Introduction to Narrative: English 105

Introduction to Narrative: English 105 W-05

M/W 2-3:15 2206 Humanities

Instructor: Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater

Intern: Sean Donoho

Phone: 334-3280

Email:

Office: Humanities 3324

Office Hours: Wed. 12-2, Tue. 12-2

Course Description:

Introduction to Narrative (3:3) GE Core: GLT/ Critical reading and analysis of American and British novels, short stories and narrative poems. Attention to historical, cultural, and literary backgrounds as appropriate.

This course is writing intensive which means that participants will be provided with opportunities for informal writing practice as well as feedback and revision opportunities for the two formal papers.

Learning Goals: At the end of this English 105 class students should be able to:

Read critically and discuss elements of narrative structure in texts, films, and songs

Understand the rhetorical aspects of speaker, audience and context in readings

Write about the significance of narratives in different contexts (historical, cultural, political, social)

Write coherently and persuasively about different types of narratives

Read self reflectively and with pleasure

Section Description: Narratives of Love

This course will serve as an introduction to the structure and dynamics of narrative forms but will achieve this understanding by concentrating on how writers and cultural artists have sought to organize, express or resist the tricky affective complex of romance and love. We will consider the historical roots of cultural narratives about love in songs and films and place these stories in dialogue with specific narrative texts such as novels, short fiction and poetry. Students will engage in responsive and scholarly writing and will participate orally in a group projects, one individual project and co-lead one class discussion. Throughout the course, students will be asked to reflect critically on how the dominant narratives of love give shape to their own understanding and insights about romance, love, relationships and partners.

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Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.

William Shakespeare

Books: One book, That Night, by Alice McDermott has been ordered through the UNCG bookstore and should be purchased right away. The rest of the novels should be purchased online in order to get the least expensive versions of these texts available (some of these novels are as cheap as $4.00). Any version of these novels is acceptable and this is the order we’ll read them in: That Night by Alice McDermott, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The Graduate by Charles Webb and Maurice by E. M. Forester. All of our other readings will be on blackboard.

Attendance Policy:

Your presence is needed for us to have engaging discussions about the literature we are reading together. Your presence is also needed for sharing your written drafts with your fellow classmates. So attendance is required. Students are allowed two absences: more than two absences will affect your final grade negatively. There is no difference between an excused and unexcused absence.

General Rules and Guidelines

As grownups, you probably know these rules but here goes:

·  Respect each other’s ideas and opinions

·  Laptop Use. NONE and no cell phones or blackberries can be in use during class.

·  Be on time. If you are more than five minutes late, that counts as an absence.

·  No food except for drinks.

·  All papers must be typed and turned in on time (no late work)

Evaluation/ Grades: Your grade for this course will be based on writing, oral presentations and tests.

Written Projects: Reading Journal: (20%);Creative paper (15%);Research based paper (15%)

Oral Projects: Discussion leader (10%);Song presentation (10%) Group film analysis (15%)

Tests: There will be several “pop” quizzes on the readings (15%)

Reading Journal: (Frequently)

We learn and remember better when we write about what we are reading. And writing frequently provides more fluency for you since the more often you write, the easier it becomes. Although the journal must be typed and at least two pages long (single spaced), it will not be evaluated for grammar and spelling but rather for originality, coherence, completeness and connections to the texts. You must complete nine journal entries to pass the course and they must be turned in on time. You will have several options for ways of responding to the texts that will be posted on blackboard under “assignments.”

Love and sex can go together and sex and unlove can go together and love and unsex can go together. But personal love and personal sex is bad. Andy Warhol

Reading Quizzes: (0ccasionally)

These may be given at any time in class on that day’s reading. The questions will be complicated enough so that you need to have read the text to answer the questions. Since these quizzes account for a healthy chunk of your grade, it is important to keep up with the reading. This is an English class.

Discussion Leadership: (Once)

On the second day of class you will sign up to lead class discussions in pairs. The discussion leader’s job is to meet with your partner and develop three questions for discussion and select two passages that seem critical for interpretation for the class. These need to be submitted by 9am on the day you are presenting.You will be graded on how well your pair led the discussion.

Love Song Presentation: (Once)

Early in the semester you will sign up to present a love song to the class. Your responsibility is to locate a song that connects with some of the love themes we discuss in class, bring in the lyrics for us to read, play a snippet of the song and offer your analysis of its motifs and themes. We will end the class most days with these song presentations which should last from 5-7 minutes. Your presentation will be graded.

Group Project: (Once)

In a small group you will select a love film to analyze for the class. You’ll need to submit your film choice ahead of time so that we don’t have duplicates. Your goal will be to illustrate some of the narrative structures and themes we have discussed in class.

Formal Papers: (Two)

You will write two papers (5 pages each) that will go through the proposal, peer and teacher response, drafting and revising process. One paper will be creative in that you will write from the point of view of a minor or absent character in a novel or story that we have read (more guidelines forthcoming). The other paper will require library research and documentation (again guidelines will be given out). Since this is a writing intensive class, these papers, along with the journal, are central to developing your writing and thinking skills.

Participation:

Your active engagement in the class discussions is assumed. It will be impossible to get a high grade if you do not enter the class conversations about the literature.

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Love, love, love – all the wretched can’t of it, masking egoism, lust, masochism, fantasy under a mythology of sentimental postures, a welter of self induced miseries and joys, blinding and masking the essential personalities in the frozen gestures of courtship, in the kissing and the dating and the desire, the compliments and the quarrels which vivify its barrenness. Germaine Greer

The Writing Center

UNCG has an excellent Writing Center that can help you brainstorm paper ideas, work on grammatical issues, and polish your writing. Please visit the Writing Center as often as you like. Take both your work in progress and all documentation relating to the assignment (prompts, comments of prior drafts, research notes) and plan to stay up to an hour. www.uncg.edu/eng/writingcenter/

Plagiarism/Academic Dishonesty

Don’t do it. All verified cases of academic dishonesty (including cheating and plagiarism, the use of another’s text or ideas without proper credit and citation) GO against the University’s Academic Integrity Policy ( see the university’s “Academic Integrity Policy” online at academicintegrity.uncg.edu or in the Undergraduate Bulletin. Seriously. Don’t.

Disability Access

Students in university classrooms who have various disabilities (whether visible or invisible) are, of course, welcome, and their rights protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, it is imperative that students with disabilities register with the Office of Disability Services (ods.dept.uncg.edu or 334-5440) and inform the instructor of any special needs as early as possible so that the necessary arrangements or adjustments can be made.

Tentative Class Calendar

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

Week Seven

Week Eight Spring Break: No Classes

Week Nine

Week Ten

Week Eleven

Week Twelve

Week Thirteen

Week Fourteen

Week Fifteen

MAY 3: Last Day of Class

Important dates:

Quotes about Love:

Every great love brings with it the cruel idea of killing the object of its love so that it may be removed once and for all from the wicked game of change: for love dreads change even more than annihilation.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Love conquers everything [Amor vincit omnia]: let us too, yield to love.