English 4520: The Nineteenth-Century Novel
"Two Hundred Years Since: Austen's Sister-Novelists in the Literary Marketplace"

Dr. Emily Friedman (Professor of Record, Office hours MWF 11.30-12.30 and by appointment, Haley 9002)

Today Jane Austen is the most famous woman writer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, but during her lifetimes she was neither the best-selling or even most-celebrated author among women. In this course we will look at the diversity of women's voices in the early days of the nineteenth century, examining the wide variety of subjects they tackled, and where the novel is headed, anticipating the work of writers of the imminent Victorian Period. We will study the textual realities of novel-production, culminating in a student-curated exhibition of the treasurers of RBD Library's Special Collection.

Schedule of Readings & Assignments

Texts

There are seven required books for this class, available at the University Bookstore:

‣ Broadview - Robinson, A Letter to the Women of England and the The Natural Daughter (1799)
‣ Broadview - Hamilton, Memoirs of Modern Philosophers (1800)
‣ Broadview - Plumptre, Something New (1801)
‣ Riverside - Two Irish National Tales: Edgeworth and Owenson (1800 and 1806)
‣ Broadview - More, Coelebs in Search of a Wife
‣ Broadview - Anonymous, The Woman of Colour (1808)
‣ Broadview - Porter, The Scottish Chiefs (1810)

I insist that you have the stated edition of these texts, because they contain valuable supplemental readings we will be using. These books are also available on Amazon, but if you go that route, make sure you will receive your books in time for class. When I provide electronic readings, I expect that you bring some (paper or electronic) form to class to annotate and make reference to. Some editions are also available in Kindle/ebook edition -- please consult with me before buying or downloading such editions (when they are bad they are worse than nothing).

General Class Policies

Course-specific Guidelines

Grade Breakdown

55%

"Critical Edition" Group Project
5% - Group Pre-Library Worksheet (Due in class 10/4)
5% - Individual Mid-Semester Progress Report (Due 10/22)
5% - Group Presentation on Novel (Due Exam Week)
5% - Critical Edition - Individual Appendix
10% - Critical Edition - Sample Chapter
15% - Critical Edition - Group Critical Introduction
15% - Critical Edition - Individual Final Paper
10% In-Class Discussion Leading

20%

Weekly Responses
15% Class Attendance, Discussion, and Participation



In-Class Discussion Leading
At the beginning of the second week, I will pass around a signup sheet listing days for in-class discussion-leading, which will occur at the beginning of class starting in late September. You and a partner will be responsible for leading our class discussion for 10-15 minutes.  You can bring in specific passages, bite-sized amount of illuminating information (word definitions, information about cultural quirks, etc.) if you choose.  You are, at minimum, responsible for creating:

As our classroom is "smart," you may choose to take advantage of our ability to show DVD clips, pages of text, and the like. Where appropriate, I will be showing you presentations done in the free online presentation program Prezi (http://www.prezi.com/) to show you some possible ways of organizing your information. Powerpoint is strongly discouraged.

After your presentation, every member of the class (including me) will fill out a Presentation and Discussion Form (sample) to evaluate your presentation. While I have the final decision as to your grade, I take peer response very seriously. You will receive all evaluation sheets back as soon as possible after your presentation.

Formal Research Project: Editing A Modern Scholarly Edition
(based on assignments by Marta Kvande and Miranda Yaggi)

For the final project, each student will work, in groups and independently, on tasks that explain and introduce early nineteenth-century texts to a wider audience.

In groups of five, you will produce a proposal for a "critical edition" of one of the novels held in Special Collections from this period (1800-1824). Your group will decide what sort of editorial choices will be made, style, formatting, etc. I have purposely chosen works that are NOT in Broadview editions or the like, but whose authors are listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB). Ultimately, your edition will include:

Formal writing in this discipline must conform to a consistent citation format (MLA, Chicago, etc.), in 12 point clear font, double-spaced, with 1 inch margins. Extensions on formal paper assignments (including drafts and proposals) will only be granted with more than 48 hours' notice. Late work without a prior extension will not be accepted.

A complete grading rubric is included on this website. Remember: I grade you on the work I see, not on your good intentions. I expect that you will have personally proofread (and ideally, had someone else read over) your formal writing prior to handing it in. Egregious grammar errors, typos, improper citation, formatting errors, etc. are unacceptable on formal writing assignments, as they imply sloppy thought and hasty writing. Papers with such errors will be marked down a letter grade.

Informal Weekly Writing
On weeks where we meet as a group, you will write once a week in response to each other and to our assigned readings, using Blackboard. Your responses should be at least 250 words in length and should demonstrate that you have read and carefully thought about the assigned reading.

You will be assigned one of two due dates - either Monday or Wednesday by midnight (in other words, the night before one of our class periods.) You should use this forum to:

‣ask substantive questions about the text assigned for the next class
‣to make connections among texts
‣to identify the central arguments of a given piece
‣to identify what you see as important themes and issues

I am less interested in what you liked or disliked about the reading (although that may be relevant to your response) than in what issues you found central and why. You might also think of these pieces as useful practice for your formal writing.

As we proceed, I will point out questions and responses that I think are particularly strong (and you can check some out from a prior class here), so that you may consider them as models for your future work. I will also provide additional feedback about your individual progress in this area when you request it. Each week, I will grade your online contributions as excellent (A/90-100), good (B/80-90), satisfactory (C/70-79), poor (D/60-69), and not adequate (F/below 60). You will be able to keep track of your grades via Blackboard.

Late work in this category will be accepted up to one week afterward but will not be graded higher than a C. Missed work is automatically recorded as an F. Multiple weeks of missing questions and responses will jeopardize your ability to pass the course.