Rasselas 33-end

I like very much playing the "ventriloquize Melvin" game. I think we were just getting warmed up on Wednesday, so we will play it again on Friday. Please read the end of Samuel Johnson's "Rasselas," and read each other's web-log comments before you come to class. That way, you will each of you be prepared to mock me (good-naturedly...I can only cross my fingers, although over-the-top-ing is fun too).

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)


Illustrations to Rasselas (1759)

Rasselas contemplates his course of action in the Happy Valley.
(Chapter 5)


Rasselas offers assistance to the failed flier.
(Chapter 6)


Rasselas and the "Choice of Life" clique meet the hermit of the cave.
(Chapter 21)


Images taken from Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Northwestern University)

JS Le Fanu and Godfried Schalken

You may have noticed, moreso in "Green Tea" than in the other two Le Fanu stories we read this week, references to "Schalken paintings." I thought I'd post a few of them - the color schemes that Schalken uses in these paintings do, for me, anyway, really evoke the mood and tone, and even the dominant color scheme of "Green Tea," what with all the eerie backlighting that Le Fanu describes, and the red hues of things.

Second Essay Assignment

The first essay assignment asked you to examine a particular moment in your life and relate it to a broader or more universal theme. The second essay assignment asks you to turn that mode of analysis onto a piece of literature. This assignment is designed to be open-ended, to allow you to explore a theme, word (or words), phrases, characters, etc. that have been important to you in this course, and to analyze why they are important in the context of the book, or the reading, overall.

Choose from any of the stories, novels, etc. that we have read this quarter. Reexamine your web-log postings - the main purpose of these, after all, is to announce to yourselves, and to the rest of the class, what specifically you found important or significant in that day's assignment. Now comes the tough part, the "why". Why does something announce itself in your reading, to you? How does it affect the way you interpret the work of literature? Once you have selected a work, refresh yourself on its contents, and single out one or two particular facets that interest you - it can be a character, a theme, a word, a phrase (either by the narrator or one of the characters), even a specific moment in the text. Why does it strike you? Taking a few notes on this question may help you organize your ideas, even help you come up with an interpretation.

Gather from the text all the evidence - all of the moments or quotations - that relate to your selected idea. Think about how they function - what, for instance, in my comment on The Old English Baron, is the purpose of the tension between Edmund's establishing relationships with others based on his virtue, as opposed to the hint that he might be a member of the nobility? Does the novel overall suggest that the tension between feeling and social status is one that remains unresolved? Does the novel suggest that feeling is fine, but that rank, in the end, is what matters; that feeling is fine, but needs social hierarchies to legitimize it? These are just examples of questions you might try asking yourself when looking over the evidence you've compiled. Ask yourself as many questions as possible about how the specific word, phrase, scene, character, etc. relates to the work as a whole. This will eventually lead you to be able to craft a thesis - a hypothesis about why the thing you have chosen is important to the way you interpret the work.

This is an analytical paper - that is to say, a standard English paper. You will present an argument and background in the introduction, and then support your argument in the body of the essay with evidence from the text. Again, I suggest that you look at my posting to the end of The Old English Baron as a model of how to incorporate quotations from the text into your essay. Please avoid using block quotes - make the quotes you use, the evidence you've gathered, work for you. Through this essay, you are offering YOUR interpretation of a work of literature - don't worry about how I read the work, or how anybody else reads it - this is your forum to offer and to support the way that YOU read the work of literature. Do not use outside sources, like criticism, or the internet - focus on how YOU interpret the text.

For Friday, May 6th (note the change in date), bring to class with you a hard copy of your first draft. The draft can be as little as your introduction, thesis statement, and the quotations (the evidence) you've amassed for your argument. It can be as much as two pages (the introduction and the first couple of body paragraphs. It can also be a full draft. What I want is to see that you have thought through what you are writing on, and can provide enough for your revision partner to offer their criticism, advice, and so on for the next stage of the drafting process.

Here, now, is what one of my students in the past has called my "middle school" instructions on what an English essay should look like. In my opinion, it never hurts to be reminded of proper structure and content.

1. Intro Paragraph
- should include author's name and title of the work
- should include the focus of your essay - whatever theme, character, scene, etc. you've chosen to analyze
- should suggest your interpretation - for instance, in my Old English Baron posting:
"the novel suggest that feeling is fine, but that rank, in the end, is what matters."
- should contain a strong central thesis - this may use your suggestion for interpretation, and must include the "how" of your approach. For instance, in my web-log posting, I look at the exchanges between 1) Edmund and Emma and 2) Emma and William. You don't have to number them, but make it clear specifically how you will approach your argument.

2. Body Paragraphs.
- topic sentence - first sentence of each body paragraph should allude to your thesis, and announce one of the "how"s. In my example, my first topic sentence might be "A conversation between Edmund and Emma, as Edmund prepares to leave Castle Lovel, exposes Edmund's awareness that the affection they share is not enough to legitimize a romantic relationship between them."
- in the rest of the paragraph, you give evidence from that scene, and even from related parts of the novel, if you feel like they are necessary, to support that conflict between affection and a legitimate relationship.

3. Transition/Topic sentences
- in a paper like this, each part of the argument should build upon what comes before. Each subsequent topic sentence should, then relate in some way to what has just been said. After the proposed paragraph I've just shown, I might lead off the next paragraph by saying, "Emma's idealistic view of romantic possibility with Edmund is undermined in her later conversation with her brother William." Then, that paragraph goes on to explain and illuminate how, between two people of rank, the issue of rank is immediately foregrounded, and the ideal of a relationship based on simple affection, no matter how deep, is always secondary.

4. Conclusion
- first few sentences can be used to recap your argument to this point, to summarize, if you will, what you've said. Example: "Reeve's novel engages in a debate over the extent to which romantic love and class differences can coexist. Edmund's relationships to Emma and to William expose the longing for a world where social status is not as important as virtue, where affection can establish real relationships, independent of rank. All three of these characters, though, acknowledge that nobility can only love and be loved by nobility. Edmund's marriage to Emma, then, depends on his ability to prove his true social status."
- then, you must "move beyond." This is a big thing with me - everything I just said recaps the evidence I've given so far. Now, as with your first essay, you should try to make a larger, broader suggestion about what this says about the novel, or the work of literature you are examining. For example: "Reeve's novel suggests that the tension between feeling and rank is split along gender lines." I'd then go on to say, in the last few sentences, that "While Emma insists that her feelings for Edmund are based upon knowledge of his virtue and actions while he was a peasant, that Edmund and William constantly betray their certainty that despite their powerful feelings for each other, while Edmund is a peasant, he can never be on an equal footing with them. As men, William and Edmund are aware of the primacy of social status to social relations. While men, from William, to the Baron Fitz-Owen, to Lords Clifford and Graham, all the way to the King, judge and determine social status, the idealism of women like Emma can only ever be an unreachable ideal."

Something like that - this is ONLY a model, and one way to go about an analytical paper, and I don't post it to put pressure on you, only to suggest, in the clearest possible terms, the kind of thing I hope, that over the remainder of the course, that you can produce.

Illustrations to The Old English Baron

Frontispiece to the first edition ("The Champion of Virtue," 1777)
Father Oswald and Edmund meet with Margery Twyford.

• a sentimental scene
  

Frontispiece to the second edition (1778 - the one we're reading)
Richard Wenlock and Jack Markham encounter "Lord Lovel"

• a gothic scene
  

Images taken from Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Northwestern University)

William Hogarth Prints

William Hogarth - "Cunicularii, or The Wise Men of Godalming in Consultation." This depicts Hogarth's satirical take on Mary Toft "giving birth" to rabbits.


William Hogarth - "The Reward of Cruelty" - a look at the kind of anatomical theatre we spoke of this week in our section on "Murderers."

And here is a link to an exhibition that was here at Northwestern a while back. It is Hogarth's narrative of the life and short career of a prostitute. Based on the story of Sarah Pridden, whose narrative we read, it is called "The Harlot's Progress."

First Paper Assignment

Since we are in the midst of reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Reveries of the Solitary Walker," our first assignment, the personal essay, will mirror our reading. On Friday, the class took a walk out into Nature. Leaving Parkes Hall, we walked toward the lake, stopping and becoming solitary at the shore of painted rocks. The first part of the assignment is to take 50 minutes and walk out into Nature - for 50 minutes, you are not to talk at all, just take with you a notepad and a writing utensil. When we are alone and left to our own devices, our thoughts will inevitably lead us into a train of associations, and even turning to focus on some particular thing of interest to us at that moment.

As you walk, stop when you need to, or find an isolated place to sit in Nature, and make notes about what you're thinking about. At the end of your time, try to select one of the themes, ideas, events or whatnot that you'd been thinking about. The second part of the assignment, and the main part, as it were, is to write out in essay form, a draft of an essay that moves from the specific to the universal. What that means is to use the thoughts specific to you that you mused on and made note of during your solitary walk, and find a way to relate it to a larger, more universal theme - much like Rousseau does in his Walks. Think of the second walk, where his incident with the dog leads to reflections on the uses of imagination. Something like that. In class, when asked, I gave the example of my perpetually dying hamster and my efforts to bring him back to life. I spoke on how this could lead to a number of different essays - on mortality, on friendship, on paying attention, on being there for one's friends, and so on.

In your draft (need be no longer than 2 pages - the final will be 4 to 4 1/2 pages, so feel free to draft longer), foreground your specific event, so that you can move seamlessly into the more general, universal implications.

This assingment requires you to spend some time alone, and quiet, and to really spend some time reflecting on yourself. As Rousseau notes, self-reflection can be painful, but can also lead us to positively assess or reassess how our little place in the world relates to our larger lives.

Syllabus, Spring 05

Tuesday, March 29 - Introduction
Homework: Read "Style," chapters 1-3

Wednesday, March 30 - Discuss "Style," chapters 1-3
Homework: Read "Style," chapters 4-6. Post a question for class discussion on the web-log. Be ready to talk and respond to my and your questions.

Friday, April 1 - Discuss "Style," chapters 4-6
Homework: Read "Style," chapters 7-10. Post a question for class discussion on the web-log. As always, be prepared to talk, ask questions, and so forth.

Monday, April 4 - Discuss "Style," chapters 7-10
Homework: Read Rousseau, "Reveries of the Solitary Walker," Walks 1-3. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Wednesday, April 6 - Discuss Rousseau, "Reveries," 1-3
Homework: Read Rousseau, "Reveries," Walks 4-6. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Friday, April 8 - Discuss Rousseau, "Reveries," 4-6
Homework: Read Rousseau, "Reveries," Walks 7-10. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.
Assignment: Will be made to-day. Begin work on First Essay Draft - should be 2 pages - just a start.

Monday, April 11 - Discuss Rousseau, "Reveries," 7-10. Bring two hard copies of your draft to class. Switch with revision partner(s). Begin making comments, suggestions for improvement on the hard copy of the draft. Sign it legibly for return on Friday.
Homework: Read Con Men and Cutpurses, Section 2, "Murderers," (pages 38-58), Mary Toft (pages 229-232), and Holmes and Williams (pages 274-276). Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Wendesday, April 13 - Discuss Con Men and Cutpurses, Section 2, "Murderers," Mary Toft, and Holmes and Williams.
Homework: Read Con Men and Cutpurses, Section 3, "Prostitutes," (pages 59-82). Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Friday, April 15 - Discuss Con Men and Cutpurses, Section 3, "Prostitutes." Bring your copy of corrected partner's draft to return to author. Schedule individual meetings with professor for Thursday, Friday (April 21, 22).
Homework: Read Con Men and Cutpurses, Section 5, "Pirates," and Section 7, "Highwaymen," (pages 123-158, 185-217). Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.
Assignment: Being revising your draft - final draft should be 4 pages.

Monday, April 18 - Discuss Con Men and Cutpurses, Section 5, "Pirates," and Section 7, "Highwaymen"
Homework: Read Mackenzie, "The Man of Feeling," 1-50. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Wednesday, April 20 - Discuss Mackenzie, "The Man of Feeling," 1-50
Homework: Read Mackenzie, "The Man of Feeling," 51-end. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Friday, April 22 - Discuss Mackenzie, "The Man of Feeling," 51-end.
Homework: Read Clara Reeve, "The Old English Baron," through "...profound silence" (45). Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Monday, April 25 - Discuss Reeve, "Old English Baron" 1-45 . First Essay due at the start of class.
Homework: Read Reeve, "Old English Baron," from "The lower rooms..." (45) through "...the penitent to proceed" (91). Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Wednesday, April 27 - Discuss Reeve, "Old English Baron," 45-91.
Homework: Read Reeve, "Old English Baron," from "My kinsman excelled me..." (91) to the end. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Friday, April 29 - Discuss Reeve, "Old English Baron," 91-end.
Homework: Read Le Fanu, "The Familiar." Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.
Assignment: Begin work on Second Essay Draft - should be 2 pages - just a start. Assignment parameters TBA. You may write on selections from Con Men and Cutpurses, Mackenzie, Reeve, or Le Fanu.

Monday, May 2 - Discuss Le Fanu, "The Familiar.
Homework: Read Le Fanu, "Mr. Justice Harbottle." Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Wednesday, May 4 - Discuss Le Fanu, "Mr. Justice Harbottle"
Homework: Read Le Fanu, "Green Tea." Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Friday, May 6 - Discuss Le Fanu, "Green Tea." Bring a hard copy of your draft to class. Switch with revision partner. Begin making comments, suggestions for improvement on the hard copy of the draft. Sign it legibly for return on Monday.Bring your copy of corrected partner's draft to return to author.
Schedule individual meetings for next week - Wed 11, Thur 12)
Homework: Read Johnson, "Rasselas," chapters 1-16. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Monday, May 9 - Discuss Johnson, "Rasselas," chapters 1-16. Return edited draft to revision partner.
Homework: Read Johnson, "Rasselas," chapters 17-33. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.
Assignment: Being revising your draft - final draft should be 4 pages.

Wednesday, May 11 - Discuss Johnson, "Rasselas," chapters 17-33
Homework: Read Johnson, "Rasselas," chapters 34-49. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Friday, May 13 - Discuss Johnson, "Rasselas," chapters 34-49.
Homework: Read Voltaire, "Candide," chapters 1-10. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Monday, May 16 - Discuss Voltaire, "Candide," chapters 1-10. Second Essay due at the start of class.
Homework: Read Voltaire, "Candide," chapters 11-20. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Wednesday, May 18 - Discuss Voltaire, "Candide," chapters 11-20
Homework: Read Voltaire, "Candide," chapters 21-30. Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.

Friday, May 20 - Discuss Voltaire, "Candide," chapters 21-30
Homework: Read Charles Lamb, "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig" (handout) and Lamb, "Letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge" (handout). Post a question or questions to the web-log for discussion.
Assignment: Begin work on Final Essay Draft - should be 2 pages - just a start. Assignment parameters TBA. You may write on selections from Con Men and Cutpurses, Mackenzie, Reeve, Le Fanu, Johnson, or Candide. You may not write on a text you have written on before.

Monday, May 23 - Discuss Charles Lamb, "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig" (handout) and Lamb, "Letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge" (handout). Bring two hard copies of your draft to class. Switch with revision partner(s). Begin making comments, suggestions for improvement on the hard copy of the draft. Sign it legibly for return on Friday.
Homework: Read Charles Lamb, either "Old and New Schoolmasters" or "Distant Correspondents" (handouts)

Wednesday, May 25 - Discuss Lamb, "Old and New Schoolmasters" and "Distant Correspondents"
Homework: Read Charles Lamb, "Confessions of a Drunkard" (handout) or "A Bachelor's Complaint of the Behaviour of Married People" (handout).

Friday, May 27 - Discuss Lamb, "Confessions of a Drunkard" (handout) and "A Bachelor's Complaint of the Behaviour of Married People." Bring your copy of corrected partner's draft to return to author. Schedule individual meetings with professor for Reading Week.
Assignment: Being revising your draft - final draft should be 4 pages. May 31-June 3 - Reading Week. Final individual meetings with professor.

Monday June 6 - Final Portfolio due. In a small binder or hole-punched folder, turn in all of your written work for the course. First Draft w/partner's correction, First graded Essay; Second Draft w/partner's correction, Second graded Essay; Third Draft w/partner's correction, Third Essay. There should also be a preface. The preface can be anything that expresses either something you've learned in the class (a kind of reflection), or be more creative - draw a picture, submit some photos, a compact disc - whatever pleases you. The preface must be turned in with the portfolio, but is not a huge deal. It should be something fun.

English 105, Section 21: Cosmopolitanism and Composition Professor: Melvin Peña email: melvin@northwestern.edu Office Hours: Wednesday, 12-1pm. Friday, 2-3pm. And by appointment Course web-site: http://pidgeonenglish.blogspot.com/ - Bookmark it, or make it your home page, because it is going to be an integral part of the course. Class meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in Parkes Hall, 222.

I. Goals
The subject of this course is reading and writing about literature. We have several goals: 1. To help you read more carefully – to enjoy whatever you are reading by finding and focusing on what interests you.
2. To help you write more clearly – to build on what is useful to a writing assignment, and to eliminate what is not.
3. To help you learn how to write and revise under pressure. I totally understand that much of what is written in college is written in haste. What we want to do in this course is to slow the process down a bit, to learn how to make a paper readable, and how to make our prose more concise and interesting.
4. To help you learn how to express yourself while attempting to meet someone else's expectations. Everything you write or turn in or perform in college is graded by someone. How do you balance your enjoyment of a given assignment or a given course while being graded for it?
5. To learn how to talk to and write about each other freely and respectfully. This course involves a number of works from the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Though they are very different from each other, they are all in some way concerned with how the author, or the main character(s) view themselves, others, and the world they live in. Like the world of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, our world is one of unbelievable commerce and travel between different lands, and exchange between cultures. By focusing on works centered on these themes, maybe we can gain a better understanding of ourselves and the world we live in.

II. Course Requirements
Attendance: Regular attendance is required. You are expected to come to class having completed the assigned reading and/or writing and prepared to discuss the texts and your own work. Absences will only be considered excusable if they are presented to me in advance. Dire illnesses will also be considered, but you must still alert me.
Assignments: You can expect to write and revise three essays during this term, as well as to participate in regular in-class writing, reflective writing, and informal writing. The three major essays will be turned in at the end of the quarter, bound together, and count toward your final grade. The final portfolio will also include a preface, as explained in the final assignment on the syllabus.
Web-log posts: Posting to the web-log is an integral part of the design of this course. Since we are in an English classroom, when you post a comment you must follow formal, standardized English grammar rules (avoid lowercase letters in place of capitals; all caps; abbreviations; and substitutions for punctuation or letters). Write in complete sentences. Support your answers with reasons, examples, and explanations.

III. Plagiarism: Plagiarism means using the exact words, opinions, or factual information from another source without giving that source credit. Writers give credit through the use of accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation, footnotes, or end notes; a simple listing of books, articles, and websites is not sufficient. Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and will not be countenanced. Any paper verified as plagiarism will receive a failing grade, with no opportunity for revision.

IV. Grading 25% First Essay 25% Second Essay 25% Third Essay 25% Participation Participation includes, but is not limited to:
1. Talking in class. This course will be heavily discussion-oriented. You must be ready to talk about the day's reading when class begins. I fully expect that each of you will discuss the readings with the class, and to talk about your writing with each other.
2. Web-log postings.
3. Mandatory scheduled meetings with the professor.

Welcome to English 105, Spring Style

Hello all! My name is Melvin Pena. Such as I am, I am to be your professor for English 105: Cosmopolitanism and Composition. Feel free to peep around the weblog entries from last quarter to get a kind of idea for the kind of thing we'll be looking for. Starting with Friday's class, you'll be required to post a question to incite and inspire discussion and conversation.

I encourage you to look at my CTECs from the Winter Quarter. I want to make super clear, as I believe I did in the email I sent to all of you a couple of weeks ago, that if you are looking for a blowoff class, or one that conforms to your ideas of an expository writing class - you are looking under the wrong stone here.

This class is not just writing, but intensive reading, thinking, and discussing of literature from the 18th and 19th centuries. We'll be reading a number of different styles of writing - essays, novels, satires, philosophical tales, personal musings, an early gothic novel, and some later really messed up gothic stories, to name a few.

We'll be starting the quarter with three classes on Joseph William's "Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace." We will be meeting this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday - our classroom is Parkes Hall 222. Tuesday we will be introducing ourselves, and Wednesday we'll begin our discussion of "Style." Just to give you the heads up, please read Chapters 1-3 for Wednesday's meeting. Come to class ready to ask questions and to discuss, with each other, and with me.

Texts (in the order we'll be reading them):

Joseph Williams, "Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace"
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Reveries of the Solitary Walker"
Lucy Moore, ed., "Con Men and Cutpurses: Scenes from the Hogarthian Underworld"
Henry Mackenzie, "The Man of Feeling"
Clara Reeve, "The Old English Baron"
Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, "In a Glass Darkly"
Samuel Johnson, "Rasselas"
Voltaire, "Candide"

There will also be hand-outs which I will photocopy when the time comes.
A fuller syllabus to follow.