English 252 - British Literature
Spring 2003
K. Simmons
T- Th 11:00 – 12:15
UCB 112
Office hours Tuesday 9 - 10am and by
appointment
974-7478
EKH 214
simmons@hawaii.edu
TEXT:
Required:
Abrams, M.H. et al., ed. The Norton Anthology of British Literature, 7th edition,
Vol. 2
Recommended, especially for English majors
And on reserve:
M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms
Joseph Gibaldi , MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
REQUIREMENTS:
Mid-term exam 20%
Research report 20%
Literary analysis paper 25%
Final exam 25%
Attendance and participation 10%
Regardless of your grades in the course, it is impossible to pass without
completing every assignment.
Late assignments will be marked down 1/2 grade per day.
Exams can be made up (or taken early) only when circumstances beyond the
student's control (such as illness, family emergency) make such arrangements
necessary. Students requesting such exceptions should be prepared to present
documentation in support of their request.
The deadline for dropping courses in Arts and Sciences is March 7th
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I. T. Jan 14
Course introduction
History of the World, Part I (lecture)
Th Jan 16
Unit 1: Introduction to the Romantics
Revolution
William Blake, from Songs of Innocence,
"Introduction" “The Little Black Boy"
The Chimney Sweeper" "Divine Image” “Infant Joy”
from Songs of Experience, "Introduction" "The
Chimney Sweeper" “Garden of Love” “Infant Sorry” “A
Divine Image”
Literary terms: persona; meter/rhythm; rhyme,
image, image pattern, stanza
II. T Jan 21
From Songs of Innocence: “The Lamb”
From Songs of Experience: “"The Sick Rose" "The
Tyger"
Literary term: symbol
Th Jan 23
Video: The Western Tradition:
Revolution and the Romantics
Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Song: Men of England”
“England 1918”
Literary terms: sonnet, quatrain, couplet
III.TJan 28
Unit 2: The Romantics, continued
The Romantic Consciousness
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth, “We Are Seven”
"Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,"
Literary Terms: Ballad stanza, persona, diction
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Th Jan 30
Wordsworth, “My Heart Leaps Up”
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
Literary terms: figurative language, tropes, simile,
metaphor
IV. T Feb 4
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "Dejection: An Ode,"
“Kubla Khan”
Th Feb 6
Library session: Introduction to the report
assignment.
Class will meet in the library classroom
Begin reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to be
discussed on February 18th
V T Feb 11
John Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's
Homer" " “Sonnet: When I have fears”
Literary terms: Sonnet, quatrain, couplet,
metaphor
TH February 13
Report topic due
Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn,"
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
VI. T Feb 18
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Th Feb 20
Mid-term exam
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Vii T Feb 25
Unit III: Introduction to the Victorian
Period:
The Woman Question
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from :Aurora Leigh, Book
I, “Aurora’s Education; Book 2 “Aurora’s Aspirations”
“Aurora’s Rejection of Romney”
Literary terms: Feminist Criticism, dramatic lyric
Th Feb 27
VIII T Mar 4
Virginia Woolf, from A Room of One's Own, from
Chapter 1 & 3
Unit IV: The Victorian Period, continued
The Crisis of Religious Faith
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam" Prologue, #1,
2, 3, 34, 54, 55, 56, 95, 118, 123, 124, 130, 131
Report due
Th Mar 6
F Mar 7
IX TMar 11
Th Mar 13
Tennyson, continued
“The Lady of Shalott”
Discussion of literary analysis paper
Last Day to drop a course in Arts & Science
Matthew Arnold, "Stanzas from the Grande
Chartreuse” "Dover Beach"
Unit 5: The Victorians, continued:
Precursors to modern poetry:
Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess," "Soliloquy of
the Spanish Cloister"
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur,” “The
Windhover,” “Pied Beauty”
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Literary term: Dramatic Monologue
X T Mar 18
Unit 6: The Modern Period
The Great War
Video: The First World War and the Rise of Fascism
Poetry of World War I: Rupert Brooke, "The Soldier,"
Sigfried Sassoon, “They” "The Glory of Women," “The
General” “On Passing the New Menin Gate”
Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est," "Disabled”
Literary term: irony
Th Mar 20
Mar 24 – 29
Literary analysis paper topic due
World War I poetry continued.
More on literary analysis papers
Spring Break
XI T Apr 1
Unit 7: The Modern Period, continued:
Modernism
Modern Poetry:
Imagism: Pound, (Poetry to be distributed)
T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Literary terms: Imagism, Modernism
Th Apr 3
Selections from "The Waste Land" Part 1;
Part 2;
XIi T Apr 8
William Butler Yeats, “September 1913” "Easter
1916," "The Second Coming,"
"Sailing to Byzantium”
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Th Apr 10
Modern fiction
Virginia Woolf, “The Mark on the Wall”
Drafts of papers due
XIII T Apr 15
James Joyce, “The Dead”
Th Apr 17
More on literary analysis papers
Begin reading Chinua Achebe “Things Fall Apart”
XIV T Apr 22
Unit 7: Contemporary Literature
Post Colonial Literature
Chinua Achebe “Things Fall Apart”
Literary term: Post Colonial Criticism
Th Apr 24
Video: Chinua Achebe interviewed by Bill Moyers
“Things Fall Apart,” continued
Literary Analysis paper due
XV T Apr 29
Th May 1
Nadine Gordiner:
“The Moment Before the Gun Went off” and another
story to be distributed?
Video: An Interview with Nadine Gordimer
Unit 8: What is literature for?
Yeats, "Lapis Lazuli
Auden, “In Memory of W.B. Yeats”
Come to class prepared to share your answer to this
question (even if your answer is “nothing.”)
XVI T May 6
Course wrap-up
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REPORT: ASSIGNMENT AND SCHEDULE
Please read this assignment in preparation for the library session on February 6th.
Your first independent project this semester will be to look into the life and work of
any of the following writers and to write a report as detailed below.
Writers from which to choose:
Robert Burns
Mary Wollstonecraft
Joanna Baillie
Dorothy Wordsworth
Sir Walter Scott
George Gordon, Lord Byron
Charles Dickens
Emily Bronte
George Eliot
Christina Rossetti
Oscar Wilde
Jean Rhys
Derek Walcott
V.S. Naipaul
Salman Rushdie
To do your report, please do the following:
1. Read the introductory sections in our anthologies pertaining to your chosen
writer. It would probably be best to read several introductions before you select
your subject. PLEASE DO NOT SELECT A WRITER ON WHOM YOU’VE WORKED IN
ANOTHER CLASS. The purpose of this report is to research a writer you’ve not dealt
with before.
2. Read about your writers in one of the standard literary dictionaries or
encyclopedia, to which you will be introduced in the library session. NOTE: DO NOT
USE AN ORDINARY DICTIONARY OR ENCYCLOPEDIA FOR THIS PART OF THE
ASSIGNMENT. YOU MUST USE A SPECIALIZED LITERARY REFERENCE WORK.
3. If your writer is represented in the anthology by no more than ten pages, read all
of the material in the anthology. If your chosen writer is represented by a larger
selection of work, read approximately ten pages of it.
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4. Find one other piece of writing either BY or ABOUT your author . Read one full
article in a collection, a selection of poetry or short stories, or one chapter, not an
entire book. Material for this report may NOT be ordered through inter-library loan.
All of this should be completed by February 13th.
On that date, please hand in:
1) The name of your author
2) The name and publication information (MLA format) for the encyclopedia or
dictionary from which you have selected your article.
3) A complete list of the material by the author in the anthology that you have read.
Use MLA format. For information on how to cite sources, please go to the UHH
Llibrary’s homepage. Under “Resources,” click on “Citing Sources.” Or, consult
Gibaldi, MLA Guide for Writers of Research Papers, optional book for this class.
4) A list of the outside work that you have read or will read. Use MLA format.
This preliminary report will be worth 15 of the 100 points for the entire report. Points
will be awarded only if the report is turned in on time.
The report itself should be approximately three to five pages long and is due on
March 4th. It should include:
1) A brief (from one paragraph to one page) biography of your author. This should be
based on the material in the anthology introduction and the encyclopedia article
you've read, but it must be in your own words. Do not quote, or if you must, quote no
more than a phrase or two for the entire biography. The material – including every
fact you learned from any source -- must be documented, using proper MLA format.
2) A brief (from one paragraph to one page) general statement of the general
characteristics and subjects of your writer. Does s/he write fiction? poetry? drama?
non-fiction? Some of all of these? What seem to be his/her major concerns? the
lives of the poor? death? religion? love? Write this section as if you were telling your
roommate what the writer is like.
3) A brief (one paragraph to one page) discussion of/reaction to the work in the
anthology that you have read. This section could include many different things: what
is the work about? what do you especially like or dislike about it?
4) A brief (one paragraph to one page) discussion of/reaction to the material you've
read from outside of the anthology. Feel free to begin this section: "This book [you
name it] is about _______'s life. I selected the chapter on her years as a governess.
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Jones explains that during this time ___________[whatever the author explains.]" In
a case like this where you're reporting on biography, DO NOT simply repeat what
you said in part one. Compare the two. "Unlike the Abrams introduction, Jones
focuses much more on ______'s employers who were _________ [whatever]." To
avoid having to compare, select a critical work about the author's writing, or select
something BY your writer. Like the biography, this section should be IN YOUR OWN
WORDS unless you choose to quote small well-selected sections. No more than
about 10% of the section should be directly quoted. The section must be
documented, using MLA format.
5) A formal "Works Cited" section. You will have the opportunity to study samples in
class.
6) Accurate and complete parenthetical documentation as indicated above, based on
MLA guidelines.
Late paper will be marked down ½ grade per day, including week-ends.
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MLA Format
You can find samples and instructions for MLA Documentation style in a number
of places:
Joseph Gibaldi, MLA GUIDE FOR WRITERS OF RESEARCH PAPERS
The library’s home page. Click on “resources” then on “citing sources.” Of
the three listed, I think the Diana Hacker selection has the best examples
Some things you’ll need are not clearly available on the library’s pages. So here
are some additional samples:
If you’re citing more than one selection from an anthology or collection:
First, cite the anthology itself in your list of works cited:
Abrams, M.H. et al eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th edition,
Volume 2, New York: Norton, 2000.
Then, for each work from the anthology you’re citing, create a shortened
citation:
Blake, William. “To Autumn,” Abrams 40.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, “To George Sand,” Abrams 1178.
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Literary Analysis Paper
Topic
From the list of poems below, select one in which you can see a variety of or a very
strong and complex example of literary elements -- e.g. symbol, persona, rhyme
scheme, metaphor, sonnet form, etc. -- and write a CAREFULLY FOCUSED essay in
which you show your ability to analyze these elements in the poem or poems you
have selected. Your analysis should show how the elements work and how they
contribute to the meaning of the work. DO NOT TELL THE PLOT OF THE POEM!
Please be sure that your paper includes a clear statement of exactly which elements
of exactly which poems you are discussing.
Your paper should be approximately 3 typed pages in length, up to a maximum of 5
pages. LENGTH IS NOT A GREAT VIRTUE ON THIS ASSIGNMENT. Although it would
be difficult to do a thorough analysis of much of anything in less than 3 pages, you
will certainly not receive extra credit for more nearly approaching 5 pages. Your
paper will be judged in much the same way your essay exams are judged, although
one additional factor will be taken into consideration -- your ability to work
independently.
The term paper assignment is designed to allow you to apply techniques and/or
information that you have learned in English 252 to material we did NOT discuss in
class. Please follow term paper instructions carefully, and be sure to see me if you
have any questions about the instructions or about your own paper. I can be of great
help to you in developing your paper if you see me early. If you see me right at the
due date, I can be significantly less useful.
Poems:
Wordsworth:
“I wandered lonely as a cloud”
“It is a beauteous evening”
“The World is too much with us”
“Eolian Harp”
“To A Sky-lark”
“On sitting down to read King Lear”
“Sonnet to sleep”
“Ode to a Nightengale”
Robert Browning “Porphyria’s lover”
Christina Rossetti “Goblin Market”
Thomas Hardy
“The Darkling Thrush”’
Coleridge
Shelley
Keats
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Process and calendar
On March 20th , please bring a written copy of your topic (author, poem(s),
element(s)) to class. The topic will be worth 5 of the total 100 points for the term
paper assignment and points will only be awarded if the topic is turned in on time.
On April 10th a complete, typed draft of your paper is due. The draft will be awarded
10 points if it clearly fulfills the assignment even if there is still work that needs to be
done to polish the paper. A partial paper will earn partial credit. A set of notes will
earn only a few points. Full credit on the draft does NOT mean that you will
automatically receive an A on the final paper, however. The points reflect your
progress. Late drafts will not be accepted, and no points will be awarded.
On April 24tth, the final typed paper is due. Although late papers will be accepted,
they will be marked down 1/2 grade per day. The paper MUST be turned before the
final exam in order for you to earn a passing grade in English 252!
Exceptions to any of these ground rules will be granted only in exceptional and
documented cases. Please do not hesitate to discuss such exceptional situations
with me.
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