| Studies
in 19th- and 20th-Century British Literature (ENGL 326)
"Negotiating Uncertainty" Spring 2007 TTh 9:45-11, JH 107 |
David
Havird
dhavird@centenary.edu 869-5085 JH 311, MTWTh 2-3 and by appointment |
| Syllabus
Texts
The theme for this year's seminar is "negotiating uncertainty"--in particular the doubt about the transcendental nature of anything thanks to the scientific work of the 1830s onwards. Fearing, for instance, that the mass extinctions in the fossil record pointed to the possible extinction of the human species, Tennyson wrote in In Memoriam (1850), "If Death were seen / At first as Death, Love had not been." Thus the challenge posed by science to religious faith also called into question the sacramental bond between between human beings. Uncertainty in interpersonal relationships and ways of negotiating it will be our major theme as we read work in verse and prose from the Victorian and Modern periods: In Memoriam, Tennyson's sequence of elegiac lyrics; The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles's "Victorian" bestseller (1969); The Gate of Angels (1990), a short novel by Penelope Fitzgerald set in 1912; The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot's collage-like poem (1922); and Katherine Mansfield's Selected Stories. Three papers, a written exam, and active participation in the seminar will facilitate your exploration of that theme and afford you the chance to refine your analytical and rhetorical skills. Requirements
You'll be participating actively in this course if you attend class regularly (missing only for official, College-sponsored activities or for emergencies), meet all deadlines, and demonstrate your engagement in the course by contributing valuably to in-class discussions and by scoring consistently well on reading quizzes. It is unlikely that you will receive full credit for participation if you miss more than two weeks (four days) of class. It is the Department's policy that anyone missing more than three weeks of class (six classes) for any reason will fail the course. Understand that the Department does not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. Reading quizzes will come, if they do, at the beginning of the period. If late for class, you'll miss the quiz. (Subject to revision--last updated March 2) Week 1, January 9-11 |