World Literature Syllabus, ENGL 116-01 Spring 2018

1. Required Reading -- Books.

We will cover these books. They are now in the University Book Store.

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. Doubleday Books

Sembene Ousmane, God's Bits of Wood. Heinemann.

N'gugi Wa Thiongo. Matigari. Africa World Press.

Manlio Argueta, One Day of Life. Random House.

Domitila Barrios de Chungara, Let Me Speak! Testimony of Domitila, a Woman of the Bolivian Mines. Monthly Review.

You must read Achebe, Things Fall Apart, and have written your paper on it, by Tuesday, January 23.

* I will tell you about this in class.

2. Other Required Readings.

I will distribute handouts from time to time. These are also required, and you should save them in a file folder.

3. Goal of The Course.

We will concentrate on literature from Africa and the Americas. These two continents are much in the news today. They are largely neglected in American schools and colleges. And one of every four Americans is of either Latin American or African ancestry, so these continents have a special relationship to the people of the United States as well.

All these novels deal with imperialism and colonialism, and the legacy of imperialism/colonialism which still today define the relationship between the imperialist, industrialized countries of Europe, North America and Japan, and the rest of the world.

The goal of this course is to use the novels to introduce us to some of the problems and questions which pose themselves both to persons in the colonized/imperialized world, and to those of us who live in the colonialist/imperialist world. I have chosen eight "themes" or main ideas, that recur over and over again in many novels of the non-Western world, to pay special attention to.

The novels' historical settings follow a rough chronological order. Endore's Babouk deals with slavery and the beginnings of racism in the West, which coincided with, and were caused by, the first great modern expansion of western imperialism, into the Americas. Sembene's God's Bits of Wood deals with some African workers' response to colonial oppression right after World War II in French West Africa -- what is today Senegal, Gambia, Mali, and Niger.

Argueta's One Day of Life introduces the topic of neo-imperialism -- the continuing domination by the former imperialist power (in this case, the United States) standing behind the ruling elite in a former colonial country, El Salvador, in the 1960s and '70s. Domitila Barrios de Chungara's book is about the lives of Bolivian tin miners in the 1940s, 195os and 1960s.

Studying these novels, and paying special attention to these themes and, of course, to other themes that you will notice in the novels, will help us to discuss and think about some important questions, such as:

• How successful are these novels as fiction? How can we make these kinds of judgments? What criteria can we use?
• In what ways are the situations faced by the persons in the novels we read "realistic" -- a more-or-less accurate depiction of problems facing millions of citizens of non-Western countries?
• What is the relationship between the imperialist policies of the United States and Western Europe, and the political and moral values these countries' representatives often state as the fundamental values of those countries -- democracy, freedom, capitalism, human rights, independence, equality, and others?
• What is our relationship to the problems posed by imperialism and neo-imperialism, as depicted in these novels?
• What problems do we face in reading and striving to understand novels from countries of which we know little? How similar or different is this from understanding novels about our own society?
• What methods are appropriate for us to try to answer these questions?

4. Attendance and Class Participation.

The classes will be mainly discussions of the reading rather than lectures.

Participation by the whole class in discussions is a must if they are to be interesting and worthwhile. In addition, considerable class time will be spent listening to, and commenting upon and discussing, papers written by the students in the class.

A typical class might be divided this way:

1. (sometimes) Instructor's presentation, comments, suggestions.
2. Group Discussions: I will divide the class into 4-6 groups for discussion purposes. I will provide suggested topics for discussion, together with passages from the books.
3. General class discussion of the topic, passages, and related topics and passages.

This order can be varied.

5. Bring the Readings to Class

You must bring the text of the assignment to class with you every day. I will check.

You can bring the "hard-copy" -- paper copy --  of the book or articles, or you can read them on a laptop or tablet, but NOT on a cell phone.

You may NOT use a cell phone for this purpose. The screens are far too small.

6. Bring your Homework Assignment to Class Every Day

You must bring a copy of your homework assignment to class on the day we are discussing it.

You can bring it in printed out, along with the assignment itself, Or you can read them on a laptop or tablet, but NOT on a cell phone.

You may NOT use a cell phone for this purpose. The screens are far too small.

7. Attendance Policy.

To email me about an upcoming absense use the format on our Home page. If you do not, I will not read your email.

I will take attendance in class each day.

Excused and Unexcused Absences

Three unexcused absences will lower the final grade by one grade (e.g. "A" becomes "A-"); five unexcused absences lowers it by one letter (e.g. "A" becomes "B").

If you cannot attend class for whatever reason, I expect you to let me know by email; by phone; or in person before class. If this is impossible, leave a message the same day as the class. If you do this, your absence will be "excused."

If you fail, or forget, to do this, your absence will be "unexcused."

You should email me here. This is the best way to communicate with me. I do not check my voicemail every day.

Lateness Policy.

If you are late for class -- after I have taken attendance - - I will count it as an "unexcused" absence unless you remember to tell me, at the end of that same class, that you came late.

If you forget to do this, your recorded absence will remain. I do this because lateness disrupts the class and group discussions.

The first two times you are late for a class, I will warn you. After that, I will count your lateness as an "unexcused" absence.

Please do not be consistently late.

8. Course Requirements.

• All books must be read by the date on the syllabus. I will distribute this syllabus by the second week of class. It will give the date discussion of each work will begin.
• A short essay, 3-4 pages in length, will be collected from each student on the day class discussion begins (to be listed on the syllabus). This will guarantee that everyone has read the book, and will make good classroom discussion possible. Everyone gets more out of in-class discussion when everyone has read the book.
• Guidelines for the short essay are available here.
• You will email your essays to me (Furr), and also to the other members of your discussion group.
  • After the first day of class on each book, you will be able to read the papers of everyone else in the group. This will help you in discussing the book with the other members of your group -- you can compare and contrast approaches to the novels.

Be sure to "send a copy to yourself" of ALL your homework assignments!

• Completion of the biweekly written assignments.
  • You will generally have two writing assignments every week, one for each class session.
  • Go here to the homework page.

These assignments will be put on our web page after the end of the previous class.

They'll be shorter assignments, typically 350 - 400 words in length. In them you'll be asked

• to write about one or two passages in the book we are discussing, and
• to email your assignment both to me and to the other members of your discussion group.

You'll be asked to do this by the previous evening before class so that you can have time the day of the class, but before the class, to access your account and read the assignments from the other members of your group.

This means every student will have both written on the passages to be discussed, AND read the responses from the other members of his/her group. This greatly enriches the discussions!

• Completion of all examinations.

• Participation in class. You cannot receive a passing grade for class participation if you are absent frequently, no matter what the reason is.

9. All writing will be done on-line.

You will use email  very extensively in this course. All writing assignments will be submitted by email.

This will permit you to send your assignments to everyone in your group, and for you to read their assignments. This, in turn, will make group discussions much better!

As outlined above, you will have one essay on each book.

In addition, you will have two shorter writing assignments per week, which you will send me and your group. These will be assigned in advance, and will center on passages which we will discuss at the following class session.

This means that everyone in class will have read the book in its entirety by the time we come to discuss it.

In addition, every student will have reread, and written on, the specific passages under discussion at each class session. This makes class discussions far more fruitful.

10. Feedback on Biweekly Assignments.

Normally I do not make comments on the biweekly assignments, since I get about 75 of them twice a week.

I will be glad to give you feedback when you specifically request it.

If you want my comments or feedback of any kind on a biweekly assignment, please type

Comment Requested

at the end of the Subject Line of your HW assignment.

11. Examinations and Grading.

A  final exam will be due at the time and place in the Course Schedule Booklet for this semester.

The final grade for the course will be composed of:

• grades for the short papers;
• grades for the biweekly assignments;
• the grade for class participation
• the final examination (and mid-term, if taken);
• less penalty for unexcused absences (if any).

12. How to Get In Touch With Me.

It may be easiest for you to email me at my email address.

Remember to put your last name, the letters WL (capital letters) and the date the assignment is due -- NOT the date you are sending it to me, on the Subject line of every email to me.

I will return, without grading or counting them, all messages sent to me without a proper Subject Line. See the example on our Home Page.

Sometimes you just have a question or comment that can be handled without seeing me personally. If so, email me and I'll get back to you within 24 hours. I check my email at least once a day, usually twice.

But there will be times you want to see me in person.

• My office hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. DI-325 (Dickson Hall).
  I can also be available Thursdays  at 2:30 p.m., after my last class, but only with advance notification from you. Otherwise I may be in my office, but on other business.
• I do have an office phone number. It is 973-655-7305. But please do not leave messages there -- they are very hard to hear, so I don't check them at all. Email me instead.

Back to Home Page for World Literature, Spring 2018.

Go to Schedule of Readings for this course.

Go here to the Homework Page.

http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furr/wl/wlsyls18.html | Email me | last modified 15 January 2018