British Literature
From Course Expectations:
"Juniors in this survey course will take a brief look at British literature backwards: from modern day back to Shakespeare and beyond. Everybody will engage with pieces of writing in a variety of manners: from reader-response to close reading and literary criticism. Throughout the year, students will be exposed to a variety of writers, including both canonical and modern ones. Both poetry and prose will be studied; however, the short story form as well as poetry will be emphasized most."
P.S. Students will be happy to know that in the second edition of the textbook, I took out lectures on Beowulf, Cronin's Hatter's Castle, Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, Golding's Lord of the Flies. I also plan to devote more time to modern writing and thus sacrifice Defoe, but we'll see.
We're moving online!
(for the foreseeable future)
(for the foreseeable future)
So, as the title suggests, we will not be meeting in room #26 (or room #17 if you're in 11B-2) starting 10/19/2020. All the assignments will be posted in Google Classroom. The instructions for submissions are also there. We are going to move forward with our usual VPQ homework. I will be helping you with the material on weekly Zoom meetings as I used to. Additionally, I have office hours: they are by appointment on Zoom. Since I work at school part-time, I will be able for office hours mostly on Wed or Fri. However, provided extenuating circumstances, I shall be glad to accommodate other times.
If you have any additional questions or concerns please reach out to daniil [dot] ozernyi [at] gmail [dot] com!
Taught at Collegium #16 Fall-Spring 2020-21 (four sections: 10A-1, 10A-2, 10B-1, 10B-2)
Required texts:
- British Literature, 2nd Ed. (2020) by Daniil Ozernyi and Olha Sierostanova
- a copybook or a notebook of your own choosing
Assessment criteria
In-class Discussion (max 6 points, 2 discussions combine to form one discussion grade)
You get
1 you present a distraction to others or negatively affect class in other ways.
2 if you did not open your mouth a single time.
3 if your contributions are limited by "yes/no/maybe," and alike.
4 if you contribute only marginally. You didn’t read the text, but you googled what it was about. You don’t ask meaningful questions or interpret the reading.
5 if you contribute but ideas are not supported by the text. You might just say one thing or two, but then disengage from the conversation. You may repeat points that were already made, dominate discussion.
6 if you positively enrich discussion with deep questions and/or interpretations of the readings. You quote text. You listen carefully and respond to others’ ideas perceptively. You do not dominate the discussion.
Homework: Vocabulary (max 3 points)
You get
1 if you did not write anything.
2 if you forgot definition(s), part of speech, or sentence.
3 if you completed every part.
Homework: Paragraph (max 6 points)
You get
1 if you did not write anything.
2 if you wrote a paragraph, but it was impossible to understand because of grammatical/lexical mistakes, or your writing was irrelevant to the reading.
3 if your writing had little to do with the text, or you did not analyse language, did not express your view on precise points, your writing is generic with the main point hard to discern.
4 if your writing contained some ideas, but did not focus on one. Instead, it seemed to be a number of sentences piled together. The main point might be not discernible.
5 if your writing was fine, but you wrote too little, or there is not enough analysis in your writing, or there are gross (significant) mistakes.
6 if you did a great job, and your work is completed well.
Homework: Question (max 3 points)
You get
1 if you did not write anything.
2 if you had a question, but it was factual.
3 if you did a great job and your question was good.
Complete reading list: short prose
James Joyce: An Encounter, The Sisters, Araby, Eveline, After the Race, A Little Cloud, Counterparts, A Painful Case, Grace
Charles Dickens: Hunted Down, The Lamplighter, The Signal Man, The Trial For Murder, To Be Read At Dusk, Tom Tiddler's Ground
Somerset Maugham: The Fall of Edward Barnard, The Taipan, The Outstation, Louise, His Excellency, The Man with the Scar, The Portrait of a Gentleman, A Man from Glasgow, Rain
Arthur Conan Doyle
Nell Dunn
E. M. Forster
Maxwell Grey
Ethel Holdsworth
Tom Hood
Aldous Huxley
Samuel Beckett
Oscar Wilde: The Canterville Ghost
Edna O’Brien
Jonathan Swift: A Modest Proposal
Herman Melville: Bartleby, the Scrivener
Complete reading list: poetry
William Shakespeare: To be or not to be… from Hamlet, Is this a dagger that I see before me… from Macbeth, Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more... from Henry V, Now is the winter of our discontent... from Richard III, I left no ring with her… from Twelfth Night, O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? from Romeo and Juliet, Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears... from Julius Ceasar, a sonnet of your choice or any play by Shakespeare
William Blake: A Poison Tree, The Sick Rose, London, The Lamb, The Clod and the Pebble, The Tyger, Never Seek to Tell Thy Love
Percy Shelley: Ozymandias, Adonais, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Mont Blanc
Lord G. D. Byron: She Walks in Beauty, So We'll Go No More a-Roving, from Don Juan: Canto 1, Stanzas 41-42, Darkness, The Destruction of Sennacherib, CLXXIX. Canto the fourth of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, From Canto the First of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush, In Tenebris, England to Germany in 1914, The Haunter, The Oxen, The Ruined Maid, The Voice, Neutral Tones,
Lewis Carrol: A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky, The Walrus and the Carpenter, Jabberwocky, The Hunting of the Snark, Christmas Greetings from a Fairy to a Child
Elizabeth Browning: A Musical Instrument, To Flush, My Dog, from Aurora Leigh, Third Book
Robert Burns: My Heart’s in the Highlands, John Barleycorn, O Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast, For A’ That and A’ That..., A Red, Red Rose
Robert Browning: My Last Duchess
Seamus Heaney: Blackberry-Picking, Death of a Naturalist, Digging, Clearances: 1,
Isaac Rosenberg: August 1914, Louse Hunting, The Jew, Dead Man's Dump, Marching, Soldier: Twentieth Century, Returning, We Hear the Larks, Through these Pale Cold Days, A Worm Fed on the Heart of Corinth
William Wordsworth: London, 1802
John Milton: Sonnet 7: How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Sonnet 23: Methought I saw my late espoused saint, Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent, Lycidas
Samuel Coleridge: The Rime of Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Dejection: An Ode, Frost at Midnight,
Ann Sanson: Voice
Stuart Henson: The Price
Cristopher Logue: Come to the edge..!
James Fenton: The Mistake
Derek Walcott: Love After Love
J.R.R. Tolkien: All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter
U.S. Fanthorpe: Atlas
Jack Gilbert: Failing And Flying
Wendy Cope: Two Cures for Love