LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY

PHIL 3100.01 -- FALL 2000

Bob Corbett, instructor

MEETS: 4:00 -- 5:20 PM, MONDAY / WEDNESDAY

BELOW YOU WILL FIND INFORMATION ON:

• Course Objectives
• Readings
• Course Requirements and Grading
• Syllabus

• Course Objectives.

  The literature selected for this course comes from a set of fiction which has more than normal philosophical content. Having philosophical content is certainly not a necessary requirement of decent literature, but it does exist. This is NOT a course in the philosophy OF literature. Rather, our task will be to use the analytic tools of philosophy to clarify and develop the philosophical content of the fiction we are reading.

  The hope is both to sharpen our skills in the philosophical analysis of literature and to come to a deeper appreciation of the philosophical issues which are embedded in each work we will read.

  There is no particular philosophical perspective needed to do this, no will one be pushed or studied in class. However, since I do have such a perspective myself I will develop this a bit in an addition which you many find by clicking here. This is not mandatory reading, but I recommend it to you. It will help you to get some sense of how I personally approach this task.

• Readings

  We will read:

  • Ilsa Achinger: THE BOUND MAN
  • Chinua Achege: THINGS FALL APART
  • Elfriede Jelinek: WONDERFUL WONDERFUL TIMES
  • Jose Saramago: THE STONE RAFT
  • Heinrich Boll: THE CLOWN
  • THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

• Course Requirements and Grading

  Specific course requirements will be:

  1. Regular attendance is expected. Missing excessive classes will be penalized.
  2. 5 papers of summary and analysis of each of the five main novels.
  3. 2 oral presentations to the class concerning readings.
  4. Class participation.
  5. Mid-term and final exam.

  Grading: While I will grade each individual assignment, the grade of the course will not be merely the sum of the individual grades. Rather, I will take into account an overall sense of quality in the general tone of one's work. However, the sum of one's individual grades will certainly be a strong indication of where one stands. In a rough sense the assigments will be valued in this fashion:

  • Attendance: This will be only a negative possibility. You begin will full credit.
    • If you miss more than 4 classes your grade will be lowered one full letter grade.
    • If you miss more than 6 classes your grade will be lowered two full letter grades.
    • If you miss more than 7 classes your grade will be lowered three full letter grades.
    • If you miss more than 8 classes you will receive a grade of F.
  • General work required and graded
    • 5 written summaries 10%
    • 5 written analyses: 20%
    • 2 oral presentations: 10%
    • Class participation: 20%
    • mid-term exam: 20%
    • final exam: 20%
    • total:
    • ......................100%

    Two important additional notes:

    1. On-time work is crucial. Each assignment will have a due date and any late work with be significantly penalized. Late work will begin by being penalized two grade levels, then be graded as normal, thus the highest grade possible is C. So please face that issue as we get started.
    2. I will only give a grade of incomplete in a very unusual circumstance, one in which the student was doing all work in a timely and acceptable fashion and then some major catastrophe strikes, one for which the student can give evidence and which is seriously debilitating. Even then, an incomplete would be negotiated toward the shortest reasonable time to fulfill the work with no extensions. In only the rarest occasions would a grade for a fulfilled incomplete ever be higher than a C.

    Basically the point is: there are time deadlines. Stay with them.

  .

• The Syllabus

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