Professor
Priya Joshi
English 125B, Spring 2002
Tu, Th 12;30-2pm, 2 LeConte
Office Hours: Tu, Th 3-4:30pm
Office: 451 Wheeler Hall
Phone: 510-642-2377
e-mail:
pjoshi@socrates.berkeley.edu
The Course
This course is a selective study of nineteenth-century British novels, many of which are canonical today, all of which were immensely popular in their time--so plan, above all, to have some fun doing the reading. We will explore the role of the Victorian novel in recording and shaping the preoccupations of the age that include urbanization, industrialization, and an increasingly visible global capitalism. We will explore both the development of the British novel as well as its relationship to Britain's expanding imperial geography in an attempt to probe the relationship between the novel as a genre and social space. We will pay particular attention to the issue of national identity and the amorphous concept of "Englishness," exploring how these were constantly defined (and redefined) alongside and against issues of race, sexuality, nation, location, class, gender, and empire. We will neither survey nor exhaust the novelistic production of this fecund century; we will simply try to read some fun works and talk with pleasure about them.
The Requirements
Course requirements include attendance in all lectures, 2 in-class closed book exams, and one 8-9 page paper due on April 23rd.
The Texts (all available from the ASUC Bookstore on campus)
There are different editions of many of the fiction titles we'll be reading this term. In order to keep up with in-class discussions, it would be a great help if you can purchase the edition required for this course.
Mary Elizabeth
Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret (1862; Penguin, ed. Jenny Bourne
Taylor) Charlotte Bront‘, Jane Eyre (1847; Penguin, ed. Michael
Mason)
Wilkie Collins, Moonstone (1868; Penguin, ed. Sandra Kemp)|
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899; Norton Critical Edition)
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861; Oxford, ed. Margaret
Cardwell)
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four (1890; Penguin, intro.
Peter Ackroyd)
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines (1885; Oxford, ed. Dennis
Butts)
Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857; Oxford, ed. Andrew
Sanders)
Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1901; Oxford; ed. Alan Sandison)
Recommended Texts:
Asa Briggs, The Making of Modern England: The Age of Improvement
(1959)
Michael McKeon, ed., The Theory of the Novel : A Historical Approach
(2000)
Raymond Williams, The Long Revolution (1961)
The Fine
Print
As I see
it, our main goal is to learn something about the Victorian novel and
to enjoy ourselves as we do so. Please do not hesitate to speak with me
immediately if you encounter difficulties with any aspect of this class.
I work closely with the staff of the Disabled Students' Office to help
my students when they need it. Therefore, if you have a disability that
requires particular attention, please inform me of it at the very earliest
so that I can make arrangements to accommodate your needs. Please take
note of the following common-sense policies for our course:
1. Attendance and Participation: Attendance is required. Please come to class on time prepared to participate in the day's reading. In order to dissipate the alienation that often accompanies large lecture courses, our class will include a structured discussion format in which I will encourage and expect student participation in certain moments of the course. I will usually alert you of these by asking you to prepare passages or interpretations ahead of time. While I do not intend to put students on the spot by calling on them, I very much welcome input and if I should happen to call upon you on a day in which you feel less than fully prepared, please feel free to say, "I pass."
2. Grading: Your grade will be computed by weighing the two in-class exams and one 8-9 page paper equally. The exams will test your reading of the material and your ability to synthesize it. The paper, due on April 23rd, will evaluate your ability to analyze the material with originality and insight. You should feel free to consult with me early and often as you develop a topic for it.
3. Make-ups and Late Papers: Make-up exams and extensions of the final paper will only be available in cases of documented emergencies. A late paper will be marked down a third of a grade (e.g., from A to A- and so on) for each calendar day it is late, so do please plan ahead and try to avoid this penalty.
4. Listserv: In order to facilitate intellectual discussion and an exchange of information germane to our class, all members are required to subscribe to the course listserv. I will be posting information on readings, deadlines, and material of mutual course interest on it, and I encourage you to do so as well. The list is unmoderated, which means that as listowner I do not "approve" or "reject" postings. What you post will immediately get distributed to all subscribers of the list. I, therefore, expect each of us to adhere to common-sense standards of courtesy in our postings. I fully encourage you to disagree and debate postings on the list, but I hope you will do so with consideration.
Subscribing to the course listserv:Send email to majordomo@listlink.berkeley.edu
In the body of your message, please write only the following:
subscribe englishnovel
You will shortly get a notification that asks you to verify the subscription request; once you do so, you are subscribed to the list.
Posting a message to the list:
Send your message to: englishnovel@listlink.berkeley.edu
The message will be distributed to all subscribers on the list.5. Note on Academic Honesty: I will expect every member of this class to adhere to the highest standards of academic honesty. You must fully and unambiguously cite all work that is not your own in written assignments and give credit to those whose ideas or language you are using. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, whose penalty may include failing the course and academic dismissal.
________________________________________________________________
Schedule of Readings
*: indicates recommended secondary readings
1/22 Welcome
and Introduction
1/24 No Class; please read Jane Eyre
1/29 Charlotte
Bront‘, Jane Eyre (1847)
1/31 Jane Eyre; *Marthe Robert, sel. from Origins of the Novel
(ch. 10 in McKeon; pp. 160-177)
2/5 Thomas
Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857);
*Raymond Williams, "Education and British Society," The Long Revolution
(pp. 125-155)
2/7 Tom Brown's Schooldays
2/12 Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861);
*Franco Moretti, sel. from The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman
in European Culture (ch. 24 in McKeon; pp. 554-565)
2/14 Great Expectations
2/19 Great Expectations
2/21
Exam I (in-class, closed book exam)
2/26 Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret (1862);
*Nancy Ar mstrong, sel. from Desire and Domestic Fiction (ch. 19
in McKeon; pp. 467-475)
2/28 Lady Audley's Secret
3/5 Lady Audley's Secret
3/7 Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868)
*Asa Briggs, "Victorianism," The Making of Modern England (ch. 9, pp.
446-488)
*Raymond Williams, "Realism and the Contemporary Novel," The Long Revolution
(pp. 274-292)
3/12 The
Moonstone
3/14 The Moonstone
3/19 *Ian Watt, sel. from The Rise of the Novel (ch. 14 in McKeon;
pp. 363-381)
3/21 *Ian Watt, continued
3/25-3/29 Spring Break; NO CLASS
4/2 H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines (1885)
4/4 King Solomon's Mines
4/9 Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four (1890)
4/11 The Sign of the Four
4/16 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899); please also read,
"Background and Sources" in Norton edition (pp. 77-141)
4/18 Heart of Darkness
4/23 Paper
due at the beginning of class
*Georg Luk‡cs, sel. from The Theory of the Novel (ch. 11 in McKeon;
pp. 185-218)
4/25 Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1901)
4/30 Kim
5/2 Kim
5/7 Review
5/9 Review
5/14 Exam II (in-class, closed book exam)