Spring 2024 – LIT 499/Seminar in Research and Theory: Ecocriticism, Unnatural Nature, and Medieval Literature

LIT 499 – 04
1 course unit
Term: Spring 2024
Time: 5:30-8:20pm M
Room: Bliss Hall 114		 Prof. G. Steinberg
Office: Bliss Hall 216
Office Phone: 771-2106
Office Hours: 2-4:50pm M or by appointment
E-mail : gsteinbe@tcnj.edu

TEXTBOOKS:

      • The Fabliaux, trans. Nathaniel E. Dubin (Liveright, 2013), ISBN 9780871403575
      • Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Romance of the Rose, trans. Frances Horgan (Oxford University Press, 2009), ISBN 9780199540679
      • Geoffrey Chaucer, Dream Visions and Other Poems, ed. Kathryn L. Lynch (Norton, 2006), ISBN 9780393925883
      • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. and trans. James Winny (Broadview, 1992), ISBN 9780921149927
      • Sir Gawain:  Eleven Romances and Tales, ed. Thomas Hahn (TEAMS, 1995), ISBN 9781879288591
      • Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: Seventeen Tales and the General Prologue, ed. V. A. Kolve and Glending Olson, 3rd ed. (Norton, 2018), ISBN 9781324000563

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  The official catalogue description of the course is available in PAWS.

Lots of the stories in the Middle Ages take place in “natural” settings.  This section of LIT 499 examines how medieval writers conceive of and portray the natural world – in comparison with how we understand nature today and in the context of ecocritical theory and environmental sociology.  We read lots of different medieval texts, including Arthurian romances, fabliaux (dirty stories that engage in social satire), and dream visions. This course also has a community-engaged learning component, working with TCNJ’s Campus as a Living Lab (CaLL) on an environmental education project that uses what we have learned in class. From knights wandering in forest wilds to modern-day initiatives to encourage sustainable landscaping, we consider how humans define, describe, and engage with the natural world.

When the College went through a curriculum revision several years ago, the vast majority of undergraduate courses were “transformed” from 3-credit to 4-credit (1-unit) learning experiences.  While most of the classes continued to meet for only 3 academic hours per week, it was understood that the “transformed” courses offered a depth of learning with additional learning tasks unfolding in the equivalent of a fourth hour, including, sometimes, an actual additional hour of class interaction.  As the equivalent of the fourth hour in this course,

F) students are assigned additional learning tasks that make the semester’s learning experience more deeply engaged and rigorous, and no other additional classroom space is needed.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTATIONS.  The principal learning activities in this course are reading, writing, and discussion.  The readings that I have chosen to assign to you are the foundation of your learning.  If you do not do the readings, you miss out on that foundation, so keeping up with the readings is absolutely essential.  Upon the foundation of the readings, you build by writing response papers, which are more about writing-to-learn than writing-as-assessment.  Response papers are a safe, low-stress space for you to try out ideas, increase your understanding of texts and concepts, and improve your retention of what you’re learning.  By writing, you reinforce and expand the learning that you’re gaining from your reading.

Building on your reading and writing, discussion is also very important for your learning in this class.  In general, my approach to class discussion is to begin by posing a question, topic, or problem, then to have us brainstorm lots of ideas together in response to the opening question/topic/problem, then to move to evaluating the ideas that we’ve brainstormed, and finally to come to a consensus, as a class, about the best answers/solutions to the opening question/topic/problem.  Your input to the discussion is absolutely critical.  Even though I’ve taught the readings in this class many, many times, no two classes have ever had exactly the same discussion about them.  Different classes come up with different perspectives, different solutions, different ideas.  As the professor, I’m not looking for one perspective or one solution or one idea in particular.  I want us to think things through together – to throw out as many ideas as possible, to test and evaluate those ideas against the evidence of the text in front of us, and to draw the best conclusions that we can.  We all learn so much by working together in a free and open discussion to answer a question or solve a problem.  I learn so much from your fresh perspectives, and you learn so much from each other.  But this means that our class discussions always depend on your preparedness (how thoroughly and thoughtfully you’ve done the readings and written your response papers before class) and on your participation (how willing you are to take risks and share your ideas – even when they’re only half-baked – with your classmates).  I can’t make a good discussion happen.  Only you all can do that.  I can work to create a classroom space that feels safe, and I can pose provocative questions for us to discuss, but a good discussion – along with the incredible learning that comes from a good discussion – only happens if you all come to class prepared and willing to join in.

GOALS.  In this course, you will learn

      1. to grow ever more responsible for and independent in your own learning,
      2. to write in multiple modalities (e.g., academic papers, social media, newspapers, business communications), in different genres (e.g., scholarly essay, blog, press release, readers’ report, book review, business memo), for different audiences (e.g., scholarly, general, business),
      3. to be more aware of, question, and enrich your basic assumptions about language, culture, and literature,
      4. to recognize that human cultures from different times and places construct “nature” differently and that their constructions of nature affect human behavior toward the environment,
      5. to recognize a variety of medieval texts of different genres,
      6. to analyze medieval literature and culture from an ecocritical perspective, elucidating complex issues and suggesting additional avenues of critical inquiry,
      7. to think theoretically, moving beyond issues of specific textual analysis into more abstract modes of thinking,
      8. to conduct advanced research in the humanities by building upon the basic research skills first introduced in Approaches to Literature,
      9. to demonstrate the kind of intellectual independence and sustained, critical thought required for the production of high-quality literary, linguistic, textual and/or rhetorical scholarship,
      10. to discover, assert and insert your own critical “voice” into the ongoing dialogues, critiques, and debates that characterize the humanities, and
      11. to demonstrate greater facility with critical practices in the field of English.

Also, the following goals for the School of Humanities & Social Sciences apply in this course:

#1 Written Communication
#2 Oral Communication
#5 Critical Analysis and Reasoning:  Ability to critique the arguments of others in the discipline and the construction of one’s own arguments in the discipline, using data/evidence as a focus of instruction and/or the ability to analyze linguistic and cultural patterns
#6 Information Literacy:  Evaluating the validity and/or reliability of a source
#7 Interpret Language and Symbol
#12 Students will be able to demonstrate familiarity with a range of critical, generic, and literary traditions (including recent theoretical approaches) that shape – and are shaped by – literary discourses and texts of particular periods or movements
#15 Students will be able to read a literary work and characterize its main aesthetic, structural, and rhetorical strategies in an argumentative, thesis-driven essay or in a writing workshop
#16 Students will be able to write a substantial essay of literary scholarship that is theoretically informed and engages with current research and criticism in relevant fields of study, asserting their own critical voice in ongoing dialogues and debates
#17 Analyze how creative texts, artworks, or performances reflect, shape, exalt, or challenge the values of a culture

For the Campus as a Living Lab (CaLL) initiative, the following goals apply:

Goal #1 Increase and enhance innovative, hands-on learning opportunities for students in environmental sustainability, an area of critical importance in the job market and society.
Goal #3 – Increase recognition of TCNJ’s sustainability achievements

REQUIREMENTS.  For this course, you must complete the following graded assignments:

      1. six two-page response papers (together worth 15% of your final grade),
      2. a research assignment (15% of your final grade),
      3. a community-engaged learning project (20%),
      4. a seminar paper (30%), and
      5. a comprehensive exam (20%).

Your final grade will be based on the following scale:  A = 93%-100%, A- = 90%-92%, B+ = 87%-89%, B = 83%-86%, B- = 80%-82%, C+ = 77%-79%, C = 73%-76%, C- = 70%-72%, D+ = 67%-69%, D = 60%-66%, and F = below 60%.  This scale is absolute.  Because the response papers are in a sense a form of extra credit built into this course from the start, I do not give extra credit at the end of the semester to help students raise their grade even a whisker.  So, even if, at the end of the semester, you are just .0001 points away from 90%, your final grade will be a B+.

RESPONSE PAPERS.  In the course of the term, you are required to submit six short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose for which days you want to write a response paper, as long as you have completed six response papers by the end of the term.  For each response paper, choose one of the following topics and analyze the reading assignment for the day with respect to the topic you’ve chosen:

      1. Social Construction of Nature. How does the reading assignment construct and mediate the natural world?  What culturally developed conceptions and attitudes toward the natural world does the reading communicate in the very act of representing it?  What shared social meanings does the natural world seem to have?  What social group(s) might be the source of those shared meanings?  To what social group(s) does the reading’s writer and audience seem to belong?  Click here for a list of some of the most important social groups in medieval Europe and some brief generalizations about them.
      2. Naturework. How does the reading assignment make sense of and express the relationship of humans to the environment?  Into which competing ideological vision of nature does the text seem to fit – protectionist, organicist, or humanist?  Is the reading misanthropic, viewing human beings as a blight upon an authentic, uncontaminated natural world?  Is the text romantic or pastoral, viewing humans as simply part of an organic whole with nature rather than alienated from it?  Does the reading view nature solely as a resource or tool to be tamed and used to serve human needs according to human choices?  Does the reading want to protect nature, embrace it, or use it?
      3. Essential Nature. In what ways does the reading assignment represent humans as subject to an abstract, singular, essential, inherent, and immutable principle or “nature”?  How does the reading represent the place of humans (as individuals or as a group) within the order of nature?  What destiny do humans (as individuals or as a group) have as a result of their place within the order of nature?  How far can humans deviate from their natural destiny?  Is such deviation represented positively or negatively (as a sign of civilization and improvement or as a mark of corruption and decadence)?  Is the nature to which humans are subject positive (pure, orderly, divinely-ordained) or negative (violent, primitive, base)?
      4. Cyborgs. How does the reading assignment break down the boundaries of dualisms – such as those between male and female, human and animal, technology and nature?  What “cyborg” figures show up in the reading?  What kinds of disruptive technologies exist in the text?  In what ways do technology and nature meld or transgress boundaries?  Are boundaries then reinforced or reproduced?  Where do you see an emphasis on the strict integrity of objects or people?  How do cyborgs and monsters in the reading help redefine the proper limits of community and shore up the boundaries between traditional dualisms?  How do they threaten or erase those boundaries?

Please note that, when you do a response paper, you are writing about the reading assigned for the day on which you’re submitting the paper. So, you’re writing about the reading before we discuss it in class and submitting the paper before the class meeting for which that reading is assigned. You can’t submit a response paper about a past day’s reading assignment.  You should submit each response paper by “sharing” it with me as a Google Doc before class on the reading’s assigned day.  Be sure to grant me “editing” or “suggesting” status when you share the Google Doc with me (so that I can comment on it).

The purpose of the response papers is

      1. to help you in your preparation for class discussion,
      2. to help me see where you’re struggling with the readings and concepts in class,
      3. to help you broaden and enrich your understanding of the literary theories that we are exploring,
      4. to serve as a safe space for you to generate and practice potential ideas for your seminar paper, and
      5. to help you develop your intellectual independence and your confidence as a reader.

Response papers are graded Pass/Fail, so they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Rather, response papers should be just what their name says – a response.  Think about one of the topics  that I have asked you to consider; then write a response.  Don’t worry about typos or comma splices or organization.  Don’t worry about answering every question I ask under a particular topic.  In fact, focus on the one question that seems most interesting to you, and be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can.  Treat response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an exploration – as detailed and specific as possible – of the reading assignment for the day.  But don’t focus too narrowly on just one scene or passage from the reading assignment.  Try to generalize about the reading and then look at specific examples from all over to support your generalization.

Normally, as long as you submit a response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you submit it before class on the assigned day), you will receive all the points that the response paper is worth.  You may submit more than six response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not pass), but no matter how many extra response papers you turn in, you will not receive credit for more than six total.  You may not submit more than one response paper on a single day’s reading assignment (even if the day’s assignment comes from more than one work), nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class.  But you may submit more than one response paper on the same text if there are multiple reading assignments from that text spread over multiple days in the course outline below.  In other words, if we spend multiple days on a work, you can write response papers for each day that we spend on it, but the response papers should be on the different reading assignments for each of the days.  (NOTE: Even if you do not submit a response paper on a particular day, you should still come to class prepared to discuss the response paper topics in relation to the reading assignment, since we will focus on these topics in our in-class discussions all semester; in other words, the response paper topics above are a great guide for your class prep every day.)

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT.  Find at least six scholarly sources (articles or book chapters) related to The Merchant’s Tale.  As much as possible, these sources should be recent (published within the last 30 years) and should be the best, most significant sources that you can find – not simply the first six available.  Once you have chosen your sources, compose a brief description (maximum of 1 page, not including your “Works Cited”) that situates the sources in relation to one another.  What is the “conversation” in which these sources are engaged (literally or figuratively)?  What are the various positions that the participants take in that conversation?  Do not simply summarize one source after the other.  Put the sources in relation to one another within a larger narrative of an unfolding conversation about the tale.  As you think about how to characterize this critical conversation, consider the following questions:

      1. What is the main point of each source?  Do all the main points relate to each other in any way – i.e., explore similar ideas, hold similar or contradictory views, focus on the same figure, episode, or theme, consider the same philosophical question?
      2. If they tend to focus on the same figure, episode, theme, or philosophical question, do they tend to view that figure, episode, theme, or philosophical question in one or two different ways?  In other words, can you group them as looking at the figure, episode, theme, or philosophical question either this way or that way?
      3. If they tend to explore similar ideas (such as gender, social class, genre, aesthetics), do they tend to explore those ideas in one or two different ways?  In other words, can you group them as looking at the same thing either this way or that way?

Your paper will be assessed based on the following criteria:

      1. Does the description of the sources have a clear logic of its own?  Rather than summarizing one source after another after another, does the description situate the sources in relation to one another in an interesting and accurate way?
      2. How many sources does the paper use and how recent and important are they?  Are the sources that are used the most significant and authoritative sources available (e.g., published in the most important journals, written by important scholars, cited by other sources)?
      3. Is the description of the sources and their relation to one another accurate and fair?  Are characterizations of each individual source clear and accurate enough to give a proper understanding of the main point of the source to someone who is unfamiliar with it?
      4. Is the “conversation” among the sources significant?  Does the conversation include important, interesting perspectives on the text?
      5. Does the paper have unified, well-developed, and coherent paragraphs?
      6. Does the paper use proper MLA documentation format, including a correct and complete “Works Cited” page?
      7. Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, and appropriate to an academic setting?

COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING PROJECT.  As part of a Campus as a Living Lab (CaLL) initiative, TCNJ is working on various sustainability projects on campus with the help of different classes.  One of the projects is the creation of an interactive campus map that will include information about TCNJ’s sustainability activities, as well as about the existence and history of natural spaces on campus.  In this course, we are going to contribute to this initiative.

Roughly midway through the semester, I will assign you to pairs or small groups to research and write about a natural space on campus (such as the “Ecological Forest,” Lake Ceva and Lake Sylva, the community garden, Green Lawn and Quimby’s Prairie, the Education Building outdoor classroom, Green Lane Fields, or native plantings around campus).  Your writing assignment is to compose web content that can be used later with the interactive map.  Your content should include

      • a description of the natural space that is your focus (its size, its flora and fauna, its surroundings),
      • a history of the natural space (when was it created? by whom? for what purpose? how have the space and its purpose changed over time?),
      • information about who maintains the natural space and what maintenance is used (including future plans for the space),
      • a profile of a person (someone who created, uses, or maintains the space),
      • links to web pages of interest (both from TCNJ’s website and outside TCNJ),
      • photos (of the space, of the person profiled, of plants, wildlife, and/or students in the space), including, if possible, archival photos that show the space in the past, and
      • the approaches to the natural world (protectionist, organicist, or humanist) that dominate human engagement and interaction with the space (keeping in mind that your readers may not know the specific terminology from our class).

Your web content will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

      1. Is all the required content included?  Is the content informative, accurate, and comprehensive?  Are there significant gaps?
      2. Is the content presented in a way that is creative and appealing?  Would the tone and style of the content’s writing be likely to engender and maintain a reader’s interest?  Is there a creative, interesting “hook” to the content that is inviting and provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?
      3. Are links that are included with the content (both from TCNJ and outside TCNJ) relevant, interesting, and helpful?
      4. When you analyze the approaches to the natural world that dominate human engagement and interaction with the space, does the analysis show a thorough, sophisticated understanding of both the concepts from class (protectionist, organicist, humanist) and the real-life motivations of the humans who engage and interact with the space?
      5. Is the writing clear, effective, and appropriate to a web setting?

SEMINAR PAPER.  In a seminar paper of 15-20 pages, argue a clear, specific, original thesis with an ecocritical focus about a medieval text of your choice that we have not discussed in class.  For your medieval text, I recommend one of the Gawain romances in Sir Gawain (such as The Awntyrs off Arthur) or one of Chaucer’s works in The Canterbury Tales (such as The Knight’s Tale or The Nun’s Priest’s Tale) or Dream Visions and Other Poems (such as The Legend of Good Women), although you may also look at https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text-online to find other texts of potential interest (such as Sir Degaré or Sir Orfeo).  I expect you to show sophistication in terms of your theoretical thinking and to enter into the critical conversation going on in scholarly articles and books on your topic, saying something new while also responding to what others have said before you.

Your seminar paper will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

      1. Does the paper have a clear, specific, original thesis?  Does the thesis offer an interesting perspective or “hook” that is sophisticated in its theoretical thinking and provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?
      2. Does the paper use a variety of sources (rather than rely heavily on a single source)?  Does the paper synthesize its sources, characterizing the critical conversation on its topic and entering into that conversation in a meaningful way?  Does the paper summarize information and arguments from its sources and from the critical conversation accurately and fairly?  Does the paper respond to its sources critically and thoughtfully (rather than simply cite sources to lend authority to its own pronouncements)?
      3. Does the paper engender confidence that its research is reasonably authoritative and complete?  As much as possible, are the paper’s sources recent (i.e., published within the last 30 years)?  Are all the paper’s sources appropriately scholarly?
      4. Does the paper’s organization progress logically?  Does the paper have a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together in support of the thesis (rather than simply list random observations without relation to one another or to the thesis)?  Does the paper have appropriate transitions to aid the reader in following the paper’s logic (rather than weak transitions, such as “The first…,” “Another…,” and “…also…”)?
      5. Are the paper’s paragraphs properly developed – neither too long and wandering nor too short and deficient?  Are the topics of the individual paragraphs suitably narrow and focused rather than vague and broad?  Once a paragraph gets specific about anything, does it stay focused on that specific topic to the end?
      6. Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion?  Is factual information in the paper accurate?
      7. Does the paper show sensitivity to the concrete historicity of the text(s) under consideration (rather than treat texts as timeless museum pieces or reflect on them anachronistically)?
      8. Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing passages, texts, and scholars not discussed in class?
      9. Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
      10. Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, and appropriate to an academic setting?

You are required to submit a topic paragraph leading up to your seminar paper.    This topic paragraph is simply a paragraph in which you describe the topic that you’re planning to write about in your paper.  You are also required to attend at least one conference a couple weeks before the seminar paper is due.  At these conferences, you should be prepared to summarize the progress that you have made on your seminar paper up to that point and your plans for the future.  You should also be able to show copies of all notes, sources, and drafts that you have accumulated so far (because I may ask you at the conference to show me a particular source that you’ve mentioned or a section of the draft of your paper that we’re discussing).  I will not, however, read the entire draft of your paper and critique it for you.  I want you to become more self-reflective and self-reliant when it comes to your own writing, and so, I want you to identify the weaknesses in your paper on your own (and ask me about them) rather than have me read your entire draft and identify the weaknesses for you.  The due date for the topic paragraph and the dates for the conferences are noted in the course schedule below.

At the end of the semester, you will give a brief presentation (5-10 minutes) to class about your topic.  These presentations are intended to be relatively relaxed and informal but are good practice for you and should be taken seriously.  In your presentation, you should describe your topic for your classmates and give at least one concrete example of what you plan to talk about in your paper, pointing to (and reading out loud) a relevant passage.  You should not read from notes during the presentation but rather talk to us casually about your paper.

If you fail to submit your topic paragraph, miss a conference, or skip your presentation of your topic to class, your seminar paper’s grade may suffer.

EXAM.  The exam in this course is an assessment of how well you are learning, understanding, and retaining the material in class.  The exam includes quotations from our course readings for you to identify and analyze, based on what we’ve learned and discussed in class.  The quotations are usually ones that we discuss at length together, although some quotations may be less discussed in class but still central to the plot and themes of the work from which they come (and therefore reasonable passages for you to be able to identify).  In addition, the exam assesses your retention of important character names, settings, critical terms, and concepts by asking you to identify and describe them.  Finally, the exam offers you the opportunity to draw together all the different strands of what you’ve been learning in class in an essay that asks you to look broadly at overarching themes and ideas.

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.  A quarter-unit (one-credit) Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC) independent study may be added to this course for students who have intermediate-level proficiency in another language and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. Students should complete this Enrollment Request Form (https://forms.gle/NCbYWWRVxfogTv5T7) to enroll in the LAC independent study by Tuesday, January 23. Please contact the LAC Director, Dr. Holly Didi-Ogren (holly.didi-ogren@tcnj.edu) with any questions.

PROFESSOR’S AVAILABILITY.  My office is Bliss Hall 216.  My in-person office hours this term are 2-4:50pm on Mondays.  If you have questions about class (or just want to talk about stuff), feel free to stop by during these hours (no appointment necessary).  I can also meet over Zoom if that’s more convenient for you – just let me know.  If you cannot come during my scheduled office hours, talk to me about meeting at another time, and we can set up an appointment.  You may contact me by email (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu) or by calling my office phone (609-771-2106) and leaving a message (if I do not answer), but email is usually the best way to get in touch with me.  You may also leave a written message for me in my box at the English Department offices in Bliss Hall 124.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of this class.  Class discussion constitutes important, useful preparation for your graded work.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared – without excuses – to the next class meeting.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY.  Academic dishonesty is any attempt by a student to gain academic advantage through dishonest means, to submit, as your own, work which has not been done by you or to give improper aid to another student in the completion of an assignment. Such dishonesty would include, but is not limited to, submitting as your own a project, paper, report, test, or speech copied from, partially copied, or paraphrased from the work of another (whether the source is AI-generated, printed, under copyright, or in manuscript form). Credit must always be given for words and ideas quoted or paraphrased. The rules apply to any academic dishonesty, whether the work is graded or ungraded, group or individual, written or oral.

ACCOMMODATIONS.  The College of New Jersey prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability or perceived disability. The College will also provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students with disabilities to participate in the life of the campus community. If you require special accommodations, I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities are respected.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION. We are all enriched by greater diversity, and we all bring different perspectives to this class. I want to create a learning environment that supports diversity and honors your identities and perspectives (including your race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, mental and physical health, differing abilities, politics, etc.). If you go by a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear in your official records, please let me know. If you feel that your performance in class is being impacted by a hostile environment related to your identity outside of class, please don’t hesitate to talk to me about it. If something is said or posted in class (by anyone, including me) that makes you feel that your identity is being targeted, stereotyped, or disparaged, please talk to me about it. I will expect our whole class (including me) to strive always to honor every form of diversity.

SCREENS.  I encourage you to use screens (laptops, phones, ipads) as little as possible in this class.  In the last decade or more, there has been a ton of research that shows that screens are bad for learning – that you are less likely to remember what happens in class if you take notes on an electronic device rather than with pen and paper, that you are less likely to comprehend and remember what you read if you read it on a screen rather than in a printed format, that you are more likely to be distracted and miss things in class if you use an electronic device during class time.  I am not a Luddite (someone who despises all technology); I love my screens and use them a lot.  But I have watched a lot of students over the last few years perform much worse in my classes than they could (or should) have performed, because they used screens for taking notes and reading.  And my anecdotal experience with students over the years is nothing in comparison with the towering tsunami of research that shows just how bad screens are for students.

For that reason, while I do not forbid you to use screens in and for class (because you are adults, responsible for your own choices), I nevertheless encourage you – with every fiber of my being – to consider taking the “minimal screens” pledge below:

In order to maximize my learning in this class, I pledge

        1. to take notes in class with pen and paper,
        2. to read assignments in print format if at all possible,
        3. to keep all electronic devices out of sight during class (unless needed for a reading assignment or to look up information requested by the professor), and
          if I do use an electronic device during class time for any reason,
        4. to avoid the temptation to “multitask” by opening only the programs, websites, and apps that I specifically need for class.

I can almost guarantee that you will do better in class – participate more, learn more, retain more – if you take this pledge and follow its guidelines than if you do not.

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AND COMMITMENT TO STUDENT SUCCESS, SAFETY, AND WELL-BEING.  The TCNJ community is dedicated to the success, safety, and well-being of each student. TCNJ strictly follows key policies that govern all TCNJ community members’ rights and responsibilities in and out of the classroom. In addition, TCNJ has established several student support offices that can provide the support and resources to help students achieve their personal and professional goals and to promote health and well-being. You can find more information about these policies and resources at the “TCNJ Student Support Resources and Classroom Policies” webpage here:  https://academicaffairs.tcnj.edu/tcnj-syllabus-resources/.

Students who anticipate and/or experience barriers in this course are encouraged to contact the instructor as early in the semester as possible. The Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) is available to facilitate the removal of barriers and to ensure reasonable accommodations. For more information about ARC, please visit:  https://arc.tcnj.edu/.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.  Changes in the schedule made after the first day of class will be shown in red.

Date Assignment
M Jan 22 Terry Gifford, “The Social Construction of Nature” (under “Files” in Canvas) and The Fabliaux #68
M Jan 29 Gary Alan Fine, “Naturework and the Taming of the Wild” (under “Files” in Canvas), Raymond Williams, “Ideas of Nature” (under “Files” in Canvas), Donna Haraway, The Haraway Reader, pp. 7-13, 20-25, 31-39 (under “Files” in Canvas), and The Fabliaux #3, #15, and #27
M Feb 5  The Fabliaux #5, #6, #11, #19, #24, #28, #34, #36, #53, and #58
M Feb 12 The Miller’s Tale (in The Canterbury Tales); Mark Gaipa, “Breaking into the Conversation,” pp. 419-425 (under “Files” in Canvas); Frederick M. Biggs and Laura L. Howes, “Theophany in the Miller’s Tale,” Medium Ævum 65 (1996), 269-279 (under “Files” in Canvas); and Alcuin Blamires, “Philosophical Sleaze?:  The ‘strok of thought’ in the Miller’s Tale and Chaucer Fabliau,” The Modern Language Review 102 (2007), 621-640 (under “Files” in Canvas)
M Feb 19 The Merchant’s Tale (in The Canterbury Tales); Gila Aloni, “Extimacy in the Miller’s Tale,” The Chaucer Review 41 (2006), 163-184 (under “Files” in Canvas); Louise M. Bishop, “‘Of Goddes pryvetee nor of his wyf’:  Confusion of Orifices in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale,” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 44 (2002), 231-246 (under “Files” in Canvas); and Mary Flowers Braswell, “‘A Completely Funny Story’:  Mary Eliza Haweis and the ‘Miller’s Tale,’” The Chaucer Review 42 (2008), 244-268 (under “Files” in Canvas)
M Feb 26 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Explore natural spaces on campus for COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING PROJECT (what natural spaces are there on campus? where are they? how familiar are you and other students with them? how do people see their relationship to the spaces [protectionist, organicist, humanist]? how well are the spaces maintained?)
SIGNUP for COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING PROJECT
F Mar 1 RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT DUE in Canvas by 11:59pm
M Mar 4 The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle (both in Sir Gawain) and The Wife of Bath’s Tale (in The Canterbury Tales)
M Mar 11 NO CLASS (Spring Break)
M Mar 18 The Romance of the Rose, Chapters 1-3
Reports about progress on COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING PROJECTS (progress? questions? issues? plans?)
M Mar 25 The Romance of the Rose, Chapters 9-10, and Pearl (available free online at https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/stanbury-pearl)
Last day to withdraw from this class with a W
Th Mar 28 COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING PROJECT DUE in Canvas by 11:59pm
M Apr 1 The Book of the Duchess and The Parliament of Fowls (both in Dream Visions and Other Poems)
TOPIC PARAGRAPH for SEMINAR PAPER DUE in Canvas by 11:59pm
M Apr 8 COMPREHENSIVE EXAM and Gaipa, “Breaking into the Conversation,” pp. 425-437 (available under “Files” in Canvas)
M Apr 15 NO CLASS (individual conferences)
M Apr 22 NO CLASS (individual conferences)
M Apr 29 ORAL PRESENTATIONS on seminar papers
ASSIGNED FINAL EXAM PERIOD SEMINAR PAPER DUE in Canvas