English 305A:

The English Novel 1700-1900

Fall 2002

Stephen C. Behrendt
319 Andrews Hall    
phone: 472-1806     

office hours:           
10:00 - 11:00 TR     
and by appointment

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James Gillray, Wife or No Wife

Each of you will have the opportunity, as part of the requirements for this course, to participate in a group presentation on one of the authors we will be studying. I plan to distribute a sign-up sheet during the second week of the course, so that you can select the author and work that best fits your interests, your experience, and your schedule. I am also going to limit the number of persons in each group, so that the groups will be relatively well balanced and so that everyone ends up with approximately the same amount of preparation and presentation time.

The group presentations should include research and may include any sort of materials the group chooses to illustrate or supplement the presentation (supplementary materials are not required). Each report should include four sections, as follows:

• 1. Historical context. Here you need to situate the novel (and its author) within a historical context by discussing what was going on in England (and the world, as necessary) during the time of the novel's composition and publication. If there are "local" issues involved (anything happening in London or elsewhere that is particularly significant for the novel or its author, for example), you should identify and explain them.
• 2. Evidence of the author's social and cultural orientation. This involves evidence from the novel itself of the author's beliefs, opinions, prejudices, preoccupations, etc. It also involves evidence from the novel that reveals what the author considered to be her or his role as an author, as an artist, as a thinker, and (if relevant) as someone who aspired to exert some direct influence or bring about some particular end(s) specifically through the vehicle of prose fiction.
• 3. Detailed analysis of the central character(s). Think principally about the protagonist; consider if you wish also any other character(s) whose function in the novel is unusually important, but do not go beyond a maximum of three characters. You should consider the character(s) in two ways:
  —1. Individually — that is, in terms of her or his leading character traits, values, passions and prejudices. Your goal is to help us understand what makes the character(s) "tick." You should also consider whether any character is based upon one or more models or precedents, and whether the character has given rise (in any aspects of literature or culture) to successors of any sort.
  —2. "In action" — that is, in terms of how the character's behavior in the novel reveals her or his moral, spiritual, social, or "other" character, as well as how it points to the author's opinion of or attitude toward that character.
• 4. Summation. Here you should simply recapitulate for us the main points you have made in your presentation, to make sure we are all clear about what your group considers the most important things we need to know about the matters you have discussed with us.

Before you make your group presentation, you should prepare a handout to accompany your presentation and make sufficient copies for everyone in the class. This handout should identify the principal ideas and issues you will address in your presentation. It should also list the specific, sharply focused questions which will be "answered" or otherwise addressed in your presentation.

Obviously, you will need to plan well for your presentation. I will expect all your presentations to be well informed, well organized, and made with the care, courtesy, and professionalism appropriate to any activity for which you share, collectively, responsibility for a major piece of classroom time. I will also expect audience members for each presentation to be equally well prepared to do their part to make the presentation a success, including asking good questions and behaving courteously and professionally.