Updated
November 30, 2023
Canvas
Assignments
Useful Links
Office:
Smith Hall, 07
Office Hours: Via
Zoom or in-person.
Phone: 997-6754 (office)
Email: ruppel@chapman.edu
Class Meetings: T-Th, 2:30-3:45pm, Smith Hall 101
Text: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 10th edition, Volumes D, E, & F
Course
Description and Objectives:
This course introduces a wide range of literature written in Great Britain
between 1789 (when 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
texts but of the texts 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 29-31: Introduction and William Blake
Week 2 – September 5-7: Blake & William Wordsworth
Week 3 – September 12-14: Wordsworth
Week 4 – September 19-21: Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Lord Byron, & John Keats
Week 5 – September 26-28: Percy
Shelley, John Keats, & Romantics wrap-up
Week 6 – October 3-5: Continued Romantics
wrap-up. Introduction to the Victorians, Alfred Tennyson. (Discussion of paper topics &
requirements)
Week 7 – October 10-12: Alfred
Tennyson & Robert Browning. (Paper 1
due, October 12)
Week 8 – October 17-19: Browning & Christina Rosetti.
Week 9 – October 24-26: 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.] W. B. Yeats.
Week 10 – October 31-November 2: Virginia
Woolf, “The Mark on the Wall” & selections from A Room of One's Own.” James Joyce, "The Dead”
Week 11 – November 7-9: Joyce,
"The Dead,” Doris Lessing, “To Room Nineteen.”
Week 12 – November 14-16: Salman
Rushdie, “The Prophet’s Hair.”
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week
13 – November 28-30: Zadie
Smith, “The Waiter’s Wife.” Plus, class
choice.
Week 14 – December 5-7: Semester wrap-up. (Paper
2 due, December 5)
Week 15 - Final: 8-10:30am,
Wednesday, December 13.
*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% (4-5 pages, due October 12)
Essay 2: 25% (5-6 pages, due December 5)
Final: 30% (8-10:30am, Wednesday, December 12)
*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.
Grade Scale:
A
92 to 100%
A-
90 to < 92%
B+ < 90% to 88%
B < 88% to 82%
B- < 82% to 80%
C+ < 80% to 78%
C
< 78% to 72%
C-
< 72% to 70%
D+ < 70% to 68%
D
< 68% to 63%
D-
< 63% to 60%
F
< 60% to 0%
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 31: 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 5: Continued
discussion of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.
For Thursday, September 7: 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 10am Thursday, September
7.
For Tuesday, September 12:
Read the introduction to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (441-44), “The Eolian
Harp” (444-445), and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (448-464).
For Thursday, September 14: Read “Kubla Khan” (464-466), and
respond to the question in Canvas about “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
For Tuesday, September 19: No new reading.
For Thursday, September 21: 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 26:
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 28: 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). Respond to
the question about Keats by 10am, September 28.
For Tuesday, October 3:
Bring your first paper topic to class.
Read pages 3-27, an introduction to The Victorian Age.
For Thursday, October 5:
Read the introduction to Alfred Tennyson (142-45) and his “Mariana” (145), “The
Lady of Shalott” (147), and “Ulysses” (156). Remember that you need to clear
your first paper topics with me by October 5.
For Tuesday, 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 Thursday, October 12: First essay due (by
midnight, October 12). Read Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” (328),
and “The Bishop Orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed’s
Church” (332).
For Tuesday, October 17: 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).
For Thursday, October 19: 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.
For Tuesday, October 24: No new reading. Continued discussion of the works you
chose. By 10am Tuesday, October 24,
respond to the Canvas Discussion question about your work.
For
Thursday, October 26: Read the introduction to William Butler Yeats
(209-12) and his “The Stolen Child” (212-13), “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”
(215), “When You are Old” (216), “Adam’s Curse” (218), and “No Second Troy”
(219). These are in The Twentieth
Century and After volume of the Norton Anthology.
For Tuesday, October 31: Read the
introduction to Virginia Woolf (270-71), “The Mark on the Wall” (272-76), and
the selection from A
Room of One’s Own,
(392-400), a famous, fictional account of what might have happened to
Shakespeare’s talented and doomed sister, whom Woolf names Judith Shakespeare.
Feel free to dress appropriately for the day.
For Thursday, November 2: Read the
introduction to James Joyce (404-7) and his greatest short story, “The Dead”
(411-40). John Huston’s adaptation of
the film, with Anjelica Huston playing Gretta, is available on Swank. Essays
comparing the film and the story welcome.
For
Tuesday, November 7: Continued discussion of “The Dead.” Respond
to the question about the story on our Canvas discussion board by 10am
Tuesday.
For
Thursday, November 9: Read the introduction to Doris Lessing (900)
and her “To Room Nineteen” (901-22).
For
Tuesday, November 14: Read
the introduction to Salman Rushdie (1142-3) and his “The Prophet’s Hair”
(1144-53), a coldly brilliant story concerned with the corrupting influences of
money and religion.
For
Thursday, November 16: No new reading. Bring ideas for your second essay.
For
Tuesday, November 28: Read “The Waiter’s Wife,” by Zadie Smith.
Choose a work in our anthology not on the syllabus and written after 1960 that
you’d like the class to read.
For
Thursday, November 30: To be determined.
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.
·
See the two
articles on Rossetti in the Contents section of Blackboard.
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.
Zadie Smith
·
“The Waiter’s Wife.” In Granta, 1999.
·
“The
Fall of My Teenaged Self,” in The New Yorker, November 20,
2023.
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
