Jackson State Community College
ENGL 2310, World Lit I
Instructor:
Ms. Sara M. McIntosh, Office C239
Office Hours: MW 10-1; TR 8-9:15, 11-12:15
Email: smcintosh2@jscc.edu
Phone: 731.424.3520, x. 408
Plato
I. Course Description:
A survey of selected world literature from ancient times to the early seventeenth century.
Literature courses may be taken in any order. (Prerequisite: ENG 1010; Recommended: ENG
1020.)
II. Textbooks:
Lawall, et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Package 1 (Vols. A, B, and C);
ISBN 978-0-393-92453-4
III. Course Objectives:
This course should allow you to
A. Acquire a broad background of our literary, philosophic, and religious heritage.
B. Become acquainted with specific literary works, terminology, techniques, and
periods.
C. Recognize the common core of human values and concerns that transcend
boundaries of time and space.
D. Understand literary works in the context of the period in which they were written.
E. Relate the themes of literary works to ourselves and others.
Students will also strengthen their critical and analytical reading skills, using their own analyses
of the readings to present thoughtful written assessments of the literature. Employing skills for
literary research writing is also a focus of this course, and students will be expected to write
well researched, coherent, thoughtful, and grammatically/technically sound arguments in
reaction to assigned class readings.
IV. Attendance Policy:
A. This is a web class, so you will be required to demonstrate your “attendance” by meeting
the specified deadlines for the readings, by taking appropriate quizzes on or before the
deadlines, by posting discussions in the expected time frame they cover, and by turning
in all your work per the course schedule.
a. Late Work—Quizzes that do not meet the deadline will be given a score of 0. I
will not accept emailed quizzes nor will I be able to change any deadlines;
however, if there is an extenuating circumstance or emergency, I can make
concessions if I deem necessary for the individual, but it is your responsibility to
let me know. Any papers not posted by the deadline in the drop box will also
receive a score of 0. It is your responsibility to ensure you post necessary work by
the deadlines.
V. Plagiarism:
According to the Jackson State Community College Catalog and Student Handbook, you “commit
plagiarism if you submit as your own work: a. part or all of an assignment copied or paraphrased
from another person’s manuscript, notes, or talk (lecture); b. part or all of an assignment copied
or paraphrased from anything published” (21).
Quotation marks and properly documented sources are required when integrating outside
sources in academic papers, and we will clearly go over plagiarism in this course. However, the
penalty for using a friend’s paper, obtaining a paper through the Internet, recycling other course
assignments, or otherwise claiming someone else’s work as your own will be a failing grade for
the assignment and possibly the course. Disciplinary action may be taken in addition to a failing
course grade.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me because I want to help you. Claiming
ignorance on plagiarism will not be a viable excuse towards the end of the semester, so I would
strongly encourage you to ask me questions, refer to the resources I provide either on Elearn or
from the text, or seek clarification from the Writing Center regarding any problems, issues, or
concerns you have about your own potential issues with plagiarism.
Plagiarism on an exam or an essay will result in automatic failure of the assignment with
the potential of also failing the course.
VI. Disability Policy:
Any student with a disability is encouraged to inform me if he or she wishes the college to make
appropriate accommodations. You may also contact Linda Nickell in the Counseling Office
(Student Union Building) at 425-2616.
VII. Grading Policy:
A—90-100
B—80-89
C—70-79
D—60-69
F—0-59
Research Paper #1
15%
Research Paper #2 15%
Midterm Exam
20%
Quizzes
20%
Discussions
10%
Final Exam
20%
___________________________________
100%
Papers—You will be required to write 2 research papers. Paper #1 is due the week before the
midterm exam, and it will account for 15% of you grade. Paper #2 is due the week before the
final (specific dates will be posted). Each of the papers will be at least 5 pages in length and will
be required to cite at least 3 scholarly sources. The research should be cited according to MLA
format. Papers without in-text citations (aka parenthetical citations) or a works cited page will
receive a 0% because failure to attribute your source material (even when paraphrased) is a
blatant form of plagiarism. I will post assignment requirements later on, and papers must be
submitted to the dropbox on Elearn. Please use Microsoft Word to format papers.
Quizzes—At least one essay response quiz will be given for each section. You will be expected
to respond to the question in detail, providing textual evidence to support your responses. I
expect at least a well-developed paragraph for each quiz. I will grade your response with a score
from 1 to 10, 10 being perfect, 1 being bad news. Collectively, these quizzes will comprise a
significant portion of your grade, 20%. If you choose to plagiarize on a quiz, you will receive a 0
the first time. If you choose to plagiarize on a quiz a second time, you will receive fail the course.
Discussion board postings—You cannot escape the discussion component of this class! You
must post at least two comments per section to receive a satisfactory score for this aspect of the
class. Discussion postings will comprise 10% of your grade. For each section, I will provide a
discussion topic or a question, and hopefully you will respond with comments and questions of
your own. I also encourage you to respond to your classmates’ comments as well (once again,
use the “reply” option to respond). A person must consider a multitude of views to truly
appreciate literature and its universal, transcendent appeal.
Midterm and Final Exams—The midterm accounts for 20% of your grade, as does the final.
These exams will consist of an essay section (50%) and question section (50%). The final exam
is not cumulative.
VIII. READING SCHEDULE
Section 1
1/13-1/17
Introduction to course.
Quiz over syllabus
Diagnostic essay (will count as a quiz grade,
but I expect a 2-3 page essay response). Do
not stress over this essay!!! The question will
be about the syllabus and your feelings—no
studying or stressing necessary! You will
have 2 hours to complete this quiz.
Section 2
1/18-1/23
“The Invention of Writing and the Earliest
Literatures,” p 3-6
Gilgamesh, p 10-41
Genesis 6-9, p 60-63
Section 3
1/24-1/30
“Ancient Greece and the Formation of the
Western Mind,” p 105-111
Homer, The Iliad, p 114-225
Section 4
1/31-1/206
Aristotle, From Poetics, p 799-803
Sophocles, Oedipus the King, p 612-658
Section 5
2/07-2/13
Aristophanes, Lysistrata, entire play
Section 6
2/14-2/20
“Poetry and Thought in Early China,” p 805809
Chinese poetry, p 805-820
Confucius, From Analects, p 820-832
“India’s Heroic Age,” p 881-886
From The Bhagavad-Gita, p 1010-1028
Section 7
2/21-2/27
“The Roman Empire,” p 1041-1043
Catullus, all poems, p 1046-1051
Virgil, The Aeneid, p 1052-1134
Section 8
2/28-3/06
“The Rise of Islam and Islamic Literature,”
p 1419-1423
The Koran, p 1426-41 (sections 1, 4, and 5)
The Thousand and One Nights, p 1566-1618
Section 9
3/07-3/13
No reading scheduled for this section.
Work on midterm essay and study for
midterm exam
Take midterm exam
Section 10
3/14-3/20
“The Formation of a Western Literature,”
p 1621-1623
Beowulf, p 1626-1702
Section 11
3/21-3/27
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, p 2045-2119
Section 12
3/28-4/03
“The Renaissance in Europe,” p 2465-2472
Petrarch, all selections, p 2476-2490; other
sonnets (to be posted)
Machiavelli, p 2517-2534
Section 13
4/04-4/10
Shakespeare, p 2821-2828
Othello, p 2919-2996
Section 14
4/11-4/17
Milton, Paradise Lost, p 2996-3060
Section 15
4/18-4/24
No reading scheduled for this section.
Work on final essay
Study for final exam
Take final exam