English 719
Wallace, Spring 2016
Studies in British Romanticism: Britain in 1819
The famous phrase is actually "England in 1819," the title of Percy Shelley's sonnet
protesting (among other things) the Peterloo Massacre, and also of James Chandler's
1984 study of that year as a fulcrum of literary and historical energies, "exceptional for
the recorded volume, value, and topical vicinity" of its literary works. Percy Shelley's
"Ode to the West Wind" and "Mask of Anarchy," John Keats's great odes, and the first
three cantos of Lord Byron's Don Juan (just for instance) all belong to that year. Drawing
from the wealth of material written in and around this crucial year, we'll also turn to the
periodicals of the day to gather contexts that shaped the reactions of these Romantic
writers' contemporaries to their work. Our seminar discussions will be fueled by your
presentations of "problem papers," and the rest of the course work will consist of a
graduated series of assignments leading to the research essay and a conference-length
revision of that essay.
How to Find Me
Office: 341 Curry
E-mail: [email protected]
Hours: By appointment. Please email me to set a time.
Required Texts
Available through UNCG's Bookstore
Broadview Press Coursepack, ISBN 978-1-4881-0226-4:
Custom anthology (P. Shelley, Keats, context materials about Peterloo)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Jane Austen, Persuasion
Felicia Hemans, The Siege of Valencia
Byron, Lord Byron: The Major Works (ed. Jerome McGann), Oxford
Walter Scott, Ivanhoe (ed. Ian Duncan), Oxford
John Clare, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery [Forgotten Books/B&N]
In PDF on our Canvas site
* recommended rather than required
James Chandler, England in 1819:
"Introduction"
* Chapter One, "Specificity after Structuralism: Dating the 'Return to History'"
from Duncan Wu's A Companion to Romanticism:
Seamus Perry, "Romanticism: The Brief History of a Concept"
David Duff, "From Revolution to Romanticism: The Historical Context to 1800"
* Philip Shaw, "Britain at War: The Historical Context"
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Stephen C. Behrendt, "The Romantic Reader"
Other materials may be added in PDF as needed
More on Required Texts: please read
At this level of study, editions matter. For instance, Broadview editions of Frankenstein
take the 1818 edition, the first published version, as their copy text. If your copy of
Frankenstein is edited from the 1831 version, it will be substantively different: Shelley
made significant changes in the intervening years. On the other hand, the readily
available classroom of Scott's Ivanhoe takes an 1830 edition as copy text, although the
novel first appeared in late 1819; and the Clare volume, which I was not sure could even
be found in print, is billed as a facsimile of the original publication. (We'll see.)
In some cases I've chosen the edition because it matches the historical bent of the class;
in some I've chosen an edition because, well, it was best available. But in any case I
hope you will purchase and use these editions, if for no other reason than so that we can
readily follow along with each other in class.
Coursework
Problem Paper (2-3 pages)
15%
Topics List
5%
Core Analysis (3-5 pages) +Bibliography 15%
Research Essay (~20 pages)
40%
Conference Paper Abstract (1 page or less) 5%
Conference Paper (8 pages)
20%
Problem Paper: you'll choose a week in which you'd like to present a "problem
paper" on the primary readings. This paper, which should be no more than three
double-spaced pages, describes an interpretative problem presented by the text(s). This
is not a thesis-driven argument for a particular interpretation, but the step that comes
before such an essay: the articulation of the problem itself, laying out the textual
difficulties as fully as possible without deciding on any "solution" (though various
possible solutions might be described). For instance, how do the multiplied frame
narratives of Frankenstein inflect our interpretations of the creature's "own" story,
apparently told in the creature's voice and located at the physical center of the novel? If
we cannot after all attribute the creature's autobiographical tale to the creature, what
does that do to our reading of the novel as a whole? My example is somewhat clumsy,
but the idea is that you are not answering the questions—you're fully articulating the
questions so that the class can consider the problem.
Topics List: about midway through the semester you'll turn in a list of at least
three possible topics for your research essay. These should be fairly well specified.
"Women and romantic poetry" won't cut it. You're looking for something more like
"ocean as representative of the sublime in Charlotte Smith's poetry."
Eng. 719, Wallace - 3
Core Analysis and Bibliography: the core analysis is the close reading of the
literary text(s) you'll be working with for your research essay, your own central
interpretative argument. The bibliography is preliminary, but should be in MLA style.
Most important, the two parts of this assignment are separate: the core analysis is
entirely your own interpretation, as yet un-integrated with your research.
Research Essay: this is an article-length literary critical essay, presenting your
interpretation of one or more of the assigned primary readings and situating that
interpretation in the ongoing critical conversation about the text(s).
Conference Paper and Abstract: once you've completed the research essay, you'll
cut it down to conference length—eight pages, in this case. The abstract is the even
shorter version of the argument, the one you'd submit to the conference you wanted to
attend. You'll present the abstract to the class.
I'll give you more extended assignment sheets for each of these (except the
problem paper and topics list, which are described pretty fully above).
Attendance: Since we have only 13 sessions, anyone who misses 3 sessions for any
reason will have his or her course grade reduced by a full letter grade. This does not
mean that I want you to come to class when you’re sick: it means that you should not
elect to miss class when you can be there. If you suffer serious or long-term (3+ weeks)
illness, or other lengthy personal difficulties, during this term, please talk to me about
the possibilities.
Submission of assignments: I prefer hardcopy submissions (sorry, trees!) for the
following short assignments: topics list, problem paper, and abstract. For the latter two,
which you'll present and we'll discuss in class, please bring at least two copies so that
we can use one for the document projector in the room.
For the three long assignments, I prefer electronic copies ( in Word, please, so I
can mark with "track changes") submitted by email (direct to my email address). Please
give your submitted papers a document title that includes your last name and the
assignment—for instance, "Wallace Core Analysis.docx". "Due" means due by the
beginning of the class period on that date, or by the time indicated on that date.
If the assignment is a week or less late, I’ll deduct 1/3 of a grade (for instance, A
becomes A-, or A- becomes B+). If you want to submit an assignment more than a week
after it is due, you’ll need to talk to me first.
Incompletes: I do not give incompletes except in genuine emergencies—serious illness
at the end of term, etc. Conflicts with other classes, difficulty finishing the assignments,
and so forth are not sufficient reasons for an incomplete.
Special Needs
Students with documentation of special needs should arrange to see me about
accommodations as soon as possible. If you believe you could benefit from such
Eng. 719, Wallace - 4
accommodations, you must first register with the Office of Accessibility Resources and
Services on campus before such accommodations can be made. The office is located on
the second floor of the Elliott University Center (EUC) in Suite 215, and the office is
open 8am to 5pm, Monday - Friday. Telephone: 334-5440; e-mail: [email protected].
Academic Integrity: I expect you to review the guidelines and list of violations at
http://academicintegrity.uncg.edu and to abide by the Academic Integrity Policy.
In this course, anyone who plagiarizes in any way, for any reason, will fail the
course. There is no such thing as "inadvertent" plagiarism at this level. If you are in
any doubt about how to present and document sources, for heaven's sake, ask me!!
Course Schedule
Although I have not included them in the schedule, the editors' introductions are
helpful and informative, and I recommend that you read them for historical context. In
many of the editions there are also extensive supporting materials in the appendices.
Again, even if I have not listed these, you will wish to browse through them for
additional context.
If not noted as "PDF," the readings are either in the Coursepack anthology or are
freestanding books. The page numbers for these are the Coursepack pages, bottom right
corner of the page.
I reserve the right to change these assignments as needed, including the addition of
readings and written assignments.
Jan.
12
Introduction to the course. Readings for today’s discussion: Perry and
Duff readings from Companion [single PDF]
[Monday, January 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day]
Jan.
19
Bring your top 3 choices for a problem paper, typed out and in
hardcopy, please. The possibilities are: Jan. 26, Feb. 2, 9, 16 and 23;
Mar. 15, 22 and 29; Apr. 12.
Chandler, 'Introduction" from England in 1819 [PDF]
"In Context: The Peterloo Massacre" (52-60)
P. Shelley, "Men of England" and "England in 1819" (15-16)
We will break at about 7:45 and move to Jackson Library, where
Jenny Dale will show us how to navigate our available 19th-century
periodical resources. Please meet Jenny and me at the CITI lab (roughly
across from the main circulation desk—I'll be outside).
Eng. 719, Wallace - 5
Jan.
26
P. Shelley: "Ode to the West Wind" (3-4), "To a Skylark" (6-7), The Mask of
Anarchy (8-15), and Prometheus Unbound, Act I (17-33)
I may add some readings from periodicals—TBA.
Feb.
2
Keats, all selections from p. 64: "Eve of St. Agnes," "Bright Star," both
versions of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," "Incipit altera Sonneta," the six
"great Odes," and the selected letters
Feb.
9
List of possible Research Essay topics due.
M. Shelley, Frankenstein
Feb.
16
Austen, Persuasion
Feb.
23
Hemans, The Siege of Valencia
Mar. 1
Core analysis and preliminary bibliography due.
Stephen C. Behrendt, "The Romantic Reader" [PDF]
[March 7-11, Spring Break]
Mar. 15
Scott, Ivanhoe, pages TBA.
Mar. 22
Scott, Ivanhoe, pages TBA
[Friday, March 25, Spring Holiday]
Mar. 29
Byron, in Major Works: Don Juan, Cantos 1-3
Apr.
No Class
5
Mon. April 11 : Research Essay due by 5:00 pm.
Apr. 12
Clare, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery
Apr. 19
Last day of class. Presentation of abstracts.
(Tues. April 26 is "Freaky Friday," so follow your Friday schedule!)
Conference-length Research Essay: I would like to see if we can organize a miniconference for Saturday, April 30, at which you could actually present these essays. If
we can manage this (depending on individual schedules, etc.), then this assignment will
Eng. 719, Wallace - 6
be due at the conference. If it turns out that we can't make this work, then I'll give you
new instructions. The Conference-length REs will not be due any earlier than April 30.