ENGL
6350: The Byronic Hero (Spring 2010, West Texas A&M University)
Dark,
brooding, isolated, brilliant, rebellious, powerful, flawed,
arrogant, world-weary, introspective, educated, mysterious,
moody, sophisticated, haunted by secrets, and tortured by love:
meet the Byronic Hero. Even if you know nothing at all about
British literature or Romanticism, if you've read any of the
Harry Potter novels, watched an episode of Star Trek: The Next
Generation, or kept up with the recent Twilight phenomenon,
you know this literary figure already. He's Severus Snape; he's
Q; he's Edward Cullen. This enigmatic poetic persona created
by George Gordon, Lord Byron during the early part of the 19th
century is both a response to anti-heroes that preceded his
incarnation centuries earlier as well as the predecessor of
similarly rebellious figures in 19th- and 20th-century literature,
film, music, opera, and television. In this course, we'll preview
a few of the most important influences on the Byronic hero as
Byron himself configured him, and then we will turn to embodiments
of this figure in Byron's work as well as later 19th-century
literature. Along the way, we will examine the influence of
the Byronic hero on later Western culture, those instances considered
esoteric and popular alike.
This
course surveys literature written during the years 1780-1830
in England, with major emphasis on poetry, but with attention
also to prose fiction, letters, and political and literary essays.
While the majority of our semester devoted to the "Big Six"
Romantic poets—Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Byron, Shelley,
Keats—we also devoted attention careful attention to other significant
figures as well: e.g. Charlotte Smith, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen,
Edmund Burke, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Course explicitly asks
fundamental questions of periodization, historical context,
and the canon. Primary assignments included 10-15 minute presentation
of secondary criticism; 8-10 page paper analyzing and evaluating
two critical works; seven response papers; 20-25 page critical
essay and conference-length version of paper presented at class
conference; panel proposal and individual abstracts for class
conference; active participation on course discussion board.
Upper-division course for English majors. Students expected
to demonstrate both close engagement with individual works
as well as the historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts
in class discussion and assignments. We read extensively from
both the verse of the period as well as poetic theory and
literary criticism. Rather than moving chronologically through
the period, I organized the syllabus thematically; units range
from those organized around formal conventions (e.g. the Victorian
sonnet sequence, the dramatic monologue, the elegy, the verse
novel) to those devoted to social/political concerns (e.g.
"Womankind," "Mankind," The Fallen Woman,
Verse of Social Protest, Patriotism and Nationalism) to those
centering on aesthetics of the period (e.g. The Role of Poetry,
Art and Artists, Poets and Painters). Assignments include
frequent in-class writings, small group work and presentations
in class, one formal explication, two response papers, two
verse recitations, two identification exams, a comprehensive
final essay exam, and a major critical project of the student's
choosing: either a critical essay of 5-8 pages or an annotation
project. One section of 25 students.
English
3392: 19th-Century British Women Writers (Spring 2009, West
Texas A&M University)
Critical
commonplaces over most of the twentieth century held that
the Romantic and Victorian era were dominated by a handful
of writers: all white, all male, and all English-names like
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Dickens, Hardy, Arnold, and
Browning dominated the literary landscape. But does this limited
picture, this finite selection of writers, give us a true
sense of the richness of the Romantic and Victorian periods
in British writing? Does conceptualizing the nineteenth-century
in this manner serve us as students-or as teachers?
Over
the past thirty years, such tidy summations of almost 130
years of British writing have become increasingly problematic,
for they ignore groups of writers profoundly influential during
their own time period and thrillingly rewarding to study during
our own: Romantic writers such as Charlotte Smith, Letitia
Landon, Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley,
Felicia Hemans, Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, Susan Ferrier;
and Victorian writers such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Christina Rossetti, the Brontës, George Eliot, Florence
Nightingale, Ellen Johnston, and Mary Seacole. In this section
of English 4392, we will come to understand the nineteenth-century
in Britain as the unimaginably rich literary terrain that
it very much was.
An
upper-division survey of English literary culture from 1800
to the present and its relationship to social and historical
context. Upon successful completion of the course, students
should be able to: understand the fundamentals of prosody,
narrative structure, and dramatic structure; discuss and write
critically about genre, period, and authors; select and incorporate
appropriate secondary sources into critical essays; employ
literary terminology correctly; appropriately integrate social
and historical context into critical analysis of literary
works; independently produce a narrative that accounts for
the variety, scope, and relative importance of different writers,
texts, forms, and modes across the period. Principal assignments
included frequent in-class writings,four response papers,
identification exams, a 5-8 page critical essay, two verse
recitations, small group presentations, and a comprehensive
final essay exam.
An
upper-division course introducing the poetry, novels, and
prose of the English Romantics, roughly 1780-1830. Moving
chronologically through the period, we covered the "Big Six"
Romantic poets—Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Byron, Shelley,
Keats—as well as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and several
non-fiction works, particularly those dedicated to the controversy
surrounding the French Revolution and the development of poetic
theory across the period. Students
were expected to demonstrate both close engagement with individual
works as well as the historical, cultural, and intellectual
contexts in class discussion and assignments. Principal assignments
included frequent in-class writings,four response papers,
identification exams, a 5-8 page critical essay, two verse
recitations, small group presentations, and a comprehensive
final essay exam. One section of 32 students.
This
upper-division course for English majors serves as an introduction
to the poetry, novels, and prose of the English Romantics,
roughly 1780-1830. Moving chronologically through the period,
we covered the "Big Six" Romantic poets—Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Blake, Byron, Shelley, Keats—as well as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
and Mathilda, Percy Bysshe Shelley's Cenci,
Charlotte Smith’s The Emigrants, and various non-fiction
works, particularly those dedicated to the controversy surrounding
the French Revolution and the development of poetic theory
across the period. Students
were expected to demonstrate both close engagement with individual
works as well as the historical, cultural, and intellectual
contexts in class discussion and assignments. Principal assignments
included daily in-class writings, weekly response papers,
identification and essay exams, verse recitation, and class
presentations. Additionally,
two students elected to add an Honors option to this course,
for which the principal requirement was an extensive research
project. One section of 31 students.
This
upper-division course for English majors centers on British
verse from the Reform Bill of 1832 to the death of Queen Victoria
in 1901. Students were expected to demonstrate both close
engagement with individual works as well as the historical,
cultural, and intellectual contexts in class discussion and
assignments; to this end, we read extensively from both the
verse of the period as well as poetic theory and literary
criticism. Rather than moving chronologically through the
period, I organized the syllabus thematically; units ranged
from those organized around formal conventions (e.g. the Victorian
sonnet sequence, the dramatic monologue, the elegy, the verse
novel) to those devoted to social/political concerns (e.g.
"Womankind," The Fallen Woman, Verse of Social Protest,
Patriotism and Nationalism) to those centering on aesthetics
of the period (e.g. Romantic Re-Visions, The Role of Poetry,
Art and Artists, Poets and Painters). Assignments included
a
semester-long verse annotation project, a research essay,
informal writings and response papers, verse recitations,
as well as midterm and final examinations. One section of
39 students.
An
exploration of the English novel during the eighteenth century.
Course driven by two central questions, ones we revisited
frequently over the term: What is the novel? How (and why?)
does it develop in Britain over the course of the eighteeenth-century?
Texts included: Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, ed. Catherine
Gallagher (Bedford, 1999, ISBN 0312108133); Daniel Defoe,
Moll Flanders ed. Paul Scanlon (Broadview, 2005, ISBN
1-55-111-451-8); Tobias Smollett, Humphry Clinker,
ed. Angus Ross (Penguin, 1985, ISBN 0-14-043021-0); Henry
Fielding, Joseph Andrews with Shamela and excerpts
from Samuel Richardson's Pamela, ed. Paul A. Scanlon
(Broadview, 2001, ISBN1-55111-220-5); William Godwin, Caleb
Williams, eds. Gary Handwerk and A.A. Markley (Broadview,
2000, ISBN1-55111-249-3); Charlotte Smith, The Young Philosopher,
ed. Elizabeth Kraft (Univ. of Kentucky Press, 1999); Horace
Walpole, Castle of Otranto, ed. Frederick Frank (Broadview,
2003, ISBN 1-55111-304-X); Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey,
ed. Claire Grogan, 2nd edition (Broadview, 2002, ISBN
1-55111-479-8); Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary and Maria
(Penguin, 1992, ISBN 0-14-043371-6). Assignments included
a semester-long commonplace book compilation via WebCT, midterm
identifications and essay, essay revision, collaborative research
project (with three components: precis of critical work prepared
by individual students, collaborative essay, group presentation
to class), cumulative final exam. One section of 28 students.
General
education survey course. Major works and authors covered:
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Goethe's Faust;
Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Joseph
Conrad's Heart of Darkness; William Blake; Rainer Maria
Rilke; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Robert Browning; Elizabeth Barrett
Browning; William Wordsworth; Christina Rossetti; Walt Whitman;
Emily Dickinson; William Faulkner; Richard Wright; Leslie
Marmon Silko; Frederick Douglass; Jonathan Swift. Assignments
included weekly 200-400 word responses, three examinations,
frequent in-class quizzes and writings.
General
education survey course. Major works and authors covered:
Sophocles's Oedipus; Euripides's Medea; Homer's
Odyssey; Beowulf; Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight; Cervantes's Don Quixote;
Shakespeare's The Tempest; sonnets by Shakespeare,
Milton, and Donne; Aphra Behn's Oroonoko. Assignments
included three essays, three examinations, preparation of
"discusssion leader" questions, cultural event essay,
frequent in-class quizzes and writings.
English
2321: British Literature, Gods and Monsters (West Texas A&M
University)
This
course investigates some of the most famous villains ever
created-Grendel and his mother; Macbeth; Satan; Frankenstein's
Creature; Mr. Hyde; Dracula-focusing on the intersections
between creation and destruction, inspiration and desolation,
divinity and monstrosity. A few key questions shape the class:
How
do we decide that someone or something is a "monster"?
What
makes someone's actions "monstrous"?
How
has divinity been conceptualized at various points in British
literature? To what can we attribute these concepts?
Why
do monsters appear so frequently in literature? What do
monsters represent for the culture that created them? What
do monsters represent for us today?
Who
created monsters: God or man? Are monsters figments of human
imagination, a way we have of explaining to ourselves why
terrible things happen? A way of understanding what is sometimes
beyond understanding? Or are they a kind of punishment,
our sins manifest?
Can
monsters be controlled by gods? By God? By humans? Why or
why not?
Are
humans destined to battle monsters? Is it destiny or just
coincidence when we encounter such beings?
Why
do some literary monsters continue to haunt us, even centuries
after their creation?
Course readings include Beowulf, Macbeth, The Tempest,
Paradise Lost, "Christabel," Frankenstein,
Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and
Good Omens.
This
second-year course centers on fiction, poetry, and non-fiction
prose from the end of the Early Modern period to the end of
the twentieth century in British literature. Students were
expected to complete a wide range of assignments over the
course of the semester, including weekly response papers,
critical essays, class presentations of literary criticism,
identification exams, in-class writings and quizzes, and substantial
class discussion in both large and small groups. Long works
changed each semester, but a representative sampling would
include Moll Flanders, Frankenstein, Pride
and Prejudice, Hard Times, Heart of Darkness,
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,The
Picture of Dorian Gray, Arcadia. In addition to
novels, we covered a variety of non-fiction essays and excerpts,
short stories, and individual poems. I created course websites
(Spring 2003 available online, Fall 2005 available via WebCT)
with supplementary materials, a hyperlinked Daily Schedule,
paper topics, study strategies, and links to additional references.
Sections ranged from 19 students to 35 students per class.
English
2321: British Literature (Fall
2008 Online; Spring 2009, West Texas A&M University)
A
study of selected significant works of British Literature
arranged around a common theme.
This
first year writing course undertakes close analysis of literary
works as the basis of effective critical writing. Readings
focus on two genres, poetry and the novel, and provides exposure
to generic convention and exploration through a variety of
texts. Full volumes of poetry studied: William Wordsworth
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads, Joy
Harjo's In Mad Love and War, and Charles Simic's Hotel
Insomnia. Novels studied: Charlotte Brontë's Jane
Eyre, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, and Thomas
King's Green Grass, Running Water. Students explore
and develop an understanding of the recursive writing process,
audience, and individual writing styles, all toward the aim
of crafting persuasive, substantial arguments about literary
works.
Principal
course assignments included weekly response papers; class
presentations; in-class writings and quizzes; four critical
essays; final portfolio preparation and presentation.One section
of 14 students; one section of nine students.
English
1101: "Contemporary American Feminism" (Fall 2000,
The University of Georgia)
In
Spring 2000, I proposed a Special Topic English 1101 which
was approved by the First-Year English Committee and slated
for Fall 2000; course proposal available here. A primary departmental
objective for English 1101 is that students should learn to
"use critical thinking skills and strategies to recognize
the difference between opinion and evidence." To meet this
objective, the special topics class I proposed allowed students
the opportunity to immerse themselves in a subject rife with
contradictory opinions and evidence. Through classroom discussion,
individual writings, and collaborative projects, students
reexamined their preconceived notions of what "feminism" is
in both a historical context and a contemporary one; they
developed a cultural vocabulary which would prove useful to
them not only in First-Year Composition, but sociology, psychology,
business, history, etc.; and they came to an understanding
of their individual "voices" as writers through the preparation
of four standard academic essays, a
research project, and a
website hosted on the UGA web server. Course
website. One section of 15 students.
English
1301: Composition and Reading (2006-present, West Texas A&M
University; Fall 2006 syllabus)
The
WTAMU course catalog describes English 1301 as a course in
the "fundamentals in power and control over language
and critical thinking." To meet these aims, students
enrolled in this section of English 1301 prepared a variety
of works: standard academic essays in response to scholarly
and popular texts, personal essays, journals, in-class writings,
and response papers, both in and out of class. Course focused
on both the fundamentals of the recursive writing process
as well as the fundamentals of critical reading. Assignments
included four essays, frequent in-class writings, daily notebook
entries, completion of on-line exercises in grammar and mechanics,
peer review and editing.
English
1101: "English Composition I: Argument" (Fall
1999, Spring 2001, Fall
2003, The University of Georgia)
This
first year course requires students to read non-fiction critically
and write analytically about it. They learn to use critical
thinking skills to recognize the difference between opinion
and evidence, and they develop strategies for composing and
supporting a challenging, argumentative thesis. Students compose
papers in and out of class using processes that include discovering
ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising,
editing, and polishing the finished paper, all while developing
a sense of voice appropriate to the subject, the writer’s
purpose, the context, and the reader’s expectations. For each
of my courses, I developed a website with numerous support
materials. Five sections with an average class size of 21
students.
English
1102: English Composition II: Literature and Composition (Spring
2000, Spring 2003, Spring
2004, The University of Georgia)
This
first year course extends to literature the skills of expository
writing and critical thinking established in English 1101.
Students are asked to read and interpret fiction, drama, and
poetry and write analytically about them. For each of my courses,
I developed a website with numerous support materials. Four
sections with an average class size of 21 students each.
This
first year course extends to literature the skills of expository
writing and critical thinking established in English 1101.
Students are asked to read, appreciate, and interpret fiction,
drama, and poetry, focusing on literature representative of
the following cultures: African American, Hispanic American,
Asian American, and Native American; write analytically about
these literatures. For the course, I developed a website with
numerous support materials and links to writing, research,
and reference guides. Two sections with an average class size
of 21 students each.
