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The Lady of Shalott
English 2323 British Literature from 1780 to the Present
Dr. Catherine E. Ross
Spring 2014, MWF 9:05-10:00; 10:10-11:05.
Rm: BUS 257
Office: BUS 242; Telephone: 903-566-7275; E-mail:
Office Hours: MWF 11:10-12:15 and by appointment
POLICY STATEMENT
Required Texts:
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd edn. ISBN: 0-393-97542-8
Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair. Penguin. ISBN 0142001805
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein. Broadview. ISBN 1-55111-038-05
Recommended Texts:
A standard collegiate dictionary
Goals of this course: This class involves a course of reading representative British texts from the Romantic, Victorian, Modernist, and Postmodernist Periods with the aim of helping students develop their critical reading and thinking skills. You will be introduced to the contexts in which various genres—from lyric poems to postcolonial satires—were developed and will be given the opportunity to compare themes, styles, and characterizations. If you participate actively, you will leave this course with greater confidence in yourself as a reader, thinker, and writerand will possess an enhanced sense of what is singular and important about the great literature which has helped to shape western thought.
Course work: Course activities include reading selected texts closely, taking daily reading quizzes; participating actively in class discussion of these readings; studying the social and cultural history of the British Romantic period as well as key terms used in literary criticism; and taking three tests. Working with a partner and me, you will prepare and deliver a brief presentation for the class on one of our assigned texts. There will be no term paper.
Byron, et al at Percy Shelley’s cremation
Class participation, attendance: This course requires regular attendance, thorough preparation for class, and active participation in discussions. I expect everyone to speak up and contribute to discussion as frequently as possible either in class conversation or on Discussion Forums posted on our class Blackboard site. I will explain my specific expectations for class participation and method of tracking it on the first day of class. Except in very unusual circumstances, students who miss quizzes may not make them up; on the first class day, I will explain my reasoning for this as well. Regular class attendance is essential in this course.
Grading: Your grade will be based upon your engagement with assigned texts as demonstrated in your participation in discussions and upon the quality of your work on your quizzes, class presentation, and tests. Do your best at all times to show me your interest, involvement, and willingness to work in this course. You do not always have to “know the ‘right’ answer” to do well in this course. You simply have to do the work, show up, think about what you have read, and participate helpfully in class discussions. The following formula will be used to calculate your grade:
Class Participation15%
Class Presentation 9%
Daily Quizzes19%
Romantic Period Test18%
Victorian Period Test19%
“Long Test”20%
Academic honesty: You are encouraged to collaborate with your classmates when you prepare for quizzes, class discussion, and tests, but turning in work that is not the product of your own learning, or any other form of academic dishonesty, will result in appropriate disciplinary action.
Communication: It is important that you keep abreast of what is going on in this course at all times. It is very common for students to ask questions that pertain to the entire class or for me to send around messages that everyone needs to see each week. So, be sure you not only check your syllabus frequently, but that you also check your Patriots email every day. On the first day of class, please give me a correctly spelled email address—one you use and will check regularly. Also, please give me a working telephone number where you may be reached as well. If you do not have your own computer and access at home to the internet, go to the ACC on the first floor of BUS and ask someone to help you learn how to set up your UT Tyler email account and have that person teach you how to access it. There are computers available to all registered UTT students in the ACC, in the library, in the UC, and in the dorms. If you have your own computer and internet access at home, it is easy to set up access to your UT Tyler email there. The technicians at the ACC will be happy to assist you with this.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Conferences and office hours: You should come to see me at least once early in the semester with your partner to plan your class presentation. My office hours are listed above, if these times are inconvenient, I will be happy to set up an appointment for you at another time. Please do not wait until it is too late in the semester to see me about a problem or concern, especially if you are not doing well on quizzes or have performed poorly on a test. I want you to do well and earn the highest grade possible in this course. See me so I can help you make this happen.
Songs of Innocence and Experience, William Blake
Laptops, Cell Phones:
I do not mind students bringing and using laptop computers in class; however, they should be placed in such a way that they do not interfere with my view of your work and do not screen you off from your classmates. Please turn off the audible ringers for cell phones when you are in the classroom. Text-messaging or doing any other kind of work besides taking notes on your lap top during class are rude, inappropriate, and disruptive. Anyone found doing so will be immediately asked to leave the classroom and work done during that class period will be given a zero.
Disability Accommodations:
If you have a disability, including a learning disability, for which you request disability support services/accommodation(s), please contact Ida MacDonald in the Disability Support Services office, so that the appropriate arrangements may be made. In accordance with federal law, a student requesting disability support services/accommodation(s) must provide appropriate documentation of his/her disability to the Disability Support Services counselor. For more information, call or visit the Student Services Center located in the University Center, Room 282. The telephone number is 903-566-7079 (TDD 903-565-5579). Additional information may also be obtained at the following UT Tyler Web address:
Grade Replacement
If you are repeating this course for a grade replacement, you must file an intent to receive grade forgiveness with the registrar by the 12th day of class. Failure to file an intent to use grade forgiveness will result in both the original and repeated grade being used to calculate your overall grade point average. A student will receive grade forgiveness (grade replacement) for only three (undergraduate student) or two (graduate student) course repeats during his/her career at UT Tyler. (2006-08 Catalog, p. 35).
Tintern Abbey, site of William Wordsworth’s poem
Syllabus
Listed below are the assignments we will cover in class that day. Prepare accordingly. Expect daily reading quizzes.
Mon. Jan. 13: Introduction to the course, procedural instructions.
Weds. Jan. 15: William Blake, Songs of Innocence: “Introduction” (p. 1410); “The Lamb” (p. 1412), “The Little Black Boy” (p. 1413).
Fri.. Jan. 17: William Blake, Songs of Experience: “Introduction” (p. 1416); “The Tyger” (p. 1420); “London” (p. 1422).
Mon. Jan. 20: Samuel TaylorColeridge, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (p. 1615 ff).
Weds. Jan. 22: STC’s “Rime” and first pass at Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above “Tintern Abbey” (p. 1491 ff).
Fri. Jan. 24: No class, Dr. Ross will be out of town.
Mon. Jan. 27: Wordsworth, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” (p. 1491 ff).
Weds. Jan. 29: William Wordsworth, “We Are Seven” (p. 1487); “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (p. 1537); “London, 1802” (p. 1549); “Surprised by joy” (p. 1550).
Fri. Jan. 31: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan,” (p. 1632). Be sure you read all of STC’s prose introduction and bring a sketch of what is portrayed in the poem (the pleasure dome, the river, thee caverns, walls and towers, the fountain, etc.)
Mon. Feb. 3: Lord Byron, “She Walks in Beauty” (p. 1676); “They Say that Hope is Happiness” (p. 1677); “When We Two Parted” (p. 1678).
Weds. Feb. 5: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Title page, Preface, Robert Walton’s letters, Vol. I, Chaps. I-III (pp. 1-36).
Fri. Feb. 7: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Vol. I, Chaps. IV-VII and Vol. II, Chaps. I -II (pp. 37-75). Concentrate esp. on Vol. I, Chap. IV, the night the creature is “infused with a spark of being.”
Mon. Feb. 10: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Volume II, Chaps. III-VIII (pp. 75-110). Concentrate esp. on Chap. VII, when the creature approaches Mr. De Lacey.
Weds. Feb. 12: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Vol. II, Chap. IX and Vol. III, Chaps. I-IV (pp. 110-145).
Fri. Feb. 14: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Vol. III, Chaps. V- VII (pp. 145-179). Concentrate esp. on the last chapter, Chap VII.
Mon. Feb. 17: Romantic Period Test Review
Weds. Feb. 19: Romantic Period Test
Fri. Feb. 21: No Class, Dr. Ross out of town
Mon. Feb 24: Introduction to the Victorian Period, Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott” (p. 1953 ff)
Weds. Feb. 26: Tennyson, “Ulysses” (p. 1962) and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (p. 2023).
Fri. Feb. 28: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese: Sonnets 21, 32, 43 (pp. 1926-7).
Mon. March 3: Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” (p. 2058)
Weds. Mar. 5: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Vol. I, Chaps. I-IV (pp. 1-33). Concentrate esp. on Chaps I & II (Jane with the Reeds), p. 30-31 (Jane’s rebellion)
Fri. March 7: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Vol. I, Chaps. V-IX (pp. 33-70). Look esp. at Chap. VI (Helen at Lowood), Chap VIII (Helen and Jane visit Miss Temple), Chap IX (typhus ravages the school)
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Jane Eyre and Rochester, on the Thornfield Estate
Mon. March 10- Fri. March 14: Spring Break. Finish Vol I of Jane Eyre, Chaps X-XV (pp. 70-130). Concentrate esp. on Chap. X (time passes, “a new servitude”), Chaps. XII andChaps. XIII-XV, passages relating to Rochester’s character, how their relationship is developing, and Jane’s rescue of Rochester
Mon. March 17: Jane Eyre Volume I
Weds. March 19: Bronte, Jane Eyre, Vol. II, Chaps XVI-XVIII (pp. 130-166). Concentrate esp. on Chap. XVII (Jane and Rochester’s house guests), p. 158 (Jane’s attitude about Blanche Ingram)
Fri. Mar. 21: Bronte, Jane Eyre, Vol. II, Chaps xix-xxi (pp. 167-205). Look esp. at Chap XIX (Jane and the gypsy), Chap XX (Mason visits his sister), Chap XXI (Jane called back to Gateshead Hall)
Mon. Mar. 24: Bronte, Jane Eyre, Vol. III, Chaps. XXII-XXVI (pp. 205-253). Concentrate esp. on Chap. XXIII (Rochester proposes), Chap. XXVI (Jane’s wedding day)
Weds. Mar. 26: Bronte, Jane Eyre, Vol. III, Chaps XXVII-XXX (pp. 253-305). Concentrate on Chap. XXVII (Jane leaves), Chap XXIX (St. John Rivers in contrast to Rochester), .306 (Jane doesn’t regret). Last day to withdraw without penalty.
Fri. Mar. 28): Bronte, Jane Eyre, Vol. III, Chaps. XXXI-XXXIV. (pp. 305-349).Concentrate on Chap. XXXII (St. John on marriage), Chap XXXIII (Jane’s identity and inheritance revealed), Chap. XXXIV (St. John’s proposal), p. 357 (Jane hears a voice),
Mon. Mar. 31: Bronte, Jane Eyre, Vol. III,Chap. XXXV-XXXVIII (349-385) Chap. XXXVIII (“Reader, I married him.”)
Weds . Apr. 2: Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I (pp. 2221-2237)
Fri. Apr. 4: Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Acts II & III (pp. 2237-2263)
Mon. Apr. 7: Victorian Period Review
Weds. Apr. 9: Victorian Period Test
Fri. Apr. 11: Introduction to 20th & 21st Century; Thomas Hardy, “Hap” and “Neutral Tones” (pp. 2318-19)
Mon. Apr. 14: Philip Larkin, “Church Going” (p. 2711,) and “Talking in Bed” (p. 2714)
Weds . Apr. 16: T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (p. 2610 ff)
Fri. Apr. 18: Anne Carson, “The Glass Essay: Hero” (p. 2825 ff)
Mon. Apr. 21: Short stories: Salman Rushie, “The Prophet’s Hair” Nadine Gordimer, “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off” (p. 2718ff)
Weds. Apr. 23: Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair, Chaps. 1-9 (p. 1-106). Concentrate esp. on: Thursday’s world (clones, chronoguard, importance of art and literature, the government, etc.), the shoot out, Acheron Hades
Fri. Apr. 25: Fforde, The Eyre Affair, Chaps. 10-18 (pp. 106-192). Concentrate esp. on: Thursday and Landen, what happened with Anton
Mon. Apr. 28: Fforde, The Eyre Affair, Chaps. 19-27 (pp. 192-286). Concentrate esp. on: Joffy Next, the Prose Portal, Jane Eyre—a different ending, book persons and the barriers between reality and fiction, the temporal distortion
Weds. Apr 30: Fforde, The Eyre Affair, Chaps. 28-36 (pp. 286-374). Concentrate esp. on: how it all turns out, esp. the parallels between the Jane Eyre and The Eyre Affair and the relationship between Thursday and Rochester.
Fri. May 2: Review for Long Test
Mon. May 5: Exam week begins.
Salman Rushdie