English 130 (-03 and -04)
Spring 2021
Professor Evan Zimroth
Evan.Zimroth@qc.cuny.edu
This course meets on Zoom. Our platform is Blackboard.
Office hours, Wednesday 12.00 – 1.00 and by appointment, on Zoom. Basically, though, I’m reachable
almost anytime during the week. Send me an email, and we can arrange a Zoom meeting.
Students will be notified of meetings and assignments on both Blackboard and CUNYFirst.
Course Description
A methods course in the discipline. Students learn how to engage in scholarly
conversations about literature: by using close reading of primary and secondary sources;
conducting original research; and developing analytical arguments about literary texts
in different genres.
This course will focus on genres: Poetry; a Shakespeare play; a modern novel.
Course Goals
Students who elect to take College Writing 2 in the English Department will learn how
to engage with other scholars in meaningful conversations about literature. Building
methods that they will continue to practice throughout their coursework, they will
become more able to:






Create arguable theses about literary texts.
Support their theses with close reading.
Marshal primary and secondary sources for textual analysis.
Find, cite, and evaluate sources using appropriate research tools.
Deploy critical terms effectively.
Converse with other scholars in the field, orally and in writing.
Helpful Resources:
Helpdesk for computer issues – https://www.qc.cuny.edu/computing/helpdesk
Or: 718 997 4444
The QC Writing Center – https://sites.google.com/qc.cuny.edu/qcwritingenter/home
If I suggest the Writing Center would be beneficial for you, you are required to use it. Give
yourself time to learn how to access it, and then let the staff there be as helpful as you need
them to be.
For the traditional academic essay, and citations for secondary sources, I believe you already
have the Handbook for Students of College Writing 1 and 2. Use the material assigned in the
handbook and in prior writing courses, for writing academic essays. Helpful for grammar and
various writing issues, use http://owl.english.purdue.edu. For formatting and citations, use The
MLA Handbook.
For the Library: https://library.qc.cuny.edu/
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Special Service for Students With Disabilities: QC.SPSV@qc.cuny.edu. Candidates with
disabilities needing academic accommodation should: 1) register with and provide documentation to
the Special Services Office, Frese Hall, Room 111; online, and 2) send a letter to your instructor
indicating the need for accommodation and what type. This should be done during the first week of
class. For more information about services available to Queens College candidates, visit the website, or
contact: Special Service Office; Director, Miriam Detres-Hickey, Frese Hall, Room 111; 718-997-5870.
CUNY POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Academic Dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and is punishable by penalties,
including failing grades, suspension, and expulsion as provided at
https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/legal-affairs/policies-procedures/academicintegrity-policy/.
Meetings, Assignments, Expectations:
This course meets on Zoom, synchronously on Mondays, and a mix of synchronous/asynchronous on
Wednesdays. Our platform is Blackboard.
Students will be notified of Zoom meetings on Blackboard and CUNYFirst. Assignments will be posted
on Blackboard.
On Mondays, for our synchronous meetings, I expect you to be on time (that means you should sign in
early to Zoom), and unless you’re having technical or other problems please keep both your camera and
your audio ON. If this is a problem for you, do please let me know. The Monday sessions will be
planned as a lecture, but there will be many opportunities for questions and discussion. As much as
possible, our meetings should mimic and feel like a normal, in-person class. I will feel free to call on you
for your thoughts, interpretations and questions, and will also ask you to post material quickly on Chat.
Just as in a regular class, you should also participate as much as possible, by speaking out/or by also
using Chat.
Our Wednesday meetings will be a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous meetings. I will let you
know in advance (on Mondays) whether we will be meeting synchronously that week, or whether you
will go ahead asynchronously with assignments on your own. When the meeting is synchronous, I plan
to use that time to focus on your writing. I will discuss writing issues, go over writing problems that I
see, and give you an opportunity to work in small groups and to share your drafts with classmates.
When that week, after Monday, is asynchronous, you will work at your own pace. So while Monday
meetings are required, our Wednesday meetings are more flexible, and the plan will always be laid out
on Monday. Check with both Blackboard and CUNYFirst.
Writing assignments should be handed in to my QC email address, above. I will also be checking that
email address repeatedly during the week for problems and issues you are experiencing and will get
back to you as soon as I can, although there might be a delay of a day or two. I strongly suggest also
that you keep your own file of written assignments, because email is never 100% secure. If you need to
turn in a late paper, please let me know beforehand if possible. I’m somewhat flexible on late papers,
but I do need an agreement from you. The only paper that absolutely must be handed in on time is your
last assignment, the Portfolio.
If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and to make up any in-class work.
To do that, you should have contact details for 2 or 3 class members whom you can call or write for
information. As I suggest at our first meeting, some of you can start and join a WhatsApp group to help
out your classmates for things they might have missed and to share ideas outside of our regular class
format.
Required Texts:
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, paperback.
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, Harcourt (or other) paperback.
Adrienne Rich, “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,” from On Lies, Secrets, and Silence,
Norton paperback (suggested, although you can also read the essays as PDF’s on the internet)
“Shakespeare Uncovered: Macbeth with Ethan Hawke,” PBS documentary, available on Amazon. Be
sure that you order the documentary that includes Macbeth, along with other plays.
I do require that you buy this text of Mrs. Dalloway. It’s a new edition, it just came out, and it has an
excellent long critical introduction as well as helpful footnotes and an outstanding annotated
bibliography of supplementary readings. You should also order the long political essay by Virginia
Woolf, A Room of One’s Own. A kindle is also fine, and an ebook, if you prefer. But these texts are too
long and cumbersome to read on most devices.
Also required is the PBS documentary on Macbeth, a superb introduction to many facets of the play.
All other material is accessible online. The poetry should not present any problems because all the
readings are rather short. But the play – Shakespeare’s Macbeth – will be more difficult to read online
because of its length. I will be using the Penguin/Pelican paperback edition in my lectures, and I
enthusiastically recommend it. The choice of how you read the play, however, is yours.
Formal Assignments:
Essay 1: Close interpretive reading of two poetry texts to compare/contrast with at least two citations of
outside sources (about 3-4 pp). To demonstrate your skills at close reading and use of quotations, there
will also be a brief (about 1 page) interpretive essay on one poem, with no outside sources, due the
second week of the term.
Essay 2: Close reading of a single text, Macbeth, in the context of a theoretical or historical source, with
reference to YouTube soliloquies and the PBS documentary (about 5 pp.).
Research assignment: An annotated bibliography with at least five relevant sources, produced en route
to Essay 3.
Essay 3: Close reading of a longer text, the novel and related readings, in context of the secondary
sources above (attached) that you have found through original research (about 6- 8 pp.).
Portfolio: All final papers, plus a cover letter in which you reflect on the writing practice you gained
through close reading, notes and conversations, drafts, and revisions over the course of the semester.
Grading Metrics:
Essays One, Two and Three: 20% each, divided roughly between your rough draft and
other preparations, revisions and your finished copy. Your annotated bibliography
(10%) will also be attached to Essay Three. Total of 70%.
Portfolio: 15%. This is your final assignment, in lieu of a final exam, and will include
ALL of your final papers plus a cover letter in which you evaluate your work and discuss
how your reading and writing practices have changed (for the better, I hope!).
Class participation: 15%. This includes attendance, coming on-time and being
prepared, participation in class discussions, both in Zoom conversation and on Chat,
reading out loud when asked, and participation in small group discussions that will
focus on everyone’s rough drafts and preparatory material. You are always welcome to
discuss with me any difficulties you have with class participation. During class hours,
you are not required to have your video on with Zoom (and some of you will have
technical difficulties with this – let me know), but my experience with remote learning is
that having your video on enhances your class participation. All of us are happy to
welcome on video all small children, brothers and sisters, boyfriends and girlfriends,
and, of course, dogs and cats. We are all working from home, and our homes are often
shared with other living creatures and can be chaotic! If any of this is a problem for you,
it’s a good idea to let me know earlier rather than later.
SYLLABUS:
This syllabus is divided into three parts: poetry; Shakespeare’s Macbeth; and the
modernist novel, Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (and related readings).
1/Poetry (until March 3): I have arranged the poems thematically (by topic and/or
theme) for you to practice close reading and for the compare/contrast essay which is
your first long paper. Your first essay assignment is a short (one page) paper on one
poem, in which you ask yourself an interpretive question and discuss it, with short
quotations from the poem. Due the second week of the term.
In the longer essay (Essay 1) you will ask yourself an interpretive question about two
poems and discuss it along with relevant critical material (at least 2 sources for each
poem), in a compare/contrast format. All of the material assigned can be found on the
internet. All poems below are assigned, and we will discuss many in class. The
discussions will highlight close reading and introduce you to the technical language of
interpretation and prosody.
A draft of your essay is due February 22. The final copy is due March 3. There is no
class on February 15.
Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays”
Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz”
Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess”
Ezra Pound, “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”
Adrienne Rich, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (and read Rich’s essay)
Gregory Corso, “Marriage”
William Wordsworth, “Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey on
Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798” (The short title is
just “Tintern Abbey”.)
Patrick Kavanagh, “Inniskeen Road: July Evening”
Robert Bly, “Driving Toward the Lac Qui Parle River”
Gary Snyder, “Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lo0kout”
2/ Shakespeare, Macbeth (until April 7), with additional assignments: The PBS
documentary with Ethan Hawke, and at least two soliloquies of your choice, that you
watch on YouTube. We will do close reading of the play in class.
For Essay 2, a draft essay on how the visual, dramatic, and historical material that
you’re introduced to in the PBS documentary and the YouTube soliloquies raise
interesting interpretive issues for you. Due 15 March.
The longer essay in which you incorporate the above, if you wish, and also include some
social and/or historical context is due April 5. The social and/or historical context can
either be about the ‘real’ history of Macbeth’s rule, and/or about various performance
issues, in any historical period, including the present.
3/ a modernist novel, Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf: Additional
assignments include Woolf’s long (and very famous) political essay, A Room Of One’s
Own, and a re-read of Adrienne Rich’s essay, listed above, and other pertinent material
you might find interesting in Rich, On Lies, Secrets and Silence. Remember that the text
assigned for the novel has an excellent bibliography of supplemental readings.
To prepare your longer essay, an annotated bibliography (at least 5 items) is due on
April 19.
The essay itself (Essay 3) is due on May 3, and will include the bibliographical material
above.
4/Final Portfolio, due May 17, last class.
In all of these discussions and in your written assignments, you have complete free rein
to be as imaginative, lively, discursive, and critical as you wish, as long as your
interpretations and readings are carefully grounded in the material itself. In other
words, you will have a ‘voice’, a narrative and interpretive style, which is uniquely yours
and which should interest the rest of us, your readers. Enjoy and be stimulated by the
readings, write freely and revise, revise, revise, and come up with final essays that feel
distinctly your own!