155C_Syllabus

7/28/2019 155C_Syllabus

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ENL 155C: 20th C British Novel: Sex & Science106 Olson T/W/R 4:10-5:50

Instructor: Karma Waltonen ([email protected])Office: 355 Voorhies (UCD); Hours: T 3-4; W 2-3

Course Description: As we cover a range of works from the 20th Century, we willinvestigate how race, class, and gender intersect with our two main themes:sex and science. We will also engage with a variety of genres within thenovel, including comedy, science-fiction, and the graphic novel. Attention willbe given to narrative techniques and writing styles. The course emphasizesclose reading skills and contextualizing works within their historical period.

The course will also investigate the reader’s role in creating stories in thegaps authors often leave us. We will view one or two film versions of ournovels for comparison.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of the lower division writing requirement.

Texts: Zadie Smith, White Teeth Virginia Woolf, OrlandoHanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good OmensNick Hornby, About a Boy Doris Lessing, Shikasta P.D. James, Children of Men Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, Watchmen1 Recommended: a grammar/style book like Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference

Grading: Participation: 10%, Final Exam: 20%, Three Short Papers: 60%, Quizzes:10%.

Outline of Readings/Assignments

Readings/Assignments are due on the day listed. Expect a quiz each day. To answerall the quiz questions, you should come in with at least two discussion questions of your own. No makeup quizzes.

8/7 Introduction to Course. Orlando (Ch 1-4). Have read syllabus.8/8 Orlando (Ch 5-end).8/9 About a Boy .

8/14 Workshop Essay 2—bring two full copies of your draft.8/15 Essay 1 due with essay memo. About a Boy film.8/16 Shikasta.

8/21 Watchmen.8/22 Children of Men.8/23 Buddha of Suburbia (Ch. 1-8).

8/28 The Buddha of Suburbia (8-end).8/29 Draft workshop—Essay 2. Bring two full copies.8/30 Essay 2 due with essay memo. Shaun of the Dead.

1 Watchmen is available at Bizarro World (223 E Street)

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9/4 Good Omens.9/5 White Teeth (Ch 1-10).9/6 White Teeth (Ch 11-end).

9/11 Finish White Teeth mini-series.

9/12 Draft workshop—Essay 3. Bring two full copies.9/13 Final exam. Essay 3 due with essay memo. Final memo due. All Extra Credit

due by this date.

Hints on how to succeed in this class: Keep up with the readings. Use your longweekends well. Make notes when you read—of characters and plot points anddiscussion questions and ideas. Write these down in the text or on a sticky note.Review them before class if the text isn’t fresh in your mind. Among the major(obvious) things to know (author, title), include year of publication and location andtime period of setting. You should also be able to identify the tense and narrativepov used in each work for the final exam.

If you’re concerned about writing essays on literature, please take a look at thehandouts I’ve uploaded to the course website. These are all handouts I usespecifically to teach writing about literature. Whether the problem is constructing athesis, properly setting up quotes, or anything else, the answer is probably there. If it isn’t, ask me. I advise reading “Writing About Literature” before turning in apaper; I will expect you to follow the conventions there.

Paper Format2: All out-of-class work must be typed or word-processed and mustfollow this format:• Double-space consistently and maintain a one-inch margin all around.• Use a standard 12-pt font.• Each page should have a header that includes your last name and the page

number.• Put your name, the date, the essay assignment and topic number and the

paper’s word count in an upper corner of the first page.• Include the out of class essay memo as first or last page.• Staple all pages in the upper left-hand corner.• Only justify the left margin.• In terms of miscellaneous formatting, follow the guidelines for writing a paper in

MLA style.• We will workshop all essays. Failure to fully participate in workshop will result in

a loss of 1/3rd to a full letter grade. Staple your peers’ workshop critiques to thefinal product.

Please note that these formatting guidelines are not optional. If you do not followthem correctly, I will penalize your paper grade by up to three percentage points(e.g., an 87 (B+) would become an 84 (B)). Formatting includes following theguidelines for academic conventions (see handout).

2 I will evaluate all formal written work according to departmental criteria as outlined in thehandout “Grading Rubric.” I realize that most essays, regardless of the grade received,represent a good deal of hard work, and I will try to give comments suggesting positiveactions for future efforts.

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All papers should be titled (with a fresh, interesting title relevant to the subject of your essay), but don’t waste paper with a title page. You are not required to quotefrom secondary sources in most instances; should you use another person’s wordsor ideas, however, you must cite him/her as a source according to MLA style. (Bewary of letting websites create your works cited page—if they get the format wrong,

you will lose points.)

Please keep a copy of all your work.

Late Work:• Late papers will be graded down 1/3 of a grade per day (not class day) late

(e.g., a B will become a B-). Because the writing skills we cover build upon oneanother, it is imperative that you hand in late papers before the next paper isdue. If you fall ill, or have a family emergency, please let me know about yourproblem before you miss a due date.

• Late papers will not be commented on in the same detail as papers turned inon time. Papers turned in excessively late may receive no comments at all.

• If you finish a late paper on a Saturday, but won’t see me until Monday, emailme with the essay asap. I will grade the hardcopy you turn in Monday, but itwon’t be counted later than Saturday.

Participation: Education is interactive. What you get out of your educationdepends a great deal on how much you are willing to put into it. This is a discussion-based class. I do not expect to lecture endlessly while my students sit and dutifullytake notes. You do not have to know the “right” answer to take part in discussion.Very often the student who asks an unexpected question or challenges the statusquo moves the discussion on to the next level. Discussion is also an opportunity forstudents to learn from one another. When considering your grade for participation, Iinclude in-class work, attendance, homework, and constructive verbal participationin all class discussions. Because this is a course in which intensive learning takesplace during the class meetings, attendance is mandatory. Leaving early will makeyou lose points. If I see you using computers or phones in an unauthorized way (e.g.checking email while I’m lecturing), I will count you absent for the entire day.Further, violating class etiquette (by sleeping, texting, etc.) will result in your beingcounted absent for the day. Conferences: I encourage you to use my office hours frequently, to confer withme about any aspect of the course: clarification of my expectations or your grades,comments on papers, general or specific questions about the course material,papers in progress, ideas, etc. Students who visit office hours receive one-on-onehelp; students who have received this individual attention find that it helps themimprove their writing. I will not hold extra office hours the day before a paper is due—plan your draft time if you want me to review the draft in regular hours. Ideally, Ishould see everyone in my office at least once. I will attempt to make alternatetimes for you if you have a class conflict with my regular office hours.

E-mail and Office Hours: You may use e-mail to communicate with me, especiallyif you think you might have to be late for or absent from class, or if you have aminor question concerning an assignment. However, please understand: I will not

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read drafts or comment on grammar on e-mail; I will not discuss grades or revisions;I will not go over lengthy problems you might be having (e.g. several absences,missed assignments, late work, etc.). All of these issues should be saved forpersonal consultation. Please understand that while I check my email regularly, I amnot on call 24 hours a day. Do not expect a response in less than 24 hours (accountfor weekends/holidays as well). You should also use practical email etiquette: do not

spam and avoid being overly casual. While I will clarify instructions, I will notrespond to questions that can be answered by reading the syllabus/paperassignment/etc. Check your ucdavis account regularly—many of my emails willcome from “smartsite”—don’t delete them.

Extra Credit: A two-page play review will give you two points of extra credit. Nomore than four points of extra credit will be awarded per student. Do not summarizeevents/media in your response (assume your audience has seen it).

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the practice of passing off someone else’s work as yourown, whether this is in the form of unacknowledged quotations or ideas. It alsooccurs when someone else writes any part of your paper. In other words, all work

you do for this class must be your own. Please understand that you must correctlycite and document your source, be it library book, class textbook,scientific/technical or other article, internet site, lecture, personal interview, etc.Plagiarism is not to be confused with receiving and responding to suggestions fromothers in draft workshops. If you have any questions about plagiarism or about theuse and documentation of sources, please talk with me. I will not accept any papersthat do not clearly and accurately show their sources. All plagiarism cases, eventhose that seem unintentional, will be turned over to Student JudicialAffairs. You must cite all information, even if you are summarizing or paraphrasing.Introduce sources when you first use them. Using one paper for two classes is notallowed without the permission of both instructors. Please see the statement onsmartsite about collaboration.

Class Content: We will be reading a variety of texts. Some of these texts have“adult” themes—i.e. violence, sexuality, etc. If you do not wish to subject yourself tothese themes, please reconsider taking this course. If you stay in the course, youwill be expected to respond to texts as an adult. That is, you should be willing toconsider ideas and viewpoints other than your own with respect and maturity. Youshould also be aware that your instructor has a strange sense of humor. If you’rewithout a sense of humor, you will want to consider dropping the course.

How to succeed: The key to writing about literature is to be able to make anoriginal, defendable point and back it up with evidence from the text. If you write atechnically perfect paper, yet your ideas are obvious (so obvious they don’t needdefending—e.g. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragedy), then you probably won’tgarner more than a C on the paper. An A paper will have a relevant, well-defendedthesis. Additionally, an A paper won’t simply parrot my ideas; it will develop yourown. Do not summarize the plot of texts in your writing.

Picking up Papers at the End of Term: As the term ends, I will arrange to haveoffice hours for you to pick up your papers. Papers that a student has not picked up

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by the end of the term will be kept by this instructor for six weeks. After that time,they will be destroyed.

What to consider when thinking about literature:1. Characters (Major/Minor; Traits/Circumstances)

2. Historical Period and Background3. Social and Economic Conditions (Class, Race, Gender, Sexuality)4. Major Ideas (Themes/Values)5. Artistic Qualities (Point of View; Plot and Structure; Pacing; Setting;

Foreshadowing; Metaphors; Allegories; Symbolism [Cultural and Contextual];Allusions; Tone/Style/Irony; Form)

Strategic Approaches for Examining Literature (Types of Criticism)1. Genre/Canon/Authorship2. Formalist3. Biographical4. Psychological

5. Historical (Literary History/Marxist/New Historicist/Cultural)6. Gender (Feminist/LGBT/Masculinity)7. Mythological

[Any corrections to this and other class documents greatly appreciated.]

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155C_Syllabus