Instructor: Dr. Brad Sullivan
Office: Academic 3, Room 152
Phone: 590-7183   Fax: 590-7200
Email: bsulliva@fgcu.edu
Office hours: M W 1:00 - 3:00  T Th 3:30 - 4:30, and by appointment

Meeting times:  T 12:30 - 3:15 Academic 3, Room 121

Course materials: Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. Norton Critical Edition.
                           Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Norton Critical Edition.
                           Handouts and electronic texts to be provided.
 
 

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me to discuss these issues as soon as possible.

The small size of classes, and the resulting accessibility of professors, is one of the great advantages of learning at Florida Gulf Coast University. I encourage you to take advantage of it! I have regular office hours, and would love to discuss your work, your concerns, and your successes during those hours. I also try my best to make appointments at other times when students need them, and to be readily available for questions, comments, and concerns via email, phone, and fax. When you are pleased with the way things are going, I am always delighted to hear it. If you are frustrated, I NEED to hear it. Don't rely entirely on scheduled conferences. My door is always "open," and I hope to see you often.

In ENL 4930, learners will explore the relationships between "science" and "literature" in nineteenth-century England. We will read and discuss the work of a number of key authors writing in scientific and literary modes (Lyell, Darwin, Wordsworth, Dickens, Tennyson). Our inquiry will be guided by two central aims: (1) to examine scientific texts from a literary perspective (their uses of metaphor and figurative language, for example), considering the ways in which science is a literary enterprise, and (2) to examine the ways in which literary texts responded to and sometimes questioned the assumptions and practices of "science," considering the ways in which literary writing may be a discourse of knowledge. We will consider the boundaries between objectivity and subjectivity, exploring the nature of "empiricism" and the ways in which it is enacted by scientific and literary texts. And we will explore the ways in which our current assumptions about knowledge have been shaped by the debates and gradual consensus that was attained in the nineteenth century.

ENG 4930 is not a lecture-centered class which "delivers instruction." It is a structured learning environment which can best be seen as a "learning community." While the "learning community" concept is generally applied to interconnected classes, it is a useful concept for reorganizing our approach to learning in individual classes as well.

In a learning community, all members are responsible for the learning of the group. Each member contributes their ideas, energy, and writings for the better understanding of their colleagues. Each member must play the roles of both teacher and learner, leader and follower, speaker and listener, as the needs of the community dictate. Some general "rules of engagement" make it possible for a learning community to grow and develop effectively:

RESPECT other viewpoints and opinions, both written and spoken.
LISTEN to what others have to say and to write.
SHARE what you have to say and to write.
LEARN from your interaction with people, texts, and contexts in this class.

• Remember that none of us have all the "right answers," but all of us have some valuable ones to share with others.
• Ask questions! Repeatedly! A well-considered question is worth a thousand trivial answers.
• Show consistent effort and engagement in all class activities. Attendance and participation are very important! I believe that we only learn by trying things, by DOING. So I expect to see you giving every activity your best effort.
• Read closely and carefully, take notes as you read, and compose thoughtful reactions to share with the class via our Web Board.
• Find one or more issues of genuine interest to you, and pursue better knowledge of that issue or those issues with passion!

This class will share Florida Gulf Coast University’s commitment to the use of learning tools provided by new technology. I don’t believe in using computer technologies just because they are trendy, but I believe that your learning experience in this class will be enhanced by the use of several technological tools. We will use a Web Board and the Internet extensively, and we will use electronic mail (email) as needed.

The class Web Board will provide a forum in which we begin class discussions of assigned readings. Prior to each day's class meeting, each of you will post your thoughtful reactions to that day's reading for the class to read in preparation for discussion that day. We will share ideas and reactions this way, and generate ideas for our in-class efforts. For more details on this assignment, see the section Assignments later in this course outline.

The Internet will be used in this class both as a channel of communication and as a source of information and ideas for your writing. I will post important information from time to time on the What’s New in ENL 4930? page at my web site http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/bsullivan/ Here you will find notices about changes in the reading or writing assignment schedule, announcements of special events or assignments, and other information vital to your success in the course.

Email provides a valuable channel of one-on-one communication for us—above and beyond conferences, office hour chats, and class time. Please make use of e-mail to communicate with me and your classmates whenever necessary.

It is your responsibility to use the Web Board and the Internet effectively and to stay informed of class developments via both of these technologies. You should be comfortable using email as well. I will be glad to provide assistance in the use of these technologies if you are unfamiliar with them. But I expect that you will let me know if you are having difficulties using them!

Your success in this class will depend largely on your engagement with the readings and the discussions of those readings we hold in class. We will facilitate these discussions by doing some homework in preparation for them. Before coming to class for each session, you need to read the assigned readings and make an entry on our class Web Board. These entries should be 125-250 words in length, and should offer thoughtful critical reactions to the text. With science writings, I would like you to attend especially to what makes them "literary"--metaphors, narrative devices, description, impassioned appeals, and so on. With literary writings, I would like you to focus on the way that structure and theme grapple with important questions that are significantly "scientific" (how do we relate to the physical and natural world? how should we? how is it that we can think and know things? how can we be sure that our knowledge is meaningful or relevant? how do societies work? and so on).

Then, after each week’s discussions, you should post a reflective entry to the Web Board. This entry will take a broader view, connecting earlier entries and responses, connecting different authors and readings with each other, or connecting authors and readings with the broader contexts we're discussing in class. In these entries, I hope you will begin to formulate hypotheses about the relations of literature and science in the nineteenth century.

Details of Web Board assignment

The Web Board is vital to our community of learning. Please participate fully and share your ideas!

Writing Projects and Presentations

The assignments for this class are intended to be:

• Constructively interrelated. No assignment is "lost in the shuffle," and each assignment serves others. For example, the WebBoard responses that you make each week can be used as starting points for your short analysis papers, which can then be used as idea-starters for your final research paper.
• Community centered. The primary competition that you will face in this class is competition with yourself. We will strive to get better at what we do, and we will support each other in the process. Everything is shared, everyone is responsible, and no work is done "in a vacuum."
• Process-oriented and Progressive. The development of fully-articulated ideas takes prodigious time and effort, and the assignments in this class are designed to facilitate that development. They lead from initial idea formulation and information gathering (WebBoard and Initial Research) through focused analysis of particular texts (Short Analysis Papers) and contexts (Research Summaries) towards a higher-level synthesis of textual analysis and contextual information (in Research papers/presentations).

One (1) Short Analysis Essay (3-4 pp) In this brief essay, you will articulate a well-focused analysis of a selected feature of one of the texts we are reading this term. Ideas for these papers may come from Web Board discussions, and you should feel free to develop ideas sketched out there (by yourself or others). Your aim is to identify a significant pattern in the text (symbols, character issues, events, narrative style(s), and so on), to explain why the pattern is significant, and to suggest how it informs the text, serves central themes, and/or makes the text meaningful.

You will post a copy of each essay on the Web Board, and we will set aside time for discussion of these ideas in class.

One Short Research Summary (3-5 pp) In this assignment, you will provide a clear, concise, and thoughtful research resource for the class. We will establish a set of research topics in the first two weeks of class, and each member of the class will choose one for development. The aim will be to locate helpful sources on the topic chosen and to summarize those sources effectively for your classmates. An annotated bibliography of at least six helpful research sources should be attached to this short paper.

You will post a copy of this paper on the Web Board, and we will set aside time for discussion of your research findings in class.

One researched critical essay (10+ pp) This is the "big" assignment, which I see as a warm-up for the senior capstone presentation in English. In this one, you will develop an analysis of one or more of our texts using critical research, contextual research, critical theory, or some combination of the three. You may use the research resources offered by your classmates as well as your own. Your project will be formally presented to the class.

Unless I make official changes, these writing projects will be due at the beginning of our scheduled class meeting on the day listed in the course syllabus (at the end of this document). Late papers will be graded down one letter grade per day late.

Attendance and Participation

Your attendance and involvement in class activities are important not only for you, but for your fellow learners. Many minds are better than one, and if we all contribute we all learn that much more. Absences (class meetings which you do not attend at all, attend late by more than 15 minutes, or leave early) will be reflected in your final grade. In cases of emergency or severe illness, I may excuse an absence. But in general, two absences will drop your final grade one letter and three or more absences provide sufficient grounds for failing the class.  You are always responsible for making up work missed during absences.

You may be held responsible for attendance at periodic conferences which I will arrange with you in class. If you miss a conference without contacting me and making other arrangements PRIOR to the conference time, you will be charged an absence. Remember, I encourage you to schedule additional meetings with me to discuss your work in this class at any time that is mutually agreeable.

• Learners will demonstrate a general understanding of the history of science in the nineteenth century.
• Learners will demonstrate an ability to analyze texts written in different modes using literary and rhetorical tools of analysis.
• Learners will formulate textual and cultural interpretations that connect literary study to broader contexts such as philosophy, religion, and the social and natural sciences.
• Learners will construct and communicate clear, well-considered analyses and interpretations of texts.
• Learners will demonstrate proficiency in using the on-site and electronic resources (EBSCOHOST, UMI PROQUEST DIRECT, the World Wide Web) of the FGCU library to conduct research in literature and culture.
• Learners will demonstrate proficiency in using technology (word processing, web board, internet, e-mail) effectively for research, composition, and communication.
• Learners will demonstrate proficiency in presentation skills (oral and technological).

Grades

The class grade will be divided into portions as follows:

20% Completion of Web Board entries
15% Short Analysis Essay
15% Short Research Summary
5% Completion of "Draft Presentation"
20% Final Paper
10% Final presentation
15% Final Examination

Grading scale

A     90% - 100%    Excellent

B+   87% - 89.9%
B     80% - 86.9%   Very Good

C+   77% - 79.9%
C     70% - 76.9%   Satisfactory

D     60% - 69.9%   Unsatisfactory results, but good effort sustained and progress made

F        0% - 59.9%   Failing

Aug 29  Building our Learning Community

Meet each other. Complete Technoquest activity. Discuss syllabus and assignments. Discuss course goals and expectations.

Reading: passages from Sullivan, Wordsworth and the Composition of Knowledge.

         Readings:  Edmund Burke, selection from Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) [handout]

Wordsworth, "Expostulation and Reply," "The Tables Turned," and "Tintern Abbey" (1798) [handout]
William Godwin, selection from Enquiry Concerning Political Justice . . . (1798) [handout]
Thomas Malthus, selection from An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) [handout]
Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802) [e-text]

Sep 19  Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)

Reading: Volumes I and II

Reading: Volume III
Preface to Lyrical Ballads (selections)
Short Analysis Essays for Discussion: Michael and Lyndsey
Short Research Summaries: Percy Shelley (Rachel)

Short Research Summaries: Humphry Davy (Lyndsey).

Short Analysis Essay for Discussion: Doug
Short Research Summaries: William Whewell (Chris)

Short Analysis Essays for Discussion: none
Short Research Summaries: George Eliot (Pam)

Short Analysis Essays for Discussion: Pam, Genessia
Short Research Summaries: Arthur Conan Doyle (Robert), Joseph Priestley (Cassandra)

Short Analysis Essays for Discussion: Cassandra, Robert
Short Research Summaries: Wilkie Collins (Tim)

Link to Darwin Reading (chaps 3 & 4 only)
Short Analysis Essay for Discussion: Chris
Short Research Summaries: Darwin (Kellee), Alfred Russel Wallace (Doug)

Link to Arnold Reading
Short Analysis Essay for Discussion: Tim
Short Research Summaries: T. H. Huxley (Mike), Thomas Hardy (Genessia)

Nov 28 Presentations by Kellee, Cassandra, Chris, Robert, and Lyndsey.

Dec 5  Presentations by Genessia, Tim, Rachel, and Mike. Final Exam discussion.

Dec 9  Final papers due.

Dec 12  Final Examination