Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2014 - WL 305W D900

Sages and Poets (4)

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 2 – Dec 1, 2014: Wed, 1:30–5:20 p.m.
    Surrey

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores wisdom literature, poetry, or the resonance of faith in secular world literatures. May focus on cross-cultural mystical quests, secular re-castings of narratives of faith and conversion, or the interplay of the religious and the secular in comparative supernatural literatures. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

While we, as students of literature, tend to focus on how language acts as an art-form, in this course we will take a slightly different approach by looking at the ways in which authors struggle with what they deem as the limits of their language. We will explore what exactly constitutes the unsayable for poets and philosophers, while looking at the ways in which critical silences are constituted in texts to stand for the ineffable.  

Readings will include Nietzsche’s “On Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense,” Benjamin’s “The Task of the Translator,” Kafka’s “The Silence of the Sirens” and “On Parables,” Kierkergaard’s Fear and Trembling, a series of short stories by Borges, along with poems by Hoelderlin, Celan, Rilke, and Khayyam.  

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • How to write an effective thesis paper
  • How to engage with secondary sources
  • How to write a cogently argued research paper

Grading

  • Midterm paper 25%
  • Final paper 40%
  • Research journal 15%
  • Presentation 5%
  • Participation 10%
  • Art project 5%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Custom Courseware.

Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically. 5th Edition. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. ISBN: 1413033105 (or whatever edition you have from a previous class).
THIS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SFU BOOKSTORE.
PLEASE MAKE SURE TO ORDER THIS BOOK ONLINE BEFORE THE SEMESTER STARTS!

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS