Catalog Description

Prerequisite: Eligibility for ENGL 1A
Hours: 54 lecture
Description: Survey of British, British Empire, and Commonwealth authors from the Romantic Movement through the late 20th to early 21st century. Includes works of principal Romantic, Victorian, and 20th century poets, novelists, playwrights, and/or essayists, as well as selected works of significant and representative minor authors. Incorporates analysis of the development of literary forms, developments and transformations of central themes, and developments in the historical, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts of the literature. Students may begin with either 46A or 46B. (C-ID ENGL 165) (CSU, UC)

Course Student Learning Outcomes

  • CSLO #1: In writing, analyze and evaluate major themes of Romantic through Post-modern literature in historical and cultural terms.
  • CSLO #2: In writing, analyze and evaluate formal developments in Romantic through Post-modern literature.
  • CSLO #3: Conduct and evaluate critical research on individual writers and texts to be included in a written literary analysis.

Effective Term

Fall 2017

Course Type

Credit - Degree-applicable

Contact Hours

54

Outside of Class Hours

108

Total Student Learning Hours

162

Course Objectives

A student completing English 46B will be able to:
1. Identify, interpret and analyze English literature from the late 18th-Century (pre and early Romanticism) to the 21st-Century (post-modernism) in thematic, literary, cultural, social, political, and critical terms.
2. Identify and analyze the major features of different genres, types, and eras of English Literature.
3. Analyze the relationships between culture and literary form and content.
4. Identify central literary devices of each writer and era and apply this knowledge to the interpretation, analysis, and evaluation of individual works of literature and authors, including major authors and selected minor authors from each historical period.
5. Identify, interpret, and analyze the themes of individual texts and authors in context: e.g., history and historical processes, politics, culture, philosophy, religion, science, and literary trends and relationships.
6. Identify, interpret, analyze, and evaluate significant historical and cultural issues central to each historical period, including ideologies of class, gender, and national identity.
7. Conduct independent research in the historical and cultural contexts of individual authors and texts.
8. Interpret, analyze, and evaluate primary and secondary sources in literature.
9. Synthesize and generalize about themes and forms of literature across various historical periods, aesthetic developments, and works by various authors.
10. Communicate analyses, interpretations and critiques of single works or several works by the same author, or to several closely related texts in class discussion and in required essays and exams.

General Education Information

  • Approved College Associate Degree GE Applicability
    • AA/AS - Literature & Language
  • CSU GE Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU approval)
    • CSUGE - C2 Humanities
  • Cal-GETC Applicability (Recommended - Requires External Approval)
    • IGETC Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU/UC approval)
      • IGETC - 3B Humanities

    Articulation Information

    • CSU Transferable
    • UC Transferable

    Methods of Evaluation

    • Classroom Discussions
      • Example: After a brief lecture/discussion, or as a preliminary activity, students will respond individually to a conceptual question, exchange their responses, and present their ideas in a follow-up discussion. Responses will generally receive full credit if they are complete; if responses are evaluated the evaluation will take accuracy, interpretation, and participation into account. Example: After a brief discussion or review of Romantic symbolism, students respond to the following question: A wind or breeze is often a central motif in Romantic poetry and a symbol; what role does the wind play in "The Eolian Harp" and "Ode to the West Wind"?
    • Essay Examinations
      • Example: Student will respond to questions requiring comparison/contrast of selected works, analysis of themes in selected works in historical context, and evaluation of critical interpretations of an era or selected texts. Tests will measure performance in identification, application of concepts, interpretation, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Example: According to some critics, like the original editor of The Norton Anthology, Romanticism presents a radical re-evaluation of religion. Not only do the poets question or undermine “revealed” religion (doctrine) and conventional morality, but they present themselves as prophets of a new, experiential, human or nature centered theology or spiritual vision. Do you agree with this critical interpretation of Romantic poetry? Here are some questions you may want to consider: Is there a particular “romantic” kind of religion? Are all of the writers radical? Support your response by reference to five of the following writers. One of the selections must be by Wordsworth; one must be by Blake or Shelley; the others are up to you. You must choose from the list below. You can choose no more than one work by each author. If you want, you can use one or two of the poets to create a focus/theme and then develop the responses to the other poets in those terms (how the texts are alike or different, for example). Or you can construct a general thesis and then use the writers as you choose--or you can address all of them in order and then draw a conclusion; it's up to you. Evaluation will consider accuracy, success in relating individual texts/writers to general cultural or aesthetic concepts, and success in providing relevant support for claims regarding the poets and poetry. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell The Poor Singing Dame The Ruined Cottage Ode: Intimations of Immortality The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Frost at Midnight Manfred Prometheus Unbound Ode to a Nightingale
    • Objective Examinations
      • Example: A limited number of factual questions on major works, incorporating any of the following: central details, quotations, or significant motifs. These appear on the midterm or final, or both. All answers incorporate limited or minimal interpretation. Responses will be evaluated on accuracy and thematic relevance of the claim. Examples: a) What event pre-occupies Mrs. Dalloway in her thoughts in the opening sequence of the novel and what does this tell us about her social class and character? b) In “Break of Day in the Trenches,” the speaker compares his condition to that of an animal that also resides in the trenches; what is the animal and what is the point of the comparison?
    • Projects
      • Example: Research essay: Students will select one or two major assigned works and then: a) Conduct independent research on any or all of the following as appropriate: the contexts of the literature, literary theory, critical analysis of the individual writers and texts or related subjects, and b) incorporate the research in an essay independently interpreting or analyzing a central theme or other question. Essays will be evaluated in terms of a) the effective integration of sources and/or literary criticism; b) clarity and coherence; c) effective and independent use of evidence to support the essay's claims; d) historical and interpretive accuracy. Grading will follow a rubric developed for 46B. Example: An essay analyzing Coketown and other elements in "Hard Times" as a dystopian society, created by Dickens' to reflect his critique and other writers' critiques of industrialism and Utilitarian philosophy.
    • Reports
      • Example: Group presentation (in an online class this would be a group research project): The instructor creates groups (or students select their own) to originate discussion on the assigned reading for one class day; each group presents on a different day. The presentation explores the assigned work or works, using whatever support the group finds useful or appropriate (Power Point, for example), addressing the work(s) and the writer(s) in detail and exploring the relationship of the works to their biographical, cultural, and/or literary context. Students remain to answer questions following the presentation. Presentations are evaluated according to their accuracy, thoroughness (within the limits of the presentation), and their engagement of the issues raised throughout the semester. Sample: A presentation on "The Importance of Being Earnest" exploring its characters, action, and themes as well as its relationship to the writer and its context.

    Repeatable

    No

    Methods of Instruction

    • Lecture/Discussion
    • Distance Learning

    Lecture:

    1. Instructor presents a brief lecture on the uses of the supernatural in Romantic literature and asks students in groups to respond to the "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in terms of the symbolic and thematic use and/or meaning of supernatural imagery and actions. Instructor will facilitate discussion of conclusions regarding the moral/theological, psychological, and/or mythological themes of the text.

    Distance Learning

    1. Instructor facilitates discussion groups that engage in comparative and causal analysis to identify and evaluate central paradigms of historical periods: e.g., Victorian constructions of the idea of gender expressed in "The Lady of Shallott" and "Aurora Leigh." Students will present their interpretations of the text in relationship to this question (as a group or in writing)

    Typical Out of Class Assignments

    Reading Assignments

    1. Students will read the short selections from Victorian Issues "Evolution" (in Vol. 2 or E in the "Norton Anthology" in preparation for lecture/discussion on evolution or natural selection as science and cultural concept. 2. Students will read and analyze Doris Lessing's "To Room Nineteen" in terms of mid-late 20th Century conceptions of gender, identity, and materialist culture.

    Writing, Problem Solving or Performance

    1. A LMS or pre-class assignment: Please respond to the following question: "Negative capability" is one of those ideas, like the concept of the poet's lack of personality, or the idea of the world as the "vale of soul making" expressed as a critical concept in Keats' correspondence and often presented as fulfilled in the poetry, whether this is true or not. Analyze "To Autumn" and any one other assigned ode in terms of the following question: how does it reflect any one of Keats' aesthetic/poetic goals? 2. Out of class timed midterm question: Given your understanding of the literature, would you agree with the following claim, disagree, or agree in part? “Even more than excitement, commitment, or dispassionate analysis of experience, anxiety is the central response of Victorians to their society, their view of history, and their own self-reflections.” Support your response by reference to four of the following works. One of the selections must be by Tennyson; the others are up to you. You can choose only one work by each writer. You must choose from the list below. If you want, you can use Tennyson or one of the other writers works to create a focus/theme and then develop the responses to the other poems in those terms (how the texts are alike or different, for example). Or you can construct a general thesis and then use the writers as you choose--or you can address all of them in order; it's up to you. Your answer should run @ 350-400 words Aurora Leigh Sartor Resartus The Lotus Eaters In Memoriam “The Coming of Arthur” and "The Passing of Arthur" from The Idylls of the King Mill’s Autobiography Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came The Bishop Orders His Tomb

    Other (Term projects, research papers, portfolios, etc.)

    Research project. Students will select one or two major assigned works and then: a) Conduct independent research on any or all of the following as appropriate: the contexts of the literature, literary theory, critical analysis of the individual writers and texts or related subjects, and b) incorporate the research in an essay independently interpreting or analyzing a central theme or other question.

    Required Materials

    • The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 2
      • Author: Stephen Greenblatt, et al., eds
      • Publisher: W.W. Norton
      • Publication Date: 2012
      • Text Edition: 9th
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2
      • Author: David Damrosch, et. al., eds.
      • Publisher: Longman
      • Publication Date: 2009
      • Text Edition: 2nd
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:

    Other materials and-or supplies required of students that contribute to the cost of the course.