English 3906: Methods of Literary Study

Dr. Carolyn Sigler


Spring 2006 syllabus and reading schedule (continually updated)

Class handouts and supplemental readings (continually updated)

UMD English Department Portfolio and Portfolio Resources and Tutorials

Links to background information on writing, research, theory, and individual authors.

LINKS TO ENGLISH STUDIES RESOURCES ON THE WEB

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WRITING AND DOCUMENTATION

  • Advice on Academic Writing: This excellent collection of resources from the University of Toronto offers practical advice on academic writing issues commonly faced by students, including Planning & Organizing; Reading & Researching; Using Sources; Specific Types of Writing; Style & Editing; Grammar & Punctuation.
  • Guide to integrating and citing quotations
  • Using literary quotations from the UW Madison Writer's Handbook
  • Writing a bibliography using MLA Style
  • Using MLA format from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
  • Two Sites on College Writing: Dartmouth Writing Program and University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Handbook . The Dartmouth College Writing Program contains a number of helpful materials, such as some well-written essays that answer the question "What is an academic paper?" and also provide information on researching topics for papers. The site also includes information on such topics as writing about film, writing for sociology courses, and helpful suggestions on writing from fellow students. The second site is offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Writing Center and contains material on how best to cite references, avoiding common grammar and punctuation mistakes, a guide to MLA style, as well as information on academic writing and research issues from thesis statements to quoting, paraphrasing and documentation.. Taken together, these sites provide a host of materials that will allow students to become better writers in their various courses during their time in the world of higher education and beyond (Copyright 1994-2005 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing: This site is the online version of a new writing primer, developed by Michael Harvey (a professor at Washington College in Maryland), that will be of great help to many students who find themselves grappling with writing college-level assignments and papers. The homepage for the guide contains hypertext links to various sections, including those dealing with style, structure, evidence, and paper mechanics. From the main page, students can access any of the primer's many sections quickly, such as those dealing with the use of the historical present, finding a voice, and nominalizations. All of these sections are complemented by a profuse number of examples that illustrate the different writing tools and potential pitfalls that students may encounter (Copyright 1994-2005 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

ENGLISH STUDIES BACKGROUND

  • A History of English Studies Web site developed by Rita Raley, U. California Santa Barbara, while a graduate student at UCSB. The page includes fully searchable primary documents on by Thomas B. Macaulay; John Henry Newman; Adam Sedgwick; Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett; Mary Wollstonecraft; Raymond Williams; Gayatri Spivak; Gauri Viswanathan; D.J. Palmer; Chris Baldick; Franklin Court; Brian Massumi; Avital Ronell; and others.
  • The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). NCTE's mission is "to advance teaching, research, and student achievement in English language arts at all scholastic levels"; one of its journals, College English, is available on-line through the UMD Library.

LITERARY BACKGROUND AND CRITICISM

  • The Internet Public Library Online Literary Criticism Collection:  This literary metasite contains over 1,000 annotated metasites and articles devoted to literary criticism, biographical, and other information about 123 authors from Dante Alighieri to Arthur Miller to William Butler Yeats. The links to criticism information can be to sites or articles (some of which have access restrictions). Visitors can browse the site by author, title, or literary period (for British and American literature). In addition, both a literary criticism guide and a pathfinder are provided for those who wish to further explore web and print resources on the topic (from The Internet Scout Report).
  • The Online Student Companion to The Longman Anthology of British Literature 2/e
  • The Voice of the Shuttle literary resources
  • Key Literary Terms
  • A Glossary of Poetic terms

LITERARY THEORY

ELECTRONIC TEXTS

  • Project Bartleby offers an online collection of reference texts, as well as fiction, poetry and nonfiction.
  • Project Gutenberg offers an extensive on-line text collection- although unfortunately opposed to preserving any bibliographical information.
  • Books On-line by John Ockerbloom at the University of Pennsylvania is an excellent place to start looking for any digitized text. This engine provides links to most on-line text collections. Frequently updated.
  • The Victorian Women Writers Project (Indiana University).
  • Women Writers Project -- The Brown University Women Writers Project has recently published the beta-test version of an online textbase. The textbase is a collection of primarily pre-Victorian (1450-1850) literature written by women. The initial release of the textbase will include over 200 texts, and 50 to 100 more will be added in the first year. The collection spans a wide array of topics and genres, providing a unique and valuable resource for the study of women's writing in English.

LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES and MUSEUMS

VICTORIAN PERIODICALS

  • The Punch Cartoon Page
  • The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900.
  • The Punch Cartoon Page
  • Punch: An Overview (from The Victorian Web)
  • The Internet Library of Early Journals: A Digital Library of 18th and 19th Century Journals
  • Victorian periodicals: A Guide to Research, by Rosemary T. VanArsdel
  • Nineteenth-Century Advertising History: During the 19th century, one of the most consistently popular American periodicals was Harper's Weekly, an illustrated paper whose circulation was well in excess of over 100,000 on a regular basis. This fine site highlights some of the many creative and inventive advertisements that were prominently displayed in the periodical during the 19th and early 20th centuries. On the site visitors can browse through advertisements for appliances, insurance, foreign travel, farm land, and various medicinal potions. The selection of ads includes one for "pain paint," which begins with a brief doggerel that includes a mention of the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • Athenaeum Project: A searchable on-line database of reviews and reviewers from the journal Athenaeum.
  • The Scotsman Digital Archive: Edinburgh's The Scotsman is the first major UK newspaper besides The Times whose nineteenth-century archive has been made searchable online; however, researchers don't have to belong to an institution that subscribes to the service in order to use it (which differs from The Times archive). Anyone can do searches for a modest fee (currently £6 for 24 hours of access) payable by credit card. The archive covers every issue of the paper from 1817 to 1900.
  • The Quarterly Review Project:  This site chronicles the early years of the Quarterly Review, one of the two most influential British journals in the first half of the nineteenth century (along with the Edinburgh Review). The brightest gem of the site is probably the index of all 61 issues of the journal for 1809-24, which includes notes, contents, and very importantly as most articles were unattributed, identification of contributors. Also at the site are an essay on the founding and early years of the journal, transcripts of 40 letters from the editor William Gifford, and a bibliographical encyclopedia that covers the journal's authors, significant supporters, and authors reviewed. Another terrific resource at the site, as readership is an open question for any periodical in this era, is a subscription list from 1810, which is incorporated into the bibliographical encyclopedia (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • Penny Magazine: select issues from the 1830s.
  • An overview and brief selections from Charlotte Yonge's magazine The Monthly Packet, which was published from 1851 to 1899 and intended for adolescent readers.
  • British Annuals and Giftbooks: This site offers an index of popular and expensive illustrated books, which produced in England between 1823 and 1861. Containing collections of prose and verse, these lavishly produced books were intended primarily to be given as gifts.
    • Forget Me Not: A Hypertextual Archive of Ackermann's 19th-Century Literary Annual. This site reproduces elements from the 1823-1830 volumes of the earliest British-published literary annual, Forget Me Not, published by Rudolf Ackermann between 1823 and 1847.
    • The Keepsake for 1829: reproduces several especially important works from this popular nineteenth-century literary annual: Letitia Elizabeth Landon's "Verses," the engraving of Edwin Landseer's painting Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford, to which Landon's poems refers, William Wordsworth's "The Country Girl"and the engraving that originally accompanied that poem, Thomas Moore's poem "Extempore."
    • This site contains the text and illustrations for an 1828 giftbook: The Bijou; or Annual of Literature and the Arts.
  • Internet Library of Early Journals (ILEJ): ILEJ is a joint project by the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford, conducted under the auspice of the eLib (Electronic Libraries) Programme. The project has digitized selected twenty-year runs of three eighteenth- and three nineteenth-century journals and placed the images online at the site. Journals include: Annual Register (1758-78), Gentleman's Magazine (1731-50), Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1757-77), Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1843-52), Notes and Queries (1849-69), and The Builder (1843-9). Users can browse the journals by volume and section, conduct a standard search, or try a "fuzzy search" (limited availability) (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • Making of America: One of the largest and best online text collections from the University of Michigan. Although limited to American texts, some books are American editions by foreign authors. Thousands of journal articles. Text searches available.

GENERAL NINETEENTH CENTURY BACKGROUND

  • For more complete Victorian Web Resources see the homepage for ENGL 5562: Victorian Literature.
  • Dictionary of Victorian London: Designed and maintained by Lee Jackson, an author and librarian, the Victorian Dictionary is a useful resource on Victorian London history during the 19th century. This site contains over 40 categories that range from architecture, to clothing and fashions, to dates and events, to entertainment and recreation, to words and expressions. The site also contains a bibliography containing most of the resources used for the site, as well as links to other related sites (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • What was Jane Eyre's £30 per year salary really worth? Economic History Resources' "How Much Is That Worth Today?" enables users to determine the purchasing power of British currency for any year from 1600 to the present.
  • The Time Traveler's Guide to Victorian Britain offers helpful background on such issues as class and customs, the vote, industry, the arts and sciences, and important terms such as Utilitarianism, imperialism, Malthusianism, and Darwinism.
  • Although not exclusively Victorian in its focus, this University of San Diego site on Utilitarianism offers links to a number of classic Utilitarian texts, as well as background information on Utilitarian ethics, its supporters and detractors.
  • Victoria Research Web: An offshoot of the VICTORIA discussion list and hosted by Indiana University, this site is designed to assist researchers, teachers, and students studying nineteenth century Britain. Users will find a number of helpful items such as a guide to Victorian holdings in selected archives, book reviews on-line, bibliographies, a guide to using the new British Library, tips on planning a research trip, sample syllabi, and a guide to major journals in the field. Additional resources include a list of related discussion groups and a search engine for the VICTORIA archives. VICTORIA equally welcomes the contributions of students of literature, social history, politics, gender studies, publishing, art, and intellectual history in "the long 19th century" (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • The Victorian Web: Literature, History and Culture in the Age of Victoria.
  • Changes During the Victorian Age: If you were born in the early nineteenth century, you were in for a big surprise: by 1900 the world you had grown up in was gone for good. This BBC-sponsored site by Bruce Robinson explores how the enthusiasm for invention and speed transformed the Victorians' world.
  • A comprehensive list of Victorian studies and author Web sites maintained by Mitsuharu Matsuoka.
  • Victorian British Literary Resources from the Voice of the Shuttle.
  • BBC Timelines: England and Scotland:  The BBC History 2000 project offers these multi-level timelines of the histories of England and Scotland from the Neolithic age to the present. As timelines go, these are unusually detailed and provide paragraph-length descriptions -- often accompanied by photos, artwork, or 3-D online models -- about such events and personages as the building of Hadrian's wall; Jane Grey, the nine-day queen; and Robert the Bruce, the famous Scottish warrior-king who secured his country's independence from England in 1328. Users can view the timelines separately or together, allowing for comparative consideration of the evolution of these two often warring, but still tightly knit, nations.
  • 1901: Living at the Time of the Census [Quicktime, MediaPlayer]: Assembled from the vast historical treasures of the UK Public Record Office (PRO) (last mentioned in the June 15, 2001 Scout Report), this virtual exhibition "uses words, pictures and documents to open a door onto life in 1901." Intended as an easily understood introduction to family and community historical research, the exhibition also works well in explaining the life and times of the people documented in the 1901 census. The essays are well written and accessible, with many illustrative images of historical documents (i.e., maps, photos, etc.). It is divided into 4 thematic sections--Cinema (silent film footage courtesy of the British Film Institute), People and Places of 1901, Living in 1901, and Events of 1901 (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • Penguin Classics Website -- contains short articles, biographies, synopses, and feature essays on many Victorian authors
  • Victorian Social History: An Overview (from The Victorian Web). Contains a treasure trove of pages devoted to such social issues as public health, labor, race, class, gender, education and economics.
  • Historical Directories: Sometime you may find yourself wondering one of the world's eternal questions: How many cutlers were in Sheffield during the 1850s? Well, you might not be actively seeking the answer to that particular query, but this incredibly extensive digital library created by the University of Leicester may help you solve other related historical questions. This digital library contains a host of local and trade directories for England and Wales from 1750 to 1919, many of which were previously only accessible by making a special trip to any number of local historical societies or archives. Curious visitors can search the directories through an interactive map of England and Wales in order to find the information that is most relevant to their interests. Currently, the project provides at least one directory for each segment from the interactive map from the 1850s, 1890s, and 1910s. Visitors can also search the entire digitized archive by keyword, location, and name (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • What was the weather like?: This Web site offers chronological descriptions of notable weather events in British history, including the first and second halves of the nineteenth century.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

  • A Casebook on Jack the Ripper, Victorian London's most sensational serial killer. This site also has lots of background information on Victorian London, especially Whitechapel, including lots of primary documents such as letters, newspaper articles, photographs.
  • Crime and the Victorians: Garroting and the murders of Jack the Ripper provoked nation-wide panics during the 19th century. Were the Victorians right to think that crime was in decline? An analysis by Professor Clive Emsley, sponsored by the BBC.
  • A History and Gallery of Victorian Police Mugshots.
  • A student report from another university on "Crime and Its Popular Manifestations in The Nineteenth Century."
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online: Formally known as the Central Criminal Court of London, the Old Bailey is arguably the world's most well-known criminal court. Serving the Commonwealth since the 17th century, the Old Bailey has seen hundreds of thousands of trials for every offense imaginable, along with serving as the setting for many important trials of the famous and infamous. Designed as a collaboration between the University of Sheffield and the University of Hertfordshire, this ambitious project aims to create a fully searchable digitized collection of the Old Bailey's entire proceedings from 1674 to 1834. Currently, visitors can browse through 22,000 trials, from December 1714 to December 1759. The Web site indicates that the entire proceedings should be online by spring of 2004, so interested persons should continue to check back frequently. From the main page, visitors can search the proceedings (and elect to read a transcription of each trial or view the original document), read about the nature of the proceedings, and read some engaging background essays on crime and punishment through the court's history (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • Victorian Crime Fiction, An Introduction: This scholarly overview and bibliography by Christopher Pittard of the University of Exeter provides an overview of the Victorian fascination with mystery, detective, crime and sensation fiction. This page is part of a larger site called Crimeculture.com, an academic internet site on crime fiction, film and graphic art, which includes (among many helpful resources) an annotated bibliography.

DEATH AND MOURNING CUSTOMS

SPIRITUALISM

WOMEN AND THE DOMESTIC SPHERE

  • A site about Godey's Lady's Book, one of the earliest and most popular nineteenth-century magazines devoted to women's interests and lives, includes background and history as well as a number of searchable issues.
  • Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain, by Dr. Lynn Abrahms. A woman’s place was in the home. Domesticity and motherhood were portrayed as a sufficient emotional fulfillment. These constructs kept women far away from the public sphere, but charitable missions began to extend the female role of service and Victorian feminism emerged as a potent political force.
  • Women and Urban Life in Victorian Britain, by Professor Lynda Nead. The idea of femininity was encapsulated in the idea of the "woman's mission" but, as Lynda Nead shows, the moral health of the empire could no longer afford to rely on the passive behavior of its women. They were ready to take to the streets and live an independent life.
  • Play the BBC Women's Rights Game: What use would women have of a university education? Why should women want to keep their earnings for themselves? Who would want to be treated by a woman doctor? Play the game by knocking on the doors of Victorian opportunity - but don't expect too much too soon.

COLONIALISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM


INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS

Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Jane Campion

  • A link to an online text of the script for The Piano.
  • Essay by bell hooks, "Misogyny, Gangsta Rap and The Piano." bell hooks reads the film in relation to misogyny, sexism and gangsta rap.
  • Unofficial site for the film, created on web site for Physics Department (!) University of Oslo – Text in English (page has music).
  • Images for The Piano– these are not stills (shots from the film), but publicity photos.
  • Biography for Jane Campion: Site also includes a plot summary and information on Michael Nyman’s music (with links), Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin.
  • Short biography of Jane Campion, written in 1998, and another.
  • More information about Jane Campion, and short discussion of The Piano.
  • Lengthy article on The Piano, from The Boston Review (this is over 4,500 words). Examines the film in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis – you may have some strong reactions to this essay!

Kate Chopin

Joseph Conrad 

 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: While Sir Arthur Conan Doyle might not have invented the detective story, certainly his numerous works devoted to the sophisticated observations and deductions of Sherlock Holmes and his companion John Watson are some of the most beloved contributions to the genre. Launched several years ago, the Web site is frequently updated, and offers a nice selection of materials that relate the story of Doyle's own life and the many adventures of Holmes and Watson. From the main page, visitors can read about Who's Who in the elaborate world of Sherlock Holmes, browse a list of the stories featuring Holmes and Watson, and read about the death of Sherlock Holmes. Interestingly enough, Doyle's decision to end the storied life of Holmes led 20,000 people to the magazine in which his final story appeared to cancel their subscriptions. The site is rounded out by an essay that describes Doyle's intense belief in spiritualism and some brief discussion of his other works of fiction, most notably The Lost World (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
  • Sherlockian.net:  This venerable yet active metasite offers comprehensive links to everything in 221B Baker Street and beyond. Categories include the original Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle, major Sherlockian sites, actors and films, books and libraries, parodies, and Victorian Britain.
  • Arthur Conon Doyle and Spiritualism: discusses Doyle's interest in the supernatural and psychic research.
  • A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection: A fan site with "reading lists and essays on great mysteries," includes discussions of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, and sensation fiction such as Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret.
  • Gaslight.com, a Web site devoted to mystery and supernatural fiction, offers a wonderful selection of Victorian and early twentieth-century Sherlock Holmes parodies and pastiches. Their collection of online texts also offers a number of Victorian articles about spiritualism.
  • Victorian Crime Fiction, An Introduction: This scholarly overview and bibliography by Christopher Pittard of the University of Exeter provides an overview of the Victorian fascination with mystery, detective, crime and sensation fiction. This page is part of a larger site called Crimeculture.com, an academic internet site on crime fiction, film and graphic art, which includes (among many helpful resources) an annotated bibliography.
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Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Susan Glaspell

Toni Morrison

  • An extensive collection of critical reviews and essays on Beloved, including historical, psychoanalytic, and feminist interpretations.
  • Anniina's Toni Morrison site contains biographical, bibliographical and critical resources on Morrison's life and writings
  • The University of Minnesota's "Voices from the Gaps" Toni Morrison page offers extensive biographical background, as well as bibliographical and critical resources on Morrison's life and writings

Bram Stoker

    Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman