ENGLISH 110.

01
INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDIES
MW 2:30-3:50 // Bolton 102
Fall 2015

Prof. Andrew Bozio

abozio@skidmore.edu
TTh 3:40-5:00 // PMH 317

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces students to the practice of literary studies, with a particular emphasis on the
skills involved in close reading. The course aims to foster a way of thinking critically and with
sophistication about language, texts, and literary production. We will ask such questions as how and
why we read, what it means to read as students of literature, what writing can teach us about reading,
and what reading can teach us about writing. The goal overall is to make the words on the page
thrillingly rich and complicated, while also recognizing the ways in which those words have been
informed by their social, political, aesthetic, psychological, and religious contexts. This course is
writing intensive and will include some attention to critical perspective and appropriate research
skills. (Fulfills all-college requirement in expository writing; prospective English majors are
encouraged to take EN 110 prior to enrolling in 200-level courses.)

LEARNING GOALS
Through this course, you will learn to
frame questions about how we read and write within the discipline of literary studies
read closely, attending to the complexity of language
pose questions about the formal qualities of a text
craft and support a thesis
engage with secondary readings that are relevant to the primary text
recognize the historical and cultural contexts of a work and their bearing upon literary
meaning
advance discussion in class through active listening and appropriately informed contributions

TEXTS
William Shakespeare, Sonnets, ed. Stephen Booth (ISBN 978-0300085068)
Vladimir Nabokov, The Annotated Lolita, ed. Alfred Appel, Jr. (ISBN 978-0679727293)
Tony Kushner, Angels in America (ISBN 978-1559362313)
Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (ISBN 978-0199691340)
The Bedford St. Martins LitGloss (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/litgloss/)

GRADE DISTRIBUTION
Participation
Essay One
Essay Two

20%
15% [1/3 workshop draft, 2/3 final draft]
20% [1/3 workshop draft, 2/3 final draft]

Bozio // EN 110 Syllabus (Fall 2015)

Essay Three
Blog Posts
Exam

25% [1/3 workshop draft, 2/3 final draft]

10%
10%

COURSE POLICIES
Attendance
You are allowed two absences with no questions asked. For each subsequent absence, your final
grade will drop one-third of a letter grade, and excessive absences may result in failure of the course.
Repeated lateness will also be construed as absence, so please come to class on time and stay for the
duration.
Participation
Because this course is a collaborative effort, participation will be essential to your success. By
participation, I mean both active listening and thoughtful contributions to class discussion that show
your preparation for class, your willingness to engage your peers in conversation, and your ability to
be respectful. More specifically, good participation might involve:

Asking a specific question or making a specific comment about the reading

Building upon something that another person has already said
Making a specific comment about what you find useful or interesting about another persons
point
Asking a question or making a comment that encourages another person to elaborate on
their point
Making a comment that connects two points or two strands of our conversation
Disagree with what someone has said in a respectful and constructive manner

It helps tremendously to take notes while you are preparing for class, using the writing process to
develop your thoughts about the material. In this course, our aim is not only to learn more about the
nature of literary studies; it is also to develop your skills as a critical thinker and writer, and engaged
participation is one of the most direct ways of ensuring that development. For this reason, I would
also encourage you to take notes during class.
Digital Etiquette
You are encouraged to bring laptops and tablets to class, provided that they are used for referencing
the assigned material and/or for taking notes. To minimize distractions, I would encourage you to
turn off your WI-FI while in class. Failure to adhere to this policy may result in being counted as
absent for the day, and I reserve the right to ban laptops and tablets if they become a distraction to
you or to your classmates. Use of cellphones is not permitted.
Submission of Work
All written work should be presented professionally: typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New
Roman or Garamond, and with one-inch margins. Be sure to include your last name and the page
Bozio // EN 110 Syllabus (Fall 2015)

number in the footer. When uploading your file, submit it as a Word Document, using this format
for the title: [Your last name], Essay [One, Two, or Three].docx.
Submit your essay by uploading it to Blackboard prior to the deadline. Workshop drafts should be
posted to the Workshops folder, and final drafts should be submitted through Assignments. Late
essays will lose one-third of a letter grade each day until they are submitted, and, after a week, I will
no longer accept your work.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism is the representation of another persons words or ideas as your own. It is not only
counter to the ethics of the academic culture in which you participate, but it is also detrimental to
your progress in this course, insofar as it does nothing to develop your own skills as a thinker and a
writer. You must give proper credit, according to your chosen citation guidelines, to all words or
ideas that are not your own. In cases of a serious violation of academic integrity, you will fail the
assignment. Visit http://www.skidmore.edu/advising/integrity/index.php for more information.
Accessibility
Anyone who anticipates difficulties with the content or the format of this course should arrange to
meet with me so we can create a workable plan for your success. Skidmore College also offers
several forms of academic and non-academic accommodation through the Office of Student
Academic Services. Visit http://www.skidmore.edu/accessibility/index.php for more information.

ASSIGNMENTS
Essays
Over the course of the semester, you will write three essays of five to seven pages in length. In your
first essay, draw upon the skills of close reading that you will have developed in the course to make a
cogent argument about the language of Shakespeares Sonnets. Be sure to cite some of the literary
terms that we discuss in class, as well as one or more of the scholarly works that we read to support
your claims. In your second essay, build upon these skills by making a sustained argument about
some facet of Lolita (you may wish to analyze the unreliability of the narrator, the gender politics of
the novel, or another topic of your choice). Develop your argument by citing and responding to
several other scholarly works, whether criticism or theory. In your third essay, craft an argument
about the way that Angels in America responds to its historical or cultural contexts, drawing upon
your skills in research and in close reading to do so. I will circulate more detailed prompts well in
advance of the due date of each essay.
Workshops
To grow as writers and as thinkers, we will spend a significant portion of the course revising your
essays in workshops. On days when workshops are scheduled, I will begin class with a brief
discussion of particular issues in your drafts, and we will spend the rest of class workshopping your
essays in small groups.

Bozio // EN 110 Syllabus (Fall 2015)

Accordingly, you need to upload a full draft of your essay to Blackboard. Drafts are generally due at
5:00 pm on the Friday before our workshops, and the version that you upload should be a full draft
of five pages, with a thesis, properly cited sources, and a well-supported argument. The grade that
you receive on this draft will represent one-third of your final grade for the essay. Failure to upload a
full draft by the deadline will reduce your final grade in the course by one-third of a letter.
Blog Posts
To gain experience thinking and writing about literature, you will write three posts on the course
blog, EN110Fall2015.WordPress.com. Blog posts should be between 250 and 500 words, and they
are due at 2:30 pm on the day before we are scheduled to meet. For each post, you should also
comment twice on the posts of your peers. Your comments should form a substantive response to
the claims made in the post, and they should be roughly 100 words long. Comments are due by the
time we meet in class. Because the course blog is designed to inform our discussion of the material
in class, late posts and comments will receive no credit.
To access the course site, you will need to create a WordPress account and then accept my invitation
to join the site. I would encourage you to use a pseudonym that does not reveal your identity. Your
posts will be visible to the entire class, as well as to the wider public, and using a pseudonym will
allow you to practice writing public-facing documents without the concern that your posts will
always be a part of your online identity.
Exam
At the end of the semester, you will take a final exam designed to help you synthesize the knowledge
and develop the skills that you have acquired in this course.

SCHEDULE
Reading that are not available in the required texts can be found on Course Reserves.
Sept.

Introduction to the course // Diagnostic Essay

14

Shakespeares Sonnets: 1, 3, 4, 15, 17, 18 and Jonathan Culler, Rhetoric, poetics, and
poetry
Shakespeares Sonnets: 18, 19, 20, 29, 30, 41, 42

16
21
23
28
30

Shakespeares Sonnets: 55, 71, 73, 102, 122, 123, 126

First blog post due
Shakespeares Sonnets: 127, 129, 130, 131, 136, 138, 144, 145
Margreta de Grazia, The Scandal of Shakespeares Sonnets [Course Reserves]
Jonathan Culler, What is theory? and Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author
[Course Reserves]

Draft of Essay One due on Friday, October 2 at 5:00 pm

Bozio // EN 110 Syllabus (Fall 2015)

Oct.

5
7

Workshop
Workshop

Essay One due on Friday, October 9 at 5:00 pm

12
14

Lolita, 3-56
Lolita, 57-109 and Jonathan Culler, Narrative

19

Lolita, 109-142 and Sigmund Freud, Mourning and Melancholia [Course Reserves]
Second blog post due
Lolita, 145-193

21
26
28

Library Session // Lolita, 193-258

Lolita, 258-309
Optional: Vladimir Nabokov, On a Book Entitled Lolita

Draft of Essay Two due on Friday, October 30 at 5:00 pm

Nov.

2
4

Workshop
Workshop

Essay Two due on Friday, November 6 at 5:00 pm

9
11

Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches

Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches
Third blog post due

16
18

Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika

Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika

23

Jonathan Culler, Performative language and Walter Benjamin, Theses on the

Philosophy of History [Course Reserves]
Optional: Judith Butler, Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An
Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory [Course Reserves]
Thanksgiving // No Class

25

Draft of Essay Three due on Sunday, November 29 at 2:30 pm

Dec.

30
2

Workshop
Workshop

Essay Three due on Friday, December 4 at 2:30 pm

7
9

Franco Moretti, Graphs [Course Reserves]

Review Session // Evaluations

Final Exam held on Thursday, December 17 at 1:30 pm

Bozio // EN 110 Syllabus (Fall 2015)