Spring 2010

E 314L • Banned Books & Novel Ideas-W

Course Description

"Banned Books and Novel Ideas", although organized around the intersection of social mores and judgments about artistic merit, will teach students not only to consider the social, historical, and cultural context with which literary works engage, but also to judge literary works on their aesthetic and cultural merits (or failings). Students should, by the end of the course, be able to discuss a literary text in its context while also dealing with the nuances of language and artistic style; to use different modes of literary criticism to interpret and evaluate poems and novels; and to think and write critically about both literature and its cultural context.

Grading Policy

Informal Writing -- Blogged responses to reading: 20%; Paper Outlines: 5%; Peer Review Writing: 10%. Formal Writing -- Essay 1: 5%; Essay 1 Revision: 10%; Essay 2: 10%; Essay 2 Revision: 15%; Essay 3: 10%; Essay 3 Revision: 15%

Students must submit papers electronically by the end of the class period on the due date. Late papers will lose 1 letter grade.

Texts

"The Miller's Tale" and "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" from The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer; "Song of Myself" from Leaves of Grass (1881-82 edition), Walt Whitman; Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov; The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

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