English 2121 (20942), Fall 2020
Class Time: 3:40-4:55 pm, M/W
Professor: B. Harris
Classroom: Online
Office hours: W 2:30-3:30 pm
Office link: https://connectcuny.webex.com/join/bonnie.harris79
Email: bharris@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Online course etiquette
You must turn your video on and keep it on through all class meetings.
Attendance, Lateness
Attendance is mandatory. You’re entitled to miss 3 class sessions, but there are no excused absences beyond these 3. Class starts promptly at 3:40. Please make sure to arrive on time; 2 latenesses = 1 absence More than 3 absences will result in a lower grade for the course. Even if you aren’t in class, the paper and assignment due dates will not change—you are still responsible for getting the work to me as specified in the schedule (below).
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is academic theft, and it bears serious consequences. Papers that are plagiarized will receive a zero; you may be expelled from the course. (The works that we’re studying are well-known and there’s a lot of information about them on the web. To avoid plagiarism, I recommend that you do not consult the internet.) CUNY’s policy about academic integrity can be found here: www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pub/pdf/academicintegritypolicy.pdf
Class participation
It is important you engage both with the texts and with your classmates. I expect you to participate actively in discussions, so come to class prepared to discuss the day’s material, i.e. having done the reading and having made extensive notes on it. Participation is a significant percentage of your grade.
Grading
Participation/Effort 20%
You will be graded based on attendance, preparedness for class, and other factors indicating participation and effort.
Reading response assignments 20%
You are required to hand in 3 response paper (1-2 pages). In order to adequately complete these assignments, you’ll need to assess the readings critically, not just to say ‘I liked...’ or ‘I disliked...’ Grades will be lowered for late papers. Papers more than one week late will not be accepted.
In class writing 15%
Midterm 15%
Final paper 30%
Students with Disabilities
Students who have a documented disability or suspect they may have a disability should contact the disabilities office to learn about their policies and procedures. If you are already registered with the Center for Student Disability Services, please provide me with the course accommodation form.
Learning Center
You can find free peer tutoring and supplemental writing help through the Learning Center. Visit their website for more information: http://lc.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ or call them at (718) 951-5821.
We will be reading a variety of poems, novels, plays and short stories. All of the readings will be uploaded to this site, and submission of assignments will take place on Blackboard; there is nothing to purchase. There will be a course packet (PDF) with the poems and stories. We will also read the following full-length works:
Frankenstein (1818 edition), Mary Shelley
Madame Bovary (tr. Lydia Davis), Gustave Flaubert
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Course structure
Class sessions will consist of a combination of lectures, seminar discussions and small group work. We have a lot of material to cover in a short time; you’ll get the most out of the course (and the best grade) if you’re diligent about keeping up with the reading.
Papers
Three short reading response papers, 300-500 words, see schedule for due dates
Final paper, 1500-2000 words, due Dec 16 (Topics TBD)
Tests
Mid-term, Nov 4
Tentative Schedule (subject to change)
Aug 25 Introduction to the course
Aug 30 Wordsworth, Coleridge
Sep 1 Shelley, Keats
Sep 6, 8 NO CLASS
Sep 13 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Sep 15 NO CLASS
(note: 9/14 is the last day to withdraw from courses without grade of “W”)
Sep 20 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Sep 22 Poe, “The Tell-tale Heart”; Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
Sep 24 First reading response paper due
Sep 27 Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener”
Sep 29 Whitman
Oct 4 Dickinson
Oct 6 Flaubert, Madame Bovary
Oct 11 NO CLASS
Oct 13 Madame Bovary
Oct 18, 20 Dickens, Great Expectations
Oct 24 Second reading response paper due
Oct 25 Great Expectations; Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Oct 27 The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Nov 1 Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Nov 3 Yeats
(note: 11/6 is the last day to withdraw from courses with a grade of “W”)
Nov 8 Joyce, “The Dead”
Nov 10 Midterm
Nov 15 Eliot
Nov 17 Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Nov 19 Third reading response paper due
Nov 22 Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Nov 24 Conferences
Nov 29 Fitzgerald, “Winter Dreams”
Dec 1 Hurston, “Spunk”; Hemingway, “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber”
Dec 6, 8 Nabokov, Lolita
Dec 13 Last day to withdraw with grade of W
Dec 16 Final paper due
