Literature in English, 1775-1900, is designed as a chronological and thematic survey course. It will provide you with an intermediate-level knowledge of the major literary movements of the English-speaking world (primarily Great Britain and the United States) from the "Enlightenment" through "Romanticism" and Realism" to the beginnings of "Modernism." Along the way, the course will expand your critical vocabulary, develop your skills as a close reader, continue your training as a literary researcher, and deepen your understanding of the relation between literary text and historical context.
Apart from the major literary movements (e.g., Romanticism and Realism), you will become familiar with many of the major authors and their works in many genres, including Franklin's Autobiography, the mystical visions of Blake, Coleridge's "Kubla Khan", De Quincey's Opium Eater, Shelley's Frankenstein, Douglass' Narrative, Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Thoreau's Walden, Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
As we read these--and many other--important literary texts, we will deepen our understanding of them through intellectual time travel, placing these works in the context of the time and place in which they were written--a world defined by the struggles for empire and liberty; the competing politics of conservatives, liberals, and socialists; the dreams of romantic nationalism; the heroic movements for the rights of women, slaves, and the working class; an explosion of world-shattering new technologies; the speed-up and regimentation of everyday life; the horrors of slavery, colonialism, and the industrial revolution; the decline of religious certainty; and the failed hope for a twentieth century more stable and peaceful than the nineteenth--all of the major developments that led to the modern world.
Class Participation (15%) Discussion Board Essays (15%)
Research paper (20%) Examinations (50%)
January 8 (Wednesday): Welcome, Syllabus Overview, and Basic Introduction: "Literature as Community-Building." Photos taken.
PART I: ENLIGHTENMENT
January 10 (Friday): Lecture on Enlightenment and Revolution. Partial screening of Liberty (Part I.) Turn in three Discussion Board Essay (DBE) selections.
January 13 (Monday): Read Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (NAAL 223-269). In-class screening: Benjamin Franklin (Part I of new PBS documentary), and introduction to Franklin. DBE: (or submit on January 15): Hannah Augustine, Nick Vidoni.
January 15 (Wednesday): Franklin, continued (NAAL 269-285). Lecture and discussion.
January 17 (Friday): Revolution and the American "Enlightenment" (NAAL: Paine, 309-316; Jefferson, 322-338; Crevecoeur, 292-307.) Lecture and discussion on Enlightenment culture.
January 20 (Monday): Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative (NAAL 342-352). Introductory lecture on slave narrative and in-class screening of Africans in America (PBS documentary on slavery in early America). DBE: Hannah Augustine, Deanna Clouse, Diane Harkes, Becca Barry.
January 22 (Wednesday): Mary Wollstonecraft, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (NAEL 163-192). Lecture and discussion: gender and literary history. DBE: Fatu Kamara, Stephen Frey, Jessica Gumbs, Katy Hoenecke.
January 24 (Friday): French Revolution and English Reaction (NAEL 117-137). Lecture and discussion: liberalism and conservatism. DBE: Julie King, Nick Vidoni.
January 27 (Monday): William Blake, "Introduction" (NAEL 35-39), "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" (43-59). Lecture on Blake and literary prophecy; some group work. DBE: Stephen Frey, Hannah Augustine, Melissa Sexton, Diane Harkes.
January 29 (Wednesday): Exam #1. Exam forum on DISCUS (ask questions, clarify terms and concepts online prior to exam).
January 31 (Friday): Writing the Research Paper; Review Gibaldi, MLA Handbook (1-14). Guest speaker from Van Wylen Library; introduction to key literary reference works. How to do literary historical research.
PART II: ROMANTICISM
February 3 (Monday): Introduction to Romanticism. Read "The Romantic Period, 1785-1830" (NAEL 1-21). Lecture, reading, slides, and partial screening of Gothic).
February 5 (Wednesday): William Wordsworth, introduction (NAEL 219-221), "Tintern Abbey" (235-238), Preface to Lyrical Ballads (238-251), "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (284-285), "My heart leaps up" (285); "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" (286-292), "The Solitary Reaper" (293-294), "Mutability" (298-299). Lecture on Lake Poets; group work. DBE: Chris McGarvey.
February 7 (Friday): Samuel Taylor Coleridge, introduction (NAEL 416-418), "Kubla Khan" (439-441), Biographia Literaria (467-470, 474-483), "The Satanic Hero" (491-492). Lecture and discussion of drugs and literature, "literary Satanism." DBE: John Toth, Stephen Frey, Deanna Clouse.
February 12 (Wednesday): Thomas De Quincey: introduction (NAEL 529-530); Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (530-543). Lecture and discussion of "Orientalism" and the Cultural Sublime. DBE: Chan Saetern.
February 14 (Friday): Lord Byron: introduction (NAEL 551-555); "She Walks in Beauty" (556-557); "When a Man Hath No Freedom to Fight for at Home" (561); Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto 3 (565-582). Lecture and discussion of the "Byronic Hero"; in-class screening of Napoleon (segment on Waterloo). DBE: Sidra Tees, Diane Harkes.
February 17 (Monday): Percy Bysshe Shelley: introduction (NAEL 698-701); "Mutability" and "To Wordsworth" (701-702); "Ozymandias" (725-726); "Stanzas Written in Dejection" (726-727); "Ode to the West Wind" (730-731); "A Defense of Poetry" (789-802). Brief lecture on Shelley; group work. DBE: Ryan Boes, Sidra Tees.
February 19 (Wednesday): John Keats: Introduction (NAEL 823-826); "Ode to a Nightingale" (849-851); "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (851-853); "Ode on Melancholy" (853-854); "To Autumn" (872-873). Brief lecture on Keats and "Negative Capability"; group work. DBE: Melissa Sexton, Sarah VanKrimpen.
February 21 (Friday): Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (NAEL 903-1033 or as much as you can). In-class screening: beginning of Frankenstein (1994). Lecture and discussion of Gothic Romanticism, Vitalism, and the Horrors of Science. DBE: Fatu Kamara, Kristy VandernBerg, Deanna Clouse, Katy Hoenecke.
February 24 (Monday): Frankenstein, continued (finish the novel). Lecture on the multiple meanings on the novel; group work. DBE: Chris McGarvey, Josh Morse, Courteny Klein.
February 26 (Wednesday): Edgar Allan Poe, Introduction (NAAL 697-700); "The Raven," (701-704), "Annabel Lee" (707-708), "The Fall of the House of Usher" (717-730); "The Cask of Amontillado" (747-752). Lecture on Poe and "American Gothic"; group work. DBE: John Toth, Ryan Boes, Kathryn Korenstra, Becca Barry, Josh Ludke.
February 28 (Friday): Exam #2.
March 5 (Wednesday): Ralph Waldo Emerson, Introduction (NAAL 493-496), "The American Scholar" (525-538) and "Self Reliance" (550-567). Lecture and discussion of Emerson and American culture. DBE: Sarah Todd, Ryan Boes, John Hile, Courtney Klein.
March 7 (Friday): Walt Whitman, Introduction (NAAL 1001-1004), Leaves of Grass [1855] (NOT the NAAL)--read pages 5-24 "The Preface." Partial screenings of Voices and Visions: Walt Whitman, and New York: A Documentary History. DBE: Maureen Yonovitz.
March 10 (Monday): Whitman, Leaves (25-86). Lecture and discussion. DBE: John Hile, Sarah VanKrimpen, Becca Barry.
March 12 (Wednesday): Frederick Douglass, introduction (NAAL 967-969), Narrative (970-1001). Brief lecture on Douglass and Abolitionism; in-class screening of Frederick Douglass: When the Lion Wrote History. DBE: Willie Ziegenhagen, Shelly Segdwick, Jessica Gumbs, Katy Hoenecke, Josh Ludke.
March 24 (Monday): Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (791-821). Lecture and discussion of "Sentimentalism." DBE: Kristy VandernBerg, Maureen Yonovitz, Julie King.
March 26 (Wednesday): Henry David Thoreau, Introduction (NAAL 849-852), "Resistance to Civil Government" (852-867), Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" (910-920). Lecture and discussion of Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, and Literary Environmentalism. DBE: Willie Ziegenhagen, Chan Saetern, Melissa Sexton.
March 28 (Friday): Herman Melville, introduction, (NAAL 1103-1108), "Bartleby the Scrivener" (1109-1134). Lecture on Melville’s critique of Transcendentalism; discussion. In-class screening of a portion of Moby-Dick. DBE: Sarah Todd, Maureen Warfield, Josh Morse.
March 31 (Monday): Exam #3.
PART III: REALISM
April 2 (Wednesday): Industrialism (NAEL 1696-1697, 1702-1717); Charles Dickens, Introduction and "A Visit to Newgate" (NAEL 1333-1345). Lecture, readings, slide show on Realism. DBE: Jessica Gumbs.
April 4 (Friday): Rebecca Harding Davis, Introduction, Life in the Iron Mills (NAAL 1211-1240). Lecture on Davis and group interpretations. PAPER TOPICS (1-PAGE SUMMARY WITH LIST OF FIVE RELEVANT SECONDARY SOURCES) MUST BE SUBMITTED FOR APPROVAL ON PAPER OR BY EMAIL BY 5:00 PM TODAY. DBE: Shelly Sedgwick.
April 7 (Monday): Read Mark Twain, introduction (NAAL 1258-1261), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1265-1318). In-class screening: Ken Burns’ Mark Twain. DBE: Kathryn Korenstra, Maureen Warfield, Sidra Tees, Nick Vidoni.
April 9 (Wednesday): Finish Huckleberry Finn. Lecture on Twain and discussion. DBE: Kristy VandernBerg, Shelly Sedwick, Julie King.
April 11 (Friday): Read Booker T. Washington, Introduction, Up From Slavery (NAAL 1629-1639); W.E.B. Du Bois, Introduction, The Souls of Black Folk (1685-1686, 1692-1701). Lecture and discussion: Washington vs. Du Bois. DBE: Fatu Kamara, Chan Saetern.
April 14 (Monday): Stephen Crane, Introduction and "The Open Boat" (NAAL 1702-1720); Jack London, Introduction and "To Build a Fire" (NAAL 1743-1755). Lecture and discussion of Naturalism. DBE: Kathryn Korenstra, Chris McGarvey, Sarah VanKrimpen.
April 16 (Wednesday): John Ruskin, Introduction (NAEL 1425-1428), "The Stones of Venice" (NAEL 1432-1442); William Morris, Introduction (NAEL 1605-1606) and "How I Became a Socialist" (NAEL 1618-1621). Lecture and discussion: The Arts and Crafts Movement and the "Morality of Chairs." Introduction to Wilde.
April 21 (Monday): Oscar Wilde, Introduction (NAEL 1747-1749), Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray (NAEL 1760-1761); William Butler Yeats, "Oscar Wilde" (NAEL 2129-2130). In-class screening: The Importance of Being Earnest. DBE: Sarah Todd, John Hile, Josh Morse, Josh Ludke.
April 23 (Wednesday): Rudyard Kipling, Introduction (NAEL 1863-1864), "Recessional" (1892-1892); Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness (NAEL 1957-2017, read as much as you can, finish by Friday). Lecture and discussion: Imperialism and "The White Man’s Burden." DBE: John Toth, Maureen Warfield.
April 25 (Friday): Lecture and discussion: "What is Modernism?" SIR Evaluation.
April 28-May 2: Exam #4 TBA (see Registrar's Exam Schedule).
May 5 (Monday): Research Papers Due by 5:00 PM (English Department Office Mailbox or under my office door, Lubbers 323).
Academic Honesty Attendance and Lateness Deadlines Mutual Respect
Individual Conferences
You are welcome to confer with me during my office hours (and by appointment) at any time, and I encourage you to do so as early in the semester as possible. It helps me as a teacher if I know you as a person. I'll send sign up sheets around periodically.
Academic Support Center (ASC)
Extra one-on-one and group assistance is available at no cost from private tutors at the ASC in Van Zoeren 261 (395-7830). You should set up an appointment in advance (Monday through Friday, 9:00-5:00). The ASC's services are not just for students having great difficulty; many "A"-students benefit from the insights of additional readers.
General Literature
American Literature
English Literature
On-line Texts
Texts
Requirements
Enthusiastic participation makes this class much more enjoyable for everyone. Please keep up with the reading. I may ask you to discuss your interpretations of the readings in class. You may also acquire significant participation credit by responding to Discussion Board Essays (see below).
Three times during the semester you will
post a carefully written response of 500 or more words to the next day's readings. (This should be sent before 8PM the day before the class in which the texts will be discussed.) These essays will provide an opportunity for others to respond and may become a basis for class discussion the next day. Even if you are not assigned a DBE, you should check the Discussion Board the morning before each class. You are invited to respond to each others' postings in short forms (provocative questions, quick comments, etc.). I may call on you for some elaboration in class, and I encourage you to take risks--take bold positions, say what you really think (within the bounds of propriety for Hope College).
Your "username" is your last name; your "password" is your ID number. Call CIT (395-7670) if you have trouble. If you ever are not able to post, simply e-mail the text to me at pannapacker@hope.edu, and I will post it for you until you can solve the problem.
All contributions will count towards class participation and your overall Discussion Board grade. Please turn in the attached sign-up sheet listing your top choices by the second class. I will post the results on the course Web site's schedule section.
You will write 7-8 page research paper, 1,500-2,000 words, plus notes. Topic must be submitted for approval on April 4. The final paper is due on May 5, 5PM. See handout for more details.
There will be four exams, each worth 12.5% of the final grade. All of the exams will follow the same format and cover the most recent material.
Schedule
March 3 (Monday): Washington Irving, Introduction, "Rip Van Winkle" (NAAL 426-440); James Fenimore Cooper, Introduction, From The Pioneers (440-449); Nathanial Hawthorne, Introduction (NAAL 584-587), "Young Goodman Brown" (613-622). Lecture on American Romanticism and the Postcolonial Condition. In-class screening: segment from Last of the Mohicans (1992). DBE: Willie Ziegenhagen, Maureen Yonovitz, Courtney Klein.
Policies
As defined in The New St. Martin's Handbook, Plagiarism is "the use of someone else's words or ideas as your own without crediting the other person" (494). Make sure you have attributed your sources appropriately before handing in any assignment. Any submission that is demonstrably plagiarized will result in a permanent failure for the assignment and, in some cases, disciplinary action by the college. For more information on using sources, see The New St. Martin's Handbook, pages 476-498. Multiple submission (handing in papers used in other courses) is plagiarism, and is subject to the same penalities as downloading a paper from the Web. Expulsion from the college is a possible consequence of violations of academic honesty.
If you need to miss a class for a good reason (I realize this can happen), please let me know in advance by e-mail or in-person. Irresponsible absences and lateness will lower your grade for participation. Please try to come to class on time so as not to disturb others; however, it is better to come late--if you absolutely must--than not to come at all.
Assignments must be completed on schedule in order for this course to run properly for everyone. It's better to be late than not to submit an assignment, but late submissions, including Discussion Board Essays, are marked down fairly in proportion to the inconvenience they cause.
Participants must be free to speak their minds within the bounds of appropriate behavior. Everyone should treat each other with respect, regardless of differences of opinion or background. Everyone is free to disagree. Of course, I do not expect this will be a problem, but disorderly behavior, discriminatory language, personal attacks, and other forms of verbal abuse are not permitted.
Individual Assistance
Resources and Links (suggestions welcome)
