English 251:  Introduction to Literature
Spring 2000
Lyman Baker, Instructor
  Go to Part 2 of the Course Schedule.
  Go to Part 3 of the Course Schedule.

Course Schedule -- Part 1

Note:  The assignments here are provisional.  In the course of the semester it may be necessary or advisable to introduce changes in either assignments or due dates or both.  Such changes will be announced in class and through the course e-mail listserv.  Students at any university should make it a habit to check their e-mail at least once a day.  As changes are announced, they will be worked into this Course Schedule as well.
Also:  Unless otherwise noted, assignments are expected to be completed before class on the dates specified.  Come to class prepared to discuss the assigned reading.  If you are doing a writing assignment, you should submit it at the beginning of class on the date it is due, so that it can be incorporated into discussion.
Finally:  Unless otherwise noted, page references are to the basic text for the course, Kennedy and Gioia's Literature:  An Introduction to Fiction Poetry, and Drama, 2nd Compact Edition.  Critical concepts to be able to show familiarity with on exams have been highlighted in purple.  Works to be covered in the exam(s) are highlighted in green.

14 Jan (F):  Introduction to the course.

17 Jan (M):  No class:  Martin Luther King, Jr., Day activities on campus.

19 Jan (W):  (1) Read the editors' Preface (pp. xxxiv-xxxvi [end of ¶1], and then skim the table of contents to get an idea of the structure of the book.  We will be covering only a few of the many rich works and topics covered here.  If the course is successful, you will want to keep the text after the semester is over, and continue deepening your acquaintance with sophisticated literature.  (2) Read introductory remarks on "Drama" (pp. 1195-96) and the opening of Chapter 31, "Reading a Play" (pp. 1197-99).  Consider yourself responsible for understanding the following critical concepts, as they apply to works that we read from now on:  play, dialogue, drama, conventions, soliloquy, theme(3) Read Susan Glaspell's Trifles (pp. 1199-1210).  (4) Reflect on the editors' questions on the play, and study their comments following it (pp. 1210-14).  Concepts to get clear on:  plot, protagonist, exposition, foreshadowing, dramatic question, climax, resolution, dénoument, suspense, stage business, rising action, falling action, symbol

21 Jan (F):  (1) Work through Glaspell's remarks on "Creating Trifles" (pp. 1243-44).  Glaspell expresses dissatisfaction with the Broadway plays current in her day.  Is her play any different?  (2) Read the comments and example under the heading of "Writing Critically" (pp. 1244-49):  how insightful do you find the student paper ("Outside Trifles") in its understanding of what constitutes the protagonist, the central conflict, and the dramatic question in the case of Trifles(3) Read the comments on "Tragedy and Comedy" (pp. 1214-15 & 1225-27).  Concepts to begin to master:  tragedy, comedy, satiric comedy, high comedy, low comedy, romantic comedy, parody(4) Read John Millington Synge's Riders to the Sea (pp. 1215-24).  (5) Study carefully the questions on pp. 1224-25, and reread the play with an eye to answering each.  Put your answers (together with an other comments or questions you may have) in your notes, and bring them with you to class. 

24 Jan (M):  (1) Read David Ives' Sure Thing (pp. 1227-36). (2) Study carefully the questions on p. 1236.  Reread Ives' play in the light of these questions (especially #s 3 & 4), putting your answers and other reflections in your notebook for bringing to class.  (3) Review the Biblical parable of "The Prodigal Son" (pp. 207-8), in the light of the questions the editors provide at the end.  [Recommended, not required:  read the parable in the context of the entire series of parables of which it is a part, in Luke 15 of the New Testament.  Do this after you've read the text as it is excerpted in our anthology, and formed some conclusions about what it might mean.  Then read the entire series of parables, along with their author's commentary.  Do you understand the parable of the prodigal son in exactly the same way -- or somewhat differently?]  (4) Study carefully Garrison Keillor's Prodigal Son (pp. 1237-42).  (5) Review the play in light of the questions on p. 949.  (Question #3 is an especially important nut to try to crack.)  Again:  make notes, and bring them with you to class.  (3) First Alternative for Writing Assignment 1 is due at the beginning of class.  [Note that you are not required to do this particular alternative for WA1.  You may elect instead either the alternative due on 26 Jan (W) or the one due on  31 Jan (M) or the one due on 2 Feb (W).  You must, however, do one of these four.]

26 Jan (W):  (1) P.1 ("Fiction") and Chapter 1, "Reading a Story" (pp. 3-19). (2) Terms to get clear upon:  fable, tale, short story; dramatic situation, flashback (or retrospect), summary vs. scene, epiphany, initiation story.  Among the terms you have already encountered, but now meet again are:  exposition, complication, protagonist (vs. antagonist), foreshadowing, climax, resolution, dénoument.  This would also be a good time to review the concept of dramatic question(3) Give two readings to John Updike's "A & P"; before the second (but no earlier!), study carefully the questions on p. 17; when you're finished, see what you come up with in answer to them.  Come to class ready to contribute your answers to the discussion.  (4) How does what Updike has to say on propaganda (in "Why Write?") fit in with some of the things the editors stress about the difference between fable and tale on the one hand and short stories on the other?  (5) Second Alternate for Writing Assignment #1 is due at the beginning of class.  [No need to do this if you did the one due last Friday, but if you don't do this one, you'll need to do the one due on 31 Jan or the one due on 2 Feb.]

28 Jan (F): (1) Read the introduction to Chapter 32, "The Theater of Sophocles" (pp. 1251-53).  Notions to get clear upon:  actor, chorus, orchestra, skene, colonnade, deus ex machina, masks (or personae), cothurnus.  (2) Begin your reading of Sophocles' Oedipus the King, up through the moment in which Oedipus and Jocasta enter the palace together, just before Ode III (pp. 1254-82).

Jan 31 (M):  (1) Finish your initial reading of Oedipus the King (pp. 1283-1294).  (2) When you are done (but not before), study carefully the questions the editors formulate on pp. 1294-95.  (You can save Question #11 for later.)  Put a check by any of the questions that correspond to a curiosity you felt while you were reading the play.  Circle the number of those questions that raise issues that strike you as interesting and perhaps worth persuing in class.  If you run across a question you don't understand, put an asterisk (*) by it.  Third Alternative for Writing Assignment #1 due at the beginning of class.  [There's only one more alternative coming.]

2 Feb (W):  (1)  Read the material on "Aristotle's Concept of Tragedy" (pp. 1295-99).  Concepts to be clear about:  hamartia, tragic flaw, hubris, purgation (also known as katharsis), recognition (aka anagnorisis), reversal (aka peripeteia or peripety).  (2) Consider the issues the editors raise under the heading "Some Things Change, Some Things Don't" (pp. 1299-1300).  A useful preparation for Exam #1 would be to start taking notes of the sort the editors suggest, as if you were going to undertake the writing assignment they propose on p. 1006. (3) Work through the brief introduction to "Poetry" (pp. 647-49).  (4) Fourth Alternative for Writing Assignment #1 due at the beginning of class.  [If you didn't hand in the option due 24 Jan (M) or the one due 26 Jan (M) or the one due 31 Jan (M), then this is your last chance for credit on WA1.]

(*) Showing in class of the first part of the film Angel Heart.  Be sure not to miss this unless you plan to find the video at some rental agency for viewing on your own at home.

4 Feb (F):  (1) Read the editors' discussion of "Psychological Criticism" (pp. 1947).  (2) Work through Sigmund Freud's famous discussion of Oedipus' destiny (p. 1948), and see what you would say in answer to Question #1 on p. 1295.  (3) Read the Freud's analogy for describing the role of the unconscious in human mental life and behavior and his analogy he for discussing repression and the alternatives to it(4) Read the opening of Chapter 12, "Reading a Poem" (pp. 651-55).  (5) Read the editors' discussion of "Point of View" at the beginning of Chapter 2 (pp. 20-26).  Concepts to begin mastering henceforth:  narrator, point of view, participant, observer, nonparticipant, omnicient points of view (editoral omniscience, impartial omniscience, limited or selective omniscience, total omniscience), objective point of view, innocent narrator (or naďve narrator), unreliable narrator, stream of consciousness, interior monologue

(*) In class we will conclude the showing of the film Angel Heart and discuss some of its debts to Sophocles' play. 

7 Feb (M):  (*) Read William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" (pp. 26-33).  Be prepared to discuss in class the questions on p. 33. 

9 Feb (W):  (1) Read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" (pp. 33-37).  (2) Work through Daniel Hoffman's essay on "The Father-Figure in "The Tell-Tale Heart" (p. 1949-50).  (3) Work through the opening of Chapter 38, "Writing About a Story" (pp. 1874-88).  This will acquaint you with two quite different kinds of useful commentary on just about any kind of literature (i.e., it is not restricted to short stories).  One is explication.  The other is analysis.  You should continue trying to get clear on the differences between these.  Study the example given of each.  (Both are on Poe's story.)  (3) Reread Poe's story in the light of the questions on p. 37, and come to class prepared to contribute to answering these. 

11 Feb (F):  (1) Read Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" (pp. 38-49).  (2) Reread the story in the light of the questions on p. 49, and come to class prepared to contribute to answering these.  Sharpen your sense of the difference in purpose and form between explication and analysis by working through the article on this topic in our web site's glossary of critical concepts.

14 Feb (M):  (1) Read Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill" (pp. 49-52) and Mansfield's remarks on creating this story (p. 53).  (2) Reread the story in the light of the questions on p. 53, and come to class prepared to contribute to answering these. 

(*) For every story we read from here on out, take to heart the advice the editors offer in their concluding remarks on "How Point of View Shapes a Story":  what are the curiosities they would have us adopt when approaching any story, and why, according to them, is this going to pay off?

16 Feb (W):  (1) Read the discussion of "Lyric Poetry" (pp. 656-57).  Be sure you understand the special sense in which the term lyric is used in literary discussion.  To understand what is said there, you will need to (2) reread William Butler Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innesfree" (p. 653) and (3) study carefully (rereading closely, in light of the editors' questions) D.H. Lawrence's "Piano" and (4) "Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" (the latter in the light of the author's remarks on p. 664).  You should also (5) look at William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" (p. 680) and (6) work through Theodore Roethke's "Root Cellar" (pp. 743-4).  (Can you answer the last question on p. 744?  [It is likely to be on Exam #1.])  (7) Finally, read the section called "Can a Poem Be Paraphrased?" (pp. 665), in which you will encounter William Stafford's "Ask Me" and his own paraphrase of that poem. 

18 Feb (F):  (1) Read the remarks on "Narrative Poetry" (p. 658).  What kinds of curiosity are relevant to pursue when we realize we are dealing with a narrative poem(2) Study carefully the famous anonymous ballad "Sir Patrick Spens" (pp. 658-59), working carefully (in your rereadings) through the questions on p. 659.  (3) Work through Robert Frost's "'Out, Out --'" (p. 660), rereading it several times in light of the questions on p. 660-61 (especially Question #4).  (4) Read the discussion of "Dramatic Poetry" on p.661.  What are the essential characteristics of this genre (dramtic poetry), both "in general" and "strictly speaking" (in the older, traditional sense)?  What is a dramatic monologue?  (For additional explanation of this important concept, see the article here.)  Why do you think this genre has become so important for modern poets?  (5) Study carefully Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" (pp. 661-63).  You will need to read this famous piece several times, making intense use of the questions on p. 663.  (6) What is meant by the term didactic poetry (pp. 663-64)?  (*) In class, we'll bring into our discussion Joan Baez's performance of the ballad "Henry Martín" and something by Randy Newman (maybe "Christmas in Capetown" or "Mikey's" from his album I Love L.A.)

21 Feb (M):  Exam #1.  Be sure to consult the Prep Sheet for Exam #1.


   If you have a question or comment concerning any of the works we are reading or any of these literary critical concepts you are responsible for being able to use in an accurate and insightful way, put it on our web discussion board.  You ought in any case to visit the message board, and see if you have anything to say in connection with other people's questions or comments.  (If you haven't yet done so, you might first have a look at the guidelines for making the most effective use of this tool.)
 
   Go to Part 2 of the Course Schedule, which covers assignments between the Exam #1 and Exam #2.
   Go to Part 3 of the Course Schedule, which covers assignments between Exam #2 and the end of the course.
  Return to the home page of the course.
  Suggestions, comments and questions are welcome.  Please send them to lyman@ksu.edu .
      Contents copyright © 2000 by Lyman A. Baker
Permission is granted for non-commercial educational use; all other rights reserved.
      This page last updated 21 February 2000.