COURSE DESCRIPTION.  A broad consideration of world nineteenth and twentieth century fiction, plays, and poetry by writers such as Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Kafka, Dinesen, Paton, Colette, Duras, Sourraute, Fuentes, Garcia Marquez, Atwood, Mishima, Ginsburg, Kincaid, Soyinka, Naipaul, Stead, Coetzee.
 

GOALS.  As my goals in this course, I want you

1. to become more aware of what has or has not changed since 1800 in terms of cultural values and foundations,
2. to acquire a broad knowledge of Western literature since 1800 (including familiarity with major authors, trends, periods, and works),
3. to become more comfortable reading literature,
4. to learn something of the forms and norms of the academic discipline of English.

REQUIREMENTS.  This course consists of the following graded assignments:

1. a mid-term exam,
2. smaller participation assignments (described below),
3. two short papers (4-5 pages), and
4. a final exam.

A = 930-1020 total points for the semester,
A- = 900-929 total points for the semester,
B+ = 870-899 total points for the semester,
B = 830-869 total points for the semester,
B- = 800-829 total points for the semester,
C+ = 770-799 total points for the semester,
C = 730-769 total points for the semester,
C- = 700-729 total points for the semester,
D = 600-699 total points for the semester, and
F = 0-600 total points for the semester.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of the exams and papers in this class.  Class exercises and discussion constitute important, useful preparation for the course's graded assignments.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day's contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I will expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared -- without excuses -- to the next class meeting.  In addition, any participation assignment due the day you are absent cannot be submitted late for credit.
 

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216.  My office hours this summer will be by appointment.  Please, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment to see me. You may also contact me by e-mail (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.
 

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES.  An e-mail discussion list has been created for this course.  To subscribe, send the message, "subscribe LIT-L your name" from your own personal e-mail account to listproc@list.TCNJ.EDU.  Be sure to send the subscription message from your own personal e-mail address (e.g., "name2@tcnj.edu" or "username@aol.com") -- not from one of the generic e-mail accounts on campus (such as "student@tcnj.edu").  After you have subscribed to the list, you may circulate messages to all members of the list simply by sending what you want to circulate to LIT-L@list.TCNJ.EDU (although, again, you must be sure to send the message from your own personal e-mail address).  NOTE:  You can access your personal TCNJ e-mail account from the web anywhere -- including in the computer labs on campus -- just by going to https://secure-web.tcnj.edu/imp/index.php3.

PARTICIPATION ASSIGNMENT I -- E-MAILS TO THE LIST. You may want to subscribe to the e-mail discussion list as soon as possible, because one of your participation assignments is to e-mail the list with your thoughts on the readings for class.  As often as you like, up to a total of 30 points, you can receive 2 points for each relevant e-mail you send to the list.  The following kinds of e-mails will qualify for these points:

1. an e-mail that consists of at least one question about a particular day's reading assignment (if the question is a good and thought-provoking discussion starter),
2. an e-mail that consists of several questions about a particular day's reading assignment (if the questions are about more basic, factual information, such as questions about the meaning of particular words or phrases in the reading or questions about some aspect or other of history relevant to the reading),
3. an e-mail that consists of a thought-provoking, insightful, or interesting observation about a particular day's reading assignment, or
4. an e-mail that responds substantially to what someone else has posted to the list.

1. your message must be sent before class meets to discuss the reading assignment that you are addressing;
2. your message must actually be posted to the discussion list (not sent to me privately);
3. your message must be original (that is, not repeat what somebody else has already posted to the list); and
4. your message must not repeat material that you submit for any other graded assignment for class (i.e., you may not submit an e-mail that is made up of material from your paper or from one of your other participation assignments in class).

I ask you to type your response papers (so that they are easier for me to read), but they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Rather, response papers should be just what their name says -- a response. Think about the question that I ask you to consider; then, write a response.  Don't worry about typos or comma splices or even organization.  Just be as specific as you can and get down as much as you can as quickly as you can.  Treat response papers more as a journal entry than as a formal paper.  I don't want a thesis or five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an exploration of the question I have posed -- as detailed and concrete as possible.  As long as you submit a response paper of suitable length (around 2 pages), detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you turn it in on time in the class assigned), you will receive all the points that the assignment is worth.  Grammar, punctuation, spelling, and organization have no effect on the number of points you receive.  (NOTE: If you choose not to submit a response paper for a particular day, you should still come to class prepared to discuss the question assigned for the response paper, since we will focus on that question in our discussion of the reading assignment.)
 

COURSE SCHEDULE. (This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.  All page numbers are from The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, 7th edition, volume 2.)
 

Date	Assignment
M May 22	Introductions; Pope, Essay on Man (pp. 309-315)
T May 23	Bécquer, Bunina, de Castro, Heine, Hölderlin, Hugo, de Lamartine, Leopardi, and Novalis (pp. 610-637); Goethe, Faust, pp. 441-492 RESPONSE PAPER:  Choose one poem from pp. 610-637.  How does the poem you've chosen differ from Pope's Essay on Man in its treatment of nature or in its conceptualization of human beings?
W May 24	Goethe, Faust, pp. 493-540; Pushkin, The Queen of Spades (pp. 639-657) RESPONSE PAPER:  How does yesterday's reading assignment from Faust prepare us (or not prepare us) for what happens in today's reading assignment from the play?
R May 25	Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (pp. 1069-1141)
M May 29	NO CLASS (Memorial Day) PAPER 1 DUE
T May 30	Flaubert, Madame Bovary, pp. 850-923
W May 31	Flaubert, Madame Bovary, pp. 923-989 RESPONSE PAPER:  What are we to make of Emma?
R June 1	Flaubert, Madame Bovary, pp. 989-1063 RESPONSE PAPER:  What are we to make of Emma?
M June 5	Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich (pp. 1184-1222); Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard (pp. 1298-1333) RESPONSE PAPER:  What is wrong with Ivan Ilyich?
T June 6	Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil (pp. 1145-1157); Mallarmé (pp. 1162-1166); Verlaine (pp. 1169-1172); Ibsen, Hedda Gabler (pp. 1226-1281) RESPONSE PAPER:  Compare and contrast Hedda Gabler with either Faust or Madame Bovary.  How is Ibsen's play like or unlike the other work?
W June 7	MID-TERM EXAM
R June 8	Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author (pp. 1432-1473); Kafka, Metamorphosis (pp. 1640-1672) RESPONSE PAPER:  Kafka's Metamorphosis is an absurd story.  People just don't turn into cockroaches.  Why, then, is the story so popular?  What does it say to or about 20th-century people?
M June 12	Mann, Death in Venice (pp. 1514-1564); Rilke (pp. 1568-1570); Akhmatova (pp. 1702-1709); Tzara, Schwitters, Eluard, Breton, Césaire, and Mansour (pp. 1712-1720) RESPONSE PAPER:  Mann is often characterized as being somewhat conservative in his literary ideas -- a throwback to Romanticism.  Do you agree?  What in Mann seems particularly Romantic and/or what seems to have more in common with post-Romantic literature?
T June 13	Brecht, The Good Woman of Setzuan (pp. 1804-1858); Camus, "The Guest" (pp. 1872-1880) RESPONSE PAPER:  Compare Brecht's play to Goethe's.  How are the two plays alike and/or different in outlook and technique?
W June 14	Beckett, Endgame (pp. 1918-1947); Solzhenitsyn, Matryona's Home (pp. 1974-2000) RESPONSE PAPER:  These two readings seem so different from one another, and yet they were first published/performed just 6 years apart (in 1957 and 1963, respectively).  What, if anything, do they share in common?
R June 15	Borges, "The Garden of Forking Paths" (pp. 1908-1914); Robbe-Grillet, "The Secret Room" (pp. 2033-2036); Bachmann, "The Barking" (pp. 2040-2050); García Marquez, "Death Constant Beyond Love" (pp. 2055-2060) RESPONSE PAPER:  All these writers considered themselves to be significantly influenced by Kafka.  Choose one of the stories assigned.  How are the ideas or techniques of Kafka's Metamorphosis reflected in the story you've chosen?
M June 19	Munro, "Walker Brothers Cowboy" (pp. 2155-2165); Mahfouz, "Zaabalawi" (pp. 1963-1970); Borowski, "Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber" (pp. 2016-2029) PAPER 2 DUE
T June 20	Achebe, Things Fall Apart, pp. 2065-2120
W June 21	Achebe, Things Fall Apart, pp. 2120-2153 RESPONSE PAPER:  Read William Butler Yeats's "Second Coming" (p. 1420).  What does Yeats's poem have to do with Achebe's novel?  Why did Achebe choose a phrase from the poem for his title?
R June 22	FINAL EXAM