What is this course? This course studies major English works from the Anglo-Saxon period (ca. 600-1100) through the 18th century (1700s), emphasizing ideas and characteristics of the British literary tradition.
This course fulfills general-education electives in literature and humanities. General-education courses are not designed to provide students with a narrow range of workplace skills. Rather, their intention is to permit the student to become more generally (i.e. liberally) educated for life. Survey of English Literature introduces students to the language and literature of the North American mother country and mother tongue. Course prerequisite includes ENG 112 (College Composition II) or its equivalent.What are the course requirements? Students will have assigned readings from the textbook, take reading quizzes, a midterm and final exam, produce three formal printed reports (minimum three pages in length), and make one seminar presentation on an assigned topic. The course entails a great deal of reading and writing. Students who are weak in either of those academic skills should seek the assistance of the College Reading Center (417 Hastings Hall) or the College Writing Center (254 Wythe Hall).
What is the textbook for the course?
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: A Norton Critical Edition. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992.
What are the grading standards for students’ work? Dr. Long holds himself and his students to high standards. Excellent (and therefore unusual, remarkable, conspicuously proficient) work is awarded an "A." Very good work (with some room for improvement) is awarded a "B." Average work (which gets the job done, but not done particularly well) receives a "C." Work that is seriously deficient (either does not fulfill the assignment or is poorly written) is awarded a "D" or "F," depending on the severity of the documents' problems or errors. Students are urged to read the specifications for each assignment, to ask Dr. Long questions about those specifications, and to produce their work carefully and attentively.
How will the course grade be determined? Averaged quizzes will comprise 30% of the grade; out-of-class reports and seminar presentations 30%; exams, 30%; attendance and general participation, 10%.
What is the class attendance policy? Students must attend at least 80% of the class meetings; those who miss more (over nine class hours) will fail the course.
How firm are the report deadlines? Because community college students live complex lives, they sometimes need to take an extension of a deadline. Students in this course may take an extension of 24 hours by notifying the professor in advance of a deadline. They should not do so habitually because it jeopardizes their other work and can delay the professor's evaluation and return of the work to the student. Any seminar presentation assignment and the final project of the course will not be accepted after the deadline.
Can students receive an "Incomplete" ("I") if they have not completed the work at the end of the semester? Under extraordinary circumstances a student may request an Incomplete grade for a current semester, that is the deferral of some work due for the course until the end of the following term. This work due cannot constitute more than 50% of the course work; the student must otherwise be passing the course; and the circumstances prompting the request for an incomplete must be serious and beyond the student’s control (e.g. changes in work schedule, illness of the student or family member, military deployment).
Can students withdraw from the course later if they have to? Students may withdraw from any course on their own until the mid-term date designated in the current academic calendar. A professor may also process an administrative withdrawal of the student whose absences are excessive. If this withdrawal occurs after the mid-term date, the student receives an "F" for the course. Only under the most serious mitigating circumstances (requiring the student's providing written documentation) can a student be withdrawn without penalty after the withdrawal date.
How often may a student retake the same course? Students are permitted to take a course twice (taking a course but withdrawing from it counts as one attempt to take a course). In order to take a course a third time, students must secure the approval of the dean.
Students with disabilities should contact the Counseling Center (201 Griffin Hall/825.2827/ TDD 757.825.2853) in order to secure for the professor a statement of reasonable accommodations that will improve the students' likelihood of academic success in the course.
Can the course be taken for Honors Credit? Students who qualify for the college’s Honors Program (see the College Catalog) can take this course for Honor’s Credit by preparing with the professor an Honors Credit Learning Contract and completing the required work satisfactorily. The designation "Honors" will appear on the student’s transcript upon passing the course and satisfactory completion of the contracted work.
Students with disabilities should contact the Counseling Center in order to secure for the professor a statement of the reasonable accommodations that will improve the students' likelihood of academic success in the course.
What are the course's required reports?
1. Arthurian Film Review. Students will research one popular film treatment of Arthurian lore (including the Grail Legend), view the film, and write a review in which they describe the film, analyze the elements that seem faithful to the Arthurian tradition as we have studied it, indicate which elements of the film seem to be anachronisms or modernizations of the tradition (not following the tradition), and discuss how the modernization reflected the time and contemporary conditions in which the film was made.[Point and click here for Kevin Harty's extensive Arthurian filmography Web page.]
2. Web Site Review. Early Modern England. Students will conduct a Web search in which they find a Web site devoted to some aspect of early-modern England (ca. 1500-1660) in the Tudor-Stuart and Commonwealth periods, explore the resources that the Web site offers, and write a site review in which the student provides bibliographic information about the site (including author, title, publisher of the site, date of the site's publication, URL [Web address], and date of the student's visit), describes the site, and evaluates its authority, credibility, and usefulness to a student of English literature. Keyword searches: early-modern England, Puritan, Anglican, English Civil War, English Revolution, Puritan Commonwealth, Metaphysical poets, Elizabethan England, Tudor England, Stuart England, Jacobean drama, Elizabethan drama.[Point and click here to use the Web links compiled by the scholarly journal, Early Modern Studies.]
3. Hamlet Paper. Using the Norton Critical Editions version of the play, each student will read the criticism of the play, establish which one or two critics best represents the student's own understanding of the play, and compare two film treatments of the play in order to evaluate which of the two films is closest to the student's (and the critics') interpretation. Students are urged to focus on one scene or one aspect of the two film treatments, rather than to make global generalizations about the films.[Point and click here for Encyclopedia Britannica's Shakespeare filmography (and scroll down to find Hamlet).]
These papers must be prepared by conforming to standard MLA conventions of format and source citation (including parenthetical citations of research sources and a Works Cited bibliography). Using another source's words (a verbatim quotation) or ideas (summarized or paraphrased in your own words) or information requires that you cite the source. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, for which the academic penalty is a failing grade. The papers must employ a minimum of 1,000 words (three pages). The papers may be submitted in any order of the student's choosing, although students are urged to submit the paper on Hamlet last.
4. Seminar Oral Presentation. During the course of the semester, each student will prepare and present an oral report on one of the selections below. This will require students, in consultation with the professor, to explore a specific text, writer, or theme, to conduct supplementary research, and to present their findings (both how they conducted their research and what conclusions they reached) in 10 minutes. Students will prepare for the professor a one-page summary of their findings (an abstract) and of their research sources (a bibliography).
Examples of Students' Work
[Point and click here for an exemplary Web site review by Julie Harris] [Point and click here for another exemplary Web site review by Hope Franklin] [Point and click here for still another exemplary Web site review by Judy Keesee] [But wait, there's more: a Web site review by Katie Reed]
[Film Review by Talya Moore (Boorman's Excalibur)--point and click here.]