Special Topics Course Proposal Form
SUFFOLK COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
SPECIAL TOPICS COURSE PROPOSAL FORM
ORIGINATING CAMPUS: ( X ) Ammerman ( ) Eastern ( ) Grant
Date Submitted to Campus Dean: _____mm/yy_____
To meet the ideals of Suffolk County Community College, new courses should, if
appropriate, consider issues arising from elements of cultural diversity in areas of
textbook choice, selection of library and audio-visual materials, and teaching
methodology.
CAMPUS DEAN E-MAILS ENTIRE PROPOSAL PACKET TO THE COLLEGE
CURRICULUM COMMITTEE CHAIR AS A WORD DOCUMENT UPON ITS
APPROVAL.
________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
PROCEDURES
1. Instructor downloads and drafts proposal and syllabus from Special Topics link on
the Curriculum Website
2. Proposer sends the files (proposal and syllabus) electronically to the Academic Chair
for distribution and support from Academic Department.
3. Academic Chair initials the proposal upon approval and electronically forwards file
and syllabus to the Campus Dean.
4. Upon approval, the Campus Dean initials the proposal and electronically forwards
file and syllabus to the College Curriculum Committee Chair for posting on the
Curriculum Website.
5. The College Curriculum Chair will electronically forward the files (including
syllabus) to the College Associate Dean for Curriculum and Assessment.
________________________________________________________________________
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Proposed by__Prof. Sam Robertson
Date of Proposal____11/12/14_________
Department/Discipline___English_______________________
Course # ENG 296
Course Title: GREEK MYTHOLOGY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE
I.
RELATIONSHIP TO STUDENTS
A.
*Credit Hours_3_ Contact Hours_3__
Lecture Hours_____
Lab/Studio Hours_____
*See Curriculum Website for Credit/Contact Hours Formula.
B.
Class Size
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Special Topics Course Proposal Form
C.
II.
Course Fees
Lab Fees_____
Course Fees_____
RELATIONSHIP TO MASTER SCHEDULE
A.
**Proposed Semesters Course will run:
Fall_2015___
Winter_____ Spring_2016___
Summer_____
B.
**Projected Termination Date
Fall_(yr.)____
Winter_(yr.)____ Spring_(yr.)____
Summer_(yr.)____
**Special Topics courses may run for only two semesters. Upon the
completion of the second semester, the course must be withdrawn from the schedule
unless it has been re-approved as a Special Topics course or approved as a permanent
course. Under no circumstances may a Special Topics course run for more than four
semesters.
III.
Rationale for Course:
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Special Topics Course Proposal Form
It would be hard to prove, but Ovid’s Metamorphoses has been used as source
material for more English literature than any other book, save The Bible. His last and
most famous work serves as a compendium of all the Greek myths. The stories have
their own sources, but Ovid’s versions have gripped the public fancy since the time they
were published in 8 A.D. And just as they’ve permeated Western culture, so have they
inspired poets and novelists through the centuries. The title of this course may seem
specific, but the material will have broad appeal for our young audience.
Beginning with Chaucer and continuing to the present, the course will show how
writers have used the stories in Metamorphoses for their own purposes. They’ve done so
in a number of ways: by rewriting stories complete, incorporating plot elements,
borrowing themes, or by using patterns and structures as scaffolding for their own stories.
This last technique, described by T.S. Eliot as “manipulating a continuous parallel
between contemporaneity and antiquity” (in a reference to Joyce’s Ulysses and its use of
Homer), has been prevalent in both poetry and fiction of the last century. For
contemporary writers, Ovid’s tales provide a creative bank account, to be drawn on when
the mood or circumstance fits. In my classes at Suffolk, I have noticed that many
students possess some knowledge of Greek myths, and this speaks to these narratives’
persistent place in our culture. The myths do have currency; reading them in a systematic
fashion, and finding out from whence they came, will be fun and instructive. While the
study of Greek and Latin may have disappeared, the fascination with Classical
Mythology has not.
The course also aims to provide insight into how writers approach their craft. The
imagination works by transforming earlier experience (including the reading of texts),
and its new creations are informed by the accumulation of knowledge. For students,
understanding this process opens up whole new ways of thinking. The class will also be
interdisciplinary, as befits an honors course: throughout the semester we will study
artists’ depictions of Ovid’s characters. Not only is Metamorphoses the second most
popular literary source, but it is also perhaps the second most illustrated text.
A note: this offering will be distinct from HUM114 (Mythology) in that we will be close
reading literary texts, and using one author as the principal source for plot and allusion.
IV.
Description of Course:
The class will begin with an introduction to Ovid’s text and its sources. As the
semester unwinds, we will pair specific myths in that text with their updatings or cooptings by subsequent authors. The stories are riveting, as a short list demonstrates:
Hades and Persephone, Tiresias, Pentheus and Bacchus, Perseus and Phineus, Jason and
Medea, Theseus and the Minotaur, Pyramus and Thisbe, Dedalus and Icarus, Tereus and
Philomela, Orpheus and Eurydice, Ulysses and Polyphemus. All together there are over
250 myths, so the problem in this course will be the inevitable omission of favorites.
Authors who have been inspired by the myths include Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower,
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Special Topics Course Proposal Form
William Shakespeare, John Keats, Robert Browning, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Franz
Kafka, Tennessee Williams, and Derek Mahon. Students will see how one set of stories
can relate, again and again, to the experience of humans living in very removed times and
places. Gaining this perspective is akin to seeing how history might be useful for
understanding one’s present surroundings. The more things change (metamorphose), the
more things stay the same.
By choosing a single classical text as the linchpin for a variety of other texts, I
make the course manageable and comprehensive (Metamorphoses itself fits this
description). As well, these stories lend themselves to all kinds of contemporary literary
theory. Feminist and psychoanalytic criticism come immediately to mind, and this gets
to my point: with such archetypal material, it will be easy to spontaneously model
different literary approaches during the course of discussion. Students will get their
vegetables along with the main dish.
V.
Approvals
Department Approval_Dr. Douglas L. Howard______________
Date___2/9/15____________
Academic Chair
Campus Dean Approval George P. Tvelia
Date February 12, 2015
Campus Dean
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9/2006
Special Topics Course Proposal Form
SPECIAL TOPICS • COURSE SYLLABUS
I.
Course Number and Title: ENG 296
Unforgettable Stories: The Influence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses On English
Literature
II.
Description of Course:
The class will begin with an introduction to Ovid’s text and its sources. As the
semester unwinds, we will pair specific myths in that text with their updatings or cooptings by subsequent authors. The stories are riveting, as a short list demonstrates:
Hades and Persephone, Tiresias, Pentheus and Bacchus, Perseus and Phineus, Jason and
Medea, Theseus and the Minotaur, Pyramus and Thisbe, Dedalus and Icarus, Tereus and
Philomela, Orpheus and Eurydice, Ulysses and Polyphemus. All together there are over
250 myths, so the problem in this course will be the inevitable omission of favorites.
Authors who have been inspired by the myths include Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower,
William Shakespeare, John Keats, Robert Browning, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Franz
Kafka, Tennessee Williams, and Derek Mahon. Students will see how one set of stories
can relate, again and again, to the experience of humans living in very removed times and
places. Gaining this perspective is akin to seeing how history might be useful for
understanding one’s present surroundings. The more things change (metamorphose), the
more things stay the same.
By choosing a single classical text as the linchpin for a variety of other texts, I
make the course manageable and comprehensive at the same time (Metamorphoses itself
fits this description). As well, these stories lend themselves to all kinds of contemporary
literary theory. Feminist and psychoanalytic criticism come immediately to mind, and
this gets to my point: with such archetypal material, it will be easy to spontaneously
model different literary approaches during the course of discussion. Students will get
their vegetables along with the main dish.
III.
Course Objectives:
Upon completion of this course students will:
— have familiarized themselves with archetypal (very typical, imitated)
narratives and themes.
— have learned a body of material that has been on syllabi for the last two
millennia (with some intermissions).
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— understand how a piece of literature might inform the creation of a
descendent, yet distinct, work, and how original work thrives with the
accretion of knowledge.
— realize that sometimes the present is best understood through the past, and
that contemporary literature delights in allusions to the past.
— have continued to apply critical acumen to a work of literature, manifested
in written, cogent points of view.
— have learned to write essays that demonstrate knowledge of a primary
text(s), and that incorporate secondary sources. These papers should advance a
main purpose with evidence to support it.
IV. Required Texts and Materials:
The majority of texts will be photocopied.
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Kafka, Metamorphosis
Williams, Orpheus Descending
Many handouts.
Photocopied handouts will be made available throughout the semester, besides poems and
prose excerpts indicated on the syllabus. These include journal articles, news accounts,
and images of paintings. We will view video and listen to recordings, consult internet
sites, and also see one movie, Tristan & Isolde (2006).
V. Assessment of Student Learning:
Quizzes and small assignments will count for 10% of the grade. These are designed to
bring up the grade rather than lower it.
The first essay will count for 20%
The mid-term will count for 20%
The second essay will count for 25%
The final exam will count for 25%
The exams involve, for the most part, short and long essay questions.
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Special Topics Course Proposal Form
VI. Weekly Outline of Topics and Assignments:
Week I: Introduction. Background: sources for Ovid. Readings from Hesiod.
Selections from Metamorphoses.
Week II: More Metamorphoses, historical context. A brief history of the Middle
Ages.
Week III: Coronis and Apollo. Chaucer, The Manciple’s Tale from The Canterbury
Tales.
Week IV: Pyramus and Thisbe. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
Week V: Pythagorus. Milton, “Lycidas”
Week VI: Ovid in art. From Titian to Turner to Picasso. Various stories depicted in
art from the Renaissance to today.
Week VII: Midas, Pan, and Apollo. Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “Ode to a
Nightingale”
Week VIII: Pygmalion. Browning, “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”
Week IX: Daedalus and Icarus. Joyce, episodes from Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man.
Week X: Tiresias. Eliot, The Waste Land.
Week XI: Kafka, Metamorphosis.
Week XII: Orpheus and Eurydice. Williams, Orpheus Descending.
Week XIII: Tireus and Philomela. Mahon, The Hudson Letter.
Week XIV: The Pantheon. Mahon, “Ovid in Tomis.” Duffy, Carson, Armitage, and
other contemporaries.
Week XV: Conclusions.
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