| Wednesday, 29 August: Innocence and Experience |
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"Introduction: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries" L 2A3-29
William Blake, selections from Songs of Innocence and Experience
"Nurse's Song" (I) and "Nurse's Song" (E) L 2A 164-65, 174
"The Lamb" (I) and "The Tiger" (E) L 2 A 159-60, 177-78
"The Chimnety Sweeper" (I) & "The Chimney Sweeper" (E) L 2A 161-62, 174
"Holy Thursday" (I) and "Holy Thursday" (E) L 2A 164, 170-71
"The Divine Image" and "A Divine Image" (E) L 2A 163, 183
"The Clod and the Pebble" L 2A 170
"The Garden of Love" L 2A 178
"The Sick Rose" L 2A 174
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| Response Assignment (All): Select ONE of the poems listed above and write a short (one paragraph) analytical comment about it. You might focus on the poem's metrical features, its distinctive language or use of imagery, its relation to its poetic double and/or its accompanying illustration (illustrations are available on the "Supplemental Materials" page on Blackboard). Be sure to post your comment to the "Discussion Board" before class. Come to class prepared to discuss your insights into the poem you have chosen. |
| Monday, 3 September: Labor Day |
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No Class Meeting |
| Wednesday, 5 September: Romantic Revolutions |
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Arthur Young, from The Example of France, a Warning to Britain L 2A 147-49
Edmund Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France L 2A 103-12
Mary Wollstonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Man L 2A 112-20
Anna Letitia Barbauld, "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven" L 2A 69-77
John Wilson Croker, "A Review of 'Eighteen Hundred and Eleven'" L 2A 78-79
Readings on the Sublime, the Picturesque, and the Beautiful L2A 30-46 |
| Monday, 10 September: Romantic Revolutions |
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Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Sonnet: England in 1819" L 2A 824
"The Mask of Anarchy" L 2A 825-34
William Wordsworth
from "Preface" to Lyrical Ballads L 2A 408-20
"The world is too much with us" L 2A 450
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from Biographia Literaria L 2A 634-41 |
| Wednesday, 12 September:
Emotion Recollected in Tranquility |
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William Wordsworth
"Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey" L 2A 404-8
"The Solitary Reaper" L 2A 533-34
"The Old Cumberland Beggar" L 2A 428-32
"Strange fits of passion I have known" L 2A 421-22
Song ("She Dwelt among th' Untrodden Ways") L 2A 422-23
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality . . ." L 2A 528-33
"Expostulation and Reply" L 2A 401-2
"The Tables Turned" L 2A 402-3
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| Response Assignment (All): Post to the "Discussion Board" a brief comment (a paragraph or two) about one or more of the poems assigned for today. Your comment might pertain to the text's formal aspects (structure, meter, language, etc), or it might investigate the way(s) in which the poem reflects the poetic theories laid out in the "Preface" to Lyrical Ballads. Be sure to post your comment to the "Discussion Board" before class. Come to class prepared to discuss your insights. |
| Monday, 17 September: The Urban Experience |
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William Blake, "London" L 2A 179
Joanna Baillie, "London" L 2A 362-63
Percy Bysshe Shelley,
"Sonnet: England in 1819" L 2A 824
William Wordsworth
"London, 1802" L 2A 451-52
"Composed upon Westminster Bridge" L 2A 450
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| Response Assignment (All): Consider these poems about London and write a brief (one paragraph) discussion of the representation of the city in Romantic poetry. You may focus on a single poem or construct a comparative analysis of more than one poem. How does the Romantic imagination cope with urban space? What urban anxieties and pleasures are revealed in these poems? What similarities do you see between London as it is represented in these texts and the images of nature that are more often associated with Romantic poetry? Your paragraph should be carefully revised and posted to Blackboard prior to our class meeting. |
| Wednesday, 19 September: Dream Visions |
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Thomas De Quincey, from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater L 2A 1055-1071
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"Kubla Khan" L 2A 614-16
"Frost at Midnight" L 2A 576-77
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" L 2A 580-97
Mary Robinson, "To the Poet Coleridge" L 2A 616-18
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| Response Assignment (Group 1): Post to the "Discussion Board" two discussion-style questions focused on ONE of the texts assigned for today. Be sure to post your questions to the "Discussion Board" before class. Come to class prepared to discuss your insights. |
| Monday, 24 September: Dream Visions |
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Finish discussion of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
John Keats
"Ode to a Nightingale" L 2A 953-55
"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" L 2A 924
"Ode on a Grecian Urn" L 2A 955-57
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias" L 2A 823
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| Response Assignment (Group 2): Craft two discussion-style questions focused on ONE of the texts assigned for today. Be sure to post your questions to the "Discussion Board" before class. Come to class prepared to discuss your insights. |
| Wednesday, 26 September: Communing with Nature |
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Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Mont Blanc" L 2A 817-23
"To a Skylark" L 2A 837-39
"Ode to the West Wind" L 2A 835-37
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| Response Assignment (Group 3): Craft two discussion-style questions focused on one of the texts assigned for today. Be sure to post your questions to the "Discussion Board" before class. Come to class prepared to discuss your insights. |
| Monday, 1 October: Romantic Monstrosity |
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Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Vol. I (3-64) |
| Response Assignment (Group 1): Write and post to the "Discussion Board" two discussion-style questions on this portion of Frankenstein. After you have posted your own questions and read those posted by your classmates, choose one question from the group and write a brief (one page maximum) response to that question. Post your response to Blackboard, and be prepared to discuss your response with your classmates. |
| Wednesday, 3 October: Romantic Monstrosity |
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Continue discussion of Frankenstein, Vol. II (64-115) |
| Response Assignment (Group 2): Write and post to the "Discussion Board" two discussion-style questions on this portion of Frankenstein. After you have posted your own questions and read those posted by your classmates, choose one question from the group and write a brief (one page maximum) response to that question. Post your response to Blackboard, and be prepared to discuss your response with your classmates. |
| Monday, 8 October: Romantic Monstrosity |
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Conclude discussion of Frankenstein, Vol. II (115-79) |
| Response Assignment (Group 3): Write and post to the "Discussion Board" two discussion-style questions on this portion of Frankenstein. After you have posted your own questions and read those posted by your classmates, choose one question from the group and write a brief (one page maximum) response to that question. Post your response to Blackboard, and be prepared to discuss your response with your classmates. |
| Wednesday, 10 October: From Monster to Midterm |
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Exam review
Distribution of take-home essay portion of the Exam, due Monday, 15 October |
| Monday, 15 October: Midterm Examination |
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The Exam will be given during our regularly scheduled class period. You are required to supply your own bluebooks for the Exam. Bluebooks are available at the campus bookstore. If you do not bring a bluebook to the Exam, you may purchase one from me at the obscenely inflated price of $5 or else forfeit 10 points from your Exam score. Plan ahead: buy your bluebooks early (and bring extras to sell to your desperate classmates)!
If you miss the Exam, you will need to contact me immediately to make alternate arrangements. "Make-up" exams will be given only at my discretion, and only in cases of extreme necessity. In other words, if you miss the Exam, you'd better have an amazing (and thoroughly documented) excuse.
The Exam will be in two parts: Part I will consist of a take-home essay, due at the BEGINNING of class, Monday, 15 October. Part II will be administered during our regularly scheduled class meeting on that day. |
| Wednesday, 17 October: Victorian Art and Artists |
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"The Victorian Age: Victoria and the Victorians" L 2B 1099-1102
"The Age of Reading" L 2B 1115-20
"The Role of Art in Society" L 2B 1120-22
Robert Browning, "Fra Lippo Lippi" L 2B 1433-42
Christina Rosetti, "In an Artist's Studio" L 2B 1728-29
Matthew Arnold
"Sweetness and Light" L 2B 1695-97
"The Scholar Gypsy" L 2B 1672-78
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| Monday, 22 October: Victorian Art Theory |
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John Ruskin
from Modern Painters L 2B 1578-80
from The Stones of Venice L 2B 1580-90
from Modern Manufacture and Design L 2B 1590-93
Oscar Wilde,
Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray L 2B 2002
Walter Pater,
from The Renaissance, "Preface" and "Conclusion" L 2B 1778-81, 1782-84
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| Wednesday, 24 October: Victorian Progress |
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"The Age of Energy and Invention" L 2B 1102-1105
"The Industrial Catastrophe" L 2B 1106-08
"The Age of Reform" L 2B 1108-1110
"The Industrial Landscape" L 2B 1137-8
Thomas Carlyle, from Past and Present L 2B 1125-1136
Charles Dickens
"A Walk in a Workhouse" L 2B 1513-17
A Christmas Carol L 2B 1464-1513
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| Response Assignment (Group 1): Construct a "thesis statement" of no more than a single page, putting forth an argument about A Christmas Carol. Think about this as an embryonic paper (in miniature): craft a very precise, tightly focused statement about the text. Post your paper to the "Discussion Board" well in advance of our class meeting, and be prepared to present, explain, and defend your analysis in class. |
| Monday, 29 October: Social Transformation |
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Conclude discussion of A Christmas Carol |
| Wednesday, 31 October: Science, Evolution, and Religious Doubt |
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Charles Darwin
from On the Origin of Species L 2B 1357-62
from The Descent of Man L 2B 1362-68
from Autobiography L 2B 1368-74
Thomas Henry Huxley, from Evolution and Ethics L 2B 1398-1403
Robert Browning, "Caliban upon Setebos" L 2B 1454-146 |
Response Assignment (Group 2): Select one of the textual excerpts from Darwin or Huxley and write a short (one paragraph) summary of it. Your summary should focus on the central argument or idea of the text and include only the most essential of its details. |
Monday, 5 November: Existential Crises |
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Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde L 2B 1939-77
Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach" L 2B 1662-63 |
| Response Assignment (Group 3): Construct a "thesis statement" of no more than a single page, putting forth an argument about The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Think of this as an embryonic paper (in miniature): craft a very precise, tightly focused statement about the text. Post your paper to the "Discussion Board" well in advance of our class meeting, and be prepared to present, explain, and defend your analysis in class. |
| Wednesday, 7 November: Images of Empire |
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"The Age of Empire" L 2B 1112-15
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" L 2B 1291-93
Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Minute on Indian Education" L 2B 1897-1901
Rudyard Kipling
"The White Man's Burden" L 2B 1936-37
"Recessional" L 2B 1885-86
"Without Benefit of Clergy" L 2B 1860-74
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| Response Assignment (Group 1): Write a short (one paragraph) summary of Macaulay's "Minute." Your summary should focus on the central argument or idea of the text and include only the most essential of its details. |
| Monday, 12 November: Veterans Day |
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No Class Meeting |
| Wednesday, 14 November: Victorian Travelers |
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Charles Darwin, "Tierra Del Fuego" L 2B 1347-57
Sir Henry Morton Stanley, from Through the Dark Continent, L 2B 1921-27
Mary Kingsley, from Travels in West Africa L 2B 1928-1935
Sir Richard Francis Burton, from A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah L 2B 1908-13 |
| Response Assignment (All): Write a brief response to the readings assigned for today. Your response may focus on a single text, or it may unite multiple texts. What strikes you most about these texts? How do these texts represent the wider world to a metropolitan readership? What do these texts suggest about the relationship between Britain and its colonial Other? |
| Monday, 19 November: Female Emancipation |
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"The Woman Question" L 2B 1110-12
"Victorian Ladies and Gentlemen" L 2B 1626-27
John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women L 2B 1176-86
Florence Nightingale, Cassandra L 2B1608-1625 |
| Response Assignment (Group 3): Write a short (one paragraph) summary of Cassandra. Your summary should focus on the central argument or idea of the text and include only the most essential of its details. |
| Wednesday, 21 November: Women and Men |
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from Aurora Leigh L 2B 1203-25
Robert Browning
"Porphyria's Lover" L 2B 1411-13
"My Last Duchess" L 2B 1415-16
Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market" L 2B 1731-44 |
| Response Assignment (All): In no more than two sentences, articulate a brilliant insight into one of the texts assigned for today. Think of this as a sort of sound-bite literary analysis. If you had but one thing to say about the text (and less than a minute to say it), what would you say? |
| Monday, 26 November: Entrapment and Escape |
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Ulysses" L 2B 1244-46
"Come Down, O Maid" and "The Woman's Cause is Man's" L 2B 1258-1260
"Mariana" L 2B 1233-35
"The Lady of Shalott" L 2B 1235-39
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| Response Assignment (All): In no more than two sentences, articulate a brilliant insight into one of the texts assigned for today. Think of this as a sort of sound-bite literary analysis. If you had but one thing to say about the text (and less than a minute to say it), what would you say? |
| Wednesday, 28 November: The Aesthete |
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Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest L 2B 2004-43 |
| Response Assignment (Group 2): Construct a "thesis statement" of no more than a single page, putting forth an argument about The Importance of Being Earnest. Think of this as an embryonic paper (in miniature): craft a very precise, tightly focused statement about the text. Post your paper to the "Discussion Board" well in advance of our class meeting, and be prepared to present, explain, and defend your analysis in class. |
| Monday, 3 December: Sex, from Comedy to Scandal |
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Conclude discussion of The Importance of Being Earnest
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Scandal in Bohemia" L 2B 1557-1572 |
| Wednesday, 5 December: Endings |
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Final Exam Review
Course Evaluations
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| Wednesday, 12 December: Final Examination |
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The Final Exam will be held in CIS, room 1023, from 3:30-5:30 pm. You are required to supply your own bluebooks for the Exam. Bluebooks are available at the campus bookstore. If you do not bring a bluebook to the Exam, you may purchase one from me at the obscenely inflated price of $5 or else forfeit 10 points from your Exam score. Plan ahead: buy your bluebooks early (and bring extras to sell to your desperate classmates)!
The Final Exam will be the same format as the Midterm, with one exception: there will be no "take-home" portion. The Exam will be administered in its entirety during the scheduled Exam window. |