Michael
Gamer <mgamer@english>
Class meets: Mondays
9:30-12.
Location: Room M-20 of
Hamilton College House, at 3901 Locust Walk (the northmost and westmost of
the three high-rises).
Office and Hours: 122
Bennett Hall (in the suite of offices in 119 Bennett). Office hours by
appointment Tuesdays 2:30-4:00 p.m. (call Loretta Williams at 898-7343 to
schedule) and Fridays 3:00-4:45 (walk-ins).
Class listserv:
engl760-301-04a@lists
English 760.301: Topics
in
the Novel: National Tales
Course Description:
This
course will explore nationalism and the novel between 1775 and 1900,
devoting
particular attention to Scottish, Irish, Indian, and other national and
colonial discourses. Most broadly, we'll consider the relation between
cultural
identity and genre, imperial conquest and novelistic form. How did the
changing
face of Britain--as embodied not only through the Scottish (1707) and
Irish
(1801) Acts of Union but also by the "rises" of the first
(1763ff)
and second (1815ff) British empires--affect the ideological and formal
qualities and the cultural status of the novel and associated generic
forms
like romance? While I have set the first half of the syllabus and ordered
a
number of additional novels for the course, they should be considered as
suggestions, since, like all true seminars, our readings ultimately should
reflect the interests of the participants.
Books: Available at
Penn
Book Center (215) 222-7600
Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (OUP,
0-19-2833594-7).
Wales, North America, Scotland.
Robert Bage, Hermsprong (Broadview,
1-55111-131-4).
North America, France, Britain.
Sydney Owenson, The Wild Irish Girl (OUP,
0-19-283283-2). Ireland, Scotland, and England.
Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent and Ennui (Penguin, 0-14-043320-1). Ireland and Britain.
John Galt, Annals
of the Parish (Cork Hill Press, 1594082472). Scotland.
Course Calendar, Weeks
1-6:
I've
set the syllabus for the first six weeks of class; we'll set the syllabus
for
weeks 7-12 together on January 12th. While I've ordered 12
novels through
Penn Book Center, there is no reason why we need stick to them, or even to
the
novel as a literary form.
Jan 12th:
National Novelistic Canons and Donaldson v. Beckett (1774):
Harrison's The Novelist's Magazine (1780-88),
Barbauld's The British Novelists
(1810), and Scott's Ballantyne's
Novelists' Library (1821-24).
Jan
19th: Domestic Expeditions: As this is MLK
day, we
will need to reschedule class. For this meeting, though, we'll read the
article
by Charlotte Sussman, and Tobias Smollett, The
Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (1778).
Jan
26th: Ireland, India, and the Nabob: Read the
speeches by Burke on Ireland and India (coursepack), and Maria Edgeworth's
Lame Jervas (coursepack). As the
reading
for the 26th if heavier, you may want to read the short packet
on
the French Revolution this week. JARED.
Feb 2nd:
Revolution and Internationalism: Read
the
short packet on the French Revolution, and Robert Bage, Hermsprong; or, Man As He is Not (1796). JOHN.
Feb
9th:
The
Irish Rebellion and the Anglo-Irish Union of 1801: Reading: Maria
Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent and Ennui. Please
also
read Daniel Hack, "Inter-Nationalism: Castle
Rackrent and Anglo-Irish Union" (coursepack) and chapter 2 of Ina
Ferris's The Achievement of Literary
Authority (1991). CIARA.
Feb 19th (Thursday): Sydney Owenson and the Irish National Tale. Guest seminar leader: Ina Ferris.
Reading: The Wild Irish Girl and
the
chapter in the coursepack from The
Romantic National Tale and the Question of Ireland. Please note that
this
is a Thursday morning class meeting.
Course Calendar, Weeks 7-12:
Feb 23th:
Germaine de Stael, Corinne. JOE.
Mar 1st: Walter Scott, Waverley, and the Ian Duncan article in the coursepack. MICHAEL.
Mar 15th: The National Tale and the Provincial Novel after Waverley. Guest seminar
leader: Juliet Shields. Reading: John Galt, Annals of the Parish (1821).
Mar 22nd:
Jane Austen, Persuasion. KATE.
Mar 29th:
Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland. JOSH AND ANDREA.
Apr 5th:
Burns and Clare. MYRA AND JEN.
Apr 12th:
Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone.
April 14th: Conference abstract due to me via e-mail.
Apr 19th:
End of term conference.
May 8th: Final Essay
Due.
Critical books and
essays to
consider:
While
I've put together a small coursepack of readings for the first few weeks
of the
course, there are a number of excellent recent books on national
literatures,
identities, and cultures. It would be nice to take a week or two during
the
semester to look at this recent work -- either entire books or chapters of
books. Among those we might consider are:
Linda
Colley, Britons
(1992)
Mary
Jean Corbett, Allegories of Union in
Irish and English writing (2000)
Ina
Ferris, The Romantic National Tale
and
the Question of Ireland (2003)
Angela
Keane, Women Writers and the English
Nation (2000)
Colin
Kidd, British Identities before
Nationalism (1999; fabulous)
Franco
Moretti, An Atlas of the European
Novel
1800-1900 (1998)
Katie Trumpener, Bardic Nationalism: The Romantic Novel
and
the British Empire (1997)
Course Requirements:
Assignments:
Five
Responses: Part of the preparation for our meetings will be for you (1)
to
write a response to the readings five times during the semester that you
will
send to the e-mail address engl760-301-04a@lists.upenn.edu. During the
weeks
you don't write a response, you should read through the responses and
bring
them to class with informal response to the responses for that week. When
seminar participants begin presenting and leading discussion, they will
provide
a prospectus a week in advance designed to raise questions and otherwise
set up
discussion; those wishing to write responses should use that prospectus
(as
well as the readings) as a springboard for their responses. The responses will be due 36 hours
before
we meet -- Saturday night when we meet Monday, and otherwise two nights
before
we meet. I'll usually start either the first or second half of class
by
asking non-responders where they would like to focus the beginnings of
discussion. You will also find, if you look on your e-mail before you
compose
your response, that many times the responses of your colleagues will prove
to
be as much a catalyst to your own writing as the reading itself. Before
class
on Monday, then, you will be required to read through the responses, to
print
them, and to bring them in.
So, the rhythm of the seminar (hopefully) will
usually go as follows:
1. On Saturday evening,
we'll post responses.
2. Sometime between Saturday evening and Monday morning, we'll all
read
the responses and prepare for class.
3. On Monday morning,
we'll
meet.
Choosing the focus of
your
presentation:
Two or three weeks before you present, you should meet with me to talk
about
what you'd like to do during the time you lead class discussion --
particularly
whether you wish to assign any additional readings for your presentation.
We'll
need to talk about ordering books and coursepacking additional materials,
as
well as what is enough and what is too much to do in the time allotted.
You
might want to think of this as a step in your graduate teaching career,
since
you'll effectively be choosing the readings and otherwise shaping a week
of the
seminar. Obviously, I'll provide as much help as you
need.
The prospectus for you
presentation:
The week before you present, you should come to class with copies of a
prospectus,
the purpose of which is to provide guidelines for what you'll be doing in
your
presentation. At the very latest, you should post your prospectus to the
course
listserv <engl760-301-04a@lists> by the Wednesday before you
present. You
should keep this under 500 words, and keep in mind that its purpose is to
direct our reading and to provide us with questions to consider while we
read.
The
presentation: For one of the class
meetings, you'll be doing a short (please no more than 20 minutes -- be
warned
I will cut you off) presentation setting up discussion about the readings.
They'll also provide a presentation write-up (see below).
The presentation
write-up
and bibliography: This is not a write up of your presentation literally. Instead,
I'd
like you to research your main text's 1) production and publication
history, 2)
reception history, and 3) critical history. Having researched these, I'd
like
you to decide which of the three interests you the most. Once you've made
this
decision, you can write up the assignment.
For the least interesting two histories, I'd
like
you to write up a short narrative regarding each of them -- anywhere from
10 to
500 words, followed by a bibliography. The length of these should depend
entirely on how much there is to say. For example, in the case of the
production history of Cowley's A
Bold
Stroke for a Husband (1783), there are some items of interest. On one
hand,
we have no manuscripts in Cowley's hand, although there is a fair-copy of
the
play that was submitted to the Lord Chamberlain's Office by the manager of
Covent-Garden theater for approval, now located in the Huntington Library
in
the Larpent Collection (LA #617). The Huntington Larpent Catalogue notes
that,
when compared to the play's first edition of 1784, the manuscript shows
considerable portions of the play cut for stage production. But that's
about
all there is to say. Later editions of the play show now real changes or
revisions. On the other hand, The
London
Stage provides us with considerable detail about each night of A Bold Stroke's initial run,
including
total receipts, etc. Thus, in writing up the production history, you could
probably do so in fewer than 300 words.
For the most interesting of the three
histories,
however, I'd like you to write a more extended essay (approximately 5
pages),
in which you make a case for why this particular aspect of the text is
most
interesting and map its primary points of interest. What questions do
these
points of interest raise and why? What would answering these questions
illuminate? What questions do you wish to ask, and what are you answers.
Finally, instead of a bibliography, I would like you to provide an
annotated
bibliography of the section, consisting of no more than 12 entries, with
each
entry being no more than 150 words.
The abstract,
conference,
and essay:
Rather than simply assign a long essay, I'd like to provide you an
opportunity
to practice writing a conference abstract, presenting a conference paper,
and
then turning it into an article. The conference itself will be a festive
occasion; the conference paper should be no more than 8 pages. Ideally,
you
should do your conference paper and essay on a different set of texts than
your
presentation (if this is not possible, please see me). Final essay length:
20-30 pages.