Introduction to Western Literature
Spring 2010
Instructor: CHANG, Shuli
Office Hours: Wednesday 9:00~10:00; Thursday 9:00~10:00; Thursday 14:00~15:00
Office: Hsiu-chi Building, Room 26628; Telephone: 06-2757575 ext 52255
e-mail: zhuli@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Course Description:
This one-year course provides a survey of Western literary tradition. In the fall semester, we will
begin with the Hebrew Bible and then proceed to consider the literature of Ancient Greece. We will
end the fall semester with a detailed study of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. In the spring semester,
we will change the focus of the course and proceed to examine the predominant literary genres of the
western literary traditions, focusing especially on poetry and short fiction.
Through each semester,
students will form groups and give oral presentations in class on given assignments. Detailed
instructions about in-class presentations will be given in the course syllabus.
Required Text:
Booth, Alison, et al, ed. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 9th Edition. New York: Norton, 2005.
Grading Criteria:
Quizzes & Discussion 15%; Great Book presentations 10%; End-of-Semester Skit 10%: Midterm 35%;
Final 30%
Great Book Presentation:
1. Throughout the semester, each group will give two presentations on two great books assigned to
your group.
2. Summarize the video clips in your own words (5 minutes)
3. Answer the discussion questions posed in the teacher’s guide. (5 minutes)
4. Q & A (If no one in the class wants to ask any question, I will then ask the group some questions
of my own (3-5 minutes; it varies)
5. All members will be on stage; everyone will speak for at least one minute.
End-of-Semester Skit
1. Each group will have 15 minutes for your performance. There will be a five-minute grace period
for exit, entrance, and the set-up of props.
2. You will have the chance to write, rewrite, and rehearse the skit your group would perform on
Fridays after the great-book presentation.
3. The script will be due to me on Friday after the Spring Break. To be exact, your script will be
due on April 9th, 2010.
4. You will videotape your rehearsal, and submit it to me on Friday for my viewing pleasure. The
video clip of your rehearsal will be due on May 26th, 2010.
Tentative Syllabus (Spring 2010):
Week Dates Wednesday
1
2/24; Understanding Literature (Fiction, Poetry, and Drama)
2/26
2
3/3; Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”; Sherman Alexie, “Flight
3/5 Patterns”
3
3/10; Plot: Edith Wharton, “Roman Fever”
3/12 Point of View: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of
Amontillado” (123)
4
3/17; Character: Doris Lessing, “My Friend Judith”
3/19 Setting: Anton Chekhov, “The Lady with the Dog”
5
3/24; Symbol: Edwidge Danticat, “A Wall of Fire Rising”
3/26 Theme: Max Shulman, “Love Is a Fallacy”
Friday
End-of-semester skit;
preparation
Plato, Republic (A) & Dante,
Inferno (F)
Miguel de Cervantes, Don
Quixote (B); Niccolo
Machiavelli, The Prince (H)
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s
Travels (B); Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Crime and
Punishment (G)
Charles Darwin, Origin of
Species (I); Sigmund Freud,
Interpretation of Dreams (D)
Week Dates Wednesday
Friday
6
3/31; Spring Break; no class
Spring Break
4/2
7
4/7; Louise Erdrich, “Love Medicine” (327)
Gustave Flaubert, Madame
4/9
Bovary (E)
8
4/14; William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” (467)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of
4/16
Darkness (H)
9
4/21; Midterm Exam
Emily Bronte, Wuthering
4/23
Heights (C)
10
4/28; Sophocles, Antigone (Norton 1423)
Charles Dickens, Great
4/30
Expectations (F)
11
5/5; Sophocles, Antigone (Norton 1423)
Herman Melville, Moby Dick
5/7
(G)
12
5/12; Introduction, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How do I Mark Twain, Adventures of
5/14
Love Thee?”; Jarold Ramsey, “The Tally Stick,”;
Huckleberry Finn (A & I)
Linda Pastan, “Love Poem,”; Ezra Pound, “The
River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”; Liz Rosenberg,
“Married Love”; Ben Johnson, “On My First Son”;
Howard Nemerov, “The Vaccum”; Seamus Heaney,
“Mid-Term Break”; Anne Sexton, “The Fury of
Overshoes”; W. H. Auden, “Stop all the clocks, cut off
the telephone”; Sharon Olds, “Last Night”
13
5/19; Tone: Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll”; Thom Gunn, “In the Bram Stoker, Dracula (D)
5/21
Time of Plague,”; William Blake, “London”; Galway
Kinnell, “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps”;
Li-Young Lee, “Persimmons”; Robert Hayden,
“Those Winter Sundays”; Simon J. Ortiz, “My
Father’s Song”
Speaker: Thomas Hardy, “The Ruined Maid”; Dorothy
Parker, “A Certain Lady”; Pat Mora, “La Migra”;
Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”; Walt Whitman,
“I celebrated myself, and sing myself”
14
5/26; Situation and Setting: Rita Dove, “Daystar”; Linda
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis
5/28
Pastan, “To a Daughter Leaving Home”; Marilyn
(C)
Chin, “Summer Love”; Sylvia Plath, “Morning
Song,” Billy Collins, “Morning”
15
6/2; Language: Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz”;
Erich Maria Remarque, All
6/4
Sharon Olds, “Sex Without Love”;
Quiet on the Western Front (E)
Metaphor and Simile: William Shakespeare, “That
time of you thou mayst in me behold”; Linda Pastan,
“Marks”; Henry King, “Sic Vita”
Symbol: Sharon Olds, “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of
1941”; Dorothy Parker, “One Perfect Rose”; William
Blake, “The Sick Rose”
External Form: W. B. Yeats, “Leda and the Swan”;
Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good
Night”
16
6/9; Group A: 10:10-10:30; Group B: 10:30-10:50; Group C: Group F: 8:55-9:15; Group G:
6/11
10:50-11:10; Group D: 11:10-11:30; Group E:
9:15-9:35; Group H:9:35-9:55
11:30:11:50
17
18
6/16; Dragon Boat Festival; no class
6/18
6/23 Final Exam
No class