SUNY Fredonia
Division of Arts and Humanities
ENGL 209: Novels and Tales
Powers of Narrative
Fall 2003
Section 6: Fenton 154, TTh 11-12:20
Section 9: Thompson E-120, TTh 3:30-4:50
Office: Fenton 240; MWF 10-12, 2:30-3:30, and by appointment; 673-3859
E-mail: simon@fredonia.edu
Web Page: www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/
About the Course Web Site
This web site is designed to help you get as much out of this course as possible--you can use it to find out how you will be graded, how to join and use the course listserv, what reading and writing assignments are due and when, what books are on reserve for your use in Reed Library, and how to use the world-wide web for research. Please take the time over the weekend after the first week of classes to read this page carefully and to familiarize yourself with the other pages for this course. Please get in the habit of checking back to this web site to keep track of changes to the tentative schedule listed in your syllabus and to find advice on papers, as well as to surf the ever-expanding list of links to interesting web pages related to the course. And please contact me anytime (see above for my coordinates) if you have ideas about how to improve these pages or the course as a whole. I hope you enjoy taking this course as much as I enjoy teaching it!
I. Course Description
Study of long and short fiction of several kinds, including myth, fable, and realistic narrative, from a variety of places and times, and their relation to their different cultures. These sections of ENGL 209 focus on the powers of narrative. Attending to the meanings, purposes, and effects of the act--and art--of storytelling, we will consider how narratives represent, respond to, and shape our understandings of and responses to social reality. In the first part of the course, "The Scheherazade Situation," we will examine stories that engage loss, trauma, disaster, and death in order to comment on the powers and limits of storytelling; in the second part of the course, "Fables and Reflections," we will examine stories that experiment with form and narrative strategy in order to comment on the meaning and significance of storytelling.
ENGL 209 is a core course for students in the English and English Adolescence Education majors; for non-majors who entered Fredonia before Fall 2001, it satisfies Part IIB of the General College Program (GCP), and, for all students who entered Fredonia in Fall 2001 or after, it satisfies Part V of the College Core Curriculum (CCC).
II. Rationale
In ENGL 209, as in most courses offered by the English Department, students from a range of majors, minors, and concentrations interact, and the goals of the professional programs are integrated with specific course and general education goals. Achieving these goals (described in Section IV below) will require us to foster academic skills and intellectual habits of reading closely and carefully, thinking critically and creatively, listening actively and attentively, speaking thoughtfully and concisely, and writing clearly and analytically--skills and habits useful to everyone, but of particular importance to future teachers.
III. Textbooks. The textbooks adopted for this course are:
IV. Course Objectives and Outcomes
Courses in Part IIB of the GCP and Part V of the CCC are designed to present general ideas and ethical principles basic to the humanities and to foster critical thinking and critical literacy. This section of ENGL 209 sets out to reach these goals by helping students (1) to appreciate and understand a variety of narratives and narrative strategies in world literature, (2) to appreciate and understand a variety of modes of analysis of narrative, and (3) to appreciate and understand the act and art of storytelling in different cultures and time periods. To achieve these goals, students will
V. Instructional Methods and Activities
The methods used in the classroom will include lecture, in-class writing, guided discovery, open discussion, cooperative group work, and other discussion-oriented activities.
VI. Evaluation and Grade Assignment
A. Methods
Attendance/Preparation/Participation (15%). Regular attendance and thoughtful participation are crucial to your enjoyment of and success in this course. If there is absolutely no way for you to avoid missing a class, you must contact me ahead of time or soon after your absence, preferably by email (see section VIII for more on attendance policies in this course). Even more important than showing up on time, of course, is coming to class prepared and focused. I expect you to read what has been assigned for a given date at least once (and preferably more than that!), along with your peers' responses to it posted to the course listserv (see below), by the time we begin to discuss it in class. This is a discussion rather than a lecture course, after all; although I will provide some context and background for our reading, the bulk of class time will be spent in small- or large-group discussions and activities. Since it's difficult to make good contributions to discussions about a literary work if you haven't read it carefully or thought about it extensively, how well you budget your time outside of class will to a large degree determine how well you do in this class in general and how well you do on this portion of your course grade in particular.
Your grade for this segment of the course will be based on a combination of your attendance, the quality of your participation in class and on the class listserv (described below), and your preparation, effort, and improvement over the course of the semester. As there is no final exam in this course, think of my evaluation of your preparation/participation as a different but equally important method of assessing your overall performance in the course. Due to the importance of attendance and participation, more than two unexcused absences will hurt your preparation/participation grade and each non-emergency absence after the fourth will lower your final course grade by a full grade (e.g., with five absences a B+ will become a C+; with seven, it will become an E). Please see Section VIIIB, below, for definitions of excused and emergency absences.
Reading Responses (20%). Detailed instructions for subscribing to and using your section's listserv (engl20906@listserv.fredonia.edu or engl20909@listserv.fredonia.edu) are given below (see Section VIII), will be discussed in class, and are available on the course web site, along with a troubleshooting guide, at http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/engl209f03/listserv.htm. This listserv will be your space; I will keep my own input to a bare minimum. Although you may use the listserv in any number of ways, you must use it in the following way: over the course of the semester, you must post a number of weekly reading responses to the course listserv and come to each class having read and thought about your peers' responses. Only one response per week will count toward your total. Hence, each week you may post a reading response (including at least one sustained observation and one substantive question) that you believe would spark discussion discussion either by 6 pm Monday for Tuesday's class or by 6 pm Wednesday for Thursday's class. Advice on generating reading responses can be found elsewhere on the course web site at http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/engl209f03/rr.htm.
Your grade for this segment of the course will be determined by the number of on-time, passing reading responses you post to the course listserv. Since there are fifteen weeks when reading responses are due in the semester, and since you are allowed seven missed weeks without penalty, 8 or more reading responses=A; 7=B+; 6=B; 5=C+; 4=C, 3=D; 2 or less=E. The quality of your reading responses will be factored into your preparation/participation grade (see above).
Critical Essays (40%). You are required to write two 4-to-6-page critical essays, each worth 20% of your final course grade. I will provide detailed information and advice on the critical essay later elsewhere on the course web site, at http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/engl209f03/ce.htm.
Your grade for this segment of the course will be determined by the coherence and validity of the paper's arguments, the effectiveness of the paper's structure in conveying your ideas and convincing your audience, and the quality of the paper's prose (including grammar, syntax, and punctuation).
Final Project (25%). I will provide detailed information and advice on the 7-to-10-page final project elsewhere on the course web site at http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/engl209f03/fp.htm.
B. Grading. All work during the semester will be graded on a letter basis (A=outstanding, B=good, C=average, D=bad, E=awful) and converted into a number for purposes of calculating final grades. I use the following conversion system (the number in parentheses is the "typical" or "normal" conversion, but any number in the range may be assigned to a given letter grade):
A+=97-100 (98); A=93-96.99 (95); A-=90-92.99 (91); B+=87-89.99 (88); B=83-86.99 (85); B-=80-82.99 (81); C+=77-79.99 (78); C=73-76.99 (75); C-=70-72.99 (71); D+=67-69.99 (68); D=63-66.99 (65); D-=60-62.99 (61); E=0-59.99 (55)
Your final grade is determined by converting the weighted numerical average of the above assignments into a letter grade, according to the above scale.
C. Portfolio. English and Secondary English Education majors should be aware of the English department's guidelines for ongoing portfolio submissions.
VII. Bibliography. Some of the following works may be found on reserve at the circulation desk in Reed Library (click here for the reserves list):
A. Contemporary References
B. Classic References
C. Key Journals
VIII. Course Schedule and Policies
A. Tentative Course Schedule. The following course schedule is subject to revision--please refer here regularly for updates to this schedule, notes on the texts, and suggestions for further reading. Please recall that you need to submit 8 reading responses to earn an A for that segment of your final grade (see Section VI). (Key: SIW=The Story and Its Writer.)
The Scheherazade Situation
T 8/26 Introductions and Overview
Th 8/28 The Arabian Nights 1-66
T 9/2 The Arabian Nights 66-150
Th 9/4 The Arabian Nights 150-206
T 9/9 The Arabian Nights 206-295
Th 9/11 Husain Haddawy, The Arabian Nights ix-xxxi; Fatema Mernissi, Scheherazade Goes West 1-78
T 9/16 Fatema Mernissi, Scheherazade Goes West 79-97, 117-145; Neil Gaiman, Sandman VI: Fables and Reflections 225-258
Th 9/18 Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Ch. 1-5, About the Names. . . (1-93, 213-216)
T 9/23 Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Ch. 6-12 (94-211)
Th 9/25 Patricia Grace, Potiki, Part One (7-84)
T 9/30 Patricia Grace, Potiki, Part Two (85-155)
Th 10/2 Patricia Grace, Potiki, Part Three (156-185)
Fables and Reflections
T 10/7 Fall Break: No Class
Th 10/9 Reading Day: No Class. The following readings will be discussed on T 10/14: Neil Gaiman, Sandman VI: Fables and Reflections 1-11, 19-44, 123-148, 199-224
T 10/14 Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" (SIW 633-642); Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (SIW 576-588)
Th 10/16 James Thurber, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (SIW 1288-1291); Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk 7-21
M 10/20 CRITICAL ESSAY I due no later than 5 pm
T 10/21 Woody Allen, "The Kugelmass Episode" (SIW 21-29); Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk 23-43
Th 10/23 Julio Cortázar, "A Continuity of Parks" (SIW 402-403); Leslie Marmon Silko, "Yellow Woman" (SIW 1241-1248)
T 10/28 Angela Carter, "The Company of Wolves" (SIW 221-228); Neil Gaiman, Sandman VI: Fables and Reflections 71-96
Th 10/30 Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk 1-5, 83-101, 247-255
T 11/4 Charles Johnson, "Menagerie, a Child's Fable" (SIW 754-760); Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk 147-165
Th 11/6 Amos Tutuola, "The Complete Gentleman" (xerox 884-890); Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk 167-182
T 11/11 Neil Gaiman, Sandman VI: Fables and Reflections 45-70
Th 11/13 Neil Gaiman, Sandman VI: Fables and Reflections 149-198
T 11/18 Dorothy Allison, "River of Names" (SIW 39-45)
Th 11/20 Isabel Allende, "And of Clay Are We Created" (SIW 30-37)
F 11/21 PROPOSAL for FINAL PROJECT due no later than 5 pm
M 11/24 - F 11/28 Thanksgiving Break: No Classes.
M 12/1 CRITICAL ESSAY II due no later than 5 pm (may be turned in before break)
T 12/2 Neil Gaiman, Sandman VI: Fables and Reflections 97-122
Th 12/4 Toni Cade Bambara, "The Lesson" (SIW 108-113)
T 12/9 Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk 103-117, 183-202
Th 12/11 Gabriel García Márquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (SIW 570-574); Clarice Lispector, "The Smallest Woman in the World" (SIW 914-918)
Th 12/18 4 pm: Section 9 wrap-up
F 12/19 1:30 pm: Section 6 wrap-up; FINAL PROJECT and any revision(s) to CRITICAL ESSAY(S) due no later than 5 pm
B. Class Policies
1. Attendance. As stated in Section VI above, barring emergencies each absence after the fourth will lower your final course grade by a full grade. Be aware that absences due to emergencies are the only absences that will not be counted toward your total for the semester. Emergencies include but are not limited to death in the family, hospitalization or serious illness, and natural disasters; scheduled and unavoidable school-sponsored events (games, meets, performances, etc.) are also counted as emergencies for the purpose of this attendance policy. Besides emergencies, the only other absences that won't affect your participation/preparation grade are excused absences. Please notify the instructor over email, in advance if possible and, if not, as soon after the absence as possible, if you wish an absence to be considered as an emergency or excused absence; the decision will be made at the instructor¹s discretion.
2. Course Listserv. You are required to subscribe to your section's listserv and to read and think about your peers' observations and discussion questions before each class meeting. To subscribe to your section's listserv, compose an email message to listserv@listserv.fredonia.edu, leave the subject line blank, and write this exact command in the body of message: subscribe engl2090x Your Name (where x=6 or 9, depending on your section number). Please be sure to delete any signature or other text that may appear in the body of your message, as it will only confuse the very literal-minded machine that handles listserv subscriptions. Very soon after sending this message, you will receive an email from the machine that handles subscriptions asking you to confirm your subscription; please follow the instructions in this email carefully, as you are not subscribed to the listserv until you have done so. Soon after doing this, you will receive another email message from the machine that handles subscriptions informing you that you are indeed subscribed to your section's listserv and laying out basic information about the listserv. Save this message--it's very useful. Once you get this message, you will begin receiving messages from others who are subscribed to the listserv; you also will be authorized to send messages to them by composing a message to the machine that distributes messages to those who are subscribed to the listserv. To do so, simply send an email message to engl2090x@listserv.fredonia.edu (where x=6 or 9, depending on your section number). It is highly recommended that you either save a copy of every message you send to the course listserv (many email programs automatically save all messages sent in a "sent mail" folder) or "cc:" yourself whenever you send a message to the listserv, as your listserv participation will be graded both quantitatively and qualitatively (see Section IV, above) and it is possible that technical or human error could result in your messages being lost in transit, accidentally deleted, misfiled, or miscounted. Please familiarize yourself with the college's "Computer and Network Usage Policy" (College Catalog 2003-2005, pp.241-246) and check with your instructor first before posting something to your section's listserv that is not directly related to the course.
3. Late Assignments. Late reading responses and final projects will not be accepted or graded. Other assignments will be accepted and graded but will lose one-third of a grade per day late (e.g., a paper turned in two days past the due date that would have otherwise received an A- would be penalized two-thirds of a grade and thus receive a B). Only students who ask for an extension at least two days before the due date will be granted one; asking for an extension on the final project means that your final grade for the semester will be an incomplete (I), and that you must turn in your final project before the end of the following semester so that the I becomes a grade other than an E.
4. Plagiarism and Academic Honesty. To plagiarize is "to steal and pass off as one's own the ideas or words of another" (Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary). SUNY Fredonia strongly condemns plagiarism and takes severe action against those who plagiarize. Disciplinary action may extend to suspension from privileges or expulsion from college. Please familiarize yourself with the college's "Academic Integrity Policy" (College Catalog 2003-2005, pp. 237-239, see also p. 225) and check with your instructor if you have any questions about it.
ENGL 209: Novels and Tales, Fall 2003
Created: 8/25/03 9:53 am
Last modified: 12/1/03 3:29 pm
You may click here for the Fall 2002 version of the course.