English 5H SPRING 2000: "Portraits of the Artist"

Peter Schmidt

class: MWF 9:30-10:20am, Kohlberg 116

email: pschmid1 Web: http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1

office hours: LPAC 206, MW 1pm-3pm, and by appointment

office phone and voicemail: 8156

Course Description

We will study a wide variety of works portraying artists in different cultures and contexts and media. Writers include Dante, the author(s) of The Arabian Nights, William Blake, Salman Rushdie, Ernest Hemingway, Ellen Douglas, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and Julie Dash. The syllabus also contains Julie Dash's movie Daughters of the Dust, a source of inspiration for her later novel by the same name.

Course Requirements

· Regular attendance: more than 3 unexcused absences over the course of the semester will hurt your grade. You are also required to attend the movie screening or to arrange to see the video on your own before the class. To get an excused absence (sickness, family emergency, etc.) you need to get a note from the Health Center and/or the Dean's office; please try to let me know ahead of time through yourself or a friend if you know you'll miss class.

· Come to class having studied the readings and other materials assigned for that day.

· Participation in class discussions and other class activities, including both leading class discussions and contributing when others lead. Each person in class will be asked to lead class discussion with a group several times during the semester.

· Completion of writing assignments on time. Late papers and journal entries will be penalized. Completion of any assigned revisions to papers may also part of the course requirements.

Assigned writing for English 5H will mostly be of two kinds:

· short typed journal entries, to be exchanged via e-mail or in class with different classmates and commented upon in writing. Due dates are on syllabus below.

· 4 short papers of varying lengths, double-spaced, due on the dates indicated below.

· There will be an open-book 3-hour Final Exam scheduled by the Registrar

· Grading: Quality of class participation counts 25%; Final Exam 25%; Papers 50% (the 4 papers will count the most here but I will also see some of your journal entries). Poor attendance and class participation and late papers will negatively affect your grade, just as poor written work will. Clear improvement in your writing over the course of the semester will help your final grade, as will thoughtful class participation.

A note about honesty and coursework: All writing that you turn in for this English class should be yours alone and done solely for this course. When you are borrowing ideas and language from others it is your responsibility to acknowledge these sources accurately; anything less constitutes plagiarism and severe penalties may be involved (including flunking the course and suspension for a semester) regardless of whether you "intended" to plagiarize or not.

For more information, see the Swarthmore English Literature Department's Guidelines on Plagiarism and Citing Sources for English Papers, to be handed out later this semester; this document includes numerous examples of how to cite sources. A copy of this document is also available on the Department's Web Page: (www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/english). Students should also consult the Swarthmore College Student Handbook's section on Academic Honesty, which has advice relevant for all your classes at Swarthmore.

Plagiarism penalties do not mean you should be afraid of consulting with others (your WA, fellow students, me) or of borrowing good ideas from others: it is very simple to acknowledge these with a "thank you" at the end of a paper, or a footnote and a bibliography. I will be happy to confer with you about any issues involving citing sources or plagiarism if you have questions.

English 5H will not emphasize or require extensive readings and citing of secondary sources; our main focus will be on the primary sources on the syllabus and emphasizing how to quote and cite effectively from these sources.

Skills To Be Emphasized in English 5H Include:

Discussion skills:

· how to ask better questions

· arguing with others fairly: making distinctions and supporting your claims

· supporting others: making connections and finding common ground

· leading discussion: how to use your own ideas to help others discover theirs

Writing skills:

· how to move from a hypothesis to a thesis

· handling evidence (being more thorough and more skeptical and more detailed in your arguments; learning how to use quoted evidence most effectively, especially guiding a reader through a quotation rather than merely presenting it)

· using counterarguments and other rhetorical skills

· improving grammar, syntax, vocabulary, paragraph structure, and organization

· revision skills

· how to do basic footnoting and bibliographic citations for written work in the Humanities

ENGLISH 5H ASSIGNMENTS Spring 2000

Class date Assignments

Jan 17 course introduction

19 Arabian Nights, Introduction (esp. pp. ix-xiii, xvii [middle] - xx, xxv - end); Prologue, Ox and Donkey, Merchant and His Wife stories

21 Arabian Nights, Merchant and Demon [incl. 1st and 2nd Old Man's tales]

24 Arabian Nights, Fisherman and Demon [incl first 3 tales, pp. 30-49]

26 Arabian Nights, Porter and the 3 Ladies, pp. 66-86. student-led discussion group.

28 Arabian Nights, Second Dervish's tale, pp. 92-113.

31 3-4pp. paper due on an episode from Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights, Slave Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din ibn-Khaqan, pp. 344-83

Feb. 2 Rushdie, Haroun, chs. 1-4

4 Haroun, chs. 5-9. student-led discussion group.

7 finish Haroun

9 Douglas, Can't Quit You Baby, Section I, pp. 1-61

11 Douglas, II, pp. 65-93

14 Douglas, III, pp. 97-123. student-led discussion group.

16 Douglas, IV, pp. 127-80

18 Douglas, V, pp. 183-227

21 Douglas, VI, pp. 231-56

22 (Tues.) Small group writing workshops for Rushdie/Douglas paper

23 Small group writing workshops

24 (Thurs.) Small group writing workshops

25 Small group writing workshops

28 3-4pp. paper due, on Rushdie or Douglas

Introductory lecture: Dante, Inferno, Cantos I-V-plus read Freccero's brief "Foreword" and Pinsky's "Translator's Note." Also consult the map and the notes on individual Cantos in the back of the book as you read.

March 1 Dante, Cantos VI-XII. student-led discussion group.

3 Dante, Cantos XIII-XVIII

SPRING BREAK

13 Dante, Cantos XIX-XXIV. student-led discussion group.

15 Dante, Cantos XXV-XXX

17 Dante, Cantos XXXI-XXXIV

20 Blake, Marriage of Heaven and Hell (read entire poem)

22 Blake, Marriage of Heaven and Hell, conclusion. student-led discussion group.

24 Hemingway, Garden of Eden, 3-71

27 Hemingway, 75-127

29 Hemingway, 128-86. student-led discussion group.

31 Hemingway, 187-end

April 3 3-4pp. paper due, on Dante, Blake, or Hemingway

Hemingway, conclusion

5 Yamanaka, Wild Meat, Section One (read all stories)

7 Yamanaka, Section Two (focus on: What Love Is, Bolohead Malibu Barbie..., A Fishbowl and Some Dimes, Rags, Alexander Fu Sheng..., My Nanny and Billy the Kid). student-led discussion group.

10 Yamanaka, Section Three (focus on: Blah Blah Blah, Lovey's Homemade..., Pin the Fan on the Hand, Wrong Words)

12 Yamanaka, The Crossing. student-led discussion group.

14 Yamanaka, The Burning

17 Dash, novel Daughters of the Dust, pp. 1-16

18 (Tues.) show video of Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust, Kohlberg 116, 7:30pm

19 discuss Dash video

21 continue discussion of video; Dash novel, pp. 19-87

24 Dash, pp. 87-169. student-led discussion group.

26 Dash, pp. 169-245

28 Dash, pp. 245-310; course conclusion

May 5 (Friday) 4-5pp. paper due, on any work from the syllabus on which you've not yet written

Final Exam date and time during exam week to be set by Registrar. The exam will be an open-book, 3-hour essay exam. I will give you guidelines ahead of time for preparing for this exam.