Old Syllabi

Syllabus: Fall 2006

First day: introductions and course outline, reading Wordsworth's "Solitary Reaper"

• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Lady of Shalott" (1832/42)

• Plato, the allegory of the cave, from The Republic (360 B.C.E.)

Come to class having prepared one or two specific questions about the readings.

Note: here and throughout this syllabus, the first (less indented) list of readings is required, while the second (more indented) list of readings is supplemental and optional. Here, for example, Ruskin's writing is required reading, while Landow's commentary is optional.

• John Ruskin, Modern Painters (1843) and from the section of The Stones of Venice called "The Nature of Gothic" (1852)
  • Victorian Web editor George Landow has adapted his previously published introduction to Ruskin and his works on his site, making that page one of the better ones on the patchy and sprawling Victorian Web.

Linking passages: group I

No class today--I will be away giving a conference paper.

• Oscar Wilde, from "The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue" (1889) and from "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)
  • Wilde's famous trials have inspired two excellent sites. The Bobst Library at NYU has built a spectacular web version of their exhibition commemorating the centennial of the trials: Reading Wilde, Querying Spaces. Though less polished and flashy, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School's site on the trials also contains a wealth of interesting information.

Linking passages: group II

• James Joyce, "Araby," from Dubliners (1914, anthology 2434)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Joyce as novelist and short-fiction writer

  • The Modern World, which produces excellent author pages, has an extensive one devoted to Joyce.

  • R.L. Callahan of Temple maintains Work in Progress, an excellent Joyce site including articles, maps of Joyce's Dublin, and much more.

  • Edward J. Maloney and David F. Fanning of Ohio State maintain the James Joyce Resource Center, with a bibliography of books, a timeline, and "casebooks" of references to Joyce scholarship grouped by critical approach.

  • Yet another very good site: The James Joyce Portal

Linking passages: group III

The class meets today in small groups. Each group should communicate in advance to choose a meeting place.

• Joyce, "Eveline" (anthology 2438) and "Clay" (2441), from Dubliners

Linking passages: group IV

• Joyce, "The Dead" (anthology 2445), from Dubliners

Linking passages: group V

Seminar A meets in the regular classroom, with group 1 doing responses. Seminar B (groups 4, 5, and 6) does responses and meets in small groups.

• Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), pages 3-158

Linking passages: group VI

• Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, pages 159-276

Linking passages: group I

Seminar B meets in the regular classroom, with group 4 doing responses. Seminar A (groups 1, 2, and 3) does responses and meets in small groups, led by group member #2.

PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE IN CLASS
FOR STUDENTS WRITING PAPERS

• Speeches on Irish independence (anthology 2379)

• William Butler Yeats, "Easter 1916" (1916, anthology 2397) and "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" (1922, anthology 2396)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Yeats as poet and essayist

Linking passages: group II

• T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1917, anthology 2509) and companion readings; "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1919, anthology 2544)
  • Prufrock and Other Observations, a Bartleby e-text of Eliot's 1917 volume of poetry

  • The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, a Bartleby e-text of Eliot's 1920 work.

Linking passages: group III

FIRST EXAM/PAPER DATE:

Take the exam in the classroom at the usual class time

or

submit your paper under my office door by 3:00 p.m.

• Eliot, The Waste Land (1922), anthology 2518
  • Eliot reading the poem

Linking passages: group IV

• Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Woolf as novelist and essayist

  • Virginia Woolf on Women and Fiction -- A Distance Learning Project (Joel Rich and Nancy Henderson) was originally a course page for a distance-learning project; it is now an archive of discussions, a brief chronology and primary bibliography, and excerpts from some of the women's works Woolf discusses.

  • This collaborative site on Mrs. Dalloway has a lot of material that can help orient you in the novel.

Linking passages: group V

Seminar A meets in the regular classroom, with group 2 doing responses. Seminar B (groups 4, 5, and 6) does responses and meets in small groups, led by group member #3.

• Woolf, first part of Mrs. Dalloway (1925, anthology 2556-2608)

Linking passages: group VI

• Woolf, second part of Mrs. Dalloway (1925, anthology 2608-2655)

Linking passages: group I

Seminar B meets in the regular classroom, with group 5 doing responses. Seminar A (groups 1, 2, and 3) does responses and meets in small groups, led by group member #3.

• Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Dickens as novelist

  • Dickens has attracted a fair amount of attention on the Web, and the best door to that information is David Perdue's Dickens Page.

• Evelyn Waugh, "The Man Who Liked Dickens" (1933, anthology 2819)

• George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" (1950, anthology 2836) and "Shooting an Elephant" (1936, anthology 2844)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Waugh as novelist and short-fiction writer, Orwell as essayist, and Rushdie as novelist

  • Doubting Hall: A Guided Tour around the Works of Evelyn Waugh

  • A solid page of Orwell resources

Linking passages: group III

Seminar A meets in the regular classroom, with group 3 doing responses. Seminar B (groups 4, 5, and 6) does responses and meets in small groups, led by group member #4.

• Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape (1958)
  • Apmonia: a site for Samuel Beckett by The Modern World, has an impressive array of top-notch information available from its long front page, including a biography, articles, reviews, notes on productions, and an image gallery.

  • The University of California at Santa Barbara hosts The Samuel Beckett Endpage, a strong site although probably second to Apmonia.

Linking passages: group IV

• Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1952)

Linking passages: group V

PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE IN CLASS
FOR STUDENTS WRITING PAPERS

Seminar B meets in the regular classroom, with group 6 doing responses. Seminar A (groups 1, 2, and 3) does responses and meets in small groups, led by group member #4.

• Beckett, Endgame (1958)

Linking passages: group VI

We will have the review session for students taking the exam during the regular class period on this day.

SECOND EXAM/PAPER DATE:

Take the exam in the classroom at the usual class time

or

submit your paper under my office door by 3:00 p.m.

• Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1899)

Linking passages: group I

• Tom Stoppard, Travesties (1974)

• Encyclopedia Britannica on Tristan Tzara

• Tzara, "Dadaism"
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Stoppard

  • British Writers (subscription only): Stoppard

  • The National Gallery of Art's online exhibition of Dada

  • Tzara, "L'amiral Cherche Une Maison à Louer" (sound recording, item #2 on the linked page)

Linking passages: group II

Seminar A meets in the regular classroom, with group 1 doing responses. Seminar B (groups 4, 5, and 6) does responses and meets in small groups, led by group member #1 (except group 6, led by group member #5).

• Derek Walcott, Omeros (1990), pages 1-131
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Walcott

  • Contemporary Literary Criticism-Select (subscription only): Walcott

  • Walcott's Nobel page

Linking passages: group III

No class meeting today--keep reading Omeros.

THANKSGIVING BREAK

• Walcott, Omeros, pages 133-325

Linking passages: group IV

• Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette (screenplay of 1986 film, anthology 2942)
  • British Writers (subscription only): Kureishi

  • Contemporary Literary Criticism (subscription only): Kureishi

Linking passages: group V

Seminar B meets in the regular classroom, with group 4 doing responses. Seminar A (groups 1, 2, and 3) does responses and meets in small groups, led by group member #1.

• Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), pages 3-95
  • British Writers (subscription only): Winterson

  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (subscription only): Winterson

Linking passages: group VI

PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE IN CLASS
FOR STUDENTS WRITING PAPERS

• Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, pages 91-176

No linking passages today--we will take some time to discuss how the class has gone.

Last day: wrapping up, weeping for lack of more class sessions

Bring your small group retrospective to class.

FINAL EXAM/PAPER DATE:

Take the exam in the classroom at 9:00 a.m.

or

submit your paper under my office door by 3:00 p.m.