ENGL 1202 S14 & S17

Reading and Writing about Selected Topics: Introduction to Literature

Fall 2023, Surrey Campus

Class time and venue:

S17: Tuesdays, 1:00 pm – 3:50 pm (Fir 322)
S14: Thursdays, 1:00 pm – 3:50 pm (Cedar 2005)

Instructor: Dr. Philip Aghoghovwia Office: Fir Building

Email: philip.aghoghovwia@kpu.ca Office hours: Tuesday 10:00 am – 12:00 pm,

Wednesday 11:00 am – 1:00 pm (or by appointment)
Dept. Phone: Course website: See Moodle site for ENGL 1202 at
https://courses.moodle.kpu.ca

Territorial acknowledgement
https://www.kpu.ca/about/territorial-acknowledgement

KPU is located in a region south of the Fraser River which overlaps with the unceded traditional and
ancestral lands of the Kwantlen, Musqueam, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt and
Kwikwetlem peoples. Through work, study, play, and ethical commitments at KPU, we project back
on these lands the generosity of spirit.

Course description
This introduction to literature course offers an exciting exploration of literary landscapes, with a
focus on developing essential literary appreciation and analytical skills. Through a careful selection of
texts drawn from across genres, time periods, and cultural contexts, students will engage in
intensive reading and writing activities that explore the complexities of the human experience while
at the same time enhance their understanding of literary terms and techniques. Students will also
learn to analyze literature through close reading, informed discussions, and formal writing. In the
end, students will have cultivated a deeper appreciation for the power of storytelling.

Course delivery: in-person

Course learning outcomes

A student who successfully completes the course will have reliably demonstrated the ability to:

 Read literature and other narratives closely and critically while analyzing context, content,
and form
 Formulate questions and generate interpretations about literature and other narratives to
various texts

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  Write critically about literature and other narratives using clear, coherent, and effective
academic English
 Write analytical essays about literature that develop and defend a clear, substantive thesis
 Apply instructor and/or peer feedback to writing projects
 Apply basic research techniques and use secondary sources responsibly
 Use MLA conventions to format papers and document sources correctly
 Write clearly and effectively without external assistance

Required readings:
1. Primary texts:
Love Sonnets by William Shakespeare (Selection of Poems)
Othello by William Shakespeare (Play)
O dir. by Tim Blake Nelson (contemporary film adaptation of Othello)
The Best of Simple by Langston Hughes (Short Stories)
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (Non-Fiction)
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (Novel)

2. The secondary/critical readings for this course are provided by Instructor and can be
accessed through Moodle (http://courses.moodle.kpu.ca

Assessments scheme: due dates are subject to change

Activity Grading percentage Due dates

Participation 5% Weekly
Response paper 1 (poetry, 500 15% Sept 25
words)
In-class exercises and quizzes 20% Ongoing
(Othello: play and film
adaptation)
In-class journaling inspired by the 20% Week of Oct 16-20
example of Kincaid (A Small
Place)
Response paper 2 (short stories, 15% Nov 17
500 words)

The research essay (novel, 1500 25% Dec 1

words)
Total Mark 100%

Bonus (for diligence, including 5% (added to total mark earned) End of semester
the use of complementary

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 resources such as writing labs,
etc.)

DESCRIPTION OF ASSESSMENTS
Participation (5%)
Students’ participation consists of regular attendance and active involvement in class activities, such
as discussions, debates, and responses to prompts. Marks accrued under this rubric are cumulative.
Participation activities have no extensions and no make-up tests or assessments for missed in-class
exercises.

Response papers (2 x 500 words, 15% each x 2 = 30%)

Students will produce one response paper on poetry and one response paper on the short stories
studied. Each reflection will be approximately 500 words and weighted 15%, totaling 30% of total
course mark. The response must consist of two parts: i.) a brief commentary on any two themes, and
ii.) a short reflection on the relationship between the two themes in the cultural context of their
emergence in the narratives. Students will be rewarded for originality and lucid writing.

In-class writing exercises and quizzes (20%)

Students will respond to prompts based on class lessons and discussion points on Othello, the play
and its film adaptation. Grading will be based on depth of analysis, breadth of content and
discussion-generating insights that the students generate in their response.

Journal entry (20%)

Student will be required to write a short journal-type reflection about their hometown and the
shaping of identity, inspired by Jamaica Kincaid’s non-fiction long essay. The goal is to assess
students’ appreciation of the emotional force of the personal narrative in engaging social issues and
their literary merits.

Research essay (25%)

The research essay requires students to conduct a library search of no more than two critical essays
that read Waubgeshig Rice’s novel as speculative fiction, because of its treatment of themes of
apocalyptic energy infrastructure collapse. Students will then read these critical texts alongside the
novel and comment on how the novel may (or may not) be more realistic than speculative, given the
recent extreme weather events, such as wildfires, hurricanes, and blizzards, that pose substantial
threats to the technological infrastructure upon which society relies. Students will be required to
examine the tensions generated by the competing claims of speculative narration and realistic
representation in Rice’s novel.

Bonus points (5%)

Students will be awarded a bonus mark of 5% of total mark that they have earned in the course
when they attend the free writing labs offered by instructors in the English Department.

GRADES

Grade Grade Conversion Definition

Points scale (%)
A+ 4.33 90 – 100 Exceptional Achievement

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 A 4.00 85 – 89 Outstanding Achievement

A- 3.67 80 – 84 Excellent Achievement

B+ 3.33 76 – 79 Very Good Achievement

B 3.00 72 – 75 Good Achievement

B- 2.67 68 – 71 Good Achievement

C+ 2.33 64 – 67 Satisfactory Achievement

C 2.00 60 – 63 Satisfactory Achievement

C- 1.67 56 – 59 Marginal Achievement. This grade

does not permit student to pursue
another course for which the graded
course was a prerequisite.
D 1.00 50 – 55 Minimal Achievement. This grade
does not permit student to pursue
another course for which the graded
course was a prerequisite.
F 0.00 0 – 49 Unsatisfactory Achievement. Student
did not meet minimum course
requirements.

Course Schedule: Subject to change

Date Content
Week 1 Introduction: course overview, objectives, and expectations
(Sept 5/7) - What is Literature?
Reading:
Terry Eagleton. “What is Literature”? (accessed through Moodle; must be
read before class)
Week 2 Introduction to literary terms and literary appreciation
(Sept 12/14)
Understanding key literary terms:
- Language, diction, style, tone, mood, imagery
- The poetic forms: structure, sound, rhythm, and rhyming scheme
- Plot, theme, setting
- Character and characterization

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 Readings:
Viktor Shklovsky. “Art as Technique.” pp. 15-21. (read before class)
Wole Soyinka. “Telephone Conversation.” (We will read this poem in class to
demonstrate the processes of some key terms.)
Week 3 Introduction to Shakespeare’s Sonnets
(Sept 20/21) - Some contexts
- (Publication, format, phases/addressee, and major themes)
Form and Structure of the Sonnet
- The iambic pentameter
- Rhyme scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG
- The Petrarchan (Italian, an octave & a sestet) vs. Shakespearean (three
quatrains & one couplet) Sonnets
Major Themes in Shakespeare’s Sonnets
- Love (requited & unrequited) and its (human) complexities
- Time and its effect on human nature
- Beauty (eternal & transient)
- Morality
Some notes on the two main phases and the two main addressees:
- “The Fair Youth” (a selection of poems from sonnets 1-126)
- “The Dark Lady” (a selection of poems from sonnets 127-154)
Readings:
In-class reading of selected poems: handouts provided
Week 4 Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets (cont.)
(Sept 27/28) - In-class reading and discussion of selected poems

In-class assessment: response paper 1

- A comparative reading of two sonnets. (I will provide the question in
class)
Week 5 Othello (read the play and watch the film adaptation O ahead of class)
(Oct 4/5) - Introduction
- Historical context
- Renaissance cosmopolitanism and its blind spots
- Cosmopolitan Venice: Shakespeare’s commentary in The Merchant of
Venice and Othello
Class quiz 1 on the play and film adaptation

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 Play video clip of a lecture on the play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VY9Z8AO3Bw
Week 6 Othello cont.
(Oct 11/12) Character Analysis
- Othello
- Iago
- Desdemona
- Cassio
- Emilia
- Brabantio
- Roderigo
The changing nature of power in the renaissance society
- Military nobility vs. wit and cunning: some textual examples and
discussions
Major Themes
- Jealousy, resentment, hatred
- Race, otherness, prejudice
- Manipulation and deceit
- Love and its fragile junctures
- Betrayal
In-class reading of Act 1 (class quiz 2 to follow)
Week 7 A Small Place, narrative non-fiction by Jamaica Kincaid
(Oct 18/19) Introduction
- Caribbean literature and Jamaica Kincaid’s writing
- Antigua: British Plantation colony and post-independence tourism
- Kincaid’s criticism of Antigua’s overtourism in A Small Place and the
book’s banning
- Class reading: pp. 3-19
- Play a short clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TdhUCCPchU
Chris Rock’s Netflix comedy routine on the moral dilemma of
encountering exquisite tourism and ugly poverty in the Caribbean.
- Class discussion and analysis
Reading:
Maria Boletsi. “Boundaries in A Small Place: A Love-Hate
Relationship.”pp.231-237

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Week 8 A Small Place cont.
(Oct 25/26) The genre of literary non-fiction
- Kincaid’s inventive style of pointedness and its implicating effect on
the reader
- Read excerpts: pp. 23-37
- Discussion and analysis
- The legacy of Kincaid’s narrative style on the form of narrative non-
fiction and subsequent writers (ex. Arundhati Roy’s essay “The greater
common good,” or Binyavanga Wainaina’s “How to Write About
Africa”)
- Identity and Postcolonial Space Making in A Small Place
- What is space making in postcolonial literature?
Reading:
Ato Quayson. “Periods versus Concepts: Space making and the Question of
Postcolonial Literary History.” PMLA 127.2 (2012): 342-348.
- Kincaid’s Antigua as a Postcolonial Space
- The Caribbean as a contested space: Tourist idyllic escape vs. local
impoverished entrapment
Assessment: Writing journal
Taking a cue from Kincaid, write a 500 words detailed description of your
hometown and provide a personal insight of how this cultural space has been
shaped by its encounter with other cultures today.
Week 9 Langston Hughes. The Best of Simple
(Nov 1/2) Introduction
- Langston Hughes: who was he?
- The Harlem Renaissance
An overview of some critical contexts of the Simple stories
- Race Relations and Civil Rights
- Social and Economic Challenges
- Humor and Resilience
- Love, Relationships, and Masculinity
Class readings:
- “Forward: Who is Simple,” pp. vii-viii
- “Feet Live Their Own Lives,” pp. 1-3
- “Simple Prays a Prayer,” pp. 6-10
Simple as an Archetypal Character:

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 - What is an Archetype?
- Archetypes in literature
- Jesse B. Semple (Simple) as archetypal everyday Black man in mid-
20th-century urban America
- Main attributes: Relatability, Universal Challenges, Ordinariness
- Discussion of selected readings: pp. vii-viii; 1-3; 6-10.
- Small group discussion of some parallel characters in present day
popular culture and media, and their significance
Closing:
The significance of the everyman archetype in popular culture
- Narrative function
- Audience identification
- Cultural commentary
Week 10 Narrative technique and language in the Simple stories
(Nov 8/9) - Dialogue-driven
- The incorporation of ‘Negro vernacular’ English
- Class reading: “Last Whipping,” pp. 74-78
Some Major Themes (NB: I have selected these themes and readings for the
purpose of the class lecture. In your response paper, you are at liberty to
come up with your own, backed by textual evidence and close reading)
1. Tenuous Race relations and Urban Life
- Class reading: “Simple on Indian Blood,” pp. 17-20
2. Culture and Identity: “Puerto Ricans,” pp. 216-218; “Jazz, Jive, and
Jam,” pp.239-245
3. Love and Relationships
Class reading: “Once in a Wife-time,” pp. 168-173
4. Economic struggles of the African American
- Class reading: “Income Tax,” pp. 64-69
The cultural significance and legacy of these stories
- Authenticity and commonality
- An important node of Black history, culture, and experience in
America
- Contemporary interpretations in popular culture
- Tyler Perry’s “Madea”?
In-class assessment: Response paper 2

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 Write a 500 words essay in which you briefly comment on any two themes,
their relationship with each other, and their relevance to any instance of
contemporary sociality.
Week 11 Waubgeshig Rice. Moon of the Crusted Snow

(Nov 15/16) Introduction

- Waub Rice: who is he?
- Indigenous literature in Canada
- Colonialism and its Afterlives in Indigenous communities
Class reading of chapters 1-4
- Break into small groups of 4-5 people. Each group reads one chapter
and reports on what they have read in two parts: a summary of the
chapter and a highlight of one or two themes as agreed upon by the
group. Class discussion follows.
Instructor’s brief note on the plot and the narrative form
- Understanding the setting of the novel: the physical environment,
community dynamics, and political and weather events.
Play video clip. Amitav Ghosh’s lecture on fiction and climate change:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW8n6RAAxTg the class will pay
particular attention to 15:00-52:00 minutes.
Some remarks to contextualize and clarify. Class discussion
Week 12 Characterization
(Nov. 22/23) Major themes in the novel
Culture and identity
Community leadership and power dynamics
Indigenous Spirituality and connection to the Land
Loss and Renewal
Community life and the global reality that frames it
Class discussion of final research paper: (1500 words)
Week 13 Consolidation
(Nov. 29/30)

Writing Labs https://www.kpu.ca/arts/english/firstyearlabs

The registration for First-Year Writing Labs starts on September 5, 2023.

The labs are your best opportunity to complement what you are learning in first-year English, and to
keep you on track. Designed and taught by English faculty members, these free labs focus on
reviewing essay-writing skills in a series of modules. The labs offer plenty of hands-on practice in a
supportive online environment.

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Our labs are based on five different topic modules: Sentence Structure, Paragraphs, Using
Quotations, Thesis Statements, and Grammar. Starting in mid-September, each lab is offered
synchronously (or “live”) online in Moodle using Big Blue Button. You can choose from several
different time slots, and labs will take place each week in that time slot for five weeks. Each one-
hour workshop should be taken only once and the earlier in the term you take the labs, the greater
the benefit. Registration is free but each session is limited to 25 students and labs do fill up quickly.

For lab information and schedule, see the Writing Labs document in the Course Resources
section of Moodle. For each workshop you attend, I will add a bonus mark amounting to 5% of your
total marks in this course.

Instructor/Classroom Policies
• You should aim to attend every class. It is understandable if you have to miss a class or two during
the semester due to illness or other unforeseen circumstances. In those cases, please make
arrangements with a classmate to get the notes you missed.
• Please come to class having done that day’s assigned reading. Consult the reading schedule
provided above to keep track of the readings, which are accessible via Moodle.
• During class, you should ensure that you have the assigned reading at hand so that you can refer to
it when necessary.
• Avoid unnecessary phone use and internet browsing during class.
• If anything prevents you from keeping up with the schedule of readings and assignments, then you
should inform me as soon as possible.
• I encourage you to take notes when doing the readings and when attending lectures. Creating your
own notes ensures that you are actively engaging with the material and that you are recording the
specifics that stand out to you as interesting, important, and/or new.
• Throughout the semester, you’ll be asked to contribute to the conversation in a number of ways.
Strive for thoughtful, relevant comments. You should also be ready to engage with the ideas and
opinions of your classmates in a respectful manner.
• Feel free to email me with any concerns, questions, or issues. I will strive to reply within 24-48
hours on a weekday and 48-72 hours on a weekend or holiday.
• Keep an extra copy of all assignments. It is your responsibility to provide an extra copy of
assignments if your work goes missing. Keep copies of all preparatory work for an essay (notes and
drafts); you may be asked to submit them.
• If I am concerned about your progress during the course of the semester, I may use the Early Alert
Response System (EARS) to connect you with student services staff who will work with you to find
additional resources or supports that may increase your chances of success. Such assistance may
include putting you in touch with an academic advisor, a tutor, financial aid, a counsellor or another
faculty member. Please be advised that this information is treated confidentially and is sent because
I care about your progress and success in this course. For more information, check out the website at
https://www.kpu.ca/advising/earlyalert

KEY KPU POLICIES. Students should visit KPU policies page at https://www.kpu.ca/policies and read
the following policies and procedures that pertain to you, briefly summarized here:

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ST2 - Student Academic Integrity Policy https://www.kpu.ca/academicintegrity outlines the rights
and responsibilities for students and the University in regards to academic integrity and integrity
violations. ST2 KPU Academic integrity office administers the policy procedure. Procedure policy
defines academic integrity violations and the procedures for dealing with issues of student integrity
violations here at https://www.kpu.ca/student-rights-responsibilities/academic-integrity
ST7 - Student Conduct Policy (Non-Academic) outlines the rights and responsibilities for students
and the University in regards to non-academic conduct. ST7 Procedure policy defines conduct
violations and the procedures for dealing with issues of student conduct violations.
ST11 - Attendance and Participation in Courses Policy outlines the expectations of students to
attend and participate in their courses both in and outside of scheduled class times (i.e. work
placement or group work). ST11 Procedure outlines strategies to engage students who are not
meeting course attendance and participation expectations.
HR15 - Diversity and Inclusiveness Policy and Diversity and Inclusiveness Procedure apply to all in
the KPU community. The policy and procedure endeavor to provide a safe and inclusive working and
learning environment for all persons within the campus community and is guided by the BC Human
Rights Code, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Human Rights Act, and the
Universal Declaration of Rights and Freedoms.
AC4 - Student Evaluation and Grading Policy outlines the rights and responsibilities of students and
the University in regards to formal assessment.
IM3 - Information and Educational Technology Usage Policy and Information and Educational
Technology Usage Procedure provide the acceptable use guidelines for the technology resources
provided by the University for teaching and learning. IM3 policies and procedures aim to maximize
efficiency and security and minimize personal and network risk.
IM9 - Information Security Policy and Information Security Procedure highlight the University’s
guidelines to safeguard sensitive and valuable information which it gathers and stores.
SR14 - Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy and Procedure outline the University’s commitment
to establishing a safe and respectful learning and working environment for all members of the
University community.

RESOURCES FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

The following resources may prove useful during the semester.
Student Rights and Responsibilities: https://www.kpu.ca/student-rights-responsibilities
Learning Centre: https://www.kpu.ca/learningcentres
Counselling: https://www.kpu.ca/counselling

Crisis Centre of BC: https://crisiscentre.bc.ca/get-help/ , or 1.800.784.2433 or online chat:

https://crisiscentrechat.ca/

Services for Students with Disabilities http://www.kpu.ca/ssd

Academic Advising: https://www.kpu.ca/advising.

For a longer list of resources, please visit the English Department’s Student Support Page:
https://www.kpu.ca/arts/english/resources

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