Literature
and Composition, EWRT-001C-61
(#2997)
De
Anza College, Spring 2008
Days
and Time: M/W 6:00-8:10
Prerequisites: English Writing 1B
Instructor:
Ken Weisner
Office hrs: FORUM
2C: Mondays, 5:00-6:00; Tuesdays, 3:45-4:45 (and by appt.);
Wednesdays
(8:10-9:00); Thursdays, 12:30-1:30.
Office
Phone: 864-5797
E-Mail:
weisnerken@fhda.edu, gyre@cruzio.com
Website:
http://faculty.deanza.fhda.edu/weisnerken
Course
Goals:
�
Read poetry, fiction, and drama with pleasure and analytical passion
�
Show increasing confidence within the critical discourses of each genre
�
Interpret texts using clearly defined critical methods
�
Write papers that consider social and historical contexts
�
Take into account personal as well as analytical relation to course texts
�
Participate in a diverse community of critical readers
�
Pull into sharper focus your critical understanding
�
Discover writers you will want to read more of on your own
�
Experience concretely our own regional literary culture
Course
Requirements:
� Keep up with reading as indicated in
course schedule.
� Bring course text and writing supplies
to class every day.
� Be in class and participate fully in
class discussions & activities.
� Write four papers due 5/5, 5/23, 6/11,
and 6/23.
� Bring three rough drafts to class for
peer review 4/30, 5/21, 6/9, 6/18.
� Sign up for one in-class group
presentation.
� Final exam; see special time (Wed,
6/25,6:15-8:15).
Course
Texts:
� Booth, Hunter, and Mays, eds. The
Norton Introduction to Literature.
Shorter 9th Edition. W.W. Norton, New York, 2006.
**Special
Opportunities (optional, see
supplement handout):
1)
Help interview Brian Turner at WRC (ATC 102) for publication in Red
Wheelbarrow Magazine this spring,
2008. The interview will take place Friday, April 11th, at the end
of the first week of spring quarter. You can sign up for a unit of Red
Wheelbarrow class for spring
quarter and thereby get additional credit and recognition for your work
preparing the interview for publication. 10 points just for attending the event
and doing a one page write up.
2)
Tentative� Marilyn Chin class visit, May 7th. Maybe a potluck?
2)
Attend other De Anza LitFest
readings and events May 5-8 on
campus.
3)
Other Extra Credit Opportunities:
1)
Cross Cultural Partners (20 points) with 2 page summary report as assigned.
2)
Perfect attendance (20 points)--or, only one absence (10 points).
3)
One page write-up on your favorite LitFest event (10 points)
4)
Also: I will give seven quizzes/homeworks but will throw out your lowest
score.
POINTS:
Attendance
and participation 200
Four
4-6 page papers (100 points each) 400
Four
rough drafts for peer review (20 each)
80
Final
Exam 100
Seven
quizzes/homeworks (20 each�throw out lowest) 120
One
group presentation 100
Total 1,000
GRADE
SCALE
920-1000 "A" 900-919 "A-" 880-899 "B+"
820-879 "B" 800-819 "B-" 780-799 "C+"
700-779 "C" 600-699 "D" 0-599 " F"
Attendance Policy:
See "extra
credit" policy for rewards for excellent attendance. With more than three
absences, you risk your ability to pass the class. Missing more than ten minutes of class means not getting
full attendance credit for that day. Cell phones off absolutely unless you are
expecting an emergency call; then please let the instructor know you are
leaving it on. Call or e-mail
instructor (5797 or weisnerken@fhda.edu) if you will be unable to attend a
class or are having trouble of any kind related to your success in this
class. Always feel invited to
visit during office hours or to make a special appointment.
Plagiarism (passing
off the words or ideas of others as your own): will give you an automatic "F" on the
assignment in question and put your course grade in immediate jeopardy. Your name will have to be reported to
campus officials. If you use the ideas or words of others, you must give them
credit right away, in writing�a simple, sensible, useful, elegant, and vital
prime directive. See your instructor if you want to make sure you are correctly
and appropriately crediting any sources you use. Please consult pp. 1716-1726 of your Norton text to remind
yourself of basic conventions for evaluating, introducing, and citing outside
sources.
**Texts with double asterisks
we will be unlikely to have time to discuss in depth in class
but
you may wish to write about them.
�P� indicates a presentation day.
April
7 Introductory
session (Lydia Hearn)
April 9 Poetry of Brian Turner http://www.fishousepoems.org/archives/brian_turner/brian_turner_at_bowdoin_college_november_29_2005.shtml
April
11 *Special
Event: Author Interview, 12:30, WRC (ATC 309)
April
14 Get
books by today.
Jamaica
Kincaid, "Girl" (456)
Kate
Chopin, "The Story of an Hour" (449)
April
16 Edwidge
Danticat, "A Wall of Fire Rising" (252)
Ha
Jin, "In Broad Daylight" (564)
April
21 Ann
Beattie, "Janus" (248)
Raymond Carver, "Cathedral" (20)
Paper
#1 topic available today
April
23 Jhumpa
Lahiri, "Interpreter of Maladies" (284)
Introduce the poetry of Marilyn Chin
April
28 Alice
Munro, "Boys and Girls" (422)
Michael Chabon, "The Lost World" (437)
April
30 Paper
#1 due in draft form today
May
5 LitFest
Week
*Paper
#1 due today.
Poetry of Al Young, Regie Cabico
Prepare to interview Marilyn Chin (P)
May
6 Al Young today, 12:30 (optional, LitFest)
May
7th Wednesday night (tentative): author interview,
Marilyn Chin
(Regie
Cabico workshop today, optional 2:00, WRC)
May
8th Regie
Cabico performance (optional)
May
12 Flannery
O�Connor: "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (364) (P)
"Everything That Rises Must Converge"
(410)
May
14 Flannery
O�Connor: "The Lame Shall
Enter First" (375)
Paper
Topics Available: paper #2
May
19th James Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues" (88)
(P)
May
21 James Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues" (88)
Draft of Paper #2 due in class today
May
26 Memorial
Day Holiday
May
28 Tennessee
Williams, "Streetcar Named Desire" (1140)
Paper
#2 due in final form today
June
2 Tennessee
Williams, "Streetcar Named Desire" (1140) (P)
June
4 August
Wilson, The Piano Lesson
(1205)
June
9 August
Wilson, The Piano Lesson
(1205) (P)
Paper
# 3 topics available today
June
11 Rough
Drafts due, paper #3
Selected
lyrics from among:
W.B.
Yeats, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (1020)
John
Keats, "Sonnet to Sleep" (841)
Galway
Kinnell, "Blackberry Eating" (995)
Wilfred
Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est" (823)
Audre
Lorde, "Hanging Fire" (650)
Robert
Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays" (633)
Sharon
Olds, "The Victims" (764)
Sharon
Olds, "Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941" (717)
Marie
Howe, "Practicing" (826)
Richard
Lovelace, "Song to Lucasta, Going to Wars"(827)
Derek
Walcott, "Midsummer" (679)
Gwendolyn Brooks, "First Fight. Then
Fiddle." (784)
June
16 Final
draft of paper #3 due today.
Continue
poetry discussions
Paper
Topic #4 available today.
June
18 Poetry,
continued. (P)
Poetry
of Jimmy Santiago Baca, Lucille Clifton, Janice Mirikitani (Reader)
June
23 Poetry
(see above), continued.
Discuss final exam today.
Draft
of paper #4 due today.
June
25 Paper
#4 Due Today
Final
Exam, 6:15-8:15 �(please note special time)