English 540.01 (CRN: 15783) Fall 2000
Stephan Flores
Decorum, Writing, Passion and Excess: Early British Novels by Women
Brink 125 (Office hours: TTH 11:00a.m.-12:15 p.m. UCC 304 TTH 9:30-10:30 and by appt.)
Course description: This course explores six British novels by women, beginning with Eliza Haywood's Love in Excess (1719), one of the two most popular novels of the early eighteenth century. We shall also read Francis Burney's comic epistolary novel, Evelina (1778), Ann Radcliffe's gothic The Romance of the Forest (1791), Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story (1791), Mary Hays's Memoirs of Emma Courtney (1796), and Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1814).
These novels are preoccupied with the cultural construction of gender and sexual relations and identities in the contexts of domestic life, larger class and social relations, philosophical and political thought (especially for Hays's novel), and in terms of writing itself, so that these novels present the possibility of recognizing, resisting, refiguring (and affirming) such processes of identification. In these works, decorums and often paternal, patriarchal (and at times, economic) constraints become juxtaposed with passionate interests in transgression, discovery, and excess. Studying these novels also offers an opportunity to consider recent scholarship on related efforts to understand these works within the history of the novel and women's writing in this period.
I'm eager to discover what you think about these works, and I look forward to our collective learning this semester.
Required texts:
Haywood, Eliza. Love in Excess. Second ed. Broadview P, 2000.
Burney, Francis. Evelina. Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997.
Inchbald, Elizabeth. A Simple Story. Oxford UP, 1998.
Radcliffe, Ann. The Romance of the Forest. Oxford UP, 1999.
Hays, Mary. The Memoirs of Emma Courtney. Broadview P, 2000.
Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. Norton, 1998.
Additional primary and secondary works on library reserve.
Requirements:
1. One critical summary (two pages, single-spaced, nearly 1000 words) of a critical essay on one of the novels or novelists. We'll divvy up the criticism to cover a range of topics and texts; summaries must be completed by the third day of our discussion of the text in question. You will be scheduled to present your summary, to talk briefly about the critic's methods and claims, and to draw upon your research to foster further discussion.
2. Six critical responses (500 words each, single-spaced, titled) that prompt you to identify and to address interpretive and critical issues presented by these novels and related scholarship. Your observations and analyses should be succinct and sharply focused, with potential for substantial further development. Your responses should emphasize issues of critical analysis and judgment, and they shall be used in class (we'll rotate this opportunity) to invite dialogue on the question or problem. Critical responses are due at the beginning of class on the due date.
3. Participation in class discussion (including informal writing). Please take advantage of the opportunity such discussions (at times in small groups) may provide to discuss your reactions, share your insights and research, and to listen and reply to others' ideas. I may call from time to time upon groups or individuals to facilitate class discussion. I hope such work will enable you to move the class in directions you find most helpful and give you opportunities to develop critical skills through collaboration while I continue to share my perspectives with you. Because our class is "seminar" size, we'll have good opportunities for conversations in which everyone participates.
4. Two double-spaced essays (Essay 1, 8 pp.; Essay 2, 12-14 pp.). More on this later, but in general each of these essays enable you to explore an interpretive/contextual problem, try out a critical approach/hypothesis, and to express ideas prompted by your reading, by recent scholarship, and by our discussion. I am interested in seeing the ways that you select, define, and engage questions and contradictions, and I attend to the clarity, imagination, and grace that you demonstrate in presenting your topic, thesis, and argument. I do not always expect essays to conclude by "solving" such problems or by "proving" your thesis; I do hope that you address interesting topics in thoughtful and useful ways. Your first essay should draw upon (acknowledge, build on, respond to, incorporate) at least one substantial critical essay (preferably recent) on the text, and perhaps consider relevant cultural or historical scholarship. The second essay is a bit larger in scope and development, and probably requires at least several substantial secondary sources of scholarship. I am also open to discussing alternatives that might supplement this assignment with a "critical project," perhaps a shorter essay in the context of a review of scholarship. Please feel invited to confer with me during the writing process.
5. Due dates: All required work is due at the beginning of class on the due date--work turned in later will be marked late and graded accordingly. All 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). Work 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 EXTRA COPIES OF YOUR WORK.
6. Attendance is required--your participation is a crucial part of a collective learning experience. Excellent attendance and participation is rewarded; poor attendance is penalized. If you have no absences by the term's end (excused or not), you will receive four bonus points; with one absence, you will receive three bonus points. But four absences will lower your semester total by 12 points with six point reductions for each additional absence (for example, five absences=minus 18 points and so on); more than six absences will cause you to fail the class, regardless of your semester point total. Almost all absences will be counted--excused or not--if something extraordinary occurs, talk to me.
7. Grades: Critical Summary of a critical essay (25 points); Six Critical Responses (25 points each); Essay 1 (100 points); Essay 2, or essay combined with some critical project (130 points). These required assignments add up to a maximum of 380 points. Thus 342-380 points equals an A, 304-341 equals a B, 266-303 equals a C, 228-265 equals a D, and anything below 228 merits an F. I shall also reserve a potential five bonus points based on my perceptions of the strength of your participation and efforts over the semester.
8. Office hours. I encourage you to confer with me--especially before assignments are due--to talk about your interests, intentions, and writing strategies. I also expect you to meet with me in mid-November to review your progress. My office is not accessible to the handicapped, so please let me know if you need to meet me elsewhere. If you cannot make my regular hours, we'll arrange another time. I also welcome communicating with you by E-mail (sflores@uidaho.edu), and I expect that you will also have an e-mail address so that I can communicate with you and with the class in this fashion from time to time.
Syllabus English 540.01 Fall 2000
Additional secondary works and several further assigned readings shall be placed on reserve; critical summaries/presentations are due on the third day of discussion of the assigned novel.
8/29 Haywood, Love in Excess
8/31 Love in Excess, 37-79
9/5 Love in Excess
9/7 Love in Excess; Critical Response due
9/12 Love in Excess
9/14 Burney, Evelina
9/19 Evelina
9/21 Evelina
9/26 Evelina; Critical Response due
9/28 Evelina
10/3 Inchbald, A Simple Story
10/5 A Simple Story
10/10 A Simple Story
10/12 A Simple Story; Critical Response due
10/17 A Simple Story
10/19 Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest
10/24 The Romance of the Forest
10/26 The Romance of the Forest; Essay 1 due
10/31 The Romance of the Forest; Critical Response due
11/2 The Romance of the Forest
11/7 Hays, Memoirs of Emma Courtney
11/9 Memoirs of Emma Courtney
11/14 Memoirs of Emma Courtney; Critical Response due
11/16 Memoirs of Emma Courtney
11/28 Austen, Mansfield Park
11/30 Mansfield Park
12/5 Mansfield Park
12/7 Mansfield Park; Critical Response due
12/12 Mansfield Park
12/14 Mansfield Park; Essay 2 due
12/20 Last class meeting, 10:00 a.m.-noon