Syllabus

Victorian Literature: Writing in a Time of Globalization and Crisis

Spring 2024, ENGL 35702-R (21281)

Room: NAC 6/121

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30–4:45 p.m.

Jarrett Moran (he/him)  ❖  jmoran@ccny.cuny.edu

Office hours:  I’m available in NA 6/335A on Thursdays before class, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Please be in touch in advance if you’re planning on coming, so that I’ll know to expect you.

You can also just send me an email or stay after class if you would like to talk. We can always set up a time to talk on Zoom.

course description

In this course, we will read Victorian novels, criticism, plays, and science as part of a period of globalization and crisis, marked by the unprecedented expansion of British imperial influence. How could this new world be represented meaningfully in language? What new accounts of personhood, sexuality, ethnicity, ecology, and art would it require?

Over the course of the semester, we will unfold a conversation between Victorian writers around these questions, and we will consider what kinds of dialogues we might have with them, what unanswered questions from the nineteenth century we can return to in our own moment of globalization and crisis. As we discuss writing by Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Rudyard Kipling, and Oscar Wilde, we will be attentive to context, to the ways in which Victorian readers in Britain (and in India) would have encountered this writing. We will also develop facility with scholarly methods for reading and talking about these texts as responses to “globalization” and “crisis.”

In our work for the class, we will help each other develop reading and writing practices that we can use in academic, professional, and personal settings. As such, every class period will be structured around developing these skills through individual and collaborative work.

course texts and materials

I have requested that you acquire suitable scholarly editions of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, and Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. Other texts will be available as pdfs linked here on the course website and (if all goes well) on reserve in the library.

online technology and software requirements

You will need to regularly access to:

  1. This website!
  2. Blackboard, where you will submit and receive credit for assignments.
  3. Google Drive, where you will share assignments and in-progress work for feedback and peer review.
  4. Word-processing software of your choice: Microsoft Office, Office365 (available for free to CCNY students), Google Docs, etc. No matter what you use, please save all documents as .doc or docx files and please no links, PDFs, or Pages files.

I recommend you make an effort to organize our course documents and your work. Be strategic in how you use subfolders and title documents. You will need to return to assignments, so the more organized the better. Save your work frequently and back up your files.

course learning outcomes

I do not expect you to arrive already possessing all of the skills required to keep up with a class like this! We will work together to learn how to approach a challenging reading list of primary and secondary sources. Succeeding in the class means arriving at the end of the semester better equipped in that regard than you were at the beginning. Small assignments, major assignments, and our work together in class are all designed to support you in developing those skills.

If you’re worried about keeping up with the reading or falling behind, the most important thing for you to do is continue showing up to class. We’ll figure it out.

The skills that we will be practicing together this semester fall into three areas: critical reading, critical discussion, and critical writing and research.

Critical reading: 

  • Develop a vocabulary and body of knowledge that you can use to understand Victorian genres of writing, their thematic content, and their historical context.
  • Gain fluency with reading secondary sources and putting them into conversation with each other and with your own perspective.
  • Apply a repertoire of methodologies to your reading. Take stances on the strengths and blindspots of different approaches to these texts.

Critical discussion: 

  • Engage in attentive and challenging discussions of texts within a community of fellow scholars.
  • Practice leading and participating in facilitations led by your peers.
  • Notice which forms of participating in this community feel best to you. Small group work? Informal writing in class? Peer review? Formal writing? Reporting back to the class as a whole?
  • Be a generous and rigorous reader of your colleagues’ work. Support each other’s process of reading, writing, and revision.

Critical writing and research: 

  • Create links between primary and secondary sources. Synthesize them and offer your insights into the ways these texts speak to each other.
  • Make informed decisions about which critical methods you will draw on and which scholarly conversations you will participate in for the “Critical Introduction” assignment.
  • Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation.
  • Find and evaluate relevant scholarship using the library’s databases.
  • Practice systematic application of MLA citation conventions.

grading

We will use a Grading Contract for this course. In short, your grade will be based on the labor that you put into the class: your attendance, your completion of all minor and major assignments, and how diligently you practiced the specific goals of each assignment.

extra credit

There are two forms of “extra credit” for this course, described in more detailing the Grading Contract:

Visiting the Writing Center is extra credit. Just send me email confirmation of your visit, and I’ll mark it in the grade book.

Submitting “reflections on revisions” for some or all of the major assignments is necessary to receive an A or B in the class. It can also count as extra credit.

assignments

You will complete three major assignments. These assignments are described in the assignment pages available on this website.

  • All three of the major assignments must be successfully completed in order to pass this course.
  • We will build up each of these assignments gradually through in-class work and informal assignments—small, doable tasks rather than large chunks of work.
  • You will write multiple drafts and revise each major assignment based on the feedback from peers and the instructor that you receive in class, in one-on-one meetings, and on Google Drive.
  • The full schedule and information about each of the assignments are available on the course schedule and assignment pages.
  • All assignments are due on Blackboard and Google Drive at the dates and times specified on the Course Schedule.
First Assignment: Reading Things
Length:1000 words
Brainstorming: 2/13
Proposal2/15
First Draft2/20
Peer Review2/20
Final Draft2/29
Reflections on Revision2/29
Second Assignment: Reading Time
Length1500 words
Brainstorming3/14
Proposal3/19
First Draft3/26
Peer Review3/28
Final Draft4/2
Reflections on Revision4/2
Third Assignment: Critical Introduction
Length2000 words
Proposal4/11
Source Report4/16
Annotated Bibliography4/18
First Draft5/7
Peer review and feedback5/9
Second draft5/14
Final draft5/22
Reflections on Revision5/22

facilitations

In a small group, you will be responsible for two facilitations in class: one discussion of a main text and one discussion of a secondary source. More information about the facilitations is available in the menu to the left.

course policies, procedures, and pertinent information

Contacting Your Instructor: I want to get to know you, and I take my role in supporting your learning seriously. I strongly encourage you to email me and talk after class or during office hours. I expect you to keep me informed about your work, your progress, your questions, and your problems, preferably BEFORE your grade is the central concern. Do not hesitate to email me to ask questions or send me important reminders.

Professional Courtesy: It’s essential that we are all courteous and considerate of each other at all times. As a group, we will represent diverse cultural, racial, linguistic, and gendered identities and abilities. We must all commit to honoring, respecting, and accounting for our differences. As your instructor, I am committed to this.

Technology Expectations: I ask that you please turn off all electronic devices that are not to be used during class time. We will sometimes rely on our cell phones or laptops. You are tasked with accessing and submitting documents online, as well as creating a digital portfolio. Learning about and regularly accessing technology is thus a critical part of our course.

Participation: I care deeply about students being present and engaged in class, and I’ll do my best to make class meetings meaningful and useful. I ask that you come to class on time and prepared with all relevant readings or texts. I understand that everyone has different approaches to participation, so I welcome you to engage in class in a way that best fits you (by quietly but actively listening, taking notes, asking questions, and/or offering comments). Everyone is required, however, to collaborate with peers during group work.

The Writing Center: The CCNY Writing Center provides a supportive learning environment where students can have one-on-one tutoring sessions with experienced writing consultants. The Writing Center is available for virtual meetings. Students can schedule an appointment through the online booking system. This is a free resource available to all students and recommended for all writing assigned in this and other classes. Visit their website for more info http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/writing/ and to book an appointment.

Academic Integrity: All writing submitted for this course is understood to be your original work. In cases where I detect academic dishonesty (the fraudulent submission of another’s work, in whole or part, as your own), you may be subject to a failing grade for the project or the course, and in the worst case, to academic probation or expulsion. For a more detailed description of the guidelines for adhering to academic integrity, see CCNY’s Policy on Academic Integrity on the college website: https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/it/academic-integrity-policy. As part of this course, we will discuss responsible source use practices.

Special Needs and Accommodations: There are several Student Support Services available for CCNY students. Check this website for more information: https://ccny.smartcatalogiq.com/en/2019-2020/Undergraduate-Bulletin/Student-Support-Services-Program. If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact CCNY’s AccessAbility Center (Student Disability Services), https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/accessability or call (212) 650-5913 for an appointment to discuss your needs and the process for requesting accommodations. I am committed to accessibility; please do not hesitate to reach out to me so that we can determine ways to make this course accessible to you.

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