English 244E.001: Nineteenth Century British Literature.

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Prof. Matthew Rowlinson, UC 265, x85812. <mrowlins@uwo.ca>
Office hours: Tu 3:30-4:30, Thurs 2-4, & by appt.  

Course Description:  This course surveys British literature of the nineteenth century.  During this period it became possible for writers of poetry, fiction, and critical prose to address a mass audience.  Literature became a vehicle for national aspirations and a site of cultural and political conflicts which it will be our task to explore.   We will study the developments of poetic and fictional genres during our period, and also read a sampling of its prose commentators on literature and culture.  By close reading of this series of representative texts students will gain understanding both of the literary history of nineteenth century Britain and of questions about the function and power of cultural artifacts that remain important in our own time.

Required Books: David Damrosch et al, eds. The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vol. 2A:  The Romantics and their Contemporaries (Longman)

David Damrosch et al, eds. The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vol 2B: The Victorian Age (Longman)

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Longman) NOTE--The two volumes of the Longman anthology are available with the Longman Frankenstein at a package rate if purchased at the Western bookstore. The package ISBN is 013123403X

Jane Austen, Emma (Penguin, ISBN 0141439580)

George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (Penguin, ISBN 0141439629)

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (Broadview, ISBN 1551111802)

Schedule: Students are to complete the assigned reading before the class in which it is to be discussed. If changes are needed in the following schedule, they will be announced in class.

Week 1:  Sept. 9, Introduction.
Week 2:  Sept 14, William Blake. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plates 1-11     (Longman 136-41) Songs of Innocence(119-24).
Sept. 16, From Songs of Experience "Introduction", "Earth’s Answer", "The     Clod and the Pebble" [126-17, 129]).
 Week 3:  Sept. 21,  Songs of Experience, continued (126-35).
Sept. 23, Edmund Burke, from A Philosophical Inquiry. . .  (499-505); Immanuel Kant,     from The Critique of Judgement (513-16).
Week 4: Sept. 28, William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads, We Are Seven (341), The     Thorn (343), Expostulation and Reply (350), The Tables Turned (350), Lines written a few     miles above Tintern Abbey.... (352).
Sept. 30, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (356-62).
Week 5:  Oct. 5, Michael (369), Resolution and Independence (450), Ode: Intimations of Immortality (454). Quiz Tu Oct 5.
Oct. 7, The Solitary Reaper (460), Elegiac Stanzas Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle (461). First deadline for 800-word paper.
Week 6:  Oct. 12 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Eolian Harp (522), This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison (524), Frost at Midnight (562).  Second deadline for 800-word paper.  No extensions will be granted on this assignment.
    Oct. 14 Kubla Khan (545).
Week 7: Oct 19,  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner(1817) (528).
Oct . 21, Mary Shelley Frankenstein .
Week 8: Oct 26-28 Frankenstein, continued.
Week 9: Nov. 2, George Gordon, Lord Byron Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, (642-44,   654-55) Quiz Tu Nov. 2.
Nov. 4, So, we'll go no more a-roving (603).
Week 10:  Nov. 9, Percy Bysshe Shelley Mont Blanc (754), A Defence of Poetry (800).
Nov. 11 Ode to the West Wind (771).  
Week 11: Nov 16, John Keats The Eve of St. Agnes (865), La Belle Dame Sans Mercy     (875), Ode to Psyche (877).
Nov 18, Ode to a Nightingale (879), Ode on a Grecian Urn (882).
Week 12: Nov. 23, To Autumn (886).  John Clare The Mores (850).
 Nov. 25, Jane Austen Emma.
Weeks 13-14, Nov. 30,  Dec 2, 7: Emma.  Quiz, Tu Nov 30.
1500-word paper due Tu Dec. 7.

SECOND TERM

Week 1: Jan 4,  J. S. Mill. "Thoughts on Poetry and its Varieties" (photocopy)
    T. B. Macaulay, from "Milton" (photocopy),  Tennyson, "The Lady of Shalott"     (1141), R. Browning "Porphyria’s Lover" (1308).
  Jan. 6,  "My Last Duchess" (1311).
Week 2: Jan 11,  Tennyson, "Mariana" (1143), "Ulysses"(1150), "The Epic" (1154),     "The Passing of Arthur" (1205).
Jan 13, "Tithonus" (1152).
Week 3: Jan 18,  R. Browning, "The Bishop orders his tomb. . ."(1315), "Meeting at     Night" (1318), "Parting at Morning" (1318), "Love among the Ruins" (1321),     "Fra Lippo Lippi" (1328). Quiz Tu. Jan 18.
Jan 20, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" (1323).  
Week 4: Jan 25-27, C. Bronte, Jane Eyre.  
Week 5:  Feb 1-3, Jane Eyre.
Week 6: Feb 8, E. Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese (photocopy), "A  Curse for a Nation" (photocopy), from Aurora Leigh (1112).
Feb. 10, "A Musical Instrument" (1135).  800 word paper due Th. Feb. 10.
Week 7: Feb 15-17, Tennyson, from In Memoriam A. H. H. (1165 and photocopy).      Quiz Tu Feb 15.
Week 8:  Conference week—no class.
Week 9: Mar 1,   M. Arnold, "Dover Beach" (1551), "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse" (1555), from "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (1573).
    Mar. 3, J. Ruskin, from "The Nature of Gothic" (1476).
Week 10: Mar 8-10,  G. Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.  
Week 11: Mar 15-17, The Mill on the Floss..
Week 12: Mar 22,  D. G. Rossetti "The Blessed Damozel" (1606), "The Burden of     Nineveh" (1606), W. Morris, "The Defense of Guinevere" (1634), "The     Haystack in the Floods" (1641).
    Mar. 24,  C. Rossetti, "Song" (1612), "After Death" (1613), "In an Artist’s     Studio" (1615), "Winter: My Secret" (1617).
Week 13: Mar.29, "Goblin Market" (1618). Quiz Tu.  Mar 29
    Mar. 31, W. Pater, From The Renaissance (1665).
Week 14: Apr. 5, Wilde, from "The Decay of Lying" (1864)
    Apr. 7, Conclusion.   2500 word paper due Apr. 7

Assignments:

--Complete the reading assignments listed above by the dates specified. Come to class prepared to ask and answer questions about the assigned readings. In every Tuesday’s class I will randomly select students to present oral answers to a question on the reading. The question to be asked each Tuesday will be announced the previous week and will be posted on the course website. Your attendance and oral participation in class meetings will determine 5% of your final grade in the course.

--There will be four papers. In each term you will turn in an 800-word paper on an assigned topic. (The two shorter papers together will be worth 15% of your final grade)

--At the end of the first term you will turn in a 1500 word interpretative essay on a topic of your choice, due December 7. (15% final grade)

--At the end of second term you will turn in a 2500 word interpretative essay on a topic of your choice. In writing this paper, you will be required to refer to some of the relevant critical literature. (25% final grade)

--There will be six short in-class quizzes during the year. If you are unavoidably constrained to miss one, please speak to me in advance about an adjustment to your grade, which will otherwise be 0. I will not offer make-up quizzes. (5 % final grade)

--Finally, there will be a final exam. You will be allowed to use the course textbooks and notes from the course in writing this exam. (35% final grade)

Papers: Please submit your papers double-spaced, in a 10 or 12-point font, on 8.5 x 11" paper. Use 1" margins. You should use the citation format of either the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers or the Chicago Manual of Style. These manuals are available on the reference shelves of Weldon library; if you are unfamiliar with the protocols of scholarly citation, please ask me for assistance.

The first paper of Fall term must be turned in at the start of class on either October 2 or October 7. No extensions will be granted on this paper. Other papers should be submitted in class on the due date or at the English department drop-box outside U.C. 173. Extensions on papers should be arranged in advance of the due date; if you anticipate that you will need an extension, please contact me in person as early as possible. I will not normally grant requests for extensions made by e-mail. In the absence of an extension, late papers will be penalized.

Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea or a passage of text from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offense (see Scholastic Offense Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).

The University of Western Ontario uses software for plagiarism checking. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic form for plagiarism checking.

All instances of plagiarism will be reported to the Chair of Undergraduate Studies, who will assign a penalty in consultation with the instructor. A proven case of plagiarism may be penalized by a grade of zero on the assignment, failure of the course, or other penalty to be assessed by the Department.

Prerequisites: English 020E, 022E, 024E, or the former English 26. Students who do not have the prerequisites for this course will be removed. There will be no appeal from this decision. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.

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