English 301-01, 02: Prose

English 301-901: Reading Literature

Spring 2006: Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:30-6:45 (in Business 2105)

Professor Bryant Mangum (307 Anderson House, 828-1255; bmangum@vcu.edu)

I. Texts (texts available through Virginia Book Company—900 W. Franklin):

(A) The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, ed. Ann Charters. 6th

Edition. Boston: Bedford Books/St. Martin's, 2003.

(B) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

II. Course Description and Objectives

English 301 is an introduction to the kind of analytical reading and writing you will be expected to do as an English major. For some of you who are well into your major the course will be a review of sorts in that you will be sharpening skills that you have already learned, perhaps even reading works that you have already read. I hope, however, that you will all encounter in this course many texts that you will find exciting to read, reread, discuss, and write about. We will consider works from various genres, among them the short story, the poem, and the play.

Our strategy will be this: in the first half of the semester we will focus on the short story with the idea that you will become an expert of sorts on this genre. The short story, of course, has its own history and its particular conventions, and we will concentrate on these in the first part of the course. Many of the skills and much of the vocabulary that you develop in studying short fiction, however, will be transferable to other forms of prose, such as the novel, the play, and the essay; ultimately, even to poetry and other forms of verbal and non-verbal communication as well. The general objective of the course, therefore, is to help you become a more careful and more sensitive reader of literature and to provide strategies that will enable you effectively to communicate in essay form your observations about texts you have read.

The specific components of the course that we will use to accomplish this general objective are as follows:

A. Close reading and discussion of approximately twenty short stories, one book-length play, assorted poems, and additional essays, some that are related specifically to particular works and some that are not;

B. A study of the history and development of various genres, with particular focus on the history of the short story and its conventions and on basic elements of fiction such as plot, character, setting, point of view, style and voice, symbolism and allegory, and theme;

C. A review of strategies that can be used in writing essays about literature, among them explication, analysis, comparison and contrast, other perspectives.

III. Assignments and Requirements:

A. Paper # 1: “Explication”: “When you explicate a text, you unfold its meaning in an essay, proceeding carefully to interpret it passage by passage, sometimes even line by line or word by word.”

B. Paper #2: “Analysis”: “An analysis of a story is the result of the process of separating it into its parts in order to study the whole…. While explication deals with a specific section of the text, analysis can range further, discussing details throughout the narrative that are related to your thesis.”

C. Paper #3: "Point of View" and other formal concerns: Point of view refers broadly to "the way the story is told." Technically point of view refers to the personal pronoun used by the author to tell her of his story. We will discuss other formal matters that you may consider in writing this paper.

D. Paper #4: Integrating Outside Critical Sources: For this paper you will choose either of the three stories above ("Babylon Revisited," "The Swimmer," or "Sonny's Blues"), located three scholarly sources that you will read and include in your bibliography, and write a thesis-support paper of 3-5 pages in which you use ONE of these articles as a springboard into your paper.

E. Paper # 5: A revision of any paper you've done to this point. The revised paper grade will count as a full paper grade.

F. Papers # 6 and #7: Analyzing Two or More Works (counted as two paper grades)

Three Alternatives: Choose A, B, or C” A. Find two stories from our text which are either comparable or are so strikingly different that they warrant contrasting…. B. Select what you consider a dominant theme (or dominant themes) in The Catcher in the Rye…. C. Locate a critical essay (or book chapter) that deals with one of the works we have read and discussed.…

G. Weighting of Assignments (including such things as actual class participation, attendance, blackboard postings, etc.)

Each of your papers will be weighted the same except for paper #6, which will count as two paper grades (thus as 6 and 7). I will total up the points for all seven papers and divide the total by 7 (except in the case of those of you who do not do the revision, in which case I will divide the total number by 6. In borderline cases (those that are within the point of the next letter grade) I will use class participation, including blackboard postings, to help you (never to pull your grade down). Here are the numerical grades represented by the letter grades: A 95; A- 90; B+ 88; B 85; B- 80; C+ 78; C 75; C- 70; D+ 68; D 65; D- 60; F 0-59; A-/B+ and B+/A- 89; B+/B 87; B/B+ 86; B/B- 83; C+/B- and B-/C+ 79, etc.

H. Class Participation and Attendance: Much of our class will consist of discussion of the works we are reading. You are encouraged to contribute to class discussions, and your participation will be figured into your final grade. There will be assorted short, written responses to specific questions to be turned in or written in response to questions posted on Blackboard. Class participation will be factored into your grade as described above. If you miss more than four classes for any reason other than a death in the immediate family or serious illness you will receive a grade of F for the course. The final day to withdraw from the course with a grade of W is Friday, 24 March.

IV. VCU Honor System: "Virginia Commonwealth University recognizes that honesty, truth, and integrity are values central to its mission as an institution of higher education." This class will be conducted in strict adherence to VCU's Honor System policies. In essence, you should not use another student’s work. You should not falsely present source material as your own. Whenever you use material from another source, you must credit this source clearly, whether you are quoting directly, summarizing, or paraphrasing. Conscious and uncorrected acts of plagiarism (either from another student's work or from an academic source) will result in a failing course grade. In other words, respect the work of others and in no way present it as your own. If you have additional questions about academic integrity and plagiarism consult VCU's policy in the VCU Resource Guide or at the following web address: http://www.students.vcu.edu/rg/policies/honor.html

V. Students with Disabilities: "Virginia Commonwealth University is committed to providing students with disabilities equal opportunities to benefit from all programs, services and activities offered." Students with disabilities should identify to the instructor at the beginning of the course the services that they will need. For further information on this policy, refer to VCU Resource Guide.

VI. A Note on Computers: Much of the work in this course will depend on regular use of Blackboard and on email sent to and from your VCU email address. I will use your VCU email address for communication with you and will expect you to check it between each of our classes. The same is true for Blackboard: I will post announcements there and you should check it between each of our classes. You will be able to access all of the course materials by going to http://blackboard.vcu.edu

VII. Miscellaneous:
My office is 307 Anderson House (913 W. Franklin). The telephone number is 828-1255. I will post office hours on my door (and also online through my website), but if you need to see me at times other than those posted please feel free to set up a time during which we can meet. There is a voice mail on my telephone. My e-mail address is bmangum@vcu.edu. The address for my university web page is http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bmangum.