ENGL 2120H: British Literature
Dr. Margaret E. Mitchell
TR 12:30-1:45 TLC 1204
Office: TLC 2235
Email: mmitchel@westga.edu
Website: http: //www.westga.edu/~mmitchel
Phone: 678.839.4852
Office Hours: MW 10-12, Th 2-4
And by appointment
**SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR ORAL PRESENTATION SCHEDULE**
Required Texts:
(followed by required editions)
King Lear. William Shakespeare. (Penguin: Pelican)
Moll Flanders. Daniel Defoe. (Modern Library Classic)
Dubliners. James Joyce. (Viking)
The Grass is Singing. Doris Lessing. (Perennial Classics)
The Columbia Anthology of British Poetry, ed. Woodring and Shapiro
---Additional readings will be distributed as handouts or made available online throughout the semester.
Course Description:
Our sweeping survey of British literature will take us from the medieval poem Beowulf to Doris Lessing’s novel The Grass Is Singing. Rather than pursuing a strictly chronological path, we will move swiftly back and forth across the centuries, juxtaposing important works of literature from all the major periods in unconventional and suggestive ways. We will look for connections, patterns, and trends that enable us to begin to define a national literature, paying attention to the historical and political contexts out of which these texts arose. Throughout the history of British literature we will trace a preoccupation with the social order: how it is established and maintained, what threats it faces, and to what extent the existing order may be challenged. We will pay attention to how the social order is represented in these works, and consider its relationship to the literary works that not only reflect it but arguably both reinforce and undermine it.
Course Requirements:
I expect everyone to come to class with the reading done, prepared to participate in discussion or writing exercises. If I provide reading questions in advance, these will serve as taking-off points for class discussions, and I will expect you to have given them serious thought. I strongly encourage you to take notes on the reading with these questions in mind, perhaps sketch out rough responses, and make a note of one or two passages in the text that strike you as relevant to the questions I have posed. I will always expect you to be ready to bring specific passages to the attention of the class in order to focus and deepen our discussions. There will also be frequent, unannounced quizzes and in-class writing assignments. You’ll write two five page essays, one in the first half of the semester and one in the second half. Each student will also be responsible for 2 short presentations in which you illuminate the historical, political or social context of a particular text; a separate handout will outline the guidelines for these presentations in detail. There will be a mid-term and a final exam (identifications and short essays).
Grading:
Essays: 30% (1st: 10%, 2nd: 20%)
Presentations 20%
Quizzes: 20%
Additional short writing assignments, in or out of class: 10%.
Exams: 20%
Policies:
Your active presence is essential to the success of the class. Quizzes and in-class writings cannot be made up, although with a legitimate reason you may arrange to take them in advance. Papers will drop a third of a letter grade for each day they are late (from a B to a B-, for instance)—including weekends. Papers will be accepted only in class; please don’t email them to me or leave them in my mailbox unless I specify otherwise. If you miss more than 3 classes, your grade will be affected. If you miss 6 classes, you will not pass. If extraordinary circumstances arise that affect your attendance, please meet with me as soon as possible to discuss your options.
In order to be considered present, you must have all relevant texts with you at each class. Make sure you have the correct edition of the required works. These are available from the university bookstore and from other sources (Amazon, for example); there will be no acceptable excuses for failing to obtain texts on time.
Please do not disrupt the class by arriving late or leaving early unless you have a very compelling reason. Three late arrivals/early departures will count as an absence.
Lateness may also affect your ability to complete quizzes or in-class writings within the amount of time allowed. Cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned off and removed from your desk during class. Text messaging will not be tolerated. Electronic disturbances of any kind will be noted.
I expect you to preserve an atmosphere of courtesy, respect, and intellectual maturity in the classroom, to take your own work and that of the other students seriously. Very little is less respectful than napping: if you fall asleep, you will receive one warning; the second time you will be asked to leave and counted as absent.
If you have special needs of which I should be aware, please meet with me as soon as possible to discuss satisfactory arrangements.
Academic Honesty:
Presenting the language or ideas of someone else as your own constitutes plagiarism--whether your source is a friend, a relative, or a critic; whether the uncredited material is a phrase, a paragraph, or an entire paper; whether it is a formal or an informal assignment. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the class, and may have consequences at the university level. If you are ever concerned about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult me. You may also see the English Department website for more details.
Schedule:*
Week 1
T Jan. 10 Introduction. Seamus Heaney, “Digging.”
Th Jan 12 Selections from Heaney’s translation of Beowulf (handout). Seamus Heaney, “The Tollund Man” (832, Columbia Anth.)
Week 2
T Jan 17 Milton, “On Shakespeare”; Keats, “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again”; Shakespeare, King Lear, Acts I and II.
Th Jan 19 King Lear, Act III.
Week 3
T Jan 23 King Lear, Act IV and V.
Th Jan 25 “Judith” (Old English Poem—handout)
Week 4
T Jan 31 Anne Askew (36, CA); Queen Elizabeth I (41, CA); Alexander Pope, “Epistle to a Lady: of the Characters of Women” (301, CA)
Th Feb 2 Defoe, Moll Flanders 1-30. First paper assigned.
Week 5
T Feb. 7 Moll Flanders to 130.
Th Feb. 9 Moll Flanders cont’d.
Week 6
T Feb. 14 Rough Draft workshop, essay #1.
Th Feb. 16 Moll Flanders to 230.
Week 7
T Feb. 21 Moll Flanders to 290. Essay # I Due.
Th Feb. 23 Moll Flanders finish.
Week 8
T Feb. 28 Blake, Byron, Coleridge, selections TBA.
Th Mar. 2 Donne, Wordsworth, selections TBA
(Last day to withdraw with a W)
Week 9
T Mar. 7 Burns, Barbauld, Shelley; selections TBA.
Th Mar.9 Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Hardy; selections TBA.
Week 10
T Mar. 14 Selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (handout).
Th Mar. 16 Joyce, Dubliners. “The Sisters,” “Araby,” “Eveline,” “After the Race.”
Week 11
Spring Break
Week 12
T Mar. 28 Joyce, Dubliners. “The Boarding House,” “A Little Cloud,” “Clay,” “A Painful Case.”
Th Mar. 30 “The Dead,” Dubliners. Yeats, Selections TBA.
Week 13
T Apr. 4 Film, The Dead.
Th Apr. 6 No class (Conference)—Start The Grass in Singing. 1-89.
Week 14
T Apr. 11 Lessing, The Grass is Singing. 90-191.
Th Apr. 13 Lessing, The Grass is Singing. Finish. Paper # 2 Assigned.
Week 15
T Apr. 18 Auden, Thomas, Larkin.
Th Apr. 20 Smith, Heaney, Muldoon, Selections TBA.
Week 16
T Apr 25 Rough Draft workshop, essay # 2.
Th Apr. 27 Conclusion.
Final Exam. Papers due.
*I may make adjustments to the schedule as the semester progresses; please make a note of any changes I announce. You will also have access to a regularly updated version of the syllabus on my website.
Course Goals
Students will develop the ability to recognize and identify significant achievements in British literature.
Students will understand the relevant social, historical, and aesthetic contexts of these literary works.
Students will appreciate the implications of theoretical and critical approaches to such literature.
Students will develop enhanced cultural awareness and analytical skills.
Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and of the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose.
Program Goals
Oral and written communication will be characterized by clarity, critical analysis, logic, coherence, persuasion, precision, and rhetorical awareness (Core Curriculum learning outcomes I)
Cultural and Social Perspectives: Cultural and social perspective will be characterized by cultural awareness and an understanding of the complexity and dynamic nature of social/political/economic systems; human and institutional behavior, values, and belief systems; historical and spatial relationship; and, flexibility, open-mindedness, and tolerance. (Core Curriculum learning outcomes III)
Aesthetic Perspective: Aesthetic perspective will be characterized by critical appreciation of and ability to make informed aesthetic judgments about the arts of various cultures as media for human expression (Core Curriculum learning outcomes V)
This course fulfills the Area C.2 requirement in the core for all students.
Area C (Humanities/Arts) Learning Outcomes:
1. To develop the ability to recognize and
identify achievements in literary, fine and performing arts;
2. To have an appreciation of the nature and achievements of the arts and
humanities; and
3. To develop the ability to apply, understand, and appreciate the application
of aesthetics criteria to “real world circumstances.
2120H: Spring 2006 Oral Presentation Schedule
Tues. Jan. 24 King Lear, Shakespeare (early 17th C): Leah Stephens
Tues. Jan. 31 “Epistle to a Lady” Alexander Pope (18th C): Leah Stephens
Tues. Feb. 7 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe (18th C): Jeannette Williams
Thurs. Feb. 9 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe (18th C): Kelly Quimby
Tues. Feb. 28 William Blake (19th C): Kimberly Schumann
Lord Byron (19th C): Jeannette Williams
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (19th C): Anthony Kennedy
Thurs. March 2 John Donne (17th C): Kimberly Schumann
William Wordsworth (19th C): Eric Trexler
Thurs. March 9 Alfred, Lord Tennyson (19th C): Tom Jones
Thomas Hardy (19th C): Michael Morgan
Matthew Arnold (19th C): Danielle Vincent
Tues. March 14 “The General Prologue” from The Canterbury Tales (14th C): Michael
Morgan
Thurs. March 16 Dubliners James Joyce (20th ): Anthony Kennedy
Thurs. March 30 W.B. Yeats (20th C): Kelly Quimby
Tues. April 11 The Grass in Singing Doris Lessing (20th C): Eric Trexler
Danielle Vincent
Thurs. April 20 Seamus Heaney (20th C): Tom Jones