Louise Bishop's teaching pages

Paper format instructions | What is an A paper?
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HC 222 -- Time and the traveler, Winter '10

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Course description

Every time we read literature from the past, we are time-traveling. This effect comes to the fore in works that themselves deal with time and feature time's passage. In what ways does literature handle time? Writings on travel that also manipulate time let us explore literary history as well as important literary questions about language, individuation and identity, culture and cultural relativism, and the definitions of fact and fiction. The languages of travel and time open up questions about real and imaginary, the ethical dimension of travel, and the uses of literary history.

Texts: Basho's Narrow Road to the Interior (1694), Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Verne's Voyage to the Centre of the Earth (1864), Woolf's Orlando (1928), Stoppard's Arcadia (1993)

Requirements

  • Response papers. You'll write three short response papers this term, between 250 and 500 words each. These papers, and the formal papers, will be thematically- as well as textually-oriented. These are formal papers in the sense that spelling, grammar, and thinking count--all papers must be neat, typed, revised, finished, and proofread. At the same time, these are papers in which to try out ideas, to experiment and challenge yourself intellectually. I will read these papers, comment on them, and grade them pass/no pass. A passing paper requires a strong thesis, cogent evidence, and NO MORE than two grammatical errors. No-pass response papers may be rewritten but MUST be handed back to me within a week. Three passing papers will count as a 4.0, two as a 2.0, one paper as a 1.0.
  • Article summary and response. You will read, and then, using our class's Blackboard discussion board, summarize and comment on a critical essay. Our Gulliver's Travels edition includes five essays (as well as an account of the text's critical history, which we'll all read for February 1). There's a Blackboard site discussion section for each Gulliver essay, and for the other five essays (two for Verne, two for Woolf, and one for Arcadia).
    The first sentence of your summary will be the thesis of the article. Your summary should be at least 5 or 6 sentences long (about a paragraph); longer is acceptable. Following the summary, you'll respond to the article in a second paragraph: how did reading the article enrich your understanding of the text? How did it shift your ideas about literary criticism or literature? What further questions do you now have of the text? You may discuss your article with others writing on the same article or other articles--in fact, I encourage you to do so. At the same time, the summary must be your own work. These summary responses, like the other responses, have the same strictures and will be graded Pass/No Pass: you have one week in which to rewrite No Pass summaries. See the schedule for summary response due dates: summaries are to be posted on the appropriate Blackboard discussion board before 2:00 pm on the date due.
  • Graded formal papers. Two 1250-1500 word essays, each of which will treat a course theme and may use observations originally explored in response (and/or article summary) papers. Paper 1 is due Monday, February 1 . Paper 2 is due Monday, March 8 . Note paper due dates: papers must be turned in on the date specified. Plan ahead.
  • Final exam. Cumulative, essay, take-home exam due no later than Tuesday, March 16, at 3:15 pm.

Grading

The response papers constitute 15% of your grade; the two formal papers, 25% and 30% respectively; the article summary 10%; participation, 5%, 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.

Monday, January 4
Basho, Haiku
Read the introduction: be alert to the concepts of kokoro, amiri-no-kokoro, makoto, mono-no-aware, yugen, makura kotoba, and kokai.
You might also have a look at Wikipedia's definition of Zen Buddhism, especially, under "Teaching and Practices," the Basis and also Zen in Japan. You might also be interested in Zen in the Western World.

Wednesday, January 6
Basho, Haiku
"Narrow Road to the Interior," pp. 3 - 36 (notes begin on page 179): emotion and things; travel and place

Monday, January 1 Response paper, Basho
Basho, Haiku: read the haiku from pp. 85-168; choose a favorite for your response paper
The reaches of subtlety: you and Basho

Wednesday, January 13
Gulliver's Travels, through Part I (p. 89). Note the glossary of critical terms beginning on p. 465

A new definition of fact and fiction

Monday, January 18 - MLK Day

Wednesday, January 20 Response paper, Gulliver
Truth, morality, words
Gulliver's Travels
, through Part II (p. 147)

Monday, January 25
Gulliver's Travels, through Part III (p. 203)
How is the "detail work" in Book 3 similar to, and different from, the way details have been raised before? Why does a Dutchman show up, and why show him in such a bad light? What is the role of education?

Summaries 1, 2, 3

Wednesday, January 27
Gulliver's Travels, through Part IV (p. 266)
Are the Houyhnhmns ideal? What about their emotions -- or lack thereof? Is the simplicity of the Houyhnhmn culture an unalloyed good?
Summary 4 and 5

 

Monday, February 1 First formal paper
Gulliver's Travels, "A Critical History" (pp. 269-96)

 

Wednesday, February 3
Voyage to the Centre of the Earth, chapters 1 through 6 (pp. 3-34): What are the lineaments of science and discovery, according to this text? What are the lineaments of character, according to this text? Do science and character intersect?

 

Monday, February 8
Voyage to the Centre of the Earth, chapters 7 through 24 (pp.35-125): the differences in detail work; the place of moral education; the didactic nature of this novel; the role of number and proof
Summary 6

 

Wednesday, February 10 Response paper, Voyage
Voyage to the Centre of the Earth, chapters 25 through 31 (pp. 126-159): adventure, competition, secrets

 

Monday, February 15
Voyage to the Centre of the Earth, chapters 32 through 45 (pp. 160-233)
Summary 7

 

Wednesday, February 17
Orlando, chapters 1-2 (pp. 13-118): modernity visits the early modern; biography, literature, and transformation (melancholy, pp 72-77)

 

Monday, February 22
Orlando, chapters 3 and 4 (pp. 119-226): Truth, candor, honesty, and the 18th century
Summary 8

 

Wednesday, February 24 Response paper, Orlando
Orlando, chapter 5 (pp. 227-262), the miasma of the nineteenth century

 

Monday, March 1
Orlando,chapter 6: the commercial modern (cf p. 295)
Summary 9

 

Wednesday, March 3
Arcadia, Act 1

 

Monday, March 8 Second formal paper
Arcadia, Act 2

 

Wednesday, March 10
Arcadia
Summary 10