Professor Ann Hostetler
Goshen College
English 302 Syllabus
Spring 2002
NC 43, 535-7469,
anneh@goshen.eduInventing the Nature
of the Modern World:British Literature 1800 to the Present
COURSE DESCRIPTION: A survey of the development of British Literature from the Romantic Period to the present. Thematically, the course will focus on the concept of "Nature"—both human nature and the natural world—as it is construed by poets, fiction writers, essayists, intellectuals, and scientists throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This class is required for the English major, but is open to all students who have taken Literature and Writing (or equivalent) and one other literature class (recommended).
English language and literature has dominated the last two centuries as the British Empire increased and the United States came to be a world power. Thus many of the thinkers and writers of the two centuries we study have been formative in shaping the world as we know and understand it today. You will recognize the roots of many of our current debates over gender equality, science and religion, educational reform, political power and structures, the economic structures of society, relationships between money and class and education, the relationship of the first worlds to the third, etc. etc. as you read and study the literature of this period. In addition to the study of works by major literary figures in a variety of genres, the course will emphasize intellectual and historical currents that have shaped the modern British Era, such as the Romantic belief in the spiritual powers of nature and individual creativity, the fascination with and fear of revolutions—both political and intellectual, the rise of modern science and the changing picture of both human nature and creation that emerge, the spread of empire, debates over women's rights, industrialism, natural selection, religious faith and doubt, the institutionalization of public education and social reform.
We will read and discuss literature, as well as explore major intellectual and social trends, from:
We will also read several films in order to familiarize ourselves with the landscapes and material cultures of Britain and her colonies during this highly influential period of cultural production:
Endless Summer, Jane Eyre, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Howard’s End, Mrs. Dalloway
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
REQUIRED TEXTS:
OPTIONAL TEXTS:
M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms
(you will need this for English 300, Introduction to Literary Criticism)
ACTIVITIES:
EVALUATION: Two Tests=15 % each
Response portfolio=20%
Synthesis Essay=20%
Class Participation=10%
Final Exam= 20%
THE DEAL: All assignments must be completed in order for you to earn credit in the course. Poor attendance (more than 3 absences) and late papers will be reflected in your grade. (There is no such thing as a "free cut.") No incompletes will be given unless negotiated with the instructor well in advance for legitimate reasons. CR/NC registrants must earn a grade of C or better. Any form of cheating or plagiarism will result in an automatic "F."
PAPERS:
Response Portfolio
Every student in the class will write 10 (1-2 page) response papers, each one to be handed in at the beginning of a class period. In addition, students will participate in a small group discussion. The response papers will not be graded, but must be handed in for you to receive course credit. You will choose five of these papers to revise for your portfolio at the end of the semester. This will give you an opportunity to explore your thoughts in writing and to focus on areas of particular interest to you. Through them you may develop some of the themes that will lead you to a final synthesis paper. If you have done your math, you will
realize that you will be able to miss two weeks of response papers, allowing you to concentrate on other projects during those weeks.Synthesis Paper
Directions will follow, but basically a 10-15 page paper on a major theme that deveops throughout the course, which combines a reader response approach and the use of critical texts.
MAJOR THEMES:
THE ROMANTIC PERIOD
:The roots of Romanticism in Revolution
Emphasis on the individual and subjective experience
Nature as source of spiritual revelation
Longing for the past, childhood, earlier states
View of human nature and the human relation to nature as pure and uncorrupted
Imagination and creativity elevated to new heights
Civilization and social institutions viewed as dulling human possibility
Shift from an agrarian semi-feudal economy to industrialization and privatization
THE VICTORIAN AGE:
Problems associated with industrialization:
Displaced persons, homelessness, poverty, pollution, working conditions, child labor
Increasing prosperity of a growing middle class
Social Class: Marx and Engels, the Working Class, Industrialism, the stratification of British Society, the development of Educational institutions
Evangelicalism vs. Utilitarianism as ways of ordering the world
Check on Romantic imagination; emphasis on social responsibility
Reform movements
Faith in human progress
Respectability
The Rights and Roles of Women
The beginnings of Empire
Development of aesthetic theories by the Pre-Raphaelites and Ruskin, landscapes by J.M.W. Turner
New status of religion and the Catholic church with the conversion of John Henry Cardinal Newman
Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859)
The Crisis of Faith: Belief, Christianity, Despair, History, Geology, Biology, Modernism (began in late 1700s, reinforced in 1832 by Lyell’s Principles of Geology, reaches climax with Darwin’s Origin of the Species).
Even more prosperity
Effects of reform movements have cleared up many of the problems associated with early industrialism
Educational Reform and the rise of science
Reactionary movements in aesthetics and religion
Agitation for women’s suffrage
The growth of empire to encompass British control of one-quarter of the globe
High culture comes increasingly to substitute for religion
Institutionalization of English studies as cultural remediation for working class men returned to night school
Intellectual despair and cynicism
Development of detective fiction, "Grubb street" fiction, popular novels, science fiction
Social parody and satire
Fin de Siecle; Art for Art’s Sake; Decadence
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY:
Elitist movement reacting against excesses of late Victorian literature and popular culture
World War I—a experience of loss and anarchy, an opportunity for cultural exchange—especially cross-fertilization of U.S. and European influences in British literature
Literary exiles and expatriates
Irish literary nationalism
Emphasis on material world, art as artifact, clean spare language in poetry
Rediscovery and elevation of metaphysical poets
Institutionalization of literary studies and literary criticism
Imagism, symbolism
Interest in jazz
Fascination with the "primitive" in art and literature
Dadaism, cubism, surrealism
Experimentation with time and narrative in fiction
Development of the stream of consciousness style in fiction
Fragments
An emphasis on reordering the world according to modern principles—a break with unifying narratives of the past
World War II
Colonialism and its effects
Effects of British education and politics on peoples as diverse as those of India, South Africa, Canada, and the Caribbean
Fascination among English speaking readers with these diverse voices from the former British colonies
COURSE POLICIES
Attendance:
You can't participate in a community of writers and thinkers unless you are here. This is especially true for an evening class that meets only once a week. Attendance, therefore, is required. A medical emergency will excuse an absence and allow you to submit the work due for that day. Absences for extra-curricular involvement will also be excused, but please let me know ahead of time that you will be gone. Three unexcused absences will lower your final grade. If you wish to have an absence excused, please write me a letter explaining why you missed class, and I will decide whether to excuse the absence or not; if I do not receive a letter from you within one week of your absence, I will assume that it is unexcused. This applies to the above athletic and illness-related absences as well.
Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct is a serious offense which is recognized not only by Goshen College and other academic institutions but also by state and federal law (and, of course, all future employers). Academic Misconduct may be defined as receipt or transmission of unauthorized aid on assignments or examinations, plagiarism, unauthorized use of examination materials, or other forms of dishonesty in academic matters. Plagiarism is using anyone else's ideas or words without giving them credit. In this class, plagiarism is the unpardonable sin. Not only does is it dishonest, it cheats you of a learning experience. The only way to grow as a writer and thinker is to struggle with your own words as you craft your own ideas.
Plagiarism will result in a zero for the assignment or failure of the course
Paper Policies:
Major papers, projects, and portfolios that are late will be lowered half a letter grade. Major papers, projects, and portfolios more than one week late will not be accepted and will be counted as zeros.
A weekly response paper turned in late—but within the allotted week—will be given credit, but will not be read by me unless you make an appointment with me to go over it together.
As stated above, late papers will be penalized. Only illness, medical emergency, or other serious extenuating circumstances will excuse you from this policy. Therefore, if you cannot turn in a paper on time for one of these reasons, please contact me and we will make other arrangements. (If you are involved in some extra-curricular activity--e.g. choir, athletics, ministry team--and there is some conflict with a due date, please see me before the due date.)
The following calendar gives you the due date for every paper in this class: please plan accordingly.
Papers should always be handed in to me. Do not give them to another student. Always keep a copy of the paper for yourself and keep two backup computer disks of all your work.
Brit Lit 1800 to the Present Calendar
Expect frequent updates!
JANUARY
Romanticism
9 W Introduction to the Course
Romanticism, Revolution and Reaction
11 F Read in the Norton:
"The Romantic Period," pp. 1-23
"English Controversy about the Revolution" 117-136
William Blake, bio and "Songs of Innocence and of Experience," 35-38, 43-59
View William Blake Archive Website
Introduce Poetry analysis assignment
14 M Women poets and the revival of the sonnet; Lyrical Ballads
Read in the Norton:
Anna Letitia Barbauld, bio and 24-31
Charlotte Smith, bio and 32-35
Mary Robinson, bio and 91-94
"Apocalypse by Imagination," 161-62
William Wordsworth, bio and selections from Lyrical Ballads, 219-229,
"Preface to Lyrical Ballads," 238-250
"Two April Mornings," 256
"The World is too much with us," 297
"Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways," 299
RESPONSE PAPER DUE: Suggested poetry analysis #1 (Response Paper due on every subsequent Wednesday unless announced or you are doing your group meeting report.)
16 W Walking, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Conversation poems
Read in Norton: Wordsworth, cont’d: "Tintern Abbey," 235
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Dorthy Wordsworth, bio and 387-400
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, bio and
"The Eolian Harp," 419
18 F Coleridge: Conversation poems cont’d. and Poems of Dream and Fantasy
Differences with Wordsworth over the substance of poetry
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,"422-438
"Kubla Khan," 439
"Frost at Midnight," 457
"Work without Hope," 467
from "Biographia Litteraria," 469-471
21 M Martin Luther King, JR DAY
23 W Frankenstein
25 F Frankenstein
Early Victorians
28 M Read in Norton: Percy Shelley, bio and poems 698-702 and 720-732, 763-68
and "A Defence of Poetry" 790-802; selections from Byron
30 W Read in Norton: John Keats, bio and poems 823-829, 834-856 and 872-73
Intro to Jane Eyre and discussion of Frankenstein and female creativity
Women’s education, social status, economic and cultural roles
Utilitarianism
Education and Religion
FEBRUARY
1 F Jane Eyre
Rewriting the Bible from a feminine perspective: the Natural world as spiritual guide
4 M Jane Eyre: Romantic v. Victorian tensions
Views of nature, the individual and society
Colonialist bias
6 W Jane Eyre
8 F Review for Test
11 M TEST #1 on the Romantics
Mid-Victorians
Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites: Mythological themes
Bio plus "The Kraken," "Mariana," "The Lotos-Eaters," "Ulysses," "Tithonus"
15 F Tennyson, "In Memoriam" and Darwin, Parts I-III, with an emphasis on scientific thought before
Darwin: pp. 1-64
18 M Darwin, Selections from The Voyage of the Beagle and Origin of the Species, 64-174
20 W More on Darwin. Descent of Man (selections), 175-254; Essays by George Levine, "Darwin and Pain: Why Science Made Shakespeare Nauseating," and Gillian Beer, "Darwin’s Plots" on pp. 639-652.
Required response paper: Discuss 3 passages in Darwin’s writing that caught your attention, why, and what you learned from them. What aspect of his writing was most impressive to you? Most unexpected?
22 F Elizabeth Barrett Browning, bio and all selections, pp. 1173-1198.
J.S. Mill, bio and "What is Poetry?" "On the Subjection of Women," and selections from "On Liberty" and "Autobiography" (I suggest beginning the Mill reading with the selections from the autobiography), pp. 1137-1173.
Mid to Late Victorians
25 M Robert Browning and the dramatic monologue; DUE: 3-page prospectus for synthesis paper with 5
annotated sources.
27 W Cultural Conservation: John Henry Cardinal Newman,
John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice; The Storm-Cloud of 19th c
Thomas Carlyle
MARCH
1 F Thomas Henry Huxley and the Defense of Darwin; Matthew Arnold, Selections from "Culture and Anarchy" (1528-1533).
SPRING BREAK
13 W Matthew Arnold, poetry and literary criticism: "The Buried Life," "The Scholar Gypsy," "Dover
Beach," "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (1514-1527), and "The Study of Poetry" (1534-44).
15 F Pater and Hopkins
EDWIDGE DANTICAT VISIT—S.A. YODER LECTURE
18 M Wilde, "The Importance of Being Ernest"
20 W Shaw, "Mrs. Warren’s Profession"
Modern Literature
22 F Test #2
25 M Irish Literature: Joyce, "Araby"
27 W World War I Poets: Owen, etc.
29 F GOOD FRIDAY
EASTER
APRIL
1 M W. B. Yeats
3 W D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield
5 F Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature and Consciousness
"The Rise and Fall of Empire," 2017-2040
8 M Heart of Darkness
10 W Heart of Darkness
12 F Wide Sargasso Sea (Professor at conference)
15 M Begin "Wide Sargasso Sea"
17 W "Wide Sargasso Sea"
LAST DAY OF CLASS
18, 19 Reading/Advising Day
22 M –FINALS WEEK
25 April-1 May SEMESTER BREAK
2 R -- MAY TERM BEGINS