Course Information
Required texts:
- Thornton Wilder, The Ides of March: A Novel (NY: Harper
Perennial, 2003)
- Peter Handke, Across (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2000)
- David Malouf, An Imaginary Life (NY:
Vintage Books, 1978)
- Christoph Ransmayr The Last World (NY:
Grove Press, 1996)
- Gore Vidal, Julian: A Novel. (NY: Vintage,
2003)
- Gore Vidal, Romulus (adaptation of Friedrich
Dürrenmatt, Romulus the
Great (N.Y.:
Dramatists Play Service Inc, 1998)
Grading:
- There will be two exams, a mid-term
and a final. The tests will be short answer and essay in format.
(25 % each)
- One 6-8 page analytic paper in
which you will focus on one text or film not dealt with
in class, with the instructor’s approval. This will involve three steps,
a précis, an outline with clear thesis statement, final
paper (20 % total)
- A précis according to assigned
guidelines for any five of the six novels, due the first day on
which we discuss the book. (3 pts each = 15%)
- You will write a brief 2-3
page story and writer’s
journal based on a classical myth or historical
person or event pertaining to Rome, your own "reception." (5%)
- You will give one brief presentation. You
will introduce a figure or historical personage depicted in one
of the stories. You will give this presentation on the day we cover
the modern rewriting. You will look into the sources for our knowledge
of the figure and provide the “traditional” version
to the class as well as a bit about its afterlife. You must verify
the topic with the instructor well in advance and also discuss
with the instructor how to give a talk on that topic (oral presentations
differ from written analysis)—I encourage you to do a trial
run of the presentation. (5%)
- Additional assigned work such as movie
reviews, peer edition, group work, online discussions, etc. as
well as attendance and active participation (as evaluated by the
professor) will constitute part of your grade as well. (5%)
Disabilities Statement:
Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities
Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding
students with disabilities. If you require accommodations
for a disability, please contact the Coordinator for Students
with Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services, located
in Sadler Hall 11. Further information can be obtained
from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth,
TX 76129, or at 817-257-7486. Adequate time must be allowed
to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive;
therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible
in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations. Each
eligible student is responsible for presentingrelevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment
reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation
may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/DISABILITY.HTM.
Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements
in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information
with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.
Academic Misconduct (Sec.
3.4 from the Student Handbook) – Any act that violates the academic integrity of
the institution is considered academic misconduct. The procedures
used to resolve suspected acts of academic misconduct are available
in the offices of Academic Deans and the Office of Campus Life. Specific
examples include, but are not limited to:
- Cheating: Copying from another student’s
test paper, laboratory report, other report, or computer files
and listings; Using, during any academic exercise, material and/or
devices not authorized by the person in charge of the test; Collaborating
with or seeking aid from another student during a test or laboratory
without permission; Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing,
transporting, or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents
of a test or other assignment unauthorized for release; Substituting
for another student or permitting another student to substitute
for oneself;
- Plagiarism: The appropriation, theft, purchase
or obtaining by any means another’s work, and the unacknowledged submission
or incorporation of that work as one’s own offered for credit.
Appropriation includes the quoting or paraphrasing of another’s
work without giving credit therefore.
- Collusion: The unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing
work offered for credit.
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