E212 British Lit. since 1760 Syllabus, Spring 2011 – Alfred J. Drake's Academic Site

SYLLABUS FOR E212 BRITISH LITERATURE SINCE 1760
CSU FULLERTON, SPRING 2011

COURSE INFORMATION. English 212, Course Code 11668, Section 01. Tu/Th 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., SGMH-2301 (Mihaylo Hall) as of Tuesday, Feb. 1. Instructor: Alfred J. Drake, Ph.D. Office hours: Tu/Th 10:30-11:25 a.m. in UH 329. Email: e212_at_ajdrake.com. Catalog: “Major periods and movements, major authors and major forms from 1760 through modern times.” Units (3). If students are not English majors, this course satisfies requirements for General Education (GE) Category III.B.2 (Disciplinary Learning, Arts and Humanities, Intro to the Humanities) with grade of C or better.” I will use +/- grading. Students who need special accommodations should contact the Disabled Student Services Office in UH 101 or call (657) 278-3117.

REQUIRED TEXTS AT TITAN BOOKSTORE

Greenblatt, Stephen, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2006. ISBN Package 2 (Vols. DEF) ISBN 13: 978-0-393-92834-1.

Austen, Jane. Persuasion. Eds. Deidre Shauna Lynch and James Kinsley. 2nd. ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. ISBN 0-192-80263-1.

COURSE RATIONALE AND ACTIVITIES

FOCUS AND OBJECTIVES. This course will follow a roughly chronological order and will cover poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama from the beginning of the Romantic Period through Modernism and, in some variations of the syllabus, beyond. The aims of a broad survey are to acquaint you with a variety of excellent work from the periods and movements studied and to point you towards further exploration of the areas that most interest you. My comments will provide historical and thematic background, but the course will center on discussion of the specific qualities and language of assigned texts. In surveys, my method is never to impose ambitious claims of universal coherence, thematic unity, etc. on the material, but instead to follow a roughly chronological order, noting themes and issues as they arise and connecting them when appropriate.

ACTIVITIES. In class, there will be a mix of lectures, student presentations, whole-class and smaller-group discussion, occasional quizzes, an essay, and a final exam. I encourage questions and comments—class sessions improve when students take an active part. Outside class, do the assigned readings before the relevant discussion dates, complete your journal sets as outlined below, start planning and drafting your essay early, and work on your presentation drafts. In literary studies, the aim is to read and discuss actively and thereby to develop your own voice in response to the texts you read. Insightful interpretation and the ability to make compelling connections are central goals. The essay, discussions, presentations, and journal-keeping should combine to help you work towards these goals.

HOW YOUR PERFORMANCE WILL BE EVALUATED

COURSE POLICIES. Please review the Course Policies page early in the semester. Key points easily stated here: missing more than 20% of sessions may affect course grade; academic dishonesty may result in course failure. The four evaluative requirements outlined below must be substantially completed to pass the course. Since most assignments will be due by email, it is students’ responsibility to contact me promptly if they do not get an email verifying receipt of materials.

PRESENTATIONS REQUIREMENT. At the beginning of the course, students will sign up for one 5-7 minute in-class presentation on an author of their choosing (if possible). I will provide presenters with a specific question to address from among those on the questions page, and a few days after sign-up I will post a schedule on the Presentations page. Each session will feature one or more presentations. Required: One week in advance of your presentation, email me as full a draft as possible of what you intend to say in class. I will email you back with advice. If I suggest developing the remarks further, email me a revised version at least one day before your in-class presentation. I won’t judge students on their rhetorical skills during the presentation, but rather on evidence of prior preparation and consultation as well as on the written draft. How to do well on this assignment: meet with/email me as required, and send a final written version; good critics challenge and pose questions, so craft your responses to invite discussion; aim for spontaneity and a personal touch: use the question as a springboard rather than a prescription; speak up, but don’t rush things. (20% of course grade.)

JOURNALS REQUIREMENT. Responses to a choice of questions from the study questions page for each play. Four separate journal sets due by email as specified below in the session schedule. Electronic format required. I will not mark journal sets down unless they are late (maximum grade = B), incomplete, or so brief and derivative as to suggest evasion of intellectual labor: they should consist of honest responses to the assigned readings, not “yes-or-no” style answers, quotation of the assigned texts without further comment, or pasted secondary material from Internet sources. How to do well on this assignment: read instructions; complete entries as you go through each text; send sets on time, making sure I verify receipt; respond with a thoughtful paragraph on each chosen question — use your own words and refer to the texts’ specific language. (30% of course grade.)

TERM PAPER REQUIREMENT. By the end of Week 13 (04/24) a one-paragraph description addressing the general topic and specific argument of the projected paper will be due by email. (Full rough drafts are also encouraged.) Not providing this description on time may affect the final draft grade. Please read the term paper instructions carefully since they contain the general prompt, suggested topics, and advance draft comments. I reserve the right to require proof of the final paper’s authenticity, such as notes or an early draft. Final draft (5-7 pages) due as specified towards the bottom of the syllabus page. There is no need to consider this a research paper, though you are free to make it one. CSUF academic integrity policies apply. How to do well on this assignment: send required advance paragraph on time and incorporate advice I send; allow time for revision; proofread and follow MLA formatting and style guidelines; avoid exhaustive coverage and stale generalities: instead, develop a specific, arguable set of claims, demonstrating their strength by showing how they enhance our understanding of specific language, structures, and themes. (30% of course grade.)

FINAL EXAM REQUIREMENT. The exam will consist of substantive id passages (30% of exam), mix-and-match questions (match phrase or concept x to speaker/play y; 30% of exam), and key lecture points paired with substantive quotations from the assigned texts (40% of exam). There will be more choices than required responses. Books and notes allowed for all sections, but no laptops. Students may not share books or notes during the exam. Exam date: see below. How to do well on this assignment: read the online prep. sheet; take good notes and ask questions/make comments; above all, enjoy the works rather than thinking of them only as “test material.” If you take pleasure in the assigned texts’ language, attend to the sophistication with which they have been structured, and reflect on the intellectual/moral/spiritual value you derive from them, you are likely to earn a good exam grade. (20% of course grade.)

EMAILING ASSIGNMENTS. Email journals, presentations, and term paper as attachments. Don’t send more than one document in the same email. Label subject lines appropriately: “E212 Journal 1, Jane Doe” etc. You can paste journal sets into a regular email or send them as an attachment. (Journal “sets” include responses to questions about several authors; do not send entries on each author in a given set separately—responses on the relevant authors should be combined into one document.) Contact me if you don’t receive a prompt email confirmation.

STUDY QUESTIONS FOR JOURNALS AND PRESENTATIONS

SCHEDULE: WORKS DISCUSSED ON DATES INDICATED

WEEK 1

01/25. Tu. Course Introduction.

01/27. Th. William Blake. Songs of Innocence and of Experience (Norton Vol. D, 81-97); The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plates 2-5 (111-14).

WEEK 2

02/01. Tu. William Wordsworth. “Preface to Lyrical Ballads“ (Norton Vol. D, 262-74); “We Are Seven” (248-49); “Expostulation and Reply” (250-51); “The Tables Turned” (251-52).

02/03. Th. William and Dorothy Wordsworth. William’s “Tintern Abbey” (Norton Vol. D, 258-62); “Three years she grew” (275-76); “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (305-06); “The Solitary Reaper” (314-15). Dorothy’s Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals (389-402).

WEEK 3

02/08. Tu. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “The Eolian Harp” (Norton Vol. D, 426-28); “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (430-48); “Kubla Khan” (446-48); “Frost at Midnight” (464-66); “Dejection: an Ode” (466-69).

02/10. Th. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Biographia Literaria (Norton Vol. D, 474-85); Lectures on Shakespeare (485-88); The Statesman’s Manual (488-91).

WEEK 4

02/15. Tu. Percy Bysshe Shelley. Defense of Poetry (Norton Vol. D, 837-50); “Mutability” (744); “To Wordsworth” (744-45); “Mont Blanc” (762-66).

02/17. Th. Percy Bysshe Shelley. “Ozymandias” (Norton Vol. D, 768); “Ode to the West Wind” (772-75); “To a Sky-Lark” (817-19).

JOURNAL SET 1 DUE BY EMAIL SUNDAY 02/20. (Reminder: this set includes Blake through Shelley. Please expect an email from me verifying receipt of this and subsequent journal sets.)

WEEK 5

02/22. Tu. John Keats. “Ode to a Nightingale” (Norton Vol. D, 903-05); “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (905-06); “Ode on Melancholy” (907-08), “To Autumn” (925-26); Letters (940-955).

02/24. Th. Charles Lamb. “Christ’s Hospital Five-and-Thirty Years Ago (Norton Vol. D, 496-505). William Hazlitt. “On Gusto” (538-41). Thomas De Quincey. “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth (569-72) and “The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power” from Alexander Pope (572-76).

WEEK 6

03/01. Tu. Jane Austen. Persuasion. (Film)

03/03. Th. Jane Austen. Persuasion. (Film) and Persuasion, Vol. 1. (Separate text.)

WEEK 7

03/08. Tu. Jane Austen. Persuasion, Vols. 1-2. (Separate text.)

03/10. Th. Alfred Tennyson. “The Lady of Shalott” (Norton Vol. E, 1114-18); “The Lotos-Eaters” (1119-23); “Ulysses” (1123-25); from In Memoriam A.H.H.: Prologue (1138-39), 1-5 (1140-42), 54-56 (1157-59).

WEEK 8

03/15. Tu. Thomas Carlyle. Sartor Resartus (Norton Vol. E, 1005-1024).

03/17. Th. John Stuart Mill. On Liberty (Norton Vol. E, 1050-61); Autobiography (1070-77); The Subjection of Women (1061-70).

JOURNAL SET 2 DUE BY EMAIL SUNDAY 03/20. (Reminder: this set includes Keats through Mill.)

WEEK 9

03/22. Tu. John Ruskin. Modern Painters (Norton Vol. E, 1320-24) and The Stones of Venice (1324-34).

03/24. Th. Matthew Arnold. “The Buried Life” (Norton Vol. E, 1356-58); “Dover Beach” (1368-69); “Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse” (1369-74); “Preface to Poems“ (1374-84).

WEEK 10

03/29. Tu. Spring Recess. No classes all week.

03/31. Th. Spring Recess. No classes all week.

WEEK 11

04/05. Tu. Robert Browning and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Browning’s “The Bishop Orders His Tomb. . .” (Norton Vol. E, 1259-62). Hopkins’ “God’s Grandeur” (1516); “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” (1517); “The Windhover” (1518); “Pied Beauty” (1518); “Binsey Poplars” (1519); “Duns Scotus’s Oxford” (1520); “Felix Randal” (1520-21); “I wake and feel . . .” (1522-23); “No worst, there is none” (1522); “That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire . . .” (1523); from Journal (1524-26).

04/07. Th. Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti. Dante Gabriel’s “The Blessed Damozel” (Norton Vol. E, 1443-47). Christina’s “Song—She sat and sang alway” (1460-61); “Song—When I am dead . . .” (1461); “In an Artist’s Studio” (1463); “An Apple-Gathering” (1464); “Winter My Secret” (1464-65); “No Thank You, John” (1478).

WEEK 12

04/12. Tu. Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest (Film + text Act 1. Norton Vol. E, 1698-1740).

04/14. Th. Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest (Film + text Acts 2-3. Norton Vol. E, 1698-1740).

JOURNAL SET 3 DUE BY EMAIL SUNDAY 04/17. (Reminder: this set includes Ruskin through Wilde.)

WEEK 13

04/19. Tu. WWI Writing. Voices of World War I Section — Sassoon (Norton Vol. F, 1960-64); Gurney (1965-66); Rosenberg (1966-70); Owen (1971-80); Cannan (1981-84); Graves (1984-87).

04/21. Th. W. B. Yeats. “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” (Norton Vol. F, 2025); “The Second Coming” (2036-37); “Leda and the Swan” (2039); “Sailing to Byzantium” (2040); “Among School Children” (2041-42); “Byzantium” (2044-45); “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop” (2045-46); “Under Ben Bulben” (2047-50); “The Circus Animals’ Desertion” (2051-52).

PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING PAPER TOPIC AND ARGUMENT DUE BY EMAIL SUNDAY 04/24.

WEEK 14

04/26. Tu. James Joyce. “The Dead” (Film).

04/28. Th. James Joyce. “The Dead” (Norton Vol. F, 2172-99).

WEEK 15

05/03. Tu. T. S. Eliot. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Norton Vol. F, 2289-93); “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (2319-25).

05/05. Th. Jean Rhys. “The Day They Burned the Books” (Norton Vol. F, 2356-61); “Let Them Call It Jazz” (2361-72). W.H. Auden. “In Praise of Limestone” (2435-36); “The Shield of Achilles” (2437-38).

WEEK 16

05/10. Tu. Tom Stoppard. Arcadia (Act 1, Norton Vol. F, 2752-89).

05/12. Th. Tom Stoppard. Arcadia (Act 2, Norton Vol. F, 2789-2820).

JOURNAL SET 4 DUE BY EMAIL EXAM DAY. (Reminder: this set includes WWI Voices through Stoppard.)

FINALS WEEK

Final Exam Date: Thursday May 19, 12:00 – 1:50 p.m. Due by email by Sunday May 22: PAPER. I must turn in grades by Friday May 27, 2011.

SYLLABUS FOR E212 BRITISH LITERATURE SINCE 1760CSU FULLERTON, SPRING 2011