MYSTERIOUS VIEW OF BRITISH HISTORY
Hon 392, Sec. 002/Hist 381, Sec. 001; TTh, 9:15-10:30 am
Dr. Joanne Klein, office L-181
Office Hours: TTh, 10:35-noon; 1:35-2:45 pm
4058
Required Books:
Required Web site:
jklein@boisestate.edu
ph. 208-426-3248; fax 208-426-
Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage
Dorothy L. Sayers, Murder Must Advertise
P.D. James, Cover Her Face
Colin Dexter, The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
Ian Rankin, Mortal Causes
Xerox copies of short stories handed out throughout semester
Blackboard, http:///blackboard.boisestate.edu
Lord Peter Wimsey once remarked, “In detective stories virtue is always triumphant. They’re the purest literature
we have.” British history as portrayed in its mysteries tends to create a rather refined vision of Great Britain.
Nevertheless, this idealized picture can be fruitful in showing changing British values. The detective evolved from
the scientific Sherlock Holmes to the perceptive Miss Marple to the flawed, music connoisseur, Inspector Morse.
Policemen evolved from bumbling incompetents to helpful allies to accomplished lead investigators. Yet a darker
side of Britain also emerges from the mystery. Mysteries reflect a society divided by class prejudices so ordinary
they were taken for granted. They depict a persistent wariness of foreigners and foreign places. Mysteries became
darker, with less clarity regarding good and evil and with uglier crimes. This course will use the mystery as a mirror,
exploring both the best and the worst of British society.
Course Requirements - If you have any questions regarding assignments, lectures, discussions, web
assignments or text books, please talk to me. Do not wait for your question to turn into a crisis.
Assignments
A. Class Participation (40%)1. Discussion Board - Web discussion board forums are scheduled each week that require
reading assigned texts and familiarity with class discussions. All students are expected to participate in these forums
at least two days a week. You are expected to contribute to all discussion boards in thoughtful and substantive
ways. “Ditto”, “I agree” or similar comments do not qualify as thoughtful or substantive and will be deleted.
Discussion will focus on the pursuit of knowledge and history rather than on personal editorializing. Your responses
should be original rather than simply regurgitation of comments offered by your class mates. You are encouraged to
use the open forum to discuss issues not covered in the other forums.
Discussions will be graded on quality of your participation and involvement (minimum
posting must be met to receive a “C” for each forum). I expect you to begin your own threads and respond to each
other’s observations. I will provide feedback at least three times regarding your discussion board grade. Be aware
that discussions have DATE LIMITS. You must post on each board during the dates it is considered to be active.
Postings one day late will be graded accordingly. Posting more than twenty-four hours late will be deleted.
2. Attendance This is a seminar course. You must be mentally as well as physically
present. You will arrive in class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. Level of preparation will become part of
your grade. Since late arrivals disrupt classes already in progress, anyone arriving after class begins will be
marked as late. Three lates equal one absence. Absence from 15% of the course (more than four absences) is
considered to be reasonable grounds for failure of the course. It is your responsibility to use your allotment of
absences wisely, saving them for emergencies that are certain to occur.
Civility is expected from all students. This includes refraining from private
conversations, turning off all cell phones, beepers, and other annoyances, and respecting each other’s views. Due to
my severe allergies, please do not wear fragrances (perfumes, lotions, colognes and so on) in class or in my office.
3. Current Events - We will begin each class with a brief discussion of news items
regarding Great Britain. All students are expected to contribute items to these discussions on a weekly basis.
B. Research Project (60%) - You will spend the semester working on a research project on a
specific facet of the history of British mysteries resulting in a 20-25 page research paper. You will complete an
outline and bibliography, a presentation, a rough draft, and a final draft as well as meetings with me.
II. Grading The grading scale is: A (90-100%) - distinguished; B (80-89%) - superior; C (70-79%) average; D (60-69%) - unsatisfactory; F (below 60%) - failure. Your final grade will be based on class participation:
20%; discussion boards, 20%; Research project: 5% outline, 10% presentation, 10% rough draft, 35% final draft.
III. Academic Honesty Students are expected to uphold the integrity of the university by doing their own
work. It is your responsibility to learn what constitutes cheating, particularly plagiarism. Anyone caught cheating
will be immediately failed from the course and reported to the Student Conduct Office for further sanctions.
Plagiarism is cheating, even if unintentional, and will be treated accordingly. Cheating includes plagiarizing from
textbooks, web pages, or any other source, turning in someone else’s work and claiming it as your own will,
cheating on exams, the buying or selling of notes from the course, and turning in a paper to more than one class
without permission from the instructors. See the Boise State Student Conduct page for more details at
http://www2.boisestate.edu/studentconduct
IV. Deadlines Assignments are due at 4:00 pm on the date indicated. All deadlines are final. Missed
presentations cannot be made up due to scheduling necessities. Late assignments will receive a zero except in cases
of documented relevant emergency. If you must miss a deadline, you must inform me before it is due. I can be
reached by phone, email or fax. Travel problems, computer crises, work conflicts and alarm clock failures are not
considered to be relevant emergencies. Assignments should be completed early if travel, work or other events might
conflict with deadlines. Papers can be submitted as MS Word or RTF file email attachments. Do NOT send MS
Works, WordPerfect or other software files. You MUST name each attached file "your last name essay name.doc or
.rtf”; for example, “JKlein Rough Draft.doc” or “JKlein Outline.rtf”. Discussion boards can be accessed from any
computer (including public libraries and school computer labs) so participation on assigned dates is not a problem.
BLACKBOARD WEB PAGE
Information from the syllabus, the discussion boards, and web links are available on the course web page.
It is located at http://blackboard.boisestate.edu. Please read “What is Blackboard,” “Instructions for Using
Blackboard at BSU” and the “Student Online Privacy Notice”. You can also use the “Introduction to e-Learning at
Boise State” online course. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for improving the page.
1) Click the login button. Your user name is your student ID number (9 digits). For first time
users, your password is also your student ID number. You need to change this password immediately.
2) From the “My BSU Welcome” page, click on the course title listed under “My Courses”.
Important - be sure that you change your password. To do this,
1) Click the “My BSU” tab near the top of the window.
2) Click “Personal Information” on left side of page.
3) Click “Change Password” and change your password right away.
Please verify that your email address is correct. If not, change it. (Please do not change your student ID
number.)
Remember, explore the web site thoroughly.
Please Note: You MUST use your Boise State email address while participating in Blackboard courses. I
will use your Boise State email to contact students and I will assume that you check your account on a regular basis.
If Blackboard is not responding, please call (208) 426-2583 during regular business hours.
ESSAYS: GENERAL GUIDELINES
Physical Requirements - Essays and exams will be double-spaced and typed using a standard font with oneinch margins. Hand-written papers, single- or triple-spaced papers, unusual fonts, or extra large or small fonts will
not be accepted. Do not use covers or cover sheets. Your name and relevant information should appear in the upper
left-hand corner of the first page. Page numbers should appear in the upper right-hand corner of all pages. A
properly formatted bibliography in Chicago Style listing all sources used must be included at the end of essays .
See A Pocket Guide for Writing in History or another Chicago Style handbook for appropriate bibliographic forms.
Writing history requires not only organizing but drawing conclusions from your material. Description is
not analysis since it does not explore why events took place. Analyze, do not summarize. Papers should have an
introduction that presents your main thesis and a conclusion that reiterates your main thesis. Each paragraph should
cover a specific idea that supports your thesis and should be introduced by a strong topic sentence that presents the
idea to be examined in that paragraph. Your ideas need to be supported by examples. All quotations must be
accurate and properly cited using Chicago Style. Finally, papers must be proofread for errors in grammar, spelling
and punctuation. Please make use of the Writing Center’s resources.
Citation and Plagiarism - All sources must be accurate and properly cited. A Pocket Guide includes
information on citing your sources. In particular, pay attention to plagiarism. The web page includes external links
regarding citation and plagiarism. If you are unclear on what constitutes plagiarism, please see me.
Guidelines particular to this professor
1. Write in the third person. Do not use “I”, “we”, “you”, “one”, “the reader” or any other word that draws
attention to the writer or reader.
2. This is not a murder mystery. Do not save your exciting ideas for the last paragraph. Include them in the
introduction in your thesis.
3. Never assume explanations or reasons for events are obvious; tell me your ideas.
4. Do not confuse describing what happened with exploring why events happened.
5. Do not begin or end paragraphs with quotations; instead present your ideas in your own words.
6. Do not overwrite. Use straightforward vocabulary and sentence structure.
7. Use definite, specific, concrete language.
8. Use active voice.
9. Omit needless words and loose sentences.
10. Use specific examples to support and illustrate your ideas.
11. Use past tense when describing past events.
12. Write out a number (twenty-five) unless it is a complex number or date (34,567 or 1962).
13. Do not use contractions (don't; can’t); write words out (do not; cannot).
14. Do not use slang or colloquialisms (such as “a lot” or “kids”).
15. Do not use “etc.”
16. Do not use “interesting.”
17. Do not use parentheticals.
18. Do not use rhetorical questions.
19. Review the assignment before you write your essay and before you hand in your essay.
20. Ask me questions about assignments before assignments are due.
21. Check for spelling errors, grammatical errors and typographical errors before you hand in your paper.
22. Keep a copy of your paper in case your paper is lost.
COURSE CALENDAR
Date
Readings
Due Dates
Week One Forum: Appeal of Detective Fiction
8/26
Introduction
8/28
Introduction
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Two Forum: The Crime Magazine Serial
9/2
The Moonstone (1868); Author’s Prefaces, Prologue, 1st Period: ch. 1-14
9/4
The Moonstone; 1st Period, ch. 15-23; 2nd Period, 1st Narrative, ch. 1-5
Topics Due
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Three Forum: Discovery of the Truth
9/9
The Moonstone; 2nd Period, 1st Narrative, ch. 6 through 3rd Narrative, ch. 7
9/11
The Moonstone; 2nd Period, 3rd Narrative, ch. 8 to end of novel
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Four Forum: Private Detectives
9/16
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Blue Carbuncle, (1895)
G.K. Chesterton, The Queer Feet (1910)
R. Austin Freeman, The Case of Oscar Brodski (1912)
9/18
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Five Forum: Conspiracies and Spies
9/23
The Four Just Men (1905)
9/25
Catherine L. Pirkis, The Ghost of Fountain Lane (1894)
Arthur Morrison, The Case of the Lost Foreigner (1895)
G.K. Chesterton, The Bottomless Well (1922)
Fri. 9/26
Outline/Bibliography Due
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Six Forum: Crime in a Country Village
9/30
Murder at the Vicarage (1930); ch. 1-16
10/2
Murder at the Vicarage (1930); ch. 17-32
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Seven Forum: Crime in the Metropolis
10/7
Murder Must Advertise (1933); ch. 1-10
10/9
Murder Must Advertise (1933); ch. 11-21
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Eight Forum: no forum
10/14 Presentations
10/16 Presentations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Nine Forum: no forum
10/21 Presentations
10/23 Presentations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Ten Forum: The Golden Age of Detection
10/28 Ngaio Marsh, Death on the Air (1939)
Margery Allingham, The Danger Point (1939)
A.E.W. Mason, The Ginger King (1940)
10/30 Cover Her Face (1962); ch. 1-5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Eleven Forum: The New Police Detectives
11/4
Cover Her Face; ch. 6-9
11/6
The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (1977); ch. 1-14
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week Twelve Forum: Crime at the University
11/11 The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn; ch. 15-epilogue
11/13 Reading Day
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Thirteen Forum: The Thriller
11/18 Ruth Rendell, Fen Hall (1985)
Mortal Causes (1994); ch. 1-16
11/20 Mortal Causes; ch. 17-30
Fri. 11/21
Rough Draft Due (can turn in sooner)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Fourteen Forum: no forum
11/24 Reading Day
THANKSGIVING BREAK NOVEMBER 26-28
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Fifteen Forum: The Police Procedural
12/28 Prime Suspect (1993)
12/4
Prime Suspect
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week Sixteen Forum: Final Thoughts
12/9
Prime Suspect
12/11 Final Thoughts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mon. 12/15
Final Draft Due