Courses

ENG 3023.50

British Literature 1760 to the Present

Fall 2006

Course Name, Number, and Description:  ENG 3023.50.  Representative Works of British Literature from 1760 to Present. The Texas Woman's University General Catalog describes ENG 3023 in this way: "Examines significant works in depth with study of authors and genres in relation to the aesthetic, historical and cultural contexts.  Requires research with primary and secondary sources.  Three lecture hours a week.  Credit: Three hours."

This course satisfies the ENG 3023 requirement for the Bachelor of Arts in English or for an an upper-level English course for the English minor.  It has not been approved to fulfill the requirements of the core curriculum.

Please note that this course is taught entirely asynchronously online.  If you have never taken a Blackboard course before or have questions about the format of the class, please contact me at rgreer@mail.twu.edu and arrange for an individual orientation with me during my office hours.  Please note also that there is no in-class final examination for the course, but I do require that you post a capstone final examination project (which includes a ten-page research paper that uses multiple sources) in the final examination week forum that I will provide on Blackboard.

Faculty Contact Information: Office Location, Phone, Hours:
Russell Greer, Ph.D.  Associate Professor.  Office: CFO 803.  E-mail: rgreer@twu.edu or russellgreer@verizon.net.  Fax: (940) 898-2297 (English Department).  Office telephone: (940) 898-2346. Website: www.russellgreer.com

Most students find they can communicate with me quickly through the course itself online or by e-mail (rgreer@twu.edu).  In addition, I will host office hours by appointment in CFO 803 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays during Fall 2006 unless otherwise indicated.  If I cannot hold regular office hours on a particular day, I will make an announcement on Blackboard, my web site, or on the door of my office (usually all three, if possible). I am typically not available in my office at other times, but I am available by phone and online.  You may also leave me a voice mail at (940) 898-2346.  I usually check for messages daily and try to return calls promptly.

Course Goals

1.  The student will learn the major historical, cultural, and contextual information associated with the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern British periods of literature.

2.  The student will encounter several significant and representative authors and genres from the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern British periods and explore their aesthetic meanings.  

3.  The student will conduct research with primary and secondary sources in Romantic, Victorian, and Modern British literature.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1.  In three "period tests," students will demonstrate the major historical and cultural contextual information associated with the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern British periods of literature. 

2. In weekly postings to discussion forums and other informal assignments, the student will demonstrate critical and aesthetic understanding of several significant and representative authors and genres from the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern British periods. 

3. The student will submit a research paper of ten pages as part of a capstone final examination portfolio that uses primary and secondary sources effectively and demonstrates critical understanding of Romantic, Victorian, or Modern British literature.

List of textbooks and supplies: 

1.  The Norton Anthology of English Literature.  8th Edition.  Volume 2 (ISBN: 0-393-92715-6 hardback or 0-393-92532-3 pbk)

2.  Lady Audley’s Secret (Penguin. ISBN: 0140435840).

3.  The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy (Faber and Faber, 1999.  ISBN: 0-571-19995-X). 

4.  Suggested: A Guide to MLA Documentation by Joseph Trimmer (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.  ISBN: 0618338055) or an English handbook with MLA style information such as The Bedford Handbook by Diana Hacker (ISBN 0-312-44337-4).

Disability Statement:
”Texas Woman's University seeks to provide appropriate academic adjustments for all individuals with disabilities.  The University will comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and guidelines, specifically Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), with respect to providing appropriate academic adjustments to afford equal educational opportunity.  It is the responsibility of the student to register with and provide medical verification and academic schedules to Disability Support Services (DSS) at the beginning of each semester and no later than the second week of school in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate academic adjustment.  For further information regarding Disability Support Services or to register for assistance, please )contact the office at 898-3835 (voice, 898-3830 (TDD)), or visit CFO 105” (Texas Woman’s University Office of Academic Affairs).

Grading Policy, Major Course Assignments and Examinations and Attendance:

1.  Capstone Final Examination Project: (1) Individual Research Paper; (2) Individual PowerPoint; (3) Bibliography; (4) Self Assessment; and (5) Summary of Dialogues: 42% Must be posted to designated discussion forum no later than 11:59 p.m. on Friday, December 8.

2.  Group PowerPoint on Romantic Literature: 5% (Week FOUR)

3.  Group Essay on Victorian Literature: 5% (Week NINE)

4.  Group Annotated Bibliography on Modern British Literature: 5% (Week TWELVE)

5.  Period Tests: 15% total(5% each for Romantic, Victorian, and Modern British literature).  We will spend about five weeks on each period of British literature under review (Romantic, Victorian, and Modern British).  At the end of our study of each period, in Weeks FIVE, TEN, and FOURTEEN, you will be asked to take an online quiz worth 5% of your total grade that covers each period.  For example, in Week FIVE, you will take a quiz that covers the contextual and historical information associated with the Romantic period; in Week TEN you will take a quiz that covers the contextual and historical information associated with the Victorian period, and in Week FOURTEEN you will take a quiz that covers the contextual and historical information associated with the Modern British period.

6.  Participation (Online Attendance): 28% Credit is given for postings to the discussion questions, anything posted in your group’s forum for a particular week, special assignments, and the weekly summary.  Twenty-eight percent of your final grade will depend on your participation online.  You must post a minimum of TEN times a week on the discussion question forums (including the weekly summary) and in your groups, when applicable.  Some of these postings will be responses to the study questions; others will be preparation of group responses; others will be responses to your classmates.  If you do not post at least ten times in the assigned week, do not expect a good participation grade for that week.  I will give you a participation grade weekly, but I will announce them only six times: in Week TWO, Week FIVE, Week EIGHT, Week ELEVEN, Week THIRTEEN, and after the final exam.  Your grade will be determined by (1) the amount of postings and (2)the quality of the postings (equally weighted).  I calculate participation for a week that begins on Monday and ends at midnight on the following Sunday.  Your postings do not need to be long (100-240 words for a primary answer to a discussion question is adequate, and responses can be shorter), but they DO need to advance the discussion helpfully. Postings only count in the week they are due; in other words you cannot “make up” late postings after the week is over.  Postings only count in the following places: (1) the discussion question forums; (2) the weekly summary forum; and (3) your group forum for the week in question (if applicable).  Note: Each week you will be asked to answer three discussion questions, one of which will may occasionally be a group question (after the first week) and/or a question about writing the research paper.  These discussion questions will allow you to earn participation credit and share ideas with your classmates.  At the end of the week you will also post a summary message and attach a Student Summary Form with your best ten postings pasted into the forum.  You may revised these postings for spelling, grammar, style, etc. but they should essentially be the same postings that you made in the forums. I will use your attached form to calculate your participation grade for the week. If you do not attach a summary form, you cannot get participation credit for the week.

Miscellaneous

Midterm Conference: Please note that if you have a failing grade after you receive your feedback in Week FIVE, I would like to meet with you in person in my office to discuss ways to improve your grade

Instruction

Each week (for fourteen weeks), you will find instruction files, assigned online articles, or web page links tied to specific weeks and readings that will help you understand the literature, answer the discussion questions, or prepare for the research paper. Some of these instruction files may be lecture notes written by me.  Others will be assigned articles that you can access through the TWU library (on JSTOR) or on the Norton web site.  Others may be web page links.

Student Participation Summary Form

You will post a summary to a forum provided after you have completed all your week's postings and attach a "student participation summary" form.  You can find this form under COURSE INFORMATION.  In this form, you will cut and paste your "top ten" postings from the week.  You may edit your postings for grammar and spelling (in fact you SHOULD edit them for grammar and spelling) but not for content (I will check occasionally to make sure that the they represent your actual work from the week).  I will use this summary form to assign your participation grade.  If you do not submit a summary form, you cannot get credit for the week's work even if you fully participated otherwise.

No Final Examination Required: In lieu of a final examination, you will be required to post a final capstone project by December 8 and comment on the projects of your classmates during final examination week.

Academic Dishonesty:

“Honesty in completing assignments is essential to the mission of the university and to the development of the personal integrity of the student. Cheating, plagiarism, or other kinds of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and will result in appropriate sanctions that may include failing an assignment, failing the class, or being suspended or expelled.  Suspected cases in this course may be reported to Student Life. The specific disciplinary process for academic dishonesty is found in the TWU Student Handbook.  Tools to help you avoid plagiarism are available through the TWU Libraries’ “Quick Links” under “Research Help” (http://www.twu.edu/library/literacy/index.htm)” (This statement was authorized and mandated by the TWU Provost.  November 10, 2005).

Plagiarism:
The following definition of plagiarism appears in Joseph F. Trimmer’s A Guide to MLA Documentation (Sixth Edition), published by Houghton Mifflin Company (2004): “Plagiarism is theft.  It is using someone else’s words or ideas without giving proper credit—or without giving any credit at all—to the writer of the original.  Whether plagiarism is intentional or unintentional, it is a serious offense…You can avoid plagiarism by taking notes carefully, by formulating and developing your own ideas and by using quotes responsibly to support, rather than replace, your own work” (25).  Note that I have used this quotation from a source and have given it full attribution.  You should do the same with your sources.  I strongly urge you to read the discussion of academic dishonesty that appears in Section Four of The Student Handbook and Planner 2005-2006 (pages 133-135).  I intend to follow TWU policy as outlined in this handbook exactly.  It defines plagiarism in this way: “Plagiarism occurs when a student obtains portions or elements of someone else's work, including materials prepared by another person or agency, and presents those ideas or words as her or his own academic work.  The intentional or unintentional use by paraphrase or direct quotation of the published work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement shall constitute plagiarism.  Students are responsible for following guidelines of the appropriate course or discipline (ie; MLA, APA)" (133).  In this course, we will use the Modern Language Association (MLA) format.  Penalties for first-time offenses include, at the instructor’s discretion, any of the following: (1) “Written reprimand”; (2) “Assignment of a lower grade on the test/paper/project in question, with an explanation from the instructor”; (3) “Assignment of a 0 on an assignment"; (4) “Assignment of a grade of F in the course" (134). A discussion of the more severe penalties for second offenses appears on pages 134-135.  If you have any questions about whether or not a practice constitutes plagiarism, please contact me before you turn in the assignment.  Student work will be checked for plagiarism with a plagiarism website by the instructor. When you submit your group and individual essays to digital dropbox, you will also need to post it to www.turnitin.com; that website, in turn, will generate a report for me.  I will give you instructions about how to do this on Blackboard.  If you have any questions as to whether or not you have used another person's work and not given proper credit, please see me before you submit the work or use www.turnin.com to check your work BEFORE submitting it to me. You have that option with this program. 

Tentative calendar of classes, assignments.

Please check here for the Academic Calendar for Fall 2006.  Also, please note that this daily syllabus is for planning purposes only and is subject to change. Page numbers for assigned reading (when applicable) are provided.

Week ONE (28 August-3 September 2006)

Reading:

1.  Norton Anthology: “The Romantic Period 1785-1830” (1-25).

2.  Instruction: “The French Revolution” (Norton Online)  

3.  Norton Anthology: “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” (305-306).

Assignments:

1.           Post your autobiography.

2.           Form learning teams by the end of Week ONE (if you have no preference, I will assign you to a group at the beginning of Week TWO).

3.           Answer three discussion questions, post weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

4.           Take the diagnostic quiz posted.  There is no grade associated with this diagnostic, but it will indicate to me the level of knowledge about this period of British literature that you have going in to this class. Please post it by the end of the week to digital dropbox. 

Week TWO (4-10 September 2006):

September 4 Labor Day holiday.  No classes.  I will not post on this holiday and I do not expect you to post either (although you may if you wish).

Reading:

1.  Norton Anthology: "Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" (258-262)

2.  Instruction. Norton Online: "Tintern Abbey, Tourism, and Romantic Landscape." Be sure to explore the generous critical commentary available to you at this site.

3.  Norton Online: "Writing About Literature."  I want you to read two portions of this discussion under "General Resources": 1) "Paraphrase, Summary, Description" and (2) "The Elements of the Essay."  Note the information about the thesis in particular.  The purpose of this reading is to allow you to understand the difference between "paraphrase, summary, and description," which does not include an argument, and the thesis statement which does.

Assignments:

Answer discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

Note: I will return Week ONE feedback this week.

Week THREE (11-17 September 2006)

Reading:

(1) Norton Anthology: Selections from "The Gothic and the Development of a Mass Readership" (577-607).

2.  Instruction: Norton Online: "The Gothic."

Assignments:

Answer discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

Week FOUR (18-24 September 2006)

Reading:

1.  Norton Anthology: Selections from "George Gordon, Lord Byron" (607-741)

2.  Instruction: "The Satanic and Byronic Hero."  Norton Online.

Assignments:

1.  Answer three discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2.  Group PowerPoint on Romantic Literature due: 5%

Week FIVE (25 September-1 October 2006)

Reading:

1.    Norton Anthology: Selections from Felicia Dorothea Hemans (864-877)

2.  JSTOR: "Hemans and Home: Victorianism, Feminine 'Internal Enemies,' and the Domestication of National Identity" PMLA.  Vol. 109, No. 2 (March 1994), pages 238-253.  By Dr. Tricia Lootens.

Assignments:

1.  Please take the assigned quiz on Romantic literature. (5%).

2.  Answer three discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

Note: I will return feedback for weeks TWO, THREE, and FOUR this week.

Week SIX (2-8 October 2006)

October 6 Last day to drop a class without academic penalty; 5 p.m

Reading:

1.  Norton Anthology: "The Victorian Age 1830-1901" (979-1001)

2.  Norton Anthology: "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold (1368-1369)

3.  Instruction: Lecture Notes on "Dover Beach" in Word file.

Assignments:

Answer all discussion questions, and complete all participation requirements.

Week SEVEN (9-15 October 2006)

Reading:

1.  Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (you should try to finish the entire novel before Week SEVEN begins)

2.  Instruction: Lecture/Reading Notes by Dr. Greer (Word file)

Assignments:

Answer all discussion questions, and complete all participation requirements.

Week EIGHT (16-22 October 2006)

Reading:

1.  Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

2.  Instruction (JSTOR on the TWU library database): "Helpless and Unfriended": Nineteenth-Century Domestic Melodrama" by Martha Vicinus. It is published in New Literary History. Volume 13, No. 1. (Autumn 1981), pp. 127-143

Assignments:

Answer three discussion questions, post the weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements. 

Note: I will return feedback for Weeks FIVE, SIX, and SEVEN this week.

Week NINE (23-29 October 2006)

Reading:

1.  Norton Anthology: Selections from Robert Browning and Elizabeth Browning (1077-1109 and 1248-1310).  For Week NINE, I would like you to read both the biographical introductions in the Norton for Elizabeth Barrett Browning (pages 1077-1079) and for Robert Browning (1248-1252). For Elizabeth, I would like you to read the selections for "Aurora Leigh" that appear on pages 1092-1106. For Robert, I would like you to identify the dramatic monologues and read them. Note that I am not telling you which of the poems ARE dramatic monologues. Part of the assignment is for YOU to identify them. 

2.  Instruction: Two articles on JSTOR:

1.  "The Embodied Muse: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh and Feminist Poetics" by Joyce Zonana. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature > Vol. 8, No. 2 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 240-262.

    2. "Robert Browning's 'Dramatic Lyrics': Contribution to a Genre."by
Randa Abou-Bakr Alif.  Journal of Comparative Poetics > No. 21, The Lyrical Phenomenon/ al-Dhahirah al-Shi'riyah (2001), pp. 113-140

Assignments:

1.  Answer three discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. Group Essay on Victorian Literature due: 5%. Your group will be required to write one critical essay of 3-5 pages on a Victorian text we have read this semester post it to me on digital dropbox and www.turnitin.com.  The essay should be typed, double-spaced, and conform to MLA guidelines.  For a topic, you may choose your own or expand one of the assigned discussion questions. Your primary purpose in this essay is to suggest a strong thesis, an argument about how to understand the novel or stories.  I will grade the essay in terms of content, organization, style, diction, and grammar.  You must write complete sentences, and four or more of these major errors will cause you to receive a “20” (F) on the essay portion of the examination: comma splices, fused sentences, apostrophe errors, sentence fragments, or agreement errors.  Therefore, you should make sure during the semester that you understand and can avoid these errors.  If you have questions, please see me during my office hours.

Week TEN (30 October-5 November 2006)

November 2 Last day to drop a class or withdraw from the University; 5 p.m

Reading:

1.  Norton Anthology: "The 'Woman Question': The Victorian Debate About Gender" (1581-1606).

2.  Instruction: Please review this website:

http://www.victoriaspast.com/LifeofVictorianWoman/LifeofVictorianWoman.html

Assignments:

1.  Answer three discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2.  Please take the assigned quiz on Victorian literature. (5%).

Week ELEVEN (6-12 November 2006)

Reading:

1.  Norton Anthology: "The Twentieth Century and After" (1827-1850)

2.  Norton Anthology: "Hap" (1868-1869) and "The Darkling Thrush" (1871)

 by Thomas Hardy.

3.  Instruction: Lecture Notes (Word file). 

Assignments:

Answer three discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

Note: I will return feedback for Weeks EIGHT, NINE, and TEN this week.

Week TWELVE (13-19 November 2006)

Reading:

1.  Norton Anthology: Selections from Virginia Woolf (2080-2163).  Specifically, read the biographical introduction to Woolf (beginning on page 2080), "A Room of One's Own" (2092-2152) and "Modern Fiction" (2087-2092).  

2.  Instruction: Please review the following

 website:http://www.talkingto.co.uk/ttvw/html/ttvw_answ_cate.asp?AuthorID=9

Assignments:

1.  Group Annotated Bibliography on Modern British Literature due: 5%

2.  Answer three discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

Week THIRTEEN (20 November-3 December 2006)

Reading:

1. Norton Anthology: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (2752-2820)

2. Instruction: Please read this in JSTOR:

Assignments:

1.  Answer three discussion questions, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

Note: I will return feedback for Weeks ELEVEN and TWELVE this week.

Week FOURTEEN (4 December-? 2006)

Reading:

1.  Selections from The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy.

2.  Norton Anthology: "Carol Ann Duffy" (2873-2877) 

3.  Instruction: Please review this site:

http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth104

Assignments:

1.  Please take the assigned quiz on Modern British literature. (5%).

2.  Please post your capstone final examination project to the final examination week forum no later than the last day of class, by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, December 8th. This capstone project will include: (1) the individual Research Paper; (2) the Individual PowerPoint; (3) a Bibliography; (4) a Self Assessment; and (5) a Summary of Dialogue: 45% (Week).  Due no later than 11:59 p.m. on Friday, December 8.  I will provide more information about this project as the course progresses.

Final Examination Week (9-15 December)

1.  Please comment on at least FIVE of your classmates' projects between 9-15 December.  Failure to comment on five projects will result in a deduction of five points from your own final grade.  When you have finished posting your comments, gather your best five and post them in the "Final Examination Week Summary" Forum.  Participation on this final examination forum functions in lieu of required attendance at an in-class final examination.

Note: I will return final grades and final feedback (Weeks THIRTEEN, FOURTEEN, and FIFTEEN) by the end of Final Examination Week (15 December).

Last updated: 10 December 2006