English 335:
Victorian Literature
Spring 2012
Smith Hall, 112, Tuesday & Thursday, 1-2:15pm
Professor Richard Ruppel
Office: Wilkinson 24A
Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday 10-12pm, and by appointment
Phone: (714) 997-6754 (office)
Updated February 9, 2012
Assignments
Useful
Links
Blackboard
Course Description & Objectives: Though Victorian connotes staid, conventional, and repressed to the popular imagination, the rich, lively, and often irreverent literature of the British Victorian period (1832-1900) contradicts this misperception. Our semester will be built around its greatest literary form, the novel, but we'll also study representative essays and poetry. This course involves significant reading and writing, both informal (on our discussion board) and formal (essays and essay exams). Through our reading, discussion, and writing, we'll develop a clearer understanding of the period - its tensions, enthusiasms, hopes, fears, and sometimes contradictory moral and intellectual principles.
Texts:
The Norton Anthology
of English Literature: Volume E, The Victorian Age (8th Edition)
Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre (Norton Critical)
William Thackeray: Vanity Fair (Norton Critical)
Charles Dickens: Bleak House (Norton Critical)
Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Norton Critical)
Course Requirements:
Attendance: Please make every effort
to attend class. Missing more than four sessions will adversely affect
your grade, and students who miss seven or more classes will fail the course.
Communication: Whether online or in class, please be courteous and
constructive. I receive a large number of emails, so when emailing,
please identify the course (335), your last name, and the subject in the
subject line. I will respond promptly to your emails; please respond
promptly to mine.
Essays: We will discuss criteria for the essays, and I will provide an essay description with suggested topics several weeks before the due dates. These essays should be submitted in hard copy and electronically, sent directly to my email address: ruppel@chapman.edu (Please don't use the Blackboard Drop-Box.) Both essays must include citations to at least two secondary sources.
Late essays will receive reduced grades, and I will not accept papers submitted more than a week late unless you provide a convincing explanation. To pass ENG 335, you must complete both essays. If you are having difficulty completing a paper or a Blackboard post, let me know.
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.
Grades:
Participation (including Blackboard Discussion posts): 15%
*Essay 1: 20%
*Essay 2: 25%
Midterm: 15%
Final: 25%
*Students who do not submit both essays will fail the course.
Computers in class: If you use a computer to
take class notes, you may use a computer in class. Computers may only be
used for class purposes. Otherwise, they should stay closed.
English Literature Program Learning
Objectives: English
335 is one of the electives you may take to fulfill the English literature
major. In the discussion board responses, formal essays, and essay
exams, you will have the opportunity to develop and demonstrate the English
Literature Program Learning Objectives listed below:
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
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.) We will discuss the proper way to incorporate sources into
your writing as you prepare the first essay.
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.
Please see me if you have ANY concerns about completing any of the requirements
of this course.
Course Outline*:
Week 1: January
31-February 2 - Introductions, course business, and period overview.
Week 2: February 7-9 - Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus,
John Henry Cardinal Newman, The Idea of a
University. John Stuart Mill On
Liberty, The Subjection of Women.
Week 3: February 14-16 - John Stuart Mill,
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre.
Week 4: February 21-23 - Jane Eyre, Alfred Tennyson.
Week 5: February 28-March 1 - Tennyson and Robert Browning.
Week 6: March 6-8 - William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair.
Week 7: March 13-15 - Vanity Fair.
Week 8: March 20-22 - John Ruskin, midterm (March
22).
Week 9: March 27-29 - Matthew Arnold. [Essay 1
due, April 10. 5-7 pages.]
Spring Break!
Week 10: April 10-12 - Charles Dickens, Bleak House.
Week 11: April 17-19 - Bleak House.
Week 12: April 24-26 - Christina Rossetti, William Morris, Gerard Manly
Hopkins.
Week 13: May 1-3 - Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
Week 14: May 8-10 - Course wrap-up and preparation for the final. [Essay 2 due, May 8. 5-7 pages.]
Week 15: Final. Thursday, May 17,
10:45am-1:45pm.
*We may decide to alter this schedule. I will make any changes online and give you plenty of notice.
For Ground
Hog’s Day, Thursday, February 2:
Read the Introduction to the Victorian Period (979-999). Formulate one
question and one comment or observation for the Discussion Board, by noon,
February 2.
For Tuesday, February 7: Read the
selections from Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (1006-24).
Begin Jane Eyre.
For Thursday, February 9: Read the
selections from John Henry Cardinal Newman's Idea of The Idea of a
University (1035-1042). Respond to the question about Carlyle or
Newman in Blackboard by noon, Thursday.
For Tuesday, February 14: Read the
introduction to John Stuart Mill (1043-44), and the
selections from On Liberty and The Subjection of Women
(1051-70). Continue Jane Eyre, which we’ll begin discussing February
16.
· UNC Chapel Hill's extended definition of a poetry explication - from the UNC Writing Center.
· The Victorian Web: A rich collection of pages devoted to all things Victorian, sponsored by Brown University.
· Representative Poetry Online: A useful compendium of information on poetry in English, including innumerable poems, a timeline, calendar, criticism, and glossary.
· Victorian Fashion: Women. Men.
· Poet Laureates of England.
Thomas Carlyle
· Image of Jane Welsh Carlyle.
· Duke University Carlyle Letter Project.
· Exchange of essays on "The Negro Question" between Carlyle and John Stuart Mill.
John Henry Cardinal Newman
Charlotte Brontë
· Elizabeth Gaskell's biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857).
· Jane Eyre: 2006 BBC adaptation, first proposal. 2011 trailer.
Alfred,
Lord Tennyson
·
Loreena McKennitt’s musical version of “The Lady of Shalott,” with images from paintings and photos of
(presumably) the UK.
·
Tennyson himself reciting “The Charge of the
Light Brigade.”
Robert Browning
· Reading of "My Last Duchess" by Richard Howard.
William
Makepeace Thackeray
·
Trailer from the Reese Witherspoon
adaptation of Vanity Fair
(2004)
Charles Dickens
· Four scenes from the BBC production of Bleak House: (Spoiler alerts: Don't watch 2-4 until you're done with the novel.)
1. The beginning of the BBC version; introduces the Chancery, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and many important characters.
2.
Lady Dedlock in a fraught scene with
Esther:
3. This one pulls together different
scenes from Lady Dedlock's life.
·
Ralf
Fiennes reads from Bleak House (Jo’s death scene),
on Dickens’ 200 birthday.
·
New York Times column
that alludes to Bleak House as one of
the foundational texts for lawyers.
Thomas Hardy
· 1998 television version - starring Justine Waddell as Tess: an opening that includes key scenes set to music, followed by clips from the film. Another selection of scenes.