Introduction to Literature (1)

Fall 1392

Z. Jannessari Ladani

I. Course Description: This course will try to introduce literature to students. We will discuss literature in general and in particular. Students will learn how to read literature in the first place, since the reading and appreciating of literature is quite different from other texts. Then, we will discuss a number of literary devices and terms which are essential to the understanding and analyzing of literature. Then, these literary terms and devices will be practically traced and examined in a range of short stories. Students are expected to follow the instructor’s lectures and take exact notes in class. Students should also have an active participation in class discussions only when the instructor asks them to do so. The interruption of the instructor’s lecture is impolite and only takes the time of the class. By the end of the semester, students should be able to recognize literary devices and discuss them in fiction.

II. Bibliography: Introduction to Literature (1) for the Fall Semester 1392 is built around the following materials: students must purchase number (1), because portions that students are assigned to read are all from Perrines’s Literature. Numbers (2) and (3) should serve as sources for further information and study.

1) Abrams, M. H. et al (eds.). Perrines’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Vol. 1. 9^th ed. By Arp & Johnson. US: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.

2) داستان كوتاه در آيينه نقد. هلن اوليايي­نيا. تهران: فردا

3) Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993.

III. Assignments & Grades: Students should study the texts that are assigned to them by the instructor for the following session. Each text or extract should be read before students come to class. The discussions of each session will be examined in following sessions in a number of quizzes. Each quizz has two points (+2). In case students cannot answer the quizzes, they will receive a zero (-0-). Students will have a midterm exam of twenty one (21) points. The exam date has been included in the week-by-week schedule below. This exam will not be repeated later at all, so absence in this exam means the loss of nearly 34% of the final grade. Questions will be multiple choice as well as essay type. There will also be a final exam of twenty (20) points. The material of the mid-term exam will be excluded from the final exam. Students are not allowed to be absent from the class. They will receive one point (+1) for each presence and a minus (-1) for each absence. More than three (3) sessions of absence will be reported to the Education Office and the absentee will be deprived of the final exam. All these scores will amount to the final grade of 60: quizzes (+4) + presence in all sessions (+15) + mid-term exam (+21) + final exam (+20) =60. The student’s final score is one third of this total grade (60/3=20).

IV. Week-by-Week Reading Schedule: Please note that this schedule tells students what they need already to have read when they sit down in class in each session. Note also that, once in possession of the Schedule, no one should be in doubt about the assignments.

Week One – Tuesday 26 Shahrivar 1392:

Reading Literature [pp. 61-7] 

Week Two – Tuesday 2 Mehr 1392:

Plot & Structure [pp. 103-11]

Week Three – Tuesday 9 Mehr 1392:

Quiz on the Plot of “The Most Dangerous Game” [pp. 67-86]

Week Four – Tuesday 16 Mehr 1392:

Characterization [pp.161-66]

Week Five – Tuesday 23 Mehr 1392:

“Miss Brill” [pp. 175-79]

Week Six – Tuesday 30 Mehr 1392:

Theme [pp. 188-94]

Week Seven – Tuesday 7 Aban 1392:

Practice: Class Work on the Theme of “Once Upon a Time” [pp. 220-25]

Week Eight – Tuesday 14 Aban 1392:

Midterm Exam from beginning to the end of Week Seven: the exam material includes the instructor’s lectures in the class and all of the texts and stories discussed and assigned.

N.B.: Absence in this session means a loss of 40 points and a minus, that is (-40 -1 = -41). No midterm exam will be given to absentees later.

Week Nine – Tuesday 21 Aban 1392:

Point of View [pp. 227-233]

Week Ten – Tuesday 28 Aban 1392:

Class Work on the Point of View of “Hills Like White Elephants” [pp. 268-72]

Week Eleven – Tuesday 5 Azar 1392:

Class Work on the Point of View of “Paul’s Case” [pp. 234-51]

Week Twelve – Tuesday 12 Azar 1392:

Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy [pp. 274-85]

Week Thirteen – Tuesday 19 Azar 1392:

Class Work on the Symbol of “The Rocking Horse Winner” [pp. 285-99]

Week Fourteen – Tuesday 26 Azar 1392:

Class Work on the Allegory of “Young Goodman Brown” [pp. 299-310]

Week Fifteen – Tuesday 3 Dey 1392:

Humor and Irony [pp. 334-38]; Class Work on “The Kugelmass Episode” [pp. 348-58]

Week Sixteen – Tuesday 10 Dey 1392:

Off