Age of Johnson ENL3231

 Spring 2003 (Craddock) T2-3, R 3

Office: TUR 4332 Email pcraddoc@english.ufl.edu  Office phone: 392-6650 x259 Web URL http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pcraddoc Office hours: T 4th period, W 6th period, and by appointment
SYLLABUS ONLINE at http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pcraddoc/john03.htm

 

The Age of Johnson, Year by Year --Timeline with Web Links, by the students of ENL3121
University of Florida, 2001
Jack Lynch's Eighteenth-Century Chronology (Rutgers)
[N.B. both are works-in-progress, and the former is gratefully modelled on the latter]

INFORMATION

Required supplies: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, volume 1-C; Boswell's London Journal; Dover editions of Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer and Sheridan's  School for Scandal (any unabridged edition may be used; these are by far the cheapest, but have no notes); World's Classics (or other unabridged) editions of Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, Johnson's Rasselas, and Walpole's The Castle of Otranto.  All are available at Goerings Bookstore. You will also need a packet of 3x5 index cards.

GRADES WILL BE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING:

A.   5% Time line: two assigned years  LIST  Due January 16
B.   5% Report on an 18th-century magazine LISTDue January 23
C.   20% research project: eighteenth-century life Due February 13  List of POSSIBLE TOPICS
D.  10% quiz 1  March 6
E.  10% Person profile Due March 20
F.  10 % paper: "a night at the theatre" Due March 27
G.  20% interpretative paper (any work(s) read except plays) Due April 17
H.. 10 % quiz 2 April 22
I.   10%  Attendance and class participation Due all semester

Explanation of A-I

(Note: Plagiarism is the unforgiveable sin. DOCUMENT YOUR WORK AND DO IT YOURSELF!  Form of documentation isn't important, except that you should be consistent; completeness is crucial.) A. Time Line: everyone will be assigned two years, from 1735-1800.  For those two years, select from online and printed sources a total of 8 or 10 events that would affect the life of an ordinary English person living in those years.  Think of yourself as doing a year-summary for Time magazine or CNN.  Do not select, for instance, the birth of a person who would later be famous, but who meant nothing, of course, when he or she was only a baby, or a change from one Secretary of Defense to another if the change didn't affect ordinary people's lives.  You MUST indicate your sources for your information, you must have at least two different sources, and at least one of them must be a book.   Due January 16.

B. Eighteenth-century magazines are available in the library on microfilm; a few may be available on paper or online.  Find one from the list above; then choose ONE issue and write a one-page report about its contents, especially those features that might surprise today's magazine readers.  Turn in the name of the magazine and issue chosen as soon as possible, because duplicates will not be allowed, and the first request gets that issue.  Due January 23
  C. Historical research paper: Each person will choose a topic about eighteenth-century life (between 1735 and 1800) to research; the papers should be useful to your classmates who are trying to profile their selected or created persons.  Topics would include subjects like schools for boys, schools for girls, governesses and tutors, servants, religion, sports and games, parent-child relations, courtship, women's opportunities, careers in law, army, navy, medicine, etc., clothing and fashion, food and drink, music, art, popular amusements . . . . You get the picture.  If you already have a subject in mind, write it on your index card.  Otherwise, I'll pass around a signup sheet. Due February 13.
D. Person profile: Research the childhood and young adulthood of a real person from our period, or create an imaginary person whose life is based on real eighteenth-century ways of life.  Write a profile, that is,  a brief description and biography, or a (partially imaginary) "day in the life of" your chosen person, stopping at some age between 17 and 25.  Some Eighteenth-Century People to Research   Due March 20

E, H Quizzes  These will deal with matters of fact, including the "facts" of the contents of works we have read.  Before each quiz there will be a review session, but you will need to read carefully and make notes to do well on these quizzes.  Quizzes March 6 (Thursday before Spring Break) and April 22.
 F. A Night at the Theatre:  Your person has seen a performance of one of the plays that we have read.  Write an account of his/her visit to the theatre, in the form of a story, a dialogue (perhaps with you), an imaginery diary entry, etc.  Be sure to include his/her opinions of the play and explanations for them--analysis of the play itself is an important aspect of the paper.  Comment also, either as an introduction or afterword, or in notes, on your own opinion of the play, as a 21st century person. Due March 27

G. Interpretative paper (due April 17; I will gladly read and respond to drafts).  Topics:

    Select one of the nondramatic works we have read this semester and relate it to the 21st century in one of the following ways:             Treat it as "Clueless" treats Jane Austen's Emma, i.e., write a parallel work that reuses and refers to the plot and theme of the original, but makes new points about our time. Or, try to persuade a friend/family member that they would enjoy the work, explaining the parts that might confuse him/her, but analyzing the ways that the work is still relevant and enjoyable.

OR

            Compare and contrast two poems or two prose works we have read this semester in both form (everything about the work that can't be reproduced in a paraphrase) and content. Alternatively, you may compare one work we have read this semester to another from tIhe same period (1735-1800) that we have not studied in class.  Check with me first!I. Class attendance and participation: You will receive 1 point for every class you attend (Tuesdays count as two classes).  You will lose 2 points for every unexcused absence, i.e. 4 on Tuesdays.  To be credited with attendance, you will need to turn in a 3 x 5 card on which you have written your name, the name of your discussion group, and the date.  You may earn additional "performance" points by writing a comment or question on the card that shows you have been thinking about the assigned reading.  In addition, if you act as reporter for your group when we have group discussions, you will earn a point.  Grades for this portion of the course: Under 30 points=F; 30-32 = D; 33-34=D+; 35-37=C, 38-39=C+, 40-42=B, 43-44=B+, 45-50=A.  Points above 50 may be used to improve your grade in other aspects of the course.  In no case, however, will extra credit points beyond those used for class performance raise your grade more than one level (B to B+, or C+ to B, for example), and you cannot change an F to a D or a B+ to an A on the basis of extra performance credits.

TIMETABLE

Note that the books available for purchase are at Goerings Bookstore, 1st Avenue NW between 17th and 18th streets (“Books and Bagels”). MANY ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLY VIA INTERNET OR LIBRARY RESERVE OR PERSONAL PHOTOCOPYING. Since 10% of your grade will be based on class participation, as measured especially by evidence that you have kept up with the reading, do not overlook these assignments.

Writing About the Present

JANUARY

7 Introduction

9 Read Introduction to the Norton volume, pp. 2045-68.    You may skim the section on "Literary Principles," to which we will return, and  skip "Restoration literature," which is the period just preceding ours.  Visit the Norton website, at http//www.wwnorton.com/nael .   Explore the Norton appendices, in the back of the book pp. A11-A66.   Read also the biographical introduction to Samuel Johnson, pp. 2660-62.  "Read"--i.e., examine the pictures and the commentary on them--Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode, in Norton pp. 2652-59 and online.  Commentary online Color plates available from the National Gallery, London.   This is a good opportunity for extra credit on your index cards.  Now is also a good time to look in the library for the magazine you want to do, and to find the historical chronology sources in the reference section of Library West.

DAILY LIFE

14-16 Johnson's London ,  on line. Also, Blake's London .  Note: whenever there are online assignments, print out copies of the works to discuss in class, and/or make very careful notes, about particular content, not just general impressions.  Johnson's Rambler 5, Idler 31, Rambler 60, and introduction, Preface to Dictionary, sample definitions, all in Norton pp. 2674-79, 2716-25.  Timeline due Jan. 16.

21-23 Boswell's London Journal FOCUS ON PP. 39-72, 74-77, 83-155, 259 (bottom of page)-332.  Magazine Project due January 23

28-30 Selections from Burney's Evelina Vol I:  letters viii-xiv, xvi-xviii, xx-xxi; Vol II letters ix, xi-xv,xix, xxi, xxiii-xxiv, Vol. III letters i, iii .  If in your edition the letters are continuously numbered, without reference to the volume, add 31 to get the proper number in volume II (i.e. ix = xl), and 61 to get the proper number in volume III.

FEBRUARY 4 Goldsmith, On line Selections from the Citizen of the World, TheTraveller    Selections from Frances Burney in Norton, pp. 2783-2805.

6, 11-13 POEMS OF ORDINARY LIFE (all in Norton except those underlined, which have weblinks)

    Anna Barbauld: "The Rights of Women, " A Mouse's Petition," and "The Washing Day" in Selected Poems ; also read her "Epistle to Wilberforce on the Bill to Abolish the Slave Trade," or print it out to read with the "Slavery and Freedom" section February 18-20.    Collins, "Ode to Evening" (Norton 2836-7)    Gray, "Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, " "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat," "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" (Norton 2825-2832; see also A8-A10)    Johnson, " A Short Song of Congratulations " and "On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet" (Norton 2672)    Thomson, " Winter " from The Seasons (For introduction see Norton 2822)
13 HISTORICAL RESEARCH PAPER DUE
18-20  Special Cases in Ordinary Life: poetic reportage; slavery (Norton or online if underlined);   Cowper: " The Castaway "    Crabbe: " Peter Grimes "    Goldsmith: " Deserted Village "    In Norton 2806-2821, "Slavery and Freedom" ; also Norton OnlineWRITING ABOUT RELIGION25 Hume on Miracles     Johnson, Review of Soame Jenyns

27 Wesley, sermon  "The Almost Christian"
    Smart, "Jubilate Agno" (Norton 2839-1841)

MARCH
  4 Review for quiz 1  Review list

6 Quiz 1
 

11-13 Spring break--no classes
DRAMA AND THEATRE

18 Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (Dover)
20 Sheridan, The School for Scandal (Dover) PERSON PROFILE due

Relevant website

Criticism: 25 Samuel Johnson, Prologue spoken at the opening of Drury Lane Theatre, 1747 (Norton 2670);  Preface and notes to Shakespeare (Norton 2725-2734)27 Short paper, "A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE," due

April

The Long View 1 Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes Norton 2662-70; also Norton A6-A7
                3-8 Gibbon, Excerpts from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; chapter 1, chapter 6, and the first part of chapter 15.

Experiments in Fiction and Poetry
    10 Johnson, Rasselas (World's Classics--not just excerpts in Norton)
    15 Walpole, Castle of Otranto (World's Classics);

17 Interpretative paper due;  2003 review for quiz

22 Final quiz