ANG2153 British Literature, 1790-1900

Fall 2016

Description:

This course is an advanced undergraduate class devoted to British novels published between the years 1816 (year of the publication of Jane Austen’s Emma) and 1895 (year of the publication of H.G. Well’s Time Machine). Students will be introduced to an array of theoretical approaches to these texts in order to broaden their perspective on the nineteenth century. Students will also discuss the twentieth-century reception of several texts under consideration in the course with three film adaptations. By engaging with the present popular (mis)appropriations of the past, we will see what this can tell us about that period and our reading of it.

Requirements:

• Midterm exam: 30%
• Final exam: 50%
• Critical questions: 20% (4 questions @ 5% each)

Works studied:

• Books:
  • Jane Austen, Emma (1816)
  • Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
  • Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1838)
  • Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847)
  • Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
  • R. L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
  • Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
  • H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895)
• Films:
  • Jacob Tierney’s 2003 Twist
  • Roy Ward Baker’s 1971 Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
  • Simon Wells’ 2002 The Time Machine
  • Doctor Who “The Unquiet Dead” (Season 1.3)

Secondary Criticism:

• Wendy S. Jones, ‘Emma, Gender, and the Mind-Brain‘, ELH 75.2 (Summer 2008)
• Fred V. Randel, ‘The Political Geography of Horror in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein‘, ELH 70.2 (Summer 2003)
• William T. Lankford, ‘“The Parish Boy’s Progress”: The Evolving Form of Oliver Twist‘, PMLA 93.1 (1978)
• Daniela Garofalo, ‘Impossible Love and Commodity Culture in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights‘, ELH 75.4 (Winter 2008)
• Phyllis Stowell, ‘We’re All Mad Here‘, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 8, 2 (Summer 1983)
• M. Kellen Williams, ‘“Down With the Door, Poole”: Designating Deviance in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde‘, English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 39, 4 (1996)
• Joseph Carroll, ‘Aestheticism, Homoeroticism, and Christian Guilt in The Picture of Dorian Gray‘, Philosophy and Literature 29.2 (2005 )
• Richard Wasson, ‘Myth and the Ex-Nomination of Class in The Time Machine‘, Minnesota Review 15 (Fall 1980)

Schedule:

• 12 September: Introduction
• 19 September: Austen
• 26 September: Shelley / Film: Twist (I)
• 3 October: Film: Twist (II) / Dickens
• 10 October: Bank holiday
• 17 October: Midterm exam
• 24 October: Reading week
• 31 October: Bronte / Film: Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (I)
• 7 November: Carroll / Film: Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (II)
• 14 November: Stevenson
• 21 November: Wilde
• 28 November: Film: The Time Machine (2002) – TV: Doctor Who “The Unquiet Dead” (Season 1.3)
• 5 December: Wells
• 12 December: Final exam

Plagiarism Policy:

Plagiarism – the stealing or “borrowing” of another person’s written work and passing it off as one’s own – is a very serious academic offence. Plagiarism occurs when:

• the work submitted was done, in whole or in part, by an individual other than the one submitting or presenting the work;
• an entire work (e.g., an essay), is copied from another source, or parts of the work are taken from another source without explicit reference to the author;
• an essay copies a sentence or paragraph of another work with minor variations.

Plagiarism occurs not only when direct quotations are taken from a source without explicit acknowledgement, but also when original ideas from the source are not acknowledged. A bibliography or “works cited” is insufficient to establish which portions of the student’s work are taken from external sources; formal modes of citation (i.e., page numbers and the author’s name in parenthetical references) must be used for this purpose.

Professors are required to report all cases of plagiarism to the Dean. The minimal disciplinary measure for cases of plagiarism is an F on the assignment, essay, or exam. Further measures can include an F in the course, suspension from the Faculty, and even the requirement to withdraw from the University.

If you are unclear on the definition of plagiarism or you are unsure about how to avoid it, please do not hesitate to ask me. Ignorance is not a valid defense.

This content has been updated on January 9, 2017 at 10 h 58 min.