English 2319:701. British Literature

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English 2319:701. British Literature

Fall 2010

About Your Instructor

Instructor / Tom Ryan
Office Hours / By appointment. Please email me to arrange a time for a meeting, a phone conversation, or an online chat.
Office / 202 Carlisle Hall
Email /
Phone / 817–272–2758 or 817–272–2692
Course URL / http://webct.uta.edu
Mailing Address / Department of English
Box 19035
The University of Texas at Arlington
Arlington, TX 76019
Blog / SophBritLit Blog
Web Site / Tom Ryan's Web Site

Instructor's Background

Degrees

·  Ph.D., Brown University, 1971, English

·  M.A., Brown University, 1968, English

·  B.A.,magna cum laude,University of Notre Dame, 1966, Modern Languages

Academic Appointments

University of Texas at Arlington, 1971-
Assistant Professor, English

Publications

·  ``Ponchartrain Bridge.´´Los(April 1968), 7-8. Poem.

·  ``The Poetry of John Danforth.´´Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society(April 1968), 129-193. Edition with introduction and textual notes.

·  Encephalogeorgics. Providence: Burning Deck Press, 1972. Poems.

·  ``Bill Bisset´sNobody Owns th Earthand John Newlove´sLies.´´WLWE13, 1 (November 1974), 293-295. Review-article.

·  ``The First Eclogue of Mantuan.´´Allegorica, 1, 1 (Spring 1976), 114-125. Translation.

·  ``Arthur Baysting, ed.,The Young New Zealand Poets.´´WLWE16, 1 (April 1977), 143-146. Review-article.

·  ``Four Indian Poets.´´WLWE17, 2 (November 1978), 535-544. Review-article.

·  ``Judson Boyce Allen: The Ethical Poetic of the Later Middle Ages´´Allegorica6, 2 (Winter 1981), 160-162. Review.

·  ```Queme questis´ inSaint Erkenwald.´´English Language Notes23, 1 (September 1985), 1-3. Article.

·  ``David Lyle Jeffrey, ed.,Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition,´´Allegorica9 (Winter 1987, Summer 1988), 295-298. Review.

·  ``A. J. Minnis,Medieval Theory of Authorship,´´Allegorica9 (Winter 1987, Summer 1988), 302-304. Review.

·  ``Scripture and the Prudent Ymaginatif,´´Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies13 (1992), 215-230. Article.

About Your Course:

Course Number English 2319:701

Course Title British Literature

Catalogue Description

ENGL 2319. BRITISH LITERATURE (3-0) (ENGL 2322). Significant British works with emphasis on ideas and the ways in which they reflect cultural and aesthetic values; emphasis on critical methods of reading, writing, and thinking; at least three genres and six authors considered.

Expanded Description of the Course

This course will introduce students to a study of literature on the college level. The works we will read are drawn from several different historical periods and represent a number of different literary genres. Class lectures and discussions will focus on ways of understanding and interpreting the works and on locating them in their historical, cultural, and intellectual milieus.

Time and Place of Class Meetings

This course is delivered online; there are no class meetings.

Accessing Your Course

This course is accessed through theUTAWebCT portal located on the Internet athttp://webct.uta.edu(if you are logged in to the course, clicking on this link will return you to your "myWebCT" portal).

Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes

There are three interdependent goals that this course will seek to accomplish this semester. Through their reading and discussion, students will become acquainted with a wide selection of works from several genres of British literature, attain a general understanding of literature and, more particularly, the British literary tradition, and become able to read, appreciate, and explicate literature. In order to accomplish these goals, the students will read the assigned literary texts, participate in online class discussions, do online exercises and assignments, respond to queries and quizzes, and write explications of works.

Course Requirements and Texts:

Prerequisites

Six hours of first-year English or equivalent.

Texts

Most of the literature for English 2319 is available online, and the links are provided within the course. The two exceptions are:

·  Atwood,M. (1998).Wilderness Tips.New York: Bantam Books.

·  Stoppard,T.(1966).Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. New York:Grove Press. I will also ask you to watch the movie version of the play, written and directed by Stoppard himself. It is available at most libraries or can be rented or purchased online or at book or video stores.

Some of the online sites where the texts we will use in the class are available are funded at least in part by donations. If you find the texts valuable and want to contribute to the sites, you are encouraged to do so.

If you prefer to read literature in a book version, you may purchase a printed copy of any of the selections included in the course at theUTABookstore or other commercial or used bookstores, including a number of online stores. These are the texts I recommend for their accuracy and availability

·  Geoffrey Chaucer.The Canterbury Tales. Trans. N. Coghill. Penguin-Viking.

·  William Shakespeare.Henry IV, Part I.Signet Shakespeare.

·  ______.Hamlet.Signet Shakespeare.

·  ______. The Sonnets(available online).

·  Metaphysical Poetry: An Anthology.Paul Negri, ed. Dover Thrift.

·  James Joyce.A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.Dover Thrift.

·  W. B. Yeats.Selected Poems and Four Plays.Fourth Edition. Scribners.

·  Samuel Beckett.Waiting for Godot.Grove Press.

Technical Requirements and Support

Applications

WebCT™

Students will actively utilizeWebCTto access required reading, journal articles, and other course assignments—as well as to communicate with peers and the professor throughout the semester.

Students must have access to a computer with Internet access and a Web browser compatible withWebCT Campus Editionto be able to participate fully in the WebCT online environment.After you login to WebCT, you can check your browser for compatibility with WebCT by clicking on the "Check Browser" link in the dark blue bar at the top of your "myWebCTpage." If you need more technical information about your browser, go to theBrowser Tuneup Page, linked here and on the Check Browser page.

Students will also need aUTANetIDand password to login to theirWebCTcourses.

Microsoft Office™

The instructor of ENGL 2319 uses Microsoft Word, but also has access to Open Office, Works, and other word-processing and text-editing programs.

Adobe Reader™

PDFfiles require Adobe Reader™ to open.Download this free application if it is not already installed on your computer.

Technical Support

UTA'sOffice of Information Technology (OIT) offers technical support for students, including problems with logging in to the course or passwords. However, if you need help with any course content, including assignments, quizzes, tests, or the organization of the course in general, please contact your instructor.

Contact theOITHelp Desk:

·  Phone: (817) 272 -2208

·  Fax: (817) 272-2063

· 

·  Physical location: 102A Central Library

OtherOITServices

Go toOIT's Web siteto view the full range of technical services offered toUTAstudents, includingMavSpace, a free online resource for publishing and file storage.

Navigating Your Course

Navigating the course using internal links:

Many lessons in English 2319 contains links providing non-linear access to a variety of related topics within the course content pages. After you click on an "internal link,"use the back button of your browserto easily return to the page where you started your exploration.

On the Homepage, there are icons for:

·  Syllabus and Calendar

·  Course Content

·  Communication Tools

·  Grades and Progress

Course Menu

There is a Course Menu with a list of available sections and features on the left side of the Homepage; the same menu appears in the other areas of the course, allowing you to easily navigate to any area of the course without returning to the Homepage.

Bread Crumbs

Beneath the course name there is a trail of "bread crumbs" — a running list of the links you have used to get to the page you are on. You can click on any of these links to return to any page on your path.

Action Menu

The Action Menu appears above every page of the Syllabus and Course Content areas of the course. The Action Menu includes icons for these tools:

1. Go to the table of contents
2. Previous page
3. Next page
4. Retrace the path
5. Refresh this page from the server

Other helpful features in your WebCT course include:

Assignments

Some instructors list course assignments in the Assignments area of WebCT in addition to the Syllabus or Course Content areas. Your instructor may post Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or other documents to the Assignments area of WebCT, and you might be required to download documents to your hard drive and, later, upload completed assignments to WebCT using upload tools in Assignments.

The link to Assignments can be found on the Course Menu on the left side of WebCT.

The WebCT Calendar

·  View scheduled events, deadlines and due dates

·  Add private entries (only you can view them)

·  Create a printable list of entries (deadlines, due dates, etc.) by selecting the "Compile Entries" link above the calendar

·  New events pop up when you access (or refresh) the calendar

Print course materials

·  Accessible either from the Syllabus and Calendar icon on the Homepage or from the Course Menu.

·  Allows you to "compile" pages into one document for printing.

·  Or you can choose to simply print a single page as needed (e.g. the Course Outline in the Syllabus to have a handy reference of each session's key activities).

Hyperlinks

External site will open in a new window

·  Thisiconappears immediately after links to an external site that are designed to open in a new window. When you click on the link, a new window will open.

·  You can easily return to WebCT by either closing or minimizing the new window.

Tabbed browsing and hyperlinks

·  If you are using a tabbed browser such asMozilla's FirefoxorInternet Explorer 7.0a link to an external site may open in a new tab rather than a new window depending on the settings in your browser.

·  If the external site opens in a new tab, simply return to the tab you were using for WebCT before you clicked on the external link.

Course content will open in a new window

·  This iconappears after course content that is linked so that it will open in a new window.

·  This content could beMSWord,MSExcel, orPDFfiles that you can open and then save to your hard drive. It also could be an image, table, or other graphical content that relates to material under study.

·  You can easily return toWebCTby either closing or minimizing the new window.

Links that open within WebCT

·  If there is no icon after a web page link, then the page will open within WebCT.

·  Examples of web page links designed to open within WebCT:

o  World News at the Cable News Network (CNN)

o  The University of Texas at Arlington Main Page

·  Use your browser's back button to return to course content.

Course Outline

Lessons
English 2319 contains 15 lessons. During this eight-week semester, we will be studying two lessons per week during the first seven weeks and one lesson, which includes an exam, during the final week. Weeks begin on Mondays at 6:00 a.m. and end on Sundays at 11:55 p.m.
Due Times for Discussions and Quizzes
Discussion postings and replies are normally due by 11:55p.m.on Sunday evenings.
Please check the availability and due dates of the quizzes, since in weeks with two quizzes, the first will be due on Thursday at 11:55p.m.and the second will be available on Thursday morning at 6:00a.m.and will be due, along with the discussion responses for both lessons, at 11:55p.m.Sunday night.
Eight-Week Schedule
Week 1
·  Lesson 1: Introduction to the Study of British Literature; Introduction to The Canterbury Tales
o  Required Work: Discussion Forum:
§  Introduce yourself
§  What do we learn in the first 18 lines of The General Prologue?
·  Lesson 2: Chaucer'sGeneral Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
o  Required Work: Quiz; Discussion Forum
Week 2
·  Lesson 3:Chaucer:
o  The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, The Shipman's Tale
o  Required Work: Discussion Forum; Quiz
·  Lesson 4:Chaucer:The Monk's, The Nun's Priest's, andThe Pardoner's Tales
o  Required Work: Quiz; Discussion Forum
Week 3
·  Lesson 5:Chaucer'sMarriage Group:
o  The Wife ofBath's Tale, The Clerk's Tale, The Franklin's Tale
o  Required Work: Quiz; Discussion Forum; Essay on Chaucer (in Assignment Area)
·  Lesson 6: Sonnets;
o  Pound's"Jewel Stairs' Grievance";Shakespeare'sSonnet 73; The Elements of a Poem
o  Required Work: Discussion Forum (accumulated notes from responses)
Week 4
·  Lesson 7:Shakespeare,I Henry IV
o  Required Work: Quiz; Discussion Forum
·  Sonnet Explication Module I: The Explication of Sonnet 3. The Explication of Sonnet 18. This learning module overlaps with theI Henry IV lesson; it is intended to provide practice for Sonnet Explication Exam.
·  Lesson 8:Shakespeare,Hamlet
o  Required Work: Quiz; Hamlet Paper (in Assignments Area)
o  Exam: Timed Sonnet Explication
·  Sonnet Explication Module II: The Explication ofSonnet 27;Sample Explication ofSonnet 116(overlaps with theHamletlesson)
Week 5
·  Lesson 9: Introduction to 17th-Century Poets:Donne, Herrick, Marvell, Herbert
o  Required Work: Explication of a Sonnet Exam (in Tests and Quizzes Area); Discussion Forum
·  Lesson 10:James Joyce,A Portrait of the Artist
o  Required Work: Quiz; Discussion Forum
Week 6
·  Lesson 11:James Joyce,A Portrait of the Artist(continued)
o  Required Work:Quiz; Portrait of An ArtistPaper (in Assignments Area)
·  Lesson 12: Modern Poetry:Yeats
o  Required Work: Discussion Forum
Week 7
·  Lesson 13:Samuel Beckett,Waiting for Godot
o  Required Work: Quiz; Discussion Forum
·  Lesson 14:Tom Stoppard,Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
o  Required Work: Quiz; Discussion Forum
Week 8
·  Lesson 15: Introduction to Short Stories—5 Stories byMargaret Atwood
o  Required Work: Quiz; Discussion Forum
o  Timed (1 hour) Explication and Analysis Exam (in Tests/Quizzes Area)

WebCT Calendar

A detailed and comprehensive course calendar is available from WebCT. It is each student’s responsibility to frequently review the WebCT Calendar and be informed of due dates for examinations and assignments. There is a link for the WebCT Calendar in the Course Menu.

Features of the WebCT Calendar:

·  View scheduled events, deadlines and due dates

·  Add private entries (only you can view them)

·  Create a printable list of entries (deadlines, due dates, etc.) by selecting the "Compile Entries" link above the calendar

·  New events pop up when you access (or refresh) the calendar