English 185

The Pickwick Papers

A seminar on Charles Dickens's first novel

Spring 2003	Professor Grossman
TR 4:00-5:20	Office: 1332 Rolfe
Rolfe 3118	Office hours TR 5:30-6:30
	grossman@humnet.ucla.edu

In this course we shall explore, as fully as we can, one sprawling, strange, and hugely important novel: Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers. This novel was not only Charles Dickens’s first, but also, arguably, the novel that did the most to usher in a new era widely defined by the novel itself. In our class, we will discuss all sorts of issues raised by the tale, including those of gender and class, urbanization, drinking, sex, changing publication and reading practices, and fashion. Part of our aim will be to engage seriously with the literary criticism concerned with the novel and with relevant literary theory. Course requirements are lively class participation, two research papers, and individual writing conferences.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Books
Charles Dickens, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (Penguin)
Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (Oxford)

Handouts / Course Reserves in ERR

Richard Altick, The English Common Reader
Charles Dickens, Clarendon Edition of The Pickwick Papers
Fred Kaplan, Dickens: A Biography
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men (introduction)
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (“We Other Victorians”)

REQUIREMENTS

One 5-page paper, with close reading, 1 outside source, due Tuesday, April 24 35%
One 9-page paper, with close reading, 3 outside sources, due Thursday, June 5 50%
One class presentation (pass/fail) 15%
Class participation may raise/lower final grade 1/3

In addition:

• You are strongly encouraged to meet with me to discuss your writing in individual conferences; at least one individual meeting is required.
• Lively class participation is expected. Obviously, your attendance is required; contact me if you need to be excused from a meeting. This is your class! Don’t hesitate to help shape the syllabus.
• You must use your email account. If you use an account other than the one provided by the university, you will need to update your preferences with your email address in ecampus—“tools and resources.”
• E-campus contains important course information. Grades for the written essays will appear in MyUCLA, but see above for the actual calculation of final grades.
Finally, a word about academic integrity. Academic integrity is fundamental to University work and life. This seminar involves research. Always note your sources and do not hesitate to ask me about the correct ways of citing them. Plagiarizing, which means taking words or ideas from a published or unpublished source without proper acknowledgment, is wrong and violates your UCLA Student Conduct Code.

SCHEDULE

I. Introduction

4/1 Course overview and aims
4/3 Pickwick, “Advertisement for Pickwick,” Appendix A, pp.755-6; No.1

II. Serialization

4/8 No.2 & No.3; Appendix A: “Seymour’s Death” & “Buss’s Pictures” pp.756-7
4/10 No. 4

III. Engraving: From Seymour to Phiz / Pickwick & Fashion

4/15 No.5, No.6, No.7
4/17 No. 8

IV. Pickwickian Politics / Pickwick & its most important source, Don Quixote

4/22 No.9, No. 10
4/24 No.11 / 1st paper due

V. Gothic Pickwick / Pickwick and the Law

4/29 No.12, No.13, No. 14
5/1 No.15

VI. Dickens biography / Class & Capitalism

5/6 No.14, No.15, No.16; Appendix A: “Mary Hogarth’s Death” p.759
5/8 No.17

VII. Pickwickian prisons / Pickwickian syndrome & the doctors

5/13 No.18; Final Double No. 19&20
5/15 Pickwick

VIII. Alcohol / Sexuality

5/20 Foucault, 'We Other Victorians'
5/22 Final paper topic proposals due

IX. Masculinity / Cranfordian Amazons

5/27 Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford
5/29 Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford

X. Pickwick's afterlife in material incarnations

6/3 Pickwick
6/5 “In which the Pickwick Club is finally dissolved”/ Final Research Paper due