Semester Writing Project: the Literary Journal

I. PURPOSE: The English 2331 Journal, if kept properly, will aid you in a difficult process: thinking in linear, sequential ways about literary art. The journal is a tool for analytical thinking.

Journal writing is unlike other writing in that the writer and the audience are one and the same. It is possible that once you have written an entry, you have explored what you needed to explore and will never need to read what you have written. It is also possible that you will wish to go back to entries to review what you thought earlier.

The English 2331 journal is the place for you to explore the meaning of a literary work as well as your attitude toward it.

Questions for the major exams will come from the journal topics.

II. RULES for the English 2331 journal:

1. No one is allowed to read your journal in order to assess the accuracy or correctness of your observations. In journal writing, you must keep yourself free to explore, and you need to remember that explorers often follow false paths and make mistakes.

2. You are not to rewrite a journal entry--unless you wish to write a second entry on the same topic. The journal is exploratory writing, writing that assists analysis. You are not to try to produce polished essays; instead you will concentrate on getting down ideas. As a consequence:

3. you will not worry about revising for smoothness of expression or for logic of paragraph unity or for over-all development of a journal entry. Make an effort when you write to compose in standard English sentence structure and to spell as best you can--but DO NOT revise in order to correct errors in sentence mechanics.

III. PROCESS: Be aware of time, and write as fast as you can get words on paper. Write for at least ten minutes per topic. If you stop writing (or write slowly), extend the time for writing. Remember that journal entries represent ten minutes each of fast writing, not ten minutes of thinking about writing. If you write for only five minutes and can think of nothing else to say, review the literature from the perspective of the assigned topic, then write for five more minutes.

IV. CONTENT: The English 2331 journal will contain entries on the following topics. Take notes on class discussions and lectures, then write the journal entry.

1. the nature of hymns in ancient Egyptian poetry

2. male and female attitudes toward love in the ancient Egyptian Love Songs

3. using The Book of Songs as an aid for communication

4. What did Confucius really say?

5. the nature of the way in Tao Te Ching

6. dharma in The Ramayana

7. the Ramayana as a culture-defining myth

8. karma yoga in the Gita

9. Arjuna's refusal to fight and the ways Krishna encouraged him to do so

10. Arjuna as a man of action

11. the theophany in the Gita

12. comparing Li Po with Tu Fu

13. women in The Koran

14. attitudes toward women in The Shahname

15. The Thousand and One Nights: literature of escape versus literature of interpretation

16. the web of responsibility in "Patriotism"

17. moral responsibility for the death of Chandara

18. "Zaabalawi" as a quest

Bind your journal in some way (a staple will be fine); put your name on the journal

V. EVALUATION: I will be concerned with

1. how seriously you have taken the exploratory writing

2. how many entries you have written

3. the journal will count as 10% of your final grade

DUE DATE: the day and hour of the final exam