English 267: World Literature 1700 to Now

Fall 2003; MWF 11:30-12:20; HEAV 129

Professor Charles Ross

Office: 304A Heavilon

cross@purdue.edu; tel. 494-3749

Office hours: W 11:00-1:00

 

Course description

This course serves as half of the introduction to the Comparative Literature major. It is designed for sophomores and juniors (although I notice that some you are seniors), and may also be taken by first-year students, English majors, and non-majors. Materials consist of plays, stories, letters, and poems from English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish authors, beginning with the seventeenth-century.

 

Course objectives

In this class you will learn to read literature carefully and analytically; respond to literature both orally and in writing; and understand the value of comparing different literatures. You will become familiar with certain intellectual and artistic concepts: the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism, and Modernism. There is also a secret purpose that will be announced in class, something only a literature class can give you.

 

Required Text

q       The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, vol. 2, 7th edition, available at Von’s Bookstore.

 

Reading: 916 pages; approximately 30 pages per class. Please allow at least six hours per week of homework time for class reading, plus extra time for writing papers and studying for exams.

 

Exams: There are three exams worth 10% each and a final worth 20%, as shown on the syllabus. The final exam will be on Madame Bovary. You may bring your books and any notes to the exams.

 

Papers: There are two take-home papers, one topics to be assigned, and one final paper, a comparison of two poems by any two authors. Each paper is worth 15%. These papers are assigned to make you comfortable writing and thinking; therefore they may be rewritten for a new grade, in which case the first grade will be 5% and the second grade 10%.

 

Attendance and participation: You are expected to attend every class. Missing more than three classes means you have dropped the course. Absences may be excused by a note from the appropriate Purdue dean or organization or from home. Please be on time. 5% of your grade will be based on active participation, any in-class presentations, and overall attendance.


English 267 Class Schedule

 

January 13

Introduction; “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” pp. 1676-1679

January 15

Moliere, Tartuffe, pp. 1-68

January 20

Tartuffe

January 22

Marie de La Fayette, The Princess of Clèves, pp. 60-162

January 27

The Princess of Clèves

January 29

Jean Racine, Phaedra, pp. 160-201

February 3

Take-home paper due; exam

February 5

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, pp. 202-229

February 10

Swift, “A Modest Proposal,” pp. 282-288.

February 12

Voltaire, Candide, pp. 316-379

February 17

Candide

February 19

Rousseau, Confessions, pp. 417-437

February 24

Take-home paper due; exam

February 26

Goethe, Faust, pp. 438-540

March 2

Faust

March 5

Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, pp. 1180-1222

March 9

James Joyce, “The Dead,” pp. 1582-1615

March 11

Naguid Mahfouz, “Zaabalaw,” pp. 1958-1979

March 16-18

Spring Break

March 23

Alexander Zolzhenitsyn¸ “Matryona’s Home,” pp. 1970-2000.

March 25

exam

March 30

Baudelaire and Mallarmé, pp. 1141-1166

April 1

Verlaine and Rimbaud, pp. 1167-1180

April 6

Yeats and Rilke, pp. 1414-1426 and 1564-1570

April 8

Wordsworth, pp. 549-560 and Bécquer, pp. 610-611.

April 13

Coleridge, pp. 586-592 and Heine, pp. 619-620

April 15

Shelley, pp. 593-599 and Leopardi, pp. 632-634

April 20

Freud, “Dora,” pp. 1354-1414

April 22

Flaubert, Madame Bovary, pp. 846-1062

April 27

Flaubert, Madame Bovary

April 29

Flaubert, Madame Bovary.

Scheduled Final

exam; final paper due