THE RIME OF THE ANCYENT MARINERE, 1798 THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, 1834 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge STUDIES IN GENRE ENGLISH #429 PROFESSOR SUSAN HOWE From my earliest years I have had a feeling of Dislike & Disgust connected with my own Christian Name: such a vile short plumpness, such a dull abortive smartness in the first Syllable, & this so harshly contrasted by the obscurity and indefiniteness of the syllable Vowel, and the feebleness of the uncovered liquid, with which it ends-- the wabble it makes, & staggering between a diss--& a tri-syllable--& the whole names sounding as if you were abeeceeing. S.M.U.L. --although it is perhaps the worst combination, of which vowels & consonants are susceptible. Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
SYLLABUS Fall Semester 1992 Eng 429. TALES OF TRANSGRESSION AND OR MONSTROSITY: STUDIES IN GENRE: ENG 429. T TH 11:00-12:20. Professor Susan Howe.
We will read a number of British and American short stories, poems and short novels, most of them written during the 19th century, and perhaps see two films. These writings and films focus on traditional gothic themes of transgression and monstrosity but they remain outside that genre form. Poems: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market," Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover," and "My Last Duchess," Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," "The City in the Sea," "Alone." Short novels and short stories. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Ethan Brand," "Wakefield," "Rappaccini's Daughter," "Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson, A Tale," Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno,"and "Bartleby the Scrivener." Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Films: Night of the Hunter, story by James Agee, director Charles Laughton, The Third Man, story by Graham Greene, director Carol Reed. Attendance is Mandatory. After three absences your grade will be automatically lowered to a B-. Lecture and class discussion. Discussion is important. I will sometimes ask for one page summaries of some aspect of the reading. Two short exams and a final 10-15 page paper. * * * Required Texts: A xerox copy of "The Ancient Mariner," can be purchased through me via The Poetics Program. The Following books can be purchased at Talking Leaves Bookstore. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti. Short story collections of Melville and Hawthorne that include the stories listed. Most of these on reserve at UGL: Browning's Dramatic Monologues and the Post-Romantic Subject: L. D. Martin. Robert Browning: The Poems. Yale University Press. Browning's Poetry of Reticence: Barbara Melchiori. The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Bronte. ed from ms by C. W. Hatfield. Emily Bronte: Winifrid Gerin. A Life of Emily Bronte: Edward Chitham. The Brontes: Modern Critical Views: Edit. Harold Bloom. The Bronte's Web of Childhood: Elizabeth Ratchford. Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontes. Terry Eagleton The Madwoman in the Attic. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Ed. H.J. Jackson. Coleridge: Early Visions: Richard Holmes. Sara Coleridge: A Victorian Daughter: Yale University Press. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, A Handbook: Edited by Royal A. Gettman. Coleridge: Critical Views: edited by Harold Bloom. The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination: John Livingston Lowes. Henry James and the Occult: Martha Bantas. Desire and Repression: The Dialectic of Self & Other in the Late Works of Henry James: Donna Przbylowicz. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Short Stories: American Library Ed. Salem is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Edwin Haviland Miller. Herman Melville: Northwestern Newbury edition of short fiction. The Silence of Bartleby: Dan McCall. Edgar Allan Poe. Kenneth Silverman The Achievement of Christina Rossetti: David Kent. Christina Rossetti:Selected Poems. Ed. C.H. Sissan. Christina Rossetti in Context: Antony Harrison ed. Christina Rossetti: A Divided Life. George Battiscombe. Christina Rossetti and the Poetry of Discovery. Katherine Mayberry. Frankenstein's Creation: The Book, the Monster, and Human Reality. by David Ketterer (English Lit Studies.) Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality. Emily Sunstein. The Endurance of Frankenstein: Essays on Mary Shelley's Novel. Edit. George Levine. Other Recommended Books: not on reserve. Discourses of Desire: Gender, Genre, and Epistolary Fictions: Linda S. Kauffman. (chapter on The Turn of the Screw). Telepathy and Literature: Essays on the Reading Mind: Nicholas Royle.(chapter on Wuthering Heights.) Beneath The American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville: David S. Reynolds. (Chapters on Poe, Hawthorne, Melville.) In Frankenstein's Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-century Writing: Chris Baldick. Literature and Evil: Georges Bataille. (chapter on E. Bronte.) Making Monstrous: Frankenstein, Criticism, Theory: Fred Botting.
General Weekly Reading and Class Schedule:(subject to some change)
WEEK 1T August 25: Introduction. Overview of semester. Discuss syllabus. Th August 27: Coleridge, Rime of The Ancient Mariner. First version. WEEK 2 T Sept 1: Rime first and second versions. Th Sept 3: Rime of the Ancient Mariner and later marginal glosses. WEEK 3 T Sept 8: Mary Shelley Life and literary production. Frankenstein Th Sept 10: Frankenstein WEEK 4 T Sept 15: Frankenstein Th Sept 17: Emily Bronte: Life and legend. Wuthering Heights WEEK 5 T Sept 22: Wuthering Heights Th Sept 24: Wuthering Heights and poems WEEK 6 T Sept 29: No class Th Oct 1: Bronte and Browning poems WEEK 7 T Oct 6: Christina Rossetti "Goblin Market" Th Oct 8: "Goblin Market" WEEK 8 T Oct 13: EXAM Th Oct 15: American tales of transgression and monstrosity Edgar Allan Poe/ "The Raven," "The City in the Sea." Alone" WEEK 9 T Oct 20:Edgar Allan Poe/ "William Wilson." one other story. Th Oct 22: Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Rappaccini's Daughter" WEEK 10 T Oct 27: Hawthorne/ "Wakefield," "Ethan Brand" Th Oct 29: Herman Melville: "Benito Cereno" WEEK 11 T Nov 3: "BenitoCereno" Th Nov 5: Herman Melville/ "Bartleby" WEEK 12 T Nov 10: "Bartleby" Th Nov 12: Henry James "The Turn of the Screw" WEEK 13 T Nov 17: "The Turn of the Screw" Th Nov 19: EXAM WEEK 14 T Nov 24: Class discussion of work so far. Thanksgiving break WEEK 15 T Dec 1: Night of the Hunter/ Movie schedule to be worked out. Th Dec 3: The Third Man/ Movie schedule to be worked out. WEEK 16 Tue 8: Final discussion on semester and papers due.