The following is a schedule of readings for each unit of the semester (this is subject to change based on our class progress). The readings listed under a particular day are the readings that will be discussed in our meeting that day; therefore, you should complete the readings prior to our meeting. For every day of reading, there will be a Reading Accountability Quiz (RAQs) due at the start of class that covers the material for that day's reading.
Information on the course books that you need to purchase is available on the FAQ page. If a book needs to be acquired (purchased, rented, borrowed, or stolen) by you, it will be marked [Acquire]. If the reading is in the The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Shorter Fourth Edition, Volumes 1 and 2, it will be marked [Norton V. 1 or 2]. If it is available either as a link or PDF on the Canvas page, it will be marked [Canvas].
For readings in the Norton Anthology of World Literature, please always make sure to read the introductory material for an author or a text.
Note that at the bottom of this page, you can download a Google Calendar with major deadlines for this course.
Monday, August 21st
Read the syllabus
Familiarize yourself with the Canvas page
Complete the Entry Survey
Wednesday, August 23rd
Read the Close Reading Prompt and sign up for a due date
Read the Writing and Reading Tips on Canvas
Friday, August 15th
Read William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 [Canvas]
Monday, August 28th
Read "Europe and the New World" [Norton V. 1, 1469–1479)
Read Martin Luther, "Open Letter to the Christian Nobility" (1520) [Canvas]
Wednesday, August 30th
Read Marguerite de Navarre, from the Heptameron (1588) (Norton V. 1, 1512–1522)
Friday, September 1st
Come prepared to do a close reading excercise in class!
Monday, September 4th: NO CLASS (LABOR DAY)
Wednesday, September 6th
Read Miguel de Cervantes, from Don Quixote Part I (1605) (Norton V. 1 1535–1575)
Friday, September 8th
Read Miguel de Cervantes, from Don Quixote Part II (1615) (Norton V.1 1642–1650, and 1685-1693)
Craft a great discussion question from any Don Quixote reading and submit it by Thursday at midnight.
Monday, September 11th
Read William Shakespeare, The Tempest Acts 1 and 2 (1610) [Canvas or Acquire]
Wednesday, September 13th
Read William Shakespeare, The Tempest Acts 3– 5 (1610) [Canvas or Acquire]
Friday, September 15th
Reread the Epilogue of The Tempest and annotate; bring in parts 1 and 2 of the process worksheet
Monday, September 18th
Read "The Enlightenment in Europe and the Americas" [Norton V. 2, 127–134]
Read René Descartes, from "Discourse on Method" (1637) [Canvas]
Wednesday, September 20th
Read John Locke, from Second Treatise, "Chapter V: On Property" (1689) [Canvas]
Read from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Origin of the Inequality of Mankind, "Second Part" (1754) [Canvas] (read only until, "But let us return to their institutions."
Friday, September 22nd
Bring in a short summary of your assigned paragraph from Locke and Rousseau.
Monday, September 25th
Read chapters 4–8 of Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) [Acquire or Canvas]
Wednesday, September 27th
Read Immanuel Kant, "What is Enlightenment?" (1784) [Canvas]
Read Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal" (1729) [Canvas]
Friday, September 29th
Reread Swift as necessary to bring in an arguable, specific and complex claim in response to the following question: what, specifically, is Swift satirizing and what are the key elements of his satire?
Monday, October 2nd
Read Alexander Pope, "Essay on Man" (1733) [Canvas]
Read from Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopedie, "Africa," "Encyclopedie," and "Beast, Animal, Brute" (1751) [Canvas]
Wednesday, October 4th
Read Olaudah Equiano, from The Interesting Narrative (1789) [online]
Friday, October 6th
Optional Review Day: Bring in a list of question, particularly about keywords.
Monday, October 9th: NO CLASS (Fall Break)
Midterm due Monday, October 9th at Midnight
Wednesday, October 11th
Read "An Age of Revolutions" [Norton V. 2 321–333]
Read Letters I-IV and Chapters 1–3 of Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) [Acquire]
Friday, October 13th
Read through Chapter 9 of Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) [Acquire]
Read Comparative Close Reading Prompt
Monday, October 16th
Read through Chapter 16 of Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) [Acquire]
Wednesday, October 18th
Read through Chapter 21 of Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) [Acquire]
Friday, October 20th
Finish Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) [Acquire]
Come in prepared to act as/defend your assigned text.
Monday, October 23rd
Read "Preamble," "Chapter 1" and "Chapter 2" from The Communist Manifesto (1848) [Canvas]
Wednesday, October 25th
Read Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener (1853) [Canvas]
Friday, October 27th: Asynchronous Online Class
Post in discussion forum
Monday, October 30th
Read "Introduction" and Selections from Chapters 1–4 of Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (1859) [Canvas]
Wednesday, November 1st
Read "Modernity and Modernism, 1900–1945" [Norton V. 2, 885–894]
Read Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899) [Norton V. 2, 895–922)
Friday, November 3rd
Bring in evidence about how the rivers are being used as metaphors.
Monday, November 6th
Read Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899) [Norton V. 2, 922–959]
Wednesday, November 8th
Read Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa" (1978) [Canvas]
Friday, November 10th: NO CLASS (Veterans Day)
Monday, November 13th
Read Sigmund Freud, from Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Part I (Parapraxes) (1915) [Canvas, 3128–3183]
Wednesday, November 15th
Read Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own Chapters 1–3 (1929) [Norton V. 2 1082–1117)
Friday, November 17th
Bring in a specific, arguable, and complex claim interpreting a moment of uncertainty in one of the modernist texts that we've read (Conrad, Freud, or Woolf).
Monday, November 20th
Read Aimé Césaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (1939) [Canvas]
Wednesday, November 22nd and Friday, November 24th: NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
Monday, November 27th
Read Michel Foucault, "Panopticism" (1977) [Canvas]
Read Jorge Luis Borges, "On Exactitude in Science" (1946) [Canvas]
Read Jean Baudrillard, from The Precession of Simulacra (1981) [Canvas]
Wednesday, November 29th
Read Amitov Ghosh, Part II of The Great Derangement (2016) [Canvas 87–115]
Friday, December 1st
Bring in at least one issue from one of the three essays you've submitted so far. Review and bring in keywords that you don't yet understand.
Monday, December 4th
Watch first 58 minutes of dir. Bill Forsyth, Local Hero (1983) [Canvas]
Wednesday, December 6th
Finish dir. Bill Forsyth, Local Hero (1983) [Canvas]
Friday, December 8th
In class assessment essay (20 minutes)
Bring in one new question or concern you have about our "civilization" or moment in history
See Calendar for your Section's Final Exam Due Date