| Calendar of Assignments Jan 19: Introduction: Happy Birthday, Edgar! -- An overview of the course content, processes and deliverables. Jan 23: (last day to add a class or drop without the W) -- Context: Read "Edgar A. Poe: An American Life" (xiii-xlviii); text section introductions, pp. 587-598 and pp. 620-675. Jan 26: Context: Read pp. 675-716, with emphasis on The Poetic Principle and The Philosophy of Composition. Jan 30 (last partial withdrawal refund): -- Poetry: Read: Transcendentalism and Alternative Romanticism (pp. 717-741); " Tamerlane," "Dreams," "A Dream," "Al Aaraaf" Feb 2: Read: Floyd Stovall (789-798), "Introduction," "Fairy-Land [1]," "Fairy-Land [2], " "To Helen," "The Sleeper," "The Valley of Unrest," "Dream-Land," "A Dream within a Dream" Feb 6:No Class Feb 9: Read: Robert Colin McLean (798-807), "The Raven," "Ulalume," "To Helen," "For Annie," "Eldorado," "Spirits of the Dead," "The City in the Sea," "Annabel Lee," "Evening Star," "Imitation," The Lake --- To -----," The Coliseum" Feb 13: Read: James W. Gargano (823-828); Ligeia (159-173); William Wilson (216-232) Feb 16: Read: The Black Cat (348-356); Shadow -- A Parable (134-136) Feb 20: Read: Joseph J. Moldenhauer (829-844); The Murders in the Rue Morgue (239-266) Feb 23 The Cask of Amontillado (415-421); The Premature Burial (356-367) Feb 27: Read: Paul John Eakin (844-856); A Descent into the Maelstrom (266-279); Mar 2:Read: The Tell-Tale Heart (316-321); The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (407-415) Mar 6 (last complete withdrawal refund): Read: Lihana Armstrong (863-873); The Purloined Letter (367-382) Mar 9: Read: John T. Irwin (941-952); Some Words with a Mummy (382-398) Mar 13: Spring Break Mar 16: Spring Break Mar 20: Read: Barton Levi St. Armand (873-883); The Power of Words (398-401) Mar 23: Read: Loss of Breath (89-106); How to Write a Blackwood Article (173-183); A Predicament (183-190) Mar 27 (last day to withdraw): Project and Paper Workshop Mar 30: Read: Never Bet the Devil Your Head (286-295), The Imp of the Perverse (401-407) Apr 3: Read: Joseph N. Riddel (884-895): The Fall of the House of Usher (199-216) Apr 6: Read: Silence -- A Fable (136-140), The Oval Portrait (295-299) Apr 10: Read: The Assignation (116-128), The Masque of the Red Death (299-304) Apr 13: Read J. Gerald Kennedy (896-904); Berenice (140-148); Metzengerstein (81-89) Apr 17 Read: Ms. Found in a Bottle (106-116), The Man of the Crowd (232-239) Apr 20: Read: The Pit and the Pendulum (304-316), The Gold Bug (321-348) Apr 24: Read: Terence Whalen (921-941); The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (429-472) Apr 27: Read: Grace Farrell (856-863); The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (473-519) May 1 (last class): Read: John Carlos Rowe (904-920) The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (519-563) May 4-10 Final Exam Period |
Calendar of Assessments and Milestones Feb 9: Paper 1 Due Feb 16: Declaration of Semester Project Feb 23: Abstract/Working Bibliography or Project Scope of Work Due Mar 9: Paper 2 Due April 10: Paper 3 Due April 17: Draft of Research Paper Due May 4: Complete Portfolios Due Discussion Leaders Jan 30: D. Stamatis Feb 2: P. Vasquez Feb 9: P. Ma Feb 13: S. Corey Feb 16: U. Khan Feb 20: J. Wargo Feb 23 P. Fisher Feb 27: D. Da Siliva Mar 2: J. Schaffer Mar 6: C. Bantique Mar 9: J. Racz Mar 20: J. Potter Mar 23: R. Friedman Mar 30: C. Viegas Apr 3: J. Fyffe Apr 6: T. Boyadjis Apr 10: M. Oporska Apr 13: M. Chrisostomo Apr 17: J. Samper Apr 20: J. Vogel Apr 24: R. Friedman Apr 27: S. Jesch May 1: A. Saponara
|
Edgar Allan Poe
This capstone seminar is devoted to the work of Edgar Allan Poe – his literary criticism, poetry, fiction – and the cultural contexts in which he lived. We will begin with letters written to contemporaries, move on to essays describing his take on what makes good literature, then dive into his poetry and short stories (as well as his longer narrative) to discover why he's known as the original detective writer, the master of the horror tale, a provocative and daring poet, and the pop legend he has become.
Course Requirements
Prerequisites: To enroll for the capstone seminar, you must have completed all your lower division G.U.R. courses (three credits of English, six credits of basic social science, and six credits of cultural history) as well as the Lit/Hist/Phil/STS requirement and the open HSS elective. Because of limited availability, capstone seminars are currently restricted to students with senior status: the cumulative earned hours on your transcript in SIS must be 90 or greater.
Textbook: The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by G. R. Thompson. Norton Critical Edition, 2004. ISBN: 0-393-97285-2 Available at the NJIT bookstore and elsewhere.
Attendance: You are required to be in class and participate in each seminar. This requirement's importance is reflected in its grade weight: 25%
Oral Presentation: All students will lead one class by providing a formal introduction to the day's reading and being prepared to respond to questions regarding the assigned work: 15%.
Written Work: In addition to three researched essays on the readings (30%), a reflective paragraph regarding the class reading assignment is due at the start of class. All essays, however, are to be submitted through Turnitin.com. All essays will be returned with comments for improvement and a provisional grade. You will have one week from receipt to revise, if you so choose. These essays will require you to juxtapose your own ideas and reactions to the primary texts with those articulated in secondary sources deemed to have merit by virtue of their provenance and authorship. This means no Wikipedia or other online sources that cannot be obtained via an NJIT-leased database of peer-reviewed journals or (are you sitting down?) actually found in print in a library. Specifics regarding topics will follow, but MLA citation style, both parenthetical in-text and works cited formats, must be used.
Semester Project (30%): Your options include:
1) a traditional researched essay of between 6,000 and 10,000 words on a subject of your choice that is related to Poe and approved by the instructor. Students choosing this option will provide a working bibliography and an abstract of the proposed essay, at least one full draft for peer and instructor review on the dates noted below, and copies of all source materials used in the paper when handing in the portfolio.
2) an interactive teaching tool intended to instruct a young reader about Poe or his work (a specific story, poem, or essay, or a genre). Students choosing this option will be experienced with Macromedia development tools, and although the Internet may be used to host your work, an executable CD or DVD, with copies of all files (.png, .wav. .fla, and .swf, for example) is required when handing in the portfolio.
3) a multimedia presentation of a serious or parodic portrayal of a Poe short story or collection of poems. Students choosing this option may use audio and video tools at their disposal to create a dramatic, musical or operatic rendition of Poe's work.
Portfolio: Each student is required to hand in a portfolio containing all assessed work: This includes copies of graded essays, reflective parapraphs, oral presentation slides and/or notes/script, and the semester project. If you choose option 1, a copy of the working bibliography, abstract, drafts submitted (with peer and/or instructor comments), a clean copy of the final draft and copies of all source materials contained in the reference list are to be included. If you choose option 2 or 3, in addition to the CD containing the files noted above (option 2) or the presentation itself (option 3), at least three reviews of your work are required. These need not be lengthy, and can be either written or captured on a video or audio file, but you are to include the comments of at least three people who are not enrolled in this seminar who have either used your teaching tool or viewed your presentation. Please note: students not submitting portfolios will receive a grade of Incomplete, regardless of the completion of specific assessments, and the I will become an F on June 1.