updated 1/18/07
Instructor: Bump; <mailto:bump@mail.utexas.edu>; Office: PAR 132 Office phone: 471-8747
TTH 2:00 PM- 3:30 PM PAR 104; office hours: TT 9:45-10:45, 1:15-1:45 and by appointment.
The "mission and core purpose" of the University of Texas at Austin is" to transform lives for the benefit of society through the core values of learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity and responsibility."
http://www.utexas.edu/welcome/
Our primary goal is to transform your lives, and those of all you influence in the future, for the benefit of society. Hence we will focus on the core value of leadership in the novel from Dickens to Conrad.
Writing. Students will create two multimedia writing projects on the web, of at least six pages each. The first will identify one of their passions, in relation to Victorian fiction. The second will be personal leadership vision, informed by allusions to Victorian fiction. These essays must be extensively revised, incorporating at least a page of new material each time. Initial comments on the projects will be made by other students in Blackboard Discussion format, with the instructor then focusing on polishing subsequent hard copies for coherence, word choice, punctuation, etc.
Grades. About 50% of the final grade will be determined by the multimedia projects (15% for each first draft, -- 150 points each, 10% for each revision -- 100 points), 14% by a final portfolio (140 points); 24% by informal writing (240 points); and 12 % by class participation (120 points). 900 points (out of 1,000) are required for an A-; 800 for a B-; 700 for a C-; 600 for a D-. However, more than 1000 points will be available so that students can emphasize formal over informal writing or vice versa, class participation more than the portfolio, etc. Students will receive exactly the grade recorded in the online gradebook in Blackboard, even if it is one point short of the next higher grade.
Class participation consists of showing up in class on time, having read the material assigned for that day, and being prepared to talk about it. Students are required to contribute to Discussion Boards about the readings the day before class. It is also important to share in class: one of the goals of the course is better spoken as well as written communication, and learning to listen when others are speaking.
Texts: Lester Failey's Little Penguin Handbook; Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847); Anne Bronte’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848); Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities (1859); ; George Eliot’s Romola (1863); Carroll’s The Annotated Alice (1865) (W. W. Norton); Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd (1874); and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1902). Students will also need a collection of Xeroxed materials from Jenn's, 2000 Guadalupe (basement of the Church of Scientology at 22nd, 473-8669) which will include selections from Thomas Caryle’s novel, Sartor Resartus (1833) .