ENGLISH 365:

19th-Century British Poetry and Prose

John Constable, The Glebe Farm (1835)

FALL 1999

TEXT: The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2


The Aims of this Course:

To familiarize you with the broad outlines of the traditional nineteenth-century British literary scene in poetry, with brief forays into prose, including fiction. Because the time is short and the literature vast, we will sample a limited number of authors rather than attempting a truly comprehensive survey. We will consider literature within the historical and cultural contexts of the century in general, and we will attempt to locate both individual works and larger "movements" within the broad history of ideas in culture as they were evolving in England and the rest of the world in the 19th century. As a result, we will necessarily consider also intellectual, philosophical, political, social and cultural developments in England during an age of determined imperialist expansion, revolutionary industrial and scientific progress, and increasingly diversifying intellectual and philosophical inquiry. Finally, because this is a relatively small class, we will engage in informed conversation about literature, reading, and culture within a variety of historical, social, critical, and intellectual contexts.

Some Initial Considerations about This Course:

English 365 is an introductory survey of some of the major poetry and prose written in the British Isles during the 19th century, which is usually defined as having begun at about the point of the French Revolution in 1789 and which often gets a variety of ending dates, from about 1901, when Queen Victoria died, to about 1914, when World War I began. According to traditional literary history, the first part of this period is known as the Romantic period; it too is usually understood to date from the 1780s to about 1832 (the year in which the First Reform Bill was passed). The last two-thirds of the century is known as the Victorian period owing to the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901).

Because this course does not normally include the novel (or, as in this instance, includes only one or two shorter ones), we get a somewhat unrealistic view of the literature of the period for several reasons:

1. Traditional literary history usually regards poetry as the principal literary genre of the Romantic period. This view is not entirely correct, despite the remarkably large numbers of poems (and volumes of poems) published during the period. The period also saw very large numbers of novels (of varying quality), as well as a huge volume of periodicals in areas ranging from literary studies to moral and religious studies to professional self-improvement, to politics, economics, and social studies. Many of these reached a considerable readership through the increasingly popular circulating libraries. 
   
   
2. It used to be thought that the principal Romantic authors were five or six male poets, plus the successful novelist Sir Walter Scott. There were many successful, popular, and influential women writers, especially in fiction but also in the areas of poetry and drama. Only in recent years has there begun to be the sort of reassessment of the period that will begin to point us toward the period as it actually was for readers of the time.
   
   
3. The Victorian period was one of the great moments in the history of the novel in England, with authors like Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, William Makepeace Thackeray, Emily and Charlotte Brontė, and a host of others able to command large payments (and large press runs) for novels. Many of these novels (like those by Dickens, for instance, or Thackeray's Vanity Fair) originally appeared in installments in the periodical press. Because we do not cover the novel to any considerable extent in this course, we miss the chance adequately to assess the place of the novel within the developing literary culture of the period.
   
   
4. The Victorian period was also a time of great interest in history and science, and a great many publications appeared in those areas. While these were not usually strictly "literary" in character (Darwin's writings, for instance, or Macaulay on history), these works often had a significant impact on the culture as a whole.
   
   
5. Throughout the century, the arts (including architecture) flourished in England, in part because of the general economic prosperity enjoyed for most of the century by the nation (although not necessarily by all segments of the population). There was a good deal of "cross-fertilization" among the arts, so that works of literature often form part of an ongoing public dialogue with works in other areas of the national cultural and intellectual scene.
   

What You Can Expect to Do in This Course:

The Department of English has recently articulated its expectations about what sort of skills, activities, and experiences students should expect to gain or sharpen in courses at various levels of the curriculum. For courses at the 300 level (like this one), you should expect to do the following:

• engage in an intensive study of the subject matter of 19th-Century British literature, in both broadly inclusive terms and in more narrowly focused ones;
• be aware that there are a variety of theoretical and critical approaches to the materials we will study and be able to apply at least one of these approaches to our work;
• understand the purposes of primary and secondary research and be able to carry out research appropriate to the subject of this course;
• engage in critical academic discourse, both in the classroom and on paper, employing language and forms of discourse suitable to the assigned task and to an audience of educated adults.

About what I expect from you:

While I do not expect you to be familiar with any of our material in advance, I do expect you to know how to read literary works with some insight and sophistication about both subject matter and the formal features of the genres. I expect you to come to class, to talk about what you read, and to share with one another as we try to make greater sense of the material we will study over the course of the semester. This will require some effort from everyone. It is generally assumed that preparing for one's university courses requires at minimum about three hours for every hour of class meeting time. That is probably about accurate for this course; if you cannot or will not make that sort of time commitment for preparing for classes, you may want to think about whether you should remain in the group.

Course Requirements and Grade Standards:

1. Regular, consistent participation in classroom activities, including assigned presentations and responses as well as general discussion (10% of final grade).

Note on participation grades:

To earn a "C," do the minimum: miss no class meetings, read and prepare assigned readings so you are never at a loss if you are asked a question, but speak only when called upon, do "ordinary," plain-vanilla presentations and responses. This is the "bottom line" for getting a "C" in this part of the course.

To earn a "B," miss no class meetings, prepare assigned readings thoroughly, initiate discussions about them by asking good questions or suggesting ways to interpret readings, do presentations that reveal that you have done good additional work that you can make both interesting and meaningful to our discussions, and participate actively in those discussions.

For an "A," take it up another level entirely: miss no classes, prepare readings thoroughly, find and talk about connections among them and among other aspects of culture (then and now), take a real leadership role in class discussions, including working actively to get others involved in the talk, make your presentations and responses "sparkle" by bringing to them something really special in terms of your own contributions, interests, skills, and abilities to think in broad even interdisciplinary terms. Most of all, remember that an "A" indicates the very best grade a person can get; that should tell you what sort of work you need to do to earn the grade of "A."

2. A "reading log" of your reading activities and reflections on course materials and your outside reading, prepared in the format described on the handout about the reading log. You will submit this log for evaluation and feedback in the fifth, ninth, and fourteenth weeks of the course, and again in the last week of classes, at which time your grade for the log will be assessed (20% of final grade)

3. An assigned, directed critical writing project, due in the seventh week of the course (20% of final grade).

4. A research project developed in conjunction with the instructor, due immediately after the Thanksgiving break (25% of final grade)

Comments, Questions, etc.:

My door is open to you, and I'll be glad to chat with you. I will maintain the regular office hours noted above, unless an emergency arises, in which case I will post a note. If these times are impossible for you, we can usually make an appointment for some mutually convenient time.

Stephen C. Behrendt, Fall 1999

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