Old updates:
4/26: Bruegel's Icarus painting at http://web.sbu.edu/theology/bychkov/bruegel_icarus.html
4/26: Paper
topics ready
3/10: Scott McCloud's adaptation of Porphyria's
Lover and Anthony Hecht's "Dover
Bitch" (also linked below)
3/9: Note new final draft paper deadline: Thursday,
March 11, 5 pm, 2035 Wescoe, under door.
3/9: Texts that might be on the midterm are now marked
on the syllabus below
3/7: Grading guide for papers: see Blackboard:
Course Documents
3/7:
New schedule in April
Skip to...[Grading policy] [Other resources] [Reading and assignment discussion schedule]
Course website: http://people.ku.edu/~kconrad/314s04.html
Blackboard website (for discussion boards, grades): http://courseware.ku.edu/?bbatt=Y
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 for a 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. Students are encouraged to come up with their own topics, but must clear them with me before writing. At least one paper must be on a poem.
Paper topics, paper #1
Paper topics, paper #2
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 and may result in failure of the course. Plagiarism will be
reported to the college.
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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). Online discussion texts marked with * are fair game for the midterm and final, even if not discussed in the classroom.
5/11: All texts that are fair game for the FINAL are now in red and (for those of you printing this out without a color printer) marked with an asterisk before the title. But, to simplify, it's pretty much everything from March 30 on; I won't include the Wilde or the other late Victorian material.
January 27: Introduction.
Course outline and goals.
Introduction to the Romantic period.
Online discussion (before Feb 3): 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)
February 3: 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 Feb. 10): W. Wordsworth,
"Preface to Lyrical Ballads" 356-362
February 10: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 Feb 17): TBA/catch-up
February 17: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 Feb 17): TBA/catch-up
February 24:The Romantic
period & the Victorian period
Bronte, Jane Eyre (1st half, through
Jane's arrival at Thornfield.)
Online discussion (before March 2): Jane
Eyre. Darwin, from The Descent of Man 1259-1265
March 2: The Romantic
period & the Victorian period (Longman Vol 2B)
Bronte, Jane Eyre (finish).
Online discussion (before March 9): C. Rossetti,
*"Goblin Market" 1618
March 9:The Victorian
period
Paper
#1 due (first draft)
R. Browning, "Porphyria's Lover" 1308
"My Last Duchess"
1311
Arnold, "Dover Beach" 1551
Online discussion (before March 30):
Wilde, "Preface to the Picture of Dorian Gray" 1883
Wilde, Aphorisms 1924
W.S. Gilbert, "If You're Anxious
for to Shine in the High Aesthetic Line" 1943
New links for fun and profit: Scott
McCloud's adaptation of "Porphyria's
Lover" and Anthony Hecht's "Dover
Bitch"
March 11, 5 pm:Final draft of paper due, 2035 Wescoe, under door if I'm not there.
March 16:
MIDTERM EXAMINATION. No
rescheduling without detailed medical documentation. Exam will only take
1 1/2 hours.
[March 23: SPRING BREAK]
5/11: All texts that are fair game for the
FINAL are now in red and (for those of you printing this out without a
color printer) marked with an asterisk before the title. But,
to simplify, it's pretty much everything from March 30 on; I won't include
the Wilde or the other late Victorian material.
March
30:The Modern Period
(Longman
Vol 2C)
*Vorticist manifesto 2169
Joyce, from *Ulysses (*"Nausicaa,"
ch. 13) 2312
Eliot, *"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Online discussion (before April 13): Joyce,
selection from Finnegans Wake 2339
April 6: The Modern Period
Class will not meet: Prof.
Conrad in Northern Ireland March 31-April 7.
April 13: The Modern Period
Virginia Woolf, *Mrs. Dalloway (2387-2439).
April 20: The Modern Period
Virginia Woolf, *Mrs. Dalloway (finish).
Online discussion (before April 27): TBA/catch-up.
April 27:The Modern Period
Auden, *"Museé des Beaux Arts" 2789
*"In Memory of W.B. Yeats"
*"Lullaby"
2794
*"September 1, 1939" 2797
NEW: 4/26: Bruegel's
Icarus painting at http://web.sbu.edu/theology/bychkov/bruegel_icarus.html
Paper topics ready
May 4:Contemporary British
Literature
Caryl Churchill, *Cloud Nine
Monty Python, *"Travel Agent" 2734
Online discussion (before May 11): Ngugi
Wa Thiong'o, *"Decolonizing the Mind"*
May 11: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
May 13:
Paper
#2 due by 5 pm, 2035 Wescoe
(May 17: Alternative exam time for those
with scheduling conflicts. 4019 Wescoe, 7-9 pm.)
May 18: FINAL
EXAMINATION, 7-9 pm (regular classroom).
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