ENGL 3307.001 Prof. Jennifer Snead
Fall 2007 Office: English/Philosophy 204
TTh 9:30 – 11:00 AM PM Office hours: TTh 4-5:30 English/Philosophy Room 351
email: jennifer.snead@ttu.edu
website: faculty.english.ttu.edu/snead phone: 742-2500 ex. 256
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature: Poetry of the Eighteenth Century
Course Description:
This course is a survey of poets writing, and poetry written, in Britain during the eighteenth century, between the Restoration and the late 1780s. Through reading and discussion of the work of poets from Pomfret to Cowper and Egerton to Barbauld, the class will center on a number of issues endemic to writers and writing of the period: prosody and poetic form; popular literacy and the expansion of the market for print; gender; class; concepts of cultural productions as "high" or "low"; poetry as a form of opposition or protest; poetry as a force for social change. Weıll supplement our readings of eighteenth-century poetry with examples of eighteenth-century prose and drama concerning poets and their work. Course requirements will include: regular attendance and class participation; weekly response papers, a Special Collections assignment, a midterm examination, a group annotation assignment, and a final paper.
Expected learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students should be conversant with the work of many of the canonical (and several of the lesser-known) poets of the eighteenth century, and with the basic aesthetic and social issues that preoccupied their writing and publishing, including but not limited to the following: neoclassicism, sentiment, satire, prosody, gender, class, empire. They should have a general understanding of the historical, cultural, intellectual, and ideological contexts that fostered these aesthetic and social issues, and a more specific understanding of the ways that the emerging technology of print and the growing audience of readers influenced their work. They be acquainted with some of the aesthetic and literary criteria by which poetry was judged during the eighteenth century; they should also be familiar with the major topics of current scholarly discourse concerning the period, including but not limited to questions of gender, public vs. private spheres, satire, the growth of print culture, sentiment and sensibility. In addition, students completing this course should be able to identify and use library resources for research connected with the period (including Special Collections, the databases ECCO, ABELL, LION, etc.).
Methods of Assessment of Learning Outcomes
The above outcomes will be assessed via student performance in the following areas: class discussion and participation; weekly response papers; a midterm examination, and a group annotation assignment.
Required readings:
Available at the Student Union Bookstore and the Varsity Bookstore:
Eighteenth-Century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology, 2nd edition. Eds. David Fairer and Christine Gerrard. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
Available online:
Eighteenth-Century Collections Online Database (ECCO); available
through the Texas Tech Library (http://galenet.galegroup.com.lib-e1.lib.ttu.edu/servlet/ECCO)
Handed out in class:
J. Paul Hunter, "Couplets and conversation," from The Cambridge
Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry, ed. John Sitter (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001); 11-36.
Samuel Johnson, excerpt from The Life of Gray (from Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, 1779-1781)
Joseph Warton, from An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (Vol.
1, 1757; Vol. 2, 1782)
Frances Burney, The Witlings. A Comedy. By a Sister of the Order
(1779).
Schedule of readings and assignments:
Unless otherwise noted, all readings are to be completed by the first day of class for the week.
Week 1: 28 – 30 August
28 August: Introductions
30 August: Essay, "Couplets and conversation" (handout)
Week 2: 4-6 September
1st response papers due
Pomfret, The Choice
Egerton, all selections
Finch, all selections
Week 3: 11-13 September
2nd response papers due
Gay, all selections
Swift, all selections
Week 4: 18 – 20 September
3rd response papers due
Pope, all selections
Week 5: 25 – 27 September
4th response papers due
Montagu, all selections
Week 6: 2 – 4 October
5th response papers due
Savage, all selections
Thomson, Spring
Week 7: 9 – 11 October
9 October: Midterm examination
10 October: Joseph Warton, An Essay on the Genius and Writings of
Pope (handout)
Week 8: 16 – 18 October
6th response papers due.
Duck, The Thresher's Labour
Collier, The Woman's Labour
Trip to Special Collections Library
Week 9: 23 – 25 October
7th response papers due
Johnson, all selections
Churchill, all selections
Week 10: 30 October – 1 November
8th - Special Collections - response paper due
Gray, all selections
Samuel Johnson, The Life of Gray, from Lives of the English Poets
(handout)
Week 11: 6 – 8 November
9th response papers due
6 November: Yearsley, all selections
8 November: Smart, all selections
Week 12: 13 – 15 November
10th response papers due
Barbauld, all selections
Cowper, all selections
Week 13: 20 November
NO CLASS 20 - 22 November: THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 14: 27 – 29 November
Annotation assignments due 29 November
27 November: Burney, The Witlings (handout)
29 November: Group presentations begin
Week 15: 4 – 6 December
4 December: Group presentations continue
6 December: Conclusions, reflections
Final papers due 10 December
Grading Criteria
Response papers:
Each week (with the exception of the first week, the week of the midterm exam, and the week of your presentations) you will be required to write a brief (2-3 double-spaced pages, no more!) response paper to the assigned readings. These responses must be turned in to me at the beginning of class on the first meeting of the week that they are due, with no exceptions. I will not accept response papers submitted by email; if you cannot hand in a hard copy yourself, arrange to have a classmate or friend submit it for you, either in class or the day the paper is due, to the English Department office. The contents of your response papers are entirely up to you; all I require is that each one demonstrate a strong, detailed engagement with the reading assignment for the upcoming week by selecting one or two passages from that text and making an argument or taking a position on those passages, using close reading and analysis to support the observations or argument that it makes. You are required to hand in a total of eight response papers for the semester – this means that you can skip two at your own discretion. Just let me know itıs your chosen free week on the day that paper is due. You may NOT skip the Special Collections response paper (due on 30 October); that one is mandatory. You might also consider writing and handing in all eight response papers, and then choosing two for me to not count towards your total response paper grade.
For detailed information about response papers, how to write them, and how they are graded, see my website: http://www.faculty.english.ttu.edu/snead.
For detailed guidelines about the Special Collections response paper, see my website.
Your annotation assignment will receive a letter grade, based on how well you and the other members of your group have fulfilled the criteria for that assignment. For a full description of the annotation assignment, see my website.
Your longer paper (5-7 pages long) will receive a letter grade, based on the following criteria: it must demonstrate a clear thesis about one (or a combination of) the course readings, within the first paragraph of the paper. The paper must support that thesis using evidence, in the form of close reading of passages from the text or texts in question, bolstered by direct quotes from those texts. Your final paper must also conclude with a restatement of its argument, and some indication of why that argument, overall, might be important to the context of larger issues in the field of eighteenth-century studies. Proper grammar, spelling, and citation of texts go without saying. You may, but are not required to, use secondary sources for each paper. If you do, those sources must be properly identified, quoted, and cited. Feel free to use one of your weekly response papers as a germ for this longer paper, or to draw upon your group annotation assignment for it, or both. I will be happy – no, delighted – to read and comment on a rough draft for your final paper, up to one week before the paper is due.
Final grades will be determined by the following percentages:
Class participation: 15%
Response papers: 30%
Annotation assignment: 15%
Midterm examination: 20%
Final paper: 20%
Course Policies and Student Responsibilities
I expect you to have finished each class's assigned reading by the day specified in the syllabus, and to arrive in class ready, willing, and able both to share your reading experiences and to respond to those of the other members of the class.
Attendance
Attendance in this class is mandatory; our discussions during each class
session are as crucial to the course as the assigned readings and writing you and your fellow students will be doing outside of class. I expect your regular, punctual attendance and engaged – even enthusiastic – participation in all class discussions and activities. I consider lateness the equivalent of an absence. Absences accrue from the first day of the semester, regardless of the add/drop period. If for any reason you must miss class, know that if you miss more than five classes during this semester, you will fail the course, regardless of the reasons for your absences. You are responsible for turning in all assigned work on time, regardless of your attendance, and for obtaining notes and/or assignments from your classmates, not me. If you are involved in a university-sponsored activity that will require you to miss class, come and see me well in advance so that we can discuss strategies for helping you to make up class absences.
Regular and engaged class participation is an important part of this course and will be graded accordingly. For details and evaluation criteria, see my website.
Remember that the free exchange of ideas is predicated on civility in the classroom: treat your fellow students and their ideas with the same courtesy and consideration you expect from them. In your classroom interactions with one another, I expect you will honor the English Departmentıs guidelines for student ethics in English, observing clarity, honesty, tolerance, respect, objectivity, fairness, engagement, and responsibility. You can access a more detailed description of "Ethics in English: A Guide for Students," via the department website:
www.english.ttu.edu/linked_files/Ethics_in_English_for _Students.pdf
If you engage in inappropriate or abusive behavior (including intolerance based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, physical or any other disability), youıll be removed from the course. Further administrative action may also be pursued, so be sure you know and understand the universityıs policies on acceptable conduct in the classroom (see your Student Handbook for that information).
I expect that all of us will turn off all cell phones and beepers before class starts (this includes me).
Assignments
I do not give extensions for any assignments, including papers. For every day a graded assignment is late, I will take off one-half a letter grade (i.e. a B paper will become a B-, an A paper an A-, and so on). I do not accept late response papers – youıll simply receive a zero on that weekıs response if you do not hand it in on time. All deadlines are listed in the course syllabus youıll receive on your first day in class; budget your time wisely, and plan ahead! If you have difficulty getting your work finished on time, the university has many resources for helping students with time management, study skills, etc. Feel free to check in with me about how you can access those resources. One in particular that Iıll mention here is the University Writing Center (UWC), a one-on-one, free tutoring center right here in this very building (Room 175) where you can get another set of eyes to look over your writing before you turn it in to me. I highly recommend you take advantage of this resource, either online at english.ttu.edu/uwc01/, or by making a phone appointment (742-2476), or by simply walking in.
I expect that youıll take pride in your work, and that its appearance will reflect that pride. Spell-check and grammar-check your papers, and become familiar with a dictionary. Please type all of your written assignments in a simple12-point font (I prefer Times New Roman), double-space them, and use one-inch margins on the sides. Number your pages and staple them all together; be sure your name is on the first page, along with the course number and title. A running header or footer with your last name is also a good idea. You must properly cite any sources used in your papers using MLA style (you can access the MLA Handbook For Writers of Research Papers online, via the University Writing Center homepageıs "Writing Resources" link, or buy a hard copy at the bookstore.) Failure to document or acknowledge your sources is not only sloppy scholarship, itıs also a serious academic infraction.
A word on plagiarism and cheating: both are unacceptable, and university disciplinary procedures will be strictly enforced should either arise. If you engage in academic dishonesty, wittingly or unwittingly, it could lead to expulsion from Texas Tech University, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the definitions of and policies surrounding plagiarism and cheating in your Student Handbook. If you ever have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, please discuss them with me during my office hours before you hand in the work in question.
If you have a documented disability that might affect your coursework in any way, please come to see me early in the semester so we can discuss any accommodations you might need. To quote the department of Student Disability Services, "students should present appropriate verification from Student Disability Services during the instructorıs office hours. Please note instructors are not allowed to provide classroom accommodations to a student until appropriate verification from Student Disability Services has been provided. For additional information, you may contact the Student Disability Services office at 335 West Hall or 806-742-2405."