English 10B-2 - Spring, 2017

Literatures in English II: 1700-1900

Class Information

Instructor: Bryzik, Renee
CRN: 71357
Time: MWF 1:10-2:00
Location: 1128 Hart

Description

This is the second in a three-part series of survey courses intended to prepare students for advanced study in English literature. We will be reading British and American literature from 1700 through 1900, focusing primarily on texts from England, Ireland, and America. As we move chronologically through some of the most influential work of the period, we will consider the following themes in literary context: early imperialism, consumerism, gender and polite society; information technology and minority authorship; land management, industrialization, and environmentalism.

This course is designed to meet the following objectives for literature majors planning to move into advanced study. Students will work to 1) develop an understanding of the social, economic, and intellectual networks of a given text 2) cultivate and articulate observations on the formal decisions of an author in a variety of genres, including poetry, drama, and prose, and 3) learn to situate their own critical reading of a text in productive conversation with other scholars.

Grading

Participation and Reading Quizzes: 15%
Commonplace Book: 20%
Essay #1: 15%
Essay #2: 30%
Final Exam: 20%

Texts

The Commerce of Everyday Life , ed. Erin Mackie
She Stoops to Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith
The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, Olaudah Equiano
Lyrical Ballads , Wordsworth and Coleridge
Castle Rackrent , Maria Edgeworth
Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
Bartleby the Scrivener, Herman Melville
Land of Little Rain , Mary Austin
Selected poetry available online