FSEng 201-23: Communication in English
MW 3-4:15 O.F. 221
Spring 2017
Prof. Ben Slote
O.F. 235
Writing Wrongs
As the third course in the FS sequence at Allegheny, FS201 gives students the chance to learn and
practice the conventions of writing and speaking in a specific discipline. In our class this obligation
means looking closely at what literary critics do. If generating one’s own original interpretive responses
to a literary text is one challenge, reading and making use of published criticism is certainly another,
largely because published criticism is written for scholars already conversant in a discourse and
assumptions new to undergraduates. In this course you will undertake both of these practices together,
forging your own original interpretive arguments about literary texts in part through your engagement
with the ideas of published scholars. That, finally, is what doing literary criticism means. Thematically,
the literature in the syllabus is organized around an often unacknowledged habit in fiction and poetry that
presents, I think, interesting interpretive, historical, and moral challenges for readers: writers’ commitment to representing injustice. This injustice is sometimes of a historical nature—the brutality of U.S.
slavery, the Armenian genocide, the late-20th century oppression of political dissidents in North Africa—
but it can also be personal, obscure, and completely fictional. Interestingly, these representations seem
compelled to portray injustice and suffering, to “write the wrongs,” but not (on the face of things) to
“right” them, to spell out or imply just resolutions to the wrong portrayed. What do these texts means to
accomplish, if not an answer to the question, What can be done? And what are our obligations, morally
and perhaps in other ways, as readers and responders to this work? Exploring such questions will be
another enterprise in the course.
This is a discussion-based seminar. You will do plenty of writing and make two oral presentations, but
the foundation of the course will be our conversations about the readings. For this reason, your
preparation, attendance, and participation in discussion are crucial to your success in the course and the
seminar’s success altogether. This fact is reflected in how course grades will be calculated.
Please note: one baseline expectation in this and all English classes at Allegheny is that every
student will bring to class the reading up for discussion that day. In this course if students attend
class without the physical artifact of the text, they will be marked as “half absent” for that class.
Among other things, this means that everyone must buy a Course Packet at the bookstore. (A digital
equivalent will not suffice.)
Class participation (grading criteria on page 5 of the syllabus)
Writing (grading criteria on page 4 of the syllabus)
two 1-2 page interpretive responses (due 1/23, 2/6)
one 5-7 page essay (due 2/23)
one 4-5 page essay (due 4/18)
a final essay, 8-10 pages (due 5/9)
Interpretive questions (ongoing)
Speaking:
Poetry reading
Interpretive presentation
My contact information:
Office hours: MW: 10-11:30; T:3-5; Th 3-4, and by appointment
Office: Odd Fellows 235
Email: [email protected]; phone: x-4322
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Required texts (all available at the Allegheny Bookstore):
Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron Mills (Bedford Cultural Edition)
Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men (Dial)
Carolyn Forché, Against Forgetting (Norton)
Course Reader
Course schedule—subject to minor changes, if necessary:
1/18
Introduction: writing and reading wrong
1/23
1/25
Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” (CR); Kingsolver, “Rose-Johnny” (CR);
first close-reading response due in class
Phelan, “Rhetoric/Ethics” (CR)
1/30
2/1
Davis, Life in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills
2/6
related historical readings (in Bedford edition of Life)
second close-reading response (due in your sakai drop-box by noon)
historical readings (cont.)
2/8
2/13
2/15
2/20
2/22
2/23
2/27
3/1
Henwood, “Slaveries ‘In the Borders’: Rebecca Harding Davis’s ‘Life in the Iron Mills’
in Its Southern Context” (CR)
Seitler, “Strange Beauty: The Politics of Ungenre in Rebecca Harding Davis’s Life in the
Iron Mills” (CR)
poetry: WWI: Sassoon, “A Working Party;” Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” “Anthem
for Doomed Youth;” Graves, “Recalling War”
poetry: Soviet-era: Pasternak, “Fresco Come to Life;” Mendelstam, “The Stalin
Epigram,” “Mounds of human heads are wandering into the distance,” “Leningrad,” “I
was washing outside in the darkness;” Brodsky, “To Urania,” “Elegy”
Life essay due (in my dept. box by 4 pm)
poetry: Spanish Civil War & WWII: Lorca, “The Quarrel;” Auden, “September 1, 1939;”
Brecht, “The God of War,” “When Evil-Ding Comes Like Falling Rain;” Kunitz, “The
Last Picnic;” Swir, “I Am Afraid of Fire,” “A Conversation Through the Door,” “We
Survived Them,” “White Wedding Slippers;” Thomas, “A Refusal to Mourn the Death,
by Fire, of a Child in London;” Hecht, “More Light! More Light!,” “It Out-Herods
Herod. Pray You, Avoid It;” Levertov, “Weeping Woman”
poetry: Armenian Holocaust: Siamanto, “The Dance;” Tekeyan, “Prayer on the Threshold
of Tomorrow,” “Dream”
War in the Middle East: the poetry of Amichai & Darwish
Latin America: Neruda, “The Dictators;” Dorfman, “I Just Missed the Bus and I’ll Be
Late for Work,” “Last Waltz in Santiago”
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3/6
3/8
poetry readings
poetry readings
3/13
3/15
poetry readings
poetry readings
Spring Break
3/27
3/29
Matar, In the Country of Men
In the Country
4/3
4/5
In the Country
finish In the Country
4/10
4/12
Alexie, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” (CR)
Interpretive presentations
4/17
4/18
4/19
Interpretive presentations
In the Country essay due (by 4 pm in my dept. box)
Interpretive presentations
4/24
4/26
Interpretive presentations
open
5/1
discuss the final essay
5/9
final essay due (by 10 pm in my dept. box)
Course Policies:
Attendance: Unexcused absences will adversely affect your grade, and if you have more than
six unexcused absences, you cannot pass the course. If you miss a class, it is your
responsibility to find out from a classmate what work is upcoming and what work you need to
make up. If you are an athlete who will miss classes for competitive events, please speak to me
at the beginning of the semester and give me a copy of your travel schedule.
Late Papers: If foreseeable circumstances (traveling to your cousin’s wedding, tickets to a
concert) prevent you from getting a paper in on time, get it in early. Unexcused late papers will
be marked down one letter grade per class day late (from a B- to a C+, for example). For
medical excuses, I need official documentation.
Papers unwritten: You cannot qualify to pass this course unless you complete all the writing
assignments and exams.
Documentation style for your essays: All students should use the MLA style for citing
quotations and documenting sources in written work. (We’ll talk about this.) MLA style is
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presented in Hacker’s A Writers Reference and can also be found through the “Documenting
Sources” tab at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch04_o.html.
Plagiarism: As you may already know, plagiarism is a cardinal sin of the intellectual
community and is dealt with severely at Allegheny. Any writing that makes unacknowledged
use of the work of others, including material from the internet (words, ideas, or organization),
will receive a letter grade of F and will be sent to the Honor Committee, as required by the
faculty handbook.
Extra help with writing: Besides conferring with me in my office, all students—no matter their
level of competency as writers—are encouraged to make use of the Learning Commons and the
writing consultants there. For details see http://sites.allegheny.edu/learningcommons/writing/.
Smart phones and other mobile devices: While in class please do not text or use your smart
phone or tablet (etc.) in any way unrelated to the course.
Students with disabilities: Students with disabilities who believe they may need
accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact Disability Services at 332-2898.
Disability Services is part of the Learning Commons and is located in Pelletier Library. Please
contact that office as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations are implemented
expeditiously.
Essay-grading Criteria:
An essay in the A range is founded on an original, logical and coherently organized set of ideas;
it makes a clearly discernible and persuasive argument (even if the reader disagrees with its argument); its thinking is, at each turn, absolutely clearly articulated: words carry thought, they don't
obscure it; its sentences use only the words their ideas require, not any more; its paragraphs have
distinct though related roles in the essay's larger argument, each holding one thoroughly asserted
idea (not two competing ideas, not one idea half-asserted); if appropriate it accurately and
thoughtfully uses other sources; and its sentences are without the grammatical, spelling or
typographical mistakes that exacting proofreading would catch. (All of this takes a lot of work.
If it is all very nearly accomplished, the essay usually earns an A-.)
An essay in the B range: a very good paper, founded on solid, persuasive thinking, the writing of
which is clearly and effectively executed. What usually prevents an "A" is a lack of originality,
thorough thinking or careful proofreading. If two of these virtues are absent, the essay will
usually earn a B-.
An essay in the C range: some conspicuous flaw usually earns an essay a C; its argument is
really underdeveloped, it is disorganized, its diction is consistently inarticulate, or it is in dire
need of proofreading.
A D essay either contains more than one of the large problems cited in the "C" description or
finds another way to convince its reader that the author has not spent nearly enough time on the
thinking or writing in the essay.
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An F essay misses on all criteria (originality, articulateness, persuasiveness, organization, the
absence of writing mistakes) or is handed in very late. (Many grades below C are earned this
way, in fact.)
How class participation will be evaluated
While it is difficult to quantify the success of a student's contributions to class discussion (at our
best we all of course contribute differently), here are the general standards I will use to grade
participation:
A range: Participation at this level is marked by its active nature, its consistency, and its quality.
When A participants read an assignment, they prepare to participate in a class discussion; they
read the assignments fully, carefully and critically enough to be ready not just to respond to my
questions but also to initiate discussion with comments and questions of their own. Such
participants will also come to class ready to make and argue assertions about the reading and to
think out loud about a text's relation to its contexts; they will attend to the comments of others in
class, agree, elaborate or civilly disagree with them, bring our attention to passages from the
reading to make their point and at times connect such thinking with earlier readings or previous
class discussions. In short, students who by their engagement in class discussion throughout the
semester show themselves to be true students of the course material--persistently conscientious
and inquiring--will get an A for their efforts. They will also make the course a lot better. (By
the way, substituting quantity of participation for quality will not work.)
B range: Students who come to every class, have almost always done all the reading, and
consistently respond to the questions of others in a way that demonstrates their command of the
reading will earn a B participation grade. What separates this effort from an A one is not so
much quantity (teachers are remarkably good at detecting bs) as the level of preparation--one's
reading and thinking--that has gone on before one gets to class, especially the kind that enables
students to initiate discussion. But you can't get a B participation grade by just showing up,
either, or by talking every once and a while.
C range: A C participant comes to almost all the classes, usually has done most of the reading
most of the time, but not with the energy necessary to demonstrate through participation their
ongoing engagement with the material. Such a discussant contributes infrequently, maybe one
time every week.
D range: Automatic pilot mode. You were physically there most of the time, spoke a few times
all semester maybe, but that was it.
F: Not coming to class is the traditional route.
Please Note: Students who are reluctant to talk in class can partially compensate for their silence
by e-mailing me comments and questions about the reading before the class discussion of it. If
you define yourself as “shy,” though, please don’t convert this definition into permission not to
talk. People get “writer’s block” but still must hand papers in on time; others have “test
anxiety” and take tests. In this class, participating in discussions is an obligation as important as
test and papers, so keeping mum isn’t really an option for those who expect to succeed.