Joseph Kelly

Office: 22A Glebe Street #105

Phone: 953-4815

Office hours: MW: 10-noon

English 325: Modern British Literature

Course Objectives:

This course has two objectives, one concerning knowledge and the other practice. It will familiarize you with a canon of modern British literature through your direct experiences of representative works. You will learn a literary history, which means that you must understand these works in the context of the stylistic, historical, political, economic, and intellectual issues that concerned their authors. This course should also teach you to practice literary criticism, which includes analysis, interpretation, and research.

Books:

Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

William Butler Yeats, Poetry, Drama, Prose

E. M. Forster, Howards End

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway and Mrs. Dalloway’s Party

Grading:

Your final grade will be determined according to these percentages:

Hardy paper (reception) 10%

Conrad paper (composition) 15%

Joyce paper (context) 20%

Eliot paper (genetics) 20%

Reader’s portfolio 25%

Final exam 10%

I do not accept late papers and I give no make-up exams, except in extreme cases, such as a death in the family or a hospitalization.

Attendance:

I make no distinction between "excused" and "unexcused" absences. You are allowed three absences during the semester without any justification, but you are responsible for material you've missed. Do not ask me what you missed: get the information from your fellow students. I can fail you in the course after your fourth absence, or, if I prefer and circumstances merit, I can lower your final grade for the course.

Expectations:

Many of the texts you'll be studying are difficult, but the amount of reading is not unreasonable. I expect you to come to class prepared to discuss that day's reading intelligently. I recognize that on occasion you might fall behind. On such an occasion, if I call on you, just politely and without embarrassment excuse yourself from answering. It is better to come to class unprepared than to skip. But don't make a habit of being unprepared.

Reader’s Portfolio:

Everyone will be assigned to a reader’s study group. For almost every class, you will discuss the day’s reading with your group through a threaded discussion on WebCT. You must write a 150 word response to either my question on the reading (which you’ll find on the calendar) or to someone else's answer to my question. (I prefer that you respond to someone else: I'd like these discussions to be more of a conversation between you students than a question-and-answer between each student and me.) You will have twenty-three opportunities to contribute to these discussions. You are allowed to skip eight of these assignments, which means you have to submit fifteen. These must be completed and posted to WebCT before class. I will accept no response after that day's class. I will accept no hardcopies. I will evaluate these not only on the intelligence you display in them, but also on your curiosity and the sincerity with which you engage the issues.

The last sentence in each response must consist of your own substantive question about the reading--a question we might consider as a class.

At the semester’s end, you will gather all of your responses for the year and print them out. You will formally analyze and evaluate your responses using a template that I will provide. On the last day of class, you will submit a portfolio consisting of the printed responses, your formal analysis and evaluation, and anything else required by the template. A good portfolio depends upon sincere, substantive reader’s responses.