About this Course
This course is offered within the English specialty of the LLCW department at William Paterson University, NJ (WPUNJ). It meets General Education (i.e. Core Curriculum) requirements for WPUNJ. This particular version has been developed by Professor Brian Ó Broin, but other versions of English 1500 exist.
Concentrating mostly on British and American 'greats', this course analyzes English literature from Shakespearean times right up to the modern age. On our journey we will improve our ability to write papers and use the English language critically. The objectives of this class are principally an enhanced knowledge of English-language literature combined with a strengthening of the student's ability to write critically about literature.
At the end of this course students will have an excellent basic knowledge of British, American, colonial, and ex-colonial English literature from the late sixteenth century to the modern day.
Your Professor
Professor Brian Ó Broin has taught literature at the National University of Ireland, the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin, and the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. He has been teaching at William Paterson University, NJ since 2003. Professor Ó Broin is an internationally recognized authority on Irish Gaelic literature. Fluent in several languages, he appears regularly on radio and television. A prizewinning playwright and novelist, his works have been performed on stage in Galway, Ireland, and he himself has appeared on stage at the Irish Repertory Theater, New York.
Layout of a Typical Semester (note: all these texts are subject to change)
Introductory Unit
Week 1
INTRODUCTORY
Week 2
SGWL 1, pp.2-7 & Chinua Achebe "Civil Peace" (separate pdf).
Writing about Literature Unit
SGWL 3, 19-31 & Kate Chopin, "Story of an Hour" (SGWL 20-22).
Last day to add/drop, request pass/fail/audit, 100% refund.
Week 3
SGWL 3, 31-42 & Kate Chopin, "Desirée's Baby" (separate pdf).
Kate Chopin, "The Storm" (Berke 153-157) & Langston Hughes, "The South" (Separate pdf).
Week 4
SGWL 4 (43-59)
Langston Hughes, "Harlem" (SGWL 44); "The Judgment of Solomon" (SGWL 52); "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" (SGWL 55-56);
SGWL 4 (60-69)
"Gwendolyn Brooks, "We Real Cool" (SGWL 60); William Blake "The Tyger" (SGWL 68).
ALSO: Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B" (separate pdf).
Week 5
FIRST IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT - PART 1.
"Experiencing the Power of Poetry" in Bennett 35-41 & John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (Bennett 35-36).
Week 6
FIRST IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT - PART 2 (revision and submission).
Prose Unit
James Joyce, "Araby" (Robinson 962-966).
Week 7
Eudora Welty, "A Worn Path" (Separate pdf).
Thursday 7 Mar
Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (Berke 81-82 & 87-94).
Week 8
Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery" (separate pdf).
Drama Unit
Susan Glaspell, "Trifles" (separate pdf).
Assignment of second paper. See Bb -> Second Major Paper. See below for due date.
Week 9
SPRING BREAK
Week 10
Patricia Gaborik, "Down the Aisle" (separate pdf).
Week 11
Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost: “About Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost” in Folger edition.
Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost: Act 1, Scene 1. As you read, consider characterization and setting.
Week 12
SECOND IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT
SPARE CLASS
Week 13
Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost: Acts 1, 2
Thursday 18 Apr
Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost: Acts 3, 4
Week 14
Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost: Act 5
Poetry Unit
Robert Herrick, "Upon Julia's Clothes" (Robinson I, 1656); William Wordsworth, "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" (separate pdf).
Week 15
Robert Frost, "The Telephone" (separate pdf); John Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (separate reading).
Walt Whitman (bio: Kurant 1416 and following), "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" (Kurant 1462), "Reconciliation" (Kurant 1465).
Week 16
THIRD IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Sylvia Plath, "Daddy" (separate pdf).
Week 17
Final Class
THIRD IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT - PART 2