Victorian Literature

Abigail Burnham Bloom abiga52088@aol.com
Hunter College, Fall 2006
English 373 Victorian Literature, Writing Intensive
Fall 2006,
M, Th 4:10-5:25
Office Hours Th 1:30-2:30 and By Appointment 1436HW.
Telephone 212.772.5189.

REQUIRED BOOKS (available at Hunter Bookstore):
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
David Damrosch, ed., Vol. 2B The Victorian Age: The Longman Anthology of British Literature (3rd ed.)

GOALS
To see the Victorian Age and its literature on a continuum with our own.
To be able to identify the techniques, styles, and themes of the major Victorian writers.
To understand how the concerns of the age (industrialization, the past, religion, science, the place of women, colonialization) were explored within the genres of autobiography, poetry, prose non-fiction, short story, novel, and play.

NOTE: Read the headnote for each author listed below!

August
Th 31 Introduction

September
M 4 No Class
Th 7 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Mariana,” “Ulysses,” 1233-35, 1244-46
M 11 Tennyson, In Memoriam, 1260-91
Th 14 Tennyson, Idylls of the King, 1293-1327
M 18 Edward Fitzgerald, “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,” 1331-45 and hand-out
Th 21 Robert Browning, “Porphyria's Lover,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister,” “My Last Duchess,” “Memorabilia,” “Two in the Compagna,” “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” 1411-16, 1424, 1451-53, 1427-32; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Cry of the Children,” from Aurora Leigh Book I, 1203-12; Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach, 1662
M 25 Thesis for Paper #1 due; Thomas Carlyle, 1125-36; Florence Nightingale, “Cassandra,” 1608-25
Th 28 John Stuart Mill, “The Subjection of Women” and “Autobiography,” 1176-95

October
M 2 No Class
Tu 3 (Monday Schedule) The Industrial Landscape, 1137-63. Panel 1
Th 5 Victorian Ladies and Gentlemen, 1626-57. Panel 2
M 9 No Class
Th 12 Midterm Examination
M 16 Dickens, Great Expectations, 1-75, to chap. XXXIV
Th 19 Dickens, Great Expectations, 75-148, to chap. XXIII; Paper #1 due
M 23 Dickens, Great Expectations, 148-226, to chap. XXXVIII
Th 26 Dickens, Great Expectations, 227-309, to chap. LII
M 30 Dickens, Great Expectations, 309 to end; Panel 3; thesis for Paper #2 due

November
Th 2 Charles Darwin, “The Voyage of the Beagle,” “On the Origin of Species,” 1345-62; Religion and Science, 1376-1408. Panel 4
M 6 Victorian Art, the Pre-Raphaelites and other poets; Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “The Blessed Damozel,” “The Woodspurge,” 1713-17; Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market,” 1731-44.
Th 9 William Morris, “The Haystack in the Floods,”1756-60; Algernon Charles Swinburne, “Hymn to Proserpine,” 1772-75, Tennyson, “The Higher Pantheism,” Swinburne, “The Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell,” 1327-29; Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Windhover,” “Carrion Comfort,” “No Worst, There is None,” 1794, 1798; Paper #2 due
M 13 Lewis Carroll, “Jabberwocky” and “Humpty Dumpty on Jabberwocky,” 1812-14; Imagining Childhood, 1819-58. Panel 5
Th 16 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1939-54; thesis for Paper #3 due
M 20 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1954-77
Th 23 No Class
M 27 Rudyard Kipling, “Without Benefit of Clergy,” 1860-74; Ruskin, “The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century,” 1593-98
Th 30 Travel and Empire 1888-1937. Panel 6

December
M 4 Elizabeth Gaskell, “Our Society at Crawford,” 1522-38; Thomas Hardy, “The Withered Arm,” 1538-56
Th 7 Ruskin, from Praeterita, 1599-1606, from The Stones of Venice, 1580-90; Pater, from The Child in the House, 1785-90; Whistler, from Ten O'Clock, 2065-69; Paper #3 due
M 11 Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 2004-43; Last Class.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Attendance. Regular attendance is required. More than four unexcused absences will lower your grade; six absences will drop you from the course. If you find it necessary to be absent, you may e-mail me at Abiga52088@aol.com.

2. Be on time for class. Excessive lateness or early departure is strongly discouraged.

3. Have available in class the text scheduled for discussion.

4. Panel discussion: one presentation required, on the day assigned for it.

5. We will have discussions online. You must have a Hunter internet address. Homework will also be posted online.

6. Homework and in-class quizzes: in-class, written on the day's assigned reading and then read aloud; outside class, on assigned topics. Each homework assignment must be handed in on the day it is due—it may be emailed to me.

7. Papers: three papers are required. Thesis statements must be submitted and approved for all papers. Drafts of papers can be submitted in advance of the date they are due. I will suggest ways to rework them. If you submit a draft paper 3 class sessions before the due date, I will edit and return it to you with comments for revision. YOUR PAPER IS DUE ON TIME; ITS FINAL MARK WILL BE LOWERED BY ONE FULL GRADE FOR EACH PERIOD IT IS LATE. Paper #1 is a research paper; Papers #2 and #3 involved literary analysis; Papers #1 and #2 can be rewritten.

8. There will be a midterm exam and a final exam.

9. Grading Policy: Paper 1 15%; Paper 2 15%; Paper 3 15%; Midterm Exam 15%; Final Exam 20%; Participation in class and online, panel, homework, quizzes 20%. Bonus: 5 extra points for visiting me during my office hours.

“Hunter College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The college is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to the Hunter College Academic Integrity Procedures.”