ENH 110 Introduction to Literature

My ENH 110 Introduction to Literature class at its most basic, introduces students to the key elements of literature: the short story, the poem, and the play. Students read a great variety of stories, poems, and dramas from all ages and continents and peoples, and discuss them in great detail. What I try to do in this class (and in all my classes) is to help students see the relevance of the material to their own lives. I don't believe in reading literature just for the aesthetic thrill of the experience - I believe the right literature can teach fundamental lessons about how best to live one's life with character, wit, success, meaning, and dignity.

What I believe sets the class apart is my integration of a multi-media approach to complement the literature read. For example, after we read A ROSE FOR EMILY by William Faulkner, students are shown clips from DEAD POETS SOCIETY to suggest different ways of considering the notion of "carpe diem" - seize the day. The concept of death in Woody Allen's drama DEATH KNOCKS is contrasted with other images of death, from Ingmar Bergman's Swedish classic, THE SEVENTH SEAL, to Monty Python's THE MEANING OF LIFE to BILL AND TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY to THE FAR SIDE cartoons of Gary Larson. After students read DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT by Dylan Thomas, they are presented Rodney Dangerfield's version of it in BACK TO SCHOOL. A section on "Metaphors and Similes" includes clips of movies like TITANIC, FOREST GUMP, and 101 DALMATIANS where that type of figurative language is employed. Once the class has grappled with Kafka's intimidating METAMORPHOSIS, I show allusions to it in works ranging from SPACEBALLS to DECONSTRUCTING HARRY to NAKED LUNCH to the comic strip FOXTROT. The downbeat yet fragile atmosphere of Hemingway's A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE is compared to a similar ambience in a slide of Edward Hopper's painting NIGHTHAWKS. A discussion of Poe's A TELL-TALE HEART is followed by clips of a SIMPSONS episode updating that horror classic.

At the end of the semester, students try to answer 30 questions from JEOPARDY and WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE programs I've taped over the years dealing with the same literature we've covered all semester long.

I try to appeal to the students on a variety of levels. Because the T.S. Eliot poem LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK is an extremely difficult one, I have put together a slide show of over 100 images from popular culture to try to help them relate the message to their own lives. We then listen to the song SPLIT PERSONALITY by the popular singer, Pink, and seek contemporary connections with what Eliot was trying to say.

In fact, the infusion of music into the course has been a recent focus on my part. During the poetry section, students listen to popular artists from Bruce Springsteen to R.E.M. to Ben Folds to Staind to Eminem and analyze their work as contributing to modern poetry.

By the conclusion, students seem genuinely positive about the whole diverse literary experience even though many were reluctant at first because apparently, to some, "literature" means LITERATURE - an imposing body of work by dead white guys with no relation to the modern world or their lives. I believe they leave more aware of the possibilities of literature, more aware of the way literature can help them find out what is really important in life.

While I have been emphasizing contemporary elements of the class, I do not mean to downplay the traditional literature we discuss. In addition to those already mentioned, we read such literary stalwarts as Steinbeck, Crane, Browning, Hardy, Cheever, Mansfield, Chekhov, Burns, Thurber, and Auden; "heavyweight" plays like DEATH OF A SALESMAN and THE GLASS MENAGERIE are also a regular feature of the class (I show two different film versions of the same scene in THE GLASS MENAGERIE so students can see how it may be interpreted differently by different artists). Diversity is also encouraged in the selections of works by Baldwin, Dove, Hughes, Sundiata, Hayden, Buson, and Komunyakaa, among others.

I cannot go into detail about every nuance of the 45 classes that make up my ENH 110 Introduction to Literature course (offered in the Fall, Spring and 1st Summer sessions), but I would be happy to respond to any questions you might have about any aspect of the course - please call me at 480-461-7611.

See the MCCCD Competencies and Outline for this course.  |  Register for the class online  |

Please contact Bob Baron for comments or corrections  | email  |  Phone: 480- 461 - 7611

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