bldg. TBA 3
hours credit (Syllabus below is for fall semester)
Dr. Dorothy M. Sutton dorothy.sutton@eku.edu
Office Hours: TBA
Office: Case Annex; Phone: (850) 623-6071
Please get name, Phone or email of two fellow
students:____________________________ ; _______________________________
COURSE OBJECTIVES: To become
familiar with the great works of world literature and learn why they are considered
“great,” to think about
ourselves our relationship to the people and the world around us; UNDERSTANDING
ATTENDANCE POLICY: More than 2 absences is failure for classes meeting
once a week.; please see me about problems
TEXT: Norton Anthology of World Literature Volumes D, E, and F
Assignments not in book will be marked with this sign * on syllabus. Most
are on this website; (below)
GRADES: The three one-hour tests count equally; final grade is average
of these tests. See below for information on my tests, how they are
formatted and how to study for them. There is no cumulative final. I do not
assign projects for extra points. A = 92-100; B
=83--91; C = 73-82; D= 64-72; F= 63 and
below. Always be prepared for pop quiz, which could
make a difference on borderline grades. Return of first test gives you your
standing before mid-term.
NOTE: If you need
disability accommodations, please register in
NOTE: In addition to the readings below, please read Timelines before
each major division in text, & read biographical material on each author.
WEEK (Calendar Syllabus)
1
Getting started: ABSENCE
AND GRADING POLICIES, COURSE OBJECTIVES, TEXT [see above], etc.; Discussion of
*major tenets of Neo-Classicism and
Romanticism. (See below)
2
Intro. to Neo-Classicism
["Enlightenment"] (p. 295); Bio. RACINE; Read pp.
364-365; 382; 399-400, Phaedra (know the story from
“Introduction”; SWIFT: A Modest Proposal (Read Bio.
& Intro. to know also about Gulliver's Travels -though Gulliver's Travels itself is
not required reading); Begin Alexander POPE, An Essay on Man,
Epistle I; La ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims* (Not in book)
3 Intro. to Romanticism (New text);
My lecture, Romanticism; ROUSSEAU,
Confessions
4 GOETHE, "Prologue" to
Faust; BLAKE, "The
Lamb," "Little Black Boy" "The Chimney
Sweeper," "The Tyger," "The Book of Thel"* (not in
text)
5 WORDSWORTH, "Tintern
Abbey"; "Immortality Ode,"
"World is Too Much With Us"
6 6-7 p. m. One
hour TEST 1
7 KEATS, "Ode on a Grecian
Urn"; "Ode to a Nightingale"; Begin Tennyson "In Memoriam."
[Bring Tennyson paragraph on
"In Memoriam." sections 55, 56 (p. 899-900) next meeting
– Oct. 11]
8 Tennyson "In
Memoriam.". Turn in your comments on sections 55, 56 before our discussion; :
HINDUISM; BUDDHISM* (not in book); THOREAU* (not in book; see
quotations below); Begin WHITMAN,
"Song of Myself.”
9 WHITMAN, "Song of Myself"; EMILY DICKINSON, poems 258, 435, 465, 585, 657, 712 and 1129 (You must use poem's first line for title); Introduction to Realism and Naturalism (incl. DARWIN & Origin of Species)
Week ten 6-7 p.m. TEST II [incl. full
definitions of Realism and Naturalism; Darwin (These are also on
test 3)]; 7-8:30 Intro Realism,
Naturalism in text; TOLSTOY, The
Death of Ivan Ilyich.
Week 11 finish
The Death of Ivan Ilyich if necessary; Background of The
Twentieth Century (see syllabus
below); Read Background 20th Century (in text); Biography of FREUD;
YEATS BIO. “When You Are Old and Gray,”
“Easter, 1916”; “The Second Coming.”
Week 12 No Class if teacher presenting paper at
conference. Outside work to be decided on.
Week
13 Yeats: “Sailing to
WEEK 14 Thanksgiving
Week 15 Kafka, Metamorphosis
Week 16 bio T.S. ELIOT,
"Prufrock"; The
Week 17 1 hour test 3 Test includes tenets of Realism &
Naturalism through Modern period. Be prepared to write a two page essay on how
the course was relevant to your life. You also should know MAJOR IDEAS and
AUTHORS OF EACH PERIOD. Grades should be posted online by 20 Dec.
=========================================================== “Handout”
part of Syllabus continues below:
==============================================================
A greatly over-simplified contrast between Neo-classical and Romantic value
systems:
NEO-CLASSICAL
static mechanism (everything stays the
same); symbol: watch
1. conformity--everything
conforms to a pattern
2. Perceived “imperfection” is simply misunderstanding on your
part. The world is as it should be.
3. Everything judged by its ability to submit to the world and fit
into a pre-conceived pattern,
wants to fit into society and be accepted.
4. Values: perfection, changelessness, uniformity,
rationalism, order, safety, security.
5. Intellectual, moral, social, religious structures (conventions) for most people.
6. Being: world is complete. Literature as finished
product--final answers are known.
7. World as perfect machine.
8. Absolutes.
9. Glorification of reason--the mind;
Excessive passion is bad.
10. Answers outside ourselves. (Externals) Priest,
Rabbi,
Pastor, Pope. Ways to
salvation in books, plans and laws.
11. Style of writing: set forms (poems usually heroic couplet);
Literature as PRODUCT (see # 6); moralistic, preaching,
propaganda (with all the answers).
ROMANTIC
Dynamic organism (everything changes); symbol: tree
1. Nonconformity; ignore pre-existing patterns
2. Imperfections exist and should be corrected.
3. Everything judged on an individual basis. Continuous adaptation to the world; or refusal to
submit or adapt.
Alienation--the romantic as a rebel.
4. Values: imperfection, growth, change, diversity.
Each person and work of art [such as literature]
is unique;
Creative imagination, unconscious, striving,
yearning, reaching. Disorder painful but
sometimes necessary.
5. "Finer minds" above conventions; tear down structures
because they are arbitrary anyway.
Every decision based on new and different set of
standards; humans must be FREE.
6. BECOMING: world is still being made. Literature as process--search for
answers.
7. World is alive, can never be perfect.
8. Relativism; no such thing as absolute or "The Truth" or "Only One Right way"
9. Intuition, imagination, spontaneity; knowledge is from the
subconscious, emphasis on the
emotions, feelings and the senses. Passion is good.
10. Answers within ourselves. (Internal) Must work out our
own salvation.
People are a religion unto themselves, a law unto themselves.
11. For literature & the other
arts: Experiment: fit form to content; many different forms;
Literature as PROCESS (open-minded searches, but no
final answers).
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(Political, industrial, economic, religious) BACKGROUND OF ROMANTIC PERIOD (greatly oversimplified)
Refer to Rom/Neo Dichotomy sheet to
see contrast between 18th and 19th centuries. How did the turmoil and conflict of the 19th century CAUSE the
literature we're studying to be written, how does the literature REFLECT this
background?
Two of the main ideas of Romanticism are REFORM
AND REVOLUTION. A background phenomenon that gave birth to Romantic reform and
revolution was the rise of the Middle Class, partly a result of insistence on
THE INHERENT VALUE OF THE INDIVIDUAL.
I. REFORM
2 REFORM BILLS 1. Reform Bill of 1832. First
important reform bill. It had to do with politics: for first time,
common people could have a voice in government. It eliminated
"pocket" and "rotten" boroughs. (pocket-patron
designated) (rotten-number of votes for a region set
by Medieval population pattern.
2. Reform Bill of 1833 shows how badly reform was needed and why revolutions
were taking place. It had to do with working conditions and
education. Part of it called The Factory Act (applied only to textile
trade):--Children under 9 not allowed to work; --ages 9-13 work only 12 hours a
day; --2 hours of schooling a day required for children under 13
(beginning of universal education)
II. REVOLUTION
Two kinds of revolution: POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL
1. POLITICAL: 1762 Rousseau published The
Social Contract stating that the only power a ruler has is given by the
people.
Two POLITICAL revolutions: American 1776, French 1789
2. INDUSTRIAL: began in late 18th cent., culminated in 19th
Definition: Transformation of most of
--locomotive, Stevenson, early 19th (1814)
--telegraph, mid 19th century (1844)
III. ECONOMIC BACKGROUND: Adam Smith pub
Wealth of Nations 1776, propounds idea of Laissez-faire individualism (free
enterprise); Gov. hands off
IV. RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND: Minorities in 18th cent., Pantheism (God in all
things) and Deism (God as nature) grow. Science questions earlier beliefs in
myths, miracles, and superstitions. Gradual shift FROM EXTERNAL PERSONAL GOD
(Absolute Authority who cares about individuals personally) to INTERNAL
PERSONAL GOD (Sacredness of self and all other people; every person a law,
religion to him/her self) and humanism (emphasis on human).
=====================================================================
Four Blake Quotes from his poem (not in text) “Marriage of Heaven and
Hell”
1. Jesus was all virtue and acted from impulse, not rules.
2. One law for the lion and ox is oppression.
3. Energy is eternal delight.
4. Without contraries is no progression.
Quote from his notebook: 1. “I must create a system or be
enslaved by another man’s.”
Blake believed all people must pass from
original innocence through experience to what he called “organized
innocence.”
About Blake’s “Book of Thel” (not in
text): She is not born yet, but exists
in “Vales of Har.”
1. Lily (gives beauty to the world)
2. Cloud: Thel says “Why live if life is so brief?” Cloud answers,
“I am necessary to life, give my life so that others live.”
3. Clod of Clay: lowest of the low. I am called “mother.”
==========================================================
Wordsworth
1. Definition of poetry: “spontaneous overflow of powerful emotion . . .
“
2. Says he intends to use the “language really spoken by people.”
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From Tennyson's In Memoriam:
[This poem is in our text, but this quotation is not] "You tell me doubt
is Devil-born / I know not . . . /
Perplexed in faith, but pure in deeds, / At
last he beat his music out. / There lives more faith in honest doubt / Believe
me, than in half the creeds."
============================================================
Henry David THOREAU 19th Century American
Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience, a non-fiction prose work about passive
resistance, which greatly
influenced Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement,
USA.
Below are excerpts from Walden, autobiographical prose work written in
the two years [1843-44]
he spent at Walden Pond near
QUOTATIONS FROM THOREAU'S WALDEN:
"I went to the woods BECAUSE I WISHED TO LIVE DELIBERATELY, to front only
the essential
facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, AND NOT, WHEN
I CAME TO DIE,
DISCOVER THAT I HAD NOT LIVED. I did not wish to live what was not life,
living is so dear.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily
and Spartan-like as to put
to rout all that was not life. . . to drive life into
a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it
proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it. . . . or if it were sublime,
to know it by experience. . . ."
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he
marches to the beat of a different drummer. Let every man keep step to
the music that he hears, however measured or far away."
"The cost of a thing is the amount of life you spend to get it."
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford -- to
leave alone."
"Simplify, simplify, simplify."
"Keep your accounts on your thumbnail."
"I'd rather be all alone on a pumpkin than crowded on a velvet
cushion."
"The head monkey in Paris puts on a traveler's cap, and all the monkeys in
America do the same."
"It may not be you that has got the house, but rather the house that has
got you."
"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation."
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Realism and Naturalism:
daily life in the author’s own time and country. Four basic traits
are seen in most realistic literature:
1. Concrete, specific details of contemporary life.
2. Reaction against sentimental
literature. Sentimental literature was not accurate and honest.
The characters, dialogue and plot (especially the
happy ending) were not like real life.
3. More inclusive than before; included matter thought
too “trivial” or too “low” to be written
about in earlier literature.
4.objective, scientific view of the subject
II. Naturalism (or naturalistic determinism) is a scientific
theory picked up and used in some literature, that
people are victims of heredity and environment, just organisms responding
to a stimulus, with
very little will of their own.
In more detail, all people (such as Ivan Ilyich in our text) are influenced by
internal and
external forces. Internal influences include (in addition to heredity traits):
body chemistry such as
disease (example: cancer) and hormones (such as sexual
attraction). The main
external
influence in our environment is peer pressure (social pressure).
===========
BRIEF BACKGROUND TO TWENTIETH CENTURY IN LITERATURE
Victorian era had been quiet, stable. Death of Queen
Two of the main INFLUENCES on 20th Century Literature:
I. LEGACY OF DARWIN (INCLUDING LYELL on geology)
Darwin was influenced by LYELL's Principles of Geology
(1830-33) and which upset a literal
interpretation of the Bible: Exposed rock strata of earth showed it
to be much older than originally thought, not created in seven days, and
fossils found there revealed that some species had become extinct.
II. WORLD WAR I [originally called "The Great War" ] 1914-1918 true date for ending of old world
cultures and values. Began Aug. 4, 1914. In
1916, 1/10 of young men of
THREE PEOPLE IN EARLY 20TH
CENTURY WHO
INFLUENCED 20th Century literature
FREUD published Interpretation of Dreams1899, in some
ways his fundamental work. Father of psychoanalysis [association]. Introduced
idea of subconscious, which led to stream of consciousness in writing.
Instead of external details and description [as realism/naturalism period] and
characters speaking dialogue aloud, we read thoughts as they flow through a
character's mind. (Freud against repression as harmful to psyche) Examples:
Joyce's Portrait of Artist, Eliot's "Prufrock" and
SIX
CHARACTERISTICS OF 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE
1. Redefining the words “RELIGION,” “God,”
“Sacred”: (Wallace Stevens, "Sunday Morning")
Loss of TRADITIONAL belief systems: Legacy of Darwin. Science now explaining religion's earlier mysteries.
Search for a substitute for a supernatural that no longer seemed viable
[Nietzsche's "God is Dead" meant old concepts of God were dead].
Attempt to establish a sense of values, meaning in a world with no absolutes.
Humanism [shifted emphasis from supernatural to humans & their
relationships]. Among possibilities for literary work: (1) Stevens'
"Sunday Morning." The woman finds a "fellowship of men who
perish," i.e. human / natural relationships to replace the lost
supernatural. "Divinity must live within herself." (2) Joyce A
Portrait of the Artist - He leaves church, family, country. "I can no
longer serve that in which I no longer believe." (3) Yeats
"What rough beast" takes place of Jesus (4) Eliot "Waste
Land" people cannot rise from dead like flowers [nature cannot violate her
own laws]
2. Modern writer's DESIRE TO STARTLE, SHOCK THE READERS. Why? To wake them out of their lethargy, to force them to recognize
their involvement. [Example: Kafka's Metamorphosis]
3. SUBJECT MATTER OF LITERATURE ENLARGED EVEN MORE, beyond what realists
and naturalists had done, became MORE HONEST & ACCURATE [to real life], EXPLICIT, MORE INCLUSIVE: [Example: abortion,
homosexuality in The
4. CONTINUED SHIFT FROM RURAL TO URBAN ENVIRONMENT (had begun with
Industrial Revolution). Urban now in majority for first time
in history. Problems of technology.
Example: The
5. STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS LITERARY TECHNIQUE: record of a person's
thoughts as they "flow" through the mind. Joyce's A
Portrait of the Artist; Eliot's "Prufrock," The
6. FRAGMENTED, INCOHERENT POETRY AND PROSE (because the writers
saw a fragmented, incoherent world) and USE OF FREE VERSE instead of
traditional meters and forms (freedom from the old boundaries, restraints,
rules). Joyce's A Portrait of the
Artist; Eliot's "Prufrock" and The
Quotations from James Joyce's A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: (prose fiction - short novel about a character named Stephen
Dedalus): (1) "Once upon a time and a very good
time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that
was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo. . .
." (2) [following "Do
you kiss your mother?" discussion] "What was the right answer to the
question? He had given two and still Wells laughed." (3)
"It pained him that he did not know what politics meant and that he
did not know where the universe ended. He felt small and weak."
SOME FACTS ON MAJOR
TESTS.
WHAT KIND OF TEST DO YOU GIVE? I give the kind of test that calls for
the student to have a complete and thorough knowledge of the works
covered. If you know the subject well enough (not just factually, but
with understanding), then the "type" of question is not important:
you should be able to answer them all with equal facility:
1) Approximately 1/3 Identify quotations
(important lines) by title and author, genre (poetry or prose) and time period.
The purpose is not memorization, but to know the characters and works well
enough to perceive the author by the form and content of the quote (an
excellent way of judging a student's knowledge of the subject because it goes
beyond memorizing of facts).
2) Approximately 1/3 factual questions (objective)
3) Approximately 1/3 essay to judge your overall
knowledge of major themes and ideas; your grammar,
punctuation, and overall writing ability and effectiveness.
HOW SHOULD I STUDY
FOR YOUR TESTS?
1) BEFORE CLASS, read all of the material assigned, including
Introductions and footnotes. Reading a summary is not enough, would not help
with quotations or with material I add in lectures. Think as you read. Look up
terms you don't know. Be able to put ideas together. Carry ideas in your
mind from one literary period to the next, even if we do not do so specifically
in class.
2) DURING CLASS, taking good lecture notes is essential. Ask
questions during or after class if you don't understand something.
3) AFTER CLASS, look back over your textbook (esp. what you marked and
the notes you added during class) and lecture notes. Keep a list of every 1)
title, 2) author, 3) genre, 4) plot (what happens), and 5) theme (meaning).
Test yourself on each by covering over one segment. MY PHILOSOPHY OF
GRADING: Trying hard is admirable,
but is not enough to bring you credit. Your answers must be the MOST
accurate, appropriate responses to the question asked, showing that you know
and understand the material and have the ability to write in conventionally
acceptable English.
I have great compassion for your troubles, but my grade book must reflect
only what you do on a test. Only in this way can I be fair to all equally. (You
might be surprised to know that all of the students here have problems of
various kinds, many very serious and some that would stagger you.) WHAT ABOUT
MAKE-UP TESTS? Quite often
a student misses a test simply because that student was not prepared. The
burden of proof is on you. On those rare occasions of extreme illness or a
death in the family, you do not need to call me at that time. See me when you
get back. You must bring me the obituary notice, or in the case of illness, A
WRITTEN NOTICE FROM YOUR DOCTOR (BE WARNED THAT I PHONE THE DOCTOR TO CONFIRM
THESE) IN ORDER TO MAKE UP THE TEST. You must take the test as soon as you
return to campus, not at your convenience. Special arrangements have to
be made before you would be allowed to take the test more than a week after its
original date. YOU WILL BE BETTER OFF TO TAKE THE TEST ON THE DAY IT IS
SCHEDULED THAN TO START LOOKING FOR EXCUSES. The original test covers the heart
of the material, whereas make-up tests are harder because the material is not
as obvious.
ENGLISH 212 COURSE OBJECTIVES
set
by English department:
This sequence of courses fulfills a part of the humanities requirement through
the study of the literature produced by the major cultures of the world.
The sequence is designed so that students, after studying the literature, will
be able to demonstrate: (1) an awareness of the nature of moral, ethical, and
aesthetic values and the rationales underlying differing values held by other
individuals and cultures; (2) the ability to examine and further develop their
own moral, ethical, and aesthetic values; (3) an appreciation of the process by
which these values are developed in themselves and in others. In these courses,
students will study representative literary works from Africa, Asia, Europe,
and the
Theatre Productions for the Year inserted here when they become available