Mary Jane Davis
[email protected]
www.myenglishta.wordpress.com
@myenglishta
M T W R 9:30-10:55
Girvetz 2116
Office Hours: M W 11-12, or by appt.
ENGL 10: Introduction to Literary Studies
The
Gothic
Mind
OVERVIEW
This course introduces literary studies as a discipline and provides the concepts, tools, and
ideas that we use when interpreting literary texts. My goal is to show you how to read,
think, and write like a student of literature. To that end, we will spend the next six weeks
explaining and exploring the following concepts: what it means to “close read” a text; how
to identify and understand the purpose of literary concepts (such as metaphor, poetic
rhythm, symbolic language and narrative structures); and, finally, how we take these ideas
and apply them to new works.
In addition, this class will teach you how to analyze and critique like an English major by
asking you to craft essays that not only demonstrate your analytic abilities and your
writing competence, but also meet the standards set out by the Modern Language
Association (MLA).
CLASSROOM POLICIES
This class will be conducted in a small, discussion-based environment. It is therefore
mandatory that you 1) attend class, 2) read all of the required texts on schedule, and 3)
participate actively in our discussions.
Participation is worth 25% of your overall grade: this includes both your presence and
active participation in class. Please come to class prepared to discuss the assigned texts
and engage critically with these works. Participation may consist of class discussion,
group work, short writing assignments, and other activities.
Please be respectful of your fellow classmates during class. Some of the literature we will
be reading engages with difficult, sensitive material; successfully reading and discussing
such matters requires that we work together to create as safe a classroom as possible. This
means that we must all work to avoid language that is discriminatory or may marginalize
(intentionally or unintentionally) a person or a group of people. As a general rule, we will
strive to avoid sexist, racist, ableist, homophobic, and any other marginalizing language—
although we will certainly discuss its deployment within the texts we read. Paying close
attention to the language that we use when discussing these texts is a natural extension of
our analysis of the language of the texts themselves. Please respect the complex layers of
individual identity and do not pigeonhole your peers.
TARDY/ ABSENCE POLICY
Attendance will be taken every day; you are expected to be present on time. If you are late,
it is your responsibility to see that you are marked as present, and your participation for
that day will be affected. If you miss the reading questions for that day, you must stay
after class to make them up, or you will receive no points for that day. Every 3 tardies you
have will count as an unexcused absence.
You will not be penalized for missing up to two class meetings over the course of the
session. You are not required to provide me with an excuse for these absences; these are
your sick days, so to speak, and you should use them accordingly. Bear in mind, however,
that these are the only absences you will get, unless you provide me with official
documentation.
An example of an excused absence is one that is supplemented with an
official note from student health.
Some examples of unexcused absences include: vacations/travel, faulty
alarms, and work.
Any subsequent absence will deduct 2 points off your final grade in the course. If you
have more than 3 unexcused absences, you will be dropped form the class. Attendance
cannot be made up.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY POLICY
Plagiarizing, cheating, or misrepresenting another’s work as your own will not be
tolerated in any form, and will result in severe disciplinary action and a failing grade in
the course. The University has strict policies regarding cheating and plagiarism:
The core of a university’s integrity is its scholastic honesty. Academic dishonesty
vitiates the university’s educational role and defrauds all who comprise its
community. It is expected that students understand and subscribe to the ideal of
academic integrity and are willing to bear individual responsibility for their work.
Materials submitted to fulfill academic requirements must represent a student’s
own efforts. Any act of academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism or other forms of
cheating, is unacceptable and will be met with disciplinary action
(http://my.sa.ucsb.edu/catalog/Current/AcademicPoliciesProcedures/AcademicC
onduct.aspx).
To read more, please consult the following PDF provided by the UCSB Office of Judicial
Affairs: http://judicialaffairs.sa.ucsb.edu/PDF/academicintegflyer.pdf
OFFICE HOURS
I encourage everyone to come see me during my office hours. Feel free to ask for feedback
on your writing (at any stage of the process) or seek clarification on points covered in
class.
Please don’t hesitate to see me to discuss any problems you are having with the material
or with the class itself; I am happy to work with you to make this experience as useful and
pleasant as possible.
EMAILS
It is essential that I have an up-to-date email address for you in order to pass on any
information pertaining to the course. You are responsible for making sure that the email
address I have on file for you is current, and that you check it regularly.
Please give me at least 24 hours to respond to emails during the week. I may not respond
to emails on the weekends. If you have a pressing concern, it is better to see me in office
hours or after class to speak with me personally.
Additionally, I will answer short questions over email, and if I feel the question is too
complex for that venue, will ask that you come to office hours. I will not read full drafts
over email, nor will I answer any questions about an assignment starting at 5PM the
evening before it is due.
DISABLED STUDENTS’ PROGRAM
The Disabled Students’ Program has created a new online system for arranging
accommodations for students with disabilities, which you can access at any time on
http://my.ucsb.edu. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me—your needs will be
addressed in strict confidence. Be aware that University policy forbids me from giving
special consideration to students not enrolled in the DSP.
PAPERS/WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
All papers and written responses (unless done in class) should be typed and doublespaced in 12-point Times New Roman font with one-inch margins, and in all other ways
follow the latest MLA conventions. If you have any questions about MLA, see me in
office hours, consult the 7th edition MLA Handbook, or visit
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.
You will submit your assignments through Gauchospace in either PDF or Microsoft
Word form. Any other format will not be accepted. If you are unsure of how to convert
your paper into an acceptable method, you must come see me at least 24 hours before
your assignment is to be submitted.
Papers should include: a title that gestures toward your main ideas, a focused and
creative thesis that makes a strong argument, close readings of your primary text,
little to no basic plot summary, and citations for any evidence you use to support
your argument. A thesis engages in dialogue with existing ideas and contributes
something new to the conversation; it does not simply recapitulate the prompt,
the plot, or whatever has been said already in class. If your argument has been
made before or seems self-evident (i.e., it is really an observation, not an
interpretive argument), it is not an A paper.
TEXTS
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Murfin and Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
All other readings will be available on Gauchospace
GRADE BREAKDOWN
Reading questions 25%
Participation 20%
Final paper (2500 words) 20%
Poetry close reading assignment (1250 words) 15%
Led discussion 10%
Film assignment (1250 words) 10%
ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE
Please note that all readings and assignments must be completed by the date on which
they are listed. If it is an assignment that is to be submitted via Gauchospace, it must be
submitted before class that day. Additional short assignments may be assigned in class—
these will count as part of your participation grade. Your daily reading questions will take
the place of a midterm and final exam.
There is one extra credit opportunity; please see Gauchospace for more details. Your
thoughtful, successfully completed extra credit assignment will add two points to your
final grade in the course.
(This syllabus may be subject to change, but I will keep you informed if it seems like that
will happen.)
Week 1, June 23-26: Gothic Origins
June 23: Introduction; course goals
June 24: Point of View/Tone/Narration. Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard”; Collins, “Ode to Fear”; (Bedford terms: “Gothic,” “elegy,” “ode,”
“aesthetics,” “apostrophe”)
June 25: Scansion/the sonnet. Smith, Elegiac Sonnets XLVII (“To Fancy”), LIX
(“Written Sept. 1791, during a remarkable Thunder Storm”), LXX (“On being
cautioned against walking on a Headland overlooking the Sea, because it was
frequented by a Lunatic”); Rossetti, “In an Artist’s Studio”; Keats, “When I have
fears that I may cease to be”; (Bedford terms: “sonnet” (also “English Sonnet” and
“Italian Sonnet”), “meter,” “iamb,” “trochee,” “spondee,” “foot,” “scansion,”
“pathetic fallacy”)
June 26: Characterization. Freud, from “The Uncanny”; Coleridge, Christabel
(Part One, Conclusion to Part One); (Bedford term: “psychoanalytic criticism,”
“foreshadowing”)
Week 2: June 30-July 3: Gothic House
June 30: Mind states. Coleridge, Christabel (Part Two, Conclusion to Part Two);
(Bedford terms: “ballad,” “bard”)
July 1: Setting. Keats, “The Eve of Saint Agnes,” “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
(Bedford terms: “dream vision,” “fairy tale,” “mood”)
July 2: Symbolism. Rossetti, Goblin Market; (Bedford terms: “symbolism,”
“metaphor,” “simile,” “allegory,” “alliteration,” “imagery”)
July 3: Themes. Burke, from “On the Sublime”; Richardson, Rambler 14; Walpole,
The Castle of Otranto (Walpole’s first and second prefaces; Chapters 1-2); (Bedford
terms: “figurative language”, “the sublime,” “novel”)
*Pan’s Labyrinth screening
Week 3, July 7-10: Gothic Nation
July 7: Plot. Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, Chapters 3-5; poetry close reading
assignment due
July 8: Genre. Radcliffe, excerpts from Mysteries of Udolpho; Austen, Northanger
Abbey, Chapters 1-12; (Bedford terms: “genre,” “irony,” “satire,” “naïve hero”)
July 9: Dialogue. Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapters 13-25; (Bedford terms: “free
indirect discourse,” interior monologue”)
July 10: Interiority. Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapters 26-31; Joseph Litvak,
“The Most Charming Young Man in the World” (Norton 348-357); (Bedford
term: “marriage plot”)
*Shaun of the Dead screening
Week 4, July 14-17: Gothic Women
July 14: CLASS CANCELLED
July 15: Poetic form. Dickinson, “One need not be a chamber to be haunted,”
“The Soul has bandaged moments,” “Before I got my eyes put out,” “A word is
dead, when it is said,” “Because I could not stop for Death,” “I see thee clearer for
the grave”; (Bedford terms: “diction,” “enjambment,” “slant rhyme,” “tone”)
July 16: Short Stories. Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”; Faulkner, “A Rose for
Emily”; (Bedford terms: “feminist criticism,” “domesticity,” “unreliable narrator,”
“race and literary studies”)
July 17: Drama. Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, scenes 1-5; (Bedford terms:
“drama,” “tragedy,” “soliloquy”)
*A Streetcar Named Desire screening
Week 5, July 21-24: Gothic Interiority
July 21: Southern Gothic. Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, scenes 6-11;
(Bedford terms: “empathy,” “catharsis,” “climax,” “crisis,” “denouement”)
July 22: Trauma. Plath, “Lady Lazarus,” “Daddy”; Freud, “Mourning and
Melancholia” (Bedford terms: “allusion,” “point of view,” “alliteration”)
July 23: The inhuman. Browning, “My Last Duchess,” “Porphyria’s Lover”;
Pizarnik, “The Bloody Countess”; (Bedford terms: “dramatic monologue,”
“narrator”)
July 24: (Human) Nature. Pope, from Essay on Man; Blake, The Marriage of
Heaven and Hell; (Bedford terms: “proverb,” “mimesis,” “aphorism”)
Week 6, July 28-31: Gothic Humanity
July 28: Aesthetics, part one. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface and
Chapters 1-4; (Bedford terms: “aestheticism,” “motif”)
July 29: Censorship. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapters 5-9 (Bedford
terms: “binary oppositions,” “Deconstruction,” “queer theory”)
July 30: Fantasy/Reality. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapters 10-14
(Bedford terms: “realism,” “impressionism”)
July 31: Aesthetics, part two. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapters 15-20;
John Paul Riquelme, “Oscar Wilde’s Aesthetic Gothic” (Norton 496-509); final
paper due
*Black Swan screening