Courses
[Past Courses][Current Courses]
Presently, administrative duties prevent me from teaching; however, I have included sample syllabi of past courses below. Check back each semester for updates on courses I teach. The links below are not working - they are under construction.
ENG 262-002 - A H Harrison - Spring 2005
Purpose of the course - This course is designed to familiarize you with the literature of England and its historical contexts from about 1700 to about 1900. The work in it should also improve your ability to appreciate, analyze, and write coherently about literature. Contributing to the coherence of the course as an historical survey, our discussions will often focus on specific issues: 1) The difficulties of dealing with cultural changes, particularly those caused by the rise of industrialism at the very end of the eighteenth century. 2) Possibilities in an industrial society for radical political and social transformation, which can be seen either as threats to established political and social order, or, alternately, as the promise of a new and better one. 3) Changing gender roles and gender relations. 4) The role of the artist (usually the writer) in society. 5) Attitudes toward religious belief as a system of foundational or sustaining moral and spiritual values.
English 262 as a "Learning Community" - As you well know by now, learning is an interactive process. Students and teachers interact with each other and with educational materials (texts, films, specimens, etc) in unique and original ways sometimes so as to actually create "knowledge" but more often to understand, as fully as possible, knowledge that has been generated by others. In order for this process to be successful, our classroom must be an interactive environment. This means that all students are responsible at every class meeting for having read and thought about assigned materials and for interacting with each other and with me. For this reason attendance and participation will play a significant role in determining your success in this course (and, thus, your grade).
Texts: The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume Two. SEVENTH EDITION. Abrams et al. (Norton)
Reading, Grading, Exams, Papers - Please read all assigned materials BEFORE the date listed on the syllabus. Your grade for the course will be based on a variety of assignments: 1) Eight unannounced quizzes or "Quiz Paragraphs" (see Notes below). In total, these will count 20 your grade for the course, so be certain to read assigned material BEFORE THE DUE DATE with great care and attention to detail. I will drop your lowest quiz score. If you are absent for a quiz, you MAY NOT make it up NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCES. 2) One four-five page unresearched paper (30% of your grade- the assignment is attached to the syllabus). 3) A midterm exam (20%). And a final exam (30%), for which I will supply you with a study guide.
Attendance - Each student will be allowed A MAXIMUM OF THREE ABSENCES to accommodate hardships that may arise during the session (i.e., cars breaking down, shift changes at work, deaths in the family, etc.), but remember that missed quizzes CANNOT be made up. For each additional absence a student will lose half a letter grade from her/his course grade. Coming late to class will count as an absence: please remember that the learning process in this course is a collaborative one and depends on your presence in class and participation in discussions of the assigned materials.
My Office is in Tompkins Hall, Room 226. I will be available for conferences from 2:30-4 PM every Tuesday and Thursday, and by appointment. My school phone number is 515-4149; email - engahh@unity.ncsu.edu. Emails sent after 5 PM will normally be answered the following day. Don´t hesitate to get in touch for consultations. If you leave a message on my voice mail when I´m not in, I´ll be sure to return your call.
A NOTE ON THE QUIZZES: Most quizzes given in this course will be "objective" with multiple choice answers. They will ask brief questions to determine that you have read the material assigned for a given class meeting. For "quiz paragraphs" you will write highly focused responses (usually about half a page) to a topic presented at the beginning of the class.
A NOTE ON THE PAPER: Your paper for this course should be highly focused, compressed and efficient, presenting in no more than five pages (using 12 point font) a thesis (clearly articulated in your first paragraph) and salient evidence to support that thesis in response to one of the assigned topics. Your writing in these essays should be "tight," clear, and lean, but grammatically and mechanically polished. Grades will be based on the quality of your writing, the intelligence of your thesis, and the validity of your support for it. You should prepare for each paper by writing a 6-7 page rough draft, which you should then compress, revise, edit to make your analysis as clear and efficient as possible. I will be happy to review and comment on drafts of papers sent or handed to me no later than five class meetings before papers are due. Notes: 1) I CANNOT ACCEPT "COMPUTER PROBLEMS" AS AN EXCUSE FOR WORK HANDED IN LATE. FOR EACH DAY A PAPER IS LATE YOU WILL LOSE A FULL LETTER GRADE ON IT. 2) WORK ON THIS PAPER SHOULD BE ONLY YOUR OWN. TO AVOID PLAGIARISM, DO NOT USE OUTSIDE SOURCES OR GET HELP IN YOUR WRITING FROM ANOTHER PERSON.
Download the complete syllabus, including calendar, in PDF format.
ENG 463 - The Victorian Period
A. H. Harrison
This course is designed as a selective survey of Victorian literature, focusing on non-fiction prose, fiction, and poetry published between 1830 and 1900. Like Victorian England itself, the course should offer something for everyone's tastes. Our focus will be on issues that were of urgent interest to Victorians: social problems and possible solutions to them in the first industrial nation, gender relations and sexuality ("the woman question"), threats (and alternatives) to religious belief, attitudes toward art (especially literature) and its influence in the social world, and the question of empire. Students in the course should not only learn a good deal about Victorian literature and culture (especially regarding the issues noted above), but also hone their writing and research skills.
English 463 as a "Learning Community" - As you well know by now, learning is an interactive process. Students and teachers interact with each other and with educational materials (texts, films, specimens, etc) in original ways so as to actually create A knowledge and to try to understand knowledge that has been generated by others. For this process to be successful, our classroom must be an interactive environment. This means that all students are responsible at every class meeting for having read and thought about assigned materials and for interacting with each other and with me. For this reason participation will play a significant role in determining your success in this course (10% of your grade).
REQUIREMENTS: Please read all assignments carefully before the due date and come prepared to discuss them (with critical questions in hand). PLEASE NOTE: I allow students three absences for the semester, but after that, for each absence a student loses half a letter grade for the course. Please note that coming late to class will count as an absence.
You will write one short unresearched paper (5-7 pages) and one research paper in this class. The FIRST PAPER is due FEBRUARY 17 (20% of course grade). For this paper analyze how Gaskell uses character development, particular stylistic devices, and noteworthy image patterns in any important chapter or group of related chapters of Mary Barton to develop one or more of her central ideas about Victorian social and/or political issues.
RESEARCH PAPER, due APRIL 29 (8-14 pages): analyze a significant poem or group of related shorter poems by one of the poets we are reading. Please make an appointment to discuss your topic with me BEFORE MARCH 25; hand in a one page description of your project APRIL 1. AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY for this paper--including at least three current books (or book chapters) and four recent and significant journal articles--is due APRIL 13 (10% of your course grade).. Each entry should be annotated, that is, accompanied by a summary (minimum, five lines) of the book chapter or article's main argument. For Bibliographical entries and citations within the paper USE ONLY MLA STYLE. The research paper itself counts 30% of your final grade, the FINAL, 30%. NOTE: I do NOT accept late papers. All papers for this class must be handed in at the beginning of class on the due date.
TEXTS:
Altick, Richard. Victorian People and Ideas (Norton, 1973).
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness (Bedford. Ed. Ross Murfin, 1996).
Gaskell, Elizabeth. Mary Barton (Broadview, 2002).
Mermin and Tucker, eds. Victorian Literature, 1830-1900 (Harcourt, 2002).
OFFICE: My office is T226. Please call me when you need to at 515-4149 or send an email to engahh@unity.ncsu.edu. My home email address is engahh@highstream.net. Office Hours: T 2:30-4:00, W 12:30-2:30, and by appointment.
Download the complete syllabus, including calendar, in PDF format.
Course Description: The focus of English 560 for Fall, 2004 will be Victorian women poets, whom we will discuss in the dual contexts of Victorian women´s socialization (including their education) and the marketplace for poetry, especially women´s poetry, during the period (in various venues from traditional books to periodicals to illustrated annuals). We will read a variety of poets, including those who are famous (Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti) as well as less well known figures: Jean Ingelow, Adelaide Proctor, Augusta Webster, Michael Field, Mary Coleridge, and others. We will also explore the relatively recent renewal of critical interest in Victorian women poets in the context of feminist/gender theory and criticism.
ENG 491 - Gender and Textuality in 19th Century English Literature
Course Description: This course will examine the operations of gender ideology in a variety of nineteenth-century texts, prose non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, beginning with the first major challenge to established gender ideologies, Mary Wollstonecraft´s Vindication of the Rights of Women, written at the time of the French Revolution. The course will be introduced by a careful reading of Toril Moi´s brief history and analysis of the development of feminist literary and social criticism: Sexual/Textual Politics. Discussion of this work will provide theoretical foundations for analysis of both literary and non-literary texts in the course. Examination of formal issues and historical contexts, as well as matters of substance, will help students understand how gender politics inflects textual production and reception at all levels.
Download a complete copy of the syllabus, including course calendar, in PDF format.
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