And Welcome to This Introductory Course in Literature

Literature A. Course outline

Hi,

And welcome to this introductory course in Literature.

You will have three teachers in this class:

Magnus Ullén, ; 070-748 27 24

Mark ; and

Maria .

Attendance is compulsory; if for any reason you can’t come to class, please inform the teacher whose class you are missing so that we can give you an appropriate extra-assignment. If you have questions about books and class assignments, you should contact the teacher teaching the book/class – questions of a general nature concerning the course ahould be directed to Magnus.

You prepare for each session by reading the assigned texts on the reading list, and any additionally assigned materials. In preparation for class you should also pick two keywords in each novel read, and send in a reading journal to your teacher. More about that below, under Assignments.

We hope that this Course outline – most of which has been put together by Maria – will help you prepare, and are looking forward to seeing you in class!

Best

Magnus, Mark, and Maria

Contents

Practical matters

Assignments

Lesson plan

In preparation for class

A Note on Plagiarism

Definitions of useful literary terms

Practical matters

Aims

After finishing the course, you should be able to

• independently reflect on and analyze different kinds of literary texts

• discuss how literary works relate to and contrast with each other

• use basic terms and concepts in literary analysis

• write a short coherent literary essay according to specified guidelines (an essay without basic language mistakes)

You should be so familiar with the texts that you are able to

• give examples of characteristic features based on your reading of the texts

• give examples of how different themes and ideas are treated in the texts

Working Language

We read, write and discuss in English, so your group discussions, the seminars when we meet, and all other communication should be in English.

Methods

The literary seminar is the normal way of dealing with literature in a university course in English. The seminar participants discuss, ask questions and share other people’s ideas and views. The seminar gives an opportunity for comparison, reflection and exchange of ideas which is extremely helpful when it comes to understanding works of literature more fully.

You will work with texts in two different ways: individually, and in class. Reading and preparation (keywords and journal entries) are obviously done individually.In class you will be able to take part of what others have found and present your own keywords and ideas about the novels. Discussing the works in class provides you with material for writing about the texts, which takes you back to the individual level again.

Seminar

• take active part in discussions

• bring

questions

discussion topics

keywords

page references

comparisons

your ideas and reactions

Assessment

Your final grade will be based on continuous assessment of your performance during the course. Remember that it is your own responsibility to show your teacher what you are able to do. Effort is valued, so it is more important that you take part in the discussions and voice your ideas than trying to find “correct answers.” However, you should be prepared to support your ideas with textual evidence in the form of quotations from the texts. You will be assessed on the following grounds:

• active participation in seminars

• assignments: reading journal and keywords

• essay

The following aspects are considered

Oral performance: Has the student participated actively through discussions in class? The student’s ability to express herself/himself is taken into account, but also her or his ability and willingness to listen to others, and to engage in dialogue.
Language: Is the student’s language correct? Are there mispronunciations/misspellings? Syntactical errors? Problems with sentence structure? Are the words used appropriate for the occasion? Is the vocabulary rich or poor? Does the speaker/writer properly understand the concepts s/he employs?
Relation to/use of lecture notes: Does the student make use of lecture notes in a productive way, or does s/he tend to merely reproduce what has been said in class? Has s/he correctly understood what has been said, or are there misunderstandings? Are these grave or trifling?
Relation to/use of primary literature: Does the student manifest an ability to analyze literature? Of what kind is her/his observations? Are they supported through quotations and examples, or does the student tend to allege rather than argue?
Relation to/use of secondary literature: Does the student consider the relevant secondary literature of the course, or does there seem to be gaps? Has s/he understood the sources s/he draws on?

Assignments

Keywords

When you read the novels and short stories we expect you to find keywords in the works. A keyword is a word or phrase that is in the novel or short story—it is actually spelled out in the text, not implied—that you feel is quite important or relevant to the story as you read it. The keyword can be quite large and obvious—the title or a part of it, for instance—or something that seems insignificant at first, but becomes more and more meaningful. When you have decided on a keyword, write down a few sentences that show why this word or phrase is significant in the novel or short story. Do not forget to write down the page(s) (in parentheses after the keyword) where the word or the phrase can be found. Please find two keywords in each novel and hand them in at the end of class.

Reading Journal

When you have read a novel, write a paragraph or two about your first thoughts and impressions of the work and send it to your teacher at least one day prior to class (; ; ). Don’t tell us what the novel is about – tell us what you thought about it, and what you thought of while reading it. We will read your journal entries and take them into account, but we will not give any response to them.

Essay

Compare and contrast one aspect of two novels that we have read OR perform a close analysis of a specific passage in one of the novels we have read. Before you begin, read “Advice on the Writing of the Literary Essay.” Deadline: June2, 2009

Lesson plan

A. Mon 20/4 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 12B149 MaUl

B. Tue 21/4 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 3D415 MaUl

Reading as performance: literature, canon, interpretation

Beatles, The. “The Beatles,” a.k.a. “The White Album” (1968).
Didion, Joan. “The White Album.” In The White Album (1979).
Hornby, Nick. High Fidelity (1995).
Marsh, Dave. The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made (1989). – read the five first entries, available online at: ,

and the Preface to the Second edition, available online at:

. If you decide you want to buy the whole book, you can also read entries 11, 83, 501, 788-789, and 951.

B. Tue 28/4 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 3D415 MaUl

A. Wed 29/4 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 12B258 MaUl

Close reading/ How to write a literary essay

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye (1970).

Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.” In the Short Stories-compendium

B. Wed 6/5 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 12B149 MTr

A. Thur 7/5 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 3D415 MTr

Butler, Octavia.Kindred (1979).

B. Wed 15/5 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 12B258 MHT

A. Thur 14/5 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 12B258 MHT

Barker, Pat. Another World (1998).

Hogan,Linda. “Aunt Moon’s Young Man.” In the Short Stories-compendium.

B. Tue 19/5 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 3D415 MTr

A. Wed 20/5 10.15-12/ 13.15-15.00 12B258 MTr

Lapcharoensap, Rattawut.Sightseeing (2006).

B. Mon 25/5 13.15-17.00 12B258 MaUl

A. Tue 26/5 13.15-17.00 12B258 MaUl

Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace (1999).

Please note that additional material from the Short Stories-compendium, which is sold at Studentcentrum, will be assigned for session 6!

Suggestions for further reading

Eagleton, T. Literary Theory. Blackwell.

Hawthorn, J. Studying the Novel. Arnold.

Hopkins, C. Thinking about Texts. Palgrave.

Lodge, D. The Art of Fiction. Penguin.

Peepre/Keinänen. Reading our World. HUP.

In preparation for class

The Beatles, also known as The White Album, tells a story, but critics argue about what that story is. Read the lyrics, listen to the music. What is the album about? Can you make out an overarching narrative? How do the individual songs fit into that story?

Why do you think Joan Didion has called her essay about the 60’s “The White Album”? Would it make sense to call her essay an interpretation of The Beatles? Why/why not?

Find two keywords in Nick Hornby, High Fidelity.

Find two keywords in Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye.

Read the Advice on the Writing of the Literary Essay.

Form and content. Close reading – approaching a text via three questions:

What happens (content)? How is it conveyed (form)? Why is this particular form used to express this particular content?

Find two keywords in OctaviaButler, Kindred

Find two keywords in PatBarker,Another World (1998).

Read Linda Hogan, “Aunt Moon’s Young Man.” How does it make use of setting? How does the narrator affect the story?

Find two keywords in RattawutLapcharoensap,Sightseeing (2006).

Find two keywords in J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace (1999).

A Note on Plagiarism

All of the literary assignments in this course aim to develop your ability to interpret and analyze literature, to read literature closely and draw conclusions based on your reading that you then develop, change, rethink, or discard in the interaction with the other students and the teacher. You are not required, or encouraged, to use secondary sources (books, Internet sites, etc.) about the literature that we read before you write your literary keywords or essays.

However, if for some reason you want to use an idea, information, or phrasing from a secondary source (electronic or printed), you need to give proper credit to this source and acknowledge that the idea or phrasing is not your own. If you fail to do this, you are guilty of plagiarism: that is, intellectual theft and fraud.

As Joseph Gibaldi puts it, “Plagiarism is almost always seen as a shameful act, and plagiarists are usually regarded with pity and scorn. They are pitied because they have demonstrated their inability to develop and express their own thoughts. They are scorned because of their dishonesty and their willingness to deceive others for personal gain” (66). He continues, “The charge of plagiarism is a serious one for all writers. Students exposed as plagiarists suffer severe penalties, ranging from failure in the assignment or in the course to expulsion from school. They must also live with the distrust that follows an attempt to deceive others for personal gain” (67). If you are insecure about what is considered plagiarism, I recommend pp. 66-73 in the MLA Handbook. You are of course welcome to ask me, if you have any questions about how to use secondary sources.

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.

Definitions of useful literary terms

Allusion: a (casual) reference to a famous literary figure or text.

Bildungsroman: the story of a single individual’s growth and development within the context of a defined social order.

Character: an agent with one or more personality traits. A stock character is a stereotyped character (a mad scientist, the absent-minded professor, the cruel mother-in-law); a static character remains the same from the beginning of the plot to the end; and a dynamic (developing) character undergoes permanent change. See also protagonist.

Characterization: A character’s traits, ideas, etc. can be described directly by the narrator or by other characters; they can also be suggested by his or her actions, speeches, or thoughts, or the lack of such in a specific situation.

Epigraph: a quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter, etc.

Genre: A term used to designate the distinct types or categories into which literary works are grouped.

Ideology: a more or less systematic set of ideas, values, and beliefs, which underlies the practices of a society, a class, or some other socially significant group of people.

Imagery: figurative language used to evoke particular mental images, not only in the visual sense, but of sensation and emotion as well.

Examples of kinds of imagery (see also “symbol”):

A simile is a comparison of one thing to another.

“This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning:”

Here The beauty of the morning is said to be like a garment, which the City wears.

Metaphor

Metaphor is a development of simile; the words of comparison (e.g. 'like') are left out, so that one thing is simply substituted for another.

“And all that mighty heart is lying still!”

Here the poet says heart when he is referring to the City; the reader is left to work out for himself the poet's idea that, as the heart is the driving centre of the body, so the City is the driving centre of the whole country.

Personification

Personification is the portrayal of [an animal, an inanimate object, or] an abstraction (idea or feeling) as a living person.

Allegory

Allegory is an organised system of symbols and/or metaphors and/or personifications in which the relationships which exist on a literal level are mirrored by the relationships which exist on the symbolic or metaphorical level. Allegories are too lengthy to illustrate with a quotation, but a good example is John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. In this book, the Pilgrim, who is the hero, travels on a long journey in which he meets many dangers and adventures. Among other things, he struggles up a hill, falls into a swamp (or slough), comes to a place where a man is in prison, and is joined on his journey by another man who encourages him and accompanies him to the very end. The Pilgrim is a symbol of every Christian, the hill is a symbol of difficulty, the slough is a symbol of depression, the man in prison is a symbol of despair, and the loyal companion, whose name is Hopeful, is a personification of hopefulness. All the symbols fit together, just as the ordinary story fits together, so that while The Pilgrim's Progress could be read as a simple adventure story, to appreciate it properly we need to see that, at the same time, it is an allegory of a Christian's journey through this life towards heaven. (“Notes”)

Irony: a term with a range of meanings, all of them involving some sort of discrepancy or incongruity. It should not be confused with sarcasm, which is simply language designed to cause pain. Irony is used to suggest the difference between expectation and fulfillment, the complexity of experience, to furnish indirectly an evaluation of the material, and at the same time to achieve compression. Verbal irony: the opposite is said from what is intended. Dramatic irony: the contrast between what a character says and what the reader knows to true. Irony of situation: discrepancy between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate.

Narrative: a text that presents a series of events that form a meaningful pattern. These events, together with character and setting, constitute the story

Narrator: the agent who tells or “shows” a story. Some narratives are told in retrospect by a character employing a first-person perspective. Other narratives are told by a narrator external to the story, who may or may not refer to him-or herself as “I.” Such external narrators can be omniscient, that is, have access to the minds of all the characters, or have limited mental access to the inner view of only one character. An external narrator may possess particular identifiable personality traits, or may lack such individualizing attributes.

Plot: the sequence of events or incidents of which the story is composed.

Point of view: the perspective from which a story is told, narrative perspective. Different kinds of points of views are the

omniscient - a story told by the narrator, using the third person; her/his knowledge, control, and prerogatives are unlimited.
limited omniscient - a story in which the third-person narrator associates with a major or minor character.

first person - the story is told by a character using the first person "I".
objective or dramatic - the opposite of the omniscient; displays authorial objectivity; compared a roving sound camera. Very little of the past or the future is given; the story is set in the present.

Protagonist: the protagonist is the central character, sympathetic or unsympathetic. The forces working against her/him, whether persons, things, conventions of society, or traits of their own character, are the antagonists.

Setting: the space in which the events of the story take place: The elements which go to make up a setting are a) the geographical location, the scenery; b) the time in history when the action takes place, the season, etc.; and c) the general environment of the characters: the social, moral, and emotional conditions surrounding them.

Structure: the organization of a text understood as the way its component parts, such as events and characters, are related to each other.

Symbol: a literary symbol means more than what it is. It has layers of meanings. Whereas an image has one meaning, a symbol has many. Names and objects can be used as symbols. The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is to be taken symbolically -symbols nearly always signal their existence by emphasis, repetition, or position. The meaning of a literary symbol must be established and supported by the entire context of the story. A symbol has its meaning inside not outside story. To be called a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning different in kind from its literal meaning.

Theme: a central, dominating, or controlling idea in a literary text.

Definitions of literary terms are based on

PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide. 7 Jan. 2004.

“Notes on Literary Techniques.” Department of English Literature, The University of Edinburgh. 7 Jan. 2004

and a list of literary terms used in the undergraduate classes at UppsalaUniversity