English 10B-1 - Spring, 2015

Literatures in English II: 1700-1900

Class Information

Instructor: Roy, Parama
CRN: 32388
Time: TR 3:10-4:30
Location: 1283 Surge 3

Description

ENL 10B, Literatures in English II: 1700-1900
English 10B constitutes the second part of the three-part Literatures in English sequence required of English majors. We will focus on literature produced between 1700 and 1900 on either side of the Anglophone Atlantic (England, Scotland, Ireland, the United States) and in the British colonies. The course will combine detailed close reading with a consideration of the intellectual, aesthetic, social, economic, and political contexts out of which these cultural texts emerged. The topics we will explore in this class include the following: colonial exploration, westward settlement, slavery, and empire; revolution, civil war, democracy, and nationalism; industrialism, global trade, and the rise of consumer culture; Romanticism, realism, and naturalism; and autobiography and narratives of subjectivity. This is a reading- and writing-intensive class designed to prepare you for upper-division courses in the English major.

Grading

Attendance and participation; quizzes; midterm (2 close-reading exercises, plus one short essay); 6-7 page paper; take-home final.

Texts

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, ed. Angelo Costanzo, Olaudah Equiano
Robinson Crusoe, ed. Michael Shinagel (Norton Critical Edition (2nd edition), Daniel Defoe
Melville's Short Novels, ed. Dan McCall, Herman Melville
Frankenstein, ed. J. Paul Hunter (2nd revised edition), Mary Shelley
The Importance of Being Earnest, ed. Michael Peter Gillespie, Oscar Wilde