LITR 415 –ENGLISH AND POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE (Fall 2012)
by Dr. Nazmi Ağıl
Course Description
The course aims at giving the students a survey of English and Postcolonial Literature from
the 19th century up to the modern times. It is not a superficial review of some texts but
requires extensive reading of the main writers and their prime works with detailed in-class
discussions. English Literature is not considered as an independent entity but rather examined
within the context of the historical, social and cultural context of Europe which also crosses
over the continental boundaries with the colonial and postcolonial productions.
Assignments
Your performance will be graded on the following criteria: Almost every class day you will
have a short quiz to ensure that you come having read the related material. You will keep a
journal in which you write your reactions to your readings, which might be –and I would
appreciate that more if so- in creative forms like, poems, parodies, stories, small
argumentative essays based on the material you read. I will collect these journals the first
week of every month and see how you are doing. You will write one 8-page essay on a project
of your choice, which must certainly get my approval. Then you will have 1 midterm and 1
final exam. And ofcourse, I expect you to join in class discusssions as much as possible.
Grading
%
Quizzes
20
Journal
10
Participation 10
Midterm I
20
Midterm II
20
Final
20
Attendance policy
I willnot take formal attendance, but you are strongly advised to not miss any class as
participation and the quiz grades will rate so high.
Plagiarism
Related to any work you submit, you are expected to behave in strict obedience to the
warnings against plagiarism. You have already learned which acts fall within the sphere of the
concept, if you have any doubts about its definition, do not hesitate to come and ask me. In
case of plagiarism the school disciplinary rules will be implemented!.
Warning on classroom behaviour
You are expected to come to class on time –as I will give the quizzes in the first 5 minutes of
each class)- listen to everyone speaking in class with great attention, not talk among
yourselves or send and receive messages with mobile phones. Drinks are okay, but please,
try not to bring in food to class.
Week 1
Sept 17 Introduction to the course
Assignment: Do some research on English Romanticism and come to class with 5 points to
make.
Sept 19 Romanticism lecture
Week 2
Sept. 24 William Blake “The lamb” “The Chimney Sweeper I-II” “Nurse’s Song I-II” “The
Sick Rose” “The Tiger” “London” “Poison Tree”
Sept 26. William Wordsworth: “Preface to lyrical Ballads” “The Tables Turned” “I
wondered Lonely as a Cloud” “The Solitary Reaper” “My Heart Leaps Up”
Week 3
Oct 1 Samuel Taylor Coleridge : “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” “Khubla Khan”
Oct 3 Byron: “She walks in beauty” “When we two parted” Shelley: “The Cloud”
Keats: “Ode to a Nightingale” “To Autumn”
Week 4
Oct 8 The Victorian Age (Read about it and come up with 5 points)
Oct 10 Tennyson: “Ulysses” Browning : “My Last Duchess”
Week 5
Oct 15 Oscar Wilde: “Importance of Being Earnest”
We will watch the film “My Fair Lady” in the evening to talk about it the next day.
Oct 17 “My Fair Lady” - FILM discussion
Week 6
Oct 22 Stevenson: “Dr. Jeykl and Mr. Hyde”
Oct 24-28 Kurban Bayramı (No classes)
Oct 29 Cumhuriyet Bayramı (No classes)
Oct 31 Midterm I
Week 7
Nov 5 Read About 20th century and come up with 5 points
Nov 7 Yeats “Second Coming” Eliot : “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Week 8
Nov. 12 M Conrad: “Heart of Darkness”
Nov 14 W “Heart of Darkness” continued.
Week 9
Nov 19 Virgina Woolf “A Room of One’s Own”
Assignment: Watch the FILM: “The Hours” before you come to class, write a response paper
on it and bring it in class with you.
Nov 21 Evaluating the movie “The Hours” in the light of “A Room…”
Week 10
Nov 26 Joyce: “Araby”, Catherine Mansfield : “The Garden Party”
Nov 28 Becket “Endgame”
Week 11
Dec 3 Auden : “The Unknown Citizen” “Musee des Beaux Arts” Dylan Thomas : “The
Force…” “Do not go gentle”
Dec 5 George Orwell : Animal Farm
Week 12
Dec 10 Midterm II
Dec 12 M Steevie Smith : “I was not Waving” “Our Bog is Dood” Larkin : “Church going”
“An Arundel Tomb”
Week 13
Dec 17 Achabe: “Things Fall Apart”
Dec 19 Continue “Things Fall Apart”
Week 14
Dec 24 Pinter “The Dumb Waiter”
Dec 26 Heaney “Digging” Hughes selected poems from “Crow” and from “Birthday
Letters”