WORKLOAD
There were 8 main texts to read for the course. I would definitely just skim/read plot summaries on them as this class doesn't focus on the literature aspect, as much as the psychology of the characters. I felt the reading was way too much for a g.e. - but I feel most g.e.'s do pile up on the reading. Upper divisions are much lighter, specific and doable.

I felt frustrated, because there was so much to read, (and much of it so interesting) but I felt it was in vain as the focus wasn't on the themes, literary devices - instead is was on "whether this character is jealous or envious, and explain" type of stuff. So, read online summaries, skim, and just focus on the themes/quotes read in class, and find similar quotes too - highlight/use post-it notes for easy access

He changes the texts (and added more for our class). He may add more, as people suggested he use poetry next time.

BUt, we read:

Othello
Phaedra
Measure for Measure
The Death of Ivan Illiych
The Kreutzer Sonata
The Drowned and The Saved (only a few chapters out of the whole book were relevant - like Shame)
The Sunflower
Oedipus Rex/King Oedipus (this is short)

Course Reader (CR) (These are shorter and most are excerpts
Paradise Lost (excerpt)
Genesis (excerpt
Trapps by Durrenmatt
Swann's Way (excerpt)
Emma Zunz
The Storrs lectures by fletcher
Stavrogin's Confession (excerpt)
The Artist's Way (Morris' article - what he lectures on so if you miss his lecture - I'd read this instead - it was more helpful)

Exams
Midterm - 2 essays to be written in one hour (so you get half-an hour each)
Final 6 essays to be written in three hours (so you still get half-an hour each)

The class was pretty stressed about this, (at least the essays were to be about 1 page each, I believe), but many students didn't finish them - BRING A WATCH AND TIME YOURSELF - PRACTICE WRITING 1/2 HOUR ESSAYS. Even our TA mentioned she'd never heard of this for a philosophy class (which she majored in at Ucla).

Also, philosophy papers are much more different in structure that English papers - they are much more bare bones, dry and need to be very concise. Look into how to write one fro your TA and look up online, ask for examples even.

LECTURE
He was enthralling, but at times, he did take forever to get to a point or move onto a new one - it was frustrating, sometimes it felt like it came in with the territory (as one thought went to another - as a philosophy) other times, I just felt stressed that we were falling behind. And, his going on in one topic sometimes confused me on what I should really tkae away. BUt, if you contact him, he will understand, for example, he mentioned ivan illiych wasn't going to be covered on the midterm as a student mentioned to him it wasn't covered in class.

PAPER
Open-ended, which some TA's felt mad it more difficult for students. Other's iked it in that they could see a film and relate it to a class topic.

HIS OFFICE HOURS
People use this to talk about anything, because Morris is a lovable professor, but really, use this time to ask about the material. People stopped going to his office hours because others kept asking him personal questions - which is interesting, but hard to come to for 3 hours when you have so many other things to do (although you can always excuse yourself too).

I heard his review for the final was very helpful though.

TAs
I think the grasping of the material really depended on your TA. Junwon was an Asian TA with an accent, many were a bit nervous they would be lost in translation. Actually - he was the best TA (I went to the others). He streamlined everything, discussions weren't just "what do you think Henry? What do you think Sally?" - which is a waste of money and time. This is philosophy - make the concepts clear!

Also, I think because the department only offers this class once year, they've gotten lax with whom they allow to be their TA. Once, was a nice Italian woman who'd never taken philosophy in her life, another was a recent graduate who was going into the air force (Lara Richmond). Lara was overly tough, didn't clear up concepts, and even admitted she hadn't read all the material ("because it's a part-tim job"), which made her focus mainly on structure - which made her really nit-picky. The other TA didn't give students back their papers/exams until the day before the new exams (but he was really good at bringing Morris water, and telling students "grades don't matter."

IN THE END
I might have just sat in on some of his lectures (especially the one on the paintings - which was so much more eye-opening than any art history class I know of ,- but I KIND OF REGRET TAKING THIS COURSE I think if you're comfortable with philosophy, then go for it, but if you have other interests - like Education or Urban Planning, or theatre - I might take those instead. I can just say, he exposed me to some interesting ideas, and that I took a course with one of the best known professors at school - also-he's taught here since the 50s. But, if I could change taking this class for another - I would.

Professor Morris is amazing.

The topics are interesting and the class is very doable. There was one 5 page essay with a topic of your choice and a midterm and final. The midterm and final consists of essays based on the books and paintings talked about during lecture.

I only purchased the course reader and passed the class with an A.

So, I'm selling my course reader! It's in great condition. There are some highlights and side notes (which you may find really useful) and I will leave in my notes I took for some of the other books inside which WILL BE EXTREMELY USEFUL for the midterm. The notes include the main topics, the books they relate to, and specific details that could be used as support.

EMAIL: *************

***IMPORTANT***
So, most of the students who have already reviewed Professor Morris absolutely love him and his class - and there are some students who truly do love the course - but many of the students that I've worked with do not share that passion.

I thought this would be my favorite class, yet I ended up dreading it. Although it is an easy A, the lectures are long and boring. I didn't expect (or want) him to analyze the smallest details in paintings, which he does for about 2 weeks, and it takes him way too long to get his point across. For example, my friend perfectly summarized one of his two hour lectures in about 5 minutes.

I came in thinking I might minor in philosophy, and now I know that I will never take a Philosophy class again. English majors be warned: the essay structures are completely different in philosophy, which I know frustrated some people.

For reference, I am a Life Science major and I got an A- in the class.

Grade breakdown:
30% midterm
30% paper
40% final

Professor Morris is a lovely old man who is very passionate about philosophy. He can be a bit monotone and it is very difficult to pay attention in his lectures, especially given how long they are. (However, he does give a brief break in the middle of lecture). It doesn't take much to be lulled to sleep or to stop focusing, but it is very important to understand everything he relays during lecture. You can go over the podcasts at a later date, but we all know podcasts just pile up with procrastination, so I highly recommend actually attending lecture. Morris makes a lot of interesting connections between philosophy and literature, and the course wasn't too difficult if you understood the concepts he went over in lecture. You don't necessarily have to read the readings he assigns. It may be helpful to, but you mostly just need to know the central theme and plot of each work.

Midterm:
You are given one hour to answer two short essay questions, selected from two different sections. Again, if you pay attention in lecture, you should do fine. Questions will cover general philosophical concepts as well as specific connections to literature.
My grade: A

Paper:
The paper is very open-ended. You basically just pick any form of literature (novel, song, movie, poem, etcetera) and just analyze it using the philosophical concepts discussed in class. It was four to five pages in length, double-spaced. I find that it can be fairly easy to write a paper when you are really interested in the work you are analyzing. For example, my paper was titled "The Tragedy Of Pecola Breedlove: Guilt, Shame, And Envy In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye." I really loved the novel I wrote about and was able to write a lot about it. Just pick a work you are really familiar with and it should come easily for you.
My grade: A-

Final:
The final was three hours with six questions, two questions chosen from three different sections. This is basically formatted the same way as the midterm.
My grade: not sure

TA:
My TA was Piera Maurizio. She was an adequate TA, but I feel like she could have covered more of the topics discussed in lecture more. Of course it is difficult to squeeze in four hours of lecture and condense it in an hour of discussion, but a lot of the topics covered in lecture were only lightly touched on, if at all, in discussion. She was for the most part helpful in making things clear.

One thing that bugged me about this course was how slowly things were graded. It took weeks to grade the midterm, paper, and final and that was kind of annoying. But other than that, it was an interesting class. If you are interested in philosophy, you should take this course. It isn't too difficult if you put in the effort.

Final grade: A-

Being a first-year student, I can honestly say that Professor Morris' Philosophy in Literature (Philosophy 5) course will forever be one of the most amazing courses I will ever take here at UCLA.

Professor Morris is a very experienced scholar in his field, and I would it very interesting how he immersed material from philosophy, law, literature and psychology into his lectures. He rereads the material in order to refresh his memory on the content. There are some stories in the reading list that he will dissect a lot during class, and others he would only mention. Because of this, you should read the books from the reading list or at least read a detailed summary on them. If you don't at least read a detailed summary of the stories, then you will be lost in lecture.

Everything that you are examined on is based on Morris' lectures. You can't just depend on the readings to get a good grade in this class. You should attend lecture or rely on the podcast.

The reason why I was able to understand the main concepts from Morris' lectures so easily was because of my TA. I would say that my TA, Junwon Ko, was very well-experienced; he was a very approachable person to ask for assistance, he understood the concepts completely, he was able to break down the main themes in just 50 minute sections, he provided us with review questions and even held review sessions for both the midterm and the final. He even emphasized on the material that he knew would most likely be on our exams, and he was accurate on his assumptions. However, Junwon will no longer be a TA since he will begin law school.

If you are a fan of philosophy or a big fan of literature, I would highly recommend this course. It is very innovating. However, if you do not enjoy either or simply think that taking this class will be an easy way to fulfill a GE requirement, you will think otherwise.

Grading scale:
30% midterm (1 hr: 2 parts, 1 essay question each)
30% 4-5 page paper (topic of your choice in relation to the course)
40& final (3 hours: 3 parts, 2 essay questions each)

As a first-year student, Morris was easily my favorite and most knowledgeable professor this quarter. He was SO passionate about the readings (he rereads them for the course) and talks about them like a past lover. He can be funny, and is almost always certainly enlightening.

Readings can be tedious, but definitely interesting and enriches the experience that much more. They provide the base for lectures that will ALWAYS go above and beyond what you thought you knew (yay philosophy!). Bring a laptop. It may take him a while to get to the hot topics per lecture, but once he does, you'll want to catch every detail for discussion and clarifications.

Also, STAY AWAKE DURING LECTURE. As a law school professor, he incorporates (way too much) legal terms and perspectives to the class. While enriching, it is also incredibly boring and confusing. If you doze out in the middle of it, you will be so lost and would be better off relying on podcasts than having gone to class at all.

Get a good TA. Hard to pick one, but you'll know by the end of the first section. I had Piera and, while decent, her discussion sections were not incredibly helpful due to her passivity and near impossibility of fitting 4 hours of lecture per week in 50 minutes. During our individual sections, she was SO helpful and I am so grateful for her patience and clarity. She honestly helped me do well on the final.

Good luck. Don't be afraid to take this class. It was worth it and I walked out of there feeling much more enlightened, interested in the seemingly mundane aspects of life, and an affinity toward philosophy.

Professor Morris is extremely likeable and extremely knowledgable in his field.

I took philosophy 5 with this professor, and the grade is broken down into: attendance to section, a five page paper, a midterm, and a final. I missed one section, got a B on the paper, an A on the midterm and final, and an A in the class.

The reading for this class was extremely interesting and very enjoyable, however it does add up. The lectures were also mind-blowing, but if you did not do the reading for that particular day (which I may or may not have found myself doing) then you will pretty much sit in lecture lost and bored. My suggestion is that, even if you do not have the time to do the reading, at least look up the plot summaries of the books online before lecture so you understand what he is talking about.

The class is based more off of general plot and character analysis, so as long as you understand the general gist of what the reading is, and you take notes during lecture you should be fine. Both the midterm and the final are timed writing, so you should learn to feel comfortable with writing decent essays in a short amount of time.

Overall, Morris is adorable, and practically begs his students to come to his office hours. I felt like by just listening to him speak, my IQ increased by a couple points, and I highly recommend him.