Policy Statement

Chad A. B. Wilson                                                                                                   Office: 103A

English 2316, Sections 04657 and 04658                                                                              Phone: 713-743-2983

Literature and Culture, Spring 2003                                                                                        Email: cw4044@cs.com

Reading Colonial and Postcolonial Literature                                                               Office Hours: TBA

Required Texts

Boehmer, Elleke, ed. Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature: 1870-1918. New York: Oxford

UP, 1998.

Haggard, H. Rider. King Solomon’s Mines.

Mahfouz, Naguib. Midaq Alley.

Rushdie, Salmon. Midnight’s Children. New York: Penguin, 1980.

Tagore, Rabindranath. The Home and the World. 1915. Trans. Surendranath Tagore. New York: Penguin,

1985.

A manila folder.

ON E-RESERVE: Griffith, Kelley. Writing Essays About Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet. 6^th ed. Boston: Thomson Heinle, 2002. Go to info.lib.uh.edu; then to Course Catalog; then to Reserves; Search by Instructor; type Wilson. Download the file; open in Adobe Acrobat; print out; read!

Course Description

As the title suggests, this course will focus on the intersection between literature and culture, the ways that literature affects and is affected by the culture at large. Because this topic is so broad, this course attempts to narrow it by examining imperialism and its responses.  We will look at the way British authors portrayed the British Empire and its subjects in order to examine imperialistic motives and treatments of foreign cultures. Then we will look at an Egyptian novel and two Indian novels to see the colonial subject’s response to imperialism.

Prerequisites

Students must have completed English 1303 and 1304 before enrolling in this course. Students must provide the instructor with proof of completion of these courses by the end of the second week of classes, normally in the form of an official transcript. I do not need to keep the transcripts, only to see them and verify that students have met the prerequisites.

Policies

Attendance: Since participation in class discussion is crucial to your success in this class, you must attend regularly and be prepared to participate. Absences over the fourth one will negatively affect your grade by lowering your professionalism grade (worth 10% of the final grade). After the sixth absence, you may be dropped. There is not a distinction between excused and unexcused absences: they are all excused, and four are allowed without penalty—period. Feel free to talk to me about your absences. If you are absent on the day something is due, the assignment will be considered late. In-class exercises, quizzes, freewrites, etc. may not be made up.

Academic Honesty

In this class, we function as a community of writers, sharing ideas and critiquing each other’s work. According to university and department policy, plagiarism (broadly defined as passing off somebody else’s work as your own) constitutes grounds for failure of the assignment in question, possibly failure of the course, or even suspension from the university. Protect yourself by keeping all drafts of your essay, and be aware of your writing process. We will discuss proper citation of sources, but feel free to ask me any questions about plagiarism and documentation. REMEMBER: any idea or quote that is not yours MUST be cited; any words taken directly from your source MUST be in quotes and then cited.

The Center for Students with DisABILITIES provides academic support services to all UH students who have any type of health impairment, learning disability, physical disability, or psychiatric disorder. Individuals wishing to find out more about services should contact CSD in room 305 of the Student Center (or call 743-5400/voice; 743-1527/TDD). Students requesting “reasonable and necessary” accommodations for this course (including testing modifications) should contact me as soon as possible.

Course Requirements

Reading Response 1                                                           10%

Reading Response 2                                                           10%

Final Essay                                                                            15%

Proposal with Thesis Statement                                   5%

Annotated Bibliography                                                           5%

Detailed Outline                                                                     5%

Midterm Exam                                                                       20%

Final Exam                                                                             20%

Professionalism: Participation in class                                                       10%

                discussion and collaborative groups,

invention exercises, freewrites, planning,

peer reviews, quizzes, and other stuff.

In order to pass this course, all of the requirements must be met. Essays will be dropped by one letter grade for every class period they are late, and exams must be taken on the day they are scheduled. Essays must be typed, and should conform to MLA style for both format and documentation. Get a good handbook and use it.

Reading Responses

During the second week of class, each of you will choose two topics for your Reading Responses. They will be due on the date specified on the Plan of Days. These essays should be 3 pages long, typed of course. I will post one, two, or three questions on my website for each reading response. Your response should be your ideas about ONE of the questions I pose. These do not require outside research, but if you use any sources, they MUST be quoted and cited. On the day each reading response is due, each student will present a short version of their essay to the class, explaining how they answered their question.  

Final Essay

These essays will be due during the second to last week of class and should be 5-7 pages long. I will provide a list of possible topics near the middle of the semester. If you wish to write on your own topic, you must get it cleared by me. These essays should include a Works Cited page with at least 5 important sources documented. These sources should come from the library and not from the Internet. They should include a mixture of sources from journals and books. Photocopy and turn in all of your sources (only the pages that you quote from) in a manila folder. You will be required to submit a Proposal with Thesis Statement, an Annotated Bibliography, and a Detailed Outline for your final essay.

Midterm and Final Exam

These exams will be cumulative and will consist of both short answers and essay questions.

The final exam for section 04657 (10-11 a.m.) will be Friday, May 2, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The final exam for 04658 (11 a.m.-12 p.m.) will be Wednesday, May 7, 11 a.m.-12 p.m.

Escape Clause

I reserve the right to change anything on this policy statement or on the syllabus if I provide proper notice.