English
4/805B:Romantic and Early Victorian Novels
English
4/805B:
Romantic and Early Victorian
Novels
Stephen C. Behrendt
319 Andrews; 472-1806
office: 11-12 and 2-3 TR
and by appointment
sbehrendt1@unl.edu
Email Stephen C. Behrendt
Spring 2006
A Circulating Library, c. 1813
The
Corvey Novels Project
Instructions for preparing your Corvey Novel Project materials
During the course of this semester, you will need to prepare the materials you
have assembled for your Corvey novel project to make them easily transferrable
to the website where they will be mounted for international access. What follows
is a description of the format for these materials.
1. The synopsis of your novel.
This is simply a basic plot summary, running to perhaps three or four typed
pages, though if it goes a bit longer, that's OK. Start by going to to this
link.
Click on the novel titles and follow the links to see samples of the synopses
and other materials.
Please submit your synopsis in both a paper format and in electronic form. I will use the paper copy in case there are technical problems with the electronic one. For the electronic version, use Microsoft Word if possible, although if you use other programs (like WordPerfect), I can probably convert the file on my computer. You can give me a copy on a computer disk, or you can send me the file as an email attachment. If you use a Macintosh, it will be especially useful for you to send me the file as an attachment to an email. Either way, be sure to give me a paper copy.
Your copyrighted synopsis will appear on the website with your name at the end, so that you will have a genuine publication credit that will appear worldwide on the Internet. (See any of the synopses for examples.)
2. Contemporary reviews of your novel
(if any).
Prepare word-processed copies of all the contemporary reviews of your novel you have located from the microfilm/microfiche collection at Love Library. You will probably discover that it is easiest to begin by making paper copies of these reviews, using the printers in the Microforms Room. Then go ahead and type them into a word-processed document, just as you have done with your synopsis (again, preferably using MS Word). Like the synopsis, you should give me these on a disk or as an email attachment. You can put all the reviews into one document file, if you wish, even if there is more than one review. Just be sure to begin each review with a complete bibliographical heading. (See examples on the website noted above, under "Contemporary Reviews" for any of the novels on the website.)
3. Biographical information on your author.
Find out as much as you can about the author, again using resources available at Love Library (and to some extent on the Internet), and prepare a brief critical biography (3-6 pages, double-spaced) of your author that pays particular attention to any circumstances connected with the novel you have chosen. At the end of your essay, include an alphabetized list of the sources from which you have drawn your material; head this list with the bold-faced heading: SOURCES. These brief essays, too, should be prepared in paper and in electronic format. (See examples on line, as above.)
4. Critical essay.
Prepare a concise critical essay on the novel you have chosen. You should try to assess the novel on its own terms (i. e., do a formal analysis), but that analysis should also reflect what you are learning both about your author (from your other research) and about the historical, cultural, and literary/intellectual milieu in which she or he worked (both from what we do in our class sessions and from whatever research you conduct on your own). For this essay, I shall ask you for two paper copies, one of which I will keep for the documentary archive I am assembling here at UNL to accompany the Corvey Collection materials. You do not need to make an electronic copy of this essay because it will NOT appear on the website.
5. Class discussion.
Discuss your findings during the last several weeks of the course, when class time is reserved for your individual presentations. Please make sufficient copies of your novel synopsis for everyone in the class to have one; you will need 25 copies. Plan to talk for no more than 10 or 15 minutes — which means you will need to plan ahead and be concise. Say just a bit about the novel's plot; remember that you will be distributing copies of the synopsis anyway. Spend most of your time explaining how the novel seems to you to relate to the other novels we have read, to the period we have studied, to the issues we have examined, and to your own development as a student and scholar.
If you have a preferred date for your presentation, claim it early by signing up!!!
Examples
Complete examples of all parts of the project, including the correct formats for preparing and signing your documents for electronic posting, can be found by following this link, where you can examine the work that has been done on this overall project by other students and professors, at UNL and elsewhere, up to the present.
Due Dates
All documents must be submitted no
later than noon on Tuesday, 25 April, so that I can return your materials
to you at the final exam. If you get things to me earlier (which I would very
much prefer), I will be able to have them back to you earlier. I will also be
able to begin mounting the materials on the website. Certainly you will be able
to give me your synopsis by the time you do your classroom presentation; other
materials can come in separately afterwards, if you wish. Remember that most
of these materials are going to be publicly available worldwide: be sure that
you have prepared them in a way that will reflect favorably on you. I will edit
the materials you submit very lightly to make them consistent with the other
resources mounted on the website, but my editing will be just that — very
light and very slight.
Questions, Problems
Please see me as soon as possible, or email me, if you have questions about any aspect of this project or if you encounter problems.