FORT VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY

Department of English and Foreign Languages
Current Syllabus, good through 12/09
ENGL 4793 Genre:  Drama

course web site:  http://www.keithmurphy.info/drama/4793.htm/

Instructor: Keith Murphy, Ph.D.
http://www.keithmurphy.info
Office: 238 HMB.
Office hours announced in class.
Telephone: (912)825-6680 (messages only: 6392)
Fax: (912)825-6110
Email: Sophist@Bigfoot.Com
blog:  randomdepth.blogspot.com
Yahoo Instant messaging ID:  docsophist

Prerequisites:  A grade of "C" or above in ENGL 2111 or 2112, and two survey courses in American and/or English literature.  Any student who has not had the survey courses should receive permission from the instructor in order to be enrolled in the course.

Course Description:  Students will study the major and minor works of a genre of drama demonstrating the emergence, development and major themes of that dramatic genre as well as the related conventions during the historical period in question.  Students will also examine a number of critical approaches and apply them to the works.  Specific genres may include Jacobean Drama, Greek Tragedy, Restoration Theatre, Theatre of the Absurd of post-modern drama.  May be taken more than once under different sub-headings.  [See reading assignments for specific authors and works].

Course Objectives:  As a result of successfully completing the course, a student should be able to do the following:

1. Distinguish particular twentieth century issues, themes, and perspectives in drama and be able to identify them in individual playwrights.
2. Recall and apply literary and cultural concepts.
3. Distinguish important aspects of individual playwrights.
4. Demonstrate the ability to analyze and interpret literature and to employ research and criticism effectively in the written analysis of literature.

Education or Major Outcome Objectives:  As a result of completing this course, students should have achieved the following general education and major outcomes: 

• [2,L, 3,L, 5,L, 6L]  In clear and polished prose, students will draft logical and well-developed critical essays in which they analyze, for example, important themes in the work of a major playwright.  Students will read, for example, Lysistrata  by Aristophanes or Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida  in order to analyze such elements as symbolism or the theme of gender roles as symbols of power.  Using word processors, they will write and revise essays and research a critical paper employing the Internet. 

 [7L]  In works of writers such as Stanley Kubrick and Bruce Jay Friedman, students will read about, discuss, and analyze the impact and repercussions on today's society of the Cold War and World War II.  In these same authors, students, through written and oral analysis, will assess the impact of changing gender and social roles as they are represented.

[2L]  In essays and on essay examinations, students will demonstrate knowledge of major playwrights, as well as important economic, cultural, and social changes which occurred during the time each playwright was working.

Required Texts and Materials:
Required Text: 

• Aristotle.  Poetics.
• Aristophanes.  Lysiastrata.
• Bruce Jay Friedman.  Steambath.  (photocopies)
• Stanley Kubrick.  Dr. Strangelove.
• William Shakespeare.  Troilus and Cressida
• Tennessee Williams.  A Streetcar Named Desire.  (See amazon.com or froogle.com for best deals but be certain you are buying the play and not the DVD or a study guide or a critical analysis.)

Plus the appropriate works selected by the class from the attached reading list.  The class will, in the first few meetings, select the plays we will study this semester. AT THAT TIME, order the plays we can't get for free online from amazon.com (or some other website-- hint, for faster service, don't order used books as they are supplied by secondary suppliers and not Amazon.  These suppliers can take up to TWO WEEKS to ship your books.) or a local bookstore

Supplemental readings will be posted to the class website or distributed in class.

I will be providing you with a great deal of photocopied material.  To offset the expense of this, you will be expected to provide me with one package of photocopier paper.  You can purchase this at Wal-mart, Staples, etc. for two or three dollars.  You will also need at least one diskette, web access, and a valid EMAIL address.

Course Policies

Attendance. The student will attend class regularly. Attendance will be recorded daily. If a student arrives late, it is their responsibility to make certain the instructor records them as present. The student, not the instructor, is responsible for any work missed whether or not the absence is excused. Be Aware: This is NOT a class that one can pass by merely getting there in time to sign the roster.

FVSU has an official policy on "cuts" or unexcused absences which states that students may be absent from class a number of times equivalent to the credit hour value of the class. This is a 3 credit class, thus, you have 3 allowed absences. The policy also states:

"The student may expect to lose one percentage point for each absence in excess of the above scale. (Points to be deducted from the final course average.) Exceptions to this policy in regard to point reduction may be approved by the instructors involving death in the family, illness of the

student or member of the immediate family, or military duty. It is the student's responsibility to provide legitimate written excuses (From the office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) to the instructors of classes involved. Other reasons not covered here must be cleared with the appropriate school office.

An absence may be excused if cleared with the instructor in advance or if the student can provide a written excuse with the date, signature, and phone number from some responsible person. Graded assignments missed due to excused absences may be made up within one weeks of the student's return to class; however, it is the student's responsibility to initiate such arrangements and to persist in efforts to complete the work within the deadline." (FVSU Undergraduate Catalog)

The institutional policy on absences will be employed in this course.  This means that any unexcused absences which total more time missed than the credit hour value of the course will reduce your final grade by 1 full percentage point.  For an absence to be excused, you must go to the Vice President for Student Affairs and request an official excuse.  However, attendance and participation are critical to passing this course.  In addition, being absent does not excuse you from your responsibilities for that class period.  Even if your absence is excused, your work must be turned in ON TIME.

Grading Policy:  Letter grades translate into numerical grades as follows:  A=90-100; B=80-89; C=70-79; D=60-69; F=59 and below.  The student is responsible for maintaining copies of all drafts of all assignments to include in the final portfolio.  The portfolio is used to determine whether the student has successfully passed the course.  Any essay may be revised once within seven days of receiving returned work (within time constraints).

Grading Criteria:
Most of the work in this course is composed of relatively long, structured essays.  Most of these will be written outside of class, typed, and may require you to do (and document) outside research.  The criteria for those works is as follows: 

To earn a grade of C, an essay or an assignment must:

• Contain either a clearly implied or explicitly stated central idea.
• Be unified and coherent. The paragraphs must stand in clear relation to the thesis and each other.
• Be fully developed. Each paragraph should contain a leading idea and specific details or examples that clarify, support, and explain the leading idea.
• Contain clear sentences that are in general conformity with standard English. Errors in grammar and/or mechanics must be so minimal that they do not distract from the meaning of the essay.
• Preferably the essay will end with a paragraph, or at least a sentence, which conveys a sense of completion.

An essay fulfilling the above criteria represents acceptable college work. To exceed this criteria, an essay must show superiority in content and development, organization and coherence, sentence style, and vocabulary.

To earn a "superior" grade of A or a grade of B  which represents "good" work, an essay or assignment must fulfill the requirements for a C and:

• Contain a significant central idea which is clearly shown, and convincingly supported with concrete, substantial, and consistently relevant detail.
• Demonstrate logically planned progression with clearly ordered and necessary stages, coherent paragraphs, unified and effectively developed paragraphs, with clear transitions.
• Demonstrate unification.  Be coherent, forceful, and effectively varied.
• Demonstrate clear and effective expression promoted by consistent use of standard grammar, punctuation and spelling.

In-Class Essays may be graded on a three-point rubric.  In-class essays will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

The “3” essay shows distinction.  It meets all and exceeds most of the criteria for a “2.”  The ideas are expressed freshly and vividly, and the essay arouses the reader’s interest to a greater extent that the typical “2” essay.

The “2” essay meets the basic criteria. It has a central idea related directly to the assigned topic and presented with sufficient clarity that the reader is aware of the writer’s purpose.  The organization is clear enough for the reader to perceive the writer’s plan.  The paragraphs coherently present some evidence or details to substantiate the points.  The writer uses ordinary, everyday words accurately and idiomatically and generally avoids both the monotony created by series of choppy, simple sentences and the incoherence caused by long, tangled sentences.  Although the essay may contain a few serious grammatical errors and several mechanical errors, they are not of sufficient severity or frequency to obscure the sense of what the writer is saying.

The “1” essay fails to demonstrate competence.  It has any one of the following problems to an extraordinary degree or it has several to a limited degree:  it lacks a central idea; it lacks a clear organizational plan; it does not develop its points or develops them in a repetitious, incoherent, or illogical way; it does not relate directly to the assigned topic; it contains several serious grammatical errors; it contains numerous mechanical errors; ordinary, everyday words are used inaccurately and unidiomatically; it contains a limited vocabulary so that the words chosen frequently do not serve the writer’s purpose; syntax is frequently rudimentary or tangled; or the essay is so brief that the rater cannot make an accurate judgment of the writer’s ability.

 Remember, to receive a passing grade on any essay you must answer the question posed by the prompt, provide a carefully reasoned argument supporting your answer, proffer evidence to support your argument, and demonstrate strong critical thinking and communicative skills.

****Your final grade is wholly based on your portfolio (which MUST include all drafts of all work)****

 which should include 3 small genre take-home exams, the papers based on your individual analysis of a novel, and in-class essays as assigned.  Due-dates will be announced in class.

Assignment List:

• 3  Genre Take Home Examinations  (20% each)
• Novel analysis                                  (25%)
• In-class and other work                    (5%)
• Participation                                      (10%)

Remember that all writing assignments must be typed.  You should save a copy of your work on disk as I will grade your first draft and give you an opportunity to revise your efforts.  I expect you to engage in external research for each of your essays.  In addition, that research had best be correctly cited (including both an in-text citation and a works cited page).  If that concept is unclear to you or you are unfamiliar with the concept of plagiarism, click here.

Instructor's Policies:

No late work will be accepted.  No incompletes will be assigned.  You are solely responsible for getting the work completed and to me by the due date.  Your failure to do so does not constitute an emergency on my behalf.

Tentative Course Schedule

  For the FVSU conceptual framework, click here.  For more information on NCATE/IRA click here.

Click Here to Read the ENTIRE FVSU Conceptual Framework for the Educational Major