THE  BRITISH  MASTERS:
LITERARY  STYLE  FROM  MILTON TO WINTERSON
 


James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 2 (1896)

S. HARZEWSKI
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ENGLISH 001.301: SPRING 2003

Writing About Literature:
The British Masters: Literary Style from Milton to Winterson
ENGL 001.301, Spring 2003

Practicalities:
Days, Time, Room Number: Tues. & Thurs., 10:30-12, Kelly Writers House, Rm. 202
Instructor:  Stephanie Harzewski
                 sharzews@english.upenn.edu
                 Phone: 215-823-6793
                 Cell: 347-277-1679
Office: Bennett Hall, 4th Fl., #C3
Office Hours: Tues. & Thurs., 9 AM-10 AM, and by appointment (Arrange via email.)
Course listserv address: ENGL001-301-03A@lists.upenn.edu
Syllabus URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~sharzews/spring2003syllabus

Course Description:
“Hew out a style,” beckoned Henry James, “It is by style we are saved.”  In this esprit the course examines exemplary stylistic achievement from 1660 in British poetry and prose.  Beginning with selections from John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), we will survey a diverse range of perennial classics and texts designated “classic” in our own time to conclude with a consideration of J.M. Coetzee’s “What Is a Classic?: A Lecture” (1993).   Particular attention will be devoted to how writers have appropriated and revisioned Milton’s literary engagement with the Book of Genesis and the Fall of Man.  Authors may include Alexander Pope, Eliza Haywood, Mary Wollstonecraft, Oscar Wilde, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Walter Pater, Christina Rossetti, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Jeanette Winterson.

As members of an intensive writing course we will work to develop style, voice, and structure in various formats: listserv posts, short essays, critical writing synopses.  Strategies for writing within limited time and length parameters as well as confronting writing anxiety and burnout will be addressed collectively.  Additionally, we will focus on creating movement in writing and identifying the distinctions between writing deliberately intended to be read vs. presented.  In order to explore maximizing writing delivered aloud, each student will contribute an oral presentation.   Class participation and preparation will comprise 30% of the final grade.  No midterm or final exam.

Requirements and Grading:
The requirements for this class fall into three categories: Attendance, Preparation and Participation, and Written Work.

Attendance:
This is a discussion/workshop-based class and will only succeed if everyone is a fully involved participant. You may miss one class meeting without penalty, but on-time attendance is required at all other class meetings unless you have obtained my permission in advance or can officially document a medical or family crisis after the event. Students with more than 3 unexcused absences will fail the course. Repeated late arrival will lower your participation grade, so be here and be on time.

Preparation and Participation:

Written Work: The required written work for this class encompasses multiple forms: I will grade these, and I will indicate in my comments how the work might be improved. As an important aspect of writing is revision, you will revise the first and the third essays.  You will have an individual paper conference with me to assist in this regard.  Revisions and paper conferences for essay #3, though encouraged, are voluntary.  Your grade for a revised essay will be the average of your grades on the original version and the final version.  Please remember to attach the graded original essay with the revised one.  Late papers will be down-graded a third of a grade for each day they are late.

Papers must be submitted in print form.  No Microsoft Word attachments are accepted!

Oral Presentation: This course will address distinctions between writing intended to be read by another person vs. that meant to be presented to an audience.  To further this aim, each student will be responsible for one oral presentation of approximately 10 minutes (maximum 15 minutes).  You may devise a topic of your own choice pertinent to the course or will choose from a list of topics I will prepare. While outside research, originality of content, etc. are welcome, the presentation’s principal aim is to communicate most effectively the material you have gathered and analyzed as well as to elicit class discussion.  Part of a class prior to the first scheduled presentation will be devoted to preparation for this activity.

Grading: Your final grade will be based on the following percentages: 30% for preparation and participation, 70% for written work and your oral presentation. Any penalty for missed classes and tardiness will be deducted from this total.

Books:
Books have been ordered through the House of Our Own Bookstore (3920 Spruce St.). You should purchase copies of all the following:

In addition possession of a college thesaurus is mandatory!  Use of the Microsoft Word thesaurus though occasionally useful is not adequate.

Resources:
The Writing Center (http://www.english.upenn.edu/Writing/WATU/center.html): all kinds of writing assistance and advice provided by grad students from various departments, located on the 4th floor of Bennett Hall. Make an appointment by calling 215-898-8525.

Writers House (http://www.english.upenn.edu/~wh): Kelly Writers House hosts many fun events for readers and writers, all of which are free. For more info, check out their website or call 215-573- WRIT.

Writing Program Home Page (http://www.english.upenn.edu/Writing): general guide to writing courses & resources at Penn.
Tutoring and Learning Resources (http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~dasp/tlrpage.html): Help with all kinds of study skills from time management to reading a lot very quickly. Call 57-EXCEL (573- 9235) for an appointment, email them at learning@dolphin.upenn.edu or drop by during walk-in hours from 12-3 PM daily, Suite 110, High Rise East (3820 Locust Walk).

Counseling and Psychological Services (http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~caps/): Confidential and free individual counseling, support, workshops (on such topics as stress management, eating issues, test anxiety, and relationship issues), and walk-in crisis counseling--all to help you develop greater understanding about yourself and others and to enhance your personal well-being and academic performance. Call 898 - 7021 or stop by their office 133 South 36th Street (near Sansom), 2nd Floor Mellon Building, between 9 AM and 5 PM, Monday - Friday.

Collaborative Writing/Plagiarism: I encourage you to work with one another to become better writers and better thinkers by sharing your ideas and giving feedback on each other's work. However, the work you submit to this class is expected to be your own. When you want to refer to someone else's ideas (even the ideas of someone else in this class), you must properly acknowledge your sources. Sometimes this involves providing appropriate citations in the body of your writing and additional bibliographic information at the end. Other times it involves using footnotes correctly. If you have questions about how to cite a source properly, consult a style manual or ask me. If you submit work that has been copied without attribution from some published or unpublished source, or that has been prepared by someone other than you, or that in any other way misrepresents somebody else's work as your own, you will face severe discipline by the University! Work that is your own work but has been submitted to more than one class for credit is also considered plagiarism unless you have obtained the permission of all course instructors involved prior to handing in the work. For more detailed information, see the College of Arts and Sciences' pages on academic integrity at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/college/rules/academic_integrity.html.

Schedule:
 

1/14, Tuesday: 
  • Course Overview
  • Introduction to Paradise Lost by John Milton

John Milton (1608-1674)

1/16, Thursday:

1/21, Tuesday:
  • Paradise Lost continued (excerpts)
  • Using nuanced verbs

“The Rape of the Lock” by Thomas Stothard, watercolor, 1798

1/23, Thursday:

1/28, Tuesday:
  • Fantomina continued
  • Oral presentation guidelines distributed

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97)

1/29, Wednesday: Paper #1 guidelines distributed via listserv

1/30, Thursday:

2/4, Tuesday:
  • The Rape of the Lock continued

The Lady of Shalott (1888) by John Waterhouse

2/6, Thursday:

2/10, Monday: Paper #1 due

2/11, Tuesday:

2/13, Thursday:
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  • Writing for in-class exams

photograph (1882) of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) by Napoleon Sarony

2/18, Tuesday:


2/20, Thursday:


2/24, Monday:

2/25, Tuesday:
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray continued
  • Creating movement in writing
  • Presentation: The Renaissance by Walter Pater (excerpt)

“Goblin Market” (1862) illustrated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

 
2/27, Thursday: 
  • “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti

    • “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

3/4, Tuesday:

3/5, Wednesday: 3/6, Thursday: 3/18, Tuesday:
3/20, Thursday:
  • “The Dead” continued
  • Troubleshooting writing anxiety and burnout

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) photographed by Lenare (1929)

3/25, Tuesday:

3/27, Thursday:
  • Mrs. Dalloway continued

Jean Rhys (1890-1979)

3/28, Friday: Paper #3 due

4/1, Tuesday:


4/3, Thursday:


4/8, Tuesday:

4/10, Thursday:
  • Wide Sargasso Sea continued
  • Presentation: “The mad woman in the attic” archetype
  • Presentation: Character Spotlight: “Rochester” and primogeniture

James Joyce (1882-1941)

4/14, Monday:

4/15, Tuesday:
  • Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson (1959- )

4/17, Thursday:


4/22, Tuesday:

4/24, Thursday: 
  • “What Is a Classic?: A Lecture” by J.M. Coetzee
  • Concluding remarks
  • Evaluations

J.M. Coetzee (1940- )

4/28, Monday:

h o m e