Master Course Outlines | Bucks County Community College

LITR254 World Literature I

3 credits

2250

None

The Department of Language and Literature has determined that all literature courses must require a minimum of at least 2500 words in writing assignments.
During the first week of class, the instructor provides students with a weekly suggested reading schedule for the semester.

This course meets the General Education requirement in Arts/Humanities.
This course meets the General Education requirement in Critical Thinking.
This course meets the General Education requirement in Diversity.

Students read and analyze literary works drawn from non-English speaking cultures. Lecture and discussion shall emphasize both literary issues, including structure and technique, and a sense of the cultural backgrounds that inform those works. Instructors assign translated works from the ancient world until approximately 1650.

Course Learning Goals

Students will
1. analyze literature through discussion and writing [Critical Thinking & Arts/Humanities];
2. demonstrate an understanding of such literary terms, themes, strategies, and issues as are relevant to the works being studied;
3. express their understanding of the relationship between literature and the historical/cultural contexts in which it was written [Arts/Humanities];
4. synthesize literature of non-English speaking cultures in terms of historical literary values as they reveal aesthetic, political, social, and historical relationships between countries and eras [Diversity]; and
5. demonstrate the ability to choose and apply appropriate critical methods for analyzing and writing about literature.
Planned Sequence of Topics and/or Learning Activities

LITR 254 is designed to range from the inception of world literature up to the seventeenth century. Reading selections draw on a broad range of literary genres; authors are chosen from diverse national literatures. In addition to the Major Writers, instructors choose at least two writers from each period. Additional selections may be chosen from the miscellaneous category.
- Homer or Virgil, Greek drama, and other major poets and prose writers from classical antiquity
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy (selections)
- Prose fiction or literary writing from the Renaissance
- Non-western selections will be included
In addition:
1. Students enter the course both with and without training in verbal analysis of literature; therefore, a subsidiary set of objectives dealing with literary analysis may be imported as individual student needs dictate.
2. Reading remains the basic learning method available to students although various means of instruction are employed: lectures, group discussion, mock trials, role playing, individual or group presentations to the class, team teaching, library research, etc.
3. Through reading, writing, discussion, and various class activities, students identify, explain, and analyze the following: formal elements of the literature, particularly images, image patterns, narrative strategies, diction, and structural divisions of the work; themes and thematic patterns; literary periods, movements, and terms as appropriate to the literature.
4. The writing requirement complies with Department standards for literature courses, a minimum of 2,500 words. Writing assignments reflect the course goals that students can comprehend, interpret, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the literature.
5. Because there are no prerequisites for literature courses, it is important that students understand the kind and quality of the writing expected.
6. Students use various critical approaches as ways of assigning the meanings in the work; these include but are not limited to the major critical schools--humanistic, ethical, socio-cultural, historical (both the history of events and the history of ideas), psychological, mythical, and formal.
Assessment Methods for Course Learning Goals
To evaluate all learning goals and objectives, instructors may determine the depth and quality of student comprehension and critical thinking through several analytical essays (2500 words total required), exams, quizzes, journals, oral presentations, class discussions, conferences with individual students, and other methods as necessary to course content.
Reference, Resource, or Learning Materials to be used by Student:

A comprehensive anthology and/or other texts are assigned. This may be supplemented with additional readings.

See individual course syllabi.

Courses + Programs

LITR254 World Literature I

Department of Language & Literature: Literature

Course Learning Goals

Planned Sequence of Topics and/or Learning Activities

Assessment Methods for Course Learning Goals

Reference, Resource, or Learning Materials to be used by Student: