Study of an Individual Author
Topic: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Class Information
Instructor: Dolan, Frances
CRN: 23214
Time: TR 1:40-3:00
Location: Remote Instruction
GE Areas: Writing Experience
Description
In this course, we will focus on the work of Frances Hodgson Burnett. Burnett was born in England but then moved to Tennessee as a teenager. Her novels were popular in both countries and she troubles the boundaries between "British" and "American" literature. She wrote bestsellers for both children and adults. We will read the three children's novels for which she remains well known (LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY, A LITTLE PRINCESS, and THE SECRET GARDEN), but we will also read one of her most popular (and strangest) novels for adults, A LADY OF QUALITY. I hope that we will be able to consider film versions of THE SECRET GARDEN and of A LITTLE PRINCESS over time.
To place Burnett in context, we will read some of the fairy tales to which she often refers (CINDERELLA, BLUEBEARD, and SLEEPING BEAUTY) as well as a few excerpts from some of the earliest works establishing "children's literature" and setting a template for the female protagonist and her story that Burnett then builds on and revises. We will also read IOLA LEROY by Frances Harper, who is sometimes called the first African-American woman novelist, so that we can juxtapose it with Burnett's LADY OF QUALITY, published in the same decade (the 1890's). What can we learn by reading the two in dialogue? Finally, we will read Sujata Massey's recent novel THE AYAH'S TALE, which takes up the experience and perspective of the native nursemaid to British children in Colonial India, a figure whom Burnett often mentions but never attempts to develop or humanize.
Our focus will be reading and discussion. Because this class is small (30), my plan is that we will meet synchronously by dividing our group into two smaller ones who will meet for half of each scheduled class period on zoom. I welcome feedback from interested students on this possibility.
I plan to order physical books for this class, except in the case of a few titles that are only available as ebooks. I will select particular editions but if you have or can find other editions used, then you are welcome to use those. One book, Burnett's A LADY OF QUALITY, is not available in an affordable edition so we will read it as a pdf.
Grading
Short Writing Assignments: 25%
Short Paper: 20%
Longer Paper or Project: 30%
Final Take home Reflection Narrative: 25%
Texts
Iola Leroy., Frances Harper
The Ayah's Tale., Sujata Massey
Little Lord Fauntleroy, Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Lady of Quality, Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett