ENGL 2030, Fall 2009 | Dr. David Lavery

The Experience of Literature | Fall 2009

ENGL 2030-40 (TR 100-225 | PH 307) || ENGL 2030-46 (TR 420-545 | PH 322)

Dr. David Lavery

Office: PH 372 | Office Hours: 8:00-1100, TR; other times by arrangement | E-mail: david.lavery@gmail.com | Office Phone/Voice-Mail: 615-898-5648 | Home Page: http://davidlavery.net

Dr. David Lavery is Professor of English at MTSU (1993- ). The author of over one hundred published essays, chapters, and reviews, he is author / co-author / editor / co-editor of sixteen books, including Joss: A Creative Portrait of the Maker of the Whedonverses and The Essential Cult Television Reader. The organizer of international conferences on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Sopranos, a founding co-editor of the journals Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies and Critical Studies in Television, he has lectured around the world on the subject of television (Australia, Turkey, the UK, Portugal, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany) and has been a guest/source for the BBC, NPR, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The New York Times, A Folha de Sao Paulo (Brazil), Publica (Portugal), The Toronto Star, USA Today. From 2006-2008, he taught at Brunel University in London.

TEXTS: William Shakespeare, King Lear (Dover Thrift Edition)

The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing, Eighth Edition by Michael Meyer [hereafter Meyer; all page numbers below are to this book].

COURSE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Class format: We will follow a lecture / discussion format during most class meetings. Manuscript form: All written assignments must be word-processed and must be submitted in digital form, as a Microsoft Word or Rich Text attachment, as an e-mail sent to david.lavery@gmail.com. Please name the file with your own last name (for example: lavery.doc). Please be sure to carefully edit and proofread your own work. Do not simply rely on your computer's spell checker. (Go here to read a poem that demonstrates the untrustworthiness of spell checkers.) A list of "Things to be Aware of" as you write your essays can be found here. Essay Evaluation: I will evaluate your essays using a grading scale which can be found here (PDF file, Acrobat Reader required). Reading assignments: You are responsible for having read the entirety of each assignment, including the editor's introduction to each work/author we are studying. Participation & involvement: Please come prepared for each day’s class. I encourage you to become an active participant in class discussion and to ask constructive and meaningful questions at all times--even when I appear to be "lecturing." Please do not save your best questions / comments for after class, as students so often do. Attendance: Regular attendance is essential to the ongoing progress of the course. Two absences will be permitted. A third absence may result in the loss of a letter grade. A fourth absence may result in failure of the course. Inclement Weather Policy: Go here. Plagiarism / Cheating: The unacknowledged use of the words / ideas / insights / original research of another is, of course, prohibited. Do not assume that, like prominent historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose, you may plagiarize without fear of punishment. Should I catch you plagiarizing, or cheating in any way, you will receive a grade of "0" on the assignment in question, the violation may be reported to University authorities, and you may fail the course, as several students in past semesters have done. Students with Disabilities: Any student with a disability will be given all the rights and privileges guaranteed under the Americans with Disabilities Act if he/she is registered with Disabled Student Services (call/contact John Harris, KUC 120/2783). University Writing Center: The University Writing Center, sponsored by the English Department and staffed by full-time and adjunct faculty and graduate teaching assistants, is located in PH 326. At the UWC you can get constructive help with a variety of writing problems, from pre-writing to organization to grammatical errors. (Please be aware, however, that the UWC does not do proofreading.) Grading Scale: 90-99%=A | 80-89%=B | 70-79%=C | 60-69%=D | 0-59%=F

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Critical / Interpretive Essays: You owe me two (2) critical essays of not less than 1,000 words in length on an individual poem, play, or story, or two or more considered together. Each essay must have a title that gives a general idea of what the essay will be about. Irony in "Good Country People" or The Role of Memory in Death of a Salesman--good titles. Death of a Salesman (as title of your essay itself)--bad title. Think of your audience as your classmates; presume that the reader has read the work(s) in question. Don't even think about writing on a story or poem or play you have not read at least twice. Do not (NOT) write a plot summary. Since you are writing about a work your reader has already read, your purpose is, as an "expert" on it (or at least one who has paid careful attention to it), to enhance its meaning for your reader by analyzing/interpreting some aspect of it. Like any good essay you will need to have a thesis: a commitment/contract (usually at the end of the introduction, usually expressed in a sentence or two) in which you inform your reader what you will accomplish in the essay about to be read. The events in the story/poem/play itself should be talked about in present tense, as if they are still going on. Thus "Manley Pointer leaves Hulga, missing a leg, in the hayloft" not "Manley Pointer left Hulga, missing a leg, in the hayloft." Proofread/edit carefully. Peter Elbow once said that submitting an essay to a teacher full of errors is the equivalent of throwing dirty socks in your mother's face and commanding "Wash these!" If you make me wash your socks, I will not be happy and will respond appropriately. The title of a play or a novel should be in italics or underlined: Death of a Salesman or Death of a Salesman not "Death of a Salesman."

In Meyer, you will find excellent discussion of how to write essays on literature and sample student essays on fiction, poetry, and drama throughout the book. The book also includes a comprehensive section (beginning on p. 2077) on "Critical Thinking and Writing." A sample student essay on Langston Hughes), written for this course at MTSU (it received an "A"), can be found here; you can find another (on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) here (another A paper) (both in PDF, Acrobat Reader required). See Agenda for due dates. Essay 1: 20% of your grade; Essay 2: 25% of your grade.

Take Home Final Exam: A take-home exam, consisting of a menu of topics, from which you will select two, responding with essay answers. These topics will all be "leading questions," intended to inspire your own comprehensive synthesis of course ideas, questions, problems. 25% of your grade.

Test: You will take three in-class cognitive-memory tests--on drama, fiction, and poetry--consisting of a variety of matching, identification, short answer questions (on authors, works, literary terms [see the glossary in Meyer]). See the Agenda for test dates. Each worth 10% of your grade.

AGENDA

Date | Readings | Course Requirements

Week 1

9/1/09: Intro to the Course | Housman, "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff" (handout)

Drama

9/3/09: Introduction to Drama: Trifles, 1370 | Trifles Power Point | The Cast of Trifles | Dramatic Terms | Walpole

Week 2

9/10/09: Shakespeare, King Lear (read online here | Order a cheap version here | Shakespeare Power Point

Week 3

9/15/09: King Lear (continued) | King Lear Power Point

9/17/09: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [in-class screening]

Week 4

9/22/09: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [screening; discussion] | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Starter Kit | WAVW Power Point

Week 5

9/29/09: Film and Television Drama and Comedy: David, Seinfeld, 1391 (screening of a Seinfeld episode) | Seinfeld Website | Seinfeld Power Point | Seinfeld Handout | Watch a Seinfeld Episode ("The Betrayal") at Hulu

10/1/09: No Class

Fiction

Week 6

10/6/09: Film and Television Drama and Comedy (continued): Joss Whedon Power Point | Screening of Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog | Read Rhonda Wilcox, Stacey Abbott, and David Lavery on Dr. Horrible on CST | Watch Dr. Horrible online at Hulu | Dr. Horrible Official Site | Dr. Horrible Fansite | Dr. Horrible Starter Kit

10/8/09: Drama Test in Class

Week 7

10/13/09: Introduction to Fiction: Chopin, "The Story of an Hour," 15 | Fiction Power Point | Chopin Power Point

Week 8

10/20/09: Fall Break--No Class

10/22/09: Dubus, "Killings," 107; ["Killings"/In the Bedroom starter kit here] | Boyle, "Carnal Knowledge," 565; Smith, "The Happy Memories Club," 595 | Dubus Power Point | Boyle Power Point | Smith Power Point

Week 9

10/27/09: Minot, "Lust," 349; Packer, "Brownies," 358 | Minot Power Point | Packer Point | Essay One Due by This Date

10/29/09: Focus on Flannery O'Connor--O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," 445; "Good Country People" 456; "Revelation," 470 | A New Biography of O'Connor | O'Connor Power Point

Week 10

11/3/09: Focus on Flannery O'Connor (continued)

11/5/09: O'Brien, "How to Tell a True War Story," 617; DeLillo, "Videotape," 627; Amis, "The Last Days of Muhammad Atta," 644

Poetry

Week 11

11/10/09: Introduction to Poetry: Il Postino | Collins, "Introduction to Poetry," 790; Pastan, "Marks," 917; Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice Cream," 1347 (my Wallace Stevens Website) | the gestalt shift | Thoughts on Poetry | Poetry Terms | Metaphors We Live By

11/12/09: Introduction to Poetry (continued): Browning, "My Last Duchess," 944; Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress," 843; Housman, "Athlete," 1332; e. e. cummings, "she being Brand," 834 | Stephen Colbert Interviews Elizabeth Alexander | Fiction Test in Class

Week 12

11/17/09: Introduction to Poetry (continued): Owen, "Dulce Et Decorum Est," 886 ["Great War" era gas mask]; Robinson, "Richard Cory," 927; Stafford, "Traveling Through the Dark," 937; Updike, "Dog’s Death," 772; Nemerov, "Walking the Dog," 1269

11/19/09: Poems by Emily Dickinson, 1069 ff

Week 13

11/26: Thanksgiving--No Class

Week 14

12/1/09: Poems by Robert Frost, 1117 ff | Frost Power Point

12/3/09: Poems by Elizabeth Bishop: Bishop (poets.org) | "The Fish," 781; "Manners," 822; "The Moose"; "In the Waiting Room" (National Geographic Cover [1915]); "One Art" [print out the poems from the web and bring to class] | "I am I" | Bishop Power Point | Essay Two Due by This Date

Week 15

12/8/09: Poems by Gary Snyder [print out this handout from the web and bring to class] | A Poetry Reading, University of Florida, 1975 | Gary Snyder on Poetry and Ecology (YouTube) | "About Gary Snyder" (Modern American Poetry) | Snyder Power Point

Final Exam Week [12/11-17/09]: Take Home Final Due by December 15 | Poetry Test in regularly scheduled exam period