English 238: Introduction to Fiction
Instructor:
John C. Goshert
Office: 420 Heavilon Hall
Phone: 494-3767/e-mail:
goshert@expert.cc.purdue.edu
Syllabus, Course Policies, and Schedule of Assignments
Required Texts (in order of assignment)
Voltaire. Candide.
Bantam Classics, 1981.
Poe. Selected Tales.
Vintage, 1991.
Twain. Pudd'nhead
Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins. Norton C.E., 1980.
Flaubert. Madame Bovary.
Penguin Classics, 1992.
Woolf. Orlando.
(any edition)
Reed. Flight to Canada.
Scribner, 1998.
Rushdie. Satanic Verses.
Consortium, 1992.
--Additional reading will be assigned from a course pack (Copymat) and from the reserve room of the HICKS library--
Major Assignments
1. Response
papers will be due each Monday, and will be worth 30% of the final grade.
2. A term paper
proposal (about 2 pages) will be due November 12. (10% final grade)
3. A term paper of
8-10 pages wil be due the last day of class, at class time (but may be turned in
earlier). (40% final grade)
4. Attendance and
participation will account for the remaining 20% of your final grade.
Course Policies
Please note that attendance and participation are crucial components of this course. The majority of class time will be spent discussing the assigned reading, the issues surrounding texts and authors, and the connections that may be made with other authors (building a bibliography of suggested further reading). You must be in class each day and be prepared to discuss the day's reading assignments.
Response papers should be 1-2 pages in length, and will address issues, themes, concepts in individual readings, or between sets of reading, that the student finds significant.
The term paper proposal will include, in addition to a preliminary discussion of the paper's topic, a working bibliography that will include at least five academic sources.
All written work will be done in MLA style, unless another format is approved prior to submission. Plagiarism will result in failure of the course and administrative action.
In addition to written work, each student will select a date to give a short presentation (of about 10 minutes) and lead class in discussion for at least a portion of that day's class time.
Schedule of Assignments
| August
23 Opening, course rationale 25 Candide (ch. 1-15) 27 complete Candide 30 Sarrasine (course pack) September 1 discussion of opening moves (realism, satire, parody, the grotesque) 3
Poe: "Introduction," "The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale Heart,"
"The Pit and the 6 no class 8 Poe: "Fall of the House of Usher," "MS. Found in a Bottle" 10 Poe: "Ligeia," "The Cask of Amontillado," "Hop Frog" 13 PW/ET (1-57) 15 PW/ET (57-115) 17 PW/ET (119-170) 20 some Twain
criticism: Evan Carton, Henry B. Wonham, Robert Moss, A.W. 22 Madame Bovary (1-53) 24 Madame Bovary (53-124) 27 Madame Bovary (124-207) 29 complete Madame Bovary October 1 some Flaubert criticism (selection from Ronell's Crack Wars) 4 Kafka: "Give it Up!" "Before the Law," "An Imperial Message," "The Judgment" 6 Kafka: "The Metamorphosis" 8 Kafka: "The Burrow," "In the Penal Colony," "On Parables" 11 no class 13 Orlando (ch 1-2) 15 Orlando (ch 3-4) |
18 Orlando
(ch 5) 20 Orlando (ch 6) 22 catching up/connections/review 25 film: Sans soleil, part I 27 Sans soleil, part II 29 Introduction to "postmodernism" November 1 Flight to Canada (1-65) 3 Flight to Canada (66-124) 5 complete Flight to Canada 8
some Reed criticism: Greil Marcus, Janet Beck, Peter Nazareth, Norman 10 Satanic Verses (1-87) 12 Satanic Verses (91-169) Term Paper Proposals Due Today 15 Satanic Verses (169-240) 17 Satanic Verses (243-322) 19 Satanic Verses (322-408) 22 Satanic Verses (408-484) 24 no class 26 no class 29 Satanic Verses (484-507) December 1 complete Satanic Verses 3 catch up 6 catch up 8 catch up (really conclude S.V.!) 10 conclusion 15 Term Papers Due |