Spring Term '99                                                                     Office Hours:
MWF, 10:00-10:50 MC 101                                                 MW 11-12
Professor Kenneth McNeil                                                     T 12:15-2, 6-7 PM
e-mail: mcneilk@ecsu.ctstateu.edu                                          TH 12:15-2
                                                                                               And by
Office phone: 465-4578                                                            appointment
CB 243

Required Materials
The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
The Sign of Four, Arthur Conan Doyle
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Handout Packet

Course Description
In this course we will be examining British colonialism as it is depicted in Victorian literature. The nineteenth century is known as Britain’s imperial century, a period when "the sun never set on the British empire." With that in mind, we will be looking at the motives for continued British colonial rule and the ways in which Victorian Britons viewed colonial peoples, in which colonialism abroad determined British society at home, and in which British attitudes changed as the century progressed. Colonialism reflected and, in many ways, determined British assumptions on race, gender, and class. In addition to the fiction, we will also be looking at other representations of Britain’s colonial empire--such as illustrations, newspaper and historical accounts, scientific writings, government policy documents, travelogues, paintings, etc--and some secondary contemporary analysis of colonialism. These additional items and handouts will help provide the historical context of the literature we read.

Course Requirements
Essay paper 25%
Response papers 30%
    Response One
    Response Two
    Response Three
    Response Four
Midterm 20%
Final 15%
Participation 10%

Literary Essay
You will have the opportunity to write a literary analysis (4-6 pages) on the literature we will cover.

Response Papers
There are also four response papers, one due about every third week. Every three weeks you will receive a response question handout with questions taken from the upcoming reading assignments. You are to respond to any one day’s questions from the list. Response questions must be typed, double-spaced and turned in on the day that you have selected. For example, answers to questions from February 8th’s reading must be turned in on that day.

Regular attendance of classes is absolutely expected for this course. Three or more unexcused absences will lower your participation grade significantly. Papers are due in class on the assigned date. Late papers will be subject to a reduction in grade. If you feel you have a good reason for requiring an extension, please come talk to me about it beforehand. However, after-due date extensions, except in the case of emergencies, will be difficult to obtain.

Avoid plagiarism (stealing the exact words or ideas of another) like the plague. In this class acts of plagiarism incur a zero and could also result in course failure.

Calendar
Week 1
January 25: Introduction: texts, assumptions, approaches

January 27: End of empire: Gunga Din

January 29: Gunga Din

February 3 Said, Orientalism (in packet)

February 5: Walter Scott, The Two Drovers (in packet)

Week 3
February 8: Scott, The Two Drovers (in packet)

February 10: Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Minute on Indian Education" (in packet)

February 12: Lincoln's Birthday, no class

Week 4
February 15: Washington's Birthday, no class

February 17: Darwin, selections, The Descent of Man (in packet)

February 19: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Locksley Hall" (in packet)
 

February 24: Cawnpore; Tennyson, "The Defence of Lucknow" (in packet)

February 26: Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone

Week 6
March 1: The Moonstone

March 3: The Moonstone

March 5: The Moonstone

Week 7
March 8: The Moonstone

March 10: The Moonstone

March 12: Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

Week 8
March 15: Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

March 17: The Sign of Four

March 19: Mid-term exam

Week 9
Spring break

Week 10
March 29: Harriet Martineau, selections, Eastern Life, Past and Present (in packet)

March 31: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

April 2: Days of Reflection, no class

 Week 11
April 5: Jane Eyre

April 7: Jane Eyre

April 9: Reading Day, no class

Week 12
April 12: Jane Eyre

April 14: Jane Eyre

April 16: Jane Eyre

Week 13
April 19:  Jane Eyre

April 21: Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford

April 23: Cranford

 Week 14
April 26: Cranford

 April 28: Matthew Arnold, selection, "Essay on Celtic Literature";

April 30:  W. B. Yeats, "The Stolen Child," "Cuchulain's Fight with the Sea" (in packet)

 Week 15
May 3: Yeats, "Easter 1916," "On a Political Prisoner," "The Second Coming" (in packet)

May 5:  Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

May 7: Heart of Darkness

Week 16
May 10: Heart of Darkness

May 12: Essay Paper due.  Heart of Darkness (read the Chinua Achebe essay in the Norton edition)

Final Exam Week
May 19: Final exam

A Bibliography on Victorian Themes and Colonial Literature

Some Useful Links

Literature:
The Victorian Web
The Victorian Research Web
Victorian Literature
19th-Century Sensation Fiction

Historical Background:
The British Empire
The History of India
The Irish Famine