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Welcome to English 372!
19th Century Literature of the British Empire and the Americas
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In this course you will investigate literary and cultural texts in English from both sides of the Atlantic, so as to uncover points of intersection between British and American literature in the nineteenth century. Grouped into various subject areas, we will find the roots and track the routes ideas have take over time and across the ocean. We will look for similarities and—of more importance—the differences that characterize the literature and culture of this time period.

REQUIRED TEXTS

SYLLABUS & PROJECT ASSIGNMENT SHEETS

COURSE CALENDAR
This schedule, unlike the one in the syllabus document, will always be up-to-date and correct. Refer to it if you have questions about due dates.

WEEK ONE—BASICS & THE GOTHIC
TUE (01/12) The mechanics of the class, syllabus overview, standard first-day stuff.
THU (01/14) Read for Today: Read for Today: "The Term 'Gothic' in the 1790's and Early 1800's"; the reading lists of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats; explore the collection "Sublime Anxiety: The Gothic Family and the Outsider"
FACT SHEET: Julie
DUE by FRI (01/15) 5:00pm: blog post #1 (see assignment)
WEEK TWO—THE GOTHIC
TUE (01/19) Read for Today: Brown, Edgar Huntly chapters 1-15
FACT SHEET: Heather (Brown)
THU (01/21) Read for Today: Brown, Edgar Huntly chapters 16-end (including letters)
DUE by FRI (01/22) 5:00pm: blog post #2 (see assignment)
WEEK THREE—BRITISH ROMANTICISM
TUE (01/26) Read for Today: Wordsworth, "London, 1802", "Tintern Abbey"; Coleridge, "Frost at Midnight"; Barbauld, "Life"; Blake, "Infant Joy", "Infant Sorrow", "The Lamb", "The Tyger"
FACT SHEET: Misty (Wordsworth)
FACT SHEET: Tanner (Blake)
THU (01/28) Read for Today: Shelley, "Stanzas Written in Dejection", "Ozymandias"; Keats, "La Belle Dame sans Merci", "Ode to a Nightingale"; Byron, The Giaour
FACT SHEET: Deb (Keats)
FACT SHEET: Lauren (Byron)
FACT SHEET: Nick (Shelley)
DUE by FRI (01/29) 5:00pm: blog post #3 (see assignment)
WEEK FOUR—AMERICAN TRANSCENDENTALISM
TUE (02/02) Read for Today: Emerson, "The American Scholar", "Circles"; Thoreau, "Walking"
FACT SHEET: Meredith (Emerson)
FACT SHEET: Janel (Thoreau)
THU (02/04) Read for Today: Fuller "The Great Debate"; Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener"
FACT SHEET: Heather (Fuller)
FACT SHEET: Greg (Melville)
DUE by FRI (02/05) 5:00pm: blog post #4 (see assignment)
WEEK FIVE—DARK ROMANTICISM; AMERICAN ABOLITIONISTS
TUE (02/09) Read for Today: Polidori, "The Vampyre; a tale"; Edgar Allan Poe, "Ulalume", "Berenice"; Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"
THU (02/11) Read for Today: Garrison, "To the Public", "The Tragedy at Harper's Ferry"; Thoreau, "A Plea for Captain John Brown"
FACT SHEET: Terry (Garrison)
DUE by FRI (02/12) 5:00pm: blog post #5 (see assignment)
WEEK SIX—PRE-RAPHAELITES
TUE (02/16) Read for Today: Ruskin, "Pre-Raphaelitism" (you can also listen to a podcast recreation of this lecture); explore Rossetti Archive "Double Works"
FACT SHEET: Adam (Ruskin)
FACT SHEET: Terry (Rossetti)
THU (02/18) *** NO CLASS MEETING ***
DUE by FRI (02/19) 5:00pm: blog post #6 (see assignment)
WEEK SEVEN—SCIENCE & NATURE
TUE (02/23) Read for Today: Darwin, from Voyage of the Beagle: Preface, Chapter 10: Tierra del Fuego, Chapter 11: Strait of Magellan -- Climate of the Southern Coasts; Huxley, "Science and Culture"; Hawthorne, "Rappaccini's Daughter"
FACT SHEET: Greg (Darwin)
FACT SHEET: Amy J. (Hawthorne)
THU (02/25) Read for Today: Thoreau, "Autumnal Tints"; Muir, "Wild Wool"
FACT SHEET: Deb (Muir)
I will hand out the TAKE HOME MID-TERM (DUE via e-mail by MON 03/01 9:00am)
WEEK EIGHT—A NEW AMERICAN LITERATURE
TUE (03/02) Read for Today: Emerson, "The Poet"; Fuller, "American Literature; Its Position in the Present Time, and Prospects for the Future"; Whitman, "Preface" to 1855 Leaves of Grass, "Song of Myself"
FACT SHEET: Michael (Whitman)
THU (03/04) Read for Today: Dickinson, "I never lost as much but twice", "There's a certain Slant of light", "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain", "Because I could not stop for Death"; explore "Emily Dickinson Writing a Poem" and "Letter Poem, a Dickinson Genre"
FACT SHEET: Amy H. (Dickinson)
DUE by FRI (03/05) 5:00pm: blog post #7 (see assignment)
WEEK NINE—MID-CENTURY WARS
TUE (03/09) Read for Today: Tennyson, "Charge of the Light Brigade"; Kipling "The Last of the Light Brigade"; explore the Library of Congress Civil War Photography collection and the Roger Fenton Crimean War Photography collection
FACT SHEET: Kristi (Tennyson)
FACT SHEET: Janel (Kipling)
THU (03/11) Read for Today: Alcott, "My Contraband"; Melville, "The Martyr"; Whitman, selection of poems from Drum-Taps
FACT SHEET: Caitlin (Alcott)
DUE by FRI (03/12) 5:00pm: blog post #8 (see assignment)
SPRING BREAK [03/16 to 03/18]
WEEK TEN—LOCAL COLOR & REGIONALISM
TUE (03/23) Read for Today: Twain, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"; Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" (online), Macomber, "The Gossip of Gold Hill"
FACT SHEET: Meredith (Twain)
FACT SHEET: Amy J. (Twain)
FACT SHEET: Sara (Harte)
THU (03/25) Read for Today: Freeman, "The Revolt of 'Mother'"; Jewett, "A White Heron"
FACT SHEET: Caitlin (Freeman)
FACT SHEET: Amy H. (Jewett)
DUE by FRI (03/26) 5:00pm: blog post #9 (see assignment)
WEEK ELEVEN—REGIONALISM & REALISM
TUE (03/30) Read for Today: Chesnutt, "The Goophered Grapevine", "Dave's Neckliss"
FACT SHEET: Adam (Chesnutt)
THU (04/01) Read for Today: James, Daisy Miller
DUE by FRI (04/02) 5:00pm: blog post #10 (see assignment)
WEEK TWELVE—REALISM
TUE (04/06) Read for Today: Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, chapters i - xiii
FACT SHEET: Tanner (Hardy)
THU (04/08) Read for Today: Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, chapters xiv-xxxv
DUE by FRI (04/09) 5:00pm: blog post #11 (see assignment)
WEEK THIRTEEN—REALISM+
TUE (04/13) Read for Today: Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, chapters xxxvi - end
THU (04/15) Read for Today: Zola, "The Experimental Novel", Norris, "The Responsibilities of the Novelist"; Crane "The Open Boat"
FACT SHEET: Sara (Zola)
FACT SHEET: Kristi (Norris)
FACT SHEET: Lauren (Crane)
DUE by FRI (04/16) 5:00pm: blog post #12 (see assignment)
WEEK FOURTEEN—FIN DE SIÈCLE
TUE (04/20) Read for Today: Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapters i-x
FACT SHEET: Michael (Wilde)
THU (04/22) Read for Today: Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapters xi - end
DUE by FRI (04/23) 5:00pm: blog post #13 (see assignment)
WEEK FIFTEEN—FIN DE SIÈCLE
TUE (04/27) Read for Today: Chopin, The Awakening
THU (04/29) Individual 2-3 minute research topic presentations; course wrap-up.
DUE by FRI (04/30) 5:00pm: blog post #14 (see assignment)
** THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM IN THIS CLASS **
However, your research papers will be due via e-mail on Thursday, May 6th, by 9pm.