ENGL 123: Introduction to Fiction

Carolina Courses Online

ENGL 123: Introduction to Fiction

Course Home Page	Blackboard	Instructor's E-mail
Course Structure	Required Texts	Expectations/Requirements
About the Discussion Forum	Writing Assignments	Grading and Final Exam
Course Schedule	Course Mechanics	Lesson Schedule

Course Structure

One of the goals in this class is to help you understand and articulate more precisely why it is that you can be so moved, gratified, challenged, or frustrated by a particular writer. The task of covering the incredibly broad scope of "fiction" is a very difficult one, and you'll notice that the course focuses heavily on twentieth-century American authors. A slightly narrower focus allows us to see the trends and developments in style and substance through the course of a single century and, the truth is, it still can't do justice to the wide array of literary voices that have emerged over time. And yet, it will give us a good starting point.

The course itself will be divided into nine individual units as follows:

Introductions and the Development of Voice (Lesson 1)
Pioneers of the Short Story (Lesson 2)
Modernism (Lesson 3)
Black Male Experience and Feminism (Lesson 4)
Postmodernism and Toni Morrison's Beloved (Lesson 5)
Minimalism and Raymond Carver (Lesson 6)
Cross-cultural Experience (Lesson 7)
Contemporary Literature (Lesson 8)
Final Exam Preparation (Lesson 9)

Several of these authors, like Chekhov, Hemingway, and Carver, seem at first glance to tell rather simple stories, so you'll need to work very hard to read intensively and truly cull out the important images, themes, and styles that emerge only on closer inspection. Toni Morrison, on the other hand, may seem nearly impenetrable at first. Just keep reading carefully and closely—once you grow accustomed to her beautiful language, you'll follow the narrative without any trouble. The lesson plans will prepare you for each work so you can know ahead of time what to expect.

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Required Texts

Texts can be purchased from the Higher Grounds bookstore at The Friday Center either online or by printing out a book order form. Several works are also available online although in different editions. These are the required texts to purchase:

The Story and Its Writer, edited by Ann Charters (7th edition, 2007)
Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver
Monkeys by Susan Minot
Beloved by Toni Morrison.

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Expectations/Requirements

You are required to read two novels (Toni Morrison's Beloved and Susan Minot's Monkeys), one short-story collection (Raymond Carver's Where I'm Calling From), and selected short stories to be assigned from an anthology called the The Story and Its Writer. In addition, you must read all of the online lessons, contribute at least three times a week to the discussion forums, submit all paper assignments on time, and take a final exam.

In the Lesson Schedule you will find a detailed list of the nine lessons that will be offered this semester. Each lesson includes introductory material, relevant links, questions for the discussion forum, and a writing assignment that will be submitted via e-mail. You must read every lesson, explore every link, post to the discussion forum every week, and submit writing assignments on schedule. The writing assignments vary in length, but they tend to get longer as the semester goes on, so be sure to schedule in a bit more time at the end of the semester for these.

The assignments are explained in detail in each lesson. Please e-mail your papers as attachments in Microsoft Word document format (.doc), not simply as text pasted into the body of an e-mail message. Papers must be in my inbox by midnight on the day they're due.

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About the Discussion Forum

In this class, we will use an electronic discussion forum to discuss the works we'll study during the term. You can use the forum to post comments and/or questions, read the comments of other students, post responses, and read comments from me. Plan to visit the discussion forum several times a week; you are required to post a minimum of three times a week (note, not 3 times a lesson). If everyone contributes regularly to the discussion forum, we will have a great class!

I expect a wide variety of responses on the discussion forum, because the pleasure of reading and interpreting comes from the interesting debates, not an adherence to the "standard" (and often "old hat") readings. Don't be afraid to put forward a bold or unusual idea—those are often the most worthwhile!

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Writing Assignments

Introductions and the development of voice (one page)
Modernism: response paper (two pages)
Toni Morrison's Beloved: analysis of a single detail from the novel (four pages)
Raymond Carver's Where I'm Calling From: analysis of minimalist element in a short story (three pages)
Susan Minot's Monkeys: close analysis (three pages)

Please study the worksheet entitled Questions for Reviewing a Draft. It offers a detailed list of questions that will help you (a) conduct a thorough revision before handing in an assignment and (b) understand the criteria I use to evaluate writing assignments.

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Grading and Final Exam

Your grade for the course will be determined as follows:

Papers: 50 percent
Class participation (via discussion forums): 30 percent
Final exam: 20 percent

For the final exam, you will be responsible for all assigned readings, including the biographical information of the authors, all introductory and supplementary materials, all materials from assigned Web sites, and the discussion forums.

I will e-mail the exam to you a few minutes before 7:30 pm and you will have until 9:30 pm to complete it and e-mail your response to me.

The exam will consist of essay questions. More details will be given in Lesson 9, and through the discussion forum as we get nearer to the final exam period.

Remember that as a student of UNC-Chapel Hill, you are bound by the University's Honor Code: "It shall be the responsibility of every student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity." This code applies to all lesson assignments, discussion forum postings, and to the final exam.

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Course Schedule

We will follow the regular UNC calendar. You are not expected to participate in class during major holidays (including school breaks).

This schedule gives us about fourteen weeks. For each "week" in the course pages, you should log on at least three times and spend the equivalent of nine hours of "outside" study time in addition to reading time. This timetable is only a guideline, not a rule, designed to help you judge your involvement in class.

The Lesson Schedule list includes the starting dates for each text (finish the assigned readings in time to start discussion; ideally you will have finished the reading no later than the end of the first week of each lesson). You can link from the Lesson Schedule to any lesson in the course.

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Course Mechanics

Blackboard

Some of your class components (discussion forums, exams, and announcements) are accessed through a software package called Blackboard, and you will need to log in to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only Name You'll Ever Need) and Onyen password.

There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the "ENGL 123" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left side of the screen labeled Announcements, Discussion Forum, and so on.

If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:

If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen.
If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), you will find help on go to the Onyen Web site.
If you have your Onyen but can't log in to Blackboard, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
If you can log in to Blackboard but can't find this course listed, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
If you can't locate an exam or discussion forum in Blackboard, contact the Instructional Designer.
If you have technical problems while using Blackboard, contact Blackboard Help (use the Help button in Blackboard, or call 919-962-HELP).

Library Services and E-reserves

Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves. If you are using an off-campus computer, you will need to consult this page for instructions on how to access the resources. The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources.

E-mail

All communication from your instructor will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum). Off-campus users can access their UNC e-mail using Webmail. You can have your e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward e-mail” at the Onyen Web site.

If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses “blind carbon copy” to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than forwarding to Hotmail for this course.

Submitting Assignments

It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.

Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to your instructor, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to your instructor and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.

Lesson Schedule

Lesson 1: Introductions and the Development of Voice

Using the Discussion Forum
Writing assignment—defining voice and style
Introduce yourself via the discussion forum
Respond to others' posts on the discussion forum
Send an e-mail to the instructor.

Lesson 2: Pioneers of the Short Story

Anton Chekhov
Nikolai Gogol
Guy de Maupassant

Lesson 3: Modernism

What is Modernism?
Ernest Hemingway
F. Scott Fitzgerald
John Steinbeck
Edith Wharton
Writing assignment—response paper

Lesson 4: Black Male Experience and Feminism

Race and Gender in Twentieth-century Literature
Ralph Ellison
James Baldwin
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Tillie Olsen
Alice Walker

Lesson 5: Postmodernism and Toni Morrison's Beloved

Introdution to postmodernism
Introduction to Beloved
Slave Narratives and Documenting the American South
Analysis of Characters
Discussion Questions
Writing assignment—tracking a single detail

Lesson 6: Minimalism and Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver and Minimalism
Edward Hopper's Paintings
Discussion Questions
Writing assignment—the magnification of a detail

Lesson 7: Cross-cultural Experience

Opening the Literary Canon
Sandra Cisneros
Jamaica Kincaid
Amy Tan

Lesson 8: Contemporary Literature

Susan Minot
Writing assignment—close analysis

Lesson 9: Final Exam Preparation

Sample Final Exam

Final Exam

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Lesson 1

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Last updated: January 22, 2008
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