Bozio // EN 110 Syllabus 1

ENGLISH 110.05
INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDIES
Dr. Andrew Bozio
MWF 12:20-1:15 // Tisch 202 abozio@skidmore.edu
Fall 2014 TTh 1:00-2:30 // PMH 318


COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course introduces students to the practice of literary studies, with a particular emphasis on the
skills involved in close reading. The course aims to foster a way of thinking critically and with
sophistication about language, texts, and literary production. We will ask such questions as how and
why we read, what it means to read as students of literature, what writing can teach us about reading,
and what reading can teach us about writing. The goal overall is to make the words on the page
thrillingly rich and complicated, while also recognizing the ways in which those words have been
informed by their social, political, aesthetic, psychological, and religious contexts. This course is
writing intensive and will include some attention to critical perspective and appropriate research
skills. (Fulfills all-college requirement in expository writing; prospective English majors are
encouraged to take EN 110 prior to enrolling in 200-level courses.)

LEARNING GOALS

Through this course, you will learn to
frame questions about how we read and write within the discipline of literary studies
read closely, attending to the complexity of language
formulate questions about the formal qualities of a text
craft and support a thesis
engage with secondary readings that are relevant to the primary text
recognize the historical and cultural contexts of a work and their bearing upon literary
significance
advance discussion in class through active listening and appropriately informed contributions

TEXTS

William Shakespeare, Sonnets, ed. Stephen Booth (ISBN 978-0300085068)
Vladimir Nabokov, The Annotated Lolita, ed. Alfred Appel, Jr. (ISBN 978-0679727293)
Tony Kushner, Angels in America (ISBN 978-1559362313)
David Macey, The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory (ISBN 978-0140513691)
The Bedford St. Martins LitGloss (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/litgloss/)

GRADE DISTRIBUTION

Participation 20%
Paper One 15%
Paper Two 20%
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Paper Three 25%
Blog Posts 15%
Quizzes 5%

COURSE POLICIES

Participation

Because this course is a collaborative effort, participation will be essential to your success. By
participation, I mean both active listening and thoughtful contributions to class discussion that show
your preparation for class, your willingness to engage your peers in conversation, and your ability to
be respectful. In other words, come to class ready to discuss the reading, with ideas to share or
questions to pose. It helps tremendously to take notes while you are preparing for class, using the
writing process to develop your thoughts about the material. In this course, our aim is not only to
learn more about the nature of literary studies; it is also to develop your skills as a critical thinker and
writer, and engaged participation is one of the most direct ways of ensuring that development. For
this reason, I would also encourage you to take notes during class.

You are allowed two absences with no questions asked. For each subsequent absence, your final
grade will drop a third of a letter, and excessive absences may result in failure of the course.
Repeated lateness will also be construed as absence, so please come to class on time and stay for the
duration.

Digital Etiquette

You are encouraged to bring laptops and tablets to class, provided that they are used for referencing
the assigned material and/or for taking notes. To minimize distractions, I would encourage you to
turn off your WI-FI while in class. Failure to adhere to this policy may result in being counted as
absent for the day, and I reserve the right to ban laptops and tablets if they become a distraction to
you or to your classmates. Use of cellphones is not permitted.

Submission of Work

All written work should be presented professionally: typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New
Roman or Garamond, and with one-inch margins. Be sure to include your last name and the page
number in the footer.

Submit your essay by uploading it to Blackboard prior to the deadline (Sunday nights at 8:00 pm for
final drafts and Sunday afternoons at 12:20 pm for workshop drafts, with an exception of Tuesday
afternoon for the draft of the third essay). Workshop drafts should be posted to the Workshops
folder, and final drafts should be submitted through Assignments. Late essays will lose a third of a
letter grade each day until they are submitted; after a week, I will no longer accept your work.

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism is the representation of another persons words or ideas as your own. It is not only
counter to the ethics of the academic culture in which you participate, but it is also detrimental to
Bozio // EN 110 Syllabus 3
the goals of this course, insofar as it does nothing to develop your own skills as a thinker and a
writer. You must give proper credit, according to your chosen citation guidelines, to all words or
ideas that are not your own. In cases of a serious violation of academic integrity, you will fail the
assignment. Visit http://www.skidmore.edu/advising/integrity/index.php for more information.

Accessibility

Anyone who anticipates difficulties with the content or the format of this course should arrange to
meet with me so we can create a workable plan for your success. Skidmore College also offers
several forms of academic and non-academic accommodation through the Office of Student
Academic Services. Visit http://www.skidmore.edu/accessibility/index.php for more information.

ASSIGNMENTS

Essays

Over the course of the semester, you will write three essays of approximately five pages in length. In
your first essay, draw upon the skills of close reading that you will have developed thus far to make a
cogent argument about the language of Shakespeares Sonnets. Be sure to cite some of the literary
terms that we discuss in class, as well as one or more of the scholarly works that we read to support
your claims. In your second essay, build upon these skills by making a sustained argument about
some facet of Lolita (you may wish to analyze the unreliability of the narrator, the gender politics of
the novel, or another topic of your choice). Develop your argument by citing and responding to
several other scholarly works, whether criticism or theory. In your third essay, craft an argument
about the way that Angels in America responds to its historical or cultural contexts, drawing upon
your skills in research and in close reading to do so.

Workshops

To grow as writers and as thinkers, we will spend a significant portion of the course revising your
essays in workshops. On days when workshops are scheduled, we will review two essays as a group
and use the remaining time to revise your essays in pairs. For this reason, you need to upload a full
draft of your essay to Blackboard twenty-four hours before the first workshop of the week
(generally, Sunday afternoons, with a notable exception of Tuesday afternoon for the third essay).

The version that you upload should be a full draft of approximately five pages, with a thesis,
properly cited sources, and a well-supported argument. Failure to upload a full draft by the deadline
will reduce your final grade in the course by a third of a letter.

Blog Posts

To gain experience thinking and writing about literature, you will write four posts on the course
blog, each responding to a specific prompt. Blog posts should be between 250 and 500 words, and
they are due at 8:00 pm on the night before we are scheduled to meet. For each post, you should
also comment twice on the posts of your peers; comments are due by the time we meet in class.
Because the course blog is designed to inform our discussion of the material in class, late posts and
comments will receive no credit.
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To access the course site, you will need to create a WordPress account and then accept my invitation
to join the site. I would encourage you to use a pseudonym that does not reveal your identity. Your
posts will be visible to the entire class, as well as to the wider public, and using a pseudonym will
allow you to practice writing public-facing documents without the concern that your posts will
always be a part of your online identity.

Quizzes

There will be three quizzes designed to evaluate your knowledge of literary terms, your ability to find
secondary sources, and your familiarity with the proper formatting of citations.

SCHEDULE

Reading that are not available in the required texts can be found on the course site
[EN110Fall2014.WordPress.com] or on Course Reserves.

Sept. 3 Introduction to the course
5 Shakespeares Sonnets, 1-17 and Michael Schoenfeldt, The Sonnets

8 Shakespeares Sonnets, 18-42
10 Shakespeares Sonnets, 43-70
12 Shakespeares Sonnets, 71-99

15 Shakespeares Sonnets, 100-126
First blog post due
17 Shakespeares Sonnets, 127-154
19 Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author and From Work to Text

22 Michel Foucault, What is an Author?
Second blog post due
24 Peter Stallybrass, Editing as Cultural Formation: The Sexing of Shakespeares
Sonnets and Margreta de Grazia, The Scandal of Shakespeares Sonnets
26 Heather Dubrow, Incertainties now crown themselves assurd: The Politics of
Plotting Shakespeares Sonnets

Draft of Paper One due on Sunday, September 28 at 12:20 pm

29 Workshop
Oct. 1 Workshop
3 Workshop

Paper One due on Sunday, October 5 at 8:00 pm

6 Lolita, 3-40 and Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee
8 Lolita, 40-93
10 Lolita, 93-142
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Third blog post due

13 Sigmund Freud, Mourning and Melancholia
15 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 195-228
17 Lolita, 145-176

20 Library Session; Lolita, 176-207
22 Lolita, 208-238
24 Study Day

27 Lolita, 238-269
29 Lolita, 269-309
31 Vladimir Nabokov, On a Book Entitled Lolita and Nomi Tamir-Ghez, The Art of
Persuasion in Nabokovs Lolita

Draft of Paper Two due on Sunday, November 2 at 12:20 pm

Nov. 3 Workshop
5 Workshop
7 Workshop

Paper Two due on Sunday, November 9 at 8:00 pm

10 Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches
12 Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches
14 Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches
Fourth blog post due

17 Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika
19 Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika
21 Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika

24 Judith Butler, Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in
Phenomenology and Feminist Theory
26 Thanksgiving
28 Thanksgiving

Dec. 1 bell hooks, Postmodern Blackness

Draft of Paper Three due on Tuesday, December 2 at 12:20 pm

3 Workshop
5 Workshop

8 Workshop
10 Franco Moretti, Graphs

Paper Three due on Sunday, December 14 at 8:00 pm