Date |
Class Activities |
Homework Due |
W 9/8 online | See Bb for instructions: Course + stud. intro.; What is the novel? In-class writing on Modernity; Timeline; Close Reading Exercise |
Monday's reading assignment is in the cell below |
M 9/13 | Dostoevsky Bio, Discussion Questions, & Close Interpretation; Personae assigned | Dostoevsky 1-53 [through Part 1, Ch. V]; DISC. #1: Post 1 or more discussion questions about Dostoevsky on Blackboard/Discussion Forum/Dostoevsky, and bring a copy to class. These questions might include ones you would pose as an instructor of the class, things you are confused about in the reading, or a mix between the two. The purpose of discussion questions is to open a dialogue between you and me; to make this a student-centered classroom; and to help students become better writers by becoming critical thinkers, or people who question what they read. Discussion questions are not evaluated, are not mandatory, but are taken into consideration for your Participation Grade. Please feel free to respond to other students' queries if you feel inspired to answer; I will take such responses as extra credit for your Participation Grade (and enjoy reading them, of course). |
W 9/15 online | See Bb for instructions: Review; Social Utopianism and Nihilism; Journals and Def. of Close Reading |
Dostoevsky 54-131 [through Pt. 2, Ch. VI]; Post a blog entry about your favorite passage so far in Crime and Punishment; consider this rough draft work for your journal entry due next class |
M 9/20 | Character Sketch; Personae assigned | Dostoevsky 131-77 [through Pt. 3, Ch. II]; JOURNAL #1 (Doestoevsky 1): Write 1-2 pages (250-400 words) on a passage from Crime and Punishment (see assignment in Requirements section). You might focus your interpretation of a specific passage by answering one of your own or another student's interpretive questions from a previous class, or reflecting on a broader thematic issue supported by your close analysis of the text. Although each individual journal is not graded, I expect you to complete at least 5 of the 6 assigned journal entries, which will be graded when they are presented in a revised Journal Portfolio. Bring a copy to class (will be collected for instructor's feedback) and post your response to Blackboard/Discussion as well. I will NOT accept emailed journal entries. If you cannot attend class, I suggest you ask a fellow participant to bring your hard copy to class. |
W 9/22 online | See Bb for instructions; Review; The Woman Question, Crime, and Philosophical Reasons for Murder; Directed Questions | Dostoevsky 177-259 [through Pt. 3, ch. 2] |
M 9/27 | Party Game; Student Questions; Close Reading Exercise; | Dostoevsky 259-319 [through Pt. 5, ch. 2]; DISC. #2: Write 1 or more orig. discussion ques.: bring a copy for yourself to discuss in class, and post them to Blackboard/Discussion Board. |
W 9/29 online | See Bb for instructions; Dostoevsky as Drama | Dostoevsky 319-399 [through Pt. 5, ch. 3]; Post a blog entry about your favorite passage so far in Crime and Punishment; consider this rough draft work for your journal entry due next class |
M 10/4 |
Review; Keywords in C&P; Vocab.; | Dostoevsky 399-465 [through end]; JOURNAL #2 (Dostoevsky 2): Bring a hard copy for instructor and post to Bb |
W 10/6 online | See Bb for instructions; Middle Class? Hermann Hesse; Realism | Hesse 1-66 |
M 10/11 |
Suffering?; Suicide; Modernism; Dada, Surrealism, and Existentialism | Hesse 66-102; DISC. #3: Write 1 or more orig. discussion ques.: bring a copy for yourself to discuss in class, and post them to Blackboard/Discussion Board. |
W 10/13 online | See Bb for instructions; Review; Images from the novel; Who are Hermine and Pablo?; Structural elements in Steppenwolf; War?; Dancing and Sexuality | Hesse 102-58; Post a blog entry about your favorite passage so far in Steppenwolf in your own voice or that of your persona; consider this rough draft work for your journal entry due next class |
M 10/18 | Names; Group Discussion: Immortals, Mozart, and the Magic Theater | Hesse 158-end; JOURNAL #3 (Hesse): Write a close analysis in your own voice or that of your persona; bring a hard copy for instructor and post to Bb |
W 10/20 online | See Bb for instructions; Kafka's The Trial | Kafka 1-79; Post a blog entry about your favorite passage so far in The Trial in your own voice or that of your persona |
M 10/25 | Review; Authority and Gender in Kafka | Kafka 80-165; JOURNAL #4 (Kafka): Write a close analysis in your own voice or that of your persona; Bring a hard copy for instructor and post to Bb |
W 10/27 online | See Bb for instructions; Parables; Characteristics of Mod. Euro. Novel | Kafka 166-224; DISC. #4: Write 1 or more discussion ques.: bring a copy for yourself to discuss in class, and post them to Blackboard/Discussion Board. |
M 11/1 | End of Kafka's The Trial; Paper proposals | Kafka 225-266; Post your paper proposal on Blackboard/Discussion Board |
W 11/3 online | See Bb for instructions; Peer Review | Post your draft on Blackboard/Discussion Board |
M 11/8 | Surrealist movies |
Close-reading Essay on Two Modern European Novels due as a hard copy and on Bb/SafeAssign |
W 11/10 online | See Bb for instructions; Breton Bio; Surrealism and Breton; Surrealist Manifesto; Second Manifesto; Ques. about Manifesto | Read the Surrealist Manifesto and skim the Second Manifesto; read Breton 11-27; Post a blog entry about your favorite passage so far in the Manifesto or Nadja in your own voice or that of your persona |
M 11/15 | Review; Surrealism; Breton's Nadja; Translations | Breton 27-108; JOURNAL #5 (Breton): bring a hard copy for the instructor and post to Blackboard/Discussion Board |
W 11/17 online | See Bb for instructions; Breton's
Nadja; Refl. on the Mod.
Euro. Novel |
Breton 108-60; DISC. #5: Write 1 or more discussion ques.: bring a copy for yourself to discuss in class, and post them to Blackboard/Discussion Board. |
M 11/22 | Kundera and the Novel: Biography and Existential Codes | Kundera 1-82 (Pt I and II); DISC. #6: Write 1 or more discussion ques.: bring a copy for yourself to discuss in class, and post them to Blackboard/Discussion Board. |
W 11/24 online | Reading Day |
Read ahead |
M 11/29 | Review;
Timeline;
Prague
Spring Kundera;
Socialist
Realism |
Kundera 85-138 (Pt III) |
W 12/1 online | See Bb for instructions; Unbearable Lightness of Being | Kundera 141- 202 (through Pt V, ch. 5); JOURNAL #6 (Kundera): Post to Blackboard/Discussion Board in your own voice or that of your persona |
M 12/6 | Review (Bb); Kitsch; Misogyny; Narrative style | Kundera reading 203-83 (through Pt VI, ch. 16); Optional: Staple/clip old and/or new discussion questions and submit as a Participation Packet |
W 12/8 online | See Bb for instructions; Unbearable, Oedipus, and Narration; Free Write: ULB? | Kundera reading 284-end (Pt. VI, ch. 17
to end) |
M 12/13 |
Final review; Course summation Tips | Journal
Portfolio
due; bring copies of Hesse, Kafka, and Breton to class for review |
M 12/20 |
Drop off final exam and pick up
Journal Portfolios between 2-3 pm
or 4-5 pm in 352 DI (or
earlier--just put under door) |
Take-home Final Exam (SafeAssign submission mandatory): Breton and Other Modernist Influences on Kundera |