Required Texts

• English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology, ed. by Stanley Appelbaum (Dover, $2.50)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Penguin, $8.00)
• English Victorian Poetry: An Anthology, ed. by Paul Negri (Dover, $3.00)
• An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (Dover, $2.00)
• Dubliners by James Joyce (Dover, $2.00)
• World War One British Poets (Dover, $2.00)
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (Harcourt $12.00)
• Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (Grove/Atlantic, $12.00)

Important information about the texts

• You can likely find a number of different editions of some of these texts; however, I require you to use the texts I ordered for the class. You are unlikely to find them any cheaper, but more importantly, you will find it easier to participate in class if your page numbers and text match exactly the ones that I and the rest of the class will be using.
• You do not have to purchase all the texts at the beginning of the semester, but you are responsible for having the required texts when they are due. I have no control over the number of copies that the bookstores order, so don’t wait until the last minute to buy—you may well find yourself scrambling to find a copy. You should also be aware that both the Blazer Bookstore and Snoozy’s return unsold texts around midterm because they reasonably assume that students have bought all their texts. Bottom line, “The bookstore didn’t have a copy” is not an acceptable excuse for failing to do the reading.

Attendance

• Four absences are grounds for failure for the course for students who do not withdraw by Tuesday, 7/11/06.
• You are allowed 3 “free” absences. I begin counting from the day your name appears on my roll. I don’t need to see a written excuse (except for approved University business, jury duty, and military duty; these always have an official form showing your name and the event—these absences do not count against you).
• Much of your work in this class will involve collaboration with other students. When you are absent, you not only impede your own progress, you hinder the work of your group members.

Eligibility

You must have successfully completed EH102 (or its equivalent) to enroll in this class.

Academic Misconduct

Academic dishonesty, which includes cheating and plagiarism, is a serious offense and one that I do not take lightly. The University allows faculty to fail students for the course when academic misconduct can be demonstrated. When such a failure occurs, University policy requires that a letter explaining the cause of failure be sent to the Associate Provost’s office and kept on file; the policy also states that two failures for academic misconduct will result in expulsion from the University. If you are found guilty of cheating or plagiarism in this course, you will fail the course (unless, of course, you withdraw from the course before final grades are assigned). You can find more details in both the print and online versions of the undergraduate catalog (see the section on “Academic Conduct”), which includes the following definition:

PLAGIARISM: claiming as your own the ideas, words, data, computer programs, creative compositions, artwork, etc., done by someone else. Examples include improper citation of referenced works, use of commercially available scholarly papers, failure to cite sources, or copying other’s ideas.

Further, the School of Arts and Humanities policy on plagiarism states:

Plagiarism is using the words or thoughts of another person without proper citation; specifically, it is submitting as one’s own work any portion of a book, magazine, journal, handout, original creation, speech, lecture, oral communication, paper or examination written by someone else.
Plagiarism is a serious offense. All members of the educational community must carefully avoid plagiarism by fully acknowledging the sources of studies, projects, and ideas which have been produced by another person.

Classroom Conduct

You are expected to adhere to the Code of Conduct provided to you.

Grading

• I grade on a 10-point scale (e.g., A=90–100%, B=80–89%, etc.).
• Reading questions and quizzes cannot be made up; you must be present to receive credit. The only exception to this is for “excused” absences for University business or military duty.
• I do not automatically round up final grades—in other words, a 79.9 is a C, not an B. This policy may seem harsh, but it is based on fairness: where do I draw the line? It may seem reasonable to round up a tenth or even half a point, but what about a whole point? Two? Every semester I get requests from students to round up their grades two or even three points! Therefore, I have concluded that it is best both for me and my students that students receive the grade that they earn.

Assignments and Points: An Overview

• Essay on Poetry 20%
• Responses to Readings 20%
• Web Project 5%
• Birmingham Museum of Art 5%
• Literary Terms Tests 10%
• Midterm Exam 20%
• Final Exam 20%

Technology

You will need frequent access to the Internet for this course, either at home or in one of the labs on campus.

What is this course about?

Broadly, this course is about British and Irish literature from the Romantics to the present. It is also about people, because (for me at least) the study of literature is, in large part, the study of human nature. More specifically, I have identified the following goals and objectives:

Goals

• To gain an understanding of the major movements in British and Irish literature from the Romantics to the present.
• To place the literature within cultural and historical contexts.
• To gain an appreciation for literature, including the vocabulary of literary study.
• To develop skills in reading and analysis of poetry, fiction, and drama.

Objectives

• The student will identify literature and authors that exemplify Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, and Post-Modernism in British literature and articulate the changes in literature across time.
• The student will demonstrate knowledge of the assigned texts through quizzes and reading questions.
• The student will write competent analyses of works of literature.
• The student will demonstrate an understanding of literary terms and be able to provide examples of these terms from the texts.
• The student will demonstrate an understanding of changes in the visual arts for the time period corresponding to the literature and be able to relate works of visual art to the course content.
• The student will participate in a group project that provides background information for works studied in class.
• The student will demonstrate an ability to make connections between elements within a single work and between elements in multiple works and to draw conclusions about the significance of those connections.

Some other things you should know:

• I enjoy teaching literature, and I want to help you increase your enjoyment of reading and thinking about literature—I want you to have fun with this!
• Reading is essential to this course; if you don’t have the time to read for each class, you won’t do well.
• Much of my approach to literature is about connections:
• to connect with each work personally;
• to discover connections among elements within a single work; and
• to explore connections between multiple works.

Your success in this course is enhanced when you:

• Bring the assigned text to class every time you come.
• Get in the habit of marking the texts that you read. Marking the text makes you more active in your reading, improving your comprehension and making it easier to prepare for quizzes, tests, and essays.
• Come prepared to participate: that is, talk, work with your group, focus on the discussion and text at hand.