ENGLISH 314: Brit. Lit. after 1800, Conrad


 Spring 2004
 7-10 pm
 4076 Wescoe Hall

 Professor Kathryn Conrad
 Office hours:  2035 Wescoe, Tuesdays 1-3 pm and by appointment
 Office phone: 864-2572
 E-mail (best way to reach me): kconrad @  ku.edu


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.

Grades consist of three major components:
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.
 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
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Other resources: Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is stealing and passing off someone else's ideas or words as one's own or using information from another's work without crediting the source. Any detected cheating offense--including but not limited to plagiarism; the unauthorized use of crib sheets, texts, or other materials during an examination or quiz; the copying of another student's work (even with the permission or aid of that student, who is thereby culpable); the use of prewritten essays (the student's own or someone else's); the uncredited adoption of another writer's interpretation of a work; or the unauthorized use of work written for another assignment or class--will be reported to the University. A record of each verified offense will be kept throughout the student's association with the University (Adopted from FSE statement).

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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