EH 222...
English and Irish Literature

Dr. Kyle Grimes

Office hours: Tues, 2:00-3:00 or by appt. Website: http://courses.uab.edu

Email: kgrimes@uab.edu, but for course­ related communications, please use the website.

Textbook:

The Longman Anthology of English Literature 2 (I've ordered the split edition to make it easier to tote, but the single volume version will work as well.)

Course Requirements:

There will be two exams, a mid-term and a final. The mid-term exam will be made up primarily of "long-answer ID questions"; the final will have both an ID and an essay section.

The out-of-class writing assignments for EH 222 will consist of two critical essays of about 750-1000 words apiece. One of these essays will be due on March 13; the second will be due on the last day of class. Topics for these papers will be provided, but students who wish to develop their own topics may do so, provided they clear these topics with the professor.

Note too that the final grade will be based in part on your participation in and contributions to the general class discussion. This grade takes into consideration both in class and online discussions. For the online section you can assume that one or two meaningful postings (a question, commentary, contribution to some ongoing discussion, etc.) per week will amply satisfy this requirement. More frequent posts are of course welcome.

Grading:

The various assignments are weighted as follows:
 
paper #1
200 pts.
20%
paper #2
200 pts.
20%
Mid Term Exam
150 pts.
15%
Final Exam
250 pts.
25%
Discussion
100 pts.
10%
Online Participation
100 pts.
10%

As you can see, I've assigned a certain number of points to each piece of graded work. At the end of the quarter, I'll simply add up your total points and assign your final grade according to the following scale: 1,000-900 points = A; 899-800 = B; 799-700 = C; 699-600 = D; and 599-0 = F.

Police Matters:

We have a lot of literary ground to cover in this course. Nonetheless, I expect you to come to class prepared to take part in the discussion of the day's readings. Also, I expect written assignments to be neatly typed, proofread, and turned in on time.

I have not imposed an attendance policy as such, but be aware that the mid-term and final exams will have ID sections based on material covered in class. If you miss classes, you will hurt your chances on the exams.

As always, plagiarism on any work turned in for this course is grounds for failure.

Some suggestions for studying:

People who have not taken many literature classes are sometimes puzzled about how to study. Literature classes tend to emphasize matters of interpretation rather than the clearer rights and wrongs of other fields of study. As a result, it's not always easy to know exactly what it is one needs to learn and when one has learned it. The following suggestions may help to make your studying more effective.

Recognize that a quick read through the works on the syllabus will probably not be enough for a really thorough understanding of the material. Read slowly, ask questions, underline, take notes, reread.

Look up any words you don't know, and try to figure out exactly how the writer is using them.

Use a reading journal to jot down any questions that pop up while you are reading. Then try to answer them. Alternatively, take a small relatively self-contained section of a poem or novel that you feel you understand and write a paragraph in your own words explaining the meaning or significance of that passage.

If you are really puzzled by a passage in a poem, stop and work out the basic grammar-what's the subject of the sentence? the verb? etc. This can really help you sort out the difficult spots.

Make use of my office hours and chat room hours to ask questions about what you've been reading. Don't feel like you are imposing; after all, that's what office hours are for. Likewise, I am easy to reach via email, using the course website.

Make use of the discussion boards on the website. I will occasionally post study questions on the boards; use them to help guide your reading, and don't hesitate to post your own questions or comments as well. Such discussions often provide some of the most intelligent, interesting, and helpful material for understanding and enjoying the literature.

SYLLABUS, EH 222 Spring 2003

All works can be found in The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume 2. Please read them carefully before coming to class. I will try to post study questions on the "discussion" page of the course website. You will likely find it helpful to consult these questions as you prepare for each class.
 

Jan 7:
Introduction to the course and to the Romantic Period. (See Longman
 
intro to the period).
 
Jan 9:
from The Rights of Man and the Revolution Controversy-Burke, 67-76,
 
Wollstonecraft, 77-84, and Paine, 84-90; More, Village Politics, 100-07.
 
Jan 14:
Blake; Songs of Innocence and of Experience, 118-35. (esp. Chimney
 
Sweeper, The Divine Image; The Garden of Love; London).
 
Jan 16:
Blake, continued.
 
Jan 21:
Coleridge; The Eolian Harp, This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, 522-26.
 
Jan 23:
Wordsworth, from the Lyrical Ballads, 336-62, (esp. Simon Lee, We are
 
Seven, Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, and the
 
"Preface").
 
Jan 28:
Wordsworth: I wandered lonely as a cloud; Ode, Intimations of
 
Immortality, 453-60.
 
Jan 30:
Coleridge: Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 526-42.
 
Feb 4:
Byron: Manfred, 603-38 (Virtual Class-See website).
 
Feb 6:
Manfred (cont.).
 
Feb 11:
Keats: The Eve of St. Agnes, 865-75.
 
Feb 13:
Keats: Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Um, To Autumn, 879-83,
 
886.
 
Feb 18:
Byron: Don Juan, canto I, 667-717; mid-term review
 
Feb 20:
Mid-term exam
 
Feb 25:
Introduction to The Victorian Age, 1008-31.
 
Arnold: Dover Beach, The Buried Life, 1551-55.
 
Feb 27:
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Aurora Leigh, from books 1 and 2, 1112-28.
 
Mar 4:
Tennyson: Ulysses, 11150-51, Locksley Hall, 11156-61.
Mar 6:
Robert Browning: My Last Duchess, 1311-12, Fra Lippo Lippi, 1328-36.
Mar 11:
Ruskin: from The Stones of Venice, 1476-85;
background: "Perspectives: The Industrial Landscape," 1047-73.
Mar 13:
Christina Rossetti: 1611-30, (esp. After Death, Cobwebs, Goblin Market)
First Paper Due
Mar 18
Hopkins: 1677-89, (esp. God's Grandeur, The Windhover, Pied Beauty)
Mar 20
Hardy: 2154-66, (esp. Hap, The Darkling Thrush, The Convergence of the
Twain)
Mar 25
Intro to The Twentieth Century, 1990-2014.
Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 2344-54.
Mar 27
Mansfield: The Daughters of the Late Colonel, 2611-24.
Apr 1
Spring Break
Apr 3
Spring Break
Apr 8
Speeches on Irish Independence, 2232-42
Yeats: Easter 1916, 2242-51
Apr 10
Yeats: The Second Coming, Sailing to Byzantium 2251-54.
Apr 15
Joyce: The Dead, 2284-311.
Apr 17
World War II and the End of Empire, 2698-99
Churchill speeches, 2699-707.
Monty Python, 2734-37
Orwell: Politics and the English Language, 2737-46.
Apr 22
Larkin: poems, 2804-08.
Apr 24
Review and final exam prep.
Second Paper Due.
Apr 29
Final Exam, 4:15 - 6:45