Oakland University Course Information English 369 -- The English Novel
Fall 2004
108 ODH, M 6:30-9:50 PM
Department of English
Brian Connery
521 Wilson Hall, 248.370.2254
Office Hours: M 5:15-5:45; T/Th 1-2; and by appointment.
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Course Description: We’ll study the emergence of the novel as a new form in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, using work by Congreve, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, and Austen, along with critical and theoretical work by Ian Watt, Michael McKeon, and Nancy Armstrong. Subsequently, we’ll read Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Woolf’s To the Lighthouse in order to explore some of the variations in style and structure that the novel as a form can accommodate. Discussion based. Students will keep reading journals and a commonplace book, write two take-home tests, and submit a term paper. Heavy reading load..
Texts:
Policies: Faithful attendance and regular participation in class are expected.
Students with special needs are welcome to discuss them with me. Some services for students with special needs are available through the Office of Special Advising.
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 must petition in writing for a grade of incomplete.
Please consult the Code of Student Conduct and the University's Academic Conduct Regulations. Students suspected of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Students and the Senate Committee on Academic Conduct. Cheating on any course assignment may result in failure for the course.
Classroom decorum is everybody’s responsibility. Please arrive on time and plan to stay for the full meeting. Turn your cell phone off for the duration of the class meeting. Work to create a classroom environment in which everybody feels comfortable and unthreatened. In addressing your classmates (or your instructor), in class or on the discussion list, you may argue vigorously, indeed passionately, but please maintain the same respect for others as you wish them to maintain toward you.
Major assignments:
The following simple formula will determine your final grade for the course:
Schedule: Unless we get very weary very fast, we will adhere roughly to the following reading schedule. In case of class cancellation, professorial delinquency, or other acts of nature, please keep reading.
August
M 30 Orientation; Congreve, Incognita
September
M 6 Labor Day -- no class meeting
Subscribe and send a post to BritLit-L.
M 13 Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 5-166
Watt, “Realism and the Novel Form,” in The Rise of the Novel (9-34); on reserve in Kresge Library
Hunter, "The Puritan Emblematic Tradition," in RC, 246-254
Hunter, "The 'Occasion' of Robinson Crusoe, in RC, 331-344
M 20 Robinson Crusoe, 166-220
Watt, "Robinson Crusoe as Myth," in RC, 288-306
Richetti, "Robinson Crusoe: The Self as Master," in RC, 357-373
Richardson, Pamela, 43-129
M 27 Pamela, 129-324 October
Armstrong, from Desire and Domestic Fiction, on reserve in Kresge Library.
M 4 Pamela, 324-516
McKeon, from The Origins of the English Novel, on reserve in Kresge Library.
Journals and commonplace books will be collected.
M 11 Fielding, Tom Jones, Books 1-5, 51-249
Fielding, "Preface" to Joseph Andrews (handout)
M 18 Test 1 is due; Tom Jones, Books 6-9, 251-465
M 25 Tom Jones, Books 10-14, 467-693
November
M 1 Tom Jones, Books 15-18, 694874
Term paper prospectus is due.
Journals and commonplace books will be collected.
M 8 Austen, Pride and Prejudice, chs. 1-42 (pp. 51-266)
M 15 P&P, chs. 43-61 (267-296)
Bronte, Jane Eyre, vol. 1 (chs. 1-15, pp. 13-172)
Term paper bibliography is due.
M 22 JE, vols. 2-3 (pp. 175-502)
(Optional) draft of term paper is due.
M 29 Woolf, To the Lighthouse
Journals and commonplace books will be collected.
December
M 6 Catch up on the reading!
Term paper is due.
M 13 Test 2 is due.
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