It Begins!

Welcome to English 240, Literature for Life! This site is going to be our hub this semester. Take some time to look around -- and maybe a few minutes to set up a blogger profile so we can get to know you you a bit. (While you're browsing, pay particular attention to the part of the syllabus that goes over contract grading... not sure how common it is so it can seem funky to people.)

According to the catalog, this course is suppose to serve as a "springboard for personal reflection." In class on Tuesday, we are going to try to figure out what the hell this means. What does life-enriching literature look like? How is this "springboard" going to function? I'm kinda hoping you took this class because you enjoy reading, but I harbor no delusions that at least a few of you chose it because it worked with your schedule... What baggage are you bringing with you in terms of the role literature has played in your education? In your life outside of school? (Are these two radically different? Why?) Has a class ever killed a book for you? How? What value do you see in studying literature? What do you hope to take away from this class? We will also play with the ideas in this video we will watch: David Foster Wallace "This is Water." (This is an fun little video that uses parts of Wallace's speech. Full versions exist on YouTube and you will find a link to the text on the class Diigo.)

Fair warning: I'll be bombarding you with invitations to join the different sites we are using for this class. The class Diigo has links to versions of the first two main texts we are reading. The class Prezi is where we will display the information gathered in the Context Groups and the Google Docs are where the Context Groups will get organized. Our class Twitter feed is #Lit4LifeS14. (I will explain all of this and am more than willing to help you if you run into problems with this.)

I look forward to meeting all of you!

Athena