†¥£ýY THE LITERATURE OF VICTORIAN RELIGION Y£G¥†
ENGL 6018.1, Fall 2006
Professor: Dr. Jeffrey Franklin. Phone:
303-556-4026 (home: 720-570-2923, 9am-9pm only).
E-mail:
Jeff.Franklin@cudenver.edu.
Class: Time: Thursday
7:00-9:50pm. Location: KC 201.
Office: Hours: Thursday
3:00-6:30. Please feel free to show up during these hours, or phone
or e-mail to ask a question. If you truly cannot make any of these
times, see me about setting up an appointment. Location:
???.
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TEXTS
Required Texts:
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Oxford, 0-19-283965-9)
Marie Corelli, A Romance of Two Worlds (Prime Classics Library, 1-55742-276-1)
George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life (Oxford, 0-19-283780-X)
George Eliot, Adam Bede (Oxford, 0-19-283495-9)
Edmund Gosse, Father and Son (Oxford, 0-19-284066-5)
Rudyard Kipling, Kim (Barnes & Noble, 1-59-308192-8)
Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam (Norton, 0-39-397926-1)
Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers (Oxford, 0-19-283432-0)
In addition, there is a required Course Packet. It is available at the Reserve Desk of our library. Please make your own copy. It contains poetry by Edwin Arnold, Matthew Arnold, Emily Brontë, Robert Browning, Edward FitzGerald, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Christina Rossetti, D. G. Rossetti, and Algernon Swinburne, as well as prose excerpts from works by Thomas Carlyle, Charles Darwin, George Eliot, John Henry Newman, and David Friedrich Strauss.
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COURSE GOALS
The religious debates of our own day are prefigured in the religious upheavals
of the 19th century. Religion in the Victorian era was characterized
by a series of contradictions and conflicts: the Church of England set against
other Protestant denominations; the famous Victorian “Crisis of Faith” coincident
with a fervent evangelical revival; the explosion of Darwinian evolutionary
theory and the Church responses to it; and strong anti-Catholic sentiment coupled
with Catholic Emancipation laws (not to mention a Jewish Prime Minister in
an anti-Semitic culture). While this and more was going on within Christianity,
the Spiritualism Movement (as in séances) was in full swing, and England was
flooded by sacred texts in translation from Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. All
of this perturbation is captured in the literature of the period. This
course is an exploration of that literature within that historical context. Thus
this course is a survey of the literature of the Victorian era, but it is a
survey with a focus. That focus is on poetry, fiction, and, to a lesser
extent, non-fiction prose written by important authors who took as a primary
concern the religious institutions and issues with which this period was obsessed.
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS
A course at this level assumes several things. It assumes very thorough
reading of all course materials, reading that is engaged and critical and that
prepares you to come to class with questions and insights to share. The
pages of your books should show signs of your passage through them in the form
of notations and underlinings. Although I periodically will lecture,
the dominant genre of our class meetings will be the conversation—between you
and me and between you and other members of the class. So, another assumption
is that you will come to class not prepared to sit back and listen but rather
prepared to jump into the discussion with energy and to argue—in the positive
sense—over interpretations. This also assumes that you will be present
at nearly all of our gatherings. If you fulfill these assumptions, you
are likely to make a good grade in the course, to learn a great deal, and,
I wager, to have a good time doing it.
In addition, the course requires four types of assignments:
1) Mini-Essays (40% of final grade): These are to be one-page, typed, single-spaced and to focus on a specific compelling question that you have about the work of literature, a question that is compelling because it does not have an obvious, factual, or yes/no answer and because answering it expands our understanding of the literary work. I will be giving you a hand-out that more fully defines what I mean by “compelling question.” I will grade largely on two factors: how compelling the essay makes its question and how much detailed attention the essay gives to the words of the text in looking for answers to its question. Over the course of 16 weeks, you will write only four mini-essays (though you may choose to write more for extra credit). I assign so few mini-essays because I expect all of you to rewrite, well, pretty much all four of your mini-essays at least once. Due dates are shown in the schedule below. Rewrites are due two weeks after you receive back my comments. Please note: I will not accept more than one re-write per week, especially not in the last weeks of class.
2) Weekly Quizzes (25% of final grade): As motivation to encourage timely and thorough reading, I will give a short, objective quiz promptly at the beginning of each Thursday class.
3) Final Essay Thesis/Question and Annotated Bibliography (10% of final grade): This will be due the second-to-the-last week of classes. It is to be a statement of the thesis or compelling question for the final essay followed by an annotated bibliography of 6-10 outside sources. It should be between five and ten typed pages. These are your most important notes in preparation for writing the essay. I will help you in this process; we will talk about it in class and, I hope, in my office. Note: Papers may not use more than one or two sources that appear only on the web (as opposed to full-text sources from printed journals that appear on the web complete with page numbers—those are fine). They are always less authoritative than articles in peer-reviewed scholarly journals or books, and the use of them undercuts the credibility of your essay.
5) Final Research Essay (25% of final grade): This is to be a substantial,
research essay focused on one (or more) of the primary texts read for the course. I
recommend that you start by selecting the work that interests you most, then
narrowing to a specific question or argument about that work, then looking
for outside sources relevant not only to that work but to that specific aspect
of interest. I can help you focus the topic and locate sources. Then
you need to gather your outside sources, read them thoroughly, take detailed
notes, especially selecting passages from the sources that you might want to
refute or use to support a claim of yours. Again, I can give you guidance
in how to do this. I encourage you to make multiple office visits in
the process of preparing this essay; I am glad to look at early drafts. The
essay should end up at around 15-20 pages, but I’m less concerned with page-count
than with substance.
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Mini-Essays (4, plus rewrites): 40%
Weekly Quizzes: 25%
Thesis/Question and Annotated Bibliography: 10%
Final Research Essay: 25%
TOTAL: 100%
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THREE RULES
1. Attendance is critical to how much you learn from this course, and
so it is required. However, I understand that there are emergencies,
illnesses, and important family or religious obligations. So, I will
accept an absence with medical documentation, traffic citation, note from a
parent or religious officiate, or other documentation of a legitimate alibi. Simply
telling me you were sick will not be sufficient. Each
undocumented absence will subtract three points from your final grade, which
fairly quickly leads to a letter grade dropped. Also, multiple late arrivals
or early departures will add up to an absence, though I will ask you nicely
several times first and inform you when I take this action.
3. No electronic devices are allowed to be visible or audible in my classroom. Please
silence all pagers, cell phones, etc. and put them away before class starts. Even
silent use of such devices is noticeable and disruptive to the class and disrespectful
to me.
2. Your work must be your own; otherwise you fail, or worse. Plagiarism
consists of copying someone else's work, quoting or paraphrasing others' work
without footnoting, or having someone write part or all of your paper for you. It
is the most serious academic offense and can mar your whole academic career. Be
especially careful about “borrowing” from the web; professors know how to find
those sites too. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism,
please ask me or consult any standard college handbook.
SEVEN UN-RULES
Potentially Useful Contacts (I know you’ve seen these, but here they are again):
ENGL 6018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Schedule
This schedule is subject to day-to-day revision. The date is when the assignment is due.
Aug 24 Intro to the course
and to each other. Introduction to the historical context for religion
and literature in 19th-century Britain. What do I mean by “literature
of religion”?
For fun as well as educational value, check out the Victorian websites listed
under “The Victorian Web,” http://www.victorianweb.org/ or
“Useful Victorian Websites,” http://www.gettysburg.edu/~sflynn/teaching/aesthetics/links.html
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Sep 7 Read the excerpts from Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus and from George Eliot’s translation of David Friedrich Strauss’s Das Leben Jesu (The Life of Jesus Critically Examined)--both are available in the Course Packet at the Auraria Library Reserve Desk (the Carlyle, but not the Strauss, is available electronically from me). Bring your marked copy to class, please. Note that your first mini-essay is due next week; I invite you to visit my office hours to run questions by me.
Extra credit: If you are so inclined, you may find and read either of today's works in their entirety (or larg portions of one of them), take a page of reading notes, come to my office hours for a friendly chat about what you've read, and in that way earn real extra credit and my admiration. This same offer applies to any work we read as an excerpt this semester.
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Extra credit: My essay “The Merging of Spiritualities:
Jane Eyre as Missionary of Love,” Nineteenth-Century Literature 49 (March
1995): 456-482. It is available in full-text online; just search on the
first part of the title and “JSTOR.” There will be an extra-credit question
on the quiz.
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Extra credit: Read the editor’s “Introduction” in Adam Bede. There
will be an extra-credit question on the quiz.
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Extra credit: Read the appendices in In Memoriam. There will
be an extra-credit quiz question.
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Oct 12 Read the excerpts
from Charles Darwins's On the Origin of Species and The Descent of
Man and Robert Browning's poem "Caliban Upon Setebos" (read it
twice, please). Also bring In Memoriam to class.
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Oct 19 Read Barchester
Towers through Volume I (page 282 in my copy). Make use of any
footnotes. Note: Your third mini-essay is due next week; I’d be glad
to work with you on it.
Extra
credit: Read the editor’s “Introduction” to Barchester and/or the rest
of the novel.
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Week 12: Comparative Religion and the Discovery of the Religious
Other
Nov 9 Read the excerpts
from Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam of Naishapur and
Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia and bring your copies to class. Note
that your fourth mini-essay is due next week. Also, it is time to begin
thinking seriously about your final research essay; I recommend a visit to
my office to discuss topic and research strategy.
Extra
credit: My essay, “The Life of the Buddha in Victorian England.” English
Literary History (ELH) 72 (winter 2005): 941-974. Also, as
with all the works from which we are reading excerpts, I invite you to read
the entire work for extra credit and, if you choose, for your final essay.
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Nov 16 Mini-essay
#4 is due today. Read Marie Corelli’s A
Romance of Two Worlds and bring it to class.
It
is time to begin preparing seriously for your final research essay; ask me
in class and we’ll discuss getting your research underway. Reread my
description of the thesis question and annotated bibliography assignment. You
will want to begin reading Kipling's Kim over the break. Enjoy!
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Nov 30 Read Kipling’s Kim to
the end, making use of the footnotes, and bring it to class. I encourage
you to come and see me this week with ideas and drafted material for your final
essay. Note that I will not accept more than one mini-essay rewrite per
week. Please also observe that your thesis question and annotated bibliography
for your final essay is due next week
Extra
credit: the editor's "Introduction."
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Dec 7 Read the poems
by Algernon Swinburne and Gerard Manly Hopkins and bring your copies to class. These
poems will take several readings each, please. Today is the last day
that I will accept a mini-essay rewrite.
Due
Today: Thesis question and annotated bibliography for
the final research essay. Come prepared to speak to the
class about your research, what you are finding, what is most interesting
to you, what you think the argument of your essay will be, etc.
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