Brit Lit I- Spring 10

EN251: BRITISH LITERATURE I

Spring Semester 2010

Section A: Tuesday and Friday 9:30-10:45

Section B: Tuesday and Friday 12:30-1:45

Click here for the course syllabus.

Instructor: Robert Epstein

Office: 120 Donnarumma Hall

Office Hours: Thursday 11:00-12:00 and 1:00-3:00, or by appointment

Office extension: 2787

E-mail: repstein@fairfield.edu

DESCRIPTION

This course is intended to introduce students to the major styles, periods, and topics of English literature from its origins through the eighteenth century. No course could comprehensively cover the immense and various literary output of this 1,500-year era; the following syllabus selects texts that are both rich and representative of their times.

This semester, the course is divided into two parts. The first part is entitled "Other Worlds" and focuses on English literary depictions of alternative worlds, real and imagined, in texts from the late-medieval "Travels of Sir John Mandeville" through the early seventeenth century. This part of the course will culminate with Shakespeare's The Tempest and a class trip to see the play performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The second part of the course, "Beauty, Love, and Sex," focuses on the language and poetry of beauty and gender from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. In this part of the course, we will also read Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, and see the play performed by Theatre Fairfield as part of the campus-wide R&J Project. Throughout the semester, we will be attentive throughout to ways in which these two themes interconnect and inform each other.

REQUIREMENTS

The most important requirement for the course is that students carefully read the texts assigned for each class and attend class prepared to discuss them.

There will be ten response papers due during the term. These are short written assignments, about a page in length. They are due at the beginning of the class on the day assigned. If for some reason you are unable to attend class, send the response paper to me as an e-mail attachment before class time. These response papers receive no grades other than a check or a check-minus, but they are required and count towards the final grade. Their purpose is to help you organize your thoughts on the readings and to facilitate class discussion. Late response papers, therefore, cannot be accepted.

There will be two 5-6 page essays due during the semester. There will also be an in-class mid-term exam and a final exam during exam period; the format of the exams will be described as the times approach.

Students will be required to attend a performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest by the Anglo-American "Bridge Project" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on the evening of Sunday, February 21. Pending approval of a granting agency, transportation by bus will be provided by the College of Arts & Sciences; students will be required to contribute $10.00 each towards the cost of the tickets. Students will also be required to attend a performance of Romeo & Juliet by Theatre Fairfield and the "R&J Project" on campus in the week of April 20.

FORMAT OF ESSAYS

All submitted papers should follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for formatting a paper and documenting sources. These guidelines can be found in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., which is available in the Reference Section of the library and in the Writing Center. They are also summarized on pp. 119-150 of Diana Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual, 5th Edition, with sample pages on pp. 151-154. When commenting on your essays, I will refer to Hacker on matters of format and style.

GRADING

Papers are due at the beginning of class on the day indicated on the syllabus. Unless I have explicitly granted an extension before the due date, late papers will be penalized one-third of a letter grade per day. (A paper that would have earned a B+ will receive a B if it is one day late, a B- if it is two days late, and so on.)

As you write and revise your essays, please keep in mind that there are peer-tutors in the Writing Center trained to help students of any level develop work at any stage.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

No secondary critical sources are required for the essays and written assignments in this course, and in general I would prefer that you not use any. I am most interested in your own analysis of and response to the literature we read, as well as the thesis you develop and defend.

You are, of course, always free to consult other sources. But any source that you use in writing an essay must be cited fully. The source must appear in the list of works cited at the end of the essay, and each source must be cited on every occasion that you make use of its words or ideas. This is true if the source is your primary source (the poem you are studying) or a critical source (an analysis of the work published elsewhere), and it is true if the source is printed or electronic, including internet sources. Follow the MLA style of in-text citation and lists of works cited described in A Pocket Style Manual, pp. 128-148.

The failure to fully cite sources within your submitted work is a form of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the appropriation of ideas, data, work, or language of others and submitting them as one’s own to satisfy the requirements of a course. Plagiarism constitutes theft and deceit. Special care should be taken, when cutting and pasting materials or when paraphrasing, to cite sources correctly and to use quotation marks around exact words from source materials. Actions that result in plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional. Consequently, students must understand the concept of plagiarism. When reading, processing, or using materials from any source, appropriate documentation is always essential.

Resources such as the library (ext. 2178) and the Writing Center (www.fairfield.edu/writingcenter) are available on campus to assist you in your academic endeavors. You are encouraged to take advantage of these resources.