The English Novel, UNC Chapel Hill

A Course Weblog for ENGL 43, The English Novel, taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Discuss the role of Sam Weller in providing a voice for social commentary and satire in Dickens’ Pickwick Papers (1836/7). Choose an incident that Sam comments on or participates in, give a short description of the incident, and explain how his voice or insights differs from those of Mr. Pickwick and the other Pickwickians. Is he a wise character? Does he say things or make comments that other characters cannot? How does his class position allow him to occupy this role? Use the website The Victorian Web (http://65.107.211.206/) or the journal Victorian Studies to find scholarship on Pickwick Papers. Find at least two articles on Pickwick Papers that discuss Sam’s role. What do these critics believe? Use their research to support your own understanding of class and Dickens’ first major work. Is it fair to claim that Pickwick Papers is social satire? Does it support class distinction as a necessary feature of Victorian life, or does it critique class structure?

Your paper should 1) be your own work, though use scholarship to support your thesis and insights; 2) be at least 5 pages long, and no more than 7 pages; 3) be written in MLA Style format. The paper is due on 21 March 2003.

.: posted by tyler 12:18 PM

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

For Monday, please read up to Chapter 20 in The Pickwick Papers. You do not have to read the criticism for the class. I will address that essay later. You should start reading as much ahead as possible so that we can keep on schedule. Hope you're warm.

.: posted by tyler 6:23 PM

Bring a blue book to the mid-term today.

.: posted by tyler 10:06 AM

Saturday, February 22, 2003

For Monday, Feb 25, 2003, please read the first 10 chapters of The Pickwick Papers. Also read the Prefaces to the novel.

.: posted by tyler 2:34 PM

Sunday, February 16, 2003

Because of the weather, the University is operatiing under a Weather Alert Condition II. Tomorrow's class will be cancelled. We will talk about both movies on Wednesday. See you then.

http://www.unc.edu/emergency/weather2.html

.: posted by tyler 9:40 PM

Please see the Roger Michell's adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion (1995), not the 4 hour version by whoever. I will try to make it to class tomorrow. Please check this space to see if class is cancelled due to weather.

.: posted by tyler 5:57 PM

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

Please finish Wuthering Heights for Friday, as well as the criticism.

.: posted by tyler 3:21 PM

Wednesday, February 05, 2003

I need to cancel's today's class, 5 Feb 2003. Please finish Persuasion for Friday 7 Feb. Also read Gillian Brown, from Domestic Individualism: Imagining Self in Nineteenth Century America, and Nancy Armstrong, from Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. Both of those readings are in your anthology of criticism about the novel.

If you have any questions, please email me.

.: posted by tyler 8:26 AM

Monday, February 03, 2003

Please read the next eleven (11) chapters of Jane Austen's Perusasion for Wednesday, 5 Feb 2003.