Instructor: Kaulbach, E Areas: n/a
Unique #: 83815 Flags: Writing
Semester: Summer 2012, second session Restrictions: n/a
Cross-lists: n/a Computer Instruction: n/a
Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.
Description: How are literary classics made, and what do they themselves make? What is the relationship between the Classics and various classes, or categories, of identity, whether socioeconomic, ethnic/racial, sexual, or generational? Do the Classics themselves support the division of people into different classes? What about popular adaptations of and glosses on the Classics?
For the first weeks, this class will forget, dumb down, downsize, revise or bowdlerize the Classics by going online: regarding them as Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, Wikipedia Articles, PBS Dramas, commercial movies, Commercials or even “Ms. (School) Marm’s Helpful Hints.” In the next few weeks of this course, we will go offline – to the library – to find works (poetry, drama, fiction) inspired by the original texts (of Milton, Bible, Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc.). For the rest of the semester, we’ll be reading the original texts, line by line.
This class helps to prepare students for success in the English major by making them better readers, writers, and thinkers, by teaching basic research skills, and by providing models for approaching literature with various historical and cultural contexts in mind.
Texts: Texts to be selected from among the following. King James Bible; Wycliffe Bible; “Chapman’s Homer”; Rushdie’s Qu’ran; Shakespeare (Sonnet, Tempest, Historical Play); Chaucer (Chaucer’s Dante, Boethius, Boccaccio, Jean de Meun?); Voyage of the Beagle; Milton, Samson Agonistes; Dryden’s Aeneis; Alice in Wonderland; Biography of Malcolm X; M.S. Bell, All Souls’ Rising; Ramayana/Adam’s Bridge; Hakluyt’s Voyages.
Requirements & Grading: Requirements: Short response papers and critical essays, consistent engagement with our reading and with class discussion, final exam.
Grades: 50% (papers), 30% (interaction with texts/other class members), 20% (final exam).