C LIT 200 / SCAND 175 - Into to Literature through the Nobel Prize
Coordinator: Professor Andrew Nestingen (he/him)
akn@uw.edu
Office Hours: Wed., 2:30-4:20 (or email for zoom appointment)
Raitt Hall 318
Ian Gwin (he/they)
Teaching Assistant
iangwin@uw.edu
Office Hours: 1:30-4:20, M. Raitt Hall 305T
C LIT BA (11:30-12:20, Mechanical Engineering Bldg. 237)
C LIT BC / SCAND AB (12:30-1:20, Miller 301 )
Maxine Savage (they/them)
Teaching Assistant
savay@uw.edu
Office Hours: https://calendly.com/savay/officehours
C LIT BB/SCAND AA (11:30-12:20, Communications 120)
C LIT BD (12:30-1:20, Savery 131)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course offers a grand tour of world literature as seen through the writings of Nobel Prize winners. Each year, it features a different group of authors from a range of countries, languages, and traditions. In Autumn 2022 we will be introduced to: Gabriel Mistral (AR), William Faulkner (US), Halldór Laxness (IS), Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (RU), Heinrich Böll (DE), Czesław Miłosz (PL), Gabriel García Márquez (CO), Ōe Kenzaburō (JP), Toni Morrison (US), Louise Glück (US). UW faculty experts on these authors will introduce them to us, and then we will discuss them in discussion sections and write about them in our prompts.
This class is team-taught: a different faculty member will give a lecture each week about the work of a writer from their area of expertise. The team-taught method will share our university’s expertise. It will also provide you with a unique view of the many language and literature departments and disciplines at the UW, including Asian Languages and Literatures, Comparative History of Ideas (CHID), English, Germanics, Scandinavian Studies, Slavic, and Spanish and Portuguese, as well as Comparative Literature (a major within the CMS Department). You will see that these departments, while providing a unique opportunity to learn many world languages and read their literatures in the original language, also offer a large number of classes, as well as majors and minors, that do not require the study of a foreign language. This class gives you a small taste of such classes, majors and minors, as all our non-English texts are given in English translation and can be read, enjoyed, and studied in such translation. Our instructors will touch on the issues of literature in translation in their lectures as well.
Lectures by faculty from each unit will focus on the writer and text of the week, but also discuss wide-ranging questions of literature and the politics of prizes. Who wins, who doesn’t, and why? What does that tell us about literature and about the world in which we live?
REQUIREMENTS
3 credits, C/NC, 70% gives a grade of Credit. VLPA.
Assignments include readings, lectures, writing online discussion posts, participation in discussion sections, and a weekly post-discussion post. 3 credits (for "credit or no credit"), VLPA.
GOALS
- To gain a sense of the mode of literature. That is, of the use of language, either oral or written, that is not oriented simply towards communicating information but instead contains “excess” of meaning that makes it relevant in times and places far from those of its origin, and that has a global and interconnected history that is as long as—and an active part of—human history;
- To acquire a sense of the wealth and diversity of the world’s literatures;
- To become familiar with selected authors and examples of their work;
- To learn about the politics of literary prizes and literary fame;
- To gain a broad view of the Humanities at the UW and its departments of languages, literatures, and cultures.
REQUIREMENTS
Readings
All the readings are posted on our Canvas course site on the Home page (Assignments)
These weekly readings include a required part—the select text(s) written by that author—and, as well as optional additional readings such as the author’s short biography, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and other materials.
All readings should be completed in advance of the lecture on them. For example, a posted excerpt from a Gabriel Mistral novel should be completed before our first lecture on October 4, and so on. Readings are of a modest size: about 20-25-pages per week.
Lectures
The lectures take place on Tuesdays 11:30 AM – 1:20 PM, in Gowen 201. Please be advised there are 105 seats in the class and 105 students registered. You are advised to arrive early. Out of respect for our visiting lecturers, do not enter the room late.
Discussion Posts (90%)
Each discussion section will have a running weekly on-line discussion and in-class discussion in section. Each week, students will need to make two posts on the course Canvas webpage.
- Post One must be posted by Midnight (12:00AM) the Wednesday after the in-class lecture. The post should raise a question, make a response, note something of interest, or point to a confusion that the poster had in reaction to the reading assigned and/or the lecture. The post should be clear and substantive, and a minimum of 50 words. If it does not meet a minimum standard of clarity and substance, it will not receive credit.
- Post Two should state a takeaway from the in-class discussion in your discussion section’s discussion of the author. It must be posted by midnight on the Friday following Thursday discussion section. The post should state a theme, question, argument, or other substantive point about the discussion of the author’s work in section. Criteria for this post are the same as for Post One: clear, substantive, minimum of 50 words. If you make something up, because you skipped your discussion section, you will not receive credit.
This means your work for the class is to make 20 posts, or two per week, for the course of the quarter. If you do that, and meet the criteria for the posts, you will receive a C (credit) with flying colors. Easy and fun and you will learn a lot!
The minimum standard for a passing grade for the course is 14 posts. If you have no posts from the last two weeks of class, you will receive a grade of NC.
Participation in Discussion Sessions (10%)
You are required to participate in the fifty-minute in-person discussion sections (called “quiz” sections, even though they will not be used for quizzes) on Thursdays, which will, depending on what discussion section you registered for, be taught by Ian Gwin or Maxine Savage.
Some students are more comfortable talking than others so your participation will mostly be assessed by your active presence. Further, you will make a discussion post about quiz section, requiring your presence. You should be present, pay attention, and be able to offer some thoughts if asked to do so. In general, you should talk as much as this is comfortable for you. This is your opportunity to discuss, learn, and prepare your thoughts about your discussion-section post. If you earn no participation points for the last three weeks (not including Thanksgiving week), you will receive a grade of NC.
NB! There is no discussion section for Thanksgiving week, so you will receive a Thanksgiving bonus of 2 participation points for that week.
GRADES AND ASSESSMENT
Course grades (“credit or no credit”) will be calculated as follows:
- Online posts: 90% (20 posts at 9 points each)
- Discussion participation: 10% (10 discussion sections at 2 points each); you must earn points for participation at least once during the last three weeks.
You must achieve a total of 70% (140 points) in order to pass this course and receive a grade of “Credit."
COMMUNICATING WITH INSTRUCTORS
Instructors Nestingen, Gwin, and Savage will hold regular office hours at the same time each week. See our schedule at the top of this syllabus. Please avail yourself of this opportunity to have your individual concerns addressed, or simply to just check in with us or say hi. The office hours give an opportunity for one-on-one consultation.
In addition, you are always welcome to email our instructors with regard to specific questions about their own lectures, authors, or field of study. Just type their name and the UW department and you’ll get to their faculty page which will list their research, teaching, and email address.
SCHEDULE OF THE CLASS
Week 1
NO CLASS MEETING OR SECTIONS
Fri., September 30 Lecture: Introduction to the Class & What Is Literature?
- Course Introduction
- Three definitions of literature
- Introduction to the Nobel Prize
Speaker: Andrew Nestingen, Scandinavian Studies
Please Note: This is a remote, previously recorded lecture, located in our Canvas “Modules” section.
Week 2
October 4: Lecture: Gabriela Mistral (AR), Nobel Prize 1945
Speaker: Cynthia Steele, (Spanish & Portuguese)
Week 3
October 11: Lecture: William Faulkner (US), Nobel Prize 1949
Speaker: Monika Kaup (English)
Week 4
Tu, October 18 Lecture: Halldór Laxness (IS); Nobel Prize 1955
Speaker: Lauren Poyer (Scandinavian)
Week 5
October 25 Lecture: Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (RU), Nobel Prize 1970
Speaker: José Alaniz (Slavic)
Week 6
November 1 Lecture: Heinrich Böll (DE), Nobel Prize 1972
Speaker: Annegret Oehme (Germanics)
Week 7
November 8 Lecture: Czesław Miłosz (PL), Nobel Prize 1980
Speaker: Piotr Florczyk (Slavic)
Week 8
November 15 Lecture: Gabriel García Márquez (CO), Nobel Prize 1982
Speaker: José Antonio Lucero (CHID)
Week 9
November 22 Lecture: Toni Morrison (US), Nobel Prize 1993
Speaker: Michael Faucette (Scandinavian)
Th November 24: Thanksgiving Holiday: No Discussion Section
Week 10
November 30 Lecture: Ōe Kenzaburō (JP), Nobel Prize 1994
Speaker: Ted Mack (Asian Languages and Literatures)
Week 11
December 7 Lecture: Louise Glück (US), Nobel Prize 2020
Speaker: Brian Reed (English)
POLICIES
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
The University takes academic integrity very seriously. Behaving with integrity is part of our responsibility to our shared learning community. If you’re uncertain about if something is academic misconduct, ask me or your TA. We are willing to discuss questions you might have.
Acts of academic misconduct may include but are not limited to:
- Plagiarism (representing the work of others as your own without giving appropriate credit to the original author(s))
- Unauthorized collaboration (working with each other on assignments, without stating so, for example submitting the same or highly similar work or portions of work)
Concerns about these or other behaviors prohibited by the Student Conduct Code may be referred for investigation and adjudication. Students found to have engaged in academic misconduct will receive a NC grade for the assignment in which the misconduct occurred as well as possible referral of their misconduct violation to the College of Arts and Sciences designated representative.
RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATIONS
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
DISABILITY RESOURCES
Your experience in this class is important to me. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.
If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.
RESPECT
We aspire to create a classroom environment that encourages and welcomes different perspectives. How do we learn anything in the absence of robust engagement with ideas and views that differ from our own? Respect for different views and the people who express them does not necessarily mean agreement with them; at a minimum, it means that we should cultivate gratitude for the opportunity to re-examine our habits of thought. Let’s work together and show mutual respect.
MASKING and COVID prevention.
University policy strongly recommends mask use. Please familiarize yourself with UW policy on masking and COVID-19 prevention and infection reporting and comply with it. In support of our entire community, especially our most vulnerable members, please wear a mask while in the classroom. Free masks are available at multiple locations on campus. Masking contributes to an equitable and safe environment for learning, ensuring safety for you, your instructors, your classmates, our community at UW and beyond. Given the size of the room, I have communicated to our visiting lecturers that they may opt to lecture without a mask to make speaking easier. I have also communicated to the TAs that they may fine tune discussion-section masking policies.
University personnel, students and units are required to report a COVID-19 positive test result to the COVID-19 Response and Prevention Team, regardless of vaccination status. Contact EHS to report or to familiarize yourself with UW COVID-19 policies.
If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please come speak with me.
FURTHER ACCOMMODATION
This is an amazing course and we are truly fortunate to be able to offer it this quarter. Please do your part to make this class a success!