Assignments 3355 Victorian Poetry

MW Room 8 EPB 3:30-4:45  

Instructor: Florence Boos, florence-boos@uiowa.edu

Office: 319 EPB: office phone 335-0434

Office hours: before most classes (let me know so I’ll be sure to be in); Monday and Wednesday 7-8; Friday 3-4; and by appointment

Textbooks: Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry, Concise Edition and handouts from Linda Hughes, The Cambridge Introduction to Victorian Poetry, and Carol Christ, "Victorian Poetry," from the Blackwell Companion to Victorian Poetry.

Exam: Monday December 10^th at 3:30 p. m. (students will report on their final paper)

Course Requirements:

participation: contributions to class discussion. Please read the assignment before class and come prepared to discuss the poem’s form and content, and ask any questions you may have about unclear passage

short written assignment for each class period: Please come to class with a brief answer to each of the following questions on the day’s reading: Was there anything confusing which needed explanation? What is something you found valuable or important in the reading? How may this text be relevant to present day life? (your own life, or to society more generally)

participation, reports: from time to time during the course students will be asked to provide background information on one of the authors we read. To prepare, please use biographical sources such as the Dictionary of Literary Biography or a biography (not simply Wikipedia).

participation: ICON. 6 times during the semester, by the times indicated on the syllabus, please post an essay equivalent to two typed pages on our space on ICON.

Of the postings, at least one should concern the book arts, based on our trip to Special Collections; one should respond to works of Victorian art, most likely from the Pre-Raphaelite and Morris slides which we view; at least one should use biographical or critical material from an article or book chapter which discusses the text on which you are commenting, and one or more should apply some of the observations in Linda Hughes’s The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry or Carol Christ’s essay to a poem or poems which we read.

Due to their brevity these will not be graded, but I will read them carefully.

two essays: In addition to these short essays, you will be asked to write a six page + critical/research paper, and a six page final take-home examination.

Your critical/research paper must be based on research in the biographies, book-length critical studies, and critical articles on the author you have chosen (that is, you cannot merely use web-page citations unless these are also printed items). A title, bibliography and if possible, an abstract should be turned in a week before the first draft is due, as indicated in the syllabus.

If you hand a draft to me one week early, I will be glad to give initial comments and suggestions.

The final essay/take-home exam will be a comparative critical discussion of the works of two or more authors/texts you have read during the course. You will summarize this to your fellow students.

The final will be held Monday December 10th from 5:30-7 p. m.

Grading: With some variation for special factors and marked improvement, grades will be roughly based on the following scale:

2 papers: 60%

ICON postings 10%

class participation: 30%

College of Liberal Arts Teaching Policies & Resources

Administrative Home The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) is the administrative home of this course and governs its add/drop deadlines, the second-grade-only option, and other policies. These policies vary by college (https://clas.uiowa.edu/students/handbook).

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