LT 413	Ms. Kathleen Ricker
Thursdays 6:00-8:30	LT 313B, Thursdays 4:30-6:00 and by appointment
homepages.luc.edu/~kricker/290/index.html	kricker@orion.it.luc.edu

What does it mean to be a man?  What do we as a society expect of men as workers, soldiers, leaders, romantic and marriage partners, and parents, and are those expectations fair?  Currently, there is a highly politicized controversy in our society over the causes of male identity crises, especially those experienced by young men and boys, which has resulted in some hostility and backlash against the feminist movement.

While close examination of the experience of women in society is extremely important in addressing issues of gender and equality, attention also needs to be paid to the real experience of men, who struggle and often fail to live up to the difficult ideals of masculinity–ideals as destructive in their own way as feminine ideals have been–which have dominated our civilization from earliest times.  This course is intended to explore the lives of men as portrayed in drama, poetry, fiction, and film and to consider issues of male-female relationships, sexual identity and orientation, racial and cultural identity, economics, education and upbringing, combat and conflict, and fatherhood.  It is my hope that the course will be useful and interesting to students of both genders in helping them either to understand their own experience as men and/or that of the important men in their lives.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Bly, Robert, et al. (eds.), The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology.
Shakespeare, William.  Henry IV, Pt. 1 (Oxford, David Bevington, Ed.)
Achebe, Chinua.  Things Fall Apart.
Wolff, Tobias.  This Boy's Life.
O'Brien, Tim.  The Things They Carried.

I will also be distributing a number of essays and short stories to supplement the reading list, and there will be a number of required film viewings.

SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS:

Journal Entries 25%  weekly; due in total 05/03/01
Midterm Exam 25%  03/01/01-03/15/01 (take-home)
Research Paper 25%  04/19/01
Final Exam 25%  04/26/01-05/03/01 (take-home, due at beginning of class)

1.  The weekly responses are intended to help you to read the material more closely and to improve your ability to participate in class discussions.  Every week I will give you a few questions about the readings for the following class session, which I would like you to answer in a 2-3 page response.  These responses should help you in a number of different ways: in addition to improving the quality of our discussions, they should help you to prepare for final and midterm exams, which will be mostly essay, and they provide a springboard for ideas about your research paper.  Keep your graded and commented-on entries; I will ask that they all be returned together for final evaluation at the end of the semester.

2.  The exams will be take-home, essay format and will focus on the literary texts we will be discussing during the course and will evaluate your ability to analyze and write about them.  At least one of the exams will be a take-home exam.

3.  The research paper will focus on a work of literature or popular culture of your choice that deals with one or more of the issues of manhood and masculinity discussed in class.

CLASS POLICIES:

Attendance/Participation: Regular attendance and participation are not graded formally, but I do take attendance and will penalize frequent absence and tardiness.   You will be allowed two unpenalized absences.  Please reserve these for true emergencies.  Experience has shown that there is a positive correlation between punctual, regular attendance and alert participation and improved performance on written assignments.  After the first two absences, you will be penalized one full letter grade for each following absence.

Also, please be sure to be punctual; you should be in your seat when class begins.  If you are more than fifteen minutes late at the beginning of class, I will mark you as absent for half the class.  If you are late you are not only likely to miss important information and announcements given at the beginning of class, but you will also disrupt others' concentration.  Please remember to turn off cell phones and pagers

If a real, unforeseen emergency does occur which prevents you from turning in assignments and attending class regularly, contact me immediately through e-mail or the English office, and we will make arrangements to ensure that you remain caught up.

If you know in advance that you  must miss class for any reason (including religious observances or athletic events), please let me know as soon as possible.  You are responsible for the timely completion of  any reading or writing assignments announced.  Get them from a  classmate, from me (through the e-mail address listed above) or from the course webpage, which may be accessed at http://orion.it.luc.edu/~kricker/290/index.html.  I will permit one late assignment and one extension; these must be turned in no later than 48 hours after the deadline.  All other late assignments will be lowered by one letter grade.

Plagiarism:  Plagiarism means using someone else's words and ideas and attempting to pass them off as your own.  It is a serious offense and carries severe penalties.  Plagiarists risk failing the assignment, failing the course, and ultimately receiving university disciplinary action, even expulsion.  Academic dishonesty is simply wrong; it is also easily detected.  If you have any questions or doubts about documentation and credit, see me before you turn in your paper.  We will continue to address questions about the ethical use of information as the course proceeds.

Conferences/Contacts:  No man (or woman) is an island.  If you have questions about an assignment, or problems with any part of the course, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Some questions can be addressed through e-mail, which I check on a daily basis.  Otherwise, I will be more than happy to meet with you during office hours or at some other appointed time.  Come prepared to our conference.

You will have one mandatory conference meeting to be announced later in the semester.  Keep in mind, however, that while discussion with your instructor can lead to improvement in your writing, it does not in the least guarantee an improvement in your grade.

The Writing Center:  By the end of January you may also begin to visit the Writing Center for assistance.  Remember that tutors do not write papers for students or edit papers, and that visiting a tutor does not guarantee an improved grade any more than visiting an instructor does.  Reserve a session well ahead of time (they get busy) and come prepared with your assignment, draft, any textbook you may need, and a specific question/problem.  Do not miss your session.

I look forward to a very interesting semester with you.

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