Major British Writers II: English 202, Section 3
Fall 1999, TR 1:40 p.m. - 2:55 p.m.

Schedule of Classes | Web Resources | Bulletin Board

Professor Karin Westman
74 George Street, #101; 953-5658
westmank@cofc.edu
Office Hours: M, W 1:30-2:30 p.m.; R 10-12 noon; and by app't.
Required Texts:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2, 6th ed.
Shelley, Frankenstein (Norton Critical Edition)
Barker, Regeneration (Vintage)
Stoppard, Arcadia
Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 6th ed. (Highly recommended)

Official Course Description:
Intensive study of major works of representative authors, including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats, Eliot, and one 19th- or 20th-century novel. Emphasis on close reading and analysis rather than on literary history. Lectures on intellectual background.
Course Objectives:
This semester we will study a representative sample of British authors since 1800. We will consider the works in terms of form and the historical context of their cultural production, exploring the often contested relationship between life and art. Our goal is twofold: familiarity with a canon of British literature and further practice in literary analysis and interpretation. This course depends for its success on careful reading and your participation in discussions.
Requirements and General Expectations:
Readings: You are expected to complete each reading assignment before coming to class. You are further expected to think carefully about what you read and to make notes in your book prior to each class meeting. Bring the appropriate book or xeroxes to class each day and additionally mark passages that we discuss; this process will help you understand, remember, and review.
Class Participation and Attendance: Although this may be a large class, you will be asked to participate regularly in class discussions and in collaborative learning groups. Your attendance is therefore important. You will not be penalized for your first three absences; thereafter, your final course grade will drop one grade increment (i.e., B+ to B) for each day missed. Excessive unexcused absences (five or more) may result in failure of the course. While I appreciate your offering explanations for absences, the only way to excuse an absence is to provide me with an official letter from your dean or from the Health Center.
Quizzes: Occasional short (10 minute) quizzes consisting of identifications and interpretive questions will help you improve your close reading skills and to evaluate your comprehension of the material. Quizzes are noted on the syllabus; I also reserve the right to administer further quizzes as necessary, or change a quiz into a take-home close reading response. Grades from reading quizzes will be averaged at the end of the semester. (I will drop the lowest quiz grade before calculating your final grade.) Should you be absent on the day of a quiz, you will receive a zero, unless the absence is excused.
Papers: You will write two papers (4-5 pages in length). The papers are due at the time the class meets. Late papers will be penalized one full grade (i.e., B to C) for each day late. More information about these two papers follows the syllabus.
Presentations: At the designated times on the syllabus, class will begin with a brief (no more than 10 minute) group presentation. These presentations will provide some of the socio-historical context we do not have time to cover in depth during our class discussion. There will be 3-5 people per group; your group will be responsible for introducing us to the subject at hand, telling us of its importance, and how it relates to our readings. Each group should meet with me a week prior to the day of the report for guidance and discussion of your work. Each student will write up a two-page report (to be turned in the day of the presentation) describing the significance of the particular subject and noting two to three helpful sources. Your grade for the presentation will be part of your class participation grade. The topics are:
The Reform Bills
The Reception of Darwin's The Descent of Man
The Victorian Woman
The Victorian Gentleman
The Trial of Oscar Wilde
Post-Impressionist Art
Electronic Bulletin Board: Beginning the first week of class, I'll establish an electronic bulletin board for our class. Each week, each student is required to post at least one paragraph-length comment about the materials we're studying in class. I will monitor these discussions and assess a grade (at the end of the semester) based on the thoughtfulness of your comments, their ability to foster discussion among your classmates, and their responsiveness both to our readings and to your classmates' comments in class and on the list. Your postings do not need to be long; however, they need to be substantive: they must be long enough to convey clearly the problem you are taking up and your point of view, connecting your comment to others' comments, as appropriate. I will offer models of helpful comments early in the semester. Your grade for these postings will become part of your class participation grade.
Examinations: You will have a midterm and a cumulative final exam. A missed exam counts as a zero; no make-up exams will be offered without a dean's excuse.
Conferences: There are no mandatory conferences for this course. I encourage you, however, to stop by during office hours, particularly before an assignment is due. Please also consider stopping by during the first few weeks of class for a brief (and very informal) conference. If you have any specific questions or concerns about the course or the readings, bring them with you, but no agenda is necessary: this is simply a way to get to know each other. Please see me to make an appointment if my office hours are not convenient for you.
Grading:
Paper #1 10%
Paper #2 10%
Quizzes 15%
Class Participation 20%
Presentation 5%
Postings 5%
In-class 10%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 25%
Schedule of Classes (Subject to change)
[Unless otherwise indicated by (x) for xerox, readings are found in a required book.]
The Romantic Period (1785-1830)
August
T 24
R 26
Introduction: Condition of England in Life and Art, c.1800
&1xbet online sports betting ;The Romantic Period&1xbet online sports betting ; (1-17); William Wordsworth (126-29):
&1xbet online sports betting ;A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal&1xbet online sports betting ; (155); &1xbet online sports betting ;Lucy Gray&1xbet online sports betting ; (156); &1xbet online sports betting ;I
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud&1xbet online sports betting ; (186-7); &1xbet online sports betting ;Tintern Abbey&1xbet online sports betting ; (136-40);
excerpts from &1xbet online sports betting ;Preface&1xbet online sports betting ; to Lyrical Ballads (140-52) Quiz
September
T 31
R 2
Wordsworth, &1xbet online sports betting ;Ode: Intimations of Immortality&1xbet online sports betting ; (187-193);
excerpts from The Prelude, Books I (205-222), II (227), VII
(251-254), X-XIV (259-279, 284-286)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (323-26): &1xbet online sports betting ;The Eolian Harp,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;This
Lime Tree Bower My Prison,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;Kubla Khan&1xbet online sports betting ; (326-49); Coleridge, &1xbet online sports betting ;Frost at Midnight&1xbet online sports betting ; (365-6),
&1xbet online sports betting ;Dejection: An Ode&1xbet online sports betting ; (366-70); excerpts from Biographia
Literaria (377, 383-95) Quiz
T 7
R 9
Mary Wollstonecraft, excerpts from Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (98-126)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (643-7): &1xbet online sports betting ;Mont Blanc&1xbet online sports betting ; (666-69), &1xbet online sports betting ;Hymn
to Intellectual Beauty&1xbet online sports betting ; (670-1), &1xbet online sports betting ;To a Skylark&1xbet online sports betting ; (710-12), and
excerpts from A Defense of Poetry (752-65) Quiz
T 14
R 16
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein Quiz
John Keats (766-9): &1xbet online sports betting ;On First Looking into Chapman's Homer,&1xbet online sports betting ;
&1xbet online sports betting ;Sleep and Poetry,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;On Seeing the Elgin Marbles,&1xbet online sports betting ; from
&1xbet online sports betting ;Endymion: A Poetic Romance,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;On Sitting Down to Read King
Lear...,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;When I Have Fears...,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;To Homer&1xbet online sports betting ; (769-76)
M 20
T 21
Paper #1 due by 12 noon to my office.
Keats, &1xbet online sports betting ;Ode to a Nightingale,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;Ode on a Grecian Urn,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;Ode on
Melancholy&1xbet online sports betting ; (790-5), &1xbet online sports betting ;To Autumn&1xbet online sports betting ; (813-4), and excerpts from
Keats' Letters (828-44)
The Victorian Age (1830-1901)
R 23
&1xbet online sports betting ;The Victorian Age&1xbet online sports betting ; (891-910); Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1052-56): &1xbet online sports betting ;The Kraken&1xbet online sports betting ; (1056); &1xbet online sports betting ;The Lady of Shalott,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;The
Lotus-Eaters,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;Ulysses&1xbet online sports betting ; (1069), &1xbet online sports betting ;Locksley Hall&1xbet online sports betting ; (1073-9); Thomas
Carlyle (910-15), excerpts from &1xbet online sports betting ;Past and Present&1xbet online sports betting ; (965-74) Quiz
Presentation: The Reform Bills
T 27
R 29
Tennyson, excerpts from In Memoriam A. H. H. (1084-1132);
&1xbet online sports betting ;Evolution&1xbet online sports betting ; and excerpts from Darwin's Descent of Man
(1571-75)
Presentation: The Reception of Darwin's Descent of Man
Robert Browning (1182-7): &1xbet online sports betting ;My Last Duchess&1xbet online sports betting ; (1190-2) and
&1xbet online sports betting ;Caliban upon Sebetos&1xbet online sports betting ; (1243-50); &1xbet online sports betting ;Industrialism: Progress or
Decline?&1xbet online sports betting ; (1580-1); Macaulay, from &1xbet online sports betting ;A Review of Southey's
Colloquies&1xbet online sports betting ; (1581-6); Dickens, from Hard Times (1594-5)
October
T 5
R 7
Matthew Arnold (1344-9): &1xbet online sports betting ;To Marguerite--Continued&1xbet online sports betting ;
(1353-4), &1xbet online sports betting ;The Buried Life&1xbet online sports betting ; (1354-6), &1xbet online sports betting ;The Scholar Gypsy&1xbet online sports betting ;
(1359-66), &1xbet online sports betting ;Dover Beach&1xbet online sports betting ; (1366-7); excerpts from &1xbet online sports betting ;The Function of Criticism at the Present Time&1xbet online sports betting ; (1389-1403), &1xbet online sports betting ;Maurice de
Guérin&1xbet online sports betting ; (1403-4) and &1xbet online sports betting ;The Study of Poetry&1xbet online sports betting ; (1418-29)
Mid-Term Exam
T 12
R 14
John Stuart Mill (992-4): from The Subjection of Women
(1012-22); &1xbet online sports betting ;The Women Question&1xbet online sports betting ; (1595) and excerpts from
Ellis, &1xbet online sports betting ;The Women of England...,&1xbet online sports betting ; Patmore, &1xbet online sports betting ;The Angel in the
House,&1xbet online sports betting ; and Besant, &1xbet online sports betting ;The Queen's Reign&1xbet online sports betting ; (1598-1601,1609-10);
Tennyson, &1xbet online sports betting ;The Woman's Cause Is Man's&1xbet online sports betting ; (1083-4)
Presentation: The Victorian Gentleman
Presentation: The Victorian Woman
Martineau, &1xbet online sports betting ;Autobiography,&1xbet online sports betting ; Mullock, &1xbet online sports betting ;A Woman's Thoughts...&1xbet online sports betting ;,
and Nightingale, &1xbet online sports betting ;Cassandra&1xbet online sports betting ; (1601-9); Elizabeth Barrett
Browning (1029-30), excerpts from &1xbet online sports betting ;Aurora Leigh&1xbet online sports betting ; (1034-48);
Christina Rossetti (1472-3): &1xbet online sports betting ;In an Artist's Studio&1xbet online sports betting ; (1476) and
&1xbet online sports betting ;Goblin Market&1xbet online sports betting ; (1479-90) Quiz
FALL BREAK -- October 18th - 19th
R 21 Virginia Woolf (1915-16), A Room of One's Own Quiz
T 26
&1xbet online sports betting ;The Nineties&1xbet online sports betting ; (1612-13); Oscar Wilde (1616-18): from &1xbet online sports betting ;The
Critic as Artist&1xbet online sports betting ; (1620-7) and The Importance of Being Earnest
(1628-67)
Presentation: The Trials of Oscar Wilde
The Twentieth Century
R 28
&1xbet online sports betting ;The Twentieth Century&1xbet online sports betting ; (1683-91); Joseph Conrad (1754-6): &1xbet online sports betting ;Preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus&1xbet online sports betting ; (1756-58) and Heart of Darkness (1758-1817); Chinua Achebe, &1xbet online sports betting ;An Image of Africa:
Conrad's Heart of Darkness&1xbet online sports betting ; [X] Quiz
November
T 2
R 4
Thomas Hardy (1692-3), &1xbet online sports betting ;Hap&1xbet online sports betting ; (1694), &1xbet online sports betting ;Neutral Tones&1xbet online sports betting ; (1605);
&1xbet online sports betting ;The Darkling Thrush&1xbet online sports betting ; (1697-8); &1xbet online sports betting ;The Convergence of the Twain&1xbet online sports betting ;
(1704); &1xbet online sports betting ;Under the Waterfall&1xbet online sports betting ; (1706-7); and &1xbet online sports betting ;He Never Expected
Much&1xbet online sports betting ; (1710-11)
No Class -- Read ahead and work on Paper #2
T 9
R 11
&1xbet online sports betting ;Poetry of World War I&1xbet online sports betting ; (1825-6): Rupert Brooke (1826-7):
&1xbet online sports betting ;The Soldier&1xbet online sports betting ;; Siegfried Sassoon (1831-2): &1xbet online sports betting ;They&1xbet online sports betting ; (1832), &1xbet online sports betting ;The
Rear-Guard&1xbet online sports betting ; (1832-3), &1xbet online sports betting ;Glory of Women&1xbet online sports betting ; (1833-4), and &1xbet online sports betting ;On
Passing the New Menin Gate&1xbet online sports betting ; (1834); Wilfred Owen (1842-3),
&1xbet online sports betting ;Dulce Et Decorum Est&1xbet online sports betting ; (1845-6)
W.B.Yeats (1859-63): &1xbet online sports betting ;Adam's Curse&1xbet online sports betting ; (1871-2), &1xbet online sports betting ;Easter 1916&1xbet online sports betting ;
(1878-80), &1xbet online sports betting ;The Second Coming&1xbet online sports betting ; (1880-1), &1xbet online sports betting ;Sailing to Byzantium&1xbet online sports betting ;
(1883-4); &1xbet online sports betting ;The Circus Animals' Desertion&1xbet online sports betting ; (1893-4) Quiz
M 15
T 16
R 18
Paper #2 due by 12 noon in my office
T.S. Eliot (2136-9), &1xbet online sports betting ;The Waste Land&1xbet online sports betting ; (2147-60); &1xbet online sports betting ;Tradition and the Individual Talent&1xbet online sports betting ; (2170-6)
Virginia Woolf, &1xbet online sports betting ;Kew Gardens&1xbet online sports betting ; [X] and &1xbet online sports betting ;Modern Fiction&1xbet online sports betting ;
(1921-6); James Joyce (2003-8), &1xbet online sports betting ;The Dead&1xbet online sports betting ; (2008-36) Quiz
Presentation: Post-Impressionist Art
T 23
R 25
Philip Larkin (2373): &1xbet online sports betting ;Church Going&1xbet online sports betting ; (2324-5), &1xbet online sports betting ;Talking in Bed&1xbet online sports betting ;
(2326), &1xbet online sports betting ;Sad Steps&1xbet online sports betting ; (2328), and &1xbet online sports betting ;Aubaude&1xbet online sports betting ; (2329-30)
THANKSGIVING BREAK
December
T 30
R 2
Seamus Heaney (2422): &1xbet online sports betting ;Digging&1xbet online sports betting ; (2422-3) and excerpts from &1xbet online sports betting ;Station Island&1xbet online sports betting ; (2428-30); Derek Walcott (2358): &1xbet online sports betting ;A Far Cry
from Africa&1xbet online sports betting ; (2358-9) and &1xbet online sports betting ;Midsummer&1xbet online sports betting ; (2360-1); and Wole
Soyinka, &1xbet online sports betting ;Telephone Conversation&1xbet online sports betting ; [X]
Pat Barker, Regeneration Quiz
T 7
R 16
Tom Stoppard, Arcadia; review for Final Exam
Final Exam: 12-3 p.m.
Guidelines for Papers
General Instructions
Papers should follow the general rules of composition and be typed or word-processed with standard double-spacing, 1-inch margins, and either 10- or 12-point typeface. Title pages and covers are unnecessary. Pages should be numbered, stapled together, and spell-checked. Errors in grammar and punctuation will be marked but will not be significant factors in the grading of the paper unless the mistakes are so numerous or egregious as to distract from the argument. Papers are due at the time the class meets; late papers will be penalized one grade (i.e., B to C) for each day late.


Paper #1 (Due Monday, September 20th; 3-4 pages in length)
Identify and discuss whatever patterns of imagery you can find in one of Keats' odes on the syllabus: &1xbet online sports betting ;Ode to a Nightingale,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;Ode on a Grecian Urn,&1xbet online sports betting ; &1xbet online sports betting ;Ode on Melancholy&1xbet online sports betting ; (790-5), or &1xbet online sports betting ;To Autumn&1xbet online sports betting ; (813-4). As preparation for your paper, make a list of the images, and try to identify any patterns that might emerge from them. Then, apply those images to the poem's theme. What are some of the themes in the poem? What does the poem tell us about these themes? The pattern(s) you uncover should help answer these questions. [Note: If you're feeling particularly adventurous, you can use the excerpts from Keats' Letters (828-44) in place of a poem.]
This paper should be in standard essay form. You should include a very short introduction that tells me the pattern(s) of imagery and the imagery's bearing on the poem's theme(s)--that is, the thesis of your paper. The rest of your paper will support this interpretation by supplying the details of your analysis.



Paper #2 (Due Monday, November 15th; 4-5 pages in length)
Choose one of the following topics for your paper on Part I of Eliot's &1xbet online sports betting ;The Waste Land&1xbet online sports betting ; (2146-60). As for Paper #1, this paper should be in standard essay form. You should include a very short introduction that tells me the thesis of your paper in response to one of the topics below; the rest of your paper will support this interpretation by supplying the details of your analysis.


1. Use the poem's title (&1xbet online sports betting ;The Waste Land&1xbet online sports betting ;), the epigraph (translated in your footnotes), and the section title (&1xbet online sports betting ;The Burial of the Dead&1xbet online sports betting ;) as a way into a discussion about the first part of Eliot's poem. How do each of these &1xbet online sports betting ;introductions&1xbet online sports betting ; elucidate or connect to the narrative which follows in Part I? Be sure to refer to specific lines and images in your discussion.

or

2. In footnote #4 on p.2148, Eliot tells the reader that he &1xbet online sports betting ;associate[s], quite arbitrarily,&1xbet online sports betting ; an image from a tarot card with the mythical image of the Fisher King. Consider Eliot's choice of the word &1xbet online sports betting ;arbitrarily&1xbet online sports betting ;: What might Eliot's comment tell us about the way in which the poem is and will be constructed? Do the &1xbet online sports betting ;I&1xbet online sports betting ; and &1xbet online sports betting ;we&1xbet online sports betting ; of the poem &1xbet online sports betting ;associate, quite arbitrarily&1xbet online sports betting ; as well? Can we, as readers, begin to detect a pattern to these &1xbet online sports betting ;arbitrary&1xbet online sports betting ; associations? Be sure to refer to specific lines and images in your discussion.

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Department of English | College of Charleston
Email: westmank@cofc.edu
Last updated 16 November 1999