Snider, English 456/556, Fall 2008 #

English 456/556, English Literature of the Romantic Period/Dr. Clifton Snider
CSULB/Fall 2008/Office: MHB-506
TTh, 5:30-6:45 p. m./Phone: 985-4247; e-mail: csnider@csulb.edu
Room: VEC-302/Hours: TTh, 3:55-5 p.m.

web site: www.csulb.edu/~csnider (contains material essential for this class)

Introduction

English 456/556 is an upper division/graduate course for English majors. As per the university catalog, we will cover "poetry and prose (chiefly non-dramatic) of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, and their contemporaries, emphasizing the modern Romantic spirit, theories of literary art, and the concept of the self."

Course Goals

• To gain a broad knowledge of the history of British literature of the Romantic Period
  
  
• To be able to read carefully and insightfully the specific works we read as a class
  
  
• To present analytical reaction papers for each week's assignment
  
  
• To analyze in a research paper an important work from the British Romantic Period
  
  
• To analyze themes/symbols/archetypes in a paper from the work we read as a class and to present it to the class (no secondary sources except for archetypes and Jungian theory)
  

• Starting with Week Two, you are required to write a typed/computer-printed 1-2 page reaction paper (2-3 pages for graduates), offering your reactions to and interpretations of that week's assignment, including how the work fits into its genre and its historical period. These papers, worth up to 10 points each, are due every Thursday unless otherwise stated; use them for class discussion; no late ones allowed, except for the documented reasons below.  I will grade on quality and thoroughness (mostly the latter).

• You'll need write a thesis-driven paper, presented to the class (no credit if you do not) about one of the assigned pieces in our Norton text or one that I have not assigned.  If you choose the latter, you must tell the class your title before you present your paper.  I want you to analyze the themes/symbols/archetypes in the work you have choosen.  This is worth up to 100 points. Follow MLA style.  You may use secondary sources only for archetypes and/or Jungian theory.  My book, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made On, or my Outline on Jungian Theory, are acceptable sources.  If you do this, of course you must cite your source in a Works Cited.  Cite your primary source from the Norton text as a work in an anthology, MLA style. Papers are due the day they are presented. If you choose a title we've covered in class, you must not simply repeat what we said in discussion.

• You'll write a final exam paper, a thesis-driven paper (a 7-8 page analysis, thesis underlined, worth up to 100 points, of one of the titles on my assignment web page or on of one of the themes on that page. With your unstapled final draft, you must in a file folder or folder with pockets hand in a full-length rough draft (showing handwritten changes); 40 points off if you do not. You must follow the requirements on my web page assignment.  You may use one of the recognized critical approaches such as New Criticism, New Historicism, Feminism, Queer/Gender Studies, Jungian, Ecocriticism, etc. The paper must be written in MLA style and documented with at least 2 secondary sources (only 1 authorized web site; see "Evaluating Sources" in the MLA Handbook), as well as the specific primary source(s) you're using). Graduate students will be expected to write papers 9-12 pages long and must present their papers to the class to get credit. Papers due the day they are presented).  Again, if you choose a title we've covered in class, you must not simply repeat what we said in discussion.

• I plan to show an R rated movie; if this or language and subject matter of the sort used in such films disturbs you, please see me at once.  I will try to make other arrangements, such as an additional reading assignment.  If you are age 16 or under, see me immediately so we can make other arrangements.
  
  
• Plagiarism has increasingly become a serious problem. One instance of plagiarism will cause you to fail the entire course. Remember that using anyone else's words without quotation marks, even if you give credit to your source, is plagiarism. See the Schedule of Classes. And read the chapter on plagiarism in the MLA Handbook.
  
  
• See also the Resolving Differences Handbook on the CSULB web site. If you have any complaints, you must follow university policy or risk the lowering of your final grade.  This means you come to me first with your complaint.