ENG 2800 HMWH
Berggren
GREAT WORKS OF LITERATURE I
Required texts:
1. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, third edition, Package I, ed. Puchner, et al.
All paged assignments are to be found in the Norton edition, unless otherwise indicated on the
syllabus below.
2. Contexts and Comparisons: A Student Guide to the Great Works Courses, ed. Berggren
et al. This is available online, easily accessed from the Newman Library Home Page under Digital
Resources (C&C)
3. Shakespeare, The Tempest, eds. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Folger Library
Shakespeare.
Recommended text: Jane E. Aaron, The Little Brown Essential Handbook, 7th ed.
Longman, 2011).
(Boston:
These books are available at the College Bookstore and Shakespeare & Co., 137 East 23rd Street.
You must bring the texts for the day to class, since our discussions will revolve around close
reading. You should download assigned Passages for Study from C&C and bring them to class.
LEARNING GOALS
Students who successfully complete the Great Works courses should be able to

interpret meaning in literary texts by paying close attention to authors’ choices of
detail, vocabulary, and style

discuss the relationship between different genres of literary texts and the multicultural
environments from which they spring

articulate a critical evaluation and appreciation of a literary work’s strengths and
limitations

present their ideas orally

write critical essays employing
o a strong thesis statement
o appropriate textual citations
o contextual and intertextual evidence for their ideas
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Tentative Reading Schedule
Monday, 28 January
Introduction to course; Norton, Volume A, from Hesiod,
Theogony, pp. 39-44
Wednesday, 30 January
Homer, The Iliad, Book 1, pp. 230-46; C&C, Epic Poetry: Oral
Narrative Verse, Backgrounds for Reading the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Monday, 4 February
Iliad, from Books 6, 8, and 9, pp. 246-72
Wednesday, 6 February
Iliad, from Books 16 and 18, pp. 273-299
Monday, 11 February
Iliad, Books 22 and 24, pp. 299-331
Wednesday, 13 February
The Invention of Writing and the Earliest Literatures, pp. 3-18;
Creation and the Cosmos: “The Great Hymn to the Aten,” pp. 2933; from Genesis, pp. 151-67; C&C, Sacred Texts: An Introduction
to the Hebrew Bible, History in the Bible
Wednesday, 20 February
India's Ancient Epics and Tales, pp. 1161-69, including excerpts
from the Rg Veda (handouts), The Jataka, pp. 1301-09; the
Bhagavad-Gita, pp. 1282-1301; ORAL PRESENTATION 1
Monday, 25 February
Early Chinese Literature and Thought, Selections from the
Classic of Poetry, pp. 1311-19; Selections from the Classic of
Poetry, pp.1320-30; from Analects of Confucius, pp. 1330-44;
ORAL PRESENTATION 2
Wednesday, 27 February
Genesis, The Story of Joseph; from Exodus 19-20, pp. 180-93;
C&C, Passage for Study: The Ten Commandments.
Monday, 4 March
Sima Qian, Letter in Reply to Jen An, selections from Historical
Records, pp. 1398-1415
Wednesday, 6 March
Sophocles, Oedipus the King, pp. 701-20; C&C, Classical
Drama: The Ages of Classical Antiquity: The Rise of Athens and
the Western Tradition; Passage for Study: Pericles’ Funeral
Oration
Monday, 11 March
Oedipus the King, pp. 720-47; C&C, Passage for Study:
Aristotle's Description of Tragedy
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Wednesday, 13 March
Mid-Term Examination
Monday, 18 March
Norton, Volume B: India’s Classical Age, pp. 837-48;
Kalidasa, Sakuntala, pp. 871-942; ORAL PRESENTATION 3
Wednesday, 20 March
From the New Testament, pp. 18-33; C&C, Sacred Texts:
Introduction to the Greek Testament
S P R I N G
B R E A K
Wednesday, 3 April
Circling the Mediterranean, pp. 3-17; from the Qur’an, pp. 7197; from The Biography of the Prophet, pp. 98-106
Monday, 8 April
Poetry of the Heian Court, pp. 1099-1100; selections from The
Kokinshu, pp. 1104-18; from Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, 1127-53;
C&C, Passage for Study: Medieval Vernacular Literature in
Japan: The Confessions of Lady Nijo. ORAL PRESENTATION 4
Wednesday, 10 April
From The Thousand and One Nights, pp. 552-77; C&C, Medieval
Narrative: The Roots of Medieval Europe; Backgrounds of
Medieval Literature.
Sunday, 14 April
Class theater outing: Kafka’s Monkey, Baryshnikov Arts
Center, 450 West 37th Street, 3 p.m.
Monday, 15 April
Selections from Medieval Lyrics, “Song of Summer,”
p. 322; “In Praise of War,” p. 340; Rumi, pp. 351-54;
C&C, Passage for Study: Medieval Women, the Mother of God,
And God the Mother; Marie de France, Lais, Prologue, Lanval,
Laustic, pp. 294-313; ORAL PRESENTATION 5
Wednesday, 17 April
Dante, Inferno, Canto 1, pp. 387-95
Monday, 22 April
Inferno, Cantos 2-5, pp. 395-409
Wednesday, 24 April
Inferno, Cantos 26-28, pp. 1913-23; ORAL PRESENTATION 6
Monday, 29 April
Inferno, Cantos 32-34, pp. 500-11; Purgatorio, Cantos 1-2,
pp. 511-19; Paradiso, Canto 33, pp. 531-34
Wednesday, 1 May
Norton, Volume C: Machiavelli, pp. 180-91; Montaigne, pp.
342-80
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Monday, 6 May
Petrarch, pp. 164-71; C&C, Renaissance Literature: Historical
Background; Passages for Study: Columbus Reports from the
New World; Cultural Change and Renaissance Literature: The
Lover, The Prince, The Courtier. C&C, Renaissance Literature:
Renaissance Drama
Wednesday, 8 May
Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 1
Monday, 13 May
The Tempest, Acts 2-3
Wednesday, 15 May
The Tempest, Acts 4-5
Monday, 20 May
FINAL EXAMINATION
Course Requirements
ATTENDANCE: No more than four classes may be cut without penalty.
READING AND DISCUSSING WHAT YOU HAVE READ: You will be expected to come to
class every day prepared to discuss what you have read. This is not a lecture course: regular
attendance is required and active class participation is required.
ACADEMIC HONESTY: The English Department fully supports Baruch College's policy on
Academic Honesty, which states, in part:
"Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery,
plagiarism and collusion in dishonest acts undermine the college's educational mission and
the students' personal and intellectual growth. Baruch students are expected to bear
individual responsibility for their work, to learn the rules and definitions that underlie the
practice of academic integrity, and to uphold its ideals. Ignorance of the rules is not an
acceptable excuse for disobeying them. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue
the academic process will be sanctioned." In this class, any evidence of plagiarism,
however minute it may be, will earn you an F grade on the work in question and will
result in your being formally reported to the Office of the Dean of Students.
ACTIVITIES AS A COMMUNICATION INTENSIVE CLASS:
1. ON-LINE STUDY QUESTIONS: Each week, I will post study questions on
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the Discussion Board of our course Blackboard site to help focus our discussion and guide you to
the kind of careful reading that the texts we will be studying deserve. Before each class meeting,
students are required to answer at least one question; after class, please review others’ answers,
reflect on our class discussion, and respond to the comments of at least one other student.
2. TWO ESSAY EXAMS—a midterm and a final
3. ORAL PRESENTATIONS: Working in small teams, each student will teach some
aspect of an assigned topic to the class.
4. LITERARY AND DRAMATIC PERFORMANCES: Each student will study a
poem or a passage from one of our assigned readings to present out loud and then interpret for
classroom discussion.
5. FORMAL WRITING: Each of you will write two comparison/contrast papers during
the semester. To receive full credit, these papers must be revised after we have had private, face-toface conferences. There will also be two short writing assignments, one analyzing a work of art that
you study independently on a visit to the Metropolitan Museum, the other a critique of the staging
of Kafka’s Monkey on 14 April.
Percentages of Final Grades







Lively class participation and oral presentations
Depth of thought in Blackboard forum
mid-term examination
museum and performance critiques
first essay
second essay
final examination
10%
10%
15%
10%
15%
20%
20%
100%
OFFICE HOURS: Wednesday, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Thursday, 9:00-10:30 a.m., and by appointment
Room VC7-271 Phone 646-312-3931 Email: paula.berggren@Baruch.cuny.edu