English 4145/5145: Victorian Literature
Dr. Margaret E. Mitchell
Fall 2006 MWF 10:10-11:05 Hum 209
Office: TLC 2235
Email: mmitchel@westga.edu
Website: http: //www.westga.edu/~mmitchel
Phone: 678.839.4852
Office Hours: Office Hours: MW 3-4; T 10-11 and 1-4; F 11:30-12:30; by appt.
Course Description
This course will consider Victorian literature as a response to the social, political, and cultural ideals and anxieties that marked nineteenth-century Britain. Surveying fiction, non-fiction, and some poetry, from the “social-problem novel” of the “hungry forties” to fin de siècle Decadence, we will explore these texts as literary responses to Victorian concerns about class boundaries, definitions of gender, crime, science, and empire, just to name a few. We will examine not only the cultural wishes and fears reflected in Victorian literature, but the ways in which each work seeks to structure and resolve them.
Required Texts
Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell (Oxford World Classics)
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens (Penguin)
Adam Bede, George Eliot (Penguin)
Lady Audley’s Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Penguin)
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (Broadview)
English Victorian Poetry: An Anthology (Dover)
Victorian Prose, Ed. Mudhenk and Fletcher (Columbia)
Requirements
This course requires a considerable amount of reading—the Victorians wrote long novels—and it is essential that you keep up. Each week, your main reading will be due on Monday, and you should expect a quick quiz followed by discussion of the text. I’ll expect you to be ready to bring specific passages to the attention of the class in order to focus and deepen our discussions. Under the assumption that everyone will have done this preparation, I may call upon you at any time. Because participation counts toward your grade, you should make a point of speaking at least once during each class. For Wednesday, you will have a brief assignment related to the week’s reading; I will post this assignment each week after Monday’s class. Friday’s class will be structured by oral presentations or in-class exercises, whether group or individual, and continued discussion of the week’s reading. Each student will give one 10 minute oral presentation in the course of the semester; the purpose of these will be to help illuminate the historical and cultural context of the literary works we’ll be reading—the relationship between text and context. Detailed guidelines will be provided. You will be required to write two critical essays for which you will receive a list of possible topics in advance (you’ll also have the option of developing your own topics); the first will be 5 pages and the second will be an 8-10 page research-based paper. Drafts are required, not optional, along with any workshops or writing exercises associated with each paper; failure to complete them will lower your overall paper grade. You may elect to revise (substantially) your first essay, in which case I will average the two grades. If you choose to rewrite, you must schedule an appointment to discuss your essay with me.
Policies:
Your active presence is essential to the success of the class. Quizzes and in-class exercises cannot be made up regardless of the reason for your absence unless we have made arrangements in advance. Long 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 you’re specifically instructed to. If you miss more than three classes, your grade will suffer. There is no such thing as an excused absence. I assume that illness or other pressing circumstances may legitimately cause you to miss three classes in the course of the semester; I don’t need to know your reasons. Beyond that, however, absences will affect your grade, regardless of your excuse. If you do miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and arrange to obtain handouts or reading questions. If you miss 7 classes, you will not pass. (If you have truly extraordinary circumstances documented by the university, I will consider exceptions.)
Please come to class on time. If you are late three times it will count as an absence; lateness may also affect your ability to complete quizzes or in-class writings within the amount of time allowed. Please turn off cell phones and other potential sources of electronic disturbance before you enter class and remove them from your desk or your person. If such a device does go off during class, I will mark you late.
Assignments and information relevant to the class will be posted regularly on my website. It is your responsibility to check this.
I check my email regularly; this is always a good way to contact me. Please note that, for legal and confidentiality reasons, I am not permitted to read or respond to emails from any non-westga accounts. Make sure to use your My Westga account when you write to me.
If you have special needs of which I should be aware, please meet with me as soon as possible to discuss satisfactory arrangements.
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.
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.
*This schedule is subject to adjustment or alteration. Changes will be announced in class and online.
Grading
Participation: 10%
Reading Quizzes: 15%
Short writing or in-class assignments: 10%
Oral Presentation: 15%
Essay #1: 20%
Research Paper: 30%
Schedule
Week 1
M Aug 14 Introduction
W Aug 16 From Victorian Prose: Thomas Carlyle, excerpts from Past and Present (28-34); Henry Mayhew, from Labour and the Poor, 189-197; and William Acton, from Prostitution, 221-227.
Centennial—No Class
Week 2
M Aug 21 Gaskell, Mary Barton (1-145 plus Gaskell’s preface)
W Aug 23 Supplementary prose: Tonna, Oastler.
F Aug 25 Discuss presentations, New Historicism.
Week 3
M Aug 28 Gaskell, Mary Barton (146-312)
W Aug 30 Supplementary prose.
F Sept 1 Presentation
Week 4
M Sept 4 Labor Day—no class
W Sept 6 Gaskell, Mary Barton (finish)
F Sept 8 Presentation. Assign essay #1
Week 5
M Sept 11 Dickens, Oliver Twist (1-152)
W Sept 13 John Stuart Mill, Autobiography excerpt; Dickens's preface.
F Sept 15 4 page rough draft due: writing workshop
Week 6
M Sep. 18 Dickens, Oliver Twist (153-305)
W Sept 20 Supplementary prose.
F Sept 22 Presentation. Essay #1 due.
Week 7
M Sept 25 Dickens, Oliver Twist (finish)
W Sept 27
F Sept 29 Presentation
Week 8
M Oct 2 Eliot, Adam Bede (7-173)
W Oct 4 Supplementary prose.
F Oct 6 Presentation
(Last day to withdraw with a W)
Week 9
M Oct 9 Fall break—no class
W Oct 11 Eliot, Adam Bede (174-356) (through Chapter 33)
F Oct 13 Presentation
Week 10
M Oct 16 Eliot, Adam Bede (finish)
W Oct 18 George Eliot, "Silly Novels By Lady Novelists." VP 293.
F Oct 20 No Class! I will be attending the Victorians Institute Conference.
Week 11
M Oct 23 Adam Bede Presentations, Grimes and Meeks.
W Oct 25 Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (7-225)
F Oct 27 Presentation.
Week 12
M Oct 30 Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (finish)
W Nov 1 Supplementary prose: madness & asylums.
F Nov 3 Presentation.
Week 13
M Nov 6 Poetry: R. Browning, all poems in your "English Victorian Poetry" anthology (49-94).
W Nov 8 Assign research paper.
F Nov 10 Browning, Will North presentation.
Week 14
M Nov 13 Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
W Nov 15 Emmanuel's presentation. Wilde, cont'd.
F Nov 17 No class. Work on papers.
Week 15
M Nov 20 Rough draft due. Writing workshop.
W Nov 22 Thanksgiving—no class
F Nov 24 Thanksgiving—no class
Week 16
M Nov 27 Eve's presentation on Wilde, Conclusion
W Nov 29 Wrap-up, evals
F Dec 1 Research papers due.
Course Goals
Program Goals