Syllabus
Rozpis výukových jednotek
Week 1
Intro - Analogie a kontrasty
Benjamin Zephaniah: Miss World
William Shakespeare: Sonnet 130
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Week 2
Roald Dahl: Edward the Conqueror Focus: narrative structure, narrator´s credibility
Week 3
Somerset Maugham: The Verger
Charles Johnson: Oxherding Tale
Focus: reading for instruction, a cautionary tale
Week 4
Julian Barnes: The Visitors (A History of the World in 10½ Chapters)
Focus: full and limited omniscience, altruism vs. self-interest
Week 5-6
Kurt Vonnegut: Who Am I This Time
Andre Dubus: The Fat Girl
Focus: analogies and contrasts, narrative authority
Week 7
Bernard Malamud: A Magic Barrel
Focus: interpretive role-playing, culture-specific reading
Week 8
John Steinbeck: The Murder
Focus: narrative ambiguity, Melting Pot vs Salad Bowl
Week 9-10
Kate Chopin: The Story of an HourC.B. Divakaruni: Clothes
Focus: generic formulas in writing, Bildungsroman
Week 11
Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol
Mark Twain: The Story of the Bad Boy Who Didn´t Come to Grief
H. C. Andersen: The Emperor´s New Clothes
Focus: cautionary tale, parable, hyperbole, narrative crescendo
Week 12-13
Charles Johnson: Menagerie, A Child´s Fable
George Orwell: Animal Farm (film + excerpts)
Focus: allegory, animal fable
Annotation
This course aims to familiarise students with various close-reading techniques, applied to selected samples of Anglo-American prose and drama. It aims at nurturing RWCT techniques (Reading and writing for critical thinking).