ENGL 2112 - SYLLABUS
Course Information
ENGL 2112 — World Literature II, Section M — CRN: 80761
Course Description
A survey of representative works of world literature from the mid-17th century to the present, with emphasis on critical reading and writing skills. Prerequisite(s): A minimum grade of "C" in ENGL 1102.
Course Dates
- Start date: 17 August 2020
- End date: 4 December 2020
- Drop/Add: 17-20 August 2020
- Last day to withdraw without academic penalty: 12 October 2020
Holidays
- 7 September — Labor Day
- 23-27 November — Thanksgiving Holiday
Learning Outcomes for the Course
Upon successful completion of this course, a student will be able to:
- Demonstrate familiarity with literary language, periods, and genres.
- Construct informed and unbiased arguments about historical or contemporary works of literature that consider the historical and cultural contexts of those works.
Required Textbooks
The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volumes D, E, and F (Package 2), 4th edition. Martin Puchner, et. al., editors, W.W. Norton, 2019. ISBN: 9780393265910
Other material will be available on the D2L site
Instructor and Teaching Assistant

Instructor
I'm Dr. Joe Pellegrino, an Associate Professor in the Literature department. I teach lots of different classes. Besides World Lit and Lit and the Humanities, I do many of our required courses for the major, like "Introduction to Literary Studies" and our Senior Seminar. I have also taught our literary theory courses. My specialties are Irish literature and postcolonial literature, so I end up doing classes that don't fit into the standard Brit Lit/American Lit model: Irish lit, African lit, etc. For instance, this semester I'm also teaching a course on mythology. Basically, if other people in my department can teach it, I don't teach it.
It seems like I went to school forever, and went to lots of different schools: Duquesne University, St, Louis University, Mannes College of Music, The New England Conservatory, and UNC-Chapel Hill, which is where I did my last degree. I've also taught at a lot of schools: Duquesne, UNC, Eastern Kentucky University, University of South Carolina-Upstate, Greenville Tech, Converse College, and here at GS. I've got some experience in online education; I was a University Director for the (short-lived) Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University, and have taught online classes for over 20 years now.
Professionally, I also edit two international journals, The Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies and The International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. I'm interested in a number of fields, but most of my publications are either on Irish studies, postcolonial lit, or teaching.
I have only one item on my bucket list: to see the Northern Lights. One day I'll get there, but in the meantime I'm raising two daughters, making heirloom furniture (pretty much a middle-aged guy cliché), keeping up with new technology, wishing I could spend more time doing music, and trying to keep my head above water.
Contact Information
- Email: jpellegrino@georgiasouthern.edu
- Phone: 912.478.5853
Office Hours
Since this course is fully online, I'm available online at various times. My usual turnaround time for emails is 24 hours during the week, and 48 hours on the weekends.

Teaching Assistant
My name is Chandler Hanton, a graduate student in the Literature department. I have recently graduated from Georgia Southern, Armstrong Campus with a Major in English and a Minor in Writing & Linguistics. Some of my favorite classes that I have taken in my Bachelors have been Intro to Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Mythology.
Some of my hobbies include reading and writing (although that may be a given, considering my department of choice), collecting stationary (including, but not limited to, pins, patches, and stickers), crocheting, and I have just recently taken an interest in candle making.
Feel free to contact me if you need help with anything in the course -- I will respond to the best of my abilities as well as in a timely manner.
Contact Information
- Email: ch19143@georgiasouthern.edu
- Phone: 912.344.2594
Office Hours
It's best to contact me through email. My usual response time is 24 hours during the week, and 48 hours on the weekends.
Online Learning Commitment Expectations
The "Carnegie Unit" is how universities define credit hours and categorize the amount of work students do for each credit hour. Each credit requires three "contact hours," which are essentially the hours you spend in class. And each contact hour requires two hours of outside work, or time devoted to the class that doesn't happen in the class. This is a three-credit course, with 45 contact hours. Those 45 contact hours necessitate at least 90 hours of out-of-class work on your part. That's at least 135 hours committed for each three-credit class that you take.
If you're not a self-starter, or you have problems with deadlines, or you just don't think you can commit to this level of work, you should probably look for another section of this class.
Course Schedule with Activity Due Dates
A detailed course schedule is located at this URL: http://jpellegrino.com/teaching/ENGL2112/003-Schedule.html.
This schedule details the material we are covering, and the exam dates, and the due dates for your discussion posts and papers.
Course Structure
The course has 24 modules that present information on historical and literary periods, the authors we're covering, and the texts we're reading. Each module contains links to web pages and sites, a podcast about the text or period, and a quiz.
Course Modules
Course modules are located within Folio/D2L. You should begin your work on each module there. These will then bounce you out to external sites for background information and podcasts about the historical, cultural, and biographical information behind each text, and literary and thematic interpretations of each text.
The numbered modules all address texts and authors. The lettered modules are discussion prompts.
Each numbered module contains links to the background and interpretive material, a podcast on the text we're addressing, a quiz, and one or more discussion questions. You won't be answering these questions for each module; you'll eventually choose four of these questions in the lettered modules, one question for each of the big periods we're covering.
Discussion Forums
Throughout the course, you'll be responding to four discussion questions in the discussion forums, and then offering secondary responses to four initial posts done by other students. The forums themselves are arranged so that you have to post your own response first in order to see what others have said.
Podcasts
A page with links to all the podcasts is located at this URL: http://jpellegrino.com/teaching/ENGL2112/000-Podcasts.html.
Exams
We'll have two multiple-choice exams, one halfway through the course and one at the end of the course. These will be 33 questions each, with roughly 1/3 of the questions in these three areas: identification of a text, historical and cultural contexts for a text, and thematic concerns within a text.
Exams are available from midnight to midnight on the dates noted in the schedule. You may take the exam at any time on the day that is it available. Once you open the exam, you'll have one hour to complete and submit it.
CLASS POLICIES
Writing Proficiency
If you need additional work on the surface features of your writing I will require you to schedule sessions at the Writing Center in order to pass the course. If you're unable to get to campus in order to meet with the Writing Center staff, you'll have to provide documentation that you availed yourself of some other tutoring, editing, or proofreading service.
Academic Integrity
I expect that you will conduct yourself within the guidelines of the Honor System. All academic work should be completed with the high level of honesty and integrity that this University demands.
I do not tolerate academic dishonesty. Beyond the moral implications, I find it insulting. All instances of plagiarism will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. Any instance will result in an F in the course and possibly further sanctions. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own without giving them credit. "Someone else" is defined as anyone other than you: another student, a friend, relative, a source on the Internet, articles or books. And “work” is defined as ideas as well as language. So taking someone else's ideas and putting them in your own words—or using someone else's words to express your ideas—is plagiarism. And, in the case of friends and family, it doesn't matter if they give you permission.
A note about group work: I encourage you to read and discuss these texts together outside of class. It is, in fact, the core of our endeavor, to hone our own ideas on these texts through discussions with others. You should also discuss your writing with your classmates, as hearing a number of ideas will help you create your own. However, this does not mean that you should write your papers as a group. While discussion is obviously a group activity, writing is a solitary one, and should be treated as such. Any attempt to subvert this will be an instance of academic dishonesty.
Here is how the University defines Academic Dishonesty (from the Student Conduct Code):
CHEATING
- submitting material that is not yours as part of your course performance;
- using information or devices that are not allowed by the faculty;
- obtaining and/or using unauthorized materials;
- fabricating information, research, and/or results;
- violating procedures prescribed to protect the integrity of an assignment, test, or other evaluation;
- collaborating with others on assignments without the faculty's consent;
- cooperating with and/or helping another student to cheat;
- demonstrating any other forms of dishonest behavior.
PLAGIARISM
- directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them;
- using sources of information (published or unpublished) without identifying them;
- paraphrasing materials or ideas without identifying the source;
- Self-plagiarism: re-submitting work previously submitted without explicit approval from the instructor;
- unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic material.
Should you wish to pursue a case of academic dishonesty through the Office of Student Conduct, I will speak at your hearing and send a copy of this syllabus along with the documents in question to the Hearing Officer, so a plea of ignorance or non-malicious intent on your part will not be valid.

Course Work
All electronically-submitted assignments will be placed in the appropriate dropbox section or discussion forum of the Learning Management System (Folio).
I DO NOT ACCEPT LATE ASSIGNMENTS. NO EXCEPTIONS, NO EXCUSES. A late assignment is any work that is not turned in during the class period in which it is due. This means that you must anticipate any problems that will occur. In other words, a computer / printer / drive / car / arm being broken at the last minute is not an excuse. To avoid last-minute catastrophes (which always occur) DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO DO YOUR WORK.
Rubrics
Discussion Post Rubric
Your contributions to the class discussions will be graded according to this rubric:
| Very Good 10 Points |
Satisfactory 8 Points |
Needs Work 6 Points |
Unsatisfactory 0 Points |
| Entries are in complete sentences or paragraphs. | Entries are in complete sentences or paragraphs. | Entries are in complete sentences or paragraphs. | Entries are not in complete sentences or paragraphs. |
| Entry distinguishes between your thoughts and the thoughts of others, | Entry distinguishes between your thoughts and the thoughts of others, | Entry distinguishes between your thoughts and the thoughts of others, | Entry does not distinguish between your thoughts and the thoughts of others. |
AND
|
AND |
BUT
|
|
| is predominantly made up of your own thoughts, | is predominantly made up of your own thoughts. | is predominantly made up of the thoughts of others. | |
WHILE
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| the thoughts of others are used to support your ideas. | |||
| 3 entries (primary and two secondary) are posted in the discussion board area, | 2 entries (primary and secondary) are posted in the discussion board area, | 2 entries (primary and secondary) are posted in the discussion board area, | Fewer than 2 entries are posted in the discussion board area. |
AND |
AND |
HOWEVER |
|
| 750 or more words total are posted (500+ for primary, 250+ for secondary). | 500-750 words total are posted (500+ for primary). | Each entry is posted but is brief (less than three sentences). | |
PLUS (a or b) |
PLUS (a or b) |
OR |
|
| (a) Each entry contains thoughtful, substantive ideas concerning the assignment or content related to it. | (a) Each entry contains thoughtful, substantive ideas concerning the assignment or content related to it. | (a) Each entry has little in the way of thoughtful, substantive ideas concerning the assignment or content related to it. | |
OR |
OR |
OR |
|
| (b) Your entries are responsive to two peers, with detailed remarks about their writing or discussion response. | (b) Your entries are responsive to one peer, with detailed remarks about his or her writing or discussion response. | (b) No entries respond to your peers, or your response to a peer is just a personal remark, not a substantive reply (e.g., "Good. I really liked your comment."). | |
PLUS (c or d) |
|||
| (c) Your primary entry includes an outside resource, or a relevant, specific real-life application. | |||
OR |
|||
| (d) Your responses to your peers clearly indicate your position on what they posted (e.g., agreeing, disagreeing, adding to, modifying, extending or questioning), all while explaining yourself thoroughly. | |||
You need to write in complete sentences and paragraphs, with a level of care for the academic code so that your groupmates will not be puzzled by your post.
Plagiarism in the Forums
The material from the Student Code of Conduct outlined above applies also to your work in the discussion forums. Don't cut and paste from another site. Don't alter every fifth or sixth word from another site and claim the work as your own. Don't attempt to hide the fact that you're using someone else's ideas. There's nothing wrong with using other sites, other critics, or other commentaries on the texts, as long as you give them credit.
Essay Rubric
Your papers for this class will be evaluated according to this rubric:
| ENGL 2112 ESSAY RUBRIC | ||
| GRADE | CONTENT | FORM |
| A |
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| B |
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| C |
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| D |
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| F |
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Questions I ask while grading
For each sentence in your paper, I ask the following questions:
- What are you saying? At a basic level, I’m trying to decode their meaning. If I cannot understand what you’re trying to say, everything that follows after this is problematic. If your sentence is confused, convoluted, or contradictory, you make it difficult, or even impossible, for me to answer this basic question.
- Is what you’re saying accurate? Does this sentence demonstrate that you understand the text or the critic you’re addressing? For instance, if you’re summarizing someone else’s argument, I need to assess if you’re being true to the original author's intent. In your response, I’m assessing your evidence and examples.
- Is what you’re saying well-expressed grammatically and mechanically? This assumes that your grammar and mechanics aren’t so bad that I’ve been stopped back up at Question #1.
- Does the writing have appropriate flow, in that each idea links up with the one previously and the one to follow in a way that meets audience needs, attitudes, and knowledge?
If I can answer all four of these questions positively for every sentence, you’re doing well. But when the answer is no, complications ensue. If I can’t understand what you’re saying, I have no way to engage with your ideas, and so I have additional questions.:
- Do you not understand the original text you’re addressing?
- Do you understand the original text, but your writing leaves a gap between that understanding and what is written on the page?
Prompts for Your Papers
You'll write two short papers for this class, both tied to the course learning outcomes. For these, you'll produce a multi-paragraph document of between 500 and 600 words which addresses the prompt thoroughly and demonstrates your knowledge. These essays should be typed and double-spaced, with a 12-point font, and your name in the upper left corner of the first page. You'll submit them to the appropriate dropboxes in Folio, where they will go through the TurnItIn check for academic honesty.
You may use external sources in your essays, and if you do you will need to acknowledge where you got your information from. And if you use the source's language, put it in quotation marks.
The prompts for each of these essays will be almost exactly the same, and they will directly address the Learning Outcomes for this course.
So you'll look at one of the big period introductions (Enlightenment, Romanticism, or Modernism) or one of the smaller movement introductions (Yoshiwara, Negritude, Existentialism) and use the material there to demonstrate how a particular text (or texts, in the case of shorter poems) of your choosing illustrates the values of the intellectual, historical, and cultural situation in which it was written. You'll need to refer to specific points in the introductions and align them with specific points in the text you choose.
My comments on your papers will be available to you through the Grademark view in the TurnItIn section (click on your TurnItIn score to access this).
Extended Prompt - Paper 1
In this essay, you will demonstrate how one of the works we have covered so far (either Candide, Life of a Sensuous Woman, the Blake poems, the Keats poems, the Whitman poems, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, "Punishment," or the Yeats poems) interacts with the intellectual or cultural forces at work during its creation.
- Choose one of the texts above. You may be able to choose more than one text, if you're writing about two or more poems by the same author.
- Critically examine at least one value expressed within it, analyzing how it reflects and/or criticizes the dominant values of the historical or cultural milieu in which it was created.
- Refer specifically to the background information we covered on the Enlightenment and Romanticism, especially the the social and intellectual forces at work, when considering the dominant values of the time.
- Use appropriate literary terminology when discussing the text, its genre, and the literary period or movement to which it belongs.
You should produce a multi-paragraph document of between 500 and 600 words which addresses the prompt thoroughly and demonstrates your knowledge. This essay should be typed and double-spaced, with a 12-point font, and your name in the upper left corner of the first page. You'll submit it to the “Paper #1” dropbox, where it will go through the TurnItIn check for academic honesty.
You may use external sources in your essay, and if you do you will need to acknowledge where you got your information from. If you use the source’s language, put it in quotation marks. If you’re quoting prose from the textbook, just cite the page number. If you’re quoting poetry from the textbook, just use the line numbers.
What this means is that you'll look at the periods/movements introductions—in this case, either Introduction to The Enlightenment, Yoshiwara - The Floating World, or Introduction to Romanticism—and use the material there to demonstrate how a particular text we've studied illustrates the values of the intellectual, historical, and cultural situation in which it was written. You'll need to refer to specific points in the introduction and align them with specific points in the text you choose.
So you’ll pick a text that we have covered by any of the authors we’ve addressed since the beginning of the course, then show how it expresses the values of its particular historical or cultural context by pointing out the pieces of that text that demonstrate the qualities that are covered in either the Introduction to The Enlightenment, or Introduction to Romanticism pages on the course site.
This assignment directly addresses the Learning Outcomes for this course, because it asks you to do three things:
- Analyze a work of literature in its historical and cultural contexts.
- Critically examine the values of the context and of the work.
- Demonstrate familiarity with literary language, periods, and genres.
- Paragraph 1: Introduce the text and explain the values of the period or movement that you’ll be addressing. Do not just list those values or characteristics; explain what they mean.
- Paragraph 2: Demonstrate how and where the first value or characteristic of the period can be seen in the text you have chosen. Quote the text at the appropriate spots and explain how those quotations illustrate the value or characteristic.
- Paragraph 3: Demonstrate how and where the second value or characteristic can be seen in the text you have chosen. Quote the text at the appropriate spots and explain how those quotations illustrate the value or characteristic.
- Paragraph 4: Demonstrate how and where the third value or characteristic can be seen in the text you have chosen. Quote the text at the appropriate spots and explain how those quotations illustrate the value or characteristic.
- Paragraph 5: Wrap it up.
Comments on your papers and your grade on the paper will be available to you through the Grademark view in the TurnItIn section (click on your TurnItIn score to access this).
Your TurnItIn Score
After you submit your paper and TurnItIn has completed its analysis, you are able to see your TurnItIn Originality Score. In general, lower numbers are better here, unless you're quoting a lot of material from the text. Your score will also have a color attached to it. If the color you see is anything other than green, check your paper again to see that you have cited all your sources corretly. If you have, then you're good. If you haven't, then you can revise your paper and resubmit it. I will evaluate only the most recent version of your paper in the dropbox, but you can submit as many versions of it as you feel necessary.
How to view your marked papers in the Grademark View:
- Click on the colored section that has a percentage within it next to your paper title under the "TurnItIn Score" heading. This will take you to the TurnItIn suite.
- Once your paper loads, click on the icon at the top of the array of icons to the right of your paper. This will allow you to view multiple layers with your paper.
- In the list that flies out from the right, click on all three layers: Grading, Similarity, and e-rater.
- Double-click on any blue box in your paper to see my comment attached to that box.
- Double-click on any number in your paper to see the match that TurnItIn connected with the passage it highlighted.
- Double-click on any purple comment in your paper to see the machine-scored grammar corrections and access the handbook available to you.
Extended Prompt - Paper 2
In this essay, you will demonstrate how one of the works we have covered since the last paper (either "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Requiem," the Senghor poems, "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen," "Death Constant Beyond Love," "Zaabalawi," Death and the King's Horseman, or the Heaney poems) interacts with the intellectual or cultural forces at work during its creation.
- Choose one of the texts above. You may be able to choose more than one text, if you're writing about two or more poems by the same author.
- Critically examine at least one value expressed within it, analyzing how it reflects and/or criticizes the dominant values of the historical or cultural milieu in which it was created.
- Refer specifically to the background information we covered on Modernism, Négritude, and Existentialism, especially the the social and intellectual forces at work, when considering the dominant values of the time.
- Use appropriate literary terminology when discussing the text, its genre, and the literary period or movement to which it belongs.
You should produce a multi-paragraph document of between 500 and 600 words which addresses the prompt thoroughly and demonstrates your knowledge. This essay should be typed and double-spaced, with a 12-point font, and your name in the upper left corner of the first page. You'll submit it to the “Paper #2” dropbox, where it will go through the TurnItIn check for academic honesty.
You may use external sources in your essay, and if you do you will need to acknowledge where you got your information from. If you use the source’s language, put it in quotation marks. If you’re quoting prose from the textbook, just cite the page number. If you’re quoting poetry from the textbook, just use the line numbers.
What this means is that you'll look at the periods/movements introductions—in this case, either Introduction to Modernism, Négritude, or Introduction to Existentialism—and use the material there to demonstrate how a particular text we've studied illustrates the values of the intellectual, historical, and cultural situation in which it was written. You'll need to refer to specific points in the introduction and align them with specific points in the text you choose.
So you’ll pick a text that we have covered by any of the authors we’ve addressed since the last paper (Eliot, Akhmatova, Senghor, Borowski, Marquez, Mahfouz, Walcott, Soyinka, or Heaney), then show how it expresses the values of its particular historical or cultural context by pointing out the pieces of that text that demonstrate the qualities that are covered in either the Introduction to Modernism, Négritude, or Existentialism pages on the course site.
This assignment directly addresses the Learning Outcomes for this course, because it asks you to do three things:
- Analyze a work of literature in its historical and cultural contexts.
- Critically examine the values of the context and of the work.
- Demonstrate familiarity with literary language, periods, and genres.
- Paragraph 1: Introduce the text and explain the values of the period or movement that you’ll be addressing. Do not just list those characteristics; explain what they mean.
- Paragraph 2: Demonstrate how and where the first value or characteristic of the period can be seen in the text you have chosen. Quote the text at the appropriate spots and explain how those quotations illustrate the value or characteristic.
- Paragraph 3: Demonstrate how and where the second value or characteristic can be seen in the text you have chosen. Quote the text at the appropriate spots and explain how those quotations illustrate the value or characteristic.
- Paragraph 4: Demonstrate how and where the third value or characteristic can be seen in the text you have chosen. Quote the text at the appropriate spots and explain how those quotations illustrate the value or characteristic.
- Paragraph 5: Wrap it up.
Comments on your papers and your grade on the paper will be available to you through the Grademark view in the TurnItIn section (click on your TurnItIn score to access this).
Your TurnItIn Score
After you submit your paper and TurnItIn has completed its analysis, you are able to see your TurnItIn Originality Score. In general, lower numbers are better here, unless you're quoting a lot of material from the text. Your score will also have a color attached to it. If the color you see is anything other than green, check your paper again to see that you have cited all your sources corretly. If you have, then you're good. If you haven't, then you can revise your paper and resubmit it. I will evaluate only the most recent version of your paper in the dropbox, but you can submit as many versions of it as you feel necessary.
How to view your marked papers in the Grademark View:
- Click on the colored section that has a percentage within it next to your paper title under the "TurnItIn Score" heading. This will take you to the TurnItIn suite.
- Once your paper loads, click on the icon at the top of the array of icons to the right of your paper. This will allow you to view multiple layers with your paper.
- In the list that flies out from the right, click on all three layers: Grading, Similarity, and e-rater.
- Double-click on any blue box in your paper to see my comment attached to that box.
- Double-click on any number in your paper to see the match that TurnItIn connected with the passage it highlighted.
- Double-click on any purple comment in your paper to see the machine-scored grammar corrections and access the handbook available to you.

Evaluation
| Discussion Posts | 20% |
| Quizzes | 20% |
| Paper 1 | 15% |
| Paper 2 | 15% |
| Exam 1 | 15% |
| Exam 2 | 15% |
| TOTAL | 100% |
Accessibility Accommodation
This class complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations must:
- Register with and provide documentation to the Student Accessibility Resource Center (SARC), and,
- Provide a letter to the instructor from the SDRC indicating what your need may be for academic accommodation.
This should be done within the first week of class.
Students with these particular needs should contact the Student Accessibility Resource Center, Cone Hall, 912.478.1419.

