ENGL 5/4108 01W: Studies in the British Novel

 Dr. Margaret E. Mitchell

TR 11-12:15 Hum 205

Office: TLC 2235

Email: mmitchel@westga.edu

Website: http: //www.westga.edu/~mmitchel

Phone: 678.839.4852

Office Hours: TTh 3:30-4:30; W 10-12 and 12-3

 

 

Course Description

In the midst of life’s fullness, and through the representation of this fullness, the novel gives evidence of the profound perplexity of the living.”

–Walter Benjamin, The Storyteller

 

The novel comprises the essence of its totality between the beginning and the end, and thereby raises an individual to the infinite heights of one who must create an entire world through his experience and who must maintain that world in equilibrium….

Georg Lukács, The Theory of the Novel

 

 The generic skeleton of the novel is still far from having hardened, and we cannot foresee all its plastic possibilities.

--Mikhail M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination

 

Since the emergence in the eighteenth century of what came to be known as the novel, theorists have sought to define this elusive genre—its rules, its characteristics, its ideological function, its relationship to reality. The novel itself complicates this process, as Bakhtin suggests in the quotation above, by relentlessly shape-shifting. The boundary between what a novel is and what it is not remains unfixed. In this class we will begin by charting the “rise” of the British novel (the novel is always described as rising—like a dynasty, or a rebellion, both useful analogies) in the eighteenth century. We will trace its ascendancy in the nineteenth century (in the form of what Henry James famously called “loose baggy monsters”), and pursue it into the twentieth century the radical experiments of the Modernists. We’ll finish with a look at the contemporary novel, considering where the genre is headed, and what forces drive its endless reinvention.

 

Required Texts: Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe (Norton Critical Ed.); Evelina, Fanny Burney (Oxford World’s Classics); Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens (Penguin Classics); To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf (Harcourt); Howards End, E.M. Forster (Penguin Classics); White Teeth, Zadie Smith (Vintage). Selected theoretical and critical readings will be made available electronically.

*Please be sure to purchase the correct edition of each novel!

 

Requirements

This course requires a considerable amount of reading—the novel, obviously, is not known for brevity—and it is essential that you keep up. Most weeks, your main reading will be due on Tuesday, and you should expect a quick quiz (sometimes very short answer, sometimes with a brief writing component) followed by discussion of the text. I encourage you to take notes on the reading, and will therefore allow you to use your notes when you take quizzes (though not your books, of course). 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. For Wednesday, you will usually have a brief writing (or thinking) assignment related to the week’s reading; I will announce this in class and also post it to the webpage after class. Sometimes I’ll also provide a SHORT supplementary reading designed to familiarize you with some of the most influential theories of the novel.

There will be a midterm designed to evaluate your understanding of the terms, concepts, history and material we’ve covered thus far; there will also be a cumulative final. You will write two critical essays. The first will be a short 5 page analytical essay, and you’ll receive a list of possible topics—as well as detailed guidelines—in advance; the second will be a 10 page research-based paper for which you will devise your own topic, working within certain guidelines. Drafts are required, not optional, along with any workshops or process-based writing exercises associated with each paper; they will count as part of your classwork/homework grade (for any short writing assignments throughout the semester).

You may elect to substantially revise 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 and Procedures

Your active presence is essential to the success of the class. Quizzes and in-class assignments cannot be made up regardless of the reason for your absence unless we have made arrangements in advance. For this reason, absences are likely to affect your grade. Papers will drop half 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 for some reason I do not receive your paper, whether you have sent it as an attachment or put it in my mailbox, it is your responsibility to provide a hard copy immediately. Make sure you always save your work. ) If you do miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and arrange to obtain handouts or assignments. You are allowed three absences. After that, you’ll lose half a letter grade for each additional absence. If you miss 6 classes (in other words, 3 entire weeks!), you will not pass. (If you have truly extraordinary circumstances documented by the university, please come to see me so that we can discuss your options.)

 

Please come to class on time; lateness may affect your ability to complete quizzes or in-class work within the amount of time allowed. Two lates will count as an absence. 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! (One person—the first offender of the semester—will simply receive a warning, and that should be considered a warning for everyone. I include myself in this, naturally).

 

Assignments and information relevant to the class will be announced in class and posted regularly on my website (NOT on Web CT). It is your responsibility to check this. If you are unsure about an assignment or deadline, it is your responsibility to contact me in order to clarify.

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 supposed 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. Your grade will reflect this.

 

Grades

Quizzes: 10%

Short writing assignments, in or out of class: 10%

Midterm :10%

Essay #1: 20%

Final: 20%

Research Paper with annotated biobliography: 30%

 

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.

http://www.westga.edu/%7Eengdept/Plagiarism/index.html

This policy is not negotiable. If you cheat, you will fail the class.

 

Schedule

*This schedule is subject to change as necessary; all changes will be announced in class.

Jan 8 Intro

 

Jan 13 Defoe, Moll Flanders to p. 98 (“residue of my life”) For Thurs.: read excerpt from Ian Watt;s The Rise of the Novel; be prepared to discuss.

Jan 15 cont’d

 

Jan 20 Moll to p. 189 (bottom)

Jan 22 cont’d

 

Jan 27 finish Moll

Jan 29 Evelina to p. 50

 

Feb 3 Evelina to p. 194

Feb 5 cont’d

 

Feb 10 Evelina, finish.

Feb 12 Essay #1 assigned

 

Feb 17 Workshop, essay #1

Feb 19 Midterm. Guidelines.

.

Feb 24 ROUGH DRAFT WORKSHOP. COME TO CLASS WITH AT LEAST 4 TYPES PAGES OF YOUR PAPER. due. Dickens, Oliver Twist to p. 152.

Feb 26 Oliver Twist to page 78. No quiz. ESSAY #1 DUE.

 

Mar 2—Last day to withdraw with a W

Mar 3 Oliver Twist to p. 223. First quiz.

Mar 5 Oliver to p. 305.

 

Mar 10 Oliver Twist finish.

Mar 12 cont’d

 

Spring Break (might be a good idea to get a head start on your reading for the next two weeks!)

 

Mar 24 Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Mar 26 cont’d

 

Mar 31 Forster, Howards End

Apr 2 cont’d. Discuss guidelines for research paper.

 

Apr 7 Smith, White Teeth

Apr 9 Proposal for research paper due. White Teeth, cont'd

--Bakhtin and heteroglossia; Benedict Anderson and imagined communities.

Apr 14 White Teeth TO P. 256

Apr 16 cont’d

 

Apr 21 Draft workshop, essay #2. Submit annotated bibliography.

Apr 23 Finish White Teeth.

 

Apr 28 Last day of class.

 

Apr. 30 Research papers due.

 

May 5 Final Exam.11-1. Guidelines.

 

Learning Outcomes: