EN 11 M: Texts and Contexts I
Fall Semester 2010
Monday and Thursday 11:00-11:50
Wednesday 10:00-10:50
Syllabus
Subject to revision
(Page numbers refer to Reading the World unless otherwise indicated.)
Part I: Education and Language
Wednesday, September 1: Introduction
Thursday, September 2: Read "Greek Schoolchildren on a Kylix"; Hsün Tzu, "Encouraging Learning"; Seneca, "On Liberal and Vocational Studies" (pp. 3-23). Response paper.
Monday, September 6: Labor Day—University Holiday
Wednesday, September 8: Read "Pages from the New England Primer"; Mary Wollstonecraft, "On National Education"; Frederick Douglass, "Learning to Read" (pp. 32-52). Response paper.
Thursday, September 9: No class meeting.
Monday, September 13: Read John Henry Newman, from Knowledge Is Its Own End; Paulo Freire, "The Banking Concept of Education"; Richard Feynman, "O Americano Outra Vez" (pp. 53-75). Response paper.
Wednesday, September 15: Read Pericles, "The Funeral Oration"; Plato, from Gorgias (pp. 467-488). Response paper.
Thursday, September 16: Read Aristotle, from Rhetoric (489-495). Response paper.
Monday, September 20: Read Norman Rockwell, "Freedom of Speech"; Chinua Achebe, "Language and the Destiny of Man" (pp. 503-515). Response paper.
Wednesday, September 22: Read Gloria Anzaldúa, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"; Toni Morrison, "Nobel Lecture" (pp. 527-546). Response paper.
Thursday, September 23: Thesis workshop
Monday, September 27: Draft workshop
Wednesday, September 29: Individual student conferences
Thursday, September 30: Individual student conferences
Part II: Human Nature and Society
Monday, October 4: Read "The Shaft of the Dead Man"; Plato, "The Speech of Aristophanes" (pp. 83-93). Essay 1 due.
Wednesday, October 6: Read Mencius, "Man's Nature is Good"; Hsün Tzu, "Man's Nature is Evil" (94-109). Response paper.
Thursday, October 7: Read Niccolò Machiavelli, from The Prince (pp. 184-192). Response paper.
Monday, October 11: Columbus Day—University Holiday
Tuesday, October 12 [Monday classes meet]: Read Sir Thomas More, Utopia, Book 2, Chapters 1-5. Response paper.
Wednesday, October 13: Read Sir Thomas More, Utopia, Book 2, Chapters 6-8. Response paper.
Thursday, October 14: Read Sir Thomas More, Utopia, Book 2, Chapters 9-10. Response paper.
Monday, October 18: Read Michel de Montaigne, "Of Cannibals." Response paper.
Wednesday, October 20: Library Instructional Session
Thursday, October 21: Read Michel de Montaigne, "Of Cannibals."
Monday, October 25: Read Thomas Hobbes, from Leviathan (pp. 119-124). Response paper.
Wednesday, October 27: Read John Locke, "Of Ideas" (pp. 125-128). Response paper.
Thursday, October 28: Thesis workshop
Monday, November 1: Draft workshop
Wednesday, November 3: Individual student conferences
Thursday, November 4: Individual student conferences
Part III: Brave New Worlds
Monday, November 8: Read Sir Walter Ralegh, "Description of Guiana." Second essay due.
Wednesday, November 10: Read Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 1. Response paper.
Thursday, November 11: Read Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1. Response paper.
Monday, November 15: Read Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. Response paper.
Wednesday, November 17: Read Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1. Response paper.
Thursday, November 18: Read Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2. Response pape
Monday, November 22: Read Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 4. Response paper.
Wednesday, November 24 Thanksgiving Recess
Thursday, November 25 Thanksgiving Recess
Monday, November 29: Read Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 5. Response paper.
Wednesday, December 1: Thesis workshop
Thursday, December 2: Guest instructor. Reading assignment: D. Gilb, "Living al Chuco." Response paper.
Monday, December 6: Draft workshop
Wednesday, December 8: Portfolio workshop. Third essay due.
Thursday, December 9: Thesis workshop for fourth essay
Friday, December 17: Fourth essay and e-portfolio due.