English 2110-31:
World Literature
Tuesdays 6:30-9:15p
Humanities 243
Dr. Robert W. Hill
Office: Humanities 117
Office Hours: MW 8:45-9:15p, 11:45a-12:15p; T 5:45-6:15p;
and by appointment
Telephone and voice mail: 770-423-6346
E-mails: rhill@kennesaw.edu AND rhill41@mindspring.com
RWH’s Web Site: http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~rhill
KSU WebCT http://courses.kennesaw.edu
Nicenet.org http://www.nicenet.org
KSU Statement on Academic Honesty (8-17-99)
(http://ksumail.Kennesaw.edu/acahon99.htm)
KSU CATALOG DESCRIPTION:
ENGL 2110. World Literature. 3-0-3. Prerequisite: ENGL 1102 (with C or
better). A study of world literature which explores human experience by examining
diverse aesthetic and cultural perspectives from ancient to modern times.
TEXTS:
Kipling, Rudyard. “The Man Who
Would Be King.” ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext00/sbeao10.txt.
10 Apr. 2002.
The Man Who Would Be King. Dir. John Huston.
Writ. Gladys Hill, John Huston, Rudyard Kipling (story). Perf. Sean Connery,
Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Saeed Jaffrey. Prod. John Foreman. 1975.
Westling, Louise, et al., eds. The World of Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1999. ISBN 0-13-439159-4.
Occasional additional readings or viewings.
COURSE GRADING:
Response writing: Mostly online, ongoing, fifteen minutes twice
weekly, at a level that indicates your meaningful engagement with readings and
ideas encountered in class and with the response writings of your classmates
online, ongoing, etc. ("Online" means in contexts available to me and
all your classmates: (1) http://courses.kennesaw.edu
and (2) http://nicenet.org.)
Responses are graded twice—as of 6 p.m. on February 26 and April 23—not
to be graded as formal essays (spelling, grammar, etc.). Your responses must be
serious, conscientious, not written all at once the day before
midterm, etc.: A or F--nothing in between. Averaged together,
response writings are worth 15%.
Quizzes: You can expect a reading quiz on all texts on the first day that the work appears on the schedule of classes. Reading quizzes may not be made up. Their average will be worth 15%.
Midterm test: Paragraphs with complete sentences: TUESDAY, March 12. It's worth 25%.
1500-2000-word essay: Based on your midterm exam, prepared and written in close consultation with your study groups, with proper MLA or APA documentation and "Works Cited" (see a current, authoritative handbook, your professor, and/or “The Documented Essay (Notes in Progress)” at http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~rhill/docessay.htm). Requires at least five cited sources, two of which must be internet sources; two others, books or journals. A full-scale research paper? NOT! It's worth 25%.
Final examination: In-class, open-book essay, TUESDAY, April 30, 6:30-8:30 pm. It's worth 20%.
FIRST-RUN-OF-THE-TERM SYLLABUS:
Reading assignments may be added, deleted, and/or the order rearranged. Readings
and written assignments are to be completed by the dates indicated. If
you do not bring your texts to class, you will sometimes find yourself at
serious disadvantage during certain classroom activities (as when I ask,
"Where exactly do you see that in your book? what page is that on? which
line is that?").
CLASS SCHEDULE:
TUESDAY, January 8: Introductory
class meeting; philosophy and methods of course; formation of study/response
groups; in-class response writing
Study/Response Groups' Answers to Two Questions: 1. Why
literature? 2. Why world literature?
TUESDAY, January 15:
ANCIENT LITERATURE: The Epic of
Gilgamesh 37-73; The Hebrew Bible 96-132, 137-45;
TUESDAY, January
22: Homer and The Odyssey
430-88; The Aeneid 629-70.
TUESDAY, January
29: New Testament, The Gospel of Mark
692-716.
TUESDAY, February
5: LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD:
The Qur´an 739-61; One Thousand and One Nights 866-88.
TUESDAY, February
12: Four Tang Poets 1014-33; Yuan
Zhen 1033-41; Wu Cheng´en 1049-60.
TUESDAY, February
19: Dante Alighieri 1310-44.
TUESDAY, February
26: Geoffrey Chaucer 1349-66.
SPRING
BREAK, MARCH 2-8, NO CLASSES.
TUESDAY,
March 12: Midterm Test; first grades for response writing.
MONDAY,
March 18: Last day to withdraw without academic penalty.
TUESDAY, March
19: Discuss and return Midterm Tests, confirm Documented Essay topics. King Lear
1398-1469.
TUESDAY, March
26: Miguel de Cervantes 1469-94.
TUESDAY, April 2: MODERN LITERATURE: Jane Austen 1876-1908; Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be
King” (see e-link above with “texts”); James Joyce 1908-1927.
TUESDAY, April 9:
Fyodor Dostoyevsky 2055-79; Franz
Kafka 2049-54.
TUESDAY, April
16: William Faulkner 2181-93; Toni
Morrison 2201-09.
TUESDAY, April 23: Walt Whitman 2154-62; Emily Dickinson 2162-68; T.S. Eliot 2173-81.
THURSDAY (Yes, Thursday), April 25, 6:30 p.m., deadline for
Documented Essays.
TUESDAY, April 30: Second grades for response writing; Final
Examination, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
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COURSE EXPECTATIONS:
Be here. Read well. Think well. Listen well. Talk well. Write well.
Stay in close contact with the online syllabus for possible changes, as well as Nicenet and WebCT for your twice-weekly fifteen-minute response writings.
I expect students to take their work seriously, to come to class prepared and willing to participate, and to treat peers and their ideas with respect.
The nature of this course demands an ongoing engagement with the texts assigned and with the class activities surrounding them. You cannot slip behind in your reading or in the writing assignments and succeed in this class. You must make a commitment now--at the beginning of the term--to follow the schedule and to ask for help with anything you don't understand as soon as you know you're in trouble. I am available through e-mail, telephone, and our online programs (Nicenet and WebCT), as well as during office hours.
I'm always happy to help during the process for any writing assignment and to read drafts and make suggestions for revision. But I cannot offer this help unless students allow time for it in their handling of individual assignments.
In addition to individual help from me, students may consult the Writing Center (Humanities 242, telephone 770-423-6380). Well-trained tutors are available to assist you on MONDAY through THURSDAY = 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; FRIDAY = 9 a.m. to noon; SATURDAY =10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; SUNDAY = 1 to 5 p.m.
EVALUATION
PROCEDURES:
Late work will not be accepted unless you make arrangements in
advance and persuade me that you have a legitimate reason for turning
in work after the announced deadline. In case of emergencies, it is your
responsibility, immediately upon your return to class, to make arrangements
about assignments you have missed. If you do not follow the procedure
articulated here, you will receive a zero for all work not submitted on time.
If you are or intend to be absent, I expect you to communicate with me immediately, through e-mail, Nicenet, and/or WebCT, to clarify your situation regarding missed work. There is no excuse for allowing absences to pass unexplained, and students who do so should not expect exceptions to be made for them at the end of the term.
ATTENDANCE POLICY: Any student who misses more than one (1) class during the semester may have his or her grade lowered. I expect you to be in class and prepared unless you have a genuine emergency.
If you miss class for a legitimate reason, I expect you to make that reason known to me immediately (see above under "Evaluation Procedures"). In addition, any student who is persistently tardy and/or who leaves class early will be counted absent.
CLASSROOM DECORUM: Turn off all electronic communication devices—cell phones, beepers, etc.—before entering the classroom. These devices are inappropriate in the classroom setting. Do not talk or otherwise engage your peers during class except as part of the overall class discussion. All students are to have their attention focused on the class activity throughout the scheduled meeting time. One Class = One Week.
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Return to R.W. Hill's KSU Home Page
http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~rhill
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[This page was created 7 January 2002; last revised, 10
April 2002.--RWH]