Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2017 - ENGL 111W D100

Literary Classics in English (3)

Class Number: 3983

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 5 – Dec 4, 2017: Tue, 11:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

    Sep 5 – Dec 4, 2017: Thu, 11:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Dec 10, 2017
    Sun, 3:30–6:30 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines literary “classics”, variously defined, apprehending them both on their own terms and within larger critical conversations. May incorporate the comparative study of work in related artistic fields and engage relevant media trends. Includes attention to writing skills. Students with credit for ENGL 101W may not take this course for further credit. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Feel the Pain — Apathy and Empathy in the Classics

Androids need to know: does a spider actually need all those legs to get around? So they mutilate one with cuticle scissors, snipping off its legs one by one, their human counterpart looking on aghast. Even if you’re no fan of spiders, this scene from the sci-fi detective classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is pretty squirm inducing. This course is about that squirm, though not so much yours as a reader. It’s about how and why fictional characters, like the human in Androids, respond the way they do to the suffering of other living things. In other words, this is a course on empathy, or its absence.  

I should say from the outset that this is not a literature-makes-you-a-better-person-by-putting-you-in-someone-else’s-shoes kind of class. This seems to be popular culture’s sole (facile) idea of what English is good for. No. Our ambition is to better understand what empathy, sympathy, and apathy are, functionally and conceptually, and how some influential writers have scrutinized them. We’ll ask lots of questions, some of which are probably unanswerable but deserve informed debate nevertheless. What, for example, does the experience of witnessing physical or psychological (or spiritual or economic) mutilation say about what it means to be human? Nonhuman? Posthuman? Inhuman? These questions are not new, by the way. Just ask some of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers we’ll likely read: James Baldwin, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Flannery O’Connor, W. H. Auden, Mavis Gallant, Raymond Carver, Ursula K. Le Guin, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Weldon Kees, Sharon Olds, Herman Melville, William Carlos Williams, and Philip K. Dick, whose entire vision of the future in Androids hangs on whether anyone ever really cares about anyone or anything else.

Speaking of caring, we’ll talk a lot about how to care about written words, both yours and others'—hence the “writing intensive” designation. If there’s anything worth getting intense about, it’s writing. My job is to show you why that is.

Grading

  • Paper 1 Draft (600 words) 15%
  • Paper 1 Revision (750 words) 15%
  • Paper 2 (850-1000 words) 30%
  • Final Exam (closed-book) 30%
  • Informal Writing / Tutorial Presentation(s) 5%
  • Tutorial Participation 5%

NOTES:

First, you may use different editions of the two novels—Do Androids Dream of Elcectric Sheep? and Christmas Carol—though you’re responsible for locating passages cited in class.

Second, the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s classic 1982 film Blade Runner and its sequel, Blade Runner 2049, due in theaters this October. I’ll work the former into our course, and I’m hoping to make the latter the subject of an optional meeting, perhaps in conjunction with Prof. Linley, who’s also teaching Androids this Fall under the auspices of Engl. 112W.

Third, as aspiring music historians out there probably already realized, the course title comes from Dinosaur Jr.’s 1994 song of the same name, a classic in its own right: “I feel the pain of everyone / Then I feel nothing.” That’s our course in a nutshell.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Random House/Del Rey, 1996)
ISBN: 9780345404473

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (Broadview, 2003)
ISBN: 9781551114767

James Wood, How Fiction Works (Picador, 2009)
ISBN: 9780312428471

Department Undergraduate Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.

For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.

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