ENG 400: Seminar in George Orwell
Interterm 2008

Schedule:

Week 1

1/2--Special meeting time: 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Introduction to class.
Assignment for 1/3: Read "Shooting an Elephant" and "A Hanging."  Start reading IV, V, and XIV in excerpt from Burmese Days in The Orwell Reader.

1/3
Discussion of essays. The man and the writing: origins.
Assignment for 1/4: Finish reading excerpt from Burmese Days.

1/4
Discussion of excerpt from Burmese Days.
Assignment for 1/7: Read at least one-half of Down and Out in Paris and London and read "Anti-Semitism in Britain." We will finish discussing the book on Tuesday.

Week 2

1/7
Discussion of Down and Out in Paris and London.  Discussion of writing assignment.  See Richard Erickson's "Down and Out in Paris: Orwell's Fact or Fiction?" (online).
NEW: Vocabulary page
Assignment for 1/8: Finish reading Down and Out in Paris and London. Begin work on writing assignment.

1/8
Discussion of Down and Out in Paris and London.  Vocabulary page
Assignment for 1/9:  Read Chapter 1 of excerpt from Keep the Aspidistra Flying and excerpt from The Road to Wigan Pier in The Orwell Reader.  Start reading Homage to Catalonia.

1/9 (W)
Discussion of book excerpts.
Assignment for 1/10: Continue reading Homage to Catalonia.

1/10 (R)
Discussion of Homage to Catalonia. Orwell and Spanish Civil War politics.
Assignment for 1/11: Finish reading Homage to Catalonia.

1/11 (F)
Discussion of Homage to Catalonia.
Assignment for 1/14: Read Animal Farm and begin reading 1984. Read selectively from Orwell's writing about literature--"Rudyard Kipling," "Politics vs. Literature: an Examination of 'Gulliver's Travels,'" "Lear, Tolstory and the Fool," "In Defense of P. G. Wodehouse," or "Charles Dickens," "Arthur Koestler,"

Week 3

1/14 (M)
Discussion of Animal Farm.
Assignment for 1/15: Continue reading 1984 and read "England Your England" from The Lion and the Unicorn. 

1/15 (T)
Discussion of "England Your England" and Orwell's literary criticism.
Assignment for 1/6: Continue reading 1984 and read "Politics and the English Language."

1/16 (W)
Discussion of 1984 and "Politics and the English Language."
Assignment for 1/6: Continue reading 1984 and read "Second Thoughts on James Burnham."

1/17 (R)
Discussion of 1984 and "Second Thoughts on James Burnham."
Assignment for 1/6: Continue reading 1984 and read "Why I Write."

1/18 (F)
Discussion of 1984 and "Why I Write." Link to Longfellow poem.
Assignment for 1/21: CHANGED: Read selected critical articles on 1984.
For 1/21, revised:  Review or catch up on reading, so that we can do some summarizing and threading of the themes we've seen throughout Orwell's writing.

Week 4

1/21 (M)
Critical paper due. Unifying themes (including themes from the essays).