Date	Topic	Main Reading	Background	Assignment
1/17	Introduction to the course: Whose "Social Class" Matters? The Writer's? The Reader's? The Text's?
1/24	The Gentry Class and the Seriousness Fetish	Austen, Mansfield Park	Austen	Topics for #1
1/31	The Aristocracy Imagines "the People": the "Two Nations"	Disraeli, Sybil	Disraeli
2/7	The "Two Nations" cont.	Disraeli, Sybil		First critical paper due.
2/14	The Middle Class Imagines the Urban Poor	Dickens, Bleak House	Dickens
2/21	The Middle Class Imagines the Urban Poor	Dickens, Bleak House
2/28	Imagining Class Conflict	Eliot, Felix Holt	Eliot	Topics for #2
3/7	Imagining Class Conflict	Eliot, Felix Holt		Topics for final paper
3/14	Spring Recess
3/21	"Barbarians, Philistines, and Populace"	Arnold, Culture and Anarchy	Arnold	Second critical paper due
3/28	"Barbarians, Philistines, and Populace"	Arnold, Culture and Anarchy		Topics for Critical Research Paper
4/4	Imagining the Rural Poor	Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles	Hardy
4/11	Imagining the Rural Poor	Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles
4/18	Imagining the East End	Morrison, Child of the Jago; Kipling, "The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot"	Morrison and Kipling
4/25	Imagining European Class Conflict in America	Conrad, Nostromo	Conrad
5/2	Imagining European Class Conflict in America	Conrad, Nostromo		Critical Research Paper due

Please Note: Graduate Students in ENG 545 have one additional assignment: an in-class presentation. Details will be forthcoming.

 

For instructions on how to sign up for and use Webboard, go here: http://www.asu.edu/clas/english/webboard/documents.html. If your name is not in the Webboard system, you will be registered for our Webboard and will be sent an email indicating that your ID and PW are your last name. When you receive this email, you should log on to Webboard and change your password to one only you know.

Course requirements: 2 brief critical papers (3-5 pages long), 1 longer critical research paper (10-12 pages for 430; 15-20 pages for 545). Pick a topic from the topics list which will appear on the website two weeks before the shorter critical papers are due. You may send your papers to me as attachments to email. You are responsible for completing the reading by the date we will be discussing it. Brief quizzes on each of the novels will be given. In addition, each individual must post at least one response to student questions on Webboard each week and 6 questions over the course of the semester. Regular attendance and vigorous contributions to class discussions are part of your grade. Here is the breakdown of your final grade:

Short critical papers………………………………………………………...20% each
Critical research paper……….……………………………………………..35%
Attendance, Webboard participation, class discussion, quizzes…………...25%
Total………………………………………………………………………...100%

N.B. You may revise one of the first two critical papers and submit it for an additional grade. If you do so, the original grade will count for 10% and the revised paper grade for 10% of your final grade. Revisions are due on the final day of class and must be accompanied by the original paper.