ENL 2202: Survey of English Literature: 1750 to the Present

Course Objective and Description:

This course is a survey of English literature from the Romantic period to the present day, and, as such, we will be reading and writing about a great variety of works in order to get a sense of the development of English literature in this time span. Since literature reveals the workings of culture, we shall endeavor to create an ongoing conversation on the nature of those workings as we piece together the conversation in which the work itself participates. To this end, I have incorporated many of the Longman Anthology's "Perspectives" sections into the course (see the course schedule below), which feature a number of authors writing on a particular issue or in response to a specific work.

The goal of this course is encourage an understanding of each individual work with the larger context of English literature and, by doing so, learn how to read poetry, drama, and fiction critically. In order to communicate these interpretations, we will also focus on how to write about literature. Thus the goal in this endeavor is to construct essays that write about these genres in a thoughtful, convincing, and effective manner.

Achievement of Course Objectives:

Classroom explanations and discussions will guide you through the reading and writing assignments. You will also receive help in one-on-one conferences and peer editing sessions. Because this class fulfils the Gordon Rule, you will be asked to write a minimum of 6000 words over the course of the semester. You will also need to do the following:

Keep up with reading and writing assignments. The following books are available at Wild Iris Books (located at 802 West University Avenue):

· Damrosch, David et. al. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol. II. 2^nd Edition.

· Bressler,Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 3rd Edition. Prentice Hall.

· Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. 3rd edition. W.W. Norton & Company.

· Moore, Allan. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Vol I. DC Comics.

· Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or a Modern Prometheus. Dover Thrift Edition.

· Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. Reissue edition. Harvest Books.

· Hacker, Diana. A Writer's Reference. 5th ed. Bedford/St. Martin's. (or some other grammar handbook that has a section an MLA style guide)

Do all assignments before a class session begins (by class, you should have read the text selections listed on the syllabus for that day).

Participate in class discussions and editing sessions. Bring texts to class and take notes.

Grade Breakdown:

Class Policies and Requirements:

Attendance:

Because class attendance is critical to your understanding of class material, you are allowed only two unexcused absences over the course of the semester. After two unexcused absences, your final grade average will be dropped five points for every day missed. An absence due to illness or family crisis may be excused if properly documented to my satisfaction. In addition, if you participate in a university-sponsored event (music, theater, field trip, or athletics), you must provide me with documentation from an appropriate authority. Whether or not an absence is excused, you are responsible for contacting a classmate or me to find out what material you missed and any work that was assigned. If work is due in class on the day of the absences, the work is due in my mailbox by 4pm that day.

One or two tardies (arriving late in class or departing class early) will be excused if the reasons are acceptable and if there is valid documentation. Otherwise, tardiness is not acceptable because it is disruptive, and, beyond any excused tardies, class participation grade and overall grade will be affected (2 tardies = 1 absence).

Class Participation:

In addition to attending class, you are also expected to contribute class discussions and participate in workshop sessions with your peers. Learning is not a solitary process, but one that necessarily involves others and I thus consider class participation a very important part of achieving this class's goals.

Quizzes:

If I think that the class is not doing the reading assignments, I will begin giving quizzes at the beginning of every class. If you are reading the texts as we progress though the semester, you should do fine.

Exams:

We will have one exam for the three periods of literature (Romantic, Victorian, and Twentieth Century) that we are covering in this course. The exam will include a take-home essay portion (see below) and an in-class portion. The in-class part of the exam will be made up of quotation identifications and short answer questions from the period being studied.

The third and final exam will have the usual identifications and short answers, but the essay for this exam will be cumulative.

Essays:

For the essay portion of the exam, I will give out three essay questions or prompts from which you may choose your topic. Before the first exam we will go over some sample questions so that you have an idea of what they will be like and what I will be expecting. If you look at the schedule, below you will notice that each exam falls on a Monday. I will give out the questions that Friday and the essay will due on the following Monday of the exam. Each essay will be no less that 1,200 words (around 5 pages).

Format:

All work is due at the beginning of class on the day it is due. All major essays should be typed on only one side of 8 ½" x 11" white paper, MLA format, stapled, and be in Times New Roman font. On days when drafts are due (workshop days), you must bring two copies of your paper to class. These copies should be clean, typed papers (the same format as the final draft) and already well edited by you. I will not accept any papers that are not in this format.

Revisions:

You may revise any and/or all of the essays in this class. Revision does not simply mean fixing all of the errors that I have marked on your paper; rather, it entails make global changes to your essay. To this end, you must first work on your essay on your own. Then you MUST make conference with me about the essay. I will not simply tell you what you should do with the essay but will instead answer any questions that you have. The revision of each essay is due on the peer review day of next essay.

Listserv Participation:

At the beginning of the term, I will set up a class email listerv. Each student must email at least six original responses to an upcoming reading assignment and six responses to others' responses. While these posts need not be polished pieces of writing, I do expect a certain amount critical thought. The idea here is raise issues about a particular reading or group of readings for the class to think about before we discuss. Responses will be graded out of ten, with a ten being equivalent to a check for completion. Each post will be no less than 200 words.

University and Departmental Policies

Gordon Rule:

All work must be completed for a grade since the work assigned fulfills the Gordon Rule, which stipulates that students are to write a minimum of 6000 words that receive feedback, are graded, and give experience in various types of writing important in disciplines, workplace, and civic areas.

Plagiarism:

Unless the work assigned is specifically designed to be completed in groups, all work must be individual. Evidence of collusion (working with another student or tutor not connected with class), multiple submissions (turning the same work in two courses), plagiarism (use of another's ideas, data, and/or statements without acknowledgement or with only minimal acknowledgement) will lead to the procedures set up by the university for academic dishonestly in the Honor Court.

Classroom Dynamics:

Because class participation relies heavily on individuals feeling comfortable expressing their opinions, you must always show respect for the diversity of opinions expressed in this class. You must also demonstrate respect for gender, racial, class, and ethnic differences among your colleagues and instructor.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:

Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.

Challenging a Grade:

Any complaints about separate assignments should be addressed to me and not to the English Department. If you have any complaints on the final grade, you may see me at the beginning of the next term. If you find that you still have complaints after our meeting, you may express your complaints on a form in the English Department Office (4012 Turlington). The form and accompanying course material will be given to the Director of Writing Program Administration for further action. A review committee may decide to raise, lower, or keep the originally assigned grade. This decision is final. The material submitted will remain on file in the English Department Office.

Overview of Assignments:

These assignments are due in class on the dates indicated. There will be NO LATE assignments accepted. Also, there will be additional assignments and materials not indicated on this sheet (I will announce them in class), and both this schedule and individual assignments are subject to change. All readings are in the Longman anthology unless otherwise noted.

Introduction

Week 1

M, August 25 - Course Introduction

W, August 27 - Course Introduction and "Political and Religious Orders" (Vol. 2b xxviii-xxxiii)

F, August 29 - Syllabus Quiz, "The Romantics and Their Contemporaries" (3-29), and Bressler 1-15 "Chapter1: Defining Criticism, Theory, and Literature"

The Romantics (Volume 2A)

Week 2

M, Sept. 1 - No Class (Labor Day)

W, Sept. 3 - William Blake's Songs of Innocence (118-125), the introduction to Blake (112-113); Bressler "Chapter 3: New Criticism"37-40

F, Sept. 5 - William Blake's Songs of Experience (126-135) and Bressler "Chapter 4: Reader-Response" (55-70)

Week 3

M, Sept. 8 - The introduction to Mary Wollstonecraft; Wollstonecraft's A Vindication onthe Rights of Woman and Maria; or The Wrongs of Woman (excerpts from) (227-268)

W, Sept. 10 - "Perspectives: The Wollstonecraft Controversy and the Rights of Women" (269-308) (contemporary responses to the text and other contributions to the Woman Question) and Bressler "Chapter 5: Structuralism" (75-89)

F, Sept. 11 - The introduction to William Wordsworth (336-337); W. Wordsworth's "Preface" (356-362), "There was a Boy" (362), "Strange fits of passion have I known" (363), "Lucy Gray" (365), "Michael" (369), "I wandered lonely as a cloud" (453), and "The Solitary Reaper" (460)

Week 4

M, Sept. 15 - William Wordsworth's Book Fifth and Sixth from The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet's Mind; the introduction to Dorothy Wordsworth (465-467); D. Wordsworth's "Grasmere-A Fragment" (467), "Irregular Verses" (470), "Floating Island"

W, Sept. 17 - The introduction to Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancyent Marinere" (Part 1) (526-528), "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (528-545), and "Kubla Kahn" (545-546)

F, Sept. 19 - The introduction to George Gordon, Lord Byron; "The Byronic Hero" (638-654); excerpts from "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (654-666); Bressler "Chapter 6: Deconstruction" (94-114)

Week 5

M, Sept. 22 - Byron's "Don Juan" (667-747); the introduction to Percy Bysshe Shelley (752-754); P.B. Shelley's "To Wordsworth" (754), "Mont Blanc" (754-7), and "Ozymandias" (760)

W, Sept. 24 - P.B. Shelley's "Adonias" (776-792) and selection from "The Defense of Poetry" (800-810); the introduction to John Keats "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (854), "Ode to a Nightingale" (879), and "To Autumn" (886);

F, Sept. 26 - Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Mercy" (875-876), "The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream" (887-899), letters (900-904, 909-912, 913-914)

Week 6

M, Sept. 29 - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bressler 119-136 "Chapter 7: Psychoanalytic Criticism"

W, Oct.1 - The introduction to Felicia Hemans (810-812); Hemans' "Joan of Arc, in Rheims" (830-833), "The Homes of England" (833-834), "Corinne at the Capitol" (835-836), "Woman and Fame" (836-837), and the companion readings on Hemans (837-840)

F, Oct. 3 - "The Victorian Age" (1008-1031); the introduction to Charles Dickens 1355-1357); Bressler "Chapter 9: Marxism" (161-174)

The Victorians (Volume 2B)

Week 7

M, Oct. 6 - Exam One

W, Oct. 8 - No Class (instructor at conference)

F, Oct. 10 - No Class (instructor at conference)

Week 8

M, Oct. 13 - Charles Dickens' Hard Times and "Perspectives: Imagining Childhood" (1705-1746)

W, Oct. 15 - "Perspectives: The Industrial Landscape" (1047-1072; Hard Times contd; Bressler "Chapter 8: Feminism" (142-156)

F, Oct. 17 - The introduction to Thomas Carlyle and selections from Carlyle's Past and Present (1033-1046); the introduction to John Stuart Mill and selections from Mill's "On Liberty"and "The Subjection of Women"

Week 9

Oct. 20 - The introduction to Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1105); selections for Sonnets from the Portuguese and Books 1 and 2 from Aurora Leigh (1108-1124); the introduction to Robert Browning (1305); R. Browning's "Fra Lippo Lippi" (1328-1336) and "Andrea del Sarto" (1339-1345)

W, Oct. 22 - The introduction to Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1136-1139); Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallot" (1141-1146) and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1195); the introduction to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and "The Blessed Damozel (1599-1604); Bressler "Chapter 10: Cultural Poetics or New Historicism" (179-191)

F, Oct. 24 - The introduction to Matthew Arnold (1547-1550); Arnold's "Dover Beach" (1551-2), "The Scholar- Gipsy," and an excerpt from "The Study of Poetry" (1593-1598); the introduction to Christina Rossetti and "Goblin Market" (1618-1630)

Week 10

M, Oct. 27 - the introduction to William Morris and "The defense of Guenevere (1633-1641), the introduction to Algernon Charles Swinburne (1651-1652); Swinburne's "Hymn to Proserpine" (1658-1661)

W, Oct. 29 - The introduction to Darwin (1243-1245); selection from "Ch. 21: General Summary and Conclusion" of Darwin's The Decent of Man" (1259-1265); "Perspectives: Travel and Empire"; Bressler "Chapter 11: Cultural Studies" (197-209)

F, Oct. 31 - "Perspectives: Victorian Ladies and Gentlemen" (1515-1546); the introduction to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and "A Scandal in Bohemia" (1447-1463)

Week 11

M, Nov. 3 - The introduction to Oscar Wilde (1860-1862); Wilde's "Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1883-1884) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1884-1924)

W, Nov. 5 - "Perspectives: Aestheticism, Decadence, and the Fin De Siécle" (1939-1989) and Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

F, Nov. 7 - No Class (Homecoming)

The Twentieth-Century

Week 12

M, Nov. 10 - Exam Two

W, Nov. 13 - The introduction to the Twentieth Century (1990-2015) and "Perspectives - The Great War: Confronting the Modern" (2167-2231)

F, Nov. 15 - "Perspectives: Whose Language?" (2889-2958)

Week 13

M, Nov. 17 -The introduction to William Butler Yeats; Yeats' "The Wild Swans at Coole" (2248), "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" (2249), "Easter 1916" (2249), "Sailing to Byzantium" (2253), "Leda and the Swan" (2262), "Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop" (2265)

W, Nov. 19 - The introduction to T.S. Eliot; Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (2347-2353)

F, Nov. 21 - "Perspectives: Regendering Modernism" (2550-2537); the introduction to D.H. Lawrence; Lawrence's "Odour of Chrysanthemums" (2648-2660) and "Surgery for the Novel--or a Bomb" (2671-2673)

Week 14

M, Nov. 24 - The introduction to Virginia Woolf (2380-2382); Woolf's A Room of One's Own

W, Nov. 26 - Woolf contd.

F, Nov. 28 - No Class (Thanksgiving)

Week 15

M, Dec. 1 - Poetry Presentations (Dylan Thomas, W.H. Auden, Thomas Hardy)

W, Dec. 3 - Poetry Presentations (Stevie Smith, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath)

F, Dec. 5 - Poetry Presentations (Ted Hughes, Thom Gunn)

Week 16

M, Dec. 8 - review

W, Dec. 10 - review

F, Dec. 12 - No Class (Reading Day)

Week 17 - Final Exam