Writing and the Literary Arts 

            This course is designed to introduce students to important techniques of literary and cultural analysis. It prepares students for 2000-level courses in literature and the arts, and builds on the writing skills introduced in English Composition so that students can become more adept as writers, especially when interpreting artistic texts.  The class will require thoughtful reading, discussion, and writing from all students. By engaging in the course, students will develop a set of communication skills useful both for academic discourse and for professional writing, broadly conceived.

            Working toward these goals, our class will be structured around four units. In the first unit, we will examine a range of short stories and consider features of plot, character, setting, and narration. Students will compose an analytical essay that examines how these features impact the overall theme of a story. In our second unit, students will read a selection of poems and discuss how they rely on situations, speakers, sounds, rhythms, images, and figurative language to convey meaning. The unit will culminate in a mid-term exam where students will define literary terminology and analyze short passages of poetry. In our third unit, students will read Octavia Butler’s not-so-futuristic novel Parable of the Sower and compose a research essay in response. We will use class time to conduct research, outline, draft, and revise the essay. In our fourth unit, students will consider theatrical writing and drama, reading William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Students will complete an essay that imagines how they would direct and stage a specific scene from the play. A final exam will ask students to reflect on the overall course, in terms of the literary genres (fiction, poetry, drama) and in terms of your own writing process.

Required Texts

- Coursepack of short stories and poems.

- Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Bedford/St Martins. Second, Third, or Fourth editions are all acceptable.

- Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower. Grand Central Publishing, 2007 or 2019 edition.

- William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Pelican, 2016.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course, students should be able to:

  • Analyze literary texts with an eye for multiple interpretive possibilities;

  • Employ appropriate critical vocabulary when discussing works of fiction, poetry, and drama;

  • Consider how works of art simultaneously reflect and influence their historical and cultural contexts;

  • Conduct research and integrate sources with effective use of summary, signal phrases, quotation, response, and MLA citation;

  • Write well-organized essays that make effective use of literary and scholarly evidence in support of a central claim or thesis.

Grading

  • Participation:                                                                                                 10%

  • Analytical Essay:                                                                                          20%

  • Mid-Term Exam:                                                                                          15%

  • Research Essay:                                                                                            25%

  • Stage Production Essay:                                                                        15%    

  • Final Exam:                                                                                                   15%

SCHEDULE

Wed. 1/22:       Introductions

Unit 1. Short Stories: Analyzing Narrative Fiction

Mon. 1/27:      “Plot” & “Short Story” in Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms

                        James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues.” (in Coursepack & on Blackboard)

Wed. 1/29:       “Character” in Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms

                        Raymond Carver, “Cathedral” (in Coursepack & on Blackboard)

Mon. 2/3:        “Realism” & “Setting” in Bedford Glossary

                        Edith Wharton, “Roman Fever” (Coursepack)

Wed. 2/5:         “Narrative,” “Narrator,” & “Point of View” in Bedford Glossary

                        Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” (Coursepack)

                        Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl” (Coursepack)

Mon. 2/10:      In-Class Writing Workshop

                        Read UNC Writing Center link, “Writing for Specific Fields: Literature (Fiction)” (On Blackboard)

                        Bring to class: essay ideas, notes, outline, and/or full draft

Wed. 2/12:       Analytical Essay Due, Prior to Class (Submit to Blackboard as .doc or PDF)  

Introduction to Poetry

Unit 2. Poems, Poets, and Poetry

Mon. 2/17:      William Wordsworth, “A Slumber did my Spirit Seal” (Coursepack)

                        Langston Hughes, “I, Too” | John Donne, “The Flea”

                        Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty”               

Wed. 2/19:     Helen Vendler, Appendices 1-5 (Last section of Coursepack)

                        Re-read poems assigned for Monday 2/17

                        Read Beowulf excerpt (in Coursepack)

Mon. 2/24:      “Sonnet” in Bedford Glossary

                        Read all sonnets in Coursepack (pp. 6-11)      

Wed. 2/26:       In Class: Mid-Term Exam Study Guide

                        Walt Whitman, from “Song of Myself” (Coursepack)

                        Abraham Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address” | Emily Dickinson, “Loaded Gun”

                        Robert Frost, “Mending Wall,” “Fire and Ice,” & “Design”

Mon. 3/2:        William Carlos Williams, “The Right of Way” & “The Red Wheelbarrow”

                        Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro” | Frank O’Hara “Poem”

                        Louise Erdrich, “I Was Sleeping…” | Franny Choi, “The World Keeps Ending…”

Wed. 3/4:         Mid-Term Exam  

3/7-3/15:          **Spring Recess / No Classes**

Unit 3. The Novel and the Research Essay

Mon. 3/16:      “Novel” in Bedford Glossary

                        Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Chapters 1-12 (1-136)

Wed. 3/18:       Butler, Parable of the Sower, Chapters 13-16, (137-195)

Mon. 3/23:      Butler, Parable of the Sower, Chapters 17-25 (196-329)

Wed. 3/25:       Read Scholarly Journal Article (on Blackboard):

Madhu Dubey, “Folk and Urban Communities in African-American Women’s Fiction: Octavia Butlers Parable of the Sower,” Studies in American Fiction 27.1 (1999): 103-128.

Mon. 3/30:      Prior to class, read at least two of the Octavia Butler sources on Blackboard

                        In Class: Conducting Research and MLA Style Guidelines (Refer to Purdue OWL website)          

Wed. 4/1:         Outlining and Drafting

                        UNC Writing Center links (On Blackboard):  “Outlines,” “Paragraphs,” and “Quotations”

Mon. 4/6:        In-Class Workshop

                        Please bring a full draft of your research essay to class

Wed. 4/8:         In Class: Review of MLA Style Guidelines

                        Research Essay Due, Friday 4/10 at midnight (Submit to Blackboard as .doc or PDF file)   

Unit 4. All the World’s a Stage: Drama, Set Design, and Performance

Mon. 4/13:      Intro to Drama

                        “The Theatrical World” and “The Texts of Shakespeare” in the Pelican edition of The Tempest (ix-xxviii).

Wed. 4/15:       The Tempest, Acts 1 & 2

Mon. 4/20:      **Patriots’ Day (Marathon Monday) / No Classes**

Wed. 4/22:       The Tempest, Acts 3-5

                        “Postcolonial Literature and Postcolonial Theory” in Bedford Glossary

Mon. 4/27:      “Introduction” to The Tempest (xxix-xlii).     

                        In-Class Workshop: Please bring essay ideas, notes, outline.

Wed. 4/29:    Stage Production Essay Due: Wednesday, April 29th at midnight

                        In-Class Prep for Final Exam

Mon. 5/4: Final Exam