BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL
APPRECIATION
EXAMINATION COVERAGE
SEMESTER 1, 2011-2012
Mid-Semester Examination
Read poems and short stories from Barnard, B and D.F. Winn. Access
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction Poetry, and Drama. New York:
Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.
WEEK
1
2
3
4
5
TOPIC
Part 1: Introduction to Fiction
 Introduction: assignments, text, course policies
 Getting into Lit – active reading, annotating and arguing
with the text
 Getting into Fiction - the writer’s voice and the reader’s
response, the elements of fiction
 Profile of a fiction writer – Flannery O’Connor,
“Parker’s Back”
Part 2: Introduction to Poetry
 Getting into Poetry – elements of poetry
 Profile of a poet – Langston Hughes, “Ballad of the
Landlord”, “Cross”
READING
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 13
Part 3: Introduction to Drama
 Getting into Drama – plot and form, characterization and
theme, setting and staging
 Profile of a playwright – David Ives, “Sure Thing”
Part 4: Writing a Literary Analysis
 Talking and Writing about Literature – developing the
thesis, comparison and contrast, explication,
argumentation, fiction into film, developing the essay,
documenting sources, revising and editing the essay
Chapter 25
Understanding Plot – Beginning-Middle-End or MiddleBeginning-End; Sources of conflict; The conventional
resolution versus the open-ended story; flashback and
foreshadowing
 Amy Tan’s “Half and Half”
Chapter 3
Chapter 32

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”
6
Understanding Characterization – major, minor, round or flat;
methods of characterization; dynamic and static characters
 James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”
Chapter 4
7
Understanding Setting – physical setting; time and setting;
setting and theme; social setting
 Albert Camus’s “The Guest”
Chapter 5
Final Semester Examinations
8
Understanding Point of View – third-person voices; firstperson voices; mixed voices
 Isabel Allende’s “The Judge’s Wife”
Chapter 6
9
Understanding Style, Tone of voice, and Irony – style; tone
and voice; types of irony; reliability and unreliability
 Alice Munro’s “How I Met My Husband”
Chapter 7
10
Understanding Metaphor, Image and Symbol – figures of speech, Chapter 15
imagery, symbolism
Chapter 16
 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni “Two Women Outside a Circus,
Pushkar”, “Tiger Mask Ritual”
 Claribel Alegria, “I am Mirror”
 Sylvia Plath, “Mirror”
11
Understanding Metaphor, Image and Symbol – figures of speech, Chapter 8
imagery, symbolism
 Bi Shumin’s “Broken transformers”
12
Understanding Theme – image and theme, characterization,
plot and theme; other pathways to theme
 Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible”
 Gish Jen’s “In the American Society”
Chapter 10
13
Reading and Interpreting Drama – plot and form;
characterization and theme; setting and staging
 Judy Klass’s “The Locker Room”
Chapter 30