Course Syllabus

JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "EN 231"
COURSE NAME: "English Literature II: The Enlightenment to Romanticism"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Fall Semester 2012

SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Russell Shannon
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS: TTH 8:30-9:45
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: EN 110 with a grade of C or above
OFFICE HOURS: To be arranged

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
SURVEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE II: FROM RESTORATION RAKES AND SLUTS TO ROMANTIC REVOLUTIONARIES

Course Description:

A continuation of the survey begun in EN 230, this course deals with works by major British writers in the period 1660-1832. Approximately equal attention is devoted to writers of the Restoration(excluding Milton) and the 18th century and to writers of the Romantic Movement. The course may thus debate, in particular, the relative values of conservative Classicism and revolutionary Romanticism as the eternal alternatives that underlie so much of man’s speculative and creative activity. This period witnesses the restoration of the monarchy through to a return to the idea of revolution; a re-instatement of the rights of the king through to the formation of the rights of man -- and woman. The course also charts the development and flourishing of a variety of literary genres including the rise of the novel. We end the course with a reading of a seminal text for both romanticism and modernism: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
In addition to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein students will read a variety of texts and genres from the two Broadview Anthologies.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Students will gain a good basic grounding in the literature of the period from 1660-1832 as well as the historical moment out of which it emerged.

TEXTBOOK:

Book Title	Author	Publisher	ISBN number
The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 3: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century	Black et. al.	Broadview Press	1551116111
The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 4: The Age of Romanticism	Black et. al.	Broadview Press	155111612
Frankenstein	Mary Shelley	Broadview Press	1551113082

REQUIRED RESERVED READING:

NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:

NONE

GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:

Assignment	Guidelines	Weight
2 Essays of 8-10 pages 25% Each		50%
Seminar Presentation		5%
Mid-Term Exam		15%
Participation		10%
Final Exam		20%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:

PLEASE NOTE: NO COMPUTERS ARE ALLOWED IN THIS CLASSROOM. PLEASE SWITCH OFF ALL CELLPHONES ON ENTRY TO CLASS.

-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:

Attendance and class contributions are essential and mandatory.

Absences of 4 or more classes will affect the final grade for the class, as your overall mark will drop by on grade point. Two late entrances count as one absence.

Students have the option to do makeup assignments to cancel an absence if they reach 4, even if those absences have been for reasons of illness and doctor's notes have been submitted to the Assistant Dean's office.

The professor reserves the right to advise the student to drop the class if absences exceed 4, as students will have failed to complete the course requirements at that stage.

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

COURSE SCHEDULE

WEEK 1

Tues. Sept. 4

Introduction to the Course and Requirements

Civil War and its fall-out -- viewing from Simon Schama's History of Britain series

Thurs. Sept. 6 Last Day to Add/Drop

Margaret Cavendish Poetry selections, Selection from The Description of a New World, call the Blazing World and The Convent of Pleasure pp. 3-31.
Samuel Pepys's Diary selections about the Great Fire of London pp. 112-23.

Note: Wherever available read Broadview’s “In Context” material
Background reading: Broadview Introduction to The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

WEEK 2

Tues. Sept. 11 Sign-up for Presentation topics and Initiation of class discussion dates
John Bunyan selection from The Pilgrim’s Progress

Thurs. Sept. 13
John Dryden "Absolom and Achitophel"

1 Seminar: The Popish Plot and the meaning of the Biblical references in “Absalom and Achitophel” VICTOR

WEEK 3 MAKEUP CLASS ON FRIDAY

Tues. Sept. 18
Aphra Behn Oroonoko

2 Seminar: Aphra Behn: Writer or Spy? MAUREEN

Thurs. Sept. 20
William Wycherley The Country Wife

Background Reading: “Print Culture, Stage Culture”

3 Seminar: The restoration of the Theatre and cultural attitudes to it. What was it like to attend a play? Who went? What went on off-stage as well as on? VALENTINA

Friday Sept. 21 (MAKEUP DAY for Nov. 1)

Daniel Defoe Selections from Robinson Crusoe

4 Seminar: Daniel Defoe Personal and Political History and 18th century Travel Narratives CHIARA

WEEK 4

Tues. Sept. 25 Rakes and Sluts?
Eliza Haywood's Fantomina and excerpts from the works of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (Look at Rochester In Context on the website). Aphra Behn's "The Disappointment"

Thurs. Sept. 27
Read the selections from Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, Mary Astell's " A Serious Proposal to the Ladies" and "Reflections Upon Marriage," and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu "The Reasons that Induced Dr. S to Write a Poem Called the Lady's Dressing Room" and Swift's "The Lady's Dressing Room" 307 "Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to her Husband," "The Spectator No. 573"

5 Seminar: Coffee House Culture KIRILA

WEEK 5 FIRST ESSAY DUE THURSDAY Oct. 7th

Tues. Oct. 2
Jonathan Swift Selection from Gulliver's Travels

6 Seminar: Political references in Gulliver's Travels" Walpole, Anglo-French Relations etc.
Thurs. Oct. 4 ESSAY DUE DATE
Selections from Samuel Johnson in The Rambler, The Idler and the Dictionary; and excerpt from James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson p. 135

7 Seminar: Hogarth and his pictures of life and human nature LOREDANA

WEEK 6 MAKEUP CLASS ON FRIDAY

Tues. Oct. 9

Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Restoration Anthology)
Mary Prince The History of Mary Prince A West Indian Slave Related by Herself (Romantics Anthology)

Background reading: “Colonization and Slavery” on the Website and Contexts: The Abolition of Slavery in the next Anthology Age of Romanticism

8 Seminar: Slavery and the Anti-Slavery Movement in Britain TITHI

Thurs. Oct. 11
Alexander Pope "The Rape of the Lock"

9 Seminar: The "real" story behind "The Rape of the Lock" LORENZO O.

Friday Oct. 12 (MAKEUP DAY for Nov. 22) VISIT TO KEATS SHELLEY HOUSE 9:30am

WEEK 7 MID-TERM WEEK

Tues. Oct. 16

Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto
Edmund Burke’s writings on the Sublime p. 733ff

10 Seminar: The Sublime DIANA

Thurs. Oct. 18

The Labouring Class Poets: Read excerpts from Stephen Duck, Mary Collier, Mary Leapor and Elizabeth Hands
Robert Burns "To a Mouse," "A Man's a Man for A' That" "Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn," A Red, Red Rose," "Auld Lang Syne"
Cowper from The Task Book 1: The Sofa

11 Seminar: What are Land Enclosures and what was their social impact on the changing social landscape of 18^th century Britain? LORENZO P.

WEEK 8

Tues. Oct. 23 MID-TERM EXAM

Thurs. Oct. 25

William Blake "Songs of Innocence and Experience"

Background Reading: French Revolution and Napoleonic Era (Website)
View excerpt from Simon Schama's History of Britain series: REVOLUTIONS

WEEK 9

Tues. Oct. 30

Read selections from Anna Laetitia Barbauld "The Rights of Women", "Washing Day" "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, A Poem," Charlotte Smith "Beachy Head,", Mary Wollstonecraft "Maria or the Wrongs of Women", Felicia Hemans "The Homes of England," "Women and Fame," Mary Robinson " A Letter to the Women of England," "The Negro Girl," and Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) "Love's Last Lesson."

Background reading: Women and Society p. 100ff

Thurs. Nov. 1 NO CLASS (Makeup day Friday September 21)

WEEK 10

Tues. Nov. 6

Wordsworth "Tintern Abbey," "Michael," "I wandered lonely as a Cloud," "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"

Thurs. Nov. 8

De Quincey's Confessions of an Opium Eater

Read In Context: “India and the Orient”
12 Seminar: Drug-taking in the early nineteenth century and British attitudes to the Orient LUCERO M.

WEEK 11

Tues. Nov. 13
Read Selections form John Keats: "La Belle Dame San Merci" "Ode on a Grecian Urn" " The Eve of St. Agnes" "Isabella and a Pot of Basil" "Bright Star" "Happy is England" and Shelley's "Adonais" in preparation for visit to the Museum and our discussion there.

13 Seminar: Lives and Deaths of Keats and Shelley in Italy

Thurs. Nov. 15

Percy Bysshe Shelley "Mask of Anarchy" "Adonais" and Coleridge "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

14 Seminar: The Peterloo Massacre and what it meant in terms of shifting political and class relations ANDREW C.

WEEK 12

Tues. Nov. 20 SECOND ESSAY DUE
Deflating romantic pretensions

Lord Byron -- selection from Don Juan

Thurs. Nov. 22 NO CLASS (Makeup day Oct. 12) READ Frankenstein over the Holiday.

WEEK 13

Tues. Nov. 27
Mary Shelley Frankenstein

Thurs. Nov. 29
Mary Shelley Frankenstein

WEEK 14

Tues. Dec. 4
Mary Shelley Frankenstein

Thurs. Dec. 6
Summing Up and Review

Final Exams