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Syllabus

Restoration and 18c Literature: Reading Bodies

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Course Requirements
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BULLETIN COURSE DESCRIPTION: ENG333 (Liberal Arts) Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature 3 hrs. 3 crs. Prose, poetry and drama from 1660 through the 18th century, including such major figures as Congreve, Swift, Pope, Fielding and Johnson. Preq: ENG 126 or ENG 200. This is a hybrid course.

READING BODIES: This section of 333 will focus on the rise of the novel, particularly with connection to fears about the effects of reading on the (often female) body. In addition to understanding some of the main concerns of the period (science, knowledge, class) we will explore the social, economic, and historical contexts that influenced the period’s major writers. As critics, readers, and writers, we will put ourselves in the minds and bodies of novel readers and novel publishers, making our own tools, title pages, and periodicals.

REQUIRED TEXTS: All of our readings will be freely available online. If you prefer print editions, look for the following titles (often available in anthologies):

Burney, Francis. Evelina: Or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1779).

Cavendish, Margaret. The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World (1668).

Fielding, Henry. An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews (1741).

Gay, John. The Beggar’s Opera (1728).

Heywood, Eliza. Fantomina; or Love in a Maze (1725).

Richardson, Samuel. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740).

Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto (1764).

Wycherley, William. The Country Wife (1675).

Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, students will be expected to:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of relevant historical and cultural contexts, including literary movements, major social trends, significant political events, and canonicity.
  2. Identify and analyze relevant genres and forms like the epistolary novel, drama, essay, and periodical.
  3. Understand and practice the skill of close textual reading by linking (and questioning!) authorial intention with textual analysis.
  4. Acquire and employ a basic vocabulary of literary and critical terms.
  5. Practice comparative analysis of two or more works.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance is essential to success in this course. The student is responsible for all material presented in this course and is expected to actively participate in the learning process.  Students are responsible for obtaining material from missed classes. Students must obtain any class notes from fellow classmates.  Please inform the instructor about any health conditions that could create a classroom emergency. The student is responsible for discussing with the instructor any needed accommodations.  Repeated tardiness or early leave from class is not acceptable.

  • Students may miss no more than two (2) sessions, which should be reserved for unforeseen emergencies.
    • Roll call will be conducted every day at the start of class. If you’re not in class by that time, you will be marked as late.

Dropping the class: Make sure you pay careful attention to how dropping a course may affect your financial aid. See here for more information: https://www.york.cuny.edu/administrative/finaid/frequenly-asked-questions/what-happens-to-my-financial-aid-if-i-drop-a-course

Feb. 2: Last day to drop with “WD” grade.

Feb 16: Last day to drop a course.

Apr. 16: Last day to withdraw. After this date all enrolled students will receive a final grade.

In order to avoid such penalties students will have to discuss the exceptional reasons for absence with the instructor, preferably ahead of time, and provide viable proof of emergency. This means: keep me in the loop! If I don’t know, I can’t help. And, please, take responsibility for your choices.

York College Resources

Computers with word processing software and internet access are available in the library and in computer labs.

  • English as Second Language (ESL) Tutoring Center: Tutoring is available for ESL students in Academic Core 3C08. Call (718) 262-2831 for schedule.
  • Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities may contact the STAR Program to learn about and gain access to resources available to them at the college. See their website at http://york.cuny.edu/student-development/star for more details.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:  The main components to successful completion of this course:

Hybrid Requirement: Twitter Participation 150 pts. (15%)
Group Annotations/Twitter Leaders 200 pts. (20%)
In-Class Participation and Reading Quizzes 100 pts. (10%)
Monthly Blogs 100 pts. (10%)
Project 1: Novel-Reading and “Trashy” Culture 150 pts. (15%) Due 3/12
Project 2: Judge a Book by Its Cover 200 pts. (20%) Due 5/14
Final Exam (Original Covers) 100 pts. (10%) Due 5/21

TOTAL = 1000 pts.

All written assignments, including short responses, are required to follow proper MLA documentation. We will revise MLA guidelines in class, but you should be prepared to consult recommended links and resources whenever necessary.

NOTE: You will receive detailed assignment instructions along with grading rubrics for each of the projects below roughly three weeks before they are due. The instructions and details will be covered in class (see schedule). Budget your time accordingly to keep up with due dates!

  • COURSE WEBSITE (ENG333.gc.commons.cuny.edu): The online portions of our class will be run on a CUNY Commons website (note the url above). Assignments, instructions, and discussion questions will be posted on this website, so keep track of it by bookmarking it on your browser. The most updated schedule for our course will also be on this site. You will need to register for a free Commons account in order to access our course site.
  1. HYBRID REQUIREMENT: TWITTER PARTICIPATION This class requires you to invest one hour of our weekly meetings completing work online. Occasionally you will be asked to read additional materials, watch videos, and complete quizzes. You will also be asked to regularly contribute to and sustain conversations on Twitter using the hashtag #ENG333. Weekly, one of your peers will monitor discussion by posting questions and offering follow-up comments and background information. Twitter participation will be graded on a contract basis: committing to a number of (substantial, thoughtful) tweets throughout the semester will equate to specific grades. More details will follow on our course site. Tweets might react to the reading, continue a previous class discussion, point us to a key place in the text, or ask a thoughtful and detailed question. We will discuss in class how and why to engage in Twitter for academic purposes.

 2) GROUP ANNOTATIONS/TWITTER LEADERS For this multimodal project, you will be put into groups to annotate and prepare discussion questions for one of our readings. Using a social annotation online resource, your group will prepare annotations five days ahead of time the reading is assigned to the rest of the class. Throughout the week, you and your group will help conduct discussion via Twitter and get us to think about the text in interesting, new ways.

3)   CLASS PARTICIPATION       This discussion will be a better experience for all of us if everyone comes to class ready and willing to be a part of it.  Please plan on taking part in exciting conversations, asking hard questions, and engaging with the material in new ways. You will occasionally be asked to read text out loud, so be sure to bring your texts with you to all class meetings. Class participation is also impacted by punctuality and physical presence.

Check your space: This class is a community, and within it we need to respect each other and our wide range of ideas. As members of a community, we need to be aware of and in control of our own dynamics in the class.  Come to discussion ready to add to, not detract from, our group.

Be focused: No texting! Keep social media and digital distractions at bay. Students who take phone calls or send text messages during class will be marked absent for that day.

4) BLOGS Periodically throughout the semester you will be asked to write short, formal blogs reflecting on aspects of eighteenth-century life and culture. We will think about how our bodies perform when reading, writing, and engaging with printed (and digital) books and relate those experiences with the fictional lives we read about. Blogs should be formally structured, proofread, and formatted. Each blog is with 25 points.

5) PROJECT 1: Novel-Reading and “Trashy” Culture (3-4 pages)        This project will engage you in understanding some of the critical and historical contexts for our readings, particularly with relation to the effects of reading on the body. You will select from a range of provided primary sources (that is, sources written at the same time as our course readings) and place them in conversation with literary themes and historical concerns of the period.

6)  PROJECT 2: Judge a Book by Its Cover (5-7 pages)  Do covers condition how we read and analyze books?For this essay, you will be asked to do some hands-on research on used and trade bookstores (and online) looking for editions of one of our readings this semester. Your analysis should consider elements like design, color, and text, as well as the more symbolic elements evoked by the covers. Your paper should demonstrate a deep understanding of the readings as well as their literary and critical backgrounds in order to justify your argument.

7)   Final Exam and Original Cover            This small assignment will be the capper of our course, and will encourage you to explore your own creative side by designing your own title page for one of our books. In addition to submitting your creative work, you will also be asked to present it to the class and write a reflection explaining its rationale. Bonus points may be available to reward hard work and originality!

GRADE DISTRIBUTION IS AS FOLLOWS:

A+ =97.0-100

A  =93.0-96.9

A- =90.0-92.9

B+=87.0-89.9

B =83.0-86.9

B-=80.0-82.9

C+= 77.0-79.9

C =73.0-76.9

C-=70.0-72.9

D+=67.0-69.9

D= 60.0-66.9

CHEATING & PLAGIARISM:    The English Department abides by York’s policies on academic dishonesty, and considers all forms of cheating as unacceptable. Plagiarism includes copying language, texts, and visuals without citation (e.g., cutting and pasting from websites).  Plagiarism also includes submitting papers that were written by another student or downloaded from the internet. York College describes cheating and plagiarism as:

  1. “Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted us of material, information, notes, study aids, devices or communication during an academic exercise.”
  2. “Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research, or writings as your own.”

Plagiarism is a serious academic offense:  the minimum penalty for plagiarism is an F for the assignment; the full penalty for plagiarism may result in an F for the course.  All cases of plagiarism in ENG 333 will be reported to the York College’s Academic Integrity Officer. Information about plagiarism procedures is available here: http://www.york.cuny.edu/president/legal-compliance/legal-affairs/cuny-legal-policies-procedures/Academic-Integrity-Policy.pdf 

Assignments in ENG 333 may be submitted to Safe Assign for plagiarism check.

 

CLASSROOM CONTRACT:  All Students are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner. Keep in mind that our class is a place to share ideas and questions, but it is also a shared space which demands mutual respect and understanding. If you feel like your gadgets or your friends may be disruptive to the class, please keep yourself in check.

  1. Hybrid courses require commitment. If you’ve never taken a hybrid class before, be aware that hybrid courses can be extremely demanding and time-consuming. They require independent, self-guided work and extra time devoted to reading and writing on top of regular assignments. Make sure you reserve an extra hour every week to complete hybrid requirements.
  2. Take responsibility. If you leave your work to the last minute, skip classes, consistently show up late, sleep or talk during class, your grade will suffer. Do not rely on your professors to make up or accept excuses for your behavior. Keep track of your grades and budget your time to accommodate for the demands of the class.
  3. Ask for help when you need it. I am happy to discuss drafts, outlines, or ideas during my office hours. As noted above, my office hours are from 3:00-5:00 pm on Mondays, but we can make virtual appointments as needed. I consider this your time, and I encourage you to make use of it. Please don’t think of meeting with me as something to do only as a last resort but rather as an important and integral part of your learning.
  4. Devices/readings: You may use your devices to access course materials only if you have a tablet or laptop. Cell phone usage is not permitted during class.
  5. Technology Problems: This course relies heavily on access to computers and the Internet. At some point during the semester you WILL have a problem with technology: your laptop will crash, a file will become corrupted, a server will go down, or something else will occur. These are facts of life, not emergencies. Sadly, technological excuses (“my printer died,” etc.) cannot be accepted under any circumstances. Always make back-ups for your work, and plan ahead so that you will have time to use the on-campus computers and printers if necessary.This is a hidden message to check how thoroughly you read the syllabus. If you see this, post a picture of a polar bear in the reading quiz (save to computer and upload file).
  6. Late Work. You are expected to make up work if you are not here. If you will miss class the day an assignment is due it is still your responsibility to turn in a digital copy of that assignment before it is due. Small assignments automatically lose 10% of the total grade for each late date. Major papers will not be accepted past the due date. Students must contact the instructor in advance if work cannot be submitted by the due date. The instructor will determine specific grade reductions based on timely prior notification, whether revised deadlines are met, and similar factors.  Late papers will be accepted and graded only if a new deadline is arranged with the instructor in advance (at least 48 hours prior to deadline). No comments will be provided for late work. 
  7. You may email or talk to me at any time with questions. But first: CHECK THE SYLLABUS. The answer to many of your questions might be in this very document. I will do my best to respond within 24 hours (48 hours on weekends). If you send me an email at 1am, you probably won’t get a response until the next day (even if your paper was due at midnight!).