ENG457H1F:
Language in Britain in the 1770s
Prof Carol Percy, Department of English, University of Toronto
Course Meetings
New College, Wetmore Hall 51B.
Wednesdays 10-12
Regular access to email and to the world-wide-web.
There will also be a library orientation session tailored to this course on Wednesday 26th September from 4-6. Sorry about the time: there’s a run on the library instruction rooms at this time of the year. I hope that you can all make it.
A survey of eighteenth-century English (in its broadest sense: lexicon, grammar, spelling, dialect, style) in literary and non-literary texts. We will focus on the 1770s: a few novels, plays, and poems will be read alongside extracts from non-literary prose. We will observe and analyze examples of and attitudes to language variation, standardization, and change in extracts from linguistic (dictionaries, grammars, and contemporary book reviews) and non-linguistic (e.g., travel, history, science, education, cookery) texts. My aim for the course is for us to produce a collection of essays that present a fairly comprehensive view of language in the period. Most of the assignments relate to this aim.
The first five weeks of the course will consist mostly of lectures, with discussion arising from the intersection of the lectures with the text(s) of the day and with The Rivals. We will also be meeting on September 26th between 4 and 6 for a special library session tailored to the assignments and activities of this course. During this time you should be (re)reading Evelina and Humphrey Clinker and working with me to pick the topic for your research paper. In week 3 you will get a short take-home test on Evelina and Humphrey Clinker, due in week 5.
In weeks six and seven we will discuss Evelina (week 6) and Humphrey Clinker (week 7).
The content of the second half of the course will be determined by your own interests: you’ll have chosen a topic and will present it to the class. Topics may include the significance of the standardization of English for lower-class, female, Scottish and Irish writers, and for enterprising members of the book trade; scientific English; and the roots of world English. I’ll be giving you a long list of suggested subjects, but you’ll be encouraged to write your research paper on a relevant topic of your own choice.
From weeks eight onwards, you’ll be presenting an overview of your research to the rest of the class. A week before you present your work, you’ll give (1) the rest of the class appropriate readings and questions to consider and (2) me a draft of your work in progress – I’ll email you feedback by Friday evening so that you can revise it over the weekend. For the oral, you’ll be evaluated not only on your ability to present a clear and coherent and persuasive argument, but on your ability to generate discussion after your paper. On the last day of term, you’ll hand in the final version of your paper (5000 words) preceded by a brief (300 word) abstract of it along with a 1000-word summary of your paper to be mounted as a “web encyclopedia” entry.
In addition to conveying content, the course will also teach or exercise important skills for upper-level work in the humanities. You will use library resources to find relevant secondary sources for your research (literary, linguistic, and historical/cultural), write abstracts of scholarly papers (another scholar’s and your own), and present your work to others.
Take-home test #1, on Evelina and Humphrey Clinker, received on September 26th and due October 10th (20%).
An abstract of a scholarly article (you choose from a short list of the class readings) (5%).
Regular and informed and courteous participation (5%).
Your research papers:
A draft of your work in progress, handed in 7 days before the seminar (10%).
Appropriate readings and questions for the class, distributed 7 days before the seminar (10%).
Your oral presentation (10%).
The final written essay (5000 words), including a 300-500 word abstract of the paper (15%), and a 1000-word summary of your research for our online encyclopedia (5%).
Take-home test #2 (at least 2500 words) received November 21st and handed in December 5th (20%). Put only your student number on this work, please.
You can expect the take-home test to cover all of the seminars: specifically, it will take the shape of an analytic introduction to our collection of essays about language in Britain in the 1770s. You’ll be expected to identify, classify, analyze threads that link our different papers.
Literary texts available at the University of Toronto Bookstore: Sheridan’s The Rivals (1775), Burney’s Evelina (1778), and Smollett’s Humphrey Clinker (1771). Other primary texts will be available during the term: a fee of about $5 will be collected.
There will also be required secondary readings for most weeks: these will be available at the short-term loan department, 9th floor Robarts.
Robarts Library Resources for C18th (poetry and women) (Patricia Bellamy, Robarts Library, U of Toronto)
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/robarts/bibinstruct/18century.html
Eighteenth-Century Chronology (Jack Lynch, Rutgers)
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Chron/index.html
Chadwyck Healey’s Literature Online (electronic texts, author biographies, bibliographies..)
C18-L (Eighteenth-Century E-list) Home Page (links to archives, other resources)
http://www.personal.psu.edu/special/C18/c18-l.htm
HELL (History of the English Language Links): Early Modern Language links
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/emode.htm
Oxford English Dictionary online
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/oed/
Anon. (Goldsmith?), The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (handout: extracts)(1765).
PR 3291 A1 G6 1766A STL.
Sheridan, The Rivals (1775)
WEEK 3. September 26th
Tobias Smollett, Humphrey
Clinker
Admin: November 4th is the last day to drop a fall course without academic penalty