Dr.
Daniel Siegelsiegel@uab.edu
Office
hours (HB 206):Tues. & Thurs.
3:30-4:30; Wed. 10-11; and by appointment
THE
COURSE
This
course surveys the last 200 years of British literary history, focusing
on the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern periods. We will study at a number
of literary developments, including the evolution of English verse forms,
the rise of the novel as the predominant literary genre, and the explosion
of avant-garde aesthetics. At the same time, we will learn about the historical
contexts in which literature takes, shape - a revolution in France, reform
movements in England, women's suffrage, World War 1, and most significantly,
Britain's decline as the world's dominant cultural and military authority.
This course will deepen your historical understanding of the last two centuries,
but more importantly, it will help you develop your skills as a careful,
attentive reader.
TEXTS
Abrams,
ed. Dickens, Charles Woolf, Virginia
Norton
Anthology of English Literature, vol. 2 Great Expectations (Oxford
World's Classics) Mrs. Dalloway (Harcourt Brace)
REQUIREMENTS
|
Two
3-4 pp. essays
|
(20%
each)
|
|
Mid-term
exam
|
(20%)
|
|
Final
exam
|
(20%)
|
|
Quizzes
and participation
|
(20%)
|
HOW
TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE
To
do well in this course you must keep up with the reading. Take good notes,
and come to class prepared to ask questions and raise issues about the
parts of the reading that interested or puzzled you.
Read each poem multiple times, until
you have some understanding of what the poem is saying. Look up unfamiliar
words in the dictionary. If you ever want help with the work for this course,
come to see me in my office.
POLICIES
Since
this course depends on your regular involvement in reading, lectures, and
class discussions, your attendance is required. You are allowed 3 absences
without penalty; a 4th absence will reduce your grade; and 5 absences will
cause you to fail the course. If you are more than 10 minutes late to class,
you will be counted absent for the day. Essays must be handed in on time
in order to receive full credit.
You
are expected to read every assignment for the day on which it appears on
the syllabus. Also make sure to read the introductions for each author
before reading his or her texts. Every Monday, there will be a quiz covering
basic information from readings and lectures (e.g. "What is the name of
the main character's sister?" "Where did the author live?"). The quizzes
will deal with both the new reading and the reading and lectures from the
previous week. Missed quizzes cannot be made up.
Plagiarism:
If you plagiarize
in this class, you will fail. The UAB School of Arts
and Humanities defines plagiarism as "using the words or thoughts of another
person without proper citation; specifically, it is submitting as one's
own work any portion of a
book, magazine, journal, handout, original creation, speech, lecture, oral
communication, paper or examination written by someone else." You must
properly cite the materials from which you quote according to the MLA stylesheet
[e.g., Woolf combines two different metaphors when she refers to the "rich
benignant cigar smoke" (56).] If you are at all unsure what plagiarism
is, see me to clarify. Remember that if you cheat in any way on the exams
or hand in work that isn't your own, you will fail the class.
READING
SCHEDULE
1
Introduction
2Romantic
Revolution
8/27Blake:
"The Little Black Boy," both versions of "The Chimney Sweeper" (pp. 45-47,52)
Blake: The
Marriage of Heaven and Hell (pp. 72-82)
8/29Percy
Shelley: "Mutability," "Ozymandias," "England in 1819," "Ode to the West
Wind" (pp. 701, 725-26, 728, 730-32)
3The
Mind and the World
9/3Wordsworth:
"Preface to Lyrical
Ballads (1802)"
(pp. 238-51)
Wordsworth:
"Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey," "Resolution and Independence"
(pp. 235-38, 280-84)
9/5Keats:
"Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (pp. 849-53)
4The
Gothic Imagination
9/10Coleridge: The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (pp. 422-38)
9/12Mary
Shelley: Frankenstein
(pp. 905-38)
5Romantic
Overreaching
9/17Mary
Shelley: Frankenstein
(pp. 938-90)
9/19Mary
Shelley: Frankenstein
(pp. 990-1034)
6Industrialism
and Victorian Society
9/24ESSAY
#1 DUE
9/26Macaulay:
"A Review of Southey's Colloquies"
(pp. 1697-1702)
Engels: The
Great Towns (pp. 1702-10)
Mayhew: London
Labour and the London Poor (pp. 1714-15)
7Women
and the Victorian Home
10/1Ellis:
Women ofEngland (pp. 1721-23)
Patmore: The
Angel in the House (pp. 1723-24)
Christina Rossetti: "Goblin Market" (pp. 1589-1601) 10/3MID-TERM
EXAM
8The
Age of the Novel
10/8Dickens: Great
Expectations (pp. 3-117)
10/10
Dickens: Great Expectations (pp. 117-57)
9Respectability
and the Middle Class
10/15
Dickens: Great Expectations (pp. 161-274) 10/17 Dickens: Great Expectations
(pp. 274-320)
10Realism
and Disillusionment
10/22
Dickens: Great Expectations (323-429) 10/24 Dickens: Great Expectations
(429-79)
11The
New Woman
10/29
Shaw: Mrs. Warren's Profession, acts 1-3 (pp. 1810-44) 10/31Shaw:
Mrs. Warren's Profession, act 4 (pp. 1844-56)
12Art's
Kingdom
1115Pater:
The Renaissance ("Conclusion") (pp. 1642-44)
Yeats:
"The Stolen Child," "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "Adam's Curse," "Sailing
to Byzantium" (pp. 2090-91, 2092-93, 2097-98, 2109-10) 11/7Yeats:
"Easter 1916," "The Second Coming," "Leda and the Swan" (pp. 2104-07, 2110-11)
13Making
it New: Modernism and Tradition 11/12 Eliot: The Waste Land (pp. 2368-83)
11 / 14 Eliot: The Waste Land
14The
Struggle for Perspective
11/19
Woolf Mrs. Dalloway (pp. 3-70 bottom) 11/21Woolf.
Mrs. Dalloway (pp. 70-120 top)
15The
Struggle for Coherence
11/26
Woolf Mrs. Dalloway (pp. 120-94) 11/28 NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
16A
View from the Margins
12/3Naipul:
"One Out of Many" (pp. 2722-45) 12/5ESSAY
#2 DUE
FINAL
EXAMTuesday, 12/1010:45
a.m. -1:15 p.m.