Office Hours: Tu/Fri 2-4Pm and by Appointment

ENG 115b Jennifer Reed

Tu/Fri12.30pm-1.50pm Rabb 266a

x6-2160

Office hours: Tu/Fri 2-4pm and by appointment

Fictions of Liberty 115b: Transatlantic Literature of Revolution

Course Description

The Enlightenment moment is characterized by revolution. In this class we will explore the triangular exchanges between Europe, America, and the Caribbean through the literature of the period. Far-flung Atlantic writing will be focused through moments of revolution, French, Haitian, and American. We’ll read novels, plays, and poetry, as well as letters and political pamphlets, and we’ll think about the ways in which these texts participated in, and precipitated the politics of the period.

Some of the questions we’ll seek to answer: How did writing and literature construct and sustain the revolutionary subject? How do the experiences of women and enslaved persons shape and undermine the articulation of revolutionary ideals? What do historical texts have to do with literary texts?How did the revolutionary period change literary writing?

Objectives

Close read and analyze traditional literary forms (novels, poems, plays, etc) as well as political pamphlets and images.
Gain familiarity with authors and texts central to the revolutionary period, and analyze the ways in which the revolutions studied were mutually constitutive, i.e. created each other.
Learn to understand history as a body of narratives that are, themselves, emplotted, and that share features with literary writing.
Produce cogent oral and written analyses of a variety of texts.

Requirements

Do the readings before every class, and come prepared to discuss them with care and

forethought, as participation will be a significant component of your grade. Students will read and post a short response to our readings to the class LATTE site on a weekly basis. You will also be responsible for one team teaching assignment, two short papers of approximately 3-6 pages, and a final interpretive paper of approximately 7-10 pages (this will be a 17-20 page paper for any graduate student members of the class, and those students looking to fulfill the requirements for the new major will have the option to write a 12-page paper).

Grade Breakdown

Assignment 1: 10%

Assignment 2: 20%

Assignment 3: 30%

Attendance and Participation: 25%

Team Teaching Assignment: 15%

Assignments

Assignment 1 (10%).A short close-reading paper (4-6 pages). Revisions encouraged after feedback, and grades given to revised papers will serve as the final grade for this assignment. Due on Friday September 16th.

Assignment 2 (20%).Keyword Analysis (3-4 pages).An assignment indebted to Raymond Williams’ Keywords (you will find a copy on reserve at Goldfarb Main Library). Choose a word from Williams or select one that you find intriguing from our readings, and that seems important to our discussions and the questions we have been asking about these texts. Students at a loss for words can select from the following incomplete list: “rights,” “reason,” “sensibility,” “chivalry,” “liberty,” “slavery.”

Trawl for your keyword in a variety of texts. Look it up in the OED, in Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (accessible through Eighteenth-Century Collections Online), or punch it into the Eighteenth-Century Collections Online keyword search and see what turns up. Ultimately, you must assimilate your findings and write a compressed history of the term. Students should feel encouraged to structure the assignment as a kind of dictionary or encyclopedia entry.Due on Friday October 21st.

Assignment 3 (30%).Interpretive essay. Undergraduates will write a paper of 7-10 pages. For those students wishing to complete the requirement for the new major, you will have the option of writing a 12-page paper. Graduate students will write a paper of 17-20 pages. Remember that the word “essay” derives from the French infinitive “essayer,” meaning “to try.” Really good essays are exploratory, and respect ambivalence. Thoughtful risk-taking will be rewarded!Due on Friday December 2nd.

Late assignments will be penalized. For each day your assignment is late (including Saturdays and Sundays), your paper grade will be lowered by one-third of a grade (e.g., A- becomes B+). If you think you will need anextension on an assignment, you must ask me at least 72 hours before the assignment is due. I am not flexibleon this rule. I am, however, generous about giving extensions so long as you come and talk to me about it in advance so that we can figure out a timeline that works for both of us.

N.B. I am very interested in helping my students improve their writing: make an appointment to meet with me. I also encourage you to visit the Brandeis Writing Center in Goldfarb 232 for help at any time during the semester.

Team teaching Assignment (15%). In pairs you will be responsible for team teaching a 30-minute period of class time. Think carefully about how best to engage your classmates with the assigned reading, and interactive. Each of you will turn in a two-paragraph reflective statement on the experience: the first paragraph will describe the choices you made as a group about how to co-lead the class, and the second paragraph will describe your individual contributions to your group’s work.

Attendance and Participation (25%).

You are allowed twoabsences during the semester; each subsequent absence will lower your final gradefor the course by one-thirdof a grade (e.g., A- becomes B+). Class begins promptly at 12.30, so you should arrive before 12.30. Lateness is disruptive and disrespectful. Tardiness will negatively affect your participation grade.

You are responsible for handing in all work due on or before the due date, and for knowingall the material covered on days missed.

Your vocal and prepared participation will be essential. I will not be lecturing at you; instead, we will be exploring questions as a group. For this class to succeed, you must come prepared. Bring a copy of the text or texts we are discussing to every class. If the text is on the ‘Required Reading’ list, please bring the edition specified on that list. If the text is on LATTE, please print it out and bring a hard copy to class. On a very few occasions I will indicate ahead of time that we will consult an online text electronically during class, so you should bring a laptop if possible and I will project that text in class. Read your texts with a pen in hand: mark them up and refer to specific passages during discussion. In class, pose questions of your classmates and of me; propose answers to the questions posed by others; listen attentively to your peers.

In addition, you will post once a week to the class LATTE site, and these posts will constitute a part of your participation grade. These posts should go up by 9pm the day before our Tuesday or our Friday class. It is up to you whether you post on Tuesday’s material or Friday’s. You will post in the forum titled ‘Discussion Posts,’ which you will find in LATTE under ‘General Forums.’ I will post suggested topics or questions each week, but you are also free to write on something that interests you, and that you think will provide good fodder for discussion, in the text(s) we are reading for that week. These posts will be between 250-300 words, and in them you might choose to engage closely with a moment in the assigned reading, or to respond more broadly to the ideas or strategies a text presents. This is a good place to identify something you found strange, ambiguous, or difficult, and to seek to engage with that ambiguity or strangeness, rather than trying to package or tame it. Be puzzled!

Respectful Discourse

My aim and hope in this course is to create an environment of respectful inclusivity. In class discussions we will not tokenize individuals, or make assumptions about the experience of any particular group. However, if one of us makes a mistake in the way we express ourselves, let’s respectfully hold each other accountable. If anything in this class makes any student uncomfortable, please come and talk to me about it and we will address it together as a class.

Laptop, Tablet, and Phone Policy

Electronic devices (including laptops and tablets) are not permitted in class, unless specific instructions are given in the class beforehand/by Quickmailthat we’ll use laptops to consult electronic texts in class. All devices must be silenced and put away during class.

Disabilities

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.

Academic Integrity

You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities ( for all policies and procedures related to academic integrity. Students may be required to submit work to TurnItIn.com software to verify originality. Allegations of alleged academic dishonesty will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. Sanctions for academic dishonesty can include failing grades and/or suspension from the university. Citation and research assistance can be found at LTS - Library guides (

Course Content Note

The syllabus contains some texts dealing with slavery and violence – including sexual violence and racial violence. A small number of texts also include the use of racial epithets. I acknowledge that this may be upsetting. If you think that specific material may be emotionally difficult for you, I’d be happy to talk about any concerns you have before the class discussion in which we’re talking about the material.If you ever need to step out of the class, or to discuss your personal reactions to this material, please feel free to do so. If you do step out of class for a significant period of time, you are responsible for any material you miss.

Required Texts

Royall Tyler, The Contrast(Forgotten Books, 978-1451008449)

Helen Maria Williams, Letters Written from France(Broadview, 978-1551112558)

William Godwin, Caleb Williams(Penguin Classics, 978-0141441238)

Georg Büchner, Danton’s Death(Oxford, 978-0199540358)

Mary Wollstonecraft The Wrongs of Woman; or, Maria (Oxford,978-0199538904)

Leonora Sansay, Secret History(Broadview, 978-1551113463)

Claire de Duras, Ourika(MLA, 978-0873527804)