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ENH110: Introduction to Literature
@ Mesa Community College, Southern and Dobson Campus, Fall 2014
Section 0004, Class 28707
Tues/Thurs, 10:30-11:45 AM, LA 2W
Instructor: Jeremy Venema, PhD
480.461.7604 • E08 (office hours will be posted)
jeremy.venema@mesacc.edu (best way to contact me, but I do not check it on weekends)
This class introduces the student to literary genres and concepts, through literature in English
from Chaucer to the twentieth century. Topics are explored chronologically and cover both verse
and prose. In particular we will examine the relationship of form to content.
Prerequisites: None.
Expectations: You are here to learn, plan to participate, and to show respect.
Some objectives:
1. Identify setting and point of view in a work of fiction.
2. Describe how characters are developed in a work of fiction.
3. Analyze how biographical and historical contexts influence various literary works.
4. Differentiate between plot and theme in a work of fiction.
5. Differentiate between subject and theme in a poem.
6. Identify the most common poetic devices.
7. Identify and give examples of symbolism in literary works.
8. Identify the major types of plays.
9. Interpret a poem, a short story, and a play, using literary criticism and/or other methods.
Grades are based on 400 possible points:
Attendance and participation (which
might just include things like
unannounced quizzes …)
Midterm 1
Midterm 2
Midterm 3
Final project
Total points
100
75
75
75
75
400
Participation is expected and will be recorded regularly. Quizzes may not be made up. Tests
will be take-home; dates are in the calendar. If you miss class before a test is due, get a copy
from me or from a peer. If you miss class the day a test is due, it is still due by start of class.
Check your grades in the Canvas gradebook often. Final class grades are based on the following
scale: 360-400 points = A, 320-359 = B, 280-319 = C, 240-279 = D, Below 240 = F.
Attendance is mandatory. If you miss more than three classes, you might be withdrawn.
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Texts are mostly online, linked at: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~jvenema/110/index.html. If
any links are not working, let me know right away. There is one text to purchase (available at the
campus bookstore). Other editions might confuse you regarding pages, chapters, etc.
Smollett’s Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Penguin edition, ISBN: 0141441429
Materials required for class include:
 Note paper and pen or pencil for taking notes (many notes)
 Internet and printer access (home or campus) for retrieving and printing online texts
 MCC email account for receiving class messages (hints for quizzes, study guides, etc.)
 Access to Canvas for checking your grade regularly
Other Policies (in addition to attendance—which is number 1)
2. Late work is not accepted.
3. Completion of all three midterms and the final project is required to pass.
4. Plagiarism on test essays is grounds for failure, or worse.
5. Arrive on time or you might be marked absent.
6. Be courteous to others or you might be asked to leave.
7. Turn off electronic devices or you might be severely ridiculed.
8. Pay attention in class; do not work on other things or get up and leave. (If you must
go to the bathroom, that’s fine, but frequent vanishings or wanderings might result in lost
participation points and possible absence accruals.)
9. Grades will be discussed only with the student.
10. Recording of lectures is prohibited without instructor’s express permission.
Disclaimers:
 Students are responsible for all relevant college policies included in the college catalog
and the student handbook, as well as for the information in this syllabus (and will be
notified by the instructor of any changes to the syllabus).
 If you have or think you have a disability, including a learning disability, please make an
appointment with an advisor at Disability Resources as soon as possible. They can assist
you with appropriate accommodations for you in your classes.
 Mesa Community College is committed to the success of all our students. Numerous
campus support services are available throughout your academic journey to assist you in
achieving your educational goals. MCC has adopted an Early Alert Referral System
(EARS) as part of a student success initiative to aid students in their educational pursuits.
Faculty and Staff participate by alerting and referring students to campus services for
added support. Students may receive a follow up call from various campus services as a
result of being referred to EARS. Students are encouraged to participate, but these
services are optional. Early Alert Web Page with Campus Resource Information can be
located at: http://www.mesacc.edu/students/ears
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Calendar (Links to readings: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~jerol76351/110/index.html)
Date
Topic
8/26
Introduction
PART ONE: BASICS
8/28
Iambic Pentameter:
Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom
Kaboom Kaboom
9/2
9/4
9/9
9/11
9/16
9/18
9/23
Tropes and Schemes:
Fifty Keels Ploughed the Deep
Drama:
What is the question?
Metaphysical Conceit:
Carpe Diem, Crush-y Flea-um
Elevated Prose:
Freedom of Expression
Diary:
London’s Burning!
Prose Satire:
Fools and Knaves
Due
NA
Reading 1:
Geoffrey Chaucer: “Yowr Yen Two”
Sir Thomas Wyatt: “They Flee from Me”
Sir Philip Sidney: Astrophel and Stella 31 and 39
Reading 2:
William Shakespeare: Sonnets 18 and 130
Reading 3:
Shakespeare: Hamlet’s Famous Soliloquy
Reading 4:
John Donne: “The Flea”
Robert Herrick: “To the Virgins”
Andrew Marvell: “To His Coy Mistress”
Reading 5:
John Milton: Areopagitica
Reading 6:
John Evelyn: Diary (excerpt)
Samuel Pepys: Diary (excerpt)
Reading 7:
Jonathan Swift: “Academy of Lagado” and
Directions to Servants (excerpt)
Alexander Pope: Peri Bathous (excerpts)
Reading 8:
Samuel Johnson: “The Vanity of Human Wishes”
Verse Satire:
More Fools and Knaves
PART TWO: NOVEL
9/25
The Novel
Reading 9:
MIDTERM 1 assigned Henry Fielding: Preface to Joseph Andrews
9/30
Reading 10:
Tobias Smollett: Humphry Clinker, letters 1-15
MIDTERM 1 due
10/2
Readings 11:
Humphry Clinker, letters 16-31: “If I did not know …”
10/7
Reading 12:
The Expedition of
Humphry Clinker, letters 32-43: “London is literally …”
Humphry Clinker
10/9
Reading 13:
Humphry Clinker, letters 44-53: “Thank Heaven!”
10/14
Reading 14:
Humphry Clinker, letters 54-64: “In my last …”
10/16
Reading 15:
Humphry Clinker, letters 65-75: “The peasantry …”
10/21
Reading 16:
Humphry Clinker, letters 76-85: “Once more …”
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PART THREE: REVOLUTIONS
10/23 Biography:
Seven Years in the Making
MIDTERM 2 assigned
10/28 Rationalism:
In the Course of Human Events
10/30
10/4
Sentimentalism:
Run Mad
Romanticism:
Joy and Negative Capability
10/6
Dramatic Monologue:
Subjecting the Object
10/13
Gothic:
Hearts of Darkness
11/18
Fatalism:
Oh My Darkling
11/20
Modernism:
Streets and Streams
PART FOUR: FORM?
11/25 Free Verse:
Playing without a Net
MIDTERM 3 assigned
12/2
Persistence of Form 1:
Everything Old Is New Again
NOTE: No class Thursday
11/22 for Thanksgiving.
12/4
12/9
12/11
Reading 17:
James Boswell: From Life of Johnson (excerpt)
Reading 18:
James Madison: Federalist 45 and 51
Edmund Burke: Reflections (excerpt)
MIDTERM 2 due
Reading 19:
Jane Austen: Love and Freindship [sic]
Reading 20:
William Wordsworth: “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Reading 21:
Robert Browning: “Porphyria’s Lover”
Christina Rossetti: “The Convent Threshold”
Reading 22:
Edgar Allan Poe: “The Pit and the Pendulum”
Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”
Reading 23:
Alfred Lord Tennyson: “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
Matthew Arnold: “Dover Beach”
Thomas Hardy: “The Darkling Thrush”
Reading 24:
O. Henry: “The Reformation of Calliope”
James Joyce: “Eveline”
Reading 25:
T. S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
T. S. Eliot: “The Hippopotamus”
Reading 26:
Eliot: “Reflections on Vers Libre”
Cullen: “Yet Do I Marvel,” Frost: “Design,”
Thomas: “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,”
Plath: “Mad Girl’s Love Song”
MIDTERM 3 due
Reading 27:
Francois Le Lionnais: “Lipo: First and Second Manifestos”
Persistence of Form 2:
And So Is Everything New
FINAL PROJECT assigned
Metafiction:
Reading 28:
Lit about Lit about Lit …
Jorge Luis Borges: “The Garden of Forking Paths”
Georges Perec: “The Winter Voyage”
Italo Calvino: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (excerpt)
Show and Tell
FINAL PROJECT due