| HSS 403, Summer 2010 Office: 413 Cullimore Hall Hours: By appointment Mail: Humanities Dep't, NJIT, Newark, NJ 07102 |
Course Procedures, an Introduction
Greetings,
As the faculty mentor for this distance learning course, Romance in the Western Middle Ages, I welcome you. There are a number of texts assigned for this course (listed on the course syllabus below), which I hope will provide you with a fertile reading and thinking experience. Besides reading, we will also be doing a lot of writing. There will be frequent group postings, as well as individual postings at various intervals, and there will be a number of formal writing assignments, virtually all of them essay in format. It is important to stress at the outset of this course that the course will be very demanding, and, further, given its "distance" and "asynchronous" nature, this course may not be right for you; distance learning is not for everyone. In fact, you would be wise to take a quiz that will help you determine if you are right for this course; to do so click here. Please seriously and soberly consider if you are ready to be self-directed in carrying out a number of sometimes complicated tasks, and, also, if you are ready to do a lot of reading and writing. This on-line course will require more time, and more intense participation, than a face-to-face course.
We will be conducting our group discussions on the Moodle conferencing system (at moodle.njit.edu), so you will need to have a UCID account to be enrolled in this class’s "conference." To get this account, phone the NJIT Computing Help Desk at 973-596-2900 or try obtaining directions from NJIT's Information Services website: http://ist.njit.edu/. As a last resort, you may be able to get technical help by writing to moodle.admin@njit.edu. Once you have the account—or if you already have the account—please contact me through the Moodle messaging system and provide me with an e-mail address where if necessary you can be contacted other than through the Moodle environment or via your NJIT email address; in any case, I may have occasion, if for some reason Moodle were not working, to write to you at your NJIT eddress, via Highlander Pipeline, so make sure to check that eddress regularly or else to have your mail forwarded from there to an eddress you use often; in any case, my messages to you sent via Moodle will go to your NJIT email address.
After you have accomplished what is specified above, and once you have read over the materials waiting for you at the course site (the greater portion of which is not redundant relative to the message you are reading now), please then send a message to the class conference to introduce yourself, in the Discussions section of the class conference and in the subsection designated "Introducing Ourselves" (you need not introduce yourself until the first day of the term). Throughout the duration of this course, you will need to log on to the Moodle conferencing system. You should sign into our on-line conference discussions at least twice a day and respond to the comments and questions that I and/or your classmates have posed. It is STRONGLY recommended that you learn the Moodle system thoroughly right away; you may wish to begin your learning process by clicking the link under "Student Tutorials" at the Moodle website once you have logged in. And, again, please make sure to peruse all of the materials awaiting you at the course homepage, such as can be found in, for example, the course Syllabus, Calendar and Discussions. Also, be sure to read carefully: Course Procedures, an Introduction.CAUTION: ALL ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS YOU INITIATE MUST BE VIRUS-FREE!!
I look forward to getting to know you, to our exchanges, and otherwise to our sharing of our reading experiences that I think you will find enriching and enlightening.
Yours cordially,
Burt Kimmelman
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will examine major literary works of Western medieval romance, and will consider the medieval concept of romance as it is embedded in notions of love, chivalry, adventure, philosophy, social and/or economic class, as well as feudal economic and political systems. Works will be compared with each other and will be read in the contexts of both their own times and the present.
COURSE TEXTS
Capellanus, Andreas. The Art of Courtly Love. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. Troilus and Criseyde. Tr. Barry Windeatt. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
Chrétien de Troyes. Ywain: The Knight of the Lion (Yvain, Le Chevalier au Lion). Waveland Press, 1992.
De Lorris, Guillaume, and Jean De Meun. The Romance of the Rose. Trans. Frances Horgan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Marie de France. The Lais of Marie De France. Trans. Glyn S. Burgess, and Keith Busby. New York: Penguin, 1999.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, and Pearl. Tr. Marie Borroff. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.
Troubadour, Trouvére, Dolce Stil Nuovo,
and Minnesinger Lyrics (required poems are specified here
and below in the syllabus):
Glossary of Terms
and Definitions
Other Online Literary Resources
See also:
Humanities Resources Links (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/humanities.htm).
Writing Guides Links (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/writing.html).
Documentation Guides Links (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html).
Annotated
Bibliography Sample
Abbreviations
for Marking Papers
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
* Final examination, comprehensive, essay in format.
* Three papers, the first of about three hundred words, consisting
of
an Annotated Bibliography (see below^) of at least three secondary
sources
you plan to consult as part of your research project, presented in
proper
MLA format (see writing and documentation guidelines above, listed with
the course readings), one of which must be a hard-copy source (for the
purposes of this assignment encyclopedias, dictionaries, and textbooks
will not be considered as counting toward the requisite minimum number
of secondary sources, although they can be used in your term paper
project);
the second of about three hundred words, which will take the form of a
Term Paper Announcement (see below^^) consisting of a Working Title, a
one-sentence Thesis Statement, a one-paragraph Description of your
future
paper’s Writing Strategy, and a Bibliography (not annotated) of at
least three
secondary
sources, one of which must be a hard-copy source; the third of fifteen
hundred to two thousand words, which will be a researched,
fully-documented,
original and critical, discursive, polemical and otherwise
argumentative essay
that
must include at least some detailed literary analysis (see below^^^),
along with a bibliography of all sources (the bibliography should not
be considered part of your word count). The term paper topic is
open (although the topic must have something to do with medieval
romance)
but must be approved ahead of time by the instructor.
N.B.: Research Term Paper assignments can only be credited when they are submitted in order (e.g., the Term Paper Announcement will not be read if it hasn't been preceded by the Annotated Bibliography, and, likewise, the Term Paper will not be read unless it is preceded by the Term Paper Prospectus, which will have to have been preceded by the Term Paper Announcement, etc.).
N.B.: All papers must be word processed, double-spaced with
one
inch margins, spell-checked, and to the best of one's ability
grammar-checked.
If on occasion use is made of the ideas or words of someone else in
one's
writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited;
that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented in MLA
format (you must cite sources--using footnotes, endnotes, or
parenthetical
documentation, which include specific page numbers keyed to particular
passages in your text, and complete bibliographical information).
PAPERS NOT MEETING ALL OF THESE REQUIREMENTS WILL NOT BE READ AND WILL
NOT RECEIVE CREDIT. Papers must be submitted to me via Moodle only,
as attachments, using a proper indentifying subject line.
* Conference postings of various kinds both as individual and as a member of a group (this will require daily participation).
N.B.: Failure to participate in class discussions at a minimally
acceptable level will result in disqualification of end-of-term
assignments such as the term paper and final exam; such
disqualification must inevitably spell failure in the course. Failure
to turn in the final exam will result in the various papers that are
part of the term paper project being disqualified.
^Annotated Bibliography, click here: Sample
Annotated Bibliography (and cf. Documentation
Guides).
^^Term Paper Announcement:
Consists of 1) a descriptive paper title, 2) a
one-sentence
thesis statement that includes the point of your argument, the breadth
of that argument, and the argument’s significant concepts and details,
3)
a one-paragraph description of the writing or argumentative strategy to
be employed in your paper, 4) a bibliography of all sources both
primary and secondary in MLA format and alphabetized. For the purposes
of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary
research
sources (one of them hard copy) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and
dictionaries.
^^^Term Paper:
Consists of: 1) a descriptive paper title, 2) a
full-length
essay, 3) a bibliography in MLA format and alphabetized. For the
purposes
of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary
research
sources (one of them hard copy) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and
dictionaries.
N.B.: While one resesarch paper source must be
hard copy--and there is no substitute for physically going to a library
to do research--a downloaded article from one of the NJIT Library's
databases
can be considered as a hard copy source (it is best to check with the
instructor
about the suitability of such an article).
It is STRONGLY recommended that research begin with the MLA Bibliography (locally to be found at the Rutgers-Newark library research room--ask a librarian there to show you how it works).
COURSE SCHEDULE
(see Dates
for specific due dates, individual and group assignments, group
membership etc.)
1: Introducing ourselves and general introduction to the course.
2: Background readings on the Middle Ages (click here: http://web.njit.edu/%7Ekimmelma/hss403romanceDLsummerBackground.html);
The Art of Courtly Love
Introduction
and
pp. 27-36, 68-83, 107-41, 151-212.
3: Lyrics of the Troubadours, Trouvères, Minnesänger, and
Dolce Stil Novisti
(click here: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDLLoveLyrics.html).
4: Ywain, pp. v-113.
Annotated
Bibliography
due.
5: The Lais of Marie De France, Introduction and pp. 41-126. Term
Paper Announcment due.
6: The Romance of the Rose, Introduction, pp. ix-xxii; pp. 3-58
(ll. 1-3815), pp. 134-38
(ll. 8697-8963), pp. 259-335 (ll. 16707-21780).
7. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Introduction and Parts
1-4.
8. Troilus and Criseyde, Introduction and Books 1-5.
9. Portfolio of Eight Best
Posts, Researched and Fully Documented Term Paper, and Final Examination due.
COURSE GRADE
Background for Doing Literary Analysis and Explanations for Doing Group Work (text and links)
Writing Assignments (descriptions and helpful links)
Using the Student Presentation Tool
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Background
for Course Readings