Pickwick Seminar
English 480-010, 080 Professor Grossman
Spring 2002, TR 11:00-12:15 Office Hours: TR 1:45-2:45
Smith 201 Office: 315 Memorial
grossman@udel.edu
Pickwick Papers Seminar
REQUIRED TEXTS
Books
Charles Dickens, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (Penguin)
Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (Oxford)
Course Reserves-Library Reserve Room & JSTOR Online
Peter Ackroyd, Dickens pp.56-100; 106-201. [library]
N. N. Feltes, "The Moment of Pickwick." [library]
Hans Robert Jauss, "The Comic of Innocence." [library]
Robert Patten, "Boz, Phiz, and Pickwick in the Pound." [JSTOR]
Anny Sadrin, "Fragmentation in The Pickwick Papers" [library]
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men (introduction) [library]
You must use the Penguin edition of Pickwick, edited by Robert L. Patten.
REQUIREMENTS
One 5-page paper, with close reading, 1 secondary source, due 3/12 20%
One 10-page paper, with close reading, 5 primary/secondary sources, due 5/17 40%
A minimum of 8 substantive contributions to our class email list 20%
One class presentation (pass/fail) 20%
- This class will hold class discussion on our electronic class list as well
as in class. You must use your email account regularly!
- Important information is also available from our course home page.
See: http://www.english.udel.edu/grossman/S02-480.html
Interesting Pickwickian links are welcome; send them to my email address.
- Lively class participation is expected. More than two absences will lower
your final grade. Solid class participation may improve your final grade.
- You are strongly encouraged to meet with me at least once in office hours
for an individual conference.
- Academic integrity is fundamental to University work and life. This
seminar involves research. Always cite any outside sources you have used,
and don't hesitate to ask me about the correct ways of citing such
sources.
SCHEDULE
2/5 Introduction: Overview
2/7 "Advertisement for Pickwick," in Pickwick, Appendix A, pp.755-6.
[Begin reading Ackroyd, Dickens]
I. Author, Author-Charles Dickens
2/12 Ackroyd, Dickens
2/14 Ackroyd, Dickens; No.1
II. Serialization
2/19 No.2 & No.3; Appendix A: "Seymour's Death" & "Buss's Pictures"
2/21 No.4
III. Literary Form, or Where's the plot?
2/26 No.5 & No.6
2/28 No.7; Anny Sadrin, "Fragmentation in The Pickwick Papers"
IV. Political Historical Context-The 1830s
3/5 No.8 & No.9
3/7 No.10
V. The Pictures: From Seymour to Phiz
3/12 No.11 & No.12 [short paper due]
3/14 No.13;Robert Patten, "Boz, Phiz, and Pickwick in the Pound"
VI. Comedy, Practical Jokes, & the Fat Boy
3/19 No.14 & No.15; Appendix A: "Mary Hogarth's Death"
3/21 No.16; Hans Robert Jauss, "The Comic of Innocence"
VII. Contemporary Reactions, Contemporary Texts
3/26 No.17; one review assigned individually
3/28 class cancelled (Passover)
4/2 Spring Recess
4/4 Spring Recess
VIII. Class & Capitalism
4/9 No.18 and Final Double No. 19&20
4/11 N. N. Feltes, "The Moment of Pickwick"
IX. Gender & Sexuality (2 weeks)
4/16 Eve Sedgwick, Introduction to Between Men
4/18 Sedgwick
4/23 Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford
4/25 Cranford
X. Coaches & Railways, Nation & Time
4/30 Lecture: "The Speeding of the Pickwick Coach"
5/2 Lecture: Sarah Fayen, Winterthur Museum
"Cocheco Print Works and the Visual Legacy of The Pickwick Papers"
XI. Material Culture: From Manuscript to Fabric
5/7 Class meets at
5/9 the Rosenbach Museum
in Philadelphia-no regular class held this week.
5/14 "In which the Pickwick Club is finally dissolved"
Final Research Paper due Friday, 5/17
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