| English 206: British Literature from 1800 to the Present | ||
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Announcements, News, and Notes:
4/17/02
4/7/02
2/18/02
2/3/02
Course Prerequisite:
English 110 is a prerequisite for all literature courses in the English department.
British literature of the last two centuries tells a story of a culture in both prosperity and crisis. In the two hundred years covered by this course, Great Britain has been radically transformed: the French Revolution inspired subversive ideas of gender and class equality, the Industrial Revolution transformed a "green and pleasant land" into cityscapes filled with crowds, factories, and railways, the colonization of much of the world's territory brought (sometimes violent) contact with other races and cultures, two world wars caused death and destruction on an unprecedented scale, and finally, the late twentieth-century breakup of the British Empire has remade Great Britain into a fragmented nation of diverse literary and cultural voices.
All the while, literature has remained a vital and important means of expression, giving voice to Britain's moments of comfort as well as its times of upheaval. In this course, we will frame our understanding of literature by recognizing its central role within culture, looking carefully at the role of literature in understanding the historical problems of empire and nation, industrialization and urbanization, gender and sexuality, religion and religious crisis, and class politics. We will be equally concerned with what makes literature "literary"; to this end, we will continually pay close attention to the transformations of literary language and literary forms, including the sonnet, the dramatic monologue, the short story, the novel, and the prose essay.
Text:
Assignments, Dates, and Grade Percentages:
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Paper #1 (2-3 pp.) |
26 February |
20% |
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Midterm Exam |
14 March |
20% |
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Paper #2 (5-7 pp.) |
25 April |
30% |
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Final Exam |
14 May |
30% |
Reading:
The reading load for this course is fairly heavy but manageable. It is imperative, however, that you keep up with the reading. The course will move quickly, and your success depends upon your having done the reading before you come to class. Although I have tried to maintain consistency in the length and level of difficulty of the reading assignments, some may seem particularly time-consuming. Try to look ahead at upcoming reading assignments so that you know when you might need to take some extra time to do the reading.Papers: There will be two formal paper assignments in the course: the first, due on February 21, will be a 3 page paper asking you to give a close analytical reading of a poem that we have not discussed in class. The second paper, due on April 25, will be a 5-7 page paper on a topic relating to one of the "Perspectives" sections of the Longman Anthology. Specific guidelines for each paper will be distributed in advance of the due dates. All papers should be double-spaced with 1" margins and should conform to MLA style. You may submit your papers as either an MS Word e-mail attachment or as a hard copy. Late papers will lose 1/3 of a grade for every day late. Without my prior approval, papers will not be accepted more than one week after the due date.
Exams: You will have a midterm exam on March 21 and a two-hour final exam on May 14. The midterm exam will consist of identifications, short answers and a short essay or two. The final exam will consist of identifications, short answers, and a longer essay or two. The exams will be based on both readings and class lectures. You will be responsible for all material on the syllabus, whether or not we have discussed it in class.
Attendance: Attendance in class is required. Every absence after your third will lower your course grade by 1 grade per absence. If you miss more than 6 classes, you will not pass the course. You are responsible for material covered in class whether you are in class or not. If you do miss a class, please see one of your classmates to find out what you've missed before you ask me. I will take attendance at the beginning of every class. If you come to class late, it is your responsibility to let me know of your presence. If you are more than 10 minutes late, you will receive credit for one-half of a day's attendance. If you are more than 30 minutes late to class, you will be marked absent. Tardiness is both irritating to me and disruptive to the class—please be on time. Enough said.
Participation: I expect you to participate regularly in class. "Participation" means that you have done all of the reading assignments carefully, you have brought your text to class, and you are prepared to contribute to class discussion with questions or responses. Your overall course grade may be lowered or raised by one-third of a grade based on the frequency and level of your participation.
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SPECIAL NOTE ON PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC DISHONESTY If you pass off the ideas or words of someone else as your original work, whether intentionally or unintentionally, you are guilty of plagiarism. This can happen whether the ideas or words come from a published source, a spoken source (such as class lecture or discussion), or another student's paper. It can happen whether the ideas or words that you take are substantial or merely bits and pieces that you believe are unimportant. Because responsibility for one's own (and respect for one another’s) intellectual work is the very foundation for an academic community, plagiarism is considered an extremely serious offense. If you plagiarize, you will fail the course and be subject to further disciplinary action. We will discuss ways to cite sources properly and avoid plagiarism. If you have questions, please see me. |
Course Schedule: (page numbers from Longman Anthology in parentheses)
Note: I strongly suggest that you read the three introductions to the periods represented in the course before we cover the relevant material: "The Romantics and Their Contemporaries" (2), "The Victorian Age" (1032), "The Twentieth Century" (1990). You are also responsible for the short introductions to each of the authors we read in the course.
T 22 Jan
R 24 Jan
T 29 Jan
R 31 Jan
T 5 Feb
R 7 Feb
Week 4 – Gendering Romanticism
T 12 Feb
R 14 Feb
T 19 Feb
R 21 Feb
T 26 Feb
R 28 Feb
T 5 Mar
R 7 Mar
Week 8 – Midterm Week
T 12 Mar
R 14 Mar
T 19 Mar
R 21 Mar
Week 10 – Britain’s "Other" Island: Writing Ireland
T 2 Apr
R 4 Apr
Week 11 – The "Great War" and the Shock of the Modern
T 9 Apr
R 11 Apr
Week 12 – Modernism, Culture, and Myth
T 16 Apr
R 18 Apr
Week 13 – A Shrinking Island: Great Britain at the End of Empire
T 23 Apr
R 25 Apr
T 30 Apr
R 2 May
T 7 May
R 9 May
T 14 May
page last updated 04.17.02