UUPC APPROVAL __________________
UFS APPROVAL ___________________
SCNS SUBMITTAL _________________
CONFIRMED ______________________
Undergraduate Programs—COURSE CHANGE REQUEST
BANNER POSTED
___________________
DEPARTMENT:
COLLEGE: HONORS COLLEGE
CATALOG ________________________
Florida Atlantic University
COURSE PREFIX AND NUMBER: LIT 2030
CURRENT COURSE TITLE: HONORS INTERPRETATION O FDRAMA
CHANGE(S) ARE TO BE EFFECTIVE (LIST TERM):
CHANGE TITLE TO:
TERMINATE COURSE (LIST FINAL ACTIVE TERM):
CHANGE DESCRIPTION TO:
CHANGE PREFIX FROM:
TO:
CHANGE COURSE NO. FROM:
TO:
CHANGE CREDITS FROM:
TO:
CHANGE GRADING FROM:
TO:
CHANGE WAC/GORDON RULE STATUS
ADD*__X____
REMOVE ______
CHANGE PREREQUISITES/MINIMUM GRADES TO*:
CHANGE COREQUISITES TO*:
CHANGE GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS
ADD*______
REMOVE ______
CHANGE REGISTRATION CONTROLS TO:
*WAC and General Education criteria must be clearly
indicated in attached syllabus. For General Education,
please attach General Education Course Approval Request: *Please list existing and new pre/corequisites, specify AND or OR and
www.fau.edu/deanugstudies/GeneralEdCourseApprovalReq
include
passing
grade (default is D-).
Attach syllabus for ANY changes
tominimum
current course
information.
uests.php
Should the requested change(s) cause this course to overlap
any other FAU courses, please list them here.
Departments and/or colleges that might be affected by the change(s)
must be consulted and listed here. Please attach comments from each.
Faculty contact, email and complete phone number: Michael Harrawood 6-8617; mharrawo@fau.edu
Approved by:
Date:
ATTACHMENT CHECKLIST
Syllabus (see guidelines for
requirements:
www.fau.edu/academic/registrar/UUPCi
nfo/)
Department Chair: ________________________________
_________________
College Curriculum Chair: __________________________
_________________
College Dean: ___________________________________
_________________
UUPC Chair: ____________________________________
_________________
Syllabus checklist (recommended)
Provost: ________________________________________
_________________
Written consent from all departments
affected by changes
WACPrograms
approvalCommittee
(if necessary)
Email this form and syllabus to mjenning@fau.edu one week before the University Undergraduate
meeting so
that materials may be viewed on the UUPC website prior to the meeting.
General Education approval (if
FAUchange—Revised October 2011
necessary)
Wilkes Honors College
Lit 2040: Honors Interpretation of Drama
Fall, 2011
Michael Harrawood, Instructor
Office: MHC 174; phone: 6-8617; email: mharrawo@fau.edu
Cell; (561) 596-6486
Office Hours: T 2:00-4:00; R 2:00- 5:00, W 3:00-4:00, and by appointment
Required Text: Lee A. Jacobus, ed., The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama. Sixth. Bedford/St. Martin’s. ISBN: 9780312474898
Course Description: The purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with the history and canon of Western drama and to
acquaint the student with the various interpretive strategies used in understanding drama. We will read several plays from a number of
different eras, and will discuss ways of understanding them today, as well as ways of understanding what they might have meant in
their own times. The course will emphasize discussions, in class and online, and the development of arguments in short thesis papers.
Aristotle calls man [and he means men] the zoon politicon, the political animal. By this he means that as humans we find our
truest essence in the polis, which in Greek means “city,” but which I think Aristotle takes in its greater sense to mean that space – sets
of behaviors, languages, practices – in which people encounter one another. The human being, then, is the animal that finds its essence
in community, in language, and in self-creation. Of all the literary arts, the drama is arguably the most perfectly political in Aristotle’s
sense, since in the drama we come together to find and define ourselves in terms of one another. Drama is essentially the most public
and thus also the most political of all literary forms. It is something that requires a gathering or group before it can be imagined. This
course will survey and consider issues of community (and thus also of politics) in a number of plays from cultures that include ancient
Greece, Renaissance England, and twentieth century America. We will read each play in its social and historical context, and will try
to get an idea of how each “played” to its own time as well as to our own. Why do some people write plays? Why do people go see
them? What is the value to a community of a play that criticizes or transgresses its standards? – of a play that insults, shocks,
interrogates? Why would anybody get pleasure out of seeing somebody else suffer? -- slip on a banana peel? We’ll try to answer
these and other questions at the same time as we get a sense of how the drama has developed over the yeas and helped to define our
culture and community.
Course Objectives: By the end of the course students will have a working sense, not only of the basic Western canon in drama, but of
the position and reason for studies in drama and in literature in our world. Students will also have acquired the basic skills for college
paper writing. These include enhanced working vocabulary, sentence mechanics and paragraph formulation. Students will also learn
basic analytic skills and will learn how to formulate cogent and compelling arguments, based on textual analysis.
Note of Honors Distinction: This course differs substantially from the non-Honors version. First, the writing component of the
course will be much more demanding, and will prepare students for upper-division college writing and for work on the Honors Thesis.
Students will be exposed to vocabulary of a specifically theoretical nature, and will be expected to comprehend these new concepts and
to deploy these new terms in their own critical thinking and writing. In addition, we will begin professionalizing our own readings and
analyses of these texts. Students will be expected to familiarize themselves with the history and the ongoing critical and scholarly
conversation about these works, and about the drama and literature as well. Most importantly, this course will reflect the
interdisciplinary nature of Honors education and will inculcate critical attitudes and skills that will teach you how to learn for yourself.
How you’ll get your grade:
This course partially fulfills the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) requirement for HC students. This means we will spend a lot
of course time working on college writing, and that your grade will be based largely on your performance as a writer of college papers.
We study literature in order to learn to talk, not just to read; and it turns out that the power to think depends on the resources of
vocabulary, syntax, and of an individual’s power to put words together in a row. So, while we’re engaging with the words of other
writers, we’ll also become writers ourselves and will be looking for that peculiar push-and-shove between “form” and “content” that
will allow us to say some cool new things about what we’re doing.
Grading will be based on the following formula:
Thesis papers (3): 50%
Class discussion: 25%
Blackboard Discussions: 25%
FAUchange—Revised October 2011
For this course, these areas will break down like this:
Thesis papers: Students will write four five-page papers, two of which will be revised in conference with the instructor, and two of
which will be revised by peer-edit. I will grade these papers based on very specific criteria:
1. Cogency of analysis and effectiveness of argument;
2. Sentence mechanics;
3. Topic maintenance;
4. Transition and topic sentences;
5. Deployment of new vocabulary.
I do NOT give writing prompts. Part of the skill set you are asked to acquire here requires that you learn how to find a topic, develop
and defend a thesis, write the body of your paper with focus on your argument (rather than, say, plot summary), and develop critical
thinking skills. In recent year students have expressed a desire to “know” their grades and the method of their evaluation in detail.
Here are some things to keep in mind while you work for this course: I will return each paper with very specific advice regarding the
next exercise. Generally, we will be able to locate three specific technical issues that I will ask you to work on for the next paper. If
you get better, your grade will get better. FAU provides several templates for daily grading, performance grids, bubble dots, and so
on: if you really need me to grade you this way, I will of course. But this is a course in skill-acquisition and reading analysis, and I
believe you will render the best performance and will get your optimal final grade if you work hard developing the leads I will provide
on your exercises. At any time during the course I will be happy to discuss your performance and your current grade. If you’re at all
concerned about my assessment of your work I urge you to speak with me about it.
Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) General Requirements: This class meets the University-wide Writing Across the
Curriculum (WAC) criteria, which expect you to improve your writing over the course of the term. The University’s WAC program
promotes the teaching of writing across all levels and all disciplines. Writing-to-learn activities have proven effective in developing
critical thinking skills, learning discipline-specific content, and understanding and building competence in the modes of enquiry and
writing for various disciplines and professions. You must receive at least a “C” grade (not a C-) to receive WAC credit.
If this class is selected to participate in the university-wide WAC assessment program, you will be required to access the online
assessment server, complete the consent form and survey, and submit electronically a first and final draft of a near-end-of-term paper.
Class Discussion: Because this course is concerned with analysis and expression, I find it inconsistent, especially with an Honors
Program, to give quizzes and tests. Right now, I am not planning any tests. But this could change if I am unhappy with the level of
class discussion. We give tests to make sure students read the syllabus material; in this course, I will use what you have to say about
the reading assignment to grade you for that day’s assignment. The discussions in class are your opportunity to show me two things
that are critical to my assessment of your performance: the degree to which you have been able to understand what you have read (what
happens in Act One), and your ability to analyze what you have read and to make sense of your experience. I will be calling on people,
so please don’t imagine coming to class and just not raising your hand.
BlackBoard Discussion Topics: I’ll open a discussion thread on BB for each play we read. You must post to the forum by 9:00 p.m.
the night before class (MW). I will read these very carefully and will grade each based on:
1. The length of your post;
2. The level of engagement with, first, the reading assignment, and, second, with one another;
3. The demonstration of advanced sentence mechanics;
4. The use of new vocabulary.
Late Paper Policy: There is no late paper policy, so hand in your work on time. All the due dates are listed on this document, which
you have on the first day of class. So, plan ahead and get your work in on time. If you have a real problem with getting in work on
time, please come see me and we’ll try to work something out.
Attendance: You have to attend this class to get your grade. I will allow each student two (2) unexcused absences and after the third
will file an immediate and irrevocable F for that student for the course. An excused absence is any absence recognized by FAU as
excusable, and to excuse you I will need the document required by the university.
I will mark you absent if you come late to class or if you come without the book.
A word on plagiarism: Because this is a writing course, I encourage students to borrow (or steal) language and formulations from
each other. If, for example, the term “interpretive strategies” above sounds cool to you, try to use it in your own sentence. We learn
FAUchange—Revised October 2011
our best stuff by imitating others, and I will reward such imitation in this course when it leads to real growth. Plagiarism is something
else: it means trying to beat the assignment by having somebody else do the work, either by having somebody else write the paper for
you, by copying work done by others, or by downloading a paper from an internet source. This may sound like a very fine-line
distinction, but it really isn’t. Just try putting “interpretive strategies” into a sentence. You have to learn, to grow, and to work hard,
just to imitate the writing you think is worth imitating. Putting your name on somebody else’s work is easy and has nothing to do with
picking up new words and sentence formulations.
FAU currently has an academic integrity code, which you can find here:
http://www.fau.edu/ctl/AcademicIntegrity.php
In addition, the WHC has its own Honor Code, developed by the students in collaboration with the faculty:
http://www.fau.edu/ctl/AcademicIntegrity.php
FAU currently subscribes to several “detective” services that run down sources on suspected plagiarists. The Wilkes Honors College
also has an Honor Code, to which I expect all of you to adhere. Finally, I expect all of you to be too ambitious and too arrogant to let
some hack working for chump change online to represent you and your thinking. You’re probably already smarter and already a better
writer than whoever is out there online. So, be proud of your work and take pleasure in your education. Work hard and you’ll get
everything you want out of this experience.
Students with Disabilities Act: (FAU disability statement) In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), students
who require special accommodation due to a disability to properly execute coursework must register with the Office for Students with
Disabilities (OSD) -- in Boca Raton, SU 133 (561-297-3880); in Davie, MOD 1 (954-236-1222); in Jupiter, SR 117 (561-799-8585);
or at the Treasure Coast, CO 128 (772-873-3305) – and follow all OSD procedures.
http://www.osd.fau.edu/Rights.htm
Schedule [Please note that this agenda is provisional and is not a contract. We can change it whenever we feel like it. I’m
happy to take feedback from the class re what we should be reading, how long we should spend on each play, how fast or slow
we should move, etc. Prepare to be proactive in deciding how the class will spend its time]:
Week One: Aug 23, 25: Getting up on stage: “Who am I this time?”
Tuesday: Introduction. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., “Who am I this time?”;
Thursday: Film: Who am I this time? Jonathan Demme, dir. Christopher Walken, Susan Sarandon; Prefatory readings from the
Bedford
Week Two: Aug 30, Sept 1: Greek Tragedy
Prefatory material on Greek Drama, pp. 29-40. Sophocles, Oedipus the King;
Antigone. Read also “Origins of Greek Drama,” and “Geners of Greek Drama; commentaries by Freud, Levi-Strauss.
Week Three: Sept 6, 8: More Greeks
Antigone, cont.
Aristophanes, Lysistrata. Read also “Lysistrata on the Stage.”
Friday, September 2: Five-page thesis Paper One uploaded to BB by 9 p.m.
Week Four: Sept 13, 15: Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus. On BB.
In-class revision exercises for Paper One.
Week Five: Sept 20, 22: William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Read also the commentaries by Linda Bamber, Peter
Brooke, Clive Barnes.
Paper One revision based on conference and in-class edit due on BB by 9 p.m, Friday,
Sept . 23.
Week Six: Sept 27, 29: William Shakespeare, Othello. Read also the commentaries.
FAUchange—Revised October 2011
Week Seven: Oct 4, 6: Ben Jonson: The Masque of Blackness. Read also the commentaries in the Bedford.
Week Eight: Oct 11, 13: Moliere, Tartuffe. Read also the commentaries.
Week Nine: Oct 18, 20: Aphra Behn, The Rover. Read also the commentaries.
Friday, October 21, Paper Two: Five-page paper uploaded to BB by 9 p.m.
Week Ten: Oct. 25, 27: Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House. Read also the commentaries.
In-Class Review of Paper Two; Individual conferences with Instructor re papers
Friday, Oct. 28: Revised Paper Two uploaded to BB by 9 p.m.
Week Eleven: Nov 1, 3: Time out for catch up and writing review.
Friday, Nov 4: Paper Three uploaded to BB by 9 p.m.
Peer-edits over the weekend
Week Twelve: Nov 8, 10: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. Read also the commentaries and the casebook.
Friday, Nov. 11: Revised Paper Three uploaded to BB by 9 p.m.
Week Thirteen, Fourteen (Thanksgiving Break), Fifteen: Tony Kushner, Angels in America. We will view both parts of the Mike
Nichols HBO film.
Friday, Nov. 18: Paper Four uploaded to BB by 9 p.m.
Monday, Nov 28: Peer-edits
Friday, December 2, Revised Paper Four uploaded to BB by 9 p.m.
FAUchange—Revised October 2011