English 5580 Syllabus |
Course OverviewWith its recent origins at the dawn of the 18th century, the novel quickly came to prominence among readers who had previously tended to turn to poetic forms for entertainment. The novel displaced epic and lyric poetry by telling stories that were uniquely appropriate for audiences in a newly "modern" Western world and, eventually, by making the implicit cases that the experiences of everyone regardless of rank were worthy of recounting in literature. This course adopts a historical perspective on the novel as it developed in the past 300 or so years in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
English Major Student Learning Outcomes
|
Midterm Exam | 15% |
Scene Analysis | 10% |
Novel Research Paper | 35% |
Final Exam (cumulative) | 25% |
Quizzes | 5% |
Presentation | 5% |
Participation | 5% |
(including attendance and informal assignments) |
NOTES ABOUT THE CLASS:
Written Work. Your grade will depend primarily on your written work and the understanding of the material that you convey through that work. A command of standard written English and the ability to present an argument will also contribute to the determination of your grade.
Writers' Workshop UMD offers free one-on-one writing support from graduate or faculty writing consultants at the WritersÕ Workshop. The consultants will work with you on any writing project at any stage in the writing process. For more information or to make an appointment, visit "http://d.umn.edu/writwork/" or stop by the Learning Commons on the second floor of the Kathryn A. Martin Library. Walk-ins are welcome as long as a consultant is available. |
Late Assignments will receive a deduction of 1/3 of a letter grade for each business day that they are late. Students who miss exams may not make them up without a valid excuse for the absence.
Academic Dishonesty tarnishes the reputation of the University of Minnesota Duluth and discredits the accomplishments of its students. Because the university is committed to providing students every possible opportunity to grow in mind and spirit, it must insist on an environment of trust, honesty, and fairness. Consequently, all members of the academic community must regard any act of academic dishonesty as a serious offense. In keeping with this ideal, this course will adhere to UMD's Student Academic Integrity Policy, which is available online at "http://www.d.umn.edu/academic-affairs/academic-policies/classroom-policies/student-academic-integrity". This policy sanctions students engaging in academic dishonesty with penalties up to and including expulsion from the university for repeat offenders.
Disability Accommodations. Individuals who have any disability, either permanent or temporary, which might influence their capacity to perform in this class, should inform me at the start of the semester. The Office of Disability Resources writes that "[i]t is the policy and practice of the University of Minnesota Duluth to create inclusive learning environments for all students, including students with disabilities.ÊIf there are aspects of this course that result in barriers to your inclusion or your ability to meet course requirementsÑsuch as time limited exams, inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned videosÑplease notify the instructor as soon as possible."ÊYou can contact the Office of Disability Resources to discuss and arrange reasonable accommodations by calling 218-726-6130 or by visiting the Disability Resources website at "http://www.d.umn.edu/access/".Ê
Notetaking. Remember that there are rules against disseminating these notes beyond the classroom community, which you can find at "http://www.d.umn.edu/academic-affairs/academic-policies/classroom-policies/course-notes-and-materials".
Attendance. I expect students to show up on time and prepared to discuss the readings assigned for that day. Students have a responsibility to plan their schedules to avoid conflicts with course requirements. Excessive absences will have a negative impact on the grade that you receive in this course. Excusable absences include "subpoenas, jury duty, military duty, religious observances, illness, bereavement for immediate family and NCAA varsity college athletics." Please contact the instructor about anticipated absences in order to minimize their influence on your coursework. For more information on excused absences, see "http://www.d.umn.edu/academic-affairs/academic-policies/classroom-policies/excused-absences".
Student Conduct. Respect fellow students and refrain from behavior that might impair their learning opportunities. Any behavior that substantially and repeatedly interrupts the instructor's ability to teach or the students' ability to learn will result in appropriate penalties. Disruptive behavior includes inappropriate use of communications technology in the classroom, such as ringing cell phones, text-messaging, watching videos, playing computer games, reading email, or browsing the Internet instead of note-taking or other instructor-sanctioned activities. For further clarification of UMD policies in this regard, consult the Board of Regents Policy at "https://regents.umn.edu/sites/regents.umn.edu/files/policies/Student_Conduct_Code.pdf".
Civility. UMD instructors and students have a responsibility to maintain a learning environment that is, as stated in the Teaching and Learning Policy, "respectful of the rights and freedoms of all members, and promotes a civil and open exchange of ideas." The full policy is available at "http://www.d.umn.edu/academic-affairs/academic-policies/classroom-policies/instructor-and-student-responsibilities".
Assigned readings will come from the following books:
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Oxford, 2002.
Chesnutt, Charles. The House behind the Cedars. Penguin, 1993.
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford, 2009.
Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad. Knopf, 2011.
McEwan, Ian. Atonement. Knopf, 2003.
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
The following texts are not part of the required reading list, but they may provide workable starting points for research into a particular author or topic this semester. Not all of these texts are available in the UMD Library, so plan ahead when seeking to consult them.
Robinson Crusoe
Bender, John. Ends of Enlightenment. Stanford UP, 2012.
Hunter, J. Paul. The Reluctant Pilgrim: Defoe's Emblematic Method and Quest for Form in Robinson Crusoe. Johns Hopkins UP, 1966.
Napier, Elizabeth. Falling into Matter: Problems of Embodiment in English Fiction from Defoe to Shelley. U of Toronto P, 2012.
Pride and Prejudice
Regis, Pamela. A Natural History of the Romance Novel. U of Pennsylvania P, 2007.
Woloch, Alex. The One vs. the Many: Minor Characters and the Space of the Protagonist in the Novel. Princeton UP, 2003.
The House behind the Cedars
Carpio, Glenda. Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery. Oxford UP, 2008.
Smethurst, James. The African American Roots of Modernism: From Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance. U of North Carolina P, 2011.
Williams, Andrea. Dividing Lines: Class, Anxiety and Postbellum Black Fiction. U of Michigan P, 2012.
To the Lighthouse
Cole, Sara. At the Violet Hour: Modernism and Violence in England and Ireland. Oxford UP, 2012.
Figlerowicz, Marta. Spaces of Feeling: Affect and Awareness in Modernist Literature. Cornell UP, 2017.
Oser, Lee. The Ethics of Modernism: Moral Ideas in Yeats, Eliot, Joyce, Woolf, and Beckett. Cambridge UP, 2007.
Rose, Jacquelyn. On Not Being Able to Sleep: Psychoanalysis and the Modern World. Princeton UP, 2003.
Rosner, Victoria. Modernism and the Architecture of Private Life. Columbia UP, 2005.
Atonement
Henderson, Katherine T. "New Britain, Old England: Heritage Renewed in Atonement." Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 63, no. 4, Winter 2017, pp. 714-736.
Miller, J. Hillis. "Some Versions of Romance Trauma as Generated by Realist Detail in Ian McEwan's Atonement." Trauma and Romance in Contemporary British Literature, edited by Jean-Michel Ganteau and Susana Omega, Routledge, 2013, pp. 90-106.
Robinson, Richard. "The Modernism of Ian McEwan's Atonement." Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 56, no. 3, Fall 2010, pp. 473-495.
Quarrie, Cynthia. "'Before the Destruction Began': Interrupting Post-Imperial Melancholia in Ian McEwan's Atonement." Studies in the Novel, vol. 47, no. 2, Summer 2015, pp. 193-209.
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Johnston, Katherine D. "Metadata, Metafiction, and the Stakes of Surveillance in Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad." American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography, vol. 89, no. 1, March 2017, pp. 155-184. DOI: 10.1215/00029831-3788753
Moling, Martin. "'No Future': Time, Punk Rock and Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad." Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, vol. 72, no. 1, Spring 2016, pp. 52-77.
Zappen, James P. "Affective Identification in Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad." LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, vol. 27, nos. 1-2, 2016, pp. 294-309.
The Novel in General
Eagleton, Terry. The English Novel: An Introduction. Blackwell, 2005.
Levy, Eric P. Detaining Time: Temporal Resistance in Literature from Shakespeare to McEwan. Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Midorikawa, Emily and Emma Claire Sweeney, editors. A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf. Houghton, Mifflin, 2017.
Starr, G. Gabrielle. Lyric Generations: Poetry and the Novel in the Long Eighteenth Century. Johns Hopkins UP, 2015.
Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel. U of California P, 2001.