Age of Johnson ENL3231

 Spring 2004 (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: M 6th period, T 4th period, and by appointment
SYLLABUS ONLINE at http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pcraddoc/johnsyl04.html

In the history of British literature, the second half of the “long eighteenth century” – roughly 1740–1810 – has been called by several titles, such as  the Enlightenment, the Pre-Romantic period, the Georgian age, and the Age of Johnson. Others that might be used include the Age of the Literature of Everyday Life, the Age of Classical Prose, the Age of Revolutions, the Age of Expansion – we might go on and on.  Why, then, do we settle on “The Age of Johnson”? Samuel Johnson wrote only one novel, only one play, only a small volume of poems – and some of those were in Latin. How  can such a man give his name to an “age”?

Essentially, he did so by his intellectual range and influence, especially his extraordinary contributions in a  wide variety of nonfictional genres, including the oral genre, conversation, as recorded by his friend and biographer, James Boswell.   Author of the first great English dictionary (and inventor of the idea of a dictionary that traced the usage and change of usage of words by quotations  from significant writers), famous throughout the English-speaking world as an essayist, and notable as a great editor and critic, as well as for his  original works, he will be represented by several works in this course. But we will also read the works of many of his friends, male and female, and  some of his enemies. Whenever Johnson undertook a new form of writing, he tried to think out what that form of writing ought to be – and therefore,  he was not only experimental and original in his own works, but encouraged similar responsible innovation in others.  We will explore this innovative period, attempting to recreate in our imaginations something of the world in which the works were written, so as to appreciate both what these writings meant in their own time and what they mean in our time.  And speaking of time:  we can consult
 

The Age of Johnson, Year by Year --Timeline with Web Links, by the students of ENL3231, University of Florida, 2001 and 2003
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; Burney's Evelina;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 editions of Walpole's The Castle of Otranto.  All are available at Goerings Books and Bagels 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 15
B.   5% Report on an 18th-century magazine LIST Due January 22  Example
C.   20% research project: eighteenth-century life Due February 12  List of POSSIBLE TOPICS D.  10% quiz 1  March 4
E.  10% Person profile Due March 18
F.  10 % paper: "a night at the theatre" Due March 30
G.  20% interpretative paper (any work(s) read except plays) Due April 15
H.. 10 % quiz 2 April 20
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.  Check the timelines in the syllabus and in Norton.for your two years.  Now go to the library and consult the books on chronology in the reserve section.  Find at least two new items to add to those in the on-line timelines students from this course have made.  If you find 3 acceptable items, you earn a B; 4 is a B+, and 5 is an A.  No credit for items repeated from the online sources; no credit for items for which you do not give a source, and no credit for items which would not 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.  Due January 15.

B. Eighteenth-century magazines are available in the library on microfilm; a few may be available in the Rare Book Room, upstairs at Library East.  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.  Your report must include both description and commentary.  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 22

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 12.

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 18

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 4 (Thursday before Spring Break) and April 20.

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 30

G. Interpretative paper (due April 15; I will gladly read and respond to drafts).

         Compare and contrast two poems or two prose works, other than plays, that  we have read this semester in both form ("form" means 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 the same period (1735-1800) that we have not studied in class.  Check with me first!
            OR
            Choose one of the works we have read this semester, excluding the plays, and write a modern "imitation" of it.  An imitation is a work that reuses features of an older work that dealt  with its own time to make new points about the new writer's time.  We have read Johnson's imitations in which he satirized eighteenth-century England by imitating the satires of the Roman poet Juvenal.  Many of you have seen the movie Clueless, which is a comedy about modern  privileged classes that reuses features of Jane Austen's novel Emma,  which is a comedy about the privileged classes of her day.  You will, then, write a "Clueless" using one of the works we have read for class as your model.

I. Class attendance and participation:  Everyone starts with 60 points.  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 "participation" 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 60 points=F; 60-64=D; 65-69=D+; 70-74= c; 75-79=C+; 80-84=B; 85-89=B+, 90-100=A.  Points above 100 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 Goering's Bookstore, 1st Avenue NW between 17th and 18th streets. MANY ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLY VIA INTERNET  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

6 Introduction

8 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.  (Search under "artist's name"--Hogarth.   This is a good opportunity for extra credit on your index cards.  Now is also a good time to  find the historical chronology sources in the reference section of Library West, temporarily housed in Library East.

DAILY LIFE

13-15 Johnson's London ,  on line. Also, Blake's London .  Note: whenever there are online assignments, you should 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. 15.

20-22 Boswell's London Journal FOCUS ON PP. 39-72, 74-77, 83-155, 259 (bottom of page)-332.  Magazine Project due January 22

27-29 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 3 Goldsmith, On line Selections from the Citizen of the World, TheTraveller    Selections from Frances Burney in Norton, pp. 2783-2805.

5, 10-12 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 (or use alternative link); 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 17-19.    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)

12 HISTORICAL RESEARCH PAPER DUE

17-19  SPECIAL CASES: 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 Online

WRITING ABOUT RELIGION

24 Hume on Miracles     Johnson, Review of Soame Jenyns

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

MARCH check dates
  2 Review for quiz 1  Review list

    4 Quiz 1

9-11 Spring break--no classes

DRAMA AND THEATRE
PLAYS
16-23 Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (Dover) and Sheridan, The School for Scandal
18 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)
30 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
6 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
   8 Johnson, Rasselas (in Norton, 2678-2712)
   13 Walpole, Castle of Otranto (World's Classics)

15 Interpretative paper due;  review for quiz

20 Final quiz