ENG 104Z Introduction to Fiction

Lecture Hours: 4
Credits: 4

The study of fiction invites us to enter imaginative narratives and confront the challenges of being human. English 104Z provides opportunities for the appreciation of fiction, including deeper awareness of craft and insight into how reading fiction can lead to self-enrichment. Students read a variety of types of fiction, from diverse perspectives and eras, and develop their skills in discussion, literary analysis, and critical thinking.

Prerequisite: Placement into WR 115 (or higher), or completion of WR 090 or WR 115 (or higher); or consent of instructor. (All prerequisite courses must be completed with a grade of C or better.)
Student Learning Outcomes:
Common Course Number Outcomes

Articulate how culture and context shape literary texts of fiction and how literature contributes to understandings of ourselves and the world.
Identify how literary devices and various formal elements contribute meaning to a text.
Build interpretations based on relevant evidence.

Statewide General Education Outcomes:

Interpret and engage in the Arts and Letters, making use of the creative process to enrich the quality of life.
Critically analyze values and ethics within a range of human experience and expression to engage more fully in local and global issues.

Content Outline

Plot
- Exposition
- Conflict
- Climax
- Denouement
- Subplots
- Rising and falling action
Characterization
- Types of characters
  - Flat and round
  - Static and dynamic
  - Archetypal
  - Protagonist and antagonist
- Character motivation and reliability
Setting
- Physical (time and place)
- Psychological
Theme(s)
Point of view and narration
Irony
Tone
Figurative Language
- Simile
- Metaphor
- Paradox
- Allusion
- Personification
- Others as appropriate
Symbolism
- Allegory
- Metonymy
- Contextual
- Universal
Writing Literary Analysis
- Conventions of literary essay
  - Establishing a thesis
  - Incorporating details from the text, including quotations
  - Incorporating and documenting information from other sources
  - MLA format and style
- Special concerns in writing about fiction
Critical Approaches to Literature
- Definition of “Canon” and challenges to it
- At least 3 critical lenses as appropriate for texts such as: formalist, historical, reader response, gender, cultural, psychoanalytic, deconstruction
- Judging quality
  - Escape fiction
  - Literary fiction