Six 300-word one-paragraph responses: 10 percent each (60 percent of semester grade). Note: These one-paragraph responses are NOT about our two novels, Persuasion and Frankenstein. See model at end of our syllabus. 

The 300-word response starts with an overall idea, which may be an answer to a question raised in class, an answer to the question in the daily schedule, or student’s own inspiration. Please double-space all work you submit. 

The 300-word response needs three quotes from the required text. Prior to each quote is the supporting point (an idea or insight), which is the meaning of the quote that follows. At least once, provide in-depth, highly detailed description of what you see happening prior to a supporting point. See model at the end of this syllabus (p. 7). Be sure to double space. 

Two 600-word two-paragraph essays: 20 percent each (40 percent of semester grade), one about Jane Austen’s Persuasion, the other about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (also the Final Essay). The first paragraph is a 300-word one-paragraph response, but the second paragraph requires quoting from two pieces in the critical apparatus of the required book. Double-space! 

You will receive prompts for the essays on Persuasion and Frankenstein. They will have examples of quoting for the second paragraph from the apparatus in your required editions of these novels. 

Extra Credit: Students must submit a typed 300-word paragraph about each event as well as attend it. You may do extra credit 3 times. Double-space!

ENGL 2823 Tentative Daily Schedule Spring 2019

Jan 14 Mon  Overview of course. Required books, classroom policies, and 300-word one-paragraph responses. Preview of The Revolutionary William Blake.

Jan 16 Wed  Dr. Tom Galbraith will lead our presentations from the William Blake Archive with Dr. Fields as interlocutor. Poems from Songs of Innocence: Introduction, The Shepherd, The Lamb, 178-80, or 165-67 in 4^th ed. In whose image is the lamb made? What are the implications for children? Adults?

Jan 18 Fri      From Songs of Innocence: Divine Image, The Echoing Green, The Little Boy Lost, The Little Boy Found, 178-79, 182-83, or 165-66, 169-70 in 4^th ed. Are these poems happy? Sad? How so?

Jan 21 MLK Holiday

Jan 23 Wed   From Songs of Innocence: The Little Black Boy, The Chimney Sweeper, Holy Thursday, 180-81, 184, or 167-69, 171 in 4^th ed. How are these poems reassuring? How are they alarming?

Jan 25 Fri     From Songs of Experience: Introduction, Earth’s Answer, 189-91, or 174-75 in 4^th ed. Who is the Holy Word? Why is the Earth upset?

Jan 28 Mon  From Songs of Experience: Holy Thursday, The Chimney Sweeper, A Poison Tree, Human Abstract, The Garden of Love, 190-91, 194, 198-99, 201, 203, or 175-76, 179, 183-84, 186 in 4^th ed. Are these protest songs? How so?

Jan 30 Wed  From Songs of Experience: The Little Girl Lost, The Little Girl Found, A Little Girl Lost, The Tyger, 191-93, 197-98, 201-202, or 176-79, 182-831, 186-87 in 4^th ed. What happens to the little girl and her parents? Why do the stars throw down their spears when God made the tiger?

Feb 1 Fri   Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 204-209 (Plates 1-11), or 189-194 in 4^th ed. Are Good and Evil valid terms? Do we misunderstand the Bible?

Feb 4 Mon    Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 209-212 (Plates 12-17), or 194-97 in 4^th ed. Why are the senses “narrow chinks” instead of doors to the infinite?

Feb 6 Wed    Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 212-216 (Plates 17-24), or 197-201 in 4^th ed. How do we read the Bible in its infernal sense?

Feb 8 Fri        Charlotte Smith, 85-91, or 81-87 in the 4^th ed. Sonnets IV, XXVII; To Melancholy, To Tranquility, Written in the Churchyard, and The Dead Beggar. Why is death a soothing idea to Charlotte? Compare John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, 1006-108, or 911-913 in 4^th ed. See too Letter To George and Thomas Keats, on negative capability 1047, and Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, on soul-making 1056-57, or 952 and 961 in 4^th ed. What is negative capability and soul-building? Do you see them in the poem? How Keats like Smith?

Feb 11 Mon             RESPONSES 1-2 Due. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Eolian Harp, 626-28 or 559-61 in 4^th; On the Imagination and Fancy, 689 or 622 in 4^th ed. Does Coleridge really believe “pensive Sara” is right? Does he really believe that he was wrong?

Feb 13 Wed             Coleridge, Kubla Khan, 670, or 567 in the 4^th ed. Also, Christabel, 653-68, or p. 585-601 in 4^th ed. What makes Kubla Khan romantic literature? Hint: “romantic” here does not mean romantic love. We are talking imagination, feeling, and a spiritually-dynamic universe.

Feb 15 Fri                 Coleridge, Christabel, concluded. What makes Christabel so vulnerable?

Feb 18 Mon             William Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey, 429-33, or 390-94 in 4^th ed. Emotion Recollected in Tranquility” 443, or 404 in 4^th ed. How is the sublime of wisdom different than the sublime of youth?

Feb 20 Wed             Edmund Burke, from A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 37-43 (both editions). What makes the sublime different from the beautiful? Note: Burke switches from the sublime to only talking about the beautiful as of Perfection not the cause of Beauty.

Feb 22 Fri                 See Perspectives: The Rights of Man and the Revolution Controversy. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, 113-22, or 109-118 in 4^th ed. Mary Wollstonecraft’s response 123-30, or  118-26 in 4^th ed. Tom Paine, The Rights of Man 132-38, or  128-35 in 4^th ed. Is revolution the best way to secure human liberty?

Feb 25 Mon             Mary Wollstonecraft, Ch. 2, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 304-24, or 288-305 in 4^th ed. William Godwin, Of Justice, Of Revolutions, Of the Enjoyment of Liberty,  144-49, or 140-45 in 4^th ed.  What is revolutionary in Wollstonecraft and Godwin? They become husband and wife—their daughter is Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

Feb 27 Wed             Perspectives, The Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, 229-30 or 214-15 in 4^th ed. Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative 230-39, or 215-24 in 4^th ed. Thomas Clarkson, The Abolition of the African Slave Trade, The Nature of the Evil, Recruitment of Seamen, Nightmares, 274-78, or 257-62 in 4^th ed. What is the evangelical argument for the abolition of the slave trade?

Mar 1 Fri     Hannah More (w. Eaglesfield Smith), The Sorrows of Yamba, 263-67, or 247-53 in 4^th ed.; Robert Southey, The Sailor who served in the Slave Trade, 269-72, or 253-56 in 4^th ed. What is the evangelical argument for the abolition of the slave trade? 

Mar 4 Mon               RESPONSES 3-4 due.  Persuasion, volume 1, chapters 1-3. 

Mar 6 Wed               Persuasion, volume 1, chapters 4-6. 

Mar 8 Fri                   Persuasion, volume 1, chapters 7-9. 

Mar 11 Mon            Persuasion, volume 1, chapters 10-12. 

Mar 13 Wed            Persuasion, volume 2, chapters 1-3. 

Mar 15 Fri                Persuasion, volume 2, chapters 4-6. 

Mar 18-23 Spring Break 

Mar 25 Mon Last day for penalty-free "W." Jane Austen's Persuasion, volume 2, chapters 7-9

Mar 27 Wed            Persuasion, volume 2, chapters 10-12.

Mar 29 Fri    Persuasion, apparatus. See Henry Austen’s Biographical Notice 215-21, Thomas Gisborne 253-60, Lord Byron, Donna Julia’s Letter to Don Juan 270-72, Richard Whately on Jane Austen in the Quarterly Review, 304-317. 

April 1 Mon  PERSUASION ESSAY DUE. SWITCH to VICTORIANS. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol 1373-1425. What are Victorian values? 

April 3 Wed        A Christmas Carol, cont. 

April 5 Fri            A Christmas Carol, concluded.

April 8 Mon        Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market 1650-63. Do you see Christology in this poem? See our preface for Christina, 1642-44.

April 10 Wed      Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Blessed Damozel 1612-15. Is romantic love eternal?

April 12 Fri          Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland 1713-20, also, Father William, Jabberwocky, and The Walrus and the Carpenter. What role do Victorian values play in Carroll’s universe?

April 15 Mon      Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott 1181-85. What is the role of imagination in this poem?

April 17 Wed      Tennyson, In Memoriam, Poem 56 (“Nature Red in Tooth and Claw”) 1219. Browning, Porphyria’s Lover 1325-26. Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach, 1562, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover and Pied Beauty, 1704.  What is the beauty and the horror in these poems?

April 19 Fri Holiday 

April 22 Mon           RESPONSES 5 & 6 due.  Mary Shelley, Frankenstein         Volume 1, Letters, pp. 5-17; Chs 1-3, pp 17-36.

 April 24 Wed           Volume 1, chapters 4-7, pp. 37-64; volume 2, Chapters 1-2, pp. 64-75.

April 26 Fri               Volume 2, chapters 3-9, pp. 75-115.

April 29 Mon           Volume 3, chapters 1-5, pp. 115-153.

May 1 Wed              Volume 3, chapters 6-7, pp. 153-179.

May 3 Fri      Using the apparatus of Frankenstein for paragraph two of the Final Essay. See especially 1831 edition: introduction 186-91; Mutual Sympathy, “we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up,” 192-93; Adoption of Elizabeth 195-99; Victor, Occult Science, and galvanism 199-201; fate and destiny, 202; Victor’s anguish over Justine, “my prophetic soul,” 203-204; Victor’s Secret, 207; Burke’s Sublime and Beautiful 212-215; Percy Shelley’s Mont Blanc 258-63. Percy Shelley on Milton’s Satan, 321-22. See book’s introduction xvii-xxii.

May 6 Mon FINAL Frankenstein Essay due at 10:30 AM.

Five unexcused absences means 10 percent off the overall semester grade. Students who miss class should inform the instructor by email, even if they feel their excuse is lame. The professor will accept documentation in the form of cellphone pictures of clinic sign-in sheets, court dates, prescription labels, repair receipts, and work schedules; he will accept emails from family members, lawyers, and supervisors. Many times students are helping family members or friends in crisis, which is legitimate. Each case is different. If students are amassing a string of absences, the professor may ask for retrospective documentation to keep the unexcused number below five.

Students must submit their work on due dates in person: not by surrogate, not under my door, not left on a desk, and not by email attachment. The late penalty is 10 points out of 100. NOTE: Students may also ask for input on a working draft by email attachment. However, the professor may not have enough time if the student sends it too close to the due date.

Note: You may not submit a paper for a grade in this class that already has been (or will be) submitted for a grade in another course, unless you obtain the explicit written permission of me and the other instructor involved in advance.

Plagiarism is the use of someone else's thoughts, words, ideas, or lines of argument in your own work without appropriate documentation (a parenthetical citation at the end and a listing in "Works Cited")-whether you use that material in a quote, paraphrase, or summary. It is a theft of intellectual property and will not be tolerated, whether intentional or not.

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As students at MSU, we recognize that any great society must be composed of empowered, responsible citizens. We also recognize universities play an important role in helping mold these responsible citizens. We believe students themselves play an important part in developing responsible citizenship by maintaining a community where integrity and honorable character are the norm, not the exception.

Thus, We, the Students of Midwestern State University, resolve to uphold the honor of the University by affirming our commitment to complete academic honesty. We resolve not only to be honest but also to hold our peers accountable for complete honesty in all university matters.

We consider it dishonest to ask for, give, or receive help in examinations or quizzes, to use any unauthorized material in examinations, or to present, as one's own, work or ideas which are not entirely one's own. We recognize that any instructor has the right to expect that all student work is honest, original work. We accept and acknowledge that responsibility for lying, cheating, stealing, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty fundamentally rests within each individual student.

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