English 115W, Section 78,
READING JANE AUSTEN
Fall 2004
Professor Carolyn Dever
Office: Kirkland Hall 301
Office phone: 322-7332
e-mail: Carolyn.Dever@vanderbilt.edu
Office hours: Wednesdays 4-5 and by appointment.
SYLLABUS
Wednesday, August 25 Introduction.
Friday, August 27 The practice of critical interpretation.
Monday, August 30 Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Wednesday, September 1 Sense and Sensibility
Friday, September 3 Sense and Sensibility
Monday, September 6 Sense and Sensibility
Wednesday, September 8 Ang Lee, Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Friday, September 10 Sense and Sensibility
Paper #1 (3 pp.) due in class.
Monday, September 13 Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Wednesday, September 15 Pride and Prejudice
Friday, September 17 Scheduled conferences.
Monday, September 20 Pride and Prejudice
Wednesday, September 22 Pride and Prejudice
Friday, September 24 Pride and Prejudice.
Paper #2 (5 pp.) due in class.
Monday, September 27 Simon Langton, Jane Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice (1995)
Wednesday, September 29 Pride and Prejudice
Friday, October 1 Sharon McGuire, Bridget Jones’s Diary
(2001)
Monday, October 4 Mansfield Park (1814)
Wednesday, October 6 Mansfield Park
Friday, October 8 Mansfield Park
Revision of paper #2 (5 pp.) due in class.
Monday, October 11 Patricia Rozema, Mansfield Park (1999)
Tuesday, October 13 Mansfield Park
Friday, October 15 Mansfield Park
Monday, October 18 FALL BREAK.
Wednesday, October 20 Emma (1816)
Friday, October 22 Emma
Paper #3 (5 pp.) due in class.
Monday, October 25 Emma
Wednesday, October 27 Emma
Friday, October 29 Scheduled conferences.
Monday, November 1 Dairmuid Lawrence, Jane Austen’s Emma
(1999)
Wednesday, November 3 Emma
Friday, November 5 Amy Heckerling, Clueless (1995)
Revision of paper #3 (5 pp.) due in class.
Monday, November 8 Clueless
Wednesday, November 10 Douglas McGrath, Emma (1996)
Friday, November 12 Emma
Monday, November 15 Persuasion (1818)
Wednesday, November 17 Persuasion
Friday, November 19 Persuasion
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 22-26: THANKSGIVING BREAK.
Monday, November 29 Roger Michell, Jane Austen’s Persuasion
(1995)
Wednesday, December 1 Persuasion
Friday, December 3 Persuasion
Monday, December 6 Persuasion
Paper #4 (8 pp.) due in class.
Wednesday, December 8 Conclusion.
Guidelines for success:
- Attendance: arrive on time for each seminar meeting prepared to discuss the day’s assigned reading, viewing, and writing. Please let me know in advance if you plan to miss class, keeping in mind that more than three unexcused absences will result in a failing grade for the semester. Excused absences require documentation from a medical professional.
- Participation: this course is a seminar, which means that teaching and learning occur by means of informed discussion. I will not lecture to you; instead I will guide your learning process through our discussions. Each member of the seminar should be at all times well-prepared and open to engaged debate with classmates. I welcome all arguments and questions, and require only that they be informed by your careful preparation of the assigned work.
- Papers are due at the beginning of the class period for which I have assigned them. Late arrival to class constitutes a late paper. The penalty for late submission is one-half grade per day, except in the event of a documented medical emergency. Please note that I will not accept papers by electronic submission.
- I require the following formatting for your writing assignments: your paper must be stapled and double-spaced, with one-inch margins and 12-point font. Your name must appear on every page. Again, I repeat: I will not accept papers by electronic submission. Failure to respect these requirements will result in the penalty of one-half letter grade per day until the problem is rectified.
How I evaluate your work:
- This seminar rewards your progress as you develop skills of interpretation and written expression. I will look forward to getting to know you as a student, and to working closely with you as you work on each paper and the two rewrites that the course requires. Please do not ever hesitate to come to my office hours with a question or problem; if you can’t make it to office hours or find yourself with a question that can’t wait, please e-mail me or call me for an appointment. This course will work most effectively for you if you and I communicate well.
- My evaluation of your written work and your contribution to our seminar discussions takes into account your engagement with the details, large and small, of Austen’s texts (both novels and films). I will also watch carefully for your good-faith effort to put into practice the techniques of reading, interpretation, writing, and analysis that we will develop together over the course of the semester.
- A note about rewrites: you will have the opportunity in this course to rewrite your second and third papers after meeting with me for individual conferences about your work. In many cases, the final grade for each of these papers will be the grade for the rewritten version. However, if the rewritten version of the paper does not represent a genuine revision that addresses issues I have identified in the first draft, I reserve the right to grade you on the first draft exclusively. In other words: most students achieve a higher grade on the rewritten version than on the first draft, but this is because they earn a higher grade; it is by no means a given.
- I will use the following criteria to determine your final grade at the semester’s end:
- Attendance and participation: 20%.
- First paper: 10%.
- Second paper: 15%.
- Third paper: 25%.
- Fourth paper: 30%.
