| Instructor: Dr Julia Gardner |
ASSESSMENT
The bulk of your grade will come from three formal essays, described briefly below. Please read the booklet on close reading strategies for poetry and novel, in our course reader in the Scholars Programme Reading Room. Click here to read my guidelines for approaching essay-writing for this module.
In this module, you will take up an important literary critical convention, the setting aside of consideration of what authors "intended" to accomplish. Because authors are notoriously unreliable and sometimes deliberately misleading in accounts of their own creative processes (and in the case of this module, all the authors are dead and thus cannot be consulted anyway), our only valid sources for thoughts about literary or artistic choices are observations and inferences drawn from the texts authors create. Thus we will resist the temptation to write or speak about the authors' "intentions" and instead work from close examination of the literature itself.
Paper 1: 15%
A short essay (3 pages) in which you demonstrate your close reading and interpretation skills. Select one passage from Earnest and analyse the way in which it represents love, marriage, and/or the connection of love and marriage to property.
Paper 2: 25%
Two options for approaching this essay. The first option is to compare/contrast Zofloya with either Emma OR Earnest. How does Dacre's handling of the "marriage plot" or expectations of love conventions vary or resemble those present in more traditional uses of these devices as found in Austen's or Wilde's work? Your second option is to focus exclusively on Zofloya and expand your informal writings into a longer work in which you explain/define how a theme such as "desire," "passion," "contagion," etc. functions within the text. In either case, make sure you support your claims with specific evidence from the works themselves. I do not expect you to consult any outside sources; there is more than enough material in the primary texts alone to generate a paper. 4-5 pages, due 27 September.
Paper 3: 40%
Using three texts we have read throughout the semester, discuss the ways "love" (or marriage or desire) is represented. As we have seen in these later readings, love sometimes leads to marriage, sometimes to conflict and in at least one case, to Hell. In pondering these outcomes, propose a theory explaining why your chosen works present love as they do. For instance, why might the supernatural be present in so many of these works? Do the works offer any kind of social critique or are they more involved in codifying social convention? Does genre make a difference in how love or desire is portrayed? What limitations/freedom does the conventional marriage plot offer? 6-8 pages, due end of term.
Response papers: 10%
Several short, informal writing assignments will be given, either in class or in preparation for class. Responses must be turned in at class time to receive credit. Once in the semester your response paper will be the subject of class discussion. When it is your week to present, please distribute your one page response to the rest of the class via email at least 24 hours before class meets. These writing exercises are intended as places from which to begin exploring issues you find interesting in the texts. Click here to see my guidelines for writing short response papers.
Class participation: 10%
Learning is not a passive activity; you do not absorb knowledge by osmosis. Rather, you must actively involve yourself in the learning process. The classroom is a place where you can test out ideas, contribute to an enlarged understanding of an issue through group work or class discussion, and respond to ideas put forth by other class members. Through active participation you will not only learn more, you will also develop skills such as speaking before an audience or listening carefully to others' ideas that will prove valuable in life beyond the classroom.
POLICIES
Plagiarism:
All work turned in for this course, whether formal or informal writing, is assumed to be the student's own, original work. Students found plagiarizing (using someone else's ideas or words without proper acknowledgement) will receive an "F" for that assignment and may fail the course, depending on the severity of the offense. Please see me before turning in an assignment if you are in doubt about how to cite properly.
Attendance:
Since we meet only twice a week, and in many instances will be covering material at a rapid rate, regular attendance is important. Three unexcused absences will negatively affect your grade. Should you miss three classes (even with excuses absences) you will need to discuss these absences with me. If you are gone, it is your responsibility to make up any missed work and to keep up with the reading. Similarly, if material is missing from the Reading Room, or a link isn't working, please notify me SOONER rather than later, so the problem can be remedied and readings made available to everyone.
All papers are due on the dates noted. Late papers are not accepted, unless prior arrangements have been made, or in very exceptional circumstances. Please talk to me before the assignment is due if you know you will have problems meeting the deadline.
|
