Connections: Seminars: The Victorians

Monday, January 21

First day: Introductions and course outline

Wednesday, January 23

Germaine de Staël, Corinne, or Italy (1807), 5-105
- Stael.org is by far the best place on the Internet for looking into Staël's life and career. The drawback (for some readers) is that it's in French.
- Here is a brief biography of Staël with links to contextual information. (This comes from the publicly available section of the Penn CD-ROM edition of Frankenstein.)

Group I response: This novel works partly by building analogies between personal and political relationships. Discuss one or more ways that issues of nationality or politics affect issues we would normally think of as novelistically personal in the reading for today.

Note: here and throughout this syllabus, the first (less indented) reading or link is required, while the second (more indented) reading or link is supplemental and optional. Here, for example, the reading from Corinne is required, whereas exploring the websites is optional.

Monday, January 28

Staël, Corinne, or Italy, 105-263

Group II response: Using any moment or passage from Group I's responses as a jumping-off point, extend the issues we discussed for Tuesday into the readings for today.

Wednesday, January 30

Staël, Corinne, or Italy, 263-350

Group III response: open response

Monday, February 4

Staël, Corinne, or Italy, 350-404
Esterhammer, Angela. "The Cosmopolitan Improvvisatore: Spontaneity and Performance in Romantic Poetics"

Group IV response: open response

Wednesday, February 6

Walter Scott, Waverley (1814), 33-99
- The Walter Scott Digital Archive from the University of Edinburgh
- A Victorian perspective: Thomas Carlyle On Sir Walter Scott, 1838

Group I response: Waverley is routinely called the first historical novel. (Some critics dispute that claim, but don't let that trouble you for the moment.) Keeping in mind the idea that Scott is writing more or less a new sort of book, look for ways in which he engages his readers in the process of making sense of its genre. You might consider what explicit statements Scott makes about other genres, the way he creates one or more personae for the "author" in the text, or how he apologizes for certain features of the text.

Monday, February 11

Scott, Waverley, 100-264

Group II response: open response

Wednesday, February 13

Scott, Waverley, 264-347

Group III response: Use this response to return to our initial concern with Corinne, the interaction between personal and political plots and how each affects the other's meaning. Choose a specific focus within that broad field for the response.

Monday, February 18

Scott, Waverley, 347-450

Group IV response: Using any moment or passage from Group III's responses as a jumping-off point, extend the issues we discussed for Tuesday into the readings for today.

Wednesday, February 20

Scott, Waverley, 451-494
Joseph Valente, "Upon the Braes: History and Hermeneutics in Waverley"

Group I response: open response

Monday, February 25

Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Improvisatrice (1824, handout)
Tricia Lootens, "Receiving the Legend, Rethinking the Writer: Letitia Landon and the Poetess Tradition" in Romanticism and Women Poets, ed. Behrendt and Linkin.
- Here is the only thorough site devoted to LEL.

Group II response: Discuss some aspect of the relationship between Landon's poem and Corinne.

Wednesday, February 27

This will be the first class dedicated to preparing for the process of researching your final papers. Each of you will read one critical work on the readings to date and come to class prepared to discuss the work.

Group III response: write an annotation of your chosen work and post it as a response on Blackboard. We will discuss these annotations in class.

Monday, March 3

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), first book

Group IV response: open response

Wednesday, March 5

Browning, Aurora Leigh, second book

Group I response: open response

Friday, March 7

SHORTER PAPER DUE
UNDER MY OFFICE DOOR
BY 3:00 P.M.

Monday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 12

NO CLASS THIS WEEK:

CONTINUE READING AURORA LEIGH
TO BE READY TO DISCUSS IT
THROUGH BOOK EIGHT
AFTER SPRING BREAK

SPRING BREAK

Monday, March 31

Browning, Aurora Leigh, through the eighth book

Group II response: open response

Wednesday, April 2

Browning, Aurora Leigh, ninth book
Linda Peterson, "Rewriting A History of the Lyre: Letitia Landon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the (Re)Construction of the Nineteenth-Century Woman Poet," in Women's Poetry, Late Romantic to Late Victorian: Gender and Genre, 1830-1900, ed. Isobel Armstrong and Virginia Blain

Group III response: open response

Monday, April 7

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843)
- Dictionary of Literary Biography (Grinnell only): Dickens as novelist
- Dickens has attracted a fair amount of attention on the Web, and the best door to that information is David Perdue's Dickens Page.

Group IV response: open response

Wednesday, April 9

Library day! Details to be announced. You don't have any reading for today, but I intend this as a time to get started reading The Mill on the Floss. We'll be discussing a big chunk of the novel on Monday.

Thursday, April 10

PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE BY EMAIL

Monday, April 14

George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860), Books 1 and 2
- The Eliot site on The Victorian Web
- An Eliot photograph archive
- An Eliot country walking tour

Group I response: open response

Wednesday, April 16

Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Book 3

Group II response: open response

Friday, April 18

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE
UNDER MY OFFICE DOOR
BY 3:00

Monday, April 21

Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, through Book 6, chapter 7

Group III response: open response

Wednesday, April 23

Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, through the end

Group IV response: open response

Monday, April 28

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Mariana" (1830), "The Lady of Shalott" (1831-32/1842), and "The Palace of Art" (1832)
Nina Auerbach, "The Rise of the Fallen Woman," Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 35, No. 1. (Jun., 1980)
- The Victorian Web page
- An online exhibit from the University of South Carolina
- The web edition of James R. Kinkaid's Tennyson's Major Poems: The Comic and Ironic Patterns

Group I response: open response

Wednesday, April 30

Tennyson, Maud: A Monodrama (1855)

Group II response: open response

Monday, May 5

Tennyson, The Princess (1847)

Group III response: open response

Tuesday, May 6

PROGRESS REPORT DUE
TODAY BY EMAIL

Wednesday, May 7

Last day of class: wrapping up, last questions, inflating the official class balloon for the big term paper parade.

Tuesday, May 13

FINAL PAPER DUE BY NOON

Textbook Poetry Fiction Film Theory Contexts Research and Writing Research Writing Courses Tutorial 120 121 224 226 Seminars Victorians Syllabus Discussion Board Assignments Policies Old Syllabi Site Information Site Updates Navigation Site Map	Syllabus for English 332: The Victorians Monday, January 21 First day: Introductions and course outline Wednesday, January 23 Germaine de Staël, Corinne, or Italy (1807), 5-105 Stael.org is by far the best place on the Internet for looking into Staël's life and career. The drawback (for some readers) is that it's in French. Here is a brief biography of Staël with links to contextual information. (This comes from the publicly available section of the Penn CD-ROM edition of Frankenstein.) Group I response: This novel works partly by building analogies between personal and political relationships. Discuss one or more ways that issues of nationality or politics affect issues we would normally think of as novelistically personal in the reading for today. Note: here and throughout this syllabus, the first (less indented) reading or link is required, while the second (more indented) reading or link is supplemental and optional. Here, for example, the reading from Corinne is required, whereas exploring the websites is optional. Monday, January 28 Staël, Corinne, or Italy, 105-263 Group II response: Using any moment or passage from Group I's responses as a jumping-off point, extend the issues we discussed for Tuesday into the readings for today. Wednesday, January 30 Staël, Corinne, or Italy, 263-350 Group III response: open response Monday, February 4 Staël, Corinne, or Italy, 350-404 Esterhammer, Angela. "The Cosmopolitan Improvvisatore: Spontaneity and Performance in Romantic Poetics" Group IV response: open response Wednesday, February 6 Walter Scott, Waverley (1814), 33-99 The Walter Scott Digital Archive from the University of Edinburgh A Victorian perspective: Thomas Carlyle On Sir Walter Scott, 1838 Group I response: Waverley is routinely called the first historical novel. (Some critics dispute that claim, but don't let that trouble you for the moment.) Keeping in mind the idea that Scott is writing more or less a new sort of book, look for ways in which he engages his readers in the process of making sense of its genre. You might consider what explicit statements Scott makes about other genres, the way he creates one or more personae for the "author" in the text, or how he apologizes for certain features of the text. Monday, February 11 Scott, Waverley, 100-264 Group II response: open response Wednesday, February 13 Scott, Waverley, 264-347 Group III response: Use this response to return to our initial concern with Corinne, the interaction between personal and political plots and how each affects the other's meaning. Choose a specific focus within that broad field for the response. Monday, February 18 Scott, Waverley, 347-450 Group IV response: Using any moment or passage from Group III's responses as a jumping-off point, extend the issues we discussed for Tuesday into the readings for today. Wednesday, February 20 Scott, Waverley, 451-494 Joseph Valente, "Upon the Braes: History and Hermeneutics in Waverley" Group I response: open response Monday, February 25 Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Improvisatrice (1824, handout) Tricia Lootens, "Receiving the Legend, Rethinking the Writer: Letitia Landon and the Poetess Tradition" in Romanticism and Women Poets, ed. Behrendt and Linkin. Here is the only thorough site devoted to LEL. Group II response: Discuss some aspect of the relationship between Landon's poem and Corinne. Wednesday, February 27 This will be the first class dedicated to preparing for the process of researching your final papers. Each of you will read one critical work on the readings to date and come to class prepared to discuss the work. Group III response: write an annotation of your chosen work and post it as a response on Blackboard. We will discuss these annotations in class. Monday, March 3 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), first book Group IV response: open response Wednesday, March 5 Browning, Aurora Leigh, second book Group I response: open response Friday, March 7 SHORTER PAPER DUE UNDER MY OFFICE DOOR BY 3:00 P.M. Monday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 12 NO CLASS THIS WEEK: CONTINUE READING AURORA LEIGH TO BE READY TO DISCUSS IT THROUGH BOOK EIGHT AFTER SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK Monday, March 31 Browning, Aurora Leigh, through the eighth book Group II response: open response Wednesday, April 2 Browning, Aurora Leigh, ninth book Linda Peterson, "Rewriting A History of the Lyre: Letitia Landon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the (Re)Construction of the Nineteenth-Century Woman Poet," in Women's Poetry, Late Romantic to Late Victorian: Gender and Genre, 1830-1900, ed. Isobel Armstrong and Virginia Blain Group III response: open response Monday, April 7 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843) Dictionary of Literary Biography (Grinnell only): Dickens as novelist Dickens has attracted a fair amount of attention on the Web, and the best door to that information is David Perdue's Dickens Page. Group IV response: open response Wednesday, April 9 Library day! Details to be announced. You don't have any reading for today, but I intend this as a time to get started reading The Mill on the Floss. We'll be discussing a big chunk of the novel on Monday. Thursday, April 10 PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE BY EMAIL Monday, April 14 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860), Books 1 and 2 The Eliot site on The Victorian Web An Eliot photograph archive An Eliot country walking tour Group I response: open response Wednesday, April 16 Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Book 3 Group II response: open response Friday, April 18 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE UNDER MY OFFICE DOOR BY 3:00 Monday, April 21 Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, through Book 6, chapter 7 Group III response: open response Wednesday, April 23 Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, through the end Group IV response: open response Monday, April 28 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Mariana" (1830), "The Lady of Shalott" (1831-32/1842), and "The Palace of Art" (1832) Nina Auerbach, "The Rise of the Fallen Woman," Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 35, No. 1. (Jun., 1980) The Victorian Web page An online exhibit from the University of South Carolina The web edition of James R. Kinkaid's Tennyson's Major Poems: The Comic and Ironic Patterns Group I response: open response Wednesday, April 30 Tennyson, Maud: A Monodrama (1855) Group II response: open response Monday, May 5 Tennyson, The Princess (1847) Group III response: open response Tuesday, May 6 PROGRESS REPORT DUE TODAY BY EMAIL Wednesday, May 7 Last day of class: wrapping up, last questions, inflating the official class balloon for the big term paper parade. Tuesday, May 13 FINAL PAPER DUE BY NOON
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Erik Simpson \| simpsone@grinnell.edu