English 212—Major British Authors: Romantic to Modern

T/Th 12:30-1:45

McIver 229

 

Annette Van

Office: McIver 203                                                                                Phone: 334-5866

Office Hours: T/Th 2-3:30 or by appt.                                                     email: mingyung@earthlink.net

Mailbox: McIver 133

 

Course Description

This course provides a survey of 19th and 20th-century British literature. Readings have been selected with an eye to representing the major genres, styles, and cultural/historical concerns of the period. Questions we will ask as we read: What is good literature? What is the function of good literature? What is a national literature? What is British about British literature? How and why do our answers to these questions change as we move from the Romantic Period to the Victorian to the Modern? Course objectives include: 1) the study of British literature within a historical and cultural context; 2) an examination of literary and aesthetic theories; and 3) the development of close reading, critical thinking, research, and writing skills.

 

Learning Goals:

At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:

            --Identify and understand varied characteristics of literature

            --Apply techniques of literary analysis to texts

            --Use literary study to develop skills in careful reading and clear writing

--Demonstrate understanding of the diverse social and historical contexts in which literary texts have been written and interpreted

 

Texts

The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors. Volume B, 7th Edition.

Frankenstein. Mary Shelley.

Hard Times, Charles Dickens.

Students are expected to own and use a grammar handbook.

 

Course Requirements and Grading

5 1-page, single-spaced papers

50%

Group Presentation w/1-page write-up

10%

Final exam

20%

Participation, quizzes, and in-class writing

20%

 

Course Policies

The format of the class will be a mixture of lecture, discussion, and group work with an emphasis on student discussion. Students are expected to come to class having completed the assigned readings and prepared to actively participate. Please read through the following class policies carefully:

·                     Attendance is mandatory. Students absent for more than 2 classes for any reason may be dropped or have their grade lowered at the instructor’s discretion.

·                     Late papers will not be accepted unless prior permission from the instructor has been given.

·                     Tardiness is unacceptable and will negatively effect your standing in class as well as your final grade.

·                     All assignments are mandatory in order to pass this course,.

·                     Students and teachers are expected to treat each other with respect and courtesy in the classroom.

·                     Academic honesty is expected. Students are expected to adhere to the University Academic Honor Policy.

 

Class Schedule

Tuesday 8/20:             Logistics.

 

Thursday 8/22:           Introductions.

 

Tuesday 8/27:             “William Blake” (1334-47)

                                 “From Songs of Innocence” (1349-54)

Thursday 8/29:           “From Songs of Experience” (1355-64)

 

Tuesday 9/3:              “William Wordsworth” (1424-27)

                                 “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” (1432-35)

Thursday 9/5:             “From Book Sixth: Cambridge and the Alps” (1528-31)

 

Tuesday 9/10:             “Samuel Taylor Coleridge” (1573-75)

                                 “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1580-95)

                                 Paper #1 Due

 

Thursday 9/12:           “Percy Bysshe Shelley” (1710-12)

                                 “Mont Blanc” (1714-17))

                                 “A Song: Men of England” (1720-21)

 

Tuesday 9/17:             “John Keats” (1793-96)

                                 “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad” (1814-16)

                                 “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820-22)

 

Thursday 9/19:           Frankenstein: Volume 1

Tuesday 9/24:             Frankenstein: Volume 2

Thursday 9/26:           Frankenstein: Volume 3

 

Tuesday 10/1:             “Matthew Arnold” (2073-78)

                                 “From Culture and Anarchy” (2117-23)

                                 Paper #2 Due

 

Thursday 10/3:           “Elizabeth Barrett Browning” (1892-93)

                                 Aurora Leigh (1898-1912)

 

Tuesday 10/8:             “Alfred, Lord Tennyson” (1916-19)

                                 “The Lady of Shalott” (1920-24)

 

Thursday 10/10:          “Robert Browning” (2021-25)

                                 “Andrea del Sarto” (2051-56)

 

Tuesday 10/15:           No class. Fall break.

 

Thursday 10/17:          Hard Times: “Book the First”

Tuesday 10/22:           Hard Times: “Book the Second”

Thursday 10/24:          Hard Times: “Book the Third”

                                 Paper #3 Due

 

Tuesday 10/29:           “Christina Rosetti” (2134-35)

                                 “Goblin Market” (2140-52)

 

Thursday 10/31:          “Oscar Wilde” (2165-67)

                                 “From The Critic as Artist” (2168-76)

                                 “Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray” (2176-78)

 

Tuesday 11/5:             “Joseph Conrad” (2302-03)

                                 Heart of Darkness (2303-63)

Thursday 11/7:           Heart of Darkness

 

Tuesday 11/12:           “William Butler Yeats” (2363-66)

                                 “Sailing to Byzantium” (2385-86)

                                 “Leda and the Swan” (2386)

                                 Paper #4 Due

 

Thursday 11/14:          “T.S. Eliot” (2604-07)

                                 “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (2607-11)

 

Tuesday 11/19:           “Virgina Woolf” (2402-03)

                                 A Room of One’s Own: Chapters 1-3 (2414-44)

Thursday 11/21:          A Room of One’s Own: Chapters 4-end (2444-75)

 

Tuesday 11/26:           No class. Thanksgiving.

Thursday 11/28:          No class. Thanksgiving.

 

Tuesday 12/3:             “James Joyce” (2487-91)

                                 From Ulysses: “Proteus” (2524-38)

Thursday 12/5:           From Ulysses: “Lestrygonians” (2538-65)

                                 Paper #5 Due

 

Final Exam: Due in my mailbox by the start of the scheduled final exam.