English
2120-25H
Fall
2010, MW 2-3:15, Pafford 308
Survey
of British Literature: "Center and Margin"
Office
and Phone: TLC 2-248, 678-839-4853
Email:
mdoyle@westga.edu
Office
Hours: Wednesday 5-6 pm and Thursday 10 am-noon, 1-3
pm and by appt.
Virtual
Office Hours: T 9 am-noon (log in to CourseDen and use the chat function)
Website:
http://www.westga.edu/~mdoyle
Course Description:
The British literary tradition
begins with a story of movement between center and periphery, with the hero
Beowulf called to banish a monstrous outsider and restore the peace of a
kingdom that is not his own. Thus, motion complicates the idea of the center –
the site of cultural and political authority – and the margin – that which is
considered outside, other, even monstrous. This
negotiation raises questions about how we define these poles and how they
influence one another, and this course will explore how writers throughout the
British tradition, from earlier canonical authors to more recent multicultural
voices, have used this idea of travel to examine questions of cultural
authority and to define their relationship to the idea of Britishness.
A catalog description and learning
outcomes for this course can be found online at
http://www.westga.edu/~engdept/fr/CourseGuid/2120.html.
All handouts will be posted to the CourseDen course site, so be sure to check there if you
miss a class, since, "I wasn't in class the day we discussed X" will
not be considered an acceptable excuse for not keeping up with material or for
turning in work late. Students should also use their university email accounts
or the CourseDen email function to correspond with
me. Students who have questions or want to consult about assignments are also
welcome to attend office hours or to use the virtual office hours on Tuesdays.
Requirements:
(1) Writing Journal (25%): This is
an ongoing writing project that students will complete in sections over the
course of the semester. Instructions for each section are available on the CourseDen page. The journal is designed to engage students
in ongoing critical analysis of the course texts in preparation for the final
writing project.
(2) Analytical Essay (25%): Students
will complete an independent writing project on a topic of their choosing for
this course. This final product of this project will be a formal 7-8 page paper
setting out the student's own thesis-driven analysis of one text (or a related
pair of texts) from the course syllabus. Students should note that this is not
a research paper: the goal is to allow you to develop and elaborate an argument
about how a particular text works on your own without relying on or
incorporating external material. If you take upper level English courses, you
will be asked to write analytical research papers, and being able to develop
and sustain your own analysis in a project such as this one will help you
complete stronger research papers when you get to that point; whether or not
you take more English courses, the paper is designed to help you hone your
skills of analysis, organization and argumentation. To help students develop
their project ideas, this final project will be preceded by a 300-word proposal
that outlines the project idea and sets out the general direction for the
larger paper. I will provide students with written feedback and suggestions on
their proposal to help guide you in putting together the final paper.
(3) Midterm (15%) and Final Exams (25%): Exams will ask students to identify and discuss passages, define terms, discuss significant events/stages in the development of British literature and analyze specific themes and ideas as they appear in the literary works on the syllabus. Students should also be able to discuss the historical and theoretical contexts covered in class. Exams will include short response and essay sections. No makeup exams will be scheduled, and students who arrive late to exams will not be given extra time.
(4) Class Preparation and
Participation (10%): Class participation – your preparation for class meetings
and your willingness to contribute to our discussions – is an important
component of your grade. Consistent, punctual attendance is the minimum
expected of all students, and after four absences, you will lose half a letter
grade in this category for each additional class missed. You do not need to
explain your absences to me – I understand that sometimes illness, childcare
issues, uncooperative automobiles or unforeseen emergencies prevent you from
coming to class – but use those allowed days for real emergencies, as I will not
differentiate between “excused” and “unexcused” absences. Doing well in
class participation means more than just coming to class. Students are
further expected to have read the material carefully before class meetings, to
listen attentively both to the instructor and to the comments other students
make during discussions, to ask questions and offer ideas about the material
and to respond thoughtfully to ideas presented both by the instructor and the
other students.
Additional Policies and Information:
I do not give 'makeup' assignments,
and unless an exceptional opportunity arises that is directly related to the
course material, I do not offer 'extra credit' opportunities: you will all be
assessed by the same methods on the same assignments. If you find that you are
having trouble with the course material, adjust your study schedule, come to my
office hours or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get help with your
writing.
Special
Needs: If you have a registered disability that will require accommodation,
please see me at the beginning of the semester; I will be happy to discuss your
situation. If you have a disability that you have not yet registered through
the Disabled Student Services Office, please contact Dr. Ann Phillips in
Student Development (678-839-6428).
Cell
Phones: Please turn cell phones off when you enter the classroom.
Your time during class is committed to the class, and you may check messages
outside of class hours.
Outside
Sources and Academic Honesty: Academic dishonesty involves any
attempt on your part to claim ideas and/or specific phrasing that you have
gotten from elsewhere – including, but not limited to, Wikipedia, the dictionary, The
New York Times, Sparknotes,
an article you found that just sounds "better" than you think you
could say it or your Aunt Sally – as your own or to fabricate sources or
evidence so as to make your argument sound stronger. Plagiarism thus includes
actions such as copying papers or online responses from the internet or other
sources (including word-for-word copying and paraphrasing without citation),
cheating on exams, turning in work written by someone else or turning in work
that you previously submitted for another course.
* All work that you turn in for this
course must be your work completed in this semester in response to an
assignment for this class; course assignments are designed to help you develop
a set of skills, not just produce information, and failure to do your own work
both shortchanges you in this skill development process – rather like
attempting to play basketball or sculpt a piece of wood without mastering the
dribble or learning about your tools – and violates the shared trust of this
course.
* Academic dishonesty is a serious
offense, and plagiarizing any assignment or part thereof, regardless of the
relative value of the assignment in the calculation of your course grade, is
grounds for failure of the course.
* In keeping with departmental and
university honor policies, all cases of academic dishonesty will be reported
both to the Chair of the English Department and to the Office of the Vice
President for Academic Affairs. In short, do your own work and when you use
outside information, provide accurate citations for it. For more on the English
Department's plagiarism policy, see http://www.westga.edu/~engdept/Plagiarism/pladef.html.
* Students should append a signed
copy of the following honor statement to their first online discussion posting
and final paper for the course: "I have read the course statement on
academic honesty, and I pledge that all material I will submit for credit in
this class is my own work."
Deadlines
and Late Policy: The
writing journals that are due in class are due in the first ten minutes of
class in hardcopy. Papers not received by this time will be considered late. My
strictness regarding this particular policy stems from two considerations.
First, if you are not in class, you are missing discussion and thus course
material. In addition, it is disruptive to the class and distracting for both
the instructor and other students to have others straggling in midway through
the class period. Plan your schedule so that you can have papers printed and
ready by the time class begins. No papers will be accepted over email.
For journals, a late penalty of one
half of a letter grade will be assessed for each day they are late. Journals
that are more than four days late (including weekend days and holidays) will
receive an automatic "F." Extensions will be granted only if you have
a verifiable medical or other sufficiently serious ("seriousness"
will be determined at the instructor's discretion) excuse and you request an
extension (in person, via email or phone) before the paper deadline. Regardless
of your situation, no extensions will be granted beyond the four-day late
period. Having papers or exams for other classes, a schedule conflict with work
or other responsibilities, or simply being "swamped" are not
sufficiently serious excuses and will not result in your being granted an
extension. Late penalties for papers turned in outside of class will be
assessed based on when I receive the paper, since if you do not hand it to me directly, I cannot verify when you turned it in.
For the final project, no late
papers will be accepted, nor will papers be accepted over email. You
have fifteen weeks to plan and complete this assignment; make sure that you get
it in on time.
Paper
Format: Your final paper should be typed, double-spaced, in a
standard 12 point font (preferably Times New Roman) with 1" top/bottom
margins and 1-1.25" left/right margins. Big fonts, extra spaces between
your paragraphs, and large margins are pretty easy to spot, so stick to the
standard size guidelines and use the revision process to help you generate
enough information to present a clear and well-reasoned analysis within the
designated space limitations. Papers are required to have inline citations
where appropriate and a descriptive title (i.e. not "Dubliners" but "Images of Darkness in Dubliners"), and you must number
your pages and staple (NOT paper clip, glue, or origami fold) them together.
Include your signed honor statement at the end of your text.
Schedule of Readings and Assignments:
Students should have completed all
reading assignments by the date they are listed on the syllabus. This schedule
represents my current plan for the course; circumstances throughout the
semester may necessitate some revisions, which will be announced in class and
posted to the CourseDen page.
Unit 1: The King's Court
M 8/16 Introduction: Center, Margin and the
Translation of Beowulf
W 8/18 Beowulf
(trans., Heaney): pp. 1-131
M 8/23 Beowulf
(trans., Heaney): pp. 131-213
W 8/25 Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight (trans., O'Donoghue):
Sections I-II/pp. 3-36
M 8/30 Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight (trans., O'Donoghue):
Sections III-IV/pp. 37-78
W 9/1 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Idylls of the King: "The Coming of Arthur" through
"Merlin and Vivien"
M 9/6 LABOR DAY
W 9/8 The Idylls of the King:
"Lancelot and Elaine" through "The Passing of Arthur"
M 9/13 Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: Acts 1-2
W 9/15 Continue discussion of Godot
Unit 2: The Domestic Center
M 9/20 William Shakespeare, Othello: Acts 1-2
Writing
journal, Pt. 1 due
W 9/22 Othello:
Acts 3-4
M 9/27 Othello:
Act 5
W 9/29 Midterm
M 10/4 John Donne, from Selected Poems: Songs and Sonnets, pp. 3-56
W 10/6 John Donne, from Selected Poems: Divine Poems, pp. 173-199
Last
day to withdraw with a W
M 10/11 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
W 10/13 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
Th-F 10/14-15 FALL BREAK
M 10/18 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
W 10/20 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
Unit 3: The Journey Out
M 10/25 John Milton, Paradise Lost: Books I-IV
Writing
journal, Pt. 2 due
W 10/27 Paradise
Lost: Books VIII-IX, XI-XII
M 11/1 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels: Part I (Lilliput)
W 11/3 Gulliver's
Travels: Part IV (The Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos)
M 11/8 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html
W 11/10 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness: Ch. I-II and The Congo Diary
Th 11/11 Project proposals due electronically (email
to mdoyle@westga.edu) by 5:00 pm
M 11/15 Heart
of Darkness: Ch. III
W 11/17 Salman Rushdie, East, West: Sections I and II
("East" and "West")
Writing
journal, Pt. 3 due
M 11/22 East,
West: Section III ("East/West")
W 11/24 THANKSGIVING BREAK
M 11/29 Writing Day: No
class meeting
W 12/1 Final lecture and exam review; final essays
due in class
M 12/6 Final exam, 2-4 pm; bring a bluebook