Welcome to the Course!

This is the course blog for British Lit from 1800, so come here to find all your reading assignments/questions, the Art Paper assignment, Mid-Term and Final information, and links related to literature and art. Everything here is supplementary, and you don't need to comment on this site or really do anything with it. It's just a virtual bulletin board so you can find material you might have lost or forgotten about, and where I can offer you some 'behind the scenes' material in case it helps you along the way.

Be sure to buy the SIX book for class in any edition: Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, Alice in Wonderland, The Importance of Being Earnest, Heart of Darkness, and Fellowship of the Ring. And please be prepared to dig into this books and explore them with the class. Don't rely on internet or AI summaries, since then you're only reading someone else's point of view, and you'll never discover your own.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at jgrasso@ecok.edu. Otherwise, see you in class!

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For Monday: Short Lecture on Colonialism and Mansfield

As a way to introduce you to some of the themes we'll be exploring with our last two books, I've recorded a short lecture (about 18 min.) that I would have discussed with you in class if we were still meeting. I know 18 minutes is a lot to watch in a single stretch, so feel free to start and stop, or simply leave it playing in the background. However, I think it will help you see and understand some of the larger ideas going on behind the scenes in Mansfield's stories. AFTER you watch the video, answer the following question as a COMMENT below: "Since many women in the early 19th century tried to hide their identity as a woman by adopting a male name, or writing more 'male' stories, how do you think colonial writers did the same? That is, how did they hide their colonial identity in writing to sound more 'English'? What might they have had to hide, or ignore, or not reveal as a writer? (This will count toward your participation grade, since I can...

Short Lecture on Being "Weak" in Mansfield's Stories

Before we race to the end of Mansfield's stories, I wanted to discuss some of the major themes we've encountered in several of them, particularly "Daughters of the Late Colonel," "The Life of Ma Parker," "Mr. and Mrs. Dove," and "Marriage a la Mode." Watch the video to hear some of my thoughts on these stories, most of which are drawn from your responses to the reading questions. It's a little longer than the last one, but still only about 25 minutes (sorry)! After you finish, answer the following question as a COMMENT on the blog. Q: Talking about emotions, love, death, or otherwise being "weak" was very taboo in British society at this time. What subjects or relationships do you feel are taboo in our own society? And I don't just mean awkward subjects (abortion, politics, etc.), but what emotions or experiences would you have trouble discussing with your parents, your siblings, your friends, and even your sig...

For Friday: Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"

“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections in Early Childhood” (pp.51-57): read the entire poem, but the questions will only focus on Stanzas 1-7 NOTE: This is a longer poem, though it’s broken up into short stanza chapters. Read it slowly, and focus on each stanza as an individual poem. Then consider how each one develops a general ‘story’ or narrative about Wordsworth’s life. Consider this, too, as a kind of mid-life crisis poem: Wordsworth feels himself pulling away from the innocent joys he used to experience in life, and the poem is an attempt to find himself—and to convince other readers to find themselves in the thickets of adulthood. Answer TWO of the following... Q1: According to Stanzas 1-4, what causes the poet to feel distanced from the natural world? What has come between him and his imagination/emotions? In Stanza 2 he writes that “But yet I know, where’er I go,/That there hath past away a glory from the earth...

British Literature from 1800, "The Mythmakers"

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