English 212—Major British Authors: Romantic to Modern

Section 02

McIver 227

M/W 2:00-3:15pm

 

 

Annette Van

Office: McIver 203                                                                               Phone: 334-5866

Office Hours: Tuesday 1-3pm or by appt.                                             Mailbox: McIver 133

email: mingyung@earthlink.net

 

 

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

1)      study of nineteenth-century British literature within historical, social, and cultural contexts

2)      examination of literary and aesthetic theories

3)      application of literary analysis to literature

4)      identification and discussion of varied characteristics of literature

5)      development of close reading, critical thinking, research, and writing skills

 

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

3 papers

10%, 20%, 20%

Group Presentation w/1-page write-up

10%

Final exam

20%

Participation

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 will 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 3 classes for any reason will 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.

 

Writing Workshops

Attendance at Writing Workshops is mandatory. For Writing Workshops, students will bring 3 copies of a substantially complete draft of their paper to class. Failure to satisfactorily complete the Writing Workshop will result in severe penalty.

 

Class Schedule

Monday 1/13:            Logistics.

 

Wednesday 1/15:      William Wordsworth

                                 “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” (1435-48)

 

Monday 1/20:            Classes dismissed: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

 

Wednesday 1/22:      William Blake

                                 “Introduction,” “The Lamb,” “The Little Black Boy,” “The Chimney Sweeper” (1349, 1351-53)

Monday 1/27:            “Introduction,” “The Clod and the Pebble,” “The Chimney Sweeper,” “A Divine Image” (1355-58, 1359-60, 1364)

 

Wednesday 1/29       William Wordsworth

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

 

Monday 2/3:              Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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

 

Wednesday 2/5:        Percy Bysshe Shelley

                                 Mont Blanc” (1714-17)

 

Monday 2/10:            John Keats

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

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

                                

Wednesday 2/12:      Writing Workshop

 

Monday 2/17:            Mary Shelley

                                 Frankenstein: Volume 1

                                 Paper #1 Due   

Wednesday 2/19:      Frankenstein: Volume 2

Monday 2/24:            Frankenstein: Volume 3

 

Wednesday 2/26:      John Newman

`                                “The Idea of the University” (xerox)

 

Monday 3/3:              Matthew Arnold

                                 “Function of Criticism” (2103-17)

 

Wednesday 3/5:        Elizabeth Barrett Browning

                                 Aurora Leigh (1898-1912)

 

Monday 3/10:            Classes dismissed: Spring Break.

Wednesday 3/12:      Classes dismissed: Spring Break.

 

 

Monday 3/17:            Charles Dickens

                                 Hard Times

Wednesday 3/19:      Hard Times

 

Monday 3/23:            Alfred, Lord Tennyson

                                 “The Lady of Shalott” (1920-24)

 

Wednesday 3/25:      Writing Workshop

 

Monday 3/30:            Dante Rossetti

                                 “Blessed Damozel” (xerox)

                                 Paper #2 Due

                                

Wednesday 4/2:        Christina Rossetti

                                 “Goblin Market” (2140-52)

 

Monday 4/7:              Oscar Wilde

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

 

Wednesday 4/9:        William Butler Yeats

                                 “Sailing to Byzantium” (2385-86)

                                 “Leda and the Swan” (2386)

 

Monday 4/14:            Joseph Conrad

                                 Heart of Darkness

Wednesday 4/16:      Heart of Darkness

                                

Monday 4/21:            Virginia Woolf

                                 A Room of One’s Own (Video)

 

Wednesday 4/23:      T.S. Eliot

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

 

Monday 4/28:            James Joyce

                                 From Ulysses: “Proteus” (2524-38)        

Wednesday 4/30:      From Ulysses: “Lestrygonians” (2538-65)

 

Monday 5/5:              Paper #3 Due