Visual Pleasures
ENG 360: British Literature
(1660-1900)

Fall 2002

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You will be expected to come to class with relevant texts and assignments, prepared to participate in a lively, informed manner. Because we need your contributions to make class as fun and rewarding as possible, please try to attend every class. You may miss as many as 3 classes unexcused without directly lowering your grade, but use those absences wisely, because except in the case of verifiable hardship (e.g. Dean's excuse), each absence after 3 lowers your final grade by 1/3 of a letter. For instance, a student with a B- final grade who missed 4 classes would earn a C+ for the semester. Please note: attendance can also affect grades for participation and papers. Your grade for class participation will depend upon the quality and consistency of your contributions to class and electronic discussions, your effort in group projects and peer critiques, and the timely completion of all assignments.

You will write several 1-2 page response papers. These responses will be used to stimulate discussion on the days they are due, and you may be asked to present yours to the class. Because these assignments are catalysts for discussion, they will not be accepted after class on the due date.

You will also write two substantial papers. The first (4-6 pages) paper is a comparative analysis of two works and will not require research. The second (8-12 pages) requires extensive research and should situate your argument within an existing and ongoing critical debate.

Paper due dates are listed in the syllabus. Work handed in after these deadlines will be considered late and will be marked down 1/3 grade for each day late. If you need an extension, you must clear it with me a week before the assignment is due. NOTE: The Carolina Inn is open from 8 a.m.–5 p.m., M–F, and locked nights and weekends. If you need to drop off or pick up a paper, make sure you get there before lock-up.

All papers must be typed in a standard 12-point font, double-spaced with one-inch margins, and stapled. CITE YOUR SOURCES. All papers must provide complete bibliographic citations for ALL materials used, including the poems discussed, following MLA Style (Although style manuals are available in the reference section of the library, I urge you to purchase your own). You are encouraged to see me for help, to use the Writing Center, and to exchange papers with classmates (only), provided you indicate in your pledge who helped you and how.

There will also be take-home midterm and final reviews. They will comprise passage identifications, definitions of critical terms, and essays.

Due Nov. 15th, your independent project may be:
1) a critical book review. A critical book review summarizes and evaluates (in 3-5 pages) a recent book relevant to the topics of this course. Please see me for advice about possible works to review.
2) a primary source project. This project involves examining a non-canonical verbal and/or visual text not available in current editions or anthologies assigned for class. The research project should culminate in an essay (3-5 pages) that considers how the work intersects with or departs from the more famous works of the same period.
3) a creative project. This project engages the texts and topics of the course in some creative form—personal essay, poetry, fiction, drama, parody, satire, visual art, music, etc... The best creative projects will be both subtle works of literary and artistic analysis and works of art. Creative projects may be supplemented with critical discussions of the project's design and relevance.

Electronic Reserves [ER]: readings available through CHAL; please note that since we are reading lots of excerpts, most of your readings are on electronic reserve. You must bring printed copies of assigned readings to class. To avoid electronic mishaps, you may want to print all the readings up front and have them bound into a course packet.

Most of the poems assigned are available on-line in the English Poetry (600-1900) Collection, which you can access via Index & Databases (NC Live) in CHAL. I have also ordered inexpensive editions of many of the poets works, which are available in the College Store. You can find some in Norton or Longman anthologies, if you own them. I don't care what edition of the poems you consult, but you must bring a printed copy to class.

You must purchase the exact edition of the texts marked with an asterisk (*) below. In these cases, we'll be reading and using the supplementary materials included in those editions.

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dover, ISBN 0-486-278077

Seeing Good & Evil
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Books I & II (6-62); from Areopagitica (382-6)
René Descartes, "Optics" [ER]

Picturing Paradise Lost
Illustrations by William Blake: http://www.pitt.edu/~ulin/Paradise/
& Gustav Dore: http://www.stedwards.edu/hum/klawitter/milton/dore/doreindex.htm

Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
W. J. T. Mitchell, "Ekphrasis and the Other" [ER]