Winter 2008
English 543: Twentieth-Century British Fiction
T-Th 1:30 - 3:18
Denney Hall 238
Instructor:  David Herman
Office: 409 Denney (office hours TR 11:30 - 12:15 and 3:30 - 4:30; also, by appointment)
Phone: 292-6123; e-mail: herman.145[at]osu.edu

Web address for this syllabus: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/ENG543-08.html

Course Description:

Welcome! Surveying major works of British fiction published since 1900, this course will focus on the intersection of two key issues, memory and identity, in texts by authors such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Muriel Spark, and Ian McEwan. We will examine how these writers explore the links between memory and identity both thematically and through innovative storytelling techniques, including nonlinear as well as unreliable narration, elaborately framed stories, and representations of the stream of consciousness. Further, we will link the texts' investigations of how memory shapes the self (and vice versa) to surrounding sociohistorical developments, including the trauma of two world wars, new models of the human mind, and the changing status and functions of literary writing itself.
    Although focusing on 20th-century British fiction in particular, the course is designed to improve your ability to appreciate, analyze, and write coherently and persuasively about all sorts of texts, equipping you with interpretive skills that will assist you in your lifelong practice of reading.

Required Texts (Available at SBX):
 *When reading "The Dead" and Portrait you may wish to consult Don Gifford's Joyce Annotated, which is on reserve in Sullivant Library under call number PR6019.O9 Z8 G46 1982. This volume contains information about historical and political events mentioned in Joyce's text, place names specific to Dublin, etc.

In addition, the following items are available on electronic reserve via the Carmen site for our course. (In the Course Schedule below, these readings are marked "ER.") Click here for complete bibliographic citations for all these items:
 Course Requirements:

Please note that I use a +/- system of grading and a 10-point grading scale.  Your grade for the course will be determined by the following factors:
1. Attendance and active class participation. I expect this class to be a collective endeavor, and your attendance and participation are crucial. You will get more out of each class if you come having done the assigned reading and prepared to discuss it. More than two unexecused absences will lower your participation grade by one whole grade: for example, from a B to a C. I may also give occasional quizzes and in-class exercises that will also factor into your participation grade.
2. A collaborative oral presentation. Each student will team up with several classmates to present a research report on a topic related to our class discussions. The dates of the reports are indicated on the schedule of readings. You will sign up for a group during the second week of the quarter; at that time I will also distribute more specific guidelines for the report. Presentations should be about 15 minutes long and should be shared by all of the students in the group.
3. Two papers. Two expository essays, word-processed and submitted in hard copy, not by e-mail. The first essay is to be 1250 words and is due Tuesday, January 29.  The second essay is to be 1500 words and is due the last day of class, Thursday, March 6. Please use your word-processing program to do a word count for each assigned paper, and type in the number of words at the end of your paper. Paper topics will be distributed well in advance of the due dates for your essays, and specific details will be discussed in class. In the meantime, for general guidelines concerning how to compose and format your papers, click here. 
    These papers must represent your own work; all cases of suspected plagiarism will be reported, in accordance with university rules, to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses at OSU and will be reported to the appropriate officers of the university. Plagiarism is the representation of another's work or ideas as one's own; it includes unacknowledged quotations as well as paraphrases of someone else's words or ideas. Penalties may range from failure of the particular assignment, to failure of the course, or worse.
4. A midterm and comprehensive final examination. The midterm exam is scheduled for Tuesday, February 5, and will contain brief definition questions; identification questions, which ask you to identify and analyze passages from works we’ve discussed; and an essay question asking you to compare and contrast several works. The final exam, scheduled for Monday, March 10, will be comprehensive and have the same format as the midterm.

Grading:

Attendance and participation: 10%
Oral presentation: 10%
First paper: 20%
Second paper: 25%
Midterm: 15%
Final: 20%

Completing Assignments:

All assigned readings must be read before the date listed on the syllabus. All out-of-class assignments are due at the beginning of class. If an emergency arises and prevents you from turning in your assignment on time, always call me and leave a message on my voicemail if I am not there. In the absence of any previous consultation with me, work handed in late will be graded down, normally one letter grade for each day that it is late.

Other Policies:

Cellphones:

Please make sure that cellphones, pagers, etc. are turned off before you enter the classroom. 

Special needs:

Anyone who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Anyone with such needs should also be aware of the the Office for Disability Services in room 150 Pomerene Hall (614-292-3307) which provides services for students with documented disabilities.

The Writing Center:

All members of the OSU community are invited to discuss their writing with a trained consultant at the Writing Center. Go to http://www.cstw.org or call 688-4291 to make an appointment.

Course Schedule:

The following is tentative course schedule. Depending on the actual pace at which we proceed during the quarter, we may have to make adjustments to the syllabus as we go.

January

Th 3  Introduction; read L. Williams, "Writing from Modernism to Postmodernism," and Roberts, "Culture and Consciousness in the Twentieth-century English Novel" [both on electronic reserve = ER]

T 8  Joyce, "The Dead"; also, continue discussion of L. Williams and Roberts

Th 10  Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; also read Lukács, "The Ideology of Modernism" [ER]. Group presentation #1  

T 15  Portrait; also read Stevenson, "Modernism and Modernity" [ER] 

Th 17  Portrait; The Good Soldier 

T 22  The Good Soldier; also read Trotter, "The Modernist Novel" [ER]. Group presentation #2

Th 24  The Good Soldier; Mrs Dalloway; also read also Woolf, "Modern Fiction" [ER]. Group presentation #3

T 29  Mrs Dalloway; also read Dekoven, "Modernism and Gender" [ER]; Group presentation #4. FIRST ESSAY DUE  

Th 31  Mrs Dalloway; also read R. Williams, "Modernism and the Metropolis" [ER]

February

T 5  Midterm

Th7  Brideshead Revisited

T 12  Brideshead; also read Lodge, "Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism" [ER]. Group presentation #5

Th 14  Brideshead; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

T 19 Miss Jean Brodie

Th 21  Miss Jean Brodie; Time's Arrow

T 26  Time's Arrow; also read Connor, "Introduction" and "Postmodernism and Literature" [ER]. Group presentation #6   

Th 28 Time's Arrow; Atonement

March

T4 Atonement; Brian Finney, "Briony's Stand Against Oblivion" (online version available at http://www.csulb.edu/~bhfinney/McEwan.html). Group presentation #7

Th 6 Atonement; SECOND ESSAY DUE

Final Examination: Monday, March 10, 1:30 - 3:18