Spring Semester, 2008 (Syllabi available for each class)
Introduction to Literature 2003-004; 012
Modern and Contemporary Drama, 3433-01
Renaissance Drama, 4183-5183
Tough Love: for basic class requirements, meaning absences and my class policies, FOR ALL MY CLASSES, please click here
Fall Semester, 2007:
Shakespeare Survey, ENG 3233
11:00 - 11:50, MWF, RM 303
The Signet edition has been ordered
Romeo and Juliet
Henry V
The Merchant of Venice
Othello
Macbeth
The Tempest
For a more specific, day-by-day syllabus, click here
Introduction to Literature 2
2013 -- sections 005 and 007
1:00 - 1:50 MWF; Rm 301 2:00 - 2:50 MWF ; Rm 316A
The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Edition 6, Volume 2 (please note: more recent editions are available but the Sixth edition remains different. The one chosen for this class has a red cover with a self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh on the cover).
For the syllabi of these courses, click here
Drama:
Hedda Gabler: Henrik Ibsen
Endgame: Samuel Beckett
Mother Courage Bertolt Brecht
Fiction/Narrative:
"The Odor of Chrysanthemums"
"The Metamorphosis: Kafka
"Flowering Judas": K. A. Porter
"Spotted Horses": W. Faulkner
"The Guest": Camus
"Death Constant Beyond Love": G. Marquez
"The Dead":
J. Joyce (Film)
Poetry:
"The Grief of a Girl's Heart": Trans. by Lady Gregory
"Prose Poem": Baudelaire
Ode on Intimations of Immortality: William Wordsworth
"Ode to a Nightingale": J.
Keats
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": T. S. Eliot
Will you need to read some sample papers for your assignments this semester? If so, please go to Sample Papers for a list (I suggest beginning with the "The J Writer: God's Favorite Metaphor"; it has notes on the basic argument paper, based upon material that most of us know.
The Introduction to Literature classes require quizzes on any of the works on the syllabus, as of the first day listed on the syllabus; in addition, you'll have a midterm, a post-midterm, and a final examination. Then, you have the option of doing two short papers (the first, 3 to 5 pages on a work on the syllabus, due at the midterm examination, with the second paper, again, 3 to 5 pages due the last class of the semester. But if you choose to do 1 paper, it should be 5 to 8 pages, due the last day of classes. If you wish help with your writing, I recommend the 2 papers; however, if you're tired, have many assignments during mid-term week, etc., I suggest that you see me and let me help you with 1 paper. But start early: don't wait until the last minute. And if you need for me to look at your thesis statement to see if it's narrowed, focused, and "doable" in a short paper, then give me at least one class before I get it back to you. Write it down in the formula of "I intend to argue that ____________, because _________." Once you fill in that "scaffolding" for a good thesis, let me take it home and make notes before I return it; please don't ask me to do it quickly, on the "fly," or in between classes. Plan ahead and I'll be happy to help you.
As for quizzes, I ask 5 or 6 questions that would tell me if you read the work--it's based on your reading. Tests will be explained, material reviewed, and the format explained prior to the test, with time enough for you to study from review and suggestions.
Of course, the greatest problem I encounter remains absenteeism. You need to review the Undergraduate Handbook, which states that no freshman or sophomore student may miss more than twice the number of classes per week (in this instance, 6). I hold firm to this rule. Should you have an excused reason for missing, an athletic event, etc., it DOESN'T MATTER with regard to missed classes. I'll let you make up whatever you missed; however, there are 42 classes this term; you cannot expect a passing grade if you aren't in class for at least 36: NO OTHER RULES APPLY. If you aren't physically present for the above number, you haven't taken the class. Complain elsewhere, not to me. I'll help you all I can, but I have no sympathy for those who aren't in class. And, forbid that you have a terrible accident or personal problem, but, if so, drop the class and take it another, less difficult time. In my years of teaching, the above problem rears its ugly head more often than any problem I've encountered; thus, I'm armed.
