Core Course Review Documentation
Foundational Component Area: LANGUAGE, PHILOSOPHY, & CULTURE
Component Area Option?
No
Proposed Course: English 2413: World Literature Literature I
Credit Hours: 3
Proposed by: Kirsten Lodge, Department of English
Date: February 11, 2013 (Resubmit)
Please document how the proposed course meets each of the following requirements. (You
may provide a written explanation or copy and paste the appropriate information from the
syllabus.)
Content:
Courses in this category focus on how ideas, values, beliefs, and other aspects of culture
express and affect human experience.
Literature survey courses at Midwestern State University include the following content:
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Literary works by major authors representing different time periods and cultures
Critical analysis of literary works to determine how they reflect the values and beliefs of
the culture and time period in which they were written, with special attention to how
literature reflects social, political, religious, and aesthetic values and beliefs.
The ways in which literary works shape cultural norms, including the influence of literature
on the ideas, values, and aesthetic preferences of future cultures
The ways in which literature reflects cultural diversity, including the representation of
minorities in different time periods and cultures
The value and meaning that literature from other times and cultures can have for us today
Attention to literary genres and styles, with special attention to how literary forms can
complement the ideas that they convey
Critical approaches to literature, including historical, biographical, and more theoretical
approaches
SKILLS: Courses involve the exploration of ideas that foster aesthetic and intellectual creation in
order to understand the human condition across cultures.
Literature survey courses at Midwestern State University help students develop the following skills:
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The ability to analyze texts through close reading and attention to detail
The ability to integrate various works through discussions of common themes, especially
those themes that reach across cultural boundaries
The ability to formulate interpretations of individual texts with textual support in class
discussion
The ability to engage with themes and ideas through writing, including a major research
project, and class discussion
The ability to do literary research using standard reference works, databases, and electronic
sources
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The ability to construct a logical argument in support of a thesis for a close-reading paper,
an argument that will show awareness of cultural differences while remaining free of
cultural bias
The ability to write a unified and coherent close reading paper incorporating basic research
that demonstrates proficiency in Standard English and that follows the Modern Language
Association’s guidelines for form and style.
ASSESSMENT OF CORE OBJECTIVES: Assessments should be authentic, intentional and
direct. The following four Core Objectives must be addressed in each course approved to fulfill this
category requirement:
Critical Thinking Skills - to include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation
and synthesis of information
Learning Activities: Students will read and discuss, both in small groups and in general class
discussion, the various canonical texts composed in antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the
Renaissance. In particular, students will examine how authors in these periods interact with, as
well as react to, one another. Special attention will be given to authors who were previously
marginalized by earlier anthologies and scholars. For instance, at least three sections of each
semester should focus on non-Western works, in accordance with contemporary national trends
in the field of Comparative Literature. A unifying theme of the course will be the discussion of
how each author, through creative literary works, demonstrated his respective aesthetic concerns,
as well as civic and social engagement.
Assessment: Each student will compose a late-semester 3-4 Close Reading Paper that will
demonstrate three of the four core objectives: critical thinking and communication skills, as well
as social responsibility.
Each student must critically read a primary text, concentrating on close reading and
interpretation.
The close reading paper will be assessed using the attached English 2413 Close Reading rubric.
Communication Skills - to include effective development, interpretation and expression of ideas
through written, oral, and visual communication
Learning Activities: Students will read and discuss the various canonical texts composed in
antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. In particular, students will examine how
authors in these periods interact with, as well as react to, one another. Special attention will be
given to authors who were previously marginalized by earlier anthologies and scholars. For
instance, at least three sections of each semester should focus on non-Western texts, in
accordance with the general national trend in Comparative Literature. A unifying theme of the
course will be the discussion of how each author, through creative literary works, demonstrated
his and her respective aesthetic concerns, as well as civic and social engagement.
Assessment: Each student will compose a late-semester 3-4 Close Reading Paper that will
demonstrate three of the four core objectives: critical thinking and communication skills, as well
as social responsibility.
Each student must critically read a primary text, concentrating on close reading and
interpretation.
The close reading paper will be assessed using the attached English 2413 Close Reading rubric.
Personal Responsibility - to include the ability to connect choices, actions and consequences to
ethical decision-making
Learning Activities: Students will read and discuss the various canonical texts composed in
antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. In particular, students will examine how
authors in these periods interact with, as well as react to, one another. Special attention will be
given to non-Western authors, in accordance with the national trend in Comparative Literature.
For instance, at least three sections of each semester should focus on non-Western texts, and the
unifying theme of the course will be the discussion of how each author, through creative literary
works, demonstrated his respective aesthetic and ideological concerns, as well as civic and social
engagement.
Assessment: Each student will compose several writing responses that will be used to evaluate
one of the four core objectives: personal responsibility.
Prior to each class meeting, students will be required to respond to a brief question
selected from a list of questions that I have prepared to help them understand the text and
be prepared to discuss all of the questions. Questions used to assess personal
responsibility will ask students to make connections between the text and ethical decisionmaking; sample questions include:
 How do the narrator and the characters justify Odysseus’s revenge? Is this
justification convincing? What considerations might undermine the reader’s sense
that Odysseus’s revenge is entirely justified?
 Odysseus describes how he and his men blinded Polyphemus in great detail at
9.382-94. How does this description affect you as the reader, and what is it about
the description that affects you? How do you think it may have affected Odysseus’s
listeners, particularly Arete and Alkinoös, who are related to Polyphemus and
Poseidon? In this episode, to what extent do you sympathize with Odysseus, and to
what extent do you sympathize with Polyphemus? Does the fact that it is Odysseus
who is narrating the story incline the reader to empathize more with him? How
might Polyphemus have told the story?
 How are the various murderers in the Oresteia characterized? To what extent, in
your view, are they justified in their crimes? What is it about their acts, if anything,
that undermines their justification?
 We know nothing of Aeschylus’s political and religious views. Based on this trilogy,
some commentators have argued that he was a pious Athenian patriot. Others have
argued that he subtly undermines the Athenian conception of justice and
democracy. What is your view?
 How is justice portrayed? Does the concept of justice evolve from the beginning of
the trilogy to the end, and if so, how? Who determines what is just, and what is the
basis of the concept of justice? How does justice relate to fate? Do you feel that
justice wins out in the end?
Specific writing responses will be assessed using the English 2413 Writing Responses rubric,
which draws from the AACU Value Rubrics for Writing and Ethical Decision-Making. Because
the assignment is submitted as a first draft, it will be assessed on a simplified scale: good,
satisfactory, or poor.
Social Responsibility - to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the
ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities
Learning Activities: Students will read and discuss the various canonical texts composed in
antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. In particular, students will examine how
authors in these periods interact with, as well as react to, one another. Special attention will be
given to non-Western authors, in accordance with the national trend in Comparative Literature.
For instance, at least three sections of each semester should focus on non-Western texts, and the
unifying theme of the course will be the discussion of how each author, through creative literary
works, demonstrated his respective aesthetic concerns, as well as civic and social engagement.
Assessment: Each student will compose a late-semester 3-4 Close Reading Paper that will
demonstrate three of the four core objectives: critical thinking and communication skills, as well
as social responsibility.
Each student must critically read a primary text, concentrating on close reading and
interpretation.
The close reading paper will be assessed using the attached English 2413 Close Reading rubric.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Provide any additional information supporting course
inclusion in the core (optional).
PLEASE ATTACH THE FOLLOWING
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Syllabus
Assessment for Critical Thinking Skills
Assessment for Communication Skills
Assessment for Personal Responsibility
Assessment for Social Responsibility