The Beginnings of English Fiction:
Richardson and the Fieldings
ENGL 8240.01
Syllabus
Spring 2008
Mondays, 12:15-2:45 p.m., Tate 109
Prof. Devoney Looser
Office: 309A Tate Hall
Office hours: Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to noon and by appointment
Phone: (573) 884-7791
Email: looserd@missouri.edu
Web page: http://web.missouri.edu/~looserd/
Prof. George Justice
Office: 210 Jesse Hall
Appointments: Contact Gretchen Labutti at labbutig@missouri.edu
Phone: (573) 884-4178
Email: justiceg@missouri.edu
Web page: http://web.missouri.edu/~justiceg/
Required Texts
Fielding, Henry. Joseph Andrews and Shamela (Oxford World’s Classics)
Fielding, Sarah. The Governess, or Little Female Academy (Broadview)
Fielding, Sarah. The History of Ophelia (Broadview)
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela (Oxford World’s Classics)
Additional Primary Texts (through ECCO [Eighteenth-Century Collections Online], in Ellis Library Databases)
Secondary readings (as assigned) (through eRes)
Course Goals
•To study Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Sarah Fielding and other English writers active during the 1740s-1760s in their historical, literary, and national contexts.
•To become conversant with contemporary literary scholarship on Richardson and the Fieldings.
•To engage in debates with each other and with the assigned texts, in order to join professional conversations on these and other topics.
•To offer opportunities to hone graduate-level research, writing, and presentation skills.
Course Description
Samuel Richardson (bap. 1689-1781) and Henry Fielding (1707-1754) loom large in virtually every account of the rise of the novel, and the fiction of the two men has long been contrasted. Richardson’s wildly popular didactic epistolary narrative of a female servant who marries her master, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), prompted Fielding’s hilarious parody in An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews (1741), as well as his more ambitious Joseph Andrews (1742), sometimes dubbed the first comic novel in English. In this course, we will read both major and lesser-known works of these two literary lions, alongside those of Henry’s learned and successful sister-novelist, Sarah Fielding (1710-1768), who was for a time a friend of Richardson’s. Sarah Fielding’s writings first appeared in her brother’s publications, though she is perhaps now best known as the author of the first children’s school story both for and about young girls, The Governess, or Little Female Academy (1749). Assigned readings will include the aforementioned fiction, additional primary texts, and recent critical essays.
Course Requirements
As is customary in a graduate-level literature course, a great deal of reading will be assigned–hundreds of pages a week. It is expected that you will come to class ready to discuss this material in detail. Other course requirements will include online responses to assigned literature and criticism; in-class discussion and presentation; paper proposals; an annotated bibliography; and a final research paper (rough draft and revision).
Prof. Looser will be grading you in the following areas: 1) online and in-class discussion; 2) a proposal and revised proposal; 3) annotated bibliography; 4) a presentation of work-in-progress; and 4) a seminar paper.
1) Annotated Bibliography (10%) (due March 3rd)
You will produce an annotated bibliography of at least six sources related to the anticipated topic of your final seminar paper. The sources should be listed in MLA style, followed by a one- or two-paragraph descriptive and evaluative assessment of the source’s argument. Cornell University’s library has produced a guide to explain how to create an annotated bibliography, if you would find such an introduction helpful: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm
2) Proposal (5%) and Revised proposal (10%) (Due March 17th and April 7th)
In your proposal, you should outline the paper you intend to produce for this course. A proposal is a short document (approximately 500 words) that describes a piece of research you have undertaken or plan to undertake. Most conference organizers require their prospective presenters to send proposals for consideration. Proposals must have titles and should summarize your anticipated project. It is important that you get to your point(s) right away—in the first sentence if possible—and that you outline briefly the steps of your argument and the expected scope of your work. It also helps to indicate your knowledge of recent work in the field and to differentiate your project from what has come before it. You will revise the proposal, based on instructor comments and those of your peers. The proposal should be typed and double spaced. It should be turned in electronically, through Blackboard’s Digital Dropbox function.
3) Online and In-Class Discussion Contributions (15%)
The course will be seminar style and largely discussion based. (We will give mini-lectures from time to time and will guide the class through the readings, as needed.) Our discussion will take place in the classroom, as well as online, in Blackboard. (See https://courses.missouri.edu/ for login and user instructions.) In any given week, half the class will post an online response before our meeting, and half will post afterward. (These should be done as assigned, by the first letter of your last name, TBA.)
When it is your week to post before class, you should craft a reading response of approximately 300 words, to turn in prior to 9 a.m. on Mondays. Use this forum to make comments or ask questions about the texts (literary or critical), to make connections among texts, and to describe important issues, concepts, or arguments that you hope the class session will address. These responses may be informal but they must be substantive—that is, they should reflect the work you have done processing the week’s readings.
When it is your turn to post after class, you should reply to one or more of your classmates’ postings (approximately 300 words), reflecting on the issues it raises, as well as those we discussed in class. Again, these responses ought to be substantive, engaging seriously—and, of course, respectfully—with the ideas of your classmates, as well as those ideas raised in the texts themselves. These postings are due by the end of the day on the Friday following our class meeting.
During the course of the term, you may miss two online responses without penalty. Additional missing responses will result in a lowered final course grade, unless you have made prior arrangements about your inability to complete the work.
4) Presentation of work-in-progress (10%) (Scheduled for May 5th and 13th)
We will be assigning you to “panels” in which you will present your work-in-progress (on the subject of your final paper) to the class. You will be given 10 minutes to present your work, followed by questions. This exercise is a performance. You should practice your presentation in order to deliver it in a well-modulated voice. You will want to get rid of any constructions that are more easily read than spoken and be careful to stay within the time limit.
One of your classmates will be assigned as the chair or moderator of the panel. It is the moderator’s job to introduce each participant and paper and to make sure that participants do not go over time. The chair also facilitates our question-and-answer session after the papers are given. Finally, the chair is responsible for generating questions for each participant in case the audience gets off to a slow start.
4) Seminar paper (50%) (Due May 13th)
Your seminar paper should be of article length (approximately 20 pages typed and double spaced, plus any brief endnotes and works cited in MLA style). Your paper must consider the texts/ideas/issues raised in the course and demonstrate familiarity with relevant scholarship on your chosen topic. We expect that your paper will particularly demonstrate knowledge of (in other words, will situate itself among) recent research.
--A Postscript on Attendance
We expect you to be here during the whole of each class session. More than one week’s absence will have a negative impact on your ability to participate fully and hence on your final grade. Of course, this will not apply if you are hospitalized or become seriously ill, in which case please contact one of us as soon as you are able to in order to work out an alternate plan to complete the work of the course.
Class Netiquette (From ET@MO)
Your instructors and fellow students wish to foster a safe on-line learning environment. All opinions and experiences, no matter how different or controversial they may be perceived, must be respected in the tolerant spirit of academic discourse. You are encouraged to comment, question, or critique an idea, but you are not to attack an individual. Our differences, some of which are outlined in the University's nondiscrimination statement, will add richness to this learning experience. Please consider that sarcasm and humor can be misconstrued in online interactions and generate unintended disruptions. Working as a community of learners, we can build a polite and respectful course ambience.
Academic Integrity Statement
Academic integrity is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. All members of the academic community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest whether or not the effort is successful. The academic community regards breaches of the academic integrity rules as extremely serious matters. Sanctions for such a breach may include academic sanctions from the instructor, including failing the course for any violation, to disciplinary sanctions ranging from probation to expulsion. When in doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting, collaboration, or any other form of cheating, consult the course instructor.
Disability Services Statement
If you need accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform us immediately. Please see Prof. Looser privately after class, or at her office. To request academic accommodations (for example, a notetaker), students must also register with the Office of Disability Services, (http://disabilityservices.missouri.edu), S5 Memorial Union, 882-4696. It is the campus office responsible for reviewing documentation provided by students requesting academic accommodations, and for accommodations planning in cooperation with students and instructors, as needed and consistent with course requirements. For other MU resources for students with disabilities, click on "Disability Resources" on the MU homepage.
Statement for Intellectual Pluralism
The University community welcomes intellectual diversity and respects student rights. Students who have questions concerning the quality of instruction in this class may address concerns to either the Departmental Chair or Divisional leader or Director of the Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities (http://osrr.missouri.edu/). All students will have the opportunity to submit an anonymous evaluation of the instructor(s) at the end of the course.
ENGL 8240: The Beginnings of English Fiction: Richardson and the Fieldings
Reading Assignment Schedule
Common Pre-Reading
Please read, in preparation for the course
1) Peter Sabor’s “Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Sarah Fielding” (pp. 139-156 in The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1740-1830) (eRes)
2) Siobhan Kilfeather’s “The Rise of Richardson Criticism” (pp. 251-266 in Samuel Richardson: Tercentenary Essays) (eRes)
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3) Jerry Beasley’s “Fiction in the 1740s: Backgrounds, Topics, Strategies” (pp. 1-22 in Novels of the 1740s) (eRes)
Monday, 28 January
Introduction to the Course
Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford) (pp. 1-219)
“Introduction” (Keymer in Oxford Pamela) (pp. vii-xxxiv)
“A Chronology of Samuel Richardson” (pp. xliii-xlv)
Margaret Anne Doody’s “Samuel Richardson: Fiction and Knowledge” (pp. 90-119 in The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel)
Monday, 4 February
Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford) (pp. 221-503)
Ian Watt, “Love and the Novel: Pamela” (pp. 135-74 from The Rise of the Novel) (eRes)
Monday, 11 February
Henry Fielding’s An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews (1741) (Oxford) (pp. 306-344)
“Introduction” (Keymer in Oxford JA/S) (pp. ix-xxxiii)
“A Chronology of Henry Fielding” (pp. xli-xliv)
William B. Warner’s “The Pamela Media Event” (pp. 176-230 from Licensing Entertainment) (eRes)
Nancy Armstrong’s “Strategies of Self-Production: Pamela) (pp from Desire and Domestic Fiction) (eRes)
Monday, 18 February
Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742) (Oxford) (pp. 1-161)
Jill Campbell’s “The Meaning of a Male Pamela: Gender and Genre,” (pp. 61-89 in Natural Masques: Gender and Identity in Fielding’s Plays and Novels) (eRes)
ECCO WORKSHOP (12:15-1:15 p.m., Ellis Library Instruction Classroom, #213)
Monday, 25 February
Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742) (Oxford) (pp. 162-303)
Michael McKeon’s “The Institutionalization of Conflict [ii]: Fielding and the Instrumentality of Belief” (pp. 382-409 in The Origins of the English Novel) (eRes)
Monday, 3 March
(Professor Justice only)
Samuel Richardson’s Pamela II (Pamela in her Exalted Condition) (1742) (ECCO: Start w/ Vol. III; 400 pages)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE TO BLACKBOARD DIGITAL DROPBOX
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS VISIT (1:45-2:45 p.m. Ellis Library 4th Floor West)
Monday, 10 March
Samuel Richardson’s Pamela II (Pamela in her Exalted Condition) (1742) (ECCO: Vol. IV; 400 pages)
Florian Stuber’s “Pamela II: ‘Written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes” (pp. 53-68 from New Essays on Samuel Richardson) (eRes)
Monday, 17 March
Sarah Fielding’s The Governess, or Little Female Academy (1749) (Broadview) (pp. 43-176)
Introduction (pp. 7-41)
Appendix A (pp. 177-8)
RESEARCH PROPOSAL DUE TO BLACKBOARD DIGITAL DROP BOX
Monday, 24 March
NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK
Monday, 31 March
Henry Fielding’s Amelia (1751), Vols. I and II (ECCO) (600 pages)
DOCUMENTARY EDITING WORKSHOP (Tate 109)
Monday, 7 April
Henry Fielding’s Amelia (1751) Vols. III and IV (ECCO) (600 pages)
Peter Sabor’s “Amelia” (pp. 94-108 in The Cambridge Companion to Henry Fielding) (eRes)
REVISED RESEARCH PROPOSAL DUE
Monday, 14 April
Sarah Fielding and Jane Collier’s The Cry (1754) (Vols. I and first half of II) (ECCO) (450 pages)
Linda Bree, “Chapter One: ‘A Woman of Singular Energy, Learning, and Ability,” (pp. 1-28 in Sarah Fielding) (eRes)
Carolyn Woodward’s “Who Wrote The Cry? A Fable for Our Times” (pp. 91-97 in Eighteenth-Century Fiction) (eRes)
Monday, 21 April
(Professor Justice only)
Sarah Fielding and Jane Collier’s The Cry (1754) (rest of Vol. II and Vol. III) (ECCO) (450 pages)
Timothy Dykstal’s “Provoking the Ancients: Classical Learning and Imitation in Fielding and Collier” (pp. 102-122 in College Literature) (eRes)
Monday, 28 April
(Professor Justice only)
Sarah Fielding’s The History of Ophelia (1760) (Broadview) (pp. 37-160)
Introduction (pp. 7-34)
ROUGH DRAFT OF SEMINAR PAPER DUE TO BLACKBOARD DIGITAL DROP BOX
Monday, 5 May
Sarah Fielding’s The History of Ophelia (1760) (Broadview) (pp. 161-277)
Appendices A-D (pp. 279-296)
PRESENTATIONS
Tuesday, 13 May (10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.)
PRESENTATIONS
FINAL SEMINAR PAPER DUE