Survey of Literary History – ENGL 300

CG • Section 8WK • 11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 09/05/2023

Course Description

A survey of selected world masterpieces from ancient times to the present.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

In Romans 1:19–20, Paul establishes the theological basis for St. Augustine’s claim that “all truth is God’s truth.” Since all human beings are made in the image of God, “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Although such “general revelation” is not sufficient for salvation, it does explain why all ancient cultures have laid claim to fragments of truth and understanding about the human condition, often expressing those insights powerfully in their artistic and literary productions. This course will aim to explore texts from the earliest Greek epics to 20th century world literature.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations/notes

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (8)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to provide a thread in response to the provided prompt for each Discussion. Each thread must be 300–400 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be 150–200 words.

Dialogue Essay Assignment

In this assignment, the student will imagine that any 3 characters from the course readings during the first half of the term (one character from each work) are sharing a meal together. The student will then recreate this in the form of a dialogue in which the characters exchange ideas. A strong dialogue will ensure that the characters truly listen to each other and respond accordingly. It will also include their varying ideas on such topics as authority, societal expectations and roles, and personal concerns (i.e. power, family, individual identity) as well as appropriate quotes from the text to support ideas. There is no need for a formal thesis statement or introduction with this essay, as the entire piece will be a creative dialogue, written like a play. The paper should be between 1,000–1,500 words (3–4 double-spaced pages) and should use no outside sources. The student should ensure that he/she cites textual detail from the stories using appropriate MLA format and that he/she also includes a properly formatted Works Cited page at the end of the essay.

Research Paper Assignment

The student will select 1 work which we have covered this semester and write a 1,500–2,000-word (4–6 double-spaced pages) research paper exploring the ways in which an understanding of the culture that produced the work informs a clearer interpretation of a particular theme. Some examples of such themes might include attitudes toward nature, death, social class, gender, or the inevitability of religious conflict. The student must integrate at least 4 different, credible, scholarly sources (in addition to your primary text) cited according to appropriate MLA formatting standards and including a properly formatted Works Cited page at the end. The paper must be thesis-driven, making a coherent and original argument regarding the chosen work.

Quizzes

Each quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned modules. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes and contain 5–10 short answer, true/false, and multiple-choice questions based on the reading and contextual information for that week. Each quiz will have a 20-minute time limit.