English 105W: Introduction to Narrative

Dr. H. Hodgkins Spring 2002

Hhhodgki@uncg.edu Office: MCVR 136-D

(h) 316-0463 TR 11-12, W 9:30-10:30 4-5837 (o)

Course description: This course is designed to introduce you to some of the most important fictional narrativesshort stories and novelsof our cultural heritage and to train you in reading such narratives. As a writing-intensive course, English 105W also requires that you write both informal and formal essays, demonstrating and challenging your understandings of the literary texts as you put your own ideas into words.

Course goals: The student successfully completing this course will be able to:

--identify and understand the basic characteristics of literary fiction;

--apply the techniques of literary analysis to texts;

--understand how varied social and historical contexts affect the ways that authors write their fictions;

--read with understanding and write with clarity.

Your texts: Do not try to substitute other editions of these books.

Bronte, Jane Eyre (Penguin Classic)

Cassill & Bausch, The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (shorter edition, 6^th ed.)

Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (Scribner PB)

Your responsibilities:

A. To read each assignment carefully and come to class prepared to discuss it.

B. To come to class with texts and writing materials. The second time that a student comes to class without the text, he or she will be counted absent for the day.

C. To write two 4-5 page papers and one rewrite.

D. To take a midterm and a final examination at the scheduled times.

Your attendance: I will take roll regularly, and I expect regular, prompt attendance. Any excused absence requires written documentation. (Doctor appointments and outside employment do not constitute excuses.) After three unexcused absences I will drop you from the class. If you are ill, you should call me as soon as possible.

Your grades: Daily quizzes 10%

Short writings, individual and group participation 10%

Essays 1 and 2 20%

Rewrite 20%

Midterm examination 20%

Final examination 20%

Extra credit for high-quality class participation.

Your honor: All work in this class should be governed by the UNCG Academic Honor Policy. I consider the use of Cliffs Notes or any crib resource a violation of this policy. Any work submitted as your own will receive an F if I find you have used others ideas. A second violation will result in an F for the course.

Schedule (subject to revision):

1/15 Introduction; reading fiction; the British novel in general and Jane Eyre in particular

1/17 JE pp. 13-134

1/22 JE 135-270

1/24 JE 271-361

1/29 JE 362-end

1/31 JE film versions and essay #1 discussion; essay plans due

2/5 Nineteenth-century fiction: European short stories

Maupassant, Boule de Suif (1880)

2/7 Chekhov, The Lady with the Dog (1899); Selected Letters (p. 969)

2/12 Essay #1 due, 5 pm, MCVR 136-D

2/14 Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886); What Is Art? (p. 1013)

2/19 Earlier American fiction: Hawthorne, Young Goodman Browne (1835)

2/21 Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher (1840); review of Hawthorne (p. 1006)

2/26 Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener (1853)

2/28 Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)

3/5 Midterm examination

3/7 Modern fiction: Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1915)

Spring break

3/19 Joyce, Araby (1914); The Dead (1914)

3/21 Cont. Joyce discussion

3/26 American: Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants (1927)

3/28 Fitzgerald, Babylon Revisited (1935)

4/2 Southerners: Welty, Why I Live at the P.O. (1941);

OConnor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955)

4/4 Continue discussion; essay plans due

4/9 Modern novel: Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926) 1-116

4/11 Sun Also, 117-191

4/16 Sun Also, 192-end

4/18 Essay #2 due, 5 pm MCVR 136-D

4/23 Contemporary and postmodern fiction: Nabokov, Signs and Symbols (1958);

Walker, Everyday Use (1973)

4/25 Carver, Cathedral (1983) REWRITE DUE: Tues. 5/7, 5 p.m.

Final exam: -01s: Tues., 5/14, 8-11 a.m.

4/30 Atwood, Death by Landscape (1989) -04s: Thurs., 5/9, 8-11 a.m.

5/2 Smith, Intensive Care (1990)