World Literature Syllabus

Course Description

Welcome to your senior year of English! Last year we covered poetic devices and the basics of essay writing and research; this year we will focus on in-depth analysis of works across all mediums—novels to movies, poetry/music to advertisements, newspaper to television shows. This class will be a summation of your studies so far, as well as an introduction to compositional skills that will be necessary for college. After all, this is your last year, so we’re going big! This class will culminate in an extended research project over a chosen topic. In creating this project, you will be synthesizing the reading, writing, and research skills we will practice throughout the year.

In each section of the first semester we will be discussing a universal theme. The reading lists consist of a novel or two that we will definitely read and shorter works or other novels that will supplement our discussions. My main objective in this course is to facilitate your discovery of new works and how they relate to one another thematically. We will write essays and other short works for each section with the goal of creating cogent arguments that synthesize our readings/discussions and clarify our individual ideas about each theme.

Because these are universal themes, they appear in all forms of communication. As I stated before, we will be consuming all types of media. That said, I cannot possibly find examples of each theme from all types of media—so I leave that to you. You will discover as we delve into each theme that examples of our themes will begin to pop up everywhere you turn. Whenever you come across an example, share the wealth, my friends!

Section One: Same Skills, Different Voices

We will begin with a quick review of the literary and poetic devices you learned last year, then dive into consumables from around the world.

Readings

• Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning”
• John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”
• Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”
• T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”
• Pablo Neruda’s “The Word”

Creations

Your first assignment is to read Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night,” marking interesting passages and asking questions of the text. Then, bring to class tomorrow a work from your life with a similar theme, sound, or message. If you’re having trouble coming up with something, look to the Wikipedia article on the poem for ideas, but avoid bringing in a work already listed.

Section Two: Rebellion and Conformity

We will begin this section by reading Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World or Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We. As we discuss the novel, concentrating on themes of power and the individual’s place in society, we will connect other works in various mediums. In this section, as always, I encourage you to bring in examples from your own life to share with the class. We will conclude this section with Elie Wiesel’s Night. Again, as always, I encourage you to read outside the works covered in class.

More Readings

• Ayn Rand’s Anthem
• Anna Akhmatova’s “Lot's Wife”
• Santha Rau’s "By Any Other Name"
• Ursula LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
• Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”
• Thoreau’s “Song of the Open Road” and “Civil Disobedience”
• Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 
• Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (also in Identity)
• Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange
• Camus’ The Stranger
• Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
• Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”
• Jack Kerouac’s On the Road
• Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
• Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”
• Punk music
• Contemporary news articles

Creations

We will begin our journals in this section and continue them throughout the year. I cannot stress enough how important this habit is. It will improve your writing, expedite your research, and make you a closer reader. It takes more time to get through a work initially, but it will soon become second nature to you.

There will be smaller projects (writings, illustrations, group discussions) that will be graded during this unit, but the culminating project will be one short essay (around 250 words) on the subject of rebellion and conformity. I will give you a selection of prompts as we move through the unit, but you are welcome to pursue any focus you choose. Just run it by me first. You may begin writing this paper as soon as inspiration hits, but it will be due by the end of this section.

Section Three: Identity

Our novel this time will be Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. We will focus on what makes an individual—environmental forces, personal choices, or fate?

More Readings

• Maya Angelou’s “My Name is Margaret”
• Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias”
• J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye andFranny and Zooey
• Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
• Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
• Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
• Nick Hornby’s About a Boy
• Art Spiegelman’s Maus
• Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes
• Shakespeare’s Hamlet
• Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex
• Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
• Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis
• Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound”
• Rimbaud’s Season in Hell
• Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King
• Craig Thompson’sBlankets
• Superhero studies

Section Four: Love and Family

We will begin this section by reading Gabriel Marcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera. More Readings ===

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” Sophocles’ Antigone Dante Alighieri’s “Because you’re young in beauty yet” Luigi Pirandello’s “War” Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Heavenly Christmas Tree” Leo Tolstoi’s “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House Anton Chekhov’s “The Kiss” Colette’s “The Other Wife” Rainer Maria Rilke’s “At Sundown” Jean-Paul Sartre’s “The Wall” Albert Camus’ “The Guest” Adelaide Casley-Hayford’s “Mista Courifer” Léopold Sédar Senghor’s “Prayer to Masks” Doris Lessing’s “A Sunrise on the Veld” Chinua Achebe’s “Marriage is a Private Affair” Hafiz’s “Not all the sum of earthly happiness” Pablo Neruda’s “The Word” Gabriel García Márquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” Anne Hébert’s “Hands” Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” James Joyce’s “Araby”

Housekeeping

This could also be called “The Fine Print,” but it is important, so I’m keeping it readable. No Charlie and the Chocolate Factory surprise clauses here.

The following are my expectations for myself in teaching this class:

• As a teacher, I promise to never “hold” information as if it were something to pass out when you are ready. This is a good trick for teachers working from a textbook’s Teacher’s Edition, but as I said before, we have no textbook. Houghton Mifflin does not plan our activities (though we might be more organized if we did); we do.
• As a teacher, I understand that you (my students) will have insights and ideas that may be different from mine. This is a good thing.
• As a teacher, I will give you access to all of the resources at my disposal. This includes my own learning, books, websites, cool articles, movies, music, answer keys, examples from previous years, and anything else I come across.
• As a teacher, I will push you to work harder than you think possible. I do this to show you what you are capable of if given the chance and motivation.
• As a teacher, I will not “hold back” when grading your written work or when discussing issues in class. To do so would be patronizing and not conducive to learning.

We will discuss your expectations of one another on the first day of class.

Plagiarism

See Plagiarism.

Class Materials

This course is taught as if it were a college seminar, but we have more than two grades (this is a good thing; I promise). As a college course, there will be topics discussed that you may be uncomfortable with or language in the readings that you may not approve of. That being said, I ask that each of you keep an open mind. The pieces we read are chosen for a reason, and some of the language or topics may be controversial. If we don’t think the language is appropriate for a piece, we will discuss it. Everything is important. That being said, if you have a serious objection to anything being presented please do not hesitate to let me know. I will try to make the necessary changes to the assignment, or provide an alternative work for the class to read. The change will be subtle, and no one will be the wiser. If you prefer not to come to me in person (though I would appreciate that), just email me. JStallings@tsas.org. No worries.

Late Work Policy

See Late Work Policy.