ENL 6256
Selected British Authors: Brontë and Gaskell
Spring 2012; DAV 250
M 11:00 a.m. – 1:50 p.m.
Dr. Amy Robinson
Department of Verbal and Visual Arts
Office: Harbor Hall (HBR) 123
Phone: 727-873-4559
Office Hours: M 2-3; T 9:30-10:30; W 11-12; and by appointment
Email: [email protected]
Course Description
This course will focus on key works by the Brontës (specifically Charlotte and Emily) and
Elizabeth Gaskell. We will study the fiery, passionate tales of the Brontë sisters, who continue
to enjoy enormous popularity, as well as Elizabeth Gaskell who, though perhaps less wellknown, nonetheless ranks with other top-tier Victorian novelists. A testament to the resurgence
in Gaskell’s fame is the recently unveiled panel dedicated to the author and her works in the
Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey. In addition to looking at these authors separately, we will
also be exploring links between them, most notably Gaskell’s biography of her friend Charlotte
entitled The Life of Charlotte Brontë.Our study of Brontë and Gaskell will enable us to encounter
representative types of nineteenth-century novels including: Gothic romance (Wuthering
Heights), social problem novel (North andSouth), and novel of manners (Wives and Daughters).
Finally, in studying these selected British authors, we will gain an understanding of important
Victorian issues including “the woman question,” “the two nations” (rich and poor), and
religious faith and doubt.
This graduate seminar will not only ask you to master the below primary texts; you will also be
expected to read some of the major critical articles in the field. In addition to practicing critical
reading skills, a final goal of the course is to improve your writing skills. Your work in the class
will culminate in a 12-15 pages research/conference-style paper.
Required Texts (must be purchased in these hard copy editions; no e-books)
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Penguin. 9780140434934
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Norton. 4th. 9780393978896
Brontë, Charlotte. Villette. Bantam. 9780553212433 (Note change in ISBN from what was
originally posted on bookstore website.)
Gaskell, Elizabeth. North and South. Norton. 9780393979084
Gaskell, Elizabeth. Wives and Daughters. Penguin. 9780140434781
Selected readings on Blackboard (Bb).
Course Reserve
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I have put some critical books on reserve in order to ensure easy access to them. I’ll mention
other titles throughout the semester. Books on reserve are:
Lansbury, Coral. Elizabeth Gaskell: The Novel of Social Crisis.
Miller, Lucasta. The Bronte Myth.
Morse, Deborah, ed. Victorian Animal Dreams.
Nestor, Pauline. Female Friendships and Communities: Brontë, Eliot, Gaskell.
Schor, Hilary M. Scheherezade in the Marketplace: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Victorian Novel.
Uglow, Jenny. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories.
Other Course Resources
http://www.bronte.org.uk (Brontë Society and Brontë Studies journal)
http://www.gaskelljournal.com/
See also graduate student essay contest:http://www.gaskelljournal.com/#!gaskell-heritige
http://www.victorianweb.org/
Student Learning Outcomes: You should be able to demonstrate the following ENG/LIT
Program Student Learning Outcomes in ENL 6256:
• Knowledge of the literary or artistic conventions, rhetorical or metaphorical figures, or forms
characteristic of specific modes, genres, or traditions.
• An ability to access and evaluate library holdings, to develop a research protocol that
effectively utilizes appropriate scholarly resources (including electronic, print, and other
materials); to access the quality of traditional as well as non-academic sources; to conduct
research that involves relevant primary materials; and to identify the terms of an ongoing critical
argument and situate their own writing within that dialogue.
• An ability to actively engage with primary theoretical texts utilizing representative critical
models, analyze critical texts, and/or explore theoretical issues or questions.
Accommodation Policy
If you have documented learning and/or physical disabilities in need of accommodation, you are
encouraged to work with Student Disability Services. Have provided the necessary
documentation and inform the instructor about any special requirements you may have at the
start of the semester. In this case, all reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate you with
regard to note taking, etc.
Academic Dishonesty
Plagiarism constitutes instances of using the ideas and/or exact words of a source without giving
appropriate documentation. You will be expected to read and abide by the definitions and
guidelines provided in the USFSP Undergraduate Catalog, Academic Dishonesty Policy
(http://www.stpete.usf.edu/ugc/documents/MicrosoftWord-Gr.pdf). If you are guilty of
plagiarism or cheating according to this description, you may automatically fail or receive a “FF”
in this course. In such cases, the instructor will follow the USF procedures as outlined in its
Academic Dishonesty Policy. In order to avoid such cases of plagiarism, you are required to
submit all written assignments indicated to Safe Assignment on USF Blackboard. See
description of this service below.
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Class Conduct
The environment of this class will be supportive of learning and the respectful exchange of ideas.
Behavior that disrupts the environment will not be tolerated. Disruptive behavior includes, but is
not limited to:
•Offensive language, personal attacks, or any derogatory statements. Students are expected to
show respect for diverse opinions (including differences related to gender, sexual orientation,
race, religion, or ethnicity) during class-related discussions and in their writing, whether class
assignments or class-related email.
•Tardiness and leaving early. All students are expected to arrive and leave class at the scheduled
times. See also Participation and Attendance below. Please also return from break on time.
•Eating or drinking during class. Note: you should not plan to eat your lunch during the 10-min.
class break: please wait until after class.
•Use of cell phones or other electronic devices. Cell phones must be turned off during class time
(and please don’t leave your phone on vibrate instead).
•Use of laptops: laptops must be turned off and put away at all times, unless you need to use one
because of a certified disability (see “Accommodation Policy” below).
Any conduct deemed disrespectful or disruptive may be met with disciplinary action and a
failing participation grade. See also Graduate Catalog:
http://generalcounsel.usf.edu/regulations/pdfs/regulation-usf3.025.pdf
E-mail Etiquette
Please keep your emails concise and courteous and include pertinent information (your name and
class number). Also keep in mind that it’s easier to discuss certain class issue and concerns in
office hours rather than over email, which should be reserved for short questions. I will not
respond to emails that don’t meet these criteria.
Notes or Tapes: Notes or tapes are not permitted for purposes of sale in this class.
Children in Classroom: You may not bring children into the classroom without the instructor’s
permission.
Attendance and Participation
Absences: Given that this is a graduate-level course meeting only once a week, it is extra
important that you have good attendance. I expect you to attend all classes. However, you are
allowed 1 discretionary absences; each absence after the first will lower your final course grade
by ½ a letter. I do not distinguish between “excused” and “unexcused” absences. The only
exception to this policy concerns students who must travel for college-related events and jury
duty. These students must show me proper documentation and inform me ahead of time when
they plan to be absent. You must remain for the entire class to be considered “present.”
Also, please be punctual. Multiple instances of coming to class late will equal an absence.
If you have to be absent, it is your responsibility to find out what you’ve missed and come to the
next class prepared. Find a friend in the class who you can ask about missed work.
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Religious Preference Absence Policy: If you anticipate the necessity of being absent from class
due to the observation of a major religious observance, provide notice of the date(s) to the
instructor, in writing, by the second week of class.
Participation: This class is not lecture-based; participation means more than sitting in a chair.
Active participation with the quality expected in a 6000-level course is required; come prepared
to participate actively and make constructive and relevant contributions. To that end, I expect
every student to come to class with two or three questions, concerns, or observations about the
day’s assigned reading. I reserve the right to call on any student to answer questions during the
course of the class. If you don’t feel comfortable participating in discussion at first, then
consider volunteering to read out loud to the class.
It is a requirement of this course that you regularly check your USF email and Blackboard.
Incompletes: An “I” (or incomplete) grade will ONLY be given to you if, after completing most
of the course work (except last paper), you are unable to finish the course due to a documented
emergency, crisis, or illness. If this occurs, you must contact the instructor personally to discuss
the matter as soon as it arises. “I” grades are only given when you have completed the majority
of the course work and are otherwise earning a passing grade (USF policy, see Catalog).
S/U Policy: S/U contracts must be negotiated in writing within the first three weeks of the term
(USF policy, Catalog).
Submitting work: All work is due at the beginning of class: this means I need a hard copy by
the beginning of class for full credit. Turning it in after class or arriving late on the day an
assignment is due is considered late. 10 points will be deducted for each day the work is late.
Missed class work cannot be made up.
There will be two steps for submitting Essay 1 and Essay 2 (research paper): 1. Submit a
hard copy to me (see formatting guidelines below) and 2. Submit a copy to Safe Assignment (see
below). Regarding hard copies, make sure to print your essay well ahead of class to avoid any
printing or other problems (see late work policy).
The USF Statement on Safe Assignment is as follows: “The University of South Florida has an
account with an automated plagiarism detection service which allows instructors to submit
student assignments to be checked for plagiarism. Assignments are compared automatically
against a variety of items in the Internet, and previously submitted papers. Material that may not
be original is flagged and a matching score is calculated. The instructor receives the matching
score and a report.”
Directions for posting files to Safe Assignment: PLEASE REMOVE YOUR NAME FROM
THE BODY OF YOUR PAPER AND REPLACE IT WITH YOUR USF ID#. ALSO REMOVE
YOUR NAME FROM THE FILE NAME AND REPLACE IT WITH YOUR USF ID# (e.g.
“U12345678 Essay 1.doc”) BEFORE SUBMITTING IT TO SafeAssign. Pursuant to the
provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), students are required to
maintain confidentiality as a way to keep their personal contact information (i.e. name, address,
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telephone) from being disclosed to vendors or other outside agencies. By your submission, you
are also agreeing to release your original work for review for academic purposes to SafeAssign.
Thank you!
Grading and Assignments
Grade Distribution
Reading Responses
Academic Journal Rpt.
Essay 1
Annotated Bibliography
Essay 2 (Final research paper)
Presentation
15%
10%
20%
10%
35%
10%
Note: You must submit ALL assignments to pass this course(including all response papers).
See also attendance and participation policies above. Per university policies, I am not permitted
to discuss grades via email. If you have a question about grades, please stop by office hours.
Grading Scale (I use the standard USF grading scale.)
A+ 97-100; A 94-96; A- 90-93; B+ 87-89; B 84-86; B- 80-83; C+ 77-79; C 74-76; C- 70-73; D+
67-69; D 64-66; D- 60-63; F 0-59.
Assignment Descriptions
Format for all class papers: essays should be typed on only one side of 8½ x 11 white paper,
MLA format, stapled, and be in Times New Roman font. I will not accept papers that are not in
this format.
Reading Responses (2 pages each; hard copies only):
Overview
These responses are your opportunity to explore ideas and questions that you have about the
readings. They are designed to ensure that you come to each class with something to contribute.
Respond to anything that interests you about the day’s assigned reading. Since this is a short
paper, however, you will want to narrow the scope of your essay. I am interested in your
original thinking here. You should NOT be consulting outside sources such as SparkNotes,
eNotes, etc.
Criteria
Responses should have a cohesive argument/thesis (stated at the end of the introduction
paragraph) and demonstrate a narrow focus, strong paragraph structure, a clear writing style, and
textual support. Plot summary and/or listing what you like and don’t like about the text are not
acceptable. You will be given credit for the quality of your responses: on how seriously you
engage with the assigned readings and on how much thought you give your responses.
Other
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Reading responses are to be 2 double-spaced, typed pages. Responses without textual support
will not receive a passing grade. If you discover early a specific area of interest in the course,
you may want to tailor each reading response around this idea/theme. This work will then likely
be useful to you when working on your research paper.
Academic Journal Report(2-3 pages)
Each student will present a synopsis of a recent journal article on either Wuthering Heights or
Villette. Half of the class will be assigned the former text and half assigned the latter. You will
be responsible for finding an article (approx. 15 pages) from a reputable English Literature
journal from the past ten years that presents an argument that you find interesting or engaging.
You will give a five-minute presentation explaining the argument that the author presents in the
article and write a 2-3 page summary and response to the article (see Bb for further directions).
Make sure to include a complete citation in your response. A good place to begin your search is
the MLA International Bibliography database.
Your article selection must be approved by me; to avoid duplicate articles, sign up is firstcome, first-serve. When you email me your choice, include the journal name, article title,
and author. Please do not send links or attachments.
The academic journal report assignment has the following goals: 1.) to gain practice finding and
analyzing academic sources, which will be useful when it comes time to write the research paper,
and 2.) to identify some of the ongoing conversations and debates about the novels we are
studying, which may help us brainstorm essay topics.
Essay 1 (5-7 pages; no outside sources required):
For this first essay, you will focus on a specific aspect of either Wuthering Heights or Villette.
Topic suggestions will be posted on Bb.
Annotated Bibliography: Throughout the semester, you will be reading critical articles to help
you prepare to write your final research paper. To help keep track of the main ideas of each
critic and to get a handle on the major conversations occurring about your chosen text, you will
prepare an annotated bibliography. You will want to find keysecondarysources relating to your
topic published within the last 20 years or so. By 4/9, you should have annotated 8 sources (two
of the 8 must be a book or book chapter). Note: a primary source does not count toward your 8
secondary sources. You can find an example annotated bibliography here:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm
Presentation: From the listed provided at the end of the syllabus, choose a topic on which to
report. Each topic relates to one of our novels and will provide the class with greater historical
context or biographical information about the author. Prepare a 10-minute report to the class
about your topic. Think about your audience (me and both undergrad and grad student
classmates): what information will be most interesting and useful to us as we study a particular
novel? If possible, think of ways of making your presentation interactive, so as to involve the
undergrads. Be creative: you will probably want to use visuals, a PowerPoint presentation,
and/or a handout. If applicable, think of ways of incorporating material in the back of the Norton
Critical Edition of the novel. Lastly, make sure you include a Works Cited somewhere in your
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presentation, so we know which sources you consulted. (Wikipedia should not be your main or
only source.) Feel free to check with me for source suggestions.
Essay 2 / Final Research Paper (12-15 pages; outside sources required): For your final paper, you
are free to select your own topic, though it must be approved by me first. We will also be
discussing topic ideas in class. Your research paper may expand on an idea from Essay 1, but it
should not be primarily a regurgitation of your first paper. As this is a research paper, you will
want to discuss how your idea/thesis adds to ongoing conversations about your chosen text (this
is where your annotated bibliography will come in handy). Furthermore, don’t just cite critics:
engage with them (tell which of their ideas you agree with and which you don’t, and why).
Prospectus (each prospectus will be 1 page, in narrative form)
Before both of your formal essays, you will submit a prospectus to propose the topic and focus of
your paper. Some questions your prospectus should address include: What is the scope of this
study? What texts will you be using? What are the main questions or issues that have drawn
you to the topic? What is your working thesis? Which key passages or quotations do you plan
to use and how does this textual evidence support your thesis? How does your proposed work
fit into the ongoing scholarly debate about the subject or related subjects (for research paper)?
How does your thesis/idea add to ongoing conversations about your chosen text (for research
paper)? How do you envision organizing the paper? What problems or challenges do you
anticipate?
If you change your mind about what you want to write about later, that is fine as long as you run
it by me first. What I want to see here is that you at least have a viable project and some idea of
how you are going to go about it. I will not read/grade your final draft until your prospectus
has been approved.
Writing Help
• Stop by Writing Lab in Harbor Hall Communication Studio (HBR 131)
• Stop by my office hours
• OWL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
Blackboardor Computer Issues
Call Campus Computing (not me!): 873-4551
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Course Schedule
(Subject to change)
* Consult schedule before making any travel plans.
You must always bring the book containing the assignment reading to class. In addition, you
must also bring to class any handouts you are required to print. If you do not have the book or
photocopy andare obviously unprepared for work in class, you may be asked to leave the
classroom. Also bring your syllabus to each class.
January
1/9
Introduction to course
1/16
No class: MLK Day
1/23
selected chapters of The Life of Charlotte Brontë
Vol. I: Chapters 1-4, 6, 8, 10-14 (approx. 172 pages)
Vol. II: Chapters 1-2, 4-5, 10-14 (approx. 140 pages)
Response 1 due
1/30
Wuthering Heights 3-131
Response 2
February
2/6
Library instruction; Wuthering Heights 131-258; Gilbert’s “Emily Brontë’s Bible
of Hell” 379-394
Response 3
2/13
Villette1-265
Response 4
2/17 (Friday): academic journal selection due via email by 5 p.m.
2/20
Academic journal report presentations
2-3 page response due when you present
2/27
Villette265-529; Altick’s “Religious Movements and Crises” (Bb)
Prospectus due
March
3/5
Essay 1 due at the beginning of class (hard copy to me; electronic copy to SafeAssign)
3/12-3/17: Spring Break: read ahead over the break!
3/19
Intro. to Gaskell: biography (Bb); “Our Society at Cranford” (Bb); “The Old Nurse’s
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Story” (Bb); Altick’s “Factory and Slum” (Bb); “The Preston Strike” 455-462; “Masters
and Men” 478-481 (both in your N&S text)
[3/24: Withdrawal deadline]
3/26
North and South Vol. I (7-187)
Response 5
April
4/2
North and South Vol. II (191-395)
Be working on annotated bibliography
→ It is strongly recommended that you stop by office hours in the next few weeks for a brief
conference about your research paper topic!
4/9
Wives and Daughters (5-224)
Annotated Bibliography due
4/16
Wives and Daughters (225-444)
Response 6(on some aspect of pp. 225-444)
4/20 (Friday): Prospectus duein my office by 5 p.m. (you can turn it in earlier if you wish)
4/23
conclusion of Wives and Daughters (445-648); course wrap up
4/30
Research paper due by 11 a.m. (hard copy to me; electronic copy to SafeAssign)
*Include self-addressed, stamped manila envelope if you want your essay returned to
you.
Also note that the submission deadline for the Gaskell graduate student essay prize is April
30, 2012. See <http://www.gaskelljournal.com/>.
Oral Presentation Topics (choose one; please sign up on my master schedule)
1/30: The Byronic Hero (to go along with discussion of E. Brontë’s Wuthering Heights)
2/27: Religious controversy (C. Brontë’s Villette)
3/19: “Redundant” women (Gaskell’s Cranford)
3/19: The Industrial Catastrophe (Gaskell’s North and South)
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