INFORMATION ABOUT ENGLISH 2710
English 2710 is an introductory course in literature by women, often about women, with a writing component. We will read examples of the three important genres of imaginative literature: drama/film, fiction, and poetry, plus non-fiction that will give us a grasp of the scope of women's writings. You will learn specific strategies to analyze and interpret texts, and will be encouraged to bring your ideas and experiences to the readings and class discussions. This is not a class in which you will sit passively and take a lot of notes. I will give you tools for interpreting and important background, but the bulk of class time will be spent in group discussion.

Required Text: Literature by Women: The Traditions in English Norton Anthology (Second Edition).

OTHER SUPPLIES A dictionary
Folders with loose leaf for your notes, drafts, papers.
A small stapler


READING REQUIREMENT: Class discussion will make sense only if you have prepared the readings by the day they are due on the syllabus. Hence you are responsible for responding in writing to each reading.(See below)


WRITING REQUIREMENT: You will submit journal entries on each reading at the beginning of each class for which the reading is due. These will be informal (handwritten on looseleaf). These may be submitted before the class for which they are due but not after. They count as 30% of the grade. Your grade for journaling begins as an A. You can only lower it by a) failing to hand entries in on the day they are due or b) by inappropriate responses (summary rather than interpreting or critiquing). Sample Journal. You will take an in-class midterm and a final exam and write a one-two page poetry explication and a response paper.


DISCUSSION REQUIREMENT (An easy "A"!) Not only does your attendance contribute to the community we make in this class, your contribution to class discussion is crucial to helping others understand the texts in different ways and to clarifying your own position--ideas that will show up in your papers. I grade your participation according to the number of times you attend class during the semester, working on the basis that you can't participate if you don't attend. Here's how it will work:
0-4 absences = A; 5 absences = A-; 6 absences = B+ and so on.

There are 42 class sessions this semester, and you have four "freebies" (a tenth of the work). Three tardies will be counted as an absence. Your freebies are intended to cover such emergencies as the day you were sick, the day the baby sitter didn't make it, or the day you were out of town playing the basketball finals. After your four freebies, every absence counts against your attendance/ participation grade. You are expected to come to the next class prepared. Also, check with classmates to assure you haven't missed a handout on the days you've missed because you are also responsible for these.

PAPER SIZE AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION

NOTES

1) To pass this course, you must TURN IN every assigned paper. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to contact me or a classmate to find out about additional assignments or handouts. Journal entries and in-class work may not be made up, but since you have 4 excused absences, you also have 4 excused journal entries.
2) Journal entries willl be graded randomly, so you will not always get feedback on them. The first paper, if submitted on the due date, may be rewritten two weeks after it is handed back. Consultation with the instructor is mandatory before a rewrite. LATE PAPERS will be reduced 1/2 grade for each day of lateness including weekends.
3) The syllabus is tentative, depending on how much time is needed to discuss the various works and to understand how women's issues affect these works. Except for the poetry, the readings are to be divided equally over the week, with the first reading listed to be discussed on Monday, etc.

Disclaimer: This is a contract between us for the work needed to pass this class. Unavoidable circumstances may necessitate adjustment of the syllabus, but I will try to adhere to it as given.

Students with Disabilities: Any student requiring accommodations or services due to a disability must contact Services for Students with disabilities (SSD) in room 181 of the Student Service Center. SSD can also arrange to provide course materials (including this syllabus) in alternative formats if necessary.

Ethics: Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, falsification, accessing unauthorized course or test information, using unauthorized resources, or breaching copyright law. The penalty for such dishonesty will be an E in this course, and it may result in charges issued, hearings held, and/or sanctions imposed.

When specific titles of a reading are not given, you are responsible for all the writings (ordinarily there is only one
in your book) by that author. Also some of the material connected to the links applies to readings not connected to the works you are responsible for. In that case ignore them. Some links are to the same texts you have seen before. Reapply such texts to new readings you have done.

Week 1
Monday Introduction, Women’s issues, outline; READING GUIDE: the short story and Yellow Wallpaper; Wednesday Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” 1133-44; Friday Edith Wharton, “The Other Two”;Reading guide; Divorce in 19th C England (first several paragraphs).

Week 2
Wednesday Sample Journal. Ursula Le Guin, “Sur,” guide questions; Chopin, The Awakening, 1011-1032, outline ; Friday 1032-1057; Influences on Turn of the Century Literature

Week 3
Monday Chopin, The Awakening, 1057-1082, guide questions; Wednesday 1082-1101, guide questions; Friday Video: “The Associate” Video guide

Week 4
Monday “The Associate,” thought questions; Wednesday Discussion of “The Associate” with Whoopi Goldberg; Friday Toni Morrison, Excerpts from “Sula”; feminist issues outline

Week 5
Monday Cather, “Coming, Aphrodite!” 1227-1255, thought questions; extra info; Wednesday Jane Austen “Love and Freindship,” Web page; Margaret Atwood “Rape Fantasies,” guide questions; Friday Introduction to writing about literature; freewriting, drafting, editing a paragraph response to one of the pieces read, aids to writing.

Week 6
Monday How to read poetry, hints; Wednesday Mary Wroth “Song,” “His Flames are Joys,” “When First I”; Friday What it means to explicate, description of assignment

Week 7
Monday Cathy Song “Heaven”; Wednesday Plath intro 2077-2081, 2084, 2091-93, questions; Friday Anne Bradstreet “The Author to her Book,” “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” From Meditations Divine and Moral.

Week 8
Monday Anne Finch “The Spleen,” Definitions of spleen, “A Nocturnal Reverie,” Dorothy Parker “The Waltz”; Wednesday practice sheet for midterm; Prepare for Midterm; Midterm in testing center Thursday or Friday.

Week 9
Monday Anne Sexton “In Celebration…,” Christina Rosetti, “Goblin Market” and “Eve,” Guide questions; Wednesday Rita Dove “Thomas and Beuhla,” Emily Bronte “No Coward …,” “Tell Me Smiling child,” supplementary info; Friday Practice explication; Sample explication

Week 10
All Week Dickenson pp. ; Web page Guide Questions: 1, 2

Week 11
Monday Browning, ; Wednesday Explication draft workshop; Friday Sojourner Truth “Ain’t I a Woman?” guide questions for Truth, Nightingale, Jackson ; Explication due.

Week 12
Monday Abigail Adams “Letters to John…”; Essay assignment;Wednesday Louisa May Alcott “Little Women,” critical essay, web page; Friday Zora Neal Hurston “How it Feels to be Colored Me,” web page

Week 13
Monday Nightingale, “Cassandra”; Wollstonecraft, 19th C essayists, web page Wednesday Woolf, “A Room of …,” Web links; Walker, “My Mother’s Garden,” Thought questions

Week 14
Monday Draft Workshop ; Wednesday Introduction to Drama, Drama guide, characters; Lady Gregory; read out loud; Essay due; Friday Jamaica Kincaid short essay “Girl” web page, Phyllis Wheatley “From Africa…,” “To His Excellency,” web page

Week 15
Monday Glaspell, “Trifles,” Web page; Wednesday and Friday: Finals Prep

FINAL EXAM Thursday 12/15, 9:30-11:30 am.