Eastern Illinois University
The Keep
Summer 1998
Summer 6-15-1998
EIU 4006-001: The Romantic Vision
John Kilgore
Eastern Illinois University
Follow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/english_syllabi_summer1998
Part of the English Language and Literature Commons
Recommended Citation
Kilgore, John, "EIU 4006-001: The Romantic Vision" (1998). Summer 1998. 17.
http://thekeep.eiu.edu/english_syllabi_summer1998/17
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the 1998 at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Summer 1998 by an authorized
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1998
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EIU 4006>-uuy00.1 The R omantic
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SYLLABUS
INSTRUCTOR: John Kilgore. Office: 314K Coleman Hall. Hours: MW 12-3. E-mail: cfjdk@eiu.edu.
Phone: (217) 581-6313 (office); (217) 345-7395. Please feel very free to call during reasonable hours.
Include date and time of call when leaving voice-mail messages at office, and don't trust voice-mail for
urgent messages: try my home instead.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Two take-home essay tests, about 1500 words each (50%); fmal (25%);
--attendance and participation (25% ).
TAKE-HOME ESSAY TESTS. Each will ask you to write 2-3 short essays, choosing among two or three
possible topics for each one. Your answers should be written quickly but with care, with an eye to clear
focus, strong and substantive content, economy, logic, and rhetorical effectiveness. (Weigh your words, '
respond to the question as directly as possible, support your claims, never BS, revise for clarity, and--last but
not least--proofread. You'll do all right.) All papers should be typewritten (or word-processed), doublespaced, on white paper; see me if you feel you cannot meet this guideline. Please do NOT use report covers.
FINAL EXAM. Is meant to ensure that you have done ALL readings carefully and have a good grasp of the
issues raised in class discussion. The format will combine computerized multiple-choice questions with short
answers and short essays. Different sections will test recognition and grasp of concepts, works, authors,
characters, and key quotations. The best preparation is to do the reading very carefully, on time, and in full.
ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION. Will count approximately 25% of your grade in the course. From
the second meeting on, I will be passing around an attendance sheet which you must sign. The attendance
grade (15 of the 25%), will be computed as follows: 2 absences -- A; 3 absences -- B; 4 absences -- C; 5
absences--D; 6 absences--F. Additional absences beyond 6 will continue to hurt the overall course average
at the same rate, severely damaging your chances for a passing grade.
Note that you have two "free" absences. Use these as insurance against illness and other unavoidable
circumstances that may keep you from attending. If you have truly unavoidable absences beyond the
permitted two, I will be willing to assign make-up work in lieu of class attendance. But an excuse in itself,
no matter how brilliant or touching, will NOT cancel the absence: you must do the make-up work as well.
(Hint: it's easier just to be here. Really.)
The remainder of the attendance and participation grade will come from your class present<\tion. You will
give a report relevant to the topics of some segment of the syllabus, taking questions and discussion at the
end of your remarks. Presentations will be graded on clarity, thoughtfulness, depth and relevance of
research, success in provoking and answering questions, and overall usefulness to the concerns of the course.
See page 3, below, for suggested topics. We will try to synchronize the reports with class discussion ofthe corresponding assigned readings.
I may raise the attendance and participation grade somewhat if your contributions to ongoing class discussion
have been especially good.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
From TRS:
Camus, The Stranger (Gilbert trans.)
Erikson, Childhood and Society.
Griffith and Frey, eds., Classics fil Children's literature (CC)
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LATE WORK POLICY: The take-home exams are timed exercises, and the exam questions will be discussed
soon after the deadline, so punctuality is essential. Call me if truly unusual circumstances have made it
impossible for you to finish on time. If I have NOT heard from you in advance, the normal penalty for
handing in a paper late will be two full grades (e.g., from "A" to "C") for each class meeting the test is
overdue. Pick up the phone, dial my number, spare yourself this dreadful fate.
Please be aware that the penalty for plagiarism or cheating, which I trust I will not have to impose, is
automatic failure of the course. See me if you have any questions about this policy.
I will be more than happy to make reasonable accommodations for any student with a documented disability.
Please contact me if you will need such an accommodation.
***
SUGGESTED REPORT TOPICS:
(Note: these are given by way of example only. Many other fine topics are possible, and you should feel free
to suggest your own.]
Political revolutions in the nineteenth century
Frankenstein: Victor's story
Byron: Love life
Byron: Political career and beliefs
Blake's Theory of Art
Coleridge's "Kubla Khan"
Romanticism in music: Beethoven
Romanticism in English art: Turner
Gotterdamerung: "twilight of the gods" in nineteenth-century writing
Marxism: the role of economic competition
Marxism: theory of art and ideology
Marxism: twentieth-century examples of Marxist states
Civil Disobedience in Gandhi and Martin Luther King
Theories of childhood in Twain's day
Twain and Imperialism: "To the Person Sitting in Darkness"
Leslie Fiedler on Twain: Escapism, pastoralism, sexual arrest
Poetry and Suicide in the twentieth century
Hitler: the rise to power
Erik Erikson: a profile
Freudfiaim psycho~hernpy: an overview
French existentialism: an overview
Interpretations of The Stranger
Alan Ginsberg: a profile
Howl and obscenity laws
The Naked Ape: a true scenario of human evolution?
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