ENGL 366: Studies in Gender, Race, and Ethnicity
http://www.csub.edu/~ccoffman/ENGL366-F04
CSUB Antelope Valley Campus
Classroom: CSUB-AV 119
MW 6-8:05 PM
Fall 2004
Dr. Chris Coffman
Office: CSUB-AV 316
Phone/Voicemail: 952-5099
E-mail: ccoffman at csub.edu
Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays 4:30-5:30
And by Advance Appointment (MW only)
Course Description:
This course offers strategies for approaching literary,
cinematic, and media discourses that emerge from the interaction of dominant
and non-dominant world powers.
Focusing on the ramifications of British and American imperialism, we
will analyze the construction of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class
in texts from around the world.
This course will use a combination of textual and theoretical
approaches; it will not emphasize
history.
As an upper-division university course in literature, this class will by its very nature involve substantial daily reading. I encourage you to look at the Schedule at the end of this syllabus and to consider carefully whether you are able to make the commitment to complete this kind of course at this time.
Prerequisites:
ENGL 101 or the equivalent;
or, one course from ENGL 205, 207, 208, 290, 294, or 295. I will not be waiving prerequisites for
any reason. In order to
succeed in this course, you must be able to write a focused, thesis-driven
essay that draws its support from an assigned text; these are skills that are taught in CSUB’s ENGL 100
and 110, as well as their two-year college equivalents. While feedback on your written work for
this course will include an assessment of the quality of your writing and may
contain suggestions for further development, class sessions will focus on
honing your ability to analyze the assigned texts. If you received a low grade (C range or below) in a
lower-division composition course (ENGL 100 or an equivalent), you may find it
helpful to work further on your composition skills in ENGL 310 (Advanced
Writing) before attempting an upper-division course in literature such as this
one, though you may certainly choose to take this course if you so desire.
Course Goals:
Department Goals and Objectives:
This course supports the following goals and objectives of the CSUB undergraduate program in English:
Goal I: To know major writers in their cultural context, and to compare these writers’ characteristic styles and themes.
Goal II: To analyze and compare literary works in a well-organized, thesis-driven argument that demonstrates a high level of understanding both of textual form and theme.
Please save all of the papers that you write for this and other courses, as you will use them in your senior year to complete a portfolio in which you demonstrate your competencies. For more information on the portfolio, please see http://www.csub.edu/english/mission_statement.htx
and the Handbook at
http://www.csub.edu/english/eng200folder/nenglish200.htm
Waiting List Policy:
This course is capped at 40
students. If you wish to add and the course is closed, you should appear
on the first day of classes to be put on the waiting list. (No students
will be put on the waiting list before the first day of classes.) To
remain on the waiting list, you must continue to attend class and turn in all
work on schedule. Please
keep in mind that being on the waiting list does not guarantee admission to the
course, which is contingent on your satisfaction of prerequisites, your
position on the waiting list, and the number of enrolled students that
drop. (If nobody drops, no students from the waiting list can
enroll.) Thus, if you are on the waiting list, it is in your best
interest to arrange for a backup course.
Required Materials:
The texts listed in this section are required of all students in the course and may be purchased at the AVC Marauder Bookstore. You should bring them with you to class when assigned on the Schedule.
· Course materials to be printed from WebCT. Please print these out and bring to class as you would a book. You might find it convenient to print all of the WebCT materials at the beginning of the course.
· Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Anchor, 1994. ISBN 0385474547.
·
Conrad, Joseph. Heart
of Darkness. New York:
Penguin, 1995. ISBN 0-14-018652-2.
· Ferré, Rosario. The House on the Lagoon. Plume, 1996. ISBN 0452277078.
· Rhys, Jean. Voyage in the Dark. New York: Norton, 1994. ISBN 0393311465.
· Silko, Leslie. Ceremony. Penguin, 1986. 0-14-008683-8.
· Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 019280118X. You may substitute a similar glossary.
· Hacker, Dianna. A Writer’s Reference, 5th Ed. New York: Bedford, 2003. ISBN 0-312-41262-2. You may substitute a similar book, so long as it offers instruction in MLA Style and a comprehensive review of grammar. Whichever book you use, you will be responsible for using proper grammar and MLA Style as discussed in Hacker, so please see me during office hours if you have any questions about whether a text you already own will be suitable.
·
Hacker, Dianna. Writing about Literature. Supplement to Accompany A Writer's Reference. Fifth Edition w/
MLA Update. ISBN 0–312–415-230.
Recommended Books:
·
Pearsall, Judy. The
Concise Oxford Dictionary. Oxford
University Press. 2002. ISBN 0-19-860636-2.
Course Policies:
Requirements and Criteria for Evaluation:
Test:
The test on October 18 will take a
half hour and will ask you:
1) to define important terms as precisely as possible;
2) to identify the author and source of specific quotations from the text, and
briefly
to discuss their significance within the text as a whole.
Final Examination:
You must be available to take the
final on November 29. It will be closed book and comprised of two parts
of roughly equal weight.
Part I will ask the same kinds of
questions as the Test, but will only cover material from the second half of the
course: October 18 forward.
Part II will involve one essay
question and will cover all of the materials examined in the course. The
question will be open-ended, asking you to make connections between several of
the texts that we will have read in the course.
The test and exam will not involve
“trick” questions that ask for obscure information. They will
only cover terminology and quotations that we have discussed, and should not be
difficult for those who read the texts and attend class regularly. I
recommend that you mark the passages we discuss and be sure that you understand
their significance. I will go over sample exam questions in class before
the first test.
Essay Assignments:
I will distribute essay topics,
instructions, and criteria for evaluation in advance and discuss them with you
in class. You are welcome to stop by my office hours to receive
commentary on an early draft of your essay or to discuss preliminary plans for
it. You may also e-mail me a thesis statement and outline for feedback,
but not an entire draft of the paper.
In this class, you will not be
expected to do outside research, and will be expressly forbidden from using any
material about your topic that you have found on the Internet. Essays
will ask you to engage in close analysis of assigned texts, formulating and
defending a thesis about them. Keep in mind that in university English
classes, analytical essays are not “reports” that repeat the ideas
of others or summarize the assigned texts; instead, they allow you to
interact critically with the texts by citing and interpreting details from them
as support for an argument (a thesis).
Your essays should be typed in a
font no larger than Times 12 and double-spaced, with pages numbered, margins no
larger than one inch, and your name, ENGL 366, the assignment number, the topic
number, and the date listed at the top on the first page. They must be
stapled (before class—I do not carry a stapler). Unstapled papers
are one of my pet peeves! Also, please check your assignments carefully
before submission. You alone are responsible for their
completeness; papers with missing pages or other errors will not be
returned for correction and will be graded in the state in which I receive
them. To prevent the stress of last-minute computer or printer problems, I
suggest that you not wait until the last minute to print your essays. You are
also responsible for keeping a second paper copy (not just an electronic file)
of each paper.
Unexcused late papers will be
penalized by one-half grade level per day late, including weekends. Extensions will only be granted for compelling and
documented reasons, and are more likely to be given if requested well in
advance of the date due.
Plagiarism:
While most people know that
submitting papers written entirely by others constitutes plagiarism, many often
do not understand that it also includes using others’ ideas and turns of
phrase without appropriate documentation. This includes the cutting
and pasting of materials from the Internet!
Pages 331-39 of Hacker’s A
Writer’s Reference, which explain how
to integrate other authors’ words into your essay while giving them
proper credit, should help you avoid accidental plagiarizing of the assigned
texts. Keep in mind that when you use a short (two or fewer lines)
passage from another author’s text, you should place it in quotation
marks and integrate it with your own prose; when you use a longer passage from another author, you
should break the paragraph, indent the quotation, and not use quotation marks. Because papers that do not properly use
quotation marks and indention to give credit to their sources violate academic
integrity, you should be sure that you understand how to integrate quotations
effectively.
Whether deliberate or unintended,
plagiarism in any form diminishes the quality of your education and is a
violation of academic integrity that will
result in a disciplinary hearing.
If you are found guilty of plagiarism in such a hearing, you will likely
receive an F for the course and be put on academic probation. A second academic integrity violation
will likely result in suspension, which will be noted on your university
transcript, and a third will likely result in your expulsion from the CSU. Neither suspension nor expulsion are
looked on favorably by those evaluating you for employment or for admission to
academic programs. Please consult p. 57 of the CSUB Course Catalog
2003-2005 for full information about
CSUB’s policies concerning the serious consequences of plagiarism,
cheating, and other violations of academic integrity.
It is your responsibility as a
student to understand and avoid plagiarism, and my role as university faculty
to help you understand. To that end, in addition to making Hacker’s
book a required text, I have provided links on the course’s website to
several excellent discussions of different forms of plagiarism. If you
continue to have questions about plagiarism after reading A Writer’s
Reference and the online materials, feel
free to schedule an appointment with me or to drop by during office hours.
Attendance:
Because you may well become lost
in the complexity of the readings if you do not participate in classroom
discussion, prompt attendance at each class is required. You are allowed two (2) unexcused absences,
after which point one half grade level per excess absence will be deducted from
your final grade. If your absence falls on the date of a test or an
essay deadline, or if the quantity of your absences becomes excessive, I will ask for documentation. Make-up exams are only
permitted for those students that can document an “excusable”
absence. Illness, personal or family emergencies, and religious holidays are
examples of excusable reasons for absence; “I overslept,”
“I had to study for my psychology midterm,” “I’m
leaving early for the weekend,” and “I’m going on
vacation” are examples of unacceptable reasons.
If you must miss class, please
inform me by e-mail as soon as possible and contact a classmate to find out
what you missed. You are responsible for all material covered in class,
even if you are absent or late when it is discussed.
Finally, as the arrival of late
students is extremely disruptive to the progress of the class, I ask that you
arrive in class on time. If an emergency dictates that you absolutely
must arrive late to a given class, try to enter through the back door and make
as little noise as possible. Students who arrive late in class
without a compelling explanation will have 1/2 of an unexcused absence noted in
my grade book; be aware that these can quickly add up to significant
deductions from your final grade!
Office Hours:
I am teaching at both CSUB’s
Bakersfield and Antelope Valley campuses this quarter. At the Antelope Valley campus I keep 2
office hours per week, listed at the top of this syllabus. This is time
that I make myself available to discuss any questions or concerns that you
might have about the course: to comment on drafts of your paper, to
clarify writing assignments and examinations, to answer questions about my
feedback on your work, to discuss reasons for absence or other concerns about
the course, or simply to chat about the assigned texts or courses that I plan
to offer in the future. Generally you may drop in without an appointment
during office hours, but if my office hours are very popular on a given day
(the day before an exam is scheduled or a paper is due, for example), I may
post a sign-up sheet for your convenience. Also, if other obligations
dictate that you can only appear in office hours at a specific time, feel free
to contact me to see if you can schedule in advance.
Because university faculty have
multiple responsibilities on campus, I am only able to take unscheduled
drop-in appointments during my posted office hours. If you have a school- or work-related conflict with my
scheduled office hours, I would be happy to consult with you briefly by e-mail
(I can offer feedback on thesis statements but not entire papers that way) or
to schedule an appointment at another time that I am on campus. I am at
CSUB-AV on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I thus ask that—rather than stopping me unexpectedly on campus
when I’m not holding office hours—you e-mail me in advance to
identify a meeting time that fits both of our schedules.
Cellular Phones and Other Noisy
Devices:
Noise from cellular phones and
other electronic devices is extremely disruptive to the class, demonstrating a
lack of respect for everyone in the room. I turn mine off before class,
and ask that you do so as well. I reserve the right to ask you to leave
for the rest of the day if your phone rings in class.
Computers:
You will need to have Internet access and your CSUB e-mail
account for this course, and should check e-mail daily: I will be providing course materials,
including readings, writing assignments, and quizzes, online through WebCT. You may check your CSUB e-mail from off-campus computers by
going to http://runner.csub.edu/
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a disability and will be requesting accommodations, please let me know as soon as possible and contact the appropriate office on campus to document your request.
The Fine Print:
I reserve the right to modify this syllabus.
Schedule:
All readings are required unless marked otherwise. If multiple texts are assigned on any given day, they are best read in the listed order.
9/20 (M): Read Carefully:
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Ch. 1, pp. 15-55
Diana Hacker, A Writer’s Reference, pp. 331-39
Skim, reading carefully anything that is new to you:
Diana Hacker, Writing about Literature, pp. 3-26
Diana Hacker, A Writer’s Reference, pp. 329-377
***Two WebCT Quizzes—on
the Syllabus and Plagiarism—must be
completed by
11 PM***
9/22 (W): Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Ch. 2 & 3, pp. 55-124
***Informal Essay due at the beginning of class***
9/27 (M): Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, pp. 1-109
9/29 (W): Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, pp. 110-209
***Informal Essay returned at the
end of class***
10/4 (M): Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark, Part I, pp. 5-100
*10/6 (W): Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark, Parts II &III, pp. 101-188
***Short Paper #1 due at the
beginning of class***
10/11 (M): James Joyce:
“Araby” (WebCT)
“After the Race” (WebCT)
“The Dead” (WebCT)
10/13 (W): Anita Desai:
“The Farewell Party” (WebCT)
“Studies in the Park” (WebCT)
Anjana Appachana:
“The
Prophecy” (WebCT)
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala:
“Passion”
(WebCT)
*10/18 (M): Film: Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette
Optional Reading: screenplay of My Beautiful Laundrette (WebCT)
***Test at the beginning of class***
10/20 (W): Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette
10/25 (M): Anne E. Brodsky, selections from With All Our Strength (WebCT)
10/27 (W): Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony, pp. 1-82
*11/1 (M): Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony, pp. 83-168
***Short Paper #2 due at the
beginning of class***
11/3 (W): Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony, pp. 169-262
11/8 (M): Gloria Anzaldúa, from Borderlands/La Frontera:
Ch. 5 (“How to Tame a Wild Tongue”) (WebCT)
Ch. 7 (“La conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness”)
(WebCT)
11/10 (W): Rosario Ferré, The House on the Lagoon, pp. 1-112
*11/15 (M): Rosario Ferré, The House on the Lagoon, pp. 113-194
***Long Paper due at the
beginning of class***
11/17 (W): Rosario Ferré, The House on the Lagoon, pp. 195-301
11/22 (M): Rosario Ferré, The House on the Lagoon, pp. 302-407
***Last Day of
Classes***
*11/29 (M):
Final Exam in our Regular Classroom at the Regular Time