Course Syllabus

Course Syllabus & Information

Bronte, Charlotte - Villette
May 2nd & 4th
May 9th & 11th
Scott, Walter - Rob Roy
May 16th & 18th
May 25th
Gaskell, Elizabeth - Cranford
May 30th & June 1st
June 6th & June 8th
Haggard, H. Rider - She
June 13th & June 15th
June 20th & June 22th
Fielding, Helen - Bridget Jones’s Diary
June 27th & June 29th
July 4th & July 6th
Amis, Martin - Money
July 11th & July 13th
July 18th & July 20th
Reading Review
July 25th & July 27th

The two recommended texts for the course will be discussed throughout the term and should be read before and after the Mid-Term assignment.
See support material available on Library Reserve.

Assignment Deadlines: Nb. There is a 3% per day late penalty for assignments, documented medical or bereavement leave excepted.

1. Mid term paper, two thousand words: due June 27th in lecture. Assignment sheet with suggested topics will be handed out in lecture on June 13th. Criteria will include literary analysis, engagement with course themes and writing mechanics.
2. Group e-text project: in collaboration with the Course Instructor, create a web log dedicated to a distinct topic the works from the course reading list. Groups set & assignment sheet handed out May 25th. Seminar time will be set aside throughout the term to work with the Instructor on this project
3. Individual class presentation: schedule and assignment sheet handed out in seminar. A five minute polemical presentation, on one of the course texts, that adds to the class' understanding of the course material and which lays out a possible research direction for your Final Paper.
4. Final Paper, three thousand five hundred words: due in lecture July 27th.

Course Approach

The course is working toward an understanding of two literary genres: chick-lit and lad-lit. The genres exist as an empirical fact of print culture: writers write, publishers publish, marketers market and journalists ... well, let's say journalists look for money, under those headings. We will look at a representative historical arc of texts in each genre and submit them to a literary-critical analysis.
This course is a research project: we will be analysing the works under a specific hypothesis - that Charles Darwin's theory of Sexual Selection is a valid explanatory scheme for the two genres. Each student, as an independent scholarly researcher, will present his or her conclusions, rigourous and reasoned, in the Final Paper.

Course requirement weighting:
10% Course participation
10% Seminar presentation
20% Group e-Text project
20% Mid-term paper (approx. 1500 words)
40% Final examination

Nb: “Participation requires both participation in seminar and attendance and punctuality at lecture and seminar."

Instructor Contact:

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 11:30 – 12:30 in the lecture hall. Also ogden@sfu.ca and http://chicklitladlit.blogspot.com. Use campus mail accounts only for email contact, please.