Introduction to Literature Syllabus Fall 1999

Bro. N. Koss

 

 

 

 

Wk/ Date

Period & Genre

Author/ text

Techniques/

theme

09/ 30

PART ONE:FICTION (SHORT STORIES)

Ernest Hemingway. "The End of Something”

(discussion)

Introduction to

plot point of view characterization setting, symbols

10/ 5

 

 

 

10/ 7

Ambrose Bierce.“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”(80-87)

Video introducing the main elements of a short story.

Video version

O Henry “The Gift of the Magi”

Guy de Maupassant. “The Necklace”

Video of work of Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe. "The Cask of Amontillado” (75-80)

Plot ,

point of view

theme.

10/ 12

10/ 14

Willa Cather "Paul's Case” (photocopy) Video

O Henry. "The Gift of the Magi” (photocopy)

Characterization

setting

theme.

10/ 19

First Examination.

 

10/ 21

No class, but please read

Doris Lessing. "Our Friend Judith” (134-146)

Characterization..

10/26

10/ 28

Amy Tan "A Pair of Tickets" (160-174)

Shirley Jackson "The Lottery”. (photocopy) Video

Setting

symbol

 
12/21

PART THREE:POETRY

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1850

"How Do I Love Thee?"(597)

Ezra Pound(1915)

"The River-Merchant*s Wife: A Letter"(599-600)

Denise Levertov (1978)

"Wedding-Ring" (601)

Ben Johnson (1616)

"On My First Son" (603-04)

William Shakespeare (1609)

[Shall I compare thee to a summer*s day?] (612)

W.H. Auden (ca. 1936)

[Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone] (614)

Responding

to Poetry

(596-619)

12/23

Marge Piercy(1973) "Barbie Doll" (620-21)

W.D. Snodgrass(1968) "Leaving the Motel" (621-22)

Linda Pastan (1988) "love poem" (623-24)

William Blake(1794) "London" (626)

Adrienne Rich(1951) "Aunt Jennifer*s Tigers" (628-29)

Robert Hayden(1966)"Those Winter Sundays" (634-35)

Tone (620-638)
12/28

Thomas Hardy (1866) "The Ruined Maid" (639-640)

X.J. Kennedy (1961)

"In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day" (641-642)

Dorothy Parker (1937) "A Certain Lady" (648-649)

William Wordsworth(1800)

"She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" (651)

Audre Lorde(1978) "Hanging Fire" (653-654)

Gwendolyn Brooks(1950) "We Real Cool" (654)

Walt Whitman(1855, 1881)

[I celebrate myself, and sing myself] (655-656)

Speaker (639-651)
12/30

John Donne(1633) "The Flea" (664-665)

John Milton(1655)

"On the Late Massacre in Piedmont" (667-668)

Matthew Arnold (ca. 1851) "Dover Beach" (671-672)

Margaret Atwood(1974) "Siren Song" (673)

Mary Karr (p. 1996) "Hubris" (675)

Emily Bronte "The Night-Wind" (677-678)

Sylvia Plath(1961) "Morning Song" (678-679)

Thomas Gray(1751) Four stanzas of

"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (684)

Cathy Song(1988) "Heaven" (689-691)

Situation and Setting (660-671)
1/4

Writing exercise on poems for December 21-23.

Theodore Roethke(1948) "My Papa*s Waltz" (706-707)

e.e. cummings (1923) [in Just-] (710-711)

William Shakespeare (1609)

[That time of year thou mayst in be behold] (713-714)

Linda Pastan (1978) "Marks" (715-716)

Robert Burns (1796) "A Red, Red Rose" (718-719)

(King James Version) "The Twenty-third Psalm" (725)

Precision Ambiguity(696-712)

Metaphor and Simile (713-723)

1/6

Writing exercise on poems for December 28-30. Deadline for play review and the two papers on your selected poems. Deadline for list of four poems for dramatic reading.

John Clare (1873) "Love*s Emblem" (730-731)

William Blake(1794) "The Sick Rose" (732)

Edmund Waller(1645) "Song" (733)

Emily Dickinson(ca. 1878)

[Go not too near a House of Rose-] (734)

Dorothy Parker (1937)"One Perfect Rose" (735)

Symbol (726-738)
1/11 Review Deadline for play review and papers on poems to be placed on our class website.
1/13

Third Examination For this examination, if you wish,you may turn in a video-tape of a dramatic reading offour poems to count for one-half of this examination,that is, you would only have to take one-half of the examination if you turn in a tape. Short poems do notget as high a grade as long ones. You may memorize your poems or read from the book. If your head is buried in the book, it would be better to have taken the examination. In a dramatic reading correct pronunciation in a clear, appropriately loud voice is essential.

Deadline for video-tape of dramatic reading of four poems for those who choose to do so. Deadline for your comments on the assigned play reviews and papers on poems on our class website.

 


*At the start of each class there will be a short examination on the vocabulary and content of the assigned readings.

Tuesday

Thursday

October 26

October 28

Tuesday

Thursday

November 2

November 4

Tuesday

Thursday

November 9

November 11

Tuesday

Thursday

November 16

November 18

Tuesday

Thursday

November 23

November 25

Midterm examination

No class

Tuesday

Thursday

November 30

December 2

Tuesday

Thursday

December 7

December 9

 

No class

Tuesday

Thursday

December 14

December 16

 

Tuesday

Thursday

December 21

December 23

 

Tuesday

Thursday

December 28

December 30

 

Tuesday

Thursday

January 4

January 6

 

Tuesday

Thursday

January 10

January 12

 
Tuesday January 17 Final examination