Updated
November 21, 2024
Canvas
Assignments
Useful Links
Office:
Smith Hall, 07
Office Hours: 10-12
pm Wednesday and by appointment.
Phone: 997-6754 (office)
Email: ruppel@chapman.edu
Class Meetings: T-Th, 1:00-2:15pm, Argyros Forum
208
Text:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 10th edition, Volumes D, E, & F
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Course
Description and Objectives:
This course introduces a wide range of literature written in Great Britain
between 1789 (when William Blake published Songs of Innocence) and the
present (we'll conclude with Zadie Smith’s, “The Waiter’s Wife," first
published in 1999). An enormous amount of important work was written over these
two centuries, and they span four major periods: Romantic, Victorian, Modern,
and Post-Modern. We will read a relatively small, representative sample, but
you will still need to do a lot of reading, and the poetry, essays, fiction,
and drama will require your full attention, so don’t fall behind. My
lectures and our class discussions will be much more interesting and useful to
you if you keep up.
I make significant use of the Web. Our
syllabus will be updated on this Web page, where I will post assignments &
useful Web links. I will also ask you to contribute regularly to threaded
discussions in Canvas, and I may ask you to engage in other online
activities.
Since this course is the third part of a historical survey, we will pay attention to the historical context as we read each of these authors, and we will pay attention to the way British literature changed through these decades. We will become more familiar with the characteristics of the poetry and prose of each period, but we will also pay attention to what makes the work of each of these writers unique.
As
in most literature courses, this class has an important writing component,
including the Canvas threaded discussions, the two required essays, and the
final exam. We will devote class time to developing your essay topics,
and we will review the criteria I will use to evaluate your essays. You
will discuss and clear your topics with me, and I will accept a revision of one
of your essays. You can expect me to read your essays closely.
English
223 is a required course that may be taken to fulfill the English major. We will pay special attention to numbers 1,
2, 4, and 6 of the English Literature
Program Learning Objectives listed below, and you will be able to develop
and demonstrate these skills in your discussion board responses, formal essays,
and final exam:
1.
Skill in
critical reading, or the practice of identifying and interpreting the formal,
rhetorical, and stylistic features of a text
2.
Ability
to identify and compare key literary movements and genres
3.
Ability
to explain and apply significant theoretical and critical approaches in the
field of English studies
4.
Skill in
writing grammatically, coherently, and persuasively
5.
Skill in
finding, analyzing, and utilizing secondary sources (including the appropriate
methods of citation)
6.
Skill in
crafting a compelling thesis-driven essay, with substantiating evidence
Our Course Learning Outcomes are the
following:
1.
We will
practice critical reading, especially of poetry, leading us to be able to
identify the formal, rhetorical, and stylistic features not only of individual
works but of the works we associate with particular literary
movements – this should help you identify and compare the key literary
movements and genres of the Romantic, Victorian, Modern, and Post-Modern
periods.
2.
You will
improve your understanding of the development of English literature from 1789
to the present within its historical context, so you will be able to list some
of the characteristics of the literature in each period.
3.
We will
work on your writing this semester. We
will have writing workshops before the first essay is due, and you will be
allowed to revise one of your essays. You will gain some tools that will help
you edit your own writing.
Weekly Syllabus*
Week 1 – August 27-29: Introduction and William Blake
Week 2 – September 3-5: Blake & William Wordsworth
Week 3 – September 10-12: No class September 10. Wordsworth
Week 4 – September 17-19: Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Lord Byron, & Percy Shelley
Week 5 – September 24-26: John Keats,
& Romantics wrap-up
Week 6 – October 1-3: Continued Romantics
wrap-up. Introduction to the Victorians, Alfred Tennyson. (Discussion of paper topics &
requirements)
Week 7 – October 8-10: Alfred
Tennyson & Robert Browning. (Paper 1
due, October 10)
Week 8 – October 15-17: Browning & Christina Rosetti.
Week 9 – October 22-24: Oscar
Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde,” Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Speckled Band,” and Rudyard Kipling, “The Man
Who Would be King.” [Student
choice.]
Week 10 – October 29-31: Virginia Woolf, “The Mark on the Wall” & selections from A
Room of One's Own.” James Joyce,
"The Dead”
Week 11 – November 5-7: Joyce,
"The Dead,” Doris Lessing, “To Room Nineteen.”
Week 12 – November 12-14: Salman
Rushdie, “The Prophet’s Hair.”
Week
13 – November 19-21: Zadie Smith, “The Waiter’s Wife.”
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 14 – December
3-5: Semester wrap-up. (Paper 2 due, December 5)
Week 15 - Final: 10:45-1:15pm, Tuesday,
December 10.
*These authors or works may change, but I'll give you plenty of
notice, and I'll keep the syllabus updated on the Web.
Final drafts
of your papers should be submitted via email.
I will accept a revision of one of your essays, but you must schedule a
conference with me to discuss that revision before you submit it. I will
average the grade of the original paper and the revision.
I will both grade and mark
essays earning a grade of C- or higher. I will not put
a grade on an essay that earns a grade lower than C-. If I
return an essay to you that does not include a grade, I am treating your
submission as a draft, not as a final copy.
You will need to make an appointment to see me so we can go over the
essay together and work out a revision strategy.
Grades:
Assignments & Participation*: 20%
Minutes: 10%
(Beginning week 2, each student will work with a partner to keep the week’s
minutes)
Essay 1: 15% (1450-1750 words, or about 4-5 pages,
due October 10)
Essay 2: 25% (1750-2150 words, or about 5-6 pages, due December 5)
Final: 30% (8-10:30am, Wednesday,
December 11)
*This is primarily your grade on the Canvas Discussion Board
posts. Here are my criteria for
evaluating your posts:
1. The posting should respond as specifically as
possible to the prompt (or you should indicate why you’re modifying the
prompt).
2. The posting should reveal close engagement with the work under discussion.
3. The posting should contribute to the discussion, so later postings should
not simply repeat earlier postings, and they should reflect some engagement
with earlier postings.
4. Postings should be substantive.
I will post grades in Canvas, which will
calculate your overall grade for the class. The official grades are those I
calculate myself, and these are nearly always the same as those Canvas
creates. If there is a discrepancy
between the grade you see in Canvas and the grade I have in my gradebook,
however, the gradebook grade is the one that’s correct. I am always happy to
discuss your grades with you.
Chapman University Academic Integrity Policy:
Chapman University is a community of scholars
that emphasizes the mutual responsibility of all members to seek knowledge
honestly and in good faith. Students are responsible for doing their own
work, and academic dishonesty of any kind will be subject to sanction by the
instructor and referral to the university's Academic Integrity Committee, which
may impose additional sanctions up to and including dismissal. (See the
Undergraduate Catalog for the full policy.) Though I am not requiring you to submit
your reflections via Turnitin, I am an expert at finding sources, online and
otherwise, so I will notice if you make unacknowledged use of someone else’s
work. And if I have doubts, I will submit your work to Turnitin
myself. So please save both of us from trauma and write your
Canvas Discussion posts and essays yourself.
ChatGPT and other Large Language Model (LLM)
chatbots:
1. Typing
a prompt into an LLM chatbot, copying the response, and then submitting that
response for an assignment is an obvious form of academic
misconduct. Don’t do it.
2. Chatbots
are often inaccurate. When I asked ChatGPT for a biography of
Richard Ruppel, a Chapman English professor, I found that I was born in
Fairview (false), had been an expert on the Holocaust (mostly false), had
graduated from Yale and Harvard (false), and was now dead (demonstrably, I
hope, false). People in the field describe these errors as
“hallucinations,” but they are presented with supreme self-confidence.
Hallucinations are not uncommon.
3. If I
suspect that you have pasted in a response
produced by an LLM, I will check the various services that can detect
this. If those services confirm my suspicion, I will call you in for
a conference.
4. Chatbots
can be inaccurate, but they do offer clear, useful information which users
should check. These are early times, but through this semester (and
through your academic career) we will all discover ways to help you use them to
enhance your learning.
The following discussion of the use of LLMs in
academic settings was developed by Dr. Nora Rivera, a professor in Chapman’s
English department:
|
Acceptable Uses of
LLMs |
Not Acceptable Uses
of LLMs |
|
·
To improve your work ·
To brainstorm ·
To explore potential counterarguments ·
To fine-tune research questions ·
To draft an outline to organize your thoughts ·
To check grammar and style ·
To check format ·
To translate words and phrases |
·
To replace your work ·
To cheat on the writing & research process ·
To obtain answers to assessments ·
To generate a full draft of your work ·
To generate large chunks of text with little or no input
from you as an author |
·
Students must cite AI technologies
when appropriate (e.g., when using images generated by AI technologies, when
referencing an answer provided by AI technologies, et cetera)
·
Copying works entirely
generated by AI technologies and submitting them as original content is
considered an academic
integrity violation
·
Always revise your work
before submitting it. You are responsible for any inaccurate, biased,
offensive, or otherwise unethical content you submit regardless of whether it
originally comes from you or an AI model.
In-Class use of laptops, tablets, and phones:
You may use a laptop to take class notes only when
you are one of the week’s note-takers. Otherwise, laptops and
tablets must remain closed, and you may not consult your phone during
class. If you have a reason to consult one of these devices during
class, you must receive my permission to do so beforehand. If I see
you consulting your phone during class, I will mark you absent.
Chapman Equity and Diversity Policy:
Chapman University is committed to ensuring equality and valuing
diversity. Students and professors are reminded
to show respect at all times as outlined in Chapman’s Harassment
and Discrimination Policy. Any
violations of this policy should be discussed with the professor, the Dean of
Students and/or otherwise reported in accordance with this policy.
Chapman's Students with Disabilities Policy:
In compliance with ADA guidelines, students who have any
condition, either permanent or temporary, that might affect their ability to
perform in this class are encouraged to inform the instructor at the beginning
of the term. The University, through the Disability Services Office, will work
with the appropriate faculty member who is asked to provide
the accommodations for a student in determining what accommodations are
suitable based on the documentation and the individual student needs. The
granting of any accommodation will not be retroactive and cannot jeopardize the
academic standards or integrity of the course.
It is very important to me
that ALL students feel welcome and encouraged to learn in my classes. If you have any concerns about
participating in class, writing posts or papers, or taking our exam, do not
hesitate to speak with me. I want you to
feel challenged in this class, but if you feel overwhelmed, let me know.
For Thursday, August 29: Read the introduction to William Blake in our anthology, 122-124, and read all the Songs of Innocence and Songs
of Experience, 127-145. Select one
to read out loud to the class (after explaining, briefly, why you chose
it).
For Tuesday, September 3: Continued discussion of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs
of Experience.
For Thursday, September 5: Read the introduction to
William Wordsworth, 280-282, and “Simon Lee” (285), “We Are Seven” (288), “A
Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” (318), and “Nutting” (319). Respond to the Canvas discussion question by
8am Thursday, September 5.
For Tuesday, September 10: No class.
For Thursday, September 12: Read Wordsworth’s “Ode:
Intimations of Immortality,” 346-52. And
read the introduction to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (441-44) and “The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner” (448-464).
For Tuesday, September 17: Read Coleridge’s “Kubla
Khan” (464-466).
For Thursday, September 19: Respond to the question
in Canvas about “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by 8am September 19. (Note later due date!) Read Scene 4 of George Gordon, Lord Byron’s Manfred
(664-668), as an introduction to the Byronic Hero. Also available here
For Tuesday, September 24: Read Shelley’s “Ozymandias” (790), the introduction to John
Keats (950-52), and Keats’s “When I Have Fears” (960), “The Eve of St. Agnes,”
(961-71), and “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (972-73).
For Thursday, September 26: Read Keats’s Odes: “Ode
to Psyche” (975), “Ode to a Nightingale” (977), “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (979),
“Ode on Melancholy” (981) and “To Autumn” (1000).
For Tuesday, October 1: Bring your first paper topic to class. We’ll finish discussing Keats and sum up the
Romantic period. Read pages 3-27, an introduction to The Victorian Age. Respond to the question about Keats by 8am,
October 1.
For Thursday, October 3: No new assignment.
Remember that you need to get your topics to me by October 4.
For Tuesday, October 8: Read the introduction to Alfred Tennyson (142-45) and
his “Mariana” (145), “The Lady of Shalott” (147), and “Ulysses” (156).
For Thursday, October 10: First essay due (by midnight, October 10). Read Tennyson’s
“Locksley Hall” (163) and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (221), the
introduction to Robert Browning (321-324), “Porphyria’s Lover” (324), and
“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” (326).
For Tuesday, October 15: Read Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” (328), and
“The Bishop Orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church”
(332).
For Thursday, October 17: No new reading.
For Tuesday, October 22: Read Christina Rossetti’s introduction (535-6) and
“Song” (“When I am dead,” 536), “After Death” (537), “In an Artist’s Studio,”
“A Birthday” (539), “An Apple Gathering,” and “Winter My Secret”
(540). Begin reading one of the late-Victorian works listed below.
For Thursday, October 24: As a fond farewell to the
Victorian Age, read Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest (823),
Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (765),
Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Speckled Band” (921), or Rudyard
Kipling, “The Man Who Would be King” (941). This is your choice.
Each of the optional works is a classic example
of a different genre: satire/farce, horror, detective fiction, and adventure
fiction. All four are available on video. In your posts, you might
like to comment on the play or the story adaptation.
· This
production of The
Importance of Being Earnest is terrific, with Colin Firth, Reese
Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Rupert Everette, and other fine actors.
· I
haven’t watched this
adaptation of “Jekyll and Hyde”
(1941), but the parts I’ve seen are interesting, and it stars Spencer Tracy,
Ingrid Bergman, & Lana Turner. You’ll see that it adds a good deal of
conventional heterosexuality to a tale of what a few critics, including me, call
“bachelor fiction”: late-Victorian stories with submerged homosexual themes.
Henry James’s “The Pupil,” Joseph Conrad’s “Il Conde,” and Oscar
Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray are all examples.
· The
BBC has a nice
adaptation of “The Speckled
Band,” with Jeremy Brett as Holmes.
· John
Huston directed a remarkable “The Man Who Would be King,” with Sean
Connery, Michael Caine, and Christopher Plummer. If you’d like to see it,
you’ll need to rent it from Amazon for $2.99.
By 10am Tuesday, October 29, respond to the Canvas
Discussion question about your work.
For
Tuesday, October 29: We
begin our introduction to Modernism with Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Read the Introduction to Woolf, 270-271, the
short story, “The Mark on the Wall” (272-76), and the selection from her
extended essay, A Room of One’s Own entitled “Shakespeare’s Sister”
(392-400). A Room of One’s Own is
one of the great feminist texts, with Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman (1792), John Stuart Mill’s “The Subjection of Women”
(1869). Woolf’s contribution had the
greatest impact. Over time, her argument
influenced every academic discipline.
For
Thursday, October 31: Read James Joyce’s “The Dead” (411-440).
For
Tuesday, November 5: Read the introduction to Doris Lessing (900)
and her enigmatic, haunting short story, “To Room 19” (901-922). Michael Cunningham’s fine novel, The Hours,
is based in part on Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway (which you can read in
our anthology) and in part on Lessing’s “To Room 19.” The film adaptation of The Hours stars
Nicole Kidman (as Virginia Woolf), Meryl Streep (as the fictional Clarissa
Dalloway), and Julianne Moore.
For
Thursday, November 7:
No new reading.
For
Tuesday, November 12:
Read the introduction to Salman Rushdie (1142-43) and “The Prophet’s Hair”
(1144-53). Respond to the Discussion question about the story in Canvas by 10am
November 12.
For
Thursday, November 14: We’ll finish discussing “The Prophet’s
Hair.” Bring ideas for your second paper
to class to share with a classmate and with me.
For
Tuesday, November 19: Read the introduction to Zadie Smith
(1236-38) and our last work, “The Waiter’s Wife” (1238-48).
For
Thursday, November 21:
No new reading. Be sure to have your second paper
topic cleared.
For
Tuesday, December 3: Work
on your second essay, due December 5.
William Blake
William Wordsworth &
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
George Gordon, Lord Byron
·
Act 3, Scene 4 of Manfred, whose protagonist is the
archetypal Byronic Hero.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
·
Prometheus’s
curse of his tormenter, Zeus, also from Prometheus
Unbound.
·
“Ozymandias,” with a
video, read by Bryan Cranston. (One of the Breaking
Bad episodes is entitled “Ozymandias.”)
John Keats
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Robert Browning
George Bernard Shaw
Christina Rossetti
· In the Poetry Foundation Web pages, a
very good literary
biography of Rossetti.
· Emily Dickenson’s “I
Heard a Fly Buzz.”
· Elizabeth
Siddle Rossetti (Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s muse and wife).
Arthur Conan Doyle
Robert Louis Stevenson
·
Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1941.
·
See the Contents section of Blackboard for an essay on the history of the
insanity defense and how that relates to “Jekyll and Hyde.”
Oscar Wilde
·
Trailer for the 2002 Importance of Being Earnest.
·
The
Importance of Being Earnest, full length.
·
Accessible essay on The
Importance of Being Earnest: “The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
by Oscar Wilde: Conformity and Resistance in Victorian Society”
·
“Synchronicity and
the Trickster in The Importance of Being Earnest” By Clifton
Snider. With thanks to Jacob for finding
such a good essay that sums up a good deal of the play’s criticism.
Rudyard Kipling
· A fine, literary
biography of Kipling in The Poetry Foundation.
· See the article on “The Man Who Would Be
King” in the Contents section of Blackboard.
WB Yeats
Virginia Woolf
James Joyce
Harold Pinter
Doris Lessing
Salman Rushdie
·
Pdf
of “The Prophet’s Hair.”
·
BBC discussion of the
fatwa against Rushdie, issued in 1989, and its consequences, thirty years
later.
·
Rushdie describes the
Chautauqua stabbing incident to Stephen Colbert.
Zadie Smith
· “The Waiter’s Wife.” In Granta, 1999.
· “The
Fall of My Teenaged Self,” in The New Yorker, November 20,
2023.
· Brief interview at “Pen
& Podium.”
Harold Pinter
General
·
Women’s Suffrage in England
timeline,
illustrated, from 1832. From 1520-1979 (when
Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister).
·
Romanticism Summary PowerPoint.
·
The Victorian Period, introductory PowerPoint.
·
Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations
for Oscar Wilde’s play, Salome. And here.
·
A quotation
from Friedrich Nietzsche in The Gay
Science, 1882.
On Poetry
