We will read literature (poetry, drama,
fiction, and perhaps an essay or two) from around the world during the last 200
years. We will read the work of men and women you have probably heard of, and
some you may not have heard of; in each case, we’re going to try to figure out
just why an educated person ought to be familiar with these names and the
literature they have created. What you read in this section may be startling
and controversial, and will range from eighteenth-century France to
twenty-first century Kahalu‘u. I hope that the texts for this class will be
books you will wantto keep, books that will form part of your expanding
personal library, books worth reading again and again.
Required
texts:
The Norton
Anthology of World Literature, Third Edition Package 2, Vols. D, E, F (2012) and Mark
Panek’s Big Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior
(2011). You can buy print or Kindle versions from whatever source you prefer, or
rent the Anthology from Amazon and perhaps the UH Bookstore. We will not use
Volume D of the Anthology, but it’s still a better deal than other huge
anthologies.
And no, we will not read
everything Volumes E & F.
Performance
Requirements:
Attendance
is required; advance reading and thought are required; drafts of essays are
required; a lot of hard work will be required. You must be really interested in
improving your writing skills, as well as your ability to respond to
imaginative literature. In class you will be expected to participate actively
in discussions and perhaps in a graded presentation. You will write four to
five essays and a final examination; quizzes/exams will be inflicted if
necessary.
This
is not a section in which you gain credit for being a static body in a chair so
please do not take this course just because it is designated Writing Intensive
at a “good” time. I don’t want mere
requirement-satisfiers, I want readers, I want thinkers, people who care about
content and ideas, people who want to LEARN,
who want to push themselves.