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1. Friday, August 29: Just off the top of your head, what are the most striking formal, technical features that "date" Moll Flanders? That is, aside from content, how is Moll Flanders different from most contemporary fiction?
2. Wednesday, September 3: Some fiction is mostly concerned with external description of characters, places, events, etc. (action and adventure novels, for instance), and at the other extreme is fiction dealing more pointedly with the internal psychology of the main character(s). Is Moll Flanders more internal or external in orientation? Cite specific passages from the book's first hundred pages to illustrate your claims.
3. Friday, September 5: Analyze any one or two scenes in the book's third fifty pages (100-150) that seem especially vivid or lifelike: how exactly does Defoe make the scene(s) so real?
4. Monday, September 8: Open assignment: respond however you like to pages 150-200 of Moll Flanders. If you're stuck, you might identify and comment upon any passages of explicit "moralizing" like those we've examined in classier these passages convincing?
5. Wednesday, September 10: Consider Moll's resolution at the end of the story, that she and her husband will spend the rest of their lives in "Sincere Penitence, for the wicked Lives we have lived." Do you believe Moll's contrition is genuine? Why?
6. Friday, September 12: Which character or characters do you care about most in the opening chapters of Pride and Prejudice? Do you care about Austen's character(s) more or less than you did Defoe's Moll Flanders? Why? How is Austen different from Defoe in presentation of character?
7. Monday, September 15: Discuss two specific moments in Pride and Prejudice's second fifty pages of "crisis" or "dramatic complication," points where we might say "the plot thickens." Describe exactly what the complication is and explain how it pulls the reader deeper into the story.
8. Wednesday, September 17: Open assignment: respond to the next segment of Pride and Prejudice however you like.
9. Friday, September 19: Do you think Austen writes against the class system of her day or in favor of it? Are there contradictions regarding social class in Pride and Prejudice?
10. Monday, September 22: Aside from the specific lesson she learns about making "snap" judgments of men, how is Elizabeth a changed woman by the novel's end?
11. Wednesday, September 24: Explore one of the following themes in the first third of Frankenstein: a) education; b) science and technology; c) the importance of family and social relations.
12. Friday, September 26: Which two or three characters do you feel the most sympathy for? Who is the novel's protagonist? Explain your choice.
13. Monday, September 29: Open assignment: say what you want.
14. Wednesday, October 1: Did you know my dissertation is on Dickens? Making specific references to the text, indicate what you like and dislike about our first installment of Oliver Twist. Warning: if you dislike Oliver Twist or Dickens more generally, you'd better keep your thoughts to yourself. Ha! Just kidding, sort of. No really.
15. Friday, October 3: Dickens claims he writes against the trend of romanticizing and glamorizing criminals because his criminals are TRUE. What are your first impressions of the criminals Oliver falls in with? How are they realistic? How are they not?
16. Monday, October 6: Open assignment: say what the heck you want about the next chunk of Oliver Twist.
17. Wednesday, October 8: Your choice: a) open assignment, or b) You would think that Oliver Twists harsh early childhood as an unloved and abused orphan would make him psychologically damaged. Does this seem to be the case? Explain.
18. Friday, October 10: Catch up reading: open assignment.
19. Monday, October 13:
Compare and contrast the novel's primary villains, Skies and Fagging
(You could add Monks into this mix, too).
20. Wednesday, October 15:
Only if you've finished the novel: Aside from the two early
themes pointing out the evils of the Poor Laws and depicting criminals
as they "really are," what are the most significant of the novel's "later"
themes? What points does Dickens make in the latter portions of the
novel?
21. Monday, October 27: Semi-open assignment: make significant connections between two of the Poe stories.
22. Wednesday, October 29: Open assignment: respond to the first 57 pages of Huck Finn.
23. Friday, October 31: Your choice: a) What is Twain mocking or criticizing through the characters of the "duke" and the "king"? b) What is Twain satirizing or mocking via the Shepherdson-Grangerford feud?
24. Monday, November 3: Open assignment, so long as you discuss something between pages 109-57. If you didn't last time, you might consider what Twain is saying through the characters of the "duke" and the "rightful king of France."
25. Wednesday, November 5: What do you think of the ending of Huck Finn? Is it consistent with the novel's beginning? Is the ending satisfying? Explain.
26. Friday, November 7: What's wrong with the way Ivan Ilych lived his life? Be specific.
27. Monday, November 10: Open assignment: what strikes you as significant or notable about the first installment of Crime and Punishment?
28. Wednesday, November 12: Why does Raskolnikov act as he does in the tavern with Zamiotov?
29. Friday, November 14: Do either or both: a) What do you think of Porphyry Petrovich? b) Respond to Raskolnikov's published "theory."
30. Monday, November 17: Svidrigailov and Sonny are often seen as symbolic characters. What do you make of these two characters as we come to know them in Part IV of the novel?
31. Wednesday, November 19: Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov, and Luzon are all three morally depraved in different ways. Which of these three is most despicable? Why?
32. Friday, November 21: Open assignment. Or, what do you make of Lebezyatnikov? Or, are there comic elements in Crime and Punishment? Are there characters who seem caricatures? exaggerations of "types" like we saw in Oliver Twist?
33. Monday, November 24: Respond to the Epilogue: is the novel's ending satisfying? Is the ending consistent with the rest of the novel?
34 & 35. Monday, December 1: Respond to The Awakening anyway you like. You might consider what Chopin seems to be saying about marriage, or you might explore what makes her writing notably "female" writing. If you like, you may do two journals so long as they address different topics.
36. Wednesday, December 3: Compare Edna Pontellier with other fictional heroines, preferably from works we have not read for this class.
37. Friday, December 5: How is Kafka an "artist of neurosis"? What happens to reality in the two stories we are reading? American Heritage definition of "neurosis": Any of various mental or emotional disorders, such as hypochondria or neurasthenia, arising from no apparent organic lesion or change and involving symptoms such as insecurity, anxiety, depression, and irrational fears."
38. Monday, December 8: Choose one: a) How does "Sweat" depict the plight of black women in early 20th century America? b) Does the story end in Delia's triumph or defeat?
39. Wednesday, December 10: Respond however you like to "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and either of the two stories, "Miss Brill" and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."
40. Tuesday, December 16, 12:30 p.m. (Final exam period): Follow this link to complete English 253 survey.