ENGLISH 2850H: GREAT WORKS OF LITERATURE II
Baruch College, Fall 2013
Monday & Wednesday, 12:25-2:05, VC 3-145
Professor Cheryl C. Smith
Office: VC 6-249 Office phone: 646-312-3973 (I don’t check messages every day)
Email: cheryl.smith@baruch.cuny.edu (the best way to reach me)
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 11-12, Thursday 12-1 and by appointment
Required Texts
The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 3rd Edition. Package 2 (volumes D, E, F)
Bring your text to class!
Course Objectives
English 2850 will introduce you to a selection of literature from 1650 to the present, covering a number of
major literary genres and examining works from around the world. You will study the historical and cultural
contexts of the pieces we read and learn about literary themes, techniques, and terminology. In the process,
English 2850 will help you develop advanced reading and analytical capabilities. You will also hone your
creative thinking and writing skills. This is a communication-intensive course that requires active class
participation, oral presentations, frequent writing, group work, and peer review. Through these activities you
will develop:
 The ability to interpret meaning in literary texts by paying close attention to an author’s choice of
detail, vocabulary, and style;
 The ability to discuss the relationship between different genres of literary texts and the multicultural
environments from which they spring;
 Increased confidence in offering a critical evaluation and appreciation of a literary work’s strengths
and limitations;
 Increased confidence in the oral presentation of ideas; and
 Increased ability to write critical essays employing a strong thesis statement, appropriate textual
citations, and contextual and inter-textual evidence for your ideas.
Course Requirements
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Reading Responses/Quizzes: We will have occasional informal reading quizzes (short answers to
questions about the day’s reading). These quizzes will be mostly unannounced and can occur on any
class day. For some of these quizzes, you will be allowed to reference your text. Remember to have
your book with you so you’re prepared not only to participate in class discussions but also to write. If
you’re absent or late on the day of an in-class essay/quiz, you will receive a grade of zero. There are
no make-ups for in-class writing assignments, but I will drop your lowest quiz grade.
Blog Posts: Once during the semester, you will sign up to compose a blog post in response to the day’s
reading. You will be the “go-to” person in class that day (I will ask you to launch the discussion,
facilitate, respond to a question, etc). You will also have to respond to three of your classmates’ posts
on three days of your choosing (with some guidelines). More information to follow.
Short Essay: You will write a short essay comparing two works of literature. A revision of Essay 1 will
be optional, recommended, or required. More information to follow.
Review: You will attend a theatrical or musical event or art installation that you can relate—in an
interesting/creative/relevant way—to one or more readings from our course. Within one week of the
event you attend, you will write a 2-page review, including some reference to at least one of our
readings that you can relate to the event/installation, and you will briefly and informally present on
your experience to the class. You must submit (by email) the event/installation you plan to attend and
the date you will attend no later than Oct 2; the review is due no later than Dec 2. You must contact
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me by email no later than Sep 27 if you need an extension on the Oct 2 deadline (no extensions on the
Dec. 2 due date for the review).
In-class Essay Exam: on the course readings up to that point.
Final Project and Presentation: You will develop a final project on the course materials and present it
to the class during the final exam period. The final project will require various short assignments
leading up to a capstone project. While not a traditional academic essay, the project will involve an
essay, or some significant writing, and creative work (a multi-media project, some visual or aural text,
creative writing, etc). You will be provided with an assignment sheet and options.
Late work is not accepted. You are responsible for handing in, on time, any work assigned or due
during any absence.
Attendance: Every absence beyond three will lower your course grade by one half step (an A- becomes a B+, a
B+ becomes a B). I do not give excused absences since you have up to three absences to use at your discretion.
Still, if you know you will miss a class (e.g. for a religious holiday or event of personal importance), let me
know as much in advance as possible. Class will begin and end at the scheduled time and late arrivals and early
departures are very disruptive. Therefore, every two late arrivals or early departures will count as one
absence. If you arrive late to class, it is your responsibility to speak with me at the end of the session to make
sure you are recorded present and to find out any information you may have missed. Any time you are late or
depart early by more than fifteen minutes, you will be counted absent. Students with more than 4 absences
will be required to speak with me privately and will be subject to a WU grade.
From the official Baruch College attendance policy: “If a freshman or sophomore is absent in excess of twice the
number of class sessions per week, the instructor must give the student a WU grade, which counts as an F. The
instructor may give a junior or senior a WU grade if he/she has excessive absences. Attendance and lateness clearly
play a role in class participation. Instructors have the right to weigh attendance, lateness, and class participation in
determining grades.”
Participation and Reading: This is not a large lecture course where you can remain anonymous; regular
attendance and active participation are required for success in this class. You have to complete reading
assignments before class so that you are always prepared to participate in discussions and do the in-class
writing assignments. In addition, on many occasions you will be given time in class to work individually or in
groups to respond to some questions about the text, develop an interpretation, and present your ideas back
to the class. If you have not done the reading, this kind of work will be painful, if not impossible.
Grading: Your course grade will be calculated according to the following breakdown:
 Reading Responses/Quizzes = 10%
 Blog Posts = 10%
 Short Essay I (first draft and possible revision) = 20%
 Review = 15%
 In-class Essay Exam = 15%
 Final Project (including proposal, stage 1, and complete final version) and Presentation= 30%
Academic Honesty: Anyone caught cheating on a quiz, test, or any assignment or plagiarizing will fail the course
immediately and be referred to the college for further disciplinary action. Plagiarism occurs when you claim to be
the originator or producer of words, opinions, facts or numbers that belong to an author whose work you found
online or in a book, magazine or newspaper. All the work you submit for this class must be original work you
produced explicitly for this class, unless otherwise agreed upon between professor and student. For more
information on Baruch College’s honesty policy: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.htm
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Accommodations Policy: Baruch College is committed to making individuals with disabilities full participants in its
programs, services, and activities through compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. It is the policy of Baruch College that no otherwise qualified
individual with a disability shall be denied access to or participation in any program, service, or activity offered by
the university. Individuals with disabilities have a right to request accommodations. If you require any special
assistance or accommodation, please let me know as soon as you can, ideally during the first three weeks of the
semester.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Read selections for the day they appear on the syllabus; always bring that day’s reading to class.
Week 1
Wed Aug 28
 Introduction to the course
 Reading: “The Enlightenment in Europe and the Americas” and “What is Enlightenment?” (pages 91104) and Kant, “What is Enlightenment” (1784) (pages 105-109)
Week 2
Mon Sep 2 and Wed Sep 4
No classes scheduled.
Week 3
Mon Sep 9
 Reading: Jean-Baptiste Molière, Tartuffe (1664). Read the entire play by today.
Wed Sep 11
 Reading: Tartuffe, continued
Week 4
Mon Sep 16
 Reading: “Early Modern Japanese Popular Literature” (585-590) and Ihara Saikaku, “Life of a Sensuous
Woman” (1686)
Wed Sep 18
 Reading: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Poems 145 & 164 and “Philosophical Satire” (17th century) and all
the selections in “The World of Haiku” (pages 613-631)
Week 5
Mon Sep 23
 Reading: Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, Epistle I (1733-34)
Wed Sep 25
 Reading: Akinari, “Bewitched” (1776) (available for download from the class blog)
Week 6
Mon Sep 30
 Reading: “An Age of Revolutions in Europe and the Americas” (3-15) and John Keats, “When I Have
Fears that I May Cease to Be,” “Bright Star” (1819), “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (1820) and “Ode to a
Nightingale” (1817)
 Essay I due
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Wed Oct 2
 Reading: Emily Dickinson, read all the poems included in the anthology (pages 482-490) and Christina
Rossetti, “After Death,” “Winter: My Secret,” and “Goblin Market”
 Submission of event or installation for review assignment due no later than today
Week 7
Mon Oct 7
 Reading: Herman Melville, Bartleby, The Scrivener (1853)
Wed Oct 9
 Reading: Charles Baudelaire, from The Flowers of Evil: “To the Reader,” “A Carcass” and “Song of
Autumn I”; from Paris Spleen: “Windows” and “Anywhere out of the World” (1850s and 60s)
Week 8
Mon Oct 14
No classes scheduled.
Tue Oct 15
Baruch follows a Monday class schedule this Tuesday
 Reading: “Realism Across the Globe” (625-630) and Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886)
Wed Oct 16
 Reading: The Death of Ivan Ilyich continued
 Revision of Essay 1 due
Week 9
Mon Oct 21
 Reading: Rabindranath Tagore, “Punishment” (1893) and “Kabuliwala” (1894)
 Final Project brainstorming and prep (during this week and next)
Wed Oct 23
 Reading: Lu Xun, “Diary of a Madman” (1918) and “Medicine” (1919)
Week 10
Mon Oct 28
 Reading: Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1915)
 Final Project Proposal due
Wed Oct 30
 Reading: The Metamorphosis, continued
Week 11
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Mon Nov 4
 Essay Exam
Wed Nov 6
 Reading: Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” (1928)
Week 12
Mon Nov 11
 Reading: Federico Garcia Lorca, “Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías” (1935) and Pablo Neruda,
“Tonight I Can Write” (1924), “Walking Around” (1935) and “I’m Explaining a Few Things” (1936)
Wed Nov 13
 Reading: Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of the Forking Paths” (1941) and Julio Cortazar, “House Taken
Over” (1946)
Week 13
Mon Nov 18
 Reading: Zhang Ailing, “Sealed Off” (1943)
Wed Nov 20
 Final Project Stage 1 due
 Reading: V.S. Naipaul, “One Out of Many” (1971) and Niyi Osundare “Ambiguous Legacy, “Berlin,” and
“Day of the Cat” (Osundare poems found on pages 1201-07)
Week 14
Mon Nov 25
 Reading: Salman Rushdie, “The Perforated Sheet” (1980)
 Final Project prep
Wed Nov 27
No class: Baruch follows a Friday schedule today.
 Happy Thanksgiving
Week 15
Mon Dec 2
 Reading: Nawal El Saadawi, “In Camera” (1980) and Hanan Al-Shaykh, “The Women’s Swimming Pool”
(1982)
 Last day to hand in the Review assignment
Wed Dec 4
 Reading: Toni Morrison, “Recitatif” (1983) and Junot Diaz, “Drown” (1996)
Week 16
Mon Dec 9
 Reading: Chu T’ien-Hsin, “Man of La Mancha” (1994) and Orhan Pamuk, “To Look Out the Window”
(1999)
Wed Dec 11
 Final Project due
 Final Project presentations begin
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Final Project Presentations will occur on the last day of class (Dec. 11) and during our scheduled exam time,
which is Wednesday December 18, 1-3pm.
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