Dr. Driscoll                                                       English 6      

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The aim of the course is to introduce you to three central literary/historical periods:

Romanticism  (1780-1830).

The Victorians (1820-1901).

Modernism (1880-1939).

 

Outline.  The course examines English Literature from Romanticism through to Modernism (roughly 1780 to 1939).

Student Learning Outcomes:

 

Text: The Norton Anthology: English Literature : The Major Authors (ninth edition) Vol.2

 

Edited by Greenblatt.  It should look

like this!

Please buy and USE some post-it notes

as of DAY ONE Evaluation and

Grading:

1.   3 exams each worth 35 each

2.   10 points for full attendance, and no tardies. Two absences or 3 tardies and you lose all 10 points.

3.   Er…That’s it.

 

Total: 115 points.

 

Note: Under California Law, it is a Misdemeanor to Record this class in any way, using media available without the prior permission of the instructor.

 

Readings

Please read all work and all introductions and all author introductions in the text before class. They will be included in the exams and class discussion. For general help and guidance on grasping the basic ‘meaning’ of most of these readings I suggest looking at the Magill Guide to Authors on the SMC library database:

http://library.smc.edu/eresources/lidb.html

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Remember: Whatever author we are studying there is always an introduction on that author to read as well as the assigned poetry. E.g. We will read Blake’s poems but you also need to read the introduction on Blake that talks about his life and work. So remember: 3 major Period Intros, individual Author Intros and the Literature itself

(poems, essays etc…) (PAL for those who like mnemonics!). These 3 things are your responsibility and you will be examined on them.

 

We will read as smoothly as we can in order to get through one period in two weeks. I will not assign days and dates just read ahead and know that for first two weeks we will go chronologically through the Romantics and when we have finished it, probably the day after, on the Thursday, we will do the exam. Rinse, wash, repeat for the Victorians and then the Moderns. There will be no other cumulative final. These three exams are your only chances to keep your grade up. No extra credit.

 

NB: Read ahead, read carefully, and please read The Waste Land at least three times before we get round to studying it.

 

Week One and Two: Romanticism.

Read the Introduction on Romanticism. (3ff) Sir Brooke Boothby painting next to

802, also painting Blake's Glad Day (next page), as well as Interior of Tintern Abbey by Turner, and below Gordale Scar and The Nightmare.. next page. Be able to identify and discuss these images.

 

Charlotte Smith : On Being Cautioned... (42)

 

William Blake ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ (48 onwards) we will focus on the pairs of The Nurses Song, Holy Thursday, The Chimney Sweeper so read both poems in each section  as well as the singular poems: The Garden of Love, A Poison Tree, The Sick Rose, Ah Sunflower, The Little Black Boy and London.

 

Week Two.  William Blake: 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (68-79).

William Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (135-147) 'Tintern Abbey' (131) and The World is too Much with us.' (185) Samuel Taylor Coleridge 'Frost at Midnight'  (290). John Keats: ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ (492).  Thurs: This will be on .....TBA

 

 Exam One: On all of the above including intros and author intros and the literature.  35  points, multiple choice.  882 scantron.

 

Week Three and Four:. The Victorian Age

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Read the Introduction. (533ff) Paintings: Work by Ford Madox Brown, The

 

Awakening Conscience by Hunt, Soul's Beauty by Rossetti . Nocturne by Whistler.

Carlyle: Captains of Industry  (580).  Tennyson: The Lady of Shalott 618 , Ulysses (624) Christina Rossetti: Sleeping At Last (817)  G. M. Hopkins: ‘God’s Grandeur’ (820). I wake and feel the fell of dark (826)  Matthew Arnold: ‘Dover Beach’ (764). Oscar Wilde: Read : 874-886.  Thurs: Exam 2 on the Victorians.  35 questions MC. Short Written answers.

 

Weeks Five and Six: Modernism: Read Intro. (959ff)  Painting : Picasso: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Thomas Hardy: ‘The Convergence of the Twain’ (992).’Channel Firing’ (991). William Butler Yeats Easter 1916.  (1068). Virginia Woolf: ‘Modern Fiction’ (1102). James Joyce: Read ‘Araby’ (1223) and 'The Dead'  (1227) and 'Penelope' from Ulysses (1256). T.S. Eliot: Read 'Prufrock' (1301) "The Hollow Men' (1320) and

‘The Waste Land’ (1305). Exam : on Modernism.  Exam: Ditto Exam 2. MC and Short Written answers.