ENGLISH 117 - FALL 1999

"World Writers Today:

Contexts and Commitments"

Instructor: Cheryl Mares
e-mail: mares@sbc.edu

SBC Writers Series

Related Links

Links to Other World Writers

 

  

Objectives

This course will focus primarily on works by writers participating in Sweet Briar College's 1999-2000 International Writers Series. You will have the opportunity to meet some of the writers and discuss their work with them. Many of the works we'll be reading are difficult, in part because they arise out of cultures, literary traditions, and political and social contexts that are unfamiliar to most American readers. We will concentrate, then, on acquiring the means by which we might come to better understand these works -- through research, discussion, presentations, and writing.

Our overall objective will be to broaden our appreciation of contemporary literature throughout the world. We also will explore questions about the nature of literature and literary study, especially claims about the importance (or relative unimportance) of studying a work's contexts. For example, many critics stress that the significance of a work of art "lies above all contexts."

Literature proper must not be confused with its genesis, nor with its reception. Literature is the text, and once established, and once the author is gone and can no longer make alterations, the text is ahistorical and its significance lies above all contexts....[A] text can be said to be literary when it survives the extinction of the issues, the vanishing of the causes, and the memory of the circumstances to which the text responded.


As we go about contextualizing the works we are reading, we also will keep returning to, and testing out, the assumptions about literature elegantly presented above by Michael Riffaterre.

This course also provides opportunities for you to continue to develop and refine your research, oral communication, and writing skills.

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Texts

Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Derek Walcott, Selected poems and other writings (xerox)
Hanan al-Shaykh, I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops
Nuruddin Farah, Sardines
Sindiwe Magona, To My Children's Children (and selected short stories)
Ha Jin, Ocean of Words
Andrei Makine, Dreams of My Russian Summers
Claire Malroux, Edge
Marilyn Hacker, Selected poems (xerox)
Selected poems by various other poets (xerox packet - $10 fee)

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Requirements

A journal, a final project, and (in lieu of a final exam) a presentation based on your final project
(See Guidelines for further details.)

Brief written responses to the readings, due on dates specified on the Schedule
(These responses may also serve as journal entries.)

Attendance at International Writers Series readings specified on the Schedule
(Please plan ahead so that you can resolve possible conflicts.)

Regular class attendance, in keeping with College policy, and active participation in class discussions

Responsibility for specific student-led class sessions
(See Guidelines for further details.)

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Evaluation

Approximate breakdown of the final grade:

Journal, including required "responses" = 35%
Student-led sessions = 10%
Final project = 15%
Final presentation = 10%
Ongoing contributions to class discussions; attendance at Series lectures & readings = 30%

Note: Unexcused absences will lower your final grade. Missing class when you are supposed to lead the discussion is especially inadvisable. Late work will be penalized at the rate of one-half letter grade per day of lateness.

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Site created and maintained by Cheryl Mares.
Updated:20 October 1999