Course Schedule, Spring 2021
Week 1: Tuesday, February 2nd
In class:
- Review the syllabus
- Establish logins for WordPress (brit.lit.nrhelms.plymouthcreate.net)
- Discussion on Intersectionality and Disability (For further information on intersectionality, check out Kimberlé Crenshaw’s TED talk, as well as the NCCJ and NASP.
- Disability: 11% of college students, 20% of Americans, 40% of the elderly
- Definitions of disability: Medical model, Social model
On WordPress:
- Write a 300-word personal perspective on disability.
In about 30-60 minutes, describe something that is important to you. This “something” could be anything from your major (nursing) to a hobby (cooking) to a favorite pastime (watching sports) that you enjoy doing or learning about. If you’re an English Education major, for instance, you might write about what specifically attracts you to the field — do you have a family member who is a teacher? Are there particular aspects of the field that inspire you? Be sure to organize your writing into paragraphs, include vivid detail, and make the significance of your interest(s) clear.
Take a few minutes to generate ideas and organize your thoughts before you start writing. I encourage you to select something to write about that is related to broader social issues in contemporary America, especially issues related to disability, the theme of our course. You may continue to address today’s topic throughout the semester in various forms
Some examples of contemporary social issues related to disability include (but are not limited to): accessibility; addiction; anxiety; class; COVID-19; crime; depression; diversity; drug legalization; education; gender; gun violence; healthcare; homelessness; mass shootings; poverty; the prison system; race; sexuality; social media; stereotypes; suicide; and veterans.
Post these to our shared WordPress website (brit.lit.nrhelms.plymouthcreate.net) categorized as “Questions and Reflections Spring 2021.” This will count as your Week 1 post.
Week 2: Tues, Feb 9th
Before class:
- Read acts 1-5 of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet [content notice (hereafter “cn”): ableism, depression, misogyny, murder, suicide]
- Optional: watch acts 1-5 of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2009 production of Hamlet, starring David Tennant
- Optional: If you’d like a contemporary English translation of the play to read alongside the original, check out No Fear Shakespeare.
- Read: Charlotte Smith,”Sonnet:On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, BecauseIt Was Frequented by a Lunatic” (1783)
- Read William Blake, “The Tyger” (1794)
- Read William Wordsworth, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807/1815)
- Read Laurie Block’s “Stereotypes About People With Disabilities”
- Read Jay Dolmage’s “An Archive and Anatomy of Disability Myths” (book)
- Optional: Read They Say / I Say, xiii-xxiii, 1-18.
In class (synchronous) and on our course site (asynchronous):
- Discuss Hamlet.
- Hamlet as corpse (Slings and Arrows clip of Darren Nichols)
- Hamlet as inaction and adaptation (Last Action Hero clip)
- Small group work with Weekly Questions
- “Oh that this too too ___ flesh” (RSC 2009 clip)
- Term clarification: Medieval and Renaissance (Early Modern)
- ADHD and delayed choices
- Key terms: Normativity, Neurotypical, Neurodiverse/divergent
- Visual texts of Ophelia:
- Key performance clips:
Mel Gibson, 1990, To be or not to be (3:46)
Ethan Hawke, 2000, To be or not to be (2:49)
David Tennant, 2009, To be or not to be (3:02)
Ian Holm, 1990, To thine own self be true (0:45-2:15)
Bill Murray, 2000, To thine own self be true (2:42)
Oliver Ford Davies, 2009, To thine own self be true (2:45-4:30)
Helena Bonham Carter, 1990, Ophelia’s Act 4 Madness, (3:30)
Julia Stiles, 2000, Ophelia’s Act 4 Madness (1:01)
Week 3: Tues, Feb 16th
Before class:
- Read roughly the first half of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein before class. [cn: ableism, corpses, murder]
- Read John Keats, “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles” (1817)
- Read Percy Shelley, “Ozymandias” (1818)
- Read “Keywords, Disability” and “Keywords, Human”
- Optional: read They Say / I Say, 187-204
- Optional: Browse the MLA Style Guide at Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Week 4: Tues, Feb 23rd
Before class:
- Read the second half of Shelley’s Frankenstein before class.
- Read Anna Letitia Barbauld, “Life” (1825)
- Read Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Mariana” (1830)
- Optional: read They Say / I Say, 30-42
- Optional: Read sample essays by Delaney, Smith, and Taylor.
In class:
- Prometheus, Golems, Moana, oh my!
On WordPress:
- If you haven’t already, sign up for an online Teams text-chat conference for next week here.
- If you haven’t already, start drafting your First Project.
Week 5: Tues, Mar 2nd NO CLASS
Instead, sign up for an online, one-on-one conference here. Instructions are at the link.
Before our meeting:
- No weekly questions due this week!
- Read Barker and Murray’s “Introduction: On Reading Disability in Literature”
- Get as much work done on your rough draft of your First Project as you can. You don’t need to be done, but the more you have finished, the more we can discuss.
- Optional: read They Say / I Say, 43-52
Friday, March 5th: First Project due.
Week 6: Tues, Mar 9th
No Class on Tuesday! Campus holiday.
Instead of class:
- Read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, ch 1-10 [cn: ableism, child abuse, death, domestic violence, misogyny]
- Read Emily Brontë, “I Am the Only Being Whose Doom” (1846)
- Optional: read They Say / I Say, 67-76
On WordPress:
- Instead of our usual Weekly Reflections and Questions, this week you may instead write a response reflection to one or more student projects. The same goes for your comments: you may post your four comments on student projects rather than on weekly posts.
Week 7: Tues, Mar 16th
Before class:
- Read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, ch 11-20
- Read Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnets from the Portuguese 22” (1850)
- Optional: read They Say / I Say, 77-90
Week 8: Tues, Mar 23rd
Before class:
- Read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, ch 21-30
- Read Christina Rossetti, “After Death” (1862)
- Check out the Wikipedia entry on Gilbert and Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic.
In class:
- Discuss Disability as Simile or Metaphor
Week 9: Tues, Mar 30th
Before class:
- Read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, ch 31-38
- Read Gerard Manly Hopkins, “Carrion Comfort” (1889/1919)
After class:
- If you haven’t already, start drafting your Second Project.
- If you haven’t already, sign up for an online Teams text-chat conference for next week here.
Week 10: Tues, Apr 6th NO CLASS
Instead, sign up for an online, one-on-one conference here. Instructions are at the link.
Before our meeting:
- No weekly questions due this week!
- Get as much work done on your rough draft of your Second Project as you can. You don’t need to be done, but the more you have finished, the more we can discuss.
- Optional: Read They Say / I Say, 91-100
Friday, April 9th: Second Project due.
Week 11: Tuesday April 13th
Before Class:
- Read Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, 1-86 [cn: ableism, domestic violence, racism and racist language, rape, suicide]
- Read Virginia Woolf, “The Death of the Moth” (1942)
On WordPress:
- Instead of our usual Weekly Reflections and Questions, this week you may instead write a response reflection to one or more student projects. The same goes for your comments: you may post your four comments on student projects rather than on weekly posts.
Week 12: Tuesday April 20th
Before Class:
- Read Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, 86-171 [cn: ableism, domestic violence, racism and racist language, rape, suicide]
- Sylvia Plath, “Ella Mason and her Eleven Cats” pp. 233-4 (1956)
- Optional: read They Say / I Say 101-30
On WordPress:
- If you haven’t already, start drafting your Third Project.
- If you haven’t already, sign up for an online Teams text-chat conference for next week here.
Week 13: Tues/Thurs, April 27th NO CLASS
- No weekly questions due this week!
- Sign up for an online, one-on-one conference here. Instructions are at the link.
- Get as much work done on your rough draft of your Third Project as you can. You don’t need to be done, but the more you have finished, the more we can discuss.
Fri, Apr 30th: Third Project due.
No Final! We’re done.
- Instead, Finals Week is Revision Week. Late work accepted and given feedback through May 6th.