ENLS 2020
MWF 10-10:50
Office Hours F 11-1 and by appt
Prof. Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé
kzumhage@tulane.edu
Norman Mayer 220
Introduction to British Literature II
This course traces the evolution of British and Irish literature from the early nineteenth to
the early twenty-first century. Through the enormous breadth of the production of the
fiction in this period makes any truly comprehensive survey inconceivable, the readings
chosen from the canon of British and Irish literature from the Romantic period to the
present are meant to indicate the range of that production. During the course of the semester,
we will discuss the literary movements that the define different eras of the period, focusing
on how literary texts engage with forces of modernization, industrialization, secularization
and empire in the nineteenth, and with urbanization, world war, the resistance to Western
political domination, secular-spiritual longing and the emergence of global networks in the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Human identities, minds, bodies and communities are
shaped and reshaped in literary texts that seek constantly to find new ways to intervene in
the rapidly changing landscapes of modernization and postmodernization. As they reshape
themselves in different media from the nineteenth-century serial novel to experimental
modernism and contemporary narrative, drama and poetry work creatively to encounter
other expressive media such as film, television, pop music, and digital culture. In the process,
they redefine the roles of authors, narrators, lyrical voices, characters, and ultimately readers
themselves.
The format of the class will involve a mixture of lecture and discussion. Normally each
period will have begin with a short assignment or quiz, followed by a short lecture and group
discussion. Course assignments will include in-class writing assignments, reading circle
meetings held outside of class, a midterm and a final exam.
Required Texts:
Longman Anthology of British Literature Volume 2 Package David Damrosch, ed.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813) Oxford World Classics
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861) Norton Critical, Edgar Rosenberg, ed.
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (1927) Mariner, Annotated edition, Mark Hussey, ed.
J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) Penguin
Week 1
M 8/26
W 8/28
F 8/30
Week 2
M 9/2
W 9/4
F 9/6
Week 3
M 9/9
W 9/11
F 9/13
Course Introduction
“The Romantics and Their Contemporaries,” Longman 3-33.
William Blake, from Songs of Innocence, “The Little Black Boy” and “The Chimney
Sweeper” “Holy Thursday;” from Songs of Experience, “The Chimney Sweeper,” “The
Fly,” “London,” The Tyger” (1789-94), Longman 178-203.
“The Sublime, the Beautiful and the Picturesque,” Longman 34-46; William
Wordsworth, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” (1798), Prelude
from Books I, VI, and XI, Longman 478-492, 503-510, 530-534
NO CLASS (Labor Day)
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (18002), Longman 433-445; Coleridge, from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner;”
Longman 632; “Frost at Midnight” (1817), Longman 630-632
READING CIRCLE 1
John Keats: “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn” “Ode to Psyche,”
“Ode on Melancholy,” “Ode on Indolence,” “To Autumn (1819), Longman 10031014
READING CIRCLE 2
Mary Wollestonecraft, “A Vindication of the Rights of Women,” 1792 (Longman
302-330)
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813 Vol I, Chs. I-XV
READING CIRCLE 3
Austen, Pride and Prejudice Vol I, Chs. XVI-Vol II, Ch. XII
NO CLASS (Yom Kippur)
Week 4
M 9/16
W 9/18
Austen, Pride and Prejudice Vol II, Ch. XIII- Vol III, Ch. XI
Austen, Pride and Prejudice Vol III, Ch. XII-end.
READING CIRCLE 4
F 9/20 “The Victorian Age,” Longman 1049-1073
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861) 3-55 Chs. I-VII
Week 5
M 9/23
Dickens Great Expectations 56-125, Chs, IX-XIX
READING CIRCLE 5
Dickens Great Expectations 129-178 Chs. XX-XXVIII
Dickens, Great Expectations 178-226 Chs. XXIX-XXXVII
W 9/25`
F 9/27
Week 6
M 9/30
W 10/2
Dickens, Great Expectations 227-295, Chs. XXXVIII-XLVIII
READING CIRCLE 1
Dickens, Great Expectations 295-358, Chs. XLIX-LIX
F 10/4
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point (1850), Longman
1148-1155; Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854),
Longman 1235; Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market” (1862), Longman 1650
READING CIRCLE 2
Week 7
M 10/7
W 10/9
F 10/11
Exam Review
Midterm Exam
FALL BREAK
Week 8
M 10/14
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899) Longman 1949-2010
READING CIRCLE 3
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness and Its Time and Responses: Chinua Achebe, “An Image of
Africa,” Longman 2016-2025; Rudyard Kipling, “White Man’s Burden” Longman
1776-1778.
READING CIRCLE 4
W 10/16
F 10/18
Week 9
M 10/21
William Butler Yeats, Longman 2174-2202: “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” “Who
Goes With Fergus?,” “No Second Troy” “The Fascination of What’s Difficult”
READING CIRCLE 5
W 10/23
Yeats, continued: “The Wild Swans at Coole,” “An Irish Airman Foresees His
Death,” “Easter 1916,” “The Second Coming,” “Sailing to Byzantium,” “Among
School Children,” Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop”
READING CIRCLE 1
NO CLASS (Read War Poets in “The Great War: Confronting the Modern”:
Longman 2112-2163)
F 10/25
Week 10
M 10/28
W 10/30
F 11/1
Week 11 M 11/4
W 11/6
F 11/8
Week 12 M 11/11
W 11/13
F 11/15
Week 13 M 11/18
W 11/20
F 11/22
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922) Longman 2297-2310
Eliot, The Waste Land I. The Burial of the Dead; II. A Game of Chess
READING CIRCLE 2
Eliot, The Waste Land II. The Fire Sermon; IV. Death By Water
James Joyce, “Araby” from Dubliners (1914) Longman 2215-2222
Joyce, “Eveline” and “Clay” from Dubliners Longman 2222-2229
READING CIRCLE 3
Joyce, “The Dead” from Dubliners 2229-2257
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (1927) “The Window”
Woolf, To the Lighthouse “Time Passes
READING CIRCLE 4
Woolf, To the Lighthouse “The Lighthouse
Samuel Beckett, Endgame (1957) Longman 2577
READING CIRCLE 5
Beckett, Endgame
Viewing of Endgame
Week 14 M 11/25
THANKSGIVING
W 11/27
F 1129
THANKSGIVING
THANKSGIVING
Week 15
M 12/2
W 12/4
F 12/6
Exam Week:
J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
FINAL EXAM
Learning Goals:
Through this course, you should gain:

Knowledge and understanding of British Literature from the 19th century to the present
through broad reading of representative texts, attention to how they fit together into a
broader literary history, and to the ways in which that literary history relates to concurrent
political, social, historical and ethico-religious concerns.

Awareness of the major literary movements, terms, and forms of the period from 1900 to
the present, and an appreciation for their relevance and connection of each to later literary
developments. You will learn how to analyze the formal elements of texts, and will acquire
the theoretical and critical vocabulary of the discipline.

Reading and discussion skills: In this course, you will continue to refine your ability to
read and interpret poetry, prose and dramatic narratives.. Reading well means not only that
you can understand a text, but that you can convey its sense to others, and develop a cogent,
well-supported argument about it.
Rules and Requirements:
 No laptops in class. Please plan on bringing other materials (e.g., paper, pens) for taking
notes.
 All assignments must be completed and submitted to receive course credit. Late work will
be penalized by one half a letter grade for each day past the due date.
 More than two unexcused absences will reduce your final course grade by one half a letter
grade, and each additional absence by another.
 Plagiarism will be penalized by failure on the assignment or the course, appearance before a
university committee, and/or expulsion.
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
For Tulane’s stance on academic integrity, please visit the website detailing Tulane’s Code of Academic
Conduct: http://tulane.edu/college/code.cfm
For Tulane’s Honor Code of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and stated position on plagiarism and
inappropriate citation in papers and other written assignments, see http://tulane.edu/college/code.cfm
Accommodations for students with disabilities
Students who need academic accommodations because of a documented disability should contact the
Goldman Office of Disability Services https://tulane.edu/studentaffairs/disability/ for relevant forms,
etc, and should speak with me confidentially as soon as possible to discuss appropriate implementation of
course or room adjustments.
Grade Assessment
15% Class Preparation and participation—including consistent attendance, active engagement in class
discussion, reading circle participation.
15% Regular in-class writing assignments and quizzes
30% Midterm exam
40% Final exam
Class Preparation and participation
This class emphasizes active learning. The scholarly community we create in this seminar will be a
group endeavor. Since in every class session you are required to discuss the readings with your peers
and with the professor, preparation, attendance and participation are required. Your full intellectual
presence is a part of the “social contract” tacit amongst all class members. You will be expected to
complete each of the readings before you come to class, be ready to share your ideas about them and
to engage the ideas of your peers. Please bring your own copies of the reading to seminar.
Attendance is required and will be taken at each class. If you miss more than two class meetings, your
final grade will be greatly compromised. Students should be on time for class; I will not review
material that students miss because they are late or absent without a compelling excuse.
Reading Circles: Students will also take part in reading circles (for detailed instructions, see below). These
consist in small pre-assigned groups of students who must meet together—in person—outside of class
(on at least three occasions) to discuss points of the assigned material carefully and to formulate
discussion questions that they will put to the class for general consideration each week as we embark on
a new set of assigned texts.
Regular writing assignments and quizzes
This requirement consists in short writing assignments in class. These exercises may entail close
readings of passages from the text, or a response to a pre-circulated question or prompt.
Midterm exam
In-class. Essay questions, open book. 2-4 comparative questions covering material discussed in the
first 7 weeks of the course.
Final Exam
In-class. Essay questions, open book. 2-6 comparative questions covering the whole course and 2
questions emphasizing Joyce, Woolf, Beckett and Coetzee.
Reading Circles
These small groups of students must meet outside of class. You may feel to choose your meeting place,
be it library, café, dorm room or bar. But you must meet in person, and not just virtually via email or
over the internet. During reading-circle group meetings, you are to discuss, carefully and thoroughly, the set
of scheduled readings they have been assigned on the syllabus. Please appoint one member take
minutes. These minutes should include a run-down of all members who attended, the major questions
posed and any observations and disagreements, general or individual reactions to the work, things you
found interesting, remarkable or problematic in the text or secondary literature, any issues, points of
confusion or interpretation, etc. Along with the minutes, the reading circle group should also submit
three substantial questions intended to promote general class discussion, via email, to Professor
Zumhagen-Yekplé by no later than 5:00 pm the day before the class is slated to discuss the text(s) in
question. The reading circle scheduled for that date should also be prepared to pose these discussion
questions to the class during the class meeting. Please plan meetings for your assigned reading
circle group well in advance of the class discussion of the text to avoid difficulties scheduling
meetings the day before.
Reading Circle Groups for ENLS 2020 Fall 2013:
Reading Circle 1
Cara Becker
Lauren Evans
Andrew Vaughan
cbecker2@tulane.edu
levans2@tulane.edu
avaughan@tulane.edu
Reading Circle 2
Corley Miller
Alexandrea Moody
Quinn Kaufman
cmille19@tulane.edu
amoody1@tulane.edu
qkaufman@tulane.edu
Reading Circle 3
Charisse Poston
Katharine Priegues
Emma Rubinstein
Abigail Yesso
cposton@tulane.edu
kpriegue@tulane.edu
erubinst@tulane.edu
ayesso@tulane.edu
Reading Circle 4
Nicole Rychlik
Ellen Sherwood
Ariel Siegel
Kyle Gutierrez
nrychlik@tulane.edu
sherwoo@tulane.edu
asiegel5@tulane.edu
kgutier1@tulane.edu
Reading Circle 5
Scott Spiegel
Catherine Ann Taylor
Hadley Williams
Claire Wilson
sspiege1@tulane.edu
ctaylo11@tulane.edu
hwillia7@tulane.edu
cwilson2@tulane.edu
Some examples of recent student questions:
1) When the narrator of Waiting for the Barbarians speaks with the (doomed) old man at the beginning of the
story, he introduces Colonel Joll as someone who has come "to find out the truth," attempting to let the old
man know the urgency of his situation. " Later on, the narrator says, "Pain is truth; all else is subject to doubt."
And during one of his reflective episodes regarding his interactions with the 'barbarian' girl, the narrator says:
"So I begin to face the truth of what I am trying to do: to obliterate the girl." Etc... How is 'truth' configured
and represented in various ways in the novel? How are we meant to understand and grapple with it? (And how
does it compare with the ways in which 'truth' operates in Beckett's work?)
2. Perhaps the most evident and striking motif from even the very first sentence of Coetzee’s novel concerns
the treatment of the eye and the act of seeing. The motif continues throughout the entire book, but manifests
itself particularly strongly in the episode involving the concubine-like barbarian girl:
"I look into the eye. Am I to believe that gazing back at me she sees nothing - my feet perhaps, parts of the
room, a hazy circle of light, but at the centre, where I am, only a blur, a blank? I pass my hand slowly in front
of her face, watching her pupils. I cannot discern any movement. She does not blink. But she smiles: "Why do
you do that? Do you think I cannot see?" Brown eyes, so brown as to be black." (31 in this older edition)
Does vision seem to play into theoretical notions regarding alterity and "Otherness" here, and can these
notions be expanded to wider thematic ideas, including the magistrate's later assertion that he "wanted to live
outside the history that Empire imposes on its subjects, even its lost subjects. I never wished it for the
barbarians that they should have the history of Empire laid upon them..."?
3. In “Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown,” Virginia Woolf writes that the purpose of the novel is to create an
intimacy between the reader (or writer) and the characters, to make the characters real though not necessarily
“lifelike” (5). She describes the process of writing a novel as a great (and even spiritual in light of the terms
used in “Modern Fiction”) struggle to achieve this and admits that contemporary novels (and perhaps all
novels), despite the energy expended in this struggle, often leave the writer or reader with only a trinket from
the real characters they attempt to describe rather than the characters' whole being. This same longing for
intimacy, along with the inability to achieve it—even when around the people closest to them, obsesses many
of the characters in To the Lighthouse. To what extent does To the Lighthouse achieve this intimacy, both within the
reality of the novel and for us as readers? That is, does To The Lighthouse show this sort of intimacy to be
possible within the world of its characters? Do we as readers achieve this sort of intimacy with the characters?
Are some characters more capable of achieving intimacy than others? Does we get a “real” sense of some, all,
or none of the characters? As a whole, does the novel reject or embrace this project?