modernism and fascism syllabus

Upload: james-rovira

Post on 30-Oct-2015

763 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

DESCRIPTION

James Rovira's syllabus for Modernism and Fascism.

TRANSCRIPT

  • Tiffin University, School of Arts and Sciences Spring 2012 Modernism, Fascism, and Literature between the Wars ENG290H-01 Spring 2012 Course Description This course will study important works of literature from 1900 to the start of World War II, focusing especially on the literature of the period between the two great wars. Students will read literature in a variety of genres, learn a variety of approaches to the study of literature, and will be introduced to college research writing. James Rovira

    Office Hours M 9:00-12:00; 1:00-5:00; T-F 3:30-5:00 Class hours T-F 9:30-10:45

    Class Location Hertzer 113 About M.Phil. Drew U 2004 Ph.D. Drew U 2008 Contact [email protected] 419-448-3586 Bridgewater House 5

    To study literature is to study some of the most complex forms of the English language. It will improve your communication, listening, reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.

    This period of history shaped the modern world The first thirty-eight years of the twentieth century saw the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the formation of the Middle East as we know it today, and two major world wars that shaped the political geography and economic power structures of the current world. People living during his period enjoyed rapid prosperity, massive economic collapse, and a great struggle between rival political and economic systems: fascism, totalitarianism, and democracy; socialism, communism, and capitalism. It saw the beginning of the eclipse of Great Britain and other European nations as world powers and the rise of the United States as a world power. This period gave birth to Hitlers Germany, Moussolinis Italy, Hiro Hitos Japan, and Lenin and Stalins Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The literature studied in this class will focus primarily on American, British, and German authors who engaged this tumultuous period in their poetry, plays, and fiction. This course substitutes for ENG142 for students who have not yet taken it, introducing students to a range of literary genres, critical approaches to literature, and to research writing and fills the literature requirement for students who already have credit for ENG142.

  • 2

    Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences Spring 2012

    Course Policies Participation in this course implies agreement with all policies as stated in the course syllabus. Applicable policies are not limited to those explicitly stated in the course syllabus but also include verbal instruction given privately, given in class, and university-wide policies. Required Texts: The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vol. 2C BLAST 1 Writing Matters Beginning Theory Students must purchase the assigned texts for this class as notes, introductory material, and criticism unavailable online will be assigned from these texts. All final drafts of writing assignments are to be uploaded to turnitin.com. The instructor will grade them using the Grademark function in turnitin.com. Once the writing assignment has been graded, students can view instructor comments by opening the assignment and clicking the Grademark button in the upper left hand corner of the page. Instructor comments will appear both in the right sidebar and in little blue bubbles on the paper. The blue bubbles will reveal instructor comments when the mouse cursor is placed over them. Please do not just view final grades on turnitin.com. Read all instructor comments and correct errors on your next assignment. Errors that are repeated from assignment to assignment will cost more points each time they are repeated. Join class ID 4651981 with password ENG290HSP12

    Academic Honesty Policy This course will follow the academic honesty policy as stated in the most recent edition of the student handbook. The following course-specific policies will also be enforced: Any student found plagiarizing on any paper over the course of the semester to any extent may be awarded a grade of XF for the class. This policy may be applied retroactively to any papers found to be plagiarized after a final grade has been issued. Please note, however, that the instructor distinguishes between citation and/or documentation errors and blatant plagiarism, the final determination of which rests with the instructor alone. Improper citations will result in a lower grade, but not necessarily a grade of XF.

    Documentation

    All papers in this course shall be formatted and documented following MLA style as described in your Writing Matters text. All papers shall be set up following MLA style conventions. See the example provided by the sample paper in Writing Matters: Times New Roman, 12 pt. font double spaced from top to bottom without interruption or extra line spaces and with 1 margins all around. Proper setup of assigned papers counts toward the mechanical half of paper grades described below.

    Following correct documentation style gives you invaluable practice in reading and following complex written instructions and in paying attention to detail. It is a sign of professionalism in written presentations.

  • 3

    Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences Spring 2012

    Attendance and Grading Policies There are no excused absences except for competition sports travel as per NCAA regulations. Absences for family illnesses, births, deaths, weddings, etc., and the students own illnesses are not excused absences. Students who miss more than three classes except for competition travel will receive an automatic grade of F in the class.

    1

    All students are required to submit all written work by the due date and time. to demonstrate comprehension of the material in their written work, to argue a thesis original to the student in every paper, unless summary is explicitly assigned, to follow MLA style. No late work will be accepted under any circumstances, including competition sports travel, unless the student makes arrangements in advance to which the instructor has agreed either in writing or by email. Late papers will otherwise be issued a grade of 0.

    Grading There will be 100 pt. quizzes given in class on each weeks reading. Quizzes cannot be made up unless you make arrangements in advance. I will agree to one make-up date. If you do not meet that date, you will not be able to make up the quiz. Quizzes will cover factual information about the literature studied, being very similar in content to your midterm and final (see below). You must take notes on your reading in order to pass the quizzes. Students must complete an initial two-page paper plus an additional eighteen pages of writing. Writing assignments are as follows: One two-page paper due Feb. 10th for peer review and final draft due Feb. 14th. One five-page paper due Mar. 30th for peer review

    2

    and April 3rd for the final draft. One thirteen-page paper as follows: April 10: 250 word proposal describing the students topic, probable thesis or question, outline, and bibliography. April 17: Annotated Bibliography due. April 27: First full draft due for peer review. April 30: Final draft submitted to turnitin.com Under no circumstances will any papers be accepted after April 30th. All papers shall be focused on literature, shall be about any one or more of the literary works found in the assigned texts but none external to it, shall argue a thesis original to the student about the literature, and shall support that thesis with evidence quoted from the literary texts and from peer-reviewed, scholarly sources properly documented following MLA style. Class discussion will serve the purpose of helping students develop ideas about the literature. See also the handout Writing a Literary Thesis on eCollege for additional ideas. Students are also required to incorporate at least five critical sources into their writing. These critical sources may come from the assigned texts, from the MLA International Bibliography on Ohiolink, from Tiffin Universitys library, or from peer-reviewed articles obtained by Interlibrary Loan.

  • 4

    Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences Spring 2012

    Continued from previous page No sources from the publicly accessible internet will be accepted as one of these five sources without prior written or emailed consent from the instructor. Students who do not complete a full twenty pages of writing that incorporates at least five approved sources into that twenty pages of writing will be issued a grade of F regardless of their final average as they have not met the minimum requirements of the course. Each individual paper will be graded on the following basis: 50% -- grammar, spelling, MLA formatting. 50% -- clarity, style, organization, content, and fulfillment of the requirements of the assignment. Points will be deducted from the final grade of any paper for being short of length requirements in and page increments as determined by the instructor adding up to 100 points per page. Students should not pad their papers with unnecessary words, phrases, or ideas if they are coming up short. They should add more detail, more support, more examples, and/or further explanation. Papers using internet or text message abbreviations will receive an automatic grade of F. My computer crashed is not an excuse for not submitting a paper to turnitin.com by the due date. Students are responsible for backing up all work either onto a memory stick, onto the school network drive, or onto a file storage system such as Google docs or Dropbox (preferably at least two of the above). Students who have their work backed up will be able to continue their work on a public computer on campus should their personal computer crash. Students who do not back up their work are responsible for failing to do so. The midterm and final exams will be worth 500 pts each. The final exam will cover only material studied since the midterm exam. Each exam will consist of 50-100 multiple choice questions asking factual questions about the following topics: Associating authors with their works. Birth and death dates of authors and composition dates of works. Genre and other literary features of works. Relevant biographical and historical details associated with the works. Quotation or speaker identification: please note that being able to identify a quotation or the speaker associated with quoted text does not mean that students are expected to memorize assigned reading, only that they have read it, comprehended it, and understood its major themes and major characters well enough to identify them within a multiple choice question. Questions on the midterm and final will be drawn from class discussion and from assigned reading. All papers must be submitted to the appropriate folder on turnitin.com on the due date (by the start of class the day that the final draft is due) for a grade to be issued. Students will also have to sign a contract indicating which paper option they have chosen. No papers will receive a grade without this signed contract.

    Services Tutoring Students who would like additional help with their papers may take advantage of tutoring services offered by TUs Student Success Center. The Student Success Center is located in Friedley Hall and is open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Fridays. Students who wish to work with a tutor are encouraged to call extension 3324 to make an appointment. Please be advised that tutors will not write or fix papers, nor will they guarantee particular grades. Their function is to review and discuss writing with students and to make suggestions for improvement. Student Conduct TU is a professional university; its students are preparing for professional careers. They are therefore expected to dress appropriately and behave professionally. Students must turn off cell phones and pagers at the beginning of every class. Students must not spend class time writing letters, doing homework, using computers for activities not related to class, chewing tobacco, and/or talking privately with others. Such conduct is highly disrespectful and will not be tolerated.

  • 5

    Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences Spring 2012

    1

    January 17: Course introduction, avoiding plagiarism, MLA style. January 20: Longman: The Twentieth Century January 24: Barry chapter 8, Marxist Criticism January 27: Barry chapter 5, Psychoanalytic Criticism January 31: Barry chapter 12, Narratology February 3: Conrad, Heart of Darkness February 7: Shaw, Pygmalion February 10: Writing Matters Tabs 1, 2, 4, 6 Writing Assignment: two-page paper analyzing Conrad or Shaw from a Marxist, Psychoanalytic, or Narratological perspective. Print out and bring paper to class for peer review. February 14: Longman: Perspectives, The Great War (excluding BLAST) Writing Assignment: final draft of two-page paper uploaded to turnitin.com. February 17: The Triumph of the Will (in class film) February 21: Susan Sontag, Fascinating Fascism (handout) February 24: Adorno: Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda (handout) February 28: Marinetti (handout) March 2: BLAST 1, Wyndham Lewis, ed. (selections) Last day to withdraw March 6: Midterm Exam March 7: Midterm grades due March 9-16: Spring break, no class March 20: Barry chapter 2, Structuralism March 23: Ezra Pound (handout) March 27: Longman: T.S. Eliot March 30: Writing Matters, Tab 12 Writing Assignment: Five-page paper, peer reviewed draft.

    2

    April 3: Longman: James Joyce (excluding Ulysses) Writing Assignment: Final draft of five-page paper submitted to turnitin.com April 6: Longman: James Joyce (Ulysses) April 10: Barry chapter 6, Feminism Writing Matters Tab 5 Writing Assignment: Final Paper proposal April 13: Longman: Virginia Woolf April 17: H.D. (handout) Writing Assignment: Annotated Bib. April 20: Longman: Yeats April 24: Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction (handout) April 27: Writing Assignment: Final paper peer review. Print out a draft of your final paper and bring it to class. April 30: Writing Assignment: Final draft of final paper submitted to turnitin.com by midnight April 30th. Final exam week. Exam as scheduled. All handouts have been scanned as text-searchable .pdfs and uploaded to Doc Sharing in eCollege. Please print them out and bring them to class on the day that we are discussing these readings.

    Course Schedule

  • 6

    Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences Spring 2012

    1

    Grade of A: Excellent The A paper is a highly sophisticated paper that supports an original thesis with a complex argument that skillfully and correctly integrates substantial outside research. The A paper demonstrates not only substantial understanding of primary and secondary reading but the ability to advance knowledge with its insight into the material. It has few or no grammatical or punctuation errors -- no more than three or four for every five pages of writing -- and maintains a highly academic tone that correctly and effectively employs field-specific language. Grade of B: Above Average The B paper fulfills all requirements of the assignment. It meets or exceeds research requirements effectively, demonstrating comprehension of all sources. It properly documents its sources with no more than two or three citation errors. It is almost free of grammatical or punctuation errors, having no more than one or two errors per page, but while highly competent, the B paper lacks the insight and linguistic competence characterizing the A essay. Grade of C: Average The average college-level paper will receive a grade of C. This paper is written well enough to be easy to follow, but could benefit from some restructuring or additional paragraphs. It meets minimum assignment requirements for research and other elements and integrates sources correctly following the most basic requirements of the assigned documentation style; in-text citations are clearly keyed to the references, bibliography, or works cited page. It demonstrates basic reading comprehension of both primary and secondary sources. It may have some minor punctuation, capitalization, grammatical, or spelling errors or some use of informal language but is generally appropriate and correct.

    2

    Grade of D: Below Average The D paper is deficient in one or more of the following areas: structure/organization, research, reading comprehension, documentation, word choice, grammar, or punctuation, capitalization, or spelling. The grade of D indicates below-average achievement in organizing ideas, expressing ideas, understanding sources, writing correctly, or following documentation style. Most D papers contain serious errors in usage and fail to present a central thesis or to develop it adequately. Grade of F: Poor An F paper is either completely missing required elements or makes no serious attempt to write a correct, college-level paper. These essay standards summarize the Writing Intensive Class rubric created by Dr. Jim Rovira and Dr. Sherry Truffin in the Summer of 2011. The rubric itself is on eCollege and integrated into turnitin.com and will be used to score your papers.

    Essay Grading Standards

  • Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences Spring 2012 Grade Scale A 93-100 A- 90-92 B+ 87-89 B 83-86 B- 80-82 C+ 77-79 C 73-76 C- 70-72 D+ 67-69 D 63-66 D- 60-62 F 59 or below Invest in this class. In doing so, you will invest in yourself in your knowledge of your world, of people, of language, of history, of art, and of imagination.