This special section of World Literature 2 will be taught in London as part of the European Council’s Study Abroad Program. This five-week course will examine literary texts from different national traditions that have some influence or impact upon contemporary London. We will visit several historical and cultural sites that will illuminate our texts in more significant ways. Since this is a short survey course taught abroad, we will look at several significant world events and movements, rather than a sweeping chronological study.

Important Links

The orientation for this class will be on May 16 at GCSU.

Course Texts

All texts must accompany you to orientation. PDFs will be available later at a secure download site and printed versions must accompany you to London.

Recommended Materials

  • Laptop with Wi-Fi card — you will want to be as paperless as possible (trust me)
  • Digital Camera — for your personal use, but also for your project (see below)
  • Portable Notebook and Pens — for taking class notes, but also for use on field trips
  • Power Adapters — like this one for plugging in your electronics; you might also bring a portable power strip if you have multiple electronic gadgets

Requirements

Class Participation – Active participation in class discussion on the forum and the class interchanges are required. For every assigned reading, a quiz will be given; these will be delivered online. These quizzes are designed to test factual aspects of the text, not interpretation or evaluation. Read every text carefully and take reading notes — character names, general plot, important items, etc. — and the quizzes will be no problem. Any other assignments not specified below will fall under participation.

Writing – Each week of the course, you will be required to respond in writing: on an online forum (before we leave) and a response (while in London). The latter response could be on the forum, a blog, or a standard written response on paper. Specific subjects for responses will be assigned on field trip days, but they will generally have you relate your field-trip experiences with the texts we are reading for that week.

Exam – On the last day of class, you will be given a final exam that will ask you to synthesize your understanding of the texts with your experiences with the field trips. More details about this exam will follow in London.

Policies

Aspects of the following policies may be untenable in a distance-learning environment, but please be aware of the tenor of each. I will always fall back on written policies if there is any contention.

Schedule

For a more detailed account of field trips, see World Lit II Field Trips. Each week of study is detailed below, but some of it should be finished before we leave for the UK, specifically the “reading” and “to do” sections for each week. The “field trip” and “follow up” assignments will be done in England. Classroom time will generally consist of discussing the assigned texts, so be sure they accompany you to class, even though you should have read them before going to London. Complete all of the reading and to-dos by 6/18/09.

I will be spending the next week or so posting the reading quizzes. They will all be posted by June 1.

Week 0: ASAP After Orientation

  • Make an Account on Humanities Online; see the left sidebar; you cannot use Yahoo! or Hotmail email accounts
  • Complete Your Profile by clicking on your name (upper, right corner) after you login; please include a picture
  • Write your first forum post: introduce yourself to your classmates

Week 1: June 22-25

  • Reading: The Epic of Gilgamesh; Homer: excerpts from the Iliad and the Odyssey
  • To Do: Reading Quiz; Forum
  • Field Trip: British Museum
  • Follow Up: Blog or Response

Week 2: June 29-July 2

  • Reading: Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
  • To Do: Reading Quiz; Forum
  • Field Trip: Globe Theatre and production of Romeo and Juliet
  • Follow Up: Blog or Response

Week 3: July 6-9

  • Reading: Molière: Tartuffe; Pope: Rape of the Lock
  • To Do: Reading Quiz; Forum
  • Field Trip: Marble Hill
  • Follow Up: Blog or Response

Week 4: July 13-16

  • Reading: Dostoyevsky “The Grand Inquisitor”; Eliot: The Waste Land; Borowski “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”; Solzhenitsyn: A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
  • To Do: Reading Quiz; Forum
  • Field Trip: the Imperial War Museum
  • Follow Up: Blog or Response

Week 5: July 20-23

  • Review and Exam
Last Updated: 5/15/09 @ 9:51am