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EN251: British Literature I

Fall Semester 2004

Section A: Monday and Friday 9:30-10:45 in CNS 202

Section B: Monday and Friday 3:30-4:45 in CNS 1

Click here for the course syllabus.

Instructor: Robert Epstein

Office: 120 Donnarumma Hall

Office Hours: Monday and Thursday 2:00-3:15, or by appointment

Office extension: 2787

E-mail: repstein@mail.fairfield.edu

DESCRIPTION AND GOALS

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 focus of the course will be on lyric poetry. Lyric poetry, as distinguished from dramatic or narrative poetry, consists mostly of those shorter works in verse that we often refer to simply as “poems.” We will survey the major poets and styles of English lyric poetry from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries, with special attention to sixteenth-century sonnets, seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry, and eighteenth-century satire. The course is designed to give students a sense of the development of the English language and its literary forms, to consider literary texts in their cultural and historical contexts, and to foster skills in close reading and careful literary analysis.

REQUIREMENTS

The most essential component of the course is class attendance and participation. All students are required to read closely the assignment for each class meeting and to attend class prepared to discuss it. Students are expected to be familiar with all of the material in the assigned readings both for class discussion and for the final exam.

There will be three essays due during the semester. Each essay will be approximately 5 pages long and will require the student to compare and contrast two poems. There will also be a final exam covering all the material assigned during the semester, including critical and introductory material as well as poems.

There will be five shorter writing assignments—four response papers and an original sonnet. These will be graded only on a one-point scale, but they are required. The primary purpose of the response papers is to facilitate class discussion; they are therefore due in class and cannot be accepted later.

FORMAT OF ESSAYS

All submitted papers should follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for formatting a paper. 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, but they are also summarized on pp. 148-150 of Diana Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual, with sample pages on pp. 151-154. When commenting on your essays, I will refer to Hacker on matters of format and style.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

No secondary critical sources are required for the essays and written assignments assigned 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 poems we read, as well as the thesis you are defending when comparing two poems.

You are, of course, always free to consult other sources. But any source that you use in writing an essay must be fully cited. 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.

GRADING

Essays 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. Requests to revise and resubmit essays will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Grades for the course will be calculated according to the following formula: