Syllabus demo

ENGLISH 495

Eighteenth-Century British Literature Fall 2009

Office Hours

This semester I’ll have two offices on campus. If you would like to set up a conference, call me on my cell above and we can find a convenient time.

Course Description

Survey of authors, genres, and themes of the Eighteenth Century with an emphasis on Restoration Comedy and the novel.

Prerequisite

Completion of sophomore English requirements.

Required Textbooks

Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. Ed. A. J. Rivero. 2^nd ed. New York: Norton, 2003.

McMillin, Scott, ed. Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy. 2^nd ed. New York: Norton, 1997.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Ed. A. J. Rivero. New York: Norton, 2002.

Wheeler, David, ed. Restoration and Eighteenth Century Poetry in its Cultural Context. New York: Pearson, 2007.

Course Objectives

This course seeks to help students:

• Develop an appreciation for key authors, works, and themes of eighteenth-century British literature.
• Identify and analyze texts from significant genres, with an emphasis on comedy and satire in drama and prose fiction.
• Write effectively as a result of clear thinking, extensive reading, and careful observation.
• Consider the role eighteenth-century movements and writers have played in shaping the Christian tradition.
• Articulate a personal worldview as we evaluate the worldviews that inform the course readings.

Course Format

Our class meetings will combine lectures, class discussions, and small-group discussions. Though I think you will enjoy the discussion format, it does require not only participation but also preparation on your part. To succeed in this class, you will need to leave time to complete the reading, take notes as you read, and respond to the reading. All of the writing we will do this semester—whether through reading notes, essay examinations, or the research project—will benefit from the time you put into each reading.

Faith and Learning

The English Department at ACU shares a common commitment to preparing thoughtful, mature graduates for Christian service and leadership throughout the world. Spiritual maturity doesn’t develop overnight but is nurtured through serious and sustained study of texts sometimes sympathetic to the Christian worldview and sometimes opposed to it. We believe that genuine maturity is formed often by struggling with the issues raised by texts and reflecting on the significance they hold for ourselves and our world. Just as Jacob wrestled with God and was blessed, we believe the questions students encounter during their time at ACU may be as important as the answers in shaping their future faith and character. This course seeks to raise challenging questions that lead students to read carefully, think critically, and communicate clearly.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

Quizzes

At the beginning of most class days, we will have a short reading quiz. I don’t repeat questions or give make-ups, so you’ll want to be on time. Each quiz will contain basic, factual questions from the assigned reading or its introductory material. As a rule, you should leave time to read poems and short works at least twice, paying special attention to the structure of the work, its genre or type, and memorable plot details or figures of speech.

Reading Notes

Students are strongly encouraged to read assigned texts actively, underlining and making marginal notes as they read and responding to themes, characters, or connections that make them noteworthy. These notes might include plot summaries or character lists that help to keep assignments from running together. Make sure to make note of any unfamiliar vocabulary you encounter as you read. Then look new words up in a college dictionary or the OED before coming to class. Since reading notes may be counted on occasion as extra quiz grades, remember to bring them to class.

Coffeehouse Podcast

The coffeehouses of London were the gatherings that digested the political, social, and philosophical events of the day even as they read and debated the latest poem. One week this semester, you and a partner will produce a short podcast that takes a cultural topic from the obscurity of the past and makes it immediately accessible to readers today. Your podcast will present research through a blend of first-hand reports and diaries and more recent histories and criticism that suggests connections with the texts we’re reading.

Your final product should run 10-15 minutes, no exceptions. Though you may divide other tasks, both partners will need to contribute original library and web research on your chosen topic. Your presentation should provide a self-contained introduction to your cultural or critical topic, so take time to offer essential definitions or background where necessary. A bibliography of sources in MLA form will be due the next class meeting.

As in coffeehouse conversation, style matters as much as substance. Having something important to say is a given, but saying it with style will take wit and ingenuity. Look for ways to create interest in your topic. You’re welcome to submit an audio-only podcast with overheard conversations and reenactments or a video podcast or slideshow with interviews or researched images from the period. The only requirement is that your final submission be iTunes compatible, so talk to me if you have questions or ideas.

Prospectus

A few weeks before the Research Paper is due, you will write a 1-2 page prospectus summarizing your proposed topic and approach. You might begin by raising questions that interest you about your chosen text, its organization and development, or relationship to its audience or its age. The prospectus is a required step that will be graded as part of the final research project. Your idea may build on research you completed for your podcast, but don’t feel limited if your interests have changed. Once the prospectus has been approved, you will need to talk to me before changing topic.

Your prospectus document should include a Working Bibliography of at least 15-20 promising sources, including books and journals. The bibliography will be graded and should follow MLA form exactly, with the exception that each entry should include the Abilene library—ACU, APL, HSU, MCM—where the source can be found followed by its call number. All web sources for the bibliography and the final paper will need to be approved by me.

Research Project

Following the approval of the prospectus, each student will write an 8-10 page research paper. Where the podcast presentation simply provided context and background for further reading, the research paper will need to contribute to our appreciation or analysis of an assigned author or text this semester. Be looking for ways to connect personal areas of interest or expertise with our study, from the absence of women in the coffee houses or Royal Society to early print journalism and the prose style of the novel. Before you begin writing, I’m also willing to talk about your research question and strategies for finding strong sources in the library and in academic databases.

Though every project will be built upon recent critical and theoretical approaches, your argument must ultimately present an analysis of a literary work informed by its cultural context. No matter the approach, most research into the eighteenth-century is built on the foundation of significant reading in primary texts (essays by Dryden or poems by Pope not on the reading list) or other primary sources (contemporary legal documents, sermons, newspapers, etc). Since we will spend a month of our time working on your paper, leave time to talk with me to ensure you’re turning in upper-level research. Internal citations and the Works Cited page should follow MLA form carefully.

Exams

There will be two major exams covering previously assigned readings. Every effort should be made to take the exam with the class though rare exceptions may be made for a makeup without penalty. Failure to complete any exam will result in failure of the course.

Each exam will include short answer, quotation, and essay sections. Since essays on both exams will be comprehensive in scope, detailed reading notes early in the semester will prove invaluable when reviewing for the Final.

COURSE POLICIES

Grade Distribution

Success in this course will require a serious investment of time on a variety of assignments throughout the semester. If you plan to be concerned about your final grade in December, you will want to set aside time now for the following major assignments:

Quizzes      10%

Podcast      20%

Research Project      30%

Mid-term Exam      20%

Final Exam      20%

Grade Weights

Unit exams will be based on the same scale used to determine final grades:

A      =      99-92

B      =      91-83

C      =      82-74

D      =      73-65

F      =      below 65

Attendance

According to departmental policy, students must attend 80% of the class meetings in order to receive credit for the course, which means for MWF classes 10 absences will constitute an F. However, this is an upper-level course, and excessive absences or lack of participation will affect not only your daily average but also your success on most major projects.

Finally, if you come in late, it is your responsibility to make sure you were not counted absent. Any assignments missed during an absence are still binding: it is your responsibility to make arrangements, when possible, before you miss class or to find out what you missed before the next class meeting.

Academic Dishonesty

Described alternately as plagiarism, intellectual theft, or fraud, academic dishonesty has no place in any university, especially a Christian one. I personally maintain a zero tolerance policy towards all academic dishonesty, from plagiarizing an essay to copying reading notes or cheating on a quiz, and reserve the right to respond appropriately. Individual responses may range from an F on the assignment to an F in the course. The university has developed a comprehensive Academic Integrity Policy which can be found at http://www.acu.edu/campusoffices/provost.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Aug. 24	Syllabus and Introductions
26	Breaking News Timeline, Coffeehouse Podcast Assignment
28	Podcast Project: Coffee House Conversation Coffeehouse Podcast, Diary of Samuel Pepys blog, “The Story So Far”
31	Introduction to Comedy. Etherege, The Man of Mode I-III (Norton Critical Edition 87-132)
Sept. 2	Etherege, The Man of Mode IV-V (NCE 132-67)
4	Podcast Examples: Coffee House Conversation Actress Diary, Fashion & Fops
7	Congreve, The Way of the World I-III (NCE 251-92)
9	Congreve, The Way of the World IV-V (NCE 292-319)
11	Podcast #1: Coffee House Conversation
14	Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer screening
16	Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer discussion
18	Podcast #2: Coffee House Conversation
21	Sheridan, School for Scandal I-III (NCE 385-421)
23	Sheridan, School for Scandal IV-V (NCE 421-454)
25	Podcast #3: Coffee House Conversation
28	Introduction to Satire. Swift, “Description of a City Shower” (Wheeler 31-4); Gay, Trivia (35-40)
30	Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe” (327-36); Johnson, “London” (47-57)
Oct. 2	Podcast #4: Coffee House Conversation
5	Pope, “The Rape of the Lock” (248-82); Swift, “Lady’s Dressing Room,” (203-208)
7	Defoe, “The True-Born Englishman”; Swift, “A Modest Proposal”
9	Podcast #5: Coffee House Conversation
12	Swift, Gulliver’s Travels I (NCE 2-66)
14	Swift, Gulliver’s Travels II (NCE 67-125),
16	Podcast #6: Coffee House Conversation
19	Swift, Gulliver’s Travels III.i-v, x-xi (127-58, 175-84)
21	Podcast #7: Coffee House Conversation
23	Fall Break
26	Swift, Gulliver’s Travels IV i-vi (NCE 185-257)
28	Swift, Gulliver’s Travels IV vii-xii (NCE 185-257)
30	MID-TERM EXAM
Nov. 2	RESEARCH TOPIC due
4	BIBLIOGRAPHY due
6	Podcast #8: Coffee House Conversation
9	Introduction to the Novel. Behn, Oroonoko
11	PROSPECTUS due.
13	Podcast #9: Coffee House Conversation
16	Defoe, Moll Flanders (NCE 1-48)
18	Defoe, Moll Flanders (NCE 48-101)
20	Podcast #10: Coffee House Conversation
23	Defoe, Moll Flanders (NCE 101-59)
25	Thanksgiving Holiday
27	Thanksgiving Holiday
30	Defoe, Moll Flanders (NCE 159-210)
Dec. 2	Defoe, Moll Flanders (NCE 210-68)
4	RESEARCH PAPER due
7	Dead Day
10	FINAL EXAM: Thursday, 2-4

PODCAST PRESENTATION TOPICS

#1-3  Coffee House Conversations

– Newspapers and News writing

– Two-Party Politics

– New Theatres, Actors, and Audiences

– London Before and After the Fire

– Fashion, Fops, and Finery

The reign of Charles II saw a series of isolated innovations which have had far-reaching consequences for English politics and culture. These decades saw the introduction of coffee houses, periodical newspapers, and the first actresses to London’s West End. As a result of the new taste for coffee and lively conversation on topics from theatre to foreign wars, adversarial journalism helped encourage the formation of carefully defined parties which would shape not only parliament but the direction of English-speaking democracy to the present day. The literary controversies often rivaled political ones, as when literary speculators tried their hand at writing plays, novels, and criticism. As women like Aphra Behn competed with their male rivals for the right to shock and amuse, religious critics like Jeremy Collier published attacks on the “Immorality and Profaneness” of the stage.

#4-7  The Satirist’s Art

– Satirizing Morality in Hogarth

– Satirizing Poets in Dryden

– Satirizing Gender in Pope

– Satirizing Utopia in Swift

– Satirizing the Great Man in Gay

The Long Eighteenth Century has often been described as an Age of Satire as English printers, poets, and playwrights adapted classical models to take on contemporary issues. From prints like Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress which offered London an ironic reflection of its view of love and marriage to the darker distortions of literary ambition in Dryden’s “MacFlecknoe” and of colonial desire in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, each sought to amuse the very audiences it was subtly indicting.

#8-11  Shaping New Forms

– “Rise” of the Novel

– Mock Poetics and the Ballad Opera

– Underworld London and Crime

– Spiritual Autobiography

The years that saw the massive rebuilding efforts of central London also saw literary genres, rising as if on new foundations. The spirit of invention and novelty reigned as early prose writers attempted to demarcate the limits and extent of the novel even as poets and playwrights inverted classical familiar forms to achieve new and surprising ends.

Spirituality and Skepticism

– Dissenting Voices

– Enlightenment Skepticism

– English Hymn-writers

– Critics and Criticism

One of the chief contradictions of the Eighteenth Century is its ability to give birth to Enlightenment skepticism and early Evangelicalism. Dissenting groups like the Puritans, Baptists, and Methodists developed not only preaching traditions but hymn-writing and a devotional literature which continues to be heard, read, and sung. Curiously, the same urge to question received opinion and practice seems at the heart of the explosion of pamphlet writing in not only religious controversy but scientific and philosophical speculation and literary criticism.