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LITERATURE
HUMANITIES
HAM 407, TR 4:10-6:00 |
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Syllabus
Course
This course is designed to familiarize you with some of the outstanding literary texts in the Western tradition, from Homer to Virginia Woolf. The focus will be on a critical engagement with these texts which will address both their enduring relevance and their potential alterity from the modern world. How do these works reflect the audiences for which they were initially created, and what new and different meanings have emerged in the process of their canonization by later readers? What particular values are embedded in individual texts, and how are these in turn transformed into (and possibly transcended as) Literature? To what extent do these texts create and uphold traditional value systems, and to what degree, inversely, can they be said to question and subvert just these values?
These and other questions will be addressed through a practice of close reading, minute attention to the text, and in-depth interpretation. We will pay particular attention to the rhetorical devices and narrative strategies by which texts attain their ends. How is language used to produce certain effects, impressions, convictions? to model thoughts, construct values, convey ideas, persuade readers? What, in particular, is the function of story-telling in any given text or social setting? Does narrative have social, juridical, moral, and intellectual functions over and beyond its capacity to retell events for the purpose of entertainment?
The critical engagement with the texts will take the form of class discussions and debate, in which everyone is expected to participate. Careful reading of the works prior to class is essential preparation.
Required Texts
Most of the required texts can be purchased at the Columbia University Bookstore (on 115th & BW): Virgil, Aeneid; Saint Augustine, Confessions; Dante, Inferno; Boccaccio, Decameron; Montaigne, Essays; Shakespeare, King Lear; Cervantes, Don Quixote; Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment; Woolf, To the Lighthouse.
In addition, three more required texts have been ordered at Labyrinths (112th b/w BW & Amst.):
Christine de Pizan: The Book of the City of Ladies (Persea Books)
Voltaire: Candide (Oxford UP)
Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities (Harvest)
Assignments
Only two papers will be assigned this semester: the first should be at least 6 pages long, and the final paper about 8 pages. Guidelines and topics will be handed out in class and posted on the website.
In addition, each student will be asked to present an in-class 10-15 min. analysis of a short passage. The choice of the passage is entirely free; however, the text chosen should be relevant to the work as a whole. The presentation should be given during the class meeting devoted to the work in question. N.B. It should under no circumstances exceed 15 minutes.
An in-class mid-term will take place on Thursday Mar. 12. A final exam common to all sections will be held on Friday May 10, 12:30-3:30.
The E-Bulletin
In addition to graded written work, you will also be expected to post a reading reaction on our electronic bulletin board once a week before class: i.e. before noon (so I and other class members have time to read it) either on Tuesday or Thursday. This comment should be short (one paragraph max), clear, and to the point, addressing one particular point or problem in the text that you would like to see discussed in class. This will factor into your participation grade.
The bulletin board can be reached by typing the following address into your browser: https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/bboard/021/huma1002-048. You can also follow the link from the course homepage at www.columbia.edu/itc/french/blix/lithum48, or by finding our section (no. 48) in the online course bulletin.
Attendance
If for any reason you need to be absent from a class meeting, please warn me ahead of time, not afterwards; and in case of sickness (or other unforeseen circumstances), be sure to bring in a written excuse from the health services. No more than 4 absences per semester are tolerated; beyond that, your grade me be penalized.
Grades
Your course grade will be broken up in the following way—notice that class participation factors into the final evaluation:
Paper 1 (6p) 10%
Paper 2 (8p) 20%
Class Presentation 15%
Participation 10%
Midterm 15%
Final 30%
Office Hours
I will have offfice hours twice a week this semester, both times in the Butler café (and not, as before, in Philosophy). Time to be determined later. Feel free to just stop by. You can also arrange a meeting by appointment if you are unable to make it during regular office hours.