ENGL 2111-D -- World Literature I (crn 81564)

Contact Information:

Required Textbooks:

Course Description:

OBJECTIVES: This course is the first half of the English program's overview of world 
literature from classical antiquity to the present. We will examine works from the 
Western tradition (Greece, Rome, the Jewish Bible, the Christian New 
Testament, and the European Middle Ages and Renaissance) and from several
non-Western tranditions (Sumeria, India, Japan, and the Muslim world). As you will 
see, this division into "Eastern" and "Western" doesdn't always hold up, as
there is a good deal of communication between the two. The objectives of the course 
are to gain a historical understanding of the cultures discussed, to gain familiarity 
with the recurring ideas and literary genres common to world literature, to cultivate
sensitivity to the unique insights of particular cultural traditions, and to develop
interpretive skills adequate to the understanding of a diverse range of literary texts.


PROCEDURES & PROVISOS: 

1. The reading load will be quite heavy at times, so do not fall behind. To help you
budget your time, I have provided "Page Alerts" that explicitly state the amount of 
reading involved.

2. Participation in the on-line forum is expected on a weekly basis or better. I
will post a topic or question several days prior to the class disussion, and you must
respond no later than 9 a.m. Monday, after which time the topic will
by locked and accessible only for reading, not writing. I reserve the right to
assign additional optional or required work to supplement the forum
participation grade. 

3. After teaching a few on-line courses, I am convinced of the value of
on-line chats as a tool for promoting discussion. In this course, we will
have a weekly on-line chat outside of scheduled class time. There will be two
opportunities for you to take part: Tuesday evenings at 9:00, or Fridays at noon.
Our business in the chats will be to practice close interpretive reading of
literary passages that I will provide you with beforehand.

Chat participation counts as class time and your on-line presence is mandatory.
Your active involvement in the chats will be automatically monitored, leading
at the end of the term to a grade for a percentage of the course. Because chat
time is equivalent to class time, I will compensate it with an equivalent amount
of reduced conventional class time. If for any reason you cannot attend
either of the chats held in a given week, you will need to submit a brief
paper/excercise (due the following Monday) carrying out in written form an
assignment of equivalent nature and value, which I will assign and grade in an
appropriately fair manner without disadvantage to the student.
   
4. There will be a weekly graded quiz on the reading. The quiz will be
accessible on-line, and you will submit your answers through a Web
browser. Quizzes will be evaluated within five school days of submission.
Grading is pass/fail, with a pass consisting of ALL questions being correctly
answered. You will have the freedom to retake quizzes over the course of a 
three week period. 

5. There will be three exams, counting equally, each administered through the 
same Web application as the quizzes. There are no retakes for exams. Exams will
be graded (in the usual A to F fashion) within ten school days of submission.

6. The procedure for registering with my on-line software has nothing to do with 
WebCT. Except for the course evaluation at the end of the term, I don't use WebCT.
I will provide instructions near the end of the term to assist you in submitting 
a confidential course evaluation. 
  
7. Late assignments will not be accepted. Turn things in early if you plan to
be away. 

8. Please note that Inquisition (the testing software we are using) and my backup regime 
make it pointless to claim that materials have been somehow "lost" after being delivered 
to me. It is your responsibility to make sure that they get to me in the first place. If 
they do, they won't get "lost." But since transmission problems are common on the Internet, 
you would be wise to make backups of your quiz and exam answers, or to write them in a 
word processor and cut-and-paste them into Inquisition. 

9. You are also responsible for reading and following the directions provided through 
Inquisition for safe and secure test-taking. If you follow these directions, you will
avoid network timeouts, security breaches, and other unpleasant outcomes yet to be 
discovered.


10. ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY. Although you are welcome to form study groups, students 
may not share answers with one another when responding to the on-line quizzes or exams. 
Sharing of answers on Inquisition is readily detectable. Such conduct constitutes  
cheating and will be referred to University authorities for disciplinary action. 

Grading Proportions:

Participation will be graded based on the on-line forum (See the handouts
for details.) I reserve the right to assign additional quizzes or writing
exercises that will also contribute to the participation grade. Three
examinations will be given, each non-comprehensive. These will consist of 
identification questions: an excerpted piece of writing will be presented, and 
you must identify it and discuss it in detail, showing a knowledge of the 
entire work from which it was drawn. These passages will be ones that we
have specifically discussed. You are also responsible for the material in the 
headnotes to the reading assignments.

The course grade will be calculated as follows:

	Exam I         		20%
	Exam II        		20%
	Exam III (Final)	20%
	Forum Participation 	15%
	Quiz Completion		15%
	Chat Participation 	10%
			      =100%

Tentative Schedule of Assignments:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tips:

Listed meeting time is 2-3:15 MW.
Page reference "(1:2234)" means "beginning on page 2234 of volume 1."
"Page Alert" notifies you of the total number of pages to read for easch assignment.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday 8/20 ----- Introduction. Discussion of literary terms and critical practice. 

Monday 8/25 -------- The Epic of Gilgamesh (1:10) -- Page Alert: 31
Wednesday 8/27 ----- Gilgamesh continued
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)

Monday 9/1 --------- LABOR DAY -- NO CLASS
Wednesday 9/3 ------ Excerpts from the Hebrew Bible (1:52) -- Page Alert: 115 
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 9/8 --------- Hebrew Bible continued
Wednesday 9/10 ----- Hebrew Bible continued
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 9/15 -------- Homer, The Odyssey (1:225) -- Page Alert: 305 
Wednesday 9/17 ----- Homer continued.
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 9/22 -------- Euripedes, Medea (1:693) -- Page Alert: 30 
Wednesday 9/24 ----- Euripedes  continued
Friday 9/26 -------- EXAM #1 (Open Thursday 6 p.m., closed Friday 6 p.m.)
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 9/29 -------- Plato, "Apology" (1:779) -- Page Alert: 19 
Wednesday 10/1 ----- Thucydides, "Pericles' Funeral Oration" and "The Melian Dialogue" 
                     (provided on-line) Page Alert: ca. 10
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 10/6 -------- The Mahabharata (1:953) -- Page Alert: 49 
Wednesday 10/8 ----- The Bhagavad-Gita (1:1010) -- Page Alert: 19 
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 10/13 ------- Virgil, The Aeneid (1:1052) -- Page Alert: 82 

*** OCTOBER 14 IS THE LAST DAY TO WITHDRAW FROM A CLASS WITHOUT ACADEMIC PENALTY. ***

Wednesday 10/15 ---- Virgil continued
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 10/20 ------- Gospel of Matthew (provided on-line) -- Page Alert: ca. 40 
Wednesday 10/22 ---- Matthew continued
Friday 10/24 ------- CHAT (alternative chat time: 9 p.m. Tuesday) 
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 10/27 ------- Koran excerpts (2:1426) -- Page Alert: 34 
Wednesday 10/29 ---- 1001 Nights (2:1566) -- Page Alert: 54 
Friday 10/31 ------- EXAM #2 (Open Thursday 6 p.m., closed Friday 6 p.m.)  
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 11/3 -------- Tale of the Heike (2:2300) -- Page Alert: 24 
Wednesday 11/5 ----- Motokiyo, Atsumori (2:2350) -- Page Alert: 6 
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 11/10 ------- Dante, Divine Comedy (2:1826) -- Page Alert: 137 
Wednesday 11/12 ---- Dante continued
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 11/17 ------- Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (provided on-line) -- Page Alert: ca. 50 
Wednesday 11/19 ---- Chaucer continued
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     

Monday 11/24 ------- Montaigne selections (3:2632) -- Page Alert: 39 
Wednesday 11/26 ---- THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     
            
Monday 12/1 -------- Shakespeare, Hamlet (3:2828) -- Page Alert: 175 
Wednesday 12/3 ----- Shakespeare continued
--> Weekly On-line CHAT at either 9 p.m. Tuesday or Noon Friday (your choice)     
 
EXAM #3 (Final): Accessible on-line 6 p.m. Friday 5 December, 
due 2:30 p.m. Thursday 11 December

Note: Even though Exam #3 does not count more than the other exams, failure to turn 
it in will result in automatic failure of the course.