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A Case of Identity: |
SYLLABUS
Prof. Shaya: gshaya@wooster.edu
First Year Seminar in Critical Inquiry ~
Fall 2002
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 to 10:50, in Kauke
104
Class
Listserv: holmes-net@wooster.edu
A NOTE ON The SYLLABUS
The syllabus sets out the goals, the requirements, and the schedule for the class, together with some important messages. Read it very carefully and keep it close at hand all through the semester. But please note: the schedule is subject to some revision across the semester. I will likely modify some readings and assignments along the way. You are responsible for these changes as I announce them, whether by email or at the beginning of class.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
A crime has been committed: Who is the culprit? In the evolution of the detective story (from the 1840s to the present), this rather simple mystery has been the starting point for profound existential and epistemological questions: What are the signs of identity? What secrets lurk in the human heart? How well can we know another person? How well can we know ourselves? In this seminar, we will pursue these questions through now classic mysteries and detective fictions from Europe and the United States in the last hundred and sixty years. We will take time out to consider developments in criminal investigation that lay behind the evolving detective tale. With three powerful films, we will watch how these issues have been translated to the screen. We will examine, too, how such cultural artifacts reflect the time and place in which they were created. These core readings/viewings will be supplemented by the commentaries of writers, historians, literary critics, and philosophers.
GOALS OF CLASS
The goals of this course are two-fold.
The first is to survey the variety of detective and mystery fictions and examine the ways in which their authors/filmmakers have grappled with puzzling issues of personal identity. This is the content of the class.
But there is another set of goals, what you might think of as process goals: to develop the habits and skills necessary to succeed in college; to develop and hone the skills of critical thinking, to become better readers, writers and speakers.
The ETHOS OF THE FIRST YEAR SEMINAR
This course is more than a class, but an open forum of ideas. To make this forum work, you must be willing to take risks—to speak when you aren’t sure what you want to say, or worse, when you fear you might be wrong. I will encourage you—and we all will encourage each other—in this endeavor. That does not mean that we won’t point out errors of fact. That does not mean that we will not disagree. Rather, it means that we will hold our discussions in an atmosphere of openness and respect. Anyone unable to meet this standard will be asked to leave.
Some of you may know a lot about the topic of the day, others may not. Whether you have read Poe’s “Double Murder” for the fifth time or are coming to it for the first time,I want to hear what you have to say about it.
REQUIREMENTS
• Attendance at all classes
• Attentive reading/viewing of all assignments
• Active and courteous participation in discussions
• Occasional in-class quizzes
• Five short writing exercises (2–3 pages)
• Five short formal papers (3-4 pages)
• Two class presentations
• A final examination (a take home exam, or a short
work of fiction)
READINGS/VIEWINGS
Course readings will include a number of stories, articles and selections from books that I will provide to you. Recommended and required books are available for purchase at the college bookstore, the Florence O. Wilson Bookstore, located in Lowry Center. Of course, you are free to purchase them elsewhere, but be sure to get the correct editions.
Recommended Books
• Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus
• Random House Webster's Pocket American Dictionary
Required Books
• Diane Hacker, A Writer’s Reference (Bedford/St. Martin's; 4th spiral edition, 2002)
• Sophocles, Sophocles I, trans. David Greene (University of Chicago, 2nd
edition, 1992; first performed c. 429 BC)
• Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet (Penguin, 2001; orig. 1887)
• Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (New American Library,
1994; orig. 1886)
• Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse (Vintage Books, 1989; orig. 1929)
• Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Akroyd (Berkley Books, 2000; orig. 1926)
• Walter Mosley, Devil in the Blue Dress (Pocket Books, 1997; orig. 1990)
Additional Texts
You should also have, or have access to:
• Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Part I: My Father Bleeds History. (Pantheon Books, 1992)
• The College of Wooster, Catalogue, 2002-2003. Also
available online at:
http://www.wooster.edu/policies/
• The College of Wooster, The Scot's Key, 2002-2003. Available online at:
http://www.wooster.edu/policies/
• The College of Wooster, Handbook of Selected
College Policies, 2002-2003. Available online at: http://www.wooster.edu/policies/.
Films
We will watch three films during the semester outside of class. These are required. If you cannot make any showing, please see the professor.
• “Monsieur Hire,” dir. Patrice Leconte, story by Georges Simenon (81 min., 1989)
• “Memento,” written and directed by Christopher Nolan (113 min., 2001)
• “Blade Runner: Director’s Cut,” dir. Ridley Scott, story by Philip K. Dick (117 min., 1992; orig. 1982)
DISCUSSION AND CLASS PREPARATION
This is a seminar, a discussion course. To be successful, it depends upon you coming to class prepared to discuss the topic at hand. At the very least, this requires that you’ve completed the reading before class begins.
To do more than the bare minimum (and receive more than a barely passing grade on discussion) requires that you spend some time before class thinking, thinking about what you’ve read, passages you would like to discuss, questions you would like to ask.
You will receive a grade on your participation in discussion. This is not a measure of how smart you are or how smart your observations are. It will reflect how much you have thought about the readings, how much you contribute to building a class discussion, how well you listen to others, how well you can express your ideas, make connections, and ask questions.
NB (that means, nota bene, pay attention, this is important): All readings must be completed by the day on which they were assigned. This class will be a painful waste of your time if you do not successfully complete the reading assignments before we meet.
Bring the day’s reading to class.
GRADING
Your grade will measure your effort, the level of your thinking and writing, as well as the progress you make across the semester. The following is offered as a very rough guide (and I reserve the right to change it). It assumes a good faith effort on all assignments:
25% of your grade is based on class participation (together with quizzes)
15% writing exercises
40% papers
8% presentations
12% final examination
The WOOSTER FORUM AND OTHER EVENTS
The Wooster Forum is a semester-long series of events sponsored by the College. This year’s forum is devoted to the arts, broadly speaking. Its title: “Beyond Boundaries: Re-Mapping the Contemporary Arts.” I encourage you to attend all events in the series.
You are required to attend the talk by Art Spiegelman (September 5, 7:30-9:30 pm, in McGaw Chapel). You’ll find the full schedule for the Forum at http://www.wooster.edu/forum/schedule.html.
As you hear about films and lectures that might interest the class, please bring them to my attention before our meetings so that we can spread the word.
CLASS POLICIES
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory. Please be ready to begin at 9:30. There will be a significant grade penalty for missing classes and for arriving late. Please do not let yourself be a distraction to the class.
If you do miss a class, be sure to find out what you have missed and pick up any readings or handouts that were distributed.
Papers and Deadlines
Paper assignments will be handed out approximately one week before papers are due.
The due dates and times of papers is indicated on the schedule below. Late papers will be accepted by permission of the instructor and penalized. Less than 24 hours late: 1/2 grade penalty; one full grade penalty for every day late.
Communication
I will use email to distribute announcements, reading questions, paper suggestions, and more. You are responsible for checking your Wooster email account daily. (Note that you can have your Wooster email forwarded to another email account if that is more convenient.)
What to Do if You are Having Problems
If you have any questions about the class, or if you find yourself falling behind, contact me immediately.
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
A full statement of the Code of Academic Integrity is printed in the Scot’s Key. You are responsible for reading and understanding it. It is available online at the following web page: http://www.wooster.edu/deanofstd/policies/coai.html. I include the statement of principles below.
If, in any of your written assignments, you use or imitate the words or the ideas of another without attribution, you are committing plagiarism, the academic equivalent of high treason. If you borrow the words of others, you must place them in quotation marks and properly cite the work. Failure to properly cite and quote is plagiarism.
Any student caught plagiarizing or cheating will fail this course immediately and be referred to the Dean of the Faculty.
FROM The CODE OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY— SECTION 1, “PRINCIPLES”
Under the Code of Academic Integrity, a student will not:
A. give, offer, or receive aid other than that specifically allowed by the professor on any course work or examination;
B. knowingly represent the work of others, including materials from electronic sources, as his/her own; (This includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism, a brief definition of which appears in Appendix II to this Code.)
C. falsify data;
D. submit an assignment produced for a course to a second course without the authorization of all the instructors involved;
E. deny other students access to necessary documents/materials by stealing, misplacing or destroying those materials;
F. giving false reason to a faculty member or Dean when requesting an exam change or an extension on a paper/project;
G. violate the spirit of the Code expressed in the Preamble.