Fu Jen Catholic University – English Department European Literature
Instructor: Daniel J. Bauer Ph.D.
Office SF 126 / telephone: 2905-3522 (h) / 2905-2565) / e-mail:
015130@mail.fju.edu.tw
I regret that I am not able to accept homework via e-mail attachment. I am however always happy to hear from students on e-mail. Students should feel free to write or ask anything of me there at any time.
This syllabus is at this time still negotiable. Having taught this course several times to both undergraduate and graduate students, I am aware that background among the M.A. students especially is important. It is possible some of the works listed below are not of interest to some in the course. This is not a cause for worry. By e-mail contact between now and the Chinese New Year, students can respond to me, and in the first week of the semester we will finalize our reading selections.
The instructor needs to check with the book store about an appropriate text. We are likely to use the latest (or an earlier) edition of The Norton Anthology: Western Literature. These words are frequently present in a variety of literary collections. It may not be absolutely necessary to buy a new Norton Anthology. Students as a rule, however, should not engage in wholesale Xeroxing of texts. This is not only
unlawful, but ethically wrong in our situation.
The works I am considering offering in this course are as follows:
Weeks 1 – 2: Tartuffe, drama by Moliere
Weeks 2 – 3: Moliere and The Cherry Orchard, drama by Chekhov Weeks 3 – 4 Chekhov
Weeks 5 – 6: The Good Woman of Setzuan, drama by Brecht, and Candide, novella by Voltaire
Week 7: Voltaire
Weeks 8 -9: Voltaire and Queen of Spades, short story by Gogol Week 10: Queen of Spades and The Overcoat, short story by Gogol Week 11: Gogol and The Death of Ivan Ilyich, short story by Tolstoy Weeks 12 – 13 Tolstoy and The Lady with the Dog, short story by Chekhov Weeks 14 – 15: The Metamorphosis, short story by Kafka
Weeks 16 – 18: Madame Bovary, novel by Flaubert
Students will write two reflective journals in this course, each 4 pages A-4 paper size in length. The journals are not mini-papers and do not need to be academic in nature.
The purpose of the journals is to help students respond to the literature in a personal, rather free writing, imaginative way, a chance to offer opinions and applications of the literature to ordinary life. Key Qs to focus on in the journals are: What is my response to some of the literature we are reading, and why? What does this literature show me about life and possibly myself?
Students will also write a paper of 15 – 20 pages on a topic of interest to them which deals directly with the literature of this course. The paper should be academic in nature and of course follow the usual documentation guidelines of the MLA.
The instructor will compute grades according to this formula: Journals 25% each, academic paper 40%, and class participation 10%.
Beginning with the third week of class, two students each class will take turns
offering personal responses to the literature. Each will speak for about 7 minutes, and classmates (the instructor hopes) will respond. The “personal responses” may be similar to the writing in the reflective journals.
