Comparative Literature 325
World Masterpieces 1650-present
Syllabus
Dr. Joanne Gass
Office: UH440
Telephone: 278-2713
e-mail: jgass@fullerton.edu or Jmg242@aol.com
fax: (714) 895-5751
Office Hours: W 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Required Text: The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Expanded
Edition, Vol. 2 (no other text is acceptable nor any other edition of the Norton)
Your text book is available at the Little Professor Book Center on Placentia in the Kinko's center.
Course Requirements:
1. Read the assigned materials before class discussion. This is, after all, a
literature course, and you should be prepared to read a great deal. Reading also includes
the introductions which precede each section in the text. These introductions are
excellent, and you will need the information found therein both for comprehension and
for answering examination questions. You will be responsible for the information in those
introductions.
2. Be prepared to participate in discussion of the readings every day. Ask questions,
contribute ideas, challenge assumptions. Failure to contribute to class discussions
will be interpreted as lack of preparation.
3. Take three take-home written essay examinations (two mid-term and one final);
examinations will be handed out one week before their due date. Papers will be graded both
for content and for correct form--you must carefully proofread and edit your papers
before you turn them in. Papers which have excessive spelling, grammar, and
punctuation errors will receive failing grades. If you fail to spell the author's
and characters' names correctly and if you misspell the titles of works, you will receive
a failing grade. When you have the book in front of you, such errors are
inexcusable. (Everyone makes the occasional typographical or usage error; I'm
speaking of five or more per page.)
4. Take two in-class objective examinations which will include identification of
characters, dates, authors, and titles, definitions of key terms, identification of
quotations. One exam will occur at mid-term, the other on the day of the scheduled final
exam.
5. Attend class regularly.
Attendance Policy:
Regular attendance is essential to your success in this course. If you miss six (6) or more class hours, you will receive a '0' in class participation. One fourth of your grade is comprised of class participation, which includes regular attendance. A warm body in the classroom will receive 100 points; you must earn the other 100 points.
Late Paper Policy:
Assigned papers are due on the date assigned. If, for some very good reason, which you have communicated to me before the paper's due date, you cannot get the paper in, you will have one week to complete the assignment without penalty. I will not accept any paper that is more than one week overdue.
Make-up Examination Policy:
If you are unable to take an in-class objective examination, you must notify me in
advance and arrange to take the examination at my convenience within one week of the date
of the examination. In the case of the final examination, you must take it before
the scheduled day, not after.
Grading:
| Take Home Examinations | 300 (100 points each) |
| In-class Objective Exams | 300 (150 points each) |
| Class Participation | 200 |
| Total Points | 800 |
Course Schedule:
| Week #1 | Introduction Wu Ch'Eng-En, Monkey |
| Week #2 | Moliere, Tartuffe |
| Week #3 | Evilya Celebi, The Book of Travels Sor Juana, "Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz" Basho, The Road to the Interior |
| Week #4 | Goethe, Faust |
| Week #5 | Heine, Poems Ghalib, Urdu Lyric Poetry of Northern India Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil Essay Examination #1 assigned |
| Week #6 | Ibsen, Hedda Gabler Essay Examination #1 due |
| Week #7 | Mann, Death in Venice |
| Week #8 | Lu Xun, "Diary of a Madman" Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" Mid-term Objective Examination |
| Week #9 | Akhmatova, Requiem |
| Week #10 | Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children |
| Week #11 | Kawabata, Snow Country Essay Examination #2 assigned |
| Week #12 | Mahfouz, "Zaabalawi" Gordimer, "Oral History" Garcia Marquez, "Death Constant Beyond Love" Essay Examination #2 due |
| Week #13 | Achebe, Things Fall Apart |
| Week #14 | Desai, Clear Light of Day |
| Week #15 | Catch up, if necessary (and it will be!!) Essay Examination #3 assigned |
| Week #16 | Final Objective Examination Essay Examination #3 due |
EXTRA CREDIT
You may earn up to 50 points of extra credit to supplement the points you earn on your objective examinations. In order to earn extra credit, you may do the following:
1. Attend a play
2. Go to a movie
3. Watch a video at home
4. Read a book of poetry
5. Visit a museum like the Getty, the Norton Simon, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Contemporary Contemporary in Little Tokyo, or the
Bowers in Santa Ana
6. Attend a poetry reading
7. Listen to an audio version of a work we aren't
reading
8. Visit some of the many art galleries in our area
Whatever you do, it must be related to the works we are studying in class. In other words, you should be looking for movies, plays, poetry, or art which either comes from the historical periods we are reading about or are adaptations of works from those periods. Also, you should try to avoid American or English works as much as possible--try to broaden your horizons.
Each extra credit project will be worth 25 points. In order to earn the points you must
write a one to two page single-spaced review of what you have seen or done. I do
not want a plot summary; I want a review; ideally, you would relate the themes we have
been working on in class to what you see, hear, or read.
There are many resources in our area; take advantage of them. Refer to the Los
Angeles Times Calendar section or the Orange County Register entertainment
section on Thursday. If you have an idea, but are unsure of it, come to me and ask.
All extra credit must be turned in to me before the last week of regularly scheduled classes.