English 3960 §4, Hawthorne and the Brontės      Donald Ross

 Wednesdays 6:20-8:50 in Lind 340

Fall Semester 2005

Goals:  As a result of having read Hawthorne's four published novels, some short stories, and five of the most impressive novels by the Brontės, you will gain insight into the novelistic practices of the mid nineteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic.  You will also see how these works have been approached by scholars, critics, and theoreticians and thus expand your own critical vocabulary.  The writing assignments will be exploratory, in that you will be asked to try out various approaches before you settle on one for your senior-project paper.

1 Sept 7 Introduction

2 Sept 14 Charlotte Brontė Jane Eyre 1847

3 Sept 21                Hawthorne Scarlet Letter 1850

4 Sept 28          Hawthorne short stories - "Maypole of Merry Mount," "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" Brief essay #1

5 Oct 5          Emily Brontė Wuthering Heights 1847 Five critical approaches to WH

6 Oct 12            Hawthorne House of the Seven Gables 1851

7 Oct 19 Hawthorne short stories – "Birth-Mark," "Rappaccini's Daughter" Brief essay #2

8 Oct 26 Anne Brontė Tenant of Wildfell Hall 1848

9 Nov 2 Hawthorne Blithedale Romance 1852, plus selected other readings in this book Annotated bibliography

10 Nov 9 Charlotte Brontė Shirley 1848

Mar 29 – Holiday – no class

11 Nov 16 Hawthorne short stories – "Wakefield," "Grey Champion" Topic and outline of final paper

12 Nov 23 (Day before Thanksgiving) Charlotte Brontė Villette 1851

13 Nov 30 Hawthorne short stories – "Artist of the Beautiful," "Drowne's Wooden Image" Paper #3 due

14 Dec 7 Hawthorne Marble Faun 1860

15 Dec 14 Hawthorne, short stories – "Roger Malvin's Burial," "Ethan Brand"

15 Dec 21 Scheduled time for final exam.  There is no final, but your paper is due

Texts

N. Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown and other tales Oxford 0-19-283600-5

C. Brontė, Jane Eyre.  Signet Classic 0-451-52332-6

N. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter  Signet Classic 0-451-52522-1

E. Brontė, Wuthering Heights.  Linda H. Peterson, ed.  Bedford Books of St. Martin's 2^nd edition ISBN 0-312-25686-8

N. Hawthorne, House of the Seven Gables, Penguin ISBN 0-14-039005-7

A. Brontė, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.  Oxford World's Classics (paperback) 0-19-282989-0

N. Hawthorne, Blithedale Romance, Bedford Cultural Edition, St Martin's 0-312-11803*

C. Brontė, Shirley,  Oxford World's Classic (paperback) - 0-19-281562-8

C. Brontė, Villette.  Houghton Mifflin/Riverside ed.  0-395-11150-1  NEXT TIME - OXFORD ED.

N. Hawthorne, Marble Faun, Penguin ISBN 0-14-039077-4

*   You must buy the listed editions of Wuthering Heights  and Blithedale Romance for the critical essays. 

Weekly writing on electronic mail: By noon on Monday you must post a brief essay, question, or comment on the next week's readings to all members of the class. This should be about one typed page (not much more and not much less).  At least seven of the thirteen comments should reflect readings other than the "primary" texts, e.g., the critical essays on Wuthering Heights. or Blithedale Romance.  You must do thirteen of these on deadline in order to pass the course, but they will not be graded.

Brief essays: Three pages (maximum or minimum) which might move you toward the Final Paper.  These could easily be expansions of the weekly writing.

1. Close reading of a theme or an image/metaphor pattern in one of the novels.  A "theme" can be education, courtship, religious orthodoxy.  Typical and useful image/metaphor pattern include doors & windows, colors, rivers & lakes, blindness & vision, etc.  Use MLA format for parenthetical references and list of works cited in this and all the other papers.

2. Theory-informed comparison of a thematic or stylistic element in one Brontė and one Hawthorne novel.  You could use one of the five critical approaches outlined in the assigned edition of Wuthering Heights, but it hardly seems fair to use Wuthering Heights.

3. Researched or well-informed analysis of one novel or comparison between important issues in a Brontė/Hawthorne pair.  You could find out about how critics and scholars have viewed the text(s), or how the author(s) biographies have informed the text(s). 

Annotated bibliography: Ten items of criticism or scholarship which you might use for the final paper.  Each item must have about 75-100 words of commentary, with special focus on your topic.  Use MLA format for the citations.  Do NOT include the novels or short stories in your bibliography.

Final paper: This should cover at least two Hawthorne and two Brontė novels.  If you use Hawthorne stories, you must include at least three in place on one of his novels.  The paper should be well researched (15 different sources beyond the novels).  It should have an identifiable theoretical perspective, critical approach (ą la the WH edition), or a fully-researched biographical perspective.  To qualify as a senior project, this should be 20 pages long; otherwise, about 12 pages will suffice [frame the whole argument and give evidence for two of the four novels, one from each author]. 

A two-page announcement of your topic is due on November 12—please make copies for everyone.

The paper is due in the English department before 4:30 on December 17.