Welcome to English 252, "survey of major works and writers in British literature from the Romantic age to the present." Consider yourself very lucky: in this class you'll get to read some of the most interesting, innovative, influencial, and challenging English works ever written.

Texts:

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th ed., Volumes D, E, and F (sold in bundle).

Mary Shelly, Frankenstein, Norton Critical Edition, 1996.

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, Harcourt, Inc., 2005.

Roddy Doyle, The Committments, Vintage, 1993.

J.D. Ballard, War Fever, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.

Leaving Kansas, DuckNuts Inc., 2007.

Aims:

• To provide you with a good introductory understanding of the Romantic, Victorian, Modern, and Post-Modern periods in the United Kingdom and its colonies; this includes an understanding of intellectual and artistic trends from each period which still influence us very strongly.
• To give you a wide sampling of diverse works and authors. We'll skim-read many works for their general flavor; others we'll read and discuss very closely.
• To expose you to both traditional as well as experimental/novel directions in literary writing and the literary arts.
• To challenge your critical thinking and intellectual growth;
• To build on your understanding and enjoyment of literature generally.

Grades and Coursework:

Final grades are based on a simple tally of points earned for the semester. Each assignment includes its own criteria.

Critical Essay: 40 pts., 40%

Three Oral Performances: 10 pts., 10% (#1 = 2 pts.; #2 and #3 = 4 pts. each)

Three Imitative Creative Works: 10 pts., 10% (#1 = 2pts.; #2 and #3 = 4 pts. each)

Final Exam: 40 pts., 40%

Ungraded Daily Work and Attendance/Participation: check-plus, check, check-minus, minus.

Daily work includes quizzes, student-lead discussion, Blackboard Discussion Forum sessions, very brief research projects, in-class minute papers, freewriting, and assorted other activities. Attendance/Participation checks record your presence in each session, with plusses or minusses acruing for late arrivals or departures, weak or strong participation, and preparedness (did you read the scheduled assignment? did you have questions or ideas ready at hand? did you bring any necessary textbooks? etc.)

Occasionally you'll write a brief essay which will count as daily work. Even though it doesn't receive points, this sort of essay will give you practive writing and provide important feedback you can use for the Critical Essay assignment.

Checked daily work provides a picture of your overall performance in the class, and will be factored subjectively into your final grade. A weak or strong record of daily work, along with my overall sense of your contributions to and involvement in the class, may result in a loss or gain of points from your semester score. In serious cases, the difference may be a full semester grade or more. If you ever have concerns or questions about your standing in the course, don't hesitate to contact me (preferrably by email or after class).

The final scale looks like this:

90-100 pts. = A
79-89 = B
68-78 = C
57-67 = D

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES

In all cases below, email me when you've completed the work for further instructions. (You'll likely be asked to answer some questions, write a minute-essay, briefly research a particular question, or something along those lines, depending on the length and difficulty of the item in question.)

For 3 extra semester points, view one of the following films:

• Roman Polanski's Tess (2 hrs. 52 mins.), based on Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
• John Schlesinger's Far From the Madding Crowd (2 hrs. 46 mins.), based on Hardy's novel of the same name.
• Ken Russell's Women in Love (2 hrs. 11 mins.), based on Lawrence's novel of the same name.
• Any full-length version of Frankenstein.
• Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (2 hrs. 33 mins.), based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
• Karel Reisz's The French Lieutenant's Woman (2 hrs. 4 mins.), based on John Fowles' novel of the same name.

Or, for 5 extra semester points, read one of the following novels:

• John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, aprx. 448 pp.

Or, for 2 extra semester points, read any Harry Potter novel.

Or, for 3 extra semester points, read Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest."

Reading and Study Habits

• Though poetry assignments may seem short in number of pages, you are unlikely to understand and fully appreciate any poem until you have read it at least three times. An apparently short poetry assignment of three pages may actually take you longer to read fully than a longer prose assignment. Read with your pen in hand; take notes, underline and look up unfamiliar words, and note questions and ideas you want to introduce later in class. If you have trouble understanding something, mark the point at which you first became confused.
  
• Take notes in class, bring a recorder, or immediately summarize the content of the period after class. (This last strategy is really effective, though students virtually never do it!) All or any of these activities will help you to "digest" course material, to integrate it into your course writings, and to recall information for the final exam and future life. Writing is thinking.
  

Why are we watching films (required and for extra credit) in this class?

• to help you to apply what you've been learning about literature, in this case to other media;
• to help you see how ideas important to the literary periods we're studying are in fact still relevant to most facets of contemporary life and popular culture;
• to allow time for your essay writing and catch-up reading (watching films in class usually doesn't require much pre-class homework);
• the films we're watching are based on relevant literary works, and are written-directed by established British writers themselves (ex.: Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay for The French Lieutenant's Woman);
• films can themselves be considered a form of "literature"—just as plays are;
• films can be used in interesting and time-saving ways for testing knowledge;
• to reinforce what you'll be learning about the periods we'll be studying;
• to allow for discussion of filmic INTERPRETATIONS of literature.