Sequence 5: 19th-Century British & American Lit.
Course Guidelines

“Yet half a beast is the great god Pan,
to laugh as he sits by the river,
Making a poet out of a man . . ." (ll.37-39)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "A Musical Instrument" (1860)


the basics / diversity / content & communication / course goals / path 1 / path 2 / miscellany

THE BASICS

English 304: 19th-Century British & American Literature: Sequence V
thematic touchstone: The Contours of Identity
location: secs 01 & 02 (building 2, room 113 / TR / 12-2 & 2-4 p.m.)
instructor: Dr. Paul Marchbanks
email: pmarchba@calpoly.edu
office: 805-756-2159 / building 47 (the "maze"), hallway 35, office A / available hours



DIVERSITY, ACCOMODATION, & ACCESSIBILITY

• this course will present an array of challenging ideas for discussion purposes, some of which you may instinctively applaud, and others you might resent. I encourage you to articulate your own perspective while respecting dissenting positions. I regularly award the highest scores to those students who support their arguments with ample evidence, clarity, and solid reasoning--even when I disagree with their thesis.
• for those of us rightly attuned to issues of representation and their bearing on social justice, I recommend this useful reminder of the importance of considering literary artifacts in their original context, and tempering our knee-jerk tendency to cancel authors who offend our sensibilities. This second article reminds us to value our emotional response to disturbing authorial information while holding that feeling in tension with other (New Critical, Postmodernist, Historicist) ways of viewing the impacted text.
• recognizing that every student learns differently, I attempt to employ multiple teaching methodogies as I move through each course I teach. If you like something, let me know and it might just reappear before the quarter ends!
• convinced that the classroom environment should enable instead of disabling each student learner, whatever their background and abilities, I have adopted various Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. If your own circumstances require additional consideration, do let me know.
• A Statement on COVID-19 authorized by the English department chair: "We recognize that the Covid situation is creating a great deal of uncertainty for students, and we want you to know we will do our best to be flexible and accommodate you to the extent that we can if you have a Covid-related emergency. It is important to understand that an accommodation may not be possible, particularly given the high volume of students who may request accommodations during this global pandemic. A recent agreement between the CSU faculty union and CSU campuses, including Cal Poly, states: “Faculty shall not be required to teach any single course section in more than one modality of instruction.” In other words, faculty teaching a class section in one modality (such as in-person) cannot be required to teach in another, additional modality as well (such as teaching some students in-person while teaching other students virtually). Also, as the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities recognizes, each instructor has the authority to make decisions about a student's absences or missed coursework and the subsequent impact on the student's grades."

CONTENT & COMMUNICATION

The films and literature I teach run the gamut of human experience, from the ecstatic and joyful to the degrading and sordid.  Many visual and literary artists regularly exercise this kind of topical license, operating under the assumption that representing even the most difficult material can serve a beneficial purpose.  One viewer or reader might actually become sensitized to social problems they had hitherto ignored when they encounter such problems dramatized in art.  Another might find in a tale’s situations and dialogue helpful analogues for painful things they have themselves experienced: the story, that is, might provide them a voice—useful words and strategies for expressing their own grief and suffering.

Others, however, might be re-traumatized by watching something that hits too close to home because they’re not yet ready to re-experience their pain—even through the medium of fictional art.  Or, they might fundamentally disagree with the creators’ representation of challenging subject matter—might be offended by the representation and quickly point to other, more politic and sensitive portrayals of such difficult material.  They might even hold that the creator has no right to represent what they have placed in their art because that creator’s own identity factors do not closely enough mirror the factors they have chosen to represent.

Recognizing that even detailed content warnings have limited value, I’d like to supplement them with an open invitation to exercise your freedom during class to disagree with the perspective of others (incl. myself), to approach me during office hours or via email with concerns, and to just leave the classroom for a few minutes if you become upset or disturbed.  If this happens, please do keep the lines of communication open, and let me know if a particular issue or representation bothers you: you needn’t explain why it bothered you unless you wish to do so.

COURSE GOALS

• to promote close reading and analysis
• to hone critical thinking, writing, and argumentation skills
• to weigh the sociopolitical and biographical context surrounding assigned texts
• to draw thematic and stylistic connections among transatlantic literatures emerging in the nineteenth century, with attention given to various facets of identity including gender, class, race, religion, sexuality, nation, artistry, and neurodiversity

PATH 1: In-Class Discussion and Exams (50%)

Materials (purchase these editions--correct pagination will facilitate class discussion & bolster your three participation grades)

• PDFs of various poems, essays, and other works, instead of expensive Norton or Broadview anthologies. Print these out and bring to class, or bring them on a tablet on which you can take notes. (A cell phone will not suffice.)
  • Unit 1: "Mapping Signposts" / PDFs
  • Unit 2: "A Matter of Depth" / PDFs
  • Unit 3: "Split in Two" / PDFs
• George Eliot’s Scenes of Clerical Life (1857, 1858). Oxford, 2015. ISBN: 978-0199689606
• Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). Dover, 1991. ISBN: 978-0486266886
• Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899). Dover, 1993. ISBN: 978-0486277868

Assignments

• attendance mandatory: attendance in this class is non-negotiable. Your absence negatively impacts not only yourself, but those who could benefit from your unique perspective. You have one free absence. Your second absence will cut 1 pt from your final grade, your third absence will cut 3 more pts from your final grade, your fourth absence will cut 5 more pts from your final grade, etc. In other words, 3 absences will remove 4 pts from your final grade, while 5 absences will remove 16 pts from your final grade, etc. Please note that excused absences require a doctor's note for severe illness, along with contact information for the physician.
• In light of COVID-19, I will allow one absence to be eliminated by writing--within 72 hrs of the missed class session--a 400-500 word essay responding to a Point for Reflection concerning the missed day's longest assigned reading. The participation credit earned for this missed day will be determined by the essay's adherence to guidelines for short essays.
• COVID-19: as per university guidelines, students must wear a face filter (kn95 or three-layered covering); those who do not will be asked to leave class and will forfeit any credits (quiz, participation, etc.) they might otherwise earn that day. You'll find my current musings on why we should wear a face filter without making a fuss about it here.
• participation & class discussion (9%--3 grades of 3% each, awarded at 3 and 6 and 10 weeks). Students most commonly earn 2-25-2.5 pts. Lower scores will be given to those who rarely contribute to discussion, and higher scores awarded to those who consistently:
  • contribute thoughtful, organized reflections to class discussion and group activities
  • reference the appropriate editions of each assigned work with correct pagination
  • demonstrate close familiarity with assigned readings by pointing others to pertinent passages
  • arrive on time, and infrequently depart during class
  • successfully avoid using cell phones during class
  • stay abreast of course updates (via the website and email)
  • report, via email, any errors (broken links, typos, etc.) on the course website
• reading quizzes (11%): twelve randomly scheduled quizzes will be given composed of five questions each. Always have a small scantron sheet with you in class, in case we have a quiz. (The lowest quiz grade, perhaps a missed quiz, will be dropped.) Points for Reflection will often inspire quiz questions. Receiving 1 pt on a quiz requires correctly answering three of five questions. Quizzes can cover both the current day's materials and those from the previous class period. Missed quizzes cannot be made up.
• exam #1 (10% total): 30-minute, closed-book exam composed of objective questions (scantron)
• exam #2 (10% total): 60-minute closed-book, comprehensive exam composed of objective questions & one essay (scantron & blue book)
• exam #3 (10% total): 70-minute closed-book, comprehensive essay exam (blue book)
  

PATH 2: Outside Research and Writing / "The Long Nineteenth Century" (50%)

Materials (purchase only these editions, available in the campus bookstore)

• Group 1: Autobiographical Fiction
  • George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss (1860). Oxford, 2015. ISBN: 978-0198707530
  • Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (1927). Harvest: 1989. ISBN: 978-0156907392
• Group 2: Engaging Cultural Others
  • Henry James's The American (1877). Oxford, 2009. ISBN: 978-0199555208
  • Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly (1895). Dover, 2003. ISBN: 978-0486426778
  • Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899). Norton Critical, 2016. ISBN: 978-0393264869
• Group 3: Cognitive Disability
  • Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1841). Penguin, 2003. ISBN: 978-0140437287
  • George Eliot's Brother Jacob and The Lifted Veil (1864). Oxford, 2009. ISBN: 978-0199555055
  • Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907). Oxford, 2008. ISBN: 978-0199536351
• Group 4: Apocalypse & Dystopia
  • Mary Shelley's The Last Man (1826). Oxford: 2008. ISBN: 978-0199552351
  • H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds (1898). Dover, 1997. ISBN: 978-0486295060
  • H. G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895). Dover, 1995. ISBN: 978-0486284729
  • Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932). Harper, 2005. ISBN: 978-0060850524
• Group 5: First-Person, Biased Narration
  • Charlotte Brontë's Villette (1853). Oxford: 2008. ISBN: 978-0199536658
  • Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900). Norton Critical, 1996. ISBN: 978-0393963359
    
• Group 6: Breaking Gender Boundaries
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh (1856). Norton Critical, 1995. ISBN: 978-0393962987
  • Virginia Woolf's Orlando (1928). Harvest/Mariner, 1973. ISBN: 978-0156701600
• Group 7: Mystery & the Gothic
  • Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847). Oxford, 2009. ISBN: 978-0199541898
  • Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890, 1891). Penguin, 2003. ISBN: 978-0141439570
  • Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898). Dover, 1991. ISBN: 978-0486266848
• Group 8: The Artist's Coming of Age
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh (1856). Norton, 1995. ISBN: 0393962987
  • James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). Penguin (Viking Critical Ed.), 1977. ISBN: 978-0140155037
• Group 9: Parabolic Drift
  • Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1854). Norton Critical Edition, 2000. ISBN: 978-0393975604
  • Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1859-74). Penguin, 1989. ISBN: 978-0140422535
  • George Eliot's Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe (1861). Oxford, 2009. ISBN: 978-0199536771
• Group 10: Female Defiance
  • George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss (1860). Oxford, 2015. ISBN: 978-0198707530
  • Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence (1920). Oxford, 2008. ISBN: 978-0199540013

Assignments

• each student will belong to a small group (usually three, sometimes two students) assigned to a list of weekly Path 2 readings. Students in a given group will engage their touchstone texts through a series of activities including: 1) a 30-min. small group discussion in my office, 2) the writing of a 400-500 word essay, 3) a 60-min. paper conference in which we discuss student outlines for term papers, and 4) the completion of the required, 7-8 page term paper.
  • small group office visit (10%): each student will participate in one half-hour, small group discussion session during weeks 2-3. This session must include every member of your Path 2 group. Confer with your group, then choose a 30-min. block of time which works for everyone, and email me with your selection. Office visit scores reflect:
    • whether you have the correct edition of your path 2 book with you (see list above)
    • apparent familiarity with all of the reading up through and including that for the week in which we meet, in addition to related Points for Reflection
    • the frequency with which a student backs up claims with specific textual evidence (i.e. point to relevant passages & page numbers)
    • creativity and insight
    • timeliness of arrival
  • short essay (10%): multiple study questions (i.e. Points for Reflection) will be provided weeks 1-9, and students should generate their short, 400-500 word essay as a response to one of the questions available either week 5 or week 6. This compact essay should be creative, focused, highly structured, and supported by appropriately detailed evidence. Essay responses should be sent to me via email by 11:59 p.m. the Saturday of the week in question.
  • term paper workshop (10%): students should study the points of reflection for weeks 7, 8, and 9 as they prepare for their final office visit; this one-hour session will combine group discussion of your final path 2 readings with discussion of each student's 2-3 page term paper outline (sent to everyone in the group--and Dr. M--via email prior to your group's conference). These sessions will occur during week 10. Please go here to choose a one-hour block of time which works for your group, and email me so I can reserve the slot.
  • term paper (20%): students will construct a 7-8 page argument that engages all of their Path 2 texts. Due Thurs., Dec. 9 by 11:59 p.m. in lieu of a final exam. Send final Word files as attachments to Dr. Marchbanks.
• all assignments mandatory: students must have completed their short essay, office visit, and the term paper workshop in order to turn in their term paper.

MISCELLANY

Grading: go here for an elaboration of terms used below

Contact
Take advantage of my frequent availability throughout the week. Go here to find an open slot, then email me to reserve that time for an office visit. The fastest way to contact me if you have a quick question is via email. You can also reach me in my office at 805-756-2159, or in the evening (before 9 p.m.) at 593-0192.

Writing Lab Center
Experienced writers at the University Writing & Rhetoric Center offer free assistance with writing assignments for any course. Using this service will improve even the best writer’s output. Visit their website to schedule an appointment in advance of your desired date.

Plagiarism and the Honor Code
I encourage you to improve your writing with the help of peers, instructors, and myself. Remember, however, that all work you submit must be your own. Any paper containing borrowed but undocumented thoughts or words will receive a failing grade, and I am obligated to report all instances of plagiarism to the Vice President of Student Affairs. Let me know if you have further questions concerning this important issue.

The Pet (1853)
Walter H. Deverell

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu