English 305A:
    English Novel 1700-1900

                                                                               Spring 2006


Stephen C. Behrendt
319 Andrews; 472-1806
office hours: 11-12 and 2-3 TR
and by appointment

sbehrendt1@unl.edu

Email Stephen C. Behrendt

Course Information

Required Texts

Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders
Mrs. Matthews, Simple Facts; or, The History of an Orphan (on-line text available here)
Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Aims of this Course

This course is a brief historical survey that includes some of the more important British novels of the 18th and 19th centuries as well as two lesser known ones. We will read eight novels, partly to become more fully acquainted with them and partly to examine what they reveal about their relation to the culture that produced them and which they both reflect and influenced. While one aim is for you to become more familiar with studying literature within these historical and cultural contexts, another aim is for you to become ever better able to discuss such materials with sophistication, confidence, and skill, both in class and on paper.

Teaching Method

We will work through intensive discussion based on your reading, with some occasional brief, ad hoc lectures to provide you with background information. Everyone will participate in one group presentation, and there will be opportunities for additional presentations for those interested. You should think of this
course as an ongoing conversation among all of you. It is very important for you to have the assigned readings (or designated portions of them) prepared when you come to each class session, so that you will not fall behind or be unable to do well in discussions or on occasional surprise quizzes.

On this website you will find an electronically enhanced syllabus, with links to other sites, as well as a set of study materials containing study questions for each novel as well as supplementary research and study materials and active web links for the novels and their authors. I expect you to use these materials in preparing for our sessions; doing so will enable you both to read more effectively and to contribute more meaningfully to discussions. We will occasionally work with these online materials in our class meetings.

Requirements

1. Dedicated reading, in advance, of all the required novels, plus class discussion of them. Note: This course will require considerable reading, in some cases amounting to several hundred pages of prose fiction per week. If you will not be able to handle this sort of reading load, you probably should not enroll in this course.
2. Two examinations: a midterm and a final.
3. A research-based course writing project.
4. Full participation in any individual or group projects.
   

Grade Factors

• Midterm Examination 25%
• Final Examination 30%
• Course Research Project 40%
• High-level Questions 5%
                                       
        NOTES ABOUT GRADES

  The Midterm Examination will be a take-home essay. You will have one week to write the essay, which will be due in class on Thursday, 23 February.

  The Final Examination will be cumulative in nature; that is, it will cover the entire course, and not just the material covered after the Midterm Examination. The examination is scheduled for Thursday, 4 May, at 10:00 a.m. to noon. You will need to bring along one or more "blue books" in which to write.

  The Course Research Project is the individualized research project/portfolio that is described on a separate handout, and also at this link. It is due no later than Tuesday, 25 April.

  The High-level Questions are those that you are to turn in on index cards at each class meeting. Your grade for this component of the class will reflect both the quality of your questions (consistently) and the completeness of your submissions.
  

What You Can Expect to Do in this Course

The Department of English has recently articulated its expectations about what sort of skills, activities, and experiences students should expect to gain or sharpen in courses at various levels of the curriculum. For courses at the 300 level (like this one), you should expect to do the following:

• engage in an intensive study of the subject matter of 18th and 19th century British literature, in both broadly inclusive terms and in more narrowly focused ones;
• be aware that there are a variety of theoretical and critical approaches to the materials we will study and be able to apply at least one of these approaches to our work;
• understand the purposes of primary and secondary research and be able to carry out research appropriate to the subject of this course;
• engage in critical academic discourse, both in the classroom and on paper, employing language and forms of discourse suitable to the assigned task and to an audience of educated adults.

About What I Expect from You

While I do not expect you to be familiar with any of our material in advance, I do expect you to know how to read literary works with some insight and sophistication about both subject matter and the formal features of the genres. I expect you to come to class, to talk about what you read, and to share with one another as we try to make greater sense of the material we will study over the course of the semester. This will require some effort from everyone. It is generally assumed that preparing for one's university courses requires at minimum about three hours for every hour of class meeting time. That is probably about accurate for this course, although at times the reading load may require a greater investment of your time. If you cannot or will not make that sort of time commitment for preparing for our class meetings, you may want to think about whether you should remain in the group.

By enrolling in this course you are acknowledging that you have received these course guideline statements and that you accept their terms. If you are unwilling to accept and be bound by these terms, you should withdraw from this course.

English 305A is both an Essential Studies and an Integrative Studies course

As explained in detail in the Undergraduate Bulletin, Essential Studies (ES) courses are intended "to provide students a context for understanding the breadth of human endeavor." In the Humanities this is understood to mean "knowledge of literary, philosophical, or religious efforts to interpret and illuminate human experience."

Courses which are designated as Integrative Studies (IS) are part of a University requirement "intended to engage students in actively developing their ability and desire to analyze, evaluate and communicate complex material and positions." These courses are specifically intended to enhance the following skills:

• Critical Thinking (objective and subjective), through a variety of approaches in which students investigate arguments, engage in research, gather data, perform qualitative and quantitative analysis, and assess conclusions.
• Writing (formal and informal), on which the instructor comments, used to explore substantial problems in the subject area and report the results of critical and creative thinking.
• Oral Expression in the classroom through discussion, group and individual reports, and other activities that provide students opportunities to share creative work, describe research, or explore important issues.
• Analysis of Controversies concerning the subject matter of the course in which students investigate concepts and hypotheses open to question.
• Exploration of Assumptions underlying beliefs and concepts relevant to course content and of processes for examining those assumptions, so that students understand and establish control over those ideas they bring to their study of the subject matter.
• Inquiry through Course Content into the Origins, Bases and Consequences of Intellectual Bias though which students will understand the particular perspective on the world employed in the academic discipline of the course.
• Consideration of Human Diversity appropriate to the subject matter of the course so that students can explore the ways in which cultural differences shape conceptions about the subject matter and discern the intellectual and pragmatic effects on human groups of the subject matter and ideas related to it.

In order to receive credit for this course (that is, to "pass"), you will need to participate actively in all the activities described above, all of which are integral to this course. There will be plenty of opportunities to do so, but because the University requires that all Integrative Studies courses follow all these guidelines, I am required in turn to enforce the expectations they reflect. You should know, by the way, that I fully and enthusiastically support all these expectations, which seem to me to constitute minimal expectations for courses in the Humanities at the college or university level.