Focuses on advanced study under the direction of a member of the English Department faculty. This course may be taken only after consultation with the instructor to determine the course content and the credit hours appropriate for the chosen project.
Goals, Topics, and Objectives
- To be determined by the instructor who proposes a specific topic for this course.
Students should be able to accomplish the following:
1. Formulate an interpretive thesis (as opposed to one which merely reports something factual about a literary text).
2. Compose an essay which either
- analyzes a literary text, for example by focusing on literary elements such as theme, character, setting, point of view, plot, imagery, metaphor, symbolism, etc., or
- analyzes the characteristic themes, features, and / or techniques of a given writer's works, or
- analyzes more than one literary text by comparing and contrasting works by more than one writer of the period or genre named in the course title, or
- thoughtfully discusses or successfully emulates the kinds of writing being studied.
Identify some of the key terms that are essential to an introductory-level understanding of the kinds of writing being studied.
Identify features in a given text that would commonly be considered typical of the kinds of writing being studied.
Evaluate a few of the key ways in which significant writers attempted to achieve the key goals of the kinds of writing being studied.
Explain the crucial importance and /or distinctive achievement of some of the key writers in the writing tradition being studied.
Identify and analyze principal works and passages reflecting some of the pivotal concerns of the kinds of writing being studied.
Note that a grade of C- is not transferrable and is not accepted by some programs at HFC
Assessment and Requirements
Assessment may include (but need not be limited to) quizzes, participation in discussion, essays, and exams. But assessment must include a minimum of 1,000 words of formal writing.
Required:
Students will read substantial and representative selections from the works of major writers essential to an introductory-level understanding of the literature named in the course title.
Students will read a substantial and representative selection of literary texts that explore the themes that are essential to an introductory-level understanding of the literature named in the course title.
Students will regularly engage in thoughtful discussion of the assigned readings.
Students will study (through assigned readings and / or classroom discussion) the cultural contexts from which the literature emerges.
Students will study concepts that are essential to an introductory-level understanding of the literature named in the course title, as well as other standard literary terms that are necessary for the study of literature in this course, such as character, conflict, plot, setting, theme, symbol, point of view, metaphor, rhyme, meter, allusion, irony, autobiography, essay, short story, novel, lyric poetry, etc.
Recommended:
Students should learn appropriate biographical information about assigned writers when such information could be helpful in understanding the literature.
Students should take quizzes on assigned readings.
Students should keep a journal in which they record their responses to assigned readings and class discussions.
Students should learn to place the major assigned writers and texts on an historical time line.
Students should satisfactorily read at least one short work or passage aloud, either in class or in the instructor's office.
Instructors should welcome and support the diverse identities, backgrounds, and academic experience of our students as essential foundations for college community.
To be determined by the instructor who proposes a specific topic for this course.