Spring 2024 - ENGL 320 D100
The Long Eighteenth Century and the Romantic Era (4)
Class Number: 4516
Delivery Method: In Person
Overview
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Course Times + Location:
Jan 8 – Apr 12, 2024: Tue, Thu, 8:30–10:20 a.m.
Burnaby
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Instructor:
Nicky Didicher
didicher@sfu.ca
1 778 782-4337
Office: AQ 6143
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Prerequisites:
30 units or two 200-division English courses.
Description
CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:
The study of literature and culture between c. 1660 and 1830, Texts may be drawn from a variety of media, forms, and genres, and may address issues of gender, race, class, national identity, and more. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught.
COURSE DETAILS:
We Edit and Publish a Chapbook Anthology
This course will use as its primary resource the online Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive and will create as a class project an edited short anthology of poems drawn from it, organized by theme. At the beginning of term, we will explore the database and come to a consensus as to an overarching theme or a set of related themes for the project (perhaps war, women, religion, foreign countries and travel, family and domestic life…? it will be up to us to decide). Each student will then select a poem from within the theme(s) and which has not been previously anthologized, research the author, write a headnote, edit the poem for a modern edition, and write explanatory footnotes for it. At term’s end, the anthology will be published via SFU Library’s Digital Publishing and listed in our library catalogue. It will look similar to this project from Engl 320 in Spring 2022: https://monographs.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/sfulibrary/catalog/book/103.
A significant amount of in-class time will be spent on the class project. Nicky will also be teaching eighteenth-century poetic practices, tropes, and genres, and giving background/contextualizing information appropriate to whatever theme(s) we choose. Sixty percent of the course grade is for a student’s contribution to the class project, with two smaller assessments chosen from a list of options making up forty percent. Nicky will offer feedback on student work, but each student will be assigning their own marks, justifying them with evidence from their work. You can trust her--this will be OK! The course has no final exam, no textbook, and possibly no essay (you can choose to write one). It will involve a fair amount of research, plus work on your writing, editing, and proofreading skills.
COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:
- gain understanding of poetic practices in English in the long eighteenth century and their socio-historic contexts
- learn to use literary archives and databases
- develop/improve skills in research, editing, and clear concise professional writing
- allow students the opportunity to develop/improve creative and technological expertise
- allow students to adapt course work to suit their interests
Grading
REQUIREMENTS:
Required Assessment, 60% of course grade, completed gradually over the semester
- Headnote, edited text, and footnotes for a poem chosen from the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (poems should be between 12 and 80 lines in length)
- students will submit each stage of the project for feedback (from Nicky and/or their peers), have an opportunity to revise, and then use a rubric to assign themselves a specific number of marks on it
Optional Assessments (in alphabetical order), 20% of course grade each: choose 2, one of which should be completed in the first half of term (or, in the case of participation, half completed); students may request feedback on any optional assessment before submitting it with a completed rubric and a self-assigned grade
- Annotated bibliography of academic sources on a poet from the long eighteenth century (short summaries and evaluations of 7-10 critical articles or book chapters)
- Creative project (e.g., write a poem in imitation of or response to eighteenth-century poetry, set a poem to music, create a cover for our anthology; must include a short explanatory essay)
- Critique/evaluation of web-based materials available on a poet from the long eighteenth century (including both academic and non-academic sites, under 1500 words)
- Essay either on a specific poem or on some aspect of poetry in the long eighteenth century more generally (c. 2000-2500 words)
- Participation, mainly in class (over the semester)
- Podcast on some aspect of poetry in the long eighteenth century (20-minute recording, needs to be done with a partner or in a group of three; must include a written outline & report on who did what; marks assigned by individual students to themselves)
- Seminar sharing your research about your poet/poem with the class (20-minute live presentation; must have a follow-up written summary and self-reflection)
Materials
MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:
Access to the internet and a laptop or tablet computer will be essential to this course.
REQUIRED READING NOTES:
Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.
Department Undergraduate Notes:
IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.
For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.
Registrar Notes:
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS
SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.
Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html