ENGL 001.920/WSTD 006.920

Practicalities
Days, Time, Room Number: MTWH, 10:40-12:15, College Hall, Rm. 315A
Instructor:  Stephanie Harzewski
sharzews@english.upenn.edu
Phone: 215-823-6793
Cell: 347-277-1679 (NY #)
Office Hours: By appointment (Arrange via email or before or after class.)
Course listserv address: engl001-920-04b@lists.upenn.edu

Course Description
“Books when finished … serve as reminders not only of the stories they told but of who we once were and who we have become,” American painter Robert Miller muses. In this spirit, the course examines major debates surrounding the novel from its origins in the early 1700s through its elevation and evolution over the past three centuries. We will read and discuss both novels themselves and how prominent literary figures have assessed their social, aesthetic and moral functions. Writing assignments are varied but will focus on constructing an effective argument and crafting an individual style. Strategies for creating movement and precision in writing as well as troubleshooting writing anxiety will be addressed collectively. Course provides an excellent introduction to English as a major as its not only surveys the history of a principal literary genre, but also offers a solid foundation in the techniques of college writing. Authors may include Eliza Haywood, Oscar Wilde, J.M. Coetzee, Virginia Woolf, Jeanette Winterson, Samuel Johnson, Ernest Hemingway, and Helen Fielding. Class participation and preparation will comprise 30% of the final grade. No midterm or final exam.

Requirements and Grading
The requirements for this class fall into three categories: Attendance, Preparation and Participation, and Written Work.

Attendance:
This is a discussion/workshop-based class and will only succeed if everyone is a fully involved participant. You may miss one class meeting without penalty, but on-time attendance is required at all other class meetings unless you have obtained my permission in advance or can officially document a medical or family crisis after the event. Students with more than 3 unexcused absences will fail the course. Repeated late arrival will lower your participation grade, so be here and be on time.

Preparation and Participation:

You should read all of the assigned texts before the corresponding class meeting and come to class ready to participate. Since a significant part of the course involves close reading in which sections of works will be read aloud and analyzed, if you forget to bring a text being discussed that day to class, you must tell me before class begins so you can look on with another student.  Repeated failure to bring the germane text to class will lower your participation grade.

• Cell phones & beepers must be turned off in class.

• It is the student’s sole responsibility to obtain class handouts, assignment instructions, etc. in the case of tardiness or unexcused absences. It is ok if you are naturally shy or quiet; good listening and the occasional helpful comment can be a better form of participation than constant chatter. But I expect you all to keep up with assignments and to make yourselves productive participants in whatever way best suits you. A third of your final grade will be based on the quality of your preparation and participation.

Written Work:
The required written work for this class encompasses multiple forms:

• Listserv Posts: You will be responsible for two scheduled email postings.  These consist of approximately 250 words (1 double-spaced page) and should be posted to the class listserv (engl001-920-04b@lists.upenn.edu) by noon of the day of the class meeting.

These posts may raise questions about the class readings; highlight their central (or perhaps overlooked) issues; or evaluate the degree of success with which they engage the reader.  They may ask questions on matters in text that are confusing and in which you seek further clarification.  Additionally, they may serve as a space to present drafts of ideas you wish to explore in your formal papers.

You are encouraged to respond to the posting of others in your own post, though this is not obligatory.  The posts can be on works discussed earlier in the course even if we have moved on to other texts.  These are not meant to be formal or finished essays, but they should be coherent and grammatical; please proofread and edit them before posting. I will not be grading your listserv posts, but I will be archiving them in individual folders, which will become part of your final grade.
 

• Critical Writing Summary: At times, both in-class and outside, you will be asked to evaluate and comment on the published works of critics. You will submit a 1-2 page critical writing summary of a chapter from one of two histories of the novel-related scholarly studies. This assignment intends to serve as an introduction to writing about literary criticism as well as the valuable skills of paraphrase and argumentative strategy identification.

• Essays: There will be three essays for this course of varying lengths:

Essay #1: 3 pages
Essay #2: 4-5 pages
Essay #3: 5 pages

I will grade these and will indicate in my comments how the work might be improved. As an important aspect of writing is revision, you will revise the first two essays and participate in a one-on-one paper conference for each.  Your grade for a revised essay will be the average of your grades on the original version and the final version.  Please remember to attach the graded original essay with the revised one.

Late papers will be down-graded a third of a grade for each day they are late.  Papers must be submitted in print form, i.e. no Microsoft Word attachments will be accepted.

Grading: Your final grade will be based on the following percentages: 30% for preparation and participation, 70% for written work and your oral presentation. Any penalty for missed classes and tardiness will be deducted from this total.

Books
Books have been ordered through the House of Our Own Bookstore (3920 Spruce St.). You should purchase copies of all the following:

Defoe, Daniel.  Robinson Crusoe.  Penguin.
Fielding, Helen.  Bridget Jones’s Diary.  Penguin.
Gilman, Charlotte.  The Yellow Wallpaper.  The Feminist Press.
Hemingway, Ernest.  The Old Man and the Sea.  Scribner.
Lunsford, Andrea.  The Everyday Writer: With 2003 MLA Update.  2nd Edition. Bedford/St. Martin's.  [MLA Handbook can be used as a substitute]
Rhys, Jean.  Wide Sargasso Sea.  Norton.
Wilde, Oscar.  The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Ed. Donald L. Lawler.  Norton.
Winterson, Jeanette.  Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.  Grove.

In addition possession of a college thesaurus is mandatory.  Use of the Microsoft Word thesaurus though occasionally useful is not adequate.

Collaborative Writing/Plagiarism: I encourage you to work with one another to become better writers and better thinkers by sharing your ideas and giving feedback on each other's work. However, the work you submit to this class is expected to be your own. When you want to refer to someone else's ideas (even the ideas of someone else in this class), you must properly acknowledge your sources. Sometimes this involves providing appropriate citations in the body of your writing and additional bibliographic information at the end. Other times it involves using footnotes correctly. If you have questions about how to cite a source properly, consult a style manual or ask me. If you submit work that has been copied without attribution from some published or unpublished source, or that has been prepared by someone other than you, or that in any other way misrepresents somebody else's work as your own, you will face severe discipline by the University. Work that is your own work but has been submitted to more than one class for credit is also considered plagiarism unless you have obtained the permission of all course instructors involved prior to handing in the work.

Schedule

Monday, 6/28:

Course overview Excerpt from Paradise Lost by John Milton

John Milton (1608-1674)

Tuesday, 6/29:

• No class
• Listserv post instructions distributed via listserv
• Oral presentation topics distributed via listserv

Wednesday, 6/30:

• Fantomina by Eliza Haywood
• Critical writing summary instructions distributed

Thursday, 7/1:

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Writing Topic: Using nuanced verbs Paper 1 instructions distributed

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)

Monday, 7/5:

• Independence Day, no class

Tuesday, 7/6:

Robinson Crusoe continued Writing Topic: Crafting introductions Critical writing summary due

photograph (1882) of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)  by Napoleon Sarony

Wednesday, 7/7:

• Robinson Crusoe continued
• Writing Topic: Conclusion paragraph

Thursday, 7/8:

• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Writing Topic: Printed writing vs. presented writing

Friday, 7/9:

• Paper 1 due

Monday, 7/12:

• The Picture of Dorian Gray continued
• Paper conference sign up

Tuesday, 7/13:

• The Picture of Dorian Gray continued
• Excerpt from The Renaissance by Walter Pater

Wednesday, 7/14:

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Writing Topic: Writing for in-class exams Last day to submit listserv post 1

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

Thursday, 7/15:

• “The Yellow Wallpaper” continued

Monday, 7/19:

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot Excerpt from A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin Paper 1 revision due Paper 2 instructions distributed

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977)

Tuesday, 7/20:

• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• Creating movement in writing

Wednesday, 7/21:

• The Old Man and the Sea continued

Thursday, 7/22:

• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Monday, 7/26:

Wide Sargasso Sea continued Paper 2 due Paper conference sign up

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) on his second African safari (1953-1954), Photo by Earl Theisen

Tuesday, 7/27:

• Wide Sargasso Sea continued
• Paper 3 instructions distributed

Wednesday, 7/28:

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Jean Rhys (1890-1979)

Thursday, 7/29:

• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit continued
• Writing Topic: Writing anxiety & burnout

Friday, 7/30:

• Last day to submit listserv post 2

Monday, 8/2:

• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit continued
• Paper 2 revision due

Tuesday, 8/3:

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

Jeanette Winterson (1959- )

Wednesday, 8/4:

• Bridget Jones’s Diary continued

“What Is a Classic?” by J.M. Coetzee Evaluations

Helen Fielding (1960- )

Friday, 8/6:

Paper 3 due by 1 p.m.

J.M. Coetzee (1940- ) receiving the Nobel Prize from  His Majesty the King at the Stockholm Concert Hall.  2004.

Monday, 8/9:

• Grades submitted to Registrar