English 103B: British Literature from 1789 to 1900

Instructor: James H. Donelan
MTWR 9:30-10:35, SH 1430
Office Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 11:00-12:00, or by appointment.
Office: 2702 South Hall

Email: donelan@english.ucsb.edu

Course Description: The course will examine major British literary texts from the Romantic and Victorian eras, including poetry and prose by Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron, Keats, Wollstonecraft, Ruskin, Wilde, Tennyson, Dickens, and Browning. We will discuss the relationship between literature and various contemporaneous historical and cultural developments, such as the abolition of the British slave trade, the industrial revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, aestheticism, and colonialism.

Texts: The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Third Edition, Volumes 2A and 2B.

Prerequisites: Writing 2 or 50 or 109 or English 10 or upper division standing

Requirements: The course requires two papers, a midterm, and a final examination, in addition to regular attendance and active participation in discussion section.

• Assignments should be no longer or shorter than the length assigned and submitted on time and use the prescribed format. Late papers will result in grade reductions.
• Never hand in a paper without proofreading it carefully and sending an electronic backup copy to my email address: donelan@english.ucsb.edu.
• Successful discussion sections depend on your presence and your full participation. Do not miss class, and keep up with the syllabus.
• University regulations regarding plagiarism will be strictly enforced.
Your final grade will be calculated as follows: first essay, 20%; second essay, 20%; midterm, 20%; final exam, 30%; class participation, 10%.

Syllabus

I: The Break with the Past: Romantic Revolution

8/3 Introduction and Logistics
8/4 “The Romantics and their Contemporaries,” 3; Burke, 103, Wollstonecraft, 112; Paine, 121
8/5 Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, 158.

8/6 “Perspectives: The Abolition of Slavery…” 209; Equiano, 210; Prince, 219. Clarkson, 250; Edinburgh Review, 262

II: Beauty and Truth: High Romanticism

8/10 Wordsworth “…Tintern Abbey,” 404; “Preface,” 408.
8/11 Wordsworth, The Prelude, Books I, V, and VI, 452.
8/12 Wordsworth, The Prelude, Books IX, X, XI, and XIII, 489.
8/13 D. Wordsworth, Grasmere Journals, 551; Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” 578; Biographia Literaria, 628.
8/14 First Paper Due.

8/17 Byron, Excerpts from Don Juan, 727.
8/18 Shelley, “Mont Blanc,” 817; “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,” 821; “Ode to the West Wind,” 835.
8/19 Shelley, “Adonais,” 841; A Defence of Poetry, 867.
8/20 Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale,” 953; “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” 955; “To Autumn,” 960.

8/24 Midterm

III: The Victorian Empire and the Literate Public

8/25 “The Victorian Age,” 1099; “Perspectives: The Industrial Landscape,” 1137-1163.
8/26 Mill, On Liberty, 1164; The Subjection of Women, 1176.

8/27 Darwin, The Voyage…, 1347, The Origin of Species, 1357; The Descent of Man, 1362.

8/31 “Perspectives: Religion and Science” 1376-1402; Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” 1556.
9/1 Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1462.

9/2 Arnold, “The Function of Criticism…,” 1685; Culture and Anarchy , 1695
9/3 Tennyson, “Lotos-Eaters,” 1240; “Ulysses,” 1244; “The Epic,” 1248; “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” 1291.

9/4 Second Paper Due

IV: Victorian Aestheticism

9/7 Happy Labor Day! No class today!

9/8 E. Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, 1200; R. Browning, “Love Among the Ruins,” 1425; “Fra Lippo Lippi,” 1433; “Andrea del Sarto,” 1445.

9/9 Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 2003.

9/10 Final