Moraine
“I'll walk where my own nature
would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide,” Emily Bronte
Date: August 2008
I. Faculty Information
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
II. Course Identification: Women in
Literature, LIT 219 000
|
A.
Credit Hours: |
3 |
|
B.
Total Contact Hours: |
3
lecture lab 0 |
|
C.
Prerequisite: |
Grade
of “C” or better in COM-101 |
|
D.
Corequisite: |
None |
|
E.
Course Meets: |
MW |
|
F.
Catalog Description: |
A survey of women in literature. The course will
examine the characterization and archetypes of women as they are presented in
literary works. The course will include works by authors of both sexes, but
emphasis will be placed on female writers frequently ignored in anthologies
of literature. |
III.
Textbooks/Supplies
|
A.
Required: Buying books from online book
sellers or checking them out from the library saves money. |
Showalter,
Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: From |
|
Brown,
Dan. The DaVinci Code. Bronte,
Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Any edition. |
Woolf,
Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. |
|
Introduction
to Literature: A Custom Publication. |
B. Supplies:
stapler and 3 x 5 cards |
IV. Major Course Concepts
1.
Images of women in literature
2.
Archetypes of women
3. Factors
affecting the emergence of female authors
V. Expected Outcomes
for Student Learning
A. General Education learning outcomes
Communicating
Read and listen with
comprehension
Write and speak effectively
in English
Information Literacy
Locate, evaluate, and use
information effectively
Literary and Artistic
Insight
Understand the nature of literary, philosophical,
and artistic expression and how particular works have contributed to the ideas
and culture of the past and present
Valuing Diversity
Understand how diversity influences experiences,
values, and thoughts of individuals and cultures
B. Course content learning
outcomes
1. Read literature more
perceptively with a heightened awareness of female roles and feminist ideology.
a. Explain the stereotyping of
women and show how it reveals itself in literature.
b.List, explain, and
understand the archetypal patterns often applied to women in literature.
c. Describe the prevalent
physical and psychological myths about women and show how they influence
women’s roles in literature.
d.Show how women’s roles and
expectations have been affected by changes in politics and the economy through
the various female characters studied.
e. Describe the basic
historical conflicts experienced by women in literature i.e. conflicts between
self-fulfillment and duty.
f. Interpret the images of sexuality,
gender roles, and female-centered religion as it pertains to women in
literature.
2. Explain the influence of
literary and social-political events on the position of western and non-western
women writers.
3. Explain the influence of
feminism on literature, particularly in the delineation of female characters
and the emergence of female writers.
VI. Class Description
This course is designed to introduce students to women as writers and
literary characters. This is, in essence, feminist literary criticism. By the
end of this class, students will be able to analyze and express literary ideas
clearly through critical writing, journal responses, and class discussion.
Throughout the semester, we will read a great variety of texts and will see
through them that women face the same challenges throughout time—family,
studies, work, personal fulfillment—no matter the location, the economic
status, the culture. This course is a fascinating journey into the question:
what does it mean to be a woman?
VII.
Classroom Policies/Procedures: At the end of this syllabus, please find an
attached a copy of the college’s General Information Sheet. Please read it
carefully and keep it for reference during the semester.
A.
Attendance & Participation: Students are expected to promptly attend, thoroughly prepare for, and
actively participate in class meetings. Students who miss more than
four class meetings should withdraw from the course since five absences
will result in a lower grade for the course. If a student is absent, it
is his or her responsibility to check the syllabus or to see the instructor
before attending the next class for any additional information. Students are
required to be prepared for each class day as outlined in the daily schedule.
Students are expected to be to class on time.
B.
Withdrawal:
Should a student decide to withdraw, the student needs to make sure to have his
or her name officially removed from the course. A student who does not withdraw
officially from a course may receive a grade of “F,” depending on course
progress or course attendance, which will become part of the student’s
permanent record. The official
withdrawal date is listed in the General Information Sheet.
C.
Student Conduct: Each student is responsible for adhering to the Code of Student
Conduct as stated in the college catalog. Violators of the Code of
Student Conduct will be sent to the office of judicial affairs on campus and/or
removed from this class. Particular rules for this course include the following:
- Students will treat
each other with respect.
- Students will not speak
over instructor.
- Students will not speak
over each other.
- Students will not use
racial slurs in class.
- Students will not bring
food into the classrooms, library, or computer labs.
- Students will make
personal appointments with the instructor if any problem arises. No
personal issues (such as grades, health, or family problems) will be
discussed in the classroom or computer lab.
D. Phones, Pagers,
Text-Messaging: All telephones and pagers must be turned off and put away during class.
Any student who fails to adhere to this policy will be asked to leave the
class. A copy of the college statement concerning the use of cell phones,
pagers, and other communication devices in instructional areas is attached.
VIII.
Grading and Requirements for Student Success
A.
Requirements and Evaluation: Essays will be graded per COM/LIT departmental
standards of grammar; see attached guidelines. Mathematical breakdown: Letter grades have
corresponding numerical values. The instructor uses an Excel spreadsheet to
calculate scores. The scale is as follows: A+ = 100, A = 95, A- = 90, B+ = 89,
B = 85, B- = 80, C+ = 79, C = 75, C- = 70, D+ = 69, D = 65, D- = 60, F = 50 (if
assignment is turned in—if not a grade of zero will be applied.)
Letter grades will be
awarded on a ten-point scale: A=90+, B=80%+, C=70%+, D=60%+
Course particulars include
the following:
Assignment
|
Weight
|
|
Journals/Question Cards |
10% |
|
Presentations |
15% |
|
Exam |
20% |
|
Essays |
30% |
|
Group Activities |
15% |
|
Pop Quizzes |
10% |
|
Total |
100% |
B. Late Work: None taken. But grace will
be granted to those who are diligent. Attend Garbage Land events at the
library or other on-campus literary or theater events and write one page about
the experience and use these responses to make-up for missed in-class journal
entries and group in-class projects. This coordination is the student’s
responsibility.
C.
Make-Up Policy:
In-class activities can’t be made up. If a student misses a quiz, a grade of zero will apply.
The final must be taken on time. If a student is extremely ill or has some
other family emergency, it is his or her responsibility to contact an academic
advisor for help with withdrawing from the course and/or a
D.
Revisions:
There will be no revisions allowed in this course. Please seek help before
turning the papers in.
E.
Journals/Question Cards: They are listed on a supplemental sheet. Late journal entries will
not be accepted. Journal assignments must be at least 150 words (one
handwritten page) per entry or no credit will be given. No spiral papers or
loose sheets accepted. Entries over two pages must be stapled or no credit is
given. Partial entries are not accepted. Question
Cards are questions written on 3 x 5 cards. The questions relate to the
assigned readings. Write down a question or comment on the day’s assigned reading
and turn it in; there are 20
question cards required and 10 journal
entries. Please note: The instructor reserves the right to refuse
entries due to sloppiness and illegible handwriting.
F.
Presentations: Students will be part of small groups that individually discuss a chapter
from the Showalter text: A Literature of Their Own. Complete
instructions appear on supplemental sheet.
G.
Exams: Students
are required to take a final exam. The exam must be taken on time, or a grade
of zero will be entered into the student’s record.
H.
Essay: The
essays must be typed, written in 12pt font, and have standard 1-inch margins,
per MLA standards. No handwritten papers accepted. Papers must be stapled. No
loose sheets accepted. Further paper specifics on supplemental sheet. We will
write two essays this semester; no late papers accepted. All required items
must be turned in together and on time or no credit is given. Please Note:
The instructor is not responsible for keeping student papers together. Each
student must make sure his or her paper is bound adequately so that no pages go
missing. If something is not attached and is lost, the student will lose credit
for the missing items.
I.
Group Activities: Each class day, expect to participate in a group activity of some kind.
Those who do not cooperate and/or participate will be asked to leave the class
and attendance for that class day will be removed from the official record. Please
Note: The instructor reserves the right to assess participation and/or
cooperation regarding the group activities.
J.
Pop Quizzes: A
quiz may be given on any day regarding any reading. No quizzes can be made up.
|
K. Plagiarism: Any violation of the following principles
in a student’s written assignments turned in for a grade is plagiarism and
will result in immediate failure for the assignment and/or the course. Plagiarism includes
activities such as turning in a “recycled” paper, purchasing essays via the
Internet, cutting and pasting material from the Web, and copying a published
writer’s work without proper citations. Plagiarism is also defined in the
college handbook and on accompanying handout. It is essential that students
do and only take credit for their own work and respectfully and
professionally treat others’ work. Therefore, there will be no tolerance
of cheating or plagiarism in this course. While consequences will include
failure of the assignment or failure of the course, each case of plagiarism
will be dealt with on an individual basis. The matter will be turned over to the
college disciplinary board: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1.
A student may not submit work for a grade that is composed wholly or
partially by another person. |
|
|
2.
A student may not submit work that has been copied, wholly or partially, from
a book, article, essay, newspaper, another student’s paper or notebook, or
any other written or printed or media source. Another writer’s exact
sentences or words may be included only if presented as quotations and the
source cited accurately. |
|
|
3. Written work that paraphrases any
written or printed media material without acknowledgment may not be submitted
for credit. Ideas from books and essays may be incorporated in a student’s
work as starting points, governing issues, illustrations, and the like, but
in each case the source must be cited. |
|
|
4. Remember that all on-line materials
gathered for a paper are also governed by rules about plagiarism. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please note: Any paper found to
have been purchased or downloaded (cut and paste) from free or for-profit
essay sites will earn a student a failing grade in this course with no
questions asked. The college authorities will also be notified of the
behavior. |
|
|
New Campus Email Policy
- Students must use the e-mail
account provided by Moraine Valley as their official means of email
communication for all business related to this course. Any email that does not come directly from your
MVCC email ([email protected]) may be filtered by
spam or junk mail filters, may get deleted, or may get a delayed response.
This means if you choose to forward your MVCC email account to some other
email account (such as [email protected], or
[email protected], or username @sbcglobal.com), then do not
send a response back to the instructor from that third party account. All
responses to email should come directly from your MVCC account and not
from the forwarded account. In other words, all email correspondence for
this course must come from your [email protected]
email account.
- The subject line of all email
to the instructor must begin with the course number AND section number
followed by the topic. Email
without a subject may not be read and will probably be deleted.
- The body of the email must
include at least one complete sentence AND be “signed” with your full
first and last name. When asking
for help, please do your best to be specific about the question(s) and
always “sign” your email at the bottom by typing your full first and last
name. If you are requesting a phone call back, include your phone number
with area code.
- Email Guidelines &
Procedures: Each student is
responsible for reading the Email Guidelines & Procedures, which is
located at http://www.morainevalley.edu/studentemail/guidelines.htm.
|
|
Note: Open communication between the members of the class is of vital importance in making this experience work. If at any point in the semester you feel you may need a little extra help or more explanations regarding an assignment, please come see me.
![MPj04024290000[1]](http://www.geocities.com/cmillsapspears/womenlitslyfall07_files/image010.jpg)
Daily Schedule:
"It's
an old wives' tale. The original one, in fact!," The Da Vinci Code, film version
Please
bring at least one question written a 3x5 card to each class regarding the
day’s reading. (Remember they are for credit.) Also, finish the novels, short
stories, or poems before the day they are discussed in order to get more out of
the experience—you may even have to read something more than once in order to
feel confident discussing it as a critical reader. With that in mind, begin
reading the first week. Once The Da Vinci Code is finished, begin the
next novel, Jane Eyre, and then move to Mrs. Dalloway. Know your
reading habits and plan accordingly. There will be a minimum of one quiz
(unannounced) on each text assigned.
Week 1
M,
8/25 Introduction
to the course; watch film clip from The DaVinci Code
W,
8/27 Create
groups; basic literary terms; female-centered
religion discussed;
Start The Da Vinci Code
Week 2
M,
9/1 No
Class
W,
9/3 Brown, The
DaVinci Code
Week 3
M,
9/8 The DaVinci Code— finish novel
for this class
W, 9/10 Bronte,
Jane Eyre begins
Week
4
M,
9/15 Jane Eyre, basic structure, form, genre
W,
9/17 Jane Eyre, character discussion
Week 5
M,
9/22 Jane Eyre; Chapter four Showalter, A
Literature of Their Own.
W,
9/24 Jane
Eyre, Film clips; Paper #1 Due
Week 6
M,
9/29 Woolf,
Mrs. Dalloway—read first 86 pages before class; watch film clip from The
Hours
W,
10/1 Mrs.
Dalloway—read
next 50 pages before class
Week 7
M,
10/6 Mrs. Dalloway— finish novel for this class
W,
10/8 Mrs.
Dalloway; Chapter ten Showalter, A Literature of
Their Own.
Week 8
M,
10/13 Plath, “Daddy,” Lady Lazarus,” “Metaphors”
W,
10/15 Chapter one Showalter, A Literature of Their Own.
Week 9
M,
10/20 Watch film, Sylvia
W,
10/22 Chapter six Showalter, A Literature of Their Own.
Week 10
M,
10/27 Bambara, “The Lesson”
W,
10/29 Butler, “Bloodchild”
Week 11
M,
11/3 LeGuin, “She Unnames Them; Chopin, “The Story of an
Hour”
W,
11/5 Cisneros, “The House on Mango Street” (novel selection)
Week 12
M,
11/10 Alvarez, “Queens, 1963”; Anzaldua, “How to Tame a
Wild Tongue”
W,
11/12 Erdrich, “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways”
Week 13
M,
11/17 Hong Kingston, “No Name Woman”
W,
11/19 Tan, “Two Kinds” (novel selection from The Joy
Luck Club)
Week 14
M,
11/24 Chapter eleven Showalter, A Literature of Their
Own.
W,
11/26 No Class
Week 15
T,
12/1 Presentation of Final Papers
W,
12/3 Paper #2 Due
Week 16
T,
12/8 Film
W,
12/10 Review for Final
Exam Week