Intermediate Literature and Composition

​

Course Objectives and Overview

​

In this semester we will focus on the reading several texts which cover the period from the Renaissance to the Present. We will work chronologically. The periods are as follows: 1) Renaissance 2) Enlightenment 3) Romantic 4) Victorian 5) Modernism. Each period has its own characteristics which we will discuss in class. Since literature is not simply a matter of reading quickly and then interpreting it in any way that it makes you ‘feel,’ we will read carefully and closely thus ensuring that we know, and fully comprehend, what we are reading. So read carefully, intimately, slowly, get a dictionary and you will be fine on the quizzes. If you rush the reading your performance on the quizzes will suffer. Just turn off your cell phone in and out of class, look up any words you don’t know, and think: your brain will be able to do the rest, as long as you give it a chance.

Since many of these works will be new to you I suggest looking at the SMC library database for some information on the overall meaning of a particular work. Follow this link and type in the title of the poem, and you should find some helpful summaries and discussion of the poems basic meanings. I will not diverge from these in any way so feel free to intellectually absorb them. The link is here Masterplots on Magill: once the page is open click on the second one on the list ‘Magill on Authors’ and then type in the correct title of the poem, you may have to do a bit of searching in your results but they are nearly all there. Some questions on the exams will be from the Magill database. Always choose the one that has "masterplots" in the subtitle, not survey or review.

​

Note: Under California Law it is a Misdemeanour to Record this class in any way, using any available media, even if you are asked to record the class on behalf of someone else unless you have the written consent of the instructor.

​

Syllabus and Course Outline

All readings are to be completed for the day of class, not after.

Textbook and Novel  : English Literature by Lawrence Driscoll (in the bookstore or over the road on Pico at A+R) There is also a copy on Hold in the Library: Go to the Reference Desk.

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster. Get the Penguin edition with the Intro by Malcolm Bradbury: it is in the campus bookstore.

​

Remember: Don't pressure me for a good grade...pressure yourself. Keep all returned quizzes, do not misplace them or destroy them until the class if over. No extra credit, no make-ups, no late quizzes. I will be professional and will not waste anyone’s time in class so respect yourself and your class mates by also being professional and reliable and punctual. Turn of all cell phones, and no Blackberry’s, SideKicks etc allowed during quizzes. Since some questions will be vocabulary type questions there will also be no use of dictionaries during the quizzes and the midterms.

​

Readings: I recommend you read Chapter 2: on page 21, just for some help with approaching literature.

​

Part One: Shakespeare: Sonnets 18, 20, 29, 55, 73

Part Two Sonnets 116, 130 and John Donne: The Flea and Song: Go and Catch a falling star".

Part Three: The Sun Rising, (Magill) A Valediction,(Magill) A Nocturnal. (all of these are on Magill apart from Song).   . Get started on the Intro of Forster too! Watch the movie if possible.

​

Exam One: Shakespeare and Donne (2 In class exam: 50 points)  All exams will be multiple choice.

 

We shall begin Forster now so have the intro read and preferably about 6 chapters....

Part Four:. Pope's ‘Essay on Man’ (not on Magill) and 'Essay on Criticism.' (not on Magill) and William Blake's The Tyger, London, The Chimney Sweeper (all on Magill)

Part Five: Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, (on Magill) Coleridge, Frost at Midnight (Magill), Wordsworth, The World is too much with us. (Magill).  First Forster Exam:  On Part One of the novel. (multiple choice: 50 points)

Exam Two: On Pope through to Wordsworth. (Exam :Multiple choice 50 points)

 

Part Six: Hopkins, God's Grandeur. (Magill) Tennyson, The Lady of Shallot. (Magill) Arnold’s Dover Beach. (Magill)

Part Seven: Hardy: Channel Firing, (Magill) Housman: To An Athlete Dying Young. (Magill) Wilfred Owen: Dulce etc Decorum est (Magill) and Disabled (a one page Literary Review entry is on Magill which offers a summary)

Part Eight: Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Magill) and all of James Joyce: The Sisters, Araby and Eveline (Magill) . Exam on Part Two of Forster. (50 points).

Final: On Hopkins to Joyce: (Multiple choice: 50 points)

​

​

 Points: 3 Exams total : 50 x 3 = 150.  2 Forster Exams :50 each =100. Attendance: No more than 2 absences: 10 points. Class Participation: 20 points.  Grand Total : 280

There is no extra credit or bonuses etc. Use the entire semester to keep your points.