Entrance Competencies

Ability to write a five-paragraph essay on assigned readings with a minimum of grammatical errors.
Ability to perform basic research on authors and themes.

Course Description

This course introduces students to different literary genres written by global writers. Representative works focus on twentieth century and contemporary writers. The emphasis of the course is on close textual reading, critical interpretation, and appreciation. The students will be introduced to key literary terms, and they will be required to produce thoughtful essays based on the material studied.

Credits

This course is equivalent to three (3) semester hours.

Goals and Objectives:

To allow students, through literature, to enter both familiar and strange worlds, and to cross borders of race, ethnicity, class, and culture.
To explore human experiences in one’s own culture and in the cultures of others.
To reveal global commonalities as reflected in such themes as gender construction, relations between the sexes, and the rights of women.
To observe some of the ways in which the socio-political experiences of nations and regions are reflected in the literature of those places.
To discuss the idea of one world within many divergent worlds.
To become acquainted with a variety of global writers and literary styles.
To develop and sharpen critical and interpretive abilities through the close reading of texts.
To recognize and analyze imagery, structure, symbolic meaning, language, and tone in literary works.
To increase understanding of works of fiction through the examination of the psychological, philosophical, and ethical implications of selected works.

Requirements

Three essays (3-5 pages each); topics will be based on readings discussed in class.
Extensive reading from the textbook and other sources.
Short homework writing assignments.
A critical/research paper (4-5 pages, typed, double-spaced) employing MLA conventions of academic composition.
Active and well-prepared participation in classroom discussions.
Midterm examination.
Final examination.

Exit Competencies

Ability to write meaningfully and with a minimum of grammatical errors during in-class, midterm, and final exams.
Ability to write a 4-5 page paper involving critical analysis and research skills.
Ability to comprehend and interpret difficult works of literature.

Attendance

Attendance in this course is mandatory. More than three unexcused absences may negatively affect your final grade. Frequent lateness may likewise affect your grade.

Class Participation

Each student is expected to participate in each class and to be adequately prepared. This involves being up to date on all reading assignments. In addition, each student is expected to be on time and to maintain a disciplined, responsible attitude.

Grading Criteria

Essays 30%
Midterm 15%
Final 15%
Research Paper 20%
Homework 10%
Class Participation 10%

Time Distribution

Three contact hours per week; it is recommended that for every contact hour students spend two hours studying outside of class.

Text

Geok-lin Lim, Shiley and Norman Spencer. One World of Literature. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1994.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the replication of another individual’s work without attributing credit. It happens in the classroom more often than you might think. In this course, your writing is expected to be your own. Theft of intellectual property is unethical, unlawful, and, in your college work, grounds for failure.

HUM200 – World Literature

Course Outline*

Week 1: Introduction to the course; general information on literature; distribution and explanation of course outline; writing sample.

Week 2: “A Note on Fiction,” pp. 1099-1102; discussion of literary terms such as character, theme, plot, allusion, and point of view; “A Note on Poetry,” pp. 1103-1106; “The Adventure of a Reader,” by Italo Calvino, pp. 634-645.

Week 3: “The Adventure of the Reader” continued; “A Modern Love Letter,” by NaWal El Saadawi, pp. 58-64; “Berry Picking” (poem), by Irving Layton; exploration of imagery, structure of emotions, symbolism; research paper topics discussed.

Week 4: Discussion of literary terms: protagonist, antagonist, point of view, narrator; “Another Evening at the Club,” by Alifa Rifaat, pp. 53-58; “My Country and My People” (poem), by Tzu Pheng Lee, pp. 361-363; “I Am Not One of Those Who Left the Land…” (poem), by Anna Akhamotova; comparative analysis of poems; first essay assigned.

Week 5: Discussion of literary terms: stream of consciousness, interior monologue, tone; “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” (drama), by August Wilson; “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston Hughes, pp. 964.

Week 6: Symbolic meaning and how writers use it; discussion of literary terms: conflict, irony; “The Return,” by Nguai Wa Thiong’o, pp. 91-96; “Mother’s Inheritance,” by Fawziyya Abu-khalid; first essay due; reseach paper assigned.

Week 7: Critical/research paper and MLA documentation; “The Rockpile,” by James Baldwin, pp. 967-974; Review for midterm; second essay assigned.

Week 8: Midterm exam; “About Your Hands and Lies” (poem), by Nazim Hikmet, pp. 186-188.

Week 9: Discussion of setting and atmosphere; “New York” (poem), by Leopold Sédan Senghor, pp. 145-148; “The Swamp Dwellers,” by Wole Soyinka; second essay due.

Week 10: Discussion of global communities as reflected in gender construction, relations between the sexes, culture, imagery, and socio-political experiences; “The Pyrotechnicist,” by V. S. Naipaul; “Can You” (poem), by Nicolas Guillén, pp. 820-822; third essay assigned.

Week 11: Discussion of human nature and the human condition as influenced by geographic, socio-historical, and cultural backgrounds; “Shoemaker Arnold,” by Earl Lovelace, pp. 889-895; progress report on research paper.

Week 12: Discussion of morality and social criticism; “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” by Flannery O’Conner; third essay due.

Week 13: Discussion of culture, identity, alienation and race; review of literary terms; “Call Me Not a Man,” by Mutuzeli Matshoba, pp. 177-185; research paper due.

Week 14: “Call Me Not a Man” continued; review for final exam.

Week 15: Final exam (schedule to be announced).

HUM200 – World Literature

Supplementary Sources for Study and Research

Dictionaries, Style Manuals, Grammar Handbooks, Editing Resources

Apostrophe Protection Society: http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk. A good-natured site that promotes proper use of the apostrophe.
Bartelby.com: Great Books Online: http://www.bartleby.com. Bartleby.com publishes thousands of free online classics of reference, literature and nonfiction.
DeVry Online Writing: http://www.devry-phx.edu/lrnresrc/dowsc. The DeVry Online Writing Support Center offers a variety of links to writing-related resources.
Dictionary.com: http://www.dictionary.com. Dictionary.com allows you to search multiple dictionaries and references at the same time.
Encyclopedia Britannica http://brittanica.com.
If you have a grammar question for which you can't find an answer, try one of the grammar hotlines listed in the Grammar Hotline Directory: http://www.tc.cc.va.us/writcent/gh/hotlinol.htm. Services are listed by state and include phone and e-mail information.
Infoplease http://www.infoplease.com. Infoplease has a complete encyclopedia, dictionary, and almanacs for research as well as information organized by subject matter.
ITools: http://www.itools.com/lang. Look up words in dictionaries and thesauruses. Translate words, phrases, documents and web pages to other languages. Everything language-related in one place.
Merriam Webster Dictionary: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary. The complete Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus online -- free and searchable with definitions and audio pronunciations. You can also read the Word of the Day, play Word Games, and purchase books and CDs.
Online Dictionaries: http://www.yourdictionary.com.
Online Dictionaries has a list of biographical info at http://s9.com/biography.
Ask Oxford: http://www.askoxford.com. Ask Oxford is a very comprehensive site produced by the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary that has answers to questions on English grammar, spelling, and usage and access to searchable dictionaries.
Roget's Thesaurus: http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/ROGET.html.
William Strunk's original version of the Elements of Style, (later made famous by E. B. White) is available courtesy of the Bartleby project: http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html.
WebGrammar: http://www.webgrammar.com. Web Grammar is a site devoted to grammar.
Writer's Guide: The University of Victoria: http://www.clearcf.uvic.ca/writersguide/welcome.html. Writer's Guide offers a hypertextual set of information relating to writing. This site is of special interest to writers in first-year composition.

Library Research (Your local library has a searchable online database)

The New York Public Library: http://nypl.org. The New York Public Libraries include Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
Brooklyn Public Library: http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.
Queens Borough Public Library: http://www.queenslibrary.org.
Modern Language Association: http://www.mla.org. Click “MLA Style,” then “Frequently Asked Questions” for documenting sources

Online Research

The American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org. The ACLU takes a stand on controversial American issues. Visit this site if you're writing an argumentative essay on topics such as the death penalty, abortion, police brutality, and equal rights.
The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 120 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 18 million books, 2.5 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.5 million maps, and 54 million manuscripts. http://www.loc.gov.
Public Broadcasting System: http://www.pbs.org. Click the 'explore' button and choose your topic. This is a great place to begin research.
Questia offers tips for writing a research paper: http://www.questia.com/howto/step1.html.
Voice of the Shuttle: http://vos.ucsb.edu/index.asp. Started in 1994 as a suite of static Web pages, VoS has now been rebuilt as a database that serves content dynamically on the Web. Users gain greater flexibility in viewing and searching, while editors are able to work more efficiently and flexibly. VoS is a wonderful research site.

* This outline is subject to revision by instructor.