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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "EN 232"
COURSE NAME: "English Literature III: The Victorians to the Modernists"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2025
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Livia Sacchetti
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: TTH 4:30 PM 5:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: EN 110 with a grade of C or above
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Considering major British and Irish writers since 1832, this course deals with, among other concerns, the various ways in which the Victorians and selected writers of the first half of the 20th century responded to the inheritance of Romanticism. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 200-level literature classes are required to produce 4-5,000 words of critical writing.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

A continuation of ENG 231, this course aims to shape the students' understanding of the ways in which literature responds to and portrays deep societal changes. The course covers the movement from Victorian literature to Modernism. Changes in the conceptualization of class, gender, science, technology and the meaning of realism are crucial within this time span and carry us to the way we narrate the human experience today. Literature gives voice to the increasing concerns of the time, changing as these change over the course of two momentous centuries, dubbed by historians the long century (1800's) and the brief century (1900's) respectively. Literary form across genres redefines its tenets to reflect: changing working conditions; new inventions; the fall of imperialism and two world wars; a second scientific revolution; the birth of psychology.

Students will be engage in the discussion of a wide variety of texts across genres to understand such changes. The course will combine a close reading of specific texts and excerpts with an evaluation of larger formal changes that reconfigure literary paradigms and reshape the role of literature in society. For this reason, this is a reading intensive course; students will be expected to come to have class having completed the required reading. 

 

 
LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon completing the course, the students will have developed the ability to identify the key elements in Victorian literature and Modernism, and to develop an interpretation of a text accordingly. They will have expanded their knowledge of the poignant relationship between history (and the history of ideas) literary form.

Through the three papers they will submit, the students will hone their capacity to evaluate the details shaping a text in light of larger conceptual concerns. To do so, they will use both the knowledge acquired through the lectures and Socratic seminar and that stemming from select secondary sources. 
TEXTBOOK:
NONE
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
First Essay1400-1600 words; two secondary sources required20%
Second Essay1400-1600 words; two secondary sources required.25%
Third Essay1600-1800; research focus.25%
Final ExamClose-text analysis of a given excerpt from a known selection.25%
Class Participation and paper proposals 5%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance is mandatory. After your third absence, failure to attend class will impact your grade incrementally. Significant lateness to class or absence from class for an extended time during its duration will be counted as an absence.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

Week 1: The Victorian age: realism, photography and the rise of the middle class

  • Rags to riches; the Victorian novel
  • Focus author: Charles Dickens

Week 2: The Victorian age: realism, photography and the rise of the middle class

  • Rags to riches; the Victorian novel
  • Focus author: Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Week 3: The Victorian age: femininity and desire

  • The feminine: reversing the hierarchy
  • Gothic setting: phantom desires/ phantom voices/ phantom agents
  • The marriage plot and undoing the marriage plot
  • Focus author: Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

Week 4: The Victorian age: femininity and desire

 

  • The feminine: reversing the hierarchy
  • Gothic setting: phantom desires/ phantom voices/ phantom agents
  • The marriage plot and undoing the marriage plot
  • Focus author: George Eliot (Genetics & Darwinism), The Lifted Veil

Week 5: The Victorian age: Science & the Psyche

  • The boundaries of the self/ class/ the narrative/ morality
  • Focus author: Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Week 6:  The Victorian age: poetry

  • Verses and realism: reshaping poetic form
  • Focus authors: Elizabeth Barrett-Browning; Robert Browning

Week 7: The Victorian age: the theater as a middle class activity

  • The well-made play 
  • Farce
  • Focus authors: George Bernard Shaw; Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Week 8: The Brief Century: Angst and identity

  • Psychology; Relativity; World War I
  • The Modernist novel
  • Focus authors: James Joyce: Araby, Eveline, The Dead

Week 9: The Brief Century: Angst and identity

  • Psychology; Relativity; World War I
  • The Modernist novel
  • Focus authors: James Joyce Araby, Eveline, The Dead
  • The writer as a critic: Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Week 10:The Brief Century: Angst and identity

  • Psychology; Relativity; World War I
  • The Modernist novel
  • The writer as a critic: Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Week 11: The Brief Century: Angst and identity

  • Psychology; Relativity; World War I
  • Modernist poetry
  • Focus authors: TS Eliot, The Waste Land

Week 12: The Brief Century: Angst and identity

  • Psychology; Relativity; World War I
  • Modernist poetry
  • Focus authors: TS Eliot, The Waste Land

Week 13 : The Brief Century: Angst and identity

  • Psychology; Relativity; World War I
  • Absurdism
  • Focus authors: Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Week 14:

The Brief Century: Angst and identity

  • Psychology; Relativity; World War I
  • Absurdism
  • Focus authors:Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot