Syllabus, ENG 460, Spring 1996

January

12 Documents of empire

first oral presentations: Characterize the imperial frame of mind as you reflected in the commonplace book & other documents you examine in class on Friday. Reports next week (15-19)

15/17/19 oral reports & discussion: empire then and now

22 The Sign of the Four (1890) exercise in class

24 The Sign of the Four, discussion of exercises

26 The Sign of Four, film

29 The Speckled Band (1892) exercise in class

31 The Speckled Band, discussion of exercises

february

2 The Speckled Band, film

5 Hodgson, "The Recoil of The Speckled Band" (Hodgson, 335-52)

7 Hennessy & Mohan, "The Construction of Woman in a Popular Text of Empire" (Hodgson, 389-401)

9 Jaya Mehta, "English Romance; Indian Violence"

12 Kipling, Stories of India (exercise)

14 Kipling (3-147), discussions of exercises

16 Kipling stories

19 Kipling, Soldiers' Tales, Jungle Books (exercises)

21 Kipling (149-254), discussion of exercises

23 Kipling tales

26 Kipling, Late Stories (exercises)

28 Kipling (451-557), discussions of exercises

30 second oral presentations: read through Kipling's late stories (561-660) and select two or three to discuss at length in your paper. You should choose poems on the same theme, and draw in material from the stories to help expand on the contexts, where possible.

march

4 Kipling, poems (reports)

6 Kipling, poems (reports)

8 Kipling, poems (reports

11 (schedule change)

13 (schedule change)

15 (schedule change)

18 Conrad, Heart of Darkness (exercise)

20 Conrad, Heart of Darkness, discussions of exercises

22 Conrad, Heart of Darkness, conclusions

third oral presentations: select one of the five critical approaches to Conrad's story and characterize the approach. Why would a reader choose to read in this way? Try to challenge the approach as well as entering sympathetically into it.

25 Murfin, "The Critical Background" (97-112)

27 reports on Karl (psychoanalytic criticism)

29 reports on Rosmarin (reader-response criticism)

april

1 reports on Smith (feminist criticism)

3 reports on Miller (deconstructive criticism)

5 reports on Thomas (new historical criticism)

8 George Orwell, Burmese Days (exercise)

10 Orwell, discussion of exercises

12 (no class)

15-26 SCREENING OF FORSTER'S A PASSAGE TO INDIA (discussion)