Go To Assigments For:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

** Any revisions to this syllabus will be posted on our class page. ** Students MUST visit the class homepage regularly in order to remain current with assignments. All announcements posted on the web site are officially binding for all students, whether they attend class or not.  This is especially important for unexpected cancellations of class.   Students are also responsible for all information posted on the web page, including but not limited to the attendance policy and the plagiarism policy, as well as all information transmitted during classroom discussion.

Course Requirements:

Required Texts:

• Puchner, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of World Literature: Shorter Third Edition. Vol. 2: 1650 to the Present (NA)
• Shakespeare, Othello, Norton Critical Edition (O)
• Achebe,  Things Fall Apart, Norton Critical Edition (TFA)
  
• The Norton Mix: MSU Humanities 201/202 (NM)
• Supplementary On-Line Readings

In addition to assigned readings, which must be completed before coming to class, there will be one (1) brief (500 word minimum) critical response paper  and one (1) documented research paper  (2000 word minimum) that uses a minimum of eight documented sources, six of which must be secondary sources. There will also be one set of homework questions that must be completed near the end of the session, completion of which will help to satisfy your participation grade. You will also take part in a group presentation of a minimum thirty minutes to be given during the second part of the course.  There will also be a mid-term and a final examination.

(See sample MLA Paper )

• ** Plagiarism on any assignment will have dire consequences. **
• Please familiarize yourself with the policy  and let Dr. Mekler know if anything is unclear.

 
• Papers are due by the end of business on the due date. If they are not completed before class, they may be turned in to Dr. Mekler in his office or in his mailbox in Holmes 202.
• However, Dr. Mekler takes NO responsibility for "lost" submissions to his mailbox.
• Papers slipped under Dr. Mekler's door will be considered late.
• Late Papers will lose 2/3 of a letter grade for each class day.

Class Participation	10%
Critical Response Paper	10%
Group Presentation	10%
Research Paper	20%
Mid-Term Exam	25%
Final Exam	25%

Extra Credit:

Homework Q's (in addition to the Required Q's described above)

Each day, you may hand in written responses to ten (10) homework and discussion questions for the text assigned for THAT day only.

Every three (3) sets of questions will give you one (1) bonus point, up to a possible total of five (5)  to be added to your final average.

There is no half-credit:  fewer than 10 questions will receive NO credit.

Museum Paper
• Students may also develop a museum paper based on the guidelines described here.
• Successful completion of this assignment will result in the addition of up to three (3) points to the final average.

May	27	Course Introduction  Literary Terms (See List ) Reading Poetry Europe and the New World
	28	Petrarch, "It was the morning of that blessed day" Shakespeare, Sonnet #18, Sonnet #130
	29	Shakespeare, Othello, Acts. 1-2, (O): 1-50
	30	Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 3-4, (O): 50-98
Jun	2	Shakespeare, Othello, Act 5 and wrap-up (O): 99-117
	3	Democratic Revolutions, (NA): 372-77 Phillis Wheatley “On Being Brought From Africa”  "To His Excellency George Washington" Walker, “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens”
	4	Equiano, Chs. 1-3, from Chs. 4 and 5,
	5	Douglass, (NA): 512-17 Narrative of the Life, Chs. 1-9, (NA): 517-42
	6	Douglass, (NA): 512-17 Narrative of the Life, Chs. 10-Appendix, (NA): 542-74
	9	Midterm Review Grammar Review Exercise Discussion of Critical Response Papers Last Day to Drop Class
	10	MIDTERM EXAMINATION (See review )
	11	The World of Haiku, (NA): 321-23 Kigin, (NA): 323-24 Kyoriku, (NA): 336-37 Group Presentation Tagore, (NA): 961-70 Group Presentation
	12	Postwar and Postcolonial Literature, (NA): 1435-39 Senghor, (NA): 1440-46 Group Presentation Senghor, (NA): 1446-51 Group Presentation
	13	Modernity and Modernism, (NA): 1003-13 Kafka, (NA): 1201-35
	16	Discussion of Research Papers Class Will Meet in Holmes 119 Research Paper Topics Due (See Topics ) Critical Response Paper Due (500 word min.)
	17	Achebe, Things Fall Apart Introduction (Recommended), (TFA): ix-xxii (Part One), (TFA): 3-74
	18	Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Parts Two & Three),  (TFA): 75-117
	19	Lyric Poetry in the Long 19th. Century, (NA): 574-77 Dickinson, (NA): 666-68 "I heard a fly buzz," (NA): 671 "Because I could not stop for death," (NA): 673 Frost, "Design." (NM): 123-24 "The Road Less Travelled" (NM): 125-26 Group Presentation Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado," (NM): 78-84 Group Presentation
	20	Chopin, The Awakening Chs. 1-20, pp.1-43
	23	Chopin, Chs. 21-39, pp. 43-82
	24	Native American Literature: "Navajo Night Chant", NA): 998-1001 (and ) Welch, "The Man from Washington" Ray Young Bear, "One Chip of Human Bone" Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks, Ch. 3 Group Presentation Borges, "The Garden of the Forking Paths," 1335-44 Group Presentation Last Day to Submit Final Research Paper Topics  ** No Paper Will Be Accepted if Topic is Not APPROVED by Today **
	25	African-American Poetry McKay (NM): 135-36 "America" "If We Must Die" Toomer, "Song of the Son," (NM): 137 Group Presentation Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," (NM): 129 "Harlem" Angelou, "Still I Rise" Group Presentation
	26	Richard Wright “Ethics of Living Jim Crow" Group Presentation
	27	African-American Theater Wilson, Fences (NM): 171-239 Group Presentation
	30	Research Paper Due Last Day To Hand in ANY Work for the Course!! Last Day To Hand in ANY Excuses for Lates or Absences!!
July	1	Final Exam

 

Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374)      It was the morning of that blessed day      Whereon the Sun in pity veiled his glare        For the Lord's agony, that, unaware,         I fell a captive, Lady, to the sway    Of your swift eyes: that seemed no time to stay     The strokes of Love: I stepped into the snare      Secure, with no suspicion: then, and there      I found my cue in man's most tragic play.    Love caught me naked to his shaft, his sheaf,      The entrance for his ambush and surprise     Against the heart wide open through the eyes,      The constant gate and fountain of my grief:       How craven so to strike me stricken so,      Yet from you fully armed conceal his bow!	What is "that blessed day"(1)? What is "Man's most tragic play"(8)? Explain: "naked to his shaft, his sheaf" (9). What is "the constant gate and fountain of my grief" (12)? What literary techniques are used in these lines? What is the meaning of the final two lines? Does this fit the criteria for a Petrarchan Sonnet?  A Petrarchan Conceit?  Explain.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)  Sonnet #18:  "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?"       Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?       Thou art more lovely and more temperate:      Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,       And summer's lease hath all too short a date:       Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,       And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;      And every fair from fair sometime declines,       By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;       But thy eternal summer shall not fade       Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;       Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,       When in eternal lines to time thou growest:          So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,          So long lives this and this gives life to thee.	What literary techniques are used in this poem?  Provide examples. Which Sonnet type does this most resemble? Explain (Consider both Form and Content). What are "the darling buds of May" (3)?  Why are they darling? What is the "eye of heaven" (5)? What are "eternal lines to time" (12)? What is the meaning of the final two lines?
Sonnet #130: "My Mistress's Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun"       My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;       Coral is far more red than her lips' red;       If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;       If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.       I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,      But no such roses see I in her cheeks;       And in some perfumes is there more delight       Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.       I love to hear her speak, yet well I know       That music hath a far more pleasing sound;       I grant I never saw a goddess go;       My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:           And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare           As any she belied with false compare.	What literary techniques are used in this poem?  Provide examples. Which sonnet type does this most resemble? Explain (Consider both Form and Content). What does "dun" (3) mean? What does "damasked" (5) mean? What characteristics, according to Shakespeare in this poem, make a woman beautiful?  Are these the same characteristics as the previous poem?  Explain. Is beauty a prerequisite for love, according to Shakespeare? Explain the final two lines.