Useful information: My office is TUR4332, phone 392-6650 x259. Office hours: M6th period, F 4th period, and any other time by appointment. Please note that I am glad to work with you individually on drafts and/or revisions. Email: pcraddoc@english.ufl.edu. **Online syllabus** at http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pcraddoc/enl3230s.htm.
Note: additions and revisions to the syllabus will be posted on this site. You are responsible for knowing about them. If you lose your paper syllabus, you can print out a new one from this site.
Purpose of the Course:
The "Age of Dryden and Pope," in British literature--roughly 1660-1740--is also the age of the Restoration of the monarchy, after the rule of Cromwell, Parliament, and the Puritans, the age of the so-called "Glorious Revolution," when James II was dismissed from the throne and replaced with good Protestant monarchs--his daughter and Mary and her husband, and then his younger daughter Anne. It is the age of the great and infamous prime minister Sir Robert Walpole, who is credited with originating the saying, though not the idea, that "every man has his price." It is the age in which both the Industrial Revolution and the Literacy Revolution began to have their long-reaching effects. It is an age, especially, when women as well as men played an important role in aristocratic society, in politics and diplomacy, and in poetic and dramatic literature, as well as prose narrative and satires.
In this course we will focus our attention especially on six major writers,
three men-- Dryden, Pope, and Swift, and three women--Aphra Behn, Anne
Finch (Lady Winchelsea), and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. We will also
take a special look at the theatre, in which for the first time women were
allowed to earn their livings, and try to understand what Restoration comedy
does, and does not, tell us about Restoration life. Through understanding
the achievements and lives of these men and women, especially our six writers,
we will enlarge our understanding of what it is to be a human being in
a social and political setting, and we will discover how late twentieth-century
experience and perceptions affect and enrich their writings.
Grades in this course will be based on the following grading
scale: D=60-64; D+=65-69; C=70-74; C+=75-79; B=80-84; B+=85-89; A=90+.
The following kinds of work are required:
Attendance, preparation, participation (aka "app"): 10%. To earn full credit for this aspect of the course, you must have no unexcused absences (after you are registered for the course), or you must earn some extra-credit points to make up for absences. To indicate that you are present and prepared, turn in an index card at the beginning of each class, containing (1) your name (2) the date and (3) a comment or question about the assigned reading. (If you are behind, comment on what you have read-I will probably give you credit anyway.) Such cards will earn you one point of "app" credit. If you are absent without excuse, you lose three points for being absent, and you lose the opportunity to earn a point. If your absence is excused, you lose the opportunity to earn a point, but are not penalized three points. No cards on days on which quizzes or papers are due, but absences on such days do count against you.
Everyone starts with 50 points in "app." There are 42 class days after today.
Quizzes: There will be two short-answer quizzes to reward those who do the reading and reveal those who don't. The first one will cover Dryden, Behn, and the plays we read. The second will cover the other four writers, except that Lady Mary's play will be covered in quiz one. Each quiz counts 15%. Extra-credit points beyond those necessary to add up to 100 points in app may be used to improve quiz averages by no more than one grade level (for example, B to B+) at the rate of 5 extra-credit points per point of average. Thus if you want to raise your quiz grade from the lowest possible C+ (75) to a B, you would need to earn 25 extra-credit points, beyond the points you needed for app.
Papers: There will be two required papers (30% each); since someone is bound to ask, I will tell you that I would expect that each would be about 7-10 pages long, excluding notes, bibliography, title page, attached pictures, etc., i.e., between 1800 and 2500 words. Papers may be submitted on paper or electronically.
THE MINIMUM PENALTY FOR PLAGIARISM IS AN F ON THE PAPER. Plagiarism is the use of another person's intellectual property-his or her words or thoughts-as if they were your own. It is an unforgiveable crime in itself, and it defeats the purpose of your taking the course, which is not just to get credit or fulfill a requirement, but to become a better educated person. When in doubt, credit your source, even if it was an informal one, such as a teacher's lecture, or even if you can't do so correctly, perhaps because you have forgotten the author's name. Poor format in footnotes or bibliography, on the other hand, is only a minor crime-if your information is complete and consistently presented, I will be happy.
Unexecused late papers will be penalized two points for each class meeting late. Thus a paper that would have received an average B (82 or 83) will drop to a C+ if it is two days late. A shaky B (80 or 81) will drop to a C+ if it is one day late. GENERAL EXCEPTION: I count papers as on time if you can show me on the day a paper is due that you are working on it and have made progress and if you then turn it in at the next class meeting.
Paper topics:
(1) People of the age of Dryden or Pope. Ideally, this project will take the form of a Web-worthy biography of a real person (other than our six main authors),OR a fictional character (from some work NOT assigned for class dealing with life in late 17th or early 18th century England), OR a person you create after research on how people lived and worked in the period, giving your character some researchable quality or qualities, such as class, gender, job or profession, religion. In addition, using research and imagination, you must include a section at least 250 but not more than 500 words long about this person's (real or imaginary) visit to one of the plays we will read-what he or she saw, what he or she liked, what he or she disliked. Papers initially earning or rewritten to earn a B+ or an A will be posted on The World of London Theatre website, if you can give me a copy on disk or by email. If you know how or wish to learn how, you may prepare this paper as a web page, including pictures and links. If you wish to make additional refinements to your page that contribute to the content, not just to technological pyrotechnics, you can gain extra-credit points. Also, other contributions to the above website may earn extra credit.
(2) The age of Dryden and Pope and our own times. Analyze how one or more works you have read in this class relate to our own time (including ways in which they do not relate, if any). What can a late-twentieth-century reader learn from this three-hundred-year-old poem, play, or story, and what experiences do you bring to the work that make your response different from those of the original readers?
Extra credit: Throughout the semester I will mention ways of earning extra credit. One way is to turn in one-paragraph reviews of books, films, or websites related to the course and not previously identified by me or (to your knowledge) by other students. These reviews should be submitted on 3x5 index cards and must contain all the information necesssary for another student or me to find the material, as well as the best information you can find about the date of the work. (Many websites do not contain this information; for them, the date is "visited on" plus the date you visited it). Such reviews count one point just for identifying the work or site, or two to three points for identification plus commentary. Whenever possible and appropriate, I will post the reviews on The World of London Theatre.
ASSIGNMENT CALENDAR:: the dates listed are dates when the work is DUE. The numbers in parentheses give the page on which the work BEGINS, but you are supposed to read the whole work.
Aug. 23. Introduction.
Aug. 25. Dryden: Introduction by Dr. Earl Miner(ix); poems: To Dr. Charleton (22); Annus mirabilis stanzas 209-304 (156).
Aug. 27. Dryden: MacFlecknoe(185), To Mr. Oldham(280), Epilogue to the King at Oxford (196), Prologue at Oxford (198).
Aug. 30. Dryden: Begin Essay on Dramatic Poesy (27).
Sept. 1. Dryden: Complete Essay on Dramatic Poesy (80).
Sept. 3. Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel(200).
Sept. 6. LABOR DAY-No class meeting.
Sept 8 Dryden: Anne Killigrew (320), Song for St. Cecelia's Day (418), On Purcell (501), Alexander's Feast (503), To Kneller (474)
Sept. 10. Dryden: Preface to the Fables (515)
Sept. 13. Behn: Introduction by Dr. Janet Todd. "Poems" (329-350).
Sept. 15. Behn: Loveletters (143). Begin Oroonoko (73)
Sept. 17 Complete Oroonoko (103).
Sept 20. Dryden; Epilogue from Tyrannic Love (175) Behn, Epilogue spoken by Mrs. Gwin (329)
Sept. 22. Behn's The Rover (155-206)
Sept. 24. Finish the Rover, begin Dryden's Amphytrion (Acts I and II). In LION.
Sept 27. Complete Amphytrion. Dryden, poem to Congreve (468); begin TheWay of the World
Sept 29. Way of the World. Download or buy at Goerings ($1.50) or use library or second hand copy.
Oct 1 Complete The Way of the World. Montagu, Simplicity (313)
October 4 Gay The Beggar's Opera. Download or secondhand or library.
October 6 Gay The Beggar's Opera
October 8 QUIZ 1
Oct. 13 Swift: Introduction by Dr. Louis Landa, and short works: "A Modest Proposal" (439), "The Drapier's First Letter" (423), "A Description of the Morning" (449), "A Description of a City Shower" (450),"Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift" (458)
Oct 15 Swift Gulliver I and II
Oct 18 Swift: Gulliver III
Oct 20 FIRST PAPER DUE-May be EITHER topic (1) or topic (2)
Oct 22 Swift Gulliver IV
Oct. 25 Montagu Preface by Grundy (v) and Introduction to Poems (171). Eclogues (182-204).
Oct 27. Lady Mary: Poems (206-24, 230-32, 242-47)
Oct 29 Lady Mary: Essays (69-76, 83-97, 125-34)
Nov. 1 Lady Mary: Essays (135-45, 150-52)
Nov. 3 Pope Introduction by Dr. Pat Rogers and Essay on Criticism
Nov. 5 HOMECOMING-no class
M Nov. 8 Pope Rape of the Lock
Nov 10 Pope Eloisa to Abelard
Nov 12 Pope "An Epistle to Burlington" (On Riches), pp.67 ff.; "An Epistle to a Lady" (On the Character of Women) pp. 106 ff.
Nov. 15 Pope Essay on Man, I, II, and excerpts from III and IV selections
Nov 17 Pope to Arbuthnot pp. 93 ff.
Nov 19 Epilogues to the Satires (pp. 114-128)
M. Nov 22 Pope Dunciad selections
Nov 24 Anne Finch-from Internet. Biography
Poems More poems
Nov 26 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY-no class
Nov 29 Anne Finch: Poems in Biography above that you have not previously read:"On the Death of the Queen," "A Letter to Daphnis," "To Mr. F. now Earl of W.," "Ardelia to Melancholy," The Spleen, and "A Contemplation."
Dec 1 Review for quiz
Dec 3 SECOND QUIZ
M. Dec 6 SECOND PAPER DUE
W Dec 8 Retrospect-LAST DAY TO TURN IN EXTRA CREDIT OR REWRITES