Oakland University
Department of English
Course Information
English 241, British Literature
Winter 1998
W 6:30-9:50 163 NFH
Instructor:
Brian A. Connery, connery@oakland.edu
517 Wilson Hall, ext. 2250
Office hours: M 1-2; W 5-6; Th 1-2
Course description: We'll explore major periods, authors, traditions, and conventions of British literature, while developing and practicing skills in reading, analysis, interpretation, and discussion. Three continuing concerns will be the nature of the hero and the heroic, the representation of women in literature, and the representation of the monstrous Other. We'll read and discuss classic texts--primarily narrative verse--from the middle ages to the turn of the twentieth century, including Beowulf and works by Chaucer, the Gawain poet, Shakespeare, Milton, Finch, Pope, Swift, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Mary Shelley, Percy Byshe Shelley, E. B. Browning, Woolf, Conrad, Forster, and T. S. Eliot. Students will keep a reading journal and take quizzes, along with two examinations. classwork will be primarily discussion. Regular attendance is essential; classwork will be primarily discussion.
Texts: Abrams, et al, ed. NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE: THE MAJOR AUTHORS, 6th edition. (Students should note that although the Norton's introductory materials on authors and on periods will not be assigned, they do offer helpful information and insight.)
Mary Shelley, FRANKENSTEIN. Norton Anthology edition.
Policies: Faithful attendance and regular participation in class are expected. To provide motivation when it is lacking, unannounced quizzes may be given. Quizzes can not be made up without prior permission or documentation of a legitimate excuse for absence. No quiz grades will be dropped.
Students with special needs are welcome to discuss them with me. Some services for students with special needs are available through the Office of Disability Services, 157 NFH.
No alternative examination dates will be available.
The grade of Incomplete is available only to students who have demonstrated regular and steady progress in the course but for whom unforeseeable and uncontrollable circumstances make impossible the timely completion of the course.
Students suspected of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Students for consideration of the Academic Conduct Committee of the University Senate. Cheating on any course assignment may result in failure for the course. For further information, please see the section on "Academic Conduct" in the Schedule of Classes.
Major Assignments:
The following simple formula will determine your final grade for the course:
| Quiz average | 20% |
| Journal average | 20% |
| Mid-term exam | 25% |
| Participation | 10% |
| Final exam | 25% |
| 100% Final grade |
Schedule: Unless we get very tired very fast, we will adhere to the following schedule. If a class
meeting is canceled for any reason please continue reading according to the schedule.
January
Medieval Literature
7 Orientation
14 Beowulf 23-64; "Old and Middle English Prosody" 14-15; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight166-171 (ll. 1-100). For more on Beowulf, click here to go to Bulfinch's Mythology Page or here for the Beowulf project.
21 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 171-219; "Medieval English" 10-14; Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, "General Prologue," 70-72 (ll. 1-100)
28* Journals will be collected. Click on any of the following titles for a translation to modern English: Canterbury Tales: "General Prologue" 72-90: ll. 447-478, 546-568, 671-860; "The Miller's Prologue and Tale" 90-106; "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" 106-133; Henry IV, Pt. 1 482-491
Click here to see a medieval manuscript of the first page of the Wife's Prologue.
February
Renaissance Literature
4 Henry IV, Pt 1 491-54; Paradise Lost, Bk. 1, 662-683; Click here for more on Milton and Paradise Lost
11* Journals will be collected; Paradise Lost, Bks. 2-12, 684-798
18 Mid-term Examination
25 Winter Recess
March
Eighteenth-Century Literature
4 Finch, "The Introduction" 1243; Montagu, "Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband" 1249;
Pope, Essay on Man 1096-1103; Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Part 1 906-948
Click here to go to Lee Jaffe's splendid page on Gulliver's Travels.
11 Gulliver's Travels Part 4, 1002- 1048; Wordsworth, "We Are Seven" 1331; Coleridge, "Frost at Midnight" 1522
Romantic Literature
18 Wordsworth,"It is a beauteous evening" 1393 ; "The world is too much with us" 1394; "Lines . . . Tintern Abbey" 1336; "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" 1382; P. B. Shelley, "Mutability" 1671; "The Cloud" 1731; "To a Sky-Lark" 1733; Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" 1793; Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" 1487
25 M. G. Shelley, Frankenstein; Click here for more on Frankenstein.; Click here for more on
Mary Shelley.
April
Victorian Literature
1 E. B. Browning, Aurora Leigh, 1859-1872; Tennyson, "Ulysses," 1891; In-class: Screening of 1931 Frankenstein
Modern Literature
8* Journals will be collected; Arnold, "Dover Beach" 2059; Conrad, Heart of Darkness2204-2263
15 Woolf, A Room of One's Own: "Shakespeare's Sister" 2311; "Professions for Women 2317; "Slater's Pins Have No Points" 2321; Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 2459
22 7:00-10:00 Final Examination
23 and afterwards: Have happy, literate lives.
"The world was all before them, where to choose . ."
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