HC 101H, Honors College World Literature: The Narrative Subject, the Subject of Narrative

Bishop, Fall '01 | 308 Chapman | (541) 346-0733 | lmbishop@oregon.uoregon.edu
Office hours:

Tuesday, 2:00 to 3:20 pm

Thursday, 2:00 to 4:30 pm (later by appt.)

Friday 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Class hours: Tues, Thurs. 9:30 to 10:50 am, 12:30 to 1:50 pm

Class listserv | Requirements | Texts | Grading | Reading schedule | Paper format instructions | Questions for response papers | Reflective essay instructions

In this survey of ancient and early medieval western literature, we will concentrate on narrative (plot and genre) and identity (character), and the pervasion of the western tradition. We will assess our texts with an eye to their formal characteristics (language, imagery, shape) and historical context (including how the work got into our hands). Our interest will be particularly drawn to the shift of narrative form from epic to romance. We will continuously ask the question, how does literature construct meaning?

Your own writing is, of course, both formally and contextually situated. HC 101H includes writing analysis (composition) with the study of literature. In order to evaluate the formal elements of your own writing, please be advised of the university's Web-based composition resources. (Back to top of page)

The following texts have been ordered at Mother Kali's Bookstore (on 13th, just this side of Dairy Queen): Gilgamesh (Stanford UP), Book of J (Harold Bloom, Vintage), Odyssey (trans. Fagles, Penguin), Aeneid (Mandelbaum translation, California), Beowulf (Seamus Heaney translation, National Book Award winner, Norton), Silence (Michigan State UP). (Back to top of page)

Requirements

1. Response papers. You'll write four one- to two-page response papers this term; each will answer a particular question about a text (or you may devise your own). These are formal papers in the sense that spelling, grammar, and thinking count; at the same time, these are papers in which to try out ideas, to experiment and challenge yourself intellectually. Here are the steps for writing response papers:

• 1. No later than the Tuesday before a paper is due, choose a question, an issue, a topic from the list in this syllabus or devise your own.
• 2. Before Tuesday midnight, free write, meaning that you make notes, construct an outline, or write a complete draft (this may be handwritten)--whichever method you habitually use, or a method you're trying out for the first time. Then PUT AWAY whatever you've written for AT LEAST six hours.
• 3. REVISE what you've written by constructing an essay from your notes or outline, or by rewriting your original draft. Revise as much as you like, but make sure that the final copy you hand in is TYPED.
• 4. Hand in BOTH your notes/outline/draft AND your finished copy, stapled together.

I will read these papers, comment on them, and grade them pass/no pass. Normally, a no-pass paper lacks a thesis and/or contains egregious writing errors. Four passing papers will count as a 4.0, three as a 3.0, two as a 2.0, one as a 1.0. No-pass papers may be re-written, but MUST be handed back to me within a week. You may also request that I give any response paper a "grade," meaning the grade it would get were it a graded assignment. I would "grade" the paper in order to give you an idea of how grading works on formal papers, but the grade won't "count," per se.

2 . Graded formal papers. Two five-page papers, each of which will use an observation originally explored in a response paper. Paper 1, due Thursday, Oct. 18, will treat Gilgamesh, the Book of J, or the IOdyssey. Paper 2, due Thursday, Nov. 15, will treat the Odyssey (provided you didn't write on it for Paper 1), the Aeneid, or Beowulf. Note paper due dates: papers must be turned in on the date specified. The first paper may also be rewritten (due one week after returned, graded), with the two grades averaged for the paper's final grade.

3 . Writing portfolio. During the term, keep all of your work in this portfolio; at the end of the term, you'll write a reflective essay about your writing, using your portfolio in order to include specific examples of your writing's strengths and weaknesses, and to list what you hope to continue to improve in your writing. You'll give me your writing portfolio, with reflective essay, along with your final exam, due no later than Thursday, December 6, at 10:00 a.m. . Completing this assigment contributes 10% to your final grade.

4. Final exam. Cumulative, essay, take-home exam, due no later than Thursday, December 6, at 10:00 a.m. (Back to top of page)

Extra credit

Informal study groups. The learning community of the Honors College affords you an opportunity to test your ideas and grow intellectually in a supportive yet challenging environment. We'll discuss the texts plenty in class, with conversation often continuing on HISTLIT.

To facilitate conversation even further, I will be providing question sheets on eight consecutive Thursdays for the following Tuesday's class.

• Between Thursday and Tuesday you may discuss the question with at least one other person, and preferably more, at one time (you arrange the time).
• Everyone who has discussed the question at one time (in one sitting) may, with the rest of the group's consent, sign the paper, but you may get credit only once for each week (of course you'll benefit from chatting about the text any number of times, and any question is fair game for HISTLIT, too).
• Finally, you must include on the sheet at least one further question (but as many questions as you wish) inspired by your conversation.

To get credit, you must turn in each sheet at the beginning of the appropriate Tuesday class. If you complete a sheet for each of the eight weeks, you'll receive 3 tenth-points extra-credit on your final grade; for seven, 2; for six, 1; for five, 0.5 .

Class listserv: We have an electronic discussion list, <histlit@lists.uoregon.edu>, to which you can subscribe yourself IF you haven't already received a "welcome message." To subscribe, send a message to majordomo@lists.uoregon.edu with the following message:

subscribe histlit
end

and don't forget the "end". Any message sent to HISTLIT goes to every subscriber. Please note--if you hit "r" to "reply" to a message on HISTLIT, your answer will be sent to every subscriber. If you have an issue you wish to discuss privately, please use the individual's e-mail address (or, if you're in the dorm, walk down the hall). Other issues of "netiquette":

• list messages are public property, insofar as the list's medium is owned by the University of Oregon. At the same time, usufruct (the use of what an individual has written) belongs to the writer. Your subscription to the list implies that your words are meant for others on the list, but others cannot use your words OUTSIDE of the list. In other words, one listmember should not distribute another's message outside of the list membership without permission from the original writer(s).
• please use the list for class-related purposes only;
• ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated, while honest disagreement is part of the intellectual life;
• building on another's message is more salutary than finding fault;
• remember that irony does not translate well on electronic media.

Want to read a couple of my postings to HISTLIT, 1998-99? Here.

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Grading

The response papers constitute 15% of your grade; the first formal paper, 20%, the second, 30%; reflective essay, 10%; participation, 10%; and the final exam will constitute 15% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system (unless otherwise noted):

A+ = 4.3	B+ = 3.3	C+ = 2.3	D+ = 1.3
A = 4.0	B = 3.0	C = 2.0	D = 1.0
A- = 3.7	B- = 2.7	C- = 1.7	D- = 0.7

Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment.

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Daily reading schedule

Sept. 25 class introduction--historicizing "literature" and respecting difference; introduction to Gilgamesh--the purpose of story	Sept. 27 Gilgamesh Read the introduction, entire text, and Appendix C--Creation
Oct. 2 Gilgamesh Love and the impossible: recounting Gilgamesh's journey	Oct. 4 Book of J Read the introductory material; Noah, pp. 69-74 *Gilgamesh (#1) response paper due
Oct. 9 Book of J Jacob and Joseph (pp. 96-140) and Bloom, pp. 209-40.	Oct. 11 Book of J Moses (pp. 141-72 and 241-69) and Yahweh (pp. 279-306) *Book of J (#2) response paper due
Oct. 16 Odyssey Intro. and Books 1 thru 7 (3, 289 ff.: Agamemnon's return; 4, 135 ff.: Helen; 6, 120 ff.: Odysseus and Nausicaa)	Oct. 18 Odyssey Books 8 through 15 (Book 9: Cyclops; Book 11, Hades; Book 12, Sirens) *First formal paper due
Oct. 23 Odyssey Books 16 through 19 (17, 315: Argos; 19, 99 ff.: Penelope)	Oct. 25 Odyssey Books 20 through 24 (Agamemnon and reunions) *Odyssey (#3) response paper due
Oct. 30 Aeneid Books 1 through 3: the Trojan past	Nov. 1 Aeneid Books 4 through 6: passion, gender, and Latium
Nov. 6 Aeneid Books 7 through 9: the role of Camilla	Nov. 8 Aeneid Books 10 through 12: murderous fury *Aeneid (#4) response paper due
Nov. 13 Beowulf Lines 1-1700 (pp. 3-117): Grendel and his mother	Nov. 15 *Beowulf Lines 1702-end: the collapse of the heroic age *Second formal paper due
Nov. 20 Silence Introduction and lines 1- 3475 (the undoing of the minstrels): Nature vs. Nurture	Happy Thanksgiving
Nov. 27 Silence Lines 3476-5140: jealousy	Nov. 29 Silence Lines 5141-end: comedy and romance *Beowulf or Silence , (#5) response paper due

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Questions for response papers

Gilgamesh: Explore the character of Enkidu. Why do the animals reject Enkidu after he has "intercourse with the harlot" (p. 9)? What does their rejection mean? Why does "understanding" (ibid.) result from Enkidu's episode with the harlot?
Another question: Since death is so much this text's concern, how do you account for its failure to recount Gilgamesh's death? See Bloom's intro to The Book of J, page 26: ". . . leaving something out is the best way of compelling the auditor or reader to be severely alert."

Book of J: Read Bloom's rather polemical introduction and assess one of his claims and its evidence. Be very clear what Bloom's claim is: for instance, in asserting that J is a woman, Bloom also writes, ". . . all our accounts of the Bible are scholarly fictions or religious fantasies, and generally serve rather tendentious purposes" (10) (make sure you know what "tendentious" means). He also positions himself as "reader" (11): how does that color the evaluation of his claims?
Compare the ends of our Gilgamesh text and The Book of J, in particular the deaths of Gilgamesh and Moses (p. 172).

Odyssey: Assess the portrait of Helen in Book 4, reading for details that complicate the character. Compare this portrait with that of Penelope; be alert as well to the portrait of Agamemnon in Books 3 and 24. Is Helen an anti-type of Helen? Or is Helen a "third term" between Clytemnestra and Penelope? Or does Homer provide an even-more complicated portrait and, if he does, what does it mean? (Back to Reading Schedule)

Aeneid: Choose one passage about Dido from the Aeneid and read it closely in light of Dido's heroism (or lack thereof). Why does Virgil shape his text's lesson about responsibility and need around the story of a woman and love? Alternatively, compare Virgil's portrait of Dido with J's of Tamar (and read Bloom's essay on Tamar, pp. 220-3), noting the different ways these texts/authors conceive of generational continuity and "civil" fealty.
Compare the heroism of Aeneas and Turnus. Is there an erotic component to Virgil's depictions? What could that eroticism mean?

(Back to Reading schedule)

Beowulf Why is the history behind Beowulf's rulership elided by the poet? What does the elision mean to the poem in general? Or. . . What is the significance of Beowulf's death in literary terms? For this last, you might go back to Gilgamesh and/or The Book of J for comparisons.

Silence Compare the Beowulf poet's "understatement" about women's strength (ll. 1282-8, p. 91 in the Heaney translation) with Silence's prayer about his weaker women's nature (lines 5604-10). What do these statements say about women's strength? How does the poet's voice differ in quality from a character's? What meaning could this difference suggest?

(Back to Reading schedule)

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