ENGLISH 202-03 (WI)

 EUROPEAN LITERARY MASTERPIECES

SPRING 2002

 

INSTRUCTOR

Kelley Griffith

Office: 203 McIver               Office hours: T/Th 2-3:15

Telephone: 334-5866 (office), 274-4184 (home)

E-mail address: kelley_griffith@uncg.edu

 

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADES

This is a WI (Writing Intensive) course. Your work will consist of the readings, three essay tests, in-class responses to the weeks reading, two papers, and class discussion. Each of the tests will cover one third of the course material (readings and presentations in class). Of the twelve or so responses, I will drop the two lowest grades. You may make up three of the responses (within two weeks of each one). The average of your response grades will count 15% of your final grade. The tests and papers will each count 15%. Class participation (discussion, attendance, attention) will count 10%. For the tests, you are responsible for the readings, information presented in class, and ideas that emerge in class discussions. The paper should be four-to-six typewritten pages long and should develop a thesis that connects two of our readings, each by a different author. Unless you make an A on the first paper, you must rewrite it. The better grade of the two versions is the one that counts.

 

ATTENDANCE

Allow yourself no more than two unexplained absences. Come to class on time, ready to discuss the weeks readings.

 

HONOR POLICY

All of our work is governed by the UNCG Academic Integrity Policy.

 

GOALS FOR THE COURSE

 

 

SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS (See next page)

 

GOALS FOR THE COURSE

When you have completed this course you should have

1. Read, discussed, and written about important and representative works of European literature from the 17th to the 20th century.

2. Gained an understanding of the cultural and intellectual context of this fiction (most significantly, its manifestation of these artistic and philosophical movements: Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism).

3. Become more aware of how the components of literature work together to communicate ideas and reflect and comment on real-life situations

4. Gained more experience in speaking your ideas and listening to the ideas of others

5. Increased your skill in developing written arguments, using reasoning and clarity of expression to convince others of the believability and value of your ideas.

 

SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS

 

PART ONE: BAROQUE AND NEOCLASSICISM

1/14         Introduction

Background: Counter-Reformation, religious wars, Louis XIV, Baroque and Neoclassical art

1/21         Martin Luther King Holiday (no class) 

1/28         Moliere, The Doctor In Spite of Himself (1666) and Tartuffe (1669)

The prefaces to Tartuffe are optional.

2/4           Lafayette, The Princess of Cleves (1678)

2/11         Princess (continued)

Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro (1784)

2/18         Test # 1

                Background: Romanticism and Revolutions

 

PART TWO: ROMANTICISM

 2/25        Goethe, Faust, Part One (1808)

The preliminary material ("Dedication," "Prelude on the Stage," and "Prologue in Heaven") is optional, as is A Walpurgis Nights Dream (scene 25)

3/4           Faust (continued)

Kleist, The Marquise of O (1810-11)

3/11         Spring Break

3/18         Kleist, The Earthquake in Chile, St. Cecilia or the Power of Music, The Duel (1810-11).

                Paper # 1

3/25         Sand, Marianne (1876)

4/1           Test #2

Background: Darwinism, imperialism, capitalism, totalitarianism, Realism, and Modernism

 

PART THREE: REALISM AND MODERNISM

4/8           Ibsen, Hedda Gabler (1890)

4/15         Dinesen, Babettes Feast (1958), The Ring (1958),  Ehrengard (1963)

                Rewrite of Paper # 1

4/22         Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921)

4/29         Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)

5/6           Unbearable (continued)

                Conclusion

Paper # 2 (due anytime this week)

5/13         Test # 3, 6-9 p.m. (or 7-10 p.m.?)