Transcultural Literature in English: Romantic to Modern

English 214W

Transcultural Literature in English: Romantic to Modern Writing Intensive TTR 2:00-3:15 Mary Ellis Gibson, 3115 MMHRA Office hours: 2-3 p.m. Wednesday and by appointment Phone: 336.707.3248 Email: [email protected]

The goal of this course is to take the usual ways of thinking about literature within nationalist frames (“American literature” a.k.a. U.S. literature; “British literature” a.k.a. mostly English literature) and to reframe our discussion. The point of this course is to begin to think about how literature written in the English language was produced in various geographical and social locations. We’ll investigate—or at any rate begin to investigate—how writing in English was produced and what its aesthetic, social and political uses might have been over the past couple of hundred years.

This agenda obviously exceeds what any single course can do. The purpose of this course is simply to begin reframing the ordinary nation-bound ways of thinking about writing in English. In this course I hope you’ll discover texts you’ve never read or even perhaps heard about, explore new ways of comparative and theoretical thinking, and find new ways of approaching writing about literature. Our goal is to explore broadly, to write well, to think critically, to question categories, and to enjoy or be challenged by powerful writing.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: 1. Define, differentiate and evaluate principal literary forms, including poetry, drama, and narrative fiction 2. Analyze the literary impact of the historical shift from mercantile empires, to industrial capitalism, to postmodern global capitalism 3. Analyze the development of English as a global language 4. Interpret literary canons as a forms of nationalism and analyze alternatives to nationalist models 5. Demonstrate critical reading, thinking, and communication skills

Books to purchase and reading assignments:

All readings with simple page numbers are to the Norton Anthology ,9th ed., volume 2; all pdfs are found on Blackboard under Course Documents.

Two other books are required: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (Oxford UP edition) or another complete and preferably annotated edition; please purchase a print edition even if you are using an e-book as well, since I will not allow screens in class most days. Derek Walcott, Omeros (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux).

Helpful advice. If you have questions about literary terms and are an English major I strongly suggest purchasing a used copy of the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics on the internet and/or a copy of a handbook such as the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. If you have serious interest in becoming a better writer of strong and powerful prose (not to say excellent sentences), I still strongly suggest Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, which you can also purchase inexpensively (an early edition by Strunk alone is available online but is not as useful). Of further interest, and funny too, is Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference. Finally, I recommend The Craft of Research by Wayne Booth, Joseph Williams, et. al. (University of Chicago Press). If you are an English major you will find useful the MLA Handbook and the OWL at Purdue website for matters of research and citation style.

I have kept books in this class to a minimum, so buy a handbook to literary terms and buy a stylebook. You won’t regret it.

I expect everyone to bring the text under consideration to class on the day assigned. If you don’t have a copy of the text, you will be marked absent. We will read closely and write about the reading in class, so bringing your text to class is an essential part of your preparation.

Reading assignments and course outline:

Jan. 15 Syllabus distributed Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” and “To the University of Cambridge, in New-England”

Jan. 17 Introduction to the course Benedict Anderson, readings from Imagined Communities pdf (Blackboard)

Jan. 22 English Language Poetry and Bardic Nationalism in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries S. T. Coleridge, “The Aeolian Harp” Thomas Moore, “The harp that once through Tara’s halls” (pdf) Robert Burns, “Green grow the rashes,” “Auld Lang Syne,” “A Red, Red Rose” and “Song: For a’ that and a’ that” Walter Scott, introduction to The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Jan. 24 Continued Katie Trumpener, Introduction, Bardic Nationalism (pdf) Burns, continued. “Holy Willie’s Prayer,” “To a Mouse,” “To a Louse,” “Robert Bruce’s March to Bannockburn”

Jan. 29 H. L. V. Derozio, “The Harp of India” and other poems (pdf ) “Bonny Barbara Allan” Ballads and the ballad revival (guest music)

Jan. 31 William Wordsworth, selections from the Preface to Lyrical Ballads and all selections from Lyrical Ballads “Ode: Intimations of Immorality” Feb. 5 Enlightenment Discourses of Liberty: Rights or Traditions? Thomas Paine, selections from The Rights of Man Mary Wollstonecraft, selections from A Vindication of the Right of Woman

Feb. 7 Enlightenment Discourses Continued Edmund Burke, selections from Reflections on the Revolution in France read selection “Burke and the American Revolution” at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/burke/#7

Feb. 12 Bards, Revolution, Slavery http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/makeanimpact/large9017.html Use the link above for the children’s illustrated book version of William Cowper, “The Negro’s Complaint” published by Darnton, 1826.

Coleridge, “On the Slave Trade” Derozio, “Freedom to the Slave” (pdf) Olaudah Equiano, “Arrival in England” from The Interesting Narrative of the Life Wordsworth, “To Tousaint l’Ouverture”

Optional further reading: from Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic (pdf)

Feb. 14 Short Paper Workshop

Feb. 19 Portfolio Due Jane Eyre: Ireland, Yorkshire, France, Madeira, the ‘Orient’ / or the Domestic Novel Resides in Global Networks Jane Eyre, chapters 1-26 (or volumes I and II)

Feb. 21 Complete Jane Eyre

Feb. 28 Midterm exam

Mar. 5 Paper Due (first good draft of short paper) The Scramble for Africa and Late Empire read selections from Froude, Chamberlain, and Hobson in “Empire and National Identity” Introduction to Heart of Darkness, read first third

Mar. 7 Conrad, Heart of Darkness concluded

Spring break: Mar. 12-14

Mar. 19 Post-colonial Remakes Read section “Nation, Race, and Language” introduction to Walcott, Omeros

Mar. 21 Revised short paper due Walcott, Omeros March 26 Kipling, The Man Who Would be King

March 28 Shoshee Chunder Dutt, “The Republic of Orissa” (pdf)

April 2 Toru Dutt, selected poems (pdf)

April 4 no class / complete final paper prospectus and bibliography

April 9 Global Modernisms India and Ireland: Parallel Lives and Decolonization Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (pdf) Mini-lecture on Indian modernist painting

April 11 Continued W.B. Yeats, introduction to Gitanjali; selected poems including “September 1913,” “Easter 1916,” “The Second Coming,” “Meditations in Time of Civil War,” “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen,” “Among School Children,” and “Under Ben Bulben”

April 16 Back and Forth: Metropolis and Empire Rudyard Kipling, “The Widow at Windsor” and “Recessional”

April 16 Paper workshop / prospectus and bibliography and first pages due for workshop

April 18 The Modernist Story and the Legacies of Empire Katherine Mansfield, “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” Gordimer, “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off” Rhys, “The Day They Burned the books”

April 23 Globalization and Language at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century TBA

April 25 Final portfolio due Hanif Kureishi, “My Son the Fanatic”

May 1 Reading Day (Wednesday) Research paper due (in my box, in hard copy, and submitted to safe assign) ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY: Each student is required to sign the Academic Integrity Policy on all major work submitted for the course. Refer to UNCG Undergraduate Bulletin/Graduate Bulletin. Plagiarism, no matter how big or how small, will result in failure of the class. You must document all secondary sources used in any writing assignment.

Requirements

1. Class attendance and participation. More than three absences will negatively affect your grade by at least one half of a letter grade. Plan ahead. No exceptions. Don’t even ask. We will write in class often and do various kinds of work in groups. If you miss these activities, you will miss a significant part of the class and will find the work much more difficult and much less fun. If you arrive after the roll is called, you’re absent. Bringing a printed text of the day’s reading to class is considered part of attendance. You will be counted absent if you come without a text in hand (you’ll get one pass for forgetting or other disasters). 5%

2. A portfolio. 25% of final grade. This should include: o seven pieces of revised in-class or out of class informal writing, about a typed page each o eight pages of reading notes (to be described in class) o a statement in which you discuss how you selected the writing for the portfolio, what you learned from doing it, and which pieces you like best and why. Portfolios are due Feb. 19 and April 25 (final version), but you may turn in portions at any time for immediate feedback.

Portfolio grades: The requirements above are the minimum. While I do not grade on length, consistency and persistence of effort count a lot. A “C” portfolio satisfies the minimum requirements. A “B” portfolio will meet these requirements and go beyond them in completeness, effort and originality. A portfolio that shows signs of being selected from among interesting work, is put together with care, and that shows a significant comprehension of the issues it engages will earn a B. An “A” portfolio will met the requirements for a B and beyond this will show you have put imagination (creative or analytical) into your work; you’ve made the questions and issues addressed in the course your own questions in some significant ways. Most likely the best portfolios will reflect your enjoyment of the process.

3. Two papers: A short paper 3-4 pages: workshop draft due Feb. 14; final draft due Mar. 5; revision due Mar. 21. No revisions will be accepted without a copy of graded final draft. 20%.

A long paper 8-10 pages with at least two refereed sources as part of bibliography. Due May 1. 30% of final grade.

4. A mid-term exam, consisting of identification and short answer and / or multiple choice. 20% each.