Professor Onita Vaz
Chambers 3289; ext. 2771
Email Address: onvaz@davidson.edu
ENG 260
British Literature Since 1800
Office Hours: MWF 1:30-3:30 & by appointment
Spring 2015
MWF 12:30-1:20
Section: 23796
Chambers 1006
How wretchedly suited that place is to worshippers of Phoebus! It is disgusting to be constantly subjected to the threats of a rough tutor and to other indignities my spirit cannot endure.
Milton, on academia, after being expelled from Christ’s College, Cambridge.
(No doubt for being vocal about the reading load in his literature course.)
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
This course is intended to provide you with a solid historical introduction to the poetry and prose texts of a little more than two centuries of British literature beginning with the Romantic Period and concluding with the twentieth century. To achieve this ambitious goal, we will focus on specific authors in order to investigate how they exemplify or complicate our understanding of literary history. The course proceeds chronologically; the historical context of periods, movements, and individual works will be important to my lectures, our discussion, and your understanding of the material. We will also be considering a number of recurring thematic and literary issues, ideas, and questions in addition to the social, political, and historical contexts of this broad sweep of English literature.
Like the other historical surveys required for the English major, English 260 emphasizes literary history.
Although these courses do not exclude the close analysis of individual texts—indeed, every class and assignment will involve such analysis—the surveys emphasize the formation of connections among texts, as well as among texts and their social and historical contexts. English 260 has several aims besides equipping you with an overview of the periods we will study: to investigate the process of canon formation and the writing of literary history, and how various constructions of history influence the interpretation of texts; to synthesize material across genres and eras; to confront and understand significant differences between past cultures, societies, and literary movements and those of the present era; and to promote critical and original thought through discussion, writing assignments, and examinations.
This course requires you to master a wide variety of literature; as you prepare each reading assignment, I encourage you to keep notes and reflections, and remember to annotate the assigned texts. Because we will always feel like there is more material than we can possibly cover, I welcome you to extend our discussions

2 beyond the classroom – come to my office hours, email me, or schedule a lunch so we can talk about your questions, concerns, ideas, and responses to the material and assignments.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (Penguin)
David Damrosch et al., eds., The Longman Anthology of British Literature , 5th ed., Vols. 2A, 2B, and 2C
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (Oxford)
Course reserve materials available on Moodle (listed as “Moodle” in the reading schedule;
<http://moodle.davidson.edu/moodle/>) should be printed and brought to class.
RECOMMENDED TEXTS:
Chris Baldick, ed. The Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms (3rd ed., Oxford) or another book of literary terms
MLA Handbook (7 th ed.)
A good dictionary: Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (both are accessible online through the library)
**This syllabus may be subject to change pending our mutual agreement.**
REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES :
Reading Assignments
All readings must be completed before the class session in which they will be discussed. Write down ideas that come to mind as you read the material, and bring the relevant textbook(s) and notes to class, so you can intelligently contribute to class discussion.
Attendance and Participation
Your attendance at all class sessions is mandatory and crucial, not only towards your success in the course, but also because everyone’s lively, engaged and informed participation will contribute to a vigorous learning experience. I expect everyone to be on time . Missing class or excessive tardiness will affect your final grade.
More than three (3) absences will affect your final grade , which will be lowered by one grade step (B to B-); every two (2) “tardies” will count as one absence
. Missing ten
(10) classes will result in a course grade of F . I must be notified of any absence of which you have prior knowledge (this does not apply to a hangover). You must have a valid reason for missing class, such as illness or a family emergency. If such an emergency prevents you from attending class, please email me as soon as you get a chance. If you have to miss any class session for a college-sponsored event, please inform me at least one week prior to your absence. All excuses of a medical nature require a hard copy of a doctor’s note; an appointment slip will not suffice.
Essays
You will be provided a choice of topics for the essays, which will encourage you to close read and make connections both between texts of a single author and among authors, texts and contexts; more information will follow closer to the due dates. You will be graded on the following criteria: a focused thesis and a well-organized essay; quality of writing, comprehension and mastery of material, critical thinking, understanding of historical and cultural contexts, and original interpretation. If you regurgitate class discussion or my lectures in your essays, you will receive a dismally low grade. These essays are another opportunity to develop your own ideas about the assigned material. You can also use them as a venue to engage texts not fully covered in class.
I will not accept an essay that was written for another course. The Honor Code is one we all take very seriously, and I expect each one of us to live up to that oath. All work, therefore, must be original and pledged . Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic integrity and carries serious consequences. I have

3 no problem pursuing these options, if you turn in work that is not your own. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to talk to me. I will not grade papers that are emailed to me. I encourage you to keep copies of all work submitted to me, and I highly recommend that you meet with me to discuss your ideas before you hand in your essay.
The essay must be typed, double-spaced, in 12 point font (Times New Roman), and follow MLA guidelines. Please make sure the following information is listed on the front page of your essay:
Your Name
ENG 260
Instructor’s Name
Date
I expect all essays to be turned in on time ; see the Reading Schedule for the due dates. Your paper will be considered late immediately after the deadline; if a paper due at 3:30 is handed in at 4pm the same day, it will still be considered late and will be graded accordingly. The late paper will be lowered one letter grade (from a B to a C) for each 24 hours that it is late (just to reiterate – that 24 hour period begins immediately after the deadline is past, and includes weekends, holidays, and breaks). Absence the day a paper is due does not excuse its lateness. I will only grant extensions under extenuating circumstances; to make use of such an extension you must notify me well in advance of the due date. I will not grant
extensions on or after the due date. As you may already know, computers and printers have an uncanny ability to misbehave just before a paper is due – so plan ahead to ensure that your paper is not late due to a “technological malfunction.”
Exams
There will be two tests (see Reading Schedule for dates) and a final (self-scheduled) exam. The first exam will test you on the Romantics, the second on the Victorians; both will take place during class time.
The final self-scheduled exam will be cumulative and will be three hours long. More information will follow closer to the dates of the exams. If you arrive late for an in-class test, you will not be given additional time to complete it. These will all be closed-book exams. Please bring your own green books.
Make-up exams will only be given under extenuating circumstances; if you need to make up an exam, please make arrangements with me at least a week ahead of the test date listed on the syllabus.
GRADE BREAKDOWN:
Attendance
Class Participation
Test One
Test Two
Essay One
Essay Two
Final Exam
10%
10%
15%
15%
15%
15%
20%
Audio and Video Recording Policy
Davidson College policy prohibits audio/video recording of classes by students without permission of the instructor. You may not record class sessions or portions thereof unless the Dean of
Students has authorized recording as an academic accommodation for a qualified student with a disability and has notified me of that authorization. All such recordings are for the sole use of the individual student and may not be reproduced, sold, posted online, or otherwise distributed.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
Please feel comfortable talking to me about what I can do to best accommodate your learning needs. I urge you to do so early in the semester, so we can all plan accordingly. If you have not already done so, you should be in touch with Kathy Bray (894-2225), who will take care of the needful in both this and your other classes.
READING SCHEDULE
***Please read the author biographies in the Longman for each writer listed below.***
WEEK 1
1/12 (M)
Introduction to the course and requirements
T h e R o m a n t t i i c P e r i i o d
1/14 (W)
Visionary Changes
“The Romantics and their Contemporaries” (Longman 2A: 7-33)
Blake: From Songs of Innocence : “The Lamb,” “The Little Black Boy,” “The Divine Image,” “Holy
Thursday,” “Nurse’s Song,” “Infant Joy,” “The Chimney Sweeper”
View illuminated versions of these texts in the Blake Archive; compare the various versions of each illuminated text using the “Compare” option: http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/main.html
1/16 (F)
Visionary Experience
Blake: From Songs of Experience : “The Chimney Sweeper,” “The Clod and the Pebble,” “Holy
Thursday,” “The Tyger,” “London,” “Infant Sorrow,” “A Poison Tree,” “A Divine Image”
View illuminated versions of these texts in the Blake Archive; compare the various versions of each illuminated text using the “Compare” option: http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/main.html
WEEK 2
1/19 (M)
No class – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
1/21 (W)
The Right to Speak
Wollstonecraft: from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
1/23 (F)
Speaking Subjects
Barbauld: “The Mouse’s Petition to Dr. Priestley,” “Washing Day”
WEEK 3
1/26 (M)
Wordsworth: “The Solitary Reaper”
1/28 (W)
“Nothing can bring back the hour/ Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower”
Wordsworth: From the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads , “Strange fits of passion have I known,” “Song”
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(“She dwelt among the untrodden ways”), “A slumber did my spirit seal,” “We Are Seven,” “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”
1/30 (F)
Where’s the Abbey?
Wordsworth: “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”
WEEK 4
2/2 (M)
The Conversation Poem
Coleridge: “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison,” “Frost at Midnight”
Barbauld: “To a Little Invisible Being Who Is Expected Soon to Become Visible”
Baillie: “A Mother to Her Waking Infant”
***ESSAY #1 due at the beginning of class ***
2/4 (W)
We “cannot chuse but hear”
Coleridge: from The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere (1798), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1817)
2/6 (F)
A Tale of Gothic Horror
Austen: Northanger Abbey (Vol. I)
WEEK 5
2/9 (M)
Learning to Read
Austen: Northanger Abbey (Vol. II)
2/11 (W)
Intimations of Mortality
P. B. Shelley: “To Wordsworth,” “Ozymandias”
Keats: “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles”
2/13 (F)
Literary Heritage
Keats: “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again,”
“Sonnet: When I have fears”
WEEK 6
2/16 (M)
Romantic Odes I
P. B. Shelley: “Ode to the West Wind,” “To a Sky-Lark”
2/18 (W)
Romantic Odes II
Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode on Melancholy,” “To Autumn”
2/20 (F)
Romancing Illusion
Keats: “The Eve of St. Agnes”
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6
WEEK 7
2/23 (M)
Eluding Romance
Keats:
“La Belle Dame Sans Mercy”
2/25 (W)
***TEST #1***
T h e V i i c t t o r r i i a n E r r a
2/27 (F)
Missing the Boat with Tennyson
“The Victorian Age” (Longman 2B: 1049-1073)
Tennyson: “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” “Crossing the Bar”
WEEK 8
Spring Break
No class on 3/2, 3/4, and 3/6
WEEK 9
3/9 (M)
“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”
Tennyson: “The Lotos-Eaters,” “Ulysses,” “Tithonus”
[Get a head start on Wuthering Heights]
3/11 (W)
Victorian Women of Letters I
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: From “Sonnets from the Portuguese” (entire selection in the Longman)
[Get a head start on Wuthering Heights]
3/13 (F)
Victorian Women of Letters II
Christina Rossetti: “Song” (“When I am dead, my dearest”) “Remember,” “After Death,” “Dead Before
Death,” “Cobwebs,” “A Birthday,” “Up-Hill”
Brontë:
“I’m happiest when most away,” “The Night-Wind,” “Remembrance,” “No Coward Soul is
Mine” (Moodle)
[Get a head start on Wuthering Heights]
WEEK 10
3/16 (M)
Obsessions
Brontë: Wuthering Heights (Vol. I)
3/18 (W)
Why Does This Novel Have a Second Volume?
Brontë: Wuthering Heights (Vol. II)

3/20 (F)
Why So Many Doubles?
Brontë: Wuthering Heights
WEEK 11
3/23 (M)
Meet in the Rare Book Room
3/25 (W)
Studies in Madness
Robert Browning: “Johannes Agricola in Meditation” (Moodle); “Porphyria's Lover”
3/27 (F)
Self-Study
Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”
WEEK 12
3/30 (M)
Art for ____ Sake
Robert Browning: “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church”
4/1 (W)
“Never Mind the Legs and Arms”
Robert Browning: “Fra Lippo Lippi,” “Andrea del Sarto”
4/3 (F)
Cucumber Sandwiches
Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest (Act 1)
WEEK 13
4/6 (M)
Easter Break
No class on 4/6
4/8 (W)
A “Shallow Mask of Manners”
Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest (Act 2)
4/10 (F)
Who’s Earnest Anyway?
Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest (Act 3); Aphorisms (just for fun!)
WEEK 14
4/13 (M)
***TEST #2***
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8
T h e T w e n t t i i e t t h C e n t t u r r y
4/15 (W)
The New World
“The Twentieth Century” (Longman 2C: 1923-1948)
Brooke: “The Soldier”
Hooley: “A War Film”
Rosenberg: “Break of Day in the Trenches,” “Dead Man’s Dump”
Owen: “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” “Strange Meeting,” “Disabled,” “Dulce Et Decorum Est”
4/17 (F)
Paralyzing Choices
Joyce: “Eveline”
WEEK 15
4/20 (M)
Lonely Communions
Lawrence: “Odour of Chrysanthemums”
4/22 (W)
“Things fall apart”
Yeats: “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” “No Second Troy,” “September 1913,” “Easter 1916,” “The Second
Coming”
4/24 (F)
“Nothing can be sole or whole/ That has not been rent”
Yeats: “A Prayer for My Daughter,” “Leda and the Swan,” “Among School Children,” “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop”
WEEK 16
4/27 (M)
Coffee Spoons and Such
Eliot: “Preludes” (Moodle), “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
4/29 (W)
“No longer at ease here, in the old dispensation”
Eliot: “Journey of the Magi”
5/1 (F)
A Room of Her Own
Woolf: “The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection,” from “A Room of One’s Own”
WEEK 17
5/4 (M)
“About suffering they were never wrong”
Auden: “September 1, 1939,” “Musée des Beaux Arts,” “Law Like Love,” “In Praise of Limestone”
5/6 (W)
Whose Literary Heritage?
Boland:
“The Shadow Doll,” “Bright-Cut Irish Silver,” “The Making of an Irish Goddess,” “Outside
History,” “The Journey” (Moodle); “Mise Eire”
***ESSAY #2 due by 3:30 p.m. in my door box***

5/7(Th)
Reading Day
***FINAL EXAM (SELF-SCHEDULED)***
Exam Period 12/8-13 (Seniors: 12/8-11)
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