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204 EPB; Florence Boos florence-boos@uiowa.edu, 335-0434
Office hours: Monday 6-7 p. m. and Wednesday 3:30-4:20 319 EPB
Course texts: all in IMU
Joanna Baillie, Plays on the Passions
Robert Burns, Poems
Walter Scott, The Heart of Midlothian
James Hogg, Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Thomas Carlyle, selections
Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Lewis Grassic Gibbon, A Scots Quair
handouts: Dr. Johnson; Scottish Enlightenment
figures; ballads; play by Joanna Baillie; handout on the Scots language;
Scottish working-class poets (Johnston, Hamilton, McPherson); memoirs
by Elizabeth Campbell and Ellen Johnston; diary of Christian Watt, selections
from Carmina Gaelica; W. H. Henley, “In Hospital”; selections
from Hugh McDiarmid, “The Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle”;
possibly other short stories and poems as time permits
Assignments:
one 6+ page research paper. As the time approaches
I'll pass out a handout with suggested topics for a research paper, though
you may also choose your own. A proposed topic, title and bibliography
for the research paper are due two weeks before the paper itself. This
will enable you to face in advance any problems in obtaining materials.
You should consult at least six sources, and of
these 2 or 3 should be books and two or three articles. It's acceptable
to use computerized encylopedia entries and webpages (such as those suggested
on the "resources" sections of our course page) in addition,
but these cannot substitute for printed materials. When citing from the
internet, you must also provide references to the actual author, source
of the information and date of publication (e. g. an internet address
by itself won't do). Due the day after spring break.
6+ comparative essay. Due at time of final session,
held the Monday of exam week. Students will describe their final essays
to the class.
Postings or Presentations.
using our class discussion page, you will be asked
to help prepare plot summaries of sections of one or more of our novels.
Also please post five 1-2 page essays chosen from five of the following
topics:
1. Scottish painting or artwork in relation to one of our texts
2. work of Scottish music in relation to one of the works read in course
3. visit to Special Collections: illustrations, fine editions, serial
parts for one of our texts
4. periodical context--serialization, 19th century reviews
5. modern criticism--3 or more 20th century readings of an aspect of one
of our texts
6. comparison of film adaptation with original text: what are the changes
and why?
7. Scottish dance in relation to a work of Scottish fiction or poetry
8. historical application--a historical context for a scene or theme in
one of our works
9. biographical context--an aspect of the work in the context of author’s
life
10. linguistic analysis--a discussion of the use of dialect, regional,
or class-marked speech in one of our texts
11. a discussion of authorial intrusions and narrative voice in one of
the course novels
12. discussion of meter, sound, language choice, and sequence in a poetic
text
13. a discussion of a selection by one of the Scottish Enlightenment writers
14. a dramatic or creative presentation or reading (may be done with others)
(can count as the equivalent of 2 postings)
Be sure to proofread your message postings. Perhaps you might print them
out and correct for syntax, grammar and punctuation. Be sure to use paragraphs!
Due dates: first posting by February 28th; second
by spring break; third the Friday after break; fourth by end of classes;
fifth by end of semester.
Attendance and discussion are central to this
class. I may lower the grade one half point for more than three absences,
and for more than six absences your grade will fall substantially.
Guidelines for Grading:
20% class attendance, preparation and contributions to class
25% research paper
25% comparative essay
20% five postings + plot summaries
10% quizzes (history, Scott, others), small assignments
Some Sample Topics for Research Paper: 6 + pages
- Imagery and Style in the Scottish Ballad Tradition
- llligimate children/Exramarital Amours and
the Scottish Ballad Tradition
- Marriage and Money in the Scottish Ballad Tradition
- Songs and Poems of the Jacobite Rebellion
- Work Songs/Songs of the Supernatural
- Folk Origins of Robert Burns' Songs
- Burns' Political Poems
- Erotic Humor in Burns's Poems
- Burns and the Vernacular Tradition
- Burns and His 18th Century Antecedents
- Dr. Johnson, Boswell and Highland Culture
- Adam Smith, David Hume and the Appeal to "Common
Sense"
- Adam Smith and Colonization/Imperialism/National
Independence
- A Scottish Context for Hume's Views on Religion
- Scottish Enlightenment Views on Style and Rhetoric
- James Hogg's Private Memoirs and Confessions
and the Religious Conflicts of the Seventeenth Century
- Hogg and the Supernatural
- Vernacular Socts Usage in Hogg/Burns/Scott
- The Portrayal of Working People and Their Speech
in Hogg/Scott
- The Multiple Facets of Truth: Point of View/
The Unreliable Narrator in Hogg's Private Memoirs and Confessions
- Drinking and Dancing: 'Worldly Pleasures' and
Religon in Hogg and Burns
- Anglicans, Catholics and Presbyterians: Hogg/Burns/Scott
on Relious Issues
- Waverley: A Romantic Account of the
Jacobite Rebellions
- The Heart of Midlothian and
the Issue of Scottish Identity
- The Heart of Midlothian, Outlawry
and the Law
- Illegitimacy and The Heart of Midlothian
- The Social Geography of The Heart of Midlothian
- Gender Norms and Women's Roles in The Heart
of Midlothian
- Scottish Nationalism/Cultural Idenitty in Hogg/Burns/Scott
- Scott as Poet vs. Scott as Novelist
- Burns' Life in His Poems
- Joanna Baillie and the Passions/ Ballie's View
of Tragedy in De Montfort
- Joanna Baillie and the Blank Verse Drama
- Form and Theme in the Poetry of Janet Hamilton,
Ellen Johnston and Mary McPherson
- Mairi Nic'a Phersain and the Highland Clearances
- Margaret Oliphant and the Supernatural
- Christian Watt and Nineteenth Century Treatment
of the Insane
- Christian Watt as a Diarist
- The Social Views of Christian Watt
- The Doppelganger in Hogg and Stevenson
- W. H. Henley's "In Hospital" and
Victorian Medical Reform
- Form and Language in Henley's "In Hospital"
- Nineteenth-Century Biographies of Scott/ Biographies
of Scott
- Nineteenth-Century Biographies of Burns/ Biographies
of Burns
Some Other Topics for Scott and Carlyle:
- Scottish Poetry in Waverley
- Contemporary Views of Madness/Retardation and the "Justified
Sinner"/David Gellatley
- Autobiographical Features of Waverley
- Gender Norms and Women's Roles in Waverley
- Carlyle and Nineteenth-Century Views of Burns
- Carlyle and Social Unrest/ Chartism
- Carlyle and Religion
For background, you should consult at least six
sources, and of these 2 or 3 should be books and two or three articles.
It's acceptable to use computerized encyclopedia entries and webpages
(such as those suggested on the "resources" page of our website),
but these cannot substitute for printed materials. You might, for example,
use enclyclopedia entries or web citations to prompt thoughts on what
types of information you wish to seek. When citing from the internet,
you must also provide references to the actual author, source of the information
and date of publication (e. g. an internet address by itself won't do).
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