ENGLISH III: SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE
SPRING 1999
PROFESSOR MCNEES (871-2861)
emcnees@du.edu
OFFICE HOURS: TUES. 3:00-5:00 p.m. & by appointment
SYLLABUS
 
The survey will fall into three chronological parts: The Romantic Period (1798-1832); The Victorian Period (1832-1901); and The Modern Period (1901-1945). In an exploration of the poetry, fiction and essays of each period, we will address issues of individual, cultural and historical identity with a close eye to the events that shaped these issues. We will also investigate the ways in which each period represents both a reaction to and an extension of its predecessor. Students will be responsible for two short (5 pg.) papers on an aspect of the literature, a literary terms journal and a short essay on a literary term, three hour examinations (one on each period) and a final dramatic presentation. Class attendance and participation in discussions are critical. More than three unexcused absences over the course of the term will result in a lowered grade. Note the literary terms assigned each week to accompany the reading. In your literary terms notebook, give a concise but careful definition of each term and an example from your reading. I shall peruse these during each hour examination. The paper on the literary term should refer to three different sources and should be turned in the week after the particular term is assigned. In the case of terms from the final week of class, the paper will be due on the last day of class.
 
REQUIRED TEXTS
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature (NA), vol. 2
Barker, Pat. Regeneration
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
MacDonald, Stephen. Not About Heroes
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway
 
GRADES
Grades will be averaged as follows: 2 short papers = 15% each; 3 exams = 15% each; literary terms paper = 10%; literary terms journal = 5%; dramatic reading = 5%; attendance and participation = 5%.
 
SYLLABUS
 
Week One ROMANTICISM: 1798-1832
  My heart leaps up when I behold
   A rainbow in the sky:
  So was it when my life began;
  So is it now I am a man;
  So be it when I shall grow old,
   Or let me die!
  The Child is father of the Man;
  And I could wish my days to be
  Bound each to each by natural piety. (Wordsworth, "My heart leaps up").
 
3/25 TERMS: NEOCLASSIC PERIOD / ROMANTIC PERIOD
Introduction: Romantic Poetry—Wordsworth, Coleridge & Lyrical Ballads: "We are Seven," "Lines…Tintern Abbey" (NA); Pope, Fr. Essay
On Man
 
Week Two
 
 3/30 TERMS: *ORGANIC FORM / *ODE / FANCY & IMAGINATION
  Wordsworth "Preface, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality; Coleridge,
  "To William Wordsworth" (NA)
 4/1 Coleridge, "The Eolian Harp," "Kubla Khan," "Dejection: An Ode,"
  Fr. Biographia Literaria (381-95); Mill, Fr. "Coleridge" (1001-03)
 
Week Three
  4/6 TERMS: *ALLEGORY / *SYMBOL / *SUBLIME
   Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Mechanic vs. Organic Form,"
   "Allegory & Symbol" (NA 397-400); Movie: "Rime" (combined class)
 4/8 Shelley, "To Wordsworth," "Ozymandias," "A Song: `Men of England,’"
  "England in 1819," "Ode to the West Wind," Fr. "A Defence of Poetry"
  (NA 752-65)
 
Week Four
 4/13 TERMS: *NEGATIVE CAPABILITY / *SONNET
  Keats, "When I Have Fears," "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian
  Urn," Fr. Letters: NA 829-44)
 4/15 Hour Examination on Romantic Poets
 
 
Week Five VICTORIAN PERIOD (1832-1901)
  But where will Europe’s latter hour
  Again find Wordsworth’s healing power?
  Others will strengthen us to bear—
  But who, ah! Who, will make us feel? (Arnold, "Memorial Verses" 1850)
 
 4/20 TERMS: VICTORIAN PERIOD / *METER / *PERSONA /
  *DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE / DRAMATIC LYRIC
  Introduction to Victorian Period: Tennyson, "The Lady of Shalott," "The
 Lotos Eaters," "Ulysses," "Tithonus," "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (NA)
 4/22 Browning, "My Last Duchess," "The Bishop Orders His Tomb," "Childe
  Roland," "Andrea del Sarto," (NA)
 
Week Six
4/27 TERMS: *PATHETIC FALLACY / *GOTHIC NOVEL / *BILDUNGSROMAN / *POINT OF VIEW
  Ruskin, "Of the Pathetic Fallacy," "The Stones of Venice" (NA 1278-90)
  Brontë, Jane Eyre
 4/29 Brontë, Jane Eyre (movies); (combined class) PAPER #1 DUE
 
Week Seven
 5/4 TERMS: AESTHETICISM / INSTRESS / INSCAPE / *METAPHOR
  Pater, Fr. The Renaissance, NA 1530-34; Hopkins, "God’s Grandeur,"
  "The Windhover," "Pied Beauty," "Carrion Comfort," "No Worst, There
  Is None" (NA)
 5/6 Hour Examination on Victorian Period
 
Week Eight THE MODERN PERIOD (1901-1925)
  To snatch in a moment of courage, from the remorseless rush of time, a passing phase of
  Life, is only the beginning of the task. The task approached in tenderness and faith
  Is to hold up unquestioningly, without choice and without fear, the rescued fragment
  Before all eyes in the light of a sincere mood. (Conrad, Fr. Preface to The Nigger of
  The Narcissus 1898)
 
5/11 TERMS: POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES / MODERN PERIOD / MODERNISM / PRIMITIVISM & PROGRESS
  Introduction to Modern Period: Conrad, Heart of Darkness (NA)
 5/13 World War I Poetry: Hardy, "Channel Firing"; Sassoon, "`They," "The
  Rear Guard"; Owen, "Anthem for Doomed Youth," "Dulce Et Decorum
  Est," (NA). MacDonald, Not About Heroes
 
Week Nine
 5/18 TERMS: CRITICISM / DIALOGIC CRITICISM
  Barker, Regeneration
 5/20 Woolf, "Modern Fiction" (NA); Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
 
Week Ten
 5/25 TERMS: *STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
  Mrs. Dalloway
5/27 Dramatic Reading of World War I Material; (combined class) PAPER #2 DUE
 
 6/3 Final Hour Examination (Modern Period)