Seminar in Victorian Literature
Course Guidelines

"Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are signs:
and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity
has not yet found the key" (187).
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847)


the basics / course goals / course overview / path 1 / path 2 / miscellany

THE BASICS

English 512: Seminar in Victorian Literature
thematic touchstone: Shadow and Substance
instructor: Dr. Paul Marchbanks
class time & location: M/W, 4-6 p.m. (bldng 2, rm 13)
email: pmarchba@calpoly.edu
office: 805-756-2159 / building 47 (the "maze"), hallway 35, office A / available hours
home: 805-593-0192 (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.)


COURSE GOALS

• deepened comfort with discussion and debate
• increased familiarity with research materials and methods
• elaboration of core knowledge concerning literary forms, periods, and figures
• refinement of organizational and rhetorical skills necessary to sustain an extended, written argument
• readiness to think on your feet--to use evidence to defend and attack positions/theses w/ minimal time to prepare

COURSE OVERVIEW

If the Enlightenment encouraged the logical application of reason to humanity's problems, and Romanticism witnessed the wild inhalation of many a Nature-infused emotion and altered mental state, the Victorian period could be said to have spent its time wrestling with both. The rise of empiricism and its methodical application to industry, medicine, politics, and even colonialism competed with an ingrained passion for those intangible things that could not be easily measured and commodified. In the world of literature and the visual arts, Realism bumped up against Impressionism, a rising materialism grounded in current events clashed with a nostalgic Medievalism, and new approaches to history and archaeology did battle with rigorous religious faiths.


PATH 1: In-Class Discussion and Exams

Materials (purchase these editions; correct pagination will facilitate class discussion)

• The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Third Edition, Volume 2B, 2006. ISBN: 0321333950
• George Eliot’s Scenes of Clerical Life (1859), Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 978-0199552603
• Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (1860-61). Norton Critical Edition, 1999. ISBN: 0393960693
• Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Norton Critical Edition, 2000. ISBN: 0393975420

Assignments

• participation & class discussion (15%--3 grades of 5% each, awarded at 2, 6, and 10 weeks; students most commonly earn 4-4.5 pts). Grades will be determined by the frequency, quality, and text-based nature of participation during class discussion and group activities.
• poetry recordings (5%): each student will practice dramatic readings of 1-3 path one poems assigned to her/him, and will create MP3 files of these readings for their peers' use. MP3 files will be accesible from the course website for downloading, and will serve as a useful study aid. Files due Wed, Jan. 20.
• teaching moment (5%): each class sesssion, one student will provide a two-part, 30-minute introduction to the path 1 reading(s) for the day. Part one will concern the readings context, and part two will involve facilitation of class discussion.
• midterm exam #1 (10%): in-class exam composed of short answer questions only (60 minutes)
• midterm exam #2 (15%): in-class exam consisting of short answer questions and one essay (120 minutes)
• attendance: given the brief duration of the quarter system, missing class will begin to hurt your grade almost immediately. You get one absence free--use it sparingly. Your second absence will cut 1 pt from your final grade, your third absence will cut 2 more pts from your final grade, your fourth absence will cut 4 more pts from your final grade, etc. In other words, 3 absences will remove 3 pts from your final grade, 4 absences will remove 7 pts from your final grade, 5 absences will remove 13 pts from your final grade, etc. Excused absences are difficult to come by. (Doctor visits, for instance, will not earn you an excused absence.)

PATH 2: Outside Research and Writing

Materials

• Group 1: Charles Dickens
  • Barnaby Rudge (1840-41). Penguin, 2003. ISBN: 014043728
• Group 2: George Eliot
  • Daniel Deronda (1876). Oxford, 2009. ISBN:978-0199538485
• Group 3: George Eliot
  • "The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton" (1857). In Scenes of Clerical Life, Oxford, 2009. ISBN: 978-0199552603
  • "Janet’s Repentance” (1857). In Scenes of Clerical Life, Oxford, 2009. ISBN: 978-0199552603
  • Felix Holt (1866). Penguin, 1995. ISBN: 0140434354
• Group 4: Narrative Poetry & The Woman Question
  • Alfred Tennyson’s “The Princess” online
  • E. B. Browning’s Aurora Leigh (1856). Norton, 1995. ISBN: 0393962987
  • A. Tennyson’s Idylls of the King (1859-74). Penguin, 1989. ISBN: 0140422535
• Group 5: Art & Truth
  • Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus (1833-34), Oxford, 2008. ISBN: 0199540372
  • Robert Browning’s The Ring and the Book (1868-69). Broadview, 2001. ISBN: 1551113722

Assignments

• short essay response (10% of grade, 5% each): each student will belong to a group of 2-3 individuals assigned to a list of weekly Path 2 readings. Students in a given group will engage their touchstone text(s) and related secondary materials through short essays of 400-500 words. Multiple prompts will be provided each of the first eight weeks, and students will respond by creating a total of two essays. These compact essays should be creative, focused, highly structured, and supported by appropriately detailed evidence. Essay responses are due on Blackboard by 11:59 p.m. the Saturday after an essay prompt has been assigned. Students must complete their first essay during Wks 1-4, responding to a prompt assigned for that particular week. A second essay will be completed during Wks 5-8. Please turn in essays the day they are due: late essays will lose 1 pt/day. You may not complete a Path 2 short essay the same week your group meets with me (see below), so plan accordingly.
• small group office visit (10% of grade, 5% each): each student will participate in two half-hour, small group sessions during my office hours, one during Wks 1-4, a second during Wks 5-8. Each such session will be attended by all members of your Path 2 group. Please go here to choose a block of time which works, then email me with your selection. High scores will be earned by those students who demonstrate intimate familiarity with the Path 2 reading for the week in which they meet with me (complete the reading for the week in question--even if you meet with me early in the week--and bring your text filled with helpful marginalia). You may not meet with me the same week you complete a Path 2 short essay, so plan accordingly.
• term paper prep (5%): students will construct a detailed outline and a single page of their term paper, submit both items to a Wk 9 forum on Blackboard, and attend a one-hour, joint paper conference with me and the other 1-2 members of their group to discuss these documents. Students who do not complete these requirements cannot turn in their term paper.
• term paper (25%): students will construct a 15-20 page argument that engages their Path 2 text(s) and demonstrates relevant research. Submission of an appropriate version of the paper to a conference or journal will constitute a portion of one's term paper score. Due electronically by either Sunday, March 14th or Thursday, March 18th, at midnight.

MISCELLANY

Grading: go here for an elaboration of terms used below

Contact
Take advantage of my frequent availability throughout the week. Go here to find an open slot, then email me to reserve that time for an office visit. The fastest way to contact me if you have a quick question is via email. You can also reach me in my office at 805-756-2159, or in the evening (before 9 p.m.) at 593-0192.

Plagiarism and the Honor Code
I encourage you to improve your writing with the help of peers, instructors, and myself. Remember, however, that all work you submit must be your own. Any paper containing borrowed but undocumented thoughts or words will receive a failing grade, and I am obligated to report all instances of plagiarism to the Vice President of Student Affairs. Let me know if you have further questions concerning this important issue.

"Mariana in the Moated Grange" (1850-51)
John Everett Millais

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu