COM 1102: WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

Spring 2009

Dr. Perdigao

class time: M W F 10:00 am

office hours: M W F 2:00-2:50 pm

M 4:00-5:00 pm

office: 626 Crawford

phone: 321-674-8370

email:

website: my.fit.edu/~lperdiga

Required Texts:

Michael Meyer, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 8th ed.

Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides

Introduction:

In this course, we will examine various literary forms—fiction, poetry, drama, and film—with a focus on issues of identity. In these texts, we will investigate how writers represent the self, how they use language to articulate race, class, and gender differences, and, ultimately, find meaning. As we explore the relationship between language and identity we will examine how memory reconstructs experience and revises the notion of the self. In your papers, you will draw on the connections between the works, using different approaches to better understand what is at stake in each of these works of self-discovery and “othering.” As readers and writers, we will look at what these literary worlds tell us about our own lives and how we see ourselves.

Policies and Procedures

Grading:

First Essay 20%

Second Essay 20%

Third Essay 20%

Quizzes 10%

Presentation 10%

Final Exam (Wednesday, May 6 from 8-10 am) 20%

A quiz will focus on the assigned reading(s). The quiz may be announced the day before class or be a “pop quiz.” As a result, regular attendance is mandatory; make-up quizzes are unlikely.

Each essay consists of 3-4 pages written in MLA format and includes a works cited page. All essays must be typed; use a standard 12-point font with margins of approximately 1¼ inches (about 250-300 words per page). Essays are due at the beginning of class on the due dates. Students are required to submit their papers to www.turnitin.com on the assigned date; failure to submit the paper to turnitin.com on the due date or to turn in the hard copy the following class will lead to a failure of the assignment. Our class ID is 2566110 and the password is Buffy.

For the presentation you will select a text to present to the class, a text that connects with/expands on issues we have discussed this semester. Consider offering this text as an addition to the syllabus, a “recommended” reading for COM 1102: Writing About Literature. This text might be a short story, a poem, a play, a song, a film, a television episode, a piece of artwork… anything that represents one/many of the issues we have discussed. You will have 10-15 minutes (for an individual or a pair) to present your text, your “lesson” (a way of reading it/offering connections to other texts), to the class. If you select a scene from a film, keep the scene to about 5 minutes so that you have time to discuss your close reading. The text you select may directly connect to one of the works we have discussed or more broadly speak to a larger theme.

Academic Dishonesty will be handled in accordance with Humanities and Communication Department policy. Cheating and plagiarism will result in failure of assignment and/or failure of course and will be reported to the Dean of Students and recorded in your permanent student file. Dishonest conduct may lead to formal disciplinary proceedings. Be certain that you are familiar with Florida Tech’s academic dishonesty policy (www.fit.edu/current/plagiarism.pdf).

Cell phone policy: If your phone rings, if you try to make an outgoing call or text messages are sent or received (translation: basically any variation of playing with your phone when you should be paying attention) you are responsible for bringing donuts (or an acceptable alternative) to the following class.

Attendance is required. Absenteeism and tardiness will adversely affect your final grade. Excessive absenteeism could lead to failure of the course. You are responsible for all of the work you miss.

1/12 Introduction

1/14 Critical Strategies (2079-2102)

1/16 Writing about Fiction (47-66)

Plot (67-68; 73-76)

Stephen King, “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away” (handout)

Andre Dubus, “Killings” (107-120)

A.L. Bader, “Nothing Happens in Modern Short Stories” (121-122)

______1/19 Martin Luther King Jr. Day—no class

1/21 Character (123-130 [top])

Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (438-456)

Claire Kahane, “The Function of Violence in O’Connor’s Fiction” (489)

Setting (182-184)

1/23 E. Annie Proulx, “55 Miles to the Gas Pump” (563-564)

William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” (95-106)

______

1/26 Point of View (218-223)

Amy Bloom, “By-and-by” (667-673)

1/28 Symbolism (270-273)

David Updike, “Summer” (375-380)

Susan Minot, “Lust” (349-356)

Mordecai Marcus, “What Is an Initiation Story?” (296)

Questions for Writing (381-387)

1/30 Brian Aldiss, “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long”

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.01/ffsupertoys_pr.html

On Writing: Constructing the Text (612-613)

Mark Twain, “The Story of the Good Little Boy” (607-611)

______

2/2 Tim O’Brien, “How to Tell a True War Story” (616-627)

2/4 On Writing: Experiments in Prose

Margaret Atwood, “There Was Once” (613-616)

Don DeLillo, “Videotape” (627-631)

Reading and Writing (2113-2171)

2/6 Short Fiction

______

2/9 Short Fiction

2/11 Writing About Poetry (820-822)

Richard Wakefield, “In a Poetry Workshop” (1257-1258)

Mark Halliday, “Graded Paper” (1255-1256)

Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro” (894)

2/13 Tom Wayman, “Did I Miss Anything?” (1258-1259)

Billy Collins, “Introduction to Poetry” (790)

Thomas Lux, “The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently” (818-819)

First Essay Due: Hard Copy Due in Class, Document Submitted to www.turnitin.com

______

2/16 President’s Day—no class

2/18 T.E. Hulme, “On the Differences between Poetry and Prose” (897)

Jeffrey Harrison, “Fork” (1260-1262)

Jeffrey Harrison, “On ‘Fork’ as a Work of Fiction” (1262-1263)

2/20 Word Choice, Word Order, Tone (829-836)

Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est” (886-887)

Mark Jarman, “Ground Swell”

http://my.fit.edu/~lperdiga/Ground%20swell.pdf

______

2/23 Figures of Speech (898-907)

Sylvia Plath, “Mirror” (912)

Claribel Alegría, “I Am Mirror” (1301-1303)

2/25 Symbol, Allegory, & Irony (922-928)

Jim Stevens, “Schizophrenia” (915)

Octavio Paz, “The Street” (1308-1309)

Robert Frost, “Acquainted with the Night” (923)

2/27 No class

______

3/2 Spring Break—no class

3/4 Spring Break—no class

3/6 Spring Break—no class

______

3/9 Sounds (949-961)

Langston Hughes (1157-1167), “Lenox Avenue: Midnight” (1173-1174)

Patterns of Rhythm (980-984)

Hughes, “Formula” (1172-1173)

3/11 Poetic Forms (1004-1009)

Open Form (1034)

Hughes, “The Weary Blues” (1170-1171); “Song for a Dark Girl” (1174)

Kanye West, “My Way Home” (805)

3/13 Poetry Workshop

Three Translations of a Poem by Pablo Neruda (868-871): Neruda, “Verbo” (869); “Word” (869-870); “Word” (870); “Verb” (871)

______

3/16 Poetry Workshop

3/18 Poetry

3/20 Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie (1976-2000 [Scenes I-V])

Second Essay Due: Hard Copy Due in Class, Document Submitted to www.turnitin.com

______

3/23 Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie (2000-2021 [Scenes VI, VII])

Tennessee Williams, “Production Notes to The Glass Menagerie” (2022-2023)

3/25 Drama

3/27 David Auburn, Proof (handout: 1969-1996 [Act I])

http://my.fit.edu/~lperdiga/proof.pdf

______

3/30 David Auburn, Proof (handout: 1996-2017 [Act II])

http://my.fit.edu/~lperdiga/proof.pdf

4/1 Proof

4/3 Big Fish

Andrew Hudgins, “Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead” (1024-1025)

______

4/6 Big Fish

4/8 Drama

4/10 Drama

______

4/13 Arrangements

Reading: Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (3-47)

4/15 The Glass Panes

Reading: VS (48-93 [top])

4/17 Exhibition

Reading: VS (93-140)

______

4/20 Reading the Signs

Reading: VS (141-185 [bottom])

4/22 “Time to write them off”

Reading: VS (185-216)

4/24 Scapegoats and Seers

Reading: VS (217-249)

Third Essay Due: Hard Copy Due in Class, Document Submitted to www.turnitin.com

______

4/27 Adaptation

4/29 Conclusions

______

5/6 Final Exam (8-10 am)