451A W19 Lawson

English 451A

We acknowledge that we are living and working on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishnaabeg, and

Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, land promised and given to Six

Nations, which includes six miles on each side of the Grand River.

Winter 2019: Mon and Wed 11:30-12:50. HH 138

Professor Kate Lawson klawson@uwaterloo.ca

Hagey Hall 264 519-888-4567 ext. 33965

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 1:30-2:30 or by appointment

Texts:

The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 5: The Victorian Era – Second Edition, Ed. Joseph Black et al.

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. Broadview

George Eliot, Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe. Oxford World’s Classics.

(Other appropriate anthologies and/or editions of the novels are acceptable.)

Course Description:

A critical study of early to mid-Victorian literature, including authors such as Carlyle, Arnold, Tennyson, the Brontës, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Gaskell, Ruskin, and Dickens. Topics may include liberty, work, gender, class, imperialism, and poetry.

Learning Objectives:

  • to acquire a knowledge of British literary history from approximately 1830-1860;
  • to critically assess new ideas in social and cultural criticism, religion, and poetics emerging in the period;
  • to identify and evaluate important themes and the interrelations between the literary works and the cultural concerns of the period;
  • to increase critical responsiveness to the formal aspects of poetry, the novel, and the essay;
  • to increase critical awareness of the relations between the formal / aesthetic and the intellectual, ethical, and social;
  • to hone critical skills in the reading, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of texts;
  • to enhance written and oral communication skills.
Method Of Evaluation: Value Due/write
Shorter essay (750-1000 words) 20% January 30
Longer essay: draft first paragraph, working thesis 10% February 27
Longer essay (1750-2000 words) 30% March 20

Group presentation with write-up

or alternative essay assignment

 20%

one week after presentation;

March 4 at the latest
Final test 20% April 3

Late Policy:

Essays are due on the dates assigned above. Extensions may be granted for medical reasons or personal problems; no extensions on the alternative essay assignment. Late penalty: 2 marks per day deducted.

Group Presentation 20%

As a group, spend 20-30 minutes teaching the poem to the class. You may want to be creative; for example, you could stage your presentation as a dialogue, provide a chart, graph, concept map, diagram, or other visual aid, or engage the class in discussion or an activity. While I will take into consideration the organization, purposefulness, and effectiveness of the group’s presentation as a whole, students will receive an individual evaluation for their work/contribution (unless all members of the group collectively ask to be evaluated together as a group).

One week after the presentation, hand in your rough notes along with 200-250 word write-up that reflects on these questions:

  • what was your most substantive contribution to/role in the group presentation, either in the preparation phase or in the presentation itself, or both?
  • what steps were taken to organize your team and its work?
  • what steps did you take to monitor and/or improve the effectiveness of your team?
  • what problems did you encounter in working as a team and how did you tackle them?
  • if you were to embark on a second, similar task as a team, what would be different about the way you go about working, and why?

Evaluation criteria:

  • demonstrated understanding of the key ideas expressed/developed in the poem;
  • demonstrated understanding of any noteworthy formal aspects (e.g. rhyme, meter, poetic structure) and their significance;
  • effective presentation to the class as a part of the group; or effective presentation in the alternative essay (see below).

Alternative essay assignment (for students unable to do a group presentation). Due March 4 or earlier; no extensions will be granted. Hand in a 750-1000-word essay that provides a close reading of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 21 or Sonnet 22, from “Sonnets from the Portuguese” (142). You must include in your essay a short visual aid that helps explain a key point (e.g. a chart, graph, concept map, simple diagram, etc.).

Essays: Shorter and Longer Essay Topics will be handed out in advance of the due dates. Longer Essay: On February 27 you will hand in a draft first paragraph that includes a working thesis; this will be graded and returned to you in time for you in time to consider suggestions as you work towards the final draft of the essay (due March 20). If you receive a higher grade on the Longer Essay than on the draft first paragraph, your mark for the draft first paragraph assignment will be adjusted upwards to match it. If you do not hand in a draft first paragraph assignment, you will receive a grade of zero out of 10.

Format For Written Work: I require paper copies of all written assignments. Please hand in written work to me in class or to the English department drop box on the second floor of Hagey Hall.

  • Print essays in 12-point font, with 1”/2.5 cm. margins, double-spaced throughout, and stapled in the upper-left-hand corner. You may print on two sides of the page. Please provide a word count at the end of the document. Proofread your work carefully before handing it in. For formal essays, please use MLA format.
  • On the first page of your essay, in the upper-left-hand corner, put your name, the course number, my name, and the date. The title of the essay should name the work(s) under discussion and indicate your approach to the topic.

Schedule:

Winter 2019, Mon and Wed 11:30-12:50, HH 138

WEEK 1 January 7-9: Introduction to the course and to the period

John Stuart Mill: excerpt from Chapter 5 of Autobiography (posted on Learn)

Matthew Arnold, “Memorial Verses”

WEEK 2 January 14-16: Science And Religion

William Dyce, “Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th 1858” (a painting)

Charles Darwin, “Recapitulation and Conclusion,” Origin of Species (269)

Matthew Arnold, “The Forgotten Merman” (453), “Dover Beach” (465)

Christina Rossetti, “A Better Resurrection”

Arthur Hugh Clough, “The Latest Decalogue” “Say not the struggle nought availeth”

  • JAN 16: Group Organisation Meeting

WEEK 3 January 21-23: Radical Ideas

Thomas Carlyle, from Chapter 3 “Democracy,” from Past and Present (29-31)

J.S. Mill, excerpt from On Liberty (posted on Learn)

Harriet Taylor, from The Enfranchisement of Women (103)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Cry of the Children” (135)

Grace Aguilar, “The Hebrew’s Appeal” (381)

Thomas Hood, “Song of the Shirt” (59)

WEEK 4 January 28-30: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Chapters 1-21)

WEEK 5 February 4-6: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Chapter 22 to the end)

Mary Seacole, chapter 1 of The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands

Secondary reading: Nathan K. Hensley, “Catastrophe and knowledge: Thinking through the archives of ‘industrial time’ – from Jane Eyre to the IPCC report” (posted on Learn)

WEEK 6 February 11-13: Poetry And Poetics

J.S. Mill “What is Poetry?” (77)

Matthew Arnold, “Preface” to Poems (471)

Ruskin, from “The Stone of Venice” (443)

Robert Browning, “Fra Lippo Lippi” (315)

  • FEB 11 Group 1 Presentation Emily Brontë, “Remembrance” (386) OR “No Coward Soul is Mine” (390)
  • FEB 13 Group 2 Presentation Emily Brontë, “Stanzas” (391) OR “I’m happiest when most away” (392)

February 18-20: Reading Week, no classes

WEEK 7 February 25-27: Love, Sex

Robert Browning, “Porphyria’s Lover” (303), “Love among the Ruins” (311), “A Woman’s Last

Word” (325)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Mariana” (173)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Jenny” (510)

Matthew Arnold, “The Buried Life” (456)

  • FEB 25 Middle-of-term catch-up, synthesis, questions, comments, suggestions, etc.
  • FEB 27 Group 3 Presentation Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Musical Instrument” (169)

WEEK 8 March 4-6: Death And The Body

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Lady of Shallot” (179), “Break, Break, Break” (189), from “In

Memoriam, A.H.H.” [Prologue, 1-7, 21, 28-30, 54-59, 78, 95, 104-106] (196), “Tithonus”

Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” (305)

Secondary reading: Allen MacDuffie, “Charles Darwin and the Victorian Pre-History of Climate Denial” (posted on Learn)

  • MAR 6 Group 4 Presentation Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 21 OR 22, “Sonnets from the Portuguese” (142)

WEEK 9 March 11- 13: George Eliot, Silas Marner

Secondary reading: Pauline Nestor, “George Eliot and the drama of otherness” (posted on Learn)

WEEK 10 March 18-20: George Eliot, Silas Marner

  • MAR 18 Group 5 Presentation Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 24 OR 26, “Sonnets from the Portuguese” (142)

WEEK 11 March 25-27: Last Things

Matthew Arnold, “Isolation. To Marguerite” (455); “To Marguerite--Continued” (456)

Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” (312), “The Bishop Orders his

Tomb at St Praxed’s Church” (307)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses” (184), “Locksley Hall” (189)

WEEK 12 April 1-3: review and Final Test

Group Presentation Sign-up

Your individual write-up of the presentation is due one week after the group presentation.

JAN 16: Group Organisation Meeting

FEB 11: Group 1 Presentation

Emily Brontë, “Remembrance” (386) OR “No Coward Soul is Mine” (390)

  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________

FEB 13: Group 2 Presentation:

Emily Brontë, “Stanzas” (391) OR “I’m happiest when most away” (392)

  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________

FEB 27: Group 3 Presentation:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Musical Instrument” (169)

  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________

MAR 6: Group 4 Presentation

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 21 OR 22, “Sonnets from the Portuguese” (142)

  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________

MAR 18: Group 5 Presentation

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 24 OR 26, “Sonnets from the Portuguese” (143)

  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________
  • ______________________

Cross-listed course (requirement for all Arts courses)

Please note that a cross-listed course will count in all respective averages no matter under which rubric it has been taken. For example, a PHIL/PSCI cross-list will count in a Philosophy major average, even if the course was taken under the Political Science rubric.

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. See the UWaterloo Academic Integrity webpage for more information.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline. For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 - Student Appeals.

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities

Note for students with disabilities: The AccessAbility Services office, located on the first floor of the Needles Hall extension (1401), collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AS office at the beginning of each academic term.

Mental Health Support

All of us need a support system. The faculty and staff in Arts encourage students to seek out mental health support if they are needed.

On Campus

  • Counselling Services: counselling.services@uwaterloo.ca / 519-888-4567 ext. 32655
  • MATES: one-to-one peer support program offered by Federation of Students (FEDS) and Counselling Services
  • Health Services Emergency service: located across the creek form Student Life Centre

Off campus, 24/7

  • Good2Talk: Free confidential help line for post-secondary students. Phone: 1-866-925-5454
  • Grand River Hospital: Emergency care for mental health crisis. Phone: 519-749-4300 ext. 6880
  • Here 24/7: Mental Health and Crisis Service Team. Phone: 1-844-437-3247
  • OK2BME: set of support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning teens in Waterloo.

Phone: 519-884-0000 extension 213

Full details can be found online on the Faculty of Arts website

Download UWaterloo and regional mental health resources (PDF)

Download the WatSafe app to your phone to quickly access mental health support information

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