Week 1

Wed. Introduction to materials on my web site, discussion of syllabus, weekly assignments.

Fri. Read Alexander Pope, "Essay on Man" p. 308; discussion of the eighteenth century world view

Week 2

Mon. Continue

Wed. Voltaire, Candide (the first 10 chapters, pp. 316-32).

Fri. Candide (through chapters 18); Response paper #1 due: Explain the difference in Pope's and Voltaire's world view: how do they view social attitudes, the Christian church, and European governments.

Week 3

Mon. Introduction to Modernism/Romanticism

Web site on Tintern Abbey

Wed. Romanticism: Poetry of Wordsworth: "Lines Composed . . . "p. 552. Response paper #2 due: What does Wordsworth get out of nature? Why is nature so important to him?

Fri. Poetry of William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience p. 542-548.

If possible, please read these poems online. Blake engraved illustrations for his work which you may view online.

Response paper #3 due: Compare "The Lamb" and "The Tyger." Why is the first included in Songs of Innocence and the second in Songs of Experience?

Week 4

Mon. Coleridge, "Kubla Khan" p. 587

Wed. Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale" p. 605; "Ode to a Grecian Urn" p. 604; Response paper # 4 due: summarize the events in the poems.

Fri. continue discussion. Essay#1 due: What is revolutionary about romantic poetry?

Week 5

Mon. Emily Dickinson: The poems in the textbook, pp. 823-31. 

Wed. Poems on Emily Dickinson on the web site: Literature:  death, nature, childhood: nos. 613, 486, 67, 214, 252, 789, 249, 201, 691

Fri. Poetry of Emily Dickinson, ambiguity and breakdown: nos. 937, 280, 579, 609. Response paper # 5 due: Explicate one of Dickinson's poems we have not discussed in class.

Week 6

 Mon. Darwin

Wed. Discussion of Nineteenth Century Art and Music

Fri.

Week 7

Mon. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, pp. 1069-1082; response paper # 6 due: In light of the changes in music, painting, and science, why is this a good example of nineteenth century literature.

Wed. Continue Notes; Charles Baudelaire, "A Carcass," p. 1148

Fri.

Week 8

Spring Break

Week 9

Mid-Term Exam taken in the Testing Center. You will need a blue book and picture ID. No class this week.

Week 10

Mon.  Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis," pp. 1640. Response paper # 7 due: What does Gregor's situation symbolize? Being a bug is a metaphor for what?

Wed. Albert Camus, "The Guest," p. 1872

 Fri. Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," p. 1883

Week 11

Mon. Samuel Beckett, Endgame or Waiting for Godot (film)

Wed. Essay # 2 due. On any literature we have studied since the mid-term exam. Continue Waiting for Godot

Fri. Continue

Week 12

Mon. Jorge Luis Borges, "The Garden of Forking Paths"

Wed.

Fri.

Week 13

Mon. Dada-Surrealist Poetry: a selection, p. 1709; also, Dada visual arts, and clip from surrealist movie by Savadar Dali

Wed. Alain Robbe-Grillet, "The Secret Room";Tadeusz Borowski, "Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber, p. 2016

Fri. Spring holiday, no class

Week 14

Mon. Ran, film, director, Kurasawa (Japanese)

Wed. Continue

Fri. Continue

Week 15

Mon. Modern poetry, analyze poems of Sylvia Plath

Response paper # 8 due: Discuss the differences in the poetry of these two writers.

Wed. Analyze Crow poems of Ted Hughes

Fri. New poetry of Ted Hughes addressing his relationship with S.P.

Week 16

Mon. Raymond Carver stories

Wed.

Fri. 

Week 17 Final exam

Videos you might find interesting; not required:

King Lear

Grand Illusion

Roshomon

Galileo (30) V0 203.10

Eighteenth Century Art and Music (1 hr.)

A Doll's House

Classicism and Romanticism (1 hr.)

Romanticism: Revolt of the Spirit (25)

French Revolution: Birth of a New France (21) V0277

Fresh View: Impressionism (55) V0452.07

Twentieth Century Artistic Revolutions (31) V0189

Into the 20th Century (58) V0452.08

Short Cuts, a film based on the stories of Raymond Carver