, Communication Building
David Ackley
Department of Literary and Cultural Studies
Bryant University
Office: K201, Suite K, Communication Building
Office hours: Friday 1 pm to 2 pm and by appointment
Email: [email protected]
LCS 364: British Literary Contexts: Restoration to the Present
Fall 2015
Class Description:
This course examines the critical, social, cultural, and historical contexts crucial for understanding British literary production from the eighteenth-century to the present. Materials will include canonical and non-canonical works representing the broad diversity of perspectives and voices in British literature. Students will employ a variety of critical methodologies to examine the ways texts both reflect and shape political and aesthetic values.
Learning Objectives:
Develop a knowledge of British literary and cultural production from the eighteenth century to the present.
Describe and critique the social, historical, and linguistic worlds that surround these texts.
Gain an understanding of both traditional and emerging scholarly frameworks for considering the period
under discussion.
Class Requirements:
The requirements for the class include:
Attendance, participation, reading quizzes, class projects and activities (30% of student’s grade)
Two short papers (30%)
Mid-term exam (15%)
Final exam (25%)
Students will also be required to memorize two poems over the course of the semester. These memorizations
will be tested by written quiz.
Required Texts:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors (volumes 1 and 2), 9th edition
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Third Norton Critical Edition)
Philip Larkin, Collected Poems (ISBN 978-0-374-52920-8)
Recommended: A good college writing manual such as Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers’
A Pocket Style Manual (Bedford/St. Martin’s).
Course Policies:
· The syllabus, class assignments, and other important class material can be found on the class Blackboard page. Be sure to check Blackboard regularly for information about the class. For class readings and assignments, consult the syllabus, but make sure and check Blackboard for updates.
· Class participation and comportment. Students are always welcome to ask questions, make observations, and raise concerns. Class participation is an important part of your grade, and some students will naturally be more confident talking in class than others. For this reason, it is imperative that students treat each other with respect in the classroom. Disruptions of any sort in the classroom cause students to de-value their contributions and discourage class discussion. Texting in class is forbidden, as is talking when another student is speaking. The class participation portion of your grade will reflect your general comportment in class.
· Regular attendance in class is required. Students may miss up to three classes without it impacting their final grade; six or more absences over the course of the semester is grounds for failure. If you are on a sports team with a demanding travel schedule, you should discuss it with me. Routine illness is not considered an excused absence. Contact me in the event of a serious medical situation, and check in with Blackboard regularly in order to keep up with work in the class.
· Papers should be uploaded on Blackboard on the day that they are due. Each paper must be submitted through the links accessible on our class Blackboard page. I do not accept late papers. In extraordinary circumstances, I will grant an extension for a paper, but only if that extension is requested before the due date of the paper, and I reserve the right to deduct five points for each day that the paper is late. If an extension is granted, make sure and confirm it in writing with an email.
· Laptops should be used appropriately in the classroom. While many students use their laptops to take notes during class, laptops can also interfere with class discussion. If I sense that students are not on-task with respect to laptop use, students will be asked to close their laptops.
· Paper Format. Papers should use MLA format. An overview of MLA format can be found on the Purdue OWL site. Your papers must be in Times New Roman font, in twelve point type, double-spaced, and with standard margins. Place your name, class section and date in the upper left corner. A student may be asked to re-submit his or her paper if it does not follow this criteria.
· Plagiarism is against Bryant University policy and will be dealt with severely. Plagiarism is the unattributed use of another writer’s words in your own written work. Plagiarism is a serious offense and, according to university policy, may result in you receiving a failing grade in the course.
Office hours. If you are not able to come to my scheduled office hours, please contact me in order to schedule a meeting.
Grading Scale
93-100: A
90-92: A-
87-89: B+
84-86: B
80-83: B-
77-79: C+
74-76: C
70-73: C-
67-69: D+
64-66: D
63 and below: F
Schedule of Readings and Assignments
(schedule is subject to change; always check Blackboard)
** Note: When reading an author’s selection from the Norton Anthology, always read the short biographical overview on the author’s life and work as well.
Week One: Introduction
Sept. 9: Introduction
Sept. 11: Nationalism, British and Otherwise.
Gellner, “What is a Nation?” (Blackboard).
Week Two: England and the Larger World in the Eighteenth Century
Sept. 14: Norton: “The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century 1660-1785” (930-960)
Swift, “A Description of a City Shower” (1057)
Swift, “A Modest Proposal” (1199)
Sept. 16: Montagu, Selected Letters and “Epistle from Mrs. Yonge” (1269-1275)
Wilmot, “The Disabled Debauchee,” “The Imperfect Enjoyment,”
and “Upon Nothing” (999-1004)
Sept. 18: Olaudah Equiano, Selections from The Interesting Narrative of the Life
Of Olaudah Equiano (1384-1394)
Week Three: Print Culture and Eighteenth-Century Britain
Sept. 21: Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Criticism” (1205-1225)
Sept. 23: Samuel Johnson, Selections from the Rambler (1327-1333); A Dictionary of the English
Language (1334-1340); on Shakespeare and Milton (1340-1356)
Sept. 25: William Collins, “Ode to Evening” (1402)
Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard” (1396)
Christopher Smart, “[My Cat Jeoffry]” (1404)
Week Four: Romanticism and Nature
Sept. 28: Wordsworth, “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” (135-147)
Wordsworth, Selections from Lyrical Ballads (127-187) [TBA]
Sept. 30: Wordsworth, Selections from Lyrical Ballads (127-187) [TBA]
Wordsworth, Selections from The Prelude: “Book First. Introduction: Childhood
And School-time.” (194-207)
Dorothy Wordsworth, selections from The Alfoxden and Grasmere journals (234-246)
Oct. 2: Selections from Coleridge, Shelley and Clare [TBA]
Week Five: Authorship and Literary Celebrity
Oct. 5: Boswell, Selections from The Life of Samuel Johnson (1357-1371)
* Note: This reading is from Volume I of the Norton Anthology
Oct. 7: Selections from Byron (312-361) [TBA]
Oct. 9: Selections on “fame” from Byron, Keats, and Shelley [TBA]
Week Six: Austen and the Rise of the Novel
Oct. 12: No class
Oct. 14: Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Oct. 16: Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Week Seven: The Victorian World
Oct. 19: Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Oct. 21: Mid-Term Exam
Oct. 23: Criticism on Pride and Prejudice
Week Nine: The Victorian Period
Oct. 26: Norton: “The Victorian Age 1830-1901” (533-559)
Oct. 28: Arnold, Excerpts from “The Function of Criticism
at the Present Time” and Culture and Anarchy (771-786);
“Dover Beach” (764).
Oct. 30: Mayhew, Selections from London Labour and the London Poor (handout)
Week Ten: The Victorian Supernatural
Nov. 2: Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (831-874)
Nov. 4: Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (831-874)
Nov. 6: Criticism on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (handout)
Week Eleven: The Victorian Period
Nov. 9: Rossetti, “Goblin Market” (803-814)
Nov. 11: Tennyson, selected poems [TBA]
Nov. 13: Hardy, selected poems (986-995)
Week Twelve: Modernism and the Twentieth Century
Nov. 16: Norton: “The Twentieth Century and After” (959-983)
Nov. 18: Woolf, “The Mark on the Wall” (1097-1102) and
“Professions for Women” (1217-1220)
Nov. 20: Joyce, “Araby” (1223) and “The Dead” (1227-1255)
Week Thirteen: Lyric Poetry of the Early Twentieth Century
Nov. 23: Yeats and Auden, selected poems (see below)
Nov. 25 and 27: Thanksgiving Break
Week Fourteen: Post-Modernism and Post-Colonialism
Nov. 30: Rushdie, “The Prophet’s Hair” (1516);
Walcott, selected poems (1445-1449)
Dec. 2: Smith, “The Waiter’s Wife” (1540)
Dec. 4: Larkin, selected poems from The North Ship and The Less Deceived
[Note: All of Philip Larkin’s individual books can be found in the edition
of Collected Poems assigned for the class.]
Week Fifteen: Larkin and British Literary History
Dec. 7: Larkin, selected poems from The Whitsun Weddings
Dec. 9: Larkin, selected poems from High Windows
Dec. 11: Review for Final Exam
Final exam: Saturday December 19th 2 pm to 4:30 pm
November 23rd: W.B. Yeats (1057), “When You Are Old” (1063), “The Second Coming”
(1073), “Sailing to Byzantium” (1077), “Crazy Jane Talks to the Bishop”
(1083).
W.H. Auden (1411), “Lullaby” (1412), “As I Walked Out One Evening”
(1413), “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” (1416), “September 1, 1939” (1419).
