Catalog Description

Prerequisite: Eligibility for ENGL 1A
Hours: 54 lecture
Description: Reading, discussion, and critical analysis of selected novels from the eighteenth century to present. Includes discussion of the historical context and contemporary critical views. (CSU, UC)

Course Student Learning Outcomes

  • CSLO #1: Identify and analyze through class discussion and activities the characteristics of the novel, its historical development, its modern critical response, its relationships between culture and its form and content, and its themes and authors in the contexts of history, politics, culture, philosophy, religion, science, and other literary trends and relationships.
  • CSLO #2: Identify and analyze researched materials and appropriate critical theories regarding the novel and apply to analytical writings.
  • CSLO #3: Compose clear and effective analytical writing by analyzing, interpreting, and critiquing single works, several works by the same author, or several closely related texts.

Effective Term

Fall 2018

Course Type

Credit - Degree-applicable

Contact Hours

54

Outside of Class Hours

108

Total Student Learning Hours

162

Course Objectives

A student completing English 34 will through examinations and essays, be able to:
1. Describe the characteristics of the genre of the novel
2. Describe the historical development of the novel
3. Compare and contrast the novel with other literary genres
4. Analyze the relationships between culture and the form and content of the novel
5. Describe modern critical response to some or all of the novels being studied
6. Identify, interpret, and analyze 7-10 novels, including British and American works as well as novels in English and/or translation from other parts of the world
7. Identify, interpret, and analyze the themes of individual texts and authors in the contexts of history and historical processes, politics, culture, philosophy, religion, science, and literary trends and relationships
8. Identify, interpret, and apply knowledge of literary devices to the analysis of individual works of literature and authors
9. Synthesize and generalize about the themes and forms of the novel across various historical periods, aesthetic developments, and works by various authors
10. Communicate analyses, interpretations and critiques of single works, several works by the same author, or several closely related texts in class discussion and in required essays and exams

General Education Information

  • Approved College Associate Degree GE Applicability
    • AA/AS - Literature & Language
  • CSU GE Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU approval)
    • CSUGE - C2 Humanities
  • Cal-GETC Applicability (Recommended - Requires External Approval)
    • IGETC Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU/UC approval)
      • IGETC - 3B Humanities

    Articulation Information

    • CSU Transferable
    • UC Transferable

    Methods of Evaluation

    • Classroom Discussions
      • Example: Question for Class Discussion: The novel Disgrace is certainly challenging in many ways. In particular, the character, David Lurie, is despicable and unremorseful to the end. The situation he finds himself in is equally ugly and self-perpetuated. The violent attack against him and his daughter, Lucy, is difficult to read. In class discussion, analyze the character of Lurie against some of the other protagonists we've studied this semester.
    • Essay Examinations
      • Example: 1. Question from an essay examination: Identify the passage below. List the title and author of the work; who is speaking, being spoken to, and/or being spoken about; and how the passage is thematically relevant to the novel as a whole or to the gothic genre in general. "…but are you now at leisure to satisfy me in these particulars? If you are I will begin directly." “You need not give yourself that trouble, sir." "No trouble I assure you madam." Then forming his features into a set smile, and affectedly softening his voice, he added, with a simpering air, "Have you been long in Bath, madam?" "About a week, sir," replied [the character], trying not to laugh. "Really!" with affected astonishment. "Why should you be surprised , sir?" "Why, indeed!" said he, in his natural tone – "but some emotion must appear to be raised by your reply, and surprise is most easily assumed, and not less reasonable than any other." 2. Question for Essay Examination: In The Sun Also Rises, the fiesta is a chaotic event for our characters. They are not only lost, perhaps in a spiritual sense, but they are fighting with each other, often very physically. The fiesta stands for something metaphorically, but what? Furthermore, there is the long description of the final bullfighting match. Again, the fighting – even (or especially) the bullfighting – is an important metaphor. Write an essay in which you analyze these elements in correlation with the backdrop of World War I and Jake's participation in that war.
    • Objective Examinations
      • Example: 1. Question from an Objective Examination: Trace the development of the gothic through three works or excerpts we've read. Start with your definition of the literary gothic. As shown in these three works, how does the gothic change as the genre matures/declines? Alternately, how are different aspects of the gothic revealed in these works?

    Repeatable

    No

    Methods of Instruction

    • Lecture/Discussion
    • Distance Learning

    Lecture:

    1. Instructor presents a lecture on the 20th century novel using Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Instructor breaks students into groups to address the following questions: how do social class and religious or spiritual ideas relate in the narrative? Discuss what Hemingway reveals in the relationships between Jake and Brett and Jake and Cohn to understand their existence. Instructor then asks student to analyze how gender operates in the novel, particularly with Brett Ashley.

    Distance Learning

    1. Instructor uploads a presentation on the literary movement of Modernism and its emphasis on fractured narratives before an assignment to read the novel The Sound and the Fury. Students will examine each chapter as its own story and, using Animoto or Voicethread, create a linear structure in order to understand the fragmented structure of the novel. Instructor will then ask students to compare the narrative style of The Sun Also Rises with The Sound and the Fury again using Animoto, Voicethread, or another online tool to provide examples from each text and analyze style. Instructor will assess both the quality of the presentation and quality of the examples.

    Typical Out of Class Assignments

    Reading Assignments

    1. Read Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey." Be prepared to analyze work in comparison to other novels read in class. 2. In the class reader, read the excerpts from Gilbert and Gubar's "A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Jane Eyre." Be prepared to discuss major themes of the excerpts in class.

    Writing, Problem Solving or Performance

    1. Before class, analyze the text by responding in writing to these questions: There are lots of "families," both related by blood and makeshift, in Great Expectations: the Gargerys; Miss Havisham and Estella; Miss Havisham's relatives; the Matthew Pockets; Mr. Wemmick, Miss Skiffins and the Aged Parent; even Pip and Herbert, perhaps. Which families come off well? Which don't, and why? Can we draw any conclusions at this point about what the novel is telling us about families? 2. Write a 5-7 page paper in which you compare the use of "doubling" (the doppelganger) in Frankenstein and Jane Eyre.

    Other (Term projects, research papers, portfolios, etc.)

    Required Materials

    • Purity
      • Author: Jonathan Franzen
      • Publisher: Picador
      • Publication Date: 2016
      • Text Edition:
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • Fates and Furies
      • Author: Lauren Goff
      • Publisher: Riverhead
      • Publication Date: 2015
      • Text Edition:
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • The Sun Also Rises
      • Author: Ernest Hemingway
      • Publisher: Scribner
      • Publication Date: 1995
      • Text Edition:
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding
      • Author: Ian Watt
      • Publisher: Kessinger Publishing
      • Publication Date: 2010
      • Text Edition:
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • The Novel: An Alternative History, 1600-1800
      • Author: Steven Moore
      • Publisher: Bloomsbury
      • Publication Date: 2015
      • Text Edition:
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:

    Other materials and-or supplies required of students that contribute to the cost of the course.