Tuesday, February 2nd

Frances Burney, Evelina (Finish Volume II and read all of Volume III). 

Weekly Writing Prompt:

  1. There are a great number of sisters, brothers, and fathers in Evelina. What do you make of familial dynamics in the third volume in particular, and the novel as a whole?
  2. What is the value of writing letters for Evelina during her “entrance” into the world? At one point, in a letter to Maria Mirvan, she confesses that “I cannot journalise; cannot arrange my ideas into order” (384), which suggests that Evelina’s writes for herself as well as for her recipients. Explore the significance of writing as a mode for organizing ideas in the novel.

Thursday, February 4th

Conclude discussion of Evelina. Please see this “Introduction to Evelina” on the British Library website.

Essay Writing and Research workshop: Please read: Writing Presentation

In addition to the Purdue Owl and the  MLA Handbook, the following texts were used in preparing this handout: Langdon Elsbree, et. al. The Heath Handbook of Composition and John Trimble, Writing with style: Conversations on the art of writing

Sample Essays: Essay 1 and Essay 2

Finding your voice: Academic Prose

DUE Wednesday night by 10:00PM: 

What aspects of essay writing that continue to leave you baffled and unsure? 

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Tuesday, February 9th

Charlotte Smith, Emmeline (Volume I)
ODNB entry on Smith
Charlotte Smith Story Map

Weekly Writing Prompts. Choose 2 of the 3 prompts to respond to:

  1. What connections can you make between Evelina and the first volume of Emmeline? In what ways is this heroine similar to Burney’s protagonist? How is she distinct?
  2. To quote from Culler, “who speaks?” in this text and how would you characterize the narrative voice.
  3. By the same token, “who sees?” in Volume I? Note at least one scene in which there is significant narrative attention paid to the focalization of either one or two characters.

Selections from Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets: Preface to the First and Second Editions, Sonnet I, Sonnet 5, and Sonnet 12

Presentation by Johanna Bailie (Graduate Student, Department of English)

Thursday, February 11th

Portrait of Charlotte Smith by George Romney, c. 1792

Charlotte Smith, Emmeline (Volume II)

Friday, February 12th 

Step 2: Drafted research materials due for “Who is the Eighteenth-Century Woman?” 

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Tuesday, February 16th: We will not meet today. Please spend your time finishing the novel and the assigned excerpts. You have until Thursday to complete the Writing Prompts.

Instructional Break on Feb. 17th 
No office hours today. Please contact me if you’d like to
set up a meeting during the week.

Thursday, February 18th

Charlotte Smith, Emmeline (Volume III and IV).
Excerpts from Burke, Chapone, Gregory, and Wollstonecraft (Emmeline, Broadview 488-497)

Weekly Writing Prompts:

  1. Choose one of the excerpts that you’ve been assigned to read for today and construct a brief argument about Smith’s contribution to her culture’s discourse around education for women and/or marriage.
  2. How does Godolphin’s entrance into the text change its narrative arc? What kind of man is he in comparison to Emmeline’s other “suitors”?

Presentations

Elizabeth Montagu (1718-1800) / Grace Lane’s presentation

Hannah More (1745-1833) / Michaela Wilkins’s presentation

Ann Yearsley (bap. 1753, d. 1806) / Jake Head’s presentation

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Tuesday, February 23rd

Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft, c. 1792

Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary, a Fiction (Read in its entirety pp. 75-148)
ODNB entry on Wollstonecraft

Weekly Writing Prompts:

  1. In the Advertisement to Mary, Mary Wollstonecraft declares that she wants to “develop a character different from those generally portrayed” (75). What characterizes Wollstonecraft’s “new” heroine?
  2. Wollstonecraft also describes the form of Mary as “an artless tale, without episodes” (76) What do you think she means by this?
    Please use direct evidence from the text to support both responses.

Thursday, February 25th

Continue discussion of Mary

Read excerpts from Wollstonecraft, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (Mary and Maria, Broadview 289-293) and Catharine Macaulay, Letters on Education (Mary and Maria, Broadview 311-316)

Presentatons:

Catharine Macaulay (1731-1791) / Sydnee Banks’s presentation

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