Survey of British Literature II ENG 3015 Tuesday/Thursday 5:50-7:10PM 17 Lexington Room 1203 blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/britlitmodernity

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1 Survey of British Literature II ENG 3015 Tuesday/Thursday 5:50-7:10PM 17 Lexington Room 1203 blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/britlitmodernity Professor Stephanie Hershinow Drop-in hours: 1:00-2:00PM Tuesday/Thursday (or to set up an appointment) Office: VC Office phone: (best way to contact me) Course Description and Goals: In this course, we ll cover roughly 300 years of British literary history from the witty, rhyming couplets of Alexander Pope to the playful, first-person essays of Zadie Smith. Along the way, we ll cover a great deal of historical ground: responses to the French Revolution, the rise of industrialization, the horrors of war, and the development of new technologies. We ll see genres invented (like the novel) and genres upended (like the lyric poem). Our primary focus throughout will be on experiments in literary form: How is the careful balance of the couplet challenged by Romantic poetry s attempt to represent common speech? How does the emergence of realism find (and create) value in everyday life? How do Modernist writers strive to create something new while reviving traditional models? How does absurdist theater find meaning in, well, the absence of meaning? Our readings will map the contours of a changing Britain up to the aftermath of Empire in the present day, and we ll look ahead to what might come next. In addition to completing the reading and preparing for class discussion, you ll write short essays and exams that will encourage you to work on your skills of reading closely and thinking synthetically. By the end of this course, you should be able to identify key terms, events, and figures from across the broad sweep of British literary history from roughly 1800-the present, including the characteristics of literary periods and genres, lines of influence, and debates among writers. analyze literary texts through close attention to style, form, genre, and language, with proficiency in the basic vocabulary of literary criticism. communicate your ideas about literary texts clearly both orally and in writing, crafting concise, focused literary analyses. 1

2 Required Texts: Broadview Custom Text I ve ordered a custom course pack for this course, which is available through the campus bookstore. Mary Shelley s Frankenstein You may use any edition of Shelley s novel as long as 1) it s a paper copy, 2) it has footnotes, and 3) it is unabridged (check the title page). I ve ordered the Oxford World s Classics edition through the bookstore, and this is the edition I ll bring to class. You may also try the Penguin, Norton, or Broadview. Note: the novel is sometimes distinguished by publication year (1818 or 1831); you may use either version. We ll discuss the differences in class. We ll also read a few texts, especially toward the end of the semester, that weren t available for inclusion in the course pack. I ll provide copies of those in class or on the course blog. Course Requirements: Two in-class examinations (identification of terms and passages plus short essays) Midterm 15% Final (primarily focused on the second half of the course) 20% Two essays (5-6 pgs.) 20% each Three short close readings (2 pgs.) 5% each In-class writing and active participation 10% Detailed assignments will be distributed well in advance of deadlines. How to Do Well in This Course: Read actively and against the grain. Take notes while you read and mark up the texts thoroughly. Be on the lookout for things that surprise or puzzle you. Those are the aspects to bring up in class and to figure out through your writing. I recommend reading with a pen and not a highlighter. This is because your aim is to work through your thoughts while reading, not just to memorize or to skim. Attend class regularly and participate in discussions. Exams will heavily lean on the material we ve covered most closely during class. When you take notes, write down not only the main points from my short lectures but also the insights you come up with yourself and the connections you see across everyone else s responses. If you strongly disagree with something said in class, write it down! That could form the basis for a great essay. Contributing to class discussion by making observations, asking questions, and responding to others ideas is the best way to make sure you understand the terms and texts we cover. If you stay engaged, you re much more likely to process and remember the material. If you know you have trouble speaking up in class, talk to me; I may have some useful tips. If you need help with your writing, ask early and often. You ll have opportunities to get feedback on drafts of longer essays, but don t hesitate to share ideas or to get help with an aspect of writing you already know you struggle with. If you re unsure what an assignment is asking for, ask questions until you feel comfortable beginning to write. Likewise, if you have questions about written feedback, I m always happy to talk once you ve read the comments. 2

3 Course Schedule: All readings are from our course pack unless marked with an asterisk (*). You should also read the headnotes on the authors, which will help prepare you for the literary texts. Please note: reading assignments and due dates may be subject to change depending on our collective pace. Be sure to attend class regularly to stay informed. Thur. August 27 Introduction Romanticism Tues. September 1 Thur. September 3 Tues. September 8 The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era Edmund Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France Thomas Paine, from Rights of Man William Wordsworth, preface to Lyrical Ballads (skim this and focus on the poems; I ll point out important sections in class), There was a Boy, Strange Fits of passion I have known, Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, Ode [Intimations of Immortality], Elegaic Stanzas S. T. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (focus on the second, full version, but in class we ll also compare it to the earlier version printed first in your course pack) Thurs. September 10 NO CLASS (I d recommend starting to read Frankenstein during our long break from classes. I will be available by if you have any questions during this time.) Tues. September 15 NO CLASS NOTE: Wed. September 16 is the last day to drop without a W. Thur. September 17 Tues. September 22 Thur. September 24 Percy Shelley, Mutability, Mont Blanc, Ode to the West Wind, Ozymandias, England in 1819 NO CLASS John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman s Homer, On the Grasshopper and the Cricket, On Seeing the Elgin Marbles, On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Letters (To Benjamin Bailey, To George and Thomas Keats, To Richard Woodhouse) 3

4 Fri. September 25 (NOTE: CLASSES FOLLOW TUES. SCHEDULE) The Natural, the Human, the Supernatural, and the Sublime (focus on the intro section as well as the selections from Burke and Mary Wollstonecraft) Tues. September 29 Thurs. October 1 Tues. October 6 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein* Close reading 1 due Frankenstein* Frankenstein* The Victorian Era Thur. October 8 Tues. October 13 Thur. October 15 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Mariana, The Lady of Shalott, Ulysses The Epic Robert Browning, Porphyria s Lover, My Last Duchess Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim s Point, The Cry of the Children John Stuart Mill, from The Subjection of Women Essay 1 draft due (optional) Charles Dickens, A Walk in the Workhouse Tues. October 20 Thur. October 22 Tues. October 27 Thur. October 29 The Pre-Raphaelites D. G. Rossetti, The Blessed Damozel Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market Algernon Charles Swinburne, Hymn to Proserpina Essay 1 due Victorian Fiction* Victorian Fiction* Close reading 2 due Midterm exam (on Romanticism and the Victorian era) Location TBA (I m going to try to book a computer lab.) Fin de Siècle and Modernism Tues. November 3 Aestheticism Walter Pater, from The Renaissance 4

5 Oscar Wilde, from The Critic as Artist, from The Decay of Lying W. B. Yeats, Leda and the Swan, Sailing to Byzantium Thur. November 5 World War I Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth, Dulce Et Decorum Est, Strange Meeting Siegfried Sassoon, They, * Everyone Sang * Post short reflection on Democracy Lab blog (details to come) NOTE: Mon. November 9 is the last day to withdraw with a W. Tues. November 10 Thur. November 12 Tues. November 17 Thur. November 19 Tues. November 24 T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, from Tradition and the Individual Talent Virginia Woolf, The Mark on the Wall * Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway of Bond Street * Close reading 3 due Democracy Lab Symposium (details to come) (Start reading the Joyce short story for next week.) James Joyce, The Dead Thur. November 26 NO CLASS HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Tues. December 1 George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant * Essay 2 draft due (optional) Post-WWII Thur. December 3 Tues. December 8 Thur. December 10 Samuel Beckett, Play * John Cleese and Graham Chapman, selections from Monty Python s Flying Circus* Salman Rushdie, Is Nothing Sacred? * Essay 2 due Zadie Smith, Find Your Beach, * Joy * Exam Overview Final exam: Thursday, December 17 (to be confirmed) 5

6 Policies and Tips: Regular attendance is assumed, as is punctuality. This is an evening class in a building with shoddy elevator service, so give yourself extra time to get to class. If you know you ll regularly be late because of other commitments, then this is not the class for you. Once you re in class, avoid disrupting class by leaving, unless it s an emergency. Since much of our class will depend on discussion, I strongly discourage the use of laptops or tablets except in cases of physical need. Studies have shown that taking notes by hand, whenever possible, helps students process the material (rather than just mechanically copying what is said). Phones should be put away and silenced. (I ll do the same.) Get work in by the deadline. One full letter grade will be deducted per day for late papers. Late papers also receive significantly less feedback. If you have trouble with procrastination, talk to me; I have lots of advice from a lifetime of suffering from the same problem! Always bring the assigned reading to class with you. If a reading is posted on the course blog, bring a printed version with you to class. I can t stress this enough: DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. In this class, any evidence of plagiarism, however minute it may be, will earn you an F grade on the work in question and will result in your being formally reported to the Office of the Dean of Students. Sloppy note taking can easily lead to plagiarism, so be sure to clearly mark the words and ideas of others in your notes and to give credit on written work. Ignorance of the meaning of plagiarism is no excuse for plagiarism, so be sure to consult the Baruch policy on academic integrity ( and ask me if you have questions. Baruch College is committed to making individuals with disabilities full participants in its programs, services, and activities through compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of It is the policy of Baruch College that no otherwise qualified individual with a disability shall be denied access to or participation in any program, service, or activity offered by the university. Individuals with disabilities have a right to request accommodations. If you require any special assistance or accommodation, please let me know as soon as you can, ideally during the first three weeks of the semester. The Writing Center offers free, one-to-one (in-person and online) and small-group workshop writing support to all Baruch students. The Center s consultants work collaboratively with you to deepen your writing and English language skills. At any step in the process, they ll help you become a more confident and versatile writer. I encourage you to schedule your appointment well in advance of when your writing is due. You can schedule an appointment at: Visit the Writing Center in NVC or at the Newman Library Reference Desk, or log on to their website, writingcenter.baruch.cuny.edu, to learn more. 6