| LIT 499-04 1 course unit Prerequisites: LIT 101 and LIT 102 Term: Fall 2024 Time: 5:30-8:20pm Thursday Room: Bliss Hall 114 |
Prof. G. Steinberg Office: Bliss Hall 216 Office Phone: 771-2106 Office Hours: 2-4:50pm on Thursdays or by appointment E-mail: gsteinbe@tcnj.edu |
TEXTBOOKS:
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- Dante, Inferno, trans. Mark Musa (Penguin, 2002), ISBN 9780142437223,
- Dante, Purgatory, trans. Mark Musa (Penguin, 1985), ISBN 9780140444421,
- Dante, Paradiso, trans. Mark Musa (Penguin, 1986), ISBN 9780140444438.
The Italian text of Dante’s poem (with an English translation by Robert and Jean Hollander) is available online for free at https://dante.princeton.edu/.
COURSE DESCRIPTION. The official catalogue description of this course is available in PAWS.
In this particular section of LIT 499, we read the entire Divine Comedy and examine Dante’s poem in the light of current literary theory (including Louis Althusser, Judith Butler, and Jacques Derrida). Themes explored in the course include the text’s role in reassuring (or challenging) its readers’ subjectivity within a particular ideology (particularly in terms of gender politics) and the nature and limits of language (particularly in relation to metaphor). Along the way, we enjoy the creative imagination of Dante’s vision of the afterlife — from the horrors of hell to the pleasures of paradise.
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 (typically 150 minutes on the TCNJ schedule grid), 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) The 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 concepts, and improve your retention of what you’re learning. By writing, you reinforce and expand the learning that you’re gaining from your watching.
Building on your watching 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 or problem, then to have us brainstorm lots of ideas together in response to the opening question/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/problem. Your input to the discussion is absolutely critical. Even though I may have taught the materials in this class many, many times before, no two classes have ever had exactly the same discussion about them. Different classes come up with different ideas, different solutions, different answers. As the professor, I’m not looking for one idea or one solution or one answer 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 material 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 your assigned homework) and on your participation (how willing you are to take risks, brainstorm, and share ideas – even when your ideas are only half-baked). 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 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, I want you to
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- grow ever more responsible for and independent in your own learning,
- become comfortable reading Dante,
- enjoy the wit, logic, and artistry of Dante’s writing,
- appreciate the accomplishment that the Divine Comedy represents in the history of Western literature,
- conduct advanced research in the humanities by building upon the basic research skills first introduced in Approaches to Literature,
- demonstrate the kind of intellectual independence and sustained, critical thought required for the production of high-quality literary, linguistic, textual and/or rhetorical scholarship,
- discover, assert, and insert your own critical “voice” into the ongoing dialogues, critiques, and debates that characterize the humanities and engage with scholars in relevant fields,
- apply a range of critical theories – linguistic, literary, rhetorical and/or cultural – to texts and their contexts in order to elucidate complex issues and suggest additional avenues of critical inquiry,
- think theoretically, moving beyond issues of textual analysis into more abstract modes of thinking,
- demonstrate greater facility with critical practices in the field of English, and
- communicate your ideas and your findings with precision, appropriateness, and clarity.
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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
REQUIREMENTS. For this course, you must complete the following graded assignments:
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- six two-page response papers (altogether worth 15% of your final grade),
- two research assignments (15% and 20% of your final grade),
- a seminar paper (30%), and
- an exam (20%).
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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 an A-, 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 from Dante assigned 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 assigned reading for the day with respect to the topic you’ve chosen:
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- Interpellation. How does the reading assignment from Dante interpellate its reader as a subject? What kind of subject does the reading hail (and recruit)? What clues exist in the reading assignment about the type of subject Dante is hailing? What are the reading assignment’s assumptions about its audience’s characteristics, beliefs, desires, self-image? How does the reading hail/appeal to/recruit that audience? Into what kind of ideology does the reading hail (and recruit) Dante’s audience? What world view and material behavior does the reading assignment expect/demand of the reader? In what rituals, practices, or ideological apparatuses does the reading hail its reader to participate?
- Gender Performance. How does the reading assignment from Dante portray the performance of gender? In what ways is gender portrayed as natural and essential rather than performative and socially determined? In what ways is the reverse true? Where is gender fluid or performative in nature? How do the characters “do” their gender? How much room for individual interpretation is allowed in gender performances? How are characters punished (or rewarded) for doing their gender wrong (or right)?
- Deconstruction. Where does Dante’s poem seem to intentionally deconstruct itself? Where does it seem to unintentionally deconstruct? How is meaning deferred by Dante’s language? What traces of différance defer and destabilize meaning? Where does Dante’s language deconstruct his attempts to stabilize it? What does Dante try (but fail) to hide through his language?
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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 assignment. You should submit each response paper by “sharing” it with me as a Google Doc before class on the assigned day. Be sure to grant me “editing” or “suggesting” status when you share the Google Doc with me (so that I can comment directly on the paper).
The purpose of the response papers is
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- to help you in your preparation for class discussion,
- to allow you to try out new and different ideas in a safe, low-stress space,
- to help me see where you’re struggling with the concepts in class,
- to help you reinforce and expand on what you’re learning in class, and
- to help you develop your intellectual independence and confidence.
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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 assigned reading for the day. But don’t focus too narrowly on just one passage from the assigned reading. Try to generalize about the reading and then look at specific examples from multiple passages 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, nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class. You also may not submit a response paper on a day that has no reading from Dante. (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 assigned reading, 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.)
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 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.
RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT 1. Choose one figure from the Inferno (other than Dante, Virgil, or Brunetto Latini). Find at least six scholarly sources (articles or book chapters) relevant to this figure. 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. If there has been very little (or nothing) published on your chosen figure in the last 30 years, you may go further back in time, but if I do a superficial search and find tons of more recent sources, your older sources will not suffice. 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 your chosen figure from the Inferno. As you think about how to characterize this critical conversation, consider the following questions:
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- 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, consider the same philosophical question or theme?
- Do they tend to view the figure from the Inferno in just a couple different ways? In other words, can you group them as looking at the figure either this way or that way?
- If they tend to explore similar ideas (such as gender, social class, genre, aesthetics), do they tend to explore those ideas in just a couple different ways? In other words, can you group them as looking at the same thing either this way or that way?
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Your paper will be assessed based on the following criteria:
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- 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?
- 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)?
- 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?
- Is the “conversation” among the sources significant? Does the conversation include important, interesting perspectives on the highlighted figure from the Inferno?
- Does the paper have unified, well-developed, and coherent paragraphs?
- Does the paper use proper MLA documentation format, including a correct and complete “Works Cited” page?
- Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, and appropriate to an academic setting?
RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT 2. Do the exact same assignment as Research Assignment 1 again, but this time choose a figure from the Purgatorio (other than Dante, Virgil, or Beatrice). Your paper will be assessed based on the same criteria as Research Assignment 1.
SEMINAR PAPER. Write a seminar paper of 15-20 pages that argues a clear, specific, original thesis on a Dante topic of your choice (approved by me). I expect you to show sophistication in terms of your theoretical approach 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:
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- Does the paper have a clear, specific, original thesis? Does the thesis offer an interesting perspective or “hook” that is sophisticated in its theoretical approach and provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?
- Does the paper use a body 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)?
- 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 scholarly?
- 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…”)?
- 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?
- Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion? Is factual information in the paper accurate?
- 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)?
- Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing passages, texts, and scholars not discussed in class?
- Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
- 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 one-on-one, in-person conference as you work on your seminar paper (in my office in Bliss Hall 216). At the conference, 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 bring to the conference 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). I will not, however, read an entire draft of your paper for you. I want you to become more self-reflective and self-sufficient 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 all the weaknesses for you. The notes, sources, and drafts that you bring to the conference may be electronic documents that you show me on a laptop or phone, or they may be printed copies. 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 (5-8 minutes) to class about your topic. These presentations are intended to be relatively relaxed and informal but are good practice for you in terms of public speaking 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’re going to talk about in your paper, pointing to (and reading out) a relevant passage in Dante’s text. You should not read from notes during the presentation but rather talk to us casually about your paper.
If you do not submit your topic paragraph, miss your conference, or skip your presentation of your topic to class (or do your presentation very poorly), your seminar paper’s grade may suffer by as much as one letter grade.
LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. A quarter-unit (one-credit) Languages Across the Curriculum independent study may be added to this course for students who have intermediate level proficiency in Italian and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. Students should complete this google form (https://forms.gle/ztyranBCUjhxrU4m7) by Thursday, September 5 to be enrolled in the LAC independent study. Please contact LAC Program 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 Thursdays. 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. 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, partially copied, or paraphrased from the work of another (whether the source is AI-generated, printed, under copyright, or another student’s work). Credit must always be given for words quoted or paraphrased and even for ideas or information taken from a source. 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 outside of class by a hostile environment related to your identity, please don’t hesitate to talk to me. If something is said or posted in class (by anyone, including me) that you consider hostile or offensive to your identity, please talk to me about it. I will expect our whole class (including me) to strive always to honor every form of diversity.
SCREENS. Unless required as an accommodation for a physical or mental disability, you may not use screens (laptops, phones, ipads) in this class. In the last ten years, 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 learning in the classroom.
For that reason, you may not use any electronic devices in class.
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. The schedule below 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.
| Dates | Assignments |
| Aug 29 | Introductions Althusser (available in Canvas under “Files”) Inferno, Canto I |
| Sep 5 | Butler (available in Canvas under “Files”) Derrida (available in Canvas under “Files”) Inferno, Cantos II-V |
| Sep 12 | Inferno, Cantos VI-XIV |
| Sep 19 | Inferno, Cantos XV-XX Gaipa, “Breaking into the Conversation,” pp. 419-425 (available under “Files” in Canvas) Gregory B. Stone, “Sodomy, Diversity, Cosmopolitanism: Dante and the Limits of the Polis,” Dante Studies 123 (2005), 89-132 (available under “Files” in Canvas) |
| Sep 26 | Inferno, Cantos XXI-XXIII Massimo Verdicchio, “Re-reading Brunetto Latini and Inferno XV,” Quaderni d’italianistica 21 (2000), 61-81 (available under “Files” in Canvas) Steven Stowell, “Visualizing the Sodomites in Dante’s Commedia,” Dante Studies 126 (2008), 143-174 (available under “Files” in Canvas) John Arthos, “The Disorientation of Figures: The Palio Simile and a Theory of Tropes,” Exemplaria 29 (2017), 157-174 (available under “Files” in Canvas) |
| Oct 3 | Inferno, Cantos XXIV-XXXIV |
| Oct 10 | Purgatorio, Cantos I-XII |
| Oct 14 | RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE in Canvas by 11:59pm |
| Oct 17 | Purgatorio, Cantos XIII-XXVII |
| Oct 24 | Purgatorio, Cantos XXVIII-XXXIII Paradiso, Cantos I-VIII |
| Oct 29 | last day to withdraw with a W or to request ungraded option |
| Oct 31 | Paradiso, Cantos IX-XXII |
| Nov 4 | RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE in Canvas by 11:59pm |
| Nov 7 | Paradiso, Cantos XXIII-XXXIII TOPIC PARAGRAPH for SEMINAR PAPER DUE as a shared Google Doc by 11:59pm (making sure to give me “editing” or “commenting” status so that I can comment directly on the paragraph) |
| Nov 14 | EXAM Gaipa, “Breaking into the Conversation,” pp. 425-437 (available under “Files” in Canvas) |
| Nov 21 | NO CLASS (individual conferences) |
| Nov 28 | NO CLASS (Thanksgiving Break) |
| Dec 5 | ORAL PRESENTATIONS |
| FINAL EXAM PERIOD | SEMINAR PAPER DUE in Canvas |