LIT 2000 Introduction to Literature Complete Course Description & 16-Week Assignment Guide

Course Description
LIT 2000 — Introduction to Literature is a survey course designed to develop students’ capacity to read, interpret, and respond to literary texts with critical intelligence and genuine pleasure. The course moves across the major literary genres — short fiction, the novel, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction — while also introducing students to key critical frameworks that illuminate how literature reflects and shapes culture, identity, history, and the human experience.

Rather than offering a chronological survey of canonical texts, LIT 2000 is organized thematically and formally, so that students develop transferable skills in close reading and literary argumentation that can be applied to any text, in any genre, from any tradition. World literature and diverse voices are woven throughout the course rather than siloed into a single ‘multicultural’ unit.

The course is structured in four integrated modules:
• Module I — Weeks 1–4: The Craft of Fiction & Poetry. Foundations of literary reading across prose and verse forms.
• Module II — Weeks 5–8: Drama & Dramatic Form. From Shakespeare to Beckett, reading plays as literature and as performance.
• Module III — Weeks 9–12: Nonfiction, World Literature & Critical Lenses. Memoir, postcolonial voices, feminist and queer theory.
• Module IV — Weeks 13–16: Myth, Genre, Research & Synthesis. Intertextuality, speculative fiction, and independent scholarly writing.

By the end of the semester students will be confident literary readers — equipped with a rich vocabulary for discussing texts, a set of interpretive frameworks for approaching unfamiliar works, and the writing skills to construct persuasive literary arguments.

Course Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete LIT 2000 will demonstrate the ability to:
• Read texts closely and attentively, attending to language, form, structure, and tone as carriers of meaning.
• Identify and analyse the conventions, techniques, and distinguishing features of fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction.
• Apply foundational literary critical concepts — including imagery, metaphor, irony, point of view, voice, and intertextuality — in written analysis.
• Articulate how historical context, cultural identity, gender, and race shape the production and reception of literary texts.
• Engage with world literature and recognise the limitations of exclusively Eurocentric literary canons.
• Construct a clear, evidence-based literary argument supported by textual quotation and secondary scholarly sources.
• Participate productively in seminar discussion, practicing active listening and respectful intellectual disagreement.
• Produce polished academic writing that adheres to disciplinary conventions (MLA or Chicago citation style).
• Reflect critically on their own reading practices and develop lifelong habits of engaged, curious reading.

Assessment & Grading
Component Weight Notes
Weekly Reading Responses (14 × 3%) 42% Short written reflections submitted each week; assesses close reading and comprehension.
Midterm Essay Examination (Week 8) 20% In-class or take-home essay covering Weeks 1–7; tests literary analysis and terminology.
Research & Close-Reading Paper 18% 1,800–2,200 word formal analysis of a single literary work with scholarly sources.
Final Examination (Week 16) 15% Comprehensive; emphasises integration of genres, themes, and critical frameworks.
Class Participation & Discussion 5% Consistent, quality contributions to seminar discussions and peer workshops.

Grading Scale
A (90–100%) Exceptional command of literary analysis; original, well-supported arguments; polished academic prose.
B (80–89%) Strong analytical skills with minor gaps; clear argumentation; mostly error-free writing.
C (70–79%) Adequate understanding; analysis present but underdeveloped; argument sometimes unclear.
D (60–69%) Significant gaps in comprehension or analysis; writing needs substantial revision.
F (Below 60%) Does not meet course requirements; may need to retake the course.

Weekly Reading Response Guidelines
Each week (except Week 8 and Week 16, which have examinations) students submit a Reading Response of 300–600 words via LMS. Responses are not summaries — they are analytical micro-essays. A strong response will:
• Identify and quote a specific passage that struck you as significant, puzzling, or beautiful.
• Analyse how the author achieves a particular effect through language, form, or structure (not just what the text says, but how and why it says it that way).
• Pose a genuine question the text raises for you — a question that goes beyond plot and touches on theme, ethics, or craft.
• Avoid plot summary: assume your reader has read the text and wants your interpretation, not your retelling.

Responses are assessed on analytical depth (not length), engagement with the specific reading, and clarity of expression. They are graded on a Complete / Excellent / Incomplete scale. Late responses receive half credit if submitted within 48 hours; responses more than 48 hours late receive zero.

Research & Close-Reading Paper: Full Guidelines
The Research and Close-Reading Paper (1,800–2,200 words, due Week 16) is the course’s major independent writing project. It must:
• Focus on a single primary literary text studied this semester (or an alternate text approved by instructor by Week 10).
• Advance a clear, arguable literary thesis — not a statement of fact or personal preference, but an interpretive claim that requires evidence and reasoning to support.
• Incorporate at least four peer-reviewed scholarly sources (journal articles or academic book chapters). Wikipedia, SparkNotes, and similar sites do not count.
• Perform sustained close reading of specific passages: quote, analyse, interpret — never drop a quotation without commentary.
• Follow MLA 9th edition citation format throughout (in-text citations and Works Cited page).
• Be submitted in Times New Roman 12pt, double-spaced, with standard 1-inch margins.

The paper is scaffolded across the semester: topic selection and thesis proposal (Week 10), annotated bibliography of four sources (Week 12), full draft for peer review (Week 15), and final submission (Week 16). Missing scaffolding milestones will affect the final paper grade. A detailed rubric is available on the LMS.

Course Policies
Attendance & Seminar Participation
This is a discussion-based seminar. Your presence and preparation are essential — both for your own learning and for your classmates’. Students who miss more than four sessions may receive an automatic grade reduction. If you must miss class, contact the instructor in advance, obtain notes from a peer, and complete any missed in-class work. Simply attending does not constitute participation: quality of contribution to discussion is assessed.
Preparation & Reading Expectations
Expect to spend 2–3 hours of reading and preparation for every 75-minute class session. Literature requires slow, attentive reading — do not skim. Bring the assigned text (print or screen) to every class. Annotation — underlining, margin notes, questions — is strongly encouraged and will make your writing far easier.
Academic Integrity & Use of AI Tools
All submitted work must represent your own original analysis and writing. Plagiarism — representing any source’s ideas or language as your own without attribution — is a serious academic offence. Use of AI writing assistants (such as ChatGPT) to draft or substantially revise your essays is not permitted and constitutes a form of academic dishonesty. You may use AI tools for brainstorming or grammar checking only if disclosed. Violations will be handled under the institution’s academic integrity policy and may result in a zero for the assignment or course failure.
Discussion & Classroom Community
Literature asks us to encounter perspectives very different from our own. Disagreement is welcome and expected — it is the engine of good literary discussion. However, all contributions must engage with ideas rather than attacking persons. Treat each voice in the room — and in the texts we read — with the same critical generosity you would want extended to yourself.
Accessibility & Accommodations
Students requiring academic accommodations should provide documentation from the Office of Disability Services within the first two weeks of the semester. All reasonable accommodations will be arranged confidentially and promptly. Please speak with the instructor early rather than waiting until an assignment deadline.
Library & Research Resources
The library provides free access to JSTOR, Project MUSE, MLA International Bibliography, Literature Online (LION), and Oxford Reference. These databases are essential for your Research Paper. Librarians offer subject-specific research consultations — book one early at the library website. Print and digital copies of all required texts are available on course reserve.

Weekly Schedule — Topics, Texts & Assignments
Each week builds on the last. Complete all readings before the first class session of that week. Assignment deadlines are end-of-week (Sunday 11:59 PM) unless noted. Full rubrics, reading PDFs, and supplemental materials are on the LMS.

WEEK
1 What Is Literature? Reading as an Art
Introduction & Orientation
Overview The course opens by asking the most fundamental question: what makes a text ‘literary’? Students survey the major literary genres — fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction — and examine how form, voice, and intention distinguish literature from everyday writing. We explore why humans tell stories and why close reading matters in a digital age.
Primary Texts Excerpts from Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler (opening); Roland Barthes, ‘The Death of the Author’ (abridged); Ursula K. Le Guin, ‘A Fisherman of the Inland Sea’ (short story). Additional course orientation handouts distributed via LMS.
Assignment Assignment 1 — Reading Journal Entry (300–400 words): Reflect on a piece of writing — from any source — that you personally consider ‘literary.’ What qualities make it stand out? Using Barthes’s ideas as a lens, discuss whether the author’s intention matters to your experience of the text. Submit via LMS by end of Week 1.

WEEK
2 The Short Story: Craft of Compression
Fiction — Short Form
Overview Short fiction demands that every word carry weight. This week examines the essential craft elements of the short story: setting, character, point of view, conflict, and epiphany. We pay close attention to how compression forces writers to show rather than tell, and how much meaning can live in silence and suggestion.
Primary Texts Anton Chekhov, ‘The Lady with the Dog’; Flannery O’Connor, ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’; Alice Munro, ‘Boys and Girls’; Raymond Carver, ‘Cathedral’. Supplemental craft essay: John Gardner, ‘The Elements of Fiction’ (excerpt, LMS).
Assignment Assignment 2 — Comparative Close Reading (400–500 words): Select two of the four assigned stories. Compare how each author establishes point of view and how that choice shapes the reader’s sympathy and understanding. Quote directly from both texts to support your analysis. Due: End of Week 2.

WEEK
3 The Novel: Structure, Voice & the Long Breath
Fiction — Long Form
Overview Moving from compression to expansion, we examine what the novel can do that shorter forms cannot. Topics include narrative arc, chapter structure, unreliable narrators, free indirect discourse, and the sustained development of theme. Students consider how novels create immersive worlds and how their length demands a different kind of reading attention.
Primary Texts Selected chapters from Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Vol. I, Ch. 1–6) and Toni Morrison, Beloved (Part One, Ch. 1–3). Critical essay: Wayne Booth, ‘The Narrator’s Voice’ (excerpt, LMS).
Assignment Assignment 3 — Narrator Analysis Essay (400–500 words): Analyze the narrative voice in ONE of the two novel excerpts. How does the narrator’s position (first-person, third-person limited, omniscient) shape what readers know and feel? Identify one specific passage and perform a close reading of its narrative technique. Due: End of Week 3.

WEEK
4 Poetry I — The Music of Language
Poetry — Sound, Rhythm & Form
Overview Poetry is language at its most concentrated and most musical. This week introduces the technical vocabulary of prosody — meter, rhythm, rhyme, assonance, alliteration — and examines how sound reinforces and complicates meaning. We read poems aloud and develop the habit of listening to language as a physical experience.
Primary Texts William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 73; John Keats, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’; Langston Hughes, ‘The Weary Blues’ and ‘I, Too’; Gwendolyn Brooks, ‘We Real Cool’; Seamus Heaney, ‘Digging’. Audio recordings available on LMS.
Assignment Assignment 4 — Prosody Annotation & Reflection (350–450 words): Choose any one poem from the week’s reading. Mark the stressed and unstressed syllables in two full stanzas and identify the dominant meter. Then write a short reflection: how does the poem’s sound pattern reinforce (or work against) its emotional meaning? Include your annotated stanzas as an appendix. Due: End of Week 4.

WEEK
5 Poetry II — Image, Metaphor & Symbol
Poetry — Figurative Language & Imagery
Overview If last week was about sound, this week is about seeing. We explore how poets build meaning through images, metaphors, similes, and symbols. Students examine the difference between decorative and structural metaphor, and how a single image can bear the weight of an entire poem’s meaning.
Primary Texts Emily Dickinson, ‘Because I could not stop for Death’ and ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’; Pablo Neruda, ‘Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines’ and Ode to My Socks; Sylvia Plath, ‘Metaphors’ and ‘Morning Song’; Ocean Vuong, ‘Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong’. Supplemental: Mark Doty, ‘A Display of Mackerel’ with craft commentary (LMS).
Assignment Assignment 5 — Extended Metaphor Analysis (400–500 words): Select one poem that employs an extended metaphor or a central controlling image. Trace how the metaphor develops across the whole poem and argue what it ultimately means. How does the poem’s title interact with its central image? Use textual evidence throughout. Due: End of Week 5.

WEEK
6 Drama I — Reading Plays on the Page
Drama — Structure & Stagecraft
Overview Plays are written to be performed, yet we encounter them first on the page. This week students learn to read drama actively — visualizing staging, hearing dialogue as speech, and interpreting stage directions as a separate layer of meaning. We examine dramatic structure (exposition, rising action, climax, denouement) and the convention of the soliloquy.
Primary Texts William Shakespeare, Hamlet: Act I and Act II (full). Focus scenes: I.ii (Claudius’s court speech), I.v (Ghost’s revelation), II.ii (Hamlet’s soliloquy ‘To be or not to be’). Background reading: Anne Barton, ‘Introduction to Hamlet’ (excerpt, LMS).
Assignment Assignment 6 — Dramatic Analysis (450–550 words): Choose ONE soliloquy or major speech from Acts I–II of Hamlet. Analyze how Shakespeare uses language, imagery, and rhetorical structure to reveal character and advance dramatic conflict. What does this speech tell us about the speaker’s inner world that could not be communicated through dialogue alone? Due: End of Week 6.

WEEK
7 Drama II — Modern & Contemporary Theatre
Drama — Realism & Beyond
Overview Moving from Renaissance to modern drama, we trace how playwrights broke from classical conventions to reflect modern anxieties: the disintegration of family, the collapse of illusion, and the absurdity of existence. We examine realism, expressionism, and Theatre of the Absurd, and how each style demands different reading and staging strategies.
Primary Texts Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (full play) OR Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (Act I). Additional: Eugene O’Neill, ‘On Writing Tragedy’ (essay excerpt, LMS); review of a live/recorded production of either play (link on LMS).
Assignment Assignment 7 — Production Review & Textual Comparison (500–600 words): Watch the provided recording of a production of your chosen play. Write a response that compares the live performance with your reading experience: What did the production illuminate? What choices surprised or disappointed you? Ground your observations in specific moments from both the text and the performance. Due: End of Week 7.

WEEK
8 MIDTERM EXAMINATION — Synthesis of Weeks 1–7
Assessment Week
Overview Week 8 is dedicated to midterm preparation and examination. A structured review session on Monday revisits key literary terms, close-reading strategies, and genre conventions from Weeks 1–7. The midterm essay examination tests students’ ability to analyze unseen texts using the tools developed in the first half of the course.
Primary Texts Review all primary texts and terminology from Weeks 1–7. Study Guide and literary terms glossary posted on LMS. Practice passage analysis exercises available for independent preparation.
Assignment Midterm Examination (2 hours): Part A — Literary Terms Identification (20 pts): define and give examples of 10 terms drawn from course glossary. Part B — Passage Analysis (40 pts): write a close reading essay (600–750 words) on an unseen excerpt provided in the exam. Part C — Comparative Question (40 pts): compare two works from different genres studied in Weeks 1–7, arguing how each uses a shared theme. Open to your course-reading notes (printed); no devices.

WEEK
9 Creative Nonfiction & the Personal Essay
Nonfiction — Memoir, Essay & Lyric Prose
Overview Creative nonfiction occupies a fascinating borderland: it uses the techniques of fiction and poetry — scene, voice, image, metaphor — to tell true stories. This week examines the personal essay and lyric essay as literary forms, exploring how the first-person ‘I’ mediates memory, identity, and truth, and how writers negotiate the ethics of writing real people.
Primary Texts James Baldwin, ‘Notes of a Native Son’ (full essay); Joan Didion, ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ (Chapter 1); Annie Dillard, ‘Living Like Weasels’; Ta-Nehisi Coates, ‘Between the World and Me’ (excerpt, pp. 1–30). Craft essay: Phillip Lopate, ‘The Essay Lives On’ (LMS).
Assignment Assignment 8 — Essay Form Analysis (400–500 words): Choose ONE of the assigned nonfiction pieces. Analyze how the author constructs the essay’s ‘I’ — the narrative persona. How does the author use scene, reflection, and voice to shape the reader’s trust and emotional response? Is the ‘I’ reliable, vulnerable, authoritative, or contradictory? Support your reading with textual evidence. Due: End of Week 9.

WEEK
10 World Literature & Postcolonial Voices
Global Fiction — Translation, Culture & Power
Overview Literature crosses borders, but it is never culturally neutral. This week introduces students to world literature and postcolonial theory, examining how texts produced outside the Euro-American canon challenge dominant narratives, negotiate translation, and represent the experience of colonialism, displacement, and cultural hybridity.
Primary Texts Chinua Achebe, ‘Things Fall Apart’ (Parts I and II, full); short stories: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’; Jhumpa Lahiri, ‘The Third and Final Continent’. Critical reading: Chinua Achebe, ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’ (essay excerpt, LMS).
Assignment Assignment 9 — Cultural Context Essay (450–550 words): Drawing on Things Fall Apart and Achebe’s essay, analyze how the novel challenges or subverts a Western literary or cultural narrative. How does Achebe use language, structure, or characterization to assert Igbo cultural values on their own terms? You may incorporate one of the short stories as a comparative example if relevant. Due: End of Week 10.

WEEK
11 Gender, Identity & the Literary Gaze
Critical Approaches — Feminist & Queer Theory
Overview This week applies feminist and queer critical frameworks to literary texts, examining how gender shapes both the production and reception of literature. We ask: Who is the implied reader? Whose gaze structures the narrative? How do women writers and LGBTQ+ writers challenge or rewrite inherited literary conventions?
Primary Texts Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (Chapters 1 and 6); Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’; Audre Lorde, ‘Poetry Is Not a Luxury’ (essay) and ‘Coal’ (poem); Carmen Maria Machado, ‘The Husband Stitch’. Supplemental: Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar, ‘The Madwoman in the Attic’ (excerpt, LMS).
Assignment Assignment 10 — Critical Lens Essay (500–600 words): Apply a feminist or queer critical perspective to ONE of this week’s primary texts. How does the text represent gender, desire, or the female/queer body? Does the narrative reinforce or subvert dominant cultural expectations? Draw on at least one idea from Woolf or Lorde’s theoretical writing to support your reading. Due: End of Week 11.

WEEK
12 Race, History & Literary Memory
Critical Approaches — African American Literature & Historicism
Overview Literature is a form of historical testimony. This week examines how African American writers have used literary form to confront, preserve, and reimagine the history of slavery, segregation, and racial violence. We consider how form itself — fragmented narration, shifting time, incantatory language — enacts the work of traumatic memory.
Primary Texts Toni Morrison, Beloved (complete novel — full reading); poems: Paul Laurence Dunbar, ‘We Wear the Mask’; Countee Cullen, ‘Yet Do I Marvel’; Nikki Giovanni, ‘Ego Tripping’. Critical excerpt: bell hooks, ‘Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ (LMS).
Assignment Assignment 11 — Thematic Research Response (500–600 words): In Beloved, Morrison uses fragmented structure and non-linear chronology to represent trauma and memory. Identify two or three specific passages that exemplify this technique and analyze what the formal fragmentation achieves thematically. How does the novel’s form argue something about the nature of traumatic memory that a linear narrative could not? Due: End of Week 12.

WEEK
13 Myth, Archetype & Intertextuality
Mythology — Jungian & Structuralist Approaches
Overview Many of the most powerful literary works draw their energy from ancient myths, archetypes, and universal narrative patterns. This week introduces Northrop Frye’s archetypal criticism and examines how contemporary writers consciously rework classical myths to address modern concerns, and how recognizing intertextual echoes deepens literary understanding.
Primary Texts Homer, The Odyssey: Books I, IX, XI (Fagles translation); Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad (full, short novel); Anne Carson, ‘The Glass Essay’ (poem/essay). Supplemental: Northrop Frye, ‘The Archetypes of Literature’ (essay excerpt, LMS).
Assignment Assignment 12 — Intertextual Analysis (500–600 words): Compare how Homer and Atwood handle a single episode, character, or theme that appears in both works (e.g., the character of Penelope, the theme of homecoming, the motif of disguise). What does Atwood’s retelling reveal that Homer’s original conceals or overlooks? What is gained — and lost — by the modern adaptation? Due: End of Week 13.

WEEK
14 Science Fiction, Speculative & Genre Fiction as Literature
Genre Fiction — Speculative & Dystopian
Overview Is genre fiction ‘real’ literature? This week argues emphatically yes — examining how speculative fiction uses estrangement and world-building to interrogate the present through an imagined future or alternate reality. We explore how dystopian narratives, in particular, function as political and philosophical arguments in fictional form.
Primary Texts Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (full novel) OR Octavia Butler, Kindred (full novel). Short story: Ted Chiang, ‘Story of Your Life’. Essay: Ursula K. Le Guin, ‘Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?’ (LMS). Students should choose one novel and read it in full.
Assignment Assignment 13 — Speculative Fiction Essay (500–600 words): Analyze how your chosen novel uses its speculative premise (an androgynous alien society, or time-traveling slavery) as a device for exploring a real-world social, philosophical, or ethical issue. How does the genre’s ‘what if’ structure enable the author to say something that realist fiction cannot? Ground your argument in specific scenes and passages. Due: End of Week 14.

WEEK
15 Research Paper Workshop & Peer Review
Writing Process — Research, Revision & Scholarly Practice
Overview Week 15 is a writing workshop dedicated to the Research and Close-Reading Paper. Students bring full drafts for structured peer review. The session covers integrating secondary sources, avoiding patchwork quoting, constructing a literary argument, and MLA/Chicago citation. Instructor conferences are available throughout the week by appointment.
Primary Texts Bring complete draft of Research Paper (1,800–2,200 words). Peer Review Rubric and Scholarly Source Evaluation Checklist posted on LMS. Recommended: MLA Handbook (9th ed.) or Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) — library copies available.
Assignment Research & Close-Reading Paper — Full Draft Due: Submit a complete 1,800–2,200 word draft via LMS before the workshop session. Papers must focus on a single literary work studied this semester (or an approved alternate text), incorporate at least four peer-reviewed scholarly sources, and advance a clear, arguable thesis. After workshop, revise and resubmit final version by Week 16 Friday. Peer Review Response (200 words) due 48 hours after workshop session.

WEEK
16 Contemporary Literature, Course Synthesis & Final Examination
Contemporary Writing & Retrospective
Overview The final week surveys emerging voices in contemporary literature and invites students to reflect on the full arc of the course. We ask: what has literature taught us this semester about language, power, empathy, and form? A final class discussion synthesises threads across all genres and critical frameworks studied. The Final Examination follows at the end of the week.
Primary Texts Contemporary short works (rotating selection updated each term — see LMS): excerpts from recent prize-winning novels, a slam poetry video, and a lyric essay. Final Exam Study Guide posted on LMS. Review all primary texts and critical frameworks from Weeks 1–15.
Assignment Final Examination (3 hours — In-Class or Scheduled Online): Section A — Literary Terms & Identification (20 pts). Section B — Unseen Passage Close Reading Essay, 700–900 words (40 pts). Section C — Synthesis Essay: draw on at least THREE works from different genres studied this semester to argue a thesis about a theme of your choosing (40 pts). Research Paper final version also due by Friday of Week 16 via LMS.

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