English 341.01 Survey of British Literature [10th c.-18th c.]                  Fall 2016                              
Dr. Stephan Flores (sflores@uidaho.edu)                                                      
11:00 am -12:15 pm TR ED 442                                                                        
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~sflores/                                                  Main office of Department of English: 885-6156
Office hours: W 2:30pm-4:00 p.m. & by appt.                                             Office: Brink 125

Prerequisite: English 102 or equivalent, and pre-or-co-requisite of Engl 175, or 257, or 258; English majors must in addition have completed Engl 215, or enroll by permission of instructor.

Course Description:

The course surveys the wonderful and varied history of medieval and early modern British poetry, drama, and prose fiction, including haunting early English elegiac poetry, including the power of Beowulf, the General Introduction and two selections from Geoffrey Chaucer's wonderful The Canterbury Tales, the anti-heroic romance? of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one non-Shakespearean tragic play (John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi), selections from Shakespeare's sonnets, John Donne's erotic lyrics and religious verse, nearly all (!) of Milton's epic, magnificent poem Paradise Lost, Aphra Behn's (she is among the first professional female writers) and the Earl of Rochester's satiric verse as well as Behn's debate-provoking novella Oroonoko (is it a proto-abolitionist work?), Eliza Haywood's provocative short fiction Fantomina, and Alexander Pope's mock-heroic masterpiece The Rape of the Lock. These and other selected works represent but a portion of the rich literature over these centuries; we'll proceed at a steady, fairly brisk pace that enables us to consider substantial texts and secondary critical essays in some depth while also sustaining an overview that extends into the eighteenth century.

Our aim is to work together to explore the social, sexual, political, and formal issues these texts represent as well as the continuities and discontinuities of literary history. Assignments include weekly Inquiry-Starter entries on Bblearn and weekly Discussion Starter in-class entries on 3' x 5" cards, a Critical Essay, a Term Essay, and a Final Exam.

The quote that follows serves as a general guiding premise/claim for the course and its outcomes (also see expected learning outcomes noted further below, following the semester schedule): Literature provides us with a way of understanding how our social life works. Human social life consists of narratives for living, with ‘narratives’ being understood here as an actual life experience spread over time and guided by cultural stories that justify it to participants. Both the cultural and real-world narrative can change; both use frames to exclude norm-dissonant perspectives and values and to ensure that the meanings that support the continuity and homogeneity of the lived process are stable, predictable, and enforced. Who tells the stories in the culture thus largely shapes how that cultural world will be organized. Stories are what people believe and how they believe, and how people believe determines how they act and how they live. Stories can change how people think, perceive, believe, and act. The analysis of the work they perform is thus an important endeavor. And that is what criticism is all about. (An Introduction to Criticism: Literature/Film/Culture--Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).

Note that this class counts toward/satisfies several different elective possibilities in the different emphases in the English major, such as the "one upper-division course in literature before 1900 (3 cr)" requirement in the Literature emphasis, or as one of the options in the 9 credits of 300-level literature surveys, or in the Creative Writing emphasis the "Shakespeare or another course in literature before 1800 (3 cr)" requirement, or as one of two required electives among the 300-level literature surveys, and similar options/requirements in the Teaching emphasis or in the current Professional emphasis.

Broader contexts for desired course outcomes are situated within the department's goals for the English major and the university's learning outcomes. In addition, as the course progresses, see further below learning outcomes specific to this course and level.

Required texts:

The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol. 1, Ninth ed.(2012), Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. Paperback: ISBN: 978-0-393-91247-0 Note: this edition is required for the course--do not plan to use a different anthology/edition.

Other primary and secondary works on library reserve and PDF documents (including scholarly articles/essays on many of our texts) in folders/course Bblearn site.

Login to Bblearn in advance of our first class meeting, by using your UIDAHO NetID. You can update your password at http://help.uidaho.edu/. If you haven't already, setup your NetID at www.vandalsetup.uidaho.edu. If you continue to experience problems accessing BbLearn after changing your password, please contact the ITS Help Desk by email helpdesk@uidaho.edu, or phone (208)885-HELP.
Student Help using BbLearn

Requirements:

1. Fourteen written Inquiry Starters: a thesis/problem-driven analytical response (approximately 200 words each) informed by some aspect of the text under discussion (for the assigned reading for that Tuesday or week) as well as any assigned criticism/commentary (from the Norton edition’s introductory headnotes or an article that I've made available in Bblearn resource folders for selected texts--see two examples via this weblink). Inquiry Starters present a means for you and the class to share close critical analysis, enthusiasms and questions as you delve into the text’s significance, methods, and effects, and to learn from others' comments (a version of Graff's "They Say, I Say" exchange, see Bblearn). No late entries —Inquiry Starters are due/posted on the Bblearn discussion thread (see left side menu on Bblearn, click on that, then find appropriate thread for each IS, and post an entry and provide a "title" for your entry) before class (by 10:00 am on the near weekly due date--due before almost every Tuesday's class). ISs posted after 10:00am but before class will be docked/reduced by one point; each IS entry posted after (or during!) class will lose five points--that is, your semester point total will be reduced by five points for each late or missing Inquiry-Starter entry. Come to class prepared to talk about your ISs/ideas; at times we'll spotlight individual ISs, using the projector to introduce the ISs via Bblearn to facilitate discussion, so keep in mind that you may be called upon in class to comment further upon your IS. Remember: Missing or late inquiry-starter entries will be counted against your semester grade, and if your grades are on a borderline between grade ranges then missing even one entry may reduce your semester grade (see below).

2. Fourteen written Discussion Starters, due at the beginning of class each Thursday: at minimum, write one sentence of commentary on some aspect of the assigned reading for each Thursday, and also pose a Discussion Starter question--these entries are to be written on a 3" x 5" index card--remember to write your name legibly on the card and include the date. Each late or missing entry will count against your semester point total by two points.

3. In-class Final Exam (Monday December 12, 10:00am-12:00pm)—see full guidelines/advice in PDF in our Bblearn site—bring “bluebooks” or paper, your Norton edition text, and optional one standard sheet of paper with any study notes (front and back is OK). This focused exam will entail/require two essays on your choice of texts structured as follows:

You shall write two in-class essays during the exam; each essay will be in response to a choice among several options over different selected texts, as described below. Your choice of topic will depend in part on what you wrote your Critical and Term Essays on—you cannot write on the same text(s) as your Critical or Term Essay.

The first half of the exam presents four options (with framing problems/questions; options A, B, C, or D)—choose an option to write one essay on

(A) Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (2686) or

(B) Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (2686) or

(C) the poetic exchange/argument between Jonathan Swift's "The Lady's Dressing Room" (p. 2767) and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's "The Reasons That Induced Dr. Swift to Write a Poem Called the Lady's Dressing Room," (p. 2770) or

(D) the poetic exchange/argument between Pope's "Epistle 2. To a Lady" (p.2772) and Anne Ingram, Viscountess Irwin's "An Epistle to Mr. Pope" (p.2780);

the second half of the exam consists of one essay that you shall write in response either to a question selected from these options (A, B, or C)

(A) on Haywood's Fantomina or

(B) on Behn's Oroonoko or

(C) on Milton’s Paradise Lost

For example, if your Term Essay was on Fantomina, then you will need to write on Oroonoko, and vice versa, or if your Term Essay was on Paradise Lost, then you would need to choose options A or B. If there is the possibility that you wrote your Critical Essay on Oroonoko and your Term Essay on Fantomina, then you would need to choose option C.

Bring your Norton anthology to the exam, along with bluebooks or ruled notebook paper. You may bring one sheet of paper (your notes) to the exam. Unless you are using an electronic version of our anthology, you cannot use a smartphone, tablet, or laptop during the exam. In addition to rereading/reviewing what you anticipate to be the literary texts that you may write about for the exam, you may find it helpful to read/review a couple of scholarly articles on the works, in the Bblearn folders on these writers.

I recommend getting to the points you want to make without lengthy introductions, plot summary, or too general of interpretations; do refer to specific characters and passages from the text to support your argument and your generalizations. If you quote from the text, do so briefly. Develop your thesis clearly and logically and offer support that includes some attention to the text's formal and linguistic qualities (e.g., diction, imagery, narrative or poetic or dramatic structure, point of view, rhyme, tone, etc.) and the relation of these elements to your interpretation. You may refer to your text during the exam. Please write as legibly as possible, preferably in ink.

4. Critical Essay (see highlighted weblink for fuller advice on writing critical essay as well as the folder in Bblearn--hard copy due by email by noon on Monday October 24th--drop off a hard copy in Brink 200 or bring one to class on Tuesday) on either Beowulf, or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or one (or more) of The Canterbury Tales, or Skelton's poetry, or Wyatt's poetry, or Donne's poetry, or Spenser's poetry (Epithalamion), Shakespeare's sonnets, or The Duchess of Malfi; 1600 words/six pages for main body of essay, double-spaced (e.g. 12-pt. Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins), with reference to at least one piece of “instructor-specified” secondary criticism beyond our assigned reading in the Norton edition, according to selections (refer to/cite/draw upon at least one substantial article/book chapter in Bblearn folder for the corresponding literary text, or check with me if in addition, you draw upon other scholarly articles or books via our library/database) posted on our class website for criticism on each text. The primary aims of this thesis-seeking/problem-posing exploratory essay assignment is to engage with the text and its critical interpretation/reception by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments, and enriching your literary understanding, interests, and commitments. Use/learn Modern Language Association format for any notes and works cited (see, for instance, link to MLA format guidelines further below, and the Norton online resources/example of developing a research essay. For this assignment I encourage you to write an essay in response to one or more specific questions/problems of understanding and interpretation. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students. Note: also see requirement #12 below.

5. Term Essay on text or texts and topic of your choice, from our schedule of readings/syllabus this semester (excluding topic and text analyzed in prior Critical Essay, double-spaced (12 pt, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, MLA format, approximately 9 pages for main body of essay), with significant reference to at least two secondary works of criticism (selected from folders on Bblearn, that include substantial recent articles or book chapters--note that there are folders for Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer, Skelton, Spenser, The Duchess of Malfi, Paradise Lost, Behn and Rochester, including essays on Oroonoko as well as poetry, Donne, and Fantomina): this critical essay develops ideas prompted by our study and conversation, by recent scholarship, and by your perspectives. If you wish to write on a text that we have considered but find that there are not two substantial critical essays on that text/writer in a Bblearn folder, please let me know as soon as possible. I shall attend to the ways that you select, define, and engage questions and contradictions, and to the clarity, imagination, and grace that you demonstrate in presenting your topic, (hypo)thesis, and argument, and the extent to which your work engages with, explains, and contributes to the larger "conversation" of scholarship on the topic and text(s) under analysis. I do not always expect essays to conclude by "solving" such problems or by "proving" your thesis; I hope that you address interesting topics (questions for debate, interpretation, and analysis) in thoughtful and useful ways. Please feel invited to confer with me during the writing process. See also general advice for critical essays similar to prior advice on the Critical Essay that pertains as well to this Term Essay--also see folder in Bblearn. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students. Note: also see requirement #12 below.

6. Participation: Please take advantage of opportunities to share your insights and to listen and reply to others' ideas (often the Inquiry Starters and Discussion Starters can help you to initiate and to enter conversations). I hope that questions and discussions will enable you to move the class in directions you find most helpful, give you opportunities to develop critical skills through collaboration, and provide for a productive, interesting exchange of perspectives among the class. The Inquiry Starters and Discussion Starters will prompt our discussions: you should be prepared to comment on the day's reading for every class session--that is, complete the reading and be ready to contribute to each class meeting, including periodic occaions where I'll ask you to write about (in class) some aspect of the reading under discussion for that day. We may form small groups from time to time primarily for discussing/sharing Inquiry Starters and Discussion Starters (as noted above).

7. All required work is due at the beginning of class on the due date—work turned in late will be graded accordingly. Required graded written work will be downgraded one notch (for example, B+ to B, converted to points for each assignment) for each weekday late (not just days classes meet but counting just one day for a weekend); note, however, that the Term Essay cannot be turned in late--it is due in class on December 12. Work submitted more than a week late will not be accepted. I will grant short extensions for medical and family emergencies—but talk with me as soon as possible to request an extension. Always keep copies of your work.

8. Attendance: One or two absences will not affect your semester grade; a third absence will lower your semester total by three points, with a five-point reduction for each additional absence (four absences=minus 8 points, five absences = minus 13 points); six or more absences is sufficient cause for you to receive a failing grade for the course, regardless of your semester point total. All absences will be counted—excused or not—if something extraordinary occurs, talk to me.

9. Grades: Final Exam (50 pts); Critical Essay (100 pts); Term Essay (130 pts). These required assignments add up to a maximum of 280 points. Thus 252-280 points equals an A, 224-251 equals a B, 196-223 equals a C, 168-195 equals a D, and anything below 168 merits an F. I shall reserve a potential five bonus points based on my perceptions of the strength of your participation and efforts over the semeste, including strengths of your Inquiry Starters and Discussion Starters; incomplete or missing Inquiry-Starter entries will be counted against your semester grade, with the loss of five points for each missing or incomplete entry; missing or late Discussion-Starter entries will reduce your semester point total by two points each--make every effort to complete each week's ISs and DSs on time, in part because such penalty points add up all too quickly. Also note that near the end of November, I will post your point totals for the graded assignments, and any accumulated penalty points to date for missing/late ISs and DSs, and absences, to the Grade Center in Bblearn.

10. Office hours. I encourage you to confer with me—especially before assignments are due—to talk about your interests, intentions, and writing strategies. If you cannot make my regular hours (in Brink 125), we’ll arrange another time. I also welcome communicating with you by E-mail (sflores@uidaho.edu).

11. Use of laptops and cell phones during class is prohibited; occasional use of laptops—typically for group work and to access the online components of the class—may be permitted with instructor’s approval.

12. Do not submit work for this class that you have submitted or intend to submit for a grade in another course; as always, be careful to cite anyone else's work that you draw upon. See highlighted link on the class website to a useful guide to avoiding plagiarism, and a link to information on the university's policies regarding plagiarism. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students.

13. Classroom Learning and Civility: To support learning and discovery in this course—as in any university course—it is essential that each member of the class feel as free and as safe as possible in his or her participation. To this end, we must collectively expect that everyone (students, professors, and guests) seek to be respectful and civil to one another in discussion, in action, in teaching, and in learning. Because knowledge and learning are constructed and construed through social inquiry and exchange, it is vital that course dialogue and debate encourage and expect a substantial range of reasoned, expressive, and impassioned articulation of diverse views in order to build a stronger understanding of the materials and of one another's ways of knowing. These practices strengthen our capacities for understanding and the production of (new) knowledge. As with the critical writing assignments for this class, our primary aims include engaging with texts and their varied critical interpretations by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments with supporting lines of evidence and explanation, and enriching our literary understanding, interests, and commitments.

Should you feel our classroom interactions do not reflect an environment of civility and respect, you are encouraged to meet with me during office hours to discuss your concern. Additional resources for expression of concern and avenues of support include the chair of the Department of English, Dr. Scott Slovic, the Dean of Students office and staff (5-6757), the UI Counseling & Testing Center’s confidential services (5-6716), or the UI Office of Human Rights, Access, & Inclusion (5-4285).

14. Disability Support Services: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documented temporary or permanent disabilities. All accommodations must be approved through Disability Support Services (885-6307; dss@uidaho.edu; www.uidaho.edu/dss) located in the Idaho Commons Building, Room 306 in order to notify your instructor(s) as soon as possible regarding accommodation(s) needed for the course.

Schedule/Syllabus; If we fall behind, then on occasion we may defer or spill over discussion to next day, and adjust accordingly--for works that we discuss only one day, you are to have finished reading the work prior to class discussion; for works that we discuss over several days, make an effort to have finished most of the work prior to the first day of discussion (with the exception of Paradise Lost) but recognize that for the first day we'll likely focus our analysis/conversation on the first half or so of the text under discussion. For many of the texts, see PDFs of criticicim, study guide/questions in folders on class Bblearn site.

Student Learning Outcomes (see this link for longer list and contexts for desired outcomes, that supplement the three outcomes stated below)
In English 341 students will learn, develop, and strengthen abilities
- to understand and to explain the historical dimensions of literary characters’ desires for and relation with others, including social negotiations and ideological debates over valued identities and principles, particularly as these desires and relations are understood as rhetorical functions and effects of the literary text in its particular language/form/structure and its contexts
-to explore the extent to which the culturally-inflected and historically-situated desires and power relations and identities in literary works are shown to be in flux, narrated and dramatized as being put into question or engaged in a debate among different social, political, class, gender, ethnic, religious/ideological arrangements
-to write a substantial critical essay that engages with a literary text and its critical interpretation/reception by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments, and enriching literary understanding, interests, and commitments

Examples of Contexts/Topics included in the Norton Anthology of English Literature website (related to student learning outcomes listed above--this outline suggests some of the texts/issues or 'content' of what students will explore/learn about)

Evaluation/Assessment Rubric for Instructor's Written Responses to Critical Essay and Term Essay, with check mark along a scale of Excellent to Weak, with specific comments to supplement comments/feedback on the texts of the essays themselves:

Rubric for Initial Criteria for Evaluating Critical Writing/Essays:   Excellent          Very Good-Good          Competent-Fair          Weak
Note: Ultimately the evaluation of your work is holistic,
and therefore also intends to register the different, nuanced,
unexpected and evocative effects of your analysis,
exploration, creative expression/affect, and engagement
with learning and discovery.

1. Strength and clarity of (hypo)thesis/focus/introduction

2. Intellectual/conceptual strength and persuasiveness of
main claim as well as ensuing argument/logic/premises/
critical analysis/theory/ideas         

3. Cohesive and coherent development, logical
 organization, including well-structured paragraphs with
clear points and compelling, specific support/evidence

4. Analysis of text’s/topic’s relevant cultural/historical
 contexts and if specified, of related scholarship/criticism;
analysis of text’s rhetorical/persuasive strategies, structure

5. Topic’s depth/complexity, including explanation of
problem to be addressed, recognition of text’s
conflicts/contradictions (ideological/rhetorical),
creativity and sense of discovery/affective engagement
conveyed—the articulated sense of “what’s at stake, why
 all of it matters”

6. Significance/ conclusion

7. Effective sentences, syntax, verbs, diction,
punctuation, complexity, and suitable style: academic,
critical, appropriate to your understanding of the
materials/subjects

8. MLA style—parenthetical citation of sources,
Works Cited; formatting; spelling ungraded but noted

University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism)

Lessons on Style (general advice/quited dated handout but perhaps worth looking over) [pdf]

Quick Advice on Punctuation (also dated) [pdf]

Summary/Overview of Perspectives on Critical Theory

Online Writing Center Resources (from writing essays to grammar and usage advice):

http://wiki.english.ucsb.edu/index.php/The_Craft_of_a_Literature_Paper

Purdue OWL workshop/guidelines on using MLA for citation

MLA Quick Guide to Works Cited/citation