English 175: Global Literatures in English
Spring 2013, MWF 10:00-10:50am, Herring Hall 224
Instructor: AnaMaria Seglie
Email: ats3@rice.edu
Office Hours: 11-12:30pm MW, or by appointment
Office: Herring Hall 248 (x4206)
Course Description:
This course offers an introduction to global literatures, modern and contemporary literary
movements, and analytic writing. The goals of this course are to expose students to a wide variety of
influential texts, enhance critical-thinking skills, and improve expository writing abilities. We will be
reading literature representative of nations ranging from England to Africa to gain a sense of the
globalizing currents that developed throughout the 20th century. We will explore a variety of styles,
voices, and methods for expressing the “modern” and “postmodern” experience, considering
questions such as: How are these writers modern? What versions of modernity do they offer? What
does postmodernism mean and how is it related to modernism?
In the first part of the course, we will begin tracking a genealogy from modernism to
postmodernism. During the first decades of the 20th century, writers consciously attempted to
produce innovative and experimental art with the hope of “making it new.” As we will discuss in
“The Shock of the New” section, these works were created in reaction to more traditional forms
and pioneered “modern” forms of artistic expression. Continuing to “The West and the Rest,” we
will explore how the global streams of colonialism and postcolonialism represent an essential
influence on the diverse ways that modernity and postmodernity are understood. In “Mapping the
Postmodern,” we will explore the styles, responses, and political effects of postmodern
expressions, questioning what it means to be “post” in relation to what we have thus far explored
about being “modern.”
Required Texts:
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898) (ISBN 0141441356)
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925) (ISBN 0156628708)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899) (ISBN 0393926362)
J.M. Cotzee, Foe (1986) (ISBN 842042496X)
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988) (ISBN 0374527075)
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) (ISBN 1879960850)
Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000) (ISBN 0375703861)
Don DeLillo, Pafko at the Wall (1992, 1997) (ISBN 0743230000)
Owl-Space Readings
Bring hard copies to class.
Course Policies:
Attendance: Students should arrive on time, attend all classes, and be prepared to participate in
class. More than 3 absences will result in grade deduction. If there are extenuating circumstances,
contact me as soon as possible.
Late Work Policy: All written work, including peer review drafts, must be turned in by the
appointed due date. Any late work drops by 1/3 of a letter grade each day (week or weekend) it is
late. Please back up your files regularly, since there are no extensions for technology mishaps.
Honor Code: I expect you to honor Rice’s Honor Code, available online at http://honor.rice.edu/.
All writing assignments must be your original work. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will
result in automatic failure of the course and/or disciplinary action. Plagiarism is using anyone
else’s work without acknowledgment. If you have any questions about plagiarism, please ask me or
see the Honor Code.
Technology: There are no cell phones allowed in class. Ringing or vibrating cell phones will subject
students to the donut policy, meaning they must bring donuts for everyone during the subsequent
class. Computers will be allowed for note-taking purposes only.
Disability: If you have a documented disability that requires academic accommodation, please see
me during the first two weeks of class. Any arrangements made will be confidential. Students with
disabilities will also need to contact Disability Support Services in the Ley Student Center.
Assignments:
All assignments must be turned in to pass the class. Specific directions/prompts will be
provided for each written assignment at least a week in advance.
Participation: Regular and active participation as well as attendance are key components of this
course.
- Daily Active Participation: This includes participation during class discussions, in-class
writing exercises, and quizzes.
- Peer Review Workshops: Students will turn in complete rough drafts of their two critical
essays. Students need to bring 4 copies of their drafts to class on the day of the workshop
and actively participate in reviewing others’ drafts.
- Writing Center Visit: Students are required to attend Rice’s new Center for Written, Oral,
and Visual communication and receive feedback for at least one of the two critical essays.
I will provide a brief feedback sheet prior to the first critical essay that students will take with
them and have signed by their communication consultant. Please turn this sheet in with the
final draft of the Critical Essay.
-
Final Paper Presentation: Students will give a short informal presentation on their final
paper during the last day of class.
Small Written Assignments:
- 2 Close-Reading Papers: These papers are 2-3 double-spaced pages. Students will take a
passage or poem and closely analyze the style, tone, voice, word choice, structure, etc, and
offer an argument based on these observations.
- 3 Response Papers: These papers are 2-3 double-spaced pages. Papers may respond to
prompts (which I will provide) or a topic and text of the student’s choice. Students should
narrow their scope to discuss or respond to one or two aspects of a text.
Critical Essays: These essays are 5-6 double-spaced pages, and will cover a topic and text of
the student’s choice. They should go beyond what we discuss in class and represent the student’s
unique perspective and analysis. Each critical essay grade includes the following:
- Thesis-Development Paper: In preparation for the Critical Essays, students will turn in a
tentative thesis and a list of supporting evidence, including examples, quotes, and/or
passages that they will analyze in the course of the paper.
- Rough Draft: A complete rough draft, including an introduction, thesis, supporting
evidence, and conclusion due on the day of the Peer Review Workshop.
- Complete Draft: This draft should take into account the comments and feedback from the
rough draft.
*Failure to complete these drafting steps will result in grade deduction on the final complete
draft.
Written Work: All written work should be double-spaced and formatted through MLA style with
one-inch margins and 12 inch Times New Roman font.
Suggested Writing Resources:
- Purdue Writing Lab: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
- MLA Handbook
- Strunk, White, and Kalman, The Elements of Style
- Rice’s Center for Written, Oral and Visual Communication:
http://cwovc.rice.edu/?q=home&destination=node/40
Grading Breakdown & Criteria
Participation (20%)
Small Written Assignments (35%)
Critical Essay 1 (20%)
Critical Essay 2 (25%)
Each paper will be graded based on specific rhetorical aims that will be discussed prior to
the paper’s due date
An A paper fulfills the assignment by developing an insightful argument that goes beyond ideas
covered in class discussion. It contains a clear thesis statement, thoughtful introductory and
conclusion paragraphs, and body paragraphs that analyze textual evidence to support the argument.
It has few problems with grammar, punctuation, or style, and uses correct citation formatting.
A B paper develops an insightful argument that goes beyond ideas covered in class discussion. It
may use textual evidence without sufficiently analyzing its import. It may also have some problems
with organization, clarity, grammar, style, or citation of sources.
A C paper presents an argument that does not go beyond class discussion in any meaningful way. It
may have serious problems with organization, clarity, grammar, style, or citation of sources.
A D paper fails to fulfill some basic requirement of the assignment, such as length or topic. It may
also suffer from problems with organization, clarity, grammar, or style that are severe enough to
obscure the argument.
An F paper is less than half of the required length or was submitted too late to earn credit.
*Note: I reserve the right to make changes to the syllabus. These changes will be
announced in class, so please be attentive.
ENG 175 Reading Schedule:
The Shock of the New:
WEEK 1
Introduction to Modernism: Modernism and Consciousness
M, 1/7
Review Syllabus, Introduction to Modernism
W, 1/9
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (Beginning – Chapter 6)
F, 1/11
Turn of the Screw (Chapters 7-15)
WEEK 2
Make It New
M, 1/14
Turn of the Screw (Chapters 15-24)
W, 1/16
T.S. Eliot “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” and Close-Reading
F, 1/18
Response Paper 1 Due in Class
Imagism: Ezra Pound “Hugh Selweyn Mauberley,” “In the Station of the Metro”;
H.D., “Hermes of the Ways,” “Sea Rose”
WEEK 3
The Great War and its Responses
M, 1/21
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, NO CLASS
W, 1/23
Wilfred Owen “Anthem for Doomed Youth”; Siegfried Sassoon “Repression of War
Experience”; W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”; Amy Lowell “September, 1918”
F, 1/25
Dada!
 Youtube Videos on Dada (emailed to class)
 Dada Manifesto: http://www.ubu.com/papers/tzara_dada-manifesto.html
 Two Dada Poems (Owlspace)
WEEK 4
High Modernism
M, 1/28
Close-Reading Paper 1 Due: Poetry Explication
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (pgs. 3-48)
W, 1/30
Mrs. Dalloway (pgs. 48-102)
F, 2/1
Mrs. Dalloway (pgs. 102-151)
WEEK 5
American Modernisms I
M, 2/4
Mrs. Dalloway (pgs. 151-end)
W, 2/6
Ernest Hemingway, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and “Indian Camp”
F, 2/8
F. Scott Fitzgerald, “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz”
WEEK 6
American Modernisms II: Local Cultures
M, 2/11
Thesis Development Paper Due in Class
William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”
W, 2/13
Jazz: Langston Hughes “The Weary Blues,” “Jazzonia”; Claude McKay, “The
Harlem Dancer”; “The Lynching”; W.E.B. DuBois, “The Song of the Smoke”
F, 2/15
Peer Review Writing Workshop 1: Rough Draft Due
The West and the Rest:
WEEK 7
Empire
M, 2/18
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (pt. I)
W, 2/20
Heart of Darkness (pt. II) Critical Essay 1 Due in Class
F, 2/22
Heart of Darkness (pt. III); Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa”
WEEK 8
Spring Break
M, 2/25
SPRING BREAK, NO CLASS
W, 2/27
SPRING BREAK, NO CLASS
F, 2/29
SPRING BREAK, NO CLASS
WEEK 9
Empire Writes Back
M, 3/4
J.M. Cotezee, Foe (Chapter 1, pgs. 1–45)
W, 3/6
Foe (Chapter 2, pgs. 47–111)
F, 3/8
Response Paper 2 Due
Foe (Chapter 3, pgs. 113–157)
WEEK 10
(Re)Imagining Empire
M, 3/11
Salman Rushdie, “Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate
Their Relationship”
W, 3/13
Derek Walcott, “A Far Cry from Africa,” “Sea Grapes,” “Preparing for Exile,” “The
Sea is History,” “New World”
F, 3/15
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (pgs. 1-37)
WEEK 11
Postcolonialism to Postmodernism
M, 3/18
Close-Reading Paper 2 Due
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (pgs.41-81)
W, 3/20
Gloria Anzaldúa, selections from Borderlands/La Frontera (Ch. 1–4: pp. 23–73)
F, 3/22
Selections from Borderlands/La Frontera (Ch. 5–7: pp. 75–113)
Mapping the Postmodern
WEEK 12
Introduction to Postmodernism
M, 3/25
Movie: I Will Avenge You Iago!
W, 3/27
Movie: I Will Avenge You Iago!
F, 3/29
MIDTERM RECESS, NO CLASS
WEEK 13
Globalism
M , 4/1
Response Paper 3 Due in Class
Finish Talking about Movie
Zadie Smith, White Teeth (“Archie”)
W, 4/3
White Teeth (“Samad” 105-152)
F, 4/5
White Teeth (“Samad” 153-217)
WEEK 14
Globalism
M, 4/8
White Teeth (“Irie”)
W, 4/10
White Teeth (“Magid, Millat, and Marcus” 343-385)
F, 4/12
Thesis Development Paper Due
White Teeth (“Magid, Millat, and Marcus” 386-end)
WEEK 15
M, 4/15
Don DeLillo, Pafko at the Wall
W, 4/17
Peer Review Writing Workshop 2: Rough Draft Due
F, 4/19
Final Paper Presentations and Wrap Up
Final Paper Due Date: Wednesday, 4/24 in Herring Hall 247 by 12:00 pm