Great Works \’09

Spring 2009 Honors ENG 2850: Great Works II
Professor Shelly Eversley
VC 7-278; 646 312 3960;  shelly.eversley at baruch.cuny.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1-2pm, and by appointment.

Course Description and Expectations:
Using an interdisciplinary approach to a sample of some of the most important literary, historical, and cultural moments of modernity, you will develop your active reading and critical writing skills. We will study a broad range of texts to practice the moves through which scholars generate “close readings.” The discipline of “close reading” requires practice; accordingly, we will conduct regular in-class exercises that include free writing, reading quizzes, and group discussion. You will develop your ability to think for yourself and generate your own arguments and readings. By developing your ability to read one text deeply, and many texts comparatively, you will improve your ability to better represent your thinking through your writing.

The Blog Experiment. This semester we will try blogging on the critical issues that emerge from our course readings. You will post one blog entry and at least two comments during the semester.

Active class discussion is crucial. Please come prepared to participate. In addition, you will complete two essays (4-6 pages). I will not assign paper topics and I will not accept late papers. Instead, I will conduct in-class writing workshops that will assist you in your ability to generate your own arguments and paper topics. You will compete with yourself. In addition, there will be a cumulative final exam. Your grade depends on class participation (15%), blog activity (15%), essays (25% each), and the final exam (20%).

Plagiarism is not only uncool it is illegal. If you plagiarize, you will earn a “D” in this couse. The Department of English fully supports Baruch College’s policy on Academic Honesty, which states, in part: “Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery, plagiarism and collusion in dishonest acts undermine the college’s educational mission and the students’ personal and intellectual growth. Baruch students are expected to bear individual responsibility for their work and to uphold the ideal of academic integrity. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue the academic process will be sanctioned.” Additional information can be found at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/acad…

Required Texts: Available at Shakespeare and Company Booksellers
Geothe, Faust (Part I) (Penguin)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of a Slave
Fydor Dostoyevsky, Notes From Underground (Norton)
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis (Penguin)
Nadine Gordimer, July’s People
Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John

The Schedule:
Tuesday, January 27: Introduction: The Enlightenment
Thursday, January 29: Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man”

Tuesday, February 3: Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”
Thursday, February 5: “A Modest Proposal” continued.

Tuesday, February 10: Geothe, Faust
Thursday, February 12:  No Class.  The College is closed.

Tuesday, February 17:  Faust continued.

Thursday, February 19:  Blogging about Faust.

Tuesday, February 24: Shelley, Frankenstein.
Thursday, February 26: Frankenstein continued.

Tuesday, March 3: Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
Thursday, March 5: “Self-Reliance” continued.

Tuesday, March 10: Douglass, Narrative of the Life of a Slave
Thursday, March 12: Narrative… continued.

Tuesday, March 17: Higuchi Ichiyo, “Child’s Play”
Thursday, March 19: Selected Haiku; Paper #1 is due.

Tuesday, March 24: Dostoyevsky, Notes From Underground.
Thursday, March 26: Notes… continued.

Tuesday, March 31: Notes… continued.
Thursday, April 2: Class Cancelled. Professor’s at a conference.

Tuesday, April 7: Feminism. (selected readings)
Thursday, April 9: No Class. Spring Break.

Tuesday, April 14: No Class. Spring Break.
Thursday, April 16: No Class. Spring Break.

Tuesday, April 21: Kafka, Metamorphosis.
Thursday, April 23: Metamorphosis continued.

Tuesday, April 28: Gordimer, July’s People
Thursday, April 30: July’s People continued. Paper #2 is due.

Tuesday, May 5: Kincaid, Annie John.
Thursday, May 7: Annie John continued.

Tuesday, May 12: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother?
Thursday, May 14: “Innocent Erendira…” continued.