UPPSALA UNIVERSITY
Department of English
A/HS1/T1 LITERATURE
Fall 2011
A/HS1/T1 Literature (10 pt/8Pt)
The module trains students’ skills in reading, interpreting and responding to literature
written in English. It consists of two components. All students attend the first 4 weeks of
lectures and workshops, before dividing to follow one of two distinct thematic courses.
These thematic courses involve smaller seminar groups and more intensive focus on
individual texts than the earlier weeks.
1. Core Course: English A1 & HS1/T1 (Week 41 – Week 45)
Reading Literature I (5pt)
The core course consists of 8 lectures (45 min) and 4 workshops (45 min). It offers an
introduction to the reading and interpretation of different literary forms and genres,
including the short story, poetry, drama, and the novel, and educates students in responding
in writing to literature. The core course has the same content for all students whether you
are on the A1 course or the HS1 course.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the core course, students must demonstrate a good ability
• to offer a critical discussion of literary texts in good written English;
• to support interpretations of a literary work with references to the text;
• to show a basic knowledge of different literary forms;
• to demonstrate an awareness of the importance of socio-cultural factors in their reading
of a text;
• to show an awareness of the importance of gender perspectives in their reading of a text.
Reading List
The Norton Introduction to Literature, shorter 10th edition. ISBN 978-0393935141
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day Faber ISBN 9780571258246
Assessment
During this course component, you will complete three workshop assignments, and write a
final, open-book exam. The exam will not be graded unless you have submitted all your
workshop assignments. In the final exam, two acceptable answers are needed for a pass (G);
two answers of excellent quality for a pass with distinction (VG).
Instruction
Teaching is in the form of lectures and workshops. Active participation in lectures and
workshops is compulsory. In this core course all students attend the same lectures then
meet in their own smaller workshop groups.
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2.1. Thematic Courses: English A1 (Week 46 – Week 50)
Reading Literature II A/ Reading Literature II B (5pt)
Each of the two thematic courses consists of 2 lectures (45 min) and 5 seminars (90 min).
Building on the core course, these offer students the opportunity to read, interpret and
respond to different forms of literature written in English from different parts of the world,
while examining this body of literature in relation to a central theme or topic. They also
introduce students to the critical skills and tools necessary for the interpretation of
literature.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the thematic course, students must demonstrate a good ability
• to present analyses and interpretations of literary texts, both orally and in writing, in
good English;
• to use acceptable critical terminology in their analyses of literary texts;
• to show an awareness of what constitutes an acceptable interpretation of a literary text;
• to situate a text within its socio-cultural context;
• to show an awareness of the importance of gender perspectives in their reading of a text.
Examination
Continuous assessment based upon four written exercises and a final essay. The essay is
graded Fail (U), Pass (G), or Pass with Distinction (VG), and will not be graded until you have
submitted all your written exercises. To receive a VG for the entire literature course, you
need to receive a VG for your final essay.
2.2. Thematic Courses: English HS1/T1 (Week 46 – Week 50)
Reading Literature II A/ Reading Literature II B (3pt)
Each of the two thematic courses consists of 2 lecture (45 min) and 3 seminars (90 min).
Building on the core course, these offer students the opportunity to read, interpret and
respond to different forms of literature written in English from different parts of the world,
while examining this body of literature in relation to a central theme or topic. They also
introduce students to the critical skills and tools necessary for the interpretation of
literature.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the thematic course, students must demonstrate a good ability
• to present analyses and interpretations of literary texts in good English;
• to begin to use acceptable critical terminology in their analyses of literary texts;
• to show a basic awareness of what constitutes an acceptable interpretation of a literary
text;
• to show an awareness of how to situate a text within its socio-cultural context;
• to show an awareness of the importance of gender perspectives in their reading of a text.
Examination
Continuous assessment based upon two written exercises and a final essay. The essay is
graded Fail (U), Pass (G), or Pass with Distinction (VG), and will not be graded until you have
submitted all your written exercises. To receive a VG for the entire literature course, you
need to receive a VG for your final essay.
Instruction
Teaching for both English A1 and HS1/T1 is in the form of lectures and seminars. Active
participation in lectures and seminars is compulsory.
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2.3. Course Description: Reading Literature II A/ Reading Literature II B (5/3pt)
During the second half of your literature module, you will complete one of the following two
thematic courses:
2.3.1. Reading Literature II A: Literature’s Monsters (David Watson)
Undead and misshapen bodies, bodies that resemble animals, and minds filled with
horrifying intentions--these are some of the ways in which literature has re-imagined the
monstrous. This elective investigates monsters in literature. Moving from the 19th century
and the works of such authors as Bram Stoker to the grotesque minds and horrifying bodies
of more recent authors, it examines how literature produces bodies and psyches that terrify
and reflect larger historical and cultural fears. Such fears frequently mirror expectations of
normality and morality; by examining literature’s monsters, the course makes it possible to
reflect on the importance of socio-historical contexts to the themes of literary texts.
Reading List
The Norton Introduction to Literature, shorter 10th edition. ISBN 978-0393935141
Bram Stoker, Dracula.
Online Resources.
OR
2.3.2. Reading Literature II B: ‘Elsewhere’, Borders, frontiers, literature (Stuart Robertson)
What happens when you live on the edge or at the limits? Whether this edge is the frontier
of a nation or this limit that imagined between black and white, native and colonial, living at
the limits has profound effects on who we are and where we think we belong. This thematic
course focuses on how identity and belonging are shaped and created by limits and
boundaries. A particular focus will be on postcolonial writing in English. Reading and
reflecting on postcolonial writing and questions of identity students will learn some of the
ways in which literature can be understood in its specific social and historical contexts.
Reading List
The Norton Introduction to Literature, shorter 10th edition. ISBN 978-0393935141
J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians.
Meera Syal, Anita and Me (Not for HS1/T1 students)
Some short stories will be provided in photocopy for participating students
Online Resources
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3. Core Course Lecture and Workshop Information
3.1 Schedule
Week 41: Introduction
Week 42: The Short Story
Lecture 1
Reading the Short Story: An Introduction
David Watson
Lecture 2
Reading the Short Story: Narration and Point of View
David Watson
Workshop 1
The Short Story: Characterization
Workshop Leaders
Lecture 3
Poetry: ‘The Written voice’
Stuart Robertson
Due
Workshop Assignment 1: The Short Story
Lecture 4
“a moment’s monument”: The Sonnet
Stuart Robertson
Workshop 2
Poetry: Theme and form
Workshop Leaders
Lecture 5
Reading Drama: An Introduction
David Watson
Due
Workshop Assignment 2: Poetry
Lecture 6
Reading Drama Within Its Cultural and Historical Context
David Watson
Workshop 3
The Elements of Drama
Workshop Leaders
Week 43: Poetry
Week 44: Drama
Week 45: The Novel
Lecture 7
Look Who’s Talking: character and point-of-view
Stuart Robertson
Due
Workshop Assignment 3: Drama
Lecture 8
Fiction and History
Stuart Robertson
Workshop 4
Character, narrative and theme
Workshop Leaders
Open-Book Exam (10-11 November)
Lectures and Workshops are compulsory. Please check your schedules at
www.engelska.uu.se/Schedule for additional information and changes.
3.2 Workshop Information
It is compulsory to attend all workshops. For three of these, there are brief written
assignments (length in each instance: 300 words). The assignments are due by noon on the
Monday following a particular workshop, and should be emailed to workshop leader’s
Urkund address: [email protected] (put in the first and last name of
your teacher in the address). Late submissions will not be accepted.
For each workshop, you are assigned study question that will aid you in preparing for the
workshop discussion. To adequately prepare for the workshops, you are required to do the
following:
1. Read through the text(s) assigned for the workshop.
2. Read through the text again and underline key words and phrases and/or make notes in
the margin concerning anything that is significant—that is, anything that is significant in
relation to the matters you are considering.
3. Examine the study questions assigned for a particular workshop. Consult your Norton to
make sure you understand the questions. Are you able to answer them? If not, read
through the text again while keeping your study questions in mind.
4. Answer the study questions as thoroughly as possible.
Bring your work to the workshop for discussion with your workshop leader and fellow
students.
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3.3. Reading Literature I: Course Content
Week 42: The Short Story
Lecture 1: Reading the Short Story: An Introduction
What are the pleasures afforded by reading short stories? What are the literary techniques
and narrative strategies characteristic of this literary form? This lecture offers an
introduction to the reading of short stories by addressing these questions.
Readings:
Bierce, Ambrose, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek” in Norton.
Carver, Raymond, “Cathedral” in Norton.
Faulkner, William, “A Rose for Emily” in Norton.
Norton pp.1-27.
Lecture 2: Reading the Short Story: Narration and Point of View
Our responses to a work of fiction are largely guided by the designs and values implied in a
certain way of telling the story. How a story is told is as important as what it is about. In this
lecture, we examine how the ways whereby a story is narrated and from what perspective
characters and events are viewed impact on our reading of short stories.
Readings:
Hemingway, Ernest, “Hills Like White Elephants” in Norton.
Kincaid, Jamaica, ”Girl” in Norton.
Moore, Lorrie, ”How” in Norton.
Poe, Edgar Allan, ”The Cask of the Amontillado” in Norton.
Norton pp.96-100.
Workshop 1: The Short Story: Characterization
Readings:
Morrison, Toni, “Recitatif” in Norton
Norton pp.119-22
Workshop Study Questions
After carefully studying your assigned readings, attempt to answer the following questions:
1.Who are the protagonists of Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”? Which other characters are
major characters? Which are minor characters?
2.What are the protagonists’ most distinctive traits? What motivates them?
3.What events and moments in the text reveal the most about the protagonists? Attempt
to list these moments.
4.What surprises you about the protagonists? How is your view of them affected by what
you are not told about them?
5.What are the roles of the other characters? How would the story be different if any of
these characters disappeared?
6.Which of the characters does the short story encourage us to sympathize with or view
negatively? Why, and how so?
7.Does your view of any of the characters change during the course of the story? Do they
themselves change? If so, why, when, and how?
8.Does characterization tend to be direct or indirect in the short story? What information
do or don’t we get about the characters?
Workshop Assignment
One of the striking aspects of Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” is that she withholds information
about the race and class of her protagonists. How would the story be different if this
information was given to the reader? How would your response to the story have changed?
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Week 43: Poetry
Lecture 3: Poetry: ‘The Written voice’
Poetry concentrates meaning; it makes the words of a language mean more than is usual.
This lecture will focus on strategies for reading and understanding poetry. The focus will be
on point of view, scene and tone. Key critical terms and ideas will be introduced and
explained though reading specific poems drawn from the Norton.
Readings: Poems from various sections in the Norton:
Browning “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” 676-8; Lorde “Hanging Fire” 682; Brooks “We
Real Cool” 684-5; Cofer “The Changeling” 695; poems from “Words and Music: an Album”
793-800; poems from the section “The Way a Poem Looks” 844-50.
Lecture 4: “a moment’s monument”: The Sonnet
The sonnet remains a popular lyric form. Focussing on this form offers a way of combining
historical breadth with focus on specific poems. We will read a range of sonnets to learn
how poets often combine writing about particular moments or experiences with selfconscious reflection on the status of poetry itself.
Readings: Poems from various sections in the Norton pp. 619, 646, 649, 833-44
Workshop 2: Poetry: tone, speaker, scene
Readings: Poems in Norton:
Lorde “Hanging Fire” (682), Brooks “We Real Cool” (684), Cofer “The Changeling” (695)
Workshop Study Questions
After carefully studying your assigned readings, attempt to answer the following questions:
1. Who is the speaker in Audre Lorde’s “Hanging Fire” and what do we learn about her?
2. What do you think the expression “hanging fire” mean? How can we relate the title of
the poem to the poem itself?
3. Each of the three stanzas of the poem ends with the line “and momma's in the
bedroom/with the door closed”; this is a significant pattern in such a short lyric poem
but what does it mean? Suggest how this line develops on the central idea of growing
up that the poem focuses upon.
4. Describe the protagonists and speakers of “We Real Cool.” Now describe how you know
who they are?
5. Quickly list five adjectives that describe the attitude of these speakers to their world.
The poem seems to be written in their voice, only giving their words. Use your list of
adjectives to write a paragraph describing how the poem represents these young
people and their world-view.
6. The poem repeats the pronoun “we”, every line but the last ends with “we.” There are
two groups represented, the speakers in the poem, and the poet and readers. Does this
“we” include us as readers? Briefly suggest what the relationship is between these two
groups.
7. The absence of “we” in the last line is as significant as its presence at the end of each of
the other lines. Write a short paragraph that explores how the structure of this poem is
related to its theme and the scene that it describes.
8. Describe the family scene of “The Changeling”. How far is it ordinary or familiar? How
far is it unusual or specific to another time and place?
9. Repeating names overheard from adult talk and making up new stories helps the
speaker of the poem be someone else. Why does she want to be someone else? Is this
a child’s only desire?
10. In mythology a “changeling” is an impostor-child, the replacement child left behind
when faeries steal a human child. Describe the ideas raised by the body of the poem
using the idea of the changeling.
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Workshop Assignment
These three poems explore childhood, coming of age and maturity. Choose one of the three
poems and write a short critical account of the poem you choose. You should mention who
the speaker of the poem is and how the point of view chosen shapes the poem. You should
explore the tone of your chosen poem, explaining what you think the tone of the poem is
and how the words of the poem help you recognise its tone. You should try to explain how
the structure of the poem contributes to its meaning.
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Week 44: Drama
Lecture 5: Reading Drama: An Introduction
Unlike poetry or the short story, a drama is written primarily to be performed by actors, on a
stage, for an audience. What are the distinctive qualities of drama? This lecture addresses
this issue by focusing on Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.
Readings:
Williams, Tennessee, A Streetcar Named Desire in Norton.
Norton pp.1125-35; pp.1399-404.
Lecture 6: Reading Drama Within Its Cultural and Historical Context
Gender roles and sexuality are central to Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire; as are
questions regarding cultural identity. This lecture addresses these topics by situating
Williams’ play within its cultural and historical contexts.
Readings:
Williams, Tennessee, A Streetcar Named Desire in Norton.
Norton pp.1125-35; pp.1399-404.
Workshop 3: The Elements of Drama
Reading:
Stoppard, Tom, The Real Inspector Hound in Norton.
Workshop Study Questions
After carefully studying your assigned readings, attempt to answer the following questions:
1.Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound is a one-act play. Why do you think that is the
case? How would you go about dividing the play into two acts? Why?
2.Does the play show a clear progression towards a resolution of its central conflict? Why?
What would this conflict be?
3.What patterns do you notice regarding where and when things happen? Which
characters are associated with each setting, and how does this change during the course
of the play?
4.Do the stage directions describe settings and props in detail? If so, what is the
significance of these details?
5.What lines in the play strike you as the most ambiguous when it comes to the tone in
which they should be spoken? Why and how so? How would an actor’s decision about
tone here affect the play as a whole?
6.How would you cast the main roles in the play? Select casting choices you can reasonably
expect your fellow students to be familiar with.
7.If you were a set designer for a production of the play, how would you create the illusion
that the audience is actually backstage, looking out over the stage and the “audience”
that includes the critics Moon and Birdboot? How would you position the actors onstage
so that the real audience could see their faces clearly?
Workshop Assignment
For the comedy of The Real Inspector Hound to work, what conventions of fiction and drama
(standard settings, plots, characters) must be familiar to the audience? What must an
audience know about the theatre world of critics and reviews?
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Week 45: The Novel
Lecture 7: Look Who’s Talking: character and point-of-view
Storytelling depends upon the encounter between reader and the voice of the text. This
lecture will explore some key narrative strategies of fiction and show how character and
narrative interact in fiction.
Reading:
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
Lecture 8: Fiction and History
Fiction and history have always been in tension. This lecture will explore how The Remains of
the Day uses both public and private histories to review British culture and life in the
twentieth century.
Reading:
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
Workshop 4: Character, Narrative and Theme
Reading:
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
Workshop Study Questions
After carefully studying your assigned readings, attempt to answer the following questions:
1.Early in the novel Stevens describes his ideal of a perfect butler. What does this tell us
about Stevens? Read again the pages in which Stevens describes his ideal. What other
kind of profession does Stevens’ ideal butler resemble?
2.In this novel personal character and public role collide. List the moments from the novel
when we learn about Stevens’ private character.
3.What is “banter”? Why can’t Stevens banter? What does this tell us about his character?
Why is the idea of banter both comic and, in this novel, serious and sad?
4.The novel is told from the first person point of view, we learn of events from Stevens’
point of view. We also learn not to accept that Stevens’ view is the full or truthful one.
Identify one scene in which what the reader understands and what Stevens’ ‘says’ are
different.
5.This is a careful patterned novel. Ideas, images, and phrases recur throughout; “banter”
is only one example. Another is the idea of acting a role. Find your own example of an
idea, image or phrase that recurs over the course of the novel.
6. The Remains of the Day has a distinct and clear structure. What is this structure and why
do you think Ishiguro chose it? Is this structure at odds with or in tension with other
aspects of the novel?
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3.4 Open-book Exam Information
Type of exam and time
The A1/HS1/T1 literature exam on 10 November 2011 is an open-book exam. This means
that you will need to have access to your assigned texts and notes when you sit the exam.
You yourself are responsible for finding a suitable place in which to take the exam.
Exam papers will be made available at 17.00 on 10 November. A paper copy of the
completed exam should be handed in by 17:00 on 11 November. (It should be put in your
teacher’s box.) The exam should also be sent in, as an e-mail attachment, to your workshop
teacher at Urkund address: [email protected] (put in the first and
last name of your teacher in the address). Please note that papers handed in/sent in after
17:00 will not be accepted.
Format
In the exam, you will be offered four questions, of which you need to complete three. Each
question will focus on one of the four literary forms that you have studied (the short story,
poetry, the novel, and drama), and will ask you to engage with a specific example of each;
the question on the novel is compulsory. Your answer should have the form of three short
essays. Length in each instance: 300 words. Two of the three answers must be acceptable
for the exam to receive a passing grade.
Exam Texts:
A.S. Byatt, “The Thing in the Forest” OR James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues” in Norton.
Robert Frost “Range-Finding” OR Edna St Vincent Millay “What lips have kissed, and where
and why”.
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire in Norton.
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
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4. Reading Literature II A: Literature’s Monsters
4.1. Schedule: English A1
Week 46
Introduction: Literature’s Monsters
David Watson
Week 46
Seminar 1: Writing Monsters: How Literature Terrifies
Seminar Leader
Week 47
Seminar 2: The Vampire and Its Culture I
Seminar Leader
Week 47
Due: Seminar Assignment 1
Week 48
Seminar 3: The Vampire and Its Culture II
Week 48
Due: Seminar Assignment 2
Week 49
Seminar 4: Monstrous Doubles
Week 49
Due: Seminar Assignment 3
Week 50
Seminar 5: The Southern Gothic
Week 50
Due: Seminar Assignment 4
Week 50
Lecture: Reading the Monstrous
Seminar Leader
Seminar Leader
Seminar Leader
David Watson
4.2. Schedule: English HS1/T1
Week 46
Introduction: Literature’s Monsters
David Watson
Week 46
Seminar 1: Writing Monsters: How Literature Terrifies
Seminar Leader
Week 48
Seminar 2: The Vampire and Its Culture I
Seminar Leader
Week 48
Due: Seminar Assignment 1
Week 50
Seminar 3: The Vampire and Its Culture II
Week 50
Due: Seminar Assignment 2
Week 50
Lecture: Reading the Monstrous
Seminar Leader
David Watson
Lectures and seminars are compulsory. Please check your schedules at
www.engelska.uu.se/Schedule for additional information and changes.
4.3 Seminar Information
For many of your seminars you are expected to complete a short assignment. English HS1/T1
students will complete 2 assignments, while English A1 students will produce four. English
A1 students will be expected to peer review two pieces of writing produced by another
student—these peer-reviews will make-up two of the compulsory four assignments for
English A1 students. Assignments are due by noon on the Monday of the week indicated in
your schedule, and should be emailed to seminar leader’s Urkund address. Late submissions
will not be accepted. All assignments need to be submitted before your final essay will be
graded.
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4.4. Literature’s Monsters: Course Content (English A1)
Week 46
Lecture 1: Introduction: Literature’s Monsters
Seminar 1: Writing Monsters: How Literature Terrifies
Ambiguity, perspective, and surprise are some of the means whereby authors depict the
monstrous and terrifying. This seminar examines the literary strategies involved in writing
horror by returning to some of the earliest examples of the literary gothic.
Reading
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, “The Birth-Mark” in Norton,
Poe, Edgar Allan, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/932)
Week 47
Seminar 2: The Vampire and Its Culture I
What cultural anxieties inform Bram Stoker’s Dracula? What does the novel tell us about
19th century ideas about normality and abnormality? This seminar, as well as the next one,
investigates these questions by positioning the novel within its original socio-historical
context.
Reading
Stoker, Bram, Dracula
Seminar Assignment 1
Read pp.1755-59 in your Norton and write a summary of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the
House of Usher” (available online at www.gutenberg.org) in which you describe what seems
to you to be the most important aspects of the story. One copy of your assignment should
be submitted to your seminar tutor, and one should be given to one of your fellow students
with whom you have been paired.
Week 48
Seminar 3: The Vampire and Its Culture II
Reading
Stoker, Bram, Dracula
Seminar Assignment 2
Comment on the summary you have received from your fellow student. What important
details have been omitted? Why are these important? What unnecessary details have been
included? What makes them less important? One copy of your assignment should be
submitted to your seminar tutor, and one should be given to one of your fellow students
with whom you have been paired. If you did not receive a summary from a fellow student,
reflect on your own summary of the short story in the manner described here.
Week 49
Seminar 4: Monstrous Doubles
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is at once a story steeped in the conventions of the gothic,
particularly that of the gothic double, and an early example of American feminist literature
that explores 19th century attitudes towards women’s health. This seminar focuses on both
aspects of Gilman’s work.
Reading:
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, “The Yellow Wallpaper” in Norton
Norton pp.379-388
Seminar Assignment 3
Consider the following essay topic on “The Fall of the House of Usher”
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Consider the role of the narrator. At first he may seem simply a window into the
narrative through which the reader can examine the story of Usher himself. But he
becomes a character in his own right, and the horror of the tale depends on our ability to
see events through his experience. To what extent is he reliable as a narrator? Does his
reliability affect our reading of “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a horror story?
Select three quotations from Poe’s story that you would use in an essay responding to this
essay topic. Comment on what makes each of these useful in relation to the essay topic. One
copy of your assignment should be submitted to your seminar tutor, and one should be
given to one of your fellow students with whom you have been paired.
Week 50
Seminar 5: The Southern Gothic
Within the genre of the Southern Gothic, the macabre and the supernatural frequently serve
as a means whereby an author explores the culture and history of the American South. This
seminar offers an introduction to this genre via an investigation of the writings of Flannery
O’Connor.
Reading:
“The Author’s Work: Flannery O’Connor” in Norton
Seminar Assignment 4
Comment on the assignment you have received from your fellow student. Is the selection of
quotes properly motivated? What important quotations would you have included that are
not listed? What makes these quotations more relevant to the essay topic? One copy of your
assignment should be submitted to your seminar tutor, and one should be given to one of
your fellow students with whom you have been paired. If you did not receive an assignment
from a fellow student, reflect on your own selection of quotations in the manner described
here.
Lecture 2: Reading the Monstrous
What is the metaphorical role and function of references to the macabre and monstrous?
This lecture investigates the symbolic function of references to the monstrous in Melville’s
story and Plath’s poem.
Reading
Melville, Herman, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” in Norton
Plath, Sylvia, “Daddy” in Norton
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4.4. Literature’s Monsters: Course Content (English HS1/T1)
Week 46
Lecture 1: Introduction: Literature’s Monsters
Seminar 1: Writing Monsters: How Literature Terrifies
Ambiguity, perspective, and surprise are some of the means whereby authors depict the
monstrous and terrifying. This seminar examines the literary strategies involved in writing
horror by returning to some of the earliest examples of the literary gothic.
Reading
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, “The Birth-Mark” in Norton Poe,
Poe, Edgar Allan, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/932)
Week 48
Seminar 2: The Vampire and Its Culture I
What cultural anxieties inform Bram Stoker’s Dracula? What does the novel tell us about
19th century ideas about normality and abnormality? This seminar, as well as the next one,
investigates these questions by positioning the novel within its original socio-historical
context.
Reading
Stoker, Bram, Dracula
Seminar Assignment 1
Read pp.1755-59 in your Norton and write a summary of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the
House of Usher” (available online at www.gutenberg.org) in which you describe what seems
to you to be the most important aspects of the story.
Week 50
Seminar 3: The Vampire and Its Culture II
Reading
Stoker, Bram, Dracula
Seminar Assignment 2
Consider the following essay topic on “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Consider the role of the narrator. At first he may seem simply a window into the
narrative through which the reader can examine the story of Usher himself. But he
becomes a character in his own right, and the horror of the tale depends on our ability to
see events through his experience. To what extent is he reliable as a narrator? Does his
reliability affect our reading of “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a horror story?
Select three quotations from Poe’s story that you would use in an essay responding to this
essay topic. Comment on what makes each of these useful in relation to the essay topic.
Lecture 2: Reading the Monstrous
What is the metaphorical role and function of references to the macabre and monstrous?
This lecture investigates the symbolic function of references to the monstrous in Melville’s
story and Plath’s poem.
Reading
Melville, Herman, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” in Norton
Plath, Sylvia, “Daddy” in Norton
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4.5. Final Exam Information (English A1/HS1/T1)
Your exam for the thematic course takes the form of a final essay. During week 50, you will
receive your essay topic. A paper copy of the completed exam should be handed in on 9
January at 16.00, and should be put in your teacher’s box. The essay should also be sent in,
as an e-mail attachment, to your teacher at Urkund address:
[email protected] (put in the first and last name of your teacher in
the address).
Essay length for English A1: 900 to 1000 words
Essay Length for English HS1/T1: 700 to 800 words.
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5. Reading Literature II B: ‘Elsewhere’, Borders, frontiers, literature
5.1. Schedule: English A1
Week 46
Introduction: ‘Elsewhere’, Borders, frontiers, literature
Stuart Robertson
Week 46
Seminar 1: ‘Endings and Beginnings’
Seminar Leader
Week 47
Seminar 2: Dispossession
Seminar Leader
Week 47
Due: Seminar Assignment 1
Week 48
Seminar 3: Home is where you make it
Week 48
Due: Seminar Assignment 2
Week 49
Seminar 4: ‘Where do I belong?’
Week 49
Due: Seminar Assignment 3
Week 50
Seminar 5: ‘Living on the border’
Week 50
Due: Seminar Assignment 4
Week 50
Conclusion
Seminar Leader
Seminar Leader
Seminar Leader
Stuart Robertson
5.2. Schedule: English HS1/T1
Week 46
Introduction: ‘Elsewhere’, Borders, frontiers, literature
Stuart Robertson
Week 46
Seminar 1: ‘Endings and Beginnings’
Seminar Leader
Week 48
Seminar 2: Dispossession
Seminar Leader
Week 48
Due: Seminar Assignment 1
Week 50
Seminar 3: Home is where you make it
Week 50
Due: Seminar Assignment 2
Week 50
Conclusion
Seminar Leader
Stuart Robertson
Lectures and seminars are compulsory. Please check your schedules at
www.engelska.uu.se/Schedule for additional information and changes.
5.3. Seminar Information
For many of your seminars you are expected to complete a short assignment. English HS1/T1
students will complete 2 assignments, while English A1 students will produce four. English
A1 students will be expected to peer review two pieces of writing produced by another
student—these peer reviews will make-up two of the compulsory four seminar assignments
for English A1 students. Assignments are due by noon on the Monday of the week indicated
in your schedule, and should be emailed to seminar leader’s Urkund address. Late
submissions will not be accepted. All assignments need to be submitted before your final
essay will be graded.
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5.4. ‘Elsewhere’, Borders, frontiers, literature: Course Content (English A1)
Week 46
Lecture 1: Introduction: ‘Elsewhere’, Borders, frontiers, literature
Seminar 1: ‘Endings and beginnings’
Students will read Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and learn some key ideas in
postcolonial studies. Relations between storytelling, identity and power will be explored, as
well as the role of the novel and literature in postcolonial cultures.
Reading
J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Week 47
Seminar 2: Dispossession
Reading
In Norton “Cultural homelands: An album”
Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
Maya Angelou, “Africa”
Derek Walcott, “A Far Cry From Africa”
Agha Shahid Ali, “Postcard from Kashmir”
Seminar Assignment 1
Read pp.1755-59 in your Norton and write a summary of the plot of Coetzee’s novel Waiting
for the Barbarians. One copy of your assignment should be submitted to your seminar tutor,
and one should be given to one of your fellow students with whom you have been paired.
Week 48
Seminar 3: Home is where you make it
Texts of the Harlem Renaissance collected in the Norton anthology provide a strong contrast
with Coetzee’s novel but show writers of an earlier period responding to their time and
situation.
Reading:
In Norton: Harlem Renaissance texts
Seminar Assignment 2
Comment on the summary you have received from your fellow student. What important
details have been omitted? Why are these important? What unnecessary details have been
included? What makes them less important? One copy of your assignment should be
submitted to your seminar tutor, and one should be given to one of your fellow students
with whom you have been paired. If you did not receive a summary from a fellow student,
reflect on your own summary of the short story in the manner described here.
Week 49
Seminar 4: ‘Where do I belong?’
The experience of migration has shaped contemporary British culture. Meera Syal’s novel
Anita and Me offers a comic, approachable and still sophisticated account of the experience
of migrants to Britain.
Reading
Meera Syal, Anita and Me
Seminar Assignment 3
Consider the following essay topic on J M Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians.
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Coetzee’s novel uses ideas of place and space very carefully. The place in which the
action occurs is never identified as a place in the real world but the action of the novel
depends upon the spaces represented or described; the colonial outpost, the city and so
on. What is effective about this careful balance between the unknown and the known?
Select three quotations from J M Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians that you would use in
an essay responding to this essay topic. Comment on what makes each of these useful in
relation to the essay topic. One copy of your assignment should be submitted to your
seminar tutor, and one should be given to one of your fellow students with whom you have
been paired.
Week 50
Seminar 5: ‘Living on the border’
Reading
Three short stories:
Ben Okri “In the City of Red Dust” from Stars of the New Curfew;
Bharatti Mukherjee “The Tenant” from The Middleman and other Stories;
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala “The Man with the Dog” from Out of India.
[Photocopies of the stories will be provided]
Seminar Assignment 4
Comment on the assignment you have received from your fellow student. Is the selection of
quotes properly motivated? What important quotations would you have included that are
not listed? What makes these quotations more relevant to the essay topic? One copy of your
assignment should be submitted to your seminar tutor, and one should be given to one of
your fellow students with whom you have been paired. If you did not receive an assignment
from a fellow student, reflect on your own selection of quotations in the manner described
here.
Lecture 2: Conclusion
The final lecture will discuss some of strategies for reading and ideas about frontiers and
limits that can help us understand both the texts we have read together and texts you may
read in the future.
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5.5. ‘Elsewhere’, Borders, frontiers, literature: Course Content (English HS1/T1)
Week 46
Lecture 1: Introduction: ‘Elsewhere’, Borders, frontiers, literature
Seminar 1: ‘Endings and beginnings’
Students will read Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and learn some key ideas in
postcolonial studies. Relations between storytelling, identity and power will be explored, as
well as the role of the novel and literature in postcolonial cultures.
Reading
J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Week 48
Seminar 2: Dispossession
Reading
In Norton “Cultural homelands: An album”
Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
Maya Angelou, “Africa”
Derek Walcott, “A Far Cry from Africa”
Agha Shahid Ali, “Postcard from Kashmir”
Seminar Assignment 1
Read pp.1755-59 in your Norton and write a summary of the plot of Coetzee’s novel Waiting
for the Barbarians.
Week 50
Seminar 3: Home is where you make it
Texts of the Harlem Renaissance collected in the Norton anthology provide a strong contrast
with Coetzee’s novel but show writers of an earlier period responding to their time and
situation.
Reading:
In Norton: Harlem Renaissance texts
Seminar Assignment 2
Consider the following essay topic on J M Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians.
Coetzee’s novel uses ideas of place and space very carefully. The place in which the
action occurs is never identified as a place in the real world but the action of the novel
depends upon the spaces represented or described; the colonial outpost, the city and so
on. What is effective about this careful balance between the unknown and the known?
Select three quotations from J M Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians that you would use in
an essay responding to this essay topic. Comment on what makes each of these useful in
relation to the essay topic.
Lecture 2: Conclusion
The final lecture will discuss some of strategies for reading and ideas about frontiers and
limits that can help us understand both the texts we have read together and texts you may
read in the future.
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5.6. Final Exam Information
Your exam for the thematic course takes the form of a final essay. During week 50 you will
receive your essay topic. A paper copy of the completed exam should be handed in on 9
January at 16.00, and should be put in your teacher’s box. The essay should also be sent in,
as an e-mail attachment, to your teacher at Urkund address:
[email protected] (put in the first and last name of your teacher in
the address).
Essay length for English A1: 900 to 1000 words
Essay Length for English HS1/T1: 700 to 800 words.
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6. General guidelines for your final essay
Literary essays should observe the usual conventions for formal pieces of writing. It follows
that your essay should start with an introduction—and what should be introduced is, of
course, your topic, not the writer whose text you are examining, say, or the text as such.
Each point that follows should then have a bearing on the topic, and its relevance should be
made clear by means of linking. Your essay should finish with a brief summary or conclusion.
Naturally you should give your essay a title, and that title should reflect the content of the
essay.
Also, as is the case generally in discussions of literature, you should provide examples that
support the points you make. The best way to support the points you make is often to quote
from the text you are dealing with, and to analyse the quotations you use. Well-chosen
quotations will also add colour, concreteness, and interest to your argument; a literary
analysis without them is always in danger of becoming abstract and general. Please use
quotation marks, not italics, for quotations.
The essay should present your own views. If you incorporate ideas and formulations from
other sources into your essay, you have to indicate that by identifying the source. Note that
plagiarism is an offense and will be dealt with harshly.
Please hand in a printed copy of the essay. It should also be sent in, as an e-mail attachment,
to your teacher at [email protected] (this is the most common form
of address, where you put in the first and last name of your teacher, but check with him or
her to be on the safe side).
7. Course Coordinator
Dr. David Watson
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 018 471 1253
Office Hours: Th 13.00-14.00
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