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West Chester University
West Chester University
Home Course Syllabi and Announcements Notebook for Topics in Literature: Imaginary Worlds (Spring 2008) Notebook for Topics in Literature: Rites of Passage (Spring 2006) Notebook for Effective Writing I (Spring 2006) Go Exploring Notebook for Topics in Literature: Imaginary Worlds (Fall 2005) Notebook for Effective Writing I (Fall 2005) Go Exploring
LIT 165 Syllabus
LIT 165 Announcements and Assignments
WRT 120 Syllabus
WRT 120 Announcements and Assignments
A Reading of THE TEMPEST
Goals of the Course
Fundamental Questions about Literature
Valuing Literature
Critical Thinking and Reading Literature
Critical Approaches to Literature
Literature as ART
Ambiguity
Approaching the Art of Fiction
Defining the Short Story
Evaluating Short Fiction
Craft of Fiction: PLOT
Craft of Fiction: CHARACTER
Small Group Exercise
ARABY by James Joyce
WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? by Joyce Carol Oates
Our RITES OF PASSAGE Theme
A note about GIRL
POE and the art of STORY OF A HOUR
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
YOUNG MAN ON SIXTH AVENUE
Notes on Innovative Fiction
Assignment Sheet for Paper #1
Fiction and Ambiguity - Your Questions
Writing Workshop - Short Fiction
Poetry Journal Project Assignment Sheet
LITERARY SYNTHESIS PROJECT
Defining Poetry
Reading Poetry
The Craft of Poetry
Drama and Tragedy
Study Questions: DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Paper #4 Assignment Sheet
Critical Thinking and Commentary
Casebook: Evaluating Sources Worksheet
Selecting Information
Evaluating Arguments
CASEBOOK PROJECT Assignment Sheet
Approaching Persuasive Writing
Topic Development - Profile Essay
Generating Ideas for the Profile Essay
Paper #2 Assignment Sheet
Profile Exercise
Analyzing THE FIVE BEDROOM, SIX FIGURE ROOTLESS LIFE
Objective Writing: Selected Readings
Writing Workshop: Paper #1
Expressive Writing in the NYTimes
Writing Effective Introductions and Conclusions
Paper #1: IDENTITY
Expressive Writing
Open Letter Exercise and Examples
EMERSON on Individuality vs. Conformity
Literature related to IDENTITY
Understanding the 'Rhetorical Situation'
Weblog for WRT 120
Writing Assistance on the Web
Blackboard at WCU
WCU Homepage
WCU's Francis Harvey Green Library
One Last Look at Imaginary Worlds
Franz Kafka's BEFORE THE LAW
Analyzing WAITING FOR GODOT
Approaching WAITING FOR GODOT
Paper #3: Assignment Sheet
Paper #4: Independent Project
The Problem of Stability in BRAVE NEW WORLD
UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA Links
Analyzing Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD
Defining Utopia
Embarking on Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD
A Reading of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST
From today's news (11/3/05)
Assignment Sheet for Paper #2
Goodbye to Dante's Imaginary World
Stepping Through Dante's Inferno: Cantos 10-34
Stepping Through Dante's Inferno: Cantos 1-10
INFERNO: Questions/Analysis: Cantos 32-34
INFERNO: Questions/Analysis: Cantos 18-31
INFERNO: Questions for Analysis: Cantos 12-17
INFERNO: Structure
INFERNO: Questions for Analysis: Cantos 1-5
INFERNO: Analyzing Canto 1
Relating to Dante's Inferno
Approaching Dante's DIVINE COMEDY
A Little Help with Dante's INFERNO
Assignment Sheet for Paper #1
Notes on LEAF BY NIGGLE
Responses to LEAF BY NIGGLE
ON FAIRY STORIES: An Essay by Tolkien
Notes on Axolotl
Reading Ovid's Tales
From Myth to Literature: Approaching Ovid's Tales
Notes on THE EYE OF THE GIANT
Functions of the Genesis Tales
Analyzing Mythic Tales
Defining Mythology
Filtering the Introduction to FANTASTIC WORLDS
Commentary on LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI by Keats
Commentary on DARKNESS by Byron
Handout: Imagination Poems Set
What is Imagination?
Our Course Theme: Imaginary Worlds
LIT 165 Assignments: Fall 2005
LIT 165 Announcements: Fall 2005
Imaginary Worlds: Course Syllabus
Paper #4: Independent Thinking/Reading/Writing
Casebook Preparation Checklist
Casebook Assignment Schedule
Evaluating Sources for the Casebook
Casebook Project Assignment Sheet
Notes on Rational Argument
Argument
Assignment Sheet: Objective Writing
Reviewing Elements of the Profile Essay
Writing the Profile Essay
Readings: Objective Writing
Assignment Sheet: Expressive Writing
Rubric for Evaluation of Writing
About SKIN DEEP
Emerson on Individuality vs. Conformity
Mind-map: Identity
Understanding the 'Rhetorical Situation'
Assignments Page
Announcements Page
WRT 120 Course Syllabus for Fall 2005
Weblog for WRT 120
Writing Assistance on the Web
Blackboard at WCU
WCU Homepage
WCU's Francis Harvey Green Library
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Gattaca (film)
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Before the Law by Franz Kafka
Optional Readings
“Brave New World? A Critique of Paradise-Engineering” by David Pearce (online)
“Introduction” (Absurd Drama) by Martin Esslin
“The Imagery Museum of Samuel Beckett” by Raymond Federman (online)
“Essay on Waiting for Godot” by Michael Sinclair (online)
Directions: Develop your own specific topic based on either an expressive, objective, or persuasive approach to the assigned readings. Your paper should engage one or more of the assigned readings in some depth. Research to supplement your own commentary is strictly optional, but if you do include researched material from a source other than our textbook, you are responsible for documenting it correctly using MLA style parenthetical documentation.
These notes are meant to be suggestive, not exclusive.
EXPRESSIVE
Write a commentary that substantively explores your individual response to one or more of the works we studied. For instance, you can write about how you responded to the unconventionality of Waiting for Godot. In what ways did this play met or defied your expectations, as well as how you understood the purpose or “meaning” of the play. You can discuss the impact or relevance of the play’s dialogue, characters, situations, or imagery. You can explore the significant ways in which Waiting for Godot either does or does not resonate with your understanding of the human condition.
OBJECTIVE
Develop a paper that analyzes or interprets the meaning of one or more works assigned.
- Write a comparative analysis.
- Trace the development of a common theme through both works.
- Present an objective interpretation of one or both works.
- Write a thematic analysis of one or both works.
- Write a critique of one or both works.
PERSUASIVE
Identify the ambiguity in at least one of the works on the reading list and then argue for a particular interpretation. Acknowledge other interpretations but attempt to prove, by your close analysis of details in the text, that your interpretation is a strong one. Argue for a particular reading of one or more of the works we studied.
CREATIVE
- Write an interior monologue from the point of view of something not human.
- Write a dramatic scene based on at least two of the characters from the readings or films. You can invent new characters, as long as they’re inspired by or related to the characters we observed in the readings. Include set description, character description, dialogue, and stage directions.
Not exclusive.
- Compare/contrast Brave New World and Gattaca.
- Analyze the ways in which the futuristic imaginary world of Gattaca and/or Brave New World does or does not reflect our present real world.
- Choose a question or combination of questions in the course notes on Brave New World to write an expressive, objective or persuasive essay.
- Identify your ordinary expectations for drama, then discuss the ways in which Waiting for Godot meets and/or defies these expectations. Even if you weren’t personally affected, discuss some of the ways the play might frustrate audience expectations.
- Write an analysis of character, conflict, theme, and/or symbolism in Brave New World, Gattaca, Waiting for Godot, or Before the Law.
- Read Martin Esslin’s essay on “Absurd Drama” (online). Analyze the ways in which Waiting for Godot fits his description of absurd drama.
- Compare/contrast the theme of waiting in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Kafka’s Before the Law. Are there other ways you can compare/contrast these two enigmatic works?
- Analyze the mythic overtones in Waiting for Godot. What do you infer from the various biblical references in the play?
- Analyze the comic elements in Waiting for Godot. Discuss the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the play being labeled a “tragicomedy.”
- Use the course notes or other outside resources to define “nihilism,” “existentialism,” “postmodernism,” and “abstract expressionism”; then write an interpretive analysis of the play based on your understanding of one or more these concepts.
- Argue for an interpretation of Brave New World and/or Gattaca as a utopia, dystopia, or utopian satire.
- Use the course notes or other outside resources to define “nihilism” and/or “existentialism” and then argue that Waiting for Godot is primarily nihilistic or primarily existential, or equally both.
- Use the course notes or other outside resources to define “postmodernism” and argue for an interpretation of the play based on your understanding of this concept.
- Use the course notes or other outside resources to define “abstract expressionism” and argue for an interpretation of the play based on your understanding of this concept.