Course Policies and Syllabus

Professor: West
Office: Meier Hall 229
Office hours: MWF 10-11, TR 9:30-10:30 (or by appointment)
Office phone: 542-8002
Email: twest@salemstate.edu   


Required Texts
The Norton Anthology of Western Literature 8th ed, vol I, Lawall, et al
Available at the university bookstore


Description
ENG 294, World Literature 1, is an introduction to global literature since the first epic through works of the early seventeenth century.  We will focus on how narrative and myth represent the perspectives, achievements, and values (though not always unproblematically) of specific world societies through major genres of the period, including nonfiction, poetry, and the epic.  Our readings are detailed in the schedule below.

Course Work
Mid-term and final exams: Exams will cover material read for class and discussed in class.  Exams will consist of definition, short answer, and essay components.  Each exam will count as 40% of your final grade.

Group projects: For this project, I will put you in groups, and, as a group, you will select your favorite poems (at least 5) from the Japanese poetry cycle, The Kokinshu.  The basis of criteria by which you select these poems is up to the group.  You will then give a presentation (about 20 minutes) in which you discuss the meanings of the poems, why your group selected them, and the personal and/or contemporary relevance of the poems.  You are encouraged to make use of presentational technology when giving your presentations.
Also, you will be required to participate in online group discussion prior to your presentations.   The purpose for this is to help you to generate ideas for your presentation as a group in conjunction with me.  The group participation and presentation count as 15% of your final grade.

Quizzes: My quizzes are designed to make sure you’ve read the material; they are not designed to trip you up.  So, if you’ve read the material and paid attention, you should do well on them.  Expect them on everything we read.  They cannot be made up, and they make up 5% of your final grade.

Grading
Exams--40% each
Group presentation--15%  
Quizzes--5%

Grade scale
A    100-93 points
A-    92-90 points
B+    89-87 points
B    86-83 points
B-    82-80 points
C+    79-77 points
C    76-73 points
C-    72-70 points
D+    69-67 points
D    66-63 points
D-    62-60 points
F    59 - 0 points

Policies
Attendance: Missing more than three scheduled class meetings, with or without excuses, will begin to affect your final grade.  Each class missed after the third absence lowers your final grade by one third.

Tardiness: Being on time to class is a matter of respect for the social conventions of the classroom.  That is, consistent tardiness shows a lack of concern for the class, the professor, and fellow students.  Be on time; consistent tardiness may be counted as absences.

Equal Access
Salem State College is committed to providing equal access to the educational experience for all students in compliance with Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act and The Americans with Disabilities Act and to providing all reasonable academic accommodations, aids, and adjustments. Any student who has a documented disability requiring an accommodation, aid, or adjustment should speak with the instructor immediately. Students with disabilities who have not previously done so should provide documentation to and schedule an appointment with the Office for Students with Disabilities and obtain appropriate services.


Schedule
Week 1: Course intro; early oral traditions; the invention of writing and early writing systems; read Introduction to The Ancient World 1-12.

Week 2: The epic and the epic hero; myth; read all of Gilgamesh*

Week 3: Creation stories; read Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) 34-46; more on the epic and myth; read The Iliad 100-148

Week 4: Read The Iliad 148-205

Week 5: The journey as narrative archetype; read The Odyssey Books I and V

Week 6: Read The Odyssey Books IX, X, XI; no class on Mon

Week 7: Read The Odyssey Books XIII-XXIV; review for and take mid-term exam

Week 8: Stories of origin and transformation; the new order of Rome; read all of The Aeneid

Week 9: Begin online discussions of The Kokinshu (handout) and discussions of presentations; the epic and the epic hero; myth; paganism and Christianity; read all of The Metamorphosis

Week 10: Read Introduction to The Middle Ages, 1143-1145; read Beowulf 1174-1210; no class on Fri

Week 11: Read Beowulf 1210-1247

Week 12: Read all The Koran; Thanksgiving Holiday—W, Th, F

Week 13: Shakespeare; watch and discuss Henry V

Week 14: Group presentations on The Kokinshu

Week 15: Continue group presentations; catch up; course conclusion; review for final exam; Tues, 12/12 is last day of classes

Final Exam

*Readings include introductions for all selections

Key Terms

Archetype: A recurring structure, figure, theme, or other literary feature based on an original or early model. Found in literature and myth across cultures and in different periods. For example, The Odyssey represents the archetypal narrative structure of the journey: the hero sets out on some task, encounters many trials along the way, completes the task, and returns home transformed.

Creation Stories: Stories or myths that explain the origins of weighty things such as the universe, the world, animal and human life. Creation myths are common to all societies; all have their own interpretations (sometimes very similar) of how the world, or sometimes their specific culture, began.

Cuneiform: A process of writing used in ancient Mesopotamia around 2,800 BCE. The process involved pressing the wedge-shaped end of a stick or stylus into wet clay to create symbols. These clay tablets were then dried in the sun. Initially used to keep records of agricultural production; later used to record historical events and write stories. The epic, Gilgamesh, was written using cuneiform.

Epic: A long narrative poem composed in an elevated style recounting the trials and adventures of a hero, superhuman achievements in battle and migration, and/or fateful exchanges with the gods. Because of their historical influence, the most prominent epics in Western literature—Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid—aren’t just literary compositions. They are cultural expressions, embodying political and moral codes essential to their respective societies. The epic poet selects familiar material from oral tradition, religion, legend, and myth and turns them into a grand portrayal of the origin of a nation, the nature of the cosmos, the ultimate workings of fate, the meaning of heroism. The events they narrate have long-term consequences, the characters are larger than life, and the settings have panoramic scope.

Hero: A central, larger-than-life, often partially divine character in a story, a character whose virtues and vices, experiences and choices are raised to an especially meaningful level. Therefore, his choices and their consequences (good and bad) serve as lessons for others. The hero is also infamous and the culture he belongs to depends on him. For this reason, the hero undertakes quests and performs deeds others cannot, acquiring something of value—be it some object or new knowledge—that benefits his culture.

Muse: It is an epic convention for the poet to invoke the muse at the recitation or the beginning of an epic poem. Because the muses are the daughters of Mnemosyne (a titaness and the personification of memory), they are called on to inspire the poet and help him to remember the long poem he must recite. The nine muses are the patron goddesses of astronomy, history, and the fine arts.

Myth: Not a falsehood as commonly understood. Myths are stories of anonymous authorship arising from oral traditions that dramatize fundamental beliefs about existence and explain such things as catastrophic natural phenomena, the origins of the world and/or a people, and the mysteries of mortality. In short, myths were designed, as Karen Armstrong posits, to help people cope with the problematic human predicament; they seek to provide answers to questions such as, who are we, where did we come from, how should we act, what happens when we die, etc? Myths endure so long as their explanations of things remain valid.

Oral Tradition: Stories and myths within a culture transmitted by word of mouth from one generation to the next. In societies without writing, oral traditions served as a kind of cultural memory, a repository of narratives that embody the culture’s values and beliefs. In these societies, bards and poets were responsible for remembering, re-telling, and passing on these stories. Although a bard might adapt parts of a story, his responsibility was to re-tell it as accurately as possible, not be creative. Poetic conventions of structure and meter helped the bard remember and recite stories.

For these definitions, I have relied in some part on Kennedy, Gioia, and Bauerlein’s Handbook of Literary Terms and Harmon and Holman’s A Handbook to Literature.