202 syllabus

Writing handouts: http://sean.heuston.googlepages.com/writinghandouts

ENGLISH 202: Major British Writers II

Citadel Summer in London Program

 

Dr. Sean Heuston                                                                                 Summer 2010

E-mail: sean.heuston@citadel.edu

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B 

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens—Norton Critical Edition (1999) 

 

Requirements:  

1. Reading: Complete each reading assignment before coming to class and be ready to discuss the assignment. Read carefully, mark in your books, and think about the complexities of the texts. The depth of your reading will determine the quality of your participation in class and the quality of your writing, and thus will affect your final grade. I reserve the right to quiz you on the reading at any time, especially if it becomes clear that you are not reading the assigned texts with sufficient care.   

2. Attendance: College regulations regarding attendance apply. It is your responsibility to become familiar with these policies. You should attend every class and arrive on time with the appropriate books. If you miss class for any reason, you are responsible for contacting a fellow student to find out what you missed, including any assignment changes. 

3. Participation: Active participation in class discussions is mandatory. The quality of your class participation will influence your final grade. If you are not ready to discuss the assigned texts, offer suggestions of interpretation, and put forth serious intellectual effort, then you are not ready for class. 

 4. Essays and exams: You will write two formal essays during the semester. Follow the guidelines in the writing handouts available online:

http://sean.heuston.googlepages.com/writinghandouts

Your essays must be typed, double-spaced with one-inch margins, and printed in Times New Roman font no larger than twelve point. Do not use Courier font. Your essays must be three full pages long (that is, they must fill three pages). Number your pages, put your name in the top right corner of each page, staple your pages together, and make sure to give your essay a title. Underline your thesis, proofread your work out loud, and staple your pages together before turning in your essay. Failure to do any one of these things will result in a one-grade penalty per offense. Back up your work as often as possible. “My computer crashed” is not an acceptable excuse for the purposes of this class. Make sure to keep at least one spare copy of everything you write for this class. All assignments are due at the beginning of class unless otherwise specified. If you hand in a paper late I will dock your grade by one full letter grade for each day the assignment is late, weekend days included. Do not turn to the Internet or any outside sources for help while you are working on your papers unless you ask me first.

 

You will take two midterm exams and one final exam in this course. Both the second midterm exam and the final exam are cumulative in that you will be expected to remember earlier material well enough to relate it to newer material.

 

The Honor System and Plagiarism: The Honor Manual explains the code that will govern your conduct in all aspects of life at The Citadel. You should familiarize yourself with the Honor Code, because ignorance is no excuse for committing a violation. You may not receive any kind of help from anyone other than me or a Writing Center tutor in preparing your work for this class. Do not even look at sources such as CliffsNotes or SparkNotes. Such sources are often unreliable, and it’s likely that your professors already know what those sources say about the things you read in class. Many cadets apparently don’t realize that many entries in such sources are written by college students and other contributors with no proven expertise. Not only is using such sources  without permission from your professor likely to lead to an Honor Violation, it’s a bit like cheating by copying from one of the worst students in class. You can do better work on your own. Plagiarism cases will be handed over to the Honor Committee and will likely result in expulsion from The Citadel. Avoid this unpleasant fate by remembering to follow one simple rule: Always acknowledge the source of any idea that is not your own. If you have any questions regarding proper documentation of sources, consult The Bedford Handbook for Writers, the staff of the Writing Center, or me.

5. Conferences: You are not required to meet with me individually during the semester, but you should feel free to drop by my office during office hours if you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns. I especially encourage you to drop by during the first few weeks of the semester for a brief, informal visit. If you are unable to attend my office hours, I will try to arrange an appointment at some other time. If you schedule a conference outside of my regular office hours and then fail to show up, I will count this as an absence from class. When you want to talk about the specifics of a paper, a brief conference plan that shows what you want to discuss can be very helpful. (This doesn’t have to be a big deal; just write down the important points you want to cover.) This way, we won’t forget something you think is important, plus it makes things more efficient (which is important if there are lots of other people scheduled for conferences on the same day). I strongly suggest that you take notes during the conferences so you don’t forget anything we discuss. 

6. Portfolios: Keep all your essays, essay notes, drafts, and exams. I may ask to see your work at any time during the term.

7. E-mail: E-mail is an excellent complement to classroom discussion. I encourage you to e-mail me at any time. You will need to get in the habit of checking your e-mail daily, because I will e-mail you all in order to update you on assignment guidelines, schedule changes, and other class business.   

8. Copies: Because there is always the slim chance that I might lose something you turn in to me, you are required to save two copies of each of the essays you write for this class. I would suggest saving one paper copy and one copy on a computer disk. If we discover that one of your assignments is missing, you should be able to provide me with a backup copy immediately.  

 

Grading: NOTE: You must turn in all assignments and take all tests in order to pass this class.  The portfolio counts as an assignment. 

Paper #1: 20% 

Paper #2: 20%

Exam #1 20%

Exam #2: 20%

Final Exam: 20% 

__________________________________________

 

Class schedule: ENGL 202—London Summer Program 

NOTE: When we cancel a regular class meeting because of a field trip, we will arrange an alternate meeting time to cover that material.

May

R    20  Read the Norton Anthology’s intro to the Romantic Period; William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” “The Chimney Sweeper”(both versions), “Holy Thursday” (both versions), “There Is No Natural Religion,” Introductions to Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, “The Clod and the Pebble,” “The Sick Rose,” “London”; Robert Burns: “To a Mouse,” “To a Louse,” “Afton Water” (from handout)

 

 

T   25 William Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads, “Tintern Abbey,” "Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (including the introduction)

 

W     26      Wordsworth: "I wandered lonely as a cloud," "My heart leaps

up," “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802,” “London, 1802,” “The world is too much with us,” “Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways”

 

R     27  ESSAY #1 DUE; Samuel Taylor Coleridge "The Eolian Harp," "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," “Kubla Khan,” “To William Wordsworth,” selections from Biographia Literaria; Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Mutability,” “To Wordsworth,” “Ozymandias,” “Ode to the West Wind,” “To a Skylark,” “A Song: ‘Men of England,’” “England in 1819,” To Sidmouth and Castlereagh,” “A Defence of Poetry” (NOTE: START READING GREAT EXPECTATIONS)

 

June

T     1    EXAM #1; John Keats: “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” “On Seeing the  Elgin Marbles,” “When I have fears that I may cease to be,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “This living hand, now warm and capable,” letter to Benjamin Bailey, letter to George and Thomas Keats, letter to John Hamilton Reynolds, letter to Richard Woodhouse, to George and Georgiana Keats; Norton Anthology introduction to the Victorian Age; Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “The Lady of Shalott,” “Ulysses,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” selections from In Memoriam (1, 2, 7, 10, 11, 21, 27, 30, 54, 56, 72, 87, 89, 95, 130, and “Epilogue”)

 

 

R    3  Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

 

T    8  Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

 

R   10 ESSAY #2 DUE; Robert Browning: “Porphyria’s Lover,” “My Last Duchess,” “Fra Lippo Lippi”; Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach,” “The Buried Life,” excerpts from The Function of Criticism at the Present Time ; Norton Anthology introduction to the Twentieth Century; Thomas Hardy: “Hap,” “Neutral Tones,” “Drummer Hodge,” “The Darkling Thrush,” “Channel Firing”; Rupert Brooke, “The Soldier,” Wilfred Owen, “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” “Disabled,” letters to mother; Siegfried Sassoon (from handout), “The Rear-Guard,” “The General,” “Glory of Women,” “‘They’”

 

 

T     15 EXAM #2 (INCL. POETRY MEMORIZATION); W.B. Yeats: “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” “September 1913,” “Easter 1916” “The Wild Swans at Coole,” “The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland,” “Adam’s Curse,” “No Second Troy,” “The Fascination of What’s Difficult”

 

 

R    17  Yeats: “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen”

(http://www.sci.edu/classes/ellertsen/yeats1919.html), “The Second Coming,” “Among School Children,” “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop,” “ Sailing to Byzantium,” “Under Ben Bulben,” “The Circus Animals’ Desertion” 

 

 

T     22  T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” The Waste Land

 

 

R    24 FINAL EXAM