Fall 2004
7-10 pm
4019 Wescoe Hall
12/6:
The asterisks denoting fair game for the final have been updated.
These are the texts starting on October 18 and beyond; the final will just
cover the material since the midterm.
11/20:
Paper
topics for the second paper are available! Also, see Bruegel's
Icarus at http://web.sbu.edu/theology/bychkov/bruegel_icarus.html.
10/4
The asterisks have been updated (below) to reflect
those texts that are fair game for the midterm exam.
9/22
Paper
topics for the first paper are available!
9/13
I've fixed the weird links (above) that sent you to the Spring 2004 syllabus.
Sorry for any confusion! Also note: the Blackboard session
to be completed by class time is always listed the week before it's due,
along with the due date. Note too that you have your choice of which
Blackboard sessions in which you'd like to participate--unless class is
cancelled, in which case everyone's required to participate.
Course description
and texts:
This course is a survey
of British literature of the Romantic, Victorian, Modernist, and contemporary
periods. We will be concerned in this course not only with literary form
but also with some of the political and social issues that serve as context
for the literature. Our readings will include essays, poetry, drama, short
fiction, and novels. Do note that this will be a poetry-intensive course.
These books are available for purchase.
1. 15%: Attendance, participation in discussion (online and in class), group work, and short assignments. Students will be expected to access materials online and participate in Blackboard discussion boards. Students must participate in the first Blake forum and the Virginia Woolf forum (and those fora that take the place of any days cancelled by the University), and in at least three others. All readings to be completed by date listed on the syllabus. Students are expected to attend every class and should contact me by e-mail (kconrad @ ku.edu) or phone (864-2572) before your absence if you must miss class. Three unexcused absences will result in failure of this course.Back to top of page
2. 30%: Exams: a midterm and final examination (identification and short essay) as listed on the syllabus. (15 % each.)
3. 55%: Two papers of 5-6 pages. (27.5% each.) Paper topics will be available here two weeks prior to the due date. At least one paper must be on a poem. Please see plagiarism policy below.
Plagiarism is not a game, nor is it simply a "shortcut" when time presses. It is a very serious form of academic misconduct and will be treated as such in this class. If you consult outside sources for ideas--a practice against which I recommend--you must cite those sources in your work. If after reading the statement above, you are still unclear about what constitutes plagiarism, ask me before turning in an assignment. A plagiarized assignment will result in failure of the assignment (no credit given) and will probably result in failure of the course. Formal records are currently kept by the department and the University.
Reading
and assignment schedule
This
schedule is likely to change. For the most accurate reading and assignment
schedule, pay attention to updates given in class. Updates will eventually
be reflected on this website.
All readings should be completed by the day listed on the syllabus. Online discussions are listed on the date on which they are likely to start; the due date for participating in the discussion for credit is listed in parentheses (although of course you are welcome to discuss beyond the deadline). All texts, including online discussion texts, marked with * before them are fair game for the midterm and final, even if not discussed in the classroom.
August
23: Introduction.
Course
outline and goals.
Introduction
to the Romantic period.
Online
discussion (before August 30): Blake, from *Songs
of Innocence and *Songs
of Experience 119
Recommended:
Browse illuminated Blake plates at The
William Blake Archive. (It'll take you a few clicks to get to
the pictures, but once there, you'll have a huge range of choices.
When you get to an actual poem, you'll want to choose "image enlargement"
from the "text and image options" menu)
August
30:
The Romantic period (Longman Vol
2A)
Blake,
poems from *Songs of Innocence
and *Songs of Experience
119-124; 126-135
see
also color plates 6 & 7 at the beginning of Vol 2A
browse
Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 136-148
Recommended:
Browse illuminated Blake plates at The
William Blake Archive. (see note above)
Online
discussion (before September 13): W. Wordsworth, *"Preface
to Lyrical Ballads" 356-362
September 6: Labor Day holiday. No class.
September
13: The Romantic period
W.
Wordsworth,*"Preface to Lyrical
Ballads" 356-362
*"Composed
upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1802 386
*"I
wandered lonely as a cloud" 435
*"Ode:
Intimations of Immortality..." 455
D.
Wordsworth, *"A Field of Daffodils,"
from
Grasmere Journals 481
"Thoughts on My Sick-bed" 474
Joanna
Baillie, *"London" 314
Coleridge
*"The
Eolian Harp" 522
*"Kubla
Khan" (with preface) 545
*"The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner" 526
Mary
Robinson, *"To the Poet Coleridge"
225
Online
discussion (before September 20): Robinson and Coleridge
September
20:The Romantic period
Keats
*"La
Belle Dame sans Mercy" 875
*"Ode
on a Grecian Urn"
Shelley
from *"A Defence of Poetry" 801-810
"To Wordsworth" 754
*"Ozymandias"
760
*"Ode
to the West Wind"
Online
discussion (before September 27): Shelley and Keats
Sept 22: Paper topics are available!
September
27:The Romantic period & the Victorian period.
Bronte,
*Jane
Eyre (1st half, through Jane's arrival at Thornfield.)
Online
discussion (before October 4): *Jane
Eyre.
October
4:
The Romantic period & the Victorian period (Longman
Vol 2B)
Bronte,*Jane
Eyre (finish).
Online
discussion: Jane Eyre.
Paper
#1 due (first draft)
October
11:
MIDTERM
EXAMINATION. No rescheduling without detailed medical documentation. Exam
will only take 1 1/2 hours.
**October 13,
5 pm: Final draft of paper due, 2035 Wescoe, under door if I'm not there.**
Note asterisks
from here on out denote material that is fair game for the final.
October
18:
C.
Rossetti, *"Goblin Market" 1618,
Darwin,
from *The Descent of Man 1259-1265
R.
Browning, *"Porphyria's Lover"
1308
*"My Last Duchess" 1311
Arnold,
*"Dover
Beach" 1551
Recommended:
Scott McCloud's adaptation of "Porphyria's
Lover" and Anthony Hecht's "Dover
Bitch"
Online
discussion (before October 25):
W.S.
Gilbert, "If You're Anxious for to Shine in the High Aesthetic Line" 1943;
Wilde, Preface to Picture to Dorian Gray and Aphorisms
October
25: The Modern Period
(Longman Vol
2C)
Wilde,
"Preface to the Picture of Dorian Gray" 1883
Wilde,
Aphorisms 1924
*Vorticist
manifesto 2169
Eliot,
*"The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Online
discussion (before November 8): Modernists
November
1:The Modern Period
Joyce, *"Nausicaa,"from
Ulysses
Joyce,
selection from Finnegans Wake 2339
November
8:
The Modern Period
Virginia
Woolf, *Mrs. Dalloway
(2387-2439).
November
15:
The Modern Period
Virginia
Woolf,* Mrs. Dalloway
(finish).
Online
discussion (before November 22): Woolf.
November 20: Paper topics for paper #2 available!
November
22: The Modern Period
Auden,
*"Museé
des Beaux Arts" 2789
Bruegel's
Icarus painting at http://web.sbu.edu/theology/bychkov/bruegel_icarus.html
*"In
Memory of W.B. Yeats"
*"Lullaby"
2794
*"September
1, 1939" 2797
November
29: Contemporary British Literature
Caryl
Churchill, *Cloud Nine
Monty
Python, *"Travel Agent" 2734
Online
discussion (before December 6): Ngugi Wa Thiong'o,*"Decolonizing
the Mind"
December
6: Contemporary "British" Literature
Last
day; final evaluations
Heaney,
*"Punishment"
2893
ní
Dhomhnaill, *"Why I Choose to
Write in Irish, or, The Corpse That Sits Up and Talks Back" 2904
*"As
for the Quince" 2903
Walcott,
*"A
Far Cry from Africa" 2950
[Note:
online discussion after December 6 does not count as one of the 4 total
required discussion postings, although it does count toward the more general
participation grade.]
December
10:
Paper
#2 due by 5 pm, 2035 Wescoe or by e-mail to kconrad@ku.edu.
December
13:
FINAL
EXAMINATION, 7-9 pm (regular classroom). Rescheduling available for
students with conflicting final examination times, following University
rescheduling rules. Students must make arrangements prior to December 13!
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