Preliminary Information for

ENGL4805 (Fall 2011)

Nationalism and Romantic Literature
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:05-2:25
McCain 2162





Image Credit: "Geography Bewitched" (c. 1795) by Robert Dighton, from Wikimedia Commons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Geography_Bewitched_-_England.jpg

Please note: this is not the official syllabus and is only intended to provide preliminary information for any students who wish to begin reading early; the official syllabus will be circulated in class in September.
    
Instructor: Dr. Julia M.  Wright (e-mail)
Office:  McCain 2193
Office hours: TBA    

Required Texts:
•    Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), The Wild Irish Girl, ed. Kathryn Kirkpatrick (Oxford)
•    Walter Scott, Waverley, ed. Andrew Hook (Penguin)
•    Wright, Julia M., ed. Irish Literature, 1750-1900: An Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell)
•    other readings, posted on BLS

Recommended Texts (limited copies available in university bookstore):
•    Aidan Day, Romanticism (Routledge)
•    Elizabeth Sauer and Julia M. Wright (eds.), Reading the Nation in English Literature: A Critical Reader (Routledge)

Assignments:
Note: Assignments are due at the start of class and are subject to penalties of 3% per day of lateness, including weekends. I reserve the right not to accept assignments more than one week late. See “On Lateness” below, just before the table of “Grade Equivalents” on page 5. If you have to submit your assignment late, you should a) drop it off in my essay drop-off box (see the metal set of drop-off boxes on the first floor of the McCain building, immediately to your right at the top of the righthand set of stairs in the main entrance); b) e-mail me right away to let me know that it is there, so that I can note the date it was received as soon as possible.
    General Guidelines
BLS:  Students are required to check the BLS coursepage regularly.  Any changes to our normal routine--such as extended office hours around the time that essays are due or cancellation in the event of severe weather--will be announced there, and readings are posted there, too.

Essay-writing and Compliance with University Policies:
    If you have any questions or concerns as you work on your essays, please drop by during my office hours or e-mail me.
    Students should consult “Undergraduate Resources” on the Department of English website (http://english.dal.ca) regarding essay writing and the requirements of documentation.  It takes time to develop, organize, clearly articulate, and persuasively support an argument, so try to work on your essays early.  Keep a grammar handbook and dictionary handy, and do not use a thesaurus without carefully checking your choices in a dictionary.  Be especially wary of the thesaurus and grammar tools packaged with computer software; they are not designed to help with university-level writing and can lead you astray.   You may refer briefly, as needed by your argument, to other literary works besides those on which your essays focus.  For example, if you find it useful to cite Milton’s Paradise Lost in your essay, you are most certainly free to do so.  But you should focus on your selected text(s) in order to ensure that you address the material in the required depth and with the specificity necessary to demonstrate your argument.
    Both written assignments must be fully and properly documented in accordance with MLA style and the principles of intellectual honesty.  Every source on which you draw--including webpages, editor’s notes, textbook introductions, students’ comments outside of class, and literary materials--must be included in your Works Cited, and all quotations (even a single-word quotation) must be placed within quotation marks and followed by a parenthetical reference that indicates the source and the page(s) or line(s) being quoted.  Paraphrase should always be avoided, except to condense material (that is, to summarize one or two pages in a sentence) but, if used, must be clearly identified as such and followed by the appropriate parenthetical reference.
    You should make and keep a copy of the work that you submit, especially if you do not give it directly to me, as well as save your file.  A staple in the upper-lefthand corner is the preferred binding and essays must have page numbers in the upper-righthand corner.  Each page should have 2.5cm (1") margins on all sides and be double-spaced.

All students in this class are to read and understand the policies on plagiarism and academic honesty referenced in Dalhousie’s Academic integrity website at http://academicintegrity.dal.ca/.  Ignorance of such policies is no excuse for violations.

Assignment Guidelines
Note:  your seminar and essay must focus on different texts (though not necessarily different authors). Failure to comply with this requirement will lead to penalties of up to 20% on the final paper.

Topics for Proposal & Essay:  You are advised to focus your essay on one or two works of fiction or a manageable cluster of poems most relevant to your argument, or a similar amount of material, in order to ensure that the texts can be discussed in suitable depth.  If you have any questions or concerns about your selection of texts, please feel free to consult with me during office hours or over e-mail.
    1.  Discuss the larger implications of the representation of "national character." Questions you might consider include:  how do such representations reinforce or subvert other messages in the text? how does "national character" compare to and/or interact with other stereotypes in the texts?
    2.  Discuss the relationship between gender and nation.  For instance, how do notions of nationality police gender roles? how do gender types function as metonyms for the nation?
    3.   Discuss the relationship between nationalism and other notions of communal identity.  You might consider, for instance, groupings according to class or religion within a nation or groupings that transcend national divisions, such as notions of a universal humanity.
    4.  Open topic.  Your topic must be clearly related to the course material and must be approved by me no later than October 18th.  To secure approval, e-mail me a brief description of your topic before the October 18th deadline.

Proposal and Preliminary Research: This assignment consists of two parts:  a list of 6-8 scholarly works of theory and/or criticism relevant to your selected essay topic (note: this does not include general reference texts, literary texts, or histories); a short proposal (250 words) identifying the topic on which you will work, outlining the texts and issues on which you plan to focus, and brief indications of the relevance to your project of two of your 6-8 scholarly works (1-2 sentences each).  List the scholarly works, in addition to any other quoted or paraphrased materials (primary works, literary handbooks, etc.), in the Works Cited you will, as per MLA, attach to the end of your proposal; you can separate the two into sections, e.g. "Proposed Sources" and "Other Cited Material."

Research Essay:  Your essay should build on the work that you did in the Proposal, and expand on that research and reading to further develop and hone your argument.  But you are not bound to follow the same line of argumentation; it is expected that many of you will alter your argument and even adjust your selection of texts as you research your topic and work on the essay.

Seminars and seminar papers:  Seminars should be about 9-10 minutes reading time (approx. five pages) and convey a focussed, researched argument.  A seminar can address one of two subjects: a) a literary text (or texts) assigned for readings that week; b) a literary text (or texts) not included on the course but by an author whose work is assigned for readings that week.  If you choose option “b,” you should keep in mind that part of your job will be to introduce the material briefly so that the class can follow your argument about it.  A written version of the seminar must be submitted at the same time..
    Students must sign up for their seminars by the end of class on September 15th; the list will then be posted on BLS.  All seminars will take place at the beginning of class, so please ensure that you are in class on time so that seminars are not interrupted by late arrivals.

Participation and Attendance:  Half of this grade will be for attendance; the rest will be based on the quality and quantity of engaged remarks on the material in class discussion, whether comments, generative questions, or answers. An attendance sheet will be circulated in each class.

Quizzes: The first quiz will cover all assigned readings up to and including the day of the quiz; the second quiz will cover the rest of the assigned readings in the course.  Each quiz will have two parts:  Part I will be short-answer questions; Part II will be a brief essay question.  There will be some choice in Part I and a choice of at least three questions in Part II.

General Guidelines:  All submitted work, including the written version of the seminar, should be well-written, well-argued and fully as well as properly documented in accordance with MLA style.  You should strive to select, develop, substantiate, organize and communicate your ideas and insights persuasively in ways that are appropriate to formal academic writing.  For most of us, that means taking the time to revise our work thoroughly and consult a grammar handbook, the MLA Handbook, and a good dictionary as necessary. There are online sources available, such as www.onelook.com for dictionaries and the Purdue Online Writing Lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/) for grammar and MLA style.

On Lateness: In the event of significant extenuating circumstances that materially affect your ability to complete coursework, notify me as soon as possible over e-mail and provide the proper documentation (e.g., a medical note that indicates you were unwell for the relevant period of time). I will provide alternate duedates and/or a make-up quiz and time, if required. Please note that it is your responsibility to notify me promptly, to provide the proper documentation, and to complete the work by or on the new date(s) provided.

Grade equivalents:    
A+:  90-100%     B+: 77-79%    C+:  67-69%    D: 50-59%
A:     85-89%    B:    73-76%    C:    63-66%    F:  0-49%
A-:   80-84%    B-:  70-72%    C-:   60-62%    
                                    Reading Schedule
    This reading schedule is provisional.  If class interest so inclines, I’m happy to spend more time on some texts and a bit less on others.  You should, of course, read all material before the first class in which it will be discussed, so you might consider getting a head start on the novels.  Readings on BLS are marked with two asterisks (those marked with green asterisks are in Reading the Nation as well); all other non-novel readings are from Irish Literature, 1750-1900.

September 8th: Introduction

Defining the Nation
September 13th: Hume, “Of National Characters”**; Home, from Sketches of the History of Man**
September 15th; Anonymous, “Of a National Character in Literature”**; Blake, “When Klopstock England Defied”**; Blake, Preface to Milton**; William Wordsworth, “London, 1802” and “To the Men of Kent, October, 1803”**
September 20th-22nd:   Smith, “Neo-Classicist and Romantic Elements in the Emergence of Nationalist Conceptions”**; Barbauld, “Eighteen Hundred and Eleven”**; Hemans, “Casabianca”**
September 27th:   Anderson, “Long-Distance Nationalism”**; Campbell, “Ye Mariners of England,” “Exile of Erin,” and “Dirge of Wallace”**; Hemans,“England’s Dead”

The Question of Ireland
September 29th: Ferris, Introduction to The Romantic National Tale and the Question of Ireland**; excerpt from Drennan, A Letter to the Right Honorable William Pitt**; R. B. Sheridan, from “Union of Ireland with Great Britain”
October 4th-11th: Owenson, The Wild Irish Girl; all selections from Owenson
October 13th: Quiz #1 (first 45 mins of class); Edgeworth, “Limerick Gloves”

“Who Fears to Speak of ’98?”
October 18th: all lyrics from Paddy’s Resource; Drennan’s “Erin”; Porter, all selections
October 20th:  Leadbeater, “The Triumph of Terror”; Tighe, “Bryan Byrne, of Glenmalure”; Carleton, “Wildgoose Lodge”
October 25th- 27th: Moore, from Lalla Rookh; Coleridge, “Fears in Solitude”**

Antiquarianism and Nostalgia
November 1st: Brooke, all selections; Walker, all selections; Moore, all selections from Irish Melodies
November 8th: Corry, The Patriot
November 15th: Carleton, “Auto-biographical Introduction”; Mangan, “Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan”

(NB: there are no classes on November 3rd and 10th; the first because I’m away at a conference and the second because of a university holiday)

Union Redux
November 17th-24th: Scott, Waverley; Ross, “Romancing the Nation-State: The Poetics of Romantic Nationalism”**

Looking Forward to The Nation:
November 29th: Lloyd, Introduction to Nationalism and Minor Literature**; all selections from “The Nation: The Early Years”
December 1st: Mangan, “Dark Rosaleen,” “A Vision of Connaught,” and “The Lovely Land”; MacCarthy, “The Living Land” and “A Walk by the Bay of Dublin”

December 6th: review; Quiz #2.