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% 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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