Graduate Curriculum Committee Course Proposal Form
for Courses Numbered 5000 and Higher
Note: Before completing this form, please carefully read the accompanying instructions.
Submission guidelines are posted to the GCC Web site: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/gcc/index.cfm
1. Course prefix and number:
ENGL 6345
2. Date:
11/13/2012
3. Requested action:
X
New Course
Revision of Active Course
Revision & Unbanking of a Banked Course
Renumbering of an Existing Course from
from
to
#
Required
#
Elective
4. Method(s) of delivery (check all boxes that apply for both current/proposed and expected
future delivery methods within the next three years):
Current or
Proposed Delivery
Method(s):
On-campus (face to face)
X
Distance Course (face to face off campus)
Expected
Future Delivery
Method(s):
X
X
Online (delivery of 50% or more of the instruction is offered online)
5. Justification. Identify the committee or group (e.g., Graduate faculty of the Department of
English) that conducted the assessment of curriculum and student learning. Explain why the
unit wishes to offer or revise the course. Include specific results from the unit assessment that
led to the development or modification of the course. If applicable, cite any accrediting
agency/ies and reference the specific standard/s.
Based on an assessment of the knowledge and skills required in mastery of multicultural
and transnational literatures, this course will contribute centrally to the M.A. in English
concentration in Multicultural and Transnational Literatures, as well as the Certificate
Program in Multicultural Literature, where it will fill gaping holes in the programs.
Jewish Literature, with African American Literature and Latino/a Literature, is
recognized as one of the foundational areas of multicultural literature. It responds to our
programs’ “focus on U.S. ethnic and world literatures from local, regional, national,
transnational, and global perspectives,” and to its stated mission: to approach an
understanding and appreciation of literatures in an interdisciplinary study of historical,
political, artistic, geographic, and environmental contexts, as well as literary aesthetics
and interpretation.
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In fact, it responds directly to the university’s mission statement, “preparing our students
to compete and succeed in the global economy and multicultural society.”
Most distinguished universities have courses in Jewish Literature housed either in
English Departments or in Jewish Studies programs. Official “Peer Institutions” such as
Northern Illinois University, Ohio University, and Old Dominion University offer the
course, as well as schools such as UNC-CH, the University of Delaware, Georgetown,
and almost all large state universities. For the past three years, this course has been
offered annually, at full enrollment each time, as English 7365: Selected Topics, as well
as regular directed reading and independent research courses.
The Graduate Committee approved this course on November 26, 2012 and the English
Graduate Faculty approved this course on December 3, 2012.
6. Course description exactly as it should appear in the next catalog:
6345. Jewish Literature (3) Examines Jewish literature, nineteenth century to the
present.
7. If this is a course revision, briefly describe the requested change:
8. Course credit:
Lecture Hours
3
3
Weekly
OR
Per Term
Credit Hours
Lab
Weekly
OR
Per Term
Credit Hours
s.h.
Studio
Weekly
OR
Per Term
Credit Hours
s.h.
Practicum
Weekly
OR
Per Term
Credit Hours
s.h.
Internship
Weekly
OR
Per Term
Credit Hours
s.h.
Other (e.g., independent study) Please explain.
9. Anticipated annual student enrollment:
10. Changes in degree hours of your programs:
Degree(s)/Program(s)
Changes in Degree Hours
11. Affected degrees or academic programs, other than your programs:
Degree(s)/Program(s)
Approved by GCC April 2012; posted summer of 2012
s.h.
3
Total Credit Hours
Changes in Degree Hours
s.h.
15
s.h.
12. Overlapping or duplication with affected units or programs:
X Not applicable
Documentation of notification to the affected academic degree programs is
attached.
13. Council for Teacher Education (CTE) approval (for courses affecting teacher education):
X Not applicable
Applicable and CTE has given their approval.
14. University Service-Learning Committee (USLC) approval:
X Not applicable
Applicable and USLC has given their approval.
15. Statements of support:
a. Staff
X Current staff is adequate
Additional staff is needed (describe needs in the box below):
b. Facilities
X Current facilities are adequate
Additional facilities are needed (describe needs in the box below):
c. Library
X
Initial library resources are adequate
Initial resources are needed (in the box below, give a brief explanation and an
estimate for the cost of acquisition of required initial resources):
d. Unit computer resources
X
Unit computer resources are adequate
Additional unit computer resources are needed (in the box below, give a brief
explanation and an estimate for the cost of acquisition):
e. ITCS resources
X
ITCS resources are not needed
The following ITCS resources are needed (put a check beside each need):
Mainframe computer system
Statistical services
Network connections
Computer lab for students
Software
Approved by GCC April 2012; posted summer of 2012
Approval from the Director of ITCS attached
16. Course information (see: Graduate Curriculum and Program Development Manual for
instructions):
a. Textbook(s) and/or readings: author(s), name, publication date, publisher, and
city/state/country. Include ISBN (when applicable).
The Babylonian Talamud. Ts. Michael Rodkinson. 1918.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm.
Cahan, Abraham. Yekl. 1896.
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/cahan/yekla.htm.
Chabon, Michael. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. New York: Harper, 2007. ISBN
0007149824.
Fishman, Sylvia. Follow My Footprints. Brandeis UP, 2006. ISBN 0874515831.
Goldstein, Eric. The Price of Whiteness. Princeton UP, 2006. ISBN 0691121052.
Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. New York: Grove, 2000. ISBN 076580655X.
Malamud, Bernard. The Assistant. New York: Avon, 2006. ISBN 0380683385.
Roth, Phillip. Goodbye Columbus. New York: Random House, 2006. ISBN
0099498154.
Wiesel, Ellie. Night. San Diego: Harcourt, 2009. ISBN 0030554624.
Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. New York: Random House, 2005. ISBN
9780375831003.
b. Course objectives for the course (student – centered, behavioral focus)
If this is a 5000-level course that is populated by undergraduate and graduate students,
there must be differentiation in the learning objectives expected.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
Identify the terms and concepts central to Judaism that undergird Jewish
American literature.
Recognize historical allusions to events in modern American history as they
appear in Jewish literature.
Articulate problems associated with Jewish immigration and assimilation, as
they are fictionalized and memorialized in the literature.
Recognize the most celebrated Jewish writers in America, from those writing in
Yiddish in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to those contemporary
writers reimagining Jewish literature and its traditions.
Identify principal motifs that recur in the literary works: search for identity,
cultural isolation, bigotry and the horrors of pogrom and Holocaust, the idea of
being “chosen,” the connection between faith and cultural identity.
Recognize folkloric traditions as they make themselves manifest in the
literature.
Respond critically both to canonical literary texts and extra-canonical texts that
Approved by GCC April 2012; posted summer of 2012
comprise Jewish literary history.
Conduct research on Jewish writers, practices, literary and cultural theory and
be able to convert that research into full-length works of scholarship.
c. Course topic outline
The list of topics should reflect the stated objectives.
Course Topic Outline
Week One
Introductions. Jewish sacred texts as literature: Torah (Pentateuch or Five Books of
Moses), Nebi’im, and Ketuvim--collectively called the Tanakh.
Assignment: Discussion: What does it mean to be Jewish? What constitutes Jewish
literature? Can sacred texts be considered literary, and if so, how does that affect the
way critics approach them. Read selections from Jewish sacred texts.
Week Two
Interpreting scripture--Jewish Hermeneutics: Talmud (The Oral Truth), Midrash.
Discussion: In what way is Jewish Hermeneutics related to literary criticism? What
are the principles the rabbis follow in interpreting sacred texts?
Week Three
Immigration and the New York Ghetto. Read Abraham Cahan’s Yekl
Assignment: Commonplace Books Due
Discussion: Cultural annotation: work as a group to provide the cultural and historical
glossary needed to engage in the world of literature originally written in Yiddish and
which inscribes the urban immigrant experience in the late nineteenth century.
Week Four
American mythology and the Jewish experience. Read Malamud’s Assistant
Assignment: Hermeneutics Exercise Due: Students will choose at least five passages
from other students’ commonplace books and respond critically to each.
Discussion: Identify recurring themes in The Assistant. How does Malamud’s vision
of New York and the aspirations of Jewish people compare to Cahan’s?
Week Five
The forms of Jewish American expression Read Fishman’s Follow My Footprints
Discussion: Comment on the selections in Fishman’s book, focusing on one that will
serve as the basis of a close critical examination (explication).
Week Six
Jewish Women Writers
Discussion: Focus on the poetry of women writers represented in Fishman. Is there an
identifiable Jewish feminism?
Week Seven
The literary response to war and the Holocaust. Read Kosinski’s The Painted Bird
Assignment: Explication due.
Discussion: How does the impact of suffering, war, and cultural persecution make its
mark on the Jewish literary imagination? Can one, in fact, speak of a collective
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“Jewish imagination”?
Week Eight
Holocaust and the shaping of the modern world
Read Wiesel’s Night
Discussion: Why has Wiesel become a controversial figure? In what ways, literary
and extra-literary, have we memorialized the Holocaust?
Week Nine
Reimagining the Holocaust. Read Zusak’s The Book Thief
Discussion: How does Zusak’s contemporary reimagining of World War II and its
victims contribute to our understanding? How is religious faith invoked in this work?
Week Ten
Alternative History and the Postmodern Imagination
Assignment: Personal Essays Due
Read Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
Discussion: Why is Alaska chosen as a setting for this dystopic novel? How does
Chabon use and subvert generic expectation?
Week Eleven
Assignment: Topics for Critical Papers Due
Discussion: Complete Chabon discussion and discuss ideas for critical papers
Week Twelve
Developing Critical Papers
Discussion: What is involved in writing a long critical article? How do we come up
with workable research questions? How do we organize sections of a paper? How do
we incorporate other critical voices?
Week Thirteen
Post-War Suburban Living
Read Goodbye Columbus
Discussion: How does Roth transform Jewish literary idioms in his suburban Jewish
romance?
Week Fourteen
Ess Ess, Mein Kind: Harry Goldman and Surviving North Carolina as a Jew
Assignment: Read posted selections from Goldman’s essays and journalism (The
Carolina Israelite)
Discussion: What is meant by a Mensch? Is this a dated humanist ideal, or does it still
have value?
Week Fifteen
Assignment: Draft of critical papers due
Discussion: Writing critical papers--triumph or tragedy?
Assignment: Second draft of critical papers due
d. List of course assignments, weighting of each assignment, and grading/evaluation system
for determining a grade
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Assignments and Grading
Collaborative inquiry/discussion: 20%
Commonplace Books/Hermeneutics Exercise: Students will collect aphorisms,
passages for interpretation, and other memorable quotations from the sacred texts we
are studying and arrange them so as to invite critical response. They will then choose
five of these passages from other students’ commonplace books for short (5 pages
total) critical responses (Hermeneutics Exercise). 15%
Short Explication: Close critical examination (3-4 page paper) of a selection from the
Fishman anthology. 10%
Personal Essay: Short (5-7 pages) personal reflection on The Holocaust and its impact.
15%
Two drafts of a full-length critical paper: Write a full-length (16-20 pages) critical
paper on a topic to be determined in consultation with the instructor. The revised paper
might be the basis of a thesis chapter or conference talk. 20% plus 20%
Grading Scale:
90-100= A
80-89 = B
70-79 = C
60-69 = F
Approved by GCC April 2012; posted summer of 2012