大一英文(一)：文學作品導讀

Introduction • Make sure that you have written your English and Chinese names on the seating sheet. • Make sure that you can access the course E3 and Dropbox sites. • Double-check your email address on E3. You are responsible for ensuring that the address is correct and for checking it regularly for course messages. • I will make our readings for the next few weeks available on E3 and our Dropbox site. In the meantime, please obtain the textbook or locate the assigned readings through another legitimate source. • Although English is the primary language of instruction, we will use both Chinese and English in class when doing so facilitates discussion. • Please finish reading our assigned texts before class. In class, we will not go over the readings paragraph by paragraph. Instead, we will focus on crucial points and discuss the readings together.

Plot (pp. 87–94): Ralph Ellison, “King of the Bingo Game” (pp. 95–102) Final Project Note: Students should begin thinking about how a literary text may be adapted, rewritten, performed, visualized, or transformed into another medium by the end of the semester.

Narration and Point of View (pp. 189–92): Edgar Allan Poe, “The Black Cat” (pp. 193–200) Final Project Note: Students should pay attention to how narration and point of view may shape a creative adaptation. For example, a story may be rewritten from another character’s perspective, or an unreliable narrator may be reimagined in performance, visual art, or film.

Character (pp. 255–62): Margaret Atwood, “Lusus Naturae” (pp. 306–11) Final Project Note: Students should consider how characterization can be transformed creatively. A project may focus on a character’s hidden feelings, social position, contradictions, or untold story.

Setting (pp. 328–31): James Joyce, “Araby” (pp. 332–36) Final Project Note: Students should think about how setting shapes mood, desire, limitation, and disillusionment. A creative project may relocate a text to another place or time while preserving its central conflict.

Symbolism and Figurative Language (pp. 399–404): Franz Kafka, “A Hunger Artist” (pp. 739–45) Final Project Note: Students should consider how symbols, images, and objects may carry meaning. A project may use visual art, objects, posters, comics, or performance to reinterpret a text’s central symbol.

Theme (pp. 446–50): Gabriel García Márquez, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children” (pp. 450–55) Final Project Note: Students should begin considering which fiction text they may want to return to for the final project. They should ask not only what the text is about but also what interpretive claim they might make through creative transformation.

Midterm Exam

Elements of Poetry (pp. 948–51, 954–56): Skim the terms before class; we will highlight some basic ones in class. Sonnets: Love, Convention, and Form: Henry Constable, “My lady’s presence makes the roses red” (p. 1014); William Shakespeare, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (p. 1015) Final Project Note: Students may consider how poetic form can be adapted visually, dramatically, or narratively. A sonnet may become a dialogue, a visual comparison, a modern love poem, or a critique of romantic convention.

Metaphysical Poetry: Wit, Desire, and Persuasion: John Donne, “The Flea” ([pp. 840–57, on situation and setting]; pp. 853–54); Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (pp. 854–55) Final Project Note: Students should pay attention to speaker, situation, and persuasion. A creative project may rewrite the poem from the beloved’s perspective, stage the speaker’s argument, or expose the pressure behind the poem’s wit.

Dramatic Monologue: Love, Power, and Fantasy: Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” ([pp. 810–16, on speaker and persona]; pp. 785–87); Carol Ann Duffy, “Warming Her Pearls” (Poetry Foundation) Final Project Checkpoint: Students will consider how dramatic monologue reveals character through voice, implication, and what the speaker does not fully understand or admit. By the end of this week, students should begin seriously considering whether they want to complete the final project individually or in a group. They should also begin identifying possible texts and project formats.

Elements of Drama (pp. 1307–17; skim the terms): Sophocles, Antigone (pp. 1688–1725) Final Project Note: Students interested in performance, adaptation, or scriptwriting should begin thinking about casting, dialogue, staging, and time management.

Sophocles, Antigone (Continued) Final Project Checkpoint: After finishing Antigone, we will go over general questions about the final creative project. Students should begin deciding whether they will work individually or with classmates. By 11:59 p.m. on 12/03 (Thursday), students must add their brief project proposal to the shared Dropbox document, indicating: • a project title; • a subtitle identifying the assigned reading and the form of adaptation, performance, or other creative transformation; • the proposed format: Possible formats include, but are not limited to, a live or recorded performance, a dramatic monologue, a visual artwork or poster, a comic strip, an adaptation set in Taiwan or another contemporary context, or an interview, podcast, or talk show segment focusing on a text, a theme, or one or more characters; • the names of all group members and their anticipated roles; for an individual project, provide your own name; • at least one question or problem they would like to discuss during the project meeting in week 15.

Sports Meet (No Class) Final Project Development Week: Whether students are working individually or in groups, they should make some progress this week. For example, students who plan to perform should begin drafting scripts and organizing roles. Students who plan to rewrite a story should consider plot, narration, characterization, setting, and theme. Students who plan to create visual artwork should consider which textual details, symbols, scenes, or conflicts their artwork will interpret. If students consult any primary or secondary sources, they should explicitly identify and cite them in their work.

Mandatory Project Meetings: There will be no new reading this week. Students will meet with the instructor to discuss their final creative projects. Come to the meeting with at least one of the following: a project outline; a draft script; a rewritten passage or scene; a storyboard; a visual sketch; a list of textual details you plan to use; a presentation plan; or questions about feasibility, interpretation, or organization. During the meeting, students will confirm their project format, presentation order, individual responsibilities, and next steps.

Final Project Presentations: Each individual presentation should take approximately 2 minutes. Each group presentation should take 4–8 minutes (approximately 2 minutes per member). Students completing individual projects must submit an interpretive explanation to E3 after presenting. The explanation should identify the literary text chosen, the literary element or theme examined, and the creative choices made in response to specific details in the original text. Students working in groups must prepare a collective interpretive explanation covering the same points. Each group member must submit this collective explanation together with a short individual reflection explaining their contribution to the project, the reasoning behind their interpretive choices, and the lessons they learned from transforming the literary text.