English 212W-01 British
Authors: Romantic-Modern Mr.
Kirby-Smith Spring, 2003 mwf 9
Reading and assignment schedule (the assignments will be explained at greater length as they come up; in addition to the formally assigned papers there will be shorter writing assignments):
Mon.,Jan 13: Introduction to the Romantic period
Wed.,Jan 15: Blake: The Lamb, The little Black Boy, The Chimney Sweeper, Holy Thursday, The Sick Rose, The Tyger, Ah Sun-flower, The Garden of Love, London
Fri., Jan 17: Burns: To a Mouse, To a Louse, Holy Willie's Prayer, A Red, Red Rose and Wordsworth: Lines Written..., Expostulation.
Wed.,Jan 22: Wordsworth: Line Composed...Tintern Abbey, Michael
Fri., Jan 24: Wordsworth: Ode: Intimations of Immortality; The Prelude, Books First and Second
Mon., Jan 27: The Prelude: Books Sixth, Seventh, Eleventh, & Fourteenth
*****Wednesday, Jan 29: Test on Introduction and Blake, Burns, and Wordsworth poems. Passages that have been pointed out and discussed in class will be identified and discussed. This requires careful and repeated reading, careful listening, and attention to the explanations both in class and in the notes in the text‑‑in other words, familiarity with the poems read.
Fri., Jan 31: Coleridge: The Eolian Harp, Ancient Mariner
Mon., Feb 3: Kubla
Khan, Frost at
Wed., Feb 5: Byron: She Walks in Beauty, Stanzas for Music, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Don Juan: Canto I
Fri., Feb 7: Shelley:
Mon., Feb 10: Shelley: To a Sky‑Lark, Adonais
Wed., Feb 112: Keats: Chapman's
Homer,
Fri., Feb 14: Keats: La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Ode to a Nightingale
Mon., Feb 17: Ode on a Grecian Urn, To Autumn
*****Wednesday, Feb 19: SECOND TEST: Material covered since first test. Format like the first test .
Fri.,Feb 21: Tennyson: Mariana, The Lotos‑Eaters, Ulysses, The
Mon., Feb 24: Tennyson: In Memoriam
Wed., Feb 26: Conclude In Memoriam; The Passing of Arthur
Fri., Feb 28: Browning: My Last Duchess, Home Thoughts (both), The Bishop Orders His Tomb...
Mon., Mar 3: Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea Del Sarto, Caliban Upon Setebos
Wed., Mar 5:
Fri., Mar 7: Hardy: Hap, Neutral Tones, A Broken Appointment, Drummer Hodge, The Darkling Thrush
Mon.,Mar 17: Hardy: Channel Firing, The Convergence of the Twain, Ah Are You Digging, Under the Waterfall, During Wind and Rain
***** Wednesday, March 19: THIRD TEST
Fri., Mar 21: Yeats: The
Mon., Mar 24: Yeats: The Second
Coming, Sailing to
Wed., Mar 26: Yeats: Leda and the
Swan, Among School Children,
Fri, Mar 28: Introduction to Joyce: The Dead (Video Shown)
Mon, Mar 31: Conclusion of video on "The Dead".
Wed. Apr 2:Paper, minimum 500 words, due comparing the story with the video. Discussion of "The Dead"
Fri April 4: Joyce: selections from Ulysses
Mon, April 7:
Wed, April 9: Eliot: Prufrock,
Fri, April 11Conclude The
Mon, April 14: Little Gidding, Tradition and the...; Metaphysical Poets
Wed. April 16: Auden: Musee des Beaux Arts, In Memory of..Yeats, In Praise of Limestone
Mon.,April 21: Thomas: The Force..., Fern Hill, Do Not Go Gentle
Wed., April 23: Larkin: Church Going, High Windows
Fri., April 25: Paper due on stories by FOUR AUTHORS: Woolf (" The Legacy"), Mansfield (The Daughters of the Late Colonel), Lessing and O'Brien, comparing and contrasting their purposes, themes, and styles in terms of a choice of topics to be provided. 1250-word minimum.
Mon , April 28 : Gunn: all poems
Wed, April 30: Hughes: all poems
Fri, May 2: Heaney: All poems
Mon, May 5 catch-up
Fri. May 8,
Student 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
General Expectations
· Courses will be broad and foundational in nature; they will not assume extensive previous knowledge
Courses will satisfy most (if not all) of these guidelines
The purpose of this course is to
make you familiar with the authors and the works that are covered. The main
emphasis is on the works themselves, but enough biographical, historical, and
cultural background will be supplied to give some sense of a connecting context
and to make the works comprehensible. The “outcome” of the course ought to be
that you will be better acquainted with British Literature from the period than
you were before you took the course, and that your own writing will be better.
Written assignments are to be
finished pieces of writing, neatly typed, with margins and with lines
double-spaced. The assignments should be revised so as to correct grammar,
usage, and punctuation. For guidelines, please see William Strunk’s
Elements of Style, a free copy of
which can be found on the Internet at this address: http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html (You can also get there via
my web site, the address for which is: http://www.uncg.edu/~htkirbys/ Click on “sites helpful to students” there).
Tests will consist of short
quotations from poems covered in the course. All such passages will be given
special attention in class. To get any credit for any question, you must
correctly identify the poet who wrote it, just to start with. Some students have
found that a good way to review for these tests is to xerox
the poems covered and cut up the xerox copies to make
flash cards, with comments on the poems on the back of the cards or sheets (and
with the poet’s name removed from the passage, of course.)
The final grade for the course will
be based approximately 50% on tests and 50% on written work, but no one whose
test grades average out to less than passing will pass the course, and no one
who fails to turn in most of the papers will pass either.
Every test
and every writing assignment will be graded promptly, but you must come to my office, second floor
of the
Regular class attendance is
expected. Anyone who misses no more than three classes in the semester, for any
reason, will be allowed a grade bonus on the final grade, changing a C+ to a
B-, for example. Anyone forced to miss more than three classes will just have
to study harder. Any student who has failed more than one test or assignment,
and who has missed more than one class out of four up to that point without a
written excuse, will be dropped from the course. This includes the opening
class meetings of the semester.
You are expected to get to class on
time. Please adjust your schedule so as to make this possible. Repeated late
arrival will count as absences. When in class, you are expected to pay
attention and not to do anything to distract anyone else from paying attention.
Distracting or disruptive behavior of any kind is grounds for being dropped
from the course.