English 1406, Sections B0 and C0

Fall - Winter, 2017-18

Important Mid-Year Change:

As of January,
no computers, phones, or other electronic devices
will be permitted during class.

Prof: Dr. Richard Cunningham
Office: BAC 431
Tel: 1345
Email: richard.cunningham[at]acadiau.ca
Office Hours: Wed. 1:30 - 4:30, or by appointment

Oxford English Dictionary

To print a copy of this syllabus, click here.

Acknowledgement of Traditional Territory:

We are in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.

This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.

Course Description:

Generic Description:

In this course students will be introduced to novels, plays, and poems from the twentieth century and earlier. This course will develop creative and analytical skills and will provide students with strategies for writing clearly and persuasively.

Specific Description:

In Sections .B0 and .C0 of English 1406 students will be encouraged to develop their reading, writing, and thinking. Toward that end, class members will read and engage with poetry, drama, and novels that they might not ordinarily otherwise encounter. Matthew Arnold wrote that acquainting oneself with letters, by which he meant reading literature, gives one the opportunity to read "the best that has been thought and said" (Literature and Dogma). F. R. Leavis felt that reading great literature could help a person restore her or his moral and spiritual bearings, a restoration necessitated by the overwhelmingly utilitarian culture in which he lived (and, I would argue, we still live). More recently, many who studied literature through a theoretical or philosophical prism saw a variety of social revelations as the primary value to be gained from the study of literature: for example, a feminist reader can unveil a history of misogyny through the study of literature, while a Marxist reader can reveal a history of class struggle, a Foucauldian reader can use literature to show a variety of obscured power realtionships within our culture, etc. (Nb. Each such reader can also use literature for more or other purposes, and the better of them can also "use" it for personal pleasure.) Although the primary practices of theoretical readers seem utilitarian, while for Leavis escaping utilitarianism was exactly the reason for reading literature, most can also appreciate literature for its aesthetic qualities and can, in reading it, allow themselves simply to rise above diurnal experience to live the adventure offered by the literary work. Anything really worthy of study at the university level will present such, or similar, inconsistencies, and contradictory polemics. The study of literature is hard, and it is worthwhile in part because it is hard. To make sense of what you read, just as much as to make sense of life, demands paying close attention, moving deliberately--and often slowly--and always repeatedly, again and again, over texts that render unfamiliar that which you thought you knew, that introduce new ideas and new ways of seeing the world, and that make familiar and normal that which might otherwise be exotic, strange, and novel. At every step of the way, you will learn new things, consolidate useful practices, and be forced to take positions that sometimes might seem extraordinary to the "you" you were before you got to university.

During the year we will develop an understanding of the vocabulary specific to literary study -- e.g. metaphor, image, allusion, reference, irony, etc. -- so that we can speak and write in at least an approximation of a register appropriate to the discourse community of literary scholarship.

Nb. All papers are due, in print on paper, at the beginning of class on the day they are due. In some or all cases you may also be required to submit an electronic copy through Acorn.

The grade on a paper submitted any time within one week of when it is due will be reduced by one letter (e.g. from B to C, from B- to C-).
Any paper submitted more than a week late will not be graded.

The professor has the right to fail any student who does not submit for grade all assignments.   I.e. if you do not submit any one assignment, you very well might fail the entire year-long course.

Disability Statement:

Students with disabilities that affect learning:

If you are a student with a documented disability who anticipates needing supports or accommodations, please contact Dr. Abu Kamara, Coordinator, Accessible Learning Services at 902-585-1291, abu.kamara@acadiau.ca or Kathy O’Rourke, Disability Resource Facilitator at 902-585-1823, disability.access@acadiau.ca. Accessible Learning Services is located in the Fountain Commons, Lower Level.

The Writing Center:

The Writing Centre offers free help to all students wishing to improve their writing skills. You can sign up online today:

To book a one-to-one appointment with a writing tutor, click here:

Sign-up Calendar - Acadia Writing Centre

Course Texts

Broadview Introduction to Literature, Concise Edition. Eds. Chalykoff, Lisa, Neta Gordon, and Paul Lumsden. Broadview, 2015. Print.

Fotheringham, Scott. The Rest is Silence. Goose Lane, 2012.

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime. Toronto: Penguin, 1984. 2006 edition.

Henry IV, pt. 1

Oedipus Rex

Grading

Acadia University Grading System

Helpful Links

Sentence Error Checklist

Prepositions

On Conservative Government

Links for Fun

Mapping 5,000 Years of City Growth

Class Schedule

Legend:

The Concise Edition of the Broadview Introduction to Literature will be referred to as BIL in the following table.

Important Mid-Year Change:

As of January,
no computers, phones, or other electronic devices
will be permitted during class.

Useful Links:

Some help with commonly encountered and frequently confused words.

Jack Lynch's Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms

Examples of Iambs, Trochees, Spondees, Dactyls, and Anapests

List Characters-H4,pt.1

Elements of Drama This document has been saved as in Rich Text Format so that you can open it in almost any word processor for the sake of adding your own notes to it. It should be useful for each of the three dramas we will read this year.