- The schedule for primary and secondary source facilitations is available here.
- You should have access to all readings and all assignments every class (in print or on a device). This is because we’ll likely refer back to previous assignments and readings.
- Assignments are due on Blackboard. For some drafts and assignments, I will also ask you to upload to a subfolder on Google Drive for peer review, workshopping, and feedback.
- All underlines below are links.
- The schedule is subject to revision!
Phase 1: Interiority and Empire (1/25–2/20)
Main text: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)
Secondary source: Elaine Freedgood, The Ideas in Things: Fugitive Meaning in the Victorian Novel (2006)
Themes: Slavery, freedom, feminism, class, marriage, the family, social hieroglyphics, furniture, textiles, industrialization, the Caribbean, India, metonymy
Questions: What world do these novels take place in? How do these novels situate themselves in that world? In what sense are these novels “global” in scope? What methods might help us investigate these questions?
Major assignment: “Reading Things”
Phase 2: Ecology and Crisis (2/27–3/28)
Main texts: Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852); Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species (1859). (Don’t worry: I’ll announce one of the chapters from Dickens to focus on for each class, so that you’ll know where to direct your attention. The Darwin passages we will read and discuss together in class.)
Secondary sources: Gillian Beer, Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (1983); Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016)
Themes: Reading and publishing, weather (fog/pollution), science, evolution, time, power, natural selection, ecology, race, India, Africa
Questions: How do these texts situate themselves in time? What are their narratives of “progress” and “crisis”? How do they connect time with power? How do our own historical narratives relate to the ones in these texts? What methods can help us identify these narratives?
Major Assignment: “Reading Time”
| DATE | HOMEWORK | IN-CLASS TOPICS and GOALS |
| Th 2/29 | Primary source reading: Dickens, Bleak House, chapter 1–4. Focus on chapter 1. Submit final draft of “Reading Things” assignment | Reflections on phase 1 Getting started with Bleak House How is this novel different from Jane Eyre? How is it similar? Who is telling this story? What kind of narrative is it? |
| Tu 3/5 | Primary source reading: Dickens, Bleak House, chapters 5–10. Low-stakes homework assignment: This novel often feels like it’s spiraling off in all directions, more like a web, or a crowded city in the fog, than a story. For our next class, draw a map or diagram of places, people, relationships, legal entities, or whatever feels important in these first ten chapters. You don’t have to be exhaustive! Your map/diagram can take whatever form you’d like. We’ll use these maps to keep ourselves oriented as we continue talking about this novel. Upload your map to Google Drive. Upload your map to Google Drive. | Mapmaking Intro to the secondary source reading for Thursday |
| Th 3/7 | Secondary source reading: Pages 25–27 and 37–43 in Gillian Beer, Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (1983) Look out for the references to Dickens’ Bleak House and Brontë’s Jane Eyre! Extra credit! Bring in an example of someone using an evolutionary or ecological narrative in the wild, in popular culture (not from this class!) My example is going to be Dune 2. | Notes, questions, and examples of evolutionary and ecological narratives in culture at large. Gillian Beer is proposing that narratives about our place in time and in ecology are part of our lives (and in novels) in all kinds of ways, not just in science. Another perspective on this point: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s 2013 book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Facilitation: Angelis R, Deniro R. The “Natural Selection” chapter from Darwin’s Origin of the Species. (With the famous species-tree diagram.) Zooming back in on Jane Eyre and Bleak House. Starting to think about the second major assignment. |
| Tu 3/12 | Primary source reading: Dickens, Bleak House, chapters 11–15. So many of these characters seem confused about their place in the world. Mrs. Jellyby and Africa. Mrs. Pardiggle and poverty. Mr. Gridley and “the system.” Focus on: Chapter 4 (Mrs. Jellyby), chapter 8 (Mrs. Pardiggle), and chapter 15 (Mr. Gridley) | A general question that Dickens is thinking about: what connects people to people who are far away? Introducing “Reading Time” assignment Three Examples from Bleak House Image: J. W. M. Turner, Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway (1844) |
| Th 3/14 | Primary source reading: Dickens, Bleak House, chapters 16–25 | Review: Three Examples from Bleak House Facilitation: David Archer, Evan W. Viviano G. Carlos Second major assignment: collaborative rubric and brainstorming Introduce secondary source: Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement |
| Tu 3/19 | Secondary source reading: Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement, Part 1, “Stories.” Start at the beginning, but focus on section 6, pages 15–23. Submit notes and brainstorming handout for “Reading Time” assignment to Blackboard | Amitav Ghosh is doing what I’m asking you to do in the second major assignments! He’s thinking about what narratives are embedded in culture and why. Intro proposal for second major assignment An example from Ghosh Facilitation: Melanie C, Rasmiyah C, Damini R. |
| Th 3/21 | Primary source reading: Dickens, Bleak House, chapters 26–35. Focus on the person spontaneously combusting in chapters 32 and 33. | Who (Or What?) Killed Krook? The Spontaneous Combustion Debate |
| Tu 3/26 | Primary source reading: Dickens, Bleak House, 36–45 Submit proposal for “Reading Time” assignment to Google Drive | Facilitation: Melanie C, Rasmiyah C What did Charlotte Bront¨e think of Bleak House? Thesis and proposal workshopping |
| Th 3/28 | Primary source reading: Dickens, Bleak House, 46–55 | What are novels for? According to Eliot, Ghosh, Dickens? Jo and Tom-All-Alone’s |
| Tu 4/2 | Primary source reading: Dickens, Bleak House, chapters 56–67 Submit draft of “Reading Time” assignment | Submit peer review on draft of “Reading Time” assignment to Blackboard |
Phase 3: Aesthetics and Selfhood (4/2–4/16)
Main texts: Walter Pater, The Renaissance (1873) and Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Secondary sources: Eve Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet (1990); Sharon Marcus, “At Home with the Other Victorians,” South Atlantic Quarterly 108, no. 1 (Winter 2009): 119–145.
Themes: Homosexuality/heterosexuality, domesticity, the family, privacy, economics, aesthetics, value, criticism, identity, burning with a hard gem-like flame
Questions: How is value defined and where does it come from? What are the sources of selfhood and self-presentation in these texts? What is the relationship between sexuality and identity? How do these texts navigate the relationship between private and public selves?
Major Assignment: Starting the “Critical Introduction”
Phase 4: Culture and Empire (4/18–5/14)
Main text: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)
Secondary source: Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993); Ian Baucom, Out of Place: Englishness, Empire, and the Locations of Identity (1999)
Themes: Family, race, culture, nation, citizenship, slavery, India, Jamaica, identity, melancholy, aftermaths
Questions: How do these texts make sense of empire? How do they understand culture? What conflicts over culture can we observe in these texts, and how have they changed over time? What conversations have emerged between these texts and our own narratives, our own world-making?
Major Assignment: Finishing the “Critical Introduction”
| DATE | HOMEWORK | IN-CLASS TOPICS and GOALS |
| Th 4/18 | Secondary source reading: Ian Baucom, “Introduction: Locating English Identity,” in Out of Place: Englishness, Empire, and the Locations of Identity (1999), pp3–40 | Song: Young Tiger, “I Was There (At the Coronation)” (1953) Facilitation: Isahmar C. Viviano G. Elvir C. Getting started with the third assignment |
| Fri 4/19 | Submit source report assignment to Blackboard and Google Drive. (Not a class day.) | |
| 4/22–4/30 | Primary source reading: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Part 1 | Spring break! |
| Th 5/2 | Primary source reading: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Part 1 Ian Baucom, in the secondary source reading for 5/9, describes the novel as being about “English attempts to discipline colonialism’s less manageable, and less mentionable, figures of excess. . . of sexuality, memory, language, and desire.” Pay attention to what Rhys shows us that is “less manageable, and less mentionable.” | Checking in about the final Critical Introduction assignment Discussing Wide Sargasso Sea, focusing on the first part Introducing our secondary source for next Tuesday, Edward Said, the Palestinian-American literary critic who taught at Columbia for most of his career |
| Tu 5/7 | Secondary source reading: Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, “Narrative and Social Space” Optional viewing BBC documentary on Edward Said Submit proposal and annotated bibliography for “Critical Introduction” due on Blackboard and Google Drive | Facilitation: Asia M., Tess M., Samantha Edward Said Class Notes |
| Th 5/9 | Secondary source reading: Excerpt from Ian Baucom, Out of Place, Chapter 5, “Among the Ruins: Topographies of Postimperial Melancholy” (pp165–172) Primary source reading: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Part 2 | Getting Started: Quick Freewriting Facilitation: Leya I. Naima A. Bushra Contrapuntal Reading: What Is Antoinette’s Story? Two versions of that story |
| Tu 5/14 | Primary source reading: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Part 3 Submit first draft of “Critical Introduction” to Blackboard and Google Drive | Burning Down the House! |
| Wed 5/22 | Not a class meeting Submit final draft of “Critical Introduction” to Blackboard |
