English 6105: ‘Frightful Indecencies’ and the Rewards of Virtue
Or, Gender and Sexuality in the Eighteenth-Century Novel
Dr. Margaret E. Mitchell
Spring 2008 5:30-8 TLC 2237
Office: TLC 2235
Email: mmitchel@westga.edu
Website: http: //www.westga.edu/~mmitchel
Phone: 678.839.4852
Office Hours: M 2-4, W 10-12 and 1-3, Th 4:30-5:30, also by appt.
From the moment Samuel Richardson’s diabolical Mr. B wrested a packet of letters from the bosom of his young servant Pamela and promptly broke their seal, critics and readers were alerted to the significance of intersections between the textual and the sexual, the text and the body. For Nancy Armstrong, gender and sexuality are not just possible lenses through which to examine the eighteenth-century novel but the key to understanding this new, contested, unwieldy genre. She argues that “narratives which seemed to be concerned solely with matters of courtship and marriage in fact seized the authority to say what was female”; moreover, she contends, “this struggle to represent sexuality took the form of a struggle to individuate wherever there was a collective body, to attach psychological motives to what had been the openly political behavior of contending groups, and to evaluate these according to a set of moral norms that exalted the domestic woman above her aristocratic counterpart.” This class will focus on the novel as the site of the “struggle” Armstrong describes: domestic novels, satirical spoofs, picaresque adventures, gothic tales—even a pornographic novel. Selections from such influential works as Armstrong’s Desire and Domestic Fiction, Foucault’s The History of Sexuality and Laqueur’s Making Sex will supplement primary readings.
Texts: Samuel Richardson, Pamela; Frances Burney, Evelina; Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders; John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure; Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels; Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho; Eliza Haywood, Anti-Pamela; Henry Fielding, Shamela; Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote; Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Helene Moglen, The Trauma of Gender: A Feminist History of the English Novel. Additional critical and theoretical readings will be available electronically.
Course Requirements
As this is a graduate class, perhaps it goes without saying that attendance and active participation are expected. Generally, one doesn’t miss grad classes. If for some reason you must miss class, make sure you contact me and stay on top of any work you miss. If you miss more than two classes, you should not expect a grade above a C unless your reasons are extremely compelling; you will need to meet with me to discuss your position in the class.
However, this won’t happen.
No lateness, no electronic disturbances. Please.
Response papers: You will submit 5 1-2 page response essays in the course of the semester; see syllabus for the due dates for the group to which you are assigned. These must be submitted to me by email no later than noon the day of class, as I may use them to help structure our discussions. These short essays should present an original, focused , thesis-driven analytical reading of some aspect of that week’s text in the context of critical ideas relevant to the class. They will be graded; I will drop the lowest grade. In other words, 4 will count.
Group #1: Heather, Candy, Daryl, Ben. Group #2: Adam, April, Jessica, James. Group #3: Andrew, Amelia, Jade.
Discussion Questions: Each of you will be responsible twice during the semester for preparing three discussion questions, formulated in response to the critical/theoretical material we have been reading and designed to promote lively, text-specific conversation in class. You’ll present these to the class yourself, and also submit them to me for credit.
Oral presentation: You’ll be responsible for one 15-minute (~ 8-page) thesis-driven, analytical oral presentation incorporating critical sources. This is essentially a conference paper—in other words, a formal presentation. (In other words, although a few unscripted asides are fine, you’ll mostly be reading.) You should talk to me beforehand about your topic and progress. (You will turn in a hard copy, with a works cited page in MLA style, immediately after your presentation.) You may certainly elect to incorporate visual technology into your presentation, but make sure style doesn’t overwhelm substance (this, it seems to me, is the danger of power point presentations, for instance).
Research Paper: A 15-20 page critical essay on a topic you will devise. You’ll submit a 2-page prospectus beforehand. I will provide more detailed guidelines a little later in the semester.
These are long novels. In certain extreme cases, I’ve divided novels over two weeks. In general, though, you’ll read one fairly long novel for each class, in addition to critical material. (There are a couple of exceptions—weeks where you’ll get a bit of a breather.) It’s essential that you keep up. Furthermore, I expect to hear everyone’s voice every week. If you aren’t participating actively, I will schedule a meeting with you in order to generate strategies to get you talking.
Note: additional critical selections will be announced later.
Week 1: Jan 15 Introduction
Read the introduction to the Moglen book, The Trauma of Gender
Week 2: Jan 22 Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1721)
Moglen, Chapter 1: Defoe and the Gendered Subject
Week 3: Jan 28 Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740) VOLUME I
Moglen, Chapter 2: Clarissa and the Pornographic Imagination
Week 4: Feb 5 Pamela, cont’d VOLUME II
Week 5: Feb 12 Eliza Haywood, Anti-Pamela; Henry Fielding, Shamela
Critical Excerpt from Nancy Armstrong’s Desire and Domestic Fiction
Presentation: Amelia; DQs, Candy and Heather. Response #2: Group 1.
Week 6: Feb 19 John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748-9)
Critical Excerpt from Foucault’s History of Sexuality, vol. I
Presentation: Ben; DQs, Jade and Andrew. Response #2: Group 2.
Week 7: Feb 26 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, 1726
Presentation, Andrew; DQs, Andrew and Ben. Response #2: Group 3.
Week 8: Mar 4 Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote (1752)
Presentation, Adam Carroll; DQs, Amelia and April. Response #3, Group 1.
Week 9: Mar 11 Frances Burney, Evelina (1778)
Presentation, Heather; DQs, Candy and Adam. Response #3, Group 2.
Week 10: Mar 18 Spring Break!
Week 11: Mar 25 Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
Presentation, Jade; DQs, Daryl and Heather. Response #3, Group 3.
Week 12: Apr 1 The Mysteries of Udolpho
Presentation, Candy; DQs, Jade and Daryl. Response #4, Group 1.
Week 13: Apr 8 Matthew Lewis, The Monk (1796)
Moglen, Chapter 4: Horace Walpole and the Nightmare of History
Presentation, Daryl; DQs, James. Response #4, Group 2.
Week 14: Apr 15 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813). Chapters 1 and 5, Thomas Laqueur's The Making of Sex.
Presentation, Jessica; DQs, Adam and April. Response #4, Group 3.
Thursday, April 17: Submit research paper proposals by email.
Week 15: Apr 22 Workshop.
Week 16: Apr 29 Conclusion
Final papers due May 2.